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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Children's Literature, by
+Charles Madison Curry and Erle Elsworth Clippinger
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Children's Literature
+ A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes
+
+Author: Charles Madison Curry
+ Erle Elsworth Clippinger
+
+Release Date: May 20, 2008 [EBook #25545]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHILDREN'S LITERATURE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Emmy and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ When all the novelists and spinners of
+ elaborate fictions have been read and judged,
+ we shall find that the peasant and the nurse
+ are still unsurpassed as mere narrators. They
+ are the guardians of that treasury of legend
+ which comes to us from the very childhood of
+ nations; they and their tales are the abstract
+ and brief chronicles, not of an age merely, but
+ of the whole race of man. It is theirs to keep
+ alive the great art of telling stories as a
+ thing wholly apart from and independent of the
+ art of writing stories, and to pass on their
+ art to children and to children's children.
+ They abide in a realm of their own, in blessed
+ isolation from that world of professional
+ authors and their milk-and-water books "for
+ children."
+ --C. B. TINKER, "In Praise of Nursery
+ Lore," _The Unpopular Review_,
+ October-December, 1916.
+
+
+
+
+CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
+
+A TEXTBOOK OF SOURCES FOR TEACHERS AND TEACHER-TRAINING CLASSES
+
+EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTIONS, NOTES, AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES
+
+ _BY_
+ CHARLES MADISON CURRY
+ _AND_
+ ERLE ELSWORTH CLIPPINGER
+ _Professors of Literature in the Indiana State Normal School_
+
+[Illustration]
+
+ RAND McNALLY & COMPANY
+ CHICAGO NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+ _Copyright, 1920, by_
+ RAND MCNALLY & COMPANY
+
+ _Copyright, 1921, by_
+ RAND MCNALLY & COMPANY
+ All rights reserved
+ Edition of 1926
+
+[Illustration]
+
+ Made in U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+THE CONTENTS
+
+
+SECTION I
+
+PREFACE AND GENERAL INTRODUCTION
+
+ _General Bibliography_ 2
+
+ _The Preface_ 5
+
+ _General Introduction_ 7
+
+ 1. Literature for Children 7
+
+ 2. Literature in the Grades 8
+
+ 3. Story-Telling and Dramatization 10
+
+ 4. Courses of Study 13
+
+
+SECTION II
+
+MOTHER GOOSE JINGLES AND NURSERY RHYMES
+
+ _Bibliography_ 18
+
+ _Introductory_ 19
+
+ MOTHER GOOSE (Shorter rhymes):
+
+ 1. A cat came fiddling out of a barn 23
+
+ 2. A diller, a dollar 23
+
+ 3. As I was going to St. Ives 23
+
+ 4. As I was going up Pippen Hill 23
+
+ 5. As I went to Bonner 23
+
+ 6. As Tommy Snooks and Bessie Brooks 23
+
+ 7. A swarm of bees in May 23
+
+ 8. Baa, baa, black sheep 23
+
+ 9. Barber, barber, shave a pig 23
+
+ 10. Birds of a feather flock together 23
+
+ 11. Bless you, bless you, burnie bee 23
+
+ 12. Bobby Shafto's gone to sea 24
+
+ 13. Bow, wow, wow 24
+
+ 14. Bye, baby bunting 24
+
+ 15. Come when you're called 24
+
+ 16. Cross patch 24
+
+ 17. Curly locks, curly locks 24
+
+ 18. Dance, little baby 24
+
+ 19. Diddle, diddle, dumpling 24
+
+ 20. Ding, dong, bell 24
+
+ 21. Doctor Foster 24
+
+ 22. Eggs, butter, cheese, bread 24
+
+ 23. For every evil under the sun 24
+
+ 24. Four-and-twenty tailors 25
+
+ 25. Great A, little a 25
+
+ 26. Hark, hark 25
+
+ 27. Here sits the Lord Mayor 25
+
+ 28. Here we go up, up, up 25
+
+ 29. Hey! diddle, diddle 25
+
+ 30. Hickery, dickery, 6 and 7 25
+
+ 31. Higgledy, Piggledy 25
+
+ 32. Hickory, dickory, dock 25
+
+ 33. Hogs in the garden 25
+
+ 34. Hot-cross buns 26
+
+ 35. Hub a dub dub 26
+
+ 36. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall 26
+
+ 37. If all the sea were one sea 26
+
+ 38. If all the world was apple-pie 26
+
+ 39. If I'd as much money as I could spend 26
+
+ 40. If "ifs" and "ands" 26
+
+ 41. If wishes were horses 26
+
+ 42. I had a little pony 26
+
+ 43. I had a little hobby horse 26
+
+ 44. I have a little sister 27
+
+ 45. I'll tell you a story 27
+
+ 46. In marble walls as white as milk 27
+
+ 47. I went up one pair of stairs 27
+
+ 48. Jack and Jill went up the hill 27
+
+ 49. Jack be nimble 27
+
+ 50. Jack Sprat could eat no fat 27
+
+ 51. Knock at the door 27
+
+ 52. Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home 27
+
+ 53. Little boy blue, come blow your horn 27
+
+ 54. Little girl, little girl, where have you been 27
+
+ 55. Little Jack Horner 28
+
+ 56. Little Jack Jingle 28
+
+ 57. Little Johnny Pringle 28
+
+ 58. Little Miss Muffet 28
+
+ 59. Little Nancy Etticoat 28
+
+ 60. Little Robin Redbreast 28
+
+ 61. Little Tommy Tucker 28
+
+ 62. Long legs, crooked thighs 28
+
+ 63. Lucy Locket lost her pocket 28
+
+ 64. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John 28
+
+ 65. Mistress Mary, quite contrary 28
+
+ 66. Multiplication is vexation 28
+
+ 67. Needles and pins 29
+
+ 68. Old King Cole 29
+
+ 69. Once I saw a little bird 29
+
+ 70. One for the money 29
+
+ 71. One misty, moisty morning 29
+
+ 72. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 29
+
+ 73. One, two 29
+
+ 74. Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man 29
+
+ 75. Pease-porridge hot 29
+
+ 76. Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater 30
+
+ 77. Peter Piper picked a peck 30
+
+ 78. Poor old Robinson Crusoe 30
+
+ 79. Pussy-cat, pussy-cat, where have you been 30
+
+ 80. Pussy sits beside the fire 30
+
+ 81. Ride a cock-horse to Banbury-cross 30
+
+ 82. Ride, baby, ride 30
+
+ 83. Rock-a-bye, baby 30
+
+ 84. Rock-a-bye, baby, thy cradle is green 30
+
+ 85. See a pin and pick it up 30
+
+ 86. See, saw, sacradown 31
+
+ 87. Shoe the little horse 31
+
+ 88. Sing a song of sixpence 31
+
+ 89. Star light, star bright 31
+
+ 90. The King of France went up the hill 31
+
+ 91. The lion and the unicorn 31
+
+ 92. The man in the moon 31
+
+ 93. The north wind doth blow 31
+
+ 94. The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts 31
+
+ 95. There was a crooked man 31
+
+ 96. There was a little boy went into a barn 32
+
+ 97. There was a man and he had naught 32
+
+ 98. There was a man in our town 32
+
+ 99. There was an old man 32
+
+ 100. There was an old woman, and what do you think 32
+
+ 101. There was an old woman lived under a hill 32
+
+ 102. There was an old woman of Leeds 32
+
+ 103. There was an old woman of Norwich 32
+
+ 104. There was an old woman tossed up in a basket 32
+
+ 105. There was an old woman who lived in a shoe 33
+
+ 106. There was an owl lived in an oak 33
+
+ 107. This is the way the ladies ride 33
+
+ 108. This little pig went to market 33
+
+ 109. Three blind mice 33
+
+ 110. Three wise men of Gotham 33
+
+ 111. To market, to market, to buy a fat pig 33
+
+ 112. Tom, Tom, the piper's son 33
+
+ 113. Two-legs sat upon three-legs 33
+
+ 114. When a twister a-twisting 34
+
+ 115. "Willy boy, Willy boy, where are you going?" 34
+
+
+ WILHELMINA SEEGMILLER
+
+ 116. Milkweed Seeds 34
+
+ 117. An Anniversary 34
+
+ 118. Twink! twink! 34
+
+
+ MOTHER GOOSE (Longer rhymes)
+
+ 119. A Was an Apple-Pie 34
+
+ 120. Tom Thumb's Alphabet 35
+
+ 121. Where Are You Going 35
+
+ 122. Molly and I 35
+
+ 123. London Bridge 36
+
+ 124. I Saw a Ship 36
+
+ 125. There Was an Old Woman 36
+
+ 126. Little Bo-Peep 37
+
+ 127. Cock a Doodle Doo 37
+
+ 128. Three Jovial Huntsmen 37
+
+ 129. There Was a Little Man 37
+
+ 130. Taffy 38
+
+ 131. Simple Simon 38
+
+ 132. A Farmer Went Trotting 38
+
+ 133. Tom the Piper's Son 38
+
+ 134. When I Was a Little Boy 39
+
+ 135. The Babes in the Wood 39
+
+ 136. The Fox and His Wife 40
+
+ 137. For Want of a Nail 40
+
+ 138. A Man of Words 40
+
+ 139. Jemima 41
+
+ 140. Mother Hubbard and Her Dog 41
+
+ 141. The Courtship, Merry Marriage, and Picnic Dinner of Cock
+ Robin and Jenny Wren 42
+
+ 142. The Burial of Poor Cock Robin 44
+
+ 143. Dame Wiggins of Lee, and Her Seven Wonderful Cats 45
+
+ 144. This Is the House That Jack Built 47
+
+ 145. The Egg in the Nest 49
+
+ 146. Change About 49
+
+
+SECTION III
+
+FAIRY STORIES--TRADITIONAL TALES
+
+ _Bibliography_ 52
+
+ _Introductory_ 53
+
+
+ ENGLISH:
+
+ 147. The Old Woman and Her Pig 56
+
+ 148. Henny-Penny 58
+
+ 149. Teeny-Tiny 59
+
+ 150. The Cat and the Mouse 60
+
+ 151. The Story of the Three Little Pigs 61
+
+ 152. Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse 63
+
+ 153. The Story of the Three Bears 64
+
+ 154. The Three Sillies 67
+
+ 155. Lazy Jack 69
+
+ 156. The Story of Mr. Vinegar 71
+
+ 157. Jack and the Beanstalk 73
+
+ 158. Tom Thumb 79
+
+ 159. Whittington and His Cat 84
+
+ 160. Tom Tit Tot 89
+
+
+ FRENCH:
+
+ 161. Little Red Riding Hood 92
+
+ 162. True History of Little Golden Hood 94
+
+ 163. Puss in Boots 97
+
+ 164. Toads and Diamonds 100
+
+ 165. Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper 102
+
+ 166. Drakestail 106
+
+ 167. Beauty and the Beast 110
+
+
+ NORWEGIAN:
+
+ 168. Why the Bear Is Stumpy-Tailed 122
+
+ 169. The Three Billy-Goats Gruff 123
+
+ 170. The Husband Who Was to Mind the House 124
+
+ 171. Boots and His Brothers 125
+
+ 172. The Quern at the Bottom of the Sea 128
+
+
+ GERMAN:
+
+ 173. The Traveling Musicians 131
+
+ 174. The Blue Light 134
+
+ 175. The Elves and the Shoemaker 136
+
+ 176. The Fisherman and His Wife 138
+
+ 177. Rose-Bud 142
+
+ 178. Rumpelstiltskin 144
+
+ 179. Snow-White and Rose-Red 146
+
+
+ INDIAN:
+
+ 180. The Lambikin 150
+
+ 181. Tit for Tat 151
+
+ 182. The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal 152
+
+ 183. Pride Goeth before a Fall 154
+
+
+ JAPANESE:
+
+ 184. The Mirror of Matsuyama 156
+
+ 185. The Tongue-Cut Sparrow 158
+
+
+ SLAVIC:
+
+ 186. The Straw Ox 160
+
+
+ IRISH:
+
+ 187. Connla and the Fairy Maiden 162
+
+ 188. The Horned Women 164
+
+ 189. King O'Toole and His Goose 165
+
+
+SECTION IV
+
+FAIRY STORIES--MODERN FANTASTIC TALES
+
+ _Bibliography_ 170
+
+ _Introductory_ 171
+
+
+ ABRAM S. ISAACS
+
+ 190. A Four-Leaved Clover 174
+
+ I. The Rabbi and the Diadem 174
+
+ II. Friendship 175
+
+ III. True Charity 175
+
+ IV. An Eastern Garden 176
+
+
+ SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
+
+ 191. The Lord Helpeth Man and Beast 177
+
+
+ HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
+
+ 192. The Real Princess 179
+
+ 193. The Emperor's New Clothes 180
+
+ 194. The Nightingale 183
+
+ 195. The Fir Tree 190
+
+ 196. The Tinder Box 195
+
+ 197. The Hardy Tin Soldier 200
+
+ 198. The Ugly Duckling 203
+
+
+ FRANCES BROWNE
+
+ 199. The Story of Fairyfoot 209
+
+
+ OSCAR WILDE
+
+ 200. The Happy Prince 217
+
+
+ RAYMOND MACDONALD ALDEN
+
+ 201. The Knights of the Silver Shield 223
+
+
+ JEAN INGELOW
+
+ 202. The Prince's Dream 227
+
+
+ FRANK R. STOCKTON
+
+ 203. Old Pipes and the Dryad 233
+
+
+ JOHN RUSKIN
+
+ 204. The King of the Golden River 245
+
+
+SECTION V
+
+FABLES AND SYMBOLIC STORIES
+
+ _Bibliography_ 262
+
+ _Introductory_ 263
+
+
+ AESOP
+
+ 205. The Shepherd's Boy 266
+
+ 206. The Lion and the Mouse 266
+
+ 207. The Crow and the Pitcher 266
+
+ 208. The Frog and the Ox 267
+
+ 209. The Frogs Desiring a King 267
+
+ 210. The Field Mouse and the Town Mouse 268
+
+
+ CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI
+
+ 211. The City Mouse and the Garden Mouse 268
+
+
+ HORACE
+
+ 212. The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse 268
+
+
+ AESOP
+
+ 213. Androcles 269
+
+
+ THOMAS DAY
+
+ 214. Androcles and the Lion 270
+
+
+ AESOP
+
+ 215. The Wind and the Sun 272
+
+ 216. The Goose with the Golden Eggs 272
+
+
+ LA FONTAINE
+
+ 217. The Hen with the Golden Eggs 272
+
+
+ AESOP
+
+ 218. The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing 273
+
+ 219. The Hare and the Tortoise 273
+
+ 220. The Miller, His Son, and Their Ass 274
+
+ 221. The Travelers and the Bear 274
+
+ 222. The Lark and Her Young Ones 275
+
+ 223. The Old Man and His Sons 275
+
+ 224. The Fox and the Grapes 276
+
+ 225. The Widow and the Hen 276
+
+ 226. The Kid and the Wolf 276
+
+ 227. The Man and the Satyr 276
+
+ 228. The Dog and the Shadow 276
+
+ 229. The Swallow and the Raven 276
+
+ 230. Mercury and the Woodman 276
+
+ 231. The Mice in Council 277
+
+ 232. The Mountebank and Countryman 277
+
+ 233. The Milkmaid and Her Pail 278
+
+
+ LA FONTAINE
+
+ 234. The Dairywoman and the Pot of Milk 278
+
+
+ From "THE ARABIAN NIGHTS"
+
+ 235. The Story of Alnaschar 279
+
+
+ BIDPAI (Indian Fables)
+
+ 236. The Camel and the Pig 280
+
+ 237. The Ass in the Lion's Skin 281
+
+ 238. The Talkative Tortoise 282
+
+ 239. A Lion Tricked by a Rabbit 283
+
+
+ MARIE DE FRANCE
+
+ 240. The Cock and the Fox 284
+
+
+ LA FONTAINE
+
+ 241. The Grasshopper and the Ant 284
+
+ 242. The Cock, the Cat, and the Young Mouse 285
+
+
+ JOHN GAY
+
+ 243. The Hare with Many Friends 286
+
+ TOMAS YRIARTE
+
+ 244. The Musical Ass 287
+
+
+ IVAN KRYLOV
+
+ 245. The Swan, the Pike, and the Crab 287
+
+ From the BIBLE
+
+
+ 246. The Bramble Is Made King 288
+
+ 247. The Good Samaritan 289
+
+ 248. The Prodigal Son 289
+
+
+ HENRY WARD BEECHER
+
+ 249. The Anxious Leaf 290
+
+
+ BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
+
+ 250. The Whistle 291
+
+ 251. The Ephemera 292
+
+
+ JOSEPH ADDISON
+
+ 252. The Vision of Mirzah 294
+
+
+ JANE TAYLOR
+
+ 253. The Discontented Pendulum 297
+
+
+ LEO TOLSTOI
+
+ 254. Croesus and Solon 299
+
+
+SECTION VI
+
+MYTHS
+
+
+ _Bibliography_ 302
+
+ _Introductory_ 303
+
+
+ GREEK AND ROMAN:
+
+
+ GRACE H. KUPFER
+
+ 255. A Story of the Springtime 306
+
+
+ NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
+
+ 256. The Paradise of Children 309
+
+ 257. The Miraculous Pitcher 319
+
+
+ R. E. FRANCILLON
+
+ 258. The Narcissus 330
+
+ 259. The Apple of Discord 332
+
+
+ JOSEPHINE P. PEABODY
+
+ 260. Icarus and Daedalus 335
+
+ 261. Admetus and the Shepherd 337
+
+
+ THOMAS BULFINCH
+
+ 262. Midas 338
+
+
+ CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY
+
+ 263. Phaethon 340
+
+
+ NORSE:
+
+
+ THOMAS BULFINCH
+
+ 264. Thor's Visit to Joetunheim 343
+
+
+ HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE
+
+ 265. Odin's Search for Wisdom 348
+
+
+ ETHEL M. WILMOT-BUXTON
+
+ 266. How the Fenris Wolf was Chained 351
+
+
+ ANNA AND ELIZA KEARY
+
+ 267. Frey 354
+
+
+ HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE
+
+ 268. The Death of Balder 360
+
+
+SECTION VII
+
+POETRY
+
+ _Bibliography_ 368
+
+ _Introductory_ 369
+
+
+ ELIZA LEE FOLLEN
+
+ 269. The Three Little Kittens 371
+
+ 270. The Moon 371
+
+ 271. Runaway Brook 372
+
+ 272. Ding Dong! Ding Dong! 372
+
+
+ ELIZABETH PRENTISS
+
+ 273. The Little Kitty 372
+
+
+ SARA J. HALE
+
+ 274. Mary Had a Little Lamb 372
+
+
+ THEODORE TILTON
+
+ 275. Baby Bye 373
+
+
+ LUCY LARCOM
+
+ 276. The Brown Thrush 374
+
+
+ LYDIA MARIA CHILD
+
+ 277. Thanksgiving Day 375
+
+ 278. Who Stole the Bird's Nest 375
+
+
+ "SUSAN COOLIDGE"
+
+ 279. How the Leaves Came Down 377
+
+
+ PHOEBE CARY
+
+ 280. They Didn't Think 377
+
+ 281. The Leak in the Dike 378
+
+
+ ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+ 282. Whole Duty of Children 381
+
+ 283. The Cow 381
+
+ 284. Time to Rise 381
+
+ 285. Rain 381
+
+ 286. A Good Play 382
+
+ 287. The Lamplighter 382
+
+ 288. The Land of Nod 382
+
+ 289. The Land of Story-Books 382
+
+ 290. My Bed Is a Boat 383
+
+ 291. My Shadow 383
+
+ 292. The Swing 383
+
+ 293. Where Go the Boats 384
+
+ 294. The Wind 384
+
+ 295. Windy Nights 384
+
+
+ FRANK DEMPSTER SHERMAN
+
+ 296. Spinning Top 384
+
+ 297. Flying Kite 385
+
+ 298. King Bell 385
+
+ 299. Daisies 385
+
+
+ EUGENE FIELD
+
+ 300. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod 385
+
+ 301. The Sugar-Plum Tree 386
+
+ 302. The Duel 387
+
+
+ JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
+
+ 303. The Treasures of the Wise Man 387
+
+ 304. The Circus-Day Parade 388
+
+ 305. The Raggedy Man 389
+
+
+ JAMES HOGG
+
+ 306. A Boy's Song 389
+
+
+ MARY HOWITT
+
+ 307. The Spider and the Fly 390
+
+
+ WILLIAM HOWITT
+
+ 308. The Wind in a Frolic 391
+
+
+ ANN TAYLOR
+
+ 309. The Cow 392
+
+ 310. Meddlesome Matty 392
+
+
+ JANE TAYLOR
+
+ 311. "I Like Little Pussy" 393
+
+ 312. The Star 394
+
+
+ CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI
+
+ 313. Seldom or Never 394
+
+ 314. An Emerald Is as Green as Grass 394
+
+ 315. Boats Sail on the Rivers 394
+
+ 316. A Diamond or a Coal? 395
+
+ 317. The Swallow 395
+
+ 318. Who Has Seen the Wind? 395
+
+ 319. Milking Time 395
+
+
+ WILLIAM BRIGHTY RANDS
+
+ 320. The Peddler's Caravan 395
+
+ 321. The Wonderful World 396
+
+
+ RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES
+
+ 322. Good-Night and Good-Morning 396
+
+
+ WILLIAM ROSCOE
+
+ 323. The Butterfly's Ball 397
+
+
+ AUTHOR UNKNOWN
+
+ 324. Can You? 398
+
+
+ ROBERT BROWNING
+
+ 325. Pippa's Song 399
+
+
+ CHARLES MACKAY
+
+ 326. Little and Great 399
+
+
+ FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS
+
+ 327. Casabianca 399
+
+
+ WILLIAM BLAKE
+
+ 328. Three Things to Remember 400
+
+ 329. The Lamb 401
+
+ 330. The Shepherd 401
+
+ 331. The Tiger 401
+
+ 332. The Piper 401
+
+
+ ELIZA COOK
+
+ 333. Try Again 402
+
+
+ EDWARD LEAR
+
+ 334. The Owl and the Pussy-Cat 403
+
+ 335. The Table and the Chair 404
+
+ 336. The Pobble Who Has No Toes 404
+
+
+ "LEWIS CARROLL"
+
+ 337. The Walrus and the Carpenter 405
+
+ 338. A Strange Wild Song 406
+
+
+ ISAAC WATTS
+
+ 339. Against Idleness and Mischief 407
+
+ 340. Famous Passages from Dr. Watts 408
+
+
+ HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
+
+ 341. The Skeleton in Armor 408
+
+ 342. The Day Is Done 410
+
+ 343. A Psalm of Life 411
+
+
+ CHARLES KINGSLEY
+
+ 344. The Three Fishers 412
+
+ 345. The Sands of Dee 412
+
+
+ ALFRED TENNYSON
+
+ 346. "What Does Little Birdie Say?" 413
+
+ 347. Sweet and Low 413
+
+ 348. The Poet's Song 413
+
+ 349. Crossing the Bar 414
+
+
+ LEIGH HUNT
+
+ 350. Abou Ben Adhem 414
+
+
+ JOAQUIN MILLER
+
+ 351. For Those Who Fail 415
+
+
+ EDGAR ALLAN POE
+
+ 352. Eldorado 415
+
+
+ GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON
+
+ 353. The Destruction of Sennacherib 416
+
+
+ WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
+
+ 354. To a Waterfowl 416
+
+ 355. The Planting of the Apple-Tree 417
+
+
+ THOMAS EDWARD BROWN
+
+ 356. My Garden 418
+
+
+ WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
+
+ 357. Daffodils 419
+
+ 358. The Solitary Reaper 419
+
+
+ CAROLINE ELIZABETH NORTON
+
+ 359. The Arab to His Favorite Steed 420
+
+
+ ROBERT SOUTHEY
+
+ 360. The Inchcape Rock 421
+
+
+ WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
+
+ 361. Over Hill, Over Dale 423
+
+ 362. A Fairy Scene in a Wood 423
+
+
+ RALPH WALDO EMERSON
+
+ 363. Fable 424
+
+ 364. Concord Hymn 424
+
+
+ SIR WALTER SCOTT
+
+ 365. Breathes There the Man 424
+
+
+ OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
+
+ 366. Old Ironsides 425
+
+
+ WILLIAM COLLINS
+
+ 367. How Sleep the Brave 425
+
+
+ AUTHOR UNKNOWN
+
+ 368. The Ballad of Nathan Hale 425
+
+
+ SIR FRANCIS HASTINGS DOYLE
+
+ 369. The Red Thread of Honor 427
+
+
+ RUDYARD KIPLING
+
+ 370. Recessional 428
+
+
+ WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY
+
+ 371. Invictus 429
+
+
+ JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
+
+ 372. The Falcon 429
+
+ 373. The Shepherd of King Admetus 430
+
+
+ SIR WILLIAM SCHENCK GILBERT
+
+ 374. The Yarn of the Nancy Bell 430
+
+
+ JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE
+
+ 375. Darius Green and His Flying Machine 432
+
+
+ WILLIAM ROBERT SPENCER
+
+ 376. Beth Gelert 436
+
+
+ AUTHOR UNKNOWN
+
+ 377. King John and the Abbot of Canterbury 437
+
+
+SECTION VIII
+
+REALISTIC STORIES
+
+ _Bibliography_ 442
+
+ _Introductory_ 443
+
+
+ OLIVER GOLDSMITH
+
+ 378. The Renowned History of Little Goody Two-Shoes 445
+
+
+ DR. JOHN AIKIN AND MRS. LETITIA BARBAULD
+
+ 379. Eyes, and No Eyes 451
+
+
+ THOMAS DAY
+
+ 380. The Good-Natured Little Boy 456
+
+
+ MARIA EDGEWORTH
+
+ 381. Waste Not, Want Not 458
+
+
+ JULIANA HORATIA EWING
+
+ 382. Jackanapes 478
+
+
+ HENRY SEIDEL CANBY
+
+ 383. Betty's Ride 496
+
+
+ CHARLES MAJOR
+
+ 384. The Big Bear 500
+
+
+ "O. HENRY"
+
+ 385. The Gift of the Magi 505
+
+
+SECTION IX
+
+NATURE LITERATURE
+
+ _Bibliography_ 510
+
+ _Introductory_ 511
+
+
+ BEATRIX POTTER
+
+ 386. The Tale of Peter Rabbit 513
+
+
+ THORNTON WALDO BURGESS
+
+ 387. Johnny Chuck Finds the Best Thing in the World 514
+
+
+ ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE
+
+ 388. Mr. 'Possum's Sick Spell 516
+
+
+ DALLAS LORE SHARP
+
+ 389. Wild Life in the Farm-Yard 520
+
+
+ VERNON L. KELLOGG
+
+ 390. The Vendetta 524
+
+
+ SEWELL FORD
+
+ 391. Pasha, the Son of Selim 527
+
+
+ "OUIDA" (LOUISA DE LA RAMEE)
+
+ 392. Moufflou 534
+
+
+ OLIVE THORNE MILLER
+
+ 393. Bird Habits: I. Where He Sleeps II. His Travels 548
+
+
+ ERNEST THOMPSON SETON
+
+ 394. The Poacher and the Silver Fox 551
+
+
+ DAVID STARR JORDAN
+
+ 395. The Story of a Salmon 556
+
+
+ RUDYARD KIPLING
+
+ 396. Moti Guj--Mutineer 562
+
+
+ CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS
+
+ 397. Last Bull 566
+
+
+SECTION X
+
+ROMANCE CYCLES AND LEGEND
+
+ _Bibliography_ 576
+
+ _Introductory_ 577
+
+
+ From ARABIAN NIGHTS
+
+ 398. Ali Baba, and the Forty Thieves 579
+
+
+ "FELIX SUMMERLEY"
+
+ Reynard the Fox
+
+ 399. How Bruin the Bear Sped with Reynard the Fox 586
+
+ 400. The Battle Between the Fox and the Wolf 591
+
+
+ SIR THOMAS MALORY
+
+ King Arthur and His Round Table
+
+ 401. How Arthur Became King 594
+
+ 402. A Tourney with the French 597
+
+ 403. Adventures of Arthur 598
+
+
+ MAUDE RADFORD WARREN
+
+ 404. Arthur and Sir Accalon 603
+
+
+ CERVANTES-SAAVEDRA, MIGUEL DE
+
+ 405-411. Stories from _Don Quixote_
+
+ I. Dreams and Shadows 606
+
+ II. Preparing for the Quest 608
+
+ III. The Quest Begins 610
+
+ IV. The Knightly Vigil 613
+
+ V. On Honor's Field 615
+
+ VI. The Return Home 617
+
+ VII. The Battle with the Windmills 618
+
+
+ HORACE E. SCUDDER
+
+ 412. The Proud King 620
+
+
+ EVA MARCH TAPPAN
+
+ 413. Robin and the Merry Little Old Woman 623
+
+
+ AUTHOR UNKNOWN
+
+ 414. Allen-a-Dale 628
+
+
+SECTION XI
+
+BIOGRAPHY AND HERO STORIES
+
+ _Bibliography_ 632
+
+ _Introductory_ 633
+
+
+ ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS
+
+ 415. How Columbus Got His Ships 635
+
+
+ HORACE E. SCUDDER
+
+ 416. The Boyhood of Washington 642
+
+
+ BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
+
+ 417. The Autobiography 645
+
+
+ HELEN NICOLAY
+
+ 418. Lincoln's Early Days 655
+
+
+ ANNA HOWARD SHAW
+
+ 419. In the Western Wilderness 662
+
+
+ CHARLOTTE M. YONGE
+
+ 420. The Pass of Thermopylae 671
+
+
+SECTION XII
+
+HOME READING LIST AND GENERAL INDEX
+
+ Home Reading Lists by Grades 679
+
+ General Index 687
+
+
+
+
+SECTION I
+
+PREFACE AND GENERAL INTRODUCTION
+
+
+
+
+SELECTED GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+I. GENERAL COLLECTIONS OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
+
+ Tappan, Eva March, _The Children's Hour_. 10 vols.
+
+ Neilson, William Patten, and others, _The Junior Classics_.
+ 10 vols.
+
+ Sylvester, Charles H., _Journeys through Bookland_. 10 vols.
+
+ Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, and others, _The Young Folks' Library_.
+ 30 vols.
+
+ Mabie, Hamilton Wright, _After School Library_. 12 vols.
+
+ Scudder, Horace E., _The Children's Book_. [Best single-volume
+ collection for early grades.]
+
+ Barnes, Walter, _Types of Children's Literature_.
+
+
+II. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
+
+ Darton, F. J. Harvey, "Children's Books," in _Cambridge History
+ of English Literature_, Vol. XI, chap. xvi. [Best brief account
+ of development in England. Elaborate bibliography.]
+
+ Tassin, Algernon, "Books for Children," in _Cambridge History of
+ American Literature_, Vol. II, chap. vii. [Best account of
+ American development. Extended bibliography.]
+
+ Field, Mrs. E. M., _The Child and His Book_. The history and
+ progress of children's literature in England. [Stops with
+ 1826.]
+
+ Moses, Montrose J., _Children's Books and Reading_. [Deals
+ with both English and American side. Book-lists and
+ bibliographies.]
+
+ Ashton, John, _Chapbooks of the Eighteenth Century_.
+
+ Halsey, Rosalie V., _Forgotten Books of the American Nursery_.
+
+ Welsh, Charles, _A Bookseller of the Last Century_. [John
+ Newbery.]
+
+ "Godfrey, Elizabeth," _English Children in the Olden Time_.
+
+ Earle, Florence Morse, _Child Life in Colonial Days_.
+
+
+III. GUIDES IN TEACHING
+
+
+1. SPECIFIC PEDAGOGY
+
+ Barnes, Walter, _English in the Country School_.
+
+ Carpenter, G. R., Baker, F. T., and Scott, F. N., _The Teaching
+ of English_. [Pp. 155-187, "Literature in the Elementary
+ Schools," by Professor Baker.]
+
+ Chubb, Percival, _The Teaching of English_.
+
+ Cox, John Harrington, _Literature in the Common School_.
+
+ Barron, Julia S., Bacon, Corinne, and Dana, J. C., _Course of
+ Study for Normal School Pupils on Literature for Children_.
+ [A syllabus.]
+
+ Hosic, James Fleming, _The Elementary Course in English_.
+
+ MacClintock, Porter Lander, _Literature in the Elementary
+ School_.
+
+ McMurry, Charles A., _Special Method in Reading in the Grades_.
+
+ Welch, John S., _Literature in the School: Aims, Methods, and
+ Interpretations_.
+
+
+2. MORE GENERAL AND INSPIRATIONAL
+
+ Bates, Arlo, _Talks on the Teaching of Literature_.
+
+ Bennett, Arnold, _Literary Taste and How to Form It_.
+
+ Colby, J. Rose, _Literature and Life in School_.
+
+ Kerfoot, J. B., _How to Read_.
+
+ Lee, Gerald Stanley, _The Child and the Book_.
+
+ Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur, _On the Art of Reading_. [Children's
+ Literature.]
+
+ Scudder, Horace E., _Literature in the Schools_.
+
+ Smith, C. Alphonso, _What Can Literature Do for Me?_
+
+ Woodberry, George E., _The Appreciation of Literature_. _The
+ Heart of Man._
+
+
+3. GUIDES TO BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
+
+ Arnold, Gertrude W., _A Mother's List of Books for Children_.
+
+ Field, Walter Taylor, _Fingerposts to Children's Reading_.
+
+ Hunt, Clara W., _What Shall We Read to the Children?_
+
+ Lowe, Orton, _Literature for Children_.
+
+ Macy, John, _A Child's Guide to Reading_.
+
+ Moore, Annie Carroll, _Roads to Childhood_.
+
+ Olcott, Frances Jenkins, _The Children's Reading_.
+
+ _One Thousand Good Books for Children._ [Classified and graded
+ list prepared by National Congress of Mothers' Literature
+ Committee, Alice M. Jordan, Chairman. Issued by U. S. Bureau
+ of Education, Washington, D. C., as Home Education Circular
+ No. 1.]
+
+ Stevens, David Harrison, _The Home Guide to Good Reading_.
+
+
+IV. BOOKS ON STORY-TELLING
+
+ Allison, S. B., and Perdue, H. A., _The Story in Primary
+ Education_.
+
+ Bailey, Carolyn Sherman, _For the Story-Teller_.
+
+ Bryant, Sarah Cone, _How to Tell Stories to Children_. _Stories
+ to Tell to Children._ [Introduction.]
+
+ Cather, Katherine D., _Educating by Story-Telling_.
+
+ Cowles, Julia D., _The Art of Story-Telling_.
+
+ Cross, Allen, and Statler, Nellie M., _Story-Telling for Upper
+ Grades_.
+
+ Forbush, William B., _Manual of Stories_.
+
+ Horne, H. H., _Story-Telling, Questioning, and Studying_.
+
+ Keyes, Angela M., _Stories and Story-Telling_.
+
+ Kready, Laura F., _A Study of Fairy Tales_. [Chap. iii, "The
+ Telling of Fairy Tales."]
+
+ Lindsay, Maud, _The Story-Teller for Little Children_.
+
+ Lyman, Edna, _Story Telling: What to Tell and How to Tell It_.
+
+ McMurry, Charles A., _Special Method in Reading in the Grades_.
+
+ Moore, Annie C., Article "Story-Telling," _Cyclopedia of
+ Education_. [Ed. Monroe.]
+
+ Partridge, Emelyn N., and George E., _Story-Telling in the School
+ and Home_.
+
+ Shedlock, Marie L., _The Art of the Story-Teller_.
+
+ St. John, Edward Porter, _Stories and Story-Telling in Moral and
+ Religious Education_.
+
+ Wiltse, Sara E., _The Place of the Story in Early Education_.
+
+ Wyche, Richard Thomas, _Some Great Stories and How to Tell Them_.
+
+
+V. ON DRAMATIZATION
+
+ Briggs, T. H., and Coffman, L. D., _Reading in Public Schools_.
+ [Chap. x, "Dramatic Reading," and chap. xxiii, "Dramatics."]
+
+ Curtis, Elnora W., _The Dramatic Instinct in Education_.
+
+ Finlay-Johnson, Harriet, _The Dramatic Method of Teaching_.
+
+ Gesell, Arnold L., and Beatrice C., _The Normal Child and Primary
+ Education_. [Chapter on "Dramatic Expression."]
+
+ Herts, Alice M., _The Children's Educational Theatre_.
+
+ Nixon, Lillian E., _Fairy Tales a Child Can Read and Act_.
+
+
+VI. THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN
+
+ Moulton, Richard Green, _A Short Introduction to the Literature
+ of the Bible_.
+
+ The simplest and best discussion for teachers
+ of the Bible as literature. The books that
+ follow are good sources for story material from
+ the Bible.
+
+ Baldwin, James, _Old Stories from the East_.
+
+ Hodges, George, _The Garden of Eden_. _The Castle of Zion._ _When
+ the King Came._
+
+ Houghton, Louise Seymour, _Telling Bible Stories_.
+
+ Moulton, Richard Green, _Bible Stories: Old Testament_. _Bible
+ Stories: New Testament._ [Two volumes of _The Modern Reader's
+ Bible for Children_. The only variations from the text are by
+ omissions.]
+
+ Olcott, Frances Jenkins, _Bible Stories to Read and Tell_.
+
+ Smith, Nora Archibald, _Old, Old Tales from the Old, Old Book_.
+
+ Stewart, Mary, "_Tell Me a True Story_."
+
+
+VII. SOME INTERPRETATIONS OF CHILDHOOD
+
+ Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, _The Story of a Bad Boy_.
+
+ Du Bois, Patterson, _Beckonings from Little Hands_.
+
+ Gilson, Roy Rolfe, _In the Morning Glow_.
+
+ Grahame, Kenneth, _Dream Days_. _The Golden Age_.
+
+ Howells, William Dean, _A Boy's Town_.
+
+ Kelly, Myra, _Little Citizens_.
+
+ Larcom, Lucy, _A New England Girlhood_.
+
+ Loti, Pierre, _The Story of a Child_.
+
+ Martin, George Madden, _Emmy Lou, Her Book and Heart_.
+
+ Masters, Edgar Lee, _Mitch Miller_.
+
+ Pater, Walter, _The Child in the House_.
+
+ Shute, Henry A., _The Real Diary of a Real Boy_.
+
+ Smith, William Hawley, _The Evolution of Dodd_.
+
+ Stuart, Ruth McEnery, _Sonny_.
+
+ Walpole, Hugh, _Jeremy_.
+
+ Warner, Charles Dudley, _On Being a Boy_.
+
+ White, William Allen, _The Court of Boyville_.
+
+
+VIII. SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL BACKGROUND
+
+ Addams, Jane, _Youth and Our City Streets_.
+
+ Adler, Felix, _The Moral Instruction of Children_.
+
+ Antin, Mary, _The Promised Land_.
+
+ Cabot, Ella Lyman, _The Seven Ages of Childhood_.
+
+ Dawson, George E., _The Child and His Religion_.
+
+ Engleman, J. O., _Moral Education_.
+
+ Griggs, Edward Howard, _Moral Education_.
+
+ Hall, G. Stanley, _Youth_.
+
+ Henderson, C. Hanford, _Education and the Larger Life_.
+
+ Hoyt, Franklin Chase, _Quicksands of Youth_.
+
+ Oppenheim, Nathan, _The Development of the Child_.
+
+ Puffer, J. Adams, _The Boy and His Gang_.
+
+
+
+
+CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
+
+
+
+
+SECTION I. PREFACE AND GENERAL INTRODUCTION
+
+THE PREFACE
+
+
+This book is primarily a handbook for teachers in the grades and for
+students preparing to teach in the grades. Although it does not ignore
+problems of grading and presentation, the chief purpose is to acquaint
+teachers and prospective teachers with standard literature of the
+various kinds suitable for use in the classroom and to give them
+information regarding books and authors to aid them in directing the
+selection of books by and for children.
+
+In discussing the early training of children in literature with large
+classes of young people preparing for teaching in the grades, the
+compilers found themselves face to face with two difficulties. In the
+first place, only a limited number of these prospective teachers were in
+any real sense acquainted with what may be called the basic traditional
+material. Rhymes, fables, myths, stories were so vaguely and
+indistinctly held in mind that they were practically of no great value.
+It was therefore not possible to assume much real acquaintance with the
+material needed for use with children, and the securing of such an
+acquaintance seemed the first essential. After all is said, a discussion
+of ways and means must follow such a mastery of basic material.
+
+In the second place, there was the difficulty of finding in any compact
+form a body of material sufficient in extent and wide enough in its
+range to serve as a satisfactory basis for such a course. No doubt the
+ideal way would be to send the student to the many authoritative volumes
+covering the various fields dealt with in this collection. But with
+large classes and a limited amount of time such a plan was hardly
+practicable. The young teacher cannot be much of a specialist in any of
+the various fields of knowledge with the elements of which he is
+expected to acquaint children. The principles of economy demand that the
+brief courses which specifically prepare for teaching should be such as
+will make the work in the schoolroom most helpful and least wasteful
+from the very beginning. Hence this attempt to collect in one volume
+what may somewhat roughly be spoken of as material for a minimum basic
+course in Children's Literature.
+
+The important thing about this book, then, is the actual literary
+material included in it. The notes and suggestions scattered throughout
+are aimed to direct attention to this material either in the way of
+pointing out the sources of it, or helping in the understanding and
+appreciation of it, or suggesting some ways of presenting it most
+effectively to children.
+
+In the case of folk material, an effort has been made to present
+reliable versions of the stories used. Many of the folk stories, for
+instance, appear in dozens of collections and in dozens of forms,
+according to the artistic or pedagogic biases of the various compilers.
+As a rule the most accessible stories are found in versions written
+down to the supposed needs of children, and intended to be read by the
+children themselves. Even if we grant the teacher the right to make
+extensive modifications, it is still reasonable to insist that some
+correct traditional form be used as the starting point. Such a plan
+insures a mastery of one's material. The sources of the versions used in
+this text are pointed out in order that teachers who wish to do so may
+extend their acquaintance to other folk material by referring to the
+various collections mentioned.
+
+Such a book as this must necessarily be selective. No doubt omissions
+will be noted of poems or stories that many teachers deem indispensable.
+Others will find selections included that to their minds are
+questionable. The editors can only plead in extenuation that they have
+included what they have found by experience to offer a sound basis for
+discussing with training classes the nature of this basic material and
+the form in which it should be presented to children. To accomplish
+these ends it has sometimes seemed well to give parallel versions, and
+occasionally to give a version that will necessitate the discussion of
+such subjects as the use of dialect, the inclusion of items of terror or
+horror, and the soundness of the ethical appeal. These various problems
+are indicated in the notes accompanying individual selections.
+
+The editorial apparatus does not constitute a treatise on literary
+criticism, or a manual of mythology or folklore, or a "pedagogy" of
+children's literature as such, or anything like an exhaustive
+bibliography of the fields of study touched upon. It aims at the very
+modest purpose of immediate and practical utility. It hopes to fill a
+place as a sort of first aid for the inexperienced teacher, and as soon
+as the teacher gets some real grasp of the elements of the problem this
+book must yield to the more elaborate and well-knit discussions of
+specialists in the various subjects treated. The bibliographical
+references throughout are intended to offer help in this forward step.
+These bibliographies are, in all cases, frankly selective. As a rule
+most of the books mentioned are books now in print. In the
+bibliographies connected with the sections of traditional material some
+of the more important works in the field of scholarship are named in
+each case for the benefit of those who may be working where such books
+are available in institutional or public libraries. Titles of books are
+printed in italics, while titles of poems, separate stories, and
+selections are printed in roman type inclosed in quotation marks.
+
+The grouping of material is in no sense a hard and fast one. Those who
+work in literary fields understand the pitfalls that beset one who
+attempts such a classification. Only a general grouping under headings
+used in the ordinary popular sense has been made. Fine distinctions are
+beside the mark in such a book as this. Popular literature was not made
+for classification, but for higher purposes, and anything that draws
+attention from the pleasure-giving and spirit-invigorating qualities of
+the literature itself should be avoided. Hence, the classifications
+adopted are as simple and unobtrusive as possible.
+
+Finally, the editors make no pretense to original scholarship. They have
+not attempted to extend the limits of human knowledge, but to point out
+pleasant paths leading to the limitless domains of literature. They have
+tried to reflect accurately the best practices and theories, or to point
+out how teachers may get at the best. Their obligations to others are
+too extended to be noted in a preface, but will be apparent on every
+page of the text. Their most important lessons have come from the
+reactions secured from hundreds of teachers who have been under their
+tuition.
+
+Copyright obligations are indicated in connection with the selections
+used.
+
+
+GENERAL INTRODUCTION
+
+
+1. LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN
+
+_The beginnings._ During the eighteenth century the peoples of Europe
+and America turned their attention in a remarkable way to a
+consideration of the worth and rights of the individual. In America this
+so-called democratic movement culminated in the Declaration of
+Independence in 1776. The most dramatic manifestation of the movement in
+Europe was the French Revolution of 1789, but every country of Europe
+was thrilled and changed by the new thought. Every important democratic
+movement leads to an awakened interest in the welfare of children, for
+they are among the weak and helpless. This great movement of the
+eighteenth century brought such a remarkable change of thought regarding
+children as to mark the beginning of a new kind of literature, known as
+literature for children.
+
+Today we think of Andersen, Stevenson, Mrs. Ewing, and scores of others
+as writers of literature for children. Such writers did not exist before
+the democratic movement of the eighteenth century. It is true that a few
+short books and articles had been written for children as early as the
+fifteenth century, but they were written to teach children to be
+obedient and respectful to parents and masters or to instruct them in
+the customs of the church--they were not written primarily to entertain
+children and give them pleasure. Within the last century and a half,
+too, many authors have collected and retold for children innumerable
+traditional stories from all parts of the earth--traditional fairy
+stories, romantic stories of the Middle Ages, legends, and myths.
+
+_The child's inheritance._ As has been indicated, children's literature
+is of two kinds: first, the traditional kind that grew up among the folk
+of long ago in the forms of rhyme, myth, fairy tale, fable, legend, and
+romantic hero story; and, second, the kind that has been produced in
+modern times by individual authors. The first, the traditional kind, was
+produced by early civilization and by the childlike peasantry of long
+ago. The best of the stories produced by the childhood of the race have
+been bequeathed to the children of today, and to deprive children of the
+pleasure they would get from this inheritance of folklore seems as
+unjust as to deprive them of traditional games, which also help to make
+the first years of a person's life, the period of childhood, the period
+of imaginative play. The second kind of children's literature, that
+produced in modern times by individual authors, has likewise been
+bequeathed to children. Some of it is so new that its worth has not been
+determined, but some of it has passed the test of the classics. The best
+of both kinds is as priceless as is the classical literature for adults.
+The world would not sell Shakespeare; yet one may well doubt that
+Shakespeare is worth as much to humanity as is Mother Goose. To evaluate
+truly the worth of such classics is impossible; but we may be assured
+that the child who has learned to appreciate the pleasures and the
+beauties of Mother Goose is the one most likely to appreciate the
+pleasures and the beauties of Shakespeare when the proper time comes.
+
+The true purpose of education is to bring the child into his
+inheritance. For many years educators have talked about the use of
+literature _in_ the grades as one means of accomplishing this purpose.
+The results of attempts to teach literature in the grades have sometimes
+been disappointing because often the literature used has not been _for_
+the grades; that is, it has not been children's literature. In other
+cases the attempts have failed because the literature has not been
+presented as literature--it has, for example, been presented as reading
+lessons or composition assignments. Students preparing to teach in the
+grades have been studying textbooks from which literature for children
+has been excluded, regardless of its artistic worth. Consequently many
+teachers have not been prepared to teach literature in the grades. Often
+they have assumed that the reading lesson would develop in the pupil an
+appreciation of good literature, not realizing that the reading lesson
+may cause pupils to dislike literature, especially poetry, unless it is
+supplemented by appropriate work in children's literature. If the
+student reads thoughtfully the literary selections in the following
+sections of this book, he probably will realize that children's
+literature is also literature for adults, and that it is not only the
+child's inheritance, but also the inheritance of humanity.
+
+The fact that literature for children is likely to have a strong
+interest for adults is strikingly suggested in a few sentences in John
+Macy's _A Child's Guide to Reading_:
+
+ When "juveniles" are really good, parents read
+ them after children have gone to bed. I do not
+ know whether _Tom Brown at Rugby_ is catalogued
+ by the careful librarian as a book for boys,
+ but I am sure it is a book for men. I dare say
+ that a good many pairs of eyes that have passed
+ over the pages of Mr. John T. Trowbridge and
+ Elijah Kellogg and Louisa M. Alcott have been
+ old enough to wear spectacles. And if Mrs. Kate
+ Douglas Wiggin ever thought that in _Timothy's
+ Quest_ and _Rebecca_ she was writing books
+ especially for the young, adult readers have
+ long since claimed her for their own. I have
+ enjoyed Mr. A. S. Pier's tales of the boys at
+ St. Timothy's, though he planned them for
+ younger readers. We are told on good authority
+ that _St. Nicholas_ and _The Youth's Companion_
+ appear in households where there are no
+ children, and they give a considerable portion
+ of their space to serial stories written for
+ young people. Between good "juveniles" and good
+ books for grown persons there is not much
+ essential difference.
+
+
+2. LITERATURE IN THE GRADES
+
+_Reading and literature distinguished._ A country school-teacher once
+abruptly stopped the routine of daily work and, standing beside her
+desk, told the story of the maid who counted her chickens before they
+were hatched. One of her pupils, who is now a man, remembers vividly how
+the incident impressed him. Although he was in the second grade, that
+was the first time he had known a teacher to stop regular school work to
+tell a story. Immediately the teacher was transformed. She had been
+merely a teacher, one of those respected, awe-inspiring creatures whose
+business it is to make the school mill go; but the magic of her story
+established the relation of friendship between teacher and pupil. She
+was no longer merely a teacher. If the story had been read as a part of
+the reading lesson, it would not have impressed the pupil greatly. It
+was impressive because it was presented as literature.
+
+A clear distinction should be made between reading and literature,
+especially in the primary grades. In the work of the reading course the
+pupil should take the lead, being guided by the teacher. If the pupil is
+to progress, he must master the mechanics of reading--he must learn to
+pronounce printed words and to get the meaning of printed sentences and
+paragraphs. The course in reading requires patient work on the part of
+the pupil, just as the course in arithmetic does, and the chief pleasure
+that the primary pupil can derive from the work is a consciousness of
+enlarged power and of success in accomplishing what is undertaken.
+
+In the work with literature, however, the teacher should take the lead.
+She should open to the pupils the magic treasure house of the world's
+best story and song. The literature period of the day should be the
+pupil's imaginative play period, bringing relief from the tension of
+tired nerves. The teacher who makes the study of literature a mechanical
+grind instead of a joyous exercise of imagination misses at least two of
+her greatest opportunities as a teacher. First, by failing to cultivate
+in her pupils an appreciation of good literature, she misses an
+opportunity to make the lives of her pupils brighter and happier.
+Second, by failing to realize that the person with a story and a song is
+everybody's friend, she misses an opportunity to win the friendship,
+admiration, and love of her pupils. The inexperienced teacher who is
+well-nigh distracted in her efforts to guide forty restless, disorderly
+pupils through the program of a day's work might charm half her troubles
+away by the magic of a simple story or by the music and imagery of a
+juvenile poem. Her story or poem would do more than remove the cause of
+disorder by giving the pupils relaxation from nerve-straining work: it
+would help to establish that first essential to all true success in
+teaching--a relation of friendship between pupils and teacher.
+
+_Culture through literature._ He was a wise educator who said, "The boy
+who has access to good books and who has learned to make them his close
+friends is beyond the power of evil." Literature in the grades, in
+addition to furnishing intellectual recreation, should so cultivate in
+the pupil the power of literary appreciation that he will make good
+books his close friends. The child who has heard good music from infancy
+is not likely to be attracted by popular ragtime. The boy who has been
+trained in habits of courtesy, industry, and pure thinking in his home
+life, and school life is not likely to find pleasure in the rudeness,
+idleness, and vulgarity of the village poolroom. The pupil who is taught
+to appreciate the beautiful, the true, and the good in standard
+literature is not likely to find pleasure in reading the melodramatic
+and sentimental trash that now has prominence of place and space in many
+book stores and in some public libraries. It is the duty of the teacher,
+and it should be her pleasure, to cultivate in her pupils such a taste
+for good literature as will lead them to choose the good and reject the
+bad, a taste that will insure for them the culture that good literature
+gives.
+
+_Selection of material._ In choosing selections of literary worth to
+present to her pupils, the teacher should keep in mind the pupil's stage
+of mental development and she should not forget that the study of
+literature should give pleasure. Often pupils do not like what moral
+writers think they should like, and usually the pupils are right. Good
+literature is sincere and is true in its appeal to the fundamental
+emotions of humanity, and an obvious attempt to teach a moral theory at
+the expense of truth is no more to be tolerated in literature for
+children than in literature for adults. The childhood of the race has
+produced much literature with a true appeal to the human heart, in the
+form of fable, fairy story, myth, and hero story. Most of this
+literature appeals strongly to the child of today. For several hundred
+years the nursery rhymes of "Mother Goose" have delighted children with
+their melody, humor, and imagery. As literature for the kindergarten and
+first grade, they have not often been excelled by modern writers. The
+task of selecting suitable material from the many poems, stories, and
+books written for children in recent years is difficult, but if the
+teacher has a keen appreciation of good literature and is guided by the
+likes and dislikes of her pupils, she probably will not go far astray.
+
+_Supplemental reading._ If the teacher examines the juvenile books
+offered for sale by the book dealers of her town or city, she probably
+will discover that most of them are trash not fit to be read by anyone,
+and she will realize the importance of directing parents in the
+selection of gift books for children. A good way to get better books
+into the book stores and into the hands of children is to give the
+pupils a list of good books, with the suggestion that they ask their
+parents to buy one of them the next time a book is to be bought as a
+present. Such lists of books also will improve the standard of books in
+the town library, for librarians will be quick to realize the importance
+of supplying standard literature if there is a demand for it.
+
+
+3. STORY-TELLING AND DRAMATIZATION
+
+_Story-telling._ Most stories are much more effective when well told
+than they are when read, just as most lectures and sermons are most
+effective when delivered without manuscript. To explain just why the
+story well told is superior to the story read might not be easy, but
+much of the superiority probably comes from the freedom of the "talk
+style" and the more appropriate use of inflection and emphasis. Then,
+too, the story-teller can look at her audience and is free to add a
+descriptive word or phrase occasionally to produce vividness of
+impression. Some stories, of course, are so constructed that they must
+follow closely the diction of the original form. "Henny-Penny" and
+Kipling's _Just-So Stories_ are of this type. Such stories should be
+read. Most stories, however, are most effective when well told. The
+teacher, especially the teacher of one of the primary grades, should not
+consider herself prepared to teach literature until she has gained
+something of the art of story-telling.
+
+_Selection of stories._ Never attempt to tell a story that you do not
+like. You are not prepared to interest pupils in a story, however
+appropriate it otherwise may be, if you are not interested in it
+yourself. Try to choose stories adapted in structure and content to the
+age and experience of the children of your grade. For the first or
+second grade, choose a few simple fables, a few short, simple fairy
+tales, and a few short, simple nature stories, such as "Peter Rabbit,"
+"How Johnny Chuck Finds the Best Thing in the World," and "Mr. 'Possum's
+Sick Spell." Remember that a story for the first or second grade should
+be short.
+
+_Two principles._ Learn to apply readily the following principles of
+method: First, use the past tense in telling a story except in direct
+quotation. The rules of grammar require this, and it is an aid to
+clearness and effectiveness. For example, do not say, "So he goes" or
+"Then he says"; but say, "So he went" or "Then he said" (or, for
+variety, _replied_, _growled_, _mumbled_, etc.). Second, use direct
+discourse (the exact words of the characters) rather than indirect
+discourse. For example, do not say, "The Troll asked who was tripping
+over his bridge"; but say, "'WHO'S THAT tripping over my bridge?' roared
+the Troll." Direct discourse always gives life and vividness to a story.
+
+_Preparation and presentation._ When you have selected a suitable story,
+read it carefully several times to learn the essential details and the
+order in which they should come. Keep in mind the fact that you are to
+use the past tense and direct discourse. If the story is a fable, you
+probably will see that you should add much conversation and description
+not in the text. A little description of the witch, giant, fairy, or
+castle may give vividness to your story. If the story is a long fairy
+tale, you may see that many details may be omitted. If the story is as
+concise and dramatic as is the version of "The Three Billy-Goats Gruff"
+in this book, it may be suitable for presentation without any changes.
+When you have the story clearly in mind as you wish to present it, tell
+it to the pupils several times, and then have some of them tell it.
+
+Your story, of course, should not be told in a lifeless monotone. Some
+parts should be told slowly, and others rapidly. In some parts the voice
+should be low and soft, while in other parts it should be loud and gruff
+or harsh. The words of the princess should not sound like those of the
+old witch or the soldier. The daintiness and grace of elves and fairies
+should be indicated in the delivery.
+
+_Corroborative opinion._ The many books on the art of story-telling by
+skilled practitioners and the emphasis placed upon the great practical
+value of story-telling by all those charged with the oversight of the
+education of children show conclusively that the story method in
+teaching is having its grand renascence. The English education minister,
+Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, speaking recently on the subject of "History
+Teaching," set forth admirably the general principles back of this
+revival:
+
+ There is no difficulty about interesting
+ children. The real difficulty is to bore them.
+ Almost any tale will interest a child. It need
+ not be well constructed or thrilling; it may be
+ filled with the most unexciting and trivial
+ incidents, but so long as it carries the mind
+ along at all, it will interest a child. The
+ hunger which intelligent children have for
+ stories is almost inexhaustible. They like to
+ have their stories repeated, and insist that
+ the characters should reappear over and over
+ again, for they have an appetite for reality
+ and a desire to fix these passing figments into
+ the landscape of the real life with which they
+ are surrounded.
+
+ One of the great qualities in childhood which
+ makes it apt for receiving historical
+ impressions is just this capacity for giving
+ body to the phantoms of the mind. The limits
+ between the real and the legendary or
+ miraculous which are drawn by the critical
+ intelligence do not exist for the childish
+ mind. . . . It would then be a great educational
+ disaster if this valuable faculty in childhood
+ were allowed to run to waste. There are certain
+ years in the development of every normal
+ intelligent child when the mind is full of
+ image-making power and eager to make a friend
+ or enemy of any god, hero, nymph, fairy, or
+ servant maid who may come along. Then is the
+ time when it is right and fitting to affect
+ some introductions to the great characters of
+ mythology and history; that is the age at which
+ children will eagerly absorb what they can
+ learn of Achilles and Orpheus, of King Arthur
+ and his Knights, of Alexander and Christopher
+ Columbus and the Duke of Wellington. I do not
+ think it is necessary to obtrude any moralizing
+ commentary when these great and vague images
+ are first brought into the landscape of the
+ child's intellectual experience. A little
+ description, a few stories, a picture or two,
+ will be enough to fix them in the memory and to
+ give them body and shape together with the
+ fairies and witches and pirate kings and
+ buccaneering captains with whom we have all at
+ one time been on such familiar terms. Let us
+ then begin by teaching the past to small
+ children by way of stories and pictures.
+
+_Dramatization._ The play spirit that leads children to play lady,
+doctor, church, and school will also lead them to enjoy dramatizing
+stories, or "playing the stories," as they call it. Some stories, of
+course, are so lacking in action as to be not well suited for
+dramatization, and others have details of action, character, or
+situation that may not well be represented in the schoolroom. The
+teacher may be surprised, however, to see how ingenious her pupils are
+in overcoming difficulties after they have had a little assistance in
+playing two or three stories. Unconsciously the pupil will get from the
+dramatization a training in oral English, reading, and literary
+appreciation that can hardly be gained in any other way.
+
+When the pupils have learned a story thoroughly, they are ready to make
+plans for playing it. The stage setting may be considered first, and
+here the child's imagination can work wonders in arranging details. The
+opening under the teacher's desk may become a dungeon, a cave, a cellar,
+or a well. If a two-story house is needed, it may be outlined on the
+floor in the front part of the schoolroom, with a chalk-mark stairway,
+up which Goldilocks can walk to lie down on three coats--the three beds
+in the bed-chamber of the three bears.
+
+The pupils can probably soon decide what characters are necessary, but
+more time may be required to assign the parts. To play the part of a
+spider, bear, wolf, fairy, sheep, or butterfly does not seem difficult
+to a child who has entered into the spirit of the play.
+
+The most difficult part of dramatization may be the plan for
+conversation, especially if the text version of the story contains
+little or no direct discourse. The pupils should know the general nature
+of the conversation and action before they begin to play the story,
+although they need not memorize the parts. Suppose that the fable "The
+Shepherd's Boy" is to be dramatized. The first part of the dramatization
+might be described about as follows:
+
+ The shepherd boy, tending his flock of
+ pupil-sheep in the pasture land at one side of
+ the teacher's-desk-mountain, looked toward the
+ pupil-desk-village at one side of the room and
+ said quietly, "It certainly is lonely here. I
+ believe I'll make those villagers think a wolf
+ has come to eat the sheep. Then perhaps they'll
+ come down here, and I'll have a little company
+ and some excitement." Then he jumped around
+ frantically, waving his yardstick-shepherd's
+ crook, and shouted to the villagers, "Wolf!
+ Wolf!"
+
+ The villagers came rushing down to the pasture
+ land, asking excitedly, "Where's the wolf? Has
+ he killed many of the sheep?"
+
+ "Oh, oh, oh," laughed the boy, "there wasn't
+ any wolf. I certainly did fool you that time."
+
+ "I don't think that's very funny," said one of
+ the villagers.
+
+ "Well, we might as well go back to our work,"
+ said another. Then they went back to the
+ village.
+
+ After they had gone, the boy said, "I guess
+ I'll try that joke again."
+
+If the teacher puts much direct discourse in a story of this kind when
+she tells it to the pupils, the task of dramatizing will naturally be
+made easier.
+
+Some stories lend themselves in the most natural manner to
+dramatization. An interesting example of such a story may be found among
+the tales dealing with the Wise Men of Gotham. These Wise Men are
+referred to in one of the best known of the Mother Goose rhymes. It
+would seem that the inhabitants of Gotham, in the reign of King John,
+had some reason of their own for pretending to be mad, and out of this
+event the legends took their rise. The number of fishermen may be
+changed to seven or some other number to suit the number in the acting
+group. Here is the story:
+
+ On a certain time there were twelve men of
+ Gotham that went to fish, and some stood on dry
+ land. And in going home, one said to the other
+ "We have ventured wonderfully in wading. I pray
+ God that none of us come home to be drowned."
+ "Nay, marry," said the other, "let us see that,
+ for there did twelve of us come out." Then they
+ counted themselves, and every one counted
+ eleven. Said the one to the other, "There is
+ one of us drowned." They went back to the brook
+ where they had been fishing and sought up and
+ down for him that was drowned, making great
+ lamentation.
+
+ A stranger coming by asked what it was they
+ sought for, and why they were sorrowful. "Oh!"
+ said they, "this day we went to fish in the
+ brook; twelve of us came together, and one is
+ drowned." Said the stranger, "Tell how many
+ there be of you." One of them, counting, said,
+ "Eleven," and again he did not count himself.
+ "Well," said the stranger, "what will you give
+ me if I find the twelfth man?" "Sir," said
+ they, "all the money we have got." "Give me the
+ money," said the stranger, and began with the
+ first, and gave him a stroke over the shoulders
+ with his whip, which made him groan, saying,
+ "Here is one," and so he served them all, and
+ they all groaned at the matter. When he came to
+ the last he paid him well, saying, "Here is the
+ twelfth man." "God's blessing on thy heart,"
+ said they, "for thus finding our dear brother."
+
+
+4. COURSES OF STUDY
+
+As an aid to inexperienced teachers, it seems well to suggest in a
+summary how a selection of material suitable for each grade might be
+made from the material of this book. The summary, however, should be
+regarded as suggestive in a general way only. No detailed outline of a
+course of study in literature for the grades can be ideal for all
+schools because the pupils of a given grade in one school may be much
+more advanced in the knowledge of literature and the ability to
+understand and appreciate it than are the pupils of the same grade in
+another school. Many literary selections, too, might appropriately be
+taught in almost any grade if the method of presentation in each case
+were suited to the understanding of the pupils. _Robinson Crusoe_, for
+example, may appropriately be told to second-grade pupils, or it may be
+read by fourth- or fifth-grade pupils, or it may be studied as fiction
+by eighth-grade pupils or university students. All poems of remarkable
+excellence that are suitable for primary pupils are also suitable for
+pupils in the higher grades and for adults, and the same is true of many
+prose selections.
+
+The summary that follows, then, is to be regarded as "first aid" to the
+untrained, inexperienced teacher. The teacher's own personal likes and
+dislikes and her success in presenting various literary selections
+should eventually lead her to modify any prescribed course of study. If
+a teacher of the sixth grade discovers that her pupils should rank only
+second grade in knowledge and appreciation of literature, she may very
+properly begin with traditional fairy tales. Another outlined course of
+study is given in Section XII of this book.
+
+_First, second, and third grades._ Since pupils in the primary grades
+read with difficulty if at all, the teacher should tell or read all
+selections presented as literature in these grades.
+
+No kind of prose is better suited for use in the primary grades than
+traditional fairy tales. About half a dozen might well be presented in
+each of the three grades. For the first grade, the simplest should be
+chosen, such as "The Old Woman and Her Pig," "Teeny-Tiny," "The Cat and
+the Mouse," "The Three Pigs," "The Three Bears," and "The Elves and the
+Shoemaker." As suitable stories for the second grade, we might choose
+"The Three Sillies," "Little Red Riding-Hood," "Cinderella," "The Three
+Billy-Goats Gruff," "The Straw Ox," and "The Horned Women." For the
+third grade, somewhat longer and more complex stories might be chosen.
+
+About half a dozen fables might also be used appropriately in each of
+the primary grades. Simple Aesopic fables in prose seem best for the
+first two grades. More complex forms might be chosen for the third
+grade, for example, "The Story of Alnaschar," "The Good Samaritan," "The
+Discontented Pendulum," "The Musical Ass," "The Swan, the Pike, and the
+Crab," and "The Hen with the Golden Eggs."
+
+Much of the nature literature of the primary grades may be in the form
+of verse, but some simple nature prose may be used successfully. From
+the selections in this book, "Peter Rabbit" should be chosen for the
+first grade, while "Johnny Chuck," and "Mr. 'Possum's Sick Spell" are
+appropriate for the second and third grades.
+
+The simplest of Andersen's _Fairy Tales_ may be used in the third grade,
+and perhaps in the second. Some suitable stories are "The Real
+Princess," "The Fir Tree," "The Tinder Box," "The Hardy Tin Soldier,"
+and "The Ugly Duckling."
+
+The ideal verse for the first grade is nursery rhymes, which may be
+chosen from the first 135 selections of this book. These may be
+supplemented by such simple verse as "The Three Kittens," "The Moon,"
+"Ding Dong," "The Little Kitty," "Baby Bye," "Time to Rise," "Rain," "I
+Like Little Pussy," and "The Star." In the second and third grades,
+traditional verses from those following Number 135 in Section II may be
+used. The poems by Stevenson are ideal for these grades, and those by
+Field, Sherman, and Christina Rossetti are good. In addition the teacher
+might select such poems as "The Brown Thrush," and "Who Stole the Bird's
+Nest."
+
+_Fourth, fifth, and sixth grades._ Although pupils in these intermediate
+grades may be expected to read some library books, the teacher should
+read and tell stories frequently, for this is the surest way to develop
+in the pupil a taste for good literature. The teacher should remember,
+too, that the story she recommends to the pupils as suitable reading
+should be about two grades easier than those told or read by the
+teacher. Probably every poem presented as literature in these grades
+should be read or recited by the teacher because pupils are not likely
+to get the charm of rhythm, melody, and rhyme if they do the reading.
+Pupils who dislike poetry are pupils who have not heard good poetry well
+read.
+
+Myths are appropriate for each of the intermediate grades. Most teachers
+prefer for the fourth grade the simpler classical myths, such as "A
+Story of Springtime," "The Miraculous Pitcher," "The Narcissus," and
+"The Apple of Discord." In the fifth grade, the teacher may use the more
+difficult classical myths, reserving the Norse myths for the sixth
+grade.
+
+Modern fairy and fantastic stories are also appropriate for each of
+these grades. Suitable stories for the fourth grade are "The Four-Leaved
+Clover," "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Nightingale," and "The Story
+of Fairyfoot." Stories appropriate for the fifth grade are "The Happy
+Prince," "The Knights of the Silver Shield," and "The Prince's Dream."
+In the sixth grade, the teacher might use "Old Pipes and the Dryad" and
+"The King of the Golden River."
+
+Two or three symbolic stories or fables in verse from the last part of
+Section V should be used in each of these grades.
+
+Nature prose should appeal more and more to children as they advance
+from the fourth to the eighth grade. Many pupils in the fourth grade
+will enjoy reading for themselves books by Burgess and Paine, while
+fifth- and sixth-grade pupils will get much pleasure from the simpler
+books by Sharp, Seton, Long, Miller, and Roberts. In the intermediate
+grades, the teacher may read such stories as "Wild Life in the Farm
+Yard," "The Vendetta," "Pasha," "Moufflou," and "Bird Habits."
+
+Stories of various other kinds may be read by the teacher in the
+intermediate grades. "Goody Two-Shoes" and "Waste Not, Want Not," are
+suitable for the fourth grade. The biographies "How Columbus Got His
+Ships" and "Boyhood of Washington" are excellent in the fifth or sixth
+grade as an introduction to history study, and the romance "Robin Hood
+and the Merry Little Old Woman" may be used appropriately in any of
+these grades, especially if it is made to supplement a discussion of the
+Norman conquest.
+
+Most of the poems up to about No. 342, and a few beyond that, are within
+the range of the work for these grades.
+
+_Seventh and eighth grades._ Although pupils in the seventh and eighth
+grades may be expected to read simple narrative readily, the teacher
+should read to the pupils frequently. It cannot be too much emphasized
+that reading aloud to children is the surest way of developing an
+appreciation of the best in literature. In poetry especially this is a
+somewhat critical time, as the pupil is passing from the simpler and
+more concrete verse to that which has a more prominent thought content.
+The persuasion of the reading voice smooths over many obstacles here.
+Outside the field of poetry, the teacher's work in these grades is
+mainly one of guidance and direction in getting the children and the
+right books in contact. Children at this period are likely to be
+omnivorous readers, ready for any book that comes their way, and the job
+of keeping them supplied with titles of enough available good books for
+their needs is indeed one to tax all a teacher's knowledge and
+experience.
+
+The demand for highly sensational stories on the part of pupils in the
+upper grades is so insistent that it constitutes a special problem for
+the teacher. It is a perfectly natural demand, and no wise teacher will
+attempt to stifle it. Such an attempt would almost certainly result in a
+more or less surreptitious reading of a mass of unwholesome books which
+have come to be known as "dime novels." Instead of trying to thwart this
+desire for the thrilling story the teacher should be ready to recommend
+books which have all the attractive adventure features of the "dime
+novel," and which have in addition sound artistic and ethical qualities.
+While many such books are mentioned in the bibliographies in the latter
+part of this text, it has seemed well to bring together here a short
+list of those which librarians over the country have found particularly
+fitted to serve as substitutes for the dime novel.
+
+ Alden, W. L., _The Moral Pirate_.
+
+ Altsheler, Joseph A., _The Young Trailers_. _Horsemen of the
+ Plains._
+
+ Barbour, Ralph H., _The Crimson Sweater_.
+
+ Bennett, John, _The Treasure of Peyre Gaillard_.
+
+ Burton, Charles P., _The Boys of Bob's Hill_.
+
+ Carruth, Hayden, _Track's End_.
+
+ Cody, William F., _Adventures of Buffalo Bill_.
+
+ Drysdale, William, _The Fast Mail_.
+
+ Grinnell, George Bird, _Jack among the Indians_. _Jack, the
+ Young Ranchman._
+
+ Hunting, Henry G., _The Cave of the Bottomless Pool_.
+
+ Janvier, Thomas A., _The Aztec Treasure House_.
+
+ Kaler, James Otis, _Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus_.
+
+ London, Jack, _The Call of the Wild_.
+
+ Malone, Captain P. B., _Winning His Way to West Point_.
+
+ Masefield, John, _Jim Davis_.
+
+ Mason, Alfred B., _Tom Strong, Washington's Scout_.
+
+ Matthews, Brander, _Tom Paulding_.
+
+ Moffett, Cleveland, _Careers of Danger and Daring_.
+
+ Munroe, Kirk, _Cab and Caboose_. _Derrick Sterling._
+
+ O'Higgins, Harvey J., _The Smoke Eaters_.
+
+ Quirk, Leslie W., _The Boy Scouts of the Black Eagle Patrol_.
+
+ Sabin, Edwin L., _Bar B Boys_.
+
+ Schultz, James Willard, _With the Indians in the Rockies_.
+
+ Stevenson, Burton E., _The Young Train Despatcher_.
+
+ Stevenson, Robert Louis, _Treasure Island_.
+
+ Stoddard, William O., _Two Arrows_. _Talking Leaves._
+
+ Trowbridge, John T., _Cudjo's Cave_. _The Young Surveyor._
+
+ Verne, Jules, _20,000 Leagues under the Sea_.
+
+ Wallace, Dillon, _Wilderness Castaways_.
+
+ White, Stewart Edward, _The Magic Forest_.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION II
+
+MOTHER GOOSE JINGLES AND NURSERY RHYMES
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+I. IMPORTANT IN TRACING THE MOTHER GOOSE CANON
+
+ c. 1760. _Mother Goose's Melody._ [Published by
+ John Newbery, London.]
+
+ No copy of this issue known to be in existence.
+
+c. 1783. Ritson, Joseph, _Gammer Gurton's Garland, or the Nursery
+Parnassus_. [1810, enlarged.]
+
+c. 1785. _Mother Goose's Melody._ [Reprint of Newbery, by Isaiah Thomas,
+Worcester, Mass.]
+
+ [1889. Whitmore, W. H., _The Original Mother
+ Goose's Melody_, as first issued by John
+ Newbery, of London, about A.D. 1760. Reproduced
+ in _facsimile_ from the edition as reprinted by
+ Isaiah Thomas, of Worcester, Mass., about A.D.
+ 1785. With introduction and notes.]
+
+1824 ff. _Mother Goose's Quarto, or Melodies Complete._ [Various issues
+by Munroe and Francis, Boston.]
+
+ [Hale, Edward Everett, _The Only True Mother
+ Goose Melodies_. Exact reproduction of the text
+ and illustrations of the original edition
+ (_Mother Goose's Melodies: The Only Pure
+ Edition_) printed in Boston in 1834 by Monroe
+ and Francis. With an introduction.]
+
+1826. Chambers, Robert, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_. [1870, enlarged.]
+
+1834. Ker, John Bellenden, _An Essay on the Archaeology of Popular
+English Phrases and Nursery Rhymes_. [Supplemented 1840 and 1842.]
+
+1842. Halliwell (Phillips), J. O., _The Nursery Rhymes of England_.
+
+1849. Halliwell (Phillips), J. O., _Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales_.
+
+1864. Rimbault, Edward F., _Old Nursery Rhymes with Tunes_.
+
+
+II. IMPORTANT MODERN COLLECTIONS
+
+ Baring-Gould, Sabine, _A Book of Nursery Songs and Rhymes_.
+
+ Headland, I. T., _Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes_.
+
+ Jerrold, Walter, _The Big Book of Nursery Rhymes_.
+
+ Lang, Andrew, _The Nursery Rhyme Book_.
+
+ Newell, W. W., _Games and Songs of American Children_.
+
+ Saintsbury, G. E. B., _National Rhymes of the Nursery_.
+
+ Welsh, Charles, _A Book of Nursery Rhymes_.
+
+ Wheeler, William A., _Mother Goose's Melodies_.
+
+
+III. NURSERY RHYMES WITH MUSIC
+
+ Crane, Walter, _The Baby's Bouquet, a Fresh Bunch of Old Rhymes
+ and Tunes_.
+
+ Homer, Sidney, _Songs from Mother Goose_.
+
+ Le Mair, H. Willebeck, _Our Old Nursery Rhymes_.
+
+ Le Mair, H. Willebeck, _Little Songs of Long Ago_.
+
+ Perkins, Raymond, _Thirty Old-Time Nursery Songs_.
+
+
+IV. STUDIES
+
+ Bolton, H. C., _Counting-out Rhymes of Children, Their Antiquity,
+ Origin, and Wide Distribution_.
+
+ Earle, Alice Morse, _Child Life in Colonial Days_. [Especially
+ chap. xiv.]
+
+ Eckenstein, Lina, _Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes_.
+
+ Godfrey, Elizabeth, _English Children in the Olden Time_.
+ [Especially chap. ii.]
+
+ Gomme, A. B., _The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and
+ Ireland_. 2 vols.
+
+ Green, P. B., _The History of Nursery Rhymes_.
+
+ Halsey, Rosalie V., _Forgotten Books of the American Nursery_.
+
+ Field, W. T., _Fingerposts to Children's Reading_, pp. 193 ff.
+
+ Moses, M. J., _Children's Books and Reading_, pp. 40 ff.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION II. MOTHER GOOSE JINGLES AND NURSERY RHYMES
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+_A flawless literature._ The one literature that is supremely adapted to
+its purpose is the collection of rhymes associated with Mother Goose. To
+every child it comes with an irresistible appeal. It has a power so
+natural and fundamental that it defies explanation. The child takes it
+for granted just as he does his parents. It has a perfection of rhythm
+and structure not attainable by modern imitators. It has been perfected
+through the generations by the surest of all tests, that of constant
+popular use. Much of it is common to many different nations. It is an
+international literature of childhood. While much of it is known to
+children long before they enter school, these jingles, like all folk
+literature, never lose their charm through repetition. The schools have
+long since learned the value of the familiar in teaching. The process of
+learning to read is usually based on some of the better known rhymes.
+Teachers of literature in more advanced classes think they can generally
+detect the students who have been especially "learned" in "Mother Goose
+her ways" by their quick responsiveness to the facts of verbal rhythm
+and rhythmical structure in more sophisticated products. "If we have no
+love for poetry to-day, it may not impossibly be due to the fact that we
+have ceased to prize the old, old tales which have been the delight of
+the child and the child-man since the foundations of the world. If you
+want your child to love Homer, do not withhold Mother Goose."
+
+_Who was Mother Goose?_ The answer to this, as to other questions
+suggested below, may be of no direct or special interest to the children
+themselves. But teachers should know some of the main conclusions
+arrived at by folklorists and others in their investigations of the
+traditional materials used for basic work in literature. All the
+evidence shows that Mother Goose as the name of the familiar old lady of
+the nursery came to us from France. Andrew Lang discovered a reference
+to her in a French poem of 1650, where she figures as a teller of
+stories. In 1697 Perrault's famous fairy tales were published with a
+frontispiece representing an old woman spinning, and telling tales to a
+man, a girl, a little boy, and a cat. On this frontispiece was the
+legend, _Tales of Our Mother Goose_. (See note to No. 161.)
+
+As a teller of prose tales, Mother Goose came to England with the
+translation of Perrault about 1730. We do not find her name connected
+with verse until after the middle of the eighteenth century. About the
+year 1760 a little book called _Mother Goose's Melody_ was issued by
+John Newbery, a London publisher and a most important figure in the
+history of the production of books for children. It is a pleasant and
+not improbable theory that this first collection of nursery rhymes, upon
+which later ones were built, was the work of Oliver Goldsmith, who was
+for some years in Newbery's employ. However that may be, it is certain
+that from this date the name of Mother Goose has been almost exclusively
+associated with nursery rhymes.
+
+Newbery's _Mother Goose's Melody_ was soon reprinted by Isaiah Thomas,
+of Worcester, Massachusetts, and thus came into the hands of American
+children early in our national life. A long-since exploded theory was
+advanced about 1870 that Mother Goose was a real woman of Boston in the
+early eighteenth century, whose rhymes were published by her son-in-law,
+Thomas Fleet, in 1719. But no one has identified any such publication
+and there is no evidence whatever that this old lady in cap and
+spectacles is other than purely mythical.
+
+_Whence came the jingles themselves?_ It is certain that many nursery
+rhymes are both widespread geographically in distribution and of great
+antiquity. Halliwell and others have found references to some of them in
+old books which prove that many of the English rhymes go back several
+centuries. They are of popular origin; that is, they took root
+anonymously among the folk and were passed on by word of mouth. When a
+rhyme can be traced to any known authority we generally find that the
+folk have extracted what pleased, have forgotten or modified any
+original historical or other application the rhymes may have possessed,
+and in general have shaped the rhyme to popular taste. "Thus our old
+nursery rhymes," says Andrew Lang, "are smooth stones from the book of
+time, worn round by constant friction of tongues long silent. We cannot
+hope to make new nursery rhymes, any more than we can write new fairy
+tales."
+
+Here are a few illustrations of what scholars have been able to tell us
+of the sources of the rhymes: "Jack and Jill" preserves the Icelandic
+myth of two children caught up into the moon, where they can still be
+seen carrying a bucket on a pole between them. "Three Blind Mice" is
+traced to an old book called _Deuteromalia_ (1609). "Little Jack Horner"
+is all that is left of an extended chapbook story, _The Pleasant History
+of Jack Horner, Containing His Witty Tricks_, etc. "Poor Old Robinson
+Crusoe" is a fragment from a song by the character Jerry Sneak in
+Foote's _Mayor of Garratt_ (1763). "Simple Simon" gives all that the
+nursery has preserved of a long chapbook verse story. "A Swarm of Bees
+in May" was found by Halliwell quoted in Miege's _Great French
+Dictionary_ (1687). These and numerous like facts serve only to impress
+us with the long and honorable history of the nursery rhyme.
+
+_Can nursery rhymes be helpfully classified?_ This question seems of
+more consequence to the teacher than the previous ones because it deals
+with the practical organization of his material. The most superficial
+observer can see that Nos. 3, 36, 46, 59, 62, and 113, on the following
+pages, are riddles; that Nos. 22 and 30 are counting-out rhymes; that
+Nos. 37, 38, 39, 40, and 41 are replies that might be made to one who
+indulged unduly in suppositions; that No. 27 is a face game, No. 75 a
+hand game, and No. 108 a toe game; that Nos. 42, 81, 82, 107, and 111
+are riding songs; that Nos. 7, 10, 23, 67, and 137 are proverbial
+sayings; that Nos. 64 and 89 are charms; and so one might continue with
+groupings based on the immediate use made of the rhyme, not forgetting
+the great number that lend themselves to the purposes of the crooned
+lullaby or soothing song.
+
+Halliwell made the first attempt at any complete classification in his
+_Nursery Rhymes of England_ (1842), using eighteen headings: (1)
+Historical, (2) Literal, (3) Tales, (4) Proverbs, (5) Scholastic, (6)
+Songs, (7) Riddles, (8) Charms, (9) Gaffers and Gammers, (10) Games,
+(11) Paradoxes, (12) Lullabies, (13) Jingles, (14) Love and Matrimony,
+(15) Natural History, (16) Accumulative Stories, (17) Local, (18)
+Relics. Andrew Lang follows Halliwell, but reduces the classes to
+fourteen by combining (2) and (5), (7) and (11), (8) and (12), and by
+omitting (17). These classifications are made from the standpoint of the
+folklore scholar, and are based on the sources from which the rhymes
+originally sprang. Professor Saintsbury scouts the value of any such
+arrangement, since all belong equally in the one class, "jingles," and
+he also rightly points out that "all genuine nursery rhymes . . . have
+never become nursery rhymes until the historical fact has been
+practically forgotten by those who used them, and nothing but the
+metrical and musical attraction remains."
+
+Without denying the great significance of popular rhymes to the student
+of folklore, we must look elsewhere for any practical suggestion for the
+teacher in the matter of arrangement. Such a suggestion will be found in
+the late Charles Welsh's _Book of Nursery Rhymes_, a little volume that
+every teacher interested in children's literature must make use of. The
+rhymes are grouped into three main divisions: (1) Mother Play, (2)
+Mother Stories, and (3) Child Play, with subordinate groupings under
+each. About 250 rhymes are included in Welsh's collection, and the
+arrangement suggests the best order for using them practically, without
+dropping into any ironclad system.
+
+It may be argued that any attempt at classification of material so
+freely and variously used as the Mother Goose rhymes is sure to stiffen
+the work of the class and render it less enjoyable. Spontaneity is more
+vital here than at any other stage of one's literary education.
+
+_What is the secret of the nursery rhyme's appeal to children?_ Here at
+least we are face to face with what may be called a final fact, that
+these jingles do make an appeal so universal and remarkable that any
+attempt to explain it seems always to fall far short of completeness.
+Perhaps the best start may be made with Mr. Welsh's suggestion that this
+appeal is threefold: first, that which comes from the rhyming jingle, as
+in "Higgledy, piggledy, my fat hen"; second, that which comes from the
+nonsense surprises, as in "Hey diddle diddle," "Three wise men of
+Gotham," and "I'll tell you a story"; third, that which comes from the
+dramatic action, as in "Little Miss Muffet," and "Little Jack Horner."
+This summary does not differ much from Mr. Walter Taylor Field's
+conclusions: "The child takes little thought as to what _any_ of these
+verses mean. There are perhaps four elements in them that appeal to
+him,--first, the jingle, and with it that peculiar cadence which modern
+writers of children's poetry strive in vain to imitate; second, the
+nonsense,--with just enough of sense in it to connect the nonsense with
+the child's thinkable world; third, the action,--for the stories are
+quite dramatic in their way; and fourth, the quaintness." Mr. Field also
+emphasizes the probable charm of mystery in the face of the unknown
+facts beyond the child's horizon, which appear in many of the rhymes.
+
+Other commentators do little beyond expanding some of these suggestions.
+All of them agree in stressing the appeal made by rhythm, the jingle,
+the emphatic meter. This seems a fundamental thing in all literature,
+though readers are mainly conscious of it in poetry. Just how
+fundamental it is in human life has not been better hinted than in a
+sentence by Mrs. MacClintock: "One who is trying to write a sober
+treatise in a matter-of-fact way dares not, lest he be set down as the
+veriest mystic, say all the things that might be said about the
+function of rhythm, especially in its more pronounced form of meter,
+among a community of children, no matter what the size of the group--how
+rhythmic motion, or the flow of measured and beautiful sounds,
+harmonizes their differences, tunes them up to their tasks, disciplines
+their conduct, comforts their hurts, quiets their nerves; all this apart
+from the facts more or less important from the point of view of
+literature, that it cultivates their ear, improves their taste, and
+provides them a genuinely artistic pleasure."
+
+Professor Saintsbury, as usual, adds a fascinating turn to the
+discussion when, after agreeing that we may see in the rhymes, "to a
+great extent, the poetical appeal of sound as opposed to that of meaning
+in its simplest and most unmistakable terms," he continues: "And we
+shall find something else, which I venture to call the attraction of the
+inarticulate. . . . In moments of more intense and genuine feeling . . .
+[man] does not as a rule use or at least confine himself to articulate
+speech. . . . All children . . . fall naturally, long after they are able
+to express themselves as it is called rationally, into a sort of pleasant
+gibberish when they are alone and pleased or even displeased. . . . It must
+be a not infrequent experience of most people that one frequently falls
+into pure jingle and nonsense verse of the nursery kind. . . . I should
+myself, though I may not carry many people with me, go farther than this
+and say that this 'attraction of the inarticulate,' this allurement of
+mere sound and sequence, has a great deal more to do than is generally
+thought with the charm of the very highest poetry. . . . In the best
+nursery rhymes, as in the simpler and more genuine ballads which have so
+close a connection with them, we find this attraction of the
+inarticulate--this charm of pure sound, this utilizing of alliteration
+and rhyme and assonance." Those who have noticed the tendency of
+children to find vocal pleasure even of a physical or muscular sort in
+nonsense combinations of sounds, and who also realize their own tendency
+in this direction, will feel that Professor Saintsbury has hit upon a
+suggestive term in his claim for "the attraction of the inarticulate" as
+a partial explanation of the Mother Goose appeal.
+
+Through song, game, memorization, and dramatization, traditional or
+original, the rhymes may be made to contribute to the child's
+satisfaction in all of the directions pointed out.
+
+
+SUGGESTIONS FOR READING
+
+ (Books referred to by authors' names are listed
+ in preceding bibliography.)
+
+ For orientation read Chauncey B. Tinker, "In
+ Praise of Nursery Lore," _Unpopular Review_,
+ Vol. VI, p. 338 (Oct.-Dec., 1916). For a most
+ satisfactory presentation of the whole subject
+ read chap. x, "Mother Goose," in Field. For the
+ origin of Mother Goose as a character consult
+ Lang's introduction to his edition of
+ _Perrault's Popular Tales_. For the theory of
+ her American nativity see Wheeler and Whitmore.
+ For the origins of the rhymes themselves the
+ authorities are Halliwell and Eckenstein. For
+ pedagogical suggestions see Welsh, also his
+ article "Nursery Rhymes," _Cyclopedia of
+ Education_ (ed. Monroe). For many interesting
+ facts and suggestions on rhythm in nursery
+ rhymes consult Charles H. Sears, "Studies in
+ Rhythm," _Pedagogical Seminary_, Vol. VIII, p.
+ 3. For the whole subject of folk songs look
+ into Martinengo-Cesaresco, _The Study of Folk
+ Songs_. Books and periodicals dealing with
+ primary education often contain brief
+ discussions of value on the use of rhymes. Many
+ Mother Goose records have been prepared by the
+ educational departments of the various
+ talking-machine companies, and may be used to
+ advantage in the work in rhythm.
+
+The shorter rhymes (Nos. 1-115) are arranged in alphabetical order.
+There are many slight variations in the form of the text as found in
+printed versions and in the oral versions used by children in different
+communities. While Halliwell has been used as the basis for rhymes given
+in his collection, the following versions try to reproduce the forms of
+expression that seem generally most pleasing to children.
+
+
+
+1
+
+ A cat came fiddling out of a barn,
+ With a pair of bagpipes under her arm;
+ She could sing nothing but fiddle-de-dee,
+ The mouse has married the bumble-bee;
+ Pipe, cat--dance, mouse--
+ We'll have a wedding at our good house.
+
+
+
+2
+
+ A diller, a dollar,
+ A ten o'clock scholar,
+ What makes you come so soon?
+ You used to come at ten o'clock,
+ And now you come at noon.
+
+
+
+3
+
+ As I was going to St. Ives,
+ I met a man with seven wives;
+ Every wife had seven sacks,
+ Every sack had seven cats,
+ Every cat had seven kits:
+ Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
+ How many were there going to St. Ives?
+ (_One._)
+
+
+
+4
+
+ As I was going up Pippen Hill,--
+ Pippen Hill was dirty,--
+ There I met a pretty miss,
+ And she dropped me a curtsy.
+
+ Little miss, pretty miss,
+ Blessings light upon you;
+ If I had half-a-crown a day,
+ I'd spend it all upon you.
+
+
+
+5
+
+ As I went to Bonner,
+ I met a pig
+ Without a wig,
+ Upon my word of honor.
+
+
+
+6
+
+ As Tommy Snooks and Bessie Brooks
+ Were walking out one Sunday,
+ Says Tommy Snooks to Bessie Brooks,
+ "To-morrow will be Monday."
+
+
+
+7
+
+ A swarm of bees in May
+ Is worth a load of hay;
+ A swarm of bees in June
+ Is worth a silver spoon;
+ A swarm of bees in July
+ Is not worth a fly.
+
+
+
+8
+
+ Baa, baa, black sheep,
+ Have you any wool?
+ Yes, marry, have I,
+ Three bags full;
+ One for my master,
+ And one for my dame,
+ And one for the little boy
+ Who lives in the lane.
+
+
+
+9
+
+ Barber, barber, shave a pig,
+ How many hairs will make a wig?
+ "Four and twenty, that's enough."
+ Give the barber a pinch of snuff.
+
+
+
+10
+
+ Birds of a feather flock together,
+ And so will pigs and swine;
+ Rats and mice will have their choice,
+ And so will I have mine.
+
+
+
+11
+
+ Bless you, bless you, burnie bee;
+ Say, when will your wedding be?
+ If it be to-morrow day,
+ Take your wings and fly away.
+
+
+
+12
+
+ Bobby Shafto's gone to sea,
+ With silver buckles at his knee;
+ He'll come back and marry me,--
+ Pretty Bobby Shafto!
+
+ Bobby Shafto's fat and fair,
+ Combing out his yellow hair,
+ He's my love for evermore,--
+ Pretty Bobby Shafto!
+
+
+
+13
+
+ Bow, wow, wow,
+ Whose dog art thou?
+ Little Tom Tinker's dog,
+ Bow, wow, wow.
+
+
+
+14
+
+ Bye, baby bunting,
+ Daddy's gone a-hunting,
+ To get a little rabbit skin
+ To wrap the baby bunting in.
+
+
+
+15
+
+ Come when you're called,
+ Do what you're bid,
+ Shut the door after you,
+ Never be chid.
+
+
+
+16
+
+ Cross patch,
+ Draw the latch,
+ And sit by the fire and spin;
+ Take a cup,
+ And drink it up,
+ Then call your neighbors in.
+
+
+
+17
+
+ Curly locks! curly locks! wilt thou be mine?
+ Thou shalt not wash the dishes, nor yet feed the swine.
+ But sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam,
+ And feed upon strawberries, sugar, and cream!
+
+
+
+18
+
+ Dance, little baby, dance up high,
+ Never mind, baby, mother is by;
+ Crow and caper, caper and crow,
+ There, little baby, there you go;
+
+ Up to the ceiling, down to the ground,
+ Backward and forward, round and round;
+ Dance, little baby, and mother will sing,
+ With the merry coral, ding, ding, ding!
+
+
+
+19
+
+ Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John,
+ He went to bed with his stockings on;
+ One shoe off, the other shoe on,
+ Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John.
+
+
+
+20
+
+ Ding, dong, bell!
+ Pussy's in the well.
+ Who put her in?
+ Little Tommy Green.
+ Who pulled her out?
+ Little Johnny Stout.
+ What a naughty boy was that,
+ To drown the poor, poor pussy-cat,
+ Who never did him any harm,
+ But killed the mice in his father's barn.
+
+
+
+21
+
+ Doctor Foster
+ Went to Glo'ster,
+ In a shower of rain;
+ He stepped in a puddle,
+ Up to his middle,
+ And never went there again.
+
+
+
+22
+
+ Eggs, butter, cheese, bread,
+ Stick, stock, stone dead,
+ Stick him up, stick him down,
+ Stick him in the old man's crown.
+
+
+
+23
+
+ For every evil under the sun,
+ There is a remedy, or there is none.
+ If there be one, try to find it,
+ If there be none, never mind it.
+
+
+
+24
+
+ Four-and-twenty tailors went to kill a snail,
+ The bravest man among them dursn't touch her tail;
+ The snail put out her horns, like a little Kyloe cow,
+ Run, tailors, run, or she'll kill you all e'en now.
+
+
+
+25
+
+ Great A, little a,
+ Bouncing B!
+ The cat's in the cupboard,
+ And she can't see.
+
+
+
+26
+
+ Hark, hark,
+ The dogs do bark,
+ The beggars are coming to town:
+ Some in tags,
+ Some in rags,
+ And some in velvet gowns.
+
+
+
+27
+
+ Here sits the Lord Mayor, (_touching forehead_)
+ Here sit his two men, (_eyes_)
+ Here sits the cock, (_right cheek_)
+ Here sits the hen, (_left cheek_)
+ Here sit the little chickens, (_tip of nose_)
+ Here they all run in; (_mouth_)
+ Chinchopper, chinchopper,
+ Chinchopper chin! (_chuck the chin_)
+
+
+
+28
+
+ Here we go up, up, up,
+ And here we go down, down, down;
+ And here we go backwards and forwards,
+ And here we go round, round, round.
+
+
+
+29
+
+ Given as usually known to children. In some
+ older versions the word "craft" was used
+ instead of "sport," thus making a rhyme. There
+ is an old story of an overly serious parent who
+ was greatly disturbed by the evident
+ exaggerations in this jingle. After calling the
+ attention of his children to the offensive
+ improbabilities, the good man suggested the
+ following "revised version."
+
+ Hey diddle diddle,
+ The cat and the fiddle,
+ The cow jumped _under_ the moon;
+ The little dog _barked_,
+ To see the sport,
+ And the _cat_ ran after the spoon!
+
+ Hey! diddle, diddle,
+ The cat and the fiddle,
+ The cow jumped over the moon;
+ The little dog laughed
+ To see such sport,
+ And the dish ran away with the spoon.
+
+
+
+30
+
+ Hickery, dickery, 6 and 7,
+ Alabone Crackabone, 10 and 11,
+ Spin, span, muskidan;
+ Twiddle 'um, twaddle 'um, 21.
+
+
+
+31
+
+ Higgledy, Piggledy,
+ My black hen,
+ She lays eggs
+ For gentlemen;
+ Sometimes nine,
+ And sometimes ten,
+ Higgledy, Piggledy,
+ My black hen!
+
+
+
+32
+
+ Hickory, dickory, dock,
+ The mouse ran up the clock,
+ The clock struck one,
+ The mouse ran down;
+ Hickory, dickory, dock.
+
+
+
+33
+
+ Hogs in the garden, catch 'em, Towser.
+ Cows in the cornfield, run, boys, run;
+ Cats in the cream-pot, run, girls, run, girls;
+ Fire on the mountains, run, boys, run.
+
+
+
+34
+
+ Hot-cross buns!
+ Hot-cross buns!
+ One a penny, two a penny,
+ Hot-cross buns!
+
+ Hot-cross buns!
+ Hot-cross buns!
+ If you have no daughters,
+ Give them to your sons.
+
+
+
+35
+
+ Hub a dub dub,
+ Three men in a tub;
+ The butcher, the baker,
+ The candlestick-maker,
+ They all fell out of a rotten potato.
+
+
+
+36
+
+ Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
+ Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
+ Threescore men and threescore more
+ Cannot place Humpty Dumpty as he was before.
+ (_An egg._)
+
+
+
+37
+
+ If all the sea were one sea,
+ What a _great_ sea that would be!
+ And if all the trees were one tree,
+ What a _great_ tree that would be!
+ And if all the axes were one axe,
+ What a _great_ axe that would be!
+ And if all the men were one man,
+ What a _great_ man he would be!
+ And if the _great_ man took the _great_ axe,
+ And cut down the _great_ tree,
+ And let it fall into the _great_ sea,
+ What a splish splash _that_ would be!
+
+
+
+38
+
+ If all the world was apple-pie,
+ And all the sea was ink,
+ And all the trees were bread and cheese,
+ What should we have for drink?
+
+
+
+39
+
+ If I'd as much money as I could spend,
+ I never would cry, "Old chairs to mend!
+ Old chairs to mend! Old chairs to mend!"
+ I never would cry, "Old chairs to mend!"
+ If I'd as much money as I could tell,
+ I never would cry, "Old clothes to sell!
+ Old clothes to sell! Old clothes to sell!"
+ I never would cry, "Old clothes to sell!"
+
+
+
+40
+
+ If "ifs" and "ands"
+ Were pots and pans,
+ There would be no need for tinkers!
+
+
+
+41
+
+ If wishes were horses,
+ Beggars might ride;
+ If turnips were watches,
+ I'd wear one by my side.
+
+
+
+42
+
+ I had a little pony,
+ His name was Dapple-gray,
+ I lent him to a lady,
+ To ride a mile away;
+ She whipped him, she slashed him,
+ She rode him through the mire;
+ I would not lend my pony now
+ For all that lady's hire.
+
+
+
+43
+
+ I had a little hobby horse,
+ His name was Tommy Gray,
+ His head was made of pease straw,
+ His body made of hay;
+ I saddled him and bridled him,
+ And rode him up to town,
+ There came a little puff of wind
+ And blew him up and down.
+
+
+
+44
+
+ I have a little sister, they call her peep, peep;
+ She wades the waters deep, deep, deep;
+ She climbs the mountains high, high, high;
+ Poor little creature, she has but one eye.
+ (_A star._)
+
+
+
+45
+
+ I'll tell you a story
+ Of Jack-a-Nory,
+ And now my story's begun.
+ I'll tell you another
+ About Jack's brother,
+ And now my story is done.
+
+
+
+46
+
+ In marble walls as white as milk,
+ Lined with a skin as soft as silk;
+ Within a fountain crystal clear,
+ A golden apple doth appear.
+ No doors there are to this stronghold,
+ Yet thieves break in and steal the gold.
+ (_An egg._)
+
+
+
+47
+
+ 1. I went up one pair of stairs.
+ 2. Just like me.
+ 1. I went up two pair of stairs.
+ 2. Just like me.
+ 1. I went into a room.
+ 2. Just like me.
+ 1. I looked out of a window.
+ 2. Just like me.
+ 1. And there I saw a monkey.
+ 2. Just like me.
+
+
+
+48
+
+ Jack and Jill went up the hill,
+ To fetch a pail of water;
+ Jack fell down, and broke his crown,
+ And Jill came tumbling after.
+
+
+
+49
+
+ Jack be nimble,
+ Jack be quick,
+ Jack jump over the candlestick.
+
+
+
+50
+
+ Jack Sprat could eat no fat,
+ His wife could eat no lean;
+ And so between them both, you see,
+ They licked the platter clean.
+
+
+
+51
+
+ Knock at the door, (_forehead_)
+ And peep in, (_lift eyelids_)
+ Open the door, (_mouth_)
+ And walk in.
+ Chinchopper, chinchopper,
+ Chinchopper chin!
+
+
+
+52
+
+ These lines, common in similar form to many
+ countries, are said by children when they throw
+ the beautiful little insect into the air to
+ make it take flight.
+
+ Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home,
+ Your house is on fire, your children all gone;
+ All but one, and her name is Ann,
+ And she crept under the pudding-pan.
+
+
+
+53
+
+ Little boy blue, come blow your horn,
+ The sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn;
+ Where is the boy that looks after the sheep?
+ He's under the haycock fast asleep.
+ Will you wake him? No, not I;
+ For if I do, he'll be sure to cry.
+
+
+
+54
+
+ Little girl, little girl, where have you been?
+ Gathering roses to give to the queen.
+ Little girl, little girl, what gave she you?
+ She gave me a diamond as big as my shoe.
+
+
+
+55
+
+ Little Jack Horner
+ Sat in a corner,
+ Eating his Christmas pie.
+ He put in his thumb,
+ And he pulled out a plum,
+ And said, "What a good boy am I!"
+
+
+
+56
+
+ Little Jack Jingle,
+ He used to live single,
+ But when he got tired of this kind of life,
+ He left off being single and lived with his wife.
+
+
+
+57
+
+ Little Johnny Pringle had a little pig;
+ It was very little, so was not very big.
+ As it was playing beneath the shed,
+ In half a minute poor Piggie was dead.
+ So Johnny Pringle he sat down and cried,
+ And Betty Pringle she lay down and died.
+ This is the history of one, two, and three,
+ Johnny Pringle he,
+ Betty Pringle she,
+ And the Piggie-Wiggie.
+
+
+
+58
+
+ Little Miss Muffet
+ Sat on a tuffet,
+ Eating of curds and whey;
+ There came a great spider,
+ And sat down beside her,
+ And frightened Miss Muffet away.
+
+
+
+59
+
+ Little Nancy Etticoat,
+ In a white petticoat,
+ And a red nose;
+ The longer she stands,
+ The shorter she grows.
+ (_A candle._)
+
+
+
+60
+
+ Little Robin Redbreast
+ Sat upon a rail;
+ Niddle naddle went his head,
+ Wiggle waggle went his tail.
+
+
+
+61
+
+ Little Tommy Tucker
+ Sings for his supper;
+ What shall he eat?
+ White bread and butter.
+ How shall he cut it
+ Without e'er a knife?
+ How will he be married
+ Without e'er a wife?
+
+
+
+62
+
+ Long legs, crooked thighs,
+ Little head and no eyes.
+ (_The tongs._)
+
+
+
+63
+
+ Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
+ Kitty Fisher found it:
+ Nothing in it, nothing in it,
+ But the binding round it.
+
+
+
+64
+
+ Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
+ Guard the bed that I lie on!
+ Four corners to my bed,
+ Four angels round my head;
+ One to watch, one to pray,
+ And two to bear my soul away.
+
+
+
+65
+
+ Mistress Mary, quite contrary,
+ How does your garden grow?
+ With cockle-shells, and silver bells,
+ And pretty maids all in a row.
+
+
+
+66
+
+ Multiplication is vexation,
+ Division is as bad;
+ The Rule of Three perplexes me,
+ And Practice drives me mad.
+
+
+
+67
+
+ Needles and pins, needles and pins,
+ When a man marries his trouble begins.
+
+
+
+68
+
+ Old King Cole
+ Was a merry old soul,
+ And a merry old soul was he;
+ He called for his pipe,
+ And he called for his bowl,
+ And he called for his fiddlers three.
+ Every fiddler, he had a fine fiddle,
+ And a very fine fiddle had he;
+ Twee tweedle dee, tweedle dee, went the fiddlers.
+ Oh, there's one so rare,
+ As can compare
+ With old King Cole and his fiddlers three!
+
+
+
+69
+
+ Once I saw a little bird
+ Come hop, hop, hop;
+ So I cried, "Little bird,
+ Will you stop, stop, stop?"
+ And was going to the window
+ To say, "How do you do?"
+ But he shook his little tail,
+ And far away he flew.
+
+
+
+70
+
+ One for the money,
+ And two for the show;
+ Three to make ready,
+ And four to go.
+
+
+
+71
+
+ One misty, moisty morning,
+ When cloudy was the weather,
+ I chanced to meet an old man
+ Clothed all in leather,
+ He began to compliment,
+ And I began to grin,--
+ "How do you do," and "How do you do,"
+ And "How do you do" again!
+
+
+
+72
+
+ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!
+ I caught a hare alive;
+ 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!
+ I let her go again.
+
+
+
+73
+
+ One, two,
+ Buckle my shoe;
+ Three, four,
+ Shut the door;
+ Five, six,
+ Pick up sticks;
+ Seven, eight,
+ Lay them straight;
+ Nine, ten,
+ A good fat hen;
+ Eleven, twelve,
+ Who will delve?
+ Thirteen, fourteen,
+ Maids a-courting;
+ Fifteen, sixteen,
+ Maids a-kissing;
+ Seventeen, eighteen,
+ Maids a-waiting;
+ Nineteen, twenty,
+ My stomach's empty.
+
+
+
+74
+
+ Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man!
+ So I will, master, as fast as I can:
+ Pat it, and prick it, and mark it with T,
+ Put it in the oven for Tommy and me.
+
+
+
+75
+
+ Pease-porridge hot,
+ Pease-porridge cold,
+ Pease-porridge in the pot,
+ Nine days old;
+ Some like it hot,
+ Some like it cold,
+ Some like it in the pot,
+ Nine days old.
+
+
+
+76
+
+ Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater,
+ Had a wife and couldn't keep her;
+ He put her in a pumpkin-shell,
+ And there he kept her very well.
+
+
+
+77
+
+ Halliwell suggests that "off a pewter plate" is
+ sometimes added at the end of each line. This
+ rhyme is famous as a "tongue twister," or
+ enunciation exercise.
+
+ Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers;
+ A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
+ If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
+ Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
+
+
+
+78
+
+ Poor old Robinson Crusoe!
+ Poor old Robinson Crusoe!
+ They made him a coat,
+ Of an old nanny goat,
+ I wonder how they could do so!
+ With a ring a ting tang,
+ And a ring a ting tang,
+ Poor old Robinson Crusoe!
+
+
+
+79
+
+ Pussy-cat, pussy-cat, where have you been?
+ I've been to London to see the Queen.
+ Pussy-cat, pussy-cat, what did you there?
+ I frightened a little mouse under the chair.
+
+
+
+80
+
+ Pussy sits beside the fire;
+ How can she be fair?
+ In comes the little dog,
+ "Pussy, are you there?
+ So, so, dear Mistress Pussy,
+ Pray tell me how do you do?"
+ "Thank you, thank you, little dog,
+ I'm very well just now."
+
+
+
+81
+
+ Ride a cock-horse to Banbury-cross,
+ To see an old lady upon a white horse,
+ Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
+ And so she makes music wherever she goes.
+
+
+
+82
+
+ Ride, baby, ride!
+ Pretty baby shall ride,
+ And have a little puppy-dog tied to her side;
+ And one little pussy-cat tied to the other,
+ And away she shall ride to see her grandmother,
+ To see her grandmother,
+ To see her grandmother.
+
+
+
+83
+
+ Rock-a-bye, baby,
+ On the tree top,
+ When the wind blows
+ The cradle will rock;
+ When the bough breaks
+ The cradle will fall,
+ Down will come baby,
+ Bough, cradle, and all.
+
+
+
+84
+
+ Rock-a-bye, baby, thy cradle is green;
+ Father's a nobleman, mother's a queen;
+ And Betty's a lady, and wears a gold ring;
+ And Johnny's a drummer, and drums for the king.
+
+
+
+85
+
+ See a pin and pick it up,
+ All the day you'll have good luck;
+ See a pin and let it lay,
+ Bad luck you'll have all the day!
+
+
+
+86
+
+ See, saw, sacradown,
+ Which is the way to London town?
+ One foot up, the other foot down,
+ And that is the way to London town.
+
+
+
+87
+
+ Shoe the little horse,
+ And shoe the little mare,
+ And let the little colt
+ Run bare, bare, bare.
+
+
+
+88
+
+ Sing a song of sixpence,
+ A pocket full of rye;
+ Four and twenty blackbirds
+ Baked in a pie;
+ When the pie was opened,
+ The birds began to sing;
+ Was not that a dainty dish
+ To set before the king?
+
+ The king was in his counting-house
+ Counting out his money;
+ The queen was in the parlor
+ Eating bread and honey;
+
+ The maid was in the garden
+ Hanging out the clothes,
+ When along came a blackbird,
+ And pecked off her nose.
+
+ Jenny was so mad,
+ She didn't know what to do;
+ She put her finger in her ear,
+ And cracked it right in two.
+
+
+
+89
+
+ Star light, star bright,
+ First star I see to-night;
+ I wish I may, I wish I might,
+ Have the wish I wish to-night.
+
+
+
+90
+
+ The King of France went up the hill,
+ With twenty thousand men;
+ The King of France came down the hill,
+ And ne'er went up again.
+
+
+
+91
+
+ The lion and the unicorn
+ Were fighting for the crown;
+ The lion beat the unicorn
+ All round about the town.
+ Some gave them white bread,
+ And some gave them brown,
+ Some gave them plumcake,
+ And sent them out of town.
+
+
+
+92
+
+ The man in the moon
+ Came tumbling down,
+ And asked the way to Norwich;
+ He went by the south
+ And burned his mouth
+ With supping cold pease porridge.
+
+
+
+93
+
+ The north wind doth blow,
+ And we shall have snow,
+ And what will the robin do then?
+ Poor thing!
+
+ He will sit in a barn,
+ And to keep himself warm,
+ Will hide his head under his wing,
+ Poor thing!
+
+
+
+94
+
+ The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts,
+ All on a summer's day.
+ The Knave of Hearts he stole those tarts,
+ And hid them clean away.
+ The King of Hearts he missed those tarts,
+ And beat the Knave right sore,
+ The Knave of Hearts brought back the tarts,
+ And vowed he'd steal no more.
+
+
+
+95
+
+ There was a crooked man, and he went a crooked mile,
+ And found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile:
+ He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
+ And they all lived together in a little crooked house.
+
+
+
+96
+
+ There was a little boy went into a barn,
+ And lay down on some hay;
+ An owl came out and flew about,
+ And the little boy ran away.
+
+
+
+97
+
+ There was a man and he had naught,
+ And robbers came to rob him;
+ He crept up to the chimney top,
+ And then they thought they had him;
+ But he got down on t'other side,
+ And then they could not find him:
+ He ran fourteen miles in fifteen days,
+ And never looked behind him.
+
+
+
+98
+
+ There was a man in our town,
+ And he was wondrous wise;
+ He jumped into a briar bush,
+ And scratched out both his eyes:
+ And when he saw his eyes were out,
+ With all his might and main
+ He jumped into another bush,
+ And scratched 'em in again.
+
+
+
+99
+
+ There was an old man,
+ And he had a calf,
+ And that's half;
+ He took him out of the stall,
+ And put him on the wall;
+ And that's all.
+
+
+
+100
+
+ There was an old woman, and what do you think?
+ She lived upon nothing but victuals and drink:
+ Victuals and drink were the chief of her diet;
+ Yet this little old woman could never keep quiet.
+
+ She went to the baker, to buy her some bread,
+ And when she came home, her old husband was dead;
+ She went to the clerk to toll the bell,
+ And when she came back her old husband was well.
+
+
+
+101
+
+ There was an old woman lived under a hill,
+ And if she's not gone, she lives there still.
+ She put a mouse in a bag and sent it to mill;
+ The miller he swore by the point of his knife,
+ He never took toll of a mouse in his life.
+
+
+
+102
+
+ There was an old woman of Leeds,
+ Who spent all her time in good deeds;
+ She worked for the poor,
+ Till her fingers were sore,
+ This pious old woman of Leeds!
+
+
+
+103
+
+ There was an old woman of Norwich,
+ Who lived upon nothing but porridge!
+ Parading the town,
+ She turned cloak into gown!
+ This thrifty old woman of Norwich.
+
+
+
+104
+
+ There was an old woman tossed up in a basket
+ Nineteen times as high as the moon;
+ Where she was going I couldn't but ask it,
+ For in her hand she carried a broom.
+
+ "Old woman, old woman, old woman," quoth I,
+ "O whither, O whither, O whither, so high?"
+ "To brush the cobwebs off the sky!"
+ "Shall I go with thee?" "Aye, by and by."
+
+
+
+105
+
+ There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
+ She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.
+ She gave them some broth without any bread,
+ Then whipped them all soundly, and put them to bed.
+
+
+
+106
+
+ There was an owl lived in an oak,
+ Wisky, wasky, weedle;
+ And every word he ever spoke,
+ Was fiddle, faddle, feedle.
+
+ A gunner chanced to come that way,
+ Wisky, wasky, weedle;
+ Says he, "I'll shoot you, silly bird,"
+ Fiddle, faddle, feedle.
+
+
+
+107
+
+ This is the way the ladies ride;
+ Tri, tre, tre, tree, tri, tre, tre, tree!
+ This is the way the ladies ride,
+ Tri, tre, tre, tree, tri, tre, tre, tree!
+
+ This is the way the gentlemen ride;
+ Gallop-a-trot, gallop-a-trot!
+ This is the way the gentlemen ride,
+ Gallop-a-trot-a-trot!
+
+ This is the way the farmers ride;
+ Hobbledy-hoy, hobbledy-hoy!
+ This is the way the farmers ride,
+ Hobbledy-hobbledy-hoy!
+
+
+
+108
+
+ 1. This little pig went to market;
+ 2. This little pig stayed at home;
+ 3. This little pig had roast beef;
+ 4. And this little pig had none;
+ 5. This little pig said, "Wee, wee, wee!
+ I can't find my way home."
+
+
+
+109
+
+ Three blind mice! see, how they run!
+ They all ran after the farmer's wife,
+ Who cut off their tails with the carving knife!
+ Did you ever see such a thing in your life?
+ Three blind mice!
+
+
+
+110
+
+ Three wise men of Gotham
+ Went to sea in a bowl;
+ If the bowl had been stronger,
+ My song would have been longer.
+
+
+
+111
+
+ To market, to market, to buy a fat pig,
+ Home again, home again, dancing a jig;
+ To market, to market, to buy a fat hog,
+ Home again, home again, jiggety-jog;
+ To market, to market, to buy a plum bun.
+ Home again, home again, market is done.
+
+
+
+112
+
+ Tom, Tom, the piper's son,
+ Stole a pig and away he run!
+ The pig was eat, and Tom was beat,
+ And Tom went roaring down the street!
+
+
+
+113
+
+ Two-legs sat upon three-legs,
+ With one-leg in his lap;
+ In comes four-legs
+ And runs away with one-leg;
+ Up jumps two-legs,
+ Catches up three-legs,
+ Throws it after four-legs,
+ And makes him bring one-leg back.
+
+ (_One-leg is a leg of mutton;
+ two-legs, a man; three-legs,
+ a stool; four-legs, a dog._)
+
+
+
+114
+
+ The following is another good "tongue twister"
+ (see No. 77). It is recommended for the little
+ lisper, and in former days it was recommended
+ as a sure cure for the hiccoughs.
+
+ When a twister a-twisting would twist him a twist,
+ For twisting a twist three twists he will twist;
+ But if one of the twists untwists from the twist,
+ The twist untwisting untwists the twist.
+
+
+
+115
+
+ "Willy boy, Willy boy, where are you going?
+ I will go with you, if I may."
+
+ "I am going to the meadow to see them a-mowing,
+ I am going to see them make the hay."
+
+
+
+116
+
+ No. 116 and the two rhymes following are by
+ Miss Wilhelmina Seegmiller. (By permission of
+ the publishers, Rand McNally & Co., Chicago.)
+ Their presence will allow teachers to compare
+ some widely and successfully used modern
+ efforts with the traditional jingles in the
+ midst of which they are placed.
+
+
+MILKWEED SEEDS
+
+ As white as milk,
+ As soft as silk,
+ And hundreds close together:
+ They sail away,
+ On an autumn day,
+ When windy is the weather.
+
+
+
+117
+
+ AN ANNIVERSARY
+
+ Pop! fizz! bang! whizz!
+ Don't you know what day this is?
+
+ Fizz! bang! whizz! pop!
+ Hurrah for the Fourth! and hippity-hop!
+
+
+
+118
+
+ TWINK! TWINK!
+
+ Twink, twink, twink, twink,
+ Twinkety, twinkety, twink!
+ The fireflies light their lanterns,
+ Then put them out in a wink.
+
+ Twink, twink, twink, twink,
+ They light their light once more,
+ Then twinkety, twinkety, twink, twink,
+ They put them out as before.
+
+
+ Nos. 119-146 are in the main the longer nursery
+ favorites and may somewhat loosely be called
+ the novels and epics of the nursery as the
+ former group may be called the lyrics and short
+ stories. All of them are marked by dramatic
+ power, a necessary element in all true classics
+ for children whether in verse or prose. Nos.
+ 119 and 120 are two of the favorite jingles
+ used in teaching the alphabet. Each letter
+ suggests a distinct image. In No. 119 the
+ images are all of actions, and connected by the
+ direction of these actions upon a single
+ object. In No. 120 the images are each complete
+ and independent. Here it may be noticed that
+ some of the elements of the pictures are
+ determined by the exigencies of rhyme, as, for
+ instance, what the archer shot at, and what the
+ lady had. The originator doubtless expected the
+ child to see the relation of cause and
+ consequence between Y and Z.
+
+
+
+119
+
+ A WAS AN APPLE-PIE
+
+ A was an apple-pie;
+ B bit it;
+ C cut it;
+ D dealt it;
+ E eat it;
+ F fought for it;
+ G got it;
+ H had it;
+ J joined it:
+ K kept it;
+ L longed for it;
+ M mourned for it;
+ N nodded at it;
+ O opened it;
+ P peeped in it;
+ Q quartered it;
+ R ran for it;
+ S stole it;
+ T took it;
+ V viewed it;
+ W wanted it;
+ X, Y, Z, and Ampersand (&)
+ All wished for a piece in hand.
+
+
+
+120
+
+TOM THUMB'S ALPHABET
+
+ A was an archer, and shot at a frog;
+ B was a butcher, and kept a bull-dog.
+
+ C was a captain, all covered with lace;
+ D was a drunkard, and had a red face.
+
+ E was an esquire, with insolent brow;
+ F was a farmer, and followed the plough.
+
+ G was a gamester, who had but ill luck;
+ H was a hunter, and hunted a buck.
+
+ I was an innkeeper, who loved to carouse;
+ J was a joiner, and built up a house.
+
+ K was a king, so mighty and grand;
+ L was a lady, who had a white hand.
+
+ M was a miser, and hoarded up gold;
+ N was a nobleman, gallant and bold.
+
+ O was an oyster girl, and went about town;
+ P was a parson, and wore a black gown.
+
+ Q was a queen, who sailed in a ship;
+ R was a robber, and wanted a whip.
+
+ S was a sailor, and spent all he got;
+ T was a tinker, and mended a pot.
+
+ U was an usurer, a miserable elf;
+ V was a vintner, who drank all himself.
+
+ W was a watchman, and guarded the door;
+ X was expensive, and so became poor.
+
+ Y was a youth, that did not love school;
+ Z was a zany, a poor harmless fool.
+
+
+
+121
+
+
+WHERE ARE YOU GOING
+
+ Where are you going, my pretty maid?
+ "I'm going a-milking, sir," she said.
+ May I go with you, my pretty maid?
+ "You're kindly welcome, sir," she said.
+ What is your father, my pretty maid?
+ "My father's a farmer, sir," she said.
+ What is your fortune, my pretty maid?
+ "My face is my fortune, sir," she said.
+ Then I can't marry you, my pretty maid.
+ "Nobody asked you, sir," she said.
+
+
+
+122
+
+
+MOLLY AND I
+
+ Molly, my sister, and I fell out,
+ And what do you think it was about?
+ She loved coffee, and I loved tea,
+ And that was the reason we couldn't agree.
+ But Molly, my sister, and I made up,
+ And now together we can sup,
+ For Molly drinks coffee, and I drink tea,
+ And we both are happy as happy can be.
+
+
+
+123
+
+
+ LONDON BRIDGE
+
+ London bridge is broken down,
+ Dance o'er my lady Lee;
+ London bridge is broken down,
+ With a gay lady.
+
+ How shall we build it up again?
+ Dance o'er my lady Lee;
+ How shall we build it up again?
+ With a gay lady.
+
+ Build it up with silver and gold,
+ Dance o'er my lady Lee;
+ Build it up with silver and gold,
+ With a gay lady.
+
+ Silver and gold will be stole away,
+ Dance o'er my lady Lee;
+ Silver and gold will be stole away,
+ With a gay lady.
+
+ Build it again with iron and steel,
+ Dance o'er my lady Lee;
+ Build it up with iron and steel,
+ With a gay lady.
+
+ Iron and steel will bend and bow,
+ Dance o'er my lady Lee;
+ Iron and steel will bend and bow,
+ With a gay lady.
+
+ Build it up with wood and clay,
+ Dance o'er my lady Lee;
+ Build it up with wood and clay,
+ With a gay lady.
+
+ Wood and clay will wash away,
+ Dance o'er my lady Lee;
+ Wood and clay will wash away,
+ With a gay lady.
+
+ Build it up with stone so strong,
+ Dance o'er my lady Lee;
+ Huzza! 'twill last for ages long,
+ With a gay lady.
+
+
+
+124
+
+
+I SAW A SHIP
+
+ I saw a ship a-sailing,
+ A-sailing on the sea;
+ And oh, it was all laden
+ With pretty things for thee!
+
+ There were comfits in the cabin,
+ And apples in the hold;
+ The sails were made of silk,
+ And the masts were made of gold!
+
+ The four and twenty sailors,
+ That stood between the decks,
+ Were four and twenty white mice,
+ With chains about their necks.
+
+ The captain was a duck,
+ With a packet on his back;
+ And when the ship began to move,
+ The captain said, "Quack! Quack!"
+
+
+
+125
+
+
+THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN
+
+ There was an old woman, as I've heard tell,
+ She went to market her eggs for to sell;
+ She went to market all on a market-day,
+ And she fell asleep on the king's highway.
+
+ By came a pedlar whose name was Stout,
+ He cut her petticoats all round about;
+ He cut her petticoats up to her knees,
+ Which made the old woman to shiver and freeze.
+
+ When this little woman first did wake,
+ She began to shiver and she began to shake,
+ She began to wonder, and she began to cry,
+ "Lauk a mercy on me, this is none of I!
+
+ "But if it be I, as I do hope it be,
+ I've a little dog at home, and he'll know me;
+ If it be I, he'll wag his little tail,
+ And if it be not I, he'll loudly bark and wail."
+
+ Home went the little woman all in the dark,
+ Up got the little dog, and he began to bark;
+ He began to bark, so she began to cry,
+ "Lauk a mercy on me, this is none of I!"
+
+
+
+126
+
+LITTLE BO-PEEP
+
+ Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep,
+ And can't tell where to find them;
+ Leave them alone, and they'll come home,
+ And bring their tails behind them.
+
+ Little Bo-peep fell fast asleep,
+ And dreamt she heard them bleating;
+ But when she awoke, she found it a joke,
+ For they were still all fleeting.
+
+ Then up she took her little crook,
+ Determined for to find them;
+ She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
+ For they'd left their tails behind them.
+
+ It happened one day, as Bo-peep did stray,
+ Unto a meadow hard by:
+ There she espied their tails side by side,
+ All hung on a tree to dry.
+
+
+
+127
+
+
+COCK A DOODLE DOO
+
+ Cock a doodle doo!
+ My dame has lost her shoe;
+ My master's lost his fiddling stick,
+ And don't know what to do.
+
+ Cock a doodle doo!
+ What is my dame to do?
+ Till master finds his fiddling stick,
+ She'll dance without her shoe.
+
+ Cock a doodle doo!
+ My dame has found her shoe,
+ And master's found his fiddling stick,
+ Sing doodle doodle doo!
+
+ Cock a doodle doo!
+ My dame will dance with you,
+ While master fiddles his fiddling stick,
+ For dame and doodle doo.
+
+
+
+128
+
+
+THREE JOVIAL HUNTSMEN
+
+ There were three jovial huntsmen,
+ As I have heard them say,
+ And they would go a-hunting
+ All on a summer's day.
+
+ All the day they hunted,
+ And nothing could they find
+ But a ship a-sailing,
+ A-sailing with the wind.
+
+ One said it was a ship,
+ The other he said nay;
+ The third said it was a house
+ With the chimney blown away.
+
+ And all the night they hunted,
+ And nothing could they find,
+ But the moon a-gliding,
+ A-gliding with the wind.
+
+ One said it was the moon,
+ The other he said nay;
+ The third said it was a cheese,
+ And half o't cut away.
+
+
+
+129
+
+
+THERE WAS A LITTLE MAN
+
+ There was a little man,
+ And he had a little gun,
+ And his bullets were made of lead, lead, lead;
+ He went to a brook,
+ And fired at a duck,
+ And shot it through the head, head, head.
+ He carried it home
+ To his old wife Joan,
+ And bade her a fire to make, make, make,
+ To roast the little duck,
+ He had shot in the brook,
+ And he'd go and fetch her the drake, drake, drake.
+
+ The drake was a-swimming,
+ With his curly tail;
+ The little man made it his mark, mark, mark!
+ He let off his gun,
+ But he fired too soon,
+ And the drake flew away with a quack, quack, quack.
+
+
+
+130
+
+
+TAFFY
+
+ Taffy was a Welshman;
+ Taffy was a thief;
+ Taffy came to my house,
+ And stole a piece of beef.
+ I went to Taffy's house;
+ Taffy wasn't home;
+ Taffy came to my house,
+ And stole a marrow-bone.
+ I went to Taffy's house;
+ Taffy was in bed;
+ I took up the marrow-bone
+ And flung it at his head!
+
+
+
+131
+
+
+SIMPLE SIMON
+
+ Simple Simon met a pieman
+ Going to the fair:
+ Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
+ "Let me taste your ware."
+
+ Says the pieman to Simple Simon,
+ "Show me first your penny."
+ Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
+ "Indeed I haven't any."
+
+ Simple Simon went a fishing
+ Just to catch a whale:
+ All the water he had got
+ Was in his mother's pail.
+
+ Simple Simon went to look
+ If plums grew on a thistle;
+ He pricked his fingers very much,
+ Which made poor Simon whistle.
+
+
+
+132
+
+
+A FARMER WENT TROTTING
+
+ A farmer went trotting upon his gray mare,
+ Bumpety, bumpety, bump!
+ With his daughter behind him so rosy and fair,
+ Lumpety, lumpety, lump!
+
+ A raven cried "Croak!" and they all tumbled down,
+ Bumpety, bumpety, bump!
+ The mare broke her knees, and the farmer his crown,
+ Lumpety, lumpety, lump!
+
+ The mischievous raven flew laughing away,
+ Bumpety, bumpety, bump!
+ And vowed he would serve them the same the next day,
+ Lumpety, lumpety, lump!
+
+
+
+133
+
+TOM THE PIPER'S SON
+
+ Tom he was a piper's son,
+ He learned to play when he was young,
+ But all the tunes that he could play,
+ Was "Over the hills and far away";
+ _Over the hills, and a great way off,_
+ _And the wind will blow my top-knot off._
+
+ Now Tom with his pipe made such a noise,
+ That he pleased both the girls and boys,
+ And they stopped to hear him play,
+ "Over the hills and far away."
+
+ Tom with his pipe did play with such skill,
+ That those who heard him could never keep still;
+ Whenever they heard him they began to dance,
+ Even pigs on their hind legs would after him prance.
+
+ As Dolly was milking her cow one day,
+ Tom took out his pipe and began to play;
+ So Doll and the cow danced "the Cheshire round,"
+ Till the pail was broke and the milk ran on the ground.
+
+ He met old dame Trot with a basket of eggs,
+ He used his pipes and she used her legs;
+ She danced about till the eggs were all broke,
+ She began for to fret, but he laughed at the joke.
+
+ He saw a cross fellow was beating an ass,
+ Heavy laden with pots, pans, dishes, and glass;
+ He took out his pipe and played them a tune,
+ And the jackass's load was lightened full soon.
+
+
+
+134
+
+
+WHEN I WAS A LITTLE BOY
+
+ When I was a little boy,
+ I lived by myself,
+ And all the bread and cheese I got,
+ I put upon my shelf.
+
+ The rats and the mice,
+ They made such a strife,
+ I had to go to London
+ To buy me a wife.
+
+ The streets were so broad,
+ And the lanes were so narrow,
+ I had to bring my wife home
+ On a wheelbarrow.
+
+ The wheelbarrow broke,
+ And my wife had a fall;
+ Down tumbled wheelbarrow,
+ Little wife and all.
+
+
+
+135
+
+
+THE BABES IN THE WOOD
+
+ My dear, you must know that a long time ago,
+ Two poor little children whose names I don't know,
+ Were stolen away on a fine summer's day,
+ And left in a wood, as I've heard people say.
+ _Poor babes in the wood, poor babes in the wood!_
+ _So hard was the fate of the babes in the wood._
+
+ And when it was night, so sad was their plight,
+ The sun it went down, and the stars gave no light.
+ They sobbed and they sighed, and they bitterly cried,
+ And the poor little things they lay down and died.
+
+ And when they were dead, the robins so red,
+ Brought strawberry leaves, and over them spread.
+ And all the day long, the branches among,
+ They sang to them softly, and this was their song:
+ _Poor babes in the wood, poor babes in the wood!_
+ _So hard was the fate of the babes in the wood._
+
+
+
+136
+
+
+THE FOX AND HIS WIFE
+
+ The fox and his wife they had a great strife,
+ They never ate mustard in all their whole life;
+ They ate their meat without fork or knife,
+ And loved to be picking a bone, e-oh!
+
+ The fox jumped up on a moonlight night;
+ The stars they were shining, and all things bright;
+ Oh, ho! said the fox, it's a very fine night
+ For me to go through the town, e-oh!
+
+ The fox when he came to yonder stile,
+ He lifted his ears and he listened awhile!
+ Oh, ho! said the fox, it's but a short mile
+ From this unto yonder wee town, e-oh!
+
+ The fox when he came to the farmer's gate,
+ Who should he see but the farmer's drake;
+ I love you well for your master's sake,
+ And long to be picking your bone, e-oh!
+
+ The gray goose she ran round the haystack,
+ Oh, ho! said the fox, you are very fat;
+ You'll grease my beard and ride on my back
+ From this into yonder wee town, e-oh!
+
+ The farmer's wife she jumped out of bed,
+ And out of the window she popped her head:
+ Oh, husband! oh, husband! the geese are all dead,
+ For the fox has been through the town, e-oh!
+
+ The farmer he loaded his pistol with lead,
+ And shot the old rogue of a fox through the head;
+ Ah, ha! said the farmer, I think you're quite dead;
+ And no more you'll trouble the town, e-oh!
+
+
+
+137
+
+
+FOR WANT OF A NAIL
+
+ For want of a nail, the shoe was lost;
+ For want of the shoe, the horse was lost;
+ For want of the horse, the rider was lost;
+ For want of the rider, the battle was lost;
+ For want of the battle, the kingdom was lost;
+ And all for the want of a horseshoe nail!
+
+
+
+138
+
+
+A MAN OF WORDS
+
+ A man of words and not of deeds
+ Is like a garden full of weeds;
+ And when the weeds begin to grow,
+ It's like a garden full of snow;
+ And when the snow begins to fall,
+ It's like a bird upon the wall;
+ And when the bird away does fly,
+ It's like an eagle in the sky;
+ And when the sky begins to roar,
+ It's like a lion at the door;
+ And when the door begins to crack,
+ It's like a stick across your back;
+ And when your back begins to smart,
+ It's like a penknife in your heart;
+ And when your heart begins to bleed,
+ You're dead, and dead, and dead, indeed.
+
+
+
+139
+
+ The first stanza of this jingle was long
+ attributed to Longfellow as an impromptu made
+ on one of his children. He took occasion to
+ deny this, as well as the authorship of the
+ almost equally famous "Mr. Finney had a
+ turnip." The last two stanzas bear evidence of
+ a more sophisticated origin than that of real
+ nursery rhymes. Mr. Lucas, in his _Book of
+ Verses for Children_, gives two different
+ versions of these stanzas.
+
+
+JEMIMA
+
+ There was a little girl, and she had a little curl,
+ Right down the middle of her forehead,
+ When she was good, she was very, very good,
+ But when she was bad, she was horrid.
+
+ One day she went upstairs, while her parents, unawares,
+ In the kitchen down below were occupied with meals,
+ And she stood upon her head, on her little truckle-bed,
+ And she then began hurraying with her heels.
+
+ Her mother heard the noise, and thought it was the boys,
+ A playing at a combat in the attic,
+ But when she climbed the stair and saw Jemima there,
+ She took and she did whip her most emphatic!
+
+
+
+140
+
+ The following was one of the favorite
+ "toy-book" texts of the eighteenth century.
+ These little books generally had a crude
+ woodcut and one stanza of text on a page. It
+ can be seen how easily this story lends itself
+ to illustration. Each stanza is a chapter, and
+ the story-teller could continue as long as his
+ inventiveness held out. In one edition there
+ are these additional lines:
+
+ "Old Mother Hubbard sat down in a chair,
+ And danced her dog to a delicate air;
+ She went to the garden to buy him a pippin,
+ When she came back the dog was a-skipping."
+
+
+MOTHER HUBBARD AND HER DOG
+
+ Old Mother Hubbard
+ Went to the cupboard,
+ To get her poor dog a bone;
+ But when she came there,
+ The cupboard was bare,
+ And so the poor dog had none.
+
+ She went to the baker's
+ To buy him some bread;
+ But when she came back,
+ The poor dog was dead.
+
+ She went to the joiner's
+ To buy him a coffin;
+ But when she came back,
+ The poor dog was laughing.
+
+ She took a clean dish,
+ To get him some tripe;
+ But when she came back
+ He was smoking his pipe.
+
+ She went to the fishmonger's
+ To buy him some fish;
+ And when she came back
+ He was licking the dish.
+
+ She went to the ale-house
+ To get him some beer;
+ But when she came back
+ The dog sat in a chair.
+
+ She went to the tavern
+ For white wine and red;
+ But when she came back
+ The dog stood on his head.
+
+ She went to the hatter's
+ To buy him a hat;
+ But when she came back
+ He was feeding the cat.
+
+ She went to the barber's
+ To buy him a wig;
+ But when she came back
+ He was dancing a jig.
+
+ She went to the fruiterer's
+ To buy him some fruit;
+ But when she came back,
+ He was playing the flute.
+
+ She went to the tailor's
+ To buy him a coat;
+ But when she came back,
+ He was riding a goat.
+
+ She went to the cobbler's
+ To buy him some shoes;
+ But when she came back,
+ He was reading the news.
+
+ She went to the seamstress
+ To buy him some linen;
+ But when she came back,
+ The dog was spinning.
+
+ She went to the hosier's
+ To buy him some hose;
+ But when she came back,
+ He was dressed in his clothes.
+
+ The dame made a curtsy,
+ The dog made a bow;
+ The dame said, "Your servant,"
+ The dog said, "Bow, wow."
+
+
+
+141
+
+ This story of a bird courtship and marriage
+ with its attendant feast and tragedy, all
+ followed by the long dirge of No. 142,
+ constitutes one of the longest nursery novels.
+ Its opportunities for the illustrator are very
+ marked, and a copy illustrated by the children
+ themselves would be an addition to the joy of
+ any schoolroom.
+
+THE COURTSHIP, MERRY MARRIAGE, AND PICNIC DINNER OF COCK ROBIN AND JENNY
+WREN;
+
+TO WHICH IS ADDED
+
+THE DOLEFUL DEATH OF COCK ROBIN
+
+ It was a merry time
+ When Jenny Wren was young,
+ So neatly as she danced,
+ And so sweetly as she sung,
+ Robin Redbreast lost his heart:
+ He was a gallant bird;
+ He doft his hat to Jenny,
+ And thus to her he said:--
+
+ "My dearest Jenny Wren,
+ If you will but be mine,
+ You shall dine on cherry pie,
+ And drink nice currant wine.
+ I'll dress you like a Goldfinch,
+ Or like a Peacock gay;
+ So if you'll have me, Jenny,
+ Let us appoint the day."
+
+ Jenny blushed behind her fan,
+ And thus declared her mind:
+ "Then let it be to-morrow, Bob,
+ I take your offer kind--
+ Cherry pie is very good!
+ So is currant wine!
+ But I will wear my brown gown,
+ And never dress too fine."
+
+ Robin rose up early
+ At the break of day;
+ He flew to Jenny Wren's house,
+ To sing a roundelay.
+ He met the Cock and Hen,
+ And bid the Cock declare,
+ This was his wedding-day
+ With Jenny Wren, the fair.
+
+ The Cock then blew his horn,
+ To let the neighbors know,
+ This was Robin's wedding-day,
+ And they might see the show.
+ And first came parson Rook,
+ With his spectacles and band,
+ And one of _Mother Hubbard's_ books
+ He held within his hand.
+
+ Then followed him the Lark,
+ For he could sweetly sing,
+ And he was to be clerk
+ At Cock Robin's wedding.
+ He sang of Robin's love
+ For little Jenny Wren;
+ And when he came unto the end,
+ Then he began again.
+
+ Then came the bride and bridegroom;
+ Quite plainly was she dressed,
+ And blushed so much, her cheeks were
+ As red as Robin's breast.
+ But Robin cheered her up:
+ "My pretty Jen," said he,
+ "We're going to be married
+ And happy we shall be."
+
+ The Goldfinch came on next,
+ To give away the bride;
+ The Linnet, being bride's maid,
+ Walked by Jenny's side;
+ And, as she was a-walking,
+ She said, "Upon my word,
+ I think that your Cock Robin
+ Is a very pretty bird."
+
+ The Bullfinch walked by Robin,
+ And thus to him did say,
+ "Pray, mark, friend Robin Redbreast,
+ That Goldfinch, dressed so gay;
+ What though her gay apparel
+ Becomes her very well,
+ Yet Jenny's modest dress and look
+ Must bear away the bell."
+
+ The Blackbird and the Thrush,
+ And charming Nightingale,
+ Whose sweet jug sweetly echoes
+ Through every grove and dale;
+ The Sparrow and Tom Tit,
+ And many more, were there:
+ All came to see the wedding
+ Of Jenny Wren, the fair.
+
+ "O then," says parson Rook,
+ "Who gives this maid away?"
+ "I do," says the Goldfinch,
+ "And her fortune I will pay:
+ Here's a bag of grain of many sorts,
+ And other things beside;
+ Now happy be the bridegroom,
+ And happy be the bride!"
+
+ "And will you have her, Robin,
+ To be your wedded wife?"
+ "Yes, I will," says Robin,
+ "And love her all my life."
+ "And will you have him, Jenny,
+ Your husband now to be?"
+ "Yes, I will," says Jenny,
+ "And love him heartily."
+
+ Then on her finger fair
+ Cock Robin put the ring;
+ "You're married now," says parson Rook,
+ While the Lark aloud did sing:
+ "Happy be the bridegroom,
+ And happy be the bride!
+ And may not man, nor bird, nor beast,
+ This happy pair divide."
+
+ The birds were asked to dine;
+ Not Jenny's friends alone,
+ But every pretty songster
+ That had Cock Robin known.
+ They had a cherry pie,
+ Besides some currant wine,
+ And every guest brought something,
+ That sumptuous they might dine.
+
+ Now they all sat or stood
+ To eat and to drink;
+ And every one said what
+ He happened to think;
+ They each took a bumper,
+ And drank to the pair:
+ Cock Robin, the bridegroom,
+ And Jenny Wren, the fair.
+
+ The dinner-things removed,
+ They all began to sing;
+ And soon they made the place
+ Near a mile round to ring.
+ The concert it was fine;
+ And every bird tried
+ Who best could sing for Robin
+ And Jenny Wren, the bride.
+
+ Then in came the Cuckoo,
+ And he made a great rout:
+ He caught hold of Jenny,
+ And pulled her about.
+ Cock Robin was angry,
+ And so was the Sparrow,
+ Who fetched in a hurry
+ His bow and his arrow.
+
+ His aim then he took,
+ But he took it not right;
+ His skill was not good,
+ Or he shot in a fright;
+ For the Cuckoo he missed,
+ But Cock Robin killed!--
+ And all the birds mourned
+ That his blood was so spilled.
+
+
+
+142
+
+
+THE BURIAL OF POOR COCK ROBIN
+
+ Who killed Cock Robin?
+ "I," said the Sparrow,
+ "With my bow and arrow;
+ And I killed Cock Robin."
+
+ Who saw him die?
+ "I," said the Fly,
+ "With my little eye;
+ And I saw him die."
+
+ Who caught his blood?
+ "I," said the Fish,
+ "With my little dish;
+ And I caught his blood."
+
+ Who made his shroud?
+ "I," said the Beetle,
+ "With my little needle;
+ And I made his shroud."
+
+ Who will be the parson?
+ "I," said the Rook;
+ "With my little book;
+ And I will be the parson."
+
+ Who will dig his grave?
+ "I," said the Owl,
+ "With my spade and shovel;
+ And I'll dig his grave."
+
+ Who will be the clerk?
+ "I," said the Lark,
+ "If 'tis not in the dark;
+ And I will be the clerk."
+
+ Who'll carry him to the grave?
+ "I," said the Kite,
+ "If 'tis not in the night;
+ And I'll carry him to the grave."
+
+ Who will be the chief mourner?
+ "I," said the Dove,
+ "Because of my love;
+ And I will be chief mourner."
+
+ Who will sing a psalm?
+ "I," said the Thrush,
+ As she sat in a bush;
+ "And I will sing a psalm."
+
+ Who will bear the pall?
+ "We," said the Wren,
+ Both the Cock and the Hen;
+ "And we will bear the pall."
+
+ Who will toll the bell?
+ "I," said the Bull,
+ "Because I can pull."
+ And so, Cock Robin, farewell.
+
+ All the birds of the air
+ Fell to sighing and sobbing
+ When they heard the bell toll
+ For poor Cock Robin.
+
+
+
+143
+
+ The following tale was edited (1885) for
+ children by John Ruskin from a version "written
+ principally by a lady of ninety (Mrs. Sharp.)"
+ Ruskin himself added the third, fourth, eighth,
+ and ninth stanzas, because "in the old books no
+ account is given of what the cats learned when
+ they went to school, and I thought my younger
+ readers might be glad of some notice of such
+ particulars." But he thought his rhymes did not
+ ring like the real ones, of which he said: "I
+ aver these rhymes to possess the primary value
+ of rhyme--that is, to be rhythmical in a
+ pleasant and exemplary degree." The book was
+ illustrated with quaint woodcuts for each
+ stanza after the edition of 1823, with
+ additional drawings for the four new stanzas by
+ Kate Greenaway, one of the most famous
+ illustrators of children's books. Ruskin
+ commends the result "to the indulgence of the
+ Christmas fireside, because it relates nothing
+ that is sad, and portrays nothing that is
+ ugly."
+
+
+DAME WIGGINS OF LEE, AND HER SEVEN WONDERFUL CATS
+
+ Dame Wiggins of Lee
+ Was a worthy old soul,
+ As e'er threaded a nee-
+ dle, or wash'd in a bowl;
+ She held mice and rats
+ In such antipa-thy,
+ That seven fine cats
+ Kept Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+ The rats and mice scared
+ By this fierce whisker'd crew,
+ The poor seven cats
+ Soon had nothing to do;
+ So, as any one idle
+ She ne'er loved to see,
+ She sent them to school,
+ Did Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+ The Master soon wrote
+ That they all of them knew
+ How to read the word "milk"
+ And to spell the word "mew."
+ And they all washed their faces
+ Before they took tea:
+ "Were there ever such dears!"
+ Said Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+ He had also thought well
+ To comply with their wish
+ To spend all their play-time
+ In learning to fish
+ For stitlings; they sent her
+ A present of three,
+ Which, fried, were a feast
+ For Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+ But soon she grew tired
+ Of living alone;
+ So she sent for her cats
+ From school to come home.
+ Each rowing a wherry,
+ Returning you see:
+ The frolic made merry
+ Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+ The Dame was quite pleas'd
+ And ran out to market;
+ When she came back
+ They were mending the carpet.
+ The needle each handled
+ As brisk as a bee;
+ "Well done, my good cats,"
+ Said Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+ To give them a treat,
+ She ran out for some rice;
+ When she came back,
+ They were skating on ice.
+ "I shall soon see one down,
+ Aye, perhaps, two or three,
+ I'll bet half-a-crown,"
+ Said Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+ When spring-time came back
+ They had breakfast of curds;
+ And were greatly afraid
+ Of disturbing the birds.
+ "If you sit, like good cats,
+ All the seven in a tree,
+ They will teach you to sing!"
+ Said Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+ So they sat in a tree,
+ And said "Beautiful! Hark!"
+ And they listened and looked
+ In the clouds for the lark.
+ Then sang, by the fireside,
+ Symphonious-ly
+ A song without words
+ To Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+ They called the next day
+ On the tomtit and sparrow,
+ And wheeled a poor sick lamb
+ Home in a barrow.
+ "You shall all have some sprats
+ For your humani-ty,
+ My seven good cats,"
+ Said Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+ While she ran to the field,
+ To look for its dam,
+ They were warming the bed
+ For the poor sick lamb:
+ They turn'd up the clothes
+ All as neat as could be;
+ "I shall ne'er want a nurse,"
+ Said Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+ She wished them good night,
+ And went up to bed:
+ When, lo! in the morning,
+ The cats were all fled.
+ But soon--what a fuss!
+ "Where can they all be?
+ Here, pussy, puss, puss!"
+ Cried Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+ The Dame's heart was nigh broke,
+ So she sat down to weep,
+ When she saw them come back
+ Each riding a sheep:
+ She fondled and patted
+ Each purring tom-my:
+ "Ah! welcome, my dears,"
+ Said Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+ The Dame was unable
+ Her pleasure to smother,
+ To see the sick lamb
+ Jump up to its mother.
+ In spite of the gout,
+ And a pain in her knee,
+ She went dancing about:
+ Did Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+ The Farmer soon heard
+ Where his sheep went astray,
+ And arrived at Dame's door
+ With his faithful dog Tray.
+ He knocked with his crook,
+ And the stranger to see,
+ Out the window did look
+ Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+ For their kindness he had them
+ All drawn by his team;
+ And gave them some field-mice,
+ And raspberry-cream.
+ Said he, "All my stock
+ You shall presently see;
+ For I honor the cats
+ Of Dame Wiggins of Lee."
+
+ He sent his maid out
+ For some muffins and crumpets;
+ And when he turn'd round
+ They were blowing of trumpets.
+ Said he, "I suppose
+ She's as deaf as can be,
+ Or this ne'er could be borne
+ By Dame Wiggins of Lee."
+
+ To show them his poultry,
+ He turn'd them all loose,
+ When each nimbly leap'd
+ On the back of a goose,
+ Which frighten'd them so
+ That they ran to the sea,
+ And half-drown'd the poor cats
+ Of Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+ For the care of his lamb,
+ And their comical pranks,
+ He gave them a ham
+ And abundance of thanks.
+ "I wish you good-day,
+ My fine fellows," said he;
+ "My compliments, pray,
+ To Dame Wiggins of Lee."
+
+ You see them arrived
+ At their Dame's welcome door;
+ They show her their presents,
+ And all their good store.
+ "Now come in to supper,
+ And sit down with me;
+ All welcome once more,"
+ Cried Dame Wiggins of Lee.
+
+
+
+144
+
+ This is the perfect pattern of all the
+ accumulative stories, perhaps the best known
+ and most loved of children among all nursery
+ jingles. Halliwell thought it descended from
+ the mystical Hebrew hymn, "A kid, a kid," found
+ in the Talmud. Most commentators since have
+ followed his example in calling attention to
+ the parallel, though scholars have insisted
+ that the hymn referred to is a late
+ interpolation. The hymn opens:
+
+ "A kid, a kid, my father bought,
+ For two pieces of money:
+ A kid, a kid.
+
+ "Then came the cat, and ate the kid,
+ That my father bought," etc.
+
+ Then came the dog and bit the cat, then the
+ staff and beat the dog, then the fire and
+ burned the staff, then water and quenched the
+ fire, then the ox and drank the water, then the
+ butcher and slew the ox, then the angel of
+ death and killed the butcher, and the hymn
+ concludes:
+
+ "Then came the Holy One, blessed be He!
+ And killed the angel of death,
+ That killed the butcher,
+ That slew the ox,
+ That drank the water,
+ That quenched the fire,
+ That burned the staff,
+ That beat the dog,
+ That bit the cat,
+ That ate the kid,
+ That my father bought
+ For two pieces of money:
+ A kid, a kid."
+
+ There is an elaborate interpretation of the
+ symbolism of this hymn, going back at least as
+ far as 1731, in which the kid denotes the
+ Hebrews, the father is Jehovah, the cat is the
+ Assyrians, the dog is the Babylonians, the
+ staff is the Persians, the fire is Greece under
+ Alexander, the water is the Roman Empire, the
+ ox is the Saracens, the butcher is the
+ crusaders, the angel of death is the Turkish
+ power, while the concluding accumulation shows
+ that God will take vengeance on the enemies of
+ the chosen people. This is the interpretation
+ in barest outline only. Without the key no one
+ would ever guess its hidden meaning.
+ Fortunately, "The House That Jack Built" has no
+ such hidden meaning. But the important point
+ is that such accumulative stories are almost as
+ old as human records, and, like so many other
+ possessions of the race, seem to have come to
+ us from the Far East.
+
+
+THIS IS THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT
+
+ This is the house that Jack built.
+
+ This is the malt
+ That lay in the house that Jack built.
+
+ This is the rat,
+ That ate the malt
+ That lay in the house that Jack built.
+
+ This is the cat,
+ That killed the rat,
+ That ate the malt
+ That lay in the house that Jack built.
+
+ This is the dog,
+ That worried the cat,
+ That killed the rat,
+ That ate the malt
+ That lay in the house that Jack built.
+
+ This is the cow with the crumpled horn,
+ That tossed the dog,
+ That worried the cat,
+ That killed the rat,
+ That ate the malt
+ That lay in the house that Jack built.
+
+ This is the maiden all forlorn,
+ That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,
+ That tossed the dog,
+ That worried the cat,
+ That killed the rat,
+ That ate the malt
+ That lay in the house that Jack built.
+
+ This is the man all tattered and torn,
+ That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
+ That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,
+ That tossed the dog,
+ That worried the cat,
+ That killed the rat,
+ That ate the malt
+ That lay in the house that Jack built.
+
+ This is the priest all shaven and shorn,
+ That married the man all tattered and torn,
+ That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
+ That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,
+ That tossed the dog,
+ That worried the cat,
+ That killed the rat,
+ That ate the malt
+ That lay in the house that Jack built.
+
+ This is the cock that crowed in the morn,
+ That waked the priest all shaven and shorn,
+ That married the man all tattered and torn,
+ That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
+ That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,
+ That tossed the dog,
+ That worried the cat,
+ That killed the rat,
+ That ate the malt
+ That lay in the house that Jack built.
+
+ This is the farmer sowing his corn,
+ That kept the cock that crowed in the morn,
+ That waked the priest all shaven and shorn,
+ That married the man all tattered and torn,
+ That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
+ That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,
+ That tossed the dog,
+ That worried the cat,
+ That killed the rat,
+ That ate the malt
+ That lay in the house that Jack built.
+
+
+
+145
+
+
+THE EGG IN THE NEST
+
+ There was a tree stood in the ground,
+ The prettiest tree you ever did see;
+ The tree in the wood, and the wood in the ground,
+ And the green grass growing all around.
+
+ And on this tree there was a limb,
+ The prettiest limb you ever did see;
+ The limb on the tree, and the tree in the wood,
+ The tree in the wood, and the wood in the ground,
+ And the green grass growing all around.
+
+ And on this limb there was a bough,
+ The prettiest bough you ever did see;
+ The bough on the limb, and the limb on the tree,
+ The limb on the tree, and the tree in the wood,
+ The tree in the wood, and the wood in the ground,
+ And the green grass growing all around.
+
+ Now on this bough there was a nest,
+ The prettiest nest you ever did see;
+ The nest on the bough, and the bough on the limb,
+ The limb on the tree, and the tree in the wood,
+ The tree in the wood, and the wood in the ground,
+ And the green grass growing all around.
+
+ And in the nest there were some eggs,
+ The prettiest eggs you ever did see;
+ Eggs in the nest, and the nest on the bough,
+ The bough on the limb, and the limb on the tree,
+ The limb on the tree, and the tree in the wood,
+ The tree in the wood, and the wood in the ground,
+ And the green grass growing all around,
+ _And the green grass growing all around_.
+
+
+
+146
+
+ The following story is the same as that of the
+ Norwegian tale "The Husband Who Was to Mind the
+ House" (No. 170). In the Halliwell version the
+ final lines read,
+
+ "If his wife didn't do a day's work in her life,
+ She should ne'er be ruled by he."
+
+ A later reading, now generally accepted, avoids
+ the bad grammar by changing to direct
+ discourse.
+
+
+CHANGE ABOUT
+
+ There was an old man, who lived in a wood,
+ As you may plainly see;
+ He said he could do as much work in a day,
+ As his wife could do in three.
+ With all my heart, the old woman said,
+ If that you will allow,
+ To-morrow you'll stay at home in my stead,
+ And I'll go drive the plough:
+
+ But you must milk the Tidy cow,
+ For fear that she go dry;
+ And you must feed the little pigs
+ That are within the sty;
+ And you must mind the speckled hen,
+ For fear she lay away;
+ And you must reel the spool of yarn,
+ That I spun yesterday.
+
+ The old woman took a staff in her hand,
+ And went to drive the plough:
+ The old man took a pail in his hand,
+ And went to milk the cow;
+ But Tidy hinched, and Tidy flinched,
+ And Tidy broke his nose,
+ And Tidy gave him such a blow,
+ That the blood ran down to his toes.
+
+ High! Tidy! ho! Tidy! high!
+ Tidy! do stand still;
+ If ever I milk you, Tidy, again,
+ 'Twill be sore against my will!
+
+ He went to feed the little pigs
+ That were within the sty;
+ He hit his head against the beam,
+ And he made the blood to fly.
+ He went to mind the speckled hen,
+ For fear she'd lay astray,
+ And he forgot the spool of yarn
+ His wife spun yesterday.
+
+ So he swore by the sun, the moon, and the stars,
+ And the green leaves on the tree,
+ "If my wife doesn't do a day's work in her life,
+ She shall ne'er be ruled by me."
+
+
+
+
+SECTION III
+
+FAIRY STORIES--TRADITIONAL TALES
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+I. STANDARD GENERAL COLLECTIONS
+
+ Jacobs, Joseph, _English Fairy Tales_, _More English Fairy Tales_,
+ _Celtic Fairy Tales_, _More Celtic Fairy Tales_, _Indian Fairy
+ Tales_, _Europa's Fairy Tales_.
+
+ Lang, Andrew, _The Blue Fairy Book_, _The Red Fairy Book_, _The
+ Green Fairy Book_, _The Yellow Fairy Book_.
+
+ The Perrault stories are included in the first.
+ Many other volumes named by colors (_Violet_,
+ _Orange_, etc.) were made under Mr. Lang's
+ direction, but these four include the cream.
+
+
+II. NATIONAL COLLECTIONS
+
+ ENGLISH: Campbell, J. F., _Popular Tales of the West Highlands_.
+ 4 vols.
+ Halliwell, J. O., _Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales_.
+ Hartland, E. S., _English Fairy and Folk Tales_.
+
+ GERMAN: Grimm, J. and W., _Kinder und Hausmaerchen_ (_Household
+ Tales_).
+
+ Translated by Edgar Taylor as _Grimm's Popular
+ Stories_ (55 stories, 1823-1827), and
+ illustrated by George Cruikshank. Best reprint
+ is in one volume with introduction by John
+ Ruskin.
+
+ Translated complete by Margaret Hunt (2 vols.,
+ 1884), Introduction by Andrew Lang.
+
+ Other excellent translations of selected
+ stories by Mrs. Lucas and by Lucy Crane.
+
+ INDIAN: Frere, Mary, _Old Deccan Days_.
+ Knowles, J. H., _Folk Tales of Kashmir_.
+ Steel, Flora Annie, _Tales of the Punjab_. (Notes by
+ Captain R. C. Temple.)
+ Stokes, Maive, _Indian Fairy Tales_.
+
+ IRISH: Curtin, J., _Hero Tales of Ireland_.
+ Graves, A. P., _The Irish Fairy Book_.
+ Hyde, Douglas, _Beside the Fire_.
+ Joyce, P. W., _Old Celtic Romances_.
+ Wilde, Lady Constance, _Ancient Irish Legends_.
+ Yeats, W. B., _Irish Fairy Tales_.
+
+ ITALIAN: Crane, T. F., _Italian Popular Tales_.
+
+ NORSE: Asbjoernsen, P. C., and Moe, J., _Norske Folke-eventyr_
+ (_Norwegian Folk Tales_, 1842-1844, with subsequent
+ additions).
+
+ Translated by Sir George Webbe Dasent in
+ _Popular Tales from the Norse_ and _Tales of
+ the Fjeld_; by H. L. Braekstad in _Round the
+ Yule Log_ and _Fairy Tales from the North_.
+
+ SLAVIC: Bain, R. Nesbit, _Cossack Fairy Tales_, _Russian Folk
+ Tales_.
+
+
+III. THE SCIENCE OF FOLKLORE
+
+ Cox, Roalfe, _Cinderella_. (Introduction by Lang.)
+ Clouston, W. A., _Popular Tales and Fictions_. 2 vols.
+ Gomme, G. L., _Folklore as an Historical Science_.
+ Hartland, E. S., _The Science of Fairy Tales_.
+ Keightly, Thomas, _Fairy Mythology_.
+ Lang, Andrew, _Perrault's Popular Tales_. (Introduction.)
+ MacCulloch, J. A., _The Childhood of Fiction_.
+
+
+IV. PEDAGOGY
+
+ Adler, Felix, _The Moral Instruction of Children_, pp. 63-79.
+ Kready, Laura F., _The Study of Fairy Tales_. (Indispensable.)
+ MacClintock, P. L., _Literature in the Elementary School_, pp.
+ 92-112.
+ McMurry, Charles, _Special Method in Reading_, pp. 47-69.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION III: FAIRY STORIES--TRADITIONAL TALES
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+The forty-three tales in this section have been chosen (1) in the light
+of what experience shows children most enjoy, (2) to represent as fully
+as possible the great variety of our traditional inheritance, (3) to
+afford an opportunity of calling attention to additional riches in
+various collections, and (4) to suggest a fair minimum of the amount of
+such material to be used with children. As in all such questions of
+judgment, there must inevitably be differences of opinion. Many will
+doubtless find stories missing that seem necessary even to so small a
+list, while others will find tales included that may seem questionable.
+Such a selection can be, and is intended to be, only tentative, a
+starting point from which there are many lines of departure.
+
+_Folklore._ These tales are all from the traditional field. They are
+mainly of anonymous and popular origin, handed down orally by peasants.
+The investigation of their origin, distribution, and interrelations
+belongs to the science of folklore. A good-sized library could be filled
+entirely with the books concerned with the studies and disputations in
+this interesting field. While the folklorists have very much of value to
+tell the teacher, their questions may be largely ignored until the
+latter is quite fully acquainted with a large body of the acknowledged
+masterpieces among folk stories, especially those which the schools have
+taken to themselves as useful in elementary work. Teachers interested in
+pursuing the matter further--and it is to be hoped there are many
+such--will find suggestions in the notes at the head of each tale and in
+the preceding bibliography that may prove serviceable in directing them
+some little way. Each book will point the student to many others; when
+he is once started on the road of investigation, there will open up many
+unexpected and fascinating vistas.
+
+_Objections to fairy tales._ These objections seem to fall as a rule
+under two main heads. First, there are those who object to any
+stimulation of the fanciful in children, and who would have us confine
+ourselves to what they call realities. They would eliminate as far as
+possible all the imaginings of children. The make-believe world so dear
+to infancy has no place in their creed. Second, there are those who
+doubt the moral tendency of all fairy tales. They observe that many of
+these tales come to us from a cruder and coarser social state than our
+own, that they contain elements of a superstitious and animistic past,
+that they often deal with cruelties and horrors, trickeries and
+disloyalties, that they are full of romantic improbabilities and
+impossibilities. It may as well be admitted at once that the folklore of
+the world contains many stories to which these and other objections are
+valid.
+
+_Is there a proper line of defense for fairy tales?_ Dr. Felix Adler,
+who certainly cannot be accused of being insensible to realities, puts
+the case thus, as between defenders and objectors: "I venture to think
+that, as in many other cases, the cause of the quarrel is what logicians
+call an _undistributed middle_--in other words, that the parties to the
+dispute have each a different kind of fairy tale in mind. This species
+of literature can be divided broadly into two classes--one consisting of
+tales which ought to be rejected because they are really harmful, and
+children ought to be protected from their bad influence, the other of
+tales which have a most beautiful and elevating effect, and which we
+cannot possibly afford to leave unutilized." Dr. Adler proceeds to point
+out that the chief pedagogic values of the latter class are (1) that
+they exercise and cultivate the imagination, and (2) that they stimulate
+the idealizing tendency.
+
+John Ruskin, another teacher who constantly in his writings throws the
+emphasis upon the necessity of a true ethical understanding, has this to
+say about the mischievous habit of trying to remake the fairy story in
+the service of morals: "And the effect of the endeavor to make stories
+moral upon the literary merit of the work itself, is as harmful as the
+motive of the effort is false. For every fairy tale worth recording at
+all is the remnant of a tradition possessing true historical
+value;--historical, at least in so far as it has naturally arisen out of
+the mind of a people under special circumstances, and arisen not without
+meaning, nor removed altogether from their sphere of religious faith. It
+sustains afterwards natural changes from the sincere action of the fear
+or fancy of successive generations; it takes new color from their manner
+of life, and new form from their changing moral tempers. As long as
+these changes are natural and effortless, accidental and inevitable, the
+story remains essentially true, altering its form, indeed, like a flying
+cloud, but remaining a sign of the sky; a shadowy image, as truly a part
+of the great firmament of the human mind as the light of reason which it
+seems to interrupt. But the fair deceit and innocent error of it cannot
+be interpreted nor restrained by a wilful purpose, and all additions to
+it by art do but defile, as the shepherd disturbs the flakes of morning
+mist with smoke from his fire of dead leaves." Instead of retouching
+stories "to suit particular tastes, or inculcate favorite doctrines,"
+Ruskin would have the child "know his fairy tale accurately, and have
+perfect joy or awe in the conception of it as if it were real; thus he
+will always be exercising his power of grasping realities: but a
+confused, careless, and discrediting tenure of the fiction will lead to
+as confused and careless reading of fact." Still further, Ruskin defends
+the vulgarity, or commonness of language, found in many of the tales as
+"of a wholesome and harmless kind. It is not, for instance, graceful
+English, to say that a thought 'popped into Catherine's head'; but it
+nevertheless is far better, as an initiation into literary style, that a
+child should be told this than that 'a subject attracted Catherine's
+attention.'"
+
+Finally, we cannot forbear adding one more quotation, from the most
+delightful of attacks upon the attackers of fairy tales, by Miss
+Repplier: "That which is vital in literature or tradition, which has
+survived the obscurity and wreckage of the past, whether as legend, or
+ballad, or mere nursery rhyme, has survived in right of some intrinsic
+merit of its own, and will not be snuffed out of existence by any of our
+precautionary or hygienic measures. . . . Puss in Boots is one long record
+of triumphant effrontery and deception. An honest and self-respecting
+lad would have explained to the king that he was not the Marquis of
+Carabas at all; that he had no desire to profit by his cat's ingenious
+falsehoods, and no weak ambition to connect himself with the
+aristocracy. Such a hero would be a credit to our modern schoolrooms,
+and lift a load of care from the shoulders of our modern critics. Only
+the children would have none of him, but would turn wistfully back to
+those brave old tales which are their inheritance from a splendid past,
+and of which no hand shall rob them." And upon this ultimate fact that
+in literature the final decision rests with the audience appealed to,
+the discussion may end.
+
+_How to use fairy stories._ Briefly, the whole matter may be summed up
+thus: _Know your story perfectly. Don't read it (unless you can't do
+better). Tell it--with all the graces of voice and action you can
+command. Tell it naturally and simply, as the folk-tellers did, not with
+studied and elaborate "elocutionary" effects. Tell it again and again.
+If you do it well, the children will not soon tire of it--and they will
+indicate what you should do next!_
+
+
+SUGGESTIONS
+
+ (Books referred to by authors' name are listed
+ in bibliography.)
+
+ The one important full-length discussion for
+ teachers on the whole subject of the fairy tale
+ is Kready's _A Study of Fairy Tales_. It is
+ enthusiastic rather than severely critical, and
+ that adds to its helpfulness. It has exhaustive
+ bibliographies. The Ruskin quotations above are
+ from his introduction to Taylor's _Grimm_; it
+ may be found also in his collected works, in
+ _On the Old Road_. Miss Repplier's "Battle of
+ the Babies" in her _Essays in Miniature_ should
+ be read entire. A thoroughly stimulating
+ article is Brian Hooker's "Narrative and the
+ Fairy Tale," _Bookman_, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 389,
+ 501; see also his "Types of Fairy Tales,"
+ _Forum_, Vol. XL, p. 375. For the scientific
+ phase start with Hartland's _Science of Fairy
+ Tales_. For pedagogy see Adler, MacClintock,
+ McMurry.
+
+
+
+147
+
+ Many English folk tales have doubtless been
+ lost because no one made a serious attempt to
+ collect them until railroads, newspapers, and
+ popular education had greatly changed the life
+ of the English folk and destroyed many of the
+ traditions. For the preservation of many folk
+ tales that we have, English-speaking peoples
+ are indebted to the scholarly antiquarian James
+ Orchard Halliwell (afterwards
+ Halliwell-Phillips, 1820-1889), who in the year
+ 1842 edited a collection of _The Nursery Rhymes
+ of England_ for the Percy Society. He followed
+ it a few years later with _Popular Rhymes and
+ Nursery Tales_. They have long been regarded as
+ the basic books in their field. These two
+ collections were reprinted as _Nursery Rhymes
+ and Tales_. This one-volume edition is the one
+ referred to in the following pages. Halliwell
+ should be remembered as the first person to
+ collect in a scientific way the folk literature
+ of England. He gathered these rhymes and tales
+ from the mouths of the folk, from chapbooks,
+ and from many other sources and endeavored to
+ tell them as they had been told by the folk.
+
+ "The Old Woman and Her Pig" is perhaps the most
+ familiar of all nursery stories. It belongs to
+ the type of story known as the "accumulative,"
+ of which "The House That Jack Built" is the
+ purest model. In such a story there is a
+ constant repetition of the plot, with an
+ addition or slight change at each repetition,
+ until at the end there is a quick unwinding
+ which carries us back to the initial situation
+ and solves the difficulty with which the story
+ started. Halliwell gives two versions of this
+ particular story. It is so widespread that many
+ slight variations would be expected in
+ successful retellings of it. The traditional
+ version which follows seems to be the favorite
+ with primary teachers. It introduces at the
+ sixth stage the attractive rhyme "I see by the
+ moonlight, etc.," which originally formed part
+ of another nursery tale.
+
+
+THE OLD WOMAN AND HER PIG
+
+Once upon a time, an old woman was sweeping her little house, when, to
+her great joy, she found a silver sixpence.
+
+"What," said she, "shall I do with this little sixpence? I think I will
+go to market and buy a pig." So the next day, she went to market, and
+bought a nice little white pig. She tied a string to one of the pig's
+legs, and began to drive him home.
+
+On the way, the old woman and her pig came to a stile, and she said,--
+
+ "Please, pig, get over the stile."
+ But the pig would not.
+
+Just then a little dog came trotting up, and the old woman said to
+him,--
+
+ "Dog, dog, bite pig;
+ Pig won't get over the stile,
+ And I sha'n't get home to-night."
+ But the dog would not.
+
+So the old woman held up her stick, and said,--
+
+ "Stick, stick, beat dog;
+ Dog won't bite pig;
+ Pig won't get over the stile,
+ And I sha'n't get home to-night."
+ But the stick would not.
+
+So the old woman gathered some bits of wood together to make a fire, and
+set them on fire, and then threw her stick into the fire, and said,--
+
+ "Fire, fire, burn stick;
+ Stick won't beat dog;
+ Dog won't bite pig;
+ Pig won't get over the stile,
+ And I sha'n't get home to-night."
+ But the fire would not.
+
+So the old woman fetched a pail of water that was standing near, and
+said,--
+
+ "Water, water, quench fire;
+ Fire won't burn stick;
+ Stick won't beat dog;
+ Dog won't bite pig;
+ Pig won't get over the stile,
+ And I sha'n't get home to-night."
+ But the water would not.
+
+Then the old woman saw an ox coming; so she said,--
+
+ "Ox, ox, drink water;
+ Water won't quench fire;
+ Fire won't burn stick;
+ Stick won't beat dog;
+ Dog won't bite pig;
+ Pig won't go.
+ I see by the moonlight,
+ It's long past midnight;
+ Time pig and I were home an hour and a half ago."
+ But the ox would not.
+
+So the old woman turned round, and saw a butcher, and she said,--
+
+ "Butcher, butcher, kill ox;
+ Ox won't drink water;
+ Water won't quench fire;
+ Fire won't burn stick;
+ Stick won't beat dog;
+ Dog won't bite pig;
+ Pig won't go.
+ I see by the moonlight,
+ It's long past midnight;
+ Time pig and I were home an hour and a half ago."
+ But the butcher would not.
+
+So the old woman took a rope out of her pocket, and said,--
+
+ "Rope, rope, hang butcher;
+ Butcher won't kill ox;
+ Ox won't drink water;
+ Water won't quench fire;
+ Fire won't burn stick;
+ Stick won't beat dog;
+ Dog won't bite pig;
+ Pig won't go.
+ I see by the moonlight,
+ It's long past midnight;
+ Time pig and I were home an hour and a half ago."
+ But the rope would not.
+
+Just then a large brown mouse ran across the meadow, and she said,--
+
+ "Mouse, mouse, gnaw rope;
+ Rope won't hang butcher;
+ Butcher won't kill ox;
+ Ox won't drink water;
+ Water won't quench fire;
+ Fire won't burn stick;
+ Stick won't beat dog;
+ Dog won't bite pig;
+ Pig won't go.
+ I see by the moonlight,
+ It's long past midnight;
+ Time pig and I were home an hour and a half ago."
+ "Yes," said the mouse, "I will if you
+ will give me some cheese."
+
+So the old woman put her hand in her pocket, and found a nice piece of
+cheese; and when the mouse had eaten it,
+
+ The mouse began to gnaw the rope,
+ The rope began to hang the butcher,
+ The butcher began to kill the ox,
+ The ox began to drink the water,
+ The water began to quench the fire,
+ The fire began to burn the stick,
+ The stick began to beat the dog,
+ The dog began to bite the pig,
+ And the pig began to go.
+
+But what time the old woman and her pig got home, you, nor I, nor nobody
+knows.
+
+
+
+148
+
+ Teachers and parents owe a greater debt of
+ gratitude to Joseph Jacobs than to any other
+ modern student of folklore. He was born in
+ Australia in 1854, spent most of his life in
+ scholarly pursuits in England, and died in
+ America in 1916. In his six volumes of English,
+ Celtic, Indian, and European fairy tales he
+ gave the world versions of its best known and
+ most representative folk stories in a form
+ suited to children while remaining true in all
+ essentials to the original oral versions of the
+ folk. This combination of scientific accuracy
+ and literary workmanship is very rare. In the
+ introductions and notes to these various
+ volumes may be found a wealth of information
+ which the general reader can understand without
+ the necessity of special training in the
+ science of folklore. And best of all, these
+ volumes can be had at prices that are
+ comparatively cheap.
+
+ The following story of "Henny-Penny" is given
+ in the fine version by Joseph Jacobs in his
+ _English Fairy Tales_. He heard it as a child
+ in Australia and he thinks "the fun consists in
+ the avoidance of all pronouns, which results in
+ jawbreaking sentences." This story is also very
+ familiar in the Halliwell version called
+ "Chicken-Licken," and there are numerous
+ European parallels.
+
+
+HENNY-PENNY
+
+One day Henny-penny was picking up corn in the cornyard
+when--whack!--something hit her upon the head. "Goodness gracious me!"
+said Henny-penny; "the sky's a-going to fall; I must go and tell the
+king."
+
+So she went along, and she went along, and she went along till she met
+Cocky-locky. "Where are you going, Henny-penny?" says Cocky-locky. "Oh!
+I'm going to tell the king the sky's a-falling," says Henny-penny. "May
+I come with you?" says Cocky-locky. "Certainly," says Henny-penny. So
+Henny-penny and Cocky-locky went to tell the king the sky was a-falling.
+
+They went along, and they went along, and they went along, till they met
+Ducky-daddles. "Where are you going to, Henny-penny and Cocky-locky?"
+says Ducky-daddles. "Oh! we're going to tell the king the sky's
+a-falling," said Henny-penny and Cocky-locky. "May I come with you?"
+says Ducky-daddles. "Certainly," said Henny-penny and Cocky-locky. So
+Henny-penny, Cocky-locky, and Ducky-daddles went to tell the king the
+sky was a-falling.
+
+So they went along, and they went along, and they went along, till they
+met Goosey-poosey. "Where are you going to, Henny-penny, Cocky-locky,
+and Ducky-daddles?" said Goosey-poosey. "Oh! we're going to tell the
+king the sky's a-falling," said Henny-penny and Cocky-locky and
+Ducky-daddles. "May I come with you?" said Goosey-poosey. "Certainly,"
+said Henny-penny, Cocky-locky, and Ducky-daddles. So Henny-penny,
+Cocky-locky, Ducky-daddles, and Goosey-poosey went to tell the king the
+sky was a-falling.
+
+So they went along, and they went along, and they went along, till they
+met Turkey-lurkey. "Where are you going, Henny-penny, Cocky-locky,
+Ducky-daddles, and Goosey-poosey?" says Turkey-lurkey. "Oh! we're going
+to tell the king the sky's a-falling," said Henny-penny, Cocky-locky,
+Ducky-daddles, and Goosey-poosey. "May I come with you, Henny-penny,
+Cocky-locky, Ducky-daddles, and Goosey-poosey?" said Turkey-lurkey. "Oh,
+certainly, Turkey-lurkey," said Henny-penny, Cocky-locky, Ducky-daddles,
+and Goosey-poosey. So Henny-penny, Cocky-locky, Ducky-daddles,
+Goosey-poosey, and Turkey-lurkey all went to tell the king the sky was
+a-falling.
+
+So they went along, and they went along, and they went along, till they
+met Foxy-woxy, and Foxy-woxy said to Henny-penny, Cocky-locky,
+Ducky-daddles, Goosey-poosey, and Turkey-lurkey: "Where are you going,
+Henny-penny, Cocky-locky, Ducky-daddles, Goosey-poosey, and
+Turkey-lurkey?" And Henny-penny, Cocky-locky, Ducky-daddles,
+Goosey-poosey, and Turkey-lurkey said to Foxy-woxy: "We're going to tell
+the king the sky's a-falling." "Oh! but this is not the way to the king,
+Henny-penny, Cocky-locky, Ducky-daddles, Goosey-poosey, and
+Turkey-lurkey," says Foxy-woxy; "I know the proper way; shall I show it
+you?" "Oh, certainly, Foxy-woxy," said Henny-Penny, Cocky-locky,
+Ducky-daddles, Goosey-poosey, and Turkey-lurkey. So Henny-penny,
+Cocky-locky, Ducky-daddles, Goosey-poosey, Turkey-lurkey, and Foxy-woxy
+all went to tell the king the sky was a-falling.
+
+So they went along, and they went along, and they went along, till they
+came to a narrow and dark hole. Now this was the door of Foxy-woxy's
+cave. But Foxy-woxy said to Henny-penny, Cocky-locky, Ducky-daddles,
+Goosey-poosey, and Turkey-lurkey: "This is the short way to the king's
+palace; you'll soon get there if you follow me. I will go first and you
+come after, Henny-Penny, Cocky-locky, Ducky-daddles, Goosey-poosey, and
+Turkey-lurkey." "Why of course, certainly, without doubt, why not?" said
+Henny-penny, Cocky-locky, Ducky-daddles, Goosey-poosey, and
+Turkey-lurkey.
+
+So Foxy-woxy went into his cave, and he didn't go very far, but turned
+round to wait for Henny-penny, Cocky-locky, Ducky-daddles,
+Goosey-poosey, and Turkey-lurkey. So at last at first Turkey-lurkey went
+through the dark hole into the cave. He hadn't got far when "Hrumph,"
+Foxy-woxy snapped off Turkey-lurkey's head and threw his body over his
+left shoulder. Then Goosey-poosey went in, and "Hrumph," off went her
+head and Goosey-poosey was thrown beside Turkey-lurkey. Then
+Ducky-daddles waddled down, and "Hrumph," snapped Foxy-woxy, and
+Ducky-daddles' head was off and Ducky-daddles was thrown alongside
+Turkey-lurkey and Goosey-poosey. Then Cocky-locky strutted down into the
+cave, and he hadn't gone far when "Snap, Hrumph!" went Foxy-woxy and
+Cocky-locky was thrown alongside of Turkey-lurkey, Goosey-poosey, and
+Ducky-daddles.
+
+But Foxy-woxy had made two bites at Cocky-locky, and when the first snap
+only hurt Cocky-locky, but didn't kill him, he called out to
+Henny-penny. But she turned tail and off she ran home, so she never told
+the king the sky was a-falling.
+
+
+
+149
+
+ The favorite story of "Teeny-Tiny" is taken
+ from Halliwell, who obtained it from oral
+ tradition, and by whom it was, apparently,
+ first put into print. "This simple tale," he
+ says, "seldom fails to rivet the attention of
+ children, especially if well told. The last two
+ words should be said loudly with a start." Many
+ modern story-tellers seem to prefer modified
+ forms of this story, presumably owing to a
+ feeling on their part that the bone and the
+ churchyard have gruesome suggestions. Carolyn
+ S. Bailey gives one of the best of these
+ modified forms in her _Firelight Stories_,
+ where the woman goes into a field instead of
+ the churchyard, finds a hen at the foot of a
+ tree, thinks this is a chance to have an egg
+ for her breakfast, puts the hen in her
+ reticule, goes home, puts the hen in her
+ cupboard, and goes upstairs to take a nap. Of
+ course the "teeny-tiny" goes in at every point.
+ Substituting "hen" for "bone," the story
+ continues substantially as given below.
+
+TEENY-TINY
+
+Once upon a time there was a teeny-tiny woman lived in a teeny-tiny
+house in a teeny-tiny village. Now, one day this teeny-tiny woman put on
+her teeny-tiny bonnet, and went out of her teeny-tiny house to take a
+teeny-tiny walk. And when this teeny-tiny woman had gone a teeny-tiny
+way, she came to a teeny-tiny gate; so the teeny-tiny woman opened the
+teeny-tiny gate, and went into a teeny-tiny churchyard. And when this
+teeny-tiny woman had got into the teeny-tiny churchyard, she saw a
+teeny-tiny bone on a teeny-tiny grave, and the teeny-tiny woman said to
+her teeny-tiny self, "This teeny-tiny bone will make me some teeny-tiny
+soup for my teeny-tiny supper." So the teeny-tiny woman put the
+teeny-tiny bone into her teeny-tiny pocket, and went home to her
+teeny-tiny house.
+
+Now when the teeny-tiny woman got home to her teeny-tiny house, she was
+a teeny-tiny tired; so she went up her teeny-tiny stairs to her
+teeny-tiny bed, and put the teeny-tiny bone into a teeny-tiny cupboard.
+And when this teeny-tiny woman had been to sleep a teeny-tiny time, she
+was awakened by a teeny-tiny voice from the teeny-tiny cupboard, which
+said:
+
+ "GIVE ME MY BONE!"
+
+And this teeny-tiny woman was a teeny-tiny frightened, so she hid her
+teeny-tiny head under the teeny-tiny clothes and went to sleep again.
+And when she had been to sleep again a teeny-tiny time, the teeny-tiny
+voice again cried out from the teeny-tiny cupboard a teeny-tiny louder,
+
+ "GIVE ME MY BONE!"
+
+This made the teeny-tiny woman a teeny-tiny more frightened, so she hid
+her teeny-tiny head a teeny-tiny farther under the teeny-tiny clothes.
+And when the teeny-tiny woman had been to sleep again a teeny-tiny time,
+the teeny-tiny voice from the teeny-tiny cupboard said again a
+teeny-tiny louder,
+
+ "GIVE ME MY BONE!"
+
+And this teeny-tiny woman was a teeny-tiny bit more frightened, but she
+put her teeny-tiny head out of the teeny-tiny clothes, and said in her
+loudest teeny-tiny voice,
+
+ "TAKE IT!"
+
+
+
+150
+
+ The very old story that follows is taken from
+ Halliwell, and is, according to Jacobs,
+ scarcely more than a variant of "The Old Woman
+ and Her Pig." Like that story, "The Cat and the
+ Mouse" appeals to small people by its
+ pronounced rhythmical structure, accentuated by
+ the rhyme which marks the transition to each
+ new section, and by the "run" at the close.
+
+
+THE CAT AND THE MOUSE
+
+ The cat and the mouse
+ Played in the malt-house:
+
+The cat bit the mouse's tail off. "Pray, puss, give me my tail."
+
+"No," said the cat, "I'll not give you your tail till you go to the cow
+and fetch me some milk."
+
+ First she leapt, and then she ran,
+ Till she came to the cow, and thus began:
+
+"Pray, cow, give me milk, that I may give cat milk, that cat may give me
+my own tail again."
+
+"No," said the cow, "I will give you no milk till you go to the farmer
+and fetch me some hay."
+
+ First she leapt, and then she ran,
+ Till she came to the farmer, and thus began:
+
+"Pray, farmer, give me hay, that I may give cow hay, that cow may give
+me milk, that I may give cat milk, that cat may give me my own tail
+again."
+
+"No," said the farmer, "I'll give you no hay till you go to the butcher
+and fetch me some meat."
+
+ First she leapt, and then she ran,
+ Till she came to the butcher, and thus began:
+
+"Pray, butcher, give me meat, that I may give farmer meat, that farmer
+may give me hay, that I may give cow hay, that cow may give me milk,
+that I may give cat milk, that cat may give me my own tail again."
+
+"No," said the butcher, "I'll give you no meat till you go to the baker
+and fetch me some bread."
+
+ First she leapt, and then she ran,
+ Till she came to the baker, and thus began:
+
+"Pray, baker, give me bread, that I may give butcher bread, that butcher
+may give me meat, that I may give farmer meat, that farmer may give me
+hay, that I may give cow hay, that cow may give me milk, that I may give
+cat milk, that cat may give me my own tail again."
+
+ "Yes," said the baker, "I'll give you some bread,
+ But if you eat my meal, I'll cut off your head."
+
+Then the baker gave mouse bread, and mouse gave butcher bread, and
+butcher gave mouse meat, and mouse gave farmer meat, and farmer gave
+mouse hay, and mouse gave cow hay, and cow gave mouse milk, and mouse
+gave cat milk, and cat gave mouse her own tail again.
+
+
+
+151
+
+ The following story is in the most familiar
+ version of Halliwell's collection. Another
+ much-used form of the story may be found in
+ Lang's _Green Fairy Book_, in which the pigs
+ are distinctly characterized and given the
+ names of Browny, Whitey, and Blacky. Jacobs
+ uses the Halliwell version in his _English
+ Fairy Tales_, but prefixes to it an opening
+ formula which seems to have been much in use by
+ old story-tellers as a way of beginning almost
+ any oral story for children:
+
+ "Once upon a time when pigs spoke rhyme
+ And monkeys chewed tobacco,
+ And hens took snuff to make them tough,
+ And ducks went quack, quack, quack, O!"
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS
+
+Once upon a time there was an old sow with three little pigs, and as she
+had not enough to keep them, she sent them out to seek their fortune.
+The first that went off met a man with a bundle of straw, and said to
+him:
+
+"Please, man, give me that straw to build me a house."
+
+Which the man did, and the little pig built a house with it. Presently
+came along a wolf, and knocked at the door, and said:
+
+"Little pig, little pig, let me come in."
+
+To which the pig answered:
+
+"No, no, by the hair of my chinny chin chin."
+
+The wolf then answered to that:
+
+"Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in."
+
+So he huffed, and he puffed, and he blew his house in, and ate up the
+little pig.
+
+The second little pig met a man with a bundle of furze and said:
+
+"Please, man, give me that furze to build a house."
+
+Which the man did, and the pig built his house. Then along came the
+wolf, and said:
+
+"Little pig, little pig, let me come in."
+
+"No, no, by the hair of my chinny chin chin."
+
+"Then I'll puff, and I'll huff, and I'll blow your house in."
+
+So he huffed, and he puffed, and he puffed, and he huffed, and at last
+he blew the house down, and he ate up the little pig.
+
+The third little pig met a man with a load of bricks, and said:
+
+"Please, man, give me those bricks to build a house with."
+
+So the man gave him the bricks, and he built his house with them. So the
+wolf came, as he did to the other little pigs, and said:
+
+"Little pig, little pig, let me come in."
+
+"No, no, by the hair on my chinny chin chin."
+
+"Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in."
+
+Well, he huffed, and he puffed, and he huffed and he puffed, and he
+puffed and huffed; but he could _not_ get the house down. When he found
+that he could not, with all his huffing and puffing, blow the house
+down, he said:
+
+"Little pig, I know where there is a nice field of turnips."
+
+"Where?" said the little pig.
+
+"Oh, in Mr. Smith's Home-field, and if you will be ready to-morrow
+morning I will call for you, and we will go together and get some for
+dinner."
+
+"Very well," said the little pig, "I will be ready. What time do you
+mean to go?"
+
+"Oh, at six o'clock."
+
+Well, the little pig got up at five and got the turnips before the wolf
+came (which he did about six), who said:
+
+"Little pig, are you ready?"
+
+The little pig said: "Ready! I have been and come back again, and got a
+nice potful for dinner."
+
+The wolf felt very angry at this, but thought that he would be _up to_
+the little pig somehow or other, so he said:
+
+"Little pig, I know where there is a nice apple-tree."
+
+"Where?" said the pig.
+
+"Down at Merry-garden," replied the wolf, "and if you will not deceive
+me I will come for you at five o'clock tomorrow and we will go together
+and get some apples."
+
+Well, the little pig bustled up the next morning at four o'clock, and
+went off for the apples, hoping to get back before the wolf came; but he
+had farther to go and had to climb the tree, so that just as he was
+coming down from it, he saw the wolf coming, which, as you may suppose,
+frightened him very much. When the wolf came up he said:
+
+"Little pig, what! are you here before me? Are they nice apples?"
+
+"Yes, very," said the little pig. "I will throw you down one."
+
+And he threw it so far that, while the wolf was gone to pick it up, the
+little pig jumped down and ran home. The next day the wolf came again
+and said to the little pig:
+
+"Little pig, there is a fair at Shanklin this afternoon. Will you go?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said the pig, "I will go. What time shall you be ready?"
+
+"At three," said the wolf. So the little pig went off before the time as
+usual, and got to the fair and bought a butter-churn, which he was going
+home with, when he saw the wolf coming. Then he could not tell what to
+do. So he got into the churn to hide, and by so doing turned it round,
+and it rolled down the hill with the pig in it, which frightened the
+wolf so much that he ran home without going to the fair. He went to the
+little pig's house and told him how frightened he had been by a great
+round thing which came down the hill past him. Then the little pig said:
+
+"Hah, I frightened you, then. I had been to the fair and bought a
+butter-churn, and when I saw you, I got into it and rolled down the
+hill."
+
+Then the wolf was very angry indeed, and declared he _would_ eat up the
+little pig and that he would get down the chimney after him. When the
+little pig saw what he was about, he hung on the pot full of water and
+made up a blazing fire, and, just as the wolf was coming down, took off
+the cover, and in fell the wolf; so the little pig put on the cover
+again in an instant, boiled him up, and ate him for supper, and lived
+happy ever afterwards.
+
+
+
+152
+
+ How great calamities sometimes grow out of
+ small causes is illustrated in an old
+ proverbial saying of Poor Richard (see No.
+ 137). The favorite English folk-tale version of
+ this theme, taken from Halliwell, is given
+ below. It takes the form of an accumulative
+ droll, or comic story. The overwhelming
+ catastrophe at the end is so complete and so
+ unexpected that it has a decidedly humorous
+ effect.
+
+
+TITTY MOUSE AND TATTY MOUSE
+
+ Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse both lived in a house,
+ Titty Mouse went a leasing and Tatty Mouse went a leasing,
+ So they both went a leasing.
+
+ Titty Mouse leased an ear of corn, and
+ Tatty Mouse leased an ear of corn,
+ So they both leased an ear of corn.
+
+ Titty Mouse made a pudding, and
+ Tatty Mouse made a pudding,
+ So they both made a pudding.
+
+ And Tatty Mouse put her pudding into the pot to boil,
+ But when Titty went to put hers in, the pot tumbled over, and
+ scalded her to death.
+
+Then Tatty sat down and wept; then a three-legged stool said: "Tatty,
+why do you weep?" "Titty's dead," said Tatty, "and so I weep." "Then,"
+said the stool, "I'll hop," so the stool hopped.
+
+Then a broom in the corner of the room said: "Stool, why do you hop?"
+"Oh!" said the stool, "Titty's dead, and Tatty weeps, and so I hop."
+"Then," said the broom, "I'll sweep," so the broom began to sweep.
+
+"Then," said the door, "Broom, why do you sweep?" "Oh!" said the broom,
+"Titty's dead, and Tatty weeps, and the stool hops, and so I sweep."
+"Then," said the door, "I'll jar," so the door jarred.
+
+"Then," said the window, "Door, why do you jar?" "Oh," said the door,
+"Titty's dead, and Tatty weeps, the stool hops, and the broom sweeps,
+and so I jar."
+
+"Then," said the window, "I'll creak," so the window creaked. Now there
+was an old form outside the house, and when the window creaked, the form
+said: "Window, why do you creak?" "Oh!" said the window, "Titty's dead,
+and Tatty weeps, and the stool hops, and the broom sweeps, the door
+jars, and so I creak."
+
+"Then," said the old form, "I'll run round the house"; then the old form
+ran round the house. Now there was a fine large walnut-tree growing by
+the cottage, and the tree said to the form: "Form, why do you run round
+the house?" "Oh!" said the form, "Titty's dead, and Tatty weeps, and the
+stool hops, and the broom sweeps, the door jars, and the window creaks,
+and so I run round the house."
+
+"Then," said the walnut-tree, "I'll shed my leaves," so the walnut-tree
+shed all its beautiful green leaves. Now there was a little bird perched
+on one of the boughs of the tree, and when all the leaves fell, it said:
+"Walnut-tree, why do you shed your leaves?" "Oh!" said the tree,
+"Titty's dead, and Tatty weeps, the stool hops, and the broom sweeps,
+the door jars, and the window creaks, the old form runs round the house,
+and so I shed my leaves."
+
+"Then," said the little bird, "I'll moult all my feathers," so he
+moulted all his pretty feathers. Now there was a little girl walking
+below, carrying a jug of milk for her brothers' and sisters' supper, and
+when she saw the poor little bird moult all its feathers, she said:
+"Little bird, why do you moult all your feathers?" "Oh!" said the little
+bird, "Titty's dead, and Tatty weeps, the stool hops, and the broom
+sweeps, the door jars, and the window creaks, the old form runs round
+the house, the walnut-tree sheds its leaves, and so I moult all my
+feathers."
+
+"Then," said the little girl, "I'll spill the milk," so she dropt the
+pitcher and spilt the milk. Now there was an old man just by on the top
+of a ladder thatching a rick, and when he saw the little girl spill the
+milk, he said: "Little girl, what do you mean by spilling the
+milk?--your little brothers and sisters must go without their supper."
+Then said the little girl: "Titty's dead, and Tatty weeps, the stool
+hops, and the broom sweeps, the door jars, and the window creaks, the
+old form runs round the house, the walnut-tree sheds all its leaves, the
+little bird moults all its feathers, and so I spill the milk."
+
+"Oh!" said the old man, "then I'll tumble off the ladder and break my
+neck," so he tumbled off the ladder and broke his neck; and when the old
+man broke his neck, the great walnut-tree fell down with a crash and
+upset the old form and house, and the house falling knocked the window
+out, and the window knocked the door down, and the door upset the broom,
+and the broom upset the stool, and poor little Tatty Mouse was buried
+beneath the ruins.
+
+
+
+153
+
+ "The Story of the Three Bears" is perhaps the
+ only instance in which a piece of literature by
+ a known English author is found among accepted
+ folk tales. It appeared in Robert Southey's
+ rambling miscellany, _The Doctor_ (1837). He
+ may have taken it from an old tale, but no
+ amount of investigation has located any certain
+ source. In the most familiar versions the
+ naughty old woman gives place to a little girl
+ whose name is Goldenhair, Goldilocks,
+ Silverhair, or Silverlocks. The point to the
+ story is lessened by the change, but the
+ popularity of these modifications seems to
+ suggest that children prefer to have the
+ ill-mannered old woman turned into an
+ attractive little girl. Southey apparently was
+ delighted with efforts to bring his story into
+ any form more pleasing to the folk, and we find
+ his son-in-law saying that he was especially
+ pleased with a versification "by G. N. and
+ published especially for the amusement of
+ 'little people' lest in the volumes of _The
+ Doctor_ it should 'escape their sight.'"
+ However, it would appear that teachers at least
+ should know this masterpiece in the only form
+ in which its author put it. To that end this
+ version of "The Three Bears" follows Southey
+ with the change of a single word. At the head
+ of the story he placed these lines from
+ Gascoyne:
+
+ "A tale which may content the minds
+ Of learned men and grave philosophers."
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE THREE BEARS
+
+ROBERT SOUTHEY
+
+
+ [Transcriber's Note: For this story, different
+ sized text was used to indicate the size of the
+ different bears' voices. The largest text has
+ been denote by use of the ~ symbol and the
+ smallest text has been denoted by use of the +
+ symbol.]
+
+Once upon a time there were Three Bears who lived together in a house of
+their own in a wood. One of them was a Little, Small, Wee Bear; and one
+was a Middle-sized Bear, and the other was a Great, Huge Bear. They had
+each a pot for their porridge; a little pot for the Little, Small, Wee
+Bear; and a middle-sized pot for the Middle Bear; and a great pot for
+the Great, Huge Bear. And they had each a chair to sit in; a little
+chair for the Little, Small, Wee Bear; and a middle-sized chair for the
+Middle Bear; and a great chair for the Great, Huge Bear. And they had
+each a bed to sleep in; a little bed for the Little, Small, Wee Bear;
+and a middle-sized bed for the Middle Bear; and a great bed for the
+Great, Huge Bear.
+
+One day after they had made the porridge for their breakfast and poured
+it into their porridge-pots, they walked out into the wood while the
+porridge was cooling, that they might not burn their mouths by beginning
+too soon to eat it. And while they were walking, a little old Woman came
+to the house. She could not have been a good, honest old Woman; for
+first she looked in at the window and then she peeped in at the keyhole;
+and seeing nobody in the house, she lifted the latch. The door was not
+fastened, because the Bears were good Bears, who did nobody any harm and
+never suspected that anybody would harm them. So the little old Woman
+opened the door and went in, and well pleased she was when she saw the
+porridge on the table. If she had been a good little old Woman, she
+would have waited till the Bears came home, and then perhaps they would
+have asked her to breakfast, for they were good Bears--a little rough or
+so, as the manner of Bears is, but for all that very good-natured and
+hospitable. But she was an impudent, bad old Woman, and set about
+helping herself.
+
+So first she tasted the porridge of the Great, Huge Bear, and that was
+too hot for her; and she said a bad word about that. And then she tasted
+the porridge of the Middle Bear, and that was too cold for her; and she
+said a bad word about that too. And then she went to the porridge of the
+Little, Small, Wee Bear, and tasted that; and that was neither too hot
+nor too cold, but just right; and she liked it so well that she ate it
+all up. But the naughty old Woman said a bad word about the little
+porridge-pot because it did not hold enough for her.
+
+Then the little old Woman sat down in the chair of the Great, Huge Bear,
+and that was too hard for her. And then she sat down in the chair of the
+Middle Bear, and that was too soft for her. And then she sat down in the
+chair of the Little, Small, Wee Bear, and that was neither too hard nor
+too soft, but just right. So she seated herself in it, and there she sat
+till the bottom of the chair came out, and down she came, plump upon the
+ground. And the naughty old Woman said a wicked word about that too.
+
+Then the little old Woman went upstairs into the bed-chamber in which
+the three Bears slept. And first she lay down upon the bed of the Great,
+Huge Bear; but that was too high at the head for her. And next she lay
+down upon the bed of the Middle Bear, and that was too high at the foot
+for her. And then she lay down upon the bed of the Little, Small, Wee
+Bear, and that was neither too high at the head nor at the foot, but
+just right. So she covered herself up comfortably and lay there till she
+fell fast asleep.
+
+By this time the Three Bears thought their porridge would be cool
+enough, so they came home to breakfast. Now the little old Woman had
+left the spoon of the Great, Huge Bear standing in his porridge.
+
+"~SOMEBODY HAS BEEN AT MY PORRIDGE!~" said the Great, Huge Bear, in his
+great, rough, gruff voice. And when the Middle Bear looked at his, he
+saw that the spoon was standing in it too. They were wooden spoons; if
+they had been silver ones, the naughty old Woman would have put them in
+her pocket.
+
+"SOMEBODY HAS BEEN AT MY PORRIDGE!" said the Middle Bear, in his middle
+voice.
+
+Then the Little, Small, Wee Bear looked at his, and there was the spoon
+in the porridge-pot, but the porridge was all gone.
+
+"+SOMEBODY HAS BEEN AT MY PORRIDGE, AND HAS EATEN IT ALL UP!+" said the
+Little, Small, Wee Bear, in his little, small, wee voice.
+
+Upon this the Three Bears, seeing that some one had entered their house
+and eaten up the Little, Small, Wee Bear's breakfast, began to look
+about them. Now the little old Woman had not put the hard cushion
+straight when she rose from the chair of the Great, Huge Bear.
+
+"~SOMEBODY HAS BEEN SITTING IN MY CHAIR!~" said the Great, Huge Bear, in
+his great, rough, gruff voice.
+
+And the little old Woman had squatted down the soft cushion of the
+Middle Bear.
+
+"SOMEBODY HAS BEEN SITTING IN MY CHAIR!" said the Middle Bear, in his
+middle voice.
+
+And you know what the little old Woman had done to the third chair.
+
+"+SOMEBODY HAS BEEN SITTING IN MY CHAIR AND HAS SAT THE BOTTOM OUT OF
+IT!+" said the Little, Small, Wee Bear, in his little, small, wee voice.
+
+Then the three Bears thought it necessary that they should make further
+search; so they went upstairs into their bed-chamber. Now the little old
+Woman had pulled the pillow of the Great, Huge Bear out of its place.
+
+"~SOMEBODY HAS BEEN LYING IN MY BED!~" said the Great, Huge Bear, in his
+great, rough, gruff voice.
+
+And the little old Woman had pulled the bolster of the Middle Bear out
+of its place.
+
+"SOMEBODY HAS BEEN LYING IN MY BED!" said the Middle Bear, in his middle
+voice.
+
+And when the Little, Small, Wee Bear came to look at his bed, there was
+the bolster in its right place, and the pillow in its place upon the
+bolster; and upon the pillow was the little old Woman's ugly, dirty
+head,--which was not in its place, for she had no business there.
+
+"+SOMEBODY HAS BEEN LYING IN MY BED,--AND HERE SHE IS!+" said the Little,
+Small, Wee Bear, in his little, small, wee voice.
+
+The little old Woman had heard in her sleep the great, rough, gruff
+voice of the Great, Huge Bear; but she was so fast asleep that it was no
+more to her than the roaring of wind or the rumbling of thunder. And she
+had heard the middle voice of the Middle Bear, but it was only as if she
+had heard some one speaking in a dream. But when she heard the little,
+small, wee voice of the Little, Small, Wee Bear, it was so sharp and so
+shrill that it awakened her at once. Up she started; and when she saw
+the Three Bears on one side of the bed, she tumbled herself out at the
+other and ran to the window. Now the window was open, because the Bears,
+like good, tidy Bears as they were, always opened their bed-chamber
+window when they got up in the morning. Out the little old Woman jumped;
+and whether she broke her neck in the fall, or ran into the wood and was
+lost there, or found her way out of the wood and was taken up by the
+constable and sent to the House of Correction for a vagrant, as she was,
+I cannot tell. But the Three Bears never saw anything more of her.
+
+
+
+154
+
+ A noodle story is a droll, or comic story, that
+ follows the fortunes of very simple or stupid
+ characters. There are many noodle stories among
+ the favorites of the folk, and the three
+ immediately following are among the best known.
+ This version of "The Three Sillies" was
+ collected from oral tradition in Suffolk,
+ England. In the original the dangerous tool was
+ an ax, but the collector informed Mr. Hartland,
+ in whose _English Fairy and Folk Tales_ it is
+ reprinted, that she had found it was really "a
+ great big wooden mallet, as some one had left
+ sticking there when they'd been _making-up_ the
+ beer." This change, following the example of
+ Jacobs, is made in the text of the story. This
+ particular droll is widespread. Grimms' "Clever
+ Elsie" is the same story, and a French version,
+ "The Six Sillies," is in Lang's _Red Fairy
+ Book_. A very fine Italian version, called
+ "Bastienelo," is given in Crane's _Italian
+ Popular Tales_. The tendency of people to
+ "borrow trouble" is so universal that stories
+ illustrating its ludicrous consequences have
+ always had wide appeal. Some details of these
+ variants are due to local environments. For
+ instance, in the Italian story wine takes the
+ place of beer, and it has been pointed out that
+ there are "borrowing trouble" stories found in
+ New York and Ohio in which the thing feared is
+ the heavy iron door closing the mouth of the
+ oven which in pioneer days was built in by the
+ side of the fireplace.
+
+
+=THE THREE SILLIES=
+
+Once upon a time there was a farmer and his wife who had one daughter,
+and she was courted by a gentleman. Every evening he used to come and
+see her, and stop to supper at the farmhouse, and the daughter used to
+be sent down into the cellar to draw the beer for supper. So one evening
+she had gone down to draw the beer, and she happened to look up at the
+ceiling while she was drawing, and she saw a mallet stuck in one of the
+beams. It must have been there a long, long time, but somehow or other
+she had never noticed it before, and she began a-thinking. And she
+thought it was very dangerous to have that mallet there, for she said to
+herself: "Suppose him and me was to be married, and we was to have a
+son, and he was to grow up to be a man, and come down into the cellar to
+draw the beer, like as I'm doing now, and the mallet was to fall on his
+head and kill him, what a dreadful thing it would be!" And she put down
+the candle and the jug, and sat herself down and began a-crying.
+
+Well, they began to wonder upstairs how it was that she was so long
+drawing the beer, and her mother went down to see after her, and she
+found her sitting on the settle crying, and the beer running over the
+floor. "Why, whatever is the matter?" said her mother.
+
+"Oh, mother!" says she, "look at that horrid mallet! Suppose we was to
+be married, and was to have a son, and he was to grow up, and was to
+come down to the cellar to draw the beer, and the mallet was to fall on
+his head and kill him, what a dreadful thing it would be!"
+
+"Dear, dear! what a dreadful thing it would be!" said the mother, and
+she sat her down aside of the daughter and started a-crying too.
+
+Then after a bit the father began to wonder that they didn't come back,
+and he went down into the cellar to look after them himself, and there
+they two sat a-crying, and the beer running all over the floor.
+
+"Whatever is the matter?" says he.
+
+"Why," says the mother, "look at that horrid mallet. Just suppose, if
+our daughter and her sweetheart was to be married, and was to have a
+son, and he was to grow up, and was to come down into the cellar to draw
+the beer, and the mallet was to fall on his head and kill him, what a
+dreadful thing it would be!"
+
+"Dear, dear, dear! so it would!" said the father, and he sat himself
+down aside of the other two, and started a-crying.
+
+Now the gentleman got tired of stopping up in the kitchen by himself,
+and at last he went down into the cellar too, to see what they were
+after; and there they three sat a-crying side by side, and the beer
+running all over the floor. And he ran straight and turned the tap. Then
+he said: "Whatever are you three doing, sitting there crying, and
+letting the beer run all over the floor?"
+
+"Oh!" says the father, "look at that horrid mallet! Suppose you and our
+daughter was to be married, and was to have a son, and he was to grow
+up, and was to come down into the cellar to draw the beer, and the
+mallet was to fall on his head and kill him!" And then they all started
+a-crying worse than before.
+
+But the gentleman burst out a-laughing, and reached up and pulled out
+the mallet, and then he said: "I've traveled many miles, and I never met
+three such big sillies as you three before; and now I shall start out on
+my travels again, and when I can find three bigger sillies than you
+three, then I'll come back and marry your daughter." So he wished them
+good-bye, and started off on his travels, and left them all crying
+because the girl had lost her sweetheart.
+
+Well, he set out, and he traveled a long way, and at last he came to a
+woman's cottage that had some grass growing on the roof. And the woman
+was trying to get her cow to go up a ladder to the grass, and the poor
+thing durst not go. So the gentleman asked the woman what she was doing.
+"Why, lookye," she said, "look at all that beautiful grass. I'm going to
+get the cow on to the roof to eat it. She'll be quite safe, for I shall
+tie a string round her neck, and pass it down the chimney, and tie it to
+my wrist as I go about the house, so she can't fall off without my
+knowing it."
+
+"Oh, you poor silly!" said the gentleman, "you should cut the grass and
+throw it down to the cow!" But the woman thought it was easier to get
+the cow up the ladder than to get the grass down, so she pushed her and
+coaxed her and got her up, and tied a string round her neck, and passed
+it down the chimney, and fastened it to her own wrist. And the gentleman
+went on his way, but he hadn't gone far when the cow tumbled off the
+roof, and hung by the string tied round her neck, and it strangled her.
+And the weight of the cow tied to her wrist pulled the woman up the
+chimney, and she stuck fast half-way and was smothered in the soot.
+
+Well, that was one big silly.
+
+And the gentleman went on and on, and he went to an inn to stop the
+night, and they were so full at the inn that they had to put him in a
+double-bedded room, and another traveller was to sleep in the other bed.
+The other man was a very pleasant fellow, and they got very friendly
+together; but in the morning, when they were both getting up, the
+gentleman was surprised to see the other hang his trousers on the knobs
+of the chest of drawers and run across the room and try to jump into
+them, and he tried over and over again, and couldn't manage it; and the
+gentleman wondered whatever he was doing it for. At last he stopped and
+wiped his face with his handkerchief. "Oh, dear," he says, "I do think
+trousers are the most awkwardest kind of clothes that ever were. I can't
+think who could have invented such things. It takes me the best part of
+an hour to get into mine every morning, and I get so hot! How do you
+manage yours?" So the gentleman burst out a-laughing, and showed him how
+to put them on; and he was very much obliged to him, and said he never
+should have thought of doing it that way.
+
+So that was another big silly.
+
+Then the gentleman went on his travels again; and he came to a village,
+and outside the village there was a pond, and round the pond was a crowd
+of people. And they had got rakes, and brooms, and pitchforks, reaching
+into the pond; and the gentleman asked what was the matter.
+
+"Why," they said, "matter enough! Moon's tumbled into the pond, and we
+can't rake her out anyhow!"
+
+So the gentleman burst out a-laughing, and told them to look up into the
+sky, and that it was only the shadow in the water. But they wouldn't
+listen to him, and abused him shamefully, and he got away as quick as he
+could.
+
+So there was a whole lot of sillies bigger than the three sillies at
+home. So the gentleman turned back home again and married the farmer's
+daughter, and if they didn't live happy for ever after, that's nothing
+to do with you or me.
+
+
+
+155
+
+ There seemed to be a feeling common among the
+ folk that simple-minded persons were in the
+ special care of Providence. Hence, sometimes
+ the achievement of success beyond the power of
+ wiser and cleverer individuals. "Lazy Jack"
+ comes from the Halliwell collection. "The
+ humor lies in the contrast between what Jack
+ did and what anybody 'with sense' knows he
+ ought to have done." A parallel story is the
+ Grimms' "Hans in Luck." A most striking and
+ popular Americanization of it is Sara Cone
+ Bryant's "The Story of Epaminondas and His
+ Auntie" in her _Stories to Tell to Children_.
+
+
+LAZY JACK
+
+Once upon a time there was a boy whose name was Jack, and he lived with
+his mother on a dreary common. They were very poor, and the old woman
+got her living by spinning, but Jack was so lazy that he would do
+nothing but bask in the sun in the hot weather and sit by the corner of
+the hearth in the winter time. His mother could not persuade him to do
+anything for her and was obliged at last to tell him that if he did not
+begin to work for his porridge she would turn him out to get his living
+as he could.
+
+This threat at length roused Jack, and he went out and hired himself for
+the day to a neighboring farmer for a penny; but as he was coming home,
+never having had any money in his possession before, he lost it in
+passing over a brook. "You stupid boy," said his mother, "you should
+have put it in your pocket."
+
+"I'll do so another time," replied Jack.
+
+The next day Jack went out again and hired himself to a cowkeeper, who
+gave him a jar of milk for his day's work. Jack took the jar and put it
+into the large pocket of his jacket, spilling it all long before he got
+home. "Dear me!" said the old woman; "you should have carried it on your
+head."
+
+"I'll do so another time," said Jack.
+
+The following day Jack hired himself again to a farmer, who agreed to
+give him a cream cheese for his services. In the evening Jack took the
+cheese and went home with it on his head. By the time he got home the
+cheese was completely spoilt, part of it being lost and part matted with
+his hair. "You stupid lout," said his mother, "you should have carried
+it very carefully in your hands."
+
+"I'll do so another time," replied Jack.
+
+The day after this Jack again went out and hired himself to a baker, who
+would give him nothing for his work but a large tomcat. Jack took the
+cat and began carrying it very carefully in his hands, but in a short
+time pussy scratched him so much that he was compelled to let it go.
+When he got home, his mother said to him: "You silly fellow, you should
+have tied it with a string and dragged it along after you."
+
+"I'll do so another time," said Jack.
+
+The next day Jack hired himself to a butcher, who rewarded his labors by
+the handsome present of a shoulder of mutton. Jack took the mutton, tied
+it to a string, and trailed it along after him in the dirt, so that by
+the time he had got home the meat was completely spoilt. His mother was
+this time quite out of patience with him, for the next day was Sunday,
+and she was obliged to content herself with cabbage for her dinner. "You
+ninney-hammer," said she to her son, "you should have carried it on your
+shoulder."
+
+"I'll do so another time," replied Jack.
+
+On the Monday Jack went once more and hired himself to a cattle-keeper,
+who gave him a donkey for his trouble. Although Jack was very strong, he
+found some difficulty in hoisting the donkey on his shoulders, but at
+last he accomplished it and began walking slowly home with his prize.
+Now it happened that in the course of his journey there lived a rich man
+with his only daughter, a beautiful girl, but unfortunately deaf and
+dumb. She had never laughed in her life, and the doctors said she would
+never recover till somebody made her laugh. This young lady happened to
+be looking out of the window when Jack was passing with the donkey on
+his shoulders, the legs sticking up in the air, and the sight was so
+comical and strange that she burst out into a great fit of laughter, and
+immediately recovered her speech and hearing. Her father was overjoyed,
+and fulfilled his promise by marrying her to Jack, who was thus made a
+rich gentleman. They lived in a large house, and Jack's mother lived
+with them in great happiness until she died.
+
+
+
+156
+
+ The following noodle story is from Halliwell as
+ obtained from oral tradition in the west of
+ England. It is a variant of the "Lazy Jack"
+ type.
+
+
+THE STORY OF MR. VINEGAR
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Vinegar lived in a vinegar bottle. Now, one day when Mr.
+Vinegar was from home and Mrs. Vinegar, who was a very good housewife,
+was busily sweeping her house, an unlucky thump of the broom brought the
+whole house clitter-clatter about her ears. In a paroxysm of grief she
+rushed forth to meet her husband. On seeing him she exclaimed, "Oh, Mr.
+Vinegar, Mr. Vinegar, we are ruined, we are ruined: I have knocked the
+house down, and it is all to pieces!"
+
+Mr. Vinegar then said: "My dear, let us see what can be done. Here is
+the door; I will take it on my back, and we will go forth to seek our
+fortune."
+
+They walked all that day and at nightfall entered a thick forest. They
+were both excessively tired, and Mr. Vinegar said: "My love, I will
+climb up into a tree, drag up the door, and you shall follow." He
+accordingly did so, and they both stretched their weary limbs on the
+door, and fell fast asleep.
+
+In the middle of the night Mr. Vinegar was disturbed by the sound of
+voices beneath, and to his inexpressible dismay perceived that a party
+of thieves were met to divide their booty. "Here, Jack," said one,
+"here's five pounds for you; here, Bill, here's ten pounds for you;
+here, Bob, here's three pounds for you."
+
+Mr. Vinegar could listen no longer; his terror was so intense that he
+trembled most violently and shook down the door on their heads. Away
+scampered the thieves, but Mr. Vinegar dared not quit his retreat till
+broad daylight. He then scrambled out of the tree and went to lift up
+the door. What did he behold but a number of golden guineas! "Come down,
+Mrs. Vinegar," he cried; "come down, I say; our fortune's made! Come
+down, I say."
+
+Mrs. Vinegar got down as fast as she could and saw the money with equal
+delight. "Now, my dear," said she, "I'll tell you what you shall do.
+There is a fair at the neighboring town; you shall take these forty
+guineas and buy a cow. I can make butter and cheese, which you shall
+sell at market, and we shall then be able to live very comfortably."
+
+Mr. Vinegar joyfully assents, takes the money, and goes off to the fair.
+When he arrived, he walked up and down, and at length saw a beautiful
+red cow. It was an excellent milker and perfect in every respect. "Oh,"
+thought Mr. Vinegar, "if I had but that cow, I should be the happiest
+man alive." So he offers the forty guineas for the cow, and the owner
+declaring that, as he was a friend, he'd oblige him, the bargain was
+made. Proud of his purchase, he drove the cow backwards and forwards to
+show it. By-and-by he saw a man playing the bagpipes--_tweedle-dum,
+tweedle-dee_. The children followed him about, and he appeared to be
+pocketing money on all sides. "Well," thought Mr. Vinegar, "if I had but
+that beautiful instrument, I should be the happiest man alive--my
+fortune would be made." So he went up to the man. "Friend," says he,
+"what a beautiful instrument that is, and what a deal of money you must
+make."
+
+"Why, yes," said the man, "I make a great deal of money, to be sure, and
+it is a wonderful instrument."
+
+"Oh!" cried Mr. Vinegar, "how I should like to possess it!"
+
+"Well," said the man, "as you are a friend, I don't much mind parting
+with it; you shall have it for that red cow."
+
+"Done!" said the delighted Mr. Vinegar. So the beautiful red cow was
+given for the bagpipes. He walked up and down with his purchase; but in
+vain he attempted to play a tune, and instead of pocketing pence, the
+boys followed him hooting, laughing, and pelting.
+
+Poor Mr. Vinegar, his fingers grew very cold, and heartily ashamed and
+mortified, he was leaving the town, when he met a man with a fine thick
+pair of gloves. "Oh, my fingers are so very cold," said Mr. Vinegar to
+himself. "If I had but those beautiful gloves I should be the happiest
+man alive." He went up to the man, and said to him: "Friend, you seem to
+have a capital pair of gloves there."
+
+"Yes, truly," cried the man; "and my hands are as warm as possible this
+cold November day."
+
+"Well," said Mr. Vinegar, "I should like to have them."
+
+"What will you give?" said the man; "as you are a friend, I don't much
+mind letting you have them for those bagpipes."
+
+"Done!" cried Mr. Vinegar. He put on the gloves, and felt perfectly
+happy as he trudged homewards.
+
+At last he grew very tired, when he saw a man coming towards him with a
+good stout stick in his hand. "Oh," said Mr. Vinegar, "that I but had
+that stick! I should then be the happiest man alive." He accosted the
+man: "Friend! what a rare good stick you have got."
+
+"Yes," said the man; "I have used it for many a long mile, and a good
+friend it has been; but if you have a fancy for it, as you are a friend,
+I don't mind giving it to you for that pair of gloves." Mr. Vinegar's
+hands were so warm, and his legs so tired, that he gladly exchanged.
+
+As he drew near to the wood where he had left his wife, he heard a
+parrot on a tree calling out his name: "Mr. Vinegar, you foolish man,
+you blockhead, you simpleton; you went to the fair and laid out all your
+money in buying a cow. Not content with that, you changed it for
+bagpipes, on which you could not play and which were not worth one-tenth
+of the money. You fool, you--you had no sooner got the bagpipes than you
+changed them for the gloves, which were not worth one-quarter of the
+money; and when you had got the gloves, you changed them for a poor
+miserable stick; and now for your forty guineas, cow, bagpipes, and
+gloves, you have nothing to show but that poor miserable stick, which
+you might have cut in any hedge." On this the bird laughed immoderately,
+and Mr. Vinegar, falling into a violent rage, threw the stick at its
+head. The stick lodged in the tree, and he returned to his wife without
+money, cow, bagpipes, gloves, or stick, and she instantly gave him such
+a sound cudgelling that she almost broke every bone in his skin.
+
+
+
+157
+
+ One of the greatest favorites among nursery
+ tales is the story of that Jack who showed "an
+ inquiring mind, a great courage and
+ enterprise," and who climbed the ladder of
+ fortune when he mounted his bean-stalk. The
+ traditional versions of this story are nearly
+ all crude and unsatisfactory, as are those of
+ many of the English tales. Joseph Jacobs made a
+ remarkably fine literary version in his
+ _English Fairy Tales_ from memories of his
+ Australian childhood. He materially shortens
+ the story by omitting the fairy lady, who, he
+ suggests, was put in "to prevent the tale
+ becoming an encouragement to theft." He also
+ made Jack's character more consistent by making
+ him more sympathetic and kind at the beginning
+ and less of a "ne'er-do-well," though the
+ noodle element in the selling of the cow could
+ not be eliminated. Andrew Lang, in his _Green
+ Fairy Book_, gives an excellent version of the
+ story in its most extended form. Both the
+ versions mentioned introduce, when the giant
+ comes in, the formula generally associated with
+ "Jack the Giant Killer":
+
+ "Fee-fi-fo-fum,
+ I smell the blood of an Englishman,
+ Be he alive, or be he dead,
+ I'll grind his bones to make my bread."
+
+ The version chosen for use here contains the
+ elements of the story most familiar to past
+ generations and is probably as near the
+ commoner oral traditions as it is possible to
+ secure. It is taken from Miss Mulock's _The
+ Fairy Book_, a very fine selection of tales,
+ first published in 1863, and still widely used.
+ Miss Muloch (Dinah Maria Craik, 1826-1887) is
+ best known as the author of the popular novel
+ _John Halifax, Gentleman_.
+
+
+JACK AND THE BEAN-STALK
+
+In the days of King Alfred there lived a poor woman, whose cottage was
+in a remote country village, many miles from London. She had been a
+widow some years, and had an only child named Jack, whom she indulged so
+much that he never paid the least attention to anything she said, but
+was indolent, careless, and extravagant. His follies were not owing to a
+bad disposition, but to his mother's foolish partiality. By degrees he
+spent all that she had--scarcely anything remained but a cow.
+
+One day, for the first time in her life, she reproached him: "Cruel,
+cruel boy! you have at last brought me to beggary. I have not money
+enough to purchase even a bit of bread; nothing now remains to sell but
+my poor cow! I am sorry to part with her; it grieves me sadly, but we
+cannot starve."
+
+For a few minutes Jack felt remorse, but it was soon over, and he began
+asking his mother to let him sell the cow at the next village, teasing
+her so much that she at last consented. As he was going along he met a
+butcher, who inquired why he was driving the cow from home. Jack replied
+that he was going to sell her. The butcher held some curious beans in
+his hat; they were of various colors, and attracted Jack's attention.
+This did not pass unnoticed by the man, who, knowing Jack's easy temper,
+thought now was the time to take an advantage of it; and, determined not
+to let slip so good an opportunity, asked what was the price of the cow,
+offering at the same time all the beans in his hat for her. The silly
+boy could not conceal the pleasure he felt at what he supposed so great
+an offer. The bargain was struck instantly, and the cow exchanged for a
+few paltry beans. Jack made the best of his way home, calling aloud to
+his mother before he reached the door, thinking to surprise her.
+
+When she saw the beans, and heard Jack's account, her patience quite
+forsook her. She tossed the beans out of the window, where they fell on
+the garden-bed below. Then she threw her apron over her head, and cried
+bitterly. Jack attempted to console her, but in vain, and, not having
+anything to eat, they both went supperless to bed.
+
+Jack awoke early in the morning, and seeing something uncommon darkening
+the window of his bed-chamber, ran down stairs into the garden, where he
+found some of the beans had taken root and sprung up surprisingly. The
+stalks were of an immense thickness, and had twined together until they
+formed a ladder like a chain, and so high that the top appeared to be
+lost in the clouds.
+
+Jack was an adventurous lad; he determined to climb up to the top, and
+ran to tell his mother, not doubting but that she would be equally
+pleased with himself. She declared he should not go; said it would break
+her heart if he did; entreated and threatened, but all in vain. Jack set
+out, and after climbing for some hours reached the top of the
+bean-stalk, quite exhausted. Looking around, he found himself in a
+strange country. It appeared to be a barren desert; not a tree, shrub,
+house, or living creature was to be seen; here and there were scattered
+fragments of stone, and at unequal distances small heaps of earth were
+loosely thrown together.
+
+Jack seated himself pensively upon a block of stone and thought of his
+mother. He reflected with sorrow upon his disobedience in climbing the
+bean-stalk against her will, and concluded that he must die of hunger.
+However, he walked on, hoping to see a house where he might beg
+something to eat and drink. He did not find it; but he saw at a distance
+a beautiful lady walking all alone. She was elegantly clad, and carried
+a white wand, at the top of which sat a peacock of pure gold.
+
+Jack, who was a gallant fellow, went straight up to her, when, with a
+bewitching smile, she asked him how he came there. He told her all about
+the bean-stalk. The lady answered him by a question, "Do you remember
+your father, young man?"
+
+"No, madam; but I am sure there is some mystery about him, for when I
+name him to my mother she always begins to weep and will tell me
+nothing."
+
+"She dare not," replied the lady, "but I can and will. For know, young
+man, that I am a fairy, and was your father's guardian. But fairies are
+bound by laws as well as mortals; and by an error of mine I lost my
+power for a term of years, so that I was unable to succor your father
+when he most needed it, and he died." Here the fairy looked so sorrowful
+that Jack's heart warmed to her, and he begged her earnestly to tell him
+more.
+
+"I will; only you must promise to obey me in everything, or you will
+perish yourself."
+
+Jack was brave, and, besides, his fortunes were so bad they could not
+well be worse,--so he promised.
+
+The fairy continued: "Your father, Jack, was a most excellent, amiable,
+generous man. He had a good wife, faithful servants, plenty of money;
+but he had one misfortune--a false friend. This was a giant, whom he had
+succored in misfortune, and who returned his kindness by murdering him
+and seizing on all his property; also making your mother take a solemn
+oath that she would never tell you anything about your father, or he
+would murder both her and you. Then he turned her off with you in her
+arms, to wander about the wide world as she might. I could not help her,
+as my power only returned on the day you went to sell your cow.
+
+"It was I," added the fairy, "who impelled you to take the beans, who
+made the bean-stalk grow, and inspired you with the desire to climb up
+it to this strange country; for it is here the wicked giant lives who
+was your father's destroyer. It is you who must avenge him, and rid the
+world of a monster who never will do anything but evil. I will assist
+you. You may lawfully take possession of his house and all his riches,
+for everything he has belonged to your father, and is therefore yours.
+Now, farewell! Do not let your mother know you are acquainted with your
+father's history; this is my command, and if you disobey me you will
+suffer for it. Now go."
+
+Jack asked where he was to go.
+
+"Along the direct road, till you see the house where the giant lives.
+You must then act according to your own just judgment, and I will guide
+you if any difficulty arises. Farewell!"
+
+She bestowed on the youth a benignant smile, and vanished.
+
+Jack pursued his journey. He walked on till after sunset, when, to his
+great joy, he espied a large mansion. A plain-looking woman was at the
+door. He accosted her, begging she would give him a morsel of bread and
+a night's lodging. She expressed the greatest surprise, and said it was
+quite uncommon to see a human being near their house; for it was well
+known that her husband was a powerful giant, who would never eat
+anything but human flesh, if he could possibly get it; that he would
+walk fifty miles to procure it, usually being out the whole day for that
+purpose.
+
+This account greatly terrified Jack, but still he hoped to elude the
+giant, and therefore he again entreated the woman to take him in for one
+night only, and hide him where she thought proper. She at last suffered
+herself to be persuaded, for she was of a compassionate and generous
+disposition, and took him into the house. First, they entered a fine
+large hall, magnificently furnished; they then passed through several
+spacious rooms, in the same style of grandeur; but all appeared forsaken
+and desolate. A long gallery came next, it was very dark, just light
+enough to show that instead of a wall on one side, there was a grating
+of iron which parted off a dismal dungeon, from whence issued the groans
+of those victims whom the cruel giant reserved in confinement for his
+own voracious appetite.
+
+Poor Jack was half dead with fear, and would have given the world to
+have been with his mother again, for he now began to doubt if he should
+ever see her more; he even mistrusted the good woman, and thought she
+had let him into the house for no other purpose than to lock him up
+among the unfortunate people in the dungeon. However, she bade Jack sit
+down, and gave him plenty to eat and drink; and he, not seeing anything
+to make him uncomfortable, soon forgot his fear, and was just beginning
+to enjoy himself, when he was startled by a loud knocking at the outer
+door, which made the whole house shake.
+
+"Ah! that's the giant; and if he sees you he will kill you and me too,"
+cried the poor woman, trembling all over. "What shall I do?"
+
+"Hide me in the oven," cried Jack, now as bold as a lion at the thought
+of being face to face with his father's cruel murderer. So he crept into
+the oven--for there was no fire near it--and listened to the giant's
+loud voice and heavy step as he went up and down the kitchen scolding
+his wife. At last he seated himself at the table, and Jack, peeping
+through a crevice in the oven, was amazed to see what a quantity of food
+he devoured. It seemed as if he never would have done eating and
+drinking; but he did at last, and, leaning back, called to his wife in a
+voice like thunder:
+
+"Bring me my hen!"
+
+She obeyed, and placed upon the table a very beautiful live hen.
+
+"Lay!" roared the giant, and the hen laid immediately an egg of solid
+gold.
+
+"Lay another!" and every time the giant said this the hen laid a larger
+egg than before.
+
+He amused himself a long time with his hen, and then sent his wife to
+bed, while he fell asleep by the fireside, and snored like the roaring
+of cannon.
+
+As soon as he was asleep Jack crept out of the oven, seized the hen, and
+ran off with her. He got safely out of the house, and finding his way
+along the road he had come, reached the top of the bean-stalk, which he
+descended in safety.
+
+His mother was overjoyed to see him. She thought he had come to some ill
+end.
+
+"Not a bit of it, mother. Look here!" and he showed her the hen. "Now
+lay!" and the hen obeyed him as readily as the giant, and laid as many
+golden eggs as he desired.
+
+These eggs being sold, Jack and his mother got plenty of money, and for
+some months lived very happily together; till Jack got another great
+longing to climb the bean-stalk and carry away some more of the giant's
+riches. He had told his mother of his adventure, but had been very
+careful not to say a word about his father. He thought of his journey
+again and again, but still he could not summon resolution enough to
+break it to his mother, being well assured that she would endeavor to
+prevent his going. However, one day he told her boldly that he must take
+another journey up the bean-stalk. She begged and prayed him not to
+think of it, and tried all in her power to dissuade him. She told him
+that the giant's wife would certainly know him again, and that the giant
+would desire nothing better than to get him into his power, that he
+might put him to a cruel death in order to be revenged for the loss of
+his hen. Jack, finding that all his arguments were useless, ceased
+speaking, though resolved to go at all events. He had a dress prepared
+which would disguise him, and something to color his skin. He thought
+it impossible for any one to recollect him in this dress.
+
+A few mornings after, he rose very early, and, unperceived by any one,
+climbed the bean-stalk a second time. He was greatly fatigued when he
+reached the top, and very hungry. Having rested some time on one of the
+stones, he pursued his journey to the giant's mansion, which he reached
+late in the evening. The woman was at the door as before. Jack addressed
+her, at the same time telling her a pitiful tale, and requesting that
+she would give him some victuals and drink, and also a night's lodging.
+
+She told him (what he knew before very well) about her husband's being a
+powerful and cruel giant, and also that she had one night admitted a
+poor, hungry, friendless boy; that the little ungrateful fellow had
+stolen one of the giant's treasures; and ever since that her husband had
+been worse than before, using her very cruelly, and continually
+upbraiding her with being the cause of his misfortune.
+
+Jack felt sorry for her, but confessed nothing, and did his best to
+persuade her to admit him, but found it a very hard task. At last she
+consented, and as she led the way, Jack observed that everything was
+just as he had found it before. She took him into the kitchen, and after
+he had done eating and drinking, she hid him in an old lumber-closet.
+
+The giant returned at the usual time, and walked in so heavily that the
+house was shaken to its foundation. He seated himself by the fire, and
+soon after exclaimed, "Wife, I smell fresh meat!"
+
+The wife replied it was the crows, which had brought a piece of raw meat
+and left it at the top of the house. While supper was preparing, the
+giant was very ill-tempered and impatient, frequently lifting up his
+hand to strike his wife for not being quick enough. He was also
+continually upbraiding her with the loss of his wonderful hen.
+
+At last, having ended his supper, he cried, "Give me something to amuse
+me--my harp or my money-bags."
+
+"Which will you have, my dear?" said the wife humbly.
+
+"My money-bags, because they are the heaviest to carry," thundered he.
+
+She brought them, staggering under the weight; two bags--one filled with
+new guineas, and the other with new shillings. She emptied them out on
+the table, and the giant began counting them in great glee. "Now you may
+go to bed, you old fool." So the wife crept away.
+
+Jack from his hiding-place watched the counting of the money, which he
+knew was his poor father's, and wished it was his own; it would give him
+much less trouble than going about selling the golden eggs. The giant,
+little thinking he was so narrowly observed, reckoned it all up, and
+then replaced it in the two bags, which he tied up very carefully and
+put beside his chair, with his little dog to guard them. At last he fell
+asleep as before, and snored so loud that Jack compared his noise to the
+roaring of the sea in a high wind when the tide is coming in.
+
+At last Jack, concluding all secure, stole out, in order to carry off
+the two bags of money; but just as he laid his hands upon one of them,
+the little dog, which he had not seen before, started from under the
+giant's chair and barked most furiously. Instead of endeavoring to
+escape, Jack stood still, though expecting his enemy to awake every
+instant. Contrary, however, to his expectation, the giant continued in a
+sound sleep, and Jack, seeing a piece of meat, threw it to the dog, who
+at once ceased barking and began to devour it. So Jack carried off the
+bags, one on each shoulder, but they were so heavy that it took him two
+whole days to descend the bean-stalk and get back to his mother's door.
+
+When he came he found the cottage deserted. He ran from one room to
+another, without being able to find any one. He then hastened into the
+village, hoping to see some of the neighbors who could inform him where
+he could find his mother. An old woman at last directed him to a
+neighboring house, where she was ill of a fever. He was greatly shocked
+at finding her apparently dying, and blamed himself bitterly as the
+cause of it all. However, at sight of her dear son, the poor woman
+revived, and slowly recovered health. Jack gave her his two money-bags.
+They had the cottage rebuilt and well furnished, and lived happier than
+they had ever done before.
+
+For three years Jack heard no more of the bean-stalk, but he could not
+forget it, though he feared making his mother unhappy. It was in vain
+endeavoring to amuse himself; he became thoughtful, and would arise at
+the first dawn of day, and sit looking at the bean-stalk for hours
+together.
+
+His mother saw that something preyed upon his mind, and endeavored to
+discover the cause; but Jack knew too well what the consequence would be
+should she succeed. He did his utmost, therefore, to conquer the great
+desire he had for another journey up the bean-stalk. Finding, however,
+that his inclination grew too powerful for him, he began to make secret
+preparations for his journey. He got ready a new disguise, better and
+more complete than the former; and when summer came, on the longest day
+he woke as soon as it was light, and, without telling his mother,
+ascended the bean-stalk. He found, the road, journey, etc., much as it
+was on the two former times. He arrived at the giant's mansion in the
+evening, and found the wife standing, as usual, at the door. Jack had
+disguised himself so completely that she did not appear to have the
+least recollection of him; however, when he pleaded hunger and poverty
+in order to gain admittance, he found it very difficult indeed to
+persuade her. At last he prevailed, and was concealed in the copper.
+
+When the giant returned, he said furiously, "I smell fresh meat!" But
+Jack felt quite composed, as he had said so before and had been soon
+satisfied. However, the giant started up suddenly, and, notwithstanding
+all his wife could say, he searched all round the room. Whilst this was
+going forward, Jack was exceedingly terrified, wishing himself at home a
+thousand times; but when the giant approached the copper, and put his
+hand on the lid, Jack thought his death was certain. However, nothing
+happened; for the giant did not take the trouble to lift up the lid, but
+sat down shortly by the fireside and began to eat his enormous supper.
+When he had finished, he commanded his wife to fetch down his harp.
+
+Jack peeped under the copper lid and saw a most beautiful harp. The
+giant placed it on the table, said, "Play!" and it played of its own
+accord, without anybody touching it, the most exquisite music
+imaginable.
+
+Jack, who was a very good musician, was delighted, and more anxious to
+get this than any other of his enemy's treasures. But the giant not
+being particularly fond of music, the harp had only the effect of
+lulling him to sleep earlier than usual. As for the wife, she had gone
+to bed as soon as ever she could.
+
+As soon as he thought all was safe, Jack got out of the copper, and,
+seizing the harp, was eagerly running off with it. But the harp was
+enchanted by a fairy, and as soon as it found itself in strange hands,
+it called out loudly, just as if it had been alive, "Master! Master!"
+
+The giant awoke, started up, and saw Jack scampering away as fast as his
+legs could carry him.
+
+"Oh, you villain! It is you who have robbed me of my hen and my
+money-bags, and now you are stealing my harp also. Wait till I catch
+you, and I'll eat you up alive!"
+
+"Very well; try!" shouted Jack, who was not a bit afraid, for he saw the
+giant was so tipsy he could hardly stand, much less run; and he himself
+had young legs and a clear conscience, which carry a man a long way. So,
+after leading the giant a considerable race, he contrived to be first at
+the top of the bean-stalk, and then scrambled down it as fast as he
+could, the harp playing all the while the most melancholy music, till he
+said, "Stop"; and it stopped.
+
+Arrived at the bottom, he found his mother sitting at her cottage door,
+weeping silently.
+
+"Here, mother, don't cry; just give me a hatchet; make haste." For he
+knew there was not a moment to spare. He saw the giant beginning to
+descend the bean-stalk.
+
+However, it was too late--the monster's ill deeds had come to an end.
+Jack with his hatchet cut the bean-stalk close off at the root; the
+giant fell headlong into the garden, and was killed on the spot.
+
+Instantly the fairy appeared and explained everything to Jack's mother,
+begging her to forgive Jack, who was his father's own son for bravery
+and generosity, and who would be sure to make her happy for the rest of
+her days.
+
+So all ended well, and nothing was ever more heard or seen of the
+wonderful bean-stalk.
+
+
+
+158
+
+ Those wonder stories that concern themselves
+ with giants or with very little people have
+ always been favorites with children. Of the
+ little heroes Tom Thumb has always held the
+ center of the stage. His adventures in one form
+ or another are in the folk tales of most
+ European countries. He has the honor of being
+ the subject of a monograph by the great French
+ scholar Gaston Paris. Hans Christian Andersen
+ turned him into a delightful little girl in his
+ derivative story of "Thumbelina." The English
+ version of "Tom Thumb" seems to have been
+ printed first in ballad form in the seventeenth
+ century, and later in many chapbook versions in
+ prose. Its plot takes the form of a succession
+ of marvelous accidents by land and sea, limited
+ only by the inventive ingenuity of the
+ story-teller. "According to popular tradition
+ Tom Thumb died at Lincoln. . . . There was a
+ little blue flagstone in the pavement of the
+ Minster which was shown as Tom Thumb's
+ monument, and the country folks never failed to
+ marvel at it when they came to church on the
+ Assize Sunday; but during some of the modern
+ repairs which have been inflicted on that
+ venerable building, the flagstone was displaced
+ and lost, to the great discomfiture of the
+ holiday visitants." Thus wrote an ancient and
+ learned scholar in illustration of the tendency
+ to give a local habitation and a name to our
+ favorite fancies. The version of the story
+ given by Miss Mulock in her _Fairy Book_ is the
+ one used here. It follows closely the rambling
+ events of the various chapbook and ballad
+ versions.
+
+
+TOM THUMB
+
+In the days of King Arthur, Merlin, the most learned enchanter of his
+time, was on a journey; and being very weary, stopped one day at the
+cottage of an honest ploughman to ask for refreshment. The ploughman's
+wife with great civility immediately brought him some milk in a wooden
+bowl and some brown bread on a wooden platter.
+
+Merlin could not help observing that although everything within the
+cottage was particularly neat and clean and in good order, the ploughman
+and his wife had the most sorrowful air imaginable; so he questioned
+them on the cause of their melancholy and learned that they were very
+miserable because they had no children.
+
+The poor woman declared with tears in her eyes that she should be the
+happiest creature in the world if she had a son, although he were no
+bigger than his father's thumb.
+
+Merlin was much amused with the notion of a boy no bigger than a man's
+thumb, and as soon as he returned home he sent for the queen of the
+fairies (with whom he was very intimate) and related to her the desire
+of the ploughman and his wife to have a son the size of his father's
+thumb. She liked the plan exceedingly and declared their wish should be
+speedily granted. Accordingly the ploughman's wife had a son, who in a
+few minutes grew as tall as his father's thumb.
+
+The queen of the fairies came in at the window as the mother was sitting
+up in bed admiring the child. Her majesty kissed the infant and, giving
+it the name of Tom Thumb, immediately summoned several fairies from
+Fairyland to clothe her new little favorite.
+
+ "An oak-leaf hat he had for his crown;
+ His shirt it was by spiders spun;
+ With doublet wove of thistledown,
+ His trousers up with points were done;
+ His stockings, of apple-rind, they tie
+ With eye-lash plucked from his mother's eye,
+ His shoes were made of a mouse's skin,
+ Nicely tann'd with hair within."
+
+Tom was never any bigger than his father's thumb, which was not a large
+thumb either; but as he grew older he became very cunning, for which his
+mother did not sufficiently correct him, and by this ill quality he was
+often brought into difficulties. For instance, when he had learned to
+play with other boys for cherry-stones and had lost all his own, he used
+to creep into the boys' bags, fill his pockets, and come out again to
+play. But one day as he was getting out of a bag of cherry-stones, the
+boy to whom it belonged chanced to see him.
+
+"Ah, ha, my little Tom Thumb!" said he, "have I caught you at your bad
+tricks at last? Now I will reward you for thieving." Then he drew the
+string tight around Tom's neck and shook the bag. The cherry-stones
+bruised Tom Thumb's legs, thighs, and body sadly, which made him beg to
+be let out and promise never to be guilty of such things any more.
+
+Shortly afterwards Tom's mother was making a batter-pudding, and that
+he might see how she mixed it, he climbed on the edge of the bowl; but
+his foot happening to slip, he fell over head and ears into the batter.
+His mother not observing him, stirred him into the pudding and popped
+him into the pot to boil. The hot water made Tom kick and struggle; and
+the mother, seeing the pudding jump up and down in such a furious
+manner, thought it was bewitched; and a tinker coming by just at the
+time, she quickly gave him the pudding. He put it into his budget and
+walked on.
+
+As soon as Tom could get the batter out of his mouth he began to cry
+aloud, and so frightened the poor tinker that he flung the pudding over
+the hedge and ran away from it as fast as he could. The pudding being
+broken to pieces by the fall, Tom was released, and walked home to his
+mother, who gave him a kiss and put him to bed.
+
+Tom Thumb's mother once took him with her when she went to milk the cow;
+and it being a very windy day, she tied him with a needleful of thread
+to a thistle, that he might not be blown away. The cow, liking his
+oak-leaf hat, took him and the thistle up at one mouthful. While the cow
+chewed the thistle, Tom, terrified at her great teeth, which seemed
+ready to crush him to pieces, roared, "Mother, mother!" as loud as he
+could bawl.
+
+"Where are you, Tommy, my dear Tommy?" said the mother.
+
+"Here, mother, here in the red cow's mouth."
+
+The mother began to cry and wring her hands; but the cow, surprised at
+such odd noises in her throat, opened her mouth and let him drop out.
+His mother clapped him into her apron and ran home with him.
+
+Tom's father made him a whip of a barley straw to drive the cattle with,
+and one day when he was in the field he slipped into a deep furrow. A
+raven flying over picked him up with a grain of corn and flew with him
+to the top of a giant's castle by the seaside, where he left him; and
+old Grumbo, the giant, coming soon after to walk upon his terrace,
+swallowed Tom like a pill, clothes and all.
+
+Tom presently made the giant very uncomfortable, and he threw him up
+into the sea. A great fish then swallowed him. The fish was soon after
+caught, and sent as a present to King Arthur. When it was cut open,
+everybody was delighted with little Tom Thumb. The king made him his
+dwarf; he was the favorite of the whole court, and by his merry pranks
+often amused the queen and the knights of the Round Table.
+
+The king, when he rode on horse-back, frequently took Tom in his hand;
+and if a shower of rain came on, he used to creep into the king's
+waist-coat pocket and sleep till the rain was over. The king also
+sometimes questioned Tom concerning his parents; and when Tom informed
+his majesty they were very poor people, the king led him into his
+treasury and told him he should pay his friends a visit and take with
+him as much money as he could carry. Tom procured a little purse, and
+putting a threepenny piece into it, with much labor and difficulty got
+it upon his back; and, after travelling two days and nights, arrived at
+his father's house.
+
+When his mother met him at the door, he was almost tired to death,
+having in forty-eight hours traveled almost half a mile with a huge
+silver threepence upon his back. Both his parents were glad to see him,
+especially when he had brought such an amazing sum of money with him.
+They placed him in a walnut-shell by the fireside and feasted him for
+three days upon a hazel-nut, which made him sick, for a whole nut
+usually served him for a month.
+
+Tom got well, but could not travel because it had rained; therefore his
+mother took him in her hand, and with one puff blew him into King
+Arthur's court, where Tom entertained the king, queen, and nobility at
+tilts and tournaments, at which he exerted himself so much that he
+brought on a fit of sickness, and his life was despaired of.
+
+At this juncture the queen of the fairies came in a chariot, drawn by
+flying mice, placed Tom by her side, and drove through the air without
+stopping till they arrived at her palace. After restoring him to health
+and permitting him to enjoy all the gay diversions of Fairyland, she
+commanded a fair wind, and, placing Tom before it, blew him straight to
+the court of King Arthur. But just as Tom should have alighted in the
+courtyard of the palace, the cook happened to pass along with the king's
+great bowl of furmenty (King Arthur loved furmenty), and poor Tom Thumb
+fell plump into the middle of it and splashed the hot furmenty into the
+cook's eyes. Down went the bowl.
+
+"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried Tom.
+
+"Murder! murder!" bellowed the cook; and away poured the king's nice
+furmenty into the kennel.
+
+The cook was a red-faced, cross fellow, and swore to the king that Tom
+had done it out of mere mischief; so he was taken up, tried, and
+sentenced to be beheaded. Tom hearing this dreadful sentence and seeing
+a miller stand by with his mouth wide open, he took a good spring and
+jumped down the miller's throat, unperceived by all, even the miller
+himself.
+
+Tom being lost, the court broke up, and away went the miller to his
+mill. But Tom did not leave him long at rest; he began to roll and
+tumble about, so that the miller thought himself bewitched and sent for
+a doctor. When the doctor came, Tom began to dance and sing. The doctor
+was as much frightened as the miller and sent in great haste for five
+more doctors and twenty learned men.
+
+While all these were debating upon the affair, the miller (for they were
+very tedious) happened to yawn, and Tom, taking the opportunity, made
+another jump and alighted on his feet in the middle of the table. The
+miller, provoked to be thus tormented by such a little creature, fell
+into a great passion, caught hold of Tom, and threw him out of the
+window into the river. A large salmon swimming by snapped him up in a
+minute. The salmon was soon caught and sold in the market to a steward
+of a lord. The lord, thinking it an uncommonly fine fish, made a present
+of it to the king, who ordered it to be dressed immediately. When the
+cook cut open the salmon he found poor Tom and ran with him directly to
+the king; but the king, being busy with state affairs, desired that he
+might be brought another day.
+
+The cook, resolving to keep him safely this time, as he had so lately
+given him the slip, clapped him into a mouse-trap and left him to amuse
+himself by peeping through the wires for a whole week. When the king
+sent for him, he forgave him for throwing down the furmenty, ordered
+him new clothes, and knighted him.
+
+ "His shirt was made of butterflies' wings;
+ His boots were made of chicken skins,
+ His coat and breeches were made with pride,
+ A tailor's needle hung by his side;
+ A mouse for a horse he used to ride."
+
+Thus dressed and mounted, he rode a-hunting with the king and nobility,
+who all laughed heartily at Tom and his prancing steed. As they rode by
+a farm-house one day, a cat jumped from behind the door, seized the
+mouse and little Tom, and began to devour the mouse; however, Tom boldly
+drew his sword and attacked the cat, who then let him fall. The king and
+his nobles, seeing Tom falling, went to his assistance, and one of the
+lords caught him in his hat; but poor Tom was sadly scratched, and his
+clothes were torn by the claws of the cat. In this condition he was
+carried home, and a bed of down was made for him in a little ivory
+cabinet.
+
+The queen of the fairies came and took him again to Fairyland, where she
+kept him for some years; and then, dressing him in bright green, sent
+him flying once more through the air to the earth, in the days of King
+Thunstone. The people flocked far and near to look at him; and the king,
+before whom he was carried, asked him who he was, whence he came, and
+where he lived? Tom answered:
+
+ "My name is Tom Thumb;
+ From the fairies I come;
+ When King Arthur shone,
+ This court was my home;
+ In me he delighted;
+ By him I was knighted.
+ Did you ever hear of
+ Sir Thomas Thumb?"
+
+The king was so charmed with this address that he ordered a little chair
+to be made, in order that Tom might sit on his table, and also a palace
+of gold a span high with a door an inch wide, for little Tom to live in.
+He also gave him a coach drawn by six small mice. This made the queen
+angry, because she had not a new coach too; therefore, resolving to ruin
+Tom, she complained to the king that he had behaved very insolently to
+her. The king sent for him in a rage. Tom, to escape his fury, crept
+into an empty snail-shell and there lay till he was almost starved;
+then, peeping out of the hole, he saw a fine butterfly settle on the
+ground. He then ventured out, and getting astride, the butterfly took
+wing and mounted into the air with little Tom on his back. Away he flew
+from field to field, from tree to tree, till at last he flew to the
+king's court. The king, queen, and nobles all strove to catch the
+butterfly, but could not. At length poor Tom, having neither bridle nor
+saddle, slipped from his seat and fell into a watering-pot, where he was
+found almost drowned.
+
+The queen vowed he should be guillotined; but while the guillotine was
+getting ready, he was secured once more in a mousetrap. The cat, seeing
+something stir and supposing it to be a mouse, patted the trap about
+till she broke it and set Tom at liberty.
+
+Soon afterwards a spider, taking him for a fly, made at him. Tom drew
+his sword and fought valiantly, but the spider's poisonous breath
+overcame him:
+
+ "He fell dead on the ground where late he had stood,
+ And the spider suck'd up the last drop of his blood."
+
+King Thunstone and his whole court went into mourning for little Tom
+Thumb. They buried him under a rosebush and raised a nice white marble
+monument over his grave, with the following epitaph:
+
+ "Here lies Tom Thumb, King Arthur's knight,
+ Who died by a spider's cruel bite.
+ He was well known in Arthur's court,
+ Where he afforded gallant sport;
+ He rode at tilt and tournament,
+ And on a mouse a-hunting went.
+ Alive he fill'd the court with mirth,
+ His death to sorrow soon gave birth.
+ Wipe, wipe your eyes, and shake your head,
+ And cry, 'Alas! Tom Thumb is dead.'"
+
+
+
+159
+
+ This chapbook form of the famous "Whittington
+ and His Cat" is the one reprinted by Hartland
+ in his _English Fairy and Folk Tales_. It goes
+ back to the early eighteenth century. Sir
+ Richard Whittington, at least, was a historical
+ character and served his first term as Lord
+ Mayor of London in 1397. Like most popular
+ stories, this one of a fortune due to a cat is
+ common to all Europe. Mr. Clouston, in the
+ second volume of his _Popular Tales and
+ Fictions_, outlines a number of these stories,
+ and even points out a Persian parallel of an
+ earlier date than the birth of Sir Richard.
+ Just how this very prosperous business man of
+ London, who was never in reality a poor boy,
+ came to be adopted as the hero of the English
+ version of this romantic tale has never been
+ made clear. Probably it was due to the common
+ tendency of the folk in all lands to attribute
+ unusual success in any field to other than
+ ordinary causes. However that may be, it is
+ certainly true that no story more completely
+ satisfies the ideal of complete success for
+ children than this "History of Sir Richard
+ Whittington." Mr. Jacobs calls attention to the
+ interesting fact that the chapbook places the
+ introduction of the potato into England rather
+ far back!
+
+
+WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT
+
+In the reign of the famous King Edward III, there was a little boy
+called Dick Whittington, whose father and mother died when he was very
+young, so that he remembered nothing at all about them and was left a
+ragged little fellow, running about a country village. As poor Dick was
+not old enough to work, he was very badly off; he got but little for his
+dinner and sometimes nothing at all for his breakfast, for the people
+who lived in the village were very poor indeed and could not spare him
+much more than the parings of potatoes and now and then a hard crust of
+bread.
+
+For all this, Dick Whittington was a very sharp boy and was always
+listening to what everybody talked about. On Sunday he was sure to get
+near the farmers as they sat talking on the tombstones in the churchyard
+before the parson was come; and once a week you might see little Dick
+leaning against the sign post of the village alehouse, where people
+stopped to drink as they came from the next market town; and when the
+barber's shop door was open, Dick listened to all the news that his
+customers told one another.
+
+In this manner Dick heard a great many very strange things about the
+city called London; for the foolish country people at that time thought
+that folks in London were all fine gentlemen and ladies, and that there
+was singing and music there all day long, and that the streets were all
+paved with gold.
+
+One day a large wagon and eight horses, all with bells at their heads,
+drove through the village while Dick was standing by the signpost. He
+thought that this wagon must be going to the fine town of London; so he
+took courage and asked the wagoner to let him walk with him by the side
+of the wagon. As soon as the wagoner heard that poor Dick had no father
+or mother and saw by his ragged clothes that he could not be worse off
+than he was, he told him he might go if he would, so they set off
+together.
+
+I could never find out how little Dick contrived to get meat and drink
+on the road, nor how he could walk so far, for it was a long way, nor
+what he did at night for a place to lie down to sleep in. Perhaps some
+good-natured people in the towns that he passed through, when they saw
+he was a poor little ragged boy, gave him something to eat; and perhaps
+the wagoner let him get into the wagon at night and take a nap upon one
+of the boxes or large parcels in the wagon.
+
+Dick, however, got safe to London and was in such a hurry to see the
+fine streets paved all over with gold that I am afraid he did not even
+stay to thank the kind wagoner, but ran off as fast as his legs would
+carry him through many of the streets, thinking every moment to come to
+those that were paved with gold, for Dick had seen a guinea three times
+in his own little village and remembered what a deal of money it brought
+in change; so he thought he had nothing to do but to take up some little
+bits of the pavement and should then have as much money as he could wish
+for.
+
+Poor Dick ran till he was tired and had quite forgotten his friend the
+wagoner; but at last, finding it grow dark and that every way he turned
+he saw nothing but dirt instead of gold, he sat down in a dark corner
+and cried himself to sleep.
+
+Little Dick was all night in the streets; and next morning, being very
+hungry, he got up and walked about and asked everybody he met to give
+him a halfpenny to keep him from starving. But nobody stayed to answer
+him, and only two or three gave him a halfpenny; so that the poor boy
+was soon quite weak and faint for the want of victuals.
+
+At last a good-natured looking gentleman saw how hungry he looked. "Why
+don't you go to work, my lad?" said he to Dick.
+
+"That I would, but I do not know how to get any," answered Dick.
+
+"If you are willing, come along with me," said the gentleman, and took
+him to a hay-field, where Dick worked briskly and lived merrily till the
+hay was made.
+
+After this he found himself as badly off as before; and being almost
+starved again, he laid himself down at the door of Mr. Fitzwarren, a
+rich merchant. Here he was soon seen by the cook-maid, who was an
+ill-tempered creature and happened just then to be very busy dressing
+dinner for her master and mistress; so she called out to poor Dick:
+"What business have you there, you lazy rogue? There is nothing else but
+beggars. If you do not take yourself away, we will see how you will like
+a sousing of some dish water; I have some here hot enough to make you
+jump."
+
+Just at that time Mr. Fitzwarren himself came home to dinner; and when
+he saw a dirty ragged boy lying at the door, he said to him: "Why do you
+lie there, my boy? You seem old enough to work. I am afraid you are
+inclined to be lazy."
+
+"No, indeed, sir," said Dick to him, "that is not the case, for I would
+work with all my heart, but I do not know anybody, and I believe I am
+very sick for the want of food."
+
+"Poor fellow, get up; let me see what ails you."
+
+Dick then tried to rise, but was obliged to lie down again, being too
+weak to stand, for he had not eaten any food for three days and was no
+longer able to run about and beg a halfpenny of people in the street. So
+the kind merchant ordered him to be taken into the house, and have a
+good dinner given him, and be kept to do what dirty work he was able for
+the cook.
+
+Little Dick would have lived very happy in this good family if it had
+not been for the ill-natured cook, who was finding fault and scolding
+him from morning to night, and besides she was so fond of basting that
+when she had no meat to baste she would baste poor Dick's head and
+shoulders with a broom or anything else that happened to fall in her
+way. At last her ill-usage of him was told to Alice, Mr. Fitzwarren's
+daughter, who told the cook she should be turned away if she did not
+treat him kinder.
+
+The ill-humor of the cook was now a little amended; but besides this
+Dick had another hardship to get over. His bed stood in a garret where
+there were so many holes in the floor and the walls that every night he
+was tormented with rats and mice. A gentleman having given Dick a penny
+for cleaning his shoes, he thought he would buy a cat with it. The next
+day he saw a girl with a cat and asked her if she would let him have it
+for a penny. The girl said she would and at the same time told him the
+cat was an excellent mouser.
+
+Dick hid his cat in the garret and always took care to carry a part of
+his dinner to her, and in a short time he had no more trouble with the
+rats and mice, but slept quite sound every night.
+
+Soon after this his master had a ship ready to sail; and as he thought
+it right that all his servants should have some chance for good fortune
+as well as himself, he called them all into the parlor and asked them
+what they would send out.
+
+They all had something that they were willing to venture except poor
+Dick, who had neither money nor goods, and therefore could send nothing.
+
+For this reason he did not come into the parlor with the rest; but Miss
+Alice guessed what was the matter and ordered him to be called in. She
+then said she would lay down some money for him from her own purse; but
+the father told her this would not do, for it must be something of his
+own.
+
+When poor Dick heard this, he said he had nothing but a cat which he
+bought for a penny some time since of a little girl.
+
+"Fetch your cat then, my good boy," said Mr. Fitzwarren, "and let her
+go."
+
+Dick went up stairs and brought down poor puss, with tears in his eyes,
+and gave her to the captain, for he said he should now be kept awake
+again all night by the rats and mice.
+
+All the company laughed at Dick's odd venture; and Miss Alice, who felt
+pity for the poor boy, gave him some money to buy another cat.
+
+This and many other marks of kindness shown him by Miss Alice made the
+ill-tempered cook jealous of poor Dick, and she began to use him more
+cruelly than ever and always made game of him for sending his cat to
+sea. She asked him if he thought his cat would sell for as much money as
+would buy a stick to beat him.
+
+At last poor Dick could not bear this usage any longer, and he thought
+he would run away from his place; so he packed up his few things and
+started very early in the morning on All-hallows Day, which is the first
+of November. He walked as far as Holloway, and there sat down on a
+stone, which to this day is called Whittington's stone, and began to
+think to himself which road he should take as he proceeded.
+
+While he was thinking what he should do, the Bells of Bow Church, which
+at that time had only six, began to ring, and he fancied their sound
+seemed to say to him:
+
+ "Turn again, Whittington,
+ Lord Mayor of London."
+
+"Lord Mayor of London!" said he to himself. "Why, to be sure, I would
+put up with almost anything now to be Lord Mayor of London and ride in a
+fine coach when I grow to be a man! Well, I will go back and think
+nothing of the cuffing and scolding of the old cook if I am to be Lord
+Mayor of London at last."
+
+Dick went back and was lucky enough to get into the house and set about
+his work before the old cook came downstairs.
+
+The ship, with the cat on board, was a long time at sea, and was at last
+driven by the winds on a part of the coast of Barbary where the only
+people were the Moors, whom the English had never known before.
+
+The people then came in great numbers to see the sailors, who were of
+different color from themselves, and treated them very civilly, and when
+they became better acquainted were very eager to buy the fine things
+that the ship was loaded with.
+
+When the captain saw this, he sent patterns of the best things he had to
+the king of the country, who was so much pleased with them that he sent
+for the captain to the palace. Here they were placed, as it is the
+custom of the country, on rich carpets marked with gold and silver
+flowers. The king and queen were seated at the upper end of the room,
+and a number of dishes were brought in for dinner. When they had sat but
+a short time, a vast number of rats and mice rushed in, helping
+themselves from almost every dish. The captain wondered at this and
+asked if these vermin were not very unpleasant.
+
+"Oh, yes," said they, "very offensive; and the king would give half his
+treasure to be freed of them, for they not only destroy his dinner, as
+you see, but they assault him in his chamber and even in bed, so that he
+is obliged to be watched while he is sleeping for fear of them."
+
+The captain jumped for joy; he remembered poor Whittington and his cat
+and told the king he had a creature on board the ship that would
+dispatch all these vermin immediately. The king's heart heaved so high
+at the joy which this news gave him that his turban dropped off his
+head. "Bring this creature to me," says he; "vermin are dreadful in a
+court, and if she will perform what you say, I will load your ship with
+gold and jewels in exchange for her."
+
+The captain, who knew his business, took this opportunity to set forth
+the merits of Mrs. Puss. He told his majesty that it would be
+inconvenient to part with her, as, when she was gone, the rats and mice
+might destroy the goods in the ship--but to oblige his majesty he would
+fetch her. "Run, run!" said the queen; "I am impatient to see the dear
+creature."
+
+Away went the captain to the ship, while another dinner was got ready.
+He put puss under his arm and arrived at the palace soon enough to see
+the table full of rats.
+
+When the cat saw them, she did not wait for bidding, but jumped out of
+the captain's arms and in a few minutes laid almost all the rats and
+mice dead at her feet. The rest of them in their fright scampered away
+to their holes.
+
+The king and queen were quite charmed to get so easily rid of such
+plagues and desired that the creature who had done them so great a
+kindness might be brought to them for inspection. The captain called,
+"Pussy, pussy, pussy!" and she came to him. He then presented her to the
+queen, who started back and was afraid to touch a creature who had made
+such a havoc among the rats and mice. However, when the captain stroked
+the cat and called, "Pussy, pussy," the queen also touched her and
+cried, "Putty, putty," for she had not learned English. He then put her
+down on the queen's lap; where she, purring, played with her majesty's
+hand and then sang herself to sleep.
+
+The king, having seen the exploits of Mrs. Puss and being informed that
+she was with young and would stock the whole country, bargained with the
+captain for the whole ship's cargo and then gave him ten times as much
+for the cat as all the rest amounted to.
+
+The captain then took leave of the royal party and set sail with a fair
+wind for England, and after a happy voyage arrived safe in London.
+
+One morning when Mr. Fitzwarren had just come to his counting-house and
+seated himself at the desk, somebody came tap, tap, at the door. "Who's
+there?" says Mr. Fitzwarren.
+
+"A friend," answered the other; "I come to bring you good news of your
+ship _Unicorn_." The merchant, bustling up instantly, opened the door,
+and who should be seen waiting but the captain with a cabinet of jewels
+and a bill of lading, for which the merchant lifted up his eyes and
+thanked heaven for sending him such a prosperous voyage.
+
+They then told the story of the cat and showed the rich present that the
+king and queen had sent for her to poor Dick. As soon as the merchant
+heard this, he called out to his servants:
+
+ "Go fetch him--we will tell him of the same;
+ Pray call him Mr. Whittington by name."
+
+Mr. Fitzwarren now showed himself to be a good man; for when some of his
+servants said so great a treasure was too much for him, he answered,
+"God forbid I should deprive him of the value of a single penny."
+
+He then sent for Dick, who at that time was scouring pots for the cook
+and was quite dirty.
+
+Mr. Fitzwarren ordered a chair to be set for him, and so he began to
+think they were making game of him, at the same time begging them not to
+play tricks with a poor simple boy, but to let him go down again, if
+they pleased, to his work.
+
+"Indeed, Mr. Whittington," said the merchant, "we are all quite in
+earnest with you, and I most heartily rejoice in the news these
+gentlemen have brought you, for the captain has sold your cat to the
+King of Barbary and brought you in return for her more riches than I
+possess in the whole world; and I wish you may long enjoy them!"
+
+Mr. Fitzwarren then told the men to open the great treasure they had
+brought with them, and said, "Mr. Whittington has nothing to do but to
+put it in some place of safety."
+
+Poor Dick hardly knew how to behave himself for joy. He begged his
+master to take what part of it he pleased, since he owed it all to his
+kindness. "No, no," answered Mr. Fitzwarren, "this is all your own, and
+I have no doubt but you will use it well."
+
+Dick next asked his mistress, and then Miss Alice, to accept a part of
+his good fortune; but they would not, and at the same time told him they
+felt great joy at his good success. But this poor fellow was too
+kind-hearted to keep it all to himself; so he made a present to the
+captain, the mate, and the rest of Mr. Fitzwarren's servants, and even
+to the ill-natured old cook.
+
+After this Mr. Fitzwarren advised him to send for a proper tradesman and
+get himself dressed like a gentleman, and told him he was welcome to
+live in his house till he could provide himself with a better.
+
+When Whittington's face was washed, his hair curled, and his hat cocked,
+and he was dressed in a nice suit of clothes, he was as handsome and
+genteel as any young man who visited at Mr. Fitzwarren's; so that Miss
+Alice, who had once been so kind to him and thought of him with pity,
+now looked upon him as fit to be her sweetheart; and the more so, no
+doubt, because Whittington was now always thinking what he could do to
+oblige her and making her the prettiest presents that could be.
+
+Mr. Fitzwarren soon saw their love for each other and proposed to join
+them in marriage, and to this they both readily agreed. A day for the
+wedding was soon fixed; and they were attended to church by the Lord
+Mayor, the court of aldermen, the sheriffs, and a great number of the
+richest merchants in London, whom they afterwards treated with a very
+rich feast.
+
+History tells us that Mr. Whittington and his lady lived in great
+splendor and were very happy. They had several children. He was Sheriff
+of London, also Mayor, and received the honor of knighthood by Henry V.
+
+The figure of Sir Richard Whittington with his cat in his arms, carved
+in stone, was to be seen till the year 1780 over the archway of the old
+prison of Newgate that stood across Newgate Street.
+
+
+
+160
+
+ The next story came from Suffolk, England, and
+ the original is in the pronounced dialect of
+ that county. Mr. Jacobs thinks it one of the
+ best folk tales ever collected. The version
+ given follows Jacobs in reducing the dialect.
+ There is enough left, however, to raise the
+ question of the use of dialect in stories for
+ children. Some modern versions eliminate the
+ dialect altogether. It is certain that the
+ retention of some of the qualities of the
+ folk-telling makes it more dramatically
+ effective and appropriate. The original form of
+ the story may be seen in Hartland's _English
+ Fairy and Folk Tales_. Teachers should feel
+ free to use their judgment as to the best form
+ in which to tell a story to children.
+ Name-guessing stories are very common, and may
+ be "a 'survival' of the superstition that to
+ know a man's name gives you power over him, for
+ which reason savages object to tell their
+ names." The Grimm story of "Rumpelstiltskin" is
+ the best known of many variants (No. 178). "Tom
+ Tit Tot" has a rude vigor and dramatic force
+ not in the continental versions, and it will be
+ interesting to compare it with the Grimm tale.
+ Jacobs suggests that "it may be necessary to
+ explain to the little ones that Tom Tit can be
+ referred to only as 'that,' because his name is
+ not known until the end."
+
+
+TOM TIT TOT
+
+Once upon a time there was a woman, and she baked five pies. And when
+they came out of the oven, they were that over-baked the crusts were too
+hard to eat. So she says to her daughter: "Darter," says she, "put you
+them there pies on the shelf, and leave 'em there a little, and they'll
+come again."--She meant, you know, the crust would get soft.
+
+But the girl, she says to herself, "Well, if they'll come again, I'll
+eat 'em now." And she set to work and ate 'em all, first and last.
+
+Well, come supper-time the woman said, "Go you and get one o' them there
+pies. I dare say they've come again now."
+
+The girl went and she looked, and there was nothing but the dishes. So
+back she came and says she, "Noo, they ain't come again."
+
+"Not one of 'em?" says the mother.
+
+"Not one of 'em," says she.
+
+"Well, come again or not come again," said the woman, "I'll have one for
+supper."
+
+"But you can't if they ain't come," said the girl.
+
+"But I can," says she. "Go you and bring the best of 'em."
+
+"Best or worst," says the girl, "I've ate 'em all, and you can't have
+one till that's come again."
+
+Well, the woman she was done, and she took her spinning to the door to
+spin, and as she span she sang:
+
+ "My darter ha' ate five, five pies to-day.
+ My darter ha' ate five, five pies to-day."
+
+The king was coming down the street, and he heard her sing, but what she
+sang he couldn't hear, so he stopped and said, "What was that you were
+singing, my good woman?"
+
+The woman was ashamed to let him hear what her daughter had been doing,
+so she sang, instead of that:
+
+ "My darter ha' spun five, five skeins to-day.
+ My darter ha' spun five, five skeins to-day."
+
+"Stars o' mine!" said the king, "I never heard tell of any one that
+could do that."
+
+Then he said, "Look you here, I want a wife, and I'll marry your
+daughter. But look you here," says he, "eleven months out of the year
+she shall have all she likes to eat, and all the gowns she likes to get,
+and all the company she likes to keep; but the last month of the year
+she'll have to spin five skeins every day, and if she don't I shall kill
+her."
+
+"All right," says the woman; for she thought what a grand marriage that
+was. And as for the five skeins, when the time came, there'd be plenty
+of ways of getting out of it, and likeliest, he'd have forgotten all
+about it.
+
+Well, so they were married. And for eleven months the girl had all she
+liked to eat and all the gowns she liked to get and all the company she
+liked to keep.
+
+But when the time was getting over, she began to think about the skeins
+and to wonder if he had 'em in mind. But not one word did he say about
+'em, and she thought he'd wholly forgotten 'em.
+
+However, the first day of the last month he takes her to a room she'd
+never set eyes on before. There was nothing in it but a spinning-wheel
+and a stool. And says he, "Now, my dear, here you'll be shut in
+to-morrow with some victuals and some flax, and if you haven't spun
+five skeins by the night, your head'll go off." And away he went about
+his business.
+
+Well, she was that frightened, she'd always been such a gatless girl,
+that she didn't so much as know how to spin, and what was she to do
+to-morrow with no one to come nigh her to help her? She sat down on a
+stool in the kitchen, and law! how she did cry!
+
+However, all of a sudden she heard a sort of a knocking low down on the
+door. She upped and oped it, and what should she see but a small little
+black thing with a long tail. That looked up at her right curious, and
+that said, "What are you a-crying for?"
+
+"What's that to you?" says she.
+
+"Never you mind," that said, "but tell me what you're a-crying for."
+
+"That won't do me no good if I do," says she.
+
+"You don't know that," that said, and twirled that's tail round.
+
+"Well," says she, "that won't do no harm, if that don't do no good," and
+she upped and told about the pies and the skeins and everything.
+
+"This is what I'll do," says the little black thing, "I'll come to your
+window every morning and take the flax and bring it spun at night."
+
+"What's your pay?" says she.
+
+That looked out of the corner of that's eyes, and that said, "I'll give
+you three guesses every night to guess my name, and if you haven't
+guessed it before the month's up you shalt be mine."
+
+Well, she thought she'd be sure to guess that's name before the month
+was up. "All right," says she, "I agree."
+
+"All right," that says, and law! how that twirled that's tail.
+
+Well, the next day her husband took her into the room, and there was the
+flax and the day's food.
+
+"Now, there's the flax," says he, "and if that ain't spun up this night,
+off goes your head." And then he went out and locked the door.
+
+He'd hardly gone when there was a knocking against the window. She upped
+and she oped it, and there sure enough was the little old thing sitting
+on the ledge.
+
+"Where's the flax?" says he.
+
+"Here it be," says she. And she gave it to him.
+
+Well, come the evening a knocking came again to the window. She upped
+and she oped it, and there was the little old thing with five skeins of
+flax on his arm.
+
+"Here it be," says he, and he gave it to her. "Now, what's my name?"
+says he. "What, is that Bill?" says she. "Noo, that ain't," says he, and
+he twirled his tail. "Is that Ned?" says she. "Noo, that ain't," says
+he, and he twirled his tail. "Well, is that Mark?" says she. "Noo, that
+ain't," says he, and he twirled his tail harder, and away he flew.
+
+Well, when her husband came in, there were the five skeins ready for
+him. "I see I shan't have to kill you to-night, my dear," says he;
+"you'll have your food and your flax in the morning," says he, and away
+he goes.
+
+Well, every day the flax and the food were brought, and every day that
+there little black impet used to come mornings and evenings. And all the
+day the girl sat trying to think of names to say to it when it came at
+night. But she never hit on the right one. And as it got towards the end
+of the month, the impet began to look so maliceful, and that twirled
+that's tail faster and faster each time she gave a guess.
+
+At last it came to the last day but one. The impet came at night along
+with the five skeins, and that said, "What, ain't you got my name yet?"
+"Is that Nicodemus?" says she. "Noo, 't ain't," that says. "Is that
+Sammle?" says she. "Noo, 't ain't," that says. "A-well, is that
+Methusalem?" says she. "Noo, 't ain't that neither," that says.
+
+Then that looks at her with that's eyes like a coal o' fire, and that
+says, "Woman, there's only to-morrow night, and then you'll be mine!"
+And away it flew.
+
+Well, she felt that horrid. However she heard the king coming along the
+passage. In he came, and when he sees the five skeins, says he, "Well,
+my dear, I don't see but what you'll have your skeins ready to-morrow
+night as well and as I reckon I shan't have to kill you, I'll have
+supper in here to-night." So they brought supper and another stool for
+him, and down the two sat.
+
+Well, he hadn't eaten but a mouthful or so, when he stops and begins to
+laugh.
+
+"What is it?" says she.
+
+"A-why," says he, "I was out a-hunting to-day, and I got away to a place
+in the wood I'd never seen before. And there was an old chalk-pit. And I
+heard a kind of a sort of humming. So I got off my hobby, and I went
+right quiet to the pit, and I looked down. Well, what should there be
+but the funniest little black thing you ever set eyes on. And what was
+that doing, but that had a little spinning-wheel, and that was spinning
+wonderful fast, and twirling that's tail. And as that span that sang:
+
+ "Nimmy nimmy not
+ My name's Tom Tit Tot."
+
+Well, when the girl heard this, she felt as if she could have jumped out
+of her skin for joy, but she didn't say a word.
+
+Next day that there little thing looked so maliceful when he came for
+the flax. And when night came she heard that knocking against the window
+panes. She oped the window, and that come right in on the ledge. That
+was grinning from ear to ear, and Oo! that's tail was twirling round so
+fast.
+
+"What's my name?" that says, as that gave her the skeins. "Is that
+Solomon?" she says, pretending to be afeard. "Noo, 't ain't," that says,
+and that came further into the room. "Well, is that Zebedee?" says she
+again. "Noo, 't ain't," says the impet. And then that laughed and
+twirled that's tail till you couldn't hardly see it.
+
+"Take time, woman," that says; "next guess, and you're mine." And that
+stretched out that's black hands at her.
+
+Well, she backed a step or two, and she looked at it, and then she
+laughed out and says she, pointing her finger at it:
+
+ "Nimmy nimmy not
+ Your name's Tom Tit Tot."
+
+Well, when that heard her, that gave an awful shriek and away that flew
+into the dark, and she never saw it any more.
+
+
+
+161
+
+ In 1697 the French author Charles Perrault
+ (1628-1703) published a little collection of
+ eight tales in prose familiarly known as _The
+ Tales of Mother Goose_ (_Contes de Ma Mere
+ l'Oye_). These tales were "The Fairies" ("Toads
+ and Diamonds"), "The Sleeping Beauty in the
+ Wood," "Bluebeard," "Little Red Riding Hood,"
+ "Puss-in-Boots," "Cinderella," "Rique with the
+ Tuft," and "Little Thumb." Perrault was
+ prominent as a scholar and may have felt it
+ beneath his dignity to write nursery tales. At
+ any rate he declared the stories were copied
+ from tellings by his eleven-year-old son. But
+ Perrault's fairies have not only saved him from
+ oblivion: in countless editions and
+ translations they have won him immortality. The
+ charming literary form of his versions,
+ "Englished by R. S., Gent," about 1730, soon
+ established them in place of the more somber
+ English popular versions. It is practically
+ certain that the name Mother Goose, as that of
+ the genial old lady who presides over the light
+ literature of the nursery, was established by
+ the work of Perrault.
+
+ "Little Red Riding Hood," a likely candidate
+ for first place in the affections of childish
+ story-lovers, is here given in its "correct"
+ form. Many versions are so constructed as to
+ have happy endings, either by having the
+ woodmen appear in the nick of time to kill the
+ wolf before any damage is done, or by having
+ the grandmother and Little Red Riding Hood
+ restored to life after recovering them from the
+ "innards" of the wolf. Andrew Lang thinks that
+ the tale as it stands is merely meant to waken
+ a child's terror and pity, after the fashion of
+ the old Greek tragedies, and that the narrator
+ properly ends it by making a pounce, in the
+ character of wolf, at the little listener. That
+ this was the correct "business" in Scotch
+ nurseries is borne out by a sentence in
+ Chambers' _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_: "The
+ old nurse's imitation of the _gnash, gnash_,
+ which she played off upon the youngest urchin
+ lying in her lap, was electric."
+
+
+LITTLE RED RIDING-HOOD
+
+Once upon a time there lived in a certain village a little country girl,
+the prettiest creature that was ever seen. Her mother was excessively
+fond of her; and her grandmother doted on her still more. This good
+woman got made for her a little red riding-hood, which became the girl
+so extremely well that everybody called her Little Red Riding-Hood.
+
+One day her mother, having made some custards, said to her, "Go, my
+dear, and see how thy grandmamma does, for I hear that she has been very
+ill; carry her a custard and this little pot of butter."
+
+Little Red Riding-Hood set out immediately to go to her grandmother, who
+lived in another village.
+
+As she was going through the wood, she met with Gaffer Wolf, who had a
+very great mind to eat her up, but he durst not because of some
+fagot-makers hard by in the forest. He asked her whither she was going.
+The poor child, who did not know that it was dangerous to stay and hear
+a wolf talk, said to him, "I am going to see my grandmamma and carry her
+a custard and a little pot of butter from my mamma."
+
+"Does she live far off?" said the wolf.
+
+"Oh! aye," answered Little Red Riding-Hood, "it is beyond the mill you
+see there at the first house in the village."
+
+"Well," said the wolf, "and I'll go and see her too. I'll go this way
+and you go that, and we shall see who will be there soonest."
+
+The wolf began to run as fast as he could, taking the nearest way, and
+the little girl went by that farthest about, diverting herself by
+gathering nuts, running after butterflies, and making nosegays of such
+little flowers as she met with. The wolf was not long before he got to
+the old woman's house. He knocked at the door--tap, tap.
+
+"Who's there?"
+
+"Your grandchild, Little Red Riding-Hood," replied the wolf,
+counterfeiting her voice, "who has brought you a custard and a pot of
+butter sent you by mamma."
+
+The good grandmother, who was in bed because she was somewhat ill, cried
+out, "Pull the bobbin and the latch will go up."
+
+The wolf pulled the bobbin and the door opened, and then presently he
+fell upon the good woman and ate her up in a moment, for it was above
+three days that he had not touched a bit. He then shut the door and went
+into the grandmother's bed, expecting Little Red Riding-Hood, who came
+some time afterward and knocked at the door--tap, tap.
+
+"Who's there?"
+
+Little Red Riding-Hood, hearing the big voice of the wolf, was at first
+afraid, but believing her grandmother had got a cold and was hoarse,
+answered, "'Tis your grandchild, Little Red Riding-Hood, who has brought
+you a custard and a little pot of butter mamma sends you."
+
+The wolf cried out to her, softening his voice as much as he could,
+"Pull the bobbin and the latch will go up."
+
+Little Red Riding-Hood pulled the bobbin and the door opened.
+
+The wolf, seeing her come in, said to her, hiding himself under the
+bedclothes, "Put the custard and the little pot of butter upon the stool
+and come and lie down with me."
+
+Little Red Riding-Hood undressed herself and went into bed, where, being
+greatly amazed to see how her grandmother looked in her night-clothes,
+she said to her, "Grandmamma, what great arms you have got!"
+
+"That is the better to hug thee, my dear."
+
+"Grandmamma, what great legs you have got!"
+
+"That is to run the better, my child."
+
+"Grandmamma, what great ears you have got!"
+
+"That is to hear the better, my child."
+
+"Grandmamma, what great eyes you have got!"
+
+"It is to see the better, my child."
+
+"Grandmamma, what great teeth you have got!"
+
+"That is to eat thee up."
+
+And saying these words, this wicked wolf fell upon Little Red
+Riding-Hood and ate her all up.
+
+
+
+162
+
+ Because many modern teachers are distressed at
+ the tragedy of the real story of "Little Red
+ Riding Hood" as just given, they prefer some
+ softened form of the tale. The Grimm version,
+ "Little Red Cap," is generally used by those
+ who insist on a happy ending. There Little Red
+ Riding Hood and her grandmother are both
+ recovered and the wicked wolf destroyed. The
+ story that follows is from a modern French
+ author, Charles Marelles, and is given in the
+ translation found in Lang's _Red Fairy Book_.
+ In it the events are dramatically imagined in
+ detail, even if the writer does turn it all
+ into a sunflower myth at the close.
+
+
+TRUE HISTORY OF LITTLE GOLDEN HOOD
+
+You know the tale of poor Little Red Riding-Hood, that the wolf deceived
+and devoured, with her cake, her little butter can, and her grandmother.
+Well, the true story happened quite differently, as we know now. And
+first of all, the little girl was called and is still called Little
+Golden Hood; secondly, it was not she, nor the good granddame, but the
+wicked wolf who was, in the end, caught and devoured.
+
+Only listen.
+
+The story begins something like the tale.
+
+There was once a little peasant girl, pretty and nice as a star in its
+season. Her real name was Blanchette, but she was more often called
+Little Golden Hood, on account of a wonderful little cloak with a hood,
+gold and fire colored, which she always had on. This little hood was
+given her by her grandmother, who was so old that she did not know her
+age; it ought to bring her good luck, for it was made of a ray of
+sunshine, she said. And as the good old woman was considered something
+of a witch, every one thought the little hood rather bewitched too.
+
+And so it was, as you will see.
+
+One day the mother said to the child: "Let us see, my little Golden
+Hood, if you know now how to find your way by yourself. You shall take
+this good piece of cake to your grandmother for a Sunday treat
+to-morrow. You will ask her how she is, and come back at once, without
+stopping to chatter on the way with people you don't know. Do you quite
+understand?"
+
+"I quite understand," replied Blanchette gayly. And off she went with
+the cake, quite proud of her errand.
+
+But the grandmother lived in another village, and there was a big wood
+to cross before getting there. At a turn of the road under the trees
+suddenly, "Who goes there?"
+
+"Friend Wolf."
+
+He had seen the child start alone, and the villain was waiting to devour
+her, when at the same moment he perceived some wood-cutters who might
+observe him, and he changed his mind. Instead of falling upon Blanchette
+he came frisking up to her like a good dog.
+
+"'Tis you! my nice Little Golden Hood," said he. So the little girl
+stops to talk with the wolf, whom, for all that, she did not know in the
+least.
+
+"You know me, then!" said she. "What is your name?"
+
+"My name is friend Wolf. And where are you going thus, my pretty one,
+with your little basket on your arm?"
+
+"I am going to my grandmother to take her a good piece of cake for her
+Sunday treat to-morrow."
+
+"And where does she live, your grandmother?"
+
+"She lives at the other side of the wood in the first house in the
+village, near the windmill, you know."
+
+"Ah! yes! I know now," said the wolf. "Well, that's just where I'm
+going. I shall get there before you, no doubt, with your little bits of
+legs, and I'll tell her you're coming to see her; then she'll wait for
+you."
+
+Thereupon the wolf cuts across the wood, and in five minutes arrives at
+the grandmother's house.
+
+He knocks at the door: toc, toc.
+
+No answer.
+
+He knocks louder.
+
+Nobody.
+
+Then he stands up on end, puts his two fore paws on the latch, and the
+door opens.
+
+Not a soul in the house.
+
+The old woman had risen early to sell herbs in the town, and had gone
+off in such haste that she had left her bed unmade, with her great
+night-cap on the pillow.
+
+"Good!" said the wolf to himself, "I know what I'll do."
+
+He shuts the door, pulls on the grandmother's night-cap down to his
+eyes; then he lies down all his length in the bed and draws the
+curtains.
+
+In the meantime the good Blanchette went quietly on her way, as little
+girls do, amusing herself here and there by picking Easter daisies,
+watching the little birds making their nests, and running after the
+butterflies which fluttered in the sunshine.
+
+At last she arrives at the door.
+
+Knock, knock.
+
+"Who is there?" says the wolf, softening his rough voice as best he can.
+
+"It's me, granny, your Little Golden Hood. I'm bringing you a big piece
+of cake for your Sunday treat to-morrow."
+
+"Press your finger on the latch; then push and the door opens."
+
+"Why, you've got a cold, granny," said she, coming in.
+
+"Ahem! a little, my dear, a little," replies the wolf, pretending to
+cough. "Shut the door well, my little lamb. Put your basket on the
+table, and then take off your frock and come and lie down by me; you
+shall rest a little."
+
+The good child undresses, but observe this:--she kept her little hood
+upon her head. When she saw what a figure her granny cut in bed, the
+poor little thing was much surprised.
+
+"Oh!" cries she, "how like you are to friend Wolf, grandmother!"
+
+"That's on account of my night-cap, child," replies the wolf.
+
+"Oh! what hairy arms you've got, grandmother!"
+
+"All the better to hug you, my child."
+
+"Oh! what a big tongue you've got, grandmother!"
+
+"All the better for answering, child."
+
+"Oh! what a mouthful of great white teeth you have, grandmother!"
+
+"That's for crunching little children with!" And the wolf opened his
+jaws wide to swallow Blanchette.
+
+But she put down her head, crying, "Mamma! mamma!" and the wolf only
+caught her little hood.
+
+Thereupon, oh, dear! oh, dear! he draws back, crying and shaking his jaw
+as if he had swallowed red-hot coals.
+
+It was the little fire-colored hood that had burnt his tongue right down
+his throat.
+
+The little hood, you see, was one of those magic caps that they used to
+have in former times, in the stories, for making one's self invisible or
+invulnerable.
+
+So there was the wolf with his throat burned, jumping off the bed and
+trying to find the door, howling and howling as if all the dogs in the
+country were at his heels.
+
+Just at this moment the grandmother arrives, returning from the town
+with her long sack empty on her shoulder.
+
+"Ah, brigand!" she cries, "wait a bit!" Quickly she opens her sack wide
+across the door, and the maddened wolf springs in head downward.
+
+It is he now that is caught, swallowed like a letter in the post. For
+the brave old dame shuts her sack, so; and she runs and empties it in
+the well, where the vagabond, still howling, tumbles in and is drowned.
+
+"Ah, scoundrel! you thought you would crunch my little grandchild! Well,
+to-morrow we will make her a muff of your skin, and you yourself shall
+be crunched, for we will give your carcass to the dogs."
+
+Thereupon the grandmother hastened to dress poor Blanchette, who was
+still trembling with fear in the bed.
+
+"Well," she said to her, "without my little hood where would you be now,
+darling?" And, to restore heart and legs to the child, she made her eat
+a good piece of her cake, and drink a good draught of wine, after which
+she took her by the hand and led her back to the house.
+
+And then, who was it who scolded her when she knew all that had
+happened?
+
+It was the mother.
+
+But Blanchette promised over and over again that she would never more
+stop to listen to a wolf, so that at last the mother forgave her.
+
+And Blanchette, the Little Golden Hood, kept her word. And in fine
+weather she may still be seen in the fields with her pretty little hood,
+the color of the sun.
+
+But to see her you must rise early.
+
+
+
+163
+
+ The next Perrault story is given in the
+ traditional English form made by "R. S., Gent."
+ Perrault met the popular taste of his time for
+ "morals" by adding more or less playful ones in
+ verse to his stories. Here is a prose rendering
+ of a portion of the _Moralite_ attached to
+ "Puss-in-Boots": "However great may be the
+ advantage of enjoying a rich inheritance coming
+ down from father to son, industry and ingenuity
+ are worth more to young people as a usual thing
+ than goods acquired without personal effort."
+ In relation to this moral, Ralston says, "the
+ conclusion at which an ordinary reader would
+ arrive, if he were not dazzled by fairy-land
+ glamor, would probably be that far better than
+ either tact and industry on a master's part is
+ the loyalty of an unscrupulous retainer of an
+ imaginative turn of mind. The impropriety of
+ this teaching is not balanced by any other form
+ of instruction. What the story openly
+ inculcates is not edifying, and it does not
+ secretly convey any improving doctrine." But on
+ the other hand it may be argued that the
+ "moral" passes over the child's head. Miss
+ Kready, in her _Study of Fairy Tales_ (p. 275),
+ makes a very elaborate and proper defense of
+ "Puss-in-Boots" as a story for children. There
+ is delight in its strong sense of adventure, it
+ has a hero clever and quick, there is loyalty,
+ love, and sacrifice in Puss's devotion to his
+ master, the tricks are true to "cat-nature,"
+ there are touches of nature beauty, a simple
+ and pleasing plot, while we should not forget
+ the delightful Ogre and his transformations
+ into Lion and Mouse. The story is found in many
+ forms among many different peoples. Perhaps the
+ great stroke of genius which endears Perrault's
+ version is in the splendid boots with which his
+ tale provides the hero so that briers may not
+ interfere with his doings. (Extended studies of
+ this tale and its many parallels may be found
+ in Lang's _Perrault's Popular Tales_; in
+ McCulloch's _Childhood of Fiction_, chap. viii;
+ in an article by Ralston in the _Nineteenth
+ Century_, January, 1883, reprinted in _Living
+ Age_, Vol. CLVI, p. 362.)
+
+
+PUSS-IN-BOOTS
+
+There was once a miller who left no more estate to the three sons he had
+than his mill, his ass, and his cat. The partition was soon made.
+Neither the clerk nor the attorney was sent for. They would soon have
+eaten up all the poor patrimony. The eldest had the mill, the second the
+ass, and the youngest nothing but the cat.
+
+The poor young fellow was quite comfortless at having so poor a lot. "My
+brothers," said he, "may get their living handsomely enough by joining
+their stocks together; but for my part, when I have eaten up my cat and
+made me a muff of his skin, I must die with hunger."
+
+The cat, who heard all this, but made as if he did not, said to him with
+a grave and serious air; "Do not thus afflict yourself, my good master;
+you have nothing else to do but to give me a bag and get a pair of
+boots made for me, that I may scamper through the dirt and the brambles,
+and you shall see that you have not so bad a portion of me as you
+imagine."
+
+Though the cat's master did not build very much upon what he said, he
+had, however, often seen him play a great many cunning tricks to catch
+rats and mice; as when he used to hang by the heels, or hide himself in
+the meal and make as if he were dead; so he did not altogether despair
+of his affording him some help in his miserable condition.
+
+When the cat had what he asked for, he booted himself very gallantly;
+and putting his bag about his neck, he held the strings of it in his two
+fore paws and went into a warren where was a great abundance of rabbits.
+He put bran and sow-thistles into his bag, and, stretching himself out
+at length as if he had been dead, he waited for some young rabbits, not
+yet acquainted with the deceits of the world, to come and rummage his
+bag for what he had just put into it.
+
+Scarce was he lain down but he had what he wanted. A rash and foolish
+young rabbit jumped into his bag, and master Puss, immediately drawing
+close the strings, took and killed him without pity. Proud of his prey,
+he went with it to the palace and asked to speak with his majesty. He
+was shown upstairs into the king's apartment, and, making a low
+reverence, said to him: "I have brought you, sir, a rabbit of the warren
+which my noble lord, the Marquis of Carabas" (for that was the title
+which Puss was pleased to give his master), "has commanded me to present
+to your majesty from him."
+
+"Tell thy master," said the king, "that I thank him and that he gives me
+a great deal of pleasure."
+
+Another time he went and hid himself among some standing corn, holding
+still his bag open; and when a brace of partridges ran into it, he drew
+the strings and so caught them both. He went and made a present of these
+to the king, as he had done before of the rabbit which he took in the
+warren. The king in like manner received the partridges with great
+pleasure and ordered him some money.
+
+The cat continued for two or three months thus to carry his majesty,
+from time to time, game of his master's taking. One day in particular,
+when he knew for certain that he was to take the air along the riverside
+with his daughter, the most beautiful princess in the world, he said to
+his master: "If you will follow my advice, your fortune is made. You
+have nothing else to do but go and wash yourself in the river, in that
+part I shall show you, and leave the rest to me." The Marquis of Carabas
+did what the cat advised him to, without knowing why or wherefore.
+
+While he was washing, the king passed by, and the cat began to cry out
+as loud as he could, "Help, help! my lord Marquis of Carabas is going to
+be drowned." At this noise the king put his head out of his
+coach-window, and, finding it was the cat who had so often brought him
+such good game, he commanded his guards to run immediately to the
+assistance of his lordship, the Marquis of Carabas.
+
+While they were drawing the poor marquis out of the river, the cat came
+up to the coach and told the king that while his master was washing
+there came by some rogues, who went off with his clothes though he had
+cried out, "Thieves, thieves," as loud as he could. This cunning cat had
+hidden them under a great stone. The king immediately commanded the
+officers of his wardrobe to run and fetch one of his best suits for the
+lord Marquis of Carabas.
+
+The king caressed him after a very extraordinary manner; and as the fine
+clothes he had given him extremely set off his good mien (for he was
+well made and very handsome in his person), the king's daughter took a
+secret inclination to him, and the Marquis of Carabas had no sooner cast
+two or three respectful and somewhat tender glances, but she fell in
+love with him to distraction. The king would needs have him come into
+his coach and take part of the airing. The cat, quite overjoyed to see
+his project begin to succeed, marched on before, and meeting with some
+countrymen who were mowing a meadow, he said to them, "Good people, you
+who are mowing, if you do not tell the king, who will soon pass this
+way, that the meadow you mow belongs to my lord Marquis of Carabas, you
+shall be chopped as small as herbs for the pot."
+
+The king did not fail asking of the mowers to whom the meadow they were
+mowing belonged: "To my lord Marquis of Carabas," answered they, all
+together, for the cat's threats had made them terribly afraid.
+
+"You see, sir," said the marquis, "this is a meadow which never fails to
+yield a plentiful harvest every year."
+
+The master-cat, who went still on before, met with some reapers, and
+said to them, "Good people, you who are reaping, if you do not tell the
+king, who will presently go by, that all this corn belongs to the
+Marquis of Carabas, you shall be chopped as small as herbs for the pot."
+
+The king, who passed by a moment after, would needs know to whom all
+that corn, which he then saw, did belong. "To my lord Marquis of
+Carabas," replied the reapers; and the king was very well pleased with
+it, as well as the marquis, whom he congratulated thereupon. The
+master-cat, who went always before, said the same words to all he met;
+and the king was astonished at the vast estates of my lord Marquis of
+Carabas.
+
+Master Puss came at last to a stately castle, the owner of which was an
+ogre, the richest that had ever been known, for all the lands which the
+king had then gone over belonged to this castle. The cat, who had taken
+care to inform himself who the ogre was and what he could do, asked to
+speak with him, saying he could not pass so near his castle without
+having the honor of paying his respects to him.
+
+The ogre received him as civilly as an ogre could do and made him sit
+down. "I have been assured," said the cat, "that you have the gift of
+being able to change yourself into all sorts of creatures you have a
+mind to. You can, for example, transform yourself into a lion, or
+elephant, and the like."
+
+"This is true," answered the ogre very briskly, "and to convince you,
+you shall see me now become a lion."
+
+Puss was so sadly terrified at the sight of a lion so near him that he
+immediately got into the gutter, not without abundance of trouble and
+danger, because of his boots, which were of no use at all to him in
+walking upon the tiles. A little while after, when Puss saw that the
+ogre had resumed his natural form, he came down and owned he had been
+very much frightened.
+
+"I have been, moreover, informed," said the cat, "but I know not how to
+believe it, that you have also the power to take on you the shape of the
+smallest animals; for example, to change yourself into a rat or a mouse;
+but I must own to you, I take this to be impossible."
+
+"Impossible!" cried the ogre, "you shall see that presently," and at the
+same time changed himself into a mouse, and began to run about the
+floor. Puss no sooner perceived this but he fell upon him and ate him
+up.
+
+Meanwhile, the king, who saw, as he passed, this fine castle of the
+ogre's, had a mind to go into it. Puss, who heard the noise of his
+majesty's coach running over the drawbridge, ran out and said to the
+king, "Your Majesty is welcome to this castle of my lord Marquis of
+Carabas."
+
+"What! my lord Marquis!" cried the king, "and does this castle also
+belong to you? There can be nothing finer than this court and all the
+stately buildings which surround it; let us go into it, if you please."
+They passed into a spacious hall, where they found a magnificent
+collation which the ogre had prepared for his friends, who were that
+very day to visit him, but dared not to enter, knowing the king was
+there. His majesty was perfectly charmed with the good qualities of my
+lord Marquis of Carabas, as was his daughter, who had fallen in love
+with him; and seeing the vast estate he possessed, said to him while
+they sat at the feast, "It will be owing to yourself only, my lord
+Marquis, if you are not my son-in-law." The marquis, making several low
+bows, accepted the honor which his majesty conferred upon him, and
+forthwith, that very same day, married the princess.
+
+Puss became a great lord, and never ran after mice any more, but only
+for his diversion.
+
+
+
+164
+
+ Perrault attached to the next story this moral:
+ "Diamonds and dollars influence minds, and yet
+ gentle words have more effect and are more to
+ be esteemed. . . . It is a lot of trouble to be
+ upright and it requires some effort, but sooner
+ or later it finds its reward, and generally
+ when one is least expecting it." English
+ versions are usually given the title "Toads and
+ Diamonds," though Perrault's title was simply
+ "The Fairies" ("Les Fees"). Lang calls
+ attention to the fact that the origin of the
+ story is "manifestly moral." He thinks "it is
+ an obvious criticism that the elder girl should
+ have met the fairy first; she was not likely to
+ behave so rudely when she knew that politeness
+ would be rewarded." It would be interesting for
+ a story-teller to test the effect of relating
+ the incidents in the order suggested by Lang.
+
+
+TOADS AND DIAMONDS
+
+There was once upon a time a widow who had two daughters. The oldest was
+so much like her in face and humor that whoever looked upon the daughter
+saw the mother. They were both so disagreeable and so proud that there
+was no living with them. The youngest, who was the very picture of her
+father for courtesy and sweetness of temper, was withal one of the most
+beautiful girls that was ever seen. As people naturally love their own
+likenesses, this mother ever doted on her eldest daughter and at the
+same time had a sad aversion for the youngest. She made her eat in the
+kitchen and work continually.
+
+Among other things, this poor child was forced twice a day to draw water
+above a mile and a half from the house, and bring home a pitcher full of
+it. One day as she was at this fountain there came to her a poor woman,
+who begged of her to let her drink. "Oh, yes, with all my heart,
+Goody," said this pretty little girl; and rinsing the pitcher, she took
+up some water from the clearest place of the fountain and gave it to
+her, holding up the pitcher all the while that she might drink the
+easier.
+
+The good woman having drunk, said to her, "You are so very pretty, my
+dear, so good and so mannerly, that I cannot help giving you a
+gift"--for this was a fairy, who had taken the form of a poor country
+woman to see how far the civility and good manners of this pretty girl
+would go. "I will give you for gift," continued the fairy, "that at
+every word you speak, there shall come out of your mouth either a flower
+or a jewel."
+
+When this pretty girl came home, her mother scolded at her for staying
+so long at the fountain. "I beg your pardon, mamma," said the poor girl,
+"for not making more haste"; and, in speaking these words, there came
+out of her mouth two roses, two pearls, and two large diamonds.
+
+"What is it I see there?" said her mother quite astonished. "I think I
+see pearls and diamonds come out of the girl's mouth! How happens this,
+my child?"--This was the first time she ever called her her child.
+
+The poor creature told her frankly all the matter, not without dropping
+out infinite numbers of diamonds. "In good faith," cried the mother, "I
+must send my child thither. Come hither, Fanny. Look what comes out of
+your sister's mouth when she speaks! Would you not be glad, my dear, to
+have the same gift given to you? You have nothing else to do but go draw
+water out of the fountain, and when a certain poor woman asks you to let
+her drink, to give it her very civilly."
+
+"It would be a very fine sight, indeed," said this ill-bred minx, "to
+see me go draw water!"
+
+"You shall go, hussy," said the mother, "and this minute." So away she
+went, but grumbling all the way and taking with her the best silver
+tankard in the house.
+
+She was no sooner at the fountain than she saw coming out of the wood a
+lady most gloriously dressed, who came up to her and asked to drink.
+This was, you must know, the very fairy who appeared to her sister, but
+who had now taken the air and dress of a princess to see how far this
+girl's rudeness would go. "Am I come hither," said the proud, saucy
+maid, "to serve you with water, pray? I suppose the silver tankard was
+brought purely for your ladyship, was it? However, you may drink out of
+it, if you have a fancy."
+
+"You are not over and above mannerly," answered the fairy, without
+putting herself in a passion. "Well, then, since you have so little
+breeding and are so disobliging, I give you for gift, that at every word
+you speak there shall come out of your mouth a snake or a toad."
+
+So soon as her mother saw her coming, she cried out, "Well, daughter."
+
+"Well, mother," answered the pert hussy, throwing out of her mouth two
+vipers and two toads.
+
+"Oh, mercy!" cried the mother, "what is it I see? Oh, it is that wretch,
+her sister, who has occasioned all this; but she shall pay for it"; and
+immediately she ran to beat her. The poor child fled away from her and
+went to hide herself in the forest, not far from thence.
+
+The king's son, then on his return from hunting, met her, and seeing her
+so very pretty, asked her what she did there alone, and why she cried.
+"Alas, sir! my mamma has turned me out of doors." The king's son, who
+saw five or six pearls, and as many diamonds, come out of her mouth,
+desired her to tell him how that happened. She thereupon told him the
+whole story; and so the king's son fell in love with her; and,
+considering with himself that such a gift was worth more than any
+marriage-portion whatsoever in another, he conducted her to the palace
+of the king his father and there married her.
+
+As for her sister, she made herself so much hated that her own mother
+turned her off; and the miserable girl, having wandered about a good
+while without finding anybody to take her in, went to a corner in the
+wood and there died.
+
+
+
+165
+
+ "Cinderella" is one of the world's greatest
+ romantic stories. Its theme is a favorite in
+ all folk literature. Young and old alike have
+ never tired of hearing of the victories won by
+ the deserving in the face of all sorts of
+ obstacles. Perrault in his verse moral observes
+ that "while beauty is a rare treasure for a
+ woman, yet a winning manner, or personality, is
+ worth even more." Still further, as if
+ conscious of the part influence plays in the
+ world, he says that "while it is doubtless a
+ great advantage to have wit and courage,
+ breeding and good sense, and other such natural
+ endowments, still they will be of no earthly
+ use for our advancement unless we have, to
+ bring them into play, either godfathers or
+ godmothers." One should not, however, take too
+ seriously any moralizing over a fairy story
+ whether by Perrault or another.
+
+ In one of the most thorough studies of a single
+ folk tale, Miss Roalfe Cox's _Cinderella_, with
+ an introduction by Andrew Lang, some three
+ hundred and fifty variants of the story have
+ been analyzed. The thing that marks a
+ Cinderella story is the presence in it of the
+ "slipper test." The finest versions are those
+ by Perrault and the Grimms, and they are almost
+ equally favorites with children. The Perrault
+ form as found in the old English translation is
+ given here for reasons stated by Ralston in his
+ study of the Cinderella type: "But Perrault's
+ rendering of the tale naturalised it in the
+ polite world, gave it for cultured circles an
+ attraction which it is never likely to lose. . . .
+ It is with human more than with mythological
+ interest that the story is replete, and
+ therefore it appeals to human hearts with a
+ force which no lapse of time can diminish. Such
+ supernatural machinery as is introduced,
+ moreover, has a charm for children which older
+ versions of the tale do not possess. The
+ pumpkin carriage, the rat coachman, the lizard
+ lacqueys, and all the other properties of the
+ transformation scene, appeal at once to the
+ imagination and the sense of humor of every
+ beholder." (_Nineteenth Century_, November,
+ 1879.)
+
+
+CINDERELLA, OR THE LITTLE GLASS SLIPPER
+
+Once there was a gentleman who married, for his second wife, the
+proudest and most haughty woman that was ever seen. She had, by a former
+husband, two daughters of her own humor, who were indeed exactly like
+her in all things. He had likewise, by another wife, a young daughter,
+but of unparalleled goodness and sweetness of temper, which she took
+from her mother, who was the best creature in the world.
+
+No sooner were the ceremonies of the wedding over but the step-mother
+began to show herself in her colors. She could not bear the good
+qualities of this pretty girl; and the less because they made her own
+daughters appear the more odious. She employed her in the meanest work
+of the house; she scoured the dishes and tables, and cleaned madam's
+room and the rooms of misses, her daughters; she lay up in a sorry
+garret, upon a wretched straw-bed, while her sisters lay in fine rooms,
+with floors all inlaid, upon beds of the very newest fashion, and where
+they had looking-glasses so large that they might see themselves at
+their full length, from head to foot.
+
+The poor girl bore all patiently, and dared not tell her father, who
+would have rattled her off, for his wife governed him entirely. When she
+had done her work, she used to go into the chimney corner and sit down
+among cinders and ashes, which made her commonly called Cinder-wench;
+but the youngest, who was not so rude and uncivil as the eldest, called
+her Cinderella. However, Cinderella, notwithstanding her mean apparel,
+was a hundred times handsomer than her sisters, though they were always
+dressed very richly.
+
+It happened that the king's son gave a ball, and invited all persons of
+fashion to it. Our young misses were also invited, for they cut a very
+grand figure among the quality. They were mightily delighted at this
+invitation, and wonderfully busy in choosing out such gowns, petticoats,
+and head-clothes as might best become them. This was a new trouble to
+Cinderella, for it was she who ironed her sisters' linen and plaited
+their ruffles. They talked all day long of nothing but how they should
+be dressed. "For my part," said the eldest, "I will wear my red velvet
+suit with French trimmings."
+
+"And I," said the youngest, "shall only have my usual petticoat; but
+then, to make amends for that, I will put on my gold flowered manteau
+and my diamond stomacher, which is far from being the most ordinary one
+in the world." They sent for the best tire-woman they could get to make
+up their head-dresses, and they had their patches from the very best
+maker.
+
+Cinderella was likewise called up to them to be consulted in all these
+matters, for she had excellent notions and advised them always for the
+best; nay, and offered her service to dress their heads, which they were
+very willing she should do. As she was doing this, they said to her,
+"Cinderella, would you not be glad to go to the ball?"
+
+"Ah!" said she, "you only jeer at me; it is not for such as I am to go
+thither."
+
+"Thou art in the right of it," replied they; "it would make the people
+laugh to see a cinder-wench at a ball."
+
+Any one but Cinderella would have dressed their heads awry, but she was
+very good, and dressed them perfectly well. They were almost two days
+without eating, so much they were transported with joy. They broke above
+a dozen of laces in trying to be laced up close, that they might have a
+fine slender shape, and they were continually at their looking-glass. At
+last the happy day came. They went to court, and Cinderella followed
+them with her eyes as long as she could, and when she had lost sight of
+them, she fell a-crying.
+
+Her godmother, who saw her all in tears, asked her what was the matter.
+"I wish I could--I wish I could--"; she was not able to speak the rest,
+being interrupted by her tears and sobbing.
+
+This godmother of hers, who was a fairy, said to her, "Thou wishest thou
+couldest go to the ball. Is it not so?"
+
+"Y--es," cried Cinderella with a great sigh.
+
+"Well," said her godmother, "be but a good girl, and I will contrive
+that thou shalt go."
+
+Then she took her into her chamber and said to her, "Run into the garden
+and bring me a pumpkin." Cinderella went immediately to gather the
+finest she could get, and brought it to her godmother, not being able to
+imagine how this pumpkin could make her go to the ball. Her godmother
+scooped out all the inside of it, having left nothing but the rind;
+which done, she struck it with her wand, and the pumpkin was instantly
+turned into a fine coach, gilded all over with gold.
+
+She then went to look into her mouse-trap, where she found six mice, all
+alive, and ordered Cinderella to lift up a little the trap-door. Then
+she gave each mouse, as it went out, a little tap with her wand, and the
+mouse was that moment turned into a fair horse. All together the mice
+made a very fine set of six horses of a beautiful mouse-colored
+dapple-gray. Being at a loss for a coachman, "I will go and see," said
+Cinderella, "if there be never a rat in the rat-trap, that we may make a
+coachman of him."
+
+"Thou art in the right," replied her godmother; "go and look."
+
+Cinderella brought the trap to her, and in it there were three huge
+rats. The fairy made choice of one of the three, which had the largest
+beard, and, having touched him with her wand, he was turned into a fat,
+jolly coachman, who had the smartest whiskers that eyes ever beheld.
+
+After that her godmother said to her, "Go again into the garden and you
+will find six lizards behind the watering pot; bring them to me." She
+had no sooner done so, than the fairy turned them into six footmen, who
+skipped up immediately behind the coach, with their liveries all
+bedecked with gold and silver, and clung as close behind each other as
+if they had done nothing else their whole lives. The fairy then said to
+Cinderella, "Well, you see here an equipage fit to go to the ball with.
+Are you not pleased with it?"
+
+"Oh, yes," cried she, "but must I go thither as I am, in these filthy
+rags?" Her godmother only just touched her with her wand, and at the
+same instant her clothes were turned into cloth of gold and silver, all
+beset with jewels. This done, she gave her a pair of glass slippers, the
+prettiest in the whole world.
+
+Being thus decked out, she got up into her coach; but her godmother,
+above all things, commanded her not to stay till after midnight, telling
+her that if she stayed at the ball one moment longer, her coach would be
+a pumpkin again, her horses mice, her coachman a rat, her footmen
+lizards, and her clothes just as they were before.
+
+She promised her godmother she would not fail of leaving the ball before
+midnight; and then away she drives, scarce able to contain herself for
+joy. The king's son, who was told that a great princess, whom nobody
+knew, was come, ran out to receive her. He gave her his hand as she
+alighted from the coach, and led her into the hall among all the
+company. There was immediately a profound silence. They left off
+dancing, and the violins ceased to play, so attentive was every one to
+contemplate the singular beauties of this unknown new-comer. Nothing was
+then heard but a confused noise of, "Ha! how handsome she is! Ha! how
+handsome she is!" The king himself, old as he was, could not help ogling
+her and telling the queen softly that it was a long time since he had
+seen so beautiful and lovely a creature. All the ladies were busied in
+considering her clothes and head-dress, that they might have some made
+next day after the same pattern, provided they could meet with such fine
+materials and as able hands to make them.
+
+The king's son conducted her to the most honorable seat and afterwards
+took her out to dance with him. She danced so very gracefully that they
+all more and more admired her. A fine collation was served up, whereof
+the young prince ate not a morsel, so intently was he busied in gazing
+on her. She went and sat down by her sisters, showing them a thousand
+civilities, giving them part of the oranges and citrons which the prince
+had presented her with; which very much surprised them, for they did not
+know her. While Cinderella was thus amusing her sisters, she heard the
+clock strike eleven and three quarters, whereupon she immediately made a
+courtesy to the company and hasted away as fast as she could.
+
+Being got home, she ran to seek out her godmother; and having thanked
+her, she said she could not but heartily wish she might go next day to
+the ball, because the king's son had desired her. As she was eagerly
+telling her godmother whatever had passed at the ball, her two sisters
+knocked at the door, which Cinderella ran and opened. "How long you have
+stayed!" cried she, gaping, rubbing her eyes, and stretching herself as
+if she had been just awakened out of her sleep; she had not, however,
+any manner of inclination to sleep since they went from home.
+
+"If thou hadst been at the ball," said one of her sisters, "thou
+wouldest not have been tired with it. There came thither the finest
+princess, the most beautiful ever seen with mortal eyes. She showed us a
+thousand civilities and gave us oranges and citrons." Cinderella seemed
+very indifferent in the matter; indeed, she asked them the name of the
+princess, but they told her they did not know it and that the king's son
+was very uneasy on her account and would give all the world to know who
+she was.
+
+At this Cinderella, smiling, replied, "She must then be very beautiful
+indeed! How happy have you been! Could not I see her? Ah! dear Miss
+Charlotte, do lend me your yellow suit of clothes, which you wear every
+day."
+
+"Ay, to be sure," cried Miss Charlotte, "lend my clothes to such a dirty
+cinder-wench as thou art! Who's the fool then?" Cinderella indeed
+expected some such answer and was very glad of the refusal, for she
+would have been sadly put to it if her sister had lent her what she
+asked for jestingly.
+
+The next day the two sisters were at the ball, and so was Cinderella,
+but dressed more magnificently than before. The king's son was always by
+her side and never ceased his compliments and amorous speeches to her;
+to whom all this was so far from being tiresome that she quite forgot
+what her godmother had recommended to her, so that she at last counted
+the clock striking twelve when she took it to be no more than eleven.
+She then rose up and fled as nimble as a deer. The prince followed, but
+could not overtake her. She left behind one of her glass slippers, which
+the prince took up most carefully. She got home, but quite out of
+breath, without coach or footmen, and in her old cinder clothes, having
+nothing left of all her finery but one of the little slippers, fellow to
+that she dropped. The guards at the palace gate were asked if they had
+not seen a princess go out. They said they had seen nobody go out but a
+young girl very meanly dressed, who had more the air of a poor country
+wench than a gentlewoman.
+
+When the two sisters returned from the ball, Cinderella asked them if
+they had been well diverted and if the fine lady had been there. They
+told her yes, but that she hurried away immediately when it struck
+twelve and with so much haste that she dropped one of her little glass
+slippers, the prettiest in the world, which the king's son had taken up;
+that he had done nothing but look at her all the time of the ball, and
+that most certainly he was very much in love with the beautiful person
+who owned the little glass slipper.
+
+What they said was very true, for a few days after, the king's son
+caused to be proclaimed by sound of trumpets that he would marry her
+whose foot this slipper would just fit. They whom he employed began to
+try it on upon the princesses, then the duchesses, and all the court,
+but in vain. It was brought to the two sisters, who did all they
+possibly could to thrust their foot into the slipper, but they could not
+effect it. Cinderella, who saw all this and knew her slipper, said to
+them, laughing, "Let me see if it will not fit me!"
+
+Her sisters burst out laughing and began to banter her. The gentleman
+who was sent to try the slipper looked earnestly at Cinderella, and
+finding her very handsome, said it was but just that she should try, and
+that he had orders to let every one make trial. He obliged Cinderella to
+sit down, and putting the slipper to her foot, he found it went in very
+easily and fitted her as if it had been made of wax. The astonishment
+her two sisters were in was excessively great, but still abundantly
+greater when Cinderella pulled out of her pocket the other slipper and
+put it on her foot. Thereupon in came her godmother, who having touched,
+with her wand, Cinderella's clothes, made them richer and more
+magnificent than any of those she had before.
+
+And now her two sisters found her to be that fine beautiful lady whom
+they had seen at the ball. They threw themselves at her feet to beg
+pardon for all the ill treatment they had made her undergo. Cinderella
+took them up, and as she embraced them, cried that she forgave them with
+all her heart and desired them always to love her. She was conducted to
+the young prince, dressed as she was. He thought her more charming than
+ever, and a few days after, married her. Cinderella, who was no less
+good than beautiful, gave her two sisters lodgings in the palace, and
+that very same day matched them with two great lords of the court.
+
+
+
+166
+
+ The hero of the next story is often known as
+ Drakesbill, which easily becomes Bill Drake.
+ The version that follows is a translation from
+ the French of Charles Marelles as given by Lang
+ in his _Red Fairy Book_. It has a raciness not
+ in those softened versions in which one friend
+ gets into a pocket, another under a wing, and
+ so on. The persistent energy of the little
+ hero, his resourcefulness in difficulty, his
+ loyal friends, the unexpected honor that comes
+ as recognition of his success, the humor that
+ pervades every character and incident, make
+ this one of the most delightful of children's
+ stories.
+
+
+DRAKESTAIL
+
+Drakestail was very little, that is why he was called Drakestail; but
+tiny as he was he had brains, and he knew what he was about, for having
+begun with nothing he ended by amassing a hundred crowns. Now the king
+of the country, who was very extravagant and never kept any money,
+having heard that Drakestail had some, went one day in his own person to
+borrow his hoard, and, my word, in those days Drakestail was not a
+little proud of having lent money to the king. But after the first and
+second year, seeing that he never even dreamed of paying the interest,
+he became uneasy, so much so that at last he resolved to go and see his
+majesty himself, and get repaid. So one fine morning Drakestail, very
+spruce and fresh, takes the road, singing: "Quack, quack, quack, when
+shall I get my money back?"
+
+He had not gone far when he met friend Fox, on his rounds that way.
+
+"Good-morning, neighbor," says the friend; "where are you off to so
+early?"
+
+"I am going to the king for what he owes me."
+
+"Oh! take me with thee!"
+
+Drakestail said to himself: "One can't have too many friends." Aloud
+says he, "I will, but going on all fours you will soon be tired. Make
+yourself quite small, get into my throat--go into my gizzard, and I will
+carry you."
+
+"Happy thought!" says friend Fox.
+
+He takes bag and baggage, and, presto! is gone like a letter into the
+post.
+
+And Drakestail is off again, all spruce and fresh, still singing:
+"Quack, quack, quack, when shall I have my money back?"
+
+He had not gone far when he met his lady friend, Ladder, leaning on her
+wall.
+
+"Good-morning, my duckling," says the lady friend, "whither away so
+bold?"
+
+"I am going to the king for what he owes me."
+
+"Oh! take me with thee!"
+
+Drakestail said to himself: "One can't have too many friends." Aloud
+says he: "I will, but then with your wooden legs you will soon be tired.
+Make yourself quite small, get into my throat--go into my gizzard, and I
+will carry you."
+
+"Happy thought!" says my friend Ladder, and nimble, bag and baggage,
+goes to keep company with friend Fox.
+
+And "Quack, quack, quack," Drakestail is off again, singing and spruce
+as before. A little further he meets his sweetheart, my friend River,
+wandering quietly in the sunshine.
+
+"Thou, my cherub," says she, "whither so lonesome, with arching tail, on
+this muddy road?"
+
+"I am going to the king, you know, for what he owes me."
+
+"Oh! take me with thee!"
+
+Drakestail said to himself: "One can't have too many friends." Aloud
+says he: "I will, but you who sleep while you walk will soon get tired.
+Make yourself quite small, get into my throat--go into my gizzard, and I
+will carry you."
+
+"Ah! happy thought!" says my friend River.
+
+She takes bag and baggage, and glou, glou, glou she takes her place
+between friend Fox and my friend Ladder.
+
+And "Quack, quack, quack," Drakestail is off again singing.
+
+A little further on he meets comrade Wasp's-nest, maneuvering his wasps.
+
+"Well, good-morning, friend Drakestail," said comrade Wasp's-nest,
+"where are we bound for, so spruce and fresh?"
+
+"I am going to the king for what he owes me."
+
+"Oh! take me with thee!"
+
+Drakestail said to himself, "One can't have too many friends." Aloud
+says he: "I will, but then with your battalion to drag along, you will
+soon be tired. Make yourself quite small, go into my throat--get into my
+gizzard, and I will carry you."
+
+"By Jove! that's a good idea!" says comrade Wasp's-nest.
+
+And left file! he takes the same road to join the others with all his
+party. There was not much room, but by closing up a bit they managed.
+And Drakestail is off again singing.
+
+He arrived thus at the capital, and threaded his way straight up the
+High Street, still running and singing, "Quack, quack, quack, when shall
+I get my money back?" to the great astonishment of the good folks, till
+he came to the king's palace.
+
+He strikes with the knocker: "Toc! toc!"
+
+"Who is there?" asks the porter, putting his head out of the wicket.
+
+"'Tis I, Drakestail. I wish to speak to the king."
+
+"Speak to the king! That's easily said. The king is dining, and will not
+be disturbed."
+
+"Tell him that it is I, and I have come he well knows why."
+
+The porter shuts his wicket and goes up to say it to the king, who was
+just sitting down to dinner with a napkin round his neck, and all his
+ministers.
+
+"Good, good!" said the king, laughing. "I know what it is! Make him come
+in, and put him with the turkeys and chickens."
+
+The porter descends.
+
+"Have the goodness to enter."
+
+"Good!" says Drakestail to himself, "I shall now see how they eat at
+court."
+
+"This way, this way," says the porter. "One step further. There, there
+you are."
+
+"How? what? in the poultry-yard?"
+
+Fancy how vexed Drakestail was!
+
+"Ah! so that's it," says he. "Wait! I will compel you to receive me.
+Quack, quack, quack, when shall I get my money back?" But turkeys and
+chickens are creatures who don't like people that are not as themselves.
+When they saw the new-comer and how he was made, and when they heard him
+crying too, they began to look black at him.
+
+"What is it? What does he want?"
+
+Finally they rushed at him all together, to overwhelm him with pecks.
+
+"I am lost!" said Drakestail to himself, when by good luck he remembers
+his comrade friend Fox, and he cries:
+
+ "Reynard, Reynard, come out of your earth,
+ Or Drakestail's life is of little worth."
+
+Then friend Fox, who was only waiting for these words, hastens out,
+throws himself on the wicked fowls, and quick! quack! he tears them to
+pieces; so much so that at the end of five minutes there was not one
+left alive. And Drakestail, quite content, began to sing again, "Quack,
+quack, quack, when shall I get my money back?"
+
+When the king, who was still at table, heard this refrain, and the
+poultry-woman came to tell him what had been going on in the yard, he
+was terribly annoyed.
+
+He ordered them to throw this tail of a drake into the well, to make an
+end of him.
+
+And it was done as he commanded. Drakestail was in despair of getting
+himself out of such a deep hole, when he remembered his lady friend
+Ladder.
+
+ "Ladder, Ladder, come out of thy hold,
+ Or Drakestail's days will soon be told."
+
+My friend Ladder, who was only waiting for these words, hastens out,
+leans her two arms on the edge of the well; then Drakestail climbs
+nimbly on her back, and hop! he is in the yard, where he begins to sing
+louder than ever.
+
+When the king, who was still at table and laughing at the good trick he
+had played his creditor, heard him again reclaiming his money, he became
+livid with rage.
+
+He commanded that the furnace should be heated, and this tail of a drake
+thrown into it, because he must be a sorcerer.
+
+The furnace was soon hot, but this time Drakestail was not so afraid; he
+counted on his sweetheart, my friend River.
+
+ "River, River, outward flow,
+ Or to death Drakestail must go."
+
+My friend River hastens out, and errouf! throws herself into the
+furnace, which she floods, with all the people who had lighted it; after
+which she flowed growling into the hall of the palace to the height of
+more than four feet.
+
+And Drakestail, quite content, begins to swim, singing deafeningly,
+"Quack, quack, quack, when shall I get my money back?"
+
+The king was still at table, and thought himself quite sure of his game;
+but when he heard Drakestail singing again, and when they told him all
+that had passed, he became furious and got up from the table brandishing
+his fists.
+
+"Bring him here, and I'll cut his throat! Bring him here quick!" cried
+he.
+
+And quickly two footmen ran to fetch Drakestail.
+
+"At last," said the poor chap, going up the great stairs, "they have
+decided to receive me."
+
+Imagine his terror when on entering he sees the king as red as a turkey
+cock, and all his ministers attending him standing sword in hand. He
+thought this time it was all up with him. Happily he remembered that
+there was still one remaining friend, and he cried with dying accents:
+
+ "Wasp's nest, Wasp's nest, make a sally,
+ Or Drakestail nevermore may rally."
+
+Hereupon the scene changes.
+
+"Bs, bs, bayonet them!" The brave Wasp's-nest rushes out with all his
+wasps. They threw themselves on the infuriated king and his ministers,
+and stung them so fiercely in the face that they lost their heads, and
+not knowing where to hide themselves they all jumped pell-mell from the
+window and broke their necks on the pavement.
+
+Behold Drakestail much astonished, all alone in the big saloon and
+master of the field. He could not get over it.
+
+Nevertheless, he remembered shortly what he had come for to the palace,
+and improving the occasion, he set to work to hunt for his dear money.
+But in vain he rummaged in all the drawers; he found nothing; all had
+been spent.
+
+And ferreting thus from room to room he came at last to the one with the
+throne in it, and feeling fatigued, he sat himself down on it to think
+over his adventure. In the meanwhile the people had found their king and
+his ministers with their feet in the air on the pavement, and they had
+gone into the palace to know how it had occurred. On entering the
+throne-room, when the crowd saw that there was already someone on the
+royal seat, they broke out in cries of surprise and joy:
+
+ "The King is dead, long live the King!
+ Heaven has sent us down this thing."
+
+Drakestail, who was no longer surprised at anything, received the
+acclamations of the people as if he had never done anything else all his
+life.
+
+A few of them certainly murmured that a Drakestail would make a fine
+king; those who knew him replied that a knowing Drakestail was a more
+worthy king than a spendthrift like him who was lying on the pavement.
+In short, they ran and took the crown off the head of the deceased, and
+placed it on that of Drakestail, whom it fitted like wax.
+
+Thus he became king.
+
+"And now," said he after the ceremony, "ladies and gentlemen, let's go
+to supper. I am so hungry!"
+
+
+
+167
+
+ The story of "Beauty and the Beast," while very
+ old in its ruder forms, is known to us in a
+ fine version which comes from the middle of the
+ eighteenth century. Madame de Villeneuve, a
+ French writer of some note and a follower of
+ Perrault in the field of the fairy tale,
+ published in 1740 a collection of stories
+ (_Contes Marins_) supposed to be told by an old
+ woman during a voyage to St. Domingo. Among
+ these was "Beauty and the Beast" in a
+ long-winded style extending to more than 250
+ pages. In 1757, a greatly abridged form of this
+ version was published by Madame de Beaumont,
+ who was then living in England and who wrote
+ many spirited tales designed for children. Her
+ stories are full of the didactic element, and
+ "Beauty and the Beast" is no exception to the
+ rule. These "edifying commonplaces," however,
+ are so sound and fit into the story so
+ naturally that the reader does not suffer from
+ their presence. The artificial character of the
+ story is easily felt in contrast to the natural
+ qualities of a folk version. The plot has all
+ the perfection of a finished piece of literary
+ art, and for this quality especially Madame de
+ Beaumont's abridgement has always been heartily
+ and rightly admired.
+
+
+BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
+
+Once upon a time, in a far-off country, there lived a merchant who had
+been so fortunate in all his undertakings that he was enormously rich.
+As he had, however, six sons and six daughters, he found that his money
+was not too much to let them have everything they fancied, as they were
+accustomed to do.
+
+But one day a most unexpected misfortune befell them. Their house caught
+fire and was speedily burned to the ground, with all the splendid
+furniture, the books, pictures, gold, silver, and precious goods it
+contained; and this was only the beginning of their troubles. Their
+father, who had until this moment prospered in all ways, suddenly lost
+every ship he had upon the sea, either by dint of pirates, shipwreck, or
+fire. Then he heard that his clerks in distant countries, whom he had
+trusted entirely, had proved unfaithful, and at last from great wealth
+he fell into direst poverty.
+
+All that he had left was a little house in a desolate place at least a
+hundred leagues from the town in which he had lived, and to this he was
+forced to retreat with his children, who were in despair at the idea of
+leading such a different life. Indeed, the daughters at first hoped that
+their friends, who had been so numerous while they were rich, would
+insist on their staying in their houses now they no longer possessed
+one. But they soon found that they were left alone, and that their
+former friends even attributed their misfortunes to their own
+extravagance, and showed no intention of offering them any help. So
+nothing was left for them but to take their departure to the cottage,
+which stood in the midst of a dark forest, and seemed to be the most
+dismal place upon the face of the earth.
+
+As they were too poor to have any servants, the girls had to work hard,
+like peasants, and the sons, for their part, cultivated the fields to
+earn their living. Roughly clothed, and living in the simplest way, the
+girls regretted unceasingly the luxuries and amusements of their former
+life; only the youngest tried to be brave and cheerful. She had been as
+sad as anyone when the misfortune first overtook her father, but, soon
+recovering her natural gayety, she set to work to make the best of
+things, to amuse her father and brothers as well as she could, and to
+try to persuade her sisters to join her in dancing and singing. But they
+would do nothing of the sort, and because she was not as doleful as
+themselves they declared that this miserable life was all she was fit
+for. But she was really far prettier and cleverer than they were;
+indeed, she was so lovely that she was always called Beauty. After two
+years, when they were all beginning to get used to their new life,
+something happened to disturb their tranquillity. Their father received
+the news that one of his ships, which he had believed to be lost, had
+come safely into port with a rich cargo.
+
+All the sons and daughters at once thought that their poverty was at an
+end and wanted to set out directly for the town, but their father, who
+was more prudent, begged them to wait a little, and though it was
+harvest-time and he could ill be spared, determined to go himself first
+to make inquiries. Only the youngest daughter had any doubt but that
+they would soon be as rich as they were before, or at least rich enough
+to live comfortably in some town where they would find amusement and gay
+companions once more. So they all loaded their father with commissions
+for jewels and dresses which it would have taken a fortune to buy; only
+Beauty, feeling sure that it was of no use, did not ask for anything.
+Her father, noticing her silence, said: "And what shall I bring for you,
+Beauty?"
+
+"The only thing I wish for is to see you come home safely," she
+answered.
+
+But this reply vexed her sisters, who fancied she was blaming them for
+having asked for such costly things. Her father was pleased, but as he
+thought that at her age she certainly ought to like pretty presents, he
+told her to choose something.
+
+"Well, dear father," said she, "as you insist upon it, I beg that you
+will bring me a rose. I have not seen one since we came here, and I love
+them so much."
+
+So the merchant set out and reached the town as quickly as possible, but
+only to find that his former companions, believing him to be dead, had
+divided between them the goods which the ship had brought; and after six
+months of trouble and expense he found himself as poor as when he
+started, having been able to recover only just enough to pay the cost
+of the journey. To make matters worse, he was obliged to leave the town
+in terrible weather, so that by the time he was within a few leagues of
+his home he was almost exhausted with cold and fatigue. Though he knew
+it would take some hours to get through the forest, he was so anxious to
+be at his journey's end that he resolved to go on; but night overtook
+him, and the deep snow and bitter frost made it impossible for his horse
+to carry him any further. Not a house was to be seen. The only shelter
+he could get was the hollow trunk of a great tree, and there he crouched
+all the night, which seemed to him the longest he had ever known. In
+spite of his weariness the howling of the wolves kept him awake, and
+even when at last the day broke he was not much better off, for the
+falling snow had covered up every path and he did not know which way to
+turn.
+
+At length he made out some sort of track, and though at the beginning it
+was so rough and slippery that he fell down more than once, it presently
+became easier and led him into an avenue of trees which ended in a
+splendid castle. It seemed to the merchant very strange that no snow had
+fallen in the avenue, which was entirely composed of orange-trees,
+covered with flowers and fruit. When he reached the first court of the
+castle he saw before him a flight of agate steps, and went up them and
+passed through several splendidly furnished rooms. The pleasant warmth
+of the air revived him and he felt very hungry; but there seemed to be
+nobody in all this vast and splendid palace whom he could ask to give
+him something to eat. Deep silence reigned everywhere, and at last,
+tired of roaming through empty rooms and galleries, he stopped in a room
+smaller than the rest, where a clear fire was burning and a couch was
+drawn up cozily, close to it. Thinking that this must be prepared for
+some one who was expected, he sat down to wait till he should come and
+very soon fell into a sweet sleep.
+
+When his extreme hunger wakened him after several hours he was still
+alone, but a little table, upon which was a good dinner, had been drawn
+up close to him, and as he had eaten nothing for twenty-four hours he
+lost no time in beginning his meal, hoping that he might soon have an
+opportunity of thanking his considerate entertainer, whoever it might
+be. But no one appeared, and even after another long sleep, from which
+he awoke completely refreshed, there was no sign of anybody, though a
+fresh meal of dainty cakes and fruit was prepared upon a little table at
+his elbow. Being naturally timid, the silence began to terrify him, and
+he resolved to search once more through all the rooms; but it was of no
+use. Not even a servant was to be seen; there was no sign of life in the
+palace! He began to wonder what he should do, and to amuse himself by
+pretending that all the treasures he saw were his own, and considering
+how he would divide them among his children. Then he went down into the
+garden, and though it was winter everywhere else, here the sun shone,
+and the birds sang, and the flowers bloomed, and the air was soft and
+sweet. The merchant, in ecstasies with all he saw and heard, said to
+himself:
+
+"All this must be meant for me. I will go this minute and bring my
+children to share all these delights."
+
+In spite of being so cold and weary when he reached the castle, he had
+taken his horse to the stable and fed it. Now he thought he would saddle
+it for his homeward journey, and he turned down the path which led to
+the stable. This path had a hedge of roses on each side of it, and the
+merchant thought he had never seen or smelled such exquisite flowers.
+They reminded him of his promise to Beauty, and he stopped and had just
+gathered one to take to her when he was startled by a strange noise
+behind him. Turning round he saw a frightful beast, which seemed to be
+very angry and said in a terrible voice: "Who told you that you might
+gather my roses? Was it not enough that I allowed you to be in my palace
+and was kind to you? This is the way you show your gratitude, by
+stealing my flowers! But your insolence shall not go unpunished."
+
+The merchant, terrified by these furious words, dropped the fatal rose,
+and throwing himself on his knees cried: "Pardon me, noble sir. I am
+truly grateful to you for your hospitality, which was so magnificent
+that I could not imagine that you would be offended by my taking such a
+little thing as a rose." But the beast's anger was not lessened by this
+speech.
+
+"You are very ready with excuses and flattery," he cried; "but that will
+not save you from the death you deserve."
+
+"Alas!" thought the merchant, "if my daughter Beauty could only know
+what danger her rose has brought me into!"
+
+And in despair be began to tell the beast all his misfortunes and the
+reason of his journey, not forgetting to mention Beauty's request.
+
+"A king's ransom would hardly have procured all that my other daughters
+asked," he said, "but I thought that I might at least take Beauty her
+rose. I beg you to forgive me, for you see I meant no harm."
+
+The beast considered for a moment, and then he said in a less furious
+tone:
+
+"I will forgive you on one condition--that is, that you will give me one
+of your daughters."
+
+"Ah!" cried the merchant, "if I were cruel enough to buy my own life at
+the expense of one of my children's, what excuse could I invent to bring
+her here?"
+
+"No excuse would be necessary," answered the beast. "If she comes at all
+she must come willingly. On no other condition will I have her. See if
+any one of them is courageous enough and loves you well enough to come
+and save your life. You seem to be an honest man, so I will trust you to
+go home. I give you a month to see if either of your daughters will come
+back with you and stay here, to let you go free. If neither of them is
+willing you must come alone, after bidding them good-by forever, for
+then you will belong to me. And do not imagine that you can hide from
+me, for if you fail to keep your word I will come and fetch you!" added
+the beast grimly.
+
+The merchant accepted this proposal, though he did not really think any
+of his daughters would be persuaded to come. He promised to return at
+the time appointed, and then, anxious to escape from the presence of the
+beast, he asked permission to set off at once. But the beast answered
+that he could not go until the next day.
+
+"Then you will find a horse ready for you," he said. "Now go and eat
+your supper and await my orders."
+
+The poor merchant, more dead than alive, went back to his room, where
+the most delicious supper was already served on the little table which
+was drawn up before a blazing fire. But he was too terrified to eat, and
+only tasted a few of the dishes, for fear the beast should be angry if
+he did not obey his orders. When he had finished he heard a great noise
+in the next room, which he knew meant that the beast was coming. As he
+could do nothing to escape his visit, the only thing that remained was
+to seem as little afraid as possible; so when the beast appeared and
+asked roughly if he had supped well, the merchant answered humbly that
+he had, thanks to his host's kindness. Then the beast warned him to
+remember their agreement and to prepare his daughter exactly for what
+she had to expect.
+
+"Do not get up to-morrow," he added, "until you see the sun and hear a
+golden bell ring. Then you will find your breakfast waiting for you
+here, and the horse you are to ride will be ready in the court-yard. He
+will also bring you back again when you come with your daughter a month
+hence. Farewell. Take a rose to Beauty, and remember your promise."
+
+The merchant was only too glad when the beast went away, and though he
+could not sleep for sadness, he lay down until the sun rose. Then, after
+a hasty breakfast, he went to gather Beauty's rose and mounted his
+horse, which carried him off so swiftly that in an instant he had lost
+sight of the palace, and he was still wrapped in gloomy thoughts when it
+stopped before the door of the cottage.
+
+His sons and daughters, who had been very uneasy at his long absence,
+rushed to meet him, eager to know the result of his journey, which,
+seeing him mounted upon a splendid horse and wrapped in a rich mantle,
+they supposed to be favorable. But he hid the truth from them at first,
+only saying sadly to Beauty as he gave her the rose:
+
+"Here is what you asked me to bring you. You little know what it has
+cost."
+
+But this excited their curiosity so greatly that presently he told them
+his adventures from beginning to end, and then they were all very
+unhappy. The girls lamented loudly over their lost hopes, and the sons
+declared that their father should not return to this terrible castle,
+and began to make plans for killing the beast if it should come to fetch
+him. But he reminded them that he had promised to go back. Then the
+girls were very angry with Beauty and said it was all her fault, and
+that if she had asked for something sensible this would never have
+happened, and complained bitterly that they should have to suffer for
+her folly.
+
+Poor Beauty, much distressed, said to them:
+
+"I have indeed caused this misfortune, but I assure you I did it
+innocently. Who could have guessed that to ask for a rose in the middle
+of summer would cause so much misery? But as I did the mischief it is
+only just that I should suffer for it. I will therefore go back with my
+father to keep his promise."
+
+At first nobody would hear of this arrangement, and her father and
+brothers, who loved her dearly, declared that nothing should make them
+let her go; but Beauty was firm. As the time drew near she divided all
+her little possessions between her sisters and said good-by to
+everything she loved, and when the fatal day came she encouraged and
+cheered her father as they mounted together the horse which had brought
+him back. It seemed to fly rather than gallop, but so smoothly that
+Beauty was not frightened; indeed, she would have enjoyed the journey if
+she had not feared what might happen to her at the end of it. Her father
+still tried to persuade her to go back, but in vain. While they were
+talking the night fell, and then, to their surprise, wonderful colored
+lights began to shine in all directions, and splendid fireworks blazed
+out before them. All the forest was illuminated by them, and even felt
+pleasantly warm, though it had been bitterly cold before. This lasted
+until they reached the avenue of orange-trees, where were statues
+holding flaming torches, and when they got nearer to the palace they saw
+that it was illuminated from the roof to the ground, and music sounded
+softly from the court-yard. "The beast must be very hungry," said
+Beauty, trying to laugh, "if he makes all this rejoicing over the
+arrival of his prey."
+
+But in spite of her anxiety she could not help admiring all the
+wonderful things she saw.
+
+The horse stopped at the foot of the flight of steps leading to the
+terrace, and when they had dismounted her father led her to the little
+room he had been in before, where they found a splendid fire burning and
+the table daintily spread with a delicious supper.
+
+The merchant knew that this was meant for them, and Beauty, who was
+rather less frightened now that she had passed through so many rooms and
+seen nothing of the beast, was quite willing to begin, for her long ride
+had made her very hungry. But they had hardly finished their meal when
+the noise of the beast's footsteps was heard approaching, and Beauty
+clung to her father in terror, which became all the greater when she saw
+how frightened he was. But when the beast really appeared, though she
+trembled at the sight of him, she made a great effort to hide her horror
+and saluted him respectfully.
+
+This evidently pleased the beast. After looking at her he said, in a
+tone that might have struck terror into the boldest heart, though he did
+not seem to be angry:
+
+"Good-evening, old man. Good-evening, Beauty."
+
+The merchant was too terrified to reply, but Beauty answered sweetly:
+
+"Good-evening, beast."
+
+"Have you come willingly?" asked the beast. "Will you be content to stay
+here when your father goes away?"
+
+Beauty answered bravely that she was quite prepared to stay.
+
+"I am pleased with you," said the beast. "As you have come of your own
+accord, you may stay. As for you, old man," he added, turning to the
+merchant, "at sunrise to-morrow you will take your departure. When the
+bell rings get up quickly and eat your breakfast, and you will find the
+same horse waiting to take you home; but remember that you must never
+expect to see my palace again."
+
+Then turning to Beauty he said:
+
+"Take your father into the next room and help him to choose everything
+you think your brothers and sisters would like to have. You will find
+two traveling-trunks there; fill them as full as you can. It is only
+just that you should send them something very precious as a remembrance
+of yourself."
+
+Then he went away after saying, "Good-by, Beauty; good-by, old man"; and
+though Beauty was beginning to think with great dismay of her father's
+departure, she was afraid to disobey the beast's orders, and they went
+into the next room, which had shelves and cupboards all round it. They
+were greatly surprised at the riches it contained. There were splendid
+dresses fit for a queen, with all the ornaments that were to be worn
+with them; and when Beauty opened the cupboards she was quite dazzled by
+the gorgeous jewels that lay in heaps upon every shelf. After choosing a
+vast quantity, which she divided between her sisters--for she made a
+heap of the wonderful dresses for each of them--she opened the last
+chest, which was full of gold.
+
+"I think, father," she said, "that as the gold will be more useful to
+you we had better take out the other things again and fill the trunks
+with it." So they did this; but the more they put in the more room there
+seemed to be, and at last they put back all the jewels and dresses they
+had taken out, and Beauty even added as many more of the jewels as she
+could carry at once; and then the trunks were not too full, but they
+were so heavy that an elephant could not have carried them!
+
+"The beast was mocking us," cried the merchant. "He must have pretended
+to give us all these things, knowing that I could not carry them away."
+
+"Let us wait and see," answered Beauty. "I cannot believe that he meant
+to deceive us. All we can do is to fasten them up and leave them ready."
+
+So they did this and returned to the little room, where, to their
+astonishment, they found breakfast ready. The merchant ate his with a
+good appetite, as the beast's generosity made him believe that he might
+perhaps venture to come back soon and see Beauty. But she felt sure that
+her father was leaving her forever, so she was very sad when the bell
+rang sharply for the second time and warned them that the time had come
+for them to part. They went down into the court-yard, where two horses
+were waiting, one loaded with the two trunks, the other for him to ride.
+They were pawing the ground in their impatience to start, and, the
+merchant was forced to bid Beauty a hasty farewell; and as soon as he
+was mounted he went off at such a pace that she lost sight of him in an
+instant.
+
+Then Beauty began to cry and wandered back to her own room. But she soon
+found that she was very sleepy, and as she had nothing better to do she
+lay down and instantly fell asleep. And then she dreamed that she was
+walking by a brook bordered with trees and lamenting her sad fate, when
+a young prince, handsomer than anyone she had ever seen, and with a
+voice that went straight to her heart, came and said to her: "Ah,
+Beauty! you are not so unfortunate as you suppose. Here you will be
+rewarded for all you have suffered elsewhere. Your every wish shall be
+gratified. Only try to find me out, no matter how I may be disguised, as
+I love you dearly, and in making me happy you will find your own
+happiness. Be as true-hearted as you are beautiful, and we shall have
+nothing left to wish for."
+
+"What can I do, prince, to make you happy?" said Beauty.
+
+"Only be grateful," he answered, "and do not trust too much to your
+eyes. And above all, do not desert me until you have saved me from my
+cruel misery."
+
+After this she thought she found herself in a room with a stately and
+beautiful lady, who said to her:
+
+"Dear Beauty, try not to regret all you have left behind you, for you
+are destined to a better fate. Only do not let yourself be deceived by
+appearances."
+
+Beauty found her dreams so interesting that she was in no hurry to
+awake, but presently the clock roused her by calling her name softly
+twelve times, and then she got up and found her dressing-table set out
+with everything she could possibly want; and when her toilet was
+finished she found dinner was waiting in the room next to hers. But
+dinner does not take very long when you are all by yourself, and very
+soon she sat down cozily in the corner of a sofa and began to think
+about the charming prince she had seen in her dream.
+
+"He said I could make him happy," said Beauty to herself. "It seems,
+then, that this horrible beast keeps him a prisoner. How can I set him
+free? I wonder why they both told me not to trust to appearances. I
+don't understand it. But after all it is only a dream, so why should I
+trouble myself about it? I had better go and find something to do to
+amuse myself."
+
+So she got up and began to explore some of the many rooms of the palace.
+
+The first she entered was lined with mirrors, and Beauty saw herself
+reflected on every side, and thought she had never seen such a charming
+room. Then a bracelet which was hanging from a chandelier caught her
+eye, and on taking it down she was greatly surprised to find that it
+held a portrait of her unknown admirer, just as she had seen him in her
+dream. With great delight she slipped the bracelet on her arm and went
+on into a gallery of pictures, where she soon found a portrait of the
+same handsome prince, as large as life and so well painted that as she
+studied it he seemed to smile kindly at her.
+
+Tearing herself away from the portrait at last, she passed through into
+a room which contained every musical instrument under the sun, and here
+she amused herself for a long while in trying some of them and singing
+until she was tired. The next room was a library, and she saw everything
+she had ever wanted to read, as well as everything she had read, and it
+seemed to her that a whole lifetime would not be enough even to read the
+names of the books, there were so many. By this time it was growing
+dusk, and wax candles in diamond and ruby candlesticks were beginning to
+light themselves in every room.
+
+Beauty found her supper served just at the time she preferred to have
+it, but she did not see anyone or hear a sound, and though her father
+had warned her that she would be alone, she began to find it rather
+dull.
+
+But presently she heard the beast coming, and wondered tremblingly if he
+meant to eat her up now.
+
+However, as he did not seem at all ferocious, and only said gruffly,
+"Good-evening, Beauty," she answered cheerfully and managed to conceal
+her terror. Then the beast asked her how she had been amusing herself,
+and she told him all the rooms she had seen.
+
+Then he asked if she thought she could be happy in his palace, and
+Beauty answered that everything was so beautiful that she would be very
+hard to please if she could not be happy. And after about an hour's talk
+Beauty began to think that the beast was not nearly so terrible as she
+had supposed at first. Then he got up to leave her and said in his gruff
+voice:
+
+"Do you love me, Beauty? Will you marry me?"
+
+"Oh! what shall I say?" cried Beauty, for she was afraid to make the
+beast angry by refusing.
+
+"Say 'yes' or 'no' without fear," he replied.
+
+"Oh! no, beast," said Beauty hastily.
+
+"Since you will not, good-night, Beauty," he said. And she answered,
+"Good-night, beast," very glad to find that her refusal had not provoked
+him. And after he was gone she was very soon in bed and asleep and
+dreaming of her unknown prince. She thought he came and said to her:
+
+"Ah, Beauty! why are you so unkind to me? I fear I am fated to be
+unhappy for many a long day still."
+
+And then her dreams changed, but the charming prince figured in them
+all; and when morning came her first thought was to look at the portrait
+and see if it was really like him, and she found that it certainly was.
+
+This morning she decided to amuse herself in the garden, for the sun
+shone and all the fountains were playing; but she was astonished to find
+that every place was familiar to her, and presently she came to the
+brook where the myrtle trees were growing where she had first met the
+prince in her dream, and that made her think more than ever that he must
+be kept a prisoner by the beast. When she was tired she went back to the
+palace, and found a new room full of materials for every kind of
+work--ribbons to make into bows and silks to work into flowers. Then
+there was an aviary full of rare birds, which were so tame that they
+flew to Beauty as soon as they saw her and perched upon her shoulders
+and her head.
+
+"Pretty little creatures," she said, "how I wish that your cage was
+nearer to my room, that I might often hear you sing!"
+
+So saying she opened a door and found to her delight that it led into
+her own room, though she had thought it was quite the other side of the
+palace.
+
+There were more birds in a room further on, parrots and cockatoos that
+could talk, and they greeted Beauty by name. Indeed, she found them so
+entertaining that she took one or two back to her room, and they talked
+to her while she was at supper; after which the beast paid her his usual
+visit and asked the same questions as before, and then with a gruff
+"good-night" he took his departure, and Beauty went to bed to dream of
+her mysterious prince. The days passed swiftly in different amusements,
+and after a while Beauty found out another strange thing in the palace,
+which often pleased her when she was tired of being alone. There was one
+room which she had not noticed particularly. It was empty, except that
+under each of the windows stood a very comfortable chair, and the first
+time she had looked out of the window it had seemed to her that a black
+curtain prevented her from seeing anything outside. But the second time
+she went into the room, happening to be tired, she sat down in one of
+the chairs, and instantly the curtain was rolled aside and a most
+amusing pantomime was acted before her. There were dances, and colored
+lights, and music, and pretty dresses, and it was all so gay that Beauty
+was in ecstasies. After that she tried the other seven windows in turn,
+and there was some new and surprising entertainment to be seen from each
+of them, so that Beauty never could feel lonely any more. Every evening
+after supper the beast came to see her, and always before saying
+good-night asked her in his terrible voice:
+
+"Beauty, will you marry me?"
+
+And it seemed to Beauty, now she understood him better, that when she
+said, "No, beast," he went away quite sad. But her happy dreams of the
+handsome young prince soon made her forget the poor beast, and the only
+thing that at all disturbed her was to be constantly told to distrust
+appearances, to let her heart guide her, and not her eyes, and many
+other equally perplexing things, which, consider as she would, she could
+not understand.
+
+So everything went on for a long time, until at last, happy as she was,
+Beauty began to long for the sight of her father and her brothers and
+sisters; and one night, seeing her look very sad, the beast asked her
+what was the matter. Beauty had quite ceased to be afraid of him now she
+knew that he was really gentle in spite of his ferocious looks and his
+dreadful voice. So she answered that she was longing to see her home
+once more. Upon hearing this the beast seemed sadly distressed and cried
+miserably:
+
+"Ah! Beauty, have you the heart to desert an unhappy beast like this?
+What more do you want to make you happy? Is it because you hate me that
+you want to escape?"
+
+"No, dear beast," answered Beauty softly, "I do not hate you, and I
+should be very sorry never to see you any more, but I long to see my
+father again. Only let me go for two months, and I promise to come back
+to you and stay for the rest of my life."
+
+The beast, who had been sighing dolefully while she spoke, now replied:
+
+"I cannot refuse you anything you ask, even though it should cost me my
+life. Take the four boxes you will find in the room next to your own and
+fill them with everything you wish to take with you. But remember your
+promise and come back when the two months are over, or you may have
+cause to repent it, for if you do not come in good time you will find
+your faithful beast dead. You will not need any chariot to bring you
+back. Only say good-by to all your brothers and sisters the night before
+you come away, and when you have gone to bed turn this ring round upon
+your finger and say firmly: 'I wish to go back to my palace and see my
+beast again.' Good-night, Beauty. Fear nothing, sleep peacefully, and
+before long you shall see your father once more."
+
+As soon as Beauty was alone she hastened to fill the boxes with all the
+rare and precious things she saw about her, and only when she was tired
+of heaping things into them did they seem to be full.
+
+Then she went to bed, but could hardly sleep for joy. And when at last
+she did begin to dream of her beloved prince she was grieved to see him
+stretched upon a grassy bank, sad and weary and hardly like himself.
+
+"What is the matter?" she cried.
+
+But he looked at her reproachfully and said:
+
+"How can you ask me, cruel one? Are you not leaving me to my death
+perhaps?"
+
+"Ah, don't be so sorrowful!" cried Beauty. "I am only going to assure my
+father that I am safe and happy. I have promised the beast faithfully
+that I will come back, and he would die of grief if I did not keep my
+word!"
+
+"What would that matter to you?" said the prince. "Surely you would not
+care?"
+
+"Indeed I should be ungrateful if I did not care for such a kind beast,"
+cried Beauty indignantly. "I would die to save him from pain. I assure
+you it is not his fault that he is so ugly."
+
+Just then a strange sound woke her--someone was speaking not very far
+away; and opening her eyes she found herself in a room she had never
+seen before, which was certainly not nearly so splendid as those she was
+used to in the beast's palace. Where could she be? She got up and
+dressed hastily, and then saw that the boxes she had packed the night
+before were all in the room. While she was wondering by what magic the
+beast had transported them and herself to this strange place she
+suddenly heard her father's voice, and rushed out and greeted him
+joyfully. Her brothers and sisters were all astonished at her
+appearance, as they had never expected to see her again, and there was
+no end to the questions they asked her. She had also much to hear about
+what had happened to them while she was away and of her father's journey
+home. But when they heard that she had only come to be with them for a
+short time, and then must go back to the beast's palace forever, they
+lamented loudly. Then Beauty asked her father what he thought could be
+the meaning of her strange dreams, and why the prince constantly begged
+her not to trust to appearances. After much consideration he answered:
+
+"You tell me yourself that the beast, frightful as he is, loves you
+dearly and deserves your love and gratitude for his gentleness and
+kindness. I think the prince must mean you to understand that you ought
+to reward him by doing as he wishes you to, in spite of his ugliness."
+
+Beauty could not help seeing that this seemed very probable. Still, when
+she thought of her dear prince who was so handsome, she did not feel at
+all inclined to marry the beast. At any rate, for two months she need
+not decide, but could enjoy herself with her sisters. But though they
+were rich now and lived in a town again and had plenty of acquaintances,
+Beauty found that nothing amused her very much; and she often thought of
+the palace where she was so happy, especially as at home she never once
+dreamed of her dear prince, and she felt quite sad without him.
+
+Then her sisters seemed to have got used to being without her, and even
+found her rather in the way, so she would not have been sorry when the
+two months were over but for her father and brothers, who begged her to
+stay and seemed so grieved at the thought of her departure that she had
+not the courage to say good-by to them. Every day when she got up she
+meant to say it at night, and when night came she put it off again,
+until at last she had a dismal dream which helped her to make up her
+mind. She thought she was wandering in a lonely path in the palace
+gardens, when she heard groans which seemed to come from some bushes
+hiding the entrance of a cave, and running quickly to see what could be
+the matter, she found the beast stretched out upon his side, apparently
+dying. He reproached her faintly with being the cause of his distress,
+and at the same moment a stately lady appeared and said very gravely:
+
+"Ah, Beauty! you are only just in time to save his life. See what
+happens when people do not keep their promises! If you had delayed one
+day more you would have found him dead."
+
+Beauty was so terrified by this dream that the next morning she
+announced her intention of going back at once, and that very night she
+said good-by to her father and all her brothers and sisters, and as soon
+as she was in bed she turned her ring round upon her finger and said
+firmly, "I wish to go back to my palace and see my beast again," as she
+had been told to do.
+
+Then she fell asleep instantly, and only woke up to hear the clock
+saying "Beauty, Beauty," twelve times in its musical voice, which told
+her at once that she was really in the palace once more. Everything was
+just as before, and her birds were so glad to see her; but Beauty
+thought she had never known such a long day, for she was so anxious to
+see the beast again that she felt as if supper time would never come.
+
+But when it did come and no beast appeared she was really frightened; so
+after listening and waiting for a long time she ran down into the garden
+to search for him. Up and down the paths and avenues ran poor Beauty,
+calling him in vain, for no one answered and not a trace of him could
+she find, until at last, quite tired, she stopped for a minute's rest
+and saw that she was standing opposite the shady path she had seen in
+her dream. She rushed down it, and, sure enough, there was the cave, and
+in it lay the beast--asleep, as Beauty thought. Quite glad to have found
+him, she ran up and stroked his head, but, to her horror, he did not
+move or open his eyes.
+
+"Oh! he is dead, and it is all my fault," said Beauty, crying bitterly.
+
+But then, looking at him again, she fancied he still breathed, and
+hastily fetching some water from the nearest fountain, she sprinkled it
+over his face, and to her great delight he began to revive.
+
+"Oh, beast! how you frightened me!" she cried. "I never knew how much I
+loved you until just now, when I feared I was too late to save your
+life."
+
+"Can you really love such an ugly creature as I am?" said the beast
+faintly. "Ah, Beauty! you only came just in time. I was dying because I
+thought you had forgotten your promise. But go back now and rest. I
+shall see you again by and by."
+
+Beauty, who had half expected that he would be angry with her, was
+reassured by his gentle voice and went back to the palace, where supper
+was awaiting her; and afterward the beast came in as usual and talked
+about the time she had spent with her father, asking if she had enjoyed
+herself and if they had all been very glad to see her.
+
+Beauty answered politely, and quite enjoyed telling him all that had
+happened to her. And when at last the time came for him to go, and he
+asked, as he had so often asked before, "Beauty, will you marry me?" she
+answered softly: "Yes, dear beast."
+
+As she spoke a blaze of light sprang up before the windows of the
+palace; fireworks crackled and guns banged, and across the avenue of
+orange trees, in letters all made of fireflies, was written: "Long live
+the prince and his bride."
+
+Turning to ask the beast what it could all mean, Beauty found that he
+had disappeared, and in his place stood her long-loved prince! At the
+same moment the wheels of a chariot were heard upon the terrace and two
+ladies entered the room. One of them Beauty recognized as the stately
+lady she had seen in her dreams; the other was also so grand and queenly
+that Beauty hardly knew which to greet first.
+
+But the one she already knew said to her companion:
+
+"Well, queen, this is Beauty, who has had the courage to rescue your son
+from the terrible enchantment. They love one another, and only your
+consent to their marriage is wanting to make them perfectly happy."
+
+"I consent with all my heart," cried the queen. "How can I ever thank
+you enough, charming girl, for having restored my dear son to his
+natural form?"
+
+And then she tenderly embraced Beauty and the prince, who had meanwhile
+been greeting the fairy and receiving her congratulations.
+
+"Now," said the fairy to Beauty, "I suppose you would like me to send
+for all your brothers and sisters to dance at your wedding?"
+
+And so she did, and the marriage was celebrated the very next day with
+the utmost splendor, and Beauty and the prince lived happily ever after.
+
+
+
+168
+
+ Peter Asbjoernsen (1812-1885) and Jorgen Moe
+ (1813-1882) were the first scientific
+ collectors of the folk tales of Norway. Their
+ joint interest in folk tales began when they
+ were schoolboys wandering on foot through the
+ country and listening to peasant stories. This
+ interest continued after Moe had become a
+ theologian and Asbjoernsen a noted scientist.
+ The latter served the government as an expert
+ connected with the survey and development of
+ his country's natural resources. This resulted
+ in taking him to all parts of the land, and he
+ never lost an opportunity to hear and copy down
+ any folk tale that he found surviving in the
+ more isolated districts. In 1842-1844 appeared
+ _Norwegian Folk Tales_ by Moe and Asbjoernsen;
+ in 1845, _Norwegian Fairy Tales and Folk
+ Legends_; and there were subsequent additions.
+ The five tales following are from these Norse
+ collections. They were first made accessible in
+ English in Dasent's _Popular Tales from the
+ Norse_ (1858). This book with its long
+ introductory essay on the origin and diffusion
+ of popular tales constitutes a landmark in the
+ study of folklore. It and Dasent's later
+ volume, _Tales from the Fjeld_, are still,
+ perhaps, the best sources for versions of the
+ Norse popular tales. "Why the Bear Is
+ Stumpy-tailed" belongs to the class of stories
+ which explain how things happened to be as they
+ are. It is of great antiquity and is found over
+ most of the world. The greatest of all modern
+ nature fairy tales, Kipling's _Just So
+ Stories_, are of a similar type, though told at
+ greater length and, of course, with infinitely
+ greater art.
+
+
+WHY THE BEAR IS STUMPY-TAILED
+
+One day the Bear met the Fox, who came slinking along with a string of
+fish he had stolen.
+
+"Whence did you get those?" asked the Bear.
+
+"Oh! my Lord Bruin, I've been out fishing and caught them," said the
+Fox.
+
+So the Bear had a mind to learn to fish too, and bade the Fox tell him
+how he was to set about it.
+
+"Oh! it's an easy craft for you," answered the Fox, "and soon learnt.
+You've only got to go upon the ice, and cut a hole and stick your tail
+down into it; and so you must go on holding it there as long as you can.
+You're not to mind if your tail smarts a little; that's when the fish
+bite. The longer you hold it there the more fish you'll get; and then
+all at once out with it, with a cross pull sideways, and with a strong
+pull too."
+
+Yes; the Bear did as the Fox had said, and held his tail a long, long
+time down in the hole, till it was fast frozen in. Then he pulled it out
+with a cross pull, and it snapped short off. That's why Bruin goes about
+with a stumpy tail this very day.
+
+
+
+169
+
+ The following is from Dasent's _Popular Tales
+ from the Norse_ and has long been a favorite
+ with the younger children by reason of its
+ remarkable compactness and its strong
+ accumulative force. The Troll of northern
+ stories is the Ogre of those farther south. The
+ story has a closing formula which may often
+ have been used for other stories as well. (For
+ an opening verse formula see the note on "The
+ Story of the Three Little Pigs," No. 151.)
+
+
+THE THREE BILLY-GOATS GRUFF
+
+Once on a time there were three Billy-goats who were to go up to the
+hillside to make themselves fat, and the name of all the three was
+"Gruff."
+
+On the way up was a bridge over a burn they had to cross; and under the
+bridge lived a great ugly Troll, with eyes as big as saucers and a nose
+as long as a poker.
+
+So first of all came the youngest billy-goat Gruff to cross the bridge.
+
+"Trip, trap; trip, trap!" went the bridge.
+
+"WHO'S THAT tripping over my bridge?" roared the Troll.
+
+"Oh! it is only I, the tiniest billy-goat Gruff; and I'm going up to the
+hill-side to make myself fat," said the billy-goat, with such a small
+voice.
+
+"Now, I'm coming to gobble you up," said the Troll.
+
+"Oh, no! pray don't take me. I'm too little, that I am," said the
+billy-goat. "Wait a bit till the second billy-goat Gruff comes; he's
+much bigger."
+
+"Well! be off with you," said the Troll.
+
+A little while after came the second billy-goat Gruff to cross the
+bridge.
+
+"TRIP, TRAP! TRIP, TRAP! TRIP, TRAP!" went the bridge.
+
+"WHO'S THAT tripping over my bridge?" roared the Troll.
+
+"Oh! it's the second billy-goat Gruff, and I'm going up to the hill-side
+to make myself fat," said the billy-goat, who hadn't such a small voice.
+
+"Now, I'm coming to gobble you up," said the Troll.
+
+"Oh, no! don't take me. Wait a little till the big billy-goat Gruff
+comes; he's much bigger."
+
+"Very well! be off with you," said the Troll.
+
+But just then up came the big billy-goat Gruff.
+
+"TRIP, TRAP! TRIP, TRAP! TRIP, TRAP!" went the bridge, for the
+billy-goat was so heavy that the bridge creaked and groaned under him.
+
+"WHO'S THAT tramping over my bridge?" roared the Troll.
+
+"It's I! THE BIG BILLY-GOAT GRUFF," said the billy-goat, who had an ugly
+hoarse voice of his own.
+
+"Now, I'm coming to gobble you up," roared the Troll.
+
+ "Well, come along! I've got two spears,
+ And I'll poke your eyeballs out at your ears;
+ I've got besides two curling-stones,
+ And I'll crush you to bits, body and bones."
+
+That was what the big billy-goat said; and so he flew at the Troll and
+poked his eyes out with his horns, and crushed him to bits, body and
+bones, and tossed him out into the burn, and after that he went up to
+the hill-side. There the billy-goats got so fat they were scarce able to
+walk home again; and if the fat hasn't fallen off them, why they're
+still fat; and so,--
+
+ "Snip, snap, snout,
+ This tale's told out."
+
+
+
+170
+
+ The following droll seems to indicate that the
+ folk had a strain of satirical humor which they
+ could use with fine effect. The translation is
+ that of Dasent's _Popular Tales from the
+ Norse_. (An old English verse form of the same
+ story will be found in No. 146.) The old
+ proverb about the shoemaker sticking to his
+ last is sure to come to mind as one reads, but
+ it seems to lose force when we notice that the
+ "goody" has no trouble with the mowing, while
+ the good "man" has much with the housework!
+
+
+THE HUSBAND WHO WAS TO MIND THE HOUSE
+
+Once on a time there was a man so surly and cross he never thought his
+wife did anything right in the house. So one evening in hay-making time
+he came home scolding and swearing and showing his teeth and making a
+dust.
+
+"Dear love, don't be so angry; there's a good man," said his goody;
+"to-morrow let's change our work. I'll go out with the mowers and mow,
+and you shall mind the house at home."
+
+Yes! the husband thought that would do very well. He was quite willing,
+he said.
+
+So, early next morning, his goody took a scythe over her neck and went
+out into the hay-field with the mowers and began to mow; but the man was
+to mind the house, and do the work at home.
+
+First of all, he wanted to churn the butter; but when he had churned a
+while, he got thirsty, and went down to the cellar to tap a barrel of
+ale. So, just when he had knocked in the bung, and was putting the tap
+into the cask, he heard overhead the pig come into the kitchen. Then off
+he ran up the cellar steps, with the tap in his hand, as fast as he
+could, to look after the pig lest it should upset the churn; but when he
+got up, and saw the pig had already knocked the churn over, and stood
+there, rooting and grunting amongst the cream which was running all over
+the floor, he got so wild with rage that he quite forgot the ale-barrel,
+and ran at the pig as hard as he could. He caught it, too, just as it
+ran out of doors, and gave it such a kick that piggy lay for dead on the
+spot. Then all at once he remembered he had the tap in his hand; but
+when he got down to the cellar, every drop of ale had run out of the
+cask.
+
+Then he went into the dairy and found enough cream left to fill the
+churn again, and so he began to churn, for butter they must have at
+dinner. When he had churned a bit, he remembered that their milking cow
+was still shut up in the byre, and hadn't had a bit to eat or a drop to
+drink all the morning, though the sun was high. Then all at once he
+thought 'twas too far to take her down to the meadow, so he'd just get
+her up on the house-top--for the house, you must know, was thatched with
+sods, and a fine crop of grass was growing there. Now their house lay
+close up against a steep down, and he thought if he laid a plank across
+to the thatch at the back he'd easily get the cow up.
+
+But still he couldn't leave the churn, for there was his little babe
+crawling about on the floor, and "if I leave it," he thought, "the
+child is safe to upset it." So he took the churn on his back, and went
+out with it; but then he thought he'd better first water the cow before
+he turned her out on the thatch; so he took up a bucket to draw water
+out of the well; but, as he stooped down at the well's brink, all the
+cream ran out of the churn over his shoulders, and so down into the
+well.
+
+Now it was near dinner-time, and he hadn't even got the butter yet; so
+he thought he'd best boil the porridge, and filled the pot with water
+and hung it over the fire. When he had done that, he thought the cow
+might perhaps fall off the thatch and break her legs or her neck. So he
+got up on the house to tie her up. One end of the rope he made fast to
+the cow's neck, and the other he slipped down the chimney and tied round
+his own thigh; and he had to make haste, for the water now began to boil
+in the pot, and he had still to grind the oatmeal.
+
+So he began to grind away; but while he was hard at it, down fell the
+cow off the house-top after all, and as she fell, she dragged the man up
+the chimney by the rope. There he stuck fast; and as for the cow, she
+hung half way down the wall, swinging between heaven and earth, for she
+could neither get down nor up.
+
+And now the goody had waited seven lengths and seven breadths for her
+husband to come and call them home to dinner; but never a call they had.
+At last she thought she'd waited long enough, and went home. But when
+she got there and saw the cow hanging in such an ugly place, she ran up
+and cut the rope in two with her scythe. But as she did this, down came
+her husband out of the chimney; and so when his old dame came inside the
+kitchen, there she found him standing on his head in the porridge pot.
+
+
+
+171
+
+ The artistic qualities of "Boots and His
+ Brothers," from Dasent's _Popular Tales from
+ the Norse_, will impress every reader or
+ listener. It belongs to that very numerous
+ group of stories dealing with the success of
+ the youngest child in the face of opposition,
+ mistreatment, or lack of sympathy from others
+ of his family. "John was Boots, of course,
+ because he was the youngest"; which means that
+ it was the rule to give the most menial tasks
+ about the house to the youngest. But John had
+ the saving trait of always "wondering" about
+ things, which led him to find out what would
+ always be hidden from his more stupid and less
+ imaginative brothers.
+
+
+BOOTS AND HIS BROTHERS
+
+Once on a time there was a man who had three sons, Peter, Paul, and
+John. John was Boots, of course, because he was the youngest. I can't
+say the man had anything more than these three sons, for he hadn't one
+penny to rub against another; and so he told his sons over and over
+again they must go out into the world and try to earn their bread, for
+there at home there was nothing to be looked for but starving to death.
+
+Now, a bit off the man's cottage was the King's palace, and you must
+know, just against the King's windows a great oak had sprung up, which
+was so stout and big that it took away all the light from the King's
+palace. The King had said he would give many, many dollars to the man
+who could fell the oak, but no one was man enough for that, for as soon
+as ever one chip of the oak's trunk flew off, two grew in its stead. A
+well, too, the King would have dug, which was to hold water for the
+whole year; for all his neighbors had wells, but he hadn't any, and that
+he thought a shame. So the King said he would give any one who could dig
+him such a well as would hold water for a whole year round, both money
+and goods; but no one could do it, for the King's palace lay high, high
+up on a hill, and they hadn't dug a few inches before they came upon the
+living rock.
+
+But as the King had set his heart on having these two things done, he
+had it given out far and wide, in all the churches of his kingdom, that
+he who could fell the big oak in the king's court-yard, and get him a
+well that would hold water the whole year round, should have the
+Princess and half the kingdom. Well! you may easily know there was many
+a man who came to try his luck; but for all their hacking and hewing,
+and all their digging and delving, it was no good. The oak got bigger
+and stouter at every stroke, and the rock didn't get softer either. So
+one day those three brothers thought they'd set off and try too, and
+their father hadn't a word against it; for even if they didn't get the
+Princess and half the kingdom, it might happen they might get a place
+somewhere with a good master; and that was all he wanted. So when the
+brothers said they thought of going to the palace, their father said
+"yes" at once. So Peter, Paul, and Jack went off from their home.
+
+Well! they hadn't gone far before they came to a fir wood, and up along
+one side of it rose a steep hillside, and as they went, they heard
+something hewing and hacking away up on the hill among the trees.
+
+"I wonder now what it is that is hewing away up yonder?" said Jack.
+
+"You're always so clever with your wonderings," said Peter and Paul both
+at once. "What wonder is it, pray, that a woodcutter should stand and
+hack up on a hillside?"
+
+"Still, I'd like to see what it is, after all," said Jack; and up he
+went.
+
+"Oh, if you're such a child, 'twill do you good to go and take a
+lesson," bawled out his brothers after him.
+
+But Jack didn't care for what they said; he climbed the steep hillside
+towards where the noise came, and when he reached the place, what do you
+think he saw? Why, an axe that stood there hacking and hewing, all of
+itself, at the trunk of a fir.
+
+"Good day!" said Jack. "So you stand here all alone and hew, do you?"
+
+"Yes; here I've stood and hewed and hacked a long, long time, waiting
+for you," said the Axe.
+
+"Well, here I am at last," said Jack, as he took the axe, pulled it off
+its haft, and stuffed both head and haft into his wallet.
+
+So when he got down again to his brothers, they began to jeer and laugh
+at him.
+
+"And now, what funny thing was it you saw up yonder on the hillside?"
+they said.
+
+"Oh, it was only an axe we heard," said Jack.
+
+So when they had gone a bit farther, they came under a steep spur of
+rock, and up there they heard something digging and shoveling.
+
+"I wonder now," said Jack, "what it is digging and shoveling up yonder
+at the top of the rock!"
+
+"Ah, you're always so clever with your wonderings," said Peter and Paul
+again, "as if you'd never heard a woodpecker hacking and pecking at a
+hollow tree."
+
+"Well, well," said Jack, "I think it would be a piece of fun just to see
+what it really is."
+
+And so off he set to climb the rock, while the others laughed and made
+game of him. But he didn't care a bit for that; up he climbed, and when
+he got near the top, what do you think he saw? Why, a spade that stood
+there digging and delving.
+
+"Good day!" said Jack. "So you stand here all alone, and dig and delve!"
+
+"Yes, that's what I do," said the Spade, "and that's what I've done this
+many a long day, waiting for you."
+
+"Well, here I am," said Jack again, as he took the spade and knocked it
+off its handle, and put it into his wallet, and then down again to his
+brothers.
+
+"Well, what was it, so rare and strange," said Peter and Paul, "that you
+saw up there at the top of the rock?"
+
+"Oh," said Jack, "nothing more than a spade; that was what we heard."
+
+So they went on again a good bit, till they came to a brook. They were
+thirsty, all three, after their long walk, and so they lay down beside
+the brook to have a drink.
+
+"I wonder now," said Jack, "where all this water comes from!"
+
+"I wonder if you're right in your head," said Peter and Paul, in one
+breath. "If you're not mad already, you'll go mad very soon, with your
+wonderings. Where the brook comes from, indeed! Have you never heard how
+water rises from a spring in the earth?"
+
+"Yes! but still I've a great fancy to see where this brook comes from,"
+said Jack.
+
+So up alongside the brook he went, in spite of all that his brothers
+bawled after him. Nothing could stop him. On he went. So, as he went up
+and up, the brook got smaller and smaller, and at last, a little way
+farther on, what do you think he saw? Why, a great walnut, and out of
+that the water trickled.
+
+"Good day!" said Jack again. "So you lie here, and trickle and run down
+all alone?"
+
+"Yes, I do," said the Walnut, "and here have I trickled and run this
+many a long day, waiting for you."
+
+"Well, here I am," said Jack, as he took up a lump of moss, and plugged
+up the hole, that the water mightn't run out. Then he put the walnut
+into his wallet, and ran down to his brothers.
+
+"Well, now," said Peter and Paul, "have you found out where the water
+comes from? A rare sight it must have been!"
+
+"Oh, after all, it was only a hole it ran out of," said Jack; and so the
+others laughed and made game of him again, but Jack didn't mind that a
+bit.
+
+"After all, I had the fun of seeing it," said he.
+
+So when they had gone a bit farther, they came to the King's palace; but
+as every one in the kingdom had heard how they might win the Princess
+and half the realm, if they could only fell the big oak and dig the
+King's well, so many had come to try their luck that the oak was now
+twice as stout and big as it had been at first, for two chips grew for
+every one they hewed out with their axes, as I dare say you all bear in
+mind. So the King had now laid it down as a punishment, that if any one
+tried and couldn't fell the oak, he should be put on a barren island,
+and both his ears were to be clipped off. But the two brothers didn't
+let themselves be scared by that; they were quite sure they could fell
+the oak, and Peter, as he was eldest, was to try his hand first; but it
+went with him as with all the rest who had hewn at the oak; for every
+chip he cut out, two grew in its place. So the King's men seized him,
+and clipped off both his ears, and put him out on the island.
+
+Now Paul, he was to try his luck, but he fared just the same; when he
+had hewn two or three strokes, they began to see the oak grow, and so
+the King's men seized him too, and clipped his ears, and put him out on
+the island; and his ears they clipped closer, because they said he ought
+to have taken a lesson from his brother.
+
+So now Jack was to try.
+
+"If you _will_ look like a marked sheep, we're quite ready to clip your
+ears at once, and then you'll save yourself some bother," said the King,
+for he was angry with him for his brothers' sake.
+
+"Well, I'd like just to try first," said Jack, and so he got leave. Then
+he took his axe out of his wallet and fitted it to its haft.
+
+"Hew away!" said he to his axe; and away it hewed, making the chips fly
+again, so that it wasn't long before down came the oak.
+
+When that was done, Jack pulled out his spade, and fitted it to its
+handle.
+
+"Dig away!" said he to the spade; and so the spade began to dig and
+delve till the earth and rock flew out in splinters, and so he had the
+well soon dug out, you may think.
+
+And when he had got it as big and deep as he chose, Jack took out his
+walnut and laid it in one corner of the well, and pulled the plug of
+moss out.
+
+"Trickle and run," said Jack; and so the nut trickled and ran, till the
+water gushed out of the hole in a stream, and in a short time the well
+was brimful.
+
+Then Jack had felled the oak which shaded the King's palace, and dug a
+well in the palace-yard, and so he got the Princess and half the
+kingdom, as the King had said; but it was lucky for Peter and Paul that
+they had lost their ears, else they had heard each hour and day how
+every one said, "Well, after all, Jack wasn't so much out of his mind
+when he took to wondering."
+
+
+
+172
+
+ For the next story from the Norse group the
+ translation by H. L. Braekstad is used. It is
+ better known under the more familiar title of
+ the Dasent version, "Why the Sea Is Salt."
+ Braekstad's translation of the Asbjoernsen and
+ Moe stories, illustrated by Norwegian artists,
+ appeared in two volumes called _Round the Yule
+ Log_ and _Fairy Tales from the North_. The
+ story of the magic hand-mill is the story of
+ how an evil brother violated the Christmas
+ spirit and how his curse was turned into good
+ fortune for his better-disposed relative. The
+ naive idea of the common folk as to the devil's
+ home is especially interesting, as is the
+ acceptance of the fact that a Christmas
+ celebration includes a fine open fire of wood,
+ even in a place of unusual warmth. But perhaps
+ we should remember that in Norse mythology the
+ evil place would be associated with intense
+ cold. Of more importance, however, is the fact
+ that the magic quern brings not good but
+ disaster to those who try to use it in the
+ service of greed.
+
+
+THE QUERN AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
+
+Once upon a time in the old, old days there were two brothers, one of
+whom was rich and the other poor. When Christmas Eve came the poor
+brother had not a morsel in the house, neither of meat nor bread; and so
+he went to his rich brother and asked for a trifle for Christmas, in
+heaven's name. It was not the first time the brother had helped him, but
+he was always very close-fisted, and was not particularly glad to see
+him this time.
+
+"If you'll do what I tell you, you shall have a whole ham," he said. The
+poor brother promised he would, and was very grateful into the bargain.
+
+"There it is, and now go to the devil!" said the rich brother, and threw
+the ham across to him.
+
+"Well, what I have promised I must keep," said the other one. He took
+the ham, and set out. He walked and walked the whole day, and as it was
+getting dark he came to a place where the lights were shining brightly.
+"This is most likely the place," thought the man with the ham.
+
+In the woodshed stood an old man with a long white beard, cutting
+fire-wood for Christmas.
+
+"Good evening," said he with the ham.
+
+"Good evening to you," said the man. "Where are you going so late?"
+
+"I am going to the devil--that is to say, if I am on the right way,"
+answered the poor man.
+
+"Yes, you are quite right; this is his place," said the old man. "When
+you get in, they will all want to buy your ham, for ham is scarce food
+here; but you must not sell it unless you get the hand-quern, which
+stands just behind the door. When you come out again, I'll teach you how
+to use it. You will find it useful in many ways."
+
+The man with the ham thanked him for all the information, and knocked at
+the door.
+
+When he got in, it happened just as the old man had said. All the imps,
+both big and small, flocked around him like ants in a field, and the one
+outbid the other for the ham.
+
+"Well," said the man, "my good woman and I were to have it for Christmas
+Eve, but since you want it so badly I will let you have it. But if I am
+going to part with it, I want that hand-quern which stands behind the
+door."
+
+The devil did not like to part with it, and higgled and haggled with the
+man, but he stuck to what he had said, and in the end the devil had to
+part with the quern.
+
+When the man came out, he asked the old wood-cutter how he was to use
+the quern, and when he had learned this, he thanked the old man and set
+out homewards as quickly as he could; but after all he did not get home
+till the clock struck twelve on Christmas Eve.
+
+"Where in all the world have you been?" said his wife. "Here have I been
+sitting, hour after hour, waiting and watching for you, and have not had
+as much as two chips to lay under the porridge pot."
+
+"Well, I couldn't get back before," said the man. "I have had a good
+many things to look after, and I've had a long way to walk as well; but
+now I'll show you something," said he, and put the quern on the table.
+He asked it first to grind candles, then a cloth, and then food and
+beer, and everything else that was good for Christmas cheer; and as he
+spoke the quern brought them forth. The woman crossed herself time after
+time and wanted to know where her husband had got the quern from; but
+this he would not tell her.
+
+"It does not matter where I got it from; you see the quern is good and
+the mill stream is not likely to freeze," said the man. So he ground
+food and drink and all good things during Christmas; and the third day
+he invited his friends, as he wanted to give them a feast. When the rich
+brother saw all that was in the house, he became both angry and furious,
+for he begrudged his brother everything.
+
+"On Christmas Eve he was so needy that he came to me and asked for a
+trifle in heaven's name; and now he gives a feast, as if he were both a
+count and a king," said the brother. "Where did you get all your riches
+from?" he said to his brother.
+
+"From just behind the door," he answered, for he did not care to tell
+his brother much about it. But later in the evening, when he had drunk a
+little freely, he could no longer resist, but brought out the quern.
+
+"There you see that which has brought me all my riches," he said, and so
+he let the quern grind first one thing and then another.
+
+When the brother saw this, he was determined to have the quern at all
+cost, and at last it was settled he should have it, but three hundred
+dollars was to be the price of it. The brother was, however, to keep it
+till the harvest began; "for if I keep it so long, I can grind out food
+for many years to come," he thought.
+
+During that time you may be sure the quern did not rust, and when the
+harvest began the rich brother got it; but the other had taken great
+care not to show him how to use it.
+
+It was evening when the rich brother got the quern home, and in the
+morning he asked his wife to go out and help the haymakers; he would get
+the breakfast ready himself to-day, he said.
+
+When it was near breakfast time he put the quern on the breakfast table.
+
+"Grind herrings and broth, and do it quickly and well," said the man,
+and the quern began to bring forth herrings and broth, and filled first
+all the dishes and tubs, and afterwards began flooding the whole
+kitchen.
+
+The man fiddled and fumbled and tried to stop the quern, but however
+much he twisted and fingered it, the quern went on grinding, and in a
+little while the broth reached so high that the man was very near
+drowning. He then pulled open the parlor door, but it was not long
+before the quern had filled the parlor also, and it was just in the very
+nick of time that the man put his hand down into the broth and got hold
+of the latch, and when he had got the door open, he was soon out of the
+parlor, you may be sure. He rushed out, and the herrings and the broth
+came pouring out after him, like a stream, down the fields and meadows.
+
+The wife, who was out haymaking, now thought it took too long a time to
+get the breakfast ready.
+
+"If my husband doesn't call us soon, we must go home whether or no: I
+don't suppose he knows much about making broth, so I must go and help
+him," said the wife to the haymakers.
+
+They began walking homewards, but when they had got a bit up the hill
+they met the stream of broth with the herrings tossing about in it and
+the man himself running in front of it all.
+
+"I wish all of you had a hundred stomachs each!" shouted the man; "but
+take care you don't get drowned." And he rushed past them as if the Evil
+One was at his heels, down to where his brother lived. He asked him for
+heaven's sake to take back the quern, and that at once. "If it goes on
+grinding another hour the whole parish will perish in broth and
+herrings," he said. But the brother would not take it back on any
+account before his brother had paid him three hundred dollars more, and
+this he had to do. The poor brother now had plenty of money, and before
+long he bought a farm much grander than the one on which his rich
+brother lived, and with the quern he ground so much gold that he covered
+the farmstead with gold plates and, as it lay close to the shore, it
+glittered and shone far out at sea. All those who sailed past wanted to
+call and visit the rich man in the golden house, and everybody wanted to
+see the wonderful quern, for its fame had spread both far and wide, and
+there was no one who had not heard it spoken of.
+
+After a long while there came a skipper who wanted to see the quern; he
+asked if it could grind salt. Yes, that it could, said he who owned it;
+and when the skipper heard this he wanted the quern by hook or by crook,
+cost what it might, for if he had it he thought he need not sail far
+away across dangerous seas for cargoes of salt.
+
+At first the man did not want to part with it, but the skipper both
+begged and prayed, and at last he sold it and got many, many thousand
+dollars for it.
+
+As soon as the skipper had got the quern on his back he did not stop
+long, for he was afraid the man would change his mind, and as for asking
+how to use it, he had no time to do that; he made for his ship as
+quickly as he could, and when he had got out to sea a bit he had the
+quern brought up on deck.
+
+"Grind salt, and that both quickly and well," said the skipper, and the
+quern began to grind out salt so that it spurted to all sides.
+
+When the skipper had got the ship filled he wanted to stop the quern,
+but however much he tried and whatever he did the quern went on
+grinding, and the mound of salt grew higher and higher, and at last the
+ship sank.
+
+There at the bottom of the sea stands the quern grinding till this very
+day, and that is the reason why the sea is salt.
+
+
+
+173
+
+ The next seven stories are from the best known
+ of all collections of folk tales, the _Kinder
+ und Hausmaerchen_ (1812-1815) of the brothers
+ Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm
+ (1786-1859). They worked together as scholarly
+ investigators in the field of philology. The
+ world is indebted to them for the creation of
+ the science of folklore. Other writers, such as
+ Perrault, had published collections of
+ folklore, but these two brothers were the first
+ to collect, classify, and publish folk tales in
+ a scientific way. With the trained judgment of
+ scholars they excluded from the stories all
+ details that seemed new or foreign, and put
+ them as nearly as possible into the form in
+ which they had been told by the folk. These
+ _Household Tales_ were first made accessible in
+ English in the translation of Edgar Taylor,
+ published in two volumes in 1823 and 1826, and
+ revised in 1837. There have been later
+ translations, notably the complete one by
+ Margaret Hunt in 1884, but the Taylor version
+ has been the main source of the popular
+ retellings for nearly a hundred years. It
+ included only about fifty of the two hundred
+ tales, and was illustrated by the famous artist
+ George Cruikshank. An edition including all the
+ Taylor translations and the original etchings
+ was issued in 1868 with an introduction by John
+ Ruskin. It is still reprinted under the title,
+ _Grimm's Popular Stories_.
+
+ "The Traveling Musicians" is from the Taylor
+ translation. It is sometimes called "The Bremen
+ Town Musicians," or simply "The Town
+ Musicians." The story is widespread, showing
+ its great popularity. Jacobs finds "the fullest
+ and most dramatic form" in the Irish "Jack and
+ His Comrades," which he includes in his _Celtic
+ Fairy Tales_. Jacobs also gives an English
+ version by way of America, "How Jack Sought His
+ Fortune," in his _English Fairy Tales_. The
+ successful outcome for these distressed and
+ deserving poor adventurers appeals as a fine
+ stroke of poetic justice.
+
+
+THE TRAVELING MUSICIANS
+
+An honest farmer had once an ass that had been a faithful servant to him
+a great many years, but was now growing old and every day more and more
+unfit for work. His master therefore was tired of keeping him and began
+to think of putting an end to him; but the ass, who saw that some
+mischief was in the wind, took himself slyly off and began his journey
+towards the great city, "for there," thought he, "I may turn musician."
+
+After he had traveled a little way, he spied a dog lying by the
+road-side and panting as if he were very tired. "What makes you pant so,
+my friend?" said the ass.
+
+"Alas!" said the dog, "my master was going to knock me on the head
+because I am old and weak and can no longer make myself useful to him in
+hunting; so I ran away: but what can I do to earn my livelihood?"
+
+"Hark ye!" said the ass, "I am going to the great city to turn musician:
+suppose you go with me and try what you can do in the same way?" The dog
+said he was willing, and they jogged on together.
+
+Before they had gone far, they saw a cat sitting in the middle of the
+road and making a most rueful face. "Pray, my good lady," said the ass,
+"what's the matter with you? You look quite out of spirits!"
+
+"Ah, me!" said the cat, "how can one be in good spirits when one's life
+is in danger? Because I am beginning to grow old and had rather lie at
+my ease by the fire than run about the house after the mice, my mistress
+laid hold of me and was going to drown me; and though I have been lucky
+enough to get away from her, I do not know what I am to live upon."
+
+"Oh!" said the ass, "by all means go with us to the great city. You are
+a good night-singer and may make your fortune as a musician." The cat
+was pleased with the thought and joined the party.
+
+Soon afterwards, as they were passing by a farmyard, they saw a cock
+perched upon a gate, screaming out with all his might and main. "Bravo!"
+said the ass; "upon my word you make a famous noise; pray what is all
+this about?"
+
+"Why," said the cock, "I was just now saying that we should have fine
+weather for our washing-day, and yet my mistress and the cook don't
+thank me for my pains, but threaten to cut off my head tomorrow and make
+broth of me for the guests that are coming on Sunday."
+
+"Heaven forbid!" said the ass; "come with us, Master Chanticleer; it
+will be better, at any rate, than staying here to have your head cut
+off! Besides, who knows? If we take care to sing in tune, we may get up
+some kind of a concert: so come along with us."
+
+"With all my heart," said the cock: so they all four went on jollily
+together.
+
+They could not, however, reach the great city the first day: so when
+night came on they went into a wood to sleep. The ass and the dog laid
+themselves down under a great tree, and the cat climbed up into the
+branches; while the cock, thinking that the higher he sat the safer he
+should be, flew up to the very top of the tree, and then, according to
+his custom, before he went to sleep, looked out on all sides of him to
+see that everything was well. In doing this, he saw afar off something
+bright and shining; and calling to his companions said, "There must be a
+house no great way off, for I see a light."
+
+"If that be the case," said the ass, "we had better change our quarters,
+for our lodging is not the best in the world!"
+
+"Besides," added the dog, "I should not be the worse for a bone or two,
+or a bit of meat." So they walked off together towards the spot where
+Chanticleer had seen the light; and as they drew near, it became larger
+and brighter, till they at last came close to a house in which a gang of
+robbers lived.
+
+The ass, being the tallest of the company, marched up to the window and
+peeped in. "Well, Donkey," said Chanticleer, "what do you see?"
+
+"What do I see?" replied the ass, "why I see a table spread with all
+kinds of good things, and robbers sitting round it making merry."
+
+"That would be a noble lodging for us," said the cock.
+
+"Yes," said the ass, "if we could only get in": so they consulted
+together how they should contrive to get the robbers out; and at last
+they hit upon a plan. The ass placed himself upright on his hind-legs,
+with his fore-feet resting against the window; the dog got upon his
+back; the cat scrambled up to the dog's shoulders, and the cock flew up
+and sat upon the cat's head. When all was ready, a signal was given, and
+they began their music. The ass brayed, the dog barked, the cat mewed,
+and the cock screamed; and then they all broke through the window at
+once and came tumbling into the room, amongst the broken glass, with a
+most hideous clatter! The robbers, who had been not a little frightened
+by the opening concert, had now no doubt that some frightful hobgoblin
+had broken in upon them, and scampered away as fast as they could.
+
+The coast once clear, our travelers soon sat down and dispatched what
+the robbers had left, with as much eagerness as if they had not expected
+to eat again for a month. As soon as they had satisfied themselves, they
+put out the lights and each once more sought out a resting-place to his
+own liking. The donkey laid himself down upon a heap of straw in the
+yard; the dog stretched himself upon a mat behind the door; the cat
+rolled herself up on the hearth before the warm ashes; and the cock
+perched upon a beam on the top of the house; and, as they were all
+rather tired with their journey, they soon fell asleep.
+
+But about midnight, when the robbers saw from afar that the lights were
+out and that all seemed quiet, they began to think that they had been in
+too great a hurry to run away; and one of them, who was bolder than the
+rest, went to see what was going on. Finding everything still, he
+marched into the kitchen and groped about till he found a match in order
+to light a candle; and then, espying the glittering fiery eyes of the
+cat, he mistook them for live coals and held the match to them to light
+it. But the cat, not understanding this joke, sprung at his face, and
+spit, and scratched at him. This frightened him dreadfully, and away he
+ran to the back door; but there the dog jumped up and bit him in the
+leg; and as he was crossing over the yard the ass kicked him; and the
+cock, who had been awakened by the noise, crowed with all his might. At
+this the robber ran back as fast as he could to his comrades and told
+the captain "how a horrid witch had got into the house, and had spit at
+him and scratched his face with her long bony fingers; how a man with a
+knife in his hand had hidden himself behind the door and stabbed him in
+the leg; how a black monster stood in the yard and struck him with a
+club, and how the devil sat upon the top of the house and cried out,
+'Throw the rascal up here!'"
+
+After this the robbers never dared to go back to the house; but the
+musicians were so pleased with their quarters that they took up their
+abode there; and there they are, I dare say, at this very day.
+
+
+
+174
+
+ The Taylor translation of Grimm is used for
+ "The Blue Light." This tale contains several of
+ the elements most popular in children's
+ stories. There is merit in distress, an old
+ witch, the magic blue light, the little black
+ dwarf, and the exceeding great reward at the
+ end. From this very story or some variant of it
+ Hans Christian Andersen must have drawn the
+ inspiration for "The Tinder Box" (No. 196).
+
+
+THE BLUE LIGHT
+
+A soldier had served a king his master many years, till at last he was
+turned off without pay or reward. How he should get his living he did
+not know; so he set out and journeyed homeward all day in a very
+downcast mood, until in the evening he came to the edge of a deep wood.
+The road leading that way, he pushed forward; but before he had gone
+far, he saw a light glimmering through the trees, towards which he bent
+his weary steps; and soon he came to a hut where no one lived but an old
+witch. The poor fellow begged for a night's lodging and something to eat
+and drink; but she would listen to nothing. However, he was not easily
+got rid of; and at last she said, "I think I will take pity on you this
+once; but if I do, you must dig over all my garden for me in the
+morning." The soldier agreed very willingly to anything she asked, and
+he became her guest.
+
+The next day he kept his word and dug the garden very neatly. The job
+lasted all day; and in the evening, when his mistress would have sent
+him away, he said, "I am so tired with my work that I must beg you to
+let me stay over the night."
+
+The old lady vowed at first she would not do any such thing; but after a
+great deal of talk he carried his point, agreeing to chop up a whole
+cart-load of wood for her the next day.
+
+This task too was duly ended; but not till towards night, and then he
+found himself so tired that he begged a third night's rest; and this too
+was given, but only on his pledging his word that he next day would
+fetch the witch the blue light that burnt at the bottom of the well.
+
+When morning came she led him to the well's mouth, tied him to a long
+rope, and let him down. At the bottom sure enough he found the blue
+light as the witch had said, and at once made the signal for her to draw
+him up again. But when she had pulled him up so near to the top that she
+could reach him with her hands, she said, "Give me the light: I will
+take care of it,"--meaning to play him a trick by taking it for herself
+and letting him fall again to the bottom of the well.
+
+But the soldier saw through her wicked thoughts, and said, "No, I shall
+not give you the light till I find myself safe and sound out of the
+well."
+
+At this she became very angry and dashed him, with the light she had
+longed for many a year, down to the bottom. And there lay the poor
+soldier for a while in despair, on the damp mud below, and feared that
+his end was nigh. But his pipe happened to be in his pocket still half
+full, and he thought to himself, "I may as well make an end of smoking
+you out; it is the last pleasure I shall have in this world." So he lit
+it at the blue light and began to smoke.
+
+Up rose a cloud of smoke, and on a sudden a little black dwarf was seen
+making his way through the midst of it. "What do you want with me,
+soldier?" said he.
+
+"I have no business with you," answered he.
+
+But the dwarf said, "I am bound to serve you in every thing, as lord and
+master of the blue light."
+
+"Then first of all, be so good as to help me out of this well." No
+sooner said than done: the dwarf took him by the hand and drew him up,
+and the blue light of course with him. "Now do me another piece of
+kindness," said the soldier: "pray let that old lady take my place in
+the well."
+
+When the dwarf had done this, and lodged the witch safely at the bottom,
+they began to ransack her treasures; and the soldier made bold to carry
+off as much of her gold and silver as he well could. Then the dwarf
+said, "If you should chance at any time to want me, you have nothing to
+do but to light your pipe at the blue light, and I will soon be with
+you."
+
+The soldier was not a little pleased at his good luck, and went to the
+best inn in the first town he came to and ordered some fine clothes to
+be made and a handsome room to be got ready for him. When all was ready,
+he called his little man to him and said, "The king sent me away
+penniless and left me to hunger and want. I have a mind to show him that
+it is my turn to be master now; so bring me his daughter here this
+evening, that she may wait upon me and do what I bid her."
+
+"That is rather a dangerous task," said the dwarf. But away he went,
+took the princess out of her bed, fast asleep as she was, and brought
+her to the soldier.
+
+Very early in the morning he carried her back; and as soon as she saw
+her father, she said, "I had a strange dream last night. I thought I was
+carried away through the air to a soldier's house, and there I waited
+upon him as his servant." Then the king wondered greatly at such a
+story; but told her to make a hole in her pocket and fill it with peas,
+so that if it were really as she said, and the whole was not a dream,
+the peas might fall out in the streets as she passed through, and leave
+a clue to tell whither she had been taken. She did so; but the dwarf had
+heard the king's plot; and when evening came, and the soldier said he
+must bring him the princess again, he strewed peas over several of the
+streets, so that the few that fell from her pocket were not known from
+the others; and the people amused themselves all the next day picking up
+peas and wondering where so many came from.
+
+When the princess told her father what had happened to her the second
+time, he said, "Take one of your shoes with you and hide it in the room
+you are taken to."
+
+The dwarf heard this also; and when the soldier told him to bring the
+king's daughter again, he said, "I cannot save you this time; it will be
+an unlucky thing for you if you are found out--as I think you will." But
+the soldier would have his own way. "Then you must take care and make
+the best of your way out of the city gate very early in the morning,"
+said the dwarf.
+
+The princess kept one shoe on as her father bid her, and hid it in the
+soldier's room; and when she got back to her father, he ordered it to be
+sought for all over the town; and at last it was found where she had hid
+it. The soldier had run away, it is true; but he had been too slow and
+was soon caught and thrown into a strong prison and loaded with chains.
+What was worse, in the hurry of his flight, he had left behind him his
+great treasure, the blue light, and all his gold, and had nothing left
+in his pocket but one poor ducat.
+
+As he was standing very sorrowful at the prison grating, he saw one of
+his comrades, and calling out to him said, "If you will bring me a
+little bundle I left in the inn, I will give you a ducat."
+
+His comrade thought this very good pay for such a job; so he went away
+and soon came back bringing the blue light and the gold. Then the
+prisoner soon lit his pipe. Up rose the smoke, and with it came his old
+friend, the little dwarf. "Do not fear, master," said he: "keep up your
+heart at your trial and leave everything to take its course;--only mind
+to take the blue light with you."
+
+The trial soon came on; the matter was sifted to the bottom; the
+prisoner found guilty, and his doom passed:--he was ordered to be hanged
+forthwith on the gallows-tree.
+
+But as he was led out, he said he had one favor to beg of the king.
+"What is it?" said his majesty.
+
+"That you will deign to let me smoke one pipe on the road."
+
+"Two, if you like," said the king.
+
+Then he lit his pipe at the blue light, and the black dwarf was before
+him in a moment. "Be so good as to kill, slay, or put to flight all
+these people," said the soldier: "and as for the king, you may cut him
+into three pieces."
+
+Then the dwarf began to lay about him, and soon got rid of the crowd
+around: but the king begged hard for mercy; and, to save his life,
+agreed to let the soldier have the princess for his wife and to leave
+the kingdom to him when he died.
+
+
+
+175
+
+ The following tale is from Taylor's translation
+ of Grimm. The cheerful industry and the kindly
+ gratitude of the shoemaker and his wife,
+ together with the gayety of the little elves,
+ make the story altogether charming. No doubt
+ its popularity was helped by Cruikshank's
+ famous accompanying etching, showing the scene
+ at the close, in which the two elves "are drawn
+ with a point at once so precise and vivacious,
+ so full of keen fun and inimitably happy
+ invention, that I have not found their equal in
+ comic etching anywhere. . . . The picturesque
+ details of the room are etched with the same
+ felicitous intelligence; but the marvel of the
+ work is in the expression of the strange little
+ faces, and the energy of the comical wee
+ limbs." (Hamerton, _Etching and Etchers_.)
+
+
+THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER
+
+There was once a shoemaker who worked very hard and was very honest; but
+still he could not earn enough to live upon, and at last all he had in
+the world was gone, except just leather enough to make one pair of
+shoes. Then he cut them all ready to make up the next day, meaning to
+get up early in the morning to work. His conscience was clear and his
+heart light amidst all his troubles; so he went peaceably to bed, left
+all his cares to heaven, and fell asleep. In the morning, after he had
+said his prayers, he set himself down to his work, but to his great
+wonder, there stood the shoes, all ready made, upon the table. The good
+man knew not what to say or think of this strange event. He looked at
+the workmanship: there was not one false stitch in the whole job, and
+all was so neat and true that it was a complete masterpiece.
+
+That same day a customer came in, and the shoes pleased him so well that
+he willingly paid a price higher than usual for them; and the poor
+shoemaker with the money bought leather enough to make two pairs more.
+In the evening he cut out the work and went to bed early that he might
+get up and begin betimes next day: but he was saved all the trouble, for
+when he got up in the morning the work was finished ready to his hand.
+Presently in came buyers, who paid him handsomely for his goods, so that
+he bought leather enough for four pairs more. He cut out the work again
+over night, and found it finished in the morning as before; and so it
+went on for some time: what was got ready in the evening was always done
+by daybreak, and the good man soon became thriving and prosperous again.
+
+One evening about Christmas time, as he and his wife were sitting over
+the fire chatting together, he said to her, "I should like to sit up and
+watch to-night, that we may see who it is that comes and does my work
+for me." The wife liked the thought; so they left a light burning and
+hid themselves in the corner of the room behind a curtain that was hung
+up there, and watched what should happen.
+
+As soon as it was midnight, there came two little naked dwarfs; and they
+sat themselves upon the shoemaker's bench, took up all the work that was
+cut out, and began to ply with their little fingers, stitching and
+rapping and tapping away at such a rate that the shoemaker was all
+amazement and could not take his eyes off for a moment. And on they went
+till the job was quite finished, and the shoes stood ready for use upon
+the table. This was long before daybreak; and then they bustled away as
+quick as lightning.
+
+The next day the wife said to the shoemaker, "These little wights have
+made us rich, and we ought to be thankful to them and do them a good
+office in return. I am quite vexed to see them run about as they do;
+they have nothing upon their backs to keep off the cold. I'll tell you
+what, I will make each of them a shirt, and a coat and waistcoat, and a
+pair of pantaloons into the bargain; do you make each of them a little
+pair of shoes."
+
+The thought pleased the good shoemaker very much; and one evening, when
+all the things were ready, they laid them on the table instead of the
+work that they used to cut out, and then went and hid themselves to
+watch what the little elves would do. About midnight they came in and
+were going to sit down to their work as usual; but when they saw the
+clothes lying for them, they laughed and were greatly delighted. Then
+they dressed themselves in the twinkling of an eye, and danced and
+capered and sprang about as merry as could be, till at last they danced
+out at the door and over the green; and the shoemaker saw them no more;
+but everything went well with him from that time forward, as long as he
+lived.
+
+
+
+176
+
+ In a note regarding "The Fisherman and His
+ Wife," Taylor calls attention to the
+ interesting fact that this tale became a great
+ favorite after the battle of Waterloo "during
+ the fervor of popular feeling on the downfall
+ of the late Emperor of France." The catastrophe
+ attendant upon Napoleon's ambitious efforts
+ seemed to the popular mind to be paralleled by
+ the penalty following the final wish of the
+ wife "to be like unto God." But observe that
+ Taylor, unlike more recent translators, felt
+ under the necessity of softening "the boldness
+ of the lady's ambition." The versions of the
+ verse charm used in summoning the fish differ
+ strikingly in the various translations. That of
+ Taylor's first edition, used here, seems to fit
+ the story better than any other, though tellers
+ of the story may, properly enough, not agree.
+ Taylor's revised version of 1837 reads:
+
+ "O man of the sea!
+ Hearken to me!
+ My wife Ilsabill
+ Will have her own will,
+ And hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!"
+
+ Mrs. Hunt's version runs:
+
+ "Flounder, flounder in the sea,
+ Come, I pray thee, come to me;
+ For my wife, good Ilsabil,
+ Wills not as I'd have her will."
+
+ The moral of the story is plain for those who
+ need it: Greed overreaches itself. Who grasps
+ too much loses all. Don't ride a free horse to
+ death.
+
+
+THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE
+
+There was once a fisherman who lived with his wife in a ditch, close by
+the sea-side. The fisherman used to go out all day long a-fishing; and
+one day, as he sat on the shore with his rod, looking at the shining
+water and watching his line, all on a sudden his float was dragged away
+deep under the sea: and in drawing it up he pulled a great fish out of
+the water. The fish said to him, "Pray let me live: I am not a real
+fish; I am an enchanted prince. Put me in the water again, and let me
+go."
+
+"Oh!" said the man, "you need not make so many words about the matter. I
+wish to have nothing to do with a fish that can talk; so swim away as
+soon as you please." Then he put him back into the water, and the fish
+darted straight down to the bottom and left a long streak of blood
+behind him.
+
+When the fisherman went home to his wife in the ditch, he told her how
+he had caught a great fish, and how it had told him it was an enchanted
+prince, and that on hearing it speak he had let it go again.
+
+"Did you not ask it for anything?" said the wife.
+
+"No," said the man, "what should I ask for?"
+
+"Ah!" said the wife, "we live very wretchedly here in this nasty
+stinking ditch. Do go back, and tell the fish we want a little cottage."
+
+The fisherman did not much like the business; however he went to the
+sea, and when he came there the water looked all yellow and green. And
+he stood at the water's edge, and said,
+
+ "O man of the sea!
+ Come listen to me,
+ For Alice my wife,
+ The plague of my life,
+ Hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!"
+
+Then the fish came swimming to him, and said, "Well, what does she
+want?"
+
+"Ah!" answered the fisherman, "my wife says that when I had caught you,
+I ought to have asked you for something before I let you go again. She
+does not like living any longer in the ditch, and wants a little
+cottage."
+
+"Go home, then," said the fish. "She is in the cottage already."
+
+So the man went home and saw his wife standing at the door of a cottage.
+"Come in, come in," said she; "is not this much better than the ditch?"
+And there was a parlor, and a bed-chamber, and a kitchen; and behind the
+cottage there was a little garden with all sorts of flowers and fruits,
+and a court-yard full of ducks and chickens.
+
+"Ah!" said the fisherman, "how happily we shall live!"
+
+"We will try to do so at least," said his wife.
+
+Everything went right for a week or two, and then Dame Alice said,
+"Husband, there is not room enough in this cottage; the court-yard and
+garden are a great deal too small. I should like to have a large stone
+castle to live in; so go to the fish again, and tell him to give us a
+castle."
+
+"Wife," said the fisherman, "I don't like to go to him again, for
+perhaps he will be angry. We ought to be content with the cottage."
+
+"Nonsense!" said the wife; "he will do it very willingly. Go along, and
+try."
+
+The fisherman went; but his heart was very heavy: and when he came to
+the sea, it looked blue and gloomy, though it was quite calm, and he
+went close to it and said,
+
+ "O man of the sea!
+ Come listen to me,
+ For Alice my wife,
+ The plague of my life,
+ Hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!"
+
+"Well, what does she want now?" said the fish.
+
+"Ah!" said the man very sorrowfully, "my wife wants to live in a stone
+castle."
+
+"Go home then," said the fish. "She is standing at the door of it
+already." So away went the fisherman and found his wife standing before
+a great castle.
+
+"See," said she, "is not this grand?" With that they went into the
+castle together and found a great many servants there and the rooms all
+richly furnished and full of golden chairs and tables; and behind the
+castle was a garden, and a wood half a mile long, full of sheep, and
+goats, and hares, and deer; and in the court-yard were stables and
+cow-houses.
+
+"Well," said the man, "now will we live contented and happy in this
+beautiful castle for the rest of our lives."
+
+"Perhaps we may," said the wife; "but let us consider and sleep upon it
+before we make up our minds": so they went to bed.
+
+The next morning when Dame Alice awoke, it was broad daylight, and she
+jogged the fisherman with her elbow and said, "Get up, husband, and
+bestir yourself, for we must be king of all the land."
+
+"Wife, wife," said the man, "why should we wish to be king? I will not
+be king."
+
+"Then I will," said Alice.
+
+"But, wife," answered the fisherman, "how can you be king? The fish
+cannot make you a king."
+
+"Husband," said she, "say no more about it, but go and try. I will be
+king!"
+
+So the man went away, quite sorrowful to think that his wife should want
+to be king. The sea looked a dark grey color, and was covered with foam
+as he cried out,
+
+ "O man of the sea!
+ Come listen to me,
+ For Alice my wife,
+ The plague of my life,
+ Hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!"
+
+"Well, what would she have now?" said the fish.
+
+"Alas!" said the man, "my wife wants to be king."
+
+"Go home," said the fish. "She is king already."
+
+Then the fisherman went home; and as he came close to the palace, he saw
+a troop of soldiers and heard the sound of drums and trumpets; and when
+he entered in, he saw his wife sitting on a high throne of gold and
+diamonds, with a golden crown upon her head; and on each side of her
+stood six beautiful maidens, each a head taller than the other. "Well,
+wife," said the fisherman, "are you king?"
+
+"Yes," said she, "I am king."
+
+And when he had looked at her for a long time, he said, "Ah, wife! what
+a fine thing it is to be king! Now we shall never have anything more to
+wish for."
+
+"I don't know how that may be," said she; "never is a long time. I am
+king, 'tis true, but I begin to be tired of it, and I think I should
+like to be emperor."
+
+"Alas, wife! why should you wish to be emperor?" said the fisherman.
+
+"Husband," said she, "go to the fish; I say I will be emperor."
+
+"Ah, wife!" replied the fisherman, "the fish cannot make an emperor, and
+I should not like to ask for such a thing."
+
+"I am king," said Alice, "and you are my slave, so go directly!"
+
+So the fisherman was obliged to go; and he muttered as he went along,
+"This will come to no good. It is too much to ask. The fish will be
+tired at last, and then we shall repent of what we have done." He soon
+arrived at the sea, and the water was quite black and muddy, and a
+mighty whirlwind blew over it; but he went to the shore, and said,
+
+ "O man of the sea!
+ Come listen to me,
+ For Alice my wife,
+ The plague of my life,
+ Hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!"
+
+"What would she have now!" said the fish.
+
+"Ah!" said the fisherman, "she wants to be emperor."
+
+"Go home," said the fish. "She is emperor already."
+
+So he went home again; and as he came near he saw his wife sitting on a
+very lofty throne made of solid gold, with a great crown on her head
+full two yards high, and on each side of her stood her guards and
+attendants in a row, each one smaller than the other, from the tallest
+giant down to a little dwarf no bigger than my finger. And before her
+stood princes, and dukes, and earls: and the fisherman went up to her
+and said, "Wife, are you emperor?"
+
+"Yes," said she, "I am emperor."
+
+"Ah!" said the man as he gazed upon her, "what a fine thing it is to be
+emperor!"
+
+"Husband," said she, "why should we stay at being emperor; I will be
+pope next."
+
+"O wife, wife!" said he, "how can you be pope? There is but one pope at
+a time in Christendom."
+
+"Husband," said she, "I will be pope this very day."
+
+"But," replied the husband, "the fish cannot make you pope."
+
+"What nonsense!" said she, "if he can make an emperor, he can make a
+pope. Go and try him."
+
+So the fisherman went. But when he came to the shore the wind was
+raging, and the sea was tossed up and down like boiling water, and the
+ships were in the greatest distress and danced upon the waves most
+fearfully. In the middle of the sky there was a little blue, but toward
+the south it was all red as if a dreadful storm were rising. At this the
+fisherman was terribly frightened, and trembled, so that his knees
+knocked together: but he went to the shore and said,
+
+ "O man of the sea!
+ Come listen to me,
+ For Alice my wife,
+ The plague of my life,
+ Hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!"
+
+"What does she want now?" said the fish.
+
+"Ah!" said the fisherman, "my wife wants to be pope."
+
+"Go home," said the fish. "She is pope already."
+
+Then the fisherman went home and found his wife sitting on a throne that
+was two miles high; and she had three great crowns on her head, and
+around stood all the pomp and power of the Church; and on each side were
+two rows of burning lights of all sizes, the greatest as large as the
+highest and biggest tower in the world, and the least no larger than a
+small rushlight. "Wife," said the fisherman as he looked at all this
+grandeur, "are you pope?"
+
+"Yes," said she, "I am pope."
+
+"Well, wife," replied he, "it is a grand thing to be pope; and now you
+must be content, for you can be nothing greater."
+
+"I will consider of that," said the wife. Then they went to bed: but
+Dame Alice could not sleep all night for thinking what she should be
+next. At last morning came, and the sun rose. "Ha!" thought she as she
+looked at it through the window, "cannot I prevent the sun rising?" At
+this she was very angry, and she wakened her husband and said, "Husband,
+go to the fish and tell him I want to be lord of the sun and moon." The
+fisherman was half asleep, but the thought frightened him so much that
+he started and fell out of bed. "Alas, wife!" said he, "cannot you be
+content to be pope?"
+
+"No," said she, "I am very uneasy, and cannot bear to see the sun and
+moon rise without my leave. Go to the fish directly."
+
+Then the man went trembling for fear; and as he was going down to the
+shore a dreadful storm arose, so that the trees and the rocks shook; and
+the heavens became black, and the lightning played, and the thunder
+rolled; and you might have seen in the sea great black waves like
+mountains with a white crown of foam upon them; and the fisherman said,
+
+ "O man of the sea!
+ Come listen to me,
+ For Alice my wife,
+ The plague of my life,
+ Hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!"
+
+"What does she want now?" said the fish.
+
+"Ah!" said he, "she wants to be lord of the sun and moon." "Go home,"
+said the fish, "to your ditch again!" And there they live to this very
+day.
+
+
+
+177
+
+ The Grimm version of "The Sleeping Beauty" is,
+ by all odds, the finest one. Its perfect
+ economy in the use of story materials has
+ always been admired. Perrault's version drags
+ in an unnecessary ogre and spoils a good story
+ by not knowing when to stop. The Grimm title is
+ "Dornroeschen," and the more literal
+ translation, "Brier Rose," is the one generally
+ used as the English title, rather than the one
+ given by Taylor, whose translation follows.
+ Tennyson has a very beautiful poetic rendering
+ of this story in his "Day-Dream."
+
+ROSE-BUD
+
+Once upon a time there lived a king and queen who had no children; and
+this they lamented very much. But one day as the queen was walking by
+the side of the river, a little fish lifted its head out of the water
+and said, "Your wish shall be fulfilled, and you shall soon have a
+daughter."
+
+What the little fish had foretold soon came to pass; and the queen had a
+little girl that was so very beautiful that the king could not cease
+looking on it for joy, and determined to hold a great feast. So he
+invited not only his relations, friends, and neighbors, but also all the
+fairies, that they might be kind and good to his little daughter.
+
+Now there were thirteen fairies in his kingdom, and he had only twelve
+golden dishes for them to eat out of, so he was obliged to leave one of
+the fairies without an invitation. The rest came, and after the feast
+was over they gave all their best gifts to the little princess: one gave
+her virtue, another beauty, another riches, and so on till she had all
+that was excellent in the world. When eleven had done blessing her, the
+thirteenth, who had not been invited and was very angry on that account,
+came in and determined to take her revenge. So she cried out, "The
+king's daughter shall in her fifteenth year be wounded by a spindle, and
+fall down dead."
+
+Then the twelfth, who had not yet given her gift, came forward and said
+that the bad wish must be fulfilled, but that she could soften it, and
+that the king's daughter should not die, but fall asleep for a hundred
+years.
+
+But the king hoped to save his dear child from the threatened evil and
+ordered that all the spindles in the kingdom should be bought up and
+destroyed. All the fairies' gifts were in the meantime fulfilled, for
+the princess was so beautiful, and well-behaved, and amiable, and wise
+that every one who knew her loved her. Now it happened that on the very
+day she was fifteen years old the king and queen were not at home, and
+she was left alone in the palace. So she roved about by herself and
+looked at all the rooms and chambers till at last she came to an old
+tower, to which there was a narrow staircase ending with a little door.
+In the door there was a golden key, and when she turned it the door
+sprang open, and there sat an old lady spinning away very busily. "Why,
+how now, good mother," said the princess, "what are you doing there?"
+
+"Spinning," said the old lady, and nodded her head.
+
+"How prettily that little thing turns round!" said the princess, and
+took the spindle and began to spin. But scarcely had she touched it
+before the prophecy was fulfilled, and she fell down lifeless on the
+ground.
+
+However, she was not dead, but had only fallen into a deep sleep; and
+the king and the queen, who just then came home, and all their court,
+fell asleep too; and the horses slept in the stables, and the dogs in
+the court, the pigeons on the house-top and the flies on the walls. Even
+the fire on the hearth left off blazing and went to sleep; and the meat
+that was roasting stood still; and the cook, who was at that moment
+pulling the kitchen-boy by the hair to give him a box on the ear for
+something he had done amiss, let him go, and both fell asleep; and so
+everything stood still, and slept soundly.
+
+A large hedge of thorns soon grew round the palace, and every year it
+became higher and thicker till at last the whole palace was surrounded
+and hid, so that not even the roof or the chimneys could be seen. But
+there went a report through all the land of the beautiful sleeping
+Rose-Bud (for so was the king's daughter called); so that from time to
+time several kings' sons came and tried to break through the thicket
+into the palace. This they could never do, for the thorns and bushes
+laid hold of them as it were with hands, and there they stuck fast and
+died miserably.
+
+After many many years there came a king's son into that land, and an old
+man told him the story of the thicket of thorns, and how a beautiful
+palace stood behind it, in which was a wondrous princess, called
+Rose-Bud, asleep with all her court. He told, too, how he had heard from
+his grandfather that many many princes had come, and had tried to break
+through the thicket, but had stuck fast and died. Then the young prince
+said, "All this shall not frighten me. I will go and see Rose-Bud." The
+old man tried to dissuade him, but he persisted in going.
+
+Now that very day were the hundred years completed; and as the prince
+came to the thicket, he saw nothing but beautiful flowering shrubs,
+through which he passed with ease, and they closed after him as firm as
+ever. Then he came at last to the palace, and there in the court lay the
+dogs asleep, and the horses in the stables, and on the roof sat the
+pigeons fast asleep with their heads under their wings; and when he came
+into the palace, the flies slept on the walls, and the cook in the
+kitchen was still holding up her hand as if she would beat the boy, and
+the maid sat with a black fowl in her hand ready to be plucked.
+
+Then he went on still further, and all was so still that he could hear
+every breath he drew; till at last he came to the old tower and opened
+the door of the little room in which Rose-Bud was, and there she lay
+fast asleep, and looked so beautiful that he could not take his eyes
+off, and he stooped down and gave her a kiss. But the moment he kissed
+her she opened her eyes and awoke and smiled upon him. Then they went
+out together, and presently the king and queen also awoke, and all the
+court, and they gazed on one another with great wonder. And the horses
+got up and shook themselves, and the dogs jumped about and barked; the
+pigeons took their heads from under their wings and looked about and
+flew into the fields; the flies on the walls buzzed away; the fire in
+the kitchen blazed up and cooked the dinner, and the roast meat turned
+round again; the cook gave the boy the box on his ear so that he cried
+out, and the maid went on plucking the fowl. And then was the wedding of
+the prince and Rose-Bud celebrated, and they lived happily together all
+their lives long.
+
+
+
+178
+
+ The story of "Rumpelstiltskin" is taken from
+ Margaret Hunt's translation of Grimm. It is the
+ same story as "Tom Tit Tot" (No. 160), and is
+ given in order that the teacher may compare the
+ two. Grimm's is the most familiar of the many
+ versions of this tale and is probably the best
+ for use with children, although the "little
+ man" lacks some of the fascinating power of
+ "that" with its twirling tail.
+
+
+RUMPELSTILTSKIN
+
+Once there was a miller who was poor, but who had a beautiful daughter.
+Now it happened that he had to go and speak to the King, and in order to
+make himself appear important he said to him, "I have a daughter who can
+spin straw into gold."
+
+The King said to the miller, "That is an art which pleases me well. If
+your daughter is as clever as you say, bring her tomorrow to my palace,
+and I will try what she can do."
+
+And when the girl was brought to him he took her into a room which was
+quite full of straw, gave her a spinning-wheel and a reel, and said,
+"Now set to work, and if by tomorrow morning early you have not spun
+this straw into gold during the night, you must die." Thereupon he
+himself locked up the room, and left her in it alone. So there sat the
+poor miller's daughter, and for her life could not tell what to do. She
+had no idea how straw could be spun into gold, and she grew more and
+more miserable, until at last she began to weep.
+
+But all at once the door opened, and in came a little man, and said,
+"Good evening, Mistress Miller; why are you crying so?"
+
+"Alas!" answered the girl, "I have to spin straw into gold, and I do not
+know how to do it."
+
+"What will you give me," said the manikin, "if I do it for you?"
+
+"My necklace," said the girl. The little man took the necklace, seated
+himself in front of the wheel, and "whir, whir, whir," three turns, and
+the reel was full; then he put another on, and "whir, whir, whir," three
+times round, and the second was full, too. And so it went on until the
+morning, when all the straw was spun, and all the reels were full of
+gold. By daybreak the King was already there, and when he saw the gold
+he was astonished and delighted, but his heart became only more greedy.
+He had the miller's daughter taken into another room full of straw,
+which was much larger, and commanded her to spin that also in one night
+if she valued her life. The girl knew not how to help herself, and was
+crying, when the door again opened, and the little man appeared, and
+said, "What will you give me if I spin the straw into gold for you?"
+
+"The ring on my finger," answered the girl.
+
+The little man took the ring, again began to turn the wheel, and by
+morning had spun all the straw into glittering gold.
+
+The King rejoiced beyond measure at the sight, but still he had not
+gold enough; and he had the miller's daughter taken into a still larger
+room full of straw, and said, "You must spin this, too, in the course of
+this night; but if you succeed, you shall be my wife." "Even if she be a
+miller's daughter," thought he, "I could not find a richer wife in the
+whole world."
+
+When the girl was alone the manikin came again for the third time, and
+said, "What will you give me if I spin the straw for you this time
+also?"
+
+"I have nothing left that I could give," answered the girl.
+
+"Then promise me, if you should become Queen, your first child."
+
+"Who knows whether that will ever happen?" thought the miller's
+daughter; and, not knowing how else to help herself in this strait, she
+promised the manikin what he wanted, and for that he once more spun the
+straw into gold.
+
+And when the King came in the morning, and found all as he had wished,
+he took her in marriage, and the pretty miller's daughter became a
+Queen.
+
+A year after, she had a beautiful child, and she never gave a thought to
+the manikin. But suddenly he came into her room, and said, "Now give me
+what you promised."
+
+The Queen was horror-struck, and offered the manikin all the riches of
+the kingdom if he would leave her the child. But the manikin said, "No,
+something that is living is dearer to me than all the treasures in the
+world."
+
+Then the Queen began to weep and cry, so that the manikin pitied her. "I
+will give you three days' time," said he; "if by that time you find out
+my name, then shall you keep your child."
+
+So the Queen thought the whole night of all the names that she had ever
+heard, and she sent a messenger over the country to inquire, far and
+wide, for any other names that there might be. When the manikin came the
+next day, she began with Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar, and said all the
+names she knew, one after another; but to every one the little man said,
+"That is not my name." On the second day she had inquiries made in the
+neighborhood as to the names of the people there, and she repeated to
+the manikin the most uncommon and curious. "Perhaps your name is
+Shortribs, or Sheepshanks, or Laceleg?" but he always answered, "That is
+not my name."
+
+On the third day the messenger came back again, and said, "I have not
+been able to find a single new name, but as I came to a high mountain at
+the end of the forest, where the fox and the hare bid each other
+good-night, there I saw a little house, and before the house a fire was
+burning, and round about the fire quite a ridiculous little man was
+jumping; he hopped upon one leg, and shouted:
+
+ "To-day I bake, to-morrow brew,
+ The next I'll have the young Queen's child.
+ Ha! glad am I that no one knew
+ That Rumpelstiltskin I am styled.'"
+
+You may think how glad the Queen was when she heard the name! And when
+soon afterwards the little man came in, and asked, "Now, Mistress Queen,
+what is my name?"
+
+At first she said, "Is your name Conrad?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Is your name Harry?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Perhaps your name is Rumpelstiltskin?"
+
+"The devil has told you that! the devil has told you that!" cried the
+little man, and in his anger he plunged his right foot so deep into the
+earth that his whole leg went in; and then in rage he pulled at his left
+leg so hard with both hands that he tore himself in two.
+
+
+
+179
+
+ Margaret Hunt's translation of Grimm's
+ "Snow-White and Rose-Red" follows. It has long
+ been recognized as one of the most beautiful
+ and appealing of folk tales. The scenic
+ effects, the domestic life with its maternal
+ and filial affection, the kindness to animals
+ and helpfulness to each other and to those in
+ distress, the adventures with dwarf and bear,
+ the magic enchantment of goodness through the
+ power of evil, and the happy conclusion
+ following the removal of this enchantment--all
+ these are blended into a perfect union that
+ never fails to delight the listener of any age.
+
+SNOW-WHITE AND ROSE-RED
+
+There was once a poor widow who lived in a lonely cottage. In front of
+the cottage was a garden wherein stood two rose-trees, one of which bore
+white and the other red roses. She had two children who were like the
+two rose-trees, and one was called Snow-white, and the other Rose-red.
+They were as good and happy, as busy and cheerful as ever two children
+in the world were, only Snow-white was more quiet and gentle than
+Rose-red. Rose-red liked better to run about in the meadows and fields
+seeking flowers and catching butterflies; but Snow-white sat at home
+with her mother, and helped her with her housework, or read to her when
+there was nothing to do.
+
+The two children were so fond of each other that they always held each
+other by the hand when they went out together, and when Snow-white said,
+"We will not leave each other," Rose-red answered, "Never so long as we
+live," and their mother would add, "What one has she must share with the
+other."
+
+They often ran about the forest alone and gathered red berries, and no
+beasts did them any harm, but came close to them trustfully. The little
+hare would eat a cabbage-leaf out of their hands, the roe grazed by
+their side, the stag leaped merrily by them, and the birds sat still
+upon the boughs and sang whatever they knew.
+
+No mishap overtook them; if they had stayed too late in the forest, and
+night came on, they laid themselves down near each other upon the moss
+and slept until morning came, and their mother knew this and had no
+distress on their account.
+
+Once when they had spent the night in the wood and the dawn had roused
+them, they saw a beautiful child in a shining white dress sitting near
+their bed. He got up and looked quite kindly at them, but said nothing
+and went away into the forest. And when they looked round they found
+that they had been sleeping quite close to a precipice, and would
+certainly have fallen into it in the darkness if they had gone only a
+few paces farther. And their mother told them that it must have been the
+angel who watches over good children.
+
+Snow-white and Rose-red kept their mother's little cottage so neat that
+it was a pleasure to look inside it. In the summer Rose-red took care of
+the house, and every morning laid a wreath of flowers by her mother's
+bed before she awoke, in which was a rose from each tree. In the winter
+Snow-white lit the fire and hung the kettle on the crane. The kettle was
+of copper and shone like gold, so brightly was it polished. In the
+evening, when the snowflakes fell, the mother said, "Go, Snow-white, and
+bolt the door," and then they sat round the hearth, and the mother took
+her spectacles and read aloud out of a large book, and the two girls
+listened as they sat and spun. And close by them lay a lamb upon the
+floor, and behind them upon a perch sat a white dove with its head
+hidden beneath its wings.
+
+One evening, as they were thus sitting comfortably together, some one
+knocked at the door as if he wished to be let in. The mother said,
+"Quick, Rose-red, open the door, it must be a traveler who is seeking
+shelter." Rose-red went and pushed back the bolt, thinking that it was a
+poor man, but it was not; it was a bear that stretched his broad, black
+head within the door.
+
+Rose-red screamed and sprang back, the lamb bleated, the dove fluttered,
+and Snow-white hid herself behind her mother's bed. But the bear began
+to speak and said, "Do not be afraid, I will do you no harm! I am
+half-frozen, and only want to warm myself a little beside you."
+
+"Poor bear," said the mother, "lie down by the fire, only take care that
+you do not burn your coat." Then she cried, "Snow-white, Rose-red, come
+out; the bear will do you no harm; he means well." So they both came
+out, and by-and-by the lamb and dove came nearer, and were not afraid of
+him.
+
+The bear said, "Here, children, knock the snow out of my coat a little";
+so they brought the broom and swept the bear's hide clean; and he
+stretched himself by the fire and growled contentedly and comfortably.
+It was not long before they grew quite at home and played tricks with
+their clumsy guest. They tugged his hair with their hands, put their
+feet upon his back and rolled him about, or they took a hazel-switch and
+beat him, and when he growled they laughed. But the bear took it all in
+good part, only when they were too rough he called out, "Leave me alive,
+children--
+
+ "Snowy-white, Rosy-red,
+ Will you beat your lover dead?"
+
+When it was bed-time, and the others went to bed, the mother said to the
+bear, "You can lie there by the hearth, and then you will be safe from
+the cold and the bad weather." As soon as day dawned the two children
+let him out, and he trotted across the snow into the forest.
+
+Henceforth the bear came every evening at the same time, laid himself
+down by the hearth, and let the children amuse themselves with him as
+much as they liked; and they got so used to him that the doors were
+never fastened until their black friend had arrived.
+
+When spring had come and all outside was green, the bear said one
+morning to Snow-white, "Now I must go away, and cannot come back for the
+whole summer."
+
+"Where are you going, then, dear bear?" asked Snow-white.
+
+"I must go into the forest and guard my treasures from the wicked
+dwarfs. In the winter, when the earth is frozen hard, they are obliged
+to stay below and cannot work their way through; but now, when the sun
+has thawed and warmed the earth, they break through it, and come out to
+pry and steal; and what once gets into their hands, and in their caves,
+does not easily see daylight again."
+
+Snow-white was quite sorry for his going away, and as she unbolted the
+door for him, and the bear was hurrying out, he caught against the bolt
+and a piece of his hairy coat was torn off, and it seemed to Snow-white
+as if she had seen gold shining through it, but she was not sure about
+it. The bear ran away quickly, and was soon out of sight behind the
+trees.
+
+A short time afterwards the mother sent her children into the forest to
+get fire-wood. There they found a big tree which lay felled on the
+ground, and close by the trunk something was jumping backwards and
+forwards in the grass, but they could not make out what it was. When
+they came nearer they saw a dwarf with an old withered face and a
+snow-white beard a yard long. The end of the beard was caught in a
+crevice of the tree, and the little fellow was jumping backwards and
+forwards like a dog tied to a rope, and did not know what to do.
+
+He glared at the girls with his fiery red eyes and cried, "Why do you
+stand there? Can you not come here and help me?"
+
+"What are you about there, little man?" asked Rose-red.
+
+"You stupid, prying goose!" answered the dwarf; "I was going to split
+the tree to get a little wood for cooking. The little bit of food that
+one of us wants gets burnt up directly with thick logs; we do not
+swallow so much as you coarse, greedy folk. I had just driven the wedge
+safely in, and everything was going as I wished; but the wretched wood
+was too smooth and suddenly sprang asunder, and the tree closed so
+quickly that I could not pull out my beautiful white beard; so now it is
+tight in and I cannot get away, and you silly, sleek, milk-faced things
+laugh! Ugh! how odious you are!"
+
+The children tried very hard, but they could not pull the beard out, it
+was caught too fast. "I will run and fetch some one," said Rose-red.
+
+"You senseless goose!" snarled the dwarf; "why should you fetch some
+one? You are already two too many for me; can you not think of something
+better?"
+
+"Don't be impatient," said Snow-white, "I will help you," and she pulled
+her scissors out of her pocket, and cut off the end of the beard.
+
+As soon as the dwarf felt himself free he laid hold of a bag which lay
+amongst the roots of the tree, and which was full of gold, and lifted it
+up, grumbling to himself, "Uncouth people, to cut off a piece of my fine
+beard. Bad luck to you!" and then he swung the bag upon his back, and
+went off without even once looking at the children.
+
+Some time after that Snow-white and Rose-red went to catch a dish of
+fish. As they came near the brook they saw something like a large
+grasshopper jumping towards the water, as if it were going to leap in.
+They ran to it and found it was the dwarf. "Where are you going?" said
+Rose-red; "you surely don't want to go into the water?"
+
+"I am not such a fool!" cried the dwarf; "don't you see that the
+accursed fish wants to pull me in?"
+
+The little man had been sitting there fishing, and unluckily the wind
+had twisted his beard with the fishing line; just then a big fish bit,
+and the feeble creature had not strength to pull it out; the fish kept
+the upper hand and pulled the dwarf towards him. He held on to all the
+reeds and rushes, but it was of little good, he was forced to follow the
+movements of the fish, and was in urgent danger of being dragged into
+the water.
+
+The girls came just in time; they held him fast and tried to free his
+beard from the line, but all in vain, beard and line were entangled fast
+together. Nothing was left but to bring out the scissors and cut the
+beard, whereby a small part of it was lost. When the dwarf saw that he
+screamed out, "Is that civil, you toadstool, to disfigure one's face?
+Was it not enough to clip off the end of my beard? Now you have cut off
+the best part of it. I cannot let myself be seen by my people. I wish
+you had been made to run the soles off your shoes!" Then he took out a
+sack of pearls which lay in the rushes, and without saying a word more
+he dragged it away and disappeared behind a stone.
+
+It happened that soon afterwards the mother sent the two children to the
+town to buy needles and thread, and laces and ribbons. The road led them
+across a heath upon which huge pieces of rock lay strewn here and there.
+Now they noticed a large bird hovering in the air, flying slowly round
+and round above them; it sank lower and lower, and at last settled near
+a rock not far off. Directly afterwards they heard a loud, piteous cry.
+They ran up and saw with horror that the eagle had seized their old
+acquaintance the dwarf, and was going to carry him off.
+
+The children, full of pity, at once took tight hold of the little man,
+and pulled against the eagle so long that at last he let his booty go.
+As soon as the dwarf had recovered from his first fright he cried with
+his shrill voice, "Could you not have done it more carefully? You
+dragged at my brown coat so that it is all torn and full of holes, you
+helpless, clumsy creatures!" Then he took up a sack full of precious
+stones, and slipped away again under the rock into his hole. The girls,
+who by this time were used to his thanklessness, went on their way and
+did their business in the town.
+
+As they crossed the heath again on their way home they surprised the
+dwarf, who had emptied out his bag of precious stones in a clean spot,
+and had not thought that any one would come there so late. The evening
+sun shone upon the brilliant stones; they glittered and sparkled with
+all colors so beautifully that the children stood still and looked at
+them. "Why do you stand gaping there?" cried the dwarf, and his
+ashen-gray face became copper-red with rage. He was going on with his
+bad words when a loud growling was heard, and a black bear came trotting
+towards them out of the forest. The dwarf sprang up in a fright, but he
+could not get to his cave, for the bear was already close. Then in the
+dread of his heart he cried, "Dear Mr. Bear, spare me, I will give you
+all my treasures; look, the beautiful jewels lying there! Grant me my
+life; what do you want with such a slender little fellow as I? You would
+not feel me between your teeth. Come, take these two wicked girls, they
+are tender morsels for you, fat as young quails; for mercy's sake eat
+them!" The bear took no heed of his words, but gave the wicked creature
+a single blow with his paw, and he did not move again.
+
+The girls had run away, but the bear called to them, "Snow-white and
+Rose-red, do not be afraid; wait, I will come with you." Then they knew
+his voice and waited, and when he came up to them suddenly his bearskin
+fell off, and he stood there a handsome man, clothed all in gold. "I am
+a King's son," he said, "and I was bewitched by that wicked dwarf, who
+had stolen my treasures. I have had to run about the forest as a savage
+bear until I was freed by his death. Now he has got his well-deserved
+punishment."
+
+Snow-white was married to him, and Rose-red to his brother, and they
+divided between them the great treasures which the dwarf had gathered
+together in his cave. The old mother lived peacefully and happily with
+her children for many years. She took the two rose-trees with her, and
+they stood before her window, and every year bore the most beautiful
+roses, white and red.
+
+
+
+180
+
+ Whether it is possible to trace all folk tales
+ to India, as some scholars have contended, is a
+ matter yet open to debate. But there can be no
+ doubt that some of the most instructing and
+ valuable of folk tales for use with children
+ are found in the various collections of Indian
+ stories made since the pioneer work of Mary
+ Frere in her _Old Deccan Days_ (1868). A
+ voluminous literature of collections and
+ comment has grown up and is constantly
+ increasing. Four stories that have won great
+ favor with children are given immediately
+ following as the ones probably best fitted for
+ an introductory course. "The Lambikin" is one
+ of the most popular of all. It is an
+ accumulative droll in character and should be
+ told early along with, say, "The Story of the
+ Three Little Pigs." The children will be sure
+ to notice that Lambikin trundling along in his
+ drumikin has some similarity to the wise pig
+ who traveled so fast down hill in his new
+ churn. The story is taken from _Tales from the
+ Punjab_, collected by Flora Annie Steel, with
+ very valuable notes and analyses by Captain R.
+ C. Temple.
+
+
+THE LAMBIKIN
+
+Once upon a time there was a wee wee Lambikin, who frolicked about on
+his little tottery legs, and enjoyed himself amazingly. Now one day he
+set off to visit his Granny, and was jumping with joy to think of all
+the good things he should get from her, when whom should he meet but a
+Jackal, who looked at the tender young morsel and said: "Lambikin!
+Lambikin! I'll EAT YOU!"
+
+But Lambikin only gave a little frisk and said:
+
+ "To Granny's house I go,
+ Where I shall fatter grow,
+ Then you can eat me so."
+
+The Jackal thought this reasonable, and let Lambikin pass.
+
+By and by he met a Vulture, and the Vulture, looking hungrily at the
+tender morsel before him, said: "Lambikin! Lambikin! I'll EAT YOU!"
+
+But Lambikin only gave a little frisk, and said:
+
+ "To Granny's house I go,
+ Where I shall fatter grow,
+ Then you can eat me so."
+
+The Vulture thought this reasonable, and let Lambikin pass.
+
+And by and by he met a Tiger, and then a Wolf, and a Dog, and an Eagle,
+and all these, when they saw the tender little morsel, said: "Lambikin!
+Lambikin! I'll EAT YOU!"
+
+But to all of them Lambikin replied, with a little frisk:
+
+ "To Granny's house I go,
+ Where I shall fatter grow,
+ Then you can eat me so."
+
+At last he reached his Granny's house, and said, all in a great hurry,
+"Granny, dear, I've promised to get very fat; so, as people ought to
+keep their promises, please put me into the corn-bin _at once_."
+
+So his Granny said he was a good boy, and put him into the corn-bin, and
+there the greedy little Lambikin stayed for seven days, and ate, and
+ate, and ate, until he could scarcely waddle, and his Granny said he was
+fat enough for anything, and must go home. But cunning little Lambikin
+said that would never do, for some animal would be sure to eat him on
+the way back, he was so plump and tender.
+
+"I'll tell you what you must do," said Master Lambikin, "you must make a
+little drumikin out of the skin of my little brother who died, and then
+I can sit inside and trundle along nicely, for I'm as tight as a drum
+myself."
+
+So his Granny made a nice little drumikin out of his brother's skin,
+with the wool inside, and Lambikin curled himself up snug and warm in
+the middle, and trundled away gayly. Soon he met with the Eagle, who
+called out:
+
+ "Drumikin! Drumikin!
+ Have you seen Lambikin?"
+
+And Mr. Lambikin, curled up in his soft warm nest, replied:
+
+ "Lost in the forest, and so are you,
+ On, little Drumikin! Tum-pa, tum-too!"
+
+"How very annoying!" sighed the Eagle, thinking regretfully of the
+tender morsel he had let slip.
+
+Meanwhile Lambikin trundled along, laughing to himself, and singing:
+
+ "Tum-pa, tum-too;
+ Tum-pa, tum-too!"
+
+Every animal and bird he met asked him the same question:
+
+ "Drumikin! Drumikin!
+ Have you seen Lambikin?"
+
+And to each of them the little sly-boots replied:
+
+ "Lost in the forest, and so are you,
+ On, little Drumikin! Tum-pa, tum-too;
+ Tum-pa, tum-too; tum-pa, tum-too!"
+
+Then they all sighed to think of the tender little morsel they had let
+slip.
+
+At last the Jackal came limping along, for all his sorry looks as sharp
+as a needle, and he too called out:
+
+ "Drumikin! Drumikin!
+ Have you seen Lambikin?"
+
+And Lambikin, curled up in his snug little nest, replied gayly:
+
+ "Lost in the forest, and so are you,
+ On, little Drumikin! Tum-pa--"
+
+But he never got any further, for the Jackal recognized his voice at
+once, and cried: "Hullo! you've turned yourself inside out, have you?
+Just you come out of that!"
+
+Whereupon he tore open Drumikin and gobbled up Lambikin.
+
+
+
+181
+
+ The next story, dealing with the idea of
+ "measure for measure," is from Mary Frere's
+ _Old Deccan Days_. Miss Frere spent many years
+ in India, where her father was a government
+ official. She took down the tales as told by
+ her _ayah_, or lady's maid, who in turn had
+ heard them from her hundred-year-old
+ grandmother. It may be said of this story that
+ while retaliation is certainly not the highest
+ law of conduct, yet the ungracious,
+ inconsiderate action of the jackal makes it
+ impossible to feel the least sympathy for him.
+
+
+TIT FOR TAT
+
+There once lived a Camel and a Jackal who were great friends. One day
+the Jackal said to the Camel, "I know that there is a fine field of
+sugar cane on the other side of the river. If you will take me across,
+I'll show you the place. This plan will suit me as well as you. You will
+enjoy eating the sugar cane, and I am sure to find many crabs, bones,
+and bits of fish by the river side, on which to make a good dinner."
+
+The Camel consented, and swam across the river, taking the Jackal, who
+could not swim, on his back. When they reached the other side, the Camel
+went to eat the sugar cane, and the Jackal ran up and down the river
+bank, devouring all the crabs, bits of fish, and bones he could find.
+
+But being so much smaller an animal, he had made an excellent meal
+before the Camel had eaten more than two or three mouthfuls; and no
+sooner had he finished his dinner than he ran round and round the
+sugar-cane field, yelping and howling with all his might.
+
+The villagers heard him, and thought, "There is a Jackal among the sugar
+canes; he will be scratching holes in the ground and spoiling the roots
+of the plants." And they went down to the place to drive him away. But
+when they got there they found to their surprise not only a Jackal, but
+a Camel who was eating the sugar canes! This made them very angry, and
+they caught the poor Camel and drove him from the field and beat him
+until he was nearly dead.
+
+When the villagers had gone, the Jackal said to the Camel, "We had
+better go home." And the Camel, said, "Very well; then jump upon my
+back, as you did before."
+
+So the Jackal jumped upon the Camel's back, and the Camel began to
+recross the river. When they had got well into the water, the Camel
+said, "This is a pretty way in which you have treated me, friend Jackal.
+No sooner had you finished your own dinner than you must go yelping
+about the place loud enough to arouse the whole village, and bring all
+the villagers down to beat me black and blue, and turn me out of the
+field before I had eaten two mouthfuls! What in the world did you make
+such a noise for?"
+
+"I don't know," said the Jackal. "It is a custom I have. I always like
+to sing a little after dinner."
+
+The Camel waded on through the river. The water reached up to his
+knees--then above them--up, up, up, higher and higher, until at last he
+was obliged to swim.
+
+Then turning to the Jackal, he said, "I feel very anxious to roll."
+
+"Oh, pray don't; why do you wish to do so?" asked the Jackal.
+
+"I don't know," answered the Camel. "It is a custom I have. I always
+like to have a little roll after dinner."
+
+So saying, he rolled over in the water, shaking the Jackal off as he did
+so. And the Jackal was drowned, but the Camel swam safely ashore.
+
+
+
+182
+
+ The fine story following is from Steel's _Tales
+ of the Punjab_. Scholars have pointed out a
+ hundred or more variants. Such trickery as
+ that used by the jackal in trapping the tiger
+ is the common thing to find in folk tales where
+ oppressed weakness is matched against ruthless
+ and tyrannic power. The tiger's ingratitude
+ precludes any desire to "take his part." The
+ attitude of the three judges is determined in
+ each case by the fact that the experience of
+ each has hardened him and rendered him
+ completely hopeless and unsympathetic. "The
+ work of the buffalo in the oil-press," says
+ Captain Temple, "is the synonym all India
+ over--and with good reason--for hard and
+ thankless toil for another's benefit."
+
+THE TIGER, THE BRAHMAN, AND THE JACKAL
+
+Once upon a time a tiger was caught in a trap. He tried in vain to get
+out through the bars, and rolled and bit with rage and grief when he
+failed.
+
+By chance a poor Brahman came by. "Let me out of this cage, O pious
+one!" cried the tiger.
+
+"Nay, my friend," replied the Brahman mildly; "you would probably eat me
+if I did."
+
+"Not at all!" swore the tiger with many oaths; "on the contrary, I
+should be forever grateful, and serve you as a slave."
+
+Now, when the tiger sobbed and sighed and wept and swore, the pious
+Brahman's heart softened, and at last he consented to open the door of
+the cage. Out popped the tiger, and, seizing the poor man, cried, "What
+a fool you are! What is to prevent my eating you now, for after being
+cooped up so long I am just terribly hungry?"
+
+In vain the Brahman pleaded for his life; the most he could gain was a
+promise to abide by the decision of the first three things he chose to
+question as to the justice of the tiger's action.
+
+So the Brahman first asked a _pipal_ tree what it thought of the matter,
+but the _pipal_ tree replied coldly, "What have you to complain about?
+Don't I give shade and shelter to every one who passes by, and don't
+they in return tear down my branches to feed their cattle? Don't
+whimper--be a man!"
+
+Then the Brahman, sad at heart, went further afield till he saw a
+buffalo turning a well-wheel; but he fared no better from it, for it
+answered: "You are a fool to expect gratitude! Look at me! While I gave
+milk they fed me on cotton-seed and oil-cake, but now I am dry they yoke
+me here, and give me refuse as fodder!"
+
+The Brahman, still more sad, asked the road to give him its opinion.
+
+"My dear sir," said the road, "how foolish you are to expect anything
+else! Here am I, useful to everybody, yet all, rich and poor, great and
+small, trample on me as they go past, giving me nothing but the ashes of
+their pipes and the husks of their grain!"
+
+On this the Brahman turned back sorrowfully, and on the way he met a
+jackal, who called out, "Why, what's the matter, Mr. Brahman? You look
+as miserable as a fish out of water!"
+
+The Brahman told him all that had occurred. "How very confusing!" said
+the jackal, when the recital was ended; "would you mind telling me over
+again, for everything seems so mixed up?"
+
+The Brahman told it all over again, but the jackal shook his head in a
+distracted sort of way, and still could not understand.
+
+"It's very odd," said he sadly, "but it all seems to go in at one ear
+and out at the other! I will go to the place where it all happened, and
+then, perhaps, I shall be able to give a judgment."
+
+So they returned to the cage, by which the tiger was waiting for the
+Brahman, and sharpening his teeth and claws.
+
+"You've been away a long time!" growled the savage beast, "but now let
+us begin our dinner."
+
+"_Our_ dinner!" thought the wretched Brahman, as his knees knocked
+together with fright; "what a remarkably delicate way of putting it!"
+
+"Give me five minutes, my lord!" he pleaded, "in order that I may
+explain matters to the jackal here, who is somewhat slow in his wits."
+
+The tiger consented, and the Brahman began the whole story over again,
+not missing a single detail, and spinning as long a yarn as possible.
+
+"Oh, my poor brain! oh, my poor brain!" cried the jackal, wringing its
+paws. "Let me see! how did it all begin? You were in the cage, and the
+tiger came walking by--"
+
+"Pooh!" interrupted the tiger, "what a fool you are! _I_ was in the
+cage."
+
+"Of course!" cried the jackal, pretending to tremble with fright; "yes!
+I was in the cage--no, I wasn't--dear! dear! where are my wits? Let me
+see--the tiger was in the Brahman, and the cage came walking by--no,
+that's not it, either! Well, don't mind me, but begin your dinner, for I
+shall never understand!"
+
+"Yes, you shall!" returned the tiger, in a rage at the jackal's
+stupidity; "I'll _make_ you understand! Look here--I am the tiger--"
+
+"Yes, my lord!"
+
+"And that is the Brahman--"
+
+"Yes, my lord!"
+
+"And that is the cage--"
+
+"Yes, my lord!"
+
+"And I was in the cage--do you understand?"
+
+"Yes--no----Please, my lord--"
+
+"Well?" cried the tiger impatiently.
+
+"Please, my lord! How did you get in?"
+
+"How? Why in the usual way, of course!"
+
+"Oh, dear me! my head is beginning to whirl again! Please don't be
+angry, my lord, but what is the usual way?"
+
+At this the tiger lost patience, and jumping into the cage, cried, "This
+way! Now do you understand how it was?"
+
+"Perfectly!" grinned the jackal, as he dexterously shut the door, "and
+if you will permit me to say so, I think matters will remain as they
+were!"
+
+
+
+183
+
+ The story that follows is from Mrs. Kingscote's
+ _Tales of the Sun_, as reprinted in Joseph
+ Jacobs' _Indian Fairy Tales_. Mr. Jacobs
+ explains that he "changed the Indian mercantile
+ numerals into those of English 'back-slang,'
+ which make a very good parallel." As in other
+ cases, the value of Jacobs' collection must be
+ emphasized. If the teacher is limited to a
+ single book for story material from the
+ Hindoos, that book must be the one made by
+ Joseph Jacobs. With well-chosen tales, with the
+ slight changes here and there necessary for use
+ with children, with just enough scholarship
+ packed out of the way in the introduction and
+ notes, the book has no rival.
+
+
+PRIDE GOETH BEFORE A FALL
+
+In a certain village there lived ten cloth merchants, who always went
+about together. Once upon a time they had traveled far afield, and were
+returning home with a great deal of money which they had obtained by
+selling their wares. Now there happened to be a dense forest near their
+village, and this they reached early one morning. In it there lived
+three notorious robbers, of whose existence the traders had never heard,
+and while they were still in the middle of it the robbers stood before
+them, with swords and cudgels in their hands, and ordered them to lay
+down all they had. The traders had no weapons with them, and so, though
+they were many more in number, they had to submit themselves to the
+robbers, who took away everything from them, even the very clothes they
+wore, and gave to each only a small loin-cloth a span in breadth and a
+cubit in length.
+
+The idea that they had conquered ten men and plundered all their
+property now took possession of the robbers' minds. They seated
+themselves like three monarchs before the men they had plundered, and
+ordered them to dance to them before returning home. The merchants now
+mourned their fate. They had lost all they had, except their loin-cloth,
+and still the robbers were not satisfied, but ordered them to dance.
+
+There was among the ten merchants one who was very clever. He pondered
+over the calamity that had come upon him and his friends, the dance they
+would have to perform, and the magnificent manner in which the three
+robbers had seated themselves on the grass. At the same time he observed
+that these last had placed their weapons on the ground, in the assurance
+of having thoroughly cowed the traders, who were now commencing to
+dance; and, as a song is always sung by the leader on such occasions, to
+which the rest keep time with hands and feet, he thus began to sing:
+
+ "We are enty men,
+ They are erith men:
+ If each erith man,
+ Surround eno men
+ Eno man remains.
+
+ _Ta, tai tom, tadingana._"
+
+The robbers were all uneducated, and thought that the leader was merely
+singing a song as usual. So it was in one sense; for the leader
+commenced from a distance, and had sung the song over twice before he
+and his companions commenced to approach the robbers. They had
+understood his meaning, because they had been trained in trade.
+
+When two traders discuss the price of an article in the presence of a
+purchaser, they use a riddling sort of language.
+
+"What is the price of this cloth?" one trader will ask.
+
+"Enty rupees," another will reply, meaning "ten rupees."
+
+Thus there is no possibility of the purchaser knowing what is meant
+unless he be acquainted with trade language. By the rules of this secret
+language erith means "three," enty means "ten," and eno means "one." So
+the leader by his song meant to hint to his fellow-traders that they
+were ten men, the robbers only three, that if three pounced upon each of
+the robbers, nine of them could hold them down, while the remaining one
+bound the robbers' hands and feet.
+
+The three thieves, glorying in their victory, and little understanding
+the meaning of the song and the intentions of the dancers, were proudly
+seated chewing betel and tobacco. Meanwhile the song was sung a third
+time. _Ta tai tom_ had left the lips of the singer; and, before
+_tadingana_ was out of them, the traders separated into parties of
+three, and each party pounced upon a thief. The remaining one--the
+leader himself--tore up into long narrow strips a large piece of cloth,
+six cubits long, and tied the hands and feet of the robbers. These were
+entirely humbled now, and rolled on the ground like three bags of rice!
+
+The ten traders now took back all their property, and armed themselves
+with the swords and cudgels of their enemies; and when they reached
+their village they often amused their friends and relatives by relating
+their adventure.
+
+
+
+184
+
+ In recent years several Japanese stories have
+ made their way into the list of those
+ frequently used in the lower grades. Some of
+ these are of unusual beauty and suggestiveness.
+ The oriental point of view is so different from
+ that of western children that these stories
+ often cannot be used in their fully original
+ form, although it would be a distinct loss if
+ the available elements were therefore
+ discarded. So, in this instance departing from
+ the plan of giving only authentic copies of the
+ tales here reprinted, the excellent retold
+ versions of two Japanese stories are given as
+ made by Teresa Peirce Williston in her
+ _Japanese Fairy Tales_. (Copyrighted. Used by
+ permission of the publishers, Rand McNally &
+ Co.) In these simple versions the point to the
+ story is made clear in natural fashion without
+ undue moralizing.
+
+
+THE MIRROR OF MATSUYAMA
+
+VERSION BY TERESA PEIRCE WILLISTON
+
+In Matsuyama there lived a man, his wife, and their little daughter.
+They loved each other very much, and were very happy together. One day
+the man came home very sad. He had received a message from the Emperor,
+which said that he must take a journey to far-off Tokio.
+
+They had no horses and in those days there were no railroads in Japan.
+The man knew that he must walk the whole distance. It was not the long
+walk that he minded, however. It was because it would take him many days
+from home.
+
+Still he must obey his Emperor, so he made ready to start. His wife was
+very sorry that he must go, and yet a little proud, too, for no one else
+in the village had ever taken so long a journey.
+
+She and the baby walked with him down to the turn in the road. There
+they stood and watched him through their tears, as he followed the path
+up through the pines on the mountain side. At last, no larger than a
+speck, he disappeared behind the hills. Then they went home to await his
+return.
+
+For three long weeks they waited. Each day they spoke of him, and
+counted the days until they should see his dear face again. At last the
+time came. They walked down to the turn in the road to wait for his
+coming. Up on the mountain side some one was walking toward them. As he
+came nearer they could see that it was the one for whom they waited.
+
+The good wife could scarcely believe that her husband was indeed safe
+home again. The baby girl laughed and clapped her hands to see the toys
+he brought her.
+
+There was a tiny image of Uzume, the laughter-loving goddess. Next came
+a little red monkey of cotton, with a blue head. When she pressed the
+spring he ran to the top of the rod. Oh, how wonderful was the third
+gift! It was a _tombo_, or dragon fly. When she first looked at it she
+saw only a piece of wood shaped like a T. The cross piece was painted
+with different bright colors. But the queer thing, when her father
+twirled it between his fingers, would rise in the air, dipping and
+hovering like a real dragon fly.
+
+Last, of course, there was a _ninghio_, or doll, with a sweet face,
+slanting eyes, and such wonderful hair. Her name was O-Hina-San.
+
+He told of the Feast of the Dead which he had seen in Tokio. He told of
+the beautiful lanterns, the Lanterns of the Dead; and the pine torches
+burning before each house. He told of the tiny boats made of barley
+straw and filled with food that are set floating away on the river,
+bearing two tiny lanterns to guide them to the Land of the Dead.
+
+At last her husband handed the wife a small white box. "Tell me what you
+see inside," he said. She opened it and took out something round and
+bright.
+
+On one side were buds and flowers of frosted silver. The other side at
+first looked as clear and bright as a pool of water. When she moved it a
+little she saw in it a most beautiful woman.
+
+"Oh, what a beautiful picture!" she cried. "It is of a woman and she
+seems to be smiling and talking just as I am. She has on a blue dress
+just like mine, too! How strange!"
+
+Then her husband laughed and said: "That is a mirror. It is yourself you
+see reflected in it. All the women in Tokio have them."
+
+The wife was delighted with her present, and looked at it very often.
+She liked to see the smiling red lips, the laughing eyes, and beautiful
+dark hair.
+
+After a while she said to herself: "How foolish this is of me to sit and
+gaze at myself in this mirror! I am not more beautiful than other women.
+How much better for me to enjoy others' beauty, and forget my own face.
+I shall only remember that it must always be happy and smiling or it
+will make no one else happy. I do not wish any cross or angry look of
+mine to make any one sad."
+
+She put the mirror carefully away in its box. Only twice in a year she
+looked at it. Then it was to see if her face was still such as would
+make others happy.
+
+The years passed by in their sweet and simple life until the baby had
+grown to be a big girl. Her _ninghio_, her _tombo_, the image of Uzume,
+even the cotton monkey, were put carefully away for her own children.
+
+This girl was the very image of her mother. She was just as sweet and
+loving, just as kind and helpful.
+
+One day her mother became very ill. Although the girl and her father did
+all they could for her, she grew worse and worse.
+
+At last she knew that she must die, so she called her daughter to her
+and said: "My child, I know that I must soon leave you, but I wish to
+leave something with you in my place. Open this box and see what you
+find in it."
+
+The girl opened the box and looked for the first time in a mirror. "Oh,
+mother dear!" she cried. "I see you here. Not thin and pale as you are
+now, but happy and smiling, as you have always been."
+
+Then her mother said: "When I am gone, will you look in this every
+morning and every night? If anything troubles you, tell me about it.
+Always try to do right, so that you will see only happiness here."
+
+Every morning when the sun rose and the birds began to twitter and sing,
+the girl rose and looked in her mirror. There she saw the bright, happy
+face that she remembered as her mother's.
+
+Every evening when the shadows fell and the birds were asleep, she
+looked again. She told it all that had happened during the day. When it
+had been a happy day the face smiled back at her. When she was sad the
+face looked sad, too. She was very careful not to do anything unkind,
+for she knew how sad the face would be then.
+
+So each day she grew more kind and loving, and more like the mother
+whose face she saw each day and loved.
+
+
+
+185
+
+ This favorite story of "The Tongue-Cut Sparrow"
+ is from Mrs. Williston's _Japanese Fairy
+ Tales_. (Copyrighted. Used by permission.)
+
+
+THE TONGUE-CUT SPARROW
+
+VERSION BY TERESA PEIRCE WILLISTON
+
+In a little old house in a little old village in Japan lived a little
+old man and his little old wife.
+
+One morning when the old woman slid open the screens which form the
+sides of all Japanese houses, she saw, on the doorstep, a poor little
+sparrow. She took him up gently and fed him. Then she held him in the
+bright morning sunshine until the cold dew was dried from his wings.
+Afterward she let him go, so that he might fly home to his nest, but he
+stayed to thank her with his songs.
+
+Each morning, when the pink on the mountain tops told that the sun was
+near, the sparrow perched on the roof of the house and sang out his joy.
+
+The old man and woman thanked the sparrow for this, for they liked to be
+up early and at work. But near them there lived a cross old woman who
+did not like to be awakened so early. At last she became so angry that
+she caught the sparrow and cut his tongue. Then the poor little sparrow
+flew away to his home, but he could never sing again.
+
+When the kind woman knew what had happened to her pet she was very sad.
+She said to her husband, "Let us go and find our poor little sparrow."
+So they started together, and asked of each bird by the wayside: "Do you
+know where the Tongue-Cut Sparrow lives? Do you know where the
+Tongue-Cut Sparrow went?"
+
+In this way they followed until they came to a bridge. They did not know
+which way to turn, and at first could see no one to ask.
+
+At last they saw a Bat hanging head downward, taking his daytime nap.
+"Oh, friend Bat, do you know where the Tongue-Cut Sparrow went?" they
+asked.
+
+"Yes. Over the bridge and up the mountain," said the Bat. Then he
+blinked his sleepy eyes and was fast asleep again.
+
+They went over the bridge and up the mountain, but again they found two
+roads and did not know which one to take. A little Field Mouse peeped
+through the leaves and grass, so they asked him, "Do you know where the
+Tongue-Cut Sparrow went?"
+
+"Yes. Down the mountain and through the woods," said the Field Mouse.
+
+Down the mountain and through the woods they went, and at last came to
+the home of their little friend.
+
+When he saw them coming the poor little sparrow was very happy indeed.
+He and his wife and children all came and bowed their heads down to the
+ground to show their respect. Then the Sparrow rose and led the old man
+and the old woman into his house, while his wife and children hastened
+to bring them boiled rice, fish, cress, and sake.
+
+After they had feasted, the Sparrow wished to please them still more, so
+he danced for them what is called the "sparrow-dance."
+
+When the sun began to sink, the old man and woman started for home. The
+Sparrow brought out two baskets. "I would like to give you one of
+these," he said. "Which will you take?" One basket was large and looked
+very full, while the other one seemed very small and light. The old
+people thought they would not take the large basket, for that might have
+all the Sparrow's treasure in it, so they said, "The way is long and we
+are very old, so please let us take the smaller one."
+
+They took it and walked home over the mountain and across the bridge,
+happy and contented.
+
+When they reached their own home they decided to open the basket and see
+what the Sparrow had given them. Within the basket they found many rolls
+of silk and piles of gold, enough to make them rich, so they were more
+grateful than ever to the Sparrow.
+
+The cross old woman who had cut the Sparrow's tongue was peering in
+through the screen when they opened their basket. She saw the rolls of
+silk and the piles of gold, and planned how she might get some for
+herself.
+
+The next morning she went to the kind woman and said: "I am so sorry
+that I cut the tongue of your Sparrow. Please tell me the way to his
+home so that I may go to him and tell him I am sorry."
+
+The kind woman told her the way and she set out. She went across the
+bridge, over the mountain, and through the woods. At last she came to
+the home of the little Sparrow.
+
+He was not so glad to see this old woman, yet he was very kind to her
+and did everything to make her feel welcome. They made a feast for her,
+and when she started home the Sparrow brought out two baskets as before.
+Of course the woman chose the large basket, for she thought that would
+have even more wealth than the other one.
+
+It was very heavy, and caught on the trees as she was going through the
+wood. She could hardly pull it up the mountain with her, and she was all
+out of breath when she reached the top. She did not get to the bridge
+until it was dark. Then she was so afraid of dropping the basket into
+the river that she scarcely dared to step.
+
+When at last she reached home she was so tired that she was half dead,
+but she pulled the screens close shut, so that no one could look in, and
+opened her treasure.
+
+Treasure indeed! A whole swarm of horrible creatures burst from the
+basket the moment she opened it. They stung her and bit her, they pushed
+her and pulled her, they scratched her and laughed at her screams.
+
+At last she crawled to the edge of the room and slid aside the screen to
+get away from the pests. The moment the door was opened they swooped
+down upon her, picked her up, and flew away with her. Since then nothing
+has ever been heard of the old woman.
+
+
+
+186
+
+ The tale of "The Straw Ox" as given in _Cossack
+ Fairy Tales_, by R. Nesbit Bain, is one of the
+ masterpieces among folk stories. It is of the
+ accumulative type, winding up rapidly to the
+ point where the old couple have secured,
+ through the straw ox, all the raw material
+ needed for comfortable clothing. Then comes the
+ surprising release of the captured animals
+ under promise to make contributions, each in
+ his own way, to the welfare of the
+ poverty-stricken couple. And then, the greatest
+ surprise of all, the quick unwinding of the
+ plot with the return of the grateful animals
+ according to promise. "And the old man was
+ glad, and the old woman was glad," and we are
+ glad for their sake, and also for the sake of
+ the bear and the wolf and the fox and the hare.
+
+
+THE STRAW OX
+
+There was once upon a time an old man and an old woman. The old man
+worked in the fields as a pitch-burner, while the old woman sat at home
+and spun flax. They were so poor that they could save nothing at all;
+all their earnings went in bare food, and when that was gone there was
+nothing left. At last the old woman had a good idea: "Look now,
+husband," cried she, "make me a straw ox, and smear it all over with
+tar."
+
+"Why, you foolish woman!" said he, "what's the good of an ox of that
+sort?"
+
+"Never mind," said she, "you just make it. I know what I am about."
+
+What was the poor man to do? He set to work and made the ox of straw,
+and smeared it all over with tar.
+
+The night passed away, and at early dawn the old woman took her distaff,
+and drove the straw ox out into the steppe to graze, and she herself sat
+down behind a hillock, and began spinning her flax, and cried: "Graze
+away, little ox, while I spin my flax. Graze away, little ox, while I
+spin my flax!"
+
+And while she spun, her head drooped down and she began to doze, and
+while she was dozing, from behind the dark wood and from the back of the
+huge pines a bear came rushing out upon the ox and said: "Who are you?
+Speak, and tell me!"
+
+And the ox said: "A three-year-old heifer am I, made of straw and
+smeared with tar."
+
+"Oh!" said the bear, "stuffed with straw and trimmed with tar, are you?
+Then give me your straw and tar, that I may patch up my ragged fur
+again!"
+
+"Take some," said the ox, and the bear fell upon him and began to tear
+away at the tar.
+
+He tore and tore, and buried his teeth in it till he found he couldn't
+let go again. He tugged and he tugged but it was no good, and the ox
+dragged him gradually off, goodness knows where.
+
+Then the old woman awoke, and there was no ox to be seen. "Alas! old
+fool that I am!" cried she, "perchance it has gone home." Then she
+quickly caught up her distaff and spinning board, threw them over her
+shoulders, and hastened off home, and she saw that the ox had dragged
+the bear up to the fence, and in she went to her old man.
+
+"Dad, dad," she cried, "look, look! The ox has brought us a bear. Come
+out and kill it!" Then the old man jumped up, tore off the bear, tied
+him up, and threw him in the cellar.
+
+Next morning, between dark and dawn, the old woman took her distaff and
+drove the ox into the steppe to graze. She herself sat down by a mound,
+began spinning, and said: "Graze, graze away, little ox, while I spin
+my flax! Graze, graze away, little ox, while I spin my flax!"
+
+And while she spun, her head drooped down and she dozed. And lo! from
+behind the dark wood, from the back of the huge pines, a gray wolf came
+rushing out upon the ox and said: "Who are you? Come, tell me!"
+
+"I am a three-year-old heifer, stuffed with straw and trimmed with tar,"
+said the ox.
+
+"Oh! trimmed with tar, are you? Then give me of your tar to tar my
+sides, that the dogs and the sons of dogs tear me not!"
+
+"Take some," said the ox. And with that the wolf fell upon him and tried
+to tear the tar off. He tugged and tugged, and tore with his teeth, but
+could get none off. Then he tried to let go, and couldn't; tug and worry
+as he might, it was no good.
+
+When the old woman woke, there was no heifer in sight. "Maybe my heifer
+has gone home!" she cried. "I'll go home and see." When she got there
+she was astonished for by the paling stood the ox with the wolf still
+tugging at it. She ran and told her old man, and her old man came and
+threw the wolf into the cellar also.
+
+On the third day the old woman again drove her ox into the pastures to
+graze, and sat down by a mound and dozed off. Then a fox came running
+up. "Who are you?" it asked the ox.
+
+"I'm a three-year-old heifer, stuffed with straw and daubed with tar."
+
+"Then give me some of your tar to smear my sides with, when those dogs
+and sons of dogs tear my hide!"
+
+"Take some," said the ox. Then the fox fastened her teeth in him and
+couldn't draw them out again. The old woman told her old man, and he
+took and cast the fox into the cellar in the same way. And after that
+they caught Pussy Swiftfoot likewise.
+
+So when he had got them all safely the old man sat down on a bench
+before the cellar and began sharpening a knife. And the bear said to
+him: "Tell me, daddy, what are you sharpening your knife for?"
+
+"To flay your skin off, that I may make a leather jacket for myself and
+a pelisse for my old woman."
+
+"Oh! Don't flay me, daddy dear! Rather let me go, and I'll bring you a
+lot of honey."
+
+"Very well, see you do it," and he unbound and let the bear go.
+
+Then he sat down on the bench and again began sharpening his knife. And
+the wolf asked him: "Daddy, what are you sharpening your knife for?"
+
+"To flay off your skin, that I may make me a warm cap against the
+winter."
+
+"Oh! Don't flay me, daddy dear, and I'll bring you a whole herd of
+little sheep."
+
+"Well, see that you do it," and he let the wolf go.
+
+Then he sat down, and began sharpening his knife again. The fox put out
+her little snout, and asked him: "Be so kind, dear daddy, and tell me
+why you are sharpening your knife!"
+
+"Little foxes," said the old man, "have nice skins that do capitally for
+collars and trimmings, and I want to skin you!"
+
+"Oh! Don't take my skin away, daddy dear, and I will bring you hens and
+geese."
+
+"Very well, see that you do it," and he let the fox go.
+
+The hare now alone remained, and the old man began sharpening his knife
+on the hare's account.
+
+"Why do you do that?" asked Puss. He replied: "Little hares have nice
+little, soft, warm skins, which will make me nice gloves and mittens
+against the winter!"
+
+"Oh! daddy dear! Don't flay me, and I'll bring you kale and good
+cauliflower, if only you let me go!"
+
+Then he let the hare go also.
+
+Then they went to bed; but very early in the morning, when it was
+neither dusk nor dawn, there was a noise in the doorway like "Durrrrrr!"
+
+"Daddy!" cried the old woman, "there's some one scratching at the door;
+go and see who it is!"
+
+The old man went out, and there was the bear carrying a whole hive full
+of honey. The old man took the honey from the bear; but no sooner did he
+lie down again than there was another "Durrrrr!" at the door. The old
+man looked out and saw the wolf driving a whole flock of sheep into the
+court-yard. Close on his heels came the fox, driving before him the
+geese and hens, and all manner of fowls; and last of all came the hare,
+bringing cabbage and kale, and all manner of good food.
+
+And the old man was glad, and the old woman was glad. And the old man
+sold the sheep and oxen, and got so rich that he needed nothing more.
+
+As for the straw-stuffed ox, it stood in the sun till it fell to pieces.
+
+
+
+187
+
+ "The Adventures of Connla the Comely" is one of
+ the romances in _The Book of the Dun Cow_, the
+ oldest manuscript of miscellaneous Gaelic
+ literature in existence. It was made about 1100
+ A.D. and is now preserved in the Royal Irish
+ Academy at Dublin. The contents were
+ transcribed from older books, some of the
+ stories being older by many centuries. The
+ story of Connla is "one of the many tales that
+ illustrate the ancient and widespread
+ superstition that fairies sometimes take away
+ mortals to their palaces in the fairy forts and
+ pleasant green hills." This conception is often
+ referred to as the Earthly Paradise or the Isle
+ of Youth. It is represented in the King Arthur
+ stories by the Vale of Avalon to which the
+ weeping queens carried the king after his
+ mortal wound in "that last weird battle in the
+ west." Conn the Hundred-fighter reigned in the
+ second century of the Christian era (123-157
+ A.D.), and this story of his son must have
+ sprung up soon after. According to Jacobs, it
+ is the oldest fairy tale of modern Europe.
+
+ The following version of the tale is from
+ Joseph Jacobs' _Celtic Fairy Tales_, which with
+ its companion volume, _More Celtic Fairy
+ Tales_, forms a standard source book for the
+ usable stories in that field. Mr. Jacobs, as
+ always, keeps to the authoritative versions
+ while reducing them to forms at once available
+ for educational purposes.
+
+
+CONNLA AND THE FAIRY MAIDEN
+
+Connla of the Fiery Hair was son of Conn of the Hundred Fights. One day
+as he stood by the side of his father on the height of Usna, he saw a
+maiden clad in strange attire towards him coming.
+
+"Whence comest thou, maiden?" said Connla.
+
+"I come from the Plains of the Ever Living," she said, "there where is
+neither death nor sin. There we keep holiday alway, nor need we help
+from any in our joy. And in all our pleasure we have no strife. And
+because we have our homes in the round green hills, men call us the Hill
+Folk."
+
+The king and all with him wondered much to hear a voice when they saw no
+one. For save Connla alone, none saw the Fairy Maiden.
+
+"To whom art thou talking, my son?" said Conn the king.
+
+Then the maiden answered, "Connla speaks to a young, fair maid, whom
+neither death nor old age awaits. I love Connla, and now I call him away
+to the Plain of Pleasure, Moy Mell, where Boadag is king for aye, nor
+has there been sorrow or complaint in that land since he held the
+kingship. Oh, come with me, Connla of the Fiery Hair, ruddy as the dawn,
+with thy tawny skin. A fairy crown awaits thee to grace thy comely face
+and royal form. Come, and never shall thy comeliness fade, nor thy
+youth, till the last awful day of judgment."
+
+The king in fear at what the maiden said, which he heard though he could
+not see her, called aloud to his Druid, Coran by name. "O Coran of the
+many spells," he said, "and of the cunning magic, I call upon thy aid. A
+task is upon me too great for all my skill and wit, greater than any
+laid upon me since I seized the kingship. A maiden unseen has met us,
+and by her power would take from me my dear, my comely son. If thou help
+not, he will be taken from thy king by woman's wiles and witchery."
+
+Then Coran the Druid stood forth and chanted his spells towards the spot
+where the maiden's voice had been heard. And none heard her voice again,
+nor could Connla see her longer. Only as she vanished before the Druid's
+mighty spell, she threw an apple to Connla.
+
+For a whole month from that day Connla would take nothing, either to eat
+or to drink, save only from that apple.
+
+But as he ate, it grew again and always kept whole. And all the while
+there grew within him a mighty yearning and longing after the maiden he
+had seen.
+
+But when the last day of the month of waiting came, Connla stood by the
+side of the king his father on the Plain of Arcomin, and again he saw
+the maiden come towards him, and again she spoke to him. "'Tis a
+glorious place, forsooth, that Connla holds among shortlived mortals
+awaiting the day of death. But now the folk of life, the ever-living
+ones, beg and bid thee come to Moy Mell, the Plain of Pleasure, for they
+have learnt to know thee, seeing thee in thy home among thy dear ones."
+
+When Conn the king heard the maiden's voice he called to his men aloud
+and said: "Summon swift my Druid Coran, for I see she has again this day
+the power of speech."
+
+Then the maiden said: "O mighty Conn, Fighter of a Hundred Fights, the
+Druid's power is little loved; it has little honor in the mighty land,
+peopled with so many of the upright. When the Law comes, it will do away
+with the Druid's magic spells that issue from the lips of the false
+black demon."
+
+Then Conn the king observed that since the coming of the maiden Connla
+his son spoke to none that spake to him. So Conn of the Hundred Fights
+said to him, "Is it to thy mind what the woman says, my son?"
+
+"'Tis hard upon me," said Connla; "I love my own folk above all things;
+but yet a longing seizes me for the maiden."
+
+When the maiden heard this, she answered and said: "The ocean is not so
+strong as the waves of thy longing. Come with me in my curragh, the
+gleaming, straight-gliding crystal canoe. Soon can we reach Boadag's
+realm. I see the bright sun sink, yet far as it is, we can reach it
+before dark. There is, too, another land worthy of thy journey, a land
+joyous to all that seek it. Only wives and maidens dwell there. If thou
+wilt, we can seek it and live there alone together in joy."
+
+When the maiden ceased to speak, Connla of the Fiery Hair rushed away
+from his kinsmen and sprang into the curragh, the gleaming,
+straight-gliding crystal canoe. And then they all, king and court, saw
+it glide away over the bright sea towards the setting sun, away and
+away, till eye could see it no longer. So Connla and the Fairy Maiden
+went forth on the sea, and were no more seen, nor did any know whither
+they went.
+
+
+
+188
+
+ One of the best of the volumes of Irish tales
+ is Lady Wilde's _Ancient Legends of Ireland_,
+ and one of the best stories in that volume is
+ her version of the witch story of "The Horned
+ Women." The story is compact and restrained in
+ the telling, and carries effectively to the
+ listener the "creepy" spell of the witches. The
+ way in which the house was prepared against the
+ enchantments of the returning witches furnishes
+ a good illustration of some of the deep-seated
+ superstitions of the folk.
+
+
+THE HORNED WOMEN
+
+A rich woman sat up late one night carding and preparing wool, while all
+the family and servants were asleep. Suddenly a knock was given at the
+door, and a voice called, "Open! Open!"
+
+"Who is there?" said the woman of the house.
+
+"I am the Witch of the one Horn," was answered.
+
+The mistress, supposing that one of her neighbors had called and
+required assistance, opened the door, and a woman entered, having in her
+hand a pair of wool carders, and bearing a horn on her forehead, as if
+growing there. She sat down by the fire in silence, and began to card
+the wool with violent haste. Suddenly she paused, and said aloud: "Where
+are the women; they delay too long."
+
+Then a second knock came to the door, and a voice called as before,
+"Open! Open!"
+
+The mistress felt herself constrained to rise and open to the call, and
+immediately a second witch entered, having two horns on her forehead,
+and in her hand a wheel for spinning wool.
+
+"Give me place," she said, "I am the Witch of the two Horns"; and she
+began to spin as quick as lightning.
+
+And so the knocks went on, and the call was heard, and the witches
+entered, until at last, twelve women sat round the fire--the first with
+one horn, the last with twelve horns.
+
+And they carded the thread, and turned their spinning wheels, and wound
+and wove.
+
+All were singing together an ancient rhyme, but no word did they speak
+to the mistress of the house. Strange to hear and frightful to look upon
+were these twelve women, with their horns and their wheels; and the
+mistress felt near to death, and she tried to rise that she might call
+for help, but she could not move, nor could she utter a word or a cry,
+for the spell of the witches was upon her.
+
+Then one of them called to her in Irish, and said, "Rise, woman, and
+make us a cake." Then the mistress searched for a vessel to bring water
+from the well that she might mix the meal and make the cake, but she
+could find none.
+
+And they said to her, "Take a sieve, and bring water in it." And she
+took the sieve and went to the well; but the water poured from it, and
+she could fetch none for the cake, and she sat down by the well and
+wept.
+
+Then came a voice by her, and said, "Take yellow clay and moss and bind
+them together, and plaster the sieve so that it will hold."
+
+This she did, and the sieve held the water for the cake; and the voice
+said again: "Return, and when thou comest to the north angle of the
+house cry aloud three times, and say, 'The mountain of the Fenian women
+and the sky over it is all on fire.'"
+
+And she did so.
+
+When the witches inside heard the call, a great and terrible cry broke
+from their lips, and they rushed forth with wild lamentations and
+shrieks, and fled away to Slievenamon, where was their chief abode. But
+the Spirit of the Well bade the mistress of the house to enter and
+prepare her home against the enchantments of the witches, if they
+returned again.
+
+And first, to break their spells, she sprinkled the water in which she
+had washed her child's feet (the feet-water) outside the door on the
+threshold; secondly, she took the cake which the witches had made in her
+absence, of meal mixed with the blood drawn from the sleeping family,
+and she broke the cake in bits, and placed a bit in the mouth of each
+sleeper, and they were restored; and she took the cloth they had woven,
+and placed it half in and half out of the chest with the padlock; and,
+lastly, she secured the door with a great crossbeam fastened in the
+jambs, so that they could not enter, and having done these things she
+waited.
+
+Not long were the witches in coming, and they raged and called for
+vengeance.
+
+"Open! Open!" they screamed. "Open, feet-water!"
+
+"I cannot," said the feet-water; "I am scattered on the ground, and my
+path is down to the Lough."
+
+"Open, open, wood and trees and beam!" they cried to the door.
+
+"I cannot," said the door, "for the beam is fixed in the jambs, and I
+have no power to move."
+
+"Open, open, cake that we have made and mingled with blood!" they cried
+again.
+
+"I cannot," said the cake, "for I am broken and bruised, and my blood is
+on the lips of the sleeping children."
+
+Then the witches rushed through the air with great cries, and fled back
+to Slievenamon, uttering strange curses on the Spirit of the Well, who
+had wished their ruin. But the woman and the house were left in peace,
+and a mantle dropped by one of the witches was kept hung up by the
+mistress as a sign of the night's awful contest; and this mantle was in
+possession of the same family from generation to generation for five
+hundred years after.
+
+
+
+189
+
+ The story of "King O'Toole and His Goose" is
+ from Samuel Lover's _Stories and Legends of the
+ Irish Peasantry_, as reprinted in slightly
+ abridged form in William Butler Yeats's _Irish
+ Fairy Tales_. The extreme form of the dialect
+ is kept as in the original, since the humor is
+ largely dependent on the language of the
+ peasant who tells the story. It will serve as a
+ good illustration for practice work for the
+ amateur story-teller. Probably most teachers
+ would find it necessary to "reduce" this
+ dialect or to eliminate it altogether. Mr.
+ Jacobs, who includes this story in his _Celtic
+ Fairy Tales_, reduces the dialect very
+ materially, keeping just enough to remind one
+ that it is Irish. He also says the final word
+ as to the moral of the story: "This is a moral
+ apologue on the benefits of keeping your word.
+ Yet it is told with such humor and vigor, that
+ the moral glides insensibly into the heart."
+
+
+KING O'TOOLE AND HIS GOOSE
+
+"By Gor, I thought all the world, far and near, heerd o' King
+O'Toole--well, well, but the darkness of mankind is ontellible! Well,
+sir, you must know, as you didn't hear it afore, that there was a king,
+called King O'Toole, who was a fine ould king in the ould ancient times,
+long ago; and it was him that owned the churches in the early days. The
+king, you see, was the right sort; he was the rale boy, and loved sport
+as he loved his life, and huntin' in partic'lar; and from the risin' o'
+the sun, up he got, and away he wint over the mountains beyant afther
+the deer; and the fine times them wor.
+
+"Well, it was all mighty good, as long as the king had his health; but,
+you see, in coorse of time the king grew ould, by raison he was stiff in
+his limbs, and when he got sthriken in years, his heart failed him, and
+he was lost intirely for want o' divarshin, bekase he couldn't go a
+huntin' no longer; and, by dad, the poor king was obleeged at last for
+to get a goose to divart him. Oh, you may laugh, if you like, but it's
+truth I'm tellin' you; and the way the goose divarted him was
+this-a-way: You see, the goose used for to swim across the lake, and go
+divin' for throut, and cotch fish on a Friday for the king, and flew
+every other day round about the lake, divartin' the poor king. All went
+on mighty well, antil, by dad, the goose got sthriken in years like her
+master, and couldn't divart him no longer, and then it was that the poor
+king was lost complate. The king was walkin' one mornin' by the edge of
+the lake, lamentin' his cruel fate, and thinkin' o' drownin' himself,
+that could get no divarshun in life, when all of a suddint, turnin'
+round the corner beyant, who should he meet but a mighty dacent young
+man comin' up to him.
+
+"'God save you,' says the king to the young man.
+
+"'God save you kindly, King O'Toole,' says the young man. 'Thrue for
+you,' says the king. 'I am King O'Toole,' says he, 'prince and
+plennypennytinchery o' these parts,' says he; 'but how kem ye to know
+that?' says he. 'Oh, never mind,' says Saint Kavin.
+
+"You see it was Saint Kavin, sure enough--the saint himself in disguise,
+and nobody else. 'Oh, never mind,' says he, 'I know more than that. May
+I make bowld to ax how is your goose, King O'Toole?' says he.
+'Bluran-agers, how kem ye to know about my goose?' says the king. 'Oh,
+no matther; I was given to understand it,' says Saint Kavin. After some
+more talk the king says, 'What are you?' 'I'm an honest man,' says Saint
+Kavin. 'Well, honest man,' says the king, 'and how is it you make your
+money so aisy?' 'By makin' ould things as good as new,' says Saint
+Kavin. 'Is it a tinker you are?' says the king. 'No,' says the saint;
+'I'm no tinker by thrade, King O'Toole; I've a betther thrade than a
+tinker,' says he--'what would you say,' says he, 'if I made your ould
+goose as good as new?'
+
+"My dear, at the word o' makin' his goose as good as new, you'd think
+the poor ould king's eyes was ready to jump out iv his head. With that
+the king whistled, and down kem the poor goose, all as one as a hound,
+waddlin' up to the poor cripple, her masther, and as like him as two
+pays. The minute the saint clapt his eyes on the goose, 'I'll do the job
+for you,' says he, 'King O'Toole.' 'By _Jaminee_!' says King O'Toole,
+'if you do, but I'll say you're the cleverest fellow in the sivin
+parishes.' 'Oh, by dad,' says Saint Kavin, 'you must say more nor
+that--my horn's not so soft all out,' says he, 'as to repair your ould
+goose for nothin'; what'll you gi' me if I do the job for you?--that's
+the chat,' says Saint Kavin. 'I'll give you whatever you ax,' says the
+king; 'isn't that fair?' 'Divil a fairer,' says the saint; 'that's the
+way to do business. Now,' says he, 'this is the bargain I'll make with
+you, King O'Toole: will you gi' me all the ground the goose flies over,
+the first offer, afther I make her as good as new?' 'I will,' says the
+king, 'You won't go back o' your word?' says Saint Kavin. 'Honor
+bright!' says King O'Toole, howldin' out his fist. 'Honor bright!' says
+Saint Kavin, back agin, 'it's a bargain. Come here!' says he to the poor
+ould goose--'come here, you unfort'nate ould cripple, and it's I that'll
+make you the sportin' bird.' With that, my dear, he took up the goose by
+the two wings--'Criss o' my crass and you,' says he, markin' her to
+grace with the blessed sign at the same minute--and throwin' her up in
+the air, 'whew,' says he, jist givin' her a blast to help her; and with
+that, my jewel, she tuk to her heels, flyin' like one o' the aigles
+themselves and cuttin' as many capers as a swallow before a shower of
+rain.
+
+"Well, my dear, it was a beautiful sight to see the king standin' with
+his mouth open, lookin' at his poor ould goose flyin' as light as a
+lark, and betther nor ever she was: and when she lit at his fut, patter
+her an the head, and, '_Ma vourneen_,' says he, 'but you are the
+_darlint_ o' the world.' 'And what do you say to me,' says Saint Kavin,
+'for makin' her the like?' 'By gor,' says the king, 'I say nothin' bates
+the art o' man, barrin' the bees.' 'And do you say no more nor that?'
+says Saint Kavin. 'And that I'm behoulden to you,' says the king. 'But
+will you give me all the ground the goose flew over?' says Saint Kavin.
+'I will,' says King O'Toole, 'and you're welkim to it,' says he, 'though
+it's the last acre I have to give.' 'But you'll keep your word thrue?'
+says the saint. 'As thrue as the sun,' says the king. 'It's well for
+you, King O'Toole, that you said that word,' says he; 'for if you didn't
+say that word, _the devil receave the bit o' your goose id ever fly
+agin_.'
+
+"Whin the king was as good as his word, Saint Kavin was _plazed_ with
+him, and thin it was that he made himself known to the king. 'And,' says
+he, 'King O'Toole, you're a dacent man, for I only kem here to _thry
+you_. You don't know me,' says he, 'bekase I'm disguised.' 'Musha!
+thin,' says the king, 'who are you?' 'I'm Saint Kavin,' said the Saint,
+blessin' himself. 'Oh, queen iv heaven!' says the king makin' the sign
+o' the crass betune his eyes, and fallin' down on his knees before the
+saint; 'is it the great Saint Kavin,' says he, 'that I've been
+discoorsin' all this time without knowin' it,' says he, 'all as one as
+if he was a lump iv a _gosson_?--and so you're a saint?' says the king.
+'I am,' says Saint Kavin. 'By gor, I thought I was only talking to a
+dacent boy,' says the king. 'Well, you know the differ now,' says the
+saint. 'I'm Saint Kavin,' says he, 'the greatest of all the saints.'
+
+"And so the king had his goose as good as new, to divart him as long as
+he lived: and the saint supported him afther he kem into his property,
+as I tould you, until the day iv his death--and that was soon afther;
+for the poor goose thought he was ketchin' a throut one Friday; but, my
+jewel, it was a mistake he made--and instead of a throut, it was a
+thievin' horse-eel; and by gor, instead iv the goose killin' a throut
+for the king's supper,--by dad, the eel killed the king's goose--and
+small blame to him; but he didn't ate her, bekase he darn't ate what
+Saint Kavin had laid his blessed hands on."
+
+
+
+
+SECTION IV
+
+
+FAIRY STORIES--MODERN FANTASTIC TALES
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+ Alden, Raymond Macdonald, _Why the Chimes Rang, and Other
+ Stories_.
+
+ Andersen, Hans Christian, _Fairy Tales_.
+
+ Barrie, Sir James Matthew, _The Little White Bird_. [Peter Pan.]
+
+ Baum, L. Frank, _The Wizard of Oz_.
+
+ Benson, A. C., _David Blaize and the Blue Door_.
+
+ Beston, H. B., _The Firelight Fairy Book_.
+
+ Brown, Abbie Farwell, _The Lonesomest Doll_.
+
+ Browne, Frances, _Granny's Wonderful Chair_.
+
+ Carryl, Charles E., _Davy and the Goblin_.
+
+ "Carroll, Lewis," _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_.
+
+ "Carroll, Lewis," _Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice
+ Found There_.
+
+ Chamisso, Adelbert von, _The Wonderful History of Peter
+ Schlemihl_.
+
+ "Collodi, C.," _The Adventures of Pinocchio_.
+
+ Cox, Palmer, _The Brownies: Their Book_.
+
+ Craik, Dinah Mulock, _Adventures of a Brownie_.
+
+ Craik, Dinah Mulock, _The Little Lame Prince and His
+ Traveling-Cloak_.
+
+ Crothers, Samuel McChord, _Miss Muffet's Christmas Party_.
+
+ Dickens, Charles, _A Christmas Carol_.
+
+ Ewald, Carl, _Two-Legs, and Other Stories_.
+
+ Grahame, Kenneth, _The Wind in the Willows_.
+
+ Harris, Joel Chandler, _Nights with Uncle Remus_.
+
+ Hawthorne, Nathaniel, "The Snow Image," "Little Daffydowndilly,"
+ "A Rill from the Town Pump."
+
+ Ingelow, Jean, _Mopsa the Fairy_.
+
+ Ingelow, Jean, _Stories Told to a Child_. 2 vols.
+
+ Jordan, David Starr, _The Book of Knight and Barbara_.
+
+ Lagerlof, Selma, _The Wonderful Adventures of Nils_.
+
+ La Motte-Fouque, F. de, _Undine_.
+
+ Lang, Andrew, _Prince Prigio_.
+
+ Kingsley, Charles, _The Water Babies_.
+
+ Maeterlinck, Maurice, _The Blue Bird_.
+
+ Macdonald, George, _The Princess and the Goblin_.
+
+ Macdonald, George, _At the Back of the North Wind_.
+
+ Pyle, Katherine, _In the Green Forest_.
+
+ Raspe, Rudolph Erich, _Baron Munchausen's Narrative_.
+
+ Richards, Laura E., _The Story of Toto_.
+
+ Richards, Laura E., _The Pig Brother_.
+
+ Ruskin, John, _The King of the Golden River_.
+
+ Stockton, Frank R., _Fanciful Tales_.
+
+ Swift, Jonathan, _Gulliver's Travels_.
+
+ Thackeray, William Makepeace, _The Rose and the Ring_.
+
+ Wilde, Oscar, _The Happy Prince, and Other Stories_.
+
+ Wilkins, Mary E., _The Pot of Gold_.
+
+
+
+SECTION IV: FAIRY STORIES--MODERN FANTASTIC TALES
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+The difficulties of classification are very apparent here, and once more
+it must be noted that illustrative and practical purposes rather than
+logical ones are served by the arrangement adopted. The modern fanciful
+story is here placed next to the real folk story instead of after all
+the groups of folk products. The Hebrew stories at the beginning belong
+quite as well, perhaps even better, in Section V, while the stories at
+the end of Section VI shade off into the more modern types of short
+tales. Then the fact that other groups of modern stories are to follow
+later, illustrating more realistic studies of life and the very recent
+and remarkably numerous writings centering around animal life, limits
+the list here. Many of the animal stories might, with equal propriety,
+be placed under the head of the fantastic.
+
+_The child's natural literature._ The world has lost certain secrets as
+the price of an advancing civilization. It is a commonplace of
+observation that no one can duplicate the success of Mother Goose,
+whether she be thought of as the maker of jingles or the teller of
+tales. The conditions of modern life preclude the generally naive
+attitude that produced the folk rhymes, ballads, tales, proverbs,
+fables, and myths. The folk saw things simply and directly. The complex,
+analytic, questioning mind is not yet, either in or out of stories. The
+motives from which people act are to them plain and not mixed.
+Characters are good or bad. They feel no need of elaborately explaining
+their joys and sorrows. Such experiences come with the day's work.
+"To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new." The zest of life with them
+is emphatic. Their humor is fresh, unbounded, sincere; there is no trace
+of cynicism. In folk literature we do not feel the presence of a
+"writer" who is mightily concerned about maintaining his reputation for
+wisdom, originality, or style. Hence the freedom from any note of
+straining after effect, of artificiality. In the midst of a life limited
+to fundamental needs, their literature deals with fundamentals. On the
+whole, it was a literature for entertainment. A more learned upper class
+may have concerned itself then about "problems" and "purposes," as the
+whole world does now, but the literature of the folk had no such
+interests.
+
+Without discussing the limits of the culture-epoch theory of human
+development as a complete guide in education, it is clear that the young
+child passes through a period when his mind looks out upon the world in
+a manner analogous to that of the folk as expressed in their literature.
+Quarrel with the fact as we may, it still remains a fact that his nature
+craves these old stories and will not be satisfied with something "just
+as good."
+
+_The modern fairy story._ The advance of civilization has been
+accompanied by a wistful longing for the simplicities left by the way.
+In some periods this interest in the past has been more marked than in
+others. When the machinery of life has weighed too heavily on the human
+spirit, men have turned for relief to a contemplation of the "good old
+times" and have preached crusades of a "return to nature." Many modern
+writers have tried to recapture some of the power of the folk tale by
+imitating its method. In many cases they have had a fair degree of
+success: in one case, that of Hans Christian Andersen, the success is
+admittedly very complete. As a rule, however, the sharpness of the sense
+of wonder has been blunted, and many imitators of the old fairy tale
+succeed in keeping only the shell. Another class of modern fantastic
+tale is that of the _pourquoi_ story, which has the explanation of
+something as its object. Such tales grow out of the attempt to use the
+charm of old stories as a means of conveying instruction, somewhat after
+the method of those parents who covered up our bitter medicine with some
+of our favorite jam. Even "Little Red Riding Hood," as we saw, has been
+turned into a flower myth. So compelling is this pedagogical motive that
+so-called nature myths have been invented or made from existing stories
+in great numbers. The practical results please many teachers, but it may
+be questioned whether the gain is sufficient to compensate children for
+the distorting results upon masterpieces.
+
+_Wide range of the modern fairy tale._ The bibliography will suggest
+something of the treasures in the field of the modern fanciful story.
+From the delightful nonsense of _Alice in Wonderland_ and the
+"travelers' tales" of _Baron Munchausen_ to the profound seriousness of
+_The King of the Golden River_ and _Why the Chimes Rang_ is a far cry.
+There are the rich fancies of Barrie and Maeterlinck, at the same time
+delicate as the promises of spring and brilliant as the fruitions of
+summer. One may be blown away to the land of Oz, he may lose his shadow
+with Peter Schlemihl, he may outdo the magic carpet with his
+Traveling-Cloak, he may visit the courts of kings with his Wonderful
+Chair; Miss Muffet will invite us to her Christmas party, Lemuel
+Gulliver will lead us to lands not marked in the school atlas; on every
+side is a world of wonder.
+
+_Some qualities of these modern tales._ Every age produces after its own
+fashion, and we must expect to find the modern user of the fairy-story
+method expressing through it the qualities of his own outlook upon the
+world. Interest in the picturesque aspects of landscape will be
+emphasized, as in the early portions of "The Story of Fairyfoot" and,
+with especial magnificence of style, throughout _The King of the Golden
+River_. There will appear the saddened mood of the modern in the face of
+the human miseries that make happiness a mockery, as in "The Happy
+Prince." The destructive effects of the possessive instinct upon all
+that is finest in human nature is reflected in "The Prince's Dream."
+That the most valuable efforts are often those performed with least
+spectacular settings may be discerned in "The Knights of the Silver
+Shield," while the lesson of kindly helpfulness is the burden of "Old
+Pipes and the Dryad." In many modern stories the reader is too much
+aware of the conscious efforts of style and structure. The thoughtful
+child will sometimes be too much distressed by the more somber modern
+story, and should not hear too many of the gloomy type.
+
+_Andersen the consummate master._ Hans Christian Andersen is the
+acknowledged master of the modern story for children. What are the
+sources of his success? Genius is always unexplainable except in terms
+of itself, but some things are clear. To begin, he makes a mark--drives
+down a peg: "There came a soldier marching along the high road--_one,
+two! one, two!_" and you are off. No backing and filling, no jockeying
+for position, no elaborate setting of the stage. The story's the thing!
+Next, the language is the language of common oral speech, free and
+unrestrained. The rigid forms of the grammar are eschewed. There is no
+beating around the bush. Seeing through the eyes of the child, he uses
+the language that is natural to such sight: "Aha! there sat the dog with
+eyes as big as mill-wheels." In quick dramatic fashion the story unrolls
+before your vision: "So the soldier cut the witch's head off. There she
+lay!" No agonizing over the cruelty of it, the lack of sympathy. It is a
+joke after the child's own heart, and with a hearty laugh at this end to
+an impostor, the listener is on with the story. The logic is the logic
+of childhood: "And everyone could see she was a real princess, for she
+was so lovely." When Andersen deals with some of the deeper truths of
+existence, as in "The Nightingale" or "The Ugly Duckling," he still
+manages to throw it all into the form that is natural and convincing and
+simple to the child. He never mounts a pedestal and becomes a grown-up
+philosopher. Perhaps Andersen's secret lay in the fact that some fairy
+godmother invested him at birth with a power to see things so completely
+as a child sees them that he never questioned the dignity of the method.
+In few of his stories is there any evidence of a constraint due to a
+conscious attempt to write down to the understandings of children.
+
+
+SUGGESTIONS FOR READING
+
+ The most valuable discussion of the
+ difficulties to be mastered in writing the
+ literary fairy tale, and the story of the only
+ very complete mastery yet made, will be found
+ in the account of Hans Christian Andersen in
+ _Eminent Authors of the Nineteenth Century_, by
+ Georg Brandes. Now and then hints of importance
+ on such stories and their value for children
+ may be found in biographies of the more
+ prominent writers represented in the section
+ and mentioned in the bibliography, and in
+ magazine articles and reviews. These latter may
+ be located by use of the periodical indexes
+ found in most libraries. For the proper
+ attitude which the schools should have toward
+ fiction and fanciful writing in general,
+ nothing could be better than two lectures on
+ "Children's Reading," in _On the Art of
+ Reading_, by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch.
+
+
+
+190
+
+ The rabbis of old were good story-tellers. They
+ were essentially teachers and they understood
+ that the best sermon is a story. "They were
+ fond of the parable, the anecdote, the apt
+ illustration, and their legends that have been
+ transmitted to us, all aglow with the light and
+ life of the Orient, possess perennial charm."
+ It is possible to find in rabbinical sources a
+ large number of brief stories that have the
+ power of entertaining as well as of emphasizing
+ some qualities of character that are important
+ in all ages. The plan of this book does not
+ include the wonderful stories of the Old
+ Testament, which are easy of access to any
+ teacher and may be used as experience directs.
+ The Hebrew stories following correspond very
+ nearly to the folk anecdote and are placed in
+ this section because of their literary form.
+
+ Dr. Abram S. Isaacs (1851--) is a professor in
+ New York University and is also a rabbi. The
+ selection that follows is from his _Stories
+ from the Rabbis_. (Copyrighted. Used by special
+ permission of The Bloch Publishing Company, New
+ York.) Taking advantage of the popular
+ superstition that a four-leaved clover is a
+ sign of good luck, Dr. Isaacs has grouped
+ together four parable-like stories, each of
+ which deals with wealth as a subject. The
+ editors are responsible for the special titles
+ given. The messages of these stories might be
+ summarized as follows: If you would be lucky,
+ (1) be honest because it is right to be honest,
+ (2) value good friends more highly than gold,
+ (3) let love accompany each gift of charity,
+ and (4) use common sense in your business
+ ventures.
+
+
+A FOUR-LEAVED CLOVER
+
+ABRAM S. ISAACS
+
+1. THE RABBI AND THE DIADEM
+
+Great was the alarm in the palace of Rome, which soon spread throughout
+the entire city. The Empress had lost her costly diadem, and it could
+not be found. They searched in every direction, but it was all in vain.
+Half distracted, for the mishap boded no good to her or her house, the
+Empress redoubled her exertions to regain her precious possession, but
+without result. As a last resource it was proclaimed in the public
+streets:
+
+"The Empress has lost a priceless diadem. Whoever restores it within
+thirty days shall receive a princely reward. But he who delays, and
+brings it after thirty days, shall lose his head."
+
+In those times all nationalities flocked toward Rome; all classes and
+creeds could be met in its stately halls and crowded thoroughfares.
+Among the rest was a rabbi, a learned sage from the East, who loved
+goodness and lived a righteous life, in the stir and turmoil of the
+Western world. It chanced one night as he was strolling up and down, in
+busy meditation, beneath the clear, moonlit sky, he saw the diadem
+sparkling at his feet. He seized it quickly, brought it to his dwelling,
+where he guarded it carefully until the thirty days had expired, when he
+resolved to return it to the owner.
+
+He proceeded to the palace, and, undismayed at sight of long lines of
+soldiery and officials, asked for an audience with the Empress.
+
+"What dost thou mean by this?" she inquired, when he told her his story
+and gave her the diadem. "Why didst thou delay until this hour? Dost
+thou know the penalty? Thy head must be forfeited."
+
+"I delayed until now," the rabbi answered calmly, "so that thou mightst
+know that I return thy diadem, not for the sake of the reward, still
+less out of fear of punishment; but solely to comply with the Divine
+command not to withhold from another the property which belongs to him."
+
+"Blessed be thy God!" the Empress answered, and dismissed the rabbi
+without further reproof; for had he not done right for right's sake?
+
+
+2. FRIENDSHIP
+
+A certain father was doubly blessed--he had reached a good old age, and
+had ten sons. One day he called them to his side, and after repeated
+expressions of affection, told them that he had acquired a fortune by
+industry and economy, and would give them one hundred gold pieces each
+before his death, so that they might begin business for themselves, and
+not be obliged to wait until he had passed away. It happened, however,
+that, soon after, he lost a portion of his property, much to his regret,
+and had only nine hundred and fifty gold pieces left. So he gave one
+hundred to each of his nine sons. When his youngest son, whom he loved
+most of all, asked naturally what was to be his share, the father
+replied:
+
+"My son, I promised to give each of thy brothers one hundred gold
+pieces. I shall keep my word to them. I have fifty left. Thirty I shall
+reserve for my funeral expenses, and twenty will be thy portion. But
+understand this--I possess, in addition, ten friends, whom I give over
+to thee as compensation for the loss of the eighty gold pieces. Believe
+me, they are worth more than all the gold and silver."
+
+The youth tenderly embraced his parent, and assured him that he was
+content, such was his confidence and affection. In a few days the father
+died, and the nine sons took their money, and without a thought of their
+youngest brother and the small amount he had received, followed each his
+own fancy. But the youngest son, although his portion was the least,
+resolved to heed his father's words, and hold fast to the ten friends.
+When a short time had elapsed he prepared a simple feast, went to the
+ten friends of his father, and said to them: "My father, almost in his
+last words, asked me to keep you, his friends, in honor. Before I leave
+this place to seek my fortune elsewhere, will you not share with me a
+farewell meal, and aid me thus to comply with his dying request?"
+
+The ten friends, stirred by his earnestness and cordiality, accepted his
+invitation with pleasure, and enjoyed the repast, although they were
+used to richer fare. When the moment for parting arrived, however, one
+of them rose and spoke: "My friends, it seems to me that of all the sons
+of our dear friend that has gone, the youngest alone is mindful of his
+father's friendship for us, and reverences his memory. Let us, then, be
+true friends to him, for his own sake as well, and provide for him a
+generous sum, that he may begin business here, and not be forced to live
+among strangers."
+
+The proposal, so unexpected and yet so merited, was received with
+applause. The youth, proud of their friendship, soon became a prosperous
+merchant, who never forgot that faithful friends were more valuable than
+gold or silver, and left an honored name to his descendants.
+
+
+3. TRUE CHARITY
+
+There lived once a very wealthy man, who cared little for money, except
+as a means for helping others. He used to adopt a peculiar plan in his
+method of charitable relief. He had three boxes made for the three
+different classes of people whom he desired to assist. In one box he put
+gold pieces, which he distributed among artists and scholars, for he
+honored knowledge and learning as the highest possession. In the second
+box he placed silver pieces for widows and orphans, for whom his
+sympathies were readily awakened. In the third were copper coins for the
+general poor and beggars--no one was turned away from his dwelling
+without some gift, however small.
+
+That the man was beloved by all, need hardly be said. He rejoiced that
+he was enabled to do so much good, retained his modest bearing, and
+continued to regard his wealth as only an incentive to promote the
+happiness of mankind, without distinction of creed or nationality.
+Unhappily, his wife was just the opposite. She rarely gave food or
+raiment to the poor, and felt angry at her husband's liberality, which
+she considered shameless extravagance.
+
+The day came when in the pressure of various duties he had to leave his
+house, and could not return until the morrow. Unaware of his sudden
+departure, the poor knocked at the door as usual for his kind gifts; but
+when they found him absent, they were about to go away or remain in the
+street, being terrified at the thought of asking his wife for alms.
+Vexed at their conduct, she exclaimed impetuously: "I will give to the
+poor according to my husband's method."
+
+She seized the keys of the boxes, and first opened the box of gold. But
+how great was her terror when she gazed at its contents--frogs jumping
+here and there. Then she went to the silver box, and it was full of
+ants. With troubled heart, she opened the copper box, and it was crowded
+with creeping bugs. Loud then were her complaints, and bitter her tears,
+at the deception, and she kept her room until her husband returned.
+
+No sooner did the man enter the room, annoyed that so many poor people
+were kept waiting outside, than she asked him: "Why did you give me keys
+to boxes of frogs, ants, and bugs, instead of gold, silver, and copper?
+Was it right thus to deceive your wife, and disappoint the poor?"
+
+"Not so," rejoined her husband. "The mistake must be yours, not mine. I
+have given you the right keys. I do not know what you have done with
+them. Come, let me have them. I am guiltless of any deception." He took
+the keys, quickly opened the boxes, and found the coins as he had left
+them. "Ah, dear wife," said he, when she had regained her composure,
+"your heart, I fear, was not in the gift, when you wished to give to the
+poor. It is the feeling that prompts us to aid, not the mere money,
+which is the chief thing after all."
+
+And ever after, her heart was changed. Her gifts blessed the poor of the
+land, and aroused their love and reverence.
+
+
+4. AN EASTERN GARDEN
+
+In an Eastern city a lovely garden flourished, whose beauty and
+luxuriance awakened much admiration. It was the owner's greatest
+pleasure to watch its growth, as leaf, flower, and tree seemed daily to
+unfold to brighter bloom. One morning, while taking his usual stroll
+through the well-kept paths, he was surprised to find that some
+blossoms were picked to pieces. The next day he noticed more signs of
+mischief, and rendered thus more observant he gave himself no rest until
+he had discovered the culprit. It was a little trembling bird, whom he
+managed to capture, and was about to kill in his anger, when it
+exclaimed: "Do not kill me, I beg you, kind sir. I am only a wee, tiny
+bird. My flesh is too little to satisfy you. I would not furnish
+one-hundredth of a meal to a man of your size. Let me free without any
+hesitation, and I shall teach you something that will be of much use to
+you and your friends."
+
+"I would dearly like to put an end to you," replied the man, "for you
+were rapidly putting an end to my garden. It is a good thing to rid the
+world of such annoyances. But as I am not revengeful, and am always glad
+to learn something useful, I shall set you free this time." And he
+opened his hand to give the bird more air.
+
+"Attention!" cried the bird. "Here are three rules which should guide
+you through life, and if you observe them you will find your path made
+easier: Do not cry over spilt milk; do not desire what is unattainable,
+and do not believe what is impossible."
+
+The man was satisfied with the advice, and let the bird escape; but it
+had scarcely regained its liberty, when, from a high tree opposite, it
+exclaimed:
+
+"What a silly man! The idea of letting me escape! If you only knew what
+you have lost! But it is too late now."
+
+"What have I lost?" the man asked, angrily.
+
+"Why, if you had killed me, as you intended, you would have found inside
+of me a huge pearl, as large as a goose's egg, and you would have been a
+wealthy man forever."
+
+"Dear little bird," the man said in his blandest tones; "sweet little
+bird, I will not harm you. Only come down to me, and I will treat you as
+if you were my own child, and give you fruit and flowers all day. I
+assure you of this most sacredly."
+
+But the bird shook its head sagely, and replied: "What a silly man, to
+forget so soon the advice which was given him in all seriousness. I told
+you not to cry over spilt milk, and here you are, worrying over what has
+happened. I urged you not to desire the unattainable, and now you wish
+to capture me again. And, finally, I asked you not to believe what is
+impossible, and you are rashly imagining that I have a huge pearl inside
+of me, when a goose's egg is larger than my whole body. You ought to
+learn your lessons better in the future, if you would become wise,"
+added the bird, as with another twist of its head it flew away, and was
+lost in the distance.
+
+
+
+191
+
+ A classic collection of short stories from the
+ ancient Hebrew sages is the little book,
+ _Hebrew Tales_, published in London in 1826 by
+ the noted Jewish scholar Hyman Hurwitz
+ (1770-1844). A modern handy edition of this
+ book (about sixty tales) is published as Vol.
+ II of the Library of Jewish Classics. Of
+ special interest is the fact that it contained
+ three stories by the poet Samuel Taylor
+ Coleridge, who had published them first in his
+ periodical, _The Friend_. Coleridge was much
+ interested in Hebrew literature, and especially
+ fond of speaking in parables, as those who know
+ "The Ancient Mariner" will readily recall. The
+ following is one of the three stories referred
+ to, and it had prefixed to it the significant
+ text, "The Lord helpeth man and beast." (Psalm
+ XXXVI, 6.)
+
+
+THE LORD HELPETH MAN AND BEAST
+
+SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
+
+During his march to conquer the world, Alexander, the Macedonian, came
+to a people in Africa who dwelt in a remote and secluded corner, in
+peaceful huts, and knew neither war nor conqueror. They led him to the
+hut of their chief, who received him hospitably, and placed before him
+golden dates, golden figs, and bread of gold.
+
+"Do you eat gold in this country?" said Alexander.
+
+"I take it for granted," replied the chief, "that thou wert able to find
+eatable food in thine own country. For what reason, then, art thou come
+amongst us?"
+
+"Your gold has not tempted me hither," said Alexander, "but I would
+become acquainted with your manners and customs."
+
+"So be it," rejoined the other: "sojourn among us as long as it pleaseth
+thee."
+
+At the close of this conversation, two citizens entered, as into their
+court of justice. The plaintiff said, "I bought of this man a piece of
+land, and as I was making a deep drain through it, I found a treasure.
+This is not mine, for I only bargained for the land, and not for any
+treasure that might be concealed beneath it; and yet the former owner of
+the land will not receive it." The defendant answered, "I hope I have a
+conscience, as well as my fellow citizen. I sold him the land with all
+its contingent, as well as existing advantages, and consequently, the
+treasure inclusively."
+
+The chief, who was at the same time their supreme judge, recapitulated
+their words, in order that the parties might see whether or not he
+understood them aright. Then, after some reflection, said: "Thou hast a
+son, friend, I believe?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And thou," addressing the other, "a daughter?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, then, let thy son marry _thy_ daughter, and bestow the treasure
+on the young couple for a marriage portion." Alexander seemed surprised
+and perplexed. "Think you my sentence unjust?" the chief asked him.
+
+"Oh, no!" replied Alexander; "but it astonishes me."
+
+"And how, then," rejoined the chief, "would the case have been decided
+in your country?"
+
+"To confess the truth," said Alexander, "we should have taken both
+parties into custody, and have seized the treasure for the king's use."
+
+"For the king's use!" exclaimed the chief; "does the sun shine on that
+country?"
+
+"Oh, yes!"
+
+"Does it rain there?"
+
+"Assuredly."
+
+"Wonderful! But are there tame animals in the country, that live on the
+grass and green herbs?"
+
+"Very many, and of many kinds."
+
+"Ay, that must, then, be the cause," said the chief: "for the sake of
+those innocent animals the All-gracious Being continues to let the sun
+shine, and the rain drop down on your country; since its inhabitants are
+unworthy of such blessings."
+
+
+
+192
+
+ By almost common consent Hans Christian
+ Andersen (1805-1875), the Danish author, is the
+ acknowledged master of all modern writers of
+ fairy tales. He was born in poverty, the son of
+ a poor shoemaker. With a naturally keen
+ dramatic sense, his imagination was stirred by
+ stories from the _Arabian Nights_ and La
+ Fontaine's _Fables_, by French and Spanish
+ soldiers marching through his native city, and
+ by listening to the wonderful folk tales of his
+ country. On a toy stage and with toy actors,
+ these vivid impressions took actual form. The
+ world continued a dramatic spectacle to him
+ throughout his existence. His consuming
+ ambition was for the stage, but he had none of
+ the personal graces so necessary for success.
+ He was ungainly and awkward, like his "ugly
+ duckling." But when at last he began to write,
+ he had the power to transfer to the page the
+ vivid dramas in his mind, and this power
+ culminated in the creation of fairy stories for
+ children which he began to publish in 1835. It
+ is usual to say that Andersen, like Peter Pan,
+ "never grew up," and it is certain that he
+ never lost the power of seeing things as
+ children see them. Like many great writers
+ whose fame now rests on the suffrages of child
+ readers, Andersen seems at first to have felt
+ that the _Tales_ were slight and beneath his
+ dignity. They are not all of the same high
+ quality. Occasionally one of them becomes "too
+ sentimental and sickly sweet," but the best of
+ them have a sturdiness that is thoroughly
+ refreshing.
+
+ The most acute analysis of the elements of
+ Andersen's greatness as the ideal writer for
+ children is that made by his fellow-countryman
+ Georg Brandes in _Eminent Authors of the
+ Nineteenth Century_. A briefer account on
+ similar lines will be found in H. J. Boyesen's
+ _Scandinavian Literature_. A still briefer
+ account, eminently satisfactory for an
+ introduction to Andersen, by Benjamin W. Wells,
+ is in Warner's _Library of the World's Best
+ Literature_. The interested student cannot, of
+ course, afford to neglect Andersen's own _The
+ Story of My Life_. Among the more elaborate
+ biographies the _Life of Hans Christian
+ Andersen_ by R. Nisbet Bain is probably the
+ best. The first translation of the _Tales_ into
+ English was made by Mary Howitt in 1846 and, as
+ far as it goes, is still regarded as one of the
+ finest. However, Andersen has been very
+ fortunate in his many translators. The version
+ by H. W. Dulcken has been published in many
+ cheap forms and perhaps more widely read than
+ any other. In addition to the stories in the
+ following pages, some of those most suitable
+ for use are "The Little Match Girl," "The
+ Silver Shilling," "Five Peas in the Pod," "Hans
+ Clodhopper," and "The Snow Queen." The latter
+ is one of the longest and an undoubted
+ masterpiece.
+
+ The first two stories following are taken from
+ Mrs. Henderson's _Andersen's Best Fairy Tales_.
+ (Copyright. Rand McNally & Co.) This little
+ book contains thirteen stories in a very simple
+ translation and also an excellent story of
+ Andersen's life in a form most attractive to
+ children. "The Princess and the Pea" is a story
+ for the story's sake. The humor, perhaps
+ slightly satirical, is based upon the notion so
+ common in the old folk tales that royal
+ personages are decidedly more delicate than the
+ person of low degree. However, the tendency to
+ think oneself of more consequence than another
+ is not confined to any one class.
+
+
+THE REAL PRINCESS
+
+HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
+
+(Version by Alice Corbin Henderson)
+
+There was once a Prince who wanted to marry a Princess. But it was only
+a _real_ Princess that he wanted to marry.
+
+He traveled all over the world to find a real one. But, although there
+were plenty of princesses, whether they were _real_ princesses he could
+never discover. There was always something that did not seem quite right
+about them.
+
+At last he had to come home again. But he was very sad, because he
+wanted to marry a _real_ Princess.
+
+One night there was a terrible storm. It thundered and lightened and the
+rain poured down in torrents. In the middle of the storm there came a
+knocking, knocking, knocking at the castle gate. The kind old King
+himself went down to open the castle gate.
+
+It was a young Princess that stood outside the gate. The wind and the
+rain had almost blown her to pieces. Water streamed out of her hair and
+out of her clothes. Water ran in at the points of her shoes and out
+again at the heels. Yet she said that she was a _real_ Princess.
+
+"Well, we will soon find out about that!" thought the Queen.
+
+She said nothing, but went into the bedroom, took off all the bedding,
+and put a small dried pea on the bottom of the bedstead. Then she piled
+twenty mattresses on top of the pea, and on top of these she put twenty
+feather beds. This was where the Princess had to sleep that night.
+
+In the morning they asked her how she had slept through the night.
+
+"Oh, miserably!" said the Princess. "I hardly closed my eyes the whole
+night long! Goodness only knows what was in my bed! I slept upon
+something so hard that I am black and blue all over. It was dreadful!"
+
+So then they knew that she was a _real_ Princess. For, through the
+twenty mattresses and the twenty feather beds, she had still felt the
+pea. No one but a _real_ Princess could have had such a tender skin.
+
+So the Prince took her for his wife. He knew now that he had a _real_
+Princess.
+
+As for the pea, it was put in a museum where it may still be seen if no
+one has carried it away.
+
+Now this is a true story!
+
+
+
+193
+
+ With some dozen exceptions, all of Andersen's
+ _Tales_ are based upon older stories, either
+ upon some old folk tale or upon something that
+ he ran across in his reading. Dr. Brandes, in
+ his _Eminent Authors_, shows in detail how "The
+ Emperor's New Clothes" came into being. "One
+ day in turning over the leaves of Don Manuel's
+ _Count Lucanor_, Andersen became charmed by the
+ homely wisdom of the old Spanish story, with
+ the delicate flavor of the Middle Ages
+ pervading it, and he lingered over chapter vii,
+ which treats of how a king was served by three
+ rogues." But Andersen's story is a very
+ different one in many ways from his Spanish
+ original. For one thing, the meaning is so
+ universal that no one can miss it. Most of us
+ have, in all likelihood, at some time pretended
+ to know what we do not know or to be what we
+ are not in order to save our face, to avoid the
+ censure or ridicule of others. "There is much
+ concerning which people dare not speak the
+ truth, through cowardice, through fear of
+ acting otherwise than 'all the world,' through
+ anxiety lest they should appear stupid. And the
+ story is eternally new and it never ends. It
+ has its grave side, but just because of its
+ endlessness it has also its humorous side."
+ When the absurd bubble of the grand procession
+ is punctured by the child, whose mental honesty
+ has not yet been spoiled by the pressure of
+ convention, the Emperor "held himself stiffer
+ than ever, and the chamberlains carried the
+ invisible train." For it would never do to hold
+ up the procession!
+
+
+THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES
+
+HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
+
+(Version by Alice Corbin Henderson)
+
+Many years ago there lived an Emperor who thought so much of new clothes
+that he spent all his money on them. He did not care for his soldiers;
+he did not care to go to the theater. He liked to drive out in the park
+only that he might show off his new clothes. He had a coat for every
+hour of the day. They usually say of a king, "He is in the council
+chamber." But of the Emperor they said, "He is in the clothes closet!"
+
+It was a gay city in which the Emperor lived. And many strangers came to
+visit it every day. Among these, one day, there came two rogues who set
+themselves up as weavers. They said they knew how to weave the most
+beautiful cloths imaginable. And not only were the colors and patterns
+used remarkably beautiful, but clothes made from this cloth could not be
+seen by any one who was unfit for the office he held or was too stupid
+for any use.
+
+"Those would be fine clothes!" thought the Emperor. "If I wore those I
+could find out what men in my empire were not fit for the places they
+held. I could tell the clever men from the dunces! I must have some
+clothes woven for me at once!"
+
+So he gave the two rogues a great deal of money that they might begin
+their work at once.
+
+The rogues immediately put up two looms and pretended to be working. But
+there was nothing at all on their looms. They called for the finest
+silks and the brightest gold, but this they put into their pockets. At
+the empty looms they worked steadily until late into the night.
+
+"I should like to know how the weavers are getting on with my clothes,"
+thought the Emperor.
+
+But he felt a little uneasy when he thought that any one who was stupid
+or was not fit for his office would be unable to see the cloth. Of
+course he had no fears for himself; but still he thought he would send
+some one else first, just to see how matters stood.
+
+"I will send my faithful old Minister to the weavers," thought the
+Emperor. "He can see how the stuff looks, for he is a clever man, and no
+one is so careful in fulfilling duties as he is!"
+
+So the good old Minister went into the room where the two rogues sat
+working at the empty looms.
+
+"Mercy on us!" thought the old Minister, opening his eyes wide, "I can't
+see a thing!" But he didn't care to say so.
+
+Both the rascals begged him to be good enough to step a little nearer.
+They pointed to the empty looms and asked him if he did not think the
+pattern and the coloring wonderful. The poor old Minister stared and
+stared as hard as he could, but he could not see anything, for, of
+course, there was nothing to see!
+
+"Mercy!" he said to himself. "Is it possible that I am a dunce? I never
+thought so! Certainly no one must know it. Am I unfit for office? It
+will never do to say that I cannot see the stuff!"
+
+"Well, sir, why do you say nothing of it?" asked the rogue who was
+pretending to weave.
+
+"Oh, it is beautiful--charming!" said the old Minister, peering through
+his spectacles. "What a fine pattern, and what wonderful colors! I shall
+tell the Emperor that I am very much pleased with it."
+
+"Well, we are glad to hear you say so," answered the two swindlers.
+
+Then they named all the colors of the invisible cloth upon the looms,
+and described the peculiar pattern. The old Minister listened intently,
+so that he could repeat all that was said of it to the Emperor.
+
+The rogues now began to demand more money, more silk, and more gold
+thread in order to proceed with the weaving. All of this, of course,
+went into their pockets. Not a single strand was ever put on the empty
+looms at which they went on working.
+
+The Emperor soon sent another faithful friend to see how soon the new
+clothes would be ready. But he fared no better than the Minister. He
+looked and looked and looked, but still saw nothing but the empty looms.
+
+"Isn't that a pretty piece of stuff?" asked both rogues, showing and
+explaining the handsome pattern which was not there at all.
+
+"I am not stupid!" thought the man. "It must be that I am not worthy of
+my good position. That is, indeed, strange. But I must not let it be
+known!"
+
+So he praised the cloth he did not see, and expressed his approval of
+the color and the design that were not there. To the Emperor he said,
+"It is charming!"
+
+Soon everybody in town was talking about the wonderful cloth that the
+two rogues were weaving.
+
+The Emperor began to think now that he himself would like to see the
+wonderful cloth while it was still on the looms. Accompanied by a number
+of his friends, among whom were the two faithful officers who had
+already beheld the imaginary stuff, he went to visit the two men who
+were weaving, might and main, without any fiber and without any thread.
+
+"Isn't it splendid!" cried the two statesmen who had already been there,
+and who thought the others would see something upon the empty looms.
+"Look, your Majesty! What colors! And what a design!"
+
+"What's this?" thought the Emperor. "I see nothing at all! Am I a dunce?
+Am I not fit to be Emperor? That would be the worst thing that could
+happen to me, if it were true."
+
+"Oh, it is very pretty!" said the Emperor aloud. "It has my highest
+approval!"
+
+He nodded his head happily, and stared at the empty looms. Never would
+he say that he could see nothing!
+
+His friends, too, gazed and gazed, but saw no more than had the others.
+Yet they all cried out, "It is beautiful!" and advised the Emperor to
+wear a suit made of this cloth in a great procession that was soon to
+take place.
+
+"It is magnificent, gorgeous!" was the cry that went from mouth to
+mouth. The Emperor gave each of the rogues a royal ribbon to wear in his
+buttonhole, and called them the Imperial Court Weavers.
+
+The rogues were up the whole night before the morning of the procession.
+They kept more than sixteen candles burning. The people could see them
+hard at work, completing the new clothes of the Emperor. They took yards
+of stuff down from the empty looms; they made cuts in the air with big
+scissors; they sewed with needles without thread; and, at last, they
+said, "The clothes are ready!"
+
+The Emperor himself, with his grandest courtiers, went to put on his new
+suit.
+
+"See!" said the rogues, lifting their arms as if holding something.
+"Here are the trousers! Here is the coat! Here is the cape!" and so on.
+"It is as light as a spider's web. One might think one had nothing on.
+But that is just the beauty of it!"
+
+"Very nice," said the courtiers. But they could see nothing; for there
+_was_ nothing!
+
+"Will your Imperial Majesty be graciously pleased to take off your
+clothes," asked the rogues, "so that we may put on the new ones before
+this long mirror?"
+
+The Emperor took off all his own clothes, and the two rogues pretended
+to put on each new garment as it was ready. They wrapped him about, and
+they tied and they buttoned. The Emperor turned round and round before
+the mirror.
+
+"How well his Majesty looks in his new clothes!" said the people. "How
+becoming they are! What a pattern! What colors! It is a beautiful
+dress!"
+
+"They are waiting outside with the canopy which is to be carried over
+your Majesty in the procession," said the master of ceremonies.
+
+"I am ready," said the Emperor. "Don't the clothes fit well?" he asked,
+giving a last glance into the mirror as though he were looking at all
+his new finery.
+
+The men who were to carry the train of the Emperor's cloak stooped down
+to the floor as if picking up the train, and then held it high in the
+air. They did not dare let it be known that they could see nothing.
+
+So the Emperor marched along under the bright canopy. Everybody in the
+streets and at the windows cried out: "How beautiful the Emperor's new
+clothes are! What a fine train! And they fit to perfection!"
+
+No one would let it be known that he could see nothing, for that would
+have proved that he was unfit for office or that he was very, very
+stupid. None of the Emperor's clothes had ever been as successful as
+these.
+
+"But he has nothing on!" said a little child.
+
+"Just listen to the innocent!" said its father.
+
+But one person whispered to another what the child had said. "He has
+nothing on! A child says he has nothing on!"
+
+"But he has nothing on!" at last cried all the people.
+
+The Emperor writhed, for he knew that this was true. But he realized
+that it would never do to stop the procession. So he held himself
+stiffer than ever, and the chamberlains carried the invisible train.
+
+
+
+194
+
+ In his story "The Nightingale," Andersen
+ suggests that the so-called upper class of
+ society may become so conventionalized as to be
+ unable to appreciate true beauty. Poor
+ fishermen and the little kitchen girl in the
+ story recognize the beauty of the exquisite
+ song of the nightingale, and Andersen shows his
+ regard for royalty by having the emperor
+ appreciate it twice. The last part of the story
+ is especially impressive. When Death approached
+ the emperor and took from him the symbols that
+ had made him rank above his fellows, the
+ emperor saw the realities of life and again
+ perceived the beauty of the nightingale's song.
+ This contact with real life made Death shrink
+ away. Then the emperor learned Andersen's
+ message to artificial society: If you would
+ behold true beauty, you must have it in your
+ own heart.
+
+
+THE NIGHTINGALE
+
+HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
+
+In China, you must know, the Emperor is a Chinaman, and all whom he has
+about him are Chinamen too. It happened a good many years ago, but
+that's just why it's worth while to hear the story before it is
+forgotten. The Emperor's palace was the most splendid in the world; it
+was made entirely of porcelain, very costly, but so delicate and brittle
+that one had to take care how one touched it. In the garden were to be
+seen the most wonderful flowers, and to the costliest of them silver
+bells were tied, which sounded, so that nobody should pass by without
+noticing the flowers. Yes, everything in the Emperor's garden was
+admirably arranged. And it extended so far that the gardener himself did
+not know where the end was. If a man went on and on, he came into a
+glorious forest with high trees and deep lakes. The wood extended
+straight down to the sea, which was blue and deep; great ships could
+sail, too, beneath the branches of the trees; and in the trees lived a
+Nightingale, which sang so splendidly that even the poor fisherman, who
+had many other things to do, stopped still and listened, when he had
+gone out at night to throw out his nets, and heard the Nightingale.
+
+"How beautiful that is!" he said; but he was obliged to attend to his
+property, and thus forgot the bird. But when the next night the bird
+sang again, and the fisherman heard it, he exclaimed again, "How
+beautiful that is!"
+
+From all the countries of the world travelers came to the city of the
+Emperor, and admired it, and the palace and the garden, but when they
+heard the Nightingale, they said, "That is the best of all!"
+
+And the travelers told of it when they came home; and the learned men
+wrote many books about the town, the palace, and the garden. But they
+did not forget the Nightingale; that was placed highest of all; and
+those who were poets wrote most magnificent poems about the Nightingale
+in the wood by the deep lake.
+
+The books went through all the world, and a few of them once came to the
+Emperor. He sat in his golden chair, and read, and read: every moment he
+nodded his head, for it pleased him to peruse the masterly descriptions
+of the city, the palace, and the garden. "But the Nightingale is the
+best of all," it stood written there.
+
+"What's that?" exclaimed the Emperor. "I don't know the Nightingale at
+all! Is there such a bird in my empire, and even in my garden? I've
+never heard of that. To think that I should have to learn such a thing
+for the first time from books!"
+
+And hereupon he called his cavalier. This cavalier was so grand that if
+anyone lower in rank than himself dared to speak to him, or to ask him
+any question, he answered nothing but "P!"--and that meant nothing.
+
+"There is said to be a wonderful bird here called a Nightingale," said
+the Emperor. "They say it is the best thing in all my great empire. Why
+have I never heard anything about it?"
+
+"I have never heard him named," replied the cavalier. "He has never been
+introduced at Court."
+
+"I command that he shall appear this evening, and sing before me," said
+the Emperor. "All the world knows what I possess, and I do not know it
+myself!"
+
+"I have never heard him mentioned," said the cavalier. "I will seek for
+him. I will find him."
+
+But where was he to be found? The cavalier ran up and down all the
+staircases, through halls and passages, but no one among all those whom
+he met had heard talk of the Nightingale. And the cavalier ran back to
+the Emperor, and said that it must be a fable invented by the writers of
+books.
+
+"Your Imperial Majesty cannot believe how much is written that is
+fiction, besides something that they call the black art."
+
+"But the book in which I read this," said the Emperor, "was sent to me
+by the high and mighty Emperor of Japan and therefore it cannot be a
+falsehood. I _will_ hear the Nightingale! It must be here this evening!
+It has my imperial favor; and if it does not come, all the Court shall
+be trampled upon after the Court has supped!"
+
+"Tsing-pe!" said the cavalier; and again he ran up and down all the
+staircases, and through all the halls and corridors; and half the Court
+ran with him, for the courtiers did not like being trampled upon.
+
+Then there was a great inquiry after the wonderful Nightingale, which
+all the world knew excepting the people at Court.
+
+At last they met with a poor little girl in the kitchen, who said:
+
+"The Nightingale? I know it well; yes, it can sing gloriously. Every
+evening I get leave to carry my poor sick mother the scraps from the
+table. She lives down by the strand; and when I get back and am tired,
+and rest in the wood, then I hear the Nightingale sing. And then the
+water comes into my eyes, and it is just as if my mother kissed me."
+
+"Little kitchen girl," said the cavalier, "I will get you a place in the
+Court kitchen, with permission to see the Emperor dine, if you will but
+lead us to the Nightingale, for it is announced for this evening."
+
+So they all went out into the wood where the Nightingale was accustomed
+to sing; half the Court went forth. When they were in the midst of their
+journey a cow began to low.
+
+"Oh!" cried the Court pages, "now we have it! That shows a wonderful
+power in so small a creature! I have certainly heard it before."
+
+"No, those are cows lowing," said the little kitchen girl. "We are a
+long way from the place yet."
+
+Now the frogs began to croak in the marsh.
+
+"Glorious!" said the Chinese Court preacher. "Now I hear it--it sounds
+just like little church bells."
+
+"No, those are frogs," said the little kitchen maid. "But now I think we
+shall soon hear it."
+
+And then the Nightingale began to sing.
+
+"That is it!" exclaimed the little girl. "Listen, listen! and yonder it
+sits."
+
+And she pointed to a little gray bird up in the boughs.
+
+"Is it possible?" cried the cavalier. "I should never have thought it
+looked like that! How simple it looks! It must certainly have lost its
+color at seeing such grand people around."
+
+"Little Nightingale!" called the little kitchen maid, quite loudly, "our
+gracious Emperor wishes you to sing before him."
+
+"With the greatest pleasure!" replied the Nightingale, and began to sing
+most delightfully.
+
+"It sounds just like glass bells!" said the cavalier. "And look at its
+little throat, how it's working! It's wonderful that we should never
+have heard it before. That bird will be a great success at Court."
+
+"Shall I sing once more before the Emperor?" inquired the Nightingale,
+for it thought the Emperor was present.
+
+"My excellent little Nightingale," said the cavalier, "I have great
+pleasure in inviting you to a Court festival this evening, when you
+shall charm his Imperial Majesty with your beautiful singing."
+
+"My song sounds best in the green wood," replied the Nightingale; still
+it came willingly when it heard what the Emperor wished.
+
+The palace was festively adorned. The walls and the flooring, which were
+of porcelain, gleamed in the rays of thousands of golden lamps. The most
+glorious flowers, which could ring clearly, had been placed in the
+passages. There was a running to and fro, and a thorough draught, and
+all the bells rang so loudly that one could not hear one's self speak.
+
+In the midst of the great hall, where the Emperor sat, a golden perch
+had been placed, on which the Nightingale was to sit. The whole Court
+was there, and the little cook-maid had got leave to stand behind the
+door, as she had now received the title of a real Court cook. All were
+in full dress, and all looked at the little gray bird, to which the
+Emperor nodded.
+
+And the Nightingale sang so gloriously that the tears came into the
+Emperor's eyes, and the tears ran down over his cheeks; then the
+Nightingale sang still more sweetly, that went straight to the heart.
+The Emperor was so much pleased that he said the Nightingale should have
+his golden slipper to wear round its neck. But the Nightingale declined
+this with thanks, saying it had already received a sufficient reward.
+
+"I have seen tears in the Emperor's eyes--that is the real treasure to
+me. An Emperor's tears have a peculiar power. I am rewarded enough!" And
+then it sang again with a sweet, glorious voice.
+
+"That's the most amiable coquetry I ever saw!" said the ladies who stood
+round about, and then they took water in their mouths to gurgle when
+anyone spoke to them. They thought they should be nightingales too. And
+the lackeys and chambermaids reported that they were satisfied also; and
+that was saying a good deal, for they are the most difficult to please.
+In short, the Nightingale achieved a real success.
+
+It was now to remain at Court, to have its own cage, with liberty to go
+out twice every day and once at night. Twelve servants were appointed
+when the Nightingale went out, each of whom had a silken string fastened
+to the bird's legs, which they held very tight. There was really no
+pleasure in an excursion of that kind.
+
+The whole city spoke of the wonderful bird, and whenever two people met,
+one said nothing but "Nightin," and the other said "gale"; and then they
+both sighed, and understood one another. Eleven pedlars' children were
+named after the bird, but not one of them could sing a note.
+
+One day the Emperor received a large parcel, on which was written, "The
+Nightingale."
+
+"There we have a new book about this celebrated bird," said the
+Emperor.
+
+But it was not a book, but a little work of art, contained in a box--an
+artificial nightingale, which was to sing like a natural one, and was
+brilliantly ornamented with diamonds, sapphires, and rubies. So soon as
+the artificial bird was wound up, he could sing one of the pieces that
+he really sang, and then his tail moved up and down, and shone with
+silver and gold. Round his neck hung a little ribbon, and on that was
+written, "The Emperor of China's nightingale is poor compared to that of
+the Emperor of Japan."
+
+"That is capital!" said they all, and he who had brought the artificial
+bird immediately received the title, Imperial Head-Nightingale-Bringer.
+
+"Now they must sing together; what a duet that will be!" cried the
+courtiers.
+
+And so they had to sing together; but it did not sound very well, for
+the real Nightingale sang its own way, and the artificial bird sang
+waltzes.
+
+"That's not his fault," said the playmaster; "he's quite perfect, and
+very much in my style."
+
+Now the artificial bird was to sing alone. It had just as much success
+as the real one, and then it was much handsomer to look at--it shone
+like bracelets and breastpins.
+
+Three and thirty times over did it sing the same piece, and yet was not
+tired. The people would gladly have heard it again, but the Emperor said
+that the living Nightingale ought to sing something now. But where was
+it? No one had noticed that it had flown away out of the open window,
+back to the green wood.
+
+"But what has become of that?" asked the Emperor.
+
+And all the courtiers abused the Nightingale, and declared that it was a
+very ungrateful creature.
+
+"We have the best bird after all," said they.
+
+And so the artificial bird had to sing again, and that was the
+thirty-fourth time that they listened to the same piece. For all that
+they did not know it quite by heart, for it was so very difficult. And
+the playmaster praised the bird particularly; yes, he declared that it
+was better than a nightingale, not only with regard to its plumage and
+the many beautiful diamonds, but inside as well.
+
+"For you see, ladies and gentlemen, and above all, your Imperial
+Majesty, with a real nightingale one can never calculate what is coming,
+but in this artificial bird, everything is settled. One can explain it;
+one can open it and make people understand where the waltzes come from,
+how they go, and how one follows up another."
+
+"Those are quite our own ideas," they all said.
+
+And the speaker received permission to show the bird to the people on
+the next Sunday. The people were to hear it sing too, the Emperor
+commanded: and they did hear it, and were as much pleased as if they had
+all got tipsy upon tea, for that's quite the Chinese fashion, and they
+all said, "Oh!" and held up their forefingers and nodded. But the poor
+fisherman, who had heard the real Nightingale, said:
+
+"It sounds pretty enough, and the melodies resemble each other, but
+there's something wanting, though I know not what!"
+
+The real Nightingale was banished from the country and empire. The
+artificial bird had its place on a silken cushion close to the
+Emperor's bed; all the presents it had received, gold and precious
+stones, were ranged about it; in title it had advanced to be the High
+Imperial After-Dinner-Singer, and in rank to Number One on the left
+hand; for the Emperor considered that side the most important on which
+the heart is placed, and even in an Emperor the heart is on the left
+side; and the playmaster wrote a work of five and twenty volumes about
+the artificial bird; it was very learned and very long, full of the most
+difficult Chinese words; but yet all the people declared that they had
+read it and understood it, for fear of being considered stupid, and
+having their bodies trampled on.
+
+So a whole year went by. The Emperor, the Court, and all the other
+Chinese knew every little twitter in the artificial bird's song by
+heart. But just for that reason it pleased them best--they could sing
+with it themselves, and they did so. The street boys sang,
+"Tsi-tsi-tsi-glug-glug!" and the Emperor himself sang it too. Yes, that
+was certainly famous.
+
+But one evening, when the artificial bird was singing its best, and the
+Emperor lay in bed listening to it, something inside the bird said,
+"Whizz!" Something cracked. "Whir-r-r!" All the wheels ran round, and
+then the music stopped.
+
+The Emperor immediately sprang out of bed, and caused his body physician
+to be called; but what could _he_ do? Then they sent for a watchmaker,
+and after a good deal of talking and investigation, the bird was put
+into something like order, but the watchmaker said that the bird must be
+carefully treated, for the barrels were worn, and it would be impossible
+to put new ones in in such a manner that the music would go. There was a
+great lamentation; only once in the year was it permitted to let the
+bird sing, and that was almost too much. But then the playmaster made a
+little speech full of heavy words, and said this was just as good as
+before--and so of course it was as good as before.
+
+Now five years had gone by, and a real grief came upon the whole nation.
+The Chinese were really fond of their Emperor, and now he was ill, and
+could not, it was said, live much longer. Already a new Emperor had been
+chosen, and the people stood out in the street and asked the cavalier
+how the Emperor did.
+
+"P!" said he, and shook his head.
+
+Cold and pale lay the Emperor in his great, gorgeous bed; the whole
+Court thought him dead, and each one ran to pay homage to the new ruler.
+The chamberlains ran out to talk it over, and the ladies' maids had a
+great coffee party. All about, in all the halls and passages, cloth had
+been laid down so that no footstep could be heard, and therefore it was
+quiet there, quite quiet. But the Emperor was not dead yet; stiff and
+pale he lay on the gorgeous bed, with the long velvet curtains and the
+heavy gold tassels; high up, a window stood open, and the moon shone in
+upon the Emperor and the artificial bird.
+
+The poor Emperor could scarcely breathe; it was just as if something lay
+upon his chest; he opened his eyes, and then he saw that it was Death
+who sat upon his chest, and had put on his golden crown, and held in one
+hand the Emperor's sword, in the other his beautiful banner. And all
+around, from among the folds of the splendid velvet curtains, strange
+heads peered forth; a few very ugly, the rest quite lovely and mild.
+These were all the Emperor's bad and good deeds, that stood before him
+now that Death sat upon his heart.
+
+"Do you remember this?" whispered one to the other. "Do you remember
+that?" and then they told him so much that the perspiration ran from his
+forehead.
+
+"I did not know that!" said the Emperor. "Music! music! the great
+Chinese drum!" he cried, "so that I need not hear all they say!"
+
+And they continued speaking, and Death nodded like a Chinaman to all
+they said.
+
+"Music! music!" cried the Emperor. "You little precious golden bird,
+sing, sing! I have given you gold and costly presents; I have even hung
+my golden slipper around your neck--sing now, sing!"
+
+But the bird stood still; no one was there to wind him up, and he could
+not sing without that; but Death continued to stare at the Emperor with
+his great, hollow eyes, and it was quiet, fearfully quiet.
+
+Then there sounded from the window, suddenly, the most lovely song. It
+was the little live Nightingale, that sat outside on a spray. It had
+heard of the Emperor's sad plight, and had come to sing to him of
+comfort and hope. As it sang the specters grew paler and paler; the
+blood ran quicker and more quickly through the Emperor's weak limbs; and
+even Death listened, and said:
+
+"Go on, little Nightingale, go on!"
+
+"But will you give me that splendid golden sword? Will you give me that
+rich banner? Will you give me the Emperor's crown?"
+
+And Death gave up each of these treasures for a song. And the
+Nightingale sang on and on; and it sang of the quiet churchyard where
+the white roses grow, where the elder blossoms smell sweet, and where
+the fresh grass is moistened by the tears of survivors. Then Death felt
+a longing to see his garden, and floated out at the window in the form
+of a cold white mist.
+
+"Thanks! thanks!" said the Emperor. "You heavenly little bird; I know
+you well. I banished you from my country and empire, and yet you have
+charmed away the evil faces from my couch, and banished Death from my
+heart! How can I reward you?"
+
+"You have rewarded me!" replied the Nightingale. "I have drawn tears
+from your eyes, when I sang the first time--I shall never forget that.
+Those are the jewels that rejoice a singer's heart. But now sleep, and
+grow fresh and strong again. I will sing you something."
+
+And it sang, and the Emperor fell into a sweet slumber. Ah! how mild and
+refreshing that sleep was! The sun shone upon him through the windows
+when he awoke refreshed and restored: not one of his servants had yet
+returned, for they all thought he was dead; only the Nightingale still
+sat beside him and sang.
+
+"You must always stay with me," said the Emperor. "You shall sing as you
+please; and I'll break the artificial bird into a thousand pieces."
+
+"Not so," replied the Nightingale. "It did well as long as it could;
+keep it as you have done till now. I cannot build my nest in the palace
+to dwell in it, but let me come when I feel the wish; then I will sit in
+the evening on the spray yonder by the window, and sing you something,
+so that you may be glad and thoughtful at once. I will sing of those who
+are happy and of those who suffer. I will sing of good and of evil that
+remains hidden round about you. The little singing bird flies far
+around, to the poor fisherman, to the peasant's roof, to everyone who
+dwells far away from you and from your Court. I love your heart more
+than your crown, and yet the crown has an air of sanctity about it. I
+will come and sing to you--but one thing you must promise me."
+
+"Every thing!" said the Emperor; and he stood there in his imperial
+robes, which he had put on himself, and pressed the sword which was
+heavy with gold to his heart.
+
+"One thing I beg of you: tell no one that you have a little bird who
+tells you everything. Then it will go all the better."
+
+And the Nightingale flew away.
+
+The servants came in to look at their dead Emperor, and--yes, there he
+stood, and the Emperor said, "Good-morning!"
+
+
+
+195
+
+ This story is a favorite for the Christmas
+ season. It is loosely constructed, and rambles
+ along for some time after it might have been
+ expected to finish. Such rambling is often very
+ attractive to childish listeners, as it allows
+ the introduction of unexpected incidents. Miss
+ Kready has some interesting suggestions about
+ dramatizing this story in her _Study of Fairy
+ Tales_, pp. 151-153. The translation is
+ Dulcken's.
+
+
+THE FIR TREE
+
+HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
+
+Out in the forest stood a pretty little Fir Tree. It had a good place;
+it could have sunlight, air there was in plenty, and all around grew
+many larger comrades--pines as well as firs. But the little Fir Tree
+wished ardently to become greater. It did not care for the warm sun and
+the fresh air; it took no notice of the peasant children, who went about
+talking together, when they had come out to look for strawberries and
+raspberries. Often they came with a whole pot-full, or had strung
+berries on a straw; then they would sit down by the little Fir Tree and
+say, "How pretty and small that one is!" and the Fir Tree did not like
+to hear that at all.
+
+Next year he had grown a great joint, and the following year he was
+longer still, for in fir trees one can always tell by the number of
+rings they have how many years they have been growing.
+
+"Oh, if I were only as great a tree as the other!" sighed the little
+Fir, "then I would spread my branches far around, and look out from my
+crown into the wide world. The birds would then build nests in my
+boughs, and when the wind blew I could nod just as grandly as the others
+yonder."
+
+It took no pleasure in the sunshine, in the birds, and in the red clouds
+that went sailing over him morning and evening.
+
+When it was winter, and the snow lay all around, white and sparkling, a
+hare would often come jumping along, and spring right over the little
+Fir Tree. Oh! this made him so angry. But two winters went by, and when
+the third came the little Tree had grown so tall that the hare was
+obliged to run round it.
+
+"Oh! to grow, to grow, and become old; that's the only fine thing in the
+world," thought the Tree.
+
+In the autumn woodcutters always came and felled a few of the largest
+trees; that was done this year too, and the little Fir Tree, that was
+now quite well grown, shuddered with fear, for the great stately trees
+fell to the ground with a crash, and their branches were cut off, so
+that the trees looked quite naked, long, and slender--they could hardly
+be recognized. But then they were laid upon wagons, and horses dragged
+them away out of the wood. Where were they going? What destiny awaited
+them?
+
+In the spring, when the Swallows and the Stork came, the Tree asked
+them, "Do you know where they were taken? Did you not meet them?"
+
+The Swallows knew nothing about it, but the Stork looked thoughtful,
+nodded his head, and said:
+
+"Yes, I think so. I met many new ships when I flew out of Egypt; on the
+ships were stately masts; I fancy these were the trees. They smelt like
+fir. I can assure you they're stately--very stately."
+
+"Oh that I were only big enough to go over the sea! What kind of thing
+is this sea, and how does it look?"
+
+"It would take too long to explain all that," said the Stork, and he
+went away.
+
+"Rejoice in thy youth," said the Sunbeams; "rejoice in thy fresh growth,
+and in the young life that is within thee."
+
+And the wind kissed the Tree, and the dew wept tears upon it; but the
+Fir Tree did not understand that.
+
+When Christmas-time approached, quite young trees were felled, sometimes
+trees which were neither so old nor so large as this Fir Tree, that
+never rested, but always wanted to go away. These young trees, which
+were always the most beautiful, kept all their branches; they were put
+upon wagons, and horses dragged them away out of the wood.
+
+"Where are they all going?" asked the Fir Tree. "They are not greater
+than I--indeed, one of them was much smaller. Why do they keep all their
+branches? Whither are they taken?"
+
+"We know that! We know that!" chirped the Sparrows. "Yonder in the town
+we looked in at the windows. We know where they go. Oh! they are dressed
+up in the greatest pomp and splendor that can be imagined. We have
+looked in at the windows, and have perceived that they are planted in
+the middle of a warm room, and adorned with the most beautiful
+things--gilt apples, honey-cakes, playthings, and many hundred candles."
+
+"And then?" asked the Fir Tree, and trembled through all its branches.
+"And then? What happens then?"
+
+"Why, we have not seen anything more. But it was incomparable."
+
+"Perhaps I may be destined to tread this glorious path one day!" cried
+the Fir Tree, rejoicingly. "That is even better than traveling across
+the sea. How painfully I long for it! If it were only Christmas now! Now
+I am great and grown up, like the rest who were led away last year. Oh,
+if I were only on the carriage! If I were only in the warm room, among
+all the pomp and splendor! And then? Yes, then something even better
+will come, something far more charming, or else why should they adorn me
+so? There must be something grander, something greater still to come;
+but what? Oh! I'm suffering, I'm longing! I don't know myself what is
+the matter with me!"
+
+"Rejoice in us," said Air and Sunshine. "Rejoice in thy fresh youth here
+in the woodland."
+
+But the Fir Tree did not rejoice at all, but it grew and grew; winter
+and summer it stood there, green, dark green. The people who saw it
+said, "That's a handsome tree!" and at Christmas time it was felled
+before any one of the others. The ax cut deep into its marrow, and the
+tree fell to the ground with a sigh; it felt a pain, a sensation of
+faintness, and could not think at all of happiness, for it was sad at
+parting from its home, from the place where it had grown up; it knew
+that it should never again see the dear old companions, the little
+bushes and flowers all around--perhaps not even the birds. The parting
+was not at all agreeable.
+
+The Tree only came to itself when it was unloaded in a yard, with other
+trees, and heard a man say:
+
+"This one is famous; we want only this one!"
+
+Now two servants came in gay liveries, and carried the Fir Tree into a
+large, beautiful saloon. All around the walls hung pictures, and by the
+great stove stood large Chinese vases with lions on the covers; there
+were rocking-chairs, silken sofas, great tables covered with picture
+books, and toys worth a hundred times a hundred dollars, at least the
+children said so. And the Fir Tree was put into a great tub filled with
+sand; but no one could see that it was a tub, for it was hung round with
+green cloth, and stood on a large, many-colored carpet. Oh, how the Tree
+trembled! What was to happen now? The servants, and the young ladies
+also, decked it out. On one branch they hung little nets, cut out of
+colored paper; every net was filled with sweetmeats; golden apples and
+walnuts hung down, as if they grew there, and more than a hundred little
+candles, red, white, and blue, were fastened to the different boughs.
+Dolls that looked exactly like real people--the tree had never seen such
+before--swung among the foliage, and high on the summit of the Tree was
+fixed a tinsel star. It was splendid, particularly splendid.
+
+"This evening," said all, "this evening it will shine."
+
+"Oh," thought the Tree, "that it were evening already! Oh, that the
+lights may be soon lit up! When may that be done? I wonder if trees will
+come out of the forest to look at me? Will the sparrows fly against the
+panes? Shall I grow fast here, and stand adorned in summer and winter?"
+
+Yes, he did not guess badly. But he had a complete backache from mere
+longing, and the backache is just as bad for a Tree as the headache for
+a person.
+
+At last the candles were lighted. What a brilliance, what splendor! The
+Tree trembled so in all its branches that one of the candles set fire to
+a green twig, and it was scorched.
+
+"Heaven preserve us!" cried the young ladies; and they hastily put the
+fire out.
+
+Now the Tree might not even tremble. Oh, that was terrible! It was so
+afraid of setting fire to some of its ornaments, and it was quite
+bewildered with all the brilliance. And now the folding doors were
+thrown open, and a number of children rushed in as if they would have
+overturned the whole Tree; the older people followed more deliberately.
+The little ones stood quite silent, but only for a minute; then they
+shouted till the room rang: they danced gleefully round the Tree, and
+one present after another was plucked from it.
+
+"What are they about?" thought the Tree. "What's going to be done?"
+
+And the candles burned down to the twigs, and as they burned down they
+were extinguished, and then the children received permission to plunder
+the Tree. Oh! they rushed in upon it, so that every branch cracked
+again: if it had not been fastened by the top and by the golden star to
+the ceiling, it would have fallen down.
+
+The children danced about with their pretty toys. No one looked at the
+Tree except one old man, who came up and peeped among the branches, but
+only to see if a fig or an apple had not been forgotten.
+
+"A story! A story!" shouted the children; and they drew a little fat man
+toward the tree; and he sat down just beneath it--"for then we shall be
+in the green wood," said he, "and the tree may have the advantage of
+listening to my tale. But I can only tell one. Will you hear the story
+of Ivede-Avede, or of Klumpey-Dumpey, who fell downstairs, and still was
+raised up to honor and married the Princess?"
+
+"Ivede-Avede!" cried some, "Klumpey-Dumpey!" cried others, and there was
+a great crying and shouting. Only the Fir Tree was quite silent, and
+thought, "Shall I not be in it? Shall I have nothing to do in it?" But
+he had been in the evening's amusement, and had done what was required
+of him.
+
+And the fat man told about Klumpey-Dumpey who fell downstairs, and yet
+was raised to honor and married the Princess. And the children clapped
+their hands, and cried, "Tell another! tell another!" for they wanted to
+hear about Ivede-Avede; but they only got the story of Klumpey-Dumpey.
+The Fir Tree stood quite silent and thoughtful; never had the birds in
+the wood told such a story as that. Klumpey-Dumpey fell downstairs, and
+yet came to honor and married the Princess!
+
+"Yes, so it happens in the world!" thought the Fir Tree, and believed it
+must be true, because that was such a nice man who told it. "Well, who
+can know? Perhaps I shall fall downstairs, too, and marry a Princess!"
+And it looked forward with pleasure to being adorned again, the next
+evening, with candles and toys, gold and fruit. "To-morrow I shall not
+tremble," it thought.
+
+"I will rejoice in all my splendor. To-morrow I shall hear the story of
+Klumpey-Dumpey again, and perhaps that of Ivede-Avede, too."
+
+And the Tree stood all night quiet and thoughtful.
+
+In the morning the servants and the chambermaid came in.
+
+"Now my splendor will begin afresh," thought the Tree. But they dragged
+him out of the room, and upstairs to the garret, and here they put him
+in a dark corner where no daylight shone.
+
+"What's the meaning of this?" thought the Tree. "What am I to do here?
+What is to happen?"
+
+And he leaned against the wall, and thought, and thought. And he had
+time enough, for days and nights went by, and nobody came up; and when
+at length someone came, it was only to put some great boxes in a corner.
+Now the Tree stood quite hidden away, and the supposition is that it was
+quite forgotten.
+
+"Now it's winter outside," thought the Tree. "The earth is hard and
+covered with snow, and people cannot plant me; therefore I suppose I'm
+to be sheltered here until spring comes. How considerate that is! How
+good people are! If it were only not so dark here, and so terribly
+solitary!--not even a little hare? That was pretty out there in the
+wood, when the snow lay thick and the hare sprang past; yes, even when
+he jumped over me; but then I did not like it. It is terribly lonely up
+here!"
+
+"Piep! piep!" said a little Mouse, and crept forward, and then came
+another little one. They smelt at the Fir Tree, and then slipped among
+the branches.
+
+"It's horribly cold," said the two little Mice, "or else it would be
+comfortable here. Don't you think so, you old Fir Tree?"
+
+"I'm not old at all," said the Fir Tree. "There are many much older than
+I."
+
+"Where do you come from?" asked the Mice. "And what do you know?" They
+were dreadfully inquisitive. "Tell us about the most beautiful spot on
+earth. Have you been there? Have you been in the store room, where
+cheeses lie on the shelves, and hams hang from the ceiling, where one
+dances on tallow candles, and goes in thin and comes out fat?"
+
+"I don't know that," replied the Tree; "but I know the wood, where the
+sun shines and the birds sing."
+
+And then it told all about its youth.
+
+And the little Mice had never heard anything of the kind; and they
+listened and said:
+
+"What a number of things you have seen! How happy you must have been!"
+
+"I?" replied the Fir Tree; and it thought about what it had told. "Yes,
+those were really quite happy times." But then he told of the Christmas
+Eve, when he had been hung with sweetmeats and candles.
+
+"Oh!" said the little Mice, "how happy you have been, you old Fir Tree!"
+
+"I'm not old at all," said the Tree. "I only came out of the wood this
+winter. I'm only rather backward in my growth."
+
+"What splendid stories you can tell!" said the little Mice.
+
+And next night they came with four other little Mice, to hear what the
+Tree had to relate; and the more it said, the more clearly did it
+remember everything, and thought, "Those were quite merry days! But they
+may come again. Klumpey-Dumpey fell downstairs, and yet he married the
+Princess. Perhaps I may marry a Princess too!" And the Fir Tree thought
+of a pretty little Birch Tree that grew out in the forest; for the Fir
+Tree, that Birch was a real Princess.
+
+"Who's Klumpey-Dumpey?" asked the little Mice.
+
+And then the Fir Tree told the whole story. It could remember every
+single word; and the little Mice were ready to leap to the very top of
+the tree with pleasure. Next night a great many more Mice came, and on
+Sunday two Rats even appeared; but these thought the story was not
+pretty, and the little Mice were sorry for that, for now they also did
+not like it so much as before.
+
+"Do you only know one story?" asked the Rats.
+
+"Only that one," replied the Tree. "I heard that on the happiest evening
+of my life; I did not think then how happy I was."
+
+"That's a very miserable story. Don't you know any about bacon and
+tallow candles--a store-room story?"
+
+"No," said the Tree.
+
+"Then we'd rather not hear you," said the Rats.
+
+And they went back to their own people. The little Mice at last stayed
+away also; and then the Tree sighed and said:
+
+"It was very nice when they sat round me, the merry little Mice, and
+listened when I spoke to them. Now that's past too. But I shall remember
+to be pleased when they take me out."
+
+But when did that happen? Why, it was one morning that people came and
+rummaged in the garret: the boxes were put away, and the Tree brought
+out; they certainly threw him rather roughly on the floor, but a servant
+dragged him away at once to the stairs, where the daylight shone.
+
+"Now life is beginning again!" thought the Tree.
+
+It felt the fresh air and the first sunbeams, and now it was out in the
+courtyard. Everything passed so quickly that the Tree quite forgot to
+look at itself, there was so much to look at all round. The courtyard
+was close to a garden, and here everything was blooming; the roses hung
+fresh and fragrant over the little paling, the linden trees were in
+blossom, and the swallows cried, "Quinze-wit! quinze-wit! my husband's
+come!" But it was not the Fir Tree that they meant.
+
+"Now I shall live!" said the Tree, rejoicingly, and spread its branches
+far out; but, alas! they were all withered and yellow; and it lay in the
+corner among nettles and weeds. The tinsel star was still upon it, and
+shone in the bright sunshine.
+
+In the courtyard a couple of the merry children were playing who had
+danced round the tree at Christmas time, and had rejoiced over it. One
+of the youngest ran up and tore off the golden star.
+
+"Look what is sticking to the ugly old fir tree!" said the child, and he
+trod upon the branches till they cracked again under his boots.
+
+And the Tree looked at all the blooming flowers and the splendor of the
+garden, and then looked at itself, and wished it had remained in the
+dark corner of the garret; it thought of its fresh youth in the wood, of
+the merry Christmas Eve, and of the little Mice which had listened so
+pleasantly to the story of Klumpey-Dumpey.
+
+"Past! past!" said the old Tree. "Had I but rejoiced when I could have
+done so! Past! past!"
+
+And the servant came and chopped the Tree into little pieces; a whole
+bundle lay there; it blazed brightly under the great brewing copper, and
+it sighed deeply, and each sigh was like a little shot; and the children
+who were at play there ran up and seated themselves at the fire, looked
+into it, and cried "Puff! puff!" But at each explosion, which was a deep
+sigh, the Tree thought of a summer day in the woods, or of a winter
+night there, when the stars beamed; he thought of Christmas Eve and of
+Klumpey-Dumpey, the only story he had ever heard or knew how to tell;
+and then the Tree was burned.
+
+The boys played in the garden, and the youngest had on his breast a
+golden star, which the Tree had worn on its happiest evening. Now that
+was past, and the Tree's life was past, and the story is past too: past!
+past!--and that's the way with all stories.
+
+
+
+196
+
+ The tale that follows was one of the author's
+ earliest stories, published in 1835. It is
+ clearly based upon an old folk tale, one
+ variant of which is "The Blue Light" from the
+ Grimm collection (No. 174). "It was a lucky
+ stroke," says Brandes, "that made Andersen the
+ poet of children. After long fumbling, after
+ unsuccessful efforts, which must necessarily
+ throw a false and ironic light on the
+ self-consciousness of a poet whose pride based
+ its justification mainly on the expectancy of a
+ future which he felt slumbering within his
+ soul, after wandering about for long years,
+ Andersen . . . one evening found himself in front
+ of a little insignificant yet mysterious door,
+ the door of the nursery story. He touched it,
+ it yielded, and he saw, burning in the
+ obscurity within, the little 'Tinder-Box' that
+ became his Aladdin's lamp. He struck fire with
+ it, and the spirits of the lamp--the dogs with
+ eyes as large as tea-cups, as mill-wheels, as
+ the round tower in Copenhagen--stood before him
+ and brought him the three giant chests,
+ containing all the copper, silver, and gold
+ treasure stories of the nursery story. The
+ first story had sprung into existence, and the
+ 'Tinder-Box' drew all the others onward in its
+ train. Happy is he who has found his
+ 'tinder-box.'" The translation is by H. W.
+ Dulcken.
+
+THE TINDER-BOX
+
+HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
+
+There came a soldier marching along the high road--_one, two! one, two!_
+He had his knapsack on his back and a saber by his side, for he had been
+in the wars, and now he wanted to go home. And on the way he met with an
+old witch; she was very hideous, and her under lip hung down upon her
+breast. She said, "Good evening, soldier. What a fine sword you have,
+and what a big knapsack! You're a proper soldier! Now you shall have as
+much money as you like to have."
+
+"I thank you, you old witch!" said the soldier.
+
+"Do you see that great tree?" quoth the witch; and she pointed to a tree
+which stood beside them. "It's quite hollow inside. You must climb to
+the top, and then you'll see a hole, through which you can let yourself
+down and get deep into the tree. I'll tie a rope round your body, so
+that I can pull you up again when you call me."
+
+"What am I to do down in the tree?" asked the soldier.
+
+"Get money," replied the witch. "Listen to me. When you come down to the
+earth under the tree, you will find yourself in a great hall: it is
+quite light, for above three hundred lamps are burning there. Then you
+will see three doors; those you can open, for the keys are hanging
+there. If you go into the first chamber, you'll see a great chest in the
+middle of the floor; on this chest sits a dog, and he's got a pair of
+eyes as big as two tea-cups. But you need not care for that. I'll give
+you my blue-checked apron, and you can spread it out upon the floor;
+then go up quickly and take the dog, and set him on my apron; then open
+the chest, and take as many shillings as you like. They are of copper:
+if you prefer silver, you must go into the second chamber. But there
+sits a dog with a pair of eyes as big as mill-wheels. But do not you
+care for that. Set him upon my apron, and take some of the money. And if
+you want gold, you can have that too--in fact, as much as you can
+carry--if you go into the third chamber. But the dog that sits on the
+money-chest there has two eyes as big as round towers. He is a fierce
+dog, you may be sure; but you needn't be afraid, for all that. Only set
+him on my apron, and he won't hurt you; and take out of the chest as
+much gold as you like."
+
+"That's not so bad," said the soldier. "But what am I to give you, old
+witch? for you will not do it for nothing, I fancy."
+
+"No," replied the witch, "not a single shilling will I have. You shall
+only bring me an old tinder-box which my grandmother forgot when she was
+down there last."
+
+"Then tie the rope round my body," cried the soldier.
+
+"Here it is," said the witch, "and here's my blue-checked apron."
+
+Then the soldier climbed up into the tree, let himself slip down into
+the hole, and stood, as the witch had said, in the great hall where the
+three hundred lamps were burning.
+
+Now he opened the first door. Ugh! there sat the dog with eyes as big as
+tea-cups, staring at him. "You're a nice fellow!" exclaimed the soldier;
+and he set him on the witch's apron, and took as many copper shillings
+as his pockets would hold, and then locked the chest, set the dog on it
+again, and went into the second chamber. Aha! there sat the dog with
+eyes as big as mill-wheels.
+
+"You should not stare so hard at me," said the soldier; "you might
+strain your eyes." And he set the dog upon the witch's apron. And when
+he saw the silver money in the chest, he threw away all the copper money
+he had, and filled his pocket and his knapsack with silver only. Then he
+went into the third chamber. Oh, but that was horrid! The dog there
+really had eyes as big as towers, and they turned round and round in his
+head like wheels.
+
+"Good evening!" said the soldier; and he touched his cap, for he had
+never seen such a dog as that before. When he had looked at him a little
+more closely, he thought, "That will do," and lifted him down to the
+floor, and opened the chest. Mercy! what a quantity of gold was there!
+He could buy with it the whole town, and the sugar sucking-pigs of the
+cake woman, and all the tin soldiers, whips, and rocking-horses in the
+whole world. Yes, that was a quantity of money! Now the soldier threw
+away all the silver coin with which he had filled his pockets and his
+knapsack, and took gold instead: yes, all his pockets, his knapsack, his
+boots, and his cap were filled, so that he could scarcely walk. Now
+indeed he had plenty of money. He put the dog on the chest, shut the
+door, and then called up through the tree, "Now pull me up, you old
+witch."
+
+"Have you the tinder-box?" asked the witch.
+
+"Plague on it!" exclaimed the soldier, "I had clean forgotten that." And
+he went and brought it.
+
+The witch drew him up, and he stood on the high road again, with
+pockets, boots, knapsack, and cap full of gold.
+
+"What are you going to do with the tinder-box?" asked the soldier.
+
+"That's nothing to you," retorted the witch. "You've had your
+money--just give me the tinder-box."
+
+"Nonsense!" said the soldier. "Tell me directly what you're going to do
+with it, or I'll draw my sword and cut off your head."
+
+"No!" cried the witch.
+
+So the soldier cut off her head. There she lay! But he tied up all his
+money in her apron, took it on his back like a bundle, put the
+tinder-box in his pocket, and went straight off toward the town.
+
+That was a splendid town! And he put up at the very best inn and asked
+for the finest rooms, and ordered his favorite dishes, for now he was
+rich, as he had so much money. The servant who had to clean his boots
+certainly thought them a remarkably old pair for such a rich gentleman;
+but he had not bought any new ones yet. The next day he procured proper
+boots and handsome clothes. Now our soldier had become a fine gentleman;
+and the people told him of all the splendid things which were in their
+city, and about the King, and what a pretty Princess the King's daughter
+was.
+
+"Where can one get to see her?" asked the soldier.
+
+"She is not to be seen at all," said they, all together; "she lives in a
+great copper castle, with a great many walls and towers round about it;
+no one but the King may go in and out there, for it has been prophesied
+that she shall marry a common soldier, and the King can't bear that."
+
+"I should like to see her," thought the soldier; but he could not get
+leave to do so. Now he lived merrily, went to the theater, drove in the
+King's garden, and gave much money to the poor; and this was very kind
+of him, for he knew from old times how hard it is when one has not a
+shilling. Now he was rich, had fine clothes, and gained many friends,
+who all said he was a rare one, a true cavalier; and that pleased the
+soldier well. But as he spent money every day and never earned any, he
+had at last only two shillings left; and he was obliged to turn out of
+the fine rooms in which he had dwelt, and had to live in a little garret
+under the roof, and clean his boots for himself, and mend them with a
+darning-needle. None of his friends came to see him, for there were too
+many stairs to climb.
+
+It was quite dark one evening, and he could not even buy himself a
+candle, when it occurred to him that there was a candle-end in the
+tinder-box which he had taken out of the hollow tree into which the
+witch had helped him. He brought out the tinder-box and the candle-end;
+but as soon as he struck fire and the sparks rose up from the flint, the
+door flew open, and the dog who had eyes as big as a couple of tea-cups,
+and whom he had seen in the tree, stood before him, and said:
+
+"What are my lord's commands?"
+
+"What is this?" said the soldier. "That's a famous tinder-box, if I can
+get everything with it that I want! Bring me some money," said he to the
+dog: and _whisk!_ the dog was gone, and _whisk!_ he was back again, with
+a great bag full of shillings in his mouth.
+
+Now the soldier knew what a capital tinder-box this was. If he struck it
+once, the dog came who sat upon the chest of copper money; if he struck
+it twice, the dog came who had the silver; and if he struck it three
+times, then appeared the dog who had the gold. Now the soldier moved
+back into the fine rooms, and appeared again in handsome clothes; and
+all his friends knew him again, and cared very much for him indeed.
+
+Once he thought to himself, "It is a very strange thing that one cannot
+get to see the Princess. They all say she is very beautiful; but what is
+the use of that, if she has always to sit in the great copper castle
+with the many towers? Can I not get to see her at all? Where is my
+tinder-box?" And so he struck a light, and _whisk!_ came the dog with
+eyes as big as tea-cups.
+
+"It is midnight, certainly," said the soldier, "but I should very much
+like to see the Princess, only for one little moment."
+
+And the dog was outside the door directly, and, before the soldier
+thought it, came back with the Princess. She sat upon the dog's back and
+slept; and everyone could see she was a real Princess, for she was so
+lovely. The soldier could not refrain from kissing her, for he was a
+thorough soldier. Then the dog ran back again with the Princess. But
+when morning came, and the King and Queen were drinking tea, the
+Princess said she had had a strange dream, the night before, about a dog
+and a soldier--that she had ridden upon the dog, and the soldier had
+kissed her.
+
+"That would be a fine history!" said the Queen.
+
+So one of the old Court ladies had to watch the next night by the
+Princess's bed, to see if this was really a dream, or what it might be.
+
+The soldier had a great longing to see the lovely Princess again; so the
+dog came in the night, took her away, and ran as fast as he could. But
+the old lady put on water-boots, and ran just as fast after him. When
+she saw that they both entered a great house, she thought, "Now I know
+where it is"; and with a bit of chalk she drew a great cross on the
+door. Then she went home and lay down, and the dog came up with the
+Princess; but when he saw that there was a cross drawn on the door where
+the soldier lived, he took a piece of chalk too, and drew crosses on all
+the doors in the town. And that was cleverly done, for now the lady
+could not find the right door, because all the doors had crosses upon
+them.
+
+In the morning early came the King and the Queen, the old Court lady and
+all the officers, to see where it was the Princess had been. "Here it
+is!" said the King, when he saw the first door with a cross upon it.
+"No, my dear husband, it is there!" said the Queen, who descried another
+door which also showed a cross. "But there is one, and there is one!"
+said all, for wherever they looked there were crosses on the doors. So
+they saw that it would avail them nothing if they searched on.
+
+But the Queen was an exceedingly clever woman, who could do more than
+ride in a coach. She took her great gold scissors, cut a piece of silk
+into pieces, and made a neat little bag: this bag she filled with fine
+wheat flour, and tied it on the Princess's back; and when that was done,
+she cut a little hole in the bag, so that the flour would be scattered
+along all the way which the Princess should take.
+
+In the night the dog came again, took the Princess on his back, and ran
+with her to the soldier, who loved her very much, and would gladly have
+been a prince, so that he might have her for his wife. The dog did not
+notice at all how the flour ran out in a stream from the castle to the
+windows of the soldier's house, where he ran up the wall with the
+Princess. In the morning the King and Queen saw well enough where their
+daughter had been, and they took the soldier and put him in prison.
+
+There he sat. Oh, but it was dark and disagreeable there! And they said
+to him, "To-morrow you shall be hanged." That was not amusing to hear,
+and he had left his tinder-box at the inn. In the morning he could see,
+through the iron grating of the little window, how the people were
+hurrying out of the town to see him hanged. He heard the drums beat and
+saw the soldiers marching. All the people were running out, and among
+them was a shoemaker's boy with leather apron and slippers, and he
+galloped so fast that one of his slippers flew off, and came right
+against the wall where the soldier sat looking through the iron grating.
+
+"Halloo, you shoemaker's boy! you needn't be in such a hurry," cried the
+soldier to him: "it will not begin till I come. But if you will run to
+where I lived, and bring me my tinder-box, you shall have four
+shillings; but you must put your best leg foremost."
+
+The shoemaker's boy wanted to get the four shillings, so he went and
+brought the tinder-box, and--well, we shall hear now what happened.
+
+Outside the town a great gallows had been built, and around it stood the
+soldiers and many hundred thousand people. The King and Queen sat on a
+splendid throne, opposite to the Judges and the whole Council. The
+soldier already stood upon the ladder; but as they were about to put the
+rope round his neck, he said that before a poor criminal suffered his
+punishment an innocent request was always granted to him. He wanted very
+much to smoke a pipe of tobacco, as it would be the last pipe he should
+smoke in this world. The King would not say "No" to this; so the soldier
+took his tinder-box and struck fire. One--two--three--! and there
+suddenly stood all the dogs--the one with eyes as big as tea-cups, the
+one with eyes as large as mill-wheels, and the one whose eyes were as
+big as round towers.
+
+"Help me now, so that I may not be hanged," said the soldier. And the
+dogs fell upon the Judge and all the Council, seized one by the leg and
+another by the nose, and tossed them all many feet into the air, so that
+they fell down and were all broken to pieces.
+
+"I won't!" cried the King; but the biggest dog took him and the Queen
+and threw them after the others. Then the soldiers were afraid, and the
+people cried, "Little soldier, you shall be our King, and marry the
+beautiful Princess!"
+
+So they put the soldier into the King's coach, and all the three dogs
+darted on in front and cried "Hurrah!" and the boys whistled through
+their fingers, and the soldiers presented arms. The Princess came out of
+the copper castle, and became Queen, and she liked that well enough. The
+wedding lasted a week, and the three dogs sat at the table too, and
+opened their eyes wider than ever at all they saw.
+
+
+
+197
+
+ The following is one of Andersen's early
+ stories, published in 1838. It has always been
+ a great favorite. Whimsically odd couples, in
+ this case so constant in their devotion to each
+ other, seemed to appeal to Andersen. The
+ romance of the Whip Top and the Ball in the
+ little story "The Lovers" deals with another
+ odd couple. "Constant" or "steadfast" are terms
+ sometimes used in the different versions
+ instead of "hardy," and, if they seem better to
+ carry the meaning intended, teachers should
+ feel free to substitute one of them in telling
+ or reading the story. The translation is by H.
+ W. Dulcken.
+
+
+THE HARDY TIN SOLDIER
+
+HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
+
+There were once five-and-twenty tin soldiers; they were all brothers,
+for they had all been born of one old tin spoon. They shouldered their
+muskets, and looked straight before them; their uniform was red and
+blue, and very splendid. The first thing they had heard in the world,
+when the lid was taken off their box, had been the words, "Tin
+soldiers!" These words were uttered by a little boy, clapping his hands:
+the soldiers had been given to him, for it was his birthday; and now he
+put them upon the table. Each soldier was exactly like the rest; but one
+of them had been cast last of all, and there had not been enough tin to
+finish him; but he stood as firmly upon his one leg as the others on
+their two; and it was just this Soldier who became remarkable.
+
+On the table on which they had been placed stood many other playthings,
+but the toy that attracted most attention was a neat castle of
+cardboard. Through the little windows one could see straight into the
+hall. Before the castle some little trees were placed round a little
+looking-glass, which was to represent a clear lake. Waxen swans swam on
+this lake, and were mirrored in it. This was all very pretty; but the
+prettiest of all was a little lady, who stood at the open door of the
+castle; she was also cut out in paper, but she had a dress of the
+clearest gauze, and a little narrow blue ribbon over her shoulders, that
+looked like a scarf; and in the middle of this ribbon was a shining
+tinsel rose as big as her whole face. The little lady stretched out both
+her arms, for she was a dancer; and then she lifted one leg so high that
+the Tin Soldier could not see it at all, and thought that, like himself,
+she had but one leg.
+
+"That would be the wife for me," thought he; "but she is very grand. She
+lives in a castle, and I have only a box, and there are five-and-twenty
+of us in that. It is no place for her. But I must try to make
+acquaintance with her."
+
+And then he lay down at full length behind a snuff-box which was on the
+table; there he could easily watch the little dainty lady, who continued
+to stand upon one leg without losing her balance.
+
+When the evening came all the other tin soldiers were put into their
+box, and the people in the house went to bed. Now the toys began to play
+at "visiting," and at "war," and "giving balls." The tin soldiers
+rattled in their box, for they wanted to join, but could not lift the
+lid. The nutcracker threw somersaults, and the pencil amused itself on
+the table; there was so much noise that the canary woke up, and began to
+speak too, and even in verse. The only two who did not stir from their
+places were the Tin Soldier and the Dancing Lady: she stood straight up
+on the point of one of her toes, and stretched out both her arms; and he
+was just as enduring on his one leg; and he never turned his eyes away
+from her.
+
+Now the clock struck twelve--and, bounce! the lid flew off the
+snuff-box; but there was no snuff in it, but a little black Goblin: you
+see, it was a trick.
+
+"Tin Soldier!" said the Goblin, "don't stare at things that don't
+concern you."
+
+But the Tin Soldier pretended not to hear him.
+
+"Just you wait till to-morrow!" said the Goblin.
+
+But when the morning came, and the children got up, the Tin Soldier was
+placed in the window; and whether it was the Goblin or the draught that
+did it, all at once the window flew open, and the Soldier fell head
+over heels out of the third story. That was a terrible passage! He put
+his leg straight up, and stuck with helmet downward and his bayonet
+between the paving-stones.
+
+The servant-maid and the little boy came down directly to look for him,
+but though they almost trod upon him, they could not see him. If the
+Soldier had cried out "Here I am!" they would have found him; but he did
+not think it fitting to call out loudly, because he was in uniform.
+
+Now it began to rain; the drops soon fell thicker, and at last it came
+down into a complete stream. When the rain was past, two street boys
+came by.
+
+"Just look!" said one of them, "there lies a Tin Soldier. He must come
+out and ride in the boat."
+
+And they made a boat out of a newspaper, and put the Tin Soldier in the
+middle of it, and so he sailed down the gutter, and the two boys ran
+beside him and clapped their hands. Goodness preserve us! how the waves
+rose in that gutter, and how fast the stream ran! But then it had been a
+heavy rain. The paper boat rocked up and down, and sometimes turned
+round so rapidly that the Tin Soldier trembled; but he remained firm,
+and never changed countenance, and looked straight before him, and
+shouldered his musket.
+
+All at once the boat went into a long drain, and it became as dark as if
+he had been in his box.
+
+"Where am I going now?" he thought. "Yes, yes, that's the Goblin's
+fault. Ah! if the little lady only sat here with me in the boat, it
+might be twice as dark for what I should care."
+
+Suddenly there came a great Water Rat, which lived under the drain.
+
+"Have you a passport?" said the Rat. "Give me your passport."
+
+But the Tin Soldier kept silence, and held his musket tighter than ever.
+
+The boat went on, but the Rat came after it. Hu! how he gnashed his
+teeth, and called out to the bits of straw and wood:
+
+"Hold him! hold him! He hasn't paid toll--he hasn't shown his passport!"
+
+But the stream became stronger and stronger. The Tin Soldier could see
+the bright daylight where the arch ended; but he heard a roaring noise
+which might well frighten a bolder man. Only think--just where the
+tunnel ended, the drain ran into a great canal; and for him that would
+have been as dangerous as for us to be carried down a great waterfall.
+
+Now he was already so near it that he could not stop. The boat was
+carried out, the poor Tin Soldier stiffening himself as much as he
+could, and no one could say that he moved an eyelid. The boat whirled
+round three or four times, and was full of water to the very edge--it
+must sink. The Tin Soldier stood up to his neck in water, and the boat
+sank deeper and deeper, and the paper was loosened more and more; and
+now the water closed over the soldier's head. Then he thought of the
+pretty little Dancer, and how he should never see her again; and it
+sounded in the soldier's ears:
+
+ Farewell, farewell, thou warrior brave,
+ For this day thou must die!
+
+And now the paper parted, and the Tin Soldier fell out; but at that
+moment he was snapped up by a great fish.
+
+Oh, how dark it was in that fish's body! It was darker yet than in the
+drain tunnel; and then it was very narrow too. But the Tin Soldier
+remained unmoved, and lay at full length shouldering his musket.
+
+The fish swam to and fro; he made the most wonderful movements, and then
+became quite still. At last something flashed through him like
+lightning. The daylight shone quite clear, and a voice said aloud, "The
+Tin Soldier!" The fish had been caught, carried to market, bought, and
+taken into the kitchen, where the cook cut him open with a large knife.
+She seized the Soldier round the body with both her hands and carried
+him into the room, where all were anxious to see the remarkable man who
+had traveled about in the inside of a fish; but the Tin Soldier was not
+at all proud. They placed him on the table, and there--no! What curious
+things may happen in the world. The Tin Soldier was in the very room in
+which he had been before! He saw the same children, and the same toys
+stood on the table; and there was the pretty castle with the graceful
+little Dancer. She was still balancing herself on one leg, and held the
+other extended in the air. She was hardy too. That moved the Tin
+Soldier; he was very nearly weeping tin tears, but that would not have
+been proper. He looked at her, but they said nothing to each other.
+
+Then one of the little boys took the Tin Soldier and flung him into the
+stove. He gave no reason for doing this. It must have been the fault of
+the Goblin in the snuff-box.
+
+The Tin Soldier stood there quite illuminated, and felt a heat that was
+terrible; but whether this heat proceeded from the real fire or from
+love he did not know. The colors had quite gone off from him; but
+whether that had happened on the journey, or had been caused by grief,
+no one could say. He looked at the little lady, she looked at him, and
+he felt that he was melting; but he still stood firm, shouldering his
+musket. Then suddenly the door flew open, and the draught of air caught
+the Dancer, and she flew like a sylph just into the stove to the Tin
+Soldier, and flashed up in a flame, and she was gone. Then the Tin
+Soldier melted down into a lump; and when the servant-maid took the
+ashes out next day, she found him in the shape of a little tin heart.
+But of the Dancer nothing remained but the tinsel rose, and that was
+burned as black as a coal.
+
+
+
+198
+
+ "The Ugly Duckling" has always been regarded as
+ one of Andersen's most exquisite stories. No
+ one can fail to notice the parallel that
+ suggests itself between the successive stages
+ in the duckling's history and those in
+ Andersen's own life. In this story, remarks Dr.
+ Brandes, "there is the quintessence of the
+ author's entire life (melancholy, humor,
+ martyrdom, triumph) and of his whole nature:
+ the gift of observation and the sparkling
+ intellect which he used to avenge himself upon
+ folly and wickedness, the varied faculties
+ which constitute his genius." The standards of
+ judgment used by the ducks, the turkey, the
+ hen, and the cat are all delightfully and
+ humorously satirical of human stupidity and
+ shortsightedness. The translation used is by H.
+ W. Dulcken.
+
+
+THE UGLY DUCKLING
+
+HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
+
+It was glorious out in the country. It was summer, and the cornfields
+were yellow, and the oats were green; the hay had been put up in stacks
+in the green meadows, and the stork went about on his long red legs, and
+chattered Egyptian, for this was the language he had learned from his
+good mother. All around the fields and meadows were great forests, and
+in the midst of these forests lay deep lakes. Yes, it was really
+glorious out in the country. In the midst of the sunshine there lay an
+old farm, surrounded by deep canals, and from the wall down to the water
+grew great burdocks, so high that little children could stand upright
+under the loftiest of them. It was just as wild there as in the deepest
+wood. Here sat a Duck upon her nest, for she had to hatch her young
+ones; but she was almost tired out before the little ones came; and then
+she so seldom had visitors. The other ducks liked better to swim about
+in the canals than to run up to sit down under a burdock and cackle with
+her.
+
+At last one eggshell after another burst open. "Piep! piep!" it cried,
+and in all the eggs there were little creatures that stuck out their
+heads.
+
+"Rap! rap!" they said; and they all came rapping out as fast as they
+could, looking all round them under the green leaves; and the mother let
+them look as much as they chose, for green is good for the eyes.
+
+"How wide the world is!" said the young ones, for they certainly had
+much more room now than when they were in the eggs.
+
+"Do you think this is all the world!" asked the mother. "That extends
+far across the other side of the garden, quite into the parson's field,
+but I have never been there yet. I hope you are all together," she
+continued, and stood up. "No, I have not all. The largest egg still lies
+there. How long is that to last? I am really tired of it." And she sat
+down again.
+
+"Well, how goes it?" asked an old Duck who had come to pay her a visit.
+
+"It lasts a long time with that one egg," said the Duck who sat there.
+"It will not burst. Now, only look at the others; are they not the
+prettiest ducks one could possibly see? They are all like their father;
+the bad fellow never comes to see me."
+
+"Let me see the egg which will not burst," said the old visitor.
+"Believe me, it is a turkey's egg. I was once cheated in that way, and
+had much anxiety and trouble with the young ones, for they are afraid of
+the water. I could not get them to venture in. I quacked and clucked,
+but it was of no use. Let me see the egg. Yes, that's a turkey's egg!
+Let it lie there, and you teach the other children to swim."
+
+"I think I will sit on it a little longer," said the Duck. "I've sat so
+long now that I can sit a few days more."
+
+"Just as you please," said the old Duck; and she went away.
+
+At last the great egg burst. "Piep! piep!" said the little one, and
+crept forth. It was very large and very ugly. The Duck looked at it.
+
+"It's a very large duckling," said she; "none of the others look like
+that; can it really be a turkey chick? Now we shall soon find out. It
+must go into the water, even if I have to thrust it in myself."
+
+The next day the weather was splendidly bright, and the sun shone on all
+the green trees. The Mother-Duck went down to the water with all her
+little ones. Splash! she jumped into the water. "Quack! quack!" she
+said, and then one duckling after another plunged in. The water closed
+over their heads, but they came up in an instant, and swam capitally;
+their legs went of themselves, and there they were, all in the water.
+The ugly gray Duckling swam with them.
+
+"No, it's not a turkey," said she; "look how well it can use its legs,
+and how upright it holds itself. It is my own child! On the whole it's
+quite pretty, if one looks at it rightly. Quack! quack! come with me,
+and I'll lead you out into the great world, and present you in the
+poultry-yard; but keep close to me, so that no one may tread on you; and
+take care of the cats!"
+
+And so they came into the poultry-yard. There was a terrible riot going
+on in there, for two families were quarreling about an eel's head, and
+the cat got it after all.
+
+"See, that's how it goes in the world!" said the Mother-Duck; and she
+whetted her beak, for she, too, wanted the eel's head. "Only use your
+legs," she said. "See that you bustle about, and bow your heads before
+the old Duck yonder. She's the grandest of all here; she's of Spanish
+blood--that's why she's so fat; and do you see, she has a red rag round
+her leg; that's something particularly fine, and the greatest
+distinction a duck can enjoy; it signifies that one does not want to
+lose her, and that she's to be recognized by man and beast. Shake
+yourselves--don't turn in your toes; a well-brought-up Duck turns its
+toes quite out, just like father and mother, so! Now bend your necks and
+say 'Rap!'"
+
+And they did so; but the other Ducks round about looked at them, and
+said quite boldly:
+
+"Look there! now we're to have these hanging on, as if there were not
+enough of us already! And--fie--! how that Duckling yonder looks; we
+won't stand that!" And one duck flew up immediately, and bit it in the
+neck.
+
+"Let it alone," said the mother; "it does no harm to anyone."
+
+"Yes, but it's too large and peculiar," said the Duck who had bitten it;
+"and therefore it must be buffeted."
+
+"Those are pretty children that the mother has there," said the old Duck
+with the rag round her leg. "They're all pretty but that one; that was a
+failure. I wish she could alter it."
+
+"That cannot be done, my lady," replied the Mother-Duck. "It is not
+pretty, but it has a really good disposition, and swims as well as any
+other; I may even say it swims better. I think it will grow up pretty,
+and become smaller in time; it has lain too long in the egg, and
+therefore is not properly shaped." And then she pinched it in the neck,
+and smoothed its feathers. "Moreover, it is a drake," she said, "and
+therefore it is not of so much consequence. I think he will be very
+strong; he makes his way already."
+
+"The other ducklings are graceful enough," said the old Duck. "Make
+yourself at home; and if you find an eel's head, you may bring it me."
+
+And now they were at home. But the poor Duckling which had crept last
+out of the egg, and looked so ugly, was bitten and pushed and jeered, as
+much by the ducks as by the chickens.
+
+"It is too big!" they all said. And the turkey-cock, who had been born
+with spurs, and therefore thought himself an Emperor, blew himself up
+like a ship in full sail, and bore straight down upon it; then he
+gobbled, and grew quite red in the face. The poor Duckling did not know
+where it should stand or walk; it was quite melancholy, because it
+looked ugly and was scoffed at by the whole yard.
+
+So it went on the first day; and afterward it became worse and worse.
+The poor Duckling was hunted about by every one; even its brothers and
+sisters were quite angry with it, and said, "If the cat would only catch
+you, you ugly creature!" And the mother said, "If you were only far
+away!" And the ducks bit it, and the chickens beat it, and the girl who
+had to feed the poultry kicked at it with her foot.
+
+Then it ran and flew over the fence, and the little birds in the bushes
+flew up in fear.
+
+"That is because I am so ugly!" thought the Duckling; and it shut its
+eyes, but flew no farther; thus it came out into the great moor, where
+the Wild Ducks lived. Here it lay the whole night long; and it was weary
+and downcast.
+
+Toward morning the Wild Ducks flew up, and looked at their new
+companion.
+
+"What sort of a one are you?" they asked; and the Duckling turned in
+every direction, and bowed as well as it could. "You are remarkably
+ugly!" said the Wild Ducks. "But that is very indifferent to us, so long
+as you do not marry into our family."
+
+Poor thing! It certainly did not think of marrying, and only hoped to
+obtain leave to lie among the reeds and drink some of the swamp-water.
+
+Thus it lay two whole days; then came thither two Wild Geese, or,
+properly speaking, two wild ganders. It was not long since each had
+crept out of an egg, and that's why they were so saucy.
+
+"Listen, comrade," said one of them. "You're so ugly that I like you.
+Will you go with us, and become a bird of passage? Near here, in another
+moor, there are a few sweet lovely wild geese, all unmarried, and all
+able to say, 'Rap!' You've a chance of making your fortune, ugly as you
+are!"
+
+"Piff! paff!" resounded through the air; and the two ganders fell down
+dead in the swamp, and the water became blood-red. "Piff! paff!" it
+sounded again, and whole flocks of wild geese rose up from the reeds.
+And then there was another report. A great hunt was going on. The
+hunters were lying in wait all round the moor, and some were even
+sitting up in the branches of the trees, which spread far over the
+reeds. The blue smoke rose up like clouds among the dark trees, and was
+wafted far away across the water; and the hunting dogs came--splash,
+splash!--into the swamp, and the rushes and the reeds bent down on every
+side. That was a fright for the poor Duckling! It turned its head, and
+put it under its wing; but at that moment a frightful great dog stood
+close by the Duckling. His tongue hung far out of his mouth and his eyes
+gleamed horrible and ugly; he thrust out his nose close against the
+Duckling, showed his sharp teeth, and--splash, splash!--on he went
+without seizing it.
+
+"Oh, Heaven be thanked!" sighed the Duckling. "I am so ugly that even
+the dog does not like to bite me!"
+
+And so it lay quite quiet, while the shots rattled through the reeds and
+gun after gun was fired. At last, late in the day, silence was restored;
+but the poor Duckling did not dare to rise up; it waited several hours
+before it looked round, and then hastened away out of the moor as fast
+as it could. It ran on over field and meadow; there was such a storm
+raging that it was difficult to get from one place to another.
+
+Toward evening the Duck came to a little miserable peasant's hut. This
+hut was so dilapidated that it did not know on which side it should
+fall; and that's why it remained standing. The storm whistled round the
+Duckling in such a way that the poor creature was obliged to sit down,
+to stand against it; and the tempest grew worse and worse. Then the
+Duckling noticed that one of the hinges of the door had given way, and
+the door hung so slanting that the Duckling could slip through the crack
+into the room; and it did so.
+
+Here lived a woman with her Tom Cat and her Hen. And the Tom Cat, whom
+she called Sonnie, could arch his back and purr. He could even give out
+sparks; but for that one had to stroke his fur the wrong way. The Hen
+had quite little short legs, and therefore she was called
+Chickabiddy-shortshanks; she laid good eggs, and the woman loved her as
+her own child.
+
+In the morning the strange Duckling was at once noticed, and the Tom Cat
+began to purr, and the Hen to cluck.
+
+"What's this?" said the woman, and looked all round; but she could not
+see well, and therefore she thought the Duckling was a fat duck that had
+strayed. "This is a rare prize," she said. "Now I shall have duck's
+eggs. I hope it is not a drake. We must try that."
+
+And so the Duckling was admitted on trial for three weeks; but no eggs
+came. And the Tom Cat was master of the house, and the Hen was the lady,
+and they always said, "We and the world!" for they thought they were
+half the world, and by far the better half. The Duckling thought one
+might have a different opinion, but the Hen would not allow it.
+
+"Can you lay eggs?" she asked.
+
+"No."
+
+"Then you'll have the goodness to hold your tongue."
+
+And the Tom Cat said, "Can you curve your back, and purr, and give out
+sparks?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then you cannot have any opinion of your own when sensible people are
+speaking."
+
+And the Duckling sat in a corner and was melancholy; then the fresh air
+and the sunshine streamed in; and it was seized with such a strange
+longing to swim on the water that it could not help telling the Hen of
+it.
+
+"What are you thinking of?" cried the Hen. "You have nothing to do;
+that's why you have these fancies. Purr or lay eggs, and they will pass
+over."
+
+"But it is so charming to swim on the water!" said the Duckling, "so
+refreshing to let it close above one's head, and to dive down to the
+bottom."
+
+"Yes, that must be a mighty pleasure, truly," quoth the Hen. "I fancy
+you must have gone crazy. Ask the Cat about it--he's the cleverest
+animal I know--ask him if he likes to swim on the water, or to dive
+down: I won't speak about myself. Ask our mistress, the old woman; no
+one in the world is cleverer than she. Do you think she has any desire
+to swim, and to let the water close above her head?"
+
+"You don't understand me," said the Duckling.
+
+"We don't understand you? Then pray who is to understand you? You surely
+don't pretend to be cleverer than the Tom Cat and the old woman--I won't
+say anything of myself. Don't be conceited, child, and be grateful for
+all the kindness you have received. Did you not get into a warm room,
+and have you not fallen into company from which you may learn something?
+But you are a chatterer, and it is not pleasant to associate with you.
+You may believe me, I speak for your good. I tell you disagreeable
+things, and by that one may always know one's true friends. Only take
+care that you learn to lay eggs, or to purr and give out sparks!"
+
+"I think I will go out into the wide world," said the Duckling.
+
+"Yes, do go," replied the Hen.
+
+And the Duckling went away. It swam on the water, and dived, but it was
+slighted by every creature because of its ugliness.
+
+Now came the autumn. The leaves in the forest turned yellow and brown;
+the wind caught them so that they danced about, and up in the air it was
+very cold. The clouds hung low, heavy with hail and snow-flakes, and on
+the fence stood the raven, crying, "Croak! croak!" for mere cold; yes,
+it was enough to make one feel cold to think of this. The poor little
+Duckling certainly had not a good time. One evening--the sun was just
+setting in his beauty--there came a whole flock of great handsome birds
+out of the bushes; they were dazzlingly white, with long flexible necks;
+they were swans. They uttered a very peculiar cry, spread forth their
+glorious great wings, and flew away from that cold region to warmer
+lands, to fair open lakes. They mounted so high, so high! and the ugly
+little Duckling felt quite strange as it watched them. It turned round
+and round in the water like a wheel, stretched out its neck toward them,
+and uttered such a strange loud cry as frightened itself. Oh! it could
+not forget those beautiful, happy birds; and so soon as it could see
+them no longer, it dived down to the very bottom, and when it came up
+again, it was quite beside itself. It knew not the name of those birds,
+and knew not whither they were flying; but it loved them more than it
+had ever loved anyone. It was not at all envious of them. How could it
+think of wishing to possess such loveliness as they had? It would have
+been glad if only the ducks would have endured its company--the poor
+ugly creature!
+
+And the winter grew cold, very cold! The Duckling was forced to swim
+about in the water, to prevent the surface from freezing entirely; but
+every night the hole in which it swam about became smaller and smaller.
+It froze so hard that the icy covering crackled again; and the Duckling
+was obliged to use its legs continually to prevent the hole from
+freezing up. At last it became exhausted, and lay quite still, and thus
+froze fast into the ice.
+
+Early in the morning a peasant came by, and when he saw what had
+happened, he took his wooden shoe, broke the ice-crust to pieces, and
+carried the Duckling home to his wife. Then it came to itself again. The
+children wanted to play with it; but the Duckling thought they would do
+it an injury, and in its terror fluttered up into the milk-pan, so that
+the milk spurted down into the room. The woman clapped her hands, at
+which the Duckling flew down into the butter-tub, and then into the
+meal-barrel and out again. How it looked then! The woman screamed, and
+struck at it with the fire-tongs; the children tumbled over one another
+in their efforts to catch the Duckling; and they laughed and screamed
+finely. Happily the door stood open, and the poor creature was able to
+slip out between the shrubs into the newly-fallen snow; and there it
+lay quite exhausted.
+
+But it would be too melancholy if I were to tell all the misery and care
+which the Duckling had to endure in the hard winter. It lay out on the
+moor among the reeds when the sun began to shine again and the larks to
+sing; it was a beautiful spring.
+
+Then all at once the Duckling could flap its wings; they beat the air
+more strongly than before, and bore it strongly away; and before it well
+knew how all this had happened, it found itself in a great garden, where
+the elder trees smelt sweet, and bent their long green branches down to
+the canal that wound through the region. Oh, here it was so beautiful,
+such a gladness of spring! and from the thicket came three glorious
+white swans; they rustled their wings, and swam lightly on the water.
+The Duckling knew the splendid creatures, and felt oppressed by a
+peculiar sadness.
+
+"I will fly away to them, to the royal birds! and they will kill me,
+because I, that am so ugly, dare to approach them. But it is of no
+consequence! Better to be killed by _them_ than to be pursued by ducks,
+and beaten by fowls, and pushed about by the girl who takes care of the
+poultry-yard, and to suffer hunger in winter!" And it flew out into the
+water, and swam toward the beautiful swans: these looked at it, and came
+sailing down upon it with outspread wings. "Kill me!" said the poor
+creature, and bent its head down upon the water, expecting nothing but
+death. But what was this that it saw in the clear water? It beheld its
+own image--and, lo! it was no longer a clumsy dark-gray bird, ugly and
+hateful to look at, but--a swan.
+
+It matters nothing if one was born in a duck-yard, if one has only lain
+in a swan's egg.
+
+It felt quite glad at all the need and misfortune it had suffered, now
+it realized its happiness in all the splendor that surrounded it. And
+the great swans swam round it, and stroked it with their beaks.
+
+Into the garden came little children, who threw bread and corn into the
+water; the youngest cried, "There is a new one!" and the other children
+shouted joyously, "Yes, a new one has arrived!" And they clapped their
+hands and danced about, and ran to their father and mother; and bread
+and cake were thrown into the water; and they all said, "The new one is
+the most beautiful of all! so young and handsome!" and the old swans
+bowed their heads before him.
+
+Then he felt quite ashamed, and hid his head under his wing, for he did
+not know what to do; he was so happy, and yet not at all proud. He
+thought how he had been persecuted and despised; and now he heard them
+saying that he was the most beautiful of all the birds. Even the elder
+tree bent its branches straight down into the water before him, and the
+sun shone warm and mild. Then his wings rustled, he lifted his slender
+neck, and cried rejoicingly from the depths of his heart:
+
+"I never dreamed of so much happiness when I was still the Ugly
+Duckling!"
+
+
+
+199
+
+ One of the really successful modern attempts at
+ telling new fairy stories was _Granny's
+ Wonderful Chair_ (1857) by the blind poet
+ Frances Browne (1816-1887). In spite of the
+ obstacles due to blindness, poverty, and
+ ill-health, she succeeded in educating herself,
+ and after achieving some fame as a poet left
+ her mountain village in county Donegal,
+ Ireland, to make a literary career in Edinburgh
+ and London. She published many volumes of
+ poems, novels, and children's books. Only one
+ of these is now much read or remembered, but it
+ has taken a firm place in the affections of
+ children. In _Granny's Wonderful Chair_ there
+ are seven stories, set in an interesting
+ framework which tells of the adventures of the
+ little girl Snowflower and her chair at the
+ court of King Winwealth. This chair had magic
+ power to transport Snowflower wherever she
+ wished to go, like the magic carpet in the
+ _Arabian Nights_. When she laid down her head
+ and said, "Chair of my grandmother, tell me a
+ story," a clear voice from under the cushion
+ would at once begin to speak. Besides the story
+ that follows, two of the most satisfactory in
+ the collection are "The Greedy Shepherd" and
+ "The Story of Merrymind." Perhaps one of the
+ secrets of their charm is in the power of
+ visualization which the author possessed. The
+ pictures are all clear and definite, yet
+ touched with the glamor of fairyland.
+
+
+THE STORY OF FAIRYFOOT
+
+FRANCES BROWNE
+
+Once upon a time there stood far away in the west country a town called
+Stumpinghame. It contained seven windmills, a royal palace, a market
+place, and a prison, with every other convenience befitting the capital
+of a kingdom. A capital city was Stumpinghame, and its inhabitants
+thought it the only one in the world. It stood in the midst of a great
+plain, which for three leagues round its walls was covered with corn,
+flax, and orchards. Beyond that lay a great circle of pasture land,
+seven leagues in breadth, and it was bounded on all sides by a forest so
+thick and old that no man in Stumpinghame knew its extent; and the
+opinion of the learned was that it reached to the end of the world.
+
+There were strong reasons for this opinion. First, that forest was known
+to be inhabited time out of mind by the fairies, and no hunter cared to
+go beyond its border--so all the west country believed it to be solidly
+full of old trees to the heart. Secondly, the people of Stumpinghame
+were no travelers--man, woman, and child had feet so large and heavy
+that it was by no means convenient to carry them far. Whether it was the
+nature of the place or the people, I cannot tell, but great feet had
+been the fashion there time immemorial, and the higher the family the
+larger were they. It was, therefore, the aim of everybody above the
+degree of shepherds, and such-like rustics, to swell out and enlarge
+their feet by way of gentility; and so successful were they in these
+undertakings that, on a pinch, respectable people's slippers would have
+served for panniers.
+
+Stumpinghame had a king of its own, and his name was Stiffstep; his
+family was very ancient and large-footed. His subjects called him Lord
+of the World, and he made a speech to them every year concerning the
+grandeur of his mighty empire. His queen, Hammerheel, was the greatest
+beauty in Stumpinghame. Her majesty's shoe was not much less than a
+fishing-boat; their six children promised to be quite as handsome, and
+all went well with them till the birth of their seventh son.
+
+For a long time nobody about the palace could understand what was the
+matter--the ladies-in-waiting looked so astonished, and the king so
+vexed; but at last it was whispered through the city that the queen's
+seventh child had been born with such miserably small feet that they
+resembled nothing ever seen or heard of in Stumpinghame, except the feet
+of the fairies.
+
+The chronicles furnished no example of such an affliction ever before
+happening in the royal family. The common people thought it portended
+some great calamity to the city; the learned men began to write books
+about it; and all the relations of the king and queen assembled at the
+palace to mourn with them over their singular misfortune. The whole
+court and most of the citizens helped in this mourning, but when it had
+lasted seven days they all found out it was of no use. So the relations
+went to their homes, and the people took to their work. If the learned
+men's books were written, nobody ever read them; and to cheer up the
+queen's spirits, the young prince was sent privately out to the pasture
+lands, to be nursed among the shepherds.
+
+The chief man there was called Fleecefold, and his wife's name was Rough
+Ruddy. They lived in a snug cottage with their son Blackthorn and their
+daughter Brownberry, and were thought great people, because they kept
+the king's sheep. Moreover, Fleecefold's family were known to be
+ancient; and Rough Ruddy boasted that she had the largest feet in all
+the pastures. The shepherds held them in high respect, and it grew still
+higher when the news spread that the king's seventh son had been sent to
+their cottage. People came from all quarters to see the young prince,
+and great were the lamentations over his misfortune in having such small
+feet.
+
+The king and queen had given him fourteen names, beginning with
+Augustus--such being the fashion in that royal family; but the honest
+country people could not remember so many; besides, his feet were the
+most remarkable thing about the child, so with one accord they called
+him Fairyfoot. At first it was feared this might be high treason, but
+when no notice was taken by the king or his ministers, the shepherds
+concluded it was no harm, and the boy never had another name throughout
+the pastures. At court it was not thought polite to speak of him at all.
+They did not keep his birthday, and he was never sent for at Christmas,
+because the queen and her ladies could not bear the sight. Once a year
+the undermost scullion was sent to see how he did, with a bundle of his
+next brother's cast-off clothes; and, as the king grew old and cross, it
+was said he had thoughts of disowning him.
+
+So Fairyfoot grew in Fleecefold's cottage. Perhaps the country air made
+him fair and rosy--for all agreed that he would have been a handsome boy
+but for his small feet, with which nevertheless he learned to walk, and
+in time to run and to jump, thereby amazing everybody, for such doings
+were not known among the children of Stumpinghame. The news of court,
+however, traveled to the shepherds, and Fairyfoot was despised among
+them. The old people thought him unlucky; the children refused to play
+with him. Fleecefold was ashamed to have him in his cottage, but he
+durst not disobey the king's orders. Moreover, Blackthorn wore most of
+the clothes brought by the scullion. At last, Rough Ruddy found out that
+the sight of such horrid jumping would make her children vulgar; and, as
+soon as he was old enough, she sent Fairyfoot every day to watch some
+sickly sheep that grazed on a wild, weedy pasture, hard by the forest.
+
+Poor Fairyfoot was often lonely and sorrowful; many a time he wished his
+feet would grow larger, or that people wouldn't notice them so much; and
+all the comfort he had was running and jumping by himself in the wild
+pasture, and thinking that none of the shepherds' children could do the
+like, for all their pride of their great feet.
+
+Tired of this sport, he was lying in the shadow of a mossy rock one warm
+summer's noon, with the sheep feeding around, when a robin, pursued by a
+great hawk, flew into the old velvet cap which lay on the ground beside
+him. Fairyfoot covered it up, and the hawk, frightened by his shout,
+flew away.
+
+"Now you may go, poor robin!" he said, opening the cap: but instead of
+the bird, out sprang a little man dressed in russet-brown, and looking
+as if he were an hundred years old. Fairyfoot could not speak for
+astonishment, but the little man said--
+
+"Thank you for your shelter, and be sure I will do as much for you. Call
+on me if you are ever in trouble; my name is Robin Goodfellow"; and
+darting off, he was out of sight in an instant. For days the boy
+wondered who that little man could be, but he told nobody, for the
+little man's feet were as small as his own, and it was clear he would be
+no favorite in Stumpinghame. Fairyfoot kept the story to himself, and at
+last midsummer came. That evening was a feast among the shepherds. There
+were bonfires on the hills, and fun in the villages. But Fairyfoot sat
+alone beside his sheepfold, for the children of his village had refused
+to let him dance with them about the bonfire, and he had gone there to
+bewail the size of his feet, which came between him and so many good
+things. Fairyfoot had never felt so lonely in all his life, and
+remembering the little man, he plucked up spirit, and cried--
+
+"Ho! Robin Goodfellow!"
+
+"Here I am," said a shrill voice at his elbow; and there stood the
+little man himself.
+
+"I am very lonely, and no one will play with me, because my feet are not
+large enough," said Fairyfoot.
+
+"Come then and play with us," said the little man. "We lead the merriest
+lives in the world, and care for nobody's feet; but all companies have
+their own manners, and there are two things you must mind among us:
+first, do as you see the rest doing; and secondly, never speak of
+anything you may hear or see, for we and the people of this country have
+had no friendship ever since large feet came in fashion."
+
+"I will do that, and anything more you like," said Fairyfoot; and the
+little man, taking his hand, led him over the pasture into the forest
+and along a mossy path among old trees wreathed with ivy (he never knew
+how far), till they heard the sound of music and came upon a meadow
+where the moon shone as bright as day, and all the flowers of the
+year--snowdrops, violets, primroses, and cowslips--bloomed together in
+the thick grass. There were a crowd of little men and women, some clad
+in russet color, but far more in green, dancing round a little well as
+clear as crystal. And under great rose-trees which grew here and there
+in the meadow, companies were sitting round low tables covered with cups
+of milk, dishes of honey, and carved wooden flagons filled with clear
+red wine. The little man led Fairyfoot up to the nearest table, handed
+him one of the flagons, and said--
+
+"Drink to the good company."
+
+Wine was not very common among the shepherds of Stumpinghame, and the
+boy had never tasted such drink as that before; for scarcely had it gone
+down when he forgot all his troubles--how Blackthorn and Brownberry wore
+his clothes, how Rough Ruddy sent him to keep the sickly sheep, and the
+children would not dance with him: in short, he forgot the whole
+misfortune of his feet, and it seemed to his mind that he was a king's
+son, and all was well with him. All the little people about the well
+cried--"Welcome! welcome!" and every one said--"Come and dance with me!"
+So Fairyfoot was as happy as a prince, and drank milk and ate honey till
+the moon was low in the sky, and then the little man took him by the
+hand, and never stopped nor stayed till he was at his own bed of straw
+in the cottage corner.
+
+Next morning Fairyfoot was not tired for all his dancing. Nobody in the
+cottage had missed him, and he went out with the sheep as usual; but
+every night all that summer, when the shepherds were safe in bed, the
+little man came and took him away to dance in the forest. Now he did not
+care to play with the shepherds' children, nor grieve that his father
+and mother had forgotten him, but watched the sheep all day, singing to
+himself or plaiting rushes; and when the sun went down, Fairyfoot's
+heart rejoiced at the thought of meeting that merry company.
+
+The wonder was that he was never tired nor sleepy, as people are apt to
+be who dance all night; but before the summer was ended Fairyfoot found
+out the reason. One night, when the moon was full, and the last of the
+ripe corn rustling in the fields, Robin Goodfellow came for him as
+usual, and away they went to the flowery green. The fun there was high,
+and Robin was in haste. So he only pointed to the carved cup from which
+Fairyfoot every night drank the clear red wine.
+
+"I am not thirsty, and there is no use losing time," thought the boy to
+himself, and he joined the dance; but never in all his life did
+Fairyfoot find such hard work as to keep pace with the company. Their
+feet seemed to move like lightning, the swallows did not fly so fast or
+turn so quickly. Fairyfoot did his best, for he never gave in easily,
+but at length, his breath and strength being spent, the boy was glad to
+steal away and sit down behind a mossy oak, where his eyes closed for
+very weariness. When he awoke the dance was nearly over, but two little
+ladies clad in green talked close beside him.
+
+"What a beautiful boy!" said one of them. "He is worthy to be a king's
+son. Only see what handsome feet he has!"
+
+"Yes," said the other, with a laugh, that sounded spiteful; "they are
+just like the feet Princess Maybloom had before she washed them in the
+Growing Well. Her father has sent far and wide throughout the whole
+country searching for a doctor to make them small again, but nothing in
+this world can do it except the water of the Fair Fountain, and none but
+I and the nightingales know where it is."
+
+"One would not care to let the like be known," said the first little
+lady: "there would come such crowds of these great coarse creatures of
+mankind, nobody would have peace for leagues round. But you will surely
+send word to the sweet princess!--she was so kind to our birds and
+butterflies, and danced so like one of ourselves!"
+
+"Not I, indeed!" said the spiteful fairy. "Her old skinflint of a father
+cut down the cedar which I loved best in the whole forest, and made a
+chest of it to hold his money in; besides, I never liked the
+princess--everybody praised her so. But come, we shall be too late for
+the last dance."
+
+When they were gone, Fairyfoot could sleep no more with astonishment. He
+did not wonder at the fairies admiring his feet, because their own were
+much the same; but it amazed him that Princess Maybloom's father should
+be troubled at hers growing large. Moreover, he wished to see that same
+princess and her country, since there were really other places in the
+world than Stumpinghame.
+
+When Robin Goodfellow came to take him home as usual he durst not let
+him know that he had overheard anything; but never was the boy so
+unwilling to get up as on that morning, and all day he was so weary that
+in the afternoon Fairyfoot fell asleep, with his head on a clump of
+rushes. It was seldom that any one thought of looking after him and the
+sickly sheep; but it so happened that towards evening the old shepherd,
+Fleecefold, thought he would see how things went on in the pastures. The
+shepherd had a bad temper and a thick staff, and no sooner did he catch
+sight of Fairyfoot sleeping, and his flock straying away, than shouting
+all the ill names he could remember, in a voice which woke up the boy,
+he ran after him as fast as his great feet would allow; while Fairyfoot,
+seeing no other shelter from his fury, fled into the forest, and never
+stopped nor stayed till he reached the banks of a little stream.
+
+Thinking it might lead him to the fairies' dancing-ground, he followed
+that stream for many an hour, but it wound away into the heart of the
+forest, flowing through dells, falling over mossy rocks, and at last
+leading Fairyfoot, when he was tired and the night had fallen, to a
+grove of great rose-trees, with the moon shining on it as bright as day,
+and thousands of nightingales singing in the branches. In the midst of
+that grove was a clear spring, bordered with banks of lilies, and
+Fairyfoot sat down by it to rest himself and listen. The singing was so
+sweet he could have listened for ever, but as he sat the nightingales
+left off their songs, and began to talk together in the silence of the
+night.
+
+"What boy is that," said one on a branch above him, "who sits so lonely
+by the Fair Fountain? He cannot have come from Stumpinghame with such
+small and handsome feet."
+
+"No, I'll warrant you," said another, "he has come from the west
+country. How in the world did he find the way?"
+
+"How simple you are!" said a third nightingale. "What had he to do but
+follow the ground-ivy which grows over height and hollow, bank and bush,
+from the lowest gate of the king's kitchen garden to the root of this
+rose-tree? He looks a wise boy, and I hope he will keep the secret, or
+we shall have all the west country here, dabbling in our fountain, and
+leaving us no rest to either talk or sing."
+
+Fairyfoot sat in great astonishment at this discourse, but by and by,
+when the talk ceased and the songs began, he thought it might be as well
+for him to follow the ground-ivy, and see the Princess Maybloom, not to
+speak of getting rid of Rough Ruddy, the sickly sheep, and the crusty
+old shepherd. It was a long journey; but he went on, eating wild
+berries by day, sleeping in the hollows of old trees by night, and never
+losing sight of the ground-ivy, which led him over height and hollow,
+bank and bush, out of the forest, and along a noble high road, with
+fields and villages on every side, to a great city, and a low
+old-fashioned gate of the king's kitchen-garden, which was thought too
+mean for the scullions, and had not been opened for seven years.
+
+There was no use knocking--the gate was overgrown with tall weeds and
+moss; so, being an active boy, he climbed over, and walked through the
+garden, till a white fawn came frisking by, and he heard a soft voice
+saying sorrowfully--
+
+"Come back, come back, my fawn! I cannot run and play with you now, my
+feet have grown so heavy"; and looking round he saw the loveliest young
+princess in the world, dressed in snow-white, and wearing a wreath of
+roses on her golden hair; but walking slowly, as the great people did in
+Stumpinghame, for her feet were as large as the best of them.
+
+After her came six young ladies, dressed in white and walking slowly,
+for they could not go before the princess; but Fairyfoot was amazed to
+see that their feet were as small as his own. At once he guessed that
+this must be the Princess Maybloom, and made her an humble bow, saying--
+
+"Royal princess, I have heard of your trouble because your feet have
+grown large; in my country that's all the fashion. For seven years past
+I have been wondering what would make mine grow, to no purpose; but I
+know of a certain fountain that will make yours smaller and finer than
+ever they were, if the king, your father, gives you leave to come with
+me, accompanied by two of your maids that are the least given to
+talking, and the most prudent officer in all his household; for it would
+grievously offend the fairies and the nightingales to make that fountain
+known."
+
+When the princess heard that, she danced for joy in spite of her large
+feet, and she and her six maids brought Fairyfoot before the king and
+queen, where they sat in their palace hall, with all the courtiers
+paying their morning compliments. The lords were very much astonished to
+see a ragged, bare-footed boy brought in among them, and the ladies
+thought Princess Maybloom must have gone mad; but Fairyfoot, making an
+humble reverence, told his message to the king and queen, and offered to
+set out with the princess that very day. At first the king would not
+believe that there could be any use in his offer, because so many great
+physicians had failed to give any relief. The courtiers laughed
+Fairyfoot to scorn, the pages wanted to turn him out for an impudent
+impostor, and the prime minister said he ought to be put to death for
+high treason.
+
+Fairyfoot wished himself safe in the forest again, or even keeping the
+sickly sheep; but the queen, being a prudent woman, said--
+
+"I pray your majesty to notice what fine feet this boy has. There may be
+some truth in his story. For the sake of our only daughter, I will
+choose two maids who talk the least of all our train, and my
+chamberlain, who is the most discreet officer in our household. Let them
+go with the princess; who knows but our sorrow may be lessened?"
+
+After some persuasion the king consented, though all his councillors
+advised the contrary. So the two silent maids, the discreet
+chamberlain, and her fawn, which would not stay behind, were sent with
+Princess Maybloom, and they all set out after dinner. Fairyfoot had hard
+work guiding them along the track of the ground-ivy. The maids and the
+chamberlain did not like the brambles and rough roots of the
+forest--they thought it hard to eat berries and sleep in hollow trees;
+but the princess went on with good courage, and at last they reached the
+grove of rose-trees, and the spring bordered with lilies.
+
+The chamberlain washed--and though his hair had been grey, and his face
+wrinkled, the young courtiers envied his beauty for years after. The
+maids washed--and from that day they were esteemed the fairest in all
+the palace. Lastly, the princess washed also--it could make her no
+fairer, but the moment her feet touched the water they grew less, and
+when she had washed and dried them three times, they were as small and
+finely-shaped as Fairyfoot's own. There was great joy among them, but
+the boy said sorrowfully--
+
+"Oh! if there had been a well in the world to make my feet large, my
+father and mother would not have cast me off, nor sent me to live among
+the shepherds."
+
+"Cheer up your heart," said the Princess Maybloom; "if you want large
+feet, there is a well in this forest that will do it. Last summer time I
+came with my father and his foresters to see a great cedar cut down, of
+which he meant to make a money chest. While they were busy with the
+cedar, I saw a bramble branch covered with berries. Some were ripe and
+some were green, but it was the longest bramble that ever grew; for the
+sake of the berries, I went on and on to its root, which grew hard by a
+muddy-looking well, with banks of dark green moss, in the deepest part
+of the forest. The day was warm and dry and my feet were sore with the
+rough ground, so I took off my scarlet shoes and washed my feet in the
+well; but as I washed they grew larger every minute, and nothing could
+ever make them less again. I have seen the bramble this day; it is not
+far off, and as you have shown me the Fair Fountain, I will show you the
+Growing Well."
+
+Up rose Fairyfoot and Princess Maybloom, and went together till they
+found the bramble, and came to where its root grew, hard by the
+muddy-looking well, with banks of dark green moss in the deepest dell of
+the forest. Fairyfoot sat down to wash, but at that minute he heard a
+sound of music, and knew it was the fairies going to their dancing
+ground.
+
+"If my feet grow large," said the boy to himself, "how shall I dance
+with them?" So, rising quickly, he took the Princess Maybloom by the
+hand. The fawn followed them; the maids and the chamberlain followed it,
+and all followed the music through the forest. At last they came to the
+flowery green. Robin Goodfellow welcomed the company for Fairyfoot's
+sake, and gave every one a drink of the fairies' wine. So they danced
+there from sunset till the grey morning, and nobody was tired; but
+before the lark sang, Robin Goodfellow took them all safe home, as he
+used to take Fairyfoot.
+
+There was great joy that day in the palace because Princess Maybloom's
+feet were made small again. The king gave Fairyfoot all manner of fine
+clothes and rich jewels; and when they heard his wonderful story, he and
+the queen asked him to live with them and be their son. In process of
+time Fairyfoot and Princess Maybloom were married, and still live
+happily. When they go to visit at Stumpinghame, they always wash their
+feet in the Growing Well, lest the royal family might think them a
+disgrace, but when they come back, they make haste to the Fair Fountain;
+and the fairies and the nightingales are great friends to them, as well
+as the maids and the chamberlain, because they have told nobody about
+it, and there is peace and quiet yet in the grove of rose-trees.
+
+
+
+200
+
+ The ill-fated Oscar Wilde (1856-1900) was born
+ in Ireland, was educated at Oxford, came into
+ great notoriety as the reputed leader of the
+ "aesthetic movement," was prominent in the
+ London literary world from 1885 to 1895, fell
+ under the obloquy of most of his countrymen,
+ and died in distressing circumstances in Paris.
+ In addition to some remarkable plays, poems,
+ and prose books, he wrote a number of unusual
+ stories especially fascinating to children,
+ which were collected under the title _The Happy
+ Prince, and Other Tales_. These stories were at
+ once recognized as classic in quality. While
+ they contain much implied criticism of certain
+ features of modern civilization, the whole tone
+ is so idealistic and the workmanship so fine
+ that they convey no strong note of bitterness
+ to the child. "The Happy Prince" suggests that
+ Wilde saw on the one hand "the white faces of
+ starving children looking out listlessly at the
+ black streets"; while on the other hand he saw
+ the Pyramids, marble angels sculptured on the
+ cathedral tower, and the gold-covered statue of
+ the Prince of the Palace of the Care-Free.
+ Wilde also suggests a remedy for the starvation
+ and wretchedness that exist, especially among
+ children, in most cities where great wealth is
+ displayed. The important thing in presenting
+ this story to children is to get the full
+ sympathetic response due to the sacrifice made
+ by the Happy Prince and the little swallow. So
+ much of the effect depends upon the wonderful
+ beauty of the language that teachers will, as a
+ rule, get better results from reading or
+ reciting than from any kind of oral paraphrase.
+ Another story in this same volume widely and
+ successfully used by teachers is the one called
+ "The Selfish Giant."
+
+
+THE HAPPY PRINCE
+
+OSCAR WILDE
+
+High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy
+Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes
+he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his
+sword-hilt.
+
+He was very much admired indeed. "He is as beautiful as a weathercock,"
+remarked one of the Town Councillors who wished to gain a reputation for
+having artistic tastes; "only not quite so useful," he added, fearing
+lest people should think him unpractical, which he really was not.
+
+"Why can't you be like the Happy Prince?" asked a sensible mother of her
+little boy who was crying for the moon. "The Happy Prince never dreams
+of crying for anything."
+
+"I am glad there is some one in the world who is quite happy," muttered
+a disappointed man as he gazed at the wonderful statue.
+
+"He looks just like an angel," said the Charity Children as they came
+out of the cathedral in their bright scarlet cloaks and their clean
+white pinafores.
+
+"How do you know?" said the Mathematical Master; "you have never seen
+one."
+
+"Ah! but we have, in our dreams," answered the children; and the
+Mathematical Master frowned and looked very severe, for he did not
+approve of children dreaming.
+
+One night there flew over the city a Little Swallow. His friends had
+gone away to Egypt six weeks before, but he had stayed behind, for he
+was in love with the most beautiful Reed. He had met her early in the
+spring as he was flying down the river after a big yellow moth, and had
+been so attracted by her slender waist that he had stopped to talk to
+her.
+
+"Shall I love you?" said the Swallow, who liked to come to the point at
+once, and the Reed made him a low bow. So he flew round and round her,
+touching the water with his wings, and making silver ripples. This was
+his courtship, and it lasted all through the summer.
+
+"It is a ridiculous attachment," twittered the other Swallows; "she has
+no money, and far too many relations"; and indeed the river was quite
+full of Reeds. Then when the autumn came they all flew away.
+
+After they had gone he felt lonely, and began to tire of his lady-love.
+"She has no conversation," he said, "and I am afraid that she is a
+coquette, for she is always flirting with the wind." And certainly,
+whenever the wind blew, the Reed made the most graceful curtseys. "I
+admit that she is domestic," he continued, "but I love traveling, and my
+wife, consequently, should love traveling also."
+
+"Will you come away with me?" he said finally to her; but the Reed shook
+her head, she was so attached to her home.
+
+"You have been trifling with me," he cried. "I am off to the Pyramids.
+Good-bye!" and he flew away.
+
+All day long he flew, and at night-time he arrived at the city. "Where
+shall I put up?" he said; "I hope the town has made preparations."
+
+Then he saw the statue on the tall column.
+
+"I will put up there," he cried; "it is a fine position, with plenty of
+fresh air." So he alighted just between the feet of the Happy Prince.
+
+"I have a golden bedroom," he said softly to himself as he looked round,
+and he prepared to go to sleep; but just as he was putting his head
+under his wing a large drop of water fell on him. "What a curious
+thing!" he cried; "there is not a single cloud in the sky, the stars are
+quite clear and bright, and yet it is raining. The climate in the north
+of Europe is really dreadful. The Reed used to like the rain, but that
+was merely her selfishness."
+
+Then another drop fell.
+
+"What is the use of a statue if it cannot keep the rain off?" he said;
+"I must look for a good chimney-pot," and he determined to fly away.
+
+But before he had opened his wings, a third drop fell, and he looked up,
+and saw--Ah! what did he see?
+
+The eyes of the Happy Prince were filled with tears, and tears were
+running down his golden cheeks. His face was so beautiful in the
+moonlight that the little Swallow was filled with pity.
+
+"Who are you?" he said.
+
+"I am the Happy Prince."
+
+"Why are you weeping then?" asked the Swallow; "you have quite drenched
+me."
+
+"When I was alive and had a human heart," answered the statue, "I did
+not know what tears were, for I lived in the Palace of Sans-Souci, where
+sorrow is not allowed to enter. In the daytime I played with my
+companions in the garden, and in the evening I led the dance in the
+Great Hall. Round the garden ran a very lofty wall, but I never cared to
+ask what lay beyond it, everything about me was so beautiful. My
+courtiers called me the Happy Prince, and happy indeed I was, if
+pleasure be happiness. So I lived, and so I died. And now that I am dead
+they have set me up here so high that I can see all the ugliness and all
+the misery of my city, and though my heart is made of lead yet I cannot
+choose but weep."
+
+"What! is he not solid gold?" said the Swallow to himself. He was too
+polite to make any personal remarks out loud.
+
+"Far away," continued the statue in a low musical voice, "far away in a
+little street there is a poor house. One of the windows is open, and
+through it I can see a woman seated at a table. Her face is thin and
+worn, and she has coarse, red hands, all pricked by the needle, for she
+is a seamstress. She is embroidering passion-flowers on a satin gown for
+the loveliest of the Queen's maids-of-honor to wear at the next
+Court-ball. In a bed in the corner of the room her little boy is lying
+ill. He has a fever, and is asking for oranges. His mother has nothing
+to give him but river water, so he is crying. Swallow, Swallow, little
+Swallow, will you not take her the ruby out of my sword-hilt? My feet
+are fastened to this pedestal and I cannot move."
+
+"I am waited for in Egypt," said the Swallow. "My friends are flying up
+and down the Nile, and talking to the large lotus-flowers. Soon they
+will go to sleep in the tomb of the great King. The King is there
+himself in his painted coffin. He is wrapped in yellow linen, and
+embalmed with spices. Round his neck is a chain of pale green jade, and
+his hands are like withered leaves."
+
+"Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow," said the Prince, "will you not stay
+with me for one night, and be my messenger? The boy is so thirsty, and
+the mother so sad."
+
+"I don't think I like boys," answered the Swallow. "Last summer, when I
+was staying on the river, there were two rude boys, the miller's sons,
+who were always throwing stones at me. They never hit me, of course; we
+swallows fly far too well for that, and besides, I come of a family
+famous for its agility; but still, it was a mark of disrespect."
+
+But the Happy Prince looked so sad that the little Swallow was sorry.
+"It is very cold here," he said; "but I will stay with you for one
+night, and be your messenger."
+
+"Thank you, little Swallow," said the Prince.
+
+So the Swallow picked out the great ruby from the Prince's sword, and
+flew away with it in his beak over the roofs of the town.
+
+He passed by the cathedral tower, where the white marble angels were
+sculptured. He passed by the palace and heard the sound of dancing. A
+beautiful girl came out on the balcony with her lover. "How wonderful
+the stars are," he said to her, "and how wonderful is the power of
+love!"
+
+"I hope my dress will be ready in time for the State-ball," she
+answered; "I have ordered passion-flowers to be embroidered on it; but
+the seamstresses are so lazy."
+
+He passed over the river, and saw the lanterns hanging to the masts of
+the ships. He passed over the Ghetto, and saw the old Jews bargaining
+with each other, and weighing out money in copper scales. At last he
+came to the poor house and looked in. The boy was tossing feverishly on
+his bed, and the mother had fallen asleep, she was so tired. In he
+hopped, and laid the great ruby on the table beside the woman's thimble.
+Then he flew gently round the bed, fanning the boy's forehead with his
+wings. "How cool I feel," said the boy. "I must be getting better"; and
+he sank into a delicious slumber.
+
+Then the Swallow flew back to the Happy Prince, and told him what he had
+done. "It is curious," he remarked, "but I feel quite warm now, although
+it is so cold."
+
+"That is because you have done a good action," said the Prince. And the
+little Swallow began to think, and then he fell asleep. Thinking always
+made him sleepy.
+
+When day broke he flew down to the river and had a bath. "What a
+remarkable phenomenon," said the Professor of Ornithology as he was
+passing over the bridge. "A swallow in winter!" And he wrote a long
+letter about it to the local newspaper. Every one quoted it, it was full
+of so many words that they could not understand.
+
+"To-night I go to Egypt," said the Swallow, and he was in high spirits
+at the prospect. He visited all the public monuments, and sat a long
+time on top of the church steeple. Wherever he went the Sparrows
+chirruped, and said to each other, "What a distinguished stranger!" so
+he enjoyed himself very much.
+
+When the moon rose he flew back to the Happy Prince. "Have you any
+commissions for Egypt?" he cried; "I am just starting."
+
+"Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow," said the Prince, "will you not stay
+with me one night longer?"
+
+"I am waited for in Egypt," answered the Swallow. "To-morrow my friends
+will fly up to the Second Cataract. The river-horse couches there among
+the bulrushes, and on a great granite throne sits the God Memnon. All
+night long he watches the stars, and when the morning star shines he
+utters one cry of joy, and then he is silent. At noon the yellow lions
+come down to the water's edge to drink. They have eyes like green
+beryls, and their roar is louder than the roar of the cataract."
+
+"Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow," said the Prince, "far away across
+the city I see a young man in a garret. He is leaning over a desk
+covered with papers, and in a tumbler by his side there is a bunch of
+withered violets. His hair is brown and crisp, and his lips are red as a
+pomegranate, and he has large and dreamy eyes. He is trying to finish a
+play for the Director of the Theatre, but he is too cold to write any
+more. There is no fire in the grate, and hunger has made him faint."
+
+"I will wait with you one night longer," said the Swallow, who really
+had a good heart. "Shall I take him another ruby?"
+
+"Alas! I have no ruby now," said the Prince; "my eyes are all that I
+have left. They are made of rare sapphires, which were brought out of
+India a thousand years ago. Pluck out one of them and take it to him. He
+will sell it to the jeweller, and buy food and firewood, and finish his
+play."
+
+"Dear Prince," said the Swallow, "I cannot do that"; and he began to
+weep.
+
+"Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow," said the Prince, "do as I command
+you."
+
+So the Swallow plucked out the Prince's eye, and flew away to the
+student's garret. It was easy enough to get in, as there was a hole in
+the roof. Through this he darted, and came into the room. The young man
+had his head buried in his hands, so he did not hear the flutter of the
+bird's wings, and when he looked up he found the beautiful sapphire
+lying on the withered violets.
+
+"I am beginning to be appreciated," he cried; "this is from some great
+admirer. Now I can finish my play," and he looked quite happy.
+
+The next day the Swallow flew down to the harbor. He sat on the mast of
+a large vessel and watched the sailors hauling big chests out of the
+hold with ropes. "Heave a-hoy!" they shouted as each chest came up. "I
+am going to Egypt!" cried the Swallow, but nobody minded, and when the
+moon rose he flew back to the Happy Prince.
+
+"I am come to bid you good-bye," he cried.
+
+"Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow," said the Prince, "will you not stay
+with me one night longer?"
+
+"It is winter," answered the Swallow, "and the chill snow will soon be
+here. In Egypt the sun is warm on the green palm-trees, and the
+crocodiles lie in the mud and look lazily about them. My companions are
+building a nest in the Temple of Baalbec, and the pink and white doves
+are watching them, and cooing to each other. Dear Prince, I must leave
+you, but I will never forget you, and next spring I will bring you back
+two beautiful jewels in place of those you have given away. The ruby
+shall be redder than a red rose, and the sapphire shall be as blue as
+the great sea."
+
+"In the square below," said the Happy Prince, "there stands a little
+match-girl. She has let her matches fall in the gutter, and they are all
+spoiled. Her father will beat her if she does not bring home some money,
+and she is crying. She has no shoes or stockings, and her little head is
+bare. Pluck out my other eye, and give it to her, and her father will
+not beat her."
+
+"I will stay with you one night longer," said the Swallow, "but I cannot
+pluck out your eye. You would be quite blind then."
+
+"Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow," said the Prince, "do as I command
+you."
+
+So he plucked out the Prince's other eye, and darted down with it. He
+swooped past the match-girl, and slipped the jewel into the palm of her
+hand. "What a lovely bit of glass," cried the little girl; and she ran
+home, laughing.
+
+Then the Swallow came back to the Prince. "You are blind now," he said,
+"so I will stay with you always."
+
+"No, little Swallow," said the poor Prince, "you must go away to Egypt."
+
+"I will stay with you always," said the Swallow, and he slept at the
+Prince's feet.
+
+All the next day he sat on the Prince's shoulder, and told him stories
+of what he had seen in strange lands. He told him of the red ibises, who
+stand in long rows on the banks of the Nile, and catch goldfish in their
+beaks; of the Sphinx, who is as old as the world itself, and lives in
+the desert, and knows everything; of the merchants, who walk slowly by
+the side of their camels, and carry amber beads in their hands; of the
+King of the Mountains of the Moon, who is as black as ebony, and
+worships a large crystal; of the great green snake that sleeps in a
+palm-tree, and has twenty priests to feed it with honey-cakes; and of
+the pygmies who sail over a big lake on large flat leaves, and are
+always at war with the butterflies.
+
+"Dear little Swallow," said the Prince, "you tell me of marvelous
+things, but more marvelous than anything is the suffering of men and of
+women. There is no Mystery so great as Misery. Fly over my city, little
+Swallow, and tell me what you see there."
+
+So the Swallow flew over the great city, and saw the rich making merry
+in their beautiful houses, while the beggars were sitting at the gates.
+He flew into dark lanes, and saw the white faces of starving children
+looking out listlessly at the black streets. Under the archway of a
+bridge two little boys were lying in one another's arms to try to keep
+themselves warm. "How hungry we are!" they said. "You must not lie
+here," shouted the Watchman, and they wandered out into the rain.
+
+Then he flew back and told the Prince what he had seen.
+
+"I am covered with fine gold," said the Prince; "you must take it off,
+leaf by leaf, and give it to my poor; the living always think that gold
+can make them happy."
+
+Leaf after leaf of the fine gold the Swallow picked off, till the Happy
+Prince looked quite dull and grey. Leaf after leaf of the fine gold he
+brought to the poor, and the children's faces grew rosier, and they
+laughed and played games in the street. "We have bread now!" they cried.
+
+Then the snow came, and after the snow came the frost. The streets
+looked as if they were made of silver, they were so bright and
+glistening; long icicles like crystal daggers hung down from the eaves
+of the houses, everybody went about in furs, and the little boys wore
+scarlet caps and skated on the ice.
+
+The poor little Swallow grew colder and colder, but he would not leave
+the Prince; he loved him too well. He picked up crumbs outside the
+baker's door when the baker was not looking, and tried to keep himself
+warm by flapping his wings.
+
+But at last he knew that he was going to die. He had just strength to
+fly up to the Prince's shoulder once more. "Good-bye, dear Prince!" he
+murmured, "will you let me kiss your hand?"
+
+"I am glad that you are going to Egypt at last, little Swallow," said
+the Prince. "You have stayed too long here; but you must kiss me on the
+lips, for I love you."
+
+"It is not to Egypt that I am going," said the Swallow. "I am going to
+the House of Death. Death is the brother of Sleep, is he not?"
+
+And he kissed the Happy Prince on the lips, and fell down dead at his
+feet.
+
+At that moment a curious crack sounded inside the statue, as if
+something had suddenly broken. The fact is that the leaden heart had
+snapped right in two. It certainly was a dreadfully hard frost.
+
+Early the next morning the Mayor was walking in the square below in
+company with the Town Councillors. As they passed the column he looked
+up at the statue: "Dear me! how shabby the Happy Prince looks!" he said.
+
+"How shabby indeed!" cried the Town Councillors, who always agreed with
+the Mayor; and they went up to look at it.
+
+"The ruby has fallen out of his sword, his eyes are gone, and he is
+golden no longer," said the Mayor; "in fact, he is little better than a
+beggar!"
+
+"Little better than a beggar," said the Town Councillors.
+
+"And here is actually a dead bird at his feet!" continued the Mayor.
+"We must really issue a proclamation that birds are not to be allowed
+to die here." And the Town Clerk made a note of the suggestion.
+
+So they pulled down the statue of the Happy Prince. "As he is no longer
+beautiful he is no longer useful," said the Art Professor at the
+University.
+
+Then they melted the statue in a furnace, and the Mayor held a meeting
+of the Corporation to decide what was to be done with the metal. "We
+must have another statue, of course," he said, "and it shall be a statue
+of myself."
+
+"Of myself," said each of the Town Councillors, and they quarrelled.
+When I last heard of them they were quarreling still.
+
+"What a strange thing!" said the overseer of the workmen at the foundry.
+"This broken lead heart will not melt in the furnace. We must throw it
+away." So they threw it on a dustheap where the dead Swallow was also
+lying.
+
+"Bring me the two most precious things in the city," said God to one of
+His Angels; and the Angel brought Him the leaden heart and the dead
+bird.
+
+"You have rightly chosen," said God, "for in my garden of Paradise this
+little bird shall sing for evermore, and in my city of gold the Happy
+Prince shall praise me."
+
+
+
+201
+
+ Two stories of unusual interest and charm for
+ children are found in the collection of eleven
+ by Raymond M. Alden (1873--), _Why the Chimes
+ Rang_. One is the title story of the volume;
+ the other is "The Knights of the Silver
+ Shield." The latter follows by permission of
+ the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Co.,
+ Indianapolis. (Copyright, 1906, 1908.) It is of
+ striking dramatic interest and emphasizes a
+ much-needed quality of character, the
+ importance of a loyal performance of the
+ lowlier duties of life. The salvation of a
+ nation may depend upon the humble guardian of
+ the gate quite as much as upon those who are
+ engaged in the more spectacular struggle with
+ giants. Mr. Alden is a scholarly professor of
+ literature in Leland Stanford Jr. University,
+ and it may interest the reader to know that he
+ is the son of the author of the _Pansy Books_,
+ a type of religious or Sunday-school fiction
+ widely read throughout the country by a
+ generation or two of young people.
+
+
+THE KNIGHTS OF THE SILVER SHIELD
+
+RAYMOND MACDONALD ALDEN
+
+There was once a splendid castle in a forest, with great stone walls and
+a high gateway, and turrets that rose away above the tallest trees. The
+forest was dark and dangerous, and many cruel giants lived in it; but in
+the castle was a company of knights, who were kept there by the king of
+the country, to help travelers who might be in the forest and to fight
+with the giants whenever they could.
+
+Each of these knights wore a beautiful suit of armor and carried a long
+spear, while over his helmet there floated a great red plume that could
+be seen a long way off by any one in distress. But the most wonderful
+thing about the knights' armor was their shields. They were not like
+those of other knights, but had been made by a great magician who had
+lived in the castle many years before. They were made of silver, and
+sometimes shone in the sunlight with dazzling brightness; but at other
+times the surface of the shields would be clouded as though by a mist,
+and one could not see his face reflected there as he could when they
+shone brightly.
+
+Now, when each young knight received his spurs and his armor, a new
+shield was also given him from among those that the magician had made;
+and when the shield was new its surface was always cloudy and dull. But
+as the knight began to do service against the giants, or went on
+expeditions to help poor travelers in the forest, his shield grew
+brighter and brighter, so that he could see his face clearly reflected
+in it. But if he proved to be a lazy or cowardly knight, and let the
+giants get the better of him, or did not care what became of the
+travelers, then the shield grew more and more cloudy, until the knight
+became ashamed to carry it.
+
+But this was not all. When any one of the knights fought a particularly
+hard battle, and won the victory, or when he went on some hard errand
+for the lord of the castle, and was successful, not only did his silver
+shield grow brighter, but when one looked into the center of it he could
+see something like a golden star shining in its very heart. This was the
+greatest honor that a knight could achieve, and the other knights always
+spoke of such a one as having "won his star." It was usually not till he
+was pretty old and tried as a soldier that he could win it. At the time
+when this story begins, the lord of the castle himself was the only one
+of the knights whose shield bore the golden star.
+
+There came a time when the worst of the giants in the forest gathered
+themselves together to have a battle against the knights. They made a
+camp in a dark hollow not far from the castle, and gathered all their
+best warriors together, and all the knights made ready to fight them.
+The windows of the castle were closed and barred; the air was full of
+the noise of armor being made ready for use; and the knights were so
+excited that they could scarcely rest or eat.
+
+Now there was a young knight in the castle, named Sir Roland, who was
+among those most eager for the battle. He was a splendid warrior, with
+eyes that shone like stars whenever there was anything to do in the way
+of knightly deeds. And although he was still quite young, his shield had
+begun to shine enough to show plainly that he had done bravely in some
+of his errands through the forest. This battle, he thought, would be the
+great opportunity of his life. And on the morning of the day when they
+were to go forth to it, and all the knights assembled in the great hall
+of the castle to receive the commands of their leaders, Sir Roland hoped
+that he would be put in the most dangerous place of all, so that he
+could show what knightly stuff he was made of.
+
+But when the lord of the castle came to him, as he went about in full
+armor giving his commands, he said: "One brave knight must stay behind
+and guard the gateway of the castle, and it is you, Sir Roland, being
+one of the youngest, whom I have chosen for this."
+
+At these words Sir Roland was so disappointed that he bit his lip and
+closed his helmet over his face so that the other knights might not see
+it. For a moment he felt as if he must reply angrily to the commander
+and tell him that it was not right to leave so sturdy a knight behind
+when he was eager to fight. But he struggled against this feeling and
+went quietly to look after his duties at the gate. The gateway was high
+and narrow, and was reached from outside by a high, narrow bridge that
+crossed the moat, which surrounded the castle on every side. When an
+enemy approached, the knight on guard rang a great bell just inside the
+gate, and the bridge was drawn up against the castle wall, so that no
+one could come across the moat. So the giants had long ago given up
+trying to attack the castle itself.
+
+To-day the battle was to be in the dark hollow in the forest, and it was
+not likely that there would be anything to do at the castle gate, except
+to watch it like a common doorkeeper. It was not strange that Sir Roland
+thought some one else might have done this.
+
+Presently all the other knights marched out in their flashing armor,
+their red plumes waving over their heads, and their spears in their
+hands. The lord of the castle stopped only to tell Sir Roland to keep
+guard over the gate until they had all returned and to let no one enter.
+Then they went into the shadows of the forest and were soon lost to
+sight.
+
+Sir Roland stood looking after them long after they had gone, thinking
+how happy he would be if he were on the way to battle like them. But
+after a little he put this out of his mind and tried to think of
+pleasanter things. It was a long time before anything happened, or any
+word came from the battle.
+
+At last Sir Roland saw one of the knights come limping down the path to
+the castle, and he went out on the bridge to meet him. Now this knight
+was not a brave one, and he had been frightened away as soon as he was
+wounded.
+
+"I have been hurt," he said, "so that I can not fight any more. But I
+could watch the gate for you, if you would like to go back in my place."
+
+At first Sir Roland's heart leaped with joy at this, but then he
+remembered what the commander had told him on going away, and he said:
+
+"I should like to go, but a knight belongs where his commander has put
+him. My place is here at the gate, and I can not open it even for you.
+Your place is at the battle."
+
+The knight was ashamed when he heard this, and he presently turned about
+and went into the forest again.
+
+So Sir Roland kept guard silently for another hour. Then there came an
+old beggar woman down the path to the castle and asked Sir Roland if she
+might come in and have some food. He told her that no one could enter
+the castle that day, but that he would send a servant out to her with
+food, and that she might sit and rest as long as she would.
+
+"I have been past the hollow in the forest where the battle is going
+on," said the old woman, while she was waiting for her food.
+
+"And how do you think it is going?" asked Sir Roland.
+
+"Badly for the knights, I am afraid," said the old woman. "The giants
+are fighting as they have never fought before. I should think you had
+better go and help your friends."
+
+"I should like to, indeed," said Sir Roland. "But I am set to guard the
+gateway of the castle and can not leave."
+
+"One fresh knight would make a great difference when they are all weary
+with fighting," said the old woman. "I should think that, while there
+are no enemies about, you would be much more useful there."
+
+"You may well think so," said Sir Roland, "and so may I; but it is
+neither you nor I that is commander here."
+
+"I suppose," said the old woman then, "that you are one of the kind of
+knights who like to keep out of fighting. You are lucky to have so good
+an excuse for staying at home." And she laughed a thin and taunting
+laugh.
+
+Then Sir Roland was very angry, and thought that if it were only a man
+instead of a woman, he would show him whether he liked fighting or no.
+But as it was a woman, he shut his lips and set his teeth hard together,
+and as the servant came just then with the food he had sent for, he gave
+it to the old woman quickly and shut the gate that she might not talk to
+him any more.
+
+It was not very long before he heard some one calling outside. Sir
+Roland opened the gate and saw standing at the other end of the
+drawbridge a little old man in a long black cloak. "Why are you knocking
+here?" he said. "The castle is closed to-day."
+
+"Are you Sir Roland?" said the little old man.
+
+"Yes," said Sir Roland.
+
+"Then you ought not to be staying here when your commander and his
+knights are having so hard a struggle with the giants, and when you have
+the chance to make of yourself the greatest knight in this kingdom.
+Listen to me! I have brought you a magic sword."
+
+As he said this, the old man drew from under his coat a wonderful sword
+that flashed in the sunlight as if it were covered with diamonds. "This
+is the sword of all swords," he said, "and it is for you, if you will
+leave your idling here by the castle gate and carry it to the battle.
+Nothing can stand before it. When you lift it the giants will fall back,
+your master will be saved, and you will be crowned the victorious
+knight--the one who will soon take his commander's place as lord of the
+castle."
+
+Now Sir Roland believed that it was a magician who was speaking to him,
+for it certainly appeared to be a magic sword. It seemed so wonderful
+that the sword should be brought to him, that he reached out his hand as
+though he would take it, and the little old man came forward, as though
+he would cross the drawbridge into the castle. But as he did so, it came
+to Sir Roland's mind again that that bridge and the gateway had been
+intrusted to him, and he called out "No!" to the old man, so that he
+stopped where he was standing. But he waved the shining sword in the air
+again, and said: "It is for you! Take it, and win the victory!"
+
+Sir Roland was really afraid that if he looked any longer at the sword
+or listened to any more words of the old man, he would not be able to
+hold himself within the castle. For this reason he struck the great bell
+at the gateway, which was the signal for the servants inside to pull in
+the chains of the drawbridge, and instantly they began to pull, and the
+drawbridge came up, so that the old man could not cross it to enter the
+castle, nor Sir Roland to go out.
+
+Then, as he looked across the moat, Sir Roland saw a wonderful thing.
+The little old man threw off his black cloak, and as he did so he began
+to grow bigger and bigger, until in a minute more he was a giant as tall
+as any in the forest. At first Sir Roland could scarcely believe his
+eyes. Then he realized that this must be one of their giant enemies, who
+had changed himself to a little old man through some magic power, that
+he might make his way into the castle while all the knights were away.
+Sir Roland shuddered to think what might have happened if he had taken
+the sword and left the gate unguarded. The giant shook his fist across
+the moat that lay between them, and then, knowing that he could do
+nothing more, he went angrily back into the forest.
+
+Sir Roland now resolved not to open the gate again, and to pay no
+attention to any other visitor. But it was not long before he heard a
+sound that made him spring forward in joy. It was the bugle of the lord
+of the castle, and there came sounding after it the bugles of many of
+the knights that were with him, pealing so joyfully that Sir Roland was
+sure they were safe and happy. As they came nearer, he could hear their
+shouts of victory. So he gave the signal to let down the drawbridge
+again, and went out to meet them. They were dusty and bloodstained and
+weary, but they had won the battle with the giants; and it had been such
+a great victory that there had never been a happier home-coming.
+
+Sir Roland greeted them all as they passed in over the bridge, and then,
+when he had closed the gate and fastened it, he followed them into the
+great hall of the castle. The lord of the castle took his place on the
+highest seat, with the other knights about him, and Sir Roland came
+forward with the key of the gate, to give his account of what he had
+done in the place to which the commander had appointed him. The lord of
+the castle bowed to him as a sign for him to begin, but just as he
+opened his mouth to speak, one of the knights cried out:
+
+"The shield! the shield! Sir Roland's shield!"
+
+Every one turned and looked at the shield which Sir Roland carried on
+his left arm. He himself could see only the top of it and did not know
+what they could mean. But what they saw was the golden star of
+knighthood, shining brightly from the center of Sir Roland's shield.
+There had never been such amazement in the castle before.
+
+Sir Roland knelt before the lord of the castle to receive his commands.
+He still did not know why every one was looking at him so excitedly, and
+wondered if he had in some way done wrong.
+
+"Speak, Sir Knight," said the commander, as soon as he could find his
+voice after his surprise, "and tell us all that has happened to-day at
+the castle. Have you been attacked? Have any giants come hither? Did you
+fight them alone?"
+
+"No, my Lord," said Sir Roland. "Only one giant has been here, and he
+went away silently when he found he could not enter."
+
+Then he told all that had happened through the day.
+
+When he had finished, the knights all looked at one another, but no one
+spoke a word. Then they looked again at Sir Roland's shield, to make
+sure that their eyes had not deceived them, and there the golden star
+was still shining.
+
+After a little silence the lord of the castle spoke.
+
+"Men make mistakes," he said, "but our silver shields are never
+mistaken. Sir Roland has fought and won the hardest battle of all
+to-day."
+
+Then the others all rose and saluted Sir Roland, who was the youngest
+knight that ever carried the golden star.
+
+
+
+202
+
+ Jean Ingelow (1820-1897) was an English poet,
+ novelist, and writer of stories for children,
+ who lived in the fen district of Lincolnshire.
+ Her most noted poem deals with a terrible
+ catastrophe that happened there more than three
+ centuries ago. It is called "The High Tide on
+ the Coast of Lincolnshire." Many reading books
+ for the third or fourth grade contain her
+ dainty and melodious "Seven Times One," in
+ which a little girl expresses the joy and sense
+ of power felt on reaching a seventh birthday.
+ Of her children's books, the favorite is _Mopsa
+ the Fairy_, which some one has called a
+ "delightful succession of breezy
+ impossibilities." Her shorter stories for
+ children are collected under the title _Stories
+ Told to a Child_ (two series), from which "The
+ Prince's Dream" is taken. It is somewhat old
+ fashioned in method and style, reminding one of
+ the stories of the days of Addison and Steele.
+ Its seriousness is in striking contrast with
+ the more flippant note in much modern writing
+ for children, and it is sure to suggest some
+ questions on the dangers and advantages of
+ great possessions in their effects on labor,
+ liberty, and human happiness in general.
+ However, the moral will take care of itself,
+ and the attention should rest on the means used
+ by the old man to teach the young prince the
+ things he is shut out from learning by
+ experience. The children will easily see that
+ it is an anticipation of the moving-picture
+ method. Some other good stories in the
+ collection mentioned are "I Have a Right," "The
+ Fairy Who Judged Her Neighbors," and "Anselmo."
+
+
+THE PRINCE'S DREAM
+
+JEAN INGELOW
+
+If we may credit the fable, there is a tower in the midst of a great
+Asiatic plain, wherein is confined a prince who was placed there in his
+earliest infancy, with many slaves and attendants, and all the luxuries
+that are compatible with imprisonment.
+
+Whether he was brought there from some motive of state, whether to
+conceal him from enemies, or to deprive him of rights, has not
+transpired; but it is certain that up to the date of this little history
+he had never set his foot outside the walls of that high tower, and that
+of the vast world without he knew only the green plains which surrounded
+it; the flocks and the birds of that region were all his experience of
+living creatures, and all the men he saw outside were shepherds.
+
+And yet he was not utterly deprived of change, for sometimes one of his
+attendants would be ordered away, and his place would be supplied by a
+new one. This fresh companion the prince would never weary of
+questioning, and letting him talk of cities, of ships, of forests, of
+merchandise, of kings; but though in turns they all tried to satisfy his
+curiosity, they could not succeed in conveying very distinct notions to
+his mind; partly because there was nothing in the tower to which they
+could compare the external world, partly because, having chiefly lived
+lives of seclusion and indolence in Eastern palaces, they knew it only
+by hearsay themselves.
+
+At length, one day, a venerable man of a noble presence was brought to
+the tower, with soldiers to guard him and slaves to attend him. The
+prince was glad of his presence, though at first he seldom opened his
+lips, and it was manifest that confinement made him miserable. With
+restless feet he would wander from window to window of the stone tower,
+and mount from story to story; but mount as high as he would there was
+still nothing to be seen but the vast unvarying plain, clothed with
+scanty grass, and flooded with the glaring sunshine; flocks and herds,
+and shepherds, moved across it sometimes, but nothing else, not even a
+shadow, for there was no cloud in the sky to cast one.
+
+The old man, however, always treated the prince with respect, and
+answered his questions with a great deal of patience, till at length he
+found a pleasure in satisfying his curiosity, which so much pleased the
+young prisoner, that, as a great condescension, he invited him to come
+out on the roof of the tower and drink sherbet with him in the cool of
+the evening, and tell him of the country beyond the desert, and what
+seas are like, and mountains, and towns.
+
+"I have learnt much from my attendants, and know this world pretty well
+by hearsay," said the prince, as they reclined on the rich carpet which
+was spread on the roof.
+
+The old man smiled, but did not answer; perhaps because he did not care
+to undeceive his young companion, perhaps because so many slaves were
+present, some of whom were serving them with fruit, and others burning
+rich odors on a little chafing-dish that stood between them.
+
+"But there are some words to which I never could attach any particular
+meaning," proceeded the prince, as the slaves began to retire, "and
+three in particular that my attendants cannot satisfy me upon, or are
+reluctant to do so."
+
+"What words are those, my prince?" asked the old man. The prince turned
+on his elbow to be sure that the last slave had descended the tower
+stairs, then replied--
+
+"O man of much knowledge, the words are these--Labor, and Liberty, and
+Gold."
+
+"Prince," said the old man, "I do not wonder that it has been hard to
+make thee understand the first, the nature of it, and the cause why most
+men are born to it; as for the second, it would be treason for thee and
+me to do more than whisper it here, and sigh for it when none are
+listening; but the third need hardly puzzle thee, thy hookah is bright
+with it; all thy jewels are set in it; gold is inlaid in the ivory of
+thy bath; thy cup and thy dish are of gold, and golden threads are
+wrought into thy raiment."
+
+"That is true," replied the prince, "and if I had not seen and handled
+this gold, perhaps I might not find its merits so hard to understand;
+but I possess it in abundance, and it does not feed me, nor make music
+for me, nor fan me when the sun is hot, nor cause me to sleep when I am
+weary; therefore when my slaves have told me how merchants go out and
+brave the perilous wind and sea, and live in the unstable ships, and run
+risks from shipwreck and pirates, and when, having asked them why they
+have done this, they have answered, 'For gold,' I have found it hard to
+believe them; and when they have told me how men have lied, and robbed,
+and deceived; how they have murdered one another, and leagued together
+to depose kings, to oppress provinces, and all for gold; then I have
+said to myself, either my slaves have combined to make me believe that
+which is not, or this gold must be very different from the yellow stuff
+that this coin is made of, this coin which is of no use but to have a
+hole pierced through it and hang to my girdle, that it may tinkle when I
+walk."
+
+"Notwithstanding," said the old man, "nothing can be done without gold;
+for look you, prince, it is better than bread, and fruit, and music, for
+it can buy them all, since men love it, and have agreed to exchange it
+for whatever they may need."
+
+"How so?" asked the prince.
+
+"If a man has many loaves he cannot eat them all," answered the old man;
+"therefore he goes to his neighbor and says, 'I have bread and thou
+hast a coin of gold--let us change'; so he receives the gold and goes to
+another man, saying, 'Thou hast two houses and I have none; lend me one
+of thy houses to live in, and I will give thee my gold'; thus again they
+change, and he that has the gold says, 'I have food enough and goods
+enough, but I want a wife, I will go to the merchant and get a marriage
+gift for her father, and for it I will give him this gold.'"
+
+"It is well," said the prince; "but in time of drought, if there is no
+bread in a city, can they make it of gold?"
+
+"Not so," answered the old man, "but they must send their gold to a city
+where there is food, and bring that back instead of it."
+
+"But if there was a famine all over the world," asked the prince, "what
+would they do then?"
+
+"Why then, and only then," said the old man, "they must starve, and the
+gold would be nought, for it can only be changed for that which _is_; it
+cannot make that which is not."
+
+"And where do they get gold?" asked the prince; "is it the precious
+fruit of some rare tree, or have they whereby they can draw it down from
+the sky at sunset?"
+
+"Some of it," said the old man, "they dig out of the ground."
+
+Then he told the prince of ancient rivers running through terrible
+deserts, whose sands glitter, with golden grains and are yellow in the
+fierce heat of the sun, and of dreary mines where the Indian slaves work
+in gangs tied together, never seeing the light of day; and lastly (for
+he was a man of much knowledge, and had traveled far), he told him of
+the valley of the Sacramento in the New World, and of those mountains
+where the people of Europe send their criminals, and where now their
+free men pour forth to gather gold, and dig for it as hard as if for
+life; sitting up by it at night lest any should take it from them,
+giving up houses and country, and wife and children, for the sake of a
+few feet of mud, whence they dig clay that glitters as they wash it; and
+how they sift it and rock it as patiently as if it were their own
+children in the cradle, and afterwards carry it in their bosoms, and
+forego on account of it safety and rest.
+
+"But, prince," he proceeded, observing that the young man was absorbed
+in his narrative, "if you would pass your word to me never to betray me,
+I would procure for you a sight of the external world, and in a trance
+you should see those places where gold is dug, and traverse those
+regions forbidden to your mortal footsteps."
+
+Upon this, the prince threw himself at the old man's feet, and promised
+heartily to observe the secrecy required, and entreated that, for
+however short time, he might be suffered to see this wonderful world.
+
+Then, if we may credit the story, the old man drew nearer to the
+chafing-dish which stood between them, and having fanned the dying
+embers in it, cast upon them a certain powder and some herbs, from
+whence as they burnt a peculiar smoke arose. As their vapors spread, he
+desired the prince to draw near and inhale them, and then (says the
+fable) when he should sleep he should find himself, in his dream, at
+whatever place he might desire, with this strange advantage, that he
+should see things in their truth and reality as well as in their outward
+shows.
+
+So the prince, not without some fear, prepared to obey; but first he
+drank his sherbet, and handed over the golden cup to the old man by way
+of recompense; then he reclined beside the chafing-dish and inhaled the
+heavy perfume till he became overpowered with sleep, and sank down upon
+the carpet in a dream.
+
+The prince knew not where he was, but a green country was floating
+before him, and he found himself standing in a marshy valley, where a
+few wretched cottages were scattered here and there with no means of
+communication. There was a river, but it had overflowed its banks and
+made the central land impassable, the fences had been broken down by it,
+and the fields of corn laid low; a few wretched peasants were wandering
+about there; they looked half clad and half starved. "A miserable valley
+indeed!" exclaimed the prince; but as he said it a man came down from
+the hills with a great bag of gold in his hand.
+
+"This valley is mine," said he to the people; "I have bought it for
+gold. Now make banks that the river may not overflow, and I will give
+you gold; also make fences and plant fields, and cover in the roofs of
+your houses, and buy yourselves richer clothing." So the people did so,
+and as the gold got lower in the bag the valley grew fairer and greener,
+till the prince exclaimed, "O gold, I see your value now! O wonderful,
+beneficent gold!"
+
+But presently the valley melted away like a mist, and the prince saw an
+army besieging a city; he heard a general haranguing his soldiers to
+urge them on, and the soldiers shouting and battering the walls; but
+shortly, when the city was well-nigh taken, he saw some men secretly
+throwing gold among the soldiers, so much of it that they threw down
+their arms to pick it up, and said that the walls were so strong that
+they could not throw them down. "O powerful gold!" thought the prince;
+"thou art stronger than the city walls!"
+
+After that it seemed to himself that he was walking about in a desert
+country, and in his dream he thought, "Now I know what labor is, for I
+have seen it, and its benefits; and I know what liberty is, for I have
+tasted it; I can wander where I will, and no man questions me; but gold
+is more strange to me than ever, for I have seen it buy both liberty and
+labor." Shortly after this he saw a great crowd digging upon a barren
+hill, and when he drew near he understood that he had reached the summit
+of his wishes, and that he was to see the place where the gold came
+from.
+
+He came up and stood a long time watching the people as they toiled
+ready to faint in the sun, so great was the labor of digging the gold.
+
+He saw who had much and could not trust any one to help them to carry
+it, binding it in bundles over their shoulders, and bending and groaning
+under its weight; he saw others hide it in the ground, and watch the
+place clothed in rags, that none might suspect that they were rich; but
+some, on the contrary, who had dug up an unusual quantity, he saw
+dancing and singing, and vaunting their success, till robbers waylaid
+them when they slept, and rifled their bundles and carried their golden
+sand away.
+
+"All these men are mad," thought the prince, "and this pernicious gold
+has made them so."
+
+After this, as he wandered here and there, he saw groups of people
+smelting the gold under the shadow of the trees, and he observed that a
+dancing, quivering vapor rose up from it, which dazzled their eyes, and
+distorted everything that they looked at; arraying it also in different
+colors from the true one. He observed that this vapor from the gold
+caused all things to rock and reel before the eyes of those who looked
+through it, and also, by some strange affinity, it drew their hearts
+towards those that carried much gold on their persons, so that they
+called them good and beautiful; it also caused them to see darkness and
+dullness in the faces of those who carried none. "This," thought the
+prince, "is very strange"; but not being able to explain it, he went
+still further, and there he saw more people. Each of these had adorned
+himself with a broad golden girdle, and was sitting in the shade, while
+other men waited on them.
+
+"What ails these people?" he inquired of one who was looking on, for he
+observed a peculiar air of weariness and dullness in their faces. He was
+answered that the girdles were very tight and heavy, and being bound
+over the regions of the heart, were supposed to impede its action, and
+prevent it from beating high, and also to chill the wearer, as being of
+opaque material, the warm sunshine of the earth could not get through to
+warm him.
+
+"Why, then, do they not break them asunder," exclaimed the prince, "and
+fling them away?"
+
+"Break them asunder!" cried the man; "why what a madman you must be;
+they are made of the purest gold!"
+
+"Forgive my ignorance," replied the prince; "I am a stranger."
+
+So he walked on, for feelings of delicacy prevented him from gazing any
+longer at the men with the golden girdles; but as he went he pondered on
+the misery he had seen, and thought to himself that this golden sand did
+more mischief than all the poisons of the apothecary; for it dazzled the
+eyes of some, it strained the hearts of others, it bowed down the heads
+of many to the earth with its weight; it was a sore labor to gather it,
+and when it was gathered, the robber might carry it away; it would be a
+good thing, he thought, if there were none of it.
+
+After this he came to a place where were sitting some aged widows and
+some orphan children of the gold-diggers, who were helpless and
+destitute; they were weeping and bemoaning themselves, but stopped at
+the approach of a man, whose appearance attracted the prince, for he had
+a very great bundle of gold on his back, and yet it did not bow him down
+at all; his apparel was rich but he had no girdle on, and his face was
+anything but sad.
+
+"Sir," said the prince to him, "you have a great burden; you are
+fortunate to be able to stand under it."
+
+"I could not do so," he replied, "only that as I go on I keep lightening
+it"; and as he passed each of the widows, he threw gold to her, and
+stooping down, hid pieces of it in the bosoms of the children.
+
+"You have no girdle," said the prince.
+
+"I once had one," answered the gold gatherer; "but it was so tight over
+my breast that my very heart grew cold under it, and almost ceased to
+beat. Having a great quantity of gold on my back, I felt almost at the
+last gasp; so I threw off my girdle and being on the bank of a river,
+which I knew not how to cross, I was about to fling it in, I was so
+vexed! 'But no,' thought I, 'there are many people waiting here to cross
+besides myself. I will make my girdle into a bridge, and we will cross
+over on it.'"
+
+"Turn your girdle into a bridge!" exclaimed the prince doubtfully, for
+he did not quite understand.
+
+The man explained himself.
+
+"And then, sir, after that," he continued, "I turned one half of my
+burden into bread, and gave it to these poor people. Since then I have
+not been oppressed by its weight, however heavy it may have been; for
+few men have a heavier one. In fact, I gather more from day to day."
+
+As the man kept speaking, he scattered his gold right and left with a
+cheerful countenance, and the prince was about to reply, when suddenly a
+great trembling under his feet made him fall to the ground. The refining
+fires of the gold gatherers sprang up into flames, and then went out;
+night fell over everything on the earth, and nothing was visible in the
+sky but the stars of the southern cross, which were glittering above
+him.
+
+"It is past midnight," thought the prince, "for the stars of the cross
+begin to bend."
+
+He raised himself upon his elbow, and tried to pierce the darkness, but
+could not. At length a slender blue flame darted out, as from ashes in a
+chafing-dish, and by the light of it he saw the strange pattern of his
+carpet and the cushions lying about. He did not recognise them at first,
+but presently he knew that he was lying in his usual place, at the top
+of his tower.
+
+"Wake up, prince," said the old man.
+
+The prince sat up and sighed, and the old man inquired what he had seen.
+
+"O man of much learning!" answered the prince, "I have seen that this is
+a wonderful world; I have seen the value of labor, and I know the uses
+of it; I have tasted the sweetness of liberty, and am grateful, though
+it was but in a dream; but as for that other word that was so great a
+mystery to me, I only know this, that it must remain a mystery forever,
+since I am fain to believe that all men are bent on getting it; though,
+once gotten, it causeth them endless disquietude, only second to their
+discomfort that are without it. I am fain to believe that they can
+procure with it whatever they most desire, and yet that it cankers their
+hearts and dazzles their eyes; that it is their nature and their duty to
+gather it; and yet that, when once gathered, the best thing they can do
+is to scatter it!"
+
+Alas! the prince visited this wonderful world no more; for the next
+morning, when he awoke, the old man was gone. He had taken with him the
+golden cup which the prince had given him. And the sentinel was also
+gone, none knew whither. Perhaps the old man had turned his golden cup
+into a golden key.
+
+
+
+203
+
+ Few modern writers have given their readers
+ more genuine delight than Frank R. Stockton
+ (1834-1902). The most absurd and illogical
+ situations and characters are presented with an
+ air of such quiet sincerity that one refuses to
+ question the reality of it all. _Rudder Grange_
+ established his reputation in 1879, and was
+ followed by a long list of stories of
+ delightfully impossible events. For several
+ years Stockton was one of the editors of _St.
+ Nicholas_, and some of his stories for
+ children, of first quality in both form and
+ content, deserve to be better known than they
+ are. Five of the best of them for school use
+ have been brought together in a little volume
+ called _Fanciful Tales_. One of these, "Old
+ Pipes and the Dryad," is given here by
+ permission of the publishers, Charles
+ Scribner's Sons, New York. (Copyright, 1894.)
+ This story is based upon the old mythical
+ belief that the trees are inhabited by guardian
+ deities known as dryads, or hamadryads. To
+ injure a tree meant to injure its guardian
+ spirit and was almost certain to insure
+ disaster for the guilty person. On the other
+ hand, to protect a tree would bring some token
+ of appreciation from the dryad. A good
+ introduction to the story would be the telling
+ of one or two of these tree myths as found in
+ Gayley's _Classic Myths_ or Bulfinch's _Age of
+ Fable_. A fine literary version of one of them
+ is in Lowell's "Rhoecus." But the beautiful and
+ kindly helpfulness of Old Pipes will carry its
+ own message whether one knows any mythology or
+ not.
+
+
+OLD PIPES AND THE DRYAD
+
+FRANK R. STOCKTON
+
+A Mountain brook ran through a little village. Over the brook there was
+a narrow bridge, and from the bridge a foot-path led out from the
+village and up the hill-side, to the cottage of Old Pipes and his
+mother.
+
+For many, many years Old Pipes had been employed by the villagers to
+pipe the cattle down from the hills. Every afternoon, an hour before
+sunset, he would sit on a rock in front of his cottage and play on his
+pipes. Then all the flocks and herds that were grazing on the mountains
+would hear him, wherever they might happen to be, and would come down to
+the village--the cows by the easiest paths, the sheep by those not quite
+so easy, and the goats by the steep and rocky ways that were hardest of
+all.
+
+But now, for a year or more, Old Pipes had not piped the cattle home. It
+is true that every afternoon he sat upon the rock and played upon his
+pipes; but the cattle did not hear him. He had grown old, and his breath
+was feeble. The echoes of his cheerful notes, which used to come from
+the rocky hill on the other side of the valley, were heard no more; and
+twenty yards from Old Pipes one could scarcely tell what tune he was
+playing. He had become somewhat deaf, and did not know that the sound of
+his pipes was so thin and weak, and that the cattle did not hear him.
+The cows, the sheep, and the goats came down every afternoon as before;
+but this was because two boys and a girl were sent up after them. The
+villagers did not wish the good old man to know that his piping was no
+longer of any use; so they paid him his little salary every month, and
+said nothing about the two boys and the girl.
+
+Old Pipes's mother was, of course, a great deal older than he was, and
+was as deaf as a gate--post, latch, hinges, and all--and she never knew
+that the sound of her son's pipe did not spread over all the
+mountain-side and echo back strong and clear from the opposite hills.
+She was very fond of Old Pipes, and proud of his piping; and as he was
+so much younger than she was, she never thought of him as being very
+old. She cooked for him, and made his bed, and mended his clothes; and
+they lived very comfortably on his little salary.
+
+One afternoon, at the end of the month, when Old Pipes had finished his
+piping, he took his stout staff and went down the hill to the village to
+receive the money for his month's work. The path seemed a great deal
+steeper and more difficult than it used to be; and Old Pipes thought
+that it must have been washed by the rains and greatly damaged. He
+remembered it as a path that was quite easy to traverse either up or
+down. But Old Pipes had been a very active man, and as his mother was so
+much older than he was, he never thought of himself as aged and infirm.
+
+When the Chief Villager had paid him, and he had talked a little with
+some of his friends, Old Pipes started to go home. But when he had
+crossed the bridge over the brook, and gone a short distance up the
+hill-side, he became very tired, and sat down upon a stone. He had not
+been sitting there half a minute, when along came two boys and a girl.
+
+"Children," said Old Pipes, "I'm very tired to-night, and I don't
+believe I can climb up this steep path to my home. I think I shall have
+to ask you to help me."
+
+"We will do that," said the boys and the girl, quite cheerfully; and one
+boy took him by the right hand and the other by the left, while the girl
+pushed him in the back. In this way he went up the hill quite easily,
+and soon reached his cottage door. Old Pipes gave each of the three
+children a copper coin, and then they sat down for a few minutes' rest
+before starting back to the village.
+
+"I'm sorry that I tired you so much," said Old Pipes.
+
+"Oh, that would not have tired us," said one of the boys, "if we had not
+been so far to-day after the cows, the sheep, and the goats. They
+rambled high up on the mountain, and we never before had such a time in
+finding them."
+
+"Had to go after the cows, the sheep, and the goats!" exclaimed Old
+Pipes. "What do you mean by that?"
+
+The girl, who stood behind the old man, shook her head, put her hand on
+her mouth, and made all sorts of signs to the boy to stop talking on
+this subject; but he did not notice her, and promptly answered Old
+Pipes.
+
+"Why, you see, good sir," said he, "that as the cattle can't hear your
+pipes now, somebody has to go after them every evening to drive them
+down from the mountain, and the Chief Villager has hired us three to do
+it. Generally it is not very hard work, but to-night the cattle had
+wandered far."
+
+"How long have you been doing this?" asked the old man.
+
+The girl shook her head and clapped her hand on her mouth as before, but
+the boy went on.
+
+"I think it is about a year now," he said, "since the people first felt
+sure that the cattle could not hear your pipes; and from that time we've
+been driving them down. But we are rested now, and will go home.
+Good-night, sir."
+
+The three children then went down the hill, the girl scolding the boy
+all the way home. Old Pipes stood silent a few moments, and then he went
+into his cottage.
+
+"Mother," he shouted, "did you hear what those children said?"
+
+"Children!" exclaimed the old woman; "I did not hear them. I did not
+know there were any children here."
+
+Then Old Pipes told his mother--shouting very loudly to make her
+hear--how the two boys and the girl had helped him up the hill, and what
+he had heard about his piping and the cattle.
+
+"They can't hear you?" cried his mother. "Why, what's the matter with
+the cattle?"
+
+"Ah, me!" said Old Pipes; "I don't believe there's anything the matter
+with the cattle. It must be with me and my pipes that there is something
+the matter. But one thing is certain: if I do not earn the wages the
+Chief Villager pays me, I shall not take them. I shall go straight down
+to the village and give back the money I received to-day."
+
+"Nonsense!" cried his mother. "I'm sure you've piped as well as you
+could, and no more can be expected. And what are we to do without the
+money?"
+
+"I don't know," said Old Pipes; "but I'm going down to the village to
+pay it back."
+
+The sun had now set; but the moon was shining very brightly on the
+hill-side, and Old Pipes could see his way very well. He did not take
+the same path by which he had gone before, but followed another, which
+led among the trees upon the hill-side, and, though longer, was not so
+steep.
+
+When he had gone about half-way, the old man sat down to rest, leaning
+his back against a great oak tree. As he did so, he heard a sound like
+knocking inside the tree, and then a voice said:
+
+"Let me out! let me out!"
+
+Old Pipes instantly forgot that he was tired, and sprang to his feet.
+"This must be a Dryad tree!" he exclaimed. "If it is, I'll let her out."
+
+Old Pipes had never, to his knowledge, seen a Dryad tree, but he knew
+there were such trees on the hill-sides and the mountains, and that
+Dryads lived in them. He knew, too, that in the summer time, on those
+days when the moon rose before the sun went down, a Dryad could come out
+of her tree if any one could find the key which locked her in, and turn
+it. Old Pipes closely examined the trunk of the tree, which stood in the
+full moonlight. "If I see that key," he said, "I shall surely turn it."
+Before long he found a piece of bark standing out from the tree, which
+looked to him very much like the handle of a key. He took hold of it,
+and found he could turn it quite around. As he did so, a large part of
+the side of the tree was pushed open, and a beautiful Dryad stepped
+quickly out.
+
+For a moment she stood motionless, gazing on the scene before her--the
+tranquil valley, the hills, the forest, and the mountain-side, all lying
+in the soft clear light of the moon. "Oh, lovely! lovely!" she
+exclaimed. "How long it is since I have seen anything like this!" And
+then, turning to Old Pipes, she said: "How good of you to let me out! I
+am so happy, and so thankful, that I must kiss you, you dear old man!"
+And she threw her arms around the neck of Old Pipes, and kissed him on
+both cheeks.
+
+"You don't know," she then went on to say, "how doleful it is to be shut
+up so long in a tree. I don't mind it in the winter, for then I am glad
+to be sheltered, but in summer it is a rueful thing not to be able to
+see all the beauties of the world. And it's ever so long since I've been
+let out. People so seldom come this way; and when they do come at the
+right time, they either don't hear me or they are frightened and run
+away. But you, you dear old man, you were not frightened, and you looked
+and looked for the key, and you let me out; and now I shall not have to
+go back till winter has come, and the air grows cold. Oh, it is
+glorious! What can I do for you, to show you how grateful I am?"
+
+"I am very glad," said Old Pipes, "that I let you out, since I see that
+it makes you so happy; but I must admit that I tried to find the key
+because I had a great desire to see a Dryad. But, if you wish to do
+something for me, you can, if you happen to be going down toward the
+village."
+
+"To the village!" exclaimed the Dryad. "I will go anywhere for you, my
+kind old benefactor."
+
+"Well, then," said Old Pipes, "I wish you would take this little bag of
+money to the Chief Villager and tell him that Old Pipes cannot receive
+pay for the services which he does not perform. It is now more than a
+year that I have not been able to make the cattle hear me, when I piped
+to call them home. I did not know this until to-night; but now that I
+know it, I cannot keep the money, and so I send it back." And, handing
+the little bag to the Dryad, he bade her good-night, and turned toward
+his cottage.
+
+"Good-night," said the Dryad. "And I thank you over, and over, and over
+again, you good old man!"
+
+Old Pipes walked toward his home, very glad to be saved the fatigue of
+going all the way down to the village and back again. "To be sure," he
+said to himself, "this path does not seem at all steep, and I can walk
+along it very easily; but it would have tired me dreadfully to come up
+all the way from the village, especially as I could not have expected
+those children to help me again." When he reached home his mother was
+surprised to see him returning so soon.
+
+"What!" she exclaimed; "have you already come back? What did the Chief
+Villager say? Did he take the money?"
+
+Old Pipes was just about to tell her that he had sent the money to the
+village by a Dryad, when he suddenly reflected that his mother would be
+sure to disapprove such a proceeding, and so he merely said he had sent
+it by a person whom he had met.
+
+"And how do you know that the person will ever take it to the Chief
+Villager?" cried his mother. "You will lose it, and the villagers will
+never get it. Oh, Pipes! Pipes! when will you be old enough to have
+ordinary common-sense?"
+
+Old Pipes considered that, as he was already seventy years of age, he
+could scarcely expect to grow any wiser; but he made no remark on this
+subject, and, saying that he doubted not that the money would go safely
+to its destination, he sat down to his supper. His mother scolded him
+roundly, but he did not mind it; and after supper he went out and sat on
+a rustic chair in front of the cottage to look at the moonlit village,
+and to wonder whether or not the Chief Villager really received the
+money. While he was doing these two things, he went fast asleep.
+
+When Old Pipes left the Dryad, she did not go down to the village with
+the little bag of money. She held it in her hand, and thought about what
+she had heard. "This is a good and honest old man," she said; "and it is
+a shame that he should lose this money. He looked as if he needed it,
+and I don't believe the people in the village will take it from one who
+has served them so long. Often, when in my tree, have I heard the sweet
+notes of his pipes. I am going to take the money back to him." She did
+not start immediately, because there were so many beautiful things to
+look at; but after awhile she went up to the cottage, and, finding Old
+Pipes asleep in his chair, she slipped the little bag into his
+coat-pocket, and silently sped away.
+
+The next day Old Pipes told his mother that he would go up the mountain
+and cut some wood. He had a right to get wood from the mountain, but for
+a long time he had been content to pick up the dead branches which lay
+about his cottage. To-day, however, he felt so strong and vigorous that
+he thought he would go and cut some fuel that would be better than
+this. He worked all the morning, and when he came back he did not feel
+at all tired, and he had a very good appetite for his dinner.
+
+Now, Old Pipes knew a good deal about Dryads; but there was one thing
+which, although he had heard, he had forgotten. This was, that a kiss
+from a Dryad made a person ten years younger.
+
+The people of the village knew this, and they were very careful not to
+let any child of ten years or younger go into the woods where the Dryads
+were supposed to be; for, if they should chance to be kissed by one of
+these tree-nymphs, they would be set back so far that they would cease
+to exist.
+
+A story was told in the village that a very bad boy of eleven once ran
+away into the woods, and had an adventure of this kind; and when his
+mother found him he was a little baby of one year old. Taking advantage
+of her opportunity, she brought him up more carefully than she had done
+before, and he grew to be a very good boy indeed.
+
+Now Old Pipes had been kissed twice by the Dryad, once on each cheek,
+and he therefore felt as vigorous and active as when he was a hale man
+of fifty. His mother noticed how much work he was doing, and told him
+that he need not try in that way to make up for the loss of his piping
+wages; for he would only tire himself out, and get sick. But her son
+answered that he had not felt so well for years, and that he was quite
+able to work.
+
+In the course of the afternoon, Old Pipes, for the first time that day,
+put his hand in his coat-pocket, and there, to his amazement, he found
+the little bag of money. "Well, well!" he exclaimed, "I am stupid,
+indeed! I really thought that I had seen a Dryad; but when I sat down by
+that big oak tree I must have gone to sleep and dreamed it all; and then
+I came home, thinking I had given the money to a Dryad, when it was in
+my pocket all the time. But the Chief Villager shall have the money. I
+shall not take it to him to-day, but to-morrow I wish to go to the
+village to see some of my old friends; and then I shall give up the
+money."
+
+Toward the close of the afternoon, Old Pipes, as had been his custom for
+so many years, took his pipes from the shelf on which they lay, and went
+out to the rock in front of the cottage.
+
+"What are you going to do?" cried his mother. "If you will not consent
+to be paid, why do you pipe?"
+
+"I am going to pipe for my own pleasure," said her son. "I am used to
+it, and I do not wish to give it up. It does not matter now whether the
+cattle hear me or not, and I am sure that my piping will injure no one."
+
+When the good man began to play upon his favorite instrument he was
+astonished at the sound that came from it. The beautiful notes of the
+pipes sounded clear and strong down into the valley, and spread over the
+hills, and up the sides of the mountain beyond, while, after a little
+interval, an echo came back from the rocky hill on the other side of the
+valley.
+
+"Ha! ha!" he cried, "what has happened to my pipes? They must have been
+stopped up of late, but now they are as clear and good as ever."
+
+Again the merry notes went sounding far and wide. The cattle on the
+mountain heard them, and those that were old enough remembered how these
+notes had called them from their pastures every evening, and so they
+started down the mountain-side, the others following.
+
+The merry notes were heard in the village below, and the people were
+much astonished thereby. "Why, who can be blowing the pipes of Old
+Pipes?" they said. But, as they were all very busy, no one went up to
+see. One thing, however, was plain enough: the cattle were coming down
+the mountain. And so the two boys and the girl did not have to go after
+them, and had an hour for play, for which they were very glad.
+
+The next morning Old Pipes started down to the village with his money,
+and on the way he met the Dryad. "Oh, ho!" he cried, "is that you? Why,
+I thought my letting you out of the tree was nothing but a dream."
+
+"A dream!" cried the Dryad; "if you only knew how happy you have made
+me, you would not think it merely a dream. And has it not benefited you?
+Do you not feel happier? Yesterday I heard you playing beautifully on
+your pipes."
+
+"Yes, yes," cried he. "I did not understand it before, but I see it all
+now. I have really grown younger. I thank you, I thank you, good Dryad,
+from the bottom of my heart. It was the finding of the money in my
+pocket that made me think it was a dream."
+
+"Oh, I put it in when you were asleep," she said, laughing, "because I
+thought you ought to keep it. Good-by, kind, honest man. May you live
+long, and be as happy as I am now."
+
+Old Pipes was greatly delighted when he understood that he was really a
+younger man; but that made no difference about the money, and he kept on
+his way to the village. As soon as he reached it, he was eagerly
+questioned as to who had been playing his pipes the evening before, and
+when the people heard that it was himself they were very much surprised.
+Thereupon Old Pipes told what had happened to him, and then there was
+greater wonder, with hearty congratulations and hand-shakes; for Old
+Pipes was liked by everyone. The Chief Villager refused to take his
+money; and although Old Pipes said that he had not earned it, everyone
+present insisted that, as he would now play on his pipes as before, he
+should lose nothing because, for a time, he was unable to perform his
+duty.
+
+So Old Pipes was obliged to keep his money, and after an hour or two
+spent in conversation with his friends he returned to his cottage.
+
+There was one person, however, who was not pleased with what had
+happened to Old Pipes. This was an Echo-dwarf who lived on the hills
+across the valley. It was his work to echo back the notes of the pipes
+whenever they could be heard.
+
+A great many other Echo-dwarfs lived on these hills. They all worked,
+but in different ways. Some echoed back the songs of maidens, some the
+shouts of children, and others the music that was often heard in the
+village. But there was only one who could send back the strong notes of
+the pipes of Old Pipes, and this had been his sole duty for many years.
+But when the old man grew feeble, and the notes of his pipes could not
+be heard on the opposite hills, this Echo-dwarf had nothing to do, and
+he spent his time in delightful idleness; and he slept so much and grew
+so fat that it made his companions laugh to see him walk.
+
+On the afternoon on which, after so long an interval, the sound of the
+pipes was heard on the echo hills, this dwarf was fast asleep behind a
+rock. As soon as the first notes reached them, some of his companions
+ran to wake him up. Rolling to his feet, he echoed back the merry tune
+of Old Pipes.
+
+Naturally, he was very angry at being thus obliged to give up his life
+of comfort, and he hoped very much that this pipe-playing would not
+occur again. The next afternoon he was awake and listening, and, sure
+enough, at the usual hour, along came the notes of the pipes as clear
+and strong as they ever had been; and he was obliged to work as long as
+Old Pipes played. The Echo-dwarf was very angry. He had supposed, of
+course, that the pipe-playing had ceased forever, and he felt that he
+had a right to be indignant at being thus deceived. He was so much
+disturbed that he made up his mind to go and try to find out how long
+this was to last. He had plenty of time, as the pipes were played but
+once a day, and he set off early in the morning for the hill on which
+Old Pipes lived. It was hard work for the fat little fellow, and when he
+had crossed the valley and had gone some distance into the woods on the
+hill-side, he stopped to rest, and in a few minutes the Dryad came
+tripping along.
+
+"Ho, ho!" exclaimed the dwarf; "what are you doing here? and how did you
+get out of your tree?"
+
+"Doing!" cried the Dryad; "I am being happy; that's what I am doing. And
+I was let out of my tree by the good old man who plays the pipes to call
+the cattle down from the mountain. And it makes me happier to think that
+I have been of service to him. I gave him two kisses of gratitude, and
+now he is young enough to play his pipes as well as ever."
+
+The Echo-dwarf stepped forward, his face pale with passion. "Am I to
+believe," he said, "that you are the cause of this great evil that has
+come upon me? and that you are the wicked creature who has again started
+this old man upon his career of pipe-playing? What have I ever done to
+you that you should have condemned me for years and years to echo back
+the notes of those wretched pipes?"
+
+At this the Dryad laughed loudly.
+
+"What a funny little fellow you are!" she said. "Anyone would think you
+had been condemned to toil from morning till night; while what you
+really have to do is merely to imitate for half an hour every day the
+merry notes of Old Pipes's piping. Fie upon you, Echo-dwarf! You are
+lazy and selfish; and that is what is the matter with you. Instead of
+grumbling at being obliged to do a little wholesome work, which is less,
+I am sure, than that of any other echo-dwarf upon the rocky hill-side,
+you should rejoice at the good fortune of the old man who has regained
+so much of his strength and vigor. Go home and learn to be just and
+generous; and then, perhaps, you may be happy. Good-by."
+
+"Insolent creature!" shouted the dwarf, as he shook his fat little fist
+at her. "I'll make you suffer for this. You shall find out what it is to
+heap injury and insult upon one like me, and to snatch from him the
+repose that he has earned by long years of toil." And, shaking his head
+savagely, he hurried back to the rocky hill-side.
+
+Every afternoon the merry notes of the pipes of Old Pipes sounded down
+into the valley and over the hills and up the mountain-side; and every
+afternoon when he had echoed them back, the little dwarf grew more and
+more angry with the Dryad. Each day, from early morning till it was time
+for him to go back to his duties upon the rocky hill-side, he searched
+the woods for her. He intended, if he met her, to pretend to be very
+sorry for what he had said, and he thought he might be able to play a
+trick upon her which would avenge him well.
+
+One day, while thus wandering among the trees, he met Old Pipes. The
+Echo-dwarf did not generally care to see or speak to ordinary people;
+but now he was so anxious to find the object of his search, that he
+stopped and asked Old Pipes if he had seen the Dryad. The piper had not
+noticed the little fellow, and he looked down on him with some surprise.
+
+"No," he said; "I have not seen her, and I have been looking everywhere
+for her."
+
+"You!" cried the dwarf, "what do you wish with her?"
+
+Old Pipes then sat down on a stone, so that he should be nearer the ear
+of his small companion, and he told what the Dryad had done for him.
+
+When the Echo-dwarf heard that this was the man whose pipes he was
+obliged to echo back every day, he would have slain him on the spot, had
+he been able; but, as he was not able, he merely ground his teeth and
+listened to the rest of the story.
+
+"I am looking for the Dryad now," Old Pipes continued, "on account of my
+aged mother. When I was old myself, I did not notice how very old my
+mother was; but now it shocks me to see how feeble her years have caused
+her to become; and I am looking for the Dryad to ask her to make my
+mother younger, as she made me."
+
+The eyes of the Echo-dwarf glistened. Here was a man who might help him
+in his plans.
+
+"Your idea is a good one," he said to Old Pipes, "and it does you honor.
+But you should know that a Dryad can make no person younger but one who
+lets her out of her tree. However, you can manage the affair very
+easily. All you need do is to find the Dryad, tell her what you want,
+and request her to step into her tree and be shut up for a short time.
+Then you will go and bring your mother to the tree; she will open it,
+and everything will be as you wish. Is not this a good plan?"
+
+"Excellent!" cried Old Pipes; "and I will go instantly and search more
+diligently for the Dryad."
+
+"Take me with you," said the Echo-dwarf. "You can easily carry me on
+your strong shoulders; and I shall be glad to help you in any way that I
+can."
+
+"Now then," said the little fellow to himself, as Old Pipes carried him
+rapidly along, "if he persuades the Dryad to get into a tree,--and she
+is quite foolish enough to do it,--and then goes away to bring his
+mother, I shall take a stone or a club and I will break off the key of
+that tree, so that nobody can ever turn it again. Then Mistress Dryad
+will see what she has brought upon herself by her behavior to me."
+
+Before long they came to the great oak tree in which the Dryad had
+lived, and at a distance they saw that beautiful creature herself coming
+toward them.
+
+"How excellently well everything happens!" said the dwarf. "Put me
+down, and I will go. Your business with the Dryad is more important
+than mine; and you need not say anything about my having suggested your
+plan to you. I am willing that you should have all the credit of it
+yourself."
+
+Old Pipes put the Echo-dwarf upon the ground, but the little rogue did
+not go away. He hid himself between some low, mossy rocks, and he was so
+much like them in color that you would not have noticed him if you had
+been looking straight at him.
+
+When the Dryad came up, Old Pipes lost no time in telling her about his
+mother, and what he wished her to do. At first, the Dryad answered
+nothing, but stood looking very sadly at Old Pipes.
+
+"Do you really wish me to go into my tree again?" she said. "I should
+dreadfully dislike to do it, for I don't know what might happen. It is
+not at all necessary, for I could make your mother younger at any time
+if she would give me the opportunity. I had already thought of making
+you still happier in this way, and several times I have waited about
+your cottage, hoping to meet your aged mother, but she never comes
+outside, and you know a Dryad cannot enter a house. I cannot imagine
+what put this idea into your head. Did you think of it yourself?"
+
+"No, I cannot say that I did," answered Old Pipes. "A little dwarf whom
+I met in the woods proposed it to me."
+
+"Oh!" cried the Dryad; "now I see through it all. It is the scheme of
+that vile Echo-dwarf--your enemy and mine. Where is he? I should like to
+see him."
+
+"I think he has gone away," said Old Pipes.
+
+"No, he has not," said the Dryad, whose quick eyes perceived the
+Echo-dwarf among the rocks, "there he is. Seize him and drag him out, I
+beg of you."
+
+Old Pipes saw the dwarf as soon as he was pointed out to him; and
+running to the rocks, he caught the little fellow by the arm and pulled
+him out.
+
+"Now, then," cried the Dryad, who had opened the door of the great oak,
+"just stick him in there, and we will shut him up. Then I shall be safe
+from his mischief for the rest of the time I am free."
+
+Old Pipes thrust the Echo-dwarf into the tree; the Dryad pushed the door
+shut; there was a clicking sound of bark and wood, and no one would have
+noticed that the big oak had ever had an opening in it.
+
+"There," said the Dryad; "now we need not be afraid of him. And I assure
+you, my good piper, that I shall be very glad to make your mother
+younger as soon as I can. Will you not ask her to come out and meet me?"
+
+"Of course I will," cried Old Pipes; "and I will do it without delay."
+
+And then, the Dryad by his side, he hurried to his cottage. But when he
+mentioned the matter to his mother, the old woman became very angry
+indeed. She did not believe in Dryads; and, if they really did exist,
+she knew they must be witches and sorceresses, and she would have
+nothing to do with them. If her son had ever allowed himself to be
+kissed by one of them, he ought to be ashamed of himself. As to its
+doing him the least bit of good, she did not believe a word of it. He
+felt better than he used to feel, but that was very common. She had
+sometimes felt that way herself, and she forbade him ever to mention a
+Dryad to her again.
+
+That afternoon, Old Pipes, feeling very sad that his plan in regard to
+his mother had failed, sat down upon the rock and played upon his pipes.
+The pleasant sounds went down the valley and up the hills and mountain,
+but, to the great surprise of some persons who happened to notice the
+fact, the notes were not echoed back from the rocky hill-side, but from
+the woods on the side of the valley on which Old Pipes lived. The next
+day many of the villagers stopped in their work to listen to the echo of
+the pipes coming from the woods. The sound was not as clear and strong
+as it used to be when it was sent back from the rocky hill-side, but it
+certainly came from among the trees. Such a thing as an echo changing
+its place in this way had never been heard of before, and nobody was
+able to explain how it could have happened. Old Pipes, however, knew
+very well that the sound came from the Echo-dwarf shut up in the great
+oak tree. The sides of the tree were thin, and the sound of the pipes
+could be heard through them, and the dwarf was obliged by the laws of
+his being to echo back those notes whenever they came to him. But Old
+Pipes thought he might get the Dryad in trouble if he let anyone know
+that the Echo-dwarf was shut up in the tree, and so he wisely said
+nothing about it.
+
+One day the two boys and the girl who had helped Old Pipes up the hill
+were playing in the woods. Stopping near the great oak tree, they heard
+a sound of knocking within it, and then a voice plainly said:
+
+"Let me out! let me out!"
+
+For a moment the children stood still in astonishment, and then one of
+the boys exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, it is a Dryad, like the one Old Pipes found! Let's let her out!"
+
+"What are you thinking of?" cried the girl. "I am the oldest of all, and
+I am only thirteen. Do you wish to be turned into crawling babies? Run!
+run! run!"
+
+And the two boys and the girl dashed down into the valley as fast as
+their legs could carry them. There was no desire in their youthful
+hearts to be made younger than they were, and for fear that their
+parents might think it well that they should commence their careers
+anew, they never said a word about finding the Dryad tree.
+
+As the summer days went on, Old Pipes's mother grew feebler and feebler.
+One day when her son was away, for he now frequently went into the woods
+to hunt or fish, or down into the valley to work, she arose from her
+knitting to prepare the simple dinner. But she felt so weak and tired
+that she was not able to do the work to which she had been so long
+accustomed. "Alas! alas!" she said, "the time has come when I am too old
+to work. My son will have to hire some one to come here and cook his
+meals, make his bed, and mend his clothes. Alas! alas! I had hoped that
+as long as I lived I should be able to do these things. But it is not
+so. I have grown utterly worthless, and some one else must prepare the
+dinner for my son. I wonder where he is." And tottering to the door, she
+went outside to look for him. She did not feel able to stand, and
+reaching the rustic chair, she sank into it, quite exhausted, and soon
+fell asleep.
+
+The Dryad, who had often come to the cottage to see if she could find an
+opportunity of carrying out Old Pipes's affectionate design, now
+happened by; and seeing that the much-desired occasion had come, she
+stepped up quietly behind the old woman and gently kissed her on each
+cheek, and then as quietly disappeared.
+
+In a few minutes the mother of Old Pipes awoke, and looking up at the
+sun, she exclaimed: "Why, it is almost dinner-time! My son will be here
+directly, and I am not ready for him." And rising to her feet, she
+hurried into the house, made the fire, set the meat and vegetables to
+cook, laid the cloth, and by the time her son arrived the meal was on
+the table.
+
+"How a little sleep does refresh one," she said to herself, as she was
+bustling about. She was a woman of very vigorous constitution, and at
+seventy had been a great deal stronger and more active than her son was
+at that age. The moment Old Pipes saw his mother, he knew that the Dryad
+had been there; but, while he felt as happy as a king, he was too wise
+to say anything about her.
+
+"It is astonishing how well I feel to-day," said his mother; "and either
+my hearing has improved or you speak much more plainly than you have
+done of late."
+
+The summer days went on and passed away, the leaves were falling from
+the trees, and the air was becoming cold.
+
+"Nature has ceased to be lovely," said the Dryad, "and the night winds
+chill me. It is time for me to go back into my comfortable quarters in
+the great oak. But first I must pay another visit to the cottage of Old
+Pipes."
+
+She found the piper and his mother sitting side by side on the rock in
+front of the door. The cattle were not to go to the mountain any more
+that season, and he was piping them down for the last time. Loud and
+merrily sounded the pipes of Old Pipes, and down the mountain-side came
+the cattle, the cows by the easiest paths, the sheep by those not quite
+so easy, and the goats by the most difficult ones among the rocks; while
+from the great oak tree were heard the echoes of the cheerful music.
+
+"How happy they look, sitting there together," said the Dryad; "and I
+don't believe it will do them a bit of harm to be still younger." And
+moving quietly up behind them, she first kissed Old Pipes on his cheek
+and then kissed his mother.
+
+Old Pipes, who had stopped playing, knew what it was, but he did not
+move, and said nothing. His mother, thinking that her son had kissed
+her, turned to him with a smile and kissed him in return. And then she
+arose and went into the cottage, a vigorous woman of sixty, followed by
+her son, erect and happy, and twenty years younger than herself.
+
+The Dryad sped away to the woods, shrugging her shoulders as she felt
+the cool evening wind.
+
+When she reached the great oak, she turned the key and opened the door.
+"Come out," said she to the Echo-dwarf, who sat blinking within. "Winter
+is coming on, and I want the comfortable shelter of my tree for myself.
+The cattle have come down from the mountain for the last time this year,
+the pipes will no longer sound, and you can go to your rocks and have a
+holiday until next spring."
+
+Upon hearing these words the dwarf skipped quickly out, and the Dryad
+entered the tree and pulled the door shut after her. "Now, then," she
+said to herself, "he can break off the key if he likes. It does not
+matter to me. Another will grow out next spring. And although the good
+piper made me no promise, I know that when the warm days arrive next
+year, he will come and let me out again."
+
+The Echo-dwarf did not stop to break the key of the tree. He was too
+happy to be released to think of anything else, and he hastened as fast
+as he could to his home on the rocky hill-side.
+
+The Dryad was not mistaken when she trusted in the piper. When the warm
+days came again he went to the oak tree to let her out. But, to his
+sorrow and surprise, he found the great tree lying upon the ground. A
+winter storm had blown it down, and it lay with its trunk shattered and
+split. And what became of the Dryad no one ever knew.
+
+
+
+204
+
+ John Ruskin (1819-1900), the most eloquent of
+ English prose writers, was much interested in
+ the question of literature for both grown-ups
+ and children. He edited a reissue of Taylor's
+ translation of Grimms' _Popular Stories_,
+ issued "Dame Wiggins of Lee and Her Seven
+ Wonderful Cats" (see No. 143), and wrote that
+ masterpiece among modern stories for children,
+ _The King of the Golden River_. Its fine
+ idealism, splendidly imagined structure,
+ wonderful word-paintings, and perfect English
+ all combine to justify the high place assigned
+ to it. Ruskin wrote the story in 1841, at a
+ "couple of sittings," though it was not
+ published until ten years later. Speaking of it
+ later in life, he said that it "was written to
+ amuse a little girl; and being a fairly good
+ imitation of Grimm and Dickens, mixed with a
+ little true Alpine feeling of my own, it has
+ been rightly pleasing to nice children, and
+ good for them. But it is totally valueless, for
+ all that. I can no more write a story than
+ compose a picture." The final statement may be
+ taken for what it is worth, written as it was
+ at a time of disillusionment. The first part of
+ Ruskin's analysis is certainly true and has
+ been thus expanded by his biographer, Sir E. T.
+ Cook: "The grotesque and the German setting of
+ the tale were taken from Grimm; from Dickens it
+ took its tone of pervading kindliness and
+ geniality. The Alpine ecstasy and the eager
+ pressing of the moral were Ruskin's own; and so
+ also is the style, delicately poised between
+ poetry and comedy."
+
+
+THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER OR THE BLACK BROTHERS
+
+
+JOHN RUSKIN
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+HOW THE AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM OF THE BLACK BROTHERS WAS INTERFERED WITH BY
+SOUTH-WEST WIND, ESQUIRE
+
+In a secluded and mountainous part of Stiria there was, in old time, a
+valley of the most surprising and luxuriant fertility. It was
+surrounded, on all sides, by steep and rocky mountains, rising into
+peaks, which were always covered with snow, and from which a number of
+torrents descended in constant cataracts. One of these fell westward,
+over the face of a crag so high, that, when the sun had set to
+everything else, and all below was darkness, his beams still shone full
+upon this waterfall, so that it looked like a shower of gold. It was,
+therefore, called by the people of the neighborhood, the Golden River.
+It was strange that none of these streams fell into the valley itself.
+They all descended on the other side of the mountains, and wound away
+through broad plains and by populous cities. But the clouds were drawn
+so constantly to the snowy hills, and rested so softly in the circular
+hollow, that in time of drought and heat, when all the country round was
+burnt up, there was still rain in the little valley; and its crops were
+so heavy, and its hay so high, and its apples so red, and its grapes so
+blue, and its wine so rich, and its honey so sweet, that it was a marvel
+to every one who beheld it, and was commonly called the Treasure Valley.
+
+The whole of this little valley belonged to three brothers, called
+Schwartz, Hans, and Gluck. Schwartz and Hans, the two elder brothers,
+were very ugly men, with overhanging eyebrows and small dull eyes, which
+were always half shut, so that you couldn't see into _them_, and always
+fancied they saw very far into _you_. They lived by farming the Treasure
+Valley, and very good farmers they were. They killed everything that did
+not pay for its eating. They shot the blackbirds because they pecked the
+fruit; and killed the hedgehogs, lest they should suck the cows; they
+poisoned the crickets for eating the crumbs in the kitchen; and
+smothered the cicadas, which used to sing all summer in the lime trees.
+They worked their servants without any wages, till they would not work
+any more, and then quarreled with them, and turned them out of doors
+without paying them. It would have been very odd if, with such a farm,
+and such a system of farming, they hadn't got very rich; and very rich
+they _did_ get. They generally contrived to keep their corn by them till
+it was very dear, and then sell it for twice its value; they had heaps
+of gold lying about on their floors, yet it was never known that they
+had given so much as a penny or a crust in charity; they never went to
+mass; grumbled perpetually at paying tithes; and were, in a word, of so
+cruel and grinding a temper as to receive from all those with whom they
+had any dealings the nickname of the "Black Brothers."
+
+The youngest brother, Gluck, was as completely opposed, in both
+appearance and character, to his seniors as could possibly be imagined
+or desired. He was not above twelve years old, fair, blue-eyed, and kind
+in temper to every living thing. He did not, of course, agree
+particularly well with his brothers, or rather, they did not agree with
+_him_. He was usually appointed to the honorable office of turnspit,
+when there was anything to roast, which was not often; for, to do the
+brothers justice, they were hardly less sparing upon themselves than
+upon other people. At other times he used to clean the shoes, floors,
+and sometimes the plates, occasionally getting what was left on them, by
+way of encouragement, and a wholesome quantity of dry blows, by way of
+education.
+
+Things went on in this manner for a long time. At last came a very wet
+summer, and everything went wrong in the country around. The hay had
+hardly been got in, when the haystacks were floated bodily down to the
+sea by an inundation; the vines were cut to pieces with the hail; the
+corn was all killed by a black blight; only in the Treasure Valley, as
+usual, all was safe. As it had rain when there was rain nowhere else, so
+it had sun when there was sun nowhere else. Everybody came to buy corn
+at the farm, and went away pouring maledictions on the Black Brothers.
+They asked what they liked, and got it, except from the poor people, who
+could only beg, and several of whom were starved at their very door,
+without the slightest regard or notice.
+
+It was drawing towards winter, and very cold weather, when one day the
+two elder brothers had gone out, with their usual warning to little
+Gluck, who was left to mind the roast, that he was to let nobody in, and
+give nothing out. Gluck sat down quite close to the fire, for it was
+raining very hard, and the kitchen walls were by no means dry or
+comfortable looking. He turned and turned, and the roast got nice and
+brown. "What a pity," thought Gluck, "my brothers never ask anybody to
+dinner. I'm sure, when they've got such a nice piece of mutton as this,
+and nobody else has got so much as a piece of dry bread, it would do
+their hearts good to have somebody to eat it with them."
+
+Just as he spoke, there came a double knock at the house door, yet heavy
+and dull, as though the knocker had been tied up--more like a puff than
+a knock.
+
+"It must be the wind," said Gluck; "nobody else would venture to knock
+double knocks at our door."
+
+No; it wasn't the wind; there it came again very hard, and what was
+particularly astounding, the knocker seemed to be in a hurry, and not to
+be in the least afraid of the consequences. Gluck went to the window,
+opened it, and put his head out to see who it was.
+
+It was the most extraordinary looking little gentleman he had ever seen
+in his life. He had a very large nose, slightly brass-colored; his
+cheeks were very round, and very red, and might have warranted a
+supposition that he had been blowing a refractory fire for the last
+eight-and-forty hours; his eyes twinkled merrily through long silky
+eyelashes, his mustaches curled twice round like a corkscrew on each
+side of his mouth, and his hair, of a curious mixed pepper-and-salt
+color, descended far over his shoulders. He was about four-feet-six in
+height, and wore a conical pointed cap of nearly the same altitude,
+decorated with a black feather some three feet long. His doublet was
+prolonged behind into something resembling a violent exaggeration of
+what is now termed a "swallowtail," but was much obscured by the
+swelling folds of an enormous black, glossy-looking cloak, which must
+have been very much too long in calm weather, as the wind, whistling
+round the old house, carried it clear out from the wearer's shoulders to
+about four times his own length.
+
+Gluck was so perfectly paralyzed by the singular appearance of his
+visitor, that he remained fixed without uttering a word, until the old
+gentleman, having performed another, and a more energetic concerto on
+the knocker, turned round to look after his fly-away cloak. In so doing
+he caught sight of Gluck's little yellow head jammed in the window, with
+its mouth and eyes very wide open indeed.
+
+"Hollo!" said the little gentleman, "that's not the way to answer the
+door: I'm wet; let me in!"
+
+To do the little gentleman justice, he _was_ wet. His feather hung down
+between his legs like a beaten puppy's tail, dripping like an umbrella;
+and from the ends of his mustaches the water was running into his
+waistcoat pockets, and out again like a mill stream.
+
+"I beg pardon, sir," said Gluck, "I'm very sorry, but I really can't."
+
+"Can't what?" said the old gentleman.
+
+"I can't let you in, sir,--I can't indeed; my brothers would beat me to
+death, sir, if I thought of such a thing. What do you want, sir?"
+
+"Want?" said the old gentleman, petulantly. "I want fire, and shelter;
+and there's your great fire there blazing, crackling, and dancing on the
+walls, with nobody to feel it. Let me in, I say; I only want to warm
+myself."
+
+Gluck had had his head, by this time, so long out of the window, that he
+began to feel it was really unpleasantly cold, and when he turned, and
+saw the beautiful fire rustling and roaring, and throwing long bright
+tongues up the chimney, as if it were licking its chops at the savory
+smell of the leg of mutton, his heart melted within him that it should
+be burning away for nothing. "He does look _very_ wet," said little
+Gluck; "I'll just let him in for a quarter of an hour." Round he went to
+the door, and opened it; and as the little gentleman walked in, there
+came a gust of wind through the house that made the old chimneys totter.
+
+"That's a good boy," said the little gentleman. "Never mind your
+brothers. I'll talk to them."
+
+"Pray, sir, don't do any such thing," said Gluck. "I can't let you stay
+till they come; they'd be the death of me."
+
+"Dear me," said the old gentleman, "I'm very sorry to hear that. How
+long may I stay?"
+
+"Only till the mutton's done, sir," replied Gluck, "and it's very
+brown."
+
+Then the old gentleman walked into the kitchen, and sat himself down on
+the hob, with the top of his cap accommodated up the chimney, for it was
+a great deal too high for the roof.
+
+"You'll soon dry there, sir," said Gluck, and sat down again to turn the
+mutton. But the old gentleman did _not_ dry there, but went on drip,
+drip, dripping among the cinders, and the fire fizzed and sputtered, and
+began to look very black and uncomfortable; never was such a cloak;
+every fold in it ran like a gutter.
+
+"I beg pardon, sir," said Gluck at length, after watching the water
+spreading in long, quicksilver-like streams over the floor for a quarter
+of an hour; "mayn't I take your cloak?"
+
+"No thank you," said the old gentleman.
+
+"Your cap, sir?"
+
+"I am all right, thank you," said the old gentleman rather gruffly.
+
+"But--sir--I'm very sorry," said Gluck hesitatingly; "but--really,
+sir--you're--putting the fire out."
+
+"It'll take longer to do the mutton, then," replied his visitor dryly.
+
+Gluck was very much puzzled by the behavior of his guest; it was such a
+strange mixture of coolness and humility. He turned away at the string
+meditatively for another five minutes.
+
+"That mutton looks very nice," said the old gentleman at length. "Can't
+you give me a little bit?"
+
+"Impossible, sir," said Gluck.
+
+"I'm very hungry," continued the old gentleman; "I've had nothing to eat
+yesterday nor to-day. They surely couldn't miss a bit from the knuckle!"
+
+He spoke in so very melancholy a tone that it quite melted Gluck's
+heart. "They promised me one slice to-day, sir," said he; "I can give
+you that, but not a bit more."
+
+"That's a good boy," said the old gentleman again.
+
+Then Gluck warmed a plate, and sharpened a knife. "I don't care if I do
+get beaten for it," thought he. Just as he had cut a large slice out of
+the mutton, there came a tremendous rap at the door. The old gentleman
+jumped off the hob, as if it had suddenly become inconveniently warm.
+Gluck fitted the slice into the mutton again, with desperate efforts at
+exactitude, and ran to open the door.
+
+"What did you keep us waiting in the rain for?" said Schwartz, as he
+walked in, throwing his umbrella in Gluck's face. "Ay! what for, indeed,
+you little vagabond?" said Hans, administering an educational box on the
+ear, as he followed his brother into the kitchen.
+
+"Bless my soul!" said Schwartz when he opened the door.
+
+"Amen," said the little gentleman, who had taken his cap off and was
+standing in the middle of the kitchen, bowing with the utmost possible
+velocity.
+
+"Who's that?" said Schwartz, catching up a rolling-pin, and turning to
+Gluck with a fierce frown.
+
+"I don't know, indeed, brother," said Gluck in great terror.
+
+"How did he get in?" roared Schwartz.
+
+"My dear brother," said Gluck, deprecatingly, "he was so _very_ wet!"
+
+The rolling-pin was descending on Gluck's head; but, at the instant, the
+old gentleman interposed his conical cap, on which it crashed with a
+shock that shook the water out of it all over the room. What was very
+odd, the rolling pin no sooner touched the cap, than it flew out of
+Schwartz's hand, spinning like a straw in a high wind, and fell into the
+corner at the farther end of the room.
+
+"Who are you, sir?" demanded Schwartz, turning upon him.
+
+"What's your business?" snarled Hans.
+
+"I'm a poor old man, sir," the little gentleman began very modestly,
+"and I saw your fire through the window, and begged shelter for a
+quarter of an hour."
+
+"Have the goodness to walk out again, then," said Schwartz. "We've quite
+enough water in our kitchen, without making it a drying house."
+
+"It is a cold day to turn an old man out in, sir; look at my gray
+hairs." They hung down to his shoulders, as I told you before.
+
+"Ay!" said Hans, "there are enough of them to keep you warm. Walk!"
+
+"I'm very, very hungry, sir; couldn't you spare me a bit of bread before
+I go?"
+
+"Bread, indeed!" said Schwartz; "do you suppose we've nothing to do with
+our bread but to give it to such red-nosed fellows as you?"
+
+"Why don't you sell your feather?" said Hans, sneeringly. "Out with
+you!"
+
+"A little bit," said the old gentleman.
+
+"Be off!" said Schwartz.
+
+"Pray, gentlemen--"
+
+"Off, and be hanged!" cried Hans, seizing him by the collar. But he had
+no sooner touched the old gentleman's collar, than away he went after
+the rolling-pin, spinning round and round, till he fell into the corner
+on the top of it. Then Schwartz was very angry, and ran at the old
+gentleman to turn him out; but he also had hardly touched him, when away
+he went after Hans and the rolling-pin, and hit his head against the
+wall as he tumbled into the corner. And so there they lay, all three.
+
+Then the old gentleman spun himself round with velocity in the opposite
+direction; continued to spin until his long cloak was all wound neatly
+about him, clapped his cap on his head, very much on one side (for it
+could not stand upright without going through the ceiling), gave an
+additional twist to his corkscrew mustaches, and replied with perfect
+coolness: "Gentlemen, I wish you a very good morning. At twelve o'clock
+to-night I'll call again; after such a refusal of hospitality as I have
+just experienced, you will not be surprised if that visit is the last I
+ever pay you."
+
+"If ever I catch you here again," muttered Schwartz, coming, half
+frightened, out of the corner--but, before he could finish his sentence,
+the old gentleman had shut the house door behind him with a great bang:
+and there drove past the window, at the same instant, a wreath of ragged
+cloud that whirled and rolled away down the valley in all manner of
+shapes; turning over and over in the air, and melting away at last in a
+gush of rain.
+
+"A very pretty business, indeed, Mr. Gluck!" said Schwartz. "Dish the
+mutton, sir. If ever I catch you at such a trick again--bless me, why
+the mutton's been cut!"
+
+"You promised me one slice, brother, you know," said Gluck.
+
+"Oh! and you were cutting it hot, I suppose, and going to catch all the
+gravy. It'll be long before I promise you such a thing again. Leave the
+room, sir; and have the kindness to wait in the coal-cellar till I call
+you."
+
+Gluck left the room melancholy enough. The brothers ate as much mutton
+as they could, locked the rest in the cupboard, and proceeded to get
+very drunk after dinner.
+
+Such a night as it was! Howling wind and rushing rain, without
+intermission! The brothers had just sense enough left to put up all the
+shutters, and double bar the door, before they went to bed. They usually
+slept in the same room. As the clock struck twelve, they were both
+awakened by a tremendous crash. Their door burst open with a violence
+that shook the house from top to bottom.
+
+"What's that?" cried Schwartz, starting up in his bed.
+
+"Only I," said the little gentleman.
+
+The two brothers sat up on their bolster and stared into the darkness.
+The room was full of water, and by a misty moonbeam, which found its way
+through a hole in the shutter, they could see in the midst of it an
+enormous foam globe, spinning round, and bobbing up and down like a
+cork, on which, as on a most luxurious cushion, reclined the little old
+gentleman, cap and all. There was plenty of room for it now, for the
+roof was off.
+
+"Sorry to incommode you," said their visitor, ironically. "I'm afraid
+your beds are dampish; perhaps you had better go to your brother's room;
+I've left the ceiling on, there."
+
+They required no second admonition, but rushed into Gluck's room, wet
+through, and in an agony of terror.
+
+"You'll find my card on the kitchen table," the old gentleman called
+after them. "Remember, the _last_ visit."
+
+"Pray Heaven it may!" said Schwartz, shuddering. And the foam globe
+disappeared.
+
+Dawn came at last, and the two brothers looked out of Gluck's little
+window in the morning. The Treasure Valley was one mass of ruin and
+desolation. The inundation had swept away trees, crops, and cattle, and
+left in their stead a waste of red sand and gray mud. The two brothers
+crept shivering and horror-struck into the kitchen. The water had gutted
+the whole first floor; corn, money, almost every movable thing had been
+swept away, and there was left only a small white card on the kitchen
+table. On it, in large, breezy long-legged letters, were engraved the
+words:--
+
+SOUTH-WEST WIND, ESQUIRE.
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE THREE BROTHERS AFTER THE VISIT OF SOUTH-WEST
+WIND, ESQUIRE; AND HOW LITTLE GLUCK HAD AN INTERVIEW WITH THE KING OF
+THE GOLDEN RIVER
+
+South-West Wind, Esquire, was as good as his word. After the momentous
+visit above related, he entered the Treasure Valley no more; and, what
+was worse, he had so much influence with his relations, the West Winds
+in general, and used it so effectually, that they all adopted a similar
+line of conduct. So no rain fell in the valley from one year's end to
+another. Though everything remained green and flourishing in the plains
+below, the inheritance of the Three Brothers was a desert. What had once
+been the richest soil in the kingdom, became a shifting heap of red
+sand; and the brothers, unable longer to contend with the adverse skies,
+abandoned their valueless patrimony in despair, to seek some means of
+gaining a livelihood among the cities and people of the plains. All
+their money was gone, and they had nothing left but some curious,
+old-fashioned pieces of gold plates, the last remnants of their
+ill-gotten wealth.
+
+"Suppose we turn goldsmiths?" said Schwartz to Hans, as they entered the
+large city. "It is a good knave's trade; we can put a great deal of
+copper into the gold, without any one's finding it out."
+
+The thought was agreed to be a very good one; they hired a furnace, and
+turned goldsmiths. But two slight circumstances affected their trade;
+the first, that people did not approve of the coppered gold; the second,
+that the two elder brothers, whenever they had sold anything, used to
+leave little Gluck to mind the furnace, and go and drink out the money
+in the ale-house next door. So they melted all their gold, without
+making money enough to buy more, and were at last reduced to one large
+drinking mug, which an uncle of his had given to little Gluck, and which
+he was very fond of, and would not have parted with for the world;
+though he never drank anything out of it but milk and water. The mug was
+a very odd mug to look at. The handle was formed of two wreaths of
+flowing golden hair, so finely spun that it looked more like silk than
+metal, and these wreaths descended into, and mixed with, a beard and
+whiskers of the same exquisite workmanship, which surrounded and
+decorated a very fierce little face, of the reddest gold imaginable,
+right in the front of the mug, with a pair of eyes in it which seemed to
+command its whole circumference. It was impossible to drink out of the
+mug without being subjected to an intense gaze out of the side of these
+eyes; and Schwartz positively averred that once, after emptying it, full
+of Rhenish, seventeen times, he had seen them wink! When it came to the
+mug's turn to be made into spoons, it half broke poor little Gluck's
+heart; but the brothers only laughed at him, tossed the mug into the
+melting-pot, and staggered out to the ale-house; leaving him, as usual,
+to pour the gold into bars, when it was all ready.
+
+When they were gone, Gluck took a farewell look at his old friend in the
+melting-pot. The flowing hair was all gone; nothing remained but the red
+nose, and the sparkling eyes, which looked more malicious than ever.
+"And no wonder," thought Gluck, "after being treated in that way." He
+sauntered disconsolately to the window, and sat himself down to catch
+the fresh evening air, and escape the hot breath of the furnace. Now
+this window commanded a direct view of the range of mountains, which, as
+I told you before, overhung the Treasure Valley, and more especially of
+the peak from which fell the Golden River. It was just at the close of
+the day, and when Gluck sat down at the window, he saw the rocks of the
+mountain tops, all crimson and purple with the sunset; and there were
+bright tongues of fiery cloud burning and quivering about them; and the
+river, brighter than all, fell, in a waving column of pure gold, from
+precipice to precipice, with the double arch of a broad purple rainbow
+stretched across it, flushing and fading alternately in the wreaths of
+spray.
+
+"Ah!" said Gluck aloud, after he had looked at it for a while, "if that
+river were really all gold, what a nice thing it would be."
+
+"No, it wouldn't, Gluck," said a clear metallic voice, close at his ear.
+
+"Bless me! what's that?" exclaimed Gluck, jumping up. There was nobody
+there. He looked round the room, and under the table, and a great many
+times behind him, but there was certainly nobody there, and he sat down
+again at the window. This time he didn't speak, but he couldn't help
+thinking again that it would be very convenient if the river were really
+all gold.
+
+"Not at all, my boy," said the same voice, louder than before.
+
+"Bless me!" said Gluck again; "what _is_ that?" He looked again into all
+the corners, and cupboards, and then began turning round, and round, as
+fast as he could in the middle of the room, thinking there was somebody
+behind him, when the same voice struck again on his ear. It was singing
+now very merrily, "Lala-lira-la"; no words, only a soft running
+effervescent melody, something like that of a kettle on the boil. Gluck
+looked out of the window. No, it was certainly in the house. Upstairs,
+and downstairs. No, it was certainly in that very room, coming in
+quicker time, and clearer notes, every moment. "Lala-lira-la." All at
+once it struck Gluck that it sounded louder near the furnace. He ran to
+the opening, and looked in; yes, he saw right, it seemed to be coming,
+not only out of the furnace, but out of the pot. He uncovered it, and
+ran back in a great fright, for the pot was certainly singing! He stood
+in the farthest corner of the room, with his hands up, and his mouth
+open, for a minute or two, when the singing stopped, and the voice
+became clear, and pronunciative.
+
+"Hollo!" said the voice.
+
+Gluck made no answer.
+
+"Hollo! Gluck, my boy," said the pot again.
+
+Gluck summoned all his energies, walked straight up to the crucible,
+drew it out of the furnace, and looked in. The gold was all melted, and
+its surface as smooth and polished as a river; but instead of reflecting
+little Gluck's head, as he looked in, he saw, meeting his glance from
+beneath the gold, the red nose and sharp eyes of his old friend of the
+mug, a thousand times redder and sharper than ever he had seen them in
+his life.
+
+"Come, Gluck, my boy," said the voice out of the pot again, "I'm all
+right; pour me out."
+
+But Gluck was too much astonished to do anything of the kind.
+
+"Pour me out, I say," said the voice rather gruffly.
+
+Still Gluck couldn't move.
+
+"_Will_ you pour me out?" said the voice passionately. "I'm too hot."
+
+By a violent effort, Gluck recovered the use of his limbs, took hold of
+the crucible, and sloped it so as to pour out the gold. But instead of a
+liquid stream, there came out, first, a pair of pretty little yellow
+legs, then some coat tails, then a pair of arms stuck a-kimbo, and,
+finally, the well-known head of his friend the mug; all which articles,
+uniting as they rolled out, stood up energetically on the floor, in the
+shape of a little golden dwarf, about a foot and a half high.
+
+"That's right!" said the dwarf, stretching out first his legs and then
+his arms, and then shaking his head up and down, and as far round as it
+would go, for five minutes, without stopping; apparently with the view
+of ascertaining if he were quite correctly put together, while Gluck
+stood contemplating him in speechless amazement. He was dressed in a
+slashed doublet of spun gold, so fine in its texture that the prismatic
+colors gleamed over it, as if on a surface of mother of pearl; and, over
+this brilliant doublet, his hair and beard fell full halfway to the
+ground in waving curls so exquisitely delicate that Gluck could hardly
+tell where they ended; they seemed to melt into air. The features of the
+face, however, were by no means finished with the same delicacy; they
+were rather coarse, slightly inclining to coppery in complexion, and
+indicative, in expression, of a very pertinacious and intractable
+disposition in their small proprietor. When the dwarf had finished his
+self-examination, he turned his small sharp eyes full on Gluck and
+stared at him deliberately for a minute or two. "No, it wouldn't, Gluck,
+my boy," said the little man.
+
+This was certainly rather an abrupt and unconnected mode of commencing
+conversation. It might indeed be supposed to refer to the course of
+Gluck's thoughts, which had first produced the dwarf's observations out
+of the pot; but whatever it referred to, Gluck had no inclination to
+dispute the dictum.
+
+"Wouldn't it, sir?" said Gluck, very mildly and submissively indeed.
+
+"No," said the dwarf, conclusively. "No, it wouldn't." And with that,
+the dwarf pulled his cap hard over his brows, and took two turns, of
+three feet long, up and down the room, lifting his legs up very high,
+and setting them down very hard. This pause gave time for Gluck to
+collect his thoughts a little, and, seeing no great reason to view his
+diminutive visitor with dread, and feeling his curiosity overcome his
+amazement, he ventured on a question of peculiar delicacy.
+
+"Pray, sir," said Gluck rather hesitatingly, "were you my mug?"
+
+On which the little man turned sharp round, walked straight up to Gluck,
+and drew himself up to his full height. "I," said the little man, "am
+the King of the Golden River." Whereupon he turned about again, and took
+two more turns, some six feet long, in order to allow time for the
+consternation which this announcement produced in his auditor to
+evaporate. After which, he again walked up to Gluck and stood still, as
+if expecting some comment on his communication.
+
+Gluck determined to say something at all events. "I hope your Majesty is
+very well," said Gluck.
+
+"Listen!" said the little man, deigning no reply to this polite inquiry.
+"I am the King of what you mortals call the Golden River. The shape you
+saw me in, was owing to the malice of a stronger king, from whose
+enchantments you have this instant freed me. What I have seen of you,
+and your conduct to your wicked brothers, renders me willing to serve
+you; therefore, attend to what I tell you. Whoever shall climb to the
+top of that mountain from which you see the Golden River issue, and
+shall cast into the stream at its source three drops of holy water, for
+him, and for him only, the river shall turn to gold. But no one failing
+in his first, can succeed in a second attempt; and if any one shall cast
+unholy water into the river, it will overwhelm him, and he will become a
+black stone." So saying, the King of the Golden River turned away and
+deliberately walked into the center of the hottest flame of the furnace.
+His figure became red, white, transparent, dazzling--a blaze of intense
+light--rose, trembled, and disappeared. The King of the Golden River had
+evaporated.
+
+"Oh!" cried poor Gluck, running to look up the chimney after him; "Oh,
+dear, dear, dear me! My mug! my mug! my mug!"
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HOW MR. HANS SET OFF ON AN EXPEDITION TO THE GOLDEN RIVER, AND HOW HE
+PROSPERED THEREIN
+
+The King of the Golden River had hardly made the extraordinary exit,
+related in the last chapter, before Hans and Schwartz came roaring into
+the house, very savagely drunk. The discovery of the total loss of their
+last piece of plate had the effect of sobering them just enough to
+enable them to stand over Gluck, beating him very steadily for a quarter
+of an hour; at the expiration of which period they dropped into a couple
+of chairs, and requested to know what he had got to say for himself.
+Gluck told them his story, of which, of course, they did not believe a
+word. They beat him again, till their arms were tired, and staggered to
+bed. In the morning, however, the steadiness with which he adhered to
+his story obtained him some degree of credence; the immediate
+consequence of which was, that the two brothers, after wrangling a long
+time on the knotty question, which of them should try his fortune first,
+drew their swords and began fighting. The noise of the fray alarmed the
+neighbors, who, finding they could not pacify the combatants, sent for
+the constable.
+
+Hans, on hearing this, contrived to escape, and hid himself; but
+Schwartz was taken before the magistrate, fined for breaking the peace,
+and, having drunk out his last penny the evening before, was thrown into
+prison till he should pay.
+
+When Hans heard this, he was much delighted, and determined to set out
+immediately for the Golden River. How to get the holy water was the
+question. He went to the priest, but the priest could not give any holy
+water to so abandoned a character. So Hans went to vespers in the
+evening for the first time in his life, and, under pretense of crossing
+himself, stole a cupful, and returned home in triumph.
+
+Next morning he got up before the sun rose, put the holy water into a
+strong flask, and two bottles of wine and some meat in a basket, slung
+them over his back, took his alpine staff in his hand, and set off for
+the mountains.
+
+On his way out of the town he had to pass the prison, and as he looked
+in at the windows, whom should he see but Schwartz himself peeping out
+of the bars, and looking very disconsolate.
+
+"Good morning, brother," said Hans; "have you any message for the King
+of the Golden River?"
+
+Schwartz gnashed his teeth with rage, and shook the bars with all his
+strength; but Hans only laughed at him, and advising him to make himself
+comfortable till he came back again, shouldered his basket, shook the
+bottle of holy water in Schwartz's face till it frothed again, and
+marched off in the highest spirits in the world.
+
+It was, indeed, a morning that might have made any one happy, even with
+no Golden River to seek for. Level lines of dewy mist lay stretched
+along the valley, out of which rose the massy mountains--their lower
+cliffs in pale gray shadow, hardly distinguishable from the floating
+vapor, but gradually ascending till they caught the sunlight, which ran
+in sharp touches of ruddy color along the angular crags, and pierced, in
+long level rays, through their fringes of spear-like pine. Far above,
+shot up red splintered masses of castellated rock, jagged and shivered
+into myriads of fantastic forms, with here and there a streak of sunlit
+snow, traced down their chasms like a line of forked lightning; and, far
+beyond, and far above all these, fainter than the morning cloud, but
+purer and changeless, slept, in the blue sky, the utmost peaks of the
+eternal snow.
+
+The Golden River, which sprang from one of the lower and snowless
+elevations, was now nearly in shadow; all but the uppermost jets of
+spray, which rose like slow smoke above the undulating line of the
+cataract, and floated away in feeble wreaths upon the morning wind.
+
+On this object, and on this alone, Hans's eyes and thoughts were fixed;
+forgetting the distance he had to traverse, he set off at an imprudent
+rate of walking, which greatly exhausted him before he had scaled the
+first range of the green and low hills. He was, moreover, surprised, on
+surmounting them, to find that a large glacier, of whose existence,
+notwithstanding his previous knowledge of the mountains, he had been
+absolutely ignorant, lay between him and the source of the Golden River.
+He entered on it with the boldness of a practised mountaineer; yet he
+thought he had never traversed so strange or so dangerous a glacier in
+his life. The ice was excessively slippery, and out of all its chasms
+came wild sounds of gushing water; not monotonous or low, but changeful
+and loud, rising occasionally into drifting passages of wild melody;
+then breaking off into short melancholy tones, or sudden shrieks,
+resembling those of human voices in distress or pain. The ice was broken
+into thousands of confused shapes, but none, Hans thought, like the
+ordinary forms of splintered ice. There seemed a curious _expression_
+about all their outlines--a perpetual resemblance to living features,
+distorted and scornful. Myriads of deceitful shadows, and lurid lights,
+played and floated about and through the pale blue pinnacles, dazzling
+and confusing the sight of the traveler; while his ears grew dull and
+his head giddy with the constant gush and roar of the concealed waters.
+These painful circumstances increased upon him as he advanced; the ice
+crashed and yawned into fresh chasms at his feet, tottering spires
+nodded around him, and fell thundering across his path; and though he
+had repeatedly faced these dangers on the most terrific glaciers, and in
+the wildest weather, it was with a new and oppressive feeling of panic
+terror that he leaped the last chasm, and flung himself, exhausted and
+shuddering, on the firm turf of the mountain.
+
+He had been compelled to abandon his basket of food, which became a
+perilous encumbrance on the glacier, and had now no means of refreshing
+himself but by breaking off and eating some of the pieces of ice. This,
+however, relieved his thirst; an hour's repose recruited his hardy
+frame, and with the indomitable spirit of avarice, he resumed his
+laborious journey.
+
+His way now lay straight up a ridge of bare red rocks, without a blade
+of grass to ease the foot, or a projecting angle to afford an inch of
+shade from the south sun. It was past noon, and the rays beat intensely
+upon the steep path, while the whole atmosphere was motionless and
+penetrated with heat. Intense thirst was soon added to the bodily
+fatigue with which Hans was now afflicted; glance after glance he cast
+on the flask of water which hung at his belt. "Three drops are enough,"
+at last thought he; "I may, at least, cool my lips with it."
+
+He opened the flask, and was raising it to his lips, when his eye fell
+on an object lying on the rock beside him; he thought it moved. It was a
+small dog, apparently in the last agony of death from thirst. Its tongue
+was out, its jaws dry, its limbs extended lifelessly, and a swarm of
+black ants were crawling about its lips and throat. Its eye moved to the
+bottle which Hans held in his hand. He raised it, drank, spurned the
+animal with his foot, and passed on. And he did not know how it was, but
+he thought that a strange shadow had suddenly come across the blue sky.
+
+The path became steeper and more rugged every moment; and the high hill
+air, instead of refreshing him, seemed to throw his blood into a fever.
+The noise of the hill cataracts sounded like mockery in his ears; they
+were all distant, and his thirst increased every moment. Another hour
+passed, and he again looked down to the flask at his side; it was half
+empty, but there was much more than three drops in it. He stopped to
+open it; and again, as he did so, something moved in the path above him.
+It was a fair child, stretched nearly lifeless on the rock, its breast
+heaving with thirst, its eyes closed, and its lips parched and burning.
+Hans eyed it deliberately, drank, and passed on. And a dark gray cloud
+came over the sun, and long, snake-like shadows crept up along the
+mountain sides. Hans struggled on. The sun was sinking, but its descent
+seemed to bring no coolness; the leaden weight of the dead air pressed
+upon his brow and heart, but the goal was near. He saw the cataract of
+the Golden River springing from the hillside, scarcely five hundred feet
+above him. He paused for a moment to breathe, and sprang on to complete
+his task.
+
+At this instant a faint cry fell on his ear. He turned, and saw a
+gray-haired old man extended on the rocks. His eyes were sunk, his
+features deadly pale, and gathered into an expression of despair.
+"Water!" he stretched his arms to Hans, and cried feebly, "Water! I am
+dying."
+
+"I have none," replied Hans; "thou hast had thy share of life." He
+strode over the prostrate body, and darted on. And a flash of blue
+lightning rose out of the East, shaped like a sword; it shook thrice
+over the whole heaven, and left it dark with one heavy, impenetrable
+shade. The sun was setting; it plunged toward the horizon like a red-hot
+ball.
+
+The roar of the Golden River rose on Hans's ear. He stood at the brink
+of the chasm through which it ran. Its waves were filled with the red
+glory of the sunset; they shook their crests like tongues of fire, and
+flashes of bloody light gleamed along their foam. Their sound came
+mightier and mightier on his senses; his brain grew giddy with the
+prolonged thunder. Shuddering he drew the flask from his girdle, and
+hurled it into the center of the torrent. As he did so, an icy chill
+shot through his limbs; he staggered, shrieked, and fell. The waters
+closed over his cry. And the moaning of the river rose wildly into the
+night, as it gushed over
+
+THE BLACK STONE.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HOW MR. SCHWARTZ SET OFF ON AN EXPEDITION TO THE GOLDEN RIVER, AND HOW
+HE PROSPERED THEREIN
+
+Poor little Gluck waited very anxiously alone in the house for Hans's
+return. Finding he did not come back, he was terribly frightened and
+went and told Schwartz in the prison, all that had happened. Then
+Schwartz was very much pleased, and said that Hans must certainly have
+been turned into a black stone, and he should have all the gold to
+himself. But Gluck was very sorry, and cried all night. When he got up
+in the morning there was no bread in the house, nor any money; so Gluck
+went and hired himself to another goldsmith, and he worked so hard, and
+so neatly, and so long every day, that he soon got money enough together
+to pay his brother's fine, and he went and gave it all to Schwartz, and
+Schwartz got out of prison. Then Schwartz was quite pleased, and said he
+should have some of the gold of the river. But Gluck only begged he
+would go and see what had become of Hans.
+
+Now when Schwartz had heard that Hans had stolen the holy water, he
+thought to himself that such a proceeding might not be considered
+altogether correct by the King of the Golden River, and determined to
+manage matters better. So he took some more of Gluck's money, and went
+to a bad priest, who gave him some holy water very readily for it. Then
+Schwartz was sure it was all quite right. So Schwartz got up early in
+the morning before the sun rose, and took some bread and wine, in a
+basket, and put his holy water in a flask, and set off for the
+mountains. Like his brother, he was much surprised at the sight of the
+glacier, and had great difficulty in crossing it, even after leaving his
+basket behind him. The day was cloudless, but not bright; there was a
+heavy purple haze hanging over the sky, and the hills looked lowering
+and gloomy. And as Schwartz climbed the steep rock path, the thirst came
+upon him, as it had upon his brother, until he lifted his flask to his
+lips to drink. Then he saw the fair child lying near him on the rocks,
+and it cried to him, and moaned for water.
+
+"Water, indeed," said Schwartz; "I haven't half enough for myself," and
+passed on. And as he went he thought the sunbeams grew more dim, and he
+saw a low bank of black cloud rising out of the West; and, when he had
+climbed for another hour the thirst overcame him again, and he would
+have drunk. Then he saw the old man lying before him on the path, and
+heard him cry out for water. "Water, indeed," said Schwartz, "I haven't
+enough for myself," and on he went.
+
+Then again the light seemed to fade before his eyes, and he looked up,
+and, behold, a mist, of the color of blood, had come over the sun; and
+the bank of black cloud had risen very high, and its edges were tossing
+and tumbling like the waves of the angry sea. And they cast long
+shadows, which flickered over Schwartz's path.
+
+Then Schwartz climbed for another hour, and again his thirst returned;
+and as he lifted his flask to his lips, he thought he saw his brother
+Hans lying exhausted on the path before him, and, as he gazed, the
+figure stretched its arms to him, and cried for water. "Ha, ha," laughed
+Schwartz, "are you there? Remember the prison bars, my boy. Water,
+indeed! do you suppose I carried it all the way up here for _you_?" And
+he strode over the figure; yet, as he passed, he thought he saw a
+strange expression of mockery about its lips. And, when he had gone a
+few yards farther, he looked back; but the figure was not there.
+
+And a sudden horror came over Schwartz, he knew not why; but the thirst
+for gold prevailed over his fear, and he rushed on. And the bank of
+black cloud rose to the zenith, and out of it came bursts of spiry
+lightning, and waves of darkness seemed to heave and float between their
+flashes over the whole heavens. And the sky where the sun was setting
+was all level, and like a lake of blood; and a strong wind came out of
+that sky, tearing its crimson cloud into fragments, and scattering them
+far into the darkness. And when Schwartz stood by the brink of the
+Golden River, its waves were black, like thunder clouds, but their foam
+was like fire; and the roar of the waters below, and the thunder above,
+met, as he cast the flask into the stream. And, as he did so, the
+lightning glared into his eyes, and the earth gave way beneath him, and
+the waters closed over his cry. And the moaning of the river rose wildly
+into the night, as it gushed over the
+
+TWO BLACK STONES.
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+HOW LITTLE GLUCK SET OFF ON AN EXPEDITION TO THE GOLDEN RIVER, AND HOW
+HE PROSPERED THEREIN; WITH OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST
+
+When Gluck found that Schwartz did not come back he was very sorry, and
+did not know what to do. He had no money, and was obliged to go and hire
+himself again to the goldsmith, who worked him very hard, and gave him
+very little money. So, after a month or two, Gluck grew tired, and made
+up his mind to go and try his fortune with the Golden River. "The little
+King looked very kind," thought he. "I don't think he will turn me into
+a black stone." So he went to the priest, and the priest gave him some
+holy water as soon as he asked for it. Then Gluck took some bread in his
+basket, and the bottle of water, and set off very early for the
+mountains.
+
+If the glacier had occasioned a great deal of fatigue to his brothers,
+it was twenty times worse for him, who was neither so strong nor so
+practised on the mountains. He had several bad falls, lost his basket
+and bread, and was very much frightened at the strange noises under the
+ice. He lay a long time to rest on the grass, after he had got over,
+and began to climb the hill just in the hottest part of the day. When he
+had climbed for an hour, he got dreadfully thirsty, and was going to
+drink like his brothers, when he saw an old man coming down the path
+above him, looking very feeble, and leaning on a staff. "My son," said
+the old man, "I am faint with thirst. Give me some of that water." Then
+Gluck looked at him, and when he saw that he was pale and weary, he gave
+him the water; "Only pray don't drink it all," said Gluck. But the old
+man drank a great deal, and gave him back the bottle two-thirds empty.
+Then he bade him good speed, and Gluck went on again merrily. And the
+path became easier to his feet, and two or three blades of grass
+appeared upon it, and some grasshoppers began singing on the bank beside
+it; and Gluck thought he had never heard such merry singing.
+
+Then he went on for another hour, and the thirst increased on him so
+that he thought he should be forced to drink. But, as he raised the
+flask, he saw a little child lying panting by the road-side, and it
+cried out piteously for water. Then Gluck struggled with himself, and
+determined to bear the thirst a little longer; and he put the bottle to
+the child's lips, and it drank it all but a few drops. Then it smiled on
+him, and got up and ran down the hill; and Gluck looked after it, till
+it became as small as a little star, and then turned and began climbing
+again. And then there were all kinds of sweet flowers growing on the
+rocks, bright green moss with pale pink starry flowers, and soft belled
+gentians, more blue than the sky at its deepest, and pure white
+transparent lilies. And crimson and purple butterflies darted hither and
+thither, and the sky sent down such pure light that Gluck had never felt
+so happy in his life.
+
+Yet, when he had climbed for another hour, his thirst became intolerable
+again; and, when he looked at his bottle, he saw that there were only
+five or six drops left in it, and he could not venture to drink. And, as
+he was hanging the flask to his belt again, he saw a little dog lying on
+the rocks, gasping for breath--just as Hans had seen it on the day of
+his ascent. And Gluck stopped and looked at it, and then at the Golden
+River, not five hundred yards above him; and he thought of the dwarf's
+words, "that no one could succeed, except in his first attempt"; and he
+tried to pass the dog, but it whined piteously, and Gluck stopped again.
+"Poor beastie," said Gluck, "it'll be dead when I come down again, if I
+don't help it." Then he looked closer and closer at it, and its eye
+turned on him so mournfully that he could not stand it. "Confound the
+King and his gold, too," said Gluck; and he opened the flask, and poured
+all the water into the dog's mouth.
+
+The dog sprang up and stood on its hind legs. Its tail disappeared, its
+ears became long, longer, silky, golden; its nose became very red, its
+eyes became very twinkling; in three seconds the dog was gone, and
+before Gluck stood his old acquaintance, the King of the Golden River.
+
+"Thank you," said the monarch; "but don't be frightened, it's all
+right"; for Gluck showed manifest symptoms of consternation at this
+unlooked-for reply to his last observation. "Why didn't you come
+before," continued the dwarf, "instead of sending me those rascally
+brothers of yours, for me to have the trouble of turning into stones?
+Very hard stones they make, too."
+
+"Oh, dear me!" said Gluck, "have you really been so cruel?"
+
+"Cruel!" said the dwarf: "they poured unholy water into my stream; do
+you suppose I'm going to allow that?"
+
+"Why," said Gluck, "I am sure, sir--your Majesty, I mean,--they got the
+water out of the church font."
+
+"Very probably," replied the dwarf; "but," and his countenance grew
+stern as he spoke, "the water which has been refused to the cry of the
+weary and dying is unholy, though it had been blessed by every saint in
+heaven; and the water which is found in the vessel of mercy is holy,
+though it had been defiled with corpses."
+
+So saying, the dwarf stooped and plucked a lily that grew at his feet.
+On its white leaves there hung three drops of clear dew. And the dwarf
+shook them into the flask which Gluck held in his hand. "Cast these into
+the river," he said, "and descend on the other side of the mountains
+into the Treasure Valley, and so good speed."
+
+As he spoke, the figure of the dwarf became indistinct. The playing
+colors of his robe formed themselves into a prismatic mist of dewy
+light: he stood for an instant veiled with them as with the belt of a
+broad rainbow. The colors grew faint, the mist rose into the air; the
+monarch had evaporated.
+
+And Gluck climbed to the brink of the Golden River and its waves were as
+clear as crystal, and as brilliant as the sun. And, when he cast the
+three drops of dew into the stream, there opened where they fell, a
+small circular whirlpool, into which the waters descended with a musical
+noise.
+
+Gluck stood watching it for some time, very much disappointed, because
+not only the river was not turned into gold but its waters seemed much
+diminished in quantity. Yet he obeyed his friend the dwarf, and
+descended the other side of the mountains, towards the Treasure Valley;
+and, as he went, he thought he heard the noise of water working its way
+under the ground. And when he came in sight of the Treasure Valley,
+behold, a river, like the Golden River, was springing from a new cleft
+of the rocks above it, and was flowing in innumerable streams among the
+dry heaps of red sand.
+
+And, as Gluck gazed, fresh grass sprang beside the new streams, and
+creeping plants grew, and climbed among the moistening soil. Young
+flowers opened suddenly along the river sides, as stars leap out when
+twilight is deepening, and thickets of myrtle, and tendrils of vine,
+cast lengthening shadows over the valley as they grew. And thus the
+Treasure Valley became a garden again, and the inheritance, which had
+been lost by cruelty, was regained by love.
+
+And Gluck went and dwelt in the valley, and the poor were never driven
+from his door; so that his barns became full of corn, and his house of
+treasure. And for him, the river had, according to the dwarf's promise,
+become a River of Gold.
+
+And, to this day, the inhabitants of the valley point out the place
+where the three drops of holy dew were cast into the stream, and trace
+the course of the Golden River under the ground, until it emerges in the
+Treasure Valley. And at the top of the cataract of the Golden River are
+still to be seen TWO BLACK STONES, round which the waters howl
+mournfully every day at sunset; and these stones are still called by the
+people of the valley
+
+ THE BLACK BROTHERS.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION V
+
+FABLES AND SYMBOLIC STORIES
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+ Jacobs, Joseph, _History of the Aesopic Fable_.
+
+ The only elaborate and scholarly study in
+ English. Vol. I of a reprint of _Caxton's
+ Aesop_. [Bibliotheque de Carabas Series.]
+ Published in 1889 in a limited edition and not
+ easily accessible.
+
+ Jacobs, Joseph, _The Fables of Aesop_. [Illustrated by Richard
+ Heighway.]
+
+ Eighty-two selected fables. The Introduction is
+ a summary of all the essential conclusions
+ reached in the study above.
+
+ Wiggin, Kate D., and Smith, Nora A., _The Talking Beasts_.
+
+ The best general collection from all fields,
+ including both the folk fable and the modern
+ literary fable.
+
+ Babbitt, Ellen C., _Jataka Tales Retold_.
+
+ Dutton, Maude Barrows, _The Tortoise and the Geese, and Other
+ Fables of Bidpai_.
+
+ Ramaswami Raju, P. V., _Indian Folk Stories and Fables_.
+
+ These three books are excellent for simplified
+ versions of the eastern group. Those desiring
+ to get closer to the sources may refer to
+ Cowell [ed.], _The Jataka, or Stories of the
+ Buddha's Former Births_; Rhys-Davids, _Buddhist
+ Birth Stories_; Keith-Falconer, _Bidpai's
+ Fables_.
+
+
+SUGGESTIONS FOR READING
+
+It is possible to piece out a very satisfactory account of the nature
+and history of the traditional fable by looking up in any good
+encyclopedia the brief articles under the following heads: Folklore,
+Fable, Parable, Apologue, AEsop, Demetrius of Phalerum, Babrias,
+Phaedrus, Avian, Romulus, Maximus Planudes, Jataka, Bidpai,
+Panchatantra, Hitopadesa.
+
+For a popular account of the whole philosophy of the apologue consult
+Newbigging, _Fables and Fabulists: Ancient and Modern_.
+
+For distinctions between various kinds of symbolic tales see Canby, _The
+Short Story in English_ (pp. 23 ff.); Trench, _Notes on the Parables_
+(Introduction); Smith, "The Fable and Kindred Forms," _Journal of
+English and Germanic Philology_, Vol. XIV, p. 519.
+
+For origins and parallels read Mueller, "On the Migration of Fables,"
+_Selected Essays_, Vol. I (reprinted in large part in Warner, _Library
+of the World's Best Literature_, Vol. XVIII); Clouston, _Popular Tales
+and Fictions_, Vol. I, p. 266, and Vol. II, p. 432. The more general
+treatises on folklore all touch on these problems.
+
+For suggestions on the use of fables with children see MacClintock,
+_Literature in the Elementary School_ (chap. xi); Adler, _Moral
+Instruction of Children_ (chaps. vii and viii); McMurry, _Special Method
+in Reading in the Grades_ (p. 70).
+
+For a clear and helpful account of the French writers of fables, the
+most important modern group, read Collins, _La Fontaine and Other French
+Fabulists_. Representative examples are given in most excellent
+translation. The best complete translation of La Fontaine is by Elizur
+Wright; of Krylov, in verse by I. H. Harrison, in prose by W. R. S.
+Ralston; of Yriarte, by R. Rockliffe. Gay's complete collection may be
+found in any edition of his poems.
+
+Satisfactory collections of proverbial sayings useful in finding
+expressions for the wisdom found in fables are Christy, _Proverbs,
+Maxims, and Phrases of All Ages_; Hazlitt, _English Proverbs and
+Proverbial Phrases_; Trench, _Proverbs and Their Lessons_.
+
+A book of great suggestive value covering the whole field of the prose
+story is Fansler, _Types of Prose Narratives_. It contains elaborate
+classifications, discussions and examples of each type, and an extended
+bibliography. Pp. 83-127 deal with fables, parables, and allegories.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION V: FABLES AND SYMBOLIC STORIES
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+_The character and value of fables._ Some one has pointed out that there
+are two kinds of ideals by which we are guided in life and that these
+ideals may be compared to lighthouses and lanterns. By means of the
+lighthouse, remote and lofty, we are able to lay a course and to know at
+any time whether we are headed in the right direction. But while we are
+moving along a difficult road we need more immediate illumination to
+avoid the mudholes and stumbling-places close at hand. We need the
+humble lantern to show us where we may safely step.
+
+Fables are lanterns by which our feet are guided. They embody the
+practical rules for everyday uses, rules of prudence that have been
+tested and approved by untold generations of travelers along the arduous
+road of life. They chart only minor dangers and difficult places as a
+rule, but these are the ones with which we are always in direct contact.
+Being honest because it is the "best policy" is not the highest reason
+for honesty, but it is what a practical world has found to be best in
+practice. Fables simply give us the "rules of the road," and these rules
+contribute greatly to our convenience and safety. Such rules are the
+result of the common sense of man working upon his everyday problems. To
+violate one of these practical rules is to be a blunderer, and
+blundering is a subject for jest rather than bitter denouncement. Hence
+the humorous and satirical note in fables.
+
+The practical, self-made men of the world, who have done things and
+inspired others to do them, have always placed great emphasis upon
+common-sense ideals. Benjamin Franklin, by his _Poor Richard's Almanac_,
+kept the incentives to industry and thrift before a people who needed to
+practice these everyday rules if they were to conquer an unwilling
+wilderness. So well did he do his work that after nearly two hundred
+years we are still quoting his pithy sayings. It may be that his
+proverbs were all borrowed, but the rules of the road are not matters
+for constant experiment. Again, no account of Abraham Lincoln can omit
+his use of AEsop or of AEsop-like stories to enforce his ideas. His homely
+stories were so "pat" that there was nothing left for the opposition to
+say. Only one who grasps the heart of a problem can use concrete
+illustrations with such effect.
+
+No one really questions the truths enforced by the more familiar fables.
+But since these teachings are so commonplace and obvious, they cannot be
+impressed upon us by mere repetition of the teachings as such. To secure
+the emphasis needed the world gradually evolved a body of striking
+stories and proverbs by which the standing rules of everyday life are
+displayed in terms that cling like burrs. "The peculiar value of the
+fable," says Dr. Adler, "is that they are instantaneous photographs,
+which reproduce, as it were, in a single flash of light, some one aspect
+of human nature, and which, excluding everything else, permit the entire
+attention to be fixed on that one."
+
+_AEsop and Bidpai._ The type of fable in mind in the above account is
+that known as the AEsopic, a brief beast-story in which the characters
+are, as a rule, conventionalized animals, and which points out some
+practical moral. The fox may represent crafty people, the ass may
+represent stupid people, the wind may represent boisterous people, the
+tortoise may represent plodding people who "keep everlastingly at it."
+When human beings are introduced, such as the Shepherd Boy, or
+Androcles, or the Travelers, or the Milkmaid, they are as wholly
+conventionalized as the animals and there is never any doubt as to their
+motives. AEsop, if he ever existed at all, is said to have been a Greek
+slave of the sixth century B.C., very ugly and clever, who used fables
+orally for political purposes and succeeded in gaining his freedom and a
+high position. Later writers, among them Demetrius of Phalerum about 300
+B.C. and Phaedrus about 30 A.D., made versions of fables ascribed to
+AEsop. Many writers in the Middle Ages brought together increasing
+numbers of fables under AEsop's name and enlarged upon the few
+traditional facts in Herodotus about AEsop himself until several hundred
+fables and an elaborate biography of the supposed author were in
+existence. Joseph Jacobs said he had counted as many as 700 different
+fables going under AEsop's name. The number included in a present-day
+book of AEsop usually varies from 200 to 350. Another name associated
+with the making of fables is that of Bidpai (or Pilpay), said to have
+been a philosopher attached to the court of some oriental king. Bidpai,
+a name which means "head scholar," is a more shadowy figure even than
+AEsop. What we can be sure of is that there were two centers, Greece and
+India, from which fables were diffused. Whether they all came originally
+from a single source, and, if so, what that source was, are questions
+still debated by scholars.
+
+_Modern fabulists._ Modern fables are no more possible than a new Mother
+Goose or a new fairy story. For modern times the method of the fable is
+"at once too simple and too roundabout. Too roundabout; for the truths
+we have to tell we prefer to speak out directly and not by way of
+allegory. And the truths the fable has to teach are too simple to
+correspond to the facts in our complex civilization." No modern fabulist
+has duplicated in his field the success of Hans Christian Andersen in
+the field of the nursery story. A few fables from La Fontaine, a few
+from Krylov, one or two each from Gay, Cowper, Yriarte, and Lessing may
+be used to good advantage with children. The general broadening of
+literary variety has, of course, given us in recent times many valuable
+stories of the symbolistic kind. Suggestive parable-like or allegorical
+stories, such as a few of Hawthorne's in _Twice Told Tales_ and _Mosses
+from an Old Manse_, or a few of Tolstoy's short tales, are simple enough
+for children.
+
+_The use of fables in school._ Not all fables are good for educational
+purposes. There is, however, plenty of room for choice, and those that
+present points of view no longer accepted by the modern world should be
+eliminated from the list. Objections based on the unreality of the
+fables, their "unnatural natural history," are hardly valid. Rousseau's
+elimination of fables from his scheme of education in _Emile_ is based
+on this objection and on the further point that the child will often
+sympathize with the wrong character in the story, thus going astray in
+the moral lesson. Other objectors down to the present day simply echo
+Rousseau. Such a view does little justice to the child's natural sense
+of values. He is certain to see that the Frog is foolish in competing
+with the Ox in size, and certain to recognize the common sense of the
+Country Mouse. He will no more be deceived by a fable than he will by
+the painted clown in a circus.
+
+The oral method of presentation is the ideal one. Tell the story in as
+vivid a form as possible. In the earlier grades the interest in the
+story may be a sufficient end, but almost from the beginning children
+will see the lesson intended. They will catch the phrases that have come
+from fables into our everyday speech. Thus, "sour grapes," "dog in the
+manger," "to blow hot and cold," "to kill the goose that lays the golden
+eggs," "to cry 'Wolf!'" will take on more significant meanings. If some
+familiar proverb goes hand in hand with the story, it will help the
+point to take fast hold in the mind. Applications of the fable to real
+events should be encouraged. That is what fables were made for and that
+is where their chief value for us is still manifest. Only a short time
+need be spent on any one fable, but every opportunity should be taken to
+call up and apply the fables already learned. For they are not merely
+for passing amusement, nor is their value confined to childhood. Listen
+to John Locke, one of the "hardest-headed" of philosophers: "As soon as
+a child has learned to read, it is desirable to place in his hands
+pleasant books, suited to his capacity, wherein the entertainment that
+he finds might draw him on, and reward his pains in reading; and yet not
+such as should fill his head with perfectly useless trumpery, or lay the
+principles of vice and folly. To this purpose I think _AEsop's Fables_
+the best, which being stories apt to delight and entertain a child, may
+yet afford useful reflections to a grown man, and if his memory retain
+them all his life after, he will not repent to find them there, amongst
+his manly thoughts and serious business."
+
+ The best AEsop collection for teachers and
+ pupils alike is _The Fables of AEsop_, edited by
+ Joseph Jacobs. It contains eighty-two selected
+ fables, including those that are most familiar
+ and most valuable for children. The versions
+ are standards of what such retellings should
+ be, and may well serve as models for teachers
+ in their presentation of other short symbolic
+ stories. The introduction, "A Short History of
+ the AEsopic Fable," and the notes at the end of
+ the book contain, in concise form, all the
+ practical information needed. The text of the
+ Jacobs versions was the one selected for
+ reproduction in Dr. Eliot's _Harvard Classics_.
+ Nos. 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 213, and 233 in
+ the following group are by Mr. Jacobs. The
+ other AEsopic fables given are from various
+ collections of the traditional versions. Almost
+ any of the many reprints called AEsop are
+ satisfactory for fables not found in Jacobs.
+ Perhaps the one most common in recent times is
+ that made by Thomas James in 1848, which had
+ the good fortune to be illustrated by Tenniel.
+ The versions are brief and not overloaded with
+ editorial "filling."
+
+
+
+205
+
+THE SHEPHERD'S BOY
+
+There was once a young Shepherd Boy who tended his sheep at the foot of
+a mountain near a dark forest. It was rather lonely for him all day, so
+he thought upon a plan by which he could get a little company and some
+excitement. He rushed down towards the village calling out "Wolf! Wolf!"
+and the villagers came out to meet him, and some of them stopped with
+him for a considerable time. This pleased the boy so much that a few
+days afterwards he tried the same trick, and again the villagers came to
+his help. But shortly after this a Wolf actually did come out from the
+forest, and began to worry the sheep, and the boy of course cried out
+"Wolf! Wolf!" still louder than before. But this time the villagers, who
+had been fooled twice before, thought the boy was again deceiving them,
+and nobody stirred to come to his help. So the Wolf made a good meal off
+the boy's flock, and when the boy complained, the wise man of the
+village said:
+
+"_A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth._"
+
+
+
+206
+
+
+THE LION AND THE MOUSE
+
+Once when a Lion was asleep a little Mouse began running up and down
+upon him; this soon wakened the Lion, who placed his huge paw upon him
+and opened his big jaws to swallow him. "Pardon, O King," cried the
+little Mouse; "forgive me this time; I shall never forget it. Who knows
+but what I may be able to do you a good turn some of these days?" The
+Lion was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him,
+that he lifted up his paw and let him go. Some time after the Lion was
+caught in a trap, and the hunters, who desired to carry him alive to the
+King, tied him to a tree while they went in search of a wagon to carry
+him on. Just then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the
+sad plight in which the Lion was, went up to him and soon gnawed away
+the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts. "Was I not right?" said the
+little Mouse.
+
+_Little friends may prove great friends._
+
+
+
+207
+
+
+THE CROW AND THE PITCHER
+
+A Crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a Pitcher which had once been
+full of water; but when the Crow put its beak into the mouth of the
+Pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he
+could not reach far enough down to get at it. He tried and he tried, but
+at last had to give up in despair. Then a thought came to him, and he
+took a pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another
+pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and
+dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped
+that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into
+the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the
+Pitcher. At last, at last, he saw the water mount up near him; and after
+casting in a few more pebbles he was able to quench his thirst and save
+his life.
+
+_Little by little does the trick._
+
+
+
+208
+
+
+THE FROG AND THE OX
+
+"Oh, Father," said a little Frog to the big one sitting by the side of a
+pool, "I have seen such a terrible monster! It was as big as a mountain,
+with horns on its head, and a long tail, and it had hoofs divided in
+two."
+
+"Tush, child, tush," said the old Frog, "that was only Farmer White's
+Ox. It isn't so big either; he may be a little bit taller than I, but I
+could easily make myself quite as broad; just you see." So he blew
+himself out, and blew himself out, and blew himself out. "Was he as big
+as that?" asked he.
+
+"Oh, much bigger than that," said the young Frog.
+
+Again the old one blew himself out, and asked the young one if the Ox
+was as big as that.
+
+"Bigger, Father, bigger," was the reply.
+
+So the Frog took a deep breath, and blew and blew and blew, and swelled
+and swelled and swelled. And then he said: "I'm sure the Ox is not as
+big as--" But at this moment he burst.
+
+_Self-conceit may lead to self-destruction._
+
+
+
+209
+
+
+THE FROGS DESIRING A KING
+
+Frogs were living as happy as could be in a marshy swamp that just
+suited them; they went splashing about, caring for nobody and nobody
+troubling with them. But some of them thought that this was not right,
+that they should have a king and a proper constitution, so they
+determined to send up a petition to Jove to give them what they wanted.
+"Mighty Jove," they cried, "send unto us a king that will rule over us
+and keep us in order." Jove laughed at their croaking, and threw down
+into the swamp a huge Log, which came down--kersplash--into the water.
+The Frogs were frightened out of their lives by the commotion made in
+their midst, and all rushed to the bank to look at the horrible monster;
+but after a time, seeing that it did not move, one or two of the boldest
+of them ventured out towards the Log, and even dared to touch it; still
+it did not move. Then the greatest hero of the Frogs jumped upon the Log
+and commenced dancing up and down upon it; thereupon all the Frogs came
+and did the same; and for some time the Frogs went about their business
+every day without taking the slightest notice of their new King Log
+lying in their midst. But this did not suit them, so they sent another
+petition to Jove, and said to him: "We want a real king; one that will
+really rule over us." Now this made Jove angry, so he sent among them a
+big Stork that soon set to work gobbling them all up. Then the Frogs
+repented when too late.
+
+_Better no rule than cruel rule._
+
+
+
+210
+
+ The following fable is found in the folklore of
+ many countries. Its lesson of consolation for
+ those who are not blessed with abundance of
+ worldly goods may account for its widespread
+ popularity. Independence and freedom from fear
+ have advantages that make up for poorer fare.
+
+
+THE FIELD MOUSE AND THE TOWN MOUSE
+
+A Field Mouse had a friend who lived in a house in town. Now the Town
+Mouse was asked by the Field Mouse to dine with him, and out he went and
+sat down to a meal of corn and wheat.
+
+"Do you know, my friend," said he, "that you live a mere ant's life out
+here? Why, I have all kinds of things at home. Come, and enjoy them."
+
+So the two set off for town, and there the Town Mouse showed his beans
+and meal, his dates, too, and his cheese and fruit and honey. And as the
+Field Mouse ate, drank, and was merry, he thought how rich his friend
+was, and how poor he was.
+
+But as they ate, a man all at once opened the door, and the Mice were in
+such a fear that they ran into a crack.
+
+Then, when they would eat some nice figs, in came a maid to get a pot of
+honey or a bit of cheese; and when they saw her, they hid in a hole.
+
+Then the Field Mouse would eat no more, but said to the Town Mouse, "Do
+as you like, my good friend; eat all you want and have your fill of good
+things, but you will be always in fear of your life. As for me, poor
+Mouse, who have only corn and wheat, I will live on at home in no fear
+of any one."
+
+
+
+211
+
+ This simple poem is based upon the old fable
+ preceding. It does not follow out the idea of
+ the fable, but limits itself to awakening our
+ sympathy for the garden mouse.
+
+
+THE CITY MOUSE AND THE GARDEN MOUSE
+
+CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI
+
+ The city mouse lives in a house;--
+ The garden mouse lives in a bower;
+ He's friendly with the frogs and toads,
+ And sees the pretty plants in flower.
+
+ The city mouse eats bread and cheese;--
+ The garden mouse eats what he can;
+ We will not grudge him seeds and stocks,
+ Poor little timid furry man.
+
+
+
+212
+
+ The most famous use of this fable in literature
+ is found in the _Satires_ of the great Roman
+ poet, Horace (B.C. 65-8). He is regarded as one
+ of the most polished of writers, and the
+ ancient world's most truthful painter of social
+ life and manners. Horace had a country seat
+ among the Sabine hills to which he could retire
+ from the worries and distractions of the world.
+ His delight in his Sabine farm is shown clearly
+ in his handling of the story. The passage is a
+ part of Book II, Satire 6, and is in
+ Conington's translation. Some well-known
+ appearances of this same fable in English
+ poetry may be found in Prior and Montagu's
+ _City Mouse and Country Mouse_ and in Pope's
+ _Imitations of Horace_.
+
+
+THE COUNTRY MOUSE AND THE TOWN MOUSE
+
+HORACE
+
+ One day a country mouse in his poor home
+ Received an ancient friend, a mouse from Rome.
+ The host, though close and careful, to a guest
+ Could open still; so now he did his best.
+ He spares not oats or vetches; in his chaps
+ Raisins he brings, and nibbled bacon-scraps,
+ Hoping by varied dainties to entice
+ His town-bred guest, so delicate and nice.
+ Who condescended graciously to touch
+ Thing after thing, but never would take much,
+ While he, the owner of the mansion, sate
+ On threshed-out straw, and spelt and darnels ate.
+ At length the town mouse cries, "I wonder how
+ You can live here, friend, on this hill's rough brow!
+ Take my advice, and leave these ups and downs,
+ This hill and dale, for humankind and towns.
+ Come, now, go home with me; remember, all
+ Who live on earth are mortal, great and small.
+ Then take, good sir, your pleasure while you may;
+ With life so short, 'twere wrong to lose a day."
+ This reasoning made the rustic's head turn round;
+ Forth from his hole he issues with a bound,
+ And they two make together for their mark,
+ In hopes to reach the city during dark.
+ The midnight sky was bending over all,
+ When they set foot within a stately hall,
+ Where couches of wrought ivory had been spread
+ With gorgeous coverlets of Tyrian red,
+ And viands piled up high in baskets lay,
+ The relics of a feast of yesterday.
+ The town mouse does the honors, lays his guest
+ At ease upon a couch with crimson dressed,
+ Then nimbly moves in character of host,
+ And offers in succession boiled and roast;
+ Nay, like a well-trained slave, each wish prevents,
+ And tastes before the titbits he presents.
+ The guest, rejoicing in his altered fare,
+ Assumes in turn a genial diner's air,
+ When, hark, a sudden banging of the door!
+ Each from his couch is tumbled on the floor.
+ Half dead, they scurry round the room, poor things,
+ While the whole house with barking mastiffs rings.
+ Then says the rustic, "It may do for you,
+ This life, but I don't like it; so, adieu.
+ Give me my hole, secure from all alarms;
+ I'll prove that tares and vetches still have charms."
+
+
+
+213
+
+ The following is the Androcles story as retold
+ by Jacobs. Scholars think this fable is clearly
+ oriental in its origin, constituting as it does
+ a sort of appeal to tyrannical rulers for
+ leniency toward their subjects.
+
+
+ANDROCLES
+
+A Slave named Androcles once escaped from his master and fled to the
+forest. As he was wandering about there he came upon a Lion lying down
+moaning and groaning. At first he turned to flee, but finding that the
+Lion did not pursue him, he turned back and went up to him. As he came
+near, the Lion put out his paw, which was all swollen and bleeding, and
+Androcles found that a huge thorn had got into it, and was causing all
+the pain. He pulled out the thorn and bound up the paw of the Lion, who
+was soon able to rise and lick the hand of Androcles like a dog. Then
+the Lion took Androcles to his cave, and every day used to bring him
+meat from which to live. But shortly afterwards both Androcles and the
+Lion were captured, and the slave was sentenced to be thrown to the
+Lion, after the latter had been kept without food for several days. The
+Emperor and all his Court came to see the spectacle, and Androcles was
+led out into the middle of the arena. Soon the Lion was let loose from
+his den, and rushed bounding and roaring towards his victim. But as soon
+as he came near to Androcles he recognized his friend, and fawned upon
+him, and licked his hands like a friendly dog. The Emperor, surprised at
+this, summoned Androcles to him, who told him the whole story. Whereupon
+the slave was pardoned and freed, and the Lion let loose to his native
+forest.
+
+_Gratitude is the sign of noble souls._
+
+
+
+214
+
+ The preceding fable is here given in the form
+ used in Thomas Day's very famous, but probably
+ little read, _History of Sandford and Merton_.
+ (See No. 380.) Day's use of the story is
+ probably responsible for its modern popularity.
+ Jacobs points out that it dropped out of AEsop,
+ although it was in some of the medieval fable
+ books. A very similar tale, "Of the Remembrance
+ of Benefits," is in the _Gesta Romanorum_ (Tale
+ 104). The most striking use of the fable in
+ modern literature is in George Bernard Shaw's
+ play _Androcles_. It will be instructive to
+ compare the force of Day's rather heavy and
+ slow telling of the story with that of the
+ concise, unelaborated version by Jacobs.
+
+
+ANDROCLES AND THE LION
+
+THOMAS DAY
+
+There was a certain slave named Androcles, who was so ill-treated by his
+master that his life became insupportable. Finding no remedy for what he
+suffered, he at length said to himself, "It is better to die than to
+continue to live in such hardships and misery as I am obliged to suffer.
+I am determined therefore to run away from my master. If I am taken
+again, I know that I shall be punished with a cruel death; but it is
+better to die at once than to live in misery. If I escape, I must betake
+myself to deserts and woods, inhabited only by wild beasts; but they
+cannot use me more cruelly than I have been used by my fellow-creatures.
+Therefore I will rather trust myself with them than continue to be a
+miserable slave."
+
+Having formed this resolution, he took an opportunity of leaving his
+master's house, and hid himself in a thick forest, which was at some
+miles' distance from the city. But here the unhappy man found that he
+had only escaped from one kind of misery to experience another. He
+wandered about all day through a vast and trackless wood, where his
+flesh was continually torn by thorns and brambles. He grew hungry, but
+could find no food in this dreary solitude. At length he was ready to
+die with fatigue, and lay down in despair in a large cavern which he
+found by accident.
+
+This unfortunate man had not lain long quiet in the cavern, before he
+heard a dreadful noise, which seemed to be the roar of some wild beast,
+and terrified him very much. He started up with a design to escape and
+had already reached the mouth of the cave when he saw coming towards him
+a lion of prodigious size, who prevented any possibility of retreat. The
+unfortunate man then believed his destruction to be inevitable; but, to
+his great astonishment, the beast advanced towards him with a gentle
+pace, without any mark of enmity or rage, and uttered a kind of mournful
+voice, as if he demanded the assistance of the man.
+
+Androcles, who was naturally of a resolute disposition, acquired courage
+from this circumstance, to examine his monstrous guest, who gave him
+sufficient leisure for that purpose. He saw, as the lion approached him,
+that he seemed to limp upon one of his legs and that the foot was
+extremely swelled as if it had been wounded. Acquiring still more
+fortitude from the gentle demeanor of the beast, he advanced up to him
+and took hold of the wounded paw, as a surgeon would examine a patient.
+He then perceived that a thorn of uncommon size had penetrated the ball
+of the foot and was the occasion of the swelling and lameness he had
+observed. Androcles found that the beast, far from resenting this
+familiarity, received it with the greatest gentleness and seemed to
+invite him by his blandishments to proceed. He therefore extracted the
+thorn, and, pressing the swelling, discharged a considerable quantity of
+matter, which had been the cause of so much pain and uneasiness.
+
+As soon as the beast felt himself thus relieved, he began to testify his
+joy and gratitude by every expression within his power. He jumped about
+like a wanton spaniel, wagged his enormous tail, and licked the feet and
+hands of his physician. Nor was he contented with these demonstrations
+of kindness; from this moment Androcles became his guest; nor did the
+lion ever sally forth in quest of prey without bringing home the produce
+of his chase and sharing it with his friend. In this savage state of
+hospitality did the man continue to live during the space of several
+months. At length, wandering unguardedly through the woods, he met with
+a company of soldiers sent out to apprehend him, and was by them taken
+prisoner and conducted back to his master. The laws of that country
+being very severe against slaves, he was tried and found guilty of
+having fled from his master, and, as a punishment for his pretended
+crime, he was sentenced to be torn in pieces by a furious lion, kept
+many days without food to inspire him with additional rage.
+
+When the destined moment arrived, the unhappy man was exposed, unarmed,
+in the midst of a spacious area, enclosed on every side, round which
+many thousand people were assembled to view the mournful spectacle.
+
+Presently a dreadful yell was heard, which struck the spectators with
+horror; and a monstrous lion rushed out of a den, which was purposely
+set open, and darted forward with erected mane, and flaming eyes, and
+jaws that gaped like an open sepulchre.--A mournful silence instantly
+prevailed! All eyes were turned upon the destined victim, whose
+destruction now appeared inevitable. But the pity of the multitude was
+soon converted into astonishment, when they beheld the lion, instead of
+destroying his defenceless prey, crouch submissively at his feet; fawn
+upon him as a faithful dog would do upon his master, and rejoice over
+him as a mother that unexpectedly recovers her offspring. The governor
+of the town, who was present, then called out with a loud voice and
+ordered Androcles to explain to them this unintelligible mystery, and
+how a savage beast of the fiercest and most unpitying nature should thus
+in a moment have forgotten his innate disposition, and be converted into
+a harmless and inoffensive animal.
+
+Androcles then related to the assembly every circumstance of his
+adventures in the woods, and concluded by saying that the very lion
+which now stood before them had been his friend and entertainer in the
+woods. All the persons present were astonished and delighted with the
+story, to find that even the fiercest beasts are capable of being
+softened by gratitude and moved by humanity; and they unanimously joined
+to entreat for the pardon of the unhappy man from the governor of the
+place. This was immediately granted to him, and he was also presented
+with the lion, who had in this manner twice saved the life of Androcles.
+
+
+
+215
+
+
+THE WIND AND THE SUN
+
+A dispute once arose between the North Wind and the Sun as to which was
+the stronger of the two. Seeing a Traveler on his way, they agreed to
+try which could the sooner get his cloak off him. The North Wind began,
+and sent a furious blast, which, at the onset, nearly tore the cloak
+from its fastenings; but the Traveler, seizing the garment with a firm
+grip, held it round his body so tightly that Boreas spent his remaining
+force in vain.
+
+The Sun, dispelling the clouds that had gathered, then darted his genial
+beams on the Traveler's head. Growing faint with the heat, the Man flung
+off his coat and ran for protection to the nearest shade.
+
+_Mildness governs more than anger._
+
+
+
+216
+
+ The following brief fable has given us one of
+ the best known expressions in common speech,
+ "killing the goose that lays the golden eggs."
+ People who never heard of AEsop know what that
+ expression means. It is easy to connect the
+ fable with our "get rich quick" craze. (Compare
+ with No. 254.)
+
+
+THE GOOSE WITH THE GOLDEN EGGS
+
+A certain Man had a Goose that laid him a golden egg every day. Being of
+a covetous turn, he thought if he killed his Goose he should come at
+once to the source of his treasure. So he killed her and cut her open,
+but great was his dismay to find that her inside was in no way different
+from that of any other goose.
+
+_Greediness overreaches itself._
+
+
+
+217
+
+ The most successful of modern literary
+ fabulists was the French poet Jean de la
+ Fontaine (1621-1695). A famous critic has said
+ that his fables delight the child with their
+ freshness and vividness, the student of
+ literature with their consummate art, and the
+ experienced man with their subtle reflections
+ on life and character. He drew most of his
+ stories from AEsop and other sources. While he
+ dressed the old fables in the brilliant style
+ of his own day, he still succeeded in being
+ essentially simple and direct. A few of his 240
+ fables may be used to good effect with
+ children, though they have their main charm for
+ the more sophisticated older reader. (See Nos.
+ 234, 241, and 242.) The best complete
+ translation is that made in 1841 by Elizur
+ Wright, an American scholar. The following
+ version is from his translation. Notice that La
+ Fontaine has changed the goose to a hen.
+
+
+THE HEN WITH THE GOLDEN EGGS
+
+LA FONTAINE
+
+ How avarice loseth all,
+ By striving all to gain,
+ I need no witness call
+ But him whose thrifty hen,
+ As by the fable we are told,
+ Laid every day an egg of gold.
+ "She hath a treasure in her body,"
+ Bethinks the avaricious noddy.
+ He kills and opens--vexed to find
+ All things like hens of common kind.
+ Thus spoil'd the source of all his riches,
+ To misers he a lesson teaches.
+ In these last changes of the moon,
+ How often doth one see
+ Men made as poor as he
+ By force of getting rich too soon!
+
+
+
+218
+
+
+THE WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING
+
+A Wolf wrapped himself in the skin of a Sheep and by that means got
+admission into a sheep-fold, where he devoured several of the young
+Lambs. The Shepherd, however, soon found him out and hung him up to a
+tree, still in his disguise.
+
+Some other Shepherds, passing that way, thought it was a Sheep hanging,
+and cried to their friend, "What, brother! is that the way you serve
+Sheep in this part of the country?"
+
+"No, friends," cried he, turning the hanging body around so that they
+might see what it was; "but it is the way to serve Wolves, even though
+they be dressed in Sheep's clothing."
+
+_The credit got by a lie lasts only till the truth comes out._
+
+
+
+219
+
+
+THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE
+
+The Hare one day laughed at the Tortoise for his short feet, slowness,
+and awkwardness.
+
+"Though you may be swift as the wind," replied the Tortoise
+good-naturedly, "I can beat you in a race."
+
+The Hare looked on the challenge as a great joke, but consented to a
+trial of speed, and the Fox was selected to act as umpire and hold the
+stakes.
+
+The rivals started, and the Hare, of course, soon left the Tortoise far
+behind. Having reached midway to the goal, she began to play about,
+nibble the young herbage, and amuse herself in many ways. The day being
+warm, she even thought she would take a little nap in a shady spot, for
+she thought that if the Tortoise should pass her while she slept, she
+could easily overtake him again before he reached the end.
+
+The Tortoise meanwhile plodded on, unwavering and unresting, straight
+towards the goal.
+
+The Hare, having overslept herself, started up from her nap and was
+surprised to find that the Tortoise was nowhere in sight. Off she went
+at full speed, but on reaching the winning-post, found that the Tortoise
+was already there, waiting for her arrival.
+
+_Slow and steady wins the race._
+
+
+
+220
+
+THE MILLER, HIS SON, AND THEIR ASS
+
+A Miller and his Son were driving their Ass to a neighboring fair to
+sell him. They had not gone far when they met with a troop of women
+collected round a well, talking and laughing.
+
+"Look there," cried one of them, "did you ever see such fellows, to be
+trudging along the road on foot when they might ride?"
+
+The Miller, hearing this, quickly made his Son mount the Ass, and
+continued to walk along merrily by his side. Presently they came up to a
+group of old men in earnest debate.
+
+"There," said one of them, "it proves what I was saying. What respect is
+shown to old age in these days? Do you see that idle lad riding while
+his old father has to walk? Get down, you young scapegrace, and let the
+old man rest his weary limbs."
+
+Upon this, the Miller made his Son dismount, and got up himself. In this
+manner they had not proceeded far when they met a company of women and
+children.
+
+"Why, you lazy old fellow," cried several tongues at once, "how can you
+ride upon the beast while that poor little lad there can hardly keep
+pace by the side of you?"
+
+The good-natured Miller immediately took up his Son behind him. They had
+now almost reached the town.
+
+"Pray, honest friend," said a citizen, "is that Ass your own?"
+
+"Yes," replied the old man.
+
+"Oh, one would not have thought so," said the other, "by the way you
+load him. Why, you two fellows are better able to carry the poor beast
+than he you."
+
+"Anything to please you," said the Miller; "we can but try."
+
+So, alighting with his Son, they tied the legs of the Ass together, and
+by the help of a pole endeavored to carry him on their shoulders over a
+bridge near the entrance of the town. This entertaining sight brought
+the people in crowds to laugh at it, till the Ass, not liking the noise
+nor the strange handling that he was subject to, broke the cords that
+bound him and, tumbling off the pole, fell into the river. Upon this,
+the old man, vexed and ashamed, made the best of his way home again,
+convinced that by trying to please everybody he had pleased nobody, and
+lost his Ass into the bargain.
+
+_He who tries to please everybody pleases nobody._
+
+
+
+221
+
+
+THE TRAVELERS AND THE BEAR
+
+Two Men, about to journey through a forest, agreed to stand by each
+other in any dangers that might befall. They had not gone far before a
+savage Bear rushed out from a thicket and stood in their path. One of
+the Travelers, a light, nimble fellow, got up into a tree. The other,
+seeing that there was no chance to defend himself single-handed, fell
+flat on his face and held his breath. The Bear came up and smelled at
+him, and taking him for dead, went off again into the wood. The Man in
+the tree came down and, rejoining his companion, asked him, with a sly
+smile, what was the wonderful secret which he had seen the Bear whisper
+into his ear.
+
+"Why," replied the other, "he told me to take care for the future and
+not to put any confidence in such cowardly rascals as you are."
+
+_Trust not fine promises._
+
+
+
+222
+
+
+THE LARK AND HER YOUNG ONES
+
+A Lark, who had Young Ones in a field of grain which was almost ripe,
+was afraid that the reapers would come before her young brood were
+fledged. So every day when she flew off to look for food, she charged
+them to take note of what they heard in her absence and to tell her of
+it when she came home.
+
+One day when she was gone, they heard the owner of the field say to his
+son that the grain seemed ripe enough to be cut, and tell him to go
+early the next day and ask their friends and neighbors to come and help
+reap it.
+
+When the old Lark came home, the Little Ones quivered and chirped round
+her and told her what had happened, begging her to take them away as
+fast as she could. The mother bade them be easy; "for," said she, "if he
+depends on his friends and his neighbors, I am sure the grain will not
+be reaped tomorrow."
+
+Next day she went out again and left the same orders as before. The
+owner came, and waited. The sun grew hot, but nothing was done, for not
+a soul came. "You see," said the owner to his son, "these friends of
+ours are not to be depended upon; so run off at once to your uncles and
+cousins, and say I wish them to come early to-morrow morning and help us
+reap."
+
+This the Young Ones, in a great fright, told also to their mother. "Do
+not fear, children," said she. "Kindred and relations are not always
+very forward in helping one another; but keep your ears open and let me
+know what you hear to-morrow."
+
+The owner came the next day, and, finding his relations as backward as
+his neighbors, said to his son, "Now listen to me. Get two good sickles
+ready for to-morrow morning, for it seems we must reap the grain by
+ourselves."
+
+The Young Ones told this to their mother.
+
+"Then, my dears," said she, "it is time for us to go; for when a man
+undertakes to do his work himself, it is not so likely that he will be
+disappointed." She took away her Young Ones at once, and the grain was
+reaped the next day by the old man and his son.
+
+_Depend upon yourself alone._
+
+
+
+223
+
+
+THE OLD MAN AND HIS SONS
+
+An Old Man had several Sons, who were always falling out with one
+another. He had often, but to no purpose, exhorted them to live together
+in harmony. One day he called them around him and, producing a bundle of
+sticks, bade them try each in turn to break it across. Each put forth
+all his strength, but the bundle resisted their efforts. Then, cutting
+the cord which bound the sticks together, he told his Sons to break them
+separately. This was done with the greatest ease.
+
+"See, my Sons," exclaimed he, "the power of unity! Bound together by
+brotherly love, you may defy almost every mortal ill; divided, you will
+fall a prey to your enemies."
+
+_A house divided against itself cannot stand._
+
+
+
+224
+
+
+THE FOX AND THE GRAPES
+
+A Fox, just at the time of the vintage, stole into a vineyard where the
+ripe sunny Grapes were trellised up on high in most tempting show. He
+made many a spring and a jump after the luscious prize; but, failing in
+all his attempts, he muttered as he retreated, "Well! what does it
+matter! The Grapes are sour!"
+
+
+
+225
+
+
+THE WIDOW AND THE HEN
+
+A Widow woman kept a Hen that laid an egg every morning. Thought the
+woman to herself, "If I double my Hen's allowance of barley, she will
+lay twice a day." So she tried her plan, and the Hen became so fat and
+sleek that she left off laying at all.
+
+_Figures are not always facts._
+
+
+
+226
+
+
+THE KID AND THE WOLF
+
+A Kid being mounted on the roof of a lofty house and seeing a Wolf pass
+below, began to revile him. The Wolf merely stopped to reply, "Coward!
+It is not you who revile me, but the place on which you are standing."
+
+
+
+227
+
+
+THE MAN AND THE SATYR
+
+A Man and a Satyr having struck up an acquaintance, sat down together to
+eat. The day being wintry and cold, the Man put his fingers to his mouth
+and blew upon them.
+
+"What's that for, my friend?" asked the Satyr.
+
+"My hands are so cold," said the Man, "I do it to warm them."
+
+In a little while some hot food was placed before them, and the Man,
+raising the dish to his mouth, again blew upon it. "And what's the
+meaning of that, now?" said the Satyr.
+
+"Oh," replied the Man, "my porridge is so hot I do it to cool it."
+
+"Nay, then," said the Satyr, "from this moment I renounce your
+friendship, for I will have nothing to do with one who blows hot and
+cold with the same mouth."
+
+
+
+228
+
+
+THE DOG AND THE SHADOW
+
+A Dog had stolen a piece of meat out of a butcher's shop, and was
+crossing a river on his way home, when he saw his own shadow reflected
+in the stream below. Thinking that it was another dog with another piece
+of meat, he resolved to make himself master of that also; but in
+snapping at the supposed treasure, he dropped the bit he was carrying,
+and so lost all.
+
+_Grasp at the shadow and lose the substance--the common fate of those
+who hazard a real blessing for some visionary good._
+
+
+
+229
+
+
+THE SWALLOW AND THE RAVEN
+
+The Swallow and the Raven contended which was the finer bird. The Raven
+ended by saying, "Your beauty is but for the summer, but mine will stand
+many winters."
+
+_Durability is better than show._
+
+
+
+230
+
+
+MERCURY AND THE WOODMAN
+
+A Woodman was felling a tree on the bank of a river, and by chance let
+slip his axe into the water, when it immediately sank to the bottom.
+Being thereupon in great distress, he sat down by the side of the stream
+and lamented his loss bitterly. But Mercury, whose river it was, taking
+compassion on him, appeared at the instant before him; and hearing from
+him the cause of his sorrow, dived to the bottom of the river, and
+bringing up a golden axe, asked the Woodman if that were his. Upon the
+Man's denying it, Mercury dived a second time, and brought up one of
+silver. Again the Man denied that it was his. So diving a third time, he
+produced the identical axe which the Man had lost. "That is mine!" said
+the Woodman, delighted to have recovered his own; and so pleased was
+Mercury with the fellow's truth and honesty that he at once made him a
+present of the other two.
+
+The Man goes to his companions, and giving them an account of what had
+happened to him, one of them determined to try whether he might not have
+the like good fortune. So repairing to the same place, as if for the
+purpose of cutting wood, he let slip his axe on purpose into the river
+and then sat down on the bank and made a great show of weeping. Mercury
+appeared as before, and hearing from him that his tears were caused by
+the loss of his axe, dived once more into the stream; and bringing up a
+golden axe, asked him if that was the axe he had lost.
+
+"Aye, surely," said the Man, eagerly; and he was about to grasp the
+treasure, when Mercury, to punish his impudence and lying, not only
+refused to give him that, but would not so much as restore him his own
+axe again.
+
+_Honesty is the best policy._
+
+
+
+231
+
+
+THE MICE IN COUNCIL
+
+Once upon a time the Mice being sadly distressed by the persecution of
+the Cat, resolved to call a meeting to decide upon the best means of
+getting rid of this continual annoyance. Many plans were discussed and
+rejected.
+
+At last a young Mouse got up and proposed that a Bell should be hung
+round the Cat's neck, that they might for the future always have notice
+of her coming and so be able to escape. This proposition was hailed with
+the greatest applause, and was agreed to at once unanimously. Upon this,
+an old Mouse, who had sat silent all the while, got up and said that he
+considered the contrivance most ingenious, and that it would, no doubt,
+be quite successful; but he had only one short question to put; namely,
+which of them it was who would Bell the Cat?
+
+_It is one thing to propose, another to execute._
+
+
+
+232
+
+
+THE MOUNTEBANK AND THE COUNTRYMAN
+
+A certain wealthy patrician, intending to treat the Roman people with
+some theatrical entertainment, publicly offered a reward to any one who
+would produce a novel spectacle. Incited by emulation, artists arrived
+from all parts to contest the prize, among whom a well-known witty
+Mountebank gave out that he had a new kind of entertainment that had
+never yet been produced on any stage. This report, being spread abroad,
+brought the whole city together. The theater could hardly contain the
+number of spectators. And when the artist appeared alone upon the stage,
+without any apparatus or any assistants, curiosity and suspense kept
+the spectators in profound silence. On a sudden he thrust down his head
+into his bosom, and mimicked the squeaking of a young pig so naturally
+that the audience insisted upon it that he had one under his cloak and
+ordered him to be searched, which, being done and nothing appearing,
+they loaded him with the most extravagant applause.
+
+A Countryman among the audience observed what passed. "Oh!" says he, "I
+can do better than this"; and immediately gave out that he would perform
+the next day. Accordingly on the morrow a yet greater crowd was
+collected. Prepossessed, however, in favor of the Mountebank, they came
+rather to laugh at the Countryman than to pass a fair judgment on him.
+They both came out upon the stage. The Mountebank grunts away at first,
+and calls forth the greatest clapping and applause. Then the Countryman,
+pretending that he concealed a little pig under his garments (and he
+had, in fact, really got one) pinched its ear till he made it squeak.
+The people cried out that the Mountebank had imitated the pig much more
+naturally, and hooted to the Countryman to quit the stage; but he, to
+convict them to their face, produced the real pig from his bosom. "And
+now, gentlemen, you may see," said he, "what a pretty sort of judges you
+are!"
+
+_It is easier to convict a man against his senses than against his
+will._
+
+
+
+233
+
+ Stories dealing with the disastrous effects of
+ "day-dreaming" are very common in the world's
+ literature. The three selections that follow
+ are given as very familiar samples for
+ comparison. The first is a simple version by
+ Jacobs.
+
+
+THE MILKMAID AND HER PAIL
+
+Patty, the Milkmaid, was going to market, carrying her milk in a Pail on
+her head. As she went along she began calculating what she could do with
+the money she would get for the milk. "I'll buy some fowls from Farmer
+Brown," said she, "and they will lay eggs each morning, which I will
+sell to the parson's wife. With the money that I get from the sale of
+these eggs I'll buy myself a new dimity frock and a chip hat; and when I
+go to market, won't all the young men come up and speak to me! Polly
+Shaw will be that jealous; but I don't care. I shall just look at her
+and toss my head like this." As she spoke, she tossed her head back, the
+Pail fell off it and all the milk was spilt. So she had to go home and
+tell her mother what had occurred.
+
+"Ah, my child," said her mother,
+
+"_Do not count your chickens before they are hatched._"
+
+
+
+234
+
+ The next is Wright's translation of La
+ Fontaine's famous fable on the day-dreaming
+ theme. Notice how much more complicated its
+ application becomes in contrast with the
+ obvious truth of the proverb in the preceding
+ version. La Fontaine is responsible for the
+ story's popularity in modern times. The most
+ fascinating study on the way fables have come
+ down to us is Max Mueller's "On the Migration of
+ Fables," in which he follows this story from
+ India through all its many changes until it
+ reaches us in La Fontaine.
+
+
+THE DAIRYWOMAN AND THE POT OF MILK
+
+LA FONTAINE
+
+ A pot of milk upon her cushioned crown,
+ Good Peggy hastened to the market town,
+ Short clad and light, with speed she went,
+ Not fearing any accident;
+ Indeed, to be the nimble tripper,
+ Her dress that day,
+ The truth to say,
+ Was simple petticoat and slipper.
+ And thus bedight,
+ Good Peggy, light,--
+ Her gains already counted,--
+ Laid out the cash
+ At single dash,
+ Which to a hundred eggs amounted.
+ Three nests she made,
+ Which, by the aid
+ Of diligence and care, were hatched.
+ "To raise the chicks,
+ I'll easy fix,"
+ Said she, "beside our cottage thatched.
+ The fox must get
+ More cunning yet,
+ Or leave enough to buy a pig.
+ With little care
+ And any fare,
+ He'll grow quite fat and big;
+ And then the price
+ Will be so nice,
+ For which the pork will sell!
+ Twill go quite hard
+ But in our yard
+ I'll bring a cow and calf to dwell--
+ A calf to frisk among the flock!"
+ The thought made Peggy do the same;
+ And down at once the milk-pot came,
+ And perished with the shock.
+ Calf, cow, and pig, and chicks, adieu!
+ Your mistress' face is sad to view;
+ She gives a tear to fortune spilt;
+ Then with the downcast look of guilt
+ Home to her husband empty goes,
+ Somewhat in danger of his blows.
+ Who buildeth not, sometimes, in air
+ His cots, or seats, or castles fair?
+ From kings to dairywomen,--all,--
+ The wise, the foolish, great and small,--
+ Each thinks his waking dream the best.
+ Some flattering error fills the breast:
+ The world with all its wealth is ours,
+ Its honors, dames, and loveliest bowers.
+ Instinct with valor, when alone,
+ I hurl the monarch from his throne;
+ The people, glad to see him dead,
+ Elect me monarch in his stead,
+ And diadems rain on my head.
+ Some accident then calls me back,
+ And I'm no more than simple Jack.
+
+
+
+235
+
+ The day-dreaming idea is next presented in the
+ form found in the story of the barber's fifth
+ brother in the _Arabian Nights_. Would this
+ story be any more effective if it had a
+ paragraph at the end stating and emphasizing
+ the moral?
+
+
+THE STORY OF ALNASCHAR
+
+Alnaschar, my fifth brother, was very lazy, and of course wretchedly
+poor. On the death of our father we divided his property, and each of us
+received a hundred drachms of silver for his share. Alnaschar, who hated
+labor, laid out his money in fine glasses, and having displayed his
+stock to the best advantage in a large basket, he took his stand in the
+market-place, with his back against the wall, waiting for customers. In
+this posture he indulged in a reverie, talking aloud to himself as
+follows:
+
+"This glass cost me a hundred drachms of silver, which is all I have in
+the world. I shall make two hundred by retailing it, and of these very
+shortly four hundred. It will not be long before these produce four
+thousand. Money, they say, begets money. I shall soon therefore be
+possessed of eight thousand, and when these become ten thousand I will
+no longer be a glass-seller. I will trade in pearls and diamonds; and
+as I shall become rich apace, I will have a splendid palace, a great
+estate, slaves, and horses; I will not, however, leave traffic till I
+have acquired a hundred thousand drachms. Then I shall be as great as a
+prince, and will assume manners accordingly.
+
+"I will demand the daughter of the grand vizier in marriage, who, no
+doubt, will be glad of an alliance with a man of my consequence. The
+marriage ceremony shall be performed with the utmost splendor and
+magnificence. I will have my horse clothed with the richest housings,
+ornamented with diamonds and pearls, and will be attended by a number of
+slaves, all richly dressed, when I go to the vizier's palace to conduct
+my wife thence to my own. The vizier shall receive me with great pomp,
+and shall give me the right hand and place me above himself, to do me
+the more honor. On my return I will appoint two of my handsomest slaves
+to throw money among the populace, that every one may speak well of my
+generosity.
+
+"When we arrive at my own palace, I will take great state upon me, and
+hardly speak to my wife. She shall dress herself in all her ornaments,
+and stand before me as beautiful as the full moon, but I will not look
+at her. Her slaves shall draw near and entreat me to cast my eyes upon
+her; which, after much supplication, I will deign to do, though with
+great indifference. I will not suffer her to come out of her apartment
+without my leave; and when I have a mind to visit her there, it shall be
+in a manner that will make her respect me. Thus will I begin early to
+teach her what she is to expect the rest of her life.
+
+"When her mother comes to visit her she will intercede with me for her.
+'Sir,' she will say (for she will not dare to call me son, for fear of
+offending me by so much familiarity), 'do not, I beseech, treat my
+daughter with scorn; she is as beautiful as an Houri, and entirely
+devoted to you.' But my mother-in-law may as well hold her peace, for I
+will take no notice of what she says. She will then pour out some wine
+into a goblet, and give it to my wife, saying, 'Present it to your lord
+and husband; he will not surely be so cruel as to refuse it from so fair
+a hand.' My wife will then come with the glass, and stand trembling
+before me; and when she finds that I do not look on her, but continue to
+disdain her, she will kneel and entreat me to accept it; but I will
+continue inflexible. At last, redoubling her tears, she will rise and
+put the goblet to my lips, when, tired with her importunities, I will
+dart a terrible look at her and give her such a push with my foot as
+will spurn her from me." Alnaschar was so interested in this imaginary
+grandeur that he thrust forth his foot to kick the lady, and by that
+means overturned his glasses and broke them into a thousand pieces.
+
+
+
+236
+
+ "The Camel and the Pig" is from P. V. Ramaswami
+ Raju's _Indian Folk Stories and Fables_, an
+ excellent book of adaptations for young
+ readers. The idea that every situation in life
+ has its advantages as well as its disadvantages
+ is one of those common but often overlooked
+ truths which serve so well as the themes of
+ fable. Emerson's "Fable," the story of the
+ quarrel between the mountain and the squirrel,
+ is a most excellent presentation of the same
+ idea (see No. 363). "The Little Elf," by John
+ Kendrick Bangs, makes the same point for
+ smaller folks.
+
+
+THE CAMEL AND THE PIG
+
+ADAPTED BY P. V. RAMASWAMI RAJU
+
+A camel said, "Nothing like being tall! See how tall I am!"
+
+A Pig who heard these words said, "Nothing like being short; see how
+short I am!"
+
+The Camel said, "Well, if I fail to prove the truth of what I said, I
+will give up my hump."
+
+The Pig said, "If I fail to prove the truth of what I have said, I will
+give up my snout."
+
+"Agreed!" said the Camel.
+
+"Just so!" said the Pig.
+
+They came to a garden inclosed by a low wall without any opening. The
+Camel stood on this side the wall, and, reaching the plants within by
+means of his long neck, made a breakfast on them. Then he turned
+jeeringly to the Pig, who had been standing at the bottom of the wall,
+without even having a look at the good things in the garden, and said,
+"Now, would you be tall or short?"
+
+Next they came to a garden inclosed by a high wall, with a wicket gate
+at one end. The Pig entered by the gate and, after having eaten his fill
+of the vegetables within, came out, laughing at the poor Camel, who had
+to stay outside, because he was too tall to enter the garden by the
+gate, and said, "Now, would you be tall or short?"
+
+Then they thought the matter over, and came to the conclusion that the
+Camel should keep his hump and the Pig his snout, observing,--
+
+ "Tall is good, where tall would do;
+ Of short, again, 'tis also true!"
+
+
+
+237
+
+ Many scholars have believed that all fables
+ originated in India. The great Indian
+ collection of symbolic stories known as Jataka
+ Tales, or Buddhist Birth Stories, has been
+ called "the oldest, most complete, and most
+ important collection of folklore extant." They
+ are called Birth Stories because each one gives
+ an account of something that happened in
+ connection with the teaching of Buddha in some
+ previous "birth" or incarnation. There are
+ about 550 of these Jatakas, including some 2000
+ stories. They have now been made accessible in
+ a translation by a group of English scholars
+ and published in six volumes under the general
+ editorship of Professor Cowell. Many of them
+ have long been familiar in eastern collections
+ and have been adapted in recent times for use
+ in schools. Each Jataka is made up of three
+ parts. There is a "story of the present" giving
+ an account of an incident in Buddha's life
+ which calls to his mind a "story of the past"
+ in which he had played a part during a former
+ incarnation. Then, there is a conclusion
+ marking the results. Nos. 237 and 238 are
+ literal translations of Jatakas by T. W.
+ Rhys-Davids in his _Buddhist Birth Stories_. In
+ adapting for children, the stories of the
+ present may be omitted. In fact, everything
+ except the direct story should be eliminated.
+ The "gathas," or verses, were very important in
+ connection with the original purpose of
+ religious teaching, but are only incumbrances
+ in telling the story either for its own sake or
+ for its moral.
+
+THE ASS IN THE LION'S SKIN
+
+At the same time when Brahma-datta was reigning in Benares, the future
+Buddha was born one of a peasant family; and when he grew up he gained
+his living by tilling the ground.
+
+At that time a hawker used to go from place to place, trafficking in
+goods carried by an ass. Now at each place he came to, when he took the
+pack down from the ass's back, he used to clothe him in a lion's skin
+and turn him loose in the rice and barley fields. And when the watchmen
+in the fields saw the ass they dared not go near him, taking him for a
+lion.
+
+So one day the hawker stopped in a village; and while he was getting his
+own breakfast cooked, he dressed the ass in a lion's skin and turned him
+loose in a barley field. The watchmen in the field dared not go up to
+him; but going home, they published the news. Then all the villagers
+came out with weapons in their hands; and blowing chanks, and beating
+drums, they went near the field and shouted. Terrified with the fear of
+death, the ass uttered a cry--the bray of an ass!
+
+And when he knew him then to be an ass, the future Buddha pronounced the
+first verse:
+
+ "This is not a lion's roaring,
+ Nor a tiger's nor a panther's;
+ Dressed in a lion's skin,
+ 'Tis a wretched ass that roars!"
+
+But when the villagers knew the creature to be an ass, they beat him
+till his bones broke; and, carrying off the lion's skin, went away. Then
+the hawker came; and seeing the ass fallen into so bad a plight,
+pronounced the second verse:
+
+ "Long might the ass,
+ Clad in a lion's skin,
+ Have fed on the barley green;
+ But he brayed
+ And that moment he came to ruin."
+
+And even while he was yet speaking the ass died on the spot.
+
+
+
+238
+
+
+THE TALKATIVE TORTOISE
+
+The future Buddha was once born in a minister's family, when
+Brahma-datta was reigning in Benares; and when he grew up he became the
+king's adviser in things temporal and spiritual.
+
+Now this king was very talkative; while he was speaking others had no
+opportunity for a word. And the future Buddha, wanting to cure this
+talkativeness of his, was constantly seeking for some means of doing so.
+
+At that time there was living, in a pond in the Himalaya mountains, a
+tortoise. Two young hamsas, or wild ducks, who came to feed there, made
+friends with him, and one day, when they had become very intimate with
+him, they said to the tortoise:
+
+"Friend tortoise! the place where we live, at the Golden Cave on Mount
+Beautiful in the Himalaya country, is a delightful spot. Will you come
+there with us?"
+
+"But how can I get there?"
+
+"We can take you if you can only hold your tongue, and will say nothing
+to anybody."
+
+"Oh! that I can do. Take me with you."
+
+"That's right," said they. And making the tortoise bite hold of a stick,
+they themselves took the two ends in their teeth, and flew up into the
+air.
+
+Seeing him thus carried by the hamsas, some villagers called out, "Two
+wild ducks are carrying a tortoise along on a stick!" Whereupon the
+tortoise wanted to say, "If my friends choose to carry me, what is that
+to you, you wretched slaves!" So just as the swift flight of the wild
+ducks had brought him over the king's palace in the city of Benares, he
+let go of the stick he was biting, and falling in the open courtyard,
+split in two! And there arose a universal cry, "A tortoise has fallen in
+the open courtyard, and has split in two!"
+
+The king, taking the future Buddha, went to the place, surrounded by his
+courtiers; and looking at the tortoise, he asked the Bodisat, "Teacher!
+how comes he to be fallen here?"
+
+The future Buddha thought to himself, "Long expecting, wishing to
+admonish the king, have I sought for some means of doing so. This
+tortoise must have made friends with the wild ducks; and they must have
+made him bite hold of the stick, and have flown up into the air to take
+him to the hills. But he, being unable to hold his tongue when he hears
+any one else talk, must have wanted to say something, and let go the
+stick; and so must have fallen down from the sky, and thus lost his
+life." And saying, "Truly, O king! those who are called
+chatter-boxes--people whose words have no end--come to grief like this,"
+he uttered these verses:
+
+ "Verily the tortoise killed himself
+ While uttering his voice;
+ Though he was holding tight the stick,
+ By a word himself he slew.
+
+ "Behold him then, O excellent by strength!
+ And speak wise words, not out of season.
+ You see how, by his talking overmuch,
+ The tortoise fell into this wretched plight!"
+
+The king saw that he was himself referred to, and said, "O Teacher! are
+you speaking of us?"
+
+And the Bodisat spake openly, and said, "O great king! be it thou, or be
+it any other, whoever talks beyond measure meets with some mishap like
+this."
+
+And the king henceforth refrained himself, and became a man of few
+words.
+
+
+
+239
+
+ The following is, also, an oriental story. It
+ is taken from the _Hitopadesa_ (Book of Good
+ Counsel), a collection of Sanskrit fables. This
+ collection was compiled from older sources,
+ probably in the main from the _Panchatantra_
+ (Five Books), which belonged to about the fifth
+ century. Observe the emphasis placed upon the
+ teaching of the fable by putting the statement
+ of it at the beginning and recurring to it at
+ the close.
+
+
+A LION TRICKED BY A RABBIT
+
+_He who hath sense hath strength. Where hath he strength who wanteth
+judgment? See how a lion, when intoxicated with anger, was overcome by a
+rabbit._
+
+Upon the mountain Mandara there lived a lion, whose name was Durganta
+(hard to go near), who was very exact in complying with the ordinance
+for animal sacrifices. So at length all the different species assembled,
+and in a body represented that, as by his present mode of proceeding the
+forest would be cleared all at once, if it pleased his Highness, they
+would each of them in his turn provide him an animal for his daily food.
+And the lion gave his consent accordingly. Thus every beast delivered
+his stipulated provision, till at length, it coming to the rabbit's
+turn, he began to meditate in this manner: "Policy should be practiced
+by him who would save his life; and I myself shall lose mine if I do not
+take care. Suppose I lead him after another lion? Who knows how that may
+turn out for me? I will approach him slowly, as if fatigued."
+
+The lion by this time began to be very hungry; so, seeing the rabbit
+coming toward him, he called out in a great passion, "What is the reason
+thou comest so late?"
+
+"Please your Highness," said the rabbit, "as I was coming along I was
+forcibly detained by another of your species; but having given him my
+word that I would return immediately, I came here to represent it to
+your Highness."
+
+"Go quickly," said the lion in a rage, "and show me where this vile
+wretch may be found!"
+
+Accordingly, the rabbit conducted the lion to the brink of a deep well,
+where being arrived, "There," said the rabbit, "look down and behold
+him." At the same time he pointed to the reflected image of the lion in
+the water, who, swelling with pride and resentment, leaped into the
+well, as he thought, upon his adversary; and thus put an end to his
+life.
+
+I repeat, therefore:
+
+_He who hath sense hath strength. Where hath he strength who wanteth
+judgment?_
+
+
+
+240
+
+ Marie de France lived probably in the latter
+ part of the twelfth century and was one of the
+ most striking figures in Middle English
+ literature. She seems to have been born in
+ France, lived much in England, translated from
+ the Anglo-Norman dialect into French, and is
+ spoken of as the first French poet. One of her
+ three works, and the most extensive, is a
+ collection of 103 fables, which she says she
+ translated from the English of King Alfred. Her
+ original, whatever it may have been, is lost.
+ One of her fables, in a translation by
+ Professor W. W. Skeat, is given below. It
+ contains the germ of Chaucer's "Nun's Priest's
+ Tale," in _The Canterbury Tales_.
+
+
+THE COCK AND THE FOX
+
+MARIE DE FRANCE
+
+ A Cock our story tells of, who
+ High on a trash hill stood and crew.
+ A Fox, attracted, straight drew nigh,
+ And spake soft words of flattery.
+ "Dear Sir!" said he, "your look's divine;
+ I never saw a bird so fine!
+ I never heard a voice so clear
+ Except your father's--ah! poor dear!
+ His voice rang clearly, loudly--but
+ Most clearly when his eyes were shut!"
+ "The same with me!" the Cock replies,
+ And flaps his wings, and shuts his eyes.
+ Each note rings clearer than the last--
+ The Fox starts up and holds him fast;
+ Toward the wood he hies apace.
+ But as he crossed an open space,
+ The shepherds spy him; off they fly;
+ The dogs give chase with hue and cry.
+ The Fox still holds the Cock, though fear
+ Suggests his case is growing queer.
+ "Tush!" cries the Cock, "cry out, to grieve 'em,
+ 'The cock is mine! I'll never leave him!'"
+ The Fox attempts, in scorn, to shout,
+ And opes his mouth; the Cock slips out,
+ And in a trice has gained a tree.
+ Too late the Fox begins to see
+ How well the Cock his game has played;
+ For once his tricks have been repaid.
+ In angry language, uncontrolled,
+ He 'gins to curse the mouth that's bold
+ To speak, when it should silent be.
+ "Well," says the Cock, "the same with me;
+ I curse the eyes that go to sleep
+ Just when they ought sharp watch to keep
+ Lest evil to their lord befall."
+ Thus fools contrariously do all;
+ They chatter when they should be dumb,
+ And, when they _ought_ to speak, are mum.
+
+
+
+241
+
+ The following is Wright's translation of the
+ first fable in La Fontaine's collection.
+ Rousseau, objecting to fables in general,
+ singled out this particular one as an example
+ of their bad effects on children, and echoes of
+ his voice are still in evidence. It would, he
+ said, give children a lesson in inhumanity.
+ "You believe you are making an example of the
+ grasshopper, but they will choose the ant . . .
+ they will take the more pleasant part, which is
+ a very natural thing." Another observer said:
+ "As for me, I love neither grasshopper nor ant,
+ neither avarice nor prodigality, neither the
+ miserly people who lend nor the spendthrifts
+ who borrow." These statements represent
+ complex, analytic points of view which are
+ probably outside the range of most children.
+ They will see the grasshopper simply as a type
+ of thorough shiftlessness and the ant as a type
+ of forethought, although La Fontaine does
+ suggest that the ant might on general
+ principles be a little less "tight-fisted." The
+ lesson that idleness is the mother of want, the
+ necessity of looking ahead, of providing for
+ the future, of laying up for a rainy day--these
+ are certainly common-sense conclusions and the
+ only ones the story itself will suggest to the
+ child.
+
+
+THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE ANT
+
+LA FONTAINE
+
+ A grasshopper gay
+ Sang the summer away,
+ And found herself poor
+ By the winter's first roar.
+ Of meat or of bread,
+ Not a morsel she had!
+ So a begging she went,
+ To her neighbor the ant,
+ For the loan of some wheat,
+ Which would serve her to eat,
+ Till the season came round.
+ "I will pay you," she saith,
+ "On an animal's faith,
+ Double weight in the pound
+ Ere the harvest be bound."
+ The ant is a friend
+ (And here she might mend)
+ Little given to lend.
+ "How spent you the summer?"
+ Quoth she, looking shame
+ At the borrowing dame.
+ "Night and day to each comer
+ I sang, if you please."
+ "You sang! I'm at ease;
+ For 'tis plain at a glance,
+ Now, ma'am, you must dance."
+
+
+
+242
+
+ The translation of the following fable is that
+ of W. Lucas Collins, in his _La Fontaine and
+ Other French Fabulists_. This fable has always
+ been a great favorite among the French, and the
+ translator has caught much of the sprightly
+ tone of his original.
+
+
+THE COCK, THE CAT, AND THE YOUNG MOUSE
+
+LA FONTAINE
+
+ A pert young Mouse, to whom the world was new,
+ Had once a near escape, if all be true.
+ He told his mother, as I now tell you:
+ "I crossed the mountains that beyond us rise,
+ And, journeying onwards, bore me
+ As one who had a great career before me,
+ When lo! two creatures met my wondering eyes,--
+ The one of gracious mien, benign and mild;
+ The other fierce and wild,
+ With high-pitched voice that filled me with alarm;
+ A lump of sanguine flesh grew on his head,
+ And with a kind of arm
+ He raised himself in air,
+ As if to hover there;
+ His tail was like a horseman's plume outspread."
+ (It was a farmyard Cock, you understand,
+ That our young friend described in terms so grand,
+ As 'twere some marvel come from foreign land.)
+ "With arms raised high
+ He beat his sides, and made such hideous cry,
+ That even I,
+ Brave as I am, thank heaven! had well-nigh fainted:
+ Straightway I took to flight,
+ And cursed him left and right.
+ Ah! but for him, I might have got acquainted
+ With that sweet creature,
+ Who bore attractiveness in every feature:
+ A velvet skin he had, like yours and mine,
+ A tail so long and fine,
+ A sweet, meek countenance, a modest air--
+ Yet, what an eye was there!
+ I feel that, on the whole,
+ He must have strong affinities of soul
+ With our great race--our ears are shaped the same.
+ I should have made my bow, and asked his name,
+ But at the fearful cry
+ Raised by that monster, I was forced to fly."
+ "My child," replied his mother, "you have seen
+ That demure hypocrite we call a Cat:
+ Under that sleek and inoffensive mien
+ He bears a deadly hate of Mouse and Rat.
+ The other, whom you feared, is harmless--quite;
+ Nay, perhaps may serve us for a meal some night.
+ As for your friend, for all his innocent air,
+ We form the staple of his bill of fare."
+
+ _Take, while you live, this warning as your guide--_
+ _Don't judge by the outside._
+
+
+
+243
+
+ John Gay (1685-1732) was an English poet and
+ dramatist. His work as a whole has been pretty
+ well forgotten, but he has been recently
+ brought back to the mind of the public by the
+ revival of his satirical _Beggar's Opera_, the
+ ancestor of the modern comic opera. Gay
+ published a collection of fables in verse in
+ 1727, "prepared for the edification of the
+ young Duke of Cumberland." A second group,
+ making sixty-six in all, was published after
+ his death. Since these fables are probably the
+ best of their kind in English, a few of them
+ are frequently met with in collections. "The
+ Hare with Many Friends" has been the favorite,
+ and rightly so, as it has something of the
+ humor and point that belong to the real fable.
+ Perhaps the fact that it has a personal
+ application enabled Gay to write with more
+ vigor and sincerity than elsewhere.
+
+
+THE HARE WITH MANY FRIENDS
+
+JOHN GAY
+
+ Friendship, like love, is but a name,
+ Unless to one you stint the flame.
+ The child whom many fathers share,
+ Hath seldom known a father's care.
+ 'Tis thus in friendship; who depend
+ On many rarely find a friend.
+ A Hare, who, in a civil way,
+ Complied with everything, like Gay,
+ Was known by all the bestial train
+ Who haunt the wood, or graze the plain.
+ Her care was, never to offend,
+ And every creature was her friend.
+ As forth she went at early dawn,
+ To taste the dew-besprinkled lawn,
+ Behind she hears the hunter's cries,
+ And from the deep-mouthed thunder flies.
+ She starts, she stops, she pants for breath;
+ She hears the near advance of death;
+ She doubles, to mislead the hound,
+ And measures back her mazy round:
+ Till, fainting in the public way,
+ Half dead with fear she gasping lay.
+ What transport in her bosom grew,
+ When first the Horse appeared in view!
+ "Let me," says she, "your back ascend,
+ And owe my safety to a friend.
+ You know my feet betray my flight;
+ To friendship every burden's light."
+ The Horse replied: "Poor honest Puss,
+ It grieves my heart to see thee thus;
+ Be comforted; relief is near,
+ For all your friends are in the rear."
+ She next the stately Bull implored;
+ And thus replied the mighty lord,
+ "Since every beast alive can tell
+ That I sincerely wish you well,
+ I may, without offence, pretend,
+ To take the freedom of a friend;
+ Love calls me hence; a favorite cow
+ Expects me near yon barley-mow;
+ And when a lady's in the case,
+ You know, all other things give place.
+ To leave you thus might seem unkind;
+ But see, the Goat is just behind."
+ The Goat remarked her pulse was high,
+ Her languid head, her heavy eye;
+ "My back," says he, "may do you harm;
+ The Sheep's at hand, and wool is warm."
+ The Sheep was feeble, and complained
+ His sides a load of wool sustained:
+ Said he was slow, confessed his fears,
+ For hounds eat sheep as well as hares.
+ She now the trotting Calf addressed,
+ To save from death a friend distressed.
+ "Shall I," says he, "of tender age,
+ In this important care, engage?
+ Older and abler passed you by;
+ How strong are those, how weak am I!
+ Should I presume to bear you hence,
+ Those friends of mine may take offence.
+ Excuse me, then. You know my heart.
+ But dearest friends, alas, must part!
+ How shall we all lament! Adieu!
+ For see, the hounds are just in view."
+
+
+
+244
+
+ Tomas de Yriarte (1750-1791) was a Spanish poet
+ of some note, remembered now mainly as the
+ author of _Literary Fables_, the first attempt
+ at literary fable-writing in Spanish. As the
+ name is meant to imply, they concern themselves
+ with the follies and weaknesses of authors.
+ There are about eighty fables in the complete
+ collection, and they are full of ingenuity and
+ cleverness. One of the simplest and best of
+ these is given here in the translation by R.
+ Rockliffe, which first appeared in _Blackwood's
+ Magazine_ in 1839. It laughs at the lucky
+ chance by which even stupidity sometimes "makes
+ a hit" and then stupidly proceeds to pat itself
+ on the back.
+
+
+THE MUSICAL ASS
+
+TOMAS YRIARTE
+
+ The fable which I now present
+ Occurred to me by accident;
+ And whether bad or excellent,
+ Is merely so by accident.
+ A stupid ass one morning went
+ Into a field by accident
+ And cropp'd his food and was content,
+ Until he spied by accident
+ A flute, which some oblivious gent
+ Had left behind by accident;
+ When, sniffing it with eager scent,
+ He breathed on it by accident,
+ And made the hollow instrument
+ Emit a sound by accident.
+ "Hurrah! hurrah!" exclaimed the brute,
+ "How cleverly I play the flute!"
+
+ _A fool, in spite of nature's bent._
+ _May shine for once--by accident._
+
+
+
+245
+
+ Ivan Andreevitch Krylov (1768-1844) was a
+ Russian author whose fame rests almost entirely
+ upon his popular verse fables (200 in number)
+ which have been used extensively as textbooks
+ in Russian schools. They have "joyousness,
+ simplicity, wit, and good humor." The following
+ specimen is from I. H. Harrison's translation
+ of Krylov's _Original Fables_. It gives a good
+ illustration of the necessity of "teamwork."
+
+
+THE SWAN, THE PIKE, AND THE CRAB
+
+IVAN KRYLOV
+
+ When partners with each other don't agree,
+ Each project must a failure be,
+ And out of it no profit come, but sheer vexation.
+
+ A Swan, a Pike, and Crab once took their station
+ In harness, and would drag a loaded cart;
+ But, when the moment came for them to start,
+
+ They sweat, they strain, and yet the cart stands still; what's lacking?
+ The load must, as it seemed, have been but light;
+ The Swan, though, to the clouds takes flight,
+ The Pike into the water pulls, the Crab keeps backing.
+
+ Now which of them was right, which wrong, concerns us not;
+ The cart is still upon the selfsame spot.
+
+
+
+246
+
+ This fable from the Old Testament is one of the
+ very oldest on record in which a story is
+ practically applied to a human problem. The
+ causes of political corruption apparently have
+ not changed much in three thousand years.
+ American citizens gather together at certain
+ times to choose mayors and other officers to
+ rule over them, and when they say to the
+ fruitful olive tree, or fig tree, or vine,
+ "Come thou and reign over us," he replies,
+ "Should I forsake my productive factory, or
+ mine, or profession, to be mayor?" But when
+ they say to the bramble, "Come thou and reign
+ over us," he replies, "Put your trust in me,
+ and let those suffer who object to my
+ management of public affairs." Jotham's lesson
+ of political duty is one greatly needed in the
+ present-day attempt to raise our standard of
+ citizenship.
+
+
+THE BRAMBLE IS MADE KING
+
+_Judges ix: 6-16_
+
+And all the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of
+Millo, and went, and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar
+that was in Shechem. And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood
+in the top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and
+said unto them:--
+
+"Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you. The
+trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said
+unto the olive tree, 'Reign thou over us.' But the olive tree said unto
+them, 'Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honor God and
+man, and go to be promoted over the trees?'
+
+"And the trees said to the fig tree, 'Come thou and reign over us.' But
+the fig tree said unto them, 'Should I forsake my sweetness and my good
+fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?'
+
+"Then said the trees unto the vine, 'Come thou and reign over us.' And
+the vine said unto them, 'Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and
+man, and go to be promoted over the trees?'
+
+"Then said all the trees unto the bramble, 'Come thou and reign over
+us.' And the bramble said unto the trees, 'If in truth ye anoint me
+king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not,
+let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.'"
+
+
+
+247
+
+ The concrete illustrations by means of which
+ Jesus constantly taught are called parables.
+ "Without a parable spake he not unto them." The
+ parable differs from the fable proper in
+ dealing with more fundamental or ideal truth.
+ The fable moves on the plane of the prudential
+ virtues, the parable on the plane of the higher
+ self-forgetting virtues. Because of that
+ difference there is in the parable "no jesting
+ nor raillery at the weakness, the follies, or
+ the crimes of men." All is deeply earnest,
+ befitting its high spiritual point of view. As
+ a rule the parables use for illustration
+ stories of what might actually happen. Two of
+ the most familiar of the parables follow. What
+ true neighborliness means is the message of
+ "The Good Samaritan."
+
+
+THE GOOD SAMARITAN
+
+_Luke x:25-37_
+
+And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, "Master,
+what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said unto him, "What is
+written in the law? how readest thou?" And he answering said, "Thou
+shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
+and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as
+thyself." And He said unto him, "Thou hast answered right; this do, and
+thou shalt live." But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus,
+"And who is my neighbor?"
+
+And Jesus answering said, "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to
+Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and
+wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there
+came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed by
+on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came
+and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain
+Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and when he saw him, he
+had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring
+in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an
+inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed, he took
+out two pence and gave them to the host and said unto him, 'Take care of
+him: and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay
+thee.'
+
+"Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that
+fell among the thieves?"
+
+And he said, "He that showed mercy on him."
+
+Then said Jesus unto him, "Go and do thou likewise."
+
+
+
+248
+
+
+THE PRODIGAL SON
+
+_Luke xv:10-32_
+
+"Likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of
+God over one sinner that repenteth."
+
+And he said, "A certain man had two sons; and the younger of them said
+to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to
+me.' And he divided unto them his living.
+
+"And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, and
+took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with
+riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine
+in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined
+himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to
+feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that
+the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him.
+
+"And when he came to himself, he said, 'How many hired servants of my
+father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I
+will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, "Father, I have
+sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be
+called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants."'
+
+"And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way
+off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his
+neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, 'Father, I have sinned
+against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy
+son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring forth the best robe
+and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet;
+and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it; and let us eat and be
+merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is
+found.' And they began to be merry.
+
+"Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew nigh to the
+house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and
+asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, 'Thy brother is
+come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath
+received him safe and sound.' And he was angry and would not go in;
+therefore came his father out and entreated him. And he answering, said
+to his father, 'Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither
+transgressed I at any time thy commandment; and yet thou never gavest me
+a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy
+son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast
+killed for him the fatted calf.' And he said unto him, 'Son, thou art
+ever with me; and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should
+make merry, and be glad; for this thy brother was dead, and is alive
+again; and was lost, and is found.'"
+
+
+
+249
+
+ This little apologue is taken from _Norwood_
+ (1867), a novel written by Henry Ward Beecher
+ for the New York _Ledger_ in the days when that
+ periodical, under the direction of Robert
+ Bonner, was the great family weekly of America.
+ In the course of the fiction Mr. Beecher
+ emphasizes the value of stories for children.
+ "Story-hunger in children," he says, "is even
+ more urgent than bread-hunger." And after the
+ story has been told: "How charming it is to
+ narrate fables for children. . . . Children are
+ unconscious philosophers. They refuse to pull
+ to pieces their enjoyments to see what they are
+ made of. Rose knew as well as her father that
+ leaves never talked. Yet, Rose never saw a leaf
+ without feeling that there was life and meaning
+ in it."
+
+
+THE ANXIOUS LEAF
+
+HENRY WARD BEECHER
+
+Once upon a time a little leaf was heard to sigh and cry, as leaves
+often do when a gentle wind is about.
+
+And the twig said, "What is the matter, little leaf?"
+
+And the leaf said, "The wind just told me that one day it would pull me
+off and throw me down to die on the ground!"
+
+The twig told it to the branch on which it grew, and the branch told it
+to the tree. And when the tree heard it, it rustled all over, and sent
+back word to the leaf, "Do not be afraid; hold on tightly, and you shall
+not go till you want to." And so the leaf stopped sighing, but went on
+nestling and singing.
+
+Every time the tree shook itself and stirred up all its leaves, the
+branches shook themselves, and the little twig shook itself, and the
+little leaf danced up and down merrily, as if nothing could ever pull it
+off.
+
+And so it grew all summer long till October. And when the bright days of
+autumn came, the little leaf saw all the leaves around becoming very
+beautiful. Some were yellow, and some scarlet, and some striped with
+both colors.
+
+Then it asked the tree what it meant. And the tree said, "All these
+leaves are getting ready to fly away, and they have put on these
+beautiful colors, because of joy."
+
+Then the little leaf began to want to go, and grew very beautiful in
+thinking of it, and when it was very gay in color, it saw that the
+branches of the tree had no color in them, and so the leaf said, "Oh,
+branches! why are you lead color and we golden?"
+
+"We must keep on our work clothes, for our life is not done; but your
+clothes are for holiday, because your tasks are over."
+
+Just then, a little puff of wind came, and the leaf let go without
+thinking of it, and the wind took it up, and turned it over and over,
+and whirled it like a spark of fire in the air and then it fell gently
+down under the edge of the fence among hundreds of leaves, and fell into
+a dream and never waked up to tell what it dreamed about!
+
+
+
+250
+
+ Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), more than any
+ other American, has emphasized for us the value
+ of proverbial sayings and the significance of
+ the symbolic story. This account of how one may
+ pay too much for a whistle was written in 1779
+ while Franklin was representing the colonies at
+ Paris, and addressed to his friend Madame
+ Brillon. The making of apologues seemed to be a
+ favorite sort of game in the circle in which
+ Franklin moved, and his plain common sense is
+ always uppermost in whatever he produces. The
+ lesson of the whistle is always needed; we are
+ prone to put aside the essential thing for the
+ temporary and showy. More than a century ago
+ Noah Webster put this story in his
+ school-reader, and most school-readers since
+ have contained it. The selection is here
+ reprinted complete. Teachers usually omit some
+ of the opening and closing paragraphs.
+
+
+THE WHISTLE
+
+BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
+
+I am charmed with your description of Paradise, and with your plan of
+living there; and I approve much of your conclusion, that, in the mean
+time, we should draw all the good we can from this world. In my opinion,
+we might all draw more good than we do, and suffer less evil, if we
+would take care not to give too much for _whistles_. For to me it seems
+that most of the unhappy people we meet with are become so by neglect of
+that caution.
+
+You ask what I mean? You love stories, and will excuse my telling one of
+myself.
+
+When I was a child of seven years old, my friends, on a holiday, filled
+my pockets with coppers. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys
+for children; and being charmed with the sound of a _whistle_, that I
+met by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered and
+gave all my money for one. I then came home, and went whistling all over
+the house, much pleased with my _whistle_, but disturbing all the
+family. My brothers, and sisters, and cousins, understanding the bargain
+I had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was
+worth; put me in mind what good things I might have bought with the rest
+of the money; and laughed at me so much for my folly, that I cried with
+vexation; and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the _whistle_
+gave me pleasure.
+
+This, however, was afterward of use to me, the impression continuing on
+my mind; so that often, when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary
+thing, I said to myself, _Don't give too much for the whistle_; and I
+saved my money.
+
+As I grew up I thought I met with many, very many, who _gave too much
+for the whistle_.
+
+When I saw one too ambitious of court favor, sacrificing his time, his
+repose, his liberty, his virtue, and perhaps his friends, to attain it,
+I have said to myself, _This man gives too much for his whistle._
+
+When I saw another fond of popularity, constantly employing himself in
+political bustles, neglecting his own affairs, and ruining them by that
+neglect, _He pays, indeed_, said I, _too much for his whistle._
+
+If I knew a miser, who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the
+pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow-citizens,
+and the joys of benevolent friendship, for the sake of accumulating
+wealth, _Poor man_, said I, _you pay too much for your whistle._
+
+When I met with a man of pleasure, sacrificing every laudable
+improvement of the mind, or of his fortune, to mere corporal sensations,
+and ruining his health in their pursuit, _Mistaken man_, said I, _you
+are providing pain for yourself, instead of pleasure; you give too much
+for your whistle._
+
+If I see one fond of appearance, or fine clothes, fine houses, fine
+furniture, fine equipages, all above his fortune, for which he contracts
+debts, and ends his career in a prison, _Alas!_ say I, _he has paid
+dear, very dear, for his whistle._
+
+When I see a beautiful, sweet-tempered girl married to an ill-natured
+brute of a husband, _What a pity_, say I, _that she should pay so much
+for a whistle!_
+
+In short, I conceive that great part of the miseries of mankind are
+brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of
+things, and by their _giving too much for their whistles_.
+
+Yet I ought to have charity for these unhappy people, when I consider
+that, with all this wisdom of which I am boasting, there are certain
+things in the world so tempting, for example, the apples of King John,
+which happily are not to be bought; for if they were put to sale by
+auction, I might very easily be led to ruin myself in the purchase, and
+find that I had once more given too much for the _whistle_.
+
+
+
+251
+
+ "The Ephemera" was also addressed to Madame
+ Brillon, the "amiable Brillante" of the final
+ sentence. It is an allegorical story
+ emphasizing the relative shortness of human
+ life. Franklin's "Alas! art is long and life is
+ short!" anticipates Longfellow's "Art is long
+ and time is fleeting." But hundreds of writers
+ had preceded both of them in calling attention
+ to this at the same time commonplace and
+ significant fact. At the end, Franklin's quiet
+ acceptance of the rather gloomy outlook
+ suggested by the ephemeral nature of life is
+ noteworthy, and is characteristic of his
+ general temper.
+
+
+THE EPHEMERA
+
+_An Emblem of Human Life_
+
+BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
+
+You may remember, my dear friend, that when we lately spent that happy
+day in the delightful garden and sweet society of the Moulin Joly, I
+stopped a little in one of our walks, and stayed some time behind the
+company. We had been shown numberless skeletons of a kind of little fly,
+called an ephemera, whose successive generations, we were told, were
+bred and expired within the day. I happened to see a living company of
+them on a leaf, who appeared to be engaged in conversation. You know I
+understand all the inferior animal tongues. My too great application to
+the study of them is the best excuse I can give for the little progress
+I have made in your charming language. I listened through curiosity to
+the discourse of these little creatures; but as they, in their national
+vivacity, spoke three or four together, I could make but little of their
+conversation. I found, however, by some broken expressions that I heard
+now and then, they were disputing warmly on the merit of two foreign
+musicians, one a _cousin_, the other a _moscheto_; in which dispute they
+spent their time, seemingly as regardless of the shortness of life as if
+they had been sure of living a month. Happy people! thought I; you live
+certainly under a wise, just, and mild government, since you have no
+public grievances to complain of, nor any subject of contention but the
+perfections and imperfections of foreign music. I turned my head from
+them to an old grey-headed one, who was single on another leaf, and
+talking to himself. Being amused with his soliloquy, I put it down in
+writing, in hopes it will likewise amuse her to whom I am so much
+indebted for the most pleasing of all amusements, her delicious company
+and heavenly harmony.
+
+"It was," said he, "the opinion of learned philosophers of our race, who
+lived and flourished long before my time, that this vast world, the
+Moulin Joly, could not itself subsist more than eighteen hours; and I
+think there was some foundation for that opinion, since, by the apparent
+motion of the great luminary that gives life to all nature, and which in
+my time has evidently declined considerably towards the ocean at the end
+of our earth, it must then finish its course, be extinguished in the
+waters that surround us, and leave the world in cold and darkness,
+necessarily producing universal death and destruction. I have lived
+seven of those hours, a great age, being no less than four hundred and
+twenty minutes of time. How very few of us continue so long! I have seen
+generations born, flourish, and expire. My present friends are the
+children and grandchildren of the friends of my youth, who are now,
+also, no more! And I must soon follow them; for, by the course of
+nature, though still in health, I cannot expect to live above seven or
+eight minutes longer. What now avails all my toil and labor in amassing
+honey-dew on this leaf, which I cannot live to enjoy! What the political
+struggles I have been engaged in, for the good of my compatriot
+inhabitants of this bush, or my philosophical studies for the benefit of
+our race in general! for, in politics, what can laws do without morals?
+Our present race of ephemerae will in a course of minutes become
+corrupt, like those of other and older bushes, and consequently as
+wretched. And in philosophy how small is our progress! Alas! art is
+long, and life is short! My friends would comfort me with the idea of a
+name, they say, I shall leave behind me; and they tell me I have lived
+long enough to nature and to glory. But what will fame be to an ephemera
+who no longer exists? And what will become of all history in the
+eighteenth hour, when the world itself, even the whole Moulin Joly,
+shall come to its end, and be buried in universal ruin?"
+
+To me, after all my eager pursuits, no solid pleasures now remain, but
+the reflection of a long life spent in meaning well, the sensible
+conversation of a few good lady ephemerae, and now and then a kind smile
+and a tune from the ever amiable _Brillante_.
+
+
+
+252
+
+ The brief allegory that follows is very
+ generally regarded as the finest and noblest
+ specimen of its type. It is here reprinted
+ approximately in the form of its first
+ appearance, now more than two hundred years
+ ago, as more in keeping with its spirit than a
+ modern dress would be. The world of recent
+ times is not so much given to this kind of
+ writing as the eighteenth century was. Like
+ Franklin's "Ephemera," Addison's vision grows
+ out of "profound contemplation on the vanity of
+ human life." The key to the symbolism is found
+ in the "threescore and ten arches" of the
+ bridge, representing the scriptural limit of
+ physical existence, with some broken arches for
+ any excess of that limit. The fact that "the
+ bridge consisted at first of a thousand arches"
+ is a reference to the great number of years
+ assigned to some of the patriarchs. The
+ splendid concluding vision in which Mirzah sees
+ the compensations for the ills of this life
+ suggests a very different type of mind from
+ that of the "this-worldly" closing paragraph in
+ Franklin's apologue. "The Vision of Mirzah" is
+ No. 159 of the _Spectator_ (September 1, 1711).
+
+
+THE VISION OF MIRZAH
+
+JOSEPH ADDISON
+
+When I was at Grand Cairo I picked up several oriental manuscripts,
+which I have still by me. Among others I met with one entitled The
+Visions of Mirzah, which I have read over with great pleasure. I intend
+to give it to the public when I have no other entertainment for them;
+and I shall begin with the first vision, which I have translated word
+for word as follows:
+
+On the fifth day of the moon, which according to the custom of my
+forefathers I always kept holy, after having washed myself, and offered
+up my morning devotions, I ascended the high hills of Bagdat, in order
+to pass the rest of the day in meditation and prayer. As I was here
+airing myself on the tops of the mountains, I fell into profound
+contemplation on the vanity of human life; and passing from one thought
+to another, surely, said I, man is but a shadow and life a dream. Whilst
+I was thus musing, I cast my eyes towards the summit of a rock that was
+not far from me, where I discovered one in the habit of a shepherd, with
+a musical instrument in his hand. As I looked upon him he applied it to
+his lips, and began to play upon it. The sound of it was exceeding
+sweet, and wrought into a variety of tunes that were inexpressibly
+melodious, and altogether different from anything I had ever heard. They
+put me in mind of those heavenly airs that are played to the departed
+souls of good men upon their first arrival in paradise to wear out the
+impressions of their last agonies, and qualify them for the pleasures of
+that happy place. My heart melted away in secret raptures.
+
+I had been often told that the rock before me was the haunt of a genius;
+and that several had been entertained with music who had passed by it,
+but never heard that the musician had before made himself visible. When
+he had raised my thoughts by those transporting airs which he played, to
+taste the pleasure of his conversation, as I looked upon him like one
+astonished, he beckoned to me, and by the waving of his hand directed me
+to approach the place where he sat. I drew near with that reverence
+which is due to a superior nature: and as my heart was entirely subdued
+by the captivating strains I had heard, I fell down at his feet and
+wept. The genius smiled upon me with a look of compassion and affability
+that familiarized him to my imagination, and at once dispelled all the
+fears and apprehensions with which I approached him. He lifted me from
+the ground, and taking me by the hand, Mirzah, said he, I have heard
+thee in thy soliloquies: follow me.
+
+He then led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock, and placed me on the
+top of it. Cast thy eyes eastward, said he, and tell me what thou seest.
+I see, said I, a huge valley and a prodigious tide of water rolling
+through it. The valley that thou seest, said he, is the vale of misery,
+and the tide of water that thou seest is part of the great tide of
+eternity. What is the reason, said I, that the tide I see rises out of a
+thick mist at one end, and again loses itself in a thick mist at the
+other? What thou seest, says he, is that portion of eternity which is
+called time, measured out by the sun, and reaching from the beginning of
+the world to its consummation. Examine now, said he, this sea that is
+thus bounded with darkness at both ends, and tell me what thou
+discoverest in it. I see a bridge, said I, standing in the midst of the
+tide. The bridge thou seest, said he, is human life; consider it
+attentively. Upon a more leisurely survey of it, I found that it
+consisted of threescore and ten entire arches, with several broken
+arches, which added to those that were entire, made up the number about
+an hundred. As I was counting the arches the genius told me that the
+bridge consisted at first of a thousand arches; but that a great flood
+swept away the rest, and left the bridge in the ruinous condition I now
+beheld it. But tell me further, said he, what thou discoverest on it. I
+see multitudes of people passing over it, said I, and a black cloud
+hanging on each end of it. As I looked more attentively, I saw several
+of the passengers dropping through the bridge, into the great tide that
+flowed underneath it; and upon further examination, perceived there were
+innumerable trap-doors that lay concealed in the bridge which the
+passengers no sooner trod upon, but they fell through them into the tide
+and immediately disappeared. These hidden pit-falls were set very thick
+at the entrance of the bridge, so that the throngs of people no sooner
+broke through the cloud, but many of them fell into them. They grew
+thinner towards the middle, but multiplied and lay closer together
+towards the end of the arches that were entire.
+
+There were indeed some persons, but their number was very small, that
+continued a kind of hobbling march on the broken arches, but fell
+through one after another, being quite tired and spent with so long a
+walk.
+
+I passed some time in the contemplation of this wonderful structure, and
+the great variety of objects which it presented. My heart was filled
+with a deep melancholy to see several dropping unexpectedly in the midst
+of mirth and jollity, and catching at everything that stood by them to
+save themselves. Some were looking up towards the heavens in a
+thoughtful posture, and in the midst of a speculation stumbled and fell
+out of sight. Multitudes were very busy in the pursuit of baubles that
+glittered in their eyes and danced before them, but often when they
+thought themselves within the reach of them, their footing failed and
+down they sank. In this confusion of objects, I observed some with
+scimetars in their hands, who ran to and fro upon the bridge, thrusting
+several persons upon trap-doors which did not seem to lie in their way,
+and which they might have escaped, had they not been thus forced upon
+them.
+
+The genius seeing me indulge myself in this melancholy prospect, told me
+I had dwelt long enough upon it: take thine eyes off the bridge, said
+he, and tell me if thou seest anything thou dost not comprehend. Upon
+looking up, what mean, said I, those great flights of birds that are
+perpetually hovering about the bridge, and settling upon it from time to
+time? I see vultures, harpies, ravens, cormorants, and among many other
+feathered creatures several little winged boys, that perch in great
+numbers upon the middle arches. These, said the genius, are envy,
+avarice, superstition, despair, love, with the like cares and passions
+that infect human life.
+
+I here fetched a deep sigh; alas, said I, man was made in vain! How is
+he given away to misery and mortality! tortured in life, and swallowed
+up in death! The genius, being moved with compassion towards me, bid me
+quit so uncomfortable a prospect. Look no more, said he, on a man in the
+first stage of his existence, in his setting out for eternity; but cast
+thine eye on that thick mist into which the tide bears the several
+generations of mortals that fall into it. I directed my sight as was
+ordered, and (whether or no the good genius strengthened it with any
+supernatural force, or dissipated part of the mist that was before too
+thick for the eye to penetrate) I saw the valley opening at the farther
+end, and spreading forth into an immense ocean that had a huge rock of
+adamant running through the midst of it, and dividing it into two equal
+parts. The clouds still rested on one-half of it, insomuch that I could
+discover nothing in it; but the other appeared to me a vast ocean
+planted with innumerable islands, that were covered with fruits and
+flowers, and interwoven with a thousand little shining seas that ran
+among them. I could see persons dressed in glorious habits with garlands
+upon their heads, passing among the trees, lying down by the sides of
+the fountains, or resting on beds of flowers; and could hear a confused
+harmony of singing birds, falling waters, human voices, and musical
+instruments. Gladness grew in me upon the discovery of so delightful a
+scene. I wished for the wings of an eagle, that I might fly away to
+those happy seats; but the genius told me there was no passage to them
+except through the gates of death that I saw opening every moment upon
+the bridge. The islands, said he, that lie so fresh and green before
+thee, and with which the whole face of the ocean appears spotted as far
+as thou canst see, are more in number than the sands of the sea-shore;
+there are myriads of islands behind those which thou here discoverest,
+reaching farther than thy eyes, or even than thine imagination, can
+extend itself. These are the mansions of good men after death, who,
+according to the degree and kinds of virtue in which they excelled, are
+distributed among these several islands, which abound with pleasures of
+different kinds and degrees, suitable to the relishes and perfections of
+those who are settled in them; every island is a paradise, accommodated
+to its respective inhabitants. Are not these, O Mirzah, habitations
+worth contending for? Does life appear miserable that gives the
+opportunities of earning such a reward? Is death to be feared that will
+convey thee to so happy an existence? Think not a man was made in vain
+who has such an eternity reserved for him. I gazed with inexpressible
+pleasure on these happy islands. At length, said I, Show me now, I
+beseech thee, the secrets that lie hid under those dark clouds which
+cover the ocean on the other side of the rock of adamant. The genius
+making me no answer, I turned about to address myself to him a second
+time, but I found that he had left me. I then turned again to the vision
+which I had been so long contemplating, but, instead of the rolling
+tide, the arched bridge, and the happy islands, I saw nothing but the
+long hollow valley of Bagdat, with oxen, sheep, and camels grazing upon
+the sides of it.
+
+
+
+253
+
+ "The Discontented Pendulum" was one of
+ seventy-nine brief prose selections by Jane
+ Taylor (1783-1824) which appeared first in a
+ paper for young people and were, after the
+ author's death, gathered together and published
+ as _Contributions of Q. Q._ (1826). This one
+ selection only from that volume still lives, is
+ reprinted often in school-readers, and by
+ virtue of its cleverness and point deserves its
+ happy fate. The author attached to it a "Moral"
+ almost as long as the story itself, and that
+ has long since fallen by the wayside. Perhaps
+ that is because the story is too clear to need
+ the "Moral." Here are a few sentences from it:
+ "The _present_ is all we have to manage: the
+ past is irrecoverable; the future is uncertain;
+ nor is it fair to burden one moment with the
+ weight of the next. Sufficient unto the
+ _moment_ is the trouble thereof. . . . One moment
+ comes laden with its own _little_ burden, then
+ flies, and is succeeded by another no heavier
+ than the last; if _one_ could be sustained, so
+ can another, and another. . . . Let any one
+ resolve to do right _now_, leaving _then_ to do
+ as it can, and if he were to live to the age of
+ Methuselah, he would never err. . . . Let us then,
+ 'whatever our hands find to do, do it with all
+ our might, recollecting that _now_ is the
+ proper and the accepted time.'"
+
+
+THE DISCONTENTED PENDULUM
+
+JANE TAYLOR
+
+An old clock that had stood for fifty years in a farmer's kitchen
+without giving its owner any cause of complaint, early one summer's
+morning, before the family was stirring, suddenly stopped.
+
+Upon this, the dial-plate (if we may credit the fable) changed
+countenance with alarm: the hands made an ineffectual effort to continue
+their course; the wheels remained motionless with surprise; the weights
+hung speechless; each member felt disposed to lay the blame on the
+others. At length the dial instituted a formal inquiry as to the cause
+of the stagnation; when hands, wheels, weights, with one voice,
+protested their innocence. But now a faint tick was heard below, from
+the pendulum, who thus spoke:
+
+"I confess myself to be the sole cause of the present stoppage; and am
+willing, for the general satisfaction, to assign my reasons. The truth
+is that I am tired of ticking." Upon hearing this, the old clock became
+so enraged that it was on the point of _striking_.
+
+"Lazy wire!" exclaimed the dial-plate, holding up its hands.
+
+"Very good!" replied the pendulum, "it is vastly easy for you, Mistress
+Dial, who have always, as everybody knows, set yourself up above me--it
+is vastly easy for you, I say, to accuse other people of laziness! You,
+who have had nothing to do all the days of your life but to stare people
+in the face, and to amuse yourself with watching all that goes on in the
+kitchen! Think, I beseech you, how you would like to be shut up for life
+in this dark closet, and wag backwards and forwards, year after year, as
+I do."
+
+"As to that," said the dial, "is there not a window in your house on
+purpose for you to look through?"
+
+"For all that," resumed the pendulum, "it is very dark here; and
+although there is a window, I dare not stop, even for an instant, to
+look out. Besides, I am really weary of my way of life; and if you
+please, I'll tell you how I took this disgust at my employment. This
+morning I happened to be calculating how many times I should have to
+tick in the course only of the next twenty-four hours: perhaps some of
+you, above there, can give me the exact sum."
+
+The minute hand, being _quick at figures_, instantly replied,
+"Eighty-six thousand four hundred times."
+
+"Exactly so," replied the pendulum: "well, I appeal to you all, if the
+thought of this was not enough to fatigue one? And when I began to
+multiply the stroke of one day by those of months and years, really it
+is no wonder if I felt discouraged at the prospect; so after a great
+deal of reasoning and hesitation, thinks I to myself--I'll stop."
+
+The dial could scarcely keep its countenance during this harangue; but,
+resuming its gravity, thus replied:
+
+"Dear Mr. Pendulum, I am really astonished that such a useful,
+industrious person as yourself should have been overcome by this sudden
+suggestion. It is true you have done a great deal of work in your time.
+So we have all, and are likely to do; and although this may fatigue us
+to _think_ of, the question is, whether it it will fatigue us to _do_:
+would you now do me the favor to give about half a dozen strokes to
+illustrate my argument?"
+
+The pendulum complied, and ticked six times at its usual pace. "Now,"
+resumed the dial, "may I be allowed to inquire if that exertion was at
+all fatiguing or disagreeable to you?"
+
+"Not in the least," replied the pendulum;--"It is not of six strokes
+that I complain, nor of sixty, but of _millions_."
+
+"Very good," replied the dial, "but recollect that although you may
+_think_ of a million strokes in an instant, you are required to
+_execute_ but one; and that however often you may hereafter have to
+swing, a moment will always be given you to swing in."
+
+"That consideration staggers me, I confess," said the pendulum.
+
+"Then I hope," resumed the dial-plate, "we shall all immediately return
+to our duty; for the maids will lie in bed till noon if we stand idling
+thus."
+
+Upon this, the weights, who had never been accused of _light_ conduct,
+used all their influence in urging him to proceed; when, as with one
+consent, the wheels began to turn, the hands began to move, the pendulum
+began to wag, and, to its credit, ticked as loud as ever; while a beam
+of the rising sun that streamed through a hole in the kitchen shutter,
+shining full upon the dial-plate, it brightened up as if nothing had
+been the matter.
+
+When the farmer came down to breakfast that morning, upon looking at the
+clock he declared that his watch had gained half an hour in the night.
+
+
+
+254
+
+ Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian
+ novelist, poet, and social reformer; author,
+ among other important works, of _War and Peace_
+ and _Anna Karenina_. He wrote many short
+ stories and sketches, a number of which are
+ markedly symbolic in character. The one that
+ follows is a good illustration of a type of
+ such tales pleasing to modern minds. We no
+ longer produce the formal fable or allegory. In
+ Tolstoy's story are two historical characters
+ of so pronounced individuality that their names
+ always suggest definite ideas--Croesus, riches
+ and worldly greatness; Solon, wisdom and
+ worldly poverty and lowliness. These ideas are
+ brought into conflict, and the outcome allows
+ us to see which is the basic one in Tolstoy's
+ theory of life. Who is the happy warrior? One
+ would merely have to quote some words from the
+ story to have an answer. And if the reader
+ feels the force of the answer, as Tolstoy
+ evidently hoped he would, it means a new or at
+ least a more distinctly held ideal of living.
+
+
+CROESUS AND SOLON
+
+LEO TOLSTOY
+
+In olden times--long, long before the coming of Christ--there reigned
+over a certain country a great king called Croesus. He had much gold and
+silver, and many precious stones, as well as numberless soldiers and
+slaves. Indeed, he thought that in all the world there could be no
+happier man than himself.
+
+But one day there chanced to visit the country which Croesus ruled a
+Greek philosopher named Solon. Far and wide was Solon famed as a wise
+man and a just; and, inasmuch as his fame had reached Croesus also, the
+king commanded that he should be conducted to his presence.
+
+Seated upon his throne, and robed in his most gorgeous apparel, Croesus
+asked of Solon: "Have you ever seen aught more splendid than this?"
+
+"Of a surety have I," replied Solon. "Peacocks, cocks, and pheasants
+glitter with colors so diverse and so brilliant that no art can compare
+with them."
+
+Croesus was silent as he thought to himself: "Since this is not enough,
+I must show him something more, to surprise him."
+
+So he exhibited the whole of his riches before Solon's eyes, as well as
+boasted of the number of foes he had slain, and the number of
+territories he had conquered. Then he said to the philosopher:
+
+"You have lived long in the world, and have visited many countries. Tell
+me whom you consider to be the happiest man living?"
+
+"The happiest man living I consider to be a certain poor man who lives
+in Athens," replied Solon.
+
+The king was surprised at this answer, for he had made certain that
+Solon would name him himself; yet, for all that, the philosopher had
+named a perfectly obscure individual!
+
+"Why do you say that?" asked Croesus.
+
+"Because," replied Solon, "the man of whom I speak has worked hard all
+his life, has been content with little, has reared fine children, has
+served his city honorably, and has achieved a noble reputation."
+
+When Croesus heard this he exclaimed:
+
+"And do you reckon my happiness as nothing, and consider that I am not
+fit to be compared with the man of whom you speak?"
+
+To this Solon replied:
+
+"Often it befalls that a poor man is happier than a rich man. Call no
+man happy until he is dead."
+
+The king dismissed Solon, for he was not pleased at his words, and had
+no belief in him.
+
+"A fig for melancholy!" he thought. "While a man lives he should live
+for pleasure."
+
+So he forgot about Solon entirely.
+
+Not long afterwards the king's son went hunting, but wounded himself by
+a mischance, and died of the wound. Next, it was told to Croesus that
+the powerful Emperor Cyrus was coming to make war upon him.
+
+So Croesus went out against Cyrus with a great army, but the enemy
+proved the stronger, and, having won the battle and shattered Croesus'
+forces, penetrated to the capital.
+
+Then the foreign soldiers began to pillage all King Croesus' riches, and
+to slay the inhabitants, and to sack and fire the city. One soldier
+seized Croesus himself, and was just about to stab him, when the king's
+son darted forward to defend his father, and cried aloud:
+
+"Do not touch him! That is Croesus, the king!"
+
+So the soldiers bound Croesus, and carried him away to the Emperor; but
+Cyrus was celebrating his victory at a banquet, and could not speak with
+the captive, so orders were sent out for Croesus to be executed.
+
+In the middle of the city square the soldiers built a great
+burning-pile, and upon the top of it they placed King Croesus, bound him
+to a stake, and set fire to the pile.
+
+Croesus gazed around him, upon his city and upon his palace. Then he
+remembered the words of the Greek philosopher, and, bursting into tears,
+could only say:
+
+"Ah, Solon, Solon!"
+
+The soldiers were closing in about the pile when the Emperor Cyrus
+arrived in person to view the execution. As he did so he caught these
+words uttered by Croesus, but could not understand them.
+
+So he commanded Croesus to be taken from the pile, and inquired of him
+what he had just said. Croesus answered:
+
+"I was but naming the name of a wise man--of one who told me a great
+truth--a truth that is of greater worth than all earthly riches, than
+all our kingly glory."
+
+And Croesus related to Cyrus his conversation with Solon. The story
+touched the heart of the Emperor, for he bethought him that he too was
+but a man, that he too knew not what Fate might have in store for him.
+So in the end he had mercy upon Croesus, and became his friend.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VI
+
+MYTHS
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+I. GENERAL HANDBOOKS
+
+ Bulfinch, Thomas, _Mythology: The Age of Fable_.
+
+ Gayley, Charles Mills, _Classic Myths in English Literature and
+ in Art_.
+
+
+II. GREEK AND ROMAN
+
+ Baker, Emilie Kip, _Stories of Old Greece and Rome_.
+
+ Baldwin, James, _Old Greek Stories_.
+
+ Francillon, R. E., _Gods and Heroes, or the Kingdom of Jupiter_.
+
+ Guerber, H. A., _Myths of Greece and Rome_.
+
+ Hawthorne, Nathaniel, _A Wonder-Book for Boys and Girls_.
+
+ Hawthorne, Nathaniel, _Tanglewood Tales: A Second Wonder-Book_.
+
+ Kingsley, Charles, _Greek Heroes_.
+
+ Kupfer, Grace H., _Stories of Long Ago_.
+
+ Peabody, Josephine P., _Old Greek Folk Stories_.
+
+
+III. NORTHERN MYTHS
+
+ Anderson, R. B., _Norse Mythology, or The Religion of Our
+ Forefathers_.
+
+ Baker, Emilie Kip, _Stories of Northern Myths_.
+
+ Boult, Katherine F., _Heroes of the Northland_.
+
+ Brown, Abbie Farwell, _In the Days of the Giants_.
+
+ Colum, Padraic, _The Children of Odin_.
+
+ Guerber, H. A., _Myths of Northern Lands_.
+
+ Keary, Anna and Eliza, _The Heroes of Asgard_.
+
+ Mabie, Hamilton Wright, _Norse Stories_.
+
+ Wilmot-Buxton, E. M., _Stories of Norse Heroes_.
+
+
+
+IV. NATURE MYTHS ("POURQUOI" STORIES)
+
+ Cook, Flora J., _Nature Myths_.
+
+ Holbrook, Florence, _The Book of Nature Myths_.
+
+
+V. CRITICAL WORKS
+
+ Cox, Sir G. W., _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_. 2 vols.
+
+ Fiske, John, _Myths and Myth-Makers_.
+
+ Frazer, J. G., _The Golden Bough_. 12 vols.
+
+ Hartland, E. S., _The Legend of Perseus_. 3 vols.
+
+ Lang, Andrew, _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_. 2 vols.
+
+ Mueller, Max, _Contributions to the Science of Mythology_.
+
+ Ruskin, John, _Athena, Queen of the Air_.
+
+ Spencer, Herbert, _Principles of Sociology_.
+
+ Tylor, E. B., _Primitive Culture_. 2 vols.
+
+
+
+SECTION VI. MYTHS
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+_What myths are._ It seems that every race of people in the period of
+barbarism and early civilization has created fanciful, childlike stories
+to explain such things as the origin of earth, sun, stars, clouds, life,
+death, fire, man, lower animals, and plants, and the characteristics of
+particular plants and animals. In most cases, if not all, they have
+accounted for the origin of such things by the theory that they were
+created by gods and super-human heroes. Among such peoples as the Greek
+and Norse folk, many stories also grew up regarding the gods and
+super-human heroes and their relations with one another and with men.
+All of these old stories about the creation of things and about the gods
+and super-human heroes are called myths. As time went on and the peoples
+became civilized, the original myths were regarded merely as fanciful
+tales, and were used to furnish characters and plots for many stories
+told chiefly for entertainment. Often, as in the story of Ulysses,
+legends of national heroes were combined with them. Even in our time
+such writers as Hawthorne and Kingsley and Lowell have used these old
+characters and plots as the basis of stories, many of which differ
+greatly from the original myths.
+
+_Myths and other folk stories._ Myths were pretty largely matters of
+faith to begin with. They were the basis of old-time religious beliefs,
+explaining to the mind of primitive man how things came to be as they
+are. This tendency to adopt what are to educated minds fanciful
+explanations of all that is beyond their understanding is easily
+observable in the way children explain the unknown. It seems fairly
+clear, on the other hand, that fairy stories were told by the folk as
+matter of entertainment. They did not believe that pigs actually talked,
+that a princess could sleep a hundred years, that a bean-stalk could
+grow as fast and as far as Jack's did, or that toads and diamonds could
+actually come out of one's mouth. It may be, as some theorists insist,
+that remains of myth survive in some of these fairy stories. On the
+whole, however, the folk believed these tales only in the sense in which
+we believe in a fine story such as "The Vision of Sir Launfal" or "Enoch
+Arden." They express the pleasing imaginings and longings of the human
+spirit, its ideals of character and conduct, its sense of the wonder and
+mystery of the universe. The fairy tale, in general, is nearer the
+surface of life; the myth was concerned with the most fundamental
+problems of the _whence_ and the _why_ of things.
+
+Such distinctions, however, belong to the realm of scientific
+scholarship. The teacher is concerned with myths simply as splendid
+stories that have come down to us from a time when human beings seemed
+to feel themselves bound into a unity with nature and all mysterious
+powers around them; stories that through constant repetition were
+rounded and perfected, and finally, through use by the poets, have
+reached us in a fairly systematic form. The so-called "poetic mythology"
+is the one of special value for our purposes. It comes to us through
+Ovid in the South, and does not distinguish between the gods of Greece
+and Rome. It comes through the Eddas of the North. It is this poetic
+mythology that furnishes the basis of allusion in literature and in art,
+and which is retold for us in the various versions for modern readers.
+If we hold fast to this correct idea that as teachers in elementary
+schools our interest in myths is exactly like our interest in other folk
+products, an interest in them as stories tested by the ages, an interest
+in them as presenting familiar and suggestive types of character and
+conduct, an interest in them as stimulating our sense of wonder and
+mystery, we shall not be disturbed by the violent discussions that
+sometimes rage over the advisability of using myths with children.
+
+_Values of myth._ To make the above proposition as clear as possible,
+let us first tabulate briefly the values of myth, borrowing a suggestion
+from Jeremiah Curtin:
+
+ 1. A wonderful story told in most effective
+ fashion. To realize this value, one needs to
+ recall only the efforts of Prometheus in
+ bringing down fire for man and his heroic
+ endurance of vengeful tyranny as a result. The
+ work of Hercules in slaying the many-headed
+ serpent or in cleansing the Augean stables, the
+ adventures of Theseus culminating in the
+ labyrinth of the horrible Minotaur, the
+ beautiful hospitality of Baucis and Philemon,
+ the equally beautiful sadness of the death of
+ Balder--all these simply hint the riches of the
+ myth as story. This story interest is the one
+ that appeals to all human beings as human
+ beings and is therefore fundamental.
+
+ 2. Myth preserves much material of social and
+ antiquarian interest. It helps us understand
+ the institutions and customs of primitive
+ stages in human development, and as such has
+ great value for scientific students of human
+ society.
+
+ 3. Myth preserves evidences of how the mind of
+ man looked out upon his surroundings and what
+ it did in the way of interpreting them. It
+ makes most valuable contributions, therefore,
+ to the history of the human mind, and must be
+ taken into account in the science of
+ anthropology.
+
+It must be evident that the second and third values are only in the
+slightest degree within the range of the child in his early years of
+school work.
+
+_Objections to myth._ The objections to the use of myths in school may
+also be brought under three heads:
+
+ 1. They come from a plane of ethics much lower
+ than our own. This is the one strong argument
+ against all folk material, and it has a
+ validity that must be frankly recognized. There
+ are the miscellaneous love affairs of Jupiter,
+ and certain stories that have elements of
+ horror and brutality. Such stories we cannot
+ use, "though an error on that side is better
+ than effeminancy." Occasional defects cannot
+ outweigh the great positive ethical worth of
+ myth. We must simply make intelligent choice.
+ The situation is not different from what it is
+ in choosing from modern poetry and story. It
+ would be poor evidence of our sanity if we
+ ruled out all poetry because some of it is not
+ fit. Let us, however, omit entirely those myths
+ that are not suitable rather than attempt
+ making them over to suit modern conceptions. We
+ may properly allow liberties to a literary
+ artist like Hawthorne that a mere artisan
+ should not take.
+
+ 2. Myth deals with the worn-out and obsolete
+ ideas of the past, and will give children false
+ religious and scientific notions. But one does
+ not rule out _Paradise Lost_ because Milton's
+ cosmogony is so purely fanciful, nor Dante
+ because of his equally fantastic structure of
+ the Inferno. Neither children nor older readers
+ are ever led astray by these purely incidental
+ backgrounds against which and by means of which
+ the human interest is powerfully projected.
+
+ 3. Myth is too deeply symbolical. But readers
+ of different ages and abilities find results up
+ to their stature. We do not demand that the
+ children shall be able to understand all that
+ is back of _Gulliver's Travels_, or _Pilgrim's
+ Progress_, before we give them those books.
+ What is worth while in literature has an
+ increasing message as the powers of the reader
+ increase.
+
+_How to use myths._ We may sum up the conclusions thus: Select those
+myths that tell stories of dramatic force and that have sound ethical
+worth. So far as possible let these be the ones most familiar in
+literary allusion and in common speech. Present the myth as you would
+any other folk story. Since myth naturally comes along a little later
+than fairy stories, probably beginning not earlier than the third grade,
+the discussion of its meanings may take a wider range. Keep the poetic
+elements of the story prominent, as in most of the examples following.
+
+
+SUGGESTIONS
+
+ For the soundest and most illuminating
+ discussion of the values and proper use of
+ myths in education see Edward Howard Griggs,
+ _Moral Education_, chap, xxi, "The Ethical
+ Value of Mythology and Folk-Lore." For some
+ good suggestions and lists consult Ezra Allen,
+ "The Pedagogy of Myth in the Grades,"
+ _Pedagogical Seminary_, Vol. VIII, p. 258. A
+ very interesting plan for the use of myths may
+ be found in two articles by O. O. Norris,
+ "Myths and the Teaching of Myths," _The
+ American Schoolmaster_, Vol. IX, p. 96 and p.
+ 145. Consult also MacClintock, _Literature in
+ the Elementary School_, chap, vii, and McMurry,
+ _Special Method in Reading_, pp. 92-105.
+
+ The first nine myths in this section came
+ originally from Greek mythology. The Romans
+ adopted the mythology of the Greeks, but
+ changed the names of the gods. English-speaking
+ peoples have usually used these Latin versions.
+ Hence in the following Greek myths the Roman
+ names of the gods are used. In this note the
+ Greek name is usually given in parenthesis
+ after the Roman.
+
+ According to mythology, Saturn once ruled the
+ universe. After a great war he was overthrown
+ and the universe was divided into three
+ kingdoms, each governed by one of his sons.
+ Jupiter (Zeus) ruled the heavens and the earth;
+ Neptune (Poseidon) ruled the sea; and Pluto
+ (Dis) ruled Hades, or Tartarus, the gloomy
+ region of the dead in a cavern far under the
+ surface of the earth. The home of Jupiter and
+ the many other gods of heaven was represented
+ as being the top of Mount Olympus, in Thessaly.
+ Here each of the gods of heaven had a separate
+ dwelling, but all assembled at times in the
+ palace of Jupiter. Sometimes these gods went to
+ earth, through a gate of clouds kept by
+ goddesses called the Seasons.
+
+ The relations between these divinities were
+ much like those between people on earth. Some
+ had greater power than others, and rivalries
+ and quarrels frequently arose. Jupiter, the
+ supreme ruler, governed by wisdom as well as by
+ the power of his thunderbolt. He had three
+ sisters: Juno, Vesta, and Ceres. Juno (Hera)
+ was the wife of Jupiter and the noblest of the
+ goddesses. Vesta (Hestia), the goddess of
+ health, was not married. Ceres (Demeter), the
+ goddess of agriculture, was the mother of
+ Proserpine, who became wife of Pluto and queen
+ of Hades. Minerva (Athena), goddess of wisdom
+ and Jupiter's favorite daughter, had no mother,
+ as she sprang fully armed from Jupiter's head.
+ Venus (Aphrodite) was goddess of beauty and
+ mother of Cupid, god of love. Two other
+ goddesses were Diana (Artemis), modest virgin
+ goddess of the moon, who protects brute
+ creation, and Hebe, cup-bearer to the gods.
+ Among the greatest of the gods were three sons
+ of Jupiter: Apollo, Mars, and Vulcan. Apollo,
+ or Phoebus, was god of the sun and patron of
+ music, archery, and prophecy. Mars (Ares) was
+ god of war, and Vulcan (Hephaestus), the lame
+ god of fire, was the blacksmith of the gods.
+
+
+
+255
+
+ This version of the myth of Ceres and
+ Proserpine is taken by permission of the author
+ and the publishers from _Stories of Long Ago_,
+ by Grace H. Kupfer. (Copyright. D. C. Heath &
+ Co., Boston.) "Of all the beautiful fictions of
+ Greek mythology," said Aubrey DeVere, "there
+ are few more exquisite than the story of
+ Proserpine, and none deeper in symbolical
+ meaning." That portion of its meaning fitted to
+ the understanding of children is indicated in
+ the final paragraphs of Miss Kupfer's version.
+ Teachers should realize that "the fable has,
+ however, its moral significance also, being
+ connected with that great mystery of Joy and
+ Grief, of Life and of Death, which pressed so
+ heavily on the mind of Pagan Greece, and
+ imparts to the whole of her mythology a
+ profound interest, spiritual as well as
+ philosophical. It was the restoration of Man,
+ not of flowers, the victory over Death, not
+ over Winter, with which that high Intelligence
+ felt itself to be really concerned."
+ Hawthorne's version of this story appears in
+ _Tanglewood Tales_ as "The Pomegranate Seeds."
+
+
+A STORY OF THE SPRINGTIME
+
+GRACE H. KUPFER
+
+
+PART I
+
+In the blue Mediterranean Sea, which washes the southern shore of
+Europe, lies the beautiful island of Sicily. Long, long ago, there lived
+on this island a goddess named Ceres. She had power to make the earth
+yield plentiful crops of grain, or to leave it barren; and on her
+depended the food, and therefore the life of all the people on the
+great, wide earth.
+
+Ceres had one fair young daughter, whom she loved very dearly. And no
+wonder, for Proserpine was the sunniest, happiest girl you could
+imagine.
+
+Her face was all white and pink, like apple blossoms in spring, and
+there was just enough blue in her eyes to give you a glimpse of an April
+morning sky. Her long, golden curls reminded you of the bright sunlight.
+In fact there was something so young and fair and tender about the
+maiden that if you could imagine anything so strange as the whole
+springtime, with all its loveliness, changed into a human being, you
+would have looked but an instant at Proserpine and said, "She is the
+Spring."
+
+Proserpine spent the long, happy days in the fields, helping her mother,
+or dancing and singing among the flowers, with her young companions.
+
+Way down under the earth, in the land of the dead, lived dark King
+Pluto; and the days were very lonely for him with only shadows to talk
+to. Often and often, he had tried to urge some goddess to come and share
+his gloomy throne; but not the richest jewels or wealth could tempt any
+one of them to leave the bright sunlight above and dwell in the land of
+shades.
+
+One day Pluto came up to earth and was driving along in his swift
+chariot, when, behind some bushes, he heard such merry voices and
+musical laughter that he drew rein, and stepping down, parted the bushes
+to see who was on the other side. There he saw Proserpine standing in
+the center of a ring of laughing young girls who were pelting her with
+flowers.
+
+The stern old king felt his heart beat quicker at sight of all these
+lovely maidens, and he singled out Proserpine, and said to himself, "She
+shall be my queen. That fair face can make even dark Hades light and
+beautiful." But he knew it would be useless to ask the girl for her
+consent; so, with a bold stride, he stepped into the midst of the happy
+circle.
+
+The young girls, frightened at his dark, stern face, fled to right and
+left. But Pluto grasped Proserpine by the arm and carried her to his
+chariot, and then the horses flew along the ground, leaving Proserpine's
+startled companions far behind.
+
+King Pluto knew that he must hasten away with his prize, lest Ceres
+should discover her loss; and to keep out of her path, he drove his
+chariot a roundabout way. He came to a river; but as he neared its
+banks, it suddenly began to bubble and swell and rage, so that Pluto did
+not dare to drive through its waters. To go back another way would mean
+great loss of time; so with his scepter he struck the ground thrice. It
+opened, and, in an instant, horses, chariot, and all, plunged into the
+darkness below.
+
+But Proserpine knew that the nymph of the stream had recognized her, and
+had tried to save her by making the waters of the stream rise. So, just
+as the ground was closing over her, the girl seized her girdle and threw
+it far out into the river. She hoped that in some way the girdle might
+reach Ceres and help her to find her lost daughter.
+
+
+PART II
+
+In the evening Ceres returned to her home; but her daughter, who usually
+came running to meet her, was nowhere to be seen. Ceres searched for her
+in all the rooms, but they were empty. Then she lighted a great torch
+from the fires of a volcano, and went wandering among the fields,
+looking for her child. When morning broke, and she had found no trace of
+Proserpine, her grief was terrible to see.
+
+On that sad day, Ceres began a long, long wandering. Over land and sea
+she journeyed, bearing in her right hand the torch which had been
+kindled in the fiery volcano.
+
+All her duties were neglected, and everywhere the crops failed, and the
+ground was barren and dry. Want and famine took the place of wealth and
+plenty throughout the world. It seemed as though the great earth grieved
+with the mother for the loss of beautiful Proserpine.
+
+When the starving people came to Ceres and begged her to resume her
+duties and to be their friend again, Ceres lifted her great eyes,
+wearied with endless seeking, and answered that until Proserpine was
+found, she could think only of her child, and could not care for the
+neglected earth. So all the people cried aloud to Jupiter that he should
+bring Proserpine back to her mother, for they were sadly in need of
+great Ceres' help.
+
+At last, after wandering over all the earth in her fruitless search,
+Ceres returned to Sicily. One day, as she was passing a river, suddenly
+a little swell of water carried something to her feet. Stooping to see
+what it was, she picked up the girdle which Proserpine had long ago
+thrown to the water nymph.
+
+While she was looking at it, with tears in her eyes, she heard a
+fountain near her bubbling louder and louder, until at last it seemed to
+speak. And this is what it said:
+
+"I am the nymph of the fountain, and I come from the inmost parts of the
+earth, O Ceres, great mother! There I saw your daughter seated on a
+throne at the dark king's side. But in spite of her splendor, her cheeks
+were pale and her eyes were heavy with weeping. I can stay no longer
+now, O Ceres, for I must leap into the sunshine. The bright sky calls
+me, and I must hasten away."
+
+Then Ceres arose and went to Jupiter and said, "I have found the place
+where my daughter is hidden. Give her back to me, and the earth shall
+once more be fruitful, and the people shall have food."
+
+Jupiter was moved, both by the mother's sorrow and by the prayers of the
+people on earth; and he said that Proserpine might return to her home if
+she had tasted no food while in Pluto's kingdom.
+
+So the happy mother hastened down into Hades. But alas! that very day
+Proserpine had eaten six pomegranate seeds; and for every one of those
+seeds she was doomed each year to spend a month underground.
+
+For six months of the year Ceres is happy with her daughter. At
+Proserpine's coming, flowers bloom and birds sing and the earth
+everywhere smiles its welcome to its young queen.
+
+Some people say that Proserpine really is the springtime, and that while
+she is with us all the earth seems fair and beautiful. But when the time
+comes for Proserpine to rejoin King Pluto in his dark home underground,
+Ceres hides herself and grieves through all the weary months until her
+daughter's return.
+
+Then the earth, too, is somber and sad. The leaves fall to the ground,
+as though the trees were weeping for the loss of the fair, young queen;
+and the flowers hide underground, until the eager step of the maiden,
+returning to earth, awakens all nature from its winter sleep.
+
+
+
+256
+
+ Because of his beautiful idealism and the
+ artistic nature of his work, Hawthorne
+ (1804-1864) is one of America's most loved
+ story-tellers. His stories are never idle
+ tales, for each one reveals secret motives and
+ impulses that determine human action. This
+ characteristic makes his works wholesome and
+ inspiring for both children and adults. Four
+ volumes of his short stories, intended
+ primarily for children, are classics for the
+ upper grades. _Grandfather's Chair_ is a group
+ of stories about life in New England in early
+ times. _True Stories from History and
+ Biography_ makes the child acquainted with such
+ historical characters as Franklin and Newton.
+ _A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys_ and
+ _Tanglewood Tales_ are Hawthorne's versions of
+ old Greek myths.
+
+ In his two volumes of Greek myths, Hawthorne
+ does not hold to the plot or style of the
+ original stories; but here, as in all his work,
+ he shows how incidents in life determine human
+ character. The following quotation from the
+ Preface to _A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys_
+ explains in Hawthorne's own words the nature of
+ his version of the myths: "He [the author] does
+ not plead guilty to a sacrilege in having
+ sometimes shaped anew, as his fancy dictated,
+ the forms that have been hallowed by an
+ antiquity of two or three thousand years. No
+ epoch of time can claim a copyright in these
+ immortal fables. They seem never to have been
+ made; and certainly, so long as man exists,
+ they can never perish; but, by their
+ indestructibility itself, they are legitimate
+ subjects for every age to clothe with its own
+ garniture of manners and sentiment, and to
+ imbue with its own morality."
+
+ The story "The Paradise of Children," taken
+ from _A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys_, is
+ Hawthorne's version of the Greek myth of
+ Pandora's Box, which is an attempt to explain
+ how pain and suffering came to humanity.
+ According to the Greek myth, Jupiter was angry
+ when he learned that Prometheus, one of the
+ Titans, had given men fire stolen from heaven.
+ That men might not have this blessing without
+ an affliction to compensate, the gods filled a
+ box with ills, but put Hope also in the box.
+ Then, fearing that neither Prometheus nor his
+ brother Epimetheus would open the box, they
+ created Pandora. Mercury, the messenger of
+ Jupiter, carried Pandora and the box as a gift
+ to Epimetheus, and the curiosity of Pandora led
+ her to open the box.
+
+
+THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN
+
+NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
+
+Long, long ago, when this old world was in its tender infancy, there was
+a child named Epimetheus, who never had either father or mother; and,
+that he might not be lonely, another child, fatherless and motherless
+like himself, was sent from a far country to live with him and be his
+playfellow and helpmate. Her name was Pandora.
+
+The first thing that Pandora saw, when she entered the cottage where
+Epimetheus dwelt, was a great box. And almost the first question which
+she put to him, after crossing the threshold, was this,--
+
+"Epimetheus, what have you in that box?"
+
+"My dear little Pandora," answered Epimetheus, "that is a secret, and
+you must be kind enough not to ask any questions about it. The box was
+left here to be kept safely, and I do not myself know what it
+contains."
+
+"But who gave it to you?" asked Pandora. "And where did it come from?"
+
+"That is a secret, too," replied Epimetheus.
+
+"How provoking!" exclaimed Pandora, pouting her lip. "I wish the great,
+ugly box were out of the way!"
+
+"Oh, come, don't think of it any more," cried Epimetheus. "Let us run
+out of doors, and have some nice play with the other children."
+
+It is thousands of years since Epimetheus and Pandora were alive; and
+the world, nowadays, is a very different sort of thing from what it was
+in their time. Then, everybody was a child. There needed no fathers and
+mothers to take care of the children; because there was no danger, nor
+trouble of any kind, and no clothes to be mended, and there was always
+plenty to eat and drink. Whenever a child wanted his dinner, he found it
+growing on a tree; and, if he looked at the tree in the morning, he
+could see the expanding blossom of that night's supper; or, at eventide,
+he saw the tender bud of to-morrow's breakfast. It was a very pleasant
+life, indeed. No labor to be done, no tasks to be studied; nothing but
+sports and dances, and sweet voices of children talking, or caroling
+like birds, or gushing out in merry laughter, throughout the livelong
+day.
+
+What was most wonderful of all, the children never quarreled among
+themselves; neither had they any crying fits; nor, since time first
+began, had a single one of these little mortals ever gone apart into a
+corner, and sulked. Oh, what a good time was that to be alive in! The
+truth is, those ugly little winged monsters, called Troubles, which are
+now almost as numerous as mosquitoes, had never yet been seen on the
+earth. It is probable that the very greatest disquietude which a child
+had ever experienced was Pandora's vexation at not being able to
+discover the secret of the mysterious box.
+
+This was at first only the faint shadow of a Trouble; but, every day, it
+grew more and more substantial, until, before a great while, the cottage
+of Epimetheus and Pandora was less sunshiny than those of the other
+children.
+
+"Whence can the box have come?" Pandora continually kept saying to
+herself and to Epimetheus. "And what in the world can be inside of it!"
+
+"Always talking about this box!" said Epimetheus, at last; for he had
+grown extremely tired of the subject. "I wish, dear Pandora, you would
+try to talk of something else. Come, let us go and gather some ripe
+figs, and eat them under the trees, for our supper. And I know a vine
+that has the sweetest and juiciest grapes you ever tasted."
+
+"Always talking about grapes and figs!" cried Pandora, pettishly.
+
+"Well, then," said Epimetheus, who was a very good-tempered child, like
+a multitude of children in those days, "let us run out and have a merry
+time with our playmates."
+
+"I am tired of merry times, and don't care if I never have any more!"
+answered our pettish little Pandora. "And, besides, I never do have any.
+This ugly box! I am so taken up with thinking about it all the time. I
+insist upon your telling me what is inside of it."
+
+"As I have already said, fifty times over, I do not know!" replied
+Epimetheus, getting a little vexed. "How, then, can I tell you what is
+inside?"
+
+"You might open it," said Pandora, looking sideways at Epimetheus, "and
+then we could see for ourselves."
+
+"Pandora, what are you thinking of?" exclaimed Epimetheus.
+
+And his face expressed so much horror at the idea of looking into a box
+which had been confided to him on the condition of his never opening it,
+that Pandora thought it best not to suggest it any more. Still, however,
+she could not help thinking and talking about the box.
+
+"At least," said she, "you can tell me how it came here."
+
+"It was left at the door," replied Epimetheus, "just before you came, by
+a person who looked very smiling and intelligent, and who could hardly
+forbear laughing as he put it down. He was dressed in an odd kind of a
+cloak, and had on a cap that seemed to be made partly of feathers, so
+that it looked almost as if it had wings."
+
+"What sort of a staff had he?" asked Pandora.
+
+"Oh, the most curious staff you ever saw!" cried Epimetheus. "It was
+like two serpents twisting around a stick, and was carved so naturally
+that I, at first, thought the serpents were alive."
+
+"I know him," said Pandora, thoughtfully. "Nobody else has such a staff.
+It was Quicksilver; and he brought me hither, as well as the box. No
+doubt he intended it for me; and, most probably, it contains pretty
+dresses for me to wear, or toys for you and me to play with, or
+something very nice for us both to eat!"
+
+"Perhaps so," answered Epimetheus, turning away. "But until Quicksilver
+comes back and tells us so, we have neither of us any right to lift the
+lid of the box."
+
+"What a dull boy he is!" muttered Pandora, as Epimetheus left the
+cottage. "I do wish he had a little more enterprise!"
+
+For the first time since her arrival, Epimetheus had gone out without
+asking Pandora to accompany him. He went to gather figs and grapes by
+himself, or to seek whatever amusement he could find, in other society
+than his little playfellow's. He was tired to death of hearing about the
+box, and heartily wished that Quicksilver, or whatever was the
+messenger's name, had left it at some other child's door, where Pandora
+would never have set eyes on it. So perseveringly as she did babble
+about this one thing! The box, the box, and nothing but the box! It
+seemed as if the box were bewitched, and as if the cottage were not big
+enough to hold it, without Pandora's continually stumbling over it, and
+making Epimetheus stumble over it likewise, and bruising all four of
+their shins.
+
+Well, it was really hard that poor Epimetheus should have a box in his
+ears from morning till night; especially as the little people of the
+earth were so unaccustomed to vexations, in those happy days, that they
+knew not how to deal with them. Thus, a small vexation made as much
+disturbance, then, as a far bigger one would in our own times.
+
+After Epimetheus was gone, Pandora stood gazing at the box. She had
+called it ugly, above a hundred times; but, in spite of all that she had
+said against it, it was positively a very handsome article of furniture,
+and would have been quite an ornament to any room in which it should be
+placed. It was made of a beautiful kind of wood, with dark and rich
+veins spreading over its surface, which was so highly polished that
+little Pandora could see her face in it. As the child had no other
+looking-glass, it is odd that she did not value the box, merely on this
+account.
+
+The edges and corners of the box were carved with most wonderful skill.
+Around the margin there were figures of graceful men and women, and the
+prettiest children ever seen, reclining or sporting amid a profusion of
+flowers and foliage; and these various objects were so exquisitely
+represented, and were wrought together in such harmony, that flowers,
+foliage, and human beings seemed to combine into a wreath of mingled
+beauty. But here and there, peeping forth from behind the carved
+foliage, Pandora once or twice fancied that she saw a face not so
+lovely, or something or other that was disagreeable, and which stole the
+beauty out of all the rest. Nevertheless, on looking more closely, and
+touching the spot with her finger, she could discover nothing of the
+kind. Some face, that was really beautiful, had been made to look ugly
+by her catching a sideway glimpse at it.
+
+The most beautiful face of all was done in what is called high relief,
+in the center of the lid. There was nothing else, save the dark, smooth
+richness of the polished wood, and this one face in the center, with a
+garland of flowers about its brow. Pandora had looked at this face a
+great many times, and imagined that the mouth could smile if it liked,
+or be grave when it chose, the same as any living mouth. The features,
+indeed, all wore a very lively and rather mischievous expression, which
+looked almost as if it needs must burst out of the carved lips, and
+utter itself in words.
+
+Had the mouth spoken, it would probably have been something like this:
+
+"Do not be afraid, Pandora! What harm can there be in opening the box?
+Never mind that poor, simple Epimetheus! You are wiser than he, and have
+ten times as much spirit. Open the box, and see if you do not find
+something very pretty!"
+
+The box, I had almost forgotten to say, was fastened; not by a lock, nor
+by any other such contrivance, but by a very intricate knot of gold
+cord. There appeared to be no end to this knot, and no beginning. Never
+was a knot so cunningly twisted, nor with so many ins and outs, which
+roguishly defied the skilfullest fingers to disentangle them. And yet,
+by the very difficulty that there was in it, Pandora was the more
+tempted to examine the knot, and just see how it was made. Two or three
+times, already, she had stooped over the box, and taken the knot between
+her thumb and forefinger, but without positively trying to undo it.
+
+"I really believe," said she to herself, "that I begin to see how it was
+done. Nay, perhaps I could tie it up again, after undoing it. There
+would be no harm in that, surely. Even Epimetheus would not blame me for
+that. I need not open the box, and should not, of course, without the
+foolish boy's consent, even if the knot were untied."
+
+It might have been better for Pandora if she had had a little work to
+do, or anything to employ her mind upon, so as not to be so constantly
+thinking of this one subject. But children led so easy a life, before
+any Troubles came into the world, that they had really a great deal too
+much leisure. They could not be forever playing at hide-and-seek among
+the flower-shrubs, or at blind-man's-buff with garlands over their eyes,
+or at whatever other games had been found out while Mother Earth was in
+her babyhood. When life is all sport, toil is the real play. There was
+absolutely nothing to do. A little sweeping and dusting about the
+cottage, I suppose, and the gathering of fresh flowers (which were only
+too abundant everywhere), and arranging them in vases,--and poor little
+Pandora's day's work was over. And then, for the rest of the day, there
+was the box!
+
+After all, I am not quite sure that the box was not a blessing to her in
+its way. It supplied her with such a variety of ideas to think of, and
+to talk about, whenever she had anybody to listen! When she was in good
+humor, she could admire the bright polish of its sides, and the rich
+border of beautiful faces and foliage that ran all around it. Or, if she
+chanced to be ill-tempered, she could give it a push, or kick it with
+her naughty little foot. And many a kick did the box--(but it was a
+mischievous box, as we shall see, and deserved all it got)--many a kick
+did it receive. But, certain it is, if it had not been for the box, our
+active-minded little Pandora would not have known half so well how to
+spend her time as she now did.
+
+For it was really an endless employment to guess what was inside. What
+could it be, indeed? Just imagine, my little hearers, how busy your wits
+would be, if there were a great box in the house, which, as you might
+have reason to suppose, contained something new and pretty for your
+Christmas or New-Year's gifts. Do you think that you should be less
+curious than Pandora? If you were alone with the box, might you not feel
+a little tempted to lift the lid? But you would not do it. Oh, fie! No,
+no! Only, if you thought there were toys in it, it would be so very hard
+to let slip an opportunity of taking just one peep! I know not whether
+Pandora expected any toys; for none had yet begun to be made, probably,
+in those days, when the world itself was one great plaything for the
+children that dwelt upon it. But Pandora was convinced that there was
+something very beautiful and valuable in the box; and therefore she felt
+just as anxious to take a peep as any of these girls, here around me,
+would have felt. And, possibly, a little more so; but of that I am not
+quite so certain.
+
+On this particular day, however, which we have so long been talking
+about, her curiosity grew so much greater than it usually was, that, at
+last, she approached the box. She was more than half determined to open
+it, if she could. Ah, naughty Pandora!
+
+First, however, she tried to lift it. It was heavy; quite too heavy for
+the slender strength of a child, like Pandora. She raised one end of the
+box a few inches from the floor, and let it fall again, with a pretty
+loud thump. A moment afterwards, she almost fancied that she heard
+something stir, inside of the box. She applied her ear as closely as
+possible, and listened. Positively, there did seem to be a kind of
+stifled murmur, within! Or was it merely the singing in Pandora's ears?
+Or could it be the beating of her heart? The child could not quite
+satisfy herself whether she had heard anything or no. But, at all
+events, her curiosity was stronger than ever.
+
+As she drew back her head, her eyes fell upon the knot of gold cord.
+
+"It must have been a very ingenious person who tied this knot," said
+Pandora to herself. "But I think I could untie it, nevertheless. I am
+resolved, at least, to find the two ends of the cord."
+
+So she took the golden knot in her fingers, and pried into its
+intricacies as sharply as she could. Almost without intending it, or
+quite knowing what she was about, she was soon busily engaged in
+attempting to undo it. Meanwhile, the bright sunshine came through the
+open window; as did likewise the merry voices of the children, playing
+at a distance, and perhaps the voice of Epimetheus among them. Pandora
+stopped to listen. What a beautiful day it was! Would it not be wiser if
+she were to let the troublesome knot alone, and think no more about the
+box, but run and join her little playfellows, and be happy?
+
+All this time, however, her fingers were half unconsciously busy with
+the knot; and, happening to glance at the flower-wreathed face on the
+lid of the enchanted box, she seemed to perceive it slyly grinning at
+her.
+
+"That face looks very mischievous," thought Pandora. "I wonder whether
+it smiles because I am doing wrong! I have the greatest mind in the
+world to run away!"
+
+But just then, by the merest accident, she gave the knot a kind of a
+twist, which produced a wonderful result. The gold cord untwined itself,
+as if by magic, and left the box without a fastening.
+
+"This is the strangest thing I ever knew!" said Pandora. "What will
+Epimetheus say? And how can I possibly tie it up again?"
+
+She made one or two attempts to restore the knot, but soon found it
+quite beyond her skill. It had disentangled itself so suddenly that she
+could not in the least remember how the strings had been doubled into
+one another; and when she tried to recollect the shape and appearance of
+the knot, it seemed to have gone entirely out of her mind. Nothing was
+to be done, therefore, but let the box remain as it was, until
+Epimetheus should come in.
+
+"But," said Pandora, "when he finds the knot untied, he will know that I
+have done it. How shall I make him believe that I have not looked into
+the box?"
+
+And then the thought came into her naughty little heart, that, since she
+would be suspected of having looked into the box, she might just as well
+do so, at once. Oh, very naughty and very foolish Pandora! You should
+have thought only of doing what was right, and of leaving undone what
+was wrong, and not of what your playfellow Epimetheus would have said or
+believed. And so perhaps she might, if the enchanted face on the lid of
+the box had not looked so bewitchingly persuasive at her, and if she had
+not seemed to hear, more distinctly than before, the murmur of small
+voices within. She could not tell whether it was fancy or no; but there
+was quite a little tumult of whispers in her ear,--or else it was her
+curiosity that whispered:
+
+"Let us out, dear Pandora,--pray let us out! We will be such nice pretty
+playfellows for you! Only let us out!"
+
+"What can it be?" thought Pandora. "Is there something alive in the box?
+Well!--yes!--I am resolved to take just one peep! Only one peep; and
+then the lid shall be shut down as safely as ever! There cannot possibly
+be any harm in just one little peep!"
+
+But it is now time for us to see what Epimetheus was doing.
+
+This was the first time, since his little playmate had come to dwell
+with him, that he had attempted to enjoy any pleasure in which she did
+not partake. But nothing went right; nor was he nearly so happy as on
+other days. He could not find a sweet grape or a ripe fig (if Epimetheus
+had a fault, it was a little too much fondness for figs); or, if ripe at
+all, they were over-ripe, and so sweet as to be cloying. There was no
+mirth in his heart, such as usually made his voice gush out, of its own
+accord, and swell the merriment of his companions. In short, he grew so
+uneasy and discontented, that the other children could not imagine what
+was the matter with Epimetheus. Neither did he himself know what ailed
+him, any better than they did. For you must recollect that at the time
+we are speaking of, it was everybody's nature, and constant habit, to be
+happy. The world had not yet learned to be otherwise. Not a single soul
+or body, since these children were first sent to enjoy themselves on the
+beautiful earth, had ever been sick, or out of sorts.
+
+At length, discovering that, somehow or other, he put a stop to all the
+play, Epimetheus judged it best to go back to Pandora, who was in a
+humor better suited to his own. But, with a hope of giving her pleasure,
+he gathered some flowers, and made them into a wreath, which he meant to
+put upon her head. The flowers were very lovely,--roses, and lilies, and
+orange-blossoms, and a great many more, which left a trail of fragrance
+behind, as Epimetheus carried them along; and the wreath was put
+together with as much skill as could reasonably be expected of a boy.
+The fingers of little girls, it has always appeared to me, are the
+fittest to twine flower-wreaths; but boys could do it, in those days,
+rather better than they can now.
+
+And here I must mention that a great black cloud had been gathering in
+the sky, for some time past, although it had not yet overspread the sun.
+But, just as Epimetheus reached the cottage door, this cloud began to
+intercept the sunshine, and thus to make a sudden and sad obscurity.
+
+He entered softly; for he meant, if possible, to steal behind Pandora,
+and fling the wreath of flowers over her head, before she should be
+aware of his approach. But, as it happened, there was no need of his
+treading so very lightly. He might have trod as heavily as he
+pleased,--as heavily as a grown man,--as heavily, I was going to say, as
+an elephant,--without much probability of Pandora's hearing his
+footsteps. She was too intent upon her purpose. At the moment of his
+entering the cottage, the naughty child had put her hand to the lid, and
+was on the point of opening the mysterious box. Epimetheus beheld her.
+If he had cried out, Pandora would probably have withdrawn her hand, and
+the fatal mystery of the box might never have been known.
+
+But Epimetheus himself, although he said very little about it, had his
+own share of curiosity to know what was inside. Perceiving that Pandora
+was resolved to find out the secret, he determined that his playfellow
+should not be the only wise person in the cottage. And if there were
+anything pretty or valuable in the box, he meant to take half of it to
+himself. Thus, after all his sage speeches to Pandora about restraining
+her curiosity, Epimetheus turned out to be quite as foolish, and nearly
+as much in fault, as she. So, whenever we blame Pandora for what
+happened, we must not forget to shake our heads at Epimetheus likewise.
+
+As Pandora raised the lid, the cottage grew very dark and dismal; for
+the black cloud had now swept quite over the sun, and seemed to have
+buried it alive. There had, for a little while past, been a low growling
+and muttering, which all at once broke into a heavy peal of thunder. But
+Pandora, heeding nothing of all this, lifted the lid nearly upright, and
+looked inside. It seemed as if a sudden swarm of winged creatures
+brushed past her, taking flight out of the box, while, at the same
+instant, she heard the voice of Epimetheus, with a lamentable tone, as
+if he were in pain.
+
+"Oh, I am stung!" cried he. "I am stung! Naughty Pandora; why have you
+opened this wicked box?"
+
+Pandora let fall the lid, and, starting up, looked about her, to see
+what had befallen Epimetheus. The thunder-cloud had so darkened the room
+that she could not very clearly discern what was in it. But she heard a
+disagreeable buzzing, as if a great many huge flies, or gigantic
+mosquitoes, or those insects which we call dor-bugs and pinching-dogs,
+were darting about. And, as her eyes grew more accustomed to the
+imperfect light, she saw a crowd of ugly little shapes, with bats'
+wings, looking abominably spiteful, and armed with terribly long stings
+in their tails. It was one of these that had stung Epimetheus. Nor was
+it a great while before Pandora herself began to scream, in no less pain
+and affright than her playfellow, and making a vast deal more hubbub
+about it. An odious little monster had settled on her forehead, and
+would have stung her I know not how deeply, if Epimetheus had not run
+and brushed it away.
+
+Now, if you wish to know what these ugly things might be, which had made
+their escape out of the box, I must tell you that they were the whole
+family of earthly Troubles. There were evil Passions; there were a great
+many species of Cares; there were more than a hundred and fifty Sorrows;
+there were Diseases, in a vast number of miserable and painful shapes;
+there were more kinds of Naughtiness than it would be of any use to talk
+about. In short, everything that has since afflicted the souls and
+bodies of mankind had been shut up in the mysterious box, and given to
+Epimetheus and Pandora to be kept safely, in order that the happy
+children of the world might never be molested by them. Had they been
+faithful to their trust, all would have gone well. No grown person would
+ever have been sad, nor any child have had cause to shed a single tear,
+from that hour until this moment.
+
+But--and you may see by this how a wrong act of any one mortal is a
+calamity to the whole world--by Pandora's lifting the lid of that
+miserable box, and by the fault of Epimetheus, too, in not preventing
+her, these Troubles have obtained a foothold among us, and do not seem
+very likely to be driven away in a hurry. For it was impossible, as you
+will easily guess, that the two children should keep the ugly swarm in
+their own little cottage. On the contrary, the first thing that they did
+was to fling open the doors and windows, in hopes of getting rid of
+them; and, sure enough, away flew the winged Troubles all abroad, and
+so pestered and tormented the small people, everywhere about, that none
+of them so much as smiled for many days afterwards. And what was very
+singular, all the flowers and dewy blossoms on earth, not one of which
+had hitherto faded, now began to droop and shed their leaves, after a
+day or two. The children, moreover, who before seemed immortal in their
+childhood, now grew older, day by day, and came soon to be youths and
+maidens, and men and women by and by, and aged people, before they
+dreamed of such a thing.
+
+Meanwhile, the naughty Pandora, and hardly less naughty Epimetheus,
+remained in their cottage. Both of them had been grievously stung, and
+were in a good deal of pain, which seemed the more intolerable to them
+because it was the very first pain that had ever been felt since the
+world began. Of course, they were entirely unaccustomed to it, and could
+have no idea what it meant. Besides all this, they were in exceedingly
+bad humor, both with themselves and with one another. In order to
+indulge it to the utmost, Epimetheus sat down sullenly in a corner with
+his back towards Pandora; while Pandora flung herself upon the floor and
+rested her head on the fatal and abominable box. She was crying
+bitterly, and sobbing as if her heart would break.
+
+Suddenly there was a gentle little tap on the inside of the lid.
+
+"What can that be?" cried Pandora, lifting her head.
+
+But either Epimetheus had not heard the tap, or was too much out of
+humor to notice it. At any rate, he made no answer.
+
+"You are very unkind," said Pandora, sobbing anew, "not to speak to me!"
+
+Again the tap! It sounded like the tiny knuckles of a fairy's hand,
+knocking lightly and playfully on the inside of the box.
+
+"Who are you?" asked Pandora, with a little of her former curiosity.
+"Who are you, inside of this naughty box?"
+
+A sweet little voice spoke from within,
+
+"Only lift the lid, and you shall see."
+
+"No, no," answered Pandora, again beginning to sob. "I have had enough
+of lifting the lid! You are inside of the box, naughty creature, and
+there you shall stay! There are plenty of your ugly brothers and sisters
+already flying about the world. You need never think that I shall be so
+foolish as to let you out!"
+
+She looked towards Epimetheus, as she spoke, perhaps expecting that he
+would commend her for her wisdom. But the sullen boy only muttered that
+she was wise a little too late.
+
+"Ah," said the sweet little voice again, "you had much better let me
+out. I am not like those naughty creatures that have stings in their
+tails. They are no brothers and sisters of mine, as you would see at
+once, if you were only to get a glimpse of me. Come, come, my pretty
+Pandora! I am sure you will let me out!"
+
+And, indeed, there was a kind of cheerful witchery in the tone that made
+it almost impossible to refuse anything which this little voice asked.
+Pandora's heart had insensibly grown lighter at every word that came
+from within the box. Epimetheus, too, though still in the corner, had
+turned half round, and seemed to be in rather better spirits than
+before.
+
+"My dear Epimetheus," cried Pandora, "have you heard this little voice?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure I have," answered he, but in no very good humor as yet.
+"And what of it?"
+
+"Shall I lift the lid again?" asked Pandora.
+
+"Just as you please," said Epimetheus. "You have done so much mischief
+already that perhaps you may as well do a little more. One other
+Trouble, in such a swarm as you have let adrift about the world, can
+make no very great difference."
+
+"You might speak a little more kindly!" murmured Pandora, wiping her
+eyes.
+
+"Ah, naughty boy!" cried the little voice within the box, in an arch and
+laughing tone. "He knows he is longing to see me. Come, my dear Pandora,
+lift up the lid. I am in a great hurry to comfort you. Only let me have
+some fresh air, and you shall soon see that matters are not quite so
+dismal as you think them."
+
+"Epimetheus," exclaimed Pandora, "come what may, I am resolved to open
+the box."
+
+"And, as the lid seems very heavy," cried Epimetheus, running across the
+room, "I will help you!"
+
+So, with one consent, the two children again lifted the lid. Out flew a
+sunny and smiling little personage, and hovered about the room, throwing
+a light wherever she went. Have you never made the sunshine dance into
+the dark corners by reflecting it from a bit of looking-glass? Well, so
+looked the winged cheerfulness of this fairy-like stranger amid the
+gloom of the cottage. She flew to Epimetheus, and laid the least touch
+of her finger on the inflamed spot where the Trouble had stung him, and
+immediately the anguish of it was gone. Then she kissed Pandora on the
+forehead, and her hurt was cured likewise.
+
+After performing these good offices, the bright stranger fluttered
+sportively over the children's heads, and looked so sweetly at them,
+that they both began to think it not so very much amiss to have opened
+the box, since, otherwise, their cheery guest must have been kept a
+prisoner among those naughty imps with stings in their tails.
+
+"Pray, who are you, beautiful creature?" inquired Pandora.
+
+"I am to be called Hope!" answered the sunshiny figure. "And because I
+am such a cheery little body, I was packed into the box to make amends
+to the human race for that swarm of ugly Troubles which was destined to
+be let loose among them. Never fear! we shall do pretty well, in spite
+of them all."
+
+"Your wings are colored like the rainbow!" exclaimed Pandora. "How very
+beautiful!"
+
+"Yes, they are like the rainbow," said Hope, "because, glad as my nature
+is, I am partly made of tears as well as smiles."
+
+"And will you stay with us," asked Epimetheus, "forever and ever?"
+
+"As long as you need me," said Hope, with her pleasant smile,--"and that
+will be as long as you live in the world,--I promise never to desert
+you. There may come times and seasons, now and then, when you will think
+that I have utterly vanished. But again, and again, and again, when
+perhaps you least dream of it, you shall see the glimmer of my wings on
+the ceiling of your cottage. Yes, my dear children, and I know
+something very good and beautiful that is to be given you hereafter!"
+
+"Oh, tell us," they exclaimed--"tell us what it is!"
+
+"Do not ask me," replied Hope, putting her finger on her rosy mouth.
+"But do not despair, even if it should never happen while you live on
+this earth. Trust in my promise, for it is true."
+
+"We do trust you!" cried Epimetheus and Pandora, both in one breath.
+
+And so they did; and not only they, but so has everybody trusted Hope,
+that has since been alive. And, to tell you the truth, I cannot help
+being glad--(though, to be sure, it was an uncommonly naughty thing for
+her to do)--but I cannot help being glad that our foolish Pandora peeped
+into the box. No doubt--no doubt--the Troubles are still flying about
+the world, and have increased in multitude, rather than lessened, and
+are a very ugly set of imps, and carry most venomous stings in their
+tails. I have felt them already, and expect to feel them more as I grow
+older. But then that lovely and lightsome little figure of Hope! What in
+the world could we do without her? Hope spiritualizes the earth; Hope
+makes it always new; and, even in the earth's best and brightest aspect,
+Hope shows it to be only the shadow of an infinite bliss hereafter!
+
+
+
+257
+
+ "The Miraculous Pitcher," taken from _A
+ Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys_, is Hawthorne's
+ version of the Greek myth of Baucis and
+ Philemon. The two mysterious visitors are
+ Jupiter and Mercury, who, according to the
+ Greek myth, visited earth in disguise and were
+ entertained by Baucis and Philemon.
+
+
+THE MIRACULOUS PITCHER
+
+NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
+
+One evening, in times long ago, old Philemon and his old wife Baucis sat
+at their cottage door, enjoying the calm and beautiful sunset. They had
+already eaten their frugal supper, and intended now to spend a quiet
+hour or two before bedtime. So they talked together about their garden
+and their cow, and their bees, and their grape-vine, which clambered
+over the cottage-wall, and on which the grapes were beginning to turn
+purple. But the rude shouts of children and the fierce barking of dogs,
+in the village near at hand, grew louder and louder, until, at last, it
+was hardly possible for Baucis and Philemon to hear each other speak.
+
+"Ah, wife," cried Philemon, "I fear some poor traveler is seeking
+hospitality among our neighbors yonder, and, instead of giving him food
+and lodging, they have set their dogs at him, as their custom is!"
+
+"Well-a-day!" answered old Baucis, "I do wish our neighbors felt a
+little more kindness for their fellow-creatures. And only think of
+bringing up their children in this naughty way, and patting them on the
+head when they fling stones at strangers!"
+
+"Those children will never come to any good," said Philemon, shaking his
+white head. "To tell you the truth, wife, I should not wonder if some
+terrible thing were to happen to all the people in the village, unless
+they mend their manners. But, as for you and me, so long as Providence
+affords us a crust of bread, let us be ready to give half to any poor,
+homeless stranger that may come along and need it."
+
+"That's right, husband!" said Baucis. "So we will!"
+
+These old folks, you must know, were quite poor, and had to work pretty
+hard for a living. Old Philemon toiled diligently in his garden, while
+Baucis was always busy with her distaff, or making a little butter and
+cheese with their cow's milk, or doing one thing and another about the
+cottage. Their food was seldom anything but bread, milk, and vegetables,
+with sometimes a portion of honey from their beehive, and now and then a
+bunch of grapes, that had ripened against the cottage wall. But they
+were two of the kindest old people in the world, and would cheerfully
+have gone without their dinners, any day, rather than refuse a slice of
+their brown loaf, a cup of nice milk, and a spoonful of honey, to the
+weary traveler who might pause before their door. They felt as if such
+guests had a sort of holiness, and that they ought, therefore, to treat
+them better and more bountifully than their own selves.
+
+Their cottage stood on a rising ground, at some short distance from a
+village, which lay in a hollow valley, that was about half a mile in
+breadth. This valley, in past ages, when the world was new, had probably
+been the bed of a lake. There, fishes had glided to and fro in the
+depths, and water-weeds had grown along the margin, and trees and hills
+had seen their reflected images in the broad and peaceful mirror. But,
+as the waters subsided, men had cultivated the soil, and built houses on
+it, so that it was now a fertile spot, and bore no traces of the ancient
+lake, except a very small brook, which meandered through the midst of
+the village, and supplied the inhabitants with water. The valley had
+been dry land so long that oaks had sprung up, and grown great and high,
+and perished with old age, and been succeeded by others, as tall and
+stately as the first. Never was there a prettier or more fruitful
+valley. The very sight of the plenty around them should have made the
+inhabitants kind and gentle and ready to show their gratitude to
+Providence by doing good to their fellow-creatures.
+
+But, we are sorry to say, the people of this lovely village were not
+worthy to dwell in a spot on which Heaven had smiled so beneficently.
+They were a very selfish and hard-hearted people, and had no pity for
+the poor, nor sympathy with the homeless. They would only have laughed
+had anybody told them that human beings owe a debt of love to one
+another, because there is no other method of paying the debt of love and
+care which all of us owe to Providence. You will hardly believe what I
+am going to tell you. These naughty people taught their children to be
+no better than themselves, and used to clap their hands, by way of
+encouragement, when they saw the little boys and girls run after some
+poor stranger, shouting at his heels, and pelting him with stones. They
+kept large and fierce dogs, and whenever a traveler ventured to show
+himself in the village street, this pack of disagreeable curs scampered
+to meet him, barking, snarling, and showing their teeth. Then they would
+seize him by his leg, or by his clothes, just as it happened; and if he
+were ragged when he came, he was generally a pitiable object before he
+had time to run away. This was a very terrible thing to poor travelers,
+as you may suppose, especially when they chanced to be sick, or feeble,
+or lame, or old. Such persons (if they once knew how badly these unkind
+people, and their unkind children and curs, were in the habit of
+behaving) would go miles and miles out of their way rather than try to
+pass through the village again.
+
+What made the matter seem worse, if possible, was that when rich persons
+came in their chariots, or riding on beautiful horses, with their
+servants in rich liveries attending on them, nobody could be more civil
+and obsequious than the inhabitants of the village. They would take off
+their hats, and make the humblest bows you ever saw. If the children
+were rude, they were pretty certain to get their ears boxed; and as for
+the dogs, if a single cur in the pack presumed to yelp, his master
+instantly beat him with a club, and tied him up without any supper. This
+would have been all very well, only it proved that the villagers cared
+much about the money that a stranger had in his pocket, and nothing
+whatever for the human soul, which lives equally in the beggar and the
+prince.
+
+So now you can understand why old Philemon spoke so sorrowfully when he
+heard the shouts of the children and the barking of the dogs at the
+further extremity of the village street. There was a confused din, which
+lasted a good while, and seemed to pass quite through the breadth of the
+valley.
+
+"I never heard the dogs so loud!" observed the good old man.
+
+"Nor the children so rude!" answered his good old wife.
+
+They sat shaking their heads, one to another, while the noise came
+nearer and nearer; until, at the foot of the little eminence on which
+their cottage stood, they saw two travelers approaching on foot. Close
+behind them came the fierce dogs, snarling at their very heels. A little
+farther off, ran a crowd of children, who sent up shrill cries, and
+flung stones at the two strangers, with all their might. Once or twice,
+the younger of the two men (he was a slender and very active figure)
+turned about, and drove back the dogs with a staff which he carried in
+his hand. His companion, who was a very tall person, walked calmly
+along, as if disdaining to notice either the naughty children or the
+pack of curs, whose manners the children seemed to imitate.
+
+Both of the travelers were very humbly clad, and looked as if they might
+not have money enough in their pockets to pay for a night's lodging. And
+this, I am afraid, was the reason why the villagers had allowed their
+children and dogs to treat them so rudely.
+
+"Come, wife," said Philemon to Baucis, "let us go and meet these poor
+people. No doubt they feel almost too heavy-hearted to climb the hill."
+
+"Go you and meet them," answered Baucis, "while I make haste within
+doors and see whether we can get them anything for supper. A comfortable
+bowl of bread and milk would do wonders towards raising their spirits."
+
+Accordingly, she hastened into the cottage. Philemon, on his part, went
+forward and extended his hand with so hospitable an aspect that there
+was no need of saying, what nevertheless he did say, in the heartiest
+tone imaginable,--
+
+"Welcome, strangers! welcome!"
+
+"Thank you!" replied the younger of the two, in a lively kind of way,
+notwithstanding his weariness and trouble. "This is quite another
+greeting than we have met with yonder, in the village. Pray, why do you
+live in such a bad neighborhood?"
+
+"Ah," observed old Philemon, with a quiet and benign smile, "Providence
+put me here, I hope, among other reasons, in order that I may make you
+what amends I can for the inhospitality of my neighbors."
+
+"Well said, old father!" said the traveler, laughing; "and, if the truth
+must be told, my companion and myself need some amends. Those children
+(the little rascals!) have bespattered us finely with their mud-balls;
+and one of the curs has torn my cloak, which was ragged enough already.
+But I took him across the muzzle with my staff; and I think you may have
+heard him yelp, even thus far off."
+
+Philemon was glad to see him in such good spirits; nor, indeed, would
+you have fancied, by the traveler's look and manner, that he was weary
+with a long day's journey, besides being disheartened by rough treatment
+at the end of it. He was dressed in rather an odd way, with a sort of
+cap on his head, the brim of which stuck out over both ears. Though it
+was a summer evening, he wore a cloak, which he kept wrapt closely about
+him, perhaps because his under garments were shabby. Philemon perceived,
+too, that he had on a singular pair of shoes; but, as it was now growing
+dusk, and as the old man's eyesight was none the sharpest, he could not
+precisely tell in what the strangeness consisted. One thing, certainly,
+seemed queer. The traveler was so wonderfully light and active, that it
+appeared as if his feet sometimes rose from the ground of their own
+accord, or could only be kept down by an effort.
+
+"I used to be light-footed, in my youth," said Philemon to the traveler.
+"But I always found my feet grow heavier towards nightfall."
+
+"There is nothing like a good staff to help one along," answered the
+stranger; "and I happen to have an excellent one, as you see."
+
+This staff, in fact, was the oddest-looking staff that Philemon had ever
+beheld. It was made of olive-wood, and had something like a little pair
+of wings near the top. Two snakes, carved in the wood, were represented
+as twining themselves about the staff, and were so very skillfully
+executed that old Philemon (whose eyes, you know, were getting rather
+dim) almost thought them alive, and that he could see them wriggling and
+twisting.
+
+"A curious piece of work, sure enough!" said he. "A staff with wings! It
+would be an excellent kind of stick for a little boy to ride astride
+of!"
+
+By this time, Philemon and his two guests had reached the cottage door.
+
+"Friends," said the old man, "sit down and rest yourselves here on this
+bench. My good wife Baucis has gone to see what you can have for supper.
+We are poor folks; but you shall be welcome to whatever we have in the
+cupboard."
+
+The younger stranger threw himself carelessly on the bench, letting his
+staff fall as he did so. And here happened something rather marvelous,
+though trifling enough, too. The staff seemed to get up from the ground
+of its own accord, and, spreading its little pair of wings, it half
+hopped, half flew, and leaned itself against the wall of the cottage.
+There it stood quite still, except that the snakes continued to wriggle.
+But, in my private opinion, old Philemon's eyesight had been playing him
+tricks again.
+
+Before he could ask any questions, the elder stranger drew his attention
+from the wonderful staff by speaking to him.
+
+"Was there not," asked the stranger, in a remarkably deep tone of voice,
+"a lake, in very ancient times, covering the spot where now stands
+yonder village?"
+
+"Not in my day, friend," answered Philemon; "and yet I am an old man, as
+you see. There were always the fields and meadows, just as they are now,
+and the old trees, and the little stream murmuring through the midst of
+the valley. My father, nor his father before him, ever saw it otherwise,
+so far as I know; and doubtless it will still be the same when old
+Philemon shall be gone and forgotten!"
+
+"That is more than can be safely foretold," observed the stranger; and
+there was something very stern in his deep voice. He shook his head,
+too, so that his dark and heavy curls were shaken with the movement.
+"Since the inhabitants of yonder village have forgotten the affections
+and sympathies of their nature, it were better that the lake should be
+rippling over their dwellings again!"
+
+The traveler looked so stern that Philemon was really almost frightened;
+the more so, that, at his frown, the twilight seemed suddenly to grow
+darker, and that, when he shook his head, there was a roll as of thunder
+in the air.
+
+But, in a moment afterwards, the stranger's face became so kindly and
+mild that the old man quite forgot his terror. Nevertheless, he could
+not help feeling that this elder traveler must be no ordinary personage,
+although he happened now to be attired so humbly, and to be journeying
+on foot. Not that Philemon fancied him a prince in disguise, or any
+character of that sort; but rather some exceedingly wise man, who went
+about the world in this poor garb, despising wealth and all worldly
+objects, and seeking everywhere to add a mite to his wisdom. This idea
+appeared the more probable, because, when Philemon raised his eyes to
+the stranger's face, he seemed to see more thought there, in one look,
+than he could have studied out in a lifetime.
+
+While Baucis was getting the supper, the travelers both began to talk
+very sociably with Philemon. The younger, indeed, was extremely
+loquacious, and made such shrewd and witty remarks, that the good old
+man continually burst out a-laughing, and pronounced him the merriest
+fellow whom he had seen for many a day.
+
+"Pray, my young friend," said he, as they grew familiar together, "what
+may I call your name?"
+
+"Why, I am very nimble, as you see," answered the traveler. "So, if you
+call me Quicksilver, the name will fit tolerably well."
+
+"Quicksilver? Quicksilver!" repeated Philemon, looking in the traveler's
+face, to see if he were making fun of him. "It is a very odd name! And
+your companion there? Has he as strange a one?"
+
+"You must ask the thunder to tell you it!" replied Quicksilver, putting
+on a mysterious look. "No other voice is loud enough."
+
+This remark, whether it were serious or in jest, might have caused
+Philemon to conceive a very great awe of the elder stranger, if, on
+venturing to gaze at him, he had not beheld so much beneficence in his
+visage. But, undoubtedly, here was the grandest figure that ever sat so
+humbly beside a cottage door. When the stranger conversed, it was with
+gravity, and in such a way that Philemon felt irresistibly moved to tell
+him everything which he had most at heart. This is always the feeling
+that people have, when they meet with any one wise enough to comprehend
+all their good and evil, and to despise not a tittle of it.
+
+But Philemon, simple and kind-hearted old man that he was, had not many
+secrets to disclose. He talked, however, quite garrulously, about the
+events of his past life, in the whole course of which he had never been
+a score of miles from this very spot. His wife Baucis and himself had
+dwelt in the cottage from their youth upward, earning their bread by
+honest labor, always poor, but still contented. He told what excellent
+butter and cheese Baucis made and how nice were the vegetables which he
+raised in his garden. He said, too, that, because they loved one another
+so very much, it was the wish of both that death might not separate
+them, but that they should die, as they had lived, together.
+
+As the stranger listened, a smile beamed over his countenance, and made
+its expression as sweet as it was grand.
+
+"You are a good old man," said he to Philemon, "and you have a good old
+wife to be your helpmeet. It is fit that your wish be granted."
+
+And it seemed to Philemon, just then, as if the sunset clouds threw up a
+bright flash from the west, and kindled a sudden light in the sky.
+
+Baucis had now got supper ready, and coming to the door, began to make
+apologies for the poor fare which she was forced to set before her
+guests.
+
+"Had we known you were coming," said she, "my good man and myself would
+have gone without a morsel, rather than you should lack a better supper.
+But I took the most part of to-day's milk to make cheese; and our last
+loaf is already half eaten. Ah me! I never feel the sorrow of being
+poor, save when a poor traveler knocks at our door."
+
+"All will be very well; do not trouble yourself, my good dame," replied
+the elder stranger, kindly. "An honest hearty welcome to a guest works
+miracles with the fare, and is capable of turning the coarsest food to
+nectar and ambrosia."
+
+"A welcome you shall have," cried Baucis, "and likewise a little honey
+that we happen to have left, and a bunch of purple grapes besides."
+
+"Why, Mother Baucis, it is a feast!" exclaimed Quicksilver, laughing,
+"an absolute feast! And you shall see how bravely I will play my part at
+it! I think I never felt hungrier in my life."
+
+"Mercy on us!" whispered Baucis to her husband. "If the young man has
+such a terrible appetite, I am afraid there will not be half enough
+supper!"
+
+They all went into the cottage.
+
+And now, my little auditors, shall I tell you something that will make
+you open your eyes very wide? It is really one of the oddest
+circumstances in the whole story. Quicksilver's staff, you recollect,
+had set itself up against the wall of the cottage. Well, when its master
+entered the door, leaving this wonderful staff behind, what should it do
+but immediately spread its little wings, and go hopping and fluttering
+up the doorsteps! Tap, tap, went the staff, on the kitchen floor; nor
+did it rest until it had stood itself on end, with the greatest gravity
+and decorum, beside Quicksilver's chair. Old Philemon, however, as well
+as his wife, was so taken up in attending to their guests, that no
+notice was given to what the staff had been about.
+
+As Baucis had said, there was but a scanty supper for two hungry
+travelers. In the middle of the table was the remnant of a brown loaf,
+with a piece of cheese on one side of it, and a dish of honeycomb on the
+other. There was a pretty good bunch of grapes for each of the guests.
+A moderately sized earthen pitcher, nearly full of milk, stood at a
+corner of the board; and when Baucis had filled two bowls, and set them
+before the strangers, only a little milk remained in the bottom of the
+pitcher. Alas! it is a very sad business, when a bountiful heart finds
+itself pinched and squeezed among narrow circumstances. Poor Baucis kept
+wishing that she might starve for a week to come, if it were possible,
+by so doing, to provide these hungry folks a more plentiful supper.
+
+And, since the supper was so exceedingly small, she could not help
+wishing that their appetites had not been quite so large. Why, at their
+very first sitting down, the travelers both drank off all the milk in
+their two bowls, at a draught.
+
+"A little more milk, kind Mother Baucis, if you please," said
+Quicksilver. "The day has been hot, and I am very much athirst."
+
+"Now, my dear people," answered Baucis, in great confusion, "I am so
+sorry and ashamed! But the truth is, there is hardly a drop more milk in
+the pitcher. O husband! husband! why didn't we go without our supper?"
+
+"Why, it appears to me," cried Quicksilver, starting up from the table
+and taking the pitcher by the handle, "it really appears to me that
+matters are not quite so bad as you represent them. Here is certainly
+more milk in the pitcher."
+
+So saying, and to the vast astonishment of Baucis, he proceeded to fill,
+not only his own bowl, but his companion's likewise, from the pitcher,
+that was supposed to be almost empty. The good woman could scarcely
+believe her eyes. She had certainly poured out nearly all the milk, and
+had peeped in afterwards, and seen the bottom of the pitcher, as she set
+it down upon the table.
+
+"But I am old," thought Baucis to herself, "and apt to be forgetful. I
+suppose I must have made a mistake. At all events, the pitcher cannot
+help being empty now, after filling the bowls twice over."
+
+"What excellent milk!" observed Quicksilver, after quaffing the contents
+of the second bowl. "Excuse me, my kind hostess, but I must really ask
+you for a little more."
+
+Now Baucis had seen, as plainly as she could see anything, that
+Quicksilver had turned the pitcher upside down, and consequently had
+poured out every drop of milk, in filling the last bowl. Of course,
+there could not possibly be any left. However, in order to let him know
+precisely how the case was, she lifted the pitcher, and made a gesture
+as if pouring milk into Quicksilver's bowl, but without the remotest
+idea that any milk would stream forth. What was her surprise, therefore,
+when such an abundant cascade fell bubbling into the bowl, that it was
+immediately filled to the brim, and overflowed upon the table! The two
+snakes that were twisted about Quicksilver's staff (but neither Baucis
+nor Philemon happened to observe this circumstance) stretched out their
+heads, and began to lap up the spilt milk.
+
+And then what a delicious fragrance the milk had! It seemed as if
+Philemon's only cow must have pastured, that day, on the richest herbage
+that could be found anywhere in the world. I only wish that each of you,
+my beloved little souls, could have a bowl of such nice milk at
+supper-time!
+
+"And now a slice of your brown loaf, Mother Baucis," said Quicksilver,
+"and a little of that honey!"
+
+Baucis cut him a slice, accordingly; and though the loaf, when she and
+her husband ate of it, had been rather too dry and crusty to be
+palatable, it was now as light and moist as if but a few hours out of
+the oven. Tasting a crumb, which had fallen on the table, she found it
+more delicious than bread ever was before, and could hardly believe that
+it was a loaf of her own kneading and baking. Yet, what other loaf could
+it possibly be?
+
+But, oh, the honey! I may just as well let it alone, without trying to
+describe how exquisitely it smelt and looked. Its color was that of the
+purest and most transparent gold; and it had the odor of a thousand
+flowers; but of such flowers as never grew in an earthly garden, and to
+seek which the bees must have flown high above the clouds. The wonder
+is, that, after alighting on a flower-bed of so delicious fragrance and
+immortal bloom, they should have been content to fly down again to their
+hive in Philemon's garden. Never was such honey tasted, seen, or smelt.
+The perfume floated around the kitchen, and made it so delightful, that,
+had you closed your eyes, you would instantly have forgotten the low
+ceiling and smoky walls, and have fancied yourself in an arbor, with
+celestial honeysuckles creeping over it.
+
+Although good Mother Baucis was a simple old dame, she could not but
+think that there was something rather out of the common way in all that
+had been going on. So, after helping the guests to bread and honey, and
+laying a bunch of grapes by each of their plates, she sat down by
+Philemon, and told him what she had seen, in a whisper.
+
+"Did you ever hear the like?" asked she.
+
+"No, I never did," answered Philemon, with a smile. "And I rather think,
+my dear old wife, you have been walking about in a sort of a dream. If I
+had poured out the milk, I should have seen through the business at
+once. There happened to be a little more in the pitcher than you
+thought,--that is all."
+
+"Ah, husband," said Baucis, "say what you will, these are very uncommon
+people."
+
+"Well, well," replied Philemon, still smiling, "perhaps they are. They
+certainly do look as if they had seen better days; and I am heartily
+glad to see them making so comfortable a supper."
+
+Each of the guests had now taken his bunch of grapes upon his plate.
+Baucis (who rubbed her eyes, in order to see the more clearly) was of
+opinion that the clusters had grown larger and richer, and that each
+separate grape seemed to be on the point of bursting with ripe juice. It
+was entirely a mystery to her how such grapes could ever have been
+produced from the old stunted vine that climbed against the cottage
+wall.
+
+"Very admirable grapes, these!" observed Quicksilver, as he swallowed
+one after another, without apparently diminishing his cluster. "Pray, my
+good host, whence did you gather them?"
+
+"From my own vine," answered Philemon. "You may see one of its branches
+twisting across the window, yonder. But wife and I never thought the
+grapes very fine ones."
+
+"I never tasted better," said the guest. "Another cup of this delicious
+milk, if you please, and I shall then have supped better than a
+prince."
+
+This time, old Philemon bestirred himself, and took up the pitcher; for
+he was curious to discover whether there was any reality in the marvels
+which Baucis had whispered to him. He knew that his good old wife was
+incapable of falsehood, and that she was seldom mistaken in what she
+supposed to be true; but this was so very singular a case that he wanted
+to see into it with his own eyes. On taking up the pitcher, therefore,
+he slyly peeped into it, and was fully satisfied that it contained not
+so much as a single drop. All at once, however, he beheld a little white
+fountain, which gushed up from the bottom of the pitcher, and speedily
+filled it to the brim with foaming and deliciously fragrant milk. It was
+lucky that Philemon, in his surprise, did not drop the miraculous
+pitcher from his hand.
+
+"Who are ye, wonder-working strangers?" cried he, even more bewildered
+than his wife had been.
+
+"Your guests, my good Philemon, and your friends," replied the elder
+traveler, in his mild, deep voice, that had something at once sweet and
+awe-inspiring in it. "Give me likewise a cup of the milk; and may your
+pitcher never be empty for kind Baucis and yourself, any more than for
+the needy wayfarer!"
+
+The supper being now over, the strangers requested to be shown to their
+place of repose. The old people would gladly have talked with them a
+little longer, and have expressed the wonder which they felt, and their
+delight at finding the poor and meager supper prove so much better and
+more abundant than they hoped. But the elder traveler had inspired them
+with such reverence that they dared not ask him any questions. And when
+Philemon drew Quicksilver aside, and inquired how under the sun a
+fountain of milk could have got into an old earthen pitcher, this latter
+personage pointed to his staff.
+
+"There is the whole mystery of the affair," quoth Quicksilver; "and if
+you can make it out, I'll thank you to let me know. I can't tell what to
+make of my staff. It is always playing such odd tricks as this;
+sometimes getting me a supper, and quite as often stealing it away. If I
+had any faith in such nonsense, I should say the stick was bewitched!"
+
+He said no more, but looked so slyly in their faces, that they rather
+fancied he was laughing at them. The magic staff went hopping at his
+heels, as Quicksilver quitted the room. When left alone, the good old
+couple spent some little time in conversation about the events of the
+evening, and then lay down on the floor, and fell fast asleep. They had
+given up their sleeping-room to the guests, and had no other bed for
+themselves, save these planks, which I wish had been as soft as their
+own hearts.
+
+The old man and his wife were stirring, betimes, in the morning, and the
+strangers likewise arose with the sun, and made their preparations to
+depart. Philemon hospitably entreated them to remain a little longer,
+until Baucis could milk the cow, and bake a cake upon the hearth, and,
+perhaps, find them a few fresh eggs, for breakfast. The guests, however,
+seemed to think it better to accomplish a good part of their journey
+before the heat of the day should come on. They, therefore, persisted in
+setting out immediately, but asked Philemon and Baucis to walk forth
+with them a short distance, and show them the road which they were to
+take.
+
+So they all four issued from the cottage, chatting together like old
+friends. It was very remarkable, indeed, how familiar the old couple
+insensibly grew with the elder traveler, and how their good and simple
+spirits melted into his, even as two drops of water would melt into the
+illimitable ocean. And as for Quicksilver, with his keen, quick,
+laughing wits, he appeared to discover every little thought that but
+peeped into their minds, before they suspected it themselves. They
+sometimes wished, it is true, that he had not been quite so
+quick-witted, and also that he would fling away his staff, which looked
+so mysteriously mischievous, with the snakes always writhing about it.
+But then, again, Quicksilver showed himself so very good-humored, that
+they would have been rejoiced to keep him in their cottage, staff,
+snakes, and all, every day, and the whole day long.
+
+"Ah, me! Well-a-day!" exclaimed Philemon, when they had walked a little
+way from their door. "If our neighbors only knew what a blessed thing it
+is to show hospitality to strangers, they would tie up all their dogs,
+and never allow their children to fling another stone."
+
+"It is a sin and shame for them to behave so,--that it is!" cried good
+old Baucis, vehemently. "And I mean to go this very day and tell some of
+them what naughty people they are!"
+
+"I fear," remarked Quicksilver, slyly smiling, "that you will find none
+of them at home."
+
+The elder traveler's brow, just then, assumed such a grave, stern, and
+awful grandeur, yet serene withal, that neither Baucis nor Philemon
+dared to speak a word. They gazed reverently into his face, as if they
+had been gazing at the sky.
+
+"When men do not feel towards the humblest stranger as if he were a
+brother," said the traveler, in tones so deep they sounded like those of
+an organ, "they are unworthy to exist on earth, which was created as the
+abode of a great human brotherhood!"
+
+"And, by the by, my dear old people," cried Quicksilver, with the
+liveliest look of fun and mischief in his eyes, "where is this same
+village that you talk about? On which side of us does it lie? Methinks I
+do not see it hereabouts."
+
+Philemon and his wife turned towards the valley, where, at sunset, only
+the day before, they had seen the meadows, the houses, the gardens, the
+clumps of trees, the wide, green-margined street, with children playing
+in it, and all the tokens of business, enjoyment, and prosperity. But
+what was their astonishment! There was no longer any appearance of a
+village! Even the fertile vale, in the hollow of which it lay, had
+ceased to have existence. In its stead, they beheld the broad, blue
+surface of a lake, which filled the great basin of the valley from brim
+to brim, and reflected the surrounding hills in its bosom, with as
+tranquil an image as if it had been there ever since the creation of the
+world. For an instant, the lake remained perfectly smooth. Then, a
+little breeze sprang up, and caused the water to dance, glitter, and
+sparkle in the early sunbeams, and to dash, with a pleasant rippling
+murmur, against the hither shore.
+
+The lake seemed so strangely familiar, that the old couple were greatly
+perplexed, and felt as if they could only have been dreaming about a
+village having lain there. But, the next moment, they remembered the
+vanished dwellings, and the faces and characters of the inhabitants,
+far too distinctly for a dream. The village had been there yesterday,
+and now was gone!
+
+"Alas!" cried these kind-hearted old people, "what has become of our
+poor neighbors!"
+
+"They exist no longer as men and women," said the elder traveler, in his
+grand and deep voice, while a roll of thunder seemed to echo it at a
+distance. "There was neither use nor beauty in such a life as theirs;
+for they never softened or sweetened the hard lot of mortality by the
+exercise of kindly affections between man and man. They retained no
+image of the better life in their bosoms: therefore, the lake, that was
+of old, has spread itself forth again, to reflect the sky!"
+
+"And as for those foolish people," said Quicksilver, with his
+mischievous smile, "they are all transformed to fishes. There needed but
+little change, for they were already a scaly set of rascals, and the
+coldest-blooded beings in existence. So, kind Mother Baucis, whenever
+you or your husband have an appetite for a dish of broiled trout, he can
+throw in a line, and pull out half a dozen of your old neighbors!"
+
+"Ah," cried Baucis, shuddering, "I would not, for the world, put one of
+them on the gridiron!"
+
+"No," added Philemon, making a wry face, "we could never relish them!"
+
+"As for you, good Philemon," continued the elder traveler,--"and you,
+kind Baucis,--you, with your scanty means, have mingled so much
+heartfelt hospitality with your entertainment of the homeless stranger,
+that the milk became an inexhaustible fount of nectar, and the brown
+loaf and the honey were ambrosia. Thus, the divinities have feasted, at
+your board, off the same viands that supply their banquets on Olympus.
+You have done well, my dear old friends. Wherefore, request whatever
+favor you have most at heart, and it is granted."
+
+Philemon and Baucis looked at one another, and then,--I know not which
+of the two it was who spoke, but that one uttered the desire of both
+their hearts.
+
+"Let us live together, while we live, and leave the world at the same
+instant, when we die! For we have always loved one another!"
+
+"Be it so!" replied the stranger, with majestic kindness. "Now, look
+towards your cottage!"
+
+They did so. But what was their surprise on beholding a tall edifice of
+white marble, with a wide-open portal, occupying the spot where their
+humble residence had so lately stood!
+
+"There is your home," said the stranger, beneficently smiling on them
+both. "Exercise your hospitality in yonder palace as freely as in the
+poor hovel to which you welcomed us last evening."
+
+The old folks fell on their knees to thank him; but, behold! neither he
+nor Quicksilver was there.
+
+So Philemon and Baucis took up their residence in the marble palace, and
+spent their time, with vast satisfaction to themselves, in making
+everybody jolly and comfortable who happened to pass that way. The
+milk-pitcher, I must not forget to say, retained its marvelous quality
+of being never empty, when it was desirable to have it full. Whenever an
+honest, good-humored, and free-hearted guest took a draught from this
+pitcher, he invariably found it the sweetest and most invigorating fluid
+that ever ran down his throat. But, if a cross and disagreeable
+curmudgeon happened to sip, he was pretty certain to twist his visage
+into a hard knot, and pronounce it a pitcher of sour milk!
+
+Thus the old couple lived in their palace a great, great while, and grew
+older and older, and very old indeed. At length, however, there came a
+summer morning when Philemon and Baucis failed to make their appearance,
+as on other mornings, with one hospitable smile overspreading both their
+pleasant faces, to invite the guests of over-night to breakfast. The
+guests searched everywhere, from top to bottom of the spacious palace,
+and all to no purpose. But, after a great deal of perplexity, they
+espied, in front of the portal, two venerable trees, which nobody could
+remember to have seen there the day before. Yet there they stood, with
+their roots fastened deep into the soil, and a huge breadth of foliage
+overshadowing the whole front of the edifice. One was an oak, and the
+other a linden-tree. Their boughs--it was strange and beautiful to
+see--were intertwined together, and embraced one another, so that each
+tree seemed to live in the other's bosom, much more than in its own.
+
+While the guests were marveling how these trees, that must have required
+at least a century to grow, could have come to be so tall and venerable
+in a single night, a breeze sprang up, and set their intermingled boughs
+astir. And then there was a deep, broad murmur in the air, as if the two
+mysterious trees were speaking.
+
+"I am old Philemon!" murmured the oak.
+
+"I am old Baucis!" murmured the linden-tree.
+
+But, as the breeze grew stronger, the trees both spoke at
+once,--"Philemon! Baucis! Baucis! Philemon!"--as if one were both and
+both were one, and talking together in the depths of their mutual heart.
+It was plain enough to perceive that the good old couple had renewed
+their age, and were now to spend a quiet and delightful hundred years or
+so, Philemon as an oak, and Baucis as a linden-tree. And oh, what a
+hospitable shade did they fling around them! Whenever a wayfarer paused
+beneath it, he heard a pleasant whisper of the leaves above his head,
+and wondered how the sound should so much resemble words like these:--
+
+"Welcome, welcome, dear traveler, welcome!"
+
+And some kind soul, that knew what would have pleased old Baucis and old
+Philemon best, built a circular seat around both their trunks, where,
+for a great while afterwards, the weary, and the hungry, and the thirsty
+used to repose themselves, and quaff milk abundantly out of the
+miraculous pitcher.
+
+And I wish, for all our sakes, that we had the pitcher here now!
+
+
+
+258
+
+ One of the very satisfactory attempts to retell
+ the classic myths for young readers is to be
+ found in _Gods and Heroes_ by R. E. Francillon.
+ The stories are brought together into a "single
+ _saga_, free from inconsistencies and
+ contradictions." This gives the book all the
+ charm of a single story made of many dramatic
+ episodes. Francillon's version of the familiar
+ tale of Narcissus and Echo follows by
+ permission of the publishers. (Copyright. Ginn
+ & Co., Boston.)
+
+
+THE NARCISSUS
+
+R. E. FRANCILLON
+
+There was a very beautiful nymph named Echo, who had never, in all her
+life, seen anybody handsomer than the god Pan. You have read that Pan
+was the chief of all the Satyrs, and what hideous monsters the Satyrs
+were. So, when Pan made love to her, she very naturally kept him at a
+distance: and, as she supposed him to be no worse-looking than the rest
+of the world, she made up her mind to have nothing to do with love or
+lovemaking, and was quite content to ramble about the woods all alone.
+
+But one day, to her surprise, she happened to meet with a young man who
+was as different from Pan as any creature could be. Instead of having a
+goat's legs and long hairy arms, he was as graceful as Apollo himself:
+no horns grew out of his forehead, and his ears were not long, pointed,
+and covered with hair, but just like Echo's own. And he was just as
+beautiful in face as he was graceful in form. I doubt if Echo would have
+thought even Apollo himself so beautiful.
+
+The nymphs were rather shy, and Echo was the very shyest of them all.
+But she admired him so much she could not leave the spot, and at last
+she even plucked up courage enough to ask him, "What is the name of the
+most beautiful being in the whole world?"
+
+"Whom do you mean?" asked he. "Yourself? If you want to know your own
+name, you can tell it better than I can."
+
+"No," said Echo, "I don't mean myself. I mean _you_. What is _your_
+name?"
+
+"My name is Narcissus," said he. "But as for my being beautiful--that is
+absurd."
+
+"Narcissus!" repeated Echo to herself. "It is a beautiful name. Which of
+the nymphs have you come to meet here in these woods all alone? She is
+lucky--whoever she may be."
+
+"I have come to meet nobody," said Narcissus. "But--am I really so
+beautiful? I have often been told so by other girls, of course; but
+really it is more than I can quite believe."
+
+"And you don't care for any of those girls?"
+
+"Why, you see," said Narcissus, "when all the girls one knows call one
+beautiful, there's no reason why I should care for one more than
+another. They all seem alike when they are all always saying just the
+same thing. Ah! I do wish I could see myself, so that I could tell if it
+was really true. I would marry the girl who could give me the wish of my
+heart--to see myself as other people see me. But as nobody can make me
+do that, why, I suppose I shall get on very well without marrying
+anybody at all."
+
+Looking-glasses had not been invented in those days, so that Narcissus
+had really never seen even so much of himself as his chin.
+
+"What!" cried Echo, full of hope and joy; "if I make you see your own
+face, you will marry _me_?"
+
+"I said so," said he. "And of course what I say I'll do, I'll do."
+
+"Then--come with me!"
+
+Echo took him by the hand and led him to the edge of a little lake in
+the middle of the wood, full of clear water.
+
+"Kneel down, Narcissus," said she, "and bend your eyes over the
+waterside. That lake is the mirror where Diana comes every morning to
+dress her hair, and in which, every night, the moon and the stars behold
+themselves. Look into that water, and see what manner of man you are!"
+
+Narcissus kneeled down and looked into the lake. And, better than in any
+common looking-glass, he saw the reflected image of his own face--and he
+looked, and looked, and could not take his eyes away.
+
+But Echo at last grew tired of waiting. "Have you forgotten what you
+promised me?" asked she. "Are you content now? Do you see now that what
+I told you is true?"
+
+He lifted his eyes at last. "Oh, beautiful creature that I am!" said he.
+"I am indeed the most divine creature in the whole wide world. I love
+myself madly. Go away. I want to be with my beautiful image, with
+myself, all alone. I can't marry you. I shall never love anybody but
+myself for the rest of my days." And he kneeled down and gazed at
+himself once more, while poor Echo had to go weeping away.
+
+Narcissus had spoken truly. He loved himself and his own face so much
+that he could think of nothing else: he spent all his days and nights by
+the lake, and never took his eyes away. But unluckily his image, which
+was only a shadow in the water, could not love him back again. And so he
+pined away until he died. And when his friends came to look for his
+body, they found nothing but a flower, into which his soul had turned.
+So they called it the Narcissus, and we call it so still. And yet I
+don't know that it is a particularly conceited or selfish flower.
+
+As for poor Echo, she pined away too. She faded and faded until nothing
+was left of her but her voice. There are many places where she can even
+now be heard. And she still has the same trick of saying to vain and
+foolish people whatever they say to themselves, or whatever they would
+like best to hear said to them. If you go where Echo is, and call out
+loudly, "I am beautiful!"--she will echo your very words.
+
+
+
+259
+
+ "The Apple of Discord" is also taken, by
+ permission of the publishers, from Francillon's
+ _Gods and Heroes_. It is the story of how the
+ world's first great war was brought about.
+ Teachers who wish to use some of the stories
+ from Homer's _Iliad_ might well follow this
+ story with some selected episodes from that
+ work. The prose translation of the _Iliad_ by
+ Lang, Leaf, and Myers is the most satisfactory.
+ Of versions adapted for children, Church's
+ _Story of the Iliad_ has long been a favorite.
+
+
+THE APPLE OF DISCORD
+
+R. E. FRANCILLON
+
+
+Never was such a wedding-feast known as that of Peleus and Thetis. And
+no wonder; for Peleus was King of Thessaly, and Thetis was a
+goddess--the goddess who keeps the gates of the West, and throws them
+open for the chariot of the Sun to pass through when its day's journey
+is done.
+
+Not only all the neighboring kings and queens came to the feast, but the
+gods and goddesses besides, bringing splendid presents to the bride and
+bridegroom. Only one goddess was not there, because she had not been
+invited; and she had not been invited for the best of all reasons. Her
+name was Ate, which means Mischief; and wherever she went she caused
+quarreling and confusion. Jupiter had turned her out of heaven for
+setting even the gods by the ears; and ever since then she had been
+wandering about the earth, making mischief, for they would not have her
+even in Hades.
+
+"So they won't have _Me_ at their feast!" she said to herself, when she
+heard the sound of the merriment to which she had not been bidden. "Very
+well; they shall be sorry. I see a way to make a bigger piece of
+mischief than ever was known."
+
+So she took a golden apple, wrote some words upon it, and, keeping
+herself out of sight, threw it into the very middle of the feasters,
+just when they were most merry.
+
+Nobody saw where the apple came from; but of course they supposed it had
+been thrown among them for frolic; and one of the guests, taking it up,
+read aloud the words written on it. The words were:
+
+ "FOR THE MOST BEAUTIFUL!"
+
+--nothing more.
+
+"What a handsome present somebody has sent me!" said Juno, holding out
+her hand for the apple.
+
+"Sent _you_?" asked Diana. "What an odd mistake, to be sure! Don't you
+see it is for the most beautiful? I will thank you to hand me what is so
+clearly intended for _Me_."
+
+"You seem to forget _I_ am present!" said Vesta, making a snatch at the
+apple.
+
+"Not at all!" said Ceres; "only I happen to be here, too. And who doubts
+that where I am there is the most beautiful?"
+
+"Except where _I_ am," said Proserpine.
+
+"What folly is all this!" said Minerva, the wise. "Wisdom is the only
+true beauty; and everybody knows that I am the wisest of you all."
+
+"But it's for the _most_ beautiful!" said Venus. "The idea of its being
+for anybody but _Me_!"
+
+Then every nymph and goddess present, and even every woman, put in her
+claim, until from claiming and disputing it grew to arguing and
+wrangling and downright quarreling: insults flew about, until the
+merriment grew into an angry din, the like of which had never been
+heard. But as it became clear that it was impossible for everybody to be
+the most beautiful, the claimants gradually settled down into three
+parties--some taking the side of Venus, others of Juno, others of
+Minerva.
+
+"We shall never settle it among ourselves," said one, when all were
+fairly out of breath with quarreling. "Let the gods decide."
+
+For the gods had been silent all the while; and now they looked at one
+another in dismay at such an appeal. Jupiter, in his heart, thought
+Venus the most beautiful; but how could he dare decide against either
+his wife Juno or his daughter Minerva? Neptune hated Minerva on account
+of their old quarrel; but it was awkward to choose between his daughter
+Venus and his sister Juno, of whose temper he, as well as Jupiter, stood
+in awe. Mars was ready enough to vote for Venus; but then he was afraid
+of a scandal. And so with all the gods--not one was bold enough to
+decide on such a terrible question as the beauty of three rival
+goddesses who were ready to tear out each other's eyes. For Juno was
+looking like a thundercloud, and Minerva like lightning, and Venus like
+a smiling but treacherous sea.
+
+"I have it," said Jupiter at last. "Men are better judges of beauty than
+the gods are, who never see anything but its perfection. King Priam of
+Troy has a son named Paris, whose judgment as a critic I would take even
+before my own. I propose that you, Juno, and you, Minerva, and you,
+Venus, shall go together before Paris and submit yourselves to his
+decision, whatever it may be."
+
+And so it was settled, for each of the three goddesses was equally sure
+that, whoever the judge might be, the golden apple was safe to be hers.
+The quarrel came to an end, and the feast ended pleasantly; but Ate, who
+had been watching and listening, laughed in her sleeve.
+
+Troy, where King Priam reigned, was a great and ancient city on the
+shore of Asia: it was a sacred city, whose walls had been built by
+Neptune, and it possessed the Palladium, the image of Minerva, which
+kept it from all harm. Priam--who had been the friend of Hercules--and
+his wife Hecuba had many sons and daughters, all brave and noble princes
+and beautiful princesses; and of his sons, while the bravest and noblest
+was his first-born, Hector, the handsomest and most amiable was Paris,
+whom Jupiter had appointed to be the judge of beauty.
+
+Paris, unlike his brothers, cared nothing for affairs of State, but
+lived as a shepherd upon Mount Ida with his wife Oenone, a nymph of that
+mountain, in perfect happiness and peace, loved and honored by the whole
+country round, which had given him the name of "Alexander," which means
+"The Helper." One would think that if anybody was safe from the mischief
+of Ate, it was he.
+
+But one day, while he was watching his flocks and thinking of Oenone,
+there came to him what he took for three beautiful women--the most
+beautiful he had ever seen. Yet something told him they were more than
+mere women, or even than Oreads, before the tallest said--
+
+"There is debate in Olympus which is the most beautiful of us three, and
+Jupiter has appointed you to be the judge between us. I am Juno, the
+queen of gods and men, and if you decide for me, I will make you king of
+the whole world."
+
+"And I," said the second, "am Minerva, and you shall know everything in
+the whole universe if you decide for me."
+
+"But I," said the third, "am Venus, who can give neither wisdom nor
+power; but if you decide for me, I will give you the love of the most
+beautiful woman that ever was or ever will be born."
+
+Paris looked from one to the other, wondering to which he should award
+the golden apple, the prize of beauty. He did not care for power; he
+would be quite content to rule his sheep, and even that was not always
+easy. Nor did he care for wisdom or knowledge: he had enough for all his
+needs. Nor ought he to have desired any love but Oenone's. But then
+Venus was really the most beautiful of all the goddesses--the very
+goddess of beauty; no mortal could refuse anything she asked him, so
+great was her charm. So he took the apple and placed it in the hands of
+Venus without a word, while Juno and Minerva departed in a state of
+wrath with Paris, Venus, and each other, which made Ate laugh to herself
+more than ever.
+
+Now the most beautiful woman in the whole world was Helen, step-daughter
+of King Tyndarus of Sparta, and sister of Castor and Pollux: neither
+before her nor after her has there been any to compare with her for
+beauty. Thirty-one of the noblest princes in Greece came to her father's
+Court at the same time to seek her in marriage, so that Tyndarus knew
+not what to do, seeing that, whomsoever he chose for his son-in-law, he
+would make thirty powerful enemies. The most famous among them were
+Ulysses, King of the island of Ithaca; Diomed, King of Aetolia; Ajax,
+King of Salamis, the bravest and strongest man in Greece; his brother
+Teucer; Philoctetes, the friend of Hercules; and Menelaus, King of
+Sparta. At last, as there was no other way of deciding among them, an
+entirely new idea occurred to Ulysses--namely, that Helen should be
+allowed to choose her own husband herself, and that, before she chose,
+all the rival suitors should make a great and solemn oath to approve her
+choice, and to defend her and her husband against all enemies
+thenceforth and forever. This oath they all took loyally and with one
+accord, and Helen chose Menelaus, King of Sparta, who married her with
+great rejoicing, and took her away to his kingdom.
+
+And all would have gone well but for that wretched apple. For Venus was
+faithful to her promise that the most beautiful of all women should be
+the wife of Paris: and so Menelaus, returning from a journey, found that
+a Trojan prince had visited his Court during his absence, and had gone
+away, taking Helen with him to Troy. This Trojan prince was Paris, who,
+seeing Helen, had forgotten Oenone, and could think of nothing but her
+whom Venus had given him.
+
+Then, through all Greece and all the islands, went forth the summons of
+King Menelaus, reminding the thirty princes of their great oath: and
+each and all of them, and many more, came to the gathering-place with
+all their ships and all their men, to help Menelaus and to bring back
+Helen. Such a host as gathered together at Aulis had never been seen
+since the world began; there were nearly twelve hundred ships and more
+than a hundred thousand men: it was the first time that all the Greeks
+joined together in one cause. There, besides those who had come for
+their oath's sake, were Nestor, the old King of Pylos--so old that he
+remembered Jason and the Golden Fleece, but, at ninety years old, as
+ready for battle as the youngest there; and Achilles, the son of Peleus
+and Thetis, scarcely more than a boy, but fated to outdo the deeds of
+the bravest of them all. The kings and princes elected Agamemnon, King
+of Mycenae and Argos, and brother of Menelaus, to be their
+general-in-chief; and he forthwith sent a herald to Troy to demand the
+surrender of Helen.
+
+But King Priam was indignant that these chiefs of petty kingdoms should
+dare to threaten the sacred city of Troy: and he replied to the demand
+by a scornful challenge, and by sending out his summons also to his
+friends and allies. And it was as well answered as that of Menelaus had
+been. There came to his standard Rhesus, with a great army from Thrace;
+and Sarpedon, the greatest king in all Asia; and Memnon, king of
+Aethiopia, with twenty thousand men--the hundred thousand Greeks were
+not so many as the army of Priam. Then Agamemnon gave the order to sail
+for Troy: and Ate laughed aloud, for her apple had brought upon mankind
+the First Great War.
+
+
+
+260
+
+ The little book of _Old Greek Folk Stories_, by
+ Josephine P. Peabody, is especially valuable,
+ not only for its fine versions of many of the
+ more interesting myths, but because it
+ supplements the dozen retold by Hawthorne in
+ his _Wonder-Book_ and _Tanglewood Tales_. The
+ two stories that follow are taken from that
+ book and are used by permission of and by
+ special arrangement with the publishers.
+ (Copyright: Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.) It
+ is worth noticing that the idea of being able
+ to fly through the air successfully is found in
+ a very remote past, and that Daedalus discarded
+ his invention because of the tragedy related
+ below. Only a few years since, most people
+ looked upon one who tried to work out
+ practically the problem of flying as somewhat
+ "short" mentally. Hence the use of such efforts
+ for comic effect as in "Darius Green and His
+ Flying Machine" (No. 375).
+
+
+ICARUS AND DAEDALUS
+
+JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY
+
+Among all those mortals who grew so wise that they learned the secrets
+of the gods, none was more cunning than Daedalus.
+
+He once built, for King Minos of Crete, a wonderful Labyrinth of winding
+ways so cunningly tangled up and twisted around that, once inside, you
+could never find your way out again without a magic clue. But the king's
+favor veered with the wind, and one day he had his master architect
+imprisoned in a tower. Daedalus managed to escape from his cell; but it
+seemed impossible to leave the island, since every ship that came or
+went was well guarded by order of the king.
+
+At length, watching the sea gulls in the air,--the only creatures that
+were sure of liberty,--he thought of a plan for himself and his young
+son Icarus, who was captive with him.
+
+Little by little, he gathered a store of feathers great and small. He
+fastened these together with thread, moulded them in with wax, and so
+fashioned two great wings like those of a bird. When they were done,
+Daedalus fitted them to his own shoulders, and after one or two efforts,
+he found that by waving his arms he could winnow the air and cleave it,
+as a swimmer does the sea. He held himself aloft, wavered this way and
+that with the wind, and at last, like a great fledgling, he learned to
+fly.
+
+Without delay, he fell to work on a pair of wings for the boy Icarus,
+and taught him carefully how to use them, bidding him beware of rash
+adventures among the stars. "Remember," said the father, "never to fly
+very low or very high, for the fogs about the earth would weigh you
+down, but the blaze of the sun will surely melt your feathers apart if
+you go too near."
+
+For Icarus, these cautions went in at one ear and out by the other. Who
+could remember to be careful when he was to fly for the first time? Are
+birds careful? Not they! And not an idea remained in the boy's head but
+the one joy of escape.
+
+The day came, and the fair wind that was to set them free. The father
+bird put on his wings, and, while the light urged them to be gone, he
+waited to see that all was well with Icarus, for the two could not fly
+hand in hand. Up they rose, the boy after his father. The hateful ground
+of Crete sank beneath them; and the country folk, who caught a glimpse
+of them when they were high above the tree-tops, took it for a vision of
+the gods,--Apollo, perhaps, with Cupid after him.
+
+At first there was a terror in the joy. The wide vacancy of the air
+dazed them,--a glance downward made their brains reel. But when a great
+wind filled their wings, and Icarus felt himself sustained, like a
+halcyon-bird in the hollow of a wave, like a child uplifted by his
+mother, he forgot everything in the world but joy. He forgot Crete and
+the other islands that he had passed over: he saw but vaguely that
+winged thing in the distance before him that was his father Daedalus. He
+longed for one draught of flight to quench the thirst of his captivity:
+he stretched out his arms to the sky and made towards the highest
+heavens.
+
+Alas for him! Warmer and warmer grew the air. Those arms, that had
+seemed to uphold him, relaxed. His wings wavered, drooped. He fluttered
+his young hands vainly,--he was falling,--and in that terror he
+remembered. The heat of the sun had melted the wax from his wings; the
+feathers were falling, one by one, like snowflakes; and there was none
+to help.
+
+He fell like a leaf tossed down the wind, down, down, with one cry that
+overtook Daedalus far away. When he returned, and sought high and low
+for the poor boy, he saw nothing but the bird-like feathers afloat on
+the water, and he knew that Icarus was drowned.
+
+The nearest island he named Icaria, in memory of the child; but he, in
+heavy grief, went to the temple of Apollo in Sicily, and there hung up
+his wings as an offering. Never again did he attempt to fly.
+
+
+
+261
+
+ This story of how Apollo, god of music and
+ poetry, was sent to earth for a space to serve
+ a mortal is also from _Old Greek Folk Stories_,
+ by arrangement with the publishers. (Houghton
+ Mifflin Co., Boston.) James Russell Lowell
+ wrote a very fine poetic treatment of this same
+ story in "The Shepherd of King Admetus" (No.
+ 373).
+
+
+ADMETUS AND THE SHEPHERD
+
+JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY
+
+Apollo did not live always free of care, though he was the most glorious
+of the gods. One day, in anger with the Cyclopes who work at the forges
+of Vulcan, he sent his arrows after them, to the wrath of all the gods,
+but especially of Zeus. (For the Cyclopes always make his thunderbolts,
+and make them well.) Even the divine archer could not go unpunished, and
+as a penalty he was sent to serve some mortal for a year. Some say one
+year and some say nine, but in those days time passed quickly; and as
+for the gods, they took no heed of it.
+
+Now there was a certain king in Thessaly, Admetus by name, and there
+came to him one day a stranger, who asked leave to serve about the
+palace. None knew his name, but he was very comely, and moreover, when
+they questioned him he said that he had come from a position of high
+trust. So without further delay they made him chief shepherd of the
+royal flocks.
+
+Every day thereafter, he drove his sheep to the banks of the river
+Amphrysus, and there he sat to watch them browse. The country folk that
+passed drew near to wonder at him, without daring to ask questions. He
+seemed to have a knowledge of leech-craft, and knew how to cure the ills
+of any wayfarer with any weed that grew near by; and he would pipe for
+hours in the sun. A simple-spoken man he was, yet he seemed to know much
+more than he would say, and he smiled with a kindly mirth when the
+people wished him sunny weather.
+
+Indeed, as days went by, it seemed as if summer had come to stay, and,
+like the shepherd, found the place friendly. Nowhere else were the
+flocks so white and fair to see, like clouds loitering along a bright
+sky; and sometimes, when he chose, their keeper sang to them. Then the
+grasshoppers drew near and the swans sailed close to the river banks,
+and the countrymen gathered about to hear wonderful tales of the slaying
+of the monster Python, and of a king with ass's ears, and of a lovely
+maiden, Daphne, who grew into a laurel-tree. In time the rumor of these
+things drew the king himself to listen; and Admetus, who had been to see
+the world in the ship Argo, knew at once that this was no earthly
+shepherd, but a god. From that day, like a true king, he treated his
+guest with reverence and friendliness, asking no questions; and the god
+was well pleased.
+
+Now it came to pass that Admetus fell in love with a beautiful maiden,
+Alcestis, and, because of the strange condition that her father Pelias
+had laid upon all suitors, he was heavy-hearted. Only that man who
+should come to woo her in a chariot drawn by a wild boar and a lion
+might ever marry Alcestis; and this task was enough to puzzle even a
+king.
+
+As for the shepherd, when he heard of it he rose, one fine morning, and
+left the sheep and went his way,--no one knew whither. If the sun had
+gone out, the people could not have been more dismayed. The king himself
+went, late in the day, to walk by the river Amphrysus, and wonder if his
+gracious keeper of the flocks had deserted him in a time of need. But at
+that very moment, whom should he see returning from the woods but the
+shepherd, glorious as sunset, and leading side by side a lion and a
+boar, as gentle as two sheep! The very next morning, with joy and
+gratitude, Admetus set out in his chariot for the kingdom of Pelias, and
+there he wooed and won Alcestis, the most loving wife that was ever
+heard of.
+
+It was well for Admetus that he came home with such a comrade, for the
+year was at an end, and he was to lose his shepherd. The strange man
+came to take leave of the king and queen whom he had befriended.
+
+"Blessed be your flocks, Admetus," he said, smiling. "They shall prosper
+even though I leave them. And, because you can discern the gods that
+come to you in the guise of wayfarers, happiness shall never go far from
+your home, but ever return to be your guest. No man may live on earth
+forever, but this one gift have I obtained for you. When your last hour
+draws near, if any one shall be willing to meet it in your stead, he
+shall die, and you shall live on, more than the mortal length of days.
+Such kings deserve long life."
+
+So ended the happy year when Apollo tended sheep.
+
+
+
+262
+
+ This version of the Midas story is taken from
+ Bulfinch's _Age of Fable_, which is still one
+ of the most valuable and interesting handbooks
+ in its field. One who wishes simply good
+ versions of the old myths without any of the
+ apparatus of scholarship will find Bulfinch
+ excellent. It serves well for younger or
+ general readers who would be worried by
+ references or interpretations. Hawthorne's
+ version of this favorite myth may be found in
+ his _Wonder-Book_ as "The Golden Touch."
+
+
+MIDAS
+
+Bacchus, on a certain occasion, found his old schoolmaster and
+foster-father, Silenus, missing. The old man had been drinking, and in
+that state had wandered away, and was found by some peasants, who
+carried him to their king, Midas. Midas recognized him and treated him
+hospitably, entertaining him for ten days and nights with an unceasing
+round of jollity. On the eleventh day he brought Silenus back, and
+restored him in safety to his pupil. Whereupon Bacchus offered Midas his
+choice of whatever reward he might wish. He asked that whatever he might
+touch should be changed into _gold_. Bacchus consented, though sorry
+that he had not made a better choice.
+
+Midas went his way, rejoicing in his newly acquired power, which he
+hastened to put to the test. He could scarce believe his eyes when he
+found that a twig of an oak, which he plucked from the branch, became
+gold in his hand. He took up a stone--it changed to gold. He touched a
+sod--it did the same. He took an apple from the tree--you would have
+thought he had robbed the garden of the Hesperides. His joy knew no
+bounds, and as soon as he got home, he ordered the servants to set a
+splendid repast on the table. Then he found to his dismay that whether
+he touched bread, it hardened in his hand; or put a morsel to his lips,
+it defied his teeth. He took a glass of wine, but it flowed down his
+throat like melted gold.
+
+In consternation at the unprecedented affliction, he strove to divest
+himself of his power; he hated the gift he had lately coveted. But all
+in vain; starvation seemed to await him. He raised his arms, all shining
+with gold, in prayer to Bacchus, begging to be delivered from his
+glittering destruction. Bacchus, merciful deity, heard and consented.
+"Go," said he, "to the River Pactolus, trace the stream to its
+fountain-head, there plunge in your head and body and wash away your
+fault and its punishment." He did so, and scarce had he touched the
+waters before the gold-creating power passed into them, and the river
+sands became changed into _gold_, as they remain to this day.
+
+Thenceforth Midas, hating wealth and splendor, dwelt in the country and
+became a worshipper of Pan, the god of the fields. On a certain occasion
+Pan had the temerity to compare his music with that of Apollo, and to
+challenge the god of the lyre to a trial of skill. The challenge was
+accepted; and Tmolus, the mountain-god, was chosen umpire. Tmolus took
+his seat and cleared away the trees from his ears to listen. At a given
+signal Pan blew on his pipes, and with his rustic melody gave great
+satisfaction to himself and his faithful follower Midas, who happened to
+be present. Then Tmolus turned his head toward the sun-god, and all his
+trees turned with him. Apollo rose, his brow wreathed with Parnassian
+laurel, while his robe of Tyrian purple swept the ground. In his left
+hand he held the lyre, and with his right hand struck the strings.
+Ravished with the harmony, Tmolus at once awarded the victory to the god
+of the lyre, and all but Midas acquiesced in the judgment. He dissented,
+and questioned the justice of the award. Apollo would not suffer such a
+depraved pair of ears any longer to wear the human form, but caused them
+to increase in length, grow hairy within and without, and to become
+movable on their roots; in short, to be on the perfect pattern of those
+of an ass.
+
+Mortified enough was King Midas at this mishap; but he consoled himself
+with the thought that it was possible to hide his misfortune, which he
+attempted to do by means of an ample turban or headdress. But his
+hairdresser of course knew the secret. He was charged not to mention it,
+and threatened with dire punishment if he presumed to disobey. But he
+found it too much for his discretion to keep such a secret; so he went
+out into the meadow, dug a hole in the ground, and stooping down,
+whispered the story, and covered it up. Before long a thick bed of reeds
+sprang up in the meadow, and as soon as it had gained its growth, began
+whispering the story, and has continued to do so, from that day to this,
+with every breeze which passes over the place.
+
+
+
+263
+
+ The story of Phaethon is taken by permission
+ from Gayley's _Classic Myths in English
+ Literature and Art_. (Copyright. Ginn & Co.,
+ Boston.) Gayley is by all odds the one handbook
+ for the whole field of mythology that teachers
+ should always have access to. Based upon the
+ older Bulfinch, it brings the whole subject up
+ to date and reflects all the results of later
+ scholarship on the matters of origins and
+ interpretations. Its bibliographies and
+ extended commentaries make it invaluable. The
+ story of Phaethon is usually thought of as a
+ warning against presumption, conceit, whim,
+ self-will. It was probably invented in the
+ first place to account for the extremely hot
+ weather of the summer months.
+
+
+PHAETHON
+
+CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY
+
+Phaethon was the son of Apollo and the nymph Clymene. One day Epaphus,
+the son of Jupiter and Io, scoffed at the idea of Phaethon's being the
+son of a god. Phaethon complained of the insult to his mother Clymene.
+She sent him to Phoebus to ask for himself whether he had not been truly
+informed concerning his parentage. Gladly Phaethon traveled toward the
+regions of sunrise and gained at last the palace of the sun. He
+approached his father's presence, but stopped at a distance, for the
+light was more than he could bear.
+
+Phoebus Apollo, arrayed in purple, sat on a throne that glittered with
+diamonds. Beside him stood the Day, the Month, the Year, the Hours, and
+the Seasons. Surrounded by these attendants, the Sun beheld the youth
+dazzled with the novelty and splendor of the scene, and inquired the
+purpose of his errand. The youth replied, "Oh, light of the boundless
+world, Phoebus, my father--if thou dost yield me that name--give me some
+proof, I beseech thee, by which I may be known as thine!"
+
+He ceased. His father, laying aside the beams that shone around his
+head, bade him approach, embraced him, owned him for his son, and swore
+by the river Styx that whatever proof he might ask should be granted.
+Phaethon immediately asked to be permitted for one day to drive the
+chariot of the sun. The father repented of his promise and tried to
+dissuade the boy by telling him the perils of the undertaking. "None but
+myself," he said, "may drive the flaming car of day. Not even Jupiter,
+whose terrible right arm hurls the thunderbolts. The first part of the
+way is steep and such as the horses when fresh in the morning can hardly
+climb; the middle is high up in the heavens, whence I myself can
+scarcely, without alarm, look down and behold the earth and sea
+stretched beneath me. The last part of the road descends rapidly and
+requires most careful driving. Tethys, who is waiting to receive me,
+often trembles for me lest I should fall headlong. Add to this that the
+heaven is all the time turning round and carrying the stars with it.
+Couldst thou keep thy course while the sphere revolved beneath thee? The
+road, also, is through the midst of frightful monsters. Thou must pass
+by the horns of the Bull, in front of the Archer, and near the Lion's
+jaws, and where the Scorpion stretches its arms in one direction and the
+Crab in another. Nor wilt thou find it easy to guide those horses, with
+their breasts full of fire that they breathe forth from their mouths and
+nostrils. Beware, my son, lest I be the donor of a fatal gift; recall
+the request while yet thou canst." He ended; but the youth rejected
+admonition and held to his demand. So, having resisted as long as he
+might, Phoebus at last led the way to where stood the lofty chariot.
+
+It was of gold, the gift of Vulcan,--the axle of gold, the pole and
+wheels of gold, the spokes of silver. Along the seat were rows of
+chrysolites and diamonds, reflecting the brightness of the sun. While
+the daring youth gazed in admiration, the early Dawn threw open the
+purple doors of the east and showed the pathway strewn with roses. The
+stars withdrew, marshaled by the Daystar, which last of all retired
+also. The father, when he saw the earth beginning to glow and the Moon
+preparing to retire, ordered the Hours to harness up the horses. They
+led forth from the lofty stalls the steeds full fed with ambrosia, and
+attached the reins. Then the father, smearing the face of his son with a
+powerful unguent, made him capable of enduring the brightness of the
+flame. He set the rays on the lad's head, and, with a foreboding sigh,
+told him to spare the whip and hold tight the reins; not to take the
+straight road between the five circles, but to turn off to the left; to
+keep within the limit of the middle zone and avoid the northern and the
+southern alike; finally, to keep in the well-worn ruts and to drive
+neither too high nor too low, for the middle course was safest and best.
+
+Forthwith the agile youth sprang into the chariot, stood erect, and
+grasped the reins with delight, pouring out thanks to his reluctant
+parent. But the steeds soon perceived that the load they drew was
+lighter than usual; and as a ship without its accustomed weight, was
+dashed about as if empty. The horses rushed headlong and left the
+traveled road. Then, for the first time, the Great and Little Bears were
+scorched with heat, and would fain, if it were possible, have plunged
+into the water; and the Serpent which lies coiled round the north pole,
+torpid and harmless, grew warm, and with warmth felt its rage revive.
+Booetes, they say, fled away, though encumbered with his plow and unused
+to rapid motion.
+
+When hapless Phaethon looked down upon the earth, now spreading in vast
+extent beneath him, he grew pale, and his knees shook with terror. He
+lost his self-command and knew not whether to draw tight the reins or
+throw them loose; he forgot the names of the horses. But when he beheld
+the monstrous forms scattered over the surface of heaven,--the Scorpion
+extending two great arms, his tail, and his crooked claws over the space
+of two signs of the zodiac,--when the boy beheld him, reeking with
+poison and menacing with fangs, his courage failed, and the reins fell
+from his hands. The horses, unrestrained, went off into unknown regions
+of the sky in among the stars, hurling the chariot over pathless places,
+now up in high heaven, now down almost to the earth. The moon saw with
+astonishment her brother's chariot running beneath her own. The clouds
+began to smoke. The forest-clad mountains burned,--Athos and Taurus and
+Tmolus and Oete; Ida, once celebrated for fountains; the Muses' mountain
+Helicon, and Haemus; Aetna, with fires within and without, and
+Parnassus, with his two peaks, and Rhodope, forced at last to part with
+his snowy crown. Her cold climate was no protection to Scythia; Caucasus
+burned, and Ossa and Pindus, and, greater than both, Olympus,--the Alps
+high in air, and the Apennines crowned with clouds.
+
+Phaethon beheld the world on fire and felt the heat intolerable. Then,
+too, it is said, the people of Aethiopia became black because the blood
+was called by the heat so suddenly to the surface; and the Libyan desert
+was dried up to the condition in which it remains to this day. The
+Nymphs of the fountains, with disheveled hair, mourned their waters, nor
+were the rivers safe beneath their banks; Tanais smoked, and Caicus,
+Xanthus, and Maeander; Babylonian Euphrates and Ganges, Tagus, with
+golden sands, and Cayster, where the swans resort. Nile fled away and
+hid his head in the desert, and there it still remains concealed. Where
+he used to discharge his waters through seven mouths into the sea, seven
+dry channels alone remained. The earth cracked open and through the
+chinks light broke into Tartarus and frightened the king of shadows and
+his queen. The sea shrank up. Even Nereus and his wife Doris with the
+Nereids, their daughters, sought the deepest caves for refuge. Thrice
+Neptune essayed to raise his head above the surface and thrice was
+driven back by the heat. Earth, surrounded as she was by waters, yet
+with head and shoulders bare, screening her face with her hand, looked
+up to heaven, and with husky voice prayed Jupiter, if it were his will
+that she should perish by fire, to end her agony at once by his
+thunderbolts, or else to consider his own Heaven, how both the poles
+were smoking that sustained his palace, and that all must fall if they
+were destroyed.
+
+Earth, overcome with heat and thirst, could say no more. Then Jupiter,
+calling the gods to witness that all was lost unless some speedy remedy
+were applied, thundered, brandished a lightning bolt in his right hand,
+launched it against the charioteer, and struck him at the same moment
+from his seat and from existence. Phaethon, with his hair on fire, fell
+headlong, like a shooting star which marks the heavens with its
+brightness as it falls, and Eridanus, the great river, received him and
+cooled his burning frame. His sisters, the Heliades, as they lamented
+his fate, were turned into poplar trees on the banks of the river; and
+their tears, which continued to flow, became amber as they dropped into
+the stream. The Italian Naiads reared a tomb for him and inscribed
+these words upon the stone:
+
+ Driver of Phoebus' chariot, Phaethon,
+ Struck by Jove's thunder, rests beneath this stone.
+ He could not rule his father's car of fire,
+ Yet was it much so nobly to aspire.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The Norse myths originated among peoples who lived in the country which
+is now Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland. In these lands of the
+North, winter is long and dark, and the intense cold is not easily
+endured; but summer brings sunshine, warmth, and happiness. It is not
+strange, therefore, that the evil spirits of Norse mythology should be
+represented as huge frost giants and mountain giants. These giants, or
+Jotuns, were first formed from the mist that came from fields of ice.
+They lived in a dreary country called Joetunheim, and were enemies of the
+gods, who lived in the bright, beautiful city of Asgard.
+
+To live the life of the old Norse folk required strength and courage,
+for the little boats in which they went to fish were too small for
+storm-tossed Arctic seas, and the weapons with which they hunted in the
+cold, lonely forests were primitive. It is but natural, therefore, that
+they should have idealized strength and courage and that they should
+have represented the gods of Asgard as being large, strong, and
+courageous. Although Thor, the eldest son of Odin, was small in
+comparison with the giants, we are told in one of the myths that he was
+a mile in height; also he had great strength and a wonderful hammer,
+called Mjolmer, with which he always defeated the giants and kept them
+from Asgard. Thunder was caused by the stroke of Thor's hammer; hence
+Thor was called the Thunderer.
+
+The spiritual ideals in Norse mythology are more important than the
+physical ideals. The long, cold winter nights kept the Norse folk at
+home; hence they had a love for home and family relations and a respect
+for women that may not be found revealed in the mythology of Greece.
+Wisdom and judgment, too, were more essential than craft and fraud in
+encountering the hardships of their life; therefore they represented
+Odin, the supreme god of Asgard, as being the god of wisdom. The gods of
+Greek mythology often used craft and fraud to accomplish their purposes,
+but only Loke among the inhabitants of Asgard relied upon deception.
+Loke was descended from the giants, but was also related to the gods; so
+he was permitted to live in Asgard. It is significant of the spirit of
+the Norse folk that the gods did not trust Loke and came to regard him
+as their enemy; and it was he who finally brought misfortune to the
+gods.
+
+
+
+264
+
+ This story of Thor's visit to the land of the
+ giants is taken from Bulfinch. It deals with
+ one of the favorite sections of Norse
+ mythology, satisfying, as it does, the
+ listeners' demand for courageous struggle
+ against great and mysterious forces. The use of
+ illusion by the giant forces of evil as a
+ method of defeating the open-minded forces of
+ truth is strikingly exemplified in the various
+ contests staged at Joetunheim.
+
+
+THOR'S VISIT TO JOeTUNHEIM
+
+One day the god Thor, with his servant Thialfi, and accompanied by Loki,
+set out on a journey to the giants' country. Thialfi was of all men the
+swiftest of foot. He bore Thor's wallet, containing their provisions.
+When night came on they found themselves in an immense forest, and
+searched on all sides for a place where they might pass the night, and
+at last came to a very large hall, with an entrance that took the whole
+breadth of one end of the building. Here they lay down to sleep, but
+towards midnight were alarmed by an earthquake which shook the whole
+edifice. Thor, rising up, called on his companions to seek with him a
+place of safety. On the right they found an adjoining chamber, into
+which the others entered, but Thor remained at the doorway with his
+mallet in his hand, prepared to defend himself, whatever might happen. A
+terrible groaning was heard during the night, and at dawn of day Thor
+went out and found lying near him a huge giant, who slept and snored in
+the way that had alarmed them so. It is said that for once Thor was
+afraid to use his mallet, and as the giant soon waked up, Thor contented
+himself with simply asking his name.
+
+"My name is Skrymir," said the giant, "but I need not ask thy name, for
+I know that thou art the god Thor. But what has become of my glove?"
+Thor then perceived that what they had taken overnight for a hall was
+the giant's glove, and the chamber where his two companions had sought
+refuge was the thumb. Skrymir then proposed that they should travel in
+company, and Thor consenting, they sat down to eat their breakfast, and
+when they had done, Skrymir packed all the provisions into one wallet,
+threw it over his shoulder, and strode on before them, taking such
+tremendous strides that they were hard put to it to keep up with him. So
+they traveled the whole day, and at dusk Skrymir chose a place for them
+to pass the night in under a large oak tree. Skrymir then told them he
+would lie down to sleep. "But take ye the wallet," he added, "and
+prepare your supper."
+
+Skrymir soon fell asleep and began to snore strongly; but when Thor
+tried to open the wallet, he found the giant had tied it up so tight he
+could not untie a single knot. At last Thor became wroth, and grasping
+his mallet with both hands he struck a furious blow on the giant's head.
+Skrymir, awakening, merely asked whether a leaf had not fallen on his
+head, and whether they had supped and were ready to go to sleep. Thor
+answered that they were just going to sleep, and so saying went and laid
+himself down under another tree. But sleep came not that night to Thor,
+and when Skrymir snored again so loud that the forest reechoed with the
+noise, he arose, and grasping his mallet launched it with such force at
+the giant's skull that it made a deep dint in it. Skrymir, awakening,
+cried out, "What's the matter? Are there any birds perched on this tree?
+I felt some moss from the branches fall on my head. How fares it with
+thee Thor?" But Thor went away hastily, saying that he had just then
+awoke, and that as it was only midnight, there was still time for sleep.
+He, however, resolved that if he had an opportunity of striking a third
+blow, it should settle all matters between them.
+
+A little before daybreak he perceived that Skrymir was again fast
+asleep, and again grasping his mallet, he dashed it with such violence
+that it forced its way into the giant's skull up to the handle. But
+Skrymir sat up, and stroking his cheek said, "An acorn fell on my head.
+What! Art thou awake, Thor? Methinks it is time for us to get up and
+dress ourselves; but you have not now a long way before you to the city
+called Utgard. I have heard you whispering to one another that I am not
+a man of small dimensions; but if you come to Utgard you will see there
+many men much taller than I. Wherefore, I advise you, when you come
+there, not to make too much of yourselves, for the followers of
+Utgard-Loki will not brook the boasting of such little fellows as you
+are. You must take the road that leads eastward, mine lies northward, so
+we must part here."
+
+Hereupon he threw his wallet over his shoulders and turned away from
+them into the forest, and Thor had no wish to stop him or to ask for any
+more of his company.
+
+Thor and his companions proceeded on their way, and towards noon
+descried a city standing in the middle of a plain. It was so lofty that
+they were obliged to bend their necks quite back on their shoulders in
+order to see to the top of it. On arriving they entered the city, and
+seeing a large palace before them with the door wide open, they went in,
+and found a number of men of prodigious stature, sitting on benches in
+the hall. Going further, they came before the king, Utgard-Loki, whom
+they saluted with great respect. The king, regarding them with a
+scornful smile, said, "If I do not mistake me, that stripling yonder
+must be the god Thor." Then addressing himself to Thor, he said,
+"Perhaps thou mayst be more than thou appearest to be. What are the
+feats that thou and thy fellows deem yourselves skilled in, for no one
+is permitted to remain here who does not, in some feat or other, excel
+all other men?"
+
+"The feat that I know," said Loki, "is to eat quicker than any one else,
+and in this I am ready to give a proof against any one here who may
+choose to compete with me."
+
+"That will indeed be a feat," said Utgard-Loki, "if thou performest what
+thou promisest, and it shall be tried forthwith."
+
+He then ordered one of his men who was sitting at the farther end of the
+bench, and whose name was Logi, to come forward and try his skill with
+Loki. A trough filled with meat having been set on the hall floor, Loki
+placed himself at one end, and Logi at the other, and each of them began
+to eat as fast as he could, until they met in the middle of the trough.
+But it was found that Loki had only eaten the flesh, while his adversary
+had devoured both flesh and bone, and the trough to boot. All the
+company therefore adjudged that Loki was vanquished.
+
+Utgard-Loki then asked what feat the young man who accompanied Thor
+could perform. Thialfi answered that he would run a race with any one
+who might be matched against him. The king observed that skill in
+running was something to boast of, but if the youth would win the match
+he must display great agility. He then arose and went with all who were
+present to a plain where there was good ground for running on, and
+calling a young man named Hugi, bade him run a match with Thialfi. In
+the first course Hugi so much outstripped his competitor that he turned
+back and met him not far from the starting place. Then they ran a second
+and a third time, but Thialfi met with no better success.
+
+Utgard-Loki then asked Thor in what feats he would choose to give proofs
+of that prowess for which he was so famous. Thor answered that he would
+try a drinking-match with any one. Utgard-Loki bade his cup-bearer bring
+the large horn which his followers were obliged to empty when they had
+trespassed in any way against the law of the feast. The cup-bearer
+having presented it to Thor, Utgard-Loki said, "Whoever is a good
+drinker will empty that horn at a single draught, though most men make
+two of it, but the most puny drinker can do it in three."
+
+Thor looked at the horn, which seemed of no extraordinary size though
+somewhat long; however, as he was very thirsty, he set it to his lips,
+and without drawing breath, pulled as long and as deeply as he could,
+that he might not be obliged to make a second draught of it; but when he
+set the horn down and looked in, he could scarcely perceive that the
+liquor was diminished.
+
+After taking breath, Thor went to it again with all his might, but when
+he took the horn from his mouth, it seemed to him that he had drunk
+rather less than before, although the horn could now be carried without
+spilling.
+
+"How now, Thor?" said Utgard-Loki; "thou must not spare thyself. If thou
+meanest to drain the horn at the third draught thou must pull deeply;
+and I must needs say that thou wilt not be called so mighty a man here
+as thou art at home if thou showest no greater prowess in other feats
+than methinks will be shown in this."
+
+Thor, full of wrath, again set the horn to his lips and did his best to
+empty it; but on looking in found the liquor was only a little lower, so
+he resolved to make no further attempt, but gave back the horn to the
+cup-bearer.
+
+"I now see plainly," said Utgard-Loki, "that thou art not quite so stout
+as we thought thee; but wilt thou try any other feat, though methinks
+thou art not likely to bear any prize away with thee hence?"
+
+"What new trial hast thou to propose?" said Thor.
+
+"We have a very trifling game here," answered Utgard-Loki, "in which we
+exercise none but children. It consists in merely lifting my cat from
+the ground; nor should I have dared to mention such a feat to the great
+Thor if I had not already observed that thou art by no means what we
+took thee for."
+
+As he finished speaking, a large gray cat sprang on the hall floor. Thor
+put his hand under the cat's belly and did his utmost to raise him from
+the floor, but the cat, bending his back, had, notwithstanding all
+Thor's efforts, only one of his feet lifted up, seeing which Thor made
+no further attempt.
+
+"This trial has turned out," said Utgard-Loki, "just as I imagined it
+would. The cat is large, but Thor is little in comparison to our men."
+
+"Little as ye call me," answered Thor, "let me see who among you will
+come hither now I am in wrath and wrestle with me."
+
+"I see no one here," said Utgard-Loki, looking at the men sitting on the
+benches, "who would not think it beneath him to wrestle with thee; let
+somebody, however, call hither that old crone, my nurse Elli, and let
+Thor wrestle with her if he will. She has thrown to the ground many a
+man not less strong than this Thor is."
+
+A toothless old woman then entered the hall, and was told by Utgard-Loki
+to take hold of Thor. The tale is shortly told. The more Thor tightened
+his hold on the crone the firmer she stood. At length after a very
+violent struggle Thor began to lose his footing, and was finally brought
+down upon one knee. Utgard-Loki then told them to desist, adding that
+Thor had now no occasion to ask any one else in the hall to wrestle with
+him, and it was also getting late; so he showed Thor and his companions
+to their seats, and they passed the night there in good cheer.
+
+The next morning, at break of day, Thor and his companions dressed
+themselves and prepared for their departure. Utgard-Loki ordered a table
+to be set for them, on which there was no lack of victuals or drink.
+After the repast Utgard-Loki led them to the gate of the city, and on
+parting asked Thor how he thought his journey had turned out, and
+whether he had met with any men stronger than himself. Thor told him
+that he could not deny but that he had brought great shame on himself.
+"And what grieves me most," he added, "is that ye will call me a person
+of little worth."
+
+"Nay," said Utgard-Loki, "it behooves me to tell thee the truth, now
+thou art out of the city, which so long as I live and have my way thou
+shalt never enter again. And, by my troth, had I known beforehand that
+thou hadst so much strength in thee, and wouldst have brought me so near
+to a great mishap, I would not have suffered thee to enter this time.
+Know then that I have all along deceived thee by my illusions; first in
+the forest, where I tied up the wallet with iron wire so that thou
+couldst not untie it. After this thou gavest me three blows with thy
+mallet; the first, though the least, would have ended my days had it
+fallen on me, but I slipped aside and thy blows fell on the mountain,
+where thou wilt find three glens, one of them remarkably deep. These are
+the dints made by thy mallet. I have made use of similar illusions in
+the contests you have had with my followers. In the first, Loki, like
+hunger itself, devoured all that was set before him, but Logi was in
+reality nothing else than Fire, and therefore consumed not only the
+meat, but the trough which held it. Hugi, with whom Thialfi contended in
+running, was Thought, and it was impossible for Thialfi to keep pace
+with that. When thou in thy turn didst attempt to empty the horn, thou
+didst perform, by my troth, a deed so marvelous that had I not seen it
+myself I should never have believed it. For one end of that horn reached
+the sea, which thou wast not aware of, but when thou comest to the shore
+thou wilt perceive how much the sea has sunk by thy draughts. Thou didst
+perform a feat no less wonderful by lifting up the cat, and to tell thee
+the truth, when we saw that one of his paws was off the floor, we were
+all of us terror-stricken, for what thou tookest for a cat was in
+reality the Midgard serpent that encompasseth the earth, and he was so
+stretched by thee that he was barely long enough to enclose it between
+his head and tail. Thy wrestling with Elli was also a most astonishing
+feat, for there was never yet a man, nor ever will be, whom Old Age, for
+such in fact was Elli, will not sooner or later lay low. But now, as we
+are going to part, let me tell thee that it will be better for both of
+us if thou never come near me again, for shouldst thou do so, I shall
+again defend myself by other illusions, so that thou wilt only lose thy
+labor and get no fame from the contest with me."
+
+On hearing these words Thor in a rage laid hold of his mallet and would
+have launched it at him, but Utgard-Loki had disappeared, and when Thor
+would have returned to the city to destroy it, he found nothing around
+him but a verdant plain.
+
+
+
+265
+
+ One of the very best sources for the stories of
+ Norse mythology is the little book called
+ _Norse Stories_, by Hamilton Wright Mabie
+ (1846-1916). (Edited by Katherine Lee Bates,
+ and published by Rand McNally & Co., Chicago.
+ Copyright, and used here by permission.) It
+ reads well as a connected story and the
+ versions follow closely the originals as found
+ in the ancient Eddas. In his introduction Mr.
+ Mabie comments upon those who made these
+ stories, in language that suggests something of
+ the value of the stories to us: "They thought
+ of life as a tremendous fight, and they wanted
+ to acquit themselves like men; enduring
+ hardship without repining, doing hard work
+ honestly and with a whole heart, and dying with
+ their faces toward their foes. Their heaven was
+ a place for heroes, and their gods were men of
+ heroic size and spirit." Of the subject of the
+ following myth it has been said, "Odin had no
+ less than two hundred names, as, Father of the
+ Ages, Father of Hosts, Father of Victory, the
+ High One, the Swift One, the Wanderer,
+ Long-Beard, Burning-Eye, Slouchy-Hat. Odin is a
+ one-eyed god, because the sky has but one sun.
+ His raiment is sometimes blue and sometimes
+ gray, as the weather is fair or cloudy."
+
+
+ODIN'S SEARCH FOR WISDOM
+
+HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE
+
+The wonderful ash-tree, Ygdrasil, made a far-spreading shade against the
+fierce heat of the sun in summer, and a stronghold against the piercing
+winds of winter. No man could remember when it had been young. Little
+children played under its branches, grew to be strong men and women,
+lived to be old and weary and feeble, and died; and yet the ash-tree
+gave no signs of decay. Forever preserving its freshness and beauty, it
+was to live as long as there were men to look upon it, animals to feed
+under it, birds to flutter among its branches.
+
+This mighty ash-tree touched and bound all the worlds together in its
+wonderful circle of life. One root it sent deep down into the sightless
+depths of Hel, where the dead lived; another it fastened firmly in
+Joetunheim, the dreary home of the giants; and with the third it grasped
+Midgard, the dwelling place of men. Serpents and all kinds of worms
+gnawed continually at its roots, but were never able to destroy them.
+Its branches spread out over the whole earth, and the topmost boughs
+swayed in the clear air of Asgard itself, rustling against the Valhal,
+the home of the heroes who had done great deeds or died manfully in
+battle. At the foot of the tree sat the three Norns, wonderful spinners
+of fate, who weave the thread of every man's life, making it what they
+will; and a strange weaving it often was, cut off when the pattern was
+just beginning to show itself. And every day these Norns sprinkled the
+tree with the water of life from the Urdar fountain, and so kept it
+forever green. In the topmost branches sat an eagle singing a strange
+song about the birth of the world, its decay and death. Under its
+branches browsed all manner of animals; among its leaves every kind of
+bird made its nest; by day the rainbow hung under it; at night the pale
+northern light flashed over it, and as the winds swept through its
+rustling branches, the multitudinous murmur of the leaves told strange
+stories of the past and of the future.
+
+The giants were older than the gods, and knew so much more of the past
+that the gods had to go to them for wisdom. After a time, however, the
+gods became wiser than the giants, or they would have ceased to be gods,
+and been destroyed by the giants, instead of destroying them. When the
+world was still young, and there were still many things which even the
+gods had to learn, Odin was so anxious to become wise that he went to a
+deep well whose waters touched the roots of Ygdrasil itself. The keeper
+of the well was a very old and very wise giant, named Mimer, or Memory,
+and he gave no draughts out of the well until he was well paid; for the
+well contained the water of wisdom, and whoever drank of it became
+straightway wonderfully wise.
+
+"Give me a draught of this clear water, O Mimer," said Odin, when he had
+reached the well, and was looking down into its clear, fathomless
+depths.
+
+Mimer, the keeper, was so old that he could remember everything that had
+ever happened. His eyes were clear and calm as the stars, his face was
+noble and restful, and his long white beard flowed down to his waist.
+
+"This water is only to be had at a great price," he said in a
+wonderfully sweet, majestic tone. "I cannot give to all who ask, but
+only to those who are able and willing to give greatly in return," he
+continued.
+
+If Odin had been less of a god he would have thought longer and
+bargained sharper, but he was so godlike that he cared more to be wise
+and great than for anything else.
+
+"I will give you whatever you ask," he answered.
+
+Mimer thought a moment. "You must leave an eye," he said at last.
+
+Then he drew up a great draught of the sparkling water, and Odin
+quenched his divine thirst and went away rejoicing, although he had left
+an eye behind. Even the gods could not be wise without struggle and toil
+and sacrifice.
+
+So Odin became the wisest in all the worlds, and there was no god or
+giant that could contend with him. There was one giant, however, who was
+called all-wise in Joetunheim, with whom many had contended in knowledge,
+with curious and difficult questions, and had always been silenced and
+killed, for then, as now, a man's life often depended on his wisdom. Of
+this giant, Vafthrudner, and his wisdom many wonderful stories were
+told, and even among the gods his fame was great. One day as Odin sat
+thinking of many strange things in the worlds, and many mysterious
+things in the future, he thought of Vafthrudner. "I will go to Joetunheim
+and measure wisdom with Vafthrudner, the wisest of the giants," said he
+to Frigg, his wife, who was sitting by.
+
+Then Frigg remembered those who had gone to contend with the all-wise
+giant and had never come back, and a fear came over her that the same
+fate might befall Odin.
+
+"You are wisest in all the worlds, All-Father," she said; "why should
+you seek a treacherous giant who knows not half so much as you?"
+
+But Odin, who feared nothing, could not be persuaded to stay, and Frigg
+sadly said good-by as he passed out of Asgard on his journey to
+Joetunheim. His blue mantle set with stars and his golden helmet he left
+behind him, and as he journeyed swiftly those who met him saw nothing
+godlike in him; nor did Vafthrudner when at last he stood at the giant's
+door.
+
+"I am a simple traveler, Gangraad by name," he said, as Vafthrudner came
+gruffly toward him. "I ask your hospitality and a chance to strive with
+you in wisdom." The giant laughed scornfully at the thought of a man
+coming to contend with him for mastery in knowledge.
+
+"You shall have all you want of both," he growled, "and if you cannot
+answer my questions you shall never go hence alive."
+
+He did not even ask Odin to sit down, but let him stand in the hall,
+despising him too much to show him any courtesy. After a time he began
+to ask questions.
+
+"Tell me, if you can, O wise Gangraad, the name of the river which
+divides Asgard from Joetunheim."
+
+"The river Ifing, which never freezes over," answered Odin quickly, as
+if it were the easiest question in the world; and indeed it was to him,
+although no man could have answered it. Vafthrudner looked up in great
+surprise when he heard the reply.
+
+"Good," he said, "you have answered rightly. Tell me, now, the names of
+the horses that carry day and night across the sky."
+
+Before the words were fairly spoken Odin replied, "Skinfaxe and
+Hrimfaxe." The giant could not conceal his surprise that a man should
+know these things.
+
+"Once more," he said quickly, as if he were risking everything on one
+question; "tell me the name of the plain where the Last Battle will be
+fought."
+
+This was a terrible question, for the Last Battle was still far off in
+the future, and only the gods and the greatest of the giants knew where
+and when it would come. Odin bowed his head when he heard the words, for
+to be ready for that battle was the divine work of his life, and then
+said, slowly and solemnly, "On the plain of Vigrid, which is one hundred
+miles on each side."
+
+Vafthrudner rose trembling from his seat. He knew now that Gangraad was
+some great one in disguise, and that his own life hung on the answers he
+himself would soon be forced to make.
+
+"Sit here beside me," he said, "for whoever you are, worthier antagonist
+has never entered these walls."
+
+Then they sat down together in the rude stone hall, the mightiest of the
+gods and the wisest of the giants, and the great contest in wisdom, with
+a life hanging in either scale, went on between them. Wonderful secrets
+of the time when no man was and the time when no man will be, those
+silent walls listened to as Vafthrudner asked Odin one deep question
+after another, the answer coming swiftly and surely.
+
+After a time the giant could ask no more, for he had exhausted his
+wisdom.
+
+"It is my turn now," said Odin, and one after another he drew out from
+Vafthrudner the events of the past and then the wonderful things of the
+race of giants, and finally he began to question him of that dim,
+mysterious future whose secrets only the gods know; and as he touched
+these wonderful things Odin's eyes began to flash, and his form to grow
+larger and nobler until he seemed no longer the humble Gangraad, but the
+mighty god he was, and Vafthrudner trembled as he felt the coming doom
+nearing him with every question.
+
+So hours went by, until at last Odin paused in his swift questioning,
+stooped down, and asked the giant, "What did Odin whisper in the ear of
+Balder as he ascended the funeral pile?"
+
+Only Odin himself could answer this question, and Vafthrudner replied
+humbly and with awe, "Who but thyself, All-Father, knoweth the words
+thou didst say to thy son in the days of old? I have brought my doom
+upon myself, for in my ignorance I have contended with wisdom itself.
+Thou art ever the wisest of all."
+
+So Odin conquered, and Wisdom was victorious, as she always has been
+even when she has contended with giants.
+
+
+
+266
+
+ The story of the splendid courage of Tyr at the
+ time of the chaining up of the terrible Fenris
+ wolf has always been one of the favorite Norse
+ tales. The three repulsive giant monsters in
+ whom the forces of evil are embodied are well
+ imagined to suggest to us powers that may
+ finally be stronger than the gods themselves.
+ The failures to find a chain strong enough, and
+ the final success with the magic bond made in
+ Dwarfland, form a series of powerfully dramatic
+ steps in the story. The elements of which the
+ slender rope is made never fail to fascinate
+ hearers, young or old, with a sense of the most
+ profound mystery. "Why the dwarfs should be
+ able to make a chain strong enough to bind him,
+ which the gods had failed to do, is a puzzle.
+ May it mean that subtlety can compass ends
+ which force has to relinquish, or possibly a
+ better thing than subtlety, gentleness?" And
+ the final need of a hero willing to take
+ extreme risks for some good greater than
+ himself is amply and admirably satisfied in the
+ brave Tyr. The version of the story used here
+ is from Miss E. M. Wilmot-Buxton's _Stories of
+ Norse Heroes_.
+
+
+HOW THE FENRIS WOLF WAS CHAINED
+
+E. M. WILMOT-BUXTON
+
+Fair as were the meads of Asgard, we have seen that the Asa folk were
+fond of wandering far afield in other regions. Most restless of all was
+Red Loki, that cunning fellow who was always bringing trouble upon
+himself or upon his kindred. And because he loved evil, he would often
+betake himself to the gloomy halls of Giantland and mingle with the
+wicked folk of that region.
+
+Now one day he met a hideous giantess named Angur-Boda. This creature
+had a heart of ice, and because he loved ugliness and evil she had a
+great attraction for him, and in the end he married her, and they lived
+together in a horrible cave in Giantland.
+
+Three children were born to Loki and Angur-Boda in this dread abode, and
+they were even more terrible in appearance than their mother. The first
+was an immense wolf called Fenris, with a huge mouth filled with long
+white teeth, which he was constantly gnashing together. The second was a
+wicked-looking serpent with a fiery-red tongue lolling from its mouth.
+The third was a hideous giantess, partly blue and partly flesh color,
+whose name was Hela.
+
+No sooner were these three terrible children born than all the wise men
+of the earth began to foretell the misery they would bring upon the Asa
+folk.
+
+In vain did Loki try to keep them hidden within the cave wherein their
+mother dwelt. They soon grew so immense in size that no dwelling would
+contain them, and all the world began to talk of their frightful
+appearance.
+
+It was not long, of course, before All-Father Odin, from his high seat
+in Asgard, heard of the children of Loki. So he sent for some of the
+Asas, and said: "Much evil will come upon us, O my children, from this
+giant brood, if we defend not ourselves against them. For their mother
+will teach them wickedness, and still more quickly will they learn the
+cunning wiles of their father. Fetch me them here, therefore, that I may
+deal with them forthwith."
+
+So, after somewhat of a struggle, the Asas captured the three
+giant-children and brought them before Odin's judgment seat.
+
+Then Odin looked first at Hela, and when he saw her gloomy eyes, full of
+misery and despair, he was sorry, and dealt kindly with her, saying:
+"Thou art the bringer of Pain to man, and Asgard is no place for such as
+thou. But I will make thee ruler of the Mist Home, and there shalt thou
+rule over that unlighted world, the Region of the Dead."
+
+Forthwith he sent her away over rough roads to the cold, dark region of
+the North called the Mist Home. And there did Hela rule over a grim
+crew, for all those who had done wickedness in the world above were
+imprisoned by her in those gloomy regions. To her came also all those
+who had died, not on the battlefield, but of old age or disease. And
+though these were treated kindly enough, theirs was a joyless life in
+comparison with that of the dead warriors who were feasting and fighting
+in the halls of Valhalla, under the kindly rule of All-Father Odin.
+
+Having thus disposed of Hela, Odin next turned his attention to the
+serpent. And when he saw his evil tongue and cunning, wicked eyes, he
+said: "Thou art he who bringest Sin into the world of men; therefore the
+ocean shall be thy home forever."
+
+Then he threw that horrid serpent into the deep sea which surrounds all
+lands, and there the creature grew so fast that when he stretched
+himself one day he encircled all the earth, and held his own tail fast
+in his mouth. And sometimes he grew angry to think that he, the son of a
+god, had thus been cast out; and at those times he would writhe with his
+huge body and lash his tail till the sea spouted up to the sky. And when
+that happened the men of the North said that a great tempest was raging.
+But it was only the serpent-son of Loki writhing in his wrath.
+
+Then Odin turned to the third child. And behold! the Fenris Wolf was so
+appalling to look upon that Odin feared to cast him forth, and he
+decided to endeavor to tame him by kindness so that he should not wish
+them ill.
+
+But when he bade them carry food to the Fenris Wolf, not one of the Asas
+would do so, for they feared a snap from his great jaws. Only the brave
+Tyr had courage enough to feed him, and the wolf ate so much and so fast
+that the business took him all his time. Meantime, too, the Fenris grew
+so rapidly, and became so fierce, that the gods were compelled to take
+counsel and consider how they should get rid of him. They remembered
+that it would make their peaceful halls unholy if they were to slay him,
+and so they resolved instead to bind him fast, that he should be unable
+to do them harm.
+
+So those of the Asa folk who were clever smiths set to work and made a
+very strong, thick chain; and when it was finished they carried it out
+to the yard where the wolf dwelt, and said to him, as though in jest:
+"Here is a fine proof of thy boasted strength, O Fenris. Let us bind
+this about thee, that we may see if thou canst break it asunder."
+
+Then the wolf gave a great grin with his wide jaws, and came and stood
+still that they might bind the chain about him; for he knew what he
+could do. And it came to pass that directly they had fastened the chain,
+and had slipped aside from him, the great beast gave himself a shake,
+and the chain fell about him in little bits. At this the Asas were much
+annoyed, but they tried not to show it, and praised him for his
+strength.
+
+Then they set to work again upon a chain much stronger than the last,
+and brought it to the Fenris Wolf, saying: "Great will be thy renown, O
+Fenris, if thou canst break this chain as thou didst the last."
+
+But the wolf looked at them askance, for the chain they brought was very
+much thicker than the one he had already broken. He reflected, however,
+that since that time he himself had grown stronger and bigger, and
+moreover, that one must risk something in order to win renown.
+
+So he let them put the chain upon him, and when the Asas said that all
+was ready, he gave a good shake and stretched himself a few times, and
+again the fetters lay in fragments on the ground.
+
+Then the gods began to fear that they would never hold the wolf in
+bonds; and it was All-Father Odin who persuaded them to make one more
+attempt. So they sent a messenger to Dwarfland bidding him ask the
+Little Men to make a chain which nothing could possibly destroy.
+
+Setting at once to work, the clever little smiths soon fashioned a
+slender silken rope, and gave it to the messenger, saying that no
+strength could break it, and that the more it was strained the stronger
+it would become.
+
+It was made of the most mysterious things--the sound of a cat's
+footsteps, the roots of a mountain, the sinews of a bear, the breath of
+fishes, and other such strange materials, which only the dwarfs knew how
+to use. With this chain the messenger hastened back over the Rainbow
+Bridge to Asgard.
+
+By this time the Fenris Wolf had grown too big for his yard, so he lived
+on a rocky island in the middle of the lake that lies in the midst of
+Asgard. And here the Asas now betook themselves with their chain, and
+began to play their part with wily words.
+
+"See," they cried, "O Fenris! Here is a cord so soft and thin that none
+would think of it binding such strength as thine." And they laughed
+great laughs, and handed it to one another, and tried its strength by
+pulling at it with all their might, but it did not break.
+
+Then they came nearer and used more wiles, saying: "_We_ cannot break
+the cord, though 'tis stronger than it looks, but thou, O mighty one,
+will be able to snap it in a moment."
+
+But the wolf tossed his head in scorn, and said: "Small renown would
+there be to me, O Asa folk, if I were to break yon slender string. Save,
+therefore, your breath, and leave me now alone."
+
+"Aha!" cried the Asas, "thou fearest the might of the silken cord, thou
+false one, and that is why thou wilt not let us bind thee!"
+
+"Not I," said the Fenris Wolf, growing rather suspicious, "but if it is
+made with craft and guile it shall never come near my feet."
+
+"But," said the Asas, "thou wilt surely be able to break this silken
+cord with ease, since thou hast already broken the great iron fetters."
+
+To this the wolf made no answer, pretending not to hear.
+
+"Come!" said the Asas again, "why shouldst thou fear? For even if thou
+couldst not break the cord we would immediately let thee free again. To
+refuse is a coward's piece of work."
+
+Then the wolf gnashed his teeth at them in anger, and said: "Well I know
+you Asas! For if you bind me so fast that I cannot get loose you will
+skulk away, and it will be long before I get any help from you; and
+therefore am I loth to let this band be laid upon me."
+
+But still the Asas continued to persuade him and to twit him with
+cowardice until at length the Fenris Wolf said, with a sullen growl:
+"Have it your own way then. But, as a pledge that this is done without
+deceit, let one of you lay his hand in my mouth while you are binding
+me, and afterwards while I try to break the bonds."
+
+Then the Asa folk looked at one another in dismay, for they knew very
+well what this would mean. And while they consulted together the wolf
+stood gnashing his teeth at them with a horrid grin.
+
+At length Tyr the Brave hesitated no longer. Boldly he stalked up to the
+wolf and thrust his arm into his enormous mouth, bidding the Asas bind
+fast the beast. Scarce had they done so when the wolf began to strain
+and pull, but the more he did so the tighter and stiffer the rope
+became.
+
+The gods shouted and laughed with glee when they saw how all his efforts
+were in vain. But Tyr did not join in their mirth, for the wolf in his
+rage snapped his great teeth together and bit off his hand at the wrist.
+
+Now when the Asas discovered that the animal was fast bound, they took
+the chain which was fixed to the rope and drew it through a huge rock,
+and fastened this rock deep down in the earth, so that it could never be
+moved. And this they fastened to another great rock which was driven
+still deeper into the ground.
+
+When the Fenris Wolf found that he had been thus secured he opened his
+mouth terribly wide, and twisted himself right and left, and tried his
+best to bite the Asa folk. He uttered, moreover, such terrible howls
+that at length the gods could bear it no longer. So they took a sword
+and thrust it into his mouth, so that the hilt rested on his lower, and
+the point against his upper, jaw. And there he was doomed to remain
+until the end of All Things shall come, when he
+
+ "Freed from the Chain
+ Shall range the Earth."
+
+
+
+267
+
+ The story of Frey in the Norse mythology
+ corresponds to that of Persephone (Proserpine)
+ in classic mythology. (See No. 255.) Frey is
+ "the god of the earth's fruitfulness, presiding
+ over rain, sunshine, and all the fruits of the
+ earth, and dispensing wealth among men."
+ Skirnir is the sun-warmed air, and Gerda is the
+ seed. The version of the story used below is
+ from _The Heroes of Asgard_ by Annie and Eliza
+ Keary. This book was first published in 1854,
+ and while a little old-fashioned in style is
+ still one of the most pleasing attempts to tell
+ the Norse myths for young people.
+
+
+FREY
+
+A. AND E. KEARY
+
+
+PART I
+
+ON TIPTOE IN AIR THRONE
+
+Wherever Frey came there was summer and sunshine. Flowers sprang up
+under his footsteps, and bright-winged insects, like flying flowers,
+hovered round his head. His warm breath ripened the fruit on the trees,
+and gave a bright yellow color to the corn, and purple bloom to the
+grapes, as he passed through fields and vineyards.
+
+When he rode along in his car, drawn by the stately boar, Golden
+Bristles, soft winds blew before him, filling the air with fragrance and
+spreading abroad the news, "Van Frey is coming!" and every half-closed
+flower burst into perfect beauty, and forest, and field, and hill
+flushed their richest colors to greet his presence.
+
+Under Frey's care and instruction the pretty little light elves forgot
+their idle ways and learned all the pleasant tasks he had promised to
+teach them. It was the prettiest possible sight to see them in the
+evening filling their tiny buckets, and running about among the woods
+and meadows to hang the dew-drops deftly on the slender tips of the
+grass-blades, or to drop them into the half-closed cups of the sleepy
+flowers. When this last of their day's tasks was over they used to
+cluster round their summer-king, like bees about the queen, while he
+told them stories about the wars between the Aesir and the giants, or of
+the old time when he lived alone with his father Nioerd, in Noatun, and
+listened to the waves singing songs of far distant lands. So pleasantly
+did they spend their time in Alfheim.
+
+But in the midst of all this work and play Frey had a wish in his mind,
+of which he could not help often talking to his clear-minded messenger
+and friend Skirnir. "I have seen many things," he used to say, "and
+traveled through many lands; but to see all the world at once, as Asa
+Odin does from Air Throne, _that_ must be a splendid sight."
+
+"Only Father Odin may sit on Air Throne," Skirnir would say; and it
+seemed to Frey that this answer was not so much to the purpose as his
+friend's sayings generally were.
+
+At length, one very clear summer evening, when Odin was feasting with
+the other Aesir in Valhalla, Frey could restrain his curiosity no
+longer. He left Alfheim, where all the little elves were fast asleep,
+and, without asking any one's advice, climbed into Air Throne, and stood
+on tiptoe in Odin's very seat. It was a clear evening, and I had,
+perhaps, better not even try to tell you what Frey saw.
+
+He looked first all round him over Manheim, where the rosy light of the
+set sun still lingered, and where men, and birds, and flowers were
+gathering themselves up for their night's repose; then he glanced
+towards the heavenly hills where Bifroest rested, and then towards the
+shadowy land which deepened down into Niflheim. At length he turned his
+eyes northward to the misty land of Joetunheim. There the shades of
+evening had already fallen; but from his high place Frey could still see
+distinct shapes moving about through the gloom. Strange and monstrous
+shapes they were, and Frey stood a little higher, on tiptoe, that he
+might look further after them. In this position he could just descry a
+tall house standing on a hill in the very middle of Joetunheim. While he
+looked at it a maiden came and lifted up her arms to undo the latch of
+the door. It was dusk in Joetunheim; but when this maiden lifted up her
+white arms, such a dazzling reflection came from them, that Joetunheim,
+and the sky, and all the sea were flooded with clear light. For a moment
+everything could be distinctly seen; but Frey saw nothing but the face
+of the maiden with the uplifted arms; and when she had entered the house
+and shut the door after her, and darkness fell again on earth, and sky,
+and sea,--darkness fell, too, upon Frey's heart.
+
+
+PART II
+
+THE GIFT
+
+The next morning, when the little elves awoke up with the dawn, and came
+thronging round their king to receive his commands, they were surprised
+to see that he had changed since they last saw him.
+
+"He has grown up in the night," they whispered one to another
+sorrowfully. And in truth he was no longer so fit a teacher and
+playfellow for the merry little people as he had been a few hours
+before.
+
+It was to no purpose that the sweet winds blew, and the flowers opened,
+when Frey came forth from his chamber. A bright white light still danced
+before him, and nothing now seemed to him worth looking at. That evening
+when the sun had set, and work was over, there were no stories for the
+light elves.
+
+"Be still," Frey said, when they pressed round. "If you will be still
+and listen, there are stories enough to be heard better than mine."
+
+I do not know whether the elves heard anything; but to Frey it seemed
+that flowers, and birds, and winds, and the whispering rivers, united
+that day in singing one song, which he never wearied of hearing. "We are
+fair," they said; "but there is nothing in the whole world so fair as
+Gerda, the giant-maiden whom you saw last night in Joetunheim."
+
+"Frey has dew-drops in his eyes," the little elves said to each other in
+whispers as they sat round looking up at him, and they felt very much
+surprised; for only to men and the Aesir is it permitted to be sorrowful
+and weep. Soon, however, wiser people noticed the change that had come
+over the summer-king, and his good-natured father, Nioerd, sent Skirnir
+one day into Alfheim to inquire into the cause of Frey's sorrow.
+
+He found him walking alone in a shady place, and Frey was glad enough to
+tell his trouble to his wise friend.
+
+When he had related the whole story, he said, "And now you will see that
+there is no use in asking me to be merry as I used to be; for how can I
+ever be happy in Alfheim, and enjoy the summer and sunshine, while my
+dear Gerda, whom I love, is living in a dark, cold land, among cruel
+giants?"
+
+"If she be really as beautiful and beloved as you say," answered
+Skirnir, "she must be sadly out of place in Joetunheim. Why do not you
+ask her to be your wife, and live with you in Alfheim?"
+
+"That would I only too gladly do," answered Frey; "but if I were to
+leave Alfheim only for a few hours, the cruel giant Ryme,--the Frost
+Giant--would rush in to take my place; all the labors of the year would
+be undone in a night, and the poor, toiling men, who are watching for
+the harvest, would wake some morning to find their corn fields and
+orchards buried in snow."
+
+"Well," said Skirnir, thoughtfully, "I am neither so strong nor so
+beautiful as you, Frey; but, if you will give me the sword that hangs by
+your side, I will undertake the journey to Joetunheim; and I will speak
+in such a way of you, and of Alfheim, to the lovely Gerda, that she
+will gladly leave her land and the house of her giant-father to come to
+you."
+
+Now, Frey's sword was a gift, and he knew well enough that he ought not
+to part with it, or trust it in any hands but his own; and yet how could
+he expect Skirnir to risk all the dangers of Joetunheim for any less
+recompense than an enchanted sword? And what other hope had he of ever
+seeing his dear Gerda again?
+
+He did not allow himself a moment to think of the choice he was making.
+He unbuckled his sword from his side and put it into Skirnir's hands;
+and then he turned rather pettishly away, and threw himself down on a
+mossy bank under a tree.
+
+"You will be many days in traveling to Joetunheim," he said, "and all
+that time I shall be miserable."
+
+Skirnir was too sensible to think this speech worth answering. He took a
+hasty farewell of Frey, and prepared to set off on his journey; but,
+before he left the hill, he chanced to see the reflection of Frey's face
+in a little pool of water that lay near. In spite of its sorrowful
+expression, it was as beautiful as the woods are in full summer, and a
+clever thought came into Skirnir's mind. He stooped down, without Frey's
+seeing him, and, with cunning touch, stole the picture out of the water;
+then he fastened it up carefully in his silver drinking-horn, and,
+hiding it in his mantle, he mounted his horse and rode towards
+Joetunheim, secure of succeeding in his mission, since he carried a
+matchless sword to conquer the giant, and a matchless picture to win the
+maiden.
+
+
+PART III
+
+FAIREST GERDA
+
+The house of Gymir, Gerda's father, stood in the middle of Joetunheim, so
+it will not be difficult for you to imagine what a toilsome and wondrous
+journey Skirnir had. He was a brave hero, and he rode a brave horse;
+but, when they came to the barrier of murky flame that surrounds
+Joetunheim, a shudder came over both.
+
+"Dark it is without," said Skirnir to his horse, "and you and I must
+leap through flame, and go over hoar mountains among Giant Folk. The
+giants will take us both, or we shall return victorious together." Then
+he patted his horse's neck, and touched him with his armed heel, and
+with one bound he cleared the barrier, and his hoofs rang on the frozen
+land.
+
+Their first day's journey was through the land of the Frost Giants,
+whose prickly touch kills, and whose breath is sharper than swords. Then
+they passed through the dwellings of the horse-headed and vulture-headed
+giants--monsters terrible to see. Skirnir hid his face, and the horse
+flew along swifter than the wind.
+
+On the evening of the third day they reached Gymir's house. Skirnir rode
+round it nine times; but though there were twenty doors, he could find
+no entrance; for fierce three-headed dogs guarded every doorway.
+
+At length he saw a herdsman pass near, and he rode up and asked him how
+it was possible for a stranger to enter Gymir's house, or get a sight of
+his fair daughter Gerda.
+
+"Are you doomed to death, or are you already a dead man," answered the
+herdsman, "that you talk of seeing Gymir's fair daughter, or entering a
+house from which no one ever returns?"
+
+"My death is fixed for one day," said Skirnir, in answer, and his voice,
+the voice of an Asa, sounded loud and clear through the misty air of
+Joetunheim. It reached the ears of the fair Gerda as she sat in her
+chamber with her maidens.
+
+"What is that noise of noises," she said, "that I hear? The earth shakes
+with it, and all Gymir's halls tremble."
+
+Then one of the maidens got up, and peeped out of the window. "I see a
+man," she said; "he has dismounted from his horse, and he is fearlessly
+letting it graze before the door."
+
+"Go out and bring him in stealthily, then," said Gerda; "I must again
+hear him speak; for his voice is sweeter than the ringing of bells."
+
+So the maiden rose, and opened the house-door softly, lest the grim
+giant, Gymir, who was drinking mead in the banquet-hall with seven other
+giants, should hear and come forth.
+
+Skirnir heard the door open, and understanding the maiden's sign, he
+entered with stealthy steps, and followed her to Gerda's chamber. As
+soon as he entered the doorway the light from her face shone upon him,
+and he no longer wondered that Frey had given up his sword.
+
+"Are you the son of an Asa, or an Alf, or of a wise Van?" asked Gerda;
+"and why have you come through flame and snow to visit our halls?"
+
+Then Skirnir came forward and knelt at Gerda's feet, and gave his
+message, and spoke as he had promised to speak of Van Frey and of
+Alfheim.
+
+Gerda listened; and it was pleasant enough to talk to her, looking into
+her bright face; but she did not seem to understand much of what he
+said.
+
+He promised to give her eleven golden apples from Iduna's grove if she
+would go with him, and that she should have the magic ring Draupnir from
+which every day a still fairer jewel fell. But he found there was no use
+in talking of beautiful things to one who had never in all her life seen
+anything beautiful. Gerda smiled at him as a child smiles at a fairy
+tale.
+
+At length he grew angry. "If you are so childish, maiden," he said,
+"that you can believe only what you have seen, and have no thought of
+Aesirland or the Aesir, then sorrow and utter darkness shall fall upon
+you; you shall live alone on the Eagle Mount turned towards Hel. Terrors
+shall beset you; weeping shall be your lot. Men and Aesir will hate you,
+and you shall be doomed to live for ever with the Frost Giant, Ryme, in
+whose cold arms you will wither away like a thistle on a house-top."
+
+"Gently," said Gerda, turning away her bright head, and sighing. "How am
+I to blame? You make such a talk of your Aesir and your Aesir; but how
+can I know about it, when all my life long I have lived with giants?"
+
+At these words, Skirnir rose as if he would have departed, but Gerda
+called him back. "You must drink a cup of mead," she said, "in return
+for your sweet-sounding words."
+
+Skirnir heard this gladly, for now he knew what he would do. He took the
+cup from her hand, drank off the mead, and, before he returned it, he
+contrived cleverly to pour in the water from his drinking-horn, on which
+Frey's image was painted; then he put the cup into Gerda's hand, and
+bade her look.
+
+She smiled as she looked; and the longer she looked, the sweeter grew
+her smile; for she looked for the first time on a face that loved her,
+and many things became clear to her that she had never understood
+before. Skirnir's words were no longer like fairy tales. She could now
+believe in Aesirland, and in all beautiful things.
+
+"Go back to your master," she said, at last, "and tell him that in nine
+days I will meet him in the warm wood Barri."
+
+After hearing these joyful words, Skirnir made haste to take leave, for
+every moment that he lingered in the giant's house he was in danger. One
+of Gerda's maidens conducted him to the door, and he mounted his horse
+again, and rode from Joetunheim with a glad heart.
+
+
+PART IV
+
+THE WOOD BARRI
+
+When Skirnir got back to Alfheim, and told Gerda's answer to Frey, he
+was disappointed to find that his master did not immediately look as
+bright and happy as he expected.
+
+"Nine days!" he said; "but how can I wait nine days? One day is long,
+and three days are very long, but 'nine days' might as well be a whole
+year."
+
+I have heard children say such things when one tells them to wait for a
+new toy.
+
+Skirnir and old Nioerd only laughed at it; but Freyja and all the ladies
+of Asgard made a journey to Alfheim, when they heard the story, to
+comfort Frey, and hear all the news about the wedding.
+
+"Dear Frey," they said, "it will never do to lie still here, sighing
+under a tree. You are quite mistaken about the time being long; it is
+hardly long enough to prepare the marriage presents, and talk over the
+wedding. You have no idea how busy we are going to be; everything in
+Alfheim will have to be altered a little."
+
+At these words Frey really did lift up his head, and wake up from his
+musings. He looked, in truth, a little frightened at the thought; but,
+when all the Asgard ladies were ready to work for his wedding, how could
+he make any objection? He was not allowed to have much share in the
+business himself; but he had little time, during the nine days, to
+indulge in private thought, for never before was there such a commotion
+in Alfheim. The ladies found so many things that wanted overlooking, and
+the little light elves were not of the slightest use to any one. They
+forgot all their usual tasks, and went running about through groves and
+fields, and by the sedgy banks of rivers, peering into earth-holes, and
+creeping down into flower-cups and empty snail-shells, every one hoping
+to find a gift for Gerda.
+
+Some stole the light from glowworms' tails, and wove it into a necklace,
+and others pulled the ruby spots from cowslip leaves, to set with jewels
+the acorn cups that Gerda was to drink from; while the swiftest runners
+chased the butterflies, and pulled feathers from their wings to make
+fans and bonnet-plumes.
+
+All the work was scarcely finished when the ninth day came, and Frey set
+out from Alfheim with all his elves, to the warm wood Barri.
+
+The Aesir joined him on the way, and they made, together, something like
+a wedding procession. First came Frey in his chariot, drawn by Golden
+Bristles, and carrying in his hand the wedding ring, which was none
+other than Draupnir, the magic ring of which so many stories are told.
+
+Odin and Frigga followed with their wedding gift, the Ship Skidbladnir,
+in which all the Aesir could sit and sail, though it could afterwards be
+folded up so small that you might carry it in your hand.
+
+Then came Iduna, with eleven golden apples in a basket on her fair head,
+and then two and two all the heroes and ladies with their gifts.
+
+All round them flocked the elves, toiling under the weight of their
+offerings. It took twenty little people to carry one gift, and yet there
+was not one so large as a baby's finger. Laughing, and singing, and
+dancing, they entered the warm wood, and every summer flower sent a
+sweet breath after them. Everything on earth smiled on the wedding-day
+of Frey and Gerda, only--when it was all over, and every one had gone
+home, and the moon shone cold into the wood--it seemed as if the Vanir
+spoke to one another.
+
+"Odin," said one voice, "gave his eye for wisdom, and we have seen that
+it was well done."
+
+"Frey," answered the other, "has given his sword for happiness. It may
+be well to be unarmed while the sun shines and bright days last; but
+when Ragnaroek has come, and the sons of Muspell ride down to the last
+fight, will not Frey regret his sword?"
+
+
+
+268
+
+ Balder represented sunlight. He was a son of
+ Odin. If we try to imagine how welcome the
+ sunlight of spring must have been to the Norse
+ folk after the long Arctic night of winter, we
+ may understand why everything in the world,
+ except the evil Loke, was willing to weep in
+ order to bring Balder back from Helheim. Some
+ knowledge of the geography of Norse mythology
+ will aid the reader in understanding the myth
+ of Balder. Far below Asgard, the home of the
+ gods, was Niflheim, the region of cold and
+ darkness. Here in a deep cavern was Helheim,
+ the city of the dead, over which Hel ruled.
+ Midway between Asgard and Niflheim was Midgard,
+ the earth. The whole universe was supported by
+ Ygdrasil, a wonderful ash-tree, one root of
+ which extended into Midgard, one into
+ Joetunheim, and one into Niflheim.
+
+ "Balder is another figure of that radiant type
+ to which belong all bright and genial heroes,
+ righters of wrong, blazing to consume evil,
+ gentle and strong to uplift weakness: Apollo,
+ Hercules, Perseus, Achilles, Sigard, St.
+ George, and many another." Balder has been a
+ favorite subject for poetic treatment, perhaps
+ to best effect in Matthew Arnold's dignified
+ "Balder Dead."
+
+
+THE DEATH OF BALDER
+
+HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE
+
+There was one shadow which always fell over Asgard. Sometimes in the
+long years the gods almost forgot it, it lay so far off, like a dim
+cloud in a clear sky; but Odin saw it deepen and widen as he looked out
+into the universe, and he knew that the last great battle would surely
+come, when the gods themselves would be destroyed and a long twilight
+would rest on all the worlds; and now the day was close at hand.
+Misfortunes never come singly to men, and they did not to the gods.
+Idun, the beautiful goddess of youth, whose apples were the joy of all
+Asgard, made a resting place for herself among the massive branches of
+Ygdrasil, and there every evening came Brage, and sang so sweetly that
+the birds stopped to listen, and even the Norns, those implacable
+sisters at the foot of the tree, were softened by the melody. But
+poetry cannot change the purposes of fate, and one evening no song was
+heard of Brage or birds, the leaves of the world-tree hung withered and
+lifeless on the branches, and the fountain from which they had daily
+been sprinkled was dry at last. Idun had fallen into the dark valley of
+death, and when Brage, Heimdal, and Loke went to question her about the
+future she could answer them only with tears. Brage would not leave his
+beautiful wife alone amid the dim shades that crowded the dreary valley,
+and so youth and genius vanished out of Asgard forever.
+
+Balder was the most god-like of all the gods, because he was the purest
+and the best. Wherever he went his coming was like the coming of
+sunshine, and all the beauty of summer was but the shining of his face.
+When men's hearts were white like the light, and their lives clear as
+the day, it was because Balder was looking down upon them with those
+soft, clear eyes that were open windows to the soul of God. He had
+always lived in such a glow of brightness that no darkness had ever
+touched him; but one morning, after Idun and Brage had gone, Balder's
+face was sad and troubled. He walked slowly from room to room in his
+palace Breidablik, stainless as the sky when April showers have swept
+across it because no impure thing had ever crossed the threshold, and
+his eyes were heavy with sorrow. In the night terrible dreams had broken
+his sleep, and made it a long torture. The air seemed to be full of
+awful changes for him, and for all the gods. He knew in his soul that
+the shadow of the last great day was sweeping on; as he looked out and
+saw the worlds lying in light and beauty, the fields yellow with waving
+grain, the deep fiords flashing back the sunbeams from their clear
+depths, the verdure clothing the loftiest mountains, and knew that over
+all this darkness and desolation would come, with silence of reapers and
+birds, with fading of leaf and flower, a great sorrow fell on his heart.
+
+Balder could bear the burden no longer. He went out, called all the gods
+together, and told them the terrible dreams of the night. Every face was
+heavy with care. The death of Balder would be like the going out of the
+sun, and after a long, sad council the gods resolved to protect him from
+harm by pledging all things to stand between him and any hurt. So Frigg,
+his mother, went forth and made everything promise, on a solemn oath,
+not to injure her son. Fire, iron, all kinds of metal, every sort of
+stone, trees, earth, diseases, birds, beasts, snakes, as the anxious
+mother went to them, solemnly pledged themselves that no harm should
+come near Balder. Everything promised, and Frigg thought she had driven
+away the cloud; but fate was stronger than her love, and one little
+shrub had not sworn.
+
+Odin was not satisfied even with these precautions, for whichever way he
+looked the shadow of a great sorrow spread over the worlds. He began to
+feel as if he were no longer the greatest of the gods, and he could
+almost hear the rough shouts of the frost-giants crowding the rainbow
+bridge on their way into Asgard. When trouble comes to men it is hard to
+bear, but to a god who had so many worlds to guide and rule it was a new
+and terrible thing. Odin thought and thought until he was weary, but no
+gleam of light could he find anywhere; it was thick darkness
+everywhere.
+
+At last he could bear the suspense no longer, and saddling his horse he
+rode sadly out of Asgard to Niflheim, the home of Hel, whose face was as
+the face of death itself. As he drew near the gates, a monstrous dog
+came out and barked furiously, but Odin rode a little eastward of the
+shadowy gates to the grave of a wonderful prophetess. It was a cold,
+gloomy place, and the soul of the great god was pierced with a feeling
+of hopeless sorrow as he dismounted from Sleipner, and bending over the
+grave began to chant weird songs, and weave magical charms over it. When
+he had spoken those wonderful words which could waken the dead from
+their sleep, there was an awful silence for a moment, and then a faint
+ghost-like voice came from the grave.
+
+"Who art thou?" it said. "Who breaketh the silence of death, and calleth
+the sleeper out of her long slumbers? Ages ago I was laid at rest here,
+snow and rain have fallen upon me through myriad years; why dost thou
+disturb me?"
+
+"I am Vegtam," answered Odin, "and I come to ask why the couches of Hel
+are hung with gold and the benches strewn with shining rings?"
+
+"It is done for Balder," answered the awful voice; "ask me no more."
+
+Odin's heart sank when he heard these words; but he was determined to
+know the worst.
+
+"I will ask thee until I know all. Who shall strike the fatal blow?"
+
+"If I must, I must," moaned the prophetess. "Hoder shall smite his
+brother Balder and send him down to the dark home of Hel. The mead is
+already brewed for Balder, and the despair draweth near."
+
+Then Odin, looking into the future across the open grave, saw all the
+days to come.
+
+"Who is this," he said, seeing that which no mortal could have
+seen,--"who is this that will not weep for Balder?"
+
+Then the prophetess knew that it was none other than the greatest of the
+gods who had called her up.
+
+"Thou are not Vegtam," she exclaimed, "thou art Odin himself, the king
+of men."
+
+"And thou," answered Odin angrily, "art no prophetess, but the mother of
+three giants."
+
+"Ride home, then, and exult in what thou hast discovered," said the dead
+woman. "Never shall my slumbers be broken again until Loke shall burst
+his chains and the great battle come."
+
+And Odin rode sadly homeward knowing that already Niflheim was making
+itself beautiful against the coming of Balder.
+
+The other gods meanwhile had become merry again; for had not everything
+promised to protect their beloved Balder? They even made sport of that
+which troubled them, for when they found that nothing could hurt Balder,
+and that all things glanced aside from his shining form, they persuaded
+him to stand as a target for their weapons; hurling darts, spears,
+swords, and battle-axes at him, all of which went singing through the
+air and fell harmless at his feet. But Loke, when he saw these sports,
+was jealous of Balder, and went about thinking how he could destroy him.
+
+It happened that as Frigg sat spinning in her house Fensal, the soft
+wind blowing in at the windows and bringing the merry shouts of the gods
+at play, an old woman entered and approached her.
+
+"Do you know," asked the newcomer, "what they are doing in Asgard? They
+are throwing all manner of dangerous weapons at Balder. He stands there
+like the sun for brightness, and against his glory, spears and
+battle-axes fall powerless to the ground. Nothing can harm him."
+
+"No," answered Frigg, joyfully; "nothing can bring him any hurt, for I
+have made everything in heaven and earth swear to protect him."
+
+"What!" said the old woman, "has everything sworn to guard Balder?"
+
+"Yes," said Frigg, "everything has sworn except one little shrub which
+is called Mistletoe, and grows on the eastern side of Valhal. I did not
+take an oath from that because I thought it too young and weak."
+
+When the old woman heard this a strange light came into her eyes; she
+walked off much faster than she had come in, and no sooner had she
+passed beyond Frigg's sight than this same feeble old woman grew
+suddenly erect, shook off her woman's garments, and there stood Loke
+himself. In a moment he had reached the slope east of Valhal, had
+plucked a twig of the unsworn Mistletoe, and was back in the circle of
+the gods, who were still at their favorite pastime with Balder. Hoder
+was standing silent and alone outside the noisy throng, for he was
+blind. Loke touched him.
+
+"Why do you not throw something at Balder?"
+
+"Because I cannot see where Balder stands, and have nothing to throw if
+I could," replied Hoder.
+
+"If that is all," said Loke, "come with me. I will give you something to
+throw, and direct your aim."
+
+Hoder, thinking no evil, went with Loke and did as he was told.
+
+The little sprig of Mistletoe shot through the air, pierced the heart of
+Balder, and in a moment the beautiful god lay dead upon the field. A
+shadow rose out of the deep beyond the worlds and spread itself over
+heaven and earth, for the light of the universe had gone out.
+
+The gods could not speak for horror. They stood like statues for a
+moment, and then a hopeless wail burst from their lips. Tears fell like
+rain from eyes that had never wept before, for Balder, the joy of
+Asgard, had gone to Niflheim and left them desolate. But Odin was
+saddest of all, because he knew the future, and he knew that peace and
+light had fled from Asgard forever, and that the last day and the long
+night were hurrying on.
+
+Frigg could not give up her beautiful son, and when her grief had spent
+itself a little, she asked who would go to Hel and offer her a rich
+ransom if she would permit Balder to return to Asgard.
+
+"I will go," said Hermod; swift at the word of Odin, Sleipner was led
+forth, and in an instant Hermod was galloping furiously away.
+
+Then the gods began with sorrowful hearts to make ready for Balder's
+funeral. When the once beautiful form had been arrayed in grave-clothes
+they carried it reverently down to the deep sea, which lay, calm as a
+summer afternoon, waiting for its precious burden. Close to the water's
+edge lay Balder's Ringhorn, the greatest of all the ships that sailed
+the seas, but when the gods tried to launch it they could not move it an
+inch. The great vessel creaked and groaned, but no one could push it
+down to the water. Odin walked about it with a sad face, and the gentle
+ripple of the little waves chasing each other over the rocks seemed a
+mocking laugh to him.
+
+"Send to Joetunheim for Hyrroken," he said at last; and a messenger was
+soon flying for that mighty giantess.
+
+In a little time, Hyrroken came riding swiftly on a wolf so large and
+fierce that he made the gods think of Fenris. When the giantess had
+alighted, Odin ordered four Berserkers of mighty strength to hold the
+wolf, but he struggled so angrily that they had to throw him on the
+ground before they could control him. Then Hyrroken went to the prow of
+the ship and with one mighty effort sent it far into the sea, the
+rollers underneath bursting into flame, and the whole earth trembling
+with the shock. Thor was so angry at the uproar that he would have
+killed the giantess on the spot if he had not been held back by the
+other gods. The great ship floated on the sea as she had often done
+before, when Balder, full of life and beauty, set all her sails and was
+borne joyfully across the tossing seas. Slowly and solemnly the dead god
+was carried on board, and as Nanna, his faithful wife, saw her husband
+borne for the last time from the earth which he had made dear to her and
+beautiful to all men, her heart broke with sorrow, and they laid her
+beside Balder on the funeral pyre.
+
+Since the world began no one had seen such a funeral. No bell tolled, no
+long procession of mourners moved across the hills, but all the worlds
+lay under a deep shadow, and from every quarter came those who had loved
+or feared Balder. There at the very water's edge stood Odin himself, the
+ravens flying about his head, and on his majestic face a gloom that no
+sun would ever lighten again; and there was Frigg, the desolate mother,
+whose son had already gone so far that he would never come back to her;
+there was Frey standing sad and stern in his chariot; there was Freyja,
+the goddess of love, from whose eyes fell a shining rain of tears;
+there, too, was Heimdal on his horse Goldtop; and around all these
+glorious ones from Asgard crowded the children of Joetunheim, grim
+mountain-giants seamed with scars from Thor's hammer, and frost-giants
+who saw in the death of Balder the coming of that long winter in which
+they should reign through all the worlds.
+
+A deep hush fell on all created things, and every eye was fixed on the
+great ship riding near the shore, and on the funeral pyre rising from
+the deck crowned with the forms of Balder and Nanna. Suddenly a gleam of
+light flashed over the water; the pile had been kindled, and the flames,
+creeping slowly at first, climbed faster and faster until they met over
+the dead and rose skyward. A lurid light filled the heavens and shone on
+the sea, and in the brightness of it the gods looked pale and sad, and
+the circle of giants grew darker and more portentous. Thor struck the
+fast burning pyre with his consecrating hammer, and Odin cast into it
+the wonderful ring Draupner. Higher and higher leaped the flames, more
+and more desolate grew the scene; at last they began to sink, the
+funeral pyre was consumed. Balder had vanished forever, the summer was
+ended, and winter waited at the doors.
+
+Meanwhile Hermod was riding hard and fast on his gloomy errand. Nine
+days and nights he rode through valleys so deep and dark that he could
+not see his horse. Stillness and blackness and solitude were his only
+companions until he came to the golden bridge which crosses the river
+Gjol. The good horse Sleipner, who had carried Odin on so many strange
+journeys, had never traveled such a road before, and his hoofs rang
+drearily as he stopped short at the bridge, for in front of him stood
+its porter, the gigantic Modgud.
+
+"Who are you?" she asked, fixing her piercing eyes on Hermod. "What is
+your name and parentage? Yesterday five bands of dead men rode across
+the bridge, and beneath them all it did not shake as under your single
+tread. There is no color of death in your face. Why ride you hither, the
+living among the dead?"
+
+"I come," said Hermod, "to seek for Balder. Have you seen him pass this
+way?"
+
+"He has already crossed the bridge and taken his journey northward to
+Hel."
+
+Then Hermod rode slowly across the bridge that spans the abyss between
+life and death, and found his way at last to the barred gates of Hel's
+dreadful home. There he sprang to the ground, tightened the girths,
+remounted, drove the spurs deep into the horse, and Sleipner, with a
+mighty leap, cleared the wall. Hermod rode straight to the gloomy
+palace, dismounted, entered, and in a moment was face to face with the
+terrible queen of the kingdom of the dead. Beside her, on a beautiful
+throne, sat Balder, pale and wan, crowned with a withered wreath of
+flowers, and close at hand was Nanna, pallid as her husband, for whom
+she had died. And all night long, while ghostly forms wandered restless
+and sleepless through Helheim, Hermod talked with Balder and Nanna.
+There is no record of what they said, but the talk was sad enough,
+doubtless, and ran like a still stream among the happy days in Asgard
+when Balder's smile was morning over the earth and the sight of his face
+the summer of the world.
+
+When the morning came, faint and dim, through the dusky palace, Hermod
+sought Hel, who received him as cold and stern as fate.
+
+"Your kingdom is full, O Hel!" he said, "and without Balder, Asgard is
+empty. Send him back to us once more, for there is sadness in every
+heart and tears are in every eye. Through heaven and earth all things
+weep for him."
+
+"If that is true," was the slow, icy answer, "if every created thing
+weeps for Balder, he shall return to Asgard; but if one eye is dry he
+remains henceforth in Helheim."
+
+Then Hermod rode swiftly away, and the decree of Hel was soon told in
+Asgard. Through all the worlds the gods sent messengers to say that all
+who loved Balder should weep for his return, and everywhere tears fell
+like rain. There was weeping in Asgard, and in all the earth there was
+nothing that did not weep. Men and women and little children, missing
+the light that had once fallen into their hearts and homes, sobbed with
+bitter grief; the birds of the air, who had sung carols of joy at the
+gates of the morning since time began, were full of sorrow; the beasts
+of the fields crouched and moaned in their desolation; the great trees,
+that had put on their robes of green at Balder's command, sighed as the
+wind wailed through them; and the sweet flowers, that waited for
+Balder's footstep and sprang up in all the fields to greet him, hung
+their frail blossoms and wept bitterly for the love and the warmth and
+the light that had gone out. Throughout the whole earth there was
+nothing but weeping, and the sound of it was like the wailing of those
+storms in autumn that weep for the dead summer as its withered leaves
+drop one by one from the trees.
+
+The messengers of the gods went gladly back to Asgard, for everything
+had wept for Balder; but as they journeyed they came upon a giantess,
+called Thok, and her eyes were dry.
+
+"Weep for Balder," they said.
+
+"With dry eyes only will I weep for Balder," she answered. "Dead or
+alive, he never gave me gladness. Let him stay in Helheim."
+
+When she had spoken these words a terrible laugh broke from her lips,
+and the messengers looked at each other with pallid faces, for they knew
+it was the voice of Loke.
+
+Balder never came back to Asgard, and the shadows deepened over all
+things, for the night of death was fast coming on.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VII
+
+POETRY
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+I. SOME IMPORTANT GENERAL COLLECTIONS
+
+ Bryant, William Cullen, _Library of Poetry and Song_.
+
+ Child, Francis J., _English and Scottish Popular Ballads_. [Ed.
+ by Sargent and Kittredge.]
+
+ Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur, _Oxford Book of English Verse_.
+
+ Stedman, Edmund Clarence, _An American Anthology_. _A Victorian
+ Anthology._
+
+ Stevenson, Burton E., _The Home Book of Verse_.
+
+ The finest single-volume general collection yet
+ made. It runs to nearly 4,000 pages, but is
+ printed on thin paper so that the volume is not
+ unwieldy.
+
+ Stevenson, Burton E., _Poems of American History_.
+
+
+II. COLLECTIONS FOR CHILDREN
+
+ Chisholm, L., _The Golden Staircase_.
+
+ Grahame, Kenneth, _The Cambridge Book of Poetry for Children_.
+
+ Henley, William Ernest, _Lyra Heroica_.
+
+ Ingpen, Roger, _One Thousand Poems for Children_.
+
+ Lang, Andrew, _The Blue Poetry Book_.
+
+ Lucas, Edward Verrall, _A Book of Verses for Children_. _Another
+ Book of Verses for Children._
+
+ Olcott, Frances J., _Story Telling Ballads_. _Story Telling Poems
+ for Children._
+
+ Palgrave, Francis T., _The Children's Treasury of Poetry and Song_.
+
+ Repplier, Agnes, _A Book of Famous Verse_.
+
+ Smith, J. C., _A Book of Verse for Boys and Girls_.
+
+ Stevenson, Burton E., _The Home Book of Verse for Young Folks_.
+
+ Thacher, Lucy W., _The Listening Child_.
+
+ Whittier, John Greenleaf, _Child Life in Poetry_.
+
+ Wiggin, K. D., and Smith, N. A., _The Posy Ring_. _Golden Numbers._
+
+
+III. INDIVIDUAL AUTHORS
+
+ Blake, William, _Songs of Innocence_.
+
+ Cary, Alice and Phoebe, _Poems for Children_. [In _Complete
+ Works._]
+
+ Dodge, Mary Mapes, _Rhymes and Jingles_.
+
+ Field, Eugene, _Songs of Childhood_.
+
+ Greenaway, Kate, _Marigold Garden_. _Under the Window._
+
+ Lamb, Charles and Mary, _Poetry for Children_.
+
+ Lear, Edward, _Nonsense Songs_.
+
+ Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, _Complete Poetical Works_.
+
+ Richards, Laura E., _In My Nursery_.
+
+ Riley, James Whitcomb, _Rhymes of Childhood_.
+
+ Sherman, Frank Dempster, _Little-Folk Lyrics_.
+
+ Stevenson, Robert Louis, _A Child's Garden of Verses_.
+
+ Rands, William Brighty, _Lilliput Lyrics_.
+
+ Rossetti, Christina G., _Sing-Song_. _Goblin Market_.
+
+ Seegmiller, Wilhelmina, _Little Rhymes for Little Readers_.
+
+ Tabb, John B., _Poems_.
+
+ Taylor, Ann and Jane, _"Original Poems" and Others_. [Ed. by
+ E. V. Lucas.]
+
+ Watts, Isaac, _Divine and Moral Songs_.
+
+ Wells, Carolyn, _The Jingle Book_.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VII. POETRY
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+Many teachers have more difficulty in interesting their pupils in poetry
+than in any other form of literature. This difficulty may be due to any
+one of a number of causes. It may be due to a lack of poetic
+appreciation on the part of the teacher, leading to poor judgment in
+selecting and presenting poetry. It may be due to the feeling that there
+is something occult and mysterious about poetry that puts it outside the
+range of common interests, or to the idea that the technique of verse
+must in some way be emphasized. The first step in using poetry
+successfully with children is to brush away all these and other
+extraneous matters and to realize that poetry is in essence a simple and
+natural mode of expression, and that all attempts to explain how poetry
+does its work may be left for later stages of study. It is not necessary
+even for the teacher to be able to recognize and name all the varieties
+of rhythm to be able to present poetry enthusiastically and
+understandingly. Least of all is it necessary to have a prescribed list
+of the hundred "best poems." Some of the best poems for children would
+not belong in any such list.
+
+The selections in this section cover a wide variety. They are not all
+equally great, but no teacher can fail to find here something suitable
+and interesting for any grade. The few suggestions which it is possible
+to make in this brief introduction may best, perhaps, and without any
+intention of being exhaustive, be thrown into the form of dogmatic
+statements:
+
+ 1. If in doubt about what to use beyond the
+ material in the following pages, depend upon
+ some of the fine collections mentioned in the
+ bibliography. Every teacher should have access
+ to Stevenson's _Home Book of Verse for Young
+ Folks_, which contains many poems from recent
+ writers as well as the older favorites. If
+ possible, have the advantage of the fine taste
+ and judgment of the collections made by Andrew
+ Lang, Miss Repplier, E. V. Lucas, and as many
+ of the others as are available.
+
+ 2. Remember that in poetry, more than
+ elsewhere, one can present only what one is
+ really interested in and, as a consequence,
+ enthusiastic about. Even poems about whose
+ fitness all judges agree should be omitted
+ rather than run the risk of deadening them for
+ children by a dead and formal handling.
+
+ 3. Mainly, poetry should be presented orally.
+ The appeal is first to the ear just as in
+ music. The teacher should read or, better,
+ recite the poem in order to get the best
+ results. There should be no effort at
+ "elocution" in its worst sense, but a simple,
+ sincere rendering of the language of the poem.
+ The more informal the process is, the better.
+ There should be much repetition of favorite
+ poems, so that the rich details and pictures
+ may sink into the mind.
+
+ 4. There should be great variety in choice that
+ richness and breadth of impression may thus be
+ gained. It is a mistake to confine the work in
+ poetry entirely to lyrics or entirely to
+ ballads. Wordsworth's "Daffodils" and Gilbert's
+ "Yarn of the Nancy Bell" are far apart, but
+ there is a place for each. Teachers should
+ always be on the lookout for poetry old or new,
+ in the magazines or elsewhere, which they can
+ bring into the schoolroom. Such "finds" are
+ often fresh with some timely suggestion and may
+ prove just what is needed to start some
+ hesitating pupil to reading poetry.
+
+ 5. The earliest poetry should be that in which
+ the music is very prominent and the idea absent
+ or not prominent. The perfection of the Mother
+ Goose jingles for little folks is in their
+ fulfillment of this principle. Use and
+ encourage strongly emphasized rhythm in reading
+ poetry, especially in the early work. Gradually
+ the meaning in poetry takes on more prominence
+ as the work proceeds.
+
+ 6. Children should be encouraged to commit much
+ poetry to memory. They do this very easily
+ after hearing it repeated a time or two. Such
+ memorizing should not be done usually as a
+ task. Children are, however, very obliging
+ about liking what a teacher is enthusiastic
+ about, and what they like they can hold in mind
+ with surprising ease. The game of giving
+ quotations that no one else in the class has
+ given is always a delight. Don't be misled by
+ the fun poked at the "memory gem method" of
+ studying poetry. The error is not in memorizing
+ complete poems and fine poetic passages, but in
+ doing this in a mechanical fashion.
+
+ 7. It is a mistake to use too much poetry at
+ one time. Children, as well as grown people,
+ tire of it more quickly than they do of prose.
+ The mind seems soon to reach the saturation
+ point where it is unable to take in any more.
+ Frequent returns to a poem rather than long
+ periods of study give the best results.
+
+ 8. Encourage children to read poetry aloud. By
+ example and suggestion help them keep their
+ minds on the ideas, the pictures, the
+ characters. Only by doing this can they really
+ read so as to interpret a poem. No one can read
+ with a lazy mind, or merely by imitation.
+ Encourage them to croon or recite the lines
+ when alone.
+
+ 9. It is not necessary that children should
+ understand everything in a poem. If it is worth
+ while they will get enough of its meaning to
+ justify its use and they will gradually see
+ more and more in it as time passes. In fact it
+ is this constantly growing content of a poem
+ that makes its possession in memory such a
+ treasure. Neither should the presence of
+ difficult words be allowed to rule out a poem
+ that possesses some large element of accessible
+ value. Many words are understood by the ear
+ that are not recognized by sight.
+
+
+SUGGESTIONS FOR READING
+
+ Books such as Woodberry's _Heart of Man_ and
+ _Appreciation of Literature_ are of especial
+ value for getting the right attitude toward
+ poetry. The most illuminating practical help
+ would come from consulting the published
+ lectures of Lafcadio Hearn, explaining poetry
+ to Japanese students. His problem was not
+ unlike that faced by the teacher of poetry in
+ the grades. These lectures have been edited by
+ John Erskine as _Interpretations of Literature_
+ (2 vols.), _Appreciations of Poetry_, and _Life
+ and Literature_. The whole philosophy of poetry
+ is treated compactly in Professor Gayley's "The
+ Principles of Poetry," which forms the
+ introduction to Gayley and Young's _Principles
+ and Progress of English Poetry_.
+
+
+
+269
+
+ Mrs. Follen (1787-1860) was a rather voluminous
+ writer and adapter of juvenile material. Her
+ verses are old-fashioned, simple, and
+ child-like, and have pleased several
+ generations of children. While they have no
+ such air of distinction as belongs to
+ Stevenson's poems for children, they are full
+ of the fancies that children enjoy, and deserve
+ their continued popularity.
+
+
+THE THREE LITTLE KITTENS
+
+ELIZA LEE FOLLEN
+
+ Three little kittens lost their mittens;
+ And they began to cry,
+ "Oh, mother dear,
+ We very much fear
+ That we have lost our mittens."
+ "Lost your mittens!
+ You naughty kittens!
+ Then you shall have no pie!"
+ "Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow."
+ "No, you shall have no pie."
+
+ The three little kittens found their mittens;
+ And they began to cry,
+ "Oh, mother dear,
+ See here, see here!
+ See, we have found our mittens!"
+ "Put on your mittens,
+ You silly kittens,
+ And you may have some pie."
+ "Purr-r, purr-r, purr-r,
+ Oh, let us have the pie!
+ Purr-r, purr-r, purr-r."
+
+ The three little kittens put on their mittens,
+ And soon ate up the pie;
+ "Oh, mother dear,
+ We greatly fear
+ That we have soiled our mittens!"
+ "Soiled your mittens!
+ You naughty kittens!"
+ Then they began to sigh,
+ "Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow."
+ Then they began to sigh,
+ "Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow."
+
+ The three little kittens washed their mittens,
+ And hung them out to dry;
+ "Oh, mother dear,
+ Do not you hear
+ That we have washed our mittens?"
+ "Washed your mittens!
+ Oh, you're good kittens!
+ But I smell a rat close by;
+ Hush, hush! Mee-ow, mee-ow."
+ "We smell a rat close by,
+ Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow."
+
+
+
+270
+
+
+THE MOON
+
+ELIZA LEE FOLLEN
+
+ O look at the moon!
+ She is shining up there;
+ O mother, she looks
+ Like a lamp in the air.
+
+ Last week she was smaller,
+ And shaped like a bow;
+ But now she's grown bigger,
+ And round as an O.
+
+ Pretty moon, pretty moon,
+ How you shine on the door,
+ And make it all bright
+ On my nursery floor!
+
+ You shine on my playthings,
+ And show me their place,
+ And I love to look up
+ At your pretty bright face.
+
+ And there is a star
+ Close by you, and maybe
+ That small twinkling star
+ Is your little baby.
+
+
+
+271
+
+
+RUNAWAY BROOK
+
+ELIZA LEE FOLLEN
+
+ "Stop, stop, pretty water!"
+ Said Mary one day,
+ To a frolicsome brook
+ That was running away.
+
+ "You run on so fast!
+ I wish you would stay;
+ My boat and my flowers
+ You will carry away.
+
+ "But I will run after:
+ Mother says that I may;
+ For I would know where
+ You are running away."
+
+ So Mary ran on;
+ But I have heard say,
+ That she never could find
+ Where the brook ran away.
+
+
+
+272
+
+
+DING DONG! DING DONG!
+
+ELIZA LEE FOLLEN
+
+ Ding dong! ding dong!
+ I'll sing you a song;
+ 'Tis about a little bird;
+ He sat upon a tree,
+ And he sang to me,
+ And I never spoke a word.
+
+ Ding dong! ding dong!
+ I'll sing you a song;
+ 'Tis about a little mouse;
+ He looked very cunning,
+ As I saw him running
+ About my father's house.
+
+ Ding dong! ding dong!
+ I'll sing you a song
+ About my little kitty;
+ She's speckled all over,
+ And I know you'll love her,
+ For she is very pretty.
+
+
+
+273
+
+ Mrs. Prentiss (1818-1878) was the author of
+ _The Susy Books_, published from 1853 to 1856,
+ forerunners of many series of such juvenile
+ publications. The following poem has retained
+ its hold on the affections of children.
+
+
+THE LITTLE KITTY
+
+ELIZABETH PRENTISS
+
+ Once there was a little kitty
+ Whiter than snow;
+ In a barn she used to frolic,
+ Long time ago.
+
+ In the barn a little mousie
+ Ran to and fro;
+ For she heard the kitty coming,
+ Long time ago.
+
+ Two eyes had little kitty
+ Black as a sloe;
+ And they spied the little mousie,
+ Long time ago.
+
+ Four paws had little kitty,
+ Paws soft as dough;
+ And they caught the little mousie,
+ Long time ago.
+
+ Nine teeth had little kitty,
+ All in a row;
+ And they bit the little mousie,
+ Long time ago.
+
+ When the teeth bit little mousie,
+ Little mouse cried, "Oh!"
+ But she got away from kitty,
+ Long time ago.
+
+
+
+274
+
+ Mrs. Hale (1788-1879), left a widow with five
+ children to support, devoted herself to a
+ literary career. She wrote fiction, edited the
+ _Ladies' Magazine_ of Boston, afterward the
+ _Ladies' Book_ of Philadelphia, compiled a book
+ of poetical quotations, and biographies of
+ celebrated women. Most of her work was
+ ephemeral in character, and she lives for us in
+ the one poem that follows. It is usually
+ printed without the last stanza which is here
+ restored. Younger children, as a rule, do not
+ object to such moralizing.
+
+
+MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB
+
+SARA J. HALE
+
+ Mary had a little lamb,
+ Its fleece was white as snow,
+ And everywhere that Mary went,
+ The lamb was sure to go.
+
+ He followed her to school one day,
+ That was against the rule;
+ It made the children laugh and play,
+ To see a lamb at school.
+
+ And so the Teacher turned him out,
+ But still he lingered near,
+ And waited patiently about,
+ Till Mary did appear:
+
+ And then he ran to her, and laid
+ His head upon her arm,
+ As if he said, "I'm not afraid,
+ You'll save me from all harm."
+
+ "What makes the lamb love Mary so?"
+ The eager children cry--
+ "Oh, Mary loves the lamb, you know,"
+ The Teacher did reply.
+
+ And you each gentle animal
+ In confidence may bind,
+ And make them follow at your will,
+ If you are only kind.
+
+
+
+275
+
+ Theodore Tilton (1835-1907) was a very
+ brilliant New York orator, poet, and
+ journalist. His poetry, published in a complete
+ volume in 1897, contains some really
+ distinguished verse. He is largely known to the
+ new generation, however, by some stanzas from
+ the following poem, which are usually found in
+ readers and poetic compilations for children.
+ The entire poem is given here. Does our "Swat
+ the fly" campaign of recent years negate the
+ kindly attitude emphasized in the poem?
+
+
+BABY BYE
+
+THEODORE TILTON
+
+ Baby bye,
+ Here's a fly;
+ Let us watch him, you and I.
+ How he crawls
+ Up the walls,
+ Yet he never falls!
+ I believe with six such legs
+ You and I could walk on eggs.
+ There he goes
+ On his toes,
+ Tickling baby's nose.
+
+ Spots of red
+ Dot his head;
+ Rainbows on his back are spread;
+ That small speck
+ Is his neck;
+ See him nod and beck.
+ I can show you, if you choose,
+ Where to look to find his shoes,--
+ Three small pairs,
+ Made of hairs;
+ These he always wears.
+
+ Black and brown
+ Is his gown;
+ He can wear it upside down;
+ It is laced
+ Round his waist;
+ I admire his taste.
+ Yet though tight his clothes are made
+ He will lose them, I'm afraid,
+ If to-night
+ He gets sight
+ Of the candle-light.
+
+ In the sun
+ Webs are spun;
+ What if he gets into one?
+ When it rains
+ He complains
+ On the window-panes.
+ Tongue to talk have you and I;
+ God has given the little fly
+ No such things,
+ So he sings
+ With his buzzing wings.
+
+ He can eat
+ Bread and meat;
+ There's his mouth between his feet.
+ On his back
+ Is a pack
+ Like a pedler's sack.
+ Does the baby understand?
+ Then the fly shall kiss her hand;
+ Put a crumb
+ On her thumb,
+ Maybe he will come.
+
+ Catch him? No,
+ Let him go,
+ Never hurt an insect so;
+ But no doubt
+ He flies out
+ Just to gad about.
+ Now you see his wings of silk
+ Drabbled in the baby's milk;
+ Fie, oh fie,
+ Foolish fly!
+ How will he get dry?
+
+ All wet flies
+ Twist their thighs,
+ Thus they wipe their head and eyes;
+ Cats, you know,
+ Wash just so,
+ Then their whiskers grow.
+ Flies have hair too short to comb,
+ So they fly bareheaded home;
+ But the gnat
+ Wears a hat,
+ Do you believe that?
+
+ Flies can see
+ More than we.
+ So how bright their eyes must be!
+ Little fly,
+ Ope your eye;
+ Spiders are near by.
+ For a secret I can tell,--
+ Spiders never use flies well.
+ Then away!
+ Do not stay.
+ Little fly, good-day!
+
+
+
+276
+
+ Prominent among American writers who have
+ contributed to the happiness of children is
+ Lucy Larcom (1826-1893). One of a numerous
+ family, she worked as a child in the Lowell
+ mills, later taught school in Illinois, was one
+ of the editors of _Our Young Folks_, and wrote
+ a most fascinating autobiography called _A New
+ England Girlhood_. Several of her poems are
+ still used in schools. The one that follows is,
+ perhaps, the most popular of these. It is
+ semi-dramatic, and the three voices of the poem
+ can be easily discovered. Miss Larcom's finest
+ poem is the one entitled "Hannah Binding
+ Shoes."
+
+
+THE BROWN THRUSH
+
+LUCY LARCOM
+
+ There's a merry brown thrush sitting up in the tree,
+ He's singing to me! He's singing to me!
+ And what does he say, little girl, little boy?
+ "Oh, the world's running over with joy!
+ Don't you hear? Don't you see?
+ Hush! Look! In my tree
+ I'm as happy as happy can be!"
+
+ And the brown thrush keeps singing, "A nest do you see,
+ And five eggs hid by me in the juniper tree?
+ Don't meddle! Don't touch! little girl, little boy,
+ Or the world will lose some of its joy!
+ Now I'm glad! Now I'm free!
+ And I always shall be,
+ If you never bring sorrow to me."
+
+ So the merry brown thrush sings away in the tree,
+ To you and to me, to you and to me.
+ And he sings all the day, little girl, little boy,
+ "Oh, the world's running over with joy!"
+ But long it won't be,
+ Don't you know? don't you see?
+ Unless we are as good as can be.
+
+
+
+277
+
+ Mrs. Child (1802-1880) was the editor of the
+ first monthly for children in the United
+ States, the _Juvenile Miscellany_. She wrote
+ and compiled several works for children, and
+ her optimistic outlook has led someone to speak
+ of her as the "Apostle of Cheer." She wrote a
+ novel, _Hobomak_ (1821), which is still spoken
+ of with respect, and she was a prominent figure
+ in the anti-slavery agitation. The two poems
+ following have held their own with children for
+ reasons easily recognized.
+
+
+THANKSGIVING DAY
+
+LYDIA MARIA CHILD
+
+ Over the river and through the wood,
+ To grandfather's house we go;
+ The horse knows the way
+ To carry the sleigh
+ Through the white and drifted snow.
+
+ Over the river and through the wood--
+ Oh, how the wind does blow!
+ It stings the toes
+ And bites the nose,
+ As over the ground we go.
+
+ Over the river and through the wood,
+ To have a first-rate play.
+ Hear the bells ring,
+ "Ting-a-ling-ding!"
+ Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!
+
+ Over the river and through the wood,
+ Trot fast, my dapple-gray!
+ Spring over the ground,
+ Like a hunting-hound!
+ For this is Thanksgiving Day.
+
+ Over the river and through the wood,
+ And straight through the barnyard gate.
+ We seem to go
+ Extremely slow,
+ It is so hard to wait!
+
+ Over the river and through the wood--
+ Now grandmother's cap I spy!
+ Hurrah for the fun!
+ Is the pudding done?
+ Hurrah for pumpkin-pie!
+
+
+
+278
+
+
+WHO STOLE THE BIRD'S NEST?
+
+LYDIA MARIA CHILD
+
+ "To-whit! to-whit! to-whee!
+ Will you listen to me?
+ Who stole four eggs I laid,
+ And the nice nest I made?"
+
+ "Not I," said the cow, "Moo-oo!
+ Such a thing I'd never do.
+ I gave you a wisp of hay,
+ But didn't take your nest away.
+ Not I," said the cow, "Moo-oo!
+ Such a thing I'd never do."
+
+ "To-whit! to-whit! to-whee!
+ Will you listen to me?
+ Who stole four eggs I laid,
+ And the nice nest I made?"
+
+ "Bob-o'-link! Bob-o'-link!
+ Now what do you think?
+ Who stole a nest away
+ From the plum-tree, to-day?"
+
+ "Not I," said the dog, "Bow-wow!
+ I wouldn't be so mean, anyhow!
+ I gave the hairs the nest to make,
+ But the nest I did not take.
+ Not I," said the dog, "Bow-wow!
+ I'm not so mean, anyhow."
+
+ "To-whit! to-whit! to-whee!
+ Will you listen to me?
+ Who stole four eggs I laid,
+ And the nice nest I made?"
+
+ "Bob-o'-link! Bob-o'-link!
+ Now what do you think?
+ Who stole a nest away
+ From the plum-tree, to-day?"
+
+ "Coo-coo! Coo-coo! Coo-coo!
+ Let me speak a word, too!
+ Who stole that pretty nest
+ From little yellow-breast?"
+
+ "Not I," said the sheep; "oh, no!
+ I wouldn't treat a poor bird so.
+ I gave wool the nest to line,
+ But the nest was none of mine.
+ Baa! Baa!" said the sheep; "oh, no,
+ I wouldn't treat a poor bird so."
+
+ "To-whit! to-whit! to-whee!
+ Will you listen to me?
+ Who stole four eggs I laid,
+ And the nice nest I made?"
+
+ "Bob-o'-link! Bob-o'-link!
+ Now what do you think?
+ Who stole a nest away
+ From the plum-tree, to-day?"
+
+ "Coo-coo! Coo-coo! Coo-coo!
+ Let me speak a word, too!
+ Who stole that pretty nest
+ From little yellow-breast?"
+
+ "Caw! Caw!" cried the crow;
+ "I should like to know
+ What thief took away
+ A bird's nest to-day?"
+
+ "Cluck! Cluck!" said the hen;
+ "Don't ask me again,
+ Why, I haven't a chick
+ Would do such a trick.
+ We all gave her a feather,
+ And she wove them together.
+ I'd scorn to intrude
+ On her and her brood.
+ Cluck! Cluck!" said the hen,
+ "Don't ask me again."
+
+ "Chirr-a-whirr! Chirr-a-whirr!
+ All the birds make a stir!
+ Let us find out his name,
+ And all cry 'For shame!'"
+
+ "I would not rob a bird,"
+ Said little Mary Green;
+ "I think I never heard
+ Of anything so mean."
+
+ "It is very cruel, too,"
+ Said little Alice Neal;
+ "I wonder if he knew
+ How sad the bird would feel?"
+
+ A little boy hung down his head,
+ And went and hid behind the bed,
+ For he stole that pretty nest
+ From poor little yellow-breast;
+ And he felt so full of shame,
+ He didn't like to tell his name.
+
+
+
+279
+
+ "Susan Coolidge" was the pseudonym used
+ by Sarah C. Woolsey (1845-1905). She
+ wrote numerous tales and verses for young
+ people, and her series of _Katy Books_ was
+ widely known and enjoyed. The poem
+ that follows is a very familiar one, and its
+ treatment of its theme may be compared
+ with that in Henry Ward Beecher's little
+ prose apologue (No. 249).
+
+
+HOW THE LEAVES CAME DOWN
+
+"SUSAN COOLIDGE"
+
+ I'll tell you how the leaves came down:
+ The great Tree to his children said,
+ "You're getting sleepy, Yellow and Brown,
+ Yes, very sleepy, little Red;
+ It is quite time to go to bed."
+
+ "Ah!" begged each silly, pouting leaf,
+ "Let us a little longer stay;
+ Dear Father Tree, behold our grief!
+ 'Tis such a very pleasant day,
+ We do not want to go away."
+
+ So, just for one more merry day
+ To the great Tree the leaflets clung,
+ Frolicked and danced and had their way
+ Upon the autumn breezes swung,
+ Whispering all their sports among,
+
+ "Perhaps the great Tree will forget
+ And let us stay until the spring,
+ If we all beg and coax and fret."
+ But the great Tree did no such thing;
+ He smiled to hear their whispering.
+
+ "Come, children all, to bed," he cried;
+ And ere the leaves could urge their prayer,
+ He shook his head, and far and wide,
+ Fluttering and rustling everywhere,
+ Down sped the leaflets through the air.
+
+ I saw them; on the ground they lay,
+ Golden and red, a huddled swarm,
+ Waiting till one from far away,
+ White bedclothes heaped up on her arm,
+ Should come to wrap them safe and warm.
+
+ The great bare Tree looked down and smiled.
+ "Good-night, dear little leaves," he said;
+ And from below each sleepy child
+ Replied, "Good-night," and murmured,
+ "It is _so_ nice to go to bed."
+
+
+ The poems for young readers produced by the
+ sisters Alice Cary (1820-1871) and Phoebe Cary
+ (1824-1871) constitute the most successful body
+ of juvenile verse yet produced in this country.
+ One of Alice Cary's poems, "An Order for a
+ Picture," is of a very distinguished quality,
+ but as its appeal is largely to mature readers,
+ two of Phoebe Cary's poems of simpler quality
+ are chosen for use here. The first of these
+ marks, by means of three illustrations within
+ the range of children's observation, a very
+ common defect of child nature and is, by the
+ force of these illustrations, a good lesson in
+ practical ethics. The appeal of the second is
+ to that inherent ideal of disinterested heroism
+ which is so strong in children. The setting of
+ the story amidst the ever-present threat of the
+ sea affords a good chance for the teacher to do
+ effective work in emphasizing the geographical
+ background. This should be done, however, not
+ as geography merely, but with the attention on
+ the human elements involved.
+
+
+
+280
+
+
+THEY DIDN'T THINK
+
+PHOEBE CARY
+
+ Once a trap was baited
+ With a piece of cheese;
+ Which tickled so a little mouse
+ It almost made him sneeze;
+ An old rat said, "There's danger,
+ Be careful where you go!"
+ "Nonsense!" said the other,
+ "I don't think you know!"
+ So he walked in boldly--
+ Nobody in sight;
+ First he took a nibble,
+ Then he took a bite;
+ Close the trap together
+ Snapped as quick as wink,
+ Catching mousey fast there,
+ 'Cause he didn't think.
+
+ Once a little turkey,
+ Fond of her own way,
+ Wouldn't ask the old ones
+ Where to go or stay;
+ She said, "I'm not a baby,
+ Here I am half-grown;
+ Surely, I am big enough
+ To run about alone!"
+ Off she went, but somebody
+ Hiding saw her pass;
+ Soon like snow her feathers
+ Covered all the grass.
+ So she made a supper
+ For a sly young mink,
+ 'Cause she was so headstrong
+ That she wouldn't think.
+
+ Once there was a robin
+ Lived outside the door,
+ Who wanted to go inside
+ And hop upon the floor.
+ "Ho, no," said the mother,
+ "You must stay with me;
+ Little birds are safest
+ Sitting in a tree."
+ "I don't care," said Robin,
+ And gave his tail a fling,
+ "I don't think the old folks
+ Know quite everything."
+ Down he flew, and Kitty seized him.
+ Before he'd time to blink.
+ "Oh," he cried, "I'm sorry,
+ But I didn't think."
+
+ Now my little children,
+ You who read this song,
+ Don't you see what trouble
+ Comes of thinking wrong?
+ And can't you take a warning
+ From their dreadful fate
+ Who began their thinking
+ When it was too late?
+ Don't think there's always safety
+ Where no danger shows,
+ Don't suppose you know more
+ Than anybody knows;
+ But when you're warned of ruin,
+ Pause upon the brink,
+ And don't go under headlong,
+ 'Cause you didn't think.
+
+
+
+281
+
+
+THE LEAK IN THE DIKE
+
+A Story of Holland
+
+PHOEBE CARY
+
+ The good dame looked from her cottage
+ At the close of the pleasant day,
+ And cheerily called to her little son
+ Outside the door at play:
+ "Come, Peter, come! I want you to go,
+ While there is light to see,
+ To the hut of the blind old man who lives
+ Across the dike, for me;
+ And take these cakes I made for him--
+ They are hot and smoking yet;
+ You have time enough to go and come
+ Before the sun is set."
+
+ Then the good-wife turned to her labor,
+ Humming a simple song,
+ And thought of her husband, working hard
+ At the sluices all day long;
+ And set the turf a-blazing,
+ And brought the coarse black bread;
+ That he might find a fire at night,
+ And find the table spread.
+
+ And Peter left the brother,
+ With whom all day he had played,
+ And the sister who had watched their sports
+ In the willow's tender shade;
+ And told them they'd see him back before
+ They saw a star in sight,
+ Though he wouldn't be afraid to go
+ In the very darkest night!
+
+ For he was a brave, bright fellow,
+ With eye and conscience clear;
+ He could do whatever a boy might do,
+ And he had not learned to fear.
+ Why, he wouldn't have robbed a bird's nest,
+ Nor brought a stork to harm,
+ Though never a law in Holland
+ Had stood to stay his arm!
+
+ And now, with his face all glowing,
+ And eyes as bright as the day
+ With the thoughts of his pleasant errand,
+ He trudged along the way;
+ And soon his joyous prattle
+ Made glad a lonesome place--
+ Alas! if only the blind old man
+ Could have seen that happy face!
+ Yet he somehow caught the brightness
+ Which his voice and presence lent;
+ And he felt the sunshine come and go
+ As Peter came and went.
+
+ And now, as the day was sinking,
+ And the winds began to rise,
+ The mother looked from her door again,
+ Shading her anxious eyes;
+ And saw the shadows deepen
+ And birds to their homes come back,
+ But never a sign of Peter
+ Along the level track.
+ But she said: "He will come at morning,
+ So I need not fret or grieve--
+ Though it isn't like my boy at all
+ To stay without my leave."
+
+ But where was the child delaying?
+ On the homeward way was he,
+ And across the dike while the sun was up
+ An hour above the sea.
+ He was stopping now to gather flowers,
+ Now listening to the sound,
+ As the angry waters dashed themselves
+ Against their narrow bound.
+
+ "Ah! well for us," said Peter,
+ "That the gates are good and strong,
+ And my father tends them carefully,
+ Or they would not hold you long!
+ You're a wicked sea," said Peter;
+ "I know why you fret and chafe;
+ You would like to spoil our lands and homes;
+ But our sluices keep you safe!"
+
+ But hark! Through the noise of waters
+ Comes a low, clear, trickling sound;
+ And the child's face pales with terror,
+ And his blossoms drop to the ground.
+ He is up the bank in a moment,
+ And stealing through the sand,
+ He sees a stream not yet so large
+ As his slender, childish hand.
+
+ '_Tis a leak in the dike!_ He is but a boy,
+ Unused to fearful scenes;
+ But, young as he is, he has learned to know
+ The dreadful thing that means.
+ _A leak in the dike!_ The stoutest heart
+ Grows faint that cry to hear,
+ And the bravest man in all the land
+ Turns white with mortal fear.
+ For he knows the smallest leak may grow
+ To a flood in a single night;
+ And he knows the strength of the cruel sea
+ When loosed in its angry might.
+
+ And the boy! He has seen the danger,
+ And, shouting a wild alarm,
+ He forces back the weight of the sea
+ With the strength of his single arm!
+ He listens for the joyful sound
+ Of a footstep passing nigh;
+ And lays his ear to the ground, to catch
+ The answer to his cry.
+ And he hears the rough winds blowing,
+ And the waters rise and fall,
+ But never an answer comes to him,
+ Save the echo of his call.
+ He sees no hope, no succor,
+ His feeble voice is lost;
+ Yet what shall he do but watch and wait,
+ Though he perish at his post!
+
+ So, faintly calling and crying
+ Till the sun is under the sea;
+ Crying and moaning till the stars
+ Come out for company;
+ He thinks of his brother and sister,
+ Asleep in their safe warm bed;
+ He thinks of his father and mother,
+ Of himself as dying--and dead;
+ And of how, when the night is over,
+ They must come and find him at last:
+ But he never thinks he can leave the place
+ Where duty holds him fast.
+
+ The good dame in the cottage
+ Is up and astir with the light,
+ For the thought of her little Peter
+ Has been with her all night.
+ And now she watches the pathway,
+ As yester eve she had done;
+ But what does she see so strange and black
+ Against the rising sun?
+ Her neighbors are bearing between them
+ Something straight to her door;
+ Her child is coming home, but not
+ As he ever came before!
+
+ "He is dead!" she cries; "my darling!"
+ And the startled father hears,
+ And comes and looks the way she looks,
+ And fears the thing she fears:
+ Till a glad shout from the bearers
+ Thrills the stricken man and wife--
+ "Give thanks, for your son has saved our land,
+ And God has saved his life!"
+ So, there in the morning sunshine
+ They knelt about the boy;
+ And every head was bared and bent
+ In tearful, reverent joy.
+
+ 'Tis many a year since then; but still,
+ When the sea roars like a flood,
+ Their boys are taught what a boy can do
+ Who is brave and true and good.
+ For every man in that country
+ Takes his son by the hand,
+ And tells him of little Peter,
+ Whose courage saved the land.
+
+ They have many a valiant hero,
+ Remembered through the years:
+ But never one whose name so oft
+ Is named with loving tears.
+ And his deed shall be sung by the cradle,
+ And told to the child on the knee,
+ So long as the dikes of Holland
+ Divide the land from the sea!
+
+ The world's greatest writer of verse for
+ children, Robert Louis Stevenson, was born in
+ Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1850. After he was
+ twenty-five years old he spent much of the rest
+ of his short life traveling in search of
+ health. From 1889 to the time of his death in
+ 1894 he resided in Samoa. The verses given here
+ (Nos. 282-295) are taken from his famous book,
+ _A Child's Garden of Verses_, which, says
+ Professor Saintsbury, "is, perhaps, the most
+ perfectly natural book of the kind. It was
+ supplemented later by other poems for children;
+ and some of his work outside this, culminating
+ in the widely known epitaph
+
+ Home is the sailor, home from sea,
+ And the hunter home from the hill,
+
+ has the rarely combined merits of simplicity,
+ sincerity, music, and strength." One of the
+ best of Stevenson's poems for children outside
+ the _Child's Garden of Verses_ is the
+ powerfully dramatic story called _Heather Ale_.
+ In attempting to solve the secret of
+ Stevenson's supremacy, Edmund Gosse calls
+ attention to the "curiously candid and
+ confidential attitude of mind" in these poems,
+ to the "extraordinary clearness and precision
+ with which the immature fancies of eager
+ childhood" are reproduced, and particularly, to
+ the fact that they give us "a transcript of
+ that child-mind which we have all possessed and
+ enjoyed, but of which no one, except Mr.
+ Stevenson, seems to have carried away a
+ photograph." It is this ability to hand on a
+ photographic transcript of the child's way of
+ seeing things that, according to Mr. Gosse,
+ puts Stevenson in a class which contains only
+ two other members, Hans Christian Andersen in
+ nursery stories, and Juliana Horatia Ewing in
+ the more realistic prose tale. Children find
+ expressed in these poems their own active
+ fancies. It has been objected to them that the
+ child pictured there is a lonely child, but
+ every child, like every mature person, has an
+ inner world of dreams and experiences in which
+ he delights now and then to dwell. The presence
+ of the qualities mentioned put at least two of
+ Stevenson's prose romances among the most
+ splendid adventure stories for young people,
+ _Treasure Island_ and _Kidnapped_. Perhaps no
+ book is more popular among pupils of the
+ seventh and eighth grades than the former. It
+ has been called a "sublimated dime novel," that
+ is, it has all the decidedly attractive
+ features of the "dime novel" plus the fine art
+ of story-telling which is always lacking in
+ that sensational type of story.
+
+
+
+282
+
+
+WHOLE DUTY OF CHILDREN
+
+ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+ A child should always say what's true,
+ And speak when he is spoken to,
+ And behave mannerly at table;
+ At least as far as he is able.
+
+
+
+283
+
+
+THE COW
+
+ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+ The friendly cow all red and white,
+ I love with all my heart:
+ She gives me cream with all her might,
+ To eat with apple-tart.
+
+ She wanders lowing here and there,
+ And yet she cannot stray,
+ All in the pleasant open air,
+ The pleasant light of day;
+
+ And blown by all the winds that pass
+ And wet with all the showers,
+ She walks among the meadow grass
+ And eats the meadow flowers.
+
+
+
+284
+
+
+TIME TO RISE
+
+ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+ A birdie with a yellow bill
+ Hopped upon the window-sill,
+ Cocked his shining eye and said:
+ "Ain't you 'shamed, you sleepy-head?"
+
+
+
+285
+
+
+RAIN
+
+ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+ The rain is raining all around,
+ It falls on field and tree,
+ It rains on the umbrellas here,
+ And on the ships at sea.
+
+
+
+286
+
+
+A GOOD PLAY
+
+ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+ We built a ship upon the stairs
+ All made of the back-bedroom chairs,
+ And filled it full of sofa pillows
+ To go a-sailing on the billows.
+
+ We took a saw and several nails,
+ And water in the nursery pails;
+ And Tom said, "Let us also take
+ An apple and a slice of cake;"--
+ Which was enough for Tom and me
+ To go a-sailing on, till tea.
+
+ We sailed along for days and days,
+ And had the very best of plays;
+ But Tom fell out and hurt his knee,
+ So there was no one left but me.
+
+
+
+287
+
+
+THE LAMPLIGHTER
+
+ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+ My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky;
+ It's time to take the window to see Leerie going by;
+ For every night at tea-time and before you take your seat,
+ With lantern and with ladder he comes posting up the street.
+
+ Now Tom would be a driver and Maria go to sea,
+ And my papa's a banker and as rich as he can be;
+ But I, when I am stronger and can choose what I'm to do,
+ O Leerie, I'll go round at night and light the lamps with you!
+
+ For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door,
+ And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more;
+ And O! before you hurry by with ladder and with light,
+ O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him to-night!
+
+
+
+288
+
+
+THE LAND OF NOD
+
+ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+ From breakfast on through all the day
+ At home among my friends I stay,
+ But every night I go abroad
+ Afar into the land of Nod.
+
+ All by myself I have to go,
+ With none to tell me what to do--
+ All alone beside the streams
+ And up the mountain sides of dreams.
+
+ The strangest things are there for me,
+ Both things to eat and things to see,
+ And many frightening sights abroad,
+ Till morning in the land of Nod.
+
+ Try as I like to find the way,
+ I never can get back by day,
+ Nor can remember plain and clear
+ The curious music that I hear.
+
+
+
+289
+
+
+THE LAND OF STORY-BOOKS
+
+ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+ At evening when the lamp is lit,
+ Around the fire my parents sit;
+ They sit at home and talk and sing,
+ And do not play at anything.
+
+ Now, with my little gun, I crawl
+ All in the dark along the wall,
+ And follow round the forest track
+ Away behind the sofa back.
+
+ There, in the night, where none can spy,
+ All in my hunter's camp I lie,
+ And play at books that I have read
+ Till it is time to go to bed.
+
+ These are the hills, these are the woods,
+ These are my starry solitudes;
+ And there the river by whose brink
+ The roaring lion comes to drink.
+
+ I see the others far away
+ As if in firelit camp they lay,
+ And I, like to an Indian scout,
+ Around their party prowled about.
+
+ So when my nurse comes in for me,
+ Home I return across the sea,
+ And go to bed with backward looks
+ At my dear Land of Story-books.
+
+
+
+290
+
+
+MY BED IS A BOAT
+
+ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+ My bed is like a little boat;
+ Nurse helps me in when I embark:
+ She girds me in my sailor's coat
+ And starts me in the dark.
+
+ At night, I go on board and say
+ Good-night to all my friends on shore;
+ I shut my eyes and sail away
+ And see and hear no more.
+
+ And sometimes things to bed I take,
+ As prudent sailors have to do;
+ Perhaps a slice of wedding-cake,
+ Perhaps a toy or two.
+
+ All night across the dark we steer;
+ But when the day returns at last,
+ Safe in my room, beside the pier,
+ I find my vessel fast.
+
+
+
+291
+
+
+MY SHADOW
+
+ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+ I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
+ And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
+ He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
+ And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.
+
+ The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow--
+ Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
+ For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
+ And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.
+
+ He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
+ And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
+ He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;
+ I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!
+
+ One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
+ I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
+ But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
+ Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
+
+
+
+292
+
+
+THE SWING
+
+ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+ How do you like to go up in a swing,
+ Up in the air so blue?
+ Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
+ Ever a child can do!
+
+ Up in the air and over the wall,
+ Till I can see so wide,
+ Rivers and trees and cattle and all
+ Over the countryside--
+
+ Till I look down on the garden green,
+ Down on the roof so brown--
+ Up in the air I go flying again,
+ Up in the air and down!
+
+
+
+293
+
+
+WHERE GO THE BOATS?
+
+ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+ Dark brown is the river,
+ Golden is the sand.
+ It flows along forever
+ With trees on either hand.
+
+ Green leaves a-floating,
+ Castles of the foam,
+ Boats of mine a-boating--
+ Where will all come home?
+
+ On goes the river
+ And out past the mill,
+ Away down the valley,
+ Away down the hill.
+
+ Away down the river,
+ A hundred miles or more,
+ Other little children
+ Shall bring my boats ashore.
+
+
+
+294
+
+
+THE WIND
+
+ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+ I saw you toss the kites on high
+ And blow the birds about the sky;
+ And all around I heard you pass,
+ Like ladies' skirts across the grass--
+ O wind, a-blowing all day long,
+ O wind, that sings so loud a song!
+
+ I saw the different things you did,
+ But always you yourself you hid.
+ I felt you push, I heard you call,
+ I could not see yourself at all--
+ O wind, a-blowing all day long,
+ O wind, that sings so loud a song!
+
+ O you that are so strong and cold,
+ O blower, are you young or old?
+ Are you a beast of field and tree,
+ Or just a stronger child than me?
+ O wind, a-blowing all day long,
+ O wind, that sings so loud a song!
+
+
+
+295
+
+
+WINDY NIGHTS
+
+ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+ Whenever the moon and stars are set,
+ Whenever the wind is high,
+ All night long in the dark and wet
+ A man goes riding by.
+ Late in the night when the fires are out,
+ Why does he gallop and gallop about?
+
+ Whenever the trees are crying aloud,
+ And ships are tossed at sea,
+ By, on the highway, low and loud,
+ By at the gallop goes he.
+ By at the gallop he goes, and then
+ By he comes back at the gallop again.
+
+
+
+
+ The four poems that follow are from
+ _Little-Folk Lyrics_, by Frank Dempster Sherman
+ (1860--), and are used here by permission of
+ and special arrangement with the publishers,
+ Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. Many of Sherman's
+ poems have been found pleasing to children,
+ particularly those dealing with nature themes
+ and with outdoor activities.
+
+
+
+296
+
+
+SPINNING TOP
+
+FRANK DEMPSTER SHERMAN
+
+ When I spin round without a stop
+ And keep my balance like the top,
+ I find that soon the floor will swim
+ Before my eyes; and then, like him,
+ I lie all dizzy on the floor
+ Until I feel like spinning more.
+
+
+
+297
+
+
+FLYING KITE
+
+FRANK DEMPSTER SHERMAN
+
+ I often sit and wish that I
+ Could be a kite up in the sky,
+ And ride upon the breeze, and go
+ Whatever way it chanced to blow.
+ Then I could look beyond the town,
+ And see the river winding down,
+ And follow all the ships that sail
+ Like me before the merry gale,
+ Until at last with them I came
+ To some place with a foreign name.
+
+
+
+298
+
+
+KING BELL
+
+FRANK DEMPSTER SHERMAN
+
+ Long ago there lived a King
+ A mighty man and bold,
+ Who had two sons, named Dong and Ding,
+ Of whom this tale is told.
+
+ Prince Ding was clear of voice, and tall,
+ A Prince in every line;
+ Prince Dong, his voice was very small,
+ And he but four feet nine.
+
+ Now both these sons were very dear
+ To Bell, the mighty King.
+ They always hastened to appear
+ When he for them would ring.
+
+ Ding never failed the first to be,
+ But Dong, he followed well,
+ And at the second summons he
+ Responded to King Bell.
+
+ This promptness of each royal Prince
+ Is all of them we know,
+ Except that all their kindred since
+ Have done exactly so.
+
+ And if you chance to know a King
+ Like this one of the dong,
+ Just listen once--and there is Ding;
+ Again--and there is Dong.
+
+
+
+299
+
+
+DAISIES
+
+FRANK DEMPSTER SHERMAN
+
+ At evening when I go to bed
+ I see the stars shine overhead;
+ They are the little daisies white
+ That dot the meadows of the Night.
+
+ And often while I'm dreaming so,
+ Across the sky the Moon will go;
+ It is a lady, sweet and fair,
+ Who comes to gather daisies there.
+
+ For, when at morning I arise,
+ There's not a star left in the skies;
+ She's picked them all and dropped them down
+ Into the meadows of the town.
+
+ The three poems by Eugene Field (Nos. 300-302)
+ are used by special permission of the
+ publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York
+ City. Field was born at St. Louis in 1850, and
+ died at Chicago in 1895. The quaint fantastical
+ conceptions in these poems have made them
+ supreme favorites with children. No. 300
+ belongs to the list of the world's great
+ lullabies.
+
+
+
+300
+
+
+WYNKEN, BLYNKEN, AND NOD
+
+EUGENE FIELD
+
+ Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
+ Sailed off in a wooden shoe,--
+ Sailed on a river of crystal light
+ Into a sea of dew.
+ "Where are you going, and what do you wish?"
+ The old moon asked the three.
+ "We have come to fish for the herring fish
+ That live in this beautiful sea;
+ Nets of silver and gold have we!"
+ Said Wynken,
+ Blynken,
+ And Nod.
+
+ The old moon laughed and sang a song,
+ As they rocked in the wooden shoe;
+ And the wind that sped them all night long
+ Ruffled the waves of dew.
+ The little stars were the herring fish
+ That lived in that beautiful sea--
+ "Now cast your nets wherever you wish,
+ Never afeard are we!"
+ So cried the stars to the fishermen three,
+ Wynken,
+ Blynken,
+ And Nod.
+
+ All night long their nets they threw
+ To the stars in the twinkling foam,--
+ Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,
+ Bringing the fishermen home:
+ 'Twas all so pretty a sail, it seemed
+ As if it could not be;
+ And some folk thought 'twas a dream they'd dreamed
+ Of sailing that beautiful sea;
+ But I shall name you the fishermen three:
+ Wynken,
+ Blynken,
+ And Nod.
+
+ Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
+ And Nod is a little head,
+ And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
+ Is a wee one's trundle-bed;
+ So shut your eyes while Mother sings
+ Of wonderful sights that be,
+ And you shall see the beautiful things
+ As you rock in the misty sea
+ Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:--
+ Wynken,
+ Blynken,
+ And Nod.
+
+
+
+301
+
+
+THE SUGAR-PLUM TREE
+
+EUGENE FIELD
+
+ Have you ever heard of the Sugar-Plum Tree?
+ 'Tis a marvel of great renown!
+ It blooms on the shore of the Lollypop sea
+ In the garden of Shut-Eye Town;
+ The fruit that it bears is so wondrously sweet
+ (As those who have tasted it say)
+ That good little children have only to eat
+ Of that fruit to be happy next day.
+
+ When you've got to the tree, you would have a hard time
+ To capture the fruit which I sing;
+ The tree is so tall that no person could climb
+ To the boughs where the sugar-plums swing!
+ But up in that tree sits a chocolate cat,
+ And a gingerbread dog prowls below--
+ And this is the way you contrive to get at
+ Those sugar-plums tempting you so:
+
+ You say but the word to that gingerbread dog
+ And he barks with such terrible zest
+ That the chocolate cat is at once all agog,
+ As her swelling proportions attest.
+ And the chocolate cat goes cavorting around
+ From this leafy limb unto that,
+ And the sugar-plums tumble, of course, to the ground--
+ Hurrah for that chocolate cat!
+
+ There are marshmallows, gumdrops, and peppermint canes
+ With stripings of scarlet or gold,
+ And you carry away of the treasure that rains,
+ As much as your apron can hold!
+ So come, little child, cuddle closer to me
+ In your dainty white nightcap and gown,
+ And I'll rock you away to that Sugar-Plum Tree
+ In the garden of Shut-Eye Town.
+
+
+
+302
+
+
+THE DUEL
+
+EUGENE FIELD
+
+ The gingham dog and the calico cat
+ Side by side on the table sat;
+ 'Twas half past twelve, and (what do you think!)
+ Nor one nor t'other had slept a wink!
+ The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate
+ Appeared to know as sure as fate
+ There was going to be a terrible spat.
+ (_I wasn't there; I simply state
+ What was told to me by the Chinese plate!_)
+
+ The gingham dog went "Bow-wow-wow!"
+ And the calico cat replied "Mee-ow!"
+ The air was littered, an hour or so,
+ With bits of gingham and calico,
+ While the old Dutch clock in the chimney place
+ Up with its hands before its face,
+ For it always dreaded a family row!
+ (_Now mind: I'm only telling you
+ What the old Dutch clock declares is true!_)
+
+ The Chinese plate looked very blue,
+ And wailed, "Oh, dear! what shall we do!"
+ But the gingham dog and the calico cat
+ Wallowed this way and tumbled that,
+ Employing every tooth and claw
+ In the awfullest way you ever saw--
+ And, oh! how the gingham and calico flew!
+ (_Don't fancy I exaggerate--
+ I got my news from the Chinese plate!_)
+
+ Next morning, where the two had sat
+ They found no trace of dog or cat:
+ And some folks think unto this day
+ That burglars stole that pair away!
+ But the truth about the cat and pup
+ Is this: they ate each other up!
+ Now what do you really think of that!
+ (_The old Dutch clock it told me so,
+ And that is how I came to know._)
+
+
+
+303
+
+ James Whitcomb Riley was born in Greenfield,
+ Indiana, in 1849, and died at Indianapolis in
+ 1916. His success was largely due to his
+ ability to present homely phases of life in the
+ Hoosier dialect. "The Raggedy Man" is a good
+ illustration of this skill. In his prime Mr.
+ Riley was an excellent oral interpreter of his
+ own work, and his personifications of the
+ Hoosier types in his poems in recitals all over
+ the country had much to do with giving him an
+ understanding body of readers. He had much of
+ the power in which Stevenson was so
+ supreme--that power of remembering accurately
+ and giving full expression to the points of
+ view of childhood. The perennial fascination of
+ the circus as in "The Circus Day Parade"
+ illustrates this particularly well. "The
+ Treasures of the Wise Man" represents another
+ class of Mr. Riley's poems in which he
+ moralizes in a fashion that makes people
+ willing to be preached at. It may be said very
+ truly that most of his poems have their chief
+ attraction in enabling older readers to recall
+ the almost vanished thrilling delights of
+ youth, but poems that do that are generally
+ found to interest children also.
+
+
+THE TREASURES OF THE WISE MAN[1]
+
+JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
+
+ O the night was dark and the night was late,
+ And the robbers came to rob him;
+ And they picked the locks of his palace gate,
+ The robbers that came to rob him--
+ They picked the locks of his palace gate,
+ Seized his jewels and gems of state,
+ His coffers of gold and his priceless plate--
+ The robbers that came to rob him.
+
+ But loud laughed he in the morning red!--
+ For of what had the robbers robbed him?--
+ Ho! hidden safe, as he slept in bed,
+ When the robbers came to rob him,--
+ They robbed him not of a golden shred
+ Of the childish dreams in his wise old head--
+ "And they're welcome to all things else," he said,
+ When the robbers came to rob him.
+
+
+
+304
+
+
+THE CIRCUS-DAY PARADE[1]
+
+JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
+
+ Oh, the Circus-Day parade! How the bugles played and played!
+ And how the glossy horses tossed their flossy manes, and neighed,
+ As the rattle and the rhyme of the tenor-drummer's time
+ Filled all the hungry hearts of us with melody sublime!
+
+ How the grand band-wagon shone with a splendor all its own,
+ And glittered with a glory that our dreams had never known!
+ And how the boys behind, high and low of every kind,
+ Marched in unconscious capture, with a rapture undefined!
+
+ How the horsemen, two and two, with their plumes of white and blue,
+ And crimson, gold and purple, nodding by at me and you,
+ Waved the banners that they bore, as the Knights in days of yore,
+ Till our glad eyes gleamed and glistened like the spangles that
+ they wore!
+
+ How the graceless-graceful stride of the elephant was eyed,
+ And the capers of the little horse that cantered at his side!
+ How the shambling camels, tame to the plaudits of their fame,
+ With listless eyes came silent, masticating as they came.
+
+ How the cages jolted past, with each wagon battened fast,
+ And the mystery within it only hinted of at last
+ From the little grated square in the rear, and nosing there
+ The snout of some strange animal that sniffed the outer air!
+
+ And, last of all, The Clown, making mirth for all the town,
+ With his lips curved ever upward and his eyebrows ever down,
+ And his chief attention paid to the little mule that played
+ A tattoo on the dashboard with his heels, in the parade.
+
+ Oh! the Circus-Day parade! How the bugles played and played!
+ And how the glossy horses tossed their flossy manes and neighed,
+ As the rattle and the rhyme of the tenor-drummer's time
+ Filled all the hungry hearts of us with melody sublime!
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] From the Biographical Edition of the _Complete Works of James
+Whitcomb Riley_. Copyright 1913. Used by special permission of the
+publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Co.
+
+
+
+305
+
+
+THE RAGGEDY MAN[2]
+
+JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
+
+ O The Raggedy Man! He works fer Pa;
+ An' he's the goodest man ever you saw!
+ He comes to our house every day,
+ An' waters the horses, an' feeds 'em hay;
+ An' he opens the shed--an' we all ist laugh
+ When he drives out our little old wobblely calf;
+ An' nen--ef our hired girl says he can--
+ He milks the cow fer 'Lizabuth Ann.--
+ Aint he a' awful good Raggedy Man?
+ Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!
+
+ W'y, The Raggedy Man--he's ist so good
+ He splits the kindlin' an' chops the wood;
+ An' nen he spades in our garden, too,
+ An' does most things 'at _boys_ can't do!--
+ He clumbed clean up in our big tree
+ An' shooked a' apple down fer me--
+ An' nother'n', too, fer 'Lizabuth Ann--
+ An' nother'n', too, fer The Raggedy Man--
+ Aint he a' awful kind Raggedy Man?
+ Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!
+
+ An' The Raggedy Man, he knows most rhymes
+ An' tells 'em, ef I be good, sometimes:
+ Knows 'bout Giunts, an' Griffuns, an' Elves,
+ An' the Squidgicum-Squees 'at swallers therselves!
+ An', wite by the pump in our pasture-lot,
+ He showed me the hole 'at the Wunks is got,
+ 'At lives 'way deep in the ground, an' can
+ Turn into me, er 'Lizabuth Ann!
+ Aint he a funny old Raggedy Man?
+ Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!
+
+ The Raggedy Man--one time when he
+ Wuz makin' a little bow-'n'-orry fer me,
+ Says "When _you're_ big like your Pa is,
+ Air you go' to keep a fine store like his--
+ An' be a rich merchunt--an' wear fine clothes?--
+ Er what _air_ you go' to be, goodness knows!"
+ An' nen he laughed at 'Lizabuth Ann,
+ An' I says "'M go' to be a Raggedy Man!
+ I'm ist go' to be a nice Raggedy Man!
+ Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!"
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[2] From the Biographical Edition of the _Complete Works of James
+Whitcomb Riley_. Copyright 1913. Used by special permission of the
+publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Co.
+
+
+
+306
+
+ James Hogg (1770-1835) was a poet of Scotland
+ and a contemporary of Sir Walter Scott. He was
+ known as the Ettrick Shepherd, from the place
+ of his birth and from the fact that as a boy he
+ tended the sheep. He had little schooling and
+ was a thoroughly self-made man. The strongly
+ marked and energetic swing of the rhythm,
+ fitting in so well with the vigorous
+ out-of-door experiences suggested, has made "A
+ Boy's Song" a great favorite. Other poems of
+ his that are still read are "The Skylark" and
+ the verse fairy tale called "Kilmeny."
+
+
+A BOY'S SONG
+
+JAMES HOGG
+
+ Where the pools are bright and deep,
+ Where the gray trout lies asleep,
+ Up the river and o'er the lea,
+ That's the way for Billy and me.
+
+ Where the blackbird sings the latest,
+ Where the hawthorn blooms the sweetest,
+ Where the nestlings chirp and flee,
+ That's the way for Billy and me.
+
+ Where the mowers mow the cleanest,
+ Where the hay lies thick and greenest,
+ There to track the homeward bee,
+ That's the way for Billy and me.
+
+ Where the hazel bank is steepest,
+ Where the shadow falls the deepest,
+ Where the clustering nuts fall free,
+ That's the way for Billy and me.
+
+ Why the boys should drive away
+ Little sweet maidens from the play,
+ Or love to banter and fight so well,
+ That's the thing I never could tell.
+
+ But this I know, I love to play,
+ Through the meadow, among the hay;
+ Up the river and o'er the lea,
+ That's the way for Billy and me.
+
+
+
+307
+
+ Mary Howitt (1799-1888), an English author and
+ translator, was the first to put Hans Christian
+ Andersen's tales into English. She wrote on a
+ great variety of subjects, and much of her work
+ was useful and pleasing to a multitude of
+ readers old and young. Besides the following
+ poem, she is known well to young readers by her
+ "The Fairies of Caldon-Low."
+
+
+THE SPIDER AND THE FLY
+
+MARY HOWITT
+
+ "Will you walk into my parlor?"
+ Said the Spider to the Fly;
+ "'Tis the prettiest little parlor
+ That ever you did spy.
+
+ "The way into my parlor
+ Is up a winding stair,
+ And I have many curious things
+ To show when you are there."
+
+ "Oh, no, no," said the little Fly,
+ "To ask me is in vain;
+ For who goes up your winding stair
+ Can ne'er come down again."
+
+ "I'm sure you must be weary, dear,
+ With soaring up so high;
+ Will you rest upon my little bed?"
+ Said the Spider to the Fly.
+
+ "There are pretty curtains drawn around;
+ The sheets are fine and thin,
+ And if you like to rest awhile,
+ I'll snugly tuck you in!"
+
+ "Oh, no, no," said the little Fly,
+ "For I've often heard it said,
+ They never, never wake again,
+ Who sleep upon your bed."
+
+ Said the cunning Spider to the Fly:
+ "Dear friend, what can I do
+ To prove the warm affection
+ I've always felt for you?
+
+ "I have within my pantry
+ Good store of all that's nice:
+ I'm sure you're very welcome--
+ Will you please to take a slice?"
+
+ "Oh, no, no," said the little Fly,
+ "Kind sir, that cannot be;
+ I've heard what's in your pantry,
+ And I do not wish to see."
+
+ "Sweet creature!" said the Spider,
+ "You're witty and you're wise;
+ How handsome are your gauzy wings
+ How brilliant are your eyes!
+
+ "I have a little looking-glass
+ Upon my parlor shelf;
+ If you'll step in one moment, dear,
+ You shall behold yourself."
+
+ "I thank you, gentle sir," she said,
+ "For what you're pleased to say,
+ And, bidding you good-morning now,
+ I'll call another day."
+
+ The Spider turned him round about.
+ And went into his den,
+ For well he knew the silly Fly
+ Would soon come back again:
+
+ So he wove a subtle web
+ In a little corner sly,
+ And set his table ready
+ To dine upon the Fly.
+
+ Then came out to his door again,
+ And merrily did sing:
+ "Come hither, hither, pretty Fly,
+ With the pearl and silver wing;
+
+ "Your robes are green and purple--
+ There's a crest upon your head;
+ Your eyes are like the diamond bright,
+ But mine are dull as lead!"
+
+ Alas, alas! how very soon
+ This silly little Fly,
+ Hearing his wily, flattering words,
+ Came slowly flitting by;
+
+ With buzzing wings she hung aloft,
+ Then near and nearer drew,
+ Thinking only of her brilliant eyes,
+ And green and purple hue--
+
+ Thinking only of her crested head--
+ Poor, foolish thing! At last,
+ Up jumped the cunning Spider,
+ And fiercely held her fast.
+
+ He dragged her up his winding stair,
+ Into his dismal den,
+ Within his little parlor--
+ But she ne'er came out again.
+
+ And now, dear little children,
+ Who may this story read,
+ To idle, silly, flattering words,
+ I pray you ne'er give heed.
+
+ Unto an evil counsellor
+ Close heart and ear and eye,
+ And take a lesson from this tale
+ Of the Spider and the Fly.
+
+
+
+308
+
+ William Howitt (1792-1879) and his wife, author
+ of the preceding poem, worked together on many
+ literary projects. One of William Howitt's
+ poems, "The Wind in a Frolic," has long found a
+ place in collections for children. It presents
+ the wind in a sprightly, mischievous, and
+ boisterous mood.
+
+
+THE WIND IN A FROLIC
+
+WILLIAM HOWITT
+
+ The wind one morning sprang up from sleep,
+ Saying, "Now for a frolic! now for a leap!
+ Now for a madcap galloping chase!
+ I'll make a commotion in every place!"
+
+ So it swept with a bustle right through a great town,
+ Cracking the signs and scattering down
+ Shutters; and whisking, with merciless squalls,
+ Old women's bonnets and gingerbread stalls,
+ There never was heard a much lustier shout,
+ As the apples and oranges trundled about;
+ And the urchins that stand with their thievish eyes
+ For ever on watch, ran off each with a prize.
+
+ Then away to the field it went, blustering and humming,
+ And the cattle all wondered whatever was coming;
+ It plucked by the tails the grave matronly cows,
+ And tossed the colts' manes all over their brows;
+ Till, offended at such an unusual salute,
+ They all turned their backs, and stood sulky and mute.
+
+ So on it went capering and playing its pranks,
+ Whistling with reeds on the broad river's banks,
+ Puffing the birds as they sat on the spray,
+ Or the traveller grave on the king's highway.
+ It was not too nice to hustle the bags
+ Of the beggar, and flutter his dirty rags;
+
+ 'Twas so bold that it feared not to play its joke
+ With the doctor's wig or the gentleman's cloak.
+ Through the forest it roared, and cried gaily, "Now,
+ You sturdy old oaks, I'll make you bow!"
+ And it made them bow without more ado,
+ Or it cracked their great branches through and through.
+
+ Then it rushed like a monster on cottage and farm,
+ Striking their dwellers with sudden alarm;
+ And they ran out like bees in a midsummer swarm;--
+
+ There were dames with their kerchiefs tied over their caps,
+ To see if their poultry were free from mishaps;
+ The turkeys they gobbled, the geese screamed aloud,
+ And the hens crept to roost in a terrified crowd;
+ There was rearing of ladders, and logs laying on,
+ Where the thatch from the roof threatened soon to be gone.
+
+ But the wind had swept on, and had met in a lane
+ With a schoolboy, who panted and struggled in vain;
+ For it tossed him and twirled him, then passed, and he stood
+ With his hat in a pool and his shoes in the mud.
+
+ Then away went the wind in its holiday glee,
+ And now it was far on the billowy sea,
+ And the lordly ships felt its staggering blow,
+ And the little boats darted to and fro.
+
+ But lo! it was night, and it sank to rest
+ On the sea-bird's rock in the gleaming West,
+ Laughing to think, in its fearful fun,
+ How little of mischief it really had done.
+
+
+
+
+ Ann Taylor (1782-1866) and Jane Taylor
+ (1783-1824), English writers of verse and prose
+ for children, have earned a permanent place in
+ the history of juvenile literature on account
+ of the real worth of their work and because
+ they were among the first authors to write
+ poetry especially for children. They published
+ jointly three volumes of verse for children:
+ _Original Poems for Infant Minds_, _Rhymes for
+ the Nursery_, and _Hymns for Infant Minds_.
+ Many of their poems seem a little too didactic,
+ but they were genuine in their ethical
+ earnestness and largely succeeded in putting
+ things in terms of the child's own
+ comprehension. The four poems given here
+ represent them at their best, which was good
+ enough to win the admiration of Sir Walter
+ Scott.
+
+
+
+309
+
+
+THE COW
+
+ANN TAYLOR
+
+
+ Thank you, pretty cow, that made
+ Pleasant milk to soak my bread,
+ Every day and every night,
+ Warm, and fresh, and sweet, and white.
+
+ Do not chew the hemlock rank,
+ Growing on the weedy bank;
+ But the yellow cowslips eat,
+ That will make it very sweet.
+
+ Where the purple violet grows,
+ Where the bubbling water flows,
+ Where the grass is fresh and fine,
+ Pretty cow, go there and dine.
+
+
+
+310
+
+
+MEDDLESOME MATTY
+
+ANN TAYLOR
+
+ One ugly trick has often spoiled
+ The sweetest and the best;
+ Matilda, though a pleasant child,
+ One ugly trick possessed,
+ Which, like a cloud before the skies,
+ Hid all her better qualities.
+
+ Sometimes she'd lift the tea-pot lid,
+ To peep at what was in it;
+ Or tilt the kettle, if you did
+ But turn your back a minute.
+ In vain you told her not to touch,
+ Her trick of meddling grew so much.
+
+ Her grandmamma went out one day
+ And by mistake she laid
+ Her spectacles and snuff-box gay
+ Too near the little maid;
+ "Ah! well," thought she, "I'll try them on,
+ As soon as grandmamma is gone."
+
+ Forthwith she placed upon her nose
+ The glasses large and wide;
+ And looking round, as I suppose,
+ The snuff-box too she spied:
+ "Oh! what a pretty box is that;
+ I'll open it," said little Matt.
+
+ "I know that grandmamma would say,
+ 'Don't meddle with it, dear,'
+ But then, she's far enough away,
+ And no one else is near:
+ Besides, what can there be amiss
+ In opening such a box as this?"
+
+ So thumb and finger went to work
+ To move the stubborn lid,
+ And presently a mighty jerk
+ The mighty mischief did;
+ For all at once, ah! woeful case,
+ The snuff came puffing in her face.
+
+ Poor eyes, and nose, and mouth beside
+ A dismal sight presented;
+ In vain, as bitterly she cried,
+ Her folly she repented.
+ In vain she ran about for ease;
+ She could do nothing else but sneeze.
+
+ She dashed the spectacles away,
+ To wipe her tingling eyes,
+ And as in twenty bits they lay,
+ Her grandmamma she spies.
+ "Heyday! and what's the matter now?"
+ Says grandmamma with lifted brow.
+
+ Matilda, smarting with the pain,
+ And tingling still, and sore,
+ Made many a promise to refrain
+ From meddling evermore.
+ And 'tis a fact, as I have heard,
+ She ever since has kept her word.
+
+
+
+311
+
+
+"I LIKE LITTLE PUSSY"
+
+JANE TAYLOR
+
+ I like little Pussy,
+ Her coat is so warm;
+ And if I don't hurt her
+ She'll do me no harm.
+ So I'll not pull her tail,
+ Nor drive her away,
+ But Pussy and I
+ Very gently will play;
+ She shall sit by my side,
+ And I'll give her some food;
+ And she'll love me because
+ I am gentle and good.
+
+ I'll pat little Pussy,
+ And then she will purr,
+ And thus show her thanks
+ For my kindness to her;
+ I'll not pinch her ears,
+ Nor tread on her paw,
+ Lest I should provoke her
+ To use her sharp claw;
+ I never will vex her,
+ Nor make her displeased,
+ For Pussy can't bear
+ To be worried or teased.
+
+
+
+312
+
+
+THE STAR
+
+JANE TAYLOR
+
+ Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
+ How I wonder what you are.
+ Up above the world so high,
+ Like a diamond in the sky.
+
+ When the blazing sun is gone,
+ When he nothing shines upon,
+ Then you show your little light,
+ Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
+
+ Then the traveler in the dark
+ Thanks you for your tiny spark;
+ He could not see which way to go,
+ If you did not twinkle so.
+
+ In the dark blue sky you keep,
+ And often through my curtains peep,
+ For you never shut your eye
+ Till the sun is in the sky.
+
+ As your bright and tiny spark
+ Lights the traveler in the dark,
+ Though I know not what you are,
+ Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
+
+ Although Christina G. Rossetti (1830-1894) is
+ not known primarily as a writer for children,
+ her _Sing-Song_, from which the next seven
+ poems are taken, is a juvenile classic. She
+ ranks very high among the women poets of the
+ nineteenth century, her only equal being Mrs.
+ Browning. Besides the brief poems in
+ _Sing-Song_, Miss Rossetti's "Goblin Market"
+ and "Uphill" please young people of a
+ contemplative mood. While there is an
+ undercurrent of sadness in much of her work, it
+ is a natural accompaniment of her themes and is
+ not unduly emphasized.
+
+
+
+313
+
+
+SELDOM OR NEVER
+
+CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI
+
+ Seldom "can't,"
+ Seldom "don't";
+ Never "shan't,"
+ Never "won't."
+
+
+
+314
+
+
+AN EMERALD IS AS GREEN AS GRASS
+
+CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI
+
+ An emerald is as green as grass;
+ A ruby, red as blood;
+ A sapphire shines as blue as heaven;
+ A flint lies in the mud.
+
+ A diamond is a brilliant stone
+ To catch the world's desire;
+ An opal holds a fiery spark;
+ But a flint holds fire.
+
+
+
+315
+
+
+BOATS SAIL ON THE RIVERS
+
+CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI
+
+ Boats sail on the rivers,
+ And ships sail on the seas;
+ But clouds that sail across the sky
+ Are prettier far than these.
+ There are bridges on the rivers,
+ As pretty as you please;
+ But the bow that bridges heaven,
+ And overtops the trees,
+ And builds a road from earth to sky,
+ Is prettier far than these.
+
+
+
+316
+
+A DIAMOND OR A COAL?
+
+CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI
+
+ A diamond or a coal?
+ A diamond, if you please;
+ Who cares about a clumsy coal
+ Beneath the summer trees?
+
+ A diamond or a coal?
+ A coal, sir, if you please;
+ One comes to care about the coal
+ At times when waters freeze.
+
+
+
+317
+
+
+THE SWALLOW
+
+CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI
+
+ Fly away, fly away over the sea,
+ Sun-loving swallow, for summer is done;
+ Come again, come again, come back to me,
+ Bringing the summer and bringing the sun.
+
+
+
+318
+
+WHO HAS SEEN THE WIND?
+
+CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI
+
+ Who has seen the wind?
+ Neither I nor you:
+ But when the leaves hang trembling,
+ The wind is passing thro'.
+
+ Who has seen the wind?
+ Neither you nor I:
+ But when the trees bow down their heads,
+ The wind is passing by.
+
+
+
+319
+
+
+MILKING TIME
+
+CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI
+
+ When the cows come home the milk is coming;
+ Honey's made while the bees are humming;
+ Duck and drake on the rushy lake,
+ And the deer live safe in the breezy brake;
+ And timid, funny, pert little bunny
+ Winks his nose, and sits all sunny.
+
+
+
+320
+
+ William Brighty Rands (1823-1882), an English
+ author writing under the name of "Matthew
+ Browne," produced in his _Lilliput Lyrics_ a
+ juvenile masterpiece containing much verse
+ worthy to live. The two poems that follow are
+ decidedly successful in catching that elusive
+ something called the child's point of view.
+
+
+THE PEDDLER'S CARAVAN
+
+WILLIAM BRIGHTY RANDS
+
+ I wish I lived in a caravan
+ With a horse to drive, like a peddler-man!
+ Where he comes from nobody knows,
+ Or where he goes to, but on he goes!
+
+ His caravan has windows two,
+ And a chimney of tin, that the smoke comes through;
+ He has a wife, with a baby brown,
+ And they go riding from town to town.
+
+ Chairs to mend, and delf to sell!
+ He clashes the basins like a bell;
+ Tea-trays, baskets ranged in order,
+ Plates, with alphabets round the border!
+
+ The roads are brown, and the sea is green,
+ But his house is like a bathing-machine;
+ The world is round, and he can ride,
+ Rumble and slash, to the other side!
+
+ With the peddler-man I should like to roam,
+ And write a book when I came home;
+ All the people would read my book,
+ Just like the Travels of Captain Cook!
+
+
+
+321
+
+
+THE WONDERFUL WORLD
+
+WILLIAM BRIGHTY RANDS
+
+ Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful World,
+ With the wonderful water round you curled,
+ And the wonderful grass upon your breast--
+ World, you are beautifully dressed!
+
+ The wonderful air is over me,
+ And the wonderful wind is shaking the tree--
+ It walks on the water, and whirls the mills,
+ And talks to itself on the top of the hills.
+
+ You friendly Earth, how far do you go,
+ With the wheat-fields that nod and the rivers that flow,
+ With cities and gardens and cliffs and isles,
+ And the people upon you for thousands of miles?
+
+ Ah! you are so great, and I am so small,
+ I hardly can think of you, World, at all;
+ And yet, when I said my prayers to-day,
+ My mother kissed me, and said, quite gay,
+
+ "If the wonderful World is great to you,
+ And great to father and mother, too,
+ You are more than the Earth, though you are such a dot!
+ You can love and think, and the Earth cannot!"
+
+
+
+322
+
+ Richard Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton,
+ 1809-1885), an English poet, wrote one poem
+ that has held its own in children's
+ collections. Its quiet mood of industry at one
+ with the gentler influences of nature is
+ especially appealing.
+
+
+GOOD-NIGHT AND GOOD-MORNING
+
+RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES
+
+ A fair little girl sat under a tree,
+ Sewing as long as her eyes could see;
+ Then smoothed her work and folded it right
+ And said, "Dear work, good-night, good-night!"
+
+ Such a number of rooks came over her head,
+ Crying "Caw! Caw!" on their way to bed,
+ She said, as she watched their curious flight,
+ "Little black things, good-night, good-night!"
+
+ The horses neighed, and the oxen lowed,
+ The sheep's "Bleat! Bleat!" came over the road;
+ All seeming to say, with a quiet delight,
+ "Good little girl, good-night, good-night!"
+
+ She did not say to the sun, "Good-night!"
+ Though she saw him there like a ball of light;
+ For she knew he had God's time to keep
+ All over the world and never could sleep.
+
+ The tall pink foxglove bowed his head;
+ The violets curtsied, and went to bed;
+ And good little Lucy tied up her hair,
+ And said, on her knees, her favorite prayer.
+
+ And while on her pillow she softly lay,
+ She knew nothing more till again it was day;
+ And all things said to the beautiful sun,
+ "Good-morning, good-morning! our work is begun."
+
+
+
+323
+
+ It is quite impossible for us to realize why
+ the English reading public should have been so
+ excited over the following poem in the years
+ immediately following its first appearance in
+ 1806. It attracted the attention of royalty,
+ was set to music, had a host of imitators, and
+ established itself as a nursery classic. It was
+ written by William Roscoe (1753-1831),
+ historian, banker, and poet, for his son
+ Robert, and was merely an entertaining skit
+ upon an actual banquet. Probably the fact that
+ the characters at the butterfly's ball were
+ drawn with human faces in the original
+ illustrations to represent the prominent guests
+ at the actual banquet had much to do with the
+ initial success. The impulse which it received
+ a hundred years ago, coupled with its own
+ undoubted power of fancy, has projected it thus
+ far, and children seem inclined to approve and
+ still further insure its already long life.
+
+
+THE BUTTERFLY'S BALL
+
+WILLIAM ROSCOE
+
+ "Come, take up your hats, and away let us haste
+ To the Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast,
+ The Trumpeter, Gadfly, has summon'd the crew,
+ And the Revels are now only waiting for you."
+ So said little Robert, and pacing along,
+ His merry Companions came forth in a throng,
+ And on the smooth Grass by the side of a Wood,
+ Beneath a broad oak that for ages had stood,
+ Saw the Children of Earth and the Tenants of Air
+ For an Evening's Amusement together repair.
+
+ And there came the Beetle, so blind and so black,
+ Who carried the Emmet, his friend, on his back,
+ And there was the Gnat and the Dragonfly too,
+ With all their Relations, green, orange and blue.
+ And there came the Moth, with his plumage of down,
+ And the Hornet in jacket of yellow and brown;
+ Who with him the Wasp, his companion, did bring,
+ But they promised that evening to lay by their sting.
+ And the sly little Dormouse crept out of his hole,
+ And brought to the Feast his blind Brother, the Mole;
+ And the Snail, with his horns peeping out of his shell,
+ Came from a great distance, the length of an ell.
+
+ A Mushroom, their Table, and on it was laid
+ A water-dock leaf, which a table-cloth made.
+ The Viands were various, to each of their taste,
+ And the Bee brought her honey to crown the Repast.
+ Then close on his haunches, so solemn and wise,
+ The Frog from a corner look'd up to the skies;
+ And the Squirrel, well pleased such diversion to see,
+ Mounted high overhead and look'd down from a tree.
+ Then out came the Spider, with finger so fine,
+ To show his dexterity on the tight-line,
+ From one branch to another his cobwebs he slung,
+ Then quick as an arrow he darted along,
+ But just in the middle--oh! shocking to tell,
+ From his rope, in an instant, poor Harlequin fell.
+ Yet he touch'd not the ground, but with talons outspread,
+ Hung suspended in air, at the end of a thread.
+
+ Then the Grasshopper came with a jerk and a spring,
+ Very long was his Leg, though but short was his Wing;
+ He took but three leaps, and was soon out of sight,
+ Then chirp'd his own praises the rest of the night.
+ With step so majestic the Snail did advance,
+ And promised the Gazers a Minuet to dance;
+ But they all laughed so loud that he pulled in his head,
+ And went in his own little chamber to bed.
+ Then as Evening gave way to the shadows of Night,
+ Their Watchman, the Glowworm, came out with a light.
+ "Then Home let us hasten while yet we can see,
+ For no Watchman is waiting for you and for me."
+ So said little Robert, and pacing along,
+ His merry Companions return'd in a throng.
+
+
+
+324
+
+
+CAN YOU?
+
+AUTHOR UNKNOWN
+
+ Can you put the spider's web back in place
+ That once has been swept away?
+ Can you put the apple again on the bough
+ Which fell at our feet to-day?
+ Can you put the lily-cup back on the stem
+ And cause it to live and grow?
+ Can you mend the butterfly's broken wing
+ That you crush with a hasty blow?
+ Can you put the bloom again on the grape
+ And the grape again on the vine?
+ Can you put the dewdrops back on the flowers
+ And make them sparkle and shine?
+ Can you put the petals back on the rose?
+ If you could, would it smell as sweet?
+ Can you put the flour again in the husk,
+ And show me the ripened wheat?
+ Can you put the kernel again in the nut,
+ Or the broken egg in the shell?
+ Can you put the honey back in the comb,
+ And cover with wax each cell?
+ Can you put the perfume back in the vase
+ When once it has sped away?
+ Can you put the corn-silk back on the corn,
+ Or down on the catkins, say?
+ You think my questions are trifling, lad,
+ Let me ask you another one:
+ Can a hasty word be ever unsaid,
+ Or a deed unkind, undone?
+
+
+
+325
+
+ In 1841 Robert Browning (1812-1889) published a
+ drama in verse entitled _Pippa Passes_. Pippa
+ was a little girl who worked in the silkmills
+ of an Italian city. When her one holiday of the
+ year came, she arose early and went singing out
+ of town to the hills to enjoy the day. Various
+ people who were planning to do evil heard her
+ songs as she passed and did not do the wicked
+ things they had intended to do. The next day
+ Pippa returned to her usual work and never knew
+ that her songs had changed the lives of many
+ people. The following is the first of Pippa's
+ songs.
+
+
+PIPPA'S SONG
+
+ROBERT BROWNING
+
+ The year's at the spring,
+ And day's at the morn;
+ Morning's at seven;
+ The hill-side's dew-pearled;
+ The lark's on the wing;
+ The snail's on the thorn;
+ God's in His Heaven--
+ All's right with the world!
+
+
+
+326
+
+ Charles Mackay (1814-1889) was an English
+ journalist, poet, and miscellaneous writer. He
+ was especially popular as a writer of songs,
+ composing both words and music. Other
+ well-known poems of his are "The Miller of Dee"
+ and "Tubal Cain." "Little and Great" presents a
+ familiar idea through a series of
+ illustrations--the idea that great and lasting
+ results may spring from unstudied deeds of
+ helpfulness and love.
+
+
+LITTLE AND GREAT
+
+CHARLES MACKAY
+
+ A traveler on a dusty road
+ Strewed acorns on the lea;
+ And one took root and sprouted up,
+ And grew into a tree.
+ Love sought its shade at evening-time,
+ To breathe its early vows;
+ And Age was pleased, in heats of noon,
+ To bask beneath its boughs.
+ The dormouse loved its dangling twigs,
+ The birds sweet music bore--
+ It stood a glory in its place,
+ A blessing evermore.
+
+ A little spring had lost its way
+ Amid the grass and fern;
+ A passing stranger scooped a well
+ Where weary men might turn;
+ He walled it in, and hung with care
+ A ladle at the brink;
+ He thought not of the deed he did,
+ But judged that Toil might drink.
+ He passed again; and lo! the well,
+ By summer never dried,
+ Had cooled ten thousand parched tongues,
+ And saved a life beside.
+
+ A dreamer dropped a random thought;
+ 'Twas old, and yet 'twas new;
+ A simple fancy of the brain,
+ But strong in being true.
+ It shone upon a genial mind,
+ And, lo! its light became
+ A lamp of life, a beacon ray,
+ A monitory flame.
+ The thought was small; its issue great;
+ A watch-fire on the hill,
+ It sheds its radiance far adown,
+ And cheers the valley still.
+
+ A nameless man, amid the crowd
+ That thronged the daily mart,
+ Let fall a word of hope and love,
+ Unstudied from the heart,--
+ A whisper on the tumult thrown,
+ A transitory breath,--
+ It raised a brother from the dust,
+ It saved a soul from death.
+ O germ! O fount! O word of love!
+ O thought at random cast!
+ Ye were but little at the first,
+ But mighty at the last.
+
+
+
+327
+
+ The following poem by Mrs. Hemans (1793-1835),
+ an English poet, is remembered for its historic
+ interest. Louis Casabianca, a Frenchman,
+ served on a war ship that helped convey French
+ troops to America, to aid the colonists during
+ the Revolution. Later, when Napoleon attempted
+ to conquer Egypt, he was captain of the
+ admiral's flagship during the battle of the
+ Nile. When the admiral was killed, he took
+ command of the fleet at the moment of defeat.
+ He blew up his ship, after the crew had been
+ saved, rather than surrender it. His
+ ten-year-old son refused to leave and perished
+ with his father.
+
+
+CASABIANCA
+
+FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS
+
+ The boy stood on the burning deck,
+ Whence all but him had fled;
+ The flame that lit the battle's wreck
+ Shone round him o'er the dead.
+
+ Yet beautiful and bright he stood,
+ As born to rule the storm;
+ A creature of heroic blood,
+ A proud, though child-like form.
+
+ The flames rolled on; he would not go
+ Without his father's word;
+ That father, faint in death below,
+ His voice no longer heard.
+
+ He called aloud, "Say, father, say,
+ If yet my task be done!"
+ He knew not that the chieftain lay
+ Unconscious of his son.
+
+ "Speak, father!" once again he cried,
+ "If I may yet be gone!"
+ And but the booming shots replied,
+ And fast the flames rolled on.
+
+ Upon his brow he felt their breath,
+ And in his waving hair,
+ And looked from that lone post of death
+ In still, yet brave despair.
+
+ And shouted but once more aloud,
+ "My father! must I stay?"
+ While o'er him, fast, through sail and shroud,
+ The wreathing fires made way.
+
+ They wrapt the ship in splendor wild,
+ They caught the flag on high,
+ And streamed above the gallant child,
+ Like banners in the sky.
+
+ There came a burst of thunder sound:
+ The boy,--oh! where was he?
+ Ask of the winds, that far around
+ With fragments strewed the sea,--
+
+ With mast, and helm, and pennon fair,
+ That well had borne their part,--
+ But the noblest thing that perished there,
+ Was that young, faithful heart.
+
+ The five numbers that follow are from the works
+ of the great English poet and mystic William
+ Blake (1757-1827). All except the first are
+ given in their entirety. No. 328 is made up of
+ three couplets taken from the loosely strung
+ together _Auguries of Innocence_. Nos. 329,
+ 330, and 332 are from _Songs of Innocence_
+ (1789), where the last was printed as an
+ introduction without any other title. No. 331
+ is from _Songs of Experience_ (1794). Blake
+ labored in obscurity and poverty, though he has
+ now come to be regarded as one of England's
+ most important poets. It is not necessary that
+ children should understand fully all that Blake
+ says, but it is important for teachers to
+ realize that most children are natural mystics
+ and that Blake's poetry, more than any other,
+ is the natural food for them.
+
+
+
+328
+
+
+THREE THINGS TO REMEMBER
+
+WILLIAM BLAKE
+
+ A Robin Redbreast in a cage,
+ Puts all heaven in a rage.
+
+ A skylark wounded on the wing
+ Doth make a cherub cease to sing.
+
+ He who shall hurt the little wren
+ Shall never be beloved by men.
+
+
+
+329
+
+
+THE LAMB
+
+WILLIAM BLAKE
+
+ Little lamb, who made thee?
+ Dost thou know who made thee,
+ Gave thee life, and bade thee feed
+ By the stream and o'er the mead;
+ Gave thee clothing of delight,
+ Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
+ Gave thee such a tender voice,
+ Making all the vales rejoice?
+ Little lamb, who made thee?
+ Dost thou know who made thee?
+
+ Little lamb, I'll tell thee,
+ Little lamb, I'll tell thee.
+ He is called by thy name,
+ For He calls himself a Lamb:
+ He is meek and he is mild,
+ He became a little child.
+ I a child and thou a lamb,
+ We are called by His name.
+ Little lamb, God bless thee,
+ Little lamb, God bless thee.
+
+
+
+330
+
+
+THE SHEPHERD
+
+WILLIAM BLAKE
+
+ How sweet is the shepherd's sweet lot;
+ From the morn to the evening he strays;
+ He shall follow his sheep all the day,
+ And his tongue shall be filled with praise.
+
+ For he hears the lambs' innocent call,
+ And he hears the ewes' tender reply;
+ He is watchful while they are in peace,
+ For they know when their shepherd is nigh.
+
+
+
+331
+
+
+THE TIGER
+
+WILLIAM BLAKE
+
+ Tiger, tiger, burning bright
+ In the forests of the night,
+ What immortal hand or eye
+ Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
+
+ In what distant deeps or skies
+ Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
+ On what wings dare he aspire?
+ What the hand dare seize thy fire?
+
+ And what shoulder and what art
+ Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
+ And when thy heart began to beat,
+ What dread hand formed thy dread feet?
+
+ What the hammer? what the chain?
+ In what furnace was thy brain?
+ What the anvil? what dread grasp
+ Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
+
+ When the stars threw down their spears,
+ And water'd heaven with their tears,
+ Did He smile His work to see?
+ Did He who made the lamb make thee?
+
+ Tiger, tiger, burning bright
+ In the forests of the night,
+ What immortal hand or eye
+ Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
+
+
+
+332
+
+
+THE PIPER
+
+WILLIAM BLAKE
+
+ Piping down the valleys wild,
+ Piping songs of pleasant glee,
+ On a cloud I saw a child,
+ And he laughing said to me:--
+
+ "Pipe a song about a lamb":
+ So I piped with merry cheer.
+ "Piper, pipe that song again":
+ So I piped; he wept to hear.
+
+ "Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe,
+ Sing thy songs of happy cheer":
+ So I sung the same again,
+ While he wept with joy to hear.
+
+ "Piper, sit thee down and write
+ In a book that all may read."
+ So he vanish'd from my sight;
+ And I pluck'd a hollow reed,
+
+ And I made a rural pen,
+ And I stain'd the water clear,
+ And I wrote my happy songs
+ Every child may joy to hear.
+
+
+
+333
+
+ Eliza Cook (1818-1889) was an English poet who
+ had quite a vogue in her day, and whose poem
+ "Try Again" deals with one of those incidents
+ held in affectionate remembrance by youth.
+ Bruce and the spider may be less historically
+ true, but it seems destined to eternal life
+ alongside Leonidas and his Spartans. Older
+ readers may remember Miss Cook's "My Old Arm
+ Chair," which is usually given the place of
+ honor as her most popular poem.
+
+
+TRY AGAIN
+
+ELIZA COOK
+
+ King Bruce of Scotland flung himself down
+ In a lonely mood to think:
+ 'Tis true he was monarch, and wore a crown,
+ But his heart was beginning to sink.
+
+ For he had been trying to do a great deed,
+ To make his people glad;
+ He had tried and tried, but couldn't succeed;
+ And so he became quite sad.
+
+ He flung himself down in low despair,
+ As grieved as man could be;
+ And after a while as he pondered there,
+ "I'll give it all up," said he.
+
+ Now, just at the moment, a spider dropped,
+ With its silken, filmy clue;
+ And the King, in the midst of his thinking, stopped
+ To see what the spider would do.
+
+ 'Twas a long way up to the ceiling dome,
+ And it hung by a rope so fine,
+ That how it would get to its cobweb home
+ King Bruce could not divine.
+
+ It soon began to cling and crawl
+ Straight up, with strong endeavor;
+ But down it came with a slippery sprawl,
+ As near to the ground as ever.
+
+ Up, up it ran, not a second to stay,
+ To utter the least complaint,
+ Till it fell still lower, and there it lay,
+ A little dizzy and faint.
+
+ Its head grew steady--again it went,
+ And traveled a half yard higher;
+ 'Twas a delicate thread it had to tread,
+ And a road where its feet would tire.
+
+ Again it fell and swung below,
+ But again it quickly mounted;
+ Till up and down, now fast, now slow,
+ Nine brave attempts were counted.
+
+ "Sure," cried the King, "that foolish thing
+ Will strive no more to climb;
+ When it toils so hard to reach and cling,
+ And tumbles every time."
+
+ But up the insect went once more;
+ Ah me! 'tis an anxious minute;
+ He's only a foot from his cobweb door.
+ Oh, say, will he lose or win it?
+
+ Steadily, steadily, inch by inch,
+ Higher and higher he got;
+ And a bold little run at the very last pinch
+ Put him into his native cot.
+
+ "Bravo, bravo!" the King cried out;
+ "All honor to those who _try_;
+ The spider up there, defied despair;
+ He conquered, and why shouldn't I?"
+
+ And Bruce of Scotland braced his mind,
+ And gossips tell the tale,
+ That he tried once more as he tried before,
+ And that time did not fail.
+
+ Pay goodly heed, all ye who read,
+ And beware of saying, "I _can't_";
+ 'Tis a cowardly word, and apt to lead
+ To idleness, folly, and want.
+
+ Whenever you find your heart despair
+ Of doing some goodly thing,
+ Con over this strain, try bravely again,
+ And remember the spider and King!
+
+
+
+334
+
+ Nonsense verse seems to have its special place
+ in the economy of life as a sort of balance to
+ the over-serious tendency. One of the two great
+ masters of verse of this sort was the English
+ author Edward Lear (1812-1888). He was also a
+ famous illustrator of books and magazines.
+ Among his juvenile books, illustrated by
+ himself, were _Nonsense Songs_ and _More
+ Nonsense Songs_. All his verse is now generally
+ published under the first title. Good nonsense
+ verse precludes explanation, the mind of the
+ hearer being too busy with the delightfully odd
+ combinations to figure on how they happened.
+
+
+THE OWL AND THE PUSSY-CAT
+
+EDWARD LEAR
+
+ The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea
+ In a beautiful pea-green boat:
+ They took some honey, and plenty of money
+ Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
+ The Owl looked up to the stars above,
+ And sang to a small guitar,
+ "O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love,
+ What a beautiful Pussy you are,
+ You are,
+ You are!
+ What a beautiful Pussy you are!"
+
+ Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl,
+ How charmingly sweet you sing!
+ Oh! let us be married; too long we have tarried:
+ But what shall we do for a ring?"
+ They sailed away, for a year and a day,
+ To the land where the bong-tree grows;
+ And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood,
+ With a ring at the end of his nose,
+ His nose,
+ His nose,
+ With a ring at the end of his nose.
+
+ "Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
+ Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
+ So they took it away, and were married next day
+ By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
+ They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
+ Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
+ And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
+ They danced by the light of the moon,
+ The moon,
+ The moon,
+ They danced by the light of the moon.
+
+
+
+335
+
+
+THE TABLE AND THE CHAIR
+
+EDWARD LEAR
+
+ Said the Table to the Chair,
+ "You can hardly be aware
+ How I suffer from the heat
+ And from chilblains on my feet.
+ If we took a little walk,
+ We might have a little talk;
+ Pray let us take the air,"
+ Said the Table to the Chair.
+
+ Said the Chair unto the Table,
+ "Now, you _know_ we are not able:
+ How foolishly you talk,
+ When you know we _cannot_ walk!"
+ Said the Table with a sigh,
+ "It can do no harm to try.
+ I've as many legs as you:
+ Why can't we walk on two?"
+
+ So they both went slowly down,
+ And walked about the town
+ With a cheerful bumpy sound
+ As they toddled round and round;
+ And everybody cried,
+ As they hastened to their side,
+ "See! the Table and the Chair
+ Have come out to take the air!"
+
+ But in going down an alley,
+ To a castle in a valley,
+ They completely lost their way,
+ And wandered all the day;
+ Till, to see them safely back,
+ They paid a Ducky-quack,
+ And a Beetle, and a Mouse,
+ Who took them to their house.
+
+ Then they whispered to each other,
+ "O delightful little brother,
+ What a lovely walk we've taken!
+ Let us dine on beans and bacon."
+ So the Ducky and the leetle
+ Browny-mousy and the Beetle
+ Dined, and danced upon their heads
+ Till they toddled to their beds.
+
+
+
+336
+
+
+THE POBBLE WHO HAS NO TOES
+
+EDWARD LEAR
+
+ The Pobble who has no toes
+ Had once as many as we;
+ When they said, "Some day you may lose them all";
+ He replied--"Fish fiddle-de-dee!"
+ And his Aunt Jobiska made him drink
+ Lavender water tinged with pink,
+ For she said, "The world in general knows
+ There's nothing so good for a Pobble's toes!"
+
+ The Pobble who has no toes
+ Swam across the Bristol Channel;
+ But before he set out he wrapped his nose
+ In a piece of scarlet flannel.
+ For his Aunt Jobiska said, "No harm
+ Can come to his toes if his nose is warm;
+ And it's perfectly known that a Pobble's toes
+ Are safe--provided he minds his nose."
+
+ The Pobble swam fast and well,
+ And when boats or ships came near him
+ He tinkledy-binkledy-winkled a bell,
+ So that all the world could hear him.
+ And all the Sailors and Admirals cried,
+ When they saw him nearing the farther side,--
+ "He has gone to fish for his Aunt Jobiska's
+ Runcible Cat with crimson whiskers!"
+
+ But before he touched the shore,
+ The shore of the Bristol Channel,
+ A sea-green Porpoise carried away
+ His wrapper of scarlet flannel.
+ And when he came to observe his feet,
+ Formerly garnished with toes so neat,
+ His face at once became forlorn
+ On perceiving that all his toes were gone!
+
+ And nobody ever knew,
+ From that dark day to the present,
+ Whoso had taken the Pobble's toes,
+ In a manner so far from pleasant.
+ Whether the shrimps or crawfish gray,
+ Or crafty Mermaids stole them away--
+ Nobody knew; and nobody knows
+ How the Pobble was robbed of his twice five toes!
+
+ The Pobble who has no toes
+ Was placed in a friendly Bark,
+ And they rowed him back, and carried him up
+ To his Aunt Jobiska's Park.
+ And she made him a feast at his earnest wish
+ Of eggs and buttercups fried with fish;--
+ And she said,--"It's a fact the whole world knows,
+ That Pobbles are happier without their toes."
+
+
+
+337
+
+ The two great classics among modern nonsense
+ books are Lewis Carroll's _Alice in Wonderland_
+ and _Through the Looking Glass_. They are in
+ prose with poems interspersed. "The Walrus and
+ the Carpenter," is from _Through the Looking
+ Glass_, while "A Strange Wild Song," is from
+ _Sylvie and Bruno_. This latter book never
+ achieved the success of its forerunners, though
+ it has some delightful passages, as in the case
+ of the poem given. Lewis Carroll was the
+ pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
+ (1832-1898), an English mathematician at Oxford
+ University.
+
+
+THE WALRUS AND THE CARPENTER
+
+"LEWIS CARROLL"
+
+ The sun was shining on the sea,
+ Shining with all his might:
+ He did his very best to make
+ The billows smooth and bright--
+ And this was odd, because it was
+ The middle of the night.
+
+ The moon was shining sulkily,
+ Because she thought the sun
+ Had got no business to be there
+ After the day was done--
+ "It's very rude of him," she said,
+ "To come and spoil the fun!"
+
+ The sea was wet as wet could be.
+ The sands were dry as dry.
+ You could not see a cloud, because
+ No cloud was in the sky;
+ No birds were flying overhead--
+ There were no birds to fly.
+
+ The Walrus and the Carpenter
+ Were walking close at hand;
+ They wept like anything to see
+ Such quantities of sand:
+ "If this were only cleared away,"
+ They said, "it would be grand!"
+
+ "If seven maids with seven mops
+ Swept it for half a year,
+ Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
+ "That they could get it clear?"
+ "I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
+ And shed a bitter tear.
+
+ "O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
+ The Walrus did beseech.
+ "A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
+ Along the briny beach:
+ We cannot do with more than four,
+ To give a hand to each."
+
+ The eldest Oyster looked at him,
+ But never a word he said:
+ The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
+ And shook his heavy head--
+ Meaning to say he did not choose
+ To leave the oyster-bed.
+
+ But four young Oysters hurried up,
+ All eager for the treat:
+ Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
+ Their shoes were clean and neat--
+ And this was odd, because, you know,
+ They hadn't any feet.
+
+ Four other Oysters followed them,
+ And yet another four;
+ And thick and fast they came at last,
+ And more, and more, and more--
+ All hopping through the frothy waves,
+ And scrambling to the shore.
+
+ The Walrus and the Carpenter
+ Walked on a mile or so,
+ And then they rested on a rock
+ Conveniently low:
+ And all the little Oysters stood
+ And waited in a row.
+
+ "The time has come," the Walrus said,
+ "To talk of many things:
+ Of shoes--and ships--and sealing wax
+ Of cabbages--and kings--
+ And why the sea is boiling hot--
+ And whether pigs have wings."
+
+ "But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
+ "Before we have our chat;
+ For some of us are out of breath,
+ And all of us are fat!"
+ "No hurry!" said the Carpenter.
+ They thanked him much for that.
+
+ "A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
+ "Is what we chiefly need:
+ Pepper and vinegar besides
+ Are very good indeed--
+ Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
+ We can begin to feed."
+
+ "But not on us!" the Oysters cried,
+ Turning a little blue.
+ "After such kindness, that would be
+ A dismal thing to do!"
+ "The night is fine," the Walrus said.
+ "Do you admire the view?
+
+ "It was so kind of you to come!
+ And you are very nice!"
+ The Carpenter said nothing but
+ "Cut me another slice:
+ I wish you were not quite so deaf--
+ I've had to ask you twice!"
+
+ "It seems a shame," the Walrus said,
+ "To play them such a trick,
+ After we've brought them out so far,
+ And made them trot so quick!"
+ The Carpenter said nothing but
+ "The butter's spread too thick!"
+
+ "I weep for you," the Walrus said:
+ "I deeply sympathize."
+ With sobs and tears he sorted out
+ Those of the largest size,
+ Holding his pocket handkerchief
+ Before his streaming eyes.
+
+ "O Oysters," cried the Carpenter,
+ "You've had a pleasant run!
+ Shall we be trotting home again?"
+ But answer came there none--
+ And this was scarcely odd, because
+ They'd eaten every one.
+
+
+
+338
+
+
+A STRANGE WILD SONG
+
+"LEWIS CARROLL"
+
+ He thought he saw a Buffalo
+ Upon the chimney-piece:
+ He looked again, and found it was
+ His Sister's Husband's Niece.
+ "Unless you leave this house," he said,
+ "I'll send for the Police."
+
+ He thought he saw a Rattlesnake
+ That questioned him in Greek:
+ He looked again, and found it was
+ The Middle of Next Week.
+ "The one thing I regret," he said,
+ "Is that it cannot speak!"
+
+ He thought he saw a Banker's Clerk
+ Descending from the 'bus:
+ He looked again, and found it was
+ A Hippopotamus.
+ "If this should stay to dine," he said,
+ "There won't be much for us!"
+
+ He thought he saw a Kangaroo
+ That worked a coffee-mill;
+ He looked again, and found it was
+ A Vegetable-Pill.
+ "Were I to swallow this," he said,
+ "I should be very ill."
+
+ He thought he saw a Coach and Four
+ That stood beside his bed:
+ He looked again, and found it was
+ A Bear without a Head.
+ "Poor thing," he said, "poor silly thing!
+ It's waiting to be fed!"
+
+ He thought he saw an Albatross
+ That fluttered round the Lamp:
+ He looked again, and found it was
+ A Penny Postage-Stamp.
+ "You'd best be getting home," he said:
+ "The nights are very damp!"
+
+ He thought he saw a Garden Door
+ That opened with a key:
+ He looked again, and found it was
+ A Double-Rule-of-Three:
+ "And all its mystery," he said,
+ "Is clear as day to me!"
+
+ He thought he saw an Argument
+ That proved he was the Pope:
+ He looked again, and found it was
+ A Bar of Mottled Soap.
+ "A fact so dread," he faintly said,
+ "Extinguishes all hope!"
+
+
+
+339
+
+ Isaac Watts (1674-1748) was an English minister
+ and the writer of many hymns still included in
+ our hymn books. He had a notion that verse
+ might be used as a means of religious and
+ ethical instruction for children, and wrote
+ some poems as illustrations of his theory so
+ that they might suggest to better poets how to
+ carry out the idea. But Watts did this work so
+ well that two or three of his poems and several
+ of his stanzas have become common possessions.
+ They are dominated, of course, by the heavy
+ didactic moralizing, but are all so genuine and
+ true that young readers feel their force and
+ enjoy them.
+
+
+AGAINST IDLENESS AND MISCHIEF
+
+ISAAC WATTS
+
+ How doth the little busy bee
+ Improve each shining hour,
+ And gather honey all the day
+ From every opening flower!
+
+ How skilfully she builds her cell,
+ How neat she spreads the wax!
+ And labors hard to store it well
+ With the sweet food she makes.
+
+ In works of labor or of skill,
+ I would be busy too;
+ For Satan finds some mischief still
+ For idle hands to do.
+
+ In books, or work, or healthful play,
+ Let my first years be past,
+ That I may give for every day
+ Some good account at last.
+
+
+
+340
+
+
+FAMOUS PASSAGES FROM DOCTOR WATTS
+
+ O 'tis a lovely thing for youth
+ To walk betimes in wisdom's way;
+ To fear a lie, to speak the truth,
+ That we may trust to all they say.
+
+ But liars we can never trust,
+ Though they should speak the thing that's true;
+ And he that does one fault at first,
+ And lies to hide it, makes it two.
+ (From "Against Lying")
+
+
+ Whatever brawls disturb the street,
+ There should be peace at home;
+ Where sisters dwell and brothers meet,
+ Quarrels should never come.
+
+ Birds in their little nests agree:
+ And 'tis a shameful sight,
+ When children of one family
+ Fall out, and chide, and fight.
+ (From "Love between Brothers and Sisters")
+
+
+ How proud we are! how fond to show
+ Our clothes, and call them rich and new!
+ When the poor sheep and silk-worm wore
+ That very clothing long before.
+
+ The tulip and the butterfly
+ Appear in gayer coats than I;
+ Let me be dressed fine as I will,
+ Flies, worms, and flowers exceed me still.
+
+ Then will I set my heart to find
+ Inward adornings of the mind;
+ Knowledge and virtue, truth and grace,
+ These are the robes of richest dress.
+ (From "Against Pride in Clothes")
+
+
+ Let dogs delight to bark and bite,
+ For God hath made them so;
+ Let bears and lions growl and fight,
+ For 'tis their nature to.
+
+ But, children, you should never let
+ Such angry passions rise;
+ Your little hands were never made
+ To tear each other's eyes.
+ (From "Against Quarreling and Fighting")
+
+
+
+
+ Most of the work of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
+ (1807-1882) is within the range of children's
+ interests and comprehension. Three poems are
+ given here, "The Skeleton in Armor," as
+ representative of Longfellow's large group of
+ narrative poems, "The Day Is Done," as an
+ expression of the value of poetry in everyday
+ life, and "The Psalm of Life," as the finest
+ and most popular example of his hortatory
+ poems.
+
+
+
+341
+
+ "The Skeleton in Armor" is one of Longfellow's
+ first and best American art ballads. In
+ Newport, Rhode Island, is an old stone tower
+ known as the "Round Tower," which some people
+ think was built by the Northmen, though it
+ probably was not. In 1836 workmen unearthed a
+ strange skeleton at Fall River, Massachusetts.
+ It was wrapped in bark and coarse cloth. On the
+ breast was a plate of brass, and around the
+ waist was a belt of brass tubes. Apparently it
+ was not the skeleton of an Indian, and people
+ supposed it might have been that of one of the
+ old Norsemen. Longfellow used these two
+ historic facts as a basis for the plot of his
+ poem, which he wrote in 1840.
+
+
+THE SKELETON IN ARMOR
+
+HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
+
+ "Speak! speak! thou fearful guest!
+ Who, with thy hollow breast
+ Still in rude armor drest,
+ Comest to daunt me!
+ Wrapt not in Eastern balms,
+ But with thy fleshless palms
+ Stretched, as if asking alms,
+ Why dost thou haunt me?"
+
+ Then, from those cavernous eyes
+ Pale flashes seemed to rise,
+ As when the Northern skies
+ Gleam in December;
+ And, like the water's flow
+ Under December's snow,
+ Came a dull voice of woe
+ From the heart's chamber.
+
+ "I was a Viking old!
+ My deeds, though manifold,
+ No Skald in song has told,
+ No Saga taught thee!
+ Take heed, that in thy verse
+ Thou dost the tale rehearse,
+ Else dread a dead man's curse!
+ For this I sought thee.
+
+ "Far in the Northern Land,
+ By the wild Baltic's strand,
+ I, with my childish hand,
+ Tamed the ger-falcon;
+ And, with my skates fast-bound.
+ Skimmed the half-frozen Sound,
+ That the poor whimpering hound
+ Trembled to walk on.
+
+ "Oft to his frozen lair
+ Tracked I the grisly bear,
+ While from my path the hare
+ Fled like a shadow;
+ Oft through the forest dark
+ Followed the were-wolf's bark,
+ Until the soaring lark
+ Sang from the meadow.
+
+ "But when I older grew,
+ Joining a corsair's crew,
+ O'er the dark sea I flew
+ With the marauders.
+ Wild was the life we led;
+ Many the souls that sped,
+ Many the hearts that bled,
+ By our stern orders.
+
+ "Many a wassail-bout
+ Wore the long Winter out;
+ Often our midnight shout
+ Set the cocks crowing,
+ As we the Berserk's tale
+ Measured in cups of ale,
+ Draining the oaken pail,
+ Filled to o'erflowing.
+
+ "Once, as I told in glee
+ Tales of the stormy sea,
+ Soft eyes did gaze on me,
+ Burning, yet tender;
+ And as the white stars shine
+ On the dark Norway pine,
+ On that dark heart of mine
+ Fell their soft splendor.
+
+ "I wooed the blue-eyed maid,
+ Yielding, yet half afraid,
+ And in the forest's shade
+ Our vows were plighted.
+ Under its loosened vest
+ Fluttered her little breast,
+ Like birds within their nest
+ By the hawk frighted.
+
+ "Bright in her father's hall
+ Shields gleamed upon the wall,
+ Loud sang the minstrels all,
+ Chanting his glory:
+ When of old Hildebrand
+ I asked his daughter's hand,
+ Mute did the minstrel stand
+ To hear my story.
+
+ "While the brown ale he quaffed,
+ Loud then the champion laughed,
+ And as the wind-gusts waft
+ The sea-foam brightly,
+ So the loud laugh of scorn,
+ Out of those lips unshorn,
+ From the deep drinking-horn
+ Blew the foam lightly.
+
+ "She was a Prince's child,
+ I but a Viking wild,
+ And though she blushed and smiled,
+ I was discarded!
+ Should not the dove so white
+ Follow the sea-new's flight,
+ Why did they leave that night
+ Her nest unguarded?
+
+ "Scarce had I put to sea,
+ Bearing the maid with me,--
+ Fairest of all was she
+ Among the Norsemen!--
+ When on the white-sea strand,
+ Waving his armed hand,
+ Saw we old Hildebrand,
+ With twenty horsemen.
+
+ "Then launched they to the blast,
+ Bent like a reed each mast,
+ Yet we were gaining fast,
+ When the wind failed us;
+ And with a sudden flaw
+ Came round the gusty Skaw,
+ So that our foe we saw
+ Laugh as he hailed us.
+
+ "And as to catch the gale
+ Round veered the flapping sail,
+ 'Death!' was the helmsman's hail,
+ Death without quarter!
+ Mid-ships with iron-keel
+ Struck we her ribs of steel;
+ Down her black hulk did reel
+ Through the black water.
+
+ "As with his wings aslant,
+ Sails the fierce cormorant,
+ Seeking some rocky haunt,
+ With his prey laden;
+ So toward the open main,
+ Beating the sea again,
+ Through the wild hurricane,
+ Bore I the maiden.
+
+ "Three weeks we westward bore,
+ And when the storm was o'er,
+ Cloud-like we saw the shore
+ Stretching to leeward;
+ There for my lady's bower
+ Built I the lofty tower,
+ Which, to this very hour,
+ Stands looking seaward.
+
+ "There lived we many years;
+ Time dried the maiden's tears;
+ She had forgot her fears,
+ She was a mother;
+ Death closed her mild blue eyes,
+ Under that tower she lies;
+ Ne'er shall the sun arise
+ On such another!
+
+ "Still grew my bosom then,
+ Still as a stagnant fen!
+ Hateful to me were men,
+ The sunlight hateful!
+ In the vast forest here,
+ Clad in my warlike gear,
+ Fell I upon my spear,
+ Oh, death was grateful!
+
+ "Thus, seamed with many scars,
+ Bursting these prison bars,
+ Up to its native stars
+ My soul ascended!
+ There from the flowing bowl
+ Deep drinks the warrior's soul,
+ _Skoal!_ to the Northland! _Skoal!_"
+ --Thus the tale ended.
+
+
+
+342
+
+
+THE DAY IS DONE
+
+HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
+
+ The day is done, and the darkness
+ Falls from the wings of Night.
+ As a feather is wafted downward
+ From an eagle in its flight.
+
+ I see the lights of the village
+ Gleam through the rain and the mist,
+ And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me
+ That my soul cannot resist:
+
+ A feeling of sadness and longing,
+ That is not akin to pain,
+ And resembles sorrow only
+ As the mist resembles the rain.
+
+ Come, read to me some poem,
+ Some simple and heartfelt lay,
+ That shall soothe this restless feeling,
+ And banish the thoughts of day.
+
+ Not from the grand old masters,
+ Not from the bards sublime,
+ Whose distant footsteps echo
+ Through the corridors of Time.
+
+ For, like strains of martial music,
+ Their mighty thoughts suggest
+ Life's endless toil and endeavor;
+ And to-night I long for rest.
+
+ Read from some humbler poet,
+ Whose songs gushed from his heart,
+ As showers from the clouds of summer,
+ Or tears from the eyelids start;
+
+ Who, through long days of labor,
+ And nights devoid of ease,
+ Still heard in his soul the music
+ Of wonderful melodies.
+
+ Such songs have power to quiet
+ The restless pulse of care,
+ And come like the benediction
+ That follows after prayer.
+
+ Then read from the treasured volume
+ The poem of thy choice,
+ And lend to the rhyme of the poet
+ The beauty of thy voice.
+
+ And the night shall be filled with music,
+ And the cares that infest the day,
+ Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
+ And as silently steal away.
+
+
+
+343
+
+
+A PSALM OF LIFE
+
+HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
+
+ Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
+ Life is but an empty dream!--
+ For the soul is dead that slumbers,
+ And things are not what they seem.
+
+ Life is real! Life is earnest!
+ And the grave is not its goal;
+ Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
+ Was not spoken of the soul.
+
+ Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
+ Is our destined end or way;
+ But to act, that each tomorrow
+ Find us farther than today.
+
+ Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
+ And our hearts, though stout and brave,
+ Still, like muffled drums, are beating
+ Funeral marches to the grave.
+
+ In the world's broad field of battle,
+ In the bivouac of Life,
+ Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
+ Be a hero in the strife.
+
+ Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
+ Let the dead Past bury its dead!
+ Act,--act in the living Present!
+ Heart within, and God o'erhead!
+
+ Lives of great men all remind us
+ We can make our lives sublime,
+ And, departing, leave behind us
+ Footprints on the sands of time;
+
+ Footprints, that perhaps another,
+ Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
+ A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
+ Seeing, shall take heart again.
+
+ Let us, then, be up and doing,
+ With a heart for any fate;
+ Still achieving, still pursuing,
+ Learn to labor and to wait.
+
+
+
+344
+
+ Historians usually mention Charles Kingsley
+ (1819-1875) only as an English novelist, but it
+ seems probable that eventually he will be
+ remembered chiefly for his work in juvenile
+ literature. His _Water Babies_ is popular with
+ children of the fourth and fifth grade, while
+ his book of Greek myths entitled _The Heroes_
+ is a classic for older children. The next two
+ poems are popular with both adults and
+ children. Kingsley was a minister and his
+ church was located in Devon so that the
+ tragedies of the sea among the fisher folk were
+ often brought to his attention. Both these
+ poems deal with such tragedies.
+
+
+THE THREE FISHERS
+
+CHARLES KINGSLEY
+
+ Three fishers went sailing out into the west,--
+ Out into the west as the sun went down;
+ Each thought of the woman who loved him the best,
+ And the children stood watching them out of the town;
+ For men must work, and women must weep;
+ And there's little to earn, and many to keep,
+ Though the harbor bar be moaning.
+
+ Three wives sat up in the light-house tower,
+ And trimmed the lamps as the sun went down;
+ And they looked at the squall, and they looked at the shower,
+ And the rack it came rolling up, ragged and brown;
+ But men must work, and women must weep,
+ Though storms be sudden, and waters deep,
+ And the harbor bar be moaning.
+
+ Three corpses lay out on the shining sands
+ In the morning gleam as the tide went down,
+ And the women are watching and wringing their hands,
+ For those who will never come back to the town;
+ For men must work, and women must weep,--
+ And the sooner it's over, the sooner to sleep,--
+ And good-by to the bar and its moaning.
+
+
+
+345
+
+
+THE SANDS OF DEE
+
+CHARLES KINGSLEY
+
+ "O Mary, go and call the cattle home,
+ And call the cattle home,
+ And call the cattle home
+ Across the sands of Dee!"
+ The western wind was wild and dank with foam,
+ And all alone went she.
+
+ The western tide crept up along the sand,
+ And o'er and o'er the sand,
+ And round and round the sand,
+ As far as eye could see.
+ The rolling mist came down and hid the land:
+ And never home came she.
+
+ "Oh! is it weed, or fish, or floating hair--
+ A tress of golden hair,
+ A drowned maiden's hair
+ Above the nets at sea?
+ Was never salmon yet that shone so fair
+ Among the stakes on Dee."
+
+ They rowed her in across the sailing foam,
+ The cruel crawling foam,
+ The cruel hungry foam,
+ To her grave beside the sea:
+ But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home
+ Across the sands of Dee!
+
+
+ The next two poems, by Alfred Tennyson
+ (1809-1892), are very well-known songs. "What
+ Does Little Birdie Say" is the mother's song in
+ "Sea Dreams." "Sweet and Low" is one of the
+ best of the lyrics in "The Princess," and a
+ favorite among the greatest lullabies.
+
+
+
+346
+
+
+"WHAT DOES LITTLE BIRDIE SAY?"
+
+ALFRED TENNYSON
+
+ What does little birdie say,
+ In her nest at peep of day?
+ "Let me fly," says little birdie,
+ "Mother, let me fly away."
+ "Birdie, rest a little longer,
+ Till the little wings are stronger."
+ So she rests a little longer,
+ Then she flies away.
+
+ What does little baby say,
+ In her bed at peep of day?
+ Baby says, like little birdie,
+ "Let me rise and fly away."
+ "Baby, sleep a little longer,
+ Till the little limbs are stronger."
+ If she sleeps a little longer,
+ Baby too shall fly away.
+
+
+
+347
+
+
+SWEET AND LOW
+
+ALFRED TENNYSON
+
+ Sweet and low, sweet and low,
+ Wind of the western sea,
+ Low, low, breathe and blow,
+ Wind of the western sea!
+ Over the rolling waters go,
+ Come from the dying moon, and blow,
+ Blow him again to me;
+ While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.
+
+ Sleep and rest, sleep and rest,
+ Father will come to thee soon;
+ Rest, rest on mother's breast,
+ Father will come to thee soon;
+ Father will come to his babe in the nest,
+ Silver sails all out of the west
+ Under the silver moon:
+ Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep.
+
+
+
+348
+
+ This poem is a great poet's expression of what
+ a poet's ideal of his mission should be. It is
+ summed up in the last two lines. An interesting
+ comparison could be made of the purpose of
+ poetry as reflected here with that suggested by
+ Longfellow in No. 342.
+
+
+THE POET'S SONG
+
+ALFRED TENNYSON
+
+ The rain had fallen, the Poet arose,
+ He pass'd by the town and out of the street,
+ A light wind blew from the gates of the sun,
+ And waves of shadow went over the wheat,
+ And he sat him down in a lonely place,
+ And chanted a melody loud and sweet,
+ That made the wild-swan pause in her cloud,
+ And the lark drop down at his feet.
+
+ The swallow stopt as he hunted the bee,
+ The snake slipt under a spray,
+ The wild hawk stood with the down on his beak,
+ And stared, with his foot on the prey,
+ And the nightingale thought, "I have sung many songs,
+ But never a one so gay,
+ For he sings of what the world will be
+ When the years have died away."
+
+
+
+349
+
+ Those who live near the sea know that outside a
+ harbor a bar is formed of earth washed down
+ from the land. At low tide this may be so near
+ the surface as to be dangerous to ships passing
+ in and out, and the waves may beat against it
+ with a moaning sound. In his eighty-first year
+ Tennyson wrote "Crossing the Bar" to express
+ his thought about death. He represents the soul
+ as having come from the boundless deep of
+ eternity into this world-harbor of Time and
+ Place, and he represents death as the departure
+ from the harbor. He would have no lingering
+ illness to bar the departure. He would have the
+ end of life's day to be peaceful and without
+ sadness of farewell, for he trusts that his
+ journey into the sea of eternity will be guided
+ by "my Pilot." This poem may be somewhat beyond
+ the comprehension of eighth-grade pupils, but
+ they can perceive the beauty of the imagery and
+ music, and later in life it will be a source of
+ hope and comfort.
+
+
+CROSSING THE BAR
+
+ALFRED TENNYSON
+
+ Sunset and evening star,
+ And one clear call for me!
+ And may there be no moaning of the bar
+ When I put out to sea,
+
+ But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
+ Too full for sound and foam,
+ When that which drew from out the boundless deep
+ Turns again home.
+
+ Twilight and evening bell,
+ And after that the dark!
+ And may there be no sadness of farewell,
+ When I embark;
+
+ For though from out our bourne of Time and Place
+ The flood may bear me far,
+ I hope to see my Pilot face to face
+ When I have crossed the bar.
+
+
+
+350
+
+ Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) was an English essayist,
+ journalist, and poet. His one universally known
+ poem is "Abou Ben Adhem." The secret of its
+ appeal is no doubt the emphasis placed on the
+ idea that a person's attitude toward his
+ fellows is more important than mere
+ professions. The line "Write me as one that
+ loves his fellow men" is on Hunt's tomb in
+ Kensal Green Cemetery, London.
+
+
+ABOU BEN ADHEM
+
+LEIGH HUNT
+
+ Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
+ Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
+ And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
+ Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
+ An angel writing in a book of gold:
+ Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
+ And to the presence in the room he said,
+ "What writest thou?"--the vision rais'd its head,
+ And with a look made all of sweet accord,
+ Answer'd, "The names of those that love the Lord."
+ "And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
+ Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
+ But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
+ Write me as one that loves his fellow men."
+ The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
+ It came again with a great wakening light,
+ And show'd the names whom love of God had blest,
+ And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
+
+
+
+351
+
+ Cincinnatus Heine Miller, generally known as
+ Joaquin Miller (1841-1912), revealed in his
+ verse much of the restless energy of Western
+ America, where most of his life was passed.
+ "Columbus" is probably his best known poem.
+ "For Those Who Fail" suggests the important
+ truth that he who wins popular applause is not
+ usually the one who most deserves to be
+ honored.
+
+
+FOR THOSE WHO FAIL
+
+JOAQUIN MILLER
+
+ "All honor to him who shall win the prize,"
+ The world has cried for a thousand years;
+ But to him who tries and who fails and dies,
+ I give great honor and glory and tears.
+
+ O great is the hero who wins a name,
+ But greater many and many a time,
+ Some pale-faced fellow who dies in shame,
+ And lets God finish the thought sublime.
+
+ And great is the man with a sword undrawn,
+ And good is the man who refrains from wine;
+ But the man who fails and yet fights on,
+ 'Lo! he is the twin-born brother of mine!
+
+
+
+352
+
+ Numerous poems have been written about the
+ futility of searching on earth for a place of
+ perfect happiness. The next poem, by Edgar
+ Allan Poe (1809-1849), seems to deal with this
+ subject. Some lines from Longfellow are good to
+ suggest its special message:
+
+ "No endeavor is in vain,
+ Its reward is in the doing,
+ And the rapture of pursuing
+ Is the prize the vanquished gain."
+
+
+ELDORADO
+
+EDGAR ALLAN POE
+
+ Gaily bedight,
+ A gallant knight,
+ In sunshine and in shadow
+ Had journeyed long,
+ Singing a song,
+ In search of Eldorado.
+
+ But he grew old--
+ This knight so bold--
+ And o'er his heart a shadow
+ Fell as he found
+ No spot of ground
+ That looked like Eldorado.
+
+ And, as his strength
+ Failed him at length,
+ He met a pilgrim shadow--
+ "Shadow," said he,
+ "Where can it be--
+ This land of Eldorado?"
+
+ "Over the mountains
+ Of the Moon,
+ Down the Valley of the Shadow
+ Ride, boldly ride,"
+ The Shade replied,
+ "If you seek for Eldorado!"
+
+
+
+353
+
+ Lord Byron (1788-1824) was the most popular
+ of English poets in his day. His fame
+ has since declined, although his fiery,
+ impetuous nature, expressing itself in
+ rapid verse of great rhetorical and satiric
+ power, still reaches kindred spirits. His
+ "Prisoner of Chillon" is often studied in
+ the upper grades. It is full of the passion
+ for freedom which was the dominating
+ idea in Byron's work as it was in his life.
+ He gave his life for this idea, striving to
+ help the Greeks gain their independence.
+ The poem which follows is from an early
+ work called _Hebrew Melodies_. We learn
+ from II Chronicles 32:21 that Sennacherib,
+ King of Assyria, having invaded
+ Judah, Hezekiah cried unto heaven, "And
+ the Lord sent an angel, which cut off the
+ mighty men of valor, and the leaders and
+ captains in the camp of the King of Assyria.
+ So he returned with shame of face to his
+ own land." Byron's title seems to indicate
+ that Sennacherib was himself destroyed.
+ The fine swinging measure of the lines, and
+ the vivid picture of the destroyed hosts in
+ contrast to the brilliant glory of their
+ triumphant invasion, are two of the chief
+ elements in its appeal.
+
+
+ THE DESTRUCTION OF
+ SENNACHERIB
+
+ LORD BYRON
+
+ The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,
+ And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
+ And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
+ When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
+
+ Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
+ That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
+ Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
+ The host on the morrow lay wither'd and strown.
+
+ For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
+ And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
+ And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
+ And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!
+
+ And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
+ But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride:
+ And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
+ And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.
+
+ And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
+ With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail;
+ And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
+ The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
+
+ And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
+ And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
+ And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
+ Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.
+
+
+
+354
+
+ The next two poems may represent the youth and
+ the maturity of America's first great nature
+ poet, William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878),
+ although neither is in the style that
+ characterizes his nature verse. He wrote "To a
+ Waterfowl" in 1815. When he had completed his
+ study of law, he set out on foot to find a
+ village where he might begin work as a lawyer.
+ He was poor and without friends. At the end of
+ a day's journey, when he began to feel
+ discouraged, he saw a wild duck flying alone
+ high in the sky. Then the thought came to him
+ that he would be guided aright, just as the
+ bird was, and he wrote "To a Waterfowl," the
+ most artistic of all his poems. The poem is
+ suitable for the seventh or eighth grade.
+
+
+TO A WATERFOWL
+
+WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
+
+ Whither, midst falling dew,
+ While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,
+ Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue
+ Thy solitary way?
+
+ Vainly the fowler's eye
+ Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,
+ As, darkly painted on the crimson sky,
+ Thy figure floats along.
+
+ Seek'st thou the plashy brink
+ Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,
+ Or where the rocking billows rise and sink
+ On the chafed ocean-side?
+
+ There is a Power whose care
+ Teaches thy way along that pathless coast--
+ The desert and illimitable air--
+ Lone wandering, but not lost.
+
+ All day thy wings have fanned
+ At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere,
+ Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land
+ Though the dark night is near.
+
+ And soon that toil shall end;
+ Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,
+ And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend,
+ Soon, o'er thy sheltered nest.
+
+ Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven
+ Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart
+ Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given,
+ And shall not soon depart.
+
+ He who, from zone to zone,
+ Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
+ In the long way that I must tread alone,
+ Will lead my steps aright.
+
+
+
+355
+
+ Bryant wrote this poem in 1849 after he had
+ been planting fruit trees on his country place
+ on Long Island.
+
+
+THE PLANTING OF THE APPLE-TREE
+
+WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
+
+ Come, let us plant the apple-tree.
+ Cleave the tough greensward with the spade:
+ Wide let its hollow bed be made;
+ There gently lay the roots, and there
+ Sift the dark mould with kindly care,
+ And press it o'er them tenderly,
+ As, round the sleeping infant's feet,
+ We softly fold the cradle-sheet;
+ So plant we the apple-tree.
+
+ What plant we in this apple-tree?
+ Buds, which the breath of summer days
+ Shall lengthen into leafy sprays;
+ Boughs where the thrush, with crimson breast,
+ Shall haunt, and sing, and hide her nest;
+ We plant, upon the sunny lea,
+ A shadow for the noontide hour,
+ A shelter from the summer shower,
+ When we plant the apple-tree.
+
+ What plant we in this apple-tree?
+ Sweets for a hundred flowery springs
+ To load the May-wind's restless wings,
+ When, from the orchard row, he pours
+ Its fragrance through our open doors;
+ A world of blossoms for the bee,
+ Flowers for the sick girl's silent room,
+ For the glad infant sprigs of bloom,
+ We plant with the apple-tree.
+
+ What plant we in this apple-tree?
+ Fruits that shall swell in sunny June,
+ And redden in the August noon,
+ And drop, when gentle airs come by,
+ That fan the blue September sky,
+ While children come, with cries of glee,
+ And seek them where the fragrant grass
+ Betrays their bed to those who pass,
+ At the foot of the apple-tree.
+
+ And when, above this apple-tree,
+ The winter stars are quivering bright,
+ And winds go howling through the night,
+ Girls, whose young eyes o'erflow with mirth,
+ Shall peel its fruit by cottage-hearth,
+ And guests in prouder homes shall see,
+ Heaped with the grape of Cintra's vine
+ And golden orange of the line,
+ The fruit of the apple-tree.
+
+ The fruitage of this apple-tree
+ Winds and our flag of stripe and star
+ Shall bear to coasts that lie afar,
+ Where men shall wonder at the view,
+ And ask in what fair groves they grew;
+ And sojourners beyond the sea
+ Shall think of childhood's careless day,
+ And long, long hours of summer play,
+ In the shade of the apple-tree.
+
+ Each year shall give this apple-tree
+ A broader flush of roseate bloom,
+ A deeper maze of verdurous gloom,
+ And loosen, when the frost-clouds lower,
+ The crisp brown leaves in thicker shower.
+ The years shall come and pass, but we
+ Shall hear no longer, where we lie,
+ The summer's songs, the autumn's sigh,
+ In the boughs of the apple-tree.
+
+ And time shall waste this apple-tree.
+ Oh, when its aged branches throw
+ Thin shadows on the ground below,
+ Shall fraud and force and iron will
+ Oppress the weak and helpless still?
+ What shall the tasks of mercy be,
+ Amid the toils, the strifes, the tears
+ Of those who live when length of years
+ Is wasting this apple-tree?
+
+ "Who planted this old apple-tree?"
+ The children of that distant day
+ Thus to some aged man shall say;
+ And, gazing on its mossy stem,
+ The gray-haired man shall answer them:
+ "A poet of the land was he,
+ Born in the rude but good old times;
+ 'T is said he made some quaint old rhymes,
+ On planting the apple-tree."
+
+
+
+356
+
+ The next poem, by the English poet Thomas
+ Edward Brown (1830-1897), deserves to be
+ classed with the most beautiful and artistic
+ verse in our language. Students will notice the
+ allusion to the biblical tradition that God
+ walked in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the
+ evening.
+
+
+MY GARDEN
+
+THOMAS EDWARD BROWN
+
+ A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
+ Rose plot,
+ Fringed pool,
+ Ferned grot--
+ The veriest school
+ Of peace; and yet the fool
+ Contends that God is not--
+ Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?
+ Nay, but I have a sign;
+ 'T is very sure God walks in mine.
+
+
+
+357
+
+ William Wordsworth (1770-1850) ranks very high
+ among English poets. He endeavored to bring
+ poetry close to actual life and to get rid of
+ the stilted language of conventional verse. The
+ struggle was long and difficult, but Wordsworth
+ lived long enough to know that the world had
+ realized his greatness. Many of his poems are
+ suitable for use with children. Their
+ simplicity, their directness, and their utter
+ sincerity made many of them, while not written
+ especially for the young, seem as if directly
+ addressed to the childlike mind. "We are
+ Seven," "Lucy Gray," and "Michael" belong to
+ this number, as do the two masterpieces among
+ short poems which are quoted here. "How many
+ people," exclaims Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes,
+ "have been waked to a quicker consciousness of
+ life by Wordsworth's simple lines about the
+ daffodils, and what he says of the thoughts
+ suggested to him by 'the meanest flower that
+ blows'!" In both poems the imagery is of the
+ utmost importance. Through it the reader is
+ able to put himself with the poet and see
+ things as the poet saw them. In "The Daffodils"
+ the flowers, jocund in the breeze, drive away
+ the melancholy mood with which the poet had
+ approached them and enable him to carry away a
+ picture in his memory that can be drawn upon
+ for help on future occasions of gloom. In "The
+ Solitary Reaper" the weird and haunting notes
+ of the song coming to his ear in an unknown
+ tongue suggest possible ideas back of the
+ strong feeling which he recognizes in the
+ singer. Here also, the poet's memory carries
+ something away,
+
+ "The music in my heart I bore,
+ Long after it was heard no more."
+
+ One of the purposes in teaching poetry should
+ be to store the mind, not with words only, but
+ with impressions that may later be recalled to
+ beautify and strengthen life.
+
+
+DAFFODILS
+
+WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
+
+ I wander'd lonely as a cloud
+ That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
+ When all at once I saw a crowd,
+ A host, of golden daffodils;
+ Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
+ Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
+
+ Continuous as the stars that shine
+ And twinkle on the Milky Way,
+ They stretch'd in never-ending line
+ Along the margin of a bay:
+ Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
+ Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
+
+ The waves beside them danced, but they
+ Outdid the sparkling waves in glee:
+ A poet could not but be gay,
+ In such a jocund company:
+ I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
+ What wealth the show to me had brought:
+
+ For oft, when on my couch I lie
+ In vacant or in pensive mood,
+ They flash upon that inward eye
+ Which is the bliss of solitude;
+ And then my heart with pleasure fills,
+ And dances with the daffodils.
+
+
+
+358
+
+
+THE SOLITARY REAPER
+
+WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
+
+ Behold her, single in the field,
+ Yon solitary highland lass!
+ Reaping and singing by herself;
+ Stop here, or gently pass!
+ Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
+ And sings a melancholy strain;
+ Oh, listen! for the vale profound
+ Is overflowing with the sound.
+
+ No nightingale did ever chant
+ More welcome notes to weary bands
+ Of travelers in some shady haunt,
+ Among Arabian sands:
+ A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
+ In spring-time from the cuckoo-bird,
+ Breaking the silence of the seas
+ Among the farthest Hebrides.
+
+ Will no one tell me what she sings?
+ Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
+ For old, unhappy, far-off things,
+ And battles long ago!
+ Or is it some more humble lay,
+ Familiar matter of to-day?
+ Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
+ That has been, and may be again?
+
+ Whate'er the theme, the maiden sang
+ As if her song could have no ending:
+ I saw her singing at her work,
+ And o'er the sickle bending;--
+ I listen'd, motionless and still;
+ And, as I mounted up the hill,
+ The music in my heart I bore,
+ Long after it was heard no more.
+
+
+
+359
+
+ Lady Norton (1808-1877) does not belong among
+ the great poets, but she wrote several poems
+ that were immense favorites with a generation
+ now passing away. Among them are "Bingen on the
+ Rhine," "The King of Denmark's Ride" and the
+ one given below. It will no doubt show that her
+ work still has power to stir readers of the
+ present day, although we are likely to think of
+ her poems as being too emotional or
+ sentimental. She wrote the words of the very
+ popular song "Juanita."
+
+
+THE ARAB TO HIS FAVORITE STEED
+
+CAROLINE E. NORTON
+
+ My beautiful! my beautiful! that standest meekly by,
+ With thy proudly arched and glossy neck, and dark and fiery eye,
+ Fret not to roam the desert now, with all thy winged speed;
+ I may not mount on thee again,--thou'rt sold, my Arab steed!
+ Fret not with that impatient hoof,--snuff not the breezy wind,--
+ The farther that thou fliest now, so far am I behind;
+ The stranger hath thy bridle-rein,--thy master hath his gold,--
+ Fleet-limbed and beautiful, farewell; thou'rt sold, my steed, thou'rt
+ sold.
+
+ Farewell! those free untired limbs full many a mile must roam,
+ To reach the chill and wintry sky which clouds the stranger's home;
+ Some other hand, less fond, must now thy corn and bed prepare,
+ Thy silky mane, I braided once, must be another's care!
+ The morning sun shall dawn again, but never more with thee
+ Shall I gallop through the desert paths, where we were wont to be;
+ Evening shall darken on the earth, and o'er the sandy plain
+ Some other steed, with slower step, shall bear me home again.
+
+ Yes, thou must go! the wild, free breeze, the brilliant sun and sky,
+ Thy master's house,--from all of these my exiled one must fly;
+ Thy proud dark eye will grow less proud, thy step become less fleet,
+ And vainly shalt thou arch thy neck, thy master's hand to meet.
+ Only in sleep shall I behold that dark eye, glancing bright;--
+ Only in sleep shall hear again that step so firm and light;
+ And when I raise my dreaming arm to check or cheer thy speed,
+ Then must I, starting, wake to feel,--thou'rt sold, my Arab steed.
+
+ Ah! rudely then, unseen by me, some cruel hand may chide,
+ Till foam-wreaths lie, like crested waves, along thy panting side:
+ And the rich blood that's in thee swells, in thy indignant pain,
+ Till careless eyes, which rest on thee, may count each starting vein.
+ Will they ill-use thee? If I thought--but no, it cannot be,--
+ Thou art so swift, yet easy curbed; so gentle, yet so free:
+ And yet, if haply, when thou'rt gone, my lonely heart should yearn,
+ Can the hand which casts thee from it now command thee to return?
+
+ Return! alas! my Arab steed! what shall thy master do,
+ When thou, who wast his all of joy, hast vanished from his view?
+ When the dim distance cheats mine eye, and through the gathering tears
+ Thy bright form, for a moment, like the false mirage appears;
+ Slow and unmounted shall I roam, with weary step alone,
+ Where, with fleet step and joyous bound, thou oft hast borne me on;
+ And sitting down by that green well, I'll pause and sadly think,
+ "It was here he bowed his glossy neck when last I saw him drink!"
+
+ When last I saw thee drink!--Away! the fevered dream is o'er,--
+ I could not live a day, and know that we should meet no more!
+ They tempted me, my beautiful! for hunger's power is strong,--
+ They tempted me, my beautiful! but I have loved too long.
+ Who said that I had given thee up? who said that thou wast sold?
+ 'T is false!--'t is false, my Arab steed! I fling them back their gold!
+ Thus, thus, I leap upon thy back, and scour the distant plains;
+ Away! who overtakes us now shall claim thee for his pains!
+
+
+
+360
+
+ Robert Southey (1774-1843) was poet laureate of
+ England, and a most prolific writer of poetry
+ and miscellaneous prose. His great prominence
+ in his own day has been succeeded by an
+ obscurity so complete that only a few items of
+ his work are now remembered. Among these are
+ "The Battle of Blenheim," a very brief and
+ effective satire against war, "The Well of St.
+ Keyne," a humorous poem based on an old
+ superstition, and "The Inchcape Rock," a
+ stirring narrative of how evil deeds return
+ upon the evil doer. (See also No. 153.)
+
+
+THE INCHCAPE ROCK
+
+ROBERT SOUTHEY
+
+ No stir in the air, no stir in the sea,
+ The ship was as still as she could be;
+ Her sails from Heaven received no motion,
+ Her keel was steady in the ocean.
+
+ Without either sign or sound of their shock,
+ The waves flowed over the Inchcape Rock;
+ So little they rose, so little they fell,
+ They did not move the Inchcape Bell.
+
+ The holy Abbot of Aberbrothok
+ Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock;
+ On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung,
+ And over the waves its warning rung.
+
+ When the rock was hid by the surges' swell,
+ The mariners heard the warning bell;
+ And then they knew the perilous Rock,
+ And blessed the Abbot of Aberbrothok.
+
+ The Sun in heaven was shining gay,
+ All things were joyful on that day;
+ The sea-birds screamed as they wheeled around,
+ And there was joyance in their sound.
+
+ The buoy of the Inchcape Rock was seen,
+ A darker speck on the ocean green;
+ Sir Ralph, the Rover, walked his deck,
+ And he fixed his eye on the darker speck.
+
+ He felt the cheering power of spring,
+ It made him whistle, it made him sing;
+ His heart was mirthful to excess;
+ But the Rover's mirth was wickedness.
+
+ His eye was on the Inchcape float;
+ Quoth he, "My men, put out the boat;
+ And row me to the Inchcape Rock,
+ And I'll plague the Abbot of Aberbrothok."
+
+ The boat is lowered, the boatmen row,
+ And to the Inchcape Rock they go;
+ Sir Ralph bent over from the boat,
+ And cut the Bell from the Inchcape float.
+
+ Down sank the Bell with a gurgling sound;
+ The bubbles rose, and burst around.
+ Quoth Sir Ralph, "The next who comes to the Rock
+ Will not bless the Abbot of Aberbrothok."
+
+ Sir Ralph, the Rover, sailed away,
+ He scoured the seas for many a day;
+ And now, grown rich with plundered store,
+ He steers his course for Scotland's shore.
+
+ So thick a haze o'erspreads the sky
+ They cannot see the Sun on high;
+ The wind hath blown a gale all day;
+ At evening it hath died away.
+
+ On the deck the Rover takes his stand;
+ So dark it is they see no land.
+ Quoth Sir Ralph, "It will be lighter soon,
+ For there is the dawn of the rising Moon."
+
+ "Canst hear," said one, "the breakers roar?
+ For yonder, methinks, should be the shore.
+ Now where we are I cannot tell,
+ But I wish we could hear the Inchcape Bell."
+
+ They hear no sound; the swell is strong;
+ Though the wind hath fallen, they drift along,
+ Till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock,--
+ "O Christ! it is the Inchcape Rock."
+
+ Sir Ralph, the Rover, tore his hair;
+ He cursed himself in his despair.
+ The waves rush in on every side;
+ The ship is sinking beneath the tide.
+
+ But even in his dying fear,
+ One dreadful sound he seemed to hear,--
+ A sound as if, with the Inchcape Bell,
+ The Devil below was ringing his knell.
+
+
+ The Shakespeare passages which follow are from
+ the fairy play "A Midsummer Night's Dream." A
+ teacher well acquainted with that play would
+ find it possible to delight children with it.
+ The fairy and rustic scenes could be given
+ almost in their entirety, the other scenes
+ could be summarized.
+
+
+
+361
+
+
+OVER HILL, OVER DALE
+
+WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
+
+ Over hill, over dale,
+ Thorough bush, thorough brier,
+ Over park, over pale,
+ Thorough flood, thorough fire,
+ I do wander everywhere,
+ Swifter than the moon's sphere;
+ And I serve the fairy queen,
+ To dew her orbs upon the green.
+ The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
+ In their gold coats spots you see;
+ Those be rubies, fairy favours,
+ In those freckles live their savours:
+ I must go seek some dewdrops here,
+ And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
+
+
+
+362
+
+
+A FAIRY SCENE IN A WOOD
+
+WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
+
+FAIRY QUEEN TITANIA (_calls to her_ FAIRIES _following her_)
+
+ Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;
+ Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;
+ Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,
+ Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,
+ To make my small elves coats, and some keep back
+ The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
+ At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
+ Then to your offices and let me rest.
+
+_She lies down to sleep, and the_ FAIRIES _sing as follows_:
+
+ You spotted snakes with double tongue,
+ Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
+ Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
+ Come not near our fairy queen.
+ Philomel, with melody
+ Sing in our sweet lullaby;
+ Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:
+ Never harm,
+ Nor spell nor charm,
+ Come our lovely lady nigh:
+ So good-night, with lullaby.
+
+ Weaving spiders, come not here;
+ Hence, you long-legged spinners, hence.
+ Beetles black, approach not near;
+ Worm nor snail, do no offence.
+ Philomel, with melody
+ Sing in our sweet lullaby;
+ Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:
+ Never harm,
+ Nor spell nor charm,
+ Come our lovely lady nigh;
+ So, good-night, with lullaby.
+
+A FAIRY
+
+ Hence, away! now all is well:
+ One aloof stand sentinel.
+
+
+
+363
+
+ Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) is America's
+ greatest spiritual teacher. His essays, such as
+ "Self-Reliance" and "The American Scholar," are
+ his chief claim to fame. The two brief poems
+ given here are well known. "Fable" should be
+ studied along with No. 236, since they
+ emphasize the same lesson that size is after
+ all a purely relative matter. "Concord Hymn" is
+ a splendidly dignified expression of the debt
+ of gratitude we owe to the memory of those who
+ made our country possible. Of course no reader
+ will fail to notice the famous last two lines
+ of the first stanza.
+
+
+FABLE
+
+RALPH WALDO EMERSON
+
+ The mountain and the squirrel
+ Had a quarrel,
+ And the former called the latter "Little Prig";
+ Bun replied,
+ "You are doubtless very big;
+ But all sorts of things and weather
+ Must be taken in together
+ To make up a year
+ And a sphere.
+ And I think it no disgrace
+ To occupy my place.
+ If I'm not so large as you,
+ You are not so small as I,
+ And not half so spry.
+ I'll not deny you make
+ A very pretty squirrel track;
+ Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;
+ If I cannot carry forests on my back,
+ Neither can you crack a nut!"
+
+
+
+364
+
+
+CONCORD HYMN
+
+RALPH WALDO EMERSON
+
+ By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
+ Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
+ Here once the embattled farmers stood,
+ And fired the shot heard round the world.
+
+ The foe long since in silence slept;
+ Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
+ And Time the ruined bridge has swept
+ Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
+
+ On this green bank, by this soft stream,
+ We set to-day a votive stone;
+ That memory may their deed redeem,
+ When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
+
+ Spirit, that made those heroes dare
+ To die, and leave their children free,
+ Bid Time and Nature gently spare
+ The shaft we raise to them and thee.
+
+
+
+365
+
+ Almost any of the works of Sir Walter Scott
+ (1771-1832), whether in prose or verse, is
+ within the range of children in the grades.
+ Especially the fine ballads, such as
+ "Lochinvar" and "Allen-a-Dale," are sure to
+ interest them. Children should be encouraged to
+ read one of the long story-poems, "The Lady of
+ the Lake" or "The Lay of the Last Minstrel."
+ The famous expression of patriotism quoted
+ below is from the latter poem.
+
+
+BREATHES THERE THE MAN
+
+SIR WALTER SCOTT
+
+ Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
+ Who never to himself hath said,
+ This is my own, my native land!
+ Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
+ As home his footsteps he hath turned
+ From wandering on a foreign strand!
+ If such there be, go, mark him well;
+ For him no minstrel raptures swell;
+ High though his titles, proud his name,
+ Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
+ Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
+ The wretch, concentered all in self,
+ Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
+ And doubly dying, shall go down
+ To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
+ Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.
+
+
+
+366
+
+ When Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) was
+ twenty-one years old, he read that the Navy
+ Department had decided to destroy the old,
+ unseaworthy frigate "Constitution," which had
+ become famous in the War of 1812. In one
+ evening he wrote the poem "Old Ironsides." This
+ not only made Holmes immediately famous as a
+ poet, but so aroused the American people that
+ the Navy Department changed its plans and
+ rebuilt the ship.
+
+
+OLD IRONSIDES
+
+OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
+
+ Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
+ Long has it waved on high,
+ And many an eye has danced to see
+ That banner in the sky;
+ Beneath it rung the battle shout,
+ And burst the cannon's roar:--
+ The meteor of the ocean air
+ Shall sweep the clouds no more.
+
+ Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,
+ Where knelt the vanquished foe,
+ When winds were hurrying o'er the flood,
+ And waves were white below,
+ No more shall feel the victor's tread,
+ Or know the conquered knee;--
+ The harpies of the shore shall pluck
+ The eagle of the sea!
+
+ Oh, better that her shattered hulk
+ Should sink beneath the wave;
+ Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
+ And there should be her grave;
+ Nail to the mast her holy flag,
+ Set every threadbare sail,
+ And give her to the god of storms,
+ The lightning and the gale!
+
+
+
+367
+
+ William Collins (1721-1759), English poet,
+ wrote only a few poems, but among them is this
+ short dirge which keeps his name alive in
+ popular memory. It was probably in honor of his
+ countrymen who fell at Fontenoy in 1745, the
+ year before its composition. Its austere
+ brevity, its well-known personifications, its
+ freedom from fulsome expressions, place it very
+ high among patriotic utterances.
+
+
+HOW SLEEP THE BRAVE
+
+WILLIAM COLLINS
+
+ How sleep the brave, who sink to rest
+ By all their country's wishes blest!
+ When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
+ Returns to deck their hallowed mould,
+ She there shall dress a sweeter sod
+ Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.
+
+ By fairy hands their knell is rung;
+ By forms unseen their dirge is sung;
+ There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray,
+ To bless the turf that wraps their clay;
+ And Freedom shall awhile repair,
+ To dwell a weeping hermit there!
+
+
+
+368
+
+ The anonymous ballad dealing with the familiar
+ story of Nathan Hale, of Revolutionary times,
+ is the nearest approach to the old folk ballad
+ in our history. Its repetitions help it in
+ catching something of the breathless suspense
+ accompanying his daring effort, betrayal, and
+ execution. The pathos of the closing incidents
+ of Hale's career has attracted the tributes of
+ poets and dramatists. Francis Miles Finch,
+ author of "The Blue and the Gray," wrote a
+ well-known poetic account of Hale, while Clyde
+ Fitch's drama of _Nathan Hale_ had a great
+ popular success.
+
+
+THE BALLAD OF NATHAN HALE
+
+ The breezes went steadily through the tall pines,
+ A-saying "Oh! hu-ush!" a-saying "Oh! hu-ush!"
+ As stilly stole by a bold legion of horse,
+ For Hale in the bush; for Hale in the bush.
+
+ "Keep still!" said the thrush as she nestled her young,
+ In a nest by the road; in a nest by the road.
+ "For the tyrants are near, and with them appear
+ What bodes us no good; what bodes us no good."
+
+ The brave captain heard it, and thought of his home
+ In a cot by the brook; in a cot by the brook;
+ With mother and sister and memories dear,
+ He so gayly forsook; he so gayly forsook.
+
+ Cooling shades of the night were coming apace,
+ The tattoo had beat; the tattoo had beat.
+ The noble one sprang from his dark lurking-place,
+ To make his retreat; to make his retreat.
+
+ He warily trod on the dry rustling leaves,
+ As he passed through the wood; as he passed through the wood;
+ And silently gained his rude launch on the shore,
+ As she played with the flood; as she played with the flood.
+
+ The guards of the camp, on that dark, dreary night,
+ Had a murderous will; had a murderous will.
+ They took him and bore him afar from the shore,
+ To a hut on the hill; to a hut on the hill.
+
+ No mother was there, nor a friend who could cheer,
+ In that little stone cell; in that little stone cell.
+ But he trusted in love, from his Father above.
+ In his heart, all was well; in his heart, all was well.
+
+ An ominous owl, with his solemn bass voice,
+ Sat moaning hard by; sat moaning hard by;
+ "The tyrant's proud minions most gladly rejoice,
+ For he must soon die; for he must soon die."
+
+ The brave fellow told them, no thing he restrained,--
+ The cruel general! the cruel general!--
+ His errand from camp, of the ends to be gained,
+ And said that was all; and said that was all.
+
+ They took him and bound him and bore him away,
+ Down the hill's grassy side; down the hill's grassy side.
+ 'Twas there the base hirelings, in royal array,
+ His cause did deride; his cause did deride.
+
+ Five minutes were given, short moments, no more,
+ For him to repent; for him to repent.
+ He prayed for his mother, he asked not another,
+ To Heaven he went; to Heaven he went.
+
+ The faith of a martyr the tragedy showed,
+ As he trod the last stage; as he trod the last stage.
+ And Britons will shudder at gallant Hale's blood,
+ As his words do presage; as his words do presage:
+
+ "Thou pale King of terrors, thou life's gloomy foe,
+ Go frighten the slave; go frighten the slave;
+ Tell tyrants, to you their allegiance they owe.
+ No fears for the brave; no fears for the brave."
+
+
+
+369
+
+ That men of great courage are certain to
+ recognize and pay tribute to courage in others,
+ even if those others are their enemies, is the
+ theme of "The Red Thread of Honor." Sir Francis
+ Hastings Doyle (1810-1888) wrote two other
+ stirring poems of action, "The Loss of the
+ Birkenhead" and "The Private of the Buffs."
+
+
+THE RED THREAD OF HONOR
+
+FRANCIS HASTINGS DOYLE
+
+ Eleven men of England
+ A breastwork charged in vain;
+ Eleven men of England
+ Lie stripp'd, and gash'd, and slain.
+ Slain; but of foes that guarded
+ Their rock-built fortress well,
+ Some twenty had been mastered,
+ When the last soldier fell.
+
+ The robber-chief mused deeply,
+ Above those daring dead;
+ "Bring here," at length he shouted,
+ "Bring quick, the battle thread.
+ Let Eblis blast forever
+ Their souls, if Allah will:
+ But we must keep unbroken
+ The old rules of the Hill.
+
+ "Before the Ghiznee tiger
+ Leapt forth to burn and slay;
+ Before the holy Prophet
+ Taught our grim tribes to pray;
+ Before Secunder's lances
+ Pierced through each Indian glen;
+ The mountain laws of honor
+ Were framed for fearless men.
+
+ "Still, when a chief dies bravely,
+ We bind with green one wrist--
+ Green for the brave, for heroes
+ One crimson thread we twist.
+ Say ye, oh gallant Hillmen,
+ For these, whose life has fled,
+ Which is the fitting color,
+ The green one, or the red?"
+
+ "Our brethren, laid in honor'd graves, may wear
+ Their green reward," each noble savage said;
+ "To these, whom hawks and hungry wolves shall tear,
+ Who dares deny the red?"
+
+ Thus conquering hate, and steadfast to the right,
+ Fresh from the heart that haughty verdict came;
+ Beneath a waning moon, each spectral height
+ Rolled back its loud acclaim.
+
+ Once more the chief gazed keenly
+ Down on those daring dead;
+ From his good sword their heart's blood
+ Crept to that crimson thread.
+ Once more he cried, "The judgment,
+ Good friends, is wise and true,
+ But though the red be given,
+ Have we not more to do?
+
+ "These were not stirred by anger,
+ Nor yet by lust made bold;
+ Renown they thought above them,
+ Nor did they look for gold.
+ To them their leader's signal
+ Was as the voice of God:
+ Unmoved, and uncomplaining,
+ The path it showed they trod.
+
+ "As, without sound or struggle,
+ The stars unhurrying march,
+ Where Allah's finger guides them,
+ Through yonder purple arch,
+ These Franks, sublimely silent,
+ Without a quickened breath,
+ Went, in the strength of duty,
+ Straight to their goal of death.
+
+ "If I were now to ask you,
+ To name our bravest man,
+ Ye all at once would answer,
+ They call'd him Mehrab Khan.
+ He sleeps among his fathers,
+ Dear to our native land,
+ With the bright mark he bled for
+ Firm round his faithful hand.
+
+ "The songs they sing of Roostum
+ Fill all the past with light;
+ If truth be in their music,
+ He was a noble knight.
+ But were those heroes living,
+ And strong for battle still,
+ Would Mehrab Khan or Roostum
+ Have climbed, like these, the Hill?"
+
+ And they replied, "Though Mehrab Khan was brave,
+ As chief, he chose himself what risks to run;
+ Prince Roostum lied, his forfeit life to save,
+ Which these had never done."
+
+ "Enough!" he shouted fiercely;
+ "Doomed though they be to hell,
+ Bind fast the crimson trophy
+ Round BOTH wrists--bind it well.
+ Who knows but that great Allah
+ May grudge such matchless men,
+ With none so decked in heaven,
+ To the fiend's flaming den?"
+
+ Then all those gallant robbers
+ Shouted a stern "Amen!"
+ They raised the slaughter'd sergeant,
+ They raised his mangled ten.
+ And when we found their bodies
+ Left bleaching in the wind,
+ Around BOTH wrists in glory
+ That crimson thread was twined.
+
+
+
+370
+
+ In the year 1897 a great diamond jubilee was
+ held in England in honor of the completion of
+ sixty years of rule by Queen Victoria. Many
+ poems were written for the occasion, most of
+ which praised the greatness of Britain, the
+ extent of her dominion, the strength of her
+ army and navy, and the abundance of her wealth.
+ The "Recessional" was written for the occasion
+ by Rudyard Kipling (1865--). It is in the form
+ of a prayer, but its purpose was to tell the
+ British that they were forgetting the "God of
+ our fathers" and putting their trust in wealth
+ and navies and the "reeking tube and iron
+ shard" of the cannon. The poem rang through
+ England like a bugle call and stirred the
+ British people more deeply than any other poem
+ of recent times.
+
+
+RECESSIONAL
+
+RUDYARD KIPLING
+
+ God of our fathers, known of old--
+ Lord of our far flung battle-line--
+ Beneath whose awful hand we hold
+ Dominion over palm and pine--
+ Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
+ Lest we forget--lest we forget!
+
+ The tumult and the shouting dies--
+ The captains and the kings depart--
+ Still stands Thine ancient Sacrifice,
+ A humble and a contrite heart.
+ Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
+ Lest we forget--lest we forget!
+
+ Far-called our navies sink away--
+ On dune and headland sinks the fire
+ Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
+ Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
+ Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
+ Lest we forget--lest we forget!
+
+ If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
+ Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe--
+ Such boasting as the Gentiles use
+ Or lesser breeds without the law--
+ Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
+ Lest we forget--lest we forget!
+
+ For heathen heart that puts her trust
+ In reeking tube and iron shard--
+ All valiant dust that builds on dust,
+ And guarding calls not Thee to guard--
+ For frantic boast and foolish word,
+ Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!
+
+
+
+371
+
+ William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) was an
+ English critic and journalist of great force
+ and a poet whose verse is full of manliness and
+ tenderness. His life was a constant and
+ courageous struggle against disease. The spirit
+ in which he faced conditions that would have
+ conquered a weaker man breathes through the
+ famous poem quoted below. Such a spirit is not
+ confined to any particular stage of maturity as
+ represented by years, and many young people
+ will find themselves buoyed up in the face of
+ difficulties by coming into touch with the
+ unconquered and unconquerable voice in this
+ poem. The last two lines in particular are
+ often quoted.
+
+
+INVICTUS
+
+WILLIAM E. HENLEY
+
+ Out of the night that covers me,
+ Black as the pit from pole to pole,
+ I thank whatever gods may be
+ For my unconquerable soul.
+
+ In the fell clutch of circumstance
+ I have not winced nor cried aloud:
+ Under the bludgeonings of chance
+ My head is bloody, but unbowed.
+
+ Beyond this place of wrath and tears
+ Looms but the horror of the shade,
+ And yet the menace of the years
+ Finds and shall find me unafraid.
+
+ It matters not how strait the gate,
+ How charged with punishments the scroll,
+ I am the master of my fate;
+ I am the captain of my soul.
+
+
+
+372
+
+ James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) is a poet of
+ such high idealisms that many of his poems seem
+ to form the natural heritage of youth. Among
+ such are "The Vision of Sir Launfal," "The
+ Present Crisis," "The Fatherland," and
+ "Aladdin." "The Falcon" is not so well known as
+ any of these, but its fine image for the seeker
+ after truth should appeal to most children of
+ upper grades. "The Shepherd of King Admetus" is
+ a very attractive poetizing of an old myth (see
+ No. 261) and lets us see something of how the
+ public looks upon its poets and other artistic
+ folk.
+
+
+THE FALCON
+
+JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
+
+ I know a falcon swift and peerless
+ As e'er was cradled in the pine;
+ No bird had ever eye so fearless,
+ Or wing so strong as this of mine.
+
+ The winds not better love to pilot
+ A cloud with molten gold o'errun,
+ Than him, a little burning islet,
+ A star above the coming sun.
+
+ For with a lark's heart he doth tower,
+ By a glorious upward instinct drawn;
+ No bee nestles deeper in the flower
+ Than he in the bursting rose of dawn.
+
+ No harmless dove, no bird that singeth,
+ Shudders to see him overhead;
+ The rush of his fierce swooping bringeth
+ To innocent hearts no thrill of dread.
+
+ Let fraud and wrong and baseness shiver,
+ For still between them and the sky
+ The falcon Truth hangs poised forever
+ And marks them with his vengeful eye.
+
+
+
+373
+
+
+THE SHEPHERD OF KING ADMETUS
+
+JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
+
+ There came a youth upon the earth,
+ Some thousand years ago,
+ Whose slender hands were nothing worth,
+ Whether to plough, or reap, or sow.
+
+ Upon an empty tortoise-shell
+ He stretched some chords, and drew
+ Music that made men's bosoms swell
+ Fearless, or brimmed their eyes with dew.
+
+ Then King Admetus, one who had
+ Pure taste by right divine,
+ Decreed his singing not too bad
+ To hear between the cups of wine:
+
+ And so, well pleased with being soothed
+ Into a sweet half-sleep,
+ Three times his kingly beard he smoothed,
+ And made him viceroy o'er his sheep.
+
+ His words were simple words enough,
+ And yet he used them so,
+ That what in other mouths was rough
+ In his seemed musical and low.
+
+ Men called him but a shiftless youth,
+ In whom no good they saw;
+ And yet, unwittingly, in truth,
+ They made his careless words their law.
+
+ They knew not how he learned at all,
+ For idly, hour by hour,
+ He sat and watched the dead leaves fall,
+ Or mused upon a common flower.
+
+ It seemed the loveliness of things
+ Did teach him all their use,
+ For, in mere weeds, and stones, and springs,
+ He found a healing power profuse.
+
+ Men granted that his speech was wise,
+ But, when a glance they caught
+ Of his slim grace and woman's eyes,
+ They laughed, and called him good-for-naught.
+
+ Yet after he was dead and gone,
+ And e'en his memory dim,
+ Earth seemed more sweet to live upon,
+ More full of love, because of him.
+
+ And day by day more holy grew
+ Each spot where he had trod,
+ Till after-poets only knew
+ Their first-born brother as a god.
+
+
+
+374
+
+ Sir William S. Gilbert (1837-1911), an English
+ dramatist, is known to us as the librettist of
+ the popular Gilbert and Sullivan operas, _The
+ Mikado_, _Pinafore_, etc. In his earlier days
+ he wrote a book of humorous poetry called _The
+ Bab Ballads_. Many of these still please
+ readers who like a little nonsense now and then
+ of a supremely ridiculous type. "The Yarn of
+ the Nancy Bell" is a splendid take-off on
+ "travelers' tales," and is not likely to
+ deceive anyone. However, Gilbert said that when
+ he sent the poem to _Punch_, the editor made
+ objection to its extremely cannibalistic
+ nature!
+
+
+THE YARN OF THE NANCY BELL
+
+WILLIAM S. GILBERT
+
+ 'Twas on the shores that round our coast
+ From Deal to Ramsgate span,
+ That I found alone on a piece of stone
+ An elderly naval man.
+
+ His hair was weedy, his beard was long,
+ And weedy and long was he,
+ And I heard this wight on the shore recite,
+ In a singular minor key:
+
+ "Oh, I am a cook and a captain bold,
+ And the mate of the Nancy brig,
+ And a bo'sun tight, and a midshipmite,
+ And the crew of the captain's gig."
+
+ And he shook his fists and he tore his hair,
+ Till I really felt afraid,
+ For I couldn't help thinking the man had been drinking,
+ And so I simply said:
+
+ "Oh, elderly man, it's little I know
+ Of the duties of men of the sea,
+ And I'll eat my hand if I understand
+ However you can be
+
+ "At once a cook, and a captain bold,
+ And the mate of the Nancy brig,
+ And a bo'sun tight, and a midshipmite,
+ And the crew of the captain's gig."
+
+ Then he gave a hitch to his trousers, which
+ Is a trick all seamen larn,
+ And having got rid of a thumping quid,
+ He spun this painful yarn:
+
+ "'Twas in the good ship Nancy Bell
+ That we sailed to the Indian Sea,
+ And there on a reef we come to grief,
+ Which has often occurred to me.
+
+ "And pretty nigh all the crew was drowned
+ (There was seventy-seven o' soul),
+ And only ten of the Nancy's men
+ Said 'Here!' to the muster-roll.
+
+ "There was me and the cook and the captain bold,
+ And the mate of the Nancy brig,
+ And the bo'sun tight, and a midshipmite,
+ And the crew of the captain's gig.
+
+ "For a month we'd neither wittles nor drink,
+ Till a-hungry we did feel,
+ So we drawed a lot, and accordin' shot
+ The captain for our meal.
+
+ "The next lot fell to the Nancy's mate,
+ And a delicate dish he made;
+ Then our appetite with the midshipmite
+ We seven survivors stayed.
+
+ "And then we murdered the bo'sun tight,
+ And he much resembled pig;
+ Then we wittled free, did the cook and me,
+ On the crew of the captain's gig.
+
+ "Then only the cook and me was left,
+ And the delicate question, 'Which
+ Of us two goes to the kettle?' arose,
+ And we argued it out as sich.
+
+ "For I loved that cook as a brother, I did,
+ And the cook he worshipped me;
+ But we'd both be blowed if we'd either be stowed
+ In the other chap's hold, you see.
+
+ "'I'll be eat if you dines off me,' says Tom;
+ 'Yes, that,' says I, 'you'll be,'--
+ 'I'm boiled if I die, my friend,' quoth I;
+ And 'Exactly so,' quoth he.
+
+ "Says he, 'Dear James, to murder me
+ Were a foolish thing to do;
+ For don't you see that you can't cook me,
+ While I can--and will--cook _you_!'
+
+ "So he boils the water, and takes the salt
+ And the pepper in portions true
+ (Which he never forgot), and some chopped shalot,
+ And some sage and parsley, too.
+
+ "'Come here,' says he, with a proper pride,
+ Which his smiling features tell,
+ ''T will soothing be if I let you see
+ How extremely nice you'll smell.'
+
+ "And he stirred it round and round and round
+ And he sniffed at the foaming froth;
+ When I ups with his heels and smothers his squeals
+ In the scum of the boiling broth.
+
+ "And I eat that cook in a week or less,
+ And--as I eating be
+ The last of his chops, why, I almost drops,
+ For a wessel in sight I see!
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ "'And I never larf, and never smile,
+ And I never lark nor play,
+ But sit and croak, and a single joke
+ I have--which is to say:
+
+ "'Oh, I am a cook and a captain bold,
+ And the mate of the Nancy brig,
+ And a bo'sun tight, and a midshipmite,
+ And the crew of the captain's gig!'"
+
+
+
+375
+
+ John T. Trowbridge (1827-1916) is one of the
+ important figures in modern literature for
+ young folks. He wrote a popular series of books
+ for them beginning with _Cudjo's Cave_, and
+ many poems, the most famous of which are "The
+ Vagabonds" and the one given below.
+ Trowbridge's autobiography will interest
+ children with its story of a literary life
+ devoted to the problems of their entertainment.
+ "Darius Green and His Flying Machine" first
+ appeared in _Our Young Folks_ in 1867. It is to
+ be read for its fun--fun of dialect, fun of
+ character, and fun of incident. If it has any
+ lesson, it must be that dreamers may come to
+ grief unless they have some plain practical
+ common sense to balance their enthusiasm!
+
+
+DARIUS GREEN AND HIS FLYING MACHINE
+
+JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE
+
+ If ever there lived a Yankee lad,
+ Wise or otherwise, good or bad,
+ Who, seeing the birds fly, didn't jump
+ With flapping arms from stake or stump,
+ Or, spreading the tail of his coat for a sail,
+ Take a soaring leap from post or rail,
+ And wonder why he couldn't fly,
+ And flap and flutter and wish and try,--
+ If ever you knew a country dunce
+ Who didn't try that as often as once,
+ All I can say is, that's a sign
+ He never would do for a hero of mine.
+
+ An aspiring genius was D. Green;
+ The son of a farmer,--age fourteen;
+ His body was long and lank and lean,--
+ Just right for flying, as will be seen;
+ He had two eyes as bright as a bean,
+ And a freckled nose that grew between,
+ A little awry;--for I must mention
+ That he had riveted his attention
+ Upon his wonderful invention,
+ Twisting his tongue as he twisted the strings,
+ And working his face as he worked the wings,
+ And with every turn of gimlet and screw
+ Turning and screwing his mouth round too,
+ Till his nose seemed bent to catch the scent,
+ Around some corner, of new-baked pies,
+ And his wrinkled cheek and his squinting eyes
+ Grew puckered into a queer grimace,
+ That made him look very droll in the face,
+ And also very wise.
+ And wise he must have been, to do more
+ Than ever a genius did before,
+ Excepting Daedalus of yore
+ And his son Icarus, who wore
+ Upon their backs those wings of wax
+ He had read of in the old almanacs.
+ Darius was clearly of the opinion,
+ That the air was also man's dominion,
+ And that with paddle or fin or pinion,
+ We soon or late should navigate
+ The azure as now we sail the sea.
+ The thing looks simple enough to me;
+ And, if you doubt it,
+ Hear how Darius reasoned about it:
+ "The birds can fly, an' why can't I?
+ Must we give in," says he with a grin,
+ "'T the bluebird an' phoebe are smarter'n we be?
+ Jest fold our hands, an' see the swaller
+ An' blackbird an' catbird beat us holler?
+ Does the leetle chatterin', sassy wren,
+ No bigger'n my thumb, know more than men?
+ Jest show me that! er prove 't bat
+ Hez got more brains than's in my hat,
+ An' I'll back down, an' not till then!"
+ He argued further: "Ner I can't see
+ What's the use o' wings to a bumble-bee,
+ Fer to git a livin' with, more'n to me;--
+ Ain't my business importanter'n his'n is?
+ That Icarus was a silly cuss,--
+ Him an' his daddy Daedalus;
+ They might 'a' knowed wings made o' wax
+ Wouldn't stan' sun-heat an' hard whacks:
+ I'll make mine o' luther, er suthin' er other."
+
+ And he said to himself, as he tinkered and planned:
+ "But I ain't goin' to show my hand
+ To nummies that never can understand
+ The fust idee that's big an' grand.
+ They'd 'a' laft an' made fun
+ O' Creation itself afore it was done!"
+ So he kept his secret from all the rest,
+ Safely buttoned within his vest;
+ And in the loft above the shed
+ Himself he locks, with thimble and thread
+ And wax and hammer and buckles and screws,
+ And all such things as geniuses use;--
+ Two bats for patterns, curious fellows!
+ A charcoal-pot and a pair of bellows;
+ An old hoop-skirt or two, as well as
+ Some wire, and several old umbrellas;
+ A carriage-cover, for tail and wings;
+ A piece of harness; and straps and strings;
+ And a big strong box, in which he locks
+ These and a hundred other things.
+
+ His grinning brothers, Reuben and Burke
+ And Nathan and Jotham and Solomon, lurk
+ Around the corner to see him work,--
+ Sitting cross-legged, like a Turk,
+ Drawing the waxed-end through with a jerk,
+ And boring the holes with a comical quirk
+ Of his wise old head, and a knowing smirk.
+ But vainly they mounted each other's backs,
+ And poked through knot-holes and pried through cracks;
+ With wood from the pile and straw from the stacks
+ He plugged the knot-holes and calked the cracks;
+ And a bucket of water, which one would think
+ He had brought up into the loft to drink
+ When he chanced to be dry,
+ Stood always nigh, for Darius was sly!
+ And, whenever at work he happened to spy,
+ At chink or crevice a blinking eye,
+ He let a dipper of water fly:
+ "Take that! an', ef ever ye git a peep,
+ Guess ye'll ketch a weasel asleep!"
+ And he sings as he locks his big strong box;
+ "The weasel's head is small an' trim,
+ An' he is leetle an' long an' slim,
+ An' quick of motion an' nimble of limb,
+ An', ef yeou'll be advised by me,
+ Keep wide awake when ye're ketching him!"
+
+ So day after day
+ He stitched and tinkered and hammered away,
+ Till at last 'twas done,--
+ The greatest invention under the sun.
+ "An' now," says Darius, "hooray fer some fun!"
+
+ 'Twas the Fourth of July, and the weather was dry,
+ And not a cloud was on all the sky,
+ Save a few light fleeces, which here and there,
+ Half mist, half air,
+ Like foam on the ocean went floating by,
+ Just as lovely a morning as ever was seen
+ For a nice little trip in a flying-machine.
+
+ Thought cunning Darius, "Now I shan't go
+ Along 'ith the fellers to see the show:
+ I'll say I've got sich a terrible cough!
+ An' then, when the folks have all gone off,
+ I'll hev full swing fer to try the thing,
+ An' practyse a little on the wing."
+
+ "Ain't goin' to see the celebration?"
+ Says brother Nate. "No; botheration!
+ I've got sich a cold--a toothache--I--
+ My gracious! feel's though I should fly!"
+
+ Said Jotham, "Sho! guess ye better go."
+ But Darius said, "No!
+ Shouldn't wonder 'f yeou might see me, though,
+ 'Long 'bout noon, ef I git red
+ O' this jumpin', thumpin' pain in my head."
+ For all the while to himself he said,--
+ "I tell ye what!
+ I'll fly a few times around the lot,
+ To see how 't seems; then soon's I've got
+ The hang o' the thing, ez likely's not,
+ I'll astonish the nation, an' all creation,
+ By flying over the celebration!
+ Over their heads I'll sail like an eagle;
+ I'll balance myself on my wings like a sea-gull;
+ I'll dance on the chimbleys; I'll stan' on the steeple;
+ I'll flop up to winders an' scare the people!
+ I'll light on the libbe'ty-pole, an' crow;
+ An' I'll say to the gawpin' fools below,
+ 'What world's this here that I've come near?'
+ Fer I'll make 'em b'lieve I'm a chap f'm the moon;
+ An' I'll try a race 'ith their ol' balloon!"
+
+ He crept from his bed;
+ And, seeing the others were gone, he said,
+ "I'm a-gittin' over the cold 'n my head."
+ And away he sped,
+ To open the wonderful box in the shed.
+
+ His brothers had walked but a little way,
+ When Jotham to Nathan chanced to say,
+ "What on airth is he up to, hey?"
+ "Don'o',--the's suthin' er other to pay,
+ Er he wouldn't 'a' stayed to hum to-day."
+ Says Burke, "His toothache's all'n his eye!
+ He never'd miss a Fo'th-o'-July,
+ Ef he hadn't got some machine to try."
+ Then Sol, the little one, spoke: "By darn!
+ Le's hurry back, an' hide'n the barn,
+ An' pay him fer tellin' us that yarn!"
+
+ "Agreed!" Through the orchard they creep back,
+ Along by the fences, behind the stack,
+ And one by one, through a hole in the wall,
+ In under the dusty barn they crawl,
+ Dressed in their Sunday garments all;
+ And a very astonishing sight was that,
+ When each in his cobwebbed coat and hat
+ Came up through the floor like an ancient rat.
+ And there they hid; and Reuben slid
+ The fastenings back, and the door undid.
+ "Keep dark," said he,
+ "While I squint an' see what the' is to see."
+
+ As knights of old put on their mail,--
+ From head to foot in an iron suit,
+ Iron jacket and iron boot,
+ Iron breeches, and on the head
+ No hat, but an iron pot instead,
+ And under the chin the bail,--
+ (I believe they call the thing a helm,--)
+ And, thus accoutred, they took the field,
+ Sallying forth to overwhelm
+ The dragons and pagans that plagued the realm;
+ So this modern knight prepared for flight,
+ Put on his wings and strapped them tight--
+ Jointed and jaunty, strong and light,--
+ Buckled them fast to shoulder and hip,--
+ Ten feet they measured from tip to tip!
+ And a helm he had, but that he wore,
+ Not on his head, like those of yore,
+ But more like the helm of a ship.
+
+ "Hush!" Reuben said, "he's up in the shed!
+ He's opened the winder,--I see his head!
+ He stretches it out, an' pokes it about
+ Lookin' to see 'f the coast is clear,
+ An' nobody near;--
+ Guess he don'o' who's hid in here!
+ He's riggin' a spring-board over the sill!
+ Stop laffin', Solomon! Burke, keep still!
+ He's climbin' out now--Of all the things!
+ What's he got on? I vum, it's wings!
+ An' that t'other thing? I vum, it's a tail!
+ And there he sets like a hawk on a rail!
+ Steppin' careful, he travels the length
+ Of his spring-board, and teeters to try its strength,
+ Now he stretches his wings, like a monstrous bat;
+ Peeks over his shoulder, this way an' that,
+ Fer to see 'f the's anyone passin' by;
+ But the's o'ny a ca'f an' a goslin' nigh.
+ They turn up at him a wonderin' eye,
+ To see--The dragon! he's goin' to fly!
+ Away he goes! Jimminy! what a jump!
+ Flop--flop--an' plump to the ground with a thump!
+ Flutt'rin' an' flound'rin', all'n a lump!"
+
+ As a demon is hurled by an angel's spear,
+ Heels over head, to his proper sphere,--
+ Heels over head, and head over heels,
+ Dizzily down the abyss he wheels,--
+ So fell Darius. Upon his crown,
+ In the midst of the barnyard, he came down,
+ In a wonderful whirl of tangled strings,
+ Broken braces and broken springs,
+ Broken tail and broken wings,
+ Shooting stars, and various things,--
+ Barnyard litter of straw and chaff,
+ And much that wasn't so sweet by half.
+ Away with a bellow flew the calf,
+ And what was that? Did the gosling laugh?
+ 'Tis a merry roar from the old barn-door,
+ And he hears the voice of Jotham crying;
+ "Say, D'rius! how de yeou like flyin'?"
+
+ Slowly, ruefully, where he lay,
+ Darius just turned and looked that way,
+ As he stanched his sorrowful nose with his cuff,
+ "Wal, I like flyin' well enough,"
+ He said, "but the' ain't sich a thunderin' sight
+ O' fun in't when ye come to light."
+
+ I just have room for the MORAL here:
+ And this is the moral,--Stick to your sphere;
+ Or, if you insist, as you have the right,
+ On spreading your wings for a loftier flight,
+ The moral is,--Take care how you light.
+
+
+
+376
+
+ The poem of "Beth Gelert" (Grave of Gelert) is
+ really a verse version of an old folk story
+ that has localized itself in many places over
+ the world. In Wales they can show you where
+ Gelert is buried, which illustrates how such a
+ favorite story takes hold of the popular mind.
+ The poem by William Robert Spencer (1769-1834)
+ has so much of the spirit of the old ballads
+ which it imitates that it was believed at first
+ to be a genuine example of one.
+
+
+BETH GELERT
+
+WILLIAM ROBERT SPENCER
+
+ The spearmen heard the bugle sound,
+ And cheerly smiled the morn;
+ And many a brach, and many a hound,
+ Obeyed Llewellyn's horn.
+
+ And still he blew a louder blast,
+ And gave a lustier cheer,
+ "Come, Gelert, come, wert never last
+ Llewellyn's horn to hear.
+
+ "Oh, where does faithful Gelert roam.
+ The flow'r of all his race,
+ So true, so brave,--a lamb at home,
+ A lion in the chase?"
+
+ 'Twas only at Llewellyn's board
+ The faithful Gelert fed;
+ He watched, he served, he cheered his lord,
+ And sentineled his bed.
+
+ In sooth he was a peerless hound,
+ The gift of royal John;
+ But now no Gelert could be found,
+ And all the chase rode on.
+
+ And now, as o'er the rocks and dells
+ The gallant chidings rise,
+ All Snowdon's craggy chaos yells
+ The many-mingled cries!
+
+ That day Llewellyn little loved
+ The chase of hart and hare;
+ And scant and small the booty proved,
+ For Gelert was not there.
+
+ Unpleased Llewellyn homeward hied,
+ When, near the portal seat,
+ His truant Gelert he espied,
+ Bounding his lord to greet.
+
+ But, when he gained his castle door,
+ Aghast the chieftain stood;
+ The hound all o'er was smeared with gore;
+ His lips, his fangs, ran blood.
+
+ Llewellyn gazed with fierce surprise;
+ Unused such looks to meet,
+ His favorite checked his joyful guise,
+ And crouched, and licked his feet.
+
+ Onward, in haste, Llewellyn passed,
+ And on went Gelert too;
+ And still, where'er his eyes he cast,
+ Fresh blood-gouts shocked his view.
+
+ O'erturned his infant's bed he found,
+ The blood-stained covert rent;
+ And all around the walls and ground
+ With recent blood besprent.
+
+ He called his child,--no voice replied--
+ He searched with terror wild;
+ Blood, blood he found on every side,
+ But nowhere found his child.
+
+ "Hell-hound! my child's by thee devoured,"
+ The frantic father cried;
+ And to the hilt his vengeful sword
+ He plunged in Gelert's side.
+
+ His suppliant looks, as prone he fell,
+ No pity could impart;
+ But still his Gelert's dying yell
+ Passed heavy o'er his heart.
+
+ Aroused by Gelert's dying yell,
+ Some slumberer wakened nigh:
+ What words the parent's joy could tell,
+ To hear his infant's cry!
+
+ Concealed beneath a tumbled heap
+ His hurried search had missed,
+ All glowing from his rosy sleep,
+ His cherub boy he kissed.
+
+ Nor scathe had he, nor harm, nor dread,
+ But, the same couch beneath,
+ Lay a gaunt wolf, all torn and dead,
+ Tremendous still in death.
+
+ Ah! what was then Llewellyn's pain!
+ For now the truth was clear;
+ His gallant hound the wolf had slain
+ To save Llewellyn's heir:
+
+ Vain, vain was all Llewellyn's woe;
+ "Best of thy kind, adieu!
+ The frantic blow which laid thee low
+ This heart shall ever rue."
+
+ And now a gallant tomb they raise,
+ With costly sculpture decked;
+ And marbles storied with his praise
+ Poor Gelert's bones protect.
+
+ There, never could the spearman pass,
+ Or forester, unmoved;
+ There, oft the tear-besprinkled grass
+ Llewellyn's sorrow proved.
+
+ And there he hung his horn and spear,
+ And there, as evening fell,
+ In fancy's ear he oft would hear
+ Poor Gelert's dying yell.
+
+ And, till great Snowdon's rocks grow old,
+ And cease the storm to brave,
+ The consecrated spot shall hold
+ The name of "Gelert's Grave."
+
+
+
+377
+
+ This old ballad is one of the best of the
+ humorous type. Many old stories turn upon some
+ such riddling series of questions, generally
+ three in number, to which unexpected answers
+ come from an unexpected quarter. Of course the
+ questions are intended to be unanswerable. As a
+ matter of fact they are, but a clever person
+ may discover a riddling answer to a riddling
+ question. King John bows, not to a master in
+ knowledge, but to a master in cleverness.
+
+
+KING JOHN AND THE ABBOT OF CANTERBURY
+
+ An ancient story I'll tell you anon
+ Of a notable prince, that was called King John;
+ And he ruled England with maine and with might,
+ For he did great wrong and maintein'd little right.
+
+ And I'll tell you a story, a story so merrye,
+ Concerning the Abbot of Canterburye;
+ How for his house-keeping and high renowne,
+ They rode poste for him to fair London towne.
+
+ An hundred men, the king did heare say,
+ The abbot kept in his house every day;
+ And fifty golde chaynes, without any doubt,
+ In velvet coates waited the abbot about.
+
+ "How now, father abbot, I heare it of thee,
+ Thou keepest a farre better house than mee,
+ And for thy house-keeping and high renowne,
+ I fear thou work'st treason against my crown."
+
+ "My liege," quo' the abbot, "I would it were knowne,
+ I never spend nothing but what is my owne;
+ And I trust your grace will do me no deere
+ For spending of my owne true-gotten geere."
+
+ "Yes, yes, father abbot, thy fault it is highe,
+ And now for the same thou needest must dye;
+ For except thou canst answer me questions three,
+ Thy head shall be smitten from thy bodie.
+
+ "And first," quo' the king, "when I'm in this stead,
+ With my crown of golde so faire on my head,
+ Among all my liege-men so noble of birthe,
+ Thou must tell me to one penny what I am worthe.
+
+ "Secondlye tell me, without any doubt,
+ How soone I may ride the whole worlde about.
+ And at the third question thou must not shrinke,
+ But tell me here truly what I do thinke."
+
+ "O, these are hard questions for my shallow witt,
+ Nor I cannot answer your grace as yet;
+ But if you will give me but three weekes space,
+ I'll do my endeavour to answer your grace."
+
+ "Now three weekes space to thee will I give,
+ And that is the longest thou hast to live;
+ For if thou dost not answer my questions three,
+ Thy lands and thy living are forfeit to mee."
+
+ Away rode the abbot all sad at that word,
+ And he rode to Cambridge, and Oxenford;
+ But never a doctor there was so wise,
+ That could with his learning an answer devise.
+
+ Then home rode the abbot of comfort so cold,
+ And he mett his shephard a-going to fold:
+ "How now, my lord abbot, you are welcome home;
+ What newes do you bring us from good King John?"
+
+ "Sad newes, sad newes, shephard, I must give;
+ That I have but three days more to live:
+ For if I do not answer him questions three,
+ My head will be smitten from my bodie.
+
+ "The first is to tell him there in that stead,
+ With his crowne of golde so faire on his head,
+ Among all his liege-men so noble of birthe,
+ To within one penny of what he is worthe.
+
+ "The seconde, to tell him without any doubt,
+ How soone he may ride this whole worlde about:
+ And at the third question I must not shrinke,
+ But tell him there truly what he does thinke."
+
+ "Now cheare up, sire abbot, did you never hear yet
+ That a fool he may learn a wise man witt?
+ Lend me horse, and serving-men, and your apparel,
+ And I'll ride to London to answere your quarrel.
+
+ "Nay, frowne not, if it hath bin told unto mee,
+ I am like your lordship, as ever may bee;
+ And if you will but lend me your gowne,
+ There is none shall knowe us at fair London towne."
+
+ "Now horses and serving-men thou shalt have,
+ With sumptuous array most gallant and brave;
+ With crozier, and miter, and rochet, and cope,
+ Fit to appeare 'fore our fader the pope."
+
+ "Now welcome, sire abbot," the king he did say,
+ "'Tis well thou'rt come back to keepe thy day:
+ For and if thou canst answer my questions three,
+ Thy life and thy living both saved shall bee.
+
+ "And, first, when thou see'st me here in this stead,
+ With my crown of golde so fair on my head,
+ Among all my liege-men so noble of birthe,
+ Tell me to one penny what I am worthe."
+
+ "For thirty pence our Saviour was sold
+ Among the false Jewes, as I have bin told:
+ And twenty-nine is the worth of thee,
+ For I thinke, thou art one penny worser than Hee."
+
+ The king he laugh'd, and swore by St. Bittel,
+ "I did not think I had been worth so littel!
+ --Now secondly, tell me, without any doubt,
+ How soone I may ride this whole world about."
+
+ "You must rise with the sun, and ride with the same,
+ Until the next morning he riseth againe;
+ And then your grace need not make any doubt,
+ But in twenty-four hours you'll ride it about."
+
+ The king he laugh'd, and swore by St. Jone,
+ "I did not think it could be done so soone!
+ --Now from the third question you must not shrinke,
+ But tell me here truly what I do thinke."
+
+ "Yes, that shall I do and make your grace merry:
+ You thinke I'm the Abbot of Canterburye;
+ But I'm his poor shephard, as plain you may see,
+ That am come to beg pardon for him and for mee."
+
+ The king he laughed, and swore by the masse,
+ "I'll make thee lord abbot this day in his place!"
+ "Now nay, my liege, be not in such speede,
+ For alacke I can neither write, ne reade."
+
+ "Four nobles a weeke, then, I will give thee,
+ For this merry jest thou hast showne unto me;
+ And tell the old abbot, when thou comest home,
+ Thou hast brought him a pardon from good King John."
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VIII
+
+REALISTIC STORIES
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY AS A BASIS FOR TRACING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
+REALISTIC STORY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
+
+ Most of the authors in the following list wrote
+ other books of a realistic nature, in some
+ cases greater books than the one mentioned. The
+ book named is usually the first important one
+ in this field by its author and has, therefore,
+ unusual historical value.
+
+ 1765. Goldsmith, Oliver, _The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes_.
+ 1783-1789. Day, Thomas, _The History of Sandford and Merton_.
+ 1792-1796. Aikin, Dr. John, and Barbauld, Mrs. L. E., _Evenings
+ at Home_.
+ [?]-1795. More, Hannah, _The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain_.
+ 1796-1800. Edgeworth, Maria, _The Parent's Assistant, or Stories
+ for Children_.
+ 1808. Lamb, Mary and Charles, _Mrs. Leicester's School_.
+ 1818. Sherwood, Mrs. M. M., _The History of the Fairchild Family_.
+ 1840. Dana, Richard Henry, _Two Years Before the Mast_.
+ 1841. Martineau, Harriet, _The Crofton Boys_.
+ 1856. Yonge, Charlotte M., _The Daisy Chain_.
+ 1857. Hughes, Thomas, _Tom Brown's School Days_.
+ 1863. Whitney, Mrs. A. D. T., _Faith Gartney's Girlhood_.
+ 1864. Trowbridge, J. T., _Cudjo's Cave_.
+ 1865. Dodge, Mary Mapes, _Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates_.
+ 1867. Kaler, James Otis, _Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a
+ Circus_.
+ 1868. Alcott, Louisa May, _Little Women_.
+ 1868. Hale, Edward Everett, _The Man without a Country_.
+ 1871. Eggleston, Edward, _The Hoosier Schoolmaster_.
+ 1876. Twain, Mark, _Adventures of Tom Sawyer_.
+ 1878. Jackson, Helen Hunt, _Nelly's Silver Mine_.
+ 1879. Ewing, Juliana Horatia, _Jackanapes_.
+ 1882. Hale, Lucretia P., _Peterkin Papers_.
+ 1883. Stevenson, Robert Louis, _Treasure Island_.
+ 1887. Wiggin, Kate Douglas, _The Birds' Christmas Carol_.
+ 1890. Jewett, Sarah Orne, _Betty Leicester_.
+ 1895. Bennett, John, _Master Skylark_.
+ 1897. Kipling, Rudyard, _Captains Courageous_.
+ 1899. Garland, Hamlin, _Boy Life on the Prairie_.
+ 1906. Stein, Evaleen, _Gabriel and the Hour-Book_.
+ 1908. Montgomery, L. M., _Anne of Green Gables_.
+ 1912. Masefield, John, _Jim Davis_.
+ 1917. Crownfield, Gertrude, _The Little Taylor of the Winding Way_.
+ 1920. Latham, Harold S., _Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy_.
+
+
+
+SECTION VIII. REALISTIC STORIES
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+_Origin._ The history of realistic stories for children may well begin
+with the interest in juvenile education awakened by the great French
+teacher and author Rousseau (1712-1778). He taught that formal methods
+should be discarded in juvenile education and that children should be
+taught to know the things about them. The new method of education is
+illustrated, probably unintentionally, in _The Renowned History of
+Little Goody Two-Shoes_, the first selection in this section. Rousseau
+directly influenced the thought of such writers as Thomas Day, Maria
+Edgeworth, Dr. Aiken, and Mrs. Barbauld. The stories produced by these
+authors in the last quarter of the eighteenth century are among the
+first written primarily for the purpose of entertaining children. To
+these writers we are indebted for the creation of types of children's
+literature that modern authors have developed into the fascinating
+stories of child life, the thrilling stories of adventure, and the
+interesting accounts of nature that now abound in libraries and book
+stores.
+
+_The didactic period._ When we read these first stories written for the
+entertainment of children, we can hardly fail to observe that each one
+presents a lesson, either moral or practical. The didactic purpose is so
+prominent that the term "Didactic Period" may be applied to the period
+from 1765 (the publication of _Goody Two-Shoes_) to 1825, or even later.
+The small amount of writing for children before this period was
+practically all for the purpose of moral or religious instruction; hence
+it was but natural for these first writers of juvenile entertainment
+stories to feel it their duty to present moral and practical lessons. It
+would be a mistake, however, to assume that these quaint old stories
+would not be interesting to children today, for they deal with
+fundamental truths, which are new and interesting to children of all
+ages.
+
+In addition to the writers already mentioned, and represented by
+selections in the following pages, there were several others whose books
+are yet accessible and now and then read for their historical interest
+if not for any intrinsic literary value they may possess. One of these
+was Mrs. Sarah K. Trimmer (1741-1810), who, associated with the early
+days of the Sunday-school movement, wrote many books full of the
+overwrought piety which was supposed to be necessary for children of
+that earlier time. One of her books, _The History of the Robins_, stands
+out from the mass for its strong appeal of simple incident, and is still
+widely popular with very young readers. Hannah More (1745-1833) occupied
+a prominent place in the thought of her day as a teacher of religious
+and social ideas among the poorer classes. Her _Repository Tracts_, many
+of them in the form of stories, were devoted to making the poor
+contented with their lot through the consolations of a pious life. "The
+Shepherd of Salisbury Plain" was the most famous of these story-tracts,
+and there are still many people living whose childhood was fed upon this
+and like stories. Mrs. Sherwood's _History of the Fairchild Family_ has
+never been out of print since the date of its first publication (1818),
+and in recent years has had two or three sumptuous revivals at the hands
+of editors and publishers. The almost innumerable books of Jacob Abbott
+and S. G. Goodrich ("Peter Parley") in America belong to this didactic
+movement. They were, however, more devoted to the process of instilling
+a knowledge of all the wonders of this great world round about us, and
+were considerably less pietistic than their English neighbors. _The
+Rollo Books_ (24 vols.) are typical of this school.
+
+_The modern period._ Charles Lamb apparently was one of the first to get
+the modern thought that literature for children should be just as
+artistic, just as dignified in its presentation of truth, and just as
+worthy of literary recognition, as literature for adults. In the hundred
+years since Lamb advanced his theory, students have gradually come to
+recognize the fact that good literature for children is also good
+literature for adults because art is art, whatever its form. In this
+connection, Lamb's feeling about the necessity for making children's
+books more vital found expression in a famous and much-quoted passage in
+a letter to Coleridge:
+
+ "_Goody Two-Shoes_ is almost out of print. Mrs.
+ Barbauld's stuff has banished all the old
+ classics of the nursery; and the shopman at
+ Newbery's hardly deigned to reach them off an
+ old exploded corner of a shelf, when Mary asked
+ for them. Mrs. B.'s and Mrs. Trimmer's nonsense
+ lay in piles about. Knowledge insignificant and
+ vapid as Mrs. Barbauld's books convey, it seems
+ must come to a child in the _shape of
+ knowledge_, and his empty noodle must be turned
+ with conceit of his own powers when he has
+ learnt that a horse is an animal, and Billy is
+ better than a horse, and such like; instead of
+ that beautiful interest in wild tales, which
+ made the child a man, while all the while he
+ suspected himself to be no bigger than a child.
+ Science has succeeded to poetry no less in the
+ little walks of children than with men. Is
+ there no possibility of averting this sore
+ evil? Think what you would have been now, if,
+ instead of being fed with tales and old wives'
+ fables in childhood, you had been crammed with
+ geography and natural history!"
+
+The danger Lamb saw was averted. The bibliography on a preceding page
+indicates that about the middle of the nineteenth century many writers
+of first-rate literary ability began to write for young people. Among
+the number were Harriet Martineau, Captain Marryat, Charlotte M. Yonge,
+Thomas Hughes, and others. As we pass toward the end of that century and
+the beginning of the twentieth, the great names associated with juvenile
+classics are very noticeable, and with Miss Alcott, Mrs. Ewing, "Mark
+Twain," Stevenson, Kipling, Masefield, and a kindred host, childhood has
+come into its own.
+
+
+SUGGESTIONS FOR READING
+
+ For tracing the stages in the development of
+ writing for children consult the books named in
+ the General Bibliography (p. 17, II,
+ "Historical Development.")
+
+
+
+378
+
+ Among those authors of the past whom the
+ present still regards affectionately, Oliver
+ Goldsmith (1728-1774) holds a high place. At
+ least five of his works--a novel, a poem, a
+ play, a book of essays, a nursery story--rank
+ as classics. He had many faults; he was vain,
+ improvident almost beyond belief, certainly
+ dissipated throughout a part of his life. But
+ with all these faults he had the saving grace
+ of humor, a kind heart that led him to share
+ even his last penny with one in need, a genius
+ for friendships that united him with such men
+ as Burke and Johnson and Reynolds. Always "hard
+ up," he wrote much as a publisher's "hack" in
+ order merely to live. It was in this capacity
+ that he probably wrote the famous story that
+ follows--a story that stands at the beginning
+ of the long and constantly broadening current
+ of modern literature for children. While it has
+ generally been attributed to Goldsmith, no
+ positive evidence of his authorship has been
+ discovered. It was published at a time when he
+ was in the employ of John Newbery, the London
+ publisher, who issued many books for children.
+ We know that Goldsmith helped with the _Mother
+ Goose's Melody_ and other projects of Newbery,
+ and there are many reasons for supposing that
+ the general attribution of _Goody Two-Shoes_ to
+ him may be correct. Charles Welsh, who edited
+ the best recent edition for schools, says it
+ "will always deserve a place among the classics
+ of childhood for its literary merit, the purity
+ and loftiness of its tone, and its sound sense,
+ while the whimsical, confidential, affectionate
+ style which the author employs, makes it
+ attractive even to children who have long since
+ passed the spelling-book stage." The version
+ that follows has been shortened by the omission
+ of passages that have less importance for the
+ modern child than they may have had for that of
+ the eighteenth century. The story is thus
+ rendered more compact, and contains nothing to
+ draw attention away from the fine qualities
+ mentioned above. The quaint phrasing of the
+ title, in itself one of the proofs of
+ Goldsmith's authorship, furnishes a good
+ comment on the meaning of the story: "The
+ history of little Goody Two-Shoes/otherwise
+ called Mrs. Margery Two-Shoes/the means by
+ which she acquired her learning and wisdom, and
+ in consequence thereof her estate; set forth at
+ large for the benefit of those/
+
+ Who from a state of Rags and Care,
+ And having Shoes but half a Pair;
+ Their Fortune and their fame would fix,
+ And gallop in a Coach and Six."
+
+ [For the benefit of those who may overlook the
+ point, it may be explained that "Mrs." was
+ formerly used as a term of dignified courtesy
+ applied to both married and unmarried women.]
+
+
+THE RENOWNED HISTORY OF LITTLE GOODY TWO-SHOES
+
+ASCRIBED TO OLIVER GOLDSMITH
+
+All the world must allow that Two-Shoes was not her real name. No; her
+father's name was Meanwell, and he was for many years a considerable
+farmer in the parish where Margery was born; but by the misfortunes
+which he met with in business, and the wicked persecutions of Sir
+Timothy Gripe, and an overgrown farmer called Graspall, he was
+effectually ruined. These men turned the farmer, his wife, Little
+Margery, and her brother out of doors, without any of the necessaries of
+life to support them.
+
+Care and discontent shortened the days of Little Margery's father. He
+was seized with a violent fever, and died miserably. Margery's poor
+mother survived the loss of her husband but a few days, and died of a
+broken heart, leaving Margery and her little brother to the wide world.
+It would have excited your pity and done your heart good to have seen
+how fond these two little ones were of each other, and how, hand in
+hand, they trotted about.
+
+They were both very ragged, and Tommy had no shoes, and Margery had but
+one. They had nothing, poor things, to support them but what they picked
+from the hedges or got from the poor people, and they lay every night in
+a barn. Their relatives took no notice of them; no, they were rich, and
+ashamed to own such a poor little ragged girl as Margery and such a
+dirty little curl-pated boy as Tommy. But such wicked folks, who love
+nothing but money and are proud and despise the poor, never come to any
+good in the end, as we shall see by and by.
+
+Mr. Smith was a very worthy clergyman who lived in the parish where
+Little Margery and Tommy were born; and having a relative come to see
+him, he sent for these children. The gentleman ordered Little Margery a
+new pair of shoes, gave Mr. Smith some money to buy her clothes, and
+said he would take Tommy and make him a little sailor.
+
+The parting between these two little children was very affecting. Tommy
+cried, and Margery cried, and they kissed each other an hundred times.
+At last Tommy wiped off her tears with the end of his jacket, and bid
+her cry no more, for he would come to her again when he returned from
+sea.
+
+As soon as Little Margery got up the next morning, which was very early,
+she ran all round the village, crying for her brother; and after some
+time returned greatly distressed. However, at this instant, the
+shoemaker came in with the new shoes, for which she had been measured by
+the gentleman's order.
+
+Nothing could have supported Little Margery under the affliction she was
+in for the loss of her brother but the pleasure she took in her two
+shoes. She ran out to Mrs. Smith as soon as they were put on, and,
+stroking down her ragged apron, cried out, "Two shoes, mamma, see, two
+shoes!"
+
+And she so behaved to all the people she met, and by that means obtained
+the name of Goody Two-Shoes, though her playmates called her Old Goody
+Two-Shoes.
+
+Little Margery was very happy in being with Mr. and Mrs. Smith, who were
+very charitable and good to her, and had agreed to breed her up with
+their family. But at last they were obliged to send her away, for the
+people who had ruined her father commanded them to do this, and could at
+any time have ruined them.
+
+Little Margery saw how good and how wise Mr. Smith was, and concluded
+that this was owing to his great learning; therefore she wanted, of all
+things, to learn to read. For this purpose she used to meet the little
+boys and girls as they came from school, borrow their books, and sit
+down and read till they returned. By this means she soon got more
+learning than any of her playmates, and laid the following scheme for
+instructing those who were more ignorant than herself. She found that
+only the following letters were required to spell all the words in the
+world; but as some of these letters are large and some small, she with
+her knife cut out of several pieces of wood ten sets of each of these:
+
+ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
+
+And six sets of these:
+
+ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
+
+And having got an old spelling-book, she made her companions set up all
+the words they wanted to spell, and after that she taught them to
+compose sentences. You know what a sentence is, my dear. _I will be
+good_, is a sentence; and is made up, as you see, of several words.
+
+Every morning she used to go round to teach the children, with these
+rattletraps in a basket. I once went her rounds with her. It was about
+seven o'clock in the morning when we set out on this important business,
+and the first house we came to was Farmer Wilson's. Here Margery
+stopped, and ran up to the door, tap, tap, tap.
+
+"Who's there?"
+
+"Only little Goody Two-Shoes," answered Margery, "come to teach Billy."
+
+"Oh! little Goody," said Mrs. Wilson, with pleasure in her face, "I am
+glad to see you. Billy wants you sadly, for he has learned all his
+lesson."
+
+Then out came the little boy. "How do, Doody Two-Shoes," said he, not
+able to speak plain. Yet this little boy had learned all his letters;
+for she threw down this alphabet mixed together thus:
+
+ b d f h k m o q s u w y z a c e g i l n p r t v x j
+
+and he picked them up, called them by their right names, and put them
+all in order thus:
+
+ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z.
+
+The next place we came to was Farmer Simpson's. "Bow, bow, bow," said
+the dog at the door.
+
+"Sirrah," said his mistress, "why do you bark at Little Two-Shoes? Come
+in, Madge; here, Sally wants you sadly; she has learned all her lesson."
+
+Then out came the little one.
+
+"So, Madge!" says she.
+
+"So, Sally!" answered the other. "Have you learned your lesson?"
+
+"Yes, that's what I have," replied the little one in the country manner;
+and immediately taking the letters she set up these syllables:
+
+ ba be bi bo bu, ca ce ci co cu,
+ da de di do du, fa fe fi fo fu,
+
+and gave them their exact sounds as she composed them.
+
+After this, Little Two-Shoes taught her to spell words of one syllable,
+and she soon set up pear, plum, top, ball, pin, puss, dog, hog, fawn,
+buck, doe, lamb, sheep, ram, cow, bull, cock, hen, and many more.
+
+The next place we came to was Gaffer Cook's cottage. Here a number of
+poor children were met to learn. They all came round Little Margery at
+once; and, having pulled out her letters, she asked the little boy next
+her what he had for dinner. He answered, "Bread." (The poor children in
+many places live very hard.) "Well, then," said she, "set the first
+letter."
+
+He put up the letter _B_, to which the next added _r_, and the next _e_,
+the next _a_, the next _d_ and it stood thus, "_Bread_".
+
+"And what had you, Polly Comb, for your dinner?" "Apple-pie," answered
+the little girl: upon which the next in turn set up a great _A_, the two
+next a _p_ each, and so on until the two words _Apple_ and _pie_ were
+united and stood thus, "_Apple-pie_."
+
+The next had Potatoes, the next Beef and Turnips, which were spelt, with
+many others, until the game of spelling was finished. She then set them
+another task, and we went on.
+
+The next place we came to was Farmer Thompson's, where there were a
+great many little ones waiting for her.
+
+"So, little Mrs. Goody Two-Shoes," said one of them. "Where have you
+been so long?"
+
+"I have been teaching," says she, "longer than I intended, and am afraid
+I am come too soon for you now."
+
+"No, but indeed you are not," replied the other, "for I have got my
+lesson, and so has Sally Dawson, and so has Harry Wilson, and so have we
+all"; and they capered about as if they were overjoyed to see her.
+
+"Why, then," says she, "you are all very good, and God Almighty will
+love you; so let us begin our lesson."
+
+They all huddled round her, and though at the other place they were
+employed about words and syllables, here we had people of much greater
+understanding, who dealt only in sentences.
+
+_The Lord have mercy upon me, and grant I may always be good, and say my
+prayers, and love the Lord my God with all my heart, and with all my
+soul, and with all my strength; and honor government and all good men in
+authority._
+
+Little Margery then set them to compose the following:
+
+
+LESSON FOR THE CONDUCT OF LIFE
+
+ He that will thrive
+ Must rise by five.
+
+ He that hath thriv'n
+ May lie till seven.
+
+ Truth may be blamed,
+ But cannot be shamed.
+
+ Tell me with whom you go,
+ And I'll tell what you do.
+
+ A friend in your need
+ Is a friend indeed.
+
+ They ne'er can be wise
+ Who good counsel despise.
+
+As we were returning home, we saw a gentleman, who was very ill, sitting
+under a shady tree at the corner of his rookery. Though ill, he began to
+joke with Little Margery, and said laughing, "So, Goody Two-Shoes! They
+tell me you are a cunning little baggage; pray, can you tell me what I
+shall do to get well?"
+
+"Yes," said she, "go to bed when your rooks do and get up with them in
+the morning; earn, as they do, every day what you eat, and eat and drink
+no more than you earn, and you will get health and keep it."
+
+The gentleman, laughing, gave Margery sixpence, and told her she was a
+sensible hussy.
+
+Mrs. Williams, who kept a college for instructing little gentlemen and
+ladies in the science of A, B, C, was at this time very old and infirm,
+and wanted to decline that important trust. This being told to Sir
+William Dove, who lived in the parish, he sent for Mrs. Williams, and
+desired she would examine Little Two-Shoes and see whether she was
+qualified for the office.
+
+This was done, and Mrs. Williams made the following report in her favor;
+namely, that Little Margery was the best scholar, and had the best head
+and the best heart of any one she had examined. All the country had a
+great opinion of Mrs. Williams, and her words gave them also a great
+opinion of Mrs. Margery, for so we must now call her.
+
+No sooner was Mrs. Margery settled in this office than she laid every
+possible scheme to promote the welfare and happiness of all her
+neighbors, and especially of the little ones, in whom she took great
+delight; and all those whose parents could not afford to pay for their
+education, she taught for nothing but the pleasure she had in their
+company; for you are to observe that they were very good, or were soon
+made so by her good management.
+
+The school where she taught was that which was before kept by Mrs.
+Williams. The room was large, and as she knew that nature intended
+children should be always in action, she placed her different letters,
+or alphabets, all round the school, so that every one was obliged to get
+up to fetch a letter or spell a word when it came to his turn; which not
+only kept them in health but fixed the letters and points firmly in
+their minds.
+
+She had the following assistants to help her, and I will tell you how
+she came by them. One day as she was going through the next village she
+met with some wicked boys who had got a young raven, which they were
+going to throw at; she wanted to get the poor creature out of their
+cruel hands, and therefore gave them a penny for him, and brought him
+home. She called his name Ralph, and a fine bird he was.
+
+Some days after she had met with the raven, as she was walking in the
+fields she saw some naughty boys who had taken a pigeon and tied a
+string to its leg, in order to let it fly and draw it back again when
+they pleased; and by this means they tortured the poor animal with the
+hopes of liberty and repeated disappointment. This pigeon she also
+bought. He was a very pretty fellow, and she called him Tom.
+
+Some time after this a poor lamb had lost its dam, and the farmer being
+about to kill it, she bought it of him and brought it home with her to
+play with the children and teach them when to go to bed: for it was a
+rule with the wise men of that age (and a very good one, let me tell
+you) to
+
+_Rise with the lark and lie down with the lamb._
+
+This lamb she called Will, and a pretty fellow he was.
+
+Soon after this a present was made to Mrs. Margery of a little dog,
+Jumper, and a pretty dog he was. Jumper, Jumper, Jumper! He was always
+in good humor and playing and jumping about, and therefore he was called
+Jumper. The place assigned for Jumper was that of keeping the door, so
+that he may be called the porter of the college, for he would let nobody
+go out or any one come in without the leave of his mistress.
+
+But one day a dreadful accident happened in the school. It was on a
+Thursday morning, I very well remember, when the children having learned
+their lessons soon, she had given them leave to play, and they were all
+running about the school and diverting themselves with the birds and the
+lamb. At this time the dog, all of a sudden, laid hold of his mistress's
+apron and endeavored to pull her out of the school. She was at first
+surprised; however, she followed him to see what he intended.
+
+No sooner had he led her into the garden than he ran back and pulled out
+one of the children in the same manner; upon which she ordered them all
+to leave the school immediately; and they had not been out five minutes
+before the top of the house fell in. What a miraculous deliverance was
+here! How gracious! How good was God Almighty, to save all these
+children from destruction, and to make use of such an instrument as a
+little sagacious animal to accomplish His divine will! I should have
+observed that as soon as they were all in the garden, the dog came
+leaping round them to express his joy, and when the house had fallen,
+laid himself down quietly by his mistress.
+
+Some of the neighbors, who saw the school fall and who were in great
+pain for Margery and the little ones, soon spread the news through the
+village, and all the parents, terrified for their children, came
+crowding in abundance; they had, however, the satisfaction to find them
+all safe, and upon their knees, with their mistress, giving God thanks
+for their happy deliverance.
+
+You are not to wonder, my dear reader, that this little dog should have
+more sense than you, or your father, or your grandfather.
+
+Though God Almighty has made man the lord of creation, and endowed him
+with reason, yet in many respects He has been altogether as bountiful to
+other creatures of His forming. Some of the senses of other animals are
+more acute than ours, as we find by daily experience.
+
+The downfall of the school was a great misfortune to Mrs. Margery; for
+she not only lost all her books, but was destitute of a place to teach
+in. Sir William Dove, being informed of this, ordered the house to be
+built at his own expense, and till that could be done, Farmer Grove was
+so kind as to let her have his large hall to teach in.
+
+While at Mr. Grove's, which was in the heart of the village, she not
+only taught the children in the daytime, but the farmer's servants, and
+all the neighbors, to read and write in the evening. This gave not only
+Mr. Grove but all the neighbors a high opinion of her good sense and
+prudent behavior; and she was so much esteemed that most of the
+differences in the parish were left to her decision.
+
+One gentleman in particular, I mean Sir Charles Jones, had conceived
+such a high opinion of her that he offered her a considerable sum to
+take care of his family and the education of his daughter, which,
+however, she refused. But this gentleman, sending for her afterwards
+when he had a dangerous fit of illness, she went and behaved so
+prudently in the family and so tenderly to him and his daughter that he
+would not permit her to leave his house, but soon after made her
+proposals of marriage. She was truly sensible of the honor he intended
+her, but, though poor, she would not consent to be made a lady until he
+had effectually provided for his daughter.
+
+All things being settled and the day fixed, the neighbors came in crowds
+to see the wedding; for they were all glad that one who had been such a
+good little girl, and was become such a virtuous and good woman, was
+going to be made a lady. But just as the clergyman had opened his book,
+a gentleman richly dressed, ran into the church, and cried, "Stop!
+stop!"
+
+This greatly alarmed the congregation, particularly the intended bride
+and bridegroom, whom he first accosted and desired to speak with them
+apart. After they had been talking some little time, the people were
+greatly surprised to see Sir Charles stand motionless and his bride cry
+and faint away in the stranger's arms. This seeming grief, however, was
+only a prelude to a flood of joy which immediately succeeded; for you
+must know, gentle reader, that this gentleman, so richly dressed and
+bedizened with lace, was that identical little boy whom you before saw
+in the sailor's habit; in short, it was little Tom Two-Shoes, Mrs.
+Margery's brother, who had just come from beyond sea, where he had made
+a large fortune. Hearing, as soon as he landed, of his sister's intended
+wedding, he had ridden in haste to see that a proper settlement was made
+on her; which he thought she was now entitled to, as he himself was both
+able and willing to give her an ample fortune. They soon returned to
+their places and were married in tears, but they were tears of joy.
+
+
+
+379
+
+ _Evenings at Home_, one of the important books
+ in the history of the development of literature
+ for children, was published in six small
+ volumes, from 1792 to 1796. It was a result of
+ a newly awakened interest in the real world
+ round about us and represented the profound
+ reaction against the "fantastic visions" and
+ "sweetmeats" of popular literature. The main
+ purpose was to give instruction by showing
+ things as they really are. The plan of the book
+ is very simple. The Fairbornes, with a large
+ "progeny of children, boys and girls," kept a
+ sort of open house for friends and relatives.
+ Many of these visitors, accustomed to writing,
+ would frequently produce a fable, a story, or a
+ dialogue, adapted to the age and understanding
+ of the young people. These papers were dropped
+ into a box until the children should all be
+ assembled at holidays. Then one of the youngest
+ was sent to "rummage the budget," which meant
+ to reach into the box and take the paper that
+ he happened to touch. It was brought in and
+ read and considered; then the process was
+ repeated. "Eyes, and No Eyes" was drawn out on
+ the twentieth evening. _Evenings at Home_ was
+ written by Dr. John Aikin (1747-1822) and his
+ sister Mrs. Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743-1825).
+ Dr. Aikin seems to have written the larger
+ number of the hundred papers composing the
+ book. Mrs. Barbauld's share is placed at
+ fifteen papers by authority of the _Dictionary
+ of National Biography_. Some of the children in
+ these stories may perceive more closely than
+ normal children do, but this defect may add a
+ charm if the reader keeps in mind that this is
+ one of the earliest nature books for children.
+ Stories of this kind require the presence of
+ some omniscient or "encyclopedic" character to
+ whom all the things requiring an answer may be
+ referred. Mr. Andrews in "Eyes, and No Eyes,"
+ Mr. Barlow in Day's _Sandford and Merton_, and
+ Mr. Gresham in Miss Edgeworth's "Waste Not,
+ Want Not" are good illustrations of this type.
+
+
+EYES, AND NO EYES
+
+OR
+
+THE ART OF SEEING
+
+DR. AIKIN AND MRS. BARBAULD
+
+"Well, Robert, whither have you been walking this afternoon?" said Mr.
+Andrews to one of his pupils at the close of a holiday.
+
+R. I have been, sir, to Broom-heath, and so round by the windmill upon
+Camp-mount, and home through the meadows by the river side.
+
+Mr. A. Well, that's a pleasant round.
+
+R. I thought it very dull, sir; I scarcely met with a single person. I
+had rather by half have gone along the turnpike-road.
+
+Mr. A. Why, if seeing men and horses were your object, you would,
+indeed, have been better entertained on the high-road. But did you see
+William?
+
+R. We set out together, but he lagged behind in the lane, so I walked on
+and left him.
+
+Mr. A. That was a pity. He would have been company for you.
+
+R. Oh, he is so tedious, always stopping to look at this thing and that!
+I had rather walk alone. I dare say he has not got home yet.
+
+Mr. A. Here he comes. Well, William, where have you been?
+
+W. Oh, sir, the pleasantest walk! I went all over Broom-heath, and so up
+to the mill at the top of the hill, and then down among the green
+meadows, by the side of the river.
+
+Mr. A. Why, that is just the round Robert has been taking, and he
+complains of its dullness, and prefers the high-road.
+
+W. I wonder at that. I am sure I hardly took a step that did not delight
+me, and I have brought home my handkerchief full of curiosities.
+
+Mr. A. Suppose, then, you give us some account of what amused you so
+much. I fancy it will be as new to Robert as to me.
+
+W. I will, sir. The lane leading to the heath, you know, is close and
+sandy; so I did not mind it much, but made the best of my way. However,
+I spied a curious thing enough in the hedge. It was an old crab-tree,
+out of which grew a great bunch of something green, quite different from
+the tree itself. Here is a branch of it.
+
+Mr. A. Ah! this is mistletoe, a plant of great fame for the use made of
+it by the Druids of old in their religious rites and incantations. It
+bears a very slimy white berry, of which birdlime may be made, whence
+its Latin name of Viscus. It is one of those plants which do not grow in
+the ground by a root of their own, but fix themselves upon other plants;
+whence they have been humorously styled _parasitical_, as being
+hangers-on, or dependents. It was the mistletoe of the oak that the
+Druids particularly honored.
+
+W. A little further on, I saw a green woodpecker fly to a tree, and run
+up the trunk like a cat.
+
+Mr. A. That was to seek for insects in the bark, on which they live.
+They bore holes with their strong bills for that purpose, and do much
+damage to the trees by it.
+
+W. What beautiful birds they are!
+
+Mr. A. Yes; the woodpecker has been called, from its color and size, the
+English parrot.
+
+W. When I got upon the open heath, how charming it was! The air seemed
+so fresh, and the prospect on every side so free and unbounded! Then it
+was all covered with gay flowers, many of which I had never observed
+before. There were, at least, three kinds of heath (I have got them in
+my handkerchief here), and gorse, and broom, and bell-flower, and many
+others of all colors that I will beg you presently to tell me the names
+of.
+
+Mr. A. That I will, readily.
+
+W. I saw, too, several birds that were new to me. There was a pretty
+greyish one, of the size of a lark, that was hopping about some great
+stones; and when he flew, he showed a great deal of white about his
+tail.
+
+Mr. A. That was a wheat-ear. They are reckoned very delicious birds to
+eat, and frequent the open downs in Sussex, and some other counties, in
+great numbers.
+
+W. There was a flock of lapwings upon a marshy part of the heath, that
+amused me much. As I came near them, some of them kept flying round and
+round, just over my head, and crying _pewet_, so distinctly, one might
+almost fancy they spoke. I thought I should have caught one of them, for
+he flew as though one of his wings was broken, and often tumbled close
+to the ground; but as I came near, he always made a shift to get away.
+
+Mr. A. Ha, ha! you were finely taken in then! This was all an artifice
+of the bird's, to entice you away from its nest; for they build upon the
+bare ground, and their nests would easily be observed, did they not draw
+off the attention of intruders by their loud cries and counterfeit
+lameness.
+
+W. I wish I had known that, for he led me a long chase, often over-shoes
+in water. However, it was the cause of my falling in with an old man and
+a boy who were cutting and piling up turf for fuel, and I had a good
+deal of talk with them about the manner of preparing the turf, and the
+price it sells at. They gave me, too, a creature I never saw before--a
+young viper, which they had just killed, together with its dam. I have
+seen several common snakes, but this is thicker in proportion, and of a
+darker color than they are.
+
+Mr. A. True. Vipers frequent those turfy, boggy grounds pretty much; and
+I have known several turf-cutters bitten by them.
+
+W. They are very venomous, are they not?
+
+Mr. A. Enough so to make their wounds painful and dangerous, though they
+seldom prove fatal.
+
+W. Well--I then took my course up to the windmill, on the mount. I
+climbed up the steps of the mill, in order to get a better view of the
+country around. What an extensive prospect! I counted fifteen
+church-steeples; and I saw several gentlemen's houses peeping out from
+the midst of green woods and plantations; and I could trace the windings
+of the river all along the low grounds, till it was lost behind a ridge
+of hills. But I'll tell you what I mean to do, sir, if you will give me
+leave.
+
+Mr. A. What is that?
+
+W. I will go again, and take with me the county map, by which I shall
+probably be able to make out most of the places.
+
+Mr. A. You shall have it, and I will go with you, and take my pocket
+spying-glass.
+
+W. I shall be very glad of that. Well--a thought struck me, that as the
+hill is called Camp-mount, there might probably be some remains of
+ditches and mounds, with which I have read that camps were surrounded.
+And I really believe I discovered something of that sort running round
+one side of the mound.
+
+Mr. A. Very likely you might. I know antiquaries have described such
+remains as existing there, which some suppose to be Roman, others
+Danish. We will examine them further, when we go.
+
+W. From the hill, I went straight down to the meadows below, and walked
+on the side of a brook that runs into the river. It was all bordered
+with reeds and flags, and tall flowering plants, quite different from
+those I had seen on the heath. As I was getting down the bank, to reach
+one of them, I heard something plunge into the water near me. It was a
+large water-rat, and I saw it swim over to the other side, and go into
+its hole. There were a great many large dragonflies all about the
+stream. I caught one of the finest, and have got him here in a leaf. But
+how I longed to catch a bird that I saw hovering over the water, and
+that every now and then darted down into it! It was all over a mixture
+of the most beautiful green and blue, with some orange-color. It was
+somewhat less than a thrush, and had a large head and bill, and a short
+tail.
+
+Mr. A. I can tell you what that bird was--a kingfisher, the celebrated
+halcyon of the ancients, about which so many tales are told. It lives on
+fish, which it catches in the manner you saw. It builds in holes in the
+banks, and is a shy, retired bird, never to be seen far from the stream
+which it inhabits.
+
+W. I must try to get another sight of him, for I never saw a bird that
+pleased me so much. Well--I followed this little brook till it entered
+the river, and then took the path that runs along the bank. On the
+opposite side, I observed several little birds running along the shore,
+and making a piping noise. They were brown and white, and about as big
+as a snipe.
+
+Mr. A. I suppose they were sandpipers, one of the numerous family of
+birds that get their living by wading among the shallows, and picking up
+worms and insects.
+
+W. There were a great many swallows, too, sporting upon the surface of
+the water, that entertained me with their motions. Sometimes they dashed
+into the stream; sometimes they pursued one another so quickly that the
+eye could scarcely follow them. In one place, where a high, steep
+sand-bank rose directly above the river, I observed many of them go in
+and out of holes, with which the bank was bored full.
+
+Mr. A. Those were sand-martins, the smallest of our species of swallows.
+They are of a mouse-color above, and white beneath. They make their
+nests and bring up their young in these holes, which run a great depth,
+and by their situation are secure from all plunderers.
+
+W. A little further, I saw a man in a boat, who was catching eels in an
+odd way. He had a long pole with broad iron prongs at the end, just like
+Neptune's trident, only there were five, instead of three. This he
+pushed straight down among the mud, in the deepest parts of the river,
+and fetched up the eels sticking between the prongs.
+
+Mr. A. I have seen this method. It is called spearing of eels.
+
+W. While I was looking at him, a heron came flying over my head, with
+his large, flagging wings. He alighted at the next turn of the river,
+and I crept softly behind the bank to watch his motions. He had waded
+into the water as far as his long legs would carry him, and was standing
+with his neck drawn in, looking intently on the stream. Presently, he
+darted his long bill, as quick as lightning, into the water, and drew
+out a fish, which he swallowed. I saw him catch another in the same
+manner. He then took alarm at some noise I made, and flew away slowly to
+a wood at some distance, where he settled.
+
+Mr. A. Probably his nest was there, for herons build upon the loftiest
+trees they can find, and sometimes in society together, like rooks.
+Formerly, when these birds were valued for the amusement of hawking,
+many gentlemen had their _heronries_, and a few are still remaining.
+
+W. I think they are the largest wild birds we have.
+
+Mr. A. They are of great length and spread of wing, but their bodies are
+comparatively small.
+
+W. I then turned homeward, across the meadows, where I stopped awhile to
+look at a large flock of starlings, which kept flying about at no great
+distance. I could not tell at first what to make of them; for they
+arose all together from the ground as thick as a swarm of bees, and
+formed themselves into a sort of black cloud, hovering over the field.
+After taking a short round, they settled again, and presently arose
+again in the same manner. I dare say there were hundreds of them.
+
+Mr. A. Perhaps so; for in the fenny countries their flocks are so
+numerous as to break down whole acres of reeds by settling on them. This
+disposition of starlings to fly in close swarms was remarked even by
+Homer, who compares the foe flying from one of his heroes, to a _cloud_
+of _stares_ retiring dismayed at the approach of the hawk.
+
+W. After I had left the meadows, I crossed the corn-fields in the way
+to our house, and passed close by a deep marlpit. Looking into it, I saw
+in one of the sides a cluster of what I took to be shells; and, upon
+going down, I picked up a clod of marl, which was quite full of them;
+but how sea-shells could get there, I cannot imagine.
+
+Mr. A. I do not wonder at your surprise, since many philosophers have
+been much perplexed to account for the same appearance. It is not
+uncommon to find great quantities of shells and relics of marine animals
+even in the bowels of high mountains, very remote from the sea. They are
+certainly proofs that the earth was once in a very different state from
+what it is at present; but in what manner, and how long ago these
+changes took place, can only be guessed at.
+
+W. I got to the high field next our house just as the sun was setting,
+and I stood looking at it till it was quite lost. What a glorious sight!
+The clouds were tinged purple and crimson and yellow of all shades and
+hues, and the clear sky varied from blue to a fine green at the horizon.
+But how large the sun appears just as it sets! I think it seems twice as
+big as when it is overhead.
+
+Mr. A. It does so; and you may probably have observed the same apparent
+enlargement of the moon at its rising?
+
+W. I have; but, pray, what is the reason of this?
+
+Mr. A. It is an optical deception, depending upon principles which I
+cannot well explain to you till you know more of that branch of science.
+But what a number of new ideas this afternoon's walk has afforded you! I
+do not wonder that you found it amusing; it has been very instructive,
+too. Did _you_ see nothing of all these sights, Robert?
+
+R. I saw some of them, but I did not take particular notice of them.
+
+Mr. A. Why not?
+
+R. I don't know. I did not care about them, and I made the best of my
+way home.
+
+Mr. A. That would have been right if you had been sent with a message;
+but as you walked only for amusement, it would have been wiser to have
+sought out as many sources of it as possible. But so it is--one man
+walks through the world with his eyes open, and another with them shut;
+and upon this difference depends all the superiority of knowledge the
+one acquires above the other. I have known sailors who had been in all
+the quarters of the world, and could tell you nothing but the signs of
+the tippling-houses they frequented in different ports, and the price
+and quality of the liquor. On the other hand, a Franklin could not cross
+the Channel without making some observations useful to mankind. While
+many a vacant, thoughtless youth is whirled throughout Europe without
+gaining a single idea worth crossing a street for, the observing eye and
+inquiring mind find matter of improvement and delight in every ramble in
+town or country. Do _you_, then, William, continue to make use of your
+eyes; and _you_, Robert, learn that eyes were given you to use.
+
+
+
+380
+
+ Thomas Day's _History of Sandford and Merton_
+ was published in three volumes, 1783-1789. Day
+ died in the latter year at the early age of
+ forty-one. He was a "benevolent eccentric."
+ Since he was well to do he could devote himself
+ to the attempt to carry out the schemes of
+ social reform which he had at heart. Influenced
+ by Rousseau and the doctrines of the French
+ Revolution, he believed human nature could be
+ made over by an educational scheme. _Sandford
+ and Merton_ is an elaborate setting forth of
+ the concrete workings of this process. The
+ inculcation of greater sympathy for the lower
+ classes and for animals, and a return to the
+ natural, commonplace virtues as opposed to the
+ artificial organization of society formed the
+ main burden of the book. Tommy Merton,
+ six-year-old spoiled darling of an
+ over-indulgent gentleman of great fortune, and
+ Harry Sandford, wonderfully perfect son of a
+ "plain, honest farmer," are placed under the
+ tuition of a minister-philosopher, named
+ Barlow. This philosopher is evidently Mr. Day's
+ fictitious portrayal of himself. The story
+ given below is one of a number by means of
+ which the "encyclopedic" Barlow educates Tommy
+ and Harry. Another story from this group,
+ "Androcles and the Lion," may be found in the
+ fables (No. 214). _Sandford and Merton_ is
+ still, according to Sir Leslie Stephen, "among
+ the best children's books in the language, in
+ spite of its quaint didacticism, because it
+ succeeds in forcibly expressing his [Day's]
+ high sense of manliness, independence, and
+ sterling qualities of character."
+
+
+THE GOOD-NATURED LITTLE BOY
+
+THOMAS DAY
+
+A little Boy went out, one morning, to walk to a village about five
+miles from the place where he lived, and carried with him, in a basket,
+the provision that was to serve him the whole day. As he was walking
+along, a poor little half-starved dog came up to him, wagging his tail,
+and seeming to entreat him to take compassion on him. The little Boy at
+first took no notice of him, but at length, remarking how lean and
+famished the creature seemed to be, he said, "This animal is certainly
+in very great necessity: if I give him part of my provision, I shall be
+obliged to go home hungry myself; however, as he seems to want it more
+than I do, he shall partake with me." Saying this, he gave the dog part
+of what he had in the basket, who ate as if he had not tasted victuals
+for a fortnight.
+
+The little Boy then went on a little farther, his dog still following
+him, and fawning upon him with the greatest gratitude and affection;
+when he saw a poor old horse lying upon the ground, and groaning as if
+he was very ill, he went up to him, and saw that he was almost starved,
+and so weak that he was unable to rise. "I am very much afraid," said
+the little Boy, "if I stay to assist this horse, that it will be dark
+before I can return; and I have heard that there are several thieves in
+the neighborhood; however, I will try; it is doing a good action to
+attempt to relieve him; and God Almighty will take care of me." He then
+went and gathered some grass, which he brought to the horse's mouth, who
+immediately began to eat with as much relish as if his chief disease was
+hunger. He then fetched some water in his hat, which the animal drank
+up, and seemed immediately to be so much refreshed, that, after a few
+trials, he got up, and began grazing.
+
+The little Boy then went on a little farther, and saw a man wading about
+in a pond of water, without being able to get out of it, in spite of all
+his endeavors. "What is the matter, good man," said the little Boy to
+him; "can't you find your way out of this pond?" "No, God bless you, my
+worthy master, or miss," said the man; "for such I take you to be by
+your voice: I have fallen into this pond, and know not how to get out
+again, as I am quite blind, and I am almost afraid to move for fear of
+being drowned." "Well," said the little Boy, "though I shall be wetted
+to the skin, if you will throw me your stick, I will try to help you out
+of it." The blind man then threw the stick to that side on which he
+heard the voice; the little Boy caught it, and went into the water,
+feeling very carefully before him, lest he should unguardedly go beyond
+his depth; at length he reached the blind man, took him very carefully
+by the hand, and led him out. The blind man then gave him a thousand
+blessings, and told him he could grope out his way home; and the little
+Boy ran on as hard as he could, to prevent being benighted.
+
+But he had not proceeded far, before he saw a poor Sailor who had lost
+both his legs in an engagement by sea, hopping along upon crutches. "God
+bless you, my little master!" said the Sailor; "I have fought many a
+battle with the French, to defend poor old England: but now I am
+crippled, as you see, and have neither victuals nor money, although I am
+almost famished." The little Boy could not resist his inclination to
+relieve him; so he gave him all his remaining victuals, and said, "God
+help you, poor man! This is all I have, otherwise you should have more."
+He then ran along, and presently arrived at the town he was going to,
+did his business, and returned towards his own home with all the
+expedition he was able.
+
+But he had not gone much more than half way, before the night shut in
+extremely dark, without either moon or stars to light him. The poor
+little Boy used his utmost endeavors to find his way, but unfortunately
+missed it in turning down a lane which brought him into a wood, where he
+wandered about a great while without being able to find any path to lead
+him out. Tired out at last, and hungry, he felt himself so feeble that
+he could go no farther, but set himself down upon the ground, crying
+most bitterly. In this situation he remained for some time, till at last
+the little dog, who had never forsaken him, came up to him, wagging his
+tail, and holding something in his mouth. The little Boy took it from
+him, and saw it was a handkerchief nicely pinned together, which
+somebody had dropped and the dog had picked up; and on opening it, he
+found several slices of bread and meat, which the little Boy ate with
+great satisfaction, and, felt himself extremely refreshed with his meal.
+"So," said the little Boy, "I see that if I have given you a breakfast,
+you have given me a supper; and a good turn is never lost, done even to
+a dog."
+
+He then once more attempted to escape from the wood; but it was to no
+purpose; he only scratched his legs with briars, and slipped down in the
+dirt, without being able to find his way out. He was just going to give
+up all farther attempts in despair, when he happened to see a horse
+feeding before him, and, going up to him, saw by the light of the moon,
+which just then began to shine a little, that it was the very same he
+had fed in the morning. "Perhaps," said the little Boy, "this creature,
+as I have been so good to him, will let me get upon his back, and he may
+bring me out of the wood, as he is accustomed to feed in this
+neighborhood." The little Boy then went up to the horse, speaking to him
+and stroking him, and the horse let him mount his back without
+opposition; and then proceeded slowly through the wood, grazing as he
+went, till he brought him to an opening which led to the high road. The
+little Boy was much rejoiced at this, and said, "If I had not saved this
+creature's life in the morning, I should have been obliged to have staid
+here all night; I see by this that a good turn is never lost."
+
+But the poor little Boy had yet a greater danger to undergo; for, as he
+was going along a solitary lane, two men rushed out upon him, laid hold
+of him, and were going to strip him of his clothes; but, just as they
+were beginning to do it, the little dog bit the leg of one of the men
+with so much violence that he left the little Boy and pursued the dog,
+that ran howling and barking away. In this instant a voice was heard
+that cried out, "There the rascals are; let us knock them down!" which
+frightened the remaining man so much that he ran away, and his companion
+followed him. The little Boy then looked up, and saw that it was the
+Sailor, whom he had relieved in the morning, carried upon the shoulders
+of the blind man whom he had helped out of the pond. "There, my little
+dear," said the Sailor, "God be thanked! We have come in time to do you
+a service, in return for what you did us in the morning. As I lay under
+a hedge I heard these villains talk of robbing a little Boy, who, from
+the description, I concluded must be you: but I was so lame that I
+should not have been able to come time enough to help you, if I had not
+met this honest blind man, who took me upon his back while I showed him
+the way."
+
+The little Boy thanked him very sincerely for thus defending him; and
+they went all together to his father's house, which was not far off;
+where they were all kindly entertained with a supper and a bed. The
+little Boy took care of his faithful dog as long as he lived, and never
+forgot the importance and necessity of doing good to others, if we wish
+them to do the same to us.
+
+
+
+381
+
+ It has been no unusual thing for critics and
+ others following in their wake to sneer at
+ Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849) and her school as
+ hopelessly utilitarian. But to find fault with
+ her on that score is to blame her for having
+ achieved the very end she set out to reach. Sir
+ Walter Scott, who certainly knew what good
+ story-telling was, had the highest opinion of
+ her abilities, and it is difficult to see how
+ any reader with a fair amount of catholicity in
+ his nature can fail to be impressed with her
+ power to build up a story in skillful dramatic
+ fashion, to portray various types of character
+ in most convincing manner, and to emphasize in
+ unforgettable ways the old and basic verities
+ of life. Of course fashions change in outward
+ matters, and we must not quarrel with a taste
+ that prefers the newest in literature any more
+ than with one that prefers the newest in dress.
+ Miss Edgeworth helped her eccentric father
+ present in _Practical Education_ an extended
+ discussion for the layman of the whole question
+ of the ways and means of educating people. That
+ was one of the very first modern treatments of
+ that much-discussed subject, and its ideas are
+ not all obsolete yet by any means. _Castle
+ Rackrent_ belongs in the list of classic
+ fiction. However, her chief interest for this
+ collection rests in the most important of her
+ books for children, _The Parent's Assistant or,
+ Stories for Children_ (1796-1800). The
+ forbidding primary title was something the
+ publisher was mainly responsible for, and has
+ been relegated to second place in modern
+ reprints. In these stories, according to the
+ preface, "only such situations are described as
+ children can easily imagine, and which may
+ consequently interest their feelings. Such
+ examples of virtue are painted as are not above
+ their conceptions of excellence, and their
+ powers of sympathy and emulation." Miss
+ Edgeworth knew children thoroughly. She was
+ surrounded by a crowd of brothers and sisters
+ for whom she had to invent means of
+ entertainment as well as instruction. They
+ really collaborated in the making of the
+ stories. As the stories were written out on a
+ slate, the sections were read to eager
+ listeners, and the author had the advantage of
+ their honest expressions of approval or
+ dissent. "Waste Not, Want Not" first appeared
+ in the final form given to _The Parent's
+ Assistant_, the third edition published in six
+ volumes in 1800. It is perhaps the best to
+ represent Miss Edgeworth's work, though "Simple
+ Susan," "Lazy Lawrence," and others have their
+ admirers. In judging her work the student
+ should keep in mind (1) that she wrote at a
+ time when, unlike the present, the best authors
+ thought it beneath their dignity to write for
+ children, (2) that the too repressive and
+ dogmatic attitude towards children which one
+ now and then feels in her stories was due to a
+ conscious effort to offset the undisciplined
+ enthusiasms and sentimentalisms of her day, and
+ (3) that she has been a living influence in the
+ lives of countless men and women for over a
+ century. She was a real pioneer.
+
+
+WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
+
+OR
+
+TWO STRINGS TO YOUR BOW
+
+MARIA EDGEWORTH
+
+Mr. Gresham, a Bristol merchant, who had by honorable industry and
+economy accumulated a considerable fortune, retired from business to a
+new house which he had built upon the Downs, near Clifton. Mr. Gresham,
+however, did not imagine that a new house alone could make him happy: he
+did not purpose to live in idleness and extravagance, for such a life
+would have been equally incompatible with his habits and his principles.
+He was fond of children, and as he had no sons, he determined to adopt
+one of his relations. He had two nephews, and he invited both of them to
+his house, that he might have an opportunity of judging of their
+dispositions, and of the habits which they had acquired.
+
+Hal and Benjamin, Mr. Gresham's nephews, were about ten years old; they
+had been educated very differently. Hal was the son of the elder branch
+of the family; his father was a gentleman, who spent rather more than he
+could afford; and Hal, from the example of the servants in his father's
+family, with whom he had passed the first years of his childhood,
+learned to waste more of everything than he used. He had been told that
+"gentlemen should be above being careful and saving"; and he had
+unfortunately imbibed a notion that extravagance is the sign of a
+generous, and economy of an avaricious disposition.
+
+Benjamin, on the contrary, had been taught habits of care and foresight:
+his father had but a very small fortune, and was anxious that his son
+should early learn that economy insures independence, and sometimes puts
+it in the power of those who are not very rich, to be very generous.
+
+The morning after these two boys arrived at their uncle's, they were
+eager to see all the rooms in the house. Mr. Gresham accompanied them,
+and attended to their remarks, and exclamations.
+
+"Oh! what an excellent motto!" exclaimed Ben, when he read the following
+words which were written in large characters over the chimneypiece, in
+his uncle's spacious kitchen:
+
+ WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
+
+"Waste not, want not!" repeated his cousin Hal, in rather a contemptuous
+tone; "I think it looks stingy to servants; and no gentleman's servants,
+cooks especially, would like to have such a mean motto always staring
+them in the face."
+
+Ben, who was not so conversant as his cousin in the ways of cooks and
+gentleman's servants, made no reply to these observations.
+
+Mr. Gresham was called away while his nephews were looking at the other
+rooms in the house. Some time afterwards, he heard their voices in the
+hall.
+
+"Boys," said he, "what are you doing there?"
+
+"Nothing, Sir," said Hal; "you were called away from us, and we did not
+know which way to go."
+
+"And have you nothing to do?" said Mr. Gresham.
+
+"No, Sir, nothing," answered Hal, in a careless tone, like one who was
+well content with the state of habitual idleness.
+
+"No, Sir, nothing!" replied Ben, in a voice of lamentation.
+
+"Come," said Mr. Gresham, "if you have nothing to do, lads, will you
+unpack these two parcels for me?"
+
+The two parcels were exactly alike, both of them well tied up with good
+whipcord. Ben took his parcel to a table, and, after breaking off the
+sealing wax, began carefully to examine the knot, and then to untie it.
+Hal stood still exactly in the spot where the parcel was put into his
+hands, and tried first at one corner, and then at another, to pull the
+string off by force: "I wish these people wouldn't tie up their parcels
+so tight, as if they were never to be undone," cried he, as he tugged at
+the cord; and he pulled the knot closer instead of loosening it.
+
+"Ben! why how did you get yours undone, man? What's in your parcel? I
+wonder what is in mine! I wish I could get this string off--I must cut
+it."
+
+"Oh, no," said Ben, who now had undone the last knot of his parcel, and
+who drew out the length of string with exultation, "don't cut it,
+Hal--look what a nice cord this is, and yours is the same; it's a pity
+to cut it; '_Waste not, want not!_' you know."
+
+"Pooh!" said Hal, "what signifies a bit of pack-thread?"
+
+"It is whipcord," said Ben.
+
+"Well, whipcord! What signifies a bit of whipcord! You can get a bit of
+whipcord twice as long as that for twopence; and who cares for twopence!
+Not I, for one! So here it goes," cried Hal, drawing out his knife; and
+he cut the cord, precipitately, in sundry places.
+
+"Lads! Have you undone the parcels for me?" said Mr. Gresham, opening
+the parlor door as he spoke.
+
+"Yes, Sir," cried Hal; and he dragged off his half-cut, half-entangled
+string--"here's the parcel."
+
+"And here's my parcel, Uncle; and here's the string," said Ben.
+
+"You may keep the string for your pains," said Mr. Gresham.
+
+"Thank you, Sir," said Ben: "what an excellent whipcord it is!"
+
+"And you, Hal," continued Mr. Gresham, "you may keep your string too, if
+it will be of any use to you."
+
+"It will be of no use to me, thank you, Sir," said Hal.
+
+"No, I am afraid not, if this be it," said his uncle taking up the
+jagged, knotted remains of Hal's cord.
+
+A few days after this, Mr. Gresham gave to each of his nephews a new
+top.
+
+"But how's this?" said Hal; "these tops have no strings; what shall we
+do for strings?"
+
+"I have a string that will do very well for mine," said Ben; and he
+pulled out of his pocket the fine long smooth string which had tied up
+the parcel. With this he soon set up his top, which spun admirably well.
+
+"Oh, how I wish that I had but a string!" said Hal: "what shall I do for
+a string? I'll tell you what: I can use the string that goes round my
+hat."
+
+"But then," said Ben, "what will you do for a hatband?"
+
+"I'll manage to do without one," said Hal and he took the string off his
+hat for his top. It soon was worn through; and he split his top by
+driving the peg too tightly into it. His cousin Ben let him set up his
+the next day; but Hal was not more fortunate or more careful when he
+meddled with other people's things than when he managed his own. He had
+scarcely played half an hour before he split it, by driving in the peg
+too violently.
+
+Ben bore this misfortune with good humor. "Come," said he, "it can't be
+helped! But give me the string, because _that_ may still be of use for
+something else."
+
+It happened some time afterwards, that a lady who had been intimately
+acquainted with Hal's mother at Bath, that is to say, who had frequently
+met her at the card table during the winter, now arrived at Clifton. She
+was informed by his mother that Hal was at Mr. Gresham's: and her sons,
+who were _friends_ of his, came to see him, and invited him to spend the
+next day with them.
+
+Hal joyfully accepted the invitation. He was always glad to go out to
+dine, because it gave him something to do, something to think of, or, at
+least, something to say. Besides this, he had been educated to think it
+was a fine thing to visit fine people; and Lady Diana Sweepstakes (for
+that was the name of his mother's acquaintance) was a very fine lady;
+and her two sons intended to be very _great_ gentlemen.
+
+He was in a prodigious hurry when these young gentlemen knocked at his
+uncle's door the next day; but just as he got to the hall door, little
+Patty called to him from the top of the stairs, and told him that he
+had dropped his pocket-handkerchief.
+
+"Pick it up, then, and bring it to me, quick, can't you, child," cried
+Hal, "for Lady Di.'s sons are waiting for me?"
+
+Little Patty did not know anything about Lady Di.'s sons; but as she was
+very good-natured, and saw that her cousin Hal was, for some reason or
+other, in a desperate hurry, she ran down stairs as fast as she possibly
+could towards the landing-place, where the handkerchief lay:--but alas!
+Before she reached the handkerchief she fell, rolling down a whole
+flight of stairs; and, when her fall was at last stopped by the
+landing-place, she did not cry, but she writhed as if she was in great
+pain.
+
+"Where are you hurt, my love?" said Mr. Gresham, who came instantly, on
+hearing the noise of some one falling down stairs.
+
+"Where are you hurt, my dear?"
+
+"Here, Papa," said the little girl, touching her ankle, which she had
+decently covered with her gown: "I believe I am hurt here, but not
+much," added she, trying to rise; "only it hurts me when I move."
+
+"I'll carry you, don't move then," said her father; and he took her up
+in his arms.
+
+"My shoe, I've lost one of my shoes," said she. Ben looked for it upon
+the stairs, and he found it sticking in a loop of whipcord, which was
+entangled round one of the balusters. When this cord was drawn forth, it
+appeared that it was the very same jagged, entangled piece which Hal had
+pulled off his parcel. He had diverted himself with running up and down
+stairs, whipping the balusters with it, as he thought he could convert
+it to no better use; and with his usual carelessness, he at last left it
+hanging just where he happened to throw it, when the dinner-bell rang.
+Poor little Patty's ankle was terribly sprained, and Hal reproached
+himself for his folly, and would have reproached himself longer,
+perhaps, if Lady Di. Sweepstakes' sons had not hurried him away.
+
+In the evening, Patty could not run about as she used to do; but she sat
+upon the sofa, and she said that "she did not feel the pain of her ankle
+so _much_ whilst Ben was so good as to play at _jack-straws_ with her."
+
+"That's right, Ben; never be ashamed of being good-natured to those who
+are younger and weaker than yourself," said his uncle, smiling at seeing
+him produce his whipcord, to indulge his little cousin with a game at
+her favorite cat's-cradle. "I shall not think you one bit less manly,
+because I see you playing at cat's-cradle with a child six years old."
+
+Hal, however, was not precisely of his uncle's opinion; for when he
+returned in the evening and saw Ben playing with his little cousin, he
+could not help smiling contemptuously, and asked if he had been playing
+at cat's-cradle all night. In a heedless manner he made some inquiries
+after Patty's sprained ankle, and then he ran on to tell all the news he
+had heard at Lady Diana Sweepstakes'--news which he thought would make
+him appear a person of vast importance.
+
+"Do you know, Uncle--Do you know, Ben," said he--"there's to be the most
+_famous_ doings that ever were heard of, upon the Downs here, the first
+day of next month, which will be in a fortnight, thank my stars! I wish
+the fortnight were over; I shall think of nothing else I know, till that
+happy day comes."
+
+Mr. Gresham inquired why the first of September was to be so much
+happier than any other day in the year.
+
+"Why," replied Hal, "Lady Diana Sweepstakes, you know, is a _famous_
+rider, and archer, and _all that_--"
+
+"Very likely," said Mr. Gresham, soberly--"but what then?"
+
+"Dear Uncle!" cried Hal, "but you shall hear. There's to be a race upon
+the Downs the first of September, and, after the race, there's to be an
+archery meeting for the ladies, and Lady Diana Sweepstakes is to be one
+of _them_. And after the ladies have done shooting--now, Ben, comes the
+best part of it! we boys are to have our turn, and Lady Di. is to give a
+prize to the best marksman amongst us, of a very handsome bow and arrow!
+Do you know I've been practising already, and I'll show you tomorrow, as
+soon as it comes home, the _famous_ bow and arrow that Lady Diana has
+given me: but, perhaps," added he, with a scornful laugh, "you like a
+cat's-cradle better than a bow and arrow."
+
+Ben made no reply to this taunt at the moment; but the next day, when
+Hal's new bow and arrow came home, he convinced him that he knew how to
+use it very well.
+
+"Ben," said his uncle, "you seem to be a good marksman, though you have
+not boasted of yourself. I'll give you a bow and arrow; and perhaps, if
+you practise, you may make yourself an archer before the first of
+September; and, in the meantime, you will not wish the fortnight to be
+over, for you will have something to do."
+
+"Oh, Sir," interrupted Hal, "but if you mean that Ben should put in for
+the prize, he must have a uniform."
+
+"Why _must_ he?" said Mr. Gresham.
+
+"Why, Sir, because everybody has--I mean everybody that's anybody;--and
+Lady Diana was talking about the uniform all dinner-time, and it's
+settled all about it except the buttons; the young Sweepstakes are to
+get theirs made first for patterns; they are to be white, faced with
+green; and they'll look very handsome, I'm sure; and I shall write to
+Mamma to-night, as Lady Diana bid me, about mine; and I shall tell her
+to be sure to answer my letter, without fail, by return of the post; and
+then, if Mamma makes no objection, which I know she won't, because she
+never thinks much about expense, and _all that_--then I shall bespeak my
+uniform, and get it made by the same tailor that makes for Lady Diana
+and the young Sweepstakes."
+
+"Mercy upon us!" said Mr. Gresham, who was almost stunned by the rapid
+vociferation with which this long speech about a uniform was pronounced.
+
+"I don't pretend to understand these things," added he, with an air of
+simplicity, "but we will inquire, Ben, into the necessity of the case,
+and if it is necessary--or if you think it necessary--that you should
+have a uniform, why--I'll give you one."
+
+"_You_, Uncle!--Will you, _indeed_?" exclaimed Hal, with amazement
+painted in his countenance. "Well, that's the last thing in the world I
+should have expected!--You are not at all the sort of person I should
+have thought would care about a uniform; and I should have supposed
+you'd have thought it extravagant to have a coat on purpose only for one
+day; and I'm sure Lady Diana Sweepstakes thought as I do: for when I
+told her that motto over your kitchen chimney, WASTE NOT, WANT NOT, she
+laughed, and said that I had better not talk to you about uniforms, and
+that my mother was the proper person to write to about my uniform; but
+I'll tell Lady Diana, Uncle, how good you are, and how much she was
+mistaken."
+
+"Take care how you do that," said Mr. Gresham; "for, perhaps, the lady
+was not mistaken."
+
+"Nay, did not you say, just now, you would give poor Ben a uniform?"
+
+"I said I would, if he thought it necessary to have one."
+
+"Oh, I'll answer for it, he'll think it necessary," said Hal, laughing,
+"because it is necessary."
+
+"Allow him, at least, to judge for himself," said Mr. Gresham.
+
+"My dear Uncle, but I assure you," said Hal, earnestly, "there's no
+judging about the matter, because really, upon my word, Lady Diana said
+distinctly that her sons were to have uniforms, white faced with green,
+and a green and white cockade in their hats."
+
+"May be so," said Mr. Gresham, still with the same look of calm
+simplicity; "put on your hats, boys, and come with me. I know a
+gentleman whose sons are to be at this archery meeting, and we will
+inquire into all the particulars from him. Then, after we have seen him
+(it is not eleven o'clock yet), we shall have time enough to walk on to
+Bristol and choose the cloth for Ben's uniform, if it be necessary."
+
+"I cannot tell what to make of all he says," whispered Hal, as he
+reached down his hat; "do you think, Ben, he means to give you this
+uniform, or not?"
+
+"I think," said Ben, "that he means to give me one, if it be necessary;
+or, as he said, if I think it is necessary."
+
+"And that, to be sure, you will; won't you? or else you'll be a great
+fool, I know, after all I've told you. How can any one in the world know
+so much about the matter as I, who have dined with Lady Diana
+Sweepstakes but yesterday; and heard all about it, from beginning to
+end? And as for this gentleman that we are going to, I'm sure, if he
+knows anything about the matter, he'll say exactly the same as I do."
+
+"We shall hear," said Ben, with a degree of composure, which Hal could
+by no means comprehend, when a uniform was in question.
+
+The gentleman upon whom Mr. Gresham called had three sons, who were all
+to be at this archery meeting, and they unanimously assured him, in the
+presence of Hal and Ben, that they had never thought of buying uniforms
+for this grand occasion; and that amongst the number of their
+acquaintance, they knew of but three boys whose friends intended to be
+at such _an unnecessary_ expense. Hal stood amazed--"Such are the
+varieties of opinion upon all the grand affairs of life," said Mr.
+Gresham, looking at his nephews--"what amongst one set of people you
+hear asserted to be absolutely necessary, you will hear from another set
+of people is quite unnecessary. All that can be done, my dear boys, in
+these difficult cases, is to judge for yourselves, which opinions, and
+which people, are the most reasonable."
+
+Hal, who had been more accustomed to think of what was fashionable than
+of what was reasonable, without at all considering the good sense of
+what his uncle said to him, replied with childish petulance, "Indeed,
+sir, I don't know what other people think; I only know what Lady Diana
+Sweepstakes said."
+
+The name of Lady Diana Sweepstakes, Hal thought, must impress all
+present with respect: he was highly astonished, when, as he looked
+round, he saw a smile of contempt upon every one's countenance; and he
+was yet further bewildered when he heard her spoken of as a very silly,
+extravagant, ridiculous woman, whose opinion no prudent person would ask
+upon any subject, and whose example was to be shunned, instead of being
+imitated.
+
+"Ay, my dear Hal," said his uncle, smiling at his look of amazement,
+"these are some of the things that young people must learn from
+experience. All the world do not agree in opinion about characters: you
+will hear the same person admired in one company, and blamed in another;
+so that we must still come round to the same point, _Judge for
+yourself_."
+
+Hal's thoughts were, however, at present, too full of the uniform to
+allow his judgment to act with perfect impartiality. As soon as their
+visit was over, and all the time they walked down the hill from
+Prince's-buildings, towards Bristol, he continued to repeat nearly the
+same arguments which he had formerly used; respecting necessity, the
+uniform, and Lady Diana Sweepstakes.
+
+To all this Mr. Gresham made no reply; and longer had the young
+gentleman expatiated upon the subject, which had so strongly seized upon
+his imagination, had not his senses been forcibly assailed at this
+instant by the delicious odors and tempting sight of certain cakes and
+jellies in a pastry-cook's shop.
+
+"Oh, Uncle," said he, as his uncle was going to turn the corner to
+pursue the road to Bristol, "look at those jellies!" pointing to a
+confectioner's shop; "I must buy some of those good things; for I have
+got some half-pence in my pocket."
+
+"Your having half-pence in your pocket is an excellent reason for
+eating," said Mr. Gresham, smiling.
+
+"But I really am hungry," said Hal; "you know, Uncle, it is a good while
+since breakfast."
+
+His uncle, who was desirous to see his nephews act without restraint,
+that he might judge of their characters, bid them do as they pleased.
+
+"Come, then, Ben, if you've any half-pence in your pocket."
+
+"I'm not hungry," said Ben.
+
+"I suppose _that_ means that you've no half-pence," said Hal, laughing,
+with the look of superiority which he had been taught to think _the
+rich_ might assume towards those who were convicted either of poverty or
+economy.
+
+"Waste not, want not," said Ben to himself. Contrary to his cousin's
+surmise, he happened to have two pennyworth of half-pence actually in
+his pocket.
+
+At the very moment Hal stepped into the pastry-cook's shop, a poor
+industrious man, with a wooden leg, who usually sweeps the dirty corner
+of the walk which turns at this spot to the Wells, held his hat to Ben,
+who, after glancing his eye at the petitioner's well-worn broom,
+instantly produced his two-pence. "I wish I had more half-pence for you,
+my good man," said he; "but I've only two-pence."
+
+Hal came out of Mr. Millar's, the confectioner's shop, with a hatful of
+cakes in his hand.
+
+Mr. Millar's dog was sitting on the flags before the door; and he looked
+up, with a wistful, begging eye, at Hal, who was eating a queen-cake.
+
+Hal, who was wasteful even in his good nature, threw a whole queen-cake
+to the dog, who swallowed it for a single mouthful.
+
+"There go two-pence in the form of a queen-cake," said Mr. Gresham.
+
+Hal next offered some of his cakes to his uncle and cousin; but they
+thanked him, and refused to eat any, because, they said, they were not
+hungry; so he ate and ate, as he walked along, till at last he stopped,
+and said, "This bun tastes so bad after the queen-cakes, I can't bear
+it!" and he was going to fling it from him into the river.
+
+"Oh, it is a pity to waste that good bun; we may be glad of it yet,"
+said Ben; "give it to me, rather than throw it away."
+
+"Why, I thought you said you were not hungry," said Hal.
+
+"True, I am not hungry now; but that is no reason why I should never be
+hungry again."
+
+"Well, there is the cake for you; take it, for it has made me sick; and
+I don't care what becomes of it."
+
+Ben folded the refuse bit of his cousin's bun in a piece of paper, and
+put it into his pocket.
+
+"I'm beginning to be exceedingly tired, or sick, or something," said
+Hal, "and as there is a stand of coaches somewhere hereabouts, had we
+not better take a coach, instead of walking all the way to Bristol?"
+
+"For a stout archer," said Mr. Gresham, "you are more easily tired than
+one might have expected. However, with all my heart; let us take a
+coach; for Ben asked me to show him the cathedral yesterday, and I
+believe I should find it rather too much for me to walk so far, though I
+am not sick with eating good things."
+
+"_The cathedral!_" said Hal, after he had been seated in the coach about
+a quarter of an hour, and had somewhat recovered from his sickness. "The
+cathedral! Why, are we only going to Bristol to see the cathedral? I
+thought we came out to see about a uniform."
+
+There was a dullness and melancholy kind of stupidity in Hal's
+countenance, as he pronounced these words, like one wakening from a
+dream, which made both his uncle and cousin burst out a laughing.
+
+"Why," said Hal, who was now piqued, "I'm sure you _did_ say, Uncle, you
+would go to Mr. ----'s, to choose the cloth for the uniform."
+
+"Very true: and so I will," said Mr. Gresham; "but we need not make a
+whole morning's work, need we, of looking at a piece of cloth? Cannot we
+see a uniform and a cathedral both in one morning?"
+
+They went first to the cathedral. Hal's head was too full of the uniform
+to take any notice of the painted window, which immediately caught Ben's
+unembarrassed attention. He looked at the large stained figures on the
+Gothic window; and he observed their colored shadows on the floor and
+walls.
+
+Mr. Gresham, who perceived that he was eager on all subjects to gain
+information, took this opportunity of telling him several things about
+the lost art of painting on glass, Gothic arches, etc., which Hal
+thought extremely tiresome.
+
+"Come! come! we shall be late, indeed," said Hal; "surely you've looked
+long enough, Ben, at this blue and red window."
+
+"I'm only thinking about these colored shadows," said Ben.
+
+"I can show you, when we go home, Ben," said his uncle, "an entertaining
+paper on such shadows."
+
+"Hark!" cried Ben, "did you hear that noise?"
+
+They all listened, and heard a bird singing in the cathedral.
+
+"It's our old robin, sir," said the lad who had opened the cathedral
+door for them.
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Gresham, "there he is, boys--look--perched upon the
+organ; he often sits there, and sings whilst the organ is playing."
+"And," continued the lad who showed the cathedral, "he has lived here
+this many winters; they say he is fifteen years old; and he is so tame,
+poor fellow, that if I had a bit of bread he'd come down and feed in my
+hand."
+
+"I've a bit of bun here," cried Ben, joyfully, producing the remains of
+the bun which Hal, but an hour before, would have thrown away. "Pray let
+us see the poor robin eat out of your hand."
+
+The lad crumbled the bun, and called to the robin, who fluttered and
+chirped, and seemed rejoiced at the sight of the bread; but yet he did
+not come down from his pinnacle on the organ.
+
+"He is afraid of _us_," said Ben; "he is not used to eat before
+strangers, I suppose."
+
+"Ah, no, Sir," said the young man, with a deep sigh, "that is not the
+thing: he is used enough to eat afore company; time was, he'd have come
+down for me, before ever so many fine folks, and have ate his crumbs out
+of my hand, at my first call; but, poor fellow, it's not his fault now;
+he does not know me now, Sir, since my accident, because of this great
+black patch."
+
+The young man put his hand to his right eye, which was covered with a
+huge black patch.
+
+Ben asked what _accident_ he meant; and the lad told him that, a few
+weeks ago, he had lost the sight of his eye by the stroke of a stone,
+which reached him as he was passing under the rocks of Clifton,
+unluckily, when the workmen were blasting.
+
+"I don't mind so much for myself, Sir," said the lad; "but I can't work
+so well now, as I used to do before my accident, for my old mother, who
+has had a stroke of the palsy; and I've a many little brothers and
+sisters, not well able yet to get their own livelihood, though they be
+as willing, as willing can be."
+
+"Where does your mother live?" said Mr. Gresham.
+
+"Hard by, Sir, just close to the church here: it was _her_ that always
+had the showing of it to strangers, till she lost the use of her poor
+limbs."
+
+"Shall we, may we, go that way?--This is the house: is it not?" said
+Ben, when they went out of the cathedral.
+
+They went into the house: it was rather a hovel than a house; but, poor
+as it was, it was as neat as misery could make it.
+
+The old woman was sitting up in her wretched bed, winding worsted; four
+meager, ill-clothed, pale children were all busy, some of them sticking
+pins in paper for the pin-maker, and others sorting rags for the
+paper-maker.
+
+"What a horrid place it is!" said Hal, sighing; "I did not know there
+were such shocking places in the world. I've often seen
+terrible-looking, tumble-down places, as we drove through the town in
+Mamma's carriage; but then I did not know who lived in them; and I never
+saw the inside of any of them. It is very dreadful, indeed, to think
+that people are forced to live in this way. I wish Mamma would send me
+some more pocket-money, that I might do something for them. I had
+half-a-crown; but," continued he, feeling in his pockets, "I'm afraid I
+spent the last shilling of it this morning, upon those cakes that made
+me sick. I wish I had my shilling now, I'd give it to _these poor
+people_."
+
+Ben, though he was all this time silent, was as sorry as his talkative
+cousin, for all these poor people. But there was some difference between
+the sorrow of these two boys.
+
+Hal, after he was again seated in the hackney-coach, and had rattled
+through the busy streets of Bristol for a few minutes, quite forgot the
+spectacle of misery which he had seen; and the gay shops in Wine-street,
+and the idea of his green and white uniform, wholly occupied his
+imagination.
+
+"Now for our uniforms!" cried he, as he jumped eagerly out of the coach,
+when his uncle stopped at the woolen-draper's door.
+
+"Uncle," said Ben, stopping Mr. Gresham before he got out of the
+carriage, "I don't think a uniform is at all necessary for me. I'm very
+much obliged to you, but I would rather not have one. I have a very good
+coat--and I think it would be waste."
+
+"Well, let me out of the carriage and we will see about it," said Mr.
+Gresham "perhaps the sight of the beautiful green and white cloth, and
+the epaulettes (have you ever considered the epaulettes?) may tempt you
+to change your mind."
+
+"Oh, no," said Ben, laughing; "I shall not change my mind."
+
+The green cloth, and the white cloth, and the epaulettes, were produced,
+to Hal's infinite satisfaction. His uncle took up a pen, and calculated
+for a few minutes; then, showing the back of the letter, upon which he
+was writing, to his nephews, "Cast up these sums, boys," said he, "and
+tell me whether I am right."
+
+"Ben, do you do it," said Hal, a little embarrassed; "I am not quick at
+figures."
+
+Ben _was_, and he went over his uncle's calculation very expeditiously.
+
+"It is right, is it?" said Mr. Gresham.
+
+"Yes, Sir, quite right."
+
+"Then by this calculation, I find I could for less than half the money
+your uniforms would cost, purchase for each of you boys a warm
+great-coat, which you will want, I have a notion, this winter upon the
+Downs."
+
+"Oh, Sir," said Hal, with an alarmed look; "but it is not winter _yet_;
+it is not cold weather yet. We sha'n't want great-coats _yet_."
+
+"Don't you remember how cold we were, Hal, the day before yesterday, in
+that sharp wind, when we were flying our kite upon the Downs?--and
+winter will come, though it is not come yet; I am sure, I should like to
+have a good warm great-coat very much," said Ben.
+
+Mr. Gresham took six guineas out of his purse; and he placed three of
+them before Hal, and three before Ben.
+
+"Young gentlemen," said he, "I believe your uniforms would come to about
+three guineas apiece. Now I will lay out this money for you just as you
+please: Hal, what say you?"
+
+"Why, Sir," said Hal, "a great-coat is a good thing, to be sure; and
+then, after the great-coat, as you said it would only cost half as much
+as the uniform, there would be some money to spare, would not there?"
+
+"Yes, my dear, about five-and-twenty shillings."
+
+"Five-and-twenty shillings! I could buy and do a great many things, to
+be sure, with five-and-twenty shillings; but then, _the thing is_, I
+must go without the uniform, if I have the great-coat."
+
+"Certainly," said his uncle.
+
+"Ah!" said Hal, sighing as he looked at the epaulettes, "Uncle, if you
+would not be displeased if I choose the uniform--"
+
+"I shall not be displeased at your choosing whatever you like best,"
+said Mr. Gresham.
+
+"Well, then, thank you, Sir, I think I had better have the uniform,
+because if I have not the uniform now directly it will be of no use to
+me, as the archery meeting is the week after next, you know; and as to
+the great-coat, perhaps, between this time and the _very_ cold weather,
+which, perhaps, won't be till Christmas, Papa will buy a great-coat for
+me; and I'll ask Mamma to give me some pocket-money to give away, and
+she will perhaps."
+
+To all this conclusive conditional reasoning, which depended upon
+_perhaps_, three times repeated, Mr. Gresham made no reply; but he
+immediately bought the uniform for Hal, and desired that it should be
+sent to Lady Diana Sweepstakes' sons' tailor, to be made up. The measure
+of Hal's happiness was now complete.
+
+"And how am I to lay out the three guineas for you, Ben?" said Mr.
+Gresham. "Speak, what do you wish for first?"
+
+"A great-coat, Uncle, if you please."
+
+Mr. Gresham bought the coat; and after it was paid for, five-and-twenty
+shillings of Ben's three guineas remained.
+
+"What's next, my boy?" said his uncle.
+
+"Arrows, Uncle, if you please: three arrows."
+
+"My dear, I promised you a bow and arrows."
+
+"No, Uncle, you only said a bow."
+
+"Well, I meant a bow and arrows. I'm glad you are so exact, however. It
+is better to claim less than more than what is promised. The three
+arrows you shall have. But go on: how shall I dispose of these
+five-and-twenty shillings for you?"
+
+"In clothes, if you will be so good, Uncle, for that poor boy, who has
+the great black patch on his eye."
+
+"I always believed," said Mr. Gresham, shaking hands with Ben, "that
+economy and generosity were the best friends, instead of being enemies,
+as some silly, extravagant people would have us think them. Choose the
+poor blind boy's coat, my dear nephew, and pay for it. There's no
+occasion for my praising you about the matter; your best reward is in
+your own mind, child; and you want no other, or I'm mistaken. Now jump
+into the coach, boys, and let's be off. We shall be late, I'm afraid,"
+continued he, as the coach drove on; "but I must let you stop, Ben, with
+your goods, at the poor boy's door."
+
+When they came to the house, Mr. Gresham opened the coach door, and Ben
+jumped out with his parcel under his arm.
+
+"Stay, stay! you must take me with you," said his pleased uncle; "I like
+to see people made happy as well as you do."
+
+"And so do I too!" said Hal; "let me come with you. I almost wish my
+uniform was not gone to the tailor's, so I do."
+
+And when he saw the look of delight and gratitude with which the poor
+boy received the clothes which Ben gave him; and when he heard the
+mother and children thank him, Hal sighed, and said, "Well, I hope Mamma
+will give me some more pocket-money soon."
+
+Upon his return home, however, the sight of the _famous_ bow and arrow
+which Lady Diana Sweepstakes had sent him, recalled to his imagination
+all the joys of his green and white uniform; and he no longer wished
+that it had not been sent to the tailor's.
+
+"But I don't understand, cousin Hal," said little Patty, "why you call
+this bow a _famous_ bow; you say _famous_ very often; and I don't know
+exactly what it means--a _famous_ uniform--_famous_ doings--I remember
+you said there are to be _famous_ doings the first of September upon the
+Downs--What does _famous_ mean?"
+
+"Oh, why _famous_ means--Now don't you know what _famous_ means? It
+means--it is a word that people say--It is the fashion to say it. It
+means--it means _famous_."
+
+Patty laughed, and said, "_This_ does not explain it to me."
+
+"No," said Hal, "nor can it be explained: if you don't understand it,
+that's not my fault: everybody but little children, I suppose,
+understands it; but there's no explaining _those sorts_ of words, if you
+don't _take them_ at once. There's to be _famous_ doings upon the Downs
+the first of September; that is, grand, fine. In short, what does it
+signify talking any longer, Patty, about the matter? Give me my bow; for
+I must go upon the Downs, and practise."
+
+Ben accompanied him with the bow and the three arrows which his uncle
+had now given to him; and every day these two boys went out upon the
+Downs, and practised shooting with indefatigable perseverance. Where
+equal pains are taken, success is usually found to be pretty nearly
+equal. Our two archers, by constant practice, became expert marksmen;
+and before the day of trial they were so exactly matched in point of
+dexterity, that it was scarcely possible to decide which was superior.
+
+The long-expected first of September at length arrived.
+
+"What sort of a day is it?" was the first question that was asked by Hal
+and Ben, the moment that they awakened.
+
+The sun shone bright; but there was a sharp and high wind.
+
+"Ha!" said Ben, "I shall be glad of my good great-coat to-day; for I've
+a notion it will be rather cold upon the Downs, especially when we are
+standing still, as we must, while all the people are shooting."
+
+"Oh, never mind! I don't think I shall feel it cold at all," said Hal,
+as he dressed himself in his new white and green uniform: and he viewed
+himself with much complacency.
+
+"Good morning to you, Uncle; how do you do?" said he, in a voice of
+exultation, when he entered the breakfast-room.
+
+How do you do? seemed rather to mean, How do you like me in my uniform?
+
+And his uncle's cool, "Very well, I thank you, Hal," disappointed him,
+as it seemed only to say, "Your uniform makes no difference in my
+opinion of you."
+
+Even little Patty went on eating her breakfast much as usual, and talked
+of the pleasure of walking with her father to the Downs, and of all the
+little things which interested her; so that Hal's epaulettes were not
+the principal object in any one's imagination but his own.
+
+"Papa," said Patty, "as we go up the hill where there is so much red
+mud, I must take care to pick my way nicely; and I must hold up my
+frock, as you desired me; and perhaps you will be so good, if I am not
+troublesome, to lift me over the very bad place where there are no
+stepping-stones. My ankle is entirely well, and I'm glad of that, or
+else I should not be able to walk so far as the Downs. How good you were
+to me, Ben, when I was in pain, the day I sprained my ankle! You played
+at jack-straws, and at cat's-cradle with me. Oh, that puts me in
+mind--Here are your gloves, which I asked you that night to let me mend.
+I've been a great while about them, but are not they very neatly mended,
+Papa? Look at the sewing."
+
+"I am not a very good judge of sewing, my dear little girl," said Mr.
+Gresham, examining the work with a close and scrupulous eye; "but in my
+opinion, here is one stitch that is rather too long; the white teeth are
+not quite even."
+
+"O Papa, I'll take out that long tooth in a minute," said Patty
+laughing; "I did not think that you would have observed it so soon."
+
+"I would not have you trust to my blindness," said her father, stroking
+her head fondly: "I observe everything. I observe, for instance, that
+you are a grateful little girl, and that you are glad to be of use to
+those who have been kind to you; and for this I forgive you the long
+stitch."
+
+"But it's out, it's out, Papa," said Patty; "and the next time your
+gloves want mending, Ben, I'll mend them better."
+
+"They are very nice, I think," said Ben, drawing them on; "and I am much
+obliged to you. I was just wishing I had a pair of gloves to keep my
+fingers warm to-day, for I never can shoot well when my hands are
+numbed. Look, Hal--you know how ragged these gloves were; you said they
+were good for nothing but to throw away; now look, there's not a hole in
+them," said he, spreading his fingers.
+
+"Now, is it not very extraordinary," said Hal to himself, "that they
+should go on so long talking about an old pair of gloves, without
+scarcely saying a word about my new uniform? Well, the young Sweepstakes
+and Lady Diana will talk enough about it; that's one comfort."
+
+"Is not it time to think of setting out, Sir?" said Hal to his uncle;
+"the company, you know, are to meet at the Ostrich at twelve, and the
+race to begin at one, and Lady Diana's horses, I know, were ordered to
+be at the door at ten."
+
+Mr. Stephen, the butler, here interrupted the hurrying young gentleman
+in his calculations. "There's a poor lad, Sir, below, with a great black
+patch on his right eye, who is come from Bristol, and wants to speak a
+word with the young gentlemen, if you please. I told him they were just
+going out with you, but he says he won't detain them above half a
+minute."
+
+"Show him up, show him up," said Mr. Gresham.
+
+"But I suppose," said Hal, with a sigh, "that Stephen mistook, when he
+said the young _gentlemen_; he only wants to see Ben, I dare say; I'm
+sure he has no reason to want to see me."
+
+"Here he comes--O Ben, he is dressed in the new coat you gave him,"
+whispered Hal, who was really a good-natured boy, though extravagant.
+"How much better he looks than he did in the ragged coat! Ah! he looked
+at you first, Ben; and well he may!"
+
+The boy bowed without any cringing servility, but with an open, decent
+freedom in his manner, which expressed that he had been obliged, but
+that he knew his young benefactor was not thinking of the obligation. He
+made as little distinction as possible between his bows to the two
+cousins.
+
+"As I was sent with a message, by the clerk of our parish, to Redland
+Chapel, out on the Downs, to-day, Sir," said he to Mr. Gresham, "knowing
+your house lay in my way, my mother, Sir, bid me call, and make bold to
+offer the young gentlemen two little worsted balls that she had worked
+for them," continued the lad, pulling out of his pocket two worsted
+balls worked in green and orange colored stripes: "they are but poor
+things, Sir, she bid me say, to look at; but considering she had but one
+hand to work with, and _that_ her left hand, you'll not despise 'em, we
+hopes."
+
+He held the balls to Ben and Hal. "They are both alike, gentlemen," said
+he; "if you'll be pleased to take 'em, they are better than they look,
+for they bound higher than your head; I cut the cork round for the
+inside myself, which was all I could do."
+
+"They are nice balls, indeed; we are much obliged to you," said the
+boys, as they received them, and they proved them immediately. The balls
+struck the floor with a delightful sound, and rebounded higher than Mr.
+Gresham's head. Little Patty clapped her hands joyfully; but now a
+thundering double rap at the door was heard.
+
+"The Master Sweepstakes, Sir," said Stephen, "are come for Master Hal;
+they say that all the young gentlemen who have archery uniforms are to
+walk together in a body, I think they say, Sir; and they are to parade
+along the Well-Walk, they desired me to say, Sir, with a drum and fife,
+and so up the hill, by Prince's Place, and all to go upon the Downs
+together, to the place of meeting. I am not sure I'm right, Sir, for
+both the young gentlemen spoke at once, and the wind is very high at the
+street door, so that I could not well make out all they said; but I
+believe this is the sense of it."
+
+"Yes, yes," said Hal, eagerly, "it's all right; I know that is just what
+was settled the day I dined at Lady Diana's; and Lady Diana and a great
+party of gentlemen are to ride--"
+
+"Well, that is nothing to the purpose," interrupted Mr. Gresham. "Don't
+keep the Master Sweepstakes waiting; decide--do you choose to go with
+them, or with us?"
+
+"Sir--Uncle--Sir, you know, since all the _uniforms_ agreed to go
+together--"
+
+"Off with you then, Mr. Uniform, if you mean to go," said Mr. Gresham.
+
+Hal ran downstairs in such a hurry that he forgot his bow and arrows.
+Ben discovered this when he went to fetch his own; and the lad from
+Bristol, who had been ordered by Mr. Gresham to eat his breakfast before
+he proceeded to Redland Chapel, heard Ben talking about his cousin's bow
+and arrows.
+
+"I know," said Ben, "he will be sorry not to have his bow with him,
+because here are the green knots tied to it, to match his cockade; and
+he said that the boys were all to carry their bows as part of the
+show."
+
+"If you'll give me leave, sir," said the poor Bristol lad, "I shall have
+plenty of time; and I'll run down to the Well-Walk after the young
+gentleman, and take him his bow and arrows."
+
+"Will you? I shall be much obliged to you," said Ben; and away went the
+boy with the bow that was ornamented with green ribands.
+
+The public walk leading to the Wells was full of company. The windows of
+all the houses in St. Vincent's parade were crowded with well-dressed
+ladies, who were looking out in expectation of the archery procession.
+Parties of gentlemen and ladies, and a motley crowd of spectators, were
+seen moving backwards and forwards under the rocks, on the opposite side
+of the water. A barge, with colored streamers flying, was waiting to
+take up a party, who were going upon the water. The bargemen rested upon
+their oars, and gazed with broad faces of curiosity on the busy scene
+that appeared upon the public walk.
+
+The archers and archeresses were now drawn up on the flags under the
+semi-circular piazza just before Mrs. Yearsley's library. A little band
+of children, who had been mustered by Lady Diana Sweepstakes' _spirited
+exertions_, closed the procession. They were now all in readiness. The
+drummer only waited for her ladyship's signal; and the archers' corps
+only waited for her ladyship's word of command to march.
+
+"Where are your bow and arrows, my little man?" said her ladyship to
+Hal, as she reviewed her Lilliputian regiment. "You can't march, man,
+without your arms!"
+
+Hal had dispatched a messenger for his forgotten bow, but the messenger
+returned not; he looked from side to side in great distress. "Oh,
+there's my bow coming, I declare!" cried he; "look, I see the bow and
+the ribands; look now, between the trees, Charles Sweepstakes, on the
+Hot-well Walk; it is coming."
+
+"But you've kept us all waiting a confounded time," said his impatient
+friend.
+
+"It is that good-natured poor fellow from Bristol, I protest, that has
+brought it to me; I'm sure I don't deserve it from him," said Hal to
+himself, when he saw the lad with the black patch on his eye running
+quite out of breath towards him with his bow and arrows.
+
+"Fall back, my good friend, fall back," said the military lady, as soon
+as he had delivered the bow to Hal: "I mean stand out of the way, for
+your great patch cuts no figure amongst us. Don't follow so close, now,
+as if you belonged to us, pray."
+
+The poor boy had no ambition to partake the triumph; he _fell back_ as
+soon as he understood the meaning of the lady's words. The drum beat,
+the fife played, the archers marched, the spectators admired. Hal
+stepped proudly, and felt as if the eyes of the whole universe were upon
+his epaulettes, or upon the facings of his uniform; whilst all the time
+he was considered only as part of a show. The walk appeared much shorter
+than usual; and he was extremely sorry that Lady Diana, when they were
+half way up the hill leading to Prince's Place, mounted her horse,
+because the road was dirty, and all the gentlemen and ladies who
+accompanied her, followed her example. "We can leave the children to
+walk, you know," said she to the gentleman who helped her to mount her
+horse. "I must call to some of them, though, and leave orders where they
+are to _join_."
+
+She beckoned: and Hal, who was foremost, and proud to show his alacrity,
+ran on to receive her ladyship's orders. Now, as we have before
+observed, it was a sharp and windy day; and though Lady Diana
+Sweepstakes was actually speaking to him, and looking at him, he could
+not prevent his nose from wanting to be blown; he pulled out his
+handkerchief, and out rolled the new ball, which had been given to him
+just before he left home, and which, according to his usual careless
+habits, he had stuffed into his pocket in a hurry. "Oh, my new ball!"
+cried he, as he ran after it. As he stooped to pick it up, he let go his
+hat, which he had hitherto held on with anxious care; for the hat,
+though it had a fine green and white cockade, had no band or string
+round it. The string, as we may recollect, our wasteful hero had used in
+spinning his top. The hat was too large for his head without this band;
+a sudden gust of wind blew it off--Lady Diana's horse started and
+reared. She was a _famous_ horse-woman, and sat him to the admiration of
+all beholders; but there was a puddle of red clay and water in this
+spot, and her ladyship's uniform-habit was a sufferer by the accident.
+
+"Careless brat!" said she. "Why can't he keep his hat upon his head?"
+
+In the meantime, the wind blew the hat down the hill, and Hal ran after
+it, amidst the laughter of his kind friends, the young Sweepstakes, and
+the rest of the little regiment. The hat was lodged at length, upon a
+bank. Hal pursued it: he thought this bank was hard. But, alas! the
+moment he set his foot upon it, the foot sank. He tried to draw it back,
+his other foot slipped, and he fell prostrate, in his green and white
+uniform, into the treacherous bed of red mud. His companions, who had
+halted upon the top of the hill, stood laughing spectators of his
+misfortune.
+
+It happened that the poor boy with the black patch upon his eye, who had
+been ordered by Lady Diana to "_fall back_" and to "_keep at a
+distance_," was now coming up the hill; and the moment he saw our fallen
+hero, he hastened to his assistance. He dragged poor Hal, who was a
+deplorable spectacle, out of the red mud; the obliging mistress of a
+lodging-house, as soon as she understood that the young gentleman was
+nephew to Mr. Gresham, to whom she had formerly let her house, received
+Hal, covered as he was with dirt.
+
+The poor Bristol lad hastened to Mr. Gresham's for clean stockings and
+shoes for Hal. He was unwilling to give up his uniform; it was rubbed
+and rubbed, and a spot here and there was washed out; and he kept
+continually repeating, "When it's dry it will all brush off; when it's
+dry it will all brush off, won't it?" But soon the fear of being too
+late at the archery meeting began to balance the dread of appearing in
+his stained habiliments; and he now as anxiously repeated, while the
+woman held the wet coat to the fire, "Oh, I shall be too late; indeed I
+shall be too late; make haste; it will never dry: hold it nearer--nearer
+to the fire. I shall lose my turn to shoot. Oh, give me the coat; I
+don't mind how it is, if I can but get it on."
+
+Holding it nearer and nearer to the fire dried it quickly, to be sure,
+but it shrank it also, so that it was no easy matter to get the coat on
+again.
+
+However, Hal, who did not see the red splashes, which, in spite of all
+the operations, were too visible upon his shoulders and upon the skirts
+of his white coat behind, was pretty well satisfied to observe that
+there was not one spot upon the facings. "Nobody," said he, "will take
+notice of my coat behind, I dare say. I think it looks as smart almost
+as ever!" and under this persuasion our young archer resumed his
+bow--his bow with green ribands now no more! And he pursued his way to
+the Downs.
+
+All his companions were far out of sight. "I suppose," said he to his
+friend with the black patch, "I suppose my uncle and Ben had left home
+before you went for the shoes and stockings for me?"
+
+"Oh, yes, Sir; the butler said they had been gone to the Downs a matter
+of a good half hour or more."
+
+Hal trudged on as fast as he possibly could. When he got on the Downs,
+he saw numbers of carriages, and crowds of people, all going towards the
+place of meeting, at the Ostrich. He pressed forwards; he was at first
+so much afraid of being late, that he did not take notice of the mirth
+his motley appearance excited in all beholders. At length he reached the
+appointed spot. There was a great crowd of people. In the midst, he
+heard Lady Diana's loud voice betting upon some one who was just going
+to shoot at the mark.
+
+"So then, the shooting is begun, is it?" said Hal. "Oh, let me in; pray
+let me into the circle! I'm one of the archers--I am, indeed; don't you
+see my green and white uniform?"
+
+"Your red and white uniform, you mean," said the man to whom he
+addressed himself: and the people, as they opened a passage for him,
+could not refrain from laughing at the mixture of dirt and finery which
+it exhibited. In vain, when he got into the midst of the formidable
+circle, he looked to his friends, the young Sweepstakes, for their
+countenance and support: they were amongst the most unmerciful of the
+laughers. Lady Diana also seemed more to enjoy than to pity his
+confusion.
+
+"Why could you not keep your hat upon your head, man?" said she, in her
+masculine tone. "You have been almost the ruin of my poor uniform-habit;
+but I've escaped rather better than you have. Don't stand there in the
+middle of the circle, or you'll have an arrow in your eye presently,
+I've a notion."
+
+Hal looked round in search of better friends. "Oh, where's my
+uncle?--where's Ben," said he. He was in such confusion, that, amongst
+the number of faces, he could scarcely distinguish one from another; but
+he felt somebody at this moment pull his elbow, and, to his great
+relief, he heard the friendly voice, and saw the good-natured face, of
+his cousin Ben.
+
+"Come back; come behind these people," said Ben, "and put on my
+great-coat; here it is for you."
+
+Right glad was Hal to cover his disgraced uniform with the rough
+great-coat, which he had formerly despised. He pulled the stained,
+drooping cockade out of his unfortunate hat; and he was now sufficiently
+recovered from his vexation to give an intelligible account of his
+accident to his uncle and Patty, who anxiously inquired what had
+detained him so long, and what had been the matter. In the midst of the
+history of his disaster, he was just proving to Patty that his taking
+the hat-band to spin his top had nothing to do with his misfortune; and
+he was at the same time endeavoring to refute his uncle's opinion, that
+the waste of the whipcord that tied the parcel, was the original cause
+of all his evils, when he was summoned to try his skill with his
+_famous_ bow.
+
+"My hands are numbed; I can scarcely feel," said he, rubbing them, and
+blowing upon the ends of his fingers.
+
+"Come, come," cried young Sweepstakes, "I'm within one inch of the mark;
+who'll go nearer, I should like to see. Shoot away, Hal; but first,
+understand our laws: we settled them before you came on the green. You
+are to have three shots, with your own bow and your own arrows; and
+nobody's to borrow or lend under pretence of other bows being better or
+worse, or under any pretence. Do you hear, Hal?"
+
+This young gentleman had good reasons for being so strict in these laws,
+as he had observed that none of his companions had such an excellent bow
+as he had provided for himself. Some of the boys had forgotten to bring
+more than one arrow with them, and by his cunning regulation, that each
+person should shoot with his own arrows, many had lost one or two of
+their shots.
+
+"You are a lucky fellow; you have your three arrows," said young
+Sweepstakes. "Come, we can't wait whilst you rub your fingers,
+man--shoot away."
+
+Hal was rather surprised at the asperity with which his friend spoke. He
+little knew how easily acquaintances, who call themselves friends, can
+change, when their interest comes, in the slightest degree, in
+competition with their friendship. Hurried by his impatient rival, and
+with his hand so much benumbed that he could scarcely feel how to fix
+the arrow in the string, he drew the bow. The arrow was within a quarter
+of an inch of Master Sweepstakes' mark, which was the nearest that had
+yet been hit. Hal seized his second arrow. "If I have any luck," said he
+but just as he pronounced the word _luck_ and as he bent his bow, the
+string broke in two, and the bow fell from his hands.
+
+"There, it's all over with you," cried Master Sweepstakes, with a
+triumphant laugh.
+
+"Here's my bow for him and welcome," said Ben.
+
+"No, no, Sir; that is not fair; that's against the regulation. You may
+shoot with your own bow, if you choose it, or you may not, just as you
+think proper but you must not lend it, Sir."
+
+It was now Ben's turn to make his trial. His first arrow was not
+successful. His second was exactly as near as Hal's first.
+
+"You have but one more," said Master Sweepstakes: "now for it!"
+
+Ben, before he ventured his last arrow prudently examined the string of
+his bow; and as he pulled it to try its strength, it cracked.
+
+Master Sweepstakes clapped his hands with loud exultations, and
+insulting laughter. But his laughter ceased when our provident hero
+calmly drew from his pocket an excellent piece of whipcord.
+
+"The everlasting whipcord, I declare!" exclaimed Hal, when he saw that
+it was the very same that had tied up the parcel.
+
+"Yes," said Ben, as he fastened it to his bow, "I put it into my pocket
+to-day, on purpose, because I thought I might happen to want it."
+
+He drew his bow the third and last time.
+
+"O Papa," cried little Patty, as his arrow hit the mark, "it's the
+nearest, is not it the nearest?"
+
+Master Sweepstakes, with anxiety, examined the hit. There could be no
+doubt. Ben was victorious! The bow, the prize bow, was now delivered to
+him; and Hal, as he looked at the whipcord, exclaimed, "How _lucky_ this
+whipcord has been to you, Ben!"
+
+"It is _lucky_ perhaps you mean, that he took care of it," said Mr.
+Gresham.
+
+"Ay," said Hal, "very true; he might well say, 'Waste not, want not'; it
+is a good thing to have two strings to one's bow."
+
+
+
+382
+
+ Only a few of those who have written
+ immediately for children have produced work
+ distinguished by the same high artistic
+ qualities found in the work of writers for
+ readers of mature minds. Of these few one is
+ Mrs. Juliana Horatia Ewing (1841-1885). Edmund
+ Gosse has said that of the numerous English
+ authors who have written successfully on or for
+ children only two "have shown a clear
+ recollection of the mind of healthy childhood
+ itself. . . . Mrs. Ewing in prose and Mr.
+ Stevenson in verse have sat down with them
+ without disturbing their fancies, and have
+ looked into the world of 'make-believe' with
+ the children's own eyes." They might lead, he
+ thinks, "a long romp in the attic when nurse
+ was out shopping, and not a child in the house
+ should know that a grown-up person had been
+ there." This is very high praise indeed and it
+ suggests the reason for the immense popularity
+ of "Jackanapes," "The Story of a Short Life,"
+ "Daddy Darwin's Dovecot,"
+ "Lob-Lie-by-the-Fire," "Mrs. Overtheway's
+ Remembrances," and many another of the stories
+ that delighted young readers when they first
+ appeared in the pages of _Aunt Judy's
+ Magazine_. The preeminence of "Jackanapes"
+ among these many splendid stories may at least
+ partly be accounted for by the fact that it
+ grew out of the heat of a great conviction
+ about life. Early in 1879 the news reached
+ England of the death of the Prince Imperial of
+ France, who fell while serving with the English
+ forces in South Africa during the war with the
+ Zulus. Perhaps the present-day reader needs to
+ be reminded that the Prince Imperial was the
+ only son of the ex-Empress Eugenie, who, with
+ her husband Napoleon III had taken refuge in
+ England after the loss of the French throne at
+ the close of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.
+ Napoleon's death shortly after made the young
+ prince a central figure in all considerations
+ of the possible recouping of the fortunes of
+ the Napoleonic dynasty. Full of the spirit of
+ adventure and courage, he had joined the
+ English forces to learn something of the
+ soldier's profession. Unexpectedly ambushed,
+ the prince was killed while the young officer
+ who had been assigned to look after him escaped
+ unhurt. There immediately ensued a wide
+ discussion of the action of this young officer
+ in saving himself and, apparently, leaving the
+ Prince to his fate. Now, Mrs. Ewing was a
+ soldier's wife and believed in the standard of
+ honor which would naturally be reflected in
+ military circles on such an incident. But
+ hearing the rule of "each man for himself" so
+ often emphasized in other circles, she was
+ moved to write the protest against such a view
+ which forms the central motive in "Jackanapes."
+ There is no argument, however, no undue
+ moralizing. With the finest art she embodies
+ that central doctrine in a great faith that the
+ saving of a man's life lies in his readiness to
+ lose it. It was Satan who said, "Skin for skin,
+ yea, all that a man hath will he give for his
+ life." The pathos in the story is naturally
+ inherent in the situation and is never
+ emphasized for its own sake. Mrs. Ewing was
+ always a thoroughly conscientious artist. She
+ believed that the laws of artistic composition
+ laid down by Ruskin in his _Elements of
+ Drawing_ applied with equal force to
+ literature. "For example," says her brother in
+ an article on her methods, "in the story of
+ 'Jackanapes' the law of Principality is very
+ clearly demonstrated. Jackanapes is the one
+ important figure. The doting aunt, the
+ weak-kneed but faithful Tony Johnson, the
+ irascible general, the punctilious postman, the
+ loyal boy-trumpeter, the silent major, and the
+ ever-dear, faithful, loving Lollo,--all and
+ each of them conspire with one consent to
+ reflect forth the glory and beauty of the
+ noble, generous, recklessly brave, and gently
+ tender spirit of the hero 'Jackanapes.'" As to
+ the laws of repetition and contrast: "Again and
+ again is the village green introduced to the
+ imagination. It is a picture of eternal peace
+ and quietness, amid the tragedies of our
+ ever-changing life which are enacted around
+ it."
+
+
+JACKANAPES
+
+JULIANA HORATIA EWING
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ Last noon beheld them full of lusty life,
+ Last eve in Beauty's circle proudly gay,
+ The midnight brought the signal sound of strife,
+ The morn the marshaling in arms--the day
+ Battle's magnificently stern array!
+ The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which when rent
+ The earth is covered thick with other clay,
+ Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent,
+ Rider and horse,--friend, foe,--in one red burial blent.
+
+ Their praise is hymn'd by loftier harps than mine:
+ Yet one would I select from that proud throng.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ To thee, to thousands, of whom each
+ And one and all a ghastly gap did make
+ In his own kind and kindred, whom to teach
+ Forgetfulness were mercy for their sake;
+ The Archangel's trump, not glory's, must awake
+ Those whom they thirst for.
+ --BYRON
+
+Two Donkeys and the Geese lived on the Green, and all other residents of
+any social standing lived in houses round it. The houses had no names.
+Everybody's address was "The Green," but the Postman and the people of
+the place knew where each family lived. As to the rest of the world,
+what has one to do with the rest of the world when he is safe at home on
+his own Goose Green? Moreover, if a stranger did come on any lawful
+business, he might ask his way at the shop. Most of the inhabitants were
+long-lived, early deaths (like that of the little Miss Jessamine) being
+exceptional; and most of the old people were proud of their age,
+especially the sexton, who would be ninety-nine come Martinmas, and
+whose father remembered a man who had carried arrows, as a boy, for the
+battle of Flodden Field. The Gray Goose and the big Miss Jessamine were
+the only elderly persons who kept their ages secret. Indeed, Miss
+Jessamine never mentioned any one's age, or recalled the exact year in
+which anything had happened. She said that she had been taught that it
+was bad manners to do so "in a mixed assembly." The Gray Goose also
+avoided dates; but this was partly because her brain, though
+intelligent, was not mathematical, and computation was beyond her. She
+never got farther than "last Michaelmas," "the Michaelmas before that,"
+and "the Michaelmas before the Michaelmas before that." After this her
+head, which was small, became confused, and she said, "Ga, ga!" and
+changed the subject.
+
+But she remembered the little Miss Jessamine, the Miss Jessamine with
+the "conspicuous hair." Her aunt, the big Miss Jessamine, said it was
+her only fault. The hair was clean, was abundant, was glossy; but do
+what you would with it, it never looked quite like other people's. And
+at church, after Saturday night's wash, it shone like the best brass
+fender after a spring cleaning. In short, it was conspicuous, which does
+not become a young woman, especially in church.
+
+Those were worrying times altogether, and the Green was used for strange
+purposes. A political meeting was held on it with the village Cobbler in
+the chair, and a speaker who came by stage-coach from the town, where
+they had wrecked the bakers' shops, and discussed the price of bread. He
+came a second time by stage; but the people had heard something about
+him in the meanwhile, and they did not keep him on the Green. They took
+him to the pond and tried to make him swim, which he could not do, and
+the whole affair was very disturbing to all quiet and peaceable fowls.
+After which another man came, and preached sermons on the Green, and a
+great many people went to hear him; for those were "trying times," and
+folk ran hither and thither for comfort. And then what did they do but
+drill the ploughboys on the Green, to get them ready to fight the
+French, and teach them the goose-step! However, that came to an end at
+last; for Bony was sent to St. Helena, and the ploughboys were sent back
+to the plough.
+
+Everybody lived in fear of Bony in those days, especially the naughty
+children, who were kept in order during the day by threats of "Bony
+shall have you," and who had nightmares about him in the dark. They
+thought he was an Ogre in a cocked hat. The Gray Goose thought he was a
+Fox, and that all the men of England were going out in red coats to hunt
+him. It was no use to argue the point; for she had a very small head,
+and when one idea got into it there was no room for another.
+
+Besides, the Gray Goose never saw Bony, nor did the children, which
+rather spoilt the terror of him, so that the Black Captain became more
+effective as a Bogy with hardened offenders. The Gray Goose remembered
+_his_ coming to the place perfectly. What he came for she did not
+pretend to know. It was all part and parcel of the war and bad times. He
+was called the Black Captain, partly because of himself and partly
+because of his wonderful black mare. Strange stories were afloat of how
+far and how fast that mare could go when her master's hand was on her
+mane and he whispered in her ear. Indeed, some people thought we might
+reckon ourselves very lucky if we were not out of the frying-pan into
+the fire, and had not got a certain well-known Gentleman of the Road to
+protect us against the French. But that, of course, made him none the
+less useful to the Johnsons' Nurse when the little Miss Johnsons were
+naughty.
+
+"You leave off crying this minnit, Miss Jane, or I'll give you right
+away to that horrid wicked officer. Jemima! just look out o' the windy,
+if you please, and see if the Black Cap'n's a-coming with his horse to
+carry away Miss Jane."
+
+And there, sure enough, the Black Captain strode by, with his sword
+clattering as if it did not know whose head to cut off first. But he did
+not call for Miss Jane that time. He went on to the Green, where he came
+so suddenly upon the eldest Master Johnson, sitting in a puddle on
+purpose, in his new nankeen skeleton suit, that the young gentleman
+thought judgment had overtaken him at last, and abandoned himself to the
+howlings of despair. His howls were redoubled when he was clutched from
+behind and swung over the Black Captain's shoulder; but in five minutes
+his tears were stanched, and he was playing with the officer's
+accoutrements. All of which the Gray Goose saw with her own eyes, and
+heard afterwards that that bad boy had been whining to go back to the
+Black Captain ever since, which showed how hardened he was, and that
+nobody but Bonaparte himself could be expected to do him any good.
+
+But those were "trying times." It was bad enough when the pickle of a
+large and respectable family cried for the Black Captain; when it came
+to the little Miss Jessamine crying for him, one felt that the sooner
+the French landed and had done with it, the better.
+
+The big Miss Jessamine's objection to him was that he was a soldier; and
+this prejudice was shared by all the Green. "A soldier," as the speaker
+from the town had observed, "is a bloodthirsty, unsettled sort of a
+rascal, that the peaceable, home-loving, bread-winning citizen can never
+conscientiously look on as a brother till he has beaten his sword into a
+ploughshare and his spear into a pruning-hook."
+
+On the other hand, there was some truth in what the Postman (an old
+soldier) said in reply,--that the sword has to cut a way for us out of
+many a scrape into which our bread-winners get us when they drive their
+ploughshares into fallows that don't belong to them. Indeed, whilst our
+most peaceful citizens were prosperous chiefly by means of cotton, of
+sugar, and of the rise and fall of the money-market (not to speak of
+such salable matters as opium, firearms, and "black ivory"),
+disturbances were apt to arise in India, Africa, and other outlandish
+parts, where the fathers of our domestic race were making fortunes for
+their families. And for that matter, even on the Green, we did not wish
+the military to leave us in the lurch, so long as there was any fear
+that the French were coming.[3]
+
+To let the Black Captain have little Miss Jessamine, however, was
+another matter. Her aunt would not hear of it; and then, to crown all,
+it appeared that the Captain's father did not think the young lady good
+enough for his son. Never was any affair more clearly brought to a
+conclusion.
+
+But those were "trying times"; and one moonlight night, when the Gray
+Goose was sound asleep upon one leg, the Green was rudely shaken under
+her by the thud of a horse's feet. "Ga, ga!" said she, putting down the
+other leg and running away.
+
+By the time she returned to her place not a thing was to be seen or
+heard. The horse had passed like a shot. But next day there was hurrying
+and scurrying and cackling at a very early hour, all about the white
+house with the black beams, where Miss Jessamine lived. And when the sun
+was so low and the shadows so long on the grass that the Gray Goose felt
+ready to run away at the sight of her own neck, little Miss Jane Johnson
+and her "particular friend" Clarinda sat under the big oak tree on the
+Green, and Jane pinched Clarinda's little finger till she found that she
+could keep a secret, and then she told her in confidence that she had
+heard from Nurse and Jemima that Miss Jessamine's niece had been a very
+naughty girl, and that that horrid wicked officer had come for her on
+his black horse and carried her right away.
+
+"Will she never come back?" asked Clarinda.
+
+"Oh, no!" said Jane, decidedly. "Bony never brings people back."
+
+"Not never no more?" sobbed Clarinda, for she was weak-minded, and could
+not bear to think that Bony never, never let naughty people go home
+again.
+
+Next day Jane had heard more.
+
+"He has taken her to a Green."
+
+"A Goose Green?" asked Clarinda.
+
+"No. A Gretna Green. Don't ask so many questions, child," said Jane,
+who, having no more to tell, gave herself airs.
+
+Jane was wrong on one point. Miss Jessamine's niece did come back, and
+she and her husband were forgiven. The Gray Goose remembered it well; it
+was Michaelmas-tide, the Michaelmas before the Michaelmas before the
+Michaelmas--but, ga, ga! What does the date matter? It was autumn,
+harvest-time, and everybody was so busy prophesying and praying about
+the crops, that the young couple wandered through the lanes, and got
+blackberries for Miss Jessamine's celebrated crab and blackberry jam,
+and made guys of themselves with bryony wreaths, and not a soul troubled
+his head about them, except the children and the Postman. The children
+dogged the Black Captain's footsteps (his bubble reputation as an Ogre
+having burst) clamoring for a ride on the black mare. And the Postman
+would go somewhat out of his postal way to catch the Captain's dark eye,
+and show that he had not forgotten how to salute an officer.
+
+But they were "trying times." One afternoon the black mare was stepping
+gently up and down the grass, with her head at her master's shoulder,
+and as many children crowded on to her silky back as if she had been an
+elephant in a menagerie; and the next afternoon she carried him away,
+sword and _sabre-tache_ clattering war music at her side, and the old
+Postman waiting for them, rigid with salutation, at the four
+cross-roads.
+
+War and bad times! It was a hard winter; and the big Miss Jessamine and
+the little Miss Jessamine (but she was Mrs. Black-Captain now) lived
+very economically, that they might help their poorer neighbors. They
+neither entertained nor went into company; but the young lady always
+went up the village as far as the _George and Dragon_, for air and
+exercise when the London Mail[4] came in.
+
+One day (it was a day in the following June) it came in earlier than
+usual, and the young lady was not there to meet it.
+
+But a crowd soon gathered round the _George and Dragon_, gaping to see
+the Mail Coach dressed with flowers and oak-leaves, and the guard
+wearing a laurel wreath over and above his royal livery. The ribbons
+that decked the horses were stained and flecked with the warmth and foam
+of the pace at which they had come, for they had pressed on with the
+news of Victory.
+
+Miss Jessamine was sitting with her niece under the oak tree on the
+Green, when the Postman put a newspaper silently into her hand. Her
+niece turned quickly,--
+
+"Is there news?"
+
+"Don't agitate yourself, my dear," said her aunt. "I will read it aloud,
+and then we can enjoy it together; a far more comfortable method, my
+love, than when you go up the village, and come home out of breath,
+having snatched half the news as you run."
+
+"I am all attention, dear aunt," said the little lady, clasping her
+hands tightly on her lap.
+
+Then Miss Jessamine read aloud,--she was proud of her reading,--and the
+old soldier stood at attention behind her, with such a blending of pride
+and pity on his face as it was strange to see:--
+
+ "Downing Street
+ _June_ 22, 1815, 1 A. M."
+
+"That's one in the morning," gasped the Postman; "beg your pardon, mum."
+
+But though he apologized, he could not refrain from echoing here and
+there a weighty word: "Glorious victory,"--"Two hundred pieces of
+artillery,"--"Immense quantity of ammunition,"--and so forth.
+
+ "The loss of the British Army upon this
+ occasion has unfortunately been most severe. It
+ had not been possible to make out a return of
+ the killed and wounded when Major Percy left
+ headquarters. The names of the officers killed
+ and wounded, as far as they can be collected,
+ are annexed.
+ I have the honor--"
+
+"The list, aunt! Read the list!"
+
+"My love--my darling--let us go in and--"
+
+"No. Now! now!"
+
+To one thing the supremely afflicted are entitled in their sorrow,--to
+be obeyed; and yet it is the last kindness that people commonly will do
+them. But Miss Jessamine did. Steadying her voice, as best she might,
+she read on; and the old soldier stood bareheaded to hear that first
+Roll of the Dead at Waterloo, which began with the Duke of Brunswick and
+ended with Ensign Brown.[5] Five-and-thirty British Captains fell asleep
+that day on the Bed of Honor, and the Black Captain slept among them.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+There are killed and wounded by war of whom no returns reach Downing
+Street.
+
+Three days later, the Captain's wife had joined him, and Miss Jessamine
+was kneeling by the cradle of their orphan son, a purple-red morsel of
+humanity with conspicuously golden hair.
+
+"Will he live, Doctor?"
+
+"Live? God bless my soul, ma'am. Look at him! The young Jackanapes!"
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ And he wandered away and away
+ With Nature, the dear old Nurse.
+ --LONGFELLOW
+
+The Gray Goose remembered quite well the year that Jackanapes began to
+walk, for it was the year that the speckled hen for the first time in
+all her motherly life got out of patience when she was sitting. She had
+been rather proud of the eggs,--they were unusually large,--but she
+never felt quite comfortable on them, and whether it was because she
+used to get cramp and go off the nest, or because the season was bad, or
+what, she never could tell; but every egg was addled but one, and the
+one that did hatch gave her more trouble than any chick she had ever
+reared.
+
+It was a fine, downy, bright yellow little thing, but it had a monstrous
+big nose and feet, and such an ungainly walk as she knew no other
+instance of in her well-bred and high-stepping family. And as to
+behavior, it was not that it was either quarrelsome or moping, but
+simply unlike the rest. When the other chicks hopped and cheeped on the
+Green about their mother's feet, this solitary yellow brat went waddling
+off on its own responsibility, and do or cluck what the speckled hen
+would, it went to play in the pond.
+
+It was off one day as usual, and the hen was fussing and fuming after
+it, when the Postman, going to deliver a letter at Miss Jessamine's
+door, was nearly knocked over by the good lady herself, who, bursting
+out of the house with her cap just off and her bonnet just not on, fell
+into his arms, crying,--
+
+"Baby! Baby! Jackanapes! Jackanapes!"
+
+If the Postman loved anything on earth, he loved the Captain's
+yellow-haired child; so, propping Miss Jessamine against her own
+door-post, he followed the direction of her trembling fingers and made
+for the Green.
+
+Jackanapes had had the start of the Postman by nearly ten minutes. The
+world--the round green world with an oak tree on it--was just becoming
+very interesting to him. He had tried, vigorously but ineffectually, to
+mount a passing pig the last time he was taken out walking; but then he
+was encumbered with a nurse. Now he was his own master, and might, by
+courage and energy, become the master of that delightful downy, dumpy,
+yellow thing that was bobbing along over the green grass in front of
+him. Forward! Charge! He aimed well, and grabbed it, but only to feel
+the delicious downiness and dumpiness slipping through his fingers as he
+fell upon his face. "Quawk!" said the yellow thing, and wabbled off
+sideways. It was this oblique movement that enabled Jackanapes to come
+up with it, for it was bound for the Pond, and therefore obliged to come
+back into line. He failed again from top-heaviness, and his prey escaped
+sideways as before, and, as before, lost ground in getting back to the
+direct road to the Pond.
+
+And at the Pond the Postman found them both,--one yellow thing rocking
+safely on the ripples that lie beyond duckweed, and the other washing
+his draggled frock with tears because he too had tried to sit upon the
+Pond and it wouldn't hold him.
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ If studious, copie fair what time hath blurred,
+ Redeem truth from his jawes: if souldier,
+ Chase brave employments with a naked sword
+ Throughout the world. Fool not; for all may have,
+ If they dare try, a glorious life, or grave.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ In brief, acquit thee bravely; play the man.
+ Look not on pleasures as they come, but go.
+ Defer not the least vertue: life's poore span
+ Make not an ell, by trifling in thy woe.
+ If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains.
+ If well: the pain doth fade, the joy remains.
+ --GEORGE HERBERT
+
+Young Mrs. Johnson, who was a mother of many, hardly knew which to pity
+more,--Miss Jessamine for having her little ways and her antimacassars
+rumpled by a young Jackanapes, or the boy himself for being brought up
+by an old maid.
+
+Oddly enough, she would probably have pitied neither, had Jackanapes
+been a girl. (One is so apt to think that what works smoothest, works to
+the highest ends, having no patience for the results of friction.) That
+father in God who bade the young men to be pure and the maidens brave,
+greatly disturbed a member of his congregation, who thought that the
+great preacher had made a slip of the tongue.
+
+"That the girls should have purity, and the boys courage, is what you
+would say, good father?"
+
+"Nature has done that," was the reply; "I meant what I said."
+
+In good sooth, a young maid is all the better for learning some robuster
+virtues than maidenliness and not to move the antimacassars; and the
+robuster virtues require some fresh air and freedom. As, on the other
+hand, Jackanapes (who had a boy's full share of the little beast and the
+young monkey in his natural composition) was none the worse, at his
+tender years, for learning some maidenliness,--so far as maidenliness
+means decency, pity, unselfishness, and pretty behavior.
+
+And it is due to him to say that he was an obedient boy, and a boy whose
+word could be depended on, long before his grandfather the General came
+to live at the Green.
+
+He was obedient; that is, he did what his great-aunt told him. But--oh,
+dear! oh, dear!--the pranks he played, which it had never entered into
+her head to forbid!
+
+It was when he had just been put into skeletons (frocks never suited
+him) that he became very friendly with Master Tony Johnson, a younger
+brother of the young gentleman who sat in the puddle on purpose. Tony
+was not enterprising, and Jackanapes led him by the nose. One summer's
+evening they were out late, and Miss Jessamine was becoming anxious,
+when Jackanapes presented himself with a ghastly face all besmirched
+with tears. He was unusually subdued.
+
+"I'm afraid," he sobbed,--"if you please, I'm very much afraid that Tony
+Johnson's dying in the churchyard."
+
+Miss Jessamine was just beginning to be distracted, when she smelt
+Jackanapes.
+
+"You naughty, naughty boys! Do you mean to tell me that you've been
+smoking?"
+
+"Not pipes," urged Jackanapes; "upon my honor, aunty, not pipes. Only
+cigars like Mr. Johnson's! and only made of brown paper with a very,
+very little tobacco from the shop inside them."
+
+Whereupon Miss Jessamine sent a servant to the churchyard, who found
+Tony Johnson lying on a tombstone, very sick, and having ceased to
+entertain any hopes of his own recovery.
+
+If it could be possible that any "unpleasantness" could arise between
+two such amiable neighbors as Miss Jessamine and Mrs. Johnson, and if
+the still more incredible paradox can be that ladies may differ over a
+point on which they are agreed, that point was the admitted fact that
+Tony Johnson was "delicate"; and the difference lay chiefly in this:
+Mrs. Johnson said that Tony was delicate,--meaning that he was more
+finely strung, more sensitive, a properer subject for pampering and
+petting, than Jackanapes, and that, consequently, Jackanapes was to
+blame for leading Tony into scrapes which resulted in his being chilled,
+frightened, or (most frequently) sick. But when Miss Jessamine said that
+Tony Johnson was delicate, she meant that he was more puling, less
+manly, and less healthily brought up than Jackanapes, who, when they got
+into mischief together, was certainly not to blame because his friend
+could not get wet, sit a kicking donkey, ride in the giddy-go-round,
+bear the noise of a cracker, or smoke brown paper with impunity, as he
+could.
+
+Not that there was ever the slightest quarrel between the ladies. It
+never even came near it, except the day after Tony had been so very
+sick with riding Bucephalus on the giddy-go-round. Mrs. Johnson had
+explained to Miss Jessamine that the reason Tony was so easily upset was
+the unusual sensitiveness (as a doctor had explained it to her) of the
+nervous centers in her family--"Fiddlestick!" So Mrs. Johnson understood
+Miss Jessamine to say; but it appeared that she only said
+"Treaclestick!" which is quite another thing, and of which Tony was
+undoubtedly fond.
+
+It was at the Fair that Tony was made ill by riding on Bucephalus. Once
+a year the Goose Green became the scene of a carnival. First of all,
+carts and caravans were rumbling up all along, day and night. Jackanapes
+could hear them as he lay in bed, and could hardly sleep for speculating
+what booths and whirligigs he should find fairly established when he and
+his dog Spitfire went out after breakfast. As a matter of fact, he
+seldom had to wait so long for news of the Fair. The Postman knew the
+window out of which Jackanapes's yellow head would come, and was ready
+with his report.
+
+"Royal Theayter, Master Jackanapes, in the old place, but be careful o'
+them seats, sir; they're rickettier than ever. Two sweets and a ginger
+beer under the Oak tree, and the Flying Boats is just a-coming along the
+road."
+
+No doubt it was partly because he had already suffered severely in the
+Flying Boats that Tony collapsed so quickly in the giddy-go-round. He
+only mounted Bucephalus (who was spotted, and had no tail) because
+Jackanapes urged him, and held out the ingenious hope that the
+round-and-round feeling would very likely cure the up-and-down
+sensation. It did not, however, and Tony tumbled off during the first
+revolution.
+
+Jackanapes was not absolutely free from qualms; but having once mounted
+the Black Prince, he stuck to him as a horseman should. During the first
+round he waved his hat, and observed with some concern that the Black
+Prince had lost an ear since last Fair; at the second, he looked a
+little pale, but sat upright, though somewhat unnecessarily rigid; at
+the third round he shut his eyes. During the fourth his hat fell off,
+and he clasped his horse's neck. By the fifth he had laid his yellow
+head against the Black Prince's mane, and so clung anyhow till the
+hobby-horses stopped, when the proprietor assisted him to alight, and he
+sat down rather suddenly and said he had enjoyed it very much.
+
+The Gray Goose always ran away at the first approach of the caravans,
+and never came back to the Green till there was nothing left of the Fair
+but footmarks and oyster-shells. Running away was her pet principle; the
+only system, she maintained, by which you can live long and easily and
+lose nothing. If you run away when you see danger, you can come back
+when all is safe. Run quickly, return slowly, hold your head high, and
+gabble as loud as you can, and you'll preserve the respect of the Goose
+Green to a peaceful old age. Why should you struggle and get hurt, if
+you can lower your head and swerve, and not lose a feather?! Why in the
+world should any one spoil the pleasure of life, or risk his skin, if he
+can help it?
+
+ "'What's the use?'
+ Said the Goose."
+
+Before answering which one might have to consider what world, which
+life, and whether his skin were a goose-skin; but the Gray Goose's head
+would never have held all that.
+
+Grass soon grows over footprints, and the village children took the
+oyster-shells to trim their gardens with; but the year after Tony rode
+Bucephalus there lingered another relic of Fair-time in which Jackanapes
+was deeply interested. "The Green" proper was originally only part of a
+straggling common, which in its turn merged into some wilder waste land
+where gypsies sometimes squatted if the authorities would allow them,
+especially after the annual Fair. And it was after the Fair that
+Jackanapes, out rambling by himself, was knocked over by the Gypsy's son
+riding the Gypsy's red-haired pony at breakneck pace across the common.
+
+Jackanapes got up and shook himself, none the worse except for being
+heels over head in love with the red-haired pony. What a rate he went
+at! How he spurned the ground with his nimble feet! How his red coat
+shone in the sunshine! And what bright eyes peeped out of his dark
+forelock as it was blown by the wind!
+
+The Gypsy boy had had a fright, and he was willing enough to reward
+Jackanapes for not having been hurt, by consenting to let him have a
+ride.
+
+"Do you mean to kill the little fine gentleman, and swing us all on the
+gibbet, you rascal?" screamed the Gypsy mother, who came up just as
+Jackanapes and the pony set off.
+
+"He would get on," replied her son. "It'll not kill him. He'll fall on
+his yellow head, and it's as tough as a cocoanut."
+
+But Jackanapes did not fall. He stuck to the red-haired pony as he had
+stuck to the hobby-horse; but, oh, how different the delight of this
+wild gallop with flesh and blood! Just as his legs were beginning to
+feel as if he did not feel them, the Gypsy boy cried, "Lollo!" Round
+went the pony so unceremoniously that with as little ceremony Jackanapes
+clung to his neck; and he did not properly recover himself before Lollo
+stopped with a jerk at the place where they had started.
+
+"Is his name Lollo?" asked Jackanapes, his hand lingering in the wiry
+mane.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What does Lollo mean?"
+
+"Red."
+
+"Is Lollo your pony?"
+
+"No. My father's." And the Gypsy boy led Lollo away.
+
+At the first opportunity Jackanapes stole away again to the common. This
+time he saw the Gypsy father, smoking a dirty pipe.
+
+"Lollo is your pony, isn't he?" said Jackanapes.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He's a very nice one."
+
+"He's a racer."
+
+"You don't want to sell him, do you?"
+
+"Fifteen pounds," said the Gypsy father; and Jackanapes sighed and went
+home again. That very afternoon he and Tony rode the two donkeys; and
+Tony managed to get thrown, and even Jackanapes's donkey kicked. But it
+was jolting, clumsy work after the elastic swiftness and the dainty
+mischief of the red-haired pony.
+
+A few days later, Miss Jessamine spoke very seriously to Jackanapes. She
+was a good deal agitated as she told him that his grandfather the
+General was coming to the Green, and that he must be on his very best
+behavior during the visit. If it had been feasible to leave off calling
+him Jackanapes and to get used to his baptismal name of Theodore before
+the day after to-morrow (when the General was due), it would have been
+satisfactory. But Miss Jessamine feared it would be impossible in
+practice, and she had scruples about it on principle. It would not seem
+quite truthful, although she had always most fully intended that he
+should be called Theodore when he had outgrown the ridiculous
+appropriateness of his nickname. The fact was that he had not outgrown
+it, but he must take care to remember who was meant when his grandfather
+said Theodore.
+
+Indeed, for that matter, he must take care all along.
+
+"You are apt to be giddy, Jackanapes," said Miss Jessamine.
+
+"Yes, aunt," said Jackanapes, thinking of the hobby-horses.
+
+"You are a good boy, Jackanapes. Thank God, I can tell your grandfather
+that. An obedient boy, an honorable boy, and a kind-hearted boy. But you
+are--in short, you _are_ a Boy, Jackanapes. And I hope," added Miss
+Jessamine, desperate with the results of experience, "that the General
+knows that Boys will be Boys."
+
+What mischief could be foreseen, Jackanapes promised to guard against.
+He was to keep his clothes and his hands clean, to look over his
+catechism, not to put sticky things in his pockets, to keep that hair of
+his smooth ("It's the wind that blows it, aunty," said Jackanapes--"I'll
+send by the coach for some bear's-grease," said Miss Jessamine, tying a
+knot in her pocket-handkerchief), not to burst in at the parlor door,
+not to talk at the top of his voice, not to crumple his Sunday frill,
+and to sit quite quiet during the sermon, to be sure to say "sir" to the
+General, to be careful about rubbing his shoes on the door-mat, and to
+bring his lesson-books to his aunt at once that she might iron down the
+dogs'-ears. The General arrived; and for the first day all went well,
+except that Jackanapes's hair was as wild as usual, for the hair-dresser
+had no bear's-grease left. He began to feel more at ease with his
+grandfather, and disposed to talk confidentially with him, as he did
+with the Postman. All that the General felt, it would take too long to
+tell; but the result was the same. He was disposed to talk
+confidentially with Jackanapes.
+
+"Mons'ous pretty place this," he said, looking out of the lattice on to
+the Green, where the grass was vivid with sunset and the shadows were
+long and peaceful.
+
+"You should see it in Fair-week, sir," said Jackanapes, shaking his
+yellow mop, and leaning back in his one of the two Chippendale
+arm-chairs in which they sat.
+
+"A fine time that, eh?" said the General, with a twinkle in his left eye
+(the other was glass).
+
+Jackanapes shook his hair once more. "I enjoyed this last one the best
+of all," he said. "I'd so much money."
+
+"By George, it's not a common complaint in these bad times. How much had
+ye?"
+
+"I'd two shillings. A new shilling aunty gave me, and elevenpence I had
+saved up, and a penny from the Postman,--_sir_!" added Jackanapes with a
+jerk, having forgotten it.
+
+"And how did ye spend it,--_sir_?" inquired the General.
+
+Jackanapes spread his ten fingers on the arms of his chair, and shut his
+eyes that he might count the more conscientiously.
+
+"Watch-stand for aunty, threepence. Trumpet for myself, twopence; that's
+fivepence. Gingernuts for Tony, twopence, and a mug with a Grenadier on
+for the Postman, fourpence; that's elevenpence. Shooting-gallery a
+penny; that's a shilling. Giddy-go-round, a penny; that's one and a
+penny. Treating Tony, one and twopence. Flying Boats (Tony paid for
+himself), a penny, one and threepence. Shooting-gallery again, one and
+fourpence; Fat Woman a penny, one and fivepence. Giddy-go-round again,
+one and sixpence. Shooting-gallery, one and sevenpence. Treating Tony,
+and then he wouldn't shoot, so I did, one and eightpence. Living
+Skeleton, a penny--no, Tony treated me, the Living Skeleton doesn't
+count. Skittles, a penny, one and ninepence. Mermaid (but when we got
+inside she was dead), a penny, one and tenpence. Theater, a penny
+(Priscilla Partington, or the Green Lane Murder. A beautiful young lady,
+sir, with pink cheeks and a real pistol); that's one and elevenpence.
+Ginger beer, a penny (I _was_ so thirsty!), two shillings. And then the
+Shooting-gallery man gave me a turn for nothing, because, he said, I was
+a real gentleman, and spent my money like a man."
+
+"So you do, sir, so you do!" cried the General. "Egad, sir, you spent it
+like a prince. And now I suppose you've not got a penny in your pocket?"
+
+"Yes, I have," said Jackanapes. "Two pennies. They are saving up." And
+Jackanapes jingled them with his hand.
+
+"You don't want money except at Fair-times, I suppose?" said the
+General.
+
+Jackanapes shook his mop.
+
+"If I could have as much as I want, I should know what to buy," said he.
+
+"And how much do you want, if you could get it?"
+
+"Wait a minute, sir, till I think what twopence from fifteen pounds
+leaves. Two from nothing you can't, but borrow twelve. Two from twelve,
+ten, and carry one. Please remember ten, sir, when I ask you. One from
+nothing you can't, borrow twenty. One from twenty, nineteen, and carry
+one. One from fifteen, fourteen. Fourteen pounds nineteen and--what did
+I tell you to remember?"
+
+"Ten," said the General.
+
+"Fourteen pounds nineteen shillings and tenpence, then, is what I want,"
+said Jackanapes.
+
+"God bless my soul! what for?"
+
+"To buy Lollo with. Lollo means red, sir. The Gypsy's red-haired pony,
+sir. Oh, he _is_ beautiful! You should see his coat in the sunshine! You
+should see his mane! You should see his tail! Such little feet, sir, and
+they go like lightning! Such a dear face, too, and eyes like a mouse!
+But he's a racer, and the Gypsy wants fifteen pounds for him."
+
+"If he's a racer you couldn't ride him. Could you?"
+
+"No--o, sir, but I can stick to him. I did the other day."
+
+"The dooce you did! Well, I'm fond of riding myself; and if the beast is
+as good as you say, he might suit me."
+
+"You're too tall for Lollo, I think," said Jackanapes, measuring his
+grandfather with his eye.
+
+"I can double up my legs, I suppose. We'll have a look at him
+to-morrow."
+
+"Don't you weigh a good deal?" asked Jackanapes.
+
+"Chiefly waistcoats," said the General, slapping the breast of his
+military frock-coat. "We'll have the little racer on the Green the first
+thing in the morning. Glad you mentioned it, grandson; glad you
+mentioned it."
+
+The General was as good as his word. Next morning the Gypsy and Lollo,
+Miss Jessamine, Jackanapes and his grandfather and his dog Spitfire,
+were all gathered at one end of the Green in a group, which so aroused
+the innocent curiosity of Mrs. Johnson, as she saw it from one of her
+upper windows, that she and the children took their early promenade
+rather earlier than usual. The General talked to the Gypsy, and
+Jackanapes fondled Lollo's mane, and did not know whether he should be
+more glad or miserable if his grandfather bought him.
+
+"Jackanapes!"
+
+"Yes, sir!"
+
+"I've bought Lollo, but I believe you were right. He hardly stands high
+enough for me. If you can ride him to the other end of the Green, I'll
+give him to you."
+
+How Jackanapes tumbled on to Lollo's back he never knew. He had just
+gathered up the reins when the Gypsy father took him by the arm.
+
+"If you want to make Lollo go fast, my little gentleman--"
+
+"_I_ can make him go!" said Jackanapes; and drawing from his pocket the
+trumpet he had bought in the Fair, he blew a blast both loud and shrill.
+
+Away went Lollo, and away went Jackanapes's hat. His golden hair flew
+out, an aureole from which his cheeks shone red and distended with
+trumpeting. Away went Spitfire, mad with the rapture of the race and the
+wind in his silky ears. Away went the geese, the cocks, the hens, and
+the whole family of Johnson. Lucy clung to her mamma, Jane saved Emily
+by the gathers of her gown, and Tony saved himself by a somersault.
+
+The Gray Goose was just returning when Jackanapes and Lollo rode back,
+Spitfire panting behind.
+
+"Good, my little gentleman, good!" said the Gypsy. "You were born to the
+saddle. You've the flat thigh, the strong knee, the wiry back, and the
+light caressing hand; all you want is to learn the whisper. Come here!"
+
+"What was that dirty fellow talking about, grandson?" asked the General.
+
+"I can't tell you, sir. It's a secret."
+
+They were sitting in the window again, in the two Chippendale
+arm-chairs, the General devouring every line of his grandson's face,
+with strange spasms crossing his own.
+
+"You must love your aunt very much, Jackanapes?"
+
+"I do, sir," said Jackanapes, warmly.
+
+"And whom do you love next best to your aunt?"
+
+The ties of blood were pressing very strongly on the General himself,
+and perhaps he thought of Lollo. But love is not bought in a day, even
+with fourteen pounds nineteen shillings and tenpence. Jackanapes
+answered quite readily, "The Postman."
+
+"Why the Postman?"
+
+"He knew my father," said Jackanapes, "and he tells me about him and
+about his black mare. My father was a soldier, a brave soldier. He died
+at Waterloo. When I grow up I want to be a soldier too."
+
+"So you shall, my boy; so you shall."
+
+"Thank you, grandfather. Aunty doesn't want me to be a soldier, for fear
+of being killed."
+
+"Bless my life! Would she have you get into a feather-bed and stay
+there? Why, you might be killed by a thunderbolt if you were a
+butter-merchant!"
+
+"So I might. I shall tell her so. What a funny fellow you are, sir! I
+say, do you think my father knew the Gypsy's secret? The Postman says he
+used to whisper to his black mare."
+
+"Your father was taught to ride, as a child, by one of those horsemen of
+the East who swoop and dart and wheel about a plain like swallows in
+autumn. Grandson! love me a little too. I can tell you more about your
+father than the Postman can."
+
+"I do love you," said Jackanapes. "Before you came I was frightened. I'd
+no notion you were so nice."
+
+"Love me always, boy, whatever I do or leave undone. And--God help
+me!--whatever you do or leave undone, I'll love you. There shall never
+be a cloud between us for a day; no, sir, not for an hour. We're
+imperfect enough, all of us--we needn't be so bitter; and life is
+uncertain enough at its safest--we needn't waste its opportunities. God
+bless my soul! Here sit I, after a dozen battles and some of the worst
+climates in the world, and by yonder lych gate lies your mother, who
+didn't move five miles, I suppose, from your aunt's apron-strings,--dead
+in her teens; my golden-haired daughter, whom I never saw!"
+
+Jackanapes was terribly troubled.
+
+"Don't cry, grandfather," he pleaded, his own blue eyes round with
+tears. "I will love you very much, and I will try to be very good. But I
+should like to be a soldier."
+
+"You shall, my boy; you shall. You've more claims for a commission than
+you know of. Cavalry, I suppose; eh, ye young Jackanapes? Well, well; if
+you live to be an honor to your country, this old heart shall grow young
+again with pride for you; and if you die in the service of your
+country--egad, sir, it can but break for ye!"
+
+And beating the region which he said was all waistcoats, as if they
+stifled him, the old man got up and strode out on to the Green.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+_Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
+his friends._--John 15:13.
+
+Twenty and odd years later the Gray Goose was still alive, and in full
+possession of her faculties, such as they were. She lived slowly and
+carefully, and she lived long. So did Miss Jessamine; but the General
+was dead.
+
+He had lived on the Green for many years, during which he and the
+Postman saluted each other with a punctiliousness that it almost drilled
+one to witness. He would have completely spoiled Jackanapes if Miss
+Jessamine's conscience would have let him; otherwise he somewhat
+dragooned his neighbors, and was as positive about parish matters as a
+rate-payer about the army. A stormy-tempered, tender-hearted soldier,
+irritable with the suffering of wounds of which he never spoke, whom all
+the village followed to his grave with tears.
+
+The General's death was a great shock to Miss Jessamine, and her nephew
+stayed with her for some little time after the funeral. Then he was
+obliged to join his regiment, which was ordered abroad.
+
+One effect of the conquest which the General had gained over the
+affections of the village was a considerable abatement of the popular
+prejudice against "the military." Indeed, the village was now somewhat
+importantly represented in the army. There was the General himself, and
+the Postman, and the Black Captain's tablet in the church, and
+Jackanapes, and Tony Johnson, and a Trumpeter.
+
+Tony Johnson had no more natural taste for fighting than for riding, but
+he was as devoted as ever to Jackanapes. And that was how it came about
+that Mr. Johnson bought him a commission in the same cavalry regiment
+that the General's grandson (whose commission had been given him by the
+Iron Duke) was in; and that he was quite content to be the butt of the
+mess where Jackanapes was the hero; and that when Jackanapes wrote home
+to Miss Jessamine, Tony wrote with the same purpose to his
+mother,--namely, to demand her congratulations that they were on active
+service at last, and were ordered to the front. And he added a
+postscript, to the effect that she could have no idea how popular
+Jackanapes was, nor how splendidly he rode the wonderful red charger
+which he had named after his old friend Lollo.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+"Sound Retire!"
+
+A Boy Trumpeter, grave with the weight of responsibilities and
+accoutrements beyond his years, and stained so that his own mother would
+not have known him, with the sweat and dust of battle, did as he was
+bid; and then, pushing his trumpet pettishly aside, adjusted his weary
+legs for the hundredth time to the horse which was a world too big for
+him, and muttering, "'Tain't a pretty tune," tried to see something of
+this his first engagement before it came to an end.
+
+Being literally in the thick of it, he could hardly have seen less or
+known less of what happened in that particular skirmish if he had been
+at home in England. For many good reasons,--including dust and smoke,
+and that what attention he dared distract from his commanding officer
+was pretty well absorbed by keeping his hard-mouthed troop-horse in
+hand, under pain of execration by his neighbors in the melee. By and by,
+when the newspapers came out, if he could get a look at one before it
+was thumbed to bits, he would learn that the enemy had appeared from
+ambush in overwhelming numbers, and that orders had been given to fall
+back, which was done slowly and in good order, the men fighting as they
+retired.
+
+Born and bred on the Goose Green, the youngest of Mr. Johnson's
+gardener's numerous offspring, the boy had given his family no "peace"
+till they let him "go for a soldier" with Master Tony and Master
+Jackanapes. They consented at last, with more tears than they shed when
+an elder son was sent to jail for poaching; and the boy was perfectly
+happy in his life, and full of _esprit de corps_. It was this which had
+been wounded by having to sound retreat for "the young gentlemen's
+regiment," the first time he served with it before the enemy; and he was
+also harassed by having completely lost sight of Master Tony. There had
+been some hard fighting before the backward movement began, and he had
+caught sight of him once, but not since. On the other hand, all the
+pulses of his village pride had been stirred by one or two visions of
+Master Jackanapes whirling about on his wonderful horse. He had been
+easy to distinguish, since an eccentric blow had bared his head without
+hurting it; for his close golden mop of hair gleamed in the hot sunshine
+as brightly as the steel of the sword flashing round it.
+
+Of the missiles that fell pretty thickly, the Boy Trumpeter did not take
+much notice. First, one can't attend to everything, and his hands were
+full; secondly, one gets used to anything; thirdly, experience soon
+teaches one, in spite of proverbs, how very few bullets find their
+billet. Far more unnerving is the mere suspicion of fear or even of
+anxiety in the human mass around you. The Boy was beginning to wonder if
+there were any dark reason for the increasing pressure, and whether they
+would be allowed to move back more quickly, when the smoke in front
+lifted for a moment, and he could see the plain, and the enemy's line
+some two hundred yards away. And across the the plain between them, he
+saw Master Jackanapes galloping alone at the top of Lollo's speed, their
+faces to the enemy, his golden head at Lollo's ear.
+
+But at this moment noise and smoke seemed to burst out on every side;
+the officer shouted to him to sound Retire! and between trumpeting and
+bumping about on his horse, he saw and heard no more of the incidents of
+his first battle.
+
+Tony Johnson was always unlucky with horses, from the days of the
+giddy-go-round onwards. On this day--of all days in the year--his own
+horse was on the sick list, and he had to ride an inferior,
+ill-conditioned beast, and fell off that, at the very moment when it was
+matter of life or death to be able to ride away. The horse fell on him,
+but struggled up again, and Tony managed to keep hold of it. It was in
+trying to remount that he discovered, by helplessness and anguish, that
+one of his legs was crushed and broken, and that no feat of which he was
+master would get him into the saddle. Not able even to stand alone,
+awkwardly, agonizingly, unable to mount his restive horse, his life was
+yet so strong within him! And on one side of him rolled the dust and
+smoke-cloud of his advancing foes, and on the other, that which covered
+his retreating friends.
+
+He turned one piteous gaze after them, with a bitter twinge, not of
+reproach, but of loneliness; and then, dragging himself up by the side
+of his horse, he turned the other way and drew out his pistol, and
+waited for the end. Whether he waited seconds or minutes he never knew,
+before some one gripped him by the arm.
+
+"_Jackanapes! God bless you!_ It's my left leg. If you _could_ get me
+on--"
+
+It was like Tony's luck that his pistol went off at his horse's tail,
+and made it plunge; but Jackanapes threw him across the saddle.
+
+"Hold on anyhow, and stick your spur in. I'll lead him. Keep your head
+down; they're firing high."
+
+And Jackanapes laid his head down--to Lollo's ear.
+
+It was when they were fairly off, that a sudden upspringing of the enemy
+in all directions had made it necessary to change the gradual retirement
+of our force into as rapid a retreat as possible. And when Jackanapes
+became aware of this, and felt the lagging and swerving of Tony's horse,
+he began to wish he had thrown his friend across his own saddle and left
+their lives to Lollo.
+
+When Tony became aware of it, several things came into his head: 1. That
+the dangers of their ride for life were now more than doubled; 2. That
+if Jackanapes and Lollo were not burdened with him they would
+undoubtedly escape; 3. That Jackanapes's life was infinitely valuable,
+and his--Tony's--was not; 4. That this, if he could seize it, was the
+supremest of all the moments in which he had tried to assume the virtues
+which Jackanapes had by nature; and that if he could be courageous and
+unselfish now--
+
+He caught at his own reins and spoke very loud,--
+
+"Jackanapes! It won't do. You and Lollo must go on. Tell the fellows I
+gave you back to them with all my heart. Jackanapes, if you love me,
+leave me!"
+
+There was a daffodil light over the evening sky in front of them, and it
+shone strangely on Jackanapes's hair and face. He turned with an odd
+look in his eyes that a vainer man than Tony Johnson might have taken
+for brotherly pride. Then he shook his mop, and laughed at him,
+
+"_Leave you?_ To save my skin? No, Tony, not to save my soul!"
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+ MR. VALIANT _summoned. His Will. His last
+ Words._
+
+ Then said he, "I am going to my Father's. . . . My
+ Sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my
+ Pilgrimage, and my Courage and Skill to him
+ that can get it." . . . And as he went down
+ deeper, he said, "Grave, where is thy Victory?"
+
+ So he passed over, and all the Trumpets sounded
+ for him on the other side.
+ BUNYAN, _Pilgrim's Progress_
+
+
+Coming out of a hospital tent, at headquarters, the surgeon cannoned
+against, and rebounded from, another officer,--a sallow man, not young,
+with a face worn more by ungentle experiences than by age, with weary
+eyes that kept their own counsel, iron-gray hair, and a moustache that
+was as if a raven had laid its wing across his lips and sealed them.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Beg pardon, Major. Didn't see you. Oh, compound fracture and bruises.
+But it's all right; he'll pull through."
+
+"Thank God."
+
+It was probably an involuntary expression; for prayer and praise were
+not much in the Major's line, as a jerk of the surgeon's head would have
+betrayed to an observer. He was a bright little man, with his feelings
+showing all over him, but with gallantry and contempt of death enough
+for both sides of his profession; who took a cool head, a white
+handkerchief, and a case of instruments, where other men went hot
+blooded with weapons, and who was the biggest gossip, male or female, of
+the regiment. Not even the major's taciturnity daunted him.
+
+"Didn't think he'd as much pluck about him as he has. He'll do all right
+if he doesn't fret himself into a fever about poor Jackanapes."
+
+"Whom are you talking about?" asked the Major, hoarsely.
+
+"Young Johnson. He--"
+
+"What about Jackanapes?"
+
+"Don't you know? Sad business. Rode back for Johnson, and brought him
+in; but, monstrous ill-luck, hit as they rode. Left lung--"
+
+"Will he recover?"
+
+"No. Sad business. What a frame--what limbs--what health--and what good
+looks! Finest young fellow--"
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"In his own tent," said the surgeon, sadly.
+
+The Major wheeled and left him.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+"Can I do anything else for you?"
+
+"Nothing, thank you. Except--Major! I wish I could get you to appreciate
+Johnson."
+
+"This is not an easy moment, Jackanapes."
+
+"Let me tell you, sir--_he_ never will--that if he could have driven me
+from him, he would be lying yonder at this moment, and I should be safe
+and sound."
+
+The Major laid his hand over his mouth, as if to keep back a wish he
+would have been ashamed to utter.
+
+"I've known old Tony from a child. He's a fool on impulse, a good man
+and a gentleman in principle. And he acts on principle, which it's not
+every--Some water, please! Thank you, sir. It's very hot, and yet one's
+feet get uncommonly cold. Oh, thank you, thank you. He's no fire-eater,
+but he has a trained conscience and a tender heart, and he'll do his
+duty when a braver and more selfish man might fail you. But he wants
+encouragement; and when I'm gone--"
+
+"He shall have encouragement. You have my word for it. Can I do nothing
+else?"
+
+"Yes, Major. A favor."
+
+"Thank you, Jackanapes."
+
+"Be Lollo's master, and love him as well as you can. He's used to it."
+
+"Wouldn't you rather Johnson had him?"
+
+The blue eyes twinkled in spite of mortal pain.
+
+"Tony _rides_ on principle, Major. His legs are bolsters, and will be to
+the end of the chapter. I couldn't insult dear Lollo; but if you don't
+care--"
+
+"While I live--which will be longer than I desire or deserve--Lollo
+shall want nothing but--you. I have too little tenderness for--My dear
+boy, you're faint. Can you spare me for a moment?"
+
+"No, stay--Major!"
+
+"What? What?"
+
+"My head drifts so--if you wouldn't mind."
+
+"Yes! Yes!"
+
+"Say a prayer by me. Out loud, please; I am getting deaf."
+
+"My dearest Jackanapes--my dear boy--"
+
+"One of the Church Prayers--Parade Service, you know."
+
+"I see. But the fact is--God forgive me, Jackanapes!--I'm a very
+different sort of fellow to some of you youngsters. Look here, let me
+fetch--"
+
+But Jackanapes's hand was in his, and it would not let go.
+
+There was a brief and bitter silence.
+
+"'Pon my soul I can only remember the little one at the end."
+
+"Please," whispered Jackanapes.
+
+Pressed by the conviction that what little he could do it was his duty
+to do, the Major, kneeling, bared his head, and spoke loudly, clearly,
+and very reverently,--
+
+"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ--"
+
+Jackanapes moved his left hand to his right one, which still held the
+Major's.
+
+"The love of God--"
+
+And with that--Jackanapes died.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+ Und so ist der blaue Himmel groesser als jedes
+ Gewoelk darin, und dauerhafter dazu.
+ --JEAN PAUL RICHTER
+
+Jackanapes's death was sad news for the Goose Green, a sorrow just
+qualified by honorable pride in his gallantry and devotion. Only the
+Cobbler dissented; but that was his way. He said he saw nothing in it
+but foolhardiness and vainglory. They might both have been killed, as
+easy as not; and then where would ye have been? A man's life was a man's
+life, and one life was as good as another. No one would catch him
+throwing his away. And, for that matter, Mrs. Johnson could spare a
+child a great deal better than Miss Jessamine.
+
+But the parson preached Jackanapes's funeral sermon on the text,
+"Whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his
+life for my sake shall find it"; and all the village went and wept to
+hear him.
+
+Nor did Miss Jessamine see her loss from the Cobbler's point of view. On
+the contrary, Mrs. Johnson said she never to her dying day should
+forget how, when she went to condole with her, the old lady came
+forward, with gentlewomanly self-control, and kissed her, and thanked
+God that her dear nephew's effort had been blessed with success, and
+that this sad war had made no gap in her friend's large and happy
+home-circle.
+
+"But she's a noble, unselfish woman," sobbed Mrs. Johnson, "and she
+taught Jackanapes to be the same; and that's how it is that my Tony has
+been spared to me. And it must be sheer goodness in Miss Jessamine, for
+what can she know of a mother's feelings? And I'm sure most people seem
+to think that if you've a large family you don't know one from another
+any more than they do, and that a lot of children are like a lot of
+store apples,--if one's taken it won't be missed."
+
+Lollo--the first Lollo, the Gypsy's Lollo--very aged, draws Miss
+Jessamine's bath-chair slowly up and down the Goose Green in the
+sunshine.
+
+The Ex-postman walks beside him, which Lollo tolerates to the level of
+his shoulder. If the Postman advances any nearer to his head, Lollo
+quickens his pace; and were the Postman to persist in the injudicious
+attempt, there is, as Miss Jessamine says, no knowing what might happen.
+
+In the opinion of the Goose Green, Miss Jessamine has borne her troubles
+"wonderfully." Indeed, to-day, some of the less delicate and less
+intimate of those who see everything from the upper windows say (well,
+behind her back) that "the old lady seems quite lively with her military
+beaux again."
+
+The meaning of this is, that Captain Johnson is leaning over one side of
+her chair, while by the other bends a brother officer who is staying
+with him, and who has manifested an extraordinary interest in Lollo. He
+bends lower and lower, and Miss Jessamine calls to the Postman to
+request Lollo to be kind enough to stop, while she is fumbling for
+something which always hangs by her side, and has got entangled with her
+spectacles.
+
+It is a twopenny trumpet, bought years ago in the village fair; and over
+it she and Captain Johnson tell, as best they can, between them, the
+story of Jackanapes's ride across the Goose Green; and how he won
+Lollo--the Gypsy's Lollo--the racer Lollo--dear Lollo--faithful
+Lollo--Lollo the never vanquished--Lollo the tender servant of his old
+mistress. And Lollo's ears twitch at every mention of his name.
+
+Their hearer does not speak, but he never moves his eyes from the
+trumpet; and when the tale is told, he lifts Miss Jessamine's hand and
+presses his heavy black moustache in silence to her trembling fingers.
+
+The sun, setting gently to his rest, embroiders the somber foliage of
+the oak tree with threads of gold. The Gray Goose is sensible of an
+atmosphere of repose, and puts up one leg for the night. The grass glows
+with a more vivid green, and, in answer to a ringing call from Tony, his
+sisters fluttering over the daisies in pale-hued muslins, come out of
+their ever-open door, like pretty pigeons from a dovecote.
+
+And if the good gossips' eyes do not deceive them, all the Miss Johnsons
+and both the officers go wandering off into the lanes, where bryony
+wreaths still twine about the brambles.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+A sorrowful story, and ending badly?
+
+Nay, Jackanapes, for the End is not yet.
+
+A life wasted that might have been useful?
+
+Men who have died for men, in all ages, forgive the thought!
+
+There is a heritage of heroic example and noble obligation, not reckoned
+in the Wealth of Nations, but essential to a nation's life; the contempt
+of which, in any people, may, not slowly, mean even its commercial fall.
+
+Very sweet are the uses of prosperity, the harvests of peace and
+progress, the fostering sunshine of health and happiness, and length of
+days in the land.
+
+But there be things--oh, sons of what has deserved the name of Great
+Britain, forget it not!--"the good of" which and "the use of" which are
+beyond all calculation of worldly goods and earthly uses: things such as
+Love, and Honor, and the Soul of Man, which cannot be bought with a
+price, and which do not die with death. And they who would fain live
+happily ever after should not leave these things out of the lessons of
+their lives.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] "The political men declare war, and generally for commercial
+interests; but when the nation is thus embroiled with its neighbors, the
+soldier . . . draws the sword at the command of his country. . . . One
+word as to thy comparison of military and commercial persons. What manner
+of men be they who have supplied the Caffres with the firearms and
+ammunition to maintain their savage and deplorable wars? Assuredly they
+are not military. . . . Cease then, if thou wouldst be counted among the
+just, to vilify soldiers" (W. Napier, _Lieutenant-General_, November,
+1851). [Author's Note.]
+
+[4] The Mail Coach it was that distributed over the face of the land,
+like the opening of apocalyptic vials, the heart-shaking news of
+Trafalgar, of Salamanca, of Vittoria, of Waterloo. . . . The grandest
+chapter of our experience, within the whole Mail-Coach service, was on
+those occasions when we went down from London with the news of Victory.
+Five years of life it was worth paying down for the privilege of an
+outside place.--(De Quincey.) [Author's Note.]
+
+[5] "Brunswick's fated chieftain" fell at Quatre Bras the day before
+Waterloo; but this first (very imperfect) list, as it appeared in the
+newspapers of the day, did begin with his name and end with that of an
+Ensign Brown. [Author's Note.]
+
+
+
+383
+
+ The story that follows was first published in
+ _Harper's Round Table_, June 25, 1895, as the
+ winner of first place in a short story contest
+ conducted by that periodical. The author at
+ that time was seventeen years of age. It seems
+ quite fitting that a writer beginning his
+ career in such fashion should finally write the
+ most scholarly historical and critical account
+ of the development of the short story, _The
+ Short Story in English_ (1909). Mr. Canby was
+ for several years assistant professor of
+ English in the Sheffield Scientific School,
+ Yale University, and is now the editor of _The
+ Literary Review_, the literary section of the
+ New York _Evening Post_. ("Betty's Ride" is
+ used here by special arrangement with the
+ author.)
+
+
+BETTY'S RIDE: A TALE OF THE REVOLUTION
+
+HENRY S. CANBY
+
+The sun was just rising and showering his first rays on the gambrel-roof
+and solid stone walls of a house surrounded by a magnificent grove of
+walnuts, and overlooking one of the beautiful valleys so common in
+southeastern Pennsylvania. Close by the house, and shaded by the same
+great trees, stood a low building of the most severe type, whose
+time-stained bricks and timbers green with moss told its age without the
+aid of the half-obliterated inscription over the door, which read,
+"Built A. D. 1720." One familiar with the country would have pronounced
+it without hesitation a Quaker meeting-house, dating back almost to the
+time of William Penn.
+
+When Ezra Dale had become the leader of the little band of Quakers which
+gathered here every First Day, he had built the house under the
+walnut-trees, and had taken his wife Ann and his little daughter Betty
+to live there. That was in 1770, seven years earlier, and before war had
+wrought sorrow and desolation throughout the country.
+
+The sun rose higher, and just as his beams touched the broad stone step
+in front of the house the door opened, and Ann Dale, a sweet-faced woman
+in the plain Quaker garb, came out, followed by Betty, a little
+blue-eyed Quakeress of twelve years, with a gleam of spirit in her face
+which ill became her plain dress.
+
+"Betty," said her mother, as they walked out towards the great
+horse-block by the road-side, "thee must keep house to-day. Friend
+Robert has just sent thy father word that the redcoats have not crossed
+the Brandywine since Third Day last, and thy father and I will ride to
+Chester to-day, that there may be other than corn-cakes and bacon for
+the friends who come to us after monthly meeting. Mind thee keeps near
+the house and finishes thy sampler."
+
+"Yes, mother," said Betty; "but will thee not come home early? I shall
+miss thee sadly."
+
+Just then Ezra appeared, wearing his collarless Quaker coat, and leading
+a horse saddled with a great pillion, into which Ann laboriously climbed
+after her husband, and with a final warning and "farewell" to Betty,
+clasped him tightly around the waist lest she should be jolted off as
+they jogged down the rough and winding lane into the broad Chester
+highway.
+
+Friend Ann had many reasons for fearing to leave Betty alone for a whole
+day, and she looked back anxiously at her waving "farewell" with her
+little bonnet.
+
+It was a troublous time.
+
+The Revolution was at its height, and the British, who had a short time
+before disembarked their army near Elkton, Maryland, were now encamped
+near White Clay Creek, while Washington occupied the country bordering
+on the Brandywine. His force, however, was small compared to the extent
+of the country to be guarded, and bands of the British sometimes crossed
+the Brandywine and foraged in the fertile counties of Delaware and
+Chester. As Betty's father, although a Quaker and a non-combatant, was
+known to be a patriot, he had to suffer the fortunes of war with his
+neighbors.
+
+Thus it was with many forebodings that Betty's mother watched the slight
+figure under the spreading branches of a great chestnut, which seemed to
+rustle its innumerable leaves as if to promise protection to the little
+maid. However, the sun shone brightly, the swallows chirped as they
+circled overhead, and nothing seemed farther off than battle and
+bloodshed.
+
+Betty skipped merrily into the house, and snatching up some broken
+corn-cake left from the morning meal, ran lightly out to the paddock
+where Daisy was kept, her own horse, which she had helped to raise from
+a colt.
+
+"Come thee here, Daisy," she said, as she seated herself on the top rail
+of the mossy snake fence. "Come thee here, and thee shall have some of
+thy mistress's corn-cake. Ah! I thought thee would like it. Now go and
+eat all thee can of this good grass, for if the wicked redcoats come
+again, thee will not have another chance, I can tell thee."
+
+Daisy whinnied and trotted off, while Betty, feeding the few chickens
+(sadly reduced in numbers by numerous raids), returned to the house, and
+getting her sampler, sat down under a walnut-tree to sew on the stint
+which her mother had given her.
+
+All was quiet save the chattering of the squirrels overhead and the
+drowsy hum of the bees, when from around the curve in the road she heard
+a shot; then another nearer, and then a voice shouting commands, and the
+thud of hoof-beats farther down the valley. She jumped up with a
+startled cry: "The redcoats! The redcoats! Oh, what shall I do!"
+
+Just then the foremost of a scattered band of soldiers, their buff and
+blue uniforms and ill-assorted arms showing them to be Americans,
+appeared in full flight around the curve in the road, and springing over
+the fence, dashed across the pasture straight for the meeting-house.
+Through the broad gateway they poured, and forcing open the door of the
+meeting-house, rushed within and began to barricade the windows.
+
+Their leader paused while his men passed in, and seeing Betty, came
+quickly towards her.
+
+"What do you here, child?" he said, hurriedly. "Go quickly, before the
+British reach us, and tell your father that, Quaker or no Quaker, he
+shall ride to Washington, on the Brandywine, and tell him that we, but
+one hundred men, are besieged by three hundred British cavalry in
+Chichester Meeting-house, with but little powder left. Tell him to make
+all haste to us."
+
+Turning, he hastened into the meeting-house, now converted into a fort,
+and as the doors closed behind him Betty saw a black muzzle protruding
+from every window.
+
+With trembling fingers the little maid picked up her sampler, and as the
+thud of horses' hoofs grew louder and louder, she ran fearfully into the
+house, locked and bolted the massive door, and then flying up the broad
+stairs, she seated herself in a little window overlooking the
+meeting-house yard. She had gone into the house none too soon. Up the
+road, with their red coats gleaming and their harness jangling, was
+sweeping a detachment of British cavalry, never stopping until they
+reached the meeting-house--and then it was too late.
+
+A sheet of flame shot out from the wall before them, and half a dozen
+troopers fell lifeless to the ground, and half a dozen riderless horses
+galloped wildly down the road. The leader shouted a sharp command, and
+the whole troop retreated in confusion.
+
+Betty drew back shuddering, and when she brought herself to look again
+the troopers had dismounted, had surrounded the meeting-house, and were
+pouring volley after volley at its doors and windows. Then for the first
+time Betty thought of the officer's message, and remembered that the
+safety of the Americans depended upon her alone, for her father was
+away, no neighbor within reach, and without powder she knew they could
+not resist long.
+
+Could she save them? All her stern Quaker blood rose at the thought, and
+stealing softly to the paddock behind the barn, she saddled Daisy and
+led her through the bars into the wood road, which opened into the
+highway just around the bend. Could she but pass the pickets without
+discovery there would be little danger of pursuit; then there would be
+only the long ride of eight miles ahead of her.
+
+Just before the narrow wood road joined the broader highway Betty
+mounted Daisy by means of a convenient stump, and starting off at a
+gallop, had just turned the corner when a voice shouted "Halt!" and a
+shot whistled past her head. Betty screamed with terror, and bending
+over, brought down her riding-whip with all her strength upon Daisy,
+then, turning for a moment, saw three troopers hurriedly mounting.
+
+Her heart sank within her, but, beginning to feel the excitement of the
+chase, she leaned over and patting Daisy on the neck, encouraged her to
+do her best. Onward they sped. Betty, her curly hair streaming in the
+wind, the color now mounting to, now retreating from her cheeks, led by
+five hundred yards.
+
+But Daisy had not been used for weeks, and already felt the unusual
+strain. Now they thundered over Naaman's Creek, now over Concord, with
+the nearest pursuer only four hundred yards behind; and now they raced
+beside the clear waters of Beaver Brook, and as Betty dashed through its
+shallow ford, the thud of horse's hoofs seemed just over her shoulder.
+
+Betty, at first sure of success, now knew that unless in some way she
+could throw her pursuers off her track she was surely lost. Just then
+she saw ahead of her a fork in the road, the lower branch leading to the
+Brandywine, the upper to the Birmingham Meeting-house. Could she but get
+the troopers on the upper road while she took the lower, she would be
+safe; and, as if in answer to her wish, there flashed across her mind
+the remembrance of the old cross-road which, long disused, and with its
+entrance hidden by drooping boughs, led from a point in the upper road
+just out of sight of the fork down across the lower, and through the
+valley of the Brandywine. Could she gain this road unseen she still
+might reach Washington.
+
+Urging Daisy forward, she broke just in time through the dense growth
+which hid the entrance, and sat trembling, hidden behind a dense growth
+of tangled vines, while she heard the troopers thunder by. Then, riding
+through the rustling woods, she came at last into the open, and saw
+spread out beneath her the beautiful valley of the Brandywine, dotted
+with the white tents of the Continental army.
+
+Starting off at a gallop, she dashed around a bend in the road into the
+midst of a group of officers riding slowly up from the valley.
+
+"Stop, little maiden, before you run us down," said one, who seemed to
+be in command. "Where are you going in such hot haste?"
+
+"Oh, sir," said Betty, reining in Daisy, "can thee tell me where I can
+find General Washington?"
+
+"Yes, little Quakeress," said the officer who had first spoken to her;
+"I am he. What do you wish?"
+
+Betty, too exhausted to be surprised, poured forth her story in a few
+broken sentences, and (hearing as if in a dream the hasty commands for
+the rescue of the soldiers in Chichester Meeting-house) fell forward in
+her saddle, and, for the first time in her life, fainted, worn out by
+her noble ride.
+
+A few days later, when recovering from the shock of her long and
+eventful ride, Betty, awaking from a deep sleep, found her mother
+kneeling beside her little bed, while her father talked with General
+Washington himself beside the fireplace; and it was the proudest and
+happiest moment of her life when Washington, coming forward and taking
+her by the hand, said, "You are the bravest little maid in America, and
+an honor to your country."
+
+Still the peaceful meeting-house and the gambrel-roofed home stand
+unchanged, save that their time-beaten timbers and crumbling bricks have
+taken on a more sombre tinge, and under the broad walnut-tree another
+little Betty sits and sews.
+
+If you ask it, she will take down the great key from its nail, and
+swinging back the new doors of the meeting-house, will show you the old
+worm-eaten ones inside, which, pierced through and through with bullet-holes,
+once served as a rampart against the enemy. And she will tell you, in the
+quaint Friend's language, how her great-great-grandmother carried, over a
+hundred years ago, the news of the danger of her countrymen to Washington,
+on the Brandywine, and at the risk of her own life saved theirs.
+
+
+
+384
+
+ Some two decades ago thousands were reading
+ about the highly romantic career of Charles
+ Brandon in _When Knighthood Was in Flower_
+ (1898), and other thousands were applauding
+ Julia Marlowe's impersonation of the beautiful
+ and fascinating Princess Mary in the dramatic
+ version of that book. The author was Charles
+ Major (1856-1913), an Indiana lawyer turned
+ novelist, who wrote, also, the equally romantic
+ story of _Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall_
+ (1902). Between these two pieces of delightful
+ romance, he wrote a series of sketches of
+ pioneer life in Indiana under the title of _The
+ Bears of Blue River_ (1901). It is an account
+ of boy life in the early days, full of dramatic
+ interest, simply written, and entirely worthy
+ of the high place which it has already taken
+ among stories of its type. The first adventure
+ in that book follows by special arrangement
+ with the publishers. (Copyright. The Macmillan
+ Company, New York.)
+
+
+THE BIG BEAR
+
+CHARLES MAJOR
+
+Away back in the "twenties," when Indiana was a baby state, and great
+forests of tall trees and tangled underbrush darkened what are now her
+bright plains and sunny hills, there stood upon the east bank of Big
+Blue River, a mile or two north of the point where that stream crosses
+the Michigan road, a cozy log cabin of two rooms--one front and one
+back.
+
+The house faced the west, and stretching off toward the river for a
+distance equal to twice the width of an ordinary street, was a
+blue-grass lawn, upon which stood a dozen or more elm and sycamore
+trees, with a few honey-locusts scattered here and there. Immediately at
+the water's edge was a steep slope of ten or twelve feet. Back of the
+house, mile upon mile, stretched the deep dark forest, inhabited by deer
+and bears, wolves and wildcats, squirrels and birds, without number.
+
+In the river the fish were so numerous that they seemed to entreat the
+boys to catch them, and to take them out of their crowded quarters.
+There were bass and black suckers, sunfish and catfish, to say nothing
+of the sweetest of all, the big-mouthed redeye.
+
+South of the house stood a log barn, with room in it for three horses
+and two cows; and enclosing this barn, together with a piece of ground,
+five or six acres in extent, was a palisade fence, eight or ten feet
+high, made by driving poles into the ground close together. In this
+enclosure the farmer kept his stock, consisting of a few sheep and
+cattle, and here also the chickens, geese, and ducks were driven at
+nightfall to save them from "varmints," as all prowling animals were
+called by the settlers.
+
+The man who had built this log hut, and who lived in it and owned the
+adjoining land at the time of which I write, bore the name of Balser
+Brent. "Balser" is probably a corruption of Baltzer, but, however that
+may be, Balser was his name, and Balser was the hero of the bear stories
+which I am about to tell you.
+
+Mr. Brent and his young wife had moved to the Blue River settlement from
+North Carolina, when young Balser was a little boy five or six years of
+age. They had purchased the "eighty" upon which they lived, from the
+United States, at a sale of public land held in the town of Brookville
+on Whitewater, and had paid for it what was then considered a good round
+sum--one dollar per acre. They had received a deed for their "eighty"
+from no less a person than James Monroe, then President of the United
+States. This deed, which is called a patent, was written on sheepskin,
+signed by the President's own hand, and is still preserved by the
+descendants of Mr. Brent as one of the title-deeds to the land it
+conveyed. The house, as I have told you, consisted of two large rooms,
+or buildings, separated by a passageway six or eight feet broad which
+was roofed over, but open at both ends--on the north and south. The back
+room was the kitchen, and the front room was parlor, bedroom, sitting
+room and library all in one.
+
+At the time when my story opens Little Balser, as he was called to
+distinguish him from his father, was thirteen or fourteen years of age,
+and was the happy possessor of a younger brother, Jim, aged nine, and a
+little sister one year old, of whom he was very proud indeed.
+
+On the south side of the front room was a large fireplace. The chimney
+was built of sticks, thickly covered with clay. The fireplace was almost
+as large as a small room in one of our cramped modern houses, and was
+broad and deep enough to take in backlogs which were so large and heavy
+that they could not be lifted, but were drawn in at the door and rolled
+over the floor to the fireplace.
+
+The prudent father usually kept two extra backlogs, one on each side of
+the fireplace, ready to be rolled in as the blaze died down; and on
+these logs the children would sit at night, with a rough slate made from
+a flat stone, and do their "ciphering," as the study of arithmetic was
+then called. The fire usually furnished all the light they had, for
+candles and "dips," being expensive luxuries, were used only when
+company was present.
+
+The fire, however, gave sufficient light, and its blaze upon a cold
+night extended halfway up the chimney, sending a ruddy, cozy glow to
+every nook and corner of the room.
+
+The back room was the storehouse and kitchen; and from the beams and
+along the walls hung rich hams and juicy sidemeat, jerked venison, dried
+apples, onions, and other provisions for the winter. There was a
+glorious fireplace in this room also, and a crane upon which to hang
+pots and cooking utensils.
+
+The floor of the front room was made of logs split in halves with the
+flat, hewn side up; but the floor of the kitchen was of clay, packed
+hard and smooth.
+
+The settlers had no stoves, but did their cooking in round pots called
+Dutch ovens. They roasted their meats on a spit or steel bar like the
+ramrod of a gun. The spit was kept turning before the fire, presenting
+first one side of the meat and then the other, until it was thoroughly
+cooked. Turning the spit was the children's work.
+
+South of the palisade enclosing the barn was the clearing--a tract of
+twenty or thirty acres of land, from which Mr. Brent had cut and burned
+the trees. On this clearing the stumps stood thick as the hair on an
+angry dog's back; but the hard-working farmer ploughed between and
+around them, and each year raised upon the fertile soil enough wheat and
+corn to supply the wants of his family and his stock, and still had a
+little grain left to take to Brookville, sixty miles away, where he had
+bought his land, there to exchange for such necessities of life as
+could not be grown upon the farm or found in the forests.
+
+The daily food of the family all came from the farm, the forest, or the
+creek. Their sugar was obtained from the sap of the sugar-trees; their
+meat was supplied in the greatest abundance by a few hogs, and by the
+inexhaustible game of which the forests were full. In the woods were
+found deer just for the shooting; and squirrels, rabbits, wild turkeys,
+pheasants, and quails, so numerous that a few hours' hunting would
+supply the table for days. The fish in the river, as I told you, fairly
+longed to be caught.
+
+One day Mrs. Brent took down the dinner horn and blew upon it two strong
+blasts. This was a signal that Little Balser, who was helping his father
+down in the clearing, should come to the house. Balser was glad enough
+to drop his hoe and to run home. When he reached the house his mother
+said:
+
+"Balser, go up to the drift and catch a mess of fish for dinner. Your
+father is tired of deer meat three times a day, and I know he would like
+a nice dish of fried redeyes at noon."
+
+"All right, mother," said Balser. And he immediately took down his
+fishing-pole and line, and got the spade to dig bait. When he had
+collected a small gourdful of angle-worms, his mother called to him:
+
+"You had better take a gun. You may meet a bear; your father loaded the
+gun this morning, and you must be careful in handling it."
+
+Balser took the gun, which was a heavy rifle considerably longer than
+himself, and started up the river toward the drift, about a quarter of a
+mile away.
+
+There had been rain during the night and the ground near the drift was
+soft.
+
+Here, Little Balser noticed fresh bear tracks, and his breath began to
+come quickly. You may be sure he peered closely into every dark thicket,
+and looked behind all the large trees and logs, and had his eyes wide
+open lest perchance "Mr. Bear" should step out and surprise him with an
+affectionate hug, and thereby put an end to Little Balser forever.
+
+So he walked on cautiously, and, if the truth must be told, somewhat
+tremblingly, until he reached the drift.
+
+Balser was but a little fellow, yet the stern necessities of a settler's
+life had compelled his father to teach him the use of a gun; and
+although Balser had never killed a bear, he had shot several deer, and
+upon one occasion had killed a wildcat, "almost as big as a cow," he
+said.
+
+I have no doubt the wildcat seemed "almost as big as a cow" to Balser
+when he killed it, for it must have frightened him greatly, as wildcats
+were sometimes dangerous animals for children to encounter. Although
+Balser had never met a bear face to face and alone, yet he felt, and
+many a time had said, that there wasn't a bear in the world big enough
+to frighten him, if he but had his gun.
+
+He had often imagined and minutely detailed to his parents and little
+brother just what he would do if he should meet a bear. He would wait
+calmly and quietly until his bearship should come within a few yards of
+him, and then he would slowly lift his gun. Bang! and Mr. Bear would be
+dead with a bullet in his heart.
+
+But when he saw the fresh bear tracks, and began to realize that he
+would probably have an opportunity to put his theories about bear
+killing into practice, he began to wonder if, after all, he would
+become frightened and miss his aim. Then he thought of how the bear, in
+that case, would be calm and deliberate, and would put _his_ theories
+into practice by walking very politely up to him, and making a very
+satisfactory dinner of a certain boy whom he could name. But as he
+walked on and no bear appeared, his courage grew stronger as the
+prospect of meeting the enemy grew less, and he again began saying to
+himself that no bear could frighten him, because he had his gun and he
+could and would kill it.
+
+So Balser reached the drift; and having looked carefully about him,
+leaned his gun against a tree, unwound his fishing-line from the pole,
+and walked out to the end of a log which extended into the river some
+twenty or thirty feet.
+
+Here he threw in his line, and soon was so busily engaged drawing out
+sunfish and redeyes, and now and then a bass, which was hungry enough to
+bite at a worm, that all thought of the bear went out of his mind.
+
+After he had caught enough fish for a sumptuous dinner he bethought him
+of going home, and as he turned toward the shore, imagine, if you can,
+his consternation when he saw upon the bank, quietly watching him, a
+huge black bear.
+
+If the wildcat had seemed as large as a cow to Balser, of what size do
+you suppose that bear appeared? A cow! An elephant, surely, was small
+compared with the huge black fellow standing upon the bank.
+
+It is true Balser had never seen an elephant, but his father had, and so
+had his friend Tom Fox, who lived down the river; and they all agreed
+that an elephant was "purt nigh as big as all outdoors."
+
+The bear had a peculiar, determined expression about him that seemed to
+say:
+
+"That boy can't get away; he's out on the log where the water is deep,
+and if he jumps into the river I can easily jump in after him and catch
+him before he can swim a dozen strokes. He'll _have_ to come off the log
+in a short time, and then I'll proceed to devour him."
+
+About the same train of thought had also been rapidly passing through
+Balser's mind. His gun was on the bank where he had left it, and in
+order to reach it he would have to pass the bear. He dared not jump into
+the water, for any attempt to escape on his part would bring the bear
+upon him instantly. He was very much frightened, but, after all, was a
+cool-headed little fellow for his age; so he concluded that he would not
+press matters, as the bear did not seem inclined to do so, but so long
+as the bear remained watching him on the bank would stay upon the log
+where he was, and allow the enemy to eye him to his heart's content.
+
+There they stood, the boy and the bear, each eyeing the other as though
+they were the best of friends, and would like to eat each other, which,
+in fact, was literally true.
+
+Time sped very slowly for one of them, you may be sure; and it seemed to
+Balser that he had been standing almost an age in the middle of Blue
+River on that wretched shaking log, when he heard his mother's dinner
+horn, reminding him that it was time to go home.
+
+Balser quite agreed with his mother and gladly would he have gone, I
+need not tell you; but there stood the bear, patient, determined, and
+fierce; and Little Balser soon was convinced in his mind that his time
+had come to die.
+
+He hoped that when his father should go home to dinner and find him
+still absent, he would come up the river in search of him, and frighten
+away the bear. Hardly had this hope sprung up in his mind, when it
+seemed that the same thought had also occurred to the bear, for he began
+to move down toward the shore end of the log upon which Balser was
+standing.
+
+Slowly came the bear until he reached the end of the log, which for a
+moment he examined suspiciously, and then, to Balser's great alarm,
+cautiously stepped out upon it and began to walk toward him.
+
+Balser thought of the folks at home, and, above all, of his baby sister;
+and when he felt that he should never see them again, and that they
+would in all probability never know of his fate, he began to grow
+heavy-hearted and was almost paralyzed with fear.
+
+On came the bear, putting one great paw in front of the other, and
+watching Balser intently with his little black eyes. His tongue hung
+out, and his great red mouth was open to its widest, showing the sharp,
+long, glittering teeth that would soon be feasting on a first-class boy
+dinner.
+
+When the bear got within a few feet of Balser--so close he could almost
+feel the animal's hot breath as it slowly approached--the boy grew
+desperate with fear, and struck at the bear with the only weapon he
+had--his string of fish.
+
+Now, bears love fish and blackberries above all other food; so when
+Balser's string of fish struck the bear in the mouth, he grabbed at
+them, and in doing so lost his foothold on the slippery log and fell
+into the water with a great splash and plunge.
+
+This was Balser's chance for life, so he flung the fish to the bear, and
+ran for the bank with a speed worthy of the cause.
+
+When he reached the bank his self-confidence returned, and he remembered
+all the things he had said he would do if he should meet a bear.
+
+The bear had caught the fish, and again had climbed upon the log, where
+he was deliberately devouring them.
+
+This was Little Balser's chance for death--to the bear. Quickly
+snatching up the gun, he rested it in the fork of a small tree near by,
+took deliberate aim at the bear, which was not five yards away, and shot
+him through the heart. The bear dropped into the water dead, and floated
+downstream a little way, where he lodged at a ripple a short distance
+below.
+
+Balser, after he had killed the bear, became more frightened than he had
+been at any time during the adventure, and ran home screaming. That
+afternoon his father went to the scene of battle and took the bear out
+of the water. It was very fat and large, and weighed, so Mr. Brent said,
+over six hundred pounds.
+
+Balser was firmly of the opinion that he himself was also very fat and
+large, and weighed at least as much as the bear. He was certainly
+entitled to feel "big"; for he had got himself out of an ugly scrape in
+a brave, manly, and cool-headed manner, and had achieved a victory of
+which a man might have been proud.
+
+The news of Balser's adventure soon spread among the neighbors and he
+became quite a hero; for the bear he had killed was one of the largest
+that had ever been seen in that neighborhood, and, besides the gallons
+of rich bear oil it yielded, there were three or four hundred pounds of
+bear meat; and no other food is more strengthening for winter diet.
+
+There was also the soft, furry skin, which Balser's mother tanned, and
+with it made a coverlid for Balser's bed, under which he and his little
+brother lay many a cold night, cozy and "snug as a bug in a rug."
+
+
+
+385
+
+ The selection that follows may serve as an
+ example of an effective Christmas story in the
+ latest fashion. It was not written especially
+ for young people, but neither were many of the
+ books that now stand on the shelf that holds
+ their favorites. It is not only one of the
+ great short stories, but one of the shortest of
+ great-stories. It is quite worthy of use in
+ company with Dickens' _Christmas Carol_, Henry
+ van Dyke's _The Other Wise Man_, and Thomas
+ Nelson Page's _Santa Claus's Partner_, at the
+ Christmas season, and it has the advantages of
+ extreme brevity, a fresh breeziness of style,
+ surprise in the plot, and romantic interest.
+ The magi brought various gifts to the Child in
+ the manger--gold, frankincense, myrrh--but only
+ one gift, that of love. O. Henry does not often
+ moralize, but no reader ever finds fault with
+ his concluding paragraph. The author's real
+ name was William Sidney Porter. He was born in
+ Greensboro, N. C., in 1862, and died in New
+ York City, in 1910, the most widely read of
+ short-story writers. "The Gift of the Magi" is
+ taken from the volume called _The Four Million_
+ by special arrangement with the publishers.
+ (Copyright, Doubleday, Page & Co. New York.)
+
+
+THE GIFT OF THE MAGI
+
+O. HENRY
+
+One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it
+was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the
+grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned
+with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied.
+Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the
+next day would be Christmas.
+
+There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch
+and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that
+life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles
+predominating.
+
+While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first
+stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8.00
+per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had
+that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.
+
+In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go,
+and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring.
+Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James
+Dillingham Young."
+
+The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of
+prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the
+income was shrunk to $20, the letters of "Dillingham" looked blurred, as
+though they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and
+unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and
+reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs.
+James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all
+very good.
+
+Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag.
+She stood by the window and looked out dully at a grey cat walking a
+grey fence in a grey backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she
+had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving
+every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a
+week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated.
+They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a
+happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something
+fine and rare and sterling--something just a little bit near to being
+worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.
+
+There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have
+seen a pier-glass in an $8.00 flat. A very thin and very agile person
+may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal
+strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being
+slender, had mastered the art.
+
+Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her
+eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within
+twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its
+full length.
+
+Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which
+they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been
+his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the
+Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have
+let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her
+Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all
+his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his
+watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from
+envy.
+
+So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and shining like
+a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself
+almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and
+quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or
+two splashed on the worn red carpet.
+
+On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of
+skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered
+out the door and down the stairs to the street.
+
+Where she stopped the sign read: "Mme. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All
+Kinds." One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame,
+large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the "Sofronie."
+
+"Will you buy my hair?" asked Della.
+
+"I buy hair," said Madame. "Take yer hat off and let's have a sight at
+the looks of it."
+
+Down rippled the brown cascade.
+
+"Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.
+
+"Give it to me quick," said Della.
+
+Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed
+metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present.
+
+She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else.
+There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all
+of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in
+design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by
+meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do. It was even
+worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be
+Jim's. It was like him. Quietness and value--the description applied to
+both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home
+with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly
+anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he
+sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap
+that he used in place of a chain.
+
+When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence
+and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went
+to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is
+always a tremendous task, dear friends--a mammoth task.
+
+Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls
+that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at
+her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.
+
+"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second
+look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what
+could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?"
+
+At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying pan was on the back of
+the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.
+
+Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on
+the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she
+heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she
+turned white for just a moment. She had a habit of saying little silent
+prayers about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered;
+"Please God, make him think I am still pretty."
+
+The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and
+very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two--and to be burdened
+with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.
+
+Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of
+quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in
+them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger,
+nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments
+that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with
+that peculiar expression on his face.
+
+Della wriggled off the table and went for him.
+
+"Jim, darling," she cried, "don't look at me that way. I had my hair cut
+off and sold it because I couldn't have lived through Christmas without
+giving you a present. It'll grow out again--you won't mind, will you? I
+just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say 'Merry Christmas!'
+Jim, and let's be happy. You don't know what a nice--what a beautiful,
+nice gift I've got for you."
+
+"You've cut off your hair?" asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not
+arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor.
+
+"Cut it off and sold it," said Della. "Don't you like me just as well,
+anyhow? I'm me without my hair, ain't I?"
+
+Jim looked about the room curiously.
+
+"You say your hair is gone?" he said, with an air almost of idiocy.
+
+"You needn't look for it," said Della. "It's sold, I tell you--sold and
+gone, too. It's Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you.
+Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with a sudden
+serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I
+put the chops on, Jim?"
+
+Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For
+ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential
+object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a
+year--what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you
+the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not
+among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.
+
+Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.
+
+"Don't make any mistake, Dell," he said, "about me. I don't think
+there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that
+could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package
+you may see why you had me going a while at first."
+
+White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an
+ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to
+hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of
+all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.
+
+For there lay The Combs--the set of combs, side and back, that Della had
+worshipped for long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise
+shell, with jewelled rims--just the shade to wear in the beautiful
+vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had
+simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of
+possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have
+adorned the coveted adornments were gone.
+
+But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up
+with dim eyes and a smile and say: "My hair grows so fast, Jim!"
+
+And then Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, "Oh, oh!"
+
+Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him
+eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with
+a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.
+
+"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have
+to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I
+want to see how it looks on it."
+
+Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands
+under the back of his head and smiled.
+
+"Dell," said he, "let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a
+while. They're too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get
+the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on."
+
+The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought
+gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving
+Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones,
+possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And
+here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two
+foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other
+the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of
+these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the
+wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest.
+Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION IX
+
+NATURE LITERATURE
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+ Andrews, Jane, _The Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children_.
+
+ Atkinson, Eleanor S., _Greyfriars Bobby_.
+
+ Bertelli, Luigi, _The Prince and His Ants_.
+
+ Brown, Dr. John, _Rab and His Friends_.
+
+ Bullen, Frank, _The Cruise of the Cachelot_.
+
+ Burgess, Thornton W., _Old Mother West Wind Stories_.
+
+ Burroughs, John, _Squirrels and Other Fur Bearers_. _Wake Robin._
+
+ Chapman, William G., _Green-Timber Trails: Wild Animal Stories
+ of the Upper Fur Country_.
+
+ Ford, Sewell, _Horses Nine_.
+
+ Hawkes, Clarence, _Shaggycoat_.
+
+ Hudson, W. H., _A Little Boy Lost_.
+
+ Jordan, David Starr, _Science Sketches_.
+
+ Kellogg, Vernon L., _Insect Stories_. _Nuova, the New Bee._
+
+ Kingsley, Charles, _Madame How and Lady Why_.
+
+ Kipling, Rudyard, _Just-So Stories_. _The Jungle Book_ (Two
+ Series).
+
+ London, Jack, _The Call of the Wild_.
+
+ Long, William J., _Wood-Folk Comedies_. _A Little Brother to
+ the Bear._
+
+ Miller, Joaquin, _True Bear Stories_.
+
+ Miller, Olive Thorne, _The Children's Book of Birds_.
+
+ Mills, Enos A., _Scotch_. _The Thousand Year Old Pine._
+
+ Muir, John, _Stickeen_. _Our National Parks._
+
+ Ollivant, Alfred, _Bob, Son of Battle_.
+
+ "Ouida" (Louisa de la Ramee), _Moufflou_. _The Dog of Flanders._
+
+ Paine, Albert Bigelow, _Hollow-Tree Nights and Days_. _Arkansaw
+ Bear._
+
+ Potter, Beatrix, _Peter Rabbit_. _Benjamin Bunny._
+
+ Roberts, Charles G. D., _Kings in Exile_. _Children of the Wild._
+
+ Saunders, Marshall, _Beautiful Joe_.
+
+ Segur, Sophie, Comtesse de, _The Story of a Donkey_.
+
+ Seton, Ernest Thompson, _Wild Animals at Home_. _The Biography of
+ a Grizzly._
+
+ Sewell, Anna, _Black Beauty_.
+
+ Sharp, Dallas Lore, _Beyond the Pasture Bars_. _A Watcher in the
+ Woods._
+
+ Terhune, Albert Payson, _Lad: A Dog_.
+
+ Thoreau, Henry David, _A Week on the Concord and Merrimac
+ Rivers_.
+
+ Walton, Izaak, _The Compleat Angler_.
+
+ White, Gilbert, _The Natural History of Selborne_.
+
+ The three books that stand at the end of this
+ brief list are probably not ones that any
+ teacher would recommend indiscriminately to
+ pupils of the grades. They are the greatest of
+ the classic books in nature literature and, in
+ a way, constitute the goal of nature lovers.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION IX. NATURE LITERATURE
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+_What it is._ In recent years teachers have heard much talk about
+"nature study" in the grades. The demand for this study has led
+publishers to print many so-called "nature books" that have neither
+scientific fact nor literary worth to justify their existence. Confusion
+may be avoided and time may be saved if teachers will remember that
+nature literature, as here defined, is a form of _literature_, and that
+its purpose therefore is primarily to present truth (not necessarily
+facts) in an entertaining way.
+
+The selections in this section are not intended to furnish material for
+a scientific study of nature. They are nature literature. Some of them
+present scientific facts that add to the literary worth by making the
+stories more entertaining, but the selections are given because they
+illustrate various types of nature literature and the work of famous
+writers of nature literature, not because they present scientific facts.
+
+_Some types of nature literature._ One of the oldest forms of nature
+literature is the beast tale in which animals are represented as talking
+and acting like human beings. Stories of this type entertain while they
+reveal the general nature of various kinds of animals. Fables should not
+be called nature literature, because their chief purpose is to criticize
+the follies of human beings. Some of the Negro folk tales that Joel
+Chandler Harris collected are nature literature of this type. Beast
+tales, however, are not all old. Stories by such modern authors as
+Thornton W. Burgess and Albert Bigelow Paine, who are represented in
+this section, may be called beast tales. They are popular in the primary
+grades.
+
+Another type of nature literature, quite different from that just
+discussed, has been produced during the last century by students of
+nature who endeavor to hold strictly to facts in their writing. This may
+be called realistic nature literature. Henry Thoreau, John Burroughs,
+Olive Thorne Miller, and Dallas Lore Sharp may be mentioned as writers
+of this kind of literature. As we read their books, we usually feel that
+they are endeavoring to relate incidents as they actually occurred. Also
+we recognize that they are great students of nature, for they perceive
+details that we might not notice and they draw or suggest conclusions
+that we may accept as true, although we might never think of drawing the
+conclusions. Nature literature of this kind may be no less entertaining
+than fairy tales, for it may, in a pleasing way, reveal wonders in
+nature. The selections by Dallas Lore Sharp and Olive Thorne Miller in
+this section are of this kind. Most of the writings of Henry Thoreau and
+John Burroughs are in a style too difficult for pupils in the grades.
+
+A third type may be called nature romance. Its purpose is both to
+entertain and to awaken sympathy and love for animals. Stories of this
+kind, like other romances, idealize the characters and may have a strong
+appeal to the emotions. Of the stories in this section, we may classify
+as nature romance Beatrix Potter's "Peter Rabbit," Sewell Ford's "Pasha,
+the Son of Selim," Ouida's "Moufflou," and Rudyard Kipling's "Moti
+Guj--Mutineer."
+
+A fourth kind of nature literature, sometimes called nature fiction, has
+been developed within the last quarter of a century and is already
+recognized as excellent. The plot is created by the author, although it
+may be based on fact, and usually is simple and rambling. One purpose of
+these stories is to show truly how animals live and act, just as one
+purpose of a novel or typical short story is to show truly how people
+live and act. If the author is a skillful story-teller and a good
+student of nature, the story may make the reader feel that he has become
+acquainted with a particular kind of animal and even with an individual
+animal. For example, the story "Last Bull," by Charles G. D. Roberts,
+has an effect on the reader not entirely unlike that of one of Cooper's
+_Leatherstocking Tales_. Prominent among the authors of this very
+interesting and instructive form of literature may be mentioned Charles
+G. D. Roberts, Ernest Thompson Seton, William J. Long, and Dallas Lore
+Sharp.
+
+_Its place in the grades._ Nature literature seems to have a place of
+increasing importance in schools, especially in grades above the third.
+Many excellent books of what we have called the fiction type and the
+realistic type have a charming spirit of outdoor life and adventure that
+makes them pleasing substitutes for the objectionable dime novel. One
+should not assume that these nature stories would be of less interest
+and value to the country child than to the city child. Too often country
+children have not been taught to think of animals as "little brothers of
+the field and the air." These nature stories, without any spirit of
+preaching or moralizing, show children how to enjoy nature, whether it
+be in the country or the city. They teach the child to form habits of
+observation that encourage healthful recreation. A boy who has
+understood the spirit of Roberts, Seton, and Sharp is not likely to find
+the village poolroom attractive. Nature literature, however, need not be
+taught merely for moral and practical purposes, for it has come to be
+literature of artistic worth, and as such it has earned a place among
+other kinds of literature for children.
+
+
+SUGGESTIONS FOR READING
+
+ A good summary article is "The Rise of the
+ Nature Writers," by F. W. Halsey, in _Review of
+ Reviews_, Vol. XXVI, p. 567 (November, 1902).
+ The most valuable critical article is "The
+ Literary Treatment of Nature" in John
+ Burroughs, _Ways of Nature_ (also in _Atlantic
+ Monthly_, Vol. XCIV, p. 38 [July, 1904]). In
+ the violent controversy about "nature-faking"
+ which raged some years ago, two articles will
+ give clearly the positions of the contending
+ parties: first, the attack by John Burroughs in
+ "Real and Sham Natural History," _Atlantic
+ Monthly_, Vol. XCI, p. 298 (March, 1903), and,
+ second, the reply to Burroughs by William J.
+ Long in "The School of Nature Study and Its
+ Critics," _North American Review_, Vol. CLXXVI,
+ p. 688 (May, 1903).
+
+
+
+386
+
+ One of the most popular series for very young
+ children is that known as the _Peter Rabbit
+ Books_ after the favorite hero of the early
+ tales. The author is Beatrix Potter, an
+ Englishwoman. In plan these little books
+ resemble the "toy-books" of the eighteenth
+ century in having a bit of text on the
+ left-hand page face a picture on the right. The
+ entire text of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" is
+ given, but of course text and pictures are so
+ completely one that much is lost by separating
+ them. Children should meet Peter Rabbit before
+ their school days begin.
+
+
+THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT
+
+BEATRIX POTTER
+
+Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were
+Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter.
+
+They lived with their mother in a sand bank, underneath the root of a
+very big fir tree.
+
+"Now, my dears," said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, "you may go into the
+fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden. Your
+father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor. Now
+run along, and don't get into mischief. I am going out."
+
+Then old Mrs. Rabbit took a basket and her umbrella, and went through
+the wood to the baker's. She bought a loaf of brown bread and five
+currant buns.
+
+Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail, who were good little bunnies, went down
+the lane to gather blackberries; but Peter, who was very naughty, ran
+straight to Mr. McGregor's garden, and squeezed under the gate.
+
+First he ate some lettuces and some French beans; and then he ate some
+radishes; and then, feeling rather sick, he went to look for some
+parsley.
+
+But round the end of a cucumber frame, whom should he meet but Mr.
+McGregor!
+
+Mr. McGregor was on his hands and knees planting out young cabbages, but
+he jumped up and ran after Peter, waving a rake and calling out, "Stop
+thief!"
+
+Peter was most dreadfully frightened; he rushed all over the garden, for
+he had forgotten the way back to the gate.
+
+He lost one of his shoes amongst the cabbages, and the other shoe
+amongst the potatoes.
+
+After losing them, he ran on four legs and went faster, so that I think
+he might have got away altogether if he had not unfortunately run into a
+gooseberry net, and got caught by the large buttons on his jacket. It
+was a blue jacket with brass buttons, quite new.
+
+Peter gave himself up for lost, and shed big tears; but his sobs were
+overheard by some friendly sparrows, who flew to him in great
+excitement, and implored him to exert himself.
+
+Mr. McGregor came up with a sieve, which he intended to pop upon the top
+of Peter; but Peter wriggled out just in time, leaving his jacket behind
+him, and rushed into the tool-shed, and jumped into a can. It would have
+been a beautiful thing to hide in, if it had not had so much water in
+it.
+
+Mr. McGregor was quite sure that Peter was somewhere in the tool-shed,
+perhaps hidden underneath a flower-pot. He began to turn them over
+carefully, looking under each.
+
+Presently Peter sneezed--"Kerty-schoo!" Mr. McGregor was after him in no
+time, and tried to put his foot upon Peter, who jumped out of a window,
+upsetting three plants. The window was too small for Mr. McGregor, and
+he was tired of running after Peter. He went back to his work.
+
+Peter sat down to rest; he was out of breath and trembling with fright,
+and he had not the least idea which way to go. Also he was very damp
+with sitting in that can.
+
+After a time he began to wander about, going lippity--lippity--not very
+fast, and looking all around.
+
+He found a door in a wall; but it was locked, and there was no room for
+a fat little rabbit to squeeze underneath.
+
+An old mouse was running in and out over the stone doorstep, carrying
+peas and beans to her family in the wood. Peter asked her the way to the
+gate, but she had such a large pea in her mouth that she could not
+answer. She only shook her head at him. Peter began to cry.
+
+Then he tried to find his way straight across the garden, but he became
+more and more puzzled. Presently, he came to a pond where Mr. McGregor
+filled his water-cans. A white cat was staring at some goldfish; she sat
+very, very still, but now and then the tip of her tail twitched as if it
+were alive. Peter thought it best to go away without speaking to her; he
+had heard about cats from his cousin, little Benjamin Bunny.
+
+He went back towards the tool-shed, but suddenly, quite close to him, he
+heard the noise of a hoe,--scr-r-ritch scratch, scratch, scritch. Peter
+scuttered underneath the bushes. But presently, as nothing happened, he
+came out, and climbed upon a wheelbarrow and peeped over. The first
+thing he saw was Mr. McGregor hoeing onions. His back was turned towards
+Peter, and beyond him was the gate!
+
+Peter got down very quietly off the wheelbarrow, and started running as
+fast as he could go, along a straight walk behind some black
+currant-bushes.
+
+Mr. McGregor caught sight of him at the corner, but Peter did not care.
+He slipped underneath the gate, and was safe at last in the wood outside
+the garden.
+
+Mr. McGregor hung up the little jacket and the shoes for a scare-crow to
+frighten the blackbirds.
+
+Peter never stopped running or looked behind him till he got home to the
+big fir-tree.
+
+He was so tired that he flopped down upon the nice soft sand on the
+floor of the rabbit-hole, and shut his eyes. His mother was busy
+cooking; she wondered what he had done with his clothes. It was the
+second little jacket and a pair of shoes that Peter had lost in a
+fortnight!
+
+I am sorry to say that Peter was not very well during the evening.
+
+His mother put him to bed, and made some camomile tea; and she gave a
+doze of it to Peter!
+
+"One table-spoonful to be taken at bed-time."
+
+But Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail had bread and milk and blackberries
+for supper.
+
+
+
+387
+
+ The next selection illustrates well the kind of
+ stories in the _Bedtime Story_ series of twenty
+ volumes by Thornton Waldo Burgess (1874--). The
+ books of this series are entitled _Adventures
+ of Johnny Chuck_, _Adventures of Buster Bear_,
+ _Adventures of Ol' Mistah Buzzard_, etc. These
+ books and the _Old Mother West Wind_ series of
+ eight volumes by the same author are enjoyed by
+ children in the second and third grades. Mr.
+ Burgess is an American author who has been
+ editor of several American magazines. (The
+ following selection is from _Old Mother West
+ Wind_, by permission of the publishers, Little,
+ Brown & Co., Boston.)
+
+
+JOHNNY CHUCK FINDS THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD
+
+THORNTON W. BURGESS
+
+Old Mother West Wind had stopped to talk with the Slender Fir Tree.
+
+"I've just come across the Green Meadows," said Old Mother West Wind,
+"and there I saw the Best Thing in the World."
+
+Striped Chipmunk was sitting under the Slender Fir Tree and he couldn't
+help hearing what Old Mother West Wind said. "The Best Thing in the
+World--now what can that be?" thought Striped Chipmunk. "Why, it must be
+heaps and heaps of nuts and acorns! I'll go and find it."
+
+So Striped Chipmunk started down the Lone Little Path through the wood
+as fast as he could run. Pretty soon he met Peter Rabbit.
+
+"Where are you going in such a hurry, Striped Chipmunk?" asked Peter
+Rabbit.
+
+"Down in the Green Meadows to find the Best Thing in the World," replied
+Striped Chipmunk, and ran faster.
+
+"The Best Thing in the World," said Peter Rabbit, "why, that must be a
+great pile of carrots and cabbage! I think I'll go and find it."
+
+So Peter Rabbit started down the Lone Little Path through the wood as
+fast as he could go after Striped Chipmunk.
+
+As they passed the great hollow tree Bobby Coon put his head out. "Where
+are you going in such a hurry?" asked Bobby Coon.
+
+"Down in the Green Meadows to find the Best Thing in the World!" shouted
+Striped Chipmunk and Peter Rabbit, and both began to run faster.
+
+"The Best Thing in the World," said Bobby Coon to himself, "why, that
+must be a whole field of sweet milky corn! I think I'll go and find it."
+
+So Bobby Coon climbed down out of the great hollow tree and started down
+the Lone Little Path through the wood as fast as he could go after
+Striped Chipmunk and Peter Rabbit, for there is nothing that Bobby Coon
+likes to eat so well as sweet milky corn.
+
+At the edge of the wood they met Jimmy Skunk.
+
+"Where are you going in such a hurry?" asked Jimmy Skunk.
+
+"Down in the Green Meadows to find the Best Thing in the World!" shouted
+Striped Chipmunk and Peter Rabbit and Bobby Coon. Then they all tried to
+run faster.
+
+"The Best Thing in the World," said Jimmy Skunk. "Why, that must be
+packs and packs of beetles!" And for once in his life Jimmy Skunk began
+to hurry down the Lone Little Path after Striped Chipmunk and Peter
+Rabbit and Bobby Coon.
+
+They were all running so fast that they didn't see Reddy Fox until he
+jumped out of the long grass and asked:
+
+"Where are you going in such a hurry?"
+
+"To find the Best Thing in the World!" shouted Striped Chipmunk and
+Peter Rabbit and Bobby Coon and Jimmy Skunk, and each did his best to
+run faster.
+
+"The Best Thing in the World," said Reddy Fox to himself. "Why, that
+must be a whole pen full of tender young chickens, and I must have
+them."
+
+So away went Reddy Fox as fast as he could run down the Lone Little Path
+after Striped Chipmunk, Peter Rabbit, Bobby Coon and Jimmy Skunk.
+
+By and by they all came to the house of Johnny Chuck.
+
+"Where are you going in such a hurry?" asked Johnny Chuck.
+
+"To find the Best Thing in the World," shouted Striped Chipmunk and
+Peter Rabbit and Bobby Coon and Jimmy Skunk and Reddy Fox.
+
+"The Best Thing in the World," said Johnny Chuck. "Why I don't know of
+anything better than my own little home and the warm sunshine and the
+beautiful blue sky."
+
+So Johnny Chuck stayed at home and played all day among the flowers with
+the Merry Little Breezes of Old Mother West Wind and was as happy as
+could be.
+
+But all day long Striped Chipmunk and Peter Rabbit and Bobby Coon and
+Jimmy Skunk and Reddy Fox ran this way and ran that way over the Green
+Meadows trying to find the Best Thing in the World. The sun was very,
+very warm and they ran so far and they ran so fast that they were very,
+very hot and tired, and still they hadn't found the Best Thing in the
+World.
+
+When the long day was over they started up the Lone Little Path past
+Johnny Chuck's house to their own homes. They didn't hurry now for they
+were so very, very tired! And they were cross--oh so cross! Striped
+Chipmunk hadn't found a single nut. Peter Rabbit hadn't found so much as
+the leaf of a cabbage. Bobby Coon hadn't found the tiniest bit of sweet
+milky corn. Jimmy Skunk hadn't seen a single beetle. Reddy Fox hadn't
+heard so much as the peep of a chicken. And all were as hungry as hungry
+could be.
+
+Half way up the Lone Little Path they met Old Mother West Wind going to
+her home behind the hill. "Did you find the Best Thing in the World?"
+asked Old Mother West Wind.
+
+"No!" shouted Striped Chipmunk and Peter Rabbit and Bobby Coon and Jimmy
+Skunk and Reddy Fox all together.
+
+"Johnny Chuck has it," said Old Mother West Wind. "It is being happy
+with the things you have and not wanting things which some one else has.
+And it is called Con-tent-ment."
+
+
+
+388
+
+ Albert Bigelow Paine (1861--), an American
+ author at one time connected with the editorial
+ department of _St. Nicholas Magazine_, has for
+ more than twenty years been known as the
+ biographer of Mark Twain. He is a popular
+ writer of stories for children. Pupils in the
+ fifth grade like his story _The Arkansaw Bear_.
+ Some of his books suitable for the third and
+ fourth grades are _Hollow-Tree Nights and
+ Days_, _The Hollow Tree_, and _The Deep Woods_.
+ ("Mr. 'Possum's Sick Spell" is from _Hollow-Tree
+ Nights and Days_, and is used by permission of
+ the publishers, Harper & Brothers, New York.)
+
+
+MR. 'POSSUM'S SICK SPELL
+
+ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE
+
+Once upon a time, said the Story Teller, something very sad nearly
+happened in the Hollow Tree. It was Mr. 'Possum's turn, one night, to
+go out and borrow a chicken from Mr. Man's roost, and coming home he
+fell into an old well and lost his chicken. He nearly lost himself, too,
+for the water was icy cold and Mr. 'Possum thought he would freeze to
+death before he could climb out, because the rocks were slippery and he
+fell back several times.
+
+As it was, he got home almost dead, and next morning was sicker than he
+had ever been before in his life. He had pains in his chest and other
+places, and was all stuffed up in his throat and very scared. The 'Coon
+and the Crow who lived in the Hollow Tree with him were scared, too.
+They put him to bed in the big room down-stairs, and said they thought
+they ought to send for somebody, and Mr. Crow said that Mr. Owl was a
+good hand with sick folks, because he looked so wise and didn't say
+much, which always made the patient think he knew something.
+
+So Mr. Crow hurried over and brought Mr. Owl, who put on his glasses and
+looked at Mr. 'Possum's tongue, and felt of his pulse, and listened to
+his breathing, and said that the cold water seemed to have struck in and
+that the only thing to do was for Mr. 'Possum to stay in bed and drink
+hot herb tea and not eat anything, which was a very bad prescription for
+Mr. 'Possum, because he hated herb tea and was very partial to eating.
+He groaned when he heard it and said he didn't suppose he'd ever live to
+enjoy himself again, and that he might just as well have stayed in the
+well with the chicken, which was a great loss and doing no good to
+anybody. Then Mr. Owl went away, and told the Crow outside that Mr.
+'Possum was a very sick man, and that at his time of life and in his
+state of flesh his trouble might go hard with him.
+
+So Mr. Crow went back into the kitchen and made up a lot of herb tea and
+kept it hot on the stove, and Mr. 'Coon sat by Mr. 'Possum's bed and
+made him drink it almost constantly, which Mr. 'Possum said might cure
+him if he didn't die of it before the curing commenced.
+
+He said if he just had that chicken, made up with a good platter of
+dumplings, he believed it would do him more good than anything, and he
+begged the 'Coon to go and fish it out, or to catch another one, and try
+it on him, and then if he did die he would at least have fewer regrets.
+
+But the Crow and the 'Coon said they must do as Mr. Owl ordered, unless
+Mr. 'Possum wanted to change doctors, which was not a good plan until
+the case became hopeless, and that would probably not be before some
+time in the night. Mr. 'Coon said, though, there was no reason why that
+nice chicken should be wasted, and as it would still be fresh, he would
+rig up a hook and line and see if he couldn't save it. So he got out his
+fishing things and made a grab hook and left Mr. Crow to sit by Mr.
+'Possum until he came back. He could follow Mr. 'Possum's track to the
+place, and in a little while he had the fine, fat chicken, and came home
+with it and showed it to the patient, who had a sinking spell when he
+looked at it, and turned his face to the wall and said he seemed to have
+lived in vain.
+
+Mr. Crow, who always did the cooking, said he'd better put the chicken
+on right away, under the circumstances, and then he remembered a bottle
+of medicine he had once seen sitting on Mr. Man's window-sill outside,
+and he said while the chicken was cooking he'd just step over and get
+it, as it might do the patient good, and it didn't seem as if anything
+now could do him any harm.
+
+So the Crow dressed the nice chicken and put it in the pot with the
+dumplings, and while Mr. 'Coon dosed Mr. 'Possum with the hot herb tea
+Mr. Crow slipped over to Mr. Man's house and watched a good chance when
+the folks were at dinner, and got the bottle and came back with it and
+found Mr. 'Possum taking a nap and the 'Coon setting the table; for the
+dinner was about done and there was a delicious smell of dumplings and
+chicken, which made Mr. 'Possum begin talking in his sleep about
+starving to death in the midst of plenty. Then he woke up and seemed to
+suffer a good deal, and the Crow gave him a dose of Mr. Man's medicine,
+and said that if Mr. 'Possum was still with them next morning they'd
+send for another doctor.
+
+Mr. 'Possum took the medicine and choked on it, and when he could speak
+said he wouldn't be with them. He could tell by his feelings, he said,
+that he would never get through this day of torture, and he wanted to
+say some last words. Then he said that he wanted the 'Coon to have his
+Sunday suit, which was getting a little tight for him and would just
+about fit Mr. 'Coon, and that he wanted the Crow to have his pipe and
+toilet articles, to remember him by. He said he had tried to do well by
+them since they had all lived together in the Hollow Tree, and he
+supposed it would be hard for them to get along without him, but that
+they would have to do the best they could. Then he guessed he'd try to
+sleep a little, and closed his eyes. Mr. 'Coon looked at Mr. Crow and
+shook his head, and they didn't feel like sitting down to dinner right
+away, and pretty soon when they thought Mr. 'Possum was asleep they
+slipped softly up to his room to see how sad it would seem without him.
+
+Well, they had only been gone a minute when Mr. 'Possum woke up, for the
+smell of that chicken and dumpling coming in from Mr. Crow's kitchen was
+too much for him. When he opened his eyes and found that Mr. 'Coon and
+Mr. Crow were not there, and that he felt a little better--perhaps
+because of Mr. Man's medicine--he thought he might as well step out and
+take one last look at chicken and dumpling, anyway.
+
+It was quite warm, but, being all in a sweat, he put the bed-sheet
+around him to protect him from the draughts and went out to the stove
+and looked into the pot, and when he saw how good it looked he thought
+he might as well taste of it to see if it was done. So he did, and it
+tasted so good and seemed so done that he got out a little piece of
+dumpling on a fork, and blew on it to cool it, and ate it, and then
+another piece and then the whole dumpling, which he sopped around in the
+gravy after each bite. Then when the dumpling was gone he fished up a
+chicken leg and ate that and then a wing, and then the gizzard and felt
+better all the time, and pretty soon poured out a cup of coffee and
+drank that, all before he remembered that he was sick abed and not
+expected to recover. Then he happened to think and started back to bed,
+but on the way there he heard Mr. 'Coon and Mr. Crow talking softly in
+his room and he forgot again that he was so sick and went up to see
+about it.
+
+Mr. 'Coon and Mr. Crow had been quite busy up in Mr. 'Possum's room.
+They had looked at all the things, and Mr. Crow remarked that there
+seemed to be a good many which Mr. 'Possum had not mentioned, and which
+they could divide afterward. Then he picked up Mr. 'Possum's pipe and
+tried it to see if it would draw well, as he had noticed, he said, that
+Mr. 'Possum sometimes had trouble with it, and the 'Coon went over to
+the closet and looked at Mr. 'Possum's Sunday suit, and pretty soon got
+it out and tried on the coat, which wouldn't need a thing done to it to
+make it fit exactly. He said he hoped Mr. 'Possum was resting well,
+after the medicine, which he supposed was something to make him sleep,
+as he had seemed drowsy so soon after taking it. He said it would be
+sad, of course, though it might seem almost a blessing, if Mr. 'Possum
+should pass away in his sleep, without knowing it, and he hoped Mr.
+'Possum would rest in peace and not come back to distress people, as one
+of Mr. 'Coon's own ancestors had done, a good while ago. Mr. 'Coon said
+his mother used to tell them about it when she wanted to keep them at
+home nights, though he didn't really believe in such things much, any
+more, and he didn't think Mr. 'Possum would be apt to do it, anyway,
+because he was always quite a hand to rest well. Of course, _any one_
+was likely to _think_ of such things, he said, and get a little nervous,
+especially at a time like this--and just then Mr. 'Coon looked toward
+the door that led down to the big room, and Mr. Crow he looked toward
+that door, too, and Mr. 'Coon gave a great jump, and said:
+
+"Oh, my goodness!" and fell back over Mr. 'Possum's trunk.
+
+And Mr. Crow he gave a great jump, too, and said:
+
+"Oh, my gracious!" and fell back over Mr. 'Possum's chair.
+
+For there in the door stood a figure shrouded all in white, all except
+the head, which was Mr. 'Possum's, though very solemn, its eyes looking
+straight at Mr. 'Coon, who still had on Mr. 'Possum's coat, though he
+was doing his best to get it off, and at Mr. Crow, who still had Mr.
+'Possum's pipe, though he was trying every way to hide it, and both of
+them were scrabbling around on the floor and saying, "Oh, Mr. 'Possum,
+go away--please go away, Mr. 'Possum--we always loved you, Mr.
+'Possum--we can prove it."
+
+But Mr. 'Possum looked straight at Mr. 'Coon, and said in a deep voice:
+
+"What were you doing with my Sunday coat on?"
+
+And Mr. 'Coon tried to say something, but only made a few weak noises.
+
+And Mr. 'Possum looked at Mr. Crow and said:
+
+"What were you doing with my pipe?"
+
+And a little sweat broke out on Mr. Crow's bill, and he opened his mouth
+as if he were going to say something, but couldn't make a sound.
+
+Then Mr. 'Possum said, in a slow voice, so deep that it seemed to come
+from down in the ground:
+
+"_Give me my things!_"
+
+And Mr. 'Coon and Mr. Crow said, very shaky:
+
+"Oh y-yes, Mr. 'Possum, w-we meant to, a-all the t-time."
+
+And they tried to get up, but were so scared and weak they couldn't, and
+all at once Mr. 'Possum gave a great big laugh and threw off his sheet
+and sat down on a stool, and rocked and laughed, and Mr. 'Coon and Mr.
+Crow realized then that it was Mr. 'Possum himself, and not just his
+appearance, as they had thought. Then they sat up, and pretty soon began
+to laugh, too, though not very gaily at first, but feeling more cheerful
+every minute, because Mr. 'Possum himself seemed to enjoy it so much.
+
+Then Mr. 'Possum told them about everything, and how Mr. Man's medicine
+must have made him well, for all his pains and sorrows had left him, and
+he invited them down to help finish up the chicken which had cost him so
+much suffering.
+
+So then they all went down to the big room and the Crow brought in the
+big platter of dumplings, and a pan of biscuits and some molasses, and a
+pot of coffee, and they all sat down and celebrated Mr. 'Possum's
+recovery. And when they were through, and everything was put away, they
+smoked, and Mr. 'Possum said he was glad he was there to use his
+property a little more, and that probably his coat would fit him again
+now, as his sickness had caused him to lose flesh. He said that Mr.
+Man's medicine was certainly wonderful, but just then Mr. Rabbit dropped
+in, and when they told him about it, he said of course the medicine
+might have had some effect, but that the dumplings and chicken caused
+the real cure. He said there was an old adage to prove that--one that
+his thirty-fifth great-grandfather had made for just such a case of this
+kind. This, Mr. Rabbit said, was the adage:
+
+ "If you want to live forever
+ Stuff a cold and starve a fever."
+
+Mr. 'Possum's trouble had come from catching cold, he said, so the
+dumplings were probably just what he needed. Then Mr. Owl dropped in to
+see how his patient was, and when he saw him sitting up, and smoking,
+and well, he said it was wonderful how his treatment had worked, and the
+Hollow Tree people didn't tell him any different, for they didn't like
+to hurt Mr. Owl's feelings.
+
+
+
+389
+
+ Prominent among writers of the new realistic
+ nature literature is Dallas Lore Sharp
+ (1870--), professor of English in Boston
+ University. Mr. Sharp's stories and descriptive
+ sketches of nature reveal charming details in
+ out-of-door life that the ordinary observer
+ overlooks, and they encourage the reader to
+ seek entertainment in fields and woods. Most of
+ his nature writings are suitable for pupils in
+ grades from the fifth to the eighth. Some of
+ his books are _Beyond the Pasture Bars_, _A
+ Watcher in the Woods_, _Roof and Meadow_, and
+ _Where Rolls the Oregon_. ("Wild Life in the
+ Farm Yard," from _Beyond the Pasture Bars_, is
+ used by permission of The Century Co., New York
+ City.)
+
+
+WILD LIFE IN THE FARM-YARD
+
+DALLAS LORE SHARP
+
+I want you to visit a farm where there are turkeys and geese and
+guineas. If you live in New York City or in Chicago you may not be able
+to do so for some time. Then take a trip to the market or to the
+zooelogical gardens. But most of you live close enough to the country, so
+that you could easily find a farmer who would invite you out to see his
+prize gobbler and his great hissing gander.
+
+However, I shall not wait to _send_ you for I am going to _take_
+you--now--out to an old farm that I loved as a boy where there are
+turkeys and geese and guineas and pigs and pigeons, cows and horses and
+mules, cats and dogs, chickens and bees and sheep, and a hornets' nest
+and a nest of flying squirrels in the same old grindstone apple-tree,
+and a pair of barn owls in the old wagon house, and--I don't know what
+else; for there was everything on the old farm when I was a boy, and I
+suppose we shall find everything there yet.
+
+I want you to see the turkeys. I want you to follow an old hen turkey to
+her stolen nest. I want you to watch the old gobbler turkey take his
+family to bed--to roost, I mean. For unless you are a boy, and are
+living in the wild portions of Georgia and the southeastern states, you
+may never see a wild turkey. For that reason I want you to watch this
+tame turkey, because he is almost as wild as a wild turkey in everything
+except his fear of you. He has been tamed, we know, since the year 1526,
+yet not one of his wild habits has been changed.
+
+So it is with the house cat. We have tamed the house cat, but we have
+not changed the wild, night-prowling hunter in him. You have to smooth a
+cat the right way, or the _wild_ cat in him will scratch and bite you.
+Have you never seen his tail twitch, his eyes blaze, his claws work as
+he has crouched watching at a rat's hole, or crawled stealthily upon a
+bird in the meadow grass?
+
+So, if you will watch, you shall see a real wild turkey in the tamest
+old gobbler on the farm.
+
+Watch him go to roost. Watch him get _ready_ to go to roost, I should
+say, for a turkey seems to begin to think of roosting about noon-time,
+especially in the winter; and it takes him from about noon till night to
+make up his mind that he really must go to roost.
+
+He comes along under the apple-tree of a December afternoon and looks up
+at the leafless limbs where he has been roosting since summer. He
+stretches his long neck, lays his little brainless head over on one
+side, then over on the other. He takes a good _long_ look at the limb.
+Then bobs his head--one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-_ten_
+times, or perhaps twenty-two or -three times, and takes a still _longer_
+look at the limb, saying to himself--_quint, quint, quint, quint!_ which
+means: "I think I'll go to roost! I think _I'll_ go to roost! I think
+I'll go to _roost_! I think I'll _go_ to roost! I think I'll go _to_
+roost! I _think_ I'll go to roost!" He _thinks_ he will, but he hasn't
+made up his mind quite.
+
+Then he stretches his long neck again, lays his little witless head on
+the side again, bobs and bobs, looks and looks and looks, says _quint,
+quint, quint, quint_--"I _think_ I'll go to roost," but is just as
+undecided as ever.
+
+He does the performance over and over again and would never go to roost
+if the darkness did not come and compel him. He would stand under that
+tree stretching, turning, looking, bobbing, "squinting," _thinking_,
+until he thought his head off, saying all the while--
+
+ One for the money; two for the show;
+ Three to get ready; and four to--_get ready to go!_
+
+But after a while, along toward dusk (and awfully suddenly!)--_flop!
+gobble! splutter! whoop!_--and there he is, up on the limb, safe! Really
+safe! But it was an exceedingly close call.
+
+And this is the very way the wild turkey acts. The naturalists who had a
+chance to study the great flocks of wild turkeys years ago describe
+these same absurd actions. This lack of snap and decision is not
+something the tame turkey has learned in the farm-yard. The fact is he
+does not seem to have learned anything during his 350 years in the
+barn-yard, nor does he seem to have forgotten anything that he knew as a
+wild turkey in the woods, except his fear of man.
+
+Late in October the wild turkeys of a given neighborhood would get
+together in flocks of from ten to a hundred and travel on foot through
+the rich bottom lands in search of food. In these journeys the males
+would go ahead, apart from the females, and lead the way. The hens, each
+conducting her family in a more or less separate group, came straggling
+leisurely along in the rear. As they advanced, they would meet other
+flocks, thus swelling their numbers.
+
+After a time they were sure to come to a river--a dreadful thing, for,
+like the river of the old song, it was a river _to cross_. Up and down
+the banks would stalk the gobblers, stretching their necks out over the
+water and making believe to start, as they do when going to roost in the
+apple-trees.
+
+All day long, all the next day, all the third day, if the river was
+wide, they would strut and cluck along the shore, making up their minds.
+
+The ridiculous creatures have wings; they can fly; but they are afraid!
+After all these days, however, the whole flock has mounted the tallest
+trees along the bank. One of the gobblers has come forward as leader in
+the emergency. Suddenly, from his perch, he utters a single cluck--the
+signal for the start,--and every turkey sails into the air. There is a
+great flapping--and the terrible river is crossed.
+
+A few weak members fall on the way over, but not to drown. Drawing their
+wings close in against their sides, and spreading their round fan-like
+tails to the breeze, they strike out as if born to swim, and come
+quickly to land.
+
+The tame turkey-hen is notorious for stealing her nest. The wild hen
+steals hers--not to plague her owner, of course, as is the common belief
+about the domestic turkey, but to get away from the gobbler, who, in
+order to prolong the honeymoon, will break the eggs as fast as they are
+laid. He has just enough brains to be sentimental, jealous, and
+boundlessly fond of himself. His wives, too, are foolish enough to
+worship him, until--there is an egg in the nest. That event makes them
+wise. They understand this strutting coxcomb, and quietly turning their
+backs on him, leave him to parade alone.
+
+There are crows, also, and buzzards from whom the wild turkey hen must
+hide the eggs. Nor dare she forget her own danger while sitting, for
+there are foxes, owls, and prowling lynxes ready enough to pounce upon
+her. On the farm there are still many of these enemies besides the worst
+of them all, the farmer himself.
+
+For a nest the wild hen, like the tame turkey of the pasture, scratches
+a slight depression in the ground, usually under a thick bush, sometimes
+in a hollow log, and there lays from twelve to twenty eggs, which are
+somewhat smaller and more elongated than the tame turkey's, but of the
+same color: dull cream, sprinkled with reddish dots.
+
+I have often hunted for stolen turkey nests, and hunted in vain, because
+the cautious mother had covered her eggs when leaving them. This is one
+of the wild habits that has persisted. The wild hen, as the hatching
+approaches, will not trust even this precaution, however, but remains
+without food and drink upon the nest until the chicks can be led off.
+She can scarcely be driven from the nest, often allowing herself to be
+captured first.
+
+Mother-love burns fierce in her. Such helpless things are her chicks!
+She hears them peeping in the shell and breaks it to help them out. She
+preens and dries them and keeps them close under her for days.
+
+Not for a week after they are hatched does she allow them out in a rain.
+If, after that, they get a cold wetting, the wild mother, it is said,
+will feed the buds of the spice-bush to her brood, as our grandmothers
+used to administer mint tea to us.
+
+The tame hen does seem to have lost something of this wild-mother skill,
+doubtless because for many generations she has been entirely freed of
+the larger part of the responsibility.
+
+I never knew a tame mother turkey to doctor her infants for vermin. But
+the wild hen will. The woods are full of ticks and detestable vermin as
+deadly as cold rains. When her brood begins to lag and pine, the wild
+mother knows, and leading them to some old ant-hill, she gives them a
+sousing dust-bath. The vermin hate the odor of the ant-scented dust, and
+after a series of these baths disappear.
+
+This is wise; and if this report be true, then the wild turkey is as
+wise and far-seeing a mother as the woods contain. One observer even
+tells of three hens that stole off together and fixed up a nest between
+themselves. Each put in her eggs--forty-two in all--and each took turns
+guarding, so that the nest was never left alone.
+
+What special enemy caused this unique partnership the naturalist does
+not say. The three mothers built together, brooded together, and
+together guarded the nest. But how did those three mothers divide the
+babies?
+
+I said I wanted you to visit a farm where there are turkeys. And you
+will have to if you would see the turkey at home. For, though I have
+traveled through the South, and been in the swamps and river "bottoms"
+there all along the Savannah, with wild turkeys around me, I have never
+seen a live one.
+
+I was in a small steamboat on the Savannah River one night. We were tied
+up till morning along the river bank under the trees of the deep swamp.
+Twilight and the swamp silence had settled about us. The moon came up. A
+banjo had been twanging, but the breakdown was done, the shuffling feet
+quiet. The little cottonboat had become a part of the moonlit silence
+and the river swamp.
+
+Two or three roustabouts were lounging upon some rosin-barrels near by,
+under the spell of the round autumnal moon. There was frost in the air,
+and fragrant odors, but not a sound, not a cry or call of beast or bird,
+until, suddenly, breaking through the silence with a jarring eery echo,
+was heard the hoot of the great horned owl.
+
+One of the roustabouts dropped quickly to the deck and held up his hand
+for silence. We all listened. And again came the uncanny
+_Whoo-hoo-hoo-whoo-you-oh-oh!_
+
+"Dat ol' King Owl," whispered the darky. "Him's lookin' fer turkey. Ol'
+gobbler done gone hid, I reckon. Listen! Ol' King Owl gwine make ol'
+gobbler talk back."
+
+We listened, but there was no frightened "gobble" from the tree-tops.
+There were wild turkeys all around me in the swamp; but, though I sat up
+until the big southern moon rode high overhead, I heard no answer, no
+challenge to the echoing hoot of the great owl. The next day a colored
+boy brought aboard the boat a wild turkey which he had shot in the
+swamp; but I am still waiting to see and hear the great bronze bird
+alive in its native haunts.
+
+
+
+390
+
+ Vernon L. Kellogg (1867--) is a professor in
+ Leland Stanford Junior University whose
+ writings have been chiefly scientific. His
+ _Insect Stories_, from which the next selection
+ is taken, is an interesting and instructive
+ group of stories suitable for pupils in the
+ third, fourth, or fifth grade. A later book is
+ called _Nuova, the New Bee_. ("The Vendetta" is
+ used by permission of the publishers, Henry
+ Holt & Co., New York City.)
+
+
+THE VENDETTA
+
+VERNON L. KELLOGG
+
+This is the story of a fight. In the first story of this book, I said
+that Mary and I had seen a remarkable fight one evening at sundown on
+the slopes of the bare brown foothills west of the campus. It was not a
+battle of armies--we have seen that, too, in the little world we
+watch,--but a combat of gladiators, a struggle between two champions
+born and bred for fighting, and particularly for fighting each other.
+One champion was Eurypelma, the great, black, hairy, eight-legged,
+strong-fanged tarantula of California, and the other was Pepsis, a
+mighty wasp in dull-blue mail, with rusty-red wings and a poisonous
+javelin of a sting that might well frighten either you or me. Do you
+have any wasp in your neighborhood of the ferocity and strength and size
+of Pepsis? If not, you can hardly realize what a terrible creature she
+is. With her strong hard-cased body an inch and a half long, borne on
+powerful wings that expand fully three inches, and her long and strong
+needle-pointed sting that darts in and out like a flash and is always
+full of virulent poison, Pepsis is certainly queen of all the wasp
+amazons. But if that is so, no less is Eurypelma greatest, most
+dreadful, and fiercest, and hence king, of all the spiders in this
+country. In South America and perhaps elsewhere in the tropics, live the
+fierce bird-spiders with thick legs extending three inches or more on
+each side of their ugly hairy bodies. Eurypelma, the California
+tarantula, is not quite so large as that, nor does he stalk, pounce on
+and kill little birds as his South American cousin is said to do, but he
+is nevertheless a tremendous and fear-inspiring creature among the small
+beasties of field and meadow.
+
+But not all Eurypelmas are so ferocious; or at least are not ferocious
+all the time. There are individual differences among them. Perhaps it is
+a matter of age or health. Anyway, I had a pet tarantula which I kept in
+an open jar in my room for several weeks, and I could handle him with
+impunity. He would sit gently on my hand, or walk deliberately up my
+arm, with his eight, fixed, shining, little reddish eyes staring hard
+at me, and his long seven-jointed hairy legs swinging gently and
+rhythmically along, without a sign of hesitation or excitement. His hair
+was almost gray and perhaps this hoariness and general sedateness
+betokened a ripe old age. But his great fangs were unblunted, his supply
+of poison undiminished, and his skill in striking and killing his prey
+still perfect, as often proved at his feeding times. He is quite the
+largest Eurypelma I have ever seen. He measures--for I still have his
+body, carefully stuffed, and fastened on a block with legs all spread
+out--five inches from tip to tip of opposite legs.
+
+At the same time that I had this hoary old tarantula, I had another
+smaller, coal-black fellow who went into a perfect ecstasy of anger and
+ferocity every time any one came near him. He would stand on his hind
+legs and paw wildly with fore legs and palpi, and lunge forward fiercely
+at my inquisitive pencil. I found him originally in the middle of an
+entry into a classroom, holding at bay an entire excited class of art
+students armed with mahl-sticks and paint-brushes. The students were
+mostly women, and I was hailed as deliverer and greatest _dompteur_ of
+beasts when I scooped Eurypelma up in a bottle and walked off with him.
+
+But this is not telling of the sundown fight that Mary and I saw
+together. We had been over to the sand-cut by the golf links, after
+mining-bees, and were coming home with a fine lot of their holes and
+some of the bees themselves, when Mary suddenly called to me to "see the
+nice tarantula."
+
+Perhaps nice isn't the best word for him, but he certainly was an
+unusually imposing and fluffy-haired and fierce-looking brute of a
+tarantula. He had rather an owly way about him, as if he had come out
+from his hole too early and was dazed and half-blinded by the light.
+Tarantulas are night prowlers; they do all their hunting after dark, dig
+their holes and, indeed, carry on all the various businesses of their
+life in the night-time. The occasional one found walking about in
+daytime has made a mistake, someway, and he blunders around quite like
+an owl in the sunshine.
+
+All of a sudden, while Mary and I were smiling at this too early bird of
+a tarantula, he went up on his hind legs in fighting attitude, and at
+the same instant down darted a great tarantula hawk, that is, a Pepsis
+wasp. Her armored body glinted cool and metallic in the red sunset
+light, and her great wings had a suggestive shining of dull fire about
+them. She checked her swoop just before reaching Eurypelma, and made a
+quick dart over him, and then a quick turn back, intending to catch the
+tarantula in the rear. But lethargic and owly as Eurypelma had been a
+moment before, he was now all alertness and agility. He had to be. He
+was defending his life. One full fair stab of the poisoned javelin,
+sheathed but ready at the tip of the flexible, blue-black body hovering
+over him, and it would be over with Eurypelma. And he knew it. Or
+perhaps he didn't. But he acted as if he did. He was going to do his
+best not to be stabbed; that was sure. And Pepsis was going to do her
+best to stab; that also was quickly certain.
+
+At the same time Pepsis knew--or anyway acted as if she did--that to be
+struck by one or both of those terrible vertical, poison-filled fangs
+was sure death. It would be like a blow from a battle-axe, with the
+added horror of mortal poison poured into the wound.
+
+So Eurypelma about-faced like a flash, and Pepsis was foiled in her
+strategy. She flew up and a yard away, then returned to the attack. She
+flew about in swift circles over his head, preparatory to darting in
+again. But Eurypelma was ready. As she swooped viciously down, he lunged
+up and forward with a half-leap, half-forward fall, and came within an
+ace of striking the trailing blue-black abdomen with his reaching fangs.
+Indeed it seemed to Mary and me as if they really grazed the metallic
+body. But evidently they had not pierced the smooth armor. Nor had
+Pepsis in that breathless moment of close quarters been able to plant
+her lance. She whirled, up high this time but immediately back, although
+a little more wary evidently, for she checked her downward plunge three
+or four inches from the dancing champion on the ground. And so for wild
+minute after minute it went on; Eurypelma always up and tip-toeing on
+those strong hind legs, with open, armed mouth always toward the point
+of attack, and Pepsis ever darting down, up, over, across, and in and
+out in dizzy dashes, but never quite closing.
+
+Were Mary and I excited? Not a word could we utter; only now and then a
+swift intake of breath; a stifled "O" or "Ah" or "See." And then of a
+sudden came the end. Pepsis saw her chance. A lightning swoop carried
+her right on to the hairy champion. The quivering lance shot home. The
+poison coursed into the great soft body. But at the same moment the
+terrible fangs struck fair on the blue armor and crashed through it. Two
+awful wounds, and the wings of dull fire beat violently only to strike
+up a little cloud of dust and whirl the mangled body around and around.
+Fortunately Death was merciful, and the brave amazon made a quick end.
+
+But what of Eurypelma, the killer? Was it well with him? The sting-made
+wound itself was of little moment; it closed as soon as the lancet
+withdrew. But not before the delicate poison sac at its base inside the
+wasp-body had contracted and squirted down the slender hollow of the
+sting a drop of liquid fire. And so it was not well with Eurypelma in
+his insides. Victor he seemed to be, but if he could think, he must have
+had grave doubts about the joys of victory.
+
+For a curious drowsiness was coming over him. Perhaps, disquieting
+thought, it was the approaching stupor of the poison's working. His
+strong long legs became limp, they would not work regularly, they could
+not hold his heavy hairy body up from the ground. He would get into his
+hole and rest. But it was too late. And after a few uneven steps, victor
+Eurypelma settled heavily down beside his amazon victim, inert and
+forevermore beyond fighting. He was paralyzed.
+
+And so Mary and I brought him home in our collecting box, together with
+the torn body of Pepsis with her wings of slow fire dulled by the dust
+of her last struggles. And though it is a whole month now since
+Eurypelma received his stab from the poisoned javelin of Pepsis, he has
+not recovered; nor will he ever. When you touch him, he draws up slowly
+one leg after another, or moves a palpus feebly. But it is living death;
+a hopeless paralytic is the king.
+
+Dear reader, you are of course as bright as Mary, and so you have
+noticed, as she did right away, the close parallel between what happened
+to Eurypelma and what happened to the measuring-worms brought by
+Ammophila to her nest burrow as described in the first story in this
+book. And so, like Mary, you realize that the vendetta or life feud
+between the tarantula family and the family of Pepsis, the tarantula
+hawk, is based on reasons of domestic economy rather than on those of
+sentiment, which determine vendettas in Corsica and feuds in Kentucky.
+
+To be quite plain, Pepsis fights Eurypelma to get his huge, juicy body
+for food for her young; and Eurypelma fights Pepsis to keep from
+becoming paralyzed provender. If Pepsis had escaped unhurt in the combat
+at which Mary and I "assisted," as the French say, as enthralled
+spectators, we should have seen her drag by mighty effort the limp,
+paralyzed, spider giant to her nest hole not far distant--a great hole
+twelve inches deep and with a side chamber at the bottom. There she
+would have thrust him down the throat of the burrow, and then crawled in
+and laid an egg on the helpless beast, from which in time would have
+hatched the carnivorous wasp grub. Pepsis has many close allies among
+the wasps, all black or steely blue with smoky or dull-bronze wings, and
+they all use spiders, stung and paralyzed, to store their nest holes
+with.
+
+"Do the little black and blue wasps hunt the little spiders and the
+larger ones the big spiders?" asked Mary.
+
+"Exactly," I respond, "and the giant wasp of them all, Pepsis, the queen
+of the wasp amazons, hunts only the biggest spider of them all,
+Eurypelma, the tarantula king, and we have seen her do it."
+
+"Well," says Mary, "even if she wants him for her children to eat, it's
+a real vendetta, isn't it?"
+
+"Indeed it is," I answer, "it's more real, and fiercer, and more
+relentless, and more persistent than any human vendetta that ever was.
+For every Pepsis mother in the world is always hunting for Eurypelmas to
+fight. And not _all_ Corsicans have a vendetta on hand, nor all
+Kentuckians a feud."
+
+
+
+391
+
+ Sewell Ford (1868-) is noted for his fine
+ stories about horses, especially those in
+ _Horses Nine_, from which the following story
+ of "Pasha" is taken. (By permission of the
+ publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.)
+ Pasha plays a most important part in a human
+ romance with war as a background, and the
+ combination is very effective. Mr. Ford's
+ _Torchy_ stories are also very popular with
+ young people.
+
+
+PASHA, THE SON OF SELIM
+
+SEWELL FORD
+
+Long, far too long, has the story of Pasha, son of Selim, remained
+untold.
+
+The great Selim, you know, was brought from far across the seas, where
+he had been sold for a heavy purse by a venerable sheik, who tore his
+beard during the bargain and swore by Allah that without Selim there
+would be for him no joy in life. Also he had wept quite convincingly on
+Selim's neck--but he finished by taking the heavy purse. That was how
+Selim, the great Selim, came to end his days in Fayette County,
+Kentucky. Of his many sons, Pasha was one.
+
+In almost idyllic manner were spent the years of Pasha's coltdom. They
+were years of pasture roaming and blue grass cropping. When the time was
+ripe, began the hunting lessons. Pasha came to know the feel of the
+saddle and the voice of the hounds. He was taught the long, easy lope.
+He learned how to gather himself for a sail through the air over a
+hurdle or a water-jump. Then when he could take five bars clean, when he
+could clear an eight-foot ditch, when his wind was so sound that he
+could lead the chase from dawn until high noon, he was sent to the
+stables of a Virginia tobacco-planter who had need of a new hunter and
+who could afford Arab blood.
+
+In the stalls at Gray Oaks stables were many good hunters, but none
+better than Pasha. Cream-white he was, from the tip of his splendid,
+yard-long tail to his pink-lipped muzzle. His coat was as silk plush,
+his neck as supple as a swan's, and out of his big, bright eyes there
+looked such intelligence that one half expected him to speak. His lines
+were all long, graceful curves, and when he danced daintily on his
+slender legs one could see the muscles flex under the delicate skin.
+
+Miss Lou claimed Pasha for her very own at first sight. As no one at
+Gray Oaks denied Miss Lou anything at all, to her he belonged from that
+instant. Of Miss Lou, Pasha approved thoroughly. She knew that
+bridle-reins were for gentle guidance, not for sawing or jerking, and
+that a riding-crop was of no use whatever save to unlatch a gate or to
+cut at an unruly hound. She knew how to rise on the stirrup when Pasha
+lifted himself in his stride, and how to settle close to the pig-skin
+when his hoofs hit the ground. In other words, she had a good seat,
+which means as much to the horse as it does to the rider.
+
+Besides all this, it was Miss Lou who insisted that Pasha should have
+the best of grooming, and she never forgot to bring the dainties which
+Pasha loved, an apple or a carrot or a sugarplum. It is something, too,
+to have your nose patted by a soft gloved hand and to have such a person
+as Miss Lou put her arm around your neck and whisper in your ear. From
+no other than Miss Lou would Pasha permit such intimacy.
+
+No paragon, however, was Pasha. He had a temper, and his whims were as
+many as those of a school-girl. He was particular as to who put on his
+bridle. He had notions concerning the manner in which a currycomb should
+be used. A red ribbon or a bandanna handkerchief put him in a rage,
+while green, the holy color of the Mohammedan, soothed his nerves. A
+lively pair of heels he had, and he knew how to use his teeth. The black
+stable-boys found that out, and so did the stern-faced man who was known
+as "Mars" Clayton. This "Mars" Clayton had ridden Pasha once, had ridden
+him as he rode his big, ugly, hard-bitted roan hunter, and Pasha had not
+enjoyed the ride. Still, Miss Lou and Pasha often rode out with "Mars"
+Clayton and the parrot-nosed roan. That is, they did until the coming of
+Mr. Dave.
+
+In Mr. Dave, Pasha found a new friend. From a far Northern State was Mr.
+Dave. He had come in a ship to buy tobacco, but after he had bought his
+cargo he still stayed at Gray Oaks, "to complete Pasha's education," so
+he said.
+
+Many ways had Mr. Dave which Pasha liked. He had a gentle manner of
+talking to you, of smoothing your flanks and rubbing your ears, which
+gained your confidence and made you sure that he understood. He was firm
+and sure in giving command, yet so patient in teaching one tricks, that
+it was a pleasure to learn.
+
+So, almost before Pasha knew it, he could stand on his hind legs, could
+step around in a circle in time to a tune which Mr. Dave whistled, and
+could do other things which few horses ever learn to do. His chief
+accomplishment, however, was to kneel on his forelegs in the attitude of
+prayer. A long time it took Pasha to learn this, but Mr. Dave told him
+over and over again, by word and sign, until at last the son of the
+great Selim could strike a pose such as would have done credit to a
+Mecca pilgrim.
+
+"It's simply wonderful!" declared Miss Lou.
+
+But it was nothing of the sort. Mr. Dave had been teaching tricks to
+horses ever since he was a small boy, and never had he found such an apt
+pupil as Pasha.
+
+Many a glorious gallop did Pasha and Miss Lou have while Mr. Dave stayed
+at Gray Oaks, Dave riding the big bay gelding that Miss Lou, with all
+her daring, had never ventured to mount. It was not all galloping
+though, for Pasha and the big bay often walked for miles through the
+wood lanes, side by side and very close together, while Miss Lou and Mr.
+Dave talked, talked, talked. How they could ever find so much to say to
+each other Pasha wondered.
+
+But at last Mr. Dave went away, and with his going ended good times for
+Pasha, at least for many months. There followed strange doings. There
+was much excitement among the stable-boys, much riding about, day and
+night, by the men of Gray Oaks, and no hunting at all. One day the
+stables were cleared of all horses save Pasha.
+
+"Some time, if he is needed badly, you may have Pasha, but not now."
+Miss Lou had said. And then she had hidden her face in his cream-white
+mane and sobbed. Just what the trouble was Pasha did not understand, but
+he was certain "Mars" Clayton was at the bottom of it.
+
+No longer did Miss Lou ride about the country. Occasionally she galloped
+up and down the highway, to the Pointdexters and back, just to let Pasha
+stretch his legs. Queer sights Pasha saw on these trips. Sometimes he
+would pass many men on horses riding close together in a pack, as the
+hounds run when they have the scent. They wore strange clothing, did
+these men, and they carried, instead of riding-crops, big shiny knives
+that swung at their sides. The sight of them set Pasha's nerves
+tingling. He would sniff curiously after them and then prick forward his
+ears and dance nervously.
+
+Of course Pasha knew that something unusual was going on, but what it
+was he could not guess. There came a time, however, when he found out
+all about it. Months had passed when, late one night, a hard-breathing,
+foam-splotched, mud-covered horse was ridden into the yard and taken
+into the almost deserted stable. Pasha heard the harsh voice of "Mars"
+Clayton swearing at the stable-boy. Pasha heard his own name spoken, and
+guessed that it was he who was wanted. Next came Miss Lou to the
+stable.
+
+"I'm very sorry," he heard "Mars" Clayton say, "but I've got to get out
+of this. The Yanks are not more than five miles behind."
+
+"But you'll take good care of him, won't you?" he heard Miss Lou ask
+eagerly.
+
+"Oh, yes; of course," replied "Mars" Clayton, carelessly.
+
+A heavy saddle was thrown on Pasha's back, the girths pulled cruelly
+tight, and in a moment "Mars" Clayton was on his back. They were barely
+clear of Gray Oaks driveway before Pasha felt something he had never
+known before. It was as if someone had jabbed a lot of little knives
+into his ribs. Roused by pain and fright, Pasha reared in a wild attempt
+to unseat this hateful rider. But "Mars" Clayton's knees seemed glued to
+Pasha's shoulders. Next Pasha tried to shake him off by sudden leaps,
+sidebolts, and stiff-legged jumps. These man[oe]uvres brought vicious
+jerks on the wicked chain-bit that was cutting Pasha's tender mouth
+sorrily and more jabs from the little knives. In this way did Pasha
+fight until his sides ran with blood and his breast was plastered thick
+with reddened foam.
+
+In the meantime he had covered miles of road, and at last, along in the
+cold gray of the morning, he was ridden into a field where were many
+tents and horses. Pasha was unsaddled and picketed to a stake. This
+latter indignity he was too much exhausted to resent. All he could do
+was to stand, shivering with cold, trembling from nervous excitement,
+and wait for what was to happen next.
+
+It seemed ages before anything did happen. The beginning was a tripping
+bugle-blast. This was answered by the voice of other bugles blown here
+and there about the field. In a moment men began to tumble out of the
+white tents. They came by twos and threes and dozens, until the field
+was full of them. Fires were built on the ground, and soon Pasha could
+scent coffee boiling and bacon frying. Black boys began moving about
+among the horses with hay and oats and water. One of them rubbed Pasha
+hurriedly with a wisp of straw. It was little like the currying and
+rubbing with brush and comb and flannel to which he was accustomed and
+which he needed just then, oh, how sadly. His strained muscles had
+stiffened so much that every movement gave him pain. So matted was his
+coat with sweat and foam and mud that it seemed as if half the pores of
+his skin were choked.
+
+He had cooled his parched throat with a long draught of somewhat muddy
+water, but he had eaten only half of the armful of hay when again the
+bugles sounded and "Mars" Clayton appeared. Tightening the girths, until
+they almost cut into Pasha's tender skin, he jumped into the saddle and
+rode off to where a lot of big black horses were being reined into line.
+In front of this line Pasha was wheeled. He heard the bugles sound once
+more, heard his rider shout something to the men behind, felt the wicked
+little knives in his sides, and then, in spite of aching legs, was
+forced into a sharp gallop. Although he knew it not, Pasha had joined
+the Black Horse Cavalry.
+
+The months that followed were to Pasha one long, ugly dream. Not that he
+minded the hard riding by day and night. In time he became used to all
+that. He could even endure the irregular feeding, the sleeping in the
+open during all kinds of weather, and the lack of proper grooming. But
+the vicious jerks on the torture-provoking cavalry bit, the flat sabre
+blows on the flank which he not infrequently got from his ill-tempered
+master, and, above all, the cruel digs of the spur-wheels--these things
+he could not understand. Such treatment he was sure he did not merit.
+"Mars" Clayton he came to hate more and more. Some day, Pasha told
+himself, he would take vengeance with teeth and heels, even if he died
+for it.
+
+In the meantime he had learned the cavalry drill. He came to know the
+meaning of each varying bugle-call, from reveille, when one began to paw
+and stamp for breakfast, to mournful taps, when lights went out, and the
+tents became dark and silent. Also, one learned to slow from a gallop
+into a walk; when to wheel to the right or to the left, and when to
+start on the jump as the first notes of a charge were sounded. It was
+better to learn the bugle-calls, he found, than to wait for a jerk on
+the bits or a prod from the spurs.
+
+No more was he terror-stricken, as he had been on his first day in the
+cavalry, at hearing behind him the thunder of many hoofs. Having once
+become used to the noise, he was even thrilled by the swinging metre of
+it. A kind of wild harmony was in it, something which made one forget
+everything else. At such times Pasha longed to break into his long,
+wind-splitting lope, but he learned that he must leave the others no
+more than a pace or two behind, although he could have easily
+outdistanced them all.
+
+Also, Pasha learned to stand under fire. No more did he dance at the
+crack of carbines or the zipp-zipp of bullets. He could even hold his
+ground when shells went screaming over him, although this was hardest of
+all to bear. One could not see them, but their sound, like that of great
+birds in flight, was something to try one's nerves. Pasha strained his
+ears to catch the note of each shell that came whizzing overhead, and,
+as it passed, looked inquiringly over his shoulder as if to ask, "Now
+what on earth was that?"
+
+But all this experience could not prepare him for the happenings of that
+never-to-be-forgotten day in June. There had been a period full of hard
+riding and ending with a long halt. For several days hay and oats were
+brought with some regularity. Pasha was even provided with an apology
+for a stall. It was made by leaning two rails against a fence. Some hay
+was thrown between the rails. This was a sorry substitute for the roomy
+box-stall, filled with clean straw, which Pasha always had at Gray Oaks,
+but it was as good as any provided for the Black Horse Cavalry.
+
+And how many, many horses there were! As far as Pasha could see in
+either direction the line extended. Never before had he seen so many
+horses at one time. And men! The fields and woods were full of them;
+some in brown butternut, some in homespun gray, and many in clothes
+having no uniformity of color at all. "Mars" Clayton was dressed better
+than most, for on his butternut coat were shiny shoulder-straps, and it
+was closed with shiny buttons. Pasha took little pride in this. He knew
+his master for a cruel and heartless rider, and for nothing more.
+
+One day there was a great parade, when Pasha was carefully groomed for
+the first time in months. There were bands playing and flags flying.
+Pasha, forgetful of his ill-treatment and prancing proudly at the head
+of a squadron of coal-black horses, passed in review before a big,
+bearded man wearing a slouch hat fantastically decorated with long
+plumes and sitting a great black horse in the midst of a little knot of
+officers.
+
+Early the next morning Pasha was awakened by the distant growl of heavy
+guns. By daylight he was on the move, thousands of other horses with
+him. Nearer and nearer they rode to the place where the guns were
+growling. Sometimes they were on roads, sometimes they crossed fields,
+and again they plunged into the woods where the low branches struck
+one's eyes and scratched one's flanks. At last they broke clear of the
+trees to come suddenly upon such a scene as Pasha had never before
+witnessed.
+
+Far across the open field he could see troop on troop of horses coming
+toward him. They seemed to be pouring over the crest of a low hill, as
+if driven onward by some unseen force behind. Instantly Pasha heard,
+rising from the throats of thousands of riders, on either side and
+behind him, that fierce, wild yell which he had come to know meant the
+approach of trouble. High and shrill and menacing it rang as it was
+taken up and repeated by those in the rear. Next the bugles began to
+sound, and in quick obedience the horses formed in line just on the edge
+of the woods, a line which stretched on either flank until one could
+hardly see where it ended.
+
+From the distant line came no answering cry, but Pasha could hear the
+bugles blowing and he could see the fronts massing. Then came the order
+to charge at a gallop. This set Pasha to tugging eagerly at the bit, but
+for what reason he did not know. He knew only that he was part of a
+great and solid line of men and horses sweeping furiously across a field
+toward that other line which he had seen pouring over the hill crest.
+
+He could scarcely see at all now. The thousands of hoofs had raised a
+cloud of dust that not only enveloped the onrushing line, but rolled
+before it. Nor could Pasha hear anything save the thunderous thud of
+many feet. Even the shrieking of the shells was drowned. But for the
+restraining bit Pasha would have leaped forward and cleared the line.
+Never had he been so stirred. The inherited memory of countless desert
+raids, made by his Arab ancestors, was doing its work. For what seemed a
+long time this continued, and then, in the midst of the blind and
+frenzied race, there loomed out of the thick air, as if it had appeared
+by magic, the opposing line.
+
+Pasha caught a glimpse of something which seemed like a heaving wall of
+tossing heads and of foam-whitened necks and shoulders. Here and there
+gleamed red, distended nostrils and straining eyes. Bending above was
+another wall, a wall of dusty blue coats, of grim faces, and of
+dust-powdered hats. Bristling above all was a threatening crest of
+waving blades.
+
+What would happen when the lines met? Almost before the query was
+thought there came the answer. With an earth-jarring crash they came
+together. The lines wavered back from the shock of impact and then the
+whole struggle appeared to Pasha to centre about him. Of course this was
+not so. But it was a fact that the most conspicuous figure in either
+line had been that of the cream-white charger in the very centre of the
+Black Horse regiment.
+
+For one confused moment Pasha heard about his ears the whistle and clash
+of sabres, the spiteful crackle of small arms, the snorting of horses,
+and the cries of men. For an instant he was wedged tightly in the
+frenzied mass, and then, by one desperate leap, such as he had learned
+on the hunting field, he shook himself clear.
+
+Not until some minutes later did Pasha notice that the stirrups were
+dangling empty and that the bridle-rein hung loose on his neck. Then he
+knew that at last he was free from "Mars" Clayton. At the same time he
+felt himself seized by an overpowering dread. While conscious of a
+guiding hand on the reins Pasha had abandoned himself to the fierce joy
+of the charge. But now, finding himself riderless in the midst of a
+horrid din, he knew not what to do, nor which way to turn. His only
+impulse was to escape. But where? Lifting high his fine head and
+snorting with terror he rushed about, first this way and then that,
+frantically seeking a way out of this fog-filled field of dreadful
+pandemonium. Now he swerved in his course to avoid a charging squad, now
+he was turned aside by prone objects at sight of which he snorted
+fearfully. Although the blades still rang and the carbines still spoke,
+there were no more to be seen either lines or order. Here and there in
+the dust-clouds scurried horses, some with riders and some without, by
+twos, by fours, or in squads of twenty or more. The sound of shooting
+and slashing and shouting filled the air.
+
+To Pasha it seemed an eternity that he had been tearing about the field
+when he shied at the figure of a man sitting on the ground. Pasha was
+about to wheel and dash away when the man called to him. Surely the
+tones were familiar. With wide-open, sniffing nostrils and trembling
+knees, Pasha, stopped and looked hard at the man on the ground.
+
+"Pasha! Pasha!" the man called weakly. The voice sounded like that of
+Mr. Dave.
+
+"Come, boy! Come, boy!" said the man in a coaxing tone, which recalled
+to Pasha the lessons he had learned at Gray Oaks years before. Still
+Pasha sniffed and hesitated.
+
+"Come here, Pasha, old fellow. For God's sake, come here!"
+
+There was no resisting this appeal. Step by step Pasha went nearer. He
+continued to tremble, for this man on the ground, although his voice was
+that of Mr. Dave, looked much different from the one who had taught him
+tricks. Besides, there was about him the scent of fresh blood. Pasha
+could see the stain of it on his blue trousers.
+
+"Come, boy. Come, Pasha," insisted the man on the ground, holding out an
+encouraging hand. Slowly Pasha obeyed until he could sniff the man's
+fingers. Another step and the man was smoothing his nose, still speaking
+gently and coaxingly in a faint voice. In the end Pasha was assured that
+the man was really the Mr. Dave of old, and glad enough Pasha was to
+know it.
+
+"Now, Pasha," said Mr. Dave, "we'll see if you've forgotten your tricks,
+and may the good Lord grant you haven't. Down, sir! Kneel, Pasha,
+kneel!"
+
+It had been a long time since Pasha had been asked to do this, a very
+long time; but here was Mr. Dave asking him, in just the same tone as
+of old, and in just the same way. So Pasha, forgetting his terror under
+the soothing spell of Mr. Dave's voice, forgetting the fearful sights
+and sounds about him, remembering only that here was the Mr. Dave whom
+he loved, asking him to do his old trick--well, Pasha knelt.
+
+"Easy now, boy; steady!" Pasha heard him say. Mr. Dave was dragging
+himself along the ground to Pasha's side. "Steady now, Pasha; steady,
+boy!" He felt Mr. Dave's hand on the pommel. "So-o-o, boy; so-o-o-o!"
+Slowly, oh, so slowly, he felt Mr. Dave crawling into the saddle, and
+although Pasha's knees ached from the unfamiliar strain, he stirred not
+a muscle until he got the command, "Up, Pasha, up!"
+
+Then, with a trusted hand on the bridle-rein, Pasha joyfully bounded
+away through the fog, until the battle-field was left behind. Of the
+long ride that ensued only Pasha knows, for Mr. Dave kept his seat in
+the saddle more by force of muscular habit than anything else. A man who
+has learned to sleep on horseback does not easily fall off, even though
+he has not the full command of his senses. Only for the first hour or so
+did Pasha's rider do much toward guiding their course. In
+hunting-horses, however, the sense of direction is strong. Pasha had
+it--especially for one point of the compass. This point was south. So,
+unknowing of the possible peril into which he might be taking his rider,
+south he went. How Pasha ever did it, as I have said, only Pasha knows;
+but in the end he struck the Richmond Pike.
+
+It was a pleading whinny which aroused Miss Lou at early daybreak. Under
+her window she saw Pasha, and on his back a limp figure in a blue,
+dust-covered, dark-stained uniform. And that was how Pasha's cavalry
+career came to an end. That one fierce charge was his last.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+In the Washington home of a certain Maine Congressman you may see, hung
+in a place of honor and lavishly framed, the picture of a horse. It is
+very creditably done in oils, is this picture. It is of a cream-white
+horse, with an arched neck, clean, slim legs, and a splendid flowing
+tail.
+
+Should you have any favors of state to ask of this Maine Congressman it
+would be the wise thing, before stating your request, to say something
+nice about the horse in the picture. Then the Congressman will probably
+say, looking fondly at the picture: "I must tell Lou--er--my wife, you
+know, what you have said. Yes, that was Pasha. He saved my neck at
+Brandy Station. He was one-half Arab, Pasha was, and the other half,
+sir, was human."
+
+
+
+392
+
+ Louisa de la Ramee (1839-1908), an English
+ novelist, is generally known by her pseudonym
+ "Ouida," which was the result of a child's
+ attempt to pronounce her first name. Her novels
+ had strong popular qualities: intensely
+ dramatic, with sentiment rather high-pitched
+ and always verging on the sensational. The
+ intense human interest is constantly present in
+ her work and accounts for her great vogue. Two
+ of her stories, "The Dog of Flanders" and
+ "Moufflou," have gained a permanent place in
+ juvenile literature. They are popular among
+ sixth, seventh, and eighth grade pupils.
+
+
+MOUFFLOU
+
+"OUIDA"
+
+Moufflou's masters were some boys and girls. They were very poor, but
+they were very merry. They lived in an old, dark, tumble-down place, and
+their father had been dead five years; their mother's care was all they
+knew; and Tasso was the eldest of them all, a lad of nearly twenty, and
+he was so kind, so good, so laborious, so cheerful, so gentle, that the
+children all younger than he adored him. Tasso was a gardener. Tasso,
+however, though the eldest and mainly the bread-winner, was not so much
+Moufflou's master as was little Romolo, who was only ten, and a cripple.
+Romolo, called generally Lolo, had taught Moufflou all he knew; and that
+all was a very great deal, for nothing cleverer than was Moufflou had
+ever walked upon four legs.
+
+Why Moufflou?
+
+Well, when the poodle had been given to them by a soldier who was going
+back to his home in Piedmont, he had been a white woolly creature a year
+old, and the children's mother, who was a Corsican by birth, had said
+that he was just like a _moufflon_, as they call sheep in Corsica. White
+and woolly this dog remained, and he became the handsomest and biggest
+poodle in all the city, and the corruption of Moufflou from Moufflon
+remained the name by which he was known; it was silly, perhaps, but it
+suited him and the children, and Moufflou he was.
+
+They lived in an old quarter of Florence, in that picturesque zigzag
+which goes round the grand church of Or San Michele, and which is almost
+more Venetian than Tuscan in its mingling of color, charm, stateliness,
+popular confusion, and architectural majesty. The tall old houses are
+weather-beaten into the most delicious hues; the pavement is
+enchantingly encumbered with peddlers and stalls and all kinds of trades
+going on in the open air, in that bright, merry, beautiful Italian
+custom which, alas, alas! is being driven away by new-fangled laws which
+deem it better for the people to be stuffed up in close, stewing rooms
+without air, and would fain do away with all the good-tempered politics
+and the sensible philosophies and the wholesome chatter which the
+open-street trades and street gossipry encourage, for it is good for the
+populace to _sfogare_ and in no other way can it do so one-half so
+innocently. Drive it back into musty shops, and it is driven at once to
+mutter sedition. . . . But you want to hear about Moufflou.
+
+Well, Moufflou lived here in that high house with the sign of the lamb
+in wrought iron, which shows it was once a warehouse of the old guild of
+the Arte della Lana. They are all old houses here, drawn round about
+that grand church which I called once, and will call again, like a
+mighty casket of oxidized silver. A mighty casket indeed, holding the
+Holy Spirit within it; and with the vermilion and the blue and the
+orange glowing in its niches and its lunettes like enamels, and its
+statues of the apostles strong and noble, like the times in which they
+were created,--St. Peter with his keys, and St. Mark with his open book,
+and St. George leaning on his sword, and others also, solemn and austere
+as they, austere though benign, for do they not guard the White
+Tabernacle of Oreagna within?
+
+The church stands firm as a rock, square as a fortress of stone, and the
+winds and the waters of the skies may beat about it as they will, they
+have no power to disturb its sublime repose. Sometimes I think of all
+the noble things in all our Italy Or San Michele is the noblest,
+standing there in its stern magnificence, amidst people's hurrying feet
+and noisy laughter, a memory of God.
+
+The little masters of Moufflou lived right in its shadow, where the
+bridge of stone spans the space between the houses and the church high
+in mid-air; and little Lolo loved the church with a great love. He loved
+it in the morning-time, when the sunbeams turned it into dusky gold and
+jasper; he loved it in the evening-time, when the lights of its altars
+glimmered in the dark, and the scent of its incense came out into the
+street; he loved it in the great feasts, when the huge clusters of
+lilies were borne inside it; he loved it in the solemn nights of winter;
+the flickering gleam of the dull lamps shone on the robes of an apostle,
+or the sculpture of a shield, or the glow of a casement-moulding in
+majolica. He loved it always, and, without knowing why, he called it _la
+mia chiesa_.
+
+Lolo, being lame and of delicate health, was not enabled to go to school
+or to work, though he wove the straw covering of wine-flasks and plaited
+the cane matting with busy fingers. But for the most part he did as he
+liked, and spent most of his time sitting on the parapet of Or San
+Michele, watching the venders of earthenware at their trucks, or
+trotting with his crutch (and he could trot a good many miles when he
+chose) out with Moufflou down a bit of the Stocking-makers' Street,
+along under the arcades of the Uffizi, and so over the Jewellers'
+Bridge, and out of byways that he knew into the fields on the hill-side
+upon the other bank of Arno. Moufflou and he would spend half the
+day--all the day--out there in daffodil-time; and Lolo would come home
+with great bundles and sheaves of golden flowers, and he and Moufflou
+were happy.
+
+His mother never liked to say a harsh word to Lolo, for he was lame
+through her fault; she had let him fall in his babyhood, and the
+mischief had been done to his hip never again to be undone. So she never
+raised her voice to him, though she did often to the others,--to
+curly-pated Cecco, and pretty black-eyed Dina, and saucy Bice, and
+sturdy Beppo, and even to the good, manly, hard-working Tasso. Tasso was
+the mainstay of the whole, though he was but a gardener's lad, working
+in the green Cascine at small wages. But all he earned he brought home
+to his mother; and he alone kept in order the lazy, high-tempered
+Sandro, and he alone kept in check Bice's love of finery, and he alone
+could with shrewdness and care make both ends meet and put _minestra_
+always in the pot and bread always in the cupboard.
+
+When his mother thought, as she thought indeed almost ceaselessly, that
+with a few months he would be of the age to draw his number, and might
+draw a high one and be taken from her for three years, the poor soul
+believed her very heart would burst and break; and many a day at
+twilight she would start out unperceived and creep into the great church
+and pour her soul forth in supplication before the White Tabernacle.
+
+Yet, pray as she would, no miracle could happen to make Tasso free of
+military service: if he drew a fatal number, go he must, even though he
+take all the lives of them to their ruin with him.
+
+One morning Lolo sat as usual on the parapet of the church, Moufflou
+beside him. It was a brilliant morning in September. The men at the
+hand-barrows and at the stall were selling the crockery, the silk
+handkerchiefs, and the straw hats which form the staple of the commerce
+that goes on round about Or San Michele,--very blithe, good-natured, gay
+commerce, for the most part, not got through, however, of course,
+without bawling and screaming, and shouting and gesticulating, as if the
+sale of a penny pipkin or a twopenny pie-pan were the occasion for the
+exchange of many thousands of pounds sterling and cause for the whole
+world's commotion. It was about eleven o'clock; the poor petitioners
+were going in for alms to the house of the fraternity of San Giovanni
+Battista; the barber at the corner was shaving a big man with a cloth
+tucked about his chin, and his chair set well out on the pavement; the
+sellers of the pipkins and pie-pans were screaming till they were
+hoarse, "_Un soldo l'uno, due soldi tre!_" big bronze bells were booming
+till they seemed to clang right up to the deep-blue sky; some brethren
+of the Misericordia went by bearing a black bier; a large sheaf of
+glowing flowers--dahlias, zinnias, asters, and daturas--was borne
+through the huge arched door of the church near St. Mark and his open
+book. Lolo looked on at it all, and so did Moufflou, and a stranger
+looked at them as he left the church.
+
+"You have a handsome poodle there, my little man," he said to Lolo, in a
+foreigner's too distinct and careful Italian.
+
+"Moufflou is beautiful," said Lolo, with pride. "You should see him when
+he is just washed; but we can only wash him on Sundays, because then
+Tasso is at home."
+
+"How old is your dog?"
+
+"Three years old."
+
+"Does he do any tricks?"
+
+"Does he!" said Lolo, with a very derisive laugh: "why, Moufflou can do
+anything! He can walk on two legs ever so long; make ready, present, and
+fire; die; waltz; beg, of course; shut a door; make a wheelbarrow of
+himself; there is nothing he will not do. Would you like to see him do
+something?"
+
+"Very much," said the foreigner.
+
+To Moufflou and to Lolo the street was the same thing as home; this
+cheery _piazzetta_ by the church, so utterly empty sometimes, and
+sometimes so noisy and crowded, was but the wider threshold of their
+home to both the poodle and the child.
+
+So there, under the lofty and stately walls of the old church, Lolo put
+Moufflou through his exercises. They were second nature to Moufflou, as
+to most poodles. He had inherited his address at them from clever
+parents, and, as he had never been frightened or coerced, all his
+lessons and acquirements were but play to him. He acquitted himself
+admirably, and the crockery-venders came and looked on, and a sacristan
+came out of the church and smiled, and the barber left his customer's
+chin all in a lather while he laughed, for the good folk of the quarter
+were all proud of Moufflou and never tired of him, and the pleasant,
+easy-going, good-humored disposition of the Tuscan populace is so far
+removed from the stupid buckram and whale-bone in which the new-fangled
+democracy wants to imprison it.
+
+The stranger also was much diverted by Moufflou's talents, and said,
+half aloud, "How this clever dog would amuse poor Victor! Would you
+bring your poodle to please a sick child I have at home!" he said, quite
+aloud, to Lolo, who smiled and answered that he would. Where was the
+sick child?
+
+"At the Gran Bretagna; not far off," said the gentleman. "Come this
+afternoon, and ask for me by this name."
+
+He dropped his card and a couple of francs into Lolo's hand, and went
+his way. Lolo, with Moufflou scampering after him, dashed into his own
+house, and stumped up the stairs, his crutch making a terrible noise on
+the stone.
+
+"Mother, mother! see what I have got because Moufflou did his tricks,"
+he shouted. "And now you can buy those shoes you want so much, and the
+coffee that you miss so of a morning, and the new linen for Tasso, and
+the shirts for Sandro."
+
+For to the mind of Lolo two francs was as two millions,--source
+unfathomable of riches inexhaustible!
+
+With the afternoon he and Moufflou trotted down the arcades of the
+Uffizi and down the Lung' Arno to the hotel of the stranger, and,
+showing the stranger's card, which Lolo could not read, they were shown
+at once into a great chamber, all gilding and fresco and velvet
+furniture.
+
+But Lolo, being a little Florentine, was never troubled by externals, or
+daunted by mere sofas and chairs: he stood and looked around him with
+perfect composure; and Moufflou, whose attitude, when he was not
+romping, was always one of magisterial gravity, sat on his haunches and
+did the same.
+
+Soon the foreigner he had seen in the forenoon entered and spoke to him,
+and led him into another chamber, where stretched on a couch was a
+little wan-faced boy about seven years old; a pretty boy, but so pallid,
+so wasted, so helpless. This poor little boy was heir to a great name
+and a great fortune, but all the science in the world could not make him
+strong enough to run about among the daisies, or able to draw a single
+breath without pain. A feeble smile lit up his face as he saw Moufflou
+and Lolo; then a shadow chased it away.
+
+"Little boy is lame like me," he said, in a tongue Lolo did not
+understand.
+
+"Yes, but he is a strong little boy, and can move about, as perhaps the
+suns of his country will make you do," said the gentleman, who was the
+poor little boy's father. "He has brought you his poodle to amuse you.
+What a handsome dog! is it not?"
+
+"Oh, _buffins_!" said the poor little fellow, stretching out his wasted
+hands to Moufflou, who submitted his leonine crest to the caress.
+
+Then Lolo went through the performance, and Moufflou acquitted himself
+ably as ever; and the little invalid laughed and shouted with his tiny
+thin voice, and enjoyed it all immensely, and rained cakes and biscuits
+on both the poodle and its master. Lolo crumped the pastries with
+willing white teeth, and Moufflou did no less. Then they got up to go,
+and the sick child on the couch burst into fretful lamentations and
+outcries.
+
+"I want the dog! I will have the dog!" was all he kept repeating.
+
+But Lolo did not know what he said, and was only sorry to see him so
+unhappy.
+
+"You shall have the dog to-morrow," said the gentleman, to pacify his
+little son; and he hurried Lolo and Moufflou out of the room, and
+consigned them to a servant, having given Lolo five francs this time.
+
+"Why, Moufflou," said Lolo, with a chuckle of delight, "if we could find
+a foreigner every day, we could eat meat at supper, Moufflou, and go to
+the theatre every evening?"
+
+And he and his crutch clattered home with great eagerness and
+excitement, and Moufflou trotted on his four frilled feet, the blue bow
+with which Bice had tied up his curls on the top of his head, fluttering
+in the wind. But, alas! even his five francs could bring no comfort at
+home. He found his whole family wailing and mourning in utterly
+inconsolable distress.
+
+Tasso had drawn his number that morning, and the number was seven, and
+he must go and be a conscript for three years.
+
+The poor young man stood in the midst of his weeping brothers and
+sisters, with his mother leaning against his shoulder, and down his own
+brown cheeks the tears were falling. He must go, and lose his place in
+the public gardens, and leave his people to starve as they might, and be
+put in a tomfool's jacket, and drafted off among cursing and swearing
+and strange faces, friendless, homeless, miserable! And the
+mother,--what would become of the mother?
+
+Tasso was the best of lads and the mildest. He was quite happy sweeping
+up the leaves in the long alleys of the Cascine, or mowing the green
+lawns under the ilex avenues, and coming home at supper-time, among the
+merry little people and the good woman that he loved. He was quite
+contented; he wanted nothing, only to be let alone; and they would not
+let him alone. They would haul him away to put a heavy musket in his
+hand and a heavy knapsack on his back, and drill him, and curse him, and
+make him into a human target, a live popinjay.
+
+No one had any heed for Lolo and his five francs, and Moufflou,
+understanding that some great sorrow had fallen on his friends, sat down
+and lifted up his voice and howled.
+
+Tasso must go away!--that was all they understood. For three long years
+they must go without the sight of his face, the aid of his strength, the
+pleasure of his smile: Tasso must go! When Lolo understood the calamity
+that had befallen them, he gathered Moufflou up against his breast, and
+sat down too on the floor beside him and cried as if he would never stop
+crying.
+
+There was no help for it; it was one of those misfortunes which are, as
+we say in Italian, like a tile tumbled on the head. The tile drops from
+a height, and the poor head bows under the unseen blow. That is all.
+
+"What is the use of that?" said the mother, passionately, when Lolo
+showed her his five francs. "It will not buy Tasso's discharge."
+
+Lolo felt that his mother was cruel and unjust, and crept to bed with
+Moufflou. Moufflou always slept on Lolo's feet.
+
+The next morning Lolo got up before sunrise, and he and Moufflou
+accompanied Tasso to his work in the Cascine.
+
+Lolo loved his brother, and clung to every moment whilst they could
+still be together.
+
+"Can nothing keep you, Tasso?" he said, despairingly, as they went down
+the leafy aisles, whilst the Arno water was growing golden as the sun
+rose.
+
+Tasso sighed.
+
+"Nothing, dear. Unless Gesu would send me a thousand francs to buy a
+substitute."
+
+And he knew he might as well have said, "If one could coin gold ducats
+out of the sunbeams on Arno water."
+
+Lolo was very sorrowful as he lay on the grass in the meadow where Tasso
+was at work, and the poodle lay stretched beside him.
+
+When Lolo went home to dinner (Tasso took his wrapped in a handkerchief)
+he found his mother very agitated and excited. She was laughing one
+moment, crying the next. She was passionate and peevish, tender and
+jocose by turns; there was something forced and feverish about her which
+the children felt but did not comprehend. She was a woman of not very
+much intelligence, and she had a secret, and she carried it ill, and
+knew not what to do with it; but they could not tell that. They only
+felt a vague sense of disturbance and timidity at her unwonted manner.
+
+The meal over (it was only bean-soup, and that is soon eaten), the
+mother said sharply to Lolo, "Your aunt Anita wants you this afternoon.
+She has to go out, and you are needed to stay with the children: be off
+with you."
+
+Lolo was an obedient child; he took his hat and jumped up as quickly as
+his halting hip would let him. He called Moufflou, who was asleep.
+
+"Leave the dog," said his mother, sharply. "'Nita will not have him
+messing and carrying mud about her nice clean rooms. She told me so.
+Leave him. I say."
+
+"Leave Moufflou!" echoed Lolo, for never in all Moufflou's life had Lolo
+parted from him. Leave Moufflou! He stared open-eyed and open-mouthed at
+his mother. What could have come to her?
+
+"Leave him, I say," she repeated, more sharply than ever. "Must I speak
+twice to my own children? Be off with you, and leave the dog, I say."
+
+And she clutched Moufflou by his long silky mane and dragged him
+backwards, whilst with the other hand she thrust out of the door Lolo
+and Bice.
+
+Lolo began to hammer with his crutch at the door thus closed on him; but
+Bice coaxed and entreated him.
+
+"Poor mother has been so worried about Tasso," she pleaded. "And what
+harm can come to Moufflou? And I do think he was tired, Lolo; the
+Cascine is a long way; and it is quite true that Aunt 'Nita never liked
+him."
+
+So by one means and another she coaxed her brother away; and they went
+almost in silence to where their Aunt Anita dwelt, which was across the
+river, near the dark-red bell-shaped dome of Santa Spirito.
+
+It was true that her aunt had wanted them to mind her room and her
+babies whilst she was away carrying home some lace to a villa outside
+the Roman gate, for she was a lace-washer and clear-starcher by trade.
+There they had to stay in the little dark room with the two babies, with
+nothing to amuse the time except the clang of the bells of the church of
+the Holy Spirit, and the voices of the lemonade-sellers shouting in the
+street below. Aunt Anita did not get back till it was more than dusk,
+and the two children trotted homeward hand in hand, Lolo's leg dragging
+itself painfully along, for without Moufflou's white figure dancing on
+before him he felt very tired indeed. It was pitch dark when they got to
+Or San Michele, and the lamps burned dully.
+
+Lolo stumped up the stairs wearily, with a vague, dull fear at his small
+heart.
+
+"Moufflou, Moufflou!" he called. Where was Moufflou? Always at the first
+sound of his crutch the poodle came flying towards him. "Moufflou,
+Moufflou!" he called all the way up the long, dark twisting stone stair.
+He pushed open the door, and he called again, "Moufflou, Moufflou!"
+
+But no dog answered to his call.
+
+"Mother, where is Moufflou?" he asked, staring with blinking, dazzled
+eyes into the oil-lit room where his mother sat knitting. Tasso was not
+then home from work. His mother went on with her knitting; there was an
+uneasy look on her face.
+
+"Mother, what have you done with Moufflou, _my_ Moufflou?" said Lolo,
+with a look that was almost stern on his ten-year-old face.
+
+Then his mother, without looking up and moving her knitting-needles very
+rapidly, said,--
+
+"Moufflou is sold!"
+
+And little Dina, who was a quick, pert child, cried, with a shrill
+voice,--
+
+"Mother has sold him for a thousand francs to the foreign gentleman."
+
+"Sold him!"
+
+Lolo grew white and grew cold as ice; he stammered, threw up his hands
+over his head, gasped a little for breath, then fell down in a dead
+swoon, his poor useless limb doubled under him.
+
+When Tasso came home that sad night and found his little brother
+shivering, moaning, and half delirious, and when he heard what had been
+done, he was sorely grieved.
+
+"Oh, mother, how could you do it?" he cried. "Poor, poor Moufflou! and
+Lolo loves him so!"
+
+"I have got the money," said his mother, feverishly, "and you will not
+need to go for a soldier: we can buy your substitute. What is a poodle,
+that you mourn about it? We can get another poodle for Lolo."
+
+"Another will not be Moufflou," said Tasso, and yet was seized with such
+a frantic happiness himself at the knowledge that he would not need go
+to the army, that he too felt as if he were drunk on new wine, and had
+not the heart to rebuke his mother.
+
+"A thousand francs!" he muttered; "a thousand francs! _Dio mio!_ Who
+could ever have fancied anybody would have given such a price for a
+common white poodle? One would think the gentleman had bought the church
+and the tabernacle!"
+
+"Fools and their money are soon parted," said his mother, with cross
+contempt.
+
+It was true: she had sold Moufflou.
+
+The English gentleman had called on her while Lolo and the dog had been
+in the Cascine, and had said that he was desirous of buying the poodle,
+which had so diverted his sick child that the little invalid would not
+be comforted unless he possessed it. Now, at any other time the good
+woman would have sturdily refused any idea of selling Moufflou; but that
+morning the thousand francs which would buy Tasso's substitute were
+forever in her mind and before her eyes. When she heard the foreigner
+her heart gave a great leap, and her head swam giddily, and she thought,
+in a spasm of longing--if she could get those thousand francs! But
+though she was so dizzy and so upset she retained her grip on her native
+Florentine shrewdness. She said nothing of her need of the money; not a
+syllable of her sore distress. On the contrary, she was coy and wary,
+affected great reluctance to part with her pet, invented a great offer
+made for him by a director of a circus, and finally let fall a hint that
+less than a thousand francs she could never take for poor Moufflou.
+
+The gentleman assented with so much willingness to the price that she
+instantly regretted not having asked double. He told her that if she
+would take the poodle that afternoon to his hotel the money should be
+paid to her; so she despatched her children after their noonday meal in
+various directions, and herself took Moufflou to his doom. She could not
+believe her senses when ten hundred-franc notes were put into her hand.
+She scrawled her signature, Rosina Calabucci, to a formal receipt, and
+went away, leaving Moufflou in his new owner's rooms, and hearing his
+howls and moans pursue her all the way down the staircase and out into
+the air.
+
+She was not easy at what she had done.
+
+"It seemed," she said to herself, "like selling a Christian."
+
+But then to keep her eldest son at home,--what a joy that was! On the
+whole, she cried so and laughed so as she went down the Lung' Arno that
+once or twice people looked at her, thinking her out of her senses, and
+a guard spoke to her angrily.
+
+Meanwhile, Lolo was sick and delirious with grief. Twenty times he got
+out of his bed and screamed to be allowed to go with Moufflou, and
+twenty times his mother and his brothers put him back again and held him
+down and tried in vain to quiet him.
+
+The child was beside himself with misery. "Moufflou! Moufflou!" he
+sobbed at every moment; and by night he was in a raging fever, and when
+his mother, frightened, ran in and called in the doctor of the quarter,
+that worthy shook his head and said something as to a shock of the
+nervous system, and muttered a long word,--"meningitis."
+
+Lolo took a hatred to the sight of Tasso, and thrust him away, and his
+mother too.
+
+"It is for you Moufflou is sold," he said, with his little teeth and
+hands tight clinched.
+
+After a day or two Tasso felt as if he could not bear his life, and went
+down to the hotel to see if the foreign gentleman would allow him to
+have Moufflou back for half an hour to quiet his little brother by a
+sight of him. But at the hotel he was told that the _Milord Inglese_ who
+had bought the dog of Rosina Calabucci had gone that same night of the
+purchase to Rome, to Naples, to Palermo, _chi sa_?
+
+"And Moufflou with him?" asked Tasso.
+
+"The _barbone_ he had bought went with him," said the porter of the
+hotel. "Such a beast! Howling, shrieking, raging all the day, and all
+the paint scratched off the _salon_ door."
+
+Poor Moufflou! Tasso's heart was heavy as he heard of that sad helpless
+misery of their bartered favorite and friend.
+
+"What matter?" said his mother, fiercely, when he told her. "A dog is a
+dog. They will feed him better than we could. In a week he will have
+forgotten--_che!_"
+
+But Tasso feared that Moufflou would not forget. Lolo certainly would
+not. The doctor came to the bedside twice a day, and ice and water were
+kept on the aching hot little head that had got the malady with the long
+name, and for the chief part of the time Lolo lay quiet, dull, and
+stupid, breathing heavily, and then at intervals cried and sobbed and
+shrieked hysterically for Moufflou.
+
+"Can you not get what he calls for to quiet him with a sight of it?"
+said the doctor. But that was not possible, and poor Rosina covered her
+head with her apron and felt a guilty creature.
+
+"Still, you will not go to the army," she said to Tasso. Clinging to
+that immense joy for her consolation. "Only think! we can pay Guido
+Squarcione to go for you. He always said he would go if anybody would
+pay him. Oh, my Tasso, surely to keep you is worth a dog's life!"
+
+"And Lolo's?" said Tasso, gloomily. "Nay, mother, it works ill to meddle
+too much with fate. I drew my number; I was bound to go. Heaven would
+have made it up to you somehow."
+
+"Heaven sent me the foreigner; the Madonna's own self sent him to ease a
+mother's pain," said Rosina, rapidly and angrily. "There are the
+thousand francs safe to hand in the _cassone_, and what, pray, is it we
+miss? Only a dog like a sheep, that brought gallons of mud in with him
+every time it rained, and ate as much as any one of you."
+
+"But Lolo?" said Tasso, under his breath.
+
+His mother was so irritated and so tormented by her own conscience that
+she upset all the cabbage broth into the burning charcoal.
+
+"Lolo was always a little fool, thinking of nothing but the church and
+the dog and nasty field-flowers," she said, angrily. "I humored him ever
+too much because of the hurt to his hip, and so--and so--"
+
+Then the poor soul made matters worse by dropping her tears into the
+saucepan, and fanning the charcoal so furiously that the flame caught
+her fan of cane-leaves, and would have burned her arm had not Tasso been
+there.
+
+"You are my prop and safety always. Who would not have done what I did?
+Not Santa Felicita herself," she said, with a great sob.
+
+But all this did not cure poor Lolo.
+
+The days and the weeks of the golden autumn weather passed away, and he
+was always in danger, and the small close room where he slept with
+Sandro and Beppo and Tasso was not one to cure such an illness as had
+now beset him. Tasso went to his work with a sick heart in the Cascine,
+where the colchicum was all lilac among the meadow grass, and the ashes
+and elms were taking their first flush of the coming autumnal change. He
+did not think Lolo would ever get well, and the good lad felt as if he
+had been the murderer of his little brother.
+
+True, he had had no hand or voice in the sale of Moufflou, but Moufflou
+had been sold for his sake. It made him feel half guilty, very unhappy,
+quite unworthy of all the sacrifice that had been made for him. "Nobody
+should meddle with fate," thought Tasso, who knew his grandfather had
+died in San Bonifazio because he had driven himself mad over the
+dream-book trying to get lucky numbers for the lottery and become a rich
+man at a stroke.
+
+It was rapture, indeed, to know that he was free of the army for a time
+at least, that he might go on undisturbed at his healthful labor, and
+get a rise in wages as time went on, and dwell in peace with his family,
+and perhaps--perhaps in time earn enough to marry pretty flaxen-haired
+Biondina, the daughter of the barber in the piazzetta. It was rapture
+indeed; but then poor Moufflou!--and poor, poor Lolo! Tasso felt as if
+he had bought his own exemption by seeing his little brother and the
+good dog torn in pieces and buried alive for his service.
+
+And where was poor Moufflou?
+
+Gone far away somewhere south in the hurrying, screeching, vomiting,
+braying train it made Tasso giddy only to look at as it rushed by the
+green meadows beyond the Cascine on its way to the sea.
+
+"If he could see the dog he cries so for, it might save him," said the
+doctor, who stood with grave face watching Lolo.
+
+But that was beyond any one's power. No one could tell where Moufflou
+was. He might be carried away to England, to France, to Russia, to
+America,--who could say? They did not know where his purchaser had gone.
+Moufflou even might be dead.
+
+The poor mother, when the doctor said that, went and looked at the ten
+hundred-franc notes that were once like angels' faces to her, and said
+to them,--
+
+"Oh, you children of Satan, why did you tempt me? I sold the poor,
+innocent, trustful beast to get you, and now my child is dying!"
+
+Her eldest son would stay at home, indeed; but if this little lame one
+died! Rosina Calabucci would have given up the notes and consented never
+to own five francs in her life if only she could have gone back over the
+time and kept Moufflou, and seen his little master running out with him
+into the sunshine.
+
+More than a month went by, and Lolo lay in the same state, his yellow
+hair shorn, his eyes dilated and yet stupid, life kept in him by a
+spoonful of milk, a lump of ice, a drink of lemon-water; always
+muttering, when he spoke at all, "Moufflou, Moufflou, _dov' e_
+Moufflou?" and lying for days together in somnolence and
+unconsciousness, with the fire eating at his brain and the weight lying
+on it like a stone.
+
+The neighbors were kind, and brought fruit and the like, and sat up with
+him, and chattered so all at once in one continuous brawl that they were
+enough in themselves to kill him, for such is ever the Italian fashion
+of sympathy in all illness.
+
+But Lolo did not get well, did not even seem to see the light at all, or
+to distinguish any sounds around him; and the doctor in plain words told
+Rosina Calabucci that her little boy must die. Die, and the church so
+near! She could not believe it. Could St. Mark, and St. George, and the
+rest that he had loved so do nothing for him? No, said the doctor, they
+could do nothing; the dog might do something, since the brain had so
+fastened on that one idea; but then they had sold the dog.
+
+"Yes; I sold him!" said the poor mother, breaking into floods of
+remorseful tears.
+
+So at last the end drew so nigh that one twilight time the priest came
+out of the great arched door that is next it. Mark, with the Host
+uplifted, and a little acolyte ringing the bell before it, and passed
+across the piazzetta, and went up the dark staircase of Rosina's
+dwelling, and passed through the weeping, terrified children, and went
+to the bedside of Lolo.
+
+Lolo was unconscious, but the holy man touched his little body and limbs
+with the sacred oil, and prayed over him, and then stood sorrowful with
+bowed head.
+
+Lolo had had his first communion in the summer, and in his preparation
+for it had shown an intelligence and devoutness that had won the
+priest's gentle heart.
+
+Standing there, the holy man commended the innocent soul to God. It was
+the last service to be rendered to him save that very last of all when
+the funeral office should be read above his little grave among the
+millions of nameless dead at the sepulchres of the poor at Trebbiano.
+
+All was still as the priest's voice ceased; only the sobs of the mother
+and of the children broke the stillness as they kneeled; the hand of
+Biondina had stolen into Tasso's.
+
+Suddenly, there was a loud scuffling noise; hurrying feet came patter,
+patter, patter up the stairs, a ball of mud and dust flew over the heads
+of the kneeling figures, fleet as the wind Moufflou dashed through the
+room and leaped upon the bed.
+
+Lolo opened his heavy eyes, and a sudden light of consciousness gleamed
+in them like a sunbeam. "Moufflou!" he murmured, in his little thin
+faint voice. The dog pressed close to his breast and kissed his wasted
+face.
+
+Moufflou was come home!
+
+And Lolo came home too, for death let go its hold upon him. Little by
+little, very faintly and flickeringly and very uncertainly at the first,
+life returned to the poor little body, and reason to the tormented,
+heated little brain. Moufflou was his physician; Moufflou, who, himself
+a skeleton under his matted curls, would not stir from his side and
+looked at him all day long with two beaming brown eyes full of
+unutterable love.
+
+Lolo was happy; he asked no questions,--was too weak, indeed, even to
+wonder. He had Moufflou; that was enough.
+
+Alas! though they dared not say so in his hearing, it was not enough for
+his elders. His mother and Tasso knew that the poodle had been sold and
+paid for; that they could lay no claim to keep him; and that almost
+certainly his purchaser would seek him out and assert his indisputable
+right to him. And then how would Lolo ever bear that second
+parting?--Lolo, so weak that he weighed no more than if he had been a
+little bird.
+
+Moufflou had, no doubt, traveled a long distance and suffered much. He
+was but skin and bone; he bore the marks of blows and kicks; his once
+silken hair was all discolored and matted; he had, no doubt, traveled
+far. But then his purchaser would be sure to ask for him, soon or late,
+at his old home; and then? Well, then if they did not give him up
+themselves, the law would make them.
+
+Rosina Calabucci and Tasso, though they dared say nothing before any of
+the children, felt their hearts in their mouths at every step on the
+stair, and the first interrogation of Tasso every evening when he came
+from his work was, "Has any one come for Moufflou?" For ten days no one
+came, and their first terrors lulled a little.
+
+On the eleventh morning, a feast-day, on which Tasso was not going to
+his labors in the Cascine, there came a person, with a foreign look, who
+said the words they so much dreaded to hear: "Has the poodle that you
+sold to an English gentleman come back to you?"
+
+Yes: his English master claimed him!
+
+The servant said that they had missed the dog in Rome a few days after
+buying him and taking him there; that he had been searched for in vain,
+and that his master had thought it possible the animal might have found
+his way back to his old home: there had been stories of such wonderful
+sagacity in dogs: anyhow, he had sent for him on the chance; he was
+himself back on the Lung' Arno. The servant pulled from his pocket a
+chain, and said his orders were to take the poodle away at once: the
+little sick gentleman had fretted very much about his loss.
+
+Tasso heard in a very agony of despair. To take Moufflou away now would
+be to kill Lolo,--Lolo so feeble still, so unable to understand, so
+passionately alive to every sight and sound of Moufflou, lying for hours
+together motionless with his hand buried in the poodle's curls, saying
+nothing, only smiling now and then, and murmuring a word or two in
+Moufflou's ear.
+
+"The dog did come home," said Tasso, at length, in a low voice; "angels
+must have shown him the road, poor beast! From Rome! Only to think of
+it, from Rome! And he a dumb thing! I tell you he is here, honestly: so
+will you not trust me just so far as this? Will you let me go with you
+and speak to the English lord before you take the dog away? I have a
+little brother sorely ill--"
+
+He could not speak more, for tears that choked his voice.
+
+At last the messenger agreed so far as this: Tasso might go first and
+see the master, but he would stay here and have a care they did not
+spirit the dog away,--"for a thousand francs were paid for him," added
+the man, "and a dog that can come all the way from Rome by itself must
+be an uncanny creature."
+
+Tasso thanked him, went up-stairs, was thankful that his mother was at
+mass and could not dispute with him, took the ten hundred-franc notes
+from the old oak _cassone_, and with them in his breast-pocket walked
+out into the air. He was but a poor working lad, but he had made up his
+mind to do an heroic act. He went straightway to the hotel where the
+English _milord_ was, and when he had got there remembered that still he
+did not know the name of Moufflou's owner; but the people of the hotel
+knew him as Rosina Calabucci's son, and guessed what he wanted, and said
+the gentleman who had lost the poodle was within, up-stairs, and they
+would tell him.
+
+Tasso waited some half-hour with his heart beating sorely against the
+packet of hundred-franc notes. At last he was beckoned up-stairs, and
+there he saw a foreigner with a mild fair face, and a very lovely lady,
+and a delicate child who was lying on a couch. "Moufflou! Where is
+Moufflou?" cried the little child, impatiently, as he saw the youth
+enter.
+
+Tasso took his hat off, and stood in the door-way an embrowned, healthy,
+not ungraceful figure, in his working-clothes of rough blue stuff.
+
+"If you please, most illustrious," he stammered, "poor Moufflou has come
+home."
+
+The child gave a cry of delight; the gentleman and lady one of wonder.
+Come home! All the way from Rome!
+
+"Yes, he has, most illustrious," said Tasso, gaining courage and
+eloquence; "and now I want to beg something of you. We are poor, and I
+drew a bad number, and it was for that my mother sold Moufflou. For
+myself, I did not know anything of it; but she thought she would buy my
+substitute, and of course she could; but Moufflou is come home, and my
+little brother Lolo, the little boy your most illustrious first saw
+playing with the poodle, fell ill of the grief of losing Moufflou, and
+for a month has lain saying nothing sensible, but only calling for the
+dog, and my old grandfather died of worrying himself mad over the
+lottery numbers, and Lolo was so near dying that the Blessed Host had
+been brought, and the holy oil had been put on him, when all at once
+there rushes in Moufflou, skin and bone, and covered with mud, and at
+the sight of him Lolo comes back to his senses, and that is now ten days
+ago, and though Lolo is still as weak as a new-born thing, he is always
+sensible, and takes what we give him to eat, and lies always looking at
+Moufflou, and smiling, and saying, 'Moufflou! Moufflou!' and, most
+illustrious, I know well you have bought the dog, and the law is with
+you, and by the law you claim it, but I thought perhaps, as Lolo loves
+him so, you would let us keep the dog, and would take back the thousand
+francs, and myself I will go and be a soldier, and heaven will take care
+of them all somehow."
+
+Then Tasso, having said all this in one breathless, monotonous
+recitative, took the thousand francs out of his breast-pocket and held
+them out timidly towards the foreign gentleman, who motioned them aside
+and stood silent.
+
+"Did you understand, Victor?" he said, at last, to his little son.
+
+The child hid his face in his cushions.
+
+"Yes, I did understand something: let Lolo keep him; Moufflou was not
+happy with me."
+
+But he burst out crying as he said it.
+
+Moufflou had run away from him.
+
+Moufflou had never loved him, for all his sweet cakes and fond caresses
+and platefuls of delicate savory meats. Moufflou had run away and found
+his own road over two hundred miles and more to go back to some little
+hungry children, who never had enough to eat themselves and so,
+certainly, could never give enough to eat to the dog. Poor little boy!
+He was so rich and so pampered and so powerful, and yet he could never
+make Moufflou love him!
+
+Tasso, who understood nothing that was said, laid the ten hundred-franc
+notes down on a table near him.
+
+"If you would take them, most illustrious, and give me back what my
+mother wrote when she sold Moufflou," he said, timidly, "I would pray
+for you night and day, and Lolo would too; and as for the dog, we will
+get a puppy and train him for your little _signorino_; they can all do
+tricks, more or less, it comes by nature; and as for me, I will go to
+the army willingly; it is not right to interfere with fate; my old
+grandfather died mad because he would try to be a rich man, by dreaming
+about it and pulling destiny by the ears, as if she were a kicking mule;
+only, I do pray of you, do not take away Moufflou. And to think he
+trotted all those miles and miles, and you carried him by train too, and
+he never could have seen the road, and he had no power of speech to
+ask--"
+
+Tasso broke down again in his eloquence, and drew the back of his hand
+across his wet eyelashes.
+
+The English gentleman was not altogether unmoved.
+
+"Poor faithful dog!" he said, with a sigh. "I am afraid we were very
+cruel to him, meaning to be kind. No; we will not claim him, and I do
+not think you should go for a soldier; you seem so good a lad, and your
+mother must need you. Keep the money, my boy, and in payment you shall
+train up the puppy you talk of, and bring him to my little boy. I will
+come and see your mother and Lolo to-morrow. All the way from Rome! What
+wonderful sagacity! what matchless fidelity!"
+
+You can imagine, without any telling of mine, the joy that reigned in
+Moufflou's home when Tasso returned thither with the money and the good
+tidings both. His substitute was bought without a day's delay, and Lolo
+rapidly recovered. As for Moufflou, he could never tell them his
+troubles, his wanderings, his difficulties, his perils; he could never
+tell them by what miraculous knowledge he had found his way across
+Italy, from the gates of Rome to the gates of Florence. But he soon grew
+plump again, and merry, and his love for Lolo was yet greater than
+before.
+
+By the winter all the family went to live on an estate near Spezia that
+the English gentleman had purchased, and there Moufflou was happier than
+ever. The little English boy is gaining strength in the soft air, and he
+and Lolo are great friends, and play with Moufflou and the poodle puppy
+half the day upon the sunny terraces and under the green orange boughs.
+Tasso is one of the gardeners there; he will have to serve as a soldier
+probably in some category or another, but he is safe for the time, and
+is happy. Lolo, whose lameness will always exempt him from military
+service, when he grows to be a man means to be a florist, and a great
+one. He has learned to read, as the first step on the road of his
+ambition.
+
+"But oh, Moufflou, how _did_ you find your way home?" he asks the dog a
+hundred times a week.
+
+How indeed!
+
+No one ever knew how Moufflou had made that long journey on foot, so
+many weary miles; but beyond a doubt he had done it alone and unaided,
+for if any one had helped him they would have come home with him to
+claim the reward.
+
+
+
+393
+
+ Olive Thorne Miller (1831-1918) is remembered
+ in the history of American juvenile literature
+ as a writer on birds. Her purpose was to show
+ truly the characteristics and habits of the
+ "little brothers of the air." The following
+ selection illustrates the style of much of her
+ work. Some of her books that may appropriately
+ be used as literature in the third, fourth, or
+ fifth grade are _The Children's Book of Birds_,
+ _Little Brothers of the Air_, _Little Folks in
+ Feathers and Fur_, and _Four Handed Folk_. (The
+ selection that follows is from the first-named
+ book, and is used by permission of and by
+ special arrangement with the publishers, The
+ Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.)
+
+
+BIRD HABITS
+
+OLIVE THORNE MILLER
+
+
+I. WHERE HE SLEEPS
+
+Most birds sleep on their feet.
+
+You know how a canary goes to sleep, all puffed out like a ball, with
+his head buried in the feathers of his shoulder. He may stick his bill
+over behind the top of the wing, but he never "puts his head under his
+wing," as you have heard.
+
+Sometimes he stands straight up on one leg, with the other drawn up out
+of sight in his feathers, but more often he sits down on the perch,
+still resting on his feet. Most wild birds of the perching kind sleep in
+the same way.
+
+It is only lately that we have begun to find out where birds sleep,
+because it is dark when they go to bed, and they get up before it is
+light enough for us to see them.
+
+The only way to catch them in bed is to go out in the evening, and start
+them up after they have gone to sleep. And this is not very kind to the
+poor little birds. Some men who are trying to learn about the habits of
+birds have tried this way, and so have found out some of their
+sleeping-places.
+
+One thing they have learned is that the nest is not often used for a
+bed, except for the mother while she is sitting and keeping her little
+ones warm.
+
+Robins and orioles, and others, creep into the thick branches of an
+evergreen tree, close up to the trunk. Some crawl under the edge of a
+haystack, others into thick vines or thorny bushes. All these are meant
+for hiding-places, so that beasts that prowl about at night, and like to
+eat birds, will not find them.
+
+Tree sparrows like to sleep in holes in the ground like little caves.
+The men who found these cosy little bedrooms think they are places dug
+out by field mice, and other small animals, for their own use. And when
+they are left, the birds are glad to take them.
+
+When the weather is cold, some birds sleep under the snow. You may think
+that would not be very warm, and it is not so warm as a bed in the house
+with plenty of blankets. But it is much warmer than a perch in a tree,
+with nothing but leaves to keep off the wind.
+
+While the snow is falling, some birds find it as good as blankets for
+their use. Grouse, who live on the ground, dive into a snow-bank and
+snuggle down quietly, while the snow falls and covers them all over and
+keeps the cold wind off. Air comes through the snow, so they do not
+smother.
+
+Some birds creep into a pile of brush that is covered with snow, and
+find under the twigs little places like tents, where the snow has been
+kept out by the twigs, and they sleep there, away from the wind and
+storm outside.
+
+Water birds find the best sleeping-places on the water, where they float
+all night like tiny boats. Some of them leave one foot hanging down and
+paddling a little, while they sleep, to keep from being washed to the
+shore.
+
+Bob-white and his family sleep in a close circle on the ground, all with
+their heads turned outward, so that they can see or hear an enemy,
+whichever way he comes.
+
+Hawks and eagles are said to sleep standing, never sitting on the feet
+like a canary. Some ducks and geese do even more: they sleep standing on
+one foot. Woodpeckers and chimney swifts hang themselves up by their
+claws, using their stiff tail for a brace, as if it were a third leg.
+
+Some birds, like the crows, sleep in great flocks. They agree upon a
+piece of woods, and all the crows for miles around come there every
+night. Sometimes thousands of them sleep in this one bedroom, called a
+crow roost. Robins do the same, after the young are big enough to fly so
+far.
+
+Audubon, who has told us so much about birds, once found a hollow tree
+which was the sleeping-room of chimney swifts. The noise they made going
+out in the morning was like the roar of a great mill-wheel.
+
+He wanted to see the birds asleep. So in the daytime, when they were
+away, he had a piece cut out at the foot of the tree, big enough to let
+him in, and then put back, so the birds would not notice anything
+unusual.
+
+At night, after the swifts were abed, he took a dark lantern and went
+in. He turned the light upon them little by little, so as not to startle
+them. Then he saw the whole inside of the tree full of birds. They were
+hanging by their claws, side by side, as thick as they could hang. He
+thought there were as many as twelve thousand in that one bedroom.
+
+
+II. HIS TRAVELS
+
+Most of our birds take two long journeys every year, one in the fall to
+the south, and the other in the spring back to the north. These journeys
+are called "migrations."
+
+The birds do not go all at once, but in many cases those of a kind who
+live near each other collect in a flock and travel together. Each
+species or kind has its own time to go.
+
+It might be thought that it is because of the cold that so many birds
+move to a warmer climate. But it is not so; they are very well dressed
+to endure cold. Their feather suits are so warm that some of our
+smallest and weakest birds are able to stay with us, like the chickadee
+and the golden-crowned kinglet. It is simply because they cannot get
+food in winter, that they have to go.
+
+The fall travel begins soon after the first of July. The bobolink is one
+of the first to leave us, though he does not start at once on his long
+journey. By that time his little folk are full grown, and can take care
+of themselves, and he is getting on his winter suit, or moulting.
+
+Then some morning all the bobolinks in the country are turned out of
+their homes in the meadows, by men and horses and mowing machines, for
+at that time the long grass is ready to cut.
+
+Then he begins to think about the wild rice that is getting just right
+to eat. Besides, he likes to take his long journey to South America in
+an easy way, stopping here and there as he goes. So some morning we miss
+his cheerful call, and if we go to the meadow we shall not be able to
+see a single bobolink.
+
+There, too, are the swallows, who eat only small flying insects. As the
+weather grows cooler, these tiny flies are no longer to be found. So the
+swallows begin to flock, as it is called. For a few days they will be
+seen on fences and telegraph wires, chattering and making a great noise,
+and then some morning they will all be gone.
+
+They spend some time in marshes and lonely places before they at last
+set out for the south.
+
+As the days grow shorter and cooler, the warblers go. These are the
+bright-colored little fellows, who live mostly in the tops of trees.
+Then the orioles and the thrushes and the cuckoos leave us, and most
+birds who live on insects.
+
+By the time that November comes in, few of them will be left. Birds who
+can live on seeds and winter berries, such as cedar-berries and
+partridge-berries, and others, often stay with us,--bluebirds, finches,
+and sometimes robins.
+
+Many birds take their journey by night. Think of it! Tiny creatures,
+that all summer go to bed at dark, start off some night, when it seems
+as if they ought to be asleep, and fly all night in the dark.
+
+When it grows light, they stop in some place where they can feed and
+rest. And the next night, or two or three nights later, they go on
+again. So they do until they reach their winter home, hundreds or
+thousands of miles away.
+
+These night flyers are the timid birds, and those who live in the woods
+and do not like to be seen,--thrushes, wrens, vireos, and others. Birds
+with strong wings, who are used to flying hours every day, and bolder
+birds, who do not mind being seen, take their journey by daylight.
+
+Most of them stop now and then, a day or two at a time, to feed and
+rest. They fly very high, and faster than our railroad trains can go.
+
+In the spring the birds take their second long journey, back to their
+last year's home.
+
+How they knew their way on these journeys, men have been for many years
+trying to find out. They have found that birds travel on regular roads,
+or routes, that follow the rivers and the shore of the ocean. They can
+see much better than we can, and even in the night they can see water.
+
+One such road, or highway, is over the harbor of New York. When the
+statue of Liberty was set up on an island in the harbor a few years ago,
+it was put in the birds' path.
+
+Usually they fly too high to mind it; but when there is a rain or fog
+they come much lower, and, sad to say, many of them fly against it and
+are killed.
+
+We often see strange birds in our city streets and parks, while they are
+passing through on their migration, for they sometimes spend several
+days with us.
+
+
+
+394
+
+ Ernest Thompson Seton (1860--) was born in
+ England, but has lived most of his life in
+ America. He began his career as an artist. He
+ made more than 1,000 drawings of birds and
+ animals for the _Century Dictionary_. Later he
+ began to write about animals and has achieved
+ unusual success in that field. His _Wild
+ Animals at Home_, _Wild Animal Ways_, _The
+ Biography of a Grizzly_, and _Wild Animals I
+ Have Known_ are all greatly enjoyed by young
+ people. ("The Poacher and the Silver Fox" is
+ taken from the first-mentioned book, by
+ permission of the publishers, Doubleday, Page &
+ Co., Garden City, New York.)
+
+
+THE POACHER AND THE SILVER FOX
+
+ERNEST THOMPSON SETON
+
+How is it that all mankind has a sneaking sympathy with a poacher? A
+burglar or a pickpocket has our unmitigated contempt; he clearly is a
+criminal; but you will notice that the poacher in the story is
+generally a reckless daredevil with a large and compensatory amount of
+good-fellow in his make-up--yes, I almost said, of good citizenship. I
+suppose, because in addition to the breezy, romantic character of his
+calling, seasoned with physical danger as well as moral risk, there is
+away down in human nature a strong feeling that, in spite of man-made
+laws, the ancient ruling holds that "wild game belongs to no man till
+some one makes it his property by capture." It may be wrong, it may be
+right, but I have heard this doctrine voiced by red men and white, as
+primitive law, once or twice; and have seen it lived up to a thousand
+times.
+
+Well, Josh Cree was a poacher. This does not mean that every night in
+every month he went forth with nefarious tricks and tools, to steal the
+flesh and fur that legally were not his. Far from it. Josh never poached
+but once. But that's enough; he had crossed the line, and this is how it
+came about:
+
+As you roll up the Yellowstone from Livingston to Gardiner you may note
+a little ranch-house on the west of the track with its log stables, its
+corral, its irrigation ditch, and its alfalfa patch of morbid green. It
+is a small affair, for it was founded by the handiwork of one honest
+man, who with his wife and small boy left Pennsylvania, braved every
+danger of the plains, and secured this claim in the late '80's. Old man
+Cree--he was only forty, but every married man is "Old Man" in the
+West--was ready to work at any honest calling from logging or sluicing
+to grading and muling. He was strong and steady, his wife was steady and
+strong. They saved their money, and little by little they got the small
+ranch-house built and equipped; little by little they added to their
+stock on the range with the cattle of a neighbour, until there came the
+happy day when they went to live on their own ranch--father, mother, and
+fourteen-year-old Josh, with every prospect of making it pay. The
+spreading of that white tablecloth for the first time was a real
+religious ceremony, and the hard workers gave thanks to the All-father
+for His blessing on their every effort.
+
+One year afterward a new event brought joy: there entered happily into
+their happy house a little girl, and all the prairie smiled about them.
+Surely their boat was well beyond the breakers.
+
+But right in the sunshine of their joy the trouble cloud arose to block
+the sky. Old man Cree was missing one day. His son rode long and far on
+the range for two hard days before he sighted a grazing pony, and down a
+rocky hollow near, found his father, battered and weak, near death, with
+a broken leg and a gash in his head.
+
+He could only gasp "Water" as Josh hurried up, and the boy rushed off to
+fill his hat at the nearest stream.
+
+They had no talk, for the father swooned after drinking, and Josh had to
+face the situation; but he was Western trained. He stripped himself of
+all spare clothing, and his father's horse of its saddle blanket; then,
+straightening out the sick man, he wrapped him in the clothes and
+blanket, and rode like mad for the nearest ranch-house. The neighbour, a
+young man, came at once, with a pot to make tea, an axe, and a rope.
+They found the older Cree conscious but despairing. A fire was made, and
+hot tea revived him. Then Josh cut two long poles from the nearest
+timber and made a stretcher, or travois, Indian fashion, the upper ends
+fast to the saddle of a horse, while the other ends trailed on the
+ground. Thus by a long, slow journey the wounded man got back. All he
+had prayed for was to get home. Every invalid is sure that if only he
+can get home all will soon be well. Mother was not yet strong, the baby
+needed much care, but Josh was a good boy, and the loving best of all
+was done for the sick one. His leg, set by the army surgeon of Fort
+Yellowstone, was knit again after a month, but had no power. He had no
+force; the shock of those two dire days was on him. The second month
+went by, and still he lay in bed. Poor Josh was the man of the place
+now, and between duties, indoors and out, he was worn body and soul.
+
+Then it was clear they must have help. So Jack S---- was engaged at the
+regular wages of $40 a month for outside work, and a year of struggle
+went by, only to see John Cree in his grave, his cattle nearly all gone,
+his widow and boy living in a house on which was still $500 of the
+original mortgage. Josh was a brave boy and growing strong, but
+unboyishly grave with the weight of care. He sold off the few cattle
+that were left, and set about keeping the roof over his mother and baby
+sister by working a truck farm for the market supplied by the summer
+hotels of the Park, and managed to come out even. He would in time have
+done well, but he could not get far enough ahead to meet that 10 per
+cent mortgage already overdue.
+
+The banker was not a hard man, but he was in the business for the
+business. He extended the time, and waited for interest again and again,
+but it only made the principal larger, and it seemed that the last ditch
+was reached, that it would be best to let the money-man foreclose,
+though that must mean a wipe-out and would leave the fatherless family
+homeless.
+
+Winter was coming on, work was scarce, and Josh went to Gardiner to see
+what he could get in the way of house or wage. He learned of a chance to
+'substitute' for the Park mail-carrier, who had sprained his foot. It
+was an easy drive to Fort Yellowstone, and there he readily agreed, when
+they asked him, to take the letters and packages and go on farther to
+the Canyon Hotel. Thus it was that on the 20th day of November 189-,
+Josh Cree, sixteen years old, tall and ruddy, rode through the snow to
+the kitchen door of the Canyon Hotel and was welcomed as though he were
+old Santa Claus himself.
+
+Two Magpies on a tree were among the onlookers. The Park Bears were
+denned up, but there were other fur-bearers about. High on the wood-pile
+sat a Yellow Red Fox in a magnificent coat. Another was in front of the
+house, and the keeper said that as many as a dozen came some days. And
+sometimes, he said, there also came a wonderful Silver Fox, a size
+bigger than the rest, black as coal, with eyes like yellow diamonds, and
+a silver frosting like little stars on his midnight fur.
+
+"My! but he's a beauty. That skin would buy the best team of mules on
+the Yellowstone." That was interesting and furnished talk for a while.
+In the morning when they were rising for their candlelight breakfast,
+the hotel man glancing from the window exclaimed, "Here he is now!" and
+Josh peered forth to see in the light of sunrise something he had often
+heard of, but never before seen, a coal-black Fox, a giant among his
+kind. How slick and elegant his glossy fur, how slim his legs, and what
+a monstrous bushy tail; and the other Foxes moved aside as the patrician
+rushed in impatient haste to seize the food thrown out by the cook.
+
+"Ain't he a beauty?" said the hotel man. "I'll bet that pelt would fetch
+five hundred."
+
+Oh, why did he say "five hundred," the exact sum, for then it was that
+the tempter entered into Josh Cree's heart. Five hundred dollars! just
+the amount of the mortgage. "Who owns wild beasts? The man that kills
+them," said the tempter, and the thought was a live one in his breast as
+Josh rode back to Fort Yellowstone.
+
+At Gardiner he received his pay, $6.00, for three days' work and,
+turning it into groceries, set out for the poor home that soon would be
+lost to him, and as he rode he did some hard and gloomy thinking. On his
+wrist there hung a wonderful Indian quirt of plaited rawhide and
+horsehair with beads on the shaft, and a band of Elk teeth on the butt.
+It was a pet of his, and "good medicine," for a flat piece of elkhorn
+let in the middle was perforated with a hole, through which the distant
+landscape was seen much clearer--a well-known law, an ancient trick, but
+it made the quirt prized as a thing of rare virtue, and Josh had refused
+good offers for it. Then a figure afoot was seen, and coming nearer, it
+turned out to be a friend, Jack Day, out a-gunning with a .22 rifle. But
+game was scarce and Jack was returning to Gardiner empty-handed and
+disgusted. They stopped for a moment's greeting when Day said: "Huntin's
+played out now. How'll you swap that quirt for my rifle?" A month before
+Josh would have scorned the offer. A ten-dollar quirt for a five-dollar
+rifle, but now he said briefly: "For rifle with cover, tools and
+ammunition complete, I'll go ye." So the deal was made and in an hour
+Josh was home. He stabled Grizzle, the last of their saddle stock, and
+entered.
+
+Love and sorrow dwelt in the widow's home, but the return of Josh
+brought its measure of joy. Mother prepared the regular meal of tea,
+potatoes, and salt pork; there was a time when they had soared as high
+as canned goods, but those prosperous days were gone. Josh was dandling
+baby sister on his lap as he told of his trip, and he learned of two
+things of interest: First, the bank must have its money by February;
+second, the stable at Gardiner wanted a driver for the Cook City stage.
+Then the little events moved quickly. His half-formed plan of getting
+back to the Canyon was now frustrated by the new opening, and, besides
+this, hope had been dampened by the casual word of one who reported that
+"that Silver Fox had not been seen since at the Canyon."
+
+Then began long days of dreary driving through the snow, with a noon
+halt at Yancey's and then three days later the return, in the cold, the
+biting cold. It was freezing work, but coldest of all was the chill
+thought at his heart that February 1st would see him homeless.
+
+Small bands of Mountain Sheep he saw at times on the slope of Evarts,
+and a few Blacktail, and later, when the winter deepened, huge bull Elk
+were seen along the trail. Sometimes they moved not more than a few
+paces to let him pass. These were everyday things to him, but in the
+second week of his winter work he got a sudden thrill. He was coming
+down the long hill back of Yancey's when what should he see there,
+sitting on its tail, shiny black with yellow eyes like a huge black cat
+unusually long and sharp in the nose, but a wonderful Silver Fox!
+Possibly the same as the one he saw at the Canyon, for that one he knew
+had disappeared and there were not likely to be two in the Park. Yes, it
+might be the same, and Josh's bosom surged with mingled feelings. Why
+did he not carry that little gun? Why did he not realize? were the
+thoughts that came--$500! A noble chance! broad daylight only
+twenty-five yards! and gone!
+
+The Fox was still there when Josh drove on. On the next trip he brought
+the little rifle. He had sawed off the stock so he could hide it easily
+in his overcoat if need be. No man knew that he carried arms, but the
+Foxes seemed to know. The Red ones kept afar and the Black one came no
+more. Day after day he drove and hoped but the Black Fox has cunning
+measured to his value. He came not, or if he came, was wisely hidden,
+and so the month went by, till late in the cold Moon of Snow he heard
+old Yancey say, "There's a Silver Fox bin a-hanging around the stable
+this last week. Leastwise Dave says he seen him." There were soldiers
+sitting around that stove, game guardians of the Park, and still more
+dangerous, a scout, the soldiers' guide, a mountaineer. Josh turned not
+an inch, he made no sound in response, but his heart gave a jump. Half
+an hour later he went out to bed his horses for the night, and peering
+around the stable he saw a couple of shadowy forms that silently shifted
+until swallowed by the gloom.
+
+Then the soldiers came to bed their horses, and Josh went back to the
+stove. His big driving coat hung with the little sawed-off rifle in the
+long pocket. He waited till the soldiers one by one went up the ladder
+to the general bunk-room. He rose again, got the lantern, lighted it,
+carried it out behind the lonely stable. The horses were grinding their
+hay, the stars were faintly lighting the snow. There was no one about as
+he hung the lantern under the eaves outside so that it could be seen
+from the open valley, but not from the house.
+
+A faint Yap-yah of a Fox was heard on the piney hillside, as he lay down
+on the hay in the loft, but there were no signs of life on the snow. He
+had come to wait all night if need be, and waited. The lantern might
+allure, it might scare, but it was needed in this gloom, and it tinged
+the snow with faint yellow light below him. An hour went by, then a
+big-tailed form came near and made a little bark at the lantern. It
+looked very dark, but it had a paler patch on the throat. This waiting
+was freezing work; Josh's teeth were chattering in spite of his
+overcoat. Another gray form came, then a much larger black one shaped
+itself on the white. It dashed at the first, which fled, and the second
+one followed but a little and then sat down on the snow, gazing at that
+bright light. When you are sure, you are so sure--Josh knew him now, he
+was facing the Silver Fox. But the light was dim. Josh's hand trembled
+as he bared it to lay the back on his lips and suck so as to make a
+mousey squeak. The effect on the Fox was instant. He glided forward
+intent as a hunting cat. Again he stood in, oh! such a wonderful pose,
+still as a statue, frozen like a hiding Partridge, unbudging as a lone
+kid Antelope in May. And Josh raised--yes, he had come for that--he
+raised that fatal gun. The lantern blazed in the Fox's face at twenty
+yards; the light was flung back doubled by its shining eyes; it looked
+perfectly clear. Josh lined the gun, but, strange to tell, the sights so
+plain were lost at once, and the gun was shaking like a sorghum stalk
+while the Gopher gnaws its root. He laid the weapon down with a groan,
+cursed his own poor trembling hand, and in an instant the wonder Fox was
+gone.
+
+Poor Josh! He wasn't bad-tongued, but now he used all the evil words he
+had ever heard, and he was Western bred. Then he reacted on himself.
+"The Fox might come back!" Suddenly he remembered something. He got out
+a common sulphur match. He wet it on his lips and rubbed it on the
+muzzle sight: Then on each side of the notch on the breech sight. He
+lined it for a tree. Yes! surely! What had been a blur of blackness had
+now a visible form.
+
+A faint bark on a far hillside might mean a coming or a going Fox. Josh
+waited five minutes, then again he squeaked on his bare hand. The effect
+was a surprise when from the shelter of the stable wall ten feet below
+there leaped the great dark Fox. At fifteen feet it paused. Those yellow
+orbs were fiery in the light and the rifle sights with the specks of
+fire were lined. There was a sharp report and the black-robed fur was
+still and limp in the snow.
+
+Who can tell the crack of a small rifle among the louder cracks of green
+logs splitting with the fierce frost of a Yellowstone winter's night?
+Why should travel-worn travelers wake at each slight, usual sound? Who
+knows? Who cares?
+
+And afar in Livingston what did the fur dealer care? It was a great
+prize. Or the banker? he got his five hundred, and mother found it easy
+to accept the Indians' creed: "Who owns wild beasts? The man who kills
+them."
+
+"I did not know how it would come," she said; "I only knew it would
+come, for I prayed and believed."
+
+We know that it came when it meant the most. The house was saved. It was
+the turn in their fortune's tide, and the crucial moment of the change
+was when those three bright sulphur spots were lined with the living
+lamps in the head of the Silver Fox. Yes! Josh was a poacher. Just once.
+
+
+
+395
+
+ David Starr Jordan (1851--) was for many years
+ president, now president emeritus, of Leland
+ Stanford Junior University, and is known
+ internationally for his books on science and on
+ the prevention of war; he also is author of
+ several books for children. The story that
+ follows is taken from his _Science Sketches_,
+ by permission of the publishers, A. C. McClurg
+ & Co., Chicago. It may stand as a perfect
+ illustration of the modern informational story
+ based on recognized scientific facts. "The
+ Story of a Stone," from the same book, is
+ equally good. These stories may be taught in
+ the seventh or eighth grade.
+
+
+THE STORY OF A SALMON
+
+DAVID STARR JORDAN
+
+In the realm of the Northwest Wind, on the boundary-line between the
+dark fir-forests and the sunny plains, there stands a mountain,--a
+great white cone two miles and a half in perpendicular height. On its
+lower mile the dense fir-woods cover it with never-changing green; on
+its next half-mile a lighter green of grass and bushes gives place in
+winter to white; and on its uppermost mile the snows of the great ice
+age still linger in unspotted purity. The people of Washington Territory
+say that their mountain is the great "King-pin of the Universe," which
+shows that even in its own country Mount Tacoma is not without honor.
+
+Flowing down from the southwest slope of Mount Tacoma is a cold, clear
+river, fed by the melting snows of the mountain. Madly it hastens down
+over white cascades and beds of shining sands, through birch-woods and
+belts of dark firs, to mingle its waters at last with those of the great
+Columbia. This river is the Cowlitz; and on its bottom, not many years
+ago, there lay half buried in the sand a number of little orange-colored
+globules, each about as large as a pea. These were not much in
+themselves, but great in their possibilities. In the waters above them
+little suckers and chubs and prickly sculpins strained their mouths to
+draw these globules from the sand, and vicious-looking crawfishes picked
+them up with their blundering hands and examined them with their
+telescopic eyes. But one, at least, of the globules escaped their
+curiosity, else this story would not be worth telling. The sun shone
+down on it through the clear water, and the ripples of the Cowlitz said
+over it their incantations, and in it at last awoke a living being. It
+was a fish,--a curious little fellow, not half an inch long, with great,
+staring eyes, which made almost half his length, and with a body so
+transparent that he could not cast a shadow. He was a little salmon, a
+very little salmon; but the water was good, and there were flies and
+worms and little living creatures in abundance for him to eat, and he
+soon became a larger salmon. Then there were many more little salmon
+with him, some larger and some smaller, and they all had a merry time.
+Those who had been born soonest and had grown largest used to chase the
+others around and bite off their tails, or, still better, take them by
+the heads and swallow them whole; for, said they, "Even young salmon are
+good eating." "Heads I win, tails you lose," was their motto. Thus, what
+was once two small salmon became united into a single larger one, and
+the process of "addition, division, and silence" still went on.
+By-and-by, when all the salmon were too large to be swallowed, they
+began to grow restless. They saw that the water rushing by seemed to be
+in a great hurry to get somewhere, and it was somehow suggested that its
+hurry was caused by something good to eat at the other end of its
+course. Then they all started down the stream, salmon-fashion,--which
+fashion is to get into the current, head up-stream; and thus to drift
+backward as the river sweeps along.
+
+Down the Cowlitz River the salmon went for a day and a night, finding
+much to interest them which we need not know. At last they began to grow
+hungry; and coming near the shore, they saw an angle-worm of rare size
+and beauty floating in an eddy of the stream. Quick as thought one of
+them opened his mouth, which was well filled with teeth of different
+sizes, and put it around the angle-worm. Quicker still he felt a sharp
+pain in his gills, followed by a smothering sensation, and in an instant
+his comrades saw him rise straight into the air. This was nothing new to
+them; for they often leaped out of the water in their games of
+hide-and-seek, but only to come down again with a loud splash not far
+from where they went out. But this one never came back, and the others
+went on their course wondering.
+
+At last they came to where the Cowlitz and the Columbia join, and they
+were almost lost for a time; for they could find no shores, and the
+bottom and the top of the water were so far apart. Here they saw other
+and far larger salmon in the deepest part of the current, turning
+neither to the right nor to the left, but swimming right on up-stream,
+just as rapidly as they could. And these great salmon would not stop for
+them, and would not lie and float with the current. They had no time to
+talk, even in the simple sign language by which fishes express their
+ideas, and no time to eat. They had important work before them, and the
+time was short. So they went on up the river, keeping their great
+purposes to themselves; and our little salmon and his friends from the
+Cowlitz drifted down the stream.
+
+By-and-by the water began to change. It grew denser, and no longer
+flowed rapidly along; and twice a day it used to turn about and flow the
+other way. Then the shores disappeared, and the water began to have a
+different and peculiar flavor,--a flavor which seemed to the salmon much
+richer and more inspiring than the glacier-water of their native
+Cowlitz. There were many curious things to see,--crabs with hard shells
+and savage faces, but so good when crushed and swallowed! Then there
+were luscious squid swimming about; and, to a salmon, squid are like
+ripe peaches and cream. There were great companies of delicate sardines
+and herring, green and silvery, and it was such fun to chase and capture
+them! Those who eat sardines packed in oil by greasy fingers, and
+herrings dried in the smoke, can have little idea how satisfying it is
+to have a meal of them, plump and sleek and silvery, fresh from the sea.
+
+Thus the salmon chased the herrings about, and had a merry time. Then
+they were chased about in turn by great sea-lions,--swimming monsters
+with huge half-human faces, long thin whiskers, and blundering ways. The
+sea-lions liked to bite out the throat of a salmon, with its precious
+stomach full of luscious sardines, and then to leave the rest of the
+fish to shift for itself. And the seals and the herrings scattered the
+salmon about, till at last the hero of our story found himself quite
+alone, with none of his own kind near him. But that did not trouble him
+much, and he went on his own way, getting his dinner when he was hungry,
+which was all the time, and then eating a little between meals for his
+stomach's sake.
+
+So it went on for three long years; and at the end of this time our
+little fish had grown to be a great, fine salmon of twenty-two pounds'
+weight, shining like a new tin pan, and with rows of the loveliest round
+black spots on his head and back and tail. One day, as he was swimming
+about, idly chasing a big sculpin with head so thorny that he never was
+swallowed by anybody, all of a sudden the salmon noticed a change in the
+water around him.
+
+Spring had come again, and south-lying snow-drifts on the Cascade
+Mountains once more felt that the "earth was wheeling sunwards." The
+cold snow waters ran down from the mountains and into the Columbia
+River, and made a freshet on the river. The high water went far out into
+the sea, and out in the sea our salmon felt it on his gills. He
+remembered how the cold water used to feel in the Cowlitz when he was a
+little fish. In a blundering, fishy fashion he thought about it; he
+wondered whether the little eddy looked as it used to look, and whether
+caddis-worms and young mosquitoes were really as sweet and tender as he
+used to think they were. Then he thought some other things; but as the
+salmon's mind is located in the optic lobes of his brain, and ours is in
+a different place, we cannot be quite certain what his thoughts really
+were.
+
+What our salmon did, we know. He did what every grown salmon in the
+ocean does when he feels the glacier-water once more upon his gills. He
+became a changed being. He spurned the blandishment of soft-shelled
+crabs. The pleasures of the table and of the chase, heretofore his only
+delights, lost their charms for him. He turned his course straight
+toward the direction whence the cold water came, and for the rest of his
+life never tasted a mouthful of food. He moved on toward the
+river-mouth, at first playfully, as though he were not really certain
+whether he meant anything after all. Afterward, when he struck the full
+current of the Columbia, he plunged straight forward with an unflinching
+determination that had in it something of the heroic. When he had passed
+the rough water at the bar, he was not alone. His old neighbors of the
+Cowlitz, and many more from the Clackamas and the Spokane and Des Chutes
+and Kootenay,--a great army of salmon,--were with him. In front were
+thousands pressing on, and behind them were thousands more, all moved by
+a common impulse which urged them up the Columbia.
+
+They were all swimming bravely along where the current was deepest, when
+suddenly the foremost felt something tickling like a cobweb about their
+noses and under their chins. They changed their course a little to brush
+it off, and it touched their fins as well. Then they tried to slip down
+with the current, and thus leave it behind. But, no! the thing, whatever
+it was, although its touch was soft, refused to let go, and held them
+like a fetter. The more they struggled, the tighter became its grasp,
+and the whole foremost rank of the salmon felt it together; for it was a
+great gill-net, a quarter of a mile long, stretched squarely across the
+mouth of the river.
+
+By-and-by men came in boats, and hauled up the gill-net and the helpless
+salmon that had become entangled in it. They threw the fishes into a
+pile in the bottom of the boat, and the others saw them no more. We that
+live outside the water know better what befalls them, and we can tell
+the story which the salmon could not.
+
+All along the banks of the Columbia River, from its mouth to nearly
+thirty miles away, there is a succession of large buildings, looking
+like great barns or warehouses, built on piles in the river, high enough
+to be out of the reach of floods. There are thirty of these buildings,
+and they are called canneries. Each cannery has about forty boats, and
+with each boat are two men and a long gill-net. These nets fill the
+whole river as with a nest of cobwebs from April to July, and to each
+cannery nearly a thousand great salmon are brought every day. These
+salmon are thrown in a pile on the floor; and Wing Hop, the big
+Chinaman, takes them one after another on the table, and with a great
+knife dexterously cuts off the head, the tail, and the fins; then with a
+sudden thrust he removes the intestines and the eggs. The body goes into
+a tank of water; and the head is dropped into a box on a flat-boat, and
+goes down the river to be made into salmon oil. Next, the body is
+brought to another table; and Quong Sang, with a machine like a
+feed-cutter, cuts it into pieces each just as long as a one-pound can.
+Then Ah Sam, with a butcher-knife, cuts these pieces into strips just as
+wide as the can. Next Wan Lee, the "China boy," brings down a hundred
+cans from the loft where the tinners are making them, and into each puts
+a spoonful of salt. It takes just six salmon to fill a hundred cans.
+Then twenty Chinamen put the pieces of meat into the cans, fitting in
+little strips to make them exactly full. Ten more solder up the cans,
+and ten more put the cans into boiling water till the meat is thoroughly
+cooked, and five more punch a little hole in the head of each can to let
+out the air. Then they solder them up again, and little girls paste on
+them bright-colored labels showing merry little cupids riding the happy
+salmon up to the cannery door, with Mount Tacoma and Cape Disappointment
+in the background; and a legend underneath says that this is "Booth's,"
+or "Badollet's Best," or "Hume's," or "Clark's," or "Kinney's Superfine
+Salt Water Salmon." Then the cans are placed in cases, forty-eight in a
+case, and five hundred thousand cases are put up every year. Great ships
+come to Astoria, and are loaded with them; and they carry them away to
+London and San Francisco and Liverpool and New York and Sidney and
+Valparaiso; and the man at the corner grocery sells them at twenty cents
+a can.
+
+All this time our salmon is going up the river, eluding one net as by a
+miracle, and soon having need of more miracles to escape the rest;
+passing by Astoria on a fortunate day,--which was Sunday, the day on
+which no man may fish if he expects to sell what he catches,--till
+finally he came to where nets were few, and, at last, to where they
+ceased altogether. But there he found that scarcely any of his many
+companies were with him; for the nets cease when there are no more
+salmon to be caught in them. So he went on, day and night, where the
+water was deepest, stopping not to feed or loiter on the way, till at
+last he came to a wild gorge, where the great river became an angry
+torrent, rushing wildly over a huge staircase of rocks. But our hero did
+not falter; and summoning all his forces, he plunged into the Cascades.
+The current caught him and dashed him against the rocks. A whole row of
+silvery scales came off and glistened in the water like sparks of fire,
+and a place on his side became black-and-red, which, for a salmon, is
+the same as being black-and-blue for other people. His comrades tried to
+go up with him; and one lost his eye, one his tail, and one had his
+lower jaw pushed back into his head like the joint of a telescope. Again
+he tried to surmount the Cascades; and at last he succeeded, and an
+Indian on the rocks above was waiting to receive him. But the Indian
+with his spear was less skillful than he was wont to be, and our hero
+escaped, losing only a part of one of his fins; and with him came one
+other, and henceforth these two pursued their journey together.
+
+Now a gradual change took place in the looks of our salmon. In the sea
+he was plump and round and silvery, with delicate teeth in a symmetrical
+mouth. Now his silvery color disappeared, his skin grew slimy, and the
+scales sank into it; his back grew black, and his sides turned red,--not
+a healthy red, but a sort of hectic flush. He grew poor, and his back,
+formerly as straight as need be, now developed an unpleasant hump at the
+shoulders. His eyes--like those of all enthusiasts who forsake eating
+and sleeping for some loftier aim--became dark and sunken. His
+symmetrical jaws grew longer and longer, and meeting each other, as the
+nose of an old man meets his chin, each had to turn aside to let the
+other pass. His beautiful teeth grew longer and longer, and projected
+from his mouth, giving him a savage and wolfish appearance, quite at
+variance with his real disposition. For all the desires and ambitions of
+his nature had become centered into one. We may not know what this one
+was, but we know that it was a strong one; for it had led him on and
+on,--past the nets and horrors of Astoria; past the dangerous Cascades;
+past the spears of Indians; through the terrible flume of the Dalles,
+where the mighty river is compressed between huge rocks into a channel
+narrower than a village street; on past the meadows of Umatilla and the
+wheat-fields of Walla Walla; on to where the great Snake River and the
+Columbia join; on up the Snake River and its eastern branch, till at
+last he reached the foot of the Bitter Root mountains in the Territory
+of Idaho, nearly a thousand miles from the ocean which he had left in
+April. With him still was the other salmon which had come with him
+through the Cascades, handsomer and smaller than he, and, like him,
+growing poor and ragged and tired.
+
+At last, one October afternoon, our finny travelers came together to a
+little clear brook, with a bottom of fine gravel, over which the water
+was but a few inches deep. Our fish painfully worked his way to it; for
+his tail was all frayed out, his muscles were sore, and his skin covered
+with unsightly blotches. But his sunken eyes saw a ripple in the stream,
+and under it a bed of little pebbles and sand. So there in the sand he
+scooped out with his tail a smooth round place, and his companion came
+and filled it with orange-colored eggs. Then our salmon came back again;
+and softly covering the eggs, the work of their lives was done, and, in
+the old salmon fashion, they drifted tail foremost down the stream.
+
+They drifted on together for a night and a day, but they never came to
+the sea. For the salmon has but one life to live, and it ascends the
+river but once. The rest lies with its children. And when the April
+sunshine fell on the globules in the gravel, these were wakened into
+life. With the early autumn rains, the little fishes were large enough
+to begin their wanderings. They dropped down the current in the old
+salmon fashion. And thus they came into the great river and drifted away
+to the sea.
+
+
+
+396
+
+ Probably no short-story writer now living is
+ better known than Rudyard Kipling, an English
+ author born in Bombay, India, in 1865. Among
+ his many stories are some that may be classed
+ as juvenile romantic nature literature.
+ _Just-So Stories_ is a collection of humorous
+ stories of this type, excellent for the fifth
+ and sixth grades. _The Jungle Book_ and _The
+ Second Jungle Book_, of a more serious nature,
+ may be used in the seventh and eighth grades.
+ The story that follows, taken from one of his
+ earlier volumes, illustrates well Mr. Kipling's
+ style of writing. It is suitable for the
+ seventh or eighth grade.
+
+
+MOTI GUJ--MUTINEER
+
+RUDYARD KIPLING
+
+Once upon a time there was a coffee-planter in India who wished to clear
+some forest land for coffee-planting. When he had cut down all the trees
+and burned the underwood, the stumps still remained. Dynamite is
+expensive and slow fire slow. The happy medium for stump-clearing is the
+lord of all beasts, who is the elephant. He will either push the stump
+out of the ground with his tusks, if he has any, or drag it out with
+ropes. The planter, therefore, hired elephants by ones and twos and
+threes, and fell to work. The very best of all the elephants belonged to
+the very worst of all the drivers or mahouts; and this superior beast's
+name was Moti Guj. He was the absolute property of his mahout, which
+would never have been the case under native rule: for Moti Guj was a
+creature to be desired by kings, and his name, being translated, meant
+the Pearl Elephant. Because the British government was in the land,
+Deesa, the mahout, enjoyed his property undisturbed. He was dissipated.
+When he had made much money through the strength of his elephant, he
+would get extremely drunk and give Moti Guj a beating with a tent-peg
+over the tender nails of the forefeet. Moti Guj never trampled the life
+out of Deesa on these occasions, for he knew that after the beating was
+over, Deesa would embrace his trunk and weep and call him his love and
+his life and the liver of his soul, and give him some liquor. Moti Guj
+was very fond of liquor--arrack for choice, though he would drink
+palm-tree toddy if nothing better offered. Then Deesa would go to sleep
+between Moti Guj's forefeet, and as Deesa generally chose the middle of
+the public road, and as Moti Guj mounted guard over him, and would not
+permit horse, foot, or cart to pass by, traffic was congested till Deesa
+saw fit to wake up.
+
+There was no sleeping in the daytime on the planter's clearing: the
+wages were too high to risk. Deesa sat on Moti Guj's neck and gave him
+orders, while Moti Guj rooted up the stumps--for he owned a magnificent
+pair of tusks; or pulled at the end of a rope--for he had a magnificent
+pair of shoulders--while Deesa kicked him behind the ears and said he
+was the king of elephants. At evening time Moti Guj would wash down his
+three hundred pounds' weight of green food with a quart of arrack, and
+Deesa would take a share, and sing songs between Moti Guj's legs till it
+was time to go to bed. Once a week Deesa led Moti Guj down to the river,
+and Moti Guj lay on his side luxuriously in the shallows, while Deesa
+went over him with a coir-swab and a brick. Moti Guj never mistook the
+pounding blow of the latter for the smack of the former that warned him
+to get up and turn over on the other side. Then Deesa would look at his
+feet and examine his eyes, and turn up the fringes of his mighty ears in
+case of sores or budding ophthalmia. After inspection the two would
+"come up with a song from the sea," Moti Guj, all black and shining,
+waving a torn tree branch twelve feet long in his trunk, and Deesa
+knotting up his own long wet hair.
+
+It was a peaceful, well-paid life till Deesa felt the return of the
+desire to drink deep. He wished for an orgy. The little draughts that
+led nowhere were taking the manhood out of him.
+
+He went to the planter, and "My mother's dead," he said, weeping.
+
+"She died on the last plantation two months ago, and she died once
+before that when you were working for me last year," said the planter,
+who knew something of the ways of nativedom.
+
+"Then it's my aunt, and she was just the same as a mother to me," said
+Deesa, weeping more than ever. "She has left eighteen small children
+entirely without bread, and it is I who must fill their little
+stomachs," said Deesa, beating his head on the floor.
+
+"Who brought you the news?" said the planter.
+
+"The post," said Deesa.
+
+"There hasn't been a post here for the past week. Get back to your
+lines!"
+
+"A devastating sickness has fallen on my village, and all my wives are
+dying," yelled Deesa, really in tears this time.
+
+"Call Chihun, who comes from Deesa's village," said the planter.
+"Chihun, has this man got a wife?"
+
+"He?" said Chihun. "No. Not a woman of our village would look at him.
+They'd sooner marry the elephant."
+
+Chihun snorted. Deesa wept and bellowed.
+
+"You will get into a difficulty in a minute," said the planter. "Go back
+to your work!"
+
+"Now I will speak Heaven's truth," gulped Deesa, with an inspiration. "I
+haven't been drunk for two months. I desire to depart in order to get
+properly drunk afar off and distant from this heavenly plantation. Thus
+I shall cause no trouble."
+
+A flickering smile crossed the planter's face. "Deesa," said he, "you've
+spoken the truth, and I'd give you leave on the spot if anything could
+be done with Moti Guj while you're away. You know that he will only obey
+your orders."
+
+"May the light of the heavens live forty thousand years. I shall be
+absent but ten little days. After that, _upon_ my faith and honor and
+soul, I return. As to the inconsiderable interval, have I the gracious
+permission of the heaven-born to call up Moti Guj?"
+
+Permission was granted, and in answer to Deesa's shrill yell, the mighty
+tusker swung out of the shade of a clump of trees where he had been
+squirting dust over himself till his master should return.
+
+"Light of my heart, protector of the drunken, mountain of might, give
+ear!" said Deesa, standing in front of him.
+
+Moti Guj gave ear, and saluted with his trunk. "I am going away!" said
+Deesa.
+
+Moti Guj's eyes twinkled. He liked jaunts as well as his master. One
+could snatch all manner of nice things from the road-side then.
+
+"But you, you fussy old pig, must stay behind and work."
+
+The twinkle died out as Moti Guj tried to look delighted. He hated
+stump-hauling on the plantation. It hurt his teeth.
+
+"I shall be gone for ten days, oh delectable one! Hold up your near
+forefoot and I'll impress the fact upon it, warty toad of a dried
+mud-puddle." Deesa took a tent-peg and banged Moti Guj ten times on the
+nails. Moti Guj grunted and shuffled from foot to foot.
+
+"Ten days," said Deesa, "you will work and haul and root the trees as
+Chihun here shall order you. Take up Chihun and set him on your neck!"
+Moti Guj curled the tip of his trunk, Chihun put his foot there, and was
+swung on to the neck. Deesa handed Chihun the heavy _ankus_--the iron
+elephant goad.
+
+Chihun thumped Moti Guj's bald head as a paver thumps a curbstone.
+
+Moti Guj trumpeted.
+
+"Be still, hog of the backwoods! Chihun's your mahout for ten days. And
+now bid me good-by, beast after mine own heart. Oh, my lord, my king!
+Jewel of all created elephants, lily of the herd, preserve your honored
+health; be virtuous. Adieu!"
+
+Moti Guj lapped his trunk round Deesa and swung him into the air twice.
+That was his way of bidding him good-by.
+
+"He'll work now," said Deesa to the planter. "Have I leave to go?"
+
+The planter nodded, and Deesa dived into the woods. Moti Guj went back
+to haul stumps.
+
+Chihun was very kind to him, but he felt unhappy and forlorn for all
+that. Chihun gave him a ball of spices, and tickled him under the chin,
+and Chihun's little baby cooed to him after work was over, and Chihun's
+wife called him a darling; but Moti Guj was a bachelor by instinct, as
+Deesa was. He did not understand the domestic emotions. He wanted the
+light of his universe back again--the drink and the drunken slumber, the
+savage beatings and the savage caresses.
+
+None the less he worked well, and the planter wondered. Deesa had
+wandered along the roads till he met a marriage procession of his own
+caste, and, drinking, dancing, and tippling, had drifted with it past
+all knowledge of the lapse of time.
+
+The morning of the eleventh day dawned, and there returned no Deesa.
+Moti Guj was loosed from his ropes for the daily stint. He swung clear,
+looked round, shrugged his shoulders, and began to walk away, as one
+having business elsewhere.
+
+"Hi! ho! Come back you!" shouted Chihun. "Come back and put me on your
+neck, misborn mountain! Return, splendor of the hill-sides! Adornment of
+all India, heave to, or I'll bang every toe off your fat forefoot!"
+
+Moti Guj gurgled gently, but did not obey. Chihun ran after him with a
+rope and caught him up. Moti Guj put his ears forward, and Chihun knew
+what that meant, though he tried to carry it off with high words.
+
+"None of your nonsense with me," said he. "To your pickets, devil-son!"
+
+"Hrrump!" said Moti Guj, and that was all--that and the forebent ears.
+
+Moti Guj put his hands in his pockets, chewed a branch for a toothpick,
+and strolled about the clearing, making fun of the other elephants who
+had just set to work.
+
+Chihun reported the state of affairs to the planter, who came out with a
+dog-whip and cracked it furiously. Moti Guj paid the white man the
+compliment of charging him nearly a quarter of a mile across the
+clearing and "Hrrumphing" him into his veranda. Then he stood outside
+the house, chuckling to himself and shaking all over with the fun of it
+as an elephant will.
+
+"We'll thrash him," said the planter. "He shall have the finest
+thrashing ever elephant received. Give Kala Nag and Nazim twelve foot of
+chain apiece, and tell them to lay on twenty."
+
+Kala Nag--which means Black Snake--and Nazim were two of the biggest
+elephants in the lines, and one of their duties was to administer the
+graver punishment, since no man can beat an elephant properly.
+
+They took the whipping-chains and rattled them in their trunks as they
+sidled up to Moti Guj, meaning to hustle him between them. Moti Guj had
+never, in all his life of thirty-nine years, been whipped, and he did
+not intend to begin a new experience. So he waited, waving his head from
+right to left, and measuring the precise spot in Kala Nag's fat side
+where a blunt tusk could sink deepest. Kala Nag had no tusks; the chain
+was the badge of his authority; but for all that, he swung wide of Moti
+Guj at the last minute, and tried to appear as if he had brought the
+chain out for amusement. Nazim turned round and went home early. He did
+not feel fighting fit that morning and so Moti Guj was left, standing
+alone with his ears cocked.
+
+That decided the planter to argue no more, and Moti Guj rolled back to
+his amateur inspection of the clearing. An elephant who will not work
+and is not tied up is about as manageable as an eighty-one-ton gun loose
+in a heavy seaway. He slapped old friends on the back and asked them if
+the stumps were coming away easily; he talked nonsense concerning labor
+and the inalienable rights of elephants to a long "nooning"; and,
+wandering to and fro, he thoroughly demoralized the garden till sundown,
+when he returned to his picket for food.
+
+"If you won't work, you shan't eat," said Chihun, angrily. "You're a
+wild elephant, and no educated animal at all. Go back to your jungle."
+
+Chihun's little brown baby was rolling on the floor of the hut, and
+stretching out its fat arms to the huge shadow in the doorway. Moti Guj
+knew well that it was the dearest thing on earth to Chihun. He swung out
+his trunk with a fascinating crook at the end, and the brown baby threw
+itself, shouting upon it. Moti Guj made fast and pulled up till the
+brown baby was crowing in the air twelve feet above his father's head.
+
+"Great Lord!" said Chihun. "Flour cakes of the best, twelve in number,
+two feet across and soaked in rum, shall be yours on the instant, and
+two hundred pounds weight of fresh-cut young sugar-cane therewith. Deign
+only to put down safely that insignificant brat who is my heart and my
+life to me!"
+
+Moti Guj tucked the brown baby comfortably between his forefeet, that
+could have knocked into toothpicks all Chihun's hut, and waited for his
+food. He ate it, and the brown baby crawled away. Moti Guj dozed and
+thought of Deesa. One of many mysteries connected with the elephant is
+that his huge body needs less sleep than anything else that lives. Four
+or five hours in the night suffice--two just before midnight, lying down
+on one side; two just after one o'clock, lying down on the other. The
+rest of the silent hours are filled with eating and fidgeting, and long
+grumbling soliloquies.
+
+At midnight, therefore, Moti Guj strode out of his pickets, for a
+thought had come to him that Deesa might be lying drunk somewhere in the
+dark forest with none to look after him. So all that night he chased
+through the undergrowth, blowing and trumpeting and shaking his ears. He
+went down to the river and blared across the shallows where Deesa used
+to wash him, but there was no answer. He could not find Deesa, but he
+disturbed all the other elephants in the lines, and nearly frightened to
+death some gypsies in the woods.
+
+At dawn Deesa returned to the plantation. He had been very drunk indeed,
+and he expected to get into trouble for outstaying his leave. He drew a
+long breath when he saw that the bungalow and the plantation were still
+uninjured, for he knew something of Moti Guj's temper, and reported
+himself with many lies and salaams. Moti Guj had gone to his pickets for
+breakfast. The night exercises had made him hungry.
+
+"Call up your beast," said the planter; and Deesa shouted in the
+mysterious elephant language that some mahouts believe came from China
+at the birth of the world, when elephants and not men were masters. Moti
+Guj heard and came. Elephants do not gallop. They move from places at
+varying rates of speed. If an elephant wished to catch an express train
+he could not gallop, but he could catch the train. So Moti Guj was at
+the planter's door almost before Chihun noticed that he had left his
+pickets. He fell into Deesa's arms, trumpeting with joy, and the man and
+beast wept and slobbered over each other, and handled each other from
+head to heel to see that no harm had befallen.
+
+"Now we will get to work," said Deesa. "Lift me up, my son and my joy!"
+
+Moti Guj swung him up, and the two went to the coffee-clearing to look
+for difficult stumps.
+
+The planter was too astonished to be very angry.
+
+
+
+397
+
+ Among the writers of nature fiction, probably
+ no one deserves higher rank than Charles G. D.
+ Roberts (1860--), a Canadian. Mr. Roberts does
+ not tell of his own adventures. His stories are
+ truly nature fiction because the characters are
+ animals and the purpose is to reveal the nature
+ of these characters by showing how they would
+ act when placed in various imaginary
+ situations. _Kings in Exile_, from which the
+ following selection is taken, is a book of
+ splendid stories of large animals. Other
+ excellent books by Mr. Roberts, suitable for
+ the seventh and eighth grades, are _Hoof and
+ Claw_, _Children of the Wild_, _Secret Trails_,
+ and _Watchers of the Trails_, ("Last Bull" is
+ used by permission of the publishers, The
+ Macmillan Co., New York.)
+
+
+LAST BULL
+
+CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS
+
+That was what two grim old sachems of the Dacotahs had dubbed him; and
+though his official title, on the lists of the Zoological Park, was
+"Kaiser," the new and more significant name had promptly supplanted it.
+The Park authorities--people of imagination and of sentiment, as must
+all be who would deal successfully with wild animals--had felt at once
+that the name aptly embodied the tragedies and the romantic memories of
+his all-but-vanished race. They had felt, too, that the two old braves
+who had been brought East to adorn a city pageant, and who had stood
+gazing stoically for hours at the great bull buffalo through the barrier
+of the steel-wire fence, were fitted, before all others, to give him a
+name. Between him and them there was surely a tragic bond, as they stood
+there islanded among the swelling tides of civilization which had
+already engulfed their kindreds. "Last Bull" they had called him, as he
+answered their gaze with little, sullen, melancholy eyes from under his
+ponderous and shaggy front. "Last Bull"--and the passing of his race was
+in the name.
+
+Here, in his fenced, protected range, with a space of grassy meadow,
+half a dozen clumps of sheltering trees, two hundred yards of the run of
+a clear, unfailing brook, and a warm shed for refuge against the winter
+storms, the giant buffalo ruled his little herd of three tawny cows, two
+yearlings, and one blundering, butting calf of the season. He was a
+magnificent specimen of his race--surpassing, it was said, the finest
+bull in the Yellowstone preserves or in the guarded Canadian herd of the
+North. Little short of twelve feet in length, a good five foot ten in
+height at the tip of his humped and huge fore-shoulders, he seemed to
+justify the most extravagant tales of pioneer and huntsman. His
+hind-quarters were trim and fine-lined, built apparently for speed,
+smooth-haired, and of a grayish lion-color. But his fore-shoulders,
+mounting to an enormous hump, were of an elephantine massiveness, and
+clothed in a dense, curling, golden-brown growth of matted hair. His
+mighty head was carried low, almost to the level of his knees, on a neck
+of colossal strength, which was draped, together with the forelegs down
+to the knees, in a flowing brown mane tipped with black. His head, too,
+to the very muzzle, wore the same luxuriant and sombre drapery, out of
+which curved viciously the keen-tipped crescent of his horns. Dark,
+huge, and ominous, he looked curiously out of place in the secure and
+familiar tranquillity of his green pasture.
+
+For a distance of perhaps fifty yards, at the back of the pasture, the
+range of the buffalo herd adjoined that of the moose, divided from it by
+that same fence of heavy steel-wire mesh, supported by iron posts, which
+surrounded the whole range. One sunny and tingling day in late
+October--such a day as makes the blood race full red through all healthy
+veins--a magnificent stranger was brought to the Park, and turned into
+the moose-range.
+
+The newcomer was a New Brunswick bull moose, captured on the Tobique
+during the previous spring when the snow was deep and soft, and
+purchased for the Park by one of the big Eastern lumber-merchants. The
+moose-herd had consisted, hitherto, of four lonely cows, and the
+splendid bull was a prize which the Park had long been coveting. He took
+lordly possession, forthwith, of the submissive little herd, and led
+them off at once from the curious crowds about the gate to explore the
+wild-looking thickets at the back of the pasture. But no sooner had he
+fairly entered these thickets than he found his further progress barred
+by the steel-meshed fence. This was a bitter disappointment, for he had
+expected to go striding through miles of alder swamp and dark spruce
+woods, fleeing the hated world of men and bondage, before setting
+himself to get acquainted with his new followers. His high-strung temper
+was badly jarred. He drew off, shaking his vast antlers, and went
+shambling with spacious stride down along the barrier towards the brook.
+The four cows, in single file, hurried after him anxiously, afraid he
+might be snatched away from them.
+
+Last Bull, standing solitary and morose on a little knoll in his
+pasture, caught sight of the strange, dark figure of the running moose.
+A spark leapt into his heavy eyes. He wheeled, pawed the sod, put his
+muzzle to the ground, and bellowed a sonorous challenge. The moose
+stopped short and stared about him, the stiff hair lifting angrily along
+the ridge of his massive neck. Last Bull lowered his head and tore up
+the sod with his horns.
+
+This vehement action caught the eyes of the moose. At first he stared in
+amazement, for he had never seen any creature that looked like Last
+Bull. The two were only about fifty or sixty yards apart, across the
+little valley of the bushy swamp. As he stared, his irritation speedily
+overcame his amazement. The curious-looking creature over there on the
+knoll was defying him, was challenging him. At this time of year his
+blood was hot and quick for any challenge. He gave vent to a short,
+harsh, explosive cry, more like a grumbling bleat than a bellow, and as
+unlike the buffalo's challenge as could well be imagined. Then he fell
+to thrashing the nearest bushes violently with his antlers. This, for
+some reason unknown to the mere human chronicler, seemed to be taken by
+Last Bull as a crowning insolence. His long, tasselled tail went stiffly
+up into the air, and he charged wrathfully down the knoll. The moose,
+with his heavy-muzzled head stuck straight out scornfully before him,
+and his antlers laid flat along his back, strode down to the encounter
+with a certain deadly deliberation. He was going to fight. There was no
+doubt whatever on that score. But he had not quite made up his wary mind
+as to how he would deal with this unknown and novel adversary.
+
+They looked not so unequally matched, these two, the monarch of the
+Western plains, and the monarch of the Northeastern forests. Both had
+something of the monstrous, the uncouth, about them, as if they belonged
+not to this modern day, but to some prehistoric epoch when Earth moulded
+her children on more lavish and less graceful lines. The moose was like
+the buffalo in having his hind-quarters relatively slight and low, and
+his back sloping upwards to a hump over the immensely developed
+fore-shoulders. But he had much less length of body, and much less bulk,
+though perhaps eight or ten inches more of height at the tip of the
+shoulder. His hair was short, and darker than that of his shaggy rival,
+being almost black except on legs and belly. Instead of carrying his
+head low, like the buffalo, for feeding on the level prairies, he bore
+it high, being in the main a tree-feeder. But the greatest difference
+between the two champions was in their heads and horns. The antlers of
+the moose formed a huge, fantastic, flatly palmated or leaflike
+structure, separating into sharp prongs along the edges, and spreading
+more than four feet from tip to tip. To compare them with the short,
+polished crescent of the horns of Last Bull was like comparing a
+two-handed broadsword to a bowie-knife. And his head, instead of being
+short, broad, ponderous, and shaggy, like Last Bull's, was long,
+close-haired, and massively horse-faced, with a projecting upper lip
+heavy and grim.
+
+Had there been no impregnable steel barrier between them, it is hard to
+say which would have triumphed in the end, the ponderous weight and fury
+of Last Bull, or the ripping prongs and swift wrath of the moose. The
+buffalo charged down the knoll at a thundering gallop; but just before
+reaching the fence he checked himself violently. More than once or twice
+before had those elastic but impenetrable meshes given him his lesson,
+hurling him back with humiliating harshness when he dashed his bulk
+against them. He had too lively a memory of past discomfitures to risk a
+fresh one now in the face of this insolent foe. His matted front came
+against the wire with a force so cunningly moderated that he was not
+thrown back by the recoil. And the keen points of his horns went through
+the meshes with a vehemence which might indeed have done its work
+effectively had they come in contact with the adversary. As it was,
+however, they but prodded empty air.
+
+The moose, meanwhile, had been in doubt whether to attack with his
+antlers, as was his manner when encountering foes of his own kind, or
+with his knife-edged fore-hoofs, which were the weapons he used against
+bears, wolves, or other alien adversaries. Finally he seemed to make up
+his mind that Last Bull, having horns and a most redoubtable stature,
+must be some kind of moose. In that case, of course, it became a
+question of antlers. Moreover, in his meetings with rival bulls it had
+never been his wont to depend upon a blind, irresistible
+charge,--thereby leaving it open to an alert opponent to slip aside and
+rip him along the flank,--but rather to fence warily for an advantage in
+the locking of antlers, and then bear down his foe by the fury and speed
+of his pushing. It so happened, therefore, that he, too, came not too
+violently against the barrier. Loudly his vast spread of antlers clashed
+upon the steel meshes; and one short prong, jutting low over his brow,
+pierced through and furrowed deeply the matted forehead of the buffalo.
+
+As the blood streamed down over his nostrils, obscuring one eye, Last
+Bull quite lost his head with rage. Drawing off, he hurled himself
+blindly upon the barrier--only to be hurled back again with a vigor that
+brought him to his knees. But at the same time the moose, on the other
+side of the fence, got a huge surprise. Having his antlers against the
+barrier when Last Bull charged, he was forced back irresistibly upon his
+haunches with a rudeness quite unlike anything that he had ever before
+experienced. His massive neck felt as if a pine tree had fallen upon it,
+and he came back to the charge quite beside himself with bewilderment
+and rage.
+
+By this time, however, the keepers and Park attendants were arriving on
+the scene, armed with pitchforks and other unpleasant executors of
+authority. Snorting, and bellowing, and grunting, the monstrous
+duellists were forced apart; and Last Bull, who had been taught
+something of man's dominance, was driven off to his stable and
+imprisoned. He was not let out again for two whole days. And by that
+time another fence, parallel with the first and some five or six feet
+distant from it, had been run up between his range and that of the
+moose. Over this impassable zone of neutrality, for a few days, the two
+rivals flung insult and futile defiance, till suddenly, becoming tired
+of it all, they seemed to agree to ignore each other's existence.
+
+After this, Last Bull's sullenness of temper appeared to grow upon him.
+He was fond of drawing apart from the little herd, and taking up his
+solitary post on the knoll, where he would stand for an hour at a time
+motionless except for the switching of his long tail, and staring
+steadily westward as if he knew where the great past of his race had
+lain. In that direction a dense grove of chestnuts, maples, and oaks
+bounded the range, cutting off the view of the city roofs, the roar of
+the city traffic. Beyond the city were mountains and wide waters which
+he could not see; but beyond the waters and the mountains stretched the
+green, illimitable plains--which perhaps (who knows?) in some faint
+vision inherited from the ancestors whose myriads had possessed them,
+his sombre eyes, in some strange way, _could_ see. Among the keepers and
+attendants generally it was said, with anxious regret, that perhaps Last
+Bull was "going bad." But the headkeeper, Payne, himself a son of the
+plains, repudiated the idea. _He_ declared sympathetically that the
+great bull was merely homesick, pining for the wind-swept levels of the
+open country (God's country, Payne called it!) which his imprisoned
+hoofs had never trodden.
+
+Be this as it may, the fact could not be gainsaid that Last Bull was
+growing more and more morose. The spectators, strolling along the wide
+walk which skirted the front of his range, seemed to irritate him, and
+sometimes, when a group had gathered to admire him, he would turn his
+low-hung head and answer their staring eyes with a kind of heavy fury,
+as if he burned to break forth upon them and seek vengeance for
+incalculable wrongs. This smouldering indignation against humanity
+extended equally, if not more violently, to all creatures who appeared
+to him as servants or allies of humanity. The dogs whom he sometimes saw
+passing, held in leash by their masters or mistresses, made him paw the
+earth scornfully if he happened to be near the fence. The patient horses
+who pulled the road-roller or the noisy lawn-mower made his eyes redden
+savagely. And he hated with peculiar zest the roguish little trick
+elephant, Bong, who would sometimes, his inquisitive trunk swinging from
+side to side, go lurching lazily by with a load of squealing children on
+his back.
+
+Bong, who was a favored character, amiable and trustworthy, was allowed
+the freedom of the Park in the early morning, before visitors began to
+arrive who might be alarmed at seeing an elephant at large. He was
+addicted to minding his own business, and never paid the slightest
+attention to any occupants of cage or enclosure. He was quite unaware of
+the hostility which he had aroused in the perverse and brooding heart of
+Last Bull.
+
+One crisp morning in late November, when all the grass in the Park had
+been blackened by frost, and the pools were edged with silver rims of
+ice, and mists were white and saffron about the scarce-risen sun, and
+that autumn thrill was in the air which gives one such an appetite, Bong
+chanced to be strolling past the front of Last Bull's range. He did not
+see Last Bull, who was nothing to him. But, being just as hungry as he
+ought to be on so stimulating a morning, he did see, and note with
+interest, some bundles of fresh hay on the other side of the fence.
+
+Now, Bong was no thief. But hay had always seemed to him a free largess,
+like grass and water, and this looked like very good hay. So clear a
+conscience had he on the subject that he never thought of glancing
+around to see if any of the attendants were looking. Innocently he
+lurched up to the fence, reached his lithe trunk through, gathered a
+neat wisp of the hay, and stuffed it happily into his curious, narrow,
+pointed mouth. Yes, he had not been mistaken. It was good hay. With
+great satisfaction he reached in for another mouthful.
+
+Last Bull, as it happened, was standing close by, but a little to one
+side. He had been ignoring, so far, his morning ration. He was not
+hungry. And, moreover, he rather disapproved of the hay because it had
+the hostile man-smell strong upon it. Nevertheless, he recognized it
+very clearly as his property, to be eaten when he should feel inclined
+to eat it. His wrath, then, was only equalled by his amazement when he
+saw the little elephant's presumptuous gray trunk reach in and coolly
+help itself. For a moment he forgot to do anything whatever about it.
+But when, a few seconds later, that long, curling trunk of Bong's
+insinuated itself again and appropriated another bundle of the now
+precious hay, the outraged owner bestirred himself. With a curt roar,
+that was more of a cough or a grunt than a bellow, he lunged forward and
+strove to pin the intruding trunk to the ground.
+
+With startled alacrity Bong withdrew his trunk, but just in time to save
+it from being mangled. For an instant he stood with the member held high
+in air, bewildered by what seemed to him such a gratuitous attack. Then
+his twinkling little eyes began to blaze, and he trumpeted shrilly with
+anger. The next moment, reaching over the fence, he brought down the
+trunk on Last Bull's hump with such a terrible flail-like blow that the
+great buffalo stumbled forward upon his knees.
+
+He was up again in an instant and hurling himself madly against the
+inexorable steel which separated him from his foe. Bong hesitated for a
+second, then, reaching over the fence once more, clutched Last Bull
+maliciously around the base of his horns and tried to twist his neck.
+This enterprise, however, was too much even for the elephant's titanic
+powers, for Last Bull's greatest strength lay in the muscles of his
+ponderous and corded neck. Raving and bellowing, he plunged this way and
+that, striving in vain to wrench himself free from that
+incomprehensible, snake-like thing which had fastened upon him. Bong,
+trumpeting savagely, braced himself with widespread pillars of legs, and
+between them it seemed that the steel fence must go down under such
+cataclysmic shocks as it was suffering. But the noisy violence of the
+battle presently brought its own ending. An amused but angry squad of
+attendants came up and stopped it, and Bong, who seemed plainly the
+aggressor, was hustled off to his stall in deep disgrace.
+
+Last Bull was humiliated. In this encounter things had happened which
+he could in no way comprehend; and though, beyond an aching in neck and
+shoulders, he felt none the worse physically, he had nevertheless a
+sense of having been worsted, of having been treated with ignominy, in
+spite of the fact that it was his foe, and not he, who had retired from
+the field. For several days he wore a subdued air and kept about meekly
+with his docile cows. Then his old, bitter moodiness reasserted itself,
+and he resumed his solitary broodings on the crest of the knoll.
+
+When the winter storms came on, it had been Last Bull's custom to let
+himself be housed luxuriously at nightfall, with the rest of the herd,
+in the warm and ample buffalo-shed. But this winter he made such
+difficulty about going in that at last Payne decreed that he should have
+his own way and stay out. "It will do him no harm, and may cool his
+peppery blood some!" had been the keeper's decision. So the door was
+left open, and Last Bull entered or refrained, according to his whim. It
+was noticed, however,--and this struck a chord of answering sympathy in
+the plainsman's imaginative temperament,--that, though on ordinary
+nights he might come in and stay with the herd under shelter, on nights
+of driving storm, if the tempest blew from the west or northwest, Last
+Bull was sure to be out on the naked knoll to face it. When the fine
+sleet or stinging rain drove past him, filling his nostrils with their
+cold, drenching his matted mane, and lashing his narrowed eyes, what
+visions swept through his troubled, half-comprehending brain, no one may
+know. But Payne, with understanding born of sympathy and a common native
+soil, catching sight of his dark bulk under the dark of the low sky, was
+wont to declare that _he_ knew. He would say that Last Bull's eyes
+discerned, black under the hurricane, but lit strangely with the flash
+of keen horns and rolling eyes and frothed nostrils, the endless and
+innumerable droves of the buffalo, with the plains wolf skulking on
+their flanks, passing, passing, southward into the final dark. In the
+roar of the wind, declared Payne, Last Bull, out there in the night,
+listened to the trampling of all those vanished droves. And though the
+other keepers insisted to each other, quite privately, that their chief
+talked a lot of nonsense about "that there mean-tempered old buffalo,"
+they nevertheless came gradually to look upon Last Bull with a kind of
+awe, and to regard his surly whims as privileged.
+
+It chanced that winter that men were driving a railway tunnel beneath a
+corner of the Park. The tunnel ran for a short distance under the front
+of Last Bull's range, and passed close by the picturesque cottage
+occupied by Payne and two of his assistants. At this point the level of
+the Park was low, and the shell of earth was thin above the tunnel roof.
+
+There came a Sunday afternoon, after days of rain and penetrating
+January thaw, when sun and air combined to cheat the earth with an
+illusion of spring. The buds and the mould breathed of April, and gay
+crowds flocked to the Park, to make the most of winter's temporary
+repulse. Just when things were at their gayest, with children's voices
+clamoring everywhere like starlings, and Bong, the little elephant,
+swinging good-naturedly up the broad white track with all the load he
+had room for on his back, there came an ominous jar and rumble, like the
+first of an earthquake, which ran along the front of Last Bull's range.
+
+With sure instinct, Bong turned tail and fled with his young charges
+away across the grassland. The crowds, hardly knowing what they fled
+from, with screams and cries and blanched faces, followed the elephant's
+example. A moment later and, with a muffled crash, all along the front
+of the range, the earth sank into the tunnel, carrying with it half a
+dozen panels of Last Bull's hated fence.
+
+Almost in a moment the panic of the crowd subsided. Every one realized
+just what had happened. Moreover, thanks to Bong's timely alarm, every
+one had got out of the way in good season. All fear of earthquake being
+removed, the crowd flocked back eagerly to stare down into the wrecked
+tunnel, which formed now a sort of gaping, chaotic ditch, with sides at
+some points precipitous and at others brokenly sloping. The throng was
+noisy with excited interest and with relief at having escaped so
+cleanly. The break had run just beneath one corner of the keepers'
+cottage, tearing away a portion of the foundation and wrenching the
+structure slightly aside without overthrowing it. Payne, who had been in
+the midst of his Sunday toilet, came out upon his twisted porch, half
+undressed and with a shaving-brush covered with lather in his hand. He
+gave one look at the damage which had been wrought, then plunged indoors
+again to throw his clothes on, at the same time sounding the hurry call
+for the attendants in other quarters of the Park.
+
+Last Bull, who had been standing on his knoll, with his back to the
+throngs, had wheeled in astonishment at the heavy sound of the cave-in.
+For a few minutes he had stared sullenly, not grasping the situation.
+Then very slowly it dawned on him that his prison walls had fallen. Yes,
+surely, there at last lay his way to freedom, his path to the great open
+spaces for which he dumbly and vaguely hungered. With stately
+deliberation he marched down from his knoll to investigate.
+
+But presently another idea came into his slow mind. He saw the clamorous
+crowds flocking back and ranging themselves along the edge of the chasm.
+These were his enemies. They were coming to balk him. A terrible madness
+surged through all his veins. He bellowed savage warning and came
+thundering down the field, nose to earth, dark, mountainous,
+irresistible.
+
+The crowd yelled and shrank back. "He can't get across!" shouted some.
+But others cried: "He can! He's coming! Save yourselves!" And with
+shrieks they scattered wildly across the open, making for the kiosks,
+the pavilions, the trees, anything that seemed to promise hiding or
+shelter from that on-rushing doom.
+
+At the edge of the chasm--at this point forming not an actual drop, but
+a broken slide--Last Bull hardly paused. He plunged down, rolled over in
+the debris, struggled to his feet again instantly, and went ploughing
+and snorting up the opposite steep. As his colossal front, matted with
+mud, loomed up over the brink, his little eyes rolling and flaming, and
+the froth flying from his red nostrils, he formed a very nightmare of
+horror to those fugitives who dared to look behind them.
+
+Surmounting the brink, he paused. There were so many enemies, he knew
+not which to pursue first. But straight ahead, in the very middle of the
+open, and far from any shelter, he saw a huddled group of children and
+nurses fleeing impotently and aimlessly. Shrill cries came from the
+cluster, which danced with colors, scarlet and yellow and blue and vivid
+pink. To the mad buffalo, these were the most conspicuous and the
+loudest of his foes, and therefore the most dangerous. With a bellow he
+flung his tail straight in the air, and charged after them.
+
+An appalling hush fell, for a few heartbeats, all over the field. Then
+from different quarters appeared uniformed attendants, racing and
+shouting frantically to divert the bull's attention. From fleeing groups
+black-coated men leapt forth, armed only with their walking-sticks, and
+rushed desperately to defend the flock of children, who now, in the
+extremity of their terror, were tumbling as they ran. Some of the nurses
+were fleeing far in front, while others, the faithful ones, with eyes
+starting from their heads, grabbed up their little charges and struggled
+on under the burden.
+
+Already Last Bull was halfway across the space which divided him from
+his foes. The ground shook under his ponderous gallop. At this moment
+Payne reappeared on the broken porch.
+
+One glance showed him that no one was near enough to intervene. With a
+face stern and sorrowful he lifted the deadly .405 Winchester which he
+had brought out with him. The spot he covered was just behind Last
+Bull's mighty shoulder.
+
+The smokeless powder spoke with a small, venomous report, unlike the
+black powder's noisy reverberation. Last Bull stumbled. But recovering
+himself instantly, he rushed on. He was hurt, and he felt it was those
+fleeing foes who had done it. A shade of perplexity darkened Payne's
+face. He fired again. This time his aim was true. The heavy expanding
+bullet tore straight through bone and muscle and heart, and Last Bull
+lurched forward upon his head, ploughing up the turf for yards. As his
+mad eyes softened and filmed, he saw once more, perhaps,--or so the
+heavy-hearted keeper who had slain him would have us believe,--the
+shadowy plains unrolling under the wild sky, and the hosts of his
+vanished kindred drifting past into the dark.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION X
+
+ROMANCE CYCLES AND LEGEND
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+ Baldwin, James, _The Story of Roland_. _The Story of Siegfried._
+
+ Baring-Gould, Sabine, _Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_.
+
+ Becquer, G. A., _Romantic Legends of Spain_.
+
+ Canton, W. V., _Child's Book of Saints_.
+
+ Cervantes-Saavedra, Miguel de, _Don Quixote_. [In translation, or
+ as retold by Havell or Parry.]
+
+ Church, Alfred J., _Stories from the Iliad_. _Stories from the
+ Odyssey._ _Heroes of Chivalry and Romance._ _Stories of Charlemagne
+ and the Twelve Peers of France._
+
+ Colum, Padraic, _The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy_.
+
+ Crommelin, Emeline G., _Famous Legends_.
+
+ Darton, F. J. H., _Wonder Book of Old Romance_.
+
+ Farrington, Margaret V., _Tales of King Arthur_.
+
+ Finnemore, John, _The Story of Robin Hood and His Merry Men_.
+
+ Guerber, H. A., _Legends of the Middle Ages_.
+
+ Guest, Lady Charlotte, _The Mabinogion_.
+
+ Herbertson, Agnes G., _Heroic Legends_.
+
+ Homer, _Iliad_. [Prose translation by Lang, Leaf, and Myers;
+ poetic by Bryant.]
+
+ Homer, _Odyssey_. [Prose translation by George H. Palmer; poetic
+ by Bryant.]
+
+ Hull, Eleanor, _The Boys' Cuchulain: Heroic Legends of Ireland_.
+
+ Lamb, Charles, _The Adventures of Ulysses_.
+
+ Lane, E. W., _Arabian Nights' Entertainments_.
+
+ Lang, Andrew, _A Book of Romance_.
+
+ Lanier, Sidney, _The Boy's King Arthur_. _The Boy's Mabinogion_.
+
+ MacLeod, Mary, _King Arthur and His Noble Knights_.
+
+ Marshall, H. E., _The Story of William Tell_. _The Story of
+ Roland._
+
+ Marvin, Frank S. (and others), _Adventures of Odysseus_.
+
+ Morris, William, _Sigurd, the Volsung_.
+
+ Newbolt, Henry, _Stories from Froissart_.
+
+ Pyle, Howard, _Stories of King Arthur and His Knights_. _Some
+ Merry Adventures of Robin Hood._
+
+ Plummer, Mary W., _Stories from the Chronicle of the Cid_.
+
+ Ragozin, Z. A., _Frithjof and Roland_. _Siegfried and Beowulf._
+
+ Rolleston, T. W., _High Deeds of Finn_.
+
+ Scudder, Horace E., _The Book of Legends_.
+
+ Tappan, Eva March, _Robin Hood: His Book_.
+
+ Tennyson, Alfred, _The Idylls of the King_.
+
+ Warren, Maude Radford, _King Arthur and His Knights_. _Robin Hood
+ and His Merry Men._
+
+ Wilson, C. D., _Story of the Cid for Young People_.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION X. ROMANCE CYCLES AND LEGEND
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+_The material included._ The heading adopted for this section is used
+somewhat loosely to include those many and varied collections of stories
+which have with the passage of time been gradually brought together into
+so-called cycles, unified around some central figure, or by means of
+some kind of framework. It would thus bring into its scope the series of
+stories which make up the Greek _Odyssey_, the Anglo-Saxon _Beowulf_,
+the Finnish _Kalevala_, and other national epics. It would include the
+stories centering around King Arthur, Siegfried, Roland, the Cid,
+Alexander, Charlemagne, Robin Hood, and Reynard the Fox. Besides all
+these cycles and others like them, there is a great body of separate
+legends of persons and places, exemplified by "The Proud King," that
+seem almost to constitute a work by themselves. The extended body of
+eastern stories known as _The Arabian Nights_ are also placed here, as
+is Cervantes' _Don Quixote_. The last inclusion may seem to violate even
+the wide range of the heading, as _Don Quixote_ is distinctly one of the
+world's great modern masterpieces, and is by a known author. But that
+book is after all a cycle of adventures with a central figure not unlike
+the romance cycles, and, since it is popularly supposed to have had its
+origin in the purpose of humorously satirizing the romances of chivalry,
+it may be allowed to stand in connection with them.
+
+_The place for such stories._ The developing child soon passes out of
+the period where the old fairy stories and their modern analogues
+satisfy his needs. He comes into a period of hero-worship where he
+demands not only courage and prowess of magnificent proportions, but
+also a sinking of self in as equally magnificent and disinterested
+service of great causes. To the child's mind there is nothing
+fantastical about the chivalric ideas of courtesy, and friendship, and
+all high personal ideals. It is the natural food of his mind. He will
+allow nothing mean or unclean. It seems, roughly speaking, that the time
+of greatest appeal for such stories is about the fourth, fifth, and
+sixth grades. By the end of that period he is already well along toward
+an interest in the real men and women of history, toward a more
+realistic and practical conception of the problems of human life.
+
+_The problems of choice and adaptation._ The wealth of material
+available is so great as to be bewildering. As yet there is no common
+agreement as to just which stories are best for our purpose, nor is
+there any as to where particular stories should be used. The adapters
+and story-tellers differ much in their views on these questions. Young
+teachers, it is clear, cannot be expected to know this vast field in any
+detail. The saving fact is that teachers can hardly make a mistake by
+using any story that has awakened their own interest and enthusiasm, and
+which, for that reason, they will be able to present in a simple and
+striking form. Having in mind, then, the beginning teacher, we make the
+following specific suggestions:
+
+ 1. _Beowulf._ The inexperienced teacher will
+ find a splendid version, "The Story of
+ Beowulf," ready-made in Wyche's _Some Great
+ Stories and How to Tell Them_. To work from the
+ complete epic, use any of the translations by
+ Child, Tinker, Gummere, or Hall. "Perhaps it is
+ not too much to assert . . . that in its lofty
+ spirit, its vigor, and its sincerity, . . . it
+ reflects traits which are distinctive of
+ English-speaking people throughout the world."
+
+ 2. _King Arthur._ The final source must be Sir
+ Thomas Malory's _Le Morte D'Arthur_,
+ represented in the following pages by Nos. 401,
+ 402, and 403. Some passages from Malory should
+ be read to the class. For suggestions as to
+ method in handling the stories, see Wyche as
+ above, where there is a fine brief version. In
+ _King Arthur and His Knights_, by Mrs. Warren
+ (Maude Radford), may be found a good working
+ version of the whole cycle. ". . . In delicacy of
+ feeling, in reverence for women, in courtesy to
+ friend and foe, the Arthurian story
+ foreshadowed much that is gentlest and best in
+ modern civilization."
+
+ 3. _Robin Hood._ Go at once to one of the
+ simple prose versions of the story.
+ Satisfactory ones are those by Miss Tappan, by
+ Mrs. Warren, or by Howard Pyle (the shorter
+ version). As time and opportunity offer read
+ the simple old ballads which are the source of
+ the story of "merry" Sherwood. "If ever verse
+ lashed abuse with a smile, it is this. The sun
+ shines brightly overhead; it is a good world to
+ be alive in, its wrongs are being righted, and
+ its very misfortunes are ultimately to bring
+ happier times."
+
+ 4. A few stories about Roland, Siegfried, the
+ Cid, Charlemagne, and others may be used by
+ teachers who have had opportunity to get
+ acquainted with those great figures, or who
+ have access to some of the authorities listed
+ in the bibliography. This material is more
+ difficult to handle satisfactorily than that
+ already discussed, and may well be sparingly
+ used, if not omitted altogether. For a general
+ collection of legends, the ideal as to choice
+ and method of presentation is Scudder's _The
+ Book of Legends_ (No. 412). From _The Arabian
+ Nights_ use "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves"
+ (No. 398), "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp,"
+ and "The Stories of Sindbad the Sailor." Almost
+ any of the accessible versions will be
+ satisfactory. For _Reynard the Fox_, the one
+ adaptation that presents the story in a fairly
+ good form for children is that made by Sir
+ Henry Cole, available as edited by Joseph
+ Jacobs (Nos. 399 and 400). Perhaps as much of
+ _Don Quixote_ is given in this text (Nos.
+ 405-411) as teachers can use. A full
+ translation is a satisfactory source for this
+ story, although the shortened forms by Havell
+ or Parry are admirable.
+
+
+SUGGESTIONS FOR READING
+
+ Most of the books on story-telling have
+ discussions of the best ways of dealing with
+ the romance material. Especially valuable in
+ this connection are Wyche, _Great Stories and
+ How to Tell Them_, and Lyman, _Story Telling_.
+ For scholarly and yet not too difficult books
+ giving a perspective of the entire field see W.
+ W. Lawrence, _Medieval Story and the Beginnings
+ of the Social Ideals of English-speaking
+ People_, or W. P. Ker, _Epic and Romance_.
+ Consult MacClintock, "Hero-Tales and Romances,"
+ _Literature in the Elementary School_, chap.
+ viii.
+
+
+
+398
+
+ _The Arabian Nights' Entertainment_ or
+ _Thousand and One Nights_ is a collection of
+ about four hundred old oriental stories,
+ chiefly from Persia, India, and Arabia. They
+ were brought together probably in the
+ thirteenth century and told orally as stories
+ told to entertain King Shahriyar; but scholars
+ think the collection was not written until some
+ time between the years 1350 and 1550. Some of
+ the stories probably were told as early as the
+ ninth century. The stories are of various
+ kinds--fables, anecdotes, legends, hero
+ stories, wonder stories, and romances. "The
+ Story of Alnaschar" (No. 235 in this book) is
+ one of the fables. The collection became known
+ to European readers in 1704, when it was
+ translated from the Arabic by a French scholar
+ named Galland. Since that time the fables have
+ been translated extensively. The translation
+ into English by Lane is the most valuable one
+ for a teacher who wishes to have all of the
+ book that is fit for public use. Like many of
+ the world's great compilations of this sort, it
+ is made up of a mixture of good and bad. The
+ oriental play of imagination in these stories
+ and the background of old Eastern scenery and
+ customs have made them a source of
+ entertainment and instruction for all civilized
+ nations. The story that follows has always been
+ one of the favorites among oriental wonder
+ stories, and is given in a familiar traditional
+ version.
+
+
+ALI BABA, AND THE FORTY THIEVES
+
+In a town in Persia there lived two brothers, the sons of a poor man;
+the one was named Cassim, and the other Ali Baba. Cassim, the elder,
+married a wife with a considerable fortune, and lived at his ease in a
+handsome house, with plenty of servants; but the wife of Ali Baba was as
+poor as himself; they dwelt in a mean cottage in the suburbs of the
+city, and he maintained his family by cutting wood in a neighboring
+forest.
+
+One day when Ali Baba was in the forest and preparing to load his three
+asses with the wood he had cut, he saw a troop of horsemen coming
+towards him. He had often heard of robbers who infested that forest,
+and, in a great fright, he hastily climbed a large thick tree, which
+stood near the foot of a rock, and hid himself among the branches.
+
+The horsemen soon galloped up to the rock, where they all dismounted.
+Ali Baba counted forty of them, and he could not doubt but they were
+thieves, by their ill-looking countenances. They each took a loaded
+portmanteau from his horse; and he who seemed to be their captain,
+turning to the rock, said, "Open Sesame," and immediately a door opened
+in the rock, and all the robbers passed in, when the door shut itself.
+In a short time the door opened again, and the forty robbers came out,
+followed by their captain, who said, "Shut Sesame." The door instantly
+closed; and the troop, mounting their horses, were presently out of
+sight.
+
+Ali Baba remained in the tree a long time, and seeing that the robbers
+did not return, he ventured down, and, approaching close to the rock,
+said, "Open Sesame." Immediately the door flew open, and Ali Baba beheld
+a spacious cavern, very light, and filled with all sorts of
+possessions,--merchandise, rich stuffs, and heaps of gold and silver
+coin, which these robbers had taken from merchants and travelers.
+
+Ali Baba then went in search of his asses, and having brought them to
+the rock, took as many bags of gold coin as they could carry, and put
+them on their backs, covering them with some loose fagots of wood.
+Afterwards (not forgetting to say "Shut Sesame") he drove the asses back
+to the city; and having unloaded them in the stable belonging to his
+cottage, carried the bags into the house and spread the gold coin out
+upon the floor before his wife.
+
+His wife, delighted with so much money, wanted to count it; but finding
+it would take up too much time, she was resolved to measure it, and
+running to the house of Ali Baba's brother, she entreated them to lend
+her a small measure. Cassim's wife was very proud and envious. "I
+wonder," she said to herself, "what sort of grain such poor people can
+have to measure; but I am determined I will find out what they are
+doing." So before she gave the measure, she artfully rubbed the bottom
+with some suet.
+
+Away ran Ali Baba's wife, measured her money, and helped her husband to
+bury it in the yard. Then she carried back the measure to her
+brother-in-law's house, without perceiving that a piece of gold was left
+sticking to the bottom of it. "Fine doings, indeed!" cried Cassim's wife
+to her husband, after examining the measure. "Your brother there, who
+pretends to be so poor, is richer than you are, for he does not count
+his money, but measures it."
+
+Cassim, hearing these words and seeing the piece of gold, grew as
+envious as his wife; and hastening to his brother, threatened to inform
+the Cadi of his wealth if he did not confess to him how he came by it.
+Ali Baba without hesitation told him the history of the robbers and the
+secret of the cave, and offered him half his treasure; but the envious
+Cassim disdained so poor a sum, resolving to have fifty times more than
+that out of the robbers' cave. Accordingly he rose early the next
+morning and set out with ten mules loaded with great chests. He found
+the rock easily enough by Ali Baba's description; and having said "Open
+Sesame," he gained admission into the cave, where he found more treasure
+than he had expected to behold even from his brother's account of it.
+
+He immediately began to gather bags of gold and pieces of rich brocade,
+all which he piled close to the door; but when he had got together as
+much as his ten mules could possibly carry, or even more, and wanted to
+get out to load them, the thoughts of his wonderful riches had made him
+entirely forget the word which caused the door to open. In vain he tried
+"Bame," "Fame," "Lame," "Tetame," and a thousand others. The door
+remained as immovable as the rock itself, notwithstanding Cassim kicked
+and screamed till he was ready to drop with fatigue and vexation.
+
+Presently he heard the sound of horses' feet, which he rightly concluded
+to be the robbers, and he trembled lest he should now fall a victim to
+his thirst for riches. He resolved, however, to make an effort to
+escape; and when he heard the "Sesame" pronounced, and saw the door
+open, he sprang out, but was instantly put to death by the swords of the
+robbers.
+
+The thieves now held a council, but not one of them could possibly guess
+by what means Cassim had got into the cave. They saw the heaps of
+treasure he had piled ready to take away, but they did not miss what Ali
+Baba had secured before. At length they agreed to cut Cassim's body into
+four quarters and hang the pieces within the cave, that it might
+terrify any one from further attempts; and also determined not to return
+themselves for some time to the cave for fear of being watched and
+discovered.
+
+When Cassim's wife saw night come on, and her husband not returned, she
+became greatly terrified; she watched at her window till daybreak and
+then went to tell Ali Baba of her fears. Cassim had not informed him of
+his design of going to the cave; but Ali Baba, now hearing of his
+journey thither, went immediately in search of him. He drove his asses
+to the forest without delay. He was alarmed to see blood near the rock;
+and on entering the cave, he found the body of his unfortunate brother
+cut to pieces and hung up within the door. It was now too late to save
+him; but he took down the quarters and put them upon one of his asses,
+covering them with fagots of wood; and, weeping for the miserable end of
+his brother, he regained the city. The door of his brother's house was
+opened by Morgiana, an intelligent, faithful female slave, who, Ali Baba
+knew, was worthy to be trusted with the secret.
+
+He therefore delivered the body to Morgiana, and went himself to impart
+the sad tidings to the wife of Cassim. The poor woman was deeply
+afflicted, and reproached herself with her foolish envy and curiosity,
+as being the cause of her husband's death; but Ali Baba having convinced
+her of the necessity of being very discreet, she checked her
+lamentations and resolved to leave everything to the management of
+Morgiana.
+
+Morgiana, having washed the body, hastened to an apothecary's and asked
+for some particular medicine, saying that it was for her master Cassim,
+who was dangerously ill. She took care to spread the report of Cassim's
+illness throughout the neighborhood; and as they saw Ali Baba and his
+wife going daily to the house of their brother, in great affliction,
+they were not surprised to hear shortly that Cassim had died of his
+disorder.
+
+The next difficulty was to bury him without discovery; but Morgiana was
+ready to contrive a plan for that also. She put on her veil and went to
+a distant part of the city very early in the morning, where she found a
+poor cobbler just opening his stall. She put a piece of gold into his
+hand, and told him he should have another, if he would suffer himself to
+be blindfolded and go with her, carrying his tools with him. Mustapha,
+the cobbler, hesitated at first, but the gold tempted him and he
+consented; when Morgiana, carefully covering his eyes, so that he could
+not see a step of the way, led him to Cassim's house; and taking him
+into the room where the body was lying, removed the bandage from his
+eyes, and bade him sew the mangled limbs together. Mustapha obeyed her
+order; and having received two pieces of gold, was led blindfold the
+same way back to his own stall.
+
+Morgiana then covered the body with a winding-sheet and sent for the
+undertaker to make preparations for the funeral. Cassim was buried with
+all due solemnity the same day. Ali Baba now removed his few goods, and
+all the gold coin that he had brought home from the cavern, to the house
+of his deceased brother, of which he took possession; and Cassim's widow
+received every kind attention from both Ali Baba and his wife.
+
+After an interval of some months, the troop of robbers again visited
+their retreat in the forest, and were completely astonished to find the
+body taken away from the cave, and everything else remaining in its
+usual order. "We are discovered," said the captain, "and shall certainly
+be undone, if you do not adopt speedy measures to prevent our ruin.
+Which of you, my brave comrades, will undertake to search out the
+villain who is in possession of our secret?"
+
+One of the boldest of the troop advanced, and offered himself; and was
+accepted on the following conditions: namely, that if he succeeded in
+his enterprise, he was to be made second in command of the troop; but
+that if he brought false intelligence, he was immediately to be put to
+death. The bold robber readily agreed to the conditions; and having
+disguised himself, he proceeded to the city.
+
+He arrived there about daybreak, and found the cobbler Mustapha in his
+stall, which was always open before any other shop in the town. "Good
+morrow, friend," said the robber, as he passed the stall, "you rise
+betimes; I should think old as you are, you could scarcely see to work
+by this light."
+
+"Indeed, sir," replied the cobbler, "old as I am, I do not want for good
+eyesight; as you must needs believe, when I tell you I sewed a dead body
+together the other day, where I had not so good a light as I have now."
+
+"A dead body!" exclaimed the robber; "you mean, I suppose, that you
+sewed up the winding-sheet for a dead body."
+
+"I mean no such thing," replied Mustapha; "I tell you that I sewed the
+four quarters of a man together."
+
+This was enough to convince the robber he had luckily met with the very
+man who could give him the information he was in search of. However he
+did not wish to appear eager to learn the particulars, lest he should
+alarm the cobbler. "Ha! ha!" said he, "I find, good Mr. Cobbler, that
+you perceive I am a stranger here, and you wish to make me believe that
+the people of your city do impossible things."
+
+"I tell you," said Mustapha in a loud and angry tone, "I sewed a dead
+body together with my own hands."--"Then I suppose you can tell me also
+where you performed this wonderful business." Upon this, Mustapha
+related every particular of his being led blindfold to the house, etc.
+
+"Well, my friend," said the robber, "it is a fine story, I confess, but
+not very easy to believe; however, if you will convince me by showing me
+the house you talk of, I will give you four pieces of gold to make
+amends for my unbelief."
+
+"I think," said the cobbler, after considering awhile, "that if you were
+to blindfold me, I should remember every turning we made; but with my
+eyes open I am sure I should never find it." Accordingly the robber
+covered Mustapha's eyes with his handkerchief; and the cobbler led him
+through most of the principal streets, and stopping by Cassim's door,
+said, "Here it is; I went no further than this house."
+
+The robber immediately marked the door with a piece of chalk; and,
+giving Mustapha his four pieces of gold, dismissed him. Shortly after
+the thief and Mustapha had quitted the door, Morgiana, coming home from
+market, perceived the little mark of white chalk on the door. Suspecting
+something was wrong, she directly marked four doors on one side and five
+on the other of her master's, in exactly the same manner, without saying
+a word to any one.
+
+The robber meantime rejoined his troop and boasted greatly of his
+success. His captain and comrades praised his diligence; and being well
+armed, they proceeded to the town in different disguises, and in
+separate parties of three and four together.
+
+It was agreed among them that they were to meet in the market-place at
+the dusk of evening, and that the captain and the robber who had
+discovered the house were to go there first, to find out to whom it
+belonged. When they arrived in the street, having a lantern with them,
+they began to examine the doors, and found to their confusion and
+astonishment that ten doors were marked exactly alike. The robber, who
+was the captain's guide, could not say a word in explanation of this
+mystery; and when the disappointed troop got back to the forest, his
+enraged companions ordered him to be put to death.
+
+Another now offered himself upon the same conditions as the former; and
+having bribed Mustapha, and discovered the house, he made a mark with
+the dark red chalk upon the door, in a part that was not in the least
+conspicuous; and carefully examined the surrounding doors, to be certain
+that no such marks were upon them. But nothing could escape the prying
+eyes of Morgiana; scarcely had the robber departed, when she discovered
+the red mark; and getting some red chalk, she marked seven doors on each
+side, precisely in the same place and in the same manner. The robber,
+valuing himself highly upon the precautions he had taken, triumphantly
+conducted his captain to the spot; but great indeed was his confusion
+and dismay when he found it impossible to say which, among fifteen
+houses marked exactly alike, was the right one. The captain, furious
+with his disappointment, returned again with the troop to the forest;
+and the second robber was also condemned to death.
+
+The captain having lost two of his troop, judged that their hands were
+more active than their heads in such services; and he resolved to employ
+no other of them, but to go himself upon the business. Accordingly he
+repaired to the city and addressed himself to the cobbler Mustapha, who,
+for six pieces of gold, readily performed the services for him he had
+done for the other two strangers. The captain, much wiser than his men,
+did not amuse himself with setting a mark upon the door, but attentively
+considered the house, counted the number of windows, and passed by it
+very often, to be certain that he should know it again.
+
+He then returned to the forest, and ordered his troop to go into the
+town, and buy nineteen mules and thirty-eight large jars, one full of
+oil and the rest empty. In two or three days the jars were bought, and
+all things in readiness; and the captain having put a man into each jar,
+properly armed, the jars being rubbed on the outside with oil, and the
+covers having holes bored in them for the men to breathe through, loaded
+his mules, and in the habit of an oil-merchant entered the town in the
+dusk of the evening. He proceeded to the street where Ali Baba dwelt,
+and found him sitting in the porch of his house. "Sir," said he to Ali
+Baba, "I have brought this oil a great way to sell, and am too late for
+this day's market. As I am quite a stranger in this town, will you do me
+the favor to let me put my mules into your court-yard, and direct me
+where I may lodge to-night?"
+
+Ali Baba, who was a very good-natured man, welcomed the pretended
+oil-merchant very kindly, and offered him a bed in his own house; and
+having ordered the mules to be unloaded in the yard, and properly fed,
+he invited his guest in to supper. The captain, having seen the jars
+placed ready in the yard, followed Ali Baba into the house, and after
+supper was shown to the chamber where he was to sleep.
+
+It happened that Morgiana was obliged to sit up later that night than
+usual, to get ready her master's bathing linen for the following
+morning; and while she was busy about the fire, her lamp went out, and
+there was no more oil in the house. After considering what she could
+possibly do for a light, she recollected the thirty-eight oil jars in
+the yard and determined to take a little oil out of one of them for her
+lamp. She took her oil pot in her hand and approached the first jar; the
+robber within said, "Is it time, captain?"
+
+Any other slave, on hearing a man in an oil jar, would have screamed
+out; but the prudent Morgiana instantly recollected herself, and replied
+softly, "No, not yet; lie still till I call you." She passed on to every
+jar, receiving the same question and making the same answer, till she
+came to the last, which was really filled with oil.
+
+Morgiana was now convinced that this was a plot of the robbers to murder
+her master, Ali Baba; so she ran back to the kitchen and brought out a
+large kettle, which she filled with oil, and set it on a great wood
+fire; and as soon as it boiled she went and poured into the jars
+sufficient of the boiling oil to kill every man within them. Having done
+this she put out her fire and her lamp, and crept softly to her chamber.
+
+The captain of the robbers, finding everything quiet in the house, and
+perceiving no light anywhere, arose and went down into the yard to
+assemble his men. Coming to the first jar, he felt the steam of the
+boiled oil; he ran hastily to the rest and found every one of his troop
+put to death in the same manner. Full of rage and despair at having
+failed in his design, he forced the lock of a door that led into the
+garden and made his escape over the walls.
+
+On the following morning Morgiana related to her master, Ali Baba, his
+wonderful deliverance from the pretended oil-merchant and his gang of
+robbers. Ali Baba at first could scarcely credit her tale; but when he
+saw the robbers dead in the jars, he could not sufficiently praise her
+courage and sagacity; and without letting any one else into the secret,
+he and Morgiana the next night buried the thirty-seven thieves in a deep
+trench at the bottom of the garden. The jars and mules, as he had no use
+for them, were sent from time to time to the different markets and sold.
+
+While Ali Baba took these measures to prevent his and Cassim's
+adventures in the forest from being known, the captain returned to his
+cave, and for some time abandoned himself to grief and despair. At
+length, however, he determined to adopt a new scheme for the destruction
+of Ali Baba. He removed by degrees all the valuable merchandise from the
+cave to the city and took a shop exactly opposite to Ali Baba's house.
+He furnished this shop with everything that was rare and costly, and
+went by the name of the merchant Cogia Hassan. Many persons made
+acquaintance with the stranger; among others, Ali Baba's son went every
+day to the shop. The pretended Cogia Hassan soon appeared to be very
+fond of Ali Baba's son, offered him many presents, and often detained
+him at dinner, on which occasions he treated him in the handsomest
+manner.
+
+Ali Baba's son thought it was necessary to make some return to these
+civilities, and pressed his father to invite Cogia Hassan to supper. Ali
+Baba made no objection, and the invitation was accordingly given. The
+artful Cogia Hassan would not too hastily accept this invitation, but
+pretended he was not fond of going into company, and that he had
+business which demanded his presence at home. These excuses only made
+Ali Baba's son the more eager to take him to his father's house; and
+after repeated solicitations, the merchant consented to sup at Ali
+Baba's house the next evening.
+
+A most excellent supper was provided, which Morgiana cooked in the best
+manner, and as was her usual custom, she carried in the first dish
+herself. The moment she looked at Cogia Hassan, she knew it was the
+pretended oil-merchant. The prudent Morgiana did not say a word to any
+one of this discovery, but sent the other slaves into the kitchen and
+waited at table herself; and while Cogia Hassan was drinking, she
+perceived he had a dagger hid under his coat.
+
+When supper was ended, and the dessert and wine on the table, Morgiana
+went away and dressed herself in the habit of a dancing-girl; she next
+called Abdalla, a fellow slave, to play on his tabor while she danced.
+As soon as she appeared at the parlor door, her master, who was very
+fond of seeing her dance, ordered her to come in to entertain his guest
+with some of her best dancing. Cogia Hassan was not very well satisfied
+with this entertainment, yet was compelled, for fear of discovering
+himself, to seem pleased with the dancing, while, in fact, he wished
+Morgiana a great way off, and was quite alarmed lest he should lose his
+opportunity of murdering Ali Baba and his son.
+
+Morgiana danced several dances with the utmost grace and agility; and
+then drawing a poniard from her girdle, she performed many surprising
+things with it, sometimes presenting the point to one and sometimes to
+another, and then seemed to strike it into her own bosom. Suddenly she
+paused, and holding the poniard in the right hand, presented her left to
+her master as if begging some money; upon which Ali Baba and his son
+each gave her a small piece of money. She then turned to the pretended
+Cogia Hassan, and while he was putting his hand into his purse, she
+plunged the poniard into his heart.
+
+"Wretch!" cried Ali Baba, "thou hast ruined me and my family."
+
+"No, sir," replied Morgiana, "I have preserved, and not ruined you and
+your son. Look well at this traitor, and you will find him to be the
+pretended oil-merchant who came once before to rob and murder you."
+
+Ali Baba pulled off the turban and the cloak which the false Cogia
+Hassan wore and discovered that he was not only the pretended
+oil-merchant, but the captain of the forty robbers who had slain his
+brother Cassim; nor could he doubt that his perfidious aim had been to
+destroy him, and probably his son, with the concealed dagger. Ali Baba,
+who felt the new obligation he owed to Morgiana for thus saving his life
+a second time, embraced her and said, "My dear Morgiana, I give you
+your liberty; but my gratitude must not stop there: I will also marry
+you to my son, who can esteem and admire you no less than does his
+father." Then turning to his son, he added, "You, my son, will not
+refuse the wife I offer; for, in marrying Morgiana, you take to wife the
+preserver and benefactor of yourself and family." The son, far from
+showing any dislike, readily and joyfully accepted his proposed bride,
+having long entertained an affection for the good slave Morgiana.
+
+Having rejoiced in their deliverance, they buried the captain that night
+with great privacy, in the trench along with his troop of robbers; and a
+few days afterwards, Ali Baba celebrated the marriage of his son and
+Morgiana with a sumptuous entertainment. Every one who knew Morgiana
+said she was worthy of her good fortune, and highly commended her
+master's generosity toward her.
+
+During a twelvemonth Ali Baba forbore to go near the forest, but at
+length his curiosity incited him to make another journey.
+
+When he came to the cave he saw no footsteps of either men or horses;
+and having said, "Open Sesame," he went in, and judged by the state of
+things deposited in the cavern that no one had been there since the
+pretended Cogia Hassan had removed the merchandise to his shop in the
+city. Ali Baba took as much gold home as his horse could carry.
+
+Afterwards he carried his son to the cave and taught him the secret.
+This secret they handed down to their posterity; and using their good
+fortune with moderation, they lived in honor and splendor, and served
+with dignity some of the chief offices in the city.
+
+ A quaint and interesting cycle of animal
+ stories was formed in the Middle Ages with the
+ fox, called Reynard, as the hero or central
+ character. Their origin was not different from
+ that of the cycles that grew up concerning such
+ popular heroes as King Arthur, Robin Hood,
+ Charlemagne, and Siegfried; but one difference
+ at least may be observed--Reynard is always
+ represented as evil, though clever and
+ successful. These stories of Reynard have
+ furnished material for many workers in the
+ field of literature and they have generally
+ served as a vehicle for satire. Indeed, there
+ was much satire in the original versions of the
+ folk. Perhaps the greatest of these modern
+ recensions is that of the German poet Goethe.
+ The best version for use with children is that
+ made by Sir Henry Cole ("Felix Summerley") and
+ edited more recently by Joseph Jacobs in his
+ usual masterly fashion. The introduction to
+ this edition gives just the facts that the
+ reader needs for understanding the significance
+ of the Reynard cycle.
+
+
+
+399
+
+ It may be noted that King Lion, after hearing
+ many complaints about Reynard's evil ways,
+ decides to bring him to court for trial. The
+ first special constable sent to summon Reynard
+ was Bruin the Bear, and now we are to learn--
+
+
+HOW BRUIN THE BEAR SPED WITH REYNARD THE FOX
+
+The next morning away went _Bruin_ the bear in quest of the fox, armed
+against all plots of deceit whatsoever. And as he came through a dark
+forest, in which _Reynard_ had a bypath, which he used when he was
+hunted, he saw a high mountain, over which he must pass to go to
+_Malepardus_. For though _Reynard_ has many houses, yet _Malepardus_ is
+his chiefest and most ancient castle, and in it he lay both for defense
+and ease. Now at last when _Bruin_ was come to _Malepardus_, he found
+the gates close shut, at which after he had knocked, sitting on his
+tail, he called aloud, "Sir _Reynard_, are you at home? I am _Bruin_
+your kinsman, whom the King hath sent to summon you to the court, to
+answer many foul accusations exhibited against you, and hath taken a
+great vow, that if you fail to appear to this summons, your life shall
+answer your contempt, and your goods and honors shall lie confiscate at
+his highness's mercy. Therefore, fair kinsman, be advised of your
+friend, and go with me to the court to shun the danger that else will
+fall upon you."
+
+_Reynard_, lying close by the gate, as his custom was for the warm sun's
+sake, hearing those words, departed into one of his holes, for
+_Malepardus_ is full of many intricate and curious rooms, which
+labyrinth-wise he could pass through, when either his danger or the
+benefit of any prey required the same. There he meditated awhile with
+himself how he might counterplot and bring the bear to disgrace (who he
+knew loved him not) and himself to honor; at last he came forth, and
+said, "Dear uncle _Bruin_, you are exceeding welcome. Pardon my slowness
+in coming, for at your first speech I was saying my even song, and
+devotion must not be neglected. Believe me, he hath done you no good
+service, nor do I thank him which hath sent you this weary and long
+journey, in which your much sweat and toil far exceeds the worth of the
+labor. Certainly had you not come, I had to-morrow been at the court of
+my own accord, yet at this time my sorrow is much lessened, inasmuch as
+your counsel at this present may return me double benefit. Alas, cousin,
+could his Majesty find no meaner a messenger than your noble self to
+employ in these trivial affairs? Truly it appears strange to me,
+especially since, next his royal self, you are of greatest renown both
+in blood and riches. For my part, I would we were both at court, for I
+fear our journey will be exceeding troublesome. To speak truth, since I
+made mine abstinence from flesh, I have eaten such strange new meats,
+that my body is very much distempered, and swelleth as if it would
+break."
+
+"Alas, dear cousin," said the bear, "what meat is that which maketh you
+so ill?"
+
+"Uncle," answered he, "what will it profit you to know? The meat was
+simple and mean. We poor men are no lords, you know, but eat that for
+necessity which others eat for wantonness; yet not to delay you, that
+which I ate was honeycombs, great, full, and most pleasant, which,
+compelled by hunger, I ate too unmeasurably and am thereby infinitely
+distempered."
+
+"Ha," quoth _Bruin_, "honeycombs? Do you make such slight respect of
+them, nephew? Why it is meat for the greatest emperor in the world. Fair
+nephew, help me but to some of that honey, and command me whilst I live;
+for one little part thereof I will be your servant everlastingly."
+
+"Sure," said the fox, "uncle, you but jest with me."
+
+"But jest with you?" replied _Bruin_, "beshrew my heart then, for I am
+in that serious earnest, that for one lick thereat you shall make me the
+faithfullest of all your kindred."
+
+"Nay," said the fox, "if you be in earnest, then know I will bring you
+where so much is, that ten of you shall not be able to devour it at a
+meal, only for your love's sake, which above all things I desire,
+uncle."
+
+"Not ten of us?" said the bear, "it is impossible; for had I all the
+honey betwixt _Hybla_ and _Portugal_, yet I could in a short space eat
+it all myself."
+
+"Then know, uncle," quoth the fox, "that near at hand here dwelleth a
+husbandman named _Lanfert_, who is master of so much honey that you
+cannot consume it in seven years, which for your love and friendship's
+sake I will put into your safe possession."
+
+_Bruin_, mad upon the honey, swore, that to have one good meal thereof
+he would not only be his faithful friend, but also stop the mouths of
+all his adversaries.
+
+_Reynard_, smiling at his easy belief, said, "If you will have seven
+ton, uncle, you shall have it."
+
+These words pleased the bear so well, and made him so pleasant, that he
+could not stand for laughing.
+
+Well, thought the fox, this is good fortune. Sure I will lead him where
+he shall laugh more measurably; and then said, "Uncle, we must delay no
+time, and I will spare no pains for your sake, which for none of my kin
+I would perform."
+
+The bear gave him many thanks, and so away they went, the fox promising
+him as much honey as he could bear, but meant as many strokes as he
+could undergo. In the end they came to _Lanfert's_ house, the sight
+whereof made the bear rejoice. This _Lanfert_ was a stout and lusty
+carpenter, who the other day had brought into his yard a great oak,
+which, as their manner is, he began to cleave, and had struck into it
+two wedges in such wise that the cleft stood a great way open, at which
+the fox rejoiced much, for it was answerable to his wish. So with a
+laughing countenance he said to the bear, "Behold now, dear uncle, and
+be careful of yourself, for within this tree is so much honey that it is
+unmeasurable. Try if you can get into it; yet, good uncle, eat
+moderately, for albeit the combs are sweet and good, yet a surfeit is
+dangerous, and may be troublesome to your body, which I would not for a
+world, since no harm can come to you but must be my dishonor."
+
+"Sorrow not for me, nephew _Reynard_," said the bear, "nor think me such
+a fool that I cannot temper mine appetite."
+
+"It is true, my best uncle, I was too bold. I pray you enter in at the
+end, and you shall find your desire."
+
+The bear with all haste entered the tree, with his two feet forward, and
+thrust his head into the cleft, quite over the ears, which when the fox
+perceived, he instantly ran and pulled the wedges out of the tree, so
+that he locked the bear fast therein, and then neither flattery nor
+anger availed the bear. For the nephew had by his deceit brought the
+uncle into so false a prison that it was impossible by any art to free
+himself of the same. Alas, what profited now his great strength and
+valor? Why, they were both causes of more vexation; and finding himself
+destitute of all relief, he began to howl and bray, and with scratching
+and tumbling to make such a noise that _Lanfert_, amazed, came hastily
+out of his house, having in his hand a sharp hook, whilst the bear lay
+wallowing and roaring within the tree.
+
+The fox from afar off said to the bear in scorn and mocking, "Is the
+honey good, uncle, which you eat? How do you? Eat not too much, I
+beseech you. Pleasant things are apt to surfeit, and you may hinder your
+journey to the court. When _Lanfert_ cometh (if your belly be full) he
+will give you drink to digest it, and wash it down your throat."
+
+And having thus said, he went towards his castle. But by this time,
+_Lanfert_, finding the bear fast taken in the tree, he ran to his
+neighbors and desired them to come into his yard, for there was a bear
+fast taken there. This was noised through all the town, so that there
+was neither man, nor woman, nor child but ran thither, some with one
+weapon, and some with another--as goads, rakes, broom-staves, or what
+they could gather up. The priest had the handle of the cross, the clerk
+the holy water sprinkler, and the priest's wife, Dame _Jullock_, with
+her distaff, for she was then spinning; nay, the old beldames came that
+had ne'er a tooth in their heads. This army put _Bruin_ into a great
+fear, being none but himself to withstand them, and hearing the clamor
+of the noise which came thundering upon him, he wrestled and pulled so
+extremely that he got out his head, but he left behind him all the skin,
+and his ears also; insomuch that never creature beheld a fouler or more
+deformed beast. For the blood covering all his face, and his hands
+leaving the claws and skin behind them, nothing remained but ugliness.
+It was an ill market the bear came to, for he lost both motion and
+sight--that is, feet and eyes. But notwithstanding this torment,
+_Lanfert_, the priest, and the whole parish came upon him, and so
+becudgeled him about his body part, that it might well be a warning to
+all his misery, to know that ever the weakest shall still go most to the
+wall. This the bear found by experience, for every one exercised the
+height of their fury upon him. Even _Houghlin_ with the crooked leg, and
+_Ludolf_ with the long broad nose, the one with a leaden mall, and the
+other with an iron whip, all belashed poor sir _Bruin_; not so much but
+sir _Bertolf_ with the long fingers, _Lanfert_ and _Ortam_ did him more
+annoyance than all the rest, the one having a sharp Welsh hook, the
+other a crooked staff well leaded at the end, which he used to play at
+stab ball withal. There was _Birkin_ and _Armes Ablequack_, _Bane_ the
+priest with his staff, and Dame _Jullock_ his wife; all these so
+belabored the bear, that his life was in great danger. The poor bear in
+this massacre sat and sighed extremely, groaning under the burden of
+their strokes, of which _Lanfert's_ were the greatest and thundered most
+dreadfully; for Dame _Podge_ of _Casport_ was his mother, and his father
+was _Marob_ the steeple-maker, a passing stout man when he was alone.
+_Bruin_ received of him many showers of stones till _Lanfert's_ brother,
+rushing before the rest with a staff, struck the bear in the head such a
+blow that he could neither hear nor see, so that awaking from his
+astonishment the bear leaped into the river adjoining, through a cluster
+of wives there standing together, of which he threw divers into the
+water, which was large and deep, amongst whom the parson's wife was one;
+which the parson seeing how she floated like a sea-mew, he left striking
+the bear, and cried to the rest of the company, "Help! oh, help! Dame
+_Jullock_ is in the water; help, both men and women, for whosoever saves
+her, I give free pardon of all their sins and transgressions, and remit
+all penance imposed whatsoever." This heard, every one left the bear to
+help Dame _Jullock_, which as soon as the bear saw, he cut the stream
+and swam away as fast as he could, but the priest with a great noise
+pursued him, crying in his rage, "Turn, villain, that I may be revenged
+of thee"; but the bear swam in the strength of the stream and suspected
+not his calling, for he was proud that he was so escaped from them. Only
+he bitterly cursed the honey tree and the fox, which had not only
+betrayed him, but had made him lose his hood from his face, and his
+gloves from his fingers. In this sort he swam some three miles down the
+water, in which time he grew so weary that he went on land to get ease,
+where blood trickled down his face; he groaned, sighed, and drew his
+breath so short, as if his last hour had been expiring.
+
+Now whilst these things were in doing, the fox in his way home stole a
+fat hen, and threw her into his mail, and running through a bypath that
+no man might perceive him, he came towards the river with infinite joy;
+for he suspected that the bear was certainly slain: therefore he said to
+himself, "My fortune is as I wished it, for the greatest enemy I had in
+the court is now dead, nor can any man suspect me guilty thereof." But
+as he spake these words, looking towards the river, he espied where
+_Bruin_ the bear lay and rested, which struck his heart with grief, and
+he railed against _Lanfert_ the carpenter, saying, "Silly fool that thou
+art, what madman would have lost such good venison, especially being so
+fat and wholesome, and for which he took no pains, for he was taken to
+his hand; any man would have been proud of the fortune which thou
+neglectest." Thus fretting and chiding, he came to the river, where he
+found the bear all wounded and bloody, of which _Reynard_ was only
+guilty; yet in scorn he said to the bear, "_Monsieur, Dieu vous garde_."
+
+"O thou foul red villain," said the bear to himself, "what impudence is
+like to this?"
+
+But the fox went on with his speech, and said, "What, uncle? Have you
+forgot anything at _Lanfert's_, or have you paid him for the honeycombs
+you stole? If you have not, it will redound much to your disgrace, which
+before you shall undergo, I will pay him for them myself. Sure the honey
+was excellent good, and I know much more of the same price. Good uncle,
+tell me before I go, into what order do you mean to enter, that you wear
+this new-fashioned hood? Will you be a monk, an abbot, or a friar?
+Surely he that shaved your crown hath cropped your ears; also your
+foretop is lost, and your gloves are gone; fie, sloven, go not
+bare-handed; they say you can sing _peccavi_ rarely."
+
+These taunts made _Bruin_ mad with rage, but because he could not take
+revenge, he was content to let him talk his pleasure. Then after a small
+rest he plunged again into the river, and swam down the stream, and
+landed on the other side, where he began with much grief to meditate how
+he might get to the court, for he had lost his ears, his talons, and all
+the skin off his feet, so that had a thousand deaths followed him, he
+could not go. Yet of necessity he must move, that in the end compelled
+by extremity, he set his tail on the ground, and tumbled his body over
+and over; so by degrees, tumbling now half a mile, and then half a mile,
+in the end he tumbled to the court, where divers beholding his strange
+manner of approach, they thought some prodigy had come towards them;
+but in the end the King knew him, and grew angry, saying, "It is sir
+_Bruin_, my servant; what villains have wounded him thus, or where hath
+he been that he brings his death thus along with him?"
+
+"O my dread Sovereign Lord the King," cried out the bear, "I complain me
+grievously unto you; behold how I am massacred, which I humbly beseech
+you revenge on that false _Reynard_, who, for doing your royal pleasure,
+hath brought me to this disgrace and slaughter."
+
+Then said the King, "How durst he do this? Now by my crown I swear I
+will take the revenge which shall make the traitors tremble!"
+
+Whereupon the King sent for all his council, and consulted how and in
+what sort to persecute against the fox, where it was generally concluded
+that he should be again summoned to appear and answer his trespasses;
+and the party to summon him they appointed to be _Tibert_ the cat, as
+well for his gravity as wisdom; all which pleased the King well.
+
+
+
+400
+
+ After many ups and downs in fortune Reynard is
+ finally on good terms with the king when
+ Isegrim the Wolf appears with another
+ accusation. Reynard's denial of the charges led
+ the Wolf to challenge him to mortal combat, a
+ well known medieval way of settling the truth
+ of conflicting evidence. The result appears in
+ the following:
+
+
+THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE FOX AND THE WOLF
+
+The fox answered not a word, but bowing himself down humbly to the
+earth, both before the King and the Queen's Majesties, went forth into
+the field; and at the same time the wolf was also ready, and stood
+boasting, and giving out many proud and vainglorious speeches. The
+marshals and rulers of the lists were the leopard and the loss. These
+brought forth a book, on which the wolf swore and maintained his
+assertion that the fox was a traitor and a murderer, which he would
+prove on his body, or else be counted a recreant. Then _Reynard_ took
+the book, and swore he lied as a false traitor and a thief, which he
+would prove on his body, or be accounted a recreant.
+
+When these ceremonies were done, the marshals of the field bade them do
+their devoir. And then every creature avoided the lists, save Dame
+_Rukenaw_, who stood by the fox, and bade him remember the words and
+instructions she had given him, and call to mind how, when he was scarce
+seven years old, he had then wisdom enough to pass the darkest night
+without lantern or candle-light, or the help of the moon, when any
+occasion required him; and that his experience was much greater, and his
+reputation of wisdom more frequent with his companions; and therefore to
+work so as he might win the day, which would be an eternal monument to
+him and his family for ever.
+
+To this the fox answered, "My best aunt, assure yourself I will do my
+best, and not forget a tittle of your counsel. I doubt not but my
+friends shall reap honor and my foes shame by my actions." To this the
+ape said amen, and so departed.
+
+When none but the combatants were in the lists, the wolf went toward the
+fox with infinite rage and fury, and thinking to take the fox in his
+forefeet, the fox leaped nimbly from him and the wolf pursued him, so
+that there began a tedious chase between them, on which their friends
+gazed. The wolf taking larger strides than the fox often overtook him,
+and lifting up his feet to strike him, the fox avoided the blow and
+smote him on the face with his tail, so that the wolf was stricken
+almost blind, and he was forced to rest while he cleared his eyes; which
+advantage when _Reynard_ saw, he scratched up the dust with his feet,
+and threw it in the eyes of the wolf.
+
+This grieved him worse than the former, so that he durst follow him no
+longer, for the dust and sand sticking in his eyes smarted so sore, that
+of force he must rub and wash it away, which _Reynard_ seeing, with all
+the fury he had he ran upon him, and with his teeth gave him three sore
+wounds on his head, and scoffing said, "Have I hit you, Mr. Wolf? I will
+yet hit you better; you have killed many a lamb and many an innocent
+beast, and would impose the fault upon me, but you shall find the price
+of your knavery. I am marked to punish thy sins, and I will give thee
+thy absolution bravely. It is good for thee that thou use patience, for
+thy evil life is at my mercy. Yet, notwithstanding, if thou wilt kneel
+down and ask my forgiveness, and confess thyself vanquished, though thou
+be the worst thing living, yet I will spare thy life, for my pity makes
+me loath to kill thee."
+
+These words made _Isegrim_ both mad and desperate, so that he knew not
+how to express his fury; his wounds bled, his eyes smarted, and his
+whole body was oppressed. So that in the height of his fury he lifted up
+his foot and struck the fox so great a blow that he felled him to the
+ground. But _Reynard_, being nimble, quickly rose up again and
+encountered the wolf, that between them began a dreadful and doubtful
+combat.
+
+The wolf was exceeding furious, and ten times he leaped to catch
+_Reynard_ fast, but his skin was so slippery and oily he could not hold
+him. Nay, so wondrous nimble was he in the fight, that when the wolf
+thought to have him surest, he would shift himself between his legs and
+under his belly, and every time gave the wolf a bite with his teeth, or
+a slap on the face with his tail, that the poor wolf found nothing but
+despair in the conflict, albeit his strength was much the greater.
+
+Thus many wounds and bitings passing on either side, the one expressing
+cunning, and the other strength; the one fury, the other temperance. In
+the end the wolf being enraged that the battle had continued so long,
+for had his feet been sound it had been much shorter, he said to
+himself, "I will make an end of this combat, for I know my very weight
+is able to crush him to pieces; and I lose much of my reputation, to
+suffer him thus long to contend against me."
+
+And this said, he struck the fox again so sore a blow on the head with
+his foot, that he fell down to the ground, and ere he could recover
+himself and arise, he caught him in his feet and threw him under him,
+lying upon him in such wise, as if he would have pressed him to death.
+
+Now began the fox to be grievously afraid, and all his friends also, and
+all _Isegrim's_ friends began to shout for joy; but the fox defended
+himself as well as he could with his claws, lying along, and the wolf
+could not hurt him with his claws, his feet were so sore; only with his
+teeth he snatched at him to bite him, which, when the fox saw, he smote
+the wolf on the head with his fore-claws, so that he tore the skin
+between his brows and his ears, and one of his eyes hung out of his
+head, which put the wolf to infinite torment, and he howled out
+extremely. Then _Isegrim_ wiping his face, the fox took advantage
+thereof, and with his struggling got upon his feet.
+
+At which the wolf was angry, and striking after him, caught the fox in
+his arms, and held him fast; never was _Reynard_ in so great a strait as
+then, for at that time great was their contention; but anger now made
+the wolf forget his smart, and gripping the fox altogether under him, as
+_Reynard_ was defending himself his hand lighted into _Isegrim's_ mouth,
+so that he was in danger of losing it. Then said the wolf to the fox,
+"Now either yield thyself as vanquished, or else certainly I will kill
+thee; neither thy dust, thy mocks, nor any subtle invention shall now
+save thee; thou art now left utterly desperate, and my wounds must have
+their satisfaction."
+
+When the fox heard this he thought it was a hard election, for both
+brought his ruin; and suddenly concluding, he said, "Dear uncle, since
+fortune commands me, I yield to be your servant, and at your
+commandments will travel for you to the Holy Land, or any other
+pilgrimage, or do any service which shall be beneficial to your soul or
+the souls of your forefathers. I will do for the King or for our holy
+father the Pope, I will hold of you my lands and revenues, and as I, so
+shall all the rest of my kindred; so that you shall be a lord of many
+lords, and none shall dare to move against you.
+
+"Besides, whatsoever I get of pullets, geese, partridges, or clover,
+flesh or fish, you, your wife, and children shall have the first choice,
+ere any are eaten by me. I will ever stand by your side, and wheresoever
+you go, no danger shall come near you; you are strong, and I am subtle;
+we two joined together, what force can prevail against us? Again, we are
+so near in blood that nature forbids there should be any enmity between
+us; I would not have fought against you had I been sure of victory, but
+that you first appealed me, and then you know of necessity I must do my
+uttermost. I have also in this battle been courteous to you, and not
+shown my worst violence, as I would on a stranger, for I know it is the
+duty of a nephew to spare his uncle; and this you might well perceive by
+my running from you. I tell you, it was an action much contrary to my
+nature, for I might often have hurt you when I refused, nor are you
+worse for me by anything more than the blemish of your eye, for which I
+am sorry, and wished it had not happened; yet thereby know that you
+shall reap rather benefit than loss thereby, for when other beasts in
+their sleep shut two windows, you shall shut but one.
+
+"As for my wife, children, and lineage, they shall fall down at your
+feet before you in any presence; therefore, I humbly desire you, that
+you will suffer poor _Reynard_ to live. I know you will kill me, but
+what will that avail you, when you shall never live in safety for fear
+of revengement of my kindred? Therefore, temperance in any man's wrath
+is excellent, whereas rashness is ever the mother of repentance. But,
+uncle, I know you to be valiant, wise, and discreet, and you rather seek
+honor, peace, and good fame than blood and revenge."
+
+_Isegrim_ the wolf said, "Infinite dissembler, how fain wouldst thou be
+freed of my servitude? Too well I understand thee, and know that if
+thou wert safe on thy feet thou wouldst forswear this submission; but
+know all the wealth in the world shall not buy out thy ransom, for thee
+and thy friends I esteem them not, nor believe anything thou hast
+uttered. Too well I know thee, and am no bird for thy lime bush; chaff
+cannot deceive me. Oh, how wouldst thou triumph if I should believe
+thee, and say I wanted wit to understand thee; but thou shalt know I can
+look both on this side and beyond thee. Thy many deceits used upon me
+have now armed me against thee. Thou sayest thou hast spared me in the
+battle; but look upon me, and my wounds will show how falsely thou
+liest; thou never gavest me a time to breathe in, nor will I now give
+thee a minute to repent in."
+
+Now whilst _Isegrim_ was thus talking, the fox bethought himself how he
+might best get free, and thrusting his other hand down he caught the
+wolf fast by the neck, and he wrung him so extremely hard thereby, that
+he made him shriek and howl out with the anguish; then the fox drew his
+other hand out of his mouth, for the wolf was in such wondrous torment
+that he had much ado to contain himself from swooning; for this torment
+exceeded above the pain of his eye, and in the end he fell over and over
+in a swoon; then presently _Reynard_ leaped upon him, and drew him about
+the lists and dragged him by the legs, and struck, wounded, and bit him
+in many places, so that all the whole field might take notice thereof.
+
+At this, all _Isegrim's_ friends were full of sorrow, and with great
+weeping and lamentation went to the King and prayed him to be pleased to
+appease the combat and take it into his own hands; which suit the King
+granted, and then the leopard and the loss, being marshals, entered the
+lists and told the fox and the wolf that the King would speak with them,
+and that the battle should there end, for he would take it into his own
+hands and determine thereof; as for themselves they had done
+sufficiently, neither would the King lose either of them. And to the fox
+they said the whole field gave him the victory.
+
+ The greatest and most inspiring cycle of
+ medieval romances is that concerned with the
+ adventures of King Arthur and his Knights of
+ the Round Table. Developing largely as separate
+ stories, these romances were brought together
+ into an organic collection by Sir Thomas Malory
+ in the third quarter of the fifteenth century.
+ This work, called _Le Morte D'Arthur_, has
+ remained the standard Arthuriad and is the
+ source of most modern versions. It is one of
+ the great monuments of English prose, and,
+ while at first the strangeness of its style may
+ repel, the wonderful dignity of the story and
+ the sonorous quality of the language make a
+ strong appeal to children as well as to older
+ readers. Teachers should at least be acquainted
+ with a portion of Malory, and the three
+ selections following are taken from his text.
+ No. 404 is added as a suggestion as to how this
+ material may be worked up to tell to children.
+
+
+
+401
+
+ According to a tradition in _Le Morte
+ D'Arthur_, Uther Pendragon, the father of
+ Arthur, was a powerful king in England. To
+ fulfill a promise made to Merlin, Uther
+ Pendragon allowed Merlin to take Arthur on the
+ day of his birth, that the child might not be
+ known as the son of the king. Merlin took the
+ child to Sir Ector, and the wife of Sir Ector
+ reared Arthur as one of her own children. The
+ following story is an account of how Arthur
+ learned of his parentage.
+
+
+HOW ARTHUR BECAME KING
+
+SIR THOMAS MALORY
+
+After the death of Uther Pendragon, stood the realm in great jeopardy
+long while, for every lord that was mighty of men made him strong, and
+many weened to have been king. Then Merlin went to the Archbishop of
+Canterbury and counselled him to send for all the lords of the realm and
+all the gentlemen of arms, that they should to London come by Christmas.
+
+So the Archbishop, by the advice of Merlin, sent for all the lords and
+gentlemen of arms that they should come by Christmas even unto London.
+So in the greatest church of London, whether it were Paul's or not the
+French book maketh no mention, all the estates were long or day in the
+church for to pray. And when matins and the first mass were done, there
+was seen in the churchyard, against the high altar, a great stone four
+square, like unto a marble stone, and in midst thereof was like an anvil
+of steel a foot on high, and therein stuck a fair sword, and letters
+there were written in gold about the sword that said thus:
+
+ "Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and
+ anvil, is rightwise king born of all England."
+
+Then the people marveled and told it to the Archbishop. "I command,"
+said the Archbishop, "that you keep you within your church, and pray
+unto God still; that no man touch the sword till the high mass be all
+done."
+
+So when all masses were done, all the lords went to behold the stone and
+the sword. And when they saw the scripture, some assayed; such as would
+have been king. But none might stir the sword nor move it. "He is not
+here," said the Archbishop, "that shall achieve the sword, but doubt not
+God will make him known. But this is my counsel," said the Archbishop,
+"that we provide ten knights, men of good fame, and they to keep this
+sword."
+
+So it was ordained, and there was made a cry, that every man should
+essay that would, for to win the sword. And upon New Year's Day the
+barons let make a jousts and a tournament, that all knights that would
+joust or tourney there might play, and all this was ordained for to keep
+the lords and the commons together, for the Archbishop trusted that God
+would make him known that should win the sword. So upon New Year's Day,
+when the service was done, the barons rode unto the field, some to joust
+and some to tourney, and so it happened that Sir Ector rode unto the
+jousts, and with him rode Sir Kay his son, and young Arthur that was his
+nourished brother; and Sir Kay had been made knight at All Hallowmass
+afore.
+
+So as they rode to the joustsward, Sir Kay had lost his sword, for he
+had left it at his father's lodging, and so he prayed young Arthur for
+to ride for his sword. "I will well," said Arthur, and rode fast after
+the sword, and when he came home, the lady and all were out to see the
+jousting. Then was Arthur wroth, and said to himself, "I will ride to
+the churchyard and take the sword with me that sticketh in the stone,
+for my brother Sir Kay shall not be without a sword this day." So when
+he came to the churchyard, Sir Arthur alit and tied his horse to the
+stile, and so he went to the tent and found no knights there, for they
+were at jousting; and so he handled the sword by the handles, and
+lightly and fiercely pulled it out of the stone, and took his horse and
+rode his way until he came to his brother Sir Kay, and delivered him the
+sword.
+
+As soon as Sir Kay saw the sword, he wist well it was the sword of the
+stone, and so he rode to his father, Sir Ector, and said, "Sir, lo here
+is the sword of the stone, wherefore I must be king of this land."
+
+When Sir Ector beheld the sword, he returned again and came to the
+church, and there they alit, all three, and went into the church. And
+anon he made Sir Kay to swear upon a book how he came to that sword.
+"Sir," said Sir Kay, "by my brother Arthur, for he brought it to me."
+
+"How gat ye this sword?" said Sir Ector to Arthur.
+
+"Sir, I will tell you. When I came home for my brother's sword, I found
+nobody at home to deliver me his sword, and so I thought my brother Sir
+Kay should not be swordless, and so I came hither eagerly and pulled it
+out of the stone without any pain."
+
+"Found ye any knights about this sword?" said Sir Ector.
+
+"Nay," said Arthur.
+
+"Now," said Sir Ector to Arthur, "I understand ye must be king of this
+land."
+
+"Wherefore I," said Arthur, "and for what cause?"
+
+"Sir," said Ector, "for God will have it so, for there should never man
+have drawn out this sword, but he that shall be rightways king of this
+land. Now let me see whether ye can put the sword there as it was and
+pull it out again."
+
+"That is no mastery," said Arthur, and so he put it in the stone;
+therewithal Sir Ector essayed to pull out the sword and failed.
+
+"Now essay," said Sir Ector unto Sir Kay. And anon he pulled at the
+sword with all his might, but it would not be.
+
+"Now shall ye essay," said Ector to Arthur.
+
+"I will well," said Arthur, and pulled it out easily. And therewithal
+Sir Ector knelt down to the earth, and Sir Kay. "Alas," said Arthur, "my
+own dear father and brother, why kneel ye to me?"
+
+"Nay, nay, my lord Arthur, it is not so. I was never your father nor of
+your blood, but I wot well ye are of an higher blood than I weened ye
+were." And then Sir Ector told him all, how he had taken him for to
+nourish him, and by whose commandment, and by Merlin's deliverance. Then
+Arthur made great doole when he understood that Sir Ector was not his
+father.
+
+"Sir," said Ector unto Arthur, "will ye be my good and gracious lord
+when ye are king?"
+
+"Else were I to blame," said Arthur, "for ye are the man in the world
+that I am most beholden to, and my good lady and mother your wife, that
+as well as her own hath fostered me and kept. And if ever it be God's
+will that I be king as ye say, God forbid that I should fail you."
+
+"Sir," said Sir Ector, "I will ask no more of you but that ye will make
+my son, your foster brother, Sir Kay, seneschal of all your lands."
+
+"That shall be done," said Arthur, "and more, by the faith of my body,
+that never man shall have that office but he, while he and I live."
+
+Therewithal they went unto the Archbishop and told him how the sword was
+achieved, and by whom; and on the Twelfth-day all the barons came
+thither, and to essay to take the sword, who that would essay. But there
+afore them all, there might none take it out but Arthur; wherefore
+there were many lords wroth, and said it was great shame unto them all
+and the realm to be over-governed with a boy of no high blood born, and
+so they fell out at that time that it was put off until Candlemas, and
+then all the barons should meet there again; but always the ten knights
+were ordained to watch the sword day and night, and so they set a
+pavilion over the stone and the sword, and five always watched. So at
+Candlemas many more great lords came thither for to have won the sword,
+but there might none prevail. And right as Arthur did at Christmas, he
+did at Candlemas, and pulled out the sword easily, whereof the barons
+were sore agrieved and put it off in delay till the high feast of
+Easter, yet there were some of the great lords had indignation that
+Arthur should be king, and put it off in a delay till the feast of
+Pentecost. And at the feast of Pentecost all manner of men essayed to
+pull at the sword that would essay, but none might prevail but Arthur,
+and he pulled it out afore all the lords and commons that were there,
+wherefore all the commons cried at once, "We will have Arthur unto our
+king. We will put him no more in delay, for we all see that it is God's
+will that he shall be our king, and who that holdeth against it, we will
+slay him." And therewith they all kneeled at once, both rich and poor,
+and cried Arthur mercy because they had delayed him so long, and Arthur
+forgave them, and took the sword between both his hands, and offered it
+upon the altar where the Archbishop was, and so was he made knight of
+the best man that was there. And so anon was the coronation made. And
+there was he sworn unto his lords and the commons for to be a true king
+and to stand with true justice from thenceforth the days of his life.
+
+
+
+402
+
+ After Arthur was made king, he spent several
+ years in war with his lawless barons before he
+ finally established a stable government in
+ England. Malory's accounts of these wars are
+ interspersed with stories of miraculous
+ incidents, accounts of the adventures of
+ knights, and descriptions of feasts,
+ tournaments, and jousts. The following is a
+ description of the jousting between the knights
+ of King Arthur and those of two French kings,
+ Ban and Bors, who had come to aid Arthur in his
+ wars.
+
+
+A TOURNEY WITH THE FRENCH
+
+SIR THOMAS MALORY
+
+Then the king let purvey for a great feast, and let cry a great jousts.
+And by All Hallowmass the two kings were come over the sea with three
+hundred knights well arrayed both for peace and for war. And King Arthur
+met with them ten miles out of London, and there was great joy as could
+be thought or made. And on All Hallowmass at the great feast, sat in the
+hall the three kings, and Sir Kay seneschal served in the hall, and Sir
+Lucas the butler, and Sir Griflet. These three knights had the rule of
+all the service that served the kings. And anon, as they had washed and
+risen, all knights that would joust made them ready. By when they were
+ready on horseback there were seven hundred knights. And Arthur, Ban,
+and Bors, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Sir Ector, Kay's
+father, they were in a place covered with cloth of gold like an hall,
+with ladies and gentlewomen, for to behold who did the best, and thereon
+to give judgment.
+
+And King Arthur and the two kings let depart the seven hundred knights
+into two parties. And there were three hundred knights of the realm of
+Benwick and of Gaul turned on the other side. Then they dressed their
+shields, and began to couch their spears many good knights. So Griflet
+was the first that met with a knight, one Ladinas, and they met so
+eagerly that all men had wonder; and they so fought that their shields
+fell to pieces, and horse and man fell to the earth; and both French
+knight and English knight lay so long that all men weened they had been
+dead. When Lucas the butler saw Griflet so lie, he horsed him again
+anon, and they two did marvelous deeds of arms with many bachelors. Also
+Sir Kay came out of an enbushment with five knights with him, and they
+six smote other six down. But Sir Kay did that day marvelous deeds of
+arms that there was none did so well as he that day. Then there come
+Ladinas and Gracian, two knights of France, and did passing well, that
+all men praised them. Then come there Sir Placidas, a good knight, and
+met with Sir Kay, and smote him down horse and man, wherefore Sir
+Griflet was wroth, and met with Sir Placidas so hard that horse and man
+fell to the earth. But when the five knights wist that Sir Kay had a
+fall, they were wroth out of wit, and therewith each of them five bare
+down a knight. When King Arthur and the two kings saw them begin to wax
+wroth on both parties, they leaped on small hackneys and let cry that
+all men should depart unto their lodging. And so they went home and
+unarmed them, and so to evensong and supper. And after, the three kings
+went into a garden and gave the prize unto Sir Kay, and to Lucas the
+butler, and unto Sir Griflet.
+
+
+
+403
+
+ One part of _Le Morte D'Arthur_ will illustrate
+ almost as well as another the nature of the
+ adventure stories that grew up in the Middle
+ Ages regarding the traditional heroes of
+ chivalry. The following selection is taken from
+ the first part of the book.
+
+
+ADVENTURES OF ARTHUR
+
+SIR THOMAS MALORY
+
+Then on a day there came in the court a squire on horseback, leading a
+knight before him wounded to the death. He said, "There is a knight in
+the forest who hath reared up a pavilion by a well, and hath slain my
+master, a good knight whose name was Miles; wherefore I beseech you that
+my master may be buried, and that some knight may revenge my master's
+death."
+
+Then the noise was great of that knight's death in the court, and every
+man said his advice. Then came Griflet that was but a squire, and he was
+but young, of the age of King Arthur; so he besought the king for all
+his service that he had done him to give him the order of knighthood.
+
+"Thou art full young and tender of age," said Arthur, "for to take so
+high an order on thee."
+
+"Sir," said Griflet, "I beseech you make me knight."
+
+"Sir," said Merlin, "it were great pity to lose Griflet, for he will be
+a passing good man when he is of age, abiding with you the term of his
+life. And if he adventure his body with yonder knight at the fountain,
+it is in great peril if ever he come again, for he is one of the best
+knights in the world, and the strongest man of arms."
+
+"Well," said Arthur. So at the desire of Griflet the king made him
+knight. "Now," said Arthur unto Sir Griflet, "sith I have made you
+knight thou must give me a gift."
+
+"What ye will," said Griflet.
+
+"Thou shalt promise me by the faith of thy body, when thou hast jousted
+with the knight at the fountain, whether it fall ye to be on foot or on
+horseback, that right so ye shall come again unto me without making any
+more debate."
+
+"I will promise you," said Griflet, "as you desire."
+
+Then took Griflet his horse in great haste, and dressed his shield and
+took a spear in his hand, and so he rode at a great wallop till he came
+to the fountain, and thereby he saw a rich pavilion, and thereby under a
+cloth stood a fair horse well saddled and bridled, and on a tree a
+shield of divers colors and a great spear. Then Griflet smote on the
+shield with the butt of his spear, that the shield fell down to the
+ground. With that the knight came out of the pavilion and said, "Fair
+knight, why smote ye down my shield?"
+
+"For I will joust with you," said Griflet.
+
+"It is better ye do not," said the knight, "for ye are but young, and
+late made knight, and your might is nothing to mine."
+
+"As for that," said Griflet, "I will joust with you."
+
+"That is me loath," said the knight, "but sith I must needs, I will
+dress me thereto. Of whence be ye?" said the knight.
+
+"Sir, I am of Arthur's court."
+
+So the two knights ran together that Griflet's spear all to-shivered;
+and therewithal he smote Griflet through the shield and the left side,
+and brake the spear that the truncheon stuck in his body, that horse and
+knight fell down.
+
+When the knight saw him lie so on the ground, he alit, and was passing
+heavy, for he weened he had slain him, and then he unlaced his helm and
+gat him wind, and so with the truncheon he set him on his horse and gat
+him wind, and so betook him to God, and said he had a mighty heart, and
+if he might live he would prove a passing good knight. And so Sir
+Griflet rode to the court, where great dole was made for him. But
+through good leeches he was healed and saved.
+
+Right so came into the court twelve knights, who were aged men, and they
+came from the Emperor of Rome, and they asked of Arthur truage for this
+realm, other-else the emperor would destroy him and his land.
+
+"Well," said King Arthur, "ye are messengers, therefore ye may say what
+ye will, other-else ye should die therefore. But this is mine answer: I
+owe the emperor no truage, nor none will I hold him, but on a fair field
+I shall give him my truage that shall be with a sharp spear, or else
+with a sharp sword, and that shall not be long."
+
+And therewith the messengers departed passingly wroth, and King Arthur
+as wroth, for in evil time came they then; for the king was passingly
+wroth for the hurt of Sir Griflet. And so he commanded a privy man of
+his chamber that or it be day his best horse and armor with all that
+longeth unto his person, be without the city or to-morrow day. Right so
+or to-morrow day he met with his man and his horse, and so mounted up
+and dressed his shield and took his spear, and bade his chamberlain
+tarry there till he came again. And so Arthur rode a soft pace till it
+was day, and then was he ware of three churls chasing Merlin, and would
+have slain him. Then the king rode unto them and bade them, "Flee,
+churls!" Then were they afeard when they saw a knight, and fled.
+
+"O Merlin," said Arthur, "here hadst thou been slain for all thy crafts
+had I not been."
+
+"Nay," said Merlin, "not so, for I could save myself an I would; and
+thou art more near thy death than I am, for thou goest to the deathward,
+an God be not thy friend."
+
+So as they went thus talking they came to the fountain and the rich
+pavilion there by it. Then King Arthur was ware where sat a knight armed
+in a chair. "Sir knight," said Arthur, "for what cause abidest thou
+here, that there may no knight ride this way but he joust with thee? I
+rede thee leave that custom," said Arthur.
+
+"This custom," said the knight, "have I used and will use maugre who
+saith nay, and who is grieved with my custom let him amend it that
+will."
+
+"I will amend it," said Arthur.
+
+"I shall defend thee," said the knight.
+
+Anon he took his horse and dressed his shield and took a spear, and they
+met so hard either on other's shield, that all to-shivered their spears.
+Therewith anon Arthur pulled out his sword. "Nay, not so," said the
+knight; "it is fairer that we twain run more together with sharp
+spears."
+
+"I will well," said Arthur, "an I had any more spears."
+
+"I have enow," said the knight, so there came a squire and brought two
+good spears, and Arthur chose one and he another; so they spurred their
+horses and came together with all their mights, that either brake their
+spears to their hands. Then Arthur set hand on his sword. "Nay," said
+the knight, "ye shall do better. Ye are a passing good jouster as ever I
+met withal, and once more for the love of the high order of knighthood
+let us joust once again."
+
+"I assent me," said Arthur.
+
+Anon there were brought two great spears, and every knight gat a spear,
+and therewith they ran together that Arthur's spear all to-shivered. But
+the other knight hit him so hard in midst of the shield that horse and
+man fell to the earth, and therewith Arthur was eager, and pulled out
+his sword and said, "I will assay thee, sir knight, on foot, for I have
+lost the honor on horseback."
+
+"I will be on horseback," said the knight.
+
+Then was Arthur wroth, and dressed his shield toward him with his sword
+drawn. When the knight saw that, he alit, for him thought no worship to
+have a knight at such avail, he to be on horseback and he on foot, and
+so he alit and dressed his shield unto Arthur. And there began a strong
+battle with many great strokes, and so hewed with their swords that the
+cantels flew in the fields, and much blood they bled both, that all the
+place there as they fought was overbled with blood, and thus they fought
+long and rested them, and then they went to battle again, and so hurtled
+together like two rams that either fell to the earth. So at the last
+they smote together that both their swords met even together. But the
+sword of the knight smote King Arthur's sword in two pieces, wherefore
+he was heavy. Then said the knight unto Arthur, "Thou art in my daunger
+whether me list to save thee or slay thee, and but thou yield thee as
+overcome and recreant, thou shalt die."
+
+"As for death," said King Arthur, "welcome be it when it cometh, but to
+yield me unto thee as recreant I had liefer die than be so shamed."
+
+And therewithal the king leaped unto Pellinore, and took him by the
+middle and threw him down, and raised off his helm. When the knight felt
+that, he was adread, for he was a passing big man of might, and anon he
+brought Arthur under him, and raised off his helm and would have smitten
+off his head.
+
+Therewithal came Merlin and said, "Knight, hold thy hand, for an thou
+slay that knight thou puttest this realm in the greatest damage that
+ever was realm; for this knight is a man of more worship that thou
+wotest of."
+
+"Why, who is he?" said the knight.
+
+"It is King Arthur."
+
+Then would he have slain him for dread of his wrath, and heaved up his
+sword, and therewith Merlin cast an enchantment to the knight, that he
+fell to the earth in a great sleep. Then Merlin took up King Arthur, and
+rode forth on the knight's horse.
+
+"Alas!" said Arthur, "what hast thou done, Merlin? Hast thou slain this
+good knight by thy crafts? There liveth not so worshipful a knight as he
+was; I had liefer than the stint of my land a year that he were alive."
+
+"Care ye not," said Merlin, "for he is wholer than ye; for he is but
+asleep, and will awake within three hours. I told you," said Merlin,
+"what a knight he was; here had ye been slain had I not been. Also there
+liveth not a bigger knight than he is one, and he shall hereafter do you
+right good service; and his name is Pellinore, and he shall have two
+sons that shall be passing good men; save one they shall have no fellow
+of prowess and of good living, and their names shall be Percivale of
+Wales and Lamerake of Wales."
+
+Right so the king and he departed and went unto an hermit that was a
+good man and a great leech. So the hermit searched all his wounds and
+gave him good salves; so the king was there three days, and then were
+his wounds well amended that he might ride and go, and so departed.
+
+And as they rode, Arthur said, "I have no sword."
+
+"No force," said Merlin, "hereby is a sword that shall be yours, an I
+may."
+
+So they rode till they came to a lake, the which was a fair water and
+broad, and in the midst of the lake Arthur was ware of an arm clothed in
+white samite, that held a fair sword in that hand.
+
+"Lo!" said Merlin, "yonder is that sword that I spake of."
+
+With that they saw a damosel going upon the lake. "What damosel is
+that?" said Arthur.
+
+"That is the Lady of the Lake," said Merlin; "and within that lake is a
+rock, and therein is as fair a place as any on earth, and richly beseen;
+and this damosel will come to you anon, and then speak ye fair to her
+that she will give you that sword."
+
+Anon withal came the damosel unto Arthur and saluted him, and he her
+again. "Damosel," said Arthur, "what sword is that, that yonder the arm
+holdeth above the water? I would it were mine, for I have no sword."
+
+"Sir Arthur, king," said the damosel, "that sword is mine, and if ye
+will give me a gift when I ask it you, ye shall have it."
+
+"By my faith," said Arthur, "I will give you what gift ye will ask."
+
+"Well!" said the damosel. "Go ye into yonder barge, and row yourself to
+the sword, and take it and the scabbard with you, and I will ask my gift
+when I see my time."
+
+So Sir Arthur and Merlin alit and tied their horses to two trees, and so
+they went into the ship, and when they came to the sword that the hand
+held, Sir Arthur took it up by the handles, and took it with him, and
+the arm and the hand went under the water. And so they came unto the
+land and rode forth, and then Sir Arthur saw a rich pavilion.
+
+"What signifieth yonder pavilion?"
+
+"It is the knight's pavilion," said Merlin, "that ye fought with last,
+Sir Pellinore; but he is out; he is not there. He hath ado with a knight
+of yours that hight Egglame, and they have foughten together, but at the
+last Egglame fled, and else he had been dead, and he hath chased him
+even to Carlion, and we shall meet with him anon in the highway."
+
+"That is well said," said Arthur, "now have I a sword; now will I wage
+battle with him, and be avenged on him."
+
+"Sir, you shall not so," said Merlin, "for the knight is weary of
+fighting and chasing, so that ye shall have no worship to have ado with
+him; also he will not be lightly matched of one knight living, and
+therefore it is my counsel, let him pass, for he shall do you good
+service in short time, and his sons after his days. Also ye shall see
+that day in short space, you shall be right glad to give him your sister
+to wed."
+
+"When I see him, I will do as ye advise me," said Arthur. Then Sir
+Arthur looked on the sword, and liked it passing well.
+
+"Whether liketh you the better," said Merlin, "the sword or the
+scabbard?"
+
+"Me liketh better the sword," said Arthur.
+
+"Ye are more unwise," said Merlin, "for the scabbard is worth ten of the
+swords, for whiles ye have the scabbard upon you, ye shall never lose no
+blood be ye never so sore wounded, therefore keep well the scabbard
+always with you."
+
+So they rode unto Carlion, and by the way they met with Sir Pellinore;
+but Merlin had done such a craft, that Pellinore saw not Arthur, and he
+passed by without any words.
+
+"I marvel," said Arthur, "that the knight would not speak."
+
+"Sir," said Merlin, "he saw you not, for an he had seen you, ye had not
+lightly departed."
+
+So they came unto Carlion, whereof his knights were passing glad. And
+when they heard of his adventures, they marveled that he would jeopard
+his person so, alone. But all men of worship said it was merry to be
+under such a chieftain, that would put his person in adventure as other
+poor knights did.
+
+This meanwhile came a messenger from King Rience of North Wales, and
+king he was of all Ireland, and of many isles. And this was his message,
+greeting well King Arthur in this manner wise, saying that King Rience
+had discomfited and overcome eleven kings, and every each of them did
+him homage, and that was this, they gave him their beards clean flayed
+off, as much as there was; wherefore the messenger came for King
+Arthur's beard. For King Rience had purfled a mantle with king's beards,
+and there lacked one place of the mantle; wherefore he sent for his
+beard, or else he would enter his lands, and burn and slay, and never
+leave till he have the head and the beard.
+
+"Well," said Arthur, "thou hast said thy message, the which is the most
+villainous and lewdest message that ever man heard sent unto a king;
+also thou mayest see my beard is full young yet to make a purfle of it.
+But tell thou thy king this: I owe him none homage, nor none of mine
+elders, but or it be long to, he shall do me homage on both his knees,
+or else he shall lose his head, by the faith of my body, for this is the
+most shamefulest message that ever I heard speak of. I have espied thy
+king met never yet with worshipful man, but tell him I will have his
+head without he do me homage." Then the messenger departed.
+
+"Now is there any here," said Arthur, "that knoweth King Rience?"
+
+Then answered a knight that hight Naram, "Sir, I know the king well. He
+is a passing good man of his body, as few be living, and a passing proud
+man, and Sir, doubt ye not he will make war on you with a mighty
+puissance."
+
+"Well," said Arthur, "I shall ordain for him in short time."
+
+
+
+404
+
+ The story of "Arthur and Sir Accalon" is taken
+ from Maude Radford Warren's _King Arthur and
+ His Knights_. (By permission of the publishers,
+ Rand McNally & Co., Chicago.) The stories in
+ Malory are retold in a simple and direct style
+ that can be read easily by children in the
+ fifth grade. Most teachers will probably find
+ themselves obliged to use some such book for
+ any of these great cycles which they desire to
+ teach, owing to the amount of time and energy
+ required for working it up from the original
+ source.
+
+
+ARTHUR AND SIR ACCALON
+
+MAUDE RADFORD WARREN
+
+There was a woman in Arthur's Court named Morgan le Fay, who had learned
+a great deal about magic. She was a wicked woman, and hated the king
+because he was more powerful than she, and because he was so good.
+
+However, she pretended to be a true friend to him, and the king believed
+in her. One day when they were talking together, she asked him if he
+would not let her take charge of his wonderful sword Excalibur, and its
+scabbard. She said that she would guard them so carefully that they
+would never be stolen. As she was very eager, Arthur granted her
+request.
+
+One day in time of peace, King Arthur went out hunting with a certain
+knight named Sir Accalon, who was the lover of Morgan le Fay. They rode
+for a long time, and when they were tired, stopped to rest beside a
+great lake. As they looked over its shining waters, they saw a beautiful
+little ship, which sailed straight towards them, and ran up to the sands
+at their feet. It was all covered with golden silks, which waved in the
+gentle wind. King Arthur and Sir Accalon climbed into it and examined it
+thoroughly, but they found no one on board.
+
+They rested on two couches which were on the deck, until it grew dark.
+Then they were about to return home, when all at once, a hundred torches
+set on the sides of the ship were lighted, and suddenly there appeared
+twelve beautiful damsels who told the two that they were welcome, and
+that they should be served with a banquet.
+
+Presently the maidens led the king and the knight into a room which had
+a table covered with a white cloth embroidered in purple. It bore many
+golden dishes, and each dish had a beautiful design carved upon it. Some
+dishes had vine-leaves, others ivy-leaves; some had angels with long
+robes sweeping back in graceful lines; and all these dishes held choice
+food. The king and Sir Accalon ate to their hearts' content.
+
+Then the damsels led them into two separate chambers. King Arthur was
+tired and so sleepy that he gave but one glance at his bedroom. He saw
+that it was hung in red silk embroidered with gold dragons and griffins.
+Then he threw himself on his bed and slept very soundly.
+
+When he awoke, he found himself not in the pretty bed-chamber, but in a
+dark place. He could see nothing, but all about him he heard the sound
+of complaining and weeping. He was much bewildered, but in a moment he
+cried:
+
+"What is this? Where am I?"
+
+Then a voice answered:
+
+"You are in prison, as we are."
+
+"Who are you?" asked Arthur.
+
+The voice replied:
+
+"We are twenty knights, prisoners, and some of us have been here as long
+as seven years. We are in the dungeons of a wicked lord named Sir Damas.
+He has a younger brother, and the two brothers are enemies, quarreling
+about their inheritance. Now the younger brother, Sir Ontzlake, is very
+strong, but Sir Damas is not strong, and moreover, he is a coward. So he
+tries to find a knight who will fight for him against Sir Ontzlake.
+
+"But Sir Damas is so much hated that no one will fight for him. So he
+goes about the country with a body of rough men, and whenever he sees a
+knight, he captures him. Then he asks him to fight with Sir Ontzlake. So
+far, all the knights have refused, and have been thrown into prison. We
+do not have food enough, but we would rather die here than fight for Sir
+Damas, who is so wicked."
+
+At that moment a damsel entered the prison with a torch, which faintly
+lighted the dismal place, and advanced to the king.
+
+"Sir," she said, "will you fight for my lord, Sir Damas? If you will,
+you shall be taken from this prison. If you will not, you shall die
+here."
+
+Arthur considered for some time, and then said:
+
+"I would rather fight than die in prison. If I fight, will you deliver
+also all these prisoners?"
+
+The damsel promised, and Arthur consented to fight. While she went to
+tell Sir Damas, Arthur said to the other prisoners:
+
+"My friends, I do not know Sir Damas, and I do not know Sir Ontzlake. I
+do not know whether they are bad or good. But I will fight, and then,
+when I have conquered, I shall judge between them, and do justice to
+both."
+
+"That is a good plan," said the knights, "but why are you so sure that
+you will conquer?"
+
+"I am Arthur, the King," he replied.
+
+At that the knights set up a great cry of joy, and the king continued:
+
+"I shall send for my good sword Excalibur and the scabbard, and with
+these I shall surely win."
+
+So when Arthur and the knights were let out of prison, the king sent the
+damsel who had visited them to Morgan le Fay for his sword and
+scabbard.
+
+Meantime, the knight who had accompanied Arthur on the little ship, Sir
+Accalon, also awoke. He found himself in the palace of Morgan le Fay,
+and he wondered very much where Arthur was. He went to the lady, who
+said to him:
+
+"My dear lord, the day has come when you can have great power if you
+want it. Should you like to be king of this land, instead of Arthur?"
+
+Now Sir Accalon was a traitor at heart. He wanted very much to be king,
+even if the good Arthur was to be killed; so he said:
+
+"Yes, truly."
+
+Then she said:
+
+"You shall be king, and I shall be your queen. All you need to do is to
+fight a great battle, which you shall win. I have been using my magic.
+It was I who sent the ship of silk to you and Arthur. I had him put into
+prison, and I had you brought here."
+
+Sir Accalon wondered very much. Then she told him of the fight King
+Arthur was to make against Sir Ontzlake.
+
+"But I have caused Sir Ontzlake to fall sick," she said, "and he cannot
+fight. I shall go with you to his castle and you can offer to fight for
+him."
+
+"I to fight with the king!" cried Sir Accalon. "He would surely
+overthrow me."
+
+"He cannot," said Morgan le Fay, "because you are to fight with his
+sword. A little while ago he sent to me for Excalibur and the scabbard,
+but I returned him a false sword which looks like Excalibur, and a false
+scabbard. You shall take the true ones, and then you will surely
+overcome him and rule this land."
+
+Then Sir Accalon was glad, and he hastened with the lady to the castle
+of Sir Ontzlake. They found him groaning because he was ill and because
+Sir Damas had sent him a challenge to fight with a knight, and he could
+not accept it. He was much relieved when Morgan le Fay told him that Sir
+Accalon would fight in his place.
+
+Early in the afternoon, King Arthur and Sir Accalon rode into the field
+where the combat was to be held. Arthur did not know who Sir Accalon
+was, nor did any one else, except Morgan le Fay. Two sides of the field
+were full of people, who came to watch, half of whom were friends of Sir
+Damas, and the other half were friends of Sir Ontzlake.
+
+Arthur and Sir Accalon rode at each other so furiously that at the shock
+of the meeting both fell off their horses. Then they began to fight
+fiercely with their swords. The king could make no headway with his
+false steel, but whenever Sir Accalon struck at Arthur he drew blood.
+
+The king was much amazed. He grew weaker and weaker, but still he kept
+on his feet. Those who watched him were sorry for him; they thought they
+had never seen a man fight so bravely. At last Arthur's sword broke, and
+fell in two pieces on the ground. When Sir Accalon saw this, he cried:
+
+"Now, yield to me."
+
+"I will never yield," said the king, "and if you do not get me another
+sword, you will be shamed before all men, for it is an unknightly thing
+to fight with a defenseless man."
+
+"I do not care," said Sir Accalon. "If you will not yield, defend
+yourself with your shield as best you can."
+
+He rushed at the king. Arthur was so weak that he could hardly stand,
+but he guarded himself as well as he could with his shield. Soon he
+could do no more, and fell to the ground.
+
+At this moment the Lady of the Lake, who had given Arthur his sword,
+came upon the field. She was invisible, but anyone who had listened
+intently could have heard a sound like a ripple of water as she walked.
+She caused Excalibur to fall out of the hand of Sir Accalon and drop
+near Arthur.
+
+When it fell, Arthur saw that it was his own Excalibur. He grasped its
+handle and some of his strength came back. He struggled to his feet, and
+rushing up to Sir Accalon, seized the scabbard of Excalibur and threw it
+far over the field.
+
+"Now," he said, "send for a second sword and fight with me."
+
+Then Sir Accalon was afraid. Yet he thought that Arthur was so weak that
+he could still be overcome. So he sent for a second sword, and they
+began to fight again. Arthur's strength, however, had largely returned,
+and in a short time he gave Sir Accalon a mortal stroke.
+
+Sir Accalon fell to the ground, and the king, leaning over him, cried:
+
+"Tell me who you are."
+
+Then Sir Accalon was filled with remorse, and he said:
+
+"Oh, my King, I have been a traitor to you, but now I am dying, and I am
+sorry for what I have done. I deserve my death."
+
+He told the king his name, and all about his treachery, and that of
+Morgan le Fay.
+
+King Arthur was sad.
+
+"It is very hard to be deceived in a friend," he said, "but I forgive
+you freely. I will try to cure your wound, and sometime I shall trust
+you again."
+
+"You cannot cure me," said Sir Accalon. "I am dying. Let them carry me
+off the field."
+
+So he was taken to a neighboring abbey, while the people crowded about
+the king to congratulate him, but Arthur said:
+
+"I am sad at heart. My victory is no comfort to me, for to-day I have
+lost a friend whom I believed true."
+
+Then he called the two brothers, Sir Damas and Sir Ontzlake, and judged
+their cause. He decided that their property must be divided equally
+between them, and that they must be friends. They promised never to
+quarrel again. Arthur told them that they must be kind to other knights
+and to all people. He said that if he heard that they were not, he could
+come and punish them.
+
+After this, Sir Damas gave back to the twenty knights all their money,
+and they went on their way rejoicing. King Arthur mounted his horse and
+rode over to the abbey, where he sat by the bed of Sir Accalon till the
+poor knight died. Then the king went back alone to his Court at Camelot.
+
+
+405-411
+
+ Miguel de Cervantes, the greatest literary
+ genius of Spain, was born in 1547 in a small
+ town near Madrid, and he died in 1616, the year
+ of the death of Shakespeare. He received a fair
+ education, and by reading he gained a thorough
+ knowledge of the romantic poetry of Spain and
+ Italy and of the romances of chivalry. At the
+ age of twenty-one he went to Italy. For several
+ years he was a soldier in the Spanish army.
+ When he was twenty-eight years old, he was
+ captured by pirates of Algiers and was held a
+ prisoner for five years. When he returned to
+ Spain, he attempted to make a living by writing
+ dramas and romances, and later he secured an
+ unimportant governmental position as commissary
+ and tax-collector in Seville. In 1606 he
+ published the first part of _Don Quixote_. This
+ book immediately became very popular, but it
+ did not bring him much money nor did it win for
+ him the recognition of literary men. All his
+ life he was poor, and sometimes apparently he
+ was actually in want of food. In 1615, one year
+ before his death, he published the second part
+ of _Don Quixote_, the greatest national book of
+ Spain.
+
+ _Don Quixote_ is a humorous satire upon the
+ romances of chivalry, which at the time were so
+ popular in Spain as to corrupt the national
+ life by their loose morals and false ideals. So
+ complete was the success of Cervantes that the
+ whole nation began to laugh at the absurdities
+ of the romances of chivalry, and it is said
+ that not one new edition of any book of
+ chivalry appeared in Spain after the
+ publication of _Don Quixote_.
+
+ Although the world no longer takes serious
+ consideration of the ideals of the romances of
+ chivalry, _Don Quixote_ will always be
+ remembered as a great book, for it abounds in
+ good-humored satire of human follies that are
+ found in all ages and countries. Sancho Panza
+ represents the type of person who does not have
+ imagination or spiritual ideals. Not much less
+ ridiculous, though much more deserving of
+ sympathy, is Don Quixote, who represents the
+ type of person who is controlled by imagination
+ and fanciful ideals, unbalanced by practical
+ judgment. The life of a person of either type
+ must be filled with absurdities.
+
+ The following selections are taken from
+ _Stories of Don Quixote_ retold by H. L.
+ Havell.
+
+
+STORIES FROM DON QUIXOTE
+
+
+I. DREAMS AND SHADOWS
+
+The scene is laid in a village of La Mancha, a high and arid district of
+Central Spain; and the time is towards the close of the sixteenth
+century. On the outskirts of the village there stood at the time
+mentioned a house of modest size, adjoining a little farm, the property
+of a retired gentleman whose real name was Quisada or Quijada, but who
+is now known to all mankind by the immortal title of Don Quixote. How he
+came to alter his name we shall see presently.
+
+On a hot summer afternoon this worthy gentleman was sitting in a small
+upper room, which served him as a study, absorbed in the contents of a
+huge folio volume, which lay open on the table before him. Other
+volumes, of like bulky proportions, were piled up on chairs or strewn on
+the floor around him. The reader was a man some fifty years of age, tall
+and spare of figure, and with high, stern features of the severest
+Spanish type. In his eyes, when from time to time he paused in his
+reading and gazed absently before him, there was a look of wild
+abstraction, as of one who lives in a world of dreams and shadows. One
+hand, with bony, nervous fingers, rested on the open page; with the
+other he grasped his sword, which lay sheathed on his lap.
+
+No sound disturbs the sultry stillness of the chamber, save only the
+droning of an imprisoned bee and the rustling of paper when the eager
+student turned a leaf. Deeper and deeper grew his absorption; his eyes
+seemed to devour the lines, and he clutched his hair with both hands, as
+if he would tear it out by the roots. At last, overpowered by a frenzied
+impulse, he leaped from his seat, and plucking his sword from the
+scabbard, began cutting and thrusting at some invisible object, shouting
+in a voice of thunder: "Unhand the maiden, foul caitiff! Give place, I
+say, and let the princess go! What, wilt thou face me, vile robber?
+Have at thee, then, and take the wages of thy villainy." As he uttered
+the last words he aimed a tremendous thrust at his visionary opponent
+and narrowly escaped transfixing the comely person of a young lady who
+at this very moment entered the room, with signs of haste and alarm.
+Behind her, in the dimly-lighted passage, appeared the portly figure of
+an elderly dame, who was proclaimed, by the bunch of keys which hung at
+her girdle, to be the gentleman's housekeeper.
+
+"Dear uncle, what ails thee?" said the young lady, gazing with pity and
+wonder at the poor distracted man, who stood arrested in his last
+attitude, with rolling eyes and hair in wild disorder, while great beads
+of sweat poured down his face. But he, whose mind was still soaring in
+the regions of high romance, at once converted his niece into a rescued
+princess, saved from violence by his prowess; and, lowering his blade
+and dropping gracefully on one knee, he raised her hand to his lips and
+said: "Fear nothing, gentle lady! There lies thine enemy in his gore";
+and he pointed to a table which had been overset in one of his wild
+rushes, carrying with it an inkstand, the contents of which were now
+trickling in a black stream across the uncarpeted boards.
+
+His niece was accustomed to the strange fits of her eccentric relative,
+and, humoring his fancy, she answered: "Thou hast done well, and I thank
+thee. But sit down now and rest awhile after thy toils; and I will bring
+thee something to drink." With that she led him to a couch and left the
+room, taking the housekeeper with her. In a few moments she returned,
+bearing a great pitcher of cold water.
+
+"'Tis a most rare elixir," said he, after taking a deep draught,
+"prepared by the great enchanter Alquife, and of a magic potency." Then,
+being exhausted by his violent exertions of body and mind he stretched
+himself on the couch and soon sank into a quiet sleep.
+
+
+II. PREPARING FOR THE QUEST
+
+The extraordinary scene which has just been described was only one among
+many which had occurred during several months, down to the time when our
+story begins; and we must now go back a little and give some account of
+our hero's habits and studies, which ended by bringing him to so
+desperate a state. At that time by far the most popular form of light
+literature was the Romances of Chivalry,--huge interminable fictions,
+filled with the most extravagant visions that ever visited the slumbers
+of a mad poet. Merely to unravel the story of one of these gigantic
+romances is a task which would tax the strongest brain. They dealt with
+the adventures of Knights-Errant, who wandered about the earth
+redressing grievances and succoring the oppressed. Those who venture
+into these vast jungles of romance are occasionally rewarded by passages
+of great sweetness, nobility, and charm; but the modern reader soon
+grows weary of enchanted forests, haunted by giants, dragons, and other
+impossible monsters, of deserts where despairing lovers roam haggard and
+forlorn, of dwarfs, goblins, wizards, and all the wild and grotesque
+creations of the mediaeval fancy.
+
+But in the times of which we are writing the passion for Books of
+Chivalry rose to such a height that it became a serious public evil. In
+Spain it reached its climax; and our humble gentleman of La Mancha is
+only an extreme example of the effect which such studies produced on the
+national mind. Being bitten by the craze for chivalrous fiction, he
+gradually forsook all the healthy pursuits of a country life and gave
+himself up entirely to reading such books as Amadis of Gaul, Palmerin of
+England, and Belianis of Greece; and his infatuation reached such a
+point that he sold several acres of good arable land to provide himself
+with funds for the purchase of those ponderous folios with which we saw
+him surrounded when he was first introduced to our notice. From dawn
+till eve he pored over his darling books, and sometimes passed whole
+nights in the same pursuit, until at last, having crammed his brain with
+this perilous stuff, he began to imagine that these wild inventions were
+sober reality. From this delusion there was but one step to the belief
+that he himself was a principal actor in the adventures of which he
+read; and when the fit was on him, he would take his sword and engage in
+single combat with the creatures of his brain, stamping his feet and
+alarming the household with his cries.
+
+At first his frenzy was intermittent, and each attack was followed by a
+lucid interval; but finally he lost his wits altogether and came to the
+insane resolution of turning knight-errant and going out into the world
+as the redresser of wrongs and the champion of the innocent. His
+intention once formed, he at once took steps to carry it into effect.
+From a dark corner of the house he brought out an old suit of armor,
+which had been lying neglected for generations and was now covered with
+mould and eaten with rust. He cleaned the pieces and repaired them as
+well as he could; and observing that the helmet was a simple morion,
+wanting a protection for the face, he made a vizor of pasteboard to
+supply the defect. Then, wishing to prove the strength of his vizor, he
+drew his sword and with one stroke destroyed what had cost him the labor
+of a week. He was considerably shocked by the ease with which he had
+demolished his handiwork; but having made a second vizor and
+strengthened it with bars of iron, he did not choose to try any further
+experiments, but accepted the helmet, thus fortified, as the finest
+headpiece in the world.
+
+Then he paid a visit to his old horse, and though the poor beast was a
+mere living skeleton, broken-winded and with his feet full of
+sandcracks, to his master's eyes he seemed a nobler steed than
+Bucephalus, or Bavieca, the famous charger of the Cid. It was evident
+that such a noble steed, who was to carry a warrior so famous, must have
+a name by which all the world might know him; and accordingly, after
+deliberating for four days and passing in review a multitude of titles,
+he determined to call the beast Rozinante.
+
+Having settled this weighty question, he next began to consider what
+name he should assume himself, being by no means satisfied with that
+which he had received from his father. Eight days were passed in
+debating a matter so important to himself and to posterity, and at the
+end of that time he resolved to call himself Don Quixote. But,
+remembering that Amadis, not contented with his simple name, had taken
+the additional title of Amadis of Gaul, he determined, in imitation of
+that illustrious hero, his model and teacher in all things, to style
+himself Don Quixote de La Mancha, and thereby confer immortal honor on
+the land of his birth.
+
+Nothing now remained but to choose a lady to be the mistress of his
+affections and the load-star of his life; for, as he wisely reflected, a
+knight-errant without a lady-love was like a tree without fruit or a
+body without a soul. "If," he said to himself, "I should encounter some
+giant, as commonly happens to knights-errant, and cut him in twain or
+otherwise vanquish him and make him my prisoner, will it not be well to
+have some lady to whom I may send him as a gift, so that he may enter
+the presence of my sweet mistress and bow the knee before her, saying in
+a humble and submissive voice: 'Lady, _I am the giant Caraculiambro,
+vanquished in single combat by the knight Don Quixote de La Mancha,
+whose praise no tongue can tell, and I have been commanded by him to
+present myself to your grace, that you may dispose of me as your
+Highness pleases_.'"
+
+Our good knight was highly pleased with his own eloquence, and still
+more so when he had made choice of his lady. In a neighboring village
+there was a young girl, employed on a farm, with whom he had at one time
+been in love, though he had never brought himself to declare his
+passion. Her name was Aldonza Lorenzo, and her he resolved to constitute
+the queen of his heart, having conferred on her the sounding title of
+Dulcinea del Toboso, or "The Sweet Lady of Toboso," the village where
+she was born.
+
+
+III. THE QUEST BEGINS
+
+"The world is waiting for me," murmured our enthusiast, leaping from his
+bed at the first peep of dawn and arming himself from head to foot. Then
+treading softly, so as not to alarm the household, he went to the
+stable, saddled Rozinante, and leading him out through a back gate of
+the yard, mounted and rode forth into the plain, hugely delighted to
+find himself fairly started on his great enterprise.
+
+But hardly had he reached the open country when the terrible thought
+occurred to him that he had not been dubbed a knight and by the laws of
+chivalry was not entitled to engage in combat with any one who bore that
+rank, and further, even if he were already a knight, he was obliged as a
+novice to wear plain armor, without device of any kind. So much was he
+perturbed by these reflections that he was within an ace of giving up
+his whole design, and would have done so but for a happy inspiration,
+which saved mankind from so dire a calamity. Many of the heroes of his
+books of chivalry had got themselves dubbed knight by the first person
+whom they met, and remembering this, he resolved to follow their
+example. And as to his armor, he would rub and polish it until it was
+whiter than ermine.
+
+His scruples thus removed, he continued his journey, leaving his good
+steed to choose what direction he pleased, as was the fashion with
+knights-errant when they set out on their adventures. Thus pacing along
+and dreaming of mighty deeds, he gave vent to his feelings in the
+following rhapsody: "What a theme for the eloquence of some great master
+of style--the feats of high emprise wrought by the valiant arm of Don
+Quixote de La Mancha! Happy the pen which shall describe them, happy the
+age which shall read the wondrous tale! And thou, brave steed, shalt
+have thy part in the honor which is done to thy master, when poet and
+sculptor and painter shall vie with one another in raising an eternal
+monument to his fame."
+
+Then recalling his part as an afflicted lover, he began to mourn his
+hard lot in soft and plaintive tones: "O lady Dulcinea, queen of this
+captive heart! Why hast thou withdrawn from me the light of thy
+countenance and banished thy faithful servant from thy presence?
+Shorten, I implore thee, the term of my penance and leave me not to
+wither in solitude and despair."
+
+Lost in these sublime and melancholy thoughts he rode slowly on from
+hour to hour, until the sun became so hot that it was enough to melt his
+brains, if he had possessed any. All that day he continued his journey
+without meeting with any adventure, which vexed him sorely, for he was
+eager to encounter some foeman worthy of his steel. Evening came on, and
+both he and his horse were ready to drop with hunger and fatigue, when,
+looking about him in search of some castle--or some hovel--where he
+might find shelter and refreshment, he saw not far from the roadside a
+small inn, and, setting spurs to Rozinante, rode up to the door at a
+hobbling canter just as night was falling.
+
+The inn was of the poorest and meanest description, frequented by
+muleteers and other rude wayfarers; but to his perverted fancy it seemed
+a turreted castle, with battlements of silver, drawbridge, and moat, and
+all that belonged to a feudal fortress. Before the door were standing
+two women, vagabonds of the lowest class, who were traveling in the
+company of certain mule-drivers; but for him they were instantly
+transformed into a pair of high-born maidens taking the air before the
+castle gate.
+
+To complete his illusion, just at this moment a swineherd, who was
+collecting his drove from a neighboring stubble field, sounded a few
+notes on his horn. This Don Quixote took for a signal which had been
+given by some dwarf from the ramparts, to inform the inmates of the
+castle of his approach; and so, with huge satisfaction, he lifted his
+pasteboard vizor, and uncovering his haggard and dusty features, thus
+addressed the women who were eyeing him with looks of no small alarm,
+and evidently preparing to retreat: "Fly not, gracious ladies, neither
+wrong me by dreaming that ye have aught to fear from me, for the order
+of chivalry which I profess suffers not that I should do harm to any,
+least of all to maidens of lofty lineage, such as I perceive you to be."
+
+Hearing themselves accosted by that extraordinary figure in language to
+which they were so little used, the women could not restrain their
+mirth, but laughed so long and loud that Don Quixote began to be vexed
+and said in a tone of grave rebuke, "Beauty and discourtesy are
+ill-matched together, and unseemly is the laugh which folly breeds in a
+vacant mind. Take not my words amiss, for I mean no offence, but am
+ready to serve you with heart and hand."
+
+At this dignified reproof, the damsels only laughed louder than before,
+and there is no saying what might have come of it if the innkeeper, who
+appeared at this moment, had not undertaken the office of peacemaker,
+for which he was well fitted, being a fat, good-humored fellow, who
+loved a quiet life. At first, when he saw that fantastic warrior on his
+spectral steed, he was much inclined to join the girls in their noisy
+merriment. But finding some ground for alarm in so many engines of war,
+he contrived to swallow his laughter, and going up to Don Quixote, said
+to him civilly enough: "If your honor is in search of quarters for the
+night, you will find in this inn all that you require excepting a bed,
+which is not to be had here."
+
+Finding the governor of the fortress--that is to say, the landlord of
+the inn--so obsequious, Don Quixote replied cheerfully: "Sir Castellan,
+you will not find me hard to please, for
+
+ Arms are all my rich array,
+ My repose to fight alway."
+
+"If that be your case, then," answered the innkeeper, humoring his
+strange guest, "'tis plain that
+
+ Your couch is the field, your pillow a shield,
+ Your slumber a vigil from dusk until day:
+
+and therefore you may dismount in the full assurance of finding under my
+humble roof divers good reasons for keeping awake for a twelvemonth,
+should such be your desire."
+
+As he said this, he went and held the stirrup for Don Quixote, who was
+so weak from his long fast that it cost him much pain and effort to
+dismount. "I commend to thy especial care this my good steed," said he,
+as soon as he had found his feet: "he is the rarest piece of horseflesh
+that ever lived by bread."
+
+The innkeeper bestowed but one glance on poor Rozinante, and finding
+little to admire in him, he thrust him hastily into the stable and came
+back to attend to the wants of his guest. Meanwhile Don Quixote
+submitted to be disarmed by the young women, who had now made their
+peace. Having removed his body armor, they tried to relieve him of his
+helmet, which was attached to his neck by green ribbons. Being unable to
+loose the knots, they proposed to cut the ribbons, but as he would not
+allow them to do this, he was obliged to keep his helmet on all that
+night, which made him the strangest and most diverting object that could
+be imagined.
+
+While the ladies were thus employed, our brave adventurer entertained
+them with a strain of high-flown gallantry, seasoned with scraps from
+the old ballads and romances which he had read. Not understanding a word
+of what he said, they simply asked him, when they had finished, if he
+wanted anything to eat. "A slight refection would not be ill-timed,"
+answered Don Quixote, and learning that there was nothing to be had but
+a "little trout," he bade them bring it with all speed. "Many little
+trouts," he added jestingly, "will serve my turn as well as one big one.
+Only let it be brought at once, for I begin to be conscious of a
+wondrous void within the compass of my sword-belt."
+
+The "little trout" proved to be neither more nor less than a dish of
+stockfish, Poor John, or in plain English, salted cod, and that of the
+rankest. An odor the reverse of savory heralded its approach, and Don
+Quixote sat down at the table, which had been set, for coolness, before
+the door, and applied himself to his lenten fare. But being much
+incommoded by his helmet, he could not find the way to his mouth, and
+remained staring in dismay at the reeking mess and the filthy black
+bread which accompanied it, until one of the damsels, perceiving his
+distress, came to his relief and fed him with small morsels, which she
+deftly conveyed to their proper destination through the opening of his
+helmet. To give him drink was a harder matter, but this problem was
+solved with great ingenuity by the landlord, who brought a hollow cane,
+and placing one end in his mouth, poured the wine in at the other.
+
+And so in solemn silence, broken now and then by the stifled laughter of
+the onlookers, the strange meal proceeded; and when it was nearly at an
+end, a clownish fellow passed by, blowing on a rustic pipe. But for Don
+Quixote, who had transformed the inn into a castle, the fat publican
+into a powerful governor, and the vagabond damsels into high-born
+ladies, it was an easy matter to find in those rude notes a strain of
+rare music, provided for his delectation while he sat at table; and he
+concluded his repast in a state of high satisfaction with his first
+day's adventures.
+
+
+IV. THE KNIGHTLY VIGIL
+
+But one uncomfortable thought chilled the heat of his enthusiasm--he had
+not yet been dubbed a knight and was therefore still unqualified to
+engage in any chivalrous adventure. Accordingly, as soon as he had
+finished his scanty and sordid meal, he took the landlord aside, and
+shutting himself up with him in the stable and falling on his knees
+before him, said: "I will never rise from this posture, valiant knight,
+until thou hast granted me of thy courtesy the favor which I desire, and
+which shall redound to thine honor and to the benefit of the human
+race."
+
+Dumbfoundered at the strange attitude and still stranger language of his
+guest, the landlord stared at him, not knowing what to do or say. He
+begged him to rise, but Don Quixote steadily refused, so that at last he
+was obliged to give the promise required.
+
+"I expected no less from your High Mightiness," answered Don Quixote.
+"And now hear what I desire: to-morrow at dawn you shall dub me knight,
+and to that end I will this night keep the vigil of arms in the chapel
+of your castle, so that I may be ready to receive the order of chivalry
+in the morning and forthwith set out on the path of toil and glory which
+awaits those who follow the perilous profession of knight-errant."
+
+By this time the landlord began to perceive that Don Quixote was not
+right in his wits, and being somewhat of a wag he resolved to make
+matter for mirth by humoring his whim; and so he replied that such
+ambition was most laudable, and just what he would have looked for in a
+gentleman of his gallant presence. He had himself, he said, been a
+cavalier of fortune in his youth--which in a certain sense was true, for
+he had been a notorious thief and rogue, known to every magistrate in
+Spain--and now, in his declining years, he was living in the retirement
+of his castle, where his chief pleasure was to entertain wandering
+knights; which, being interpreted, meant that he was a rascally landlord
+and grew fat by cheating the unfortunate travelers who stayed at his
+inn.
+
+Then he went on to say that, with regard to the vigil of arms, it could
+be held in the courtyard of the castle, as the chapel had been pulled
+down to make place for a new one. "And to-morrow," he concluded, "you
+shall be dubbed a knight--a full knight, and a perfect knight, so that
+none shall be more so in all the world."
+
+Having thanked the landlord for his kindness, and promised to obey him,
+as his adoptive father, in all things, Don Quixote at once prepared to
+perform the vigil of arms. Collecting his armor, he laid the several
+pieces in a horse-trough which stood in the center of the inn-yard, and
+then, taking his shield on his arm and grasping his lance, he began to
+pace up and down with high-bred dignity before the trough.
+
+The landlord had lost no time in informing those who were staying at the
+inn of the mad freaks of his guest, and a little crowd was gathered to
+watch his proceedings from a distance, which they were the better able
+to do as the moon was shining with unusual brightness. Sometimes they
+saw him stalking to and fro, with serene composure, and sometimes he
+would pause in his march and stand for a good while leaning on his lance
+and scanning his armor with a fixed and earnest gaze.
+
+While this was going on, one of the mule-drivers took it into his head
+to water his team, and approaching the horse-trough prepared to remove
+Don Quixote's armor, which was in his way. Perceiving his intentions,
+Don Quixote cried to him in a loud voice, saying: "O thou, whoever thou
+art, audacious knight who drawest near to touch the armor of the bravest
+champion that ever girt on sword, look what thou doest, and touch it
+not, if thou wouldst not pay for thy rashness with thy life!"
+
+The valiant defiance was thrown away on the muleteer, whose thick head
+needed other arguments, and taking the armor by the straps, he flung it
+a good way from him. Which when Don Quixote saw, he raised his eyes to
+heaven, and fixing his thoughts (as may be supposed) on his lady
+Dulcinea, he exclaimed: "Shine on me, light of my life, now, when the
+first insult is offered to my devoted heart! Let not thy countenance and
+favor desert me in this, my first adventure."
+
+As he put up this pious appeal he let go his shield, and lifting his
+lance in both hands, brought it down with such force on the muleteer's
+head that he fell senseless to the ground; and if the blow had been
+followed by another, he would have needed no physician to cure him.
+Having done this, Don Quixote collected his armor, and began pacing up
+and down again, with the same tranquility as before.
+
+Presently another muleteer, knowing nothing of what had happened, came
+up to the trough with the same intention as the first and was about to
+lay hands on the armor when Don Quixote, without uttering a word or
+asking favor of any one, once more lifted his lance and dealt the fellow
+two smart strokes, which made two cross gashes on his crown.
+
+Meanwhile the alarm had been raised in the house, and the whole troop of
+muleteers now came running to avenge their comrades. Seeing himself
+threatened by a general assault, Don Quixote drew his sword, and
+thrusting his arm into his shield cried: "Queen of Beauty, who givest
+power and might to this feeble heart, now let thine eyes be turned upon
+thy slave, who stands on the threshold of so great a peril."
+
+His words were answered by the muleteers with a shower of stones, which
+he kept off as well as he could with his shield. At the noise of the
+fray the innkeeper came puffing up, and called upon the muleteers to
+desist. "The man is mad," said he, "as I told you before, and the law
+cannot touch him, though he should kill you all."
+
+"Ha! art thou there, base and recreant knight?" shouted Don Quixote in a
+voice of thunder. "Is this thy hospitality to knights-errant? 'Tis well
+for thee that I have not yet received the order of knighthood, or I
+would have paid thee home for this outrage. As to you, base and sordid
+pack, I care not for you a straw. Come one, come all, and take the wages
+of your folly and presumption."
+
+His tones were so threatening, and his aspect was so formidable, that he
+struck terror into the hearts of his assailants, who drew back and left
+off throwing stones; and, after some further parley, he allowed them to
+carry off the wounded, and returned with unruffled dignity to the vigil
+of arms.
+
+The landlord was now thoroughly tired of his guest's wild antics, and,
+resolving to make an end of the business, lest worse should come of it,
+he went up to Don Quixote and asked pardon for the violence of that
+low-born rabble, who had acted, he said, without his knowledge, and had
+been properly chastised for their temerity. He added that the ceremony
+of conferring knighthood might be performed in any place, and that two
+hours sufficed for the vigil of arms, so that Don Quixote had fulfilled
+this part of his duty twice over, as he had now been watching for double
+that time.
+
+All this was firmly believed by Don Quixote, and he requested that he
+might be made a knight without further delay; for if, he said, he were
+attacked again, after receiving the order of chivalry, he was determined
+not to leave a soul alive in the castle, excepting those to whom he
+might show mercy at the governor's desire.
+
+The landlord, whose anxiety was increased by this alarming threat, went
+and fetched a book in which he kept his accounts, and came back,
+attended by a boy who carried a stump of candle, and by the two damsels
+aforesaid. Then, bidding Don Quixote to kneel before him, he began to
+murmur words from his book, in the tone of one who was saying his
+prayers, and in the midst of his reading he raised his hand and gave Don
+Quixote a smart blow on the neck, and then taking the sword laid it
+gently on his shoulder, muttering all the time between his teeth with
+the same air of devotion. Then he directed one of the ladies to gird on
+his sword, which she did with equal liveliness and discretion--and she
+had much need of the latter quality to prevent an explosion of
+laughter--; however, the specimen which the new knight had just given of
+his prowess kept their merriment in check.
+
+When his spurs had been buckled on by the other damsel, the ceremony was
+completed, and after some further compliments Don Quixote saddled
+Rozinante and rode forth, a new-made knight, ready to astonish the world
+with feats of arms and chivalry. The innkeeper, who was glad to see the
+last of him, let him go without making any charge for what he had
+consumed.
+
+
+V. ON HONOR'S FIELD
+
+On leaving the inn Don Quixote turned his horse's steps homewards, being
+resolved to obtain a supply of money, and, above all, to provide himself
+with a squire before seeking more distant scenes of adventure. Presently
+he came to a cross-road, and after hesitating a moment, he resolved to
+imitate his favorite heroes by leaving the direction to his steed, who
+immediately took the nearest way to his stable. After advancing about
+two leagues, our knight came in view of a great troop of people, who, as
+it afterwards turned out, were merchants of Toledo, on their way to
+Murcia to buy silk. There were six of them jogging comfortably along
+under their umbrellas, with four servants on horseback, and three
+mule-drivers walking and leading their beasts.
+
+Here was a new opportunity, as Don Quixote thought, of displaying his
+knightly valor, so he settled himself firmly in his stirrups, grasped
+his lance, covered his breast with his shield, and stood waiting for the
+arrival of those knights-errant,--for such he judged them to be; and
+when they were come within hearing, he raised his voice and cried with
+an air of proud defiance: "Halt, every mother's son of you, and confess
+that in all the world there is no damsel more beautiful than the empress
+of La Mancha, the peerless Dulcinea del Toboso!"
+
+Hearing the strange words and seeing the extravagant figure of him who
+uttered them, the merchants drew up, and one of them, who was of a
+waggish disposition, answered for the whole company and said: "Sir
+Knight, we do not know the good lady of whom you speak; let us see her,
+and if she is of such beauty as you describe, we will most gladly make
+the confession which you require."
+
+"If you were to see her," replied Don Quixote, "you must needs be
+convinced that what I say is true, and that would be a poor triumph for
+me. No, on the faith of my word alone, you must believe it, confess it,
+assert it, swear to it, and maintain it! If not, I defy you to battle,
+ye sons of lawlessness and arrogance! Here I stand ready to receive you,
+whether ye come singly, as the rule of knighthood demands, or all
+together, as is the custom with churls like you."
+
+"Sir Knight," answered the merchant, "I entreat you in the name of all
+this noble company, that you constrain us not to lay perjury to our
+souls by swearing to a thing which we have neither seen nor heard. Show
+us, at least, some portrait of this lady, though it be no bigger than a
+grain of wheat, that our scruples may be satisfied. For so strongly are
+we disposed in favor of the fair dame, that even if the picture should
+exhibit her squinting with one eye, and dropping brimstone and vermilion
+from the other, for all that we will vow and profess that she is as
+lovely as you say."
+
+"There drops not from her," shouted Don Quixote, aflame with fury,
+"there drops not, I say, that which thou namest, but only sweet perfumes
+and pearly dew. Neither is she cross-eyed nor hunch-backed, but straight
+and slender as a peak of Guadarrama. But ye shall pay for the monstrous
+blasphemy which ye have spoken against the angelic beauty of my lady and
+queen."
+
+With these words he leveled his lance and hurled himself upon the
+speaker with such vigor and frenzy that if Rozinante had not chanced to
+stumble and fall in mid career, the rash merchant would have paid dear
+for his jest. Down went Rozinante, and his master rolled over and over
+for some distance across the plain. Being brought up at last by a
+projecting rock, he made frantic efforts to rise, but was kept down by
+the weight of his armor and lay plunging and kicking on his back, but
+ceased not for a moment to hurl threats and defiances at his laughing
+foes. "Fly not, ye cowards, ye dastards! Wait awhile! Tis not by my
+fault, but by the fault of my horse that I lie prostrate here."
+
+One of the mule-drivers, who was somewhat hot-tempered, was so provoked
+by the haughty language of the poor fallen knight, that he resolved to
+give him the answer on his ribs, and running up he snatched the lance
+from Don Quixote's hands, broke it in pieces, and taking one of them
+began to beat him with such good-will that in spite of the armor he
+bruised him like wheat in a mill-hopper. And he found the exercise so
+much to his liking that he continued it until he had shivered every
+fragment of the broken lance into splinters. Nevertheless he could not
+stop the mouth of our valiant knight, who during all that tempest of
+blows went on defying heaven and earth and shouting menaces against
+those bandits, as he now supposed them to be.
+
+At length the mule-driver grew weary, and the whole party rode off,
+leaving the battered champion on the ground. When they were gone he made
+another attempt to rise. But if he failed when he was sound and whole,
+how much less could he do it now that he was almost hammered to pieces!
+Notwithstanding, his heart was light and gay, for in his own fancy he
+was a hero of romance, lying covered with wounds on honor's field.
+
+
+VI. THE RETURN HOME
+
+Two days had passed since Don Quixote left his home, and his niece and
+his housekeeper were growing very anxious about him. More than once they
+had heard him declare his intention to turn knight-errant, and they
+began to fear that he had carried out his mad design. On the evening of
+the second day, a few hours after he had been so roughly handled by the
+muleteer, they heard a loud voice calling outside the street door: "Open
+to Sir Baldwin and the Lord Marquis of Mantua, who is brought to your
+gates grievously wounded." They made haste to unbar the door, and when
+it was opened they saw a strange sight: mounted on an ass, whose head
+was held by a laboring man of the village, sat Don Quixote, huddled
+together in a most uncavalier-like posture, his armor all battered and
+his face begrimed with dirt. Hard by stood Rozinante, a woeful object,
+crooking his knees and drooping his head; and tied in a bundle on his
+back were the splintered fragments of Don Quixote's lance.
+
+When they saw who it was, they gathered round him with eager questions
+and cries of welcome; but he checked them with a gesture and said:
+"Control yourselves, all of you! I am grievously hurt, and if it be
+possible let some one go and fetch Urganda the wise woman, that she may
+examine and heal my wounds."
+
+"Alack-a-day!" cried the housekeeper, lifting up her hands. "Did I not
+tell you, gentlemen, that I knew on which foot my master halted? Come,
+dear sir, and we will cure you, without the help of Urganda or anyone
+else." And with many maledictions against the books of chivalry which
+had done the kind gentleman so ill a turn, she assisted him to dismount,
+and amongst them they carried him to his room, took off his armor, and
+laid him on his bed. Then they inquired where he was hurt, and Don
+Quixote exclaimed that he was bruised from head to foot, having been
+thrown from his horse in an encounter with ten giants, the most
+outrageous and ferocious in the world.
+
+
+VII. THE BATTLE WITH THE WINDMILLS
+
+For two weeks Don Quixote remained peacefully at home, and many were the
+pleasant discussions which passed between him and his old friends, the
+priest and barber, on his favorite theme--the pressing need of reviving
+the profession of knight-errantry, and his own peculiar fitness for
+rendering this great service to the world. All this time he was secretly
+negotiating with a certain peasant, a neighbor of his, whose name was
+Sancho Panza, an honest, poor man, not much better furnished with wits
+than the knight himself. This simple fellow lent a ready ear to his
+grand tales of glory and conquest, and at last consented to follow him
+as his squire, being especially tempted by certain mysterious hints
+which Don Quixote let fall concerning an "Isle," of which his new master
+promised to make him governor at the first opportunity.
+
+This matter being arranged Don Quixote patched up his armor, obtained a
+new lance, and having provided himself with a sum of money, gave notice
+to his squire of the day on which he proposed to start. Sancho, who was
+short and fat and little used to traveling on foot, asked leave to bring
+his ass, remarking that it was a very good one. This proposal gave the
+knight pause, for, try as he would, he could remember no authority for a
+squire on a long-eared charger; but finally he gave the required
+permission, resolving to furnish him with a worthier steed as soon as
+possible, by taking the horse of the first discourteous knight whom he
+met.
+
+When all was ready they set off together one night, without taking leave
+of their families, and rode steadily on, so that by daybreak they were
+beyond the reach of pursuit. Sancho Panza sat his ass like a patriarch,
+carrying with him his saddle-bags and leather bottle; and all his
+thoughts were of the Isle which his master had promised him. Don Quixote
+was lost in loftier meditations until he was roused from his reverie by
+the voice of his squire, who said: "I hope your Grace has not forgotten
+the Isle which I was to have, for I shall know well how to govern it,
+however big it may be."
+
+"As to that," replied Don Quixote "thou needest have no fear; I shall
+only be complying with an ancient and honorable custom of
+knights-errant, and, indeed, I purpose to improve on their practice,
+for, instead of waiting, as they often did, until thou art worn out in
+my service, I shall seek the first occasion to bestow on thee this gift;
+and it may be that before a week has passed thou wilt be crowned king of
+that Isle."
+
+"Well," said Sancho, "if this miracle should come to pass, my good wife
+Joan will be a queen and my sons young princes."
+
+"Who doubts it?" answered Don Quixote.
+
+"I do," rejoined Sancho. "My Joan a queen! Nay, if it rained crowns, I
+don't believe that one would ever settle on my dame's head. Believe me,
+your honor, she's not worth three farthings as a queen; she might manage
+as a countess, though that would be hard enough."
+
+"Think not so meanly of thyself, Sancho," said Don Quixote, gravely.
+"Marquis is the very least title which I intend for thee, if thou wilt
+be content with that."
+
+"That I will, and heaven bless your honor," said Sancho heartily. "I
+will take what you give and be thankful, knowing that you will not make
+the burden too heavy for my back."
+
+Chatting thus, they reached the top of rising ground and saw before them
+thirty or forty windmills in the plain below; and as soon as Don Quixote
+set eyes on them he said to his squire: "Friend Sancho, we are in luck
+to-day! See, there stands a troop of monstrous giants, thirty or more,
+and with them I will forthwith do battle and slay them every one. With
+their spoils we will lay the foundation of our fortune, as is the
+victor's right; moreover it is doing heaven good service to sweep this
+generation of vipers from off the face of the earth."
+
+"What giants do you mean?" asked Sancho Panza.
+
+"Those whom thou seest yonder," answered his master, "with the long
+arms, which in such creatures are sometimes two leagues in length."
+
+"What is your honor thinking of?" cried Sancho. "Those are not giants,
+but windmills, and their arms, as you call them, are the sails, which,
+being driven by the wind, set the millstones going."
+
+"'Tis plain," said Don Quixote, "that thou hast still much to learn in
+our school of adventures. I tell thee they are giants, and if thou art
+afraid, keep out of the way and pass the time in prayer while I am
+engaged with them in fierce and unequal battle."
+
+Saying this, he set spurs to Rozinante, and turning a deaf ear to the
+cries of Sancho, who kept repeating that the supposed giants were
+nothing but windmills, he thundered across the plain, shouting at the
+top of his voice: "Fly not, ye cowardly loons, for it is only a single
+knight who is coming to attack you!"
+
+Just at this moment there came a puff of wind, which set the sails in
+motion; seeing which, Don Quixote cried: "Ay, swing your arms! If ye had
+more of them than Briareos himself, I would make you pay for it." Then,
+with a heartfelt appeal to his lady Dulcinea, he charged full gallop at
+the nearest mill, and pierced the descending sail with his lance. The
+weapon was shivered to pieces, and horse and rider, caught by the sweep
+of the sail, were sent rolling with great violence across the plain.
+
+"Heaven preserve us!" cried Sancho, who had followed as fast as his ass
+could trot, and found his master lying very still by the side of his
+steed. "Did I not warn your honor that those things were windmills and
+not giants at all? Surely none could fail to see it, unless he had such
+another whirligig in his own pate!"
+
+"Be silent, good Sancho!" replied Don Quixote, "and know that the things
+of war, beyond all others, are subject to continual mutation. Moreover,
+in the present case I think, nay, I am sure, that an alien power has
+been at work, even that wicked enchanter Friston; he it is who has
+changed those giants into windmills to rob me of the honor of their
+defeat. But in the end all his evil devices shall be baffled by my good
+sword."
+
+"Heaven grant that it may be so!" said Sancho, assisting him to rise;
+and the knight then remounted Rozinante, whose shoulders were almost
+splayed by his fall, and turned his face towards the Puerto Lapice, a
+rugged mountain pass through which ran the main road from Madrid to
+Andalusia; for such a place, he thought, could not fail to afford rich
+and varied matter for adventures.
+
+
+
+412
+
+ One of the best of Mr. Scudder's many fine
+ compilations for children is his _Book of
+ Legends_ from which the following story is
+ taken. It is the same story that Longfellow
+ tells in his _Tales of a Wayside Inn_ under the
+ title of "King Robert of Sicily." ("The Proud
+ King" is used here by permission of and special
+ arrangement with the publishers, The Houghton
+ Mifflin Co., Boston.)
+
+
+THE PROUD KING
+
+HORACE E. SCUDDER
+
+There was once a king who ruled over many lands; he went to war, and
+added one country after another to his kingdom. At last he came to be
+emperor, and that is as much as any man can be. One night, after he was
+crowned emperor, he lay awake and thought about himself.
+
+"Surely," he said, "no one can be greater than I am, on earth or in
+heaven."
+
+The proud king fell asleep with these thoughts. When he awoke, the day
+was fair, and he looked out on the pleasant world.
+
+"Come," he said to the men about him; "to-day we will go a-hunting."
+
+The horses were brought, the dogs came leaping, the horns sounded, and
+the proud king with his courtiers rode off to the sport. They had hunted
+all the morning, and were now in a deep wood. In the fields the sun had
+beat upon their heads, and they were glad of the shade of the trees; but
+the proud king wished for something more. He saw a lake not far off, and
+he said to his men:
+
+"Bide ye here, while I bathe in the lake and cool myself."
+
+Then he rode apart till he came to the shore of the lake. There he got
+down from his horse, laid aside his clothes, and plunged into the cool
+water. He swam about, and sometimes dived beneath the surface, and so
+was once more cool and fresh.
+
+Now while the proud king was swimming away from the shore and diving to
+the bottom, there came one who had the same face and form as the king.
+He drew near the shore, dressed himself in the king's clothes, mounted
+the king's horse and rode away. So when the proud king was once more
+cool and fresh, and came to the place where he had left his clothes and
+his horse, there were no clothes to be seen, and no horse.
+
+The proud king looked about, but saw no man. He called, but no one heard
+him. The air was mild, but the wood was dark, and no sunshine came
+through to warm him after his cool bath. He walked by the shore of the
+lake and cast about in his mind what he should do.
+
+"I have it," he cried at last. "Not far from here lives a knight. It was
+but a few days ago that I made him a knight and gave him a castle. I
+will go to him, and he will be glad enough to clothe his king."
+
+The proud king wove some reeds into a mat and bound the mat about him,
+and then he walked to the castle of the knight. He beat loudly at the
+gate of the castle and called for the porter. The porter came and stood
+behind the gate. He did not draw the bolt at once, but asked:--
+
+"Who is there?"
+
+"Open the gate," said the proud king, "and you will see who I am."
+
+The porter opened the gate, and was amazed at what he saw.
+
+"Who are you?" he asked.
+
+"Wretch!" said the proud king; "I am the emperor. Go to your master. Bid
+him come to me with clothes. I have lost both clothes and horse."
+
+"A pretty emperor!" the porter laughed. "The great emperor was here not
+an hour ago. He came with his court from a hunt. My master was with him
+and sat at meat with him. But stay you here. I will call my master. Oh,
+yes! I will show him the emperor," and the porter wagged his beard and
+laughed, and went within.
+
+He came forth again with the knight and pointed at the proud king.
+
+"There is the emperor!" he said. "Look at him! look at the great
+emperor!"
+
+"Draw near," said the proud king to the knight, "and kneel to me. I gave
+thee this castle. I made thee knight. I give thee now a greater gift. I
+give thee the chance to clothe thy emperor with clothes of thine own."
+
+"You dog!" cried the knight. "You fool! I have just ridden with the
+emperor, and have come back to my castle. Here!" he shouted to his
+servants, "beat this fellow and drive him away from the gate."
+
+The porter looked on and laughed.
+
+"Lay on well," he said to the other servants. "It is not every day that
+you can flog an emperor."
+
+Then they beat the proud king, and drove him from the gate of the
+castle.
+
+"Base knight!" said the proud king. "I gave him all he has, and this is
+how he repays me. I will punish him when I sit on my throne again. I
+will go to the duke who lives not far away. Him I have known all my
+days. He will know me. He will know his emperor."
+
+So he came to the gate of the duke's great hall, and knocked three
+times. At the third knock the porter opened the gate, and saw before him
+a man clad only in a mat of reeds, and stained and bleeding.
+
+"Go, I pray you, to the duke," said the proud king, "and bid him come to
+me. Say to him that the emperor stands at the gate. He has been robbed
+of his clothes and of his horse. Go quickly to your master."
+
+The porter closed the gate between them, and went within to the duke.
+
+"Your Grace," said he, "there is a madman at the gate. He is unclad and
+wild. He bade me come to you and tell you that he was the emperor."
+
+"Here is a strange thing indeed," said the duke; "I will see it for
+myself."
+
+So he went to the gate, followed by his servants, and when the porter
+opened it there stood the proud king. The proud king knew the duke, but
+the duke saw only a bruised and beaten madman.
+
+"Do you not know me?" cried the proud king. "I am your emperor. Only
+this morning you were on the hunt with me. I left you that I might bathe
+in the lake. While I was in the water, some wretch took both my clothes
+and my horse, and I--I have been beaten by a base knight."
+
+"Put him in chains," said the duke to his servants. "It is not safe to
+have such a man free. Give him some straw to lie on, and some bread and
+water."
+
+The duke turned away and went back to his hall, where his friends sat at
+table.
+
+"That was a strange thing," he said. "There was a madman at the gate. He
+must have been in the wood this morning, for he told me that I was on
+the hunt with the emperor, and so I was; and he told me that the
+emperor went apart to bathe in the lake, and so he did. But he said that
+some one stole the clothes and the horse of the emperor, yet the emperor
+rode back to us cool and fresh, and clothed and on his horse. And he
+said"--And the duke looked around on his guests.
+
+"What did he say?"
+
+"He said that he was the emperor."
+
+Then the guests fell to talking and laughing, and soon forgot the
+strange thing. But the proud king lay in a dark prison, far even from
+the servants of the duke. He lay on straw, and chains bound his feet.
+
+"What is this that has come upon me?" he said. "Am I brought so low? Am
+I so changed that even the duke does not know me? At least there is one
+who will know me, let me wear what I may."
+
+Then, by much labor, he loosed the chains that bound him, and fled in
+the night from the duke's prison. When the morning came, he stood at the
+door of his own palace. He stood there awhile; perhaps some one would
+open the door and let him in. But no one came, and the proud king lifted
+his hand and knocked; he knocked at the door of his own palace. The
+porter came at last and looked at him.
+
+"Who are you?" he asked, "and what do you want?"
+
+"Do you not know me?" cried the proud king. "I am your master. I am the
+king. I am the emperor. Let me pass"; and he would have thrust him
+aside. But the porter was a strong man; he stood in the doorway, and
+would not let the proud king enter.
+
+"You my master! you the emperor! poor fool, look here!" and he held the
+proud king by the arm while he pointed to a hall beyond. There sat the
+emperor on his throne, and by his side was the queen.
+
+"Let me go to her! she will know me," cried the proud king, and he tried
+to break away from the porter. The noise without was heard in the hall.
+The nobles came out, and last of all came the emperor and the queen.
+When the proud king saw these two, he could not speak. He was choked
+with rage and fear, and he knew not what.
+
+"You know me!" at last he cried. "I am your lord and husband."
+
+The queen shrank back.
+
+"Friends," said the man who stood by her, "what shall be done to this
+wretch?"
+
+"Kill him," said one.
+
+"Put out his eyes," said another.
+
+"Beat him," said a third.
+
+Then they all hustled the proud king out of the palace court. Each one
+gave him a blow, and so he was thrust out, and the door was shut behind
+him.
+
+The proud king fled, he knew not whither. He wished he were dead. By and
+by he came to the lake where he had bathed. He sat down on the shore. It
+was like a dream, but he knew he was awake, for he was cold and hungry
+and faint. Then he knelt on the ground and beat his breast, and said:
+
+"I am no emperor. I am no king. I am a poor, sinful man. Once I thought
+there was no one greater than I, on earth or in heaven. Now I know that
+I am nothing, and there is no one so poor and so mean. God forgive me
+for my pride."
+
+As he said this, tears stood in his eyes. He wiped them away and rose to
+his feet. Close by him he saw the clothes which he had once laid aside.
+Near at hand was his horse, eating the soft grass. The king put on his
+clothes; he mounted his horse and rode to his palace. As he drew near,
+the door opened and servants came forth. One held his horse; another
+helped him dismount. The porter bowed low.
+
+"I marvel I did not see thee pass out, my lord," he said.
+
+The king entered, and again saw the nobles in the great hall. There
+stood the queen also, and by her side was the man who called himself
+emperor. But the queen and the nobles did not look at him; they looked
+at the king, and came forward to meet him.
+
+This man also came forward, but he was clad in shining white, and not in
+the robes of the emperor. The king bowed his head before him.
+
+"I am thy angel," said the man. "Thou wert proud, and made thyself to be
+set on high. Therefore thou hast been brought low. I have watched over
+thy kingdom. Now I give it back to thee, for thou art once again humble,
+and the humble only are fit to rule."
+
+Then the angel disappeared. No one else heard his voice, and the nobles
+thought the king had bowed to them. So the king once more sat on the
+throne, and ruled wisely and humbly ever after.
+
+
+
+413
+
+ Eva March Tappan (1854--) has compiled many
+ books for children, including the popular
+ collection in ten volumes called _The
+ Children's Hour_. Among her most delightful
+ books is _Robin Hood: His Book_, from which the
+ following story is taken, (by permission of the
+ publishers, Little, Brown & Co., Boston). Some
+ few moralists have been distressed about giving
+ stories of an outlaw to children, but Robin
+ Hood was really the champion of the people
+ against tyrannous oppression and injustice.
+ This is the fact that children never miss, and
+ the thing that endears Robin and his followers
+ in Lincoln green. There is, of course, the
+ further interesting fact that these stories
+ take place out in the open and have the charm
+ that comes from adventures and wanderings
+ through the secrecies of ancient Sherwood
+ Forest. Against this outdoor background are
+ displayed the good old "virtues of courage,
+ forbearance, gentleness, courtesy, justice, and
+ championship."
+
+
+ROBIN AND THE MERRY LITTLE OLD WOMAN
+
+EVA MARCH TAPPAN
+
+ "Monday I wash and Tuesday I iron,
+ Wednesday I cook and I mend;
+ Thursday I brew and Friday I sweep,
+ And baking day brings the end."
+
+So sang the merry little old woman as she sat at her wheel and spun; but
+when she came to the last line she really could not help pushing back
+the flax-wheel and springing to her feet. Then she held out her skirt
+and danced a gay little jig as she sang,--
+
+ "Hey down, down, an a down!"
+
+She curtseyed to one side of the room and then to another, and before
+she knew it she was curtseying to a man who stood in the open door.
+
+"Oh, oh, oh!" cried the merry little old woman. "Whatever shall I do? An
+old woman ought to sit and spin and not be dancing like a young girl.
+Oh, but it's Master Robin! Glad am I to set eyes on you, Master Robin.
+Come in, and I'll throw my best cloak over the little stool for a
+cushion. Don't be long standing on the threshold, Master Robin."
+
+"It'll mayhap come to pass that I'll wish I had something to stand on,"
+said Robin, grimly, "for the proud bishop is in the forest, and he's
+after me with all his men. It's night and day that he's been following
+me, and now he's caught me surely. You've no meal chest, have you, and
+you've no press, and you've no feather-bed that'll hide me? There's but
+the one wee bit room, and there's not even a mousehole."
+
+The little woman's heart beat fast. What could she do?
+
+"I mind me well of a Saturday night," said she, "when I'd but little
+firewood and it was bitter cold, that you and your men brought me such
+fine logs as the great folks at the hall don't have; and then you came
+in yourself and gave me a pair of shoon and some brand-new hosen, all
+soft and fine and woolly--I don't believe the king himself has such a
+pair--oh, Master Robin, I've thought of something. Give me your mantle
+of green and your fine gray tunic, and do you put on my kirtle and
+jacket and gown, and tie my red and blue kerchief over your head--you
+gave it to me yourself, you did; it was on Easter Day in the
+morning--and do you sit down at the wheel and spin. See, you put your
+foot on the treadle _so_, to turn the wheel, and you twist the flax with
+your fingers _so_. Don't you get up, but just turn the wheel and grumble
+and mumble to yourself."
+
+It was not long before the bishop and all his men came riding up to the
+little old woman's house. The bishop thrust open the door and called:--
+
+"Old woman, what have you done with Robin Hood?" but Robin sat grumbling
+and mumbling at the wheel and answered never a word to the proud bishop.
+
+"She's mayhap daft," said one of the bishop's men. "We'll soon find
+him"; and in a minute he had looked up the chimney and behind the
+dresser and under the wooden bedstead. Then he turned to the corner
+cupboard.
+
+"You're daft yourself," said the bishop, "to look in that little place
+for a strong man like Robin." And all the time the spinner at the wheel
+sat grumbling and mumbling. It was a queer thread that was wound on the
+spool, but no one thought of that. It was Robin that they wanted, and
+they cared little what kind of thread an old woman in a cottage was
+a-spinning.
+
+"He's here, your Reverence," called a man who had opened the lower door
+of the corner cupboard.
+
+"Bring him out and set him on the horse," ordered the bishop, "and see
+to it that you treat him like a wax candle in the church. The king's
+bidden that the thief and outlaw be brought to him, and I well know
+he'll hang the rogue on a gallows so high that it will show over the
+whole kingdom; but he has given orders that no one shall have the reward
+if the rascal has but a bruise on his finger, save that it came in a
+fair fight."
+
+So the merry little old woman in Robin's tunic and Robin's green cloak
+was set gently on a milk-white steed. The bishop himself mounted a
+dapple-gray, and down the road they went.
+
+It was the cheeriest party that one can imagine. The bishop went
+laughing all the way for pure delight that he had caught Robin Hood. He
+told more stories than one could make up in an age of leap-years, and
+they were all about where he went and what he did in the days before he
+became bishop. The men were so happy at the thought of having the great
+reward the king had offered that they laughed at the bishop's stories
+louder than any one had ever laughed at them before. And as for the
+merry little old woman, she had the gayest time of all, though she had
+to keep her face muffled in her hood, and couldn't laugh aloud the least
+bit, and couldn't jump down from the great white horse and dance the gay
+little jig that her feet were fairly aching to try.
+
+While the merry little old woman was riding off with the bishop and his
+men, Robin sat at the flax-wheel and spun and spun till he could no
+longer hear the beat of the horses' hoofs on the hard ground. No time
+had he to take off the kirtle and the jacket and the kerchief of red and
+blue, for no one knew when the proud bishop might find out that he had
+the wrong prisoner, and would come galloping back to the cottage on the
+border of the forest.
+
+"If I can only get to my good men and true!" thought Robin; and he
+sprang up from the little flax-wheel with the distaff in his hand, and
+ran out of the open door.
+
+All the long day had Robin been away from his bowmen, and as the
+twilight time drew near, they were more and more fearful of what might
+have befallen him. They went to the edge of the forest, and there they
+sat with troubled faces.
+
+"I've heard that the sheriff was seen but two days ago on the eastern
+side of the wood," said Much the miller's son.
+
+"And the proud bishop's not in his palace," muttered Will Scarlet.
+"Where he's gone I know not, but may the saints keep Master Robin from
+meeting him. He hates us men of the greenwood worse than the sheriff
+does, and he'd hang any one of us to the nearest oak."
+
+"He'd not hang Master Robin," declared Much the miller's son, "for the
+bishop likes good red gold, and the king's offered a great reward for
+him alive and unhurt." The others laughed, but in a moment they were
+grave again, and peered anxiously through the trees in one way and then
+in another, while nearer came the twilight.
+
+"There are folks who say the forest is haunted," said Little John. "I
+never saw anything, but one night when I was close to the little black
+pond that lies to the westward, I heard a cry that wasn't from bird or
+beast; I know that."
+
+"And didn't you see anything?" asked Much the miller's son.
+
+"No," answered Little John, "but where there's a cry, there's something
+to make the cry, and it wasn't bird or beast; I'm as sure of that as I
+am that my name is Little John."
+
+"But it isn't," declared Friar Tuck. "You were christened John Little."
+No one smiled, for they were too much troubled about Robin.
+
+"When I was a youngster," said William Scarlet, "I had an old nurse, and
+she told me that a first cousin of hers knew a woman whose husband was
+going through the forest by night, and he saw a witch carry a round
+bundle under her arm. It was wrapped up in a brown kerchief; and while
+he looked, the wind blew the kerchief away, and he saw that the round
+bundle was a man's head. The mouth of it opened and called, 'Help!
+help!' He shot an arrow through the old witch, and then he said to the
+head, 'Where do you want to go? Whose head are you?' The head answered,
+'I'm your head, and I want to go on your shoulders.' Then he put up his
+hand, and, sure enough, his own head was gone, and there it lay on the
+ground beside the dead witch with the arrow sticking through her. He
+took up the head and set it on his shoulders. This was the story that he
+told when he came back in the morning, but no one knew whether really to
+believe it all or not. After that night he always carried his head a bit
+on one side, and some said it was because he hadn't set it back quite
+straight: but there are some folks that won't believe anything unless
+they see it themselves, and they said he had had a drink or two more
+than he should and that he took cold in his neck from sleeping with his
+head on the wet moss."
+
+"Everybody knows there are witches," said Will Scarlet, "and folks say
+that wherever they may be through the day, they run to the forest when
+the sun begins to sink, and while they're running they can't say any
+magic words to hurt a man if he shoots them."
+
+"What's that?" whispered Much the miller's son softly, and he fitted an
+arrow to the string.
+
+"Wait; make a cross on it first," said Little John.
+
+Something was flitting over the little moor. The soft gray mist hid the
+lower part of it, but the men could see what looked like the upper part
+of a woman's body, scurrying along through the fog in some mysterious
+fashion. Its arms were tossing wildly about, and it seemed to be
+beckoning. The head was covered with what might have been a kerchief,
+but it was too dusky to see clearly.
+
+"Don't shoot till it's nearer," whispered William Scarlet. "They say if
+you hurt a witch and don't kill her outright, you'll go mad forever
+after."
+
+Nearer came the witch, but still Much the miller's son waited with his
+bow bent and the arrow aimed. The witch ran under the low bough of a
+tree, the kerchief was caught on a broken limb, and--
+
+"Why, it's Master Robin!" shouted Much the miller's son. "It's Master
+Robin himself"; and so it was. No time had he taken to throw off the
+gray kirtle and the black jacket and the blue and red kerchief about his
+head; for as soon as ever he could no longer hear the tramp of the
+horses's hoofs, he had run with the distaff still in his hand to the
+shelter of the good greenwood and the help of his own faithful men and
+true.
+
+Meanwhile the bishop was still telling stories of what he did before he
+was a bishop, and the men were laughing at them, and the merry little
+old woman was having the gayest time of all, even though she dared not
+laugh out loud.
+
+Now that the bishop had caught Robin Hood he had no fear of the
+greenwood rangers; and as the forest road was much nearer than the
+highway, down the forest road the happy company went. The merry little
+old woman had sometimes sat on a pillion and ridden a farm beast from
+the plough; but to be on a great horse like this, one that held his head
+so high and stepped so carefully where it was rough, and galloped so
+lightly and easily where it was smooth--why, she had never even dreamed
+of such a magnificent ride. Not a word did she speak, not even when the
+bishop began to tell her that no gallows would be high enough to hang
+such a wicked outlaw. "You've stolen gold from the knights," said he,
+"you've stolen from the sheriff of Nottingham, and you've even stolen
+from me. Glad am I to see Robin Hood--but what's that?" the bishop
+cried. "Who are those men, and who is their leader? And who are you?" he
+demanded of the merry little old woman.
+
+Now the little woman had been taught to order herself lowly and
+reverently to all her betters, so before she answered the bishop she
+slipped down from the tall white horse and made a deep curtsey to the
+great man.
+
+"If you please, sir," said she, "I think it's Robin Hood and his men."
+
+"And who are you?" he demanded again.
+
+"Oh, I'm nobody but a little old woman that lives in a cottage alone and
+spins," and then she sang in a lightsome little chirrup of a voice:--
+
+ "Monday I wash and Tuesday I iron,
+ Wednesday I cook and I mend;
+ Thursday I brew and Friday I sweep,
+ And baking day brings the end."
+
+I fear that the bishop did not hear the little song, for the arrows were
+flying thick and fast. The little old woman slipped behind a big tree,
+and there she danced her
+
+ "Hey down, down, an a down!"
+
+to her heart's content, while the fighting went on.
+
+It was not long before the great bishop was Robin's prisoner, and ere he
+could go free, he had to open his strong leather wallet and count out
+more gold than the moon had shone on in the forest for many and many a
+night. He laid down the goldpieces one by one, and at every piece he
+gave a groan that seemed to come from the very bottom of his boots.
+
+"That's for all the world like the cry I heard from the little black
+pond to the westward," said Little John. "It wasn't like bird and it
+wasn't like beast, and now I know what it was; it was the soul of a
+stingy man, and he had to count over and over the money that he ought to
+have given away when he was alive."
+
+As for the merry little old woman, she was a prisoner too, and such a
+time as she had! First there was a bigger feast than she had ever
+dreamed of before, and every man of Robin's followers was bound that she
+should eat the bit that he thought was nicest. They made her a little
+throne of soft green moss, and on it they laid their hunting cloaks.
+They built a shelter of fresh boughs over her head, and then they sang
+songs to her. They set up great torches all round about the glade. They
+wrestled and they vaulted and they climbed. They played every game that
+could be played by torchlight, and it was all to please the kind little
+woman who had saved the life of their master.
+
+The merry little woman sat and clapped her hands at all their feats, and
+she laughed until she cried. Then she wiped her eyes and sang them her
+one little song.
+
+The men shouted and cheered, and cheered and shouted, and the woods
+echoed so long and so loud that one would have thought they, too, were
+trying to shout.
+
+By and by the company all set out together to carry the little old woman
+to her cottage. She was put upon their very best and safest horse, and
+Robin Hood would have none lead it but himself. After the horse came a
+long line of good bowmen and true. One carried a new cloak of the finest
+wool. Another bore a whole armful of silken kerchiefs to make up for the
+one that Robin had worn away. There were "shoon and hosen," and there
+was cloth of scarlet and of blue, and there were soft, warm blankets for
+her bed. There were so many things that when they were all piled up in
+the little cottage, there was no chance for one tenth of the men to get
+into the room. Those that were outside pushed up to the window and
+stretched their heads in at the door: and they tried their best to pile
+up the great heap of things so she could have room to go to bed that
+night and to cook her breakfast in the morning.
+
+"And to-morrow's sweeping day," cried Robin. "'Thursday I brew and
+Friday I sweep,' and how'll she sweep if she has no floor?"
+
+"We'll have to make her a floor," declared Friar Tuck.
+
+"So we will," said Robin. "There's a good man not far away who can work
+in wood, and he shall come in the morning and build her another room."
+
+"Oh, oh!" cried the merry little old woman with delight, "I never
+thought I should have a house with two rooms; but I'll always care for
+this room the most, for there's just where Master Robin stood when he
+came in at the door, and there's where he sat when he was spinning the
+flax. But, Master Robin, Master Robin, did any one ever see such a
+thread as you've left on the spool!"
+
+It was so funny that the merry little old woman really couldn't help
+jumping up and dancing.
+
+ "Hey down, down, an a down!"
+
+And then the brave men and true all said good-night and went back to the
+forest.
+
+
+
+414
+
+ All attempts to prove the historical existence
+ of Robin Hood have been unsuccessful. His story
+ has come down to us in a group of old folk
+ ballads, about forty in number, dating from
+ about the beginning of the fifteenth century.
+ One of these old ballads is given below. They
+ were sung to a recurrent melody, which was as
+ much a part of them as the words of the story.
+ Other ballads in the group that are likely to
+ be very interesting to children are "Robin Hood
+ and Little John," "Robin Hood and Maid Marian,"
+ "Robin Hood Rescuing the Three Squires," "Robin
+ Hood's Death and Burial." The best source for
+ these ballads is Child's _English and Scottish
+ Popular Ballads_ (ed. Sargent and Kittredge).
+ Tennyson dramatized the Robin Hood story in
+ _The Foresters_, as did Alfred Noyes in
+ _Sherwood_. Reginald De Koven made a very
+ successful comic opera out of it, while Thomas
+ Love Peacock's _Maid Marian_ is an interesting
+ novelization of the theme.
+
+
+ALLEN-A-DALE
+
+ Come listen to me, you gallants so free,
+ All you that love mirth for to hear,
+ And I will tell you of a bold outlaw,
+ That lived in Nottinghamshire.
+
+ As Robin Hood in the forest stood,
+ All under the greenwood tree,
+ There was he ware of a brave young man,
+ As fine as fine might be.
+
+ The youngster was clothed in scarlet red,
+ In scarlet fine and gay,
+ And he did frisk it over the plain,
+ And chanted a roundelay.
+
+ As Robin Hood next morning stood,
+ Amongst the leaves so gay,
+ There did he spy the same young man
+ Come drooping along the way.
+
+ The scarlet he wore the day before,
+ It was clean cast away;
+ And every step he fetched a sigh,
+ "Alack! and well-a-day!"
+
+ Then stepped forth brave Little John.
+ And Nick, the miller's son,
+ Which made the young man bend his bow,
+ When as he saw them come.
+
+ "Stand off! stand off!" the young man said;
+ "What is your will with me?"
+ "You must come before our master straight,
+ Under yon greenwood tree."
+
+ And when he came bold Robin before,
+ Robin asked him courteously,
+ "O hast thou any money to spare
+ For my merry men and me?"
+
+ "I have no money," the young man said,
+ "But five shillings and a ring;
+ And that I have kept this seven long years,
+ To have it at my wedding.
+
+ "Yesterday I should have married a maid,
+ But she is now from me ta'en,
+ And chosen to be an old knight's delight,
+ Whereby my poor heart is slain."
+
+ "What is thy name?" then said Robin Hood;
+ "Come tell me without any fail."
+ "By the faith of my body," then said the young man,
+ "My name it is Allen-a-Dale."
+
+ "What wilt thou give me," said Robin Hood,
+ "In ready gold or fee,
+ To help thee to thy truelove again,
+ And deliver her unto thee?"
+
+ "I have no money," then quoth the young man,
+ "No ready gold nor fee,
+ But I will swear upon a book
+ Thy true servant for to be."
+
+ "How many miles is it to thy truelove?
+ Come tell me without any guile:"
+ "By the faith of my body," then said the young man,
+ "It is but five little mile."
+
+ Then Robin he hasted over the plain,
+ He did neither stint nor lin,
+ Until he came unto the church
+ Where Allen should keep his wedding.
+
+ "What dost thou here?" the bishop he said,
+ "I prithee now tell to me"
+ "I am a bold harper," quoth Robin Hood,
+ "And the best in the north country."
+
+ "O welcome, O welcome," the bishop he said.
+ "That music best pleaseth me."
+ "You shall have no music," quoth Robin Hood,
+ "Till the bride and bridegroom I see."
+
+ With that came in a wealthy knight,
+ Which was both grave and old,
+ And after him a finikin lass,
+ Did shine like glistering gold.
+
+ "This is no fit match," quoth bold Robin Hood,
+ "That you do seem to make here;
+ For since we are come unto the church,
+ The bride she shall choose her own dear."
+
+ Then Robin Hood put his horn to his mouth,
+ And blew blasts two or three;
+ When four and twenty bowmen bold
+ Came leaping over the lea.
+
+ And when they came into the churchyard,
+ Marching all in a row,
+ The first man was Allen-a-Dale,
+ To give bold Robin his bow.
+
+ "This is thy truelove," Robin he said,
+ "Young Allen, as I hear say;
+ And you shall be married at this same time,
+ Before we depart away."
+
+ "That shall not be," the bishop he said,
+ "For thy word shall not stand;
+ They shall be three times asked in the church,
+ As the law is of our land."
+
+ Robin Hood pulled off the bishop's coat,
+ And put it upon Little John;
+ "By the faith of my body," then Robin said,
+ "This cloth doth make thee a man."
+
+ When Little John went into the choir,
+ The people began for to laugh;
+ He asked them seven times in the church,
+ Lest three times should not be enough.
+
+ "Who gives me this maid?" then said Little John;
+ Quoth Robin, "That do I,
+ And he that doth take her from Allen-a-Dale
+ Full dearly he shall her buy."
+
+ And thus having ended this merry wedding,
+ The bride looked as fresh as a queen,
+ And so they returned to the merry greenwood,
+ Amongst the leaves so green.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION XI
+
+BIOGRAPHY AND HERO STORIES
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+ Abbott, J. S. C., _Christopher Carson_. _David Crockett._
+
+ Antin, Mary, _The Promised Land_.
+
+ Baldwin, James, _Four Great Americans_. [Washington, Franklin,
+ Webster, Lincoln.] _An American Book of Golden Deeds._
+
+ Bolton, Sarah K., _Lives of Girls Who Became Famous_. _Lives of
+ Poor Boys Who Became Famous._
+
+ Boutet de Monvel, Louis Maurice, _Joan of Arc_.
+
+ Brooks, Elbridge S., _True Story of Christopher Columbus_.
+
+ Cody, Col. W. F., _Adventures of Buffalo Bill_.
+
+ Franklin, Benjamin, _Autobiography_.
+
+ Golding, V., _Story of David Livingston_.
+
+ Gould, F. J., _The Children's Plutarch_. [2 vols., one of Greeks,
+ the other of Romans.]
+
+ Hathaway, Esse V., _Napoleon, the Little Corsican_.
+
+ Hughes, Thomas, _Alfred the Great_.
+
+ Jefferson, Joseph, _Autobiography_.
+
+ Jenks, Tudor, _Captain John Smith_.
+
+ Keller, Helen, _The Story of My Life_.
+
+ Larcom, Lucy, _A New England Girlhood_.
+
+ Mabie, Hamilton W., _Heroines Every Child Should Know_.
+
+ Moores, Charles W., _Life of Abraham Lincoln for Boys and Girls_.
+
+ Muir, John, _Story of My Boyhood and Youth_.
+
+ Nicolay, Helen, _Boy's Life of Abraham Lincoln_.
+
+ Page, Thomas Nelson, _Robert E. Lee: Man and Soldier_.
+
+ Paine, Albert Bigelow, _Boy's Life of Mark Twain_.
+
+ Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur, _Roll Call of Honor_. [Bolivar, John
+ Brown, Abraham Lincoln, Garibaldi, David Livingston, Florence
+ Nightingale, Pasteur, Gordon, Father Damien.]
+
+ Richards, Laura E., _Florence Nightingale_.
+
+ Riis, Jacob, _Making of an American_.
+
+ Roosevelt, Theodore, and Lodge, Henry Cabot, _Hero Tales from
+ American History_.
+
+ Scudder, Horace E., _George Washington_.
+
+ Shaw, Anna Howard, _The Story of a Pioneer_.
+
+ Tarbell, Ida M., _Life of Abraham Lincoln_.
+
+ Thwaites, Reuben G., _Daniel Boone_.
+
+ Washington, Booker T., _Up from Slavery_.
+
+ White, John S., _Boys' and Girls' Plutarch_. [Preserves parallel
+ arrangement.]
+
+ Yonge, Charlotte M., _A Book of Golden Deeds_.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION XI. BIOGRAPHY AND HERO STORIES
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+_Biography and its value._ The great charm of biography for both young
+and old is in its perfect concreteness. Nothing fascinates like the
+story of a real person at grips with realities. Nothing inspires like
+the story of a hard-won victory over difficulties. Here are instances of
+men and women, our own kindred, facing great crises in the physical or
+moral realm with the calm courage and the clear mind of which we have
+dreamed. Here are others who have fought the brave fight in opposition
+to the stupidities and long-entrenched prejudices of their fellows. Here
+are still others who have wrested from nature her innermost secrets, who
+have won for us immunity against lurking diseases and dangers, who have
+labored successfully against great odds to make life more safe, more
+comfortable, or more beautiful. All these records of real accomplishment
+appeal to the youthful spirit of emulation, and there can be no stronger
+inspiration in facing the unsolved problems of the future. "What men
+have done men can still do."
+
+_The material and its presentation._ Most teachers will find the
+biographical or historical story easier to handle than the imaginative
+story, because there is a definite outline of fact from which to work.
+Only those life stories with which the teacher is in sympathy can be
+handled satisfactorily. For that reason no definite list of suitable
+material is worth much, except as illustrating the wide range of choice.
+Keeping these limitations in mind, we may venture a few practical hints:
+
+ 1. There is a large list of heroic figures
+ hovering on the border line between reality and
+ legend of whose stories children never tire. In
+ such a list are the names of Leonidas, who held
+ the pass at Thermopylae, William Tell and
+ Arnold von Winkelried, favorite heroes of
+ Switzerland, Robert Bruce of Scotland, and that
+ pair of immortally faithful friends, Damon and
+ Pythias.
+
+ 2. With Marco Polo we may visit the wonderlands
+ of the East, we may go with Captain Cook
+ through the islands of the southern seas, with
+ Stanley through darkest Africa, with the brave
+ Scott in his tragic dash for the South Pole.
+ Best of all, perhaps, we may, with Columbus,
+ discover another America.
+
+ 3. How Elihu Burritt became the "learned
+ blacksmith," how Hugh Miller brought himself to
+ be an authority on the old red sandstone, are
+ always inspiring stories to the ambitious
+ student. And in any list of achievements by
+ those bound in by untoward circumstance must be
+ placed that of Booker T. Washington as told by
+ himself in _Up from Slavery_.
+
+ 4. From our earlier history we may draw upon
+ such lives as those of Franklin, Washington,
+ and Patrick Henry. There are numberless
+ stirring episodes from the careers of Francis
+ Marion, Israel Putnam, Nathan Hale, and others
+ that will occur to any reader of our history.
+ Lincoln's life history offers an almost
+ inexhaustible treasure. Grant, grimly silent
+ and persevering, and Lee, kindly gentleman and
+ military genius, belong in any course that
+ stresses our national achievements.
+
+ 5. Stories of men who have mastered the secrets
+ of the forces of nature never fail of interest.
+ Stephenson and the locomotive engine, Sir
+ Humphry Davy and the safety lamp, Whitney and
+ the cotton gin, Marconi and the wonders of
+ wireless communication, the Wright brothers and
+ the airplane, Edison and the incandescant light
+ and the motion picture, Luther Burbank and his
+ marvelous work with plants--these are only a
+ few to place near the head of any list.
+
+ 6. Especially interesting for work in the
+ grades are the stories of the pioneer and
+ plainsman days, of Kit Carson, Davy Crockett,
+ Daniel Boone, and Buffalo Bill.
+
+ 7. We must not neglect stories of achievement
+ by those who have been handicapped by great
+ physical disability, such as are found in the
+ careers of Henry Fawcett, the blind statesman
+ of England, and of our own Helen Keller, whose
+ _Story of My Life_ has become a classic source
+ of material.
+
+ 8. The life of Joan of Arc has long been a
+ supreme favorite for biographical story. Its
+ simple directness, its fiery patriotism, its
+ pathetic and tragic close, give it all the
+ force of some great consciously designed
+ masterpiece. The events of such a life can be
+ arranged in a series or cycle of stories. Of
+ very different type, but of almost equally
+ strong appeal, is the story of the work of
+ Florence Nightingale, whose efforts among the
+ British soldiers in the terrible scenes of the
+ Crimean War set in motion those humanitarian
+ enterprises so splendidly exemplified in the
+ work of the Red Cross organizations.
+
+ 9. Finally, no teacher should fail to make use
+ of many modern careers that impress upon
+ children the devotion of lives spent in
+ bettering the conditions under which people
+ live. Among some of these may be mentioned
+ Colonel George E. Waring, the sanitary engineer
+ who really cleaned the streets of New York;
+ General W. C. Gorgas, who led in the conquest
+ of the great yellow fever plague; Dr. Wilfred
+ Grenfell, still spending his life for the
+ natives of bleak Labrador; and the famous
+ French scientist, Louis Pasteur, who found out
+ for us how to preserve milk and how to escape
+ the dread hydrophobia. Such careers devoted to
+ ameliorating the evils incident to civilization
+ are of great value in stirring into active
+ existence the latent spirit of service in every
+ pupil.
+
+ 10. Wide-awake teachers will constantly find in
+ the periodicals of the day many episodes of
+ achievement by men and women working in various
+ fields of helpfulness. Such present-day
+ accomplishments should be emphasized. We live
+ in the present, and the duties and
+ opportunities of the present are to furnish the
+ inspirations and indicate the fields of
+ possible achievement for us.
+
+
+SUGGESTIONS FOR READING
+
+ For a very practical discussion of biographical
+ stories see Lyman, _Story Telling_, chap. v.
+ The great classic sources of inspiration on the
+ subject are Carlyle, _Heroes and Hero Worship_,
+ and Emerson, _Representative Men_. Of special
+ value is the opening chapter in the latter
+ book, "Uses of Great Men."
+
+
+
+415
+
+ Elbridge S. Brooks (1846-1902) was a well-known
+ American writer of juvenile books on history,
+ government, and biography. His _True Story of
+ Christopher Columbus_, from which the following
+ selection was taken, is a well-written book
+ that pupils in the fifth and sixth grades read
+ with pleasure. _The Century Book for Young
+ Americans_ is a story of our government. Other
+ books by the same author are _The True Story of
+ George Washington_, _The True Story of
+ Lafayette_, and _The True Story of U. S.
+ Grant_. ("How Columbus Got His Ships" is used
+ here by permission of the publishers, Lothrop,
+ Lee & Shepard Co., Boston.)
+
+
+HOW COLUMBUS GOT HIS SHIPS
+
+ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS
+
+When Columbus was at school he had studied about a certain man named
+Pythagoras, who had lived in Greece thousands of years before he was
+born, and who had said that the earth was round "like a ball or an
+orange." As Columbus grew older and made maps and studied the sea, and
+read books and listened to what other people said, he began to believe
+that this man named Pythagoras might be right, and that the earth was
+round, though everybody declared it was flat. "If it is round," he said
+to himself, "what is the use of trying to sail around Africa to get to
+Cathay? Why not just sail west from Italy or Spain and keep going right
+around the world until you strike Cathay? I believe it could be done,"
+said Columbus.
+
+By this time Columbus was a man. He was thirty years old and was a great
+sailor. He had been captain of a number of vessels; he had sailed north
+and south and east; he knew all about a ship and all about the sea. But,
+though he was a good sailor, when he said that he believed the earth was
+round, everybody laughed at him and said that he was crazy. "Why, how
+can the earth be round?" they cried. "The water would all spill out if
+it were, and the men who live on the other side would all be standing on
+their heads with their feet waving in the air." And then they laughed
+all the harder.
+
+But Columbus did not think it was anything to laugh at. He believed it
+so strongly and felt so sure that he was right, that he set to work to
+find some king or prince or great lord to let him have ships and sailors
+and money enough to try to find a way to Cathay by sailing out into the
+West and across the Atlantic Ocean.
+
+Now this Atlantic Ocean, the western waves of which break upon our rocks
+and beaches, was thought in Columbus's day to be a dreadful place.
+People called it the Sea of Darkness, because they did not know what was
+on the other side of it, or what dangers lay beyond that distant blue
+rim where the sky and water seem to meet, and which we call the horizon.
+They thought the ocean stretched to the end of a flat world, straight
+away to a sort of "jumping-off place," and that in this jumping-off
+place were giants and goblins and dragons and monsters and all sorts of
+terrible things that would catch the ships and destroy them and the
+sailors.
+
+So when Columbus said that he wanted to sail away toward this dreadful
+jumping-off place, the people said that he was worse than crazy. They
+said he was a wicked man and ought to be punished.
+
+But they could not frighten Columbus. He kept on trying. He went from
+place to place trying to get the ships and sailors he wanted and was
+bound to have. As you will see later, he tried to get help wherever he
+thought it could be had. He asked the people of his own home, the city
+of Genoa, where he had lived and played when a boy; he asked the people
+of the beautiful city that is built in the sea--Venice; he tried the
+king of Portugal, the king of England, the king of France, the king and
+queen of Spain. But for a long time nobody cared to listen to such a
+wild and foolish and dangerous plan--to go to Cathay by the way of the
+Sea of Darkness and the jumping-off place. "You would never get there
+alive," they said.
+
+And so Columbus waited. And his hair grew white while he waited, though
+he was not yet an old man. He had thought and worked and hoped so much
+that he began to look like an old man when he was forty years old. But
+still he would never say that perhaps he was wrong, after all. He said
+he knew he was right, and that some day he should find the Indies and
+sail to Cathay.
+
+I do not wish you to think that Columbus was the first man to say that
+the earth was round, or the first to sail to the West over the Atlantic
+Ocean. He was not. Other men had said that they believed the earth was
+round; other men had sailed out into the Atlantic Ocean. But no sailor
+who believed the earth was round had ever tried to prove that it was by
+crossing the Atlantic. So, you see, Columbus was really the first man to
+say, I believe the earth is round and I will show you that it is by
+sailing to the lands that are on the other side of the earth.
+
+He even figured out how far it was around the world. Your geography, you
+know, tells you now that what is called the circumference of the
+earth--that is, a straight line drawn right around it--is nearly
+twenty-five thousand miles. Columbus had figured it up pretty carefully
+and he thought it was about twenty thousand miles. "If I could start
+from Genoa," he said, "and walk straight ahead until I got back to Genoa
+again, I should walk about twenty thousand miles." Cathay, he thought,
+would take up so much land on the other side of the world that, if he
+went west instead of east, he would only need to sail about twenty-five
+hundred or three thousand miles.
+
+If you have studied your geography carefully you will see what a mistake
+he made.
+
+It is really about twelve thousand miles from Spain to China (or Cathay
+as he called it). But America is just about three thousand miles from
+Spain, and if you read all this story you will see how Columbus's
+mistake really helped him to discover America.
+
+I have told you that Columbus had a longing to do something great from
+the time when, as a little boy, he had hung around the wharves in Genoa
+and looked at the ships sailing east and west and talked with the
+sailors and wished that he could go to sea. Perhaps what he had learned
+at school--how some men said that the earth was round--and what he had
+learned on the wharves about the wonders of Cathay set him to thinking
+and dreaming that it might be possible for a ship to sail around the
+world without falling off. At any rate, he kept on thinking and dreaming
+and longing until, at last, he began doing.
+
+Some of the sailors sent out by Prince Henry of Portugal, of whom I have
+told you, in their trying to sail around Africa discovered two groups
+of islands out in the Atlantic that they called the Azores, or Isles of
+Hawks, and the Canaries, or Isles of Dogs. When Columbus was in Portugal
+in 1470 he became acquainted with a young woman whose name was Philippa
+Perestrelo. In 1473 he married her.
+
+Now Philippa's father, before his death, had been governor of Porto
+Santo, one of the Azores, and Columbus and his wife went off there to
+live. In the governor's house Columbus found a lot of charts and maps
+that told him about parts of the ocean that he had never before seen,
+and made him feel certain that he was right in saying that if he sailed
+away to the West he should find Cathay.
+
+At that time there was an old man who lived in Florence, a city of
+Italy. His name was Toscanelli. He was a great scholar and studied the
+stars and made maps, and was a very wise man. Columbus knew what a wise
+old scholar Toscanelli was, for Florence is not very far from Genoa. So
+while he was living in the Azores he wrote to this old scholar asking
+him what he thought about his idea that a man could sail around the
+world until he reached the land called the Indies and at last found
+Cathay.
+
+Toscanelli wrote to Columbus saying that he believed his idea was the
+right one, and he said it would be a grand thing to do, if Columbus
+dared to try it. "Perhaps," he said, "you can find all those splendid
+things that I know are in Cathay--the great cities with marble bridges,
+the houses of marble covered with gold, the jewels and the spices and
+the precious stones, and all the other wonderful and magnificent things.
+I do not wonder you wish to try," he said, "for if you find Cathay it
+will be a wonderful thing for you and for Portugal."
+
+That settled it with Columbus. If this wise old scholar said he was
+right, he must be right. So he left his home in the Azores and went to
+Portugal. This was in 1475, and from that time on, for seventeen long
+years he was trying to get some king or prince to help him sail to the
+West to find Cathay.
+
+But not one of the people who could have helped him, if they had really
+wished to, believed in Columbus. As I told you, they said that he was
+crazy. The king of Portugal, whose name was John, did a very unkind
+thing--I am sure you would call it a mean trick. Columbus had gone to
+him with his story and asked for ships and sailors. The king and his
+chief men refused to help him; but King John said to himself, "Perhaps
+there is something in this worth looking after and, if so, perhaps I can
+have my own people find Cathay and save the money that Columbus will
+want to keep for himself as his share of what he finds." So one day he
+copied off the sailing directions that Columbus had left with him, and
+gave them to one of his own captains without letting Columbus know
+anything about it. The Portuguese captain sailed away to the West in the
+direction Columbus had marked down, but a great storm came up and so
+frightened the sailors that they turned around in a hurry. Then they
+hunted up Columbus and began to abuse him for getting them into such a
+scrape. "You might as well expect to find land in the sky," they said,
+"as in those terrible waters."
+
+And when, in this way, Columbus found out that King John had tried to
+use his ideas without letting him know anything about it, he was very
+angry. His wife had died in the midst of this mean trick of the
+Portuguese king, and so, taking with him his little five-year-old son,
+Diego, he left Portugal secretly and went over into Spain.
+
+Near the little town of Palos, in western Spain, is a green hill looking
+out toward the Atlantic. Upon this hill stands an old building that,
+four hundred years ago, was used as a convent or home for priests. It
+was called the Convent of Rabida, and the priest at the head of it was
+named the Friar Juan Perez. One autumn day, in the year 1484, Friar Juan
+Perez saw a dusty traveler with a little boy talking with the
+gate-keeper of the convent. The stranger was so tall and fine-looking,
+and seemed such an interesting man, that Friar Juan went out and began
+to talk with him. This man was Columbus.
+
+As they talked, the priest grew more and more interested in what
+Columbus said. He invited him into the convent to stay for a few days,
+and he asked some other people--the doctors of Palos and some of the sea
+captains and sailors of the town--to come and talk with this stranger
+who had such a singular idea about sailing across the Atlantic.
+
+It ended in Columbus's staying some months in Palos, waiting for a
+chance to go and see the king and queen. At last, in 1485, he set out
+for the Spanish court with a letter to a priest who was a friend of
+Friar Juan's, and who could help him to see the king and queen.
+
+At that time the king and queen of Spain were fighting to drive out of
+Spain the people called the Moors. These people came from Africa, but
+they had lived in Spain for many years and had once been a very rich and
+powerful nation. They were not Spaniards; they were not Christians. So
+all Spaniards and all Christians hated them and tried to drive them out
+of Europe.
+
+The king and queen of Spain who were fighting the Moors were named
+Ferdinand and Isabella. They were pretty good people as kings and queens
+went in those days, but they did a great many very cruel and very mean
+things, just as the kings and queens of those days were apt to do. I am
+afraid we should not think they were very nice people nowadays. We
+certainly should not wish our American boys and girls to look up to them
+as good and true and noble.
+
+When Columbus first came to them, they were with the army in the camp
+near the city of Cordova. The king and queen had no time to listen to
+what they thought were crazy plans, and poor Columbus could get no one
+to talk with him who could be of any help. So he was obliged to go back
+to drawing maps and selling books to make enough money to support
+himself and his little Diego.
+
+But at last, through the friend of good Friar Juan Perez of Rabida, who
+was a priest at the court, and named Talavera, and to whom he had a
+letter of introduction, Columbus found a chance to talk over his plans
+with a number of priests and scholars in the city of Salamanca where
+there was a famous college and many learned men.
+
+Columbus told his story. He said what he wished to do, and asked these
+learned men to say a good word for him to Ferdinand and Isabella so that
+he could have the ships and sailors to sail to Cathay. But it was of no
+use.
+
+"What! sail away around the world?" those wise men cried in horror.
+"Why, you are crazy! The world is not round; it is flat. Your ships
+would tumble off the edge of the world and all the king's money and all
+the king's men would be lost. No, no; go away; you must not trouble the
+queen or even mention such a ridiculous thing again."
+
+So the most of them said. But one or two thought it might be worth
+trying. Cathay was a very rich country, and if this foolish fellow were
+willing to run the risk and did succeed, it would be a good thing for
+Spain, as the king and queen would need a great deal of money after the
+war with the Moors was over. At any rate, it was a chance worth thinking
+about.
+
+And so, although Columbus was dreadfully disappointed, he thought that
+if he had only a few friends at Court who were ready to say a good word
+for him he must not give up, but must try, try again. And so he stayed
+in Spain.
+
+When you wish very much to do a certain thing, it is dreadfully hard to
+be patient: it is harder still to have to wait. Columbus had to do both.
+The wars against the Moors were of much greater interest to the king and
+queen of Spain than was the finding of a new and very uncertain way to
+get to Cathay. If it had not been for the patience and what we call the
+persistence of Columbus, America would never have been discovered--at
+least not in his time.
+
+He stayed in Spain. He grew poorer and poorer. He was almost friendless.
+It seemed as if his great enterprise must be given up. But he never lost
+hope. He never stopped trying. Even when he failed, he kept on hoping
+and kept on trying. He felt certain that sometime he should succeed.
+
+As we have seen, he tried to interest the rulers of different countries,
+but without success. He tried to get help from his old home-town of
+Genoa and failed; he tried Portugal and failed; he tried the Republic of
+Venice and failed; he tried the king and queen of Spain and failed; he
+tried some of the richest and most powerful of the nobles of Spain and
+failed; he tried the king of England (whom he got his brother,
+Bartholomew Columbus, to see) and failed. There was still left the king
+of France. He would make one last attempt to win the king and queen of
+Spain to his side and if he failed with them he would try the last of
+the rulers of Western Europe, the king of France.
+
+He followed the king and queen of Spain as they went from place to place
+fighting the Moors. He hoped that some day, when they wished to think of
+something besides fighting, they might think of him and the gold and
+jewels and spices of Cathay.
+
+The days grew into months, the months into years, and still the war
+against the Moors kept on; and still Columbus waited for the chance that
+did not come. People grew to know him as "the crazy explorer" as they
+met him in the streets or on the church steps of Seville or Cordova, and
+even ragged little boys of the town, sharp-eyed and shrill-voiced as
+such ragged little urchins are, would run after this big man with the
+streaming white hair and the tattered cloak, calling him names or
+tapping their brown little foreheads with their dirty fingers to show
+that even they knew that he was "as crazy as a loon."
+
+At last he decided to make one more attempt before giving it up in
+Spain. His money was gone; his friends were few; but he remembered his
+acquaintances at Palos and so he journeyed back to see once more his
+good friend Friar Juan Perez at the Convent of Rabida on the hill that
+looked out upon the Atlantic he was so anxious to cross.
+
+It was in the month of November, 1491, that he went back to the Convent
+of Rabida. If he could not get any encouragement there, he was
+determined to stay in Spain no longer but to go away and try the king of
+France.
+
+Once more he talked over the finding of Cathay with the priests and the
+sailors of Palos. They saw how patient he was; how persistent he was;
+how he would never give up his ideas until he had tried them. They were
+moved by his determination. They began to believe in him more and more.
+They resolved to help him. One of the principal sea captains of Palos
+was named Martin Alonso Pinzon. He became so interested that he offered
+to lend Columbus money enough to make one last appeal to the king and
+queen of Spain, and if Columbus should succeed with them, this Captain
+Pinzon said he would go into partnership with Columbus and help him out
+when it came to getting ready to sail to Cathay.
+
+This was a move in the right direction. At once a messenger was sent to
+the splendid Spanish camp before the city of Granada, the last
+unconquered city of the Moors of Spain. The king and queen of Spain had
+been so long trying to capture Granada that this camp was really a city,
+with gates and walls and houses. It was called Santa Fe. Queen Isabella,
+who was in Santa Fe, after some delay, agreed to hear more about the
+crazy scheme of this persistent Genoese sailor, and the Friar Juan Perez
+was sent for. He talked so well in behalf of his friend Columbus that
+the queen became still more interested. She ordered Columbus to come and
+see her, and sent him sixty-five dollars to pay for a mule, a new suit
+of clothes, and the journey to court.
+
+About Christmas time, in the year 1491, Columbus, mounted upon his mule,
+rode into the Spanish camp before the city of Granada. But even now,
+when he had been told to come, he had to wait. Granada was almost
+captured; the Moors were almost conquered. At last the end came. On the
+second of January, 1492, the Moorish king gave up the keys of his
+beloved city, and the great Spanish banner was hoisted on the highest
+tower of the Alhambra--the handsomest building in Granada and one of the
+most beautiful in the world. The Moors were driven out of Spain and
+Columbus's chance had come.
+
+So he appeared before Queen Isabella and her chief men and told them
+again of all his plans and desires. The queen and her advisers sat in a
+great room in that splendid Alhambra I have told you of. King Ferdinand
+was not there. He did not believe in Columbus and did not wish to let
+him have money, ships, or sailors to lose in such a foolish way. But as
+Columbus stood before her and talked so earnestly about how he expected
+to find the Indies and Cathay and what he hoped to bring away from
+there, Queen Isabella listened and thought the plan worth trying.
+
+Then a singular thing happened. You would think if you wished for
+something very much that you would be willing to give up a good deal for
+the sake of getting it. Columbus had worked and waited for seventeen
+years. He had never got what he wanted. He was always being
+disappointed. And yet, as he talked to the queen and told her what he
+wished to do, he said he must have so much as a reward for doing it that
+the queen and her chief men were simply amazed at his--well, what the
+boys to-day call "cheek"--that they would have nothing to do with him.
+This man really is crazy, they said. This poor Genoese sailor comes here
+without a thing except his very odd ideas and almost "wants the earth"
+as a reward. This is not exactly what they said, but it is what they
+meant.
+
+His few friends begged him to be more modest. "Do not ask so much," they
+said, "or you will get nothing." But Columbus was determined. "I have
+worked and waited all these years," he replied. "I know just what I can
+do and just how much I can do for the king and queen of Spain. They must
+pay me what I ask and promise what I say, or I will go somewhere else."
+"Go, then!" said the queen and her advisers. And Columbus turned his
+back on what seemed almost his last hope, mounted his mule, and rode
+away.
+
+Then something else happened. As Columbus rode off to find the French
+king, sick and tired of all his long and useless labor at the Spanish
+court, his few firm friends there saw that, unless they did something
+right away, all the glory and all the gain of this enterprise Columbus
+had taught them to believe in would be lost to Spain. So two of them,
+whose names were Santangel and Quintanilla, rushed into the queen's room
+and begged her, if she wished to become the greatest queen in
+Christendom, to call back this wandering sailor, agree to his terms, and
+profit by his labors.
+
+What if he does ask a great deal? they said. He has spent his life
+thinking his plan out; no wonder he feels that he ought to have a good
+share of what he finds. What he asks is really small compared with what
+Spain will gain. The war with the Moors has cost you ever so much; your
+money chests are empty; Columbus will fill them up. The people of Cathay
+are heathen; Columbus will help you make them Christian men. The Indies
+and Cathay are full of gold and jewels; Columbus will bring you home
+shiploads of treasures. Spain has conquered the Moors; Columbus will
+help you conquer Cathay.
+
+In fact, they talked to Queen Isabella so strongly and so earnestly,
+that she, too, became excited over this chance for glory and riches that
+she had almost lost. "Quick! send for Columbus. Call him back!" said
+she. "I agree to his terms. If King Ferdinand cannot or will not take
+the risk, I, the queen, will do it all. Quick! do not let the man get
+into France. After him. Bring him back!"
+
+And without delay a royal messenger, mounted on a swift horse, was sent
+at full gallop to bring Columbus back.
+
+All this time poor Columbus felt bad enough. Everything had gone wrong.
+Now he must go away into a new land and do it all over again. Kings and
+queens, he felt, were not to be depended upon, and he remembered a place
+in the Bible where it said: "Put not your trust in princes." Sad,
+solitary, and heavy-hearted, he jogged slowly along toward the
+mountains, wondering what the king of France would say to him, and
+whether it was really worth trying.
+
+Just as he was riding across the little bridge called the Bridge of
+Pinos, some six miles from Granada, he heard the quick hoof-beats of a
+horse behind him. It was a great spot for robbers, and Columbus felt of
+the little money he had in his traveling pouch, and wondered whether he
+must lose it all. The hoof-beats came nearer. Then a voice hailed him.
+"Turn back, turn back!" the messenger cried out. "The queen bids you
+return to Granada. She grants you all you ask."
+
+Columbus hesitated. Ought he to trust this promise, he wondered. Put not
+your trust in princes, the verse in the Bible had said. If I go back I
+may only be put off and worried as I have been before. And yet, perhaps
+she means what she says. At any rate, I will go back and try once more.
+
+So, on the little Bridge of Pinos, he turned his mule around and rode
+back to Granada. And, sure enough, when he saw Queen Isabella she agreed
+to all that he asked. If he found Cathay, Columbus was to be made
+admiral for life of all the new seas and oceans into which he might
+sail; he was to be chief ruler of all the lands he might find; he was to
+keep one tenth part of all the gold and jewels and treasures he should
+bring away, and was to have his "say" in all questions about the new
+lands. For his part (and this was because of the offer of his friend at
+Palos, Captain Pinzon) he agreed to pay one eighth of all the expenses
+of this expedition and of all new enterprises, and was to have one
+eighth of all the profits from them.
+
+So Columbus had his wish at last. The queen's men figured up how much
+money they could let him have; they called him "Don Christopher
+Columbus," "Your Excellency," and "Admiral," and at once he set about
+getting ready for his voyage.
+
+
+
+416
+
+ Most children who read public library books
+ know something about the work of Horace E.
+ Scudder (1838-1902). For eight years he was
+ editor of the _Atlantic Monthly_, but he is
+ more widely known as a writer and compiler of
+ books for children. The entertaining and
+ informing _Bodley Books_ were widely read by a
+ former generation and are still decidedly worth
+ reading. Perhaps his most popular work is _The
+ Children's Book_, a collection of literature
+ suitable for the first four grades. Pupils in
+ the third, fourth, and fifth grades read with
+ pleasure _The Book of Fables_, _The Book of
+ Folk Stories_, _Fables and Folk Stories_, and
+ _The Book of Legends_. Mr. Scudder was the
+ leading advocate of introducing literature into
+ the schools at a time when such advocacy was
+ uphill work, and he edited a great number of
+ literary classics for school use. He wrote a
+ number of historical and biographical works of
+ value. _George Washington_, from which the next
+ selection is taken, is considered by many to be
+ the best biography of Washington that has been
+ written for children. (The chapter below is
+ used by permission of and special arrangement
+ with The Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.)
+
+
+THE BOYHOOD OF WASHINGTON
+
+HORACE E. SCUDDER
+
+It was near the shore of the Potomac River, between Pope's Creek and
+Bridge's Creek, that Augustine Washington lived when his son George was
+born. The land had been in the family ever since Augustine's
+grandfather, John Washington, had bought it, when he came over from
+England in 1657. John Washington was a soldier and a public-spirited
+man, and so the parish in which he lived--for Virginia was divided into
+parishes as some other colonies into townships--was named Washington.
+It is a quiet neighborhood; not a sign remains of the old house, and the
+only mark of the place is a stone slab, broken and overgrown with weeds
+and brambles, which lies on a bed of bricks taken from the remnants of
+the old chimney of the house. It bears the inscription:--
+
+ Here
+ The 11th of February, 1732 (old style)
+ George Washington
+ was born
+
+The English had lately agreed to use the calendar of Pope Gregory, which
+added eleven days to the reckoning, but people still used the old style
+as well as the new. By the new style, the birthday was February 22, and
+that is the day which is now observed. The family into which the child
+was born consisted of the father and mother, Augustine and Mary
+Washington, and two boys, Lawrence and Augustine. These were sons of
+Augustine Washington by a former wife who had died four years before.
+George Washington was the eldest of the children of Augustine and Mary
+Washington; he had afterward three brothers and two sisters, but one of
+the sisters died in infancy.
+
+It was not long after George Washington's birth that the house in which
+he was born was burned, and as his father was at the time especially
+interested in some iron-works at a distance, it was determined not to
+rebuild upon the lonely place. Accordingly Augustine Washington removed
+his family to a place which he owned in Stafford County, on the banks of
+the Rappahannock River opposite Fredericksburg. The house is not now
+standing, but a picture was made of it before it was destroyed. It was,
+like many Virginia houses of the day, divided into four rooms on a
+floor, and had great outside chimneys at either end.
+
+Here George Washington spent his childhood. He learned to read, write,
+and cipher at a small school kept by Hobby, the sexton of the parish
+church. Among his playmates was Richard Henry Lee, who was afterward a
+famous Virginian. When the boys grew up, they wrote to each other of
+grave matters of war and state, but here is the beginning of their
+correspondence, written when they were nine years old:--
+
+ "Richard Henry Lee to George Washington:
+
+ "Pa brought me two pretty books full of
+ pictures he got them in Alexandria they have
+ pictures of dogs and cats and tigers and
+ elefants and ever so many pretty things cousin
+ bids me send you one of them it has a picture
+ of an elefant and a little Indian boy on his
+ back like uncle jo's sam pa says if I learn my
+ tasks good he will let uncle jo bring me to see
+ you will you ask your ma to let you come to see
+ me.
+
+ "Richard henry Lee."
+
+ "George Washington to Richard Henry Lee:
+
+ "Dear Dickey I thank you very much for the
+ pretty picturebook you gave me. Sam asked me to
+ show him the pictures and I showed him all the
+ pictures in it; and I read to him how the tame
+ elephant took care of the master's little boy,
+ and put him on his back and would not let
+ anybody touch his master's little son. I can
+ read three or four pages sometimes without
+ missing a word. Ma says I may go to see you,
+ and stay all day with you next week if it be
+ not rainy. She says I may ride my pony Hero if
+ Uncle Ben will go with me and lead Hero. I have
+ a little piece of poetry about the picture book
+ you gave me, but I mustn't tell you who wrote
+ the poetry.
+
+ "G. W.'s compliments to R. H. L.,
+ And likes his book full well,
+ Henceforth will count him his friend,
+ And hopes many happy days he may spend.
+
+ "Your good friend,
+ "George Washington.
+
+ "I am going to get a whip top soon, and you may
+ see it and whip it."
+
+It looks very much as if Richard Henry sent his letter off just as it
+was written. I suspect that his correspondent's letter was looked over,
+corrected, and copied before it was sent. Very possibly Augustine
+Washington was absent at the time on one of his journeys; but at any
+rate the boy owed most of his training to his mother, for only two years
+after this his father died, and he was left to his mother's care.
+
+She was a woman born to command, and since she was left alone with a
+family and an estate to care for, she took the reins into her own hands,
+and never gave them up to any one else. She used to drive about in an
+old-fashioned open chaise, visiting the various parts of her farm, just
+as a planter would do on horseback. The story is told that she had given
+an agent directions how to do a piece of work, and he had seen fit to do
+it differently, because he thought his way a better one. He showed her
+the improvement.
+
+"And pray," said the lady, "who gave you any exercise of judgment in the
+matter? I command you, sir; there is nothing left for you but to obey."
+
+In those days, more than now, a boy used very formal language when
+addressing his mother. He might love her warmly, but he was expected to
+treat her with a great show of respect. When Washington wrote to his
+mother, even after he was of age, he began his letter, "Honored Madam,"
+and signed it, "Your dutiful son." This was a part of the manners of the
+time. It was like the stiff dress which men wore when they paid their
+respects to others; it was put on for the occasion, and one would have
+been thought very unmannerly who did not make a marked difference
+between his every-day dress and that which he wore when he went into the
+presence of his betters. So Washington, when he wrote to his mother,
+would not be so rude as to say, "Dear Mother."
+
+Such habits as this go deeper than mere forms of speech. I do not
+suppose that the sons of this lady feared her, but they stood in awe of
+her, which is quite a different thing.
+
+"We were all as mute as mice, when in her presence," says one of
+Washington's companions; and common report makes her to have been very
+much such a woman as her son afterward was a man.
+
+I think that George Washington owed two strong traits to his mother--a
+governing spirit and a spirit of order and method. She taught him many
+lessons and gave him many rules; but, after all, it was her character
+shaping his which was most powerful. She taught him to be truthful, but
+her lessons were not half so forcible as her own truthfulness.
+
+There is a story told of George Washington's boyhood--unfortunately
+there are not many stories--which is to the point. His father had taken
+a great deal of pride in his blooded horses, and his mother afterward
+took pains to keep the stock pure. She had several young horses that had
+not yet been broken, and one of them in particular, a sorrel, was
+extremely spirited. No one had been able to do anything with it, and it
+was pronounced thoroughly vicious, as people are apt to pronounce horses
+which they have not learned to master. George was determined to ride
+this colt, and told his companions that if they would help him catch it,
+he would ride and tame it.
+
+Early in the morning they set out for the pasture, where the boys
+managed to surround the sorrel and then to put a bit into its mouth.
+Washington sprang upon its back, the boys dropped the bridle, and away
+flew the angry animal. Its rider at once began to command; the horse
+resisted, backing about the field, rearing and plunging. The boys became
+thoroughly alarmed, but Washington kept his seat, never once losing his
+self-control or his mastery of the colt. The struggle was a sharp one;
+when suddenly, as if determined to rid itself of its rider, the creature
+leaped into the air with a tremendous bound. It was its last. The
+violence burst a blood-vessel, and the noble horse fell dead.
+
+Before the boys could sufficiently recover to consider how they should
+extricate themselves from the scrape, they were called to breakfast; and
+the mistress of the house, knowing that they had been in the fields,
+began to ask after her stock.
+
+"Pray, young gentlemen," said she, "have you seen my blooded colts in
+your rambles? I hope they are well taken care of. My favorite, I am
+told, is as large as his sire."
+
+The boys looked at one another, and no one liked to speak. Of course the
+mother repeated her question.
+
+"The sorrel is dead, madam," said her son. "I killed him!"
+
+And then he told the whole story. They say that his mother flushed with
+anger, as her son often used to, and then, like him, controlled herself,
+and presently said, quietly:--
+
+"It is well; but while I regret the loss of my favorite, I rejoice in my
+son who always speaks the truth."
+
+The story of Washington's killing the blooded colt is of a piece with
+other stories less particular, which show that he was a very athletic
+fellow. Of course, when a boy becomes famous, every one likes to
+remember the wonderful things he did before he was famous; and
+Washington's playmates, when they grew up, used to show the spot by the
+Rappahannock, near Fredericksburg, where he stood and threw a stone to
+the opposite bank; and at the celebrated Natural Bridge, the arch of
+which is two hundred feet above the ground, they always tell the visitor
+that George Washington threw a stone in the air the whole height. He
+undoubtedly took part in all the sports which were the favorites of his
+country at that time--he pitched heavy bars, tossed quoits, ran, leaped,
+and wrestled; for he was a powerful, large-limbed young fellow, and he
+had a very large and strong hand.
+
+
+
+417
+
+ The _Autobiography_ by Benjamin Franklin
+ (1706-1790) has become a classic in American
+ literature. Its simple style, practical
+ doctrine of industry and economy, and pleasing
+ revelation of the character of one of America's
+ greatest statesmen make it appropriate for use
+ in the seventh and eighth grades. (See also
+ note to No. 250.)
+
+
+THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
+
+At ten years old I was taken home to assist my father in his business,
+which was that of a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler, a business he was
+not bred to, but had assumed on his arrival in New England, and on
+finding his dyeing trade would not maintain his family, being in little
+request. Accordingly, I was employed in cutting wick for the candles,
+filling the dipping mold and the molds for cast candles, attending the
+shop, going of errands, etc.
+
+I continued thus employed in my father's business for two years, that
+is, till I was twelve years old; and my brother John, who was bred to
+that business, having left my father, married, and set up for himself at
+Rhode Island, there was all appearance that I was destined to supply his
+place, and become a tallow-chandler. But my dislike to the trade
+continuing, my father was under apprehensions that if he did not find
+one for me more agreeable, I should break away and get to sea, as his
+son Josiah had done, to his great vexation. He therefore sometimes took
+me to walk with him, and see joiners, bricklayers, turners, braziers,
+etc., at their work, that he might observe my inclination, and endeavor
+to fix it on some trade or other on land. It has ever since been a
+pleasure to me to see good workmen handle their tools; and it has been
+useful to me, having learned so much by it as to be able to do little
+jobs myself in my house when a workman could not readily be got, and to
+construct little machines for my experiments, while the intention of
+making the experiment was fresh and warm in my mind. My father at last
+fixed upon the cutler's trade, and my uncle Benjamin's son Samuel, who
+was bred to that business in London, being about that time established
+in Boston, I was sent to be with him some time on liking. But his
+expectations of a fee with me displeasing my father, I was taken home
+again.
+
+From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came
+into my hands was ever laid out in books. Pleased with the _Pilgrim's
+Progress_, my first collection was of John Bunyan's works in separate
+little volumes. I afterward sold them to enable me to buy R. Burton's
+_Historical Collections_. They were small chapmen's books, and cheap, 40
+or 50 in all. My father's little library consisted chiefly of books in
+polemic divinity, most of which I read, and have since often regretted
+that, at a time when I had such a thirst for knowledge, more proper
+books had not fallen in my way, since it was now resolved I should not
+be a clergyman. Plutarch's _Lives_ there was in which I read abundantly,
+and I still think that time spent to great advantage. There was also a
+book of De Foe's, called an _Essay on Projects_, and another of Dr.
+Mather's, called _Essays to do Good_, which perhaps gave me a turn of
+thinking that had an influence on some of the principal future events of
+my life.
+
+This bookish inclination at length determined my father to make me a
+printer, though he had already one son (James) of that profession. In
+1717 my brother James returned from England with a press and letters to
+set up his business in Boston. I liked it much better than that of my
+father, but still had a hankering for the sea. To prevent the
+apprehended effect of such an inclination, my father was impatient to
+have me bound to my brother. I stood out some time, but at last was
+persuaded, and signed the indentures when I was yet but twelve years
+old. I was to serve as an apprentice till I was twenty-one years of age,
+only I was to be allowed journeyman's wages during the last year. In a
+little time I made great proficiency in the business, and became a
+useful hand to my brother. I now had access to better books. An
+acquaintance with the apprentices of booksellers enabled me sometimes to
+borrow a small one, which I was careful to return soon and clean. Often
+I sat up in my room reading the greatest part of the night, when the
+book was borrowed in the evening and to be returned early in the
+morning, lest it should be missed or wanted.
+
+And after some time an ingenious tradesman, Mr. Matthew Adams, who had a
+pretty collection of books, and who frequented our printing-house, took
+notice of me, invited me to his library, and very kindly lent me such
+books as I chose to read. I now took a fancy to poetry, and made some
+little pieces; my brother, thinking it might turn to account, encouraged
+me, and put me on composing occasional ballads. One was called _The
+Lighthouse Tragedy_, and contained an account of the drowning of Captain
+Worthilake, with his two daughters: the other was a sailor's song, on
+the taking of _Teach_ (or Blackbeard) the pirate. They were wretched
+stuff, in the Grub-street-ballad style; and when they were printed he
+sent me about the town to sell them. The first sold wonderfully, the
+event being recent, having made a great noise. This flattered my vanity;
+but my father discouraged me by ridiculing my performances, and telling
+me verse-makers were generally beggars. So I escaped being a poet, most
+probably a very bad one; but as prose writing has been of great use to
+me in the course of my life, and was a principal means of my
+advancement, I shall tell you how, in such a situation, I acquired what
+little ability I have in that way.
+
+There was another bookish lad in the town, John Collins by name, with
+whom I was intimately acquainted. We sometimes disputed, and very fond
+we were of argument, and very desirous of confuting one another, which
+disputatious turn, by the way, is apt to become a very bad habit, making
+people often extremely disagreeable in company by the contradiction that
+is necessary to bring it into practice; and thence, besides souring and
+spoiling the conversation, is productive of disgusts and, perhaps,
+enmities where you may have occasion for friendship. I had caught it by
+reading my father's books of dispute about religion. Persons of good
+sense, I have since observed, seldom fall into it, except lawyers,
+university men, and men of all sorts that have been bred at Edinburgh.
+
+A question was once, somehow or other, started between Collins and me,
+of the propriety of educating the female sex in learning, and their
+abilities for study. He was of opinion that it was improper, and that
+they were naturally unequal to it. I took the contrary side, perhaps a
+little for dispute's sake. He was naturally more eloquent, had a ready
+plenty of words; and sometimes, as I thought, bore me down more by his
+fluency than by the strength of his reasons. As we parted without
+settling the point, and were not to see one another again for some time,
+I sat down to put my arguments in writing, which I copied fair and sent
+to him. He answered, and I replied. Three or four letters of a side had
+passed, when my father happened to find my papers and read them. Without
+entering into the discussion, he took occasion to talk to me about the
+manner of my writing; observed that, though I had the advantage of my
+antagonist in correct spelling and pointing (which I owed to the
+printing-house), I fell far short in elegance of expression, in method
+and in perspicuity, of which he convinced me by several instances. I saw
+the justice of his remarks, and thence grew more attentive to the manner
+in writing, and determined to endeavor at improvement.
+
+About this time I met with an odd volume of the _Spectator_. It was the
+third. I had never before seen any of them. I bought it, read it over
+and over, and was much delighted with it. I thought the writing
+excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With this view I took
+some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each
+sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at the
+book, tried to complete the papers again, by expressing each hinted
+sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in
+any suitable words that should come to hand. Then I compared my
+_Spectator_ with the original, discovered some of my faults, and
+corrected them. But I found I wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in
+recollecting and using them, which I thought I should have acquired
+before that time if I had gone on making verses; since the continual
+occasion for words of the same import, but of different length, to suit
+the measure, or of different sound for the rhyme, would have laid me
+under a constant necessity of searching for variety, and also have
+tended to fix that variety in my mind, and make me master of it.
+Therefore I took some of the tales and turned them into verse; and,
+after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the prose, turned them
+back again. I also sometimes jumbled my collections of hints into
+confusion, and after some weeks endeavored to reduce them into the best
+order, before I began to form the full sentences and complete the paper.
+This was to teach me method in the arrangement of thoughts. By comparing
+my work afterwards with the original, I discovered many faults and
+amended them; but I sometimes had the pleasure of fancying that, in
+certain particulars of small import, I had been lucky enough to improve
+the method or the language, and this encouraged me to think I might
+possibly in time come to be a tolerable English writer, of which I was
+extremely ambitious. My time for these exercises and for reading was at
+night, after work or before it began in the morning, or on Sundays, when
+I contrived to be in the printing-house alone, avoiding as much as I
+could the common attendance on public worship which my father used to
+exact of me when I was under his care, and which indeed I still thought
+a duty, though I could not, as it seemed to me, afford time to practice
+it.
+
+When about 16 years of age I happened to meet with a book, written by
+one Tryon, recommending a vegetable diet. I determined to go into it.
+My brother, being yet unmarried, did not keep house, but boarded himself
+and his apprentices in another family. My refusing to eat flesh
+occasioned an inconveniency, and I was frequently chid for my
+singularity. I made myself acquainted with Tryon's manner of preparing
+some of his dishes, such as boiling potatoes or rice, making hasty
+pudding, and a few others, and then proposed to my brother, that if he
+would give me, weekly, half the money he paid for my board, I would
+board myself. He instantly agreed to it, and I presently found that I
+could save half what he paid me. This was an additional fund for buying
+books. But I had another advantage in it. My brother and the rest going
+from the printing-house to their meals, I remained there alone, and,
+dispatching presently my light repast, which often was no more than a
+biscuit or a slice of bread, a handful of raisins or a tart from the
+pastry-cook's, and a glass of water, had the rest of the time till their
+return for study, in which I made the greater progress, from that
+greater clearness of head and quicker apprehension which usually attend
+temperance in eating and drinking.
+
+And now it was that, being on some occasion made ashamed of my ignorance
+in figures, which I had twice failed in learning when at school, I took
+Cocker's book of arithmetic, and went through the whole by myself with
+great ease. I also read Seller's and Shermy's books of navigation, and
+became acquainted with the little geometry they contain; but never
+proceeded far in that science. And I read about this time Locke _On
+Human Understanding_, and the _Art of Thinking_, by Messrs. du Port
+Royal.
+
+While I was intent on improving my language, I met with an English
+grammar (I think it was Greenwood's), at the end of which there were two
+little sketches of the arts of rhetoric and logic, the latter finishing
+with a specimen of a dispute in the Socratic method; and soon after I
+procured Xenophon's _Memorable Things of Socrates_, wherein there are
+many instances of the same method. I was charmed with it, adopted it,
+dropped my abrupt contradiction and positive argumentation, and put on
+the humble inquirer and doubter. And being then, from reading
+Shaftesbury and Collins, become a real doubter in many points of our
+religious doctrine, I found this method safest for myself and very
+embarrassing to those against whom I used it; therefore I took a delight
+in it, practiced it continually, and grew very artful and expert in
+drawing people, even of superior knowledge, into concessions, the
+consequences of which they did not foresee, entangling them in
+difficulties out of which they could not extricate themselves, and so
+obtaining victories that neither myself nor my cause always deserved. I
+continued this method some few years, but gradually left it, retaining
+only the habit of expressing myself in terms of modest diffidence; never
+using, when I advanced any thing that may possibly be disputed, the
+words _certainly_, _undoubtedly_, or any others that give the air of
+positiveness to an opinion; but rather say, I conceive or apprehend a
+thing to be so and so; it appears to me, or _I should think it so or
+so_, for such and such reasons; or _I imagine it to be so_; or _it is
+so, if I am not mistaken_. This habit, I believe, has been of great
+advantage to me when I have had occasion to inculcate my opinion, and
+persuade men into measures that I have been from time to time engaged
+in promoting; and, as the chief ends of conversation are to _inform_ or
+to be _informed_, to _please_ or to _persuade_, I wish well-meaning,
+sensible men would not lessen their power of doing good by a positive,
+assuming manner, that seldom fails to disgust, tends to create
+opposition, and to defeat every one of those purposes for which speech
+was given to us, to wit, giving or receiving information or pleasure.
+For, if you would inform, a positive and dogmatical manner in advancing
+your sentiments may provoke contradiction and prevent a candid
+attention. If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of
+others, and yet at the same time express yourself as firmly fixed in
+your present opinions, modest, sensible men, who do not love
+disputation, will probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of
+your error. And by such a manner, you can seldom hope to recommend
+yourself in _pleasing_ your hearers, or to persuade those whose
+concurrence you desire. Pope says, judiciously:
+
+ "Men should be taught as if you taught them not,
+ And things unknown propos'd as things forgot";
+
+farther recommending to us
+
+ "To speak, tho' sure, with seeming diffidence."
+
+And he might have coupled with this line that which he has coupled with
+another, I think, less properly:
+
+ "For want of modesty is want of sense."
+
+If you ask, Why less properly? I must repeat the lines:
+
+ "Immodest words admit of no defense,
+ For want of modesty is want of sense."
+
+Now, is not _want of sense_ (where a man is so unfortunate as to want
+it) some apology for his _want of modesty_? and would not the lines
+stand more justly thus?
+
+ "Immodest words admit _but_ this defense,
+ That want of modesty is want of sense."
+
+This, however, I should submit to better judgments.
+
+My brother had, in 1720 or 1721, begun to print a newspaper. It was the
+second that appeared in America, and was called the _New England
+Courant_. The only one before it was the _Boston News-Letter_. I
+remember his being dissuaded by some of his friends from the
+undertaking, as not likely to succeed, one newspaper being, in their
+judgment, enough for America. At this time (1771) there are not less
+than five-and-twenty. He went on, however, with the undertaking, and
+after having worked in composing the types and printing off the sheets,
+I was employed to carry the papers through the streets to the customers.
+
+He had some ingenious men among his friends, who amused themselves by
+writing little pieces for this paper, which gained it credit and made it
+more in demand, and these gentlemen often visited us. Hearing their
+conversations, and their accounts of the approbation their papers were
+received with, I was excited to try my hand among them; but, being still
+a boy, and suspecting that my brother would object to printing any thing
+of mine in his paper if he knew it to be mine, I contrived to disguise
+my hand, and, writing an anonymous paper, I put it in at night under the
+door of the printing-house. It was found in the morning, and
+communicated to his writing friends when they called in as usual. They
+read it, commented on it in my hearing, and I had the exquisite pleasure
+of finding it met with their approbation, and that, in their different
+guesses at the author, none were named but men of some character among
+us for learning and ingenuity. I suppose now that I was rather lucky in
+my judges and that perhaps they were not really so very good ones as I
+then esteemed them.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+I then thought of going to New York, as the nearest place where there
+was a printer; and I was rather inclined to leave Boston when I
+reflected that I had already made myself a little obnoxious to the
+governing party, and, from the arbitrary proceedings of the Assembly in
+my brother's case, it was likely I might, if I stayed, soon bring myself
+into scrapes; and farther, that my indiscrete disputations about
+religion began to make me pointed at with horror by good people as an
+infidel or atheist. I determined on the point, but my father now siding
+with my brother, I was sensible that, if I attempted to go openly, means
+would be used to prevent me. My friend Collins, therefore, undertook to
+manage a little for me. He agreed with the captain of a New York sloop
+for my passage, under the notion of my being a young acquaintance of
+his, that had got into trouble, and therefore could not appear or come
+away publicly. So I sold some of my books to raise a little money, was
+taken on board privately, and as we had a fair wind, in three days I
+found myself in New York, near 300 miles from home, a boy of but 17,
+without the least recommendation to, or knowledge of any person in the
+place, and with very little money in my pocket.
+
+My inclinations for the sea were by this time worn out, or I might now
+have gratified them. But, having a trade, and supposing myself a pretty
+good workman, I offered my service to the printer in the place, old Mr.
+William Bradford, who had been the first printer in Pennsylvania, but
+removed from thence upon the quarrel of George Keith. He could give me
+no employment, having little to do, and help enough already; but says
+he, "My son at Philadelphia has lately lost his principal hand, Aquila
+Rose, by death; if you go thither, I believe he may employ you."
+Philadelphia was a hundred miles further; I set out, however, in a boat
+for Amboy, leaving my chest and things to follow me round by sea.
+
+In crossing the bay, we met with a squall that tore our rotten sails to
+pieces, prevented our getting into the Kill, and drove us upon Long
+Island. On our way, a drunken Dutchman, who was a passenger too, fell
+overboard; when he was sinking, I reached through the water to his shock
+pate, and drew him up, so that we got him in again. His ducking sobered
+him a little, and he went to sleep, taking first out of his pocket a
+book, which he desired I would dry for him. It proved to be my old
+favorite author, Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_, in Dutch, finely printed
+on good paper, with copper cuts, a dress better than I had ever seen it
+wear in its own language. I have since found that it has been translated
+into most of the languages of Europe, and suppose it has been more
+generally read than any other book, except perhaps the Bible. Honest
+John was the first that I know of who mixed narration and dialogue; a
+method of writing very engaging to the reader, who in the most
+interesting parts finds himself, as it were, brought into the company
+and present at the discourse. De Foe in his _Crusoe_, his _Moll
+Flanders_, _Religious Courtship_, _Family Instructor_, and other pieces,
+has imitated it with success; and Richardson has done the same in his
+_Pamela_, etc.
+
+When we drew near the island, we found it was at a place where there
+could be no landing, there being a great surf on the stony beach. So we
+dropped anchor, and swung around towards the shore. Some people came
+down to the water edge and hallooed to us, as we did to them; but the
+wind was so high, and the surf so loud, that we could not hear so as to
+understand each other. There were canoes on the shore, and we made
+signs, and hallooed that they should fetch us; but they either did not
+understand us, or thought it impracticable, so they went away, and night
+coming on, we had no remedy but to wait till the wind should abate; and,
+in the meantime, the boatman and I concluded to sleep, if we could; and
+so crowded into the scuttle, with the Dutchman, who was still wet, and
+the spray beating over the head of our boat, leaked through to us, so
+that we were soon almost as wet as he. In this manner we lay all night,
+with very little rest; but, the wind abating the next day, we made a
+shift to reach Amboy before night, having been thirty hours on the
+water, without victuals, or any drink but a bottle of filthy rum, the
+water we sailed on being salt.
+
+In the evening I found myself very feverish, and went in to bed; but,
+having read somewhere that cold water drunk plentifully was good for a
+fever, I followed the prescription, sweat plentifully most of the night,
+my fever left me, and in the morning, crossing the ferry, I proceeded on
+my journey on foot, having fifty miles to Burlington, where I was told I
+should find boats that would carry me the rest of the way to
+Philadelphia.
+
+It rained very hard all the day; I was thoroughly soaked, and by noon a
+good deal tired; so I stopped at a poor inn, where I stayed all night,
+beginning now to wish that I had never left home. I cut so miserable a
+figure, too, that I found, by the questions asked me, I was suspected to
+be some runaway servant, and in danger of being taken up on that
+suspicion. However, I proceeded the next day, and got in the evening to
+an inn, within eight or ten miles of Burlington, kept by one Dr. Brown.
+He entered into conversation with me while I took some refreshment, and,
+finding I had read a little, became very sociable and friendly. Our
+acquaintance continued as long as he lived. He had been, I imagine, an
+itinerant doctor, for there was no town in England, or country in
+Europe, of which he could not give a very particular account. He had
+some letters, and was ingenious, but much of an unbeliever, and wickedly
+undertook, some years after, to travesty the Bible in doggerel verse, as
+Cotton had done Virgil. By this means he set many of the facts in a very
+ridiculous light, and might have hurt weak minds if his work had been
+published; but it never was.
+
+At his house I lay that night, and the next morning reached Burlington,
+but had the mortification to find that the regular boats were gone a
+little before my coming, and no other expected to go before Tuesday,
+this being Saturday; wherefore I returned to an old woman in the town,
+of whom I had bought gingerbread to eat on the water, and asked her
+advice. She invited me to lodge at her house till a passage by water
+should offer; and being tired with my foot traveling, I accepted the
+invitation. She understanding I was a printer, would have had me stay at
+that town and follow my business, being ignorant of the stock necessary
+to begin with. She was very hospitable, gave me a dinner of ox-cheek
+with great good will, accepting only of a pot of ale in return; and I
+thought myself fixed till Tuesday should come. However, walking in the
+evening by the side of the river, a boat came by, which I found was
+going towards Philadelphia, with several people in her. They took me in,
+and, as there was no wind, we rowed all the way; and about midnight, not
+having yet seen the city, some of the company were confident we must
+have passed it, and would row no farther; the others knew not where we
+were; so we put toward the shore, got into a creek, landed near an old
+fence, with the rails of which we made a fire, the night being cold, in
+October, and there we remained till daylight. Then one of the company
+knew the place to be Cooper's Creek, a little above Philadelphia, which
+we saw as soon as we got out of the creek, and arrived there about eight
+or nine o'clock on the Sunday morning, and landed at the Market Street
+wharf.
+
+I have been the more particular in this description of my journey, and
+shall be so of my first entry into that city, that you may in your mind
+compare such unlikely beginnings with the figure I have since made
+there. I was in my working dress, my best clothes being to come round by
+sea. I was dirty from my journey; my pockets were stuffed out with
+shirts and stockings, and I knew no soul nor where to look for lodging.
+I was fatigued with traveling, rowing, and want of rest; I was very
+hungry; and my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar and about
+a shilling in copper. The latter I gave the people of the boat for my
+passage, who at first refused it, on account of my rowing; but I
+insisted on their taking it. A man being sometimes more generous when he
+has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of
+being thought to have but little.
+
+Then I walked up the street, gazing about till near the market-house I
+met a boy with bread. I had made many a meal on bread, and, inquiring
+where he got it, I went immediately to the baker's he directed me to, in
+Second Street, and asked for biscuit, intending such as we had in
+Boston; but they, it seems, were not made in Philadelphia. Then I asked
+for a three-penny loaf, and was told they had none such. So not
+considering or knowing the difference of money, and the greater
+cheapness nor the names of his bread, I bade him give me three-penny
+worth of any sort. He gave me, accordingly, three great puffy rolls. I
+was surprised at the quantity, but took it, and, having no room in my
+pockets, walked off with a roll under each arm, and eating the other.
+Thus I went up Market Street as far as Fourth Street, passing by the
+door of Mr. Read, my future wife's father; when she, standing at the
+door, saw me, and thought I made, as I certainly did, a most awkward,
+ridiculous appearance. Then I turned and went down Chestnut Street and
+part of Walnut Street, eating my roll all the way, and, coming round,
+found myself again at Market Street wharf, near the boat I came in, to
+which I went for a draught of the river water; and, being filled with
+one of my rolls, gave the other two to a woman and her child that came
+down the river in the boat with us, and were waiting to go farther.
+
+Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street, which by this time had
+many clean-dressed people in it, who were all walking the same way. I
+joined them, and thereby was led into the great meeting-house of the
+Quakers near the market. I sat down among them, and, after looking round
+awhile and hearing nothing said, being very drowsy through labor and
+want of rest the preceding night, I fell fast asleep, and continued so
+till the meeting broke up, when one was kind enough to rouse me. This
+was, therefore, the first house I was in, or slept in, in Philadelphia.
+
+Walking down again toward the river, and, looking in the faces of
+people, I met a young Quaker man, whose countenance I liked, and,
+accosting him, requested he would tell me where a stranger could get
+lodging. We were then near the sign of the Three Mariners. "Here," says
+he, "is one place that entertains strangers, but it is not a reputable
+house; if thee wilt walk with me I'll show thee a better." He brought me
+to the Crooked Billet, in Water Street. Here I got a dinner; and, while
+I was eating it, several sly questions were asked me, as it seemed to be
+suspected from my youth and appearance that I might be some runaway.
+
+After dinner my sleepiness returned, and being shown to a bed, I lay
+down without undressing, and slept till six in the evening, was called
+to supper, went to bed again very early, and slept soundly till next
+morning. Then I made myself as tidy as I could, and went to Andrew
+Bradford the printer's. I found in the shop the old man his father, whom
+I had seen at New York, and who, traveling on horseback, had got to
+Philadelphia before me. He introduced me to his son, who received me
+civilly, gave me a breakfast, but told me he did not at present want a
+hand, being lately supplied with one; but there was another printer in
+town, lately set up, one Keimer, who, perhaps, might employ me; if not,
+I should be welcome to lodge at his house, and he would give me a little
+work to do now and then till fuller business should offer.
+
+The old gentleman said he would go with me to the new printer; and when
+we found him, "Neighbor," says Bradford, "I have brought to see you a
+young man of your business; perhaps you may want such a one." He asked
+me a few questions, put a composing stick in my hand to see how I
+worked, and then said he would employ me soon, though he had just then
+nothing for me to do; and, taking old Bradford, whom he had never seen
+before, to be one of the townspeople that had a good will for him,
+entered into a conversation on his present undertaking and prospects;
+while Bradford, not discovering that he was the other printer's father,
+on Keimer's saying he expected soon to get the greatest part of the
+business into his own hands, drew him on by artful questions, and
+starting little doubts, to explain all his views, what interest he
+relied on, and in what manner he intended to proceed. I, who stood by
+and heard all, saw immediately that one of them was a crafty old
+sophister, and the other a mere novice. Bradford left me with Keimer,
+who was greatly surprised when I told him who the old man was.
+
+Keimer's printing-house, I found, consisted of an old shattered press
+and one small, worn-out font of English, which he was then using
+himself, composing an Elegy on Aquila Rose, before mentioned, an
+ingenious young man, of excellent character, much respected in the town,
+clerk of the Assembly, and a pretty poet. Keimer made verses too, but
+very indifferently. He could not be said to write them, for his manner
+was to compose them in the types directly out of his head. So there
+being no copy, but one pair of cases, and the Elegy likely to require
+all the letters, no one could help him. I endeavored to put his press
+(which he had not yet used and of which he understood nothing) into
+order fit to be worked with; and, promising to come and print off his
+Elegy as soon as he should have got it ready, I returned to Bradford's,
+who gave me a little job to do for the present, and there I lodged and
+dieted. A few days after, Keimer sent for me to print off the Elegy. And
+now he had got another pair of cases, and a pamphlet to reprint, on
+which he set me to work.
+
+These two printers I found poorly qualified for their business. Bradford
+had not been bred to it, and was very illiterate; and Keimer, though
+something of a scholar, was a mere compositor, knowing nothing of
+presswork. He had been one of the French prophets, and could act their
+enthusiastic agitations. At this time he did not profess any particular
+religion, but something of all on occasion; was very ignorant of the
+world, and had, as I afterward found, a good deal of the knave in his
+composition. He did not like my lodging at Bradford's while I worked
+with him. He had a house, indeed, but without furniture, so he could not
+lodge me; but he got me a lodging at Mr. Read's, before mentioned, who
+was the owner of his house; and, my chest and clothes being come by this
+time, I made rather a more respectable appearance in the eyes of Miss
+Read than I had done when she first happened to see me eating my roll in
+the street.
+
+
+
+418
+
+ Of the numerous biographies of Abraham Lincoln,
+ none seems better suited for use in the grades
+ than _The Boy's Life of Abraham Lincoln_, by
+ Helen Nicolay (1866--), from which the next
+ selection was taken. John George Nicolay,
+ father of Helen Nicolay, was private secretary
+ to Abraham Lincoln from 1860 to 1865, and later
+ he wrote an excellent biography of Lincoln.
+ (The following selection is used by permission
+ of the Century Company, New York.)
+
+
+LINCOLN'S EARLY DAYS
+
+HELEN NICOLAY
+
+The story of this wonderful man begins and ends with a tragedy, for his
+grandfather, also named Abraham, was killed by a shot from an Indian's
+rifle while peaceably at work with his three sons on the edge of their
+frontier clearing. Eighty-one years later the President himself met
+death by an assassin's bullet. The murderer of one was a savage of the
+forest; the murderer of the other that far more cruel thing, a savage of
+civilization.
+
+When the Indian's shot laid the pioneer farmer low, his second son,
+Josiah, ran to a neighboring fort for help, and Mordecai, the eldest,
+hurried to the cabin for his rifle. Thomas, a child of six years, was
+left alone beside the dead body of his father; and as Mordecai snatched
+the gun from its resting-place over the door of the cabin, he saw, to
+his horror, an Indian in his war-paint, just stooping to seize the
+child. Taking quick aim at a medal on the breast of the savage, he
+fired, and the Indian fell dead. The little boy, thus released, ran to
+the house, where Mordecai, firing through the loopholes, kept the
+Indians at bay until help arrived from the fort.
+
+It was this child Thomas who grew up to be the father of President
+Abraham Lincoln. After the murder of his father the fortunes of the
+little family grew rapidly worse, and doubtless because of poverty, as
+well as by reason of the marriage of his older brothers and sisters,
+their home was broken up, and Thomas found himself, long before he was
+grown, a wandering laboring boy. He lived for a time with an uncle as
+his hired servant, and later he learned the trade of carpenter. He grew
+to manhood entirely without education, and when he was twenty-eight
+years old could neither read nor write. At that time he married Nancy
+Hanks, a good-looking young woman of twenty-three, as poor as himself,
+but so much better off as to learning that she was able to teach her
+husband to sign his own name. Neither of them had any money, but living
+cost little on the frontier in those days, and they felt that his trade
+would suffice to earn all that they should need. Thomas took his bride
+to a tiny house in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, where they lived for about a
+year, and where a daughter was born to them.
+
+Then they moved to a small farm thirteen miles from Elizabethtown, which
+they bought on credit, the country being yet so new that there were
+places to be had for mere promises to pay. Farms obtained on such terms
+were usually of very poor quality, and this one of Thomas Lincoln's was
+no exception to the rule. A cabin ready to be occupied stood on it,
+however; and not far away, hidden in a pretty clump of trees and bushes,
+was a fine spring of water, because of which the place was known as Rock
+Spring Farm. In the cabin on this farm the future President of the
+United States was born on February 12, 1809, and here the first four
+years of his life were spent. Then the Lincolns moved to a much bigger
+and better farm on Knob Creek, six miles from Hodgensville, which Thomas
+Lincoln bought, again on credit, selling the larger part of it soon
+afterward to another purchaser. Here they remained until Abraham was
+seven years old.
+
+About this early part of his childhood almost nothing is known. He never
+talked of these days, even to his most intimate friends. To the pioneer
+child a farm offered much that a town lot could not give him--space;
+woods to roam in; Knob Creek with its running water and its deep, quiet
+pools for a playfellow; berries to be hunted for in summer and nuts in
+autumn; while all the year round birds and small animals pattered across
+his path to people the solitude in place of human companions. The boy
+had few comrades. He wandered about playing his lonesome little games,
+and, when these were finished, returned to the small and cheerless
+cabin. Once, when asked what he remembered about the War of 1812 with
+Great Britain, he replied: "Only this: I had been fishing one day and
+had caught a little fish, which I was taking home. I met a soldier in
+the road, and having always been told at home that we must be good to
+soldiers, I gave him my fish." It is only a glimpse into his life, but
+it shows the solitary, generous child, and the patriotic household.
+
+It was while living on this farm that Abraham and his sister Sarah first
+began going to A-B-C schools. Their earliest teacher was Zachariah
+Riney, who taught near the Lincoln cabin; the next was Caleb Hazel, four
+miles away.
+
+In spite of the tragedy that darkened his childhood, Thomas Lincoln
+seems to have been a cheery, indolent, good-natured man. By means of a
+little farming and occasional jobs at his trade, he managed to supply
+his family with the absolutely necessary food and shelter, but he never
+got on in the world. He found it much easier to gossip with his friends,
+or to dream about rich new lands in the West, than to make a thrifty
+living in the place where he happened to be. The blood of the pioneer
+was in his veins too--the desire to move westward; and hearing glowing
+accounts of the new territory of Indiana, he resolved to go and see it
+for himself. His skill as a carpenter made this not only possible but
+reasonably cheap, and in the fall of 1816 he built himself a little
+flatboat, launched it half a mile from his cabin, at the mouth of Knob
+Creek on the waters of the Rolling Fork, and floated on it down that
+stream to Salt River, down Salt River to the Ohio, and down the Ohio to
+a landing called Thompson's Ferry on the Indiana shore.
+
+Sixteen miles out from the river, near a small stream known as Pigeon
+Creek, he found a spot in the forest that suited him; and as his boat
+could not be made to float upstream, he sold it, stored his goods with
+an obliging settler, and trudged back to Kentucky, all the way on foot,
+to fetch his wife and children--Sarah, who was now nine years old, and
+Abraham, seven. This time the journey to Indiana was made with two
+horses, used by the mother and children for riding, and to carry their
+little camping outfit for the night. The distance from their old home
+was, in a straight line, little more than fifty miles, but they had to
+go double that distance because of the very few roads it was possible to
+follow.
+
+Reaching the Ohio River and crossing to the Indiana shore, Thomas
+Lincoln hired a wagon which carried his family and their belongings the
+remaining sixteen miles through the forest to the spot he had chosen--a
+piece of heavily wooded land, one and a half miles east of what has
+since become the village of Gentryville in Spencer County. The lateness
+of the autumn made it necessary to put up a shelter as quickly as
+possible, and he built what was known on the frontier as a half-faced
+camp, about fourteen feet square. This differed from a cabin in that it
+was closed on only three sides, being quite open to the weather on the
+fourth. A fire was usually made in front of the open side, and thus the
+necessity for having a chimney was done away with. Thomas Lincoln
+doubtless intended this only for a temporary shelter, and as such it
+would have done well enough in pleasant summer weather; but it was a
+rude provision against the storms and winds of an Indiana winter. It
+shows his want of energy that the family remained housed in this poor
+camp for nearly a whole year; but, after all, he must not be too hastily
+blamed. He was far from idle. A cabin was doubtless begun, and there
+was the very heavy work of clearing away the timber--cutting down large
+trees, chopping them into suitable lengths, and rolling them together
+into great heaps to be burned, or of splitting them into rails to fence
+the small field upon which he managed to raise a patch of corn and other
+things during the following summer.
+
+Though only seven years old, Abraham was unusually large and strong for
+his age, and he helped his father in all this heavy labor of clearing
+the farm. In after years, Mr. Lincoln said that an ax "was put into his
+hands at once, and from that till within his twenty-third year he was
+almost constantly handling that most useful instrument--less, of course,
+in ploughing and harvesting seasons." At first the Lincolns and their
+seven or eight neighbors lived in the unbroken forest. They had only the
+tools and household goods they brought with them, or such things as they
+could fashion with their own hands. There was no sawmill to saw lumber.
+The village of Gentryville was not even begun. Breadstuff could be had
+only by sending young Abraham seven miles on horseback with a bag of
+corn to be ground in a hand grist-mill.
+
+About the time the new cabin was ready relatives and friends followed
+from Kentucky, and some of these in turn occupied the half-faced camp.
+During the autumn a severe and mysterious sickness broke out in their
+little settlement, and a number of people died, among them the mother of
+young Abraham. There was no help to be had beyond what the neighbors
+could give each other. The nearest doctor lived fully thirty miles away.
+There was not even a minister to conduct the funerals. Thomas Lincoln
+made the coffins for the dead out of green lumber cut from the forest
+trees with a whip-saw, and they were laid to rest in a clearing in the
+woods. Months afterward, largely through the efforts of the sorrowing
+boy, a preacher who chanced to come that way was induced to hold a
+service and preach a sermon over the grave of Mrs. Lincoln.
+
+Her death was indeed a serious blow to her husband and children.
+Abraham's sister, Sarah, was only eleven years old, and the tasks and
+cares of the little household were altogether too heavy for her years
+and experience. Nevertheless they struggled bravely through the winter
+and following summer; then in the autumn of 1819 Thomas Lincoln went
+back to Kentucky and married Sarah Bush Johnston, whom he had known, and
+it is said courted, when she was only Sally Bush. She had married about
+the time Lincoln married Nancy Hanks, and her husband had died, leaving
+her with three children. She came of a better station in life than
+Thomas, and was a woman with an excellent mind as well as a warm and
+generous heart. The household goods that she brought with her to the
+Lincoln home filled a four-horse wagon, and not only were her own
+children well clothed and cared for, but she was able at once to provide
+little Abraham and Sarah with comforts to which they had been strangers
+during the whole of their young lives. Under her wise management all
+jealousy was avoided between the two sets of children; urged on by her
+stirring example, Thomas Lincoln supplied the yet unfinished cabin with
+floor, door, and windows, and life became more comfortable for all its
+inmates, contentment if not happiness reigning in the little home.
+
+The new stepmother quickly became very fond of Abraham, and encouraged
+him in every way in her power to study and improve himself. The chances
+for this were few enough. Mr. Lincoln has left us a vivid picture of the
+situation. "It was," he once wrote, "a wild region, with many bears and
+other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some
+schools, so-called, but no qualification was ever required of a teacher
+beyond readin', writin', and cipherin' to the Rule of Three. If a
+straggler supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the
+neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard."
+
+The school-house was a low cabin of round logs, with split logs or
+"puncheons" for a floor, split logs roughly leveled with an ax and set
+up on legs for benches, and holes cut out in the logs and the space
+filled in with squares of greased paper for window-panes. The main light
+came in through the open door. Very often Webster's "Elementary
+Spelling-book" was the only text-book. This was the kind of school most
+common in the Middle West during Mr. Lincoln's boyhood, though already
+in some places there were schools of a more pretentious character.
+Indeed, back in Kentucky, at the very time that Abraham, a child of six,
+was learning his letters from Zachariah Riney, a boy only a year older
+was attending a Catholic seminary in the very next county. It is
+doubtful if they ever met, but the destinies of the two were strangely
+interwoven, for the older boy was Jefferson Davis, who became head of
+the Confederate government shortly after Lincoln was elected President
+of the United States.
+
+As Abraham was only seven years old when he left Kentucky, the little
+beginnings he learned in the schools kept by Riney and Hazel in that
+state must have been very slight, probably only his alphabet, or at most
+only three or four pages of Webster's "Elementary Spelling-book." The
+multiplication-table was still a mystery to him, and he could read or
+write only the words he spelled. His first two years in Indiana seem to
+have passed without schooling of any sort, and the school he attended
+shortly after coming under the care of his stepmother was of the
+simplest kind, for the Pigeon Creek settlement numbered only eight or
+ten poor families, and they lived deep in the forest, where, even if
+they had had the money for such luxuries, it would have been impossible
+to buy books, slates, pens, ink, or paper. It is worthy of note,
+however, that in our western country, even under such difficulties, a
+school-house was one of the first buildings to rise in every frontier
+settlement. Abraham's second school in Indiana was held when he was
+fourteen years old, and the third in his seventeenth year. By that time
+he had more books and better teachers, but he had to walk four or five
+miles to reach them. We know that he learned to write, and was provided
+with pen, ink, and a copy-book, and a very small supply of writing
+paper, for copies have been printed of several scraps on which he
+carefully wrote down tables of long measure, land measure, and dry
+measure, as well as examples in multiplication and compound division,
+from his arithmetic. He was never able to go to school again after this
+time, and though the instruction he received from his five teachers--two
+in Kentucky and three in Indiana--extended over a period of nine years,
+it must be remembered that it made up in all less than one twelvemonth;
+"that the aggregate of all his schooling did not amount to one year."
+
+The fact that he received this instruction, as he himself said, "by
+littles," was doubtless an advantage. A lazy or indifferent boy would of
+course have forgotten what was taught him at one time before he had
+opportunity at another; but Abraham was neither indifferent nor lazy,
+and these widely separated fragments of instruction were precious steps
+to self-help. He pursued his studies with very unusual purpose and
+determination not only to understand them at the moment, but to fix them
+firmly in his mind. His early companions all agree that he employed
+every spare moment in keeping on with some one of his studies. His
+stepmother tells us that "When he came across a passage that struck him,
+he would write it down on boards if he had no paper, and keep it there
+until he did get paper. Then he would rewrite it, look at it, repeat it.
+He had a copy-book, a kind of scrap-book, in which he put down all
+things, and thus preserved them." He spent long evenings doing sums on
+the fire-shovel. Iron fire-shovels were a rarity among pioneers. Instead
+they used a broad, thin clapboard with one end narrowed to a handle,
+arranging with this the piles of coals upon the hearth, over which they
+set their "skillet" and "oven" to do their cooking. It was on such a
+wooden shovel that Abraham worked his sums by the flickering firelight,
+making his figures with a piece of charcoal, and, when the shovel was
+all covered, taking a drawing-knife and shaving it off clean again.
+
+The hours that he was able to devote to his penmanship, his reading, and
+his arithmetic were by no means many; for, save for the short time that
+he was actually in school, he was, during all these years, laboring hard
+on his father's farm, or hiring his youthful strength to neighbors who
+had need of help in the work of field or forest. In pursuit of his
+knowledge he was on an up-hill path; yet in spite of all obstacles he
+worked his way to so much of an education as placed him far ahead of his
+schoolmates and quickly abreast of his various teachers. He borrowed
+every book in the neighborhood. The list is a short one: "Robinson
+Crusoe," "Aesop's Fables," Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," Weems's "Life
+of Washington," and a "History of the United States." When everything
+else had been read, he resolutely began on the "Revised Statutes of
+Indiana," which Dave Turnham, the constable, had in daily use, but
+permitted him to come to his house and read.
+
+Though so fond of his books, it must not be supposed that he cared only
+for work and serious study. He was a social, sunny-tempered lad, as fond
+of jokes and fun as he was kindly and industrious. His stepmother said
+of him: "I can say, what scarcely one mother in a thousand can say, Abe
+never gave me a cross word or look, and never refused . . . to do anything
+I asked him . . . I must say . . . that Abe was the best boy I ever saw or
+expect to see."
+
+He and John Johnston, his stepmother's son, and John Hanks, a relative
+of his own mother's, worked barefoot together in the fields, grubbing,
+plowing, hoeing, gathering and shucking corn, and taking part, when
+occasion offered, in the practical jokes and athletic exercises that
+enlivened the hard work of the pioneers. For both work and play Abraham
+had one great advantage. He was not only a tall, strong country boy; he
+soon grew to be a tall, strong, sinewy man. He early reached the unusual
+height of six feet four inches, and his long arms gave him a degree of
+power as an axman that few were able to rival. He therefore usually led
+his fellows in efforts of muscle as well as of mind. That he could
+outrun, outlift, outwrestle his boyish companions, that he could chop
+faster, split more rails in a day, carry a heavier log at a "raising,"
+or excel the neighborhood champion in any feat of frontier athletics,
+was doubtless a matter of pride with him; but stronger than all else was
+his eager craving for knowledge. He felt instinctively that the power of
+using the mind rather than the muscles was the key to success. He wished
+not only to wrestle with the best of them, but to be able to talk like
+the preacher, spell and cipher like the school-master, argue like the
+lawyer, and write like the editor. Yet he was as far as possible from
+being a prig. He was helpful, sympathetic, cheerful. In all the
+neighborhood gatherings, when settlers of various ages came together at
+corn-huskings or house-raisings, or when mere chance brought half a
+dozen of them at the same time to the post-office or the country store,
+he was able, according to his years, to add his full share to the gaiety
+of the company. By reason of his reading and his excellent memory, he
+soon became the best story-teller among his companions; and even the
+slight training gained from his studies greatly broadened and
+strengthened the strong reasoning faculty with which he had been gifted
+by nature. His wit might be mischievous, but it was never malicious, and
+his nonsense was never intended to wound or to hurt the feelings. It is
+told of him that he added to his fund of jokes and stories humorous
+imitations of the sermons of eccentric preachers.
+
+Very likely too much is made of all these boyish pranks. He grew up very
+like his fellows. In only one particular did he differ greatly from the
+frontier boys around him. He never took any pleasure in hunting. Almost
+every youth of the backwoods early became an excellent shot and a
+confirmed sportsman. The woods still swarmed with game, and every cabin
+depended largely upon this for its supply of food. But to his strength
+was added a gentleness which made him shrink from killing or inflicting
+pain, and the time the other boys gave to lying in ambush, he preferred
+to spend in reading or in efforts at improving his mind.
+
+Only twice during his life in Indiana was the routine of his employment
+changed. When he was about sixteen years old he worked for a time for a
+man who lived at the mouth of Anderson's Creek, and here part of his
+duty was to manage a ferry-boat which carried passengers across the Ohio
+River. It was very likely this experience which, three years later,
+brought him another. Mr. Gentry, the chief man of the village of
+Gentryville that had grown up a mile or so from his father's cabin,
+loaded a flatboat on the Ohio River with the produce his store had
+collected--corn, flour, pork, bacon, and other miscellaneous
+provisions--and putting it in charge of his son Allen Gentry and of
+Abraham Lincoln, sent them with it down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers,
+to sell its cargo at the plantations of the lower Mississippi, where
+sugar and cotton were the principal crops, and where other food supplies
+were needed to feed the slaves. No better proof is needed of the
+reputation for strength, skill, honesty, and intelligence that this tall
+country boy had already won for himself, than that he was chosen to
+navigate the flatboat a thousand miles to the "sugar-coast" of the
+Mississippi River, sell its load, and bring back the money. Allen Gentry
+was supposed to be in command, but from the record of his after life we
+may be sure that Abraham did his full share both of work and management.
+The elder Gentry paid Lincoln eight dollars a month and his passage home
+on a steamboat for this service. The voyage was made successfully,
+although not without adventure; for one night, after the boat was tied
+up to the shore, the boys were attacked by seven negroes, who came
+aboard intending to kill and rob him. There was a lively scrimmage, in
+which, though slightly hurt, they managed to beat off their assailants,
+and then, hastily cutting their boat adrift, swung out on the stream.
+The marauding band little dreamed that they were attacking the man who
+in after years was to give their race its freedom; and though the future
+was equally hidden from Abraham, it is hard to estimate the vistas of
+hope and ambition that this long journey opened to him. It was his first
+look into the wide, wide world.
+
+
+
+419
+
+ Anna Howard Shaw (1847-1919) was national
+ lecturer for the National American Woman
+ Suffrage Association from 1886 to 1904, and was
+ president of that association from 1904 to
+ 1915. She was known as a lecturer rather than
+ as an author, but her autobiography, entitled
+ _The Story of a Pioneer_, is a charming book
+ that will help us realize some of the tragedy
+ and humor of pioneer days and some of the
+ difficulties that had to be overcome by a woman
+ who was determined to follow a career
+ practically closed to women. (The selection
+ below is from the early part of _The Story of a
+ Pioneer_, and is used here by permission of the
+ publishers, Harper & Brothers, New York.)
+
+
+IN THE WESTERN WILDERNESS
+
+ANNA HOWARD SHAW
+
+My father was one of a number of Englishmen who took up tracts in the
+northern forests of Michigan, with the old dream of establishing a
+colony there. None of these men had the least practical knowledge of
+farming. They were city men or followers of trades which had no
+connection with farm life. They went straight into the thick
+timber-land, instead of going to the rich and waiting prairies, and they
+crowned this initial mistake by cutting down the splendid timber instead
+of letting it stand. Thus bird's-eye maple and other beautiful woods
+were used as fire-wood and in the construction of rude cabins, and the
+greatest asset of the pioneer was ignored.
+
+Father preceded us to the Michigan woods, and there, with his oldest
+son, James, took up a claim. They cleared a space in the wilderness just
+large enough for a log cabin, and put up the bare walls of the cabin
+itself. Then father returned to Lawrence and his work, leaving James
+behind. A few months later (this was in 1859), my mother, my two
+sisters, Eleanor and Mary, my youngest brother, Henry, eight years of
+age, and I, then twelve, went to Michigan to work on and hold down the
+claim while father, for eighteen months longer, stayed on in Lawrence,
+sending us such remittances as he could. His second and third sons, John
+and Thomas, remained in the East with him.
+
+Every detail of our journey through the wilderness is clear in my mind.
+At that time the railroad terminated at Grand Rapids, Michigan, and we
+covered the remaining distance--about one hundred miles--by wagon,
+riding through a dense and often trackless forest. My brother James met
+us at Grand Rapids with what, in those days, was called a lumber-wagon,
+but which had a horrible resemblance to a vehicle from the health
+department. My sisters and I gave it one cold look and turned from it;
+we were so pained by its appearance that we refused to ride in it
+through the town. Instead, we started off on foot, trying to look as if
+we had no association with it, and we climbed into the unwieldy vehicle
+only when the city streets were far behind us. Every available inch of
+space in the wagon was filled with bedding and provisions. As yet we had
+no furniture; we were to make that for ourselves when we reached our
+cabin; and there was so little room for us to ride that we children
+walked by turns, while James, from the beginning of the journey to its
+end, seven days later, led our weary horses.
+
+To my mother, who was never strong, the whole experience must have been
+a nightmare of suffering and stoical endurance. For us children there
+were compensations. The expedition took on the character of a high
+adventure, in which we sometimes had shelter and sometimes failed to
+find it, sometimes were fed, but often went hungry. We forded
+innumerable streams, the wheels of the heavy wagon sinking so deeply
+into the stream-beds that we often had to empty our load before we could
+get them out again. Fallen trees lay across our paths, rivers caused
+long detours, while again and again we lost our way or were turned aside
+by impenetrable forest tangles.
+
+Our first day's journey covered less than eight miles, and that night we
+stopped at a farm-house which was the last bit of civilization we saw.
+Early the next morning we were off again, making the slow progress due
+to the rough roads and our heavy load. At night we stopped at a place
+called Thomas's Inn, only to be told by the woman who kept it that there
+was nothing in the house to eat. Her husband, she said, had gone
+"outside" (to Grand Rapids) to get some flour, and had not returned--but
+she added that we could spend the night, if we chose, and enjoy shelter,
+if not food. We had provisions in our wagon, so we wearily entered,
+after my brother had got out some of our pork and opened a barrel of
+flour. With this help the woman made some biscuits, which were so green
+that my poor mother could not eat them. She had admitted to us that the
+one thing she had in the house was saleratus, and she had used this
+ingredient with an unsparing hand. When the meal was eaten she broke the
+further news that there were no beds.
+
+"The old woman can sleep with me," she suggested, "and the girls can
+sleep on the floor. The boys will have to go to the barn."
+
+She and her bed were not especially attractive, and mother decided to
+lie on the floor with us. We had taken our bedding from the wagon, and
+we slept very well; but though she was usually superior to small
+annoyances, I think my mother resented being called an "old woman." She
+must have felt like one that night, but she was only about forty-eight
+years of age.
+
+At dawn the next morning we resumed our journey, and every day after
+that we were able to cover the distance demanded by the schedule
+arranged before we started. This meant that some sort of shelter usually
+awaited us at night. But one day we knew there would be no houses
+between the place we left in the morning and that where we were to
+sleep. The distance was about twenty miles, and when twilight fell we
+had not made it. In the back of the wagon my mother had a box of little
+pigs, and during the afternoon these had broken loose and escaped into
+the woods. We had lost much time in finding them, and we were so
+exhausted that when we came to a hut made of twigs and boughs we decided
+to camp in it for the night, though we knew nothing about it. My brother
+had unharnessed the horses, and my mother and sister were cooking
+dough-god--a mixture of flour, water, and soda, fried in a pan--when two
+men rode up on horseback and called my brother to one side. Immediately
+after the talk which followed James harnessed his horses again and
+forced us to go on, though by that time darkness had fallen. He told
+mother, but did not tell us children until long afterward, that a man
+had been murdered in the hut only the night before. The murderer was
+still at large in the woods, and the new-comers were members of a posse
+who were searching for him. My brother needed no urging to put as many
+miles as he could between us and the sinister spot.
+
+In that fashion we made our way to our new home. The last day, like the
+first, we traveled only eight miles, but we spent the night in a house I
+shall never forget. It was beautifully clean, and for our evening meal
+its mistress brought out loaves of bread which were the largest we had
+ever seen. She cut great slices of this bread for us and spread maple
+sugar on them, and it seemed to us that never before had anything tasted
+so good.
+
+The next morning we made the last stage of our journey, our hearts
+filled with the joy of nearing our new home. We all had an idea that we
+were going to a farm, and we expected some resemblance at least to the
+prosperous farms we had seen in New England. My mother's mental picture
+was, naturally, of an English farm. Possibly she had visions of red
+barns and deep meadows, sunny skies and daisies. What we found awaiting
+us were the four walls and the roof of a good-sized log-house, standing
+in a small cleared strip of the wilderness, its doors and windows
+represented by square holes, its floor also a thing of the future, its
+whole effect achingly forlorn and desolate. It was late in the afternoon
+when we drove up to the opening that was its front entrance, and I shall
+never forget the look my mother turned upon the place. Without a word
+she crossed its threshold, and, standing very still, looked slowly
+around her. Then something within her seemed to give way, and she sank
+upon the ground. She could not realize even then, I think, that this was
+really the place father had prepared for us, that here he expected us to
+live. When she finally took it in she buried her face in her hands, and
+in that way she sat for hours without moving or speaking. For the first
+time in her life she had forgotten us; and we, for our part, dared not
+speak to her. We stood around her in a frightened group, talking to one
+another in whispers. Our little world had crumbled under our feet. Never
+before had we seen our mother give way to despair.
+
+Night began to fall. The woods became alive with night creatures, and
+the most harmless made the most noise. The owls began to hoot, and soon
+we heard the wildcat, whose cry--a screech like that of a lost and
+panic-stricken child--is one of the most appalling sounds of the forest.
+Later the wolves added their howls to the uproar, but though darkness
+came and we children whimpered around her, our mother still sat in her
+strange lethargy.
+
+At last my brother brought the horses close to the cabin and built fires
+to protect them and us. He was only twenty, but he showed himself a man
+during those early pioneer days. While he was picketing the horses and
+building his protecting fires my mother came to herself, but her face
+when she raised it was worse than her silence had been. She seemed to
+have died and to have returned to us from the grave, and I am sure she
+felt that she had done so. From that moment she took up again the burden
+of her life, a burden she did not lay down until she passed away; but
+her face never lost the deep lines those first hours of her pioneer life
+had cut upon it.
+
+That night we slept on boughs spread on the earth inside the cabin
+walls, and we put blankets before the holes which represented our doors
+and windows, and kept our watch-fires burning. Soon the other children
+fell asleep, but there was no sleep for me. I was only twelve years old,
+but my mind was full of fancies. Behind our blankets, swaying in the
+night wind, I thought I saw the heads and pushing shoulders of animals
+and heard their padded footfalls.
+
+We faced our situation with clear and unalarmed eyes the morning after
+our arrival. The problem of food, we knew, was at least temporarily
+solved. We had brought with us enough coffee, pork, and flour to last
+for several weeks; and the one necessity father had put inside the cabin
+walls was a great fireplace, made of mud and stones, in which our food
+could be cooked. The problem of our water-supply was less simple, but my
+brother James solved it for the time by showing us a creek a long
+distance from the house, and for months we carried from this creek, in
+pails, every drop of water we used, save that which we caught in troughs
+when the rain fell.
+
+We held a family council after breakfast, and in this, though I was only
+twelve, I took an eager and determined part. I loved work--it has always
+been my favorite form of recreation--and my spirit rose to the
+opportunities of it which smiled on us from every side. Obviously the
+first thing to do was to put doors and windows into the yawning holes
+father had left for them, and to lay a board flooring over the earth
+inside our cabin walls, and these duties we accomplished before we had
+occupied our new home a fortnight. There was a small saw-mill nine miles
+from our cabin, on the spot that is now Big Rapids, and there we bought
+our lumber. The labor we supplied ourselves, and though we put our
+hearts into it and the results at the time seemed beautiful to our
+partial eyes, I am forced to admit, in looking back upon them, that they
+halted this side of perfection. We began by making three windows and two
+doors; then, inspired by these achievements, we ambitiously constructed
+an attic and divided the ground floor with partitions, which gave us
+four rooms.
+
+The general effect was temperamental and sketchy. The boards which
+formed the floor were never even nailed down; they were fine, wide
+planks without a knot in them, and they looked so well that we merely
+fitted them together as closely as we could and light-heartedly let them
+go at that. Neither did we properly chink the house. Nothing is more
+comfortable than a log cabin which has been carefully built and
+finished; but for some reason--probably because there seemed always a
+more urgent duty calling to us around the corner--we never plastered our
+house at all. The result was that on many future winter mornings we
+awoke to find ourselves chastely blanketed by snow, while the only warm
+spot in our living-room was that directly in front of the fireplace,
+where great logs burned all day. Even there our faces scorched while our
+spines slowly congealed, until we learned to revolve before the fire
+like a bird upon a spit. No doubt we would have worked more thoroughly
+if my brother James, who was twenty years old and our tower of strength,
+had remained with us; but when we had been in our new home only a few
+months he fell ill and was forced to go East for an operation. He was
+never able to return to us, and thus my mother, we three young girls,
+and my youngest brother--Harry, who was only eight years old--made our
+fight alone until father came to us, more than a year later.
+
+Mother was practically an invalid. She had a nervous affection which
+made it impossible for her to stand without the support of a chair. But
+she sewed with unusual skill, and it was due to her that our clothes,
+notwithstanding the strain to which we subjected them, were always in
+good condition. She sewed for hours every day, and she was able to move
+about the house, after a fashion, by pushing herself around on a stool
+which James made for her as soon as we arrived. He also built for her a
+more comfortable chair with a high back.
+
+The division of labor planned at the first council was that mother
+should do our sewing, and my older sisters, Eleanor and Mary, the
+housework, which was far from taxing, for of course we lived in the
+simplest manner. My brothers and I were to do the work out of doors, an
+arrangement that suited me very well, though at first, owing to our lack
+of experience, our activities were somewhat curtailed. It was too late
+in the season for plowing or planting, even if we had possessed anything
+with which to plow, and, moreover, our so-called "cleared" land was
+thick with sturdy tree-stumps. Even during the second summer plowing was
+impossible; we could only plant potatoes and corn, and follow the most
+primitive method in doing even this. We took an ax, chopped up the sod,
+put the seed under it, and let the seed grow. The seed did grow, too--in
+the most gratifying and encouraging manner. Our green corn and potatoes
+were the best I have ever eaten. But for the present we lacked these
+luxuries.
+
+We had, however, in their place, large quantities of wild
+fruit--gooseberries, raspberries, and plums--which Harry and I gathered
+on the banks of our creek. Harry also became an expert fisherman. We had
+no hooks or lines, but he took wires from our hoop-skirts and made
+snares at the ends of poles. My part of this work was to stand on a log
+and frighten the fish out of their holes by making horrible sounds,
+which I did with impassioned earnestness. When the fish hurried to the
+surface of the water to investigate the appalling noises they had heard,
+they were easily snared by our small boy, who was very proud of his
+ability to contribute in this way to the family table.
+
+During our first winter we lived largely on cornmeal, making a little
+journey of twenty miles to the nearest mill to buy it; but even at that
+we were better off than our neighbors, for I remember one family in our
+region who for an entire winter lived solely on coarse-grained yellow
+turnips, gratefully changing their diet to leeks when these came in the
+spring.
+
+Such furniture as we had we made ourselves. In addition to my mother's
+two chairs and the bunks which took the place of beds, James made a
+settle for the living-room, as well as a table and several stools. At
+first we had our tree-cutting done for us, but we soon became expert in
+this gentle art, and I developed such skill that in later years, after
+father came, I used to stand with him and "heart" a log.
+
+On every side, and at every hour of the day, we came up against the
+relentless limitations of pioneer life. There was not a team of horses
+in our entire region. The team with which my brother had driven us
+through the wilderness had been hired at Grand Rapids for that occasion,
+and, of course, immediately returned. Our lumber was delivered by
+ox-teams, and the absolutely essential purchases we made "outside" (at
+the nearest shops, forty miles away) were carried through the forest on
+the backs of men. Our mail was delivered once a month by a carrier who
+made the journey in alternate stages of horseback riding and canoeing.
+But we had health, youth, enthusiasm, good appetites, and the
+wherewithal to satisfy them, and at night in our primitive bunks we sank
+into abysses of dreamless slumber such as I have never known since.
+Indeed, looking back upon them, those first months seem to have been a
+long-drawn-out and glorious picnic, interrupted only by occasional hours
+of pain or panic, when we were hurt or frightened.
+
+Naturally, our two greatest menaces were wild animals and Indians, but
+as the days passed the first of these lost the early terrors with which
+we had associated them. We grew indifferent to the sounds that had made
+our first night a horror to us all--there was even a certain homeliness
+in them--while we regarded with accustomed, almost blase eyes the
+various furred creatures of which we caught distant glimpses as they
+slunk through the forest. Their experience with other settlers had
+taught them caution; it soon became clear that they were as eager to
+avoid us as we were to shun them, and by common consent we gave each
+other ample elbow-room. But the Indians were all around us, and every
+settler had a collection of hair-raising tales to tell of them. It was
+generally agreed that they were dangerous only when they were drunk; but
+as they were drunk whenever they could get whisky, and as whisky was
+constantly given them in exchange for pelts and game, there was a
+harrowing doubt in our minds whenever they approached us.
+
+In my first encounter with them I was alone in the woods at sunset with
+my small brother Harry. We were hunting a cow James had bought, and our
+young eyes were peering eagerly among the trees, on the alert for any
+moving object. Suddenly, at a little distance, coming directly toward
+us, we saw a party of Indians. There were five of them, all men, walking
+in single file, as noiselessly as ghosts, their moccasined feet causing
+not even a rustle among the dry leaves that carpeted the woods. All the
+horrible stories we had heard of Indian cruelty flashed into our minds,
+and for a moment we were dumb with terror. Then I remembered having been
+told that the one thing one must not do before them is to show fear.
+Harry was carrying a rope with which we had expected to lead home our
+reluctant cow, and I seized one end of it and whispered to him that we
+would "play horse," pretending he was driving me. We pranced toward the
+Indians on feet that felt like lead, and with eyes so glazed by terror
+that we could see nothing save a line of moving figures; but as we
+passed them they did not give to our little impersonation of care-free
+children even the tribute of a side-glance. They were, we realized,
+headed straight for our home; and after a few moments we doubled on our
+tracks and, keeping at a safe distance from them among the trees, ran
+back to warn our mother that they were coming.
+
+As it happened, James was away, and mother had to meet her unwelcome
+guests supported only by her young children. She at once prepared a
+meal, however, and when they arrived she welcomed them calmly and gave
+them the best she had. After they had eaten they began to point at and
+demand objects they fancied in the room--my brother's pipe, some
+tobacco, a bowl, and such trifles--and my mother, who was afraid to
+annoy them by refusal, gave them what they asked. They were quite sober,
+and though they left without expressing any appreciation of her
+hospitality, they made her a second visit a few months later, bringing a
+large quantity of venison and a bag of cranberries as a graceful return.
+These Indians were Ottawas; and later we became very friendly with them
+and their tribe, even to the degree of attending one of their dances,
+which I shall describe later.
+
+Our second encounter with Indians was a less agreeable experience. There
+were seven "Marquette warriors" in the next group of callers, and they
+were all intoxicated. Moreover, they had brought with them several jugs
+of bad whisky--the raw and craze-provoking product supplied them by the
+fur-dealers--and it was clear that our cabin was to be the scene of an
+orgy. Fortunately, my brother James was at home on this occasion, and as
+the evening grew old and the Indians, grouped together around the fire,
+became more and more irresponsible, he devised a plan for our safety.
+Our attic was finished, and its sole entrance was by a ladder through a
+trap-door. At James's whispered command my sister Eleanor slipped up
+into the attic, and from the back window let down a rope, to which he
+tied all the weapons we had--his gun and several axes. These Eleanor
+drew up and concealed in one of the bunks. My brother then directed that
+as quietly as possible, and at long intervals, one member of the family
+after another was to slip up the ladder and into the attic, going quite
+casually, that the Indians might not realize what we were doing. Once
+there, with the ladder drawn up after us and the trap-door closed, we
+would be reasonably safe, unless our guests decided to burn the cabin.
+
+The evening seemed endless, and was certainly nerve-racking. The Indians
+ate everything in the house, and from my seat in a dim corner I watched
+them while my sisters waited on them. I can still see the tableau they
+made in the firelit room and hear the unfamiliar accents of their speech
+as they talked together. Occasionally one of them would pull a hair from
+his head, seize his scalping-knife, and cut the hair with it--a most
+unpleasant sight! When either of my sisters approached them some of the
+Indians would make gestures, as if capturing and scalping her. Through
+it all, however, the whisky held their close attention, and it was due
+to this that we succeeded in reaching the attic unobserved, James coming
+last of all and drawing the ladder after him. Mother and the children
+were then put to bed; but through that interminable night James and
+Eleanor lay flat upon the floor, watching through the cracks between the
+boards the revels of the drunken Indians, which grew wilder with every
+hour that crawled toward sunrise. There was no knowing when they would
+miss us or how soon their mood might change. At any moment they might
+make an attack upon us or set fire to the cabin. By dawn, however, their
+whisky was all gone, and they were in so deep a stupor that, one after
+the other, the seven fell from their chairs to the floor, where they
+sprawled unconscious. When they awoke they left quietly and without
+trouble of any kind. They seemed a strangely subdued and chastened band;
+probably they were wretchedly ill after their debauch on the adulterated
+whisky the traders had given them.
+
+That autumn the Ottawa tribe had a great corn celebration, to which we
+and the other settlers were invited. James and my older sisters attended
+it, and I went with them, by my own urgent invitation. It seemed to me
+that as I was sharing the work and the perils of our new environment, I
+might as well share its joys; and I finally succeeded in making my
+family see the logic of this position. The central feature of the
+festivity was a huge kettle, many feet in circumference, into which the
+Indians dropped the most extraordinary variety of food we had ever seen
+combined. Deer heads went into it whole, as well as every kind of meat
+and vegetable the members of the tribe could procure. We all ate some of
+this agreeable mixture, and later, with one another, and even with the
+Indians, we danced gaily to the music of a tom-tom and a drum. The
+affair was extremely interesting until the whisky entered and did its
+unpleasant work. When our hosts began to fall over in the dance and
+slumber where they lay, and when the squaws began to show the same ill
+effects of their refreshments, we unostentatiously slipped away.
+
+During the winter, life offered us few diversions and many hardships.
+Our creek froze over, and the water problem became a serious one, which
+we met with increasing difficulty as the temperature steadily fell. We
+melted snow and ice, and existed through the frozen months, but with an
+amount of discomfort which made us unwilling to repeat at least that
+special phase of our experience. In the spring, therefore, I made a
+well. Long before this, James had gone, and Harry and I were now the
+only out-door members of our working-force. Harry was still too small to
+help with the well; but a young man, who had formed the neighborly habit
+of riding eighteen miles to call on us, gave me much friendly aid. We
+located the well with a switch, and when we had dug as far as we could
+reach with our spades, my assistant descended into the hole and threw
+the earth up to the edge, from which I in turn removed it. As the well
+grew deeper we made a halfway shelf, on which I stood, he throwing the
+earth on the shelf, and I shoveling it up from that point. Later, as he
+descended still farther into the hole we were making, he shoveled the
+earth into buckets and passed them up to me, I passing them on to my
+sister, who was now pressed into service. When the excavation was deep
+enough we made the wall of slabs of wood, roughly joined together. I
+recall that well with calm content. It was not a thing of beauty, but it
+was a thoroughly practical well, and it remained the only one we had
+during the twelve years the family occupied the cabin.
+
+The second spring after our arrival Harry and I extended our operations
+by tapping the sugar-bushes, collecting all the sap, and carrying it
+home in pails slung from our yoke-laden shoulders. Together we made one
+hundred and fifty pounds of sugar and a barrel of syrup, but here again,
+as always, we worked in primitive ways. To get the sap we chopped a gash
+in the tree and drove in a spile. Then we dug out a trough to catch the
+sap. It was no light task to lift these troughs full of sap and empty
+the sap into buckets, but we did it successfully, and afterward built
+fires and boiled it down. By this time we had also cleared some of our
+ground, and during the spring we were able to plow, dividing the work in
+a way that seemed fair to us both. These were strenuous occupations for
+a boy of nine and a girl of thirteen, but, though we were not
+inordinately good children, we never complained; we found them very
+satisfactory substitutes for more normal bucolic joys. Inevitably, we
+had our little tragedies. Our cow died, and for an entire winter we went
+without milk. Our coffee soon gave out, and as a substitute we made and
+used a mixture of browned peas and burnt rye. In the winter we were
+always cold, and the water problem, until we had built our well, was
+ever with us.
+
+When I was fifteen years old I was offered a situation as
+school-teacher. By this time the community was growing around us with
+the rapidity characteristic of these Western settlements, and we had
+nearer neighbors whose children needed instruction. I passed an
+examination before a school-board consisting of three nervous and
+self-conscious men whose certificate I still hold, and I at once began
+my professional career on the modest salary of two dollars a week and my
+board. The school was four miles from my home, so I "boarded round" with
+the families of my pupils, staying two weeks in each place, and often
+walking from three to six miles a day to and from my little log
+school-house in every kind of weather. During the first year I had about
+fourteen pupils, of varying ages, sizes, and temperaments, and there
+was hardly a book in the schoolroom except those I owned. One little
+girl, I remembered, read from an almanac, while a second used a
+hymn-book.
+
+In winter the school-house was heated by a wood-stove to which the
+teacher had to give close personal attention. I could not depend on my
+pupils to make the fires or carry in the fuel; and it was often
+necessary to fetch the wood myself, sometimes for long distances through
+the forest. Again and again, after miles of walking through winter
+storms, I reached the school-house with my clothing wet through, and in
+these soaked garments I taught during the day. In "boarding round" I
+often found myself in one-room cabins, with bunks at the end and the
+sole partition a sheet or a blanket, behind which I slept with one or
+two of the children. It was the custom on these occasions for the man of
+the house to delicately retire to the barn while we women got to bed,
+and to disappear again in the morning while we dressed. In some places
+the meals were so badly cooked that I could not eat them, and often the
+only food my poor little pupils brought to school for their noonday meal
+was a piece of bread or a bit of raw pork.
+
+
+
+420
+
+ Hero stories have a special place in the
+ literature of childhood, and of all such
+ stories none has ever surpassed that of
+ Leonidas and his brave Spartans. The account of
+ that famous event is given from Miss Yonge's _A
+ Book of Golden Deeds_ (1864), which is yet one
+ of the best storehouses of hero stories. It is
+ published in a variety of editions by different
+ publishers, and teachers will find it an
+ excellent source for usable material.
+
+
+THE PASS OF THERMOPYLAE
+
+CHARLOTTE M. YONGE
+
+_B. C. 430_
+
+There was trembling in Greece. "The Great King," as the Greeks called
+the chief potentate of the East, whose domains stretched from the Indian
+Caucasus to the Aegaeus, from the Caspian to the Red Sea, was marshaling
+his forces against the little free states that nestled amid the rocks
+and gulfs of the Eastern Mediterranean. Already had his might devoured
+the cherished colonies of the Greeks on the eastern shore of the
+Archipelago, and every traitor to home institutions found a ready asylum
+at that despotic court, and tried to revenge his own wrongs by
+whispering incitements to invasion. "All people, nations, and
+languages," was the commencement of the decrees of that monarch's court;
+and it was scarcely a vain boast, for his satraps ruled over subject
+kingdoms, and among his tributary nations he counted the Chaldean, with
+his learning and old civilization, the wise and steadfast Jew, the
+skillful Ph[oe]nician, the learned Egyptian, the wild freebooting Arab
+of the desert, the dark-skinned Ethiopian, and over all these ruled the
+keen witted, active native Persian race, the conquerors of all the rest,
+and led by a chosen band proudly called the Immortal. His many
+capitals--Babylon the great, Susa, Persepolis, and the like--were names
+of dreamy splendor to the Greeks, described now and then by Ionians from
+Asia Minor who had carried their tribute to the King's own feet, or by
+courtier slaves who had escaped with difficulty from being all too
+serviceable at the tyrannic court. And the lord of this enormous empire
+was about to launch his countless host against the little cluster of
+states, the whole of which together would hardly equal one province of
+the huge Asiatic realm! Moreover, it was a war not only on the men but
+on their gods. The Persians were zealous adorers of the sun and of fire,
+they abhorred the idol-worship of the Greeks, and defiled and plundered
+every temple that fell in their way. Death and desolation were almost
+the best that could be looked for at such hands--slavery and torture
+from cruelly barbarous masters would only too surely be the lot of
+numbers, should their land fall a prey to the conquerors.
+
+True it was that ten years back the former Great King had sent his best
+troops to be signally defeated upon the coast of Attica; but the losses
+at Marathon had but stimulated the Persian lust of conquest, and the new
+King Xerxes was gathering together such myriads of men as should crush
+down the Greeks and overrun their country by mere force of numbers.
+
+The muster place was at Sardis, and there Greek spies had seen the
+multitudes assembling and the state and magnificence of the king's
+attendants. Envoys had come from him to demand earth and water from each
+state in Greece, as emblems that land and sea were his, but each state
+was resolved to be free, and only Thessaly, that which lay first in his
+path, consented to yield the token of subjugation. A council was held at
+the Isthmus of Corinth, and attended by deputies from all the states of
+Greece to consider of the best means of defense. The ships of the enemy
+would coast round the shores of the Aegean sea, the land army would
+cross the Hellespont on a bridge of boats lashed together, and march
+southwards into Greece. The only hope of averting the danger lay in
+defending such passages as, from the nature of the ground, were so
+narrow that only a few persons could fight hand to hand at once, so that
+courage would be of more avail than numbers.
+
+The first of these passes was called Tempe, and a body of troops was
+sent to guard it; but they found that this was useless and impossible,
+and came back again. The next was at Thermopylae. Look in your map of
+the Archipelago, or Aegean Sea, as it was then called, for the great
+island of Negropont, or by its old name, Eub[oe]a. It looks like a piece
+broken off from the coast, and to the north is shaped like the head of a
+bird, with the beak running into a gulf, that would fit over it, upon
+the main land, and between the island and the coast is an exceedingly
+narrow strait. The Persian army would have to march round the edge of
+the gulf. They could not cut straight across the country, because the
+ridge of mountains called Oeta rose up and barred their way. Indeed, the
+woods, rocks, and precipices came down so near the sea-shore that in two
+places there was only room for one single wheel track between the steeps
+and the impassable morass that formed the border of the gulf on its
+south side. These two very narrow places were called the gates of the
+pass, and were about a mile apart. There was a little more width left in
+the intervening space; but in this there were a number of springs of
+warm mineral water, salt and sulphurous, which were used for the sick to
+bathe in, and thus the place was called Thermopylae, or the Hot Gates. A
+wall had once been built across the westernmost of these narrow places,
+when the Thessalians and Phocians, who lived on either side of it, had
+been at war with one another; but it had been allowed to go to decay,
+since the Phocians had found out that there was a very steep narrow
+mountain path along the bed of a torrent, by which it was possible to
+cross from one territory to the other without going round this marshy
+coast road.
+
+This was, therefore, an excellent place to defend. The Greek ships were
+all drawn up on the further side of Eub[oe]a to prevent the Persian
+vessels from getting into the strait and landing men beyond the pass,
+and a division of the army was sent off to guard the Hot Gates. The
+council at the Isthmus did not know of the mountain pathway, and thought
+that all would be safe as long as the Persians were kept out of the
+coast path.
+
+The troops sent for this purpose were from different cities, and
+amounted to about 4,000 who were to keep the pass against two millions.
+The leader of them was Leonidas, who had newly become one of the two
+kings of Sparta, the city that above all in Greece trained its sons to
+be hardy soldiers, dreading death infinitely less than shame. Leonidas
+had already made up his mind that the expedition would probably be his
+death, perhaps because a prophecy had been given at the Temple at Delphi
+that Sparta should be saved by the death of one of her kings of the race
+of Hercules. He was allowed by law to take with him 300 men, and these
+he chose most carefully, not merely for their strength and courage, but
+selecting those who had sons, so that no family might altogether be
+destroyed. These Spartans, with their helots or slaves, made up his own
+share of the numbers, but all the army was under his generalship. It is
+even said that the 300 celebrated their own funeral rites before they
+set out lest they should be deprived of them by the enemy, since, as we
+have already seen, it was the Greek belief that the spirits of the dead
+found no rest till their obsequies had been performed. Such preparations
+did not daunt the spirits of Leonidas and his men, and his wife, Gorgo,
+was not a woman to be faint-hearted or hold him back. Long before, when
+she was a very little girl, a word of hers had saved her father from
+listening to a traitorous message from the King of Persia; and every
+Spartan lady was bred up to be able to say to those she best loved that
+they must come home from battle "with the shield or on it"--either
+carrying it victoriously or borne upon it as a corpse.
+
+When Leonidas came to Thermopylae, the Phocians told him of the mountain
+path through the chestnut woods of Mount Oeta, and begged to have the
+privilege of guarding it on a spot high up on the mountain side,
+assuring him that it was very hard to find at the other end, and that
+there was every probability that the enemy would never discover it. He
+consented, and encamping around the warm springs, caused the broken wall
+to be repaired, and made ready to meet the foe.
+
+The Persian army were seen covering the whole country like locusts, and
+the hearts of some of the southern Greeks in the pass began to sink.
+Their homes in the Peloponnesus were comparatively secure--had they not
+better fall back and reserve themselves to defend the Isthmus of
+Corinth? But Leonidas, though Sparta was safe below the Isthmus, had no
+intention of abandoning his northern allies, and kept the other
+Peloponnesians to their posts, only sending messengers for further
+help.
+
+Presently a Persian on horseback rode up to reconnoiter the pass. He
+could not see over the wall, but in front of it and on the ramparts, he
+saw the Spartans, some of them engaged in active sports, and others in
+combing their long hair. He rode back to the king, and told him what he
+had seen. Now, Xerxes had in his camp an exiled Spartan Prince, named
+Demaratus, who had become a traitor to his country, and was serving as
+counselor to the enemy. Xerxes sent for him, and asked whether his
+countrymen were mad to be thus employed instead of fleeing away; but
+Demaratus made answer that a hard fight was no doubt in preparation, and
+that it was the custom of the Spartans to array their hair with especial
+care when they were about to enter upon any great peril. Xerxes would,
+however, not believe that so petty a force could intend to resist him,
+and waited four days, probably expecting his fleet to assist him, but as
+it did not appear, the attack was made.
+
+The Greeks, stronger men and more heavily armed, were far better able to
+fight to advantage than the Persians with their short spears and wicker
+shields, and beat them off with great ease. It is said that Xerxes three
+times leapt off his throne in despair at the sight of his troops being
+driven backwards; and thus for two days it seemed as easy to force a way
+through the Spartans as through the rocks themselves. Nay, how could
+slavish troops, dragged from home to spread the victories of an
+ambitious king, fight like freemen who felt that their strokes were to
+defend their homes and children?
+
+But on that evening a wretched man, named Ephialtes, crept into the
+Persian camp, and offered, for a great sum of money, to show the
+mountain path that would enable the enemy to take the brave defenders in
+the rear! A Persian general, named Hydarnes, was sent off at night-fall
+with a detachment to secure this passage, and was guided through the
+thick forests that clothed the hillside. In the stillness of the air, at
+daybreak, the Phocian guards of the path were startled by the crackling
+of the chestnut leaves under the tread of many feet. They started up,
+but a shower of arrows was discharged on them, and forgetting all save
+the present alarm, they fled to a higher part of the mountain, and the
+enemy, without waiting to pursue them, began to descend.
+
+As day dawned, morning light showed the watchers of the Grecian camp
+below a glittering and shimmering in the torrent bed where the shaggy
+forests opened; but it was not the sparkle of water, but the shine of
+gilded helmets and the gleaming of silvered spears. Moreover, a
+Cimmerian crept over to the wall from the Persian camp with tidings that
+the path had been betrayed, that the enemy were climbing it, and would
+come down beyond the Eastern Gate. Still, the way was rugged and
+circuitous, the Persians would hardly descend before midday, and there
+was ample time for the Greeks to escape before they could thus be shut
+in by the enemy.
+
+There was a short council held over the morning sacrifice. Megistias,
+the seer, on inspecting the entrails of the slain victim, declared, as
+well he might, that their appearance boded disaster. Him Leonidas
+ordered to retire, but he refused, though he sent home his only son.
+There was no disgrace to an ordinary tone of mind in leaving a post that
+could not be held, and Leonidas recommended all the allied troops under
+his command to march away while yet the way was open. As to himself and
+his Spartans, they had made up their minds to die at their post, and
+there could be no doubt that the example of such a resolution would do
+more to save Greece than their best efforts could ever do if they were
+careful to reserve themselves for another occasion.
+
+All the allies consented to retreat, except the eighty men who came from
+Mycenae and the 700 Thespians, who declared that they would not desert
+Leonidas. There were also 400 Thebans who remained; and thus the whole
+number that stayed with Leonidas to confront two million of enemies were
+1400 warriors, besides the helots or attendants on the 300 Spartans,
+whose number is not known, but there was probably at least one to each.
+Leonidas had two kinsmen in the camp, like himself, claiming the blood
+of Hercules, and he tried to save them by giving them letters and
+messages to Sparta; but one answered that "he had come to fight, not to
+carry letters"; and the other, that "his deeds would tell all that
+Sparta wished to know." Another Spartan, named Dienices, when told that
+the enemy's archers were so numerous that their arrows darkened the sun,
+replied, "So much the better, we shall fight in the shade." Two of the
+300 had been sent to a neighboring village, suffering severely from a
+complaint in the eyes. One of them, called Eurytus, put on his armor,
+and commanded his helot to lead him to his place in the ranks; the
+other, called Aristodemus, was so overpowered with illness that he
+allowed himself to be carried away with the retreating allies. It was
+still early in the day when all were gone, and Leonidas gave the word to
+his men to take their last meal. "To-night," he said, "we shall sup with
+Pluto."
+
+Hitherto, he had stood on the defensive, and had husbanded the lives of
+his men; but he now desired to make as great a slaughter as possible, so
+as to inspire the enemy with dread of the Grecian name. He therefore
+marched out beyond the wall, without waiting to be attacked, and the
+battle began. The Persian captains went behind their wretched troops and
+scourged them on to the fight with whips! Poor wretches, they were
+driven on to be slaughtered, pierced with the Greek spears, hurled into
+the sea, or trampled into the mud of the morass; but their inexhaustible
+numbers told at length. The spears of the Greeks broke under hard
+service, and their swords alone remained; they began to fall, and
+Leonidas himself was among the first of the slain. Hotter than ever was
+the fight over his corpse, and two Persian princes, brothers of Xerxes,
+were there killed; but at length word was brought that Hydarnes was over
+the pass, and that the few remaining men were thus enclosed on all
+sides. The Spartans and Thespians made their way to a little hillock
+within the wall, resolved to let this be the place of their last stand;
+but the hearts of the Thebans failed them, and they came towards the
+Persians holding out their hands in entreaty for mercy. Quarter was
+given to them, but they were all branded with the king's mark as
+untrustworthy deserters. The helots probably at this time escaped into
+the mountains; while the small desperate band stood side by side on the
+hill still fighting to the last, some with swords, others with daggers,
+others even with their hands and teeth, till not one living man
+remained amongst them when the sun went down. There was only a mound of
+slain, bristled over with arrows.
+
+Twenty thousand Persians had died before that handful of men! Xerxes
+asked Demaratus if there were many more at Sparta like these, and was
+told there were 8,000. It must have been with a somewhat failing heart
+that he invited his courtiers from the fleet to see what he had done to
+the men who dared to oppose him, and showed them the head and arm of
+Leonidas set up upon a cross; but he took care that all his own slain,
+except 1,000, should first be put out of sight. The body of the brave
+king was buried where he fell, as were those of the other dead. Much
+envied were they by the unhappy Aristodemus, who found himself called by
+no name but the "Coward," and was shunned by all his fellow-citizens. No
+one would give him fire or water, and after a year of misery, he
+redeemed his honor by perishing in the forefront of the battle of
+Plataea, which was the last blow that drove the Persians ingloriously
+from Greece.
+
+The Greeks then united in doing honor to the brave warriors who, had
+they been better supported, might have saved the whole country from
+invasion. The poet Simonides wrote the inscriptions that were engraved
+upon the pillars that were set up in the pass to commemorate this great
+action. One was outside the wall, where most of the fighting had been.
+It seems to have been in honor of the whole number who had for two days
+resisted--
+
+ "Here did four thousand men from Pelops' land
+ Against three hundred myriads bravely stand."
+
+In honor of the Spartans was another column--
+
+ "Go, traveler, to Sparta tell
+ That here, obeying her, we fell."
+
+On the little hillock of the last resistance was placed the figure of a
+stone lion, in memory of Leonidas, so fitly named the lion-like; and
+Simonides, at his own expense, erected a pillar to his friend, the seer
+Megistias--
+
+ "The great Megistias' tomb you here may view,
+ Who slew the Medes, fresh from Spercheius fords;
+ Well the wise seer the coming death foreknew,
+ Yet scorn'd he to forsake his Spartan lords."
+
+The names of the 300 were likewise engraven on a pillar at Sparta.
+
+Lion, pillars, and inscriptions have all long since passed away, even
+the very spot itself has changed; new soil has been formed, and there
+are miles of solid ground between Mount Oeta and the gulf, so that the
+Hot Gates no longer exist. But more enduring than stone or brass--nay,
+than the very battle-field itself--has been the name of Leonidas. Two
+thousand three hundred years have sped since he braced himself to perish
+for his country's sake in that narrow, marshy coast road, under the brow
+of the wooded crags, with the sea by his side. Since that time how many
+hearts have glowed, how many arms have been nerved at the remembrance of
+the Pass of Thermopylae, and the defeat that was worth so much more than
+a victory!
+
+
+
+
+SECTION XII
+
+HOME READING LIST AND GENERAL INDEX
+
+ ". . . Forsooth he cometh unto you with a tale
+ which holdeth children from play, and old men
+ from the chimney corner; and, pretending no
+ more, doth intend the winning of the mind from
+ wickedness to virtue even as the child is often
+ brought to take most wholesome things by hiding
+ them in such others as have a pleasant
+ taste. . . ."
+
+ --Sir Philip Sidney, _An Apologie for Poetrie_.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION XII. HOME READING LIST AND GENERAL INDEX
+
+A HOME READING LIST
+
+
+Children are such omnivorous readers that teachers and parents are
+constantly at their wit's end, not only in naming enough books to supply
+their demands, but in grouping these books according to the order of
+difficulty. Most public libraries can furnish such lists based upon
+their experience with children. In fact no modern public library can
+carry on its work successfully without an especially prepared librarian
+in charge of the books for children. The arrangement of any list by
+grades must at best be only approximate, but if done in the light of a
+wide experience may be of the greatest practical help to the young
+teacher or to the parent. The following list is one issued by the
+Chicago Public Library, and is used here through the great kindness of
+Miss Adah F. Whitcomb, supervisor of the children's room and director of
+the training class. Any well-selected collection for children will
+contain a large proportion of these titles, and the list is extended
+enough and varied enough to furnish attractive reading material for any
+young person. At need it may be supplemented by the more elaborate lists
+found in some of the guides mentioned in the General Bibliography (p.
+2).
+
+
+FIRST GRADE
+
+ Banta, N. Moore, and Benson, Alpha B., _Brownie Primer_.
+
+ Blaisdell, Mary Frances, _Mother Goose Children_.
+
+ Brooke, Leonard Leslie, _Johnny Crow's Garden_.
+
+ ----, _Johnny Crow's Party_.
+
+ Buffum, Katharine G., _Mother Goose in Silhouettes_.
+
+ Craik, Georgiana Marion, _So-fat and Mew-mew_.
+
+ Crane, Walter, _Beauty and the Beast Picture Book_.
+
+ ----, _Bluebeard's Picture Book_.
+
+ ----, _Cinderella's Picture Book_.
+
+ ----, _Goody Two Shoes Picture Book_.
+
+ ----, _Mother Hubbard, Her Picture Book_.
+
+ ----, _Red Riding Hood's Picture Book_.
+
+ ----, _Song of Sixpence_.
+
+ ----, _This Little Pig, His Picture Book_.
+
+ ----, _Buckle My Shoe_.
+
+ Fox, Florence Cornelia, _The Indian Primer_.
+
+ Gaynor, Mrs. Jessie Love, and Riley, Alice C. D., _Songs of the
+ Child-World_.
+
+ Greenaway, Kate, _Under the Window_.
+
+ Haaren, John Henry, _Rhymes and Fables_.
+
+ Howard, Frederick Ward, _Banbury Cross Stories_.
+
+ Lansing, Marion Florence, _The Child's World Garden_.
+
+ Le Fevre, Felicite, _The Cock, the Mouse, and the Little Red
+ Hen_.
+
+ Lucas, Edward Verrall, _Four and Twenty Toilers_.
+
+ Mother Goose, _The Real Mother Goose_ (illus. by Blanche Fisher
+ Wright).
+
+ Noyes, Marion, _The Sunshine Primer_.
+
+ Saxby, Lewis, _Life of a Wooden Doll_.
+
+ Seton, Ernest Thompson, _Wild Animal Play for Children_.
+
+ Skinner, A. M., and Lawrence, L. N., _Little Dramas for Primary
+ Grades_.
+
+ Smith, Elmer Boyd, _Chicken World_.
+
+ Varney, A. S., _The Robin Reader_.
+
+ Welsh, Charles, (ed.), _Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes_.
+
+ Wiltse, Sara E., _Folklore Stories and Proverbs_.
+
+
+SECOND GRADE
+
+ Adelborg, Ottilia, _Clean Peter and the Children of Grubbylea_.
+
+ AEsopus, _Fables_ (Dalkeith ed.).
+
+ Bannerman, Mrs. Helen, _Story of Little Black Sambo_.
+
+ Bass, Florence, _Nature Stories for Young Readers: Animal Life_.
+
+ ----, _Nature Stories for Young Readers: Plant Life_.
+
+ Bryce, Catherine Turner, _Stevenson Reader_.
+
+ Burgess, Gelett, _Goops, and How to Be Them_.
+
+ ----, _More Goops, and How Not to Be Them_.
+
+ Caldecott, Randolph, _Come Lasses Picture Book_.
+
+ ----, _Hey Diddle Diddle Picture Book_.
+
+ Coe, Ida, _Story Hour Readers_. Vols. 3, 4.
+
+ Cooke, Flora J., _Nature Myths and Stories for Little Children_.
+
+ Craik, Georgiana Marion, _Bow-wow and Mew-mew_.
+
+ Crane, Walter, _Baby's Own AEsop_.
+
+ Deming, Therese Osterheld, _Little Indian Folk_.
+
+ ----, _Little Red People_.
+
+ Dodge, Mary Mapes, _Rhymes and Jingles_.
+
+ Greenaway, Kate, _Marigold Garden_.
+
+ Haaren, John Henry, _Songs and Stories_.
+
+ Hix, Melvin, _Once-upon-a-Time Stories_.
+
+ Ivimey, John William, _Three Blind Mice_.
+
+ McCullough, Annie Willis, _Little Stories for Little People_.
+
+ Moore, Annie E., _Pennies and Plans_.
+
+ Murray, Clara, _The Child at Play_.
+
+ Poulsson, Emilie, _The Runaway Donkey and Other Rhymes_.
+
+ ----, _Through the Farmyard Gate_.
+
+ Smith, Elmer Boyd, _Farm Book_.
+
+ ----, _Santa Claus Book_.
+
+ ----, _Seashore Book_.
+
+ Smith, Gertrude, _Lovable Tales of Janey and Josey and Joe_.
+
+ ----, _Roggie and Reggie Stories_.
+
+ Tileston, Mary Wilder Foote, _Sugar and Spice and All That's
+ Nice_.
+
+ Tolman, Stella Webster Carroll, _Around the World_, Vol. 1.
+
+ Turpin, Edna Henry Lee, _Classic Fables_.
+
+ Weatherly, F. E., _The Book of Gnomes_.
+
+
+THIRD GRADE
+
+ Aspinwall, Mrs. Alicia, _Short Stories for Short People_.
+
+ Bailey, Carolyn Sherwin, _Boys and Girls of Colonial Days_.
+
+ Brocks, Dorothy, _Red Children_.
+
+ Brooke, Leonard Leslie, _Golden Goose Book_.
+
+ Brown, Abbie Farwell, _Christmas Angel_.
+
+ ----, _Lonesomest Doll_.
+
+ Browning, Robert, _Pied Piper of Hamelin_ (illus. by Hope
+ Dunlap).
+
+ Chisholm, Louey, _Nursery Rhymes_.
+
+ Deming, Mrs. Therese Osterheld, _Children of the Wild_.
+
+ ----, _Little Brothers of the West_.
+
+ Dodge, Mrs. Mary Mapes, _New Baby World_.
+
+ Field, Eugene, _Lullaby-land: Songs of Childhood_.
+
+ Foulke, Elizabeth E., _Braided Straws_.
+
+ ----, _Twilight Stories_.
+
+ Francis, Joseph Greene, _Book of Cheerful Cats and Other Animated
+ Animals_.
+
+ Gates, Mrs. Josephine Scribner, _Story of Live Dolls_.
+
+ Gerson, Virginia, _Happy Heart Family_.
+
+ Grimm, Jacob L. K., and Wilhelm, K., _Fairy Tales_ (Lucas ed.).
+
+ ----, _Fairy Tales_ (Wiltse ed.).
+
+ Haaren, John Henry, _Fairy Life_.
+
+ Lang, Andrew, _Prince Darling, and Other Stories_.
+
+ Lansing, Marion Florence, _Rhymes and Stories_.
+
+ McMurry, Mrs. Lida Brown, _Classic Stories for the Little Ones_.
+
+ Morley, Margaret Warner, _Seed-Babies_.
+
+ Peary, Mrs. Josephine Diebitsch, _Snow Baby_.
+
+ Perkins, Lucy Fitch, _Dutch Twins_.
+
+ ----, _Japanese Twins_.
+
+ Pierson, Clara Dillingham, _Among the Farmyard People_.
+
+ Pyle, Katharine, _Careless Jane, and Other Tales_.
+
+ Shute, Katherine H., _Land of Song_, Vol. 1.
+
+ Tappan, Eva March, _Dixie Kitten_.
+
+ ----, _Golden Goose_.
+
+ Thorne-Thomsen, Mrs. Gudrun, _East o' the Sun_.
+
+ Trimmer, Mrs. Sarah K., _History of the Robins_.
+
+ Valentine, Mrs. Laura Jewry, _Aunt Louisa's Book of Fairy Tales_.
+
+ Woodward, Alice B., _Peter Pan Picture Book_.
+
+
+FOURTH GRADE
+
+ Alden, Raymond Macdonald, _Why the Chimes Rang_.
+
+ Andersen, Hans Christian, _Fairy Tales_ (Lucas ed.).
+
+ Barrie, James Matthew, _Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens_.
+
+ Brown, Abbie Farwell, _John of the Woods_.
+
+ Brown, Helen Dawes, _Little Miss Phoebe Gay_.
+
+ Browne, Frances, _Granny's Wonderful Chair, and Its Tales of
+ Fairy Times_.
+
+ Campbell, Helen LeRoy, _Story of Konrad, the Swiss Boy_.
+
+ Carryl, Charles Edward, _Davy and the Goblin_.
+
+ Craik, Mrs. Dinah Maria, _Adventures of a Brownie_.
+
+ Crichton, Mrs. F. E., _Peep-in-the-World_.
+
+ Drummond, Henry, _Monkey That Would Not Kill_.
+
+ Faulkner, Georgene, _Italian Fairy Tales_.
+
+ ----, _Russian Fairy Tales_.
+
+ Grimm, Jacob L. K., and Wilhelm K., _Household Fairy Tales_, tr.
+ by L. Crane.
+
+ Hopkins, William John, _Sandman: His Farm Stories_.
+
+ Houghton, Mrs. Louise Seymour, _Russian Grandmother's Wonder
+ Tales_.
+
+ Ingelow, Jean, _Mopsa the Fairy_.
+
+ Lang, Andrew, _Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp_.
+
+ ----, _Nursery Rhyme Book_.
+
+ ----, _Pretty Goldilocks_.
+
+ ----, _Snow Man_.
+
+ ----, _Snow Queen_.
+
+ Lindsay, Maud, and Poulsson, Emilie, _Joyous Travelers_.
+
+ Lorenzini, Carlo, _Adventures of Pinocchio_.
+
+ Lucas, Edward Verrall, _Book of Verses for Children_.
+
+ Macdonald, George, _Princess and the Goblin_.
+
+ Morley, Margaret Warner, _Donkey John of Toy Valley_.
+
+ O'Shea, Michael Vincent, _Old World Wonder Stories_.
+
+ Paine, Albert Bigelow, _How Mr. Dog Got Even_.
+
+ ----, _How Mr. Rabbit Lost His Tail_.
+
+ Peck, Harry Thurston, _Adventures of Mabel_.
+
+ Pierson, Mrs. Clara Dillingham, _Three Little Millers_.
+
+ Pyle, Katharine, _As the Goose Flies_.
+
+ ----, _Christmas Angel_.
+
+ ----, _Counterpane Fairy_.
+
+ Richards, Mrs. Laura E., _Joyous Story of Toto_.
+
+ ----, _Toto's Merry Winter_.
+
+ Schwartz, Julia Augusta, _Five Little Strangers_.
+
+ Scudder, Horace E., _Book of Fables_.
+
+ ----, _Book of Folk Stories_.
+
+ ----, _Children's Book_.
+
+ Segur, Sophie R. de, _Story of a Donkey_.
+
+ Thorne-Thomsen, Mrs. Gudrun, _Birch and the Star_.
+
+ Walker, Margaret Coulson, _Lady Hollyhock and Her Friends_.
+
+ Welsh, Charles, _Fairy Tales Children Love_.
+
+ Wette, A. H., _Hansel and Gretel_ (illus. in colors).
+
+ White, Eliza Orne, _When Molly Was Six_.
+
+ Williston, Teresa Peirce, _Japanese Fairy Tales_.
+
+ Zwilgmeyer, Dikken, _Johnny Blossom_.
+
+
+FIFTH GRADE
+
+ Alden, William Livingston, _Cruise of the Canoe Club_.
+
+ ----, _Cruise of the "Ghost."_
+
+ ----, _Moral Pirates_.
+
+ Baldwin, James, _Old Greek Stories_.
+
+ Brown, Abbie Farwell, _In the Days of Giants_.
+
+ Burnett, Frances Hodgson, _Little Lord Fauntleroy_.
+
+ Caldwell, Frank, _Wolf, the Storm Leader_.
+
+ Coburn, Claire Martha, _Our Little Swedish Cousin_.
+
+ Colum, Padraic, _Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said_.
+
+ Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge, _Alice in Wonderland_.
+
+ Duncan, Norman, _Adventures of Billy Topsail_.
+
+ French, Allen, _Story of Rolf and the Viking's Bow_.
+
+ Golding, Vautier, _Story of David Livingstone_.
+
+ Gordy, Wilbur Fisk, _American Leaders and Heroes_.
+
+ Grinnell, George Bird, _Jack among the Indians_.
+
+ Hall, Jennie, _Viking Tales_.
+
+ Jacobs, Joseph, _Celtic Fairy Tales_.
+
+ ----, _English Fairy Tales_.
+
+ Jenks, Albert Ernest, _Childhood of Ji-shib, the Ojibway_.
+
+ Kaler, James Otis, _Mr. Stubbs' Brother_.
+
+ ----, _Toby Tyler_.
+
+ Kipling, Rudyard, _Just-So Stories_.
+
+ Lucas, Edward Verrall, _Book of Verses for Children_.
+
+ Mabie, Hamilton Wright, _Norse Stories_.
+
+ Mighels, Philip Verrill, _Sunnyside Tad_.
+
+ Olcott, Frances Jenkins, _Fairies and Elves_.
+
+ ----, _Arabian Nights_.
+
+ Paine, Albert Bigelow, _Arkansaw Bear_.
+
+ Pendleton, Louis B., _In the Camp of the Creeks_.
+
+ Pyle, Howard, _Garden behind the Moon_.
+
+ ----, _Story of King Arthur and His Knights_.
+
+ ----, _Wonder Clock_.
+
+ Pyle, Katharine, _Nancy Rutledge_.
+
+ Richards, Laura E., _Captain January_.
+
+ Schultz, James Willard, _With the Indians in the Rockies_.
+
+ Seton, Ernest Thompson, _Lives of the Hunted_.
+
+ Spyri, Mrs. Johanna, _Heidi_.
+
+ Stockton, Frank R., _Fanciful Tales_.
+
+ Stoddard, William Osborn, _Little Smoke_.
+
+ Tappan, Eva March, _Robin Hood: His Book_.
+
+ Thackeray, William Makepeace, _Rose and the Ring_.
+
+ Wesselhoeft, Lily F., _Sparrow, the Tramp_.
+
+ Wiggin, Kate Douglas, _Birds' Christmas Carol_.
+
+ Wiggin, Kate Douglas, and Smith, Nora A., _Fairy Ring_.
+
+ Wyss, Johann David, _Swiss Family Robinson_.
+
+ Zollinger, Gulielma, _Widow O'Callaghan's Boys_.
+
+
+SIXTH GRADE
+
+ Alcott, Louisa M., _Eight Cousins_.
+
+ ----, _Jack and Jill_.
+
+ Baldwin, James, _Story of the Golden Age_.
+
+ ----, _Story of Roland_.
+
+ ----, _Story of Siegfried_.
+
+ Bennett, John, _Barnaby Lee_.
+
+ Bond, Alexander Russell, _Pick, Shovel and Pluck_.
+
+ Bostock, Frank Charles, _Training of Wild Animals_.
+
+ Brooks, Elbridge Streeter, _Master of the Strong Hearts_.
+
+ Brooks, Noah, _Boy Emigrants_ (illus. ed.).
+
+ Browne, Belmore, _Quest of the Golden Valley_.
+
+ Burnett, Mrs. Frances Hodgson, _Little Princess_.
+
+ Crump, Irving, _Boys' Book of Firemen_.
+
+ Daviess, Marie Thompson, _Phyllis_.
+
+ Defoe, Daniel, _Robinson Crusoe_.
+
+ Dix, Beulah Marie, _Merrylips_.
+
+ Dodge, Mrs. Mary Mapes, _Hans Brinker_.
+
+ DuBois, Mary Constance, _Lass of the Silver Sword_.
+
+ Eggleston, George Cary, _Last of the Flatboats_.
+
+ Ford, Sewell. _Horses Nine_.
+
+ French, Allen, _Story of Greltir the Strong_.
+
+ ----, _Junior Cup_.
+
+ Greene, Frances N., and Kirk, Dolly W., _With Spurs of Gold_.
+
+ Greene, Homer, _Blind Brother_.
+
+ Gregor, Elmer Russell, _Red Arrow_.
+
+ Hamp, Sidford Frederick, _Treasure of Mushroom Rock_.
+
+ Hawkes, Clarence, _Shaggycoat: the Biography of a Beaver_.
+
+ Hudson, William Henry, _Little Boy Lost_.
+
+ Inman, Henry, _Ranche on the Oxhide_.
+
+ Irving, Washington, _Rip Van Winkle_.
+
+ Jacobs, Joseph, _Indian Fairy Tales_.
+
+ Johnston, William Allen, _Deeds of Doing and Daring_.
+
+ Kipling, Rudyard, _Jungle Book_.
+
+ Lang, Andrew, _Red True Story Book_.
+
+ Little, Francis, _Camp Jolly_.
+
+ Lothrop, Mrs. Harriet Mulford, _Five Little Peppers_.
+
+ Munroe, Kirk, _Flamingo Feather_.
+
+ Page, Thomas Nelson, _Two Little Confederates_.
+
+ Pyle, Katharine, _Theodora_.
+
+ Rankin, Mrs. Carroll Watson, _Dandelion Cottage_.
+
+ Roberts, Theodore, _Red Feathers_.
+
+ Seaman, Augusta Huiell, _Boarded-up House_.
+
+ Seawell, Molly Elliot, _Little Jarvis_.
+
+ Seton, Ernest Thompson, _Wild Animals I Have Known_.
+
+ Stockton, Frank R., _Bee-Man of Orn_.
+
+ Stoddard, William Osborn, _Red Mustang_.
+
+ Swift, Jonathan, _Gulliver's Travels_.
+
+ Wade, Mrs. Mary Hazelton B., _Wonder Workers_.
+
+ Wallace, Dillon, _Arctic Stowaways_.
+
+ Wesselhoeft, Mrs. Elizabeth Foster, _Jack, the Fire Dog_.
+
+
+SEVENTH GRADE
+
+ Adams, Joseph Henry, _Harper's Indoor Book for Boys_. _Harper's
+ Outdoor Book for Boys._
+
+ Alcott, Louisa M., _Jo's Boys_. _Old-fashioned Girl._ _Under the
+ Lilacs._
+
+ Altsheler, Joseph Alexander, _Forest Runners_. _Free Rangers._
+ _Young Trailers._
+
+ Barnes, James, _Hero of Erie: Oliver Hazard Perry_. _Yankee Ships
+ and Yankee Sailors._
+
+ Browne, Belmore, _White Blanket_.
+
+ Bullen, Frank Thomas, _Cruise of the Cachalot_.
+
+ Burton, Charles Pierce, _The Boys of Bob's Hill_.
+
+ Canavan, Michael Joseph, _Ben Comee: a Tale of Roger's Rangers_.
+
+ Day, Holman Francis, _Eagle Badge_.
+
+ Deland, Ellen Douglas, _Oakleigh_.
+
+ Dix, Beulah Marie, _Little Captive Lad_.
+
+ Dodge, Mrs. Mary Mapes, _Donald and Dorothy_.
+
+ Drysdale, William, _Beach Patrol_. _Cadet Standish of the "St.
+ Louis."_ _Fast Mail._ _Young Supercargo._
+
+ Foa, Eugenie, _Boy Life of Napoleon_.
+
+ Garland, Hamlin, _Long Trail_.
+
+ Greene, Homer, _Pickett's Gap_.
+
+ Grey, Zane, _Young Forester_. _Young Pitcher._
+
+ Grinnell, George Bird, _Jack among the Indians_. _Jack in the
+ Rockies._ _Jack, the Young Ranchman._
+
+ Hawthorne, Nathaniel, _Grandfather's Chair_.
+
+ Henley, William Ernest, _Lyra Heroica: Book of Verse for Boys_.
+
+ Hill, T., _Fighting a Fire_.
+
+ Hough, Emerson, _Young Alaskans_.
+
+ Hughes, Thomas, _Tom Brown's School Days_.
+
+ Jackson, Mrs. Helen Hunt, _Nellie's Silver Mine_.
+
+ Jacobs, Caroline Emilia, _Joan's Jolly Vacation_. _Joan of Juniper
+ Inn._
+
+ Kieffer, Henry Martyn, _Recollections of a Drummer-Boy_.
+
+ Munroe, Kirk, _At War with Pontiac_. _Cab and Caboose._
+
+ Pyle, Howard, _Otto of the Silver Hand_.
+
+ Quirk, Leslie W., _Baby Elton, Quarterback_.
+
+ Roberts, Charles G. D., _Kindred of the Wild_.
+
+ Seton, Ernest Thompson, _Two Little Savages_.
+
+ Stockton, Frank R., _Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coast_.
+
+ Stoddard, William Osborn, _Red Patriot_. _White Cave._ _Lost
+ Gold of the Montezumas._
+
+ Tolman, Albert Walter, _Jim Spurling, Fisherman_.
+
+ Tomlinson, Everett Titsworth, _Search for Andrew Field._ _Three
+ Colonial Boys._ _Red Chief._ _Marching against the Iroquois._
+
+ Wiggin, Kate Douglas, _Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm_.
+
+ Zollinger, Gulielma, _Maggie McLanehan_.
+
+
+EIGHTH GRADE
+
+ Adams, Andy, _Wells Brothers: the Young Cattle Kings_.
+
+ Ashmun, Margaret Eliza, _Isabel Carlton's Year_.
+
+ Barbour, Ralph Henry, _Behind the Line_. _Crimson Sweater._
+
+ Beach, Edward Latimer, _Annapolis First Classman_.
+
+ Bennett, John, _Master Skylark_.
+
+ Catherwood, Mary Hartwell, _Story of Tonty_.
+
+ Cervantes-Saavedra M. de, _Don Quixote_.
+
+ Clemens, Samuel L., _Prince and the Pauper_.
+
+ Coffin, Charles Carleton, _Boys of '76_.
+
+ Cooper, James Fenimore, _Deerslayer_.
+
+ Dana, Richard Henry, _Two Years before the Mast_.
+
+ Doubleday, Russell, _Cattle-Ranch to College_.
+
+ Driggs, Lawrence La Tourette, _Adventures of Arnold Adair,
+ American Ace_.
+
+ Duncan, Norman, _Adventures of Billy Topsail_.
+
+ Eggleston, George Cary, _Bale Marked Circle X_.
+
+ French, Harry W., _The Lance of Kanana_.
+
+ Gilbert, A., _More than Conquerors_.
+
+ Gordon, Charles William, _Glengarry School Days_.
+
+ Goss, Warren Lee, _Jed_.
+
+ Hamp, Sidford Frederick, _Dale and Fraser, Sheepmen_.
+
+ Hill, Frederick Trevor, _On the Trail of Grant and Lee_.
+
+ Homer, _Adventures of Odysseus_. (Colum ed.).
+
+ Hughes, Rupert, _Lakerim Athletic Club_.
+
+ Johnston, Charles Haven L., _Famous Scouts_.
+
+ Kipling, Rudyard, _Captains Courageous_.
+
+ London, Jack, _Call of the Wild_.
+
+ Macleod, Mary, _Shakespeare Story Book_.
+
+ Malory, Sir Thomas, _Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights_.
+
+ Masefield, John, _Martin Hyde_.
+
+ Meigs, Cornelia, _Master Simon's Garden_.
+
+ Moffett, Cleveland, _Careers of Danger and Daring_.
+
+ Montgomery, Lucy Maud, _Anne of Green Gables_.
+
+ Nicolay, Helen, _Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln_.
+
+ Ollivant, Alfred, _Bob, Son of Battle_.
+
+ Parkman, Mary, _Heroes of To-day_.
+
+ Pendleton, Louis B., _King Tom and the Runaways_.
+
+ Pyle, Howard, _Men of Iron_. _Story of Jack Ballister's Fortunes_.
+
+ Rice, Alice Caldwell H., _Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch_.
+
+ Richards, Laura E., _Florence Nightingale_.
+
+ Richmond, Grace L., _Round the Corner in Gay Street_.
+
+ Roberts, Charles G. D., _Heart of the Ancient Wood_.
+
+ Rolt-Wheeler, Francis William, _Boy with the U. S. Foresters_.
+
+ Schultz, James William, _Quest of the Fish-Dog Skin_.
+
+ Seaman, Augusta Huiell, _Girl Next Door_.
+
+ Singmaster, Elsie, _Emmeline_.
+
+ Tappan, Eva March, _In the Days of Queen Elizabeth_.
+
+ Thompson, Arthur Ripley, _Gold-Seeking on the Dalton Trail_.
+
+ Thompson, James Maurice, _Alice of Old Vincennes_.
+
+ Thurston, Ida Treadwell, _Bishop's Shadow_.
+
+ Trowbridge, John Townsend, _Cudjo's Cave_.
+
+ Verne, Jules, _Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea_.
+
+ Verrill, Alpheus Hyatt, _Marooned in the Forest_.
+
+ Wallace, Dillon, _Wilderness Castaways_.
+
+ Wallace, Lewis, _Ben Hur_.
+
+ Waller, Mary Ella, _Daughter of the Rich_.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+(A number in blackface type refers to a page on which appears a literary
+selection under the title, by the author, or from the book preceding the
+number. Book titles are in italics; selection titles and index topics in
+roman type; names of authors in capitals and small capitals; and first
+lines of nursery rhymes within quotation marks. See Bibliography for
+authors and book titles not given in this Index.)
+
+ Abou Ben Adhem, =414=
+
+ "A cat came fiddling out of a barn," =23=
+
+ Accumulative story; _See_ Stories
+
+ ADDISON, J., =294=
+
+ "A diller, a dollar," =23=
+
+ ADLER, F., 53, 263
+
+ Admetus and the Shepherd, =337=
+
+ Adventures of Arthur, =598=
+
+ AESOP, =266-268=, =272=, =273-278=, =264=
+
+ Against Idleness and Mischief, =407=
+
+ _Age of Fable, The_, =339=, =343=, 338
+
+ AIKIN, J., =451=
+
+ ALDEN, R. M., =223=
+
+ Ali Baba, and the Forty Thieves, =579=
+
+ _Alice in Wonderland_, 405
+
+ Allegory, =292=, =294=. _See also_ Fables
+
+ Allen-a-Dale, =628=
+
+ Alnaschar, 279, 579
+
+ _Ancient Legends of Ireland_, 164
+
+ ANDERSEN, H. C., =179-203=, 79, 134, 381, 390;
+ appreciation of, 172-173;
+ work of, =179=
+
+ _Andersen's Best Fairy Tales_, =179=, =181=
+
+ Androcles, =269=
+
+ Androcles and the Lion, =270=
+
+ Anniversary, An, =34=
+
+ Anxious Leaf, The, =290=
+
+ Apologue, 290, =291=. _See also_ Fable
+
+ Apple of Discord, The, 332
+
+ _Arabian Nights' Entertainment, The_, =579=, 235, 578, 579
+
+ Arab to His Favorite Steed, The, =420=
+
+ Arthur and Sir Accalon, =603=
+
+ Arthur, King, =595-603=, 577, 578, 594
+
+ ASBJOeRNSEN, P., =122-128=;
+ work of, 122
+
+ "As I was going to St. Ives," =23=
+
+ "As I was going up Pippen Hill," =23=
+
+ "As I went to Bonner," =23=
+
+ Ass in the Lion's Skin, The, =281=
+
+ "As Tommy Snooks and Bessie Brooks," =23=
+
+ "A swarm of bees in May," =23=
+
+ Autobiography; _See_ Biography
+
+ Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, The, =646=
+
+ A Was an Apple-Pie, =34=
+
+
+ "Baa, baa, black sheep," =23=
+
+ Babes in the Wood, The, =39=
+
+ Baby Bye, =373=
+
+ BAILEY, C. S., =59=
+
+ BAIN, R. N., =160=
+
+ Ballad, =425=, =436=, =628=, 437, 628
+
+ Ballad of Nathan Hale, The, =425=
+
+ BARBAULD, A. L., =451=
+
+ "Barber, barber, shave a pig," =23=
+
+ Battle between the Fox and the Wolf, The, =591=
+
+ _Bears of Blue River, The_, =500=
+
+ BEAUMONT, MADAME DE, =110=
+
+ Beauty and the Beast, =110=
+
+ BEECHER, H. W., =290=
+
+ _Beowulf_, 577
+
+ Beth Gelert, =436=
+
+ Betty's Ride, A Tale of the Revolution, =496=
+
+ _Beyond the Pasture Bars_, =520=
+
+ _Bible, The_, =288=, =289=
+
+ Bibliography:
+ (_a_). General; 2-4;
+ Bible as literature for children, 3;
+ collections of literature for children, 2;
+ dramatization, 3;
+ guides in teaching, 2-3;
+ historical development, 2;
+ interpretations of childhood, 4;
+ social and psychological backgrounds, 4;
+ story-telling, 3.
+ (_b_). Special;
+ biography and hero stories, 632;
+ fables and symbolic stories, 262;
+ fairy stories, modern fantastic tales, 170;
+ fairy stories, traditional tales, 52;
+ Mother Goose and nursery rhymes, 18;
+ myths, 302;
+ nature literature, 510;
+ poetry, 368;
+ realistic stories, 442;
+ romance and legend, 576.
+ (_c_). Special reading for teachers;
+ biography and hero stories, 634;
+ modern fairy stories, 173;
+ myths, 305;
+ nature literature, 512;
+ nursery rhymes, 22;
+ poetry, 370;
+ romance and legend, 578.
+ (_d_). Graded lists for children, 12-14, =679-686=
+
+ BIDPAI; history of, 264
+
+ Big Bear, The, =500=
+
+ Biography and hero stories, =635-676=;
+ discussion of, 633-634;
+ selection of, 633-634;
+ value of, 633
+
+ Bird Habits, =549=
+
+ "Birds of a feather flock together," =23=
+
+ BLAKE, W., =400-401=
+
+ "Bless you, bless you, burnie bee," =23=
+
+ Blue Light, The, =134=, 195
+
+ Boats Sail on the Rivers, =394=
+
+ "Bobby Shafto's gone to sea," =24=
+
+ _Book of Golden Deeds, The_, =671=
+
+ _Book of Legends, The_, =620=, 578
+
+ _Book of Nursery Rhymes_ =21=
+
+ _Book of the Dun Cow_, =162=
+
+ Books for children; _See_ Bibliography
+
+ Boots and His Brothers, =125=
+
+ "Bow, wow, wow," =24=
+
+ Boyhood of Washington, The, =642=
+
+ _Boy's Life of Abraham Lincoln, The_, =655=
+
+ Boy's Song, A, =389=
+
+ BRAEKSTAD, H. L., =128=
+
+ Bramble Is Made King, The, =288=
+
+ BRANDES, G., 179, 180, 196, 203
+
+ Breathes There the Man, =424=
+
+ Brier Rose, =142=
+
+ BROOKS, E. S., =635=
+
+ BROWN, T. E., =418=
+
+ BROWNE, F., =210=, =209=
+
+ BROWNING, R., =399=, 398
+
+ Brown Thrush, The, =374=
+
+ BRYANT, S. C., 70
+
+ BRYANT, W. C., =417=, 416
+
+ _Buddhist Birth Stories_, =282=, =283=, 281
+
+ BULFINCH, T., =339=, =343=
+
+ BURGESS, T. W. =515=, 514
+
+ Burial of Poor Cock Robin, The, =44=
+
+ Butterfly's Ball, The, =397=
+
+ "Bye, baby bunting," =24=
+
+ BYRON, LORD, =416=
+
+
+ Camel and the Pig, The, =281=
+
+ CANBY, H. S., =496=
+
+ Can You, =398=
+
+ CARROLL, L., =405=
+
+ CARY, P., =377=, =378=
+
+ Casabianca, =400=
+
+ Cat and the Mouse, The, =60=
+
+ _Celtic Fairy Tales_, =162=
+
+ CERVANTES-SAAVEDRA, M. DE, =607=, 606
+
+ Change About, =49=
+
+ CHILD, L. M., =375=
+
+ _Children's Book, The_, 642
+
+ Children's Literature; _See_ Literature
+
+ _Child's Guide to Reading, A_, =8=
+
+ Christmas stories, 505
+
+ Cinderella, =102=
+
+ Circus-Day Parade, The, =388=
+
+ City Mouse and the Garden Mouse, The, =268=
+
+ _Classic Myths in English Literature and Art_, 340
+
+ Cock a Doodle Doo, =37=
+
+ Cock and the Fox, The, =284=
+
+ Cock Robin, 42, 44
+
+ Cock, the Cat, and the Young Mouse, The, =285=
+
+ COLE, H., =586=, =591=, 578
+
+ COLERIDGE, S. T., =178=
+
+ COLLINS, WM., =425=
+
+ COLLINS, W. L., =285=
+
+ "Come when you're called," =24=
+
+ Concord Hymn, =424=
+
+ Connla and the Fairy Maiden, =162=
+
+ COOK, E., =402=
+
+ COOLIDGE, S., =377=
+
+ _Cossack Fairy Tales_, =160=
+
+ Country Mouse and the Town Mouse, The, =269=
+
+ Course of Study, 8, 9, 10, 13-16, 512, 577, 633-634
+
+ Courtship of Cock Robin and Jenny Wren, =42=
+
+ Cow, The, =381=
+
+ Cow, The, =392=
+
+ COX, R., 112
+
+ CRAIK, D. M.; _See_ MULOCK
+
+ Croesus and Solon, =299=
+
+ Crossing the Bar, =414=
+
+ "Cross patch," =24=
+
+ Crow and the Pitcher, The, =266=
+
+ "Curly locks! curly locks!" =24=
+
+
+ Daffodils, =419=
+
+ Dairywoman and the Pot of Milk, The, =278=
+
+ Daisies, =385=
+
+ Dame Wiggins of Lee and Her Seven Wonderful Cats, =45=, 245
+
+ "Dance, little baby, dance up high," =24=
+
+ Darius Green and His Flying Machine, =432=, 336
+
+ DASENT, G. W., =122-125=
+
+ Day Is Done, The, =410=
+
+ DAY, T., =270=, =456=, 270
+
+ Death of Balder, The, =360=
+
+ Destruction of Sennacherib, The, =416=
+
+ Diamond, or a Coal, A, =394=
+
+ Didactic period, 443
+
+ "Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John," =24=
+
+ "Ding, dong, bell," =24=
+
+ Ding Dong! Ding Dong! =372=
+
+ Discontented Pendulum, The, =297=
+
+ "Doctor Foster," =24=
+
+ _Doctor, The_, =64=
+
+ DODGSON, C. L.; _See_ CARROLL, L.
+
+ Dog and the Shadow, The, =276=
+
+ _Don Quixote_, =607-618=, 577
+
+ DOYLE, F. H., =427=
+
+ Drakestail, =107=
+
+ Dramatization, 11-12, 190
+
+ Droll, or noodle story, =63=, =71=, =150=;
+ defined, 67
+
+ Duel, The, =387=
+
+ DULCKEN, H. W., =190-203=, 179
+
+
+ EDGEWORTH, M., =459=, 458
+
+ Egg in the Nest, The, =49=
+
+ "Eggs, butter, cheese, bread," =24=
+
+ Eldorado, =415=
+
+ Elves and the Shoemaker, The, =137=
+
+ Emerald Is as Green as Grass, An, =394=
+
+ EMERSON, R. W., =424=, 423
+
+ Emperor's New Clothes, The, =181=
+
+ _English Fairy and Folk Tales_, =67=, =84=
+
+ _English Fairy Tales_, =58=, 61, 73
+
+ _Evenings at Home_, =451=
+
+ EWING, J. H., =478=, 381, 477
+
+ Eyes, and No Eyes, =451=
+
+
+ Fables, =266-289=;
+ discussion of, 263-265;
+ defined =264=;
+ presentation of, 264-265;
+ selection of, 264, 284;
+ use in school, =264=;
+ symbolistic and allegorical stories, =290-300=;
+ AEsopic, =266 ff.=;
+ Biblical, =288 ff.=;
+ Buddhistic, =281 ff.=;
+ English, =270=, =286=;
+ French, =273=, =278=, =284=, =285=;
+ Indian, =281=;
+ Roman, =269=;
+ Russian, =287=;
+ Sanskrit, =283=;
+ Spanish, =287=
+
+ _Fables of AEsop, The_, =266=, =267=, =269=, =278=
+
+ _Fairy Book, The_, =73=, =80=
+
+ Fairy Scene in a Wood, A, =423=
+
+ Fairy stories:
+ (_a_) Modern fantastic tales, =174-260=;
+ discussion of, 171-173;
+ some qualities of, 172.
+ (_b_) Traditional or folk tales, =56-168=;
+ discussion of, 53-55, 56;
+ how to use, 55;
+ vs. myths, =303=;
+ English, =56-92=;
+ French, =92-122=;
+ Gaelic, =162-164=;
+ German, =131-150=;
+ Indian, =150-156=;
+ Irish, =164-168=;
+ Japanese, =156-159=;
+ Norse, =122-131=;
+ Russian, =160-162=
+
+ Falcon, The, =429=
+
+ Famous Passages from Dr. Watts, =408=
+
+ _Fanciful Tales_, =234=
+
+ Farmer Went Trotting, A, =38=
+
+ FIELD, E., =385-387=
+
+ FIELD, W. T., 21
+
+ Field Mouse and the Town Mouse, The, =268=
+
+ Fir Tree, The, =190=
+
+ Fisherman and His Wife, The, =138=
+
+ Flying Kite, =385=
+
+ Folklore, 5, 10, 53, 56, 131, 171, 268, 281.
+ _See also_ Fables, Fairy Stories, Myths, Poetry, and Romance
+
+ Folk tales; _See_ Fairy stories
+
+ FOLLEN, E. L., =371-372=
+
+ FORD, S., =527=
+
+ "For every evil under the sun," =24=
+
+ For Those Who Fail, =415=
+
+ For Want of a Nail, =40=
+
+ "Four-and-twenty tailors," =25=
+
+ Four Leaved Clover, A, =174=
+
+ _Four Million, The_, =505=
+
+ Fox and His Wife, The, =40=
+
+ Fox and the Grapes, The, =276=
+
+ FRANCE, MARIE DE, =284=
+
+ FRANCILLON, R. E., =330=, =332=
+
+ FRANKLIN, B., =250=, =291=, =293=, =646=, 263
+
+ FRERE, M., =152=, 150
+
+ Frey, =354=
+
+ Frog and the Ox, The, =267=
+
+ Frogs Desiring a King, The, =267=
+
+
+ GAY, J., =286=
+
+ GAYLEY, C. M., =340=
+
+ _George Washington_, =642=
+
+ Gift of the Magi, The, =505=
+
+ GILBERT, W. S., =430=
+
+ _Gods and Heroes_, =330=, =332=
+
+ GOLDSMITH, O., 19, =445=;
+ work of, 445
+
+ Good-Natured Little Boy, The, =456=
+
+ Good-Night and Good-Morning, =396=
+
+ Good Play, A, =382=
+
+ Good Samaritan, The, =289=
+
+ Goody Two-Shoes, =445=
+
+ Goose with the Golden Eggs, The, =272=
+
+ GOSSE, E., 381, 477
+
+ Grading; _See_ Course of study
+
+ _Granny's Wonderful Chair_, =209=
+
+ Grasshopper and the Ant, The, =285=
+
+ "Great A, little a," =25=
+
+ _Green Fairy Book_, 73
+
+ GRIMM, JACOB and WILHELM, =132-146=, 89;
+ work of, 131
+
+ _Grimm's Popular Stories_, =132-142=
+
+
+ HALE, S. J., =373=, 372
+
+ HALLIWELL, J. O., =23 ff.=, =60-63=, 70-71, 20, 47, 59;
+ work of, 56
+
+ Happy Prince, The, =217=
+
+ Hardy Tin Soldier, The, =200=
+
+ Hare and the Tortoise, The, =273=
+
+ Hare with Many Friends, The, =286=
+
+ "Hark, hark," =25=
+
+ HARRIS, J. C., 511
+
+ HARRISON, I. H., =288=
+
+ HARTLAND, E. S., =67=, =84=, 89
+
+ HAVELL, H. L., =607-618=
+
+ HAWTHORNE, N., =309=, =319=, 336;
+ work of, 309
+
+ _Hebrew Tales_, 177
+
+ HEMANS, F. D., =400=
+
+ HENDERSON, A. C., =179=
+
+ HENLEY, W. E., =429=
+
+ Henny-Penny, =58=
+
+ HENRY, O., =505=
+
+ Hen with the Golden Eggs, The, =273=
+
+ "Here sits the Lord Mayor," =25=
+
+ "Here we go up, up, up," =25=
+
+ _Heroes of Asgard, The_, =354=
+
+ Hero stories; _See_ Romance
+
+ "Hey! diddle, diddle," =25=
+
+ "Hickery, dickery, 6 and 7," =25=
+
+ "Hickory, dickory, dock," =25=
+
+ "Higgledy, Piggledy," =25=
+
+ _History of Sandford and Merton_, =270=, =456=
+
+ _Hitopadesa_, =283=
+
+ HOGG, J., =389=
+
+ "Hogs in the garden, catch 'em Towser," =25=
+
+ _Hollow Tree Nights and Days_, =516=
+
+ HOLMES, O. W., =425=, 419, 424
+
+ HORACE, =269=, 268
+
+ Horned Women, The, =164=
+
+ _Horses Nine_, =527=
+
+ "Hot-cross buns," =26=
+
+ _Household Tales_; _See Kinder und Hausmaerchen_
+
+ House that Jack Built, This is the, =48=;
+ origin of, 47
+
+ How Arthur Became King, =595=
+
+ How Bruin the Bear Sped with Reynard the Fox, =586=
+
+ How Columbus Got His Ships, =635=
+
+ HOWITT, M., =390=, 179
+
+ HOWITT, W., =391=
+
+ How Sleep the Brave, =425=
+
+ How the Fenris Wolf Was Chained, =351=
+
+ How the Leaves Came Down, =377=
+
+ "Hub a dub dub," =26=
+
+ "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall," =26=
+
+ HUNT, L., =414=
+
+ HUNT, M., =144=, =146=, 132, 138
+
+ HURWITZ, H., 177
+
+ Husband Who Was To Mind the House, The, =124=
+
+
+ Icarus and Daedalus, =336=
+
+ "If all the sea were one sea," =26=
+
+ "If all the world was apple-pie," =26=
+
+ "If I'd as much money," =26=
+
+ "If ifs and ands," =26=
+
+ "If wishes were horses," =26=
+
+ "I had a little hobby horse," =26=
+
+ "I had a little pony," =26=
+
+ "I have a little sister," =27=
+
+ I Like Little Pussy, =393=
+
+ "I'll tell you a story," =27=
+
+ Inchcape Rock, The, =421=
+
+ _Indian Fairy Tales_, =154=
+
+ _Indian Folk Stories and Fables_, 281, 280
+
+ INGELOW, J., =227=
+
+ "In marble walls as white as milk," =27=
+
+ _Insect Stories_, =524=
+
+ In the Western Wilderness, =662=
+
+ Invictus, =429=
+
+ _Irish Fairy Tales_, =166=
+
+ ISAACS, A. S., =174=
+
+ I Saw a Ship, =36=
+
+ "I went up one pair of stairs," =27=
+
+
+ Jackanapes, =478=, 477
+
+ "Jack and Jill went up the hill," =27=
+
+ Jack and the Beanstalk, =73=
+
+ "Jack be nimble," =27=
+
+ "Jack Sprat could eat no fat," =27=
+
+ JACOBS, J., =89=, =154=, =162=, =266=, =267=, =269=, =278=, 73, 586;
+ work of, 58
+
+ _Japanese Fairy Tales_, =156=, =158=
+
+ _Jataka Tales_; _See Buddhistic Birth Stories_
+
+ Jemima, =41=
+
+ Johnny Chuck Finds the Best Thing in the World, =515=
+
+ JORDAN, D. S., =556=
+
+ _Just-So Stories_, 562
+
+
+ KEARY, A. and E., =354=
+
+ KELLOGG, V. L., =524=
+
+ Kid and the Wolf, The, =276=
+
+ Kinder und Hausmaerchen, =132-146=, 131
+
+ King Arthur; _See_ Arthur
+
+ King Arthur and His Knights, =603=
+
+ King Bell, =385=
+
+ King John and the Bishop of Canterbury, =437=
+
+ King of the Golden River, The, =245=
+
+ King O'Toole and His Goose, =166=
+
+ KINGSCOTE, MRS., =154=
+
+ _Kings in Exile_, =566=
+
+ KINGSLEY, C., =412=
+
+ KIPLING, R., =428=, =562=, 122
+
+ Knights of the Silver Shield, The, =223=
+
+ "Knock at the door," =27=
+
+ KREADY, L. F., 97, 190
+
+ KRYLOV, I. A., =288=, 287
+
+ KUPFER, G. H., =306=
+
+
+ "Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home," =27=
+
+ LA FONTAINE, J. DE, =273=, =278=, =284=, =285=, 272
+
+ _La Fontaine and Other French Fabulists_, =285=
+
+ Lamb, The, =401=
+
+ LAMB, C., 444
+
+ Lambikin, The, =150=
+
+ Lamplighter, The, =382=
+
+ Land of Nod, The, =382=
+
+ Land of Story-Books, The, =382=
+
+ LANG, A., =94=, =106=, 20, 21, 49, 61, 73, 93, 100
+
+ LARCOM, L., =374=
+
+ Lark and Her Young Ones, The, =275=
+
+ Last Bull, =566=
+
+ Lazy Jack, =70=
+
+ Leak in the Dyke, The, =378=
+
+ LEAR, E., =403-404=
+
+ Legend; _See_ Romance
+
+ _Le Morte D'Arthur_, =595-598=, 594
+
+ Library; improvement of, =10=
+
+ Lincoln's Early Days, =655=
+
+ Lion and the Mouse, The, =266=
+
+ Lion Tricked by a Rabbit, A, =283=
+
+ Literature for children;
+ general discussion of, 5-16;
+ artistic worth of, 7, 9, 19, 444;
+ course of study in, 13-16, 633-634;
+ cultural value of, 9, 19, 264, 577, 633;
+ democratic origin of, 7, 20;
+ didactic, 443;
+ kinds, traditional vs. modern, 7, 171-172;
+ presentation of, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 55, 173, 265, 369, 443, 511, 633;
+ purpose of, 9, 21, 443, 511;
+ selection of, 9, 264, 305, 369, 370;
+ vs. reading, 8-9.
+ _See also_ Poetry, Stories, etc.
+
+ Little and Great, =399=
+
+ Little Bo-Peep, =37=
+
+ "Little boy blue," =27=
+
+ "Little girl, little girl," =27=
+
+ Little Golden Hood, True History of, =94=
+
+ "Little Jack Horner," =28=
+
+ "Little Jack Jingle," =28=
+
+ "Little Johnny Pringle had a little pig," =28=
+
+ Little Kitty, The, =372=
+
+ "Little Miss Muffet," =28=
+
+ "Little Nancy Etticoat," =28=
+
+ Little Red Riding-Hood, =93=
+
+ "Little Robin Redbreast," =28=
+
+ "Little Tommy Tucker," =28=
+
+ LOCKE, J., 265
+
+ London Bridge, =36=
+
+ LONGFELLOW, H. W., =408-411=, 415, 620
+
+ "Long legs, crooked thighs," =28=
+
+ Lord Helpeth Man and Beast, The, =178=
+
+ LOVER, S., =165=
+
+ LOWELL, J. R., =429=, =430=
+
+ "Lucy Locket lost her pocket," =28=
+
+
+ MABIE, H. W., =348=, =360=, 348
+
+ MACCLINTOCK, P. L., 21
+
+ MACKAY, C., =399=
+
+ MACY, J., 8
+
+ MAJOR, C., =500=
+
+ MALORY, SIR T., =595-598=, 578, 594
+
+ Man and the Satyr, The, =276=
+
+ Man of Words, A, =40=
+
+ MARELLES, C., =94=, =106=
+
+ Mary Had a Little Lamb, =373=
+
+ "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John," =28=
+
+ Meddlesome Mattie, =393=
+
+ Mediaeval stories; _See_ Romance
+
+ Memorizing, 370
+
+ Mercury and the Woodman, =276=
+
+ Mice in Council, The, =277=
+
+ Midas, =339=
+
+ Milking Time, =394=
+
+ Milkmaid and Her Pail, The, =278=
+
+ Milkweed Seeds, =34=
+
+ Miller, His Son, and the Ass, The, =274=
+
+ MILLER, J., =415=
+
+ MILLER, O. T., =549=, 548
+
+ MILNES, R. M., =396=
+
+ Miraculous Pitcher, The, =319=
+
+ Mirror of Matsuyama, The, =156=
+
+ "Mistress Mary, quite contrary," =28=
+
+ MOE, J.; _See_ ASBJOeRNSEN
+
+ Molly and I, =35=
+
+ Moon, The, =371=
+
+ Mother Goose, 7, 10, 19-22, 93, 171, 370;
+ history of, 19-21.
+ _See also_ Poetry, traditional
+
+ _Mother Goose's Melody_, 19, 20, 445
+
+ Mother Hubbard and Her Dog, =41=
+
+ Moti Guj--Mutineer, =562=
+
+ Moufflou, =535=
+
+ Mountain and the Squirrel, The, =424=
+
+ Mountebank and the Countryman, The, =277=
+
+ Mr. 'Possum's Sick Spell, =516=
+
+ Mr. Vinegar, The Story of, =71=
+
+ MULOCK, MISS, =73=, =80=
+
+ "Multiplication is vexation," =28=
+
+ Musical Ass, The, =287=
+
+ My Bed Is a Boat, =383=
+
+ My Garden, =418=
+
+ My Shadow, =383=
+
+ Myths, =306-366=;
+ discussion of, 303-305;
+ definition of, 303;
+ objections to, 304;
+ use in school, 305;
+ value of, 304;
+ Greek and Roman, =306-343=;
+ explanatory introduction to, 306;
+ Norse, =343-366=;
+ explanatory introduction to, 343, 348, 360
+
+
+ Narcissus, The, =330=
+
+ Nathan Hale, The Ballad of, =425=
+
+ Nature literature, =513-574=;
+ discussion of, 511-512;
+ place in the grades, 13, 512;
+ some types of, 511-512;
+ what it is, 511
+
+ "Needles and pins, needles and pins," =29=
+
+ NEWBERY, J., 19, 20, 445
+
+ NICOLAY, H., =655=
+
+ Nightingale, The, =184=
+
+ Noodle story; _See_ Droll
+
+ _Norse Stories_, =348=, =360=
+
+ NORTON, C. E., =420=
+
+ Nursery rhymes; _See_ Poetry
+
+ _Nursery Rhymes and Tales_, =59-63=, 56, 71
+
+ _Nursery Rhymes of England_, 20
+
+
+ _Odyssey, The_, 577
+
+ _Old Deccan Days_, =152=, 150, 151
+
+ _Old Greek Folk Stories_, =335=, =337=
+
+ Old Ironsides, =425=
+
+ "Old King Cole," =29=
+
+ Old Man and His Sons, The, =275=
+
+ _Old Mother West Wind_, =515=
+
+ Old Pipes and the Dryad, =234=
+
+ Old Woman and Her Pig, The, =56=
+
+ "Once I saw a little bird," =29=
+
+ "One for the money," =29=
+
+ "One misty, moisty morning," =29=
+
+ "1, 2, 3, 4, 5," =29=
+
+ "One, two," =29=
+
+ OUIDA, =535=, 534
+
+ Over Hill, Over Dale, =423=
+
+ Owl and the Pussy-Cat, The, =403=
+
+
+ PAINE, A. B., =516=
+
+ Pandora's Box, 309
+
+ Parables, =289=;
+ defined, 289
+
+ Paradise of Children, The, =309=
+
+ PARENT'S ASSISTANT, THE, =459=
+
+ Pass of Thermopylae, The, =671=
+
+ "Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake," =29=
+
+ PEABODY, J. P., =336=, =337=, 335
+
+ "Pease-porridge hot," =29=
+
+ Peddler's Caravan, The, =395=
+
+ PERRAULT, C. =93=, =97=, =100=, =102=, 19;
+ work of, 92
+
+ "Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater," =30=
+
+ "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers," =30=
+
+ _Peter Rabbit Books_, =513=
+
+ Phaethon, =340=
+
+ Piper, The, =401=
+
+ Pippa's Song, =399=
+
+ Planting of the Apple-Tree, The, =417=
+
+ Poacher and the Silver Fox, The, =551=
+
+ Pobble Who Has No Toes, The, =404=
+
+ POE, E. A., =415=
+
+ Poetry:
+ (_a_) modern, =371-437=;
+ discussion of, 369-370;
+ reading of, 14, 370;
+ selection of, 14, 369;
+ teaching of, 9, 14, 369;
+ (_b_) traditional, or nursery rhymes, =23-50=;
+ discussion of, 19-22;
+ appeal to children, 7, 10, 19, 21, 34;
+ history of, 19-22.
+ _See also_ Mother Goose, Literature, and Course of study
+
+ Poet's Song, The, =413=
+
+ "Poor old Robinson Crusoe," =30=
+
+ _Popular Tales from the Norse_, =123-125=, 122
+
+ PORTER, W. S., _See_ HENRY
+
+ POTTER, B., =513=
+
+ Pourquoi story, 172
+
+ PRENTISS, E., =372=
+
+ Pride Goeth before a Fall, =154=
+
+ Prince's Dream, The, =227=
+
+ Prodigal Son, The, =289=
+
+ Proserpine, 354. _See also_ Story of the Springtime
+
+ Proud King, The, =620=
+
+ Psalm of Life, The, =411=
+
+ Puss-in-Boots, =97=
+
+ "Pussy-cat, pussy-cat," =30=
+
+ "Pussy sits beside the fire," =30=
+
+
+ Quern at the Bottom of the Sea, The, =129=
+
+
+ Raggedy Man, The, =389=
+
+ Rain, =381=
+
+ RAMASWAMI RAJU, P. V., =281=, 280
+
+ RAMEE, L. DE LA; _See_ OUIDA
+
+ RANDS, W. B., =395=, =396=
+
+ Reading; distinguished from literature, 8-9;
+ lists for various grades, (_See_ Course of study);
+ of literature, 14, 369-370;
+ supplemental, 10
+
+ Realistic Stories, =445-508=;
+ discussion of, 443-444;
+ Christmas, 505;
+ didactic or 18th century, =445-459=, 443-444;
+ modern, =478-508=, 444;
+ Sunday-school, 443
+
+ Real Princess, The, =179=
+
+ Recessional, =428=
+
+ _Red Fairy Book_, =94=, =106=
+
+ Red Thread of Honor, The, =427=
+
+ _Renowned History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, The_, =445=, 443, 444
+
+ REPPLIER, A., 54
+
+ Reynard the Fox, =586=, =591=, 284, 577
+
+ Rhymes; _See_ Poetry
+
+ RHYS-DAVIDS, T. W., =281=, =282=
+
+ "Ride a cock-horse," =30=
+
+ "Ride, baby, ride," =30=
+
+ RILEY, J. W., =388-389=
+
+ ROBERTS, C. G. D., =566=
+
+ Robin and the Merry Little Old Woman, =623=
+
+ Robin Hood, =623=, =628=
+
+ _Robin Hood: His Book_, =623=
+
+ "Rock-a-bye, baby," =30=
+
+ "Rock-a-bye, baby, thy cradle is green," =30=
+
+ Romance and Legend, =579-630=;
+ discussion of, 577-578;
+ stories and versions recommended, 577-578;
+ use in school, 577
+
+ ROSCOE, W., =397=
+
+ Rose-Bud, =142=
+
+ ROSSETTI, C. G., =268=, =394=
+
+ ROUSSEAU, J. J., 264, 284, 443
+
+ R. S., GENT, =97=, 93
+
+ Rumpelstiltskin, =144=
+
+ Runaway Brook, The, =372=
+
+ RUSKIN, J., =45=, =245=;
+ work of, 245
+
+
+ SAINTSBURY, G. E. B., =21=, =22=
+
+ Sands of Dee, The, =412=
+
+ _Science Sketches_, =556=
+
+ SCOTT, SIR W., =424=
+
+ SCUDDER, H. E., =620=, =642=, 578;
+ work of, 642
+
+ "See a pin and pick it up," =30=
+
+ SEEGMILLER, W., =34=
+
+ "See, saw, sacradown," =31=
+
+ Seldom or Never, =394=
+
+ SETON, E. T., =551=
+
+ SHAKESPEARE, W., =423=
+
+ SHARP, D. L., =520=
+
+ SHAW, A. H., =662=
+
+ Shepherd of King Admetus, The, =430=
+
+ Shepherd's Boy, The, =266=, 11-12
+
+ Shepherd, The, =401=
+
+ SHERMAN, F. D., =384-385=
+
+ "Shoe the little horse," =31=
+
+ Simple Simon, =38=
+
+ "Sing a song of sixpence," =31=
+
+ _Sing-Song_, =394=
+
+ SKEAT, W. W., =284=
+
+ Skeleton in Armor, The, =408=
+
+ Snow-White and Rose-Red, =146=
+
+ Solitary Reaper, The, =419=
+
+ _Songs of Innocence_, =400=
+
+ SOUTHEY, R., =421=
+
+ SPENCER, W. R., =436=
+
+ Spider and the Fly, The, =390=
+
+ Spinning Top, =384=
+
+ "Star light, star bright," =31=
+
+ Star, The, =394=
+
+ STEEL, F. A., =150=, 153
+
+ STEVENSON, R. L., =381-384=, 380
+
+ STOCKTON, F. R., =234=, 233
+
+ Stories; dramatization of, 11-12;
+ selection of, 9, 10, 264, 284-285, 305, 577, 633;
+ accumulative, 47, 56, 150, 160;
+ biographical, =635-676=;
+ Christmas, 505;
+ didactic, 443;
+ fable, =266-289=;
+ fairy, =56-168=, =174-260=;
+ hero, (_See_ biographical);
+ legend, (_See_ romance);
+ myth, =306-366=;
+ nature, =513-574=;
+ noodle, 67;
+ pourquoi, 172;
+ realistic, =445-508=;
+ romance, =579-630=;
+ _See also_ Story-telling.
+
+ _Stories and Legends of the Irish Peasantry_, =165=
+
+ _Stories from Don Quixote_, =607-618=
+
+ _Stories from the Rabbis_, =174=
+
+ _Stories of Long Ago_, =306=
+
+ _Stories of Norse Heroes_, =351=
+
+ _Stories Told to a Child_, =228=
+
+ Story of Alnaschar, The, =279=
+
+ _Story of a Pioneer, The_, =662=
+
+ Story of a Salmon, The, =556=
+
+ Story of Fairyfoot, The, =210=
+
+ Story of Mr. Vinegar, The, =71=
+
+ Story of the Springtime, A, =306=
+
+ Story-telling, 9, 55;
+ discussion of, 10-11;
+ Andersen's method of, 173;
+ direct discourse in, 11;
+ effectiveness of, 10;
+ of fables, 265;
+ preparation for, 11;
+ selections for, 10;
+ tense in, 10
+
+ Strange Wild Song, A, =406=
+
+ Straw Ox, The, =160=
+
+ Sugar-Plum Tree, The, =386=
+
+ Supplemental reading, 10.
+ _See also_ Course of study
+
+ Swallow and the Raven, The, =229=
+
+ Swallow, The, =394=
+
+ Swan, the Pike, and the Crab, The, =288=
+
+ Sweet and Low, =413=
+
+ Swing, The, =383=
+
+ Symbolic stories; _See_ Fables
+
+
+ Table and the Chair, The, =404=
+
+ Taffy, =38=
+
+ Tale of Peter Rabbit, The, =513=
+
+ _Tales from the Punjab_, =150=, =153=
+
+ _Tales of Our Mother Goose, The_, =93=, =97-102=, 19, 92-93
+
+ Tales of the Sun, =154=
+
+ Talkative Tortoise, The, =282=
+
+ TAPPAN, E. M., =623=
+
+ TAYLOR, A., =392=, =393=
+
+ TAYLOR, E., =132-142=, 131
+
+ TAYLOR, J., =297=, =393=, =394=
+
+ Teeny-Tiny, =60=
+
+ TENNYSON, A., =413-414=, 628
+
+ Thanksgiving Day, =375=
+
+ "The King of France went up the hill," =31=
+
+ "The lion and the unicorn," =31=
+
+ "The man in the moon," =31=
+
+ "The north wind doth blow," =31=
+
+ "The Queen of Hearts," =31=
+
+ "There was a crooked man," 31
+
+ "There was a little boy," =32=
+
+ There Was a Little Man, =37=
+
+ "There was a little man and he had naught," =32=
+
+ "There was a man in our town," =32=
+
+ "There was an old man," =32=
+
+ There was an Old Woman, =36=
+
+ "There was an old woman," =32=
+
+ "There was an old woman lived under a hill," =32=
+
+ "There was an old woman of Leeds," =32=
+
+ "There was an old woman of Norwich," =32=
+
+ "There was an old woman tossed up in a basket," =32=
+
+ "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe," =33=
+
+ "There was an owl lived in an oak," =33=
+
+ They Didn't Think, =377=
+
+ "This is the way the ladies ride," 33
+
+ "This little pig went to market," =33=
+
+ THOMPSON, E. S., _See_ SETON
+
+ Thor's Visit to Joetunheim, =343=
+
+ Three Bears, Story of the, =65=
+
+ Three Billy-Goats Gruff, The, =123=
+
+ "Three blind mice! see, how they run," =33=
+
+ Three Fishers, The, =412=
+
+ Three Jovial Huntsmen, =37=
+
+ Three Little Kittens, The, =371=
+
+ Three Little Pigs, Story of the, =61=
+
+ Three Sillies, The, =67=
+
+ Three Things to Remember, =400=
+
+ "Three wise men of Gotham," =33=
+
+ Tiger, The, =401=
+
+ Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal, The, =153=
+
+ TILTON, T., =373=
+
+ Time to Rise, =381=
+
+ Tit for Tat, =152=
+
+ Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse, =63=
+
+ Toads and Diamonds, =100=
+
+ To a Waterfowl, =417=
+
+ TOLSTOI, L., =299=
+
+ "To market, to market," =33=
+
+ Tom the Piper's Son, =38=
+
+ Tom Thumb, =80=
+
+ Tom Thumb's Alphabet, =35=
+
+ Tom Tit Tot, =90=, 144
+
+ "Tom, Tom, the piper's son," =33=
+
+ Tongue-Cut Sparrow, The, =158=
+
+ Toy-books, =41=
+
+ Travelers and the Bear, The, =274=
+
+ Traveling Musicians, The, =132=
+
+ _Treasure Island_, 381
+
+ Treasures of the Wise Man, The, =388=
+
+ TROWBRIDGE, J. T., =432=
+
+ True History of Little Golden Hood, =94=
+
+ _True Story of Christopher Columbus_, =635=
+
+ Try Again, =402=
+
+ Twink! Twink! =34=
+
+ "Two-legs sat upon three-legs", =33=
+
+
+ Ugly Duckling, The, =203=
+
+
+ Vendetta, The, =524=
+
+ VILLENEUVE, MADAME DE, =110=
+
+ Vision of Mirzah, The, =294=
+
+
+ Walrus and the Carpenter, The, =405=
+
+ WARREN, M. R., =603=
+
+ Waste Not, Want Not, =459=
+
+ WATTS, I., =407=, =408=
+
+ WELSH, C., 21, 445
+
+ What Does Little Birdie Say, =413=
+
+ "When a twister a-twisting", =34=
+
+ When I Was a Little Boy, =38=
+
+ Where Are You Going, =35=
+
+ Where Go the Boats, =384=
+
+ Whistle, The, =291=
+
+ Whittington and His Cat, =84=
+
+ Who Has Seen the Wind, =394=
+
+ Whole Duty of Children, =381=
+
+ Who Stole the Bird's Nest, =375=
+
+ Why the Bear Is Stumpy-Tailed, =122=
+
+ _Why the Chimes Rang_, =223=
+
+ Why the Sea Is Salt, 128
+
+ Widow and the Hen, The, =276=
+
+ _Wild Animals at Home_, =551=
+
+ WILDE, LADY, =164=
+
+ WILDE, O., =217=
+
+ Wild Life in the Farm-Yard, =520=
+
+ WILLISTON, T. P., =156=, =158=
+
+ "Willy boy, Willy boy," =34=
+
+ WILMOT-BUXTON, E. M., =351=
+
+ Wind and the Sun, The, =272=
+
+ Wind in a Frolic, The, =391=
+
+ Wind, The, =384=
+
+ Windy Nights, =384=
+
+ Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, The, =273=
+
+ _Wonder Book for Girls and Boys, A_, =309=, =319=
+
+ Wonderful World, The, =396=
+
+ WOOLSEY, S. C.; _See_ COOLIDGE
+
+ WORDSWORTH, W., =419=
+
+ WRIGHT, E., =273=, =278=, =284=
+
+ Wyche, R. T., 577
+
+ Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, =385=
+
+
+ Yarn of the Nancy Bell, The, =430=
+
+ YEATS, W. B., =166=
+
+ YONGE, C. M., =671=
+
+ YRIARTE, T. de, =287=
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired. In this text the oe-ligature is
+represented by brackets [oe]. Bold text is represented by = and italic
+by _. In addition, the text used / as punctuation in one story.
+
+Page vi, "Rocky" changed to "Rock" (83. Rock-a-bye)
+
+Page x, "Gelert" changed to "Gelert" (Beth Gelert)
+
+Page 2, "Literatary" changed to "Literary" (Literary Taste and)
+
+Page 19, "withold" changed to "withhold" (do not withhold Mother)
+
+Page 155, "Ta, tai tom" changed to "Ta, tai tom" (Ta, tai tom,
+tadingana)
+
+Page 180, "Emporer's" changed to "Emperor's" (The Emperor's New)
+
+Page 202, "warrier" changed to "warrior" (thou warrior brave)
+
+Page 236, "Dyrad" changed to "Dryad" (beautiful Dryad stepped)
+
+Page 299, "wordly" changed to "worldly" (worldly greatness; Solon)
+
+Page 302, "Column" changed to "Colum" (Colum, Padraic, _The Children of
+Odin_.)
+
+Page 437, "Lleweylln's" changed to "Llewellyn's" (Llewellyn's sorrow
+proved)
+
+Page 448, "be" changed to "he" (Though ill, he began)
+
+Footnote: Page 482 originally, added [Author's Note.] to conform to rest
+of text. Footnote begins: (The Mail Coach it was)
+
+Page 487, "hair-dressser" changed to "hair-dresser" (for the
+hair-dresser)
+
+Page 498, "hurridly" changed to "hurriedly" (hurriedly. "Go quickly)
+
+Page 510, "Thorton" changed to "Thornton" (Burgess, Thornton W.)
+
+Page 521, word "a" moved up from the end of the line below. Original
+read:
+
+ So, if you will watch, you shall see
+ real wild turkey in the tamest old a
+
+Page 578, "it" changed to "in" (in its lofty spirit)
+
+Page 662, "Misisssippi" changed to "Mississippi" (lower Mississippi,
+where)
+
+Page 663, "unwildy" changed to "unwieldy" (the unwieldy vehicle)
+
+Page 687, "a" changed to "the" (Breathes There the Man)
+
+Page 682, "Segur" changed to "Segur" (Segur, Sophie R. de)
+
+Page 688, small-caps were added to Mulock to conform to rest of the
+index.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Children's Literature, by
+Charles Madison Curry and Erle Elsworth Clippinger
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHILDREN'S LITERATURE ***
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