{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_19207/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_19207","id":"gutenberg_19207","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19207","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Category: Short Stories","Children's Myths, Fairy Tales, etc.","Fairy tales"],"text":"Produced by Don Kostuch\n\n\n\n\n\n[Transcriber's Notes]\n\nThe spelling of \"didn't\" as \"did n't\", \"center\" as \"centre\" and other\nsuch usages, has been maintained.\n\nHere are the definitions of some unfamiliar (to me) words.\n\ncataplasm (poultice)\n  Soft moist adhesive mass of meal or clay, usually heated, spread on\n  cloth, and applied to warm, moisten, or stimulate an aching or\n  inflamed part of the body.\n\ndoggerel\n  Irregularly fashioned verse of a humorous nature.\n\nhalberdiers\n  Guard armed with a halberd, a weapon having an ax-like blade and a\n  steel spike mounted on the end of a long shaft.\n\nimportuning\n  Beg for something persistently.\n\nsedges\n  Grasslike plants of the family Cyperaceae, having solid stems and\n  three vertical rows of leaves.\n\nseneschal\n  Official in a medieval noble household in charge of domestic\n  arrangements and the administration of servants.\n\n[End Transcriber's Notes]\n\n\n\nThe FIRELIGHT FAIRY BOOK\n\nBy HENRY BESTON\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS BY MAURICE E. DAY\n\nLITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY BOSTON\n\nCOPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS, Inc.\n\nAll rights reserved, including that of translation\ninto foreign languages, including the Scandinavian.\n\nTHE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS PUBLICATIONS ARE PUBLISHED BY\nLITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY\nIN ASSOCIATION WITH\nTHE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY\n\nPRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\nTHE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY\nWASHINGTON, September 7. 1922\n\nDEAR HENRY:--\n\n\"Grown-ups\" arrogate entirely too much to themselves. I know this is so.\nI discovered it for a fact when I was not more than \"knee-high to a\ngrasshopper\" myself. I knew, for example, that a certain amount of dirt\non my face and hands in no way interfered with my enjoyment of my\nsupper. The fact that my finger nails were not all they should have been\nhad no bearing whatsoever upon the efficiency of those same fingers.\nWashing not only took time from other important pursuits, but also was\nmildly unpleasant. Nevertheless, my mother was not even open to\nreasonable argument on the matter. Arbitrarily, with the despotism of an\nearly Roman Emperor, she rendered a dictum to the effect that I must\nwash, and soapy and submissive I had to be before I could come to the\ntable. Again, any reasonable child can tell you that pleasure is the\nmain object of eating; therefore, in all logic, one should eat if one\nfeels like it at ten o'clock in the morning, or at three o'clock in the\nafternoon, a jar of Guava jelly, a pound of chocolates, a paper of\nginger cookies, or whatever may appeal to one's aesthetic taste. This\nmethod of procedure, naturally, might necessitate recourse to the\nbrown-wood family medicine closet. Certain discomfort might ensue. But\nwas not the pleasure worth it? Again my mother arbitrarily took the\nmatter into her own hands, disagreeing with me on fundamentals. She\nmaintained that eating was not for pleasure simply, but for nourishment.\nSundry unfortunate remarks were made containing references to gluttony.\nThe pantry was locked, and regular meals at regular periods were\nprescribed. Indeed, poems with dreadful morals for those who ate between\nmeals were recited to me, endeavor being made thereby to substitute\nterror for inclination.\n\nAny reasonable child will find many such parallel instances of the\nassumed omnipotence of \"grownups.\" With this awful indictment before me,\nyou ask me, a \"grown-up,\" to write an introduction for the \"Firelight\nFairy Book,\" and thereby to assume the responsibility for passing\njudgment upon it. There is but one circumstance that makes me willing to\ndo so. I believe that where any nice \"grown-up\" is concerned, if you\ncrack the hard outside shell with which circumstances have surrounded\nhim, beneath it you will find a child. Banking on this, I venture to say\nthat I thoroughly enjoyed the \"Firelight Fairy Book.\" I liked\nparticularly the story of the poor little prince, whose sneezing had\nsuch a disastrous effect; and the lost half hour is unquestionably an\naccurate historical account, because no one could have described so\naccurately, simply from imagination, what a lost temper looked like.\nWhat makes me even more willing to advance my opinion is that I do not\nstand alone. My conclusions are supported by a jury of my peers, for I\nhave given the book as a Christmas gift, not only to my own children,\nbut to other people's children, and to one of the prominent Senators of\nthe United States. They have universally acclaimed it, and who can\nquestion the judgment of such a jury?\n\nGood luck to the \"Firelight Fairy Book.\" May it, like Scrooge's laugh in\nthe \"Christmas Carol,\" \"be the father of a long, long line of brilliant\"\nbooks of a like nature for the enjoyment of all true children, whether\nthey be still at day school, or sitting in the high places of the world.\n\nBelieve me,\nYours very truly,\nTHEODORE ROOSEVELT\n\nHENRY BESTON, ESQ.\nTopsfield, Mass.\n\n\n\nHOW THE NEW FAIRY TALES CAME TO BE WRITTEN\n\nSome twenty years ago, in a pleasant old town by the sea, lived a lad\nwho was very, very fond of fairy tales. When he had read all the\nfairy-books which his parents and his uncles and his cousins and his\nsisters and his aunts had been kind enough to give him, he turned to the\ntown library and read every single fairy tale he could find mentioned in\nthe catalogue. But there was an end even to this treasure; and, finally,\na day came when the fairy-tale lover could find no new tales to read.\nEvery Christmas he would peek at the new books in the bookshops, only to\nfind the same old stories printed, with new pictures, meant to please\ngrown-ups. What could be the matter? Had the fairies all gone away, or\nlocked the doors of Fairyland? Where, where, where were the new stories,\nand why, why, why did n't people write them?\n\nSome years passed. One pleasant summer day, as the fairy-tale lover sat\nreading a book beneath the low spreading branches of an oak tree, he\nheard a hum of wings, and looking up startled from his book, he\ndiscovered the Fairy Goldenwand standing close by.\n\n\"Are you still seeking new fairy tales?\" said the Fairy Goldenwand.\n\n\"Yes,\" said the reader.\n\n\"Will you write them down if I tell you some really new ones?\" said the\nFairy.\n\n\"Oh yes, indeed,\" said the reader. \"And I'll put them into a book; and\nnext Saturday Mr. Day, the artist, will come down; we shall have tea\nhere under the oak tree,--do you like hot buttered toast?--and you must\ntell him all about the fashions in Fairyland.\"\n\n\"Oh, that will be fine!\" said the Fairy Goldenwand. \"I knew you would\nn't mind my appearing so suddenly. Ever so many things have happened in\nFairyland since the last books were written, and we all think it's a\ndreadful shame that children have n't heard about them. Just imagine\nboys and girls not knowing about the adventures of the Prince in Lantern\nLand! Shall I tell you the story?\"\n\nAnd that's the way the author heard about the Shepherd of Clouds,\nFlorian, Marianna, Giles, Bobo, and all the other new friends. That you\nmay long enjoy their adventures is the wish of\n\nHENRY BESTON\nMAURICE E. DAY\nTHE FAIRY GOLDENWAND\n\n\nThe Parson Capen Home\nTopsfield, Massachusetts\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n  THE QUEEN OF LANTERN LAND\n  THE ADVENTURES OF FLORIAN\n  THE SELLER OF DREAMS\n  THE TREASURE CASTLE\n  PRINCE SNEEZE\n  MARIANNA\n  THE LOST HALF-HOUR\n  THE ENCHANTED ELM\n  THE BIRD-BOY\n  THE MASTER MARINER\n  THE MARVELOUS DOG AND THE WONDERFUL CAT\n  THE SHEPHERD OF CLOUDS\n  THE CITY UNDER THE SEA\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\nTHE QUEEN OF LANTERN LAND\n  The Prince begins his journey through the caverns\n\nTHE ADVENTURES OF FLORIAN\n  Over hill, over dale, Florian followed the magic ball\n\nTHE SELLER OF DREAMS\n  \"How much does a dream cost?\" asked Peter\n  \"A golden florin,\" answered the Seller of Dreams\n\nTHE TREASURE CASTLE\n  The three rogues were locked in the flying room\n\nPRINCE SNEEZE\n  The chest of secrets was made of black stone\n\nMARIANNA\n  Into the world went Marianna and the yellow bird\n\nTHE LOST HALF-HOUR\n  Just as the dragon's mouth was at its widest\n\nTHE ENCHANTED ELM\n  The maiden watched the woodcutters coming through the wood\n\nTHE BIRD-BOY\n  Every year, on the Bird-Boy's birthday, a great gray bird was seen\n\nTHE MASTER MARINER\n  Splash! and the Master Mariner fell into the sea\n\nTHE MARVELOUS DOG AND THE WONDERFUL CAT\n  The Dog and the Cat studying their lessons\n\nTHE SHEPHERD OF CLOUDS\n  It was Giles's task to open the door of the cloud-bowl\n\nTHE CITY UNDER THE SEA\n  For three days the Merchant pursued the ship with the fiery sails\n\n\n\n     THE QUEEN OF LANTERN LAND\n\nOnce upon a time the youngest son of a king became filled with the\ndesire to go abroad and see the world. He got his father's permission to\ndepart, kissed his parents good-bye, mounted his black horse, and\ngalloped away down the high road. Soon the gray towers of the old castle\nin which he was born hid themselves behind him.\n\nThe Prince journeyed on, spending the days in traveling, and the nights\nin little wayside inns, till one day he found himself in the heart of\nthe Adamant Mountains. The great, red granite crags of the surrounding\npeaks rose out of the gleaming snow like ugly fingers, and the slopes of\ngiant glaciers sparkled in the sun like torrents of diamonds. The Prince\nsat down by some stunted trees whose tops had long before been broken\noff by an avalanche, and began to eat the bit of bread and cheese which\nhe had stored in his pocket. His black horse, meanwhile, ate the grass\nwhich grew here and there along the mountain path. And as the Prince sat\nthere in the bright sun and the silence of the mountains, he became\naware of a low, continuous roaring.\n\n\"There must be a waterfall near-by,\" said the Prince to himself. \"I'll\ngo and see it.\"\n\nSo, casting another look at his steed, who was contentedly browsing, the\nPrince climbed up the mountainside in the direction of the sound.\n\nThe Prince climbed and climbed, he went in this direction and in that,\nyet the sound never grew any louder or fainter. Suddenly he realized\nthat he was hopelessly lost. The little path up which he had ridden had\nvanished completely, and he had not the slightest idea in which\ndirection it lay. He called aloud, but only the mountain echoes answered\nmockingly.\n\nNight came, and the Prince took shelter behind a great rock. All the\nnext day he labored to find the path, but in vain. He grew very hungry\nand cold. Every once in a while he would hear the roaring of the\nwaterfall, which seemed to have grown louder.\n\nAnother day dawned, and another day again. The Prince was getting very\nweak. He knew that he was approaching the mysterious cataract, for the\nnoise of the water was now tremendous, and heaven and earth were full of\nits roar. The third night came, and the full moon rose solemnly over the\nsnow-clad summits of the lonely and mysterious mountains. Suddenly the\nPrince, walking blindly on, staggered through a narrow passage-way\nbetween two splintered crags, and found himself face to face with the\nmystery.\n\nHe stood on the snowy floor of a vast amphitheatre whose walls were the\nsteep sides of the giant mountains. Farthest away from him, and opposite\nthe moon, the wall of the bowl appeared as a giant black precipice,\nwhose top seemed to reach almost to the moon-dimmed stars; and over this\nprecipice a broad river was endlessly pouring, shining in the night like\nthe overflow of an ocean of molten silver. Though now very weak from\nlack of food, and dizzy with the roaring of the cataract, the Prince\nmade his way to the shore of the foaming and eddying lake into which the\nwater was falling. Great was his surprise to discover that the overflow\nof this lake disappeared into the earth through a long, low opening in\nthe cliff behind the fall. Greater still was his surprise to see a\nstrange many-colored light burning within the cave.\n\nThe Prince made his way toward the light, along a narrow beach of white\nsand lying between the wall of the cavern and the racing waters of the\nmysterious river, and found that the glow came from a magnificent\nlantern studded with emeralds, topazes, amethysts, and rubies, which\nhung by a chain from the roof of the grotto. Directly under this\nlantern, drawn up on the sand, lay a little boat with a lantern fastened\nto the bow. The Prince pushed the boat into the river, and got into it,\nand the swift current seized him and hurried him away.\n\nAt first the cavern grew higher and wider; then it shrank again, and the\nboat, borne along with incredible speed, shot down a rocky passageway\ninto the very heart of the earth. The passageway broadened once more,\nand the boat rode gently through monstrous caves whose roofs were upheld\nby twisted columns taller than the tallest tree. There were times when\nall was so still that the Prince could easily have imagined himself back\nin the solitude of the mountains; there were times when the foaming and\nroaring of the underground river grew so deafening that the Prince\nfeared lest he might be approaching the brink of a subterranean\ncataract.\n\nMany hours passed. The Prince did not know whether it was night or day.\nAt length, while the boat was gliding through a vast hall, he fell\nasleep. When he awoke, he found that the boat was floating on the black,\nglassy surface of an immense underground ocean. All signs of the cavern\nhad disappeared. Far away, over the edge of this ocean, a strange,\nbeautiful glow mounted into the starless sky of the underworld. And\nwhile the Prince was gazing at the glow, the boat swung into a new\ncurrent, and was borne swiftly toward the light. In a short time the\nlight grew so wide and bright that one would have believed that a\nstrange, golden sun had risen. The boat passed between two giant marble\npillars supporting enormous crystal globes filled with a golden fire,\nand the Prince found himself in the harbor of Lantern Land.\n\nA city lay before him, a strange golden city edging the shore of a vast,\nsemi-circular bay. Because in the centre of the earth there is neither\nsun nor moon, the people have to be continually burning lights; and so\nmany and so great were the lanterns of Lantern Land that the town was as\nbright as day. The edge of the harbor was marked with a row of golden\nlanterns; there were immense lanterns at every six paces along the\nstreets; a lantern hung from every house; and the church-towers, instead\nof having bells in them, had great golden lamps which illumined\neverything for some distance about. Moreover, every inhabitant of\nLantern Land carried a lantern with him wherever he went, the rich\ncarrying golden lanterns set with transparent precious stones, the poor\ncarrying lights of ordinary glass.\n\nSoon the Prince saw a magnificent ship coming out to meet him. The prow\nwas carved in the shape of a dragon's head, and a beautiful lantern hung\nfrom its jaws. Overcome by hunger and fatigue, the poor Prince fell\ninsensible to the floor of his little boat. When he came to his senses\nagain, he was lying between sheets of the whitest, most delicate linen\nin a great four-poster bed, in a room in the royal palace.\n\nThanks to his kind hosts, the Prince soon recovered his strength. When\nhe was completely himself again, he was summoned to an audience with the\nQueen of Lantern Land.\n\nThe Queen, a very beautiful young woman, wearing a wonderful lantern\ncrown, sat on an ebony throne. On each side of the throne stood a tall\nsoldier, clad in scarlet and holding a long ebony staff surmounted by a\nround lantern lit by a golden flame.\n\nThe Prince dropped on his knee, and thanked the Queen for her kindness\nand hospitality.\n\n\"You are the first stranger to come to Lantern Land for a thousand\nyears,\" said the young Queen. \"If it is not asking too much from a\nguest, pray how did you happen to find the river of the underworld?\"\n\nSo the Prince told her that he was a king's son, and described his\nadventures in the mountains. You may be sure the Queen was glad to hear\nof his royal birth, for she had fallen in love with him at first sight.\n\nA month passed. The Prince remained a guest in the palace. All kinds of\nfestivities were given in his honor; there were wonderful dances,\nmasquerades, picnics, and theatricals going on all the time. One day the\nPrince and the Queen, accompanied by a little group of courtiers, rode\nto the frontier of Lantern Land. The lovers galloped ahead of the party\nand reached a little hill beyond which there were no more lanterns.\nAhead of them the rolling land, sweeping farther and farther away from\nthe light, grew darker and darker, till it finally plunged into the\neternal night of the underworld.\n\nThe Prince looked at the Queen, and saw that she was weeping.\n\n\"Dear love, why do you weep?\" asked the Prince, who felt sad to see\ntears in his lady's lovely eyes.\n\n\"I weep to think that in spite of our love we must soon part forever,\"\nsaid the Queen.\n\n\"Part forever? Dear lady, what can you mean?\" said the anxious Prince.\n\n\"A cruel fate hangs over us,\" replied the lady. \"Know, dear Prince, that\nI am promised in marriage to the Enchanter Dragondel, and that in\nexactly eight days, he will come here to claim my hand.\"\n\n\"The Enchanter Dragondel--who is he?\" said the Prince.\n\n\"Alas,\" said the Queen, \"the Enchanter Dragondel is the most powerful\nmagician of all the underworld. He is about eight feet tall, has cruel\nsunken eyes that burn like dull fires, and dresses entirely in black. We\nmet at a ball given by the King of the Goblins. Dragondel pursued me\nwith compliments. A few days afterwards, an iron boat arrived in the\nport of Lantern Land, having on board a giant blue dog who is\nDragondel's younger brother. This terrible animal, from whose sight the\npeople of Lantern Land fled screaming, made his way to the palace, and\ndropped at my feet a jeweled casket, which he carried between his jaws.\nThe casket contained Dragondel's request for my hand, and added that,\nwere I to refuse him, he would let loose a legion of ghosts and other\nwinged spirits against the lanterns of Lantern Land. I had a vision of\nLantern Land in darkness; of my poor subjects dying of fear and\nstarvation. Rather than let this vision come true, I accepted the\nEnchanter. Soon I shall never see you again, for Dragondel will come and\ntake me to his awful castle which lies on an island in the dark ocean.\nNor will you ever be able to save me, for Dragondel has so bewitched the\nwaves that a terrible whirlpool forms on the sea when a boat approaches\nthe enchanted castle, and engulfs it.\"\n\n\"But I can fight Dragondel,\" said the Prince, like the brave youth that\nhe was.\n\n\"That would be of little use,\" replied the Queen, \"for you would be\nchanged into a stone the instant you crossed swords with him. Tomorrow,\nthe blue dog arrives to remind me of my obligation, and to carry back to\nthe island some of the palace servants who are to make Dragondel's\ncastle ready for my coming.\"\n\nThe other members of the party now rode up, and the Queen dabbed her\neyes with her handkerchief, and pretended not to have been crying. The\nPrince and the Queen felt very unhappy as they rode home.\n\nOn the next day, sure enough, the iron boat arrived, and the blue dog,\nwho was as large as a lion, went to the Queen's palace, and bade her\nmake ready for the coming wedding. A dozen of the Queen's servants were\nthen ordered to go with the blue dog to Dragondel's castle. Among these\nservants, disguised as a kitchen lad, was the Prince; for he had\ndetermined to see if there was not some way in which the young Queen\ncould be rescued from the wicked magician.\n\nThe boat neared the island, but no terrible whirlpool formed in the\nenchanted sea. At last the boat reached Dragondel's castle. It stood on\nthe top of a high lonely rock against whose steep sides the waves of the\nunderground ocean were forever foaming and breaking, and it was half in\nruins and was very poorly lighted.\n\nThe Prince took his place in the kitchen, and sought for an opportunity\nto prevent the marriage of Dragondel and the Queen.\n\nFor four days of the precious week, however, the poor Prince was kept so\nbusy baking and making pastries for the coming of the bride that he did\nnot have an instant to ask questions or do anything else.\n\nIn the morning hours of the fifth day there was a terrible moaning and\nroaring outside, and the cooks rushed to the kitchen windows. An unhappy\nfishing boat had been swept by the wind too near Dragondel's castle, the\nenchanted whirlpool had formed, and caught the boat in its awful circle.\nNow it went slowly round the outer edge, now, going faster and faster,\nit slid down the side of the awful funnel, and finally it vanished. An\ninstant later, the whirlpool had disappeared, leaving the sea roaring\nand foaming.\n\nThe Prince shuddered.\n\n\"Well you may shudder,\" said the chief cook, \"for such would have been\nyour fate if our master's brother had not carried with him the talisman\nwhich rules the whirlpool.\"\n\n\"Talisman? What talisman?\" said the Prince affecting stupidity.\n\n\"Why the little golden hand, you fool,\" said the chief cook.\n\n\"My! it must be a great big hand to be able to quiet that whirlpool,\"\nsaid the Prince.\n\n\"Big indeed, you ninny!\" growled the cook. \"Why, the magic hand is only\nas big as a baby's hand. I've seen it many times. The master carries it\nin his pocket, and puts it under his pillow while he sleeps.\"\n\nSo, later on, when his work was done, and everybody had gone to bed, the\nPrince, in the hope of stealing the talisman, tried to make his way to\nDragondel's bedchamber. But when he reached the foot of the stairs which\nled to the Enchanter's room, he found it guarded by two black panthers\nwhich stared at him with insolent yellow eyes and switched their long\ntails. The Prince went outdoors, to see if there was any hope of\nclimbing to the room along the outer wall, and found that the windows of\nDragondel's chamber overlooked a cliff falling thousands of feet sheer\nto the dark sea. Far, far away, the Prince saw the glow of Lantern Land.\nOnly a short time remained to him in which to save his beloved lady of\nthe lanterns.\n\nAs he wandered about, very sick at heart, he saw a little black cat\nrunning madly back and forth along the edge of a steep cliff from one of\nwhose crevices came a persistent, unhappy mewing. The poor cat was a\nmother-cat, and was trying to rescue a kitten of hers that had fallen\ndown between the rocks. At great risk of being dashed to pieces himself,\nthe brave Prince climbed down the precipice, rescued the kitten, and\ngave it back to its anxious mother.\n\n\"Thank you, brave youth,\" said the old cat.\n\n\"May it some day be within my power to help you as you have helped me.\"\n\n\"You can help me this very moment,\" said the Prince. And he told the cat\nwho he was, why he had come to the castle, and of his desire to get\npossession of the talisman.\n\n\"I will help you get the talisman,\" said the cat. \"The panthers will let\nme pass, for they are cousins of mine. But you must make another little\ngolden hand to take the place of the one I shall steal; for if Dragondel\nmisses the golden hand, he will summon his demons to find it, and we\nshall both lose our lives. Go now to the kitchen, carve a small hand\nwith the fingers close together and the thumb lying close to the\nfingers, gild it over with the gold dust you have had given you for the\npastry icings, and bring it to me tomorrow night at this very hour.\"\n\nSo the Prince worked the rest of the night carving and gilding the\nlittle golden hand, and on the next night he gave it to the cat. The cat\ntook it in her mouth as she would have a mouse, walked coolly by the\npanthers, and entered Dragondel's room. She had just succeeded in\ngetting the true hand out from under the magician's pillow when\nDragondel woke up. The cat was clever enough to pretend to be engaged in\na mouse-hunt, so the Enchanter paid no attention to her and fell asleep\nonce more. When the cat, however, got under Dragondel's couch again, the\ntwo hands lay side by side and she could not remember just which one was\nthe talisman and which one the false hand. So because she had to act\nquickly, she put one of the hands under the pillow, brought the other to\nthe Prince and told him her story. But so well matched were the little\nhands, that even the Prince was far from certain that he had not got his\nown hand back again.\n\nAnd now came the seventh day, the day on which Dragondel, the blue dog,\nand all the wicked Enchanter's friends were to sail to Lantern Land for\nthe marriage ceremony. The iron ship, made gay with a thousand small\nscarlet lanterns, stood ready to carry them over. The Enchanter and his\ncompany got in, and the vessel left the island.\n\nThe Prince stood watching the ship from the top of the cliffs. What\nanxiety was in his heart! If Dragondel still possessed the true\ntalisman, he would cross the whirlpool safely, and marry the beautiful\nQueen of Lantern Land.\n\nThe vessel sped on. It was now at some distance from the island.\n\n\"All is lost,\" thought the Prince with a sinking heart; \"Dragondel has\nthe true talisman.\" And in his bitterness he was about to throw the\nlittle golden hand which lay in his pocket down into the sea.\n\nSuddenly the air became filled with a terrible moaning; the sea became\ntroubled; the whirlpool awoke. And the Prince saw the red lights of the\nEnchanter's ship whirled round and round, faster and faster, till they\ndisappeared forever in the waters of the sunless sea.\n\nAs for the Prince, he soon found another boat, and taking with him the\ntalisman, his fellow servants, and the black cat and her kittens, he\nreturned to Lantern Land, married the Queen, and lived happily ever\nafter.\n\n\n\n     THE ADVENTURES OF FLORIAN\n\n[Illustration: Boy walking through forest following a small ball.]\n\n\nOnce upon a time there lived in an old and ruinous house by the shore of\nthe wild sea, a widowed nobleman and his only child, a daughter named\nIsabella. They were very poor in spite of their high birth, so poor that\none by one the fields and woods of their little domain had been sold in\norder to buy the bare necessities of life. Knowing that his death would\nleave Isabella quite alone in the world and practically penniless, her\nfather brought her up more like a boy than a girl; she could ride a\nhorse as gracefully as an Amazon, she could swim like a born mermaid,\nand even outdo her father in his favorite sport of fencing. Yet so sweet\nwas the gentle nature which the girl had inherited from her mother, that\nthis strange upbringing never spoiled her in the least.\n\nLate one October evening, when the fierce gusts of wind from the sea\nshook the old house to its very foundation and set the ragged tapestries\nswaying on the walls, Isabella's father died, leaving her only the\nruinous house, a handful of copper pence, and a single golden florin.\nThe sum of money was enough to keep body and soul together for a few\nweeks, but what was Isabella to do when the little pittance was gone?\nHer father had once counseled her to go to the King and ask for his\nprotection; but the King's castle was hundreds of miles distant, and\nIsabella shrank from begging or the highway.\n\nAt last the brave girl resolved to make her own way in the world. Taking\nthe golden florin with her, she went to a neighboring town, and\npurchased a suit of clothes such as pages and squires wear who are in\nthe service of noblemen. She then caused her black hair to be cut short,\nboy-fashion, put on the boy's clothes she had purchased, and went into\nthe market-place to see if she could not find a situation in the service\nof some great family.\n\nNow, it was the custom in those days for masters and servants to meet by\na fountain in the market-place, the masters who were in need of servants\nstanding on one side of the fountain, the servants who were in search of\nmasters on the other.\n\nWhen Isabella came into the market-place, there was no one standing on\nthe masters' side of the fountain, but on the other side, ready for the\nfirst master who should appear, was a little group of noisy and impudent\nsquires and pages. Isabella, or, as she now called herself, Florian,\nstrode boldly over and joined this group, her heart beating high with\nthe thrill of the great adventure.\n\nSuddenly a black knight, mounted on a black horse and leading another\nhorse by the bridle, clattered over the cobble-stones of the square, and\ntaking his place by the fountain, called on the pages to come to him. In\nspite of the horseman's summons, however, the pages paid no attention to\nhim at all. Curious to know the reason of this disdain, Florian\nquestioned a fellow page, and was told that the knight was no other than\nthe Enchanter of the Black Rock, and that no page or squire would take\nservice with him because his castle was haunted by goblins, ghosts, and\nall manner of terrifying spirits.\n\nNow, Florian was no coward, and, as the saying is, beggars cannot be\nchoosers. So, much to the astonishment of the pages, Florian walked over\nto the Enchanter, who sat fuming with anger and impatience, and offered\nto go with him. The Knight bade Florian mount the horse which he was\nholding; and amid the cat-calls and hooting of the pages, master and boy\ngalloped away.\n\nAll day long they rode, and when it was near the end of the afternoon\nFlorian found himself at the edge of a wild and desolate moor. Within\nthe great circle of the horizon, under the pale sky, not a tree, not a\nhouse, not a shepherd's hut even was to be seen--nothing but the great\nbarren waste rolling, rising and falling to the very edge of the world.\nLower and lower sank the sun; it grew cold, and a blue mist fell.\nTwilight came, a green, mysterious twilight.\n\nSuddenly, from a hillock of the moor, Florian beheld afar the enchanted\ndwelling. A great sunken marsh lay before him, beginning at the foot of\nthe little hill and stretching away, league after league, till its\nfarther shore was hidden in the gathering darkness. The autumn wind\nstirred the dead sedges at its brim, and though the dying twilight was\nstill gleaming in the sky, the great bog had caught little of its glow,\nand lay full of coiling blue mists, pale quagmires, and islands of\nmysterious darkness. A dreadful moaning cry, uttered by some demon of\nthe moor, sounded through the mist, chilling the blood in Florian's\nveins; and as if in answer to the cry, thousands upon thousands of\nwill-o'-the-wisps appeared, darting and dancing. In the very heart of this\nterrible marsh a great black rock uprose, and on this rock, its turrets\nand battlements outlined against the burning face of the moon, stood the\ncastle. Ghostly lights, now green, now blue, flickered in its windows.\n\nThe Enchanter reined up his horse at the brink of the mire, and cried,--\n\n  \"List! List!\n  Will-o'-the-Wisp,\n  Lend me your light.\"\n\nScarcely had the last word fallen from the Enchanter's mouth, when the\ndancing witch-fires hurried toward him from all sides of the marsh. Soon\na pale road leading across the bog to the castle stood revealed, an\nenchanted road which melted away behind the riders as smoke melts into\nthe winter air. To the very gates of his castle did the ghost-fires\naccompany the Enchanter; then, rising swiftly high into the air, they\nfled like startled birds, in every direction.\n\nDoors opened of their own will, strange goblins and ghostly creatures\npassed, and bright, whirling globes of fire fled hissing across the\ncastle courtyard. Just as they were about to enter the castle itself,\nthe Enchanter turned, and fastened his burning eyes on Florian.\n\n\"Boy,\" said he, \"let nothing that you hear or see make you afraid. Be\nassured that no power or spirit can harm you. There is only one demon in\nthe world whose power is greater than mine, and that is Fear himself. Be\nbrave, keep the doors of your heart locked against Fear; be faithful,\nand you shall never have cause to regret your coming.\"\n\nSo Florian, who was by nature brave, felt ashamed of having allowed the\ndemon Fear to knock at the door of his heart, and resolved never to let\nhis courage fail, no matter what might happen. And true to this resolve\nthe lad remained during the years he spent in the service of the\nEnchanter. At first, to be sure, he had to struggle to conquer his fear\nof some of the goblins; but as time passed and no ghost or goblin ever\nventured to annoy him, he grew accustomed to their presences and ended\nby paying no more attention to them than he paid to the great ravens who\nflew croaking over the mire. So faithful and courageous was the little\npage that, when his year was up, the Enchanter begged him to remain yet\nanother year, promising him rich rewards if he stayed. When this second\nyear was up, however, Florian felt a longing to see the world again, and\ntold the Enchanter that he must be going.\n\n\"Very well,\" said the Enchanter, who respected the courage of the brave\npage, \"thou shalt do as thou desirest. Thou art a brave and faithful\nlad. Here is a purse of gold for thy wages, and here are three gifts to\nreward thy courage and good-will.\" He opened a copper casket and took\nforth a little golden bird with outstretched wings hanging from a fine\ngolden chain, a golden key, and a scarlet sphere marked with a band of\nwhite. \"This little bird,\" continued the Enchanter, \"will protect you\nfrom the spells of any sorcerer whose power is less than mine, and will\nsing when you fare into hidden danger; this key will open every door in\nthe world; and should you ever lose your way, you have but to put this\nsphere on the ground, and it will roll home of its own accord. Moreover,\nif you are ever yourself in deadly peril, call upon me, and I will come\nand help you.\"\n\nSo Florian thanked the Enchanter, and taking his gifts, went back into\nthe world again. But so gentle and kind was he that he soon gave away to\nthe unfortunate all the gold he had earned, and was forced to go in\nsearch of another situation. At length he entered the service of the\nKing and Queen of the Twelve Towers.\n\nThis royal couple, who were renowned in Fairyland as much for their\ngoodness and generosity as for their wealth and magnificence, had but\none son, Prince Florizel. No braver or more gallant prince ever drew\nbreath. He had driven the dragon of the blue cavern out of his father's\nkingdom; he had fought three wicked ogres one after the other, and\nfinished each one; he had delivered the diamond castle of a terrible\nspell which lay upon it.\n\nWhen Florian entered the service of the King and Queen, these excellent\nparents were sending their son on a visit to his uncle, the Emperor of\nthe Plain, and Florian was ordered to join the gay company of lords and\nladies, knights and soldiers, who were to make the journey. According to\nthe gossip of the company, Prince Florizel was being sent to his uncle's\nin the hope that he would fall in love with his uncle's ward, the\nbeautiful Princess Rosamond.\n\nNow in some way or other, after the company had been a few days on the\nroad, Prince Florizel, who watched over the company as carefully as a\ngood captain does over his soldiers, became aware of the bravery,\ntrustworthiness, and modest bearing of Florian, the little page, and\npromoted him to be his own personal squire. Alas! no sooner had he been\nadvanced, than Florian the little page, though remaining outwardly a\npage, became at heart the runaway girl, Isabella. Though she fought as\nhard as she could against her own heart, it was of little use, and she\nknew herself to be deeply in love with the gallant Florizel. Yet she\nsuffered no word or sign of her affection to escape her, for Prince\nFlorizel thought her only a little page, and to speak would be to betray\nthe secret she had so long and successfully guarded.\n\nOne morning, as the cavalcade was riding through a charming country,\nFlorian, for so we must still continue to call Isabella, was following\nclose behind his master, when the Prince caught sight of a wonderful\nscarlet flower, something like a scarlet lily, blooming by the roadside.\nAt the same moment, the little golden bird that Florian wore round his\nneck sang a few clear notes as if it were alive.\n\n\"What a pretty flower!\" said the Prince. \"I must have it.\"\n\nAnd he was about to dismount and pick the flower, when Florian spurred\non ahead of him, grasped the enchanted flower, and tossed it into a\nditch.\n\n\"Fie, what a naughty page!\" cried the lords and ladies.\n\nThe company rode on a few miles more, and suddenly the Prince caught\nsight of a beautiful jeweled dagger lying in the highway. At the same\nmoment the little golden bird sang a few clear notes of warning.\n\n\"What a fine dagger!\" cried the Prince, \"I must have it.\"\n\nAnd he was about to dismount and pick up the dagger, when Florian\nspurred on ahead of him, seized the dagger, and tossed it into a ditch.\n\n\"Fie, what a naughty page!\" cried the lords and ladies.\n\nThe company now rode on for a few miles more, and the Prince saw by the\nroadside a beautiful enchanted garden. Birds of many colors sang in the\nbranches of the trees, fountains sparkled and danced in the sunlight,\nand the sweetest of music was heard. At the same moment the golden bird\nsang louder and longer than ever.\n\n\"What a beautiful garden!\" cried the Prince. \"Let us ride in and look\nabout.\"\n\nSo Florian hurried to the Prince's side, and implored him not to enter,\nsaying that the garden was enchanted and that some harm would certainly\nbefall him.\n\nAt this, all the lords and ladies, who were a little jealous, perhaps,\nthat a page should know more than they, laughed at poor Florian, and\neven Florizel smiled at him and said, \"All that is only fancy, little\nFlorian,\" and dashed in through the garden gate. For a minute or so\nnothing happened, and the first to enter mocked at Florian again; but\nwhen the whole company had entered the garden, there was a clap of\nthunder, and everybody except the Prince and Florian, who was protected\nby the Enchanter's charm, was turned into stone. The echoes of the\nthunder had hardly ceased rolling when two frightful demons with lions'\nheads rushed towards them through the garden, seized the Prince, and\nhurried him away. Florian was left alone in the garden. Night was fast\napproaching.\n\nNow, the owner of the enchanted garden was a witch, who had a daughter\nso frightfully ugly that even her mother's powerful magic could not make\nher beautiful. In spite of her ugliness, however, the witch's daughter\nconsidered herself quite beautiful, and was always importuning her\nmother to invite to the castle princes whom she considered worthy of her\nhand. So the old witch gave wonderful dances and parties, to which all\nthe eligible young kings and princes of the neighborhood were invited;\nbut just as soon as the witch's daughter appeared with a horrid smirk on\nher ugly face, the young men were sure to make their excuses and ride\naway.\n\nAt length the old witch, who had just had a severe tongue-lashing from\nher daughter for not punishing the Prince of Zagabondiga after that\nprince had failed to ask her for a dance, could endure her daughter's\nscolding no longer, and resolved to catch the first prince who came past\nher garden, and force him, willy nilly, to accept her ugly daughter.\nInto her trap poor Florizel had walked, and the witch, hoping to bend\nhim to her will by terrifying him, had thrown him into a deep dungeon.\nThe ugly daughter had immediately peeked through the key-hole of the\nprison, and fallen in love with Florizel at first sight.\n\nThe witch was just considering what to do next, when her lion-headed\nservitors informed her that one of the company had resisted her\nenchantment, and was wandering about the garden. So the witch put on her\ncloak of invisibility, and going down to the garden, found poor Florian\nwandering disconsolately under the trees. She saw at once that it was\nthe little golden bird which had protected him from her magic; and being\nafraid of the charm and yet unable to work the poor lad any harm while\nthe bird was in his possession, she decided to rid herself of Florian by\ntransporting her castle, gardens and all, over to the other side of the\nworld. So she uttered a spell, and everything disappeared.\n\nWhen Florian woke the next morning, and found that the castle was gone,\nhis heart sank. Nevertheless, he did not despair, but taking from his\npocket the little scarlet ball which his master the Enchanter had given\nhim, he put it on the ground, and bade it guide him back to the\nEnchanted Garden.\n\nThe little ball immediately began rolling ahead at Florian's own pace;\nat night it glowed with a scarlet fire. Day after day, month after\nmonth, the scarlet ball rolled on; it led Florian over hill and down\ndale, through the land of the men who have only one eye, through the\ncountry of the dwarfs, and the valley of the talking trees, never\nstopping till it reached the gate of the witch's garden.\n\nA year, meanwhile, had gone by, and during that year the witch had done\neverything she could to induce Prince Florizel to accept her ugly\ndaughter. First she had tried frightening him, then she had tried to win\nhim by giving splendid fetes, then she had tried terrifying him again;\nbut as the Prince was neither to be terrified nor cajoled, she came to\nher wits' end.  Finally she told the Prince that, if he were not willing\nto accept her daughter in marriage on the very next day, she would turn\nhim into a hare and set her dogs upon him. The Prince made no answer to\nher terrible threat, and the witch went ahead and made preparation for\nthe grandest of weddings. On that night, Florian arrived at the garden.\n\nWhen it was very late, and the moon, which was a quarter full, had\ndisappeared behind a bank of clouds, Florian crept unobserved to the\ndoor of Florizel's prison; for the witch had locked him up so securely\nthat she had not taken the trouble to find a watchman. Alas! the poor\nPrince lay at the top of a high tower, and twenty different doors, each\none opened by a different key, stood between him and the ground.\n\nBut Florian was not to be daunted, and drawing from his bosom the key\nwhich the Enchanter had given him, he opened one door after the other\ntill he arrived in the cell occupied by the Prince.\n\nThe poor Prince lay chained on a bed of straw, trying to read a book by\nthe light of a single candle. He was very unhappy, for he had resolved\nto let himself be torn in pieces rather than marry the ugly witch\nmaiden. You may be sure he was glad to see Florian.\n\n\"Dear Florian,\" said the unhappy Prince, \"if I had only obeyed your\ncounsel, all would have been well.\" And he begged Florian to tell him\nwhere he had been all the long year.\n\nSo Florian told the Prince of his adventures.\n\nNow, the chains which the Prince wore were riveted cruelly upon him, and\nsince there was no lock to them, the magic key was of no avail. At\nlength, however, Florizel managed to work them off; but in doing so, he\ninjured his foot, and found to his dismay that he could only limp along.\n\nLittle by little the freshened air and the stir of leaves began to\nforetell the coming of the dawn. Finally, just as the dawn-star began to\npale, Florizel and Florian hurried out of the prison through the twenty\ndoors, and fled to the highroad.\n\nBut they had traveled only a few miles, when the wicked witch discovered\nFlorizel's flight, and, dreadfully enraged, commanded that her dragon\ncar be got ready in order that she might go in pursuit of him. So the\ncar was brought forth, and into it the witch leaped, and mounted into\nthe sky. Hearing the hissing and roaring of the dragons in the air,\nFlorian and Florizel tried to hide under some trees; but the witch\ninstantly saw them, and pronounced a spell to turn them into hares. But\nthough the hate of the witch was quick, the woman's heart of Isabella\nwas quicker, and sacrificing herself for the man she loved, she threw\nthe chain and the golden bird over the Prince's head. An instant later\nshe had turned into a little gray hare crouching at Florizel's feet. At\nthe same moment, the cruel witch, who had arrived at her castle, let\nloose her pack of fierce hunting dogs, who soon took up the trail of the\nhare and came bounding toward her in full cry.\n\nThe poor Prince picked up the hare and hobbled forward as fast as he\ncould go, forgetting the dreadful pain it caused him; but the dogs were\nrunning a hundred times faster than he. Nearer and nearer came the pack,\ntheir red tongues lolling from their black throats. By good fortune,\njust as the leader of the pack was not more than fifty feet away,\nIsabella had wit enough to remember the promise which the Enchanter had\nmade her, and called upon him. Immediately a strong glass wall, as high\nas a castle tower, shot up from the ground behind Isabella and the\nPrince; and the pack, hurrying forward, found themselves baulked of\ntheir prey. Snarling and yelling, they threw themselves against the\nmagic wall; but in vain.\n\nIn another instant, the Enchanter himself stood before them, and\ntouching the hare with his wand, restored Isabella to her human form.\nShe still wore the garments of Florian, however, and the Prince still\nthought her a boy.\n\nSuddenly a shadow fell on the ground near them, and looking up, all\nbeheld the wicked witch and her ugly daughter, who had ridden out in the\ndragon car to enjoy Florizel's cruel death. The Enchanter immediately\ncaused the dragon car to vanish, and the witch and her daughter fell\ntumbling through the air into a pond, and were changed into ugly little\nfishes. Then the Enchanter carried Florizel and Florian back to the\nwitch's castle, where they found the tables spread and the dinner being\nprepared which was to celebrate the wedding of Florizel and the witch's\ndaughter. Last of all, he released Florizel's company from the witch's\nspell.\n\nNow, one of the ladies, when she heard how the witch had tried to match\nFlorizel with her daughter, and saw the preparations for the wedding,\ntold the Prince that it was a pity that the Princess Rosamond were not\nat hand, so that there might be a wedding after all.\n\n\"A wedding? No,\" said Florizel, \"not till I have found a wife who shall\nhave proved herself as faithful and true as little Florian.\"\n\n\"She is already here,\" said the Enchanter. And he touched Florian with\nhis wand.\n\nImmediately there was a flash of flame, and out of it, Florian no\nlonger, but her own self, appeared Isabella. Her hair had grown long\nagain, and the Enchanter had clad her in the most magnificent of gowns.\nNever was there a lovelier girl to be seen on earth. You may be sure\nthat the Prince stepped forward, took her by the hand, and claimed her\nfor his bride.\n\nSoon the parents of Florizel, who had been summoned by the Enchanter,\narrived, and there was a wedding after all. When the merrymaking was\nover, the Enchanter went back to his castle on the Black Rock, while\nFlorizel and Isabella returned to their own country, and lived there\nhappily to a good old age.\n\n\n\n     THE SELLER OF DREAMS\n\nOnce upon a time a mother called her only son into the kitchen, gave him\na basket of fine, fresh eggs, and bade him carry them to his Aunt Jane,\nwho lived a few miles down the valley. The son, a lively lad about\ntwelve years of age, obeyed his mother with joy, and clapping his little\ngreen hat on his head, stepped forth into the road. It was a beautiful\nclear morning in the spring, and the earth, released from the icy chains\nof winter, was rejoicing in her freedom and the return of the sun. A few\nbirds, just back from the southland, rocked on twigs swollen with\nbursting buds, a thousand rills flowing from everywhere and in every\ndirection sparkled and sang, and the air was sweet with the odor of\nploughed fields.\n\nThe boy, whose name was Peter, walked along whistling. Suddenly he saw a\nspot on the road shining as dazzlingly as if a bit of the sun itself had\nfallen to the earth. \"A bit of glass,\" thought Peter. But it was not a\nbit of glass after all, but a fine golden florin which must have dropped\nfrom somebody's purse.\n\nPeter stooped, picked up the gold piece, put it in his pocket, and\nwalked off whistling louder than ever. In a little while he came to a\nplace where the road wound down a little hill, and Peter saw, trudging\nup this hill, a very strange looking old man. He was a very old man; his\nface was puckered up into a thousand wrinkles like the skin of a\nshrunken apple, and he had long, snow-white hair and a white beard which\nreached almost to his waist. Moreover, he was strangely dressed in a\nrobe of cherry scarlet, and wore golden shoes. From a kind of belt hung\ntwo horns on silver chains, one an ordinary cow's horn, the other a\nbeautiful horn carved of the whitest ivory, and decorated with little\nfigures of men and animals.\n\n\"Dreams to sell! Dreams to sell!\" called out the old man as soon as he\ncaught sight of Peter. \"Don't you want to buy a dream, young man?\"\n\n\"What kind of dreams have you?\" asked Peter.\n\n\"Good, bad, true, false--all kinds,\" replied the seller of dreams. \"I\nhave even a few thrilling nightmares. Dreams to sell! Dreams to sell!\"\n\n\"How much does a dream cost?\" asked Peter.\n\n\"A golden florin,\" answered the merchant.\n\n\"I'll have one, please,\" said Peter; and he handed over the florin he\nhad found.\n\nThe old man took a kind of wonderful sugarplum out of the ivory horn,\nand gave it to Peter to eat.\n\n\"You will have the dream next time you sleep,\" said he, and trudged on.\n\nSo Peter continued his journey, stopping every once in a while to look\nback at the strange old man, who was slowly climbing the hill. At length\nPeter came to a little quiet grove of pines, and there he sat down on a\nbig stone and ate the luncheon which his mother had prepared for him.\nThe sun was high in the heavens; it was close on to high noon. Now, as\nPeter was contentedly munching his bread and cheese, he heard, at first\nfar away, then quite near at hand, the clear notes of a coachman's horn.\nThe notes of the second call died away in a great pattering of hoofs and\ntinkling of little bells, and suddenly, arriving in a great swirl of\nyellow dust, came a magnificent coach drawn by twelve white horses. A\nlady, very richly dressed and wearing many sparkling diamonds, sat\nwithin the coach. To Peter's astonishment, the lady was his Aunt Jane.\n\nThe coach stopped with a great jingling of the twelve harnesses, and\nAunt Jane leaned out of the window, and said to Peter, \"What are you\ndoing here, child?\"\n\n\"I was on my way to your cottage with a basket of fine fresh eggs,\"\nanswered Peter.\n\n\"Well, it's fortunate I found you,\" said Aunt Jane, \"for I have given up\nliving in the cottage, and have now got a castle of my own. Jump in,\nPeter, and don't forget your basket.\"\n\nSo Peter climbed into the coach, closed the door behind him, and was\ndriven away. The coach went over hill and down dale; it went through\nstrange forests from whose branches green parrots whooped and shrieked;\nit rolled through valleys in strange shining mountains. Peter stole a\nlook at Aunt Jane and saw that she was wearing a crown.\n\n\"Are you a queen, Aunt Jane?\" he asked.\n\n\"Indeed, I am,\" replied his aunt. \"You see, Peter, two days ago, while I\nwas looking for my white cow who had strayed away, I came upon the\nmagnificent castle to which we are now going. It has four beautiful\ntowers, and a door set with diamonds.\n\n\"'Whose castle is this?' I said to the lodge-keeper.\n\n\"'It's nobody's, marm,' said he.\n\n\"'What,' said I; 'do you mean to say that nobody owns this fine castle?'\n\n\"'That's just what I mean to say, marm,' answered he; 'the castle\nbelongs to anyone who wants it.'\n\n\"So into the castle I walked, and I did n't go out, you may be sure,\ntill I had been into every room that I could find. Then I put on these\nclothes and these diamonds, which I found in a cupboard, and went down\nand told the servants I intended to be queen. You see, Peter dear,\nthere's nothing that a woman of determination and energy can't\naccomplish.\"\n\nThe coach rolled on, and soon Peter caught sight of Aunt Jane's castle.\nIt was rather large, and had an enormous round tower at each corner--a\nthing which brought to Peter's mind the picture of an elephant lying on\nits back. Peter and Aunt Jane, accompanied by a train of servants\ndressed in blue-and-buff livery, walked into the castle through the\ndiamond-studded door.\n\n\"Do you think you could eat a little more of something?\" said Aunt Jane,\ntaking off her white-kid gloves; \"because if you can I'll have a place\nset for you at the luncheon table.\"\n\nAnd Peter, who like all boys, could eat a little more anywhere and at\nany time, readily answered, \"Yes.\"\n\nSo Peter and Aunt Jane sat down to a wonderful little table covered with\na snow-white cloth.\n\n\"Draw your chair nearer, Peter dear,\" said Aunt Jane.\n\n\"I can't\" said Peter, \"it's stuck to the floor.\"\n\nAnd so it was; the chair was stuck to the floor, and no amount of\npushing or pulling could budge it.\n\n\"That's odd,\" said Aunt Jane; \"but never mind, I'll push the table over\nto the chair.\"\n\nBut like the chair, the table refused to budge. Peter then tried to\nslide his plate of soup closer to him, but the plate, which the servant\nhad placed on the cloth but an instant before, had evidently frozen to\nthe table in some extraordinary manner and could not be moved an inch.\nThe soup in the plate, however, was not fastened to the dish, nor were\nthe wonderful strawberry-cakes and the delicious ices with which the\ndinner closed.\n\n\"You don't suppose this castle is enchanted, do you, Aunt Jane?\" asked\nPeter.\n\n\"Not a bit of it,\" replied Aunt Jane. \"And even if it were,\" she\ncontinued recklessly, \"I should n't mind, for there's nothing that a\nwoman of determination and energy can't accomplish.\" There was a pause,\nand then Aunt Jane added, \"I am going to have some guests to dinner this\nevening, so run round and amuse yourself as well as you can. There's\never so much to see in the castle, and in the garden there's a pond with\nswans in it.\"\n\nAttended by her servants, Aunt Jane majestically walked away. Peter\nspent the afternoon exploring the castle. He went through room after\nroom; he scurried through the attics like a mouse, and was even lost for\na while in the cellars. And everywhere he went, he found everything\nimmovable. The beds, tables, and chairs could neither be moved about nor\nlifted up, and even the clocks and vases were mysteriously fastened to\ntheir places on the shelves.\n\nThe night came on. Coach after coach rolled up to the diamond door,\nwhich sparkled in the moonlight. When the guests had all arrived, a\nsilver trumpet sounded, and Aunt Jane, dressed in a wonderful gown of\nflowering brocade edged with pearls, came solemnly down the great\nstairway of the castle hall. Two little black boys, dressed in oriental\ncostume and wearing turbans, held up her gorgeous train, and she looked\nvery grand indeed. Peter, to his great surprise, found himself dressed\nin a wonderful suit of plum-colored velvet.\n\n\"Welcome, my friends,\" said Queen Jane, who had opened a wonderful\nostrich-feather fan. \"Are we not fortunate in having so beautiful a\nnight for our dinner?\"\n\nAnd the Queen, giving her arm to a splendid personage in the uniform of\nan officer of the King's dragoons, led the way to the banquet-hall.\n\nThe wonderful party, all silks and satins, and gleaming with jewels,\nswept like a peacock's tail behind her. Soon dinner was over, and the\nguests began to stray by twos and threes to the ballroom. Aunt Jane and\nthe soldier led off the grand march; then came wonderful, stately\nminuets, quadrilles, and sweet old-fashioned waltzes. The merriment was\nat its height when somebody ran heavily up the great stairs leading to\nthe ballroom, and the guests, turning round to see whence came the\nclatter, saw standing in the doorway a strange old man dressed in a robe\nof cherry scarlet and wearing golden shoes. It was the seller of dreams.\nHis white hair was disheveled, his robe was awry, and there was dust on\nhis golden shoes.\n\n\"Foolish people!\" screamed the old seller of dreams, his voice rising to\na shriek, \"Run your lives! This castle lies under a terrible\nenchantment; in a few minutes it will turn upside-down. Have you not\nseen that everything is fastened to the floor? Run for your lives!\"\n\nImmediately there was a great babble of voices, some shrieks, and more\nconfusion, and the guests ran pell-mell down the great stairs and out\nthe castle door. To Peter's dismay, Aunt Jane was not among them. So\ninto the castle he rushed again, calling at the top of his voice, \"Aunt\nJane! Aunt Jane!\" He ran through the brilliantly lit and deserted\nballroom; he saw himself running in the great mirrors of the gallery.\n\"Aunt Jane!\" he cried; but no Aunt Jane replied.\n\nPeter rushed up the stairs leading to the castle tower, and emerged upon\nthe balcony. He saw the black shadow of the castle thrown upon the grass\nfar below by the full moon; he saw the great forest, so bright above and\nso dark and mysterious below, and the long snow-clad range of the\nAdamant Mountains. Suddenly a voice, louder than the voice of any human\nbeing, a voice deep, ringing, and solemn as the sound of a great bell,\ncried,--\n\n\"'T is time!\"\n\nImmediately everything became as black as ink, people shrieked, the\nenchanted castle rolled like a ship at sea, and leaning far to one side,\nbegan to turn upside-down. Peter felt the floor of the balcony tip\nbeneath him; he tried to catch hold of something, but could find\nnothing; suddenly, with a scream, he fell. He was falling, falling,\nfalling, falling, falling.\n\n\nWhen Peter came to himself, instead of its being night, it was still\nnoonday, and he was sitting on the same stone in the same quiet roadside\ngrove from which he had caught sight of his Aunt Jane in her wonderful\ncoach. A blue jay screamed at him from overhead. For Aunt Jane, the\ncoach, and the enchanted castle had been only a dream. Peter, you see,\nhad fallen asleep under the pines, and while he slept, he had dreamed\nthe dream he purchased from the seller of dreams.\n\nVery glad to be still alive, Peter rubbed his eyes, took up his basket\nof eggs, and went down the road whistling.\n\n\n[Illustration: Old man and boy in the forest.]\n  \"How much does a dream cost?\" asked Peter.\n  \"A golden florin,\" answered the Seller of Dreams\n\n\n\n\n     THE TREASURE CASTLE\n\n[Illustration: Three men in a flying castle tower.]\n\n\nOnce upon a time a hunter was roaming through the wildwood when he heard\na voice crying piteously for aid. Following the sound, the hunter\nplunged ahead, and discovered a dwarf caught in a pit which had been dug\nto trap wild animals.\n\nAfter the hunter had rescued the dwarf from his prison, the little man\nsaid to him: \"Go ten leagues to the north till you arrive at a gigantic\npine; then turn to the east, and go ten leagues more till you come to a\nblack castle. Enter the castle without fear, and you will discover a\nround room in which stands a round ebony table laden with gold and\njewels. Help yourself to the treasure, and return home at once. And do\nnot--now mark me well--go up into the turret of the castle; for if you\ndo, evil will come of it.\"\n\nSo the hunter thanked the dwarf, and after making sure that he had\nplenty of bread and cheese in his knapsack, hurried northwards as fast\nas his legs could carry him. Through bramble and brier, through valley\nand wooded dale went he, and at dusk he came to a gigantic pine standing\nsolitary in a rocky field. Wearied with his long journey, the hunter lay\ndown beneath the pine and slept.\n\nWhen it was dawn he woke refreshed, and turning his eyes toward the\nlevel rays of the rising sun, began his journey to the east. Presently\nhe reached a height in the forest, and from this height, he saw, not\nvery far away, a black turret rising over the ocean of bright leaves. At\nhigh noon he arrived at the castle. It was ruinous and quite deserted;\ngrass grew in the courtyard and between the bricks of the terrace, and\nthe oaken door was as soft and rotten as a log that has long been buried\nin mire.\n\nEntering the castle, the hunter soon discovered the round room. A table\nladen with wonderful treasures stood in the centre of the chamber,\ndirectly under a shower of sunlight pouring through a half-ruined window\nin the mildewed wall. How the diamonds and precious stones sparkled and\ngleamed!\n\nNow, while the hunter was filling his pockets, the flash of a jewel\nlying on the floor happened to catch his eye, and looking down, he saw\nthat a kind of trail of jewels lay along the floor leading out of the\nroom. Following the scattered gems,--which had the appearance of having\nbeen spilled from some treasure-casket heaped too high,--the hunter came\nto a low door, and opening this door, he discovered a flight of stone\nsteps leading to the turret. The steps were strewn carelessly with the\nfinest emeralds, topazes, beryls, moonstones, rubies, and crystal\ndiamonds.\n\nRemembering the counsel of his friend the dwarf, however, the hunter did\nnot go up the stairs, but hurried home with his treasure.\n\nWhen the hunter returned to his country, the wonderful treasures which\nhe had taken from the castle in the wood made him a very rich man, and\nin a short time the news of his prosperity came to the ears of the King.\nThis King was the wickedest of rogues, and his two best friends, the\nChamberlain and the Chancellor, were every bit as unscrupulous as he.\nThey oppressed the people with taxes, they stole from the poor, they\nrobbed the churches; indeed there was no injustice which they were not\nready to commit. So, when the Chamberlain heard of the hunter's wealth,\nhe--being a direct, straightforward rascal--declared that the simplest\nthing to do would be to kill the hunter and take his money.\n\nThe Chancellor, who was somewhat more cunning and worldly, declared that\nit would be better to throw the hunter into a foul, dark dungeon till he\nwas ready to buy his freedom with all his wealth.\n\nThe King, who was the wickedest and wisest of the precious three,\ndeclared that the best thing to do was to find out whence the hunter had\ngot his treasure, so that, if there happened to be any left, they could\ngo and get it. Then of course, they could kill the hunter and take his\ntreasure too.\n\nThus it came to pass that by a royal order the hunter was thrown into a\nhorrible prison, and told that his only hope of release lay in revealing\nthe origin of his riches. So, after he had been slowly starved and\ncruelly beaten, he told of the treasure castle in the wood.\n\nOn the following morning, the King, the Chamberlain, and the Chancellor,\ntaking with them some strong linen bags and some pack mules, rode forth\nin quest of the treasure. Great was their joy when they found the\ntreasure castle and the treasure room just as the hunter had described.\nThe Chancellor poured the shining gems through his claw-like fingers,\nand the King and the Chamberlain threw their arms around each others'\nshoulders and danced a jig as well as their age and dignity would\npermit. The first fine careless rapture over, they began pouring the\ntreasure into the linen sacks they had brought with them, and these,\nfilled to the brim, they carried to the castle door.\n\nSoon not the tiniest gem was left on the table. Suddenly the Chamberlain\nhappened to catch sight of the gems strewn along the floor.\n\n\"See, see!\" he cried, his voice shrill and greedy. \"There is yet more to\nbe had!\"\n\nSo the three rogues got down on their hands and knees and began stuffing\nthe stray jewels into their bulging pockets. The trail of jewels led\nthem across the hall to the little door opening on the stairway, and up\nthis stairway they scrambled as fast as they could go.\n\nAt the top of the stair, in the turret, they found another round room\nlit by three narrow, barred windows, and in the centre of this turret\nchamber, likewise laden with gold and jewels, they found another ebony\ntable. With shrieks of delight, the King and the Chancellor and the\nChamberlain ran to this second treasure, and plunged their hands in the\nglittering golden mass.\n\nSuddenly, a great bell rang in the castle, a great brazen bell whose\ndeep clang beat about them in throbbing, singing waves.\n\n\"What's that?\" said the three rogues in one breath, and rushed together\nto the door.\n\nIt was locked! An instant later there was a heavy explosion which threw\nthem all to the floor, tossing the treasure over them; and then, wonder\nof wonders, the castle turret, with the three rogues imprisoned in it,\ndetached itself from the rest of the castle, and flew off into the air.\nFrom the barred windows, the King, the Chamberlain, and the Chancellor\nsaw league upon league of the forest rushing by beneath them. Suddenly\nthe flying room began to descend swiftly, and landed lightly as a bird\nin the middle of a castle courtyard. Strange-looking fellows with human\nbodies and heads of horses came rushing toward the enchanted turret, and\nseized its prisoners. In a few moments they were brought before the King\nto whom the treasure belonged.\n\nNow this King was a brother of the dwarf whom the hunter had rescued\nfrom the pit. He had a little gold crown on his head, and sat on a\nlittle golden throne with cushions of crimson velvet.\n\n\"With what are these three charged?\" said the Dwarf-King.\n\n\"With having tried to rob the treasure castle, Your Majesty,\" replied\none of the horse-headed servitors in a firm, stable tone.\n\n\"Then send for the Lord Chief Justice at once,\" said the Dwarf-King.\n\nThe three culprits were left standing uneasily in a kind of cage. They\nwould have tried to speak, but every time they opened their mouths, one\nof the guards gave them a dig in the ribs.\n\nFor a space of five minutes there was quiet in the crowded throne-room,\na quiet broken now and then by a veiled cough or the noise of shuffling\nfeet. Presently, from far away, came the clear, sweet call of silver\ntrumpets.\n\n\"He's coming! He's coming!\" murmured many voices. A buzz of excitement\nfilled the room. Several people had to be revived with smelling salts.\n\nThe trumpets sounded a second time. The excitement increased.\n\nThe trumpets sounded a third time, near at hand. A man's voice announced\nin solemn tones, \"The Lord Chief Justice approaches.\"\n\nThe audience grew very still. Hardly a rustle or a flutter was heard.\nSuddenly the great tapestry curtains which overhung the door parted, and\nthere appeared, first of all, an usher, clad in red velvet and carrying\na golden wand; then came two golden-haired pages, also clad in red\nvelvet and carrying a flat black-lacquer box on a velvet cushion. Last\nof all came an elderly man dressed in black, and carrying a golden perch\non which sat a fine green parrot. On reaching the centre of the hall,\nthe parrot flapped its wings, arranged an upstart feather or two, and\nthen resumed that solemn dignity for which birds and animals are so\njustly famous.\n\nWith great ceremony the gentleman in black placed the Lord Chief Justice\non a lacquer stand close by the throne of the Dwarf-King.\n\nTrumpets sounded. Two servitors hurried forward with the captive King.\n\n\"Your Venerability,\" spoke the Dwarf-King to the parrot, who watched him\nintently out of its round yellow eye, and nodded its head, \"this rascal\nhas been taken in the act of robbing the treasure castle. What\npunishment do you suggest?\"\n\nAt these words, the two golden-haired pages, advancing with immense\nsolemnity, lifted the lacquer box to within reach of the parrot's beak.\nThe box was full of cards. Over them, swaying from one leg to the other\nas he did so, the parrot swept his head.\n\nAn icy silence fell over the throng. The King, the Chancellor, and the\nChamberlain quaked in their shoes. Presently the parrot picked out a\ncard, and the gentleman in black handed it to the Dwarf-King.\n\n\"Prisoner,\" said the Dwarf-King to the other King, \"the Lord Chief\nJustice condemns you to be for the rest of your natural life Master\nSweeper of the Palace Chimneys.\"\n\nDiscreet applause was heard. The Chancellor was then hurried forward,\nand the bird picked out a second card.\n\n\"Prisoner,\" said the Dwarf-King, \"the Lord Chief Justice condemns you to\nbe for the rest of your natural life Master Washer of the Palace\nWindows.\"\n\nMore discreet applause was heard. And now the Chamberlain was brought to\nthe bar. The parrot gave him quite a wicked eye, and hesitated for some\ntime before drawing a card.\n\n\"Prisoner,\" said the Dwarf-King, reading the card which the parrot had\nfinally chosen, \"the Lord Chief Justice condemns you for the rest of\nyour natural life to be Master Beater of the Palace Carpets.\"\n\nGreat applause followed this sage judgment.\n\nSo the three rogues were led away, and unless you have heard to the\ncontrary, they are still making up for their wicked lives by enforced\ndiligence at their tasks. The palace has five hundred and ninety-six\nchimneys, eight thousand, seven hundred and fifty-three windows, and\neleven hundred and ninety-nine large dust-gathering carpets, and the\nchimneys, windows, and carpets have to be swept, washed, and beaten at\nleast once a week.\n\nNow when the King, the Chancellor, and the Chamberlain failed to return,\nthe people took the hunter out of his prison and made him king, because\nhe was the richest and most powerful of them all.\n\nAs for the treasure of the treasure castle, it is still there, packed in\nthe linen sacks, lying just inside the great door.\n\nPerhaps some day you may find it. If you do, don't be greedy, and don't\ngo up to the turret chamber.\n\n\n\n     PRINCE SNEEZE\n\n[Illustration: In a cave filled with icicles, a small dog and a giant\nare looking into an open chest.]\n\n\nOnce upon a time a king and a queen gave a magnificent party in honor of\nthe christening of their new-born son, Prince Rolandor. To this party\nthe royal parents took good care to invite every single fairy in\nFairyland, for they knew very well the unhappy consequences of\nforgetting to invite fairies to christenings. When all the invitations\nhad been sent out, the Queen went down to the kitchen to superintend the\ncooking of the master-dainty of the feast, a huge strawberry-tart.\n\nThe morning on which the grand ceremony was to take place arrived. At\nhalf-past ten the Court Astrologer, who was master of ceremonies, gave\nthe order to form in line; and at ten minutes to eleven the splendid\nprocession started for the church. The road was lined with the King's\nvassals shouting, \"Hurrah, hurrah!\" Countless little elves with gauzy\nwings watched from the branches of the trees; and the great cathedral\nbells went clang, bang, clang, as merrily as could be.\n\nJust behind the royal body-guard came the King's gold-and-diamond coach\nshining in the sunlight of June, with the King and the Queen in it on\none side and the Court Astrologer and the fairy Titania, prospective\ngodparents of the little Prince, on the other. The Prince himself,\nswathed in a wonderful silk mantle edged with pearls and turquoises,\nslept in the Astrologer's arms.\n\nThe procession entered the church, where the venerable Lord Archbishop,\nsurrounded by a magnificent choir, was awaiting its coming. A hush went\nover the great assembly as the parents and the godparents advanced to\nthe flower-decked font, and the silence lasted until His Eminence had\nsprinkled the Prince and given him the name of Rolandor. Then the bells\nrang again, the organ roared so that the windows shook in their\ncasements, and the choristers sang like birds on a summer afternoon.\n\nThe christening over, the procession went back to the castle, past the\nwaiting rows of bystanders, not one of whom had changed his place or\ngone away, so superb had been the spectacle.\n\nThe christening banquet was laid in the great hall of the castle, and,\nthanks to the Court Astrologer, things went off beautifully. It was the\nonly large banquet ever known in the history of the world where courses\nwere served all at one time, and while one person was finishing an ice,\nanother was not beginning with the soup. Nor was the menu mixed, which\nhappens so frequently to-day that you are apt to have soup, ice, cake,\nroast, soup, and a roast again. No, from soup to ice the banquet was a\nhuge success; but, alas, disaster came with the strawberry-tart.\n\nAs the Queen was chatting with the Lord Chancellor of the Enchanted\nIslands, she happened to notice--for like a good hostess she had been\nkeeping an eye to the comfort of her guests--that nobody on the\nright-hand side of the hall had been served with strawberry-tart. Almost\nat the same moment, the chief cook, looking rather pale and worried,\nbustled through the throng and whispered in her ear, \"Your Majesty, the\nstrawberry-tart has given out!\"\n\nThe Queen turned pale. At length she managed to ask in a weak voice,\n\"Have you plenty of other pastries?\"\n\n\"Yes, Your Majesty,\" replied the cook.\n\n\"Then let them be served at once.\"\n\nThe cook withdrew, and the Queen, though somewhat shaken, took up the\nconversation again. Ten minutes passed, and she was beginning to forget\nher start, when a voice, rising clear and rasping over the hubbub of the\nhall, said suddenly, \"Where's my piece of strawberry-tart?\"\n\nEverybody turned toward the speaker, an elderly fairy from the Kingdom\nof the Black Mountains, named Malvolia. She stood up in her place, her\narms akimbo, glowering at her plate, on which an attendant had just\ndeposited a small chocolate eclair.\n\n\"Where's my piece of strawberry-tart?\" she repeated.\n\nThe Queen rose. \"I am very sorry, Madam Malvolia,\" said she in her\nsweetest voice, \"but the strawberry-tart has given out.\"\n\n\"Hoity-toity,\" answered Malvolia rudely; \"you mean that you only baked\nenough for your own personal friends.\"\n\nAt this several guests cried, \"Sh! Sh!\" and the King began to look\nworried.\n\n\"We will send for some at once,\" announced His Majesty.\n\n\"Oh yes,--strawberry-tart baked by the Queen's own hands for her own\ndear friends,\" said Malvolia sneeringly; \"but for me, a fairy of age and\ndistinction, an ordinary, low baker's eclair. The Kingdom of the Black\nMountains has been deliberately insulted in my person!\"\n\n\"No, no, no, no!\" cried the King and the Queen. \"We assure you, madam,\nthat it was a simple mischance.\"\n\n\"Pish and tush!\" replied Malvolia, who, like a great many people,\nsecretly enjoyed feeling herself aggrieved. \"I consider the affair an\naffront, a deliberate affront. And you shall pay dear for this\nhumiliation,\" she screamed, quickly losing control of her temper. \"Every\ntime the Prince sneezes something shall change until--\"\n\nAt this very moment, alas, a northeast wind blew gustily through the\nopen windows of the hall, shaking the tapestries from the walls, and\ncarrying away the last of Malvolia's sentence. The angry fairy turned\nherself into a great black raven and flew, cawing hoarsely, over the\nheads of the banqueters and out of the window with the wind.\n\nA baby's cry was heard, and the King and the Queen rushed panic-stricken\nto where their little son lay in his cradle on a raised platform at the\nhead of the hall. The little Prince's fat, pink face was twisted into\ndreadful lines; he opened his mouth wide several times and half closed\nit again; then, opening it wider than ever, he sneezed a terrible\nsneeze.\n\nThere came a loud clap of thunder. When the confusion was over, the\nCourt Astrologer was found to have turned into an eight-day clock, with\na sun, moon, and stars arrangement, a planetary indicator, and a\ncalendar calculated for two thousand years. The banquet ended rather\ngloomily, although the gifts of the other fairies, such as health,\nwealth, and beauty, managed to make everyone a little more cheerful.\n\nWhen the guests were gone, the King and Queen sent for Doctor Pill, the\ncourt physician, to consult him in regard to the measures which ought to\nbe taken to prevent the Prince's sneezing. As for the poor Court\nAstrologer, he was hung up in the sacristy of the cathedral, and every\neight days his wife wound him up, with tears.\n\n\"What shall we do, doctor?\" asked the King rather mournfully.\n\n\"The Prince must be preserved from the things which cause sneezing,\"\nsaid the doctor sagely.\n\n\"Such as draughts?\" suggested the King.\n\n\"Draughts, head-colds, snuff, and pepper,\" answered the leech. \"Let his\nlittle highness be put into a special suite of rooms; admit no person to\nthem until he has been examined for head-cold, and has put on germ-proof\ngarments; and as his little highness grows older, forbid the use of\npepper in his food. Better still, if Your Majesty has a castle in the\nmountains, let the Prince be taken there for the sake of the purer air.\"\n\n\"There is the tower on the Golden Mountain,\" said the King.\n\nAt this the Queen began to weep again, for she, quite naturally, did not\nwish to part with her child.\n\n\"But, my dear, we can't have him sneezing, and things changing all the\ntime,\" said the King.\n\n\"I beg Your Majesty to consider the danger of a head-cold,\" put in the\ndoctor.\n\n\"Yes, think of the danger of a head-cold,\" echoed the King, who saw\nclearer than the Queen the chaos that might result if the Prince was\nattacked by a prolonged fit of sneezing. \"People with head-colds may\nsneeze ten or fifteen times a day.\"\n\n\"Or fifty,\" said the doctor.\n\n\"Or fifty,\" echoed the King again, shaking his head, for he was torn\nbetween paternal love and kingly duty. \"Imagine fifty enchantments in a\nday! By eventide the whole kingdom would be upset, undone, and the\npeople plotting a revolution.\"\n\n\"The tower on the Golden Mountain is in a fine healthful locality,\" said\nthe doctor, \"and the Prince could be brought up as happily there as in\nthe palace.\"\n\nSo at length the Queen consented. In a few days the little Prince, who\nhad not sneezed a second time, was removed to the tower on the Golden\nMountain. His room, designed by Doctor Pill, was completely protected\nfrom draughts, and every breath of air that entered it was\ntri-bi-sterilized. Mrs. Pill, who had been a hospital nurse, took care\nof him. Three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, his\nroyal parents rode out to the tower, and after putting on germ-proof\ngarments, were admitted to the nursery of their infant son.\n\nAnd so the years went by. Nobody was found able to break Malvolia's\nspell, and the clue to its undoing had been carried away by the wind.\nMalvolia herself had disappeared.\n\nThe Prince became a handsome little boy. Accomplished teachers taught\nhim history, music, drawing, dancing, and all the other things that a\nprince ought to know. But of real life he knew almost nothing at all.\n\nHis most faithful friend during these lonely years was a French poodle,\nwho spoke both French and English exceedingly well. Of course, he had a\nmarked canine accent, rather growling his g's and howling the aw's and\nthe ow's, but his words were well chosen and his vocabulary extensive.\nNever was seen a more friendly, wise, and devoted animal.\n\nWhen the King decided to have him sent away for a while, for he feared\nthat his son was getting a touch of Poldo's barky manner of speaking,\nfrom too close an association, the little Prince became really ill from\ngrief, and the King was forced to alter his decision.\n\nDuring his imprisonment in the tower, in spite of all precautions, the\nPrince sneezed three times. At the first sneeze, all the dogs in the\nkingdom except Poldo changed into cats, and all the cats into dogs.\nThough this was not a serious trouble, the change was certainly\ninconvenient. All the dog-cats came out meowing at people as the dogs\nused to bark at them, and they chased people down the street; the\ncat-dogs, on the other hand, stayed in the kitchen under the stove, and\nwatched for mice in the pantry. Great St. Bernards might be seen licking\ntheir paws and rubbing them over their foreheads, and fat, old\ncat-lap-dogs used to try to purr.\n\nAt the second sneeze, all the elderly gentlemen over seventy changed\ninto elm trees, a proceeding that caused a terrible lot of trouble.\n\nAt the third sneeze, all the people in the pictures at the Art Museum\nbecame alive, and for a week the soldiers of the royal guard spent most\nof their time rescuing poor, bewildered fauns, satyrs, nymphs, Roman\nsenators, and long dead celebrities and historical personages from the\nworst destitution. The King finally had to build a special castle for\nthem.\n\nAs the Prince's twenty-first birthday drew near, he began to feel very\nsad at the idea of having to stay shut up in the tower all his life.\nThough he was a very brave and very manly young man, he lay down on his\ncouch and wept in sorrow.\n\nSuddenly, standing with his forepaws on the coverlet, \"Why do you weep,\ndear master?\" said the little dog.\n\n\"At my fate,\" replied the poor Prince. \"I cannot bear to think that I\nmay have to spend all my days in this tower, and never see the great\nwide world.\"\n\nThe poodle was silent for a few minutes. At length he said, \"Dear Prince\nRolandor, do not give up hope. Have you ever thought of consulting my\nold master, the Giant of the North Pole? He has a large chest in his\npalace full of secrets which the winds have overheard, and perhaps the\nkey to Malvolia's spell is among them. If you will have a warm fur coat\nand four fur boots made for me, I will go to the Giant and ask him.\"\n\nThe Prince gave his consent, and on the next day the royal tailor made\nthe poodle a magnificent sealskin coat and four splendid fur-lined\nboots. Then the King wished him good speed, the Queen cried over him,\nand the Prince, who could see from his high tower every corner of the\nkingdom, watched him till he disappeared over the hills and far away.\n\nStraight north the poodle ran. Soon he had left the fertile plains\nbehind him, and entered great, black pine forests where never a road was\nto be seen. The cold wind howled through the trees, and at night the\nbrilliant stars sparkled over the dark and waving branches. Hungry\nwolves and savage bears often pursued him, but somehow he always managed\nto escape them all. At the end of the forest he found the frozen ocean\nlit by the shuddering light of the aurora, flashing in a great fan from\neast to west. Past white-tusked walruses and sleepy penguins he flew,\ntill on the eleventh day he saw the green, icy pinnacles of the Giant's\npalace against the waving curtain of the Polar lights. On the evening of\nthe twelfth day he entered the castle.\n\nThe Giant of the North Pole was a tall, strong, yellow-haired fellow\nwearing a crown of ice and a great sweeping mantle made from the white\nfur of the polar bear. His servants were the Gusts,--strange, supple,\nshadowy creatures moving quickly  to and fro,--and his courtiers were\nthe whirlwinds and the storms. The Giant's wife sat by his side; she had\ndark hair and eyes of icy, burning blue.\n\n\"Welcome, little Poldo,\" said the Giant; and his voice sounded like the\nwind in the treetops; \"what seek you here?\"\n\n\"I seek some words of the Fairy Malvolia which were carried away by the\nnortheast wind at Prince Rolandor's christening,\" replied the poodle.\n\n\"Whew, oo-oo,\" whistled the Giant of the North Pole. \"If I have them,\nthe words are yours.\"\n\nHe summoned two Gusts to bring forth the chest of secrets. It was made\nof black stone; and edged with diamonds of ice. In it were stored all\nthe mysteries which the wind had ever overheard; there were secrets,\nconfessions, vows, merry laughs, and simple words. And sure enough, in\nthe corner of the chest lay the rest of Malvolia's spell--a row of\nlittle, old-fashioned, dusty words; the words: \"Until he finds someone\nbrave enough to marry him.\"\n\nSo the good poodle learned the words by heart, thanked the Giant, and\nhurried home with the message. When he came to the King's palace, he\nran, barking with joy, right into the King's own room. There he saw the\nunhappy parents.\n\n\"Have you found the last of the sentence?\" cried the Queen.\n\n\"Yes,\" said Poldo. \"The spell will end when the prince marries.\"\n\nThat very evening the King and the Queen sent forth ambassadors to ask\nfor the hand of the loveliest princess of all Fairyland, Princess Adatha\nof the Adamant Mountains. But so afraid was Adatha of being turned into\nsomething else, that she refused the offer.\n\nThe King and the Queen then made a request for the hand of Princess\nAlicia of the Crystal Lakes. But Alicia also was afraid of being turned\ninto something else, and she too refused the alliance. So did the\nPrincess of the Golden Coasts, the Princess of the Seven Cities, and\nmany others. Finally the only princess left in all Fairyland was a\nprincess who herself lay under an enchantment. A jealous witch had\nturned her golden hair bright blue, and given her a nose a foot long.\nThis unhappy maiden was the only princess willing to accept poor\nRolandor.\n\nThe wedding day arrived. The Prince, though perhaps a little pale from\nhis confined life, looked very handsome, and led his ugly bride to the\naltar like a man. Just exactly as the marriage ceremony was half over, a\nspasm contorted the muscles of the Prince's face; the poor young man\nfelt strongly inclined to sneeze. Though he could be seen making heroic\nefforts to control the impulse, the audience got very nervous and\npanicky.\n\nAll was in vain! The Prince sneezed, \"Ker choo!\" A terrific clap of\nthunder rent the air, and everybody looked about to see what had\nhappened.\n\nThe effect of the sneeze was an odd one. As it had occurred exactly at\nthe moment when the Prince was half-married, the spell had reacted upon\nitself. \"Just like a kick from a gun,\" Dr. Pill said next day.\n\nThe cats became dogs again, and the dogs became cats; the elm trees\nbecame cross, elderly gentlemen looking for their families; the poor,\nexcited Roman senators, fauns, nymphs, satyrs, celebrities and\nhistorical personages, went back to their pictures; and to cap the\nclimax, the ugly bride became once more her sweet and lovely self.\n\nWhile everybody was cheering, who should walk out of the sacristy but\nthe Court Astrologer! An instant later, he had fallen into the\naffectionate arms of the faithful wife who had wound him up for\ntwenty-one years.\n\nAfter the wedding reception, the Prince and his bride went on a\nhoneymoon to the Enchanted Islands. As for Poldo the poodle, he was\ncreated Prime Minister and lived to a fine old age.\n\n\n\n     MARIANNA\n\n[Illustration: Young girl sitting on tree trunk; a small bird is perched\non her left hand; a small bottle is fastened to her belt.]\n\n\nOnce upon a time a wicked nobleman rose in rebellion against his\nrightful king, and taking the royal forces by surprise, defeated them\nand seized the kingdom. The dethroned King, who had been severely\nwounded in battle, was cast in prison, where he soon died; but his\nwidow, the Queen, managed to escape from the palace before the usurper\ncould lay hands upon her.\n\nInto the dark forest which lay behind the palace ran the Queen, holding\nher baby daughter in her arms. It was winter time, and a heavy snow had\nhidden the foot-paths and the roads. Presently the Queen realized that\nshe was lost. All afternoon, however, she trudged bravely on through the\nsilence and the cold, her heart sinking as mile after mile revealed no\nsign of a house or a shelter.\n\nBut late in the afternoon, when the red shield of the sun could scarcely\nbe seen through the tangle of the wild wood-branches, she perceived a\nlight coming from a little grove of cedars by the shore of a frozen\nlake. The Queen made her way toward this light, and discovered a little\nthatched hut in the silent wood; it was the house of one of the dwarfs\nof the forest. The dwarf took pity on the Queen, but his efforts were\nvain, for the poor woman was so weak and exhausted that she died without\ntelling the dwarf anything about herself or the child she carried.\n\nSo the little dwarf, who was a good, kind old fellow, brought the little\ngirl up as if she were his own child. His brother, the dwarf of the\nmountain, made her the prettiest red-leather shoes, and his cousins, the\ndwarfs of the pines, made the little girl dresses from cloth woven on\nfairy looms.\n\nNow, on the night her mother brought her to the hut, the little girl was\nwearing a golden heart-shaped locket, with a crown and the letter M upon\nit in diamonds. So the dwarf called the little girl Marianna.\n\nSeventeen years passed, and Marianna grew to be quite the loveliest lass\nin all the world. Her hair was as black as the raven's wing, her eyes\nwere as blue as the midsummer sea, and her skin was fair as the petal of\na rose. One spring morning a little yellow bird flew into the cedar\ngrove, and gave the dwarf a letter which it held in its beak.\n\nThe dwarf read the letter, and said to Marianna, \"Little Marianna, the\nEmperor of the Elves has bidden me come to the great assembly of the\ndwarfs which is to be held next year on the Golden Mountain. Alas, what\nare we to do? I can not take you with me, dear child, for it is\nforbidden on pain of death to bring mortals to the assembly, nor can I\nleave you here in this lonely wood.\"\n\nTo this Marianna replied, \"Do not fear, dear father. Give me but yon\ncrystal flask of the water of healing, and I shall go forth into the\nworld until it is time for you to return again. Perhaps I shall discover\nsomebody who can tell me the meaning of this locket, or the history of\nmy dear mother.\"\n\nSo the dwarf took his knotted staff, and went away over hill, over dale\nto the Golden Mountain.\n\nThen Marianna took the crystal flask of the water of healing, and walked\nboldly out of the wood into the wide, wide world. It was the middle of\nthe spring, the ice and snow had all disappeared; the trees were putting\nforth their leaves, and there were clusters of primroses by the\nroadside. In the swaying, rustling heart of a great elm tree, a little\nthrush was singing. Through cities and towns went lovely Marianna,\nbringing good cheer to the helpless and the sick, and curing all who\ncame to her, rich and poor, with the wonderful water of healing. But\nnever did she find anybody who could tell her about the gold heart with\nthe diamond crown.\n\nNow it came to pass that, as Marianna was one day walking through a\nvillage in the heart of the Adamant Mountains, a ragged old woman\nbesought her with tears to come to a hamlet which stood at the head of a\nhigh and dangerous path. Touched by the old woman's supplication,\nMarianna followed her to the hamlet, and found in a wretched hut, lying\non a wretched bed, a beautiful young peasant girl dying of a fever. So\nMarianna touched the girl with the water of healing, and in an instant\nshe became well and strong.\n\n\"Dear lady,\" said the peasant girl, pressing Marianna's hand to her\nlips, \"how sweet and kind thou art! Great is the debt I owe thee.\"\n\nAnd as the girl poured out her thanks, Marianna heard a faint \"chirp,\nchirp,\" and looking down, beheld a little yellow bird crouching on the\nhearthstone. Every now and then he hid his head under his wings and\ncried unhappily. It was the yellow bird which had brought the message\nfrom the Emperor of the Elves.\n\n\"Poor little bird,\" said Marianna, bending down and taking him up in her\nhands, \"why criest thou so mournfully? Who hath done thee harm?\"\n\nBut the bird uttered only a forlorn little cry, and hid his head again\nunder his wings.\n\n\"I found him on the rocks at the mountaintop yesterday,\" said the\nmother. \"Someone has wounded him. His wing is broken.\"\n\nAnd she put the bird on the floor of the house and bade Marianna watch\nhow he fluttered trailing a wing in the dust. Again Marianna stooped,\nand picking up the bird, touched the wounded wing with the water of\nhealing. Scarcely had she done so, when the yellow bird burst into a\njoyous and golden song, and flying to the window, beat madly against the\npanes. Then the peasant girl threw open the casement, and the yellow\nbird flew out into the streaming sun.\n\n\"He is gone forever,\" said the peasant girl.\n\n\"Nay, he returns,\" said Marianna, gently, as the yellow bird flew back\nand perched in the sheltering bower of Marianna's arms. Then,\naccompanied by the peasant girl and the yellow bird, who flew singing\nbefore her, Marianna went down the dangerous path to the high road in\nthe valley. When they reached the foot of the path, the peasant girl\ncried:--\n\n\"Farewell, dear Marianna; may it some day be mine to repay thee!\"\n\nInto the world again went Marianna, and with her went the yellow bird.\nPresently she came to the fairest land which she had ever seen, a land\nof rolling fields, little hills, and rivers bordered with pale willow\ntrees. This pleasant land, unknown to Marianna, was part of her father's\nkingdom, and she was really its queen because her father had been the\nlast rightful king.\n\nNow while Marianna had been in the forest, the wicked nobleman who had\nstolen the kingdom from Marianna's father had died, leaving his brother\nGarabin in charge of the kingdom and of the interests of his little son,\nPrince Desire. This Garabin, however, taking advantage of the youth and\nhelplessness of his nephew, had himself assumed the state and airs of\nking. For some time he had enjoyed undisturbed the possession of his\nstolen throne; but as Desire grew taller and stronger every year,\nGarabin began to fear the day when he would be compelled to resign in\nfavor of his nephew.\n\nWhen the Prince reached his twentieth year, Garabin would certainly have\nkilled him openly had he dared; but, fearing the people, he resolved to\nuse secret methods, and bribed a cruel magician to afflict poor Desire\nwith a deadly and mysterious malady. Of this malady, Desire was slowly\ndying, for no medicine could cure him or even give him any relief from\nhis constant pain. Every morning the cruel Garabin, in the hope of\nfinding his nephew dead, would go to the sick room; and you may be sure\nthat his wicked heart rejoiced when he found the Prince weaker and more\nfeverish.\n\nGarabin had just returned from a visit to the Prince, who was rapidly\nfailing, when the Captain of the Castle Guard came to him with the news\nthat the wonderful Marianna had arrived in the kingdom. The King gave\norders that she be brought before him. So Marianna, walking between two\nhalberdiers and followed across the courtyard by crowds of curious\npeople, was led before the King. The little yellow bird sat on\nMarianna's shoulder, and never did maiden appear lovelier or more\ngentle.\n\nScarcely had Garabin set eyes on Marianna, when he caught sight of the\ngolden locket which she wore about her neck. Had he not been very old\nand crafty, he would have started from his golden throne, for he knew\nthat the little golden heart set with diamonds had been one of the crown\njewels, and that therefore Marianna must be the missing Princess, and\nrightful queen of the kingdom.\n\nWhat was he to do? If he refused to let Marianna help the Prince, the\npeople might begin to suspect him, and start a revolution which would\nthrust him from his throne; if he allowed Marianna to cure the Prince,\nthe Prince would certainly demand the kingdom on his twenty-first\nbirthday. What was he to do with Marianna, whose right to the throne was\nsuperior even to his nephew's? Perplexed, and with fear in his heart,\nthe King sought the cruel magician who had cast the spell on Desire.\n\nThe magician lived in a gloomy tower, and had an enchanted black dog\nthat he fed with flaming coals. He listened to Garabin's story, stirring\na great cauldron all the while, and said, \"Do not fear. I will destroy\nboth claimants to the throne at once.\"\n\nGarabin rubbed his hands together with glee.\n\n\"To-night I shall cast a spell of sleep on Marianna, steal the crystal\nflask, empty it of the water of healing, and refill it with a liquid\nwhich will cause death within a night and a day. I shall then replace\nthe flask before Marianna wakes. You will allow Marianna to visit the\nPrince; she will touch him with the deadly water, and the Prince will\ndie. You can then try Marianna for having killed the Prince, and condemn\nher to be thrown from the precipice.\"\n\nSo pleased was Garabin with this horrid plot, that he could have danced\nfor joy. That very night, the magician filled Marianna's flask with the\npoisonous water, and departed, thinking that nobody had noticed him. The\nyellow bird, however, had seen everything, and followed the magician to\nnote where he hid the real water of healing.\n\nThe next morning Marianna was once more led before the King.\n\n\"Welcome, thrice welcome, lovely maiden,\" said Garabin with the most\ndreadful hypocrisy. \"I have long hoped that you would turn your\nfootsteps hither, for my poor dear nephew, Prince Desire, only son of\nthe late King, has been ill for some months of a malady no physician can\ncure. Perhaps you can cure him with the water of healing.\"\n\nMarianna replied that she would do her best to help the Prince; so the\nCourt Chamberlain gave her his arm, and escorted her to the Prince's\nsick room. The King and many courtiers followed after him.\n\nDesire lay in a great old-fashioned bed, his face flushed with fever. So\nweak was the poor Prince, that he could scarcely lift his head to look\nat his visitors. A great pity swept over Marianna's heart the instant\nshe saw him; as for Desire, he fell madly in love with Marianna at first\nsight.\n\nNow just as Marianna bent over the Prince to touch his forehead with the\nwater of healing, the yellow bird screamed and cried as madly as if he\nwere caught in a net. Marianna looked at the crystal flask. Nothing\nseemed changed; the water within seemed as pure and diamond-like as\never. She touched the Prince with the liquid. Alas, in a moment, so\nterrible was the magician's poison that the Prince turned white as the\ndriven snow, and fell back on the pillows insensible. The lookers-on,\nwho had expected to see him spring up entirely cured, began to murmur,\nand Marianna herself, terrified at what had happened, let fall the\nflask, which broke into a thousand sparkling pieces.\n\nSuddenly, Garabin cried at the top of his voice, \"Seize the witch; she\nhas killed the Prince!\"\n\nPresently there was a great confusion, rough hands seized Marianna, and\nsomebody caught the yellow bird. The Prince remained insensible on the\nbed. At high noon, a trial was held, and since the doctors declared that\nthe Prince was dying, Marianna was condemned to be thrown from the\nprecipice. When somebody asked about the yellow bird, Garabin laughed,\nand gave orders that the cook should wring its neck, and toss it to the\ncat.\n\nSo Marianna was hurried to a dark prison-room and loaded with chains,\nand the yellow bird was taken to the castle kitchen, and given to the\ncook.\n\n\"Here, you wring its neck,\" said the cook to one of her helpers, \"while\nI go call the cat.\"\n\nBy great good fortune, the cook's helper was no other than the peasant\ngirl whom Marianna had saved. This girl recognized the yellow bird, and\ninstead of wringing its neck, let it fly out of the window. The yellow\nbird flew to the window of the magician's room. The magician was in the\nchamber, stirring the giant cauldron. The bird flew to the window of\nPrince Desire's room, and saw that he was still insensible.\n\nAn hour later the castle-bell began to toll, and a dismal procession was\nseen walking from the castle toward the frightful cliff from which\ncondemned witches and sorcerers were thrown. First came a troop of\nsoldiers, then Marianna, weighted down with chains, and last of all, a\nlittle group in which were Garabin, the magician, and some of Garabin's\nfavorites.\n\nThe bell kept on sadly tolling and tolling. It roused the Prince from\nhis swoon, and with his last measure of strength, poor Desire dragged\nhimself to the window. The procession was then passing directly\nunderneath the window, and Desire's eyes met the eyes of Marianna.\n\n\"Stop! Stop!\" cried the poor Prince, wildly; \"I forbid--\"\n\nAn instant later he sank fainting to the floor. The procession went on.\n\nMeanwhile the yellow bird had returned to the magician's chamber. It was\nempty. With a joyous cry, the bird fluttered through the window-bars,\nand discovered the phial into which the magician had poured the water of\nhealing. Clutching it in his claws, the bird flew once more to the\nPrince's room. Desire still lay in a heap by the window, and over him\nthe yellow bird poured the contents of the phial.\n\nThe Prince sprang up, strong as a lion, seized his sword, and rushed\ndown to save Marianna. He arrived at the cliff just as the poor maiden\nwas about to be pushed off into space, and standing by her side, dared\nanyone to lay hands upon her.\n\nGarabin, seeing his precious plot miscarry, grew mad with rage.\n\n\"Seize them,\" cried he, \"and toss them both over the precipice!\"\n\nSo the soldiers rushed at Marianna and the Prince, intending to carry\nout their wicked master's orders. But even as they did so, there came a\nflash of flame and the little dwarf, Marianna's foster-father, took his\nplace beside the lovers.\n\n\"Cruel King!\" cried the dwarf sternly, \"and thou, wicked and perfidious\nmagician, the hour of thy punishment is at hand.\"\n\nImmediately the sky grew black, the lightning crashed, and there arose a\nterrible, howling wind. Three giant gusts drove fiercely by, the first\none blowing the King and the magician head-over-heels over the\nprecipice, the second carrying away the soldiers, and the third the\nrascally favorites. When the sky cleared, only the dwarf, Marianna, and\nDesire were left of the company.\n\n\"Marianna,\" said the little dwarf, \"the Emperor of the Elves has told me\nall your history, and it is thanks to him that I have returned in time,\nwith the storm at my heels. You, Marianna, are the rightful Queen of\nthis country.\"\n\n\"Dear Queen,\" said the honest and gallant Desire, \"let me be the first\nof your subjects to salute you.\" And he knelt before her, and humbly\nkissed her hand.\n\n\"Nay, Prince,\" said the young Queen, answering the adoring look in her\nlover's eyes, \"your father took the kingdom; if I were you, I should\ntake the Queen.\"\n\nWhich was a bit forward, of course, but nobody minded that very much in\nthose fairy times.\n\nSo Desire and Marianna were married, and lived happily ever after. The\nyellow bird went to the wedding, and when the ceremony was over rose\nsinging into the air, and flew joyously home to the land of the Elves.\n\n\n\n     THE LOST HALF-HOUR\n\nOnce upon a time there was an old widow woman who had three sons: the\nfirst two were clever enough, but the third, Bobo by name, was little\nbetter than a silly simpleton. All his mother's scoldings and\nbeatings--and she smacked the poor lad soundly a dozen times a day--did\nhim no good whatever.\n\nNow it came to pass that one morning Princess Zenza, the ruler of the\nland, happened to pass by the cottage and heard Bobo being given a\nterrible tongue-lashing. Curious as to the cause of all the noise, the\nPrincess drew rein, and summoned Bobo's mother to come near. On hearing\nher story, it occurred to the Princess that so silly a lad might amuse\nher; so she gave the mother a golden florin, and took poor silly Bobo\nwith her to be her page.\n\n\n[Illustration: In the background, a castle; in the middle ground, a boy\nthrowing a spiny object into a dragon's mouth; in the foreground, a\nfrightened girl.]\n\n  Just as the dragon's mouth was at, its widest ....\n\n\nYou may be sure that it did not take the wise folk at the castle long to\ndiscover how great a simpleton had arrived. Courtiers, footmen, lackeys,\nturnspits even, were forever sending him off on ridiculous errands. Now\nhe would be sent to find a white craw's feather or a spray of yellow\nbluebells; now he was ordered to look for a square wheel or a glass of\ndry water. Everybody laughed at him and made fun of him--that is,\neverybody except little Tilda, the kitchen-maid. When poor Bobo used to\nreturn from some wild-goose chase, tired out, mud-stained, and often\nenough wet to the skin, instead of laughing, little Tilda would find him\na glass of warm milk, hang his coat by the fire to dry, and tell him not\nto be such a simpleton again. Thus, after a while, Bobo learned to ask\nTilda's advice before going away on a wild-goose chase, and was in this\nway saved from many a jest.\n\nTilda, the kitchen-maid, was as sweet and pretty as she was kind and\ngood. She was said to be the daughter of an old crane who had come to\nthe castle one day, asking for help.\n\nOne pleasant mid-summer morning, when Bobo had been nearly a year at the\ncastle, Princess Zenza overslept half an hour and did not come down to\nbreakfast at the usual time. When she did get up, she found her court\nwaiting for her in the castle gardens. As she came down the steps of the\ngarden terrace, the Princess looked up at the castle clock to see how\nlate she was, and said to her lady in waiting,--\n\n\"Dear me--why, I've lost half an hour this morning!\"\n\nAt these words, Bobo, who was in attendance, pricked up his ears and\nsaid,--\n\n\"Please, Your Highness, perhaps I can find it.\"\n\nAt this idea of finding a lost half-hour, the Princess laughed, and\nfound herself echoed by the company.\n\n\"Shall we send Bobo in search of the lost half-hour?\" said the Princess\nto the courtiers.\n\n\"Yes! Yes!\" cried the courtiers. \"Bobo shall look for the lost\nhalf-hour.\"\n\n\"I'll give him a horse,\" said one. \"I'll give him my old hat,\" said\nanother. \"He can have an old sword I broke last week,\" said still\nanother.\n\nAnd so, in less time than it takes to tell about it, poor simpleton Bobo\nwas made ready for his journey.\n\nBefore he left the castle, Bobo went down to the kitchen to say good-bye\nto Tilda.\n\n\"What, off again?\" said the little kitchen-maid. \"Where are you going\nnow?\"\n\n\"The Princess has lost a half-hour and I am going in search of it,\" said\nBobo, proudly. And he told how the Princess herself had commanded him to\nseek the half-hour through the world, and promised to bring Tilda a\nsplendid present when he returned.\n\nThe good kitchen-maid said little, for she feared lest some misadventure\novertake the poor simpleton; but when the chief cook was not looking,\nshe tucked a fresh currant-bun into Bobo's pocket, and wished him the\nbest of good fortune.\n\nSo Bobo went to the castle gate, and mounted his horse, which stumbled\nand was blind in one eye.\n\n\"Good-bye, Bobo,\" cried the assembled courtiers, who were almost beside\nthemselves with laughter at the simpleton and his errand. \"Don't fail to\nbring back the lost half-hour!\"\n\nSo Bobo rode over the hills and far away. Every now and then he would\nstop a passer-by and ask him if he had seen a lost half-hour.\n\nThe first person whom he thus questioned was an old man who was\nwandering down the high road that leads from the Kingdom of the East to\nthe Kingdom of the West.\n\n\"A lost half-hour?\" said the old man. \"I've lost something much more\nserious, I've lost my reputation. You have n't seen a lost reputation\nlying about here, have you? It was very dignified and wore\ntortoise-shell glasses.\"\n\nBut Bobo had to answer \"No,\" and the old man wandered on again.\n\nAnother day the simpleton encountered a tall, dark, fierce kind of\nfellow, who answered his polite question with a scream of rage.\n\n\"A half-hour,\" he roared. \"No, I have n't seen your half-hour; I would\nn't tell you if I had; what's more, I don't want to see it. I'm looking\nfor something I've lost myself. I've lost my temper. I lost it two years\nago at home, and have n't been able to find it anywhere since. Answer\nme, you silly, have you seen a lost temper anywhere? It's about the size\nof a large melon and has sharp little points.\"\n\nOn Bobo's answering \"No,\" this dreadful person uttered so perfectly\nawful a screech of rage, that Bobo's horse took fright and ran away with\nhim, and it was all that Bobo could do to rein him in three miles\nfarther down the road.\n\nStill farther along, Bobo came to Zizz, the capital city of the Kingdom\nof the Seven Brooks, and was taken before the King himself.\n\n\"A lost half-hour?\" said the King. \"No, I am quite sure it has not been\nseen in my dominions. Would you mind asking, as you go through the\nworld, for news of my little daughter?\" (Here the poor old King took out\na great green handkerchief and wiped his eyes.) \"She was stolen by the\nfairies on midsummer eve fifteen years ago. Find her, worthy Bobo, and\nan immense reward will be yours.\"\n\nSo Bobo left the proud city of Zizz, and once again rode over the hills\nand far away. But never a sign of the lost half-hour did he find,\nalthough he asked thousands of people. His faithful white horse died,\nand he continued his way on foot.\n\nThree long years passed, and Bobo grew into a handsome lad, but remained\na simpleton still. Finally, after he had wandered all about Fairyland,\nhe came to the edge of the sea. Finding a ship moored in a little\nharbor, Bobo asked the sailors if they had seen a lost half-hour.\n\n\"No,\" said the sailors, \"but we are going to the Isles of Iron;\nsuppose you go with us. The lost half-hour may be there.\"\n\nSo Bobo went aboard the ship, and sailed out upon the dark sea.\n\nFor two days the weather was warm and clear, but on the third day, there\ncame a dreadful storm, and on the third night the vessel was driven far\noff her course into the unknown ocean, and was wrecked upon a mysterious\nisland of rocks that shone in the night like wet matches. A great wave\nswept the decks, and Bobo was borne away from his companions and carried\ntoward the shining land. Though pounded and battered by the foaming\nwaves, the simpleton at length managed to reach the beach, and took\nrefuge in a crevice of the cliff during the stormy night.\n\nWhen the dawn broke, all sign of the ship had disappeared. Looking\nabout, Bobo found himself on a lovely island whose heart was a high\nmountain mass hidden in the fog still sweeping in from the sea. There\nwas not a house, a road, or a path to be seen. Suddenly Bobo noticed a\nstrange little door in the bark of a great lonely tree, and, opening\nthis door, he discovered a little cupboard in which were a pair of\nwooden shoes. Above the shoes was a card, saying simply,--\n\n  PUT US ON.\n\nSo Bobo sat down on a stone by the foot of the tree, and put on the\nwooden shoes, which fitted him very nicely. Now these shoes were magic\nshoes, and Bobo had hardly stepped into them before they turned his feet\ninland. So Bobo obediently let the shoes guide him. At corners the shoes\nalways turned in the right direction, and if Bobo forgot and blundered\non the wrong way, the shoes swiftly began to pinch his toes.\n\nFor two days Bobo walked inland toward the great mountain. A warm wind\nblew the clouds and rain away, the sun shone sweet and clear. On the\nmorning of the third day, the simpleton entered a wood of tall silent\ntrees, and as that day was drawing to a close, turrets of a magnificent\ncastle rose far away over the leaves of the forest.\n\nBobo arrived at twilight.\n\nHe found himself in a beautiful garden, lying between the castle walls\nand the rising slopes of a great mountain. Strange to say, not a living\ncreature was to be seen, and though there were lights in the castle,\nthere was not even a warder at the gate. Suddenly a great booming bell\nstruck seven o'clock; Bobo began to hear voices and sounds; and then,\nbefore the humming of the bell had died away, a youth mounted on a\nsplendid black horse dashed at lightning speed out of the castle and\ndisappeared in the wood. An old man with a white beard, accompanied by\neleven young men, whom Bobo judged, from their expressions, to be\nbrothers,--stood by the gate to see the horseman ride away.\n\nPlucking up courage, Bobo came forward, fell on his knee before the old\nman, and told his story.\n\n\"Truly, you should thank the storm fairies,\" said the old man; \"for had\nyou not been wrecked upon this island, never would you have discovered\nthe lost half-hour. I am Father Time himself, and these are my twelve\nsons, the Hours. Every day, one after the other, they ride for an hour\nround the whole wide world. Seven O'clock has just ridden forth. Yes,\nyou shall have the lost half-hour, but you must look after my sons'\nhorses for the space of a whole year.\"\n\nTo this Bobo willingly agreed. So Twelve O'Clock, who was the youngest\nof the Hours, took him to the stables and showed him the little room in\nthe turret that he was to have. And thus for a year Bobo served Father\nTime and his sons. He took such good care of the great black horses of\nthe Hours of the Night, and the white horses of the Hours of the Day,\nthat they were never more proud and strong, nor their coats smoother and\nmore gleaming.\n\nWhen the year was up, Bobo again sought out Father Time.\n\n\"You have served faithfully and well,\" said Father Time. \"Here is your\nreward.\" And, with these words, he placed in Bobo's hands a small square\ncasket made of ebony. \"The half-hour lies inside. Don't try to peek at it\nor open the box until the right time has come. If you do, the half-hour\nwill flyaway and disappear forever.\"\n\n\"Farewell, Bobo,\" said kind young Twelve O'Clock, who had been the\nsimpleton's good friend. \"I, too, have a gift for thee. Drink this cup\nof water to the last drop.\" And the youth handed the simpleton a silver\ncup full to the brim of clear shining water.\n\nNow this water was the water of wisdom, and when Bobo had drunk it, he\nwas no longer a simpleton. And being no longer a simpleton, he\nremembered the man who had lost his reputation, the man who had lost his\ntemper, and the king whose daughter had been stolen by the fairies. So\nBobo made so bold as to ask Father Time about them, for Father Time\nknows everything that has happened in the whole wide world.\n\n\"Tell the first,\" said Father Time, \"that his reputation has been broken\ninto a thousand pieces which have been picked up by his neighbors and\ncarried home. If he can persuade his neighbors to give them up, he\nshould be able to piece together a pretty good reputation again. As for\nthe man who lost his temper, tell him that it is to be found in the\ngrass by the roadside close by the spot where you first met him. As for\nthe missing daughter, she is the kitchen-maid in Princess Zenza's\npalace, who is known as Tilda.\"\n\nSo Bobo thanked Father Time, and at noon, Twelve O'Clock placed him\nbehind him on the white charger, and hurried away. So fast they flew\nthat Bobo, who was holding the ebony casket close against his heart, was\nin great danger of falling off. When they got to the seashore, the white\nhorse hesitated not an instant, but set foot upon the water, which bore\nhim up as if it had been, not water, but earth itself. Once arrived at\nthe shore of Fairyland, Twelve O'Clock stopped, wished Bobo good-speed,\nand, rising in the air, disappeared into the glare of the sun. Bobo,\nwith the precious ebony casket in his hand, continued on in the\ndirection of Princess Zenza's palace.\n\nOn the second morning of his journey, he happened to see far ahead of\nhim on the highway the unfortunate aged man who had lost his reputation.\nTo him, therefore, Bobo repeated the counsel of Father Time, and sent\nhim hurrying home to his neighbors' houses. Of the man who had lost his\ntemper, Bobo found no sign. In the grass by the roadside, however, he\ndid find the lost temper--a queer sort of affair like a melon of fiery\nred glass all stuck over with uneven spines and brittle thorns. Bobo,\nwith great goodness of heart, took along this extraordinary object, in\nthe hope of finding its angry possessor.\n\nFarther on, the lad encountered Tilda's father, the unhappy King, and\ndelivered his message. The joy of the monarch knew no bounds, and Bobo,\nthe one-time simpleton, became on the spot Lord Bobo of the Sapphire\nHills, Marquis of the Mountains of the Moon, Prince of the Valley of\nGolden Apples, and Lord Seneschal of the proud City of Zizz--in a word,\nthe greatest nobleman in all Fairyland. Then, having got together a\nmagnificent cohort of dukes, earls, and counts, all in splendid silks,\nand soldiers in shining armor, the delighted King rode off to claim his\nmissing daughter from Princess Zenza.\n\nSo on they rode, the harnesses jingling, the bridle-bells ringing, and\nthe breastplates of the armed men shining in the sun. After a week of\nalmost constant progress (for the King was so anxious to see his beloved\ndaughter that he would hardly give the cavalcade time to rest), they\ncame to the frontiers of Princess Zenza's kingdom.\n\nStrange to say, black mourning banners hung from the trees, and every\ndoor in the first village which the travelers saw was likewise hung with\nblack streamers. On the steps of one of the cottages sat an old woman,\nall alone and weeping with all her might.\n\n\"What is the matter, my good woman?\" said the King.\n\n\"O sir,\" said the peasant woman, \"evil days have fallen upon our unhappy\nkingdom. Three days ago a terrible dragon alighted in the gardens of the\npalace and sent word to Princess Zenza that if within three days she did\nnot provide him with someone brave enough to go home with him and cook\nhis meals and keep his cavern tidy, he would burn our fields with his\nfiery breath. Yet who, I ask you, would be housekeeper for a dragon?\nSuppose he did n't like the puddings you made for him--why, he might eat\nyou up! All would have been lost had not a brave little kitchen-maid\nnamed Tilda volunteered to go. It is for her that we are mourning. At\ntwo o'clock she is to be carried off by the dragon. It is almost two\nnow. Alas! Alas!\"\n\nHardly were the words out of her mouth, when the town bell struck twice,\nsolemnly and sadly.\n\n\"Quick! quick!\" cried the King and Bobo in the same breath, \"Let us\nhurry to the castle. We may save her yet.\"\n\nBut they knew in their hearts that they were too late, and that poor\nTilda had given herself to the dragon. And so it proved. In spite of his\nmad dash, Bobo, who had spurred on ahead, arrived exactly half an hour\nlate. The monstrous dragon with Tilda in his claws was just a little\nsmoky speck far down the southern sky. Princess Zenza and her court\nstood by wringing their jeweled hands.\n\nSuddenly Bobo thought of the half-hour. He had arrived half an hour\nlate, but he could have that half-hour back again! Things should be\nexactly as they were half an hour before.\n\nHe opened the cover of the ebony box. Something like a winged white\nflame escaped from it, and flew hissing through the air to the sun. As\nfor the sun itself, turning round like a cartwheel and hissing like ten\nthousand rockets, it rolled back along the sky to the east. The hands of\nthe clocks, which marked half-past two, whirred back to two o'clock in a\ntwinkling. And, sure enough, there was brave little Tilda standing alone\nin a great field waiting for the dragon to come and take her away.\nLumbering heavily along like a monstrous turtle, and snorting blue\nsmoke, the dragon was advancing toward her.\n\nBobo ran down into the field and stood beside Tilda, ready to defend her\nto the end.\n\nThe dragon came nearer and nearer. Suddenly, angered by the sight of\nBobo and his drawn sword, he roared angrily, but continued to approach.\nBobo struck at him with his sword. The blade broke upon his steely\nscales. The dragon roared again. Now just as the dragon's mouth was its\nwidest, Bobo who had been searching his pockets desperately, hurled into\nit the lost temper.\n\nThere was a perfectly terrific bang! as if a million balloons had blown\nup all at once. For the dragon had blown up. The lost temper had\nfinished him. Only one fragment of him, a tiny bit of a claw, was ever\nfound.\n\nEverybody, you may be sure, began to cry \"Hurrah\" and \"Hooray,\" and soon\nthey were firing off cannon and ringing all the bells. Then Tilda's\nfather took her in his arms, and told her that she was a real princess.\nThe Grand Cross of the Order of the Black Cat was conferred upon Bobo by\nPrincess Zenza, who also asked his pardon for having treated him so\nshabbily. This Bobo gave readily. A wonderful fete was held. When the\nrejoicings were over, Bobo and Tilda were married, and lived happily\ntogether all their days.\n\n\n\n     THE ENCHANTED ELM\n\n\n[Illustration: Young girl sitting in a tree.]\n\n\nOnce upon a time, while riding, a brave, young prince dashed merrily\nahead of his friends, and after galloping across a ploughed field,\nturned his horse's head down a grassy road leading to a wood. For some\ntime he cantered easily along, expecting any moment to hear the shouts\nand halloos of his friends following after; but they by mistake took\nquite another road, and no sound except the pounding of his courser's\nhoofs reached the Prince's ear. Suddenly an ugly snarl and a short bark\nbroke the stillness of the pleasant forest, and looking down, the Prince\nsaw a gray wolf snapping at his horse's heels.\n\nThough the horse, wild with fear, threatened to run away any instant,\nthe Prince leaned over and struck the wolf with his whip.\n\nHardly had he done so, when an angry voice cried, \"How dare you strike\nmy pet?\"\n\nA little distance ahead, a wicked old witch stood at one side of the\nroad. With its tail between its legs, the wolf cowered close to her\nskirts, and showed its long yellow fangs.\n\n\"Pet, indeed!\" cried the Prince. \"Keep him away from my horse or I will\nstrike him again.\"\n\n\"At your peril, Prince,\" answered the witch. And then, as the Prince\nturned his horse's head and galloped back, she called out, \"You shall\nrue this day! You shall rue this day!\"\n\nNow by the time the Prince had arrived at the ploughed field and the\ngreat road again, his friends had galloped on so far that they were lost\nto sight. Thinking that he might overtake them by following a shorter\nroad, he turned down a byway skirting the wood in which he had\nencountered the enchantress. Presently he began to feel very thirsty.\nChancing to see an old peasant woman in the fields, the Prince called to\nher and asked where he could find a roadside spring.\n\nNow this old peasant woman was the wicked witch under another form.\nOverjoyed at having the Prince fall so easily into her power, she\ncurtsied; and replied that within the wood was to be found the finest\nspring in the country. Anxious not to lose time, the Prince begged her\nto lead him to the water. Little did he know that the witch was leading\nhim back into the wood, and that she had just bewitched the water!\n\nWhen they arrived at the pool, the Prince dismounted, and kneeling by\nthe brim, made a cup of his hands and drank till his thirst was\nsatisfied. He was just about to seize his horse again by the bridle and\nput his foot into the stirrup, when a terrible pang shot through his\nbody, darkness swam before his eyes, his arms lengthened and became\nbranches, his fingers, twigs; his feet shot into the ground, and he\nfound himself turned into a giant elm.\n\nA giant elm he was; a giant elm he remained. Unable to find him after a\nlong search, his friends gave him up for lost, and a new Prince ruled\nover the land. Though the elm tried many times to tell passers-by of his\nplight, none ever seemed to understand his words. Again and again, when\nsimple wood-cutters ventured into the great dark wood, he would tell\nthem his story and cry out, \"I am the Prince! I am the Prince!\" But the\nwood-cutters heard only the wind stirring in the branches. Ah, how cold\nit was in winter when the skies were steely black and the giant stars\nsparkled icily! And how pleasant it was when spring returned, and the\ngossipy birds came back again!\n\nThe first year a pair of wood-pigeons took to housekeeping in his\ntopmost branches. The Prince was glad to welcome them, for though denied\nhuman speech, he understood the language of trees and birds. On\nMidsummer Eve, the pigeons said to him, \"To-night the King of the Trees\ncomes through the wood. Do you not hear the stir in the forest? All the\nreal trees are preparing for the King's coming; they are shedding dead\nleaves and shaking out their branches.\"\n\n\"Tell me of the King,\" said the Prince.\n\n\"He is tall and dark and strong,\" said the doves. \"He dwells in a great\npine in the North. On Midsummer Eve, he goes through the world to see if\nall is well with the tree people.\"\n\n\"Do you think he can help me?\" asked the Prince.\n\n\"You might ask him,\" replied the doves.\n\nThe long, long twilight of Midsummer Eve came to a close; night folded\nthe world beneath its starry curtains. At twelve o'clock, though not a\nbreath of air was stirring, the trees were shaken as if by a mighty\nwind, the rustling of the leaves blending into strange and lovely music,\nand presently the King of the Trees entered the haunted wood. Even as\nthe wood-doves had said, he was tall and dark and stately.\n\n\"Is all well with you, O my people?\" said the King, in a voice as sweet\nand solemn as the wind in the branches on a summer's day.\n\n\"Yes, all is well,\" answered the trees softly. Though some replied, \"I\nhave lost a branch\"; and a little tree called out unhappily, \"My\nneighbors are shutting out all my sunlight.\"\n\n\"Then fare ye well, my people, till next Midsummer Eve,\" said the\nstately King. And he was about to stride onward through the dark wood\nwhen the enchanted Prince called aloud to him!\n\n\"Stay, O King of the Trees,\" cried the poor Prince. \"Hear me even though\nI am not of your people. I am a mortal, a prince, and a wicked witch has\nturned me into a tree. Can you not help me?\"\n\n\"Alas, poor friend, I can do nothing,\" replied the King. \"However, do\nnot despair. In my travels through the world, I shall surely find\nsomeone who can help you. Look for me on next Midsummer Eve.\"\n\nSo the great elm swayed his branches sadly, and the King went on his\nway.\n\nThe winter came again, silent and dark and cold. At the return of\nspring, a maiden who dwelt with a family of wood-cutters came often to\nrest in the shade of the great tree. Her father had once been a rich\nmerchant, but evil times had overtaken him, and at his death the only\nrelatives who could be found to take care of the little girl were a\nfamily of rough wood-cutters in the royal service. These grudging folk\nkept the poor maiden always hard at work and gave her the most difficult\nhousehold tasks. The Prince, who knew the whole story, pitied her very\nmuch, and ended by falling quite in love with her. As for the unhappy\nmaiden, it seemed to her that beneath the sheltering shade of the great\nelm she enjoyed a peace and happiness to be found nowhere else.\n\nNow it was the custom of the wood-men to cut down, during the summer,\nsuch trees as would be needed for the coming winter, and one day the\nwood-cutter in whose family the maiden dwelt announced his intention of\ncutting down the great elm.\n\n\"Not the great elm which towers above all the forest?\" cried the maiden.\n\n\"Yes, that very tree,\" answered the woodcutter gruffly. \"To-morrow\nmorning we shall fell it to the ground, and to-morrow night we shall\nbuild the midsummer fire with its smaller branches. What are you crying\nabout, you silly girl?\"\n\n\"Oh, please don't cut the great elm!\" begged the good maiden.\n\n\"Nonsense!\" said the wood-cutter. \"I wager you have been wasting your\ntime under its branches. I shall certainly cut the tree down in the\nmorning.\"\n\nAll night long, you may be sure, the maiden pondered on the best way to\nsave the great tree; and since she was as clever as she was good, she at\nlength hit upon a plan. Rising early on Midsummer Morn, she ran to the\nforest, climbed the great elm, and concealed herself in its topmost\nbranches. She saw the rest of the wood beneath her, and the distant\npeaks of the Adamant Mountains; and she rejoiced in the dawn songs of\nthe birds.\n\nAn hour after the sun had risen, she heard the voices of the wood-cutter\nand his men as they came through the wood. Soon the band arrived at the\nfoot of the tree. Imagine the feelings of the poor Prince when he saw\nthe sharp axes at hand to cut him down!\n\n\"I shall strike the first blow,\" said the chief wood-cutter, and he\nlifted his axe in the air.\n\nSuddenly from the tree-top a warning voice sang,--\n\n  \"Throw the axe down, harm not me.\n  I am an enchanted tree.\n  He who strikes shall breathe his last,\n  Before Midsummer Eve hath passed.\"\n\n\"There is a spirit in the tree,\" cried the woodcutters, thoroughly\nfrightened. \"Let us hurry away from here before it does us a mischief.\"\nAnd in spite of all the chief wood-cutter's remonstrances, they ran\naway as fast as their legs could carry them.\n\nThe chief wood-cutter, however, was bolder-hearted, and lifted the axe\nagain. As the blade shone uplifted in the sun, the maiden sang once\nmore,--\n\n  \"Throw the axe down, harm not me.\n  I am an enchanted tree.\n  He who strikes shall breathe his last\n  Before Midsummer Eve hath passed.\"\n\nHearing the voice again, the chief began to feel just the littlest bit\nalarmed; nevertheless, he stood his ground and lifted the axe a third\ntime. Once more the girl sang,--\n\n  \"Throw the axe down, harm not me.\n  I am an enchanted tree.\n  He who strikes shall breathe his last\n  Before Midsummer Eve hath passed.\"\n\nAt the same moment, the elm managed to throw down a great branch which\nstruck the rogue a sound thump on the shoulders. Now thoroughly\nterrified, the chief wood-cutter himself fled from the spot.\n\nAll day long, for fear lest he return, the maiden remained hidden in the\ntree. At twilight, overcome by weariness, she fell into a deep sleep.\nJust before midnight, alas, she was awakened from her slumber by hearing\nan angry voice cry,--\n\n\"Come down from the tree, wicked, deceitful girl, or I shall cut it down\nat once!\"\n\nVery much alarmed, the poor maiden looked down through the branches, and\ndiscovered the wood-cutter standing at the foot of the elm. A lantern\nswung from his left hand, and his sharpest axe rested on his right\nshoulder. He had returned home, and not finding the maiden there, had\nsuspected that it was her voice which had frightened his men away.\n\n\"Come down,\" roared the rascal. \"I'll teach you, you minx, to play\ntricks with me. One--two--three.\" And lifting the axe in the air, he was\nabout to send it crashing into the trunk of the elm, when the mysterious\nmurmur which heralded the coming of the King of the Trees sounded\nthrough the wood. Perplexed and frightened again, the chief wood-cutter\nlet fall his axe. Presently he perceived two beings coming toward him\nthrough the solemn forest. Uttering a howl of fear, the rogue would have\nfled, but, lifting his wand, the elder of the newcomers transfixed him\nto the spot. The two personages were the King of the Trees and his\nfriend, the mighty enchanter, Gorbodoc.\n\n\"Descend and fear not, maiden,\" said the King of the Trees. \"You have\ndone bravely and well. Your misfortunes are over, and a happier day is\nat hand.\"\n\nSo the brave girl hurried down the tree, and stood before the enchanter\nand the King. Very pretty she was, too, in her rustic dress and ribbons.\n\n\nLifting his wand with great solemnity, Gorbodoc touched the trunk of the\nelm. There was a blinding flash of rosy fire; the great tree appeared to\nshrink and dissolve, and presently the Prince stood before them.\n\n\"Welcome, Prince,\" said the enchanter.\n\n\"Your enemy, the witch, will trouble you no more. I have turned her into\nan owl and given her to the Queen of Lantern Land. As for you,\" and here\nthe enchanter turned fiercely upon the wood-cutter, \"you shall be a\ngreen monkey, until you have planted and brought to full growth as many\ntrees as you have cut down.\"\n\nAn instant later, a green monkey swung off into the tree-tops.\n\nThen the grateful Prince thanked the King of the Trees, the mighty\nGorbodoc, and the brave maiden, with all his heart. I am glad to say\nthat he got his castle back again and married the maiden who had saved\nhis life, and they lived happily ever after.\n\n\n\n     THE BIRD BOY\n\nLate one autumn night a young queen stood by her window, gazing upon the\nsilent and deserted meadows gleaming in the moonlight. Suddenly, far,\nfar up in the sky, she heard the weird cry of birds flying southward,\nand lifting her eyes, the Queen beheld bird after bird fly across the\ngolden shield of the moon.\n\n\"Oh, lovely, happy birds,\" said she; \"would that I might have a son with\nwings!\"\n\nNow it came to pass that before the harvest moon rose again over the\nland, the Queen became the mother of a little boy who was born with\nwings on his shoulders. But instead of being pleased with so strange and\nwonderful a little son, the King (who was very superstitious and under\nthe domination of wicked chamberlain named Malefico) took it into his\nhead that his wife was a sorceress, and gave orders that she should be\nimprisoned in a lonely tower and the child destroyed. So the Queen and\nher baby were taken to an old and gloomy tower on a great rock\noverlooking the northern sea; and after they had been there a day or\ntwo, the chief jailer came to the Queen's room to take the child and\nkill him.\n\n\n[Illustration: Foreground, small winged boy seat on the ground, approached\nby a large bird in flight; background, small cottage.]\n\n  Every year, on the Bird-Boy's birthday, a great gray bird was seen.\n\n\nThe Queen, when she heard this terrible order, uttered a gasping scream,\nand seizing her little son from out his cradle, pressed him close to her\nbreast. But although she fought for her baby with all her might, the\nrude strength of the jailers prevailed, and the child was torn from its\nmother's arms. Then, before anyone could prevent her, the poor Queen\nbeat open the rotted fastening of an old casement window, sprang upon\nthe ledge, and giving one last look of love and tenderness to her\nunhappy child, leaped down into the sea surging and pounding over the\nrocks hundreds of feet below. She certainly would have been dashed to\npieces, had not a good spirit of the ocean taken pity on her, and\nchanged her into a great gray bird. Crying mournfully, the bird circled\nthe old tower thrice, and disappeared over the white-capped waters.\n\nIn spite of his roughness, however, the jailer was neither a brutal nor\na wicked man, and he did not relish the cruel task which the King had\ngiven him. So, instead of killing the bird-boy, he carried him many\nleagues back into the dark forest which bordered the sea, and gave him\nto a family of charcoal-burners. With these rough, good people the\nbird-boy lived till he was five years old. And every year, on the boy's\nbirthday, a great gray bird came flying over the forest from the distant\nocean, circled thrice the charcoal-burners' hut, and disappeared again,\ncrying mournfully.\n\nOne midsummer day, with a great deal of merry hallooing and blowing of\nsweet-voiced horns, the King of the country, accompanied by his young\nwife, came hunting through the wood. There was a pretty spring near the\ndoor of the hut, and the party came to a halt at its edge. Out ran the\nwinged boy and his two little foster-brothers, to see the wonderful\nsight. And a wonderful sight it was, indeed, to see the horses tossing\ntheir jeweled bridles, the hooded falcons riding on the saddlebow,\nclutching the leather with their curving claws, the merry young pages in\ntheir dark suits, and all the gay company in rich attire.\n\n\"Why, see,\" said the young Queen to her husband, \"yon little boy hath\nwings. Really, dear, I must have him for my page. Would n't it be\nwonderful to have a winged page? Besides, he will be a playmate for\nRosabella.\"\n\nSo the King gave the charcoal-burner and his wife fifty pieces of bright\ngold, which pleased them very much, and the charcoal-burner himself\nlifted the bird-boy up in his arms, and placed him on the King's saddle.\nThen the bird-boy waved good-bye to his two little ragged\nfoster-brothers, who were howling as if their hearts would break, and\nrode away with the King. In a few hours the company came to a splendid\ncastle of shining white stone, standing in beautiful green gardens\nrunning down to the sea. Once at home, the Queen commanded that the\nlittle winged boy be washed and tidied, and his charcoal-burner's rags\nreplaced with a pretty black velvet suit. You may be sure that, when the\nbird-boy was washed and dressed, there was no handsomer, more winning\nlittle boy in all the world.\n\nSo the bird-boy became the best beloved playmate of the Queen's only\nchild, her darling Rosabella. Now, if the bird-boy was the prettiest\nlittle boy in all the world, Rosabella was the prettiest little girl.\nMoreover, she had a sweet disposition, which is a gift even more\nprecious than the gift of beauty. It was a lovely picture to see the\nchildren building toy castles on the floor of the nursery in the castle\ntower, the sun streaming on the black-brown hair and silver white wings\nof the little boy, and on the golden curls of Rosabella.\n\nTwelve years passed. The bird-boy grew into a handsome lad; Rosabella\ninto the loveliest of princesses. Twice had the bird-boy saved\nRosabella's life. He had saved her the first time by swooping down and\ncatching her in his wings just as she was about to tread on a wicked\nyellow viper; he had saved her in the same way when she had fallen over\na cliff at the edge of the sea.\n\nEvery year, on the bird-boy's birthday, a great gray bird would fly in\nfrom over the sea, circle the castle thrice, and disappear, crying\nmournfully.\n\nNow when the bird-boy and Rosabella were in their seventeenth year, it\ncame to pass that the King was summoned to war. His enemy was no other\nthan the wicked chamberlain Malefico, who had succeeded to the kingdom\nof the bird-boy's father, when that Prince had died some years before.\nSo the good King, who had been a real father to the bird-boy, put on his\nshining armor, kissed his dear wife and child good-bye, and rode off to\nthe battlefield. The bird-boy begged and pleaded to be taken with him as\nhis squire, but the King would not hear of it, and insisted that he\nremain in the castle to take care of the Queen and Rosabella. There was\nlittle cheer in the castle that unhappy evening. And all night long, the\nbird-boy thought he could hear the wings of a great bird beating\nfiercely against the window-panes.\n\nA month passed, an unhappy month in which there were no tidings from the\nKing. Then, one rainy morning, a messenger who had ridden so hard that\nhis poor horse could scarcely stagger, rode to the castle gate bearing\nvery evil news. A great battle had been fought, the army of Rosabella's\nfather had been completely defeated, and the troops of the wicked\nMalefico were hurrying toward the castle as fast as they could come.\n\nAnd so it was; for before the Queen had had time to summon the people\nand gather together a few belongings, the troops of the enemy burst in\nat the gate, and a dozen fierce soldiers surrounded the Queen,\nRosabella, and the bird-boy, and dragged them to Malefico.\n\nWhen Malefico saw the bird-boy, a look of surprise appeared on his face,\nfor he had believed that the wonderful child was dead. Then he fell to\nthinking, and as he thought, wicked purposes swept over his cruel face\njust as the shadows of dark clouds sweep over a gloomy pool.\n\n\"If it were known that the winged child is alive,\" he thought, \"the\npeople would thrust me from my place, and restore him to his father's\nthrone. Now that the bird-boy is in my hands, I will destroy him, and be\nsure of my power.\"\n\nSo he smiled, and began to think of some manner in which he could bring\nthe bird-boy to a shameful end. At last he hit upon a plan. He would\ndeclare that the bird-boy was not a human lad at all, but a witch-child;\nhe would then accuse the good King of having protected a witch-child,\nand condemn them both to be stoned. So he threw the King and the Queen,\nRosabella and the bird-boy, into an old dungeon-tower, and went through\nthe mockery of having a trial. When it was over, he sent a soldier to\ntell the King and the bird-boy that they were to be punished the\nfollowing day.\n\nAnd now dawned the unhappy day. The bird-boy took Rosabella's hand in\nhis, and together they went to the barred window of the prison and\nlooked out upon the world. The morning was fresh and fair; a pleasant\nsouthwest wind was blowing. The King and the bird-boy were to be led\nforth at noon. The clock marked a quarter to twelve.\n\n\"Dear Rosabella,\" said the bird-boy sadly, \"we have forgotten that\nto-day is the day on which the great gray bird comes from the ocean and\ncircles the castle towers. If thou shouldst see the bird when I am gone,\ngreet it in my name, as we did when we were happy children.\"\n\n\"The bird may come,\" said Rosabella amid her sobs.\n\n\"No, Rosabella,\" said the bird-boy, \"I shall never see the gray bird\nagain. And even if it were to come, what could it do to save us from\nthese cruel people?\"\n\nWhen the clock stood at five minutes to twelve, there was a confused\nnoise below, and Malefico and the judges who shared with him the guilt\nof the unrighteous punishment took their places on a kind of platform\nwhich overlooked the place of execution.\n\n\"They will soon be coming to get us,\" said the King to the bird-boy.\n\nAnd sure enough, they heard the jangle of the jailer's keys at the foot\nof the stair.\n\nSuddenly the sunlight in the room faded swiftly into a strange gray\ngloom, and the bird-boy rushed to the window to see if a storm was at\nhand. A great shadowy cloud, advancing with inconceivable rapidity,\nalready filled half the sky, and as the boy gazed into this cloud, he\nsaw to his astonishment that it was not a cloud at all, but hundreds and\nhundreds of thousands of great gray birds, flapping their long wings.\nThe shadow of the birds fell over the platform on which the cruel\nMalefico sat waiting for the King and the bird-boy to be brought forth,\nand then ceased moving even as a ship that has come into harbor.\n\nFar ahead of the vast swarm flew one lonely bird, and suddenly this bird\nuttered a shrill and piercing cry. Immediately every bird let fall a\ngreat beach-stone which he held in his claws, and for a long minute, the\nsky rained stones, round, polished stones that fell like bolts of\nthunder. When the storm was over, and the cloud had begun to break into\nrifts and speckles of light and flapping gray wings, the wicked Malefico\nand his cruel nobles lay buried forever beneath mound upon mound of\nstones. The doom which Malefico had intended for another had overtaken\nhim.\n\nThe King and the Queen, Rosabella and the bird-boy, rushed down the\nstairs and out into the sunlight. As they did so, the gray bird who had\nled the cloud, sank through the air and alighted at their feet. But\nscarcely had the bird's claws touched the ground, when there was a flash\nof flame, and the bird-boy's mother stood before them. She took her son\nin her arms, and told them all his history and her misfortunes, and how\nshe had watched over him year after year and gathered the birds to save\nhim.\n\nThus it came to pass that, when the troops of Malefico saw their former\nQueen and heard her story, they acclaimed the bird-boy as their rightful\nking, and carried him back in triumph into his own country. So the\nbird-boy became a king, married Rosabella, and lived happily ever after.\n\n\n\n     THE MASTER MARINER\n\nOnce upon a time a fine young fisherman rose early in the morning, and\nsailed alone to the fishing-grounds. There was very little wind, and\nbeneath the speckled clouds and the cold, pearly light of the late dawn,\nthe broad, low billows went slowly and unrippled to the land.\n\nThe fisherman cast anchor, and threw overboard his lines. Suddenly his\nboat moved uneasily, and close to its side the oily surface of the pale\nsea broke into a tumbling mass of foam. In the heart of the troubled\nwaters, the fisherman beheld, to his great astonishment, a man clad in a\nstrange garment of gleaming black scales, struggling with an enormous\nscarlet fish. A battle of life and death they fought, the man of the sea\ntrying to stab the fish with a short dagger of shining steel, the fish\ntrying, wolf-like, to tear at the body of its enemy. Now, with a swift\nlash of its bright scarlet body, the fish would rush at the man; now,\nwith a long sure stroke of his powerful arms, the man would escape the\nattack. Suddenly, the fish hurled itself clear out of the water, and\nfalling against the man, struck him a terrible blow with its tail. Then\nthe ocean man, who was stunned for a moment, would have perished, had\nnot the young fisherman swiftly seized his spear and plunged deep into\nthe body of the fish. Mortally wounded, the scarlet creature sank\nthrough the sunless waters, the dark blood flowing from its side.\n\nThe man of the sea clutched the rail of the boat with his webbed hands,\nand said to the fisherman, \"I am the King of the Caves of the Sea. I owe\nyou my life, and you shall have a reward. Take this little silver fish.\nIt will bring you good fortune; and should you ever be in deadly peril,\nyou have but to cast it into the sea, and it will come and find me.\"\n\nThe fisherman thanked the King of the Caves, and took the silver fish.\nIt was about the length of your little finger, and had pale moon-stones\nfor eyes. The fisherman hung the talisman on a chain and wore it round\nhis neck.\n\nFrom that morning on, everything prospered with the youth. His boat\nnever leaked, he was never caught in a storm, and the fish came to his\nlines and nets the instant he threw them overboard. Within a year or two\nhe had grown so rich that he was able to buy the finest merchant ship in\nthe world, and became a master mariner. Surely no more splendid fellow\nthan this gallant, young captain was ever found on the Seven Seas. He\nsailed to cold and foggy Flannel Land, where the inhabitants all have\nincurable head colds, and have no other cloth but red flannel; he traded\nin the ports of gorgeous Velvet Land, whose inhabitants dress in velvet,\nand cover their walls with velvet hangings and their floors with velvet\nrugs.\n\nOne pleasant morning, running before a fine westerly breeze, he came to\nthe Eastern Islands. Down the street of the bazaar walked the Master\nMariner, followed by those who had articles to sell. Some showed him\nbright-colored birds which they had caught in the forests; others waved\nsquares of figured cloth and called upon him to buy them; others still\noffered strange flasks and bottles of brass and gleaming copper. At the\nend of the street, the Master Mariner discovered a little quiet counter\non which lay some dozens of puffy and distended brown-leather bags.\n\n\"What are these?\" said the Master Mariner to a tall, lean man with\nbeady, brown eyes who was in charge of the shop.\n\n\"These are breezes, Master Captain,\" replied the shopman. \"If you are\ngoing south, here is a bag of a very reliable northwest wind\" (he picked\nup one of the brown bags); \"if you are going east, here are some of the\nbest-assorted westerly gusts. I am selling them at a very low price\nto-day, in fact at less than they cost me. What will you have?\"\n\n\"I'll have a smart easterly,\" replied the Master Mariner.\n\nHe put down fifty gold pieces on the counter, took the bag which the\nshopman gave him, and walked away.\n\nNow all these leather bags looked very much alike, and instead of\nselling the Master Mariner a brisk easterly breeze, the shopman had made\nan error, and sold him a frightful storm.\n\nAgain the Master Mariner went to sea; but luckily for him, he put the\nimprisoned storm away in a locker, intending to use it on some other\nvoyage. Presently he came to Silk Land, loveliest of all the Cloth\nIslands. There the inhabitants dress only in the finest of silks; the\nroofs and walls are covered with layers of silk; the sun always shines,\nand pretty birds with silken plumage chatter in the fern-like trees.\n\n\n[Illustration: Man falling into the ocean from a ship with a large white\nsail.]\n\n  Splash! And the Master Mariner fell into the sea.\n\n\nNow the island of Silk Land was at this time ruled by the prettiest of\nprincesses. She was about eighteen years old; she was tall for her age,\nand her eyes were quite the loveliest shade of brown. When the Master\nMariner's fine ship came into the harbor of Silk Land, cleaving the\nturquoise water, and with the bright sun shining on her silvery-white\nsails, the Princess happened to be resting under a silken awning on the\nroof of her palace. Catching sight of the ship, the Princess cried to\nher companions:--\n\n\"See what a fine ship is coming into port! She must be laden with many\nwonderful things. Send word to the Captain that I intend to visit her\nto-morrow morning.\"\n\nThe next morning, sure enough, the Princess paid a visit to the ship,\nwhich lay at a wharf below the palace. In honor of the Princess's\ncoming, everything had been swept, scrubbed, and brightened, and\ngorgeous carpets from the Eastern Islands covered the decks. In shaded\nnooks, under costly tapestries, lay the treasures of the\ncargo--wonderful cloths and spices from the Eastern Islands, vessels of\ngold and silver from the Adamant Mountains, and jewels from the Desert\nof the Moon.\n\nNow scarcely had the Master Mariner set eyes on the Princess, than he\nbegan to think her quite the most wonderful person he ever had beheld;\nas for the Princess, scarcely had the Master Mariner directed two or\nthree respectful and somewhat tender glances in her direction, than she\nbegan to believe him quite the most gallant youth she had ever seen. She\ngave orders that several of the marvels be brought to her palace, and\nwas looking about for something else, when her eyes chanced to fall upon\nthe silver fish the Master Mariner was wearing.\n\n\"Pray, what is that little silver fish?\" asked the Princess.\n\n\"A mere trifle which a friend once gave me,\" replied the Master Mariner,\nreading in the Princess's eyes and demeanor that she desired the\ntalisman. \"If Your Majesty will only deign to accept it, it is yours.\"\n\nAnd blinded by the Princess's eyes, he gallantly, but somewhat\nincautiously, took the silver fish from its chain and gave it to the\nPrincess, who laughed prettily, and accepted the gift.\n\nSilver trumpets sounded, the servitors gathered up the treasures which\nthe Princess had chosen, and the royal party returned to the palace with\na good deal of chattering and laughter.\n\nIn a few days, the Master Mariner disposed of his cargo, and went again\nto sea. But wherever he went, the image of the beautiful Princess of\nSilk Land went with him.\n\nUnder the silken awning, on the wind-swept balcony, sat the Princess,\nand the image of the young Captain was often in her mind.\n\nAfter three months had passed, the Princess took it into her head that\nit was time for the Master Mariner to return to Silk Land, and gave\norders that a sharp watch be kept from the tower of the palace for his\nreturning vessel. One morning, just as the Princess was having breakfast\nin her wonderful silken bed, news was brought to her that a large ship\nwas headed for the harbor.\n\n\"Is it the Master Mariner's ship?\" asked the Princess.\n\n\"I do not know, Your Majesty,\" replied the messenger. \"The vessel is\nstill many miles out to sea.\"\n\nSo the Princess jumped out of bed, and without waiting for the ladies of\nthe bedchamber to dress her, ran upstairs to her balcony. A great ship\nwas coming in under a favoring breeze. Nearer and nearer it came, till\nthe Princess could even distinguish the men aboard. Suddenly she uttered\na little scream, and ran down stairs pell-mell. At the same moment the\nbells of Silk Land all began to ring wildly, and the beating of drums\nsounded through the town.\n\nThe approaching ship was a pirate ship! From the topmast flew the\nterrible black flag of the pirates of the Northern Isles!\n\nGreat confusion followed.\n\nWarned by the uproar of the bells and drums, the people came scurrying\nthrough the streets to the palace; some carrying children in their arms;\nothers the best beloved of their household furnishings. The palace was\nhastily made ready for a siege.\n\nSoon, cursing and swearing, the black-bearded pirates arrived, and began\nto sack the town. Into every house they went, pulling out all the bureau\ndrawers, reading private letters, upsetting the clocks, and leaving the\nwater running in the kitchen sinks. They filled their pockets with\ncuff-links and watches.\n\nNow, if the pirates had taken only the cufflinks, stick-pins, cameo\nbrooches, silver candlesticks, souvenir spoons, and sugar-tongs, and\nthen gone away, the raid would not have been too terrible; but the\nrogues, bribed by the horrid old King of the Oyster Mountains, a\nrejected suitor, were bent on getting possession of the Princess. On\ndiscovering that she had locked herself up in the strong palace, their\nrage knew no bounds. They made a dozen different attempts to break open\nthe palace door, but all in vain. Finally, they decided to besiege the\nfortress.\n\nFor four days all went well enough with the Princess and her imprisoned\npeople; but by the sixth day most of the food had been eaten; and by the\nend of the eighth day, the Princess knew she would have to surrender the\nfollowing morning. With a sinking heart she went to a turret and looked\nout over the ocean in the hope of catching sight of a passing sail. But\nshe saw only the deserted town and the pirate ship riding at anchor in\nthe bay. An hour later she went to the turret again, and again she saw\nno sign of anything at sea. A terrible despair seized upon her, but\nnevertheless once more to the turret she climbed.\n\nFar out at sea, headed toward land, was the brave ship of the Master\nMariner!\n\nSo great was the joy of the poor Princess at the sight of the gallant\nvessel that she almost swooned; but recovering herself, like the\nPrincess that she was, she ran down into the courtyard and told the news\nto her people. Immediately those who were weak or fretful from hunger\nbegan to take heart, and all who could crowded to the barred windows.\n\nThe Master Mariner's vessel came riding into the port; the watchers saw\nher drop anchor, saw the boats being lowered, and the sailors coming\nashore. Soon the pirates and the sailors were at it hammer and tongs; a\nceaseless clack clack of steel beating upon steel rose to the turrets of\nthe palace; there were dreadful duels in the alleyways and battles in\nthe public squares. Alas! just as the sailors were carrying the day, the\nMaster Mariner received a blow on the head which knocked him insensible,\nand the mariners, disorganized by the loss of their chief, were soon\nsurrounded and taken prisoners. Then, taking heart, the pirates rushed\nthe palace, and burst open the doors.\n\nWhen the rogues had taken everything on which they could lay their\nhands, they brought the prisoners and the plunder to the marketplace.\n\n\"Shall we bind all these people and take them aboard?\" asked a pirate.\n\n\"No!\" roared the one-eyed pirate chief. \"Take only the Princess and that\nrogue of a Master Mariner.\"\n\nThe people now began to cry, \"Oh, don't take the Princess, our dear\nPrincess!\" But all their prayers were useless.\n\nNow, because the Master Mariner's ship was far more swift and beautiful\nthan the pirate ship, the pirates, after setting fire to their own\nvessel, abandoned her, and put their plunder on board the Master\nMariner's vessel. The following morning, leaving the people of Silk Land\nrobbed and mourning, the pirates sailed away.\n\nWithin a few hours, all signs of land had disappeared. The sea was as\nblack as ink. Against the horizon's edge, the great waves were leaping\nand breaking into foam.\n\n\"Bring me the list of booty!\" cried the pirate captain, roaring the last\nword.\n\nSo the pirate treasurer came on deck, and read a long list beginning,--\n\n\"Fifty-three scarf-pins.\"\n\n\"Hooray!\" shouted the pirate crew.\n\n\"A hundred and eighty-five sterling silver berry-spoons,\" next announced\nthe treasurer.\n\n\"Hooray!\" cried the crew again.\n\n\"One thousand clocks!\" cried the treasurer.\n\n\"How many with alarms?\" asked an old pirate anxiously.\n\nThere was a strained silence. The treasurer consulted his list.\n\n\"Seven hundred and forty-nine,\" he answered.\n\n\"Hooray!\" yelled the pirate crew.\n\nWhen the list had been read (it took very nearly half an hour to do it)\nthe one-eyed captain cried, \"Bring forth the Master Mariner!\"\n\nSo the Master Mariner was brought forth, and thrown brutally against a\nmast. The pirate chief put his arms akimbo, cleared his throat savagely,\nand roared, \"So you thought you were going to punish me, did you! Well,\nI'll show you what happens to people who upset my plans. Here, Hawk Eye,\nand you, Toby, throw this fellow overboard.\"\n\nHearing this awful order, the Princess screamed and would have run to\nthe Master Mariner, had not rude hands restrained her.\n\nSplash! the Mariner fell into the inky sea. Swift as a bird, his own\nship went by him; he saw the mocking face of the pirate chief leering at\nhim from over the rail; in a few minutes he was alone, all, all alone in\nthe wide, wide sea. For some time he swam about, and by great good luck\ndiscovered a log of wood strong enough to bear his weight, floating near\nat hand. Upon this he climbed, and there we shall leave him for the\npresent.\n\nWhen the Captain had disappeared from sight miles behind, the pirate\nchief walked over to the Princess, and looking at her, said sneeringly,\n\"Well, my beauty, are you going to make up your mind to be the wife of\nthe King of the Oyster Mountains? I'm taking you to him, and mind now,\nno fooling!\"\n\nThe Princess shrank from him with horror, and as she fell back, the sun\ngleamed on the silver fish she was wearing at her throat. The chief made\na rude snatch at it; the Princess, however, was quicker than he, and hit\nhim a good box on the ear.\n\n\"Ow!\" cried the chief, dancing up and down with rage. \"I'll fix you, you\nill-tempered minx. Here, somebody, tie this girl to the mast for the\nrest of the day, and give her nothing but bread and water.\"\n\nIn obedience to his order, the Princess, with her arms tied by the\nwrists behind her back, was lashed to the mast. When she had been\nsecurely bound, the chief, whose ear was still tingling, took the silver\nfish. He was looking at it when he saw something which made him drop the\nfish on the deck.\n\nOut of the forecastle door thick clouds of black mist were rolling,\nexactly as if the hold of the ship were on fire. For a meddlesome pirate\nhad found the leather bag of storm-wind and had opened it, mistaking it\nfor a bag of wine.\n\nThe strange clouds, swirling round the deck, grew instant by instant\ndarker and denser. Soon the tops of the masts could no longer be\ndistinguished. The sun took on a horrible copper hue, and the sea became\na mottled black and green. A howling wind arose.\n\nA moment later, with the violence of an explosion, the storm burst.\nMountain-high rose the glassy white-capped waves. The lightning fell in\nviolet cataracts, and thunder roared and tumbled through the caverns of\nthe sky. An ocean of hissing rain fell into the waters.\n\nSuddenly the pirate chief, as he staggered down the stairs, shouted, \"We\nare lost!\"\n\nJust astern, an enormous, glassy wave, higher than the masts of the\nship, was about to break. The pirates yelled, but little good their\nyelling did them. An instant later the wave broke upon the deck, and\ncrashing tons of green water swept every single pirate into the sea.\nSlowly, and with the tense struggle of a wounded animal, the good ship\nlifted itself from the waves.\n\nThe Princess was the only human being left on board. Only the cords\nwhich bound her to the mast had saved her from being swept away.\n\nNow, when the water swept the deck, the silver fish which lay at the\nPrincess's feet became alive and darted over the rail into the sea.\n\nThe storm continued. The helpless Princess expected every minute to sink\nwith the ship into the roaring waters. Suddenly, to her horror, a high\nrocky island appeared a few miles ahead. Toward this island, over whose\ncruel reefs the ocean was foaming and breaking, the ship was drifting\nfast. Tied to the mast, the Princess listened to the terrible cry of the\nbreakers, and, spell-bound, watched the jagged rocks of the island ever\ndrawing nearer.\n\nNow while the Princess was in this terrible situation, the Master\nMariner, who had been blown before the storm like a feather, also came\nin sight of the rocky island. The instant he caught sight of the shore,\nand heard the roaring of the breakers, he knew that he could not hope to\nreach the land. He was on the edge of the reefs when the King of the\nCaves of the Sea, who had been summoned by the silver fish, rose out of\nthe water beside him, and taking him in his webbed hands, swam with him\nto a place of safety. Just as they reached the shallows, the mists of\nthe tempest parted, and driving through the darkness and the storm,\nheaded for the reefs, came the Master Mariner's ship with the Princess\ntied to the mast.\n\n\"Oh, save her! Save the Princess!\" cried the Master Mariner.\n\nThe King of the Caves of the Sea stretched out his hands over the island\nand uttered a strange and mysterious word. So awful was its power that\nthe rocky cliffs split open, forming a safe and sheltered harbor. Into\nthis port came the ship, safe at last as a bird in its nest.\n\nSo the Master Mariner, the Princess, and the ship were all wonderfully\npreserved, and when the storm was over, the King of the Caves saw them\nhome to Silk Land. There the Master Mariner found his crew waiting for\nhim, and in a few days they had rigged new sails for the ship which were\neven whiter than the old. The inhabitants got back the fifty-three scarf\npins, the hundred and eighty-five sterling silver berry-spoons, the\nthousand clocks, and the rest of the booty which the pirates had stowed\naway in the Master Mariner's ship.\n\nGreat was the rejoicing.\n\nGreater still was the joy, however, when the Master Mariner married the\nPrincess.\n\n\n\n     THE MARVELOUS DOG AND THE WONDERFUL CAT\n\n[Illustration: Background, books scattered on library shelves.\nForeground, a white dog with glasses and a black cat seated at a low\ntable, studying books and making notes.]\n\n\nOnce upon a time there was an old enchanter who taught magic and\nenchantment to the younger fairies. Year after year, and morning after\nmorning, he was to be found at his school-room in the Fairies' College,\nstanding between his desk and a blackboard, now writing down the spell\nfor turning noses into turnips, now changing sunflower seeds into pearls\nbefore the very eyes of his pupils.\n\nThe old enchanter liked this life of quiet and study, and doubtless\nwould have been teaching in Fairyland to this very day, had he not been\nso unfortunate as to quarrel with the terrible sorcerer Zidoc, who was\nthen Lord High Chancellor of the Fairies' College. I have forgotten\nexactly what the quarrel was about, but I think that it had to do with\nthe best spell for causing castles to fall to pieces in an instant. At\nany rate, Zidoc, who considered himself quite the most wonderful\nenchanter in Fairyland, was furious at being opposed, and told the old\nenchanter, very angrily, that he was not to have his classes any more\nand must leave the college at once. So the poor old gentleman packed up\nhis magic books, put his enchanter's wand into its silver case, and went\nto the country one pleasant day in search of a house.\n\nThanks to the advice of a friendly chimney swift, it did not take him\nlong to find one. The dwelling was the property of the Fairy Jocapa. It\nstood just off the high road, close by a lane of great oaks whose shiny,\nfringed leaves glistened in the hot noon-day sun; it had a high roof\nwith sides steep as mountain slopes, and one great chimney; and its\nsecond story thrust itself out over the first in the old-fashioned way.\nGreen fields, little hills, and pleasant meadows in which red and white\ncows were grazing lay behind the dwelling.\n\nSeeing the front door wide open, the enchanter walked in. It was very\nquiet. Only the far away klingle-klangle of a cow-bell could be heard.\n\n\"Here shall I live,\" said the enchanter. And he brought his possessions\nto the house.\n\nNow, one autumnal morning, when a blue haze hung over the lonely fields\nfrom which the reapers had departed, and the golden leaves were wet\nunderfoot, the old enchanter went for a walk down the lane, and finding\nthe day agreeable, kept on until he found himself in the woods. Arriving\nat the crest of a little hill in the woodland, he saw below him, almost\nat the foot of the slope, a countryman with a white puppy and a black\nkitten following at his heels. The little dog barked merrily out of pure\nhigh spirits, whilst the kitten leaped and struck with its tiny paws at\nthe passing white butterflies.\n\nAs the old enchanter approached the countryman, he happened to hear him\nsay to the animals,--\n\n\"Alas, my poor innocents, what a pity that I should have to abandon\nyou!\"\n\n\"What's that?\" said the enchanter, halting the countryman. \"You intend\nto abandon these helpless creatures?\"\n\n\"Alas, I must,\" replied the countryman, pulling a large blue bandanna\nhandkerchief from his pocket and applying it to the corners of his eyes.\n\"We are too poor to be able to feed them, and my children love them so\nwell that I cannot find it in my heart to do them harm. I am taking them\ninto these woods to abandon them, in the hope that, like the wild\nanimals, they will soon learn to shift for themselves.\"\n\n\"Give them to me,\" said the old enchanter, \"I will bring them up.\" The\ncountryman nodded his head. \"As for you, here is a golden florin. May it\nbring you better fortune.\"\n\nThus did the white puppy and black kitten change hands.\n\nOnce he had led the animals safely home, the enchanter resolved to make\nthem the most wonderful animals that had ever been seen in the whole\nwide world, whether in Fairyland or out of it. Being an enchanter, he\ncould, of course, do this more easily than other people. So he taught\nthe cat and the dog all the known languages, then history, arithmetic,\ndancing, social deportment, and a variety of the best magic and spells.\nThe cat, as was to be expected, was particularly good on anything that\nhad 'cat' in it; he once catalogued all the principal catastrophes;\nwhile the dog, although a good student, had a fancy for writing\ndoggerel. Many and many a time, when the enchanter and his wonderful\nanimals were seated in their armchairs round a blazing fire, talking\nexactly as any three good friends might talk, a nose would flatten\nitself against the panes, and the three companions would see looking in\nat them some stranger whose curiosity had got the better of his manners.\n\nThe dog, I may say, had grown up to be a fine fellow of the\nshort-haired, white bull terrier family; the cat had grown to be as\naristocratic as a panther. When their education was complete, the\nanimals came to their teacher and begged him to let them go away and see\nthe world. For a long time the enchanter, who loved his charges very\nmuch indeed, resisted their request; but as they continued to press him,\nhe came at length to yield. Calling them before him, he said to them:--\n\n\"Well, dear pupils, if you must go, you must go. I owe the Fairy Jocapa\ntwelve months rent for this house. She is now living with her nephew,\nthe King of the Land of the Runaway Rivers. You shall take twelve golden\nflorins to her. Your route will take you over all the kingdoms of the\nwhole wide world.\"\n\nSo the white dog, who was the stronger of the two, took the purse with\nthe twelve golden coins, and put it in a large wallet which he wore at\nhis side, and then both the wonderful animals said good-bye. At the\ncorner of the lane they turned again to look for the last time at their\ndwelling, and saw their old master still waving at them from the little\nwindow over the door. Then they fared over the hills and far away.\n\nSo wise, so well-bred and good-tempered were these wonderful animals,\nthat their journey across the world was a great success from the\nbeginning. Their fame spread from kingdom to kingdom like wild-fire. The\nuniversities, colleges, and other learned societies fought with each\nother for the privilege of entertaining these distinguished students. To\nthis very day, the address which the cat made on catapults and\ncataplasms, before the professors of the University of Sagessa, is\nremembered as one of the great events of the time; while the dog's\naddress on dogma before the assembled scholars of the Royal Academy of\nFairyland was printed in a special book bound in gold leaf and walpus\nleather. Both the cat and the dog were awarded countless honorary\ndecorations.\n\nAnd so, little by little, they came to a hilly land in which all the\nstreams raced pell-mell to the sea, and there they knew themselves to\nbe in the Kingdom of the Runaway Rivers. A three days' journey brought\nthem to the royal castle. Arriving in the twilight, they were somewhat\nsurprised to find a number of torchbearers waiting for them in the\ncastle courtyard. With great respect, these attendants conducted the cat\nand the dog into a little ante-room, and then retired, leaving them\nalone. A few minutes later, a very old woman, who, the animals noticed,\nwas stone-blind, came to take them before the king.\n\n\"How strange!\" whispered the cat in its rather meouw-y voice.\n\n\"Very,\" whispered back the dog in his deeper tone.\n\nHaving opened, one after the other, three great doors with three\ndifferent iron keys, the old woman, guiding herself by touching the wall\nwith her hand, led the animals into a long dark corridor. The cat, who\ncould see quite well in the dark, did not mind this, but the dog was not\nparticularly pleased. The echoes of the old woman's boots went rolling\nalong in the hollow darkness; the dog could hear his heart beat, and saw\nhis black companion's eyes glowing like pools of flame. Then, to their\nmutual relief, the animals saw a point of light appearing far down the\npassage, and on reaching this, they discovered a second blind old woman\nholding a torch. The first old woman beckoned them to follow this new\nguide, and disappeared again into the dark corridors by which they had\narrived.\n\nThe second old woman, lifting high the torch, first led her charges\nthrough three more great doors, all of which she carefully locked behind\nher. Soon the animals found themselves at the top of a winding stair\nwhose end was lost in darkness. Down this stair they went, turning, ever\nturning, down and round, down and round, till both cat and dog felt\ndizzily that they must have reached the heart of the earth. Then, little\nby little, a pin-point of light began to glow brighter and brighter,\nand the animals found themselves at the foot of the stairs and opposite\na little door. And there, by this door, stood another blind old woman,\nwho held a torch and beckoned to the animals to follow.\n\nThree more doors they passed, the last one opening on a very narrow,\nwinding passage. In and out they turned, walking one behind the other,\nfor a time that seemed very, very long. Suddenly a narrow door appeared\nin the winding wall, which opened inward as they drew near, revealing a\nbeautiful round chamber richly furnished and hung with the finest\ntapestries. Beside the fireplace, in which a wood-fire was cheerily\nburning, sat a gray-haired lady, who was no other than the Fairy Jocapa,\nand in the centre of the room, reading a great book by the light of many\ncandles, sat a young man, the King.\n\nIn spite of the enchanter's careful training in manners, the cat and the\ndog, I am sorry to say, almost stared for an instant at the King. Small\nwonder that they did so, for the unfortunate young man lay under a\nhorrid spell, and his face and hands were not pink or white or\nsun-brown, like yours or mine, but bright green, like a parrot's wing!\n\n\"Welcome, O wonderful animals,\" said the enchanted King. \"Your fame has\ngone before you into every land, and it is said that there is no\nquestion you cannot answer. Listen, then, to my story and help me if you\ncan.\n\n\"You see me before you, hideously changed. Until you entered here, an\ninstant past, no eyes but those of my aunt had beheld my horrible\ncountenance. It was she who caused this enchanted chamber to appear in\nthe heart of the foundations of my castle; and in this chamber I have\nhidden since that terrible hour when the spell was put upon me. My\nsubjects only know that I am still alive. The Lord Chancellor rules the\nkingdom in my stead. But hearken to my story.\n\n\"Ten months ago, as I was driving my chariot down a narrow road built\nalong a river-bank close to the stream, I encountered a chariot being\ndriven furiously in the opposite direction. The driver of the chariot\nwas a tall, elderly man, wearing a wizard's cap; his face was red as\nwith anger, an evil light gleamed in his small malicious eyes. In order\nto let him pass, I turned to one side, as near to the river-brink as I\ndared; but the space was too narrow, our chariots locked wheels, and his\nwas overthrown. Turning upon me a face aflame with hatred, he cried out,\n'I will teach you what it is to offend the Enchanter Zidoc'; and an\ninstant later the wizard himself, the struggling horses, and the\noverturned chariot disappeared in a rumble of thunder and a great flash\nof flame. I turned homeward, never noticing that anything had happened\nto me. As I chanced to pass a roadside cottage, a little child playing\nabout saw me and ran, screaming for fear, to the door. A little farther\non, I stopped to drink of a spring. Judge of my horror when I leaned\nover the clear pool of water and saw that my face had turned a bright\ngreen! I waited till nightfall, stole into the castle unobserved, and\nsought the aid of my aunt, the fairy. You know the rest. Speak, O\nwonderful dog and wonderful cat, and bid me hope a little!\"\n\nAnd the poor King hid his bright green face in his hands.\n\n\"The Enchanter Zidoc is an old enemy of our dear master,\" said the white\ndog, \"and his power as a sorcerer is the greatest in Fairyland!'\n\n\"I have tried all my powers against him in vain,\" said the Fairy Jocapa,\nsadly.\n\n\"But let us not despair,\" broke in the cat. \"Zidoc is now to be found in\nthese dominions. His castle lies on the border of the Silver Hills. The\ndog and I will go there, and see if we can help the King.\"\n\nSo the Fairy and the unhappy King thanked the wise animals, and sent for\nthe blind old women to lead them back to the upper world. Early next\nmorning, the famous pair began the journey to the Enchanter's den. The\ndog's plan was to pretend to be but an everyday stray dog, and to this\nend, he rolled several times in a mud-puddle; the cat, too, was to\nappear as a stray cat, and neglected his fine black coat in order to\nlook the part.\n\nUnfortunately for their plan, Zidoc had in his chamber a little\nenchanted bell which rang shrilly when danger threatened him. Hearing\nthe bell ring late at night, Zidoc rose from his bed, and hurrying to\nthe turret window, saw, by the light of the waning moon, the dog and the\ncat making their way to the castle through the wood. Rubbing his hands\nwith glee, he determined to let the two animals walk headlong into his\npower, and then inflict upon them some terrible revenge.\n\nThe first day the dog went indoors, and concealed himself under a sofa,\nwhile the cat remained outside. When twilight came, the dog ran out and\nmet the cat in the castle garden.\n\n\"Did you discover anything?\" asked the cat.\n\n\"Nothing whatever,\" replied the dog.\n\n\"I will try to-morrow,\" said the cat.\n\nAnd so, when the morning came, the dog remained outside while the cat\nconcealed himself behind a curtain. When the twilight came, the animals\nmet again.\n\n\"Did you discover anything?\" asked the dog.\n\n\"Very little,\" replied the cat. \"The Sorcerer Serponel is coming\nto-morrow to pay Zidoc a visit. One of us must hide in the room in which\nthey will talk; for perhaps we may learn something which may help us to\nlift the spell from the King.\"\n\n\"To-morrow it is my turn,\" said the dog. And so the next morning he\nstole into the house and hid again beneath the sofa.\n\nNow Zidoc knew very well where the dog had concealed himself. Moreover,\nhe had summoned the powerful Serponel to his aid in order that the dog\nand the cat should have no opportunity to escape.\n\nWhen Serponel arrived, both the wicked enchanters went to the room in\nwhich the dog lay concealed. First, Zidoc locked the only door with a\ngreat key and then he said to Serponel,--\n\n\"Brother, someone tells me that there is an enemy hidden under the\nsofa.\"\n\n\"Yes, brother,\" replied the dreadful Serponel.\n\n\"And something tells me that it is time to let him feel your staff.\"\n\nNow Zidoc had an enchanted staff whose blows were mortal, and knowing\nthis, the poor dog, who was trapped between the wall and the two\nsorcerers, grew cold with fear to the tip of his white tail. Just as he\nwas about to make a bolt into the open, Zidoc dragged the sofa swiftly\naside, and aimed a terrible blow at him, which by the greatest good luck\njust missed its mark. He then ran out into the room, pursued by the\nsorcerers, who little by little forced him toward a corner.\n\nAnd now, just as Zidoc, holding the staff uplifted, was about to strike\nthe poor dog with all his force, a black shape, with flaming eyes and\npaws outstretched to scratch, leaped through the open window and landed\nupon Zidoc's back. It was the brave cat, who had heard the fracas from\nhis hiding-place below and had clawed his way up the castle wall to help\nhis friend. Valiant Puss, forgetting in one instant, I must admit, all\nits knowledge of languages, catastrophes, history, social deportment,\nand agriculture, plunged instantly into the fray, and gave Zidoc a\nfrightful scratch, which so upset him that it caused him to drop his\nstaff, while the dog profiting by the confusion, and forgetting all\nabout geometry, mathematics, agriculture, and dogma, managed to give\nSerponel a good bite just above the ankle.\n\nThe wily Zidoc, however, was not to be so easily thwarted. Uttering a\nmagic word, he caused the room to be filled with darkness, and in the\ncover of this darkness he transformed himself instantly into a black cat\nexactly like the learned cat, while Serponel changed himself into a\nwhite dog exactly like the learned dog. At the same moment he caused the\nlocked door to fly open.\n\n\"Now,\" thought he, \"I will cause the cat to follow the wrong white dog,\nand the dog to follow the wrong cat; we shall thus separate the animals,\nand when we have lured them far away from each other, Serponel and I\nwill resume our true forms, and destroy these meddlesome creatures.\"\n\nWhen the darkness cleared, the hearts of the true animals fell for fear\nlest the sorcerer's ruse be successful; but they met the challenge\nreadily, and instead of fleeing, stood their ground; the true dog\nbattling with the false dog, the real cat with the false cat. Never was\nsuch a hullaballoo heard in Fairyland. Then, seeing that he was in\ndanger of being badly scratched, Zidoe brought on another darkness, the\nfloor of the castle shook, a noise as of thunder roared and rattled\nthrough the room. When the darkness ended, both the enchanters had been\nseparated and the cats were confused, the real dog was chasing the real\ncat, thinking that he was following Zidoc, while Serponel, who had been\nthe false white dog, was pursuing Zidoc, who had been the false black\ncat! Down the stairs, over the terraces and the gardens ran the true\ndog, pursuing the true cat, while indoors, up and down through the rooms\nand over the furniture, raced the false animals.\n\nThe poor cat, thinking he was being pursued by the wrong dog, grew short\nof breath, and, hearing the snapping at his heels, ran up a convenient\ntree. Hardly had he reached a point above the dog's jaws when a voice\nsaid:--\n\n\"Why, my pupils, my pupils! What a way to behave! Stop your quarreling\nthis instant!\"\n\nThe animals turned to look, and saw their master, the old enchanter. He\nhad been worried by their long absence and had gone forth to look for\nthem. Thus, at the same moment that the poor dog saw that he had been\npursuing his friend, the cat saw that he had been escaping from his\ncomrade.\n\nSuddenly a noise from the castle arrested their attention, and on\nlooking up, all saw through the windows the false dog pursuing the false\ncat down the hall of state.\n\nNow, if you remember the first part of this story, you will recall that\nZidoc quarreled with the old enchanter over the right spell for\ndestroying castles. A triumphant smile shone on the lips of the old\nteacher; he stretched forth his hand toward the castle and uttered a\nmagic word.\n\nThere was a roar as of twenty thousand cataracts, and in the twinkling\nof an eye, the castle collapsed in a cloud of dust, burying the two\nwicked magicians in its ruins.\n\n\"There, I told him so!\" said the old enchanter.\n\nWhen the dog and the cat had recovered from the events of the day, the\nthree friends began their journey back to the palace of the enchanted\nKing. He came to the castle gate to meet them, for Zidoc's overthrow had\nbroken the spell which had so oddly disfigured him. Through the open\ndoors, a splendid banquet could be seen waiting, and the sound of music\nwas heard.\n\nSo the old enchanter gave his arm to the Fairy Jocapa, the Prince gave\nhis to the white dog, and the cat followed all by himself. Then came the\nhost of rejoicing courtiers.\n\nWhen the festival was over, the enchanter and the wonderful animals went\nback, loaded with royal gifts, to their own little house and lived\nhappily there to a good old age.\n\n\n\n     THE SHEPHERD OF CLOUDS\n\n[Illustration: A man and two elves watching clouds pour through a large\ngate.]\n\n\nOnce upon a time a young husband and wife named Giles and Phyllida lived\nin a cottage in the heart of a great plain. League upon league, the rich\nland fell away to the west, there to end at a wall of high mountains\ninto whose fastnesses no one had ever ventured. Yet the mountains were\nvery beautiful. In the cold of a clear winter's day, the snowy summits\nand rust-colored pinnacles shone bright and near at hand; in the spring,\nfogs hid them, and lay like gray mantles upon the lower slopes. Midway\nin the mountain wall, a wide chasm marked the entrance to a deep, gloomy\nvalley, out of which a roaring mountain torrent hurried, to lose itself\nin the plain below. And because somewhere in the heart of this dark\nvalley storms were brewed, whose dark clouds, laden with lightning and\nhail, poured from between the crags of the valley out over the land,\nthis valley was known as the Valley of Thunder. According to an old\nlegend, out of this valley a king should one day come to rule over the\npeople of the plain.\n\nGiles and Phyllida kept house by themselves. They had two cows, one red\nand white, the other black and white, a flock of hens, some hives of\nbees, a white horse, a dog, and a cat.  All day long Phyllida worked\nhappily at the household tasks, baking the sweet white bread and marking\nthe fresh golden butter into square pats, while Giles went out to work\nin the waving grain; and Phyllida, watching from a window, would see the\nsun flash on the uplifted blade of her husband's scythe.\n\nOne day Phyllida said to Giles:--\n\n\"I have made a dress for the youngest child of our cousins, Jack and\nJill, and this morning I shall saddle the white horse and ride over to\ntheir cottage. Perhaps I may stay with them for a few days. You will\nfind a fresh baking of bread and a meat-pie in the larder. Good-bye,\nGiles; I'll soon be home again.\"\n\nSo Giles answered, \"Good-bye,\" and away rode Phyllida on the white\nhorse.\n\nA few days passed, and Giles, wandering here and there through the quiet\nhouse, felt very lonely indeed. Finally he could stand it no longer, and\nsaid to himself, \"Phyllida must be on her way home now; I shall walk\ndown the highway and meet her.\"\n\nSo he turned all the animals loose in the fields, and putting a few\nslices of bread and cheese in his pockets, set forth upon the road.\nLeagues ahead of him stood the mysterious mountains rising palely\nthrough the haze of the midsummer afternoon. A pale violet light fell on\ntheir distant precipices, and the snow in the rifts upon their sides\nappeared of the purest and loveliest white. Gusts of wind hurrying from\nthe distant summits swept the great plain, and the fields of ripening\nwheat bent before them and rustled harshly.\n\nSuddenly, down the throat of the Thunder Valley, Giles saw a river of\nlightning fall, and from far away came a low murmur of thunder. Then,\nfaster and faster, a storm poured down the chasm like a flood, drowning\nout the light of the sun, stilling the songs of the little birds, and\nturning to the sky the pale underside of the leaves of the roadside\ntrees. A darkness as of night itself covered the land. Rain began to\nfall in great spattering drops.  Now, by the glare of the lightning,\nGiles would see the endless fields, drenched and waving in the rain; now\nthe Thunder Valley itself, covered with a floor of onrushing cloud\nunfolding, turning, and sinking in continuous and multitudinous\nactivity.\n\nNight came on amid the storm, and a flash of lightning revealed to Giles\nthat he had lost his way. Hoping to find a shelter or some friendly\ncottage, however, he plunged on; but the road became worse and worse,\nand he was again and again forced to wade brooks flooded by the tempest.\nAt length his steps led him into a pine wood, and there in the thickest\npart he found a little shelter, and fell asleep.\n\nWhen he woke, numb, cramped, and cold, he found to his horror that in\nthe night and darkness he had blundered on into the Valley of Thunder,\ninto which no living soul had ever before advanced. Worst of all, he\ncould not find the way by which he had entered, for high crags rose on\nevery side and held him prisoner. Presently, to his amazement, he beheld\na narrow flight of steps cut in the solid rock of the mountainside. Up\nthese steps climbed Giles, and as he mounted higher, the stairs began to\ntwist and turn amid the crags and pinnacles. At the end of an hour's\nascent, he found himself at a turn from which the Thunder Valley, the\nchasm through which it opened into the plain, and the wide plain itself,\ncould all be seen.\n\nGiles lingered there a while, trying to see his own cottage, or perhaps\nPhyllida on her white horse; but he could see neither one nor the other.\nSo he began to climb again. All day long he climbed and climbed and\nclimbed. Twilight fell. The circle of the sun dropped below the level\nhorizon of the distant fields. One still golden star hung on the fringe\nof the sun-glow. The stairs began to widen, and presently Giles found\nhimself at the summit of the mountain. Before his eyes lay a little\nlevel field surrounded by strange crags and pinnacles, looming tall and\nblack against the fast-appearing stars, and as Giles rubbed his eyes in\nwonder, lights shone here and there in the sides of the towering rocks,\neven as lights shine in the windows of a village when you see it from\nafar.\n\nGiles rubbed his eyes again. Lights? What could they mean? Presently a\ngreat door, cut in the side of a towering mass of stone, opened with a\nburst of light, and toward Giles there hurried the two strangest\ncreatures whom he had ever seen. These were two elves, alike as two peas\nand each about three feet tall. Instead of having ears much like other\nelves, however, the first one had ears like great curved cornucopias,\nwhich projected almost a foot on each side of his enormous round head,\nwhile the other, whose ears were quite natural, had but one huge eye in\nthe centre of his forehead.\n\nWithout saying a single word, these strange elves seized Giles by the\nhands, and after hurrying him across the open space, urged him through\nthe open doors into the house in the crags.\n\nStill keeping silence, the elves led Giles through hundreds of splendid\nrooms and great halls, all lighted by hanging lamps as countless in\nnumber as the leaves upon the trees. Suddenly, a great archway rose\nbefore them, through which appeared a hall larger and brighter than all\nthe others seen before. At one end of it, under a canopy of rosy-gray,\nstood a golden throne, and on the throne sat a being dressed in radiant\nblue--in blue such as the sky wears after a rain, when the dark clouds\nwith bright edges break asunder and reveal the glory overhead. At the\nsame moment, the countless mountain elves gathered in the hall began to\nsing:--\n\n  \"All Hail, All Hail to the Shepherd of Clouds,\n    Who, high in his mountain-top, rules o'er the' weather;\n  He sends the rich rain over mountain and plain,\n   And sprinkles the dew-drops afar o'er the heather.\"\n\nThe elves led Giles before the Shepherd.\n\n\"How comest thou, mortal, to invade my mountain?\" said the Shepherd.\n\n\"I went forth to seek Phyllida,\" said Giles, \"and lost my way in the\nstorm.\"\n\n\"What sayest thou, Eye-o?\" said the Shepherd to the elf with the single\ngreat eye in his forehead.\n\n\"The mortal speaks the truth,\" answered Eye-o in the queerest,\nsquealiest voice. \"I saw him set out yesterday from his cottage on the\nplain. He had not gone far when the storm which Your Mightiness prepared\nin the morning and sent forth in the afternoon overtook him. He lost his\nway, and chance led him to your dwelling, O Shepherd of Clouds.\"\n\n\"What sayest thou, Ear-o?\" said the Shepherd to the elf with the great\nears.\n\n\"I heard him say good-bye to his wife Wednesday last,\" replied the elf\nin a voice exactly like that of his brother. \"Phyllida said to him, 'You\nwill find a fresh baking of bread and a meat-pie in the larder.'\"\n\nThe Shepherd of Clouds fixed his deep, solemn gaze upon Giles and said:--\n\n\"Mortal, I have hearkened to your story and to the words of my faithful\nEye-o, who sees all things that happen in the whole wide world; I have\npaid heed to the words of Ear-o, who hears all things that are to be\nheard under the sun. Chance has led you to discover the secret of the\nweather. Nevermore must you revisit the lower world. Here shall you stay\ntill Death overtakes you. Obey me, and I will give you happiness and\nhonor; seek to escape, and my lightnings will find you wheresoever you\nmay hide.\"\n\n\"Oh, no! no! no!\" cried poor Giles, throwing himself down before the\nthrone. \"Great Shepherd of Clouds, do not keep me here. Let me return to\nmy cottage on the plain, to Phyllida who waits for me, and knows not\nwhither I am gone or whether I am living or dead. Oh, let me go, let me\ngo!\"\n\nBut the Shepherd only shook his head austerely, and rising from his\nthrone, disappeared behind the rose-gray curtains. Again the mountain\nelves sang, and as they sang, the great hall slowly grew darker than the\ndarkest night, and cold gusts of wind arose wailing in the darkness.\nPresently Giles felt his body grow weak, strong hands seized him and\nbore him up, and an instant later a deep sleep blotted out the world.\n\nWhen he awoke, he found himself in a little room. Dawn was at hand, and\nthe sweet, cold mountain air was blowing through the eastern window.\nSuddenly, the door swung open, and Eye-o and Ear-o entered.\n\n\"The sun is rising, Giles,\" said Ear-o, \"and your appointed task awaits\nyou. The Shepherd wishes the clouds released at once. Hurry, hurry,\nhurry, Giles, and open their prison-door.\"\n\nSo Giles went forth with the elves. Over the summit of the mountain they\nran, along a path which wandered here and there--now dodging between\nhuge boulders, now skirting terrible precipices. Presently Giles saw a\nmonstrous wall of rock rising before him, in which were fixed two brazen\ndoors taller and more stately than he had ever seen in the world below.\nBeside these doors, a flight of steps began, which led to the top of the\nwall.\n\nCurious to see what lay behind the wall and the closed doors, Giles\nhurried to the top. He found himself standing at the brink of a great\nbowl, many miles wide and many miles long, hollowed out of the very rock\nof the mountaintop. Within this bowl, like a giant flock of sheep, lay\nhundreds of clouds on whose misty tops the rising sun poured gold, pale\nlavender, and rose. At first, Giles thought them motionless, but as he\ngazed intently within the bowl, he saw that the clouds moved and swayed\nmuch like anchored ships in a tide.\n\nThis bowl was the weather-bowl. In it the Shepherd of Clouds prepared\nthe weather for the neighboring countries. One day he would keep the\nfair-weather clouds at home and let the rain-clouds sail over the land;\non another day, he would keep all the clouds in and let the sun shine;\non other days he would mix together such frosts, mists, and\nsnow-flurries as the season required.\n\nSuddenly, ringing infinitely sweet over the mountain-top, rose the clear\nmusic of a silver horn.\n\n\"It is the Shepherd!\" cried Eye-o and Ear-o.\n\n\"The hour is at hand to send the clouds over the earth. Quick, Giles,\nunbar the doors!\"\n\nSo Giles unbound the giant doors, which of their own volition opened\nwide. A sound as of thunder heard from far away over the sea beat upon\nGiles's ear as the portals turned upon their hinges. In answer to this\nsound, the clouds rose and lifted their golden heads, and hastening to\nthe brazen doors, one by one escaped through them to the sunlit spaces\nof the morning sky. There, they formed themselves into a fleet, and\nsailed majestically away.\n\nThus Giles became the servant of the Shepherd of Clouds. It was his task\nto unbar the door when the Shepherd had prepared the weather; it was his\nto lock the clouds in, once they had returned from the heavens in answer\nto the Shepherd's summoning horn. In time he came to know the\nrain-clouds from their fair-weather brothers; he learned how frosts were\nsent forth; how fogs were made; and he was even allowed to prepare a\nsmall storm. He saw the icy caverns in which the hail-stones lie piled\nin monstrous bags, the lightning-bolts in their crystal jars, and even\nthe prisoned storm-winds. You may be sure that, when he could so arrange\nit, Phyllida's garden had quite the finest variety of weather. For Eye-o\nand Ear-o would tell him about her.\n\n\"Tell me, what is Phyllida doing?\" Giles would say again and again.\n\nAnd Eye-o would answer, \"She is out in the garden gathering plums\"; or,\n\"she is in the kitchen making gingerbread.\"\n\nAnd then Giles would say to Ear-o, \"Tell me, what is Phyllida saying?\"\n\nAnd Ear-o would answer, \"'Oh, would that my lad were home!'\"\n\nTwo years passed, and Giles, who had found no opportunity of escape,\nbegan to lose hope of doing so. Never again, he feared, would he see\nPhyllida. One day, with Eye-o and Ear-o by his side, he sat on a great\nboulder and gazed gloomily down on the plain. Spring was just ripening\ninto early summer, the plain was at its very greenest and loveliest, and\nhere and there a little blue wood-smoke hung over the tiny villages.\nGiles thought of Phyllida far, far away, and a terrible loneliness\npoured into his heart. Eye-o and Ear-o sitting beside him, their long,\nstrange arms clasped about their knees, looked on with sympathy.\nPresently Ear-o's right ear turned itself about, and after a moment's\nsilence, the elf said:--\n\n\"I hear voices telling of war. I hear the Robber King of the Black Lakes\nsummoning his terrible army. He is preparing a secret attack on the\npeople of the plain.\"\n\n\"I see him! I see him!\" cried Eye-o. \"He is talking to the Grand\nChamberlain Scelerato.\"\n\n\"Listen,\" said Ear-o; \"he is saying, 'We will sweep the land at dawn,\nsteal the grain, and destroy every village to its foundation.'\"\n\n\"I see the robbers gathering,\" said Eye-o. \"They are hiding in the dark\npine forests, lest they be seen by the people of the plain. The sunlight\npierces here and there through the thick branches and shines on the\nbreastplates of the armed men.\"\n\nAt this terrible news, Giles was stricken to the heart with anxiety and\nfear. What was to become of Phyllida and the people of the plain? If he\ncould only hurry down the mountain and warn them! If he could only\nescape! And he looked round eagerly, as he had looked a thousand times\nbefore, for any avenue of escape; but his gaze met only the great\nprecipices of the mountain and the guarded stairs.\n\nWhat could he do? His heart became like ice, and he feared to gaze upon\nthe plain lest he see the smoke of burning villages. All night long he\nnever closed his eyes. At dawn he rose and hurried to the top of the\ngate which overlooked the cloud-bowl. For two whole weeks, not a cloud\nhad been allowed to roam the sky, and it seemed to Giles that the mists\nwere angry, and that a darkness brooded upon them. Turning toward the\nplain, Giles saw, at the edge of the land, a little glow of fire. The\nrobbers had invaded the plain!\n\nPresently Eye-o came clambering up the steps.\n\n\"I see a village in flames,\" said the elf. \"The inhabitants are fleeing\ndown the roads. The news is spreading, and the people of the plain are\nhurrying to seek refuge in the mountains.\"\n\n\"Oh, where is Phyllida?\" cried Giles.\n\n\"She is on the highway with Jack and Jill and their children, hastening\ntoward the Valley of Thunder,\" answered the elf.\n\nSuddenly Giles stood up, and throwing his arms high over his head,\nuttered a loud shout. \"I can save them,\" he cried. \"Let us send a storm\nagainst the robbers. Hurry, let us prepare the worst tempest that ever\nwas seen.\"\n\nAnd away he ran to the hail-stone caverns, and carrying bag after bag to\nthe brim, emptied them all into the weather-bowl; he then tossed in a\ndozen skinsful of the fiercest storm-winds, and ended by casting in all\nthe jars of thunderbolts that were to be found in the cavern. You should\nhave heard the crash of the crystal vases on the rocky floor of the\nweather-bowl, and the hiss with which the lightning escaped and hid in\nthe rolling edges of the clouds. The great bowl roared and trembled, the\nclouds massed together and grew dark; lightning played over the black\ncrests of the thunder-heads. From the top of the gate, Giles took one\nsatisfied look into the prisoned tempest, and then hurried down to unbar\nthe door.\n\nThrough the gates, like wild herds, poured the clouds, and rising in the\nair, were caught by the spreading storm-winds and whirled madly over the\nsky. The thunder roared as no mortal had ever before heard it or ever\nwill hear it again, and the tempest sailed away to break in all its\nanger over the heads of the robber army. So terrible was the noise that\nthe enchanted mountain trembled to its very foundations.\n\nHearing the roar, the Shepherd of Clouds himself was roused and ran down\nto the cloudbowl; but so dark was the mountain-top that he lost his way,\nand narrowly missed falling down a precipice. The mountain elves,\nterrified by the confusion, ran hither and thither like ants whose nests\nhad been opened. Crash went the thunder! Rumble, rumble, rumble, room,\nrrrr-rang bang! bang!\n\nOnce he had seen the storm break over the robber army, Giles, taking\nadvantage of the darkness, noise, and confusion, determined to make one\nmore effort to escape. Down the endless stairs he hurried, splashing\nthrough the falling rain, down, and down, and down. Once at the bottom,\nhe was lucky enough to find the path out of the chasm, and hurried along\nit to the mouth of the Valley of Thunder.\n\nHe was free! The terrible storm had spent itself, and the sun was\nbeginning to shine on the thousand rain-drops caught in the matted\ngrass. A rainbow formed just as Giles approached the plain, and the\nlittle birds came out to shake the rain from their feathers.\n\nNow, in the secure shelter of an overhanging cliff, were to be found\nthose people of the plain who had fled to the valley for refuge; and\nwhen these poor worried folk saw Giles coming down the valley, they\nrecalled the prophecy that a king should come to them out of the valley,\nand hailed Giles as their king. Best of all, Phyllida herself ran out,\nand threw her arms about her husband. As for the robbers, the storm had\noverwhelmed them and swept them all into the river. There, I am glad to\nsay, they turned into little fishes.\n\nWhen the Shepherd of Clouds found that Giles had escaped after making\nall this disturbance, he was very angry, and rushed to his lightning\ncloset to hurl some thunderbolts at him. When he got to the closet,\nhowever, he found that Giles had used every single bolt, and that the\ncupboard was empty. Consequently, he had to wait till the end of summer\nbefore he could get some new lightning, and by that time, he was so busy\narranging the autumn frosts that he quite forgot about Giles.\n\nSo Giles and Phyllida became King and Queen of the people of the plain\nand lived happily ever after.\n\n\n\n     THE CITY UNDER THE SEA\n\n[Illustration: A black ship in the background, persuded by another ship\nin the foreground.]\n\n\nOnce upon a time, in a country of mountains which bordered upon the sea,\ndwelt a rich merchant who had three sons. The eldest and the second-born\nwere his joy, for they were merchants too, and remained at his side; but\nthe youngest often caused him much anxiety. Not that this youngest son\nwas a wild or a bad lad; but love of the sea and desire for adventure\nran like fire in his veins, and he could not bring himself to sit beside\nhis father and his brothers in the counting-house.\n\nWeary at length of the constant reproaches of his kinsmen, he turned\naway one night from his father's house and joined a ship as a common\nsailor. Clad in sailor blue, wearing a little cap, a blouse open at the\nthroat, and trousers cut wide at the bottoms, the runaway lad sailed\nover the sea to foreign lands and isles. And as the years passed, one by\none, and brought no tidings of him, his father and his brothers gave him\nup for lost.\n\nNow the King of the country in which the rich merchant and his son dwelt\nloved rare gems and precious stones more than anything else in the\nworld. Hidden secretly away in the deep foundations of his castle lay\nhis treasure-room: it was circular in shape and built of black marble,\nand at equal distance one from the other, along the curving wall, stood\na hundred statues of armed men, holding ever-burning lights. A hundred\ncoffers of green stone lay on the floor, one at the base of each statue,\neach coffer piled high with gems.\n\nNight after night, when all was still, the King would descend to the\nsecret chamber, and throwing open the covers of the jewel-chests, would\ngaze long and silently into the gleaming mass within.\n\nOne night the King led his neighbor, the Emperor of the Seven Isles, to\nthe jewel-room, and showed him his treasures.\n\n\"Are there fairer jewels to be found in the whole wide world?\" said the\nKing proudly.\n\n\"They are indeed noble,\" replied the Emperor, nodding his gray head.\n\"But how happens it that the Emerald of the Sea is not among them? The\nEmerald of the Sea is the most glorious jewel in the whole wide world.\nYears ago a fisherman of the Land of the Dawn found it in a strangely\ncarved box which a storm had washed into his nets. I saw it when I was\nbut a young prince; it hung by a chain from the throat of the Princess\nof the Dawn, and shone there as if the very secret of the sea were\nhidden in its heart.\"\n\n\"Where is this emerald to be found?\" asked the King, who was consumed\nwith the desire to add the jewel to his possessions. \"Tell me, that I\nmay at once send an expedition in search of it.\"\n\n\"I have not heard of it for many a long year,\" replied the Emperor, \"but\nI think it is still in the Land of the Dawn.\"\n\nSo great was the King's impatience to become the owner of the Emerald of\nthe Sea, that he could scarcely wait for the morning. All night long he\nslept not a wink for thinking of it, and hardly had the red shield of\nthe morning sun risen above the thin mists lying at the edge of the sea\nand sky, when he sent for the rich merchant to come to the palace at\nonce.\n\nWondering much at the summons, the merchant made haste to the palace,\nand was there taken instantly before the King. When the King saw him, he\nsaid:--\n\n\"You are the greatest and richest merchant in my dominions. Know, then,\nthat I have a task worthy of you. In the Land of the Dawn there is a\njewel called the Emerald of the Sea; it is your task to discover it and\npurchase it for me. To possess it, I would give all the gold in my\nrealm. Take heed that you return with it, for if you fail me, my anger\nshall strike you down.\"\n\nAt these words the merchant bowed low, and replied that he would that\nvery day sail for the Land of the Dawn in his fastest ship. Then,\nreturning home, he gave orders that the best vessel in all his fleets be\nimmediately prepared for the journey; and so swiftly was this done, that\nthe merchant sailed for the Land of the Dawn on the morning tide.\n\nMany days and many leagues he sailed, over shining seas, till he reached\nthe harbor of the Land of the Dawn. Ships were entering and ships were\nleaving the lovely mountain-circled bay. How the broad sails tugged at\ntheir ropes as a steady wind filled their curving white depths! How\nsilver-clear shone the furrows of foam flowing back from the\nonward-hurrying bows!\n\nMaking her way out toward the great, still mirror of the summer sea, was\na strange black vessel, with sails as red as fire.\n\nThe merchant anchored his ship in a quiet bay, and hastened ashore to\nfind the Lord Treasurer of the Kingdom. He found this nobleman at ease\non a balcony of his castle which overlooked the sea. Upon hearing the\nmerchant's story, the nobleman started with surprise, and said:--\n\n\"You are just too late! At the command of my royal master, the Prince of\nthe Land of the Dawn, I sold the Emerald of the Sea only an hour ago to\nthe master of a strange vessel. See, there she is now.\" And the Lord\nTreasurer pointed out over the sea to the black ship with the red sails,\nwhich was just then disappearing over the horizon.\n\nThankful that the other ship was still in sight, the merchant hurried\nback to his own vessel and gave chase. Luckily for him, there was a full\nmoon that night, by which the shadowy hulk and the swaying masts of the\nmysterious ship could be seen.\n\nAll the next day they sailed, but never an inch nearer to the other\nvessel did they come, though the merchant loaded his ship with all the\ncanvas she could bear. Another night and another day found them no\nnearer. Finally, late in the afternoon of the third day, a great storm\ncame sailing over the edge of the sea; a blast of wind struck the\nmerchant's ship, then a torrent of rain, and night came on just as the\nstorm was at its height.\n\nWhen the daylight came again, the other ship had completely disappeared;\nand though the worried merchant sailed here and sailed there, never a\nsign of the stranger could he find. At last, with a heavy heart, he gave\nup the quest and returned to his King with the evil tidings.\n\nThe King, I hardly need say, was beside himself with rage and\ndisappointment. Scowling so terribly that his eyebrows almost met, he\ncried to the merchant:--\n\n\"Wretch, through you I have lost the finest jewel in the world! If you\ndo not find it within a year, your life and your possessions shall be\nforfeited to me.\"\n\nOn hearing these terrible words, the merchant turned pale, for he had no\nmore idea where the Emerald of the Sea was to be found than had a\nnew-born child. His two sons, however, when they had heard his story,\nbade him not to despair, and declared that they would that very night go\nforth and seek the emerald through the world.\n\nNow, because the poor merchant could not bear to be left quite alone, it\nwas finally agreed that only the eldest son should go in search of the\njewel, while the second-born should remain at home. This, of course, was\nmuch against the will of the second son; nevertheless, so it was\narranged.\n\nAnd so the eldest son sailed away. The days lengthened into weeks, the\nweeks into months, the months into a year, yet the eldest son did not\nreturn. A guard of soldiers led the unhappy merchant before the King.\n\n\"Well, have you found the Emerald of the Sea?\" said the King.\n\n\"No,\" replied the merchant, hopelessly. And now all would certainly have\nbeen over with the poor merchant, had not his second son begged and\npleaded with the King for a year of respite in which he, too, might\nsearch for the emerald through the world. Though at first unwilling, the\nKing at length yielded to the plea, but exacted one half of the\nmerchant's possessions as a forfeit.\n\nAnd so the second son sailed away. Days lengthened into weeks, weeks\nlengthened into months, the months into a year, yet the second son did\nnot return. Cruel storms wrecked so many of the merchant's ships that he\nlost the other half of his possessions, and was forced to take refuge in\na miserable cottage by the marshes beyond the town.\n\nOn the last night of the year granted to him by the King, the unhappy\nman sat in his poor house by a crumbling driftwood fire, listening to\nthe surf breaking on the beach that edged the marsh. Far away, he heard\nthe bells of the royal city sound the midnight hour. Neither the eldest\nson nor the second-born had returned. The second year of respite was at\nan end; nothing now could stay the anger of the King.\n\nSuddenly there came a vigorous rat-tat-tat on the door.\n\n\"I am lost,\" murmured the poor merchant to himself. \"The King's soldiers\nare already at the door.\" And advancing unsteadily across the room, he\nthrew the door open wide.\n\nA gust of wind from the sea blew in, which bent back the flame of the\ntaper in his hand, and then across the threshold stepped the youngest\nson. He was still a sailor and clad in sailor blue, and there was a\ncutlass in his belt. So shaken with joy was the merchant that for some\ntime he could not utter a word, but merely clung to the strong shoulders\nof the young seaman.\n\nAs for the sailor son, he managed to let his father know that he had\nreturned from distant lands only that very evening, and had just heard\nof the disasters which had overtaken his family.\n\nAs they talked, steps were heard outside; and then, without waiting to\nknock, a sergeant of the King's guard forced open the door, and,\nfollowed by a handful of soldiers, entered the wretched room and took\nthe merchant and his son prisoners. They spent the night on the straw in\nthe royal dungeons, and in the morning were led before the King.\n\nOn seeing the merchant, the irate King scowled more angrily than\never,--for the loss of the Emerald of the Sea had never ceased from\ntroubling him,--and said:--\n\n\"Well, have you found the Emerald of the Sea?\"\n\n\"No,\" said the poor merchant.\n\n\"Summon the executioner!\" cried the King.\n\nAnd now the poor man would certainly have bade farewell to earth, had\nnot the youngest son, like his brothers, interceded with the King.\n\nAt first the King would hear not a word of it, and called to his guard\nto take the prisoners instantly away; but it being whispered that the\nsailor, although not much more than a lad, had once fought bravely and\nbeen sorely wounded in the royal service, he at length gave ear to the\nyoungest son's prayer and said:--\n\n\"Yes, you shall have another year. But know that this year shall be the\nlast. If you do not return with the Emerald of the Sea within a\ntwelvemonth, nothing shall save you. I have spoken.\"\n\nAnd thus the sailor son went in search of the Emerald. What happened to\nhim upon his search, in what situation he discovered his brothers, and\nhow he visited the City under the Sea, you shall shortly hear.\n\n\nNow the youngest son had a little boat of his own. It was so small that,\nwhen the wind no longer filled its sails, it could be rowed along, and\nin this boat the sailor lad began his voyage. From harbor to harbor,\nfrom nation to nation, he sailed, but never a soul he found who could\ntell him aught of the strange black ship with the fiery sails or the\nlost Emerald of the Sea. Even the people of the Land of the Dawn could\ntell him only that the gem had been sold to an unknown prince.\n\nPresently the winter of the year overtook him, and in one of the sudden\nstorms that heralded the coming of the cold, his little boat went ashore\non a rocky coast, and was soon pounded to pieces by the breakers. Thrown\ninto the sea during the wreck, the sailor was himself so tossed and\ntrampled by the waves that he reached the shore far more dead than\nalive. Indeed, had it not been for a poor fisherman and his wife, there\nwould have been no more story to tell. These good people, I am glad to\nsay, rescued the sailor from the fury of the waters and nursed him back\nto health and strength again.\n\nWhen his strength was quite restored, the sailor told this good couple\nthe story of how he had gone forth to seek through the wide world the\nEmerald of the Sea.\n\n\"But my poor lad,\" said the kind fisherman, \"the Emerald of the Sea has\nvanished forever from mortal eyes.\"\n\n\"What! You know of the emerald?\" cried the sailor.\n\n\"Alas, yes,\" replied the fisherman. \"Two years ago the Prince of the\nUnknown Isles sent the finest vessel in his fleet to the Land of the\nDawn to buy the jewel. A beautiful ship was she, with a hull as black as\nnight and sails as red as fire. My brother and I sailed in her crew. The\njewel was taken aboard. Our brave ship set sail for the Unknown Isles.\nHardly were we three days out of the sight of land, when a storm\novertook us and sank the vessel. I chanced to be tossed in the water\nnear a great fragment of the mast, and clung to this until a passing\nvessel found me. Of all aboard, I alone survived. Forty fathoms deep\nlies the Emerald of the Sea, never more to be seen but by the dumb\ncreatures of the waters.\"\n\nAt these tidings the brave sailor's heart became like ice; nevertheless,\nhe cried:--\n\n\"Alas, good friend, I know that what you say is true, yet shall I not\ndespair; for, come what will, I must save my father!\"\n\nHearing this, the fisherman's wife, a quiet, good body who had had\nlittle to say, whispered that it would be well first to consult the\nWitch of the Sands.\n\n\"The Witch of the Sands? Who is she and where can I find her?\" cried the\nsailor.\n\n\"The Witch of the Sands dwells a hundred leagues from here,\" replied the\nfisherman's wife. \"All the mysteries of the waters are in her keeping\nand she has an answer for them all. You must go to her and ask her to\nhelp you.\"\n\nSo the sailor thanked the good fisherman and his wife, and set out to\nwalk the hundred leagues to the house of the Witch of the Sands. His\npath lay along a desolate and lonely shore, on whose rocky beaches the\nwooden bones of old wrecks lay rotting, half buried in stones and weed.\nJust as the third day's sun was sinking in the shining waters, the\nsailor arrived at the Witch's dwelling.\n\nThe Witch made her home in a deserted old ship, which a storm of long\nago had cast far up the sands. As for the Witch herself, she was a woman\nso old that the sailor thought she surely must have been living when the\nmoon and the stars were made. A fringe of sea-shells circled the crown\nof her high hat, and round her wrists were bracelets of pearly\nperiwinkles.\n\nJust as the sailor approached the Witch's door, a young fur seal, who\nhad been basking in a little pool left along the beach by the tide,\nhastened out of his puddle, and running swiftly toward him on his\nflappers, nuzzled his hand with his sleek, wet head, just like a young\ndog.\n\n\"Down, Neptune, down!\" cried the witch shrilly.\n\n\"Good evening, madam,\" said the sailor in his politest manner.\n\n\"You are the third person who has come here to ask me the question you\nare going to ask,\" screamed the Witch of the Sands, whose magic powers\nhad revealed to her the reason of the sailor's coming. \"I know you! You\nare the youngest son. Your two brothers have been here to ask me the way\nunder the sea, and I told them; but bless me, they have n't come back\nyet. Just like young men to forget an old woman's warning. I've a good\nmind not to tell you the way to the under-waters; indeed, I would n't if\nyou were n't a sailor and a child of the sea. Yes, I can show you the\nroad to under the sea; but you must not ask me about the emerald,\nbecause I don't know where it is myself. It was in the Land of the Dawn,\nand that's the last I heard of it! When you do get to the under-waters,\ndon't forget that. You'll have to hurry back like the wind, for the year\nwhich the King gave your father is almost gone. Don't ask me questions!\nI know you are going to ask one, because I'm not a man; and I know what\nyou are going to ask, because I'm a witch.\"\n\nAnd the strange old lady laughed and, putting her hands on her waist,\nswayed so violently from side to side that the sea-shells on her hat\nrattled and clicked. Then, after a pause to gather breath, she\ncontinued: \"Before you can go down into the waters, I shall have to give\nyou an enchanted ring. Mind you bring it back, for there are only three\nof them in the whole wide world, and your brothers have the other two.\nGoodness me, but I don't know why I let them take my magic rings. Now\nthat I come to think of it, I don't know as I shall let you take my\nring. However, it has been on my mind for some time to tell the King of\nthe City under the Sea that he's been telling the tide to come\naltogether too near my ship. You can take the ring if you will promise\nto deliver my message. Promise!\"\n\nThere was a pause, and the sailor, who had listened to the Witch's every\nword, solemnly promised to carry her message to the King under the Sea.\nHe was just about to ask a question or two, when the Witch of the Sands,\ndrawing another long, long breath, cried out again:--\n\n\"Don't ask questions! I've told you once and I've told you twice, and\nI'll tell you as many times as there are drops of water in the sea! The\npath to the City under the Sea begins a hundred leagues to the north; in\nthe high cliffs there, when the tide is low, you'll find the mouth of a\ngreat cave; walk down this cave, and down and down and down, till you\nfeel water rising round your feet. Then put on my ring and walk boldly\nahead. In a little while you will see the city shining in the waters.\nOnce there, seek out the King and tell him of your quest. But on no\naccount\" (and here the Witch solemnly turned round three times) \"eat or\ndrink anything offered to you while you are in the under-waters. If you\ndo, you will forget everything of your past life, your father, your\nquest, and the Emerald of the Sea. Let one drop pass your lips, and you\nwill spend the rest of your life under the waves. Here is the enchanted\nring. Put it in your pocket.\"\n\nWith these words, the Witch took from a little leather purse a simple\ngolden ring and handed it to the youngest son, who put the ring in his\npocket, thanked the Witch, and set off for the cavern, which led to the\nCity under the Sea. You may be sure it did not take him very long to\nfind it. After feeling carefully in his pocket to see if the ring was\nstill safe, the sailor plunged on into the winding cave. In a short\ntime, the roar of the breakers on the beach, which had been loud at the\nmouth of the cavern, began to fade and grow faint, and the tunnel grew\ndark and cold. Feeling for the wall of the passage with one hand, the\nyoungest son advanced into the blackness. Creatures of the sea, with\nround shining eyes, stared at him from shallow pools, and now and then\nhis hand, running along the wall, would touch and shake from its place a\nstarfish or great snail.\n\nDown and down and down went the sailor. Presently he heard the lapping\nof wavelets in the darkness, and a few minutes after, he felt himself\nadvancing into deepening water. Stopping for an instant, he put on the\ngolden ring. Then, walking on again, he felt the water rise from his\nankles to his waist, and from his waist to his throat. One step more,\nand the water closed over his head.\n\nOnce under the waves, the sailor hesitated, uncertain as to which way to\nturn. Little by little, however, his eyes grew accustomed to the touch\nof the water, and he saw, lying on the bottom a few feet ahead of him, a\nsmall ball glowing with a pale phosphorescent light. Stooping to touch\nthis strange object, the sailor discovered it to be a small round\nsea-plant which had anchored itself to a stone, and presently he\ndiscovered that this light was but one of thousands which together\nformed a long straight line across the level floor of the sea. Rightly\nimagining these lights to be signs of a sea-world road, the sailor\nadvanced along them. A slow walk of ten long leagues brought him to the\ngate of the City under the Sea.\n\nThere was very little light there, save for that which came through the\nwaters from the world above, and this was but a faint, pale green glow,\nwhich lay, more like a shadow than a light on the roofs and tower-tops\nof the submerged town.\n\nThe sailor walked unchallenged through the gate, and found himself in\nthe great street of the city. Along the broad avenue grew giant\nsea-plants with brown leaves, set out in rows like trees; and through\nthe foliage which moved heavily in the currents, little fish darted like\nbirds. Many people walked slowly to and fro--strange people of the sea,\nall dressed alike in tight-fitting garments of shining, fish-like\nscales.\n\nThe sailor looked into their faces and saw that a broad golden ring\nencircled the pupils of their eyes. Suddenly two men of the sea,\ndistinguished from the others by swords of red stone, moved through the\nwater, and seizing the sailor in their webbed hands, hurried him before\nthe King of the Under-Waters.\n\nOn a coral throne, in a great hall roofed with a high circular dome, sat\nthe King. The flowing waters within were bright, and a queer, pale green\nlight pierced through the hall from a kind of fountain of light in the\ncentre of the floor under the dome. Approaching this shining fountain,\nthe sailor discovered it to be a mass of glowing sea-creatures, living\nflowers of the deep, which, even as he looked, stirred their mysterious\npetals.\n\n\"Welcome, Wearer of the Enchanted Ring,\" said the King, staring hard at\nthe sailor with his large golden eyes. \"You come at a fortunate time.\nThis very evening we celebrate the wedding of the second of my three\ndaughters with the mortal wearer of the second ring. Stand you upon the\nsteps of the throne, for they are coming at once. Let the trumpets\nsound!\"\n\nAt this command, two youths of the sea lifted huge conch-shells to their\nmouths and sounded them.\n\nGreat doors instantly opened wide, and a gorgeous procession entered.\nFirst, appeared a dozen pages; then, in walked the Sea King's second\ndaughter, hand in hand with a merry young man, in whom the sailor\nrecognized his second oldest brother.\n\nPresently the conch-shells sounded again.\n\n\"The Prince and the Princess!\" cried a voice.\n\nThe King leaned over from his throne and whispered in the sailor's\near:--\n\n\"My eldest daughter and her husband. They were married just a year ago.\nThe Prince is a youth of the world above, and wears the first of the\nenchanted rings.\"\n\nNow entered the eldest Princess of the Sea, walking by the side of her\nhusband. And in the husband the young sailor beheld the elder of his two\nbrothers. And though the young sailor stretched out his arms to them,\nneither of his brothers remembered him, for while faint and hungry, they\nhad forgotten the warning of the Witch of the Sands and had eaten of the\nbread of the under-world. Thus had the memory of the world above, the\nlost emerald, and their father's plight faded away.\n\nThe conches sounded a third time.\n\n\"Come to the wedding banquet,\" cried the King. \"You shall sit beside my\nyoungest daughter.\"\n\nAnd now the sailor lad, willy nilly, was hurried into the banquet hall,\nand seated at the royal table beside the King's youngest daughter. And\nshe was quite the most beautiful of all the three. Noticing that the\nyoungest son touched no food, she said to him:--\n\n\"Why do you refuse to taste of the wedding banquet?\"\n\n\"Princess,\" replied the sailor, \"I have come to the Under-Waters to seek\nthe Emerald of the Sea; for if I return to my own country without it, my\nfather's life will be forfeited. Would you have me forget?\"\n\n\"But you will never find the Emerald of the Sea!\" cried the Princess.\n\n\"Never find the Emerald of the Sea! What do you mean?\" said the sailor\nanxiously.\n\n\"The Emerald of the Sea has disappeared,\" continued the little Princess,\nfixing the sailor with her golden eyes. \"Years ago it was stolen from my\nfather's treasury by a wicked Prince of the Under-Waters. My father\npursued him and overthrew him, but in the struggle the emerald was lost,\nand rising to the surface, drifted to the shores of the Land of the\nDawn. There it remained till the Prince of the Unknown Isles purchased\nit and took it away in his black ship. This ship, overcome by a storm,\nsank; but where it lies we know not, though we have searched far and\nwide through the waters. Whosoever finds it shall be master of the land\nunder the sea, for the emerald is master of us all. My father will not\nlift a finger to help you find it; indeed, if he knows that you are in\nsearch of it, he will force you to eat of the bread of the under-waters.\nSay nothing, therefore, of your quest.\"\n\nAt these words, the brave sailor's heart sank very low. Mindful of the\nWitch's warning, he dared touch no morsel of food, yet he knew that\nhunger would soon bring weakness in its train. Either he must find the\nemerald at once, or he must abandon all hope of finding it. He could not\nlive long if he touched no food, and if but one morsel touched his lips\nhe would forget the upper world.\n\n\nFar away, the poor merchant, whom the King had now cast in prison,\nwatched the days pass one by one, and the last year approach its end.\nEvery morning he would ask for tidings of his sailor son, and ask in\nvain.\n\n\nNow, when the wedding banquet was over, and the ball which followed was\nat its height, the eldest of the princesses called her sister, the\nbride, aside and said to her:--\n\n\"We must rid ourselves at once of this newcomer. Do you not see that he\nis the younger brother of our husbands? I beheld him stretch out his\narms to them as they passed. Who can tell but that he may lead them away\nfrom us? Let us tell our servants to lie in wait for him and deliver us\nfrom such a danger.\"\n\nSo said the eldest sister, of the golden eyes. Alas, I fear that the\npeople of the under-waters are sometimes quite as shocking as those of\nthe world above.\n\nLater that evening, just as the poor sailor was standing by one of the\ngreat doors, a dozen or so stout rogues in the service of the eldest\nsister fell upon him, bound him with cords, and dragged him through the\nwater to the royal stables.\n\nNow the people of the under-waters, having no horses,--for sea horses\nare but tiny creatures,--had tamed great dolphins to carry them about. A\nhundred of these monsters, each with a bronze ring in his nose, were\nranged along the sides of the stables, and on the fiercest and angriest\nof them all, the Princess's servants tied the sailor. How the great\nfish, fastened to a bar by a chain and his nose-ring, pulled, rolled,\nswerved aside, and thrashed his tail! But all his twistings were of no\navail, for the poor sailor lad was soon fastened to his back with a rope\nof seaweed. Then the creature was released from his chain, given a blow\non the side with a whip of shark-skin, and turned into the wilds of the\nunder-waters.\n\nFor half an hour, the fish, frightened at his burden, fled at lightning\nspeed over the roofs of the city, and sped on into the lonely plain.\nThen, ceasing his mad flight, he tried again to shake himself free of\nthe sailor. He turned, he leaped, he dived, but all in vain, for the\nsailor was securely fastened to his back. Terrified anew, with a swift\nmotion of his great fins, he shot violently to one side and rushed on\nand on into the dark. All that long night he fled. Toward the morning of\nthe next day, however, the sailor managed to work one arm free, and draw\nthe cutlass from his waist. With this he made short work of his bonds\nand rolled off the fish's back. The great animal, delivered of the\nweight which had lain upon it, rose on the tip of its tail and shot\nmadly toward the surface, and the sailor tumbled through the waters to\nthe bottom.\n\nWeak and hungry, the poor young seaman gazed about in the half-gloom,\nand found himself on the lower slopes of a sunken mountain rising from\nthe ocean floor. In no direction could he find a sign of the City under\nthe Sea. Hoping, however, to see better from the mountain's top, he\ndecided to climb it. Strange plants and shells lay in the crevices of\nthe weedy rocks, schools of bright fish fled past him like living\narrows, and huge crabs scuttled away as he appeared. Suddenly, lying on\nher side in a little ravine of the mountain, he saw a ship--the black\nship of the Emerald of the Sea! Weary and weak though he was, it took\nthe sailor but a moment to clamber aboard, and hurry past the broken\nmasts into the captain's cabin. A steady, green radiance shone in one\ncorner of the weedy room, and hastening toward it, the sailor found, at\nlast, the Emerald of the Sea. The box which had enclosed it had rotted\naway and fallen apart.\n\n\"Victory!\" cried the sailor, \"victory! The emerald is mine at last, and\nI shall save my father.\"\n\nHe took the great jewel from the broken box and rested it in the cup of\nhis two hands. How it glowed on the pale flesh! Then, thrusting it into\na pocket and holding onto it with one hand, he hurried out again to the\nmountainside.\n\nIn the world above, it was high noon, and the level rays of the sun beat\ndeep into the green waters. So bright had the slope become, that the\nsailor lad felt sure that he could not be far from the surface of the\nwaves. Moreover, if the mountain-top rose above the waters, it would\nform an island in the upper world. And so, indeed, it was. Climbing on\ntoward the top of the mountain, the sailor first scaled a steep cliff,\nand at the top of this he found a gentle slope of sand. The sun's rays\nnow illumined the water so brightly that the air seemed only a little\ndistance away. Presently a beach-crab ran nimbly away from beneath the\nsailor's feet. The water grew very much warmer. The shore was at hand! A\nfew steps more, and the youngest son emerged on the beach of a beautiful\nisle.\n\nHalf-blinded by the sun, he walked toward the dry land. There he found\nsome delicious fruits growing, and a rippling brook of crystal water. He\nate and drank, and his strength returned.\n\nHimself again, the sailor took the Emerald of the Sea in his hands, and\ncried,--\n\n\"By the power of the Emerald of the Sea, I summon here the two elder\nprincesses of the under-waters, and my two brothers, their husbands!\"\n\nThere was a sound of far thunder under the clear blue sky, and a moment\nlater, four heads rose out of the waters, and shaking the salt spray\nfrom their eyes, the princesses and the brothers walked through the\nshallows to where the sailor was standing. Now, the princesses were very\nmuch frightened when they beheld the sailor holding the all-powerful\nemerald, and falling on their knees before him, begged him to forgive\ntheir misdeeds, and not to take away their loved ones. Tears fell from\ntheir golden eyes, and mingled with the drops of the salt ocean still\ncoursing down their black scales. As for the brothers, they would have\nhurled themselves upon the sailor, had not the magic force of the\nemerald prevented their approach.\n\n\"Be merciful and forgive,\" said the younger of the sisters. \"After all,\nhad we not caused you to be spirited away, you never would have found\nthe emerald.\"\n\n\"Yes, that is true,\" said the sailor. \"My brothers shall decide for\nthemselves. Break, then, the spell which binds them to the under-waters,\nrestore to them their memory of the past, and if then they choose to\nremain, I shall not try to lead them away. Reverse the spell!\"\n\n\"That is easily done,\" said the elder sister.  \"Let them but touch the\nfood or drink of the upper world and their memory will return.\"\n\nAnd in less time than it takes to tell it, the sisters offered the\nenchanted brothers water from the rivulet. When they had drunk of it,\nboth the brothers became pale as death, their eyes opened wide, and they\nstared as strangely as men suddenly waked from sleep. Then, seeing their\nyounger brother, they ran to him and threw their arms about him, and\nasked a thousand questions about their father and the quest of the\nemerald.\n\nThe golden-eyed brides watched them with sad faces, and finally broke\ninto quiet tears. Imagine their joy, when their husbands returned to\nthem and bade them be of good cheer.\n\nThus was true love found to be mightier than the mightiest spell.\n\nNow, when the princesses of the sea had dried their tears, the sailor\nand his brothers took counsel as to how the Emerald of the Sea might be\nbrought to the King in time to save their father's life. You may judge\nof the sailor's horror when he discovered that because of a bad error in\nthe calendars and clocks of Sixes and Sevens (a city he had visited in\nhis search for the emerald), the life of his father had been forfeited\nto the King three days before!\n\n\nBut now we must return to the poor merchant himself.\n\nAll the third year the poor man had lain in a small cell in the royal\ndungeons, waiting anxiously, oh, so anxiously, to hear the quick step of\nthe sailor son on the winding stairs just outside his prison door. But\nthe year came to an end, as you know, without his return. For the third\nand last time, the castle guards led the poor man before the King. Now\nthe King had never forgiven the merchant for the loss of the jewel; his\nchagrin, indeed, had increased with the years, and he was very glad that\nhe could at last take his revenge.\n\n\"Have you found the Emerald of the Sea?\" said the King, harshly. He\nstood erect on the steps of his judgment-seat, arms folded, eyes fixed\nin a fierce, black frown.\n\n\"No,\" said the merchant quietly.\n\n\"Then you shall seek for it yourself,\" cried the King. And he gave\norders that the merchant be tied hand and foot, and tossed into a little\nboat without food or drink, and then sent adrift to die helplessly in\nthe lonely seas. And so this awful sentence was carried out.\n\nBound hand and foot, scarce able to roll from side to side, the merchant\nlay motionless in his little craft and stared up at the blue sky.\nPresently a merciful sleep overcame him, and while he slept, a wind\narose which swept the little boat along with it.\n\nMeanwhile, on the beautiful island, the sailor and his companions,\nstunned at their discovery, began preparations to return to the\nunder-waters. Just as the twilight fell, all walked together to the\nmargin of the darkening sea, and advanced into the waves.\n\nSuddenly, the sailor, whose eyes were the keenest, saw a little boat\nrapidly drifting ashore. Now caught in a current of the shallow beach,\nit drifted sideways; now propelled by the rising tide, it floated on,\nbow pointed to the shore. The sailor hurried toward it and seized it.\nSuddenly he uttered a ringing cry! The old merchant lay on the floor of\nthe boat. He still lived, for they could see him gently breathing.\nLifting him up tenderly, the three sons carried him to the shore,\nunloosed his bonds, and brought him back to life.\n\nNow when the merchant was himself again, the sailor, through the power\nof the emerald, caused the waves to carry a great ship to the island,\nand on this ship the three sons, the two princesses, and the old\nmerchant returned to the merchant's country. All landed secretly,\nhowever, for they knew that the angry King would seize them if he knew\nof their return. And so it came to pass that, one night, shortly after\nthe homecoming, word was brought to the sailor that the King had heard\nof the merchant's escape and was sending guards to arrest the merchant\nand his companions.\n\nIt was almost midnight when the sailor lad received the warning. Taking\nthe emerald with him, he advanced to a window by the ocean, and cried\nout over the moonlit waters,--\n\n\"Waters of the Sea, rise and overwhelm the palace of the King!\"\n\nNow the King's palace stood apart by itself on a tongue of land running\nfar out into the tide, and soon the rising waters were flowing over the\nmarble floors and pouring in through the windows. One by one, the lights\nin the thousand rooms, touched by the waves, hissed, sputtered, and\nexpired. The servants of the palace, one and all, ran away pell-mell,\nand left the dark castle to its fate. Little by little the advancing\nwater crept from the walls to the balconies, from the balconies to the\ntowers, and from the foot of the towers to their very tops. Finally, all\nthe moon could see as it shone upon the flood was the weather-vane of\nthe highest turret of all. You should have seen the little waves ripple\nand break about it! And finally, even the weather-vane disappeared under\nthe black waves.\n\nLocked in his secret treasure-room, opening the jewel coffers one after\nthe other, the King remained quite ignorant of the disaster. For some\ntime no sound reached him in his hidden retreat, because the door of the\ntreasure-room was very thick and strong. Suddenly he heard behind him\nthe sound of falling water, and turning toward the door, beheld streams\nof water gushing through the passages between the door and its frame.\nHorror-struck, he watched the door burst from its locks and hinges; a\nroaring cascade of cold sea-water came pouring in the room, and a moment\nlater the whole castle crumbled and fell to pieces.\n\nNow, when the King had met his deserts, the people of the country, who\ngreatly respected the merchant, offered him the crown; but he refused it\nand conferred it on his two elder sons. Thus it came to pass that the\ncountry had two kings. Each brother in turn reigned for six months of\nevery year, and spent the other six under the sea with the golden-eyed\npeople of the waters.\n\nAs for the sailor lad, he sailed the sea for many years, and finally\nmarried a pretty niece of the Witch of the Sands. Then, like all\nsailors, he went to the country to live. His house is built of gray\nstone, ivy climbs over it, and apple orchards lie beneath its windows.\n\nAnd the all lived happily ever after.","title":"The Firelight Fairy Book","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":42794}