Page:On a pincushion.djvu/156

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
The Hair Tree
143

“Beat you, you poor starved creature!” cried the sailor, looking pityingly at her; “beat a poor thing who has scarcely strength to crawl! I wouldn’t do such a thing for the world!”

“Beat me—beat me, I tell you,” called the tigress, writhing on the ground in front of him. “ Beat me at once, or it will be the worse for both of us.” Then she added, in a terrible voice, “Did I not tell you I was very hungry? Beat me at once, or I shall eat you!”

On hearing this, Rupert made no more ado, but, seizing the silver rod, began to thrash the tigress with all his might. She stood quite still to receive his blows, only every now and then urging him on by calling,—

“Harder! Beat harder!”

Rupert obeyed, and continued to beat till he saw that she was bleeding, and then, just as he was going to fling aside the rod and declare he would beat no longer, her skin began to shrivel, and at last fell to the ground, and there arose from it the loveliest maiden Rupert had ever beheld. Her hair, of burning gold, was worthy of the Hair Tree itself, whilst her shining blue eyes and rosy lips were far more

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.