Brick Fairy Tales: Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Hansel and Gretel, and More (62 page)

He did not see that Death was casting angry glances on him, that he was raising his hand in the air, and threatening him with his withered fist.

He raised up the sick girl, and placed her head where her feet had lain.

Then he gave her some of the herb,

and instantly her cheeks flushed red, and life stirred afresh in her.

When Death saw that for a second time he was defrauded of his own property, he walked up to the physician with long strides,

and said, “All is over with thee, and now the lot falls on thee,”

and seized him so firmly with his ice-cold hand, that he could not resist,

and led him into a cave below the earth.

There he saw how thousands and thousands of candles were burning in countless rows, some large, others half-sized, others small. Every instant some were extinguished, and others again burnt up, so that the flames seemed to leap hither and thither in perpetual change.

“See,” said Death, “these are the lights of men’s lives.

The large ones belong to children,

the half-sized ones to married people in their prime,

the little ones belong to old people; but children and young folks likewise have often only a tiny candle.”

“Show me the light of my life,” said the physician, and he thought that it would be still very tall.