The Juniper Tree (part two)

With the second wife he had a daughter; but the child by the first wife was a little son, and was as red as blood and as white as snow. When the woman looked at her daughter, she loved her so much; but then she looked at the little boy, and it seemed to go right through her heart; and it seemed as if he always stood in her way, and then she was always thinking how she could get all the fortune for her daughter; and it was the Evil One who suggested it to her, so that she couldn't bear the sight of the little boy, and poked him about from one corner to another, and buffeted him here, and cuffed him there, so that the poor child was always in fear; and when he came from school he had no peace.

Once the woman had gone into the store-room and the little daughter came up and said, "Mother, give me an apple." "Yes, my child," said the woman, and gave her a beautiful apple out of the box: the box had a great heavy lid, with a great sharp iron lock. "Mother," said the little daughter, "shall not brother have one too?" That annoyed the woman, but she said, "Yes, when he comes home from school." And as she saw out the window that he was coming, it was just as if the Evil One came over her, and she snatched the apple away from her daughter again, and said, "You shall not have one before your brother." She threw the apple into the box and the Evil One made her say, in a friendly manner, "My son, will you have an apple?" and she looked at him wickedly. "Mother," said the little boy, "how horribly you look; yes, give me an apple." Then she thought she must pacify him. "Come with me," she said, and opened the lid; "Reach out an apple," and as the little boy bent into the box, the Evil One whispered to her--bang! she slammed the lid to, so that his head flew off and fell amongst the red apples. Then in her fright she thought, "Could I get that off my mind!" Then she went up into her room to the chest of drawers, and got out a white cloth from the top drawer, and she from the top drawer, and she set the head on the throat again, and tied the handkerchief round so that nothing could be seen; and placed him outside the door on a chair, and gave him the apple in his hand. After a while little Marline came in the kitchen to her mother who stood by the fire and had a kettle with hot water before her, which she kept stirring round. "Mother," said little Marline, "brother is sitting outside the door, and looks quite white, and has got an apple in his hand. I asked him to give me the apple, but he didn't answer me; then I was quite frightened."Go again, said the other, "and if he will not answer you, give him a box in the ear." Then Marline went to the brother and said, "Give me the apple;" but he was silent. Then she gave him a box on the ear, and the head tumbled off; at which she was frightened, and began to cry and sob. "I have knocked my brother's head off;" and she cried and cried, and would not be pacified. "Marline," said the mother, "what have you done? But be quiet, so that nobody may notice it; it can't be helped now; we'll bury him under the juniper tree."