Her father and mother were poor, and could not give her many things. Rosamond would have utterly1 despised the rude, simple playthings she had. Yet in one respect they were of more value far than hers: the king bought Rosamond’s with his money; Agnes’s father made hers with his hands.
And while Agnes had but few things—not seeing many things about her, and not even knowing that there were many things anywhere, she did not wish for many things, and was therefore neither covetous2 nor avaricious3.
She played with the toys her father made her, and thought them the most wonderful things in the world—windmills, and little crooks4, and water-wheels, and sometimes lambs made all of wool, and dolls made out of the leg-bones of sheep, which her mother dressed for her; and of such playthings she was never tired. Sometimes, however, she preferred playing with stones, which were plentiful5, and flowers, which were few, or the brooks6 that ran down the hill, of which, although they were many, she could only play with one at a time, and that, indeed, troubled her a little—or live lambs that were not all wool, or the sheep-dogs, which were very friendly with her, and the best of playfellows, as she thought, for she had no human ones to compare them with. Neither was she greedy after nice things, but content, as well she might be, with the homely7 food provided for her. Nor was she by nature particularly self-willed or disobedient; she generally did what her father and mother wished, and believed what they told her. But by degrees they had spoiled her; and this was the way: they were so proud of her that they always repeated every thing she said, and told every thing she did, even when she was present; and so full of admiration8 of their child were they, that they wondered and laughed at and praised things in her which in another child would never have struck them as the least remarkable9, and some things even which would in another have disgusted them altogether. Impertinent and rude things done by their child they thought so clever! laughing at them as something quite marvellous; her commonplace speeches were said over again as if they had been the finest poetry; and the pretty ways which every moderately good child has were extolled10 as if the result of her excellent taste, and the choice of her judgment11 and will. They would even say sometimes that she ought not to hear her own praises for fear it should make her vain, and then whisper them behind their hands, but so loud that she could not fail to hear every word. The consequence was that she soon came to believe—so soon, that she could not recall the time when she did not believe, as the most absolute fact in the universe, that she was Somebody; that is, she became most immoderately conceited13.
Now as the least atom of conceit12 is a thing to be ashamed of, you may fancy what she was like with such a quantity of it inside her!
At first it did not show itself outside in any very active form; but the wise woman had been to the cottage, and had seen her sitting alone, with such a smile of self-satisfaction upon her face as would have been quite startling to her, if she had ever been startled at any thing; for through that smile she could see lying at the root of it the worm that made it. For some smiles are like the ruddiness of certain apples, which is owing to a centipede, or other creeping thing, coiled up at the heart of them. Only her worm had a face and shape the very image of her own; and she looked so simpering, and mawkish14, and self-conscious, and silly, that she made the wise woman feel rather sick.
Not that the child was a fool. Had she been, the wise woman would have only pitied and loved her, instead of feeling sick when she looked at her. She had very fair abilities, and were she once but made humble15, would be capable not only of doing a good deal in time, but of beginning at once to grow to no end. But, if she were not made humble, her growing would be to a mass of distorted shapes all huddled16 together; so that, although the body she now showed might grow up straight and well-shaped and comely17 to behold18, the new body that was growing inside of it, and would come out of it when she died, would be ugly, and crooked19 this way and that, like an aged20 hawthorn21 that has lived hundreds of years exposed upon all sides to salt sea-winds.
As time went on, this disease of self-conceit went on too, gradually devouring22 the good that was in her. For there is no fault that does not bring its brothers and sisters and cousins to live with it. By degrees, from thinking herself so clever, she came to fancy that whatever seemed to her, must of course be the correct judgment, and whatever she wished, the right thing; and grew so obstinate23, that at length her parents feared to thwart24 her in any thing, knowing well that she would never give in. But there are victories far worse than defeats; and to overcome an angel too gentle to put out all his strength, and ride away in triumph on the back of a devil, is one of the poorest.
So long as she was left to take her own way and do as she would, she gave her parents little trouble. She would play about by herself in the little garden with its few hardy25 flowers, or amongst the heather where the bees were busy; or she would wander away amongst the hills, and be nobody knew where, sometimes from morning to night; nor did her parents venture to find fault with her.
She never went into rages like the princess, and would have thought Rosamond—oh, so ugly and vile26! if she had seen her in one of her passions. But she was no better, for all that, and was quite as ugly in the eyes of the wise woman, who could not only see but read her face. What is there to choose between a face distorted to hideousness28 by anger, and one distorted to silliness by self-complacency? True, there is more hope of helping29 the angry child out of her form of selfishness than the conceited child out of hers; but on the other hand, the conceited child was not so terrible or dangerous as the wrathful one. The conceited one, however, was sometimes very angry, and then her anger was more spiteful than the other’s; and, again, the wrathful one was often very conceited too. So that, on the whole, of two very unpleasant creatures, I would say that the king’s daughter would have been the worse, had not the shepherd’s been quite as bad. But, as I have said, the wise woman had her eye upon her: she saw that something special must be done, else she would be one of those who kneel to their own shadows till feet grow on their knees; then go down on their hands till their hands grow into feet; then lay their faces on the ground till they grow into snouts; when at last they are a hideous27 sort of lizards30, each of which believes himself the best, wisest, and loveliest being in the world, yea, the very centre of the universe. And so they run about forever looking for their own shadows, that they may worship them, and miserable31 because they cannot find them, being themselves too near the ground to have any shadows; and what becomes of them at last there is but one who knows.
The wise woman, therefore, one day walked up to the door of the shepherd’s cottage, dressed like a poor woman, and asked for a drink of water. The shepherd’s wife looked at her, liked her, and brought her a cup of milk. The wise woman took it, for she made it a rule to accept every kindness that was offered her.
Agnes was not by nature a greedy girl, as I have said; but self-conceit will go far to generate every other vice32 under the sun. Vanity, which is a form of self-conceit, has repeatedly shown itself as the deepest feeling in the heart of a horrible murderess.
That morning, at breakfast, her mother had stinted33 her in milk—just a little—that she might have enough to make some milk-porridge for their dinner. Agnes did not mind it at the time, but when she saw the milk now given to a beggar, as she called the wise woman—though, surely, one might ask a draught34 of water, and accept a draught of milk, without being a beggar in any such sense as Agnes’s contemptuous use of the word implied—a cloud came upon her forehead, and a double vertical35 wrinkle settled over her nose. The wise woman saw it, for all her business was with Agnes though she little knew it, and, rising, went and offered the cup to the child, where she sat with her knitting in a corner. Agnes looked at it, did not want it, was inclined to refuse it from a beggar, but thinking it would show her consequence to assert her rights, took it and drank it up. For whoever is possessed36 by a devil, judges with the mind of that devil; and hence Agnes was guilty of such a meanness as many who are themselves capable of something just as bad will consider incredible.
The wise woman waited till she had finished it—then, looking into the empty cup, said:
“You might have given me back as much as you had no claim upon!”
Agnes turned away and made no answer—far less from shame than indignation.
The wise woman looked at the mother.
“You should not have offered it to her if you did not mean her to have it,” said the mother, siding with the devil in her child against the wise woman and her child too. Some foolish people think they take another’s part when they take the part he takes.
The wise woman said nothing, but fixed37 her eyes upon her, and soon the mother hid her face in her apron38 weeping. Then she turned again to Agnes, who had never looked round but sat with her back to both, and suddenly lapped her in the folds of her cloak. When the mother again lifted her eyes, she had vanished.
Never supposing she had carried away her child, but uncomfortable because of what she had said to the poor woman, the mother went to the door, and called after her as she toiled39 slowly up the hill. But she never turned her head; and the mother went back into her cottage.
The wise woman walked close past the shepherd and his dogs, and through the midst of his flock of sheep. The shepherd wondered where she could be going—right up the hill. There was something strange about her too, he thought; and he followed her with his eyes as she went up and up.
It was near sunset, and as the sun went down, a gray cloud settled on the top of the mountain, which his last rays turned into a rosy40 gold. Straight into this cloud the shepherd saw the woman hold her pace, and in it she vanished. He little imagined that his child was under her cloak.
He went home as usual in the evening, but Agnes had not come in. They were accustomed to such an absence now and then, and were not at first frightened; but when it grew dark and she did not appear, the husband set out with his dogs in one direction, and the wife in another, to seek their child. Morning came and they had not found her. Then the whole country-side arose to search for the missing Agnes; but day after day and night after night passed, and nothing was discovered of or concerning her, until at length all gave up the search in despair except the mother, although she was nearly convinced now that the poor woman had carried her off.
One day she had wandered some distance from her cottage, thinking she might come upon the remains41 of her daughter at the foot of some cliff, when she came suddenly, instead, upon a disconsolate-looking creature sitting on a stone by the side of a stream.
Her hair hung in tangles42 from her head; her clothes were tattered43, and through the rents her skin showed in many places; her cheeks were white, and worn thin with hunger; the hollows were dark under her eyes, and they stood out scared and wild. When she caught sight of the shepherdess, she jumped to her feet, and would have run away, but fell down in a faint.
At first sight the mother had taken her for her own child, but now she saw, with a pang44 of disappointment, that she had mistaken. Full of compassion45, nevertheless, she said to herself:
“If she is not my Agnes, she is as much in need of help as if she were. If I cannot be good to my own, I will be as good as I can to some other woman’s; and though I should scorn to be consoled for the loss of one by the presence of another, I yet may find some gladness in rescuing one child from the death which has taken the other.”
Perhaps her words were not just like these, but her thoughts were. She took up the child, and carried her home. And this is how Rosamond came to occupy the place of the little girl whom she had envied in the picture.
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1
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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2
covetous
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| adj.贪婪的，贪心的 | |
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avaricious
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| adj.贪婪的，贪心的 | |
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4
crooks
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| n.骗子( crook的名词复数 )；罪犯；弯曲部分；（牧羊人或主教用的）弯拐杖v.弯成钩形( crook的第三人称单数 ) | |
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5
plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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6
brooks
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| n.小溪( brook的名词复数 ) | |
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7
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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8
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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9
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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10
extolled
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| v.赞颂，赞扬，赞美( extol的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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12
conceit
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| n.自负，自高自大 | |
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13
conceited
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| adj.自负的，骄傲自满的 | |
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14
mawkish
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| adj.多愁善感的的；无味的 | |
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15
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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16
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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17
comely
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| adj.漂亮的，合宜的 | |
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18
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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19
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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20
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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21
hawthorn
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| 山楂 | |
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22
devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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23
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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24
thwart
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| v.阻挠，妨碍，反对；adj.横(断的) | |
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25
hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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26
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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27
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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28
hideousness
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29
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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30
lizards
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| n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 ) | |
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31
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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32
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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33
stinted
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| v.限制，节省（stint的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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34
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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35
vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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36
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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37
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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39
toiled
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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40
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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41
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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42
tangles
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| （使）缠结， （使）乱作一团( tangle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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43
tattered
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| adj.破旧的，衣衫破的 | |
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44
pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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45
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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