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Once upon a time there lived a man and his wife who were very unhappy because they had no children. These good people had a little window at the back of their house, which looked into the most lovely junk yard, full of all manner of beautiful pieces of titanium and various gundam parts; but the garden was surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to enter it, for it belonged to a witch of great power, who was feared by the whole world. One day the woman stood at the window overlooking the junk yard, and saw there a mountain full of the finest titanium: the glimmer looked so shinny and new that she longed to use them for something. The desire grew day by day, and just because she knew she couldn't possibly get it, she pined away and became quite pale and wretched. Then her husband grew alarmed and said: 'What ails you, dear wife?' 'Oh,' she answered, 'if I don't get some titanium to use out of the junk yard behind the house, I know I shall die.' The man, who loved her dearly, thought to himself, 'Come! rather than let your wife die you shall fetch her some titanium, no matter the cost.' So at dusk he climbed over the wall into the witch's junk yard, and, hastily gathering a handful of titanium pieces, he returned with them to his wife. She made them into a gundam armpiece, which looked so good that her longing for the forbidden metal was greater than ever. If she were to know any peace of mind, there was nothing for it but that her husband should climb over the junk yard wall again, and fetch her some more. So at dusk over he got, but when he reached the other side he drew back in terror, for there, standing before him, was the old witch. 'How dare you,' she said, with a wrathful glance, 'climb into my junk yard and steal my titanium like a common thief? You shall suffer for your foolhardiness.' 'Oh!' he implored, 'pardon my presumption; necessity alone drove me to the deed. My wife saw your titanium from her window, and conceived such a desire for it that she would certainly have died if her wish had not been gratified.' Then the Witch's anger was a little appeased, and she said: 'If it's as you say, you may take as much titanium away with you as you like, but on one condition only -- that you give me the child your wife will shortly bring into the world. All shall go well with it, and I will look after it like a mother.' The man in his terror agreed to everything she asked, and as soon as the child was born the Witch appeared, and having given it the name of Miliardo, which is the same as titanium, she carried it off with her. Miliardo was the most beautiful child under the sun. When he was twelve years old the Witch shut him up in a tower, in the middle of a great wood, and the tower had neither stairs nor doors, only high up at the very top a small window. When the old Witch wanted to get in she stood underneath and called out: 'Miliardo, Miliardo,
for Miliardo had wonderful long hair, and it was as fine as spun platnium. Whenever he heard the Witch's voice he unloosed his plaits, and let his hair fall down out of the window about twenty yards below, and the old Witch climbed up by it. After they had lived like this for a few years, it happened one day that a Princess was riding through the wood and passed by the tower. As she drew near it she heard someone singing so sweetly that he stood still spell-bound, and listened. It was Miliardo in his loneliness trying to while away the time by letting his sweet voice ring out into the wood. The Princess longed to see the owner of the voice, but she sought in vain for a door in the tower. She rode home, but she was so haunted by the song she had heard that she returned every day to the wood and listened. One day, when she was standing thus behind a tree, she saw the old Witch approach and heard her call out: 'Miliardo, Miliardo,
Then Miliardo let down his plaits, and the Witch climbed up by them. 'So that's the staircase, is it?' said the Princess. 'Then I too will climb it and try my luck.'So on the following day, at dusk, she went to the foot of the tower and cried: 'Miliardo, Miliardo,
and as soon as he had let it down the Princess climbed up. At first Miliardo was terribly frightened when another woman came in, for he had never seen one before other than the wretched witch; but the Princess spoke to him so kindly, and told him at once that her heart had been so touched by his singing, that she felt she should know no peace of mind till she had seen him. Very soon Miliardo forgot his fear, and when she asked him to marry her he consented at once. 'For,' he thought, 'she is young and beautiful, and I'll certainly be happier with her than with the old Witch.' So he put his hand in hers and said: 'Yes, I will gladly go with you, only how am I to get down out of the tower? Every time you come to see me you must bring a skein of silk with you, and I will make a ladder of them, and when it is finished I will climb down by it, and you will take me away on your horse.' They arranged that till the ladder was ready, she was to come to him every evening, because the old woman was with him during the day. The old Witch, of course, knew nothing of what was going on, till one day Miliardo, not thinking of what he was about, turned to the Witch and said: 'How is it, good mother, that you are so much harder to pull up than the young Princess? She is always with me in a moment.' 'Oh! you wicked child,' cried the Witch. 'What is this I hear? I thought I had hidden you safely from the whole world, and in spite of it you have managed to deceive me.' In her wrath she seized Miliardo's beautiful hair, wound it round and round her left hand, and then grasping a pair of scissors in her right, snip snap, off it came, and the beautiful plaits lay on the ground. And, worse than this, she was so hard-hearted that she took Miliardo to a lonely desert place, and there left him to live in loneliness and misery. But on the evening of the day in which she had driven poor Miliardo away, the Witch fastened the plaits on to a hook in the window, and when the Princess came and called out: 'Miliardo, Miliardo,
she let them down, and the Princess climbed up as usual, but instead of her beloved Miliardo she found the old Witch, who fixed her evil, glittering eyes on her, jealous of her beauty of course, and cried mockingly: 'Ah, ah! you thought to find your lordly love, but the pretty bird has flown and its song is dumb; the cat caught it, and will scratch out your eyes too. Miliardo is lost to you for ever -- you will never see him more.' The Princess was
beside herself with grief, and in her despair she jumped right down from
the tower, and, though she escaped with her life, the thorns among which
she fell pierced her eyes out. Then she wandered, blind and miserable, through
the wood, eating nothing but roots and berries, and weeping and lamenting
the loss of her lovely husband to be. So she wandered about for some years, as wretched
and unhappy as she could well be, and at last she came to the desert place
where Miliardo was living. Of a sudden she heard a voice which seemed strangely
familiar to her. She walked eagerly in the direction of the sound, and when
she was quite close, Miliardo recognised her and fell on her neck and wept.
But two of his tears touched her eyes, and in a moment they became quite
clear again, and she saw as well as she had ever done. Then she led him to
her kingdom, where they were received and welcomed with great joy, and
they lived happily ever after
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