{"product_id":"2940012757890","title":"Daisy","description":"CHAPTER I.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE OLD FAIRY.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere was a great forest, once, where you might walk for miles, and\u003cbr\u003enever hear a sound except the tapping of woodpeckers, the hooting of\u003cbr\u003eowls, or the low bark of wolves, or the strokes of a woodman's axe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor on the borders of this wild, solitary place one man had built his\u003cbr\u003elittle house, and lived there. It was very near the trees which he spent\u003cbr\u003ehis time in cutting down; and Peter thought this all he cared about.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut when the summer wore away, and the cold, lonely winter months came\u003cbr\u003eon, and there was no one to keep his fire burning and the wind from\u003cbr\u003esweeping through his home, and no one to smile upon him and comfort him\u003cbr\u003ewhen he came back tired from his hard day's work, Peter grew lonely, and\u003cbr\u003ethought he must find a wife.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo he went to a market town, a whole day's journey off; for he knew it\u003cbr\u003ewas a fair-day, and that all the young women of his acquaintance would\u003cbr\u003ebe there, and many more beside.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt first he looked about for the most beautiful, and asked her if she\u003cbr\u003ewould be his wife; but the beauty tossed her head, and answered, not\u003cbr\u003eunless he lived in a two-story house, and had carpets on his floors, and\u003cbr\u003ea wagon in which she could drive to town when she chose.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll this, was very unlike the home of poor Peter, who had nothing in the\u003cbr\u003eworld but his rough little cabin and a barrow in which he wheeled his\u003cbr\u003ewood.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe next maiden told him he had an ugly scar on his face, and was not\u003cbr\u003egood looking enough for her; and, besides, his clothes were coarse. The\u003cbr\u003enext declared that she was afraid of wolves, and would rather marry one\u003cbr\u003eof the village youths, and live where she could hear the news, and on\u003cbr\u003efair-days watch the people come and go.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo Peter started for his lonely home again, with a sadder heart than he\u003cbr\u003eleft it; for there was no chance that he could ever grow handsome or\u003cbr\u003erich, and therefore he thought he must always dwell alone; instead of\u003cbr\u003ethe music of kind voices, with which he had hoped to make his evenings\u003cbr\u003epleasant, he was still to hear only the cracking of boughs, and hissing\u003cbr\u003eof snakes, and the barking of wolves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut suddenly he met in the road some people who seemed more wretched\u003cbr\u003ethan himself--an old, bent woman, clad in rags, and with such an ugly\u003cbr\u003eface that, strong man as he was, Peter could not look at her without\u003cbr\u003etrembling, and a girl whom she led, or rather dragged along, through\u003cbr\u003ethe dusty road.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe girl looked as if she had been weeping and was very tired; she did\u003cbr\u003enot raise her swollen eyes from the ground while Peter talked with her\u003cbr\u003ecompanion. The old dame said she was a silly thing, crying her eyes out\u003cbr\u003ebecause her mother was dead, when she ought to be thankful to be rid of\u003cbr\u003eone so old, and sick, and troublesome.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe girl began to cry again, and the woman to scold her loudly. \"Just so\u003cbr\u003eungrateful people are,\" she said; \"when I have promised to find a place\u003cbr\u003ewhere you can live at service, and earn money to buy a new gown, you\u003cbr\u003emust needs whimper about the old body that's well enough in her grave.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Perhaps the poor child is lonely,\" said Peter, who had a kind heart\u003cbr\u003eunder his rough coat, and knew, besides, from his own experience, what a\u003cbr\u003ehard thing it is to live with no one to love us and be grateful for our\u003cbr\u003ecare.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Illustration: SHE PUT THE GIRL'S HAND INTO HIS.]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe girl looked up at Peter with her pale, sad face; but her lips\u003cbr\u003etrembled so that she could not thank him. And he began to think how this\u003cbr\u003epoor beggar must have a gentle and loving heart, because she had taken\u003cbr\u003esuch good care of her old mother, and, notwithstanding she was so\u003cbr\u003etroublesome, had been grieved at losing her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo he made bold to ask once more what he had been refused so many times\u003cbr\u003ethat day, and had never thought to ask again, whether she would marry\u003cbr\u003ehim, and live in his little cabin, and cook his meals, and keep his\u003cbr\u003efires burning, and smile and comfort him when he should come home tired\u003cbr\u003efrom his work.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd at these words a bright smile came into the face of the old woman,\u003cbr\u003eand seemed for an instant to take its ugliness away. She put the girl's\u003cbr\u003ehand into his, and said to her, \"One who can forget his own trouble in\u003cbr\u003ecomforting another will make you a good husband, Susan.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll at once the old woman had disappeared; and Peter and Susan, hand in\u003cbr\u003ehand, were travelling towards the cabin in the wood. They looked about\u003cbr\u003ein every direction; but she was gone.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47081837822192,"sku":"2940012757890","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012757890_p0.jpg?v=1763572242","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012757890","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}