Chapter 32 31. The little girl who pretended to be dumb for seven years

Once upon a time, there was a couple who had two sons and a little daughter.Father often goes out to earn a living.One day when the father was on the road, the two sons said to their mother, "Let's go out to meet Dad."Mom said, "Okay, okay, you go." The two boys came to a forest and stopped to play. After a while, they saw their father from a distance. The two ran to meet them, hugged their father's legs, and said "Daddy, Daddy"! The father was in a bad mood that day and said, "Don't make me angry! Go away!" However, the two children did not listen to his words and held on to their legs.

The father was even more annoyed, and cursed: "Damn it, I hope the devil will catch you!" It happened that the devil passed by there and took the two children away, but the father didn't notice it at all. When I got home, my mother saw that he was the only one coming back. She was very anxious and cried.The husband told her at first that he didn't know anything, then that he had seen the children, and after cursing, he couldn't see them anymore. At this time, the little sister said: "I will go to them even if I die." Although her father and mother disapproved of her going, she took some dry food and set off.

The little girl came to a palace with iron gates.After entering, I met a gentleman and asked him, "Did you see my two older brothers? They were taken away by the devil." The gentleman said to her: "I didn't see it. But you can go over there and have a look. There are twenty-four beds in that room. See if there is anyone you are looking for." Sure enough, the little girl found her two brothers on the bed. She was very happy and said, "Brother, why are you here? Are you okay?" The two older brothers said to her, "You can tell if we are doing well by just taking a look."

The little girl lifted the quilt and saw a raging fire burning under the two brothers. "Oh, brother! How can I save you?" said the little girl. The two brothers said: "If you can not say a word for seven years, you can save us, but you must know that you will have to endure all kinds of pain." The little girl said: "Okay, I see, don't worry." Then she left.When passing by the gentleman, he signaled the little girl to come to him, the little girl shook her head, made the sign of the cross and left. Go, go, go to a forest, she was so tired, she lay down on the ground and fell asleep.A king found her sleeping in this wood while hunting. "What a beautiful girl!" the King pushed her awake, and asked how she was sleeping in the woods.The little girl shook her head to indicate that she was fine.The king said to her again: "Will you come with me?" The little girl signaled that she would.Then the King raised his voice and said a few words aloud, and he suspected that she was a deaf-mute girl, but he soon understood that the little girl could hear him even if he spoke in a low voice.

Back at the palace, the king asked her to get out of the carriage, and then he went to tell his mother that he had found a mute girl sleeping in the forest, and he wanted to marry her.The mother said, "I don't agree!" The king said, "Anyway, I have the final say here." That's how they got married. The queen mother is a ruthless person, she always makes things difficult and abuses her daughter-in-law, but the daughter-in-law never complains, she just endures silently.At that time, the girl was pregnant, and the queen mother sent a forged letter to her son, saying that someone had embezzled all his property in another place.The king left his wife and hurried away.The bride gave birth to a baby boy, but the Queen Mother secretly conspired with the midwife to find a dog and put it next to the bride, and put the baby in a small box and put it on the roof of the palace.The poor girl's heart was broken when she saw and heard all this, but she suppressed her anger, thinking of her two burning brothers, and said nothing.

The queen mother immediately wrote a letter to her son, saying that the bride had given birth to a dog.The king wrote back that he would not hear of the bride any more, and ordered the palace to send her some money to live on, and to drive her out of the palace till he came back. The queen mother ordered a servant to take the girl out of the palace, kill her, and then throw her into the sea, and bring back the clothes she was wearing to the palace. The servant took the girl to the beach and said, "Mistress, now I have to kill you, please lower your head." The girl knelt down on the ground and begged to let her go with tears in her hands.The servant couldn't help but changed his mind, cut off only her long hair, and replaced her clothes with his own shirt and trousers.

The girl was left alone by the sea, and finally saw a boat, and she waved to it.It was a warship, and the soldiers thought she was a lad, and asked who she was.The girl explained with gestures that she was a sailor and that her ship sank and she was the only one who survived.The soldiers said to her, "That's great. Although you are dumb, you can still fight with us." The battle started, and the girl also joined the battle, lighting the fire and firing the cannons. Seeing her bravery, her companions recommended her to be the second gunner on the spot.After the girl dealt with the battle, she asked to retire and go home, and her superiors approved it.

On land, the girl didn't know where to go. At night, she saw a collapsed house and went in.In the middle of the night, she heard footsteps, and when she looked carefully, she saw thirteen robbers coming out from behind the house.After waiting for these people to go out, she went over to check where they came from, and found a large table with meals.There were meals for thirteen people on the table, and the girl went to eat a little from each plate, so as not to be discovered by the robbers.After eating she went back to the shabby house to hide, but she left a small spoon on a plate.The thieves came back before daylight, and one of them found the little spoon and said, "Ah! a stranger has been here!"

Another said, "Well, let's all go out, leaving only one person to watch." So they did. The girl thought that the robbers had left, so she turned out of the house. At this moment, the remaining robber grabbed her and said, "Haha, I've got you, you stinky bitch! Let's see how I deal with you." The girl, frightened to death, gestured that she was dumb, and that she had come here because she had nowhere to go.The robber comforted her in turn, and gave her something to eat and drink.When the other thieves came back and heard about this, they all said to her, "Since you have come, do it with us. If you don't do it, we will have to kill you."

The girl gestured her consent, and stayed behind with them. The robbers never left her alone.One day the thief said to her, "Tomorrow night we will all go to the palace of a certain king (he told the girl the name of the king) and steal his treasure. You must go with us." The king that the thief said was her husband, and the girl immediately wrote him a letter to advise him to be on guard in the palace in case of accidents.In the middle of the night, the robbers reached the gate of the palace, and entered one by one.The servants of the palace had already set up an ambush to deal with the robbers one by one.As a result, the thief and five other robbers were killed, and the rest fled, leaving the girl there alone, because she was also wearing a robber's clothes, and the attendants captured her, tied her up and put her in prison. inside.From the cell the girl saw that the gallows had been erected in the square.At this time, there was only one day left before she had to pretend to be dumb for seven years.The girl begged with signs to wait until the morrow to execute her, and the king granted her permission.The next day, the executioner took her to the gallows, and just as she reached the first step, the girl made another gesture to request that the execution be postponed from three o'clock to four o'clock.The king granted it again.At four o'clock the girl went up another step, when two warriors came up to the stage, and they came to the King, and asked permission to speak.

"Tell me," said the king. "Why did you execute the boy?" So the king explained to them what had happened. "However, we know that she is not a man, but our sister!" They told the king in detail why she had been dumb for seven years, and then said to the sister: "Speak, we are saved." They removed the shackles for the younger sister. At this time, the girl said to the crowd in the square: "I am the wife of the king. It was the vicious queen mother who killed my child. You go to the top of the palace and take down the box on the top to have a look." Take a look and see whether I have given birth to a dog or a baby." The king immediately sent his servants to fetch the box, which contained a pair of baby bones. At this time, the crowd boiled and shouted: "Let her go, and send the queen mother and midwife to the gallows!" In this way, the two wicked women were hanged, and the girl returned to the palace to live with the king , her two older brothers became the two most honorable ministers in the court.