Sugar-Candy House [Folk Tales Of Flanders]
Jan
and Jannette were brother and sister. They lived near a big wood, and every day
they used to go to play there, fishing for sticklebacks in the streams, and
making necklaces of red berries. One day they wandered farther from their home
than usual, and all of a sudden they came to a brook crossed by a pretty red
bridge. On the other side of the bridge, half hidden among the trees, they
espied the roofs of a little pink cottage, which, when they came closer, they
found to be built entirely of sugar-candy! Here was a delightful find for a
little boy and girl who loved sweetstuff! They lost no time in breaking off
pieces of the roof and popping them into their mouths.
Now in that house
there lived an old wolf whose name was Garon. He was paralysed in one leg, and
could not run very fast, but in all other respects he was as fierce and strong as he had
been in his youth. When he heard Jan and Jannette breaking off bits of his roof
he growled out, “Who is touching my Sugar-Candy House?” Then he came limping
out to see who it was, but by that time the children were safely hidden in the
woods.
“Who dares to touch
my Sugar-Candy House?” roared the wolf again.
Then Jan replied:
“ It’s the wind so mild,
It’s the wind so mild,
That lovable child! ”
This satisfied the old
wolf, and back he went to his house, grumbling.
The next day Jan and
Jannette once again crossed over the little red bridge, and broke some more
candy from the wolf’s house. Out came Garon again, bristling all over.
“Who is touching my
Sugar-Candy House?” he roared.
And Jan and Jannette
replied:
“ It’s the wind so mild,
It’s the wind so mild,
That lovable child! ”
“Very well,” said the
wolf, and he went back again, but this time there was a gleam of suspicion in
his eye.
The next day was stormy,
and hardly had Jan and Jannette reached the Sugar-Candy House than the wolf
came out, and surprised them in the very act of breaking a piece off his
window-sill.
“Oho!” said he. “It was the wind so mild, was
it? That lovable child, eh? Precious lovable children, I must say! Gr-r-r, I’ll
eat them up!” And he sprang at Jan and Jannette, who took to their heels and
ran off as fast as their legs could carry them. Garon pursued them at a good
speed in spite of his stiff paw, and although he never gained upon them, yet he
kept them in sight, and refused to give up the chase. The children looked back
once or twice, and saw that the wolf was still following them, but they were
not very much afraid, because they were confident of their ability to outrun
him. ’
All of a sudden they
found their way barred by a river. There was no bridge across it, and the water
was very deep. What were they to do? Nearer and nearer came the wolf!
In the middle of the
river some ducks were swimming, and Jan called out to them: “Little ducks!
Little ducks! Carry us over the river on your backs, for if you do not the wolf
will get us!”
So the ducks came
swimming up, and Jan and Jannette climbed each on to the back of one, and were
carried safely over to the other bank.
Presently the wolf,
in his turn, came to the river. He had seen how the children had managed to
cross, and he roared out at the ducks in a terrible voice, “Come and carry me
over, or I’ll eat you all up!”
“Very well,” answered
the ducks, and they swam to the bank, and Garon balanced himself on four of
them, one paw on the back of each. But they had no intention of carrying the
wicked old wolf to the other side, for they did not love him or any of his
tribe, and, moreover, they objected to his impolite way of asking a favour. So,
at a given signal from the leader, all the ducks dived in midstream, and left
old Garon struggling in the water. Three times he went down and three times he
came up, but the fourth time he sank never to rise any more.
That was the end of
old Garon, and a good job, too, say I. I don’t know what became of his
Sugar-Candy House, but I dare say, if you could find the wood, and the sun had
not melted the candy, or the rain washed it away, you might break a bit of it
off for yourselves.
