{"collection":"folklore-oral-tradition","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_60923/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_60923","id":"gutenberg_60923","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60923","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Fairy tales"],"text":"THE RAINBOW CAT\n\nROSE FYLEMAN\n\n\n\n\nBY ROSE FYLEMAN\n\n\nVERSE\n\n  _Fairies and Chimneys_\n  _The Fairy Green_\n  _The Fairy Flute_\n\n\nTALES\n\n  _The Rainbow Cat_\n\n\n[Illustration: TO HIS GREAT ASTONISHMENT, HE SAW NO GIANTESS, BUT A\nVERY NASTY-LOOKING OLD WIZARD WITH A LONG GREY BEARD AND AN ENORMOUSLY\nTALL HAT, WHO SAT IN A LARGE ROOM IN FRONT OF A GREAT OPEN FIRE.]\n\n\n\n\n  [Illustration]\n\n  _The_ RAINBOW CAT\n\n  BY\n  ROSE FYLEMAN\n\n\n  _Illustrated by_\n  THELMA CUDLIPP GROSVENOR\n\n  [Illustration]\n\n  NEW YORK\n  GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY\n\n\n\n\n  COPYRIGHT, 1923,\n  BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY\n\n  [Illustration]\n\n\n  THE RAINBOW CAT. 1\n\n  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                        PAGE\n\n       ONE: The First Adventure of the Rainbow Cat        11\n\n       TWO: The Princess Who Could Not Cry                19\n\n     THREE: The Prince and the Baker\u2019s Daughter           27\n\n      FOUR: Why Pigs Have Curly Tails                     36\n\n      FIVE: The Second Adventure of the Rainbow Cat       42\n\n       SIX: Mellidora                                     49\n\n     SEVEN: The Clock                                     55\n\n     EIGHT: The Moon                                      60\n\n      NINE: The Third Adventure of the Rainbow Cat        63\n\n       TEN: Almond Blossom                                76\n\n    ELEVEN: The Rondel                                    79\n\n    TWELVE: Jan and the Magic Pencil                      89\n\n  THIRTEEN: The Lamb That Went to Fairyland               99\n\n  FOURTEEN: The Magic Umbrella                           103\n\n   FIFTEEN: The Fourth Adventure of the Rainbow Cat      109\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n  TO HIS GREAT ASTONISHMENT, HE SAW NO GIANTESS, BUT\n    A VERY NASTY-LOOKING OLD WIZARD WITH A LONG GREY\n    BEARD AND AN ENORMOUSLY TALL HAT, WHO SAT IN A\n    LARGE ROOM IN FRONT OF A GREAT OPEN FIRE              _Frontispiece_\n\n                                                                    PAGE\n\n  HE RODE AWAY ON HIS WHITE HORSE AND TURNED TO\n    WAVE HIS HAND TO HIS MOTHER AND FATHER BEFORE\n    HE WENT OVER THE HILL-TOP                                         32\n\n  SHE PULLED A TINY DANDELION-CLOCK FROM HER POCKET\n    AND BEGAN TO BLOW AND TO COUNT                                    58\n\n  \u201cIF YOU WILL MARRY ME,\u201d HE SAID, \u201cI WILL SPEND MY\n    DAYS MAKING VERSES ABOUT YOU\u201d                                     84\n\n\n\n\nTHE RAINBOW CAT\n\n\n\n\nTHE RAINBOW CAT\n\n\n\n\nONE\n\nThe First Adventure of the Rainbow Cat\n\n\nThere was once a cat which was not in the least like any cat you have\never seen, or I either, for the matter of that. It was a fairy cat, you\nsee, and so you would rather expect it to be different, wouldn\u2019t you?\nIt had a violet nose, indigo eyes, pale blue ears, green front legs, a\nyellow body, orange back legs and a red tail. In fact, it was coloured\nwith all the colours of the rainbow, and on that account it was known\nas the Rainbow Cat.\n\nIt lived, of course, in Fairyland, and it had all sorts of strange\nadventures. I am going to tell you some of them, and I think you will\nagree with me that it really had a very thrilling time, one way or\nanother.\n\nThis is the first.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Rainbow Cat was sitting quietly at the door of his house one sunny\nday. He felt rather bored. Fairyland had been very quiet lately. \u201cI\nthink it\u2019s time I set out on a voyage of adventure,\u201d he said suddenly.\n\u201cI shall get fat and stupid if I don\u2019t do something of the sort.\u201d So\nhe shut up his house, put a notice on the door to say that he hoped to\nbe back some day, if not sooner, and that letters and parcels were to\nbe thrown down the chimney, and started off on his journey with a nice\nlittle wallet of assorted oddments tied to his tail, together with a\nneat parcel containing his party bow and his dancing-slippers. \u201cFor\none never knows,\u201d said the Rainbow Cat, \u201cwhom one may meet, and it is\nalways well to be prepared for anything.\u201d\n\nHe went on and on until he came to the edge of Fairyland, where the\nclouds begin.\n\n\u201cI may as well pay the cloud-folk a visit,\u201d thought he, and he began\nclimbing up the clouds.\n\nThe people who live in the clouds are quite pleasant creatures. They\ndon\u2019t do very much, but being idle doesn\u2019t seem to make them unhappy.\nThey live in splendid cloud-palaces that are even more beautiful on the\nside which can\u2019t be seen from earth than on the side which can.\n\nOften one may see them drifting across the sky in companies, or driving\ntheir pearly chariots, or sailing in their light boats. They live on\nair, and the only thing they are really afraid of is the Thunder Giant,\nwho, when he gets angry--which he rather often does--goes stamping\nover the sky, shouting and knocking their houses about.\n\nThey greeted the Rainbow Cat kindly and were pleased to see him, for he\nwas an old friend and they were always glad to welcome visitors from\nFairyland.\n\n\u201cYou have come just at the right moment,\u201d they said. \u201cThere is a grand\nparty at the Weather Clerk\u2019s. His eldest son, the North Wind, is to\nbe married to-day to Princess Pearl, the daughter of the King of the\nEnchanted Isles.\u201d\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe Rainbow Cat was pleased that he had brought his party bow and his\nbest shoes. His bag of oddments might also come in useful, he thought.\n\nIt was a wonderful wedding.\n\nEverybody went. Among the guests there was even a comet, and comets\nattend none but the smartest gatherings.\n\nThe Aurora Borealis looked magnificent, so did the bride\u2019s father, the\nKing of the Enchanted Isles, who was there with his lovely wife, Mother\no\u2019 Pearl.\n\nThere were one or two Bores present who had to be asked because they\nwere connected with somebody or other, and another aged relation,\nAnti Cyclone, a most disagreeable old lady; but on the whole it was a\ncharming affair.\n\nJust as the merriment was at its height and they were all happily\nfeasting and rejoicing, a friendly swallow came flying in with the news\nthat the Thunder Giant was tearing across the sky in a terrible rage\nbecause a passing Trade Wind, who was in a hurry, had trodden on his\ntoe.\n\n\u201cWhat shall we do?\u201d said every one. \u201cHe\u2019ll spoil the party. He\u2019ll upset\neverything.\u201d And they all ran about in great confusion and distress.\n\nBut the Rainbow Cat remained quite calm. He was a very resourceful\ncreature.\n\nHe retired under a table and opened his little bag and examined its\ncontents, thinking hard all the time.\n\nPresently he came out.\n\n\u201cI think I can manage the Thunder Giant,\u201d he said. \u201cPray go on with\nthe party. I will go and meet him and see what can be done.\u201d\n\nThey were all greatly astonished at his courage and coolness, but they\nwere delighted to think that their party might not be spoiled after\nall, and they crowded round to watch him go sailing off to meet the\ngiant, whose shoutings and mutterings could by this time be clearly\nheard in the distance.\n\nWhen the Rainbow Cat had gone some way and could already see the giant\nfrom afar, he stopped, opened his bag, and drew out a large black\ncloak. This he put on, pulling the hood well over his ears. He then sat\ndown and appeared to be lost in deep thought.\n\nWhen the Thunder Giant came up he stood still for a moment to look at\nthis strange object all alone in the middle of the sky.\n\n\u201cWho are you, and what are you doing here?\u201d he roared.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m the celebrated wizard Mewpus,\u201d replied the cat in a very deep and\nimpressive voice. \u201cMind my bag, there\u2019s black magic in it. I have heard\nof you, O great Thunder Giant.\u201d And he got up and bowed three times.\n\nThe giant felt rather flattered, but he was still very cross and his\nfoot hurt.\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t think much of wizards,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat can you do?\u201d\n\n\u201cI can tell your thoughts, O Giant,\u201d was the reply.\n\n\u201cOho!\u201d laughed the giant, \u201cand pray what am I thinking at this moment,\nMr. Mewpus?\u201d\n\n\u201cThat is quite easy,\u201d said the Rainbow Cat. \u201cYou are thinking how\nyour foot is hurting you, and how you would like to get hold of the\nperson who trod on your corns.\u201d For the cat had heard all this from the\nswallow.\n\nThe giant was astonished.\n\n\u201cYou\u2019re a rather wonderful fellow,\u201d he said. \u201cIt must be useful to be\nable to do that. Can\u2019t you teach me?\u201d\n\n\u201cI dare say I might be able to,\u201d said the Rainbow Cat. \u201cI\u2019ll see if you\nshow any promise. Sit down, please.\u201d\n\nThe giant sat down and the Rainbow Cat walked three times round him,\nmuttering to himself.\n\n\u201cNow, tell me what I am thinking,\u201d said he when he had done.\n\nThe Thunder Giant sat looking at him rather stupidly. He wasn\u2019t a very\nclever person.\n\n\u201cI suppose you\u2019re thinking what a fool I look, sitting here,\u201d he said.\n\n\u201cWonderful--wonderful,\u201d said the cat. \u201cYou show immense promise, sir.\nI have never had such an apt pupil.\u201d\n\n\u201cMay I try again?\u201d said the giant, who began to think himself very\nclever.\n\n\u201cCertainly,\u201d said the Rainbow Cat. \u201cWhat am I thinking of now?\u201d\n\nThe giant tried to put on a very wise look and stared again at the\nRainbow Cat with his stupid little eyes.\n\n\u201cBeefsteak and onions,\u201d he said suddenly.\n\nThe Rainbow Cat fell back and pretended to be lost in admiration.\n\n\u201cPerfectly right,\u201d he said. \u201cHow did you guess such a thing?\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, it just came into my mind,\u201d said the giant modestly.\n\n\u201cYou know,\u201d said the cat seriously, \u201cyou ought to cultivate this gift.\nIt\u2019s most unusual.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow can I do it?\u201d said the giant eagerly, for he thought it would be\nvery delightful to be able to read people\u2019s thoughts. Which shows how\nstupid he was.\n\n\u201cGo home,\u201d said the cat, \u201cand lie down for a couple of hours. Then\ntake these three little pink comfits and lie down for another couple of\nhours. After that you may get up and have a cup of tea. But keep very\nquiet. Before going to bed eat this other little white comfit, and when\nyou wake up in the morning you will be able to read people\u2019s thoughts.\u201d\n\nThe giant was all impatience to be gone, but he did not quite forget\nhis manners.\n\n\u201cI am very much obliged to you,\u201d he said. \u201cCan\u2019t I do anything for you\nin exchange, Professor Mewpus?\u201d\n\nThe Rainbow Cat pondered for a moment.\n\n\u201cI should like a bit of lightning,\u201d he said, \u201ca nice jumpy bit.\u201d\n\nThe giant put his hand in his pocket. \u201cHere\u2019s a bundle of it,\u201d he said.\n\u201cIf you cut the string you can have quite a jolly little display at any\nmoment.\u201d\n\nThe Rainbow Cat thanked him, and they parted most amicably.\n\nThe giant went back to his castle and did as he had been told. Ever\nsince that day he believes he knows what people are thinking. This\nmakes him feel very superior and it really doesn\u2019t do any one else any\nharm.\n\nThe Rainbow Cat returned to the party with the bundle of lightning\nstowed carefully away in his bag. Every one was most grateful for what\nhe had done, and he was quite overwhelmed with attentions. He enjoyed\nhimself very much in Cloud-land, and stayed for seven days. At the end\nof that time he packed up his little bag and set off once more on his\ntravels, and you shall presently hear what next befell him.\n\n\n\n\nTWO\n\nThe Princess Who Could Not Cry\n\n\nThere was once a little princess who could not cry.\n\nThat wouldn\u2019t have mattered so very much, but the trouble was that she\nlaughed at everything, often on the most unsuitable occasions, and this\nwas an extremely vexing and awkward habit, especially for a princess.\n\nHer parents were very troubled about it, and they called in a wise old\nfairy in order to get her advice. She went into the matter thoroughly,\nand finally told them that if the princess could only once be made to\ncry, the spell would be broken for ever and she would thenceforward be\njust like other people.\n\nThis wasn\u2019t particularly helpful, but it gave them some hope, and they\nimmediately set about the task of making the princess weep. Of course\nit was a rather difficult matter, because naturally they didn\u2019t want\nher to be really miserable, and they hardly knew how to begin. Finally\nthey offered a reward of five hundred crowns to anybody who should\nsucceed in making their daughter cry without doing her any harm.\n\nWise men came from all over the kingdom to see what they could do, and\nmany things were tried, but all to no purpose.\n\nOne of them suggested that she should be shut up in a room by herself\nand fed on bread and water for a whole week. The queen thought this\nvery cruel, but the king persuaded her to try it. She insisted,\nhowever, that at any rate it should be bread and _milk_. But every time\nthey came to bring the princess her basin of bread and milk they found\nher laughing, and at the end of the week she was still as cheerful as\never.\n\n\u201cLook,\u201d she said, \u201cmy feet have grown so thin that I can\u2019t keep my\nslippers on.\u201d And she kicked her foot into the air and sent her slipper\nflying across the room, and laughed to see the scandalised face of the\nbutler.\n\nBut her mother burst into tears. \u201cMy poor starved lamb,\u201d she said,\n\u201cthey shall not treat you so any longer.\u201d And she rushed into the\nkitchen and ordered soup and chicken and pink jelly to be sent up to\nthe princess for her next meal.\n\nAnother wise man came who said that for six months he had been\npractising pulling the most awful faces and making the most terrible\nnoises imaginable, in order to be able to cure the princess. Children,\nhe said, were so frightened by him that they had to be carried\nshrieking and howling from the room, and even grown-up people were\nso terrified that they wept aloud. He requested that he might be left\nalone with the princess; but the queen waited outside the door and\nlistened.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nShe trembled with anxiety as she stood there, for the noises the wise\nman made were so bloodcurdling that she could hardly bear to hear them\nherself, and it seemed dreadful that her child should be left alone to\nendure such a trial. But in a few minutes she heard peals of laughter\ncoming from inside the room, and presently the wise man opened the\ndoor. He was quite done up, and blue in the face, with the efforts he\nhad been making. \u201cIt\u2019s no use,\u201d he said rather crossly. \u201cNo use at\nall,\u201d and went away looking much annoyed.\n\nThe princess came running out to her mother.\n\n\u201cOh, he _was_ a funny man,\u201d she said. \u201cCan\u2019t he come and do it again?\u201d\n\nAnother wise man suggested that all her favourite toys should be broken\nup. But when he went into the nursery and began smashing her beautiful\ndolls and playthings, the princess clapped her hands and jumped about\nand laughed more heartily than ever.\n\n\u201cWhat fun, what fun,\u201d she said, and she too began throwing the things\nabout. So that plan had to be given up also.\n\nOther wise men came, but as many of their suggestions were cruel and\nunkind ones, naturally the king and queen would not hear of them, and\nat last they began to fear that nothing could be done.\n\nNow in a small village on the borders of the king\u2019s great park, there\nlived a widow with her little daughter Marigold.\n\nThey were very poor, and the mother earned what she could by doing odd\njobs of washing, sewing, or cleaning for her neighbours. But she fell\nill, and poor Marigold was in great trouble, for she had no money to\nbuy comforts for her mother.\n\nTheir little savings had to go for food to keep them alive, and every\nday these grew less and less.\n\nMarigold knew all about the little princess at the castle. She had\noften heard speak of her, and had even seen her sometimes riding about\nthe roads on her white pony. And one day as she was cooking the midday\nmeal an idea came into her head.\n\nAs soon as dinner was over, she put on her hat and cloak and told her\nmother that she was going up to the king\u2019s palace to see if she could\nmake the princess cry and so earn the five hundred crowns.\n\nHer mother did her best to persuade her not to go.\n\n\u201cHow can you hope to succeed,\u201d she said, \u201cwhen so many clever people\nhave tried and failed? You are my own dear little Marigold, but it is\nuseless for you to attempt such a task. Give it up, my child.\u201d\n\nBut Marigold was determined, and when her mother saw this she said no\nmore, but lay and watched her rather sadly as she set bravely off for\nthe castle with her little basket over her arm.\n\nWhen Marigold came to the castle gates she felt frightened. The gates\nwere so big and she was so small. But she thought of her mother and of\nthe five hundred crowns which would buy her everything she needed, and\nshe stood on tiptoe on the top step and pulled the bell handle so hard\nthat she was quite frightened at the noise it made.\n\nA very grand footman opened the door, and when he saw Marigold standing\nthere in her woollen frock and cloak with her little basket, he said,\n\u201cBack entrance!\u201d in a loud, cross voice, and shut the door in her face.\n\nSo she went round to the back entrance. This time the door was opened\nby a red-faced kitchen-maid. \u201cWe\u2019ve no dripping to give away to-day,\u201d\nshe said, and she too was about to shut the door.\n\nBut the queen happened to be in the kitchen giving her orders for the\nday, and she saw Marigold through the window. She came to the window\nand called to her.\n\n\u201cWhat is it, my child?\u201d she asked, for Marigold stood there looking the\npicture of unhappiness.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve come to make the princess cry, please your Majesty,\u201d she said,\nand made a curtsey, for the queen looked very magnificent with her\ncrown on her head and her lovely ermine train held up over her arm to\nkeep it off the kitchen floor.\n\nWhen the queen heard what Marigold had come for, she smiled and shook\nher head, for how could a little country girl hope to do what so many\nwise men had been unable to accomplish? But Marigold was so earnest and\nso sure that she could make the princess cry that at last the queen\npromised to let her attempt it.\n\n\u201cYou won\u2019t hurt her?\u201d she said. But she smiled as she said it. Marigold\nhad such a kind little face; she did not look as if she could hurt any\none.\n\nShe was taken to the princess\u2019s apartments, and the queen went with her\ninto the nursery and introduced her to the princess and explained why\nshe had come.\n\nThe princess was delighted to see a nice little rosy-cheeked girl\ninstead of the dull old men who so often came to visit her. The queen\nshut the door and left them alone together.\n\nBy this time the news of the little village girl who had come to make\nthe princess cry, had spread all over the palace; and presently a whole\ncrowd of people were standing anxiously waiting outside the nursery\ndoor.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s such nonsense,\u201d said the Chamberlain to the Prime Minister. \u201cA\nvillage child. I don\u2019t suppose she\u2019s ever been outside the village.\u201d\n\n\u201cQuite ridiculous,\u201d whispered the ladies-in-waiting to the court pages.\n\u201cDo you think she knows how to make a correct curtsey?\u201d\n\nAt last the king and queen could stand the suspense no longer. They\nquietly opened the door and peeped in. And what do you think they saw?\nThe princess, standing at the table in the middle of the room with\nMarigold\u2019s basket in front of her, busily peeling onions as hard as she\ncould go, while the tears streamed down her face all the while. She was\ncrying at last!\n\nThe king and queen rushed in and clasped her in their arms, onions and\nall. The ladies-in-waiting stood with their perfumed handkerchiefs\npressed to their noses, the pages tittered, and the cook, who was\nstanding at the bottom of the stairs, muttered to himself when he\nheard the news, \u201cWell, _I_ could have done that,\u201d while the Prime\nMinister rushed about the room with his wig on one side and shook\neverybody violently by the hand, exclaiming, \u201cWonderful, wonderful!\nAnd so simple! We must get out a proclamation at once. Where are my\nspectacles? Where is my pen?\u201d\n\nAnd so the princess was cured, and from that time she became like\neverybody else and cried when she was unhappy and laughed when she was\nglad, though I am pleased to say that she always laughed a great deal\nmore than she cried.\n\nAs for Marigold, she got her five hundred crowns, of course, and was\nable to give her mother everything she needed, so that she was soon\nquite well. The king and queen were most grateful, and often invited\nher up to the palace to play with their little daughter, and loaded her\nwith presents.\n\nBecause she was sweet and modest she didn\u2019t get spoiled, but grew up\ncharming, kind and beautiful. I did hear that in the end she married a\nking\u2019s son and that they had an onion for their crest, but I\u2019m not at\nall sure about that.\n\n\n\n\nTHREE\n\nThe Prince and the Baker\u2019s Daughter\n\n\nThere was once a prince who was very brave, good and handsome. He was\nquite young, too, and before he settled down to learning how to rule\nthe kingdom which would one day be his, he was sent by his father out\na-travelling into the world.\n\nThe king gave his son a beautiful white horse and a bagful of big gold\npieces, and told him to come back when the money was all spent.\n\nHis mother made him a blue velvet mantle embroidered with silver, and\nshe also gave him a hat with a blue feather in it.\n\n\u201cI want my son to look nice when he goes out riding into the world,\u201d\nshe said.\n\nHe rode away on his white horse and turned to wave his hand to his\nmother and father before he went over the hill-top.\n\n\u201cHow handsome he looks,\u201d said his mother, wiping away a tear or two.\n\n\u201cWell, that\u2019s nothing to cry about,\u201d said his father, and blew his\nnose. Then they went back into the palace and continued ruling.\n\nThe prince rode on and on.\n\nWherever he went people were very nice to him, even when he got beyond\nthe borders of his own kingdom where he was no longer known.\n\nIt is not every day that a handsome prince comes riding along on a\nwhite horse, and moreover with a bagful of fine gold pieces to spend.\n\nAll the girls ran out to look at him as he passed, and when he stayed\nanywhere, even for a short time, people seemed to get to know about it\nat once and asked him to their houses and gave grand parties in his\nhonour and made so much of him altogether that he was in some danger of\ngetting thoroughly spoiled.\n\nBut he had been very well brought up, and he had a naturally amiable\ndisposition.\n\nBesides, he had always been told by his mother that if you are a\nprince you must try hard to behave as a prince should, and be modest,\nconsiderate, and very polite to every one.\n\nOne morning close on midday, he came to a tiny village which he did not\nknow at all.\n\nHe was rather hungry after his ride, and as he passed down the narrow\nlittle street he became aware of a delicious smell of new bread.\n\nIt came from the open door of the village baker\u2019s, and as he glanced in\nhe saw a pile of beautiful, crisp new rolls heaped up in a big white\nbasket.\n\nHe got down off his horse and went in.\n\n\u201cI should like to buy one of those nice little rolls,\u201d he said to the\nbaker\u2019s daughter, who stood behind the counter.\n\nShe was very pretty. She had blue, shining eyes and fair smooth hair,\nand when she smiled it was like sunshine on a flowery meadow.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe prince ate up his roll and then another and yet another, and while\nhe ate he talked to the baker\u2019s daughter. But no one can eat more than\nthree rolls one after another, and at last he felt that the time had\ncome to pay for what he had had and ride on his way.\n\nBut, as it happened, he had no small change, nothing but a gold piece\nsuch as those which he had in his bag.\n\nThe baker\u2019s daughter hadn\u2019t enough money in the whole shop to change\nsuch a big gold piece, her father having set off that very morning with\nall the money in the till in order to buy a sack of flour from the\nmiller in the next village.\n\nShe had never even seen so large a gold coin before. She wanted to give\nhim the rolls for nothing, but of course he wouldn\u2019t hear of that, and\nwhen he said it didn\u2019t matter about the change she wouldn\u2019t hear of\nthat either.\n\n\u201cThen there\u2019s nothing for it,\u201d said the prince, \u201cbut for me to stay in\nthe village until I have eaten as much as my gold piece will pay for.\u201d\n\nAs a matter of fact he was really quite glad of an excuse to stay, the\nbaker\u2019s daughter was so very pretty, and he was getting a little tired\nof travelling.\n\nHe pottered about in the bakehouse all the afternoon and watched her\nmaking the dough for her delicious rolls.\n\nHe even offered to help her.\n\nHis blue mantle got rather floury, but he didn\u2019t mind that in the least.\n\nThe baker\u2019s daughter was rather worried that such a fine gentleman\nshould get in such a mess.\n\nShe didn\u2019t know he was a prince, otherwise she might have been more\nworried still.\n\nIn the evening, when the baker returned, the prince asked if he could\nput him up for a couple of nights.\n\nThe baker was a kindly and simple old soul. \u201cGladly, gladly,\u201d he said,\nrubbing his hands together and smiling, for the village was a small one\nand they were very poor, and he was glad to make a little extra money.\n\nThe prince stayed a whole week at the baker\u2019s house. By that time, what\nwith the bread he had eaten--though he was careful not to eat much and\nalways to choose the cheapest--and the price of his lodging, about half\nof the gold piece was spent, and the baker\u2019s daughter was able to give\nhim the change from the money she had taken in the shop.\n\nSo he had no excuse for staying any longer, which grieved him because\nhe had grown very fond of the baker\u2019s daughter and did not like leaving\nher.\n\nBut he had an idea that his mother and father would not think her a\nvery suitable bride for him, for princes cannot always marry whom they\nplease, and so he rode sadly away.\n\nBut the farther he went the sadder he became, and at the end of two\nmonths he could bear it no longer, and so one fine morning he turned\nhis horse\u2019s head round and rode back again the way he had come.\n\n\u201cShe is good and clever and beautiful,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat more can one\nwant in a wife? When my mother and father see her they will love her as\nmuch as I do and will be quite willing that I should marry her.\u201d Which\nreally was very optimistic of him.\n\nBut alas, when he came to the village and sought the baker\u2019s shop, he\nwas met by strange faces.\n\nThe baker had died a month since, he was told, and his daughter had\nleft the village and gone out into the world to work for her living,\nfor she could not manage the bakehouse by herself and there was none to\nhelp her now that her father was gone.\n\nThe prince was very, very troubled and unhappy. He tried to find out\nsomething more about her, but his efforts were fruitless; no one seemed\nto know what had become of her.\n\n\u201cI will search the world over till I find her,\u201d he said, \u201ceven if it\ntake me the whole of my life.\u201d\n\nHe wandered on and on, always making fresh inquiries, always hoping to\nhear something of his lost love, but always in vain.\n\nAnd at last he got back to his own kingdom.\n\nWhen his mother and father saw him they were horrified to find how pale\nand thin he had grown.\n\n[Illustration: HE RODE AWAY ON HIS WHITE HORSE AND TURNED TO WAVE HIS\nHAND TO HIS MOTHER AND FATHER BEFORE HE WENT OVER THE HILL-TOP.]\n\n\u201cTravelling doesn\u2019t seem to suit you, my son,\u201d said his father, looking\nat him rather seriously and stroking his beard.\n\n\u201cThe poor boy is tired out,\u201d said his mother. \u201cHe\u2019ll look better when\nhe\u2019s had a good rest and some proper food. I don\u2019t suppose he\u2019s ever\nhad a really wholesome meal in those foreign parts.\u201d\n\nBut the prince remained thin and sad and listless, and at last he told\nhis father and mother the cause of his unhappiness. At first they were\na little upset at the idea of his wanting to marry so humble a person\nas the daughter of a village baker--\u201cBut that of course,\u201d thought the\nprince, \u201cis only because they don\u2019t know her.\u201d\n\nAnd after a time, when they saw how unhappy he was and that all the\ndistractions with which they provided him were unavailing, and that his\none idea was to go out into the world again and search for the baker\u2019s\ndaughter, they were so troubled that they felt they would be only too\nglad if he could have the wish of his heart fulfilled.\n\nAnd then one day as the prince was sitting quietly at breakfast with\nhis parents he jumped up suddenly with an expression of the greatest\nexcitement and joy.\n\n\u201cWhat is it, my son?\u201d said his astonished mother.\n\nThe prince couldn\u2019t speak for a moment. For one thing he was too\nexcited, and for another his mouth was full of bread, and I told you\nbefore how well brought up he was.\n\nBut he pointed to the dish of breakfast rolls and kept on nodding his\nhead and swallowing as hard as he could.\n\nThe king and queen thought at first that sorrow had affected his brain,\nbut the prince was able to explain very soon. \u201cThe rolls, the rolls,\u201d\nhe said. \u201cHer rolls, _hers_. No one else could make them so good. She\nmust be here.\u201d And he rushed off to the kitchen without further ado.\n\nAnd there, sure enough, he found the baker\u2019s daughter, peeling potatoes\nover the sink.\n\nBy the merest chance she had taken a place as kitchen-maid in the\nking\u2019s palace, though she hadn\u2019t the faintest idea, when she did so,\nthat the king\u2019s son was the same person as the handsome stranger who\nhad once stayed in her father\u2019s house.\n\nAnd though she had been there a month she had never seen him. How\nshould she? King\u2019s palaces are big places, and the kitchen-maids\nstay in the kitchen premises, so that she and the prince might never\nhave come face to face at all if it had not happened that, owing to\nthe illness of the royal roll-maker, she had undertaken to make the\nbreakfast rolls that morning.\n\nWhen the king and queen saw how sweet and beautiful she was they made\nno objection to her as a bride for their son, and so he asked her at\nonce to marry him, which she consented to do, for she loved him as much\nas he loved her.\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t know that I should have _chosen_ a baker\u2019s daughter for our\nson\u2019s wife,\u201d said the queen to her husband when they talked it over\nthat evening. \u201cBut she\u2019s certainly a charming girl, and quite nice\npeople go into business nowadays.\u201d\n\n\u201cShe\u2019ll make him an excellent wife,\u201d said the king. \u201cThose rolls were\ndelicious.\u201d\n\nSo they got married quite soon after. The wedding was a rather quiet\none because the bride was in mourning for her father, whom she had\nloved dearly. All the same, it was a very nice affair, and everybody\nwas most jolly and gay. The prince and his wife had a beautiful house\nnot very far from the palace, and I think it is extremely likely that\nthey lived happily ever after.\n\n\n\n\nFOUR\n\nWhy Pigs Have Curly Tails\n\n\nThere was once a fairy who fell into a bramble-bush. It was a very\nclosely grown bush, and she could not get out. She was sadly scratched,\nand the thorns caught her tiny delicate wings and tore her pretty frail\ndress into shreds.\n\nThe bramble-bush formed part of a hedge which ran along the side of an\norchard, and presently a horse came sauntering up to the hedge.\n\n\u201cOh, please help me, sir,\u201d said the fairy. \u201cI\u2019m caught in a\nbramble-bush, and can\u2019t get out.\u201d\n\nThe horse came and looked at her. \u201cThat\u2019s a nasty place to be in,\u201d he\nsaid. \u201cWhat will you give me if I get you out?\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019ll give you a golden halter and a silver bit,\u201d said the fairy.\n\nThe horse shook his head. \u201cIt\u2019s not worth it,\u201d he said. \u201cI should\nscratch my face. My master loves me for my beautiful satin skin, and\nI really can\u2019t risk spoiling my appearance. Besides, I have some very\nnice harness of my own. He sees to that. Sorry I can\u2019t be of any\nassistance.\u201d And he ambled away.\n\nA little later a robin perched on the bramble-bush. \u201cOh, please, Mr.\nRobin, won\u2019t you come and help me?\u201d said the fairy. \u201cI can\u2019t get out.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat will you give me,\u201d said the robin, \u201cif I help you out?\u201d\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\u201cI\u2019ll give you a jacket of gold and slippers of silver,\u201d said the fairy.\n\n\u201cThank you very much,\u201d said the robin, \u201cbut I don\u2019t think that\u2019s quite\nmy style. I have a nice red waistcoat already and I should hate to look\ngaudy. Besides, I\u2019m tremendously busy. I\u2019ve got a young family to look\nafter, and my wife doesn\u2019t like me to be away long.\u201d And he flew off.\n\nThere were sheep grazing in the field on the other side of the hedge,\nand one of them came munching close to the bramble-bush.\n\n\u201cOh, please, Mrs. Sheep,\u201d said the fairy, \u201ccan you help me out of here?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat will you give me if I do?\u201d said the sheep.\n\n\u201cI will teach you to sing as the fairies sing,\u201d said the fairy. \u201cI will\nalso give you wisdom.\u201d For she was getting more and more anxious, and\nshe thought such lovely gifts would tempt the sheep.\n\nBut the sheep stared stupidly with her glassy eyes. \u201cThat\u2019s all very\nwell,\u201d she replied, \u201cbut I happen to have a very nice voice naturally\nand can already sing rather well. As for wisdom, I don\u2019t quite know\nwhat that is, but I don\u2019t think it sounds very interesting. I\u2019d help\nyou gladly, but the thorns would tear my fine woollen coat, and that\nwould never do. Surely a fine woollen coat is worth much more than\nwisdom.\u201d And she moved away.\n\nThe fairy was beginning to despair; she thought she would never, never\nbe able to get back to Fairyland. But just as she had given up hope,\na pig came wandering past, making ugly noises and staring about with\nhis little blue eyes. He spied the fairy sitting in the midst of the\nbramble-bush with her head down on her knees.\n\n\u201cWhat\u2019s the matter?\u201d said the pig.\n\nThe fairy raised her head and saw the pig\u2019s ugly pink snout poking in\nbetween the bramble-twigs.\n\n\u201cI think I can get you out,\u201d he said, when she had told him her\ntrouble. \u201cI\u2019m not much to look at, but I\u2019ve got a good tough hide,\nand at any rate I shan\u2019t be afraid of a few scratches spoiling my\nbeauty.\u201d So with a good many snuffles and grunts he pushed his head and\nshoulders well into the middle of the bush and made a clear way for the\nfairy to get out.\n\nShe gave a sigh of relief when she found herself once more free and in\nthe clear sunshine, and the pig stood and looked at her admiringly, for\nshe was a dear little thing. He was so conscious of his ugliness beside\nher pretty grace that he turned away and started off down the orchard.\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t go--oh, don\u2019t go,\u201d said the fairy.\n\nThe pig turned round.\n\n\u201cYou\u2019ve not had your reward,\u201d said the fairy.\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t want any reward, thank you,\u201d grunted the pig, and moved on.\n\nBut the fairy persisted. She flew after him. \u201cYou must have a reward,\u201d\nshe said. \u201cI shall be most unhappy if you don\u2019t.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut I don\u2019t want anything, thank you,\u201d said the pig. \u201cI have been\nvery glad to help you.\u201d\n\nThe fairy stood in front of him, anxiously pondering as to what she\ncould possibly give him that might be of any use. Nobody seemed to want\nher fairy gifts. She looked him up and down.\n\n\u201cWouldn\u2019t you like something--something to make you more beautiful?\u201d\nshe said.\n\nShe really meant less ugly, but she was so grateful to the pig that she\nwas very anxious not to hurt his feelings, and so she put it that way.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m afraid it\u2019s rather hopeless,\u201d said the pig, with half a smile.\n\u201cYou see, I\u2019m such an ugly fellow. You\u2019d have to alter me all over.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut surely--a little something ...\u201d said the fairy, and she looked at\nhim more thoughtfully than ever.\n\nNow all this happened a very long time ago, when pigs had quite\nstraight tails like most of the other animals, and suddenly, looking\nat his tail, the fairy had an idea. \u201cI know, I know,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\nshall have a curly tail. It will be an immense improvement, and _so_\nuncommon.\u201d\n\nThe pig looked rather pleased. \u201cWell, have your own way,\u201d he said. \u201cI\ncan\u2019t see my own tail, in any case, but I dare say it wouldn\u2019t look\nbad.\u201d\n\nSo the fairy touched the pig\u2019s tail with her wand, and it instantly\ncurled up into nice little rings.\n\nEver since that day pigs have had curly tails, and now you know how\nthey came by this beautiful adornment.\n\n\n\n\nFIVE\n\nThe Second Adventure of the Rainbow Cat\n\n\nThe Rainbow Cat went on and on until at last he came to the country of\nthe Tree-goblins. The Tree-goblins are happy people; they live in the\ntrees like birds, though they can\u2019t fly. They are indeed very friendly\nwith the birds, and they understand the bird language, so that they are\nable to send one another messages without any need of the post--which\nis very convenient!\n\nWhen winter comes the goblins go and live in their caves underground.\nIt is a great change after the trees, and they are always delighted\nwhen spring returns again.\n\nThere are no animals in Tree-goblin-land, but the Rainbow Cat was an\nold friend here too, and was received as kindly as in Cloud-land.\n\nThe Tree-goblins are rather funny little creatures; they like to keep\nthemselves _to_ themselves, as the saying goes, and there are not even\nany fairies living in their country. But they are on very friendly\nterms with the fairy folk, and their principal occupation is making\nfairy clothes.\n\nThese are the tiniest, finest little garments imaginable, and they\nare made of all sorts of pretty things. Spider thread, of course,\nand moonbeams, and softest silk from silk-worms, and flower-petals\ndipped in magic wells so that they cannot fade, and thistledown, and\nmoss-velvet, and foam, and lichen--oh, there is no end to the things\nthat are used to make clothes for the fairies.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nAnd when they are finished the birds carry them to the fairies and\nbring back orders. Sometimes, when it\u2019s a very special occasion, the\nfairies come to be fitted or to choose the stuffs and the styles, but\nnot often.\n\nThey are easy to fit and easy to suit, and the birds do the ordering\nmost satisfactorily.\n\nThe Rainbow Cat liked being in Tree-goblin-land very much indeed.\n\nHe lived in a beautiful copper-beech. When the morning sun shone\nthrough the leaves his little house was filled with a lovely rosy\nlight which was most pleasing and becoming. Every morning a chorus of\nlittle birds sang songs to him for his delight, and every evening they\nlulled him to sleep with soft lullabies.\n\nThey thought him a very grand and beautiful person, and so indeed he\nwas.\n\nWhen he had been in Tree-goblin-land for two or three days the Chief of\nthe Goblins came to see him one morning early. He was in great trouble.\n\nThe Queen of the Fairies had sent an order for rose-coloured shoes,\ndozens and dozens of pairs. She wanted all the Court to wear\nrose-coloured shoes at her next party, and her next party was to take\nplace in three days.\n\n\u201cWe could get the work done,\u201d said the Chief Goblin anxiously, \u201cit\nisn\u2019t that. But we haven\u2019t got the material. You see, the roses aren\u2019t\nout yet. There\u2019s been a great run on pink lately and we\u2019ve used up\nall the pink flowers and all our other stuffs of that colour. We\u2019ve\nscarcely got an inch of rose-colour of any kind, and we ought to start\nat once. It\u2019ll take us all our time to get them made. It would be\ndreadful to disappoint the Queen. What are we to do?\u201d\n\nThe Rainbow Cat was more than willing to help, but he felt that it was\na difficult matter.\n\n\u201cHow soon must you have the stuff?\u201d he asked.\n\n\u201cThis afternoon would be the very latest,\u201d said the goblin.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ll see what I can do,\u201d said the Rainbow Cat. \u201cI have an idea or two.\nDon\u2019t worry, it\u2019ll be all right. Meet me here at noon, and I\u2019ll let you\nknow what I\u2019ve done.\u201d\n\nThe Chief Goblin went away feeling considerably relieved. The Rainbow\nCat seemed so wise, just the kind of person to think of something\nhelpful in an emergency.\n\nAnd sure enough at twelve o\u2019clock he came to meet the Chief of the\nGoblins with a cheerful twinkle in his dark blue eye.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve been making a few inquiries,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I want to make sure\nthat my information is correct. Sit down, and let us have a little\nquiet talk.\u201d\n\nThe Chief of the Goblins sat down and waited eagerly. He felt more and\nmore hopeful.\n\n\u201cIs it true,\u201d said the Rainbow Cat, \u201cis it true that the crooked\nhawthorn tree in the Weeshy Glen is very bad-tempered?\u201d\n\n\u201cQuite true,\u201d said the Chief Goblin. \u201cNobody dares go near him,\nhe\u2019s such a cross, cantankerous creature. Lots of the hawthorns are\nvery nice indeed, and we\u2019re very fond of them. But he\u2019s unbearable.\nHe\u2019ll give any one a nasty scratch if he gets half a chance, he\u2019s so\nspiteful.\u201d\n\n\u201cIs it true,\u201d continued the Rainbow Cat, \u201cthat he\u2019s jealous of the\nother trees because he can\u2019t grow tall and big like them, and reach up\nto the sky?\u201d\n\n\u201cQuite true,\u201d said the Chief Goblin. \u201cHe makes every one round him\nmiserable with his grumbling and scolding.\u201d\n\n\u201cH\u2019m,\u201d said the Rainbow Cat, and he folded his arms and sat lost in\nthought for a few minutes.\n\n\u201cWould the petals of the hawthorn tree do to make fairy shoes of?\u201d he\nsaid at last.\n\n\u201cBeautifully,\u201d said the Chief Goblin. \u201cBut they\u2019re white.\u201d (For at that\ntime all hawthorn blossom was white, both in Fairyland and everywhere\nelse.)\n\n\u201cQuite true,\u201d said the Rainbow Cat. \u201cCan you lend me a mandolin?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, I think I can,\u201d said the goblin, and he ran off and came back\nvery soon with a beautiful mandolin all inlaid with silver and ivory\nand mother-of-pearl.\n\n\u201cThank you,\u201d said the Rainbow Cat. \u201cI think that in half an hour or so\nI shall be able to let you have all the rose-coloured petals you want.\u201d\nAnd he hung the mandolin round his neck and set off into the forest.\n\nPresently he came to the Weeshy Glen, sat down a little way off from\nthe hawthorn tree where its thorns could not possibly touch him, tuned\nup his mandolin, and began to sing this little song:\n\n  \u201cThe oak tree raises his arms on high,\n  The pine tree reaches up to the sky,\n  The slender birch is a lady fair,\n  The poplar has a most elegant air.\n  But tell, oh tell me now, who is this\n  Small and stunted and all amiss?\n  Who can he be? oh, who can he be?\n  This squat little, odd little, strange little tree?\u201d\n\nIt wasn\u2019t very kind of the Rainbow Cat, but the hawthorn tree was a\nvery disagreeable fellow, you must remember, and nobody could ever do\nanything to punish him because every one was so afraid of his sharp\nthorns.\n\nAnyway, by the time the Rainbow Cat had got to the end of the first\nverse, the hawthorn tree was very angry. He could hardly contain\nhimself, and he trembled all over with the temper he was in.\n\nThe cat hardly looked at him, but went cheerfully on with his song.\n\nThis was the second verse:\n\n  \u201cThe elm tree stands like a stately king,\n  The leaves of the alder dance and sing,\n  My lady beech is a courtly dame,\n  The chestnut\u2019s lamps are a shining flame.\n  But tell me, tell me, who can he be\n  That scarcely reaches up to their knee?\n  Hoary of head and crooked of limb,\n  What on earth is the matter with him?\u201d\n\nThe hawthorn tree had grown more and more furious as the song went on.\nThe Rainbow Cat finished up with a beautiful trill when he got to \u201cthe\nmatter with him,\u201d but the hawthorn tree was in no mood to admire his\nfine singing. So great was his rage that he grew pinker and pinker and\npinker, and he shook so violently that all his petals were shaken down.\nThey fell all round him like a shower of rosy rain.\n\nThe Rainbow Cat waited no longer. He ran off as hard as he could to the\nChief of the Goblins, still singing as he went, and told him that he\nwould find all the stuff he wanted in the Weeshy Glen.\n\nSo the Queen got the rose-coloured shoes after all, and the\nTree-goblins were most grateful to the Rainbow Cat, and begged him to\nstay with them as long as he liked.\n\nBut he thanked them and said he must continue his travels.\n\nThey wanted to load him with presents, but all he would take was a\nlittle bottle of water from the magic well. This water has fairy\npowers. If you rub it on your eyes you can see through stone walls,\nwhich is sometimes very convenient, and the Rainbow Cat was quite\npleased to have some.\n\nThey also insisted that he should keep the mandolin. This he finally\nconsented to do. And ever since that time there have always been pink\nhawthorn trees as well as white.\n\n\n\n\nSIX\n\nMellidora\n\n\nThere was once a young prince who wished to take a wife. So he went to\nconsult his aunt, who was by way of being a Wise Woman.\n\n\u201cNext week,\u201d he said, \u201cthe King of the\nLand-on-the-other-side-of-the-Mountains is holding a great festival\nin honour of the coming of age of his son, and he has invited me to\nstay at the Court. There will be many beautiful ladies there, and I am\nhoping that I may be able to find a wife among them. But how shall I\nknow which to choose?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou shall have my advice and welcome,\u201d said his aunt. \u201cChoose a maiden\nwho laughs when others cry, and cries when others laugh, and you will\nnot go far wrong.\u201d\n\nThe prince thanked his aunt for her counsel and went back home. He\nthought the advice she had given him rather strange, but he had great\nconfidence in her wisdom. \u201cAnd in any case,\u201d he said, \u201cI can but go to\nthe festival and see what comes of it.\u201d\n\nThere were indeed many lovely ladies at the Court of the King of the\nLand-on-the-other-side-of-the-Mountains. The prince was quite dazzled\nby their beauty and their wit. Each of them seemed more charming than\nthe last.\n\nOn the second day of the f\u00eate a picnic had been arranged which was to\ntake place in a woodland glade some little way from the palace.\n\nThe road thither was rough and very muddy, for there had been much rain\nthe week before.\n\nThe princes and knights rode on horseback; the ladies were conveyed in\ncarriages gaily decked with flowers and drawn by beautiful prancing\nhorses.\n\nBut it so happened that the horses of one of the carriages became\nunmanageable. It turned over, and the six ladies who rode in it were\nall tumbled into the ditch at the side of the road.\n\nIt was a rather deep ditch, and there was water at the bottom of it, so\nthat it was quite a business getting them all out, though fortunately\nnone of them was seriously hurt. The prince, who happened to be riding\nbeside the carriage, helped to rescue them, and escorted them one by\none, weeping, to a seat on the bank, where they presented a sorry\nspectacle with their pretty frocks all muddy and bedraggled and their\npretty hats all on one side.\n\nBut when the prince came to the sixth lady he found her, to his great\nastonishment, sitting at the bottom of the ditch, laughing.\n\nHer hat had come off, her hair had come down, she was bedaubed with mud\nfrom head to foot, and her poor little hands were covered with nettle\nstings.\n\nBut she laughed all the same.\n\n\u201cWe must have looked so funny all tumbling into the ditch,\u201d she said.\n\u201cI wish I could have seen it. We\u2019re still rather a funny sight, aren\u2019t\nwe?\u201d--and she looked down at herself and up at the weeping ladies on\nthe bank, and laughed again.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThere was so much mud on her face that the prince could not see what\nshe really looked like, but he remembered the words of his aunt.\n\n\u201cWhat is the name of the sixth lady?\u201d he asked, when they had all been\nbundled off home. \u201cThe one who laughed?\u201d\n\n\u201cHer name is Mellidora,\u201d he was told.\n\nSo in the evening he sought out Mellidora and found that she was a most\nbeautiful and charming person, so much so that he lost his heart to her\nforthwith.\n\n\u201cBut I must do nothing in a hurry,\u201d he said to himself. \u201cAfter all,\nthere is the other half of my aunt\u2019s counsel to be considered. In any\ncase, it would perhaps seem a little strange if I asked her to marry me\nquite so soon. We will see what happens to-morrow.\u201d\n\nOn the next day all the ladies and gentlemen who were staying in the\ncastle were to go out riding in the early morning.\n\nThe prince had slept late, and he stood for a moment at his window\nlooking down on the courtyard, where there was a great bustling and\nprancing and making ready.\n\nThrough the midst of all this an old peasant woman was making her way.\n\nShe had a basket of eggs on her arm, and carefully laid on the top of\nit was a round flat cake, brown and spicy-looking, with a sugar heart\nin the middle of it, surrounded by pink and white sugar roses.\n\nShe had made it for a birthday gift for the King\u2019s son. But she was a\nlittle confused by all the bustle in the courtyard, and scurried hither\nand thither among the horses and people like a frightened hen.\n\nPresently one of the King\u2019s servants pushed her out of the way. Her\nfoot caught on the edge of a stone; she tripped and fell.\n\nThe eggs rolled out of the basket. Plop! Plop! they went on the stones.\n\nThere was a fine mess, and the beautiful cake lay in the midst of it,\nin fragments.\n\nThe old woman was so vexed and upset that she forgot everything but the\nmisfortune that had befallen her, and she stood in the middle of the\ncourtyard surrounded by her broken eggs, scolding away at the top of\nher voice and shaking her old umbrella at the whole gay crowd.\n\nEverybody laughed; and indeed she was a rather comical sight as she\nstood there shouting and storming. Somebody threw her a gold piece,\nwhich was kindly meant. But a gold piece wouldn\u2019t make her beautiful\ncake whole again.\n\nPresently the whole party rode away through the courtyard gates--all\nexcepting one, and that one no other than Mellidora.\n\nShe slipped down from her horse and went swiftly across to where the\nold woman sat upon the stone steps leading up to the big castle doors.\nAll her anger was gone, but she looked the picture of misery.\n\nThe prince could see how Mellidora stooped to pick up the broken cake\nand tried to put it together again, and how kindly she put her arm\nround the old woman\u2019s shoulder, coaxing her with friendly words.\n\nAnd when presently he came down into the courtyard to see what more\nmight be done, the sun shone upon Mellidora\u2019s gentle face, and he saw\nthat her eyes were full of tears.\n\nThen the prince knew that he had indeed found the one whom he sought,\nfor here was a maiden who not only laughed when others cried, but who\nalso cried when others laughed.\n\nThe old woman was taken to the King\u2019s son, where she was so kindly\nreceived that she forgot all her troubles.\n\nBut the prince waited no longer.\n\nThat very same day he asked Mellidora to marry him, and as she loved\nhim as much as he did her they got married very soon and lived happily\never after.\n\n\n\n\nSEVEN\n\nThe Clock\n\n\nThere was once a little clock which had gone steadily for years and\nyears.\n\nIt was a good, conscientious little thing, pretty too, but very modest,\nand it had always kept splendid time.\n\nThen it stopped suddenly one day exactly at eleven. Its works were worn\nout, and the clock-maker to whom it was sent for repairs returned it\nwith the message that it was not possible to make it go again.\n\nThe people to whom it belonged decided to leave it on the mantelshelf\nwhere it had always stood. \u201cIt\u2019s such a nice little thing,\u201d they said,\n\u201cand some day we can have new works put into it.\u201d So there it stood\nwithout making a movement or uttering the faintest tick. But it was\nvery unhappy. It felt that it was of no real use in the world.\n\nThe other things in the room weren\u2019t very nice about it. They used to\nwhisper to one another, and the little clock caught an unkind word now\nand then that made it unhappier than ever.\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t know why they keep it there. What on earth\u2019s the good of it\nif it doesn\u2019t go?\u201d said the big grandfather clock. \u201cIt never was much\nuse anyway. No chime, and a very poor tick. Of course it\u2019s got no\nconstitution to speak of.\u201d And his brazen face grew even shinier than\nit had been before, and he gave a self-satisfied little cough and then\nsang out his quarters as loudly as ever he could.\n\nThe cuckoo clock, which lived in the hall, and used to join in the talk\nwhen the door was open, actually went so far as to make up a little\nrhyme about it.\n\n\u201cCuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo,\u201d it sang. \u201cWhat\u2019s the use of you? What\u2019s the\nuse of you? Cuckoo, cuckoo.\u201d\n\nThe chairs, which were Chippendale, and tremendously proud of the fact,\nwere quite as rude.\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt about it,\u201d they said, \u201cquality is what tells. You\ncan\u2019t expect a thing to last unless it is really well made, inside and\nout. Perfect workmanship will wear practically for ever.\u201d And they held\nup their backs as straight as could be and curved their shapely arms\nand legs into the most elegant lines imaginable.\n\nThe little Chelsea flower-seller and flute-player, who stood on each\nside of the clock on the mantelshelf, were much kinder, and did their\nbest to console it.\n\nThey had always been on friendly terms with it, and they used to peep\nround it and smile and wave to one another.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\u201cThe Fairy Queen is probably coming to see us soon,\u201d said the\nflower-seller. \u201cPerhaps she may be able to help you.\u201d\n\nThe little clock felt happier; it would be wonderful to be introduced\nto the Fairy Queen, who had often been to see the Chelsea figures but\nhad so far never taken notice of any of the other things.\n\nYou see, those two were old friends of hers. They came from Fairyland\noriginally, but the tale went that a wicked witch had cast a spell\nover them which was to last for seven hundred and seventy-seven years.\nAt the end of that time they would be able to go back to Fairyland,\nbut meanwhile the Queen used to come and visit them now and then in\norder to cheer them up. Sure enough, the very next time she came,\nthe flower-seller remembered about the little clock and told her how\nunhappy it was.\n\nThe Queen came and stood in front of it and stroked its face with her\ntiny hand and patted its pretty ormolu pillars.\n\nFinally she sat down on the little green marble slab on which it stood,\nand asked it to tell her all its troubles.\n\nAnd the little clock opened its heart to her and told her how miserable\nit was to think that it would never, never be able to tell the time\nagain.\n\n\u201cBut you _will_,\u201d said the Queen. \u201cEvery day and every night at eleven\no\u2019clock you will be exactly right. None of the other clocks\u201d--she\nglanced round almost contemptuously at the grandfather--\u201ccan be quite\nsure of ever being perfectly right. But you will be. Why, it must be\nabout eleven now.\u201d She pulled a dandelion-clock from her pocket and\nbegan to blow and to count. \u201cOne, two, three, four....\u201d The white\ndarts floated away and went drifting about the room. At last only one\nremained.\n\n[Illustration: SHE PULLED A TINY DANDELION-CLOCK FROM HER POCKET AND\nBEGAN TO BLOW AND TO COUNT]\n\nAt that moment the cuckoo clock was heard striking in the hall. The\nQueen stopped blowing to listen.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019s fast,\u201d she said, and waited till he had finished. \u201cFive, six,\nseven, eight, nine, ten, eleven,\u201d she went on, and, as she ended, the\nlast white morsel of down rose in the air. She glanced at the little\nclock. \u201cYou see, you\u2019re quite right,\u201d she said triumphantly. \u201cAnd\nto-morrow morning you\u2019ll be right again at eleven o\u2019clock.\u201d\n\nThe little clock beamed, and it beamed still more when the Fairy Queen\nopened its glass door and gently clasped its hands in hers and said how\nmuch she looked forward to seeing it again.\n\nJust then the grandfather cleared his throat and went through his\npompous performance of chiming out the quarters and hour.\n\n\u201cYou\u2019re five minutes slow,\u201d said the Queen, and she waved her hand and\nvanished through the ventilator.\n\n\n\n\nEIGHT\n\nThe Moon\n\n\nThe moon, of course, is a big golden penny hung up in the sky. Every\nmonth when it is at the full the fairies stand in the fields and gaze\nat it and feel in their empty pockets. There are so many things they\nwant to buy. Rainbow ribbon from the weather clerk for sashes, silken\nthread from the spider for weaving into shawls, pearl varnish from the\nsnail for doing up their wings, and little red feathers from the robin\nfor wearing in their Sunday bonnets.\n\nAt last they can bear it no longer. They all go flying into the sky and\nunhook the moon and carry it off to go marketing with. And when they\u2019re\ntired of spending they hang what is left of it up again in the sky and\ngo home to bed. But the next night they fetch it again and spend a\nlittle more.\n\nThey go on doing this night after night for nearly a fortnight, and the\nmoon gets smaller and smaller, till at last there\u2019s nothing left of\nit at all. And when the fairies realise what they have done, they get\nfrightened.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve spent all the moon,\u201d they say. \u201cSuppose it never grew again!\nWouldn\u2019t it be dreadful?\u201d And they all hide away in the forest and\ndon\u2019t come out for several nights.\n\nBut at last one of them takes courage and puts his head out, and he\nsees a little tiny bit of moon shining in the sky. Whereupon he gives a\nshout and claps his hands and goes running round to the houses of all\nthe other fairies to tell them the good news.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\u201cThe moon\u2019s growing again,\u201d he says. \u201cCome quick and look.\u201d And they\nall come out to look at it, and caper about and are as pleased as\npleased can be.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ll never take it again,\u201d they say. \u201cIt might not grow next time.\u201d\nBut at the end of a fortnight they have worn all their pretties a\nlittle shabby, and they want some more. And by that time the moon has\ngrown so big that they feel that they _must_ spend a little of it.\nAnd--would you believe it?--they end up by doing all over again just\nexactly what they did before.\n\nThey\u2019ve been going on like this for ages, and what\u2019s more, they\u2019re\nbeginning to take it for granted that the moon will grow again, and so\nI don\u2019t suppose they\u2019ll ever get cured. But it\u2019s very tiresome of them.\n\nWe could quite well do with all the moon always. Besides, some day it\nreally might not grow again. And what then...?\n\n\n\n\nNINE\n\nThe Third Adventure of the Rainbow Cat\n\n\nWhen the Rainbow Cat left the land of the Tree-goblins he travelled for\nsome time until he came to a delightful country called the Bountiful\nLand.\n\nIt was a marvellous country.\n\nThere were deep forests there, and great meadows full of the loveliest\nflowers, such as only grow in gardens in other countries; the sky was\nnearly always blue, and the people who lived in that land were happy\nand contented. That is to say, they would have been but for one thing.\n\nIn the very middle of the country there was a great castle built high\nupon a rock, and in this castle--so the inhabitants of the place told\nthe Rainbow Cat--there lived a cruel and wicked giantess who tyrannised\nover the people and constantly took away their goods, sometimes even\ntheir children.\n\nThe Rainbow Cat did not meet with any one who had actually seen the\ngiantess face to face, but terrible tales were told of her doings and\nof her horrible appearance. She was three times the height of an\nordinary man, it was said. Her hair was like knotted ropes, her eyes\nflamed fire; when she blew her nose, the sound was like thunder; when\nshe sneezed, forests swayed as beneath a hurricane; when she stamped\nher foot, whole villages collapsed.\n\nBesides being a giantess she was reported to be able to work magic, and\nthat frightened the people more than anything else.\n\nOn dark nights she would come down from her castle, they told him, in\na chariot drawn by six dragons, and when the people heard the noise\nof it they fled into their houses and locked the doors and barred the\nwindows. From within they could hear their barns and granaries being\nransacked, and the opening of the doors of sheds and stables, whence\ntheir best cattle and horses were carried off.\n\nBut sometimes a great voice would be heard shouting in the dark, \u201cThrow\nout your treasures or I will take your children.\u201d Then the terrified\npeople opened their windows and threw out their treasures in fear and\ntrembling.\n\nAnd notices would mysteriously appear in the villages, threatening\nthat unless certain things were delivered up at the castle gates, the\ngiantess would come down and take a terrible revenge.\n\nThe things were conveyed up the rocky path by terrified villagers, who\nleft them in front of the gates as commanded. They always came back\nwith most alarming stories of what they had observed.\n\nOne man had seen the giantess\u2019s shoes being cleaned by a servant in the\ncourtyard. They were as big, he said, as a hay waggon.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nAnother was so frightened by the sight of her washing hanging out on\nthe line that he ran all the way home and did not get over it for weeks.\n\nBut the worst thing of all was that children who had wandered a little\nway from home disappeared and never came back.\n\nOthers who escaped would tell how an enormous cloaked figure had\nsuddenly sprung out from behind a tree, seized one of their comrades,\nand made off into the woods.\n\nThe thing had grown so bad that people dare not let their children out\nof their sight for a moment, and they were growing so afraid of the\nvisits of the giantess that all happiness was rapidly vanishing out of\nthe land.\n\nThe fame of the Rainbow Cat\u2019s wisdom had already reached this country,\nand the people were delighted to see him and implored him to come to\ntheir assistance. The Rainbow Cat felt that this was a very serious\nmatter indeed, but he was exceedingly sorry for the people and promised\nto do all he could to help them.\n\nSo on the evening of the second day after his arrival, he took his\nlittle bag, which contained, among other things, the lightning which\nthe Thunder Giant had given him and the bottle of fairy water from\nTree-goblin-land, and quietly set off for the castle of the giantess.\n\nHe said nothing of his purpose to the kind folk with whom he was\nstaying--he knew it would only make them fearfully anxious.\n\nHe just said he was going out for a little walk in order to think the\nmatter over.\n\nHe climbed lightly and softly up the rocky path until he came right\nunder the castle walls.\n\nThere were two immense stone towers, one at each end of the castle,\nand from the high chimney of one of them great clouds of evil-looking\nsmoke were pouring forth--green and purple and black.\n\n\u201cAha,\u201d said the Rainbow Cat to himself, \u201cthat\u2019s where she\u2019s busy at her\nhorrible tricks, is it?\u201d\n\nSo he sat down outside the tower, opened his bag, and dabbed his eyes\nwith water from his little bottle, so that he was able to see right\nthrough the wall into the inside of the tower.\n\nTo his great astonishment, he saw no giantess, but a very nasty-looking\nold wizard with a long grey beard and an enormously tall hat, who sat\nin a large room in front of a great open fire.\n\nAll manner of strange and terrible-looking things hung upon the walls\nof the room or were stowed away in cupboards, and the floor and tables\nwere piled with books of magic.\n\nA great bunch of keys hung from the girdle of the wizard, who was\nbusily stirring something which was bubbling over the fire in a big\nblack pot, from which came the smoke that the Rainbow Cat had noticed\npouring from the chimney.\n\nThe firelight shone on the labels of the keys, so that the Rainbow Cat\nwas able to read what was written on them.\n\n\u201cGold Chest--Silver Chest--Jewel Chest--Giantess\u2019s Room--Prisoners\u2019\nRoom--Giantess\u2019s Garden\u201d: these were some of the names he read on the\nlabels, and he began to understand things a little better. But he\nthought he would make a few more investigations. So he picked up his\nlittle bag and walked softly off to the other end of the castle, sat\ndown on the ground at the foot of the tower there, and again bathed his\neyes with fairy water.\n\nThis time he found himself looking into a big room full of children.\n\nThey were all very busy.\n\nSome of them were sorting strange-looking herbs, some of them were\ngrinding queer substances with heavy stones, some of them were\nanxiously measuring out liquids drop by drop from one bottle into\nanother.\n\nThey all looked pale and tired; they did not laugh and talk over their\nwork as one would expect children to do.\n\nAnd then the door of the room opened and in walked--who but the\ngiantess herself!\n\nBut imagine the surprise of the Rainbow Cat upon discovering that,\nalthough she was indeed immensely tall, she was otherwise by no means a\nterrible-looking person, but had, on the contrary, a sweet and charming\nface and beautiful golden hair.\n\nThe children all came running up to her as soon as she appeared, and\nseemed delighted to see her. She bent down and lifted some of them up\ninto her arms, and was so gentle and sweet with them all that it was a\njoy to see her.\n\nThe Rainbow Cat lost no further time; he took his mandolin, and sitting\nthere at the foot of the tower, he began playing a little tune.\n\nHe daren\u2019t play very loud for fear the wizard should hear him in the\nother tower, but fortunately the wind was in the right direction, and\nin any case he felt pretty certain that the wizard was too much taken\nup with his enchantments to pay attention to anything else.\n\nBut the giantess heard, for of course giantesses have very much larger\nears than ordinary people and hear much better, and she put her head\nout of the window and saw the Rainbow Cat sitting there in the dusk and\nasked him who he was and what he was doing.\n\n\u201cI am a friend,\u201d said the Rainbow Cat. \u201cHelp me to come up.\u201d\n\nSo the giantess let down her ribbon waist-belt with the bag she kept\nher handkerchief in tied to the bottom of it, and this was so large\nthat the Rainbow Cat was easily able to get into it together with his\nprecious bag and mandolin.\n\nThe giantess hauled him up to the window-sill and asked him to come\nin and sit down and tell her what he was doing there and all about\nhimself, for she saw that he was no ordinary creature. And when he\nhad explained to her why he was there and what he had learnt in the\nBountiful Country, she told him her own tale.\n\nHow the wicked magician had stolen her away from home when she was\nquite young and had brought her to this castle, and how he kept her\nshut up, while with his magic spells he did all sorts of evil things.\n\n\u201cI know the people think it is all my doing,\u201d said the poor giantess.\n\u201cHe can turn an old wash-tub and six beans into a chariot drawn by\nflaming dragons, and when he flies out he wears a great cloak over his\ntall hat, so that every one takes him for me.\n\n\u201cHe makes these poor children help him in his wicked work, and keeps\nthem prisoners just as he does me.\n\n\u201cHe does not even give us enough to eat. If we are not soon rescued we\nshall all die. He grows worse every day.\u201d\n\nBig tears fell from the giantess\u2019s eyes.\n\nEach one made a little pool where it fell.\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t cry,\u201d said the Rainbow Cat, \u201call will yet be well. My magic is\nstronger than his. When once I get at him I\u2019ll soon finish him off.\nWill you take me to him?\u201d\n\nBut the giantess was afraid; she said she dare not disturb him.\n\u201cBesides,\u201d she said, \u201che would never let you in, he is so suspicious.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s got to be done somehow,\u201d said the Rainbow Cat, \u201cif you\u2019re to be\nset free.\u201d\n\nHe sat softly strumming on his mandolin and thinking, and suddenly the\ngiantess had an idea.\n\n\u201cHe loves music,\u201d she said. \u201cHe says it helps his brain to work. If you\ncould pretend to be a wandering musician----\u201d\n\nThe Rainbow Cat leapt with joy.\n\n\u201cThe very thing, my dear,\u201d he said. \u201cHave you by any chance got a\npeacock\u2019s feather to lend me?\u201d\n\nThis the giantess was able to provide.\n\n\u201cThank you very much,\u201d said the Rainbow Cat. \u201cYou will see; in an\nhour\u2019s time you will all be free. Good-bye for the present.\u201d\n\nHe was so excited that he jumped clean out of the window--mandolin, bag\nand all.\n\nBut he was quite all right.\n\nYou know, even ordinary cats are supposed always to fall on their feet,\nand of course a fairy cat----!\n\nWhen he reached the ground he wrapped himself in his cloak, pulled his\nhat well over his eyes and stuck the peacock\u2019s feather in the front of\nit.\n\n\u201cNow I look just like a wandering musician,\u201d he said, and he went\nboldly up to the door of the wizard\u2019s tower and pulled the bell.\n\nThe magician himself came to the door, but he opened it only the\ntiniest little bit.\n\n\u201cWho are you, and what do you want?\u201d he said in a very gruff voice.\n\n\u201cI am a poor wandering musician,\u201d said the cat. \u201cMay I come in and give\nyou a tune?\u201d\n\nThe wizard looked at him suspiciously. \u201cWhat have you got in that\nbag?\u201d he asked, giving it a kick with his foot, so that the bundle of\nlightning made a rattling noise.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve got all the major and minor keys in there,\u201d said the Rainbow\nCat. \u201cA bunch of them. That\u2019s what makes such a rattle. But I can\u2019t do\nwithout them.\u201d\n\n\u201cSing me a song,\u201d said the wizard, \u201cand then I\u2019ll see whether I\u2019ll let\nyou in or not.\u201d\n\nSo the Rainbow Cat sat down on the doorstep and sang this little song,\nand the wizard stood just inside the door and listened.\n\n  THE SONG OF THE GOOSE\n\n  \u201cThere once was a goose who lived on a green,\n  Gold was his beak and his feathers were clean,\n  A handsomer creature there never was seen,\n  Heydiddle ho, never was seen;\n  He lived on a green and he waddled about,\n  For he said, \u2018To be sure I don\u2019t want to get stout,\n  And, anyway, exercise keeps off the gout;\n  Heydiddle ho, keeps off the gout.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t think much of that song,\u201d said the wizard.\n\n\u201cThe next verse is very good,\u201d said the Rainbow Cat. \u201cBut I\u2019m not\ngoing to sing it out here in the cold night air. I shall ruin my voice.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, come in,\u201d said the wizard, for he wanted to hear the end of the\nsong, and he let the Rainbow Cat in.\n\nBut no sooner were they inside the wizard\u2019s room than the Rainbow Cat\nopened his bag and pulled out the bundle of lightning and let it loose\nall over the place. You never heard such a commotion!\n\nMeanwhile he threw off his cloak, leapt upon the table, and stood\nthere with his hair all standing on end and his eyes darting green and\nblue fire, while the lightning flashed all round him and round the\nterrified wizard, who threw himself down on his knees, crying \u201cMercy,\nMercy!\u201d--for he had never seen anything like it before and he was\nanyway but a cowardly creature at heart.\n\nPresently the wizard\u2019s attendants came running to see what was the\nmatter.\n\nThey dare not come into the room, but stood trembling in the doorway.\n\n\u201cTie him up,\u201d commanded the Rainbow Cat in a great loud voice.\n\nThe attendants were not at all fond of their master, but in any case\nthey were so frightened of the strange and terrible creature on the\ntable that they did not dare to disobey.\n\nSo the wizard was tied to the table, and the Rainbow Cat took all\nhis wicked books and his pots and pans and the rest of his nasty\nparaphernalia and threw them out of the window on to the ground below,\nwhere they were burnt later on in a great bonfire.\n\nBy this time the news had spread all over the castle, and presently the\ngiantess came in, with the children trooping behind her.\n\nThe wizard had grown black in the face with rage; he knew that even if\nhe were set free he would be utterly powerless.\n\nFor he had lost all his magic books, and he was truly rather a stupid\nwizard and could do absolutely nothing without them.\n\nAs a matter of fact the gentle giantess didn\u2019t want him to be punished,\nand in the end he was conducted to the borders of the country and\nthreatened with instant death if ever he returned. But that, of course,\nwas later.\n\nYou can imagine what excitement there was in the land when the Rainbow\nCat appeared the next day walking down the road from the castle with\nthe giantess by his side and all the children running in front, and the\nwicked magician led behind in chains.\n\nThe Rainbow Cat, having finished his task, soon bade his friends\ngood-bye and set out once more on his travels.\n\nThe giantess made him a present of the gold ring which she wore on her\nlittle finger. He would take nothing else. He wore it as a collar round\nhis neck, where it was always greatly admired.\n\nShe herself soon became a great favourite among the people of the\nBountiful Land. They loved her dearly and were very proud of her. But\nshe always had to be very careful not to sneeze or stamp.\n\nPeople even came from other countries to see her, so that in the end it\ngrew quite embarrassing.\n\nBut, in time, a giant who had heard much of her beauty and gentleness\ntravelled all the way from Giant-land to visit her, and he married her\nand took her away to his own home.\n\nHer trousseau took some making, I can tell you!\n\nAll the women in the district sewed at it for six months--and even then\nshe was able to have only six of everything.\n\n\n\n\nTEN\n\nAlmond Blossom\n\n\nLong ago the leaves and blossoms of the almond-tree came out together\nlike those on other trees. But now the blossoms come out first. Shall I\ntell you why?\n\nOne day in early spring the Fairy Queen was riding about the country.\n\n\u201cOh, dear,\u201d she said, \u201cI\u2019m so tired of this wintry weather. I wish the\nflowers were out. And next week is my birthday\u201d--the Fairy Queen, you\nmust know, has birthdays much oftener than ordinary people--\u201cmy first\nspring birthday this year, and there are still only a few primroses and\nviolets. How I should love to see some pink flowers! I\u2019m so fond of\npink.\u201d\n\nThe little buds of the almond-tree heard her.\n\n\u201cCan\u2019t we manage it?\u201d they said to their mother, the tree. \u201cCan\u2019t we be\nout in time for the Queen\u2019s birthday next week?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou can try,\u201d said their mother. \u201cBut what about your brothers, the\nleaves? You know how lazy they are. And you can\u2019t come out without\nthem. You _would_ look funny.\u201d\n\nThe little pink buds did all they could. They caught every bit of\nsunshine, they sucked up every drop of moisture, they grew and grew.\nBut their lazy brothers would not bestir themselves. They kept tight\nfolded in their winter jackets.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s too cold,\u201d they said. \u201cBr-r-r. Why should we hurry?\u201d And so,\nwhen the Queen\u2019s birthday came, of course they were not ready, though\nthe pink blossoms were all waiting to burst into bloom. Presently the\nQueen came riding through the forest on her white rabbit. The sun was\nshining and the sky was blue. She halted under the almond-tree and\nsighed a little.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve had some lovely presents,\u201d she said. \u201cA necklace of dewdrops from\nthe early morning, a blue velvet cloak from the night, and a basketful\nof perfumed kisses from the south wind, who came such a long, long way\nto bring them. I should be perfectly happy if only I had some pink\nflowers.\u201d\n\nThe buds of the almond blossom heard her and quivered with excitement.\nThey could wait no longer. With one accord they all burst forth into\nfull bloom. The scent of them was like the smell of honey.\n\nThe Queen looked up.\n\n\u201cOh, you darlings,\u201d she said. \u201cYou darlings. I\u2019ll have my birthday\nparty under your tree. It will be the prettiest spring party I have\never had.\u201d\n\nAnd ever since that day the pink blossoms have always come out in time\nfor the Queen\u2019s first spring birthday without waiting for their lazy\nlittle brothers. And every year the fairies hold their earliest revels\nunder the blossoming boughs of the almond-tree.\n\n\n\n\nELEVEN\n\nThe Rondel\n\n\nThere was once a princess who dwelt in a castle in the midst of a great\npark. She lived hidden away from the world in her quiet home and was\nscarcely ever seen by strangers.\n\nRumours of her charm and loveliness, and of her wonderful golden hair,\nspread far and wide over the land, and she was always known and spoken\nof as Princess Golden-bright. But her real name was Gentle.\n\nAll round the castle were lovely pleasure-gardens in which were\ngay flower-beds and slender, dancing fountains. But the princess\u2019s\nfavourite spot was a circle of ash-trees which stood in the park some\nsmall distance away from the castle on a little grassy hill with a path\nleading up to it.\n\nIt was called the Rondel.\n\nIn the middle of the circle of trees stood a table with a seat running\nround it; the ground was carpeted with soft moss, and the tree-trunks\nstood up straight and tall like marble pillars.\n\nThe princess loved nothing better than to sit in the Rondel in the warm\nweather with her books and embroidery.\n\nIt was like being in a little house with a high green roof to it.\n\nMoreover it was a fairy place, and the ash-trees would often tell her\nthe most delightful stories of what was going on outside the walls of\nthe park, for they were so tall that they could see a long way.\n\nThey learnt many things, too, from the birds, who loved to perch\namong their branches and to chatter away to one another about their\nadventures in the big world.\n\nThe princess very rarely went beyond the walls of the park, for she\nwas quite happy among the birds and flowers. But because the beauty of\nPrincess Golden-bright was famed throughout the land, many princes sent\nto ask for her hand in marriage.\n\nSome of them even came in person, but the princess would have nothing\nto do with any of them.\n\n\u201cI am quite happy,\u201d she said; \u201cI do not want a husband.\u201d However, when\nshe was twenty years old, her fairy god-mother came to pay her a visit,\nand talked to her most earnestly upon this very subject of getting\nmarried, telling her that it was exceedingly foolish of her to refuse\nto see any of these suitors. \u201cMy dear Gentle,\u201d she said, \u201cwhoever\nheard of a princess who was an old maid? I don\u2019t say you need choose\nin a hurry, but I certainly think you ought at least to see these\ngentlemen. You may very possibly find one among them whom you like, and\nthe ash-trees will help you to choose if you should be in doubt.\u201d\n\n[Illustration]\n\nSo the princess promised to do as her god-mother wished, and after her\ndeparture she made it known by proclamation that Princess Golden-bright\nwas willing to receive any suitable person who might wish to pay her\nhis addresses.\n\nThe day after this was done she went as usual to sit in the Rondel,\nand while she busied herself with her embroidery she talked over this\nmatter of the suitors with her beloved ash-trees.\n\n\u201cHow shall I know whom to choose?\u201d said the princess. \u201cI have no\nexperience at all. If I must have a husband I should like to be sure\nthat he is the right one.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo not be afraid, dear princess,\u201d replied the ash-trees. \u201cYou know\nthat whosoever stands beneath our boughs is bound to speak the truth.\nYou need ask but one question of each of the suitors. According to his\nanswer you will be able to judge of his suitability as a husband.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat shall I ask him?\u201d said the princess.\n\n\u201cAsk him,\u201d replied the ash-trees, \u201cwhat he most desires in a wife. That\nwill be quite sufficient.\u201d\n\nSo the princess sat and waited.\n\nPresently she heard a whispering among the leaves over her head.\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s one coming,\u201d they said. \u201cWe can see him riding along the high\nroad.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, what is he like?\u201d said the princess.\n\n\u201cHe is a very fine-looking gentleman indeed,\u201d said the ash-trees. \u201cHe\nrides on a great black prancing horse, and a company of twenty knights\nrides behind him. He wears shining armour. The harness of his horse is\nstudded with jewels and the hilt of his sword blazes in the sunshine.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt sounds very exciting,\u201d said the princess, and she put down her\nstitching and smoothed her golden hair and spread out the folds of her\nflower-embroidered gown, for naturally she wanted to look her best.\n\nBefore long the prince arrived at the castle gates, and a messenger\ncame out into the park to tell the princess that he had come from a\nneighbouring kingdom to seek her hand.\n\n\u201cI will see him here,\u201d said the princess.\n\nSo the prince came riding through the park with his knights all\njingling behind him, each of them bearing a golden casket containing a\npresent for the princess.\n\nWhen the prince reached the foot of the little hill on which the Rondel\nstood and saw the princess under the trees, he dismounted from his\nhorse and came on foot to where she sat.\n\nThe knights waited at the bottom of the hill.\n\nThe princess received him graciously, and he stood before her in the\nshadow of the ash-trees and asked if she would marry him.\n\n\u201cI have a great kingdom,\u201d said he, \u201cgreat riches and great power, and\nmy enemies all fear me.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am much honoured,\u201d said the princess, \u201cbut I should like to ask you\none question. What do you most desire in a wife?\u201d\n\n\u201cObedience,\u201d said the prince without an instant\u2019s hesitation, for he\nwas obliged to speak the truth.\n\nThe princess smiled a little.\n\n\u201cAnd what would you do if your wife disobeyed you?\u201d she asked.\n\n\u201cWhip her,\u201d said the prince.\n\n\u201cI am much obliged to you,\u201d said the princess, \u201cbut I am afraid that\nI might not always be obedient, and I should not like to be whipped.\nGood-day.\u201d\n\nSo the prince rode away home again with his knights, and the princess\nwent on with her sewing.\n\nBefore long she again heard a whispering among the trees.\n\n\u201cAnother suitor is riding along the road,\u201d they said.\n\n\u201cOh, and what is _he_ like?\u201d said the princess.\n\n\u201cHe rides on a white horse,\u201d said the ash-trees, \u201cand he wears a blue\nvelvet cap with a white feather in it. He carries a bunch of roses in\nhis hand, and behind him ride six gentlemen in gaily coloured mantles\nwith guitars slung over their shoulders. He has auburn hair and blue\neyes. They ride at the trot.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe sounds rather pleasing,\u201d said the princess, and she picked a flower\nfrom the syringa bush which grew at the entrance to the Rondel and\nstuck it in her hair.\n\n[Illustration: \u201cIF YOU WILL MARRY ME,\u201d HE SAID, \u201cI WILL SPEND MY DAYS\nMAKING VERSES ABOUT YOU.\u201d]\n\nThe blue-eyed prince was also bidden to come out to the Rondel, and\nhe too dismounted from his horse at the foot of the little hill and\ncame gaily walking up the path till he stood beneath the branches of\nthe ash-trees.\n\nHe bowed low before the princess and laid his bunch of roses on the\ntable in front of her.\n\nShe smiled graciously, for he was a comely young man, and he thereupon\noffered her his hand in exceedingly beautiful language.\n\n\u201cIf you will marry me,\u201d he said, \u201cI will spend my days making verses\nabout you. They will be sung throughout my kingdom. I will make a whole\nbook of them. It shall be called \u2018Songs of Queen Golden-bright.\u2019\u201d The\nprincess thought this sounded rather attractive. One does not so often\ncome across a prince who is also a poet.\n\nBut the ash-trees rustled softly above her head, and she remembered the\nquestion that she was to ask.\n\n\u201cWill you tell me what you most desire in a wife?\u201d she said.\n\n\u201cBeauty,\u201d said the prince promptly.\n\n\u201cBut supposing,\u201d said the princess, \u201cthat your wife fell downstairs and\nbroke her nose, so that her beauty was spoilt. What then?\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, then of course I shouldn\u2019t be able to make up any more verses\nabout her,\u201d said the prince. \u201cI should get very irritable. How could I\nbear to look at a wife with a crooked nose? She would certainly have to\nbe most careful not to break her nose.\u201d\n\nThe princess laughed.\n\n\u201cI think you\u2019d better get married to a waxen lady,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you\nkept her in a glass case out of the sun she would remain beautiful for\never, and there would be no fear of her nose getting broken. Thank\nyou very much for coming. I fear that we are not quite suited to one\nanother. Good-day.\u201d\n\nThe prince bowed low, picked up his bunch of roses, and rode off again\nthrough the park with his white feather streaming behind him in the\nwind.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d said the princess. \u201cHe looked so very nice, and I\u2019m sure\nhe must make lovely songs. But I should always have been afraid of\nbreaking my nose.\u201d And she laughed again and took up her embroidery.\n\nSeveral more suitors came during the day to ask for the hand of the\nprincess, but not one of them gave a satisfactory answer to the\nquestion.\n\nOne of them thought it above all things desirable in a wife that she\nshould be able to make a good pudding; another required that she should\ntalk very little--\u201cwhich I _certainly_ couldn\u2019t promise,\u201d said the\nprincess; another considered it most important that she should have\ntwelve bags full of gold pieces! They all had to tell the truth when\nthey stood under the branches of the ash-trees, and some of them really\nhad the most curious ideas.\n\nAt last, just as the sun was going down, there came a prince riding on\na chestnut horse and attended only by one squire. He had come a long\nway, from a far-off country, and he had ridden hard, for he had heard\nmuch about the lovely Princess Golden-bright and was afraid that he\nmight be too late.\n\nIn spite of his dusty and travel-stained appearance the princess was\npleased with the look of him, for he was tall and slender and had dark\ncurling hair and pleasant grey eyes, and she hoped very much that he\nwould answer the question satisfactorily.\n\nWhen he came to the top of the little hill and saw the princess he\nfell on his knee and could find no word to say, she was so much more\nbeautiful than he could ever have imagined.\n\nBut she smiled kindly at him, and he took courage and told her how for\na long time he had wanted to come to see her, and that now he feared he\nhad come too late.\n\nThe princess asked him many questions, but she hesitated to ask the\nmost important of all, for she liked him better every minute and was\nafraid he might not give the right answer.\n\nThe ash-trees rustled and rustled as if a wind were blowing through\nthem, and at last she felt she must wait no longer.\n\n\u201cWill you tell me,\u201d she said softly, \u201cwhat it is that you most desire\nin a wife?\u201d\n\nThe prince was perplexed; truly he had never thought about the matter.\nHe looked down at the ground and then he looked up at the trees, and as\nhe did so they all began to whisper softly. \u201cGentle, Gentle, Gentle,\u201d\nthey said.\n\n\u201cWhy, of course,\u201d said the prince, and he looked again at the princess\nand smiled. \u201cThere is one thing I desire above all else in a wife. _She\nmust be Gentle._\u201d\n\nAnd what better answer could he have given? For Gentle indeed she was.\n\nThe princess stood up and held out her hands to him. Her embroidery\nfell to the ground.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019ll do, he\u2019ll do,\u201d rustled the ash-trees.\n\nBut the princess didn\u2019t even hear them. She had already made up her\nmind.\n\n\n\n\nTWELVE\n\nJan and the Magic Pencil\n\n\nThere was once a little boy called Jan, who lived in a country village.\nOne day he had the good luck to be able to help a fairy out of a ditch,\nwhere she had got stuck in the mud.\n\nThe fairy was very grateful to Jan, and promised him, as a reward for\nhis kindness, that he should have what he most wished for in the world.\n\nJan was not a very clever boy, and at first he couldn\u2019t think of\nanything to wish for. His father was a farmer, and Jan had a good home\nand plenty to eat and drink; his only real trouble was that he was\nalways at the bottom of his class at school. His father scolded and his\nmother wept, but Jan always stopped at the bottom. He wasn\u2019t so bad at\nreading and writing, but he simply could not do arithmetic. His sums\nwere always wrong, even the quite easy ones.\n\nSo when he had thought for a few minutes and the fairy was beginning to\ngrow impatient, he decided that the best thing for him to wish for was\nthat he might be able to get his sums right. The fairy accordingly gave\nhim a magic slate pencil which possessed the power of being able to do\nany kind of arithmetic without ever making any mistake. You simply held\nit in your hand and it would write down the answer on your slate almost\nbefore you had time to read over the figures.\n\nJan was delighted with his present, which he put carefully away in his\npencil-box. He could hardly believe that it would do such wonderful\nthings; but, sure enough, he found he could do all his sums without the\nslightest effort, and that every one of them was right.\n\nAddition, Subtraction, Multiplication--it made nothing of them all.\nEven those dreadful Long Division sums were no trouble to the magic\npencil: it danced nimbly down the slate without stopping even for a\nsecond, and the answers were always right. Jan\u2019s schoolmaster was\nastonished, so were his parents, and delighted too, when by the end of\nthe week Jan had risen to the top of the school.\n\n\u201cWhat a good teacher I am, after all!\u201d said the schoolmaster to\nhimself. \u201cI have even been able to teach arithmetic to a boy who was\nso hopelessly stupid over it that he couldn\u2019t add up two and two\ncorrectly.\u201d\n\nHe was so proud of this that he actually invited the principal people\nin the neighbourhood to come in and see his wonderful scholar.\n\nAnd so it happened that the doctor, the lawyer, the priest, the mayor\nand one or two other important folk from round about arrived at the\nschoolhouse one fine day, all agog to see the schoolmaster\u2019s wonderful\npupil.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\u201cCome here, Jan,\u201d said the schoolmaster, \u201cand show these gentlemen what\nyou can do.\u201d And he wrote out a long sum on the blackboard--an addition\nsum in twenty rows, all bristling with eights and nines. Poor Jan came\nforward in fear and trembling.\n\n\u201cI\u2019d rather do it on my slate,\u201d he said.\n\nBut his schoolmaster wouldn\u2019t hear of that.\n\nSo Jan had to stand up in front of the blackboard with a piece of chalk\nin his hand. Of course he couldn\u2019t do the sum at all. It took him a\ndreadfully long time and not one figure was right.\n\n\u201cThe boy\u2019s nervous,\u201d said the doctor. \u201cYou\u2019ve been overtaxing him.\u201d\n\nThe lawyer smiled and took a pinch of snuff. \u201cI had an idea that our\nfriend the schoolmaster was rather drawing the long bow,\u201d he whispered\nto the mayor. The priest came and patted Jan\u2019s head.\n\n\u201cTry again, my child,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ll do better next time.\u201d\n\nBut Jan did no better the next time. If anything, he did even worse.\nThe schoolmaster was much annoyed. It made him look so foolish. When\nthe visitors had gone he gave Jan a good caning and sent him home in\ndisgrace.\n\nHis father and mother were very disappointed, too, when they heard what\nhad happened.\n\n\u201cI always knew the lad was a dullard,\u201d said his father.\n\nJan wandered disconsolately out into the sunshine. It\u2019s not nice to be\ncalled a dullard, particularly when you\u2019ve been top of your school for\na whole month. His mother came after him.\n\n\u201cYou shall have a hot apple pasty for your supper,\u201d she said; \u201cit\u2019s in\nthe oven now.\u201d\n\nBut even apple pasty couldn\u2019t console Jan.\n\nHe went into the lane and sat down near the place where he had seen the\nfairy. He rather hoped he might see her again. Sure enough, he hadn\u2019t\nbeen there five minutes when he felt a light touch on his shoulder, and\nthere she was, perched on a swaying wild-rose spray in the hedge close\nbeside him.\n\n\u201cOh, come,\u201d she said when Jan had told her his trouble, \u201cwe can\nsoon remedy that.\u201d And she gave him a piece of chalk to keep in his\npencil-box together with his fairy slate pencil. \u201cNow you will be able\nto do sums on the blackboard as well as on your slate,\u201d she said.\n\nJan thanked her and went home feeling quite happy, so that he was able\nthoroughly to enjoy his supper and his apple pasty.\n\nThings went swimmingly for a while. Jan did more wonderful sums than\never, both on the blackboard and on his slate. The schoolmaster\nwas more careful this time; but he called in first one person and\nthen another to see what Jan could do, and now he was no longer\ndisappointed. Even the lawyer had to acknowledge that the boy was\nindeed a marvel.\n\nBut alas and alas! After a little time Jan became so conceited that he\nwas quite unbearable. He gave himself the most extraordinary airs. He\nwould hardly condescend to speak to the other boys. He even patronised\nhis own father and mother.\n\n\u201cNo boy in the whole country is as clever as I,\u201d he said. \u201cThe King\nought to see what I can do. I must certainly go to the Court. How they\nwill open their eyes!\u201d\n\nAnd so one fine day he prepared to set off to the Court to show the\nKing what he could do.\n\nNow the King of that country was a rather cantankerous old gentleman,\nand made short work of any one who displeased him. Jan\u2019s mother didn\u2019t\nvery much like the idea of his going, but Jan would not be dissuaded.\n\n\u201cYou will see, mother,\u201d he said, \u201cI shall come home with a bagful of\ngold, and perhaps the King will want me to stay at his Court. When I\nam grown up I shall marry one of the Princesses, and you will be able\nto ride in a golden coach and to wear a mantle of blue velvet trimmed\nwith ermine. All the neighbours will curtsey to you and call you Madam.\nWouldn\u2019t you like that?\u201d\n\nHis mother couldn\u2019t imagine that she would like that very much, but she\nthought it was rather sweet of Jan to think so much of his mother, and\nshe gave him a kiss and one of his father\u2019s best linen shirts, and bade\nhim be sure not to get his feet wet.\n\nSo Jan set off to the palace, and when he got there he sent in a\nmessage by the beautiful footman who opened the door that Jan, the\nArithmetical Wonder, had come to show the Royal Family what he could\ndo. It was a dull rainy afternoon, and it so happened that the King,\nQueen, and the two Princesses were sitting at home in their State\napartments feeling rather bored. The Lord Chamberlain, who generally\namused them on wet days by asking them riddles, had gone to bed with a\nvery bad cold in his head, and they had nothing to do.\n\n\u201cShall we have him in?\u201d said the King to the Queen.\n\n\u201cHe sounds very dull,\u201d said the younger Princess, who was busy making\npale blue rosettes for her bedroom slippers.\n\n\u201cBetter than nothing,\u201d said her sister, who had just finished reading\nall the love-letters that had come by the morning\u2019s post, and was\npasting the prettiest ones into an album which she kept for that\npurpose.\n\nSo Jan was ushered into the royal apartments, and he told the King and\nQueen of his attainments--how he could do any sum, however difficult,\nas quickly as it could be written down, almost more quickly, indeed. He\nwas a nice-looking lad and he had no end of assurance, and brought with\nhim, moreover, letters from all manner of important personages who had\ntested his wonderful powers.\n\nAn attendant was sent to fetch the great Court account tablets, which\nwere made of ivory inlaid with silver, and the King offered Jan his own\ngolden pencil with rubies and diamonds round the top.\n\n\u201cThank you very much,\u201d said Jan, \u201cI prefer a plain slate or a\nblackboard, and I always use my own pencil.\u201d\n\n\u201c_Prefer_, indeed,\u201d said the King, with a great black frown. \u201cWhat\nbusiness have you to prefer anything? Slates and blackboards! I\u2019d have\nyou know that this is the King\u2019s Palace and not a village schoolhouse.\nIf a gold pencil and ivory tablets are not good enough for you, you can\ngo and do your sums on the dungeon walls.\u201d\n\nJan was very frightened. He didn\u2019t at all like the idea of a dungeon,\nso there was nothing for it but to brave it out as best he might.\n\nOne of the lords-in-waiting was bidden to write down the sums, and poor\nmiserable Jan wildly scribbled down the answers as fast as he could,\nwith the eyes of the King, the Queen and of their two lovely daughters\nand all the lords- and ladies-in-waiting riveted upon him.\n\nBut as it happened, the only person at the Court who was any good at\narithmetic was the Lord Chamberlain, and he, as you know, was in bed\nwith a cold. It is much easier to put down sums than to work them out,\nand not one member of the Royal Family had the faintest idea as to\nwhether Jan\u2019s answers were right or wrong.\n\nThe King looked as wise as he could. \u201cVery good, very good,\u201d he kept\nsaying. The Princesses clapped their hands. _They_ had never been able\nto get their sums right; but after all, what does it matter whether a\nprincess can do arithmetic or not?\n\nIf one or two of the Court ladies and gentlemen had a suspicion that\nthe figures were not quite correct they daren\u2019t suggest such a thing.\nIf the King said the answers were right it was as much as their lives\nwere worth to say they were wrong. But of course Jan knew nothing of\nall this. He wrote on and on, and all the time only one thought was in\nhis mind.\n\n\u201cHow wonderful, how wonderful!\u201d he kept saying to himself. \u201cI have\ngrown so clever that I can do the sums by myself. I shall never need\nto bother again about the stupid old pencil and chalk. I really am the\ncleverest boy in the whole kingdom.\u201d\n\nHe did not stay very long at the palace, and he was a little\ndisappointed to find that no one offered him a post at Court and that\nhe was not even presented with a bag of gold pieces.\n\nEvery one thanked him politely and he was given a good tea in the\nhousekeeper\u2019s room, and the King and Queen shook hands with him\nand gave him a pretty silver brooch to wear in his cap, while the\nPrincesses smiled pleasantly and wished him a good journey.\n\nBut he was buoyed up by his wonderful discovery. He went singing along\nthe road, and when he presently came to a deep pond he threw his slate\npencil and his bit of chalk into the middle of it, and continued gaily\non his way.\n\nYou may imagine how badly he wanted them back again the next day, and\nfor many, many days after: for of course he was as bad as ever at\narithmetic, and went straight to the bottom of the class, where he\nstayed. Many times he went to the place where he had met the fairy, but\nshe never came again, for if you once throw away fairy gifts you never,\nnever get them back again.\n\n\n\n\nTHIRTEEN\n\nThe Lamb that Went to Fairyland\n\n\nThere was once a fairy who took a great fancy to a tiny white lamb. He\nreally was a dear little creature, and I don\u2019t wonder she fell in love\nwith him. She used often to come and visit him in the meadow where he\nlived with his mother, and she was very anxious to take him to a fairy\nparty some evening.\n\nThe little lamb was shy. \u201cWhat do you do at the parties?\u201d he asked.\n\n\u201cOh, dance mostly,\u201d said the fairy.\n\nBut the little lamb explained that he didn\u2019t know how to dance.\n\n\u201cI will soon teach you,\u201d said the fairy.\n\nSo she came every evening when her day\u2019s work was done and showed the\nlittle lamb how to dance, and he soon learned to skip about quite\nnicely.\n\nAt last a day came when the fairy took him off to the party, but his\nmother made him promise to come back the next morning. She knew the\nways of the fairies.\n\nHe enjoyed himself tremendously.\n\nAll the fairies admired him very much. They thought his coat so\nbeautifully white and soft, they loved his little black nose and quaint\nwoodeny legs. He gave them all rides on his back in turn (even the\nFairy Queen had one), and when the time for dancing came he did very\nwell indeed and astonished them all with his pretty steps. When he\nleft, the Fairy Queen presented him with a garland of daisies. \u201cThey\nare fairy flowers,\u201d she said. \u201cThey will never fade, and so long as you\nwear them you will remain young.\u201d\n\nWhen the lamb got home he had great tales to tell about his happy\nadventures, so that he became quite a celebrity, and every one made\nsuch a fuss of him that he got rather proud and silly, and after a very\nshort time would hardly speak to his friends.\n\nOf course this vexed them very much, and the wicked old rat who lived\nin the mill-pond and was always ready to do any one an ill turn,\nsuggested a way to pay him out for his pride. \u201cWhile he is asleep I\nwill gnaw through his gay garland that he is so proud of,\u201d she said,\n\u201cand when he goes out walking he will lose it.\u201d All of which happened\njust as she had planned. And so the foolish lamb lost his fairy garland\nand grew older like any other lamb.\n\nHis friend the fairy did not come to see him for some time. She\nwas very busy helping on all the spring things, and had no time\nfor visiting. When she did come again she was very disappointed to\nfind that the lamb had grown into quite a good-sized sheep, fat and\ncomfortable. His wool was no longer downy and white, and he had\nentirely forgotten how to dance.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\u201cWhere is your magic garland?\u201d said the fairy. And he had to confess\nthat he had lost it.\n\nThe fairy went back to her friends. She really did not feel that a big\nsolemn sheep would be very welcome at their revels. But every year\nin early spring when the new lambs are born, their mothers tell them\nthe story of the lamb that was invited to Fairyland, and they all go\nskipping about in the meadows practising their dancing steps.\n\nEach of them hopes that he may one day find the magic garland, and\nnever grow old and staid, and be able to go a-visiting to Fairyland.\nAfter all, it must be lying about somewhere, so if you find it, you\u2019ll\nknow what to do with it, won\u2019t you? But be sure to give it to a lamb\nwith a black nose. They\u2019re so much the prettiest.\n\n\n\n\nFOURTEEN\n\nThe Magic Umbrella\n\n\nThere was once a wizard who possessed a magic umbrella; and, being\nrather careless in his habits, he had the misfortune to leave it behind\nhim in a small country town where he had had an appointment to meet a\nfriend in the market-place at midnight. He left it standing against one\nof the wooden market stalls, and there it was found next morning by a\nfarmer\u2019s wife who had come into town to sell her butter and eggs.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s a good, strong-looking umbrella,\u201d she said to herself; \u201cif no\none comes to claim it I shall keep it.\u201d No one made any inquiries, so\nshe took possession of it, and when she went home in the evening, the\numbrella went with her.\n\nNow, as I said before, this was no ordinary umbrella, but was possessed\nof magic powers.\n\nIf you held it open in your hand and counted three and then stopped,\nyou found yourself in your own house.\n\nIf you counted five, however, you found yourself where you most desired\nto be.\n\nBut if you counted up to seven, you were immediately carried away to\nthe top of the nearest church spire.\n\nNow of all this the farmer\u2019s wife was quite unaware, and you shall hear\nwhat befell her in consequence.\n\nIt chanced to be very wet on the next market day, and when presently\nthe rain began to drip upon her bonnet through the canvas roof of the\nstall, she was very glad to be able to put up the umbrella and shelter\nbeneath it.\n\nIt was about three o\u2019clock in the afternoon and she had sold most of\nher eggs and butter.\n\nA little boy came along and asked for three fresh eggs.\n\n\u201cThere you are, my love,\u201d she said. \u201cThe last three.\u201d\n\nShe held the umbrella in one hand and with the other put the eggs into\nthe boy\u2019s basket.\n\n\u201cOne, two, three,\u201d she said. And instantly she found herself standing\nin the middle of her own pleasant kitchen, with her basket on her arm\nand the open umbrella still firmly held in her hand.\n\nYou can imagine how surprised and puzzled she was. She hadn\u2019t the\nfaintest idea how she had got there, but she decided to say nothing\nabout it to any one.\n\nWhen presently her husband came in for his tea he asked why she had\ncome home so early.\n\n\u201cI had a bit of a headache,\u201d she said. \u201cI think the sun was too strong\nfor me.\u201d\n\nThe farmer gave a great guffaw. \u201cCome, come, mother,\u201d he said, \u201cyou\nmust have been dreaming. There\u2019s been no sun to-day, neither in town\nnor country.\u201d\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\u201cWell, maybe it was the damp that got into my head,\u201d said his wife. \u201cI\nthink I\u2019ll go to bed and have a basin of hot gruel.\u201d So she went to bed\nand had the hot gruel, and by the next morning she had almost forgotten\nall about her queer adventure.\n\nNothing more happened for some time. The weather was warm and sunny,\nand the umbrella stood unused in the corner of the kitchen.\n\nBut one day the farmer\u2019s wife decided to go and see her daughter, who\nwas married and lived in a village a few miles away. It was a very hot\nday and she thought it would be a good plan to take the umbrella with\nher to shade her from the sun.\n\nAfter dinner she and her daughter went for a walk upon a neighbouring\ncommon, and when they had gone a little way they sat down for a rest\non a warm dry bit of grass by the side of the road that ran across the\nheath, for they were hot and rather tired.\n\n\u201cWhat a lot of motor-cars there are on this road, to be sure,\u201d said\nthe farmer\u2019s wife, who held the open umbrella over her head. \u201cOne,\ntwo, three, four, five.... I wish I was in one of them.\u201d No sooner\nhad she uttered these words than she found herself plumped right into\nthe middle of the nearest car, in which were sitting an old lady and\ngentleman and a fat spaniel, all fast asleep.\n\nYou can imagine what a scene there was. The dog barked, the old lady\nand gentleman were furious.\n\n\u201cStop, stop,\u201d they cried to the chauffeur, who was driving on quite\ncalmly and taking no notice at all of the noise going on behind him.\n\nAs for the farmer\u2019s wife, she was so astonished that she could not say\nanything at all.\n\n\u201cWhat next?\u201d stormed the old gentleman, foaming with rage. \u201cWhat\nnext, I should like to know? How dare you get into our car? How dare\nyou, madam? What are we coming to? A pretty state of affairs when\na man can\u2019t go for a ride in his own car without being molested by\nimpertinent strangers! Scandalous, scandalous! I shall report it to the\npolice.\u201d\n\nThe farmer\u2019s wife had by this time managed to get out of the car, but\nshe was so bewildered that she was still unable to speak, and long\nafter the angry gentleman had driven off with his wife and his dog, she\nstood silent and motionless in the middle of the road with the umbrella\nin her hand, wide open, and with her mouth wide open too. Her daughter,\nwho came hurrying up, was also very much astonished.\n\n\u201cWhat on earth made you do that, mother?\u201d she said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe\nmy own eyes.\u201d\n\nBut her mother could only shake her head. She couldn\u2019t make it out at\nall. Never, never had such an extraordinary thing befallen her.\n\n\u201cI am afraid I can\u2019t be very well,\u201d she said at last. \u201cI think I\u2019ll\ngo and see the doctor to-morrow.\u201d So the next day she went to see the\ndoctor. It was rather showery and she took the umbrella again, for she\nhad never thought of connecting it with the strange things which had\noccurred. The doctor felt her pulse and looked at her tongue.\n\n\u201cYou\u2019ve got a touch of Thingumabobitis,\u201d he said. \u201cYou must be very\ncareful. I\u2019ll write you a few prescriptions. You must take a pill every\nthree hours, and a pink powder every two hours, and a blue powder half\nan hour before every meal, and you must never on any account let your\nnose get cold. It\u2019s not dangerous so long as you are careful. Come\nagain next week.\u201d\n\nBy this time the sun had come out, and as she was much taken up with\nwondering how she was going to keep her nose warm, the farmer\u2019s wife\nforgot all about the umbrella. Next day, when she went to fetch it, it\nwas gone. I don\u2019t know what happened to it, nor who has it now. But let\nme give you a word of warning. If you come across a stray umbrella,\npray be careful not to do any counting while you have it open in your\nhand. It wouldn\u2019t be very pleasant to find yourself suddenly hanging\nfrom the top of the nearest church steeple, now would it?\n\n\n\n\nFIFTEEN\n\nThe Fourth Adventure of the Rainbow Cat\n\n\nBy this time the Rainbow Cat was getting a little tired of travelling\nabout, and decided that he would go home and have a good rest after his\nmany exertions. But on the way back he had to pass through the Ever\nAfter country, and the people who lived there were most pressing in\ntheir request that he should spend a little time with them.\n\nThe Ever After country is inhabited by all the Fairy Tale and Nursery\nRhyme people, who go to live there when their adventures are over.\n\nCinderella and her prince have a beautiful castle there, where the\nglass slipper is kept on a red velvet cushion in a little gilt cabinet,\nand shown to distinguished visitors. Cinderella never had another pair;\nshe said they were very uncomfortable, and of course she was always\nafraid some one might tread on her toes.\n\nHer two disagreeable sisters have a little house of their own. They\nhave taken to gardening, and keep bees and chickens, and are altogether\nimmensely improved, so that everybody is quite fond of them.\n\nThey are rather sensitive about their past, and are both, alas! a\nlittle lame, because, as you will remember, they cut pieces off their\nfeet in order to make them smaller.\n\nSnow-White, too, lives in a castle with her husband. The seven dwarfs\nhave a fine carpenter\u2019s shop on the estate, where they are kept very\nbusy indeed.\n\nThey make the most lovely little chairs and tables for Snow-White\u2019s\nchildren, and do most of the work of that kind required by the dwellers\nin the Ever After land.\n\nRed-Riding-Hood and her grandmother have a pretty cottage close to that\nof Cinderella\u2019s sisters. Red-Riding-Hood often runs in to have a chat\nwith them, and they are very kind about sending in honey and eggs for\nthe old lady.\n\nOf course, there are many, many more people. Jack the Giant-Killer, who\nhas grown rather fat and lazy, but loves to talk about all his great\nfights; Little Miss Muffet, who is still a bit afraid of spiders; Boy\nBlue, Mother Hubbard, Aladdin--it would take me all day to mention half\nof them, but they are all there, not one is missing.\n\nThe Rainbow Cat stayed with Fatima, Bluebeard\u2019s last wife, who lives\nwith the two brothers who saved her life by their valour.\n\nPoor Fatima has never quite got over the dreadful shock she had when\nshe discovered the other wives all hanging up, and she can\u2019t so much as\nbear the sight of a bunch of keys.\n\nAs usual, the Rainbow Cat was most kindly welcomed and was introduced\nto all the important people in the place.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThey are always delighted to see strangers, as sometimes they feel that\nthings are a little dull after the exciting adventures many of them\nhave been through.\n\nOn the third day after his arrival he was invited to a great banquet at\nthe palace of the Queen of Hearts.\n\nIt was a most wonderful banquet.\n\nThe Rainbow Cat wore his best bow, his dancing-shoes, and the gold\ncollar which the giantess had given him. He took his mandolin with him;\nit had been most useful to him on several occasions, and it seemed a\npity to leave it behind.\n\nHe met a number of friends at the party.\n\nPuss-in-Boots, for instance, and the Pussy-cat who went to London to\nvisit the Queen.\n\nDick Whittington\u2019s cat was there too, but he gave himself great airs.\nIt seems it wasn\u2019t really quite certain whether he was a fairy-tale cat\nat all. Some people thought he was real.\n\nIt was silly of him to be so stuck-up about it, but it only amused the\nRainbow Cat.\n\nThey were about half-way through the banquet when there was a slight\npause. The meat course was finished, and everybody was waiting for the\nsweets. At that moment a servant came quietly in and whispered to the\nQueen. She became deadly pale, and half rose in her seat.\n\n\u201cWhat is the matter, your Majesty?\u201d said the Rainbow Cat, who sat in\nthe place of honour at her right hand.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019s done it again,\u201d said the Queen in a low, horrified whisper,\nsinking weakly down again into her chair.\n\n\u201cWho has done what?\u201d said the Rainbow Cat.\n\n\u201cThe Knave--stolen the tarts!\u201d said the Queen with an agonised look.\n\u201cThey\u2019re nowhere to be found. It\u2019s all my fault. He begged so hard to\nbe taken on again that I gave him another chance. Oh! why did I trust\nhim?\u201d\n\n\u201cIsn\u2019t there anything else?\u201d asked the Rainbow Cat.\n\n\u201cNothing ready,\u201d replied the Queen. \u201cYou see, they\u2019re very special\ntarts. I make them myself. Every one thinks so much of them. What shall\nI do?\u201d\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t worry,\u201d said the Rainbow Cat. \u201cSend round to all the\npastry-cooks\u2019 for anything they have ready, and meanwhile I\u2019ll sing a\nsong to fill up the time.\u201d\n\nThe Queen was much relieved at this suggestion, and gave orders that\nmessengers should be dispatched immediately to buy up all the available\ntarts in the place.\n\nMeanwhile the Master of Ceremonies was bidden to announce that their\ndistinguished visitor, the Rainbow Cat, had kindly promised to sing a\nsong, and wished to know whether the guests would like to hear it at\nthis moment or later on.\n\nThis was a very clever idea, for of course people were bound in\npoliteness to say they wished to hear the song immediately.\n\nThereupon the Rainbow Cat took his mandolin and prepared to sing, the\nwhole company being requested to join in the chorus after each verse.\n\nThey were all delighted with this suggestion, and they all sang,\nwhether they had any voice or not.\n\nThey enjoyed it so much that they quite forgot that they hadn\u2019t\nfinished the banquet. At least they _almost_ forgot.\n\nHere is the song:\n\n  THE RHYME OF THE GNOME WITH A SCOLDING WIFE\n\n  Once upon a time,\n  When guinea-pigs had tails,\n  And people talked in rhyme,\n  And rivers ran on rails,\n  There lived a little gnome\n  Who\u2019d such a scolding wife,\n  At last he ran away from home,\n  He couldn\u2019t stand the life.\n\n  _Chorus._ There lived a little gnome, etc.\n\n  She scolded all day long\n  From morning until night,\n  And she was never wrong\n  And he was never right.\n  Oh! she could bake and bile,\n  And she could clean and mend,\n  But since she scolded all the while,\n  He left her in the end.\n\n  _Chorus._ Oh! she could bake and bile, etc.\n\n  He thought he\u2019d found a way\n  At last to be at peace,\n  But still, to his dismay,\n  His troubles did not cease.\n  He didn\u2019t like his meals,\n  His washing wasn\u2019t right,\n  His socks were always out at heels,\n  His shirts a fearful sight.\n\n  _Chorus._ He didn\u2019t like his meals, etc.\n\nBy the end of the third verse the Queen was looking very strained and\nanxious, and the Rainbow Cat himself was beginning to feel rather\nnervous. His song had only four verses, and he wasn\u2019t at all sure that\nhe would be asked to sing another. He was afraid that people would\nremember their unfinished dinner as soon as he stopped.\n\nSo he began the fourth verse very slowly. But before he had got\nhalf-way through, he saw three servants standing between the curtains\nof the great doorway of the banqueting hall with enormous golden dishes\npiled up with most magnificent-looking tarts.\n\n\u201cMy tarts,\u201d he heard the Queen murmur in an excited voice, and then he\nknew that everything was well.\n\nSo he finished his song at a great pace, and the last chorus was sung\nwith much enthusiasm, for the other guests had also seen the waiting\ntarts, and were eager to begin on them.\n\nThis is the last verse of his song:\n\n  \u201cAssuredly,\u201d thought he,\n  \u201cHer temper is a curse,\n  And yet it seems to me\n  That this is rather worse.\u201d\n  So home he went once more\n  In philosophic mood,\n  And though his wife still vexed him sore,\n  _He did enjoy his food_.\n\n  _Chorus._ So home he went once more, etc.\n\nThe song was very much applauded, and every one then fell upon the\ntarts with an appetite which the slight delay had pleasantly renewed.\n\nIt turned out afterwards that it was all a mistake about the Knave.\n\nThe head cook had put the tarts away on the top shelf of the larder\nfor safety. But he was a poet as well as a cook, and just before the\nmoment arrived when the tarts should have been served up, a perfectly\nbeautiful little verse came into his head, and he rushed off to a quiet\nspot to write it down, quite confident that the under-cook would be\nable to look after the rest of the banquet.\n\nAnd that\u2019s how it came about that suspicion fell upon the poor Knave;\nfor when the tarts could not be found, every one naturally supposed\nthat he had stolen them again.\n\nWhen the cook had written down his verse and made a few little\nimprovements in it, he returned to the kitchen and found everything in\nan uproar because of the missing tarts.\n\nHe arrived in the nick of time, for the messengers were returning\nalmost empty-handed from the pastry-cooks\u2019 shops. They had made very\nlittle pastry that day because they knew that every one would be at the\nbanquet and that they would have no sale for their wares.\n\nOf course, later on, the cook had to give an explanation of his\ncarelessness, and he was removed from his position.\n\nBut as his verses were even better than his dishes, he was made Court\nPoet instead, and he liked that much better, though he occasionally\nlent a hand in the kitchen when they were very busy.\n\nThe Queen was most grateful to the Rainbow Cat for his timely help; and\nevery year, on his birthday, she sent him a box of tarts made by her\nown hands especially for him.\n\nHe stayed only a day or two in the Ever After land after the banquet.\nThen he packed up his belongings, bade good-bye to all his kind\nfriends, and set off for his home.\n\nHe was glad to be back in his own little house, and delighted all his\nfriends with his account of his travels.\n\nBut he had no intention of settling down for ever, and I hope to be\nable some day to tell you more of the adventures that befell him upon\nhis further journeyings.\n\n\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES:\n\n\n  Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.","title":"The Rainbow Cat","tradition":"folklore-oral-tradition","translated_text":null,"word_count":21306}