ould not
take away the cheerfulness of my mind; for I bore with patience whatever
happened to me: and she would often say, "must I with all my beauty,
power, and wisdom (for so she called her low cunning) be suffering
perpetual uneasiness? and shall you, who have neither beauty, power, nor
wisdom, pretend to be happy and cheerful?" Then would she cry and stamp,
and rave like a mad creature, and set her invention at work to make my
mother beat me, or lock me up, or take from me some of my best clothes
to give to her; yet still could not her power extend to vex my mind: and
this used to throw her again into such passions, as weakened her health,
and greatly impaired her so much boasted beauty.

'In this manner we lived, till on a certain day, after Brunetta had been
in one of her rages with me for nothing, my father came in and chid
her for it; which, when my mother heard, she threw herself into such a
violent passion, that her husband could not pacify her. And, being big
with child, the convulsions, caused by her passions, brought her to her
grave. Thus my father lost her, by the same uncontrollable excesses, the
fatal effects of which he had before ruined his daughter to preserve her
from. He did not long survive her; but, before he died, gave me a little
wand, which, by striking three times on the ground, he said, would at
any time produce me any necessary or convenience of life, which I really
wanted, either for myself, or the assistance of others; and this he gave
me, because he was very sensible, he said, that as soon as he was dead,
my sister would never rest till she had got from me both his castle,
and everything that I had belonging to me, in it. "But," continued he,
"whenever you are driven from thence, bend your course directly into the
pleasant wood Ardella; there strike with your wand, and everything you
want, will be provided for you. But keep this wand a profound secret, or
Brunetta will get it from you; and then (though you can never, while you
preserve your patience, be unhappy) you will not have it in your power
to be of so much use as you would wish to be, to those who shall stand
in need of your assistance." Saying these words, he expired, as I
kneeled by his bedside, attending his last commands, and bewailing the
loss of so good a father.

'In the midst of this our distress, we sent to my Uncle Sochus, my
father's brother, to come to us, and to assist us in an equal division
of my deceased father's