1
6.
“The Third Wish”
A short story by Joan Aiken
Once there was a man who was driving in his
car at dusk on a Spring evening through part of the
forest of Savernake. His name was Mr. Peters.
The primroses were just beginning but the trees
were still bare, and it was cold; the birds had
stopped singing an hour ago. As Mr. Peters
entered a straight, empty stretch of road he seemed
to hear a faint crying, and a struggling and
thrashing, as if somebody was in trouble far away
in the trees. He left his car and climbed the mossy
bank beside the road. Beyond the bank was an
open slope of beech trees leading down to thorn
bushes through which he saw the gleam of water.
He stood a moment waiting to try and discover
where the noise was coming from, and presently
heard a rustling and some strange cries in a voice
which was almost human-and yet there was
something too hoarse about it at one time and too
clear and sweet at another. Mr. Peters ran down
the hill and as he neared the bushes he saw
something white among them which was trying to
extricate itself; coming closer he found that it was
a swan that had become entangled in the thorns
growing on the bank of the canal.
The bird struggled all the more frantically as
he approached, looking at him with hate in its
yellow eyes, and when he took hold of it to free
it, hissed at him, pecked him, and thrashed
dangerously with its wings which were
powerful enough to break his arm. Nevertheless
he managed to release it from the thorns, and
carrying it tightly with one arm, holding the
snaky head well away with the other hand (for
he did not wish his eyes pecked out), he took it
to the verge of the canal and dropped it in.
The swan instantly assumed great dignity and
sailed out to the middle of the water, where it put
itself to rights with much dabbling and preening,
smoothing its feathers with little showers of drops.
Mr. Peters waited to make sure that it was all right
and had suffered no damage in its struggles.
Presently the swan, when it was satisfied with its
appearance, floated in to the bank once more. and in
a moment, instead of the great white bird, there was
a little man all in green with ~ golden crown and
long beard, standing by the water. He had fierce
glittering eyes and looked by no means friendly.
"Well, Sir," he said threateningly, "I see you are
presumptuous enough to know some of the laws of
magic. You think that because you have rescued-by
pure good fortune-the King of the Forest from a
difficulty, you should have some fabulous reward."
"I expect three wishes, no more and no less,"
answered Mr. Peters, looking at him steadily
and with composure.
"Three wishes, he wants, the clever man~ Well,
I have yet to hear of the human being who made
any good use of his three wish they mostly end up
worse off than they started. Take your three wishes
then-" he flung three dead leaves in the air "-don't
blame me if you spend the last wish in undoing the
work of the other two."
Mr. Peters caught the leaves and put two of
them carefully in his notecase. When he looked
up the swan was sailing about in
the
middle of
the water again, flicking the drops angrily down
its long neck.
Mr. Peters stood for some minutes reflecting on
how he should use his reward. He knew very well
that the gift of three magic wishes was one which
brought trouble more often than not, and he had no
intention of being like the forester who first wished
by mistake for a sausage, and then in a rage wished
it on the end of his wife's nose, and then had to use
his last wish in getting it off again. Mr. Peters had
most of the things which he wanted and was very
content with his life. The only thing that troubled
him was that he was a little lonely, and had no
companion for his old age. He decided to use his
first wish and to keep the other two in case of an
emergency. Taking a thorn he pricked his tongue
with it, to remind himself not to utter rash wishes
aloud. Then holding the third leaf and gazing round
him at the dusky undergrowth, the primroses, great
beeches and the blue-green water of the canal, he
said:
"I
wish I had a wife as beautiful as the
forest."
2
A tremendous quacking and splashing broke
out on the surface of the water. He thought that it
was the swan laughing at him. Taking no notice he
made his way through the darkening woods to his
car, wrapped himself up in the rug and went to
sleep.
When he awoke it was morning and the birds
were beginning to call. Coming along
the track towards him was the most beautiful
creature he had ever seen, with eyes as blue-green
as the canal, hair as dusky as the bushes, and skin
as white as the feathers of swans.
"Are you the wife that I wished for?" asked
Mr. Peters.
"Yes I am," she replied. "My name is Leita."
She stepped into the car beside him and they
drove off to the church on the outskirts of the
forest, where they were married. Then he took her
to his house in a remote and lovely valley and
showed her all his treasures-the bees in their white
hives, the Jersey cows, the hyacinths, the silver
candlesticks, the blue cups and the lustre bowl for
putting primroses in. She admired everything, but
what pleased her most was the river which ran by
the foot of his garden.
"Do swans come up here?" she asked. "Yes, I
have often seen swans there on the river," he
told her, and she smiled.
Leita made him a good wife. She was gentle
and friendly, busied herself about the house
garden, polished the bowls, milked the cows and
mended his socks. But as time went by Mr.
Peters began to feel that she was not happy. She
seemed restless, wandered much in the garden,
and sometimes when he came back from the
fields he would find the house empty and she
would only return after half an hour or so with
no explanation of where she had been. On these
occasions she was always especially tender and
would put out his slippers to warm and cook his
favorite dish-Welsh rarebit with wild
strawberries-for supper.
One
evening he was returning
home along
the river path when he saw Leita in front of him,
down by the water. A swan had sailed up to the
verge and she had her arms round its neck and
the swan's head rested against her cheek. She was
weeping, and as he came nearer he saw that tears
were rolling, too, from the swan's eyes.
"Leita, what is it?" he asked, very troubled.
"This is my sister," she answered. "I can't
bear being separated from her."
Now he understood that Leita was really a
swan from the forest, and this made him very sad
because when a human being marries a bird it
always leads to sorrow.
"I could use my second wish to give your
sister
human shape, so that she could be a companion to
you," he suggested.
""No,
no," she cried, "I couldn't ask that of
her."
"Is it so very hard to be a human being?"
asked Mr. Peters sadly.
"Very, very hard," she answered.
"Don't you love me at all, Leita?"
"Yes, I do, I do love you," she said, and there
were tears in her eyes again. "But I miss the old life
in the forest, the cool grass and the mist rising off
the river at sunrise and the feel of the water sliding
over my feathers as my sister and
I drifted along the stream."
"Then shall I use my second wish to turn you
back into a swan again?" he asked, and his tongue
pricked to remind him of the old King's words, and
his heart swelled with grief inside him.
"Who would darn your socks and cook your
meals and see to the hens?"
"I'd do it myself as I did before I married
you," he said, trying to sound cheerful.
She shook her head. "No, I could not be as
unkind to you as that. I am partly a swan, but I am
also partly a human being now. I will stay with
you."
Poor Mr. Peters was very distressed on his wife's
account and did his best to make her life happier,
taking her for drives in the car, finding beautiful
music for her to listen to on the radio, buying
clothes for her and even suggesting a trip round the
world. But she said no to that; she would prefer to
stay in their own house near the river.
He noticed that she spent more and more time
baking wonderful cakes-jam puffs, petits fours,
3
éclairs and meringues. One day he saw her take a
basketful down to the river and he guessed that she
was giving them to her sister.
He built a seat for her by the river, and
the two sisters spent hours together there,
communicating in some wordless manner.
For a time he thought that all would be well,
but then he saw how thin and pale she was
growing.
One night when he had been late doing the
accounts he came up to bed and found her
weeping in her sleep and calling:
"Rhea! Rhea! I can't understand what you
say! Oh, wait for me, take me with you!"
Then he knew that it was hopeless and she
would never be happy as a human. He stooped
down and kissed her goodbye, then took another
leaf from his notecase, blew it out
of the window, and used up his second wish.
Next moment instead of Leita there was
a sleeping swan lying across the bed with its
head under its wing. He carried it out of the
house and down to the brink of the river,
and then he said, "Leita! Leita!" to waken her,
and gently put her into the water. She gazed
round her in astonishment for a moment, and
then came up to him and rested her head lightly
against his hand; next instant she was flying
away over the trees towards the heart of the
forest.
He heard a harsh laugh behind him, and
turning round saw the old King looking at
him with a malicious expression.
"Well, my friend! You don't seem to have
managed so wonderfully with your first two
wishes, do you? What will you do with the
last? Turn yourself into a swan? Or turn
Leita back into a girl?"
"I shall do neither," said Mr. Peters calmly.
"Human beings and swans are better in their
own shapes."
But for all that he looked sadly over towards
the forest where Leita had flown, and walked
slowly back to his empty house.
Next day he saw two swans swimming at the
bottom of the garden, and one of them wore the
gold chain he had given Leita after their
marriage; she came up and rubbed her head
against his hand.
Mr. Peters and his two swans came to be well
known in that part of the country; people used to say
that he talked to the swans and they understood him
as well as his neighbors. Many people were a little
frightened of him. There was a story that once when
thieves tried to break into his house they were set
upon by two huge white birds which carried them
off bodily and dropped them in the river.
As Mr. Peters grew old everyone wondered at his
contentment. Even when he was bent with
rheumatism he would not think of moving to a drier
spot, but went slowly about his work, milking the
cows and collecting the honey and eggs, with the
two swans always somewhere close at hand.
Sometimes people who knew his story
would say to him:
"Mr. Peters, why don't you wish for
another wife?"
"Not likely," he would answer serenely.
"Two wishes were enough for me, I reckon. I've
learned that even if your wishes are granted they
don't always better you. I'll stay faithful to Leita."
One autumn night, passers-by along the road
heard the mournful sound of two swans singing.
All night the song went on, sweet and harsh, sharp
and clear. In the morning Mr. Peters was found
peacefully dead in his bed with a smile of great
happiness on his face. In between his hands, which
lay clasped on his breast, were a withered leaf and
a white feather.
