Page 7 - The She-Bear

here lived, it is said, once upon a
time a King of Rough-Rock, who had
had a wife the very mother of beauty, but in the
full career of her years she fell from the horse
of health and broke her life. Before the candle
of life went out at the auction of her years she
called her husband and said to him, "I know
you have always loved me tenderly; show me,
therefore, at the close of my days the
completion of your love by promising me never
to marry again, unless you find a woman as
beautiful as I have been, otherwise I leave you
my curse, and shall bear you hatred even in the
other world."
The King, who loved his wife beyond measure,
hearing this her last wish, burst into tears, and
for some time could not answer a single word.
At last, when he had done weeping, he said to
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