Now there passed one day through the village a poor beggar-woman.
Her garments were torn and ragged, and her feet were bleeding from
the rough road on which she had travelled, and she was in very evil
plight. And being weary she sat her down under a chestnut-tree to
rest.
But when the Star-Child saw her, he said to his companions, 'See!
There sitteth a foul beggar-woman under that fair and green-leaved
tree. Come, let us drive her hence, for she is ugly and ill-
favoured.'
So he came near and threw stones at her, and mocked her, and she
looked at him with terror in her eyes, nor did she move her gaze
from him. And when the Woodcutter, who was cleaving logs in a
haggard hard by, saw what the Star-Child was doing, he ran up and
rebuked him, and said to him: 'Surely thou art hard of heart and
knowest not mercy, for what evil has this poor woman done to thee
that thou shouldst treat her in this wise?'
And the Star-Child grew red with anger, and stamped his foot upon
the ground, and said, 'Who art thou to question me what I do? I am
no son of thine to do thy bidding.'
'Thou speakest truly,' answered the Woodcutter, 'yet did I show
thee pity when I found thee in the forest.'
And when the woman heard these words she gave a loud cry, and fell
into a swoon. And the Woodcutter carried her to his own house, and
his wife had care of her, and when she rose up from the swoon into
which she had fallen, they set meat and drink before her, and bade
her have comfort.
But she would neither eat nor drink, but said to the Woodcutter,
'Didst thou not say that the child was found in the forest? And
was it not ten years from this day?'
And the Woodcutter answered, 'Yea, it was in the forest that I
found him, and it is ten years from this day.'
'And what signs didst thou find with him?' she cried. 'Bare he not
upon his neck a chain of amber? Was not round him a cloak of gold
tissue broidered with stars?'
'Truly,' answered the Woodcutter, 'it was even as thou sayest.'
And he took the cloak and the amber chain from the chest where they
lay, and showed them to her.
And when she saw them she wept for joy, and said, 'He is my little
son whom I lost in the forest. I pray thee send for him quickly,
for in search of him have I wandered over the whole world.'
So the Woodcutter and his wife went out and called to the Star-
Child, and said to him, 'Go into the house, and there shalt thou
find thy mother, who is waiting for thee.'
So he ran in, filled with wonder and great gladness. But when he
saw her who was waiting there, he laughed scornfully and said,
'Why, where is my mother? For I see none here but this vile
beggar-woman.'
And the woman answered him, 'I am thy mother.'
'Thou art mad to say so,' cried the Star-Child angrily. 'I am no
son of thine, for thou art a beggar, and ugly, and in rags.
Therefore get thee hence, and let me see thy foul face no more.'
'Nay, but thou art indeed my little son, whom I bare in the
forest,' she cried, and she fell on her knees, and held out her
arms to him. 'The robbers stole thee from me, and left thee to
die,' she murmured, 'but I recognised thee when I saw thee, and the
signs also have I recognised, the cloak of golden tissue and the
amber chain. Therefore I pray thee come with me, for over the
whole world have I wandered in search of thee. Come with me, my
son, for I have need of thy love.'
But the Star-Child stirred not from his place, but shut the doors
of his heart against her, nor was there any sound heard save the
sound of the woman weeping for pain.
And at last he spoke to her, and his voice was hard and bitter.
'If in very truth thou art my mother,' he said, 'it had been better
hadst thou stayed away, and not come here to bring me to shame,
seeing that I thought I was the child of some Star, and not a
beggar's child, as thou tellest me that I am. Therefore get thee
hence, and let me see thee no more.'
'Alas! my son,' she cried, 'wilt thou not kiss me before I go? For
I have suffered much to find thee.'
'Nay,' said the Star-Child, 'but thou art too foul to look at, and
rather would I kiss the adder or the toad than thee.'
So the woman rose up, and went away into the forest weeping
bitterly, and when the Star-Child saw that she had gone, he was
glad, and ran back to his playmates that he might play with them.
But when they beheld him coming, they mocked him and said, 'Why,
thou art as foul as the toad, and as loathsome as the adder. Get
thee hence, for we will not suffer thee to play with us,' and they
drave him out of the garden.
And the Star-Child frowned and said to himself, 'What is this that
they say to me? I will go to the well of water and look into it,
and it shall tell me of my beauty.'
So he went to the well of water and looked into it, and lo! his
face was as the face of a toad, and his body was sealed like an
adder. And he flung himself down on the grass and wept, and said
to himself, 'Surely this has come upon me by reason of my sin. For
I have denied my mother, and driven her away, and been proud, and
cruel to her. Wherefore I will go and seek her through the whole
world, nor will I rest till I have found her.'
And there came to him the little daughter of the Woodcutter, and
she put her hand upon his shoulder and said, 'What doth it matter
if thou hast lost thy comeliness? Stay with us, and I will not
mock at thee.'
And he said to her, 'Nay, but I have been cruel to my mother, and
as a punishment has this evil been sent to me. Wherefore I must go
hence, and wander through the world till I find her, and she give
me her forgiveness.'
So he ran away into the forest and called out to his mother to come
to him, but there was no answer. All day long he called to her,
and, when the sun set he lay down to sleep on a bed of leaves, and
the birds and the animals fled from him, for they remembered his
cruelty, and he was alone save for the toad that watched him, and
the slow adder that crawled past.
And in the morning he rose up, and plucked some bitter berries from
the trees and ate them, and took his way through the great wood,
weeping sorely. And of everything that he met he made inquiry if
perchance they had seen his mother.
...
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