Chapter 30 29. Three Old Women

Once upon a time there were three sisters, all young: one was sixty-seven, the other seventy-five, and the third ninety-four.The house they lived in had a beautiful balcony with a hole in the middle through which passers-by could be seen on the road below.One day, the ninety-four-year-old woman saw a handsome young man passing by, and immediately took out a delicate handkerchief exuding fragrance, and threw it to the young man just as he passed by.The young man picked up the handkerchief, smelled a wonderful fragrance, and thought: This must be a woman as beautiful as a fairy.He took a few steps, then came back, and rang the doorbell.One of the three sisters came to open the door, and the young man asked her, "Excuse me, is there a girl living in this house?"

"Yes sir, there is more than one!" "Can you do me a favor? I want to see the girl who lost this handkerchief." "No, that's not allowed. We have a habit here: girls can't be seen before they get married." The young man imagined the extraordinary beauty of the girl in his mind, and he had long lost his mind. He said: "Anyway, I like it, and that's enough. Even if we don't meet, I will marry her. I will go to see my mother now and tell her I Met a young and beautiful girl, I want to marry her." When he got home, he told his mother the whole story, and the mother said, "Dear child, you should act carefully, and don't be deceived. You should think twice about such a big matter."

But he said: "Anyway, I like it, and that's enough. The king's words cannot be taken back." It turned out that the young man was a king. He came to the door of the bride's house again, rang the doorbell, and went upstairs. The old lady who opened the door last time greeted him, and he asked, "Excuse me, are you her grandmother?" "Yes, yes, her grandmother." "Since you are her grandmother, please help me, at least let me see the girl's fingers." "Not yet. You can come back tomorrow." The boy said thanks and left.No sooner had he gone out than the three old women fashioned a finger out of a glove and a false nail.At the same time, the young man couldn't fall asleep all night because he wanted to see the finger all the time.It was daylight, and the lad dressed and ran to the house.

He said to the old woman, "Grandma, here I come to see my bride's fingers." The old woman said, "Yes, yes, soon enough, soon enough. You can see her fingers through this hole in the door." Then the bride put the false finger through the keyhole, and the boy saw it was a very beautiful finger, kissed it, and put a diamond ring on it.The young man was overwhelmed by his obsessive love, and he said anxiously to the old woman, "Grandma, I want to have the wedding as soon as possible. I can't wait any longer." The old woman said, "If you're really in a hurry, you can do it tomorrow."

"Excellent! I promise as king that I will marry her tomorrow." The king's family was rich and had everything they wanted, and they could get ready for the wedding overnight.On the next day, when the two sisters helped the bride to get dressed, the king came and said, "Grandma, I am coming to fetch the bride." "You wait here for a while, we go to accompany her over." Two old women came out supporting the arm of a third old woman who was covered with seven layers of veil.They said to the groom: "Remember, you are not allowed to see the bride unless you enter the new house."

Everyone came to the church and held a wedding.Then the king wanted to entertain everyone with a banquet, but the two old women disagreed, saying, "The bride is not used to this kind of thing." The king had to give up.The king wished that night would come sooner, so that he could be alone with his bride.The two old women accompanied the bride to the bridal chamber and did not allow the groom to follow, so that they could undress the bride and put her on the bed.The groom finally entered the room, but the two old women followed behind him, and the bride was also hiding under the quilt.The groom undressed, and the two old women left, taking the lamp from the room with them.But the king hid a candle in his pocket, and he lit the candle, and saw who was this man in front of him?A wrinkled, decrepit old woman!

The bridegroom was immediately stunned, unable to utter a word, then became enraged, grabbed the bride roughly, lifted her, and threw her out of the window. There was a grape trellis under the window, and the old woman fell on it, and one of the poles caught the hem of her nightgown and hung her from the shelf. That night, three fairies were walking in the garden, and when they passed under the vine trellis, they found the old woman hanging in the air.Seeing this strange sight, they couldn't help laughing, laughing, laughing, laughing until their stomachs hurt.When they were almost done laughing, one of the fairies said, "We can't make her happy all the time, and we should give her some compensation now." One of the fairies said, "Of course we should make her up. I command, I command, and I let you Become the most beautiful girl and attract all eyes."

Another fairy said, "I order, I order, I will give you a bridegroom who is very handsome, who loves you and treats you well." The third fairy said: "I order, I order, I will make you a noble woman for the rest of your life." After speaking, the three fairies left. The king awoke at first light, remembering all that had happened the night before.In order to prove that these things were not a nightmare, he opened the window to see the monster thrown down last night.When he looked this way, he found a very beautiful girl hanging on the grape trellis.He grabbed his hair with both hands.

"What's wrong with me? What the hell have I done!" He didn't know how to pull the girl up, and finally, he pulled up a piece of bed sheet, threw one end to the girl, let the girl hold it firmly, and pulled her back Room.When the girl was drawn to him, he felt both happy and guilty, and kept begging her to forgive her.The bride forgave him, and the two of them stuck together like glue. After a while, someone knocked on the door, and the king said, "It's grandma, please come in, please come in!" The old woman came in and looked on the bed. The ninety-four-year-old sister had turned into an extremely beautiful little girl.As if nothing had happened, the beautiful girl said to her: "Clementine, bring me a cup of coffee."

The old woman put her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming, and pretending not to know anything, brought the bride a cup of coffee.But as soon as the king was out on business, she ran to the bride's room and asked, "What's the matter, how did you become so young?" The bride said, "Don't talk, don't talk, please! Do you know what I did? I had my skin shaved!" "Skinning! Tell me, tell me! Who did it for you? I want to do it too." "A carpenter planed it!" The old woman immediately ran to the carpenter and asked, "Carpenter, can you plan my face?"

The carpenter said, "Ah, what? Although you are shriveled like a piece of dead wood, you can make do with it. If I plan you, you will die immediately." "You don't have to worry about that." "Why, don't I worry about it? If I plan you to death, what should I do?" "I told you, don't worry about it. I'll pay you a piece of silver first." Upon hearing the word "silver coin," the carpenter immediately changed his mind.He took the silver coin and said, "Lie on this planing table, and I will cut the knife according to your request." Then, he began to plan the left side of his face. The old woman cried out in pain. "What's the matter? If you yell, I won't be able to use the knife." The old woman turned around, and the carpenter planed the right side of her face again.This time she didn't cry again: it turned out that she was already shriveled and dead. No one knows what happened to the other old woman.Could have jumped into a river, been killed, or died in his own bed or something: no one could know. The bride was left alone with the young king, and they lived happily ever after. (Venice area)