In "The Story of a Mother" A mother is watching over her sick child, when having briefly closed her eyes, Death comes and takes the child. The mother rushes outside to pursue Death and encounters various spirits who offer conditional advice, including a thorn bush, who takes her heart's blood and a lake which takes her eyes in exchange for passage across it. Finally finding her child in Death's greenhouse, he offers her a terrible choice. First published in 1847, this story has been adapted for film several times.
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