A Fairy Tale For Wendy It is the custom in our country for a mother, when she gives her daughter her shadow, to say, " If you lose your shadow, you will find it on the other side of the world." I thought you might be interested in hearing how this custom came about. Once there was a girl who was born in the moonlight. As these things work out, she was fair - I don't mean in the sense of beautiful, though she was pretty enough, or just, though she never did anyone harm, especially not on purpose, but that her skin and hair and lips were silvery and pale. Like the other children in our country, she ran around without any shadow on, and was very happy. One day her mother saw that she had become a woman, and brought down an old wooden chest from the attic. From it she took her daughter's shadow. She said, " I made this from the night on which you were born, and I made the buttons from the moonlight which was shining on us. There was a little left over, so I made you some earrings too." The young woman put on the shadow, which covered her from her neck to her ankles, and put on the earrings, which glowed gently and lit up her hair. She kissed her mother and went off into the world. The young woman was quite pleased with her shadow - it was soft, warm, and fit her perfectly - but the buttons, which were large and round as full moons, bothered her. They looked old-fashioned, and she felt that there was a limit to the amount of symbolism any one person could carry around. She decided to cut them off, and got a little pair of silver scissors. They proved useless, of course, since the buttons were sewn on with shadow and nothing physical can cut a shadow. It soon occured to her to try her earrings, which were shaped like crescent moons and very sharp, and, most importantly, made of light. They cut through the threads easily, and the buttons fell off and rolled away. The young woman didn't notice where they were going, however, since she was too busy trying to hold onto her shadow, which had suddenly become loose and was slipping off. To her distress, she found that it is even harder to hold a shadow than to cut it, and soon it was all gone. | |
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