{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_43212/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_43212","id":"gutenberg_43212","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43212","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Short Stories","Fairy tales"],"text":"Produced by Al Haines.\n\n\n\n\n                           TALES FOR CHILDREN\n                            FROM MANY LANDS\n\n\n\n                         EDITED BY F. C. TILNEY\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: He found Himself tied by the Neck, Wings and Feet.]\n\n\n\n\n                              FAIRY TALES\n                               FROM SPAIN\n\n\n                                   By\n                            J. MUNOZ ESCOMEZ\n\n\n                             Illustrated by\n                              W. MATTHEWS\n\n\n\n                     LONDON: J. M. DENT & SONS LTD\n                   NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. INC.\n\n\n\n\n                          _All rights reserved\n                         Made in Great Britain\n                     at The Temple Press Letchworth\n                                  for\n                         J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd\n                     Aldine House Bedford St London\n                  First Published in this Edition 1913\n                    Reissued at a cheaper price 1936\n                            Reprinted 1940_\n\n\n\n\n                                CONTENTS\n\nKhing-Chu-Fu\nThe City of Fortune\nThe Garden of Health\nCarabi! Carabo!\nThe Author of the Wall\nThe Devil's Tournament\nThe Treasure of the Dragon\nThe Man with the Two Faces\nThe Treachery of Micifuf\nTrompetilla and Trompetin\nThe Quack Doctor\nThe Drawing School\nThe Man with the Nose\nThe Island of Brilliants\nThe Judgment of the Flowers\nThe Three Questions\nThe Captain's Exploit\nThe Topsy-Turvy World\nDon Suero the Proud\n\n\n\n\n                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\nHe Found Himself tied by the Neck, Wings, and Feet . . . _Frontispiece_\n\n\"Rise, Wise Man,\" said the Empress sweetly\n\nThe Vulture carried Him to the other side of the abyss\n\nShe transformed Herself into a Lovely Girl\n\n\"What are You doing here, Boy?\"\n\nThe Quack Doctor.\n\nHe met Two Dwarfs who were playing Marbles\n\nPero Gil at one Bound Approached the Statue\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: headpiece to Khing-Chu-Fu]\n\n\n                             *KHING-CHU-FU*\n\n\nKhing-Chu-Fu, Empress of China, was doing her hair when her maids who,\non their knees witnessed the delicate operation of artistically\narranging the imperial hair of her majesty, burst into cries of\nadmiration scarcely repressed by the etiquette of the palace.\n\n\"What is the matter?\" Khing-Chu-Fu deigned to ask, turning her head.\n\n\"Ah, lady!\" exclaimed the maids in a chorus. \"Brahma has deigned to\nfavour you with a sign of his protection.\"\n\n\"And what is that?\" inquired the empress.\n\n\"A silver thread which appears amidst your beautiful hair.\"\n\n\"That is to say I have a white hair.\"\n\n\"So it is called amongst simple mortals, but in the Daughter of the Sun\nthey are threads of silver, to which poets spontaneously sing verses\nunder the penalty of being quartered like dogs.\"\n\n\"Let the seers and astrologers come at this very moment.  I must know\nwhat this foretells.\"\n\nFive minutes afterwards the royal boudoir was full of moustached men\nwith eye-protectors, who, kneeling, waited to be consulted.\n\n\"To-day a white hair has appeared in my head!\" exclaimed the empress.\n\nThe seers tugged at their moustaches in desperation, leaving the floor\ncovered with hairs.\n\n\"Hail!\" said the eldest, \"Daughter of the Sun, who hast all the\nbrilliance of the diamond, the beauty of the iris, the wisdom of\nConfucius, and the sweetness of the honey!  This silver thread foretells\na terrible calamity in the empire.  Know that Brahma has decreed--it\nhorrifies me to say so!--that one of your imperial teeth will commence\nto ache.\"\n\nTerror was depicted on every countenance, and all who witnessed this\nscene pulled their pigtails, a sign of terrible desperation among the\nChinese.  The pages and maids groaned in chorus; the mandarins sat down\non their hats, passing the time by eating tangerine oranges and rubbing\ntheir eyes with the peel.  The news spread into the city, and very soon\nthe whole of Pekin came out into the streets and places weeping salt\ntears over the terrible aching of the _too_--, for simple subjects were\nforbidden to pronounce completely the names of the imperial members or\nother parts of their illustrious sovereign's body.\n\n\"The too--, the too--!\" shouted the maddened people, making Pekin seem\nlike an immense enclosure of bulls: and as if to make the illusion still\nmore complete, there were not lacking people who produced cattle-bells\nwith which the faithful are called to the pagoda--the church of the\nChinese.\n\nIn those days there came to Pekin a young Spaniard, a native of Seville,\na sharp and witty youth, who had arrived at the capital of the Chinese\nEmpire after having wandered over half the world on foot, without money\nand without shame.  He was thought to be very wide-awake and even\nclever, and all because he had been a groom and bull-ring attendant in\nhis own town where he was nicknamed Pinchauvas.\n\nWell, our Pinchauvas was astonished to see the desperation of those\nChinese and above all when he heard the sound of too--! too--! which\nmade him fear he was going to meet a drove of bulls.  In case it was so,\nhe thought it better to climb up to the first window which came to hand.\n\nHe had hardly reached the window, when from the interior of the house\ncame forth a hand, and then an arm, which, catching hold of him firmly\nby the neck, pulled him up and made him enter the house in a most\noriginal way.\n\nThe arm was that of a palace guard who, on seeing our Sevillian climbing\nup to a window of one of the imperial rooms, detained him in order to\ndeliver him up to justice.\n\nThis crime was a terrible one.  In China it was something daring to\nprofane one of the windows of the empress! That crime was punishable, at\nthe least, with death.\n\nThe worst of it was that Pinchauvas did not know a word of Chinese, and\nwas therefore amazed when the guard said to him, with a terrible air:\n\n\"Kun-chin-pon-ton!\"\n\n\"What is this fellow saying to me?\" thought Pinchauvas. \"He seems to\nhave a stomach-ache and is telling me that he has indigestion.  Well,\nlet him get better.\"  And he shrugged his shoulders.\n\nBut the guard was nasty and, seizing him again by the neck, took him\nthrough the passages of the palace to the rooms of the great chancellor.\nThe latter was found praying to God that the terrible prediction might\nnot be fulfilled, as it might cost him his destiny.  \"If the empress's\ntooth hurts her, she will hurt me,\" said he.\n\nSo when he was told of the horrible sacrilege committed by a foreigner,\nhe became exceedingly angry and wished to have him beheaded.\n\n\"Take me to this youth, that I may settle him,\" he said to the guard.\n\nAnd facing the Spaniard he said sharply:\n\n\"Kun-chin-pon-ton?\"\n\n\"Another stomach-ache?  The same as the horses in the bull-ring.  But\nperhaps they have worries!\"\n\nBy good fortune the great chancellor spoke broken French and Pinchauvas\nalso, so that at last they almost came to understand each other.\n\n\"And what may you have been in your country?\" asked the chancellor.\n\n\"I?  A wise monkey.\"[#]\n\n[#] A wise monkey is a boy attendant in a Spanish bull-ring.\n\nThe chancellor did not understand the word monkey, but did understand\nthe word wise, and full of joy he said:\n\n\"I am going to ask you a question, and if you answer me rightly, count\non my protection.\"\n\nThe chancellor then informed Pinchauvas of the cause which had sown such\nsorrow in Pekin, and the lad, smiling, said to him with the greatest\nsang-froid:\n\n\"Is that all?  Well I will restore calm to the Chinese Empire.  I will\nmake this white hair disappear and with it the presages of these\ncharlatans.  What has the hair to do with the teeth?  Introduce me to\nthe empress and you will see something interesting.\"\n\n\"I will, but it would not be well for the empress to see you in these\nclothes.  May God make your days happy!  We must make you look decent!\"\n\nAnd taking him to the bathroom, he placed him in the hands of his slaves\nwho, in a twinkling, perfumed and clothed him in beautiful robes of silk\nand gold.\n\nPinchauvas, accompanied by the great chancellor, went to the imperial\nrooms, and there, on account of the person who accompanied him being the\nhead of the government, had only to wait in eleven ante-chambers, after\nwhich he was shown into the imperial presence.\n\n\"Here I bring you, celebrated princess, the most famous and wise\nnecromancer of the world,\" said the chancellor, who must have been fond\nof exaggerating.  \"A whirlwind made him fall on this palace dragging him\nfrom far lands, and in the centre of the whirlwind it seems to me I saw\ngreat Confucius, who held him by the neck.\"\n\n\"Rise, wise man!\" said the empress sweetly.\n\n[Illustration: \"Rise, Wise Man,\" said the Empress, sweetly.]\n\nPinchauvas did not move.\n\n\"Get up, wise man!\" repeated the chancellor in French.\n\n\"Do you mean me?\" exclaimed Pinchauvas.  And with one bound he stood up.\n\n\"Bow down, or you are a dead man,\" shouted the chancellor to him.\n\n\"I don't want to,\" answered the youth.\n\n\"What does he say?\" inquired the princess.\n\n\"That he must see the silver thread that Brahma presented you with this\nmorning.\"\n\n\"Look at it!\" said the queen with emphasis.\n\nAnd taking out the seven hundred hair-pins and the three hundred packing\nneedles with which she adorned herself, she let her silky black hair\nfall down, and amongst it could be seen one hair as white as snow.\n\nPinchauvas advanced, with more fear than shame and his mind made up,\nseized the hair, and, making signs as if in prayer, sharply pulled it\nout.  The queen gave a scream and Pinchauvas, approaching a window,\nthrew out the white hair, the cause of the misfortune of the Chinese\nEmpire.\n\n\"Ah!\" exclaimed the queen, \"do you return Brahma his gift?  What a\nmarvellous man!  He deserves a thousand rewards.  For the present you\nwill cede to him your post, and from to-day he will be my chancellor;\nand, so that you will not be troubled, I will hang you this afternoon\nwith a rope that I made for you some days ago.\"\n\n\"What an honour for the family, lady!\" said the chancellor, terrified.\n\"Do you wish me to translate your proposal to the wise man?\"\n\n\"Do so at once.\"\n\nThe poor man translated with complete fidelity what the queen had said,\nand then Pinchauvas told the chancellor that he would only accept his\npost on condition that he was given him as his secretary.\n\nThe empress acceded to Pinchauvas' request, and granted him the royal\nseal as a sign of his unlimited authority.\n\n\"So that I can do what I like?\" he asked.\n\n\"Whatever your highness wishes!  Now, I am going to present you to the\nhigh functionaries of the palace.\"\n\nHe received them all with gestures of amiable protection, and the\nchancellor translated what he said.\n\n\"See here,\" said Pinchauvas, \"let them bring me that Chinaman who seized\nme by the neck two hours ago.\"\n\n\"Seized your highness by your venerable neck?\" indignantly asked the\nsecretary.\n\n\"Does your highness wish us to burn him alive or simply to hang him?\"\n\n\"I want you to bring him here safe and sound.\"\n\n\"Really, does your highness wish to strangle him with your own hands?\nHe does not deserve such an extraordinary honour.\"\n\nThey brought the poor guard into the presence of Pinchauvas, and when\nthey told him he was the new chancellor he almost died of terror.\n\n\"And now shall I really give you stomach-ache?\" asked Pinchauvas,\ndeliberately, raising his hand to his neck, which still hurt him.\n\nThe guard thought these were signs to hang him, and they would have done\nso, but for the opportune intervention of the brand new chancellor, who,\nbesides pardoning the unfortunate man, conferred a high post upon him\nclose to his person.\n\nPinchauvas has now learned Chinese and is called Pin-chu-chu, which\nmeans the wisest of the wise.  And when he remembers his youth, he says\ninwardly:\n\n\"What would those poor horses in the bull-ring of Seville have said if\nthey had been told that they had had the honour of being guided by the\nfuture Chancellor of China!\"\n\n                               THE FUTURE\n                            IS A SEALED BOOK\n                                OF WHICH\n                               GOD ALONE\n                              HAS THE KEY\n\n\n\n\n                         *THE CITY OF FORTUNE*\n\n\nOnce upon a time there was a boy named Rupert, the sharpest and most\nprudent lad in his village, and indeed in any of those to be found for\ntwenty leagues around.\n\nOne night he was with a group of boys of his own age, who, gathered\nround the fire, were listening with amazement to a veteran soldier,\ncovered with scars, which had gained him the modest stripes of a\nsergeant pensioner, and who was telling the story of his adventures.\nThe narrator was at the most interesting point of his tale.\n\n\"The great City of Fortune,\" he said, \"is situated on the summit of a\nvery high mountain, so steep that only very few have succeeded in\nreaching the top.  There gold circulates in such abundance that the\ninhabitants do not know what to do with the precious metal.  Houses are\nbuilt of it, the walls of the fortress are of solid silver, and the\ncannons which defend it are enormous pierced diamonds.  The streets are\npaved with _duros_, always new, because as soon as they begin to lose\ntheir brilliance they are replaced by others just minted.\n\n\"You ought to see the cleanliness of it!  What dirt there is is pure\ngold dust, which the dust carts collect in order to throw in large\nbaskets into the drains.\n\n\"The pebbles against which we stumble continually are brilliants as\nlarge as nuts, despised on account of the extraordinary abundance with\nwhich the soil supplies them. In a word, he who lives there may consider\nthe most powerful of the earth as beggars.\n\n\"The worst of it is that the path which leads there is rough and\ndifficult, and most people succumb without having been able to arrive at\nthe city of gold.\"\n\nRupert did not let the words of the soldier go in at one ear and out at\nthe other; and so it was that, hardly had the occasion of being alone\nwith him arisen before he inquired:\n\n\"Do you know the way to this enchanted city?\"\n\n\"I should rather think so, my son; but I do not advise you to try the\njourney.\"\n\n\"Why?\"\n\n\"The way is long and rocky.  I came back the first day, startled at the\ndifficulties which must be overcome. But anyhow, if you are resolved to\ngo, I must give you the following warning.  In order to get to Fortune\nthere are two paths: a very broad one, full of stones and crags; if you\ngo that way the sharp points of the pebbles will tear your feet to\npieces and you will be crushed by fatigue.  A thousand terrible\ndifficulties will arise to meet you; you will have to struggle with\ncruel enemies, and if, at last, you succeed in vanquishing all, you will\narrive at Fortune already old and worn, when riches will be of no use to\nyou. The other path is level and short, but...\"\n\n\"Enough!  Do not say any more; show me it now, and I will look after the\nrest.\"\n\n\"All right, all right!  I will show it to you, and God grant that your\nnot having wished to hear me to the end will not bring you suffering.\"\n\nAnd the little rogue, without saying good-bye to his parents or his\nbrother, began to walk in the direction the old soldier had shown him;\nand went on and on, happier than a sand-boy, thinking of the riches\nwhich awaited him, and which he already believed to have within reach of\nhis hand.\n\nAt the end of two days he arrived at the bank of a large river.  On it\nwas a boat, and in the boat a negro of colossal stature.\n\nOur lad approached the boatmen and asked him:\n\n\"Good man, is this the way to Fortune?\"\n\n\"Yes, little boy, but it is necessary to cross the river.\"\n\n\"Good, then take me across.\"\n\n\"Do you know how much it costs?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Fifty duros.\"\n\n\"But do I look as if I had them, or had even seen them in my life?  Be\nkind and take me over for nothing.\"\n\n\"This river, my little friend, is never crossed gratis. It is the first\nstep towards Fortune and it must be paid for somehow.  If you have no\nmoney, never mind; let me cut off a little piece of your heart.  Perhaps\nit will hurt you a bit at first, but later you will feel as if you were\nwhole.\"\n\nRupert allowed the negro to open his chest and to take out a piece of\nhis heart.  When he crossed to the other side he gave a sigh of\nsatisfaction.  The first step was taken, and he already saw the\nbeautiful City of Fortune, whose resplendent walls sent out lovely\nreflections.  But he noticed that he was much less anxious to arrive at\nthe city of gold and had a strange emptiness in his chest. Withal, he\ncontinued his walk; but he had not taken a hundred steps when a new\ndifficulty arose to obstruct the way.  This stretched between two\ninaccessible mountains and the entrance to the defile was kept by\nanother guardian as black as the one of the boat.\n\n\"Where are you going, boy?\" he asked our lad.\n\n\"To the City of Fortune.\"\n\n\"Quite so, this is the way; but you have to pay for the passage.  The\npayment is a little piece of heart.\"\n\nWithout hesitating, Rupert opened his chest and left a handful of fibres\nof that organ of life in the hands of the terrible gate-keeper.\n\nAnd he went on and on towards the city, which each time showed itself\nnearer and more beautiful to his eyes. But each time he felt less\nanxiety to arrive.\n\nStill he had not finished with the difficulties.  The path soon\nshortened, forming a terrible ravine; only to think of crossing it was\nmore than he could dream of. Rupert believed his hopes broken, and sat\ndown disheartened on a stone.\n\nAt that moment a vulture of great size came down from the top of a\nmountain and, drawing near him, said:\n\n\"Do you wish to go across?  Well, give me a piece of your heart.\"\n\n\"Take it, and carry me over,\" said Rupert, desperate.\n\nThe vulture thrust its beak into Rupert's chest and took out a good\npiece of heart.  At once it seized our lad with its claws and carried\nhim to the other side of the abyss.\n\n[Illustration: The Vulture carried Him to the other Side of the Abyss.]\n\nNow he was at the very gates of Fortune.  He could already count the\nnumber of towers which raised themselves above the high walls, and took\nhis happiness for granted--if that consists in money.  At the gate they\nstopped him.  There heart was contraband, and therefore they took out\nwhat remained of it and put a pretty one inside of him, made of steel,\nbut hard as a diamond. Only one little fibre escaped their search, which\npassed unnoticed behind the metal heart.\n\n\"At last I am inside,\" said Rupert to himself; but, strangely enough,\nthe city of gold produced neither surprise nor joy.\n\n\"What do I want riches for?\" he exclaimed, \"if I have lost my heart and\nwith it my illusions?\"  And he walked through the city, looking with\ngreat disdain at those riches which were within reach of his hand and\nwhich so much tempted his ambition before.\n\nThat dazzling brilliance began to disturb him.\n\n\"Here it seems,\" he said to himself, \"there is nothing else but gold.\nCursed metal, which has cost me my heart.  Goodness me!  Who will give\nme back my little heart?\"\n\nHe looked for friends, but did not succeed in finding them, because\nthose people had hearts of steel, and Rupert felt that that little fibre\nthat remained of his own made him suffer atrociously.\n\nWithout friends or affection, in that city of gold, Rupert remembered\nhis parents and his brother and bitterly lamented his fate.\n\nAnd then he resolved to return to the little white house of his own\nvillage and to live in it as God had ordered. On going out of the city\nhe felt a strange joy.  But that accursed steel heart made him suffer\nhorribly, only the little fibre which remained of his own beat for joy\nin his breast.  He took the first path he found, and then encountered no\ndifficulties.  It seemed that wings had grown on his feet.  He went down\nhill, and so walked very quickly. When he arrived at his village he was\nas poor as before, and moreover that cold, hard heart did not let him\nbreathe. It beat with the regularity of a clock, tic-tac, tic-tac!\n\nHis brother was the first to come out and meet him, full of joy.  He\nembraced him, kissed him, and accompanied him home, transported with\ngladness.\n\nBut the steel heart did not allow Rupert to rejoice. Tears did nor run\nto his eyes, and his chest felt as if a hand was pressing on it.\n\nHis old father strained him to his bosom, but not even he succeeded in\nmoving that hard heart.  Rupert felt an extraordinary anguish.\n\nBut his mother arrived running, out of breath, towards her son, and\nembraced him weeping, and her tears fell on Rupert's heart.  Then, oh,\nthe power of a mother's love!  That steel heart quickened its beats and,\nunable to resist any longer, jumped out, just as a broken spring of a\nwatch jumps out.  The little fibre was already a new heart and Rupert a\nhappy man.\n\nAnd when they spoke to him of riches he said:\n\n\"God will give them if he deem it right, but don't seek them by short\ncuts at the expense of your heart and illusions.\"\n\n\n\n\n                         *THE GARDEN OF HEALTH*\n\n\nA boy of twelve years, named Enrique, was taking a walk one day in the\noutskirts of his village.  He was very sad because his little sister was\nill and the doctors said she would soon die.\n\n\"Poor Luisa!\" exclaimed the boy sobbing.  \"So pretty and to have to\nleave this world so soon!\"\n\nEnrique sat down on some stones to weep over his sorrow, and there\nprayed to heaven for his sister's life. A kid which was grazing near the\nspot heard the sound of his lamentations and drawing near the\ndisconsolate boy said:\n\n\"Calm yourself and I will try and save Luisa.\"\n\n\"How?\" asked Enrique, startled at hearing the kid speak.\n\n\"You have the remedy within reach of your hand. Look there, to the right\nin that spring, and you will see a ring which was left there and\nforgotten by the magician Agrajes.  Put it on and ask to go to the\nGarden of Health, and immediately it will take you there.  Ask there for\nthe Blue Ivy whose juice will cure your sister, and if they deny it to\nyou, use the ring and you will see.\"\n\n\"Ay, little kid, anything to please you.  Will you tell me who you are?\"\n\n\"Well, you can see: a kid with its horns and all.\"\n\n\"But kids don't speak, and you do.\"\n\n\"That is because I am a well-bred and compassionate kid.  Anyway, I\ncannot tell you who I am.  If you are grateful you will know.\nMeanwhile, don't lose time, and do what I tell you.\"\n\nEnrique saw, indeed, a gold ring which was on the edge of the spring: he\nseized it and on it saw certain mysterious signs engraved.\n\nHe put it on the ring finger of his left hand and said in a loud voice:\n\"To the Garden of Health.\"\n\nScarcely had he finished saying these words than a cloud descended and\ncarried him through the air at lightning speed.\n\nIn a few minutes he found himself at the gates of a beautiful garden\nsurrounded by a silver fence with golden ornaments.  At the gate there\nwere two maidens, one in white and the other in black.  The one in white\nhad a fresh and smiling face; the other was sad and taciturn. The former\ncarried an apple in her hand, the latter bore a scythe.\n\n\"Who are you?\" asked Enrique.\n\n\"I am Life,\" said the first.\n\n\"I, Death,\" replied the second in dismal tones.\n\n\"What have you come here for?\" they asked the boy.\n\n\"I have come for a branch of Blue Ivy to cure my sister with.\"\n\n\"I cannot give it to you without the permission of this maiden,\" said\nLife, motioning towards Death.\n\n\"I will not permit it, because Luisa belongs to me. She is a prize which\nI will not give up,\" growled Death angrily.\n\nLife smiled sadly and turning to Enrique said:\n\n\"I cannot give you what you wish, but bear in mind that you can take it\nwithout my giving it to you.\"\n\n\"Well, then, I will enter, cost what it may,\" exclaimed the boy.\n\n\"You shall not enter alive,\" shouted Death, brandishing her scythe.\n\n\"Oh, yes, he will, if he is quick,\" said Life provoked. \"Do not meddle\nwith this boy who is mine for many years.\"\n\n\"We shall see now.\"\n\nEnrique jumped over the threshold of the garden gate and Death dealt him\na terrible blow with her scythe, which would have deprived him of\nexistence if at that moment Life had not made him smell the apple which\nshe held in her hand and which quite cured him.\n\nSo Enrique passed between Life and Death into the Garden of Health and\nonce inside commenced his quest in order to see if he could find the\nfamous ivy which was to cure his little sister.  It was difficult to\nfind it among so many and such different plants as filled that beautiful\ngarden where was medicine for every illness; but Enrique was resolved to\nfind it, and passed through, one after another, the avenues of trees\nwhich crossed the park of health in all directions.\n\n\"I am the Red Celery, that cures all chest diseases,\" said a highly\ncoloured celery plant bowing to Enrique.\n\n\"And I am the Spanish Onion, that cures the kidneys.\"\n\n\"And I am the Valerian, that cures the nerves.\"\n\n\"And I this, and I the other,\" cried the other plants and trees.\n\n\"That's enough!\" shouted Enrique, \"otherwise you will drive me mad.\"\n\n\"I cure madness,\" cried a shrub from the bottom of the garden.\n\n\"What I want is the Blue Ivy,\" exclaimed the boy.\n\n\"Here I am,\" cried the plant alluded to, \"but I am kept closely\nguarded.\"\n\nEnrique searched everywhere, without ascertaining where the precious\nplant was, but he always seemed to hear the noise in different places.\n\nThe trees laughed at Enrique's despair.\n\n\"And who keeps you so hidden?\" said Enrique, stopping still for a\nmoment.\n\n\"Death hides me in order that you may not find me. You have passed near\nand have not seen me.  Your sister will die if you cannot find me.\"\n\nEnrique now did not know what to do, until he presently remembered his\nring.\n\n\"Ring of Agrajes, I want to see the Blue Ivy,\" he exclaimed.\n\nInstantly he saw, within reach of his hand, a lovely ivy that, clinging\nto an oak, displayed beautiful leaves to the winds.\n\n\"Do not cut me now,\" cried the Ivy, \"because your sister is going to\ndie, and you will not arrive in time. Death is now close to her\nbedside.\"\n\n\"Ring of Agrajes,\" exclaimed Enrique at once, \"bring Death to me tied\nup.\"\n\nHardly had he finished saying it than Death appeared quite dishevelled,\nwithout her scythe, her elbows tied together like a criminal.  All the\nhealth-giving plants began to applaud.\n\n\"Bravo, bravo!\" they cried.\n\n\"Don't spare her; she is our enemy!\" shouted some.\n\n\"Don't let her go, and the world will be grateful to you!\" said others.\n\n\"What have you done to my sister?\" said Enrique, angrily.\n\n\"Nothing yet, but as soon as you let me go you will see,\" answered\nDeath.\n\n\"Well, if you wait until you are free before killing her, my little\nsister will die of old age.  Ring, give this shameful woman a\nthrashing.\"\n\nImmediately a number of sticks came through the air and commenced to\nbestow a fine thrashing upon Death.\n\nThe latter screamed like a mouse whose tail has been trodden on, and\nheaped insults on the boy, threatening to kill him as soon as she was\nfree.\n\n\"Do not spare her!\" said Enrique at each insult.\n\nAnd the blows again descended on Death like rain. One knocked an eye\nout, another knocked all her teeth out, although it must be admitted\nthey were false, and another took her hair out by the roots, leaving her\nhead quite bald.\n\nThen Enrique cut a sprig of the Ivy and said to the ring, \"Take me to my\nsister's side.\"\n\nImmediately he found himself at the bedside, where all the family were\nweeping over the approaching death of the girl.\n\n\"Here is something which will cure my little sister,\" said the boy.\n\nAnd drawing near her, he squeezed into her mouth the juice of the fresh\nivy he had plucked in the Garden of Health.\n\nThe girl at once opened her eyes and called her mother, and, amidst the\ngeneral surprise, asked to be dressed.\n\nThe family would not do so until the doctor said that indeed she was\nwell and sound.  They all complimented Enrique enthusiastically, until\nat length the boy said:\n\n\"All this is due to a kid, and I must go and thank her.\"\n\nHe went to the same place where he had met the kid, but did not see her.\nIn vain he ran about in all directions.  But he had not got the ring of\nAgrajes for nothing.\n\n\"Ring,\" he said, \"bring me the kid that was here a short time ago.\"\n\nAnd the kid appeared.\n\n\"What do you want of me, Enrique?\" asked the animal.\n\n\"To thank you, and to ask how I may serve you,\" answered Enrique.\n\n\"I see that you are grateful, and I wish you to know who I am.  I am\ncalled Atala, and am the daughter of Agrajes, the magician.  I put my\nfather's ring beside you with the object that you might be able to save\nyour sister.\"\n\n\"I should like to know you in your real form and not in that of a kid.\"\n\n\"Well, here I am,\" exclaimed Atala.\n\nAnd thereupon she transformed herself into a lovely girl of more or less\nEnrique's age.\n\n[Illustration: She transformed Herself into a Lovely Girl.]\n\n\"How pretty you are!\" exclaimed the boy.  \"Come home and play with my\nlittle sister, who is now quite well, thanks to you.\"\n\n\"I can deny you nothing while you wear this ring,\" answered the girl.\n\n\"No, take it, I beg of you.\"\n\nAtala disappeared at once, and when Enrique thought she had gone never\nto return, she reappeared smiling, and said:\n\n\"I have been for a moment to ask my father's permission to accompany\nyou.\"\n\nThey went to Enrique's house together, and he introduced her to his\nparents as Luisa's saviour.  They feted her with cakes and sweets, and\non saying good-bye she promised to come back every afternoon to play\nwith her little friends.\n\nOne day Agrajes himself visited Enrique's home, to make the acquaintance\nof the family of which his daughter spoke so much, and on going away he\ntouched in a special way an old chest.\n\n\"Open it, presently,\" he said on saying farewell.\n\nOn opening it they found it full to the brim of gold coins.  On it there\nwas a paper which said: \"A present from Agrajes to two very nice\nchildren.\"\n\nWith that money Enrique followed his career and Luisa had a splendid\ndowry, and with that and the love of their parents and friends they were\ntwo very happy beings.\n\n\n\n\n                           *CARABI!  CARABO!*\n\n\nLittle Arthur once went out in his garden, and on sitting down at the\nfoot of an acacia he heard a clover leaf saying:\n\n\"I am Antonio.\"\n\nAnd one of the points of the leaf changed into the head of a small boy.\n\n\"I am Juanita!\" exclaimed the second point of the leaf. And a tiny girl\nappeared.\n\n\"And I Perico.\"\n\nAnd another head showed itself beside the others.\n\n\"Good gracious!\" exclaimed little Arthur, \"this could be set to music\nlike the rats' dance.\"  He approached the clover but now saw nothing:\nnor was he quite sure which was the marvellous leaf where he had seen\nthose three children as small as they were beautiful.\n\n\"Well, I shan't rest until I have seen into this,\" said the boy.\n\nSo the following day, at the same time, he re-seated himself in the same\nplace, and presently a sigh: the clover leaf began to tremble and\nimmediately the little heads appeared in succession, saying, as on the\nprevious day;\n\n\"I am Antonio.\"\n\n\"I am Juanita.\"\n\n\"And I Perico.\"\n\n\"And I Arthur!\" exclaimed the boy, showing himself suddenly, and seizing\nthe mysterious leaf, \"Either you tell me who you are or I will pull you\nup by the roots.\"\n\nThe stem trembled, and from another near by came forth a very sad voice\nsaying: \"Don't kill them for heaven's sake, they are quite innocent of\ndoing any wrong: come back to-night at twelve o'clock and you will be\namazed at what you see.\"\n\nContented, the boy obeyed, and went away resolved to come back again\nthat night.  And so about half-past eleven Arthur went out into the\ngarden, and hiding himself amongst a group of magnolias, waited until\nthe stated hour struck.  Scarcely had the church clock chimed the last\nstroke of midnight than a noise was heard in the air, and there appeared\non the ground a horse as white as snow and provided with wings which it\nshook at the moment of touching the earth.  From the wings there came\nmillions of drops of water which fell in a fine rain on the plants in\nthe garden.  The effect was magical; instantly all the plants took on\nthe most unexpected forms.  The clover leaf was changed into a grand\nstand covered with a splendid canopy of velvet and gold, and on three\ngilded arm-chairs sat three children of dazzling beauty wearing rich\nclothing, in which elegance and sumptuousness struggled for supremacy.\n\nThe acacias were transformed into towers of shining silver full of\nsoldiers, who presented arms to the children in token of homage.  The\ngroup of magnolias was a stone castle, with a steel drawbridge hanging\nby chains of red silk interwoven with gold.  A crowd of pages in bright\nuniforms, soldiers on horseback provided with lances and with glittering\nhelmets adorned with airy plumes, walked about the garden in all\ndirections.  Life animated all those beings passing before the\nastonished eyes of little Arthur, who, hidden behind a tower, could see\nwhat happened without being seen himself.  Such was his amazement that,\nthinking he was dreaming, he hit himself in the most fleshy part of the\nbody, and noticing that it hurt, convinced himself that he was not\ndreaming.  Thereupon the horse neighed, and they all stopped still, full\nof terror.\n\n\"Carabi!  Carabo!  Two minutes are left you of becoming like me,\"\nshouted the horse.\n\nOn hearing him they all wept, except the three princes who rose,\nexclaiming:\n\n\"Treacherous magician, God wills that you pay for your crimes.\"\n\nThe horse rose on two legs and after a terrific neigh shouted: \"Carabi!\nCarabo!\" and immediately they all resumed their original forms.  The\nhorse gave a jump in order to rise in the air and commenced his flight,\nbut this time he was not alone; for when waving his tail it caught up\ngood little Arthur, winding itself round his body.  The boy clung to it\nin order not to fall, and when he tried to find out where he was, he\ndiscovered himself in the air more than a thousand yards from the\nground.  Then he yelled with all the strength that fear gives, without\npaying any attention to the neighing of the horse which, turning its\nhead, said to him: \"Leave go, or I will dash your brains out with a\nkick.\"\n\nBut little Arthur remembered that if he let go he would certainly be\nkilled, while it was by no means sure that the horse could reach him\nwith his feet, because he had climbed up to the top part of the tail,\nwhere he hung on with one hand, while with the other he caught hold of\nthe other end, so that he sat on the doubled-up tail as on a trapeze.\n\nThe horse landed out half a dozen kicks, which only hurt the clouds; he\nturned his head in order to see where to bite that customer who had got\nthe better of him; but his wings hindered him, and the only other\nvengeance he could take was to snort.  This he did, making such a noise\nthat it could have been heard for miles around.\n\n\"What a storm!\" exclaimed little Arthur.\n\n\"That is the wind I swallow in my flight,\" said the horse.\n\n\"That is not wind, it must be a hurricane let loose.\"\n\nThen the horse began to descend towards the earth, passing through\nclouds and breaking up fogs, until, at dawn, he arrived at a lovely\npalace whose roof of gold and precious stones opened of its own accord\nto let that singular horse pass through.  He alighted on the floor of an\nenormous room in the palace, and when on firm ground said:\n\n\"Will you please leave go of me.\"\n\n\"That depends,\" said little Arthur, \"because I am just beginning to like\nthis way of travelling.\"\n\n\"Well, my son, I am sorry, but your goose is cooked for ever.\"\n\nSo saying he began to butt round the room with the object of smashing\npoor little Arthur to pieces; but the latter, firm as firm could be,\nwould not leave go even if he were killed.  Then the horse sat down to\nsee if he could crush the boy with his weight, but the latter, by a\nclever movement, dropped clear of the crupper and sat down on the floor.\n\n\"Here!\" he exclaimed, \"don't do any more such silly things; if you want\nto throw me off, you will have to tear your tail off first.\"\n\n\"Not if I know it,\" shouted the magician, \"rather let us make an\nagreement.  What do you want in order to let me go?\"\n\n\"First, you must tell me the story of the enchanted children in my\ngarden.\"\n\n\"I will not.\"\n\n\"Well, now I shall pull out a hair of your tail by way of punishment,\"\nand dragging out one of them he made the horse neigh with pain.\n\n\"So, I shall pull them out one by one until you are as hairless as a\nhired horse.\"\n\n\"No, you have persuaded me.  Listen to the story you ask me for.  You\nmust know that these youngsters are the children of the great King of\nSamarcanda, Ali-Tebelin, who is a great enemy of mine.  I was then\ncondemned to be ridden by any cavalier who wished to do so, thanks to\nthe enchantment of a relative on my mother's side, who knew how to do\nthese things better than I.  Not finding any better way of passing the\nthree years as saddle-horse which had been imposed upon me, I entered\nthe stables of Ali-Tebelin, who several times had me thrashed on the\nfrivolous pretext that I bit whoever wanted to ride on me, kicked\nanybody who came near, and one day gave the king himself a terrible\nbite.  Angry on account of this injustice I promised myself to have my\nrevenge, and when the period of my enchantment was finished, I became,\nin my turn, an enchanter, and taking a bottle of water gathered by me\nfrom the clouds, I caused the king's court to be transformed into a\ngarden which I transported to your house.  Every night I go to it, and\nas my wings are wet with the water from the clouds, which is the thing\nthat has the property of changing them into their original shapes, I\nshake my wings, and after enjoying myself for a while I enchant them\nagain with my word.  Now you know all, will you leave me in peace?\"\n\n\"Now less than ever,\" said the boy: \"because if I let you go, you will\nbe revenged on me as on them, so that I shan't leave you until you take\nme back to my home. At this very moment you will give me something to\neat. Go somewhere slowly where there is something to put inside one; if\nyou don't I will skin you.\"\n\nThe horse stamped on the floor, and at once several tables covered with\neatables appeared.  With one hand, while with the other he held on,\nArthur ate of what seemed best to him, and when he was satisfied, said:\n\"At this very instant you will take me home.\"  The horse, resigned, took\nto flight again, rose up in the air, and flew towards Arthur's garden.\nPassing through the clouds, Arthur got all his clothing wet, being\ndrenched with that precious liquid.  When they arrived, and before the\nhorse had time to turn round, little Arthur ran away and took refuge in\nhis home.  His precaution was very wise, because the magician followed\nhim with the object of biting him, but when he was ready to do so the\nboy was already in the house.  The horse had only stretched his wings\nand disappeared on the horizon when Arthur went into the garden again,\nand shaking his clothes, let the cloud-water with which he was soaked\nfall upon the plants.  At once all the enchanted beings recovered their\noriginal shape, and saw with surprise that it was not the magician who\ndisenchanted them.  On seeing such surprise, little Arthur advanced\ntowards the grand stand and said to the princes:\n\n\"Children of Ali-Tebelin, I have the pleasure of informing you that you\nare free; but vanish from here quickly, because at twelve o'clock\nto-night the magician will return.\"\n\n\"Thanks, kind boy,\" said one of the princes, \"but we will not go away\nfrom here without giving the magician a surprise and bestowing on him\nsomething that will make him stare.\"\n\nSo they fastened some strong ropes to the towers, and that night, when\nthe horse arrived, before he knew what had happened, he found himself\ntied by the neck, wings, and feet, and all the warriors and pages,\nprovided with strong cords, rained such a shower of blows on him that he\ndid not know where he was.\n\n\"Take that, Carabi!\"\n\n\"Take that, Carabo!\" they shouted.  And the hail of lashes was such that\nthe magician begged them for pardon.\n\n\"No pardon!\" shouted little Arthur, \"you can stay there till your feet\ndrop off.\"\n\nSuch were his groans that at last little Arthur, full of compassion,\nwent up to him and said:\n\n\"How can we set you free when we should only be exposing ourselves to\nyour vengeance?\"\n\n\"To avoid that the only thing you have to do is to pull out the longest\nfeather in each wing, and then I shall be deprived of power.\"\n\nThis Arthur did, and immediately the magician took human shape, it being\nseen that he was a horrid dwarf who could hardly move.  They touched him\nagain with the feathers and he was changed into a caged parrot which\nbegan to shout, \"Carabi!  Carabo!  It's all over with me now!\"\n\nArthur informed his parents, telling them all about his extraordinary\nadventure, and begged them for permission to accompany the princes.\nLittle Arthur's parents were astonished to see their garden changed into\na fortress; and on becoming acquainted with the series of events which,\nwithout their knowledge, had occurred, granted their permission and at\nonce the expedition was organised. Little Arthur mounted one of the\nmagic feathers, bearing the princess behind him.  The princes bestrode\nthe other feather, and all the rest clung to each other.  At a given\nsignal they all flew away, and in a twinkling found themselves in their\nown country.\n\nThere little Arthur was splendidly presented with a pair of socks and\nseveral boxes of toys, his efforts being rewarded by a long and happy\nlife in the bosom of his family.\n\n\n[Illustration: tailpiece to Carabi! Caribo!]\n\n\n\n\n                        *THE AUTHOR OF THE WALL*\n\n\nNinin was reading in a newspaper: \"They are beginning to pull down the\ngreat wall of China.\"\n\n\"Is that so?  What!  Does the newspaper say so?\"\n\n\"Look at it yourself,\" says Ninin showing me the paper where the news\nwas printed.\n\n\"Well,\" I answered, \"I am glad, because of what use ... Would you like\nme to tell you a story?\"\n\n\"Is it about the Chinese wall?\"\n\n\"You will see.  Once there was a king in the country called\nTsi-Ching-Hoang-Ti (what a name!) with a very long pigtail.  The Chinese\nare recognised by their pigtails, while, in Spain, we only know\ntoreadors for the same reason.\n\n\"Well, the king in my story had few teeth, but a very long pigtail, and\nhad a stomach which could have held half his kingdom.  What a wolfish\nappetite!  Every five minutes he yawned, and in every room of the palace\nthere were attendants whose only mission was to place a boiled egg in\nthe monarch's mouth as soon as he commenced to open it.  And what a\nmouth!  Once some one absent-mindedly placed his memorial in it thinking\nhe was putting it in the letter box.  One night, while he was sleeping,\nTsi-Ching-Hoang-Ti (Dear me! what work to call a person thus!) gave a\ntremendous kick and, sitting up in bed, shouted:\n\n\"'I have an idea!'\n\n\"The guards, electrified, shouted:\n\n\"'The emperor has an idea!'\n\n\"And all the functionaries of the palace and the imperial family came to\nthe regal room to congratulate their emperor.\n\n\"'What a happy day!' they exclaimed.  'It is the first time that such a\nthing has happened in China.  To have an idea.'\n\n\"'Yes, dear subjects,' said the monarch tenderly, 'I have an idea to\nprevent the disasters caused by the Tartars who fall upon us every\nMonday and Tuesday.  And this idea is...' (they all knelt down to hear\nthe sublime words) '... to ask you if anything has occurred to you to\navoid them.'\n\n\"'Well thought out!' said the courtiers in a chorus.\n\n\"'Therefore I will begin by asking the minister of war.'\n\n\"The minister touched the floor with his head and says:\n\n\"'Sire, between now and to-morrow I will answer your majesty: but I have\nheard briefly that, in order to avoid being overrun, what we ought to do\nis not to let them into the country.'\n\n\"'Eureka!' exclaimed the emperor.  'This being the idea of a minister of\nwar is not at all bad.  Let the audience rise; good-bye till to-morrow.'\n\n\"And chewing a boiled egg which they had just put into his mouth he lay\ndown in bed again and went to sleep, after having formed that tremendous\nidea which had been forty years in coming.\n\n\"That very night the minister of war consulted the captain-generals,\nthese their lieutenant-generals, these the camp-marshals, and so on\nuntil they came to the sergeants, and these asked the soldiers, without\nfinding any who dared to propose a plan, until a soldier of the awkward\nsquad, and the most awkward of the squad, said, 'Well, close the way\nwith a mud-wall.'\n\n\"'Enough, stupid!' shouted the officer, and gave him a punch.\n\n\"The officer gave the idea as his own to the major, and the latter\npassed it on to the lieutenant.  The major also appropriated the idea\nand they made him a colonel, and so all were advanced except the poor\nsoldier, who rubbed his face with sand to take away the mark of the\nblow.\n\n\"When the minister of war explained how convenient it would be to build\na wall the emperor was charmed, the court was charmed, and everybody was\ncharmed.\n\n\"'And they said that my army was a flock of geese!' exclaimed the king.\n\n\"Following up the plan, the dimensions of the wall and the materials it\nwas to be made of were discussed. One engineer said that it had to be\nsix hundred leagues in length, and that to collect materials for it, it\nwas necessary to ask the genie of stones for them, this being the only\none who could help them in such an extraordinary enterprise.\n\n\"Moreover, the difficulty was that the emperor himself had to go and ask\nthis aid: and who would disturb his majesty with such a long journey!\n\n\"'That does not matter!' exclaimed Tsi-Ching-Hoang-Ti, 'provided there\nare boiled eggs on the way.'\n\n\"The emperor and the engineer entered a palanquin and shortly afterwards\nset out to look for the genie of the stones.  Behind followed another\npalanquin with a kitchen and then a hundred more palanquins full of\nboiled eggs.  After twenty days' march the expedition arrived at the\nfoot of the mountains of Chuang and rested there.  Only the emperor and\nthe engineer could go up to the abode of the genie, situated between\nhorrible precipices, and therefore his majesty and his companion filled\ntheir pockets with boiled eggs for the journey.  When they arrived at\nthe foot of the grotto where the genie dwelt, a rain of rubbish met them\nwhich nearly swept them away.  A bump appeared on the emperor which\nlooked as if one of the hundred thousand eggs he had eaten had come out\nthere; a wicked tile had torn out the architect's plait by the roots\nwhich caused the poor man much pain, because his pigtail was already\nthree yards long and was still growing.  The king became angry and went\non valorously disposed to behead the daring rascal who had stoned him,\nand at last they found themselves in the chamber of the genie\nMarmolillo.  The latter received them with great courtesy, asking them\nthe object of their visit.  When the emperor told him, the genie gave\nhis forehead a slap, which sounded like stones knocking together.\n\n\"'Well, it is true!' he exclaimed.  'And it had not occurred to me!  The\ntruth is that I have a head of stone. Well, all right,' he added, 'I\nwill help you, and with my aid and that of all the Chinese it may be\nthat within twenty days you will see it finished.'\n\n\"And so, when Tsi-Ching-Hoang-Ti returned to the court, he arranged that\nall Chinamen from fifteen to fifty years should go to the frontier to\nbegin the work: and in a few days sixty million workmen were working on\nthe wall and setting themselves to work with truly Chinese ardour.\n\n\"That was twenty-one centuries ago, Mr. Ninin, so that you had not yet\nstudied the map when the wall was already finished, which, as was seen\nafterwards, was of no use only to make the Tartars carry ladders.  They\ncame back and invaded China and made themselves kings of it. The present\ndynasty is Tartar, the same as the celebrated sauce which you like so\nmuch.\"\n\n\"Good, but I should like the story to have some sort of a moral.\"\n\n\"Well, here is one: that the real walls to defend ourselves from our\nenemies are our faith in God and in the justice of our cause.\"\n\n\n\n\n                        *THE DEVIL'S TOURNAMENT*\n\n\nGreat anger filled the breast of the very ugly Don Teobaldo de\nMiguelturra as he rode his horse at full gallop after a cunning hare.\nLance at rest he pursued it, blind with fury, for the wicked animal from\ntime to time stopped, sat down on its hind paws, and made amusing\ngrimaces at its pursuer.\n\nThe latter, filled with wrath, did not leave off using his spurs, and\nfollowed after the animal, loudly calling it a coward, rogue, and thief.\n\n\"Wait, wait!\" he shouted; \"you will have to pay for all this!  What a\nfine stew I shall make with you this evening!\"\n\nAnd he rode on like a madman, leaping streams, rocks, and pits.  But it\nseemed as if wings had grown on the hare's feet, such were its leaps,\nwhile fleeing from the proposed stew.  And at each instant it turned\nround and jocularly made signs with its ears and fore-paws, and smiled\nin that amusing way which disturbed the knight so much.\n\n\"Even if you hide yourself in the very middle of the earth, I shall\nreach you,\" he roared.\n\nAnd he again spurred on his horse, which was nearly frantic, excited by\npain and the shouting of its rider.\n\nA moment arrived in which the knight almost had it within lance thrust,\nbut once more it commenced to gain ground.\n\n\"One effort more, my horse,\" shouted Don Teobaldo, but in vain.  In\ngoing up a very steep slope the poor animal fell dead from fatigue, and\nthe rider also was quite dazed.\n\nAs soon as he could he disengaged himself from the stirrups, and\nthrowing down his useless lance beside the dead horse, Don Teobaldo\nunsheathed his sword, victorious in a hundred fights, in order to pursue\nto the very end that hare which had stopped very tranquilly on a rock\nfrom which it made fun of the knight at its ease.\n\nThis raised the hunter's indignation to its highest, and in a moment of\nanger he exclaimed:\n\n\"I would give a year of my life to run my sword through you.\"\n\nThe hare, on hearing this, gave a jump and fell at Don Teobaldo's feet,\nwho cut it into two pieces.  The spitted hare said to him before dying:\n\"It will cost you a year of your life; don't forget it.\"\n\nThe man shuddered and would have liked to undo the mischief, but now it\nwas too late.\n\n\"And to think that such a little beast should make me lose three hundred\nand sixty-five days of my life!\" he cried.  And, full of rage, he\ntrampled on the hare until he was quite tired.\n\nBut on raising his eyes once more he saw another exactly the same as\nthat he had killed, and which made the same gestures as the first.\n\nThen he could not any longer contain himself, and started to run after\nthe second hare, entangling his spurs in the under-growth and stumbling\nand falling at every step.\n\nLike one who took no interest the hare went slowly to its lair, and\nafter it our enraged Don Teobaldo, resolved to make a terrible hash of\nthe jesting animal.\n\n\"This seems to be a thing of the devil,\" he said. \"All the hares have\nagreed to make fun of me.\"\n\nAt length, after a good while, Don Teobaldo, with his tongue hanging\nout, arrived at a kind of cave, in the black depths of which he lost\nsight of the hare.\n\n\"Well, now, I have to find you even if you are the devil himself in\nperson.\"\n\n\"Your servant,\" said a voice of rare quality; and a man with a strange\nface and eyes of fire presented himself before Don Teobaldo, saluting\nhim with burlesque courtesy.\n\n\"Caramba!\" exclaimed Don Teobaldo, without being frightened, because he\nwas a very valorous man.  \"If I must tell the truth, I wished to know\nyou personally.\"\n\n\"And do you not feel afraid?\"\n\n\"Not at all.  And since you are so familiar with me, I shall treat you\nin the same way.  I want to make an arrangement with you.\"\n\n\"Speak.\"\n\n\"First answer me: are you the hare that I pursued?\"\n\n\"The same.  I knew that you were engaged in an affair and wished to\nspeak to me, and brought you to my house so that we could talk\ncomfortably.\"\n\nAnd the devil started laughing, flames shooting out of his mouth.  It\nwas a sign that he was happy.\n\n\"Well, you shall see.  You must know that to-morrow the tournament in\nwhich the hand of the king's daughter is to be disputed will take place.\nThe victor will become hereditary prince, and I, frankly, wish to occupy\nthe post.  It is therefore necessary that you make me conquer in the\nfray.\"\n\n\"And what will you give me in exchange?\"\n\n\"Whatever you ask me.\"\n\n\"That you make the princess forget her faith in God. I already have you,\nand I want the princess.\"\n\n\"Agreed.\"\n\n\"Agreed.\"\n\nAnd the devil and Don Teobaldo shook hands.  The latter drew his back,\nsaying:\n\n\"How you burn.\"\n\nThe devil said to him:\n\n\"To-morrow, at the hour of the fight, a squire in black armour will come\nand see you.  I will give you a cuirass made in such a way that it\ncannot be pierced through; a shield which will dazzle and stupefy your\nadversaries if only looked at; a charmed sword, a touch with which will\nproduce death; and a horse as black as ebony which has the advantage of\nrequiring neither curb nor spurs: you will only wear them as\nornaments....  In a word, the horse--will be me.\"\n\n\"Oh, thanks, but I am sorry to trouble you.\"\n\n\"Don't let us say a word about this affair.  I have resolved to carry\naway the soul of this princess, who wearies me with her prayers and\npsalms, and I have not been able to make her sin, even in thought.\"\n\nAnd the devil caught up Don Teobaldo with his cape and left him at the\ndoor of his house, after passing through the air at a prodigious speed.\nOn disappearing, he said in his ear: \"Good-bye till to-morrow.\"\n\nOn the following day the city was decorated with pennons and banners.\nThe entire population flocked to the place where the hand of the\nbeautiful princess, whose virtues everybody praised highly, was to be\nwon in open contest.\n\nThirty knights took part in the struggle, and as they were the bravest\nin the kingdom the spectacle promised to be interesting, though\nbarbarous; but such were the customs of those times.\n\nThe king and the court occupied the grand stand, the princess being in\nthe front row.  The public took the rest of the seats, and the heralds\nannounced that the jousts were about to commence.\n\nDon Teobaldo appeared in the foreground upon a beautiful black horse,\nlarge black plumes waved over the crest of his helmet, and the armour\nwhich he wore was also black.\n\nOn seeing his proud countenance one could not doubt his certainty of\nobtaining the victory.\n\nThe signal was given, and another valiant knight came into the arena and\nrushed upon horrible Don Teobaldo at his horse's full gallop.\n\nWhen he was near, the devil's friend oscillated his shield, and his\nadversary, without being able to prevail, fell to the ground\nunconscious.\n\nAnother and another and another, and twenty more, went forth to fight\nand suffered the same fate.  Whoever resisted the mysterious action of\nthe shield, fell dead from a blow of the sword, even when only touched\nwith the flat of it.\n\nThe people gave shouts of despair on account of the horror which that\nman inspired in them.  The princess was on the point of losing\nconsciousness from terror on seeing that terrible spouse who was\noffering her his disgrace.\n\n\"Heaven!\" she exclaimed, \"death before being the wife of that wicked\nman.\"\n\nAnd now, the last champion having suffered the same defeat as the\nothers, they were about to proclaim Don Teobaldo conqueror, and\ntherefore the husband of the princess, when the trumpet sounded,\nannouncing that a noble knight asked permission to take part in the\nstruggle.\n\nThe king looked at his daughter and, on seeing her so sorrow-stricken,\ngave the desired permission, with the remote hope that the new-comer,\nwhoever he might be, would vanquish the terrible champion.\n\nThey requested him to tell his name and surname, but the knight said:\n\n\"My name is Miguel; my surname I reserve until after the fight, if I\nemerge victorious, but rest assured that there is no one more noble on\nearth.\"\n\nAnd he rode into the lists, arousing a murmur of admiration; his armour\nwas all white as ermine, and the plumes of his helmet were also white.\n\nWhite, of a dazzling white, was the beautiful horse he rode.\n\nDon Teobaldo was greatly impressed by the sight, and more so the devil,\nwho with a neigh said: \"I am glad you have come to fight, Miguel; we\nhave an old account to settle.\"\n\nAnd turning his head to Don Teobaldo, he added:\n\n\"Pull out one of the hairs of my mane and keep it in your pocket, with\nthis you will have as much power as I. Try to defend yourself to the\nlast, for our adversary is terrible.\"\n\nNo sooner said than done.  Don Teobaldo pulled out one of the hairs of\nthe devil's mane and kept it, and immediately felt strong and powerful.\nBlinded by all the pride of the Infernal One, he assailed the knight of\nthe white armour, trying to fascinate him with his shield. Useless task!\n\nThe knight raised the visor of his helmet and showed the handsomest\ncountenance that ever was seen.  That lovely face sent out celestial\nrays.\n\n\"Ah, Luzbel!\" cried he.  \"Do you rebel against me?\"\n\nAnd, throwing aside his spear, he drew his sword, whose brilliance\neclipsed that of the sun itself, and threw himself upon Don Teobaldo.\nThe black horse snorted, roared, bounded, evading the blows with\nsuperhuman skill.  Don Teobaldo's sword fell upon Miguel's white shield\ntwo hundred times, but in vain, until dazed and vanquished horse and\nrider fell at the feet of the handsome knight.\n\n\"Get you hence!\" he said in a voice of infinite pity. \"Know that you are\nmy slave until the completion of the centuries, and that you have no\npower against God our Lord.\"\n\n\"Princess,\" he added, \"you are saved.  Your prayer reached the Most\nHigh, and I, who am the Archangel Miguel, came to set you free from the\nsnares of the demon. Continue virtuous and you will receive your\nreward.\"\n\nAnd so saying he disappeared.\n\nMeanwhile the devil wished to vanish, but Don Teobaldo remembered his\ndeceit, and as he had power over the demon, thanks to the hair that he\nhad pulled out, began to belabour him with spurs and sword, making him\nbounce as high as the highest houses.  Don Teobaldo did not move from\nthe saddle and finished by giving the devil such a superb thrashing as\nnearly finished him.\n\n\"Let me be, and I will not trouble you again,\" cried Luzbel.\n\n\"Will you ask for my soul?\"\n\n\"Neither your soul nor your body, but let me alone now.\"\n\nThen Don Teobaldo, whose heart had been touched by the glance of the\nangel and moved to repentance, dismounted from the horse and left it\nfree to disappear.\n\nAnd so ended those famous jousts, which were never eradicated from the\nmemory of the public.\n\nThe princess, the following year, married a prince as virtuous as\nherself, and Don Teobaldo did penance and became a good Christian who\nhad a just satisfaction in having administered a sound thrashing to the\ndevil.\n\n\n[Illustration: tailpiece to The Devil's Tournament]\n\n\n\n\n                      *THE TREASURE OF THE DRAGON*\n\n\nAn old sailor brought to my town the news of having seen, in a very\ndistant island, a terrible dragon which guarded an immense treasure.\nHalf of the body of this guardian was a fish, the other half a lion; it\nmoreover had such powerful wings that it could rise to an extraordinary\nheight.  Air, water, or land were his elements, and when any ships came\nnear to the coast they were soon attacked by that ever vigilant monster.\n\nMany expeditions were made, but all succumbed to the talons of that\ninvincible animal; moreover, the treasure was so splendid that it\nexcited the envy of adventurers from all parts of the earth.\n\nAmong the innumerable precious stones which with thousands of gold bars\nformed those riches, there was a statue of natural size made out of a\nsingle diamond, and which was worth such a fabulous sum that all the\ntreasures of the earth would not suffice to buy it.\n\nThe fear of the dragon did not lessen the enthusiasm of the lads of my\ntown; on the contrary, it was a further stimulus to their bravery and\ndaring, and so, in little less than a month, an expedition was formed of\nthe bravest and most ambitious.\n\nThey set out on the 15th of September on a bark named the _Temeraire_--a\nhandsome brigantine, the swiftest that ever glided over the waves.\nAfter fourteen days' sailing they found themselves at about a league\nfrom the island where the treasure and the dragon were.  Behold what\nhappened!\n\nThe members of the expedition met in council in order to take their\nmeasures, and agreed as follows: to launch some boats in order to land\nin three or four places at the same time; to carry a great quantity of\nammunition so as to be able to fire upon the dragon; and, lastly, to\ndivide the treasure in equal parts and to distribute it among the\nexpeditionaries.  There was only one vote against, that of a cabin boy,\na youth of eighteen, who opposed the dividing of the party, believing it\nbetter to wait for the dragon on board the ship, and from there to fight\nit with cannons.\n\n\"If you are afraid, stay behind,\" they all said to him, and nobody paid\nany attention to the cabin boy's scheme.\n\nAs nobody trusted his companions, all embarked in the bunches, fearful\nof being cheated if they did not witness the division of the treasure,\nleaving on board only the cabin boy and the pilot, a very experienced\nold sailor who had not uttered any opinion at the meeting.  The launches\nbeing full and the crews armed, they left the ship and rowed near to the\ncoast.\n\nPascual, for so the cabin boy was named, prepared the bow-gun, loading\nit up to the mouth, and also seized a strong sharp spear.  Then he sat\ndown in the bows, and from there, with a telescope, watched the progress\nof his companions.  The latter were about a hundred yards from the coast\nwhen a tremendous roar was heard; he saw the dragon fly up into the air\nand fall upon one of the launches.  Several gunshots were heard, and\nsoon the launch disappeared under the water.  The bullets glanced off\nthe skin of the terrible animal, which threw itself in turn upon the\nother launches and sank them.\n\nIts work of extermination finished, the dragon returned to the island,\nshaking its wings, reddened by the blood of its victims.\n\nThe pilot, terrified, wished to go back to his country, but Pascual\nprevented it, and directed him to go at full sail towards the island.\n\nThe pilot gave way to the solicitations of the cabin boy, who now no\nlonger thought of the treasure but of avenging the death of his\ncompanions.\n\nThey had arrived at some hundred fathoms from the coast when they saw\nthe dragon, which was advancing towards them.  Pascual rapidly aimed the\nsmall cannon, but the ball struck on some rocks, and the dragon, more\nirritated than ever, threw himself upon the brigantine. It described a\ncouple of circles in the air like an eagle choosing its prey, and at\nlength threw itself upon Pascual, who, mounted on a round house,\nvaliantly waited for it.\n\nSuch was the violence of the attack that the dragon, on attempting to\nbreak the spear with which the heroic boy greeted it, sent it quite\nthrough one of its claws, and so great was the pain that it made a\nhorrible outcry and rose up in the air full of terrible frenzy.  The\nspear remained fixed in the claw, and to it hung Pascual, who, by his\nweight, increased the woes of the dragon.  In vain the latter tried to\nget rid of that singular guest; all its efforts were useless, Pascual\nbestrode his spear like an enthusiastic gymnast.  Then becoming furious,\nit threw itself into the sea in order to try to drown him. Pascual swam\nlike a fish and dived like a seal; so his enemy was not able to liberate\nitself from him.  Being now desperate, it went to the island, dragging\nthe cabin boy with it; the latter had hardly touched terra firma when,\nusing the spear as a lever, he gave it a turn with all his might,\ntwisting the wounded claw in such a way that the pain deprived the\nmonster of its strength and consciousness.  Giving a cry it fell to the\nground defenceless.  Pascual then got out his jack-knife and looked with\ncare for the joints between the formidable scales which served the\ndragon as armour.  There he thrust it in many times, with the aid of a\nstone which he used in place of a hammer.\n\nThe dragon was now dead, and Pascual thought of his companions and went\ndown to the shore to seek them. His search was useless, for he did not\neven find a trace of them.  He looked towards the spot where he had left\nthe brigantine, and that had also disappeared; doubtless the old pilot\nwas afraid and had gone away with the ship.\n\nThen our hero decided to seek the treasure, but in vain he went over the\nisland in all directions: he found not the least sign of it.  Then he\nreturned to the spot where he had seen the dragon lying when they had\napproached the island, and he saw that there was an enormous stone which\nno doubt covered the entrance of the grotto where the treasure was to be\nfound.  He applied the spear to the joints and succeeded in moving it,\nand after some effort he brought into view a winding staircase, down\nwhich he hurriedly went.  The first room to which the staircase gave\naccess had its walls covered with rubies, the second with emeralds, and\nthe third with pearls and diamonds.  In the centre stood the magnificent\nstatue made out of a single diamond, and which represented a very\nbeautiful princess.  Pascual was astounded at such extraordinary beauty,\nand burst into an exclamation of admiration.\n\nPresently he noticed the pedestal of the statue, on which might be read:\n\n\"In a stone lies the disenchantment.\"\n\nThen the cabin boy looked at all the projections of the room, and\npressing one of them heard a creak, and instantaneously, as the scenes\nin a fairy comedy are changed, the grotto disappeared; each precious\nstone was changed into a human being, and the beautiful princess, again\nturned to flesh and blood, came slowly down from her pedestal, and,\ngiving her hand to the valiant lad, offered to reward his bravery by\ngiving him all the riches of her kingdom, and with them her heart. Among\nthe disenchanted beings were all his companions of the expedition, who\nembraced Pascual, and, what was very strange, did not envy him,\nrecognising that his triumph was deserved.  All the destroyed boats\nappeared on the coast, and in them they embarked, each one going to his\nown country and the cabin boy to that of the princess.\n\nPascual is now no longer Pascual, but His Highness Prince Pascual I., a\nvery good man, according to what his subjects say.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: headpiece to The Man with Two Faces]\n\n\n                      *THE MAN WITH THE TWO FACES*\n\n\nClaudio was screaming madly when his grandmother said to him:\n\n\"If you cry any more you will see the man with two faces.\"\n\n\"Oh, I say, who is he?\"\n\n\"Well, he is a very strange being, who laughs with one face and cries\nwith the other.  If a child looks at his smiling face he gives it a toy;\nif it looks at his sad face he bites it and tears off the tip of his\near.\"\n\n\"Well, then, I wish he would come, because I will be very good and he\nwill give me a toy.\"\n\n\"It would be much better if he did not come, because you are very bad\nand you would get your ear bitten.\"\n\n\"But I want to see him,\" said the boy.\n\n\"Look for him if you like,\" said the grandmother, \"but mind he does not\nhurt you.\"\n\nClaudio, who was eight years old and very innocent, quite believed in\nthe man with two faces, and resolved to look for him everywhere.\n\nThat afternoon he went to the outskirts of the town and asked some\nwoodmen:\n\n\"Where is the man with two faces?\"\n\nAnd they said to him mockingly:\n\n\"Go to the mountain over there and you will come to him.\"\n\nHe followed their counsel and climbed up the mountain without finding\nanybody.  That night he had to spend on the mountain, climbing up to the\ntop of a tree because the howling of the wolves frightened him so much\nthat he did not dare to go back to his home.  In the morning, on getting\ndown from the tree, a squirrel saluted him with great ceremony, and said\n\"Good morning.\"\n\n\"Listen, squirrel,\" said Claudio, \"do you know where the man with two\nfaces is?\"\n\n\"I do not know, but my friend the eagle knows many things.  Come with me\nand we will ask him.\"\n\nThe boy and the squirrel went together and on the top-most part of the\nmountain came upon the eagle's nest. The eagle turned towards the\nsquirrel and asked what he wanted.  On being told of what Claudio wanted\nhe said to him: \"I have sometimes heard this man spoken of, but I have\nnever seen him.  I only know that he is very unhappy, because he can\nonly look at himself in the glass with his sad face, and on seeing\nhimself so afflicted the poor fellow bursts into tears.\"\n\n\"And where does he live?\" said the boy.\n\n\"He lives so far away that you would never be able to reach the place,\nbut if you like I will carry you there, through the air, in my claws,\nand we shall be there in a twinkling.  I cannot do any more for you than\ncarry you to the door of his house, and I cannot answer for what may\nhappen to you.\"\n\n\"Never mind,\" said the boy; \"take me, for I want to see him.\"\n\nThe eagle caught up the boy by his belt and the squirrel got into one of\nClaudio's pockets.  The eagle began its flight and the three found\nthemselves in the air.  When Claudio saw that he was so high up he shut\nhis eyes, full of terror.\n\nWhen the squirrel appeared from the boy's pocket the trees looked like\nthe size of pins, and he went quickly back again for fear of being\nseasick.  After several hours' flying, the eagle descended on a little\nmountain and there left Claudio, startled at his own temerity.\n\n\"When you wish to come back--if they let you--blow on the whistle which\nI am carrying round my neck.  Keep it, for I have very sharp ears and\ncan hear the sound of it for five hundred leagues.  As soon as I hear it\nI will come, and pop!  I will take you by the belt to my nest.\"\n\nWhen the eagle had gone the squirrel came out of Claudio's pocket and\nsaid to him:\n\n\"Have we arrived already, my little friend?\"\n\n\"Have you come too?\" exclaimed Claudio joyfully.\n\n\"Yes, but incognito.  I liked the look of you and wish to help you with\nmy advice: you know that squirrels, modesty apart, are very sharp.\"\n\n\"All right, what am I going to do now?\"\n\n\"Do you not want to see this man?  Then let us go on, because I also\nwould like to know him.\"\n\n\"And if he wants to hurt us?\"\n\n\"Then we will defend ourselves.  I will go first and explore the\nsurroundings, and will come back at once.\"\n\nAnd saying this, the squirrel started to run with the quickness usual to\nhis race, returning after a little while very much frightened.\n\n\"Do you know,\" he said, \"that the man with the two faces is at the\npresent moment giving a terrible hiding to some boys that he has shut up\nin a cage?\"\n\n\"They must be naughty boys, but I am good, and he will give me toys.\"\n\n\"I don't know about that, because the only thing I have seen him give is\nknocks; and do you know what he was saying?\n\n    \"'This one I like, that one, no;\n    But I shall kill them all, O!'\"\n\n\n\"Was he saying that?\"\n\n\"Just what I am telling you.  I have only seen his gay face which is in\nthe back of his head, and on seeing him I closed my eyes and came away\nquickly, for if he sees me he will tear me to bits.\"\n\n\"What are we going to do?\" said Claudio, startled.\n\n\"Climb up this pine tree with me and from there we will watch.\"\n\nThey climbed up a tree and from it saw a house, or rather a great cage,\nformed of big iron bars with an iron roof.  In the centre was seated the\nman with the two faces with a whip in his hand, punishing a number of\nboys of all ages who filled the cage.\n\nThe temptation seized Claudio to blow the whistle and make the eagle\ncome back to fetch him away, but his curiosity overcame his fear, and he\nsaid to himself:\n\n\"After all, I can go away whenever I like.\"\n\nA little later they saw the man with two faces come out of the cage and\nwalk in the direction of the place where Claudio was.  On his approach\nthey saw such a woebegone countenance that Claudio was filled with fear.\nAs the squirrel saw him shudder, he said to him in a very low voice:\n\n\"Close your eyes or we are lost.\"\n\nThe boy obeyed and the man with two faces passed close to them without\nnoticing their presence.  When he felt him pass, Claudio half opened his\neyes and saw his gay face.  Again he had to close them, for he could\nhardly stop laughing, so strange was the face.\n\nOn his disappearing in the distance, both the friends descended from the\ntree and went up to the cage.  On seeing them the boy prisoners began to\nshout, full of joy:\n\n\"Have you come to set us free?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Claudio, \"but I don't know how to, because you are locked\nup.  Well, failing the key, let us look for other means.\"\n\nAnd, examining the doors, he came upon one without a lock.  He opened it\nand went into the cage, but he had no sooner entered than the door\nclosed of its own accord, leaving him a prisoner.\n\n\"Poor little boy!\" shouted the others, \"you are quite lost, for this is\na kind of mouse-trap where you can enter but can't get out.\"\n\nAt this moment, the man with two faces arrived; he opened the door and,\nfacing Claudio, looked at him with the serious face which made the boy\nshut his eyes to keep from crying.\n\n\"What!  Have I got one pupil more?\" he exclaimed. \"Good, now it is your\nturn to laugh, as it is the first day.\"\n\nAnd seizing his head with both hands he turned it round so that the gay\nface came in front of the boy.  The latter looked a moment, and again\nshut his eyes to keep from laughing aloud.\n\n\"I see that you are strong, but to-morrow we shall see,\" said the\nmonster, and he locked Claudio up with the other little ones.\n\nNow it was night; all were sleeping, including the horrible gaoler.\n\nClaudio was half asleep when he heard himself called softly.  It was his\nfriend the squirrel, who had got in through the iron bars and said to\nhim:\n\n\"Be sure that to-morrow I will save you.\"\n\nAnd without anything more he turned and went out by the way he had\nentered.\n\nThe following day, at the usual time, the monster showed his sad face.\nThe prisoners began to cry.  Claudio shut his eyes, and the monster gave\none of his ears a bite and showed him his teeth.\n\n\"That's for to-day; to-morrow there will be more,\" he said.\n\nAnd after throwing a few pieces of bread to the boys he went away.\n\nNo sooner had he gone than millions of squirrels gathered round, and\nwith the quickness of lightning made an enormous gap.  Through this the\nboys escaped, and the squirrels entered in their place.  The boys hid\nthemselves in a distant grotto, and there waited to see what would\nhappen.\n\nThe man with the two faces arrived at the cage and, on seeing the\nsquirrels there, became extremely angry, and seized a whip with which to\ngive them the daily beating, when all those little animals came out\nthrough the iron bars.\n\nThe monster, putting on some very high stilts, started to run in search\nof the boys, blowing a whistle.  They, terror-stricken, were hiding in\nthe grotto without daring to breathe for fear of being discovered.\nAfter eight or ten hours of giddy running, the man with the two faces\nfell down exhausted and went to sleep on the ground near the grotto.\nThen the squirrel asked Claudio for the whistle that the eagle had given\nhim, and without making any noise hung it round the monster's neck.\n\nThen the latter, awakened by the cold of the night, again caught hold of\nthe whistle and started to blow it madly.  The eagle hastened to the\nsound of his whistle, and thinking that it was Claudio, seized the man\nwith the two faces in his claws and rose up to a great height.\n\nThe eagle soon noticed that his voice was unknown, and without more ado\nlet go of his load and the monster was dashed to pieces on the rocks\nbelow.\n\nHe flew again towards the place where he had left Claudio.\n\n\"Don't be afraid,\" said the eagle, \"because of the two faces neither\nremains.  They have just been smashed up against the stones, and he will\nnever torment anybody any more.\"\n\nThe children returned to their homes, where their coming was celebrated\nwith great feasts, and Claudio's grandmother, when she heard what had\nhappened, after welcoming him on his return, only said to him:\n\n\"Do you want to see the man with two faces again?\"\n\n\n\n\n                       *THE TREACHERY OF MICIFUF*\n\n\nRather more than a fortnight ago an importunate guest disturbed my quiet\nand would not leave me in peace during those tranquil hours of the night\nwhich I am accustomed to spend in work.\n\nYou will say that I ought to have got rid of him. Nothing more simple,\napparently, than to seize the disturbing guest and to put him on his\nfeet in the street, saying to him: \"Good friend, do me the favour not to\ncome back to this house while I live in it and while you behave so\nbadly.\"\n\nBut with my guest there is no reasoning at all.  I begged him, with the\nmost delicate phrases from the book of courtesy, to go away, or not to\nmake a noise.  On seeing his insistence, I reached, by degrees, from the\nsimple threat of dismissal to the terrible one (it frightens me to\nremember!) of dealing him a vile and treacherous death. To such a point\ndoes hastiness on occasions blind us! Even to crime!\n\nAnd to any one in the same circumstances I suspect the same thing would\noccur.\n\nBecause what he does is so irritating.  At the moment when I compose\nmyself for writing, at that very moment he makes an unbearable noise\nthat gets on my nerves and prevents me from writing calmly a single\nline, and from even putting together my ideas.  When, tired of the\ntorture, I throw down my pen and go to bed, the mocking noise at once\nceases as if by magic, and the silence of the dead, or of those who\nwork, reigns again in my room.\n\nBut there is still more!  As I leave them scattered on the table, my\npoor papers appear the following morning as if they were the remains of\na kite, crumpled and even torn, turning my writing to strange\nhieroglyphics, incapable of being read, and my books, my poor books,\nwhich are so dear to me, they are cut as if with a saw, covers and all!\n\nSuch an enemy well deserved the tremendous punishment which my\nlegitimate indignation prepared for him. I maintain him, but he,\nhowever, illtreats me!  Have you ever seen such black ingratitude?\n\nSo I spoke to several friends of mine not long ago, and finding my\npacific and easy-going nature so changed to such a decided and\ndetermined attitude, and to such a fixed project of sanguinary\nvengeance, they said to me, quite surprised and bewildered:\n\n\"We did not believe you capable of such thoughts! To assassinate! to\navenge!  When, even in extreme cases, it might be legitimate and\nhonourable it leaves a stain in the mouth and in the mind of him who\nthinks it. We do not understand you now, my friend; with such principles\none goes to prison or to the scaffold with surprising ease.  If it is an\ningrate who is to be dealt with, turn him ignominiously out of your\nhouse and leave him alone.\"\n\nAnd I noticed in my audience a movement of repulsion that made me feel\nuneasy.\n\n\"But now it occurs to me that I have spoken,\" I added, \"without telling\nwho is the person concerned. It is a mouse which, hidden behind my\nbookcase, makes an infernal noise about twelve o'clock at night, the\nhour at which I dedicate myself to my work.  It is he who destroys\neverything within the reach of his nails or teeth, who must have in his\nbody more letters than a printing press and more paper than a\npaper-mill.\"\n\nEither it was an old and seasoned mouse, experienced in malicious\ntricks, or what he has gnawed has taught him to be on his guard against\neverything.  Be that as it may, it is certain that there is no\ninstrument, mouse-trap, or poison which could put the wretch to death\nand ensure my tranquillity.\n\nYou ought to have seen me some nights handling an old cavalry sabre,\npursuing the little mouse, which finished by hiding itself between the\nbookcase and the wall, laughing at my cutting and thrusting.\n\nConvinced that there was nothing to be done against such an agile enemy,\nI called to my aid a cat who was well known for his courage and hatred\nof the mouse tribe, big Micifuf, who, although old and retired from\nactive life, had no objection to placing himself at my disposal, only on\ncertain fixed conditions.\n\n\"If you want me to help you,\" he said to me, \"you must entertain me like\na prince; must buy me a fine gilt collar; and when I have killed the\nmouse who troubles you, must make me a good present for my family.\"\n\nI agreed to all this, provided I was freed of the diabolical creature\nand in the belief that that same night it would fall into the power of\nmy ally.\n\nAfter a little time I noticed that the noise disappeared, which was\nsomething of a consolation, and I observed that the good Micifuf was\nlying near the bookcase.  He looked at me and smiled as if to say,\n\"There, you see! as soon as they smell me about all is over.\"\n\nI do not Know whether it was instinct or suspicion: it is certain and\ntrue that I thought a certain understanding existed between the mouse\nand Micifuf, and decided to spy upon them to convince myself of this\ntreachery.\n\n\"The mouse does not come out,\" I said to myself, \"and if he does not\ncome out from behind the bookcase for these three or four days and has\nnot eaten anything all this time, the unhappy creature must be on the\npoint of dying of hunger, if it is not already dead.  Well, then, if it\nis alive there is doubtless some trickery here!\"\n\nA few days afterwards I overheard a long conversation between Micifuf\nand the mouse.\n\nSaid the former to the latter: \"Now you see I don't interfere with you\nat all.  On the contrary, I myself supply you with food, giving it to\nyou on the sly as we agreed. But if you make a noise I shall be obliged\nto lay hands on you, in which case, frankly, neither you nor I would\nderive any benefit--you, because you run the risk of my devouring you at\na mouthful; and I because, once you are dead, the master would send me\naway, and I shall not be able to find another fool like this, who keeps\nme and treats me famously without my doing any work whatever.\"\n\n\"For my part,\" said the mouse, \"I don't think I shall break the compact.\nI don't move, even to sneeze; so that you ought to be very pleased.  By\nthe way, you might be good enough to increase my rations of cheese, for\nyou know I like it immensely, and above all Gruyere.\"\n\nAt this moment I could not restrain my indignation, and calling Micifuf\nI said to him:\n\n\"You are a cat without honour; what you have done is a really dirty\ntrick of the worst kind.  I should never have brought you here for that\npurpose, for I could have made an arrangement with the mouse myself.  I\nprefer to keep him rather than to feed you both.\"\n\n\"Come, come!\" exclaimed Micifuf with the utmost coolness.  \"I see you\nhave not understood my plan. Listen!  By acting so with the mouse, which\nis an unhappy creature in the fullest sense of the word, I shall succeed\nin getting him out of his haunts, and he will yield himself trustingly\nto my claws and teeth.\"\n\nSo that very night he approached the bookcase and said:\n\n\"Little mouse, my friend!  Come out, for now nobody is about and we can\nchat at our ease.\"\n\nThe mouse showed its little snout from behind the bookcase and came out,\nlittle by little, with justifiable fear.\n\n\"Come now, draw near, and don't make me raise my voice, I don't know\nwhether they can hear us.  Listen to what I have to tell you.  You must\nknow, my good friend, that I have always felt a great affection for your\nrace, by reason of a tradition which has been preserved in my family for\nmany years.  According to this, one of our ancestors, a beautiful Angora\ncat--I don't know exactly whether it was my great-grandfather or my\ngreat-great-grandfather--was once very ill and without resources, lying\non the miserable straw of a garret, when a compassionate mouse brought\nhim some cheese-rinds and, I suppose, some other eatables right up to\nhis own bed. He was going to take them when another mouse, of\ndisagreeable appearance, with some red marks on its back, drew near and\ntook away the food, taking advantage of the fact that my\ngreat-grandfather had rheumatism and could not move.\n\n\"Since then we have decided to kill all the descendants of that wicked\nfellow who made our relative die of hunger, and also to reward the one\nwho was so good to him in time of trouble.\"\n\n\"That appears quite right to me,\" said the mouse.\n\n\"Listen, by the by: do you know it seems to me that you have some red\nspots on your back?\"\n\nThe mouse was startled and said that his good friend the cat must have\ncobwebs in his eyes.\n\n\"Really, I am very shortsighted, and it would not be at all\nextraordinary if I were mistaken.  I will come near in order to\nrecognise you better.\"\n\nHe had no sooner approached than, seizing him with his claws, he began\nto shout:\n\n\"Master!  Master!  Here is the mouse!\"\n\nI hastened at the call, and, if the truth must be told, far from being\npleased, the deed troubled me in the highest degree.\n\nThe little mouse lay dead in Micifuf's claws, and the cat was showing\nhimself off, proud of his achievement.\n\n\"I hope,\" said he, \"that you will give me the reward agreed on.\"\n\nThen I could no longer restrain my indignation, and, seizing a stick, I\nbegan to whack the traitor, saying to him:\n\n\"Wretch!  At first you would have deceived me, and now, by practising\nthe wiles of traitors, you have murdered him to whom you offered\nprotection.  Take the reward which all traitors receive.\"\n\nAt each blow with the stick Micifuf snorted, leaping high into the air,\nuntil at length he dashed through a pane of the window and threw himself\nout into the street.  I did not wish to know whether he was killed or\nnot.  He well deserved to be killed.\n\nAnd since then, everybody who has recourse to deceit seems hateful to\nme, even though they deceive for the purpose of killing the most\ntroublesome of little mice.\n\n\n\n\n                      *TROMPETILLA AND TROMPETIN*\n\n\n\"What are you doing here, boy?\" asked a venerable friar of Rupert, who\nwas sitting near his accordion in the neighbourhood of a wood as if he\nwere preparing himself to give a solemn performance to the oaks.\n\n[Illustration: \"What are You doing here, Boy.\"]\n\n\"I was resting after a long walk,\" answered the boy, \"and as they say\nthat sleep is food, I wished to forget in slumber that not a mouthful\nhas passed my lips for many hours.\"\n\n\"Poor little boy,\" exclaimed the father; \"if you want a sumptuous meal\ngo near the third cork-tree on the right-hand side; go round the tree\nthree times, playing the accordion, and a door will open.  Pass through\nit and you shall eat splendidly.\"\n\nRupert went to the spot indicated and, playing a \"Habanera\" dance, made\nthe three turns prescribed; a piece of bark came away and disclosed a\nlittle iron door, artistically ornamented.  He pushed it gently; it\nopened noiselessly, and there was Rupert inside a beautiful palace,\nwhose magnificent rooms were illuminated with hidden fires, which, while\ngiving light, sent out sweet fragrance. \"These smells are not bad,\" said\nRupert, \"but I would rather they came from a nicely cooked chop.\"\n\nAt that moment a hundred succulent chops which were saying \"Eat me!\"\nbegan to balance themselves in space.  Being neither stupid nor lazy,\nRupert tried to get hold of the nearest, but they all began a frantic\ncareer round the room.  In the centre of the latter appeared a table\ncovered with appetising eatables, but as soon as Rupert went near they\nonce more took to flight as if on invisible wings.  A magnificent\nstuffed turkey hit him on the nose; the breast of a chicken nearly\nknocked him over; all this while the boy was running, like a mad thing,\nafter those exquisite dainties, hungrier than a bear after a fortnight's\nfast.\n\n\"This is only an invitation to see!\" exclaimed the lad.  \"It is enough\nto make one's teeth grow longer!\"\n\nHe had hardly uttered these words than his teeth began to grow in such a\ndisordered fashion, and so quickly, that the shortest was not less than\nthree yards long.  The viands were caught on them as if on lances, a\nfurther difficulty for Rupert, who could not succeed in seizing the\ncoveted prey which was fixed on his own teeth.\n\nOn this a monkey appeared, and climbing on to the boy's teeth, began\nvery impudently to eat those exquisite viands, making signs of\nsatisfaction which threw Rupert into a rage.\n\n\"You great thief!\" he cried.  \"What do you mean by laughing at me?\"\n\nAnd catching up his accordion he threw it at the animal with such\naccuracy that, hitting him on the head, it knocked him senseless.  A\ngreat noise was heard, the monkey disappeared, Rupert's teeth grew\nshorter, and while the accordion played, of its own accord, the\ncelebrated air \"No me matas,\" a woman appeared in the middle of the room\nwho, for size, looked like a whale, and who would have been beautiful if\nshe had not had a turned-up nose and fixed eyes, one weeping oil and the\nother vinegar, and who would certainly have had a fine head of hair if\nshe had not been bald, and a fine set of teeth if a single tooth had\nremained in her head.\n\n\"Who are you?\" asked Rupert, a trifle startled.\n\n\"I am the witch Trompetilla, the daughter of the celebrated Trompeton\nand grand-daughter of Trompetazo, and am looking for my son Trompetin\neverywhere, without being able to find him.\"\n\n\"Why do you speak to me about Trompetilla and Trompetin when I never\nplayed a trumpet in my life?\"\n\n\"Ah, unhappy me!\" sobbed the witch.  \"In vain I have offered a\npennyworth of toasted chick peas and a measure of tiger nuts to the\nmortal who discovers the whereabouts of my son.  I have wept so much oil\nand vinegar that I have spoilt all the furniture in my house.\"\n\n\"What a fine salad you could make if you bought some lettuces!\"\n\n\"You will get a salad made of blows if you don't help me to look for my\nTrompetin, and if we find him I will invite you to supper, and moreover\nwill give you a penny so that you need never do any more work in your\nlife.\"\n\nRoused by such a magnificent promise, Rupert offered to look for\nTrompetin, even if he were under a cruet.\n\n\"What is he like?\" he asked.\n\n\"The size of a pea, a head like that of a pin, and legs like needles.\"\n\n\"Well, then, he must be sticking in a pin cushion or in a needle-case.\"\n\n\"A needle-case would not hold him, for he has a beard two yards long.\"\n\n\"It must trail on the ground!\" said Rupert, full of astonishment.\n\n\"Well, now,\" said the witch, \"while I go and mend some clothes, begin to\nlook for my pet.\"\n\nThis said, she disappeared.\n\nThe boy was confused by so many comings and goings, appearances and\ndisappearances; but as hunger afflicted him, he proposed to find\nTrompetin, and taking a turn round the room, began to shout:\n\n\"Trompetin, where are you?\"\n\n\"Here!\" groaned a tiny voice.\n\n\"Where?  I can't see you.\"\n\n\"In this crack,\" replied the voice.\n\nRupert searched, and at last found the witch's son in a crack between\ntwo bricks.  The enormous beard was a hair two yards long, which grew\nout of his nose.\n\nRupert took him up carefully, and placing him on his hand, asked him:\n\n\"Are you Trompetin, the son of Trompetilla?\"\n\n\"The same.\"\n\n\"Why have you been lost so long?\"\n\n\"Because my mother is deaf and cannot see well, so that, although I\nshouted a lot, she did not hear me.\"\n\n\"Well, now, tell me who the monkey is that climbed up on to my teeth?\"\n\n\"It is a wizard, nastier than medicine, who is angry with us because his\ngrandfather died from a trumpet-blast that my great-great-grandfather\nsounded in his ear.  It was he who made your teeth grow, and didn't\nallow you to eat.  Knock on this wall and he will reappear, then pull\nout my hair and thrash him with it.\"\n\n\"A fine thrashing to be given with a hair!\"\n\n\"Try, and you will see!\"\n\nRupert struck the wall, and at once the monkey appeared, sparks flying\nfrom his eyes.  He was about to throw himself on Rupert, but the boy\npulled out Trompetin's hair, which turned itself into a fine cudgel,\nwith which he dealt the monkey a vigorous hiding.  The animal leapt high\ninto the air several times, but that was useless, as the stick\nlengthened as if it were elastic and reached him wherever he was.  When\nthe monkey could resist no longer, he took human shape, and going on his\nknees begged Rupert not to grind his ribs, and in return he offered to\ngive him as much wealth as he might desire.\n\n\"Call Trompetilla,\" exclaimed the lad, \"and let us have a talk.\"\n\nThe witch appeared, this time crying with joy at seeing her son, and\nafter kissing him, stuck him in her dress so that he should not be lost\nagain.  The wizard gave Rupert a lot of money and the witch gave him a\nsplendid supper of stew and hemp-seed.\n\nWhen supper was over they affectionately took leave of one another, and\nthe wizard took Rupert out into the fresh air, carrying him carefully to\nthe same spot in which he was when he met the priest.  There he left the\nboy sleeping soundly, dreaming of a sweet awakening--the dream of the\nperson who sees his future assured by reason of not having done anything\nwrong.\n\n\n\n\n                           *THE QUACK DOCTOR*\n\n\nI do not know whether it was true or not, but as it was told to me so I\ntell it to you.\n\nThere used to pass through the goodly streets, whether of Constantinople\nor Babylon I am not sure which--however, it makes no difference to my\nstory--a quack doctor who, while beating a drum and clashing a pair of\ncymbals, announced his medicines and practised his cures.\n\nYou must place the action of this story in a place where there are no\nmedical men, for if there were, certainly they would put the quack in\nprison where he would not see daylight for a long time.  And the fact is\nthat, with all his quackery, the man had acquired great fame in the\ndifficult art to which he devoted himself.  His adaptability was\nextraordinary.  It was just the same to him to extract a big man's tooth\nas to pull out a knife and cut off anybody's leg without stopping for a\nmoment.\n\nFor shamelessness this man could not be beaten.  It is related that in\nthe times when our quack wandered through the streets and towns, the\nemperor's son fell ill of a great and persistent melancholy.  The youth\nwas sad and weak, and even when he felt no pain his depression was\nalarming.  The court doctors, who were important people, held a\nconsultation, and, as always happens in these cases, each one put\nforward a different opinion from that of his companions.\n\n\"It appears to me,\" said one, putting on his spectacles, \"saving the\nestimable opinion of my fellow-professors, that his highness the\nhereditary prince is suffering from his liver.  Broth of green beans\nwould be a good thing.\"\n\n\"Gently, wise companion,\" exclaimed another.  \"I maintain that his\nhighness suffers from his spleen; and as what is good for the liver is\nbad for the other organ, I do not believe that green beans would be any\ngood; roasted chick peas are wanted.\"\n\n\"Well, gentlemen, may I be hanged if the prince's illness is not in his\nfeet.  Ask him if he has chilblains, and, in that case, we all know what\nto do: wool, plenty of wool, and watercress, plenty of watercress.\"\n\nThe discussion took a threatening turn; each doctor, in support of what\nhe affirmed, cited three or four authorities and even brought books to\nprove and demonstrate it.  The dispute waxed so hot that it ended by the\ndoctors throwing the books at each other's heads. A book broke the\nspectacles of one of the doctors, and a little more would have knocked\nout one of his eyes; another fell like a mace on the bald head of the\noldest and crashed into his brain, his skull not being of the hardest.\n\nAt this moment the emperor entered the room where the three Hippocrates\nwere killing each other, and when informed of the cause of the dispute\nbecame cold all over.\n\n\"It is a bad sign when you do not agree.  My son is in danger of dying.\"\n\nAnd the poor father went away, saddened and disheartened, to his\napartments.\n\nHistory says that not a bit of the doctors remained.  On seeing the\nemperor so grief-stricken there was no lack of courtiers who had the\ncourage to speak to him of the advisibility of calling in the quack.\n\n\"Impossible,\" said the monarch.  \"If those three shining lights of\nmedicine could not save him, how can I possibly expect that the quack\ncan cure him?\"\n\nHowever, the courtiers were so persistent that the emperor consented to\ncall in the quack, but on one condition: before taking up the cure of\nthe prince, he must heal five sick people who had been given up by the\ndoctors.\n\nThey looked for the five invalids and had them brought into the palace.\nThe quack, obeying the emperor's orders, arrived shortly after.  The\nlatter said to him:\n\n\"Do you dare to undertake the prince's cure?\"\n\n\"Yes, sire.\"\n\n\"Well, in order to convince me of what you know, you will heal five men\nwho are seriously ill and whom I will show you.  If you do not cure them\nI will have your head cut off, but if you make them well I will\nthenceforward put his highness' health in your charge.\"\n\n\"Can you not make it four instead of five, sire?\"\n\n\"No, five; and if not, you know what to expect.\"\n\n\"Well, then, I will cure them.  Where are they?  I must speak to them\nalone.\"\n\nWith the emperor's permission he went to the room where the hopeless\ncases were.  Even the most healthy of them had only two or three days to\nlive.\n\n[Illustration: The Quack Doctor.]\n\nOn seeing them our quack almost fell in a faint.\n\n\"Gentlemen,\" he said, \"I am going to cure you in the only possible way.\nThe great magician Faramalla has taught me a wonderful system of curing.\nThere is no invalid who cannot be healed by it.  Hear it:\n\n\"It is necessary for me to kill one of you and burn his heart.  Its\nashes serve to make such a pomade that on applying it to any diseased\npart it heals as if by magic, without any need of medicine.  You,\" he\nadded, facing one of the hopeless ones, \"are very ill, what does it\nmatter to you if you die now or within two days?  I shall kill you and\nburn your heart to cinders in order to cure the rest.\"\n\n\"I say, good friend,\" cried the threatened man, \"do you say I am very\nill?  Why, there is nothing the matter with me.  My family persists in\nsaying that I am consumptive, but, thank God, I am as sound as a bell.\"\n\n\"All right, all right,\" said the quack, \"it makes very little difference\nto me; but you leave on this condition, that you tell the emperor that\nyou are cured.\"\n\nThe consumptive, hardly noticing the half-opened door, dashed madly\nhomewards.\n\n\"How are you?\" the emperor asked him.\n\n\"I am sound and well,\" exclaimed the consumptive, without ceasing to\nrun.\n\n\"This is marvellous,\" thought the emperor.\n\n\"He is a very learned man,\" said the courtiers.\n\nThe other invalids did the same as the first.  Provided that they were\nnot killed at once, they swore by all they held sacred that they had\nnever felt stronger and better in their lives.  And they darted out of\nthe palace like arrows from a bow, leaving the emperor and the doctors\namazed.\n\nThe monarch then thought of trusting him with the cure of his son, when\na loud burst of laughter interrupted the grave and ceremonious etiquette\nof the court.  Who was the daring man who thus failed in due respect?\n\nThe emperor in person, full of ire, went out into the ante-room and\nthere met the disturber.  It was the imperial prince himself, who was\nrolling on a sofa unable to restrain his outbursts of laughter.  The\nemperor was delighted to see the sadness, which had so alarmed him,\ndissipated so unexpectedly.  To what was this extraordinary event due?\n\nThe prince told him.  \"On seeing those unhappy invalids run out so\nquickly, I asked the quack the cause of their flight, and the latter\ntold me with a wealth of detail.\"\n\nIt had amused him so much that the black melancholy which was\nundermining his existence was dissipated.\n\n\"You will remain with my son,\" said the emperor to the quack, \"not as a\ndoctor but as a friend.  You are a witty man and wit deserves to be\nrewarded.\"\n\n\n\n\n                          *THE DRAWING SCHOOL*\n\n\nOnce there was a boy so fond of spoiling walls, doors, and windows with\ngrotesque drawings that there was no way of stopping him from practising\nhis silly cleverness wherever he was.  And I say silly, because from his\nhand came forth some primitive dolls, with heads as round as a billiard\nball, eyes and nose forming a sort of cork, and arms and legs like thin\nthread, terminating in hands and feet which required an inscription in\norder not to be taken for scourges.\n\nOne afternoon he approached the very wall of the school, and there, with\nthe greatest coolness, commenced to draw with a piece of charcoal some\nof his strange figures. Perico, for so the boy was called, traced the\nfigure of the head of a puppet, made the eyes and the mouth, and, oh,\nhow strange! the doll began to wink and open its mouth and put its\ntongue out like anything.\n\nPerico was not timid, and therefore the moving of the eyes and mouth did\nnot startle him, and so without paying attention continued with his\nsketching the arms and the rest of the body.  But he had hardly finished\nwhen the doll's hand came out and gave him such a tremendous knock that\nit made him lose his balance, and he would even have fallen to the\nground if another blow with the other hand and on the opposite cheek had\nnot kept him on his feet. And as if this was not enough, the legs sprang\nout of the wall, and two vigorous kicks that Perico received in the pit\nof the stomach quite convinced him that there was one too many, and he\nwas the one.  Thus convinced he was about to run away when the whole\ndoll came away from the stone, and at a bound leapt on his shoulders and\nbegan to bite him in the back of the head.\n\nPerico ran towards his house like a greyhound, feeling on his neck the\nweight of that unexpected load, when the latter grew heavy, as if,\ninstead of a charcoal picture, he had to deal with a bronze statue.\n\nThe poor little boy sank to the ground, and on getting up saw at his\nside, in the middle of the square, the doll in question, as tall as a\ngiant and changed into a motionless iron statue.\n\nHe tried to fly, but the statue caught him with its great hands by the\nneck and, raising him up, placed him on its shoulders, and this being\ndone commenced to run in the direction of the country.  Its footsteps\nproduced a very disagreeable noise of ironmongery, something like a sack\nof nails being shaken up.\n\nIt was night-time and our giant, with Perico on its shoulders, ran as\nfast as anything to a neighbouring mountain, until he came to a dark\ngrotto into which he penetrated without any need of matches, because\nintense lights shone from his eyes.\n\nDuring all this Perico, needless to mention, was more afraid than\nashamed, and did not know, nor could even imagine how, it was going to\nend.\n\nAt length, after some minutes' walk in the grotto, the iron man\nstraightened himself, and turning the light of his eyes towards a\ncorner, lighted up by a glance the lamp which hung down from the rocky\nceiling, and this being done, took Perico down from his shoulders and\nsat down.\n\n\"You do not know who I am,\" said the doll, opening his mouth with a\nhorrible smile; \"but when you do know, it will make your hair stand on\nend from fright.\"\n\n\"I am sure it won't,\" said the lad, \"because it is already doing so; and\nas I cannot be any more afraid than I am now, on account of being so\nmuch afraid the fear which I felt is passing away.\"\n\n\"Well, then, I am the magician Adefesio, and I am tired of your drawing\nme so ugly and so similar to all the boys. The thing which puts me out\nmost is that you draw my eyes without pupils and my nose without\nnostrils.  Moreover, the ears which you sketch look like jug handles,\nand I am sick of my portrait going about the world so disfigured and so\nbadly done.  Could you not have learnt to draw a little before\ncommencing these pictures?  Well, the punishment that I reserve for you\nis to draw your portrait every day.\"\n\n\"What a punishment!\" exclaimed Perico.\n\n\"The fact is that I do not know how to draw either,\" answered the man of\niron, \"and the worst of it all is that while I am drawing you, you will\ngrow like my sketch, so that in a twinkling you will be disfigured.\nThere, does not that seem a severe punishment to you?  Well, you will\nsee!\"\n\nAnd seizing Perico by one arm he pulled the lamp which hung down.  Then\na hole opened in the ceiling and the lamp went up, dragging the doll and\nPerico through the air.\n\nThe light continued to rise through a sort of well which was lighted up,\nand whose walls were lined with books full of badly-made drawings,\nspoilt plans, pieces of forms with engravings made with penknives, and\ntable-covers destroyed through having been drawn on.  That was the\nmuseum of the man of iron, and each time he saw it he was filled with\nanger towards the young draughtsmen who spoilt everything.\n\nSoon they found themselves in a spacious room decorated in Arabian style\nand furnished most luxuriously.  In the background there was an easel of\ngreat size, and on it a blackboard on which were drawn a lot of dolls of\nthe same sort that Perico drew.\n\n\"Dear me, how fine!\" said the boy looking at the sketches; \"it seems\nthat I did them.\"\n\n\"Well, now you will see the consequences,\" and snapping his fingers he\nproduced a metallic sound, and immediately a multitude of boys of\ndifferent ages came through a door.  But what funny boys!  All had round\nheads, eyes like fishes, flat noses, and mouths like letter boxes, wide\nopen and showing teeth like saws.  Their arms were thin as wire, ending\nin long fingers without joints.  Perico was not startled when they came\nin.\n\n\"Well, that is how you will look in a little while,\" said the iron man.\n\n\"He always exaggerates!\" exclaimed Perico aside, \"but seeing is\nbelieving.\"\n\nThe man of iron seized a piece of chalk, and going near to the board\nbegan to draw Perico's head; but the latter called the doll's attention,\nand when he looked the other way rubbed out what he had drawn.\n\nThe man could not have seen very well because he went on drawing very\ntranquilly, and Perico continued rubbing out what the other drew; and\nwhen he thought that he had finished he caught up the boy, brought him\nto the light, and imagine his surprise on seeing him the same as before.\nHe went back, full of rage, to the blackboard; but Perico tripped him\nup, and did it so well that he fell down.  Then he threw the board and\neasel on him, and climbing on top, began to jump on the doll, and\ncalling to his companions, shouted:\n\n\"Come here so that he will not be able to run away!\"\n\nThe boys drew near and, climbing on the blackboard, by their weight\nprevented the iron doll from moving.\n\nBut things did not rest thus, because Perico was a very daring boy, and\ntaking up a rope, which was close at hand, hung the iron man by the neck\nto the lamp, and pulling on the other end of the rope, hauled him up\nwith the help of his companions.\n\nAs he was made of iron he was not choked, but hanging up he could do\nnothing except make grimaces like a jack-in-the-box, which was just what\nhe looked like hanging in the air.\n\n\"Let me down!\" shouted the unhappy man, \"and you may draw whatever you\nlike.\"\n\n\"That won't do, my friend,\" answered Perico, laughing at the doll's\nmovements.  \"I should not be so stupid as to let you escape.\"\n\nSo that, as the song says:\n\n    \"Here, sirs, came to an end\n    The life of Don Crispin.\"\n\n\n\"Do you think I have forgotten the punch you gave me?\"\n\nThe other boys tied the rope to a sofa so as not to get tired, and led\nby Perico began to explore the rooms of the cave.  They were all\nbeautiful save that the ornaments on the walls were of dolls as\ngrotesque as the master.\n\nThe way out of the grotto could not be seen anywhere. And the reason was\nsimple, as the means of exit was by the lamp to which the doll was\nhanging; but the boys did not like the idea of going down one by one,\nwith a great risk of breaking their heads.\n\nPerico, now uneasy, recommenced to run about the rooms, and troubled by\nseeing on the walls what recalled his unfortunate adventure, pulled out\nhis handkerchief and rubbed out all the drawings, seeing, with\nextraordinary surprise, that the boys recovered their original shapes.\nOn rubbing out the last drawing a formidable noise was heard: the iron\nman vanished as if he were smoke, the palace disappeared, and they found\nthemselves at the entrance to the cave.  From there they marched to the\ntown, where their parents were anxiously waiting for them, and there\nthey related what had occurred.\n\nAll returned thanks to God and promised not to draw dolls again\nanywhere.\n\nPerico became a very honourable man, devoted himself to drawing, and\nbecame a great artist, but he never forgot those dolls, which might have\ncost him so dear.\n\n\n\n\n                        *THE MAN WITH THE NOSE*\n\n\nThe King of Persia, Abe-lan-fui, was sitting one day with his august\nfeet in a basin of rose-water, an ingenious method which he employed in\norder to cause happy ideas to occur to him when he was troubled.  Half\nslumbering by reason of the sublime thoughts which crowded to his brain,\nhe nodded two or three times, rubbed his eyes, and reclining his head on\na cushion, fell asleep.  The court with silent respect contemplated the\ngentle sleep of his majesty, when a loud sneeze filled the courtiers\nwith horror and suddenly awakened his majesty.\n\n\"Who was it?\" asked the monarch.\n\n\"Sire!\" exclaimed a youth, \"it was I.  I could not help it.\"\n\n\"Shall I hang him?\" asked the grand vizier.\n\n\"Not yet; wait.  You have just interrupted the sweetest dream of my\nlife.  I was just thinking how to marry Princess Chan-ta-lan to a prince\nof her rank when your tempestuous sneeze caused it all to go out of my\nhead.  Your duty now is to guess my dream.  If you can remind me of it,\nI forgive you; but if not, I will have your nose shortened so that you\nwill never sneeze again as long as you live.\"\n\n\"Sire!\" answered the unhappy courtier, seizing his nose as if to bid it\na last farewell, \"my nose and my person belong to your majesty, but no\ndoubt, if you grant me five minutes' reflection, with the help of God I\nwill make you remember your dream.\"\n\nWhen the brief respite granted by the king had expired, the courtier\ndaringly approached the steps of the throne and spoke as follows:\n\n\"Mighty monarch! here is the only dream worthy of your illustrious\ntalent.  You dreamed that twelve princes solicited the white hand of the\naugust Princess Chan-ta-lan; that eleven of them were graceful, but one\nhad a defect; the former were powerful, and the latter of meagre\nfortune; however, your majesty chose the defective candidate as\nhereditary prince.\"\n\n\"If you tell me why I chose him,\" interrupted the monarch, \"the nose is\nyours.\"\n\n\"You chose him, your majesty, for his surpassing genius, and for having\nvanquished his rivals in tests to which your majesty submitted them.\"\n\n\"Excellent.  Now I remember it perfectly.  May God preserve your nose\nfor centuries and centuries, and my treasurer shall give you a thousand\npieces of gold as a reward for your extraordinary understanding.\"\n\nThe court greeted this act of the monarch with a murmur of approval,\nand, at once, all those who a few minutes before fled from the young\ncourtier as from a plague approached and felicitated him.\n\n\"Well, then,\" exclaimed the monarch, \"I wish to follow the inspirations\nof the dream, whose description you have heard.  From now on, the\ncompetition for aspirants to the hand of Chan-ta-lan is open.  Proclaim\nit, grand vizier, to all my ambassadors, and let all courts know what my\ndecision is.  A necessary condition for the princes who aspire to be my\nsuccessor is to send their portraits without delay.\n\n\"And now,\" he added, addressing the minstrels of the palace, \"I permit\nyou to sing my praises; and you,\" he said, facing his courtiers, \"I\ntolerate to applaud me for the great talent that God has given me.\"\n\n\"Bravo!  Bravo!\" exclaimed the courtiers all together.\n\n\"You are half-hearted!\" said the king.  \"Applaud with more enthusiasm,\nthen I promise you not to get angry even when you shock my modesty.\"\n\n\"Hurrah!  Splendid!  Wonderful!\" cried the people of the court,\napplauding as if they were the claque of a theatre.  \"What genius!  What\npenetration!  What a pity if it should fail us!\"\n\n\"Don't be afraid, it will continue to be your pride and the rejoicing of\nthis land of fools and brutes.\"\n\n\"Oh, what a good lord!  What a delicate compliment!\"\n\nThe ambassadors announced the wish of their lord in all the capitals of\nthe neighbouring kingdoms, and very soon letters and portraits of\nprinces in all imaginable attitudes began to arrive.  Some were twirling\ntheir moustaches with a martial air; others scratched their chins as if\nthey were irritated; and others with one hand on the hilt of their\nswords but wearing a magnanimous air, as if they would spare everybody's\nlife.  So the King of Persia gathered a varied collection.  But amongst\nthem one excelled for his awful simplicity, that of the Prince of Tokay,\nwho appeared in full profile, showing such a deformed nose as had never\nbeen seen, not only in that town, but if you searched for ten leagues\naround you would not find another to approach it.  And saying it is\ndifferent from seeing it.  For that immense, colossal nose measured from\nthe base to the tip nearly a yard in the measure of that country, which\nis equal to two in Castilian measure.  It was as thick as it was large,\nwhich almost caused the other features of the countenance to disappear.\nThe painter, who undoubtedly was very clever, had expressed the air of\nweariness which that badly balanced weight produced in the prince, and\nwhich cried aloud for a counter weight at the back of his head.\n\nThe king laughed very much to see this phenomenon, and on seeing him\nlaugh the courtiers also dared to laugh at the prince; but the princess,\ncalled to see the portrait of that aspirant to marriage, far from\nlaughing, commenced to cry disconsolately and nearly fainted.\n\n\"I do not wish to see the man with the nose!\" she cried.  \"What great\nfolly!  With this face he dares to ask for my hand!  Papa, declare war\nagainst him, take him prisoner, and do him the favour of trimming his\nnose, if only to oblige me!\"\n\nThe court also laughed at the remarks of the princess; for to some\npeople there is nothing more amusing than to laugh at others.\n\nThe king did not dare to disregard the Prince of Tokay, and, moreover,\ngreatly wished to see closely that elephant's trunk; so it was that he\nauthorised his ambassador to invite him to come to Persia to the place\narranged for the other aspirants.\n\nAll Teheran was burning with desire to know the princes, and especially\nthe big-nosed one: and so on the day of his arrival all the town crowded\nto the gate by which he was to enter the capital.  The Prince of Tokay,\naccompanied by his inseparable nose and a modest escort, entered the\ncity and proceeded directly to the palace.\n\n\"What beauty!\" cried the people.  \"With such a nose, well distributed,\nthere would be an end to all the pug-nosed people in the world.\"\n\nThe king, who came out to receive him, wished to embrace him as\netiquette required, but knocked against his nose and nearly tore out his\neye.  At last a courtier held carefully aside the nose and he was able\nto accomplish the palatine ceremony.\n\n\"His nose is tremendous,\" said the king, putting wet cloths on his\ninjured eye; \"but it does not seem to me so large as the one in the\nportrait.\"\n\n\"I am of the same opinion,\" added the princess.  \"It seems to me three\nor four inches shorter than that the painter represented.  If an artist\nhere had done the same to me as he did to the Prince of Tokay I am sure\nthat I should order him to receive a sound thrashing!\"\n\n\"Then, to blow his nose how many handkerchiefs are wanted!\" said a\ncourtier.\n\n\"He blows his nose on a sheet,\" added another.\n\nThe following day all the princes were summoned to give proof of their\ntalents.  All went about very thoughtfully except he of Tokay, who\narrived with a most natural and quiet demeanour.\n\n\"My lord princes,\" said the sovereign, taking his seat on the throne,\n\"in order to decide who is the son-in-law who suits me best I have\narranged to put your knowledge to a test, now that your personal charms\nare to be seen.\"\n\nAll the spectators looked at the big-nosed prince, who seemed as\ntranquil as if he were not the object of general curiosity.\n\n\"Here are the questions that you have to answer. Which is the most\nvaluable thing in the world?  How many baskets full of earth could be\ntaken from the mountain which is to be seen from the palace?  And who is\nthe most treacherous companion that we all have?\"\n\nHe granted them an hour in which to think out the answers, each being\nshut up separately.  He formed a tribunal composed of the wisest men of\nhis kingdom, and afterwards compared the aspirants to his daughter's\nhand one with the other.\n\nSome stated that these questions were too difficult for such rapid\nanswers; others said what they thought about them in such a stupid way\nthat the tribunal and the court could not refrain from laughter.\n\nAt length it came to the turn of the Prince of Tokay, who, bowing\nrespectfully, answered, \"The most valuable thing in the world is life,\nbecause it is God's most wonderful work.  The mountain which is to be\nseen from the palace has exactly two baskets full of earth, provided a\nbasket is made large enough to hold half the mountain. And the most\ntreacherous companion is time, which is our friend in youth, our\ncompanion in middle age, and finally kills us treacherously in old age.\"\n\nThe king smiled, the tribunal approved, and the court applauded.  The\nprincess herself appeared enchanted.\n\n\"Without any doubt,\" said the monarch, \"you are the the victor in this\ncontest of intelligence; now it remains for you to vanquish in strength\nand skill.\"\n\nA stand was erected in the public place for the king, the judges, and\nthe court, and shortly afterwards the princes, bearing their arms and\nmounted on superb horses, rode into the lists.\n\nEach one was given a lance and the struggle began. The first of the\nprinces fought with the second, the conqueror with the third, and so on.\n\nThe Prince of Muscovy, who was a robust man, won the greater part of the\ncontest, wounding his adversaries seriously by lance-thrusts, throwing\nthem from their horses, and making them declare themselves vanquished\nunder the threat of finishing them off like lambs.  When the last one\nappeared, the feeble Prince of Tokay, a murmur of pity went round the\nspectators.  He of Muscovy had nothing even to start on!  Moreover, as\nthat nose could not be covered by any known helmet, the prince kept it\noutside with his visor raised.  This was a manifest disadvantage, for\nthe other was cased in armour from top to toe.\n\nHe of Muscovy approached the stand where the princess was and said to\nher:\n\n\"Beautiful Chan-ta-lan, I know that you have a whim to have the Prince\nof Tokay's nose shortened, and I intend to pull it out by the roots and\noffer it to you as a wedding gift.\"\n\nAnd saying this, he attacked his adversary, who was quietly awaiting\nhim.  Their lances struck against their shields and broke into\nsplinters; the horses reared, but neither one nor the other moved from\nthe saddle.  The lances being broken, they seized their swords and\nstruck at each other furiously until the blades were broken also.  The\nPrince of Tokay approached his adversary, and with only one\nhand--incredible strength!--took him from the saddle and threw him\nrolling on the ground.\n\nTremendous applause followed, and the Prince of Tokay was cheered on all\nsides.  The latter alighted from his horse, and drawing near to his\nenemy, who was not yet able to rise, made him admit his defeat.  The\nprincess looked at him in amazement and confusion, and the king said to\nher: \"So you have got to have the big-nosed one!  However, console\nyourself, we will give him a case for it.\"\n\nThe prince approached the stand, and after receiving the king's\ncongratulations, the princess said to him:\n\n\"I confess, Prince of Tokay, that you are not handsome, that you lack\nsomething, or rather that you have something too much, but such proofs\nhave you given of your ingenuity and strength that I will be your wife\nwithout feeling any repugnance.\"\n\n\"My beautiful princess,\" exclaimed the knight, \"I am so grateful for\nyour kindness that I do not wish to embitter your happiness without\nmaking you a present which I think will be very much to your taste.  My\nadversary offered to give you my nose, the cause of your past antipathy,\nand now that he has not succeeded in his project, may I be permitted to\npresent it to you myself.\"\n\nSo saying, to the great surprise of every one, he gave a sharp tug at\nhis nose, tearing it off at one stroke.  The crowd gave a shout,\nbelieving that the man was going to die, when to the general\nastonishment it was seen that under that cardboard nose he wore his own\nnatural nose, which was so delicate and well proportioned that he had no\nneed to envy even the best shaped of noses.  The Prince of Tokay was\nnone other than the courtier of the sneeze.\n\n\"I appealed to this expedient,\" he said, \"because I wished you to know\nand love me only for my qualities, and not for my face, for beauty\npasses away quickly, and talent is a divine gift and much more lasting.\"\n\nThe princess nearly died of joy on seeing her sweetheart so clever, and\nthe rare event formed the conversation of all the city.\n\nThe wedding was celebrated with great pomp, and the new couple were very\nhappy, according to what the chronicles of Persia say.\n\nIn one of the princess's rooms, under a pretty lantern, was the\ncardboard nose of the false Prince of Tokay. Under it was the following\ninscription: \"Physical defects count as nothing when the heart is\ngenerous and noble and the understanding clear.\"\n\n\n\n\n                       *THE ISLAND OF BRILLIANTS*\n\n\nThe bark _Esperanza_ with all canvas spread was sailing the China Sea,\nwhen a violent storm overtook her. The event was so rapid that it gave\nno time to be foreseen, and the captain, who was an old sea-dog, as\nsailors are called who have become inured to dangers, did not foresee\nthat the breeze of an instant ago would change so soon into a violent\nhurricane.  The rudder was broken by the force of the waves, and the\nship was driven by the cyclone without means of defence--the crew and\nthe bark were lost.\n\nAll believed their last moment had come, since without doubt the boat\nwould go to pieces on the rocks which could be seen at a short distance,\nwhen the captain gave a shout which calmed the anxiety of all hearts.\n\n\"The Island of Brilliants!\" he exclaimed, and instantly all appeared in\norder to contemplate it.\n\n\"Good,\" said a sailor.  \"That may be the Island of Brilliants, but if\nstriking against it breaks my head, I don't care whether it is against a\nstone worth twopence or against a diamond worth ten millions.\"\n\n\"You are right,\" answered the captain, \"but the storm has abated a\nlittle, and it remains for us to launch the boats and approach the coast\nin them.\"\n\nThis was done.  A few minutes afterwards all the sailors save one\nembarked in the boats and went to the island, which was visible not far\noff.\n\nIn the bark there remained an Aragonese passenger called Antonio, who\nhad set his heart on getting to Manila, and who said he would continue\non the ship even if he arrived alone at the capital of the Magallanico\narchipelago.\n\n\"But,\" said they to him, \"don't be mad.  Don't you see that you will\ncertainly perish?\"\n\n\"That we shall see; for I am going to Manila even if I have to swim\nthere.\"\n\nAnd there was no means of convincing him; therefore they left him to his\nfate.  The boats separated from the ship and went off to the Island of\nBrilliants.\n\nThe captain, meanwhile, said to his shipwrecked companions:\n\n\"The island is inhabited by ill-tempered dwarfs who kill those who cause\nthem inconvenience, and, on the other hand, to those who appear amiable\nthey grant whatever they are asked.  So, gentlemen, I recommend\nmoderation.\"\n\nThis they promised him, and in a little while the boats touched dry\nland.\n\nThey disembarked, running the boats aground so that the surf should not\nbreak them up, and penetrated into the island.\n\nThey had gone scarcely a mile when they saw some little white houses of\nbrick, white as snow, and of a singular shape.  They looked like jars\nturned upside down.  All the houses had very small windows and a small\ndoor.\n\n\"This must be,\" said the captain, \"the dwarfs' city. Be very careful\nnow, because this is a dangerous moment.\"\n\n\"But where are the brilliants?\" asked a sailor.\n\n\"They are on that mountain which begins at the side of the town.  It is\nquite inaccessible except by a narrow path whose entrance is carefully\nand strongly defended by the dwarfs.\"\n\nAt this moment a kind of bugle sounded and an arrow appeared from each\nlittle window.  They had given the alarm and the dwarfs hastened to the\ndefence.\n\nThe captain tied a handkerchief to the end of a stick, and with this\nimprovised flag made signals that his intentions were pacific.\n\nThen a committee of dwarfs came out to talk matters over with them,\nmaking themselves understood by signs, and at last agreed to let the\nshipwrecked men enter the town, but blindfolded.\n\nThey submitted to this condition, and immediately were surrounded by a\ngood number of guards, who manacled them and presently imprisoned them\nin some very small cells, so small that the new-comers were obliged to\ncower down almost all day because they touched the roof with their\nheads.\n\nOn the following day they were taken into the presence of the chief of\nthe dwarfs, who was the youngest of all, but who must have been the most\nlearned, because, after having asked them in several languages what\ntheir nationality was, spoke to them in Spanish as follows:\n\n\"What brought you to this island?  Do you not know that he who comes to\nit never returns?  Perhaps the desire for wealth has moved you?  If so,\nyou were much mistaken, because the riches which exist here are for us.\nSo that now you know what your fate must be--either to die or to be our\nslaves.\"\n\nAnd at this a crowd of dwarfs approached the surprised sailors, and\nwithout giving them time to defend themselves, tied them up and led them\nback again to their prisons.\n\nAll this while the bark _Esperanza_ was going along abandoned to the\nmercy of the elements, and our Aragonese, fearing nothing, sat\ntranquilly in the bows, saying to the ship:\n\n\"I must go to Manila; so now you know what to do.\"\n\nThe wind and the waves were driving the ship forward, until one morning,\nthe tempest now being over, Antonio found himself in a sort of natural\nharbour where the ship ran on to the sand.\n\n\"Well, this must be Manila!\" he exclaimed, and throwing himself over the\nside into the water, he reached dry land in two strides, not without\nhaving previously taken, as a measure of precaution, a revolver, a gun,\na cutlass, and a pouch full of cartridges.\n\n\"They won't throw me out of Manila for want of arms!\" he said, and going\non and on, our good Antonio with his gun on his shoulder commenced to\nlook for people to ask the way to the capital of the archipelago, now\nlost to the Spaniards.\n\nAfter several hours' walk he met two dwarfs who, seated on the ground,\nwere playing marbles with some stones whose brilliance was dazzling.\n\n[Illustration: He met two Dwarfs who were playing Marbles.]\n\nThe Aragonese approached the players and bade them good afternoon; the\ndwarfs raised their heads and looked at him contemptuously and continued\nto play.\n\n\"Look here, I said 'Good afternoon' to you,\" shouted the Aragonese, \"and\nin my country when an insult is offered one knows what happens.\"\n\nThe dwarfs turned to look at him without having understood, and then\nAntonio, with two superb punches, knocked the presumptuous dwarfs to the\nground.  One remained stunned and could not move himself; but the other\nbegan to run away, uttering cries, and disappeared.\n\nThe Aragonese brought round the dwarf and detained him.\n\nFor several days they went about the mountain, and during this time\nAntonio succeeded in learning a few phrases of the strange language\nwhich the dwarf spoke, and the latter learned several others in Spanish,\nwith which they came to understand each other perfectly.  The two\nfriends related their respective histories to one another. That of the\ndwarf was short; he was called Fu-fei, and he was a captain of the\nCuirassiers of the Guard; and as they had no real horses they rode some\nmade of cane so prettily that they attracted attention.  He narrated,\nmoreover, that some days before, some giants who had arrived then were\nmade prisoners, and were to be killed or made slaves. As soon as he gave\nthese details of the prisoners Antonio cried, \"These are my people.  I\nwill not go to Manila until they are out of trouble.\"\n\n\"While you are here,\" said Fu-fei, \"don't run any risks; because my\ncompanions never go up the mountains, as it makes them tired, and they\nare under the care of the doctor who prevents them from tiring\nthemselves; but if you go down to the plain they will attack you, and\nthey are more than three thousand.\"\n\n\"I don't care; I shall know how to defend myself.\"\n\n\"Then let me recommend you to do one thing.  When you begin to fight I\nwill signal to you which is the company of archers who use poisoned\narrows.  Shoot at them, and you can laugh at the rest.\"\n\nAnd so it was.  At the moment when he went down the mountain, Antonio\nfound himself attacked by the outposts of the dwarfs' army.  Fu-fei\npointed out the company of the terrible arrows, and the Aragonese\ndestroyed it by shots from his gun and blows with his cutlass.\n\n\"There is our king!\" cried Fu-fei, pointing to a little dwarf who was\nscarcely sixteen inches in height.\n\n\"Then I will talk things over with your king immediately.\"\n\nAnd, gently taking hold of him by the neck so as not to hurt him, he put\nthe king in his pocket.  Arriving at an oak-tree which would be about\ntwo yards high, and sitting down in the shade, he took the king out of\nhis pocket and said:\n\n\"Where are the prisoners?  Either give them back to me or this is the\nmoment when you lose your position, your crown, and your life.\"\n\nThe dwarf king answered in Spanish that he would give the prisoners up\nand whatever they might wish in exchange for his liberty!  And so our\nhero with his two dwarfs under his arm walked on to Dwarftown, as the\ntown was called.  Once inside he put the king on the ground in order to\nrecover all his dignity, and the monarch ordered the Spanish prisoners\nto be set free.\n\nWhen the latter recognised their liberator, they did not know what to do\nto show their gratitude.\n\n\"Don't you know how?\" asked Antonio.  \"Well, take me to Manila, for I am\nin a hurry.\"\n\n\"But,\" answered the captain, \"would you go away from this island without\ncarrying off any diamonds?\"\n\n\"Where are they?\" asked the Aragonese.\n\n\"There, on the top of that mountain,\" they said to him.\n\n\"Good gracious!  Just now I was in the midst of them and didn't notice.\nThe truth is,\" he added, \"that what I wanted was something to eat, and\nfor half a pound of roasted meat I would have given all the diamonds of\nthe earth.\"\n\nFinally they all went to the mountain, gathered the diamonds in\nhandfuls, and when they could carry no more, they went back towards the\nspot where the bark was ashore, and there after several months' work\nthey succeeded in fixing a new rudder and some masts, which although\nsmall were sufficient to make the boat go.  They put out to sea and at\nlast arrived at Manila, to the great satisfaction of the Aragonese, who\nexclaimed:\n\n\"Did I not tell you that the ship would bring me to Manila?\"\n\nThe dwarf Fu-fei had not wished to part with his friend and accompanied\nhim everywhere, exciting attention by his long beard and tiny stature.\nThe poor fellow was obliged to go about the streets singing, so that\npeople should avoid treading on him.\n\nThey all soon returned to Spain, where they sold their diamonds and\nbought fine farms, founding an agricultural colony, in which they all\nlived together like brothers.\n\n\n\n\n                     *THE JUDGMENT OF THE FLOWERS*\n\n\n\"Is it true that the rose is the queen of the flowers?\" asked Richard of\nhis papa.\n\nAnd the latter said to him jokingly:\n\n\"Ask them themselves, they ought to be better informed.\"\n\nRichard took what his father told him literally, and going down into the\ngarden, approached a plum-tree which gallantly waved to and fro in the\nwind, and taking off his hat with great respect, asked it:\n\n\"Mr. Plum-tree, will you be good enough to tell me if the rose is the\nqueen of the flowers?\"\n\nBut the plum-tree continued to move to and fro in the wind without\nanswering him.\n\nAnd drawing near to an almond tree, whose white blossoms had just\nopened, he repeated his question.\n\n\"Mr. Almond-tree, is it true that the rose is the queen of the flowers?\"\n\nThe almond-tree remained silent, but its blossoms went red with envy.\n\n\"The almond-tree is also unprincipled,\" thought Richard.  \"All these\ntrees have a discourteous tone.  Let us ask the plants.\"\n\nA splendid double pink, which raised its splendid corolla with a\ngallantry worthy of its nobility, as soon as he heard the question,\ngraciously bowed upon his stalk and answered:\n\n\"Quite so, the rose is our beloved queen, on account of being so\nbeautiful and because her delicate aroma has no rival.  But if you wish\nto know more, come back to-night at twelve o'clock and notice what\nhappens in your garden.\"\n\n\"Thank you, kind pink.  I will not miss to-night.\"\n\nRichard went to bed at the usual time, but he could not sleep.  At\nhalf-past eleven he dressed himself again, and slipping secretly down\nstairs arrived in the garden and awaited events.  On the last stroke of\nmidnight a bright light appeared from the sky and that ray of light\ncondensed on the earth, taking the figure of a beautiful woman crowned\nwith flowers, who carried in her hand a little golden wand which gave\noff brilliant reflections.  The fairy extended her hand and immediately\nan unusual movement was produced among the plants.  The pinks turned\ninto elegant gentlemen in bright costumes of ruby, pink, and green; the\nhyacinths and jasmines into gallant little pages with fair hair; the\nwhite lilies were pale ladies of singular beauty, dressed in white; the\ndahlias wore long trains and at the neck a ruffle of delicate lace of\ncolours which recalled the flowers which had preceded; the violet\nmodestly tried to hide her beautiful countenance of velvety skin and her\neyes of gentle aspect among a group of poppies, who passed arm-in-arm,\nattracting attention by their blood red costumes.  Finally from amongst\na group of mournful evergreens, who were chatting with some beautiful\npansies, appeared the queen of the fete, the rose.  Her presence\nproduced a murmur of admiration, never had she been so lovely.  Her face\nheld the freshness of the flower, and her pink dress with a long train\nwas of very fine silk which rustled as the sovereign walked.  An\nolive-tree turned into a throne and dais, and the rose, without any\nother ceremony than a general greeting, took her seat on the throne.\nShe raised her arm, imposing silence, and everybody became silent.\n\n\"Gentlemen,\" said the queen, \"once again the good magician Spring has\nre-animated our hearts.  We have not met since last year and there are\nseveral grave matters to resolve, but the most important is the manner\nof defending ourselves from the bees, wasps, and butterflies who\ncontinually sip our honey, accelerating our end.  On this point I have\nalready begged Spring to have the accused appear before me, so that this\ngathering is really an oral judgment.\"\n\nAt a signal from the magician the accused appeared in costumes of\netiquette, the butterfly wearing its finest clothes.\n\nIt appeared before the queen with its head modestly bent and its face\nlighted up by a blush.\n\n\"What does your majesty wish?\" it asked.\n\n\"To inquire the motive why you presume to take away our nectar,\" said\nthe rose.\n\n\"Ah, madam!\" replied the butterfly, touched, \"little harm I do you,\nbecause I never take more than is necessary to feed myself, and I have\nnever abused your hospitality.\"\n\n\"That is well; we will take that into account as an extenuating\ncircumstance for you.  Let the wasp approach.\"\n\nThe wasp entered in a black dress-coat and a yellow necktie striped with\nblack.\n\n\"I,\" it said, \"gather nectar from you because I have proposed to work\nlike the bee, although I have not yet succeeded in doing so since the\nbeginning of the world, but still not much time has passed and I hope to\nlearn.\"\n\n\"How can you hope to learn,\" interrupted the queen, \"if all that you do\nis to eat it all without having any to make honeycombs?  Your case is a\nvery bad one.  As you have not a good lawyer you are lost.  Fetch the\nbee.\"\n\nThe latter appeared, her presence awakening a general murmur.  It wore\nneither a dress-coat nor a frock-coat, nor even a lounge-coat; it was\nwearing a blouse covered with stains of honey and wax.  All drew away\nfrom the bee for fear of getting soiled.\n\n\"Now I know what I am coming to,\" it said without keeping quiet.  \"It is\nalways the same song: that we do take away, that we do not take away the\nnectar from the flowers.  Good, what about it?  We do not do so for\nourselves, but for our master.  All the sweet syrup of your corollas we\nenclose in the hive, and from there every year it comes out so that Man,\nour master, rejoices his palate with it and embalms his breath with your\naroma.  After dying in summer and losing your green leaves in autumn,\nyou still live in us, that we may make your remembrance lasting.  And\nstill you complain! You, it is true, give your blood, but it would be\nworth nothing if we did not gather it in order to store it.  The work is\nours, and the work is worth as much as your nectar.  If you have to\ncondemn me, do so quickly, I beg of you, as I am losing a great deal of\nwork time, and we are somewhat behindhand with the work.\"\n\nThe rose called the pink and the violet, discussed the case with them,\nand after some minutes' reflection, spoke in this manner:\n\n\"The wasp is an unconscientious glutton who, under the pretext of making\nhoneycombs, which she never succeeds in doing, robs us.  Give her five\nhundred hard lashes.\"\n\nOn hearing this a deadly nightshade seized the wasp and carried her away\nto bestow the correction.\n\n\"The butterfly's innocence and moderation favour her,\" said the queen,\n\"therefore I declare her absolved with all favourable pronouncements.\"\n\nThe butterfly bowed respectfully and kissed the sovereign's hand.  Her\ngolden feelers glistened, she shook her wings, filling the ambient air\nwith diamond dust, and took to flight showering cascades of light.\n\n\"With regard to the bee,\" continued the rose, \"not only do I find her\nwithout any guilt, but wish that henceforth you do not close your petals\nto her, but leave her at liberty to carry away the honey that she\nrequires.  As a reward for her laboriousness, and as a symbol of\nperpetual friendship between us, I am going to give her a kiss.\"\n\nThe bee, much moved, advanced, and placing her blushing forehead within\nreach of the queen's lips, received a kiss of peace, which made tears of\ngratitude gather in her eyes.\n\nA delicious perfume invaded the garden, the fairy raised her wand, and\neach flower returned to its post, recovering its original form.\n\nThe magician flew into space, wrapped in a moonbeam, and Richard\nremained alone, pensive in the recollection of what he had seen.\n\n\"What a beautiful lesson!\" he said.  \"Even in the kingdom of flowers\nwork gains the most precious reward.\"\n\n\n\n\n                         *THE THREE QUESTIONS*\n\n\nIn the history of Spain, King Pedro I. of Castile, son of Alfonso XI.\nthe _Just_, is known by the surname of the _Cruel_.\n\nAnd his fame as a heartless man was such that his subjects, on whom he\nsatisfied his terrible thirst for blood and violence, held him in great\nterror.\n\nOne day while hunting, of which sport he was very fond, King Pedro lost\nhis way in the wood, and came to rest himself--the night being well\nadvanced--in an hospitable convent, where without being known he was\noffered food, bed, and shelter.\n\nHardly returning thanks, he passed into the refectory, and on entering\nwas recognised by a lay brother, who knew that the king suffered from a\ncertain illness called synovitis, the principal effect of which was that\nthe malady produced, when he was walking, a strange sound of bones\nknocking together.\n\nBy this noise he was recognised by the lay brother.\n\nInstantly informing the community, due homage was hastily rendered to\nthe monarch; but King Pedro was in a bad temper, and facing one of the\nreverend fathers, said to him in a disconcerting tone:\n\n\"How fat you are, Father Prior!  Study makes no hollows in you, from\nwhich I gather that you cannot be so wise as the people hereabout say.\"\n\nThe community was so taken aback, that no one dared to say a word to\nthat monster of a king.\n\n\"Well, if you wish to please me,\" he continued, \"I summon you to come to\nmy palace within ten days, and to answer satisfactorily the following\nquestions: First, what is the distance between the earth and the sun?\nSecond, how much am I worth?  And third, what do I believe which is\nfalse?  If you do not answer me to my taste I will have you beheaded at\nonce.\"\n\nAnd saying this, he went away.\n\nNeedless to say the poor friar was frightened, for he knew only too well\nthat King Pedro was quite capable of doing what he threatened.\n\nAnd he devoted himself to thinking day and night about the questions,\nwithout hitting upon any answers.\n\nAt the time when King Pedro reigned the distance between the planets had\nnot been discovered, so there were many discussions between the brethren\nover the questions of the king.  They were still disputing when the day\narrived on which the prior was summoned to the palace.  And even yet he\ndid not know what to answer. In his distress he invoked the Holy Virgin,\ncertain that She would not refuse to help him.\n\nAfter which he was about to set out for Seville when one of the lay\nbrothers, a sharp and daring lad, said to him:\n\n\"Father Prior, your reverence and I are about the same height, and even\nlook somewhat alike.  Why not let me go in your place, father, and\nanswer the king?\"\n\nOn seeing him so resolved he did not doubt for a moment that the lay\nbrother had been inspired by God to save him, and after hearing him,\nallowed him to go to Seville.\n\nAt the moment in which he arrived at the palace and announced himself,\nthe king gave orders for him to be allowed to enter.\n\n\"Have you thought out the answers to the questions that I asked you?\"\nasked King Pedro.\n\n\"Yes, sire.\"\n\n\"Well, begin then.  What is the distance between the earth and the sun?\"\n\n\"Eight hundred and forty-seven thousand leagues. Not one more, nor one\nless.  And if your majesty does not believe me, have it measured.\"\n\nAs this was impossible, the king was obliged to say that he was\nsatisfied.\n\n\"Not bad,\" he said.  \"Now the second: How much am I worth?\"\n\n\"Twenty-nine pieces of silver.\"\n\n\"And why twenty-nine pieces?\"\n\n\"Because your majesty is not worth so much as our Saviour, Jesus Christ,\nand He was sold for thirty.\"\n\n\"And what do I think which is not true?\" exclaimed King Pedro, somewhat\npiqued.\n\n\"Well, your majesty thinks that I am the prior, and I am not.\"\n\nThe king was surprised at the ingenuity of the lay brother and pardoned\nthe substitution, and heaped both with favours.\n\nThis proves that the fiercest men are overcome and appeased by the\nforces of ingenuity.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: headpiece to The Captain's Exploit]\n\n\n                        *THE CAPTAIN'S EXPLOIT*\n\n\n\"What ruins are those which are to be seen on the top of that ridge?\"\nasked a genteel captain of the policeman of a village.\n\n\"The accursed ruins!\" answered the first authority of the village with\nextreme terror.  \"Many years ago,\" he said, \"there used to be a fine\ncastle there, inhabited by a feudal lord who was more avaricious than\nanybody in the world before.  There stands his statue amidst the\nrubbish, and terrible stories are told about it which frighten all the\nneighbours.\n\n\"In the archives of the town several curious documents are kept, and if\nyour worship, Sir Captain, wishes to read them, I will lend them to you\nwith great pleasure.\"\n\nThe soldier smiled disdainfully on hearing the policeman, and begged him\nto let him see those curious documents, because he had the idea of\nvisiting the ruins and removing for ever the superstitious fear that\nthey inspired.\n\nThat night he received a bundle of yellowed papers falling to pieces\nthrough age and dampness, and shut up in his room he read them from\nbeginning to end.\n\nThe following morning when Captain Pero Gil--for such was his name--went\nout into the square, the hollows of a night of insomnia and fever were\nclearly seen in his face.  What had happened to him?\n\nAmong the papers which formed the bundle, one above all had attracted\nhis attention.  It ran more or less as follows:\n\n\"It is said by neighbour Nuno Perez that in the castle, at the foot of\nthe tower of Homage, there must be an immense treasure, but it is\nguarded by one hundred dwarfs with long beards who strike anybody who\ncomes near.\n\n\"At twelve o'clock in the night a gap opens in the ground which gives\naccess to enormous riches piled up in the cellar; but exactly at one\no'clock the earth closes up until the following night.  If, instead of\none person, two or three go to the place, then the earth does not open\nand the treasure remains hidden.\n\n\"That is the news which, on the evidence of an eyewitness, has reached\nme, and which I certify.--Inigo Lopez, the constable.\"\n\nThe captain remained perplexed for a good while, and at last said to\nhimself resolutely: \"To-morrow night I will go to the tower of Homage at\nthe foot of the castle.\"\n\nIndeed, at twelve o'clock in the night he went out of the house where he\nlodged and went towards the ruins, first making sure that his sword came\nout of the sheath without difficulty, and that the pistols which he wore\nin his belt were well loaded.\n\nAt eleven o'clock, or a little later, he arrived at the castle.  A\nsplendid moon was shining, which gave the landscape a melancholy\nappearance.  The captain hid himself behind some stones close to the big\ntower, and there waited, twisting his moustache, to see the marvel take\nplace.  The village clock struck twelve, and on the last stroke the\nearth opened and a crowd of dwarfs, with beards down to the ground, came\nout of the narrow gap. They were armed with thick sticks, and began to\ndance round the entrance of the vault, singing:\n\n    \"Let us defend the treasure,\n    Let us defend our gold\n    Against every mortal\n    Not knowing the signal.\"\n\n\nThe captain advanced quickly, and taking up his place at the side of the\ncircle of little men, saluted the dwarfs with great courtesy.\n\n\"Good evening, friends,\"\n\n\"Daring man!\" said the tiny men.  \"Who are you? What have you come here\nfor?\"\n\nAnd armed with their thick sticks they rushed towards the intruder.  But\nthe latter, without being frightened, unsheathed his sword, and said to\nthem very calmly:\n\n\"Let us be serious, comrades, and leave off making bad-natured jokes,\nbecause I will cut down any one who comes too near me.  Are you willing\nto let me have the treasures?\"\n\n\"Never!\" they exclaimed.  \"It is necessary for you to give us the\nsignal.  If you do not know it, we shall kill you.\"\n\n\"That is easier said than done,\" said Pero Gil, with great deliberation.\n\"You must grow a little before you can put a man like me in pickle.  If\nyour height had grown as much as your beard, it might have been\ndifferent.\"\n\n\"Let us kill him,\" shouted the dwarfs.  \"He does not know the signal!\"\n\nAnd they threw themselves upon the captain.  But the latter drew out a\npistol, and with one shot the most daring of them fell to the ground,\nwhich checked the rest.\n\n\"It seems that I came off best,\" said the captain, laughing.  \"What I\nhave done to this fellow I will do to the remainder if you come near.\nTherefore let me pass without hindrance.\"\n\n\"We would let ourselves be killed before permitting you to get to the\ntreasure, unless you gave us the signal.\"\n\n\"And what signal is that?\"\n\n\"We cannot tell you.\"\n\n\"It seems to me that I shall not require it for grinding up your ribs.\"\n\n\"Away!  Away!\" said the little men; and armed with their sticks they\nrushed upon Pero Gil.  The latter fired off his second pistol, bowling\nover another, but they threw themselves upon him, until his back looked\nlike a snake turning round amidst the crowd of those who were attacking\nhim.  At last he saw that he was surrounded and defenceless, and\ntherefore was obliged to jump over the wall at the risk of being dashed\nto pieces, and so left the place, ashamed of his defeat.\n\n\"My goodness! what can the signal be?\" he asked himself while on his way\nto the village.\n\nThe following morning he returned to the ruins, armed with a lever, and\nrecognised the place where on the previous night he had seen the\nopening.  There was nothing there!  However much he poked about he could\nnot find the least sign which showed the entrance to the mysterious\nvault; and what was still stranger, he could not distinguish the\nslightest trace of the past fight.\n\nThen he resolved to try if cunning could succeed where strength had\nfailed.\n\nThe following night he hid himself in the ruins and watched the place\nwhere the marvellous event took place. The dwarfs came out with their\naccustomed dance and song:\n\n    \"Let us defend the treasure,\n    Let us defend our gold\n    Against every mortal\n    Not knowing the signal.\"\n\n\nThe dance over, one of them said:\n\n\"The captain will not return, but if he does come back we will kill\nhim.\"\n\n\"It would be better to allow him to enter the vault and there let him\ndie of hunger.\"\n\n\"And if he seizes the bell?\"\n\n\"Then we are lost.\"\n\n\"But he must first give the statue of the old master of the castle a\nthrust with his sword.\"\n\nPero Gil did not wait to hear any more, and at one bound approached the\nstatue, which was situated in what used to be the armoury of the\nfortress, and struck it a stout blow with his blade.\n\n[Illustration: Pero Gil at one Bound approached the Statue.]\n\nThe statue fell down flat as if struck by lightning, and at once the\ndwarfs surrounded the captain and forced him down a flight of steps.\n\nHardly had he entered than the gap closed up and the captain found\nhimself alone in a cave which was lighted by a lamp hanging from the\nceiling.  On the floor there were great heaps of gold and precious\nstones, but this was not the thing that claimed the captain's attention.\nHe was looking for the bell which he had heard the dwarfs speak about.\n\nFor half an hour his search was fruitless.  He turned over the yellow\npiles of money and the sacks of gems, but the desired object was not to\nbe found.\n\nWeary and perspiring he threw himself down on a pile of gold bars, and\nthere rested before again returning to his task.\n\nThe mysterious bell had to be found.\n\nPersuaded that it was not to be come across in a visible spot, he began\nto strike the walls, until at last one of them sounded hollow.  With his\nsword he made a hole and from it drew out a leaden bell of a very rare\nshape, which in a good sale might be worth as much as four farthings.\n\n\"And now what must I do?\" thought the captain. He carefully examined the\nobject he had found, which bore the following inscription, \"Do not ring\nme unless you know how.\"  But the captain was not a man to hesitate, and\nrang the bell.  Immediately the walls closed together, threatening to\ncrush him by their enormous mass.  Without being daunted he gave another\nring, and then a thousand points of steel came forth from the walls as\nif they were going to pass through him.  Then he gave a third ring, and\nimmediately the vault returned to its original form.\n\nAt the fourth the dwarfs humbly presented themselves and said to him:\n\n\"What do you want of us?  Command us as your slaves.\"\n\n\"In the first place, to dance the saraband in order to amuse me, as a\ncompensation for the unpleasant time you have given me.\"\n\nAnd the dwarfs danced like anything for a good while, until Pero Gil\ntold them to stop.\n\n\"Now you will take the sacks of money and carry them to my house.\"\n\nThe dwarfs obeyed without making the slightest observation, loading up\nthose precious things.\n\n\"Leave us the bell,\" they said, \"since you take away the riches.\"\n\nPero Gil was going to leave it, when he suddenly had a presentiment and\nthought better of it.\n\n\"This talisman shall never leave me.\"\n\nThen the dwarfs carried the riches to his house, singing on the way:\n\n    \"Don't let us guard the treasure now,\n    For it is being taken away\n    By this fortunate mortal\n    Who knows the signal.\"\n\n\nSo Captain Pero Gil became master of immense riches, which he\ndistributed among his soldiers, naturally keeping for himself the\nlargest part.\n\nAnd whenever he thought of that famous adventure, he rightly used to\nsay, \"After all, the true talisman to get what we want is cunning and\nbravery.\"\n\n\n\n\n                        *THE TOPSY-TURVY WORLD*\n\n\nI don't know why, but it is a fact that Providence one day decreed that\neverything should turn upside down.  The picture that the world\npresented could not have been more extraordinary: the fishes flew\nthrough the air like swarms of butterflies; in place of linnets and\nnightingales, the sharks and whales sang.  The birds swam on the bosom\nof the waters, like Pedro for his house; it was glorious to see the\ndives they made.  A donkey in the porch of an Inn played on a clarinet\nthe \"No me matas, no me matas,\" while another who was apparently in a\ngood position, came out of a restaurant picking his teeth with a Toledo\nsword.\n\nIt is related that a boy who lived at that time, and whose name was, if\nI remember right, Manolo, had, among other grave defects, that of\nill-treating animals; his parents and masters reprimanded him in vain,\nand from time to time even gave him a flogging that would have set fire\nto tinder: but it did not make the boy any better. Whenever he saw an\nass tied to a fence he untied it and rode it for a good while, hitting\nit a whack to make it trot. When he met a dog the least that he did was\nto fetch it a smack that made it go away at more than a walking pace\nwith its tail between its legs.  More than one cat he chased about after\nhaving tied a sardine tin to its tail; in short, he was a little demon.\n\nBut now it must be remembered that all things were changed, and that on\nwaking up one morning he found, at the head of his bed, one of his dogs,\nwhich, giving him a punch, said:\n\n\"Little friend, on getting up you have got to clean my boots;\" and as\nthe boy hesitated, the dog hit him two punches which made him get up\nmore than quickly.  What was his surprise to notice that he could only\ngo on four feet!  He wished to speak, but a bark came from his lips; he\ntried to bite the dog, and the latter rained blows upon him.\n\nHe rushed out of the house, and found other boys as mischievous as\nhimself punished in the same way.  In Oriente Place, Carlos and Pepe\nwere pulling a little carriage, and in it were riding the two goats that\nusually drew the vehicle.  Several of those water-carriers who carry\ntheir water-skins on the loins of a donkey which they almost kill by\nblows, went about themselves bent down under the load, getting a blow\neach time they sucked their thumbs.  Their former slaves went on two\nfeet behind them, saying: \"Gee up, donkey, you are more stupid than a\npost.\"\n\nManolo went on his way, on four feet of course, and even these seemed\nfew enough to run with, when on crossing a street he met a friend and\nschoolmate, with whom he opened, by barks, the following dialogue:\n\n\"Bernardo, as I live!  Have you seen what has happened to us?\"\n\n\"Yes, of course I see it!  For am I not changed into a poodle?\"\n\n\"Here you see me in a fix; I don't know where to hide myself so that the\nold dogs won't be able to take their revenge for the tricks I used to\nplay on them when I was a person.\"\n\nAt this moment a noise was heard, and on turning round they saw a\ntramcar drawn by some of those drovers who are always complaining, and\non the platform was a mule coquettishly adorned with a cocked hat,\ndriving the car, which was full of all kinds of animals.\n\n\"My boy,\" said Manolo to Bernardo, \"do you know that instead of a\ntramcar that looks more like Noah's Ark!\"\n\nHe had hardly uttered these words when he felt himself seized and\nsecured, and his shirt was pulled out at the back, and to the tail of it\nwas tied a petrol can.  He turned his head, and then saw all the dogs\ngathered together which formerly he used to hurt, and who now were\ncelebrating with great laughter the happy event of making Manolo run\nwith the can tied to his tail.  Two kicks well given rid him of all\ndoubt and made him start running as fast as he could.\n\nOn passing close to a tank he saw some fishes which, with a rod under\ntheir fins, were angling for boys who were swimming about.  At last he\nstopped half dead from fatigue, being taken up by an old, blind horse,\nwhich sported eye-protectors, and which, in exchange for some crusts,\nmade him learn some exercises with which to amuse the appreciative\naudience of bears, monkeys, dogs, cats, and other distinguished people.\n\nThe horse, seated on the ground, with a silk hat which resembled a\nconcertina, played on a little drum \"The Paraguay Polka,\" while Manolo\ndanced to it.  So much dancing made him tired, and one day he gave the\nold horse the slip, leaving him alone with the drum. Naturally the loss\nwas announced in the _Gazette_, and a reward was even offered to any one\nwho found him, but all was useless, because the latter hid himself in\norder not to get caught.\n\nOne afternoon he saw many people--if we can call cats, dogs, mules,\netc., people--gather together and enter a large building.\n\n\"Dear me!\" said Manolo, \"this is the bull-ring! All right, as a dog I\ncan go in and see the fight free.\"\n\nAnd slipping between two animals who acted as porters, he went into the\nring and took a seat.\n\nDivine Power!  What a spectacle!  A fat donkey, which acted as master of\nceremonies, had at his side in the box another as asinine as himself,\nand it was the latter who told him when it was necessary to change the\nprogramme.\n\nA number of peacocks adorned with airy mantles filled the boxes, and\nwith opera-glasses and lorgnettes looked at each other, criticising and\nridiculing each other disparagingly.  How many animals there were in all\nparts of the ring!  Round the arena barrier it was crowded with bears\ncarrying leather bottles filled with wine, which they delicately raised.\nThere was great confusion, until a band, or rather an orchestra, of\nostriches played a gay double step, the toreadors appearing immediately\nafter.  What a fight it was!  Twelve bulls from the most celebrated\nbreeding studs came out on two feet with the red cloth airily placed\nbetween their horns.  Those which acted as spearmen rode on the boys who\nclean up the ring, and carried very long spears.  The trumpet sounded,\nand the first animal appeared in the arena; it was a German, who\nattacked the spearmen, overthrowing two boys.  The master of ceremonies\nmade a sign that it was now time to use the darts.  The audience\nprotested, shouting: \"Donkey, donkey! you don't understand!\"  The donkey\nM.C. took off his hat, and the audience asked that the darts should be\nstuck in the toreadors.  Cuernosgrandes, who was the first killer, tried\nto fix his pair, as badly, more or less, as the old toreadors, when a\nhorrible shouting arose in the arena, and such formidable fighting took\nplace that two monkeys, who had been beautiful English girls, seated at\nManolo's side, fainted, and the audience rushed to the doors of the\nbull-ring: the German had jumped over the barrier.  Manolo felt two\nkicks behind, and without even turning his head to see who gave them,\nrushed into the street like a mad animal.\n\nThen came the worst.  Some geese with Roman helmets on their heads,\nriding upon sardine tins, were pretending to maintain order with their\nsabres, and playing a number of foolish tricks upon the authorities.\nThey soon knocked down poor little Manolo, who was obliged to seek\nrefuge in a doorway, when a camel stopped him by laying a hand on him,\nsaying:\n\n\"Thank goodness, I have a little dog.\"\n\nThe wretched camel put on a lady's veil, took Manolo in its arms as if\nhe were a wee baby, and taking up its place in a corner, began to sing\nin a falsetto voice:\n\n    \"I was born in a wood of cocoanut trees\n    One morning in the month of April.\"\n\n\n\"Gentlemen,\" it added, \"alms for this poor mother who has a child to\nsupport.\"  But Manolo, who did not wish to play the part of an infant in\narms, gave the camel a bite in the arm and ran away to the outskirts of\nthe town. In a cottage he found two doves, which, on seeing him so thin\nand hollow-cheeked, offered him their assistance and gave him something\nto eat.  A sympathetic swallow gently looked after him, and the lullaby\nof its song made the poor boy sleep soundly.  A feeling of sweet\nwell-being pervaded his little body, he saw in his dreams a cloud of\nrose and gold, and in it the white figure of an angel which, gently\nmoving its wings, arrived at his side and in a melodious voice said to\nhim:\n\n\"Manuel, your sufferings have ended; let what you have seen be a warning\nto you, and try to be good to everybody, including animals.\"\n\nThe boy woke up, looked around him and found himself in his own bed, and\nsoon the servant came in to tell him that it was now time to go to\nschool.  Manolo, who had not got over his astonishment, dressed himself\nquickly, noticing, full of surprise, that he went on two legs--as if he\nhad gone all his life on four.\n\nHe never ill-treated an animal again, for this was what he said:\n\n\"Besides it being cowardly to ill-treat defenceless beings, is it not\ndangerous to expose oneself to the risk of the tables being turned and\nfinding oneself in the same disagreeable position?\"\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: headpiece to Don Suero the Proud]\n\n\n                         *DON SUERO THE PROUD*\n\n\nOnce there was, in very remote times, a knight named Don Suero de las\nNavas, feudal lord of a number of Spanish villages, with a quantity of\ntitles sufficient to fill one of the biggest pages, so many and so long\nwere they.\n\nNow, this knight was so proud that he thought it was a great dishonour\nto learn how to read and write things which he considered not only\nuseless for a man of his accomplishments, but even shameful for a noble\nso rich as he was, who could indulge in the luxury of a secretary. And\nso it was indeed, that a poor man, who on account of his humble\ncondition was obliged to learn those trifling necessities, went, like a\nvagabond, behind his master, pen and ink in satchel, ready to put into\ngood Castilian the thousand and one mistakes that Don Suero frequently\nmade.\n\nOn a certain occasion the king summoned the powerful Don Suero to go\nwith his soldiers to the war, and as it could not be otherwise, the poor\nsecretary, carrying a pen instead of a sword and a horn inkstand instead\nof an arrow, was obliged to place himself at the side of his lord and to\nmarch to the war.\n\nAt the beginning all went well.  The orders and the letters acquainting\nthe king with the results of the struggle were written by the hand of\nthe unfortunate secretary, who earned each month, if my particulars are\nnot wrong, the enormous sum of two silver threepenny pieces. Enough to\nhave a carriage and to build good castles--in the air!\n\nBut an arrow shot at hazard in the fury of the fight against the Moors\nput Don Lesmes, for so the secretary was called, out of action, and Don\nSuero was under the necessity of seeking a new dependant who knew how to\nread and write--not an easy matter at that time.\n\nHe could not find one, to his great unhappiness; and if he had not had\nthat quantity of pride in his body, he would surely have felt his lack\nof education, which might place him in an awkward situation, which\nhappened soon afterwards.\n\nHe was engaged in a campaign against the Moors, who occupied a great\npart of Spain, when he received a packet from the king.  And here the\ndifficulty began.  What did he say in those pot-hooks written on an\nenclosed parchment?  To advance?  To retreat?  It was difficult to\nguess.  The messenger had confined himself to delivering the packet and,\nputting spurs to his horse, disappeared in a cloud of dust.\n\nDon Suero, perplexed, found himself with the parchment in his hand,\nturning it round and round, without knowing what it said.  He made a man\nof a neighbouring village come to him, a man who was an enemy of his\nbecause of a certain thrashing which he had ordered him to be given some\ndays before, and said:\n\n\"I have been told that you know how to read and write, and as nobody\nelse here knows how to, you will read to me what this document from the\nking says, and if you do not tell me the truth I will have you skinned\nalive.  Moreover, I require from you absolute secrecy.  What is said\nhere only you and I must know.\"\n\nThe offended peasant promised him all, but with the idea of taking\ncomplete vengeance.  And indeed hardly had he cast a glance at the\ndocument than he exclaimed in accents of the greatest surprise:\n\n\"The king orders you to give up the command of the troops and to go\nimmediately to the court, where you have been accused of treason.\"\n\n\"I a traitor!  Ah, what scoundrels are those who have said that of me!\nI will cut off their ears with my own hand.\"\n\nNo sooner said than done; he at once left the command of his troops and\nstarted on his march to the court.\n\nThe journey was long and wearisome, and our Don Suero was obliged to\nhalt in an uninhabited place, to dismount from his horse and to sleep on\nthe blessed ground, neither more nor less than if he had been the\npoorest of peasants.\n\nSo he passed the night, until dawn surprised him.  On collecting himself\nhe saw a large board close to a ditch situated at the side of the road.\nWhat might that say? It ought to be something important when it was\nwritten in such large letters.  He went as near as he could to see if\nany sign, which was not in writing, might indicate something to him of\nwhat the board said; but, alas! on going nearer he slipped and fell\nheadlong into the ditch.\n\nThe notice said, \"Take care in approaching!\"\n\nIt cost him no little work to get out of it, and still the shock left\nhim so weak that he could hardly move.\n\nAs well as he could, he approached the nearest village and got into bed.\nThe first person whom he met was the cunning peasant who had so badly\ntranslated his majesty's letter.  He was flying from Don Suero and had\ncome face to face with him where he least expected to.\n\nOn seeing his good-natured gesture, he knew that his deceit had not been\ndiscovered, and, without trembling, he approached the noble knight.\n\n\"You can be useful to me,\" said the latter.  \"I do not feel disposed to\ngo to the court.  Write to the king what has happened to me and tell him\nthat as soon as I am a little better I will come and confound those who\nhave calumniated me.\"\n\nBut the peasant wrote what he liked and sent off the letter.\n\nIn it he heaped insults on the king, with the object of causing the\nlatter to have the knight's head cut off.\n\nThe effect that the insulting letter produced was so great that the king\nrose in his anger and commanded Don Suero to be brought dead or alive,\nand that if he resisted he was to be tied to the tail of a horse.\n\nThe knight was imprisoned, but as he was so proud he would not give the\nking any explanations, and the latter commanded him to be tortured.\n\nNot even the severest tortures could succeed in taming that will of\niron.  He was innocent, and would not ask grace of the king, who\ncondemned him without any further motive.  At length they were going to\nsentence him to death for his insults to the king, when one of the\njudges mentioned to the king the possibility of Don Suero having put his\nseal at the foot of a document he had not signed.\n\n\"Because,\" he said, \"it is stated he does not know how to read and\nwrite.\"\n\n\"What!\" angrily exclaimed the king.  \"Did I pass five long years in\nlearning how to spell, and that silly Don Suero does not know how to do\nit?  I do not believe it.  If you cannot prove to me that the letter in\nwhich he calls me a weak and stupid king is unknown to him, I will have\nhim killed to-morrow.\"\n\nThe judge did not neglect to see.  He wrote out the sentence of death\nand took it to the prison, saying to the knight:\n\n\"Sign this and you are free!\"\n\n\"What is this?\"\n\n\"A writing in which you say to the king that you are innocent of what\nyou are accused.\"\n\n\"If that is so, bring it and I will sign it.\"\n\nAnd he put a cross and his seal at the foot of it.\n\nThe judge bore to the king that sentence that the prisoner had signed,\nbelieving it to be his salvation, and then the king, convinced of his\ninnocence, commanded him to be set free and returned all his honours to\nhim.\n\nAfter that the knight dedicated himself to learning reading and writing,\nand made such progress that, after eight years of lessons, he already\nknew which was the letter O, both capital and small, which indeed showed\na progress not too rapid.\n\nAnd the peasant?  He was sought for, being a wicked man, and as soon as\nhe was caught he was put into prison, where he finished his life.\n\nIgnorance is bad, but the wicked are worse than the ignorant.\n\n\n\n\n                              Made At The\n                              Temple Press\n                               Letchworth\n                             Great Britain","title":"Fairy Tales from Spain","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":30684}