{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_26019/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_26019","id":"gutenberg_26019","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26019","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Short Stories","Fairy tales -- Europe"],"text":"Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, David Edwards, and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n(This file was produced from images generously made\navailable by The Internet Archive)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                               EUROPA'S\n\n                             FAIRY TALES\n\n\n\n            \"_Do tell us a fairy tale, ganpa._\"\n\n            \"_Well, will you be good and quiet if I do?_\"\n\n            \"_Of course we will; we are always good when you are telling\n             us fairy tales._\"\n\n            \"_Well, here goes.--Once upon a time, though it wasn't in my\n                time, and it wasn't in your time, and it wasn't in anybody\n                else's time, there was a----_\"\n\n            \"_But that would be no time at all._\"\n\n            \"_That's fairy tale time._\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: _The Marshal tells how he killed the Dragon_]\n\n\nEUROPA'S\n\nFAIRY BOOK\n\n\n\nRESTORED AND RETOLD BY\n\nJOSEPH JACOBS\n\n\n\nDONE INTO PICTURES BY\n\nJOHN D. BATTEN\n\n\n\nG. P. PUTNAM'S SONS\n\nNEW YORK AND LONDON\n\nThe Knickerbocker Press\n\n\n\n\nCOPYRIGHT, 1916\n\nBY\n\nJOSEPH JACOBS\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nTo\n\nPEGGY, AND MADGE, AND PEARL, AND MAGGIE,\nAND MARGUERITE, AND PEGGOTTY, AND MEG,\nAND MARJORY, AND DAISY, AND PEGG, AND\n\nMARGARET HAYS\n\n(How many granddaughters does that make?)\n\n\nMY DEAR LITTLE PEGGY:--\n\nMany, many, many years ago I wrote a book for your Mummey--when she\nwas my little May--telling the fairy tales which the little boys and\ngirls of England used to hear from their mummeys, who had heard them\nfrom their mummeys years and years and years before. My friend Mr.\nBatten made such pretty pictures for it--but of course you know the\nbook--it has \"Tom, Tit, Tot\" and \"The little old woman that went to\nmarket,\" and all those tales you like. Now I have been making a\nfairy-tale book for your own self, and here it is. This time I have\ntold, again the fairy tales that all the mummeys of Europe have been\ntelling their little Peggys, Oh for ever so many years! They must have\nliked them because they have spread from Germany to Russia, from Italy\nto France, from Holland to Scotland, and from England to Norway, and\nfrom every country in Europe that you will read about in your\ngeography to every other one. Mr. Batten, who made the pictures for\nyour mummey's book, has made some more for yours--isn't it good of\nhim when he has never seen you?\n\nThough this book is your very, very own, you will not mind if other\nlittle girls and boys also get copies of it from their mummeys and\npapas and ganmas and ganpas, for when you meet some of them you will,\nall of you, have a number of common friends like \"The Cinder-Maid,\" or\n\"The Earl of Cattenborough,\" or \"The Master-Maid,\" and you can talk to\none another about them so that you are old friends at once. Oh, won't\nthat be nice? And when one of these days you go over the Great Sea, in\nwhatever land you go, you will find girls and boys, as well as\ngrown-ups, who will know all of these tales, even if they have\ndifferent names. Won't that be nice too?\n\nAnd when you tell your new friends here or abroad of these stories\nthat you and they will know so well, do not forget to tell them that\nyou have a book, all of your very own, which was made up specially for\nyou of these old, old stories by your old, old\n\nGANPA.\n\nP.S.--Do you hear me calling as I always do, \"Peggy, Peggy\"? Then you\nmust answer as usual, \"Ganpa, Ganpa.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nEver since--almost exactly a hundred years ago--the Grimms produced\ntheir Fairy Tale Book, folk-lorists have been engaged in making\nsimilar collections for all the other countries of Europe, outside\nGermany, till there is scarcely a nook or a corner in the whole\ncontinent that has not been ransacked for these products of the\npopular fancy. The Grimms themselves and most of their followers have\npointed out the similarity or, one might even say, the identity of\nplot and incident of many of these tales throughout the European\nFolk-Lore field. Von Hahn, when collecting the Greek and Albanian\nFairy Tales in 1864, brought together these common \"formulae\" of the\nEuropean Folk-Tale. These were supplemented by Mr. S. Baring-Gould in\n1868, and I myself in 1892 contributed an even fuller list to the\n_Hand Book of Folk-Lore_. Most, if not all of these formulae, have been\nfound in all the countries of Europe where folk-tales have been\ncollected. In 1893 Miss M. Roalfe Cox brought together, in a volume of\nthe Folk-Lore Society, no less than 345 variants of \"Cinderella\" and\nkindred stories showing how widespread this particular formula was\nthroughout Europe and how substantially identical the various\nincidents as reproduced in each particular country.\n\nIt has occurred to me that it would be of great interest and, for\nfolk-lore purposes, of no little importance, to bring together these\ncommon Folk-Tales of Europe, retold in such a way as to bring out the\noriginal form from which all the variants were derived. I am, of\ncourse, aware of the difficulty and hazardous nature of such a\nproceeding; yet it is fundamentally the same as that by which scholars\nare accustomed to restore the _Ur_-text from the variants of different\nfamilies of MSS. and still more similar to the process by which Higher\nCritics attempt to restore the original narratives of Holy Writ. Every\none who has had to tell fairy tales to children will appreciate the\nconservative tendencies of the child mind; every time you vary an\nincident the children will cry out, \"That was not the way you told us\nbefore.\" The Folk-Tale collections can therefore be assumed to retain\nthe original readings with as much fidelity as most MSS. That there\nwas such an original rendering eminating from a single folk artist no\nserious student of Miss Cox's volume can well doubt. When one finds\npractically the same \"tags\" of verse in such different dialects as\nDanish and Romaic, German and Italian, one cannot imagine that these\nsprang up independently in Denmark, Greece, Germany, and Florence. The\nsame phenomenon is shown in another field of Folk-Lore where, as the\nlate Mr. Newell showed, the same rhymes are used to brighten up the\nsame children's games in Barcelona and in Boston; one cannot imagine\nthem springing up independently in both places. So, too, when the same\nincidents of a fairy tale follow in the same artistic concatenation in\nScotland, and in Sicily, in Brittany, and in Albania, one cannot but\nassume that the original form of the story was hit upon by one\ndefinite literary artist among the folk. What I have attempted to do\nin this book is to restore the original form, which by a sort of\ninternational selection has spread throughout all the European folks.\n\nBut while I have attempted thus to restore the original substance of\nthe European Folk-Tales, I have ever had in mind that the particular\nform in which they are to appear is to attract English-speaking\nchildren. I have, therefore, utilized the experience I had some years\nago in collecting and retelling the Fairy Tales of the English\nFolk-Lore field (_English Fairy Tales_, _More English Fairy Tales_),\nin order to tell these new tales in the way which English-speaking\nchildren have abundantly shown they enjoy. In other words, while the\nplot and incidents are \"common form\" throughout Europe, the manner in\nwhich I have told the stories is, so far as I have been able to\nimitate it, that of the English story-teller.\n\nI have indeed been conscious throughout of my audience of little ones\nand of the reverence due to them. Whenever an original incident, so\nfar as I could penetrate to it, seemed to me too crudely primitive for\nthe children of the present day, I have had no scruples in modifying\nor mollifying it, drawing attention to such Bowdlerization in the\nsomewhat elaborate notes at the end of the volume, which I trust will\nbe found of interest and of use to the serious student of the\nFolk-Tale.\n\nIt must, of course, be understood that the tales I now give are only\nthose found practically identical in all European countries. Besides\nthese there are others which are peculiar to each of the countries or\nonly found in areas covered by cognate languages like the Celtic or\nthe Scandinavian. Of these I have already covered the English and the\nCeltic fields, and may, one of these days, extend my collections to\nthe French and Scandinavian or the Slavonic fields. Meanwhile it may\nbe assumed that the stories that have pleased all European children\nfor so long a time are, by a sort of international selection, best\nfitted to survive, and that the Fairy Tales that follow are the\nchoicest gems in the Fairy Tale field. I can only express the hope\nthat I have succeeded in placing them in an appropriate setting.\n\nIt remains only to thank those of my colleagues and friends who have\naided in various ways in the preparation of this volume, though of\ncourse their co-operation does not, in the slightest, imply\nresponsibility for or approval of the method of treatment I have\napplied to the old, old stories. Miss Roalfe Cox was good enough to\nlook over my reconstruction of \"Cinderella\" and suggest alterations in\nit. Prof. Crane gave me permission to utilize the version of the\n\"Dancing Water,\" in his Italian Popular Tales. Sir James G. Frazer\nlooked through my restoration of the \"Language of Animals,\" which was\nsuggested by him many years ago; and Mr. E. S. Hartland criticized the\nSwan-Maiden story. I have also to thank my old friend and publisher,\nDr. G. H. Putnam, for the personal interest he has taken in the\nprogress of the book.\n\nJ. J.\n\nYONKERS, N. Y.\n\nJuly, 1915.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                           PAGE\n\nPREFACE                                                       v\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS                                        xiii\n\nI.--CINDER-MAID                                               1\n\nII.--ALL CHANGE                                              13\n\nIII.--THE KING OF THE FISHES                                 19\n\nIV.--SCISSORS                                                31\n\nV.--BEAUTY AND THE BEAST                                     34\n\nVI.--REYNARD AND BRUIN                                       42\n\nVII.--THE DANCING WATER, SINGING APPLE, AND SPEAKING BIRD    51\n\nVIII.--THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS                               66\n\nIX.--THE THREE SOLDIERS                                      72\n\nX.--A DOZEN AT A BLOW                                        81\n\nXI.--THE EARL OF CATTENBOROUGH                               90\n\nXII.--THE SWAN MAIDENS                                       98\n\nXIII.--ANDROCLES AND THE LION                               107\n\nXIV.--DAY DREAMING                                          110\n\nXV.--KEEP COOL                                              115\n\nXVI.--THE MASTER THIEF                                      121\n\nXVII.--THE UNSEEN BRIDEGROOM                                129\n\nXVIII.--THE MASTER-MAID                                     142\n\nXIX.--A VISITOR FROM PARADISE                               159\n\nXX.--INSIDE AGAIN                                           165\n\nXXI.--JOHN THE TRUE                                         170\n\nXXII.--JOHNNIE AND GRIZZLE                                  180\n\nXXIII.--THE CLEVER LASS                                     188\n\nXXIV.--THUMBKIN                                             194\n\nXXV.--SNOWWHITE                                             201\n\nNOTES                                                       215\n\nLIST OF INCIDENTS                                           263\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n                                                                   PAGE\n\nTHE MARSHAL TELLS HOW HE KILLED THE DRAGON\n                                                          _Frontispiece_\n\nTHE HERALD ANNOUNCES THE COURT BALL                                   1\n\nTHE SOLDIER LAYS A HONEY TRAP                                         6\n\nTHE STEP-SISTER CUTS OFF HER TOE                                      9\n\n\"WILL YOU MIND MY PEA?\"                                              13\n\nTHE SEVEN-HEADED DRAGON                                              19\n\nTHE MARSHAL TELLS HOW HE KILLED THE DRAGON                           25\n\nSCISSORS                                                             31\n\nBEAUTY AND THE BEAST                                                 39\n\nREYNARD                                                              42\n\nBRUIN GETS A BEATING                                                 45\n\nBRUIN CARRIES REYNARD                                                46\n\nTHE FOSTER MOTHER                                                    55\n\nTHE KING BEGS PARDON                                                 64\n\nTHE GIRL AND THE FROG                                                66\n\nTHE POPE IS ELECTED                                                  70\n\nTHE MAGIC PURSE                                                      73\n\nTHE PRINCESS FINDS HORNS ON HER HEAD                                 79\n\nTHE UNICORN                                                          81\n\nTHE EARL OF CATTENBOROUGH WILL BE PLEASED TO PARTAKE OF A POTATO     90\n\nTHE CAT AND THE OGRE                                                 96\n\n\"HAD YOU NOT BETTER THROW ME INTO THE MILLSTREAM?\"                   97\n\nTHE CHILD FINDS THE FEATHER DRESS                                    98\n\nTHE DOLPHIN WHO CAME LATE                                           102\n\nEAST O' THE SUN AND WEST O' THE MOON                                105\n\nANDROCLES AND THE LION                                              107\n\nDAY-DREAMING                                                        110\n\nTHE PIG'S TAIL                                                      120\n\nTHE DUMMY                                                           121\n\nANIMA GOES DOWN THE HOLE                                            129\n\nTHE LAMP                                                            133\n\nTHE DOG                                                             139\n\nTHE CASKET                                                          140\n\nTHE MASTER-MAID WITH THE GLASS AXE                                  142\n\nTHE PRINCE WANTS HIS LUNCH                                          145\n\nTHE GIANT TRIES TO DRINK THE STREAM                                 154\n\nTHE VISITOR                                                         159\n\nUP THE TREE                                                         163\n\nTHE SNAKE                                                           165\n\nTHE THREE RAVENS                                                    170\n\nTHE WOUNDED DRAGON                                                  179\n\nTHE WITCH                                                           180\n\nTHE DUCK                                                            187\n\n\"MIRROR, MIRROR, ON THE WALL, WHO IS THE FAIREST OF US ALL?\"        201\n\nSNOWWHITE AND THE THREE DWARFS                                      211\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The Herald Announces the Court Ball]\n\nTHE CINDER-MAID\n\n\nOnce upon a time, though it was not in my time or in your time, or in\nanybody else's time, there was a great King who had an only son, the\nPrince and Heir who was about to come of age. So the King sent round a\nherald who should blow his trumpet at every four corners where two\nroads met. And when the people came together he would call out, \"O\nyes, O yes, O yes, know ye that His Grace the King will give on Monday\nsennight\"--that meant seven nights or a week after--\"a Royal Ball to\nwhich all maidens of noble birth are hereby summoned; and be it\nfurthermore known unto you that at this ball his Highness the Prince\nwill select unto himself a lady that shall be his bride and our future\nQueen. God save the King.\"\n\nNow there was among the nobles of the King's Court one who had married\ntwice, and by the first marriage he had but one daughter, and as she\nwas growing up her father thought that she ought to have some one to\nlook after her. So he married again, a lady with two daughters, and\nhis new wife, instead of caring for his daughter, thought only of her\nown and favoured them in every way. She would give them beautiful\ndresses but none to her step-daughter who had only to wear the\ncast-off clothes of the other two. The noble's daughter was set to do\nall the drudgery of the house, to attend the kitchen fire, and had\nnaught to sleep on but the heap of cinders raked out in the scullery;\nand that is why they called her Cinder-Maid. And no one took pity on\nher and she would go and weep at her mother's grave where she had\nplanted a hazel tree, under which she sat.\n\nYou can imagine how excited they all were when they heard the King's\nproclamation called out by the herald. \"What shall we wear, mother;\nwhat shall we wear?\" cried out the two daughters, and they all began\ntalking about which dress should suit the one and what dress should\nsuit the other, but when the father suggested that Cinder-Maid should\nalso have a dress they all cried out: \"What, Cinder-Maid going to the\nKing's Ball; why, look at her, she would only disgrace us all.\" And\nso her father held his peace.\n\nNow when the night came for the Royal Ball Cinder-Maid had to help the\ntwo sisters to dress in their fine dresses and saw them drive off in\nthe carriage with her father and their mother. But she went to her own\nmother's grave and sat beneath the hazel tree and wept and cried out:\n\n    \"Tree o'mine, O tree o'me,\n    With my tears I've watered thee;\n    Make me a lady fair to see,\n    Dress me as splendid as can be.\"\n\nAnd with that the little bird on the tree called out to her,\n\n    \"Cinder-Maid, Cinder-Maid, shake the tree,\n    Open the first nut that you see.\"\n\nSo Cinder-Maid shook the tree and the first nut that fell she took up\nand opened, and what do you think she saw?--a beautiful silk dress\nblue as the heavens, all embroidered with stars, and two little lovely\nshoon made of shining copper. And when she had dressed herself the\nhazel tree opened and from it came a coach all made of copper with\nfour milk-white horses, with coachman and footmen all complete. And as\nshe drove away the little bird called out to her:\n\n    \"Be home, be home ere mid-o'night\n    Or else again you'll be a fright.\"\n\nWhen Cinder-Maid entered the ball-room she was the loveliest of all\nthe ladies and the Prince, who had been dancing with her step-sisters,\nwould only dance with her. But as it came towards midnight Cinder-Maid\nremembered what the little bird had told her and slipped away to her\ncarriage. And when the Prince missed her he went to the guards at the\nPalace door and told them to follow the carriage. But Cinder-Maid when\nshe saw this, called out:\n\n    \"Mist behind and light before,\n    Guide me to my father's door.\"\n\nAnd when the Prince's soldiers tried to follow her there came such a\nmist that they couldn't see their hands before their faces. So they\ncouldn't find which way Cinder-Maid went.\n\nWhen her father and step-mother and two sisters came home after the\nball they could talk of nothing but the lovely lady: \"Ah, would not\nyou have liked to have been there?\" said the sisters to Cinder-Maid as\nshe helped them to take off their fine dresses. \"There was a most\nlovely lady with a dress like the heavens and shoes of bright copper,\nand the Prince would dance with none but her; and when midnight came\nshe disappeared and the Prince could not find her. He is going to give\na second ball in the hope that she will come again. Perhaps she will\nnot, and then we will have our chance.\"\n\nWhen the time of the second Royal Ball came round the same thing\nhappened as before; the sisters teased Cinder-Maid saying, \"Wouldn't\nyou like to come with us?\" and drove off again as before. And\nCinder-Maid went again to the hazel tree over her mother's grave and\ncried:\n\n    \"Tree o'mine, O tree o'me,\n    Shiver and shake, dear little tree\n    Make me a lady fair to see,\n    Dress me as splendid as can be.\"\n\nAnd then the little bird on the tree called out:\n\n    \"Cinder-Maid, Cinder-Maid, shake the tree,\n    Open the first nut that you see.\"\n\nBut this time she found a dress all golden brown like the earth\nembroidered with flowers, and her shoon were made of silver; and when\nthe carriage came from the tree, lo and behold, that was made of\nsilver too, drawn by black horses with trappings all of silver, and\nthe lace on the coachman's and footmen's liveries was also of silver;\nand when Cinder-Maid went to the ball the Prince would dance with none\nbut her; and when midnight came round she fled as before. But the\nPrince, hoping to prevent her running away, had ordered the soldiers\nat the foot of the stair-case to pour out honey on the stairs so that\nher shoes would stick in it. But Cinder-Maid leaped from stair to\nstair and got away just in time, calling out as the soldiers tried to\nfollow her:\n\n    \"Mist behind and light before,\n    Guide me to my father's door.\"\n\n[Illustration: The Soldier Lays a Honey Trap]\n\nAnd when her sisters got home they told her once more of the beautiful\nlady that had come in a silver coach and silver shoon and in a dress\nall embroidered with flowers: \"Ah, wouldn't you have liked to have\nbeen there?\" said they.\n\nOnce again the Prince gave a great ball in the hope that his unknown\nbeauty would come to it. All happened as before; as soon as the\nsisters had gone Cinder-Maid went to the hazel tree over her mother's\ngrave and called out:\n\n    \"Tree o'mine, O tree o'me\n    Shiver and quiver, dear little tree;\n    Make me a lady fair to see,\n    Dress me as splendid as can be.\"\n\nAnd then the little bird appeared and said:\n\n    \"Cinder-Maid, Cinder-Maid, shake the tree\n    Open the first nut that you see.\"\n\nAnd when she opened the nut in it was a dress of silk green as the sea\nwith waves upon it, and her shoes this time were made of gold; and\nwhen the coach came out of the tree it was also made of gold, with\ngold trappings for the horses and for the retainers. And as she drove\noff the little bird from the tree called out:\n\n    \"Be home, be home ere mid-o'night\n    Or else again you'll be a fright.\"\n\nNow this time, when Cinder-Maid came to the ball, she was as desirous\nto dance only with the Prince as he with her, and so, when midnight\ncame round, she had forgotten to leave till the clock began to strike,\none--two--three--four--five--six,--and then she began to run away down\nthe stairs as the clock struck, eight--nine--ten. But the Prince had\ntold his soldiers to put tar upon the lower steps of the stairs; and\nas the clock struck eleven her shoes stuck in the tar, and when she\njumped to the foot of the stairs one of her golden shoes was left\nbehind, and just then the clock struck TWELVE, and the golden coach,\nwith its horses and footmen, disappeared, and the beautiful dress of\nCinder-Maid changed again into her ragged clothes and she had to run\nhome with only one golden shoe.\n\nYou can imagine how excited the sisters were when they came home and\ntold Cinder-Maid all about it, how that the beautiful lady had come in\na golden coach in a dress like the sea, with golden shoes, and how all\nhad disappeared at midnight except the golden shoe. \"Ah, wouldn't you\nhave liked to have been there?\" said they.\n\nNow when the Prince found out that he could not keep his lady-love nor\ntrace where she had gone he spoke to his father and showed him the\ngolden shoe, and told him that he would never marry any one but the\nmaiden who could wear that shoe. So the King, his father, ordered the\nherald to take round the golden shoe upon a velvet cushion and to go\nto every four corners where two streets met and sound the trumpet and\ncall out: \"O yes, O yes, O yes, be it known unto you all that\nwhatsoever lady of noble birth can fit this shoe upon her foot shall\nbecome the bride of his Highness the Prince and our future Queen. God\nsave the King.\"\n\n[Illustration: The Step-Sister Cuts off her Toe]\n\nAnd when the herald came to the house of Cinder-Maid's father the\neldest of her two step-sisters tried on the golden shoe. But it was\nmuch too small for her, as it was for every other lady that had tried\nit up to that time; but she went up into her room and with a sharp\nknife cut off one of her toes and part of her heel, and then fitted\nher foot into the shoe, and when she came down she showed it to the\nherald, who sent a message to the Palace saying that the lady had been\nfound who could wear the golden shoe. Thereupon the Prince jumped at\nonce upon his horse and rode to the house of Cinder-Maid's father. But\nwhen he saw the step-sister with the golden shoe, \"Ah,\" he said, \"but\nthis is not the lady.\" \"But,\" she said, \"you promised to marry the one\nthat could wear the golden shoe.\" And the Prince could say nothing,\nbut offered to take her on his horse to his father's Palace, for in\nthose days ladies used to ride on a pillion at the back of the\ngentleman riding on horseback. Now as they were riding towards the\nPalace her foot began to drip with blood, and the little bird from the\nhazel tree that had followed them called out:\n\n    \"Turn and peep, turn and peep,\n    There's blood within the shoe;\n    A bit is cut from off the heel\n    And a bit from off the toe.\"\n\nAnd the Prince looked down and saw the blood streaming from her shoe\nand then he knew that this was not his true bride, and he rode back to\nthe house of Cinder-Maid's father; and then the second sister tried\nher chance; but when she found that her foot wouldn't fit the shoe she\ndid the same as her sister, but all happened as before. The little\nbird called out:\n\n    \"Turn and peep, turn and peep,\n    There's blood within the shoe;\n    A bit is cut from off the heel\n    And a bit from off the toe.\"\n\nAnd the Prince took her back to her mother's house, and then he asked,\n\"Have you no other daughter?\" and the sisters cried out, \"No, sir.\"\nBut the father said, \"Yes, I have another daughter.\" And the sisters\ncried out, \"Cinder-Maid, Cinder-Maid, she could not wear that shoe.\"\nBut the Prince said, \"As she is of noble birth she has a right to try\nthe shoe.\" So the herald went down to the kitchen and found\nCinder-Maid; and when she saw her golden shoe she took it from him and\nput it on her foot, which it fitted exactly; and then she took the\nother golden shoe from underneath the cinders where she had hidden it\nand put that on too. Then the herald knew that she was the true bride\nof his master; and he took her upstairs to where the Prince was; when\nhe saw her face, he knew that she was the lady of his love. So he\ntook her behind him upon his horse; and as they rode to the Palace,\nthe little bird from the hazel tree cried out:\n\n    \"Some cut their heel, and some cut their toe,\n    But she sat by the fire who could wear the shoe.\"\n\nAnd so they were married and lived happy ever afterwards.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: \"Will you Mind my Pea?\"]\n\nALL CHANGE\n\n\nThere was once a man who was the laziest man in all the world. He\nwouldn't take off his clothes when he went to bed because he didn't\nwant to have to put them on again. He wouldn't raise his cup to his\nlips but went down and sucked up his tea without carrying the cup. He\nwouldn't play any sports because he said they made him sweat. And he\nwouldn't work with his hands for the same reason. But at last he found\nthat he couldn't get anything to eat unless he did some work for it.\nSo he hired himself out to a farmer for the season. But all through\nthe harvest he ate as much and he worked as little as he could; and\nwhen the fall came and he went to get his wages from his master all he\ngot was a single pea. \"What do you mean by giving me this?\" he said to\nhis master. \"Why, that is all that your labor is worth,\" was the\nreply. \"You have eaten as much as you have earned.\" \"None of your\nlip,\" said the man; \"give me my pea; at any rate I have earned that.\"\nSo when he got it he went to an inn by the roadside and said to the\nlandlady, \"Can you give me lodging for the night, me and my pea?\"\n\"Well, no,\" said the landlady, \"I haven't got a bed free, but I can\ntake care of your pea for you.\" No sooner said than done. The pea was\nlodged with the landlady, and the laziest man went and lay in a barn\nnear-by.\n\nThe landlady put the pea upon a dresser and left it there, and a\nchicken wandering by saw it and jumped up on the dresser and ate it.\nSo when the laziest man called the next day and asked for his pea the\nlandlady couldn't find it. She said, \"The chicken must have swallowed\nit.\" \"Well, I want my pea,\" said the man. \"You had better give me the\nchicken.\" \"Why, what--when--how?\" stammered the landlady. \"The chicken\nis worth thousands of your pea.\" \"I don't care for that; it has got my\npea inside it, and the only way I can get my pea is to have that which\nholds the pea.\" \"What, give you my chicken for a single pea,\nnonsense!\" \"Well, if you don't I'll summon you before the justice.\"\n\"Ah, well, take the chicken and my bad wishes with it.\"\n\nSo off went the man and sauntered along all day, till that night he\ncame to another inn, and asked the landlord if he and his chicken\ncould stop there. He said, \"No, no, we have no room for you, but we\ncan put your chicken in the stable if you like.\" So the man said,\n\"Yes,\" and went off for the night. But there was a savage sow in the\nstable, and during the night she ate up the poor chicken. And when the\nman came the next morning he said to the landlord, \"Please give me my\nchicken.\" \"I am awfully sorry, sir,\" said he, \"but my sow has eaten it\nup.\" The laziest man said, \"Then give me your sow.\" \"What, a sow for\nyour chicken, nonsense; go away, my man.\" \"Then if you don't do that\nI'll have you before the justice.\" \"Ah, well, take the sow and my\ncurses with it,\" said the landlord.\n\nAnd the man took the sow and followed it along the road till he came\nto another inn, and said to the landlady, \"Have you room for me and my\nsow?\" \"I have not,\" said the landlady, \"but I can put your sow up.\" So\nthe sow was put in the stable, and the man went off to lie in the barn\nfor the night. Now the sow went roaming about the stable, and coming\ntoo near the hoofs of the mare, was hit in the forehead and killed by\nthe mare's hoofs. So when the man came in the morning and asked for\nhis sow the landlady said, \"I'm very sorry, sir, but an accident has\noccurred; my mare has hit your sow in the skull and she is dead.\"\n\"What, the mare?\" \"No, your sow.\" \"Then give me the mare.\" \"What, my\nmare for your sow, nonsense.\" \"Well, if you don't I'll take you before\nthe justice; you'll see if it's nonsense.\" So after some time the\nlandlady agreed to give the man her mare in exchange for the dead sow.\n\nThen the man followed on in the steps of the mare till he came to\nanother inn, and asked the landlord if he could put him up for the\nnight, him and his mare. The landlord said, \"All our beds are full,\nbut you can put the mare up in the stable if you will.\" \"Very well,\"\nsaid the man, and tied the halter of the mare into the ring of the\nstable. Next morning early the landlord's daughter said to her father,\n\"That poor mare has had nothing to drink; I'll go and lead it to the\nriver.\" \"That is none of your business,\" said the landlord; \"let the\nman do it himself.\" \"Ah, but the poor thing has had nothing to drink.\nI'll bring it back soon.\" So the girl took the mare to the river brink\nand let it drink the water; but, by chance, the mare slipped into the\nstream, which was so strong that it carried the mare away. And the\nyoung girl ran back to her mother and said, \"Oh mother, the mare fell\ninto the stream and it was carried quite away. What shall we do? What\nshall we do?\"\n\nWhen the man came round that morning he said, \"Please give me my\nmare.\" \"I'm very sorry indeed, sir, but my daughter--that one\nthere--wanted to give the poor thing a drink and took it down to the\nriver and it fell in and was carried away by the stream; I'm very\nsorry indeed.\" \"Your sorrow won't pay my loss,\" said the man; \"the\nleast you can do is to give me your daughter.\" \"What, my daughter to\nyou because of the mare!\" \"Well, if you don't I will take you before\nthe justice.\" Now the landlord didn't like going before the justice.\n\nSo after much haggling he agreed to let his daughter go with the man.\nAnd they went along, and they went along, and they went along, till at\nlast they came to another inn which was kept by the girl's aunt,\nthough the man didn't know it. So he went in and said, \"Can you give\nme beds for me and my girl here?\" So the landlady looked at the girl\nwho said nothing, and said, \"Well, I haven't got a bed for you but I\nhave got a bed for her; but perhaps she'll run away.\" \"Oh, I will\nmanage that,\" said the man. And he went and got a sack and put the\ngirl in it and tied her up; and then he went off. As soon as he was\ngone the girl's aunt opened the bag and said, \"What has happened, my\ndear?\" And she told the whole story. So the aunt took a big dog and\nput it in the sack; and when the man came the next morning he said,\n\"Where's my girl?\" \"There she is, so far as I know.\" So he took the\nsack and put it on his shoulder and went on his way for a time. Then\nas the sun grew high he sat down under the shade of a tree and thought\nhe would speak to the girl. And when he opened the sack the big dog\nflew out at him, and he fell back, and that's the last I heard of\nhim.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The Seven-Headed Dragon]\n\nTHE KING OF THE FISHES\n\n\nOnce upon a time there was a fisherman who was very poor and felt\npoorer still because he had no children. Now one day as he was fishing\nhe caught in his net the finest fish he had ever seen, the scales all\ngold and eyes as bright as diamonds; and just as he was going to take\nit out of the net what do you think happened? The fish opened his jaws\nand said, \"I am the King of the Fishes, and if you throw me back into\nthe water you will never want a catch.\" The fisherman was so surprised\nthat he let the fish slip into the water, and he flapped his big tail\nand dived under the waves. When he got home he told his wife all\nabout it, and she said, \"Oh, what a pity, I have had such a longing to\neat such a fish.\"\n\nWell, next day the fisherman went again a-fishing and, sure enough, he\ncaught the same fish again, and it said, \"I am the King of the Fishes,\nif you let me go you shall always have your nets full.\" So the\nfisherman let him go again; and when he went back to his home he told\nhis wife that he had done so. She began to cry and wail and said, \"I\ntold you I wanted such a fish, and yet you let him go; I am sure you\ndo not love me.\" The fisherman felt quite ashamed of himself and\npromised that if he caught the King of the Fishes again he would bring\nhim home to his wife for her to cook. So next day the fisherman went\nto the same place and caught the same fish the third time. But when\nthe fish begged the fisherman to let him go he told the King of the\nFishes what his wife had said and what he had promised her. \"Well,\"\nsaid the King of the Fishes, \"if you must kill me you must, but as you\nlet me go twice I will do this for you. When the wife cuts me up throw\nsome of my bones under the mare, and some of my bones under the bitch,\nand the rest of my bones bury beneath the rose-tree in the garden and\nthen you will see what you will see.\"\n\nSo the fisherman took the King of the Fishes home to his wife, to whom\nhe told what the fish had said; and when she cut up the fish for\ncooking they threw some of the bones under the mare, and some under\nthe bitch, and the rest they buried under the rose-tree in the garden.\n\nNow after a time the fisherman's wife gave him two fine twin boys,\nwhom they named George and Albert, each with a star on his forehead\njust under his hair, and at the same time the mare brought into the\nworld two fine colts, and the bitch two puppies. And under the\nrose-tree grew up two rose bushes, each of which bore every year only\none rose, but what a rose that was! It lasted through the summer and\nit lasted through the winter and, most curious of all, when George\nfell ill one of the roses began to wilt, and if Albert had an illness\nthe same thing happened with the other rose.\n\nNow when George and Albert grew up they heard that a Seven-Headed\nDragon was ravaging the neighbouring kingdom, and that the king had\npromised his daughter's hand to anyone that would free the land from\nthis scourge. They both wanted to go and fight the dragon, but at last\nthe twins agreed that George go and Albert stop at home and look after\ntheir father and mother, who had now grown old. So George took his\nhorse and his dog and rode off where the dragon had last been seen.\nAnd when he came to Middlegard, the capital of the kingdom, he rode\nwith his horse and his dog to the chief inn of the town and asked the\nlandlady why everything looked so gloomy and why the houses were\ndraped in black. \"Have you not heard, sir,\" asked the landlady, \"that\nthe Dragon with the Seven Heads has been eating up a pure maiden\nevery month? And now he demands that the princess herself shall be\ndelivered up to him this day. That is why the town is draped in black\nand we are all so gloomy.\" Thereupon George took his horse and his dog\nand rode out to where the princess was exposed to the coming of the\nDragon with Seven Heads. And when the princess saw George with his\nhorse and his sword and his dog she asked him, \"Why come you here,\nsir? Soon the Dragon with Seven Heads, whom none can withstand, will\nbe here to claim me. Flee before it is too late.\" But George said,\n\"Princess, a man can die once, and I will willingly try to save you\nfrom the dragon.\" Now as they were talking a horrible roar rent the\nair and the Dragon with the Seven Heads came towards the princess. But\nwhen it saw George it called out, \"Can'st fight?\" and George said, \"If\nI can't I can learn.\" \"I'll learn thee,\" said the dragon. And\nthereupon began a mighty combat between George and the dragon; and\nwhenever the dragon came near to George his dog would spring at one of\nhis paws, and when one of the heads reared back to deal with it\nGeorge's horse would spring to that side, and George's sword would\nsweep that head away. And so at last all the seven heads of the dragon\nwere shorn off by George's sword, and the princess was saved. And\nGeorge opened the mouths of seven of the dragon's heads and cut out\nthe tongues, and the princess gave him her handkerchief, and he wrapt\nall the seven tongues in it and put them away next his heart. But\nGeorge was so tired out by the fight that he laid down to sleep with\nhis head in the princess's lap, and she parted his hair with her hands\nand saw the star on his brow.\n\nMeanwhile the king's marshal, who was to have married the princess if\nhe would slay the dragon, had been watching the fight from afar off;\nand when he saw that the dragon had been slain and that George was\nlying asleep after the fight, he crept up behind the princess and,\ndrawing his dagger, said, \"Put his head on the ground or else I will\nslay thee.\" And when she had done that he bade her rise and come with\nhim after he had collected the seven heads of the dragon and strung\nthem on the leash of his whip. The princess would have wakened George\nbut the marshal threatened to kill her if she did. \"If I cannot wed\nthee he shall not.\" And then he made her swear that she would say that\nthe marshal had slain the Dragon with the Seven Heads. And when the\nprincess and the marshal came near the city the king and his courtiers\nand all his people came out to meet them with great rejoicing, and the\nking said to his daughter, \"Who saved thee?\" and she said, \"this man.\"\n\"Then he shall marry thee,\" said the king. \"No, no, father,\" said the\nprincess, \"I am not old enough to marry yet; give me, at any rate, a\nyear and a day before the wedding takes place,\" for she hoped that\nGeorge would come and save her from the wicked marshal. The king\nhimself, who loved his daughter greatly, gave way at last and promised\nthat she should not be married for a year and a day.\n\nWhen George awoke and saw the dead body and found the princess there\nno longer he did not know what to make of it but thought that she did\nnot wish to marry a fisherman's son. So he mounted his horse, and with\nhis faithful hound went on seeking further adventures through the\nworld, and did not come that way again till a year had passed, when he\nrode into Middlegard again and alighted at the same inn where he had\nstopped before. \"How now, hostess,\" he cried, \"last time I was here\nthe city was all in mourning but now everything is agog with glee;\ntrumpets are blaring, lads and lasses are dancing round the trees, and\nevery house has flags and banners flowing from its windows. What is\nhappening?\" \"Know you not, sir,\" said the hostess, \"that our princess\nmarries to-morrow?\" \"Why, last time,\" he said, \"she was going to be\ndevoured by the Dragon with Seven Heads.\" \"Nay, but he was slain by\nthe king's marshal who weds the princess to-morrow as a reward for his\nbravery, and every one that wishes may join the wedding feast to-night\nin the king's castle.\"\n\n[Illustration: _The Marshal tells how he killed the Dragon_]\n\nThat night George went up to the king's castle and took his place at\nthe table not far off from where sat the king with the princess on\none side of him and the marshal on the other; and after the banquet\nthe king called upon the marshal once more to tell how he had slain\nthe Dragon with the Seven Heads. And the marshal told a long tale of\nhow he had cut off the seven heads of the dragon, and at the finish he\nordered his squire to bring in a platter on which were the seven\nheads. Then up rose George and spoke to the king and said, \"And pray,\nmy lord, how does it happen that the dragon's heads had no tongues?\"\nAnd the king said, \"That I know not; let us look and see.\" And the\njaws of the dragon's heads were opened, and behold there were no\ntongues in them. Then the king asked the marshal, \"Know you aught of\nthis?\" And the marshal had nothing to say. And the princess looked up\nand saw her champion again. Then George took out from his doublet the\nseven tongues of the dragon, and it was found that they fitted. \"What\nis the meaning of this, sir,\" said the king. Then George told the\nstory of how he had slain the dragon and fallen asleep in the\nprincess's lap and had awoke and found her gone. And the princess,\nwhen asked by her father, could not but tell of the treachery of the\nmarshal. \"Away with him,\" cried out the king, \"let his head be taken\noff and his tongue be taken out, and let his place be taken by this\nyoung stranger.\"\n\nSo George and the princess were married and lived happily, till one\nnight, looking out of the window of the castle where they lived,\nGeorge saw in the distance another castle with windows all lit up and\nshining like fire. And he asked the princess, his wife, what that\ncastle might be. \"Go not near that, George,\" said the princess, \"for I\nhave always heard that none who enters that castle ever comes out\nagain.\" The next morning George went with horse and hound to seek the\ncastle; and when he got near it he found at the gate an old dame with\nbut one eye; and he asked her to open the gate, and she said she would\nbut that it was a custom of the castle that who ever entered had to\ndrink a glass of wine before doing so; and she offered him a goblet\nfull of wine; but when he had drunk it he and his horse and his dog\nwere all turned into stone.\n\nJust at the very moment when George was turned to stone Albert, who\nhad heard nothing of him, saw George's rose in the garden close up and\nturn the colour of marble; then he knew that something had happened to\nhis brother, and he had out his horse and his dog and rode off to find\nout what had been George's fate. And he rode, and he rode, till he\ncame to Middlegard, and as soon as he reached the gate the guard of\nthe gate said, \"Your highness, the princess has been in great anxiety\nabout you; she will be so happy to know that you have returned safe.\"\nAlbert said nothing, but followed the guard until he came to the\nprincess's chamber, and she ran to him and embraced him and cried\nout, \"Oh, George, I am so delighted that you have come back safe.\"\n\"Why should I not,\" said Albert. \"Because I feared that you had gone\nto that castle with flaming windows, from which nobody ever returns\nalive,\" said the princess.\n\nThen Albert guessed what had happened to George, and he soon made an\nexcuse and went off again to seek the castle which the princess had\npointed out from the window. When Albert got there he found the same\nold dame sitting by the gate, and asked if he might go in and see the\ncastle. She said again that none might enter the castle unless they\nhad taken a glass of wine and brought out the goblet of wine once\nmore. Albert was about to drink it up when his faithful dog jumped up\nand spilt the wine, which he began to lap up, and as soon as he had\ndrunk a little of it his body turned to marble, just by the side of\nanother stone which looked exactly the same. Then Albert guessed what\nhad happened, and descending from his horse he took out his sword and\nthreatened the old witch that he would kill her unless she restored\nhis brother to his proper shape. In fear and trembling the old dame\nmuttered something over the four stones in front of the castle, and\nGeorge and his horse and his hound and Albert's dog became alive again\nas they were before. Then George and Albert rode back to the princess\nwho, when she saw them both so much alike, could not tell which was\nwhich; then she remembered and went up to Albert and parted his hair\non his forehead and saw there the star, and said, \"This is my George\";\nbut then George parted his own hair, and she saw the same star there.\nAt last Albert told her all that had happened, and she knew her own\nhusband again. And soon after the king died, and George ruled in his\nplace, and Albert married one of the neighbouring princesses.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Scissors]\n\nSCISSORS\n\n\nOnce upon a time, though it was not in my time nor in your time nor in\nanybody else's time, there lived a cobbler named Tom and his wife\nnamed Joan. And they lived fairly happily together, except that\nwhatever Tom did Joan did the opposite, and whatever Joan thought Tom\nthought quite contrary-wise. When Tom wanted beef for dinner Joan\nliked pork, and if Joan wanted to have chicken Tom would like to have\nduck. And so it went on all the time.\n\nNow it happened that one day Joan was cleaning up the kitchen and,\nturning suddenly, she knocked two or three pots and pans together and\nbroke them all. So Tom, who was working in the front room, came and\nasked Joan, \"What's all this? What have you been doing?\" Now Joan had\ngot the pair of scissors in her hand, and sooner than tell him what\nhad really happened she said, \"I cut these pots and pans into pieces\nwith my scissors.\"\n\n\"What,\" said Tom, \"cut pottery with your scissors, you nonsensical\nwoman; you can't do it!\"\n\n\"I tell you I did with my scissors!\"\n\n\"You couldn't.\"\n\n\"I did.\"\n\n\"You couldn't.\"\n\n\"I did.\"\n\n\"Couldn't.\"\n\n\"Did.\"\n\n\"Couldn't.\"\n\n\"Did.\"\n\n\"Couldn't.\"\n\n\"Did.\"\n\nAt last Tom got so angry that he seized Joan by the shoulders and\nshoved her out of the house and said, \"If you don't tell me how you\nbroke those pots and pans I'll throw you into the river.\" But Joan\nkept on saying, \"It was with the scissors\"; and Tom got so enraged\nthat at last he took her to the bank of the river and said, \"Now for\nthe last time, will you tell me the truth; how did you break those\npots and pans?\"\n\n\"With the scissors.\"\n\nAnd with that he threw her into the river, and she sank once, and she\nsank twice, and just before she was about to sink for the third time\nshe put her hand up into the air, out of the water, and made a motion\nwith her first and middle finger as if she were moving the scissors.\nSo Tom saw it was no use to try to persuade her to do anything but\nwhat she wanted. So he rushed up the stream and met a neighbour who\nsaid, \"Tom, Tom, what are you running for?\"\n\n\"Oh, I want to find Joan; she fell into the river just in front of our\nhouse, and I am afraid she is going to be drowned.\"\n\n\"But,\" said the neighbour, \"you're running up stream.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said Tom, \"Joan always went contrary-wise whatever happened.\"\nAnd so he never found her in time to save her.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nBEAUTY AND THE BEAST\n\n\nThere was once a merchant that had three daughters, and he loved them\nbetter than himself. Now it happened that he had to go a long journey\nto buy some goods, and when he was just starting he said to them,\n\"What shall I bring you back, my dears?\" And the eldest daughter asked\nto have a necklace; and the second daughter wished to have a gold\nchain; but the youngest daughter said, \"Bring back yourself, Papa, and\nthat is what I want the most.\" \"Nonsense, child,\" said her father,\n\"you must say something that I may remember to bring back for you.\"\n\"So,\" she said, \"then bring me back a rose, father.\"\n\nWell, the merchant went on his journey and did his business and bought\na pearl necklace for his eldest daughter, and a gold chain for his\nsecond daughter; but he knew it was no use getting a rose for the\nyoungest while he was so far away because it would fade before he got\nhome. So he made up his mind he would get a rose for her the day he\ngot near his house.\n\nWhen all his merchanting was done he rode off home and forgot all\nabout the rose till he was near his house; then he suddenly remembered\nwhat he had promised his youngest daughter, and looked about to see if\nhe could find a rose. Near where he had stopped he saw a great garden,\nand getting off his horse he wandered about in it till he found a\nlovely rose-bush; and he plucked the most beautiful rose he could see\non it. At that moment he heard a crash like thunder, and looking\naround he saw a huge monster--two tusks in his mouth and fiery eyes\nsurrounded by bristles, and horns coming out of its head and spreading\nover its back.\n\n\"Mortal,\" said the Beast, \"who told thee thou mightest pluck my\nroses?\"\n\n\"Please, sir,\" said the merchant in fear and terror for his life, \"I\npromised my daughter to bring her home a rose and forgot about it till\nthe last moment, and then I saw your beautiful garden and thought you\nwould not miss a single rose, or else I would have asked your\npermission.\"\n\n\"Thieving is thieving,\" said the Beast, \"whether it be a rose or a\ndiamond; thy life is forfeit.\"\n\nThe merchant fell on his knees and begged for his life for the sake of\nhis three daughters who had none but him to support them.\n\n\"Well, mortal, well,\" said the Beast, \"I grant thy life on one\ncondition: Seven days from now thou must bring this youngest daughter\nof thine, for whose sake thou hast broken into my garden, and leave\nher here in thy stead. Otherwise swear that thou wilt return and\nplace thyself at my disposal.\"\n\nSo the merchant swore, and taking his rose mounted his horse and rode\nhome.\n\nAs soon as he got into his house his daughters came rushing round him,\nclapping their hands and showing their joy in every way, and soon he\ngave the necklace to his eldest daughter, the chain to his second\ndaughter, and then he gave the rose to his youngest, and as he gave it\nhe sighed. \"Oh, thank you, Father,\" they all cried. But the youngest\nsaid, \"Why did you sigh so deeply when you gave me my rose?\"\n\n\"Later on I will tell you,\" said the merchant.\n\nSo for several days they lived happily together, though the merchant\nwandered about gloomy and sad, and nothing his daughters could do\nwould cheer him up till at last he took his youngest daughter aside\nand said to her, \"Bella, do you love your father?\"\n\n\"Of course I do, Father, of course I do.\"\n\n\"Well, now you have a chance of showing it\"; and then he told her of\nall that had occurred with the Beast when he got the rose for her.\nBella was very sad, as you can well think, and then she said, \"Oh,\nFather, it was all on account of me that you fell into the power of\nthis Beast; so I will go with you to him; perhaps he will do me no\nharm; but even if he does better harm to me than evil to my dear\nfather.\"\n\nSo next day the merchant took Bella behind him on his horse, as was\nthe custom in those days, and rode off to the dwelling of the Beast.\nAnd when he got there and they alighted from his horse the doors of\nthe house opened, and what do you think they saw there! Nothing. So\nthey went up the steps and went through the hall, and went into the\ndining-room and there they saw a table spread with all manner of\nbeautiful glasses and plates and dishes and napery, with plenty to eat\nupon it. So they waited and they waited, thinking that the owner of\nthe house would appear, till at last the merchant said, \"Let's sit\ndown and see what will happen then.\" And when they sat down invisible\nhands passed them things to eat and to drink, and they ate and drank\nto their heart's content. And when they arose from the table it arose\ntoo and disappeared through the door as if it were being carried by\ninvisible servants.\n\nSuddenly there appeared before them the Beast who said to the\nmerchant, \"Is this thy youngest daughter?\" And when he had said that\nit was, he said, \"Is she willing to stop here with me?\" And then he\nlooked at Bella who said, in a trembling voice, \"Yes, sir.\"\n\n\"Well, no harm shall befall thee.\" With that he led the merchant down\nto his horse and told him he might come that day week to visit his\ndaughter. Then the Beast returned to Bella and said to her, \"This\nhouse with all that therein is thine; if thou desirest aught clap\nthine hands and say the word and it shall be brought unto thee.\" And\nwith that he made a sort of bow and went away.\n\nSo Bella lived on in the home with the Beast and was waited on by\ninvisible servants and had whatever she liked to eat and to drink; but\nshe soon got tired of the solitude and, next day, when the Beast came\nto her, though he looked so terrible, she had been so well treated\nthat she had lost a great deal of her terror of him. So they spoke\ntogether about the garden and about the house and about her father's\nbusiness and about all manner of things, so that Bella lost altogether\nher fear of the Beast. Shortly afterwards her father came to see her\nand found her quite happy, and he felt much less dread of her fate at\nthe hands of the Beast. So it went on for many days, Bella seeing and\ntalking to the Beast every day, till she got quite to like him, until\none day the Beast did not come at his usual time, just after the\nmidday meal, and Bella quite missed him. So she wandered about the\ngarden trying to find him, calling out his name, but received no\nreply. At last she came to the rose-bush from which her father had\nplucked the rose, and there, under it, what do you think she saw!\nThere was the Beast lying huddled up without any life or motion. Then\nBella was sorry indeed and remembered all the kindness that the Beast\nhad shown her; and she threw herself down by it and said, \"Oh,\nBeast, Beast, why did you die? I was getting to love you so much.\"\n\n[Illustration: _Beauty and the Beast_]\n\nNo sooner had she said this than the hide of the Beast split in two\nand out came the most handsome young prince who told her that he had\nbeen enchanted by a magician and that he could not recover his natural\nform unless a maiden should, of her own accord, declare that she loved\nhim.\n\nThereupon the prince sent for the merchant and his daughters, and he\nwas married to Bella, and they all lived happy together ever\nafterwards.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Reynard]\n\nREYNARD AND BRUIN\n\n\nYou must know that once upon a time Reynard the Fox and Bruin the Bear\nwent into partnership and kept house together. Would you like to know\nthe reason? Well, Reynard knew that Bruin had a beehive full of\nhoneycomb, and that was what he wanted; but Bruin kept so close a\nguard upon his honey that Master Reynard didn't know how to get away\nfrom him and get hold of the honey. So one day he said to Bruin,\n\"Pardner, I have to go and be gossip--that means god-father, you\nknow--to one of my old friends.\" \"Why, certainly,\" said Bruin. So off\nReynard goes into the woods, and after a time he crept back and\nuncovered the beehive and had such a feast of honey. Then he went back\nto Bruin, who asked him what name had been given to the child. Reynard\nhad forgotten all about the christening and could only say,\n\"Just-begun.\" \"What a funny name,\" said Master Bruin.\n\nA little while after Reynard thought he would like another feast of\nhoney. So he told Bruin that he had to go to another christening; and\noff he went. And when he came back and Bruin asked him what was the\nname given to the child Reynard said, \"Half-eaten.\" The third time the\nsame thing occurred, and this time the name given by Reynard to the\nchild that didn't exist was \"All-gone,\"--you can guess why.\n\nA short time afterwards Master Bruin thought he would like to eat up\nsome of his honey and asked Reynard to come and join him in the feast.\nWhen they got to the beehive Bruin was so surprised to find that there\nwas no honey left; and he turned round to Reynard and said,\n\"Just-begun, Half-eaten, All-gone--so that is what you meant; you have\neaten my honey.\" \"Why no,\" said Reynard, \"how could that be? I have\nnever stirred from your side except when I went a-gossiping, and then\nI was far away from here. You must have eaten the honey yourself,\nperhaps when you were asleep; at any rate we can easily tell; let us\nlie down here in the sunshine, and if either of us has eaten the\nhoney, the sun will soon sweat it out of us.\" No sooner said than\ndone, and the two lay side by side in the sunshine. Soon Master Bruin\ncommenced to doze, and Mr. Reynard took some honey from the hive and\nsmeared it round Bruin's snout; then he woke him up and said, \"See,\nthe honey is oozing out of your snout; you must have eaten it when you\nwere asleep.\"\n\nSome time after this Reynard saw a man driving a cart full of fish,\nwhich made his mouth water. So he ran and he ran and he ran till he\ngot far away in front of the cart and lay down in the road as still as\nif he were dead. When the man came up to him and saw him lying there\ndead, as he thought, he said to himself, \"Why, that will make a\nbeautiful red fox scarf and muff for my wife Ann.\" And he got down and\nseized hold of Reynard and threw him into the cart all along with the\nfish, and then he went driving on as before. Reynard began to throw\nthe fish out till there were none left, and then he jumped out himself\nwithout the man noticing it, who drove up to his door and called out,\n\"Ann, Ann, see what I have brought you.\" And when his wife came to the\ndoor she looked into the cart and said, \"Why, there is nothing there.\"\n\nReynard in the meantime had brought all his fish together and began\neating some when up comes Bruin and asked for a share. \"No, no,\" said\nReynard, \"we only share food when we have shared work. I fished for\nthese, you go and fish for others.\"\n\n\"Why, how could you fish for these? the water is all frozen over,\"\nsaid Bruin.\n\n\"I'll soon show you,\" said Reynard, and brought him down to the bank\nof the river, and pointed to a hole in the ice and said, \"I put my\ntail in that, and the fish were so hungry I couldn't draw them up\nquick enough. Why do you not do the same?\"\n\nSo Bruin put his tail down and waited and waited but no fish came.\n\"Have patience, man,\" said Reynard; \"as soon as one fish comes the\nrest will follow.\"\n\n\"Ah, I feel a bite,\" said Bruin, as the water commenced to freeze\nround his tail and caught it in the ice.\n\n[Illustration: Bruin Gets a Beating]\n\n\"Better wait till two or three have been caught and then you can catch\nthree at a time. I'll go back and finish my lunch.\"\n\nAnd with that Master Reynard trotted up to the man's wife and said to\nher, \"Ma'am, there's a big black bear caught by the tail in the ice;\nyou can do what you like with him.\" So the woman called her husband\nand they took big sticks and went down to the river and commenced\nwhacking Bruin who, by this time, was fast in the ice. He pulled and\nhe pulled and he pulled, till at last he got away leaving three\nquarters of his tail in the ice, and that is why bears have such short\ntails up to the present day.\n\nMeanwhile Master Reynard was having a great time in the man's house,\ngolloping everything he could find till the man and his wife came back\nand found him with his nose in the cream jug. As soon as he heard them\ncome in he tried to get away, but not before the man had seized hold\nof the cream jug and thrown it at him, just catching him on the tail,\nand that is the reason why the tips of foxes' tails are cream white to\nthis very day.\n\n[Illustration: Bruin Carries Reynard]\n\nWell, Reynard crept home and found Bruin in such a state, who\ncommenced to grumble and complain that it was all Reynard's fault that\nhe had lost his tail. So Reynard pointed to his own tail and said,\n\"Why, that's nothing; see my tail; they hit me so hard upon the head\nmy brains fell out upon my tail. Oh, how bad I feel; won't you carry\nme to my little bed.\" So Bruin, who was a good-hearted soul, took him\nupon his back and rolled with him towards the house. And as he went on\nReynard kept saying, \"The sick carries the sound, the sick carries the\nsound.\"\n\n\"What's that you are saying?\" asked Bruin.\n\n\"Oh, I have no brains left, I do not know what I am saying,\" said\nReynard but kept on singing, \"The sick carries the sound, ha, ha, the\nsick carries the sound.\"\n\nThen Bruin knew that he had been done and threw Reynard down upon the\nground, and would have eaten him up but that the fox slunk away and\nrushed into a briar bush. Bruin followed him closely into the briar\nbush and caught Reynard's hind leg in his mouth. Then Reynard called\nout, \"That's right, you fool, bite the briar root, bite the briar\nroot.\"\n\nBruin thinking that he was biting the briar root, let go Reynard's\nfoot and snapped at the nearest briar root. \"That's right, now you've\ngot me,\n\n    don't hurt me too much,\"\n\ncalled out Reynard, and slunk away.\n\n    \"Don't hurt me too much,\n    don't hurt me too much.\"\n\nWhen Bruin heard Reynard's voice dying away in the distance he knew\nthat he had been done again, and that was the end of their\npartnership.\n\nSome time after this a man was plowing in the field with his two oxen,\nwho were very lazy that day. So the man called out at them, \"Get a\nmove on or I'll give you to the Bear\"; and when they didn't quicken\ntheir pace he tried to frighten them by calling out, \"Bear, Bear, come\nand take these lazy oxen.\" Sure enough, Bruin heard him and came out\nof the woods and said, \"Here I am, give me the oxen, or else it'll be\nworse for you.\" The man was in despair but said, \"Yes, yes, of course\nthey are yours, but please let me finish my morning's plowing so I may\nfinish this acre.\" Bruin could not say \"No\" to that, and sat down\nlicking his chops and waiting for the oxen. The man went on plowing,\nthinking what he should do, when just at the corner of the field\nReynard came up to him and said, \"If you will give me two geese, I'll\nhelp you out of this fix and deliver the Bear into your hands.\" The\nman agreed and he told him what to do and went away into the woods.\nSoon after, the Bear and the man heard a noise like \"Bow-wow,\nBow-wow\"; and the Bear came to the man and said, \"What's that?\" \"Oh,\nthat must be the lord's hounds out hunting for bears.\" \"Hide me, hide\nme,\" said Bruin, \"and I will let you off the oxen.\" Then Reynard\ncalled out from the wood, \"What's that black thing you've got there?\"\nAnd the Bear said, \"Say it's the stump of a tree.\" So when the man had\ncalled this out to the Fox, Reynard called out, \"Put it in the cart;\nfix it with the chain; cut off the boughs, and drive your axe into the\nstump.\" Then the Bear said to the man, \"Pretend to do what he bids\nyou; heave me into the cart; bind me with the chain; pretend to cut\noff the boughs, and drive the axe into the stump.\" So the man lifted\nBruin into the cart, bound him with the chain, then cut off his limbs\nand buried the axe in his head.\n\nThen Reynard came forward and asked for his reward, and the man went\nback to his house to get the pair of geese that he had promised.\n\n\"Wife, wife,\" he called out, as he neared the house, \"get me a pair of\ngeese, which I have promised the Fox for ridding me of the Bear.\"\n\n\"I can do better than that,\" said his wife Ann, and brought him out a\nbag with two struggling animals in it.\n\n\"Give these to Master Reynard,\" said she; \"they will be geese enough\nfor him.\" So the man took the bag and went down to the field and gave\nthe bag to Reynard; but when he opened it out sprang two hounds, and\nhe had great trouble in running away from them to his den.\n\nWhen he got to his den the Fox asked each of his limbs, how they had\nhelped him in his flight. His nose said, \"I smelt the hounds\"; his\neyes said, \"We looked for the shortest way\"; his ears said, \"We\nlistened for the breathing of the hounds\"; and his legs said, \"We ran\naway with you.\" Then he asked his tail what it had done, and it said,\n\"Why, I got caught in the bushes or made your leg stumble; that is all\nI could do.\" So, as a punishment, the Fox stuck his tail out of his\nden, and the hounds saw it and caught hold of it, and dragged the Fox\nout of his den by it and ate him all up. So that was the end of Master\nReynard, and well he deserved it. Don't you think so?\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nTHE DANCING WATER, THE SINGING APPLE, AND THE SPEAKING BIRD\n\n\nThere was once an herb-gatherer who had three daughters who earned\ntheir living by spinning. One day their father died and left them all\nalone in the world. Now the king had a habit of going about the\nstreets at night, and listening at the doors to hear what the people\nsaid of him. So one night he listened at the door of the house where\nthe three sisters lived, and heard them disputing. The oldest said:\n\"If I were the wife of the royal butler, I could give the whole court\nto drink out of one glass of water, and there would be some left.\"\n\nThe second said: \"If I were the wife of the keeper of the royal\nwardrobe, with one piece of cloth I could clothe all the attendants,\nand have some left.\"\n\nBut the youngest daughter said: \"Were I the king's wife, I would bear\nhim two children: a son with a sun on his forehead, and a daughter\nwith a moon on her brow.\"\n\nThe king went back to his palace, and the next morning sent for the\nsisters, and said to them: \"Do not be frightened, but tell me what you\nsaid last night.\" The oldest told him what she had said, and the king\nhad a glass of water brought, and commanded her to prove her words.\nShe took the glass, and gave all the attendants some water to drink,\nand still there was some water left.\n\n\"Bravo!\" cried the king, and summoned the butler. \"This is your\nhusband. Now it is your turn,\" said the king to the next sister, and\ncommanded a piece of cloth to be brought, and the young girl at once\ncut out garments for all the attendants, and had some cloth left.\n\n\"Bravo!\" cried the king again, and gave her the keeper of the wardrobe\nfor her husband. \"Now it is your turn,\" said the king to the\nyoungest.\n\n\"Please your Majesty, I said that if I were the king's wife, I would\nbear him two children: a son with a sun on his forehead, and a\ndaughter with a moon on her brow.\"\n\n\"If that is true,\" replied the king, \"you shall be my queen; if not,\nyou shall die,\" and straightway he married her.\n\nVery soon the two older sisters began to be envious of the youngest.\n\"Look,\" said they; \"she is going to be queen, and we must be\nservants!\" and they began to hate her. A few months before the queen's\nchildren were to be born, the king declared war, and was obliged to go\nwith his army, but he left word that if the queen had two children: a\nson with a sun on his forehead, and a girl with a moon on her brow,\nthe mother was to be respected as queen; if not, he was to be informed\nof it, and would tell his servants what to do. Then he departed for\nthe war.\n\nWhen the queen's children were born, a son with a sun on his forehead\nand a daughter with a moon on her brow, as she had promised, the\nenvious sisters bribed the nurse to put little dogs in the place of\nthe queen's children, and sent word to the king that his wife had\ngiven birth to two puppies. He wrote back that she should be taken\ncare of for two weeks, and then put into a tread-mill.\n\nMeanwhile the nurse took the little babies, and carried them out of\ndoors, saying: \"I will make the dogs eat them up,\" and she left them\nalone. While they were thus exposed, three fairies passed by and\nexclaimed: \"Oh how beautiful these children are!\" and one of the\nfairies said: \"What present shall we make these children?\" One\nanswered: \"I will give them a deer to nurse them.\" \"And I a purse\nalways full of money.\" \"And I,\" said the third fairy, \"will give them\na ring which will change colour when any misfortune happens to one of\nthem.\"\n\nThe deer nursed and took care of the children until they grew up. Then\nthe fairy who had given them the deer came and said: \"Now that you\nhave grown up, how can you stay here any longer?\" \"Very well,\" said\nthe brother, \"I will go to the city and hire a house.\" \"Take care,\"\nsaid the deer, \"that you hire one opposite the royal palace.\" So they\nwent to the city and hired a palace as directed, and furnished it as\nif they had been princes. When the aunts saw the brother and sister,\nimagine their terror! \"They are alive!\" they said. They could not be\nmistaken for there was the sun on the forehead of the son, and the\nmoon on the girl's brow. They called the nurse and said to her:\n\"Nurse, what does this mean? are our nephew and niece alive?\" The\nnurse watched at the window until she saw the brother go out, and then\nshe went over as if to make a visit to the new house. She entered and\nsaid: \"What is the matter, my daughter; how do you do? Are you\nperfectly happy? You lack nothing. But do you know what is necessary\nto make you really happy? It is the Dancing Water. If your brother\nloves you, he will get it for you!\" She remained a moment longer and\nthen departed.\n\n[Illustration: _The Foster Mother_]\n\nWhen the brother returned, his sister said to him; \"Ah! my brother, if\nyou love me go and get me the Dancing Water.\" He consented, and next\nmorning saddled a fine horse, and departed. On his way he met a\nhermit, who asked him, \"Where are you going, cavalier?\"\n\n\"I am going for the Dancing Water.\" \"You are going to your death, my\nson; but keep on until you find a hermit older than I.\" He continued\nhis journey until he met another hermit, who asked him the same\nquestion, and gave him the same direction. Finally he met a third\nhermit, older than the other two, with a white beard that came down to\nhis feet, who gave him the following directions: \"You must climb\nyonder mountain. On top of it you will find a great plain and a house\nwith a beautiful gate. Before the gate you will see four giants with\nswords in their hands. Take heed; do not make a mistake; for if you\ndo, that is the end of you! When the giants have their eyes closed, do\nnot enter; when they have their eyes open, enter. Then you will come\nto a door. If you find it open, do not enter; if you find it shut,\npush it open and enter. Then you will find four lions. When they have\ntheir eyes shut, do not enter; when their eyes are open, enter, and\nyou will see the Dancing Water.\" The youth took leave of the hermit,\nand hastened on his way.\n\nMeanwhile the sister kept looking at the ring constantly, to see\nwhether the stone in it changed colour; but as it did not, she\nremained undisturbed.\n\nA few days after leaving the hermit the youth arrived at the top of\nthe mountain, and saw the palace with the four giants before it. They\nhad their eyes shut, and the door was open. \"No,\" said the youth,\n\"that won't do.\" And so he remained on the lookout a while. When the\ngiants opened their eyes, and the door closed, he entered, waited\nuntil the lions opened their eyes, and passed in. There he found the\nDancing Water, and filled his bottles with it, and escaped when the\nlions again opened their eyes.\n\nThe aunts, meanwhile, were delighted because their nephew did not\nreturn; but in a few days he appeared and embraced his sister. Then\nthey had two golden basins made, and put into them the Dancing Water,\nwhich leaped from one basin to the other. When the aunts saw it they\nexclaimed: \"Ah! how did he manage to get that water?\" and called the\nnurse, who again waited until the sister was alone, and then visited\nher. \"You see,\" said she, \"how beautiful the Dancing Water is! But do\nyou know what you want now? The Singing Apple.\" Then she departed.\nWhen the brother who had brought the Dancing Water returned, his\nsister said to him: \"If you love me you must get for me the Singing\nApple.\" \"Yes, my sister, I will go and get it.\"\n\nNext morning he mounted his horse, and set out. After a time he met\nthe first hermit, who sent him to an older one. He asked the youth\nwhere he was going, and said: \"It is a difficult task to get the\nSinging Apple, but hear what you must do: Climb the mountain; beware\nof the giants, the door, and the lions; then you will find a little\ndoor and a pair of shears in it. If the shears are open, enter; if\nclosed, do not risk it.\" The youth continued his way, found the\npalace, entered, and found everything favourable. When he saw the\nshears open, he went in a room and saw a wonderful tree, on top of\nwhich was an apple. He climbed up and tried to pick the apple, but the\ntop of the tree swayed now this way, now that. He waited until it was\nstill a moment, seized the branch, and picked the apple. He succeeded\nin getting safely out of the palace, mounted his horse, and rode home,\nand all the time he was carrying the apple it kept on singing.\n\nThe aunts were again delighted because their nephew was so long\nabsent; but when they saw him return, they felt as though the house\nhad fallen on them. Again they summoned the nurse, and again she\nvisited the young girl, and said: \"See how beautiful they are, the\nDancing Water and the Singing Apple! But should you see the Speaking\nBird, there would be nothing left for you to see.\" \"Very well,\" said\nthe young girl; \"we will see whether my brother will get it for me.\"\n\nWhen her brother came she asked him for the Speaking Bird, and he\npromised to get it for her. He met, as usual on his journey, the first\nhermit, who sent him to the second, who sent him on to a third one,\nwho said to him: \"Climb the mountain and enter the palace. You will\nfind many statues. Then you will come to a garden, in the midst of\nwhich is a fountain, and on the basin is the Speaking Bird. If it\nshould say anything to you, do not answer. Pick a feather from the\nbird's wing, dip it into a jar you will find there, and anoint all the\nstatues. Keep your eyes open, and all will go well.\"\n\nThe youth already knew well the way, and soon was in the palace. He\nfound the garden and the bird, which, as soon as it saw him,\nexclaimed: \"What is the matter, noble sir; have you come for me? You\nhave missed it. Your aunts have sent you to your death, and you must\nremain here. Your mother has been sent to the tread-mill.\" \"My mother\nin the tread-mill?\" cried the youth, and scarcely were the words out\nof his mouth when he became a statue like all the others.\n\nNow when her brother did not come back the third time the sister\nlooked at her ring, and it had become black, and she knew that\nsomething had befallen him. Poor child! not having anything else to\ndo, she dressed herself like a page and set out.\n\nLike her brother, she met the three hermits, and received their\ninstructions. The third concluded thus: \"Beware, for if you answer\nwhen the bird speaks you will lose your life, but if you speak not, it\nwill come to you; take one of its feathers and dip it in the jar you\nwill see there and anoint your brother's nostril with it.\" She\ncontinued her way, followed exactly the hermit's directions, and\nreached the garden in safety. When the bird saw her it exclaimed: \"Ah!\nyou here, too? Now you will meet the same fate as your brother. Do you\nsee him lying there? Your father is at the war. Your mother is in the\ntread-mill. Your aunts are rejoicing.\"\n\nBut the sister made no reply, but let the bird sing on. When it had\nnothing more to say it flew down, and the young girl caught it, pulled\na feather from its wing, dipped it into the jar, and anointed her\nbrother's nostrils, and he at once came to life again. Then she did\nthe same with all the other statues, with the lions and the giants,\nuntil all became alive again. Then she departed with her brother, and\nall the noblemen, princes, barons, and kings' sons rejoiced greatly.\nNow when they had all come to life again the palace disappeared, and\nthe hermits disappeared, for they were the three fairies.\n\nThe day after the brother and sister reached the city where they\nlived, they summoned a goldsmith, and had him make a gold chain, and\nfasten the bird with it. The next time the aunts looked out they saw\nin the window of the palace opposite the Dancing Water, the Singing\nApple, and the Speaking Bird. \"Well,\" said they, \"the real trouble is\ncoming now!\"\n\nThe bird directed the brother and sister to procure a carriage finer\nthan the king's, with twenty-four attendants, and to have the service\nof their palace, cooks, and servants, more numerous and better than\nthe king's. All of which the brother and sister did at once. And when\nthe aunts saw these things they were ready to die of rage.\n\nAt last the king returned from the war, and his subjects told him all\nthe news of the kingdom, and the thing they talked about the least was\nhis wife and children. One day the king looked out of the window and\nsaw the palace opposite furnished in a magnificent manner. \"Who lives\nthere?\" he asked, but no one could answer him. He looked again and saw\nthe brother and sister, the former with the sun on his forehead, and\nthe latter with the moon on her brow. \"Gracious! if I did not know\nthat my wife had given birth to puppies, I should say that those were\nmy children,\" exclaimed the king. Another day he stood by the window\nand enjoyed the Dancing Water and the Singing Apple, but the bird was\nsilent.\n\nAfter the king had heard all the music, the bird said: \"What does\nyour Majesty think of it?\" The king was astonished at hearing the\nSpeaking Bird, and answered: \"What should I think? It is marvellous.\"\n\n\"There is something more marvellous,\" said the bird; \"just wait.\"\n\nThen the bird told his mistress to call her brother, and said: \"There\nis the king; let us invite him to dinner on Sunday. Shall we not?\"\n\n\"Yes, yes,\" they said. So the king was invited and accepted, and on\nSunday the bird had a grand dinner prepared and the king came. When he\nsaw the young people near, he clapped his hands and said: \"They must\nbe my children.\"\n\nHe went over the palace and was astonished at its richness. Then they\nwent to dinner, and while they were eating the king said: \"Bird, every\none is talking; you alone are silent.\"\n\n\"Ah! your Majesty, I am ill; but next Sunday I shall be well and able\nto talk, and will come and dine at your palace with this lady and this\ngentleman.\"\n\nThe next Sunday the bird directed his mistress and her brother to put\non their finest clothes; so they dressed in royal style and took the\nbird with them. The king showed them through his palace and treated\nthem with the greatest ceremony; the aunts were nearly dead with fear.\nWhen they had seated themselves at the table, the king said: \"Come,\nbird, you promised me you would speak; have you nothing to say?\" Then\nthe bird began and related all that had happened from the time the\nking had listened at the door until his poor wife had been sent to the\ntread-mill; then the bird added: \"These are your children, and your\nwife was sent to the tread-mill, and is dying.\"\n\n[Illustration: The King Begs Pardon]\n\nWhen the king heard all this, he hastened to embrace his children, and\nthen went to find his poor wife, who was reduced to skin and bones and\nwas at the point of death. He knelt before her and begged her pardon,\nand then summoned her sisters and the nurse, and when they were in his\npresence he said to the bird: \"Bird, you who have told me everything,\nnow pronounce their sentence.\" Then the bird sentenced the nurse to be\nthrown out of the window, and the sisters to be cast into a cauldron\nof boiling oil. This was at once done. The king was never tired of\nembracing his wife. Then the bird departed and the king and his wife\nand children lived together in peace.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The Girl and the Frog]\n\nTHE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS\n\n\nThere was once a man who had a son named Jack, who was very simple in\nmind and backward in his thought. So his father sent him away to\nschool so that he might learn something; and after a year he came back\nfrom school.\n\n\"Well, Jack,\" said his father, \"what have you learnt at school?\"\n\nAnd Jack said, \"I know what dogs mean when they bark.\"\n\n\"That's not much,\" said his father. \"You must go to school again.\"\n\nSo he sent him to school for another year, and when he came back he\nasked him what he had learnt.\n\n\"Well, father,\" said the boy, \"when frogs croak I know what they\nmean.\"\n\n\"You must learn more than that,\" said the father, and sent him once\nmore to school.\n\nAnd when he returned, after another year, he asked him once more what\nhe had learnt.\n\n\"I know all the birds say when they twitter and chirp, caw and coo,\ngobble and cluck.\"\n\n\"Well I must say,\" said the father, \"that does not seem much for three\nyears' schooling. But let us see if you have learnt your lessons\nproperly. What does that bird say just above our heads in the tree\nthere?\"\n\nJack listened for some time but did not say anything.\n\n\"Well, Jack, what is it?\" asked his father.\n\n\"I don't like to say, father.\"\n\n\"I don't believe you know or else you would say. Whatever it is I\nshall not mind.\"\n\nThen the boy said, \"The bird kept on saying as clear as could be, 'the\ntime is not so far away when Jack's father will offer him water on\nbended knees for him to wash his hands; and his mother shall offer him\na towel to wipe them with.'\"\n\nThereupon the father grew very angry at Jack and his love for him\nchanged to hatred, and one day he spoke to a robber and promised him\nmuch money if he would take Jack away into the forest and kill him\nthere and bring back his heart to show that he had done what he had\npromised. But instead of doing this the robber told Jack all about it\nand advised him to flee away, while the robber took back to Jack's\nfather the heart of a deer saying that it was Jack's. Then Jack\ntravelled on and on till one night he stopped at a castle on the way;\nand while they were all supping together in the castle hall the dogs\nin the court-yard began barking and baying. And Jack went up to the\nlord of the castle and said, \"There will be an attack upon the castle\nto-night.\"\n\n\"How do you know that?\" asked the lord.\n\n\"The dogs say so,\" said Jack.\n\nAt that the lord and his men laughed, but never-the-less put an extra\nguard around the castle that night, and, sure enough, the attack was\nmade, which was easily beaten off because the men were prepared. So\nthe lord gave Jack a great reward for warning him, and he went on his\nway with a fellow traveller who had heard him warn the lord.\n\nSoon afterwards they arrived at another castle in which the lord's\ndaughter was lying sick unto death; and a great reward had been\noffered to him that should cure her. Now Jack had been listening to\nthe frogs as they were croaking in the moat which surrounded the\ncastle. So Jack went to the lord of the castle and said, \"I know what\nails your daughter.\"\n\n\"What is it,\" asked the lord.\n\n\"She has dropped the holy wafer from her mouth and it has been\nswallowed by one of the frogs in the moat.\"\n\n\"How do you know that?\" said the lord.\n\n\"I heard the frogs say so.\"\n\nAt first the lord would not believe it; but in order to save his\ndaughter's life he got Jack to point out the frog who was boasting of\nwhat he had swallowed, and, catching it, found what Jack had said was\ntrue. The frog was caught and killed, the wafer got back, and the girl\nrecovered. So the lord gave Jack the reward which was promised, and he\nwent on further with his companion and with another guest of the\ncastle who had heard what Jack had said and done.\n\nSo Jack, with his two companions, travelled on towards Rome, the city\nof cities where dwelt the Pope, in those days the head of all\nChristendom. And as they were resting by the roadside Jack said to his\ncompanions, \"Who would have thought it? One of us is going to be the\nPope of Rome.\"\n\nAnd his comrades asked him how he knew.\n\nAnd he said, \"The birds above in the tree have said so.\"\n\nAnd his comrades at first laughed at him, but then remembered that\nwhat he had said before of the barking of dogs and of the croaking of\nfrogs had turned out to be true.\n\n[Illustration: The Pope is Elected]\n\nNow when they arrived at Rome they found that the Pope had just died\nand that they were about to select his successor. And it was decided\nthat all the people should pass under an arch whereon was a bell and\ntwo doves, and he upon whose shoulders the doves should alight, and\nfor whom the bell should ring as he passed under the arch was to be\nthe next Pope. And when Jack and his companions came near the arch\nthey all remembered his prophecy and wondered which of the three\nshould receive the signs. And his first comrade passed under the arch\nand nothing happened, and then the second and nothing happened, but\nwhen Jack went through the doves descended and alighted upon his\nshoulder and the bell began to toll. So Jack was made Pope of all\nChristendom, and he took the name of Pope Sylvester.\n\nAfter a while the new Pope went upon his travels and came to the town\nwhere his father dwelt. And there was a great banquet held, to which\nJack's father and mother were invited at his request. And when they\ncame he ordered his servants to give to his father the basin of water,\nand to his mother the towel, wherewith the Pope would wash his hands\nafter dinner. Now this was, in those days, a great honour, and people\nwondered why Jack's father and mother should be so honoured. But after\nJack's father had offered him the basin of water, and his mother the\ntowel, Jack said to them, \"Do you not know me, mother? Do you not know\nme, father?\" and made himself known to them and reminded his father of\nwhat the bird had said. So he forgave his father and took him and his\nmother to live with him ever afterwards.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE THREE SOLDIERS\n\n\nOnce upon a time three soldiers returned from the wars; one was a\nsergeant, one was a corporal, and the third was a simple private. One\nnight they were caught in a forest and made a fire up to sleep by; and\nthe sergeant had to do sentry-go. While he was walking up and down an\nold woman, bent double, came up to him and said:\n\n\"Please, sir, may I warm myself by your fire?\"\n\n\"Why, certainly, mother, you are welcome to all the warmth you can\nget.\"\n\nSo the old woman sat by the fire for a time, and when she had got\nthoroughly warmed she said to the sergeant:\n\n\"Thank you, soldier; here is something for your trouble.\" And she\nhanded him a purse, which seemed to have nothing in it.\n\n\"Oh, thank you, marm,\" said the sergeant, \"but I wouldn't deprive you\nof it, especially as there is nothing in it.\"\n\n\"That may be so now,\" said the old woman, \"but take it in your hand\nand turn it upside-down, and while you hold it like that gold\npieces will come pouring out of it.\"\n\n[Illustration: _The Magic Purse_]\n\nHe took it, and, sure enough, whenever he held it up out came the gold\npieces. So he thanked her very much, and off she went.\n\nNext night the corporal had to play sentry, and the old woman came up\nto him and asked to sit by the side of the fire.\n\n\"Certainly, marm,\" said he, \"and welcome you are. I have known what it\nis to shiver in my bones.\"\n\nSo the old woman sat by the fire for a time, and when she was leaving\ngave the corporal a tablecloth.\n\nSaid he, \"Thank you, marm, kindly, but we soldiers rarely use\ntablecloths when we are eating our vittles.\"\n\n\"Yes, but this gives you vittles to eat,\" said the old woman.\n\"Whenever you put this over a table or on the ground and call out 'Be\ncovered!' the finest dinner you could eat at once comes upon it.\"\n\n\"If that is so,\" said the corporal, \"I'll take it and thank you\nkindly.\" And with that the old woman departed, and the corporal woke\nup his comrades and called out: \"Tablecloth be covered!\" And, sure\nenough, the finest dinner you could imagine appeared upon the cloth.\n\nNext night the private marched up and down doing sentry-go, when the\nold woman appeared again and asked to sit by the fire.\n\n\"Surely,\" said the private, \"you're as welcome as my own mother would\nbe.\"\n\nAnd after she had sat some time by the fire she got up and said:\n\n\"Thank you kindly, sir; I hope this will pay you for your trouble.\"\nAnd she gave him a whistle.\n\n\"And what's this for?\" said the private. \"I can't play on the\nwhistle.\"\n\n\"But you can blow it,\" said she, \"and whenever you blow it out will\ncome a regiment of armed men that will do whatever you tell them.\"\n\nAnd with that the old woman departed, and they never saw her more.\n\nSo the three soldiers travelled on till they came to a city where\nthere was a princess, who was so proud of her card playing that she\nhad agreed to marry any one who could beat her at cards. Now the\nsergeant was also very proud of his card playing, and he thought he\nwould try his luck with the princess. So when he went up to the palace\nhe offered to play a game with her, but she said to him:\n\n\"What are your stakes? If I lose I have to marry you. But if you lose\nwhat do you lose?\"\n\nSo the sergeant said: \"I'll stake my purse.\"\n\n\"Why, what's a purse with nothing in it!\" said the princess.\n\n\"There may be nothing in it now,\" said the sergeant, \"but see here,\"\nand he turned the purse upside-down and put his hand under it, and it\nkept on dropping gold pieces into his hand as long as he held it\nupside-down.\n\nSo the princess agreed to play for the purse. But she had arranged a\nmirror at the back of his head in which she could see all his cards.\nAnd so she won easily, and he had to give up the purse.\n\nBut this princess was so charming that the sergeant had fallen in love\nwith her, and when he went back to his comrades he asked the corporal\nto lend him his tablecloth. And he went back to the princess and said\nto her:\n\n\"Will you play me for this tablecloth?\"\n\nAnd she said: \"It may be a very beautiful tablecloth but it isn't\nquite equal to me.\"\n\nThen he laid it on a table and said, \"Cloth, cover thyself.\" And there\nwas a most delicious dinner spread upon it.\n\nBut, as the princess knew she would be able to beat him, she agreed to\nplay him for the tablecloth, and, sure enough, by means of the mirror,\nshe won the tablecloth from him.\n\nThe same thing happened when he borrowed the whistle from the private\nand tried his luck with the princess again. But this time he watched\nwhat she was doing, and knew that she had cheated him though he dared\nnot say so. He lost again and went back to his comrades and asked them\nto forgive him, but he could not help it as the princess had cheated\nhim. So his friends forgave him, and they all went their various\nways.\n\nNow the sergeant wandered along, and wandered along, and wandered\nalong, till he came to the bank of a stream on which there grew fig\ntrees, white and black. And he gathered some of these figs from the\ndifferent trees, and sat down by the bank to eat them. And he ate a\nblack fig, and then, feeling thirsty, went down to the stream to drink\nsome of the water, and as he looked in he found that he had two horns\non the side of his head just like a goat, instead of two ears. He\ndidn't know what to do; but as he was still hungry he ate one of the\nwhite figs; and when he went to drink again he found the horns had\ndisappeared. So then he knew that the black figs brought the horns and\nthe white figs took them away. So he gathered some more of them and\nwent back to the palace of the princess, and sent her up some of the\nblack figs as a present from an admirer.\n\nAnd after a while there was a rumour spread around the city that the\nprincess had horns in her head, and would give anything to any one who\ncould remove them.\n\nSo the sergeant went up to the palace and presented himself before the\nprincess and said to her:\n\n\"I can remove your horns, but I want my purse, and my tablecloth, and\nmy whistle back.\"\n\nThen she ordered them to be brought and promised to give them back to\nhim as soon as the horns were removed.\n\nSo he gave her a white fig, and as soon as she had eaten it the horns\ndisappeared; and he took up the purse, the tablecloth, and the\nwhistle. Then he said to her:\n\n[Illustration: The Princess Finds Horns on her Head]\n\n\"Now, will you marry me?\"\n\n\"No,\" she replied, \"why should I?\"\n\n\"Because you didn't win these fairly.\"\n\n\"That may be, or that may not be, but I see no reason why I should\nmarry you.\"\n\nThereupon he blew his whistle, and the palace was filled with a\nregiment of soldiers. And the sergeant said:\n\n\"If you do not marry me these men shall seize your father and I will\nseize his throne.\"\n\nSo the princess married him, and he sent for the corporal and the\nprivate and made them rich and prosperous, and they all lived fairly\nhappily together.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The Unicorn]\n\nA DOZEN AT A BLOW\n\n\nA little tailor was sitting cross-legged at his bench and was\nstitching away as busy as could be when a woman came up the street\ncalling out: \"Home-made jam, home-made jam!\"\n\nSo the tailor called out to her: \"Come here, my good woman, and give\nme a quarter of a pound.\"\n\nAnd when she had poured it out for him he spread it on some bread and\nbutter and laid it aside for his lunch. But, in the summer-time, the\nflies commenced to collect around the bread and jam.\n\nWhen the tailor noticed this, he raised his leather strap and brought\nit down upon the crowd of flies and killed twelve of them\nstraightway. He was mighty proud of that. So he made himself a\nshoulder-sash, on which he stitched the letters: A Dozen at One Blow.\n\nWhen he looked down upon this he thought to himself: \"A man who could\ndo such things ought not to stay at home; he ought to go out to\nconquer the world.\"\n\nSo he put into his wallet the cream cheese that he had bought that day\nand a favourite blackbird that used to hop about his shop, and went\nout to seek his fortune.\n\nHe hadn't gone far when he met a giant, and went up to him and said:\n\"Well, comrade, how goes it with you?\"\n\n\"Comrade,\" sneered the giant, \"a pretty comrade you would make for\nme.\"\n\n\"Look at this,\" said the tailor pointing to his sash.\n\nAnd when the giant read, \"A Dozen at a Blow,\" he thought to himself:\n\"This little fellow is no fool of a fighter if what he says is true.\nBut let's test him.\"\n\nSo the giant said to the tailor: \"If what you've got there is true, we\nmay well be comrades. But let's see if you can do what I can do.\"\n\nAnd he bent down in the road and took up a large stone and pressed it\nwith his hand till it all crushed up and water commenced to pour out\nfrom it.\n\n\"Can you do that?\" said the giant.\n\nThe tailor also bent down in the road, but took out from his wallet\nthe piece of cheese and pretended to pick it up.\n\nWhen he took it in his hand he pressed and pressed till the cream\npoured forth from it.\n\nThe giant said: \"Well, you can do that fairly well. Let's see if you\ncan throw.\"\n\nHe took another stone and threw it till it went right across the river\nby which they were standing.\n\nSo the little tailor took his blackbird in his hand and pretended to\nthrow it, and of course when it felt itself in the air it flew away\nand disappeared.\n\nThe giant said: \"That wasn't a bad throw. You may as well come home\nand stop with us giants, and we'll do great things together.\"\n\nAs they went along the giant said: \"We want some twigs for our night\nfires. You may as well help me carry some home.\" And he pointed to a\ntree that had fallen by the wayside and said: \"Help me carry that,\nwill you?\"\n\nSo the tailor said, \"Why certainly,\" and went to the top of the tree,\nand said: \"I'll carry these branches which are the heavier; you carry\nthe trunk which has no branches.\"\n\nAnd when the giant got the trunk on his shoulders the tailor seated\nhimself on one of the branches and let the giant carry him along.\n\nAfter a time the giant got tired and said: \"Ho there, wait a minute,\nI'm going to drop the tree and rest awhile.\"\n\nSo the tailor jumped down and caught the tree around the branches\nagain and said: \"Well, you are easily tired.\"\n\nAt last they got to the giant's castle and there the giant spoke to\nhis brothers and told them what a brave and powerful fellow this\nlittle tailor was. They spoke together and determined to get rid of\nhim lest he might do them some harm. But they determined to kill him\nin the night because he was so strong and might kill twelve of them at\na blow.\n\nBut the tailor saw them whispering together, and guessing that\nsomething was wrong went out into the yard and got a big bladder which\nhe filled with blood and put it in the bed which the giants pointed\nout to him.\n\nThen he crept under it, and during the night they brought their big\nclubs and hit the bed over and over again till the blood spurted out\nonto their faces.\n\nThen they thought the tailor was dead and went back to sleep.\n\nBut in the morning there was the tailor as large as life. And they\nwere so surprised to see him that they asked him if he had not felt\nanything during the night.\n\n\"Oh, I don't know, there seemed to be plenty of fleas in that bed,\"\nsaid the tailor. \"I do not think I would care to sleep there again.\"\nAnd with that he took his leave of the giants and went on his way.\n\nAfter a time he came to the King's court and fell asleep under a tree.\nAnd some of the courtiers passing by saw written upon his sash, \"A\nDozen at One Blow.\"\n\nThey went and told the King who said: \"Why, he's just the man for us;\nhe will be able to destroy the wild boar and the unicorn that are\nravaging our kingdom. Bring him to us.\"\n\nSo they woke up the little tailor and brought him to the King, who\nsaid to him: \"There is a wild boar ravaging our kingdom. You are so\npowerful that you will easily be able to capture it.\"\n\n\"What shall I get if I do?\" asked the little tailor.\n\n\"Well, I have promised to give my daughter's hand and half the kingdom\nto the man who can do it, and other things.\"\n\n\"What other things?\" said the little tailor.\n\n\"Oh, it will be time to learn that when you have caught the boar.\"\n\nThen the little tailor went out to the wood where the boar was last\nseen, and when he came near him he ran away, and ran away, and ran\naway, till at last he came to a little chapel in the wood into which\nhe ran, and the boar at his heels. He climbed up to a high window and\ngot outside the chapel, and then rushed around to the door and closed\nand locked it.\n\nThen he went back to the King and said to him: \"I have your wild boar\nfor you in the chapel in the woods. Send some of your men to kill him,\nor do what you like with him.\"\n\n\"How did you manage to get him there?\" said the King.\n\n\"Oh, I caught him by the bristles and threw him in there as I thought\nyou wanted to have him safe and sound. What's the next thing I must\ndo?\"\n\n\"Well,\" said the King, \"there's a unicorn in this country killing\neveryone that he meets. I do not want him slain; I want him caught and\nbrought to me.\"\n\nSo the little tailor said, \"Give me a rope and a hatchet and I will\nsee what I can do.\"\n\nSo he went with the rope and hatchet to the wood, where the unicorn\nhad been seen. And when he came towards it he dodged it, and he dodged\nit, till at last he dodged behind a big tree, till the unicorn, in\ntrying to pierce, ran his horn into the tree where it stuck fast.\n\nThen the little tailor came forth and tied the rope around the\nunicorn's neck, and dug out the horn with his hatchet, and dragged the\nunicorn to the King.\n\n\"What's the next thing?\" said the little tailor.\n\n\"Well, there is only one thing more. There are two giants who are\ndestroying everybody they meet. Get rid of them, and my daughter and\nthe half of my kingdom shall be yours.\"\n\nThen the little tailor went to seek the giants and found them sleeping\nunder some trees in the woods. He filled his box with stones, climbed\nup a tree overlooking the giants, and when he had hidden himself in\nthe branches he threw a stone at the chest of one of the giants who\nwoke up and said to his brother giant, \"What are you doing there?\"\n\nAnd the other giant woke up and said, \"I have done nothing.\"\n\n\"Well, don't do it again,\" said the other giant, and laid down to\nsleep again.\n\nThen the tailor threw a stone at the other giant and hit him a whack\non the chin. That giant rose up and said to his fellow giant, \"What do\nyou do that for?\"\n\n\"Do what?\"\n\n\"Hit me on the chin.\"\n\n\"I didn't.\"\n\n\"You did.\"\n\n\"I didn't.\"\n\n\"You did.\"\n\n\"Well, take that for not doing it.\"\n\nAnd with that the other giant hit him a rousing blow on the head. With\nthat they commenced fighting and tore up the trees and hit one another\ntill at last one of them was killed, and the other one was so badly\ninjured that the tailor had no difficulty in killing him with his\nhatchet.\n\nThen he went back to the King and said: \"I have got rid of your\ngiants for you; send your men and bury them in the forest. They tore\nup the trees and tried to kill me with them but I was too much for\nthem. Now for the Princess.\"\n\nWell, the King had nothing more to say, and gave him his daughter in\nmarriage and half the kingdom to rule.\n\nBut shortly after they were married the Princess heard the tailor\nsaying in his sleep: \"Fix that button better; baste that side gore;\ndon't drop your stitches like that.\"\n\nAnd then she knew she had married a tailor. And she went to her father\nweeping bitterly and complained.\n\n\"Well, my dear,\" he said, \"I promised, and he certainly showed himself\na great hero. But I will try and get rid of him for you. To-night I\nwill send into your bedroom a number of soldiers that shall slay him\neven if he can kill a dozen at a blow.\"\n\nSo that night the little tailor noticed there was something wrong and\nheard the soldiers moving about near the bedroom. So he pretended to\nfall asleep and called out in his sleep: \"I have killed a dozen at a\nblow; I have slain two giants; I have caught a wild boar by his\nbristles, and captured a unicorn alive. Show me the man that I need\nfear.\"\n\nAnd when the soldiers heard that they said to the Princess that the\njob was too much for them, and went away.\n\nAnd the Princess thought better of it, and was proud of her little\nhero, and they lived happily ever afterwards.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The Earl of Cattenborough will be Pleased to Partake of\na Potato]\n\nTHE EARL OF CATTENBOROUGH\n\n\nOnce upon a time there was a miller who had three sons, Charles, Sam,\nand John. And every night when the servant went to bed he used to call\nout:\n\n\"Good-night, Missus; good-night, Master; Good-night, Charles, Sam,\nJohn.\"\n\nNow after a time the miller's wife died, and, soon after, the miller,\nleaving only the mill, the donkey, and the cat. And Charles, as the\neldest, took the mill, and Sam took the donkey and went off with it,\nand John was left with only the cat.\n\nNow how do you think the cat used to help John to live? She used to\ntake a bag with a string around the top and place it with some cheese\nin the bushes, and when a hare or a partridge would come and try to\nget the piece of cheese--snap! Miss Puss would draw the string and\nthere was the hare or partridge for Master Jack to eat. One day two\nhares happened to rush into the bag at the same time. So the cat,\nafter giving one to Jack, took the other and went with it to the\nKing's palace. And when she came outside the palace gate she cried\nout, \"Miaou.\"\n\nThe sentry at the gate came to see what was the matter. Miss Puss gave\nhim the hare with a bow and said: \"Give this to the King with the\ncompliments of the Earl of Cattenborough.\"\n\nThe King liked jugged hare very much and was glad to get such a fine\npresent.\n\nShortly after this Miss Puss found a gold coin rolling in the dirt.\nAnd she went up to the palace and asked the sentry if he would lend\nher a corn measure.\n\nThe sentry asked who wanted it. And Puss said: \"My Master, the Earl of\nCattenborough.\"\n\nSo the sentry gave her the corn measure. And a little while afterwards\nshe took it back with the gold coin, which she had found, fixed in a\ncrack in the corn measure.\n\nSo the King was told that the Earl of Cattenborough measured his gold\nin a corn measure. When the King heard this he told the sentry that if\nsuch a thing happened again he was to deliver a message asking the\nEarl to come and stop at the palace.\n\nSome time after the cat caught two partridges, and took one of them to\nthe palace. And when she called out, \"Miaou,\" and presented it to the\nsentry, in the name of the Earl of Cattenborough, the sentry told her\nthat the King wished to see the Earl at his palace.\n\nSo Puss went back to Jack and said to him: \"The King desires to see\nthe Earl of Cattenborough at his palace.\"\n\n\"What is that to do with me?\" said Jack.\n\n\"Oh, you can be the Earl of Cattenborough if you like. I'll help you.\"\n\n\"But I have no clothes, and they'll soon find out what I am when I\ntalk.\"\n\n\"As for that,\" said Miss Puss, \"I'll get you proper clothes if you do\nwhat I tell you; and when you come to the palace I will see that you\ndo not make any mistakes.\"\n\nSo next day she told Jack to take off his clothes and hide them under\na big stone and dip himself into the river. And while he was doing\nthis she went up to the palace gate and said: \"Miaou, miaou, miaou!\"\n\nAnd when the sentry came to the gate she said: \"My Master, the Earl of\nCattenborough, has been robbed of all he possessed, even of his\nclothes, and he is hiding in the bramble bush by the side of the\nriver. What is to be done? What is to be done?\"\n\nThe sentry went and told the King. And the King gave orders that a\nsuitable suit of clothes, worthy of an Earl, should be sent to Master\nJack, who soon put them on and went to the King's palace accompanied\nby Puss. When they got there they were introduced into the chamber of\nthe King, who thanked Jack for his kind presents.\n\nMiss Puss stood forward and said: \"My Master, the Earl of\nCattenborough, desires to state to your Majesty that there is no need\nof any thanks for such trifles.\"\n\nThe King thought it was very grand of Jack not to speak directly to\nhim, and summoned his lord chamberlain, and from that time onward only\nspoke through him. Thus, when they sat down to dinner with the Queen\nand the Princess, the King would say to his chamberlain, \"Will the\nEarl of Cattenborough take a potato?\"\n\nWhereupon Miss Puss would bow and say: \"The Earl of Cattenborough\nthanks his Majesty and would be glad to partake of a potato.\"\n\nThe King was so much struck by Jack's riches and grandeur, and the\nPrincess was so pleased with his good looks and fine dress that it was\ndetermined that he should marry the Princess.\n\nBut the King thought he would try and see if he were really so nobly\nborn and bred as he seemed. So he told his servants to put a mean\ntruckle bed in the room in which Jack was to sleep, knowing that no\nnoble would put up with such a thing.\n\nWhen Miss Puss saw this bed she at once guessed what was up. And when\nJack began to undress to get into bed, she made him stop, and called\nthe attendants to say that he could not sleep in such a bed.\n\nSo they took him into another bedroom, where there was a fine\nfour-poster with a dais, and everything worthy of a noble to sleep\nupon. Then the King became sure that Jack was a real noble, and\nmarried him soon to his daughter the Princess.\n\nAfter the wedding feast was over the King told Jack that he and the\nQueen and the Princess would come with him to his castle of\nCattenborough, and Jack did not know what to do. But Miss Puss told\nhim it would be all right if he only didn't speak much while on the\njourney. And that suited Jack very well.\n\nSo they all set out in a carriage with four horses, and with the\nKing's life-guards riding around it. But Miss Puss ran on in front of\nthe carriage, and when she came to a field where men were mowing down\nthe hay she pointed to the life-guards riding along, and said: \"Men,\nif you do not say that this field belongs to the Earl of Cattenborough\nthose soldiers will cut you to pieces with their swords.\"\n\nSo when the carriage came along the King called one of the men to the\nside of it and said, \"Whose is this field?\"\n\nAnd the man said, \"It belongs to the Earl of Cattenborough.\"\n\nAnd the King turned to his son-in-law and said, \"I did not know that\nyou had estates so near us.\"\n\nAnd Jack said, \"I had forgotten it myself.\"\n\nAnd this only confirmed the King in his idea about Jack's great\nwealth.\n\nA little farther on there was another great field in which men were\nraking hay. And Miss Puss spoke to them as before. So, when the\ncarriage came up, they also declared that this field belonged to the\nEarl of Cattenborough. And so it went on through the whole drive. Then\nthe King said, \"Let us now go to your castle.\"\n\nThen Jack looked at Miss Puss, and she said: \"If your Majesty will but\nwait an hour I will go on before and order the castle to be made ready\nfor you.\"\n\nWith that she jumped away and went to the castle of a great ogre and\nasked to see him. When she came into his presence she said:\n\n\"I have come to give you warning. The King with all his army is coming\nto the castle and will batter its walls down and kill you if he finds\nyou here.\"\n\n\"What shall I do? What shall I do?\" said the ogre.\n\n\"Is there no place where you can hide yourself?\"\n\n\"I am too big to hide,\" said the ogre, \"but my mother gave me a\npowder, and when I take that I can make myself as small as I like.\"\n\n\"Well, why not take it now?\" said the cat.\n\n[Illustration: The Cat and the Ogre]\n\nAnd with that he took the powder and shrunk into a little body no\nbigger than a mouse. And thereupon Miss Puss jumped upon him and ate\nhim all up, and then went down into the great yard of the castle and\ntold the guards that it now belonged to her Master the Earl of\nCattenborough. Then she ordered them to open the gates and let in the\nKing's carriage, which came along just then.\n\nThe King was delighted to find what a fine castle his son-in-law\npossessed, and left his daughter the Princess with him at the castle\nwhile he drove back to his own palace. And Jack and the Princess\nlived happily in the castle.\n\nBut one day Miss Puss felt very ill and lay down as if dead, and the\nchamberlain of the castle went to Jack and said:\n\n\"My lord, your cat is dead.\"\n\nAnd Jack said: \"Well, throw her out on the dunghill.\"\n\nBut Miss Puss, when she heard it, called out: \"Had you not better\nthrow me into the mill stream?\"\n\nAnd Jack remembered where he had come from and was frightened that the\ncat would say. So he ordered the physician of the castle to attend to\nher, and ever after gave her whatever she wanted.\n\n[Illustration: \"Had You not Better Throw me into the Millstream?\"]\n\nAnd when the King died he succeeded him, and that was the end of the\nEarl of Cattenborough.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The Child Finds the Feather Dress]\n\nTHE SWAN MAIDENS\n\n\nThere was once a hunter who used often to spend the whole night\nstalking the deer or setting traps for game. Now it happened one night\nthat he was watching in a clump of bushes near the lake for some wild\nducks that he wished to trap. Suddenly he heard, high up in the air, a\nwhirring of wings and thought the ducks were coming; and he strung his\nbow and got ready his arrows. But instead of ducks there appeared\nseven maidens all clad in robes made of feathers, and they alighted on\nthe banks of the lake, and taking off their robes plunged into the\nwaters and bathed and sported in the lake. They were all beautiful,\nbut of them all the youngest and smallest pleased most the hunter's\neye, and he crept forward from the bushes and seized her dress of\nplumage and took it back with him into the bushes.\n\nAfter the swan maidens had bathed and sported to their heart's\ndelight, they came back to the bank wishing to put on their feather\nrobes again; and the six eldest found theirs, but the youngest could\nnot find hers. They searched and they searched till at last the dawn\nbegan to appear, and the six sisters called out to her:\n\n\"We must away; 'tis the dawn; you meet your fate whatever it be.\" And\nwith that they donned their robes and flew away, and away, and away.\n\nWhen the hunter saw them fly away he came forward with the feather\nrobe in his hand; and the swan maiden begged and begged that he would\ngive her back her robe. He gave her his cloak but would not give her\nher robe, feeling that she would fly away. And he made her promise to\nmarry him, and took her home, and hid her feather robe where she could\nnot find it. So they were married and lived happily together and had\ntwo fine children, a boy and a girl, who grew up strong and beautiful;\nand their mother loved them with all her heart.\n\nOne day her little daughter was playing at hide-and-seek with her\nbrother, and she went behind the wainscoting to hide herself, and\nfound there a robe all made of feathers, and took it to her mother. As\nsoon as she saw it she put it on and said to her daughter:\n\n\"Tell father that if he wishes to see me again he must find me in the\nLand East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon;\" and with that she flew\naway.\n\nWhen the hunter came home next morning his little daughter told him\nwhat had happened and what her mother said. So he set out to find his\nwife in the Land East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon. And he wandered\nfor many days till he came across an old man who had fallen on the\nground, and he lifted him up and helped him to a seat and tended him\ntill he felt better.\n\nThen the old man asked him what he was doing and where he was going.\nAnd he told him all about the swan maidens and his wife, and he asked\nthe old man if he had heard of the Land East o' the Sun and West o'\nthe Moon.\n\nAnd the old man said: \"No, but I can ask.\"\n\nThen he uttered a shrill whistle and soon all the plain in front of\nthem was filled with all of the beasts of the world, for the old man\nwas no less than the King of the Beasts.\n\nAnd he called out to them: \"Who is there here that knows where the\nLand is East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon?\" But none of the beasts\nknew.\n\nThen the old man said to the hunter: \"You must go seek my brother who\nis the King of the Birds,\" and told him how to find his brother.\n\nAnd after a time he found the King of the Birds, and told him what he\nwanted. So the King of the Birds whistled loud and shrill, and soon\nthe sky was darkened with all the birds of the air, who came around\nhim. Then he asked:\n\n\"Which of you knows where is the Land East o' the Sun and West o' the\nMoon?\"\n\nAnd none answered, and the King of the Birds said:\n\n\"Then you must consult my brother the King of the Fishes,\" and he told\nhim how to find him.\n\nAnd the hunter went on, and he went on, and he went on, till he came\nto the King of the Fishes, and he told him what he wanted. And the\nKing of the Fishes went to the shore of the sea and summoned all the\nfishes of the sea. And when they came around him he called out:\n\n\"Which of you knows where is the Land East o' the Sun and West o' the\nMoon?\"\n\nAnd none of them answered, till at last a dolphin that had come late\ncalled out:\n\n\"I have heard that at the top of the Crystal Mountain lies the Land\nEast o' the Sun and West o' the Moon; but how to get there I know not\nsave that it is near the Wild Forest.\"\n\nSo the hunter thanked the King of the Fishes and went to the Wild\nForest. And as he got near there he found two men quarrelling, and as\nhe came near they came towards him and asked him to settle their\ndispute.\n\n\"Now what is it?\" said the hunter.\n\n[Illustration: The Dolphin who Came Late]\n\n\"Our father has just died and he has left but two things, this cap\nwhich, whenever you wear it, nobody can see you, and these shoon,\nwhich will carry you through the air to whatever place you will. Now I\nbeing the elder claim the right of choice, which of these two I shall\nhave; and he declares that, as the younger, he has the right to the\nshoon. Which do you think is right?\"\n\nSo the hunter thought and thought, and at last he said:\n\n\"It is difficult to decide, but the best thing I can think of is for\nyou to race from here to that tree yonder, and whoever gets back to me\nfirst I will hand him either the shoes or the cap, whichever he\nwishes.\"\n\nSo he took the shoes in one hand and the cap in the other, and waited\ntill they had started off running towards the tree. And as soon as\nthey had started running towards the tree he put on the shoes of\nswiftness and placed the invisible cap on his head and wished himself\nin the Land East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon. And he flew, and he\nflew, and he flew, over seven Bends, and seven Glens, and seven\nMountain Moors, till at last he came to the Crystal Mountain. And on\nthe top of that, as the dolphin had said, there was the Land East o'\nthe Sun and West o' the Moon.\n\nNow when he got there he took off his invisible cap and shoes of\nswiftness and asked who ruled over the Land; and he was told that\nthere was a King who had seven daughters who dressed in swans'\nfeathers and flew wherever they wished.\n\nThen the hunter knew that he had come to the Land of his wife. And he\nwent boldly to the King and said:\n\n\"Hail O King, I have come to seek my wife.\"\n\nAnd the King said, \"Who is she?\"\n\nAnd the hunter said, \"Your youngest daughter.\" Then he told him how he\nhad won her.\n\nThen the King said: \"If you can tell her from her sisters then I know\nthat what you say is true.\" And he summoned his seven daughters to\nhim, and there they all were, dressed in their robes of feathers and\nlooking each like all the rest.\n\nSo the hunter said: \"If I may take each of them by the hand I will\nsurely know my wife\"; for when she had dwelt with him she had sewn the\nlittle shifts and dresses of her children, and the forefinger of her\nright hand had the marks of the needle.\n\nAnd when he had taken the hand of each of the swan maidens he soon\nfound which was his wife and claimed her for his own. Then the King\ngave them great gifts and sent them by a sure way down the Crystal\nMountain.\n\nAnd after a while they reached home, and lived happily together ever\nafterwards.\n\n[Illustration: _East o' the Sun & West o' the Moon_]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Androcles and the Lion]\n\nANDROCLES AND THE LION\n\n\nIt happened in the old days at Rome that a slave named Androcles\nescaped from his master and fled into the forest, and he wandered\nthere for a long time till he was weary and well nigh spent with\nhunger and despair. Just then he heard a lion near him moaning and\ngroaning and at times roaring terribly. Tired as he was Androcles rose\nup and rushed away, as he thought, from the lion; but as he made his\nway through the bushes he stumbled over the root of a tree and fell\ndown lamed, and when he tried to get up there he saw the lion coming\ntowards him, limping on three feet and holding his fore-paw in front\nof him. Poor Androcles was in despair; he had not strength to rise and\nrun away, and there was the lion coming upon him. But when the great\nbeast came up to him instead of attacking him it kept on moaning and\ngroaning and looking at Androcles, who saw that the lion was holding\nout his right paw, which was covered with blood and much swollen.\nLooking more closely at it Androcles saw a great big thorn pressed\ninto the paw, which was the cause of all the lion's trouble. Plucking\nup courage he seized hold of the thorn and drew it out of the lion's\npaw, who roared with pain when the thorn came out, but soon after\nfound such relief from it that he fawned upon Androcles and showed, in\nevery way that he knew, to whom he owed the relief. Instead of eating\nhim up he brought him a young deer that he had slain, and Androcles\nmanaged to make a meal from it. For some time the lion continued to\nbring the game he had killed to Androcles, who became quite fond of\nthe huge beast.\n\nBut one day a number of soldiers came marching through the forest and\nfound Androcles, and as he could not explain what he was doing they\ntook him prisoner and brought him back to the town from which he had\nfled. Here his master soon found him and brought him before the\nauthorities, and he was condemned to death because he had fled from\nhis master. Now it used to be the custom to throw murderers and other\ncriminals to the lions in a huge circus, so that while the criminals\nwere punished the public could enjoy the spectacle of a combat between\nthem and the wild beasts. So Androcles was condemned to be thrown to\nthe lions, and on the appointed day he was led forth into the Arena\nand left there alone with only a spear to protect him from the lion.\nThe Emperor was in the royal box that day and gave the signal for the\nlion to come out and attack Androcles. But when it came out of its\ncage and got near Androcles, what do you think it did? Instead of\njumping upon him it fawned upon him and stroked him with its paw and\nmade no attempt to do him any harm. It was of course the lion which\nAndrocles had met in the forest. The Emperor, surprised at seeing such\na strange behaviour in so cruel a beast, summoned Androcles to him and\nasked him how it happened that this particular lion had lost all its\ncruelty of disposition. So Androcles told the Emperor all that had\nhappened to him and how the lion was showing its gratitude for his\nhaving relieved it of the thorn. Thereupon the Emperor pardoned\nAndrocles and ordered his master to set him free, while the lion was\ntaken back into the forest and let loose to enjoy liberty once more.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Day-Dreaming]\n\nDAY-DREAMING\n\n\nNow there was once a man at Bagdad who had seven sons, and when he\ndied he left to each of them one hundred dirhems; and his fifth son,\ncalled Alnaschar the Babbler, invested all this money in some\nglassware, and, putting it in a big tray, from which to show and sell\nit, he sat down on a raised bench, at the foot of a wall, against\nwhich he leant back, placing the tray on the ground in front of him.\nAs he sat he began day-dreaming and said to himself: \"I have laid out\na hundred dirhems on this glass. Now I will surely sell it for two\nhundred, and with it I will buy more glass and sell that for four\nhundred; nor will I cease to buy and sell till I become master of\nmuch wealth. With this I will buy all kinds of merchandise and jewels\nand perfumes and gain great profit on them till, God willing, I will\nmake my capital a hundred thousand dinars or two million dirhems. Then\nI will buy a handsome house, together with slaves and horses and\ntrappings of gold, and eat and drink, nor will there be a singing girl\nin the city but I will have her to sing to me.\" This he said looking\nat the tray before him with glassware worth a hundred dirhems. Then he\ncontinued: \"When I have amassed a hundred thousand dinars I will send\nout marriage-brokers to demand for me in marriage the hand of the\nVizier's daughter, for I hear that she is perfect in beauty and of\nsurpassing grace. I will give her a dowry of a thousand dinars, and if\nher father consent, 'tis well; if not, I will take her by force, in\nspite of him. When I return home, I will buy ten little slaves and\nclothes for myself such as are worn by kings and sultans and get a\nsaddle of gold, set thick with precious jewels. Then I will mount and\nparade the city, with slaves before and behind me, while the people\nwill salute me and call down blessings upon me: after which I will go\nto the Vizier, the girl's father, with slaves behind and before me, as\nwell as on either hand. When the Vizier sees me, he will rise and\nseating me in his own place, sit down below me, because I am his\nson-in-law. Now I will have with me two slaves with purses, in each a\nthousand dinars, and I will give him the thousand dinars of the dowry\nand make him a present of another thousand dinars so that he may\nrecognize my nobility and generosity and greatness of mind and the\nlittleness of the world in my eyes; and for every ten words he will\nsay to me, I will answer him only two. Then I will return to my house,\nand if any one come to me on the bride's part, I will make him a\npresent of money and clothe him in a robe of honour; but if he bring\nme a present I will return it to him and will not accept it so that\nthey may know how great of soul I am.\" After a while Alnaschar\ncontinued: \"Then I will command them to bring the Vizier's daughter to\nme in state and will get ready my house in fine condition to receive\nher. When the time of the unveiling of the bride is come, I will put\non my richest clothes and sit down on a couch of brocaded silk,\nleaning on a cushion and turning my eyes neither to the right nor to\nthe left, to show the haughtiness of my mind and the seriousness of my\ncharacter. My bride shall stand before me like the full moon, in her\nrobes and ornaments, and I, out of my pride and my disdain, will not\nlook at her, till all who are present shall say to me: 'O my lord, thy\nwife and thy handmaid stands before thee; deign to look upon her, for\nstanding is irksome to her.' And they will kiss the earth before me\nmany times, whereupon I will lift my eyes and give one glance at her,\nthen bend down my head again. Then they will carry her to the\nbride-chamber, and meanwhile I will rise and change my clothes for a\nricher suit. When they bring in the bride for the second time, I will\nnot look at her till they have implored me several times, when I will\nglance at her and bow down my head; nor will I cease doing thus, till\nthey have made an end of parading and displaying her. Then I will\norder one of my slaves to fetch a purse, and, giving it to the\ntire-women, command them to lead her to the bride-chamber. When they\nleave me alone with the bride, I will not look at her or speak to her,\nbut will sit by her with averted face, that she may say I am high of\nsoul. Presently her mother will come to me and kiss my head and hands\nand say to me: 'O my lord, look on thy handmaid, for she longs for thy\nfavour, and heal her spirit,' But I will give her no answer; and when\nshe sees this, she will come and kiss my feet and say, 'O my lord,\nverily my daughter is a beautiful girl, who has never seen man; and if\nthou show her this aversion, her heart will break; so do thou be\ngracious to her and speak to her.' Then she will rise and fetch a cup\nof wine, and her daughter will take it and come to me; but I will\nleave her standing before me, while I recline upon a cushion of cloth\nof gold, and will not look at her to show the haughtiness of my heart,\nso that she will think me to be a Sultan of exceeding dignity and will\nsay to me: 'O my lord, for God's sake, do not refuse to take the cup\nfrom thy servant's hand, for indeed I am thy handmaid.' But I will not\nspeak to her, and she will press me, saying: 'Needs must thou drink\nit,' and put it to my lips. Then I will shake my fist in her face and\nspurn her with my foot thus.\" So saying, he gave a kick with his foot\nand knocked over the tray of glass, which fell over to the ground, and\nall that was in it was broken.\n\n\n\n\nKEEP COOL\n\n\nThere was once a man and he had three sons, and when he died they all\nhad to go out to seek a living. So the eldest went out first, leaving\nhis two brothers at home, and went to a neighbouring farmer to try and\nget work from him.\n\n\"Well, well, my man,\" said the farmer, \"I can give you work but on\nonly one condition.\"\n\n\"What is that?\"\n\n\"I cannot abear any high talk on my farm. You must keep cool and not\nlose your temper.\"\n\n\"Oh, never bother about that,\" said the youngster, \"I never lose my\ntemper, or scarcely ever.\"\n\n\"Ah, but if you do,\" said the farmer, \"I make it a condition that I\nshall tear a strip of your skin from your nape to your waist; that\nwill make a pretty ribbon to tie around the throat of my dog there.\"\n\n\"That doesn't suit me,\" was the reply. \"So fare thee well, master, I\nmust try another place.\"\n\n\"Keep cool, keep cool,\" said the farmer. \"I am a just man; what's good\nfor the man I consider good for the master. So if I should lose my\ntemper I am quite willing that you should take the ribbon of flesh\nfrom my back.\"\n\n\"Oh, if that's so,\" said the youngster, \"I'll agree to stay. But we\nmust have it in black and white.\"\n\nSo they sent for the notary and wrote it all down that if either lost\nhis temper he should also lose a strip of skin from his back. But the\neldest son had not been in the house a week when the master gave him\nso hard a task that he lost his temper and had to give up a strip of\nskin from his back. So he went home and told his brothers about it.\n\nWell, the brothers were savage at hearing what he had suffered. And\nthe second son went to the same man in the hope of getting revenge for\nhis brother. But the same thing happened to him, and he had to come\nwith a strip of skin from his back like his elder brother.\n\nNow the third son, whose name was Jack, made up his mind he wouldn't\nbe done like the other two. And he went to the man and he engaged\nhimself to serve him for the same wage but on the same conditions that\nhis two brothers had done.\n\nThe very first morning that Jack had to go out to work his master gave\nhim a piece of dry bread and told him to mind the sheep.\n\n\"Is this all I'm to get to eat?\" said Jack.\n\n\"Why, yes,\" said the master; \"there'll be supper when you come home.\"\n\nJack was going to complain when his master called out to him, \"Keep\ncool, Jack, keep cool,\" and pointed to his back.\n\nSo Jack swallowed his rage and went out into the field. But on his way\nhe met a man, to whom he sold one of the sheep for five shillings, and\nwent and bought enough to eat and drink for a whole week.\n\nWhen he got home that evening his master began to count the sheep, and\nwhen he found one was missing, he said to Jack:\n\n\"You've let one of the sheep run away.\"\n\n\"No, no, sir,\" said Jack, \"I sold him to a man passing along.\"\n\n\"You shouldn't have done that without my telling you; but where's the\nmoney?\"\n\n\"Oh, with the money,\" said Jack, \"I went and bought me some eats.\" And\nhe showed him what he had bought.\n\nThe master was going to fly in a rage, but Jack said to him: \"Keep\ncool, master, keep cool,\" and pointed to his back. So he remembered\nand said nothing more.\n\nThe next day Jack was ordered to take the pigs to market to sell them,\nand after he had cut off all their tails he sold them and pocketed the\nmoney; and then he went to a marsh near the farm and planted all the\ntails in the marsh.\n\nWhen he got home the master asked him if he had sold the pigs.\n\nHe said: \"No, they all rushed into the marsh at the foot of the\nvalley.\"\n\n\"I don't believe you,\" said the master, and was going to get into a\nrage when Jack said to him:\n\n\"Keep cool, master, keep cool.\"\n\nSo he went with Jack to the marsh, and when he saw the pigs' tails all\npeeping out the marsh he went and plucked one of them out of the\nground, and Jack said:\n\n\"There, you've torn the tail from the poor pig's back.\"\n\nThen the master was going to get into a rage again but Jack said:\n\"Keep cool, master, keep cool,\" and pointed to his back.\n\nNext day the master didn't like sending Jack out with the animals or\nelse he might sell them to get some dinner. So he said to him:\n\n\"Jack, I want you today to clean the horses and the stable within and\nwithout.\"\n\n\"Very well, master,\" said Jack, and went to the stable; and he\nwhitewashed it within and he whitewashed it without. Then he went to\nthe horses and killed them and took out their insides and cleaned them\nwithin; and then he washed their skins.\n\nIn the evening the master came to see how Jack had got on with his\nwork and was delighted to find the stable looking so clean.\n\n\"But where are the horses?\" he said; and Jack pointed to them lying\ndead on their backs.\n\n\"Why, what have you done?\" said the master.\n\n\"You told me to clean them within and without and how could I clean\nthem within without killing them?\" said Jack.\n\nThen the master was just going to fly into a rage, when Jack said to\nhim: \"Keep cool, master, keep cool,\" and pointed to his back.\n\nSo next day the master had sent Jack out with the sheep, but so that\nhe should not sell any of them to get money for his lunch he sent his\nwife with them telling her to watch Jack from behind a bush, and if he\ntried to sell any of the sheep to stop him. But Jack saw her and\ndidn't say anything or try and sell any of the sheep.\n\nBut next day, when he went out with them, he took with him his gun,\nand when the farmer's wife got behind the bush to watch him, he called\nout: \"Ah, wolf, I see you,\" and fired his gun at her and hit her in\nthe leg. She screamed out, and the master came running up and said:\n\n\"What's this, Jack, what's this?\"\n\nThen Jack said: \"Why, master, I thought that was a wolf and I shot my\ngun at it and it turned out to be the missus.\"\n\n\"How dare you, you scoundrel, shoot my wife!\" cried out the master.\n\n\"Don't be in a rage, master, don't be in a rage,\" said Jack.\n\n\"Anybody would be in a rage if his wife was shot,\" said the master.\n\n\"Well, then,\" said Jack, \"I'll have that strip off your back.\" And as\nthere were witnesses present the master had to let Jack take a strip\nof skin from his back.\n\nAnd with that he went home to his brothers.\n\n[Illustration: The Pig's Tail]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The Dummy]\n\nTHE MASTER THIEF\n\n\nThere was once a farmer who had a son named Will, and he sent him out\nin the world to learn a trade and seek his fortune. Now he hadn't gone\nfar when he was stopped by a band of robbers who called out to him:\n\n\"Your purse or your life!\"\n\nAnd he gave them his purse and said: \"That is an easy way of getting\nmoney, I'd like to be a robber myself.\"\n\nSo they agreed to take him into their band if he could show he was\nable to do a robber's work. And the first person who went through the\nwood again they sent Will to see if he could rob him. So he went up to\nthe man and said to him:\n\n\"Your purse or your life!\"\n\nThe man gave him his purse, whereupon Will took all the money out of\nit and gave it back to the man and took the purse back to the robbers,\nwho said:\n\n\"Well, what luck?\"\n\n\"Oh, I got his purse from him quite easily; here it is.\"\n\n\"Well, what about the money?\" said they.\n\n\"Well, that I gave back to him. You only asked me to say, 'Your purse\nor your life.'\"\n\nAt that the robbers roared with laughter and said: \"You'll never be a\nthief.\"\n\nWill was quite ashamed of making such a fool of himself and determined\nhe would do better next time.\n\nSo one day he saw two farmers driving a herd of cattle to market, and\ntold the robbers that he knew a way to take the cattle from them\nwithout fighting for them.\n\n\"If you do that,\" said they, \"you will be a Master Thief.\"\n\nThen Will went a little way ahead of the robbers with a stout cord,\nwhich he tied under his armpits and then fixed himself upon a branch\nof a tree over the road so that it looked as if he had been hanged.\n\nWhen the farmers came with their cattle they said: \"There's one of the\nrobbers hung up for an example,\" and drove their cattle on farther.\n\nThen Will got down, and running across a bypath got again in front of\nthe farmers and hung himself up as before on a tree by the side of the\nroad.\n\nWhen the farmers came up to him one of them said: \"Goodness gracious\nme, why there's the same robber hanged up here again.\"\n\n\"Oh, that's not the same robber,\" said the other.\n\n\"Yes, it is,\" said the first, \"for I noticed he had a white horn\nbutton on his coat, and see, there it is. It must be the same man.\"\n\n\"How could that be?\" said the other. \"We left that one hanging up dead\nhalf a mile back.\"\n\n\"I am sure it is.\"\n\n\"I am certain it isn't.\"\n\n\"Well, give a good look at him, and we'll go back and see if it isn't\nthe same.\"\n\nSo the farmers went back to look, and Will took their cattle and drove\nthem back to the robbers, who agreed that he was a Master Thief.\n\nHe stopped with them for several years and made much money, and then\ndrove back in a carriage and pair to his father's farm.\n\nWhen he came there his father came to the carriage and bowed to him\nand asked him, \"What is your pleasure, sir?\"\n\n\"Oh, I want to make some inquiries about a young fellow named William\nwho used to be on this farm. What has become of him?\"\n\n\"Oh, I don't know; he was my son and I have not heard from him for\nmany years; I am afraid he has come to no good.\"\n\n\"Look at me closely and see if you see any resemblance to him.\"\n\nThen the farmer recognized Will and took him into the farmhouse and\ncalled Will's mother to come and welcome him back.\n\n\"So, Will, you've come back in a carriage and pair,\" said she. \"How\nhave you earnt so much money?\"\n\nSo Will told his mother that he had become a Master Thief but begged\nher not to mention it to any one, but to tell them that he had been an\nexplorer and had found gold.\n\nWell, the very next day a neighbouring gossip called in upon Will's\nmother and asked her to tell her the news about Will and what he had\nbeen doing.\n\nSo she said: \"Oh, Will has been an exploiter, I mean explorer, but he\nreally was a Master Thief. But you mustn't tell anybody; you'll\npromise, won't you?\"\n\nSo the gossip promised, but of course the moment she got home she told\nall about Will being a Master Thief.\n\nNow the lord of the village soon heard of this, and he called Will up\nto him and said: \"I hear you are a Master Thief. You know that you\ndeserve death for that. But if you can prove that you are really a\nmaster in your thievery I will let you go free. First let us see\nwhether you can steal my horse out of my stable to-night.\"\n\nTo prevent his horse being stolen, the lord ordered it to be saddled\nand put a stable boy on it, telling him to stop there all night.\n\nWill took two flasks of brandy into one of which he had poured a drug,\nand dressing himself as an old woman he went to the lord's stable late\nat night and asked to rest there as it was so cold and she was so\ntired.\n\nThe stable boy pointed to some straw in the corner and told the woman\nshe might rest there for a time.\n\nWhen she sat down she took one of the brandy flasks out of her pocket\nand drank it off, saying, \"Ah, that warms one! Would you like to have\na drink?\"\n\nAnd when the stable boy said \"Yes,\" Will gave him the other flask, and\nas soon as he had drunk it he fell dead asleep.\n\nSo Will lifted him off of the horse and put him on the cross-bar of\nthe stable as if he were riding, and then he got on the horse and rode\naway.\n\nIn the morning the lord went down to the stable and there he saw the\nstable boy riding the cross-bar and his horse gone.\n\nThen Will rode up to the stable on the lord's horse and said: \"Am I\nnot a Master Thief?\"\n\n\"Oh, stealing my horse was not so hard. Let us see if you can steal\nthe sheet from off my bed to-night. But, look out, if you come near my\nbedroom I shall shoot you.\"\n\nThat night Will took a dummy man and propped it up on a ladder, which\nhe put up to the lord's bedroom.\n\nAnd when the lord saw the dummy coming in at the window he shot his\npistol at it and it fell down. He rushed downstairs and out into the\nopen air looking to see if he had shot Will.\n\nMeanwhile Will went up to the lord's bedroom and, speaking in the\nlord's voice, said to his wife: \"Give me the sheet, my dear, to wrap\nthe body of that poor Master Thief in.\"\n\nSo she gave him the sheet and he went away.\n\nNext morning Will brought up the sheet to the lord, who said: \"That\nwas a good trick, I must confess. But if you want really to prove that\nyou are a Master Thief bring to me the priest in a bag, and then I\nwill own your mastery.\"\n\nSo that night Will took a number of crabs and tied candle ends upon\nthem, and taking them to the cemetery lit the candle ends and let them\nloose.\n\nWhen the priest of the village saw these lights moving over the\ncemetery he came to the door and watched them and called out:\n\n\"What is that?\"\n\nNow Will had dressed himself up like an angel.\n\n\"It is the last day of judgment, and I have come for thee, Father\nLawrence, to carry thee to heaven. Come within this bag, and in a\nshort time thou wilt be in thine appointed place.\"\n\nSo Father Lawrence crept within the bag, and Will dragged him along,\nand when he bumped against the ground Father Lawrence said:\n\n\"Oh, we must be going through purgatory.\"\n\nAnd then Will took him to the hen-coops and threw him in among the\nchickens and ducks and geese, and Father Lawrence said:\n\n\"We must be getting near the angels for I hear the rustling of their\nwings.\"\n\nSo Will went up to the lord's house and made him come down to the\nhen-coops and there showed him the priest in the bag, and the lord\nsaid:\n\n\"I do not know how you do these things. I cannot tell if you are\nreally a Master Thief unless you take my horse from under me. If you\ncan do that I will call you the Master of all Master Thieves.\"\n\nWell, next day, Will dressed himself up as an old woman, and taking a\ncart with an old horse put in it a cask of beer, and then went driving\nalong with his thumb in the bunghole.\n\nSoon after he met the lord on horseback who asked him if he had seen a\nman like Will lurking about there in the forest.\n\n\"I think I have,\" said Will, \"and could bring him to you if you\nwanted. But I can't leave this cask before the taps come out; I have\nto keep my thumb in the bunghole.\"\n\n\"Oh, I will do that,\" said the lord, \"if you will only go and get that\nman. Take my horse and run him down.\"\n\nSo Will got on the lord's horse and rode off, leaving the nobleman\nwith his thumb in the bunghole. He waited and he waited and he waited\ntill at last he drove in the cart back to his house, and there he saw\nno less a person than Will himself riding his horse.\n\nThen the noble said unto Will: \"You are indeed a Master Thief. Go your\nway in peace.\"\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Anima Goes down the Hole]\n\nTHE UNSEEN BRIDEGROOM\n\n\nOnce upon a time there was a king and queen, as many a one has been,\nand they had three daughters, all of them beautiful; but the most\nbeautiful of all was the youngest whose name was Anima. Now it\nhappened one day that all three sisters were playing in the meadows,\nand Anima saw a bush with lovely flowers. As she wished to carry it\nhome to plant in her own garden she plucked at the root and plucked\nand plucked again. At last it gave way, and she saw beneath it a\nstairway going down farther into the earth. Being a brave girl and\nvery curious as to where this could lead to, without calling her\nsisters, she crept down the stairs for a long, long way, till at last\nshe came out into the open air again in a country which she had never\nseen before, and not far away, in front of her, she saw a magnificent\npalace.\n\nAnima ran towards it, and when she came to the door she knocked at the\nknocker and it opened without anybody being there. So she went in and\nfound all inside richly bedecked with marble walls and rich trappings;\nand, as she went along, lovely music broke out and came with her\nwherever she went. At last she came to a room with cosy couches, and\nshe threw herself into one because she was tired with her searching.\nScarcely had she done so, when there appeared a table coming towards\nher on wheels, without anybody moving it, and upon the table were\ndelightful fruits and cakes and cool drinks of all kinds. So Anima\ntook as much as she needed and fell into slumber and did not awake\ntill it was getting dark. And then appeared through the air two large\ncandlesticks, each with three candles in them; and they swam through\nthe air and settled upon the tables near her, so that she had plenty\nof light. But she cried out: \"Oh, I must go back to my father and\nmother; how shall I go? How shall I go?\"\n\nThen a sweet voice near her spoke out and said: \"Abide with me and be\nmy bride, and thou shalt have all thy heart desires.\"\n\nBut Anima cried out in fear and trembling: \"But who art thou? Who art\nthou? Come forth and let me see thee.\"\n\nBut the voice replied: \"Nay, nay, that is forbidden. Never must thou\nlook upon my face or we must part, for my mother, the Queen, wishes\nnot that I should wed.\"\n\nSo sweet was his voice and so lonely did Anima feel, that she\nconsented to become his bride, and they lived happily together, though\nhe never came near her till all was dark, so that she could not see\nhim. But after a time Anima became weary even with all these\nsplendours and happiness, and wished to see her own people again, and\nsaid to her husband:\n\n\"Please may I go home and see my father and my mother and my dear\nsisters?\"\n\n\"Nay, nay, child,\" said the voice of her husband, \"ill will come of it\nif thou seest them again, and thou and I must part.\"\n\nBut she kept on begging him to let her return to her people for a\nvisit, or at least to let them come and see her, till at last he\nconsented and sent a message to her father and mother and sisters,\nasking them to come and spend some days with her, at a time when he\nhimself would have to be absent.\n\nSo the King and Queen and Anima's two sisters came and wondered at\nthe splendours of her new home, and, above all, was surprised to find\nthat they were waited on by invisible hands, who did all for them that\nthey could wish for. But Anima's sisters soon became both curious and\nenvious; they could not guess who or what her husband was, and envied\nher having so wonderful a household.\n\nSo one of them said to her: \"But Anima, how marry a man without ever\nseeing him? There must be some reason why he will not show himself;\nperhaps he is deformed, or maybe he is some beast transformed.\"\n\nBut Anima laughed and said: \"He is no beast, that I am sure; and see\nhow kind he is to me. I do not care if he is not as handsome as he\ndoes.\"\n\nStill the sisters kept on insisting that there must be something wrong\nwhere there was something concealed, and at last they got their mother\nthe Queen to say to her as she was leaving: \"Now, Anima, I think it\nright to know who and what thy husband is. Wait till he is asleep and\nlight a lamp, and then see what he is.\"\n\nSoon after this they all departed. And the same night her husband came\nto Anima again, but she had already prepared a lamp of oil with a\nspark of fire ready to kindle it. And when she heard him sleeping by\nher side she lit the candle and looked at him. She was delighted to\nfind that he was most handsome, with a strong and well-made body. But\nas she was looking at him her hand trembled with delight and three\ndrops of oil fell upon his cheek from the lamp she was holding. Then\nhe woke up and saw her, and knew that she had broken her promise, and\nsaid:\n\n\"Oh, Anima, oh, Anima, why hast thou done this? Here we part until\nthou canst persuade my mother the Queen to let thee see me again.\"\n\n[Illustration: _The Lamp_]\n\nWith that came a rumbling of thunder and her lamp went out, and Anima\nfell to the ground in a swoon. And when she awoke the palace had\ndisappeared and she was on a bleak, bleak moor. She walked and she\nwalked till she came to a house by the wayside where an old woman\nreceived her and gave her something to eat and drink, and then asked\nAnima how she came there. So Anima told all that had happened to her,\nand the old woman said:\n\n\"Thou hast married my nephew, my sister's son, and I fear she will\nnever forgive thee. But pluck up courage, go to her and demand thy\nhusband, and she'll have to give him up to thee if thou canst do all\nthat she demands from thee. Take this twig; if she asks what I think\nshe will ask, strike it on the ground thrice and help will come to\nthee.\"\n\nThen she told Anima the way to her husband's mother, and, as it was\nfar distant, gave her directions where she could find another sister\nof hers who might help her. So she came to another house along the way\nwhere she saw another old woman, to whom she told her story, and this\nold woman, the Queen's sister, gave her a raven's feather and told\nher how to use it.\n\nAt last Anima came to the palace of the Queen, the mother of her\ninvisible husband, and when she came into her presence demanded to see\nhim.\n\n\"What, thou low-born mortal,\" cried the Queen; \"how didst thou dare to\nwed my son?\"\n\n\"It was his choice,\" said Anima, \"and I am now his wife. Surely you\nwill let me see him once more.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said the Queen, \"if thou canst do what I demand of thee thou\nshalt see my son again. And first go into that barn where my stupid\nstewards have poured together all the wheat and oats and rice into one\ngreat heap. If by nightfall thou canst separate them into three heaps\nperhaps I may grant thy request.\"\n\nSo Anima was led to the great barn of the Queen and there was a huge\nheap of grain all mixed together, and she was left alone, and the barn\nwas closed upon her. Then she bethought herself of the twig that the\nQueen's sister had given her, and she struck it thrice upon the\nground, whereupon thousands of ants came out of the ground and began\nto work upon the heap of grain, some of them taking the wheat to one\ncorner, some the oats to another, and the rest carrying off the grains\nof rice to a third. By nightfall all the grain had been separated, and\nwhen the Queen came to let out Anima she found the task had been\ndone.\n\n\"Thou hast had help,\" she cried; \"we'll see to-morrow if thou canst do\nsomething by thyself.\"\n\nNext day the Queen took her into a large loft at the top of the palace\nalmost filled with feathers of geese, of eider ducks, and of swans,\nand from her cupboard she took twelve mattresses and said:\n\n\"See these mattresses; by the end of the day thou must fill four of\nthem with swans' feathers, four of them with eider-down, and the rest\nwith feathers of geese. Do that and then we will see.\"\n\nWith that she left Anima and closed and locked the door behind her.\nAnd Anima remembered what the other Queen's sister had given her, and\ntook out the raven's feather and waved it thrice. Immediately birds,\nand birds, and birds came flying through the windows, and each of them\npicked out different kinds of feathers and placed them in the\nmattresses, so that long before night the twelve mattresses were\nfilled as the Queen had ordered.\n\nAgain at nightfall the Queen came in, and as soon as she saw that the\nsecond task had been carried out, she said:\n\n\"Again thou hast had help; to-morrow thou shalt have something to do\nwhich thou alone canst carry out.\"\n\nNext day the Queen summoned her and gave her a small flask and a\nletter and said to her:\n\n\"Take these to my sister, the Queen of the Nether-World, and bring\nback what she will give to thee safely, and then I may let thee see my\nson.\"\n\n\"How can I find your sister?\" said Anima.\n\n\"That thou must find for thyself,\" and left her.\n\nPoor Anima did not know which way to go, but as she walked along the\nvoice of some one invisible to her said softly:\n\n\"Take with thee a copper coin and a loaf of bread and go down that\ndeep defile there till thou comest to a deep river and there thou wilt\nsee an old man ferrying people across the river. Put the coin between\nyour teeth and let him take it from you, and he will carry you across,\nbut speak not to him. Then, on the other side, thou wilt come to a\ndark cave, and at the entrance is a savage dog; give him the loaf of\nbread and he will let thee pass and thou wilt soon come to the Queen\nof the Nether-World. Take what she gives thee, but beware lest thou\neat anything or sit down while thou art within the cave.\"\n\nAnima recognized the voice of her husband and did all that he had told\nher, till she came to the Queen of the Nether-World, who read the\nletter she had handed to her. Then she offered Anima cake and wine,\nbut she refused, shaking her head, but saying nothing. Then the Queen\nof the Nether-World gave her a curiously wrought box and said to her:\n\n\"Take this, I pray thee, to my sister, but beware lest thou open it on\nthe way or ill may befall thee,\" and then dismissed her.\n\n[Illustration: The Dog]\n\nAnima went back past the great dog and crossed the dark river. When\nshe got into the forest beyond she could not resist the temptation to\nopen the box, and when she did so out jumped a number of little dolls,\nwhich commenced dancing about in front of her and around her and\namused her much by their playful antics. But soon the night was coming\non, and she wanted to put them into the box, and they ran away and hid\nbehind the trees, and Anima knew that she could not get them back. So\nshe sat down upon the ground and wept, and wept, and wept. But at last\nshe heard the voice of her husband once more, who said:\n\n[Illustration: The Casket]\n\n\"See what thy curiosity has again brought upon thee; thou canst not\nbring back the box to my mother just as my aunt the Queen of the\nNether-World has given it to you, and so we shall not see one another\nagain.\"\n\nBut at this Anima burst out into weeping and wailing so piteously that\nhe took compassion on her and said:\n\n\"See that golden bough on yonder tree; pluck it and strike the ground\nthree times with it and see what thou wilt see.\"\n\nAnima did as she had been told, and soon the little dolls came running\nfrom behind the trees and jumped of their own accord into the box; and\nshe closed it quickly and took it back to the Queen, her husband's\nmother.\n\nThe Queen opened the box, and when she found all the little dolls were\nin it laughed aloud and said:\n\n\"I know who has helped thee; I cannot help myself; I suppose thou must\nhave my son.\"\n\nAnd as soon as she had said this Anima's husband appeared and took her\nto him, and they lived happy ever afterwards.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The Master-Maid with the Glass Axe]\n\nTHE MASTER-MAID\n\n\nThere was once a king and a queen and they had a bonny boy whom they\nloved beyond anything. Now when he was grown up into a fine young\nprince, the King, his father, went a-hunting one day and lost his way\nin the forest, and when he came through it he found a raging stream\nbetween him and his palace. He did not know how to get home, when\nsuddenly a huge giant came out of the forest and said:\n\n\"What would you give if I carried you across?\"\n\n\"Anything, anything,\" said the King.\n\n\"Will you give me the first thing that meets you as you come to the\npalace gate?\"\n\nThe King thought for a while and then remembered that whenever he came\nto the gate of the palace his favourite deerhound Bevis always came to\ngreet him. So, though he was sorry to lose him, he thought it was\nworth while, and agreed with the giant.\n\nThereupon the giant took the King upon his shoulders and wading across\nthe raging stream landed him on the farther bank and saying to him,\n\"Remember what you have promised,\" went back again to the other side.\n\nThe King soon found his way towards the palace, but as he came to the\npalace gate it happened that his son Prince Edgar was standing there,\nand before Bevis the hound could dash out to greet his master, Prince\nEdgar had rushed towards his father and caught him by the hand. The\nKing was rather startled but thought to himself:\n\n\"Oh, how will the giant know who met me? After all I intended to give\nhim Bevis, and that's what I'll do when he comes.\"\n\nThe next day the giant came to the castle gates and asked to see the\nKing, and when he was admitted to his presence he said:\n\n\"I come for your promise.\"\n\n\"Bring Bevis the hound,\" said the King to his attendants.\n\nBut the giant said: \"I want no hound; give me your Prince.\"\n\nThe King was alarmed at finding that the giant knew who had met him;\nbut he told him that the Prince was away, but he would send and summon\nhim. Then he called his High Steward and told him to dress up the\nherd-boy of the palace in some of the Prince's clothes. And when this\nwas done he gave him to the giant, who hoisted him on his shoulder and\nstrode off with him.\n\nWhen they had gone a little way along the herd-boy in the Prince's\nsuit called out:\n\n\"Stop, stop, I am hungry; this is the time the herd rests and I have\nmy luncheon.\"\n\nThen the giant knew that he had been deceived and went back to the\nKing's palace and said to him:\n\n\"Take your herd-boy and give me the Prince.\"\n\nThe King was again startled to find that the giant had found out his\ntrick, but thought to himself:\n\n\"Well, he didn't find out at once; we'll have another try,\" and\nordered his Steward to dress up the shepherd boy in the Prince's\nclothes and give him to the giant.\n\nAgain the giant strode off with the shepherd boy in Prince's clothes\nupon his shoulder, and they had not gone far when the boy called out:\n\n[Illustration: _The Prince wants his Lunch_]\n\n\"Stop, stop, it is time for lunch; this is when the sheep all rest.\"\n\nThen again the giant knew that he had been tricked and rushed back in\na rage to the King's palace and threw the shepherd boy to the ground\nand called out:\n\n\"Take your shepherd boy and give me the Prince you promised, or it\nwill be worse for you.\"\n\nThis time the King dared not refuse and called Prince Edgar to him and\ngave him to the giant, who seized him as before and put him on his\nshoulder.\n\nAfter they had gone a little way, the Prince called out:\n\n\"'Tis time to stop; this is the time I have always lunched with my\nfather the King and my mother the Queen.\"\n\nThen the giant knew that he had got the right Prince and took him home\nto his castle. When he got him there he gave him his supper and told\nhim that he would have to work for him and that his first work would\nbe next day to clean out the stable.\n\n\"That's not much,\" thought the Prince, and went to bed quite happy and\ncomfortable.\n\nNext day the giant took Edgar into the giant's stable, which was full\nof straw and dirt and all huddled up, and pointing to a pitchfork\nsaid:\n\n\"Clear all of this straw out of this stable by to-night,\" and left him\nto his task.\n\nThe Prince thought this was an easy thing to do, and before starting\nwent to get a drink at the well, and there he saw a most beautiful\nmaiden sitting by the well and knitting.\n\n\"Who are you?\" said she.\n\nAnd so he told her all that had happened and said:\n\n\"At any rate I have an easy master; all he has given me to do is to\nclear out the stable.\"\n\n\"That is not so easy as you think,\" said the maid. \"How are you going\nto do it?\"\n\n\"With a pitchfork.\"\n\n\"You will find that not so easy; if you try to use the pitchfork in\nthe ordinary way, the more you shove the more there will be; but turn\nthe pitchfork upside-down and push with the handle and all the straw\nand stuff will run away from it.\"\n\nSo Prince Edgar went back to the stable, and sure enough, when he\ntried to push the straw with the fork it only grew more and more, but\nif he turned the handle towards it the straw moved away from the fork\nand so he soon cleared it out of the stable.\n\nWhen the giant came home the first thing he did was to go to the\nstable; and when he saw it had all been cleared out he said to the\nPrince:\n\n\"Ah, you've been talking to my Master-Maid. Well, to-morrow you'll\nhave to cut down that clump of trees.\"\n\n\"Very well, Master,\" said Prince Edgar, and thought that would not be\ndifficult.\n\nBut next morning the giant gave him an axe made of glass and told him\nthat he must cut down every one of the trees before nightfall.\n\nWhen he had gone away, the Prince went to the Master-Maid and told her\nwhat his task was.\n\n\"You cannot do that with such an axe, but never mind, I can help you.\nSleep here in peace and when you wake up you will see what you will\nsee.\"\n\nSo Prince Edgar trusted the Master-Maid and lay down and slept till\nlate in the afternoon, when he woke up and looked, and there were the\ntrees all felled and the Master-Maid was smiling by his side.\n\n\"How did you do it?\" he said.\n\n\"That I may not say, but done it is, and that is all that you need\ncare for.\"\n\nWhen the giant came home, the first thing he did was to go to the\nclump of trees and found, to his surprise, that they had all been\nfelled.\n\n\"Ah, you've spoken to my Master-Maid,\" he said once more.\n\n\"Who is she?\" said the Prince.\n\n\"You know well enough,\" said the giant. \"But for her you could not\nhave cut down those trees with that glass axe.\"\n\n\"I do not know what you mean,\" said the Prince. \"But at any rate,\nthere you have your trees cut down, what more do you want?\"\n\n\"Well, well,\" grumbled the giant, \"we'll see to-morrow whether you can\ndo what I tell you then,\" and would not say what his task should be\nnext day.\n\nWhen the morning came, the giant pointed to the tallest tree in the\nforest near them, and said:\n\n\"Do you see that birds' nest in the top of that tree? In it are six\neggs; you must climb up there and get all those eggs for me before\nnightfall, and if one is broken woe betide you!\"\n\nAt that Prince Edgar did not feel so happy, for there were no branches\nto the tree till very near the top, and it was as smooth, as smooth as\nit could be, and he did not see how possibly he could reach the birds'\nnest. But when the giant had gone out for the day he went at once to\nthe Master-Maid and told her of his new task.\n\n\"That is the hardest of all,\" said the Master-Maid. \"There is only one\nway to do the task. You must cut me up into small pieces and take out\nmy bones, and out of the bones you must make a ladder, and with that\nladder you can reach the top.\"\n\n\"That I will never do,\" said the Prince. \"You've been so good to me,\nshall I do you harm? Before that, I should suffer whatever punishment\nthe giant will give me for not carrying out the task.\"\n\n\"But all will be well,\" said the Master-Maid. \"As soon as you have\nbrought down the nest, all that you will have to do is to put the\nbones together and sprinkle on them the water from this flask, and\nthen I shall be whole again just as before.\"\n\nAfter much persuasion the Prince agreed to do what the Master-Maid\nhad told him, and made a ladder out of her bones and climbed up to the\ntop of the tree and took the birds' nest with the six eggs in it, and\nthen he put the bones together, but forgot to put one little bone in\nits proper place.\n\nSo when he had sprinkled the water over the bones the Master-Maid\nstood up before him just as before, but the little finger of her left\nhand was not there. She cried and said:\n\n\"Ah, why did you not do what I told you--put all my bones together in\ntheir place? You forgot my little finger; I shall never have one all\nthe days of my life.\"\n\nWhen the giant came home, he asked the Prince:\n\n\"Where is the birds' nest?\"\n\nAnd the Prince brought it to him with the eggs all safe within it. And\nthen the giant said:\n\n\"Ah, you have spoken to my Master-Maid.\"\n\n\"Whom do you mean by your Master-Maid?\" said the Prince. \"There are\nyour eggs, what more do you want?\"\n\nBut the giant said: \"Well, as the Master-Maid has helped you so far\nshe can help you always. You shall marry her today and sleep in my own\nfour-poster.\"\n\nThe Prince was well content with that arrangement and went and sought\nthe Master-Maid and told her what the giant had said.\n\nThe Master-Maid wept and said: \"You know not what he means. His\nfour-poster rolls up and would crush us and we would be dead before\nthe morning. Let me think, let me think.\"\n\nSo the Master-Maid took an apple and divided it into six parts and put\ntwo at the foot of the bed and two at the door of the room and two at\nthe foot of the stairs.\n\nWhen night came, the Master-Maid and her Prince went up into the room\nwith the four-poster, but as soon as it was dark crept down the stairs\nand went out to the stable and chose two of the swiftest horses there\nand rode away as quickly as they could.\n\nThe giant waited for some time after they had gone upstairs and then\ncalled out:\n\n\"Are you asleep?\"\n\nAnd the two apple shares near the bed called out:\n\n\"Not yet, not yet!\"\n\nSo after waiting some time he called out again:\n\n\"Are you asleep?\"\n\nAnd the apple shares at the door called out:\n\n\"Not yet, not yet!\"\n\nAnd still a third time the giant called out:\n\n\"Are you asleep?\"\n\nAnd the apple shares on the stairs replied:\n\n\"Not yet, not yet!\"\n\nThen the giant knew that the voice was outside the bedroom, and rushed\nup to find Edgar and his bride, but found they were gone. He rushed to\nthe stable and chose his great horse Dapplegrim and rode after Prince\nEdgar and the Master-Maid.\n\nThey had gone on a good way in front; but after a time they heard the\ntrampling of the hoofs of the great horse Dapplegrim, and the\nMaster-Maid said to Prince Edgar:\n\n\"That is the giant; he will soon overtake us if we do not do\nsomething.\" And she jumped off her horse and bade Prince Edgar do the\nsame.\n\nThen the Master-Maid took three twigs and threw them behind her with\nmagic spells; and they grew and they grew and they grew, till they\nbecame a huge thick forest. And the Master-Maid and Edgar jumped upon\ntheir horses again and rode away as fast as they could.\n\nBut the giant, as soon as he came to the forest, had to take his axe\nfrom his side and hew his way through the thick trees, so that Edgar\nand the Master-Maid got far ahead. But soon they heard once more the\ntrampling of Dapplegrim close behind them; and the Master-Maid took\nthe glass axe that the giant had given Edgar on the second day, and\nthrew it behind her with magic spells. And a huge glass mountain rose\nbehind them, so that the giant had to stop and split his way through\nthe glass mountain.\n\nEdgar and the Master-Maid rode on at full speed, but once again they\nheard Dapplegrim trampling behind them, and the Master-Maid took the\nflask of water from her side and cast it down back of her, and out of\nit gushed a huge stream.\n\nWhen the giant came up to the stream and tried to make Dapplegrim\nswim through it he would not; and then he lay down on the bank of the\nstream and commenced to drink up as much of it as he could. And he\ndrank and he drank and he drank, till at last he swallowed so much\nthat he burst; and that was the end of the giant.\n\n[Illustration: The Giant Tries to Drink the Stream]\n\nMeanwhile Edgar and the Master-Maid had ridden on fast and furious\ntill they came near where the palace of the King, Edgar's father,\ncould be seen in the far distance. And Edgar said:\n\n\"Let me go on first and tell my father and mother all that you have\ndone for me, and they will welcome you as their daughter.\"\n\nThe Master-Maid shook her head sadly and said:\n\n\"Do as you will, but beware lest any one kiss you before you see me\nagain.\"\n\n\"I want no kisses from any one but you,\" said Prince Edgar, and\nleaving her in a hut by the roadside he went on to greet the King and\nQueen.\n\nWhen he got to the palace gate everybody was astonished to see him, as\nthey had all thought he had been destroyed by the giant. And when they\ntook him to the Queen, his mother, she rushed to him and kissed him\nbefore he could say nay.\n\nNo sooner had his mother kissed him than all memory of the Master-Maid\ndisappeared from his mind. And when he told his mother and his father\nwhat he had done in the giant's castle and how he had escaped, he said\nnothing of the help given him by the Master-Maid.\n\nSoon afterwards the King and the Queen arranged for the marriage of\nPrince Edgar with a great Princess from a neighbouring country. And\nshe was brought home with great pomp and ceremony to the King's\npalace. And one day after her marriage, when she was out, she passed\nby the hut in which the Master-Maid was dwelling.\n\nNow the Master-Maid had put on that day a beautiful dress of rich\nsilk, and when the Prince's wife saw it she went to the Master-Maid\nand said:\n\n\"I should like that dress. Will you not sell it to me?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said the Master-Maid, \"but at a price you are not likely to\ngive.\"\n\n\"What do you want for it?\" said the Princess.\n\n\"I want to spend one night in the room of your bridegroom, Prince\nEdgar.\"\n\nAt first the Princess would not think of such a thing; but after\nthinking the matter over she thought of a plan, and said:\n\n\"Well, you shall have your wish,\" and took away with her the silken\ndress.\n\nBut at night, when the Master-Maid came to the palace and claimed her\npromise, the Princess put a sleep-giving drug in Edgar's cup.\n\nWhen the Master-Maid came into Edgar's room she bent over his bed and\ncried:\n\n    \"I cleaned the byre for thee,\n    I swung the axe for thee,\n    And now thou'lt not speak to me.\"\n\nBut still Edgar slept on, and in the morning the Master-Maid had to\nleave without speaking to him.\n\nNext day, when the Princess went out to see what the Master-Maid had\nbeen doing, she found her dressed in a rich silver dress, and said to\nher:\n\n\"Will you sell that dress to me?\"\n\nAnd the Master-Maid said, \"Yes, at a price.\"\n\nThen the Princess said, \"What price?\"\n\n\"One night in Edgar's room,\" replied the Master-Maid.\n\nThe Princess knew what had happened the night before, so she agreed to\nlet the Master-Maid pass still another night with her bridegroom. But\nall happened as before; and when the Master-Maid came into the room\nshe bent over Edgar, lying upon the bed, and called out:\n\n    \"I gave my bones for thee,\n    I shared the apples for thee,\n    And yet thou'lt not speak to me\";\n\nand had to leave him as before, without his waking up.\n\nBut this time Prince Edgar had heard something of what she said in his\nsleep. And when he woke up he asked his chamberlain what had happened\nduring the night. And he told the Prince that for two nights running a\nmaiden had been in his room and sung to him, but he had not answered.\n\nNext day the Princess sought out the Master-Maid as before. And this\ntime she was dressed in a dress of shining gold; and for that the\nPrincess agreed to let her spend one more night in the Prince's room.\n\nBut this time the Prince, guessing what had happened, threw away the\nwine-cup, in which the Princess had placed the sleeping draught, and\nlay awake on his bed when the Master-Maid came in. She bent over him\nand cried:\n\n    \"I grew the forest for thee,\n    I made the glass mount for thee,\n    For thee a stream flowed from my magic flask,\n    And yet thou'lt not wake and speak to me.\"\n\nBut this time Prince Edgar rose up in bed and recognized the\nMaster-Maid, and called in his father and his mother and told them all\nthat had happened, which had now come back to him.\n\nSo the Princess was sent back to her home, and Edgar married the\nMaster-Maid and lived happy ever afterwards.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The Visitor]\n\nA VISITOR FROM PARADISE\n\n\nThere was once a woman, good but simple, who had been twice married.\nOne day when her husband was in the field--of course that was her\nsecond husband, you know--a weary tramp came trudging by her door and\nasked for a drink of water. When she gave it to him, being rather a\ngossip, she asked where he came from.\n\n\"From Paris,\" said the man.\n\nThe woman was a little bit deaf, and thought the man said from\nParadise.\n\n\"From Paradise! Did you meet there my poor dear husband, Lord rest his\nsoul?\"\n\n\"What was his name?\" asked the man.\n\n\"Why, John Goody, of course,\" said the woman. \"Did you know him in\nParadise?\"\n\n\"What, John Goody!\" said the man. \"Him and me was as thick as\nthieves.\"\n\n\"Does he want for anything?\" said the woman. \"I suppose up in Paradise\nyou get all you want.\"\n\n\"All we want! Why, look at me,\" said the man pointing to his rags and\ntatters. \"They treat some of us right shabby up there.\"\n\n\"Dear me, that's bad. Are you likely to go back?\"\n\n\"Go back to Paradise, marm; I should say! We have to be in every night\nat ten.\"\n\n\"Well, perhaps you wouldn't mind taking back some things for my poor\nold John,\" said the woman.\n\n\"In course, marm, delighted to help my old chum John.\"\n\nSo the woman went indoors and got a big pile of clothes and a long\npipe and three bottles of beer, and a beer jug, and gave them to the\nman.\n\n\"But,\" he said, \"please marm, I can't carry all these by my own self.\nAin't you got a horse or a donkey that I can take along with me to\ncarry them? I'll bring them back to-morrow.\"\n\nThen the woman said, \"There's our old Dobbin in the stable; I can't\nlend you mare Juniper cos my husband's ploughing with her just now.\"\n\n\"Ah, well, Dobbin'll do as its only till to-morrow.\"\n\nSo the woman got out Dobbin and saddled him, and the man took the\nclothes and the beer and the pipe and rode off with them.\n\nShortly afterwards her husband came home and said,\n\n\"What's become of Dobbin? He's not in the stable.\"\n\nSo his wife told him all that had happened. And he said,\n\n\"I don't like that. How do we know that he is going to Paradise? And\nhow do we know that he'll bring Dobbin back to-morrow? I'll saddle\nJuniper and get the things back. Which way did he go?\"\n\nSo he saddled Juniper and rode after the man, who saw him coming afar\noff and guessed what had happened. So he got off from Dobbin and drove\nhim into a clump of trees near the roadside, and then went and laid\ndown on his back and looked up to the sky.\n\nWhen the farmer came up to him he got down from Juniper and said,\n\"What are you doing there?\"\n\n\"Oh, such a funny thing,\" said the man; \"a fellow came along here on a\nhorse with some clothes and things, and when he got to the top of the\nhill here he simply gave a shout and the horse went right up into the\nsky; and I was watching him when you came up.\"\n\n\"Oh, it's all right then,\" said the farmer. \"He's gone to Paradise,\nsure enough,\" and went back to his wife.\n\nNext day they waited, and they waited for the man to bring back\nDobbin; but he didn't come that day nor the next day, nor the next. So\nthe farmer said to his wife,\n\n\"My dear, we've been done. But I'll find that man if I have to trudge\nthrough the whole kingdom. And you must come with me, as you know\nhim.\"\n\n\"But what shall we do with the house?\" said the wife. \"You know there\nhave been robbers around here, and while we are away they'll come and\ntake my best chiny.\"\n\n\"Oh, that's all right,\" said the farmer. \"He who minds the door minds\nthe house. So we'll take the door with us and then they can't get in.\"\n\nSo he took the door off its hinges and put it on his back and they\nwent along to find the man from Paradise. So they went along, and they\nwent along, and they went along till night came, and they didn't know\nwhat to do for shelter. So the man said,\n\n\"That's a comfortable tree there; let us roost in the branches like\nthe birds.\" So they took the door up with them and laid down to sleep\non it as comfortable, as comfortable can be.\n\n[Illustration: Up the Tree]\n\nNow it happened that a band of robbers had just broken into a castle\nnear by and taken out a great lot of plunder; and they came under the\nvery tree to divide it. And when they began to settle how much each\nshould have they began to quarrel and woke up the farmer and his wife.\nThey were so frightened when they heard the robbers underneath them\nthat they tried to get up farther into the tree, and in doing so let\nthe door fall down right on the robbers' heads.\n\n\"The heavens are falling,\" cried the robbers, who were so frightened\nthat they all rushed away. And the farmer and his wife came down from\nthe tree and collected all the booty and went home and lived happy\never afterwards.\n\nIt was and it was not.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The Snake]\n\nINSIDE AGAIN\n\n\nA man was walking through the forest one day when he saw a funny black\nthing like a whip wriggling about under a big stone. He was curious to\nknow what it all meant. So he lifted up the stone and found there a\nhuge black snake.\n\n\"That's well,\" said the snake. \"I have been trying to get out for two\ndays, and, Oh, how hungry I am. I must have something to eat, and\nthere is nobody around, so I must eat you.\"\n\n\"But that wouldn't be fair,\" said the man with a trembling voice. \"But\nfor me you would never have come out from under the stone.\"\n\n\"I do not care for that,\" said the snake. \"Self-preservation is the\nfirst law of life; you ask anybody if that isn't so.\"\n\n\"Any one will tell you,\" said the man, \"that gratitude is a person's\nfirst duty, and surely you owe me thanks for saving your life.\"\n\n\"But you haven't saved my life, if I am to die of hunger,\" said the\nsnake.\n\n\"Oh yes, I have,\" said the man; \"all you have to do is to wait till\nyou find something to eat.\"\n\n\"Meanwhile I shall die, and what's the use of being saved!\"\n\nSo they disputed and they disputed whether the case was to be decided\nby the claims of gratitude or the rights of self-preservation, till\nthey did not know what to do.\n\n\"I tell you what I'll do,\" said the snake, \"I'll let the first\npasser-by decide which is right.\"\n\n\"But I can't let my life depend upon the word of the first comer.\"\n\n\"Well, we'll ask the first two that pass by.\"\n\n\"Perhaps they won't agree,\" said the man; \"what are we to do then? We\nshall be as badly off as we are now.\"\n\n\"Ah, well,\" said the snake, \"let it be the first three. In all law\ncourts it takes three judges to make a session. We'll follow the\nmajority of votes.\"\n\nSo they waited till at last there came along an old, old horse. And\nthey put the case to him, whether gratitude should ward off death.\n\n\"I don't see why it should,\" said the horse. \"Here have I been slaving\nfor my master for the last fifteen years, till I am thoroughly worn\nout, and only this morning I heard him say, 'Roger'--that's my\nname--'is no use to me any longer; I shall have to send him to the\nknacker's and get a few pence for his hide and his hoofs.' There's\ngratitude for you.\"\n\nSo the horse's vote was in favour of the snake. And they waited till\nat last an old hound passed by limping on three legs, half blind with\nscarcely any teeth. So they put the case to him.\n\n\"Look at me,\" said he; \"I have slaved for my master for ten years, and\nthis very day he has kicked me out of his house because I am no use to\nhim any longer, and he grudged me a few bones to eat. So far as I can\nsee nobody acts from gratitude.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said the snake, \"there's two votes for me. What's the use of\nwaiting for the third? he's sure to decide in my favour, and if he\ndoesn't it's two to one. Come here and I'll eat you!\"\n\n\"No, no,\" said the man, \"a bargain's a bargain; perhaps the third\njudge will be able to convince the other two and my life will be\nsaved.\"\n\nSo they waited and they waited, till at last a fox came trotting\nalong; and they stopped him and explained to him both sides of the\ncase. He sat up and scratched his left ear with his hind paw, and\nafter a while he beckons the man to come near him. And when he did so\nthe fox whispered,\n\n\"What will you give me if I get you out of this?\"\n\nThe man whispered back, \"A pair of fat chickens.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said the fox, \"if I am to decide this case I must clearly\nunderstand the situation. Let me see! If I comprehend aright, the man\nwas lying under the stone and the snake----\"\n\n\"No, no,\" cried out the horse and the hound and the snake. \"It was the\nother way.\"\n\n\"Ah, ha, I see! The stone was rolling down and the man sat on it, and\nthen----\"\n\n\"Oh, how stupid you are,\" they all cried; \"it wasn't that way at all.\"\n\n\"Dear me, you are quite right. I am very stupid, but, really, you\nhaven't explained the case quite clearly to me.\"\n\n\"I'll show you,\" said the snake, impatient from his long hunger; and\nhe twisted himself again under the stone and wriggled his tail till at\nlast the stone settled down upon him and he couldn't move out. \"That's\nthe way it was.\"\n\n\"And that's the way it will be,\" said the fox, and, taking the man's\narm, he walked off, followed by the horse and the hound. \"And now for\nmy chickens.\"\n\n\"I'll go and get them for you,\" said the man, and went up to his\nhouse, which was near, and told his wife all about it.\n\n\"But,\" she said, \"why waste a pair of chickens on a foxy old fox! I\nknow what I'll do.\"\n\nSo she went into the back yard and unloosed the dog and put it into a\nmeal-bag and gave it to the man, who took it down and gave it to the\nfox, who trotted off with it to his den.\n\nBut when he opened the bag out sprung the dog and gobbled him all up.\n\nThere's gratitude for you.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The Three Ravens]\n\nJOHN THE TRUE\n\n\nThere was once a king who had long been unmarried. Now one day, going\nthrough his palace, he came to a room that he had never opened before.\nSo he sent for the key and entered it, and opposite the door was the\npicture of a most beautiful princess with skin white as snow and\ncheeks red as blood and hair black as ebony. No sooner had he seen\nthis picture than he fell in love with it and asked who she was.\n\nHis chamberlain said, \"That is the Princess of the Golden Horde, with\nwhich your Majesty's kingdom has been at war these last twenty years.\nOnly three years ago, when your Majesty's father was alive, there was\nsome talk of peace and of betrothing you to her, and that was when her\nportrait was sent here. But now the two kingdoms are at war and it\ndoes not seem that peace will ever come.\"\n\nBut though there was no hope of marrying her the King could not help\nbut think of the Princess of the Golden Horde, and thought and thought\ntill he became quite pale and sick with love for her. Now he had a\nfaithful servant, the son of his own nurse, and thus his\nfoster-brother, and he was so devoted to the King that everybody\ncalled him John the True.\n\nWhen John the True saw his foster-brother pining away he went to him\nand said:\n\n\"What ails thee, Oh sire?\" for he alone had the right of calling the\nKing \"thou.\"\n\nThen said the King to John the True:\n\n\"Come and I will show thee, John.\" And he took him to the closed\nchamber and showed him the portrait and told him how he felt towards\nthe Princess of the Golden Horde.\n\n\"Be of good cheer,\" said John the True; \"I will go and fetch her for\nthee.\"\n\n\"How can that be?\" said the King; \"we are at war with the Golden\nHorde, and they would never give her to be my bride.\"\n\n\"Leave that to me,\" said John the True; \"give me only a ship full of\nmerchandise and put in it a complete set of furniture made all of\ngold, and see if I do not bring the Princess back to thee.\"\n\nSo the King did all that John the True demanded. And he sailed away\nwith the ship and its merchandise to the country of the Golden Horde.\nAnd when he came there to the chief port he did not declare from what\ncountry he was but sent up, as tribute to the King of the Golden\nHorde, a beautiful chair all made of gold.\n\nNow when the King saw this he became curious about this merchant and\nhis wares, and came down with his Queen and the Princess to view the\nrarities. And when he saw the set of furniture all made of gold he\nasked John the True what its price was.\n\nBut John said it was not for sale, but that he kept it to make gifts\nof tribute to the kings whose realm he was visiting.\n\nBut the Princess had set her heart upon one dressing-table all of\ngold, with crystal mirrors and lovely fittings, and asked John if he\ncould not sell it to her.\n\nBut John said, \"No, that is kept for a special purpose, which I am not\nallowed to tell.\"\n\nThis aroused the curiosity of the Princess, and later on towards the\nevening she came down with only one maid to see if she could not\npersuade John to let her have the dressing-table.\n\nWhen she came on board John went to the captain and told him to set\nsail as soon as the Princess went down into the cabin. And when she\ncame there he began telling her a long story, how that his master the\nKing had sent him to visit all the kingdoms of the earth, and that\nthis dressing-table was intended for the most beautiful princess whom\nhe should come across in his travels.\n\nAnd then the Princess wanted to know whether he would have to finish\nhis travels before giving the table, and what the King expected from\nthe Princess.\n\nJohn told her that everything was left to him and that, when he found\na princess with skin as white as snow, and cheeks as red as blood, and\nhair as black as ebony, he was to present the table to her.\n\nThen the Princess looked in the mirror and said:\n\n\"Have I not skin as white as snow, and cheeks as red as blood, and\nhair as black as ebony? Then give me the table.\"\n\nBut just then she began to feel the motion of the ship and knew that\nit was sailing away, and commenced to shriek and cry. But John told\nher all that had happened, and how that he had come only for her, and\nthat his foster-brother the King was dying for love of her, and could\nnot come himself because the two countries were at war. So at last the\nPrincess became content, and they sailed on and on towards the country\nof John the True.\n\nAs they were nearing land John was sitting in the prow, and the\nPrincess was reclining on a couch on deck, and three black ravens were\nflying about the mast of the vessel. Now John, being the son of a\nhuntsman, knew the language of birds; and he listened to what they\nsaid, and this was it:\n\n\"Caw, caw!\" said the first raven. \"There sits the Princess of the\nGolden Horde, thinking that she will marry John's master the King. But\nI know something which will prevent that.\"\n\n\"What is that?\" asked the second raven.\n\n\"Why,\" said the first, \"when the Princess lands and the King meets her\nthey will bring out to him a bay horse richly caparisoned, with a\npillion for the Princess. And if the King takes her with him on the\nhorse he will run away with them and dash them both to pieces. Caw,\ncaw!\"\n\n\"But is there no remedy for that?\" said the third raven.\n\n\"Only if some one cuts off the head of the horse, or tells the King;\nbut woe unto him if he does that, for as soon as he has told he will\nbecome marble up to his knees. Caw, caw!\"\n\n\"Even if he escapes that,\" said the second raven, \"the King would\nnever marry the Princess, for at the wedding feast wine will be\npresented to him, in a glass goblet, and at the first drop of it he\ndrinks he will fall down dead. Caw, caw!\"\n\n\"But is there nothing to remedy that?\" asked the first raven.\n\n\"Only if some one dashes the glass from his hand, or tells of the\ndanger; but if he tells he will become marble up to his waist. Caw,\ncaw!\"\n\n\"Caw, caw!\" said the third raven. \"There is still another danger. On\nthe wedding night a dreadful dragon will creep into the bridal chamber\nand kill both King and Princess. And there is no remedy against that\nunless some one drives off the dragon or tells of the danger. But if\nhe tells he will become marble from head to foot. Caw, caw!\"\n\nWhen John the True heard all this he made up his mind he would save\nhis brother the King without telling him of the dangers that\nthreatened him. And when they neared the shore he caused a trumpet to\nbe sounded three times, which was the signal agreed upon between\nhimself and the King, that he had succeeded in bringing back the\nPrincess of the Golden Horde.\n\nSo the King came quickly down to the ship in all his glory and\nreceived with joy the Princess, and thanked John the True for his\nfaithful service.\n\nWhen it came time for the King to lead the Princess to his palace,\nsome one brought forth a noble bay horse richly caparisoned and with a\npillion at the back of the saddle for the Princess to ride on. And\njust as the King gave her his hand and was about to mount the horse,\nJohn the True drew his sword and cut off the head of the bay horse.\n\n\"Treason, treason!\" cried the courtiers. \"John the True has drawn his\nsword in the King's presence.\"\n\nBut the King said, \"What John the True does is done for me. Let a\ncoach be brought and we will return to the palace.\"\n\nSo the King and the Princess and John the True went to the palace, and\npreparations were made for a grand wedding. And on the day of the\nwedding there was a great banquet held, and at the beginning a glass\nof wine was brought forth and presented to the King, and just as he\nwas lifting it to his lips John the True, who stood behind the King's\nthrone, rushed forward and dashed the goblet to the ground.\n\n\"Treason, treason!\" cried the courtiers. \"John the True is mad.\"\n\n\"Nay, nay,\" said the King; \"what John the True does is for our good.\nWherefore did'st thou do that, John?\"\n\n\"That I must not say,\" said John the True.\n\n\"Well, well,\" said the King; \"doubtless thou hadst thy reasons; let\nthe banquet proceed.\"\n\nOn the night of the wedding John the True took his place with drawn\nsword before the bridal chamber, and watched and watched and watched.\nTowards midnight he heard a rustling in the bridal chamber and,\nrushing in, saw a winged dragon coming through the window towards the\nKing and Princess. He dashed towards it and wounded it with his sword,\nso that it flew out of the window, dropping blood on the way.\n\nBut the noise that John the True had made awakened the King and Queen,\nand they saw him before them with sword dripping with blood. And not\nrecognizing him at first, the King called out for his guard, who came\nin quickly and seized John the True.\n\nWhen the King saw who it was he asked John if he had any explanation\nof his conduct, and John said:\n\n\"That I may not say.\"\n\n\"This is more than I can bear,\" said the King. \"Perhaps love has\nturned thy brain.\"\n\nAnd turning to the captain of his guard, the King said, \"Let him be\nexecuted in the morning in our presence.\"\n\nWhen the morning came everything was ready for John's execution, when\nhe stood forth and said to the King:\n\n\"If your Majesty wills, I will explain my conduct.\"\n\n\"So be it,\" said the King; \"I trust thou wilt prove that thou art\nindeed John the True.\"\n\nAnd John the True told the King and the Queen and the courtiers all\nthat had occurred and what he had heard from the ravens, and how he\nhad saved the life of the King and the Queen by wounding the dragon on\nthe preceding night. But as he told why he killed the horse his legs\nbecame marble up to the knees. And when he explained why he had dashed\nthe poisoned wine-cup from the King's hand, the marble came up to his\nwaist. And when he explained how he had turned the dragon from the\nbridal chamber, his whole body became marble from head to foot.\n\nThen the King knew what a faithful servant he had in John the True;\nand he bade his men to place the marble body on a golden stand on\nwhich was written, \"This is John the True who gave his life for his\nKing.\" And whenever the soldiers and the courtiers passed it they gave\nit a salute.\n\nNow after a time there came to the Queen two little twin boys, whom\nshe loved better than all the world. And they grew and they grew, till\nthey learned to speak. And every time they passed the statue of John\nthe True they would raise their little hands and give it a salute, for\nthe Queen, their mother, had told them what John the True had done for\ntheir father and her.\n\nBut one night the Queen dreamed that a voice from Heaven said to her,\n\"John the True can live again if the two Princes be slain for his sake\nand his body smeared with their blood.\"\n\nThe Queen told this dream to the King, and they were terrified at it,\nbut thought it only a dream. But twice again the same dream came to\nthe Queen on the following two nights; and then she said to her\nhusband the King,\n\n\"John the True gave his life for us; I feel we ought to give our\nchildren for him.\"\n\nThe King at last agreed to the terrible sacrifice, and the heads of\nthe two Princes were cut off, and the statue of John smeared with\ntheir blood, when it came to life and John the True lived again.\n\nBut when he learned how he had been brought to life again, he asked\nto have the bodies of the Princes brought to his chamber, and, going\nto the bridal chamber, scraped from the floor some of the dragon's\nblood that had fallen there, and went back into his chamber and closed\nthe door.\n\nShortly after, the King and the Queen heard the voices of their sons\ncalling out for them; and when the door was opened there they were\nalive again.\n\nSo the King and the Queen and the Princes lived together in all joy,\nwith their faithful servant John the True.\n\n[Illustration: The Wounded Dragon]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The Witch]\n\nJOHNNIE AND GRIZZLE\n\n\nThere was once a poor farmer who had two children named Johnnie and\nGrizzle. Now things grew worse and worse for the farmer till he could\nscarcely earn enough to eat and drink. All his crops went to pay rent\nand taxes. So one night he said to his wife,\n\n\"Betty, my dear, I really do not know what to do; there is scarcely\nanything in the house to eat, and in a few days we shall all be\nstarving. What I think of doing is to take the poor lad and lassie\ninto the forest and leave them there; if somebody finds them they will\nsurely keep them alive, and if nobody finds them they might as well\ndie there as here; I cannot see any other way; it is their lives or\nours; and if we die what can become of them?\"\n\n\"No, no, father,\" said the farmer's wife; \"wait but a few days and\nperhaps something will turn up.\"\n\n\"We have waited and have waited and things are getting worse every\nday; if we wait much longer we shall all be dead. No, I am determined\non it; to-morrow the children to the forest.\"\n\nNow it happened that Johnnie was awake in the next room and heard his\nfather and his mother talking. He said nothing but thought and thought\nand thought; and early next morning he went out and picked a large\nnumber of bright-coloured pebbles and put them in his pocket. After\nbreakfast, which consisted of bread and water, the farmer said to\nJohnnie and Grizzle,\n\n\"Come, my dears, I am going to take you for a walk,\" and with that he\nwent with them into the forest near-by.\n\nJohnnie said nothing, but dropped one of his pebbles at every turning,\nwhich would show him the way back. When they got far into the forest\nthe farmer said to the children,\n\n\"My dears, I have to go and get something. Stay here and don't go\naway, and I'll soon come back. Give me a kiss, children,\" and with\nthat he hurried away and went back home by another road.\n\nAfter a time Grizzle began to cry and said,\n\n\"Where's father? Where's father? We can't get home. We can't get\nhome.\"\n\nBut Johnnie said, \"Never mind, Grizzle, I can take you home; you just\nfollow me.\"\n\nSo Johnnie looked out for the pebbles he had dropped, and found them\nat each turn of the road, and a little after midday got home and asked\ntheir mother for their dinner.\n\n\"There's nothing in the house, children, but you can go and get some\nwater from the well and, please God, we'll have bread in the morning.\"\n\nWhen the farmer came home he was astonished to find that the children\nhad found their way home, and could not imagine how they had done so.\nBut at night he said to his wife,\n\n\"Betty, my dear, I do not know how the children came home; but that\ndoes not make any difference; I cannot bear to see them starve before\nmy eyes, better that they should starve in the forest. I will take\nthem there again to-morrow.\"\n\nJohnnie heard all this and crept downstairs and put some more pebbles\ninto his pocket; and though the farmer took them this time further\ninto the forest the same thing occurred as the day before. But this\ntime Grizzle said to her mother and father,\n\n\"Johnnie did such a funny thing; whenever we turned a new road he\ndropped pebbles. Wasn't that funny? And when we came back he looked\nfor the pebbles, and there they were; they had not moved.\"\n\nThen the farmer knew how he had been done, and as evening came on he\nlocked all the doors so that Johnnie could not get out to get any\npebbles. In the morning he gave them a hunk of bread as before for\ntheir breakfast and told them he was going to take them into the nice\nforest again. Grizzle ate her bread, but Johnnie put his into his\npocket, and when they got inside the forest at every turning he\ndropped a few crumbs of his bread. When his father left them he tried\nto trace his way back by means of these crumbs. But, alas, and\nalackaday! The little birds had seen the crumbs and eaten them all up,\nand when Johnnie went to search for them they had all disappeared.\n\nSo they wandered and they wandered, more and more hungry all the time,\ntill they came to a glade in which there was a funny little house; and\nwhat do you think it was made of? The door was made of butter-scotch,\nthe windows of sugar candy, the bricks were all chocolate creams, the\npillars of lollypops, and the roof of gingerbread.\n\nNo sooner had the children seen this funny little house than they\nrushed up to it and commenced to pick pieces off the door, and take\nout some of the bricks, while Johnnie climbed on Grizzle's back, and\ntore off some of the roof (what was that made of?). Just as they were\neating all this the door opened and a little old woman, with red eyes,\ncame out and said,\n\n\"Naughty, naughty children to break up my house like that. Why didn't\nyou knock at the door and ask to have something, and I would gladly\ngive it to you?\"\n\n\"Please ma'am,\" said Johnnie, \"I will ask for something; I am so, so\nhungry, or else I wouldn't have hurt your pretty roof.\"\n\n\"Come inside my house,\" said the old woman, and let them come into her\nparlour. And that was made all of candies, the chairs and table of\nmaple-sugar, and the couch of cocoanut. But as soon as the old woman\ngot them inside her door she seized hold of Johnnie and took him\nthrough the kitchen and put him in a dark cubby-hole, and left him\nthere with the door locked.\n\nNow this old woman was a witch, who looked out for little children,\nwhom she fattened up and ate. So she went back to Grizzle, and said,\n\n\"You shall be my little servant and do my work for me, and, as for\nthat brother of yours, he'll make a fine meal when he's fattened up.\"\n\nSo this witch kept Johnnie and Grizzle with her, making Grizzle do all\nthe housework, and every morning she went to the cubby-hole in which\nshe kept Johnnie and gave him a good breakfast, and later in the day a\ngood dinner, and at night a good supper; but after she gave him his\nsupper she would say to him,\n\n\"Put out your forefinger,\" and when he put it out the old witch, who\nwas nearly blind, felt it and muttered,\n\n\"Not fat enough yet!\"\n\nAfter a while Johnnie felt he was getting real fat and was afraid the\nwitch would eat him up. So he searched about till he found a stick\nabout the size of his finger, and when the old witch asked him to put\nout his finger he put out the stick, and she said,\n\n\"Goodness gracious me, the boy is as thin as a lath! I must feed him\nup more.\"\n\nSo she gave him more and more food, and every day he put out the stick\ntill at last one day he got careless, and when she took the stick it\nfell out of his hand, and she felt what it was. So she flew into a\nterrible rage and called out,\n\n\"Grizzle, Grizzle, make the oven hot. This lad is fat enough for\nChristmas.\"\n\nPoor Grizzle did not know what to do, but she had to obey the witch.\nSo she piled the wood on under the oven and set it alight. And after a\nwhile the old witch said to her,\n\n\"Grizzle, Grizzle, is the oven hot?\"\n\nAnd Grizzle said, \"I don't know, mum.\"\n\nAnd when the witch asked her again whether it was hot enough, Grizzle\nsaid,\n\n\"I do not know how hot an oven ought to be.\"\n\n\"Get away, get away,\" said the old witch; \"I know, let me see.\" And\nshe poked her old head into the oven. Then Grizzle pushed her right\ninto the oven and closed the door and rushed out into the back yard\nand let Johnnie out of the cubby-hole.\n\nThen Johnnie and Grizzle ran away towards the setting sun where they\nknew their own house was, till at last they came to a broad stream too\ndeep for them to wade. But just at that moment they looked back, and\nwhat do you think they saw? The old witch, by some means or other, had\ngot out of the oven and was rushing after them. What were they to do?\nWhat were they to do?\n\nSuddenly Grizzle saw a fine big duck swimming towards them, and she\ncalled out:\n\n    \"Duck, duck, come to me,\n    Johnnie and Grizzle depend upon thee;\n    Take Johnnie and Grizzle on thy back,\n    Or else they'll be eaten--\"\n\nAnd the duck said,\n\n    \"Quack! Quack!\"\n\nThen the duck came up to the bank, and Johnnie and Grizzle went into\nthe water and, by resting their hands on the duck's back, swam across\nthe stream just as the old witch came up.\n\nAt first she tried to make the duck come over and carry her, but the\nduck said, \"Quack! Quack!\" and shook its head.\n\nThen she lay down and commenced swallowing up the stream, so that it\nshould run dry and she could get across. She drank, and she drank, and\nshe drank, and she drank, till she drank so much that she burst!\n\nSo Johnnie and Grizzle ran back home, and when they got there they\nfound that their father the farmer had earned a lot of money and had\nbeen searching and searching for them over the forest, and was mighty\nglad to get back Johnnie and Grizzle again.\n\n[Illustration: The Duck]\n\n\n\n\nTHE CLEVER LASS\n\n\nNow there was once a farmer who had but one daughter of whom he was\nvery proud because she was so clever. So whenever he was in any\ndifficulty he would go to her and ask her what he should do. It\nhappened that he had a dispute with one of his neighbours, and the\nmatter came before the King, and he, after hearing from both of them,\ndid not know how to decide and said:\n\n\"You both seem to be right and you both seem to be wrong, and I do not\nknow how to decide; so I will leave it to yourselves in this way:\nwhichever of you can answer best the three questions I am about to ask\nshall win this trial. What is the most beautiful thing? What is the\nstrongest thing? and, What is the richest thing? Now go home and think\nover your answers and bring them to me to-morrow morning.\"\n\nSo the farmer went home and told his daughter what had happened, and\nshe told him what to answer next day.\n\nSo when the matter came up for trial before the King he asked first\nthe farmer's neighbour,\n\n\"What is the most beautiful thing?\"\n\nAnd he answered, \"My wife.\"\n\nThen he asked him, \"What is the strongest thing?\"\n\n\"My ox.\"\n\n\"And what is the richest?\"\n\nAnd he answered, \"Myself.\"\n\nThen he turned to the farmer and asked him,\n\n\"What is the most beautiful thing?\"\n\nAnd the farmer answered, \"Spring.\"\n\nThen he asked him, \"What is the strongest?\"\n\n\"The earth.\"\n\nThen he asked, \"What is the richest thing?\"\n\nHe answered, \"The harvest.\"\n\nThen the King decided that the farmer had answered best, and gave\njudgment in his favour. But he had noticed that the farmer had\nhesitated in his answers and seemed to be trying to remember things.\nSo he called him up to him and said,\n\n\"I fancy those arrows did not come from your quiver. Who told you how\nto answer so cleverly?\"\n\nThen the farmer said, \"Please your Majesty, it was my daughter who is\nthe cleverest girl in all the world.\"\n\n\"Is that so?\" said the King. \"I should like to test that.\"\n\nShortly afterwards the King sent one of his servants to the farmer's\ndaughter with a round cake and thirty small biscuits and a roast\ncapon, and told him to ask her whether the moon was full, and what\nday of the month it was, and whether the rooster had crowed in the\nnight. On the way the servant ate half the cake and half of the\nbiscuits and hid the capon away for his supper. And when he had\ndelivered the rest to the Clever Girl and told his message she gave\nthis reply to be brought back to the King:\n\n\"It is only half-moon and the 15th of the month and the rooster has\nflown away to the mill; but spare the pheasant for the sake of the\npartridge.\"\n\nAnd when the servant had brought back this message to the King, he\ncried out,\n\n\"You have eaten half the cake and fifteen of the biscuits and didn't\nhand over the capon at all.\"\n\nThen the servant confessed that this was all true, and the King said,\n\n\"I would have punished you severely but that this Clever Girl begs me\nto forgive the pheasant, by which she meant you, for the sake of the\npartridge, by which she meant herself. So you may go unpunished.\"\n\nThe King was so delighted with the cleverness of the girl that he\ndetermined to marry her. But, wishing to test her once more before\ndoing so, he sent her a message that she should come to him clothed,\nyet unclothed, neither walking, nor driving, nor riding, neither in\nshadow nor in sun, and with a gift which is no gift.\n\nWhen the farmer's daughter received this message she went near the\nKing's palace, and having undressed herself wrapped herself up in her\nlong hair, and then had herself placed in a net which was attached to\nthe tail of a horse. With one hand she held a sieve over her head to\nshield herself from the sun; and in the other she held a platter\ncovered with another platter.\n\nThus she came to the King neither clothed nor unclothed, neither\nwalking, nor riding, nor driving, neither in sun nor in shadow.\n\nNow when she was released from the net and a mantle had been placed\nover her she handed the platter to the King, who took the top platter\noff, whereupon a little bird that had been between the two platters\nflew away. This was the gift that was no gift.\n\nThe King was so delighted at the way in which the farmer's daughter\nhad solved the riddle that he immediately married her and made her his\nQueen. And they lived very happily together though no children came to\nthem. The King depended upon her for advice in all his affairs and\nwould often have her seated by him when he was giving judgment in law\nmatters.\n\nNow it happened that one day at the end of all the other cases there\ncame two peasants, each of whom claimed a foal that had been born in a\nstable where they had both left their carts, one with a horse and the\nother with a mare. The King was tired with the day's pleadings, and\nwithout thinking and without consulting his Queen who sat by his\nside, he said,\n\n\"Let the first man have it,\" who happened to be the peasant whose cart\nwas drawn by the horse.\n\nNow the Queen was vexed that her husband should have decided so\nunjustly, and when the court was over she went to the other peasant\nand told him how he could convince the King that he had made a rash\njudgment. So the next day he took a stool outside the King's window\nand commenced fishing with a fishing-rod in the road.\n\nThe King looking out of his window saw this and began to laugh and\ncalled out to the man,\n\n\"You won't find many fish on a dry road,\" to which the peasant\nanswered,\n\n\"As many as foals that come from a horse.\"\n\nThen the King remembered his judgment of yesterday and, calling the\nmen before him, decided that the foal should belong to the man who had\nthe mare and who had fished in front of his windows. But he said to\nhim as he dismissed them,\n\n\"That arrow never came from your quiver.\"\n\nThen he went to his Queen in a towering rage and said to her,\n\n\"How dare you interfere in my judgments?\"\n\nAnd she said, \"I did not like my dear husband to do what was unjust.\"\nBut the King said,\n\n\"Then you ought to have spoken to me, not shamed me before my people.\nThat is too much. You shall go back to your father who is so proud of\nyou. And the only favour I can grant you will be that you can take\nwith you from the palace whatever you love best.\"\n\n\"Your Majesty's wish shall be my law,\" said the Queen, \"but let us at\nleast not part in anger. Let me have my last dinner as Queen in your\ncompany.\"\n\nWhen they dined together the Queen put a sleeping potion in the King's\ncup, and when he fell asleep she directed the servants to put him in\nthe carriage that was waiting to take her home, and carried him into\nher bed. When he woke up next morning he asked,\n\n\"Where am I, and why are you still with me?\"\n\nThen the Queen said, \"You allowed me to take with me that which I\nloved best in the palace, and so I took you.\"\n\nThen the King recognized the love his Queen had for him, and brought\nher back to his palace, and they lived together there forever\nafterwards.\n\n\n\n\nTHUMBKIN\n\n\nA woman was once stringing beans in her kitchen, and she thought to\nherself:\n\n\"Oh, why have I not got a little baby boy; if I had only one as big as\none of these beans or as big as my thumb I should be content. How I\nwould love it, and dress it, and talk to it.\"\n\nAs she was speaking thus to herself and finishing off the beans,\nsuddenly she thought they all turned into little baby boys, jumping\nand writhing about. She was so startled and afraid that she shook out\nher apron, in which they all lay, into a big bowl of water with which\nshe was going to wash the beans. And then she hid her head in her\napron so as not to see what happened; and after a while she looked out\nfrom under her apron and looked at the bowl, and there were all the\nlittle boys floating and drowned, except one little boy at the top.\nAnd she took pity on him and drew him out of the bowl; then she showed\nhim to her husband when he came home.\n\n\"We have always wanted a boy,\" she said to him, \"even if it were not\nbigger than our thumbs, and here we have him.\"\n\nSo they took him and dressed him up in a little doll's dress and made\nmuch of him; and he learnt to talk, but he never grew any bigger than\ntheir thumbs; and so they called him Thumbkin.\n\nOne day the man had to go down into the field, and he said to his\nwife:\n\n\"My dear, I am going to get ready the horse and cart, and then I am\ngoing down to the field to reap, and just at eleven o'clock I want you\nto drive the cart down for me.\"\n\n\"Isn't that just like a man?\" said his wife. \"I suppose you'll want\nyour dinner at twelve, and how do you expect me to get it ready if I\nhave to drive your horse and cart down to the field and then have to\ntrudge back on my ten toes and get your dinner ready? What do you\nthink I am made of?\"\n\n\"Well, it has to be done,\" said the man, \"even if dinner has to be\nlate.\"\n\nSo they commenced quarrelling, till Thumbkin called out:\n\n\"Leave it to me, Father; leave it to me.\"\n\n\"Why, what can you do?\" asked the man.\n\n\"Well,\" said Thumbkin, \"if mother will only put me in Dobbin's ear, I\ncan guide him down to the field as well as she could.\"\n\nAt first they laughed, but then they thought they would try. So the\nman went off to the field, and at eleven o'clock the woman put\nThumbkin into the horse's right ear; and he immediately called out,\n\"Gee!\"\n\nAnd the horse began to move. And as it went on towards the field\nThumbkin kept calling out:\n\n\"Right! Left! Left! Right!\" and so on till they got near the field.\n\nNow it happened that two men were coming that way, and they saw a\nhorse and cart coming towards them, with nobody on it, and yet the\nhorse was picking his way and turning the corners just as if somebody\nwas guiding him. So they followed the horse and cart till they got to\nthe field, when they saw the man take Thumbkin out of the horse's ear\nand stroke him and thank him. They looked at one another and said:\n\n\"That lad is a wonder; if we could exhibit him we would make our\nfortunes.\"\n\nSo the men went up to the man and said:\n\n\"Will you sell that lad?\"\n\nBut the man said:\n\n\"No, not for a fortune; he's the light of our life.\"\n\nBut Thumbkin, who was seated on the man's shoulder, whispered to him:\n\n\"Sell me and I'll soon get back.\"\n\nSo the man after a time agreed to sell Thumbkin for a great deal of\nmoney, and the men took him away with them.\n\n\"How shall we carry him?\" said they.\n\nBut Thumbkin called out:\n\n\"Put me on the rim of your hat and I shall be able to see the\ncountry.\"\n\nAnd that is what they did.\n\nAfter a time as it got dusk the men sat down by the wayside to eat\ntheir supper. And the man took off his hat and put it on the ground,\nwhen Thumbkin jumped off and hid himself in the crevice of a tree.\n\nWhen they had finished their supper the men looked about to find\nThumbkin, but he was not there. And after a while they had to give up\nthe search and go away without him.\n\nWhen they had gone three robbers came and sat down near the tree where\nThumbkin was and began to speak of their plans to rob the Squire's\nhouse.\n\n\"The only way,\" said one, \"would be to break down the door of the\npantry which they always lock at night.\"\n\n\"But,\" said another, \"that'll make so much noise it will wake up the\nwhole house.\"\n\n\"Then one of us,\" said the first robber, \"will have to creep in\nthrough the window and unlock the door.\"\n\n\"But the window is too small,\" said the third robber; \"none of us\ncould get through it.\"\n\n\"But I can,\" called out Thumbkin.\n\n\"What is that? Who was that?\" called out the robbers, who commenced\nthinking of running away. And then Thumbkin called out again:\n\n\"Do not be afraid, I'll not hurt you, and I can help you get into the\nSquire's pantry.\"\n\nThen he came out of the hole in the tree, and the robbers were\nsurprised to see how small he was. So they took him up with them to\nthe Squire's house, and when they got there they lifted him up and put\nhim through the window and told him to look out for the silver.\n\n\"I've found it! I've found it!\" he called out at the top of his shrill\nvoice.\n\n\"Not so loud; not so loud,\" said they.\n\n\"What shall I hand out first, the spoons or the ladles?\" he shouted\nout again.\n\nBut this time the butler heard him and came down with his blunderbuss,\nand the robbers ran off. So when the butler opened the door Thumbkin\ncrept out and went to the stable, and laid down to sleep in a nice\ncozy bed of hay in the manger.\n\nBut in the morning the cows came into the stable, and one of them\nwalked up to the manger. And what do you think she did? She swallowed\nthe hay with little Thumbkin in it, and took him right down into her\ntummy.\n\nShortly afterwards the cows were driven out to the milking place, and\nthe milkmaid commenced to milk the cow which had swallowed Thumbkin.\nAnd when he heard the milk rattling into the pail he called out:\n\n\"Let me out! Let me out! Let me out!\"\n\nThe milkmaid was so startled to hear a voice coming from the cow that\nshe upset the milking pail and rushed to her master, and said:\n\n\"The cow's bewitched! The cow's bewitched! She's talking through her\ntummy.\"\n\nThe farmer came and looked at the cow, and when he heard Thumbkin\nspeaking out of her tummy he thought the milkmaid was quite right, and\ngave orders for the cow to be slaughtered.\n\nAnd when she was cut up by the butcher he didn't want the paunch--that\nis the stomach--so he threw it out into the yard. And a wolf coming by\nswallowed the paunch and Thumbkin with it.\n\nWhen he found himself again in the wolf's stomach he called out as\nbefore:\n\n\"Let me out! Let me out! Let me out!\"\n\nBut the wolf said to him:\n\n\"What'll you do for me if I let you out?\"\n\n\"I know a place where you can get as many chickens as you like, and if\nyou let me out I'll show you the way.\"\n\n\"No, no, my fine master,\" said the wolf; \"you can tell me where it is,\nand if I find you are right then I'll let you out.\"\n\nSo Thumbkin told him a way to his father's farm, and guided him to a\nhole in the larder just big enough for the wolf to get through. When\nhe got through there were two fine fat ducks and a noble goose hung up\nready for the Sunday dinner. So Mr. Wolf set to work and ate the ducks\nand the goose while Thumbkin kept calling out:\n\n\"Don't want any duck or geese. Let me out! Let me out!\"\n\nAnd when the wolf would not he called out:\n\n\"Father! Father! Mother! Mother!\"\n\nAnd his father and mother heard him, and they came rushing towards the\nlarder. Then the wolf tried to get through the hole he had come\nthrough before, but he had eaten so much that he stuck there, and the\nfarmer and his wife came up and killed him.\n\nThen they began to cut the wolf open and Thumbkin called out:\n\n\"Be careful! Be careful! I'm here, and you'll cut me up.\" And he had\nto dodge the knife as it was coming through the wolf.\n\nBut at last the paunch of the wolf was slit open, and Thumbkin jumped\nout and went to his mother. And she cleansed him and dressed him in\nnew clothes, and they sat down to supper as happy as could be.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration:\n\n    \"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,\n    Who is the fairest of us all?\"]\n\nSNOWWHITE\n\n\nThere was once a queen who had no children, and it grieved her sorely.\nOne winter's afternoon she was sitting by the window sewing when she\npricked her finger, and three drops of blood fell on the snow. Then\nshe thought to herself:\n\n\"Ah, what would I give to have a daughter with skin as white as snow\nand cheeks as red as blood.\"\n\nAfter a while a little daughter came to her with skin as white as\nsnow and cheeks as red as blood. So they called her Snowwhite.\n\nBut before Snowwhite had grown up, her mother, the Queen, died and her\nfather married again, a most beautiful princess who was very vain of\nher beauty and jealous of all women who might be thought as beautiful\nas she was. And every morning she used to stand before her mirror and\nsay:\n\n    \"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,\n    Who is the fairest of us all?\"\n\nAnd the mirror always used to reply:\n\n    \"Queen, Queen, on thy throne,\n    The greatest beauty is thine own.\"\n\nBut Snowwhite grew fairer and fairer every year, till at last one day\nwhen the Queen in the morning spoke to her mirror and said:\n\n    \"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,\n    Who is the fairest of us all?\"\n\nthe mirror replied:\n\n    \"Queen, Queen, on thy throne,\n    Snowwhite's the fairest thou must own.\"\n\nThen the Queen grew terribly jealous of Snowwhite and thought and\nthought how she could get rid of her, till at last she went to a\nhunter and engaged him for a large sum of money to take Snowwhite out\ninto the forest and there kill her and bring back her heart.\n\nBut when the hunter had taken Snowwhite out into the forest and\nthought to kill her, she was so beautiful that his heart failed him,\nand he let her go, telling her she must not, for his sake and for her\nown, return to the King's palace. Then he killed a deer and took back\nthe heart to the Queen, telling her that it was the heart of\nSnowwhite.\n\nSnowwhite wandered on and on till she got through the forest and came\nto a mountain hut and knocked at the door, but she got no reply. She\nwas so tired that she lifted up the latch and walked in, and there she\nsaw three little beds and three little chairs and three little\ncupboards all ready for use. And she went up to the first bed and lay\ndown upon it, but it was so hard that she couldn't rest; and then she\nwent up to the second bed and lay down upon that, but that was so soft\nthat she got too hot and couldn't go to sleep. So she tried the third\nbed, but that was neither too hard nor too soft, but suited her\nexactly; and she fell asleep there.\n\nIn the evening the owners of the hut, who were three little dwarfs who\nearned their living by digging coal in the hills, came back to their\nhome. And when they came in, after they had washed themselves, they\nwent to their beds, and the first of them said:\n\n\"Somebody has been sleeping in my bed!\"\n\nAnd then the second one said:\n\n\"And somebody's been sleeping in my bed!\"\n\nAnd the third one called out in a shrill voice, for he was so excited:\n\n\"Somebody is sleeping in my bed, just look how beautiful she is!\"\n\nSo they waited till she woke up, and asked her how she had come there,\nand she told them all that the hunter had said to her about the Queen\nwanting to slay her.\n\nThen the dwarfs asked her if she would be willing to stop with them\nand keep house for them; and she said that she would be delighted.\n\nNext morning the Queen went up as usual to her mirror, and called out:\n\n    \"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,\n    Who is the fairest of us all?\"\n\nAnd the mirror answered as usual:\n\n    \"Queen, Queen, on thy throne,\n    Snowwhite's the fairest thou must own.\"\n\nAnd the Queen knew that Snowwhite had not been slain. So she sent for\nthe hunter and made him confess that he had let Snowwhite go; and she\nmade him search about beyond the forest, till at last he brought back\nword to her that Snowwhite was dwelling in a little hut on the hill\nwith some coal-miners.\n\nThen the Queen dressed herself up like an old woman, and, taking a\npoisoned comb with her, went back the next day to the hut where\nSnowwhite was living. Now the dwarfs had warned her not to open the\ndoor to anybody lest evil might befall her; and she found it very\nlonesome keeping always within doors.\n\nWhen the Queen, disguised as an old woman, came to the door of the\nhouse she knocked upon it with her stick, but Snowwhite called out\nfrom within:\n\n\"Who is there? Go away! I must not let anybody come in.\"\n\n\"All right,\" answered the Queen. \"If you can come to the window we can\nhave a little chat there, and I can show you my wares.\"\n\nSo when Snowwhite came to the window the Queen said:\n\n\"Oh, what beautiful black hair; you ought to have a comb to bind it\nup;\" and she showed her the comb that she had brought with her.\n\nBut Snowwhite said:\n\n\"I have no money and cannot afford to buy so fine a comb.\"\n\nThen the Queen said:\n\n\"That is no matter; perhaps you have something golden that you can\ngive me in exchange.\"\n\nAnd Snowwhite thought of a golden ring that her father had given to\nher, and offered to give it for the comb. The Queen took it and gave\nSnowwhite the comb and bade her good-bye, and went back to the palace.\n\nSnowwhite lost no time in going to the mirror, and binding up her hair\nand putting the comb into it. But it had scarcely been in her hair a\nfew minutes when she fell down as if she were dead, and all the blood\nleft her cheeks, and she was Snowwhite indeed.\n\nWhen the dwarfs came home that evening they were surprised to find\nthat the table was not spread for them, and looking about they soon\nfound Snowwhite lying upon the ground as if she were dead. But one of\nthem listened to her heart and said: \"She lives! She lives!\"\n\nAnd they began to consider what caused Snowwhite to fall into such a\nswoon. They soon found the comb, and when they took it out Snowwhite\nsoon opened her eyes and became as lively as she ever was before.\n\nNext morning the Queen went to the mirror on the wall and said to it:\n\n    \"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,\n    Who is the fairest of us all?\"\n\nThen the mirror said as before:\n\n    \"Queen, Queen, on thy throne,\n    Snowwhite's the fairest thou must own.\"\n\nThen the Queen knew that something had happened to the comb and that\nSnowwhite was still alive. So she dressed herself once more as an old\nwoman and took with her a poisoned ribbon and went to the hut of the\nthree dwarfs. And when she got there she knocked at the door, but\nSnowwhite called out:\n\n\"You cannot enter; I must not open the door.\"\n\nThen, as before, the Queen called out in reply:\n\n\"Then come to the window, and you can see my wares.\"\n\nWhen Snowwhite came to the window the Queen said:\n\n\"You are looking more beautiful than ever, but how unbecomingly you\narrange your hair. Did you use that comb I gave you yesterday?\"\n\n\"Yes, indeed,\" said Snowwhite, \"and I fell into a swoon because of it;\nI am afraid there is something the matter with it.\"\n\n\"No, no, that cannot be,\" said the Queen; \"there must be some mistake.\nBut if you cannot use the comb I will let you have this pretty ribbon\ninstead,\" and she held out the poisoned ribbon. Snowwhite took it, and\nafter the old woman, as she thought she was, had gone away, Snowwhite\nwent to the mirror and tied up her hair with the piece of ribbon. But\nscarcely had she done so when she fell to the ground lifeless and lay\nthere as if she were dead.\n\nThat evening the dwarfs came home and found Snowwhite lying on the\nground as if dead, but soon discovered the poisoned ribbon and untied\nit; and almost as soon as this was done Snowwhite revived again.\n\nNext morning the Queen went once more to the mirror on the wall, and\ncalled out:\n\n    \"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,\n    Who is the fairest of us all?\"\n\nto which the mirror replied, without any change:\n\n    \"Queen, Queen, on thy throne,\n    Snowwhite's the fairest thou must own.\"\n\nAnd the Queen recognized that once again her plans had failed, and\nSnowwhite was still alive. So she dressed herself once more and took\nwith her a poisoned apple, which was so arranged that only one half of\nit was poisoned and the rest of it was left as before. And when the\nQueen got to the hut of the dwarfs she tried to open the door, but\nSnowwhite called out:\n\n\"You can't come in!\"\n\n\"Then I'll come to the window,\" said the Queen.\n\n\"Ah, you are the old lady that came twice before; you have not brought\nme good luck, each time something has befallen me.\"\n\nBut the Queen said:\n\n\"I do not know how that can be; I only brought you something for your\nhair; perhaps you tied it too tight. To show you that I have no\nill-will against you I have brought you this beautiful apple.\"\n\n\"But my guardians,\" said Snowwhite, \"told me that I must take nothing\nmore from you.\"\n\n\"Oh, this is nothing to wear,\" said the Queen, \"this is something to\neat. To show you that there can be no harm in it I will take half of\nit myself and you shall eat the other half.\"\n\nSo she cut the apple in two and gave the poisoned half to Snowwhite.\nAnd the moment she had swallowed the first bite of it she fell down\ndead. Then the Queen slunk away and went back to the palace and went\nat once to her chamber and addressed the mirror on the wall:\n\n    \"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,\n    Who is the fairest of us all?\"\n\nAnd this time the mirror answered, as it used to do:\n\n    \"Queen, Queen, on thy throne,\n    The greatest beauty is thine own.\"\n\nThen the Queen knew that Snowwhite was dead at last, and that she was\nwithout a rival in beauty.\n\nWhen the dwarfs came home that night they found Snowwhite lying upon\nthe ground quite dead, and could not find out what had happened or\nhow they could cure her. But, though she seemed dead, Snowwhite kept\nher beautiful white skin and seemed more like a statue than a dead\nperson. So the dwarfs had a glass coffer made, and put Snowwhite in\nand locked it up. And she remained there for days and days without\nchanging the slightest, looking oh, so beautiful under the glass case.\n\nNow a great prince of the neighbouring country happened to be hunting\nnear the hill of the dwarfs and called at their hut to get a glass of\nwater. And when he came in he found nobody there but Snowwhite lying\nin her crystal coffer. And he fell at once in love with her and sat by\nher side till the dwarfs came home, and he asked them who she was.\nThen they told him her history, and he begged that he might carry the\ncoffer away so that he might always have her near him. At first they\nwould not do so. But he showed how much he loved her, so that they at\nlast yielded, and he called for his men to carry the coffer home to\nhis palace.\n\nAnd when the men commenced carrying the coffer down the mountain they\njolted it so much that the piece of poisoned apple in Snowwhite's\nthroat fell out, and she revived and opened her eyes and looked upon\nthe Prince who was riding by her side. Then he ordered the coffer to\nbe opened, and told her all that had happened. And he took her home to\nhis castle and married her.\n\nAfter this happened the Queen once more came to her room and spoke to\nthe mirror on the wall and said:\n\n    \"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,\n    Who is the fairest of us all?\"\n\nAnd the mirror this time said again:\n\n    \"Queen, Queen, on thy throne,\n    Snowwhite's the fairest thou must own.\"\n\nAnd the Queen was so enraged because she had not destroyed Snowwhite\nthat she rushed to the window and threw herself out of it and died on\nthe spot.\n\n[Illustration: Snowwhite and the Three Dwarfs]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION TO NOTES\n\n\nEver since the Brothers Grimm in 1812 made for the first time a fairly\ncomplete collection of the folk-tales of a definite local or national\narea in Europe, the resemblance of many of these tales, not alone in\nisolated incidents but in continuous plots, has struck inquirers into\nthese delightful little novels for children, as the Italians call them\n(_Novelline_). Wilhelm Grimm, in the comparative notes which he added\nto successive editions of the _Maehrchen_ up to 1859, drew attention to\nmany of these parallels and especially emphasized the resemblances of\ndifferent incidents to similar ones in the Teutonic myths and sagas\nwhich he and his brother were investigating. Indeed it may be said\nthat the very considerable amount of attention that was paid to the\ncollection of folk tales throughout Europe for the half century\nbetween 1840 and 1890 was due to the hope that they would throw some\nlight upon the origins of mythology. The stories and incidents common\nto all the European field were thought likely to be original\nmythopoeic productions of the Indo-European peoples just in the same\nmanner as the common roots of the various Aryan languages indicated\ntheir original linguistic store.\n\nIn 1864 J. G. von Hahn, Austrian Consul for Eastern Greece, in the\nintroduction to his collection of Greek and Albanian folk tales, made\nthe first attempt to bring together in systematic form this common\nstory-store of Europe and gave an analysis of forty folk-tale and saga\n\"formulae,\" which outlined the plots of the stories found scattered\nthrough the German, Greek, Italian, Servian, Roumanian, Lithuanian,\nand Indian myth and folk-tale areas. These formulae were translated and\nadapted by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould in an appendix to Henderson's\n_Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England_ (London, 1866), and he\nexpanded them into fifty-two formulae. Those were the days when Max\nMueller's solar and lunar explanations of myths were in the ascendant\nand Mr. Baring-Gould applied his views to the explanation of folk\ntales. I have myself expanded Hahn's and Baring-Gould's formulae into a\nlist of seventy-two given in the English Folk-Lore Society's\n_Hand-Book of Folk-Lore_, London, 1891 (repeated in the second\nedition, 1912).\n\nMeanwhile the erudition of Theodor Benfey, in his introduction to the\nIndian story book, _Pantschatantra_ (Leipzig, 1859), had suggested\nanother explanation of the similarities of European folk-tales. For\nmany of the incidents and several of the complete tales Benfey showed\nIndian parallels, and suggested that the stories had originated in\nIndia and had been transferred by oral tradition to the different\ncountries of Europe. This entirely undermined the mythological\ntheories of the Grimms and Max Mueller and considerably reduced the\nimportance of folk tales as throwing light upon the primitive\npsychology of the Aryan peoples. Benfey's researches were followed up\nby E. Cosquin who, in the elaborate notes to his _Contes de Lorraine_,\nParis, 1886, largely increased the evidence both for the common\nEuropean popularity of many of the tales and incidents as well as for\nthe parallels to be found in Oriental collections.\n\nStill a third theory to account for the similarity of folk-tale\nincidents was started by James A. Farrer and elaborated by Andrew Lang\nin connection with the general movement initiated by Sir Edward Tylor\nto explain mythology and superstition by the similar processes of\nsavage psychology at definite stages of primitive culture. In\nintroductions to Perrault and Grimm and elsewhere, Andrew Lang\npointed out the similarity of some of the incidents of folk\ntales--speaking of animals, transference of human feeling to inanimate\nobjects and the like--with the mental processes of contemporary\nsavages. He drew the conclusion that the original composers of fairy\ntales were themselves in a savage state of mind and, by inference,\nexplained the similarities found in folk tales as due to the\nsimilarity of the states of minds. In a rather elaborate controversy\non the subject between Mr. Lang and myself, carried through the\ntransactions of the Folk-Lore Congress of 1891, the introduction to\nMiss Roalfe Cox's \"Cinderella,\" and in various numbers of \"Folk-Lore,\"\nI urged the improbability of this explanation as applied to the\n_plots_ of fairy tales. Similar states of mind might account for\nsimilar incidents arising in different areas independently, but not\nfor whole series of incidents artistically woven together to form a\ndefinite plot which must, I contended, arise in a single artist mind.\nThe similarities in plot would thus be simply due to borrowing from\none nation to another, though incidents or series of incidents might\nbe inserted or omitted during the process. Mr. Lang ultimately yielded\nthis point and indeed insisted that he had never denied the\npossibility of the transmission of complete folk-tale formulae from one\nnation and language to another.\n\nDuring all this discussion as to the causes of the similarity of\nfolk-tale plots no attempt has been made to reconstitute any of these\nformulae in their original shape. Inquirers have been content to point\nout the parallelisms to be found in the various folk-tale collections,\nand of course these parallelisms have bred and mustered with the\ngrowth of the collections. In some cases the parallels have run into\nthe hundreds. (See \"Reynard and Bruin.\") In only one case have\npractically all the parallels been brought together in a single volume\nby Miss Roalfe Cox on Cinderella (Folk-Lore Society Publication for\n1893; see notes on \"Cinder-Maid\"). These variants of incidents\nobviously resemble the _variae lectiones_ of MSS. and naturally suggest\nthe possibility of getting what may be termed the original readings.\nIn 1889 the following suggestion was made by Mr. (now Sir) James G.\nFrazer in an essay on the \"Language of Animals,\" in the _Archaeological\nReview_, i., p. 84:\n\n\"In the case of authors who wrote before the invention of printing,\nscholars are familiar with the process of comparing the various MSS.\nof a single work in order from such a comparison to reconstruct the\narchetype or original MS., from which the various existing MSS. are\nderived. Similarly in Folk-Lore, by comparing the different versions\nof a single tale, it may be possible to arrive, with tolerable\ncertainty, at the original story, of which the different versions are\nmore or less imperfect and incorrect representations.\"\n\nIndependently of Sir James Frazer's suggestion, which I have only\nrecently come across, I have endeavoured in the present book to carry\nit out as applied to a considerable number of the common formulas of\nEuropean folk-tales, and I hope in a succeeding volume to complete the\ntask and thus give to the students of the folk-tale as close approach\nas possible to the original form of the common folk-tales of Europe as\nthe materials at our disposal permit.\n\nMy procedure has been entirely similar to that of an editor of a text.\nHaving collected together all the variants, I have reduced them to\nfamilies of types and from these families have conjectured the\noriginal concatenation of incidents into plot. I have assumed that the\noriginal teller of the tale was animated by the same artistic logic as\nthe contemporary writers of _Contes_ (see notes on \"Cinder-Maid,\"\n\"Language of Animals\"), and have thus occasionally introduced an\nincident which seemed vital to the plot, though it occurs only in some\nof the families of the variants. My procedure can only be justified by\nthe success of my versions and their internal coherence. As regards\nthe actual form of the narrative, this does not profess to be European\nbut follows the general style of the English fairy tale, of which I\nhave published two collections (_English Fairy Tales_, 1890; _More\nEnglish Fairy Tales_, 1894).\n\nIn the following notes I have not wasted space on proving the European\ncharacter of the various tales by enumerating the different variants,\nbeing content for the most part to give references to special\ndiscussions of the story where the requisite bibliography is given.\nWith the more serious tales I have rather concerned myself with trying\nto restore the original formula and to establish its artistic\ncoherence. Though I have occasionally discussed an incident of\nprimitive character, I have not made a point of drawing attention to\nsavage parallels, nor again have I systematically given references to\nthe appearance of whole tales or separate incidents in mediaeval\nliterature or in the Indian collections. For the time being I have\nconcentrated myself on the task of getting back as near as possible to\nthe original form of the fairy tales common to all Europe. Only when\nthat has been done satisfactorily can we begin to argue as to the\ncauses or origin of the separate items in these originals. It must, of\ncourse, always be remembered that, outside this common nucleus, each\ncountry or linguistic area has its own story-store, which is equally\ndeserving of special investigation by the serious student of the\nfolk-tale. I have myself dealt with some of these non-European or\nnational folk-tales for the English, Celtic and Indian areas and hope\nin the near future to treat of other folk-tale districts, like the\nFrench, the Scandinavian, the Teutonic or the Slavonian.\n\nI had gone through three-quarters of the tales and notes contained in\nthe present book before I became acquainted with the modestly named\n_Anmerkungen zu Grimm's Maehrchen_, 2 vols., 1913-15, by J. Bolte and\nE. Polivka. This is one of those works of colossal erudition of which\nGerman savants alone seem to have the secret. It sums up the enormous\namount of research that has been going on in Europe for the last\nhundred years, on the parallelism and provenance of the folk-tales of\nEurope, and in a measure does for all the Grimm stories what Miss\nRoalfe Cox did for Cinderella. Only two volumes have as yet appeared\ndealing with the first 120 numbers of the Grimm collection in over a\nthousand pages crammed with references and filled with details as to\nvariants. The book has obviously been planned and worked out by Dr.\nBolte, who had previously edited the collected works of his chief\npredecessor, R. Koehler. Dr. Polivka's contribution mainly consists in\nthe collection and collation of the Slavonic variants, which are here\nmade accessible for the first time. I therefore refer to the volume\nhenceforth by Dr. Bolte's name. The book is indispensable for the\nserious students of the folk-tale, and would have saved me an immense\namount of trouble if I had become acquainted with it earlier.\n\nIn thirty-eight or nearly a third of the tales Dr. Bolte gives a\nformula, or radicle, summing up the \"common form\" of the story, and I\nam happy to find that in those cases, which occur in the early part of\nthe present volume, my own formulae, agree with his, though of course\nfor the purposes of this book I have had to go into more detail. Dr.\nBolte has not as yet expounded any theory of the origin of the Folk\nTale, but, with true scientific caution, judges each case on its\nmerits. But his whole treatment assumes the organic unity of each\nparticular formula, and one cannot conceive him regarding the\nsimilarities of the tales as due to similar mental workings of the\nfolk mind at a particular stage of social development.\n\nFinally, I should perhaps explain that in my selection of typical\nfolk-tales for the present volume, I have included not only those\nwhich could possibly be traced back to real primitive times and mental\nconditions, like the \"Cupid and Psyche\" formula, but others of more\nrecent date and composition, provided they have spread throughout\nEurope, which is my criterion. For instance \"Beauty and the Beast\" in\nits current shape was composed in the eighteenth century, but has\nfound its place in the story-store of European children. A couple,\nlike \"Androcles and the Lion\" and \"Day Dreaming,\" owe a similar spread\nto literary communication even though in the latter case it is the\npopular literature of the _Arabian Nights_. These must be regarded as\nspecimens only of a large class of stories that are found among the\nfolk and can be traced in the popular mediaeval collections like\nAlfonsi's _Disciplina-Clericalis_ or Jacques de Vitry's _Exempla_, not\nto speak of the _Fables of Bidpai_ or _The Seven Wise Masters of\nRome_. These form quite a class by themselves and though they have\ncome to be in many cases Folk-Lore of European spread, they differ in\nquality from the ordinary folk-tale which is characterized by its\ntendency to variation as it passes from mouth to mouth. Still one has\nto recognize that they are now European and take their place among the\nfolk and for that reason I have given a couple of specimens of them,\nbut of course my main attention has been directed to attempting to\nreconstruct the original form of the true folk-tale from the\ninnumerable variants now current among the folk.\n\n\nI. CINDER-MAID\n\n_Source._--Miss Roalfe Cox's volume on Cinderella, published by the\nFolk-Lore Society (London: David Nutt, 1893), contains 130 abstracts\nand tabulations of the pure Cinderella \"formula,\" found in Finland,\nthe Riviera, Scotland, Italy, Armenia, Iceland, Norway and Sweden,\nFrance, Greece, Germany, Spain, Calcutta, Ireland, Servia, Poland,\nRussia, Denmark, Albania, Cyprus, Galicia Lithuania, Catalonia,\nPortugal, Sicily, Hungary, Martinique, Holland, Bohemia, Bulgaria,\nand the Tyrol. Besides these there are 31 intermediate stories\napproximating to the Cinderella type, from Russia, Asia Minor, Italy,\nLorraine, The Deccan, Poland, Hungary, Catalonia, Corsica, Finland,\nSwitzerland, and in Basque, Spain. The earliest form in which the pure\ntype occurs is in Basile's _Pentamerone_, 1634, and of the\nindeterminate type in Bonaventure des Periers _Nouvelles Recreations_,\n1557, though the latter seems more cognate to the Catskin formula.\n\nIn many of the variants there is an introductory series of incidents\nin which the heroine, after the loss of her mother, is set tasks by\nthe envious step-mother and sisters, which she is aided to perform by\nmeans of an animal helper, mainly sheep or cow, which, in some of the\nversions, is clearly identified with her mother either in a\ntransformed or a natural state. In these versions the magic dresses,\nfor example, are taken out of the ear of the cow or sheep! These\nincidents however seem to me to be incongruous with the rest of the\nstory, which involves a monogamous society with fairly fixed social\ngrades and with the wearing of shoes at least among the upper strata\nof society. They belong rather to the type of story represented by the\nGrimm's \"One eye, Two eyes, Three eyes\"; and I have therefore reserved\nthem for my retelling of this formula. In a similar way, in some of\nthe Celtic versions, a long series of incidents is inserted, clearly\ntaken from the Sea Maiden story (see _Celtic Fairy Tales_, xvii.).\n\nThe central incident of the Cinder-Maid formula is clearly the Shoe\nMarriage Test, up to which everything leads and upon which the\nmutilation incidents at the end depends. The mutilation again implies\nthat the shoe in question must have been of a hard or metallic\nsubstance which could not be pressed out of shape. In the form\nendeared to most European children of the upper classes by Charles\nPerrault, the slipper is made of glass. It was first suggested by\nBalzac that Perrault's _pantoffles de verre_ was due to his\nmisunderstanding of the _pantoffles de vair_, or fur (the word _vair_\nis still used to indicate this in heraldry), which he had heard from\nhis nurse or other folk-tale informant. But the step-sisters would not\nhave been compelled to hack their heels to get inside a fur slipper,\nand, from this point of view, the glass shoe would be preferable. I\nhave had, however, to reject it because it occurs in only six of the\nvariants obviously derived directly, or indirectly, from Perrault. The\nmajority of the versions prefer _gold_ (see Miss Roalfe Cox's\nenumeration p. 342).\n\nThe Shoe Marriage Test again involves the previous meetings of the\nhigh-born lover and the menial heroine, transformed for the nonce by\nher dress into a dame of equal standing. In some of the variants these\nmeetings are in church and not at a ball, royal or otherwise. But the\nShoe Marriage Test involves a highly desirable _parti_ who can\npractically command any wife he desires; this points to some\nsuper-chief or king. I have, therefore, reserved the church meetings\nfor the Catskin type of story in which the heroine is scullery-maid in\nthe young lord's own household. The obtaining of the dresses needed\nfor the Royal Balls involves some animal or supernatural aid (in\nPerrault it is, of course, a fairy god-mother, unknown to the folk\nmind), while the menial condition of the heroine is best explained in\nthe usual folk-tale manner by the envious step-mother or sisters.\n\nI have pointed out in _English Fairy Tales_ (Note to \"Childe Rowland\")\nthat in most folk-tales of a romantic type the mode of telling is by\nprose narrative interspersed with rhyming formulae analogous to the\ncante-fable as in \"Aucassin and Nicolete.\" The Cinderella formula\nshows clear traces of such rhymes, especially at the stages of the\nnarrative where incidents are repeated--the appeal for aid at the\nmother's grave (Dress Rhyme), the avoidance of pursuit by the guards\n(Pursuit Rhyme), and the calling attention of the Prince to the\nmutilated feet of the step-sisters (Feet Rhyme).\n\nNow some of these rhymes are found in similar and almost identical\nshape in collections made in different countries and different\nlanguages; thus the Tree Rhyme is found in the _Archivio_ (Cox, p.\n139) and in Ive (p. 265), in Bechstein (p. 166), and in Grimm (p.\n222), and in Hahn (p. 244), and Moe (p. 322), each pair having\npractically identical rhymes. Thus we have the existence of a Tree\nRhyme, shown in Italy and Germany, Greece and Denmark. So, too, the\nFeet Rhyme is found in Scotland and Denmark, Germany and Brittany. It\nis scarcely possible to doubt that all these came from one original\nform of the story in which similar rhymes occurred at the same stage\nof the narrative. The possibility of such coincidences arising\ncasually may fairly be regarded as out of the question.\n\nThe subordinate incidents growing out of these essential elements of\nthe formula are of course more flexible, but the Shoe Marriage Test\nitself involves some remarkable dresses used to disguise the identity\nof the Cinder Maid at her meetings with the hero, and this again\ninvolves, though not so directly, a series of metal carriages. The\nPursuit Rhyme might easily give rise to the expedients of the Honey\nand Tar Traps though these do not occur in very many of the variants.\nI have never-the-less inserted them for the sake of the children if\nnot for that of Folk-Lore Science.\n\nThus, from what may be called the artistic logic of the Cinderella\nstory, one is enabled to reconstitute its original formula somewhat as\nfollows:\n\nNoble Father--Single Daughter--Mother's Death--Tree Planted on\nMother's Grave--Second Marriage--Two Ugly Step-Sisters--Menial\nHeroine--Cinder-Maid--Prince Coming of Age--Royal Ball--Step-Sisters\nDressing--Tree Rhyme--Bird Aid--Magic Dress (blue heaven with\nstars)--Copper Chariot from Tree--Copper Shoes--Caution Rhyme--Ball\nSuccess--Pursuit Rhyme--Step-Sisters' Envy--Second Ball--Magic Dress\n(golden brown earth with flowers)--Silver Chariot--Silver Shoes--Honey\ntrap--Pursuit Rhyme--Third Ball--Magic Dress (green sea with\nwaves)--Golden Chariot--Golden Slippers--Tar Trap (lost shoe)--Time\nExpired--Shoe Marriage Test--Mutilated Foot--Feet Rhyme (_bis_)--Happy\nMarriage.\n\nIt is in accordance with the above formula that the version presented\nin the preceding pages has been written, the rhymes being, in most\ncases, compounded from the various renderings given in Miss Cox's\nvolume. I have only added the Caution Rhyme about returning at\nmidnight, which is in prose in the versions; it would be incongruous\nfor the little bird to change her mode of diction so suddenly. I can\nonly hope I will not remind the reader of the guide's description of\nWallenstein's horse at Prague: \"The head, neck, forelegs, left\nhind-leg, and part of the back and tail have been restored; all the\nrest is the original horse.\"\n\n_Parallels._--Miss Cox's volume contains all the parallels of the\nCinder-Maid formulae, to which reference has been made above, and she\nhas supplemented these by a few additional ones in _Folk-Lore_ for\n1907, pages xviii; 191-6. In addition, she gives, in her notes,\nparallels to the different incidents:\n\nNote 4. (Help by dead parent.) Note 6. (Pursuit checked by mist.) Note\n7. (Magic tree on buried mother's grave.) Note 8. (Substituted bride.)\nNote 26. (Sitting on ashes.) Note 32. (Birds' language.) Note 38.\n(Tree or rock treasures.) Note 48. (Lost shoe.) Note 50. (Iron shoes,)\nand further notes on, Helpful, animals, p. 526. Fairy god-mother, p.\n527 and Talking birds, p. 527-9.\n\nOf these the most important for our present purposes is the 48th note\ndealing with the Lost Shoe, which we have suggested is the central\nincident in the \"original.\" In Strabo xvii. and in AElian xiii.--33,\nthe myth of Rhodope informs us that, while she was bathing, an eagle\nsnatched one of her sandals and dropped it in the lap of Psammetichus\nwho, struck by its neatness, had all Egypt search for its owner, whom\nhe then took to wife. In other Egyptian and in Indian stories a\nsevered lock of hair of the heroine leads to the same result. Jacob\nGrimm drew attention to the old German custom of using a shoe at\nbetrothals, which was placed on the bride's foot as a sign of her\nbeing subjected to the groom's authority. King Rother had two shoes\nforged, a silver and a golden one, which he fitted on the feet of his\nbride, placed on his knee for that purpose. (See _Deutsche\nRechts-Alterthumer_, Goettingen, 1828, p. 155.) It is, of course,\npossible that some reminiscence of the Rhodope myth had spread among\nthe folk to which the original teller of Cinder-Maid belonged, and if\nthe shoe betrothal was confined to German custom this would seem to\ngive a clue to the original home of the Cinder-Maid.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_Remarks._--The hazardous character of the reconstruction process\ninvolved in the restoration of the original Cinder-Maid formula\ncannot, of course, be exaggerated. It is even more precarious than the\nsimilar procedure gone through by scholars to restore the original\nreading of MSS. or by the Higher Critics in recovering the J.\nnarrative of Joseph or the E. narrative of Lot. But I think I have\nshown that the incidents selected by me are those which are\nnecessitated by the artistic logic of the Shoe Marriage Test which\nforms the decisive incident in the Cinder-Maid formula. Where the\nmajority of the incidents contained in the reconstruction occurred in\nthe same order in far distant countries it is practically impossible\nto imagine that the resemblance is due to chance. Nor is it pertinent\nto point out that the separate incidents occur equally widespread in\nconnection with other formulae, since it must not be forgotten that no\nfolk teller ever indulges in a single incident; he tells a tale of\nmany incidents. At the same time it is obvious that a series of\nincidents may be transferred appropriately (or inappropriately) from\none tale to another; and this has occurred with the Cinderella tales,\nas is shown abundantly in Miss Cox's notes. It is thus quite easy for\na folk teller, who is familiar with other stories, to introduce an\nanalogous set of incidents in the Cinder-Maid formula, just as Rob\nRoy's son can introduce variations of an air when playing the\nbagpipes; but the air remains the same throughout.\n\nIf the formula I have reconstructed for the Cinder-Maid compares at\nall with the original, one ought to be able to take any variant and\nsee where the teller of it has diverged from the original, inserted\nnew incidents or adopted new ones to local conditions. When one reads\nover Miss Cox's variants one can often discern such additions or\nvariations introduced by the fancy of the teller. It is even possible\nthat in Cinderella itself the original folk artist who conceived it\nmade use of the Catskin formula to embellish the details of the three\nmeetings of the lovers; even in my own telling I fear there may be\ntraces of the same process. There is still doubt whether the bird in\nthe hazel tree was meant to represent the soul of the mother in whom,\nwe may even say, there is a double identification involved, as in the\nGolden Bough. The tree rising from the mother's grave is obviously\nconnected spiritually with her; the relation of the bird in the tree\nto the Cinder-Maid also implies a similar relation to the mother. In\nmy telling of the tale I have purposely avoided emphasizing this,\nwhich might lead to inconvenient questionings from the little ones. In\nthe scheme of the story the guardian influence of the mother-soul is\nprominent throughout but need not be too much emphasized for modern\nchildren.\n\n\nII. ALL CHANGE\n\nThis nonsense story is found widely spread, especially in Romance\ntongues, French, Italian, Provencal, and Portuguese; but it is also\nfound in Ireland (see _Celtic Fairy Tales_), Hanover, Transylvania,\nEsthonia, and Russia; so that it has claims to be included in the\nfairy book of all Europe. Cosquin, ii., 209-14, gives a number of\nOriental stories, Annamite, Kalmuk, Kaffir, which contain the incident\nof the girl in the bag, and Indian and Kabyle stories, which go\nthrough the same exchanges as our story. In the latter case it is an\nanimal story in which the jackal has a thorn picked out of his paws by\nan old woman, and gets an egg out of her in exchange for the thorn\nwhich he has \"lost.\" In this form the jackal helps considerably in the\ndisappearance of the successive exchanges. It is difficult to say\nwhether the European or the Indian form was the earlier. The animal\n_dramatis personae_ seem less incongruous and turn the scale in favour\nof India.\n\n\nIII. KING OF THE FISHES\n\nThis is practically the Perseus legend of antiquity, which has been\nmade the subject of an elaborate study by Mr. E. Sidney Hartland, _The\nLegend of Perseus_, 3 vols., London, 1894-6. Mr. Hartland\ndistinguishes four chains of incidents in the story:\n\n1. The Supernatural Birth.\n2. The Life Token.\n3. The Rescue of Andromeda.\n4. The Medusa Witch.\n\nNot all the variants, which are very numerous, running from Ireland to\nCambodia, include all these four incidents. The Greek Perseus legend,\nfor instance, has not the Life Token. Cosquin, i., 67, knows of only\neighteen which have the full contingent, one in Brittany, two in\nGreece, one in Sicily, four in Italy, one each--Basque, Spanish,\nCatalan, Portuguese, Danish, and Swedish; two German; one Lithuanian;\nand a Russian variant. There must be many more in Bolte's notes to\nGrimm, 60. These are sufficient to prove that the whole concatenation\nof incident is European, though it is difficult to understand how the\nMedusa incident got tacked on to the preceding three, with which it is\nvery loosely combined, the only point of connection being with the\nLife Token. Strangely enough, in the ancient form of the folk-tale,\nthe Gorgon is an almost essential part of the story, though the Life\nToken has disappeared, and the Supernatural Birth only applies to the\nhero and not to his animal companions. In the modern European\nfolk-tales these animal friends are rather supernumeraries and are\noccasionally replaced by the formula of the Grateful Animals, to whom\nthe hero does some service during his wanderings, in reward for which\nthey rescue him from some extremity. In some ancient variants of the\nPerseus legend there are traces of the Substituted Champion in the\nform of Pentheus, a former suitor of Andromeda, who had failed to meet\nthe dragon.\n\nIt would be impossible here to consider the folk-lore analogies of the\nfour chief incidents of the tale which have occupied Mr. Hartland for\nthree fairly large volumes to develop, out of which have grown two\nmore (_Primitive Paternity_, London, 1910). It is only necessary here\nto refer to a few points in their relation to the tale itself. The\nSupernatural Birth, which is also treated by M. Saintyves (?) is found\nattributed to heroes among all nations; it is only of significance in\nthe story here in its bearing upon the Life Token of the hero, which\nis connected with it. With regard to the Life Token, Major Temple has\na full analysis in the notes to _Wide Awake Stories_, 1884, pp. 404-5,\nunder the title of the \"Life Index,\" and is closely connected with\nthe idea of the External Soul, which Sir James G. Frazer has studied\nin his _Balder_, London, 1913, pp. 95-152. The Fight with the Dragon\nis celebrated outside folk-tales in the lives of the saints (whence\nSt. George, the titular saint of England, gets his emblem) in the saga\nof Siegfried, and in the poetry of Schiller, where it is made the\nsubject of a moral apologue. The Medusa-witch, who transforms into\nstone, or destroys life in other ways, is quite a familiar figure in\nfolk tales, but is usually thwarted, as here, by some means of cure.\n\nThe chief interest, however, of the \"King of the Fishes,\" from a\nfolk-tale point of view, is the remarkable similarity of the later\nfolk-tales with the Greek legend, from which they are separated by so\nmany centuries. The absence of the Life Token in the Greek version and\nthe comparative insignificance of Medusa in the modern tales are\nsufficient evidence that these latter are not directly derived from\nthe former. Yet even Mr. Hartland, who is a strong adherent of the\nanthropological treatment of folk-tales, fully agrees that this\nparticular tale must have, at one time, been composed in artistic\nunity, if not containing all the four chains of incidents at least\ncontaining two of them (_Legend of Perseus_, iii., 151). It should be\nadded that Rassmann and the Grimms connect the folk-tales with the\nSiegfried saga (Bolte, i., 547, 555).\n\n\nIV. SCISSORS\n\nThis familiar story is found as early as Pauli, \"Schimpf und Ernst,\"\nNo. 595. It is frequent in Italy, especially in Pitre's Selections.\nKoehler has references to the other European versions in Blade, p.\n155. Crane, _Italian Popular Tales_, No. xcvi, has rendered one of\nPitre's versions.\n\n\nV. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST\n\nThis rather artificial tale has never-the-less spread through all\nEurope. One finds it in Italy almost in the same form as in the\noriginal French by the Princesse de Beaumont, from whom it has got\ninto the ordinary fairy books of England, France and Germany. See\nCrane II., \"Zelinda and the Monster,\" pp. 7-11, with note 6, p. 324,\nwhich contain a reference to Miss Stokes's _Indian Fairy Tales_, p.\n292. The Grimm story No. 108, \"Hans the Hedgehog,\" is more primitive\nin character, and we get there the story how the Beast obtained his\nterrible form. I have, however, rejected this form of it as it is not\nso widespread as \"Beauty and the Beast,\" which is one of the few\nstories that we can trace, spreading through Europe practically within\nour own time. The artificiality of the leading motive is sufficient\nproof of the late origin of the tale. But, after all, tradition does\nnot distinguish between primitive or later strata. Ralston dealt with\nthe whole formula from the sun-moon point of view in _Nineteenth\nCentury_, Dec., 1878.\n\n\nVI. REYNARD AND BRUIN\n\nThe main incidents of \"Reynard the Fox\" occur in folk-tales throughout\nEurope, and it has often been discussed whether the folk-tales were\nthe foundation of the beast epic or vice versa. Since, however, it has\nbeen proven that many other incidents besides those used in the beast\nsatire are found among the folk, it is generally allowed nowadays\nthat, apart from a few AEsopic fables included in the satire, the main\nincidents were derived from the folk. On this subject see my\nintroduction to \"Reynard the Fox\" in the Cranford Series.\n\nI have selected a number of the most characteristic of these\nfolk-tales relating to the former friendship and later enmity of the\nFox and the Bear, basing my compilation on the admirable monographs\nof Prof. K. Krohn of Helsingfors, \"Mann und Fuchs,\" 1891, \"Baer (Wolf)\nund Fuchs; eine nordische Tiermaerchenkette,\" in _Journal de la Societe\nFinno-Ougrienne_, vi., Helsingissa, 1889, and \"Die geografische\nVerbreitung einer nordischen in Finnland,\" in _Fennia_, iv., 4. The\nlatter monograph is accompanied by an interesting map of Finland,\nshowing the distribution of the Scandinavian form of these stories, in\nwhich the Bear is the opponent of the Fox, and the Slavonic form in\nwhich the Wolf takes that position. As there is obviously a\nmythological tendency at the root of the stories, intending to account\nfor the shortness of the Bear's tail and the white tip of the Fox's,\nit is clear that the Scandinavian form is the more original.\n\nI have tried to collect together in a logical narrative:\n\n(a) Fox and Bear in partnership--(Top-off, Half-gone, All-gone).\n(b) Fox in fish cart.\n(c) Iced Bear's tail.\n(d) Fox and cream jug.\n(e) Fox on Bear's back.\n(f) Fox in briar bush.\n(g) Man promises Fox two geese for freeing him from Bear.\n(h) Gives him two dogs.\n(k) Fox and limbs; sacrifices tail.\n\nIn his article in _Fennia_, Prof. Krohn refers to no less than 708\nvariants of these different episodes, of which, however, 362 are from\nthe enormous Finnish collections of folk lore in possession of the\nFinnish Literary Society at Helsingfors. The others include the\nmajority of European folk-tale collections with a goodly sprinkling of\nAsiatic, African and American ones, the last, however, being confined\nto \"Uncle Remus,\" in which four out of the ten incidents occur in\nisolated adventures of Brer Rabbit.\n\nMany of the incidents occur separately in early literature; (g) (h)\n(k) for example, which form one sequence, are found not alone in\nRenard but also in Alfonsi, 1115, and Waldis. (c) The iced bear's tail\noccurs in the Latin _Ysengrimus_, of the twelfth century, in the\n_Renart_ of the thirteenth, and, strangely enough, in the Hebrew _Fox\nFables_ of Berachyah ha-Nakadan, whom I have identified with an Oxford\nJew late in the twelfth century. See my edition of Caxton, _Fables of\nEurope_, i., p. 176. The fact that ice is referred to in the last case\nwould seem to preclude an Indian origin for this part of the\ncollection.\n\nIt is not quite certain however that all the above incidents were\nnecessarily connected together originally. The fish cart (b), and the\niced bear's tail (c), are so closely allied that they probably formed\na unity in the original conception, though they are often found\nseparately nowadays among the folk. Bear and Fox in partnership (a),\nis found elsewhere told of other animals, notably of the firm of Cat\nand Mouse in Grimm No. 2. It is difficult to determine at present\nwhether stories relating to other animals, or even to associations of\nmen, have been applied by peasant narrators to the general opposition\nof the sly _versus_ the strong animal, which they have dramatized in\nthe beast satire of Reynard and Bruin.\n\nFor a discussion of the whole subject, see A. Gerber, _Great Russian\nAnimal Tales_, Baltimore, 1891, who discusses the incidents included\nin the above compilation in his notes on v. (a), i. (b), ii. (c), iii.\n(d), iv. (e), iva. (f), ix. (g), x. (h), xi. (k). It will be found\nthat few of the other incidents contained in Gerber can be traced\nthroughout Europe except when they are evidently derived from AEsop.\n\n\nVII. DANCING WATER\n\nThis story has the peculiarity, that it occurs in the Arabian Nights\nas well as in so many European folk-tales. Hahn includes it under his\nformula No. 4, Genoveva (add Gonz. 5, Dozon 2, Denton 238, Day xix.),\nH. Coote, in _Folk-Lore Record_, vol. iii., part 2, in a paper on\n\"Folk-Lore, the Source of some of M. Galland's Tales,\" contends that\nthe \"Tale of the Two Sisters who Envied their Cadette,\" as well as Ali\nBaba, Aladdin, and Ahmed and Paribanou, were derived from Arabic\nfolk-lore rather than from any Arabic manuscript version. We know now\nthat this is not true of Aladdin; and Zotenberg has traced all these\nextra tales of Galland to the oral recitation of his Christian\ndragoman Hanna. Coote finds the two envious sisters to be an enormous\nfavorite in Italy and Sicily, being found in Pitre, Berti, Imbriani,\nNerucci, and Comparetti. The story of the girl is sometimes told\nseparately as a _fiaba_. Coote remarks that Leon Bruno is Greek (see\nHahn, p. 131 and F. L. R., i., 209), and is derived from the _Arabian\nNights_ in the story of the princess of the islands of Wakwak; it also\noccurs in Straparola and Madame D'Aulnoy; Brueyre has something\nsimilar in Brittany, p. 93; Kohler in _Melusine_, pp. 213, 214,\ncompares the Breton tale, given there, with the _Arabian Nights_.\n\nThe boy with the moon or the sun on his forehead is a frequent\ncharacter in Indian folk-tales (see Temple, _Wide Awake Stories_). The\npossibility of Galland's version having passed into the East from\nEurope does not seem to have been considered till I suggested it in my\nIntroduction to the _Arabian Nights_. There is little doubt that Open\nSesame is European, and similarly this story occurs in Straparola\nearly enough to prevent any possibility of doubt on the subject. The\nsequel of incidents appears to be as follows:\n\nOverheard Boasting--Three Marriages--Substituted Children--Quest\nTasks--Life Token--Speech Taboo--Brother's Failure--Sister's\nSuccess--Guilt Revelation--Punishment of Envious Sisters. Some of\nthese incidents, like the Life Token, occur in other collocations but\nare sufficiently appropriate here; Imbriani has three versions, vi.,\nvii., viii., with notes.\n\nI have mostly followed Crane, pp. 17-25 (see also his notes, pp.\n325-6).\n\n\nVIII. LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS\n\n_Source._--Sir J. G. Frazer, in _Archaeological Review_, i., 81-91,\n161-81, who made an attempt, the first of its kind, to restore the\noriginal archetype of the story of \"The Boy Who Became Pope,\" on the\nsame principle as classical scholars restore readings from families of\nMSS. He uses Grimm, xxxiii.; Crane, xliii.; Sebillot, 2d series xxv.;\nand Fleury, 123 _seq._ I have, on the whole, followed his\nreconstruction, but have introduced, from the version in the \"Seven\nWise Masters,\" the motive for the father's anger when learning that he\nwould have, some day, to offer his son water to wash in; Sir James, in\na private communication, concurs in the insertion. The folk versions\nare, in this instance, peculiarly poor, and I have therefore had\nlargely to rewrite, preserving, however, the common incidents.\n\n_Formula._--The following formula gives the common elements of the\nfour parallels used by Sir James Frazer, with my insertion of the bird\nprophecy (father-water, mother-towel):\n\nSimple Boy--Sent to School--Learns Language of Dogs, Frogs and\nBirds--Bird Prophecy (Father-Water, Mother-Towel)--Hero\nExposed--Intended Murderer Brings Back Deer's Heart--Three adventures\non Road--Dogs Warn Burglary--Frog Restores Host to Sick Girl--Bird\nProphesies Papacy (one of three companions)--Pope Election--Heavenly\nSign (dove and bell)--Bird Prophecy Fulfilled--Father Repentance.\n\n_Parallels._--Besides the four sources used by Sir James Frazer, he\ngives two variants of the Breton from _Melusine_, i., cols. 300, 374,\nand the \"Seven Wise Masters\" version, with six variants: Russian,\nMasurian, two Basques, and a Turkish one. In the Russian version the\nfather-water, mother-towel prophecy occurs, which could not have\narisen independently. In the Masurian version the prophecy is more\nprimitive (\"Your mother will wash your feet, and your father will\ndrink the water\"). In the remaining versions the prophecy is more\nvague, that the parents shall be the son's servants. In the\n_Pentamerone_ there is a story in which a father has five simple sons\nwhom he sends into the world to learn experience. The younger returns\nwith a knowledge of the language of birds. But the rest of the story\nis not of our type.\n\n_Remarks._--In his second paper (_Arch. Rev._ i., 161 _seq._) Sir\nJames Frazer has many interesting remarks upon the folk conception of\nthe means of acquiring a knowledge of the language of animals. This is\ngenerally done by a gift of magic rings, or by eating magic plants\n(mainly fern) or eating serpents (generally white). Sir James Frazer\nconnects the rings with serpents by suggesting that serpents are\nsupposed to have stones in their head which confer magic powers (_As\nYou Like It_, iv., 2.) He further connects the notion of eating\nserpents with acquiring the language of birds by referring to the\nviews of Democritus that serpents are generated from the mixed blood\nof diverse birds and are therefore in a strict sense blood relations\nof them; this idea, he suggests, may have arisen from the fact that\nserpents eat birds' eggs. It would be an easy transition in\nfolk-thought to consider that serpents would understand the language\nof the birds they ate and that persons eating serpents would\nunderstand the language of both. So Sigurd understands the language of\nbirds, after eating the blood of Fafnir the Worm. But all this throws\nlittle light upon the story itself.\n\nBolte gives, i., 323-4, many folk-tales in which the hero becomes not\na pope but a king and compares the story of Joseph in the Bible as\npossibly a source of the Prophetic Dream of the father and mother\nwaiting upon the son. The transference to the pope may have been\ninfluenced by the tradition given by Vincent of Beauvais (_Spec.\nHist._, xxiv., 98) that Sylvester II. learned at Seville the language\nof birds. There was also the tradition that at the election of\nInnocent III., 1198, three doves flew about the cathedral, one of\nwhich, a white one, at last settled down upon his shoulder. Raumer,\n_Gesch. d. Hohenstaufen_, ii., 595.\n\n\nIX. THE THREE SOLDIERS\n\nThis tale is widely spread through Europe, being found from Ireland to\nGreece, from Esthonia to Catalonia. It is generally told of three\nsoldiers, or often brothers, but more frequently casual comrades. In\nKohler's notes on Imbriani, p. 356-7, he points out that there are\nthree different forms, in the first of which the fairy's gifts are\nrecovered by means of a defect produced, which only one of the\nsoldiers can cure. In the second form the latter part is wanting, and\nin the third the two gifts are restored by means of the third, which\nis generally in the form of a stick. See _English Fairy Tales_, No.\n32. In my reconstruction I have followed the first form. Cosquin, XI.,\nhas a fairly good variant of this, with comparative notes. Crane,\nXXXI., gives, from Gonzenbach, the story of the shepherd boy who makes\nthe princess laugh, which is allied to our formula, mainly by its\nsecond part. And it is curious to find the three soldiers reproduced\nin Campbell's Gaelic, No. 10. In this version the magic gifts are\nwheedled out of the soldiers by the princess, but they get them back\nand go back to their \"girls.\"\n\nIn the Chinese version of the Buddhist Tripitaka, a monk presents a\nman who has befriended him with a copper jug, which gives him all he\nwishes. The king gets this from the monk, but has to return it when he\ngets another jar which is full of sticks and stones. Aarne in\n_Fennia_, xxvii., 1-96, 1909, after a careful study of the numerous\nvariants of the East and West, declares that the original contained\nthree gifts and arose in southern Europe. From the three gifts came\nthree persons and afterwards the form in which only two gifts occur.\nAgainst this is the earliest of the Tripitaka versions, 516 A.D.,\nwhich has only two magic gifts. Albertus Magnus was credited with a\nbag out of which used to spring lads with cudgels to assail his\nenemies.\n\n\nX. DOZEN AT ONE BLOW\n\nThis story is familiar to English-speaking children as Jack the Giant\nKiller, but it is equally widespread abroad as told of a little tailor\nor cobbler. In the former case there is almost invariably the\nintroduction of the ingenious incident, \"Seven at a Blow,\" the number\nvarying from three to twenty-seven. I have adopted a fair average. The\nlatter part of the story is found very early in M. Montanus,\n_Wegfuehrer_, Strassburg, 1557, though most of the incidents occur in\nfolk tales scattered throughout the European area. Bolte even suggests\nthat the source of the whole formula is to be found in Montanus and\ngives references to early chapbook visions in German, Dutch, Danish,\nSwedish and English (i., 154-6). But the very numerous versions in\nEast Europe must in that case have been derived from oral tradition\nfrom these. Something similar has even spread to Greenland, where the\nstory of the Giant and the boy is told by Rae, _Great White\nPeninsula_. (See Grimm, tr. Hunt, i., 364.) The Dutch version is told\nof Kobis the Dauntless. Cosquin, who has two versions (8 and 25), has\nmore difficulty than usual in finding the full plot in Oriental\nsources, though various incidents have obviously trickled through to\nthe East, as for example the hero Nasnai Bahadur in the Caucasus, who\novercomes his three narts, or giants, very much in the same manner as\nour tailor.\n\n\nXI. EARL OF CATTENBOROUGH\n\nThis Puss-in-Boots formula has become universally European from\nPerrault's version, to whom we owe the boots that occur in no other\nversion, so that I have been reluctantly obliged to take them off. But\napart from this the story in its entirety existed earlier in\nStraparola, xi., 1, and in the _Pentamerone_, and is found widely\nspread through Italy (Pitre, 88; Imbriani, 10; Gonzenbach, 65, etc.),\nas well as in Hungary (Jones and Kropf, No. 1), Germany (Grimm, 33a),\nand even in Finland (see Jones and Kropf, p. 305). In some of these\ncases the cat is a vixen (or female fox), and the incident of the\nfalse bathing and the marriage occurs before reaching the ogre's\ncastle, as is indeed more natural. I have, therefore, so far amended\nPerrault. In most of the folk versions the miller's son betrays\ningratitude towards his animal protector, who sometimes reduces him to\nhis original state. This final incident, unknown to Perrault, shows\nthe independence of these versions from that contained in his Mother\nGoose Stories. In Sweden the hero, if one may speak Hibernically, is a\ngirl, who turns up her nose at everything in the palace as not being\nso good as in her castle of Cattenburg (Thorpe quoted by Lang,\n_Perrault_, p. lxxi.). In India it is found in Day, _Folk Tales of\nBengal_, under the title of \"The Matchmaking Jackal,\" which has\nnumerous Indian touches; thus the jackal remembers the grandeur of the\nweaver's forefathers and rolls himself in betel leaves. Sultan Darai,\nin the Swahili version (Steere), has the stripping incident and the\nno-talking trick, as well as the ingratitude at end. Lang argues\nelaborately that it is impossible to determine the original home of\nPuss-in-Boots, though he seems to own that it had one. His criterion\nis the absence or presence of a moral in the story, in this case the\nincident showing the ingratitude of the Marquis. This occurs, as we\nhave seen, as far south as Madagascar, and as far east as India, but,\nafter all, does not seem to be the essence of the story, though in one\nof the versions the cat does his tricks for the miller because he had\npreviously saved him from the hunters. The late Mr. Ralston has an\ninteresting article on Puss-in-Boots in the _Nineteenth Century_,\nAugust, 1883, though in his days there was a tendency to explain all\nfairy tales as variants of the Sun and Moon myths.\n\nIt is right that I should add that the servant's evening salute has\nnothing to do with the story but is a tradition in my own family,\nwhere my grandfather's servant used to utter this rhyme in a sort of\nchant when bidding the family good-night.\n\n\nXII. THE SWAN MAIDENS\n\nThe Swan Maidens occur very widely spread and have been studied with\ngreat diligence by Mr. E. S. Hartland in two chapters (x., xi.) of his\n_Science of Fairy Tales_ (pp. 255-347). In consonance with his general\nprinciple of interpretation, Mr. Hartland is mainly concerned with the\ntraces of primitive thought and custom to be seen in the Swan Maidens.\nOriginally these were, according to him, probably regarded as actual\nswans, the feathery robe being a later symbolic euphemism, though I\nwould incidentally remark that the whole of the story _as a story_\ndepends upon the seizure of a separate dress involving the capture of\nthe swan bride. Mr. Hartland is inclined to believe partly with F.\nLiebrecht in _Zur Volkskunde_, pp. 54-65, that these mysterious\nvisitors from another world are really the souls of deceased persons\n(probably regarded as totemistic ancestresses). In some forms of the\nstory, enumerated by Mr. Hartland, the captured wife returns to her\noriginal home, not when she recovers her robe of feathers but when the\nhusband breaks some tabu (strikes her, chides her, refers to her\nsisters, sees her nude, etc.).\n\nFrom the standpoint of \"storyology\" from which we are mainly\nconsidering the stories here purely as stories, the Swan Maidens\nformula is especially interesting as showing the ease with which a\nsimple theme can be elaborated and contaminated by analogous ones. The\nessence of the story is the capture of a bride by a young man who\nseizes her garment and thus gets her _in manu_, as the Roman lawyers\nsay. She bears him children, but, on recovering her garment, flies\naway and is no more heard of. Sometimes she superfluously imposes a\ntabu upon her husband, which he breaks and she disappears (Melusine\nvariant; compare Lohengrin). This is the effective and affecting\nincident of which Matthew Arnold makes such good use in his _Merman_.\nIt could obviously be used, as Mr. Hartland points out, in a\nquasi-mythological manner to account for supernatural ancestry, as in\nthe cases of the physicians of Myddvai in Wales, or of the Counts of\nLusignan. But on this simple basis folk tellers have developed\nelaborations derived from other formulae. In several cases, notably in\nthe _Arabian Nights_ (Jamshah and Hasan of Bassora), the capture of\nthe swan maiden is preceded by the Forbidden Chamber formula. Then\nwhen the bride flies away there is the Bride-Quest, which is often\nhelped by Thankful Animals and aided by the Magical Weapons. When the\nhero reaches the home of the bride he has often to undergo a\nRecognition-Test, or even is made to undertake Acquisition Tasks\nderived from the Jason formula; and even when he obtains his wishes in\nmany versions of the story there is the Pursuit with Obstacles also\nfamiliar from the same formula.\n\nCosquin, ii., 16, has, with his usual analytical grasp, seen the\nseparable character of these various series of incidents. He, however,\nattempts to show that all of them, including the germ of the Swan\nMaidens, are to be found in the East, and is successful in affiliating\nthe Greek of Hahn, No. 15, with the two stories of the _Arabian\nNights_ mentioned above, as well as the Siberian version given by\nRadloff, iv., 321, the hero of which has even derived his name from\nthe Jamshah of the _Thousand and One Nights_.\n\nIn my own version I have utilized a few of these incidents but reserve\nmost of them for their proper story environment. I have introduced,\nfrom the Campbell version, the phrase \"seven Bens, and seven Glens,\nand seven Mountain Moors,\" which so attracted Stevenson's Catriona, in\norder to point out as a remarkable coincidence that Hasan of Bassora,\nin the _Arabian Nights_, flies over \"seven Waddys, seven Seas, and\nseven Mountains.\" It is difficult to understand that such a remarkable\nphrase should recur accidentally in Bagdad and in the West Highlands.\nWithout some actual intermediation, oral or literary, the hypothesis\nof universal human tendency can scarcely explain such a coincidence.\n\n\nXIII. ANDROCLES AND THE LION\n\nThis well-known story occurs first in the fables of Phaedrus, though\nnot in the extant form, only being preserved in the mediaeval prose\nversion known as _Romulus_. It is also referred to in Appian, Aulus\nGellius, and Seneca (see the references in my _History of AEsop_, p.\n243, Ro. III., i.). It is told in Caxton's _Esope_, p. 62, from whom I\nhave borrowed a few touches. He calls his hero Androclus, whereas\nPainter, in his _Palace of Pleasure_, ed. Jacobs, i., 89-90, calls the\nslave Androdus. We moderns, including Mr. Bernard Shaw, get our\n\"Androcles\" from Day's _Sanford and Merton_. It also occurs in _Gesta\nRomanorum_, 104, edit., Oesterley, who gives a long list of parallels\nin almost all the countries of Europe.\n\nBenfey, in the introduction to his edition of _Pantschatantra_, i.,\n112, contends that the story is of Oriental origin, showing Buddhistic\ntraits in the kindly relations between the slave and the lion; but the\nparallels he gives are by no means convincing, though the general\nevidence for Oriental provenance of many of Phaedrus' fables gives a\ncertain plausibility to this derivation. From our present standpoint\nthis is of less importance since Androcles, though it has spread\nthrough Europe and is current among the folk, is clearly of literary\norigin and is one of the few examples where we can trace such literary\nspread.\n\n\nXIV. DAY DREAMING\n\nI have given the story of the barber's fifth brother from the _Arabian\nNights_ as another example of the rare instances of tales that have\nbecome current among the folk, but which can be definitely traced to\nliterary sources, though possibly, in the far-off past, it was a folk\ntale arising in the East. The various stages by which the story came\ninto Europe have been traced by Benfey in the introduction to his\nedition of _Pantschatantra_, Sec. 209, and after him by Max Mueller in\nhis essay \"On the Migration of Fables\" (_Chips from a German\nWorkshop_, iv., 145-209; it was thus a chip from another German's\nworkshop). It came to Europe before the _Arabian Nights_ and became\npopular in La Fontaine's fable of Perrette who counted her chickens\nbefore they were hatched, as the popular phrase puts it. In such a\ncase one can only give a reproduction of the literary _source_, and it\nis a problem which of the various forms which appear in the folk books\nshould be chosen. I have selected that from the _Thousand and One\nNights_ because I have given elsewhere the story of Perrette (Jacobs,\n_AEsop's Fables_, No. 45), and did not care to repeat it in this place.\nI have made my version a sort of composite from those of Mr. Payne and\nSir Richard Burton, and have made the few changes necessary to fit the\ntale to youthful minds. It is from the quasi-literary spread of\nstories like this that the claim for an Oriental origin of all folk\ntales has received its chief strength, and it was necessary,\ntherefore, to include one or two of them in _Europa's Fairy Book_\n(Androcles is another). But the mode of transmission is quite\ndifferent and definitely traceable and, for the most part, the tales\nremain entirely unchanged; whereas, in the true folk tale, the popular\nstory-tellers exercised their choice, modifying incidents and giving\nlocal colour.\n\n\nXV. KEEP COOL\n\nThere is no doubt about the European character of this tale, which is\nfound in Brittany, Picardy, Lorraine, among the Basques, in Spain,\nCorsica, Italy, Tyrol, Germany (though not in Grimm), among\nLithuanians, Moravians, Roumanians, Greeks, Irish, Scotch, Danes,\nNorwegians (Cosquin, ii., 50). The central idea of the Rage-Wager is\nretained throughout, and in many places the punishment is the\nsame--the loss of a strip of skin. In all but three instances the\nstory is told of three brothers, which practically proves its\nidentity. I have given the Irish version in _More Celtic Fairy Tales_.\n\nThe \"sells\" however change considerably, though in most of them the\nfinal denoument comes with the death or wounding of the wife. The\npigs' tails incident is also very common and is indeed found in\nanother set of tales, more of the Master Thief type. Campbell's No. 45\nhad an entirely different set, some of them very amusing.\nMac-A-Rusgaich has all three meals at once and lies down. He holds the\nplough and does nothing else; he sees after the mountain; literally\ncasts ox-eyes at the master, and makes a sheep foot-path out of\nsheep's feet. I have taken from Campbell the direction to wash horses\nand stable within and without, though it does not occur elsewhere. Yet\nMac-A-Rusgaich has a bout with a giant, in which he slits an\nartificial stomach, like Jack the Giant Killer; and this incident\noccurs in four other of the European tales, again showing identity.\n\"Keep cool\" is thus an interesting example of identity of framework,\nwith variation of incident.\n\n\nXVI. THE MASTER THIEF\n\nThe sneaking regard of the folk-mind for the clever rogue who can\noutwit the guardians of order (the ever-present enemy of the folk) was\nshown in early days by the myth of Rhampsinitus in Herodotus, ii.,\n121, which is found to this day among the Italians (see Crane, No. 44,\nand S. Prato, _La Leggenda del Tesoro di Rampsinite_, Como, 1882). But\nthe more usual European form is that I have chosen for the text, the\nformula of which might be summed up as follows:\n\nApprenticeship in thievery--Purse or life--Hanging \"sell\"--Master\nThief--Three Tests--Horse from Stable--Sheet off bed--Priest in\nbag--Horse from under (Thumb-Bung).\n\nAlmost the whole of this is found as early as Straparola i., 2, where\nCassandrino is ordered by the provost of Perugia to steal his bed and\nhis horse and to bring to him in a sack the rector of the village.\n\nThe purse incident occurs in Brittany, Piedmont, Tuscany, and Tyrol;\nin Iceland (Arnason, p. 609) occurs the man twice hanged which also\noccurs in Norway, Ireland, Saxony, Tuscany, and in Germany (Kuhn and\nSchwartz, 362); in Servia (Vuk, 46) the Master Thief steals sheep by\nthrowing two shoes successively in the road, which also occurs in\nBengal (Day, xi.); the theft of the horse occurs in Brittany, Norway,\nIreland, Tuscany, Scotland (Campbell, 40), Flanders, in Basque and\nCatalan, Russia and Servia. The third test of kidnapping the priest\noccurs in Brittany, Flanders, Norway, Basque, Catalan, Scotland,\nIreland, Lithuania, Tuscany. In Iceland the persons carried away are a\nking and a queen.\n\nThe three tests of the Master Thief, the stealing of bed, horse, and\npriest, occur as early as Straparola, i., 2, who also has a somewhat\nsimilar story of the \"Scholar in Magic,\" viii., 5, which contains the\nzigzag transformation of the _Arabian Nights_. Both forms occur in\nGrimm, 68, 192. While the three tests are fairly uniform throughout\nEurope, the introduction by which the lad becomes a thief and proves\nhimself a Master Thief varies considerably; and I have had to make a\nselection rather than a collation.\n\nIn some forms the farmer has three sons, of whom the youngest adopts\nthievery as a profession, which indeed it was in the Middle Ages (as\nwe know from the Cul-le-jatte of _The Cloister and the Hearth_). In\nHahn, 3, the Master Thief has to bring a \"Drakos\" instead of a priest.\nCuriously enough, in Gonzenbach, 83, the Master Thief has to bring\nback a \"dragu.\"\n\nIn many of the variants the Master Thief executes his tricks in order\nto gain the King's daughter by a sort of Bride Wager. But in most\ncases he does them in order to escape the natural consequences of his\nthievery.\n\n\nXVII. THE UNSEEN BRIDEGROOM\n\nThe adult reader will of course recognize that this is the story of\nCupid and Psyche, as told by Apuleius, and translated with such\nfelicity by Pater in his _Marius_, Pt. i., ch. 5. Though the names of\nthe gods and goddesses--Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Juno, Proserpine,\netc.--are scattered through the tale, it is now acknowledged on all\nhands that it has nothing to do with mythology but is a fairy tale\npure and simple, as indeed is acknowledged by Apuleius who calls it a\n\"fabella anilis.\" From this point of view it is of extreme interest to\nthe student of the folk-tale as practically the same tale, with the\nUnseen Bridegroom, the Sight Taboo, the Jealous Mother-in-law, the\nTasks, and the Visit to the Nether-World, occur in contemporary\nfolk-tales scattered throughout Europe, from Norway (Dasent, \"East o'\nthe Sun and West o' the Moon\") to Italy (Gonzenbach No. 15, Pitre No.\n18 given in Crane No. 1, _King of Love_); for the variants elsewhere\nsee Koehler on Gonzenbach. The earliest form of the modern versions is\nfound in Basile (1637), _Pentamerone_ v., 4, _The Golden Root_.\n\nNow there are several circumstances showing the identity of the\nancient and modern forms of this story. All of them contain the\npunishment for curiosity motive, which is doubled both in Apuleius\n(with the coffer at the end) and in Basile and Crane. In several of\nthe folk-tales the Ant-Help occurs in the performance of the tasks,\nand in Apuleius the successive visits to Juno and Ceres evidently\nrepresent the visits to the Queen-mother's sisters, often known as\nogresses, found in Dasent, Basile, and in Grimm 88. It is possible, of\ncourse, that in some cases dim memories of Apuleius have percolated\ndown to the folk, as is shown by the name of the hero in Pitre's\nversion _Il Re d'Amore_. Kawczynski (Abh. d. Krakauer Akad. 1909, xlv.\n1) declares for the derivation of the whole series of folk-tales from\nApuleius but against this is the doubt whether this author was at all\nknown during the Middle Ages.\n\nBut, to prove that the folk-tales were not derived directly or solely\nfrom the classical romance they, in almost every case, had a series of\nadventures not found there, including the incidents, Obstacles to\nPursuit, False Bride, and Sale of Bed. Now these incidents really\nbelong to another formula, that of the Master-Maid, in which an ogre's\nor giant's daughter, helps the hero to perform tasks, flees away with\nhim, is pursued by the ogre, loses her beloved through an Oblivion\nKiss and has to win him again from his False Bride by purchasing the\nright of spending three nights with him. These incidents come in\nlogically in the Master-Maid formula but are dragged in without real\nrelevance into Cupid and Psyche; yet they occur as early as Basile\nwhere there is a dim reminiscence of the Oblivion Kiss. In\nreconstructing the formula I have therefore omitted these incidents,\nreserving them for their proper place (see Master-Maid).\n\nCupid and Psyche is of special interest to the student of the\nfolk-tale since it is a means of testing the mythological, the\nanthropological, and the Indian theories of its origin. The\nmythological interpretation is nowadays so discredited that it is\nneedless to discuss it, especially as we have seen that the\nmythological names given by Apuleius are only dragged in perforce. The\nanthropological explanation, given most fully by Andrew Lang in his\nadmirable introduction to Addington's translation of Apuleius in the\n_Bibliotheque de Carabas_, gives savage parallels from all quarters of\nthe globe to the seven chief incidents making up the tale, but leaves\naltogether out of account the artistic concatenation of the incidents\nin the tale itself and does not consider the later complications of\nthe European folk-tales connected with it. M. Cosquin and others bring\nin the Vedic myth of Urvasi and Pururavas, but we have seen reason to\nreject the notion that the tale is, in its essence, mythological, and\ntherefore need not consider its relation to Indian mythology. Cosquin,\nhowever, gives reference to the tale of Tulisa taken down from a\nwasherwoman of Benares in 1833 (_Asiatic Journal_, new series, vol.\n2), which has the invisible husband and the breaking of taboo, the\njealous mother-in-law, and the tasks. This is indeed a close\nparallelism sufficient to raise the general question of relation\nbetween the Indian and the European folk-tale. But the earlier\nexistence of the tale in Apuleius and Basile would give the preference\nto European influence on India rather than _vice versa_.\n\nI should add that I have followed Apuleius in giving a symbolic name\nto the heroine of the tale, in order to suggest its relation to the\nclassical folk-tale of Cupid and Psyche, but not of course to indicate\nthat it is in any sense mythological. The Descent-to-hell incident,\nwhich is found both in the classical and in the modern European forms\nand therefore in my reconstruction is only, after all, the application\nof a common form to the notion of difficult Tasks, which is of the\nessence of the story.\n\n\nXVIII. THE MASTER-MAID\n\nThis is one of the oldest and widest spread tales of the world, and\nthe resultant formula was, therefore, more than usually difficult to\nreconstruct. The essence of the tale consists in the Menial\nHero--Three Tasks--Master-Maid Help--Obstacles to Pursuit--Oblivion\nKiss--False Bride--Sale of Bed--Happy Marriage. In essentials this is\nthe story of Jason and Medea, where we have the Tasks, the Pursuit,\nand the False Bride, though the dramatic genius of the Greeks has\ngiven a tragic ending to the tale. Lang, in his _Custom and Myth_, pp.\n87-102, has pointed out parallels, not alone in modern folk-tales,\nlike Grimm 92, Campbell 2, Dasent 11, and Basile 11, but even in\nMadagascar (_Folk-Lore Journal_, Aug., 1883), and Samoa (Turner 102)\nwhile the Flight and Obstacles are found in Japan and Zululand. Even\nin America there is the Algonquin form of the Tasks (School-craft,\nAlgic Researches ii., 94-104), and the Flight is given in an\ninteresting article in the _Century Magazine_, 1884. According to\nLang's general views, he seems to regard these incidents as being\nuniversally human and having no affiliation with one another, though\nhe entitles his essay, \"A Far Travelled Tale.\"\n\nThe modern Folk-Tales, however, make it practically impossible that\nthese at least could have arisen independently. Many of them have an\nintroductory set of incidents, Jephtha-Vow, Herd-Boy, Shepherd-Boy,\nPrince; this I have adopted in my version. But besides this the Tasks\nare often identical, Cleaning Stable (Dasent, Campbell), Finger-Ladder\n(Campbell, trace in Cosquin 32), Building Castle (Grimm 113, Hahn 54);\nthe Oblivion Kiss occurs in Scotland, Germany, Spain, Tyrol, Tuscany,\nSicily, and Rome, all in connection with similar stories.\n\nThe tale has been especially popular in Celtdom. I have enumerated no\nless than fourteen versions in my notes on the \"Battle of the Birds\"\n(_Celtic Fairy Tales_, p. 265). There we have the Obstacles to Pursuit\nmainly in the form of forest, mountain, and river, which the late Mr.\nAlfred Nutt pointed out to be the natural boundaries of the\nNether-World in Teutonic Paganism. It is, therefore, possible that our\nstory has been \"contaminated\" or influenced by the notion of the\n\"Descent to Hell.\"\n\nHere, as in the parallel case of Cupid and Psyche, we find a classical\nstory, with many of the incidents clearly reproduced in modern\nFolk-Tales, while others have been inserted to make the tale longer or\nmore of the folk-tale character.\n\nAt the same time the story as a _whole_ is found spread from America\nto Samoa, from India to Scotland, with indubitable signs of being the\nsame story dressed up according to local requirements. The Master-Maid\nis, accordingly, one of the most instructive of all folk-tales, from\nthe point of view of the problem of diffusion.\n\n\nXIX. A VISITOR FROM PARADISE\n\nThis droll, in its two parts, occurs throughout Europe as has been\nshown by Cosquin in his elaborate Notes to No. 22. The Visitor from\nParadise, for example, occurs in Brittany, Germany, Norway, and\nSweden, England, Roumania, Tyrol, and Ireland. In some of the versions\nthe silly wife gives some household treasure to a passer-by because\nher husband had said that he was keeping this for Christmas, for\nEaster, or for \"Hereafterthis\" and the Visitor claims it in that name.\n(See _More English Fairy Tales_.) The idea also occurs in the\nliterature of jests in Pauli, 1519, Hans Sachs, and in _Tresor du\nRidicule_, Paris, 1644. Cosquin has also traced it to Ceylon,\n_Orientalist_, 1884, p. 62.\n\nThe adventure of the door and the robbers is equally widely spread in\nNormandy, Germany, Austria, Bosnia, Rome, Catalonia, and Sicily.\n(Gonz., i., 251-2.) It forms part of the tale of \"Mr. Vinegar\" in\n_English Fairy Tales_. The two adventures are, however, rarely\ncombined; Cosquin knows of only two instances. I have, however,\nventured to combine them here instead of making two separate tales of\nthem.\n\nIn telling the story one has to slur over the pronunciation of\n\"Paradise,\" making the last vowel short, so as to explain the\nmisunderstanding about \"Paris.\" I have retained the Paris _motif_ as\nall through the Middle Ages, wayfarers from and to Paris (wandering\nscholars or clerics) would be familiar sights to the peasantry\nthroughout Europe.\n\nBolte gives in full (ii., 441-6) a Latin poem by Wickram in 1509\nentitled, \"De Barta et marito eius per studentem Parisiensem\nsubtiliter deceptis,\" which is practically identical with the early\npart of our story and has this misunderstanding about Paris and\nParadise. It accordingly occurs in most of the German books of Drolls\nas those by Bebel and Pauli, and it is possible that the folk\nversions were derived from this, though they stretch as far as Cairo\nand North India. See Clouston, _Book of Noodles_, pp. 205, 214. In\nsome of the folk-tales, there is an introduction in which the Foolish\nWife sells three cows, but keeps one of the three as a pledge.\nThereupon her husband leaves her until he can find any one as silly,\nwhich he does by posing as a Visitor from Paradise. This is more\nsuitable for an introduction for \"The Three Sillies.\"\n\n\nXX. INSIDE AGAIN\n\nThis story is one of the most interesting in the study of the popular\ndiffusion of tales, and I therefore give it here though I have given\nan excellent version from Temple and Steel in _Indian Fairy Tales_,\nix., \"The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal,\" and have there\ndiscussed the original form. Its interest, from the point of view of\ndiffusion, lies in the fact that it occurs in India, both early (see\nBenfey, i., 117) and late (Temple, 12, Frere, 14), in Greece, both\nclassical (AEsopic fable of the serpent in the bosom) and modern (Hahn,\n87, Schmidt, p. 3), and in the earliest mediaeval collection of popular\ntales by Petrus Alfonsi (_Disciplina clericalis_, vii.), as well as in\nthe Reynard cycle. Besides these quasi-literary sources ranging over\nmore than two thousand years, there are innumerable folk-versions\ncollected in the last century and ranging from Burmah (Semeaton, _The\nKarens_, 128) to America (Harris, _Uncle Remus_, 86). These are all\nenumerated by Professor Krohn in an elaborate dissertation, \"Mann und\nFuchs\" (Helsingfors, 1891). In essentials the trick by which the\nfisherman gets the djin inside the bottle again, in the first story\nwithin the frame of the _Arabian Nights_ (adapted so admirably by Mr.\nAnstey in his _Brass Bottle_), is practically the same device. Richard\nI. is said, by Matthew Paris (ed. Luard, ii., 413-16), to have told\nthe nobles of England, after his return from captivity in the East, a\nsimilar apologue proving the innate ingratitude of man. This is\nderived from the Karma Jataka, which was possibly the ultimate source\nof the whole series of tales.\n\nAmid all these hundred variants there is one common idea, that of the\ningratitude of a rescued animal (crocodile, snake, tiger, etc.), which\nis thwarted by its being placed back in the situation from which it\nwas rescued. In some cases the bystander who restores equilibrium is\nalone; in most instances there are three of them; the first two having\nsuffered from man's ingratitude see no reason for interfering. This is\nthe \"common form\" which I have adopted in my version. In India the\nsufferer from ingratitude is sometimes a tree (a mulberry tree, in\n_Indian Fairy Tales_), but the European versions prefer horses or\ndogs.\n\nNow it is obvious that such an artificial apologue on man's\ningratitude could not have been invented twice for that particular\npurpose; and thus the hundred different versions (to which Dr. Bolte\ncould probably add another century) must all, in the last resort, have\nemanated from a single source. When and where that original was\nconcocted is one of the most interesting problems of folk-tale\ndiffusion; the moralizing tendency of the tale, the animistic note\nunderlying it, all point to India, where we find it in the Bidpai\nliterature before the Christian era and current among the folk at the\npresent day. The case for Indian origin is strongest for drolls of\nthis kind.\n\nI may add that the ingratitude of the man towards the fox at the end\nis not so universal a tail piece to the story as the rest of it, and\nis ultimately derived from the Reynard cycle, in which I have also\nintroduced it (see \"Bruin and Reynard\").\n\nBut it occurs in many of the variants and comes in so appropriately\nthat I thought it desirable to add it also here. The substitution of\na dog for something else desired also occurs in the story of the\nHobyahs in _More English Fairy Tales_, where Mr. Batten's released dog\nis so fierce (p. 125) that it drives one of the Hobyahs over on to the\nnext page belonging to altogether another story.\n\n\nXXI. JOHN THE TRUE\n\nI have followed Bolte's formula \"Anmerkungen\" 45, keeping however as\nfar as possible to the alternatives nearest to Basile, iv., 9, and\nwhere that fails making use of the Grimms' \"Faithful John,\" No. 6, one\nof their best told tales. The story is popular in Italy where Crane,\n344, refers to six other versions. It is also found in Greece (Hahn\n29), and Roumania (Schott, p. 144), and indeed throughout the east of\nEurope. Traces of it in British Isles are but slight.\n\nIn India, however, there are a number of very close parallels (Day,\n17-52; Knowles, 421-41; Frere, 98; and Somadeva; edit. Tawney, i.,\n519, ii., 251, which contains the similar story of Vivara the True);\nBenfey, i., 417, draws attention to other Oriental traits in the story\nand aptly compares the half-marble figure of the King of the Black\nIslands in the Arabian Nights. The probabilities of an Indian origin\nfor this formula are rendered greater by the early age of the\nPantschatantra and Somadeva parallels.\n\nOn the other hand the sacrifice of the children for the faithful\nservant has its closest parallel in the old French romance of Amis and\nAmilun, where Amis smears Amilun with the blood of his child to cure\nhim of leprosy. The analogy is so close as almost to force the\nassumption of derivation. Koehler accordingly in his _Aufsaetze_,\n1894, pp. 24-35, regards the tale as a development of the Indian story\ninfluenced by the romance of Amis.\n\n\nXXII. JOHNNIE AND GRIZZLE\n\nI have followed Bolte's formula s. v. Hansel and Gretel, 15, i., 115,\nthough with some misgivings. Very few of his variants have his section\nF, which he divides into three variants: F 1. Ducks or angels carry\nthe children over the stream. F 2. Or they throw out obstacles to\npursuit. F 3. Or the witch drinks up the stream and bursts. F 2 is\nobviously \"contaminated\" by the similar incident in the Master Maid,\nand the existence of such alternatives indicates, to my mind, an\nabsence of a consistent tradition as to the ending of the story, which\nobviously ended with the baking of the witch in the oven. I have\ncombined, in my ending F 1 and F 2, the former from the Grimms'\n\"Hansel and Gretel\"; I have also adapted their title, with a\nreminiscence of Sir James Barrie.\n\nThe predicament of the farmer must have often really occurred in the\nMiddle Ages when famine was the rule rather than the exception; and\nthe decision to \"expose\" the children recalls the general practice in\nancient Greece and Rome and in Arabia. A touch of comedy, however, is\ngiven to this grim beginning of our tale by the house made of cookies\nand sweetmeats, probably derived from the myth of a Schlarafenland of\nthe Germans and similar imaginations of the Celts (see _More Celtic\nFairy Tales_).\n\nThe beginning of the tale occurs early in Basile, v., 8, \"Nennillo and\nNennila,\" in which the three kings' children find their way home twice\nby similar devices, but at the third time scatter peas, which the\nbirds eat up. Perrault has the same beginning in his \"Petit Poucet,\"\nwhich has been Englished as \"Hop o' my Thumb,\" who shares some of the\nadventures of Tom Thumb, as well as of the valiant Tailor. Lang has an\ninteresting but, as usual, inconclusive discussion of the incidents of\nour tale in his Perrault civ.-cxi., and finds many of the incidents\namong the Kaffirs, Zulus, and other savage tribes, but scarcely the\nwhole set of incidents from A to F, and that is what we want to find\nin studying the story. Dr. Bolte finds several instances where the\nfull formula still exists in popular tradition. It is surely easiest\nto assume that they were once brought together by a folk artist whose\nbright little tale has spread among various folks, with the\nalterations suggested by the divergent fancy of the different folk\nminds.\n\n\nXXIII. CLEVER LASS\n\nThe Clever Lass is of exceptional interest to the student of the\nFolk-Tale because of its exceptionally wide spread throughout Europe\nand Asia, and also because it is one of those tales which have been\nmade the basis of the theory of the Eastern origin of all Folk-Tales.\nBolte, in his elaborate monograph on the formula (\"_Anmerkungen_,\"\nii., 349-73), enumerates no less than eighty-six variants, twelve in\nGermany, six in other Teutonic lands, thirteen in Romance countries,\nno less than thirty-seven in Slavonic dialects, seven in Finnish,\nHungarian and Tartar, six in the Semitic tongues, and also five in\nIndia, though there the parallelism is only partial. But in the\nEuropean variants the parallels are so close and the riddles answered\nby the Clever Lass are in so many cases identical, and the order of\nincidents is so uniform that none can doubt the practical identity of\nthe story throughout the Western area. There occurs some variation in\nthe opening which, at times, takes the form of the father of the\nClever Girl finding a golden mortar and giving it to the King, against\nthe advice of his daughter who foresees that the monarch will demand\nthe accompanying pestle. This seems however to be confined to the\nTeutonic lands or those in immediate cultural connection with them.\nThe riddles about strongest, richest, most beautiful, form the opening\nelsewhere, and I have therefore chosen this alternative. The\nvariations, both in questions and answers, are many, as is perhaps\nnatural considering the popularity of the riddle in the folk mind,\nwhich would make it easy for a story-teller to make changes.\n\nThe King or Prince, in some of the variants, discovers the cleverness\nof the farmer's daughter on a visit to the farmer, when he elaborately\ncarves and divides a chicken on a method which the Clever Lass\ndiscerns. This however does not occur so frequently except in Italy,\nand I have therefore omitted it. The discovery of the theft by the\nKing's messenger is much more widely spread. (See Crane, 382, and\ncompare \"Gobborn Seer,\" in _More English Fairy Tales_.)\n\nThe Grimms, in their notes, point to a remarkable parallel in the Saga\nof Aslaug, the daughter of Brunhild and Sigurd. Here the King Ragnar\ndemands that Aslaug should come to him naked yet clothed, eating yet\nnot eating, not alone but without companion. She uses the fish-net as\nin the Folk-Tale, bites into an onion, and takes her dog along with\nher. From the last incident some of the Folk-Tales have possibly taken\nthe awkward attitude of limping along with one of her feet on the back\nof a dog. But the first incident, being dragged along in a fish-net,\nis so unlikely to occur to anybody's mind without prompting, that one\ncannot help agreeing with the Grimms that the incident was taken into\nthe Folk-Tale from the Saga, or that both were derived from a common\nsource. On the whole subject of the curious ride, R. Kohler has an\nelaborate treatment in his _Gesammelte Schriften_, i., 446-56.\n\nThe attraction of the riddle for the folk mind is well known, and\nbefore the spread of cards appears to have been one of the chief forms\nof gambling in which even life was staked, as in the case of Samson or\nthe Sphinx. In the Folk-Tale it often occurs in the form of the\nRiddle-Bride-Wager, in which a princess is married to him that can\nguess some elaborate conundrum. The first two of Child's Ballads deal\nwith similar riddles, and his notes are a mine of erudition on the\nsubject: on the Clever Lass herself see his elaborate treatment,\n_English Ballads_, i., 485 _seq._\n\nIt is perhaps worthy of note that the questions as to the strongest,\nmost beautiful, and richest occur in Plutarch's Symposium, 152 a, and\nit is a striking coincidence that, in the same treatise, 151 b, occurs\nanother practical riddle, how to drink up the ocean, which occurs in\nseveral variants of the Clever Lass. But there is no evidence of any\nstory connection between the two riddles in Plutarch, and one can\neasily imagine this sort of verbal amusement spreading from the\nlearned to the folk.\n\nThe plan by which the Clever Lass becomes reconciled to the King, by\ncarrying off what is dearest to her, is found in the Midrash probably\nas early as the eighth century. A still more remarkable parallel is\nthat of the True Wives of Weinsberg who, when that town was invested,\nwere allowed by the besiegers to carry off with them whatever they\nliked best. When the town gate was opened they tottered forth, each of\nthem carrying her husband on her shoulders. But whether the incident\never really occurred, and if it occurred, whether the ruse was\nsuggested by the Folk-Tale, cannot now be ascertained.\n\nBenfey, in an elaborate dissertation, first communicated to \"Ausland\"\nin 1859, but now included in his _Kleinere Schriften_, ii., 156-223,\nargues for the Eastern origin of the whole cycle, which he traces back\nto the \"Seventy Tales of the Parrot\" (Suka Saptati) probably as early\nas the sixth century. Here the vizier Sakatala of the King Nanda is\nreleased from prison in order to determine which of two identical\nhorses is mare and which is foal, and which part of a truncated log is\nroot or branch. Benfey traces this and similar riddlesome difficulties\nto a good deal of Eastern literature in Tibet, Mongolia and Persia,\nand Arabia. But he fails to find any very exact parallels in the\nEuropean area which, at that time, was very little explored. He finds\nthe nearest parallel in Wuk, No. 25, but this is by no means a full\nvariant of the other European tales and may have even been\n\"contaminated\" from the East. Benfey notices the Saga parallel but\ngoes so far as even to claim this as being influenced by Eastern\nstories. Since his time a much closer parallel has been found in\nKashmir by Knowles' _Folk Tales of Kashmir_, pages 484-90, repeated in\n_Indian Fairy Tales_, No. xxiv., \"Why the Fish Laughed.\" But the\nparallelism here extends only to the cleverness of the girl and the\ningenuity of her answers to the riddles, not to the actual plot of the\nstory which is so uniform in Europe. Altogether we must reject\nBenfey's contention, at any rate for this particular story.\n\n\nXXIV. THUMBKIN\n\nI have followed, for the most part, Bolte's reconstruction, which\npractically consists of a combination of Grimm, 37 and 45. But in\ncombining the two I have found it necessary to omit sections D and E\nof Bolte's formula which form the beginning of Grimm, 45, \"Thumbkin as\nJourneyman.\"\n\nThe notion of a baby the size of a doll might be regarded as\n\"universally human\"; even the Greeks knew of manikins no bigger than\ntheir thumbs and weighing not more than an obolus (Athenaeus, xii.,\n77); there is an epigram of the same subject in the Greek Anthology,\nii., 350. But the particular adventures of Thumbkin are so\nconsistently identical throughout Europe, especially with regard to\nthe adventures in the cow's stomach, that it is impossible to consider\nthe stories as independent. Cosquin, 53, has more difficulty than\nusual in finding real parallels in the Orient. In England, of course,\nThumbkin is known as Tom Thumb (see _English Fairy Tales_). In the\ndays when mythological explanations of folk-tales were popular, Gaston\nParis, in a special monograph (\"Petit Poucet,\" Paris 1875) tried to\nprove that Tom Thumb was a stellar hero because his French name was\ngiven to the smallest star in the Great Bear. But it is more likely\nthat the name came from the tale than the tale from the star.\n\nAccording to Gaston Paris, the chief variants known to him were\nTeutonic and Slav. Those of the Roumanians, Albanians, and Greeks were\nderived from the Slavs. He concludes that the French form must have\nbeen borrowed from the Germans, and declares that it is not found in\nItaly or Spain, but Cosquin, ii., gives Basque and Catalan variants,\nas well as a Portuguese one, and Crane gives a Tuscan variant, 242,\nwith other occurrences in Italy in note 3, p. 372. This only shows the\ndanger of deciding questions of origin on an imperfect induction.\n\nThe opening is not found in Grimm; I have taken it from Andrews; for\nwhich an excellent parallel is given in Crane, lxxvii., \"Little\nChick-pea.\" A similar beginning occurs in Hahn, 56, \"Pepper-corn.\"\n\n\nXXV. SNOWWHITE\n\nSnowwhite is of special interest to the students of the folk-tale as\nbeing obviously a late product combining many _motifs_ from different,\nmore primitive, or at least earlier formulae. E. Boeklen, in his\n_Schneewitchen Studien_, I, Leipzig 1910, suggests influence by Hansel\nand Gretel; The Seven Ravens; The Sleeping Beauty; The Maiden without\nHands; One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes; False Bride, etc.; and Bolte,\ni., 453, appears to agree with him. Certainly almost every one of the\nincidents can be paralleled in other sets of folk-tales. The\ncombination \"white as snow,\" \"red as blood,\" \"black as ebony,\" has\nalready been given in the present volume (see p. 173). Bringing back\nan animal's heart instead of the proposed victim's is common form as\nearly as the Book of Genesis; and the trial of the three beds is\nfamiliar to English children in Southey's \"Three Bears.\" It would seem\nthat a story something like \"Snowwhite\" was known in Shakespeare's\ntime, as there appears to be a reference to it in the main plot of\n\"Cymbeline\" (see _Germania_, ix., 458).\n\nThe form I have given to the formula follows very closely that of the\nGrimms' 53. It is one of their best stories and occurs widely spread\nthroughout Germany. Whether that implies original composition in\nCentral Europe cannot at present be determined, but it certainly looks\nthat way. I have, however, omitted Bolte's F referring to the\npunishment of the Queen, which is wanting in the majority of the\nvariants. No editor of a text would under similar circumstances take\naccount of so rare a variant.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF INCIDENTS\n\n\nI give in the following list the chief incidents that occur in the\npreceding tales, using for the most part the nomenclature used in the\nnotes or in the list of incidents attached to my paper on \"The Problem\nof Diffusion\" in the _Transactions of the International Folk-Lore\nCongress_, 1892, pp. 87-98.\n\n     N. B. Incidents in Drolls are placed in italics. In some few\n     cases, the incidents are referred to only in the notes.\n\n\nAcquisition Task, xii.\n\nAnimal Aid, xi., xvii.\n\nApple Speaking, xviii.\n\n\nBean Transformation, xxiv.\n\nBird Aid, i.\n\nBird Election, viii.\n\nBird Prophecy, viii., xxi.\n\nBird Throwing, x.\n\nBlood Resuscitation, xvi.\n\nBread Crumb Track, xxii.\n\nBride Quest, xii.\n\n\nCaptured Bride, xii., xxi.\n\n_Casting Sheep's Eyes_, xv.\n\nCastle Building Task, xviii.\n\n_Cheese Squeezing_, x.\n\nChildren Sacrifice, xvi.\n\nCleansing Stable Task, xviii.\n\n_Cow's Stomach Refuge_, xxiv.\n\nCure by Fruit, ix.\n\n\nDescent to Hell, xvii., xviii.\n\nDogs in Bag, vi., xx.\n\n_Door Dropping_, xix.\n\nDragon Slayer, xxi.\n\nDress Rhyme, i.\n\n\nEnclosure in Bag, vi.\n\nEnvious Sisters, i., vii.\n\nExchange Series, ii.\n\nExposed Hero, viii., xxii.\n\nExternal Soul, iii.\n\n\nFairy Godmother, i.\n\n_False Bathing_, xi.\n\nFalse Bride, xviii.\n\n_False Sale_, xxiv.\n\nFeather Dress, vii.\n\nFeet Rhyme, i.\n\nFinger Ladder Task, xviii.\n\n_Flea Bite Blows_, x.\n\nFlight from Ogre, xviii.\n\nForbidden Chamber, xii.\n\n_Fox in Briar Bush_, vi.\n\n_Fox in Fish-cart_, vi.\n\n\n_Giants Quarrelling_, x.\n\n_Girl in Bag_, ii.\n\n\nHelpful Animals, i.\n\nHoney Trap, i.\n\n_Horse from Stable Theft_, xvi.\n\n_Horse's Ear Guide_, xxiv.\n\n\n_Iced Bear's Tail_, vi.\n\n_Inside Again_, xx.\n\n\nJealous Brother-in-law, xvii.\n\nJealous Mother-in-law, xvii., xxv.\n\nJephtha Vow, xviii.\n\n\nLanguage of Animals, viii.\n\nLife Token, iii., vii.\n\n_Lollipop House_, xxii.\n\nLost Shoe, i.\n\nLove at Distance, xxi.\n\n\n_Magic Cudgel_, ix.\n\nMagic Dress, i.\n\nMagic Purse, ix.\n\nMagical Weapons, xii.\n\nMenial Hero, xviii.\n\nMenial Heroine, i.\n\nMoon on Forehead, vii.\n\nMutilated Foot, i.\n\n\nNobility Test, xi.\n\n\nOblivion Kiss, xviii.\n\nObstacle Pursuit, xii., xviii., xxii.\n\nOgre Transformation, xi.\n\nOverheard Boasting, vii.\n\n\n_Paradise Visitor_, xix.\n\nPebble Track, xxii.\n\n_Planting Pigs' Tails_, xv.\n\nPoisoned Comb, xxv.\n\nPoisoned Cup, xvi.\n\nPoisoned Half-apple, xxv.\n\nPride before Fall, xiv.\n\n_Priest in Bag Ride_, xvi.\n\nPrince Rescue, xxv.\n\nPunishment for Curiosity, xvii.\n\n_Purse or Life_, xvi.\n\nPursuit Rhyme, i.\n\n\nQuarrel of Limbs, vi.\n\nQuest Tasks, vii.\n\n\n_Rage Wager_, xv.\n\nRecognition Test, xii.\n\nRescue from Dragon, iii.\n\n\nSale of Bed, xviii.\n\n_Scissors_, iv.\n\nSeven Bens and Seven Glens, xii.\n\nSight Taboo, xvii.\n\n_Sheet off Bed Theft_, xvi.\n\nShoe Marriage Test, i.\n\nSnow-white, Blood-red, xxv.\n\nSpeech Taboo, vii.\n\n_Stick Finger_, xxii.\n\nSubstituted Children, vii.\n\nSubstituted Heart, vii., xxv.\n\nSupernatural birth, iii.\n\nSwan Maidens, xii.\n\n\nThankful Animals, xii., xiii.\n\n_Thief Apprentice_, xvi.\n\nThree Beds Trial, xxv.\n\n_Thumb Bung_, xvi.\n\n_Thumbkin_, xxiv.\n\n_Top-off, Half-gone, All-gone_, vi.\n\nTransformation by Fruit, ix.\n\nTree Rhyme, i.\n\nTurned to Stone, iii., xxi.\n\n\nUngrateful Animal, xx.\n\n_Unicorn Captured_, x.\n\nUnseen Bridegroom, xvii.\n\n\n_Visitor from Paradise_, xix.\n\n\n_Washing Horses within_, xv.\n\n_Wolf Caught in Hole_, xxiv.\n\n\n_X at a Blow_, x.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nA Staircase of Stories\n\nChosen by\n\nLouey Chisholm\n\nand\n\nAmy Steedman\n\n_Thick Handsome 8^o, 31 Full-page Illustrations in Color 41 in Black\nand White. 540 Pages. 64 Tales_\n\nThe appeal is to children between the ages of four and fourteen, and\nthe aim, to concentrate solely on what it is believed children will\nmost enjoy. There is a gradual ascent in difficulty as the pages are\nturned--hence the title. This thick handsome book will make a solid\nand delightful foundation to a child's library.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nG. P. Putnam's Sons\n\nNew York            London\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nOld Favorites\n\n\nForty Famous Fairy Tales\n\nJack and the Beanstalk--The Three Dwarfs--The Six Swans--The Sleeping\nBeauty--Beauty and the Beast--Blue Beard--Tom Thumb---Snowdrop--Jack\nthe Giant-Killer--Little Red Riding Hood, and many others. 400 pages.\n14 full-page illustrations. Wrapper in color.\n\n\nTwo and Four Footed Friends\n\nStories by Anna Sewell, H. Rider Haggard, Bret Harte, Ernest\nIngersoll, Charles Dudley Warner, Hezekiah Butterworth, and others.\n382 pages. 17 full-page illustrations. Decorative wrapper.\n\n\nStories Grandmother Knew\n\nLittle Merchants--Three Cakes--Suspicious Jackdaw--Lazy\nLawrence--Grand Feast--Mad Bull--Birthday Present--Preparing for a\nRide, and others. 400 pages. 14 full-page illustrations. Decorative\nwrapper.\n\n\nA Little Lame Prince\n\nThis little story of \"the most beautiful prince that ever was born,\"\nand of his good friends, the fairy god-mother, the magpie, and many\nother equally engaging creatures, has now become a classic among tales\nfor children. 150 pages. Fully illustrated. Handsome Wrapper.\n\n\nAlice's Adventures in Wonderland _and_ Through the Looking Glass and\nWhat Alice Found There\n\nBy Lewis Carroll\n\nAlice's adventures, and the friends she made among the preposterous\nand impossible creatures, are now part of the mental furniture of\nevery child, and of most children of an older growth as well.\n\nThe two preceding stories are also printed separately.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nG. P. Putnam's Sons\n\nNew York           London\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nInjun Babies\n\nBy\n\nMaynard Dixon\n\n\nThese stories of little red men and women have the flavor of\nactuality, with all the wonder and strangeness that children demand.\nThe background of the Western plains when Injun babies lived in tepees\nmade of buffalo skins is a new one for children's stories; the\nadventures of the little Indians with animals and their simple life of\nevery day make the collection a unique one for young readers of today.\nThe book is charmingly illustrated with drawings by the author.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nG. P. Putnam's Sons\n\nNew York          London\n\n       *       *       *       *       *","title":"Europa's Fairy Book","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":58614}