Italian Folktales by Calvino Italo

Author:Calvino, Italo [Calvino, Italo]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3, pdf
Published: 2010-10-10T03:34:34+00:00

*93* The Palace of the Doomed Queen

In bygone days there lived an old widow who earned her bread by spinning. She had three daughters who also were spinners. Although they toiled day and night at their spinning wheels, the three spinners could never lay up a cent, as they earned barely enough for their daily needs. One day the old woman got sick and ran a high fever, and three days later she was near death. Calling her tearful daughters around her, she said, "Don't weep. Nobody lives forever. I've lived a long life, and now it's my turn to die. What really breaks my heart is to leave you so poor. But since you know how to earn your living, you will manage somehow, and I'll beg heaven to help you. All I have to leave you as a dowry are the three balls of spun hemp there in the cabinet." After those words, she drew her last breath and died.

A few days later the sisters got to talking. "This Sunday," they said, will be Easter Sunday, and here we are with nothing for a decent Easter-dinner."

Mary, the oldest sister, suggested: "I'll sell my ball of thread and we'll buy the dinner." So, on Easter morning, she took her thread to market. It was excellent thread and brought a goodly sum, with which Mary bought bread, a leg of lamb, and a bottle of wine. She was on her way home with them when a dog rushed up behind her, seized the leg of lamb and the bread, broke the bottle, and fled, nearly scaring the poor girl to death. When she got home, she told her sisters what had happened, and that day they had to be content with a few crusts of brown bread.

"I will go to market tomorrow," announced Rose, the middle girl, "and we'll just see if the dog dares to give me any trouble."

She went, sold her ball of thread, bought giblets, bread, and wine, then headed for home by a different road. Lo and behold, the dog ran after her too, grabbed the giblets and bread, broke the bottle, and fled. Rose, bolder than Mary by far, ran after him, but he was too fast for her and she went home all out of breath and told her sisters what had happened. So, for the second day in a row, they feasted on brown bread.

"Tomorrow it's my turn to go to market," announced Nina, the youngest, "'and we'll just see if the dog pulls the same thing on me."

Next morning she left the house much earlier than her sisters had on the preceding days, took her ball of thread to market, sold it, and bought provisions aplenty. As she walked home by another road, up rushed the dog, broke the bottle, and made off with everything else. Nina struck out after him and chased him all the way to a palace, into which he disappeared. She said to herself, "If I meet anyone

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