Enchanted Forests Read Online Free PDF Page A

"Meow!"

    'That's right, Mehitabel. All those nasty wood nymphs
    who've crossed us will be gone, and we'll be rich in the bar-
    gain!" The mice and rats played the fiddle, and the toads played
    the mandolin, and teaching them that had been more of trick than
    she liked to think about. But it was worth it for moments like
    this.

    " 'Oh, today we dance, tomorrow we drink/Get piss blind
    drunk till we can't think! For each revenge we get a wish! Get
    what we want ..." Witch Margot paused, trying to think of a
    good rhyme.

    "Meow! Meow!" cried Mehitabel, dancing the Mazurka.

    "Yes!" said Witch Margot. " 'And cream and fish!' We'll have
    it all, Mehitabel!"

    Margot hitched up her skirts and danced round the kitchen
    once more. Blessed be the day she'd bought those books from
    the magic peddler! Who ever would have thought they'd hold
    such lore and knowledge, or explain the way of the world so
    well and clearly? "Wonderful!" she exclaimed, dancing over to
    the lectern and giving a reverent pat to the Deutsche Volks-
    marchen and the Collected Works of Hans Christian Andersen.
    "Lovely, lovely, lovely books! And you, the most precious of all
    my darlings!" she cried, picking up and kissing the Folktale Mo-
    tif Index. "Oh, I wish I had all the books in your bibliography!"

    Witch Margot paused, but no library suddenly appeared.

    She shrugged and laughed. "Ah well, Mehitabel. We'll get
    them soon enough. 'Oh, today we dance/Tomorrow we bake/
    Have lots of beer—' "

    "Meow!" shrieked Mehitabel.

    "'—and fish," Margot translated and nodded in agreement,
    "and cake!' Blessed be the peddler and the day he sold me my
    books!"

    She cackled with glee, dancing around holding her prized
    Folktale Motif Index over her head, altogether too caught up in
    her good fortune to notice the mockingbird and squirrel peeking
    through the tear in the thatch.

    "I'LL GIVE YOU THREE WISHES.         29

    Conrad stood up, polishing his ax. Three wishes, in advance
    ... He smiled, remembering what the witch had told him to wish
    for. "For my first wish. I wish to live a long, healthy life."

    "It is done," said the wood nymph, clinging to her linden tree
    like a harlot on a lamppost

    Conrad suddenly felt very, very healthy and the wart on his
    thumb dropped off onto the ground.

    For the second wish, the witch said he could wish for any-
    thing, except to be handsome: "I also wish to be strong. Incred-
    ibly strong. Even stronger than Emhardt the Blacksmith."

    Conrad felt all his muscles swell up and the laces on his jerkin
    stretched tight and then popped. He looked down at his bulging
    arms and chest, though this was rather hard, since his clothes
    were now much too small and he didn't seem to have a neck
    anymore, at least not one that was smaller than his head. But he
    certainly felt strong.

    "It is done," said the wood nymph. "What's your third wish,
    good Woodcutter?"

    Conrad finished admiring himself and figuring out how to
    move without his thighs rubbing together, then looked back at
    the wood nymph. "Oh, that. Yes. I wish that the old lady who
    gave me such good advice would get the third wish. To use how-
    ever she wants." After all, Conrad thought, that was the deal, and
    he knew enough of his grandmother's stories to know that you
    always played straight with witches. Unless you wanted to be a
    toad, and being a toad—even an incredibly strong, healthy, long-
    lived one—was not something that Conrad wanted to be.

    "It is done," said the wood nymph. "Are you going to go cut
    down Becka's tree now? I'd really like to have some more sun-
    light."

    Conrad tipped his hat, getting used to the way his new mus-
    cles were rubbing on each other. "Of course, good wood nymph.
    I'm a man of my word, and we're agreed—the beech tree has to

    go"

    He walked across to where the tall beech stood and looked up.
    A branch dropped down, landing beside him, and he smiled. The
    linden tree had been as good as her word; the branches