Katharine and the Enchanted Maiden

One cloudy, windy fall day Katharine went walking along the path that wound through the very midst of a deep wood. She followed it this way and that until she reached the very midmost spot in the wood, and was about to pass on toward the other side, when she heard someone softly singing. She stopped in her tracks and looked among the trees to see what the singing sound might be.

At first there was nothing unusual to be seen, and Katharine was about to give up and go on. But the soft singing continued, like someone singing a child’s strange song, and curiosity kept Katharine rooted to the spot looking and looking.

All at once she spied, in the cleft of a hollow tree, a beautiful maiden all in white. It was she who was singing softly, and she looked so lovely that Katharine walked right up to the tree to greet her. But the maiden stared right past Katharine, straight ahead, as if she remembered something as far away as the edge of the world. And she kept softly singing the same strange and lovely song.

Now, the maiden of the hollow tree was enchanted. She had been imprisoned there as a child by the evil witch who lived in the earth beneath the hollow tree, and who had thrust her long bony hand out of the cleft of the tree and caught the child and pulled her thwap! inside the tree down into the dark hole beneath the roots. And there she had kept her for years and years, until she had grown to be a lovely maiden.

Only when a little child would come walking along the path that wound through the midst of the wood did the witch allow the maiden to mount up into the cleft of the tree and look out. And she would cause her to sing softly an enchanted melody, in the hope that the child who walked there might be pleased with the sight of the maiden and the sound of her song and would walk right up to the tree where the witch could reach out and catch her too, and pull her thwap! down inside the tree and keep her.

And indeed Katharine found herself so enraptured by the strange and lovely singing and the sight of the beautiful maiden that she walked up quite close to the hollow tree.

"Greet thee, lovely maiden," she began. "I am called Katharine. Who are you? Why are you in the cleft of this hollow tree? And what beautiful melody are you softly singing?"

The enchanted maiden answered nothing, but only stared straight ahead, as if she had caught sight of forever, and continued to sing the same strange and lovely melody.

As the maiden did not answer her, Katharine stood on tiptoe so that she could touch the hem of her white garment. No sooner had she done so than a long, bony hand rose slowly out of the cleft of the tree, between the maiden’s feet. But Katharine did not see the hand, for the maiden was so lovely and her song so beautiful that Katharine could not take her eyes from her face for an instant.

Once more Katharine began, "Greet thee, lovely lady! I am Katharine. Who are you?" But suddenly she stopped her questions, for now her face was so close to the maiden’s that she could see a lonely tear falling down her cheek

Katharine felt so sorry for the maiden that she wanted to kiss her, and so did not see the bony wrist and hairy elbow that followed the witch’s hand out of the cleft of the hollow tree and came so close to Katharine that the evil fingers were almost touching her shoulder.

Now Katharine stretched as tall as she could stretch, and came so close to the maiden’s face that she saw another lonely tear falling down her other cheek. So she loved the maiden with her whole heart, and quickly climbed up into the cleft of the tree, embraced her with both arms, and was about to kiss her, when thwap! the witch’s claw snapped tight around her foot. Katharine gasped for fear and was about to take her arms from around the maiden’s body when she saw two more tears stream down her face, one on either cheek, and at last she loved the maiden so, that she stretched her whole self upward with all her might and kissed the maiden on the cheek in spite of the witch’s claw.

Now, it so happened that the only way the witch’s spell could be broken was for an innocent child to kiss the maiden on the cheek. Then the evil magic would melt and flow away, and the maiden would become herself again and go free.

So when Katharine’s kiss touched the enchanted maiden’s cheek the spell dissolved, and the maiden came to herself, and the witch’s grasp was loosed and the evil old thing crashed back down through the hollow tree into her great dark hole screaming with rage and died.

Then the maiden’s tears all turned to smiles, and Katharine and the maiden walked out of the wood together and came to Katharine’s home, where they lived as dear sisters ever after.