The Golden Leg Read Online Free PDF Page A

young man raised up the lid.
    There, inside the coffin, resting on a cushion of the purest white silk, lay
     the still figure of a little girl. She was only about eight or nine years old
     and was dressed in a simple white nightgown. She looked completely at peace, her
     hands folded across her breast.
    “She isn’t dead,” exclaimed the young man’s mother, pointing out the colour in
     the girl’s cheeks and the way her chest rose and fell with each slow breath.
     “Take her up out of that coffin, and we’ll put her to bed.”
    The men did as they were told, lifting the sleeping girl up out of the pine box
     and carrying her to the daybed in the kitchen. The mother spread a homemade
     quilt over her body, and they all stood around her, silent, watching her
     sleep.
    After a little while, the girl stretched and yawned. Her eyes fluttered open,
     and she woke up, just like you or I would, waking from a deep sleep. When she
     found herself ina strange place, surrounded by strange people,
     she became very frightened. The mother and the young man’s wife shooed the men
     from the kitchen, and comforted the girl.
    The mother gave the girl some warm milk to drink, and some bread to eat, and
     eventually coaxed a story out of her. The girl said she was from a town that was
     about half a day’s journey away, and that she had gone to sleep in her own bed,
     same as every night, and then woke up in a strange house.
    The next morning, the young man and his father hitched their horse up to the
     wagon so they could take her home. By then, word had spread about the little
     girl who had appeared the night before. A neighbour with a daughter about the
     same age brought over some clothes for her, and before they left, the mother
     pinned a few coins into the hem of the girl’s dress. Off they set, curious eyes
     following them as they made their way from the village.
    By afternoon, they arrived at the girl’s own village. When they got to the
     girl’s house, they found it in a state of great sorrow, with all the family
     dressed in the black clothing of mourning. When her family saw the little girl,
     they were terrified, thinking her to be a ghost.
    Three days before, the family had woken to find that their daughter had died in
     her sleep, a cold corpse at rest in the bed where the night before there had
     been a lively girl. A funeral had already been held, and the body of their
     daughter had been buried in the churchyard. But when they looked at the girl,
     talked to her, and held her in their arms, they knew that she was their true
     daughter, and they wept with joy at her return.
    A group of men were sent to the graveyard, armed with shovels,
     to see what exactly they had buried. They dug up the fresh grave, and together
     they hauled the small wooden coffin up out of the stony earth. The people of the
     village gathered around, and half afraid of what they might find within, the men
     pried off the lid.
    There, inside the coffin, resting on a cushion of the purest white silk, lay an
     old birch broom, and nothing else.

T
wo British sailors were heading back to
     their ship, which lay at anchor in the protected harbour. They were returning
     from a dance, having spent the night flirting with local girls, and enjoying
     their first shore leave in some time. The walked along, joking with each
     other,
    The streets of the old city were dark, with houses built right out onto the
     narrow sidewalks, but the moon peeped out from between the buildings, doing her
     best to light their way.
    As they walked through the shadowy streets, they noticed a woman standing in
     their path. She was dressed in a beautiful, long, flowing black dress with
     beadwork across the front. She wore an elegant if slightly old-fashioned hat,
     and her face was hidden behind a veil of black lace.
    The young men tipped their hats to her as they approached. As they made to pass
     by her, much to their surprise, she called out to