The Elf of the Rose

　　There once was a rose bush in full bloom in a big garden. An elf was living in the most beautiful rose in the garden, and she was so small that people could not see her. She had long blond hair to her toes and beautiful wings.

　　One day, it got dark before she got home. She had been dancing and flying around so she didn't have time to get back to the rose bush. Suddenly, the weather got cold, evening dew started to fall, and a strong wind began to blow. She could not stay in the other flowers because they were all closed up.

　　"What am I going to do now? It's too cold." She got scared because she had never stayed outside at night. There was a twinkling light from the other side of the garden. "It's too cold, and I am scared. Maybe I should spend tonight there."

　　The elf flew to a pavilion on the other side of the garden in a hurry. But there were already two people in the pavilion. A beautiful young lady and a handsome man were praying that they would never be apart from each other. They were in love.

　　"But we must go far away from each other soon." "Your brother is sending me away because he does not like our marriage. Oh my bride, please wait for me until I come back to you!" She sobbed and nodded her head.

　　She pulled off a rose from the bush which was aside her and kissed it. Then she gave him the rose as a token of her love. At that moment, the rose opened up. The elf went into the rose secretly.

　　At that moment, a horrible looking man entered the pavillion. He was the brother of the young lady. "What? You want to marry my sister?" He drew his sword and cut the young man and buried him under a linden-tree.

　　"He is gone forever now, and he will forget my sister. How dare the poor little boy want to marry my sister? It is common to die during a trip, so nobody will suspect me of murdering him." The brother brushed up his clothes and disappeared.

　　The elf woke up and found she was in the middle of a dark forest. "Oh my! The forest is moving!" But it was not a forest. It was the hair of the young lady's brother. She shivered with fear and anger.

　　When they got in the house, the young lady from the garden was crying. The man looked at his sister and gave her a chilly smile, and went to bed. "Oh my lover, my dear fiancé, please comes back safely." She sobbed sadly and fell asleep.

　　The elf sat down quietly spreading her wings and told the young lady what she saw that day. "What I am trying to say now is not a dream. If you dig under the linden-tree in the garden, you will find your fiancé. It is your brother who killed him."

　　The beautiful young lady woke up. She secretly went out of her room and dug under the linden-tree as the elf had said.

　　Her lover was lying in the ground, cold dead. She cried out sadly and killed herself right next to her fiancé. After some time passed, a flower called, 'Jasmine' came into bloom at the place where the two lovers had died. The Jasmine had big white flowers on the branch and had a sweet smell.

　　Incidentally, the young lady's brother was walking down the road and he pulled off a branch of the jasmineand put it near his bedside. When night fell, two bees with poison stingers came out of the jasmine flowers and bit the brother's ears and mouth, and then they vanished.

　　單詞注釋：

　　twinkling adj. 閃爍的;閃亮的

　　pavilion n. 大帳篷;閣;亭子;展示館

　　pray vt. 祈禱;懇求;央求 vi. 祈禱;懇求;請

　　jasminen. 茉莉;淡黃色

　　vanish vi. 消失;突然不見;[數]成為零 vt. 使不見，使消失