The Story of Helly part 2/7
One evening a wise old man
from a distant city came to visit
Helly’s mother. She told the old man how Helly bothered everyone, even the dog, and how nobody liked her. The old man thought for a while and then said: “You know, I think your daughter doesn’t appreciate her home and her
neighborhood. If she did, she wouldn’t
be always bothering everyone. The trouble is that she has never been sad
and unhappy because she was
lonely. Now, I think you should send her somewhere far
from home where she would be by herself and very, very lonely.”
Helly’s mother
laughed and said: “How could I send her away? Where could I send
her to be lonely?
Is there a place where no one could hear her voice and her crying?
Where? Where?”
Helly’s mother
laughed and said: “But I love her so much. How could I bear parting
with her?”
Helly was in the same room, busily tying up the legs of their white cat with some string.
Now, hearing their conversation, she
turned pale and let the cat go. She was suddenly afraid and went to one corner
of the room where she was very, very silent.
Presently the old man
went to bed. Then Helly ran to her mother,
hugged her, and between sobs said: “Mother, Mother. I don’t want to be lonely.
Please don’t send me away. Please don’t
send me to a place where nobody can even
hear my voice.”
Heartbroken by this
plea, Helly’s mother kissed her and caressed
her smooth black hair and said,
laughing: “Look, Helly, I promise not
to send you anywhere if only you’ll
listen to what I say and don’t throw water on people, and don’t throw stones at the dog, and don’t mark up
the walls, and don’t yell all the time, and don’t cry, and don’t make noise at
school, and don’t throw snowballs at people. And now you’d better go to bed so
you can get up early in the morning.”
Helly went to bed, but she still kept worrying about what the old man had said. She thought:
“What if Mother really does send me away to some
far place? What if she sends me
to this old man? What if the old man turns me into a bird or
a cockroach or an ant or a tree in a
flowerbed? . . .” While she was thinking and
thinking, Helly fell asleep.
No sooner had her eyes closed than she began dreaming. She was walking with her mother
along a broad path in a big, green, and
flowery garden. She asked her mother: “What place
is this?”
....to be CONTINUE ...The Story of Helly part 3/7
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