{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_34431/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_34431","id":"gutenberg_34431","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34431","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Fairy tales -- Azores","Folklore -- Azores"],"text":"</pre>\n\n\n\nProduced by Al Haines\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Cover art]\n\n\n\n\n\n[Frontispiece: Nothing but the Sea, Sky and Rock]\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE ISLANDS OF MAGIC\n\n\n  LEGENDS, FOLK AND FAIRY\n  TALES FROM THE AZORES\n\n\n\nRETOLD BY\n\nELSIE SPICER EELLS\n\n\n\nIllustrated by\n\nE. L. BROCK\n\n\n[Illustration: title page logo]\n\n\nNEW YORK\n\nHARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY\n\n\n\n\nCOPYRIGHT, 1922, BY\n\nHARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.\n\n\n\nPRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY\n\nTHE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY\n\nRAHWAY, N. J.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\nSome three-fourths of the distance between America and Europe there is\na group of nine beautiful islands called the Azores which belong to\nPortugal.  Their names are Flores, Corvo, Fayal, Pico, S. Jorge,\nGraciosa, Terceira, S. Miguel, and Santa Maria.  Many people think them\nto be the mountain peaks of the submerged continent, Atlantis, which\nlong ago was covered by the ocean.\n\nThere are ancient records which tell of Arabian caravels driven back by\ndangerous seas surrounding islands full of volcanoes.  There are old\npictures which portray seas of spouting geysers and flaming volcanic\nisles.  In these regions islands had a habit of suddenly lifting\nthemselves out of the ocean and then disappearing again from view.\nWhen the largest of the islands, S. Miguel or St. Michael as it is\ncalled in English, was mapped, two mountain peaks were marked where\nlater only one could be discovered.  Thus it was that the Azores gained\ntheir reputation.  Islands full of volcanoes amid seas of spouting\ngeysers could be nothing else but enchanted.  And islands and mountain\npeaks which suddenly vanished away from one's sight!  Surely the Azores\nmust be the true land of magic.\n\n\"The day of folktales is departing from the Azores,\" said the wise\nwoman.  \"Public schools came with the republic, and where books of\nprinted stories enter folktales become confused and soon are lost.\"\n\n\"There is no originality among our islanders,\" complained the wise man\nof the islands.  \"They have told over and over again the stories of our\nmother country, Portugal, and they have made few variations.\"\n\nHowever, when I spent December 1920 and January 1921 in the Azores in\nconnection with research work for the Hispanic Society, I found that\nthere were not only pleasant folktales there but even real fairies.\nThey inhabit the wooded slopes of Monte Brasil on the island of\nTerceira.  The fisher folk who visit the barren Ilheos de Cabras on the\nBay of Angra know that there are fairies living in those rocky isles\neven yet when the boys and girls of the Azores are sailing away from\nthem to seek their fortunes in America.  Have they not often seen the\nfairy garments spread out upon the rocks in the bright sunshine?\n\n\"You are like the Holy Virgin herself,\" said the little maid of St.\nMichael.\n\n\"Did you ever see the Virgin?\" asked my friend.\n\n\"Once the white clouds parted for a moment and I caught a glimpse of\nher beautiful blue mantle,\" replied the child reverently.\n\nYes, there are still fairies and simple faith and magic in the islands.\nOne who visits the boiling springs at Furnas does not doubt for a\nmoment that he is upon enchanted ground.\n\nFolk tales are composite. No one person or group of persons can claim\ncredit for them.  They are our inheritance from many storytellers.  To\nall these storytellers both of yesterday and of to-day I offer my\ngrateful appreciation and hearty thanks.\n\nI have endeavored to tell the stories in a way which will be pleasing\nto American children.  To do this I have taken the liberty of making\noccasional elaborations or omissions which I believe add to the value\nof the story. Everywhere first of all I have tried to keep the spirit\nof the Azores.\n\nThanks are due the publishers of the \"Delineator\" and the \"Outlook\" for\npermission to reprint stories which have appeared in these magazines.\n\nE. S. E.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Contents headpiece]\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  Princess Bluegreen of the Seven Cities\n  The Islands of Flowers\n  Why Dogs Sniff\n  Longstaff, Pinepuller and Rockheaver\n  The Table, the Sifter and the Pinchers\n  Linda Branca and her Mask\n  Fresh Figs\n  Peter-of-the-Pigs\n  The Princess Who Lost Her Rings\n  The Master of Magic\n  St. Anthony's Godchild\n  Trouble When One's Young\n  The Little Maid Who Was Wise\n  Manoel Littlebean\n  The Necklace of Pearls\n  The Daughter of the King of Naples\n  Maria-of-the-Forest\n  The Seven Enchanted Princes\n  The Listening King\n  Jose the Beast Slayer\n  The Princess of the Lost Island\n  Why The Alveloa Bird Received a Blessing\n  Why the Codorniz Bird Received a Curse\n  Outside the Door Like the Mother of St. Peter\n  Why the Owl Flies at Night\n  The Laborer and His Master\n  'Tis Faith Which Saves\n  St. Brendan's Island\n  The Silent Cavalier\n  The Enchanted Palace\n  The Friend of the Devil\n  The Miller's Cloak\n  The Magic Mouthful\n  The Messengers\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Illustrations headpiece]\n\nIllustrations\n\n\nNothing but the Sea, Sky and Rock . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_\n\nKing Graywhite Struck His Royal Sword Against the Great Wall\n\nShe Could Not Hold Them All\n\n\"Will Somebody Please Pass the Pepper\"\n\nThe Three Friends Journeyed on Together\n\n\"Table, Set Yourself,\" Said the Man\n\nShe Quietly Stole Out of the House\n\nThe Two Rabbits Came Running Up to Him\n\nHe Buried It Halfway in the Sand\n\nThe Two Old Women, The Princess, The King and Queen, and\n  All the Courtiers Followed\n\nThe Horse Had Changed Into a Kernel of Corn\n\nHe Climbed Up the High Wall of the Palace\n\n\"Oh, Stone From My Garden Wall,\" She Was Saying\n\nThey Were Big and Heavy, but Her Great Fear Gave Her Strength\n\nHe Saw the Quantities of Gold\n\n\"Take Me Home as Fast as You Can!\"\n\nThen He Sorrowfully Returned to His Waiting Ship\n\n\"We Never Have Looked So Neat and Clean\"\n\nThe Miller and His Wife Were the Most Surprised People\n  in the Whole Country\n\nHe Frowned Down at Jose\n\n\"Alms! Alms!\"\n\nPedro Lifted the Two Great Jars and Slowly Climbed Up the Hill\n\nIt Appeared That the Fair Maid Would Die\n\nOne Evening Just at Sunset\n\nThe Peaceful Snow-Capped Summit of Mt. Pico\n\nThe Beautiful Enchanted Palace in the Lake of Ginjal\n\nHe Bowed His Head Upon His Hands\n\nHe Wrapped Himself In the Brown Cloak And Went Out Through\n  the Fierce Blinding Storm\n\nShe Ran to the Water Jar\n\nA Fierce Storm Arose\n\n\n\n\nTHE ISLANDS OF MAGIC\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Headpiece]\n\n\nPRINCESS BLUEGREEN OF THE SEVEN CITIES\n\n_The Story of the Origin of the Azores_\n\n\nOnce upon a time in the lost kingdom of Atlantis there ruled a king\nwhose name was Graywhite.  He had married the beautiful Queen\nRosewhite.  They lived in a magnificent palace, but it was a sad place\nbecause there were no little children in it.\n\n\"There are plenty of babies in the homes of the poor peasants who can\nscarcely find food for them,\" mourned King Graywhite.  \"Why is it that\nI, the ruler of this vast rich kingdom, can have no child to inherit my\nwealth and my domains?\"\n\n\"Women in tiny hovels have their arms full of rosy dimpled darlings,\"\nsighed Queen Rosewhite.  \"Why is it that I, the queen of this\nmagnificent palace, can have no baby of my own?\"\n\nQueen Rosewhite passed her days and nights in weeping, while King\nGraywhite grew ugly and cruel to his subjects.  Once he had been the\nkindest ruler in the world.\n\nThings went on like this for several years.  Queen Rosewhite's lovely\nface grew pale and wan, and her beautiful eyes became so sad that it\nhurt the hearts of her faithful subjects.  The king's face lost its\nexpression of jolly kindness and became sour and cruel.  They offered\nprayers and solemn vows before all the holy shrines in the whole\nkingdom of Atlantis, but no child was born into the royal palace.  King\nGraywhite grew so harsh and ugly to his subjects that the entire\nkingdom offered prayers and vows, too.  As things were, life was not\nworth living in the kingdom of Atlantis.\n\nIn front of the royal palace there was a beautiful terrace where King\nGraywhite and Queen Rosewhite had loved to walk in the days before they\nhad grown cross and sad.  One night when they were sitting upon the\nterrace enjoying the fresh soft evening air and the bright starlight\nthere suddenly appeared a dazzling light which almost blinded them.\nQueen Rosewhite covered her face with her hands and the king bowed his\nproud head upon his breast.\n\n\"Do not fear to look at me,\" said a gentle voice.\n\nKing Graywhite and Queen Rosewhite glanced up.  They saw a tiny fairy\nstanding before them with a circle of bright light dancing about her.\n\n\"King and Queen of Atlantis,\" said the gentle voice.  \"You shall have a\nchild, a little daughter, prettier than the sunlight.  I have heard\nyour prayers and vows, but I have also heard the prayers and vows of\nyour poor subjects, too.\"\n\nThe glad news had brought a happy light into Queen Rosewhite's\nbeautiful eyes, but now it faded out and a look of fear crept in.  It\nhad hurt the queen's loving heart to have her husband so cruel to his\nsubjects.  She often had told him that punishment would surely come\nupon him because of his harsh deeds.\n\n\"When the little princess is born,\" went on the fairy's voice, \"I shall\ntake her away from you for twenty years.  No harm will come to her.  I\nshall hide her away from you and all the world within seven beautiful\ncities which I shall construct in the loveliest part of your whole\nkingdom.  Around these seven cities I shall place strong walls.  At the\nend of twenty years, if your heart, King Graywhite, is free from sin\nand you have made proper restitution for all your wrongdoing, you shall\nreceive the princess into your arms.\"\n\n\"Twenty years is a long time,\" said King Graywhite sadly.  Tears were\nrunning down Queen Rosewhite's cheeks and she could not speak.\n\n\"You must wait until the twenty years are over,\" continued the fairy.\n\"If you attempt to enter the strong walls before that time you shall\nfall dead and your kingdom shall be consumed by fire.  Swear to me now\nin the presence of your faithful queen that you will not try to enter\nthese strong walls which I shall construct about the seven cities.\"\n\n\"I swear it,\" said the king in a voice which trembled as he solemnly\nlifted his right hand.\n\nThe vision disappeared as suddenly as it had come, and King Graywhite\nand Queen Rosewhite sat alone in the bright starlight on the terrace\nbefore the royal palace.\n\n\"Have I been dreaming?\" asked the king.\n\n\"It was not a dream,\" replied the queen.\n\nTime passed and a beautiful baby daughter was born to the king and\nqueen of Atlantis.  They gave her the name of Princess Bluegreen.\nThere was great rejoicing throughout the entire kingdom.  Her birth was\ncelebrated by lavish feasts and gay songs and dances.\n\nWhen the little Princess Bluegreen was only three days old she\ndisappeared from the royal palace.  She had been carried away by the\nfairy to the seven cities which had been constructed to receive her.\n\nYears passed.  Every day the king and queen received reports from the\nfairy.  They heard that the little Princess Bluegreen was well, and\nthat each hour she grew lovelier.  Sometimes there was almost joy in\nthe palace when King Graywhite chuckled over the quaint sayings of the\nlittle princess which were repeated to him, and the queen heard with a\ntender smile of the tiny blue slippers and the green parasol which the\nfairy had given her.  That day Queen Rosewhite bought new slippers for\nmany little maids in the city.\n\nAs time went on, however, the royal palace of Atlantis grew almost as\nsad as it had been before the Princess Bluegreen had been born.  Only\nto receive reports of their daughter was not enough to make the king\nand queen happy.  They longed to see her with their own eyes and to\nclasp her in their arms.\n\nAs the weeks and months and years rolled by without seeing the little\nprincess, King Graywhite resumed his cruel treatment of his subjects.\nHe was growing old and his nature grew sour with the years.  Queen\nRosewhite tried to reason with him.\n\n\"We must bear this thing with patience,\" she told him.  \"We brought it\nupon ourselves.\"\n\nThe king kept raging against the fairy and did not notice Queen\nRosewhite's politeness in saying \"we\" instead of \"you.\"  It was the\nking who was responsible for all the cruelty.  Good Queen Rosewhite had\nnever had a cruel thought in her whole blameless life.\n\nAt last the day of the eighteenth birthday of the Princess Bluegreen\ngrew near.\n\n\"Are you sure that it is not eighteen years which the fairy said,\ninstead of twenty years?\" asked King Graywhite querulously.\n\nQueen Rosewhite assured him that it was twenty years as he well knew.\nThe king's anger broke out fiercely.\n\n\"I will no longer be kept from my daughter!\" he cried.\n\n\"Would you break the vow which you solemnly made to the fairy in my\npresence?\" asked Queen Rosewhite trembling.  She had never dreamed that\nhe would dare to break it.  Now, however, she was thoroughly frightened\nat the thought which came to her.\n\n\"I'll break that foolish vow!\" shouted the king savagely.\n\nTears rolled down the cheeks of good Queen Rosewhite.\n\n\"No good will come of this,\" she mourned.  \"Be prudent, dear king.  It\nis only two years more which we have to wait.\"\n\n\"The last two years will be the hardest ones of all!\" raged King\nGraywhite.  \"I cannot endure it!\"\n\nThat very day he started to prepare the army for the expedition to the\nSeven Cities, amid the queen's lamentations and in spite of her fears\nand warnings.\n\n\"Be wise and patient, dear king.  Give up this wild expedition,\" were\nher last words to him; when, at length, all the preparations completed,\nhe set out with his great army upon the dangerous quest of the seven\ncities surrounded by their strong walls in the loveliest part of the\nwhole kingdom of Atlantis.\n\nKing Graywhite marched on and on.  It was a long and perilous journey\nand the army suffered many hardships on the way.  It seemed as if they\nwould never arrive, but at last they drew near to what everybody knew\nto be the most beautiful part of the whole kingdom, where the fairy had\ntaken the Princess Bluegreen to conceal her.\n\nStorms raged; lightning flashed; ominous roarings and rumblings sounded\nfrom the depths of the earth.\n\n\"Let us hasten back to the royal palace before it is too late,\"\nbesought the generals of King Graywhite's army.\n\n\"On!  On!\" cried the king.  \"Do you think I would abandon this\nexpedition now?\"\n\nThe words were hardly out of his mouth when a huge rock fell from its\nplace near where he stood and rushed away down the mountainside.  The\nearth trembled violently beneath their feet.  Fearful rumblings and\nroarings sounded all about them.\n\n\"On!  ON!\" shouted the maddened king.\n\nBefore them rose the great walls which the fairy had built around the\nseven cities.  Within these walls was the Princess Bluegreen radiant\nwith the beauty of her eighteen winters and summers passed in peace and\nhappiness under the watchful care of the kind fairy.  The thought of\nher thrilled the heart of King Graywhite.\n\n\"On!  On!\" he shouted to the generals about him.\n\n\"On!  On!\" they, in turn, passed the word along to the trembling\nsoldiers which composed the royal army.\n\nWith the fearful sounds and shakings about them, the poor men heartily\nwished they were safe at home.  They rallied, however, for a final\ncharge and swept up to the walls which surrounded the seven cities.\n\nKing Graywhite struck his royal sword against the great wall.  At that\nmoment the walls fell.  The earth beneath their feet rose.  Great\nflames swept up towards the sky and rushed over the land, sweeping\neverything before them.  Then the sea raged over the earth in violence\nuntil it had covered the whole kingdom of Atlantis.\n\n[Illustration: King Graywhite struck his royal sword against the great\nwall]\n\nThe fairy's curse had been fulfilled.  The king was dead.  His kingdom\nwas consumed by fire.\n\n\nWhen at last the waters grew calm again all that remained of the great\nrich kingdom of Atlantis was the group of nine rocky islands which\nto-day is called the Azores.  In the largest of these islands, St.\nMichael, there is still an enchanted spot called Seven Cities.  Great\nwall-like mountains tower toward the sky.  In the crater valley amid\nthe wall-like mountains there is a lake of green and one of blue.  The\nblue lake is where the beautiful Princess Bluegreen left her little\nblue slippers, they say, and the green lake is where she left her\nlovely green parasol.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ISLANDS OF FLOWERS\n\n_Another Story of the Origin of the Islands_\n\n\nParadise is, of course, ruled by loving law.  All places good to live\nin are governed by laws.\n\nLong, long ago there was a little angel who broke one of the rules of\nParadise.  Of course she had to be punished.  Punishment always follows\nbroken laws.  She was banished from her heavenly home.  Never again\ncould she join in the chorus of celestial music.  Never again could she\nlook up into the face of the great King.\n\nNow it happened that this little angel loved the flowers of Paradise\nespecially.  For the last time she walked through the heavenly gardens.\n\n\"Oh, my exquisite ones, I cannot bear to leave you!\" she sobbed to her\nfavorite blossoms.  \"It breaks my heart!\"\n\nThe flowers lifted their fair faces to hers in loving sympathy.  They\nbreathed out their sweetest perfume at her gentle touch.  They\nstretched out their hands to catch her trailing garments as she passed\nthem.\n\n\"My best beloveds!  You are asking me to take you with me!\" cried the\nlittle angel.\n\nShe filled her arms with the lovely blossoms of Paradise.  Now the\nangel was a very little angel and the flowers she gathered made a very\nlarge armful indeed.  She could not bear to leave any of her favorites\nbehind.  Slowly and sorrowfully she left the heavenly gardens.  Slowly\nand sorrowfully she passed outside the celestial gate.\n\nWhen she had left the gates of Paradise far behind the lovely blossoms\nin her grasp were all that remained of Heaven to her.  They filled her\narms so full that she could not hold them all.  Some of them fell.\nDown, down to earth they floated.  They came to rest on the smiling\nblue waters of the broad Atlantic.\n\n[Illustration: She could not hold them all]\n\n\"Oh, what shall I do!  I have lost my exquisite ones!\" sobbed the\nlittle angel.\n\nThe flowers of Paradise smiled up at her from the place where they had\nfallen.  Never had they looked lovelier.\n\n\"My best beloveds are beautiful and happy!\" she cried as she smiled\nthrough her tears.  \"I still have all I can carry!  I'll leave them\nwhere they are!\"\n\nThere are nine of the flowers of Paradise which the angel dropped.\nThey have always remained in the blue Atlantic where she left them.\nAfter many years Portuguese mariners found them and Portugal claimed\nthem as her own.  She named them the Azores.\n\nTo this very day, however, one of the islands is called Flores, which\nmeans flowers.\n\n\n\n\nWHY DOGS SNIFF\n\n_The Story of the Dogs' Dinner Party_\n\n\nOnce upon a time the dogs gave a dinner party.  All the dogs were\ninvited and all the dogs accepted the invitation.  There were big dogs\nand little dogs and middle-sized dogs.  There were black dogs and white\ndogs and brown dogs and gray dogs and yellow dogs and spotted dogs.\nThere were dogs with long tails and dogs with short tails and dogs with\nno tails at all.  There were dogs with little sharp-pointed ears and\ndogs with big flat drooping ears.  There were dogs with long slender\nnoses and dogs with short fat turn-up noses.  All these dogs came to\nthe party.\n\nNow the dinner was a most elaborate affair.  Everything had been\narranged with the utmost care.  All the good things to eat were spread\nout upon the rocks by the sea.  A gay sparkling little brook brought\nwater to drink.  The sun was shining brightly and a soft gentle little\nbreeze was blowing.  Everything seemed absolutely perfect.\n\nBut there was a cross fussy old dog who came to the party.  She was a\nyellow dog, they say.  Nothing ever suited her.  Whenever she went to a\nparty she always found fault with something.  Sometimes there was too\nlittle to eat and sometimes there was too much.  Sometimes the hot\nthings were not hot enough and sometimes the cold things were not cold\nenough.  Sometimes the hot things were so hot they burned her mouth and\nthe cold things so cold that they gave her indigestion.  There was\nalways something wrong.\n\nAt this party, however, there was not too much to eat and there was not\ntoo little to eat.  The hot things were all just hot enough and the\ncold things were all just cold enough.  Everything seemed to be exactly\nas it should be.\n\n\"How good everything tastes!\" remarked the big black dog between polite\nmouthfuls.\n\n\"Everything is seasoned exactly right,\" added the black and white\nspotted dog between mouthfuls which were entirely too large to be\npolite.\n\nThat was an unfortunate remark.  The cross fussy yellow dog heard it.\nShe noticed immediately that the big juicy bone she was eating had not\nbeen seasoned with pepper.\n\n\"Will somebody please pass the pepper?\" she asked.\n\n[Illustration: \"Will somebody please pass the pepper?\"]\n\nAll the black dogs and white dogs and brown dogs and yellow dogs and\ngray dogs and spotted dogs fell over each other trying to find the\npepper to pass.  There was not a single bit of pepper at that dinner\nparty.\n\n\"I can't eat a mouthful until I have some pepper,\" whined the yellow\ndog.\n\n\"I'll go into the city and get some pepper,\" said one of the dogs.\nNobody ever knew which dog it was.\n\nThe dog who went into the city to get the pepper never came back.\nNobody ever knew what became of him.\n\nWhenever two dogs meet they always sniff at each other.  If one of them\nshould happen to be the dog who went into the city to get the pepper,\nhe would surely smell of pepper.\n\n\n\n\nLONGSTAFF, PINEPULLER AND ROCKHEAVER\n\n_The Story of Three Friends_\n\n\nLong ago there lived a blacksmith upon whose strong right arm there\nswelled great muscles and whose big hairy fist was capable of\ndelivering so heavy a blow that all the men in the village and nearby\ncountryside stood in awe of him.  He had a hot temper as well as a\nstrong right arm and his pretty young wife grew so afraid of him that\nshe ran away into the forest, taking her baby son with her.  The\nblacksmith had become crosser and crosser of late because the baby\nsometimes cried at night and disturbed his rest.\n\nIn the deep forest the young wife found nuts and herbs and wild fruits\nto eat.  The baby boy thrived most marvelously.  Soon he was big and\nstrong, able to kill wild beasts to add to their food.  At last his\nstrength was so great that he could lift big rocks and pull up huge\ntrees.\n\nOne day he said to his mother, \"Dearest one, I'd like to leave you for\na little while.  I want to go back to the village where I was born.\nThe stories you have told me about it keep ringing in my ears.  I must\nsee the place for myself.  Do you mind, mother dear, if I take this\njourney?\"\n\nHis mother had long foreseen that a day would come when he would no\nlonger be content to live alone with her in the deep forest.  Her heart\nached but she gave her consent to the expedition.\n\nWhen the lad reached the village he went straight to the shop of the\nblacksmith.  His mother had described it to him so often that he had no\ndifficulty in finding it.  He knew at once that the man at the forge\nwas his father.  He looked exactly as he had always imagined his father\nlooked.\n\n\"Good day,\" said he.  \"I'd like you to weld an iron bar for me, a bar\nas tall as the tallest tree in front of your shop.\"\n\nThe blacksmith glanced at the lad and then at the tree.\n\n\"You must have made a mistake in your measurements,\" he replied.  \"You\ndon't know what you are talking about.\"\n\nThe boy from the forest smiled quietly and stepped a trifle nearer to\nthe blacksmith.\n\n\"You are quite right,\" he admitted.  \"Thank you for pointing out to me\nmy mistake.  I should have said that I want this iron bar made twice as\ntall as the tallest tree before your door.  I want it to be of good\nthickness, too.  I plan to use it as my staff.\"\n\nThe blacksmith looked the lad over more carefully.  In truth he\nappeared as if he might be able to use the staff after all.  The\nblacksmith hastily agreed to make it at once, and he didn't say a word\nabout arranging the price in advance according to his custom.\n\n\"Have my staff ready for me next week,\" commanded the boy as he bade\nthe blacksmith good-by.\n\nWhen at last the lad was once more with his mother in the deep forest\nhe told her all that had passed.  \"When I return for my staff I want\nyou to go with me, dear mother,\" were his words when he had ended his\nstory.\n\n\"I!\" cried the woman in alarm.  \"I'd be afraid to go!  From your\ndescription I am sure the blacksmith is in truth your father, and I\nfear that his disposition has not improved with the years.\"\n\n\"Don't be afraid, dear heart,\" said the son.  \"I'll be there and I'll\ntake care of you.  I'll see that he does you no harm.\"\n\nThey started out on their journey, and just a week from the day of the\nlad's first visit to the blacksmith shop he stood once more in the\ndoor.  He had left his mother hidden behind the bushes and shrubs.\n\n\"Good day,\" he said to the blacksmith.  \"Is my staff ready?\"\n\n\"Yes, indeed.  It is entirely completed,\" replied the blacksmith more\npolitely than he was in the habit of speaking even to the parish priest\nhimself.  \"I have just sent for two yokes of oxen and enough men to\ndrag it out of my shop.\"\n\n\"That is quite unnecessary,\" responded the boy.  \"I'm sorry indeed to\nhear that you have inconvenienced yourself.\"\n\nHe picked up the staff and tossed it about as jauntily as if it had\nbeen a slender cane.  The blacksmith stared at him in amazement, his\nmouth wide open and his eyes bulging out of his head.\n\n\"May I ask who you are?\" he asked as soon as he could catch his breath.\n\n\"My name from this day forth shall be Longstaff,\" replied the lad.\n\"And it so happens that I am your own son.\"\n\nThe blacksmith listened in surprise while the boy told the story of the\nyears he and his mother had lived in the deep forest.  He embraced his\nson tenderly.\n\n\"You are indeed a son to be proud of!\" he cried.  \"Come and live with\nme.  We shall have a happy life together.\"\n\nThe blacksmith was thinking that a strong young man like this would be\na great help around the shop.\n\nLongstaff shook his head.  \"Thank you, but I cannot tarry here,\" he\nsaid.  \"I must go away and see the world a bit.  My mother, however, is\nwaiting behind the bushes.  I fear she will be very lonely while I am\naway.\"\n\nWhen Longstaff's mother came in response to his call her husband\nembraced her lovingly and kissed her.  \"I've really missed you about\nthe house while you have been away,\" he told her.\n\n\"If you are not good to her you'll hear from me,\" said, his son as he\nlooked him straight in the eye.\n\nLongstaff then set out to see the world, travelling from one country to\nanother.  After a time he came to a place where there was a man pulling\nup pine trees by the roots as easily as if they were the weeds in your\ngarden.\n\n\"Good day,\" said Longstaff.  \"What is your name?\"\n\n\"I am called PINEPULLER,\" was the reply.  \"I'm very strong, as you can\nsee for yourself, but I've heard that there is somebody stronger than I\nam.  His name is LONGSTAFF, I am told.\"\n\nLongstaff gave his iron staff a gay toss into the air and caught it\nagain in his hand.\n\n\"That happens to be my name,\" he said.  \"I like you.  Won't you join me\nin my travels about the country?  We two would have a jolly time\ntogether.\"\n\nPinepuller accepted the invitation and together they journeyed on.\nSoon they came to a place where there was a man picking up great rocks\nand tossing them about as lightly as if they had been rubber balls.\n\n\"Good day,\" said Longstaff.  \"What is your name?\"\n\n\"My name is ROCKHEAVER,\" replied the other.  \"You can see for yourself\nthat I am very strong.  I've heard, however, that there is somebody\nstronger than I am.  His name is LONGSTAFF, I am told.\"\n\n\"That happens to be my name,\" said Longstaff, \"and this is my friend\nPinepuller.  You are just the man to complete our little party.  Won't\nyou join us as we travel about the country?\"\n\nRockheaver accepted the invitation with glee and the three friends\njourneyed on together from that hour.  Everywhere they went they had\neverything their own way because of their great strength.\n\n[Illustration: The three friends journeyed on together]\n\nOne day Longstaff, Pinepuller and Rockheaver sat on a rock by the sea.\nSuddenly they spied two pretty girls tossing glass balls back and forth\nand catching them.  They had not stood there on the sand a moment\nbefore when the three friends had passed that way.  Possibly they had\nbeen bathing and had only just come out of the water.  Longstaff ran to\nspeak to them.  He put out his hand and caught their two glass balls at\nonce.  Then a strange thing happened.  The two beautiful maidens\ndisappeared the very minute Longstaff put their two glass balls into\nhis pocket, and he was left standing alone on the sand by the sea.\n\n\"That is queer,\" he complained as he told Pinepuller and Rockheaver\nwhat had happened.\n\nNot far away there was a little house.  There were no signs of life\nabout the place and consequently the three friends entered.  Inside the\nhouse there were beds, beautiful furniture and a kitchen completely\nfurnished with pots and pans.\n\n\"I like this house,\" said Longstaff, as he seated himself in the\nlargest chair.  \"I'm going to rest a bit and you two can go hunting.\nWhen you return I'll have the dinner cooked for you.\"\n\nAccordingly, Pinepuller and Rockheaver went away to hunt for game.\nLongstaff rested for a while in the big chair and then he went into the\nkitchen to light the fire.  Soon the fire was burning merrily and the\nwater in the kettle was bubbling away cozily.  Longstaff cooked the\ndinner exactly as his mother had taught him long ago in the deep\nforest.  Just for a minute he turned his back to hunt for the salt.\nWhen he turned around the pots and the frying pan were gone from the\nfire.  There was a tiny dwarf with red boots disappearing through the\nkitchen floor with Longstaff's good dinner.\n\nLongstaff gasped.  He was not at all accustomed to having his dinner\nstolen from under his very nose, as it were.\n\nSoon Pinepuller and Rockheaver came back with the hares they had killed\nin the hunt.  They looked at the dying fire, at the empty pots and\nfrying pan, and at the dazed expression on Longstaff's face.\n\n\"Where's the dinner?\" asked Pinepuller.  \"I'm as hungry as a bear.  You\nsaid you'd have it ready when we got back.\"\n\n\"I know what he's done!\" cried Rockheaver.  \"He has eaten all the\ndinner and hasn't left a single mouthful for us!\"\n\nWhen Longstaff told them the story of the dwarf with red boots who had\nstolen the dinner it was difficult to make them believe it.\n\n\"Very well,\" said he, \"if you won't take my word for it, why doesn't\nPinepuller stay in the kitchen and cook these hares?  Rockheaver and I\nwill go away and you can see what happens.\"\n\nAccordingly, Longstaff and Rockheaver went away and Pinepuller made a\nstew of the hares.  While he was hunting for the salt the little dwarf\nwith red boots came out from under the table and stole the stew.\nPinepuller turned around just in time to catch him at it.  He raised\nhis big arm to seize him, but the dwarf, in the twinkling of an eye,\nvanished into the floor, taking the stew with him.\n\nWhen Longstaff and Rockheaver returned Pinepuller told what had\nhappened.  \"I believe you now,\" said he to Longstaff.  \"I ask your\npardon for doubting your word.\"\n\nHowever, Rockheaver was not convinced.  \"I know what has happened,\"\nsaid he.  \"You were so hungry you couldn't wait for us and you ate up\nthe stew.  You and Longstaff have plotted that I shall go with an empty\nstomach this day.\"\n\n\"Let Rockheaver, then, be the one to stay in the kitchen,\" suggested\nLongstaff.  \"We have brought back other hares from the hunt.  Let him\ncook them and see what happens.\"\n\nLongstaff and Pinepuller went away, leaving Rockheaver to cook the\nhares.  Again the dwarf with red boots jumped out from under the table\nand stole the dinner.  When his two friends returned Rockheaver begged\ntheir pardon for his moments of distrust.\n\n\"These are surely queer doings,\" said Longstaff.  \"I'm going to make an\ninvestigation.  I'll not rest in peace until I find out where this\nred-booted dwarf lives and where these three dinners have gone.  Come\nand help me dig up the ground under the kitchen.\"\n\nAt once Rockheaver dug up the floor of the kitchen and Pinepuller\npulled out the earth beneath.  Soon they had a deep well-like hole\nreaching down into the ground.  While they had been digging, Longstaff\nhad made a ladder out of the branches of the trees, a ladder so long\nthat it could reach very far into the earth.\n\n\"I'm going to be the one to descend into this hole,\" remarked Longstaff\nwhen he thought that it was quite deep enough.\n\nIndeed his two friends were entirely willing that he should.\n\nHe lowered the ladder he had made and very cautiously he crept down\ninto the earth.  At the foot of the ladder he came to what looked like\na heavy barred door.  He had brought his big iron staff with him, of\ncourse, and with this he knocked hard at the door.\n\n\"Who is there?\" called out a voice from within.\n\n\"I am Longstaff.\"  \"Open.\"\n\n\"Go away as fast as you can,\" said the voice.  \"This is the home of the\nseven-headed serpent.  If he catches you it will be serious.  You'll be\nenchanted and can never get away.\"\n\n\"I'd like to meet this serpent for a minute or two,\" said Longstaff.\n\nThe heavy door swung open and Longstaff stepped inside.  Immediately he\nheard a rushing like a great wind.  With his big iron staff he struck a\nmighty blow at the seven-headed serpent.  He hit him just in time to\navoid being enchanted.  The huge seven-headed serpent fell to the\nground completely stunned by Longstaff's blow.\n\nAt the first drop of blood which fell from the wounded monster a\nbeautiful maiden appeared near the door.  Longstaff recognized her at\nonce as one of the two girls he had seen on the seashore tossing and\ncatching the two glass balls.  He took the balls out of his pocket.\n\n\"Do you recognize these?\" he asked the maiden.\n\n\"Indeed I do,\" she replied.  \"One of these glass balls belongs to me\nand the other belongs to my sister.  She, too, has been enchanted and\nis behind the next door you see ahead of you.\"\n\n\"I'll get you away from this evil place,\" said Longstaff, \"and then\nI'll see what I can do to help your sister.\"\n\nHe lifted her in his arms and started to carry her up the ladder.\n\n\"Wait just a minute,\" she said.  \"I think I'd better give you back this\nglass ball.  I'll not be able to speak a word while you have it, but I\nthink you need it more than I.\"\n\nShe gave him back the glass ball and then they hastened up the long\nladder.  When Pinepuller and Rockheaver saw the lovely maiden in\nLongstaff's arms they were filled with amazement.\n\n\"She is a princess who has been enchanted,\" explained Longstaff.  \"Take\ngood care of her while I return for her sister.  Then we will restore\nthese fair damsels to their father, the king, who has long mourned them\nas dead.\"\n\nOnce more Longstaff crept down the ladder into the depths of the earth.\nThe seven-headed serpent was still lying where he had fallen and\nLongstaff stepped past him and knocked at the door which barred his way.\n\n\"Who is there?\" called out a voice from within.\n\n\"This is Longstaff!  Open!\"\n\n\"Hurry away as fast as you can.  This is the home of the dwarf with red\nboots,\" said the voice.\n\n\"That red-booted dwarf is exactly the person I want to see,\" answered\nLongstaff, holding fast to his heavy iron bar which his father had made\nhim long ago in the blacksmith's shop.\n\nThe door slowly swung open and Longstaff stepped inside.  At once he\nheard the footsteps of the red-booted dwarf.  The tiny dwarf looked up\nat him in surprise.\n\n\"We'll fight and see who is the best man,\" stormed he.  \"You fight with\nthe black sword and I'll use the white one.\"\n\n\"No indeed,\" said Longstaff.  \"I'll use the white sword and you the\nblack.  Otherwise I'll not wait to fight with swords but will choose my\nown weapon which happens to be this iron staff of mine.\"\n\nThe little red-booted dwarf looked up at the heavy iron staff in\nLongstaff's hand.  It could crush him very easily indeed.\n\n\"Very well!\" said he.  \"Just as you like!\"\n\nLongstaff fought with the white sword and the dwarf with the black one,\nand soon the dwarf had fallen, though his great agility made up for his\nlack of size.  With the first drop of blood which fell from the\nred-booted dwarf the beautiful princess was disenchanted.\n\nShe gave her glass ball back to Longstaff after she had recognized it\nas her own; and, safe in his arms, she was borne up the long ladder to\nthe place where her sister was awaiting her with Pinepuller and\nRockheaver.\n\n\"I've left my staff behind!\" cried Longstaff in alarm.  \"I must go down\nonce more and get it.\"\n\nHe had never been without his staff near at hand even when he was\nasleep.  Hastily he again descended the ladder.  There was his staff\nlying where he had dropped it when he took the white sword.  When he\nturned around to go up the ladder again, it had disappeared.  His\nfriends had forgotten all about him, so interested had they become in\nthe two beautiful maidens.  Even at that moment they were on their way\nto the king's palace.  They had pulled up the ladder, never giving\nanother thought as to how Longstaff was going to get out of the hole.\n\nLongstaff shouted in vain.  Then he remembered how the dwarf had\nappeared in the kitchen.  Evidently the red-booted dwarf knew how to\nget up to the surface of the earth.  A drink from Longstaff's flask\nquickly revived him.  He reached for the white sword ready to fight\nagain.\n\n\"Wait a minute, my friend,\" said Longstaff.  \"You are now my prisoner.\nI'll let you go as soon as you perform a little service for me.  Just\ntake me up to the surface of the earth.\"\n\n\"That is easy,\" answered the dwarf.  \"Take hold of my hand.\"\n\nAs soon as Longstaff had taken the hand of the red-booted dwarf he felt\nhimself rise.  In a moment he was safe outside the hole.\n\n\"There's another thing I want you to do for me before I let you go,\" he\nsaid.  \"Take me to the king's palace.\"\n\nLongstaff took hold of the dwarf's hand and in a moment more they were\nat the palace.  It was only a minute after the king's daughters had\nbeen restored to him.  The royal palace was wild with joy.  Even the\nfact that the two lovely maidens were dumb was almost overlooked.\n\nWhen Pinepuller and Rockheaver saw Longstaff's angry eyes they ran away\nas fast as they could.  They were never seen near the royal palace\nagain.\n\nLongstaff drew the two glass balls from his pocket and gave one to each\nof the two beautiful princesses.  At once they could speak, and\ntogether they told their story to their father, the king.\n\n\"You may wed whichever princess you prefer,\" said the king to Longstaff\nwhen he had heard how he had made the bold rescue.\n\nLongstaff wedded the princess who was more beautiful than her sister,\nand when the king died he reigned over the whole kingdom.\n\n\n\n\nTHE TABLE, THE SIFTER AND THE PINCHERS\n\n_The Story of the King's Laborer and His Wages_\n\n\nOnce upon a time there was a man who was very poor.  He had so many\nchildren it was difficult to earn money enough to provide for them all.\nAccordingly, he left home and hired out to the king of a distant land.\n\nAt the end of a year's time he went to the king and said: \"I have\nserved you faithfully for a whole year.  Now I wish to return to my\nwife and children.  Pay me, I pray you, what you owe me for my work.\"\n\nThe king said: \"I will not reward you in money.  I will give you\nsomething better than money.  Here is a table.  When you are hungry all\nyou have to do is to say, 'Table, set yourself.'  Then the table will\nimmediately be spread with food.\"\n\n\"Thank you, good king,\" replied the man.  \"With this table it will be\neasy enough to provide food even for all my large family.\"\n\nWhen the man had started home with his table he soon grew hungry.  He\nput it down by the roadside under a leafy tree and said, \"Table, set\nyourself.\"  Immediately it was full of the most delicious food.  The\nman ate all he could and gave the rest away to some beggars who passed\nthat way.\n\n\"It is a lucky day for us,\" said the beggars as they thanked him.\n\nThat night the man stopped at an inn.  He was so delighted with the\nmagic powers of his table that he foolishly told the innkeeper about it.\n\n\"That would be a most excellent table for me to possess,\" thought the\ninnkeeper.  \"With this in my possession I would soon be a rich man.  I\ncould charge my guests a price in proportion to the rich food I would\nserve them, and I'd never have to spend a cent of my money to buy\nsupplies.\"\n\nThat night the innkeeper stole the table and substituted another for it\nwhich looked exactly like it.  Early in the morning the man loaded the\ntable on his back and hurried home to his wife and children.\n\n\"We'll never be hungry again!\" he cried as he embraced his wife.\n\"Never again shall our children call for food when we have nothing to\ngive them!\"\n\n\"How much did the king pay you?\" asked his wife in surprise.  The good\nwoman well knew how much it cost to buy food enough to keep all their\nchildren from going hungry.\n\n\"The king did not pay me in money.  He gave me something better than\nmoney,\" replied the man.  \"Do you see this table?  Call the children.\nI want to show you something.\"\n\nThe man's wife and children all gathered about the table, watching it\ncuriously.\n\n\"Table, set yourself,\" said the man.\n\n[Illustration: \"Table, set yourself,\" said the man]\n\nThe table remained standing in the center of the floor just as it was.\n\n\"What trick is this?\" asked the good wife.  She had been a bit\nsuspicious from the moment she had heard that there was no money in her\nhusband's pockets.\n\n\"I'll get the beggars I fed to prove to you what this table provided\nyesterday,\" he said when he had told all the story.\n\n\"You'd better go back to the king as fast as you can,\" advised the\nwife.  \"Take back this good-for-nothing table which he has imposed upon\nyou and ask for some real money instead.\"\n\nThe man did as his wife advised.  The king was thoughtful for a moment.\nHe guessed that the man had been robbed.\n\nAt last he said: \"I'll give you a sifter this time.  Then when you need\nmoney all you have to do is to say, 'Sifter, sift!'  It will sift out\nmoney as freely as if it were flour.\"\n\nThe man was delighted with the sifter.  He sifted his pockets full of\nmoney immediately and hurried home.  On the way he again spent the\nnight at the inn.\n\n\"When I brought my table home it wouldn't work,\" he told the innkeeper.\n\"I took it back and got something in its place which is all right.\"\n\nThe innkeeper watched him sift out money.\n\n\"Why don't I get that sifter?\" thought the innkeeper.  \"I work very\nhard serving my guests even though the table provides the food for\nthem.  If I had this sifter I wouldn't have to work.  I'd close the inn\nand pass the rest of my life enjoying the money I'd sift into my\npockets so easily.\"\n\nThat night he stole the sifter and substituted another which looked\nexactly like it.\n\nWhen the man reached home there was plenty of money in his pockets and\nhis wife and children were happy for a little while.  However, he soon\nwanted to display the magic gifts of his new sifter.  Accordingly, he\ncalled his family together.\n\n\"Sifter, sift,\" he commanded.\n\nThe sifter behaved just like any ordinary sifter.\n\n\"You have been tricked again!\" cried his wife.  She was very cross\nindeed and told her husband exactly what she thought of him.\n\nHome was not a comfortable place for him that day, so he decided to\nhurry back to the king after he had emptied all the money in his\npockets into his wife's lap.\n\n\"This will supply you for a while,\" he said.  \"It is quite as much as\nany ordinary husband would have brought home for a year's work.\"\n\n\"A woman hates to have her husband made a fool of,\" replied the woman\nas she rolled up the money and tucked it away carefully.\n\nWhen the king had heard the story he was entirely convinced that the\nman had an enemy who had stolen both the table and the sifter.\n\n\"Where did you spend the night?\" he asked.\n\nThe man told of passing the night in the inn.\n\n\"I've heard that innkeeper is going to retire from business, he has\nbecome so rich,\" said the king.  \"You'd better hurry there as fast as\nyou can before he leaves town.\"\n\nThe laborer nodded his head thoughtfully, a wise look creeping into his\neyes.\n\n\"Take these pinchers,\" ordered the king.  \"Use them on that innkeeper\nuntil he gives back the table and the sifter.\"\n\nWhen the innkeeper was sore and black and blue from the pinchers he\ngave back the table and the sifter.\n\nAfter that there were prosperous days indeed for the king's laborer.\nWhenever the children were hungry, he would say: \"Table, set yourself,\"\nand immediately the table would be full of the most delicious food.\nWhenever his wife said, \"I need some money,\" he would call out,\n\"Sifter, sift,\" and the sifter would sift out money as freely and\neasily as if it were flour.\n\nAs for the pinchers, they proved to be quite as useful as the other\ngifts he received from the king.  Whenever the children were naughty he\nhad only to glance in the direction of those pinchers.  The children\nwould immediately behave as they should.\n\n\n\n\nLINDA BRANCA AND HER MASK\n\n_The Story of the Girl Who Did Not Like To Be Pretty_\n\n\nLong ago there lived a girl who was so pretty she grew tired of being\nbeautiful and longed to be ugly.  She was so attractive that all the\nyoung men in the whole city wanted to marry her.  Every night the\nstreet in front of her house was full of youths who came to sing\nbeneath her balcony.\n\nLinda Branca, that was the girl's name, grew tired of being kept awake\nnights.  It is well enough for a little while to hear songs about one's\npearly teeth and snowy arms, one's flashing eyes and waving hair, one's\nrosebud mouth and fairylike feet; but a steady diet of it becomes\ndecidedly wearing.\n\n\"I wish I were as homely as that girl who is passing by,\" she remarked\none day.  \"Then I could sleep nights.\"  \"If I were as ugly looking as\nthat I'd have a chance to select a really good husband perhaps.  With\nso many to choose from it is terribly confusing.  I'll never be able to\nmake any choice at all as things are now.  I'm afraid I'll die\nunwedded,\" she added as she carefully surveyed the girl's coarse hair,\nher large feet and hands, her ugly big mouth and ears and small\nred-lidded eyes.  \"That girl has a much better chance of a successful\nmarriage than I have, with all this tiresome crowd of suitors to drive\nme distracted!\"\n\nThe girl in the street heard her words and looked up.  When she saw how\nlovely Linda Branca was she was amazed indeed at the words she had\nheard.  She thought that she must have made a mistake and asked Linda\nBranca to say it all over again.\n\n\"You can be exactly as homely as I am,\" declared the girl when at last\nshe had sufficiently recovered from her surprise to find her tongue.\n\"I am an artist.  I can prepare a mask for you which will make you just\nas ugly as I am.\"\n\n\"Go on and make it as soon as you can!\" cried Linda Branca, clapping\nher little hands in joy.\n\nThat evening the suitors in the street under the balcony thought that\nthe lovely Linda Branca had become very gracious.  She was frequently\nto be seen on the balcony looking eagerly up and down the street as if\nshe were expecting some one.  Her dark eyes were sparkling and her fair\ncheek had a rosy flush upon it which they had never seen before.\n\n\"The beautiful Linda Branca is more charming than ever,\" was the burden\nof their songs that night.\n\nLinda Branca was so excited about her new mask that she could not have\nslept even if there had been no suitors to disturb her with their\nsongs.  When at last she fell asleep towards morning it was only to\ndream that the new mask had the face of a donkey.\n\nIt was not until the next week that the mask finally arrived.  Linda\nBranca had grown very impatient and was almost in despair lest she\nshould never receive it.  When at last the girl brought it one could\neasily see why it had taken a whole week to prepare it.  So like a\nhuman face it was that it was plain that the making of it had called\nforth great patience and skill as well as necessary time.\n\n\"It is even uglier than I had hoped it would be!\" cried Linda Branca in\ndelight when she saw it.\n\nSurely, when she tried it on no one of her suitors would ever have\nrecognized the fair Linda Branca of their songs.\n\nNow Linda Branca had no mother, and her father was away on business, so\nit was an easy matter to prepare for her departure.\n\nLinda Branca's father was a man of wealth who spared no money in giving\nhis daughter beautiful gowns to enhance her rare beauty.  She had one\ndress of blue trimmed with silver and another of blue embroidered in\ngold.  As she packed up a few belongings to take with her, she decided\nto add these two favorite garments.\n\n\"Who knows but I may need them sometime?\" she mused as she rolled them\nup carefully.\n\nWith the ugly mask upon her face, and dressed in a long dark cloak, she\nquietly stole out of the house.  She went to the king's palace in a\nneighboring city and inquired if they were in need of a maid.\n\n[Illustration: She quietly stole out of the house]\n\n\"Ask my son.  It is he who rules here,\" said the king's mother.\n\nThe king looked at Linda Branca with a critical eye.\n\n\"I hired my last servant because she was so pretty,\" he remarked.  \"I\nthink I'll hire this one because she is so ugly.\"\n\nAccordingly, Linda Branca became a servant in the royal palace.  She\nsoon discovered, however, that it was the pretty maid who received all\nthe favors.  It was good to sleep nights without being disturbed by the\nsongs of suitors under her window.  Nevertheless, after a time, Linda\nBranca could not fail to see that it was the pretty maid who had the\nhappy life.\n\n\"I believe I'd almost be willing to be pretty again,\" said Linda Branca\nto herself.  \"Perhaps it has some advantages.\"\n\nShe knew very well that the pretty maid was not as tired as she that\nnight.\n\nThe next day there was to be a great feast which was to last for two\ndays.  Linda Branca asked the queen if she might be allowed to attend.\n\n\"Ask my son,\" said the queen.  \"It is he who rules here.\"\n\n\"May I go to the feast?\" asked Linda Branca when she was blacking the\nking's boots.\n\n\"Look out or I'll throw my boot at you,\" said the king.\n\nThat night when the feast had already begun, she dressed herself\ncarefully in the robe of blue trimmed with silver.  It was indeed a\npleasure to remove the ugly mask and find that she was still just as\nlovely as when the crowds of suitors sang about her great beauty.\n\nThat night at the feast every one talked about the beauty of the\nmysterious stranger in the dress of blue trimmed with silver.  The king\nhimself danced with her.  He was completely captivated by her charm.\n\n\"Where do you come from, lovely lady?\" he asked.\n\n\"I come from the land of the boot,\" replied Linda Branca with a gay\nlaugh.\n\nThe king was completely mystified, for he did not know where the land\nof the boot was.  He asked the queen and all the wisemen of the court,\nbut there was not a single one of them who had ever heard of that\ncountry.  The next day they hunted through all the books and all the\nmaps, but there was no book or map which mentioned it.\n\n\"She is the most beautiful maiden I have ever seen!\" cried the king.\n\"I'd like to marry her, but how can I ever see her again if I can't\nfind out the location of the land she comes from!\"\n\nHe was in deep despair, and every one in the royal palace was nearly\ndistracted.  It was decidedly embarrassing to have the king fall in\nlove with a stranger from a country nobody could find on a map or in a\nbook.\n\nWhen the king returned from the feast he saw the ugly little maid he\nhad hired busy at her work about the palace.  The next day she again\nasked the queen's permission to go to the feast that night.\n\n\"Ask my son,\" was the queen's reply.\n\nWhen Linda Branca asked the king's permission, he replied: \"Look out or\nI'll hit you with my hairbrush.\"\n\nThat night Linda Branca again removed her ugly mask and dressed herself\nin the beautiful gown of blue embroidered in gold.  She was even\nlovelier than the night before.\n\nWhen she entered the grand ball room the king was almost wild with joy.\nHe ran to her side at once and kept dancing with her the entire evening.\n\n\"What country do you come from?\" he asked again.\n\n\"I'm from the land of the hairbrush,\" replied Linda Branca.\n\n\"Where is that land?\" asked the king, but Linda Branca would not tell\nhim.\n\n\"Where is the land of the hairbrush?\" asked the king of the queen\nmother, and of all the wise men of the court.\n\nNobody could tell him, and nobody could find the land of the hairbrush\nupon any map or in any book.\n\n\"Stupid ones!\" cried the king.  \"I don't believe you have half tried to\nfind it!\"\n\nHe looked through all the maps and books himself and at last he grew\nill from so much studying.  His friends all gathered about him in the\nroyal bedchamber and sought to console him.  However he refused\nconsolation.\n\n\"I do not care whether I live or die!\" he cried.  \"I care for nothing\nexcept the beautiful stranger who came to my feast.\"\n\nLinda Branca knew that the king was ill, and when these words were\nreported to her she quickly dressed herself in the robe of blue trimmed\nwith silver, which she had worn the first night of the feast.  When she\ntook off her ugly mask and looked at herself in the glass she was\nreally pleased with her reflection.\n\n\"It is not so bad after all to be pretty,\" she said as she smiled.\n\nLinda Branca stole out of the palace and peeped into the window of the\nroyal bedchamber.  One of the king's counsellors saw her.\n\n\"Whose lovely face is that at the window?\" he asked.\n\n\"It is surely the beautiful stranger from the land of the boot,\" said\none.\n\n\"It is the charming maiden from the land of the hairbrush,\" disputed\nanother.\n\nBy the time the king himself had reached the window there was no one to\nbe seen.  He called for the queen, his mother.\n\n\"Tell me, mother, who was outside my window a moment ago?\" he asked.\n\n\"No one unless a masquerader,\" replied the queen.\n\nThe poor queen was nearly worn out with worry over her son.  She was\nafraid he was so sick that he was going to die.\n\nThe next day the king had in truth grown most decidedly worse.  The\ncourt physicians went about with anxious faces and the whole palace had\nbecome a place of deepest gloom.\n\nLinda Branca put on her dress of blue embroidered with gold and again\npeeped into the window of the royal bedchamber.\n\nNow the king had lain upon his richly carved bed with his eyes fixed\nevery moment upon the window where the face had appeared.  He did not\nclose his eyes at all.\n\n\"He can't live long if this keeps up,\" one court physician whispered to\nanother.\n\nHe had just finished saying these words when the king gave a loud cry\nand sprang from his bed.  He ran to the window and reached it just in\ntime to catch a piece of the skirt of blue embroidered in gold.  He\nheld it tight.\n\n\"Masquerader, unmask!\" he cried.\n\nLinda Branca had hastily put on the mask which she had brought with\nher, and now she looked up at the king with the face of the little\nservant he had hired.  She took off the mask and smiled into his eyes.\n\n\"Now at last I know who is the beautiful stranger from the land of the\nboot and the land of the hairbrush!\" cried the king.\n\nWhen Linda Branca had told the king, the queen mother and all the\ncourtiers her whole story everybody laughed.\n\n\"Who ever before heard of a maiden who wanted to be less beautiful than\nNature had made her!\" cried the wise men.\n\n\"I always knew that when my son saw fit to select his bride he would\nchoose a rare woman,\" said the queen mother proudly.\n\nThe king himself did not say a single word, but gazed and gazed at the\nlovely face of Linda Branca with such joy in his eyes that she knew in\nher heart that at last she was glad to be beautiful.\n\n\"Stay pretty,\" is a parting greeting between women in the Azores.\nPerhaps it was Linda Branca herself who began saying it in the\nbeginning.\n\n\n\n\nFRESH FIGS\n\n_The Story of a Clever Youth and a Foolish One_\n\n\nLong ago there lived a little maid who fell ill.  Her father was very\nrich and he did everything he could for her.\n\nOne day she said: \"If I only had some fresh figs I'm sure I'd feel\nbetter.\"\n\nNow it was in the month of January.  It would be many long months\nbefore the fresh figs would be ripe.  The rich man was greatly worried.\nNot even his fortune could ripen the figs, as he well knew.\n\nNevertheless he decided to advertise and therefore said: \"Whoever shall\nbring fresh figs to my daughter shall marry her if he be young.  If he\nbe old he shall receive his reward in money.\"\n\nThis announcement was spread abroad throughout the whole country, but\nno one had any fresh figs in the month of January.  At last, however,\nthere was a woman found who had a fig tree close by the side of her\nhouse, protected from the cold winds by the house and by the high wall\nof her garden.  This woman had a few fresh figs, but they were small\nand not very good.\n\n\"Send them to the little maid who is sick,\" advised her neighbors.\n\n\"Indeed I'll send them as soon as my son can get ready to start,\"\nreplied the good woman.\n\nNow the woman had two sons.  One of them was foolish, but the other was\nconsidered one of the cleverest youths in the whole countryside.  He\nleft home immediately with the best of the figs in his basket.\n\nOn the way he met a woman dressed in blue with a child in her arms.  It\nwas really the Holy Mother and her Child but he did not recognize them.\n\n\"What are you carrying in your basket?\" asked the woman.\n\n\"I am carrying horns,\" replied the clever youth.\n\n\"Yes, you are carrying horns,\" replied the woman.\n\nThe young man went on to the rich man's house supposing that he was\ncarrying figs in his basket just as when he started out.  The basket\nhad grown heavy.\n\n\"What have you in your basket?\" asked the rich man when he saw the\nyouth at his door.\n\n\"I have brought some fresh figs from my garden to your daughter who is\nill,\" replied the clever one.\n\nThe rich man was delighted.  He opened the basket.  Then he shook the\nboy roughly by the collar and pushed him away down the steep steps.\nThere were horns in the basket.\n\n\"What do you mean by playing such a trick on me?\" called the rich man\nafter him.  \"Never let me see your face in these parts again!\"\n\nThere were still a few of the poorest of the fresh figs remaining on\nthe tree.  The foolish son begged his mother for permission to carry\nthem to the little maid who was sick.\n\n\"Yes.  Go with them,\" replied his mother.  \"Who knows but what you may\nwed the rich man's daughter!\"  She laughed as she said it.\n\nThe boy who was foolish started for the rich man's house with the figs\nin his basket.  They were only a very few, and poor little things\nindeed.\n\nOn the way he met a woman dressed in blue with a child in her arms.\n\n\"What are you carrying in your basket?\" asked the woman.\n\n\"Fresh figs for a little maid who is sick,\" replied the boy.\n\n\"Yes, you are carrying figs,\" said the woman.\n\nThe boy opened his basket.  \"Here, take one for the baby,\" he said.\n\"He's a lovely child.\"\n\nHe gave one of the best figs to the baby and went on his way to the\nrich man's house.\n\n\"What have you in your basket?\" asked the rich man.\n\n\"Fresh figs from my garden for your daughter who is sick,\" replied the\nboy.\n\nThe rich man opened the basket with a scowl upon his face.  He well\nremembered how he had been tricked before.  Then his eyes grew wide\nwith surprise.\n\n\"What, figs like these in January!\" he cried in amazement.\n\nThe figs had grown large and beautiful on the road to the rich man's\nhouse.  They filled the whole basket.  The little maid was so happy\nwhen she saw them that she began to grow better immediately.\n\nWhen her father saw that the youth was foolish, he repented of his\npromise to give his daughter in marriage to any young man who brought\nfresh figs to her.  However, he had given his word and it was not a\nthing to be lightly broken.\n\n\"I'll tell you what to do to get out of your difficulty,\" said his\nfriend to whom he told his trouble.  \"Turn two lively rabbits out on\nthe mountain and tell the boy that he'll lose his life if he doesn't\ncatch them and bring them back at night.\"\n\nThat is exactly what the rich man did.  The poor youth tried in vain to\ncatch the rabbits.  He got very tired and hot; and, foolish as he was,\nhe knew enough to realize that the task set for him was quite\nimpossible.\n\nSuddenly he saw the woman dressed in blue standing before him with the\nchild in her arms.\n\n\"What is the matter?\" she asked him.\n\nThe boy told her how he would lose his life if he did not catch the\nrabbits and bring them back to the rich man at nightfall.\n\nThe woman cut a reed and made a pipe of it.\n\n\"Play on this pipe,\" she said, \"and the rabbits will come back to you\nof their own accord.\"\n\nThe youth played such sweet music on his pipe that the two rabbits came\nrunning up to him immediately.  It was all he could do to keep away the\nother beasts and birds.  Everything which heard the music was charmed\nby it.\n\n[Illustration: The two rabbits came running up to him]\n\nOn his way back to the rich man's house he met two men who had been\nsent to kill him.  No one had dreamed, of course, that he'd really\ncatch the rabbits.  The two men were so surprised when they saw them in\nthe bag that their eyes stuck out.  The rich man was even more amazed.\n\nAs for the little maid who had been sick, when she heard the sweet\nmusic which the youth played upon the pipe, she was quite ready to\nmarry him.  The wedding was celebrated with great joy.\n\n\n\n\nPETER-OF-THE-PIGS\n\n_The Story of a Sharp Lad and a Sharper_\n\n\nLong ago there lived a man who employed a boy to take care of his pigs.\nThe lad's name was Peter and he was commonly called by every one in the\ncountryside Peter-of-the-pigs.\n\nOne day a man came up to him and said:\n\n\"Sell me these seven pigs.\"\n\n\"I can't sell but six of them,\" said Peter.  \"I must keep one, but you\nmay buy the other six if you will cut off their tails and ears and\nleave them for me.\"\n\nThe man promised to do this, and the boy pocketed the money.  The six\npigs looked sad enough without their tails and ears as they were driven\naway by their new master.\n\nPeter led his one remaining pig down to the sand pit.  He buried it\nhalfway in the sand.  He buried the tails and ears of the other six\npigs, too, so that part of them stuck out.  Then he ran with all speed\nfor his master.\n\n[Illustration: He buried it halfway in the sand]\n\n\"Come and help me get the pigs out of the sand pit!\" he called out.\n\nHis master ran as fast as he could to the sand pit.  There he saw one\nof the pigs halfway out of the sand.  He and Peter together soon pulled\nit out completely.  Then he took hold of the tail nearby.  To his\nhorror it appeared to break off in his hand.\n\n\"Run to the house and ask my wife to give you two shovels!\" cried the\nowner of the pigs.  \"With the shovels we can dig out the rest of the\npigs.\"\n\nThe boy ran to the house.  He knew that his master kept his money in\ntwo big bags.\n\n\"My master says that you shall give me his two money bags,\" said Peter\nto his mistress.\n\nThe woman did not approve of doing this.  \"Are you sure he said both of\nthem?\" she asked.\n\n\"Yes, both of them,\" said Peter.  \"Go ask him yourself.\"\n\nAccordingly, the woman ran out of the house.\n\n\"Did you say both of them?\" she called to her husband.\n\n\"Yes, both of them,\" he replied.  \"Be quick about it, too.\"\n\nOf course the poor man thought that she was asking about the two\nshovels which he had sent Peter to get.\n\nThus Peter received his master's two bags of money, and set out into\nthe world with the bags on his shoulder and his pockets full of the\nmoney he had obtained from the sale of the six pigs.\n\nAfter a time Peter-of-the-pigs met a robber.  The robber stole one of\nhis money bags and ran away with it.  Peter ran after him.\n\nNow it happened that the robber had just killed a deer.  He was\ncarrying the liver inside his blouse.  As he ran he threw it back so\nthat he could run faster.  Peter saw what he had done.\n\n\"If you want to catch me, you'll have to throw away your liver, too,\"\ncalled out the robber over his shoulder.\n\nPeter-of-the-pigs pulled out his knife and cut out his liver.  Of\ncourse he dropped dead at once.\n\nWhen at last Peter's master found out that he had been deceived he ran\nafter the lad.  As he found him lying dead there by the wayside, he\nsaid:\n\n\"Oh, Peter-of-the-pigs!  You were sharp, but you found some one who was\nsharper.\"\n\nThus it is in life.\n\n\n\n\nTHE PRINCESS WHO LOST HER RINGS\n\n_The Story the Lame Old Women Told_\n\n\nLong ago there lived a lovely princess who owned the most beautiful\nrings in the whole world.  She had rings set with diamonds and rings\nset with pearls.  She had rings set with rubies and rings set with\nsapphires.  She had rings set with emeralds and turquoises and\namethysts and every other kind of precious stone.  She had rings which\nhad no precious stones in them, but which were wonderfully decorated\nwith fine and delicate carving, wrought with great skill.\n\nThis princess lived in a magnificent palace surrounded by a high wall.\nHer own apartments opened upon a pleasant balcony.  From the balcony\nshe could see the blue waters of the ocean and the tall trees of the\nforest.  Here she liked to pass her days.\n\nIn a corner of the balcony there was a basin and pitcher of silver\nalways kept filled with water in order that the princess might wash her\nhands on the balcony instead of having to go inside the house.\nWhenever she washed her hands she always removed the ring she was\nwearing that day.  Some days it was one ring and other days it was\nanother, but, whatever ring it happened to be, the princess always took\nit off carefully when she washed her hands.\n\nOne day a pretty white rabbit came up to the balcony to play with the\nprincess.  That day the princess was wearing her best diamond ring.\nShe removed it very carefully when she washed her hands.  Then it\ndisappeared.  She knew that the rabbit must have stolen it.\n\nThe next day the rabbit came again and that day the princess lost her\nbest emerald ring.  She was very sure that the rabbit must have stolen\nthat, too.  However, she liked to play with the rabbit, so she said\nnothing to her father, the king, about the lost rings.\n\nEvery day the rabbit came and every day there was a ring missing.  The\nprincess had a large box full of rings, in the beginning, but one\nmorning she opened the box and saw that it was entirely empty.  She\nremembered then that she had put on her last ring, one set with a\nsapphire, the morning before.\n\nThe princess became so sad that she would not go out to the balcony to\nplay with the white rabbit.  Every day she grew sadder and sadder.  At\nlast her father, the king, noticed it.\n\n\"What is the matter with our daughter, the princess?\" he asked the\nqueen.  \"She is sad now, and once she was the very jolliest, happiest\nprincess in the whole world.\"\n\n\"I cannot imagine what the trouble is,\" replied the queen.  \"Perhaps\nshe is lonely.  Let us send for the storytellers of the kingdom to come\nand tell their stories to entertain her.\"\n\nAccordingly, the king sent for all the storytellers in the whole\nkingdom.  All the storytellers had to come to the palace even if they\nwere old and lame.\n\nNow it so happened that in the kingdom there were two old women who\nwere very lame.  They knew the most interesting stories of anybody, but\nit took them so long to reach the palace that they forgot all their\nbest stories on the way.\n\n\"What story are you going to tell the princess?\" one of the lame old\nwomen asked the other.\n\n\"I can't remember a single one of my stories,\" said the other old\nwoman.  \"It has taken my lame old legs so long to travel the road to\nthe palace that now that we are almost there I can't think of a single\nstory.\"\n\nThe two old women tried to remember some of their stories, but they\ncould not think of any.  They were almost at the royal palace, too.\n\n\"What shall we do if we can't remember our stories?\" asked the first\nold woman.\n\n\"We'll have to learn some new stories,\" replied the other.\n\nJust then they spied a queer sight.  There was a little donkey without\nany feet traveling along the road.  On his back was a load of wood.\n\n\"What a queer donkey!\" cried the first old woman.\n\n\"Let us follow along after him.  Perhaps we shall be able to tell a\nstory about him,\" replied the other.\n\nThe two old women followed the donkey into the forest.  There was a\nlittle thatched-roofed house in the forest and before the house there\nwas a fire burning.  A kettle of something which smelled good was\nboiling merrily over the fire.\n\nThe donkey which had no feet stopped beside the fire and left his load\nof wood.  The two old women stopped beside the fire, too.\n\n\"What do you suppose is cooking in this kettle?\" asked one of the old\nwomen.\n\n\"It smells so good I'm going to taste and see,\" said the other.\n\nShe started to taste, but as she was about to stick in her finger she\nheard a strange deep voice which seemed to come out of the little\nthatched house.\n\n\"Do not touch.  It is not yours,\" is what the voice said.\n\nThe two old women went up to the door of the house and one of them\npeeped through the keyhole.\n\nInside the house she saw a pretty white rabbit playing with a box full\nof rings.  Suddenly the white rabbit pulled off his skin and changed\ninto a handsome prince.\n\n\"What wouldn't I give to see the owner of these rings!\" cried the\nprince.\n\nThe two lame old women hurried away from the little house in the\nforest.  They were frightened at the queer doings there.\n\n\"I know a story to tell the princess!\" cried one of the old women when\nshe had recovered from her fright.  \"I'll tell her how I peeped through\nthe keyhole and saw the rabbit change his skin.\"\n\n\"I know what I'll tell the princess,\" said the other old woman.  \"I'll\ntell her how I followed the donkey without any feet and what that\nstrange voice said to me when I tried to taste the good-smelling broth\nin the kettle.\"\n\n\"We must keep saying over our stories so we won't forget them,\" said\nthe first old woman.\n\n\"We must hurry on our way to the royal palace and get there while we\nremember them,\" said the other.\n\nThe two old women hurried on their way to the palace as fast as their\nlame old legs could carry them.  They rehearsed their stories over and\nover along the way so they would not forget them.\n\nMany storytellers had told their tales to the princess.  They were\njolly tales, too, but the princess was not in the least cheered by\nthem.  She remembered her lost rings even when she was listening to the\nstories.\n\n\"If the storytellers cannot make the princess happy, who can?\" asked\nthe king in despair.\n\n\"I'm sure I don't know,\" replied the queen.  \"She always used to like\nstories.\"\n\nFinally the two old women reached the royal palace and went to tell\ntheir tales to the princess.\n\nThe first old woman told the story of the donkey without any feet and\nthe broth in the kettle.  The princess did not appear to be\nparticularly interested even when the old woman told about the strange\ndeep voice which said, \"Do not touch.  It is not yours.\"  Cold chills,\nhowever, ran up and down the spines of the king and queen and all the\ncourtiers when she came to that part of the tale.\n\nNext the other old woman told how she peeped through the keyhole of the\nlittle thatched house in the forest and saw the white rabbit change his\nskin.\n\nThe pretty dark eyes of the princess sparkled when the old woman\nmentioned the rabbit and she leaned forward in her chair eagerly.\n\n\"Our dear little princess looks like her own happy self again for the\nfirst time in ages,\" whispered the king to the queen.\n\nWhen the old woman told of the rabbit's words, \"What would I not give\nto see the owner of these rings!\" the princess clapped her hands.\n\n\"Take me to see this rabbit at once!\" she cried.\n\nThe king and queen and all the courtiers went with the princess to find\nthe white rabbit.  The two old women went first to point out the way,\nand as these old women were so lame the whole procession moved very\nslowly.\n\nAt last they drew near the forest.  There was the donkey without any\nfeet moving along the road with a load of wood on his back.  The two\nold women, the princess, the king and queen and all the courtiers\nfollowed the donkey into the deep forest to the door of the little\nthatched house.  Before the house the fire was burning and something\nwhich smelled good was boiling in the kettle.  The princess stuck in\nher finger to try it.\n\n[Illustration: The two old women, the princess, the king and queen, and\nall the courtiers followed]\n\n\"Take it.  It is yours,\" said the strange deep voice from the little\nhouse.\n\nThe princess was so surprised that she forgot to taste the\ngood-smelling broth.  She ran to the door of the house and peeped\nthrough the keyhole.  There was the white rabbit playing with a box\nfull of rings set with diamonds and pearls, rings set with rubies and\nsapphires, rings set with emeralds and amethysts and turquoises, and\nrings set with no precious stones at all, but carved delicately, with\ngreat skill.\n\n\"What wouldn't I give to see the owner of these rings!\" said the rabbit\nas he pulled off his skin and changed into a handsome prince.\n\n\"Here's the owner of the rings!\" cried the princess.  \"She is here at\nyour very door!\"\n\nThe door of the little thatched house in the deep forest swiftly opened\nand the prince received the princess in his arms.\n\n\"Your words have broken my enchantment!\" he cried.  \"Now that at last\nthe voice of the owner of these rings is heard at my door, I'll never\nhave to put on my rabbit skin again.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE MASTER OF MAGIC\n\n_The Story of a Boy who Learned His Lessons in School_\n\n\nOnce upon a time there lived a man who had three sons.  The two older\nones worked in the fields, but the youngest one went to school.  He\nlearned how to read and write and do sums and make drawings.  At last\nhe even learned magic.\n\nThe two elder brothers complained to their father about him one day.\nTheir hearts were bitter against him.\n\n\"It is not fair, father,\" they said.  \"We work hard every day in the\nfields and bring home money to enrich the family.  Why shouldn't our\nbrother work, too?  He does nothing except study.\"\n\nThe youngest son heard their words of complaint.\n\n\"Will you go hunting with me to-morrow, father?\" he asked.  \"I have\nlearned much magic.  In fact, I have become a master of magic.  I will\nturn myself into a hunting dog if you will go into the fields with me.\"\n\nThe next day the young man changed himself by magic into a hunting dog,\nand his father went into the fields with him.  He bagged many rabbits\nthat day.  As they returned home, he met one of his friends.\n\n\"What luck to-day?\" asked his friend.\n\nThe hunter proudly displayed the rabbits he had in his bag.  \"I have\nthem, thanks to my dog,\" he said.\n\n\"I'd like to buy that dog of yours,\" said his friend.  \"What will you\ntake for him?\"\n\nThe father named an enormous price, and to his great surprise his\nfriend accepted it.  The money was passed over at once, and the hunting\ndog went home with his new master.\n\nThe next day they went on a hunting expedition into the deep forest.\nSuddenly the dog disappeared.  His master called and whistled to him in\nvain.  Finally he was obliged to return home without him.  He had lost\nboth the dog and the money he had paid for him.\n\n\"Have you seen my hunting dog?\" were his words for many weeks to every\none he met.\n\nHis hunting dog had fled into a deep forest and once more resumed his\noriginal form.  He returned home and told his two brothers that in a\nsingle day he had earned for his father more than their combined\nefforts for many weeks.  Indeed it was quite true.\n\nThe next day the young man said to his father: \"Will you buy a saddle\nand bridle for me if I turn myself into a horse?\"\n\nHis father made the purchase, and then the young man changed into a\nhandsome black horse.  His father rode him up and down the streets very\nproudly.  The Great Magician noticed the beautiful beast.\n\nHe called the man to him and said: \"That is a very good horse you are\nriding.  What will you sell him for?\"\n\nThe father named an enormous price, but he at once paid it cheerfully.\nHe ordered the horse placed in his stables.\n\nNow this Great Magician had a beautiful daughter who was very fond of\nhorses.  She went out to inspect his new purchase as soon as it was\nbrought home.  She noticed that the horse ate nothing.\n\n\"What a beauty!\" she cried as she stroked his glossy black coat.  \"You\nare the handsomest horse in the stable.  Why don't you eat?  I believe\nyour bridle is hurting you.  I'm going to take it off.\"\n\nAs soon as the bridle was removed it was changed into a bird and flew\nout the window.  The Great Magician at that moment changed himself into\na hawk and killed the bird, never dreaming that it was the bridle of\nthe new horse he had purchased.\n\nThe next morning when the Great Magician went to mount his beautiful\nblack steed there was no new horse to be found in the stable.  The\nhorse had changed into a kernel of corn.\n\n[Illustration: The horse had changed into a kernel of corn]\n\nThe Great Magician transformed himself into a hen to eat up the corn,\nbut the youth was too quick for him.  He changed into a dog and seized\nthe hen between his teeth and gave it a good shaking.  Then he returned\nto his own form and explained the whole affair to the Great Magician.\n\n\"You are surely a master of magic,\" was the comment of the magician.\n\nWhen the Great Magician had forgiven him for the shaking he had\nreceived when he was in the form of a hen, he gladly gave his consent\nto his daughter's marriage to the master of magic.\n\n\n\n\nST. ANTHONY'S GODCHILD\n\n_The Story of Antonia who became a King's Page_\n\n\nLong ago there lived a man who had so many children that he could\nscarcely find godfathers for them all.  He had requested so many of his\nfriends to serve, that when his last baby was born, a little dark-eyed\ndaughter, he vowed that he'd ask the first man he met upon the street.\n\nAs luck would have it, he happened to meet the good St. Anthony.\n\n\"Will you be godfather to my baby daughter?\" he asked.\n\nKind St. Anthony gladly consented.  He named the baby Antonia, and said\nto the father:\n\n\"Train up this child in the way she should go.  Teach her all you can.\nWhen she is thirteen years old I'll come to get her and I'll give her a\ngood start in life.\"\n\nThe years flew by and soon little Antonia was thirteen years old.  The\nfather was afraid that St. Anthony had forgotten his promise, but one\nday the saint appeared.\n\n\"Is this my godchild?\" he asked as he looked at Antonia.  \"Surely she\nhas grown prettier each year of her life.\"\n\nAntonia blushed shyly and looked even more attractive than before.\n\n\"Dress yourself in your brother's garments,\" he said to her.  \"I am\ngoing to take you to the king's court and you are entirely too pretty\nto go there in your own dresses.\"\n\nAccordingly, Antonia put on her brother's clothes and went to serve as\na page to the king.  She was now called Anthony instead of Antonia.\n\nNow the king had a sister who grew very fond of the little page.  She\nbecame angry that the page did not love her in return and plotted\nagainst him.\n\nOne day she went to the king and said:\n\n\"Your little page says that he can separate all the chaff from the\nwheat in a single night.\"\n\n\"Let him try,\" responded the king.\n\nWhen Anthony heard what the king required he was decidedly worried.\nThen he remembered that he was the godchild of St. Anthony and that the\nsaint was always ready to aid those in need.  He called upon St.\nAnthony to help him fulfill the king's command.  In the morning the\nking's wheat was entirely free from chaff.\n\nThe king loved his little page more and more, and the king's sister was\nangrier than before that she could not win the affection of the youth.\nShe made a new plot against him.\n\n\"What do you suppose that page is saying now?\" she asked her brother.\n\"He boasts that he can go to the palace of the king of the Moors and\nsteal the purse of gold pieces from beneath his pillow.\"\n\nThe king sent Anthony to the palace of the king of the Moors.  With St.\nAnthony's help he climbed up the high wall of the palace and crept in\nthrough a window.  The king of the Moors was so sound asleep that\nAnthony had no difficulty whatever in slipping his hand under the\npillow and stealing the purse.  Then he crept out again without\nawakening the king.\n\n[Illustration: He climbed up the high wall of the palace]\n\n\"That young page, Anthony, has grown so very boastful,\" remarked the\nking's sister a few days after his return, \"that he now claims that he\ncan carry away the king of the Moors himself.\"\n\nThen she added, \"I'll marry him if he fulfills this boast.\"\n\n\"Bring home the king of the Moors as your captive,\" were the king's\norders to Anthony.\n\nThe page was very much worried for he thought that it would be more\ndifficult to capture the king of the Moors than it had been to capture\nhis purse.\n\n\"Not at all, dear godchild,\" said the kind St. Anthony when he had\nheard about the king's new command.\n\nAnthony climbed quietly up the wall as before and crept in through the\nwindow.  Then he rolled the king of the Moors up in the bedclothes and\ntossed him out of the window.  By the time the king was really awakened\nfrom his sleep he was in the boat ready to sail away.\n\nWhen Anthony returned to the palace with his captive, the king said:\n\n\"My best and bravest page, you are worthy indeed of any honor.  You\nshall wed my sister.\"\n\n\"I can't marry her,\" said Anthony.  \"My name is Antonia.\"\n\n\"In that case,\" said the king, \"I'll marry you myself.\"\n\n\n\n\nTROUBLE WHEN ONE'S YOUNG\n\n_The Story of a Maid's Choice_\n\n\nLong ago there lived a beautiful maiden whose name was Clarinha.  She\nhad been betrothed to a prince whom she had never seen.  When at last\nhe should be old enough to receive the rule of the kingdom he was\ncoming to claim her as his bride.\n\nClarinha lived in a magnificent palace surrounded by a beautiful\ngarden.  Every day she spent many hours among the lovely flowers and\ntrees.\n\nOne day an eagle alighted on the tallest tree in the garden.\n\n\"Good morning, fair Clarinha,\" he said to her.\n\n\"Good morning,\" she replied in surprise.  Never before had an eagle\nspoken to her.\n\n\"Which do you prefer, trouble when you are young or when you are old?\"\nasked the eagle.\n\nClarinha did not know what to say.  That night she asked her mother\nwhich would be better to choose.\n\n\"Choose trouble when you're young, dear child,\" advised her mother.\n\"When you are young it is easy to bear anything, but when you are old\nyou can endure nothing.\"\n\nShe remembered her mother's words.  Next day when the eagle again\naddressed the same question to her, she answered: \"Trouble when I'm\nyoung.\"\n\nClarinha had hardly said these words when the eagle lifted her up by\nthe pink skirt she was wearing and carried her away.  On he flew over\nseas and mountains.  Clarinha was frightened nearly to death.\n\nAt last the eagle set her down in a strange land.  She was hungry, and,\naccordingly, hired out in a bakeshop to earn her living.  She would\nhave been happier if the eagle had flown away, but he remained in a\nnearby tree-top.\n\nThe baker went out, leaving Clarinha to bake the dough which he had\nleft ready to put into the oven.  The little maid carefully closed the\ndoor and all the windows so that the eagle would not be able to get\ninside.  As soon as the baker was out of sight, however, he flew down\nthe chimney.  He tore about the bakeshop, spilling all the dough on the\nfloor and breaking the dishes.  Then he went back up the chimney when\nhe had completed all the damage there was to be done.\n\nWhen the baker returned he flew into a terrible rage.  He gave poor\nClarinha a beating and turned her out into the street.\n\nShe walked about the city and at last found work as shopkeeper in a\nlittle shop on a corner.  The owner of the business went away next day,\nleaving her in charge of everything.  As soon as he was gone she shut\nthe door and all the windows, but the eagle flew down the chimney and\nbroke the cups and glasses and plates which were set out for sale in\nneat rows upon the shelf.\n\n\"What have you been doing in my shop?\" cried the owner in anger when he\nreturned and saw the destruction which the eagle had left behind.\n\nHe didn't give the poor girl a chance to reply, but seized her roughly\nand threw her out into the street.\n\nClarinha walked and walked seeking work, and at last she arrived at the\ndoor of the royal palace.\n\n\"Do you happen to need a servant?\" she asked the queen.\n\n\"I have all the servants I need,\" replied the queen.\n\nThe prince was standing nearby.\n\n\"Hire her, mother,\" he advised.  \"She'll do to take care of the ducks.\"\n\nAccordingly, the queen hired Clarinha to care for the ducks.  The next\nmorning all the ducks in the royal duckyard were dead.  The eagle had\nkilled them all.\n\n\"Hire her for a seamstress, mother,\" said the prince.  \"The poor little\nthing is crying as if her heart would break.  I'm sorry for her.\"\n\nThe queen hired Clarinha to be a seamstress in the royal palace.\n\nThat very day the prince left home to visit his betrothed.  He was\ngoing to marry a beautiful maiden in a neighboring land, whom he had\nnever seen.  As he left the palace he asked each one of the servants\nwhat gifts he should bring at his return.\n\nWhen he came to Clarinha, her reply was, \"Bring me a stone from the\npalace wall of your betrothed.\"\n\nThe prince thought it a strange request, but he promised to fulfill it.\n\nAs soon as the prince arrived in the land where his betrothed lived, he\nfound out that the palace was in mourning because of her mysterious\ndisappearance one day from the garden.\n\nHe was so sad that he could not linger in that land.  He stayed only\nlong enough to buy the gifts which he had promised to bring to the\nservants.  Along with the other gifts he carried a stone from the\npalace garden of his betrothed.\n\nWhen Clarinha received her gift she heard the story of the mysterious\ndisappearance of the prince's bride.  As soon as she held the stone in\nher hand she knew that it came from the wall of her own loved garden.\nJoy shone in her beautiful eyes.\n\nFor the first time the prince noticed how very lovely Clarinha was.  He\nhad always liked the little maid even when her face was sad, but now\nthat she was happy he saw that she was the most beautiful girl he had\never seen.\n\n\"What does that pretty little maid intend to do with that stone?\" he\nasked the queen.\n\n\"I cannot guess,\" replied the queen.  \"She seemed happy enough to\nreceive it.  I never saw her look happy before.  Trouble seems to\nfollow whatever she undertakes.  I was on the point of discharging her.\nShe's caused me nothing but endless annoyance.  I hired her only to\nplease you.\"\n\nThe prince followed Clarinha and listened at her door.  Inside her room\nshe was talking to the stone.\n\n\"Oh, stone from my garden wall,\" she was saying.  \"How are the flowers\nof my garden?\"\n\n[Illustration: \"Oh, stone from my garden wall,\" she was saying]\n\nThe prince could hardly believe his ears.  Suddenly he guessed what the\ntruth might be.  He burst into the room.\n\n\"Are you my betrothed who has disappeared from her own land?\" he asked\nClarinha.\n\nShe smiled into his eyes.\n\n\"Trouble when one's young is hard enough to bear,\" she said when she\nhad told all her story.  \"I've had quite enough to last me all my life.\"\n\n\"Your woes are ended now and a happy life lies before you,\" said the\nprince.  \"Our wedding shall be celebrated at once.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE LITTLE MAID WHO WAS WISE\n\n_The Story of a Robber Who was Outwitted_\n\n\nLong ago there lived a merchant who had three daughters.  Every year at\na certain day of a certain month he went away to a distant city to\ncollect money on an account.  His wife and daughters remained at home,\nand all went well until one sad day the wife died.  That year the\nmerchant looked forward to his journey with dread for he would have to\nleave his daughters alone.\n\n\"I cannot bear to go away,\" he said to them.  \"My heart is filled with\nfear lest some evil may befall you during my absence.\"\n\nHe worried about the matter night and day.  The business was most\nimportant and there was no one whom he could send to transact it for\nhim.\n\nHowever, the question of leaving three such pretty girls unprotected\nwas a thing not to be regarded lightly.\n\n\"Do not be afraid to leave us, dear father,\" said his daughters.\n\"Nothing will harm us while you are away.\"\n\n\"How do you know?\" asked their father.  \"I am older and wiser than you\nare and I know that there are many evils which might come upon you.\nThere are many bold thieves in this city, for instance, who would be\nonly too ready to take advantage of my absence and rob my home of all I\npossess.\"\n\n\"We can lock ourselves securely in the house and not let any one\nenter,\" said the three daughters.\n\n\"Be sure that you admit no one,\" commanded the merchant.\n\nThey gave him their promise and he started on his journey.\nNevertheless, he went with an anxious heart.\n\nNow, outside this city there was a band of bold robbers.  The captain\nof the band had watched the merchant's departure, and when he was\nsafely away the thief dressed himself in the disguise of an old beggar.\nWhen it was evening he led his band into a nearby street and in his\ndisguise approached the merchant's house.  He knocked at the door.\n\n\"Have pity upon a poor unfortunate one!\" he called out.  \"It is raining\noutside, and no one with mercy in his heart could turn away one who\nbegs shelter from the storm.  Let me enter, I pray you, to pass the\nnight under your roof.\"\n\n\"It's surely a terrible storm outside,\" said the merchant's eldest\ndaughter, as the wind rattled the tiles of the roof and the rain beat\nin torrents against the doors and windows.  \"I think we ought to take\npity on a poor beggar a night like this.\"\n\nThe second daughter peeped out of the window at the beggar.\n\n\"He is old as well as poor,\" she said.  \"Our father has always taught\nus to show mercy and kindness to the aged.\"\n\n\"Remember our promise to our father!\" cried the youngest one.  \"We gave\nhim our word that we would admit no one.  We can give this poor beggar\nsome alms and send him away with a blessing.\"\n\nThe eldest daughter frowned.  \"It is not for the youngest and most\nchildish one of us to make the plans,\" she said.\n\nThe second daughter added.  \"We two are older and wiser than you are.\nIt is for us to determine what shall be done.  If we decide to show\nmercy to this poor beggar it is not for you to oppose it.\"\n\n\"Bui we should not forget our promise to our father!\" cried the\nyoungest daughter.\n\nHowever, in spite of all she could say, the elder sisters opened the\ndoor and admitted the beggar.  They led him into the kitchen to dry his\nclothes.  Then they made ready a bed for him to sleep upon.  They gave\nhim his supper in the kitchen and then they ate their own.\n\n\"It is a fearful night to send away a beggar,\" said the eldest sister\nwhile they were eating.\n\n\"I am glad we have made him comfortable for the night,\" remarked the\nmiddle sister.\n\n\"I am thinking that our dear father would be anxious if he knew that we\nhad broken our promise so easily,\" said the youngest sister.\n\n\"For shame!\" cried the eldest.\n\n\"I don't think it was breaking our promise to show kindness to a poor\nold beggar,\" said the middle one.\n\n\"A promise is a promise, nevertheless,\" said the youngest.\n\nWhile they were talking, the beggar had taken the apples which the\ngirls were to eat for dessert and had sprinkled a sleeping powder over\nthem.  The two eldest ate their apples, but the youngest could not eat\nthat night.  She threw the apple away.\n\nAs soon as they had eaten, the girls went to their room, and the two\neldest were overcome with sleep almost before they had time to get into\nbed.  The youngest one was so frightened that she could not sleep a\nsingle wink.\n\nSoon she heard footsteps.  The beggar entered the room.  The youngest\none pretended that she, too, was asleep.  The man went to the bed of\nthe eldest sister and stuck a pin into her foot to see if she were\ncompletely unconscious.  She did not stir and he knew that the sleeping\npowder had thoroughly done its work.  Then he went to the bed of the\nsecond sister and did the same.  She was as completely unconscious as\nher sister.  It hurt terribly when he stuck the pin into the foot of\nthe youngest, but she did not stir.  The robber thought that she was as\ncompletely overcome by the sleeping powder as the others.\n\nThe youngest sister peeped through her long heavy eyelashes and watched\nthe beggar.  She saw to her surprise that he had laid aside the heavy\nragged old coat which he had kept wrapped about him even while he ate.\nUnderneath he was dressed like a robber with a sword, pistols and\ndagger.  She was so terribly frightened that it was all she could do to\nkeep her teeth from chattering.\n\nShe heard the robber go about the house picking out the valuables which\nhe wanted to steal.  Then she heard him go down the stairway and unbolt\nthe heavy doors which led into the store.  She quietly got up and crept\nout of the room to hear him more distinctly.\n\nOn a chair in the dining room she saw the sword which he had taken off.\nHe had evidently thought that, with all three girls so sound asleep,\nhe'd not need to use his weapons.\n\nSoon she heard the heavy outer doors of the store unbolted.  The robber\nhad gone outside to call the rest of the band.  The little girl flew\ndown the stairs and closed the doors of the store securely.  They were\nbig and heavy, but her great fear gave her strength.\n\n[Illustration: They were big and heavy, but her great fear gave her\nstrength]\n\n\"He'll find it difficult to get into our house again,\" she said to\nherself as she waited to see if the robber returned.\n\nSoon she heard footsteps outside.  She knew that the thief had brought\nback others with him.\n\nThere were frightful words said when they found that the door was shut.\n\n\"It was the youngest one who deceived me!\" cried the robber chieftain.\n\"I knew all the time that she did not want to let me in.  I was\nsuspicious of her from the first.\"\n\n\"Perhaps you can outwit her yet!\" cried another.  \"She may not be so\nwise as she appears.  You never can tell.\"\n\nThe leader of the band of thieves went up close to the keyhole and\nwhispered: \"Kind lady of the house, have pity on me.\"\n\nThe merchant's daughter at first did not answer; but, as he kept on\ncalling to her, she finally asked him what it was that he wanted.\n\n\"I have left my charm behind!\" he cried.  \"Pray let me enter to get it.\nI promise you I will do you no harm.\"\n\n\"I do not trust your promises,\" replied the little maid.  \"You shall\nnot come into my father's house.\"\n\n\"Pass the charm out to me, then,\" said the robber.\n\n\"It's in the fire,\" replied the girl.\n\n\"Go throw vinegar on the fire and put it out,\" said the captain of the\nthieves.  \"Then you can pull my charm out in safety.\"\n\nNow it happened that there was a little hole in the door just large\nenough for a man's hand to enter.  It is the hole through which beggars\noften thrust outstretched hands, asking for alms.\n\n\"Put your hand through the hole in the door,\" replied the little maid.\n\"Then I'll give you your charm.\"\n\nShe quickly ran upstairs and got the robber's sword which he had left\non a chair in the dining room.  When she returned, his hand was\nsticking through the hole in the door.  She struck it with all her\nmight with the great sword and cut it off.\n\nThe cries and curses of the robbers filled the air.  They tried in vain\nto break down the great doors.  The doors were strong and held\nsecurely.  At last it was daylight and the band of thieves had to flee.\n\nIn the morning the effect of the sleeping powder wore off and the two\nelder sisters awoke.  When they heard their sister's story they were\nfilled with amazement.\n\n\"I don't believe a word of it!\" cried the oldest.  \"You are making it\nup.\"\n\n\"You had a bad dream,\" said the second.  \"I had such a nightmare myself\nthat I have a headache this morning.\"\n\nIt was not until their little sister had shown them the robber's hand\nand the great sword that they were convinced that she had told them the\ntruth.\n\n\"Oh, why did we ever let the man into our house!\" cried the eldest.\n\n\"Oh, why didn't we keep our promise to our father!\" cried the middle\none.\n\nWhen at last the merchant returned from the distant city where he had\nbeen to collect money he was delighted to find his house and his three\ndaughters safe.\n\n\"I see that no harm befell you in my absence,\" he said as he embraced\nthem fondly.  \"All my worries about you were foolish.\"\n\nThe eldest daughter blushed and hung her head.  \"Great danger\nthreatened us while you were away,\" she said.  \"Thanks to our youngest\nsister, we are safe.\"\n\n\"Our little sister was wiser than we were,\" said the middle daughter.\n\nWhen the merchant had heard the whole story, he said: \"After this we\nmust all give ear to the wisdom of this little maid.  She is wise\nbeyond her years.\"\n\n\n\n\nMANOEL LITTLEBEAN\n\n_The Story of How He Helped His Father_\n\n\nLong ago there lived a man and his wife who had no children.\n\n\"I wish I had a little boy,\" said the man.\n\n\"I'd like a son of my own even if he were not any larger than a little\nbean,\" said the woman.\n\nTime passed and a son was born to this worthy couple.  He was no larger\nthan a little bean and as the years went by he never grew any bigger.\nHis name was Manoel Littlebean.  He caused his mother endless trouble\nby constantly getting lost.  Sometimes she'd nearly step on him.  Other\ntimes he'd fall into the food and she would almost swallow him.\n\nOne day his mother couldn't find him.\n\n\"Manoel Littlebean!  Manoel Littlebean!\" she called.\n\nThere was no answer.\n\nShe went outside the house and called his name anxiously.  There was no\nreply.  She asked all the neighbors if they had seen the child, but\nthere was nobody who had noticed him that day.  His poor mother was\nnearly wild with anxiety.\n\n\"I'm afraid I'll never see the dear child again,\" she mourned.  \"I'm\nsure I have either stepped on him or swallowed him!\"\n\n\"You never stepped on him or swallowed him yet,\" comforted her husband.\nHowever, he added anxiously, \"I can't see what has become of my Manoel.\"\n\nThe truth of the matter was that Manoel Littlebean had been swallowed\nby the goat.  He was a most active youngster in spite of his small size\nand he caused the goat a terrible attack of indigestion.\n\nThe goat did not know what was the matter and he tore around so wildly\nand caused so much destruction that his master decided to kill him.\n\n\"I simply can't be bothered with that goat any longer,\" he said.  \"I\nhave quite enough to worry about already with Manoel Littlebean lost\nand my poor wife nearly sick with anxiety because of it.\"\n\nHe never dreamed that it was his son who was making the goat so wild\nwith misery.  When the goat was dead he threw it out into the street.\n\nThat night a wolf came and ate the goat.  He swallowed the goat's\nstomach so greedily that Manoel Littlebean had no time to escape.\nHowever he jumped about just as actively inside the wolf as he had done\nwhen the goat had swallowed him.  The wolf was just as uncomfortable as\nthe goat had been.\n\n\"What is the matter with me?\" thought the wolf.  \"Never in my life have\nI had such a stomachache.  I believe I'm going to die.\"\n\nHe ran away into the forest and crept into a cave to await his end.\nInside the cave was a robbers' den.  Three of the robbers were there\ncounting over the gold they had just brought back.\n\nWhen they saw the wolf they were so frightened that they dropped their\nbags of gold and ran away as fast as they could, leaving everything\nbehind them.\n\nManoel Littlebean guessed that he was making the wolf sick.\n\n\"If I can only make him so ill that he will spit me up!\" said Manoel to\nhimself as he jumped about his liveliest.\n\nThat is exactly what happened.  The wolf spit Manoel Littlebean out.\n\nHe was decidedly dirty and unattractive, but he didn't mind in the\nleast.  He saw the quantities of gold in the robbers' cave and his eyes\nshone.\n\n[Illustration: He saw the quantities of gold]\n\n\"If I can only find my way home to tell my father about it, he will be\na rich man!\" he cried.\n\nIt was a long distance home and several times he thought that he had\nlost his way.  Finally, however, he saw his own mother's light in the\nwindow.  He ran toward it as fast as he could run.\n\n\"Manoel Littlebean, what have you been doing?\" cried his mother when\nshe saw him.  \"Where did you get so dirty?  Come, let me give you a\nbath the first thing!\"\n\n\"Never mind about the bath, mother,\" said Manoel.  \"I have more\nimportant things to attend to.  Where is father?\"\n\nHis mother called her husband and they both forgot how dirty the child\nwas when they heard his story.\n\n\"Let us hurry to the robbers' cave, father,\" he said.  \"We must get\nthere before they return.\"\n\n\"What about the wolf?\" asked his mother anxiously.\n\nManoel Littlebean laughed.\n\n\"The wolf doesn't have any stomachache now,\" he said.  \"He went home\nlong ago.\"\n\nThey went to the robbers' cave and brought home the huge sacks full of\ngold.  It was enough to make them live like princes for a lifetime.\n\n\"I have the best and cleverest son in the world,\" said the father.\n\n\"Never in the world was there a son who was such a joy and comfort to\nhis parents,\" said his mother.\n\nManoel Littlebean was treated by every one as politely as if he had\nbeen big.\n\n\n\n\nTHE NECKLACE OF PEARLS\n\n_The Story of a Water-nymph and an Island Lad_\n\n\nIn a tiny cottage on the steep rocky hillside of one of the islands of\nthe Azores there lived a poor woman and her only son whose name was\nFrancisco.  Every day the boy went fishing in his little boat, and\nevery night he brought home fish for his mother to cook for their\nevening meal and to carry into the market to sell.  In this way they\nlived very comfortably, and they loved each other so dearly that they\nwere as happy as happy can be.\n\nFrancisco, with his fair skin, blue eyes and thatch of curly golden\nhair, was the handsomest boy in the whole parish, and by the time he\nwas sixteen years old there was many a rich man's daughter who had\nsmiled upon him.  However, the lad thought only of his fishing boat and\nhis mother and did not notice the smiles.\n\nOne night the moon was so bright that Francisco could not sleep.  He\nawakened his mother who was dozing comfortably in her bed.\n\n\"I'm going fishing, mother dear,\" he said as he kissed her.  \"The\nmoonlight is calling me.\"\n\nHis mother started up from her bed in terror and amazement.\n\n\"Why, my boy, do you do such a thing as this?\" she asked.  \"You have\nnever been fishing in the night before.  Some evil will surely befall\nyou.\"\n\n\"Don't worry about me, dear mother,\" replied Francisco, laughing at her\nfears.  \"I know how to take care of myself.  It is as light as day.\nThink how many fish I'll bring back for you to sell in the market\nto-morrow.\"\n\nHis mother shook her head anxiously, but, with another loving kiss, the\nlad ran out into the bright moonlight.  He quickly launched his little\nfishing boat and soon was floating smoothly along on the peaceful\nwaters of the bay which gleamed like a silver pathway in the moonlight.\nThe soft air, the gentle rocking of the little boat, and the face of\nthe moon upon which his blue eyes were fixed combined to send sleep to\nhis eyelids.  Soon he was nodding in the little boat.  A few moments\nlater and he was fast asleep.  The moon's rays upon his curls made them\nshine as if they were indeed made of gold.\n\nNow the village maidens were not the only ones who had noticed\nFrancisco's blue eyes and handsome face.  A water-nymph who dwelt in\nthe depths of the sea had often observed him.  In the daytime she was\ninvisible to the eye of humans and so the lad had never seen her though\nshe often spent long hours near him, never taking her eyes from his\nface.\n\n\"Here comes the beautiful youth in his little fishing boat!\" cried the\nnymph as she saw the moonlight gleaming upon his bright curls.  \"At\nlast my wish has come true.  Now at night he'll be able to see me.\"\n\nShe hastily arranged her own beautiful hair before a little mirror she\ncarried.  Some of the strands of priceless pearls which decked her\nlovely head were a trifle awry.  These and the necklaces of rare pearls\nwhich hung about her fair throat surrounded her with a gleam of soft\nlight almost like the light of the moon.  As she approached nearer to\nthe little boat she saw that Francisco was fast asleep.  She swam in\nthe direction of the lad with all possible speed, a wild terror in her\neyes.\n\n\"What madness is this?\" she asked as she looked down upon his bowed\nhead.  \"This frail boat will drift upon the dangerous rocks and be\ndashed to pieces.  I'll take him home to my own palace without\nawakening him.  Perhaps when he sees how lovely it is he'll even like\nme a little bit.\"\n\nJust for a moment she hesitated, thinking how far from home Francisco\nwould be in the palace of mother-of-pearl in the depths of the sea.\n\n\"The rocks are really very dangerous,\" she said to herself as she\ngently drew his sleeping form into her arms.\n\nThe next morning Francisco's empty fishing boat was found by the\nfishermen.  For hours his mother had watched in vain for his return.\nWhen at last she heard that the empty boat had been found she was\nnearly wild with grief.\n\n\"He was the best son a mother ever had,\" she moaned over and over\nagain.  \"How can I live without him!\"\n\nIndeed, as the days and weeks went by it was increasingly difficult for\nthe poor woman to live.  She not only missed her boy's loving smile,\nbut she also missed the fish he caught so skillfully.  There was little\nfor the poor woman to eat if she had any appetite for food.\n\n\"Why don't you go to the Wiseman of the Sea and tell him your\ntroubles?\" asked one of the neighbors.\n\nFrancisco's mother knew that it was a long and difficult journey to\nreach the Wiseman of the Sea.  She decided, however, it would be worth\nthe effort just to gaze into his wise eyes.  He knew so much, perhaps\nhe would know how to say something to comfort her in her great sorrow\nand loneliness.  She had shrugged her shoulders when her neighbor had\nspoken of it but she could not get the idea out of her mind.  She knew\nthat she would never rest in peace until she had made this journey.\nAccordingly, she launched Francisco's fishing boat, and, thanks to\nsmooth seas, reached the little rocky island in the midst of the sea\nwhere the Wiseman of the Sea lived.\n\nHis tall form was outlined above the cliff even as she tied her little\nboat.  He was very tall, far taller than anybody she had ever seen, and\nhis snow-white beard fell to his feet.  He was clothed in fish scales\nwhich gleamed in the sunlight.\n\n\"Well, little mother, what can I do for you to-day?\" he asked, as she\ncame up the path to the summit of the rock.\n\nThe eyes of the Wiseman of the Sea were very kind as well as full of\ngreat wisdom.  Francisco's mother forgot to be afraid of him as she had\nexpected to be.  She told him the story of her lost son.  The Wiseman\nlistened carefully to her words and then he said:\n\n\"Good mother, I am glad to tell you that I know where your Francisco\nis.  He is in the power of a water-nymph who has carried him away to\nher castle of mother-of-pearl in the depths of the sea.\"\n\nFrancisco's mother felt the tears of joy well up into her eyes.  \"Is my\nboy happy there and is he well?\" she asked eagerly.\n\n\"He is entirely well and happy.  The water-nymph gave him a philtre\nwhich has made him forget his past life entirely.\"\n\n\"I'm glad you told me that,\" said the boy's mother.  \"I was just\nwondering how my dear lad could be happy while he was causing me so\nmuch sorrow.  He has always been the best and kindest son with which a\nmother ever was blessed.\"\n\nThe Wiseman of the Sea started to say something, but the woman\ninterrupted as a new thought flew into her mind.  \"Tell me,\" she cried,\n\"is there no way of getting him back?  With all your wisdom can't you\nthink of some way to make him once more remember the mother who loves\nhim and the little home in which we have passed so many happy days\ntogether?  Do you not know some means of breaking the power which this\nwater-nymph has over him?\"\n\nThe Wiseman looked out across the sea in silence for at least a minute\nand a half.  He thought hard.  Francisco's mother watched him with\neager eyes.  She could hardly wait for his answer.  At last these were\nthe words which fell from his lips:\n\n\"You have shed many tears, good woman, but tears are still to flow if\nyou are to bring back your son.\"\n\n\"Oh, must I suffer more?\" cried the heart-broken mother.  \"It seems\nthat I have already lived a lifetime since my dear lad kissed me in the\nmoonlight.  I have endured all that I can bear.\"\n\nThe Wiseman smiled gently as he raised his hand.  \"Listen, my child,\"\nhe said.  \"Your tears must be shed upon the bosom of the waters.  If,\nperchance, one of them should fall upon your son's heart there in the\npalace of the water-nymph in the depths of the sea, the power of her\nphiltre will be broken.\"\n\n\"I'll shed whole oceans of tears if I can break the power of that\nwater-nymph and bring back my Francisco,\" said his mother.\n\nThe fact is that she began to shed tears then and there, even before\nshe had thanked the Wiseman of the Sea for what he had told her.\n\nNow it happened that Francisco had grown to love the beautiful palace\nof mother-of-pearl in the depths of the sea.  He never tired of all its\nbeauty.  About the palace there were lovely gardens filled with flowers\nmade of precious gems.  Each tiny bud of that garden was worth a king's\nransom, so rich were the jewels which composed it.  The water-nymph\noften gathered her arms full of these rare blossoms and wove them into\na garland to crown Francisco's golden curls.  He never had a thought of\nthe old life at home with his mother, so completely had the nymph's\nphiltre done its work.\n\nThere was always a big fish swimming about the palace.  On its back\nthere was a cushion of seagreen satin embroidered with lovely pearls.\n\n\"This is your riding horse,\" said the water-nymph to Francisco the\nfirst day he had seen it.  \"If you should ever get tired of the palace\nand find the life here a bit monotonous, just mount this horse and ride\nabout for a little.\"\n\nThe water-nymph had shaken out her long fair tresses so that they\ncovered as much as possible of the fishtail she had instead of feet.\nShe was very sensitive about the fact that she had no feet upon which\nto wear pretty little slippers like those of the maidens she had seen\nso often as they called out gay greetings to the handsome fisher-lad.\n\nFrancisco had smiled into her eyes.  \"How absurd,\" he cried, \"to think\nof such a thing as getting tired of this wonderful place!\"\n\nIn fact the days had slipped by all too fast for the happy youth.  Then\nit suddenly happened one day while the water-nymph was asleep that he\nthought of his mother, the little house which had been his home for\nsixteen years and more, the fishing boat which was his pride and joy,\nthe moonlight night when he had gaily kissed his mother's cheek and\ngone away never to return.  He did not stop to waken the sleeping\nnymph.  He said no word to the servants of the palace.  He thought only\nof the fish with the cushion of sea-green satin embroidered with rare\npearls.\n\n\"Quick!\" he cried to it.  \"Take me home as fast as you can!  My\nmother's heart is breaking!  She has shed so many tears for me, I know,\nthat by this time she may be entirely blind.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"Take me home as fast as you can!\"]\n\nIn another hour Francisco was safe at home with his mother's arms about\nhim.  She had shed so many tears that her eyes were swollen almost\nshut, but they were not closed so completely that they could not shine\nwith the great joy which once more filled her heart.\n\n\"Promise me one thing,\" she said to him.  \"Give me your word that\nyou'll never go fishing again.  I don't trust that water-nymph even in\nthe daytime.\"\n\nAccordingly, Francisco gave up being a fisherman and became a hunter.\nTo make his spears, he gathered the young sapling which grew on the\nhillside even down to the edge of the water.  He had grown still\nhandsomer while he had lived in the palace of mother-of-pearl in the\ndepths of the sea, and there were twice as many pretty maidens who cast\nsmiling glances in his direction.\n\nIt was the daughter of the rich man of the village who at last won the\nheart of Francisco.  When he went a-wooing, however, he had no gift to\ntake except the birds he had killed with his own hand.  The rich man\nlaughed at him.  These were his words:\n\n\"When my daughter marries it shall be only to a youth who can bring her\nrich gifts.\"\n\nFrancisco went away with a sad heart and sat upon the rocks at the edge\nof the sea, gazing out over the water with eyes so full of tears that\nthey saw nothing.\n\nThe water-nymph was not far away from the shore those days.  She was\nalways seeking for a glimpse of the golden head which she had so often\ncrowned with flowers.  Her joy now at the sight of him was buried by\nher sorrow when she saw that his heart was full of woe.  She knew at\nonce the cause of his grief.\n\nThe next morning when Francisco went to get wood to make a new spear,\nhe found a necklace of priceless pearls lying on the shore.  It was the\ngift of the water-nymph, but since his heart had been touched by his\nmother's tears he had entirely forgotten her.  He took the gift to the\nmaid he loved with never a thought of the giver.\n\n\n\n\nTHE DAUGHTER OF THE KING OF NAPLES\n\n_The Story of a Prince's Quest_\n\n\nThere was once a king who had an only son.  The years passed by and he\ndid not marry, so one day his father called him before him and said:\n\n\"The time has come when you should marry, my son.  You are now at the\nage when you should no longer wait to choose your bride.  Why is it\nthat you have not already done this?\"\n\nThe prince replied:\n\n\"I will wed no one except the daughter of the king of Naples.\"\n\n\"Do you know that the king of Naples has a daughter?\" asked the father.\n\n\"No,\" answered the son.  \"I do not know.\"\n\n\"I should advise you to find out whether or not the king of Naples\nhappens to have a daughter before you decide to marry her,\" remarked\nthe king dryly.\n\n\"That is good advice,\" replied the prince.  \"I thank you.\"\n\nAccordingly, he asked everybody he met whether the king of Naples had a\ndaughter.  There was no person to be found who knew anything about it.\n\n\"You'll have to go to Naples to obtain this information,\" advised the\nking.  \"It is a long journey, but if you are determined to marry nobody\nexcept the daughter of the king of Naples there seems to be no way\nexcept to go there and learn whether or not he has a daughter.\"\n\nAccordingly, a ship was prepared and the prince sailed for Naples.  It\nwas a difficult, stormy voyage, but finally they arrived safely.  The\nmoment they landed the beggars came crowding about them.  The prince\ndistributed alms among them most generously.\n\nThen he asked: \"Does any one know whether or not the king of Naples has\na daughter?\"\n\nThere was nobody who knew.  Finally, however, an old woman said that\nonce she passed by the royal palace and there was a beautiful face at\nthe window.\n\n\"I think that perhaps this was the daughter of the king of Naples, but\nI do not know,\" she added.\n\n\"Go at once and find out,\" ordered the prince.  \"You shall be richly\nrewarded.\"\n\nThe old woman hastened to the royal palace.  She saw the same lovely\nface at the window which she had seen before.\n\n\"Lovely lady, I want to talk to you!\" she called out.\n\nNow it happened that day that the princess was feeling decidedly bored\nand out of tune with life.  It looked like an interesting diversion to\ntalk with the old woman.  Thus it came to pass that she opened the\nwindow graciously.\n\n\"What do you wish, good mother?\" she asked.\n\n\"Are you the daughter of the king of Naples?\" questioned the old woman.\n\n\"I am,\" replied the princess.\n\n\"May I come some day to sell you pretty things?\" asked the old woman.\n\nThe princess appointed an hour the next day when she might come with\nher wares.  Then the old woman hurried back to the waiting prince.\n\n\"The king of Naples has a daughter!\" she cried.  \"A very beautiful\ndaughter, too!\"\n\nThe prince showered the old woman with gold.  He was so delighted that\nat last he had found this out that he could well afford to be generous.\n\nThe old woman thanked him.  \"I did something else for you, kind sir,\"\nshe said.  \"I made an appointment to see the princess to-morrow.  I am\ngoing to the palace at four o'clock to sell pretty things to her.\"\n\n\"Well done, good mother!\" cried the prince, again thrusting his hand\ninto his purse.  \"Let me go in your place!\"\n\nThe old woman gladly consented, and the prince dressed himself as a\npeddler.  The next afternoon at four o'clock he went to the palace of\nthe king of Naples.\n\n\"It is a peddler with many interesting wares for sale,\" said the\nservant who answered his knock.  \"He speaks of an appointment with your\nRoyal Highness.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said the princess.  \"A peddler was to come to-day at four\no'clock with pretty things for me to buy.\"\n\nAccordingly, the prince was admitted to the presence of the daughter of\nthe king of Naples.  If she were surprised to find the peddler a\nhandsome young man instead of the old woman with whom she had talked\nthe day before she did not show it.\n\n\"What lovely things you have!\" she cried as she examined the tray full\nof ribbons and beads and trinkets.\n\nShe selected a number of the wares and then she asked, \"What is the\nprice of these?\"\n\nThe prince would not set a price.\n\n\"If your Royal Highness is pleased with these,\" said he, \"I have many\nmore things at home which you will like even better.  I'll bring them\nto you to-morrow.\"\n\n\"That will be splendid!\" cried the princess.  \"Come again to-morrow at\nthis hour.\"\n\nThe next day the prince again dressed himself as a peddler, but\nunderneath the outer garments he wore his own rich clothing.  When he\nwas admitted to the royal palace he laid aside his peddler's disguise\nand stood before the princess looking like the true prince he was.  He\nwas very handsome in his rich suit of crimson velvet, with his hat with\nthe long plume in his hand.  The princess was so surprised that she\nturned pale.\n\n\"Who are you?\" she cried.  \"You surely are not the peddler who came\nhere yesterday!\"\n\nThe prince smiled into her eyes, and, even without the peddler's\ngarments which were rolled up on the tray, she would have recognized\nhim.\n\nHe told her of the quest which had led him there, and she admired all\nthe patience and diligence he had shown in finding out her existence.\nWhen he asked her to marry him at once, she readily consented.  They\nplanned that she should steal down the staircase at night and go away\nwith him on his ship.\n\nAll this sounded very romantic to the daughter of the king of Naples.\nShe had never dreamed that a thing like this would ever happen.  All\nher life she had been so closely guarded that stealing out of the\npalace and sailing away in the prince's ship seemed the most wonderful\nthing in the world.\n\nThe next night had been agreed on, and long ahead of the appointed hour\nthe prince sat on horseback at the foot of the stairway down which the\nprincess would steal.  He was very weary with all the excitement of the\npast three days, and as he waited he fell asleep.  A robber passed by\nand saw his sleeping form hanging limply on the saddle.\n\n\"I'll gently deposit him on the ground and get away with his horse and\nsaddle,\" thought the thief, as he stopped and regarded the horse with a\ncritical eye.\n\nJust then, however, he saw something which made him change his mind\nabout hurrying away after he had deposited the prince's sleeping form\nbeneath a tree.  There was the loveliest maiden he had ever seen\ncreeping silently down the stairway.  She came straight up to him.\n\n\"I'm ready, beloved,\" were her words.\n\nThe robber silently lifted her behind him on the horse's back and\ntogether they rode away.\n\n\"Where is your boat?\" asked the princess after they had ridden together\nfor some time without speaking.\n\n\"So it is a boat which the fair lady is looking for,\" thought the\nthief.  \"I was expecting this good horse to carry us the whole\ndistance.  A boat is a bit difficult to arrange, but it can be done if\nnecessary.  There ought to be a boat around somewhere for me to steal.\"\n\nHe left the daughter of the king of Naples on the shore while he went\nto steal a boat.  When he returned the light shone upon his face and\nthe girl thought that he did not look the same as the day before.\n\n\"Of course, I've seen him only twice,\" she told herself in an effort to\ngain assurance.  \"It must be the prince, my own true love.\"\n\n\"Here is our boat,\" said the robber, and together they embarked.\n\nAs the morning light shone upon the robber the princess saw that he was\nnot in the least like the prince who had come a-peddling.  The robber\nlaughed.\n\n\"Does my lady know with whom she is going away?\" he asked.\n\n\"I thought I was going with the prince who is my lover,\" she replied,\nbursting into bitter tears.\n\nRunning away was not half so romantic and delightful as she had\npictured it.  She heartily wished that she were back in the royal\npalace.\n\nAs for the prince, he soon awoke and looked about the palace garden\nwhere he was lying under the tree.\n\n\"How did I get here?\" he asked as he rubbed his eyes sleepily.\n\nThere was none to tell him, so he decided that his horse must have\nthrown him off and run away.\n\n\"It is queer that my fall did not awaken me,\" he said to himself.  \"It\nis a bit awkward to lose my horse.  However, if the princess only keeps\nher promise and comes to me we shall manage to get to our ship somehow.\"\n\nHe waited very patiently for a time and then he began to fear that the\nprincess had repented of her promise to run away.  He did not give her\nup, however, until it was almost daylight.  Then he sorrowfully\nreturned to his waiting ship.\n\n[Illustration: Then he sorrowfully returned to his waiting ship]\n\n\"I have at least found out that the king of Naples has a daughter and\nthat she is the most beautiful princess in the whole world,\" he said.\n\"If she prefers not to have a run-away marriage it will doubtless be\nbetter for me to sail home and tell my father to make arrangements with\nthe king of Naples for our wedding.  There are some advantages in this\nmore dignified method.\"\n\nThus it happened that the prince sailed away for his own country, never\ndreaming that the princess had kept her promise to steal down the\nstairway in the night and that she was then in the hands of the wicked\nrobber.\n\n\nThe daughter of the king of Naples sobbed and cried so loud when she\nfound that it was not her own prince with whom she was sailing that the\nrobber became quite disgusted with her.\n\n\"I thought you were a pretty little maid,\" he said, \"when I first saw\nyou, but now I've changed my mind about you.\"\n\nIndeed no person with good eyesight would have called the princess\npretty at that moment, with her face all red and swollen with much\nweeping.\n\nThe robber decided that he did not want to bother with her any longer,\nso he landed in the country of the Junqueiras and left her there.  The\nprincess wandered about the place until night came without seeing a\nsingle soul,--nothing but the sea, sky and rocks.\n\nShe was really, however, not far from the hut in which there lived the\nwife and daughter of a poor fisherman.  In the stillness of the night\nthey heard a cry.\n\n\"Some one is in trouble outside, mother,\" said the daughter.\n\n\"Perhaps the pirates have come and by this cry are trying to lure us\nout,\" answered her mother cautiously.  There were often pirate ships\nwhich stopped there.  The daughter listened carefully.\n\n\"No, mother,\" she insisted.  \"I'm sure this is a girl's cry.\"\n\nThe two women opened their door and crept out in the darkness.  The\nsobs of the princess soon led them to the place upon the rocks where\nshe lay crying as if her heart would break.  They lifted her tenderly\nand carried her home.\n\nThe fisherman's daughter gave the princess some of her own clothes to\nwear and they lived together as if they were sisters.  Together they\ndid all the work of the little house and the princess was too busy to\nweep.  Sometimes, however, she cried in the night when the fisherman's\nwife and daughter were asleep.  She wept for her lost love and for the\nroyal palace of the king of Naples which had always been her home.\n\nNow it happened that the prince's ship encountered a great storm and\nwas driven about by the sea.  At last it was blown by the gales to the\nland of the Junqueiras.\n\nThe prince saw the fisherman's daughter and the princess standing on\nthe rocks by the sea.  He stared hard at the princess.  Then he spoke\nin a voice which shook.\n\n\"You remind me of some one I used to know,\" he said.  \"Tell me your\nname, I pray you, fair maid.\"\n\nThe princess looked down at the garments of the fisher maid which she\nwore.  She blushed.  The prince she had recognized the very moment she\nhad seen him.\n\n\"I am the daughter of the king of Naples,\" she said.\n\nThe fisherman's daughter stared at her in amazement.\n\n\"She is no king's daughter!\" she cried.  \"She is a poor abandoned maid\nwho came to us out of the sea.  We found her upon these very rocks.  It\nis my own dress that she is wearing.  A king's daughter, indeed!  She\nis no more the daughter of the king of Naples than I am!\"\n\nBut the prince had taken the daughter of the king of Naples in his\narms.  As soon as they returned to the palace their wedding was\ncelebrated with great joy and they lived together as God lives with the\nangels.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Headpiece]\n\n\n\n\nMARIA-OF-THE-FOREST\n\n_The Story of a King and His Fate_\n\n\nOnce upon a time there was a young king who went into the deep forest\non a hunting expedition.  He and his favorite page became separated\nfrom the rest of the party and soon they realized that they were lost.\nAs night approached they found the rude hut of a charcoal burner and\nbegged for permission to pass the night there.  They were received most\nhospitably.\n\nJust at the hour of midnight the king was awakened from his sleep by a\nvoice.  This is what it said:\n\n  \"Here in this hut is born to-night\n    The maiden of your fate:\n  You can't escape your lot, young king;\n    Your fate for you will wait.\n\n  'Tis fate--'tis fate--'tis fate.\"\n\n\nThe king turned over on his pillow and tried to sleep, but the strange\nvoice kept ringing in his ears.  He rose early.\n\nAs soon as he saw the charcoal burner the man said: \"A baby daughter\nwas born to me last night.\"\n\n\"At what time?\" asked the king.\n\n\"It was just midnight,\" replied the charcoal burner.\n\nThe king awakened his page and told him what had happened.\n\n\"I refuse to wed any maid born in this poor hut,\" he said.  \"You must\nhelp me to escape this fate.\"\n\n\"What can I do about it?\" asked the page, yawning.\n\n\"You must steal this babe this very day and put it to death,\" said the\nking sternly.\n\nThe page did not dare refuse, and easily obtained possession of the\nbaby when no one was looking.  He carried her away into the deep\nforest, but he did not have the heart to put an innocent babe to death.\nHe left her in a hollow tree, wrapped up in the bright red sash he wore.\n\nWhen he had returned to the king he confessed that he had been too\ntender-hearted to slay the baby.  The king was angry.\n\n\"Take me to the baby,\" he said.  \"I'll do the deed myself.\"\n\nThough they searched long and faithfully they were unable to find the\nhollow tree where the baby had been left.  They, of course, did not\nwish to return to the hut of the charcoal burner, and at length they\nfound their way out of the deep forest.\n\n\"No one will ever discover that baby if I could not find it myself!\nShe will soon die without food,\" said the page.\n\nThe king agreed that it was quite impossible for the babe to escape\ndeath, but he could not forget the strange voice which had said:\n\n  \"Here in this hut is born to-night\n    The maiden of your fate:\n  You can't escape your lot, young king;\n    Your fate for you will wait.\n\n  'Tis fate--'tis fate--'tis fate.\"\n\n\nNow it happened that very day that a woodcutter was working in the\nforest.  Suddenly he heard what sounded like the cry of a baby.\n\n\"There can't be a child here in the deep forest,\" he said to himself\nand went on with his work.\n\nThe cry continued, however, and it sounded very near, almost under the\nwoodcutter's feet.  He looked into the hollow log and there he found a\ndimpled baby girl wrapped in a bright red sash.\n\n\"Poor little thing!  Her own mother has abandoned her.  My good wife\nwill be a mother to her,\" he said.\n\nThe woodcutter's wife had no children of her own and received the baby\ngladly.  She named her Maria-of-the-forest.  As the days flew by and\nthe babe thrived under her care, she could not have loved her more had\nshe been her own child.\n\nThe weeks and months passed and soon the little Maria-of-the-forest had\ngrown into a lovely little girl five years old.  Her kind foster mother\nmade a bonnet for her out of the bright red sash which she had found\nwrapped about her the first time she saw her.  It made Maria's dark\neyes look even brighter than before.\n\nNow it happened that the king and his page were again hunting in the\nforest and passed by the house of the wood cutter.  The page noticed\nthe pretty little girl and the red bonnet she wore.  He called her to\nhim and examined it carefully.\n\n\"There can be no doubt that material is from my own red sash,\" he\nconfessed to the king.  \"This woodcutter's daughter could have such a\nbonnet as this in no other way.\"\n\nThe king bade him make inquiries about the child and soon the page\nfound out that the little maid was in truth the baby he had left in the\nhollow tree.  The king ordered him again to steal her.  This time the\nking plotted her death by drowning.  He had a box made for her, put her\nin it, and threw her into the sea with his own hand.\n\n\"I refuse to wed any girl brought up in a woodcutter's hut,\" he raged.\n\"I'll escape that fate.\"\n\nNevertheless he could not escape the memory of the strange voice which\nhad said:\n\n  \"Here in this hut is born to-night\n    The maiden of your fate:\n  You can't escape your lot, young king;\n    Your fate for you will wait.\n\n  'Tis fate--'tis fate--'tis fate.\"\n\n\nIt was most annoying to remember it.\n\nIt happened soon after that a ship encountered the box floating upon\nthe sea.  The sailors rescued it and opened it with interest.  Inside\nthey were surprised to find a pretty little dark-eyed girl with a\nbright red bonnet on her head.  She could not tell them where she had\ncome from but she said her name was Maria-of-the-forest.\n\nWhen the sailors arrived in their own country they told the story of\nfinding the child and the king asked to see her.  He and the queen were\nso pleased with her lovely face and gentle manners that they received\nher into the royal palace.  She was brought up as a lady-of-waiting to\ntheir own little daughter of about the same age.\n\nWhen, after a dozen years, the princess was wedded, all the kings of\nnear-by countries were invited to the marriage feast.  The king who had\nbeen lost in the forest came with the others.  At the feast there was\nno one more beautiful than Maria-of-the-forest.  The king danced with\nher.\n\n\"Who is the girl?\" was his eager question.\n\n\"She has been reared in the royal palace as if she were in truth the\nsister of the bride,\" was the reply.\n\nThe king fell in love with the beautiful maid and gave her a ring.  The\npage, however, was suspicious when he heard her name.  He lost no time\nin making inquiries about her.  What he found out made him very sure\nthat she was in truth the daughter of the charcoal burner.  He reported\nhis suspicions to the king.\n\n\"Never mind,\" said the king.  \"I'll wed the maid anyway.  One can't\nescape from one's fate.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE SEVEN ENCHANTED PRINCES\n\n_The Story of How Honoria Kept Her Promise_\n\n\nLong ago there was a little maid who lived all alone with her\ngrandmother.  They were very poor.  The girl's name was Honoria.\n\nOne day the grandmother sent the girl out to sell some of the oranges\nfrom their orange tree.\n\n\"You must bring home at least three vintens to me,\" she said.  \"Don't\ndare return without at least that small amount of money.\"\n\nHonoria went from door to door trying to sell the oranges.  Every one\nseemed to have plenty of them that day.  There was nobody who would\npurchase a single one.\n\nShe walked on and on through the town, everywhere obtaining the same\nanswer, \"We do not wish to purchase any oranges to-day.\"\n\nFinally she found herself outside the town and in the forest.  There\nwas a house with the door wide open and on the table in front of the\ndoor lay three vintens.  There was no one in sight and nobody answered\nHonoria's knock at the door.\n\n\"I'll take the money and leave some oranges in place of it,\" said\nHonoria.  \"That will not be stealing.\"\n\nAccordingly, she selected some of the largest and finest of her oranges\nand placed them on the table.  She put the money away carefully to take\nto her grandmother.  Then she turned to leave, but found that the door\nwas closed.\n\nShe tried her best to open it but could not.  Neither could she open\nany of the windows to climb out by that means.  The windows were all\nfastened just as securely as the door.\n\n\"What shall I do?\" cried the girl, who was now thoroughly frightened.\n\nShe did not like the idea of remaining a prisoner in the house in the\nforest.  All day she tried to find some way of escape, but there seemed\nnothing to do except to wait until somebody came to her aid.\n\n\"This house is not far from the city.  Surely some one will be passing\nthis way and will come and help me get out,\" said Honoria.  \"I hope\nthey'll come before night.\"\n\nThere was nothing to eat in the house and she was thankful enough for\nthe big basket full of juicy oranges.\n\nAt last it grew dark.  Then Honoria heard footsteps outside the house.\nShe could not see who was coming, but a key was turned in the lock and\nsome one entered.  She was so frightened that she hid under the table.\n\nA lighted candle showed that seven dwarfs had entered the house.  They\nhad brought food with them, and they at once went to work to prepare\ntheir evening meal.\n\n\"Who left us all these fine oranges?\" asked one of the dwarfs.\n\n\"I do not know,\" replied another.  \"Some one has surely been here and\nit must have been a kind friend.\"\n\nHonoria was almost tempted to crawl from under the table and show\nherself, but she decided that it would be better to stay where she was\nand go home the next day when it was light.\n\nWhen morning came, however, she found that she had been sleeping so\nsoundly that she had not heard the seven dwarfs when they left the\nhouse.  The door was fastened just as securely as before.\n\nHonoria looked about the house and saw that there was enough work to\nkeep her busy all day.  There were dishes to wash and floors to sweep\nand beds to make.  Fortunately the dwarfs had left plenty of food.\n\nWhen night came she heard the footsteps approaching and again hid under\nthe table.  As soon as the seven dwarfs came into the house they saw\nthat it had been changed wonderfully during their absence.\n\n\"Our dishes are all washed!\" cried one of the dwarfs.  \"Last night we\nforgot to wash them after supper!\"\n\n\"Our beds are all made!\" cried another.  \"We left home so early this\nmorning we did not have time to make them!\"\n\n\"Our floors are all swept and everything is in order!\" cried another.\n\"We never have looked so neat and clean!\"\n\n[Illustration: \"We never have looked so neat and clean\"]\n\n\"Somebody must have been here,\" said one of the dwarfs.\n\n\"It is surely a kind friend,\" said another.\n\n\"Perhaps they are here yet!\" cried another.\n\n\"If they are men we'll treat them like brothers and if they are women\nwe'll treat them like sisters,\" said the seventh dwarf who had not\nspoken before.  He had been looking around the house carefully, but he\nhad seen no one.\n\nHonoria crawled out from under the table.  The dwarfs joined hands and\ndanced around her in a circle.\n\n\"We have a big sister now!\" they cried.  \"A big sister to take care of\nus!\"\n\nHonoria knew that if she said anything about leaving the dwarfs they\nwould be heartbroken.  She knew, too, that her grandmother would give\nher a terrible beating for staying away from home so long.  The easiest\nthing seemed to be to remain in the forest and keep house for the seven\ndwarfs.\n\nWeeks and months went by and Honoria led a happy life in the forest.\nThe dwarfs brought home plenty of delicious food and they also brought\nher the prettiest dresses she had ever seen.  They were green like the\nmoss and the leaves of the forest and brown like the rich earth about\nthe house.  There was a little hat with red berries upon it which\nHonoria thought the most charming hat in the world.  She tried it on\nand ran to the brook to look at her reflection, for there was not a\nsingle mirror in the house.\n\nOne day the king passed by with his gay hunting party.  That day\nHonoria had on her prettiest moss-green dress and the king thought her\nthe loveliest maiden he had ever seen.  He stopped to chat with her.\n\n\"Do you live here in the forest all alone?\" he asked.\n\n\"No, I keep house for my seven brothers,\" was Honoria's answer.\n\n\"What a lovely little housekeeper!\" cried the king.  \"Marry me and come\nto live in the royal palace!\"\n\n\"I must ask my brothers first,\" responded Honoria.  \"I will tell you\nto-morrow what they say.\"\n\nThat night when the seven dwarfs came home Honoria told them about her\nvisit from the king.\n\n\"How can we spare our big sister?\" cried one of the dwarfs.\n\n\"Who will keep house for us when she goes away?\" cried another.\n\n\"Who will make the beds so nicely?\" asked another.\n\n\"Who will sweep our floors?\"\n\n\"Who will wash our dishes?\"\n\n\"Who will sew on our buttons?\"\n\n\"I have known that our big sister would marry sometime,\" said the\nseventh dwarf who had not spoken, but who had been thinking quietly.\n\"Why shouldn't she marry the king?\"\n\n\"We must let her marry the king!  We must not be selfish!\" cried all\nthe dwarfs together.\n\nThey decided that Honoria should marry the king, but they asked her not\nto let him kiss her until he had first said these words: \"By permission\nof the seven enchanted princes.\"  He would have to remember it without\nbeing reminded by Honoria.\n\nHonoria told the king what her brothers had said and the wedding was\ncelebrated with great joy.\n\nWhen the king tried to kiss Honoria she burst into tears.  He had\nforgotten all about saying: \"By permission of the seven enchanted\nprinces.\"\n\nHonoria would not let the king kiss her, and she cried so much and\nstruggled so hard that the king thought she had gone crazy.  He ordered\nher shut up in the dark cell underneath the palace.  Then he married a\nnew queen.\n\nNow it happened that there was a faithful servant who was quite sure\nthat Honoria was not crazy.  When Honoria told her of the words which\nthe king must say before he kissed her this servant tried to think of\nsome way to help her.  She was very angry at the fact that there was a\nnew queen.\n\nOne day she went to the queen and said: \"Queen Honoria who is shut up\nin the dark cell underneath the palace is much more clever than you\nare.\"\n\n\"What does Queen Honoria do that is so clever?\" asked the new queen.\n\n\"Queen Honoria will take a sword and cut off her head.  Then she will\nput it back on again so that it is as good as new.  I don't believe you\nare clever enough to do that.\"\n\n\"I never tried it,\" answered the new queen, \"but just to show you that\nI'm as clever as Queen Honoria I'll do it.\"\n\nWith these words she seized a sword and cut off her head.  Of course\nshe fell dead immediately.  The king married a new queen.\n\nThen the servant went to the new queen and said: \"Queen Honoria who is\nshut up in the dark cell underneath the palace is more clever than you\nare.\"\n\nThe new queen was indignant at this remark.  \"Why is she more clever\nthan I am?\" she asked.  \"What can she do that I can't do?\"\n\n\"She can take a sword and cut off her hand.  Then she'll stick the hand\non again and it will be as good as new.\"\n\n\"I've never tried it, but I'll do it just to convince you that I am\nclever too,\" said this new queen.\n\nShe took up a sword and cut off her right hand.  Then she fainted away.\nThe arm grew full of poison and the queen soon died, but not until she\nhad told the king what the servant had said to her.\n\nThe king was very angry at the servant and called her to him.\n\n\"What do you mean,\" he thundered, \"by telling such a story about Queen\nHonoria's magic powers?\"\n\n\"I wanted you to remember where you had found Queen Honoria,\" replied\nthe servant.\n\nThen the king suddenly remembered how he had first seen Queen Honoria\nwhen she was in the house in the forest.  He thought of how pretty she\nhad been in the dress which looked like soft green moss.  Then he\nthought of how she had said that she must ask permission of her seven\nbrothers before she consented to become his queen.\n\n\"By permission of the seven enchanted princes!\" he cried.  \"I forgot to\nsay these words before I kissed my dear Queen Honoria!\"\n\nHe quickly ran to the dark cell underneath the palace where she was\nconfined.  He said the magic words and kissed his fair queen who was\njust as beautiful as before she had been shut up in the cell, though a\ntrifle paler.\n\nIn the house in the forest the seven dwarfs who were in truth seven\nenchanted princes suddenly were disenchanted.\n\n\"Our dear sister Honoria did not forget us after all,\" they cried in\njoy.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LISTENING KING\n\n_The Story of the Trouble Which Came to Him_\n\n\nOnce upon a time there lived a king who liked to walk in disguise about\nthe streets of the city, listening at people's doors.  It was, in fact,\nhis favorite amusement.  Other kings of that land had been fond of war\nor hunting or fishing or games, but there had never before been one who\nliked to listen at doors.  For this reason he was called \"the listening\nking.\"\n\n\"It is the greatest fun I have,\" he often said to his counsellors.\n\"Being a king would be a stupid life if one didn't have some diversion.\"\n\n\"Be careful that it does not get you into trouble,\" said the wise men.\n\"We have often heard that listening to other people's secrets is a\ndangerous practice.\"\n\n\"I've had nothing but pleasure from it, anyway,\" the king would reply.\nThen he would add, \"So far, at least.\"\n\nSometimes he would take a friend or two with him, and sometimes he\nwould go alone.  The habit of listening at doors became more and more a\nfavorite one to him as the months and years passed.\n\nNow in that city there lived a man of humble station who had three\npretty daughters.  One evening the king passed his house and stopped at\nthe door to listen.\n\n\"Whom would you like to marry?\" one of the girls was asking.  It\nhappened to be the youngest one.\n\n\"I'd like to marry the royal baker,\" the eldest sister replied.\n\n\"Why?\" asked the youngest one.\n\n\"So that I might always eat fresh bread,\" was the reply.\n\n\"Whom would you like to marry?\" the youngest sister asked the middle\none.\n\n\"I'd like to marry the royal meat cook so that I might always eat meat\nroasted just to a turn,\" was her answer.\n\n\"Whom would you like to marry?\" asked the eldest and the middle sister\ntogether.\n\n\"I'd like to marry the listening king himself,\" was the reply which\ntheir youngest sister made.\n\n\"Silly!  Silly!\" cried her two sisters.  \"We have perhaps a chance of\ngetting our wishes, but what chance have you?\"\n\n\"If one wishes for nothing splendid one never gets anything splendid,\"\nreplied the youngest sister with a blush which made her look very\ncharming to the king as he peeped through the keyhole.\n\nThe king went away with a shrewd smile upon his face.  The next day he\nsent for the three sisters to come to the palace.  They were very much\nfrightened.\n\n\"Well,\" said the king to the eldest girl, \"do you want to marry the\nroyal baker?\"\n\n\"Yes, your majesty,\" she replied.  \"I have no objections.\"\n\nThe king turned to her sister.\n\n\"How is it with you?\" he asked.  \"What do you say to marrying the royal\nmeatcook?\"\n\n\"I'll be most happy to marry him, your majesty,\" she answered.\n\nThe youngest girl was blushing like a rose and her heart was thumping\nso that she could scarcely breathe.  The king smiled as he noticed her\nfair head bowed upon her breast.\n\n\"Would you like to marry the listening king?\" he asked her gently.\n\n\"Yes, your majesty,\" she responded, so low that the king could hardly\nhear her.\n\n\"Very well,\" said the king.  \"I'll have all these weddings celebrated\nat once.\"\n\nThus it happened that the two eldest sisters got their wishes and\nmarried the royal baker and the royal meatcook, while the youngest one\nwedded the listening king himself.  The others were very angry at her\nluck and their hearts were filled with envy.\n\n\"Why didn't we wish to be queens or at least princesses?\" one asked the\nother.  \"It would have been just as easy to have had our wishes\ngranted!\"\n\n\"Why didn't we!  Why didn't we!  How stupid we were!\" cried the other.\n\nThey passed the time in plotting against their youngest sister, the\nqueen.\n\nA year flew by and twin sons were born to the royal pair.  They had\ngold stars on their foreheads.  The whole kingdom was filled with\nrejoicing.  As for the listening king, he was so happy that he forgot\nto listen at people's doors.\n\nThe only persons in the whole country who were not happy were the two\njealous sisters.  They stole the tiny babies out of the palace and\nthrew them into the river.\n\n\"Trouble has at last come to our listening king,\" said the wise men,\nwhen the loss was discovered.\n\nThe basket in which the twins had been placed floated away down the\nstream.  It was found by a miller.\n\n\"What have we here?\" he asked his wife as together they removed the\ncover from the basket.\n\n\"I guess it is something good to eat,\" said his wife.  \"What do you\nthink it is?\"\n\n\"I guess it is a poor little puppy which some one wanted to drown,\"\nreplied the miller.\n\nThen they took the cover off the basket.  The two babies opened their\neyes and smiled just then.  The miller and his wife were the most\nsurprised people in the whole country and also the happiest ones.\n\n[Illustration: The miller and his wife were the most surprised people\nin the whole country]\n\n\"What beautiful children!\" cried the miller.\n\n\"Let's keep them!\" cried his wife.\n\n\"Of course we'll keep them,\" replied the miller.  \"The good God himself\nmust have sent them to us in answer to our prayers.\"\n\nJust then the miller's wife noticed the golden stars upon their\nforeheads.\n\n\"What does this mean?\" she asked.\n\n\"I don't know,\" answered her husband as he examined them carefully.\n\"Perhaps it is just a sign that they are truly the gift of God.\"\n\nThe miller and his wife cared for the two children as if they had been\ntheir own.  They lived such a long distance from the palace that they\nnever heard the news that the royal babes were missing.\n\nAs the two boys grew older they became the handsomest, cleverest lads\nin the whole kingdom.  The gold stars shone and twinkled upon their\nforeheads.  At last the miller's wife made little caps for them to wear\nto hide the stars.  They were altogether too conspicuous.\n\nThen one sad summer a pestilence came upon the land and the good miller\nand his wife died.  The two children were left alone in the world.  The\nlistening king had decreed all the orphaned children in the kingdom\nshould be brought to the royal city that they might be fed and cared\nfor.  The miller's two orphans went with the others, and the king's\nwicked sister-in-laws saw them.  They recognized them at once because\nof the golden stars upon their foreheads.\n\n\"We must make a new plot to destroy the royal children,\" said one\nsister to the other.  \"And we must be quick about it or the king or\nqueen will see them and recognize them, too, by the golden stars.\"\n\n\"Are you quite sure these are the two royal babes we threw into the\nriver?\" asked the other sister doubtfully.  \"It is a bit difficult for\nme to believe that our sister's children can be so handsome.\"\n\n\"I'm entirely certain of it,\" assured her sister.  \"There is no one\nexcept the royal babes who could have those golden stars.\"\n\nWhile the wicked sisters plotted, the two children had approached the\nroyal gardens.  Inside the garden there was a beautiful parrot with\nfeathers of green and gold.\n\n\"I'm going to catch that bird,\" said one of the brothers.  \"Wait here\nwhile I go inside the gates.\"\n\nHe could not catch the parrot and he called his brother to come and\nhelp him.  Together they succeeded; and, with the beautiful\ngreen-and-gold parrot tightly clutched, they tried to slip outside the\ngate of the royal gardens.\n\nJust as they were almost out, the great gates swiftly closed and caught\ntheir garments.\n\n\"We're caught!  We're caught!\" cried the two children.  \"How can we\never get the gates unfastened!\"\n\nAt the sound of their cries, the royal gardeners, the courtiers and the\nlistening king himself came to the rescue.\n\nWhen the king saw the golden stars upon their foreheads he leaned\nagainst the nearest tree for support.\n\n\"What children are these?\" he asked in a voice which shook.\n\n\"I never saw them before,\" replied the head gardener.  \"I think they\nare some of the orphan children which the great mercy and clemency of\nyour royal majesty have caused to be rescued from the plague.\"\n\n\"Who are your parents, my children?\" asked one of the courtiers.\n\n\"We are the children of the good miller and his wife,\" they replied.\n\"Our kind foster parents are now dead with the plague.\"\n\n\"Where did this miller and his wife find you?\" asked the king eagerly.\n\nThen the two children told the story of how the miller had found them\nin a basket in the river.  They knew it well, for it was their favorite\nstory of all the ones which the miller's wife had told them.\n\nThe courtiers looked at each other in amazement.  Every one had noticed\nthe bright stars shining on the children's brows.\n\n\"I believe you are the two dear babes lost from this palace!\" cried the\nking as he took them in his arms.\n\n\"Who put them in that basket?\" asked the king's counsellors.\n\n\"If I knew you may be sure that fitting punishment would be visited\nupon them!\" cried the king.\n\nThe beautiful green-and-gold parrot had escaped from the children's\narms and had flown back to a tree near the gates of the royal gardens.\nSuddenly he was heard to speak.\n\n\"Go find the king's sisters-in-law,\" were the words he said.\n\nThe king's sisters-in-law were quickly brought into the garden.  A look\nat their guilty faces convinced every one that they were the ones who\nhad placed the royal babes in the basket and had thrown them into the\nriver.\n\n\"You shall now receive the punishment which you have so richly\ndeserved!\" cried the king as he frowned upon them sternly.\n\n\"Where is the good queen?\" some one asked.\n\nThe queen had been sleeping in her own apartments and had not heard the\nnoise in the garden.  When the courtiers brought her there and she saw\nthe two handsome boys with the bright stars shining on their foreheads,\nshe fainted with the joy of it.\n\n\n\n\nJOSE THE BEAST SLAYER\n\n_The Story of a Boy Who Grew Up in the Forest_\n\n\nThere was once a king who had a little daughter.  He went to the Wise\nMan of the Forest to learn how best to bring her up, and this is what\nhe was told:\n\n\"For twelve years you must keep your daughter in a tower in the forest.\nIt should have no door, only a little window through which you may pass\nfood to her.  You must give her meat which has no bones in it.\"\n\nThe king ordered a tower constructed in the deep forest.  It had no\ndoor, and only a little window.  Here the princess was placed.  Every\nday food was passed to her through the little window.  The king himself\ntook charge of this, so that he might be sure that there was no meat\ngiven her which had bones in it.\n\nThe years flew by, and at last the twelve year period was nearly up.\nThen the king went away one day and left the servants to carry food to\nthe princess.  They were careless, and gave her meat which had a bone\nin it.\n\nThe little princess had grown very tired of being shut up in the tower\nof the forest.\n\n\"Ah,\" said she when she discovered the bone in her meat.  \"At last I\nhave something with which to make this little window larger.  I've\ntried in vain to make it bigger with my fingers.\"\n\nShe used the bone to dig away the wall each side of the window and soon\nthe little opening had grown so large that the princess could lean her\nhead out of it and look up at lofty trees.  That very day a duke passed\nthat way on a hunting expedition and saw the beautiful princess in the\ntower.  He fell in love with her immediately.\n\nNow that the princess had some one to help her make the hole larger it\nwas an easy matter to make it big enough to escape.  That very night\nshe ran away with the duke.\n\nWhen the king returned from his journey he found the tower in the\nforest entirely empty.  There was nothing but the yawning hole to tell\nhim of his daughter's escape.  He tried in vain to find out what had\nbecome of her, but there was no person who could tell him anything\nabout her.\n\nThe princess had gone with the duke across a great river which no one\nelse knew how to cross.  She lived in a big cave in the rocks, and\nafter all the years in the tower it seemed a wonderful home indeed.\nShe was never tired of admiring the trees and flowers of the forest and\nlistening to the songs of the birds.  When at last her baby son was\nborn she thought that she was the very happiest person in the whole\nworld.\n\nNow when the baby was two years old, the duke decided that they must\ntake him to a hermitage to be baptized.  They went down to the great\nriver and he carried his little son across it in safety.  Then he\nreturned for the princess, but on the way his foot slipped and he fell\ninto the river.  The strong current bore him swiftly away, leaving the\nprincess on one side of the river and her little son on the other.\n\n\"How shall I get across?\" cried the princess when she saw what had\nhappened.\n\n\"Don't worry, mother,\" replied the child.  \"I'll come and get you.\"\n\nTo her amazement he crossed the great river in safety and bravely\nescorted his mother to the other bank in spite of her tears and cries\nof fear.\n\n\"Well done, my son!\" she said when on the other bank.  \"You are indeed\na son to be proud of!\"\n\nThey went to a church and the boy was baptized.  Jose the Beast Slayer\nwas the name he chose.  Then they wandered on until at last they came\nto a house with a door in which a little window had been cut.  The boy\nthrust in his arm and opened the door as if it had been his own.\n\n\"Walk in, mother dear,\" were his words.\n\nTogether they entered the house and together they explored the various\nrooms.  There was nobody there and there was nothing to eat.\nAccordingly, Jose went out begging.  He asked alms at the royal palace\nand there he was given money to buy food.  There was even enough left\nover to pay for a gun.\n\nNow that he owned a gun there was no need of begging any more.  He shot\nplenty of game for his mother and what was left he carried to the royal\npalace to give to the king.\n\nOne day in the deep forest he entered a cave where the giant of the\nforest lived.\n\n\"What are you doing here, little penny chicken?\" asked the huge giant\nas he frowned down at Jose.\n\n[Illustration: He frowned down at Jose]\n\n\"I may be a little penny chicken, but I'm not in the least afraid of\ngiants,\" replied the boy boldly.\n\n\"What, a little penny chicken like you not afraid of me!\" cried the\ngiant as he picked him up roughly and set him on his neck.\n\nJose seized the giant's long beard and drew it around his neck so\ntightly that the giant fell to the floor dead.  Then Jose seized one of\nthe money-bags and ran home with it to his mother.\n\n\"You must carry some of this to the king,\" said his mother when she saw\nit and had heard his story.\n\nAccordingly, Jose carried the money as a gift to the king.\n\n\"Who is bringing me all this?\" asked the king when he saw it.\n\n\"A little lad,\" replied the king's servants.\n\n\"Lead him in to me,\" said the king.  \"I'd like to see him.\"\n\nAccordingly, the boy was led before the throne.\n\n\"What is your name, my lad?\" asked the king kindly.\n\n\"I am called Jose the Beast Slayer, your majesty,\" replied the boy as\nhe bowed low before the throne.\n\n\"Who are your parents?\" asked the king.\n\n\"My father is dead,\" replied Jose, \"and my mother is a princess who ran\naway from a tower in the forest.\"\n\nJose had often heard the story of his mother's life in the tower.  It\nwas the tale he liked best of all.\n\nAt the boy's words the king started and looked at him sharply.\n\n\"Tell me about this tower,\" he said eagerly.\n\n\"It was a tower in the deep forest,\" replied Jose.  \"It had no door,\nonly a little window through which food was passed to her.  She could\nnever have any meat with a bone.  This was because the Wise Man of the\nForest had told her father that it was the best way to bring her up.\nOne day her father went away and the servants gave her meat with a bone\nin it and--\"\n\n\"I always suspected something like that,\" interrupted the king.\n\nJose looked at him in surprise.\n\n\"Were you there?\" he asked.\n\nThe king nodded.  \"Go on with your story, my boy,\" he said.\n\nJose told all the circumstances of his mother's escape from the tower,\njust as she had so often described them to him.  Tears were running\ndown the king's cheeks when at last the story was ended.\n\n\"My lad, you are my own grandson!\" cried the king as he took him in his\narms.  \"Proud am I, too, that I have a grandson like you!  Where is\nyour mother now?\"\n\n\"My mother is in the house in the forest,\" replied Jose.  \"It is she\nwho told me to carry the money to the king.\"\n\n\"Why did she never come to me?\" asked the father.\n\n\"I think she was afraid she'd be punished for running away from the\ntower without any door,\" was Jose's reply.\n\nWhen the princess was brought home to the royal palace there was a\ngreat feast held which lasted for three days and three nights.  Then\nthe king sent his men with Jose into the forest to the cave where the\ngiant had lived.  They brought home so many bags of gold that it\nrequired the entire royal army to transport it.\n\nYears passed, and when the old king died it was Jose the Beast Slayer\nwho was king of the land.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Headpiece]\n\n\n\n\nTHE PRINCESS OF THE LOST ISLAND\n\n_The Story of Euphemia and Her Good Deeds_\n\n\nEuphemia was the daughter of King Atlas and the granddaughter of the\ngreat god Jupiter.  She was more beautiful than her fifteen sisters,\nthough they were all lovely.\n\nAll the ten sons of Neptune admired her charms and sought to marry her,\nbut she would wed none of them.  There was, in truth, no one in all the\nworld who was worthy of her.  Euphemia herself knew this and preferred\nto remain a star in the constellation of the Hyades, her sisters,\nrather than wed an unworthy husband.\n\nEuphemia became a Christian, they say, through the efforts of the\ncherubim.  She decided to come down to earth and go about doing good\ndeeds.  Accordingly, she came to the island called Seven Cities.\n\nNow in the island of Seven Cities there lived a rich and venerable\nChristian prince.  He adopted Euphemia as his own daughter.  She was\ncalled Princess Euphemia of the island of Seven Cities.\n\nAs soon as she came to the island all pain and misery vanished from it.\nJoy reigned.  Banquets were held, songs were sung, gay dances were\ndanced.  It was as if every day were a feast day.\n\nTime passed.  Many changes came to the island, but Euphemia herself\nremained always young, always beautiful.\n\nOne day two priests from the outside world visited the island.  They\nsaw the magnificent palaces, the beautiful gardens.  Two tame lions\nfollowed them about.  They were as gentle as if they had been dogs.\n\n\"We are in the celestial regions,\" said one priest to the other.\n\n\"Let us stay here forever,\" said the other priest.  \"It is indeed the\nParadise of which we have dreamed.\"\n\nThe two priests had come in a tiny launch from a large boat.\n\n\"We should return and tell our friends about this celestial region,\"\nthey agreed.  \"To-morrow we will all explore this wonderful country.\"\n\nIt was almost dark when the two priests reached their ship by the\nlittle launch.  They reported all the things they had heard and seen in\nthe new land.\n\nThe next morning, however, the island had entirely disappeared.  The\nwater stretched before their gaze with an unbroken rippling blue\nsurface.\n\n\"What has become of our beautiful island,\" the good priests asked in\namazement.\n\n\"We were anchored off the shore of one of the enchanted islands,\" was\nthe opinion of everybody.\n\nEuphemia, they say, has not yet disappeared entirely.  She has changed\nher form.  She is still found in the Azores in the plant called\nSOLANEA, the flower of St. Cosmo.  She is still doing good deeds.  Pain\ndisappears when she comes, just as it did in the lost island.  St.\nCosmo, the patron saint of all good physicians, could never have gained\nhis reputation without her good deeds.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Headpiece]\n\n\n\n\nWHY THE ALVELOA BIRD RECEIVED A BLESSING\n\n_The Story of the Bird of Good Luck_\n\n\nIn the Azores there is a little bird which is loved and protected by\nevery one.  Its name is the Alveloa.  It has a gray back, white breast,\nhead and throat, and black and white wings.  The tail of this little\nbird is always in motion.  This is the reason:\n\nLong ago when the wicked king Herod ordered all the babies to be\nkilled, the Holy Virgin fled into Egypt with the Christ child safe in\nher arms.  They rode upon an ass.\n\nThe Virgin glanced fearfully behind her as they went along the way.  At\nany moment Herod's messengers might come in pursuit.  The tracks of the\nass showed plainly in the dusty road.\n\n\"Oh!\" cried the Holy Mother, \"Our enemies will see our tracks!  They\nwill know in what direction we have fled!\"\n\nThe Alveloa was nearby and heard.  She spread out her tail like a fan\nand shook it about in the dusty road.  The tracks of the ass were\ncompletely brushed away.\n\nThe Holy Mother smiled upon her.\n\n\"For this kind deed, little bird, your tail shall be always in motion.\nBy this sign you shall be known and your life shall be spared.\"\n\nTo this very day the tail of the Alveloa is in motion.  St. Michael,\nhimself, the patron of the island of S. Miguel, has asked a special\nprotection for the little bird in his island.\n\n\nThe Alveloa flew all the way before the Virgin, showing her the road\ninto Egypt.\n\n\"My blessing upon you, little bird,\" said the Virgin.  \"May you always\nhave the strength to slay your enemy.\"\n\nTo this very day the Alveloa is able to slay birds much larger than\nherself.\n\n\"The Alveloa kills the hawk,\" is a saying in the Azores.\n\n\nIf one wakes in the morning and sees this little gray and white bird\nbefore his window he will have a lucky day.\n\nOn the way into Egypt the Virgin pointed to the lupine which grew by\nthe wayside.\n\n\"Eat, little bird,\" she said.  \"Eat until your hunger is satisfied.\nBlessings be upon you for your kind deeds to me and to the Holy Child.\nMay good fortune and plenty always attend you.\"\n\nTo this very day this bird blessed by the Virgin is an emblem of good\nluck.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Headpiece]\n\n\n\n\nWHY THE CODORNIZ BIRD RECEIVED A CURSE\n\n_A Story of the Bird Who Walks Humbly_\n\n\nWhen the Holy Virgin was fleeing into Egypt to escape the persecutions\nof Herod, the Codorniz bird flew about making a great racket, calling\nout, \"Come this way.\"\n\n\"Keep quiet!\" cried the Virgin.  \"Our enemies will hear you!  They will\ncome in pursuit!\"\n\nIn spite of her words the Codorniz kept up its noise.\n\n\"My curse be upon you,\" said the Virgin.  \"You shall always walk\nhumbly.  You shall never fly high and smile at the sun.\"\n\nTo this very day the Codorniz bird walks humbly.  It has many enemies\nwho love to slay it to devour.\n\n\n\n\nOUTSIDE THE DOOR LIKE THE MOTHER OF ST. PETER\n\n_A Story of Why She Stays Outside_\n\n\nIf there is no response when you ring the bell or knock at a door in\nthe Azores, you have to stay \"outside the door like the mother of St.\nPeter,\" they say.  This is the story which tells why the mother of St.\nPeter had to stay outside:\n\nThe very stingiest woman in the whole city was St. Peter's mother.  She\nwas so stingy that she never gave away a single thing to a beggar.  No\nmatter if the beggar were old or sick or blind or crippled or even a\nmother with a babe in her arms, she always made the same reply, \"I have\nnothing to give away.\"\n\nNot even when there was famine in the land, but plenty in her own home,\nwould the mother of St. Peter share with the unfortunate.\n\nWhen St. Peter was made the guardian of the keys of Heaven, of course\nhe tried to bring his mother inside the celestial gate.\n\n\"When your mother lived upon the earth did she ever share her plenty\nwith any of my poor unfortunate children?\" was the question.\n\nSt. Peter thought hard.  His mother had been a worthy, virtuous woman\nin many respects, but he could recall nothing which she had ever given\nto the poor and the unfortunate.\n\nAt last he remembered a day when she had gone into the garden to get\nvegetables for the soup.\n\nA poor beggar woman had stood outside the garden gate, crying: \"Alms!\nAlms, for the love of God!\"\n\n[Illustration: \"Alms!  Alms!\"]\n\n\"Get away from my garden,\" said St. Peter's mother.  \"I have no alms to\ngive you.  If I give away the vegetables from my garden, I'd soon have\nnothing left to feed my own family.  I'd be begging myself.\"\n\nThe poor beggar woman started to turn away with tears in her eyes.  An\nonion stalk fell from the hand of St. Peter's mother.  It was bruised\nby its fall and covered with mud, but the beggar seized it eagerly.\n\n\"Keep it.  I wouldn't use it anyway,\" snapped St. Peter's mother.\n\nSt. Peter could remember nothing else to tell, so he related this story.\n\n\"Go and find the onion,\" was the comment.\n\nWhen St. Peter at last found that onion stalk, it was still dirty with\nthe mud of the garden and crumpled by its fall, just as it had been\nwhen his mother had given it to the beggar.\n\n\"Hold out the onion and pull your mother in,\" was the order.\n\nSt. Peter held out the onion stalk.  It did not reach very far down\ninto Purgatory, but his mother jumped up as high as she could and\nseized it eagerly.\n\nSlowly and very carefully he pulled her up by it to the Heavenly Gate.\nJust as she was about to enter the door the onion stalk broke.\n\n\"I'm sorry.  You'll have to stay outside,\" said St. Peter.  \"I've done\nthe best I could for you.  The onion stalk was not strong enough to\npull you through.\"\n\nThus it happens that the mother of St. Peter has to stay outside the\ndoor of Heaven.\n\n\n\n\nWHY THE OWL FLIES AT NIGHT\n\n_A Story of Good St. Anthony_\n\n\nLong ago there was an image of the good St. Anthony washed ashore by\nthe rough waves of the Bay of Angra.  A little chapel was built to\nreceive it on the steep slopes of Monte Brasil overlooking the bay and\nhere it still remains.\n\nOnce upon a time a little boy named Pedro lived in a tiny cottage near\nSt. Anthony's shrine.  His mother had died and his father had married a\nnew wife who was often cruel to him.  She dressed him in ragged, shabby\nclothes and the other children of the parish often pointed their\nfingers at him in scorn because of his poor garments.\n\nOne day as Pedro knelt before the image of the good saint a strange\nthing happened.  His clothing became new and whole.  He was dressed as\nwell as any boy in the parish.\n\n\"Where did you get clothes like this?\" asked the stepmother when he\ncame home that night.  \"I always knew you were a good-for-nothing.  I\nbelieve you have stolen them.\"\n\nLittle Pedro told what had happened, but the woman would not believe\nhim.\n\n\"Don't stand there talking any longer!\" she cried.  \"Take the water\njars and go to the spring and fill them for me.  Hurry, I don't want to\nbe kept waiting for the water!\"\n\nPedro lifted the two great water jars which stood on the floor and\nslowly climbed up the hill to the little spring which supplied water\nfor the family needs during the greater part of the year.  Just now the\nspring had failed, as the stepmother had found out that very day.\n\n[Illustration: Pedro lifted the two great jars and slowly climbed up\nthe hill]\n\n\"There is no water in the spring now,\" said an old man whom little\nPedro met on the way.  The boy had almost reached the spring and the\nbig jars were growing heavy even though they were empty.\n\n\"I'm so nearly there I'll go on and see for myself,\" decided the lad.\n\"The other spring is so far away and the jars will be so heavy that I\ncan never carry them all the long distance.  Perhaps there is still a\nlittle water here.\"\n\nWhen he reached the spring he was surprised to see the water flowing\nfaster than in many a day.  He remembered, too, the new suit of clothes\nhe was wearing.\n\n\"Luck is with me to-day!\" he cried as he filled the water jars.  \"The\ngood saint Anthony is my friend.  He it is who has given me my handsome\nclothing and he it is who has blessed the spring for me.\"\n\nWhen he returned home with the jars full of water his stepmother stared\nat him in amazement.  He had not been gone long enough to obtain it\nfrom the farther spring.\n\n\"Where did you get this water?\" she asked, as soon as she could find\nwords with which to speak.\n\nPedro told her that it came from the spring just as it always did.\n\n\"That spring is dry to-day!\" she cried.  \"Now I know that you are a\nliar as well as a thief.  Just wait until your father comes home!  I'll\nsee that you get the beating you deserve.\"\n\nPedro wondered why she had sent him to the spring if she had believed\nit to be dry, and while he was thinking of this the angry woman gave\nhim a big basket.\n\n\"Here,\" she said.  \"Go out in the garden and pick up some wood for me.\nHurry.  Don't keep me waiting.  Your slow ways drive me mad.\"\n\nPedro knew that all the wood in the garden had been picked up long ago.\nNow there was nothing in the garden except roses.  There were red roses\nand pink roses and yellow roses and white roses, but not a single stick\nof wood.  High up on the steep slopes of Monte Brasil there might be\nwood to gather, but the night was dark and the path was steep and long.\nLittle Pedro was very tired, so tired that two great tears rolled down\nhis cheeks.\n\nSuddenly the good saint Anthony from the little chapel stood before\nhim.  He smiled kindly at the child.  \"Why are you crying, my boy?\"\nasked the saint.  \"I have watched you carefully for a long time and I\nknow you seldom give way to tears, though often your burdens are so\nheavy that a boy less brave would do little else than weep.\"\n\n\"I have to fill my basket with wood and there is nothing except roses\nin our garden,\" replied Pedro.  \"I'm tired and it is very dark on Monte\nBrasil to search there for wood.\"\n\n\"Here, dear boy,\" said the saint, smiling.  \"Just pick the roses and\nfill your basket with them.  Then take them to your stepmother and see\nwhat she will say to you.  I'll be with you.\"\n\nPedro filled his big basket with the lovely red and yellow and pink and\nwhite roses which grew in the garden in such rich abundance.  Then he\nran into the house with them.  As the light from the candles fell upon\nthem, to his amazement he saw that they were no longer roses.  The\nbasket was full of wood.\n\n\"Where did you get this wood?\" cried the woman angrily.  \"There are\nonly roses in the garden.  Where have you been?\"\n\nShe seized Pedro roughly by the collar of his new coat and shook him\nuntil his teeth chattered.  He looked up into the saint's eyes.  St.\nAnthony's face was stern.\n\n\"Stop, woman!\" cried the voice which a moment before had been so kind\nand gentle.  Now it thundered forth in stern accents.  \"This little lad\nhas done no harm.  You have been guilty of a desire to bring harm to\nhim, For this cruelty take the punishment which you so richly merit.\nIt is you who have sent this child out into the night.  Now it is I who\nsends you out into the night.\"\n\nFrom that moment Pedro's stepmother was no longer a woman.  She was\nchanged into an owl with her eyes the big round circles they had looked\nwhen she had gazed up into the fierce face of angry St. Anthony.  To\nthis very day the owl has to fly by night.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Headpiece]\n\n\n\n\nTHE LABORER AND HIS MASTER\n\n_The Story of a Man Who Outfitted Another_\n\n\nOnce upon a time there was a laborer who said to his master:\n\n\"It is time to plant the fields.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said his master.  \"The part which grows above the ground\nshall be mine and you shall have in payment for your labor the part\nwhich grows below the ground.\"\n\n\"Agreed,\" said the laborer.\n\nHe planted the fields with potatoes.  His master had nothing but the\ntops outside the earth.  The laborer harvested many baskets of potatoes\nthat year and sold them for a goodly sum.  The master was angry because\nof this.\n\n\"Next harvest time,\" said he, \"we'll see about things!  You shall give\nme what grows below the ground and keep for yourself what grows above.\"\n\n\"Agreed,\" said the laborer.  \"That is perfectly fair to me.\"\n\nThe laborer planted the fields with wheat.  His master had nothing but\nthe roots, while he harvested a rich crop of wheat which he sold for\nmuch money.\n\n\"I'll settle with you,\" said his master.\n\nThe laborer was frightened.\n\n\"Don't be afraid,\" said his wife.  \"When your master comes let me talk\nto him.\"\n\nThe woman gashed her face and hands with the pruning knife.\n\nThe master came to the door and she opened it.\n\n\"Where is your husband?\" he asked.\n\n\"He is sharpening his nails,\" said she.  \"See what ugly scratches I\nalready have upon my hands and face.\"\n\nThe master went away without punishing the laborer.\n\n\n\n\n'TIS FAITH WHICH SAVES\n\n_The Story of a Maid Who Was Betrothed to One She Trusted_\n\n\nThere was once upon a time a fair maid who lived in the island of\nFayal.  She was betrothed to a young man of the same island.  One day\nshe fell ill with a disease which baffled the skill of all the\nphysicians.  Their arts, the mourning of her betrothed, the prayers and\ntears of her mother, all seemed of no avail.  It appeared that the fair\nmaid would die.\n\n[Illustration: It appeared that the fair maid would die]\n\nNow it happened that in one of the nearby islands, St. Michael, there\nwas a miracle-working image called the Santo Christo.  The fair maid\nbegged of her betrothed that he would go to St. Michael and procure\nsome of the mysterious miracle-working sweat of the Santo Christo or\nsome of the miraculous parings of the nails of the image, which had the\npower to heal any disease.\n\nThe young man gladly set out on the quest.  On the boat which conveyed\nhim to St. Michael, however, he met a maid with beauty and charm, a\nmaid whose bright eyes made him forget the sad eyes of his betrothed.\n\nWhen he arrived at his destination he thought only of singing gay songs\nbeneath the balcony of his new love.  The days flew by, and soon it was\ntime for the boat to return to Fayal.  He had forgotten the mission on\nwhich he had come, and he returned to the boat with no relics of the\nmiracle-working Santo Christo.\n\nThe homeward journey was rough and stormy.  Filled with fear of death\nat any moment, the young man remembered the fair maid of Fayal who even\nat that very hour might be dying.  His conscience smote him.\n\n\"Oh, why did I allow another fair face to crowd out from my heart the\nimage of my beloved?\" he asked himself.  \"Faithless wretch that I am,\nwhat shall I say to my betrothed if good fortune and the sea permit me\nto stand once more at her side?\"\n\nThe rough waves beat angrily against the side of the boat in answer.\nThat night the storm ceased and in the morning it was fair and clear as\nthe boat entered the beautiful harbor of Fayal under the shadow of Mt.\nPico.  With clear skies and smooth seas the young man's conscience\nbecame less troublesome.  He resolved that he would not confess his\ndeceit to his betrothed.\n\n\"If I told her it might make her grow worse so rapidly that she would\ndie because of it,\" he said to himself.\n\nIndeed, it was quite enough to have made the girl die of a broken\nheart, had she known the whole story.\n\nSuddenly the youth's face clouded.\n\n\"What shall I say to my beloved as the reason why I have brought back\nto her neither the miracle-working sweat of the Santo Christo nor the\nmiraculous nail parings?\" he was asking.\n\nHis eye fell upon the boat's wooden side.  Quickly he shaved off some\nfine parings of this wood.  He wrapped them up carefully and took them\nto the fair maid of Fayal as if they were parings from the nails of the\nmiracle-working image.\n\nHis betrothed's face shone with joy at his return.  Tears of\nthankfulness filled her eyes when she saw the parings which he had\nbrought her.\n\n\"How can I ever thank you for your faithfulness in this quest in my\nbehalf, and the great love which prompted you to undertake this stormy,\ndangerous journey on the rough seas that I might once more be well?\"\n\nThe young man did not enjoy hearing her speak of his love and\nfaithfulness.  He did not reply.\n\n\"No maid was ever blessed with so wonderful a lover,\" went on the happy\ngirl.\n\n\"You are forgetting to take the parings,\" said the mother.  \"They will\nnot cure you if you do not take them.\"\n\nThe fair maid of Fayal took the parings in a gourd full of water.  She\nbegan to improve immediately and the next day she was entirely well.\n\n\"'Tis faith which saves and not parings,\" said her betrothed.\n\n\n\n\nST. BRENDAN'S ISLAND\n\n_The Story of the Little Maid Who Found It_\n\n\nThere was once an Irish monk called St. Brendan.  One day he received a\nvisit from a hermit who told him of a most marvelous island.\n\n\"Come and visit this earthly Paradise,\" said the hermit.  \"There the\nsun always shines.  The birds wear golden crowns upon their heads and\nspeak like humans.\"\n\nThe perfume of the island clung to the garments of the hermit for forty\ndays.\n\nGood St. Brendan asked many questions about the mysterious island and\nat last resolved to visit it and see for himself if all the wonders of\nwhich he had heard were really true.  Accordingly, he built a coracle\nof wattle covered with hides tanned in oak bark and softened with\nbutter.  He loaded it with provisions to last for forty days.  Then he\npersuaded some of his disciples to accompany him.  This was somewhat\ndifficult for they were timid about embarking upon this dangerous\nexpedition in the frail boat.  St. Brendan, however, succeeded in\novercoming their fears and set out with a little group of his most\ndevoted followers.\n\nIt was seven years before they returned to their native land.  They\nwere even more enthusiastic about their wonderful island than the\nhermit had been.  They urged others to go and find out its marvels but\nnobody else was ever able to locate it.\n\nThey say that the island of St. Brendan was a floating island in the\nAtlantic.  Good St. Brendan did not die but kept on living in the\nearthly Paradise of his isle.  When the Christians were hard pressed in\ntheir battles with the Moors and were about to be pushed back into the\nsea the island of St. Brendan appeared upon the horizon, and the good\nsaint himself came to fight against the Moors and bring victory to the\nChristians.\n\n\nIn the middle of the fifteenth century there was a little maid called\nMaria who lived in the island of Terceira.  She heard the story of St.\nBrendan's isle from a Franciscan brother.  Day and night she dreamed of\nit.  She often sat upon the hillside of Monte Brasil, looking eagerly\nout over the broad expanse of sea, hoping with all her heart that the\nisland would appear to her.\n\nOne day there landed in Terceira a cavalier of Rhodes named Vital.\nFrom his grandfather he had inherited some of the sacred relics of St.\nBrendan.  He had come to the Azores in his search for the mysterious\nisland.  On his doublet he wore an eight-pointed star and a band upon\nwhich was embroidered in scarlet silk the motto, \"By Faith.\"  It was\nindeed \"by faith\" that he had embarked upon his quest.\n\nThe little maid, Maria, fell in love with him the moment she heard of\nhim and his errand.  She worshiped him as if he had been the good St.\nBrendan himself, but when she was with him she sat with downcast eyes,\nher long dark eyelashes sweeping her delicate cheek, and did not give\nhim a glance, much less a word.\n\nThe young cavalier loved the little maid.  He divided his holy relics\nof St. Brendan with her, and in return he begged of her that she might\nspeak a word of love.\n\n\"To tell my love to you,\" said Maria, \"I'd have to be where nobody but\nGod could hear.\"\n\nIndeed it was quite true that Maria needed to be where nobody but the\ngood God could hear her when she spoke of her love for the cavalier\nVital.  The son of the wealthy Captain of the district had long admired\nher delicate beauty.  He had already sought her for his bride.  His\njealousy against Vital rose up like a burning flame.  He went to Maria\nand demanded that she should marry him at once.\n\nMaria firmly refused.\n\n\"If you do not wed me,\" said the captain's son, \"I shall have my father\nlock you up in the stronghold of St. Louis on the hillside.\"\n\n\"I should prefer to spend all my days confined in the castle of St.\nLouis rather than be your wife,\" said she.  \"Why can't you leave me in\npeace with my relics of the good St. Brendan!\"\n\nThe mention of St. Brendan's relics stirred the young man's wrath even\nmore.  He well knew who it was who had given her the holy relics.  His\nthreat was fulfilled, and she was taken that very day to the castle of\nSt. Louis and locked up in that stronghold.\n\nHer room had a window, and there she sat high up in the tower of the\ncastle looking down at the city of Angra beneath her.\n\n\"I had longed to serve the good God,\" she cried.  \"Why is it that my\nlife has been made useless!\"\n\nAt that very moment the earth trembled.  The strong walls of the castle\nshook as if they had been built of paper.\n\nNear the fort two doves were sitting on the branches of a cedar tree.\n\n\"Let us rescue this fair maid,\" said one dove to the other.\n\n\"Yes, let us carry her away on our wings,\" agreed the other.\n\nThat instant the earth shook so that the walls of the stronghold fell\nto the ground.  The two doves spread out their snow-white wings and\nbore Maria away in safety.\n\nOver houses and churches they flew.  Over treetops and the broad\nexpanse of the sea they rose.  The city, the island, the sea, all\ndisappeared from Maria's sight.  She felt so dizzy that she closed her\neyes.\n\nWhen she opened them again she was in an island of such beauty as she\nhad never dreamed.  It was indeed a garden of Paradise.  The good St.\nBrendan himself, she saw, was the gardener.\n\n\nThe earthquake caused much damage in the island of Terceira.  When the\ndisappearance of Maria was known throughout the little city; of Angra\nnobody mourned for her as did the young cavalier Vital.\n\n\"What is the island to me without Maria?\" he asked in sorrow.\n\nOnce more he embarked upon the sea in his search for the island of St.\nBrendan.  Long days and long nights he tossed about on the ocean.\n\nOne evening just at sunset he saw the clouds of heaven descending to\nearth like a white ladder.  Then he observed, far away upon the\nhorizon, an island.  He knew in his heart that he had at last a glimpse\nof St. Brendan's isle.\n\n[Illustration: One evening just at sunset]\n\nA gentle breeze swelled his sails and sent him rapidly toward it.  As\nhe drew near he saw his loved Maria standing with her arms\noutstretched.  A bright light shone about her.\n\n\"To speak of my love to you,\" said she, \"I have to be where nobody but\nGod can hear--God and the gardener of this island, St. Brendan.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE SILENT CAVALIER\n\n_The Story of the Peach Tree_\n\n\nIn the early days when the Azores had just been discovered there were\nmany Flemish settlers who came to the islands.  Among them there was a\nyoung cavalier of the order of St. George of Borgonha.  His name was\nJesus Maria and the reason why he had come was because a wise monk had\ntold him that his path in life lay by way of the sea.\n\n\"Your name given to you in Holy Baptism,\" said the monk, \"is Iesvs\nMaria.  Transpose the letters and it says in Latin, _Maris es via_.\"\n\nThe young cavalier agreed that the sea must be his path of destiny and\nhe at once set sail upon a long voyage which finally led him to the\nisland of Fayal.  He loved the rocky coast where the waves beat.  He\nloved the deep ravine where the laughing brook ran, the lake in the\nancient crater, the snow-capped summit of Mt. Pico which smiled down in\nstately majesty from the opposite island.  He decided that this was to\nbe his home.\n\n\"My path of Destiny was indeed the sea,\" he said.  \"The sea has brought\nme to a country which is very fair.\"\n\nIn the island of Fayal there were already some Portuguese settlers.\nOne of these had a beautiful daughter Ida.  The young Flemish cavalier\nthought that she was the fairest maid he had ever seen.  He fell deeply\nin love with her.\n\nNow the cavaliers of the order of St. George of Borgonha had vowed that\nthey would never wed.  Jesus Maria could not break the solemn pledge\nwhich he had given when he joined the order.  Neither could he forget\nthe bright eyes of the Portuguese maiden Ida.  It seemed as if his\nheart would break.\n\n\"I will leave this island and return to my own country,\" he thought.\n\nThen he remembered the words which the wise monk had said about the sea\nbeing his path.  He had followed that road and it had led him to a fair\nisland home.  He decided that he could not return to his native land of\nFlanders.  Over across the shining blue water he looked up at the\npeaceful snow-capped summit of Mt. Pico.  The sight of its majestic\nstillness seemed to give him strength to hold his tongue and keep him\nfrom speaking words of love to the beautiful Portuguese maiden.  Never\na word of love broke from him.  The maiden Ida never knew the shrine\nshe occupied in the heart of the Flemish cavalier.\n\n[Illustration: The peaceful snow-capped summit of Mt. Pico]\n\nThe days dragged slowly by.  The young man could bear no more.  He felt\nthat his strength could no longer endure on the same island with Ida.\nIf he stayed near her he would break his vow.\n\nOne morning in a little boat he crossed the blue waters to the island\nof Pico.  At the foot of the majestic mountain he loved, he built the\nlittle hut which was to be his home.  He never returned to the island\nof Fayal, and as the years went by he was spoken of as the good hermit\nof Pico.  Nobody knew his secret.\n\nWhen at last the Cavalier Jesus Maria died, a peach tree grew from his\ntomb,--the emblem of silence.  The leaf of this tree has the form of\nthe human tongue.  Its fruit has a stone shaped somewhat like the human\nheart.  From this stone there comes a seed which when planted produces\na new tree.  Thus it is that words which bear fruit spring from the\nheart.  It is silence which teaches one the gift of fruitful words,\nthey say in the Azores.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ENCHANTED PALACE\n\n_The Story of Lake Ginjal_\n\n\nIn the village of Altos Ares in the island of Terceira there lived once\nupon a time a fair maid who had been baptized Perola, which means\nPearl.  As she grew older she was indeed like a rare pearl among the\nother maidens of the village, so great was the charm of her unusual\nbeauty.  She was the joy of her home and of the whole community for her\ndisposition was as lovely as her face.\n\nOne bright spring morning Perola leaned over the cistern where she had\ngone to get water.  Her reflection showed so plainly in the water that\nshe paused to gaze into the smiling eyes of her own mirrored face.  As\nshe did so a magic spell was woven about her.  The water fairy who had\ncome to the cistern had seen her great beauty and had thrown a charm\nover her.  In a moment more she fell into the cistern to join her\nreflection there.\n\nWhen Perola could not be found there was great excitement in the little\nvillage.  Nobody could guess what had become of her.  Her mother prayed\ndevoutly for her safety in the church of St. Roque.  All the villagers\nsought for her in every possible place.\n\nNow at the north of the island of Terceira there are groups of tiny\nrocks in the sea which are called the Biscoitos or biscuits.  Here\nthere lived a wise old woman who had a great reputation among all the\npeople of the island for her knowledge.\n\n\"Let us go to consult the wise woman of Biscoitos,\" said one of the\nvillage youths when they had sought long and faithfully for a trace of\nthe hiding-place into which Perola might have vanished.\n\nAccordingly, the young men of Altos Ares went to the wise woman, and\nthis is what she told them:\n\n\"The fair pearl of your village is safe from the fishers of pearls.\nShe is hidden away in an enchanted palace of marble and ivory and\ntortoise-shell and mother-of-pearl.\"\n\nThe water fairy had taken Perola through an underground passage which\nled from the cistern to the beautiful enchanted palace in the lake of\nGinjal.  There she was kept in hiding.  The fairies never dreamed that\nanybody would ever be able to guess where she was.\n\n[Illustration: The beautiful enchanted palace in the lake of Ginjal]\n\nNow, with the words of the wise woman of Biscoitos to guide them, the\nyouths of Altos Ares organized an expedition to search for their lost\nplaymate.  The sons of the magistrate, the rich men, the learned men of\nthe island of Terceira joined this expedition.  They searched through\nthe whole island for a place where an enchanted palace might be located.\n\nAt last, upon St. John's Day when the days and nights are of equal\nlength, this band of the brave youths of Terceira came to the shores of\nLake Ginjal in the interior of the island.\n\n\"This is surely the enchanted place.  Here in this lake must lie the\nfairies' palace of marble and ivory and tortoise shell and\nmother-of-pearl!\" somebody cried.\n\n\"How shall we be able to approach this magic palace and rescue Perola?\"\nasked one.\n\n\"How shall we be able to break her enchantment?\" asked another.\n\n\"Let us camp here upon the border of the lake and consider how best to\nproceed,\" said the leader of the expedition.\n\nNow at that very hour on St. John's Day the mother of Perola was in the\nchurch of St. Roque in Altos Ares praying devoutly for her daughter's\nsafe return.\n\nSuddenly she heard a strange voice.  These were the words which fell\nupon her ears:\n\n\"Your prayers and the perseverance of the youths of the island have at\nlast triumphed.  Go in peace.  On the day of St. Peter at the hour of\nsunset your daughter shall be restored to you.  Her enchantment shall\nbe broken and she shall be brought to the bank of Lake Ginjal in a boat\nof ivory, drawn by a snow-white swan.\"\n\nWhen the youths encamped upon the shore of the lake heard these tidings\nthey set up such a shout of joy that it was indeed enough to break any\nenchantment.\n\nAt the time appointed Perola was brought to the bank of the lake in a\nboat of ivory drawn by a snow-white swan, just as fair and lovely as\nupon the day when she had vanished from the little village of Altos\nAres.\n\nThis is the story of the Lake of Ginjal.  It is quite probable that the\nenchanted palace of the water fairies is still there.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FRIEND OF THE DEVIL\n\n_A Story of the Islands in the Bay of Angra_\n\n\nOnce upon a time there was a handsome Flemish youth who came to the\nisland of Fayal.  His name was Fernao de Hutra.  He fell in love with a\nbeautiful nun in the convent of the Gloria in the city of Horta.\n\nOne day the Devil appeared to him.\n\n\"Since you fell in love with this fair nun, I see you are a friend of\nmine,\" said the Devil.\n\nThe young man had not known this, but he replied:\n\n\"Say rather that I will be your friend if you help me get possession of\nthis nun I love.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said the Devil, \"but you will have to make a bargain with\nme.\"\n\n\"What is it?\" asked Fernao, rather anxiously.\n\n\"Grant me your solemn pledge that you'll give me all your children,\"\nresponded the Devil.\n\n\"Agreed,\" said Fernao.\n\nAfter that he saw much of the Devil.  The nun, however, was as devout\nas she was beautiful.  She refused to break the vows she had made and\nflee with the Flemish youth.  She firmly resisted both him and the\nDevil.\n\n\"You are not a true friend to me after all,\" said Fernao to the Devil\nsadly.\n\n\"But you are my friend,\" said the Devil in reply.\n\nSoon after, Fernao de Hutra left the city of Horta and the island of\nFayal and went to join his kinsmen who had settled in Angra in the\nisland of Terceira.  Here his handsome face won many friends for him\namong the youth of the city.  To some of these he confided the story of\nhis relations with the Devil.\n\nNow it happened that in the year 1666 the first bull fight was held in\nAngra.  To this very day the island of Terceira is the only one in the\nAzores which has bull fights.\n\nFernao had taken part in this.  He was one of the chief organizers of\nthe bull fight held on St. John's Day of the following year.  That day\nall the men and women and children of the city of Angra assembled in\nthe public square before the fort.  The bullfighters, richly clad, rode\nforth upon prancing steeds decked in costly velvets with streamers and\nribbons of gold and silver which sparkled in the bright sunlight.  The\nyouths were resplendent in their garments of crimson or purple or blue\nvelvet, richly embroidered.  Fernao de Hutra was radiant in his jacket\nof blue decked with pearls, with a plumed hat upon his handsome head.\nHe carried a yellow banner embroidered with the arms of his family.\n\nGay music sounded.  The bulls were brought into the ring.  The\nbullfighters saluted and the fight began.\n\nIn the windows of the castle the daughters of the chief magistrate of\nthe city of Angra were seated among their friends.  The eldest\ndaughter, Sophia, was the most beautiful maid of the whole city.  The\nmagistrate watched her anxiously as her fair cheek alternately paled\nand flushed as the struggle went on.  There could be no doubt about the\nfact that there was love in her eyes as they rested upon the handsome\nyoung Flemish cavalier, Fernao de Hutra.  She was wearing his colors\nand in her hand she carefully held his bouquet of flowers.  The ribbon\nwhich tied them secured also a piece of paper upon which were written\nthese words:\n\n  \"Oh, beautiful maid of my heart's desire,\n  For your dear sake I'd go through fire.\"\n\n\nThe magistrate withdrew from the gay scene into the silence of the\ngreat hall of the castle.  He bowed his head upon his hands.\n\n[Illustration: He bowed his head upon his hands]\n\n\"This youth is the friend of the Devil,\" he groaned.  \"I cannot consent\nto my daughter's marriage to him.  He has promised to give all his\nchildren to the Devil, they say.  I cannot allow my own grandchildren\nto be given to the Devil.\"\n\nThat very day he began to plot how to get rid of the handsome young\nFernao.\n\nNow in the bay before the city of Angra there are two rocky islands\ncalled to-day just as they were then, the Ilheos de Cabras, the islands\nof goats.  The brother-in-law of the magistrate was the owner of these\nbarren islands.  There were a few goats there, a few mulberry bushes,\nand a tiny spring of fresh water.  The magistrate called his\nbrother-in-law to him as soon as the bull fight was over.  He told him\nall his fears and asked if he might use the islands as a place of\nbanishment for the young Flemish cavalier who was the friend of the\nDevil.\n\n\"You are quite welcome to use these islands for so worthy a purpose,\"\nreplied his brother-in-law.  \"Indeed, I have often thought that the\ndeep cave on the island led into Inferno.  It is a most fitting spot\nfor the habitation of the Devil's friend.\"\n\nThus it happened that the handsome young Flemish cavalier was seized\nand borne away to the barren rocky islands in the Bay of Angra.  When\nhe was received there a great earthquake shook the whole island of\nTerceira.  When at last the people of the city of Angra were through\ncontemplating all the destruction which had been wrought, some one\nlooked in the direction of the island of goats.  They saw that a great\npiece had been broken away from one of the islands.\n\nThus it was that the Devil received his friend.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MILLER'S CLOAK\n\n_The Story of a Man Who Tried to Stay Home from Church_\n\n\nThere was once a pious miller.  He was always to be found in the church\npraying.  He prayed for the dead.  He prayed for those who were alive.\nHe prayed for all who suffered, for the homeless ones, for the hungry\nones.  He prayed for those upon the sea and those upon the land.\n\nNow it happened that a terrible storm smote the island.  The sea beat\nhigh against the rocky coast.  Lightning flashed.  Thunder roared.  The\nwind howled.  The rain fell in torrents as if it were a flood.\n\n\"Don't go out in the storm to-night,\" counselled his wife.  \"It is not\na suitable night for one to go to church.\"\n\n\"I agree with you,\" replied the miller.  \"I do not need to go to the\nchurch in this fierce storm.  Surely my prayers of other days and\nnights have been so many that to-night I have earned rest in my own dry\nhouse.  The good God will pardon me.\"\n\nThe miller wrapped his heavy brown cloak about him and lay down upon\nhis bed.  The wind shrieked.  Thunder shook the earth.  Unseen hands\npulled the miller's cloak from off his bed.\n\n\"The wind has blown out the candle!  Light another!\" cried the miller\nto his wife.\n\nBy the dim light of the candle the good miller again arranged his bed.\nHe wrapped his heavy mantle about him and once more tried to sleep.\nAgain his cloak was pulled from off his bed as if by unseen hands.\n\nThere was no rest for the miller that night.  His cloak could not be\nmade to cover him as he lay upon his bed.\n\n\"I might as well go to church and pray,\" he told his wife.  \"I can't\nrest here.\"\n\nHe wrapped himself in the brown cloak and went out to the church\nthrough the fierce blinding storm.  He prayed for the dead.  He prayed\nfor those who were alive.  He prayed for all who suffered, for the\nhomeless ones, the hungry ones.  He prayed for those upon the sea, for\nthose upon the land.\n\n[Illustration: He wrapped himself in the brown cloak and went out\nthrough the fierce blinding storm]\n\n\"Surely the prayers of the pious are needed this night,\" said the\nmiller to his wife when he came in out of the fierce storm.\n\nLightning flashed.  Thunder roared.  The rain fell in torrents.  The\nwind howled and drove the pouring rain against the windows.  It blew in\nsheets through the door before the miller had time to close it behind\nhim.  The storm beat upon the thatched roof as if it would carry it\naway.\n\n\"Quick, your cloak!\" cried the miller's wife.  \"Take it off that I may\ndry it by the fire!\"\n\nThe good man started to obey.  As he touched his cloak, however, his\neyes opened wide in amazement.  It was entirely dry.\n\n\"Feel it yourself!\" said he to his wife.  \"There is not a drop of rain\nupon it!\"\n\nThe miller's wife discovered that his words were true.\n\n\"It is a miracle of God!\" cried she as she crossed herself.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MAGIC MOUTHFUL\n\n_The Story of a Woman Who Quarreled_\n\n\nOnce upon a time there was a woman who lived a most unhappy life.  She\nand her husband were always quarreling.  Every day when he came home\nfrom work he was cross, and said harsh words to her.  She would respond\nwith bitter words, and things would go from bad to worse until at last\nhe would beat her.\n\nOne day the woman took her water jar and went to the fountain to fill\nit as usual.  She was so unhappy that great tears were rolling down her\ncheeks.\n\nThere was a little old woman standing by the fountain.\n\n\"What is the matter, my daughter?\" she asked as she saw the tears upon\nthe poor woman's cheeks.\n\nWhen she had heard all the story, the little old woman took the water\njar and filled it at the fountain.\n\n\"Go home, my daughter,\" she said.  \"Keep this water in the jar.  The\nmoment your husband says a cross word to you, fill your mouth with the\nwater.\"\n\nThe sad woman thanked her and went to her own house.\n\nThe next day when her husband came home he began to scold as usual.\nShe was about to reply when she suddenly remembered the old woman's\nadvice.  She ran to the water jar and filled her mouth with water.\n\n[Illustration: She ran to the water jar]\n\nTo her great amazement her husband soon stopped scolding.  That night,\nfor the first time in many weeks, she went to sleep without a beating.\n\nThings kept on going well for several days.  Just as soon as her\nhusband came home cross and said unpleasant things she would fill her\nmouth with water from the jar.  Then he would get over being cross.\nNow there were smiles instead of tears on the woman's face.\n\nAt last, however, the water jar grew empty.\n\nOnce more the woman went to the fountain, hoping that she would again\nfind the little old woman who had given her the magic water.  She found\nher waiting at the fountain.\n\n\"How did my prescription succeed, dear daughter?\" she asked as soon as\nshe saw her.\n\n\"How can I ever thank you for all you have done for me!\" cried the\nwoman.  \"Now I am happy once more.  My husband no longer beats me.  I\ndid not dream that my life could ever be so full of joy.  Give me, I\npray you, some more of the magic water.\"\n\nThe little old woman smiled gently.\n\n\"Dear daughter,\" she said, \"the water which I put in your jar is\nnothing but the water from this fountain.  It is the very same which\nyou always carry home.  This is the secret: When your mouth is full of\nwater you cannot reply when your husband says cross words to you.  If\nyou do not keep up the quarrel it soon ends.  That is why your life is\nhappy now instead of sad.  Go home, and whenever your husband says an\nunkind word pretend that your mouth is full of water and do not reply.\nGo in peace, my child.\"\n\nThe woman always remembered this good advice and never again quarreled\nwith her husband.  When she had children of her own she passed on to\nthem the secret.\n\nNow it is generally known in the Azores that if one does not want to\nkeep up a quarrel it is well to pretend that his mouth is full of\nwater.  This is the reason why the people of the islands are so\npeaceful and happy.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MESSENGERS\n\n_The Story of a Youth Who Met Death_\n\n\nThere lived once upon a time in the island of Terceira a youth whose\nname was Vladmiro.  He had come from Flanders, a cavalier of the order\nof St. John.  He was betrothed to a fair maid of the island.\n\nOne morning he was hunting in the forest of cedars when he suddenly saw\nDeath standing before him.  He fell upon his knees and sent up a\nfervent prayer to the Holy Virgin.\n\nThen he said to Death: \"O Death, why is it that you have come in search\nof me so soon?  I am young, rich, happy.  I am betrothed to a maid who\nloves me.  Life looks very bright and fair.\"\n\nDeath stepped back a pace.\n\n\"Your prayer to the Holy Mother has saved you,\" he said.  \"I had indeed\ncome in search of you.  You were about to die from an accident with\nyour hunting arms.  See, I have already retreated a pace.  I have\ndecided not to take you with me this time.\"\n\nVladmiro returned a prayer of thanksgiving.  Then he said:\n\n\"O Death, I am going to make a request of you.  Please do not come up\nto me so suddenly again.  It gives me a fright.  Next time you come for\nme will you please be so kind as to send messengers in advance to give\nme a little warning?\"\n\n\"Yes, young cavalier,\" responded Death.  \"I will gladly do what you\nask.  I give you my promise that next time I will send my messengers\nahead of me to warn you that I am approaching.\"\n\nWith these words Death withdrew and went on alone through the forest of\ncedars.\n\nThe spring of that very year the young cavalier married the fair maid\nwho loved him.  Life was full of joy.  Many children were born to the\nworthy couple.  Riches and honors came, too.  The years sped by as if\nthey flew on wings.\n\nAt last a half century had passed.  Vladmiro held his grandchildren\nupon his knees and told them the story of the day he met Death in the\nforest of cedars.\n\n\"We are glad that Death passed on and left you,\" said the children.\n\n\"If he hadn't we could not have had you for our grandfather,\" said the\nnamesake grandson Vladmiro, snuggling closer in his arms.\n\n\"You do not have to fear Death now, grandfather, do you?\" asked the\nlittle Maria.  \"He will keep his promise and send his messengers, don't\nyou think so?\"\n\n\"Yes, Death is a good Christian and will keep his word,\" replied the\naged cavalier.\n\nThe next morning he set sail for the island of Fayal where there were\nother grandchildren to visit in the home of his married daughter,\nFrancisca.\n\nOn the voyage a fierce storm arose.  The small boat was buffetted about\nby the gales.  Suddenly Vladmiro was startled to see Death standing\nbeside him just as in the forest years ago when he had been young.\n\n[Illustration: A fierce storm arose]\n\n\"Why have you come to-day?\" he cried in alarm.  \"Why is it that you\nhave not kept your word?  You gave me your promise that you would send\nyour messengers, next time you came, to warn me of your approach.\"\n\n\"I have kept my word,\" said Death.  \"I have sent my messengers.\"\n\n\"Where are they?\" asked the old man in amazement.\n\nDeath pointed to Vladmiro's snowy hair.\n\n\"I have sent my messengers in your white locks, your failing eyesight\nand hearing, the wrinkles on your cheeks.  Can it be that you have\nfailed to recognize them?\"\n\nVladmiro bowed his head in silence and without a murmur went with Death.\n\nIn truth, Death had been a good Christian and had kept his word.\n\n\n\n\nTHE END","title":"The Islands of Magic: Legends, Folk and Fairy Tales from the Azores","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":38050}