by Edith Howes
The Magic Mirror
There was once a wise old king in a far-off land who said to himself, "Ihave a daughter as well as a son; why should she not have a kingdom too?I will see to it at once."
He called the chief map-maker to him, and said: "Make a map of mykingdom and divide it by a line so evenly that each part shall beexactly half. There must not be one hair's breadth more on the east ofthe line than on the west."
The chief map-maker worked hard, and soon had the map ready, and it wasdivided so evenly that there was not a hair's breadth more on the eastof the line than on the west. Then the king made a law that when he diedthe Prince should rule over all the country on one side of the line, andthe Princess should rule over all the country on the other side. ThePrince's land he called Eastroyal, and the Princess's land he calledWestroyal, and from that day to this there have always been kings overEastroyal and queens over Westroyal.
But it was soon noticed that in Eastroyal the people became discontentedand quarrelsome and poor, and were always finding fault with thegovernment; whereas in the west country over the border they were sohappy and kindly that they praised each queen from the beginning of herreign to the end. Nobody knew why there should be so great a difference,but a great difference there was. Things grew worse and worse inEastroyal, until at last the people rose and turned the reigning kingoff his throne and set his little son in his place. "Perhaps we shall bebetter satisfied now!" they said.
The new king's mother walked alone, deep in thought; and she was verytroubled. "How can I teach my little son to please his people betterthan his father did?" she wondered. "It would break my heart if he tooangered them and lost his crown, yet already he is showing a haughtytemper in his treatment of his lords, and I know not what to do."
"I know! I know!" said a voice.
The Queen-mother was much startled; though she had not spoken aloud, thewords seemed an answer to her thought. She looked over the low wall ofthe garden into the road. There an old woman hobbled, leaning on astick, and muttering to herself. She was poor and ragged, and bent withage. "I know, I know!" she said again.
"What do you know?" asked the Queen-mother gently.
The old woman looked up at her. "Go to Westroyal," she said; and shehobbled away.
"Ah, a witch!" thought the Queen-mother; "and she is right. The Queensof the West have undoubtedly some secret means of making their peoplelove them. I will find out what it is."
She prepared for a visit to Westroyal, and arrived a few days later atthe palace of the reigning queen. Here she was welcomed and feasted andtreated right lovingly, but though she kept her eyes and her ears aswide open as it was possible for eyes and ears to be, she could notdiscover the secret. She grew sad with disappointment.
The young queen saw that she was sorrowful. "You are not happy here.What is the matter?" she asked. "What can I do to make you glad?"
The Queen-mother held out her hands imploringly. "Only give me yoursecret," she begged. "Tell me how you gain the love of your people andkeep it through all the years. Tell me so that I may teach my young sonhow to hold his throne?"
"Is that all?" exclaimed the Queen. "Come, I will show you."
"She led the way to her own lovely sleeping-chamber."]
She led the way to her own lovely sleeping-chamber, hung with rose silkand panelled with polished silver and amethyst, and she pointed to agreat mirror set strongly into the wall. "Look within!" she said.
Wonderingly, the Queen-mother obeyed. On the surface of the mirror thefaces and forms of herself and the young queen were reflected; butafter a few moments, as she gazed, these faded away, and in their placescame a picture of a mine, with blackened toilers filling tracks withcoal. That, too, faded, and a golden cornfield showed upon the polishedglass; under the hot summer sun the busy reapers moved, wiping the sweatfrom their brows when they stopped a moment to rest. A third picture wasof weavers making cloth. A cottage home came next, and a lordly mansionof the rich, and a homeless child seeking shelter under a city bridge.So scene followed scene, beautiful, or sad, or sordid, sometimes wildand violent, and sometimes gay and peaceful, showing in the main apeople happy and content.
"What is it?" asked the amazed Queen-mother at last. "How come thesepictures here?"
"They are the life of my state reflected on this magic mirror for myhelp," replied the Queen. "Long ago, when the first queen came to rulethe new kingdom of Westroyal, the fairies brought this mirror and set itin the wall as here you see it. Faithfully ever since it has reflectedthe daily happenings through-out the land, the people's toil andpleasures, their dangers and their comforts and rewards. So each queenhas known her country. Your son, looking in his mirror, sees buthimself; I see the sufferings of my people and know what things theyneed, and so plainly are these pictures set before me that I cannot resttill I have used my power to give relief."
"Oh!" cried the Queen-mother, "now I see why you are loved. How can Iget such a mirror for my son?"
"That I know not," replied the Queen.
Then the Queen-mother returned sad at heart to the kingdom of her son,pondering on what she had seen.
Once again she walked in her garden alone. "How shall I get such amirror?" she wondered. "What should I do?"
As once before, a voice replied "I know! I know!"
The Queen-mother looked over the garden wall. Hobbling along the roadwas the old woman who had bade her go to Westroyal. "You who helped mebefore, help me again!" cried the Queen-mother. "I have obeyed you. Hownow shall I get a magic mirror for my son?"
The old woman looked up at her. "Go to the Deeps," she said, and shehobbled off.
Now this was a dreadful command to the Queen-mother, for the Deeps was ahorrible black pool in the roughest and most dangerous part of thecountry. It was said to be formed of the country's tears and to be alsobottomless, and to be haunted by beings of strange shape. There werestories of their mysterious power and evil ways. Yet go she must, ifgoing meant the gaining of a magic mirror for her son. And she must goalone, for only so could any seeker find the pathway to the pool, so itwas said.
"I will go at once, before my courage fails," she said, and she left hersheltered garden and set off across the land.
She had many weary miles to travel, past villages and towns and fields,and she was footsore and faint when at last she reached the windingtrack that led between the darkening hills. Yet on she went, followingthe murmur of a tiny stream that dropped through thick-set bushes into ashadowed valley. On she went still, and now the darkness came, and shehad lost her way. She stumbled over fallen logs, pushed with bleedinghands and torn clothes through bramble wildernesses, and found at lasther way again to the narrow track beside the little stream that murmuredin the dark.
On she went, and down. The stream suddenly widened into a roundblackness open to the sky, but walled in by jagged rocks. It was thepool. Utterly spent through weariness and fear, she sank down among therocks to rest, and waited there for what might come to her.
Strange rustlings sounded round the rocks, strange forms loomed closebeside her, strange voices asked her: "What are you? Why come you to ourhaunts?" Though her heart was sick with dread she answered boldly in afirm clear voice. "Give me a magic mirror for my son, that he may learnto rule."
There was a flash, and the pool and all the rocks were lit by a lightbrighter and softer than that of moon or stars. All round her stood thebeings who had loomed so strangely in the darkness. They were fairies,exquisite in shape and fineness, robed in flowing gossamer of manycolours. They smiled at her, and touched her with their gentle hands,and immediately she was well. "Your love has brought you nobly throughmuch fear and hurt," they said. "You shall have your due reward. Lookinto the Deeps."
She rose into the air a shining queen of fairies, holdingin her hands a tiny gleaming mirror.]
One took her hand and led her to the edge, and the Queen-mother,fearless and smiling now, looked down into the fathomless water of thepool. As she gazed, ripples came upo
n its surface. They broke away intoshining cascades of diamonds and pearls, and between them appeared theface and shoulders of the old woman of the road. "I have your magicmirror," she cried. "It is formed of the lowest teardrops of the Deeps."
She sprang out and trod the water to the shore, and as she went her ragsfell from her and she rose into the air a shining queen of fairies, morebeautiful than any other there, holding in her hand a tiny gleamingmirror. "Come," she said, "let us set it in its place."
She touched the Queen-mother's hand, and in a flash they were all at thepalace, within the young king's sleeping chamber of turquoise and gold.There as he lay asleep the fairies set the mirror in its place withmagic words, and as it touched the wall it lengthened out and widenedtill it stood as large as that of the young queen across the borderline. Over the polished glass began to float the pictures of thecountry's life. "How can I show my gratitude?" the Queen-mother asked;but the fairies were gone.
Next morning when the little king awoke he ran to see the fine newmirror in his room. He gazed and gazed upon the strange entrancingpictures that came on it, and every day he spent long hours at themirror. And as he learned to recognise the hardships and the sufferingsof his people his heart grew hot to give relief, and he was no morehaughty, but used his power to ease their woes. So in Eastroyal as inWestroyal there was content, and the people loved their king and praisedhim through all his days until the end. And all the kings who followedafter him ruled wisely and were loved.
"Look closely at my flowers," she said, "and tell mewhich you think most beautiful."]