The Cautionary Tale of the Curious Girl
Once upon a time there was a small girl who was strong willed and forward, and whenever her parents said anything to her, she disobeyed them. How could anything go well with her?
One day she said to her parents: "I have heard so much about Granny Nightshade. Someday I want to go to her place. People say such amazing things are seen there, and such strange things happen there, that I have become very curious.
Her parents strictly forbade her, saying: "Granny Nightshade is a wicked woman who commits godless acts. If you go there, you will no longer be our child."
But the girl paid no attention to her parents and went to the Fearwyd Weald anyway.
When she arrived there in the centre of the forest, she saw a hideous old crone sitting on a burned tree stump that stood outside a ramshackle, moss-covered hut. Granny Nightshade asked the girl, "Why are you so pale?"
"Oh," the girl answered, trembling all over, "I saw something that frightened me."
"What did you see?"
"I saw a black man on your steps."
"That was my charcoal burner."
"Then I saw a green man."
"That was my huntsman."
"Then I saw a blood-red man."
"That was my butcher!"
"Oh, Granny Nightshade, it frightened me when I looked at you on the stump but could not see you! Instead saw a devil with a head of fire."
"Aha!" Granny Nightshade said. "So you saw the me properly outfitted. I have been waiting for you and wanting you for a long time. Light the way for me now!"
With that she turned to girl into a block of wood and threw it into the fire inside her hut. When it was thoroughly aglow she sat down next to it, and warmed herself by it, saying: "It gives such a bright light!"
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