{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_25913/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_25913","id":"gutenberg_25913","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25913","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Adventure","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Fairy tales","Folklore"],"text":"Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Ronnie Sahlberg and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n         [Illustration: He took out his pipe and blew a tune.]\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n                              TALES OF\n                          FOLK AND FAIRIES\n\n                       WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED\n\n                                 BY\n\n                           KATHARINE PYLE\n\n\n                               BOSTON\n\n                     LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY\n\n                                1929\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n                         _Copyright, 1919_,\n\n                   BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.\n\n               PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                              CONTENTS\n\n     CHAPTER                                                 PAGE\n\n     THE MEESTER STOORWORM _A Story from Scotland_              1\n\n     JEAN MALIN AND THE BULL-MAN _A Louisiana Tale_            22\n\n     THE WIDOW'S SON _A Scandinavian Tale_                     35\n\n     THE WISE GIRL _A Serbian Story_                           61\n\n     THE HISTORY OF ALI COGIA _From the Arabian Nights_        72\n\n     OH! _A Cossack Story_                                    101\n\n     THE TALKING EGGS _A Story from Louisiana_                123\n\n     THE FROG PRINCESS _A Russian Story_                      137\n\n     THE MAGIC TURBAN, THE MAGIC SWORD AND THE MAGIC CARPET\n     _A Persian Story_                                        159\n\n     THE THREE SILVER CITRONS _A Persian Story_               180\n\n     THE MAGIC PIPE _A Norse Tale_                            201\n\n     THE TRIUMPH OF TRUTH _A Hindu Story_                     221\n\n     LIFE'S SECRET _A Story of Bengal_                        251\n\n     DAME PRIDGETT AND THE FAIRIES                            278\n\n\n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                        LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n                                                                PAGE\n\n He took out his pipe and blew a tune.                  Frontispiece\n\n Seeing no one, the creature dropped on its knees and\n bellowed, \"Beau Madjam!\"                                         29\n\n She sat down beside the hearth and took off her head.           127\n\n Then the demon flew out through the window and away\n through the night.                                              169\n\n The Princess took the cup and drank.                            191\n\n The Rajah brought the girl down, while the crows\n circled about his head.                                         241\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                         TALES OF FOLK AND\n                               FAIRIES\n\n\n\n\n                        THE MEESTER STOORWORM\n\n                        A STORY FROM SCOTLAND\n\n\nThere was once a lad, and what his real name was nobody remembered,\nunless it was the mother who bore him; but what every one called him\nwas Ashipattle. They called him that because he sat among the ashes to\nwarm his toes.\n\nHe had six older brothers, and they did not think much of him. All the\ntasks they scorned to do themselves they put upon Ashipattle. He\ngathered the sticks for the fire, he swept the floor, he cleaned the\nbyre, he ran the errands, and all he got for his pains were kicks and\ncuffs and mocking words. Still he was a merry fellow, and as far as\nwords went he gave his brothers as good as they sent.\n\nAshipattle had one sister, and she was very good and kind to him. In\nreturn for her kindness he told her long stories of trolls and giants\nand heroes and brave deeds, and as long as he would tell she would sit\nand listen. But his brothers could not stand his stories, and used to\nthrow clods at him to make him be quiet. They were angry because\nAshipattle was always the hero of his own stories, and in his tales\nthere was nothing he dared not do.\n\nNow while Ashipattle was still a lad, but a tall, stout one, a great\nmisfortune fell upon the kingdom, for a Stoorworm rose up out of the\nsea; and of all Stoorworms it was the greatest and the worst. For this\nreason it was called the Meester Stoorworm. Its length stretched half\naround the world, its one eye was as red as fire, and its breath was\nso poisonous that whatever it breathed upon was withered.\n\nThere was great fear and lamentation throughout the land because of\nthe worm, for every day it drew nearer to the shore, and every day the\ndanger from it grew greater. When it was first discovered it was so\nfar away that its back was no more than a low, long, black line upon\nthe horizon, but soon it was near enough for them to see the horns\nupon its back, and its scales, and its one fierce eye, and its\nnostrils that breathed out and in.\n\nIn their fear the people cried upon the King to save them from the\nmonster, but the King had no power to save them more than any other\nman. His sword, Snickersnapper, was the brightest and sharpest and\nmost wonderful sword in all the world, but it would need a longer\nsword than Snickersnapper to pierce through that great body to the\nmonster's heart. The King summoned his councillors,--all the wisest\nmen in the kingdom,--and they consulted and talked together, but none\nof them could think of any plan to beat or drive the Stoorworm off, so\npowerful it was.\n\nNow there was in that country a sorcerer, and the King had no love for\nhim. Still, when all the wisemen and councillors could think of no\nplan for destroying the Stoorworm, the King said, \"Let us send for\nthis sorcerer, and have him brought before us, and hear what he has to\nsay; for 'twould seem there is no help in any of us for this evil that\nhas come upon us.\"\n\nSo the sorcerer was brought, and he stood up in the council and looked\nfrom one to another. Last of all he looked at the King, and there his\neyes rested.\n\n\"There is one way, and only one,\" said he, \"by which the land can be\nsaved from destruction. Let the King's only daughter, the Princess\nGemlovely, be given to the Stoorworm as a sacrifice, and he will be\nsatisfied and quit us.\"\n\nNo sooner had the sorcerer said this than a great tumult arose in the\ncouncil. The councillors were filled with horror, and cried aloud that\nthe sorcerer should be torn to pieces for speaking such words.\n\nBut the King arose and bade them be silent,--and he was as white as\ndeath.\n\n\"Is this the only way to save my people?\" he asked.\n\n\"It is the only way I know of,\" answered the sorcerer.\n\nThe King stood still and white for a time. \"Then,\" said he, \"if it is\nthe only way, so let it be. But first let it be proclaimed, far and\nwide throughout my kingdom, that there is an heroic deed to be done.\nWhosoever will do battle with the Stoorworm and slay it, or drive it\noff, shall have the Princess Gemlovely for a bride, and the half of my\nkingdom, and my sword Snickersnapper for his own; and after my death\nhe shall rule as king over all the realm.\"\n\nThen the King dismissed the Council, and they went away in silence,\nwith dark and heavy looks.\n\nA proclamation was sent out as the King commanded, saying that whoever\ncould kill the Stoorworm or drive it away should have the Princess,\nand the half of the kingdom as a reward, and the King's sword, and\nafter the King's death should reign over the whole realm.\n\nWhen this news went out many a man wished he might win these three\nprizes for himself, for what better was there to be desired than a\nbeauteous wife, a kingdom to reign over, and the most famous sword in\nall the world. But fine as were the prizes, only six-and-thirty bold\nhearts came to offer themselves for the task, so great was the fear of\nthe Stoorworm. Of this number the first twelve who looked at the\nStoorworm fell ill at sight of him and had to be carried home. The\nnext twelve did not stay to be carried, but ran home on their own legs\nand shut themselves up in strong fortresses; and the last twelve\nstayed at the King's palace with their hearts in their stomachs, and\ntheir wrists too weak with fear to strike a blow, even to win a\nkingdom.\n\nSo there was nothing left but for the Princess to be offered up to the\nStoorworm, for it was better that one should be lost, even though that\none were the Princess, than that the whole country should be\ndestroyed.\n\nThen there was great grief and lamenting throughout the land, for the\nPrincess Gemlovely was so kind and gentle that she was beloved by all,\nboth high and low. Only Ashipattle heard it all unmoved. He said\nnothing, but sat by the fire and thought and thought, and what his\nthoughts were he told to nobody.\n\nThe day was set when the Princess was to be offered up to the\nStoorworm, and the night before there was a great feast at the palace,\nbut a sad feast it was. Little was eaten and less was said. The King\nsat with his back to the light and bit his fingers, and no one dared\nto speak to him.\n\nIn the poorer houses there was a great stir and bustle and laying out\nof coats and dresses, for many were planning to go to the seashore to\nsee the Princess offered up to the Stoorworm,--though a gruesome sight\n'twould be to see. Ashipattle's father and brothers were planning to\ngo with the rest, but his mother and sister wept, and said they would\nnot see it for anything in the world.\n\nNow Ashipattle's father had a horse named Feetgong, and he was not\nmuch to look at. Nevertheless the farmer treasured him, and it was not\noften he would let any one use him but himself. When the farmer rode\nFeetgong he could make him go like the wind,--none faster,--and that\nwithout beating him, either. Then when the farmer wished him to stop\nFeetgong would stand as still as though he were frozen to the ground;\nno one could make him budge. But if any one other than the farmer rode\nhim, then it was quite different. Feetgong would jog along, and not\neven a beating would drive him faster, and then if one wanted him to\nstop that was as hard to do as it was to start him. Ashipattle was\nsure there was some secret about this; that his father had a way to\nmake him go that no one knew about; but what that way was he could not\nfind out.\n\nThe day before the beauteous Gemlovely was to be sacrificed Ashipattle\nsaid to his mother, \"Tell me something; how is it that Feetgong will\nnot go for you or my brothers or any one, but when my father mounts\nhim he goes like the wind,--none faster?\"\n\nThen his mother answered, \"Indeed, I do not know.\"\n\n\"It seems a strange thing that my father would not tell you that,\"\nsaid Ashipattle, \"and you his own true wife.\"\n\nTo this his mother answered nothing.\n\n\"A strange thing,\" said Ashipattle; \"and in all the years you've lived\ntogether not a thing have you kept back from him, whether he wished it\nor no. But even a good husband always holds back some secret from his\nwife.\"\n\nStill his mother spoke never a word, but Ashipattle could see that she\nwas thinking.\n\nThat night Ashipattle lay awake long after the others were asleep. He\nheard his father snoring and his brothers, too, but it seemed his\nmother could not sleep. She turned and twisted and sighed aloud, until\nat last she awakened her husband.\n\n\"What ails you,\" he asked, \"that you turn and twist in bed and sigh so\nloud that a body scarce can sleep.\"\n\n\"It's no wonder I sigh and cannot sleep,\" answered his wife. \"I have\nbeen thinking and turning things over in my mind, and I can see very\nplainly that you do not love me as a good husband should love his\nwife.\"\n\n\"How can you say that?\" asked her husband. \"Have I not treated you\nwell in all these years? Have I not shown my love in every way?\"\n\n\"Yes, but you do not trust me,\" said his wife. \"You do not tell me\nwhat is in your heart.\"\n\n\"What have I not told you?\"\n\n\"You have never told me about Feetgong; you have never told me why it\nis that he goes like the wind whenever you mount him, and when any one\nelse rides him he is so slow there is no getting anywhere with him.\"\nThen she began to sob as if her heart would break. \"You do not trust\nme,\" said she.\n\n\"Wait, wait!\" cried the Goodman. \"That is a secret I had never thought\nto tell any one, but since you have set your heart on knowing--listen!\nOnly you must promise not to tell a living soul what I tell you now.\"\n\nHis wife promised.\n\n\"Then this is it,\" said her husband. \"When I want Feetgong to go\nmoderately fast I slap him on the right shoulder; when I want him to\nstop I slap him on the left shoulder, and when I want him to go like\nthe wind I blow upon the dried windpipe of a goose that I always carry\nin the right-hand pocket of my coat.\"\n\n\"Now indeed I know that you love me when you tell me this,\" said his\nwife. And then she went to sleep, for she was satisfied.\n\nAshipattle waited until near morning, and then he arose and dressed\nhimself. He put on the coat of one brother, and the breeches of\nanother, and the shoes of a third, and so on, for his own clothes were\nnothing but rags. He felt in the right-hand pocket of his father's\ncoat, and there, sure enough, he found the dried windpipe of a goose.\nHe took that and he took a pot of burning peat, and covered it over so\nit would keep hot; and he took also a big kitchen knife. Then he went\nout and led Feetgong from the stable. He sprang upon his back and\nslapped him on the right shoulder, and away they went.\n\nThe noise awoke the goodman and he jumped from bed and ran to the\nwindow. There was some one riding away on his dear Feetgong. Then he\ncalled out at the top of his voice:\n\n                          \"Hie! Hie! Ho!\n                          Feetgong, whoa!\"\n\nWhen Feetgong heard his master calling he stopped and stood stockstill.\nBut Ashipattle whipped out the dried windpipe of the goose and blew\nupon it, and away went Feetgong like the wind; none could go faster. No\none could overtake them.\n\nAfter a while, and not so long either, they came to the seashore, and\nthere, a little way out from the shore, lay the King's own boat with\nthe boatman in it. He was keeping the boat there until day dawned.\nThen the King and his court would come, bringing the beauteous\nGemlovely to offer up to the Stoorworm. They would put her in the boat\nand set the sails to carry her toward him.\n\nAshipattle looked out across the water, and he could see the black\nback of the beast rising out of the sea like a long low mountain.\n\nHe lighted down from Feetgong and called across the water to the\nboatman, \"Hello, friend! How fares it with you out there?\"\n\n\"Bitterly, bitterly!\" answered the boatman. \"Here I sit and freeze all\nnight, for it is cold on the water, and not a soul except myself but\nwhat is safe asleep in a good warm bed.\"\n\n\"I have a fire here in the pot,\" called Ashipattle. \"Draw your boat in\nto shore and come and warm yourself, for I can see even from here that\nyou are almost perished.\"\n\n\"That I may not do,\" answered the man. \"The King and his court may\ncome at any time now, and they must find me ready and waiting for them\nas the commands were.\"\n\nThen Ashipattle put his pot down on the shore and stood and thought a\nbit. Suddenly he dropped on his knees and began to dig in the sand as\nthough he had gone mad. \"Gold! Gold!\" he shouted.\n\n\"What is the matter?\" called the boatman. \"What have you found?\"\n\n\"Gold! Gold!\" shouted Ashipattle, digging faster than ever.\n\nThe boatman thought Ashipattle must certainly have found a treasure in\nthe sand. He made haste to bring the boat to land. He sprang out upon\nthe shore, and pushing Ashipattle aside, he dropped on his knees and\nbegan to scoop out the sand. But Ashipattle did not wait to see\nwhether he found anything. He caught up the pot and leaped into the\nboat, and before the boatman could stop him he pushed off from the\nshore.\n\nToo late the boatman saw what he was doing. He ran down to the edge of\nthe water and shouted and stormed and cried to Ashipattle to come\nback, but Ashipattle paid no heed to him. He never even turned his\nhead. He set the sail and steered over toward where the great monster\nlay, with the waves washing up and breaking into foam against him.\n\nAnd now the dawn was breaking. It was time for the monster to awake,\nand down the road from the castle came riding the King and all his\ncourt, and the Princess Gemlovely rode among them on a milk-white\nhorse. All the color was gone from her face, and she looked as white\nas snow.\n\nWhen the King and all the others reached the shore there stood the\nboatman, wringing his hands and lamenting, and the boat was gone.\n\n\"What is this?\" asked the King. \"What have you done with my boat, and\nwhy are you standing here?\"\n\n\"Look! Look!\" cried the boatman and he pointed out to sea.\n\nThe King looked, and then first he saw Ashipattle in the boat, sailing\naway toward the monster,--for before his eyes had been dim with\nsorrow, and he had seen naught but what was close before him.\n\nThe King looked, and all the court looked with him, and a great cry\narose, for they guessed that Ashipattle was sailing out to do battle\nwith the Stoorworm.\n\nAs they stood staring the sun shone red and the monster awoke. Slowly,\nslowly his great jaws opened in a yawn, and as he yawned the water\nrushed into his mouth like a great flood and on down his throat.\nAshipattle's boat was caught in the swirl and swept forward faster\nthan any sail could carry it. Then slowly the monster closed his mouth\nand all was still save for the foaming and surging of the waters.\n\nAshipattle steered his boat close in against the monster's jaws, and\nit lay there, rocking in the tide, while he waited for the Stoorworm\nto yawn again.\n\nPresently slowly, slowly, the great jaws gaped, and the flood rushed\nin, foaming. Ashipattle's boat was swept in with the water, and it\nalmost crushed against one of the monster's teeth, but Ashipattle\nfended it off, and it was carried on the flood down into the\nStoorworm's throat.\n\nDown and down went the boat with Ashipattle in it and the sound of\nsurging waters filled his ears. It was light there in the monster's\nthroat, for the roof and the sides of it shone with phosphorescence so\nthat he could see everything.\n\nAs he swept on, the roof above him grew lower and lower, and the water\ngrew shallower and shallower; for it drained off into passages that\nopened off from the throat into the rest of the body.\n\nAt last the roof grew so low that the mast of the boat wedged against\nit. Then Ashipattle stepped over the side of the boat into the water,\nand it had grown so shallow it was scarce as high as his knees. He\ntook the pot of peat, that was still hot, and the knife, and went a\nlittle further until he came to where the beast's heart was. He could\nsee it beat, beat, beating.\n\nAshipattle took his knife and dug a hole in the heart, and emptied the\nhot peat into it. Then he blew and blew on the peat. He blew until his\ncheeks almost cracked with blowing, and it seemed as though the peat\nwould never burn. But at last it flared up; the oil of the heart\ntrickled down upon it, and the flame burst into a blaze. Higher and\nhigher waxed the fire. All the heart shone red with the light of it.\n\nThen the lad ran back and jumped into the boat and pushed it clear of\nthe roof. And none too soon, for as the fire burned deeper into the\nheart, the monster felt the burn of it and began to writhe and twist.\nThen he gave a great cough that sent the waters surging back out of\nhis body and into the sea again in a mighty flood.\n\nAshipattle's boat was caught in the rush and swept like a straw up out\nof the Stoorworm's throat and into the light of day. The monster\nspewed him and his boat all the way across the sea and up on the\nshore, almost at the King's feet.\n\nThe King himself sprang from his steed and ran and helped Ashipattle\nto his feet. Then every one fled back to a high hill, for the sea was\nrising in a mighty flood with the beating and tossing of the\nStoorworm.\n\nThen began such a sight as never was seen before and perchance will\nnever be seen again. For first the monster flung his tail so high that\nit seemed as though it would strike the sun from the sky. And next it\nfell into the sea with such a slap as sent the waves high up the\nrocks; and now it was his head that flung aloft, and the tongue caught\non the point of the crescent moon and hung there, and for a while it\nlooked as though the moon would be pulled from the sky, but it stood\nfirm, and the monster's tongue tore, so that the head dropped back\ninto the sea with such force that the teeth flew out of its mouth, and\nthese teeth became the Orkney Islands.\n\nAgain its head reared high and fell back, and more teeth flew out, and\nthese became the Shetland Islands. The third time his head rose and\nfell, and teeth flew out; they became the Faroe Islands.\n\nSo the monster beat and threshed and struggled, while the King and the\nPrincess and Ashipattle and all the people looked on with fear and\nwonder at the dreadful sight.\n\nBut at last the struggle became weaker, for the heart was almost\nburned out. Then the Stoorworm curled up and lay still, for it was\ndead, and its great coils became the place called Iceland.\n\nSo was the monster killed, and that was the manner of his death!\n\nBut the King turned to Ashipattle and called him son, and took the\nhand of the Princess Gemlovely and laid it in the lad's hand, for now\nshe was to be his bride as the King had promised.\n\nThen they all rode back to the palace together, and the King took the\nsword Snickersnapper and gave it to Ashipattle for him to keep as his\nown.\n\nA great feast was spread in honor of the slaying of the Stoorworm. All\nwho chose to come were welcome, and all was mirth and rejoicing.\n\nThe honest farmer, Ashipattle's father, and his mother and his sister\nand his brothers heard of the feast and put on their best clothes and\ncame, but the farmer had no Feetgong to ride. When they entered the\ngreat hall and saw Ashipattle sitting there at the King's right hand\nin the place of honor, with the Princess Gemlovely beside him, they\ncould hardly believe their eyes, for they had not known he was the\nhero every one was talking about. But Ashipattle looked at them and\nnodded, and all was well.\n\nNot long after that Ashipattle and the Princess were married, and a\ngrand wedding it was, I can tell you; and after the old King died\nAshipattle became ruler of the whole realm, and he and the Princess\nlived in mutual love and happiness together the rest of their long\nlives.\n\n\n\n\n                     JEAN MALIN AND THE BULL-MAN\n\n                           A LOUISIANA TALE\n\n\nThere was once a little boy who was all alone in the world; he had no\nfather or mother, and no home; and no one to care for him. That made\nhim very sad.\n\nOne day he sat by the roadside, and he was so sad that he began to\nweep. Presently a fine coach came rolling along, and in it sat a\nbeautiful, grand lady. She leaned back against the cushions and looked\nabout, first on this side and then on that, and enjoyed herself.\n\nWhen she saw the little boy she made the coachman stop.\n\n\"Come here, little boy,\" she called in a gentle voice.\n\nThe child lifted his head, and then he rose and came over to her.\n\n\"What is your name?\" asked the lady.\n\n\"Jean Malin,\" the child answered.\n\n\"Why are you weeping, Jean? Has some one been unkind to you?\"\n\n\"No; I am weeping because I have no one to be either unkind or kind to\nme. I am all alone in the world, and I have no home.\"\n\nWhen the lady heard that she felt very sorry for him. \"Come; sit here\nin the coach beside me,\" she said, \"and I will take you home with me.\nMy home shall be your home, and I will keep you with me always if you\nare a good boy and do as I tell you.\"\n\nJean Malin climbed into the coach, and the lady took him home with\nher. She talked to him and questioned him on the way, and she soon\nfound that he was a clever boy and very polite in his manners.\n\nWhen they arrived at the lady's house she gave him a pretty little\nsuit of clothes and bade him wash and dress himself, and then he came\nin and waited on her at supper.\n\nAfter that he lived there, and the lady became very fond of him. As\nfor Jean Malin, he soon loved his mistress so dearly that if she had\nbeen his own mother he could not have loved her better. Everything she\nsaid and did seemed to him exactly right.\n\nThe lady had a lover who was a great, handsome man with a fine deep\nvoice. This gentleman often came to the house to take meals with the\nlady, and he always spoke to Jean Malin very pleasantly; but Jean\ncould not abide him. He used to run and hide whenever this man came to\nthe house. The lady scolded him for it, but he could not help it.\n\nThe gentleman's name was Mr. Bulbul.\n\n\"I do not know what is the matter with you,\" said the lady to Jean\nMalin. \"Why is it you do not like Mr. Bulbul? He is very kind to you.\"\n\n\"I do not know, but I wish I might never see him again,\" answered\nJean.\n\n\"That is very wrong of you. Perhaps sometime I may marry Mr. Bulbul.\nThen he will be your master. What will you do then?\"\n\n\"Perhaps I will run away.\"\n\nThat angered the lady. \"And perhaps I will send you away if you do not\nbehave better and learn to like him.\"\n\nNow not far from the lady's house there was a pasture, and in this\npasture there was a bull,--a fine, handsome animal. Jean Malin often\nsaw it there.\n\nAfter a while Jean began to notice a curious thing. Whenever Mr.\nBulbul came to the house, which was almost every day, the bull\ndisappeared from the pasture, and whenever the bull was in the pasture\nthere was nothing to be seen of the gentleman.\n\n\"That is a curious thing,\" said Jean to himself. \"I will watch and\nfind out what this means. I am sure something is wrong.\"\n\nSo one day Jean went out and hid himself behind some rocks at the edge\nof the pasture. The bull was grazing with his head down and did not\nsee him. After a while the bull raised his head and looked all about\nhim to see if there were any one around. He did not see Jean, because\nthe little boy was behind the rocks, so the animal thought itself\nalone. Then it dropped on its knees and cried, \"Beau Madjam, fat\nMadjam, djam, djam, djara, djara!\"\n\nAt once the bull became a man, and the man was the very Mr. Bulbul who\ncame to visit Jean's mistress.\n\nThe boy was so frightened he shivered all over as though he were cold.\n\nMr. Bulbul walked away in the direction of the lady's house, and after\nhe had gone Jean Malin ran home by another way. He crept into the\nhouse and heard the lady calling to him, but he would not go to her or\nshow himself. She did not know what had become of him.\n\nThe next day Mr. Bulbul came again to the lady's house. He came very\nearly for he was to have breakfast with her. The lady called Jean\nMalin to come and wait on them. He did not want to come, but he was\nobliged to. He was so frightened that he darted about the room, first\non one side and then on the other, and did not understand what was\nsaid to him. When the lady asked for water he gave her the toast rack,\nand when she asked for toast he brought her a towel. It really was\nvery provoking.\n\nAfter Mr. Bulbul had gone the lady called Jean Malin to her. \"I am\nvery angry,\" said she. \"You have acted very stupidly this morning. If\nyou cannot do better and behave in a sensible manner, I will have to\nsend you away.\"\n\nWhen she said this Jean Malin felt very much hurt. He could hardly\nrefrain from weeping.\n\n\"Mistress, I will tell you why I acted so. I was afraid, and if you\nknew what I know, you would be afraid, too, and you would never let\nthat big man come into your house again.\"\n\n\"What is it that you know and I do not know?\" asked the lady.\n\nBut Jean Malin would not tell her.\n\n\"Very well,\" said his mistress; \"if you will not tell me willingly I\nwill have you beaten. I will have you beaten until you do tell, so you\nhad better speak now before they begin.\"\n\nJean Malin began to cry. \"I did not want to tell you,\" said he, \"but\nif I must I must. Dear Mistress, Mr. Bulbul is not a man at all, but\nthat bull that you sometimes see over in the pasture. He uses magic to\nmake himself look like a man so as to come to see you, and then he\ngoes right out and becomes a bull again and eats grass.\"\n\nThe lady began to laugh. \"You are either crazy or dreaming,\" said she.\n\"Or, more likely still, you are telling me an untruth so as to excuse\nyourself and make trouble between him and me.\"\n\nBut Jean Malin insisted that what he told her was true. \"I have seen\nit, and I know it,\" said he. \"Moreover I will prove it to you. I do\nnot know how, but I am sure I can prove it.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said the lady, \"if you prove it I will forgive you and\ntreat you as my own son, but if you do not I will have you beaten and\nsent out of the house as a mischief maker.\"\n\nAfter that Jean went away by himself and thought and thought. He tried\nto remember the exact words the bull had said when he turned himself\ninto a man, but he could not be sure about them. So the next day he\nwent out and hid himself behind the rocks again, taking care, as\nbefore, that the bull should not see him. The bull's head was down,\nand it was eating grass.\n\n[Illustration: Seeing no one, the creature dropped on its knees and\nbellowed, \"Beau Madjam!\"]\n\nSoon, however, it raised its head and looked all about it. Seeing no\none, the creature dropped on its knees and bellowed, \"Beau Madjam, fat\nMadjam, djam, djam, djara, djara!\" At once the bull became a man and\nwalked away in the direction of the lady's house.\n\nJean Malin followed, being careful to keep out of sight, and as he\nwent he kept saying over and over to himself, \"Beau Madjam, fat\nMadjam, djam, djam, djara, djara, Beau Madjam, fat Madjam, djam, djam,\ndjara, djara!\" He said it over and over, so that he should not forget\nany least word of it.\n\nWhen Jean Malin reached home Mr. Bulbul was in the salon with his\nmistress; Jean could hear them talking together there; his mistress's\nvoice very fine and clear and then Mr. Bulbul's big, deep voice.\n\nJean Malin took a tray of cakes and wine and carried it into the salon\njust as though his mistress had ordered him to do so. The lady was\nsurprised to see him coming with the tray, but she said, \"That is\nright, Jean. Offer the cake and wine to Mr. Bulbul.\"\n\nJean Malin went over to Mr. Bulbul, close in front of him, and then he\nsaid in a low voice, as though to himself, \"Beau Madjam, fat Madjam,\ndjam, djam, djara, djara!\"\n\nSuch a noise you never heard. The fine Mr. Bulbul bellowed aloud and\njumped up, smashing his chair and knocking the tray with all the\nplates and glasses and everything out of Jean Malin's hands. The lady\nshrieked and almost fainted. Then, right there before her, Mr.\nBulbul's head grew long and hairy, horns sprouted from his forehead,\nhis arms turned into legs, and his hands and feet into hoofs, and he\nbecame a bull and all his clothes fell off him,--his trousers and coat\nand vest and eyeglasses and collar and everything. He galloped across\nthe salon in a fright, his hoofs clattering on the floor, and burst\nout through the glass door so fast that he carried it away on his\nhorns and back into the pasture with him.\n\nThen the lady knew that everything Jean Malin had told her was true,\nand she could not thank him enough.\n\n\"Now you shall indeed be to me as a son,\" said she, \"and you shall\nlive here always and never leave me.\"\n\nJean Malin was very happy when the lady said that to him. Nevertheless,\nwhen he thought of Mr. Bulbul, he could not feel easy in his mind. He\nwas sure the bull would try to revenge itself on him in some way or\nother. He kept away from the pasture, and wherever he went he was\nalways looking around to see whether the bull were anywhere in sight.\n\nAt last he grew so afraid that he determined to go and talk to a black\nman he knew who dealt in magic. He found the man sitting at the door\nof his hut, making magic with a horsehair and a snakeskin, and some\nground-up glass. Jean Malin, told him everything that had happened,\nabout the bull, and how it had changed itself into a man and had come\nto visit the lady, and about the magic words, and how he had forced\nthe man to turn back into a bull again. \"And now,\" said he, \"I am\nafraid, for I think he means harm to me.\"\n\n\"You do well to be afraid,\" said the black man. \"Bulbul will certainly\ntry to do you harm. He knows much magic, but my magic is stronger than\nhis magic, and I will help you. Get me three owl's eggs and a cup of\nblack goat's milk and bring them here.\"\n\nJean Malin went away and got the three owl's eggs and the cup of black\ngoat's milk, though they were things not easy to find, and then he\nbrought them to the black man.\n\nThe black man took them from him and rolled the owl's eggs in the milk\nand made magic over them. Then he gave them back to the boy. \"Keep\nthese by you all the time,\" said he. \"Then if the bull comes after you\ndo thus and so, and this and the other, and you will have no more\ntrouble with him.\"\n\nJean Malin thanked the black man and gave him a piece of silver, and\nwent away with the eggs tied up in his handkerchief.\n\nIt was a good thing he had them. He had not gone more than halfway\nhome, and was just coming out from a wood, when he heard a big noise,\nand the bull burst out of a thicket and came charging down on him.\n\nBut quick as a flash Jean Malin put the eggs in his mouth and climbed\nup a tree, and the eggs were not broken.\n\nThe bull galloped up and struck the tree with its horns. \"You think\nyou are safe, but I will soon have you down,\" it cried.\n\nIt dropped down on its knees and muttered magic, but Jean could not\nhear what it said. Then the bull changed into a man with an ax in his\nhands and began to chop down the tree. Gip, gop! Gip, gop! The chips\nflew and the branches trembled.\n\nJean tried to remember the words that would turn the man back into a\nbull again, but he was so frightened he could not think of them. What\nhe did remember, though, were the eggs the black man had given him. He\ntook one out of his mouth and dropped it down on the bull-man's right\nshoulder, and at once his right arm fell off, and the ax dropped to\nthe ground. This did not trouble the bull-man, however. He caught up\nthe ax in his left hand and chopped away, Gip, gop! Gip, gop! The\nchips flew faster than ever.\n\nThen Jean Malin dropped the second egg down on the man's left\nshoulder, and his left arm fell off. Now he had no arms, but he caught\nup the ax in his mouth and went on chopping, Gip, gop! Gip, gop! The\nwhole tree shook and trembled.\n\nThen Jean Malin dropped the third and last egg down on the man's head,\nand at once his head fell off.\n\nThat ended the man's magic; he could do nothing more, and had to turn\ninto a bull again. He bellowed like anything, but he could not help\nit, for the black man's magic was stronger than his magic. Away he\ngalloped, with his tail in the air, and that was the last Jean Malin\never saw of him. What became of him nobody ever knew, but he must have\ngone far, far away.\n\nBut Jean Malin climbed down from the tree and went on home, and after\nthat he lived very happily in the lady's house and was like a son to\nher, just as she had promised him.\n\n\n\n\n                           THE WIDOW'S SON\n\n                         A SCANDINAVIAN TALE\n\n\nOnce upon a time there was a poor widow who had only one son, and he\nwas so dear to her that no one could have been dearer. All the same\nshe was obliged to send him out into the world to seek his fortune,\nfor they were so very poor that as long as he stayed at home they were\nlike to starve.\n\nThe lad kissed her good-by, and she gave him her blessing, and then\noff he set, always putting one foot before the other.\n\nHe journeyed on a short way and a long way, and then he came to a dark\nand gloomy wood. He had not gone far into it when he met a tall man as\ndark and gloomy as the wood itself. The man stopped the lad and said\nto him, \"Are you seeking work or shunning work?\"\n\n\"I am seeking work,\" answered the widow's son.\n\n\"Then come with me, and I will give you enough to do but not too\nmuch,\" said the man, \"and the wages will be according.\"\n\nThat suited the lad. He was quite willing to work for the tall\nstranger. They set out and traveled along, and after a while they came\nto a great dark house set all alone in the midst of the wood. The man\nshowed him in and told him what to do. The lad set to work, and\neverything the man told him to do he did so well and willingly that\nhis master was much pleased with him. After he had done all the tasks\nset, his master gave him a good bite of supper and a comfortable bed\nto sleep in.\n\nThe next day it was the same thing over. The master told the lad what\nto do, and the lad did it willingly and well. So it went on for three\ndays. At the end of that time the man said, \"Now I am obliged to go\naway on a journey. Until I return you may do as you please and be your\nown master. But there is one part of the house you have never seen,\nand those are the four cellars down below. Into these you must not go\nunder any consideration. If you so much as open one of the doors, you\nwill suffer for it.\"\n\n\"Why should I want to go into the cellars?\" asked the lad. \"The house\nand the yard are good enough for me.\"\n\n\"That is well,\" answered the master, and then he mounted a great black\nsteed and rode away.\n\nThe lad stayed at home and cleaned and polished and ate and drank. \"I\nwonder what can be in those cellars that my master does not want me to\nsee!\" thought the lad. \"Not that I mean to look, but it does no harm\nto wonder about it.\"\n\nEvery hour the lad stayed there in the house alone he grew more\ncurious about the cellars. At last he could bear it no longer. \"I'll\njust take a wee peep into one of them,\" he said. \"That can surely do\nno harm to any one.\"\n\nSo he opened the cellar door and went down a flight of stone steps\ninto the first cellar. He looked all about him, and there was nothing\nat all there but a switch made of brier lying on a shelf behind the\ndoor. \"That is not much for the Master to have made such a fuss\nabout,\" said the lad. \"I could see as much as that any day without\ncoming into a cellar for it;\" and he went upstairs again and shut the\ndoor behind him.\n\nThe next day the master came home, and the first thing he asked was,\n\"Have you looked into any of the cellars?\"\n\n\"Why should I do that?\" asked the lad. \"I have plenty to do upstairs\nwithout poking my nose in where it is not wanted.\"\n\n\"I will just see for myself whether or not you have looked,\" said the\nmaster.\n\nHe opened one of the doors and went down into the first cellar. When\nhe came back his face was as black as thunder.\n\n\"You have disobeyed me and have gone into one of the cellars,\" said\nhe. \"Now you shall suffer for it!\" He took up a cudgel and beat the\nlad until he was black and blue. \"It's lucky for you you went only\ninto the first cellar,\" said he. \"Otherwise you would not have come\noff so lightly.\"\n\nThen he sat down to supper.\n\nAs for the lad he sat and nursed his bruises and wished he had never\nheard tell of such a thing as a cellar.\n\nNot long after the master said he was going on another journey. \"I\nwill be gone two weeks,\" said he, \"and whatever you do, do not dare to\nlook into any of the other cellars, or you will suffer for it.\"\n\n\"I have learned my lesson,\" said the lad. \"You'll not find me doing\nsuch a thing again.\"\n\nAfter that the master mounted his horse and rode away.\n\nAfter he had gone the lad cleaned and polished and ate and drank, and\nthen he began to wonder what was in the second cellar. \"There must be\nsomething more than a stick to see,\" said he, \"or my master would not\nbe so particular about it.\" In the end he determined to look at what\nwas in the second cellar, whatever it cost him. He opened the door and\nwent down the stone steps that led to it and looked about, but all he\nsaw was a shelf behind the door, and on it a stone and a water bottle.\n\n\"They are not much to see, and I wish I had not come,\" said the lad to\nhimself. \"I hope my master will not know about it;\" and then he went\nupstairs and shut the door behind him.\n\nNot long afterward his master came home. The first thing he asked was,\n\"Have you been down in any of the cellars again?\"\n\n\"How can you think such a thing!\" cried the lad. \"I have no wish for\nanother beating.\"\n\n\"All the same, I will see for myself,\" said the master, and he went\ndown into the second cellar. Then the lad was frightened, you may well\nbelieve.\n\nWhen the Master came back his face was as red as fire. \"You have\ndisobeyed me again,\" cried he. Then he seized a cudgel and beat the\nlad till he could hardly stand.\n\n\"This should teach you to obey,\" said he, \"but I fear as long as you\nlive you will not learn.\"\n\nNot long after the Master was going away on a third journey, and this\ntime he was to be away for three weeks. \"And if you look in the third\ncellar,\" said he, \"your life shall pay the forfeit.\" After that he\nrode away into the forest and out of sight.\n\nWell, for two weeks the lad would not look into the third cellar, but\nat last his curiosity got the better of him. He opened the third door\nand went down into the third cellar. There in the middle of it was a\nbrazen caldron set deep in the floor and full of something that\nseethed and bubbled. \"I wonder what that is in the caldron,\" said the\nlad to himself, and he stuck his finger in. When he drew it out it was\ncovered all over with gold. The lad scrubbed and scrubbed, but he\ncould not get the gold off. Then he was terribly frightened. He took a\nrag and wound it about his finger and hoped his master would not\nnotice it. He shut the door into the cellar and tried to forget about\nit.\n\nThe first thing the Master asked when he came home was, \"Have you been\ndown in the third cellar?\"\n\n\"How can you think it?\" asked the lad. \"Two drubbings are enough for\nany one.\"\n\n\"What is the matter with your finger?\" asked the Master.\n\n\"Oh, I cut it with the bread-knife.\"\n\nThe Master snatched the rag off, and there the lad's finger shone as\nthough it were all of solid gold.\n\n\"You have been down in the third cellar,\" cried the Master, \"and now\nyou must die,\"--and his face was as pale as death. He took down a\nsword from the wall, but the lad fell on his knees and begged and\npleaded so piteously for his life that at last the man had to spare\nhim. All the same he gave him such a beating that the lad could not\nrise from the floor. There he lay and groaned. Then the Master took a\nflask of ointment from the wall and bathed him all over, and after\nthat the lad was just as well as ever.\n\nNow the Master stayed at home for a long while, but at last he had to\ngo away on still another journey, and now he was to be gone a whole\nmonth. \"And if you dare to look in the fourth cellar while I am away,\nthen you shall surely die,\" said he. \"Do not hope that I will spare\nyou again, for I will not.\"\n\nAfter he had gone the lad resisted his curiosity for three whole\nweeks. He was dying to look in the fourth cellar and see what was\nthere, but he dared not, for dear life's sake. But at the end of the\nthird week he was so curious that he could resist no longer. He opened\nthe fourth door and went down the steps into the cellar, and there was\na magnificent coal-black horse chained to a manger, and the manger was\nfilled with red-hot coals. At the horse's tail was a basket of hay.\n\n\"That is a cruel thing to do to an animal,\" cried the lad, and he\nloosed the horse from the manger and turned him so he could eat.\n\nThen the black steed spoke to him in a human tone. \"You have done a\nChristian act,\" said the horse, \"and you shall not suffer for it. If\nthe Troll Master finds you here when he returns he will surely take\nyour life, and that must not be. Look over in yonder corner, and you\nwill find a suit of armor and a sword. Put on the armor and take up\nthe sword in your hand.\"\n\nThe lad went over to the corner, and there lay the armor and the\nsword, but when he would have taken them up they were too heavy for\nhim. He could scarce stir them. \"Well, there is no help for it,\" said\nthe horse. \"You will have to bathe in the caldron that is in the third\ncellar. Only so can you take up the armor and wear it.\"\n\nThis the lad did not want to do, for he was afraid. \"If you do not,\"\nsaid the horse, \"we will both of us lose our lives.\"\n\nThen the lad went back to the third cellar and shut his eyes and\nstepped down into the caldron, and though the waters in it bubbled and\nseethed they were as cold as ice and as bitter as death. He thought he\nwould have died of cold, but presently he grew quite warm again. He\nstepped out from the caldron, and he had become the handsomest lad in\nthe world; his skin was red and white, and his eyes shone like stars.\nHe went back to where the horse was, and now he lifted the armor with\nease, he had become so strong. He put it on and buckled the sword\nabout him.\n\n\"Now we must be off,\" cried the horse. \"Take the briar whip and the\nstone and the jug of water and the flask of ointment. Then mount my\nback and ride. If the Troll Master finds us here when he returns, it\nwill be short shrift for both of us.\"\n\nThe lad did as the horse bade him; he took the briar whip and the\nstone, the jug of water and the flask of ointment, and mounted the\nblack steed's back; and the steed carried him up the steps and out of\nthe house and fast, fast away through the forest and over the plains\nbeyond.\n\nAfter a while the black horse said, \"I hear a noise behind us. Look\nand see whether any one is coming.\"\n\nThe lad turned and looked. \"Yes, yes; it is the Master,\" said he, \"and\nwith him is a whole crowd of people.\"\n\n\"They are his friends he has brought out against us,\" said the steed.\n\"If they catch us it will go ill with us. Throw the thorn whip behind\nus, but be sure you throw it clear and do not let it touch even the\ntip of my tail.\"\n\nThe lad threw the whip behind him, and at once a great forest of\nthorns grew up where it fell. No one could have forced a way through\nit. The Master and his friends were obliged to go home and get\nhatchets and axes and cut a path through.\n\nMeanwhile the black horse had gone a long way. Then he said, \"Look\nbehind you, for I hear a noise; is any one coming?\"\n\nThe youth looked over his shoulder. \"Yes, it is the Master,\" said he,\n\"and with him are a multitude of people--like a church congregation.\"\n\n\"Still more of his friends have come to help him catch us,\" said the\nhorse. \"Throw the stone behind us, but be very sure it does not touch\nme.\"\n\nThe lad threw the stone behind him, and at once a great stone mountain\nrose up where it fell. The Master and his friends could by no means\ncross over it. They were obliged to go home and get something to bore\na way through, and this they did.\n\nBut by this time the horse had gone a long, long way. Then he said to\nthe lad, \"Look back and see whether you see any one, for I hear a\nnoise behind us.\"\n\nThe lad looked back. \"I see the Master coming,\" said he, \"and a great\nmultitude with him, so that they are like an army for numbers.\"\n\n\"Yes, yes,\" said the horse. \"He has all of his friends with him now.\nWoe betide us if they catch us. Pour the water from the jug behind us,\nbut be careful that none of it touches me.\"\n\nThe lad stretched back his arm and poured the water out from the jug,\nbut his haste was such that three drops fell upon the horse's flanks.\nImmediately a great lake rose about them, and because of the three\ndrops that had fallen on the horse, the lake was not only behind them\nbut about them, too; the steed had to swim for it.\n\nThe Trolls came to the edge of the lake, and as there was no way to\ncross over they threw themselves down on their stomachs and began to\ndrink it up. They drank and they drank and they drank, until at last\nthey all burst.\n\nBut the steed came out from the water and up on dry land. Then he went\non until he came to a wood, and here he stopped. \"Light down now,\"\nsaid he to the lad, \"and take off your armor and my saddle and bridle\nand hide them in yon hollow oak tree. Over there, a little beyond, is\na castle, and you must go and take service there. But first make\nyourself a wig of hanging gray mosses and put it on.\"\n\nThe lad did as the horse told him. He took off the saddle and bridle\nand the armor and hid them in the tree, and made for himself a moss\nwig; when he put it upon his head all the beauty went out of his face,\nand he looked so pale and miserable that no one would have wanted him\naround.\n\n\"If you ever need me,\" said the horse, \"come here to the wood and take\nout the bridle and shake it, and at once I will be with you.\" Then he\ngalloped away into the wood.\n\nThe lad in his moss wig went on until he came to the castle. He went\nto the kitchen door and knocked, and asked if he might take service\nthere.\n\nThe kitchen wench looked at him and made a face as though she had a\nsour taste in her mouth. \"Take off that wig and let me see how you\nlook,\" said she. \"With that on your head you are so ugly that no one\nwould want you around.\"\n\n\"I cannot take off my wig,\" said the lad, \"for that I have been told\nnot to do.\"\n\n\"Then you may seek service elsewhere, for I cannot bear the look of\nyou,\" said the kitchen wench, and she shut the door in his face.\n\nNext the lad went to the gardener and asked if he could help him in\nthe gardens, digging and planting.\n\nThe gardener looked and stared. \"You are not a beauty,\" said he, \"but\nout here in the garden no one will be apt to see you, and I need a\nhelper, so you may stay.\"\n\nSo the lad became the gardener's helper and dug and hoed in the garden\nall day.\n\nNow the King and Queen of that country had one fair daughter, and she\nwas as pretty and as fresh as a rose.\n\nOne day the gardener set the lad to spading under the Princess's\nwindow. She looked out, and there she saw him. \"Br-r-r! But he is an\nugly one,\" said she. Nevertheless she couldn't keep her eyes off him.\n\nAfter a while the lad grew hot with his work. He looked about him, and\nhe saw nobody, so he whipped off his wig to wipe his forehead, and\nthen he was as handsome a lad as ever was seen, so that the Princess's\nheart turned right over at the sight of him. Then he put on his wig\nand became ugly again, and went on spading, but now the Princess knew\nwhat he was really like.\n\nThe next day there was the lad at work under her window again, but as\nhe had his wig on he was just as ugly as before. Then the Princess\nsaid to her maid, \"Go down there where the gardener's lad is working\nand creep up behind him and twitch his wig off.\"\n\nThe maid went down to the garden and crept up back of the lad and gave\nthe wig a twitch, but he was too clever for her. He heard her coming,\nand he held the wig tight down over his ears. All the same the\nPrincess had once seen what he was like without it, and she made up\nher mind that if she could not have the gardener's lad for a husband\nshe would never marry any one.\n\nNow after this there was a great war and disturbance in the land. The\nKing's enemies had risen up against him and had come to take away his\nland from him. But the King with his courtiers and his armed men rode\nout to meet them and turn them back. The lad would have liked to ride\nwith them and strike a blow for the King, but the gardener would not\nhear of it. Nevertheless the day the King and his army were ready to\nset out the lad stole away to the stables and begged the stablemen to\ngive him a mount.\n\nIt seemed to the men that that would be a merry thing to do. He was\nsuch a scarecrow they gave him a scarecrow horse. It was old and blind\nof one eye and limped on three legs, dragging the fourth behind it.\nThe lad mounted and rode forth with all the rest, and when the\ncourtiers saw him they laughed and laughed until their sides ached.\n\nThey had not gone far before they had to cross a swamp, and midway\nthrough it the nag stuck fast. There sat the lad, beating it and\nshouting, \"Hie! Hie! Now will you go? Hie! Hie! Now will you go?\"\nEvery one went riding by, and as they passed him they pointed and\nlaughed and jeered.\n\nAfter they had all gone the lad slipped from the nag's back and ran\noff to the wood. He snatched off his wig and took his armor from the\nhollow tree and shook the bridle. At once the black steed came\ngalloping up. The lad mounted him and rode off after the others. His\narmor shone in the sun, and so handsome was he, and so noble his air\nthat any one would have taken him for a prince at least.\n\nWhen he reached the battle ground he found the King sore pressed, but\nhe rode so fiercely against the enemy that they were obliged to fall\nback, and the King's own forces won the day. Then the lad rode away so\nquickly that no one knew what had become of him. The King was sorry,\nfor he wished to thank the brave hero who had fought for him.\n\nBut the lad rode back to the wood and hid his armor in a tree and\nturned the black steed loose. Then he put on his wig and ran back and\nmounted the sorry nag that was still stuck in the swamp where he had\nleft it.\n\nWhen the King and his courtiers came riding back there sat the lad in\nrags and a gray moss wig, and he was beating his horse and shouting,\n\"Hie! Hie! Now will you go?\"\n\nThen the courtiers laughed more than ever, and one of them threw a\nclod at him.\n\nThe next day the King again rode forth to war with all his train.\nThere was the lad still seated on the nag in the swamp. \"What a fool\nhe is,\" they cried. \"He must have been sitting there all night.\" Then\nthey rode on and left him.\n\nBut the lad ran with haste to the wood and took his armor from the\ntree and put it on. He shook the bridle, and the black steed came\ngalloping up to him. The lad mounted and rode away to the battle\nfield. The King's forces were falling back, but the lad attacked the\nenemy so fiercely that they were put to rout. Every one wondered who\nthe hero could be, but as soon as the battle was won he rode away so\nswiftly that no one had a chance to question him and no one knew what\nhad become of him. \"If I could but find him,\" said the King, \"I would\nhonor him as I have never honored any one, for such a hero never was\nseen before.\"\n\nBut the lad hastened back to the wood; he laid aside his armor and\nturned the black steed loose. Then he put on his wig again and ran\nback to the swamp and mounted the sorry nag.\n\nWhen the King's forces came riding home, there sat the gardener's ugly\nlad, whipping his sorry nag and crying \"Hie! Hie! Now will you go?\"\n\nThe courtiers looked upon him with scorn. \"Why does he not go home and\nget to work?\" they cried. \"Such a scarecrow is an insult to all who\nsee him.\" One of the courtiers, more ill-natured than the rest, shot\nan arrow at him, and it pierced his leg so the blood flowed. The lad\ncried out so that it was pitiful to hear him. The King felt sorry for\nhim, ugly though he was, and drew out his own royal handkerchief and\nthrew it to him.\n\n\"There, Sirrah! Take that and bind up thy wound!\" he cried.\n\nThe lad took the handkerchief and bound it about his leg, and so the\nbleeding was stopped.\n\nThe next day, when the courtiers rode by, there sat the lad still upon\nhis broken-down nag, shouting to it as if to urge it forward, and his\nleg was tied up with the bloody kerchief, and the King's own initials\nwere on the kerchief in letters of gold.\n\nThe courtiers did not dare to jeer at him this time, because the King\nhad been kind to him, but they turned their faces aside so as not to\nsee him.\n\nAs soon as they had gone the lad sprang down and ran to the wood and\nput on his armor and shook the bridle for the black steed, but he was\nin such haste, that he forgot the kerchief that he had used to bind up\nhis wound, and so, when he rode out upon the battle field, he had it\nstill tied about his leg.\n\nThat day the lad fought more fiercely than ever before, and it was\nwell he did, for otherwise the King's forces would certainly have been\ndefeated. Already they were in retreat when the lad rode forth upon\nthe field. But at sight of him they took heart again, and he led them\non and did not stop or stay till he came to where the enemy's leader\nwas, and with one blow of his sword cut off his head.\n\nThen all the enemy's forces fled back, and the King's men pursued\nafter them and cut many of them to pieces, and the rest were glad to\nget safely back into their own country.\n\nAfter that the lad would have ridden away as before, but this the King\nwould not allow. He called to him and rode up to where he was, and\nwhen he saw the bloody kerchief tied about the stranger's leg he knew\nhe must be the very one he had left sitting on the old nag in the\nswamp awhile back.\n\nThis the lad could not deny, and when the King questioned him he told\nhim everything.\n\nThen the King said, \"Though you are only a gardener's lad still you\nare a mighty hero, and the hand of the Princess shall be yours. You\nshall marry her, and after I die you shall rule over the kingdom in my\nstead.\"\n\nYou may guess the lad did not say no to that, for he had seen the\nPrincess sitting at her window, and just from looking at her there he\nloved her with all his heart.\n\nSo the King and the courtiers rode home with the lad in their midst,\nand when the Princess heard she was to marry him she was filled with\njoy, for she recognized him at once as the gardener's boy who had\nworked beneath her window.\n\nThen all was joy and happiness. A great feast was prepared, and the\nlad and the Princess were married with the greatest magnificence. But\nfirst the lad rubbed his leg with the ointment and then it became\nquite well again; for it would never have done for him to go limping\nto his own wedding.\n\nNow as soon as he was married he went out to the stable to tell it to\nthe black steed. He found the horse sad and sorrowful. It stood\ndrooping and would not raise its head or speak when he entered the\nstall.\n\nThe lad was troubled at this. \"What ails you, my steed, that you stand\nthere so sorrowful when all around rejoice?\" asked he.\n\n\"I am sick at heart,\" answered the steed, \"and you alone can cure me\nof my sickness.\"\n\n\"How is that?\" asked the lad.\n\n\"Promise to do whatsoever I ask of you, and I will tell you.\"\n\n\"I promise,\" replied the lad, \"for there is nothing I would not do for\nyou.\"\n\n\"Then take your sword and cut off my head,\" said the steed.\n\nWhen the lad heard this he was horrified. \"What is this you ask of\nme?\" he cried. \"All that I have I owe to you, and shall I in return do\nyou such an injury?\"\n\nBut the black horse reminded him that he had promised. \"If you do not\ndo as I ask you,\" said he, \"then I shall know that you are a coward\nwho dares not keep his word.\"\n\nThe youth could not refuse after that. He was obliged to do as the\nhorse bade him, but the tears dimmed his eyes so that he could\nscarcely see. He drew his sword and cut off the horse's head. At once,\ninstead of a coal-black steed, a handsome young Prince stood before\nhim. The lad could scarce believe his eyes. He stared about him,\nwondering what had become of the horse.\n\n\"There is no need to look for the black steed,\" said the princely\nstranger, \"for I am he.\" He then told the lad that he was the son of\nthe King of a neighboring country. An enemy had risen up and slain the\nKing and had given the Prince to the black master who had turned him\ninto a horse and taken him away to his castle. \"You have rescued me\nfrom the enchantment, and now I am free to claim my land again,\" said\nthe Prince. He then told the lad that the enemy King whom he had\nlately slain in battle was the very one who had taken his kingdom from\nhim.\n\nThen the Prince went back with the lad to the palace, and was\nintroduced to the King and the Princess and all the court.\n\nAfter that the lad and his bride and the Prince rode forth with a\ngreat retinue into the Prince's own country, and his people received\nhim with joy, and he and the lad lived in the greatest love and\nfriendship forever after.\n\n\n\n\n                            THE WISE GIRL\n\n                           A SERBIAN STORY\n\n\nThere was once a girl who was wiser than the King and all his\ncouncilors; there never was anything like it. Her father was so proud\nof her that he boasted about her cleverness at home and abroad. He\ncould not keep his tongue still about it. One day he was boasting to\none of his neighbors, and he said, \"The girl is so clever that not\neven the King himself could ask her a question she couldn't answer, or\nread her a riddle she couldn't unravel.\"\n\nNow it so chanced the King was sitting at a window near by, and he\noverheard what the girl's father was saying. The next day he sent for\nthe man to come before him. \"I hear you have a daughter who is so\nclever that no one in the kingdom can equal her; and is that so?\"\nasked the King.\n\nYes, it was no more than the truth. Too much could not be said of her\nwit and cleverness.\n\nThat was well, and the King was glad to hear it. He had thirty eggs;\nthey were fresh and good, but it would take a clever person to hatch\nchickens out of them. He then bade his chancellor get the eggs and\ngive them to the man.\n\n\"Take these home to your daughter,\" said the King, \"and bid her hatch\nthem out for me. If she succeeds she shall have a bag of money for her\npains, but if she fails you shall be beaten as a vain boaster.\"\n\nThe man was troubled when he heard this. Still his daughter was so\nclever he was almost sure she could hatch out the eggs. He carried\nthem home to her and told her exactly what the King had said, and it\ndid not take the girl long to find out that the eggs had been boiled.\n\nWhen she told her father that, he made a great to-do. That was a\npretty trick for the King to have played upon him. Now he would have\nto take a beating and all the neighbors would hear about it. Would to\nHeaven he had never had a daughter at all if that was what came of it.\n\nThe girl, however, bade him be of good cheer. \"Go to bed and sleep\nquietly,\" said she. \"I will think of some way out of the trouble. No\nharm shall come to you, even though I have to go to the palace myself\nand take the beating in your place.\"\n\nThe next day the girl gave her father a bag of boiled beans and bade\nhim take them out to a certain place where the King rode by every day.\n\"Wait until you see him coming,\" said she, \"and then begin to sow the\nbeans.\" At the same time he was to call out this, that, and the other\nso loudly that the King could not help but hear him.\n\nThe man took the bag of beans and went out to the field his daughter\nhad spoken of. He waited until he saw the King coming, and then he\nbegan to sow the beans, and at the same time to cry aloud, \"Come sun,\ncome rain! Heaven grant that these boiled beans may yield me a good\ncrop.\"\n\nThe King was surprised that any one should be so stupid as to think\nboiled beans would grow and yield a crop. He did not recognize the\nman, for he had only seen him once, and he stopped his horse to speak\nto him. \"My poor man,\" said he, \"how can you expect boiled beans to\ngrow? Do you not know that that is impossible?\"\n\n\"Whatever the King commands should be possible,\" answered the man,\n\"and if chickens can hatch from boiled eggs why should not boiled\nbeans yield a crop?\"\n\nWhen the King heard this he looked at the man more closely, and then\nhe recognized him as the father of the clever daughter.\n\n\"You have indeed a clever daughter,\" said he. \"Take your beans home\nand bring me back the eggs I gave you.\"\n\nThe man was very glad when he heard that, and made haste to obey. He\ncarried the beans home and then took the eggs and brought them back to\nthe palace of the King.\n\nAfter the King had received the eggs he gave the man a handful of\nflax. \"Take this to your clever daughter,\" he said, \"and bid her make\nfor me within the week a full set of sails for a large ship. If she\ndoes this she shall receive the half of my kingdom as a reward, but if\nshe fails you shall have a drubbing that you will not soon forget.\"\n\nThe man returned to his home, loudly lamenting his hard lot.\n\n\"What is the matter?\" asked his daughter. \"Has the King set another\ntask that I must do?\"\n\nYes, that he had; and her father showed her the flax the King had sent\nher and gave her the message.\n\n\"Do not be troubled,\" said the girl. \"No harm shall come to you. Go to\nbed and sleep quietly, and to-morrow I will send the King an answer\nthat will satisfy him.\"\n\nThe man believed what his daughter said. He went to bed and slept\nquietly.\n\nThe next day the girl gave her father a small piece of wood. \"Carry\nthis to the King,\" said she. \"Tell him I am ready to make the sails,\nbut first let him make me of this wood a large ship that I may fit the\nsails to it.\"\n\nThe father did as the girl bade him, and the King was surprised at the\ncleverness of the girl in returning him such an answer.\n\n\"That is all very well,\" said he, \"and I will excuse her from this\ntask. But here! Here is a glass mug. Take it home to your clever\ndaughter. Tell her it is my command that she dip out the waters from\nthe ocean bed so that I can ride over the bottom dry shod. If she does\nthis, I will take her for my wife, but if she fails you shall be\nbeaten within an inch of your life.\"\n\nThe man took the mug and hastened home, weeping aloud and bemoaning\nhis fate.\n\n\"Well, and what is it?\" asked his daughter. \"What does the King demand\nof me now?\"\n\nThe man gave her the glass mug and told her what the King had said.\n\n\"Do not be troubled,\" said the girl. \"Go to bed and sleep in peace.\nYou shall not be beaten, and soon I shall be reigning as Queen over\nall this land.\"\n\nThe man had trust in her. He went to bed and slept and dreamed he saw\nher sitting by the King with a crown on her head.\n\nThe next day the girl gave her father a bunch of tow. \"Take this to\nthe King,\" she said. \"Tell him you have given me the mug, and I am\nwilling to dip the sea dry, but first let him take this tow and stop\nup all the rivers that flow into the ocean.\"\n\nThe man did as his daughter bade him. He took the tow to the King and\ntold him exactly what the girl had said.\n\nThen the King saw that the girl was indeed a clever one, and he sent\nfor her to come before him.\n\nShe came just as she was, in her homespun dress and her rough shoes\nand with a cap on her head, but for all her mean clothing she was as\npretty and fine as a flower, and the King was not slow to see it.\nStill he wanted to make sure for himself that she was as clever as her\nmessages had been.\n\n\"Tell me,\" said he, \"what sound can be heard the farthest throughout\nthe world?\"\n\n\"The thunder that echoes through heaven and earth,\" answered the girl,\n\"and your own royal commands that go from lip to lip.\"\n\nThis reply pleased the King greatly. \"And now tell me,\" said he,\n\"exactly what is my royal sceptre worth?\"\n\n\"It is worth exactly as much as the power for which it stands,\" the\ngirl replied.\n\nThe King was so well satisfied with the way the girl answered that he\nno longer hesitated; he determined that she should be his Queen, and\nthat they should be married at once.\n\nThe girl had something to say to this, however. \"I am but a poor\ngirl,\" said she, \"and my ways are not your ways. It may well be that\nyou will tire of me, or that you may be angry with me sometime, and\nsend me back to my father's house to live. Promise that if this should\nhappen you will allow me to carry back with me from the castle the\nthing that has grown most precious to me.\"\n\nThe King was willing to agree to this, but the girl was not satisfied\nuntil he had written down his promise and signed it with his own royal\nhand. Then she and the King were married with the greatest magnificence,\nand she came to live in the palace and reign over the land.\n\nNow while the girl was still only a peasant she had been well content\nto dress in homespun and live as a peasant should, but after she\nbecame Queen she would wear nothing but the most magnificent robes and\njewels and ornaments, for that seemed to her only right and proper for\na Queen. But the King, who was of a very jealous nature, thought his\nwife did not care at all for him, but only for the fine things he\ncould give her.\n\nOne time the King and Queen were to ride abroad together, and the\nQueen spent so much time in dressing herself that the King was kept\nwaiting, and he became very angry. When she appeared before him, he\nwould not even look at her. \"You care nothing for me, but only for the\njewels and fine clothes you wear,\" he cried. \"Take with you those that\nare the most precious to you, as I promised you, and return to your\nfather's house. I will no longer have a wife who cares only for my\npossessions and not at all for me.\"\n\nVery well; the girl was willing to go. \"And I will be happier in my\nfather's house than I was when I first met you,\" said she. Nevertheless\nshe begged that she might spend one more night in the palace, and that\nshe and the King might sup together once again before she returned\nhome.\n\nTo this the King agreed, for he still loved her, even though he was so\nangry with her.\n\nSo he and his wife supped together that evening, and just at the last\nthe Queen took a golden cup and filled it with wine. Then, when the\nKing was not looking, she put a sleeping potion in the wine and gave\nit to him to drink.\n\nHe took it and drank to the very last drop, suspecting nothing, but\nsoon after he sank down among the cushions in a deep sleep. Then the\nQueen caused him to be carried to her father's house and laid in the\nbed there.\n\nWhen the King awoke the next morning he was very much surprised to\nfind himself in the peasant's cottage. He raised himself upon his\nelbow to look about him, and at once the girl came to the bedside, and\nshe was again dressed in the coarse and common clothes she had worn\nbefore she was married.\n\n\"What means this?\" asked the King, \"and how came I here?\"\n\n\"My dear husband,\" said the girl, \"your promise was that if you ever\nsent me back to my father's house I might carry with me the thing that\nhad become most precious to me in the castle. You are that most\nprecious thing, and I care for nothing else except as it makes me\npleasing in your sight.\"\n\nThen the King could no longer feel jealous or angry with her. He\nclasped her in his arms, and they kissed each other tenderly. That\nsame day they returned to the palace, and from that time on the King\nand his peasant Queen lived together in the greatest love and\nhappiness.\n\n\n\n\n                       THE HISTORY OF ALI COGIA\n\n                       FROM THE ARABIAN NIGHTS\n\n\nIn the city of Bagdad there once lived a merchant named Ali Cogia.\nThis merchant was faithful and honest in all his dealings, but he had\nnever made the holy pilgrimage to Mecca. He often felt troubled over\nthis, for he knew he was neglecting a religious duty, but he was so\noccupied with his business affairs that it was difficult for him to\nleave home. Year after year he planned to make the pilgrimage, but\nalways he postponed it, hoping for some more convenient time.\n\nOne night the merchant had a dream so vivid that it was more like a\nvision than a dream. In this dream or vision an old man appeared\nbefore him and, regarding him with a severe and reproachful look,\nsaid, \"Why have you not made the pilgrimage to Mecca?\"\n\nWhen Ali Cogia awoke he felt greatly troubled. He feared this dream\nhad been sent him as a reproach and a warning from heaven. He was\nstill more troubled when the next night he dreamed the same dream; and\nwhen upon the third night the old man again appeared before him and\nasked the same question, he determined to delay no longer, but to set\nout upon the pilgrimage as soon as possible.\n\nTo this end he sold off all his goods except some that he decided to\ncarry with him to Mecca and to dispose of there. He settled all his\ndebts and rented his shop and his house to a friend, and as he had\nneither wife nor family, he was now free to set out at any time.\n\nThe sale of his goods had brought in quite a large sum of money, so\nthat after he had set aside as much as was needed for the journey he\nfound he had still a thousand gold pieces left over.\n\nThese he determined to leave in some safe place until his return. He\nput the money in an olive jar and covered it over with olives and\nsealed it carefully. He then carried the jar to a friend named Abul\nHassan, who was the owner of a large warehouse.\n\n\"Abul Hassan,\" said he, \"I am about to make the journey to Mecca, as\nyou perhaps know. I have here a jar of olives that I would like to\nleave in your warehouse until my return, if you will allow me to do\nso.\"\n\nAbul Hassan was quite willing that his friend should do this and gave\nhim the keys of the warehouse, bidding him place the jar wherever he\nwished. \"I will gladly keep it until you return,\" said he, \"and you\nmay rest assured the jar will not be disturbed until such time as you\nshall come and claim it.\"\n\nAli Cogia thanked his friend and carried the jar into the warehouse,\nplacing it in the farthest and darkest corner where it would not be in\nthe way. Soon after he set out upon his journey to Mecca.\n\nWhen Ali Cogia left Bagdad he had no thought but that he would return\nin a year's time at latest. He made the journey safely, in company\nwith a number of other pilgrims. Arrived in Mecca, he visited the\ncelebrated temples and other objects of interest that were there. He\nperformed all his religious duties faithfully, and after that he went\nto the bazaar and secured a place where he could display the goods he\nhad brought with him.\n\nOne day a stranger came through the bazaar and stopped to admire the\nbeauty of the things Ali had for sale.\n\n\"It is a pity,\" said the stranger, \"that you should not go to Cairo.\nYou could go there at no great expense, and I feel assured that you\nwould receive a far better price for your goods there than here. I\nknow, for I have lived in that city all my life, and I am familiar\nwith the prices that are paid for such fine merchandise as yours.\" The\nstranger talked with Ali for some time and then passed on his way.\n\nAfter he had gone the merchant meditated upon what had been said, and\nhe finally determined to follow the stranger's advice and to take such\ngoods as he had left to Cairo, and place them on sale there. This he\ndid and found that, as the stranger had promised, the prices he could\nget there were much higher than those paid in Mecca.\n\nWhile Ali Cogia was in Cairo he made the acquaintance of some people\nwho were about to journey down into Egypt by caravan. They urged Ali\nto join them, and after some persuasion he consented to do so, as he\nhad always wished to see that country. From Egypt Ali Cogia journeyed\nto Constantinople, and then on to other cities and countries. Time\nflew by so rapidly that when, finally, Ali stopped to reckon up how\nlong it was since he had left Bagdad, he found that seven years had\nelapsed.\n\nHe now determined to return without delay to his own city. He found a\ncamel that suited him, and having bought it he packed upon it such\ngoods as he had left, and set out for Bagdad.\n\nNow all the while that Ali Cogia had been travelling from place to\nplace the jar containing the gold pieces had rested undisturbed and\nforgotten in Abul Hassan's warehouse. Abul and his wife sometimes\ntalked of Ali and wondered when he would return and how he had fared\nupon his journey. They were surprised at his long absence and feared\nsome misfortune might have come upon him. At one time there was a\nrumor that he was dead, but this rumor was afterward denied.\n\nNow the very day that Ali Cogia set out upon his return journey Abul\nHassan and his wife were seated at the table at their evening meal,\nand their talk turned upon the subject of olives.\n\n\"It is a long time since we have had any in the house,\" said the wife.\n\"Indeed, I do not remember when I last tasted one, and yet it is my\nfavorite fruit. I wish we had some now.\"\n\n\"Yes, we must get some,\" said Abul Hassan. \"And by the way, that\nreminds me of the jar that Ali Cogia left with us. I wonder whether\nthe olives in it are still good. They have been there for some years\nnow.\"\n\n\"Yes, for seven years,\" replied his wife. \"No doubt they are all\nspoiled by this time.\"\n\n\"That I will see,\" said Abul Hassan, rising and taking up a light. \"If\nthey are still good we might as well have some, for I do not believe\nAli Cogia will ever return to claim the jar.\"\n\nHis wife was horrified. \"What are you thinking of?\" cried she. \"Ali\nCogia entrusted this jar to you, and you gave your word that it would\nnot be disturbed until he came again to claim it. We heard, indeed,\nthat he was dead, but this rumor was afterward denied. What opinion\nwould he have of you if he returned and found you had helped yourself\nto his olives?\"\n\nAbul Hassan, still holding the light in his hand, waited impatiently\nuntil his wife had finished speaking. Then he replied, \"Ali Cogia will\nnot return; of that I feel assured. And at any rate, if he should, I\ncan easily replace the olives.\"\n\n\"You can replace the olives, no doubt,\" answered his wife, \"but they\nwould not be Ali Cogia's olives. This jar is a sacred trust and should\nnot be disturbed by you under any consideration.\" But though she spoke\nthus strongly she could see by her husband's face that he had not\nchanged his determination. He now took up the dish and said, \"If the\nolives are good I will bring a dish full from the jar, but if they are\nspoiled, as I suppose they are, I will replace the cover and no one\nwill be any the wiser.\"\n\nHis wife would have tried again to dissuade him, but without listening\nfurther he went at once to the warehouse. It did not take him long to\nfind the jar. He took off the cover and found that, as he had\nsuspected, the olives were spoiled. Wishing to see whether those\nbeneath were in the same condition he tilted the jar and emptied some\nof them out into the dish. What was his surprise to see some gold\npieces fall out with the olives. Abul Hassan could hardly believe his\neyes. Hastily he plunged his hands down into the jar and soon found\nthat except for the top layer of fruit the whole jar was full of gold\npieces.\n\nAbul Hassan's eyes sparkled with desire. He was naturally a very\navaricious man, and the sight of the gold awakened all his greed. It\nhad been there in his warehouse, all unknown to him, for seven years.\nHe felt as though he had been tricked, for, thought he, \"All this time\nI might have been using this money to advantage by trading with it and\nwith no harm to any one, for I could have replaced it at any time I\nheard Ali Cogia was about to return.\"\n\nFor a while he stood there lost in thought. Then he returned the gold\nto the jar, covered it over with olives as before, and replaced the\ncover, and taking up the empty dish and the light he returned to his\nwife.\n\n\"You were quite right,\" said he carelessly. \"The olives were spoiled,\nso I did not bring any.\"\n\n\"You should not even have opened the jar,\" said his wife. \"Heaven\ngrant that no evil may come upon us for this.\"\n\nTo this remark Abul Hassan made no reply, and soon after he and his\nwife retired to rest. But the merchant could not sleep. All night he\ntossed and twisted, thinking of the gold and planning how he could\nmake it his own, and it was not until morning that he fell into a\ntroubled sleep.\n\nThe next day he arose early and as soon as the bazaar opened he went\nout and bought a quantity of olives. He brought them home and carried\nthem into the warehouse secretly, and without his wife's knowing\nanything about it. Then he again opened Ali Cogia's jar, and having\nemptied it of its contents, he filled it with fresh olives and\nreplaced the cover in such a way that no one, looking at it, would\nhave known it had been disturbed. He then threw the spoiled olives\naway and hid the gold in a secret place known only to himself.\n\nAbout a month after this Ali Cogia returned to Bagdad. As his own\nhouse was still rented he took a room in a khan and at once hastened\nto Abul Hassan's house to get his jar.\n\nAbul Hassan was confounded when he saw Ali Cogia enter his house, for\nhe had managed to convince himself that Ali must be dead. This he had\ndone to try to excuse himself in his own eyes for taking the gold.\nHowever he hid his confusion as best he could, and made the returned\ntraveller welcome, and asked him how he had fared in his journeyings.\n\nAli Cogia answered his inquiries politely, but he was uneasy and\nrestless, and as soon as he could make the opportunity he inquired\nabout the olive jar he had left in the warehouse.\n\n\"The jar is there where you put it, I am sure,\" answered Abul Hassan,\n\"though I myself have not seen it. I do not even know in what part of\nthe warehouse you left it. But here are the keys, and as I am busy I\nwill ask you to get it for yourself.\"\n\nAli Cogia made haste to seek out the jar and was much relieved to find\nit exactly where he had left it and apparently untouched. He had trust\nin Abul Hassan's honor, but a thousand pieces of gold was such a large\nsum that he could not but feel some concern until he had it in his own\nhands again.\n\nAfter thanking his fellow merchant for keeping the jar, more earnestly\nthan seemed necessary, he carried it back to his room in the khan, and\nhaving locked the door he opened it. He removed the two top layers of\nolives and was somewhat surprised not to see the gold. However, he\nthought he must have covered the money more carefully than he had\nsupposed. He took out more olives, and then still more, but still\nthere were no signs of the gold.\n\nFilled with misgivings, Ali Cogia tilted the jar and emptied out the\nrest of the olives so hastily that they rolled all over the floor, but\nnot a single piece of gold was there.\n\nThe merchant was dismayed. He could scarcely believe that Abul Hassan\nwould rob him of his money, and yet there seemed no other explanation.\nHe knew that the merchant kept his warehouse locked except when he was\nthere himself, and that no one was allowed to visit it but those with\nwhom he was well acquainted, and then only upon special business.\n\nDeeply troubled he returned to the merchant's house, determined to\ndemand an explanation and, if necessary, to force him by law to return\nthe gold.\n\nAbul Hassan seemed surprised to see Ali return so soon. \"Did you\nforget something?\" he asked. \"Or do you wish to speak to me upon some\nbusiness?\"\n\n\"Do you not guess what I have come to speak to you about?\" asked Ali.\n\n\"How should I guess? Unless it is to thank me again for keeping your\njar for you.\"\n\n\"Abul Hassan, when I went away I left a thousand pieces of gold in the\njar I placed in your warehouse. The gold is now gone. I suppose you\nsaw some way in which you could use it both for your advantage and my\nown. If such is the case, please to give me some receipt for the\nmoney, and I am willing to wait until you can return it to me, but I\nthink you should have spoken of the matter when I was here before.\"\n\nAbul Hassan showed the greatest surprise at this address. \"I do not\nknow what you are talking about,\" said he. \"I know nothing about any\ngold. If there was any in the jar, which I very much doubt, it must be\nthere still, for the jar has never been disturbed since you yourself\nplaced it in my warehouse.\"\n\n\"The gold certainly was in the jar when I placed it there, and you\nmust know it, for no one else could have taken it. No one goes into\nthe warehouse without your permission, as you have often told me and\nthen only for some express purpose.\"\n\nAli Cogia would have said more, but his fellow merchant interrupted\nhim. \"I repeat I know nothing of any gold,\" he cried angrily. \"Go away\nand do not trouble me any further, or you will find yourself in\ndifficulties. Do you not see how your loud talking has gathered a\ncrowd about my house?\"\n\nAnd indeed a number of people had gathered in front of Abul's house,\ndrawn thither by the sound of the dispute. They listened with\ncuriosity to what the merchants were saying and presently became so\ninterested that they began to discuss the matter among themselves, and\nto argue and dispute as to which of the merchants was in the right.\n\nAt last Ali Cogia, finding that Abul would confess nothing, said,\n\"Very well. I see you are determined to keep the money if possible.\nBut you shall find it is not as easy to rob me as you seem to think.\"\nThen, laying his hand upon Abul's shoulder, he added, \"I summon you to\nappear with me before the Cadi, that he may decide the matter between\nus.\"\n\nNow this is a summons no true Mussulman can disobey. Abul was\ncompelled to go before the Cadi with Ali, and a great crowd of people\nfollowed them, eager to know what decision would be given in the\nmatter by the judge.\n\nThe Cadi listened attentively to all the two merchants had to say and\nafter reflecting upon the matter he asked, \"Abul Hassan, are you ready\nto swear that you know nothing of the gold Ali Cogia says he left with\nyou, and that you did not disturb the jar?\"\n\n\"I am,\" answered the merchant. \"And indeed I wish to swear to it,\" and\nthis he did.\n\n\"And you, Ali Cogia; have you any witnesses to prove there was gold in\nthe jar when you left it in Abul Hassan's warehouse?\"\n\n\"Alas! no; no one knew of it but myself.\"\n\n\"Then it is your word against his. Abul Hassan has sworn that he did\nnot touch the jar, and unless you can bring witnesses to your truth, I\ncannot compel him to pay you a thousand pieces of gold that you may\nnever have lost.\"\n\nThe case was dismissed. Abul Hassan returned to his home, satisfied\nand triumphant, but Ali Cogia with hanging head and bitterness of\nheart.\n\nBut though the Cadi had decided against him, Ali was not willing to\nlet the matter rest there. He was determined to have justice done him,\neven though he were obliged to appeal to the Caliph himself.\n\nAt that time Haroun-al-Raschid was Commander of the Faithful. Every\nmorning Haroun-al-Raschid went to the mosque to offer up prayers,\naccompanied by his Grand Vizier and Mesrour the Chief Eunuch. As he\nreturned to the palace all who had complaints to make or petitions to\noffer stationed themselves along the way and gave their complaints and\npetitions in written form to Mesrour. Afterward these papers were\npresented to the Caliph that he might read them and decide upon their\nmerits.\n\nThe day after the Cadi had dismissed the case of the two merchants,\nAli Cogia set out early in the morning and placed himself beside the\nway where he knew the Caliph would pass.\n\nIn his hand he carried his complaint against Abul Hassan, written out\nin due form. He waited until Haroun-al-Raschid was returning from the\nmosque and then put the paper in the hand of Mesrour.\n\nLater, when the Caliph was reading the papers, he was particularly\ninterested in the one presented by Ali Cogia: \"This is a curious\ncase,\" said he to his Vizier, \"and one which it will be difficult to\ndecide. Order the two merchants to appear before me to-morrow, and I\nwill hear what they have to say.\"\n\nThat evening the Caliph and his Vizier disguised themselves, and,\nattended only by Mesrour, they went out to wander about the streets of\nthe city. It was the custom of the Caliph to do this, as in this way\nhe learned much about his people, their needs and wants and ways of\nlife, which would otherwise have been hidden from him.\n\nFor some time after they set out they heard and saw nothing of\nimportance, but as they came near to a court that opened off one of\nthe streets they heard the voices of a number of boys who were at play\nthere in the moonlight.\n\nThe Caliph motioned to his Vizier to be silent, and together they stole\nto the opening of the court and looked in. The moon was so bright that\nthey could see clearly the faces of the boys at play there. They had\ngathered about the tallest and most intelligent-looking lad, who\nappeared to be their leader.\n\n\"Let us act out some play,\" the leader was saying. \"I will be the\nCadi, and you shall bring some case before me to be tried.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" cried another. \"But what case shall we take?\"\n\n\"Let us take the case of Ali Cogia and Abul Hassan. We all know about\nthat, and if it had come before me I should have decided it differently\nfrom the way the Cadi did.\"\n\nAll the boys agreed to this by clapping their hands.\n\nThe leader then appointed one boy to take the part of Ali Cogia and\nanother to be Abul Hassan. Still others were chosen to be guards and\nmerchants and so on.\n\nThe Caliph and his Vizier were much amused by this play of the boys,\nand they sat down upon a bench so conveniently placed that they could\nsee all that went on without themselves being observed.\n\nThe pretended Cadi took his seat and commanded that Abul Hassan and\nAli Cogia should be brought before him. \"And let Ali Cogia bring with\nhim the jar of olives in which he said he hid the gold,\" said he.\n\nThe lads who were taking the parts of Ali Cogia and Abul Hassan were\nnow led forward by some of the other boys and were told by the\npretended Cadi to state their cases. This they did clearly, for the\ncase had been much talked about by their elders, and they were well\nacquainted with all the circumstances and had discussed them among\nthemselves.\n\nThe pretended Cadi listened attentively to what they said, and then\naddressing the lad who took the part of Abul he asked, \"Abul Hassan,\nare you willing to swear that you have not touched the jar nor opened\nit?\"\n\nThe pretended merchant said he was.\n\nThe lad then asked, \"Has Ali Cogia brought the jar of olives into\ncourt with him?\"\n\n\"It is here,\" said the boys who were taking the parts of officers of\nthe court.\n\nThe feigned Cadi ordered them to place the jar before him, which they\npretended to do. He then went through the motions of lifting the lid\nand examining the olives and even of tasting one.\n\n\"These are very fine olives,\" said he. \"Ali Cogia, when did you say\nyou placed this jar in the warehouse?\"\n\n\"It was when I left Bagdad, seven years ago,\" answered the pretended\nmerchant.\n\n\"Abul Hassan, is that so?\"\n\nThe boy who acted the part of Abul said that it was.\n\n\"Let the olive merchants be brought into court,\" commanded the\npretended Cadi.\n\nThe boys who were taking the parts of olive merchants now came\nforward.\n\n\"Tell me,\" said the feigned Cadi, \"how long is it possible to keep\nolives?\"\n\n\"However great the care that is taken,\" they answered, \"it is\nimpossible to preserve them for more than three years. After that time\nthey lose both color and flavor and are fit for nothing but to be\nthrown out.\" The boys spoke with assurance, for their fathers were\namong the most expert olive dealers in the city, and they knew what\nthey were talking about.\n\nThe pretended Cadi then bade them examine the olives in the jar and\ntell him how old they were. \"As you see,\" said he, \"they are of a fine\ncolor, large, and of a delicious fresh taste.\"\n\nThe feigned merchants pretended to examine them carefully and then\nannounced the olives were of that year's growth.\n\n\"But Ali Cogia says he left them with Abul Hassan seven years ago, and\nto this statement Abul Hassan agrees.\"\n\n\"It is impossible they should have been kept that long,\" answered the\nfeigned merchants. \"As we tell you, after three years olives are worth\nnothing, and at the end of seven years they would be utterly spoiled.\nThese are fresh olives and of this year's growth.\"\n\nThe boy who took the part of Abul Hassan would have tried to explain\nand make excuses, but the pretended Cadi bade him be silent.\n\n\"You have sworn falsely,\" said he, \"and also proved yourself a thief.\"\n\nThen to the pretended guards he cried, \"Take him away and let him be\nhung according to the law.\"\n\nThe feigned guards dragged away the boy who was acting Abul Hassan and\nthen, the play being finished, all the boys clapped their hands and\nshouted their approval of the way the feigned Cadi had conducted the\ncase.\n\nSeeing that all was over the Caliph withdrew, beckoning to the Vizier\nand Mesrour to follow him. After they had gone a short distance,\nHaroun-al-Raschid turned to the Vizier and asked him what he thought\nof the play they had just witnessed.\n\n\"I think,\" said the Vizier, \"that the pretended Cadi showed a wisdom\nand a judgment that the real Cadi would do well to imitate. I also\nthink the boy is a lad of remarkable intelligence.\"\n\n\"It is my own thought,\" replied the Caliph. \"Moreover I have a further\nthought. You know this very case between Ali Cogia and Abul Hassan is\nto appear before me to-morrow, I have it in mind to send you to bring\nthis boy to the palace, and I will then let him conduct this case in\nreality as he has to-day in play.\"\n\nThe Vizier applauded this plan, and he and his master returned to the\npalace, still talking of the boy.\n\nThe next day the Vizier went back to the court they had visited the\nevening before, and after looking about he found the lad who had taken\nthe part of the Cadi sitting in a doorway. The Vizier approached him\nand spoke to him in a kind and friendly manner.\n\n\"My boy,\" said he, \"I have come here by order of the Commander of the\nFaithful. Last evening, when you were acting your play, he overheard\nall that was said, and he wishes to see you at the palace to-day.\"\n\nThe boy was alarmed when he heard this, grew pale, and showed great\nuneasiness. \"Have I done something wrong?\" he asked. \"If I have I did\nit unknowingly, and I hope I am not to be punished for something I did\nwithout intention.\"\n\n\"You have done no wrong,\" answered the Vizier, \"and it is not to\npunish you that the Caliph has sent for you. Indeed he is very much\npleased with your conduct, and his sending for you in this manner is a\ngreat honor.\" He then told the lad what it was the Caliph wished him\nto do.\n\nInstead of being put at ease by this the lad showed even greater\ndiscomfort. \"This seems a strange thing for me to do,\" said he:--\"to\ndecide a case between two grown men--I who am only a child. I am\nafraid I will not be able to please the Caliph, and that he will be\nangry with me.\"\n\n\"Conduct the case as wisely as you did last night when you were\nplaying,\" answered the Vizier, \"and the Caliph will not be displeased\nwith you.\"\n\nThe boy then asked permission to go and tell his mother where he was\ngoing and for what purpose, and to this the Vizier consented.\n\nWhen the lad's mother heard that he was to go to the palace to act as\njudge in a case of such importance she could hardly believe her ears.\nShe was frightened lest the lad should in some way offend the Caliph\nby saying or doing something ill-judged.\n\nThe lad tried to reassure her, though he himself was far from being at\nease.\n\n\"If the Caliph was pleased with the way I conducted the case last\nnight I do not think he can be so very much displeased with me\nto-day,\" said he; \"for I feel sure that only in this way can we\ndiscover the truth between the two merchants.\"\n\nWhen the lad returned to the Vizier he looked very grave, and as they\nwent along together on their way to the palace the Vizier tried in\nevery way to put him more at ease and give him confidence.\n\nImmediately upon their arrival at the palace they were shown into the\nroom where the Caliph was sitting. Haroun-al-Raschid greeted the boy\nwith no less kindness than the Vizier had shown and asked him if he\nunderstood the purpose for which he had been brought thither.\n\nThe lad said he did.\n\n\"Then let the two merchants come in,\" said the Caliph.\n\nAli Cogia and Abul Hassan were at once brought in by the officers of\nthe court. Ali Cogia brought with him the jar of olives, for so he had\nbeen commanded to do.\n\nThe Cadi who had judged between the two merchants had also been\nordered to attend, and he entered and took the place assigned to him.\n\nThe Caliph then turned to the lad and bade him open the case by\nbidding the merchants tell their stories, and this, after a moment's\npause, the lad did.\n\nAli Cogia told his story just as he had before, stating that he had\nleft with Abul Hassan seven years before a thousand pieces of gold\npacked in a jar and covered over with olives.\n\n\"Is this the jar you left with Abul Hassan?\" asked the boy, pointing\nto the jar Ali had brought into court.\n\nAli stated that it was.\n\n\"Abul Hassan, do you also say this is the jar Ali Cogia left with\nyou?\" asked the lad.\n\nAbul answered that it was. He also asked to be allowed to take his\noath that the jar had not been disturbed after it was left in his\nwarehouse until Ali Cogia had returned and removed it.\n\n\"That is not necessary at present,\" answered the boy. \"First let some\nexpert olive merchants be brought in.\"\n\nSeveral olive dealers, the most expert in the city, had been sent for,\nand they now came forward.\n\nThe lad asked these real merchants the same questions he had asked of\nthe feigned merchants the night before. \"How long,\" said he, \"is it\npossible to keep olives good?\"\n\nAnd the merchants answered, as had the boys, \"Not more than three\nyears, for no matter how carefully they have been packed, after that\ntime they lose both color and flavor.\"\n\n\"Look in that jar,\" said the lad, \"and tell us how long you think\nthose olives have been kept there.\"\n\nThe merchants examined the olives with the greatest care, and then\nthey all agreed that the olives were of that year's growth and quite\nfresh.\n\n\"And do you not think it possible they may have been kept a year or\nso?\"\n\n\"No, it is not possible,\" answered the merchants. \"We know, of a\nsurety, as we have already said, that these olives are of this year's\ngrowth, and have only recently been packed in the jar.\"\n\nWhen Ali Cogia heard this he gave a cry of surprise, but Abul Hassan\nwas silent; his face grew as pale as ashes, and his legs failed under\nhim, for he knew that the merchants, in saying this, had pronounced\nsentence against him.\n\nBut the lad turned to the Caliph and begged that he might now be\nallowed to hand over the case to him. \"When I pronounced sentence last\nnight, it was but in play,\" said he. \"But this is not play. A man's\nlife is at stake, and I dare not pronounce sentence upon him.\"\n\nTo this request the Caliph agreed. \"Abul Hassan, you have condemned\nyourself,\" he said. He then bade the guards take Abul Hassan away and\nexecute him according to the law.\n\nBefore the wretched man was hanged, however, he confessed his guilt\nand told where he had hidden the thousand pieces of gold that belonged\nto Ali Cogia.\n\nAfter Abul had been led away the Caliph caressed and praised the lad\nfor conducting the case so wisely and with so much judgment.\n\n\"As for you,\" said he to the Cadi, \"you have not shown the wisdom I\ndemand from my judges. Learn from this child that such cases are not\nto be dismissed lightly, but to be inquired into with judgment and\ncare. Otherwise it may go ill with you.\"\n\nThe Cadi retired, full of shame, but the Caliph ordered that a hundred\npieces of gold should be given to the boy and that he should be sent\nhome to his mother with honor.\n\n\n\n\n                                 OH!\n\n                           A COSSACK STORY\n\n\nThere was once a man who had one son, and he was so lazy that he would\nnot work at all. The father apprenticed him to a tailor, but the lad\nwent to sleep between the stitches. He apprenticed him to a cobbler\nand the lad only sat and yawned instead of driving pegs. What to do\nwith him the man did not know.\n\n\"Come,\" said the father one day, \"we will go out into the wide world.\nIt may be that somewhere or other we will find a master who can make\nyou work.\"\n\nThe lad was very good-natured. \"Very well,\" said he, \"I am willing\";\nand he arose and stretched himself and yawned, and then he was ready\nto set out.\n\nThe father put on his cap and took a staff in his hand, and then he\nwas ready, too.\n\nThe two of them journeyed along together, in step and out of step, and\nafter a while they came to a deep wood. When they were well into it,\nthe father grew so weary that he had to sit down and rest.\n\n\"Oh! what have I done that I should have such a lazy son!\" he cried.\n\nAt once a little old, wrinkled, weazened man, all dressed in green,\nwith a green face, green hair, and a green beard stood before them.\n\n\"Why did you call me,\" said he, \"and what do you want?\"\n\n\"I did not call you,\" answered the man.\n\n\"But you did call me, for I heard you. Did not you call 'Oh'? And that\nis my name.\"\n\n\"I said, 'Oh, what have I done to have such a lazy son,'\" replied the\nman, \"but I did not call you, for I did not know that was your name.\"\n\nThe Green one looked closely at the lad. \"Is he so lazy?\" he asked.\n\"He looks a stout, healthy fellow.\"\n\n\"That is the worst of it,\" answered the father. \"He is so stout and\nhealthy that he eats me out of house and home, and not one stroke will\nhe do to pay for it. I have tried to apprentice him to different\nmasters, but they soon weary of him and drive him out.\"\n\n\"Very well; I will take him as an apprentice myself,\" answered the\nlittle man. \"Leave him here with me for a year. Come back at the end\nof that time, and if you know him again and are able to choose him out\nfrom among my other apprentices, then you shall take him home with\nyou, but if not, then he shall serve with me a year longer.\"\n\nVery well, the father was willing to agree to that. It would only be\nfor a year, for of course he would recognize his own son anywhere. So\nhe left the lad with Oh and went on home again.\n\nOh took the lad down into the country that lies beneath this earth,\nand the way was not long. There everything was green. Oh's house was\nmade of green rushes. His wife was green and his daughters were green\nand his dog was green, and when they gave the lad food to eat, it was\ngreen also.\n\nThe oldest daughter would have been a beauty if she had not been green\nall over--eyes, hair, and all. As soon as she saw the lad she loved\nhim and would have been glad to have him for a husband, but he had no\nfancy for her.\n\n\"When I marry,\" said he, \"it shall be some girl who is good red and\nwhite flesh and blood like myself.\"\n\n\"Never mind,\" said Oh. \"After you have lived here for a while you will\nbe glad enough to have her for a wife.\"\n\nThe lad lived down in the under country for a year, and Oh taught him\nmuch magic, and he was very useful to the old Green One.\n\nBut at the end of the year the father came back in search of his son.\nHe stopped at the very same spot in the forest where he had stopped\nbefore and cried out in a loud voice, \"Oh! Oh! I would like to see my\nson.\"\n\nAt once Oh appeared before him. \"Come with me,\" he said, \"but remember\nour bargain. If you know your son when you see him he is yours again,\nbut if you do not know him, then he must stay with me and serve me\nstill another year.\"\n\nThe man was very willing to agree, for it would be a strange thing if\nhe did not know his own son when he saw him.\n\nOh led him down the short way to the land that is under this, and when\nhe got there the man stared about him in wonder. Never had he seen so\nmany green things in all his life before.\n\nOh took a handful of corn and scattered it about, calling as he did\nso. Then a great number of cocks that were pecking about the place\ncame running and began to pick up the corn.\n\n\"Tell me now, which of these is your son?\" asked Oh, \"for one of them\nis he.\"\n\nThe man stared and scratched his head and stared again, but he could\nnot tell, for one cock was just like another. He had to own that he\ncould not tell which was his son.\n\n\"Very well,\" said Oh. \"Then you will have to go home without him. Come\nback at the end of another year, and then if you know him from his\nmates you shall take him home with you, but if not then he shall stay\nwith me a twelvemonth longer.\"\n\nThat did not suit the man at all, but he could not say no, for that\nwas what the bargain had been.\n\nAt the end of the year the man came back to the forest again and\ncalled upon Oh, and Oh was quickly before him.\n\n\"Come along,\" said Oh. \"You surely ought to know your son when you see\nhim. If you do he shall go home with you, and I shall not say no to\nit, but if not then he shall stay with me a year longer.\"\n\nWhen the man heard this he was troubled, for he feared the Green One\nmeant to play some trick on him as he had before, and he wanted his\nson home again, lazy or not. Moreover the lad's mother was grieving\nfor him.\n\nOh led the man down to the underworld and over to a field where a\nflock of rams was grazing.\n\n\"All these are my servants,\" said Oh, \"and one of them is your son.\nLook well and tell me which is he, for unless you can choose him out\nhe must stay here with me.\"\n\nThe man looked and looked, but he could not tell which of the rams was\nhis son, for they all looked alike to him, so he had to go home\nwithout him.\n\nWhen the lad's mother heard of this second trick the Green One had\nplayed on her husband she wept bitterly. \"If we cannot find some way\nto get round him, we will never have the lad back again,\" she said.\n\n\"That is true,\" said the man; \"but if our son looks like a cock, how\ncan I tell him from other cocks; and if he looks like a ram, how can I\ntell him from other rams?\"\n\nWell, time slipped by, and the man and his wife grew poorer and\npoorer, for they were growing old, and they needed a young body in the\nhouse to work for them.\n\nWhen it was about time for the man to set out for Oh's house his wife\nsaid to him, \"See now! we have nothing left in the house but a small\nloaf and a bit of honeycomb. But we can do better than fill our\nstomach with them. Do you take them to the old Wise Woman who lives\nover beyond the hill. Tell her they are a gift, and then ask her what\nwe can do to meet the tricks of the little old Green One.\"\n\nThe man did as his wife bade him, though he was hungry and would have\nbeen glad of a bit of the bread himself.\n\nThe Wise Woman was pleased with the gift, and thanked the man kindly.\nThen the man told her all his troubles and asked her how he was to get\nhis son back again from Oh.\n\n\"Listen!\" said the old woman. \"Oh would gladly keep your son with him\nas a husband for his daughter, and if you do not bring the lad away\nwith you this time, you will never have him back. This time Oh will\nshow you a flock of doves, and one of them will be your son. Look\nclosely at them, and the one that has tears in its eyes is he, for\nonly a human soul can weep.\"\n\nThe father thanked the old woman and hurried back home again, and very\nsoon after it was time to set out for Oh's house.\n\nThe man travelled along till he came to the wood and the place where\nhe had come twice already, and he stood there and cried, \"Oh! Oh!\"\n\nThen Oh appeared before him. \"Here I am,\" said Oh, \"ready and waiting\nfor you. This time, as before, I tell you that if you know your son\nwhen you see him you shall take him away with you, but if, this time,\nyou do not know him, then he is mine forever.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said the man, \"that is a bargain.\"\n\nThen Oh took him down to the underworld. He called to a flock of doves\nthat was perched on the roof and scattered a handful of peas on the\nground for them. The doves flew down all about them and began to peck\nup the peas; but one dove would not eat but sat mournfully on a low\nbough and looked at them, and its eyes were full of tears.\n\n\"This one is my son,\" cried the man, pointing to the dove that wept.\n\nAs soon as he said this the dove changed its shape and became a young\nman, and this was the son, though he had become so fine and tall and\nhandsome in these three years that his father could scarcely recognize\nhim.\n\nThen Oh was in a fine rage. He danced with fury and tore his beard.\n\n\"Very well,\" he cried, \"he is yours now, but you shall not keep him\nlong, and when I once get him back again he is mine forever.\"\n\nBut the lad paid no heed to his threats. He and his father were soon\non the upper earth again, and they set out for home, one foot before\nthe other.\n\nOn the way the father told the lad how badly it had gone with him and\nthe mother in the past years; of how poor they were, and of how their\nhut was tumbling to pieces, and how their cow had died.\n\n\"Never mind,\" said the lad. \"I learned quite a bit of magic from the\nGreen One, and that should help us out now. Do you hear the huntsmen\nwinding their horns farther on in the open?\"\n\nYes, the father heard them.\n\n\"I will turn myself into a greyhound,\" said the lad. \"The hunt is\ncoming this way, and when the huntsmen see me they will want to buy\nme. Ask them three hundred dollars for me; no more, no less, but when\nthey take me do not leave the leash on me, whatever you do. Take it\noff and put it in your pocket, and then all will be well with me. Fail\nto do this, and misfortune will surely overtake me.\"\n\nThe father promised to do as the son said, and then the lad turned\nhimself into a greyhound, and he was so sleek and handsome that the\nman could not admire him enough; but about his neck was an old, worn\nleash that did not look as though it were worth a penny. It seemed a\npity to leave it on the neck of such a handsome dog.\n\nThe man went on a little further and then he came to where a grand\nnobleman and his friends were hunting a hare. They had a pack of dogs\nwith them but the hare had outrun them.\n\nWhen the nobleman saw the man and the greyhound he stopped his horse.\n\n\"That is a fine greyhound you have there.\"\n\n\"Yes, it is,\" answered the man.\n\n\"Do you think it could course down the hare we are chasing?\"\n\nYes, the man was sure it could.\n\n\"Then let me have it and I will pay you a good price for it.\"\n\nVery well, he could have it for three hundred dollars, but that was\nwithout the leash; the leash was not for sale.\n\nThe nobleman laughed aloud, \"when the dog is mine,\" he said, \"he shall\nhave a golden leash, for that one you have is fit for nothing but the\nash heap.\"\n\nThe nobleman then paid the man three hundred dollars and unfastened\nthe leash from the dog's neck.\n\nAway he flew like the wind and soon caught the hare. But when the\nhunters reached the spot where the hare lay they could see nothing of\nthe dog. Only a tall and handsome youth stood there, and he was\nflushed and hot as though he had been running.\n\n\"Have you seen my greyhound, a sleek and handsome dog?\" asked the\nnobleman.\n\nNo, the youth had not seen any dog.\n\nThe nobleman called and whistled, and he and his huntsman hunted far\nand near, but they never found the greyhound.\n\nAs for the lad he set out on the road his father had taken and soon\ncaught up with him.\n\n\"That was a very pretty trick,\" said the father; \"but after all three\nhundred dollars is not much. It will barely buy us a cow and clothes\nand put a new roof on the hut.\"\n\n\"Yes, but that is not the only trick I know,\" answered the son. \"Look\nat the hill over yonder and tell me what you see.\"\n\nThe father looked. \"I see a company of fine ladies and gentlemen,\"\nanswered the father, \"and they are flying their falcons.\"\n\n\"I will change myself into a falcon, and when you have come to where\nthey are you shall loose me, and I will strike down a quail. Then they\nwill want to buy me. Sell me for three hundred dollars, no more, no\nless. But whatever you do take off my hood and keep it, or misfortune\nwill surely overtake us.\"\n\nThe father promised he would do this, and then the lad turned himself\ninto a falcon and perched upon his father's hand.\n\nPresently the father came up to where the ladies and gentlemen were at\ntheir sport. They loosed their falcons, and the falcons flew after the\nquail, but always they failed to strike, and the quail escaped.\n\n\"That is poor sport,\" said the man. \"I can show you better.\"\n\nHe took off the hood and cast his falcon at the quail, and it quickly\nstruck down its prey.\n\nThe gentlemen and ladies were astonished at the quickness of the\nfalcon and at the beauty of its feathers.\n\n\"Sell us the bird,\" they said.\n\nYes, the man was willing to do that, but his price was three hundred\ndollars without the hood; the hood was not for sale for love nor\nmoney.\n\nAll the fine folk began to laugh. \"What do we want with that old\nhood?\" they cried. \"We will give the bird a hood that is worthy of a\nking.\"\n\nSo the man took the three hundred dollars and the hood and went on his\nway.\n\nThe one who had bought the falcon cast it at a quail, and it struck\ndown its prey as before, but when the hunters reached the place where\nthe birds had fallen they saw no falcon, but only a handsome young man\nwho stood there looking down at the dead quail.\n\n\"What became of the falcon that was here?\" they asked.\n\nBut the youth had seen no falcon.\n\nHe set out and soon overtook his father, who had not gone far. \"And\nnow art thou content?\" he asked.\n\n\"Six hundred dollars is not a fortune,\" answered the man. \"Since you\nhave done so well you might have done better.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" answered the son. \"We are now coming to a town where they\nare holding a fair. I will change myself into a horse, and you shall\ntake me there and sell me for a thousand dollars,--no more, no less.\nBut heed what I say. Do not sell the halter whatever you do, or evil\nwill surely come of it.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said the father. \"I will remember.\"\n\nThe son then changed himself into a coal-black horse. His skin was\nlike satin, his eyes like jewels, and when he moved, his hoofs\nscarcely seemed to touch the ground. But around his neck was an old\nleather halter that was scarcely fit for an old farm nag.\n\nThe father led the horse on to where the fair was being held, and at\nonce a crowd gathered around him, all bidding for the horse. Some\noffered him more and some less.\n\n\"The price is a thousand dollars,\" said the father, \"no more, no less.\nBut that is without the halter.\"\n\nThen the people all laughed. \"Who wants the halter?\" they cried. \"What\nwe offer is for the horse alone. The halter we would not take as a\ngift.\"\n\nThen a rough looking, black-haired gypsy elbowed his way through the\ncrowd. He was really the Green One who had taken on this form, though\nthis the man did not know.\n\n\"I will give you two thousand,\" he cried. \"One thousand for the horse\nand one thousand for the halter, but I will not have one without the\nother.\"\n\nWhen the crowd heard this they laughed louder than ever. They thought\nthe gypsy was crazy to offer such a price.\n\nAs for the father he stood there gaping and he did not know what to\ndo.\n\n\"The price of the horse is a thousand dollars,\" he said.\n\n\"And a thousand for the halter,\" said the gypsy.\n\nWell, two thousand dollars seemed a fortune to the man. Moreover he\ndid not see what harm it could do to sell the halter too.\n\nSo he let the gypsy have the horse and the halter as well, and the\ngypsy paid him two thousand dollars and led the horse away.\n\nAnd now the lad could not change himself back into his human shape,\nbecause the halter held him, and this Oh knew very well.\n\nHe led the horse back to the forest and down to the world that is\nunder this. \"Now I have you again,\" he said, \"and this time you shall\nnot escape me.\"\n\nThen he called to his youngest daughter and bade her take the horse\ndown to the river to drink.\n\nWhen she had brought the horse to the river bank it said to her.\n\"Loosen, I pray of thee, the halter, that I may drink more easily.\"\n\nThen the girl, who was a stupid wench, loosened the halter. At once\nthe lad slipped out of it and changed himself into a perch and fled\naway down the river.\n\nBut the Green One knew what had happened. He rushed down to the river\nand changed himself into a pike and pursued after the perch.\n\nOn and on they went, but the pike swam faster than the perch and was\njust about to catch it when the perch sprang clear out of the water.\n\nThe daughter of the Tsar was walking by the river, and she was such a\nbeauty that it made the heart ache to look at her. On her arm she\ncarried a basket.\n\nAs the perch leaped he changed himself into a ruby ring and fell into\nthe basket.\n\nThe damsel was very much astonished to see the ring in her basket. She\ndid not know where it had come from. She looked up, and she looked\ndown, but she could see no one who could have thrown the ring.\n\nThen she took it up and slid it upon her finger, and at once she loved\nit as she had never loved anything in all her life before.\n\nShe carried it to her father and said to him, \"Look what a pretty ring\nI have found!\"\n\n\"Yes,\" answered her father, \"but where did you find it?\"\n\n\"I found it in my basket, but how it came there I do not know.\"\n\nThe Tsaritsa's mother also admired the ring very much. Never had they\nseen such a brilliant and flashing ruby before.\n\nNow at first, after the perch leaped out of the river and into the\nTsaritsa's basket, Oh did not know what had become of him. He was\nobliged to go home and get out his magic books, and then he soon\nlearned where the lad was.\n\nHe then changed himself into a venerable merchant, clothed in velvet\nrobes and with a long white beard. He broke a stick from an ash tree\nand changed it into a horse, and mounted on it and rode away to the\nTsar's palace.\n\nThen he asked to speak with the Tsar, and so old and venerable did he\nlook that they would not refuse him, but brought him before the Tsar.\n\n\"What dost thou want, old man?\" asked the Tsar.\n\n\"Your majesty,\" answered the Green One, \"I have had a great loss. I\nwas crossing the river in a boat, and I had with me a very handsome\nruby ring that I was carrying with me to my master, who is also a\nTsar. Unfortunately I lost the ring overboard, and I thought it might\nperchance have washed up on the shore and have been picked up by one\nof thy servants.\"\n\n\"What was thy ring like?\" asked the Tsar.\n\nThen the pretended merchant described the Tsaritsa's ring exactly.\n\nThe Tsar sent for his daughter, and she came with the ring on her\nfinger, for she would not take it off, either night or day.\n\n\"Let me see thy ring,\" said the Tsar.\n\nHe took her hand in his and examined the ring carefully, and it was in\nevery respect exactly as the Green One had described it.\n\n\"Is this thy ring?\" the Tsar asked of the merchant.\n\n\"Yes, your majesty, it is.\"\n\n\"Then,\" said the Tsar to his daughter, \"it is right that thou shouldst\nreturn it to him.\"\n\nThe Tsaritsa wept and implored. She offered the merchant her pearls\nand every other gem she had if he would but let her keep the ring, but\nhe refused.\n\n\"Very well, then, it shall be neither thine nor mine,\" cried the\nTsaritsa, and she drew the ring from her finger and dashed it against\nthe wall.\n\nAt once the ring changed into a hundred millet seeds and was scattered\nall over the floor.\n\nBut the Green One as quickly changed himself into a cock and ran about\nthis way and that, pecking up the millet seeds and swallowing them.\nNinety-nine millet seeds he found and ate, but the hundredth he did\nnot find, because it had fallen beside the Tsaritsa's foot, and the\nhem of her robe covered it.\n\nAs soon as the cock had swallowed the ninety-ninth seed he sprang upon\nthe window sill, and stretched his neck and crowed with triumph.\n\nBut the hundredth seed was really the lad, and in that moment he\nchanged himself back into his human form, and before the cock knew\nwhat had happened, he caught hold of it and wrung its neck and that\nwas the end of Oh and his magic.\n\nAs for the Tsaritsa, no sooner had she seen the lad than her heart\nwent out to him, and she loved him even better than she had her ring,\nand she declared that he and he only should be her husband.\n\nThe Tsar did not know what to say to that, for it did not seem fitting\nthat his daughter should marry a common man. But the Tsaritsa begged\nand plead with him till he could no longer withstand her.\n\nSo she and the lad were married with great pomp and magnificence.\n\nHis old father and mother were bidden to the wedding, and they could\nhardly believe their eyes when they saw their son stand there in those\ncostly robes with a crown upon his head and the Tsaritsa beside him as\nhis bride.\n\nThe old people were given a house to live in and plenty of money to\nspend, and they all lived in peace and happiness forever after.\n\n\n\n\n                           THE TALKING EGGS\n\n                        A STORY FROM LOUISIANA\n\n\nThere was once a widow who had two daughters, one named Rose and the\nother Blanche.\n\nBlanche was good and beautiful and gentle, but the mother cared\nnothing for her and gave her only hard words and harder blows; but she\nloved Rose as she loved the apple of her eye, because Rose was exactly\nlike herself, coarse-looking, and with a bad temper and a sharp\ntongue.\n\nBlanche was obliged to work all day, but Rose sat in a chair with\nfolded hands as though she were a fine lady, with nothing in the world\nto do.\n\nOne day the mother sent Blanche to the well for a bucket of water.\nWhen she came to the well she saw an old woman sitting there. The\nwoman was so very old that her nose and her chin met, and her cheeks\nwere as wrinkled as a walnut.\n\n\"Good day to you, child,\" said the old woman.\n\n\"Good day, auntie,\" answered Blanche.\n\n\"Will you give me a drink of water?\" asked the old woman.\n\n\"Gladly,\" said Blanche. She drew the bucket full of water, and tilted\nit so the old woman could drink, but the crone lifted the bucket in\nher two hands as though it were a feather and drank and drank till the\nwater was all gone. Blanche had never seen any one drink so much; not\na drop was left in the bucket.\n\n\"May heaven bless you!\" said the old woman, and then she went on her\nway.\n\nAnd now Blanche had to fill the bucket again, and it seemed as though\nher arms would break, she was so tired.\n\nWhen she went home her mother struck her because she had tarried so\nlong at the well. Her blows made Blanche weep. Rose laughed when she\nsaw her crying.\n\nThe very next day the mother became angry over nothing and gave\nBlanche such a beating that the girl ran away into the woods; she\nwould not stay in the house any longer. She ran on and on, deeper and\ndeeper into the forest, and there, in the deepest part, she met the\nold woman she had seen beside the well.\n\n\"Where are you going, my child? And why are you weeping so bitterly?\"\nasked the crone.\n\n\"I am weeping because my mother beat me,\" answered Blanche; \"and now I\nhave run away from her, and I do not know where to go.\"\n\n\"Then come with me,\" said the old woman. \"I will give you a shelter\nand a bite to eat, and in return there is many a task you can do for\nme. Only, whatever you may see as we journey along together you must\nnot laugh nor say anything about it.\"\n\nBlanche promised she would not, and then she trudged away at the old\nwoman's side.\n\nAfter a while they came to a hedge so thick and wide and so set with\nthorns that Blanche did not see how they could pass it without being\ntorn to pieces, but the old hag waved her staff, and the branches\nparted before them and left the path clear. Then, as they passed, the\nhedge closed together behind them.\n\nBlanche wondered but said nothing.\n\nA little further on they saw two axes fighting together with no hand\nto hold them. That seemed a curious thing, but still Blanche said\nnothing.\n\nFurther on were two arms that strove against each other without a\nsound. Still Blanche was silent.\n\nFurther on again two heads fought, butting each other like goats.\nBlanche looked and stared but said no word. Then the heads called to\nher. \"You are a good girl, Blanche. Heaven will reward you.\"\n\nAfter that she and her companion came to the hut where the old woman\nlived. They went in, and the hag bade Blanche gather some sticks of\nwood and build a fire. Meanwhile she sat down beside the hearth and\ntook off her head. She put it in her lap and began to comb her hair\nand twist it up.\n\nBlanche was frightened, but she held her peace and built the fire as\nthe old woman had directed. When it was burning the old woman put back\nher head in place, and told Blanche to look on the shelf behind the\ndoor. \"There you will find a bone; put it on to boil for our dinners,\"\nsaid she.\n\n[Illustration: She sat down beside the hearth and took off her head.]\n\nBlanche found the bone and put it on to boil, though it seemed a poor\ndinner.\n\nThe old woman gave her a grain of rice and bade her grind it in the\nmortar. Blanche put the rice in the mortar and ground it with the\npestle, and before she had been grinding two minutes the mortar was\nfull of rice, enough for both of them and to spare.\n\nWhen it was time for dinner she looked in the pot and it was full of\ngood, fresh meat. She and the old woman had all they could eat.\n\nAfter dinner was over the old woman lay down on the bed. \"Oh, my back!\nOh, my poor back! How it does ache,\" groaned she. \"Come hither and rub\nit.\"\n\nBlanche came over and uncovered the old crone's back, and she was\nsurprised when she saw it; it was as hard and ridgy as a turtle's.\nStill she said nothing but began to rub it. She rubbed and rubbed till\nthe skin was all worn off her hand.\n\n\"That is good,\" said the old woman. \"Now I feel better.\" She sat up\nand drew her clothes about her. Then she blew upon Blanche's hand, and\nat once it was as well as ever.\n\nBlanche stayed with the old woman for three days and served her well;\nshe neither asked questions nor spoke of what she saw.\n\nAt the end of that time her mistress said to her, \"My child, you have\nnow been with me for three days, and I can keep you here no longer.\nYou have served me well, and you shall not lack your reward. Go to the\nchicken-house and look in the nests. You will find there a number of\neggs. Take all that say to you, 'Take me,' but those that say, 'Do not\ntake me,' you must not touch.\"\n\nBlanche went out to the chicken-house and looked in the nests. There\nwere ever so many eggs; some of them were large and beautiful and\nwhite and shining and so pretty that she longed to take them, but each\ntime she stretched out her hand toward one it cried, \"Do not take me.\"\nThen she did not touch it. There were also some small, brown,\nmuddy-looking eggs, and these called to her, \"Take me!\" So those were\nthe ones she took.\n\nWhen she came back to the house the old woman looked to see which ones\nshe had taken. \"You have done what was right,\" said she, \"and you will\nnot regret it.\" She then showed Blanche a path by which she could\nreturn to her own home without having to pass through the thorn hedge.\n\n\"As you go throw the eggs behind you,\" she said, \"and you will see\nwhat you shall see. One thing I can tell you, your mother will be glad\nenough to have you home again after that.\"\n\nBlanche thanked her for the eggs, though she did not think much of\nthem, and started out. After she had gone a little way she threw one\nof the eggs over her shoulder. It broke on the path, and a whole\nbucket full of gold poured out from it. Blanche had never seen so much\ngold in all her life before.\n\nShe gathered it up in her apron and went a little farther, and then\nshe threw another egg over her shoulder. When it broke a whole bucket\nfull of diamonds poured out over the path. They fairly dazzled the\neyes, they were so bright and sparkling.\n\nBlanche gathered them up, and went on farther, and threw another egg\nover her shoulder. Out from it came all sorts of fine clothes,\nembroidered and set all over with gems. Blanche put them on, and then\nshe looked like the most beautiful princess that ever was seen.\n\nShe threw the last egg over her shoulder, and there stood a magnificent\ngolden coach drawn by four white horses, and with coachman and footman\nall complete. Blanche stepped into the coach, and away they rolled to\nthe door of her mother's house without her ever having to give an order\nor speak a word.\n\nWhen her mother and sister heard the coach draw up at the door they\nran out to see who was coming. There sat Blanche in the coach, all\ndressed in fine clothes, and with her lap full of gold and diamonds.\n\nHer mother welcomed her in and then began to question her as to how\nshe had become so rich and fine. It did not take her long to learn the\nwhole story.\n\nNothing would satisfy her but that Rose should go out into the forest,\nand find the old woman, and get her to take her home with her as a\nservant.\n\nRose grumbled and muttered, for she was a lazy girl and had no wish to\nwork for any one, whatever the reward, and she would rather have sat\nat home and dozed; but her mother pushed her out of the door, and so\nshe had to go.\n\nShe slouched along through the forest, and presently she met the old\nwoman. \"Will you take me home with you for a servant?\" asked Rose.\n\n\"Come with me if you will,\" said the old woman, \"but whatever you may\nsee do not laugh nor say anything about it.\"\n\n\"I am a great laugher,\" said Rose, and then she walked along with the\nold woman through the forest.\n\nPresently they came to the thorn hedge, and it opened before them just\nas it had when Blanche had journeyed there. \"That is a good thing,\"\nsaid Rose. \"If it had not done that, not a step farther would I have\ngone.\"\n\nSoon they came to the place where the axes were fighting. Rose looked\nand stared, and then she began to laugh.\n\nA little later they came to where the arms were striving together, and\nat that Rose laughed harder still. But when she came to where the\nheads were butting each other, she laughed hardest of all. Then the\nheads opened their mouths and spoke to her. \"Evil you are, and evil\nyou will be, and no luck will come through your laughter.\"\n\nSoon after they arrived at the old woman's house. She pushed open the\ndoor, and they went in. The crone bade Rose gather sticks and build a\nfire; she herself sat down by the hearth, and took off her head, and\nbegan to comb and plait her hair.\n\nRose stood and looked and laughed. \"What a stupid old woman you are,\"\nshe said, \"to take off your head to comb your hair!\" and she laughed\nand laughed.\n\nThe old woman was very angry. Still she did not say anything. She put\non her head and made up the fire herself. Rose would not do anything.\nShe would not even put the pot on the fire. She was as lazy at the old\nwoman's house as she was at home, and the old crone was obliged to do\nthe work herself. At the end of three days she said to Rose. \"Now you\nmust go home, for you are of no use to anybody, and I will keep you\nhere no longer.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said Rose. \"I am willing enough to go, but first pay me\nmy wages.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said the old woman. \"I will pay you. Go out to the\nchicken-house and look for eggs. All the eggs that say, 'Take me', you\nmay have, but if they say, 'Do not take me', then you must not touch\nthem.\"\n\nRose went out to the chicken-house and hunted about and soon found the\neggs. Some were large and beautiful and white, and of these she\ngathered up an apronful, though they cried to her ever so loudly, \"Do\nnot take me.\" Some of the eggs were small and ugly and brown. \"Take\nme! Take me!\" they cried.\n\n\"A pretty thing if I were to take you,\" she cried. \"You are fit for\nnothing but to be thrown out on the hillside.\"\n\nShe did not return to the hut to thank the old woman or bid her\ngood-by but set off for home the way she had come. When she reached\nthe thorn thicket it had closed together again. She had to force her\nway through, and the thorns scratched her face and hands and almost\ntore the clothes off her back. Still she comforted herself with the\nthought of all the riches she would get out of the eggs.\n\nShe went a little farther, and then she took the eggs out of her\napron. \"Now I will have a fine coach to travel in the rest of the\nway,\" said she, \"and gay clothes and diamonds and money,\" and she\nthrew the eggs down in the path, and they all broke at once. But no\nclothes, nor jewels, nor fine coach, nor horses came out of them.\nInstead snakes and toads sprang forth, and all sorts of filth that\ncovered her up to her knees and bespattered her clothing.\n\nRose shrieked and ran, and the snakes and toads pursued her, spitting\nvenom, and the filth rolled after her like a tide.\n\nShe reached her mother's house, and burst open the door, and ran in,\nclosing it behind her. \"Look what Blanche has brought on me,\" she\nsobbed. \"This is all her fault.\"\n\nThe mother looked at her and saw the filth, and she was so angry she\nwould not listen to a word Blanche said. She picked up a stick to beat\nher, but Blanche ran away out of the house and into the forest. She\ndid not stop for her clothes or her jewels or anything.\n\nShe had not gone very far before she heard a noise behind her. She\nlooked over her shoulder, and there was her golden coach rolling after\nher. Blanche waited until it caught up to her, and then she opened the\ndoor and stepped inside, and there were all her diamonds and gold\nlying in a heap. Her mother and Rose had not been able to keep any of\nthem.\n\nBlanche rode along for a long while, and then she came to a grand\ncastle, and the King and Queen of the country lived there. The coach\ndrew up at the door, and every one came running out to greet her. They\nthought she must be some great Princess come to visit them, but\nBlanche told them she was not a Princess, but only the daughter of a\npoor widow, and that all the fine things she had, had come out of some\neggs an old woman had given her.\n\nWhen the people heard this they were very much surprised. They took\nher in to see the King and Queen, and the King and Queen made her\nwelcome. She told them her story, and they were so sorry for her they\ndeclared she should live there with them always and be as a daughter\nto them.\n\nSo Blanche became a grand lady, and after a while she was married to\nthe Prince, the son of the old King and Queen, and she was beloved by\nall because she was so good and gentle.\n\nBut when Blanche's mother and sister heard of the good fortune that\nhad come to her, and how she had become the bride of the Prince, they\nwere ready to burst with rage and spite. Moreover they turned quite\ngreen with envy, and green they may have remained to the end of their\nlives, for all that I know to the contrary.\n\n\n\n\n                          THE FROG PRINCESS\n\n                           A RUSSIAN STORY\n\n\nThere was once a Tsar[1] who had three sons, and they were all dear to\nhim, but the youngest, Ivan, was the dearest of them all.\n\nWhen the Princes grew to manhood the Tsar began to talk and talk to\nthem about getting married, but it so happened not one of the Princes\nhad ever seen the girl he wished to have for a wife. There were many\nin the kingdom whom they might well have loved, but not one of them\nmeant more to any of the Princes than another.\n\n\"Very well, then,\" said the Tsar at last, \"we will leave it to chance.\nTake your bows and arrows and come with me into the courtyard. You\nshall each shoot an arrow, and in whatever places your arrows fall,\nthere shall you take your brides.\"\n\nThe Princes were not greatly pleased with this plan, but still they\ndared not say no to their father. They took their bows and went with\nhim into the courtyard.\n\nFirst the eldest son shot his arrow, and he aimed it toward the east,\nwhere the sun rises. The arrow fell upon the balcony of a great\nnobleman's house.\n\nWell and good! The nobleman had a daughter, and she was so stately and\nhandsome that the Prince was very glad to take her for a wife.\n\nThen the second Prince shot an arrow and aimed it toward the west,\nwhere the sun is in its glory. He was no less lucky than his brother,\nfor his arrow fell into the court of a rich merchant, and he also had\na daughter who was a beauty. So the second son took her for a bride,\nand he was well content.\n\nLast of all Prince Ivan shot his arrow, and he aimed neither toward\nthe east nor the west, but straight up into the sky above him. Then a\nsudden gust of wind arose and caught the arrow and blew it away so\nthat it fell in a great swamp. In this swamp were no rich nor\nbeautiful ladies, but only a poor, green, croaking frog.\n\nWhen the young Prince Ivan saw where his arrow had fallen he was in\ndespair. \"How can I marry a frog,\" said he, \"and have her rule with me\nas my Princess?\"\n\n\"It is a great pity,\" said the Tsar; \"nevertheless what I have said I\nhave said, and where your arrow fell there must you take your bride.\"\n\nSo Prince Ivan was married to the frog, and the Tsar built a castle on\nthe edge of the swamp for them to live in.\n\nNow the Tsar was growing old, and he began to consider in his mind to\nwhich of his sons he would leave his kingdom. Gladly would he have\nleft it to his youngest son, who was his favorite, but it did not seem\nright that a frog should ever rule over the kingdom as Queen.\n\nAt last he called the three Princes before him and said, \"My sons,\nto-morrow let your wives bake me some soft white bread. I will eat of\nit, and in this way I will know which of you has the cleverest wife,\nand he who has the cleverest wife shall inherit my kingdom.\"\n\nAfter they had heard him the three Princes went away to their own\nhomes, and Prince Ivan was very sad.\n\n\"What ails you, my dear husband,\" said the frog, \"that you hang your\nhead and are so downcast?\"\n\n\"It is no wonder I am downcast,\" answered Prince Ivan. \"My father\nhas commanded that you shall make him a loaf of soft white bread\nto-morrow, and well I know that your webby fingers can never make\nbread that he would taste or even so much as look at.\"\n\n\"Do not be too sure of that,\" answered the frog. \"Sleep in peace, and\nI promise that to-morrow I will provide a loaf that even the Tsar will\nbe glad to eat of.\"\n\nThe Prince did not believe this, but grief is heavy, so no sooner was\nhe in bed than he fell into a deep sleep.\n\nThen the frog arose from beside him and went into a far-off room and\ntook off her frog-skin; for she was really a Princess who had been\nenchanted. She combed her hair and washed herself and then she went\nout on the balcony of the castle and cried, \"Nurses dear, nurses dear,\nbring me a loaf of bread such as I used to have in the palace of my\nown dear father, the King.\"\n\nAfter she had called this three times three crows appeared, carrying\namong them a fine napkin embroidered with gold, and in this napkin was\na loaf of bread. They laid the napkin before the Princess and bowed\nthree times, croaking solemnly, and then they flew away again into the\nnight.\n\nThe Princess took up the bread and went back into the room and put on\nher frog-skin again; after that she returned to her chamber and lay\ndown beside her husband.\n\nThe next day when the Prince was ready to set out for the Tsar's\npalace, the frog brought him the loaf of bread still wrapped in the\nnapkin.\n\n\"Take this, dear husband,\" said she, \"and carry it to your father, the\nTsar, but do not open it on the way lest the dust should spoil the\nfineness of the bread.\"\n\nThe Prince took the loaf and rode away with it, but he could not\nforbear from peeping into the napkin to see what was there, and what\nhe saw filled him with admiration and wonder. Quickly he rode on his\nway, and soon reached the Tsar's palace.\n\nThe two older brothers were there, and each brought a loaf of fine\nwhite bread that his wife had made.\n\nWhen Prince Ivan entered his brothers could not forbear from smiling.\n\"Come!\" said they, \"show us quickly what kind of bread the Frog\nPrincess has made. Does it smell of reeds and rushes?\"\n\nThe young Prince made no answer but gave what he carried to his\nfather.\n\nWhen the Tsar saw the fineness of the napkin and the beautiful\nembroidery upon it he was very much surprised. But he was still more\nsurprised when he opened the napkin and saw what it contained. Never\nbefore had he seen such bread. Not only was it soft and light and\nfine, but it was molded along the sides in cunning scenes, castles and\ncities, moats and bridges, and upon the top was the imprint of the\nroyal eagle, perfect even to the claws and feathers.\n\nThe Tsar could not admire it enough. Still he was not willing to leave\nthe kingdom to Prince Ivan and so make a queen of a frog.\n\n\"This is very beautiful, but a loaf of bread is soon eaten and\nforgotten,\" said he. \"I now wish each one of you to bring me a carpet\nto lay before my throne, and he who brings me the finest carpet, him\nwill I make my heir.\"\n\nThe Princes returned to their own homes, and the youngest one was very\nsad and sorrowful.\n\n\"What ails you, my dear husband?\" asked the frog. \"Why are you so\ndowncast, and why do you hang your head. Was not the Tsar pleased with\nthe bread you carried to him?\"\n\n\"He was well pleased,\" answered the Prince; \"but now he has commanded\neach one of us to bring him a carpet, and to him who brings the finest\ncarpet he will leave his kingdom. No wonder I am sad, for where, in\nthis swamp, can I find a carpet such as I require?\"\n\n\"Do not trouble yourself about that,\" answered the frog. \"Do you go\nand lie down and go quietly to sleep. I will supply you such a carpet\nas you need.\"\n\nThe Prince did not believe her, but because grief is heavy he lay down\nand soon fell into a deep sleep.\n\nAgain as before the frog stole away to a distant chamber and laid\naside her frog-skin. Then she went out on the balcony and cried aloud\nthree times; \"Nurses dear, nurses true, bring me a carpet such as lay\nbefore my bed in my own home.\"\n\nAt once the three crows appeared, carrying among them a carpet rolled\nup and covered with a piece of embroidered velvet. They laid the roll\nbefore the Princess, bowed three times, and then flew away again.\n\nThe Princess carried the carpet back into the chamber and put on her\nfrog-skin again, and then she went back and lay down quietly beside\nthe Prince.\n\nThe next morning when the Prince was ready to set out, the frog\nbrought the roll of carpet to him.\n\n\"Here,\" said she; \"carry this to your father, but do not open it upon\nthe way lest the dust spoil its beauty.\"\n\nThe Prince took the carpet and rode away. When he reached the Tsar's\npalace his two brothers were already there, and each had brought with\nhim a piece of carpet so fine and rich that it was difficult to say\nwhich of the two was the more beautiful.\n\nWhen the older brothers saw Ivan they began to laugh. \"Come!\" said\nthey. \"Let us see what kind of a carpet he has brought from his swamp\nhome. No doubt it is very wonderful.\"\n\nThe Prince laid the roll of carpet upon the floor and opened it out\nand when they saw it every one was struck with wonder. The elder\nPrinces had not a word to say. Never before had they seen such a\ncarpet. Not only was it as thick and soft as eiderdown, but it shone\nwith wondrous colors that changed as one looked at them, and it was\nembroidered with gold in strange designs.\n\nThe Tsar was filled with admiration. All the same he still was\nunwilling to have a frog reign in his kingdom.\n\n\"This is all very well,\" said he, \"and never before have I seen such a\nbeautiful carpet. But now I wish you all to appear before me to-morrow\nwith your wives. Let the Princesses wear their most beautiful dresses\nand their finest jewels, and whichever of you has the wife best fitted\nto be Queen, to him will I leave the kingdom.\"\n\nWhen the Prince Ivan heard this he was in despair. How could he ever\nbring the frog to court and present her to the Tsar as though she were\na beautiful Princess?\n\nWhen he went home the frog at once asked him why he was so sad and\nwoebegone. \"Is not the kingdom to be yours?\" she asked.\n\n\"No,\" answered the Prince, \"for now my father, the Tsar, has demanded\nsomething else of us.\" He then told her how the Tsar had bidden him\nand his brothers bring their wives to court, and had said that\nwhichever of the Princesses was the finest and most beautiful should\nreign as Queen, and her husband should be the Tsar.\n\n\"Do not trouble over that,\" said the frog. \"Only go to bed and sleep\nquietly. The kingdom shall still be yours.\"\n\nThen the Prince went to bed, but he only closed his eyes and pretended\nto go to sleep, for he had grown very curious as to how the frog had\nbeen able to provide him with the wonderful loaf and the carpet.\n\nThe frog kept very still until she thought the Prince was asleep. Then\nshe arose quietly from his side and slipped away, but the Prince also\narose and followed her without her being aware of it. She went to the\nfar-off chamber, and there she laid aside her frog-skin; and when the\nprince saw her in her human form he was amazed at her beauty, and his\nheart melted within him for love of her, for her hair was like spun\ngold, her eyes as blue as the sky, and her skin as white as milk.\nNever had he seen such a beauty.\n\nThe Princess went out on a balcony as she had before, and cried aloud\nthree times, \"Nurses dear, nurses true, bring me fine clothes and\njewels to wear, richer than ever were seen before.\"\n\nAt once the three crows appeared, carrying with them jewels and fine\nrobes all encrusted with gems and embroidery. These they laid at the\nPrincess's feet and bowed three times, croaking hoarsely, and then\nthey flew away.\n\nThe Princess took the robes and jewels back into the chamber to hide\nthem, and while she was doing this Prince Ivan returned to his bed and\nlay down and closed his eyes as though he were asleep. When the frog\ncame back she looked at him carefully, but he kept so still she never\nguessed that he had stirred from where he lay.\n\nThe next morning the frog bade Ivan ride away alone to the palace of\nthe Tsar. \"I will follow you,\" she said, \"and when you hear a great\nnoise, say, 'That is my little Froggie, driving up in her basket made\nof rushes.'\"\n\nThe Prince promised to do this and then he rode away to the palace of\nthe Tsar.\n\nHis brothers were already there, and their two wives were with them,\nboth so handsome and so magnificently dressed that each looked finer\nthan the other.\n\nWhen Ivan came in they all began to laugh. \"Where is thy dear frog?\"\nthey asked. \"Is she still asleep among her reeds and rushes, or is she\ntoo hoarse to come?\"\n\nEven as they spoke there was a great noise outside,--a roaring and\nrumbling like thunder.\n\nThe palace shook until it seemed as though it would fall about their\nears. Every one was terrified. Only Prince Ivan was calm.\n\n\"There is my little Froggie now,\" he said; \"she is driving up in her\nlittle basket of rushes.\"\n\nAt once the noise ceased, the doors were flung open, and a magnificent\nPrincess swept into the room. Never was such a beauty seen before. Her\ngolden hair fell almost to the floor and was bound about with jewels.\nHer robes were stiff with embroidery and gems. The other Princesses\npaled before her as stars pale before the rising moon.\n\nPrince Ivan took her by the hand and led her to the Tsar. \"This is my\ndear Princess,\" said he, \"and surely it is she and she only who should\nreign over this land.\"\n\nWell, there were no two ways to that. The Tsar could hardly contain\nhimself for joy over the beauty of Prince Ivan's bride. A great feast\nwas spread, and the Tsar himself led the Princess to the table. She\nsat at his right hand and drank from his jewelled cup, and all was joy\nand merriment. Only the older brothers and their wives were sad, for\nthey knew they had missed all chance of gaining the kingdom.\n\nNow while they were still at the table, all eating and drinking,\nPrince Ivan arose and made some excuse for leaving the room. He went\nquietly and mounted his horse and rode back to his own castle.\n\nThere he made haste to the room where his wife had left her frog-skin.\nHe hunted about until he found it, and then he threw it into the fire,\nfor he did not intend that she should ever hide herself away in it\nagain.\n\nAt once a clap of thunder sounded, and the Princess stood before him.\nHer eyes were streaming with tears, and she wrung her hands in grief.\n\n\"Alas and woe is me!\" she cried. \"Why did you burn my frog-skin? A\nlittle longer, and I would have been free. Now I must go away and\nleave you forever.\"\n\n\"But where are you going?\" cried the Prince in despair. \"Wherever it\nis I will follow and find you.\"\n\n\"Seek me beyond the seven mountains, beyond the seven seas, in the\nkingdom of Koshchei the Deathless, for it is in his house I will be,\"\nanswered the Princess. Then she turned into a great white swan and\nflew out through the window and far, far away; so far the Prince could\nno longer see her.\n\nThen Prince Ivan was filled with grief; and he neither stayed nor\ntarried but set out at once in search of his Princess.\n\nHe journeyed on and journeyed on a short way and a long way, and then\nhe met an old man with a grey beard that hung down far below his belt.\n\n\"Good day, good youth,\" said the old man.\n\n\"Good day, grandfather,\" answered Ivan.\n\n\"Whither do you journey with so sad a face?\" asked the stranger.\n\n\"I journey over land and over sea in search of the kingdom of Koshchei\nthe Deathless,\" answered Ivan.\n\n\"Then you have a long journey before you,\" said the old man. \"But why\ndo you seek the kingdom of Koshchei the Deathless, that terrible man?\"\n\n\"I seek it that I may find what is lost.\" Then Ivan told the old man\nhis story, all about his frog bride and how she had turned into a\nPrincess,--how he had burned the frog-skin and how she had flown away\nas a swan, and that now life would be nothing but a burden to him\nuntil he could find her again.\n\nThe old man shook his head. \"Alas! alas! You should never have burned\nthe frog-skin!\" he said. He then told Ivan that the name of the\nPrincess was Vasilisa the Fair. \"Her mother was the sister of Koshchei\nthe Deathless,\" said the stranger, \"and when she was born it was\nforetold that before she was eighteen Koshchei should lose his life\nbecause of her. It was for this reason that he changed her into a frog\nand set her in the midst of the lonely swamp. In a month and a day\nfrom now the Princess would have been eighteen, and the danger to\nKoshchei would have been over. Then he would have allowed her to lay\naside her frog-skin and take back her human shape. But now he is angry\nand has carried her away to his castle, and only by the grace of\nHeaven will you be able to find her and set her free.\"\n\nThe old man then gave Prince Ivan a little ball. \"Take this,\" he said,\n\"and roll it before you as you go. It will show you which way to\ntravel, and with its help you may reach the kingdom of Koshchei.\"\n\nIvan took the ball and thanked the old man and journeyed on. He rolled\nthe ball before him, and in whichever direction it rolled he followed.\n\nHe went along and went along, until after a while he came to a forest,\nand there he saw a bear.\n\nPrince Ivan would have shot it, but the bear cried to him, \"Do not\nshoot me, Prince. Take me with you as a servant, and the time may come\nwhen I can help you.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said the Prince. \"Come with me\"; so he journeyed on with\nthe bear at his heels.\n\nPresently he saw a wild duck and would have shot it, but the duck\ncalled to him, \"Do not shoot me, dear Prince. Take me with you, and I\nwill be a faithful servant. The time may come when you will need me.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" answered the Prince. \"You also may come with us as a\ncompanion.\"\n\nSo the Prince journeyed along with the bear at his heels and the duck\nflying overhead.\n\nAfter a while they came to the edge of a river, and there lay a great\nfish, gasping out its life in the sunlight.\n\n\"Now at last I shall have a good meal,\" said the Prince.\n\nBut the fish cried to him in a human voice, \"Throw me back into the\nriver, Prince, that I may live. The time may come when I can do you a\ngood turn also.\"\n\nSo the Prince had mercy on the fish and threw it back into the water.\n\nAfter that he and his companions traveled on a long way. They\njourneyed over seven mountains and crossed seven seas, and so they\ncame at last to the kingdom of Koshchei the Deathless.\n\nThere the Prince saw a little hut. It stood on hen's legs and turned\nthis way and that, whichever way the wind blew. There was no getting\nat the door. Then the Prince cried, \"Little hut, stand the way my\nmother built you with your back away from me and your door before me.\"\n\nAt once the hut whirled round and stood with the open door in front of\nhim.\n\nPrince Ivan entered in, and saw a bony-legged Baba Yaga lying on the\nstove with her grey hair over her face.\n\n\"Who are you? And what seek you here in the kingdom of Koshchei the\nDeathless?\" she cried.\n\n\"Do not ask questions but rise up and give me food and drink,\" said\nthe Prince; \"for I am both hungry and thirsty.\"\n\nThe Baba Yaga arose and served him food and drink. He ate and gave\npart to the bear and the duck. Then he told the Baba Yaga why he had\ncome there--that he was wandering in search of his dear wife, Vasilisa\nthe Fair.\n\nThe old witch shook her head. \"It will be a hard thing to rescue her,\"\nshe said. \"Koshchei is very powerful. Only in one way can you overcome\nhim. Not far from here stands a tree. It is as hard as rock, so that\nno ax can dent it, and so smooth that none can climb it. On the top of\nit is a nest. In the nest is an egg. A duck sits over the egg to guard\nit. In that egg is a needle, and only with that needle can you kill\nKoshchei the Deathless.\"\n\nThe Baba Yaga then led Prince Ivan to the door and pointed out to him\nwhere the tree grew, and Prince Ivan hurried on toward it, with his\ntwo faithful servants, the bear and the duck.\n\nBut when he reached the tree he looked at it with despair. It was\nindeed very smooth and high,--as smooth as glass, and when he tried\nhis hunting knife upon it the knife bent and crumpled in his hand.\n\n\"Master, now is the time that I can help you,\" said the bear. He went\nto the tree and clasped it and shook it, so that its roots cracked,\nand it fell with a mighty noise.\n\nAt once the duck that was guarding the egg caught it up in its claws\nand flew away with it. But Ivan's duck pursued so fiercely that the\nother was forced to drop the egg in order to defend itself.\n\nUnfortunately they had both flown over a river, and into this river\nthe egg dropped and was lost to sight.\n\nIvan sat down upon the bank of the river and wept. \"Alas, alas!\" he\ncried. \"Now truly is my dear wife lost to me, for never can I recover\nthe egg from the river.\"\n\nHardly had he spoken when the fish he had thrown back into the river\nappeared, bearing the egg in its mouth.\n\nNow Ivan's grief was turned to rejoicing. He broke the egg and took\nout the needle. Then, with the little ball to lead him, he soon made\nhis way to Koshchei's palace.\n\nThe Deathless One rushed out to meet him, but Ivan attacked him with\nthe point of the needle. It was in vain Koshchei tried to protect\nhimself. Ivan drove the needle into him deeper and deeper, and\npresently Koshchei sank down dead before him, no better than a lump of\nclay.\n\nPrince Ivan strode across him and on into the castle. From room to\nroom he went, and in the deepest dungeon he found the Princess\nVasilisa, his own dear wife. She threw herself into his arms, weeping\nwith joy.\n\nThen they went to Koshchei's treasure room and took from it all the\nmost precious jewels,--all that the faithful bear could carry they\nloaded upon his back and carried away with them.\n\nAfter that they journeyed back to their own kingdom, and if any one\nwas glad to see them it was the Tsar himself.\n\nHe built for them a castle close to his own, where they could not even\nsee the swamp. There Ivan and his frog princess lived in the greatest\nlove and happiness, and after the old Tsar's death they themselves\nruled over the kingdom as the Tsar and Tsaritsa.\n\n-----\n\n  [1] King.\n\n\n\n\n                  THE MAGIC TURBAN, THE MAGIC SWORD\n                         AND THE MAGIC CARPET\n\n                           A PERSIAN STORY\n\n\nThere were once two brothers, the sons of a rich merchant, and when he\ndied he left all his estate to be divided between them equally. This\nwas done, and the elder at once set about trading and improving his\ncondition, so that very soon he became twice as rich as he had been.\n\nBut the younger son had no luck. Everything he undertook failed.\nMoreover, he never had the heart to say no to a friend in need. So\nbefore long he was left with not a penny in his purse or a roof over\nhis head.\n\nIn his distress he went to his elder brother and asked help of him.\n\n\"How is this?\" said the elder. \"Our father left the same to both of\nus, and I have prospered in the world and have now become a rich man,\nbut you have not even a roof to shelter your head or a bite to eat.\"\n\n\"Well, that's a long tale,\" said the younger, \"and what is done is\ndone. But give me another chance, and it may be that this time I will\nsucceed in the world.\"\n\nAfter they had talked a long time the elder brother consented to give\nhim fifty dollars, but if he wasted that the way he had the rest of\nhis property, he was not to come back again.\n\nThe younger brother took the money and went off with it, but it was\nnot long before it had slipped through his fingers just the way his\nother money had. Before long he was back at his brother's door, asking\nfor help again.\n\nThe older brother scolded and reproached him. He was a spendthrift and\na waster. But in the end he gave him another fifty dollars, and bade\nhim be off, and not dare to return again.\n\nThe younger brother went off with the fifty dollars and this time he\nwas sure he would succeed with it. But his luck was still no better\nthan it had been before. Soon it was all gone, and back he came to his\nbrother's house.\n\nSo it went on. The older brother could not rid himself of him. At last\nthe elder brother, seeing there would be no peace for him as long as\nhe remained where he was, made up his mind to sell all his possessions\nand take the money and journey to a far land without telling his\nyounger brother anything about it.\n\nThis he did, but somehow or other the younger one got wind of it. He\nfound what ship his brother was to sail on, and then he crawled aboard\nat night, when nobody was watching, and hid himself among the cargo.\n\nThe next day the ship set sail. Soon they were out at sea. Then the\nelder brother came out on deck and strutted up and down, and he\nrejoiced at heart that he had shaken off the younger lad and with good\nluck might never see him again.\n\nBut just as he thought this, whom should he see but the lad coming\nacross the deck to meet him and give him greeting.\n\nThe elder was a sick and sorry man. It seemed there was no ridding\nhimself of his brother. At the first port they touched he left the\nship, and his brother got off with him, for he had no idea of being\nleft behind.\n\nThe elder brother stood there on the shore and looked about him. Then\nhe said, \"Listen, now! It is a long way to the town. Do you stay here\nwhile I go on farther, beyond yon spit of land, and see whether I can\nfind a dwelling where I can buy us a couple of horses; for I have no\nwish to journey on foot.\"\n\nThe younger brother was for going along too, but to this the elder\nwould not consent. No, no; the lad was to stay there and watch a box\nthat the elder brother had brought along. (The box had nothing in it,\nbut this the younger brother did not know.)\n\nSo the elder brother set out and soon was out of sight, and the\nyounger one sat on the box and kicked his heels and waited, and waited\nand waited and waited; but his brother never did come back.\n\nThen the lad knew the older one had made a fool of him. He looked in\nthe box and found it empty. So off he set to see whether he could make\nhis own way in the world and no thanks to any one.\n\nHe journeyed on a short way and a long way, and so he came to a place\nwhere three men were quarreling together fiercely, and the things they\nwere quarreling over were an old turban, a piece of carpet, and a\nsword.\n\nAs soon as they saw the lad they stopped quarreling and ran and caught\nhold of him. \"You shall decide! You shall decide!\" they shouted all\ntogether.\n\n\"What is it you wish me to decide?\" asked the lad.\n\nThen the men told him they were three brothers, and that when their\nfather died he had left them these three things,--the turban, the\ncarpet, and the sword. Whoever placed the turban on his head would at\nonce become invisible. Whoever sat on the carpet had only to wish\nhimself wherever he would be, and the carpet would carry him there in\na twinkling, and the sword would cut through anything, and no magic\ncould stand against it.\n\n\"These things should belong to me, because I am the eldest,\" cried one\nof the men.\n\n\"No, I should have them because I am the strongest and stoutest,\" said\nthe second.\n\n\"But I am the youngest and weakest and need them most,\" cried the\nthird. They then began to quarrel again and even came to blows.\n\n\"Stop, stop,\" cried the lad. \"You said that I should decide this\nmatter for you, so why quarrel about it? But before I decide I must\ntry the things and see whether what you have told me is really so.\"\n\nTo this the brothers agreed. First they gave him the sword, and the\nlad took it in his hand and aimed a blow at a rock near by, and the\nsword cut through the rock as smoothly and easily as though it had\nbeen a piece of cheese.\n\n\"Now give me the turban,\" said the lad.\n\nThe brothers gave him the turban, and he placed it upon his head and\nat once became invisible!\n\n\"Now the carpet.\"\n\nThe brothers spread out the carpet on the ground, and the lad seated\nhimself upon it with the turban still upon his head and the sword in\nhis hand! Then he wished himself far away in some place where the\nbrothers would never find him.\n\nImmediately he found himself in the outskirts of a large city. He\nstepped from the carpet and rolled it up and took the turban from his\nhead and looked about him. He had no idea of going back to return the\nthings to the brothers, and if they waited for him they waited a long\ntime. \"It will teach them not to quarrel but to live at peace with\neach other,\" said the lad to himself. Then he made his way to the\nnearest house, for he was hungry and meant to ask for a bite to eat.\n\nHe knocked, and an old woman opened the door, and she was so old that\nher chin and her nose met.\n\n\"Good day, mother,\" said the lad.\n\n\"Good day to you,\" answered the crone.\n\n\"Will you give me a bite to eat, for the love of charity?\"\n\nYes, the crone would do that. She gave him a bite and a sup and a bit\nover, and while he was eating and drinking she sat and talked with\nhim.\n\n\"What is the news here in the city?\" asked the lad.\n\n\"Oh the same news as ever.\"\n\n\"And what is that? For I am a stranger here and know no more of\nyesterday or the week before than of to-day.\"\n\n\"Then I will tell you. Over yonder lies the castle, and the King lives\nthere. He has only one daughter, and she is a beauty, you may believe.\nEvery night the Princess disappears from the castle, and where she\ngoes no one can tell but herself, and she will not. So the King has\noffered a reward to any one who will find out. The half of his kingdom\nhe offers and the hand of the Princess as well, if only any one can\ntell him where she goes.\"\n\n\"That is a good hearing,\" said the lad. \"I have a mind to try for that\nprize myself.\"\n\n\"No, but wait a bit,\" said the old woman. \"There is another side to\nthe story, for if you try and fail your head will be lifted from your\nshoulders with a sharp sword, and you are too fine a young man to lose\nyour life in that way.\"\n\nBut the lad was determined to try. In vain the old woman warned and\nentreated him. He thanked her for the meal he had eaten, and then off\nhe set for the palace. There he told the errand that had brought him\nand after that it did not take long for him to get to see the King.\n\n\"So you think you can find out where the Princess goes at night,\" said\nthe King.\n\nYes, the lad thought he could.\n\nVery well, then, he might have a try at it, but he must remember that\nif he tried and failed his head would be cut from his shoulders with a\nsharp sword.\n\nYes, the lad understood that, and he was ready to take the risk.\n\nSo that night he was taken to the door of a room in a high tower, and\nthe room was of iron and had only one door and one window. Into this\nroom the Princess was put every night, and it would be the duty of the\nlad to watch at the door and see either that she did not leave it, or\nwhere she went.\n\nPresently the Princess came upstairs and passed by the lad without so\nmuch as a glance, but his heart leaped within him, she was so\nbeautiful.\n\nShe opened the door to go in, and the lad put on his turban of\ndarkness and slipped in after her, but the Princess did not know that\nbecause he was invisible. She closed the door tight and sighed three\ntimes, and then a great black demon stood before her, and he was\nterrible to look upon, he was so huge and ugly.\n\n\"Oh, my dear Lala,\" said the Princess, \"let us be off at once. I do\nnot know why, but I feel so frightened, just as though some misfortune\nwere about to come upon me.\"\n\n\"That is nonsense,\" said the demon. \"But do you seat yourself upon my\nhead, and we will be off at once.\"\n\nThe demon wore a buckler upon his head, and now he stooped, and she\nseated herself upon it, but the lad was quick and sprang up and took\nhis place beside her.\n\n\"Ai! Ai!\" cried the demon, \"but you are heavy to-day, Princess.\"\n\n[Illustration: Then the demon flew out through the window and away\nthrough the night.]\n\n\"I do not know what you mean,\" answered the Princess. \"I am no heavier\nand no lighter than I was last night.\"\n\nThen the demon flew out through the window and away through the night\nso fast that the lad had much ado to keep from falling off.\n\nAfter a while they came to a garden the like of which the lad had\nnever seen before and never expected to see again, for the leaves of\nthe trees were of silver, and the branches were of gold, and the\nfruits were emeralds and rubies.\n\nAs they passed through it the lad stretched out his hand and broke off\na twig and put it in his bosom. Then all the trees in the garden began\nto sigh and moan.\n\n\"Child of man! Child of man! why do you break and\ntorture us?\"\n\nThe Princess shuddered. \"Some one besides ourselves is here in the\ngarden,\" she cried.\n\n\"That cannot be, or we would see him,\" answered the demon, but he was\nfrightened and flew on faster than before.\n\nPresently they came to another garden and it was even more wonderful\nthan the first, for here the trees were of diamonds, and the fruits of\nevery kind of precious stones you can think of.\n\nAs they passed through it the lad stretched out his hand and broke off\na twig. Then all the trees began to sigh and moan.\n\n\"Child of man! Child of man! Why do you break and torture us?\" they\ncried.\n\n\"Oh, my dear Lala, what did I tell you?\" asked the Princess. \"I am\nafraid\"; and she trembled all over her body.\n\nThe demon answered nothing, but he flew on even faster than ever.\n\nSoon after they came to a magnificent palace, and the demon flew in\nthrough a window and alighted. Then the Princess and the lad leaped\ndown from the buckler, and the demon was glad to have the weight off\nhim. After that he vanished.\n\nThe Princess opened a door and went into another room, with the lad\nclose behind her, and there was the King of all the demons, and he was\nso huge and black that the demon Lala was nothing to him.\n\n\"My dearest dear one, why are you so late to-night?\" asked he of the\nPrincess.\n\n\"I do not know what was the matter,\" answered the fair one, \"but\nsomething is terribly wrong\"; and she told him all that had happened.\n\nThe Demon laughed at her. \"You are nervous,\" said he. \"But come! You\nhave not kissed me yet.\"\n\nHe came close to the Princess to kiss her, but the lad stepped between\nthem and gave the Demon such a push that he almost fell over; at the\nsame time he himself gave the Princess a kiss upon the cheek.\n\n\"Why do you push me away?\" cried the Demon, and he was very angry.\n\nThe Princess began to tremble again. \"I did not push you,\" said she.\n\"Moreover, some one kissed me on the cheek. I am sure somebody is in\nthe room with us.\"\n\nThe King Demon looked all around, but he could see nobody. Then he\ncalled a slave to bring the Princess the jeweled slippers she always\nwore when she came to his palace.\n\nThe slave brought the slippers on a golden cushion, and they were\ncrusted over with pearls and precious stones. He knelt before the\nPrincess, and she took one and put it on, but at the same time the lad\ntook the other and slipped it in his bosom. The Princess and the Demon\ndid not know what had become of it. They hunted everywhere, but they\ncould not find it.\n\n\"There, now! See how careless you are,\" said the Demon; and he bade\nthe slave bring another pair of slippers.\n\nThis the slave did, but it was the same with this pair as with the\nothers. While the Princess was putting on one slipper the lad took the\nother and hid it in his bosom. The Princess and the Demon and the\nslave all looked for it, but they could not find it.\n\nAt that the Princess flew into a passion and threw both the slippers\naway from her.\n\n\"I do not care,\" said she; \"and now I will not wear any slippers at\nall.\"\n\n\"Never mind!\" answered the Demon. \"We will have a sherbet together,\nand after that we will eat.\"\n\nHe clapped his hands, and another slave appeared, bearing two crystal\ngoblets full of sherbet. The Princess took one goblet and the Demon\nthe other. Just as they were about to drink the lad smote the crystal\ngoblet from the Princess's hand so that it fell upon the marble floor\nand was shattered, and all the sherbet was spilled.\n\nThe lad picked up a splinter of the crystal and hid it in his bosom\nwith the golden twig, the diamond twig, and the two slippers. But the\nPrincess shook and trembled until she could hardly stand, and even the\nDemon was troubled.\n\n\"Why did you cast the goblet on the floor?\" he asked.\n\n\"I did not,\" answered the Princess, \"but some one struck it from my\nhand\"; and she began to weep.\n\nThe Demon comforted her and bade other slaves bring in the feast that\nhad been prepared for him and the Princess.\n\nQuickly the slaves brought it and placed it before them. The lad had\nnever seen such a feast. All the dishes were of gold and were carved\nto represent scenes in demon life, and the handles were set thick with\nprecious stones and enamelled in strange colors. There were all sorts\nof delicious things to eat, so that the lad's mouth watered at the\nsmell of them.\n\nThe Demon and the Princess sat down to eat, but it was small good the\nPrincess got of the feast, for every time the Demon put anything on\nher plate the lad snatched it away and ate it, and the Princess was\nleft hungry. The lad also took one of the golden forks and one of the\ngolden spoons and hid them in his bosom.\n\n\"What did I tell you,\" cried the Princess. \"Something is wrong!\nSomething is _terribly_ wrong.\"\n\n\"Yes, I can see that myself,\" said the King Demon. \"You had better go\non home again, for we will get no pleasure out of this night, and that\nI can easily see.\"\n\nLala was called, the Princess mounted the buckler in haste, and away\nthe Demon flew with her. But this time the lad did not fly with them.\n\nHe waited until they were gone, and then he drew the Sword of\nSharpness and smote the King Demon's head from his shoulders.\n\nAt once a clap of thunder sounded; the castle rocked, and the walls\ncrumbled about him. The trees in the gardens were withered, and a\nthick darkness fell, while all about him sounded cries and groans.\n\nBut the lad seated himself upon the carpet and wished himself back at\nthe door of the room in the tower, and there he was in a twinkling,\nlong before Lala had flown in through the window with the Princess,\neven though he flew as swiftly as the wind.\n\nThe lad took off the Turban of Darkness, and rolled up the carpet, and\nlay down and closed his eyes as though he were asleep.\n\nPresently the Princess opened the door and peered out. There lay the\nlad, snoring and with his eyes closed. The Princess drew a sharp\nneedle and ran it into the lad's heel, but he never flinched, so she\nfelt sure he was asleep.\n\n\"Thou fool!\" said she scornfully. \"Sleep on, and to-morrow thou shalt\npay the penalty.\"\n\nThen she went back into the room and closed the door.\n\nThe next day the Princess called the guards and bade them carry the\nlad away and cut the head from his shoulders.\n\n\"Wait a bit,\" said the lad. \"Do not be in such a hurry. First we must\nappear before thy father the King; he must decide in this case, and it\nmay be I have something to tell him that will be worth the hearing.\"\n\nThe Princess could not refuse this, so she and the lad were brought\nbefore the King, and the lad began to tell his story. When he came to\nthe part where the great black Demon had come and flown away with the\nPrincess she turned first as red as blood and then as pale as death.\n\n\"It is not true!\" she cried, but the King bade her be silent.\n\nThen the lad told how they had flown through the gardens. \"It is all a\nwicked lie,\" moaned the Princess, but the lad drew forth the twigs he\nhad broken from the trees and showed them to the King as proof of his\ntruth.\n\nAfter that the lad told of how they had entered the castle, and how\nthe King Demon had tried to kiss the Princess, and of the shattered\ngoblet and the uneaten feast, and he had the splinter of crystal and\nthe spoon and fork to show, so the King knew it was all true, and the\nPrincess looked as though she wished she were dead.\n\nLast of all he told how the Princess had returned on the Demon's\nbuckler, and how he had remained behind and cut off the King Demon's\nhead, and how the castle had fallen and the gardens had withered, and\nall had become darkness and confusion.\n\nWhen the Princess heard this she gave a shriek of joy. \"Then you have\nsaved me!\" she cried. \"Never again need I fly forth at night at the\nwill of the Demon nor be his slave!\"\n\nThen it was her turn to tell her story. She told how one time the King\nDemon had seen her walking in the palace gardens and had fallen in\nlove with her, and how he had used his magic to gain power over her.\nShe told how she hated him and feared him, but how against her will he\nhad forced her to come to visit him every night in his castle and had\nsent the demon Lala to fetch her. But now that the King Demon was\ndead, she was free, and it was the lad who had saved her.\n\nWhen the King, her father, heard this, he marveled greatly. Glad was\nhe that such a brave lad was to be his son-in-law, for that was his\npromise. The lad and the Princess were betrothed then and there, and\nthe King gave orders that a grand wedding feast should be prepared,\nfor they were to be married as soon as possible. All the good folks\nfar and near were invited to come to the feast.\n\nThe lad's elder brother was invited with the rest, but he never\ndreamed that the brave lad who was to marry the Princess was his own\nyounger brother.\n\nHe came to the palace on the feast day and took his place at the table\nwith the other guests, and then he looked up at the three thrones\nwhere the King and the Princess and the lad were sitting, and there it\nwas his own younger brother who sat there.\n\nWhen the man saw that he was afraid, for he remembered how he had\ndeserted the lad on the seashore to live or die as fate willed, and he\nfeared he might be punished for it.\n\nBut the younger brother bore him no grudge, but was grateful to him\nfor what he had done. As soon as he saw the elder one there among the\nguests, he sent a servant for him and placed him in the seat of honor\nand called him brother.\n\nSo all was happiness and rejoicing. Everybody was happy, but the lad\nand the Princess were happiest of all, because they loved each other\nand had just been married.\n\n\n\n\n                       THE THREE SILVER CITRONS\n\n                           A PERSIAN STORY\n\n\nThere was once a King who had three sons, and he loved them all\nequally, one no more than the other.\n\nWhen he had grown old and felt his strength leaving him, he called the\nthree Princes before him.\n\n\"My sons,\" said he, \"I am no longer young, and soon the time will come\nwhen I must leave you. I have it in mind to give the kingdom to one or\nthe other of you now and not to leave it for you to quarrel over after\nI have gone. You have reached a time of life when you should marry. Go\nforth into the world and seek, each one of you, a bride for himself.\nHe who brings home the most beautiful Princess shall have the\nkingdom.\"\n\nThe three Princes were well content with what their father said. At\nonce the two elder ones made ready to set out; but the youngest one\nsaid he would wait a bit. \"It is not right,\" said he, \"that our father\nshould be left alone in his old age. I will wait until my brothers\nreturn, and then I too will start out to try my fortune in the world.\"\n\nThat was good hearing for the older Princes, for they had always been\na bit jealous of their younger brother and were just as well pleased\nnot to have him with them.\n\nBefore they set out they packed a bag full of food to carry with them,\nfor they had no wish to starve by the wayside. They took baked meats\nand boiled meats, and little cakes and big cakes, and fine white\nbread, and wine to drink.\n\nWell, off they set, and on they went, a short way and a long way,\nuntil they came to the edge of a forest, and there they sat down in\nthe shade to eat; and when they spread the food out before them it\nmade a fine feast I can tell you.\n\nJust as they were about to begin an old woman came hobbling out of the\nforest. She was so old that her nose and her chin met and she was so\nbent that she could barely get along even with the help of the crutch\nshe had.\n\n\"Good masters, give me a bite and a sup, I beg of you,\" she said. \"It\nis a hundred years since I have tasted anything but black bread.\"\n\n\"If you have lived on black bread that long you can live on it a\nlittle longer,\" said one of the Princes, and then they both laughed.\nHowever, they bade the old crone come back there after they had gone,\nand it might be she would find some broken bits lying round, and those\nshe might have if she cared to gather them up.\n\nThen the Princes went on eating and drinking, and after they had\nfinished they journeyed on again.\n\nPresently they came to a cross roads, and there they separated; one\nwent east and one went west. The eldest Prince took the east road, and\nsoon it brought him to a castle, and in this castle lived a Princess\nwho was as pretty as a picture. It was not long before the Prince won\nher to be his wife, for he was a stout and comely lad, and as soon as\nthey were married he set out for home, taking his bride with him.\n\nAs it happened with the eldest Prince, so it did with the second\nbrother. He also found a castle and a Princess, and won her to be his\nbride, and brought her home with him to his father's house; and when\nthe two Princesses met it was hard to choose between them, they were\nboth so pretty. It seemed as though the kingdom would have to be\ndivided between the elder brothers and their pretty brides.\n\nBut first it was only right that the youngest Prince should have a\nchance, so now that his brothers had returned he was ready to set out\ninto the wide world and see what sort of a beauty he could pick up.\nHis brothers laughed at him, for they had never had much of an opinion\nof his wit, even though they were jealous of him.\n\n\"Only see that she has two eyes and a stout pair of hands,\" said they.\n\"Our Princesses will find something for her to do about the palace, no\ndoubt, and as for you, you shall always have a warm place in the\nchimney corner where you can sit.\"\n\nThe youngest Prince answered never a word, but he put some food in a\nscrip and off he set.\n\nHe journeyed on and on, a short way and a long way, and then he too\ncame to the forest and sat down in the shade to eat, as his brothers\nhad done before him.\n\nPresently the old crone came hobbling out from the forest, and she was\nmore bent and hideous than ever.\n\n\"Good youth, give me a bite and sup, I beg of you,\" she said. \"It is a\nhundred years since I have tasted anything but black bread.\"\n\n\"Then it is high time you had something else to eat,\" said the Prince,\nand he gave her the best of all he had, both food and wine.\n\nThe old woman ate and drank, and by the time she finished there was\nlittle enough left for the Prince. Then she drew out from her sleeve a\npretty little pipe and gave it to him. \"Take this,\" she said, \"and if\nthere is anything you wish for play a tune upon the pipe, and it may\nhelp you to find it.\"\n\nAfter that she disappeared into the forest again.\n\nThe Prince hung his scrip over his shoulder, and then he was ready to\nset out, but first he thought he might as well see what the pipe was\ngood for. He set it to his lips and blew a tune.\n\nImmediately a score of little black Trolls with long noses appeared\nbefore him. \"Master, here we are!\" they cried. \"What would you have of\nus?\"\n\n\"I did not know I was your master,\" thought the Prince, but what he\nsaid was, \"What I want is the prettiest Princess in twelve kingdoms\nfor a bride, and if you can get me such a one I'll thank you kindly.\"\n\n\"We know where to find such a Princess, and we can show you the way,\"\nsaid the oldest and blackest of the Trolls, \"but we ourselves cannot\ntouch her. You will have to win her for yourself.\"\n\nWell, that suited the Prince, and if they would only show him the\nPrincess he would do his best to get her. So off they set, and\npresently they came to a high mountain, and it belonged to the King of\nthe Trolls. The Prince blew upon the pipe again, and the mountain\nopened before him. He went in, and there he was in a great chamber,\nwhere the Troll kept the three daughters of three Kings whom he had\ntaken captive and brought there, and they were so beautiful that their\nbeauty lighted the whole place so there was no need of lamps.\n\nWhen the girls saw the Prince they were terrified and began to run\nabout this way and that, looking for a place to hide; but they could\nfind no place, for the chamber was quite smooth and bare. Then they\nchanged themselves into three silver citrons and rolled about this way\nand that, all over the room.\n\nThe Prince was terribly distressed that the girls had changed into\ncitrons, for they were so lovely that he would have been glad to have\nany one of them for a wife.\n\nHowever, he took up the citrons and hid them in his bosom, and then,\nas there seemed nothing better to do, he set out for home again, for\nafter having seen three such beauties as that he would never be\nsatisfied with any one else.\n\nAfter a while as he journeyed he came to the wood where he had seen\nthe old crone before, and there she was, waiting for him.\n\n\"Well, and did you get what you set out to search for?\" she asked.\n\n\"I did and I didn't,\" answered the Prince;--and then he told her the\nwhole story and showed her the three citrons that he still carried in\nhis bosom. \"They are three beauties, I can tell you,\" said he, \"but of\nwhat use are they as long as they remain as citrons?\"\n\n\"I may be able to help you again,\" said the old hag. She then gave him a\nsilver knife and a little golden cup. \"Keep the citrons until you come\nto a running stream. Then take one,--whichever one you please,--and cut\nit open with this knife. At once one of the Princesses will appear. She\nwill ask you for a drink of water. Give it to her immediately in this\ngolden cup, and after that she will remain with you and you can have her\nfor your wife.\"\n\nThe Prince was delighted. He took the knife and cup and thanked the\nold woman gratefully, and then she again disappeared in the shadow of\nthe forest.\n\nThe Prince journeyed on until he came to a running stream, and it was\nnot so very far from his father's palace. Then he got out the knife\nand the cup and one of the citrons. He cut the citron, and at once one\nof the Princesses appeared before him. If she had looked a beauty when\nhe saw her in the mountain she was ten times lovelier, now that he saw\nher in the light of day. The Prince could only gape and gape at her.\n\n\"Give me a cup of water to drink,\" demanded the Princess; but the\nPrince was so busy staring at her that he did not move, and in a\nmoment the Princess vanished from before him, and where she went he\ncould not tell. He was filled with grief over the loss of her, but she\nwas gone, and that was all of it.\n\nThen the Prince took out the second citron. \"This time I will be ready\nfor her,\" he thought. He took his knife and cut the second citron. At\nonce the second Princess appeared before him.\n\n\"Give me a cup of water to drink,\" she demanded. But again the Prince\nwas so overcome by her beauty that he could no more move than if he\nhad been rooted to the ground, and the next moment she too disappeared\nfrom before his eyes.\n\nThe Prince was in despair. He ran this way and that way, calling aloud\nand trying to find her, but she had vanished like the fading of a\nbreath.\n\nAnd now there was only one other citron left, and the Prince trembled\nat the thought of opening it, for he was afraid he would lose this\nthird Princess as he had the others. At last he drew it from his bosom\nand prepared to cut it, but first he filled the golden cup and set it\nready to his hand. Then he seized the knife and with one stroke\ndivided the citron in two.\n\nAt once the third Princess stood before him, and though the others had\nbeen beautiful she exceeded them in beauty as the full moon exceeds\nthe stars in splendor.\n\n\"Give me a cup of water,\" said she; and this time the Prince was\nready. Almost before she could speak he had caught up the golden cup\nand presented it to her.\n\nThe Princess took the cup and drank, and then she smiled upon him so\nbrightly that he was dazzled.\n\n\"Now I am yours, and you are mine,\" said she, \"and where you go I will\nfollow, for I have no one in all the wide world but you.\"\n\nThe Prince was almost wild with happiness. He kissed her hands and\nlooked with joy upon her face.\n\nBut she was dressed only in a linen shift.\n\nThe Prince took off his cloak and wrapped it about her. \"Climb up into\na tree,\" said he, \"and hide yourself among the branches, and I will go\nto the castle and bring you from thence robes and jewels and all\nthings fitting for such a beautiful Princess to wear.\"\n\nTo this the Princess agreed. The Prince helped her to climb up among\nthe branches of a tree that overhung the water, and then he hastened\naway to the castle.\n\nThe beauty sat there among the leaves waiting for his return, and the\ntime of waiting was long, for when the Prince reached the castle he\nwas obliged to stay and tell the whole story to his father before the\nKing would permit him to return with the robes and jewels he had\npromised to bring to his bride.\n\n[Illustration: The Princess took the cup and drank.]\n\nMeanwhile an ugly kitchen wench who worked in the castle came to fetch\nwater from the spring, for every day the Princesses required it for\ntheir baths. The girl had brought with her an earthen jar to hold the\nwater.\n\nAs she leaned over the stream to fill the jar she looked down into the\nwater and saw the face of the Princess reflected there, as she peered\nout from the leaves above.\n\nThe servant wench, whose name was Lucy, thought it was the reflection\nof her own face that she saw. She gazed upon it with wonder and joy.\n\"Ah! Ah!\" she cried. \"What a beauty I am; why did no one ever tell me\nso? Not even the two Princesses are as beautiful as I.\" She knelt\nthere, staring and staring at the reflection. Then in a rage she\nsprang to her feet.\n\n\"And they send me to draw water for them! Me, who ought to sit on a\nthrone above them all. But I'll no longer be their slave. I'll break\ntheir water jar to pieces, and if they send me with others I'll break\nthem too!\"\n\nWith that she threw down the jar with such violence that it was broken\ninto bits, and then she stamped about with rage.\n\nThe sight amused the Princess so that she laughed aloud. The servant\nwench looked up and saw the lovely face peering out at her from among\nthe green leaves; it was the same beautiful face she had seen\nreflected in the water.\n\n\"Who are you? What are you doing up there among the leaves?\" she asked\nin a thick voice.\n\n\"I am the promised bride of the Prince who has just gone up to the\ncastle,\" answered the beauty. \"He has gone to fetch fine robes and\njewels that I may dress myself properly before I appear before his\nfather.\"\n\nWhen she said this an evil thought came into the servant wench's head.\n\n\"Come down,\" said she, \"and I will dress your hair for you; I have\noften done this for the other Princesses, and I can arrange it so that\nyou will look even more beautiful when the Prince returns.\"\n\nThe Princess was nothing loath. She had no thought of evil. She\nclimbed down from the tree and sat herself upon a rock, while Lucy\nlooped and pinned her hair in place and wove a crown of flowers to\nplace upon it. \"Come now, and see how beautiful you are,\" said the\nservant.\n\nShe led the Princess to the place where the stream was deepest, and\nthen, when the beauty stooped to look at herself in the water, Lucy\npushed her in. After that she stripped herself to her shift, and hid\nher clothes under a rock, and climbed up into the tree. There she sat\namong the leaves, peering out just as the Princess had done.\n\nPresently the Prince returned, bringing with him all sorts of\nbeautiful clothes and gifts for his Princess bride. What was his\namazement to see, instead of the beauty he left in the tree, the ugly\nface of the servant wench smiling down at him from among the leaves.\n\n\"What are you doing there?\" he cried. \"And what have you done with the\nPrincess?\"\n\n\"Alas,\" said the servant maid, pretending to weep, \"I am the Princess.\nAfter you left me a wicked enchantress came by this way and changed me\ninto this shape.\"\n\nThe Prince was filled with grief and horror at these words. However,\nhe believed her and could not find it in his heart to punish her for a\nmisfortune she could not help. He showed her the robes and jewels he\nhad brought, and the servant wench made haste to come down and dress\nherself in them. When she had done this she looked more hideous than\never. The Prince could hardly bear to look at her, his grief and shame\nwere so great. Nevertheless he took her by the hand and led her back\nto the castle.\n\nThere the King was waiting full of impatience to see the bride of his\nyoungest son, this most beautiful Princess in all of twelve kingdoms.\nBut when the Prince brought the ugly servant wench before him he could\nhardly believe his eyes.\n\n\"This a beauty!\" he cried. \"Are you a fool or do you take me for one?\nIt is an insult to bring me such a creature for a daughter-in-law.\"\n\nThe older Princes and their brides did not try to hide their scorn or\nlaughter, but the servant sank on her knees, weeping, and repeated to\nthe king the same story she had told the Prince. She assured him that\nshe had been as beautiful as the day when she had climbed up into the\ntree and would be so still if the wicked enchantress had not passed by\nand bewitched her.\n\nThe King frowned and stroked his beard. \"Yours is a sad case,\" said\nhe, \"and since the Prince has given his word to marry you, marry you\nhe must. Perchance sometime your beauty may return.\"\n\nHe then gave orders that Lucy should be shown to the apartments\nprepared for the Princess and that she should be waited on and served\njust as though she were the beauty his son had promised him.\n\nBut the heart of the Prince was like a stone in his bosom, and he\ncould not bear to look upon the ugly one who was to be his bride.\n\nNow when the Princess had been pushed into the water she had not been\ndrowned, as Lucy thought. Instead she changed into a beautiful silver\nfish that swam about in the stream or hid under a grassy bank.\n\nNow there was another servant who came down to the stream for water\ninstead of Lucy, and one day when this servant dipped the jar into the\nwater the fish swam into it, and she carried it back to the castle\nwith her.\n\nIt was so pretty that she showed it to the Prince, hoping it might\ncheer him for a moment.\n\nNo sooner had the Prince looked upon the fish than he grew quite light\nand happy. He would not let the servant take the fish away but kept it\nwith him in a crystal bowl and now he no longer grieved so bitterly\nabout his bride.\n\nLucy did not know why the Prince had grown happier. She thought\nperhaps he had begun to love her. But when she found that he scarcely\never came to see her, but spent all his time watching the fish, she\nbecame very angry.\n\nShe bribed a servant to steal the fish from the Prince's room and\nbring it to her. Then she had a fire built and threw the fish into it\nto burn.\n\nNo sooner did the flames touch the fish, however, than it changed into\na beautiful silver bird and flew out of the window.\n\nThe false Princess was frightened. \"There is some magic here,\" thought\nshe, \"and magic that will prove my ruin.\"\n\nAnd now the silver bird sat on a branch outside the Princess's window\nand sang and sang. The Prince heard it, and his heart was filled with\njoy, he knew not why, and he forgot the fish that had disappeared from\nthe bowl.\n\nLucy also heard it and was more frightened than ever. She sent for the\nservant who had stolen the fish and bribed him to set a net to catch\nthe bird. This he did one day when the Prince was away, and then he\nbrought the bird to the false Princess. But she shuddered at sight of\nit as though she were cold, and bade him take it outside and wring its\nneck.\n\nThis the servant was loath to do, but he dared not disobey her. He\ncarried the bird outside and did as she commanded, and three drops of\nblood fell on the ground just below the Prince's window.\n\nThe next morning when the Prince awoke he saw with amazement that a\nbeautiful citron tree was growing outside of his window. Its trunk was\nsilver, and its leaves were silver, and on the branch nearest his\nwindow hung three silver citrons, and they were exactly like the\nsilver citrons he had brought from the Troll's home under the\nmountain.\n\nThe Prince saw them hanging there, and his heart was filled with joy\nand hope as he looked at them. He reached out and plucked them and hid\nthem in his bosom. Then he took the silver knife and the golden cup\nand hastened down to the stream where he had opened the citrons\nbefore.\n\nHe cut the first citron, and at once the first Princess appeared and\nasked him for a drink of water, but he scarcely looked at her, and she\nfled away.\n\nHe cut the second citron, and the second Princess appeared and\ndemanded water, but he never stirred, and she too vanished.\n\nThen he filled the golden cup with water and with a trembling hand cut\nthe third citron.\n\nImmediately the third Princess appeared. \"Give me of the water to\ndrink,\" said she.\n\nAt once the Prince handed her the golden cup. She drank deeply, and\nthen she smiled upon him, and it was his own dear love who stood\nbefore him more beautiful than ever.\n\nThe Prince could hardly believe in his good fortune. But the Princess\ntold him all that had happened to her--how Lucy had pushed her into\nthe water, and how she had been changed first into a fish, and then\ninto a bird, and then into a citron as she had been before. The Prince\ncould not wonder and marvel enough. He took her by the hand and led\nher up to the castle, and her golden hair fell all about her so that\nshe seemed to be clothed in a shimmering golden mantle.\n\nWhen she appeared before the King he was amazed at the beauty of her,\nand when the Prince told him that this was his true bride and not the\nother, his happiness knew no bounds. The whole palace resounded with\nrejoicings. Only Lucy was so terrified that she ran and jumped out of\na window and broke her neck.\n\nBut the kingdom was given to the youngest Prince, and he and the\nPrincess reigned there in peace and happiness as long as they lived.\n\n\n\n\n                            THE MAGIC PIPE\n\n                             A NORSE TALE\n\n\nThere was once three brothers, all the sons of the same father and\nmother.\n\nThe two elder were hard-working, thrifty lads, who had no care except\nas to how they might better themselves in the world. But the youngest,\nwhose name was Boots, was not thrifty at all. He was a do-nothing and\nwas quite content to sit in the chimney corner and warm his shins and\nthink about things.\n\nOne day the eldest son came to his father and said, \"I have it in mind\nto go over yonder to the King's castle and take service there, for I\nhear the King has need of a herdsman to take care of his hares for\nhim. The wages are six dollars a week, and if any one can keep the\nherd together and bring them safe home every night without losing one\nof them the King will give him the Princess for a wife.\"\n\nThe father was pleased when he heard this. Six dollars a week was fair\npay, and it would be a fine thing if the lad could win the Princess\nfor his wife. At any rate it was worth trying for.\n\nSo the eldest son cocked his hat over one ear, and off he set for the\npalace.\n\nHe had not gone so very far when he came to the edge of a forest, and\nthere was an old crone with a green nose a yard long, and it was\ncaught in a crack of a log. She was dancing and hopping about, but for\nall her dancing and hopping she got no farther than that one spot, for\nher nose held her there.\n\nThe lad stopped and stared at her, and she looked so funny to his mind\nthat he laughed and laughed till his sides ached.\n\n\"You gawk!\" screamed the old hag. \"Come and drive a wedge in the crack\nso I can get my nose out. Here I have stood for twice a hundred years,\nand no Christian soul has come to set me free.\"\n\n\"If you have stood there twice a hundred years you might as well stay\na while longer. As for me, I'm expected at the King's palace, and I\nhave no time to waste driving wedges,\" said the lad, and away he went,\none foot before the other, leaving the old crone with her nose still\nin the crack.\n\nWhen the lad came to the palace, he knocked at the door and told the\nman who opened it that he had come to see about the place of herdsman.\nWhen the man heard this he brought the lad straight to the King, and\ntold him what the lad had come for.\n\nThe King listened and nodded his head. Yes, he was in need of a\nherdsman and would be glad to take the lad into his service, and the\nwages were just as the youth thought, with a chance of winning the\nPrincess to boot. But there was one part of the bargain that had been\nleft out. If the lad failed to keep the herd together and lost so much\nas even one small leveret, he was to receive such a beating as would\nturn him black and blue.\n\nThat part of the bargain was not such pleasant hearing as the rest of\nit. Still the lad had a mind to try for the Princess. So he was taken\nout to the paddock where the hares were, and a pretty sight it was to\nsee them hopping and frisking about, hundreds and hundreds of them,\nbig and little.\n\nAll morning the hares were kept there in the paddock with the new\nherdsman watching them, and as long as that was the case everything\nwent well. But later on the hares had to be driven out on the hills\nfor a run and a bite of fresh grass, and then the trouble began. The\nlad could no more keep them together than if they had been sparks from\na fire. Away they sped, some one way and some another, into the woods\nand over the hills,--there was no keeping track of them. The lad\nshouted and ran and ran and shouted till the sweat poured down his\nface, but he could not herd them back. By the time evening came he had\nscarce a score of them to drive home to the palace.\n\nAnd there on the steps stood the King with a stout rod in his hands,\nall ready to give the lad a beating. And a good beating it was, I can\ntell you. When the King had finished with him he could hardly stand.\nHome he went with only his sore bones for wages.\n\nThen it was the second brother's turn. He also had a mind to try his\nhand at keeping the King's hares, with the chance of winning the\nPrincess for a wife. Off he set along the same road his brother had\ntaken, and after a while he came to the place where the old crone was\ndancing about with her long, green nose still caught in the crack of a\nlog. He was just as fond of a good laugh as his brother was, and he\nstood for a while to watch her, for he thought it a merry sight. He\nlaughed and laughed till the tears ran down his cheeks, and the old\nhag was screaming with rage.\n\n\"You gawk! Come and drive a wedge into the crack so that I can get my\nnose out,\" she bawled. \"Here I have been for twice a hundred years and\nno Christian soul has come to set me free.\"\n\n\"If you have been there that long it will not hurt to stay a bit\nlonger,\" said the youth. \"I'm no woodsman, and besides that I'm on my\nway to the King's palace to win a Princess for a wife.\" And away he\nwent, leaving the old woman screaming after him.\n\nAfter a while the second brother came to the palace, and when the\nservants heard why he had come they were not slow in bringing him\nbefore the King. Yes, the King was as much in need of a herdsman for\nhis hares as ever, but was the lad willing to run the risk of having\nonly a beating for his pains?\n\nYes, the lad was willing to run that risk, for he was almost sure he\ncould keep the herd together, and it was not every day one had a\nchance of winning a Princess for a wife.\n\nSo they took him out to the paddock where the hares were. All morning\nhe herded them there as his brother had done before him, and that was\nan easy task. But it was in the afternoon that the trouble began. For\nno sooner did the fresh wind of the hillside ruffle up their fur than\naway they fled, this way and that, kicking up their heels behind them.\nIt was in vain the lad chased after them and shouted and sweated; he\ncould not keep them together. In the end he had scarcely threescore of\nthem to drive back to the palace in the evening.\n\nAnd the King was waiting for him with a cudgel in his hands, and if\nthe lad did not get a good drubbing that day, then nobody ever did.\nWhen the King finished with him he was black and blue from his head to\nhis heels, and that is all he got for trying to win a Princess for a\nwife.\n\nNow after the second son had come home again with his doleful tale,\nBoots sat and thought and thought about what had happened. After a\nwhile, however, he rose up and shook the ashes from his clothes and\nsaid that now it was his turn to have a try at winning the Princess\nfor his wife.\n\nWhen the elder brothers heard that they scoffed and hooted. Boots was\nno better than a numskull anyway, and how could he hope to succeed\nwhere they had failed.\n\nWell, all that might be true or it might not, but at any rate he was\nfor having a try at this business, so off he set, just as the other\ntwo had before him.\n\nAfter a while he came to the log where his brothers had seen the hag\nwith her nose caught in the crack, and there she was still, for no one\nhad come by in the meantime to set her free. He stood and stared and\nstared, for it was a curious sight.\n\n\"Oh, you gawk! Why do you stand there staring?\" cried the old hag.\n\"Here I have been for twice a hundred years, and no Christian soul\nwill take the trouble to set me free. Drive a wedge into the crack so\nthat I may get my nose out.\"\n\n\"That I will and gladly, good mother,\" said the youth. \"Two hundred\nyears is a long time for one to have one's nose pinched in a crack.\"\n\nQuickly he found a wedge and drove it into the crack with a stone, and\nthen the old hag pulled her nose out.\n\n\"Now you have done me a good turn, and I have it in mind to do the\nsame for you,\" she said. With that she took a pretty little pipe out\nof the pocket of her skirt. \"Do you take this,\" she said, \"and it will\ncome in handy if you're on your way to the King's palace. If you blow\non the right end of the whistle the things around you will be blown\nevery which way as if a strong wind had struck them, and if you blow\non the wrong end of it they will be gathered together again. And those\nare not the only tricks the pipe has, for if any one takes it from\nyou, you have only to wish for it, and you can wish it back into your\nfingers again.\"\n\nBoots took the pipe and thanked the old hag kindly, and then he bade\nher good-by and went on his way to the King's palace.\n\nWhen the King heard what Boots had come for, he was no less ready to\ntake him for a herdsman than he had been to take his brothers. \"But,\nmind you, you shall have a drubbing that will make your bones ache if\nyou come back in the evening with even the smallest leveret missing\nfrom the herd,\" said the King.\n\nYes, that was all right. The lad was ready to take the risk, so all\nmorning Boots herded the hares in the paddock, and in the afternoon he\ntook them out to the hills, as the bargain was. There the hares could\nno longer be kept in a herd. They kicked up their heels and away they\nwent, every which way.\n\nSo that was the game, was it? Boots was very willing to play it, too.\nHe took out his pipe and blew a tune on the right end of it, and away\nthe hares flew faster than they had intended, as though a strong wind\nhad blown them. Presently there was not one left on the hill. Then the\nlad lay down in the sun and fell asleep.\n\nWhen he awoke it was toward evening and time to be bringing the hares\nback to the castle, but not one of them was in sight.\n\nThen Boots sat up, and shook the hair out of his eyes and blew on the\nwrong end of the pipe. Immediately there was the whole herd before\nhim, drawn up in ranks just like soldiers. Not even one of the\nsmallest leverets was missing.\n\n\"That is well,\" said Boots. \"And now we'll be going home again.\"\n\nOff he set for the palace, driving the hares before him, and as soon\nas he came near enough he could see the King standing on the steps\nwaiting for him with a stout cudgel in his hand,--for he had no\nthought but that Boots would fail in his task.\n\nWhen he saw the whole herd come hopping home, as tame as sheep, and\nturning into the paddock, he could hardly believe his eyes. He hurried\nafter and began to count them. He counted them over and over again,\nand not one was missing.\n\nWell, Boots had brought them all back safely that time, but the\nquestion was whether he could do it again.\n\nBoots thought he could. Indeed, he was sure he could. So the next\nafternoon he set out for the hills, whistling merrily as he tramped\nalong with the hares hopping before him.\n\nThat day things happened just as they had before. As soon as the hares\nbegan to stray Boots took his pipe and blew them away as though they\nwere so much chaff. He lay down and slept until it was time to take\nthem home again, and then he blew them together with the wrong end of\nthe pipe.\n\nWhen the King found the lad had brought the whole herd home again for\nthe second time he was greatly troubled, for he had no mind to give\nthe Princess to Boots for a bride. So the third day he bade the\nPrincess go out to the hills and hide herself among the bushes and\nwatch and see how it was that Boots managed to keep the hares\ntogether.\n\nThis the Princess did. She hid back of the bushes; she saw Boots come\ntramping up the hill with the hares frisking before him; she saw him\nblow them away with his pipe as though they had been so many dry\nleaves in the wind, and then, after he had had a nap, she saw him blow\nthem together again.\n\nThen the Princess must and would have that pipe. She came out from the\nbushes and offered to buy it. She offered ten dollars for it.\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Fifty!\"\n\n\"No!\"\n\n\"A hundred!\"\n\n\"No.\" Boots had no wish to sell, but as it was the Princess, and as\nshe seemed so set and determined on having it, he would tell her what\nhe would do; he would sell the pipe for a hundred dollars if she would\ngive him a kiss for every dollar she paid.\n\nThe Princess did not know what to say to that. It was not becoming\nthat a Princess should kiss a herdsman; still she wanted the pipe and\nas that was the only way to get it she at last agreed. She paid the\nlad a hundred bright silver dollars, and she also gave him a hundred\nkisses out there on the hillside, with no one to look on but the\nhares.\n\nThen she took the pipe and hastened home with it.\n\nBut small good the pipe did her. Just as she reached the palace steps\nthe pipe slipped out of her fingers as though it had been buttered,\nand look as she might she could not find it again.\n\nThat was because the lad had wished it back to himself. At that very\nmoment he was on his way home with the pipe in his pocket and the\nhares hopping before him in lines like soldiers.\n\nWhen the King heard the story he thought and pondered. The Princess\nhad told him nothing of the kisses. He thought she had bought the pipe\nfor a hundred dollars, so the next day he sent the Queen out to the\nhillside with two hundred dollars in her pocket.\n\n\"The Princess is young and foolish,\" said he. \"She must have lost the\npipe on the hillside, and no doubt the lad has it back by this time.\nDo you go out and see if you can buy it from him and if you once have\nyour fingers on it you'll not lose it, I'll wager.\"\n\nSo the Queen went out to the hillside and hid herself in the bushes,\nand she saw Boots blow the hares away and lie down to sleep and\nafterward blow them together again in a twinkling.\n\nThen she came out from the bushes and offered to buy the pipe. At\nfirst the lad said no, and again no, and then no for the third time,\nbut in the end he sold the pipe to the Queen for two hundred dollars\nand fifty kisses to go with them, and the Queen hoped the King would\nnever hear of it. She took the pipe and hastened home with it, but she\nfared no better than the Princess, for just before she reached the\npalace the pipe disappeared from her fingers, and what had become of\nit she did not know.\n\nWhen the King heard that he was a wroth and angry man. Now he himself\nwould go out to the hill and buy the pipe, for there was no trusting\nthe womenfolk. If he once had the pipe in his hands there would be no\nlosing it again, and of that he felt very sure. So he mounted his old\nmare Whitey and rode over to the hillside. There he hid himself among\nthe bushes, and he hid old Whitey there with him, and he watched until\nhe had seen all that the others had told him about. Then he came out\nand tried to strike a bargain with the lad. But this time it seemed as\nthough Boots would not sell the pipe,--neither for love nor money. The\nKing offered him three hundred dollars, and four hundred dollars, and\nfive hundred dollars for it, and still Boots said no.\n\n\"Listen!\" said Boots suddenly. \"If you'll go over there in the bushes\nand kiss old Whitey on the mouth five-and-twenty times, I'll sell you\nthe pipe for five hundred dollars, but not otherwise.\"\n\nThat was a thing the King was loath to do, for it ill befitted a king\nto kiss an old horse, but have the pipe he must and would; and besides\nthere was nobody there to see him do it but Boots, and he did not\ncount. \"May I spread a handkerchief between old Whitey's mouth and\nmine before I do it?\" asked the King.\n\nYes, he might do that.\n\nSo the King went back into the bushes and spread his handkerchief over\nold Whitey's mouth and kissed her through it five-and-twenty times.\nThen he came back and the lad gave him the pipe, and the King mounted\nand rode away with it, and he was well pleased with himself for his\ncleverness, and he held the pipe tight in one hand and the bridle in\nthe other. \"No danger of my losing it as the Queen and the Princess\ndid,\" thought he. But scarcely had the King reached the palace steps\nwhen the pipe slipped through his fingers like water, and what became\nof it he did not know.\n\nBut when Boots drove the hares home that evening he had the pipe\nsafely hidden away up his sleeve, though nobody knew it.\n\nAnd now how about the Princess? Would the King keep his promise and\ngive her to the herdsman for a wife?\n\nBut that was a thing the King and Queen could not bear to think of.\n\nThey put their heads together and talked and talked, and the more they\ntalked the more unwilling they were to have a herdsman in the family.\nSo in the end this is what they said. The Princess was a very clever\ngirl, and she must have a clever lad for a husband. If Boots could\ntell bigger stories than the Princess then he should have her for a\nwife, but if she could tell bigger stories than he, then he should\nhave three red strips cut from his back and be beaten all the way\nhome.\n\nTo this Boots agreed.\n\nThen the Princess began. \"I looked out of my window,\" said she, \"and\nthere was a tree that grew straight up to the sky, and the fruit of it\nwas diamonds and pearls and rubies. I reached out and picked them and\nmade myself such a necklace as never was, and I might have it yet only\nI leaned over the well to look at myself in the waters, and the\nnecklace fell off, and there it lies still at the bottom of the well\nfor any one who cares to dive for it.\"\n\n\"That is a pretty story!\" said Boots; \"but I can tell a better. When I\nwas herding hares the Princess came up on the hill and gave me a\nhundred bright silver dollars and a hundred kisses as well, one for\nevery dollar.\"\n\nThen the King scowled till his brows met, and the Princess grew as red\nas fire. \"Oh, what a story!\" cried she.\n\nThen it was her turn again.\n\n\"I went to see my god-mother, and she took me for a ride in a golden\ncoach drawn by six fleas, and the fleas were as big as horses, and\nthey went so fast we were back again a day before we started.\"\n\n\"That's a good story,\" said Boots, \"but here's a better. The Queen\ncame out on the hillside and made me a present of two hundred dollars,\nand she kissed me over and over again; fifty kisses she gave me.\"\n\n\"Is that true?\" said the King to the Queen; and his face was as black\nas thunder.\n\n\"It's a great wicked story,\" cried the Queen, \"and you must know it\nis.\"\n\nThen the Princess tried again. \"I had six suitors, and I cared for one\nno more than another, but the seventh one was a demon, and he would\nhave had me whether or no. He would have flown away with me before\nthis, but I caught his tail in the crack of the door, and he howled\nmost horribly. There he is still, if you care to look, unless he has\nvanished in a puff of smoke.\"\n\n\"Now it is my turn,\" said Boots, \"and you may believe this or not, but\nit's mostly true. The King came up on the hillside and kissed the old\nwhite mare twenty-five times. I was there and I saw. He kissed her\ntwenty-five times, and he gave me five hundred dollars not to tell.\"\n\nWhen Boots told this right out before every one, the King was so\nashamed he did not know which way to look. \"There's not a word of it\ntrue. It's the biggest story I ever heard,\" said he.\n\n\"Very well, then I have won the Princess,\" said Boots. \"And when shall\nwe be married?\"\n\nAnd married they were that day week, for the King and Queen could no\nlonger refuse to give Boots the Princess for a wife.\n\nThe Princess was willing, too, for Boots was a handsome, fine-looking\nlad. They had a great feast at the wedding, with plenty of cake and\nale flowing like water. I was there, and I ate and drank with the best\nof them.\n\nPfst! There goes a mouse. Catch it and you may make a fine big cloak\nof its skin,--and that's a story, too.\n\n\n\n\n                         THE TRIUMPH OF TRUTH\n\n                            A HINDU STORY\n\n\nThere was once a Rajah who was both young and handsome, and yet he had\nnever married. One time this Rajah, whose name was Chundun, found\nhimself obliged to make a long journey. He took with him attendants\nand horsemen, and also his Wuzeer. This Wuzeer was a very wise\nman,--so wise that nothing was hid from him.\n\nIn a certain far-off part of the kingdom the Rajah saw a fine garden,\nand so beautiful was it that he stopped to admire it. He was surprised\nto see growing in the midst of it a small bingal tree that bore a\nnumber of fine bingals, but not a single leaf.\n\n\"This is a very curious thing, and I do not understand it,\" said\nChundun Rajah to his Wuzeer. \"Why does this tree bear such fine and\nperfect fruit, and yet it has not a single leaf?\"\n\n\"I could tell you the meaning,\" said the Wuzeer, \"but I fear that if I\ndid you would not believe me and would have me punished for telling a\nlie.\"\n\n\"That could never be,\" answered the Rajah; \"I know you to be a very\ntruthful man and wise above all others. Whatever you tell me I shall\nbelieve.\"\n\n\"Then this is the meaning of it,\" said the Wuzeer. \"The gardener who\nhas charge of this garden has one daughter; her name is Guzra Bai, and\nshe is very beautiful. If you will count the bingals you will find\nthere are twenty-and-one. Whosoever marries the gardener's daughter\nwill have twenty and one children,--twenty boys and one girl.\"\n\nChundun Rajah was very much surprised at what his Wuzeer said. \"I\nshould like to see this Guzra Bai,\" said he.\n\n\"You can very easily see her,\" answered the Wuzeer. \"Early every\nmorning she comes into the garden to play among the flowers. If you\ncome here early and hide you can see her without frightening her, as\nyou would do if you went to her home.\"\n\nThe Rajah was pleased with this suggestion, and early the next morning\nhe came to the garden and hid himself behind a flowering bush. It was\nnot long before he saw the girl playing about among the flowers, and\nshe was so very beautiful the Rajah at once fell in love with her. He\ndetermined to make her his Ranee, but he did not speak to her or show\nhimself to her then for fear of frightening her. He determined to go\nto the gardener's house that evening and tell him he wished his\ndaughter for a wife.\n\nAs he had determined, so he did. That very evening, accompanied only\nby his Wuzeer, he went to the gardener's house and knocked upon the\ndoor.\n\n\"Who is there?\" asked the gardener from within.\n\n\"It is I, the Rajah,\" answered Chundun. \"Open the door, for I wish to\nspeak with you.\"\n\nThe gardener laughed. \"That is a likely story,\" said he. \"Why should\nthe Rajah come to my poor hut? No, no; you are some one who wishes to\nplay a trick on me, but you shall not succeed. I will not let you in.\"\n\n\"But it is indeed Chundun Rajah,\" called the Wuzeer. \"Open the door\nthat he may speak with you.\"\n\nWhen the gardener heard the Wuzeer's voice he came and opened the door\na crack, but still he only half believed what was told him. What was\nhis amazement to see that it was indeed the Rajah who stood there in\nall his magnificence with his Wuzeer beside him. The poor man was\nterrified, fearing Chundun would be angry, but the Rajah spoke to him\ngraciously.\n\n\"Do not be afraid,\" said he. \"Call thy daughter that I may speak with\nher, for it is she whom I wish to see.\"\n\nThe girl was hiding (for she was afraid) and would not come until her\nfather took her hand and drew her forward.\n\nWhen the Rajah saw her now, this second time, she seemed to him even\nmore beautiful than at first. He was filled with joy and wonder.\n\n\"Now I will tell you why I have come here,\" he said. \"I wish to take\nGuzra Bai for my wife.\"\n\nAt first the gardener would not believe him, but when he found the\nRajah did indeed mean what he said he turned to his daughter. \"If the\ngirl is willing you shall have her,\" said he, \"but I will not force\nher to marry even a Rajah.\"\n\nThe girl was still afraid, yet she could not but love the Rajah, so\nhandsome was he, and so kind and gracious was his manner. She gave her\nconsent, and the gardener was overjoyed at the honor that had come to\nhim and his daughter.\n\nChundun and the beautiful Guzra Bai were married soon after in the\ngardener's house, and then the Rajah and his new Ranee rode away\ntogether.\n\nNow Chundun Rajah's mother, the old Ranee, was of a very proud and\njealous nature. When she found her son had married a common girl, the\ndaughter of a gardener, and that Chundun thought of nothing but his\nbride and her beauty, she was very angry. She determined to rid\nherself of Guzra Bai in some way or other. But Chundun watched over\nhis young Ranee so carefully that for a long time the old Queen could\nfind no chance to harm her.\n\nBut after a while the Rajah found it was again necessary for him to go\non a long journey. Just before he set out he gave Guzra Bai a little\ngolden bell. \"If any danger should threaten or harm befall you, ring\nthis bell,\" said he. \"Wherever I am I shall hear it and be with you at\nonce, even though I return from the farthest part of my kingdom.\"\n\nNo sooner had he gone than Guzra Bai began to wonder whether indeed it\nwere possible that he could hear the bell at any distance and return\nto her. She wondered and wondered until at last her curiosity grew so\ngreat that she could not forbear from ringing it.\n\nNo sooner had it sounded than the Rajah stood before her. \"What has\nhappened?\" he asked. \"Why did you call me?\"\n\n\"Nothing has happened,\" answered Guzra Bai, \"but it did not seem to me\npossible that you could really hear the bell so far away, and I could\nnot forbear from trying it.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said the Rajah. \"Now you know that it is true, so do not\ncall me again unless you have need of me.\"\n\nAgain he went away, and Guzra Bai sat and thought and thought about\nthe golden bell. At last she rang it again. At once the Rajah stood\nbefore her.\n\n\"Oh, my dear husband, please to forgive me,\" cried Guzra Bai. \"It\nseemed so wonderful I thought I must have dreamed that the bell could\nbring you back.\"\n\n\"Guzra Bai, do not be so foolish,\" said her husband. \"I will forgive\nyou this time, but do not call me again unless you have need of me.\"\nAnd he went away.\n\nAgain and for the third time Guzra Bai rang the bell, and the Rajah\nappeared.\n\n\"Why do you call me again?\" he asked. \"Is it again for nothing, or has\nsomething happened to you?\"\n\n\"Nothing has happened,\" answered Guzra Bai, \"only somehow I felt so\nfrightened that I wanted you near me.\"\n\n\"Guzra Bai, I am away on affairs of state,\" said the Rajah. \"If you\ncall me in this way when you have no need of me, I shall soon refuse\nto answer the bell. Remember this and do not call me again without\nreason.\"\n\nAnd for the third time the Rajah went away and left her.\n\nSoon after this the young Ranee had twenty and one beautiful children,\ntwenty sons and one daughter.\n\nWhen the old Queen heard of this she was more jealous than ever. \"When\nthe Rajah returns and sees all these children,\" she thought to\nherself, \"he will be so delighted that he will love Guzra Bai more\ndearly than ever, and nothing I can do will ever separate them.\" She\nthen began to plan within herself as to how she could get rid of the\nchildren before the Rajah's return.\n\nShe sent for the nurse who had charge of the babies, and who was as\nwicked as herself. \"If you can rid me of these children, I will give\nyou a lac of gold pieces,\" she said. \"Only it must be done in such a\nway that the Rajah will lay all the blame on Guzra Bai.\"\n\n\"That can be done,\" answered the nurse. \"I will throw the children out\non the ash heaps, where they will soon perish, and I will put stones\nin their places. Then when the Rajah returns we will tell him Guzra\nBai is a wicked sorceress, who has changed her children into stones.\"\n\nThe old Ranee was pleased with this plan and said that she herself\nwould go with the nurse and see that it was carried out.\n\nGuzra Bai looked from her window and saw the old Queen coming with the\nnurse, and at once she was afraid. She was sure they intended some\nharm to her or the children. She seized the golden bell and rang and\nrang it, but Chundun did not come. She had called him back so often\nfor no reason at all that this time he did not believe she really\nneeded him.\n\nThe nurse and the old Ranee carried away the children, as they had\nplanned, and threw them on the ash heaps and brought twenty-one large\nstones that they put in their places.\n\nWhen Chundun Rajah returned from his journey the old Ranee met him,\nweeping and tearing her hair. \"Alas! alas!\" she cried. \"Why did you\nmarry a sorceress and bring such terrible misfortune upon us all!\"\n\n\"What misfortune?\" asked the Rajah. \"What do you mean?\"\n\nHis mother then told him that while he was away Guzra Bai had had\ntwenty-one beautiful children, but she had turned them all into\nstones.\n\nChundun Rajah was thunderstruck. He called the wicked nurse and\nquestioned her. She repeated what the old Ranee had already told him\nand also showed him the stones.\n\nThen the Rajah believed them. He still loved Guzra Bai too much to put\nher to death, but he had her imprisoned in a high tower, and would not\nsee her nor speak with her.\n\nBut meanwhile the little children who had been thrown out on the ash\nheap were being well taken care of. A large rat, of the kind called\nBandicote, had heard them crying and had taken pity on them. She drew\nthem down into her hole, which was close by and where they would be\nsafe. She then called twenty of her friends together. She told them\nwho the children were and where she had found them, and the twenty\nagreed to help her take care of the little ones. Each rat was to have\nthe care of one of the little boys and to bring him suitable food, and\nthe old Bandicote who had found them would care for the little girl.\n\nThis was done, and so well were the children fed that they grew\nrapidly. Before long they were large enough to leave the rat hole and\ngo out to play among the ash heaps, but at night they always returned\nto the hole. The old Bandicote warned them that if they saw anyone\ncoming they must at once hide in the hole, and under no circumstances\nmust any one see them.\n\nThe little boys were always careful to do this, but the little girl\nwas very curious. Now it so happened that one day the wicked nurse\ncame past the ash heaps. The little boys saw her coming and ran back\ninto the hole to hide. But the little girl lingered until the nurse\nwas quite close to her before she ran away.\n\nThe nurse went to the old Ranee, and said, \"Do you know, I believe\nthose children are still alive? I believe they are living in a rat\nhole near the ash heap, for I saw a pretty little girl playing there\namong the ashes, and when I came close to her she ran down into the\nlargest rat hole and hid.\"\n\nThe Ranee was very much troubled when she heard this, for if it were\ntrue, as she thought it might be, she feared the Rajah would hear\nabout it and inquire into the matter. \"What shall I do?\" she asked the\nnurse.\n\n\"Send out and have the ground dug over and filled in,\" the nurse\nreplied. \"In this way, if any of the children are hidden there, they\nwill be covered over and smothered, and you will also kill the rats\nthat have been harboring them.\"\n\nThe Ranee at once sent for workmen and bade them go out to the rat\nholes and dig and fill them in, and the children and the rats would\ncertainly have been smothered just as the nurse had planned, only\nluckily the old mother rat was hiding near by and overheard what was\nsaid. She at once hastened home and told her friends what was going to\nhappen, and they all made their escape before the workmen arrived. She\nalso took the children out of the hole and hid them under the steps\nthat led down into an old unused well. There were twenty-one steps,\nand she hid one child under each step. She told them not to utter a\nsound whatever happened, and then she and her friends ran away and\nleft them.\n\nPresently the workmen came with their tools and began to fill in the\nrat holes. The little daughter of the head workman had come with him,\nand while he and his fellows were at work the little girl amused\nherself by running up and down the steps into the well. Every time she\ntrod upon a step it pinched the child who lay under it. The little\nboys made no sound when they were pinched, but lay as still as stones,\nbut every time the child trod on the step under which the Princess lay\nshe sighed, and the third time she felt the pinch she cried out, \"Have\npity on me and tread more lightly. I too am a little girl like you!\"\n\nThe workman's daughter was very much frightened when she heard the\nvoice. She ran to her father and told him the steps had spoken to her.\n\nThe workman thought this a strange thing. He at once went to the old\nRanee and told her he dared no longer work near the well, for he\nbelieved a witch or a demon lived there under the steps; and he\nrepeated what his little daughter had told him.\n\nThe wicked nurse was with the Ranee when the workman came to her. As\nsoon as he had gone, the nurse said: \"I am sure some of those children\nmust still be alive. They must have escaped from the rat holes and be\nhiding under the steps. If we send out there we will probably find\nthem.\"\n\nThe Ranee was frightened at the thought they might still be alive. She\nordered some servants to come with her, and she and the nurse went out\nto look for the children.\n\nBut when the little girl had cried out the little boys were afraid\nsome harm might follow, and prayed that they might be changed into\ntrees, so that if any one came to search for them they might not find\nthem.\n\nTheir prayers were answered. The twenty little boys were changed into\ntwenty little banyan trees that stood in a circle, and the little girl\nwas changed into a rose-bush that stood in the midst of the circle and\nwas full of red and white roses.\n\nThe old Ranee and the nurse and the servants came to the well and\nsearched under every step, but no one was there, so went away again.\n\nAll might now have been well, but the workman's mischievous little\ndaughter chanced to come by that way again. At once she espied the\nbanyan trees and the rose-bush. \"It is a curious thing that I never\nsaw these trees before,\" she thought. \"I will gather a bunch of\nroses.\"\n\nShe ran past the banyan trees without giving them a thought and began\nto break the flowers from the rose-tree. At once a shiver ran through\nthe tree, and it cried to her in a pitiful voice: \"Oh! oh! you are\nhurting me. Do not break my branches, I pray of you. I am a little\ngirl, too, and can suffer just as you might.\"\n\nThe child ran back to her father and caught him by the hand. \"Oh, I am\nfrightened!\" she cried. \"I went to gather some roses from the\nrose-tree, and it spoke to me;\" and she told him what the rose-tree\nhad said.\n\nAt once the workman went off and repeated to the Ranee what his little\ndaughter had told him, and the Queen gave him a piece of gold and sent\nhim away, bidding him keep what he had heard a secret.\n\nThen she called the wicked nurse to her and repeated the workman's\nstory. \"What had we better do now?\" she asked.\n\n\"My advice is that you give orders to have all the trees cut down and\nburned,\" said the nurse. \"In this way you will rid yourself of the\nchildren altogether.\"\n\nThis advice seemed good to the Ranee. She sent men and had the trees\ncut down and thrown in a heap to burn.\n\nBut heaven had pity on the children, and just as the men were about to\nset fire to the heap a heavy rain storm arose and put out the fire.\nThen the river rose over its banks, and swept the little trees down on\nits flood, far, far away to a jungle where no one lived. Here they\nwere washed ashore and at once took on their real shapes again.\n\nThe children lived there in the jungle safely for twelve years, and\nthe brothers grew up tall and straight and handsome, and the sister\nwas like the new moon in her beauty, so slim and white and shining was\nshe.\n\nThe brothers wove a hut of branches to shelter their sister, and every\nday ten of them went out hunting in the forest, and ten of them stayed\nat home to care for her. But one day it chanced they all wished to go\nhunting together, so they put their sister up in a high tree where she\nwould be safe from the beasts of the forest, and then they went away\nand left her there alone.\n\nThe twenty brothers went on and on through the jungle, farther than\nthey had ever gone before, and so came at last to an open space among\nthe trees, and there was a hut.\n\n\"Who can be living here?\" said one of the brothers.\n\n\"Let us knock and see,\" cried another.\n\nThe Princes knocked at the door and immediately it was opened to them\nby a great, wicked-looking Rakshas. She had only one red eye in the\nmiddle of her forehead; her gray hair hung in a tangled mat over her\nshoulders, and she was dressed in dirty rags.\n\nWhen the Rakshas saw the brothers she was filled with fury.\n\nShe considered all the jungle belonged to her, and she was not willing\nthat any one else should come there. Her one eye flashed fire, and she\nseized a stick and began beating the Princes, and each one, as she\nstruck him, was turned into a crow. She then drove them away and went\nback into her hut and closed the door.\n\nThe twenty crows flew back through the forest, cawing mournfully. When\nthey came to the tree where their sister sat they gathered about her,\ntrying to make her understand that they were her brothers.\n\nAt first the Princess was frightened by the crows, but when she saw\nthere were tears in their eyes, and when she counted them and found\nthere were exactly twenty, she guessed what had happened, and that\nsome wicked enchantment had changed her brothers into this shape. Then\nshe wept over them and smoothed their feathers tenderly.\n\nAfter this the sister lived up in the tree, and the crows brought her\nfood every day and rested around her in the branches at night, so that\nno harm should come to her.\n\nSome time after this a young Rajah came into that very jungle to hunt.\nIn some way he became separated from his attendants and wandered\ndeeper and deeper into the forest, until at length he came to the tree\nwhere the Princess sat. He threw himself down beneath the tree to\nrest. Hearing a sound of wings above him the Rajah looked up and was\namazed to see a beautiful girl sitting there among the branches with a\nflock of crows about her.\n\nThe Rajah climbed the tree and brought the girl down, while the crows\ncircled about his head, cawing hoarsely.\n\n\"Tell me, beautiful one, who are you? And how come you here in the\ndepths of the jungle?\" asked the Rajah.\n\nWeeping, the Princess told him all her story except that the crows\nwere her brothers; she let him believe that her brothers had gone off\nhunting and had never returned.\n\n\"Do not weep any more,\" said the Rajah. \"You shall come home with me\nand be my Ranee, and I will have no other but you alone.\"\n\nWhen the Princess heard this she smiled, for the Rajah was very\nhandsome, and already she loved him.\n\nShe was very glad to go with him and be his wife. \"But my crows must\ngo with me,\" she said, \"for they have fed me for many long days and\nhave been my only companions.\"\n\nTo this the Rajah willingly consented, and he took her home with him\nto the palace; and the crows circled about above them, following\nclosely all the way.\n\n[Illustration: The Rajah brought the girl down, while the crows circled\nabout his head.]\n\nWhen the old Rajah and Ranee (the young Rajah's father and mother) saw\nwhat a very beautiful girl he had brought back with him from the\njungle they gladly welcomed her as a daughter-in-law.\n\nThe young Ranee would have been very happy now in her new life, for\nshe loved her husband dearly, but always the thought of her brothers\nwas like a weight upon her heart. She had a number of trees planted\noutside her windows so that her brothers might rest there close to\nher. She cooked rice for them herself and fed them with her own hands,\nand often she sat under the trees and stroked them and talked to them\nwhile her tears fell upon their glossy feathers.\n\nAfter a while the young Ranee had a son, and he was called Ramchundra.\nHe grew up straight and tall, and he was the joy of his mother's eyes.\n\nOne day, when he was fourteen years old, and big and strong for his\nage, he sat in the garden with his mother. The crows flew down about\nthem, and she began to caress and talk to them as usual. \"Ah, my dear\nones!\" she cried, \"how sad is your fate! If I could but release you,\nhow happy I should be.\"\n\n\"Mother,\" said the boy, \"I can plainly see that these crows are not\nordinary birds. Tell me whence come they, and why you weep over them\nand talk to them as you do?\"\n\nAt first his mother would not tell him, but in the end she related to\nhim the whole story of who she was, and how she and her brothers had\ncome to the jungle and had lived there happily enough until they were\nchanged into crows; and then of how the Rajah had found her and\nbrought her home with him to the palace.\n\n\"I can easily see,\" said Ramchundra, when she had ended the tale,\n\"that my uncles must have met a Rakshas somewhere in the forest and\nhave been enchanted. Tell me exactly where the tree was--the tree\nwhere you lived--and what kind it was?\"\n\nThe Ranee told him.\n\n\"And in which direction did your brothers go when they left you?\"\n\nThis also his mother told him. \"Why do you ask me these questions, my\nson?\" she asked.\n\n\"I wish to know,\" said Ramchundra, \"for sometime I intend to set out\nand find that Rakshas and force her to free my uncles from her\nenchantment and change them back to their natural shapes again.\"\n\nHis mother was terrified when she heard this, but she said very little\nto him, hoping he would soon forget about it and not enter into such a\ndangerous adventure.\n\nNot long afterward Ramchundra went to his father and said, \"Father, I\nam no longer a child; give me your permission to ride out into the\nworld and see it for myself.\"\n\nThe Rajah was willing for him to do this and asked what attendants his\nson would take with him.\n\n\"I wish for no attendants,\" answered Ramchundra. \"Give me only a\nhorse, and a groom to take care of it.\"\n\nThe Rajah gave his son the handsomest horse in his stables and also a\nwell-mounted groom to ride with him. Ramchundra, however, only allowed\nthe groom to go with him as far as the edge of the jungle, and then he\nsent him back home again with both the horses.\n\nThe Prince went on and on through the forest for a long distance until\nat last he came to a tree that he felt sure was the one his mother had\ntold him of. From there he set forth in the same direction she told\nhim his uncles had taken. He went on and on, ever deeper and deeper\ninto the forest, until at last he came to a miserable looking hut. The\ndoor was open, and he looked in. There lay an ugly old hag fast\nasleep. She had only one eye in the middle of her forehead, and her\ngray hair was tangled and matted and fell over her face. The Prince\nentered in very softly, and sitting down beside her, he began to rub\nher head. He suspected that this was the Rakshas who had bewitched his\nuncles, and it was indeed she.\n\nPresently the old woman awoke. \"My pretty lad,\" said she, \"you have a\nkind heart. Stay with me here and help me, for I am very old and\nfeeble, as you see, and I cannot very well look out for myself.\"\n\nThis she said not because she really was old or feeble, but because\nshe was lazy and wanted a servant to wait on her.\n\n\"Gladly will I stay,\" answered the lad, \"and what I can do to serve\nyou, that I will do.\"\n\nSo the Prince stayed there as the Rakshas' servant. He served her hand\nand foot, and every day she made him sit down and rub her head.\n\nOne day, while he was rubbing her head and she was in a good humor he\nsaid to her, \"Mother, why do you keep all those little jars of water\nstanding along the wall? Let me throw out the water so that we may\nmake some use of the jars.\"\n\n\"Do not touch them,\" cried the Rakshas. \"That water is very powerful.\nOne drop of it can break the strongest enchantment, and if any one has\nbeen bewitched, that water has power to bring him back to his own\nshape again.\"\n\n\"And why do you keep that crooked stick behind the door? To-morrow I\nshall break it up to build a fire.\"\n\n\"Do not touch it,\" cried the hag. \"I have but to wave that stick, and\nI can conjure up a mountain, a forest, or a river just as I wish, and\nall in the twinkling of an eye.\"\n\nThe Prince said nothing to that, but went on rubbing her head.\nPresently he began to talk again. \"Your hair is in a dreadful tangle,\nmother,\" he said. \"Let me get a comb and comb it out.\"\n\n\"Do not dare!\" screamed the Rakshas. \"One hair of my head has the\npower to set the whole jungle in flames.\"\n\nRamchundra again was silent and went on rubbing her head, and after a\nwhile the old Rakshas fell asleep and snored till the hut shook with\nher snoring.\n\nThen, very quietly, the Prince arose. He plucked a hair from the old\nhag's head without awakening her, he took a flask of the magic water\nand the staff from behind the door, and set out as fast as he could go\nin the direction of the palace.\n\nIt was not long before he heard the Rakshas coming through the jungle\nafter him, for she had awakened and found him gone.\n\nNearer and nearer she came, and then the Prince turned and waved the\ncrooked stick. At once a river rolled between him and the Rakshas.\n\nWithout pause the Rakshas plunged into the river and struck out\nboldly, and soon she reached the other side.\n\nOn she came again close after Ramchundra. Again he turned and waved\nthe staff. At once a thick screen of trees sprang up between him and\nthe hag. The Rakshas brushed them aside this way and that as though\nthey had been nothing but twigs.\n\nOn she came, and again the Prince waved the staff. A high mountain\narose, but the Rakshas climbed it, and it did not take her long to do\nthis.\n\nNow she was so close that Ramchundra could hear her panting, but the\nedge of the jungle had been reached. He turned and cast the Rakshas'\nhair behind him. Immediately the whole jungle burst into fire, and the\nRakshas was burned up in the flames.\n\nSoon after the Prince reached the palace and hastened out into the\ngarden. There sat his mother weeping, with the crows gathered about\nher. When she saw Ramchundra she sprang to her feet with a scream of\njoy and ran to him and took him in her arms.\n\n\"My son! my son! I thought you had perished!\" she cried. \"Did you meet\nthe Rakshas?\"\n\n\"Not only did I meet her, but I have slain her and brought back with\nme that which will restore my uncles to their proper shapes,\" answered\nthe Prince.\n\nHe then dipped his fingers into the jar he carried and sprinkled the\nmagic water over the crows. At once the enchantment was broken, and\nthe twenty Princes stood there, tall and handsome, in their own proper\nshapes.\n\nThe Ranee made haste to lead them to her husband and told him the\nwhole story. The Rajah could not wonder enough when he understood that\nthe Princes were his wife's brothers, and were the crows she had\nbrought home with her.\n\nHe at once ordered a magnificent feast to be prepared and a day of\nrejoicing to be held throughout all the kingdom.\n\nMany Rajahs from far and near were invited to the feast, and among\nthose who came was the father of the Ranee and her brothers, but he\nnever suspected, as he looked upon them, that they were his children.\n\nBefore they sat down to the feast the young Ranee said to him, \"Where\nis your wife Guzra Bai? Why has she not come with you? We had expected\nto see her here?\"\n\nThe Rajah was surprised that the young Ranee should know his wife's\nname, but he made some excuse as to why Guzra Bai was not there.\n\nThen the young Rajah said, \"Send for her, I beg of you, for the feast\ncannot begin till she is here.\"\n\nThe older Rajah was still more surprised at this. He could not think\nany one was really concerned about Guzra Bai, and he feared the young\nRajah wished, for some reason, to quarrel with him. But he agreed to\nsend for his wife, and messengers were at once dispatched to bring\nGuzra Bai to the palace.\n\nNo sooner had she come than the young Ranee began to weep, and she and\nthe Princes gathered about their mother. Then they told the Rajah the\nwhole story of how his mother and the nurse had sought to destroy\nGuzra Bai and her children, and how they had been saved, and had now\ncome to safety and great honor.\n\nThe Rajah was overcome with joy when he found that Guzra Bai was\ninnocent. He prayed her to forgive him, and this she did, and all was\njoy and happiness.\n\nAs for the old Ranee, she was shut up in the tower where Guzra Bai had\nlived for so many years, but the old nurse was killed as befitted such\na wicked woman.\n\n\n\n\n                            LIFE'S SECRET\n\n                          A STORY OF BENGAL\n\n\nIn a far-off country there once lived a great Rajah who had two wives,\none named Duo and the other Suo. Both these Ranees were beautiful, but\nDuo was of a harsh and cruel nature, while Suo was gentle and kind to\nall.\n\nThough the Rajah had been married to his Ranees for some time they\nneither of them had any children, and this was a great grief to every\none. Daily prayers were offered up in the temples for the birth of a\nson to the Rajah, but the prayers remained unanswered.\n\nOne day a beggar, a holy man who had vowed to live in poverty, came to\nthe palace asking for alms. Duo would have had him driven away, but\nSuo felt compassion for him. She gave him the alms he asked and bade\nhim sit in the cool of the courtyard to rest.\n\nThe beggar thanked her and ate the food she gave him. Just before he\nleft, he asked to speak to her in private. This favor Suo granted him.\nShe stepped aside with him, and as it so happened this brought them\ndirectly under the windows of Duo's apartments.\n\n\"Great Ranee, you have been very kind to me,\" said the beggar, \"and I\nwish to reward you. I know that for years you have desired to have a\nson, but that this wish has not been granted. Now listen! In the midst\nof the jungle over beyond the city there grows the most wonderful tree\nin all the world. Its trunk is silver, and its leaves are of gold.\nOnce in every hundred years this tree bears a single crimson fruit.\nShe who eats this fruit, whosoever she may be, shall, within a year,\nbear a son. This is that hundredth year,--the year in which the tree\nbears fruit, and I have gathered that fruit and have it here.\"\n\nSo saying, the beggar drew from among his rags a piece of silk\nembroidered with strange figures. This he unfolded, and showed to the\nRanee, lying within it, a strange fruit such as she had never seen\nbefore. It was pear shaped, and of such a vivid red that it seemed to\npulse and glow with light.\n\nSuo looked at it with wonder and awe.\n\n\"If you wish to have it, it is yours,\" the beggar continued. \"But I\nmust tell you one other thing. Whoever eats this fruit shall indeed\nbear a son, but he will not be as other children. His life will not be\naltogether within himself as with other people; it will be bound up\nwith an object quite outside of himself. If this object should fall\ninto the hands of an enemy that enemy could, by willing it, bring upon\nhim misfortune or even death, and this no matter how closely the child\nwas watched and guarded. And now, knowing this, do you still wish to\neat the fruit?\"\n\n\"Yes, yes!\" cried Suo.\n\n\"Then I will tell you what this object is and where it is to be\nfound,\" said the beggar. He drew still closer to the Ranee and\nwhispered in her ear, but though what he told her was so important Suo\npaid but little attention to it; she thought only of the fruit, and\nthe happiness that might come to her if she ate it.\n\nNow all the while the beggar had been talking to Suo, Duo had been\nseated at her window just above them, and she overheard all that was\nsaid. Only when the beggar came closer to Suo and whispered in her ear\nDuo could not hear what he said, though she leaned out as far as she\ncould and strained her ears to listen. So, though she had learned that\nif Suo had a child its life would depend on some object outside of\nitself, she did not learn what that object was.\n\nThe beggar now gave the fruit to Suo, and she took it and ate all of\nit. Not one seed or bit of rind did she miss. After that she went back\nto her own apartments to dream upon the joy that might be coming to\nher.\n\nWithin the year, even as the beggar had promised, Suo bore a child,\nand this child was so large and strong and handsome that he was the\nwonder of all who saw him.\n\nThe Rajah was wild with joy. He could scarcely think or talk of\nanything but his son, and he showered gifts and caresses upon the\nhappy mother. Duo was quite forgotten. He never even went near her\napartments, and her heart was filled with jealousy and hatred toward\nSuo and the little prince Dalim Kumar,--for so the child was named.\nNothing would have given her more joy than to be able to injure them\nand bring sorrow and misfortune upon them.\n\nNow as Dalim Kumar grew older he became very fond of a flock of\npigeons that his father had given him, and he spent a great deal of\ntime playing with them in the courtyard. They were so tame they would\ncome at his call and light upon his head and shoulders. Sometimes they\nflew in through the windows of Duo's apartments which overlooked the\ncourtyard. Duo scattered peas and grain on the floor for them, and\nthey came and ate them. Then one day she caught two or three of them.\n\nSoon after Dalim Kumar missed his pigeons and began calling them.\n\nDuo leaned from her window. \"Your pigeons are up here,\" she cried. \"If\nyou want them you must come up and get them.\"\n\nSuo had forbidden her son to go to Duo's apartments, but he quite\nforgot this in his eagerness to regain his pets, and he at once ran up\nto the Ranee's apartments.\n\nDuo took him by the wrist and drew him into her room. \"You shall have\nyour pigeons again,\" said she, \"but first there is something you must\ntell me.\"\n\n\"What is it?\" asked Dalim Kumar.\n\n\"I wish to know where your life lies and in what object it is bound\nup.\"\n\nDalim Kumar was very much surprised. \"I do not know what you mean,\"\nsaid he. \"My life lies within me, in my head and my body and my limbs,\nas it is with every one.\"\n\n\"No, that is not so,\" said Duo. \"Has your mother never told you that\nyour life is bound up in something outside of yourself?\"\n\n\"No, she has never told me that, and moreover I do not believe it.\"\n\n\"Nevertheless it is so,\" said Duo. \"If you will find out what this\nthing is and come and tell me you shall have your pigeons again, and\nif you do not do this I will wring their necks.\"\n\nDalim Kumar was greatly troubled at the thought of harm coming to his\npigeons. \"No, no! You must not do that,\" he cried. \"I will go to my\nmother and find out what she knows, and if there is indeed truth in\nwhat you say I will come back at once and tell you the secret. But you\nmust do nothing to my pigeons while I am gone.\"\n\nTo this Duo agreed. \"There is another thing you must promise,\" said\nshe. \"You must not let your mother know I have asked you anything\nabout your life. If you do I will wring your pigeons' necks even\nthough you tell me the secret.\"\n\n\"I will not let her know,\" promised the boy, and then he hastened away\nto his mother's apartments. When he came to the door he began to walk\nslowly and with dragging steps. He entered in and threw himself down\namong some cushions and closed his eyes.\n\n\"What ails you, my son?\" asked his mother. \"Why do you sit there so\nquietly instead of playing about?\"\n\n\"Nothing ails me now,\" answered the boy, \"but there is something that\nI wish to know, and unless you tell me I am sure I shall be quite\nill.\"\n\n\"What is it that you wish to know, my darling?\"\n\n\"I wish to know where my life lies, and in what it is bound up,\"\nanswered the boy.\n\nWhen Suo heard this she was very much frightened.\n\n\"What do you mean?\" she cried. \"Who has been talking to you of your\nlife?\"\n\nThen Dalim said what was not true, for he feared that harm might come\nto his pigeons. \"No one has been talking to me,\" said he, \"but I am\nsure that my life lies somewhere outside of me, and if you will not\ntell me about it I will neither eat nor drink, and then perhaps I may\ndie.\"\n\nAt last Suo could withstand him no longer. \"My son,\" she said, \"it is\nas you have guessed. You are not as other children. Your life is bound\nup in some object outside of yourself, and if this object should fall\ninto the hands of an enemy the greatest misfortunes might come upon\nyou, and perhaps even death.\"\n\n\"And what is this object?\" asked the boy.\n\nAgain Suo hesitated. Then she said:\n\n\"The beggar told me that under the roots of that same tree that bore\nthe fruit lies buried a golden necklace, and it is with that necklace\nthat part of your life is bound up.\"\n\nNow that Dalim Kumar knew the secret he was content, and smiled upon\nhis mother and caressed her, and ate some of the sweetmeats she had\nprepared for him. Then he ran away to get his pigeons.\n\nDuo was waiting for him impatiently. \"Have you found out the secret of\nyour life?\" she demanded.\n\n\"Yes,\" answered the Prince. \"It is bound up in a golden necklace that\nlies buried under the roots of a tree over in the jungle,--a tree with\na silver trunk and golden leaves. And now give me my pigeons.\"\n\nDuo was very willing to do this; she had no longer any use for them.\nShe placed the cage in which she had put them in his hands and pushed\nhim impatiently from the room.\n\nAs soon as the boy had gone the Ranee sent for a man upon whom she\ncould depend and told him what she wished him to do. She wished him to\ngo into the jungle and search until he found a tree with a silver\ntrunk and golden leaves. He was then to dig down about its roots until\nhe found a golden necklace that lay buried there. This necklace he was\nto bring to her, and in return for his services she would give him a\nlac of gold mohurs.\n\nThe man willingly agreed to do as she wished and at once set out into\nthe jungle. After searching for some time he at last found the tree\nand began to dig about its roots.\n\nNow at the very time this happened Dalim Kumar was with his mother\nplaying about in her apartment. But no sooner did the man in the\njungle begin to dig about the tree than the boy gave a cry and laid\nhis hand upon his heart. At the same time he became very pale.\n\n\"What is the matter, my son?\" cried his mother anxiously. \"Are you\nill?\"\n\n\"I do not know what is the matter,\" answered the Prince, \"but\nsomething threatens me.\"\n\nHis mother put her arm about him, and at the very moment she did so\nthe man who had been digging found the necklace and picked it up, and\nat that the young Prince sank back senseless in his mother's arms.\n\nThe Ranee was terrified. She sent at once for the Rajah, and\nphysicians were called in, but none of them could arouse the child nor\ncould they tell what ailed him. He lay there among the cushions where\nthey had placed him still breathing, but unconscious of all around\nhim.\n\nAnd so the boy lay all the while that the man with the necklace hidden\nin his bosom was on his way back from the jungle. But when he reached\nthe apartments of Duo and gave the necklace into the hands of the evil\nRanee, the breath went out from the Prince's body, and he became as\none dead.\n\nThe Rajah was in despair. His grief was now as great as his joy had\nbeen when the child was born. He had a magnificent temple built in the\nmost beautiful of all his gardens, and in this temple the body of\nDalim Kumar was laid. After this was done the Rajah commanded that the\ngates of the garden should be locked, and that no one but the\ngardeners should ever enter there on pain of death.\n\nThis command was carried out. The garden gates were kept locked, and\nno one entered but the men who went there in the daytime to prune the\ntrees and water the flowers and keep the place in order. Not even Suo\nmight go into the garden to mourn beside the body of her son.\n\nBut though every one believed Dalim Kumar to be dead, such was not\nreally the case. All day, while Duo wore the necklace, he lay without\nbreath or sign of life, but in the evening, when the Ranee took the\nnecklace off, he revived and returned to life. And this happened every\nnight, for every night the Rajah came to visit Duo, and just before he\ncame she always took the necklace off and hid it. She feared if he saw\nit he might wonder and question her about it.\n\nThe wicked Ranee was now satisfied and happy. She believed she had\ndestroyed the young Prince, and with him the Rajah's love for Suo. For\nthe Rajah now never went to Suo's apartments. He neither saw her nor\nspoke of her, for she only reminded him of his grief for his son.\n\nNow the first time that Dalim Kumar awoke in the temple he was very\nmuch surprised to find himself alone in a strange place, and with no\nattendants around him. He arose and went out into the garden, and then\nat once he knew where he was, though the temple was new to him. He\nwent to one gate after another of the garden, intending to go and\nreturn to the palace, but he found them all locked. The gardeners had\ngone away for the night, and before going they had securely fastened\nthe gates, according to the Rajah's orders. The young prince called\nand called, but no one heard or answered. Feeling hungry, he plucked\nsome fruit and ate it, and after that he amused himself as best he\ncould, playing about among the trees and flowers.\n\nToward morning he felt sleepy and returned to the temple. He lay down\nupon the couch, and later on, when Duo again put on the necklace, his\nbreath left him, and he became as one dead.\n\nAs it had been that night, so it was also in the many nights that\nfollowed. In the evening the Prince revived and came out to play among\nthe flowers, but with the coming of day he returned to the temple and\nlay down on the couch, and all appearance of life left him. After a\ntime he became used to the strange life he led, and no longer wondered\nwhy he was left there alone and why no one came to seek him.\n\nSo year after year slipped by, and from a child the Prince became a\nyouth, and in all that time he had seen no one, for the gardeners had\nalways gone away before he returned to life.\n\nNow there lived at this time, in a country far away, a woman who had\none only child, a daughter named Surai Bai. This girl was so beautiful\nthat she was the wonder of all who saw her. Her hair was as black as\nnight, her eyes like stars, her teeth like pearls, and her lips as red\nas ripe pomegranates.\n\nWhen this child was born it was foretold to her mother that she would\nsometime marry a Prince who was both alive and dead. This prophecy\nfrightened the mother so much that as soon as her daughter was of a\nmarriageable age she left her own country and journeyed away into a\nfar land, taking the girl with her. She hoped that if she went far\nenough she might escape the fate that had been foretold for the child.\n\nJourneying on from one place to another, she came at last to the city\nwhere Dalim Kumar's father reigned, and where the garden was, and the\ntemple where the young prince lay.\n\nIt was toward evening when the mother and daughter reached the city,\nand it was necessary for them to find some shelter for the night.\nSurai Bai was weary, and her mother bade her sit down and rest by the\ngate of one of the palace gardens while she went farther to seek a\nlodging. As soon as she had found a place where they could stay she\nwould return for the girl.\n\nSo Surai Bai seated herself beside the gate, and there her mother left\nher. But the mother had not been gone long when some noise farther up\nthe street frightened the girl. She looked about for a place to hide,\nand it occurred to her that she might go into the garden and wait\nthere. She tried the gate and found it unfastened, for by some chance\none of the gardeners had forgotten to lock it that evening when he\nwent away.\n\nSurai Bai pushed the gate open and stepped inside, closing it behind\nher. When she looked about her, she was amazed at the beauty of the\ngarden. The fruit trees were laden with fruits of every kind. There\nwere winding paths and flowers and fountains, and in the midst of the\ngarden was a temple shining with gold and wondrous colors.\n\nThough daylight had faded the moon had arisen, and the garden was full\nof light. Surai Bai went over close to the temple, wishing to examine\nit, but just as she reached the foot of the steps that led up to it a\nyoung man appeared above her at the door of the temple. It was Dalim\nKumar, who had aroused again to life and was coming forth to breathe\nthe air of the garden.\n\nWhen he saw Surai Bai he stood amazed, not only at her beauty, which\nwas so great, but because hers was the first face he had ever seen in\nthe years he had spent in the garden. As for Surai Bai, never before\nhad she beheld a youth so handsome, or with such a noble air, and as\nthe two stood looking at each other they became filled with love for\none another.\n\nPresently Dalim Kumar came down the steps of the temple and took Surai\nBai's hand.\n\n\"Who are you, beautiful one?\" he asked. \"Whence come you, and what is\nyour name?\"\n\n\"My name is Surai Bai,\" answered the girl, \"and I come from another\ncountry far away. My mother left me sitting by the gate while she went\nto find a lodging for us, but some noise frightened me, and I ran in\nhere to hide.\"\n\n\"That is a strange thing,\" said the Prince. \"In all the years I have\nbeen living here, the gates have never been unlocked before.\"\n\n\"But do you live here alone?\" asked the girl.\n\n\"Yes, all alone. Yours is the first face I have seen for years, and\nyet I am a Prince, and the son of a great Rajah.\"\n\n\"Then why are you here?\"\n\n\"I am here because my life was bound up in a golden necklace that lay\nburied under the roots of a tree in the jungle. I told the secret to a\nRanee who was my enemy, though I did not know it at the time. She must\nin some way have gained possession of the necklace, and now she is\nusing it for my harm. All day I lie there in the temple as though\ndead; no sound reaches me, nothing arouses me; only at night can I\narise and come forth. I, a great prince, am as one both dead and\nalive.\"\n\nWhen Dalim Kumar pronounced these words Surai Bai could not refrain\nfrom giving a loud cry. She was overcome with amazement and confusion.\n\nThe Prince at once wished to know what had moved her so. \"Why do you\ncry out and change color?\" he asked. \"And why do you tremble and look\nat me so strangely?\"\n\nAt first Surai Bai would not tell him, but he was so urgent in his\nquestioning that finally she was obliged to recount to him the\nprophecy made at the time of her birth;--that it had been foretold of\nher that she was to marry a Prince who was both alive and dead.\n\nDalim Kumar listened to her attentively. \"That is a strange thing,\"\nsaid he. \"I do not suppose in all the world there is another prince\nbeside myself who is both alive and dead. If this saying is true, it\nmust be that I am the one you are to marry. If so, I am very happy,\nfor already I love you, and if you will stay here with me we will be\nmarried by the ceremony of Grandharva, and I will be a true and loving\nhusband to you.\"\n\nTo this Surai Bai willingly consented, for already she loved the\nprince so dearly that she felt she could not live without him. That\nvery night she and the Prince presented each other with garlands of\nflowers, for that is the ceremony of Grandharva, and so they became\nman and wife.\n\nAfter that they lived together in great happiness, and nothing could\nexceed their love for each other. By day, while Dalim Kumar lay\nlifeless in the temple, his bride slept also, and at evening they\nawoke and talked together and walked through the garden.\n\nBut after a while a son was born to the young couple, and after that\nSurai Bai was no longer gay and happy. Her look was sad, and often she\nstole away from Dalim Kumar to weep in secret.\n\nThe Prince was greatly troubled by this. At first he forbore to\nquestion her, but one day he followed her and finding her in tears, he\nsaid, \"Tell me, why are you sad and downcast? Have you wearied of this\ngarden, and are you lonely here; or is it that you no longer love me?\"\n\n\"Dalim Kumar,\" answered the girl, \"I love you as dearly as ever, and I\nam never lonely with you. As long as we had no child I was content to\nstay here in the garden and see no one. But now that we have a son I\nwish him to be seen by your people, and I wish them to know that he is\nthe heir to the kingdom.\"\n\nAt this Dalim Kumar became very thoughtful. \"My dear wife,\" said he,\n\"you are right. Our son should be known as my heir; but every one\nbelieves I died long ago when I was a child. If you went out among\nthem with the boy and told them he was my son, they would laugh at\nyou, and either think you were an impostor or that you were crazy. If\nwe could but gain possession of the necklace, then I could go out from\nthe garden with you, and if I showed myself to my people they would be\nobliged to believe.\"\n\n\"That is what I have thought also,\" said Surai Bai, \"and it has been\nin my mind to ask you to give me permission to leave the garden for a\nwhile. If you will do this I will try to gain entrance to the palace\nand the apartments of Duo. Then possibly I can find where she keeps\nthe necklace at night, and I may be able to get possession of it.\"\n\nDalim Kumar eagerly agreed to this plan, and the very next day, while\nhe lay unconscious in the temple, Surai Bai took the child and managed\nto steal out through one of the gates without being seen by any of the\ngardeners.\n\nShe at once sought out a shop in the city and bought for herself the\ndress of a hairdresser; then, leading the child by the hand she made\nher way to the palace. She told the attendants there that she was very\nskillful in dressing the hair, and if they would take her to the\nRanees she was sure she could please them.\n\nAfter some hesitation the attendants agreed to do this, and led the\nway first to the apartments of Suo. When Surai Bai entered the room\nand saw her husband's mother sitting there thin and pale and\ngrief-stricken, her heart yearned over her. But Suo would not so much\nas look at the pretended hairdresser. \"Why do you bring her here?\" she\nasked. \"I have no wish to look beautiful. My son is dead and my\nhusband no longer loves me nor comes to me. Take her away and leave me\nalone with my sorrow.\"\n\nThe attendants motioned to Surai Bai to come away, and they led her\nacross the palace to the apartments of Duo.\n\nHere all was bright and joyous. The beautiful Duo lay among the\ncushions, smiling to herself and playing with the necklace that hung\nabout her neck. When she heard that the young woman they had brought\nto her was a skilled hairdresser, she sat up and beckoned Surai Bai to\napproach.\n\n\"Come!\" said she. \"Let us see how well you can dress my hair. The\nRajah will be here before long, and I must be beautiful for him.\"\n\nSurai Bai at once came behind Duo and began to arrange her hair. The\nchild meanwhile kept close by her side. When Surai Bai had almost\nfinished she managed to loosen the clasp of the necklace so that it\nslipped from Duo's neck and fell upon the floor.\n\nThis was as the pretended hairdresser had planned, and she had\nexplained to her son beforehand that when the necklace fell he must\npick it up and hold it tight, and yield it to no one. So now, no\nsooner did the necklace slip to the floor, than the child picked it up\nand twisted it tight around his fingers.\n\nDuo was frightened. \"Give me my necklace,\" cried she, and reaching\nover she tried to take it from the boy, but at this he began to scream\nso loudly that it seemed as though the whole palace must be aroused by\nhis cries.\n\nDuo drew back alarmed and bade the child be quiet. Then she turned to\nthe pretended hairdresser. \"Make him give me the necklace again,\" she\ndemanded.\n\nSurai Bai pretended to hesitate. \"If I try to take it from him now,\"\nshe said, \"he might break it. Have patience, and let him keep it for a\nwhile; he will soon tire of it. Then I can take it from him and bring\nit to you.\"\n\nTo this Duo was obliged to agree. It was growing late and she feared\nat any moment now the Rajah might come in and that he might notice the\nnecklace in the child's hands and ask questions about it.\n\n\"Very well,\" she said. \"Let him keep it for the present, but bring it\nback to me the first thing in the morning. If you neglect to do this\nyou shall be severely punished,--you and the child also.\"\n\nThe pretended hairdresser made a deep obeisance, and then departed,\ncarrying the child who still held the necklace tightly clutched in his\nhands.\n\nAs soon as Surai Bai was outside of the palace she hastened away to\nthe garden and found Dalim Kumar awaiting her at the gate.\n\n\"I know you have the necklace,\" he cried to her, \"for I aroused while\nit was still day, and with such a feeling of life and joy as I have\nnever felt before.\"\n\n\"Yes, it is here,\" said Surai Bai, and she took the necklace from the\nchild and held it out to him.\n\nDalim Kumar gave a cry of joy. His hands trembled with eagerness as he\ngrasped the necklace. \"Oh, my dear wife,\" he cried, \"you have saved\nme. I have now again become as other men and can claim what is my own.\nCome! Let us return to the palace and to my father and mother.\"\n\nSo, with the child on his arm, and leading Surai Bai by the hand, the\nPrince hastened back to the palace. But when he entered the gates no\none knew him, for when they had last seen him he had been only a boy.\nThey wondered to see a stranger enter in like a master, but his air\nwas so noble, and his appearance so handsome that no one dared to stop\nhim.\n\nDalim Kumar went at once to his mother's apartments, and though no one\nelse had known him, she recognized him at once, even though he had\nbecome a man. She knew not what miracle had brought him back, but she\nfell upon his neck and kissed him, and wept aloud, so that all in the\npalace heard the sound of her weeping.\n\nThe Rajah was sent for in haste, and when he came Dalim Kumar quickly\nmade himself known to his father. The Rajah's joy was no less than the\nRanee's over the return of his son.\n\nSoon the news spread through all the palace, and there was great\nrejoicing. But Duo was filled with fear. She knew not what punishment\nwould fall upon her for her evil doings, but she guessed the wrath of\nthe Rajah would be great. So she fled away secretly and in haste, and\nfor a long time she wandered about from place to place, miserable and\nafraid, and at last died in poverty as she deserved.\n\nBut Dalim Kumar and his young wife lived in happiness forever after,\nand when the old Rajah died Dalim Kumar became Rajah in his stead, and\nhis own son ruled after him as Surai Bai and he had desired.\n\n\n\n\n                    DAME PRIDGETT AND THE FAIRIES\n\n\nDame Pridgett was a fat, comfortable, good-natured old body, and her\nbusiness in life was to go about nursing sick folk and making them\nwell again.\n\nOne day she was sitting by the window, rocking herself and resting\nafter a hard week of nursing. She looked from the window, and there\nshe saw a queer-looking little man come riding along the road on a\ngreat fiery, prancing black horse. He rode up to her door and knocked\nwithout getting off his horse, and when Dame Pridgett opened the door\nhe looked down at her with such queer pale eyes he almost frightened\nher.\n\n\"Are you Dame Pridgett?\" he asked.\n\n\"I am,\" answered the dame.\n\n\"And do you go about nursing sick people?\"\n\n\"Yes, that is my business.\"\n\n\"Then you are the one I want. My wife is ill, and I am seeking some\none to nurse her.\"\n\n\"Where do you live?\" asked the dame, for the man was a stranger to\nher, and she knew he was not from thereabouts.\n\n\"Oh, I come from over beyond the hills, but I have no time to talk.\nGive me your hand and mount up behind me.\"\n\nDame Pridgett gave him her hand, not because she wanted to, but\nbecause, somehow, when he bade her do so she could not refuse. He gave\nher hand a little pull, and she flew up through the air as light as a\nbird, and there she was sitting on the horse behind him. The stranger\nwhistled, and away went the great black horse, fast, fast as the\nwind;--so fast that the old Dame had much ado not to be blown off, but\nshe shut her eyes and held tight to the stranger.\n\nThey rode along for what seemed a long distance, and then they stopped\nbefore a poor, mean-looking house. Dame Pridgett stared about her, and\nshe did not know where they were. She knew she had never seen the\nplace before. In front of the house were some rocks with weeds growing\namong them, and a pool of muddy water, and a few half-dead trees. It\nwas a dreary place. Two ragged children were playing beside the door\nwith a handful of pebbles.\n\nThe little man lighted down and helped the old dame slip from the\nhorse; then he led the way into the house. They passed through a mean\nhallway and into a room hung round with cobwebs. The room was poorly\nfurnished with a wooden bed, a table and a few chairs. In the bed lay\na little, round-faced woman with a snub nose and a coarse, freckled\nskin, and in the crook of her arm was a baby so small and weak-looking\nthe nurse knew it could not be more than a few hours old.\n\n\"This is my wife,\" said the stranger. \"It will be your duty to wait on\nher and to wash and dress the child.\"\n\nThe baby was so queer looking that Dame Pridgett did not much care to\nhandle it, but still she had come there as a nurse, and she would do\nwhat was required of her.\n\nThe little man showed her where the kitchen was, and she heated some\nwater and then went back to the bedroom and took up the baby to wash\nit. But so strange it all seemed, and she felt so shaken up by her\nride that she was awkward in handling the child, and as she bent her\nhead over it, it lifted its hand and gave her such a box on the ear\nthat her head rang with it.\n\nThe old dame cried out and almost let the babe fall, she was so\nthunderstruck.\n\n\"What is the matter?\" asked the woman from the bed. Then she slipped\nher hand under her pillow and drew out a box of salve. \"Here! Rub the\nchild's eyes with a bit of this,\" she said, \"but be sure you do not\nget any of it on your own eyes, or it will be a bad thing for\nyou,--scarce could be a worse.\"\n\nThe nurse took a bit of the salve on her forefinger and rubbed the\nbaby's eyes with it, and then the mother bade her go and wash off any\nparticle of salve that might be left on her finger.\n\nAll day Dame Pridgett waited on the mother and child, and when night\ncame she was shown into a room next to theirs where she was to sleep.\n\nThe following day the dame was again kept busy with the mother and\nchild. She washed the baby and rubbed the salve on its eyelids as\nbefore, and again the mother warned her not to let the least particle\nof salve touch her own eyes, or it would be the worse for her.\n\nFood was set out for the nurse in a small room beyond her own. She did\nnot know whence it came, nor who prepared it, but she was hungry and\nate heartily of it, though it had a strange taste she did not like.\nThe two ragged children came in and ate with her. They did not speak,\nbut stared at her from under their matted hair. The little man she did\nnot see again for some time.\n\nSo day followed day, and it was always the same thing over and over\nfor Dame Pridgett, and every day after she had washed the child she\nrubbed salve on its eyelids. Soon its eyes, that had at first been\ndull, grew so bright and strong they sparkled like jewels. Dame\nPridgett thought it must be a very fine salve. She would have liked to\ntry some of it on her own eyes, for her sight was somewhat dim, but\nthe mother watched her so closely that she never had a chance to use\nit.\n\nNow, every day, after Dame Pridgett had washed the baby, she left the\nbasin on a chair beside her while she rubbed the salve on the child's\neyes. One day she managed to upset the basin with her elbow as though\nby accident, though really by design. She gave a cry and bent over to\npick up the basin, and as she did so, unseen by her mistress, she\nrubbed her right eye with the finger that still had some salve left on\nit.\n\nWhen Dame Pridgett straightened up and looked about her she could\nhardly keep from crying out again at what she saw. The room and\neverything in it looked different. Instead of being poor and mean, it\nwas like a chamber in a castle. Where there had been cobwebs were now\nshimmering silken hangings. The bed and all the furniture was of gold,\nmagnificently carved. The sheets and pillow cases were of silk, and\ninstead of a coarse, snub-nosed little woman, there among the pillows\nlay the most exquisite little lady the old dame had ever set eyes on;\nher skin was as fine as a rose leaf, her hair like spun gold, her lips\nlike coral, and her eyes as bright as stars. The babe, also, from\nbeing a very ordinary looking child, had become the most exquisite\nlittle elfin creature that ever was seen.\n\nDame Pridgett managed somehow to keep quiet and hide her amazement,\nbut now she knew very well that it was to fairyland she had come, and\nthat these were fairy folk.\n\nShe made some excuse to go to the window and look out. The change\noutside was no less wonderful than that within. The muddy pool she now\nsaw was a shining lake; the rocks were grottoes; the trees were\ncovered with leaves and shining fruit, and the weeds were beds of\nflowers of wondrous colors, such as she had never seen before. As for\nthe ragged children, she saw them now as fairy children clothed in the\nfinest of laces and playing, not with pebbles, but with precious\njewels so brilliant that they fairly dazzled the eyes.\n\nDame Pridgett managed to keep her mouth shut and acted in such a way\nthat the fairies never suspected she had used the magic ointment, and\ncould now see them as they were. But it was only with the right eye,\nthe one she had touched with the salve, that she could see thus. When\nshe closed that eye and looked with the other, everything was just as\nit had been before, and seemed so mean and squalid it was difficult to\nbelieve it could appear otherwise.\n\nSo time went on until the fairy lady was well again and had no need of\na nurse to care for her. Then one day the little man came again on his\nblack steed and called the old dame out to him.\n\n\"You have served us well,\" said he, \"and here is your reward,\" and he\nplaced a purse of gold pieces in her hand. Then he caught hold of her\nand lifted her up behind him on to the horse, and away they went,\nswifter than the wind. Dame Pridgett had to shut her eyes to keep from\ngrowing dizzy and falling off. So it was that when she reached home\nshe knew no more of the way she had come than she knew of the way she\nhad gone.\n\nBut this was not the last Dame Pridgett saw of the fairy folk. The\nlittle man on the black steed came to her house no more, but there\nwere other little people about in the world who were now visible to\nher salve-touched eye. Sometimes as she came through the wood she\nwould see them busy among the roots of the trees, setting their houses\nin order, or bartering and trading in their fairy markets; or on\nmoonlight nights she would look out and see them at play among the\nflowers in her garden; or she would pass them dancing in fairy rings\nin the pastures or meadow lands, but she never told a soul of what she\nsaw, nor tried to speak to the wee folk, and they were so busy about\ntheir own affairs that they paid no attention to her and never guessed\nshe could see them.\n\nAnd then at last came a day (and a sad day it was for Dame Pridgett)\nwhen she again met the little man who had come for her on the great\nblack horse.\n\nShe had gone to market to buy the stuff for a new apron and was\nwalking along, thinking of nothing but her purchase, when suddenly she\nsaw the little man slipping about among the market people, never\ntouching them and unseen by any. He was peeping into the butter\nfirkins, smelling and tasting, and wherever he found some very good\nbutter he helped himself to a bit of it and put it in a basket he\ncarried on his arm.\n\nDame Pridgett pressed up close to him and looked into his basket, and\nthere in it was a dish almost full of butter. When the good dame saw\nthat, she was so indignant that she quite lost all prudence.\n\n\"Shame on you,\" she cried to the little man. \"Are you not ashamed to\nbe stealing butter from good folk who are less able to buy than\nyourself.\"\n\nThe little man stopped and looked at her. \"So you can see me, can\nyou?\" he said.\n\n\"Yes, to be sure I can,\" said the old dame boldly.\n\n\"And how does that happen?\" asked the little man smoothly, and without\nany show of anger.\n\n\"Oh, when I was nursing your good lady, I managed to rub a bit of her\nsalve on one of my eyes, and that is how I can see you.\"\n\n\"And which eye did you rub with the salve?\"\n\n\"My right eye.\"\n\n\"And it is only with your right eye you see me?\"\n\n\"Only with my right eye.\"\n\nWhen the little man heard that, quick as a flash he pursed up his lips\nand blew into her right eye, and he blew so hard he blew the sight\nright out of it. The old dame blinked and winked and rubbed her eye\nwith her fingers. The little man had vanished from before her. She\ncould see everything else, but what she saw was with her left eye\nonly, and she could see no fairies with it for it had not been touched\nwith salve.\n\nSo that was the end of it for Dame Pridgett, as far as the wee folk\nwere concerned, for she never got back the sight of her right eye;\nonly she still had the purse of gold pieces left, and that was enough\nto comfort the old dame for a great deal.\n\n\n    +---------------------------------------------------------------+\n    |Transcriber's Note:                                            |\n    |                                                               |\n    |The page numbers numbers in the list of Illustrations have been|\n    |changed to match their position in this ebook.                 |\n    +---------------------------------------------------------------+","title":"Tales of Folk and Fairies","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":54195}