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+Project Gutenberg's The Old-Fashioned Fairy Book, by Constance Cary Harrison
+
+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: The Old-Fashioned Fairy Book
+
+Author: Constance Cary Harrison
+
+Illustrator: Rosina Emmet
+
+Release Date: September 8, 2011 [EBook #37348]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD-FASHIONED FAIRY BOOK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Matthew Wheaton and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    THE OLD-FASHIONED FAIRY BOOK
+
+    BY
+
+    MRS. BURTON HARRISON
+
+
+    ILLUSTRATED BY
+
+    MISS ROSINA EMMET
+
+
+    LONDON
+
+    SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, AND RIVINGTON
+    CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET
+
+
+    [_All rights reserved_]
+
+
+    Dedicated
+
+    TO
+
+    FAIRFAX, FRANK AND ARCHY
+
+
+
+
+    CONTENTS.
+
+
+    INTRODUCTION
+
+    THE PRINCESS EGLANTINE
+
+    DAME MARTHA'S STEP-DAUGHTER; OR, THE GRANDMOTHER OF THE GNOMES
+
+    THE ADVENTURES OF HA'PENNY; OR, THE DWARF, THE
+    WITCH, AND THE MAGIC SLIPPERS
+
+    SYBILLA, MYRTILLO, AND FURIOSO
+
+    ANNETTE; OR, THE MAGIC COFFEE-MILL
+
+    JULIET; OR, THE LITTLE WHITE MOUSE
+
+    THE FAIRIES AND THE FIDDLER
+
+    ETHELINDA; OR, THE ICE KING'S BRIDE
+
+    DEEP-SEA VIOLETS
+
+    THE WILD WOODSMAN
+
+    THE FROZEN HEARTH-FAIRY
+
+    ROSY'S STAY-AT-HOME PARTIES
+
+    BLONDINA; OR, THE TURKEY-QUEEN
+
+    TIMID AGNES
+
+    THE OGRESS AND THE COOK
+
+    MISS PEGGY AND THE FROG
+
+    THE LEPERHAUN: A LEGEND OF THE EMERALD ISLE
+
+
+        ROMANCES OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
+
+
+    THE TRIALS OF SIR ISUMBRAS
+
+    BISCLAVERET
+
+    ROSWAL AND LILIAN
+
+    ELIDUC AND GUILLIADUN
+
+    THE FALCON-KING
+
+    SIR EGLAMOUR AND CRYSTABELL
+
+
+
+
+FAIRY DAYS.
+
+
+    Beside the old hall-fire--upon my nurse's knee,
+    Of happy fairy-days--what tales were told to me!
+    I thought the world was once--all peopled with princ�sses,
+    And my heart would beat to hear--their loves and their distresses;
+    And many a quiet night--in slumber sweet and deep,
+    The pretty fairy people--would visit me in sleep.
+
+    I saw them in my dreams--come flying east and west,
+    With wondrous fairy gifts--the new-born babe they bless'd;
+    One has brought a jewel--and one a crown of gold,
+    And one has brought a curse--but she is wrinkled and old.
+    The gentle queen turns pale--to hear those words of sin,
+    But the king he only laughs--and bids the dance begin.
+
+    The babe has grown to be--the fairest of the land,
+    And rides the forest green--a hawk upon her hand,
+    An ambling palfrey white--a golden robe and crown;
+    I've seen her in my dreams--riding up and down:
+    And heard the ogre laugh--as she fell into his snare,
+    At the little tender creature--who wept and tore her hair!
+
+    But ever when it seemed--her need was at the sorest,
+    A prince--in shining mail--comes prancing through the forest,
+    A waving ostrich-plume--a buckler burnished bright;
+    I've seen him in my dreams--good sooth! a gallant knight.
+    His lips are coral red--beneath a dark moustache;
+    See how he waves his hand--and how his blue eyes flash!
+
+    "Come forth, thou Paynim knight!"--he shouts in accents clear.
+    The giant and the maid--both tremble his voice to hear.
+    Saint Mary guard him well!--He draws his falchion keen,
+    The giant and the knight--are fighting on the green;
+    I see them in my dreams--his blade gives stroke on stroke,
+    The giant pants and reels--and tumbles like an oak!
+
+    With what a blushing grace--he falls upon his knee
+    And takes the lady's hand--and whispers, "You are free!"
+    Ah! happy childish tales--of knight and fa�rie!
+    I waken from my dreams--but there's ne'er a knight for me;
+    I waken from my dreams--and wish that I could be
+    A child by the old hall-fire--upon my nurse's knee!
+
+                                 W. M. THACKERAY.
+
+[Illustration: The Faithful Comrades.]
+
+[Illustration: Old-Fashioned Fairies.]
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+    _To my Young Readers._
+
+              _Children Dear_:
+
+
+Not long ago two little boys, who shall be nameless here, came to their
+mother's side at that pleasant hour of the twenty-four called by the
+English "blind-man's holiday," and by the French, "between dog and
+wolf." The lamps had not been lighted, and the room was full of shadows;
+but a strip of western sky, seen through the bay window, hung like a
+pink veil behind which a few pale stars were beginning to show above
+the dark line of hills. All that bright summer's day long, four little
+busy feet had been in motion. Directly after breakfast they had raced
+down the meadow-path, pursued by Colin Clout, their faithful Scotch
+collie, between grass and daisies so tall that little could be seen of
+the dog and his younger master, beyond a brown back and white-tipped
+tail curveting around a scarlet fez that bobbed up and down like a buoy
+upon the water. Soon the three companions had reappeared for a moment
+under a low arch of fringy boughs at the entrance to the grove, and then
+had descended a bank to the edge of a babbling brook, where, on the
+grassy margin, the children played every day for hours, inventing a
+hundred devices of boats and dams and waterfalls, whilst Colin lay at
+ease among the ferns, and from time to time emitted a bark of pure good
+fellowship. For them this shallow streamlet has a charm hardly to be
+resisted, even for a summons to drive "over the hills and far away"
+through the lovely country-side, or to assist in the delights of the
+season when their pretty meadow grasses are laid low, tossed into
+fragrant piles, and carted away by merry haying-folk--though sometimes
+these water-elves pause to forage the neighboring woods for "hocky"
+sticks and sling-shot crotches, to "shin up" the tall forest trees, or
+pluck wild strawberries from the sunny slopes beyond their favorite
+haunt.
+
+On the especial evening of which I write, the faithful comrades had
+returned, tired, and scratched by the briers of this work-a-day world,
+from a tramp of some miles in search of live bait for a fishing
+excursion projected with their father at Lily Pond upon the morrow. The
+doomed little fishes had been put into a bath-tub full of water, where
+they were expected to suppose themselves still in their native pool. The
+boys had been washed and fed--an astonishing supper, even for those
+cormorants!--and now had elected to seek rest and refreshment at the
+maternal knee. Colin, observing that everybody else was satisfactorily
+adjusted in affectionate attitudes, had retired under the fringe of a
+table-cover close at hand, and lay where only his loving eyes and open
+mouth could be seen, breathing in short quick pants, or, as the boys
+called it, "ha-ha-ha-ing at the company."
+
+"And now, mamma, until your tea is ready, we know what you must do,"
+said the children, in a breath. "Tell us a story--a 'real, truly' fairy
+tale, about a giant and a dwarf, lots and lots of fairies, a prince and
+a beautiful princess with hair to her very feet, a champion with a magic
+sword, a dragon-chariot, a witch dressed in snake-skin--and, if you can,
+an ogre. Don't punish anybody but the witch and the ogre; and _please_
+don't have any moral, only let everybody 'live in peace and die in a pot
+of grease,' at the end of it."
+
+"To be sure, we know most of mamma's stories by heart," said the sage
+elder of nine. "If she could only make up some new ones that aren't in
+any of our books! Or else, mamma, tell us something you heard a little
+bit of, long, long ago, from your nurse, and then make up the rest. But
+whatever one you tell, we'll be sure to like it anyhow."
+
+The stories told, the mother fell to musing, and the result is the
+little book here presented to the judgment of children other than her
+own--a few new fairy tales, on the old, old pattern!
+
+In every country of the habitable globe are found the same myths,
+variously dressed and styled. Let the ethnologist frame what theory he
+will upon this subject, my own private belief is that once upon a time a
+good fairy who loved mankind put on the wings of a stormy petrel and
+flew over many lands, carrying in her hand a sieve full of tiny seeds,
+and shaking it upon those spots where there appeared to be most
+children. The seeds, falling to earth after this fashion, sprang up and
+bore many-colored fairy tales, to rejoice all hearts for evermore. Since
+then, the fables you and I love have been told from father to son among
+nations living remote from each other and isolated. The Hindoo toiling
+under the tropic sun, and the Lapp in his smoky hut banked in snow; the
+English cottar resting in his ivy-covered porch, and the Russian peasant
+stretched at length upon the stove which forms his bed; the Persian
+stroking his gray beard beneath the archways of Ispahan, and the
+Norwegian carving bits of wood under his rafters of illuminated
+pine--all know and repeat versions of our favorite tales. In France, in
+Spain, in Germany--mother of myths--in Italy, where they drop red from
+the wine-press of Boccaccio--are these stories to be heard. The North
+American Indian weaves them with his beads and wampum; our southern
+negro croons them over the corn-cake baking in the spider upon his cabin
+hearth; the poetical Chinese envelops them in the language of flowers;
+and the distant dweller by the Amazon embalms them in his legendary
+lore. So much for the fairy with the sieve!
+
+But great as is the enjoyment had in perusing the fairy tales of
+different nations, to the child of Anglo-Saxon descent can come no such
+pleasure so deep as that to be derived from the old romances of our
+mother country. To me this delight was first revealed by a little fat
+book that used to be found in our nurseries--the one containing
+Cinderella, immortal maid--unprincipled Puss in Boots--and Jack, the
+splendid champion!
+
+Of late years, fairy tales seem to have suffered from their increase of
+dignity at the hands of grave scholars, who have so dressed them in fine
+language, and hedged them with innumerable notes and references, that
+the child shuns the fruit for fear of thorns about it. For my own part,
+I prefer the older specimens of ancient fairy literature known as
+chap-books. These were odd little yellow pamphlets, sprinkled with
+abundant capital letters throughout the text, and "Illustrated with many
+diverting cutts!" They were carried around the country-side in England
+by peddlers, who sold them (with such other catch-penny wares as
+ribbons, lace, and trinkets) indifferently at castle gate or cottage
+lattice; and if you wish to see the sort of fairies your
+great-grandmothers believed in, look at the three pictures that
+accompany this preface, copied from a famous chap-book.
+
+There, quaintly depicted, first, appeared Jack in a funny full-bottomed
+coat, diligently climbing a bean-stalk, where the ogre's castle was
+perched atop like a bird's nest; lucky Ali-Baba, too; Bluebeard--mighty
+and pitiless--with Fatima and sister Anne, their back hair down,
+pleading to him on dislocated knees, their brothers, with drawn swords,
+galloping to the rescue; and the husband in The Three Wishes, standing
+agape before his fireside, while his wife danced a jig of rage in her
+efforts to rid her nose of a pudding little smaller than a feather-bed!
+There, also, was displayed that pushing suitor, the Yellow Dwarf, who
+insisted on attaching to his lady-love's finger a ring made of a single
+red hair, so fastened that she could not get it off. There was the
+Desert Fairy, guarded by two lions which the wandering queen endeavored
+to appease with "a cake made of millet, sugar-candy, and crocodile's
+eggs." (How we children yearned to taste that cake!) And there were the
+fascinating White Cat, seated side by side with her enamored prince in a
+fine calash of blue embossed with gold, the Sleeping Beauty, the Babes
+in the Wood--hapless cherubs--the Girl who dropped pearls and diamonds
+when she spoke, dear Graciosa and ready Percinet, gallant
+Riquet-with-the-Tuft, and Goody Two Shoes--the latter a little of a
+prig, I fear--clever Hop o' my Thumb, Beauty and the Beast, Little Red
+Riding-hood--the long procession of charmers to whom even now my heart
+bows in salutation as I write their familiar names!
+
+Chap-books of ancient date have been recently reproduced in England;
+from one of them, I have taken the substance of a story I never chanced
+to see elsewhere, and under the title of "Juliet; or, the Little White
+Mouse" have given it to you in language of my own.
+
+After the chap-books came other cheap fairy publications, notably those
+of Mr. Newberry, a good old gentleman who, in the last century, sent out
+numberless sixpenny booklets, many of them reaching America to give
+pleasure to the infants of the colonies. Washington Irving goes so far
+as to say that if George Washington had not read Newberry's
+publications in his youth, especially "Whittington and his Cat," he
+would not have been the first and greatest President of the United
+States! The grave Benjamin Franklin, while a printer in Philadelphia,
+emulated Newberry in publishing nursery tales, and no doubt devoured
+them himself with relish.
+
+Many a pen of the great in history or literature has found a theme in
+these favorites of ours. Of Cinderella, the famous Canning, premier of
+England, wrote in glowing rhyme:
+
+    "Six bobtailed mice transport her to the ball.
+    And liveried lizards wait upon her call."
+
+And Thackeray has thrown around fairy lore the rays of his noble genius,
+not only in the lines already here quoted, but in a Christmas story so
+enchanting that, if you are unfortunate enough not already to have made
+acquaintance with Valoroso and Gruffanuff, Bulbo and Angelica, I urge
+you to try at once the magician's art and coax "The Rose and the Ring"
+out of the pocket of your nearest relative. By the giant Thackeray, when
+entangled in the meshes of Fairydom, one is reminded of Gulliver under
+bonds to the Lilliputians, yet wearing his bonds so easily!
+
+And now, I leave my new-old Fairy Book to you, my little critics. I am
+sure you will accord a generous welcome to the pictures. What would our
+benighted great-grandmothers have said to Miss Emmet's charming
+illustrations?
+
+                                                          C. C. H.
+
+
+
+
+THE PRINCESS EGLANTINE.
+
+
+A certain queen had twin children, a boy and a girl, both as beautiful
+as the dawn of a summer morning. As the mother was one day hanging over
+the double cradle, shaped like two silver lilies growing on one stem, an
+old aunt of hers, who knew a good deal about magic, arrived from the
+country to see the babies and to spend the day.
+
+The old lady took the Princess Eglantine in her arms, and kissed her,
+and joggled her, and clucked at her, after the fashion of all good
+aunties.
+
+"That's a girl to be proud of, my dear!" she said, handing the baby
+back to her mamma. "And she looks as good as she is pretty, too."
+
+"They are both _wonderful_ children, nurse says," replied the young
+queen, modestly. "And the doctor thinks them the _finest pair_ he has
+ever seen. Only the boy is _a little_ high-tempered. He kicks and snaps
+at his attendants the whole time he is awake; so take care, aunty dear,
+and don't disturb him for the world. We always let him sleep as long as
+he will."
+
+"Hoity-toity!" cried aunty, "as if I came out of the woods to be
+frightened by an owl. _I_ know how to manage _all_ children!" and the
+boy opening his eyes at that moment, she lifted him from his crib, and
+laid him on her lap.
+
+Sad to say, he behaved like an infant tiger. Never was there seen such a
+tempestuous baby. He wriggled, and howled, and fought, and plunged,
+until the poor mother and nurses turned red with mortification. But the
+old aunty held on to him bravely, and examined him from top to toe.
+Nothing could she find, till she came to the sole of the right foot, and
+there was a tiny red mark like a burning torch. As soon as aunty saw
+this she sighed, and whispered a word in the baby's ear, when he became
+as quiet as any lamb.
+
+Aunty sent away the nurses, and told the poor queen there was no doubt
+about it; her boy was bewitched, and when he grew up he would try to
+devour his sister. The only thing was to keep them apart, and this the
+queen told her husband; and he sent for a wise man, who confirmed what
+aunty had said. The wise man added that all would go well so long as the
+princess was kept apart from her brother, and as the brother was the
+heir of the kingdom, there was nothing left but to banish the
+unfortunate princess. The king built for his daughter, in the remotest
+corner of his kingdom, an ivory tower. Around the tower was a crystal
+moat full of gold and silver fish. Around the moat were lovely
+flower-beds, and around the flower-beds was a thick and thorny hedge. In
+this tower there was a room lined with tufted blue satin, like the
+inside of a bonbon box, and all the furniture was made of fine carved
+ivory. Here the princess was shut up for life, under the care of an old
+dame, Madame V�loutine by name, who once had kept a boarding-school for
+duchesses, and was very respectable indeed. Poor Eglantine was gradually
+forgotten at court, and her cannibal brother grew up without knowing he
+had ever had a sister.
+
+[Illustration: THE PRINCESS EGLANTINE.]
+
+Like all other captive princesses, past, present, and to come, Eglantine
+was beautiful and accomplished. She could speak in every language, work
+in silk and crewels, paint china plaques, make mince-pies, sing like a
+nightingale, and play anything on the piano at sight with her eyes shut!
+Her skin was milk-white, with a rosy flush on the cheeks, while her
+glorious golden hair never came out of crimp, but rippled from the roots
+to her very feet.
+
+One day a prince, cantering by upon his palfrey, looked up at the tower
+window, and there saw this lovely creature, surrounded by a flock of
+pretty white doves. Prince Charming gazed and gazed, and the longer he
+stood there, the more enraptured he became. When he heard from the
+country people that no one knew who or what was this mysterious beauty,
+excepting that once a year, by night, a grand gentleman and lady visited
+her, and looked at her while asleep, the ardent young prince made a vow
+to solve the secret without delay. He engaged his old tutor to make love
+to Eglantine's governess, and this plan succeeded so well that the tutor
+was, ere long, invited to take a cup of tea at five o'clock, in the
+ground floor apartment of the tower where Madame V�loutine kept house.
+Madame V�loutine was very much fluttered by the attentions of the
+tutor, a gloomy-looking individual with savage dark mustache and
+deep-sunken eyes. The poor old thing, who had been reading novels
+without any intermission for eighteen years, was very sentimental, and
+the idea of a suitor coming to woo at some period of her existence was
+never wholly absent from her thoughts. She dressed herself in one of the
+Princess Eglantine's white robes, put a blue sash around her waist, and
+covering her little red nose with rice powder, sat in a darkened corner
+with a guitar upon her knees. The tutor flattered her, and soon she grew
+confidential and told him the story of her charge. When the tutor took
+his leave, Madame V�loutine sighed deeply, and pitied the poor man who
+had fallen a victim to her charms. She did not see the fat purse of gold
+the prince bestowed on him, upon learning the true state of the case
+about the enchanting captive!
+
+Prince Charming rode, day and night, till he reached the king's palace.
+"Give me your daughter for my wife," he said. The king turned pale at
+hearing that the secret was betrayed. "For pity's sake speak lower,
+young man," said the anxious father. "Only suppose her brother should
+hear of it." With that he told the whole story to Prince Charming, who
+forthwith rode to ask a wise man what he should do to set the princess
+free, with safety to herself.
+
+"Ride as far as you will, and as fast as you will with her, you may not
+escape the curse," said the wise man.
+
+The prince went off heavy hearted, and visited a witch he knew. She was
+knitting a stocking, which ravelled every night as fast as it grew by
+day.
+
+"I have been knitting this stocking for fifty years," said the witch,
+taking a pinch of snuff out of the soup-tureenful that she always kept
+beside her. "I could as soon make it whole in one night as keep away the
+curse from her."
+
+The prince groaned as he rode away. Across his path was a green bough,
+half covered by a huge cobweb. In this a tiny being, no bigger than a
+fly, was entangled, and was making desperate struggles to be free.
+Travelling toward it, with tremendous strides, came an enormous red
+spider, with white spots and great protruding eyes. The prince, not
+without a shudder, for, like most of us, he hated the nasty things,
+killed the spider with a blow, and set free the pretty captive, who
+proved to be a fairy. She tidied her iridescent frock, and thanked him
+very nicely.
+
+"You have saved my life, dear prince," she said. "Pray let me do
+something in return for it."
+
+"Perhaps you can help me," said the prince, eagerly. "If you can't,
+never mind," he added, politely, when he had finished telling her the
+sad story of his doomed princess. "I don't expect much of a person of
+your size, you know; but really it's the greatest _relief_ to talk about
+the dear darling!"
+
+"A person of my size!" said the little lady, with a shrill sniff. "I'd
+have you to know, prince, that I'm the fairy Buz-fuz, the discoverer of
+the celebrated invisibility powder. It is _never_ known to fail, is made
+from a fern-seed that _I_ alone can pluck, and is _not_ for sale at
+_any_ druggist's! As to lifting the spell from that poor young creature,
+the princess, I can't undertake to do it, on any terms; but with the aid
+of my powder, one pinch of which sprinkled on an object will make it
+disappear from sight in a moment, I believe you can manage to keep clear
+of the cannibal brother."
+
+The prince thanked the fairy, took the powder, and galloped off,
+light-hearted, to his Eglantine. She, poor thing, had thought of nothing
+but the prince and his beauty, and his kind glances and smiles, since he
+left her. She wearied of the society of poor old V�loutine, and sighed
+for change. V�loutine was in despair. To comfort the princess she
+promised to allow her a single meeting with the prince, should he ever
+come that way again. "That I am sure he will!" said the princess. "If
+you had only seen his eyes when he looked at me! They were so kind, so
+true! Oh! V�loutine! he _will_ come back!"
+
+So Eglantine settled down to her embroidery. This was a gown of white
+damask with large white satin flowers outlined with real pearls. She had
+been at work on it for several years, and a few stitches more would
+finish it. She now wrought busily, until the last stitch was set, and
+then, with trembling fingers, put it on. Around her neck and waist she
+wrapped great chains of pearls, and left her long hair rippling to her
+knees. When her toilet was complete she went to the window. It was the
+sunset of a summer's day. Around her tower grew vines heavy with
+deep-red roses; the shining surface of the moat beneath was streaked
+with color from the western clouds. Along the path beyond the hedge rode
+a horseman gayly clad in green and gold, who, smiling, doffed a cap with
+a single long white plume, and bowed to his saddle-bow. Behind him came
+a splendid cavalcade of courtiers and knights on horseback, surrounding
+a golden coach in which sat the father and mother of Eglantine, who had
+given consent to her marriage with the prince. The poor king and queen
+were dreadfully frightened at the rashness of this proceeding. They had
+sent the cannibal brother off on a hunting excursion in a distant part
+of the country, and had come in fear and trembling, bringing with them
+the most trustworthy of their people. They could not resist Prince
+Charming, who, in addition to his other attractions, had just lost his
+father, the old king, and was now the sole owner and ruler of a
+neighboring kingdom, and just the match for their lovely daughter. He
+had sworn to them that their child should be kept so securely guarded
+that her brother could never reach her.
+
+Eglantine came down from her bower, to be introduced to her father,
+mother, and lover all at once. The marriage took place without delay,
+and the new king started with his bride for the sea-shore, where they
+were to embark for his home.
+
+They set sail in a ship of which the sides were plated with beaten gold.
+The sails were of pink satin, and the ropes golden threads plaited
+together. The young king and queen sat upon cushions of velvet on the
+deck, and talked of their happy future, when suddenly the sky was
+darkened as by a cloud, and, riding upon a vulture, the cannibal brother
+came after them. He had been hunting, and a wandering breeze carried to
+him the story of his sister's escape. Although he had never before heard
+he possessed a sister, the first whisper of such a thing was sufficient
+to rouse in him the dreadful cannibal instinct to drink her blood. From
+where the king and queen sat they could distinctly hear him smacking his
+lips with joy at the prospect of his horrible meal. Queen Eglantine,
+fearing she knew not what, shuddered from head to foot, and closing her
+eyes cast herself upon the king's breast for protection.
+
+The king, bidding her be calm, sprinkled the deck of the ship with one
+of the fairy's powders, which he carried in a little crystal box. At the
+moment the huge foul bird of prey hovered above them and gave a fierce
+swoop downward, the ship and all its contents vanished utterly from
+sight, while the vulture with his rider plunged into the sea.
+
+The cannibal prince was a good swimmer, and although his vulture was
+immediately drowned, managed to keep up, until he found a dolphin and
+got astride its back.
+
+"Now, carry me in pursuit of yonder ship, and mind you swim fast and
+well," he exclaimed.
+
+"Master, I obey," said the dolphin, who recognized in him a magician.
+"But, look for yourself--blue sky above, blue water below, and not a
+sail upon the sea."
+
+The prince looked, and in truth there was no ship to be seen; so,
+ordering the dolphin to convey him to the nearest landing-place, he soon
+reached the shores of a beautiful country, where flags were flying, and
+all the inhabitants were dressed in holiday clothes. Over the wharf was
+an arch of most lovely flowers, and five hundred little girls were
+strewing the roads with orange blossoms.
+
+"What is taking place?" asked the cannibal brother of the people around
+the wharf.
+
+"Where have _you_ been, pray?" said they scornfully, "not to know that
+our king brings home his bride to-day!"
+
+Then the ship came in sight and the rejoicings began. The cannibal
+brother had no sooner laid eyes upon his sister than a new longing to
+drink her blood came over him; and he set about plotting how he could
+get hold of her, no easy matter, since the palace was guarded night and
+day by twenty white bull-dogs of the fiercest sort, besides the usual
+soldiers and attendants. So he took service with a butcher near the
+town, and made a bag full of little meat-balls, each one containing a
+drop of deadly poison. One day his master sent him to the palace to
+carry Queen Eglantine's sweetbreads and mutton-chops. "Now," thought the
+brother, "I shall get inside;" but he was mistaken, for the sweetbreads
+and mutton-chops were taken from him at the gate, and passed on through
+twenty different hands till they reached the cook. As no outsider
+whatever was allowed to penetrate the inner palace walls, behind which
+the new queen lived surrounded by every luxury, the cannibal brother had
+to wait many days for an opportunity to get a sight of her. Meantime his
+appetite was gaining terribly, and he went to the blacksmith and had all
+his teeth framed in iron, the better to enjoy his horrid meal.
+
+At last King Charming was summoned to meet a neighboring monarch about a
+right of way for his armies across a certain peninsula; and, with many
+injunctions to the queen not to admit any stranger during his absence,
+he reluctantly set out. No sooner was he out of sight than the pretended
+butcher's boy hastened to assume his own princely clothing, and, ringing
+boldly at the castle gate, told the servants to announce to the queen
+that her brother had arrived, bearing messages from her father and
+mother. He sent in a golden locket containing likenesses of both the
+king and queen, his parents, which convinced Queen Eglantine that his
+tale was true. So, joyfully, she ran forth to meet him, and would have
+cast herself upon his neck, but that the trained bull-dogs rushed
+between, growling most horribly.
+
+"Come here, pretty fellow, nice fellow," said the cannibal brother,
+coaxingly; but the dogs only opened their jaws wider than before and
+growled defiance.
+
+"Give them these little dainties, sister," said the wily prince,
+producing his poisoned meat-balls. "They are some that I always carry
+for my own pets."
+
+The innocent queen called the dogs one after another to her side, and
+fed them with the fatal balls, which they ate, licking her white hand
+gratefully. At once, as the poison began to work, they all lay down in a
+row, and became as quiet as they had been before ferocious. The queen
+led her brother into an inner room, and bade him sit upon her silken
+couch. The prince laughed to himself, for now, thought he, the hour has
+come for my coveted meal. But he was seized with the notion to go into
+another room in order to file his teeth, which were becoming rather
+dull.
+
+"Will you not play for me upon the piano, sister?" he asked lovingly.
+
+The amiable queen, who never waited to be asked twice, sat down to play,
+while her brother hid within a closet and began to file his teeth. Up
+jumped the queen's cat, in great excitement, and sat on her mistress'
+lap.
+
+"Mistress dear," said the affectionate creature, "fly, fly, as fast as
+your feet will carry you. Your brother is at this moment getting ready
+to make a meal of you, and as he is a magician no one in the castle is
+strong enough to defend you from him. In the stable you will find the
+king's gray steed. Jump upon his back, and be off, while I play the
+piano in your stead."
+
+The terrified queen took to her royal heels, weeping as she stumbled
+over the dead bodies of her faithful dogs, and the clever cat sat
+playing beautifully so many runs and trills that the prince, admiring
+his sister's brilliant execution, made no haste to leave his task until
+it was finished to his entire satisfaction.
+
+And now, mounted upon the good gray steed, away flew Queen Eglantine in
+search of her beloved spouse. Pretty soon she heard footsteps, and
+there, swifter than any horse, swifter than wind, on flew the cannibal
+brother after her.
+
+"What shall I do, dear steed?" said the alarmed queen.
+
+"Drop your cloak into the road," said the gray horse, who was the cat's
+own cousin.
+
+The queen obeyed, and the cloak became a broad lake, across which the
+cannibal brother took a long time to swim. The gray horse got a good
+start, but presently the prince came nearly up with him.
+
+"What shall I do now, dear steed?" said the queen, almost ready to fall
+fainting from his back.
+
+"Drop the veil from your head," said the horse.
+
+This was done, and the veil became a thick fog, causing the cannibal
+brother to lose his way and stumble dreadfully. But he got out of it at
+last, and came nearly up with them.
+
+"What shall I do next, dear steed?" said the queen, trembling in every
+limb.
+
+"Take your scissors and cut a long lock from your hair, and throw that
+behind you."
+
+The queen lifted the scissors that hung at her girdle, and in a moment,
+snip! they went into her beautiful golden hair. The hair became a jungle
+of tall reeds, and through it the cannibal brother had work indeed to
+travel. While he was puffing and blowing and struggling in the reeds,
+oh, joy! the queen saw her king riding swiftly to meet her.
+
+Just as the cannibal brother, by a desperate effort of magic strength
+had freed himself from the jungle, and emerged in swift pursuit, he had
+the mortification of seeing the queen rush into her husband's arms. His
+dreadful hunger was now increased until it drove him to desperation.
+With a roar of baffled rage he darted toward the royal couple, swearing
+that both of them should be his victims; and this no doubt would have
+been the case--since the monster was endowed with the strength of fifty
+men--but that the king, bidding his queen have no fear, quickly
+sprinkled them both, and their steeds, with a pinch of the fairy
+fern-seed. Immediately they disappeared from sight, and the cannibal
+brother, coming with full force upon the spot where they had been,
+beheld only empty space. This disappointment, combined with his now
+really appalling appetite, made the miserable wretch fall in a fit upon
+the ground.
+
+The king would have killed him where he lay, but the queen pleaded for
+her brother's life, so the attendants bore him, insensible, back to the
+palace. There, the queen's clever cat advised that he should be left to
+her to deal with. She shut herself up with the patient in a tower
+bedroom, and during sixty days and nights not a morsel of food passed
+the sufferer's lips, except the cat's magic castor-oil--a cupful every
+ten minutes--each tasting more nauseous than the one before! In the
+morning he was lifted from bed, and put into an ice-cold bath, and then
+whipped soundly until his circulation was restored. At the end of the
+second month the cat stopped his bath, whipping, and medicines, offering
+him instead a handful of parched peas and a dry crust. This diet seemed
+to him so delicious that never again could he be tempted to vary it.
+Until he reached a green and virtuous old age this prince was never
+known to look upon so much as a rare beefsteak without shuddering! His
+father, mother, sister, and brother-in-law united their tears of joy at
+this happy reform, and who should the clever cat turn out to be, but
+aunty, who had taken this means of watching over her favorite Eglantine!
+The gray steed was aunty's first cousin upon the mother's side; but when
+peace was restored he preferred to go back to his own country to live,
+although the grateful King Charming offered him every inducement to
+remain, in the way of marble stalls and silver mangers, rose-water to
+quench his thirst, and golden oats to eat. Aunty, too, retired to her
+own distant castle, and the reformed cannibal lived quiet and happy
+until the time came to reign in his good father's stead.
+
+As for Eglantine and King Charming, they never again found use for the
+fern-seed powder. Even the faults of one were invisible to the other.
+
+Nothing occurred to disturb the serenity of their entire reign but a
+suit for breach-of-promise of marriage, brought against the king's
+former tutor by the queen's former governess, Madame V�loutine; and this
+was settled speedily by the tutor announcing that, rather than make any
+fuss about the matter, he would marry the old lady and be done with it,
+although he really could not imagine what there had been in his past
+conduct to put such an idea into her venerable head. So at last
+V�loutine got a husband, and nobody could be surprised at anything after
+that.
+
+
+
+
+DAME MARTHA'S STEP-DAUGHTER; OR, THE GRANDMOTHER OF THE GNOMES.
+
+
+Dame Martha lived at the foot of a high mountain. Her cottage was large
+enough to give shelter only to herself and two young girls, one of them
+her own child and the other the child of Dame Martha's late husband,
+who, about six months before this story opens, slipped down a fissure in
+the rocks and had nevermore been seen. Dame Martha did not bear a very
+good character in the neighborhood, as she was known to be violent in
+temper and dishonest in her dealings. While her husband lived, she had
+quarrelled with him from morning till night, and after he disappeared,
+people used to hint that Dame Martha knew better than any one else how
+the poor man came to his sudden death. But nothing was ever proved upon
+her, and as the dame's cottage stood in a desolate valley, overshadowed
+by a frowning cliff on which grew a single lightning-blasted pine-tree,
+children shunned the lonely spot, and few grown people found anything to
+attract them in that direction. Margaret, the dame's own daughter, was a
+handsome haughty lass of about nineteen, so spoiled and self-willed that
+she bid fair to rival her mother in temper, in the course of time.
+Hilda, the step-daughter, was a fair and gentle little creature, sixteen
+years of age, who bore with patient cheerfulness all the unhappiness of
+her lot. Sometimes, for days together, she would be left alone in the
+house, while Dame Martha and Margaret dressed themselves up in all their
+finery, and went off to fairs and merrymakings in the neighboring town.
+Melancholy were the hours spent in a solitude unbroken save by the rush
+of the waterfall leaping from cliff to cliff, or the hootings of owls
+after nightfall, and the unceasing wail of the wind through the forest.
+But Hilda was at least spared the sound of Margaret's taunting voice and
+laugh, and the cruel scolding tongue of her step-mother. These two
+wicked women were heartily tired of Hilda, and cast about in their
+minds how they could get rid of her, and take possession of a little bag
+of gold pieces coming to her from her father. Then, thought they, the
+old house could be shut up and left to the rats and bats, while they
+might set out on their travels and enjoy life.
+
+One day, when Hilda was bleaching the linen on a patch of grass near the
+brook, her step-mother called out, "Hilda, the red cow has strayed away,
+and I hear her bell over by the old stone quarry. Be quick, and you may
+head her off."
+
+Hilda secured her linen, and with nimble steps, ran up the steep
+mountain side. She did not fancy the idea of going by the old stone
+quarry, for there it had been, six months before, that her dear father
+was last seen in life. Near that spot his hat and shepherd-staff had
+been found. But Hilda was accustomed to obey without remonstrance, and
+away she ran, climbing as lightly as a mountain goat. She too, could
+hear the tinkle of the little bell far up among the bushes, and guided
+by the sound, she drew near the dreaded scene of her greatest sorrow. A
+thick screen of fir bushes lay between her and the red cow's place of
+refuge. Interwoven with evergreens, grew masses of alpine-rose, whose
+tough branches became entangled in Hilda's feet, and hid the path from
+sight. At last, she found herself in a dense thicket, not knowing how to
+emerge. As she paused for a moment to look about her, the red cow's bell
+tinkled again--a strange uncertain tinkle this--immediately behind the
+bushes at her left.
+
+"There you are, good-for-nothing!" cried Hilda, struggling bravely
+forward through the undergrowth in the direction indicated by the bell.
+She heard a low mocking laugh. Surely that laugh could come only from
+her step sister! "Margaret!" she called. No answer, and poor Hilda,
+uttering a wild shriek for help, plunged headlong down a hidden opening
+in the ground, into a fathomless abyss, where no foot of man might
+follow her.
+
+Wicked Margaret stood on the brink of this treacherous pit-fall, known
+only to her mother and herself, and laughed, holding in her hand the
+little red cow's bell, with which she had lured Hilda to her doom.
+
+"Rest there!" the wretched girl said, kneeling down to peer into the
+darkness of the rocky pit. "At any rate, you have found a burial-place
+for your bones, alongside of your father, who was never heard to groan
+after my mother and I pushed him over the brink here, last autumn! And
+now, I will go home, and tell the old woman that we are rid of all our
+burdens. Ha! ha! Won't we spend the father's gold, and revel! This very
+night must we steal away, and seek our fortune in a distant country."
+
+Hilda fell, unharmed, upon a hillock of soft green moss, so far, so far
+beneath the ledge whence Margaret had pushed her, that the opening above
+looked no bigger than a star. The poor girl was overcome by her terrible
+fate, and for a long time she lay weeping as if her heart would break.
+Then, looking about her, she saw the opening to a cavern in the rocks,
+resembling an arch of crystal, so bravely did it glitter.
+
+Around the hillock where she lay was a small courtyard with turf as
+smooth as velvet, and upon the rocky walls encircling it were trained
+vines of roses, myrtle and jasmine, covered with lovely blossoms. Hilda,
+who knew best the alp-rose and the corn-flower, the hardy violet and the
+rock-seeking columbine, had never seen such rare and radiant flowers as
+these, and their rich perfume intoxicated her with delight. Stealing
+down the side of the cliff, trickled a sparkling rivulet, its stream
+caught in a basin of gleaming pearl. Hilda, enchanted by the lovely
+scene, forgot her grief, and felt a longing desire to follow the path of
+many-colored pebbles leading beneath the crystal arch. Without a token
+of fear, she tripped along this pretty path winding through a gallery
+supported by pillars of frosted silver. Here and there glowed a lamp of
+pink, blue or crimson, fashioned like a flower. Strains of sweet music
+were heard in the distance, and at last Hilda reached a gate of golden
+trellis-work, beside which slept a tiny old man, whose beard and hair
+fell over his red mantle to the very ground.
+
+"He is very old, and no doubt needs his rest," said Hilda; "I won't
+disturb him, poor old man." So she sat down on the ground at his feet,
+and every time his head nodded to his knees, she would pick up the queer
+little red cap that fell off of it, and put it on again. After a long,
+comfortable nap, the old fellow woke up, and saw Hilda sitting at his
+feet.
+
+"You are a kind maiden," he said, for he was of a race that know
+everything without waiting to be told--the Gnomes. "Since you have been
+so good to me, I will let you pass the wicket. Six months ago your
+father came this way, and if you can but make friends with our mistress,
+you may be allowed to see him."
+
+"My father! My dear father!" cried Hilda, overjoyed. "Oh! you good, kind
+gateman, do lead me to where he is."
+
+"Hush! not a sound," said the Gnome, looking about him in alarm.
+"Everything has ears and tongues too in this place. One warning will I
+give you. Answer not when spoken to, serve faithfully, break nothing,
+show no surprise; and when you can capture the bird that bathes daily in
+the fountain of life, save the drops from off his plumage. Now go on;
+and farewell, as no one who passes me comes back this way."
+
+Hilda was frightened by the mystery of the warning, but continued on her
+way, through a long and winding passage in the rocks, dimly lighted here
+and there by hanging lamps of alabaster. Reaching another little
+wicket-gate of golden trellis-work, she summoned all her courage and
+rang the bell. Out came a hideous crone, whose ears, grown to an
+enormous size, hung down upon her neck, and who, without asking her
+business, opened the gate.
+
+"If ears grow like this," thought Hilda, "I had, indeed, better hold my
+tongue and say nothing to give offence." So, pretending to be dumb, she
+curtsied to the crone, and made signs that she wanted food and drink.
+The old woman led Hilda along the path of a neglected garden, to a house
+built of gray lichen from the bark of trees, and thatched with hoary
+moss. The windows were barred, and in the open doorway sat a cross old
+dame, at her knitting. She had a hump, ears larger than those of the
+lodge-keeper, and claws hooked like an eagle's.
+
+"What! another of those foolish mortals fallen down our pit!" she cried,
+angrily; "I have half a mind to kill her on the spot." But Hilda looked
+so meek and imploring, standing there and saying not a word, that the
+Grandmother of the Gnomes relented. "Well, well," she grunted,
+"although she is decidedly overgrown, and has ridiculously small ears, I
+suppose I may as well try her for a nurse-maid. If she proves
+unfaithful, there will be plenty to tell of it, and she will soon go the
+way of all the rest."
+
+Hilda was pleased at the idea of being a nurse-maid, for she always got
+on well with children. She followed the G. G. (really, if you will
+excuse me, it will save a great deal of trouble sometimes to abbreviate
+the old lady's title) inside the queer little house, and there was a
+room full of owls, bats, toads, mice, and spiders, who came flocking
+around the new-comer, with every expression of delight.
+
+"Oh! you pretty darlings!" cried the old woman, kissing them
+rapturously, "here is a new nurse for you; and mind you keep her busy."
+
+When Hilda found that she was expected to bathe, and clean, and walk out
+with, and sleep with these loathsome creatures, she felt that she had
+rather die. But fear of the terrible G. G. kept her silent, and setting
+about her task, she soon had them ready for an airing in the garden.
+Here she beheld many strange sights, but nothing more curious than to
+see all the bushes and plants and trees bearing large ears, which, as
+she drew near, became erect and fixed in an attitude of attention.
+Remembering the caution of the friendly gnome to express no surprise,
+Hilda drove her little flock before her along the garden path, then
+returning to the house, fed them and put them to bed in the most orderly
+fashion. For reward, she found, on a bench outside the door, a nice bowl
+of milk with fine white bread and butter, and after devouring it
+eagerly, she fell asleep. When she awoke next day, Hilda found herself
+in another garden. This one was most beautiful. All the rose-bushes had
+gold or silver leaves, and flowers made of jewels. She longed to twitch
+off one of the shining leaves, but dared not, contenting herself with
+watering their roots and neatly clearing up the paths, as the Gnome
+Grandmother had directed her. For reward, she had a bowl of delicious
+hot soup, and a cup of amber jelly, and falling asleep, she awakened
+next day in still another garden. Here sported birds of radiant hue and
+plumage, singing delightfully, as they flitted about the brim of a great
+marble fountain on a grassy lawn, surrounded by blooming flowers.
+
+"Here, children, I bring you a new nurse-maid," said the Gnome
+Grandmother, presenting her to the birds; and immediately, the lovely
+creatures surrounded Hilda, perching on her arms, her head, her
+shoulders, and caressing her with evident pleasure.
+
+"Now that you have successfully met my three tests--the first, of your
+fidelity, by doing your duty toward the creatures you abhorred;
+secondly, by passing through my jewel-garden without plucking a flower
+or leaf; thirdly, by showing no surprise at the wonders you have
+seen--you have proved yourself worthy to be the keeper of my birds,"
+said the old woman. "It is well for you that the ears have heard no
+grumbling. And mind you go on as you've begun."
+
+Hilda thanked her with beaming glances, but would not venture to speak,
+although she longed to ask news of her dear father. "To those who wait,
+all things come in time," she remembered her father used to say, and
+determined not to break silence yet a while. The Grandmother of the
+Gnomes disappeared, and Hilda set herself to the task of caring for her
+new and lovely pets. Around the garden were bowers of sweet-smelling
+honeysuckle, and in each of these hung a silver cage. Hilda's duty was
+to cover the bottoms of the cages with sand of broken diamonds, to
+gather fresh sprays of flowers to stick between their bars, and to fill
+the jewelled drinking-troughs with dew from the cups of flowers. Day
+after day passed in attendance upon the birds, who all became devoted to
+her, in return. Each morning the Grandmother of the Gnomes came into the
+garden, and sometimes even smiled on Hilda, her grin making her ugliness
+and deformity seem to increase, if possible. Still Hilda dared not speak
+the words that were always trembling on her tongue. When night came, the
+young girl retired to rest in a delightful little house shaped from a
+bush of growing box, out of which doors and windows had been cut. Within
+was a bed of moss like velvet, and a coverlet made of the woven wings of
+the butterfly, with blankets of swansdown. Her meals were served by
+unseen hands. Punctually at breakfast, dinner, and tea-time, there
+sprang up in the bower house a little table shaped like a huge mushroom,
+covered with dainty food in dishes of gold and silver. New clothes were
+prepared for her, and laid across the foot of her couch while she slept.
+Among them were gauzy gowns that seemed to have been cut from the clouds
+after sunset, cobweb handkerchiefs, shoes made of mole-skin, and
+necklaces of petrified dew-drops. Hilda might have been quite happy but
+for the continual thought that her father was imprisoned somewhere near,
+and her longing to find him and tell him she was there. One night, while
+she lay thinking, apparently asleep, footsteps came to the side of her
+bed, and stopped. Somebody held a lamp close to her face, but Hilda
+pretended to be in a deep slumber, and soon the G. G., for she it was,
+went away, pattering about the bower, and talking to the old
+lodge-keeper, who followed her.
+
+"She is sound asleep, so come along. We are already a little late for
+our round among the prisoners. Foolish creatures! Why hadn't they, too,
+the sense to restrain themselves as this child did, and they might all
+have been working in the gardens, to this day. But no! Each one must
+needs twitch off a leaf here, or a rose there, and stare, and chatter
+over what they saw, or else go into convulsions over the work given them
+to do for my pretty toads, and bats, and serpents. That silly father of
+hers, for example! He seemed an honest fellow, but what should he do,
+when he thought no one was looking, but pluck one of my choicest ruby
+roses to carry back to Hilda. Hum! much likelihood there is that Hilda
+ever finds out where he is hidden, after a crime like that!"
+
+The Grandmother of the Gnomes seemed to have worked herself up into such
+an angry state, that Hilda dared not give any sign of waking. So she
+lay, still as a mouse, till the old couple had laid across her couch the
+new robe for next day, and trotted off. Then, gliding swiftly from her
+bed, the girl followed them, down a long green alley of the garden, to a
+grassy bank she had often noticed. There, putting her hand upon a
+trap-door, half hidden from sight by a mass of vines, the old crone
+knocked thrice, saying, "Open to the Grandmother of the Gnomes!"
+
+The door opened, and behind it was a narrow passage-way guarded by two
+dwarfs in red. No one spoke, and the dwarfs, prostrating themselves upon
+their faces, remained motionless while their sovereign lady passed in.
+Hilda seized this opportunity to follow, and crept unnoticed to the
+mouth of a circular vault of gray granite, hung with curtains of black
+velvet and lighted by swinging lamps of lurid red. In the centre was a
+long row of white marble tombs, and on each one of these tombs lay a
+human being apparently asleep, enclosed in a crystal casket. With a
+thrill of emotion, Hilda recognized in one of these placid sleepers her
+beloved father. The Grandmother of the Gnomes walked past each bier,
+sprinkling it with the liquid from a vial in her hand. At once the
+sleepers aroused and sat up, rolling their eyes and extending their arms
+to her with a beseeching gesture. The G. G. sternly shook her head, and
+proceeded to open a little door in each casket, through which the old
+lodge-keeper gave food and drink to all the prisoners in turn. The poor
+wretches ate and drank in silence, then turning over on their sides, the
+crone waved her wand above them, and instantly they fell again into a
+trance-like sleep.
+
+"Sleep now, till this day week!" said the Grandmother of the Gnomes,
+solemnly, retiring as she came. Hilda hid in a nook of the wall of rock,
+and followed her guides out, noiselessly and unnoticed by the prostrate
+dwarfs in red.
+
+And now her sole thought was how she might get possession of the
+reviving liquid. Alone and unprotected as she was, at the mercy of her
+gnome mistress, Hilda knew not where to turn for help. In the extremity
+of her distress, she thought of what the friendly gnome at the outer
+gate had said to her. "When you can capture the bird that bathes in the
+water of life, save the drops from off his plumage." But although Hilda
+racked her brain for a solution of the mystery, none could she find. All
+day long her birds came and went among the branches of the beautiful
+garden, and at night returned to their silver cages in the honeysuckle
+bowers. The only bath she had ever seen them take, was in the wide
+marble basin on the grass-plot beneath the fountain. At last, lying down
+to rest one day upon a bank of lilies, she fell asleep, and in her
+dreams, heard two of the birds talking on the bough above.
+
+"To-morrow, our friend, the little brown wren returns from his travels
+to the Spring of Life," said one of them.
+
+"Yes, he has been gone longer than usual, this time," said the other.
+"What a lucky creature he is to have gained our mistress's favor, and to
+be allowed to take those baths, which have the power to make him know
+everything, live forever, and sing more sweetly than the nightingale."
+
+"There is something mysterious about that wren, undoubtedly," sighed the
+first bird. "Nobody knows whether it is fear or favor that gains so many
+more privileges for him than for the rest of us. Do you know that if he
+should ever drop the single golden feather in his tail, he will become
+like the rest of us again, a slave and captive? And the lucky person who
+finds it, will be able to see all the hidden treasures of the caves
+beneath the mountain, pierce his way through solid rock and iron, and
+even defy the authority of our Sovereign Lady herself!"
+
+Hilda listened, her heart beating high with hope. Next day, indeed,
+there came a new bird among her charges, a little brown wren, who sat
+upon the topmost twig of the highest tree in the garden, and dried and
+smoothed his feathers, singing so exquisitely that all the others
+gathered around him in delight, while the disconsolate lark and
+nightingale, canary, mocking-bird and wood-robin, retired to a thicket
+of green leaves, and wept for jealousy.
+
+Spite of all Hilda's blandishments and wiles, the little brown wren
+would never come near enough for her to handle him. She could see him,
+flying amid the upper branches, the single golden feather in his tail
+shining splendidly, but nothing secured his presence within reach or
+touch. Even the Grandmother of the Gnomes was powerless to control the
+wilful creature.
+
+Weeks passed and Hilda was always on guard to follow the Gnome
+Grandmother and her attendant upon their expeditions to the crypt where
+the prisoners were kept. By means of the stratagem she had first
+employed, she never failed to be present when her father was so
+mysteriously recalled to life, and then dismissed again into the shadowy
+border-land of death. Although she could not speak to him, or tell him
+she was near, it was some comfort to see him arise up strong and well.
+Oh! if the day should come, when she might capture that tantalizing
+little brown bird! He had become less shy with her of late, and more
+inclined to perch upon the branch above her head, and, while keeping a
+safe distance, observe her motions closely. At last, one evening, quite
+disheartened, Hilda went within her own little bowery house, and sat her
+down and wept. For the first time since her arrival in the gnome garden,
+she spoke aloud.
+
+"Oh! I can bear it no longer. My heart will break! My heart will
+break."
+
+To Hilda's utter astonishment, a voice came from the foliage around her
+window, in reply.
+
+"Cheer up, dear maiden; the sound of a human voice has broken the spell
+cast over me, and I now see you as you are. I am he whom you have known
+as the little brown bird, in reality a mortal prince, bewitched by that
+wicked old woman, the Grandmother of the Gnomes, who makes everything
+within her kingdom subservient to her power. She is my deadly enemy,
+because I once discovered the secret of her fountain of life; and, when
+on a journey thither with my followers, I was captured and changed into
+my present shape, while they, poor creatures, were carried prisoners to
+her crypt. Should I regain my shape, it can only be done by the help of
+a being brave and true like yourself."
+
+"But why, why did you not make friends with me at first?" said the
+joyful Hilda.
+
+"The spell cast upon me forbade my recognizing one of my own kind,
+unless she or he spoke, and you know how human speech is punished in
+this place. For three long years I have lived in solitude, compelled by
+the crone to fly back and forth to fetch her the water of life for her
+magical incantations; what I receive upon my own plumage, while drawing
+the water for her, has, however, secured my immortality. As for my
+golden plume it is the magic blade presented to me at birth, by a
+wonderful old wiseman, who said that it would point me to the treasures
+beneath the earth, defy the powers of evil, and pierce its way through
+solid rock. This sword, the Grandmother of the Gnomes was unable, much
+as she wished to do so, to deprive me of. The utmost she could
+accomplish was to transform it into a golden plume. Should I ever be so
+unfortunate as to drop it, the finder will be my conqueror. See what
+confidence I have in your goodness of heart, when I thus give my life
+into your hands."
+
+"Never could I be so base as to betray you, dear prince," said Hilda
+joyfully.
+
+"Oh! speak on, loveliest of maidens," cried the disguised prince. "Every
+syllable you utter brings back life and hope to my sad heart. Strange
+that I should have watched you come and go without knowing what you are.
+It was the first utterance of your silvery voice in lamentation that
+awakened my benumbed senses. Now, shall we not work together for our
+deliverance?"
+
+Gladly did Hilda pour forth all the story of her woes to her newly found
+confidant. The prince bade her to be of good cheer, for it was his
+intention to set forth on the morrow upon his monthly journey in search
+of the water of life.
+
+"A week hence I shall return, and although it would be impossible for me
+to secrete any of the precious fluid so that our mistress would fail to
+find it out, yet I will take care to saturate my plumage with the water,
+so that you can obtain enough to free your father and the other
+sufferers. That done, we can proceed to stronger measures. Only be
+guided by me, and obey all I tell you to do, and I promise you release
+and happiness."
+
+Hilda promised and the brown bird took his leave. Next day he was no
+longer to be seen in the higher tree-tops, and after a week's absence,
+he arrived at nightfall dripping wet, and perched upon Hilda's window.
+
+Carefully did Hilda collect every drop that fell from his plumage, and
+when next she followed the Grandmother of the Gnomes into the fatal
+crypt, it was with joyful footsteps, for in her hand she concealed a
+leaf-cup full of the elixir of life. Not even Hilda noticed that the
+little brown bird also entered the crypt when she did. On this occasion,
+she waited as usual to see the prisoners aroused and fed, then cast
+again into sleep; but instead of following the two crones on their
+return, she remained concealed in her crevice of the rock, and saw close
+upon her the doors of this living tomb. Now a sudden terror overtook
+her, and her knees trembled.
+
+"Oh, dearest little bird, were you but by my side!" she whispered
+imploringly.
+
+"I am here, Hilda," came in a well-known voice. "Remember that all
+depends upon your courage and obedience. Go up to the crystal caskets
+and sprinkle a drop upon each in turn."
+
+Hilda did so, and in a few moments had the inexpressible joy of seeing
+about twenty brave knights and other captives arise from their couches
+of marble. Last of all came her beloved father, who clasped her to his
+breast with rapture unspeakable.
+
+"Now there is not a moment to be lost," said the brown bird, flying to
+Hilda. "Here, brave maiden, pluck the golden feather from my tail."
+
+Hilda obeyed, and found that she held a shining sword within her hand.
+
+"Quick, stab me to the heart!" said the bird.
+
+Hilda burst into tears and pleaded with him to spare her; but the brown
+bird reminded her that, because of the water of life, he could never
+really die; so the young girl, trembling in every limb, plunged the
+blade into his breast.
+
+As the warm blood rushed forth, a cloud of vapor arose, filling the
+cave; and blowing presently away, it revealed to all present the face
+and figure of a gallant youth, who, proud and smiling, knelt at Hilda's
+feet.
+
+"Now is the enchantment banished!" he cried, as his friends,
+recognizing their master, came flocking around him in delight. "But we
+must not again venture into the precincts of the gnome's garden, for who
+knows what might befall our lovely lady here? Come, my brave sword,
+point us a way of exit."
+
+Swinging it in the air above his head, he brought the blade into a
+horizontal line in front of him. At once the sword pointed to a fissure
+in the walls of the crypt, and as the rescued band approached, it slowly
+widened to an opening through which a man might pass.
+
+This was not a moment too soon, for the dwarfs on guard had discovered
+their attempt to escape, and a shrill whistle sounded in their ears.
+Swift as the lightning flash arrived the Grandmother of the Gnomes, this
+time in her worst aspect, fire darting from her eyes. Behind her came an
+army of angry little men in red, with hammers in their uplifted hands,
+prepared to do battle to the death. What was their fury to find the
+biers empty, and a long line of stalwart men, led by Hilda, escaping
+through a doorway in the solid rock! The last to depart was the prince,
+and advancing upon him with a horrible yell and glare of defiance came
+the Grandmother of the Gnomes. The prince met her with extended sword,
+and the enchanted blade pierced her to the heart. The frightened gnomes,
+surrounding their dead chief, laid her upon the marble slab from which
+Hilda's father had arisen, and then flew in pursuit of the avenger. But
+it was too late. The rocky wall had closed upon the retreating party,
+and the Grandmother of the Gnomes arose no more from her final
+resting-place.
+
+The divining-sword led Hilda and her companions straightway to the
+surface of the earth, taking care, as they passed it by, to point out
+sufficient hidden treasure to enrich every man of the party. As for the
+prince, as he was already the owner of one of the richest kingdoms of
+the world, all he desired was to regain it, in company with his beloved
+Hilda, who by this time had pledged herself to be his bride. Hilda's
+father accompanied them to the palace of the prince, and was by him
+ennobled and enriched. The marriage took place, and just as the guests
+were enjoying the festivities, the new queen saw her servants turning
+away from the door a miserable-looking pair of beggar women. Bidding
+these pitiful creatures draw near to receive her alms, the queen
+recognized in them Dame Martha and her daughter. Such was the generosity
+of her nature, that Hilda could not resist disclosing her self to them,
+and assuring them that the _accident_ of her fall had been the means of
+securing her wonderful good fortune.
+
+She ordered fine clothes and fine rooms to be prepared for the couple,
+and would have forgiven them entirely, but that her father and the
+prince, interfering, ordered the wicked schemers to be driven from the
+house and kingdom.
+
+Some time after, Dame Martha and Margaret reappeared in the neighborhood
+of their old home. They were very sullen and close-mouthed, and were
+last seen hovering around the mountain-side in the direction of the old
+stone quarry, after which they were lost to human view.
+
+The facts in the case are that Dame Martha's envy of her step-daughter
+led her to the desperate resolve to herself descend into the pit in
+company with her amiable child. Upon reaching the dwelling of the late
+Grandmother of the Gnomes, they were immediately seized and made to do
+duty in the cellar with the toads, mice, serpents, owls, and bats, where
+in all probability they are still enjoying life in congenial
+companionship.
+
+Hilda and her prince lived a long and happy life. The bright sword hung
+unused upon the wall, as no enemies appeared against whom to unsheath
+it, and the prince never again felt tempted to risk a visit to the
+kingdom of the gnomes.
+
+
+
+
+THE ADVENTURES OF HA'PENNY OR, THE DWARF, THE WITCH, AND THE MAGIC
+SLIPPERS.
+
+[Illustration: Ha'penny Watching the Witch in the Underground Garden.]
+
+
+Once upon a time lived a poor, little, crooked dwarf named "Ha'penny."
+When he was born he was so small that his nurse exclaimed, "Why, he is
+no bigger than a ha'penny!" and thus the nickname settled upon him, as
+ugly nicknames often do upon very worthy people. His father was not very
+kind to the unfortunate child, who, finding himself pitied and avoided
+by children of his own age, soon learned to go off to the woods alone,
+and to spend the days with birds and animals, over whom he had
+extraordinary power. The most beautiful birds of many-colored plumage
+would flutter away from their boughs in the forest to perch upon
+Ha'penny's finger, and take sugar from his lips; shy little brown
+squirrels would scamper down the trunks of the great trees to nestle
+against his cheek; bees buzzed around his head without offering to sting
+him; pretty striped snakes glided from under their stones and stumps at
+his call; while all horses, and cows, and dogs, and cats loved to rub
+against him, and let themselves be stroked and petted at his will. This
+friendship with the world of animals and insects was Ha'penny's greatest
+joy, and during the summer time, when he could live abroad, the little
+creature was happy enough, after his fashion. In winter he had to
+content himself with feeding the birds, and visiting the stables to hide
+in the hay of the horses' manger, where the grooms would find him,
+mouthing and chattering in an unknown tongue. They would often scold
+him, and put him out of the stable, for Ha'penny was no favorite with
+his father's people. His mother had died when Ha'penny was a little
+fellow of five, and when he reached the age of fifteen (although looking
+much younger) his father married a second wife, who proved a cruel
+step-mother.
+
+"If that ugly, little, twisted fright were out of the way, I could
+really enjoy life," the unkind woman would say to herself; and she lost
+no opportunity to make Ha'penny's life a burden to him, by all sorts of
+petty tricks and persecutions.
+
+He bore all in silence, creeping away to his attic bedroom, and lying
+for hours on the floor sobbing bitterly. His only comfort was in his
+pets, and a queer lot they were. Among them were a dog, who had had both
+fore-paws cut off by the mowing-machine, a chicken with a cork leg, a
+blind cat, a land-terrapin, a dozen white mice, a number of birds which
+he had rescued from freezing and starvation, some trained fleas, a
+squirrel that had lost its tail--everything that was maimed, or
+homeless, or unfortunate. These he treasured in a little empty chamber
+opening out of his, and no one but himself ever approached it. All the
+poor dumb creatures loved him, and would swarm around him when he opened
+the door; and, in return, he spent upon them all the passion of love he
+had never bestowed on any one of his own kind.
+
+One day when Ha'penny had gone off to the woods to search for some ripe
+partridge-berries for his birds, the step-mother found her way to his
+hidden menagerie. One instant she looked about her, with disgust and
+fury in her face, and then calling her maids she gave them cruel
+orders. Ha'penny came in from his walk, opened the door of his
+treasure-house--and alas! what a sight met his eyes! In two corners of
+the room hung his pet dog and cat, his terrapin was crushed under a
+heavy piece of iron, his birds were dead, his chicken's head was cut
+off, his mice were drowned in a pail; not one living thing remained to
+greet him but the trained fleas, who had taken refuge in the rafters
+overhead after biting the wicked mistress and her maids until they
+capered about in their misery!
+
+Ha'penny gave one glance at his beloved pets thus wantonly sacrificed,
+and fell upon the floor sobbing with helpless rage and despair. He lay
+there all day without being inquired for, and when night came he stole
+out to the orchard and buried his poor dead favorites under the light of
+the stars. He would not go back to the house, and, forgetful of cold,
+hunger, everything but his burning sense of wrong, he wandered away,
+away, into the forest. A few berries and a crust he had carried for the
+birds were his only food until the evening of the next day, when he came
+in sight of a queer little hut, half hidden from observation by the
+trees that grew over it. Starving and desperate, Ha'penny was gaining
+courage to knock at the door. All at once a little lattice window
+opened, and an old woman poked her head out saying:
+
+    "Come and eat, the table's spread
+    With sweetest milk and whitest bread.
+    Good cheer, enough for all I've got,
+    And more is cooking in the pot."
+
+At this Ha'penny pricked up his ears and licked his chaps like a hungry
+cur; and just then a number of handsome cats and dogs came running out
+of the woods and toward the cottage door, which the dame had by this
+time opened. As no animal ever avoided Ha'penny, these creatures all
+fawned upon him, refusing to go in; and the dame, perceiving the
+new-comer, asked him, with an angry air, what was his business.
+
+"A little food and shelter, madam," said poor Ha'penny, the tears
+running down his cheeks.
+
+"Begone, you rascal!" cried the angry woman; "I don't believe a word you
+say. I believe you are a spy sent here to tempt away my pets. See how
+they hang around you. You must be a magician, for in general they will
+have nothing to do with strangers. Get you gone, sorcerer!"
+
+Ha'penny turned meekly away, but the dogs and cats followed him with
+every show of affection. Faint with hunger as he was, his legs tottered
+under him, and he soon fell to the ground. Then the cats and dogs
+surrounded him, licking his face and hands in spite of all their
+mistress's endeavors to coax them away.
+
+The old woman's anger ceased when she found the grotesque-looking little
+stranger had really fainted from exhaustion. She lifted him in her arms
+and carried him in to the fire, and rubbed his cold limbs, putting
+spoonfuls of hot broth between his lips. By and by, when Ha'penny came
+to himself, he told her all his sad story, and when he reached the part
+about the killing of his pets, his heavy eyes flashed fire.
+
+"She is a horrible wicked woman!" he exclaimed.
+
+The dame answered by striking her staff on the floor. "See here, boy, if
+you are honest, you may stay here and mind my animals."
+
+She took him into the next room, and there--what a funny spectacle!
+Twelve cats and twelve dogs lay upon cushions before the fire. The
+cushions were made of satin, and the covers were of velvet worked in
+gold. Twenty-four silver bowls stood in a row, and every cat or dog had
+its separate comb and brush, and bath-tub and towels, and sponge and
+soap, and perfume bottle, on a shelf. In the middle of the room played a
+fountain of rose-water, and at the windows hung pink silk curtains,
+which were drawn when the creatures went to sleep. All in this room was
+rich and costly, while the dame's own quarters were as plain as those of
+any other cottager. _She_ was content to sleep in a big feather bed, to
+be covered by a clean patchwork quilt, to eat on a deal table off blue
+crockery, with a well-scoured pewter spoon. Ha'penny's eyes sparkled at
+the idea of waiting on the cats and dogs. He made friends with them at
+once. The dame gave him a clean bedroom under the roof, and every day
+after feeding and combing his charges he took them for a walk in the
+woods.
+
+"So long as you wait on my darlings faithfully, and mind your own
+business," the dame said, "no trouble will come to you. But on no
+account ever go near the little closet in the peak of the roof. Should
+you do so, evil will happen, and your life may pay the forfeit."
+
+Ha'penny suspected from this that his mistress was a witch; but it
+troubled him very little, as he was an honest lad and intended never to
+disobey her.
+
+One day the dame brought home a new cat, a large, white Angora, a beauty
+to look at, with pink eyes and flowing hair, fine and silken as spun
+glass. From the moment of that cat's arrival the happy family was
+completely upset. F�lisette, for so she was named, proved to be vain,
+selfish, and greedy; she fought for the best of everything, ate up her
+neighbor's bowl of milk as well as her own, and actually bit and spit at
+Ha'penny. F�lisette soon became jealous of Ha'penny's affection for the
+others, and determined to do him an evil turn. One day the dame was
+going to the Witches' Sabbath, and said to Ha'penny, "Now mind and take
+especial care of my lovely darling, F�lisette. If she gets into any
+trouble I shall hold you to answer for it, as I see the dear creature is
+not your favorite."
+
+The dame went off riding on a broom-stick, and F�lisette invented a
+thousand spiteful tricks to make the time pass unpleasantly to the
+others. At last she disappeared, and presently Ha'penny heard her crying
+pitifully upstairs. He rushed to see what was the matter, and discovered
+her with her tail caught in the door of the forbidden closet, up in the
+peak of the roof. She seemed about to die of the pain she was suffering,
+and, eager to set her free, the kind lad, without a moment's
+hesitation, lifted the latch while stroking F�lisette's fur, when lo! as
+the door flew open, out came a skeleton hand, seizing poor Ha'penny in
+its grip! Up jumped F�lisette, laughing heartily at the success of her
+trick, and ran away.
+
+[Illustration: Ha'penny opens the magic closet.]
+
+Ha'penny found himself held close in the embrace of two skeleton arms.
+In vain he struggled; the dreadful clasp only grew closer. He knew that
+this was a trap the witch had set to catch any one visiting the
+forbidden closet, so he made up his mind to die when his mistress should
+return. While he was in this sad way, the oldest of the dogs came up and
+licked his hands. Tears were running from its eyes, and to Ha'penny's
+great surprise the dog spoke.
+
+"My poor friend!" said the oldest of the dogs, "I am afraid your fate is
+sealed. Know, then, that there is but one chance left for you to escape
+the witch's power. In this closet she keeps the magic slippers and the
+magic staff. Wearing the slippers, you may run faster than the wind;
+holding the staff, you may discover all the hidden treasures of the
+earth."
+
+"But how can I get free of this horrible trap?" said Ha'penny.
+
+The oldest of the dogs looked around to see that no one was listening,
+and then whispered:
+
+"You must know that we twelve dogs were once twelve princes, and the
+twelve cats were princesses--all of us having turn by turn fallen into
+the power of the witch. She is bound to treat us according to our rank,
+but there is no hope of ever regaining human shape, I fear. Still, we
+may be able to help _you_, who have been so good to us."
+
+He gave a little short bark, and up the stairs came running all the dogs
+and cats, who wept when they saw the sad plight of their friend. Up on a
+high shelf over the skeleton's head were the magic staff and slippers,
+and the thing was to get them down without touching the skeleton, which
+held fast every living thing that touched it. One of the cats ran nimbly
+up the wall and let herself hang; the next cat hung to her tail, and so
+on till a bridge was made, over which the oldest of the dogs scrambled,
+and got the coveted treasures. He put the staff in Ha'penny's hand, and
+fitted the slippers on his feet. Ha'penny gave a kick, and struck the
+ground with his staff. Instantly the arms of the skeleton relaxed their
+grip, and he was free. He bade a fond farewell to his dear friends,
+promising to come back to help them whenever he could. He set out to run
+from the house, and speedily the slippers carried him off at such a
+tremendous rate of speed that he was faint for want of breath. Vainly he
+tried to stop, but no; on, on he went with a fearful rush. He heard the
+cries of the old witch, who pursued him on her broom-stick. On, on, went
+poor Ha'penny, more dead than alive, and now the witch seemed gaining on
+him. He could hear the gnashing of her teeth. He struck out with his
+staff, as he passed by a rock, and instantly the rock became a mountain
+as high as the moon. The witch took some time to clamber over this, and
+meantime Ha'penny got far ahead of her. Reaching a city, he dashed into
+the midst of a funeral procession that was going through the street, and
+hid himself under the pall of the coffin, kicking off the slippers as he
+did so. Immediately he could walk as other men do, and when the old
+witch arrived she saw nothing but the funeral creeping slowly along--no
+sign of Ha'penny, who, hidden under the pall, clasped his magic slippers
+to his breast, and held tight to his magic staff. The disappointed witch
+flew homeward and whipped the cats and dogs soundly--excepting
+F�lisette, who, of course, had been the tell-tale on poor Ha'penny.
+
+The funeral train reached the cemetery, and Ha'penny thought it his duty
+to cry as bitterly as the rest of the mourners; but after the coffin had
+been put in the grave, and as they were turning away, he asked a
+bystander whose funeral it was.
+
+"The king's messenger, to be sure, you simpleton," said the man.
+
+"Could I get the place?" asked Ha'penny.
+
+"You, the king's messenger!" said the man, scornfully. "Why, he must be
+the swiftest runner in the country. Look at your cork-screw legs! Look
+at your hump-back and your big head! As well expect a snail to carry
+our king's messages."
+
+Nothing daunted, Ha'penny went to the king's chamberlain, and proffered
+his request. The chamberlain laughed until his head nearly dropped off,
+and then called the first Goldstick-in-waiting, who called the second,
+and soon the whole court was roaring over the absurd request of this
+poor mannikin to be the king's messenger.
+
+"All I ask is that you try me," said Ha'penny, stoutly holding his
+ground.
+
+"Stop! An idea occurs to me," said the jolly chamberlain, holding his
+aching sides. "To-morrow we shall have a running-match between this
+champion and the swiftest runner of the kingdom. In truth, my lords,
+this will be sport worth having," and he looked around at the courtiers,
+who all set to laughing anew.
+
+Next day the match was held in a lovely grassy field. On a green mound
+in the centre was pitched a white satin tent, under which sat the king
+and queen and their children. An immense crowd assembled. Two bands of
+music kept playing all the time; there were free Punch and Judy shows on
+the outskirts of the crowd, and booths where lemonade was given away,
+with peppermint sticks and molasses taffy, to all who asked for it.
+Banners waved, trumpets blew, and then the race began. Side by side with
+Ha'penny, little and insignificant and forlorn as he was, started the
+king's swiftest runner, a man of beautiful light form and splendid
+muscle. Once around the field they ran, the dwarf lagging; but on the
+second round Ha'penny settled his feet well in his magic slippers, when,
+see! like an arrow he sped past the athlete, and was in at the goal so
+easily that the spectators hardly had time to wink their astonished
+eyes! Hurrah! hurrah! A mighty cheer went up for the successful
+Ha'penny, and the king called him to receive the purse of gold, which
+was the prize. Ha'penny knelt at the king's feet, and again asked to be
+made his messenger.
+
+"That shall you be, my mannikin!" said the pleased monarch. So Ha'penny
+had a gold chain round his neck, a fine velvet coat to wear every day,
+and a page to serve his meals. The king grew so fond of his new servant
+that the rest of the courtiers became jealous. Soon Ha'penny again had
+no friends but the animals around the palace. They, as usual, followed
+him everywhere, and caressed him fondly.
+
+Once when the little dwarf was walking in the king's paddock,
+accompanied by a train of young deer who loved to be near him, he felt
+the staff in his hand give a loud thump on the ground. At the same time
+all the deer formed in a circle round the spot, seeming by their eyes to
+implore Ha'penny to remain there. At first he could not understand this,
+but at length occurred to him what the oldest of the dogs had said about
+hidden treasure. Ha'penny had no spade to dig with, but at once the deer
+went to work with their hoofs, and soon they had made a deep hole, at
+the bottom of which lay a large iron ring fastened to an iron door.
+
+Ha'penny was not strong enough to pull this up; but the magic staff,
+when passed through the ring, lifted it easily. Below was a flight of
+steps, leading to a gallery. Ha'penny went down the steps, followed the
+windings of the gallery, and reached a second door. Touching this with
+the magic staff it yielded, and flying open disclosed to view a lovely
+garden, where roamed all sorts of strange shapes--men's and women's
+bodies bearing the heads of bears, lions, wolves, foxes, dogs, cows,
+horses, and cats. Instantly these creatures came flocking around
+Ha'penny, calling him their deliverer, and telling him that they too
+were victims of the witch, although by an accident she had only had time
+to change their heads before her spell expired. To this garden the witch
+was in the habit of coming once a week, to see how her victims were
+getting on, and to-day was the day of her visit. Ha'penny took the magic
+slippers from his pocket and put them on; and keeping firm hold of his
+trusty staff he hid behind a lilac-bush.
+
+Soon, in came the witch, riding her broom-stick. Ha'penny had never
+before seen her in her true witch dress. It was a black, tight-fitting
+gown, made of scaly snake-skin, and she had a necklace of live coals.
+Around her high-peaked cap were twined two living serpents, and a toad
+formed her brooch. Under one arm she carried her familiar spirit, in the
+likeness of a black cat, with a single emerald eye. She wore a mantle,
+made of cobwebs and studded with large venomous red spiders. Oh! she was
+a terror to look upon, and no mistake! Ha'penny's teeth chattered with
+fear, and so would yours at sight of her! She rode sweeping her broom
+down the garden path, and instantly all the animals with human bodies
+came running to do her homage. She made them kneel before her, and, with
+the three-thonged whip of live snakes she carried, whipped them all
+cruelly, till they groaned and cried for mercy. Then, feeling tired, she
+lay down on a bank to sleep, guarded by her familiar, who kept watch
+with its single eye of flame; and on closely observing the horrid
+creature Ha'penny made no doubt that it was none other than his enemy,
+F�lisette, in her rightful shape.
+
+When the witch was fairly snoring, Ha'penny crept up behind, and
+summoning all his strength prepared to smite her with his staff.
+Suddenly the black cat spit and hunched her back. The serpents around
+the witch's hat began to writhe and uncoil. They knew an enemy was near.
+
+Ha'penny saw that he must lose no time, so aiming a fierce blow at the
+witch's back, he broke her spinal column, just as you would break a
+stick of sugar-candy. Then the dying witch uttered a shrill command to
+her watchers, and instantly F�lisette and the two serpents set upon the
+audacious Ha'penny. "This time you shall not escape me!" cried
+F�lisette, spitting fire. The cat's breath was deadly poison, and the
+serpents' fangs no man might feel and live. Ha'penny struck, swift and
+sure, right into the middle of the cat's single eye, and pierced her
+brain. As F�lisette fell dead beside the groaning witch, the serpents
+reared their full length from the ground, and prepared to strangle the
+dwarf. The good staff proved true, and cut them both in two with a
+single well-aimed blow. What was his horror to find the mangled remains
+of the snakes change into four living ones, stronger than the first.
+There was nothing for it but flight, and Ha'penny took to his heels. The
+magic slippers carried him on and away, so swiftly that nothing could
+catch him. He passed through the gallery and went out at the iron door,
+finding himself safe, but a little out of breath, in the paddock with
+the king's deer.
+
+Ha'penny told nobody of this exciting adventure, but could not sleep for
+thinking of all the poor bewitched people down there in the underground
+garden in the power of those dreadful snakes. He now suspected that
+these two fighting serpents were of the multiplication variety. (This
+means that if they were cut in two they would become four, from four
+become eight, from eight sixteen, from sixteen thirty-two, and so on
+indefinitely; and this, we are told, is the very worst species of snake
+known to travellers!)
+
+Ha'penny got up early, went out again to the paddock, and found the deer
+in a great state of excitement and agitation. They seemed to be waiting
+for him to come, and led the way to the secret passage in the earth.
+Ha'penny went down, staff in hand, and easily passed through the first
+iron door. As he neared the second door, he heard a confused noise
+beyond it of cries and lamentations. He opened the door softly, and
+crept into the garden unobserved. There he saw the dying witch, who, as
+witches always require twenty-four hours to die in, was lying on the
+ground writhing horribly, groaning, and shrieking to her snakes to
+multiply, which they did until almost the whole garden was one seething,
+wriggling mass of the horrible creatures. The poor people in the garden
+had climbed up the trees, and were every moment expecting to fall to the
+ground poisoned by the breath of the serpents, which rose in a thick
+vapor.
+
+In this terrible moment Ha'penny's heart almost failed him; but,
+mustering all his courage, he sprang upon the witch, and tore from her
+the mantle of cobwebs, to which he noticed she was clinging. Instantly
+the witch set up a shrill shriek.
+
+"Give me back my mantle," she cried pitifully; "if I die with that
+around me, I can be sure of rest in the grave. If you take it away, I
+shall have to fly about like a bat forever."
+
+"If you order the snakes to shrivel up and die, and restore all your
+victims to their natural shapes, I will give you the mantle," said
+Ha'penny firmly.
+
+"Children, come home!" cried the witch, in a failing voice. Immediately
+the snakes began rolling and gliding into each other, and in a short
+while nothing was left but the two fiery serpents, who wreathed
+themselves quietly around the witch's hat again, as if nothing had
+occurred.
+
+"Children, be dust!" she said again--this time in a weaker voice--and
+the snakes curled up and fell away, leaving behind them only two little
+shining skins.
+
+"Be once more men and women, you accursed things!" she said spitefully,
+making a sign at the transformed beings who were now flocking around
+Ha'penny with delight and gratitude. As the witch spoke, the ugly
+deformities melted away, and in their place were seen the heads of
+handsome men and beautiful women, who wept for joy when they found
+themselves restored.
+
+Ha'penny now threw the cobweb mantle over the witch, who, clutching it
+in her arms, gave one long shudder and expired. They made a grave for
+her then and there; and Ha'penny led his companions out of the magic
+garden, which they were glad to leave, into the long passage-way. There
+they showed him caverns filled with gold and silver, which it had been
+their business to dig out of the earth and to pack away for the witch.
+Ha'penny and his friends divided the spoil, although they told him it
+was all his by right. When they got up into the light of day once more,
+the bewitched people scattered in all directions to go to their various
+homes, and Ha'penny was again alone in the world, although now very
+rich. He persuaded the king to discharge him from the royal service, and
+his first thought was to journey to the cabin in the woods. This, by aid
+of the magic slippers, he did in very quick style, and there he found
+the twelve dogs and the twelve cats living as before. This distressed
+Ha'penny, as he had hoped that the breaking of the witch's spell would
+set them also free. "What did I tell you?" said the oldest of the dogs
+sadly. "We are doomed _never_ to regain our shapes; but, now that
+F�lisette has gone, we are comfortable here and don't repine. Only,
+there _should_ be somebody to cook for us, and our hair has not been
+decently brushed for a week."
+
+Ha'penny felt a sudden thrill of joy. Here, at last, was something to
+depend on him, something that he might live and care for. He warmed the
+water forthwith, and gave all the dogs and cats a bath apiece, and then
+he combed and brushed them nicely. He made the fire and heated their
+broth, and fetched fresh cream and white bread for their breakfast.
+Nothing was heard but little barks and purrs of enjoyment. Ha'penny
+waited till all were asleep on their cushions, and then he mounted the
+stairs and nailed up the skeleton cupboard, so that it might never again
+be opened. He could not take it quite away, you see, as every one must
+have a skeleton of some kind in his closet, and this was the only one he
+had. Ha'penny had never felt so happy and light-hearted as now. He had
+found friends, and might remain alone with them in peace.
+
+So there he continued to live, and I am almost sure that if you would
+visit that forest, you might, even now, succeed in finding the cottage,
+the cats, and Ha'penny himself!
+
+
+
+
+SYBILLA, MYRTILLO, AND FURIOSO.
+
+
+A certain king had a beautiful golden-haired daughter named Sybilla,
+whose suitors came from every country, though with small success, since
+the princess had vowed to remain single until one proving to be the
+mightiest hero of the world should appear.
+
+At no great distance from her father's country lived a horrible giant,
+every hair of whose head could change, at will, into a fiery serpent. He
+had one eye, the size of a mill-wheel, and his teeth looked like rocks
+in a mighty cavern. His name was Furioso, and his strength was known to
+surpass that of an army of ordinary men. What was the dismay of
+Sybilla's father when this monster sent to request the lovely princess
+for his wife! The king turned pale, and walked up and down his palace
+floor all night, for he knew what it meant to refuse the request of
+Furioso, who, up to this time, had lived at peace with his neighbor's
+country. The queen-mother, hearing of the giant's offer, took to her
+royal bed in kicking hysterics. As to the proud little princess, she
+curled her pretty red lips scornfully and tossed her head. "I'd like to
+see him do it, the fright!" was what she said.
+
+In a few days what the king feared had come to pass. The giant Furioso,
+on receiving the beautiful diplomatic letter the king's secretary had
+written him (after consultation with all the lords and lawyers of the
+realm), frowned, scratched his head, which instantly bristled all over
+with flaming serpents, and opening his mouth sent forth a blood-curdling
+yell of defiance that resounded in the farthest part of the king's
+dominions. Without a moment's delay he changed himself into a fearful
+hurricane, and swept over the country and the palace of the Princess
+Sybilla. Fences and iron gates, stone walls and marble palaces fell to
+the ground like card-houses. Forests were uprooted, suspension bridges
+snapped like cobwebs, villages entire rose up into the clouds and
+disappeared, with their inhabitants looking in astonishment out of the
+windows! Cows and horses, dogs and elephants were seen whirling about
+in the air like Japanese day-fireworks. The king and queen found the
+roof lifted from above their heads, and went sailing out the open space
+in their nightcaps. They met all the court blowing wildly about up
+there, and for some time it was like a mad dance without any bottom to
+it. Dizzy and terrified, the royal couple at last fell down to earth
+again, the queen lighting on the fat cook, so that she was not seriously
+injured--the king falling on a tennis net, which the force of the wind
+kept suspended like a hammock without any ropes.
+
+Picking themselves up, the first thought of the royal couple was for
+their beloved princess. As fast as different members of the court and
+household fell down from the clouds, which they continued to do all the
+evening and night, the king sent them in search of the princess. Nobody
+remembered having seen Sybilla anywhere in the air, and her
+waiting-maid, who dropped somewhere about nine o'clock A.M., next day,
+wept as she told how she was combing the princess' golden hair with the
+ivory comb she still held in her hand, when the breeze came which
+separated them. One thing was certain, the princess had disappeared.
+When things settled down a little, and people began taking their
+breath, a peasant turned up who reported seeing the princess flying
+along at a fearful rate of speed in the arms of a tall, white-haired man
+wrapped in a mantle, who hid his face as he passed. "It were just at
+that moment, your honors," said the peasant, overwhelmed by the
+questions that rained on him, "I were myself tooken, unexpected-like,
+and turned upside down by the wind; and when I cum to, there I were
+atop a haystack in Farmer Grimes' field, five miles from home as the
+crow flies, a-standing on my head."
+
+The king and queen exchanged horrified glances.
+
+Each remembered to have heard that one of the tricks of Giant Furioso,
+when he wished to be particularly wicked, was to change to the semblance
+of a venerable white-haired man. No doubt about it, the whole calamity
+to court and nation was the work of Furioso, and _he_ had got the
+princess.
+
+The distracted king set out at the head of his army to visit Furioso's
+castle. To his surprise, under the giant's name, upon a visiting card
+inserted above the speaking-trumpet at the gate, were pencilled these
+words: "Out of town till further notice." The windows were closed, and
+green shades hung behind them. No smoke came out of the chimneys, and
+the doors were chained. Evidently the giant had retired to some one of
+his retreats, where he could not be followed. The king and his army
+marched back again in gloomy silence.
+
+For six months nothing was heard of the unfortunate Sybilla, till one
+day three young princes, travelling from a distant country in search of
+adventure, found a wounded carrier-pigeon on the road. Under its wing
+was a note, written in pale red ink, on a bit of torn linen cambric. The
+note gave them considerable trouble to read it, but, at last, the
+youngest prince, Myrtillo, who had always been the cleverest at school,
+managed to decipher these words:
+
+     "I write this with blood taken from my finger, on a fragment of
+     my only pocket-handkerchief. I am the wretched Princess
+     Sybilla, daughter of the King Rolando, and I pray any kind
+     mortal who finds this to come to my aid, in the dungeon of
+     Furioso, under the fifth mountain of the Impassable Range. Once
+     in twenty-four hours this mountain cleaves asunder to let my
+     oppressor take the air. Watch, and rescue me, in the name of
+     humanity."
+
+The Impassable Range was far away, but the princes journeyed thither
+without delay. They found the fifth mountain easily, and hid under the
+rocks at its base, to await developments. Exactly at sunrise a rumbling
+sound was heard, and the cliffs shook. The mountain split apart from
+summit to base, and between two yawning jaws of rock issued forth,
+first, a head covered with flaming serpents, then a frightful purple
+face, and lastly, the gigantic form of Furioso. Following him came the
+wails and shrieks of his captives within the mountain, to which Furioso
+paid no attention; he only turned his back and shouted:
+
+    "Close you, mountain, fierce and grim,
+    Open but to Banbedrim!"
+
+The princes fancied that this last was the password, and when the giant
+had disappeared they tried to make the mountain open by repeating it;
+but in his excitement each one forgot how to pronounce the magic
+syllables. So there they stayed till sunset, when the giant came home
+from his hunting expedition. He had a pouch slung over his shoulder, and
+in it were crowded the new men, women, and children he had caught. The
+poor creatures were half dead with terror and rough treatment. The
+princes watched the giant, and listened with all their ears for the
+password. "Banbedrim!" thundered Furioso, and instantly the mountain
+yawned to let him and his miserable prisoners pass in, when it closed,
+as before.
+
+The three princes laid each his hand on his sword, and swore to be
+avenged of the brutal treatment of their fellow-beings. Next morning
+when the giant issued forth, hurling the password at the mountain, then
+disappeared from sight, the oldest prince declared that he should be the
+first to enter the mountain, that his brothers should wait twenty-four
+hours for his reappearance, and that should he fail to come back the
+second brother might come to his assistance.
+
+Bravely the young man sprang up the mountain-side, and called aloud the
+password. Instantly amid thunderings and lightnings the ground split at
+his feet and swallowed him from sight. They could see the tip of his
+bright sword held aloft, as he sank into the gloomy abyss.
+
+Twenty-four hours passed, and the oldest prince failed to return. Then
+the second brother set forth, and he, too, vanished from sight. A long
+day and night of waiting had the youngest prince. Then he ascended the
+mountain where there was every reason to fear his brothers had found a
+horrible fate. Uttering the password, Myrtillo saw, through the opening
+earth at his feet, a pit whence came fire and smoke; and he plainly
+heard the cries for help of many human voices.
+
+Myrtillo fell a great distance, landing on his feet in a desolate
+cavern. The smoke cleared away and he beheld a huge iron door before
+which were four trumpets--one of copper, one of silver, one of gold, and
+one of brass. Over them these words: "He who would enter here, choose
+between us four."
+
+At the foot of the golden trumpet lay the mangled remains of his oldest
+brother, who had perished in trying to blow it. At the foot of the
+silver trumpet the corpse of the second prince had fallen; and now
+Myrtillo must choose between the two remaining trumpets! Without a
+moment's hesitation he put his lips to the copper trumpet, and gave a
+loud, clear blast. At once the iron door flew open, and he was in a hall
+surrounded by dungeons, through whose gratings he could see prisoners in
+every stage of misery. They called to him frantically, and hailed him as
+their deliverer. Alas! what could the poor prince do to save them. He
+looked about and saw a long tunnel, ending in a massive gate of stone
+and iron. As he gazed into the darkness of the tunnel something coiled
+up at the end of it seemed to stir, and a hideous snake darted toward
+him, opening a pair of jaws as wide as an ordinary fireplace, and
+sending out a flaming tongue. Myrtillo charged upon the beast, and after
+a desperate fight drove his sword down its throat, the point coming out
+at the back of the neck. As he stooped to free his sword the serpent
+gave a convulsive struggle and died. Myrtillo found a chain around its
+neck on which was fastened a golden key. He took the key and put it in
+the great key-hole of the iron door before him, and to his joy the door
+opened. There, in a dismal dungeon within, lay a beautiful maiden in
+chains. Myrtillo set her free, and found that she was the Princess
+Sybilla, whom the giant treated with especial cruelty because she
+persisted in refusing his love. She told him that the little pigeon was
+one of many kept for the serpent's food, and that she had hidden it, and
+helped it to fly out one day when the giant left her cell. "And now,"
+said the princess, when Myrtillo had in turn told her his story, "let us
+be quick, and lose no time. In the court beyond my cell are two
+fountains. One of them contains the water of strength, the other the
+water of weakness. From the former fountain Furioso gains all his power.
+A little of its water sprinkled upon the dead recalls them to life, and
+we may save your poor brothers yet."
+
+Myrtillo and the lady hastened to the fountains; but to their dismay a
+roaring noise and the groans of the wretched prisoners, who were
+chastised daily upon his return, announced the arrival of the giant.
+"Quick!" said the lady, pointing to the water of strength; "drink once
+of this, and you will be strong enough to change the fountains, putting
+each in the place of the other."
+
+Myrtillo obeyed, and at once felt able to move a mountain at command. He
+seized the solid stone basins and changed them, and hardly had he done
+so when the giant came rushing in. "Where is that insolent
+whipper-snapper of a prince who has dared to kill my faithful serpent?"
+roared he.
+
+"Here he is, at your service," said Myrtillo, stepping forth with a
+gallant bow, and holding his glittering sword in hand.
+
+"Just wait till I quench my thirst," said the giant disdainfully, as he
+stooped down to what he supposed to be his fountain of strength, and
+drank a long, deep draught. Suddenly a strange trembling came over the
+monster's huge bulk. His face turned pale, his eyes stared, his jaw
+dropped, he sank to the ground.
+
+"Why, this is the water of weakness my prisoners drink," he cried. "What
+trick have you been playing me, you scoundrel?"
+
+Myrtillo again drank of the water of strength, and now he felt as if he
+could defy an army, single-handed. Swift as a lightning flash he
+descended upon the giant, and severed his wicked head from his body. The
+Princess Sybilla uttered a wild shriek of delight, which was heard and
+understood by all her fellow-captives, and the dungeons echoed with
+sobs and cries of joy. Myrtillo and the princess filled goblets with the
+water of strength, and hastened to sprinkle all the prisoners, who,
+paralyzed by their chains and wasted with hunger, could in many cases
+barely stir upon the ground where they lay. Soon, a host of strong men
+and women filled the main hall of the dungeon, and then Myrtillo had the
+joy of seeing his two brothers return to life under the action of the
+magic water, in which he bathed their limbs. As Myrtillo only had
+_drank_ of the water of strength, he remained the strongest champion in
+the world; and when Sybilla was taken back to her father and mother, she
+told them that she had promised to take the Prince Myrtillo for her
+husband. From the giant's stronghold Myrtillo brought away gems and gold
+enough to enrich him for a lifetime, even after all the giant's victims
+had been sent home with a bag of gold apiece. His brothers found brides
+in two lovely fellow-sufferers they had led out of the giant's cavern to
+the light of day; and so all were satisfied, and in a short time the
+Giant Furioso was forgotten. No more hurricanes visited the kingdom of
+Sybilla's father, where things continued to jog along in the old-time
+peaceful fashion.
+
+
+
+
+ANNETTE; OR, THE MAGIC COFFEE-MILL.
+
+
+A poor woman and her daughter, who were on the verge of starvation, saw
+a little green bud of a plant growing through their cottage floor. They
+watered it, and in a day or two it sent forth long shoots, and became a
+vine, fine and delicate to look at, but tough as an iron wire. The vine
+put forth leaves, soon covering the inner walls of the cottage. The
+tendrils waved longingly toward the sun, and so the mother and daughter
+set their lattice window open, when, lo! the vine escaped as if it had
+wings and grew quickly heavenward. Lovely flowers bloomed on it, in
+shape like morning-glories, and rare birds came to drink the honey of
+their chalices. The maiden leaned out of her window and looked up.
+Higher, higher climbed the vine, till it was lost in the blue sky above
+them. The girl was seized with a yearning desire to climb up and see
+what could be seen. Her mother gave her leave, and she set out. Up, up,
+she went, and the mother watched below till the clustering green and
+many-colored bells hid her child from sight. At last the girl reached a
+wonderful new country, and stepped off the vine upon a shining silver
+path, which she followed through a green meadow till she came to a house
+made of honey-comb that glittered, oh! so beautifully. The columns of
+the porch were sticks of lemon-candy, and there were little benches to
+rest yourself upon, made of maple-sugar and cushioned with gingerbread.
+Annette, for so the girl was called, ventured to open the door of the
+house and peep in. There she found more beautiful things than I can tell
+you of--toys and books and pictures--and all the furniture was made of
+cake with raisins in it, so that, if one sat down to read, one need only
+turn around and nibble a knob off the chair, or pick raisins out of the
+arm of the sofa. Annette played a little and read a story-book, then she
+fell asleep on a couch made of apple-dumplings. Suddenly in came three
+goats, who were the servants of the fairy to whom this house belonged.
+"Let us butt her to death," said the oldest goat. "Let us trample on
+her, and bite her," said the second goat. "Let her alone," said the
+third goat, who was a kind little fellow with golden horns. "If she
+holds her tongue, and if she don't find out the secret of the golden
+coffee-mill, our mistress will let her stay here and work for her."
+
+Annette heard this while pretending to be asleep, and when the fairy
+came home, she jumped up and made a nice little courtesy, begging to be
+allowed to do the housework. "Well," said the fairy, after looking at
+her sharply, "I will try you; only don't undertake to grind my coffee
+for me, and don't gossip with the goats."
+
+Annette lived there for six months, and learned to make all kinds of
+goodies; for the fairy was the queen's confectioner in that country. You
+might eat all you pleased, provided you didn't talk; and not a word
+spoke Annette, and not a word spoke the goats. Every day the fairy went
+into a pantry and there ground her coffee; and every day she carried two
+or three bags full of something heavy, and put them in her chariot, and
+drove off with them. The coffee-mill looked like any other one, and
+Annette wondered vainly what its secret was. At last curiosity overcame
+her, and she stole into the pantry and began to grind the mill. Down
+fell a stream of pure gold-dust, and it powdered Annette all over till
+she looked like a golden image. "How shall I get rid of this?" she said,
+trying to shake it off, but the gold dust stuck fast. She cried and
+sobbed, for she knew that now the fairy would certainly find her out. In
+came the friendly goat. "Cheer up," said he. "That was the way my horns
+came to be gilded, because I yielded to my curiosity about the mill,
+when I first came here to live. The fairy wanted to kill me, but she let
+me off when I vowed to serve her faithfully for seven years. The time is
+just up, and so I propose that we escape together. Take the magic mill
+under your arm and get upon my back, and we will go down to your world."
+
+Annette joyfully obeyed the friendly goat, and carrying the coffee-mill
+they set off from the fairy's house. Unfortunately she did not know how
+to stop the mill from grinding, and it left a path of gold-dust behind
+them as they fled, which showed the way to the fairy. The fairy followed
+them, riding on a silver broom-stick; but the goat was swift as the wind,
+and Annette clung to his golden horns, and held the magic mill tight
+under her arm. By good luck they reached the opening, near which the
+vine was growing, and, just as the furious fairy got near enough to
+stretch out her long arm after them, down went Annette, goat, and
+coffee-mill, through a rift in the clouds, to a land where their enemy
+could not follow them. The faithful vine caught them as they fell, and
+held them up stoutly. When they had climbed down, and touched the earth
+in safety, Annette was astonished to see her goat turn into a handsome
+young prince, with curling golden locks and kind blue eyes.
+
+"You have freed me from my enchantment, beautiful maiden," he said,
+kneeling upon the grass at her feet. "Long years ago I and my wicked
+brothers were captured by the fairy and became her slaves under the form
+of goats, as you saw. For fear that they may find out some way to
+follow us, we must cut down this vine, and then we shall be free forever
+from all dread of disturbance."
+
+Annette's mother came running out, kissed her child, and listened with
+wonder to the tale of her adventures. All this while the mill had gone
+on grinding, and before they knew it the cottage floor was knee-deep in
+gold-dust. "We shall be smothered at this rate," cried the prince
+laughing, and he hastened to make a magic sign he had learned from the
+fairy. The mill ceased to flow, and then the prince took an axe and cut
+the beautiful vine at its root. Annette wept to see the lovely leaves
+and blossoms shrivel up, but in a short time they vanished entirely from
+sight. The prince married Annette, and every day the mill ground gold
+enough to pay all the expenses of their palace and servants and horses,
+and also the expenses of Annette's mother, who had a separate palace for
+herself over the way.
+
+The country people, for years after the time when Annette and the prince
+came down the magic vine, showering gold-dust along their way, continued
+to talk about the wonderful rain of stars they had seen in the sky that
+moon-lit night.
+
+
+
+
+JULIET; OR, THE LITTLE WHITE MOUSE.
+
+[Illustration: _The Queen & the Princess in prison._]
+
+
+Once upon a time there lived a king and queen who loved each other so
+dearly that they were an example to all the married couples in their
+kingdom. In an adjoining country lived a wicked king, who spent his life
+in envying the happiness of his neighbors. He was a sworn enemy to all
+good and charitable people, and his chosen companions were robbers and
+murderers. His air was stern and forbidding. He was lean and withered,
+dressed always in black, and his hair hung in long elf-locks over his
+fiery eyes. This wicked wretch, determined to end the happiness of his
+neighbor, raised an immense army and marched to attack the kingdom of
+the Land of Sweet Content, for so the good king's country was called.
+
+The king of Sweet Content made a brave defence, but it was all in vain.
+The immense numbers of the adversary overpowered him and his troops.
+One day when his poor queen was sitting with her infant daughter in her
+arms, waiting for news from the battle-field, a messenger on horseback
+galloped up to the door, and entered the room where she was, with every
+sign of terror.
+
+"Oh! madam," he cried, "all is lost. The king is slain, the army
+defeated, and the ferocious King Grimgouger is even now marching to take
+you prisoner."
+
+The queen fell senseless on the floor; and while her attendants were
+making every effort to provide a means of flight for her and the little
+princess, the army of the foe, with banners flying and with music
+playing, marched into the city. Surrounding the palace, they called on
+the queen to surrender. No answer was given, and the horrid King
+Grimgouger instantly ordered a file of his most blood-thirsty soldiers
+to march through the palace and to kill everybody they met, except the
+queen and princess.
+
+Now nothing was heard but shrieks and lamentations from the doomed
+attendants of the queen. When all were sacrificed, the tyrant Grimgouger
+walked into the apartment where the terrified queen stood, clasping her
+child in her arms, and prepared for death.
+
+"You won't die now, madam," he thundered, seizing her by the long hair,
+and dragging her after him down the stairs and over the stones of the
+courtyard to his chariot. She was all bruised and bleeding, and knew
+nothing more till she found herself in a tower-room, where dampness
+dripped from the walls, and the light of day could scarcely reach
+through a small grated window. She lay upon a little heap of mouldy
+straw, and her child cried for food beside her, while over her stood a
+wicked fairy to whom King Grimgouger had given the prisoners in charge.
+The fairy threw her a few crusts without any butter on them, and the
+baby seized one eagerly, and stopped crying as she sucked it.
+
+"That is all either of you shall have to-day," said the fairy.
+"To-morrow they will decide what to do with you. Probably you, queen,
+will be hanged, and your daughter be saved to marry the son of our good
+King Grimgouger."
+
+"What! That ugly little reptile of a prince!" screamed the queen. "Hang
+me, if you will, but don't give my beautiful angel to a husband like
+that!"
+
+"Then she, too, will be hanged," said the fairy, grinning maliciously,
+and flying away with a fizz of flame, leaving behind her the smell of
+sulphur matches.
+
+Next day the fairy gave the queen three boiled peas, and a small bit of
+black bread, and the next, and the next, until the poor queen wasted to
+skin and bone, and the baby looked like a wax doll that had been left
+out in the rain all night.
+
+"In a few days it will be over," thought the poor queen. "We shall be
+starved to death."
+
+She fell to spinning with what strength remained to her (for the fairy
+made her work, to pay her board, she said), and just then she saw,
+entering at a small hole, a pretty little mouse as white as snow.
+
+"Ah! pretty creature," cried the queen, "you have come to a poor place
+for food. I have only three peas, which are to last me and my child all
+day. Begone, if you, too, would not starve."
+
+The little mouse ran about, here and there, skipping so like a little
+monkey that the baby smiled, and gave it the pea she had for her
+supper.
+
+The instant she had fed the mouse, what was the queen's surprise to see,
+start out of the prison floor, a neat little table, covered with a white
+cloth, having on it silver dishes, containing a roast partridge, a
+lovely cake, some raspberry jam, and for the baby a big bowl of fresh
+bread and milk, with a silver spoon! How they did eat! I leave you to
+imagine it!
+
+Next day the mouse came again, and devoured the queen's three peas, her
+whole day's supply. The queen sighed, for she did not know where
+anything else was to come from. She stroked the little mouse, and said
+gently, "Pretty creature, you are welcome." Immediately the same little
+table sprang up out of the floor. This time there was broiled chicken
+and ice-cream, green peas, marsh-mallows and custard, with a fresh bowl
+of bread and milk for the baby. "Oh! you dear little mouse," said the
+queen. "This must be your work! If you could only help me to get my baby
+out of this dreadful place, I would thank you forever."
+
+The mouse ran up to her with some straws in its mouth. This gave the
+queen an idea, and taking them she began to weave a basket, for she was
+a clever queen, and knew how to use her pretty white hands in a variety
+of useful ways. The mouse understood her, and brought her more straws,
+until she had made a nice covered basket large enough to hold the baby.
+Then the queen cut her petticoat into strips, and plaited them, till she
+had a long and strong cord. She tied the basket to this, and wrapping
+the beautiful little smiling princess in the only covering she had, laid
+her in the basket, crying all the time as if her heart would break. Then
+she climbed up to the window, and (the little white mouse watching her
+with a very friendly air) looked down to see if she could attract the
+attention of any charitable person who might be passing in the street
+below.
+
+There she saw an old woman leaning upon a stick and looking up at her.
+
+"Pray, goody," said the queen, "have pity on an innocent babe, and save
+it from destruction. Feed and nurse her, and heaven will reward you, if
+I cannot."
+
+"I don't want money," said the old woman; "but I am very nice in my
+eating, and I have a positive longing for a nice, little, fat, white
+mouse. If you can find such an one in your prison, kill it and throw it
+out to me. Then, right willingly, will I take your pretty babe and nurse
+it carefully."
+
+When the queen heard this, she exclaimed to herself, "Oh! the dreadful
+old thing!" and began to cry. "There is only one mouse here, madam," she
+said aloud, "and that is so pretty and engaging that I can't find it in
+my heart to kill it, even to save my child."
+
+"Hoity-toity!" said the angry old creature, thumping her stick on the
+ground below. "If you think more of a miserable little mouse than of
+your child, keep them both, and be hanged to you!"
+
+So saying, her staff changed to a broom-stick, and with a fizz and a
+bang the old hag shot up into the sky like a rocket. And there was again
+a strong smell of sulphur matches in the air!
+
+The queen, seeing that this was, without doubt, the wicked fairy come to
+try her, gave way to new grief. She kissed her hapless little one, and
+just then the mouse jumped into the basket. The baby's rough clothes
+changed to finest linen and lace, and a pillow of down was under her
+head, while a gay silver rattle was put into her hand.
+
+More surprises! As the queen watched, the mouse's paws changed to tiny
+hands with jewelled rings upon them. The little face grew into the image
+of a smiling old woman's, and a figure of a pretty old-time fairy stood
+before her. As these fairies have been rather out of fashion lately, I
+will tell you just how she was dressed. She wore a chintz gown, looped
+up over a blue silk quilted petticoat. A lace ruff was around her
+throat, and her long-pointed bodice was laced with silver. Over her
+mob-cap she had a high sugar-loaf hat tied on with pink ribbons, and her
+feet were clad in the prettiest black silk stockings and high-heeled
+black satin slippers, with big diamond buckles. When you remember that
+she was just of a size with the baby princess, you will agree that you
+would have liked to see her.
+
+"What is the baby's name?" said the fairy.
+
+"Oh--Juliet; I thought I had mentioned it," said the queen,
+apologetically.
+
+"I have never heard anything but 'pecious wecious,' and 'mother's
+blessing,' and things like that," said the fairy. "You may stop crying
+now, for I will save Juliet. If you had given me to the wicked fairy,
+she would have gobbled me up in a minute, so you see I owe my life to
+you. Henceforth I will take Juliet under my protection. She shall live
+to be an hundred years old, and never have an illness or a wrinkle."
+
+Fancy it, children! No mumps, no measles, no whooping-cough, no
+castor-oil! What rapture in the thought!
+
+The queen kissed the fairy's little hand, and begged that Juliet should
+at once be taken away. So the weeping princess was put into the basket,
+and carefully let down to the bottom of the tower. Then the fairy
+resumed the shape of a mouse and ran after her down the string, which
+the queen still held in her hands. Suddenly she came running back again.
+"Alas! alas!" she cried to the terrified queen, "our enemy, the fairy
+Cancaline, was hidden below, and seized upon the child, and flew away
+with it. Unfortunately she is older and more powerful than I am, and I
+don't know how to rescue Juliet from her hands."
+
+At these words the queen uttered a loud cry, and in came running the
+jailer of the tower, his men, some soldiers, and after them, gnashing
+his teeth with rage, the horrid Grimgouger himself.
+
+"Where is the child?" he said, stamping.
+
+"Alas, I know not, king," said the mother. "A fairy has taken it off."
+
+"Then you shall be hanged at once," he cried in a fury. "Seize her,
+guards."
+
+They dragged the poor queen by the hair of her head to the gallows. Just
+as the executioner was about to tie the rope around her neck, the
+gallows fell down beneath him and knocked out all his front teeth, while
+invisible hands carried the queen through the air to a safe retreat in
+the mountains. She found herself in a beautiful castle, where all her
+attendants were white mice. Here the queen lived for eighteen years,
+surrounded by luxury and tender care. But she always thought of her
+little daughter, and dreamed of her by day and night. The mouse fairy
+made every attempt to find news of the lost princess, but failed to do
+so.
+
+At this period the son of the wicked King Grimgouger had grown up, and
+everybody was talking about his strange fancy for a poultry-woman's
+maid-servant, who had refused to marry him in spite of his rank and fine
+clothes. The story went that the prince sent her, every day, a new gown
+of silk or velvet, and that the girl would not look at them. So the
+little white mouse fairy determined, through curiosity, to have a peep
+at this strange damsel. Accordingly she visited King Grimgouger's
+capital, and entering the poultry-yard found there an extremely
+beautiful young creature dressed in a coarse woollen gown, with her feet
+bare, and a cap of goat-skin on her head. Lying by her side were
+magnificent dresses, embroidered with gold and silver and ornamented
+with precious stones; the turkeys and other fowls that surrounded her
+trampled on them and spoiled them. The poultry-girl sat upon a stone in
+the yard when the king's son arrived; he was crooked, and hump-backed,
+and horrible to look upon.
+
+"Do you still refuse to marry me, fair maiden?" he asked. "If so, I
+shall have you put to death immediately."
+
+"I am not afraid of you, prince," the girl replied, modestly. "I
+certainly should prefer death to marriage with you. And I like the
+society of my chickens and turkeys better than yours, if it please your
+highness."
+
+The prince went off in a rage, and the mouse fairy appeared, in her real
+shape as a little old lady.
+
+"Good-day, fair damsel," she said. "I respect you and admire you--let me
+be your friend."
+
+"Willingly, good madam," said the girl. "I am greatly in need of
+friends, as you may see."
+
+"Have you, then, no father or mother, my child?"
+
+"None, madam; I am an orphan, and this poultry-yard is my refuge from
+the cruelty of the only protector I have ever known. The fairy
+Cancaline, who had charge of me, used to beat me until I was nearly
+killed. Weary of suffering I ran away from her at last; and while
+wandering in a wood I met the prince, who promised to befriend me, and
+placed me here as poultry-girl. Alas! now that I find he is in love with
+me, I must leave this place, and where to go I know not."
+
+"And what is your name, my dear?" asked the mouse fairy, affectionately.
+
+"Juliet, madam."
+
+"Then, kiss me, my dear; I knew you before you knew yourself," the fairy
+cried, joyfully. "I am delighted to see you so sensible. But your
+complexion is a little dark. Bathe in yonder fountain. And you should be
+better dressed. Put on one of these dresses, and then let me see you."
+
+The girl obeyed. On taking off her cap of goat-skin her long golden
+curls fell nearly to her knees. After bathing in the fountain she
+revealed a complexion more bright and transparent than the choicest
+pearls of India. Roses bloomed in her cheeks, and her eyes shone like
+the brightest diamonds. Her figure was light and graceful as a young
+fir-tree. The fairy gazed at her in wonder and delight. Her next thought
+was to restore the lost child to her mother.
+
+"Stay here one moment," she said, "while I fly back to your mother, and
+prepare her for this happiness, lest she should die of joy."
+
+The son of the wicked King Grimgouger went back to his father, and cried
+and groaned dreadfully. His boo-hoo might have been heard for miles, and
+the king naturally desired to stop it.
+
+"What in the world are you roaring about?" asked the father.
+
+"I'll roar as much as I like," said the spoiled prince. "If I can't
+marry the poultry-girl, I'll roar for a week without stopping."
+
+"Good gracious!" cried the alarmed king; "guards, go and fetch her here
+at once."
+
+The guards went to the poultry-yard, and found the princess Juliet,
+dressed in gorgeous attire, and looking more beautiful than the new
+moon.
+
+"Whom do you seek, my good men?" she said in a soft voice.
+
+"Madam," they answered humbly, "we are looking for a vile creature named
+Juliet; but you would never have stooped to notice her."
+
+"I am she," the princess said, proudly.
+
+Upon this the guards seized her, bound her hands and feet, and roughly
+carried her into the presence of the king.
+
+"So you won't have my son, miss," shouted the king. "Don't love him,
+hey? Stuff and nonsense! Love! Gammon and spinach! Marry him at once, or
+I'll have you flayed alive! Here, you rascal (addressing his son, who
+had now roared himself quite black in the face), stop that racket, for
+goodness' sake, or you'll split my head."
+
+But the princess held out firmly. They sent for a chaplain, but the
+princess said "no," instead of "yes," and when they shook her till she
+couldn't utter a syllable, she nodded her head from side to side. So,
+finding it quite a hopeless matter, the king ordered the prince put to
+bed with ice upon his head, and the princess to be shut up for life in a
+high tower, where she would never more see the light of day.
+
+At this moment the good mouse fairy returned in her flying chariot, and
+with her was the queen mother, who was almost crazy with delight at the
+prospect of embracing her child. When they heard the sad fate of Juliet,
+the queen wrung her hands in agony; but the fairy bade her cheer up, as
+she would find a way to help the captive.
+
+King Grimgouger had gone to bed in a rage, and the little white mouse
+ran up on his pillow. First she bit one ear, and made him turn over in
+his sleep. Then she bit the other, and made him turn back again. Now the
+king woke up, and howled for his attendants. They came running in, and
+while they sought to stanch the blood that flowed from his royal ears,
+the little white mouse ran to the chamber of the sleeping prince, and
+served him exactly the same way. The prince, who, to the great relief of
+the household, had fallen asleep in the very act of crying, now woke up
+and began again, this time with a vengeance.
+
+"Confound that fellow, he's at it again," said the king, smarting from
+his wounds. "Stop him, somebody; and get me the court-plaster, and the
+arnica, and the Pond's extract, and the chloroform; and send for all the
+surgeons."
+
+While the attendants ran hither and thither the mouse returned to visit
+the king. She bit his nose, and bit his toes, and bit his fingers; and
+when he opened his mouth to scold and yell, she bit a piece of his
+tongue off, so that he could not articulate, but could only make absurd
+mouthings, at which everybody wanted to laugh, yet dared not.
+
+Then she ran back to the prince, and ate out both of his eyes, which
+sent him flying out of bed. He seized his sword, and ran storming and
+swearing into the apartment of his father, who, on his side, had taken a
+sword, and vowed to kill everybody around him if they did not catch the
+mouse who had done this mischief.
+
+The prince could not understand what his father said, and as he was
+blind, attacked the king furiously. The king made a violent cut back at
+him, and in ten minutes they were in the thick of an awful fight, which
+ended in both being mortally wounded at exactly the same moment. Seeing
+them fall, their attendants, who hated the wicked tyrants, made haste to
+tie them hands and feet, and tumbled them into the swiftly flowing
+river.
+
+Thus ended the horrible King Grimgouger and his son. The good fairy now
+took her own shape, and, leading the queen by the hand, opened the door
+of the tower where Juliet was confined. Juliet flew into her mother's
+arms, and all was happiness.
+
+The kingdom of Grimgouger and that of Sweet Content, which he had joined
+to his, were now without a sovereign, and the people, by universal
+consent, chose Juliet to reign over them. Juliet became their queen, and
+in due time married a young king, who was rich and handsome, and wise
+and witty, and brave and modest--all that a young husband ought to be.
+The little white mouse continued to be their chief friend and
+counsellor.
+
+
+
+
+THE FAIRIES AND THE FIDDLER.
+
+[Illustration: Simon's Benefactor.]
+
+
+In the pretty little village of Hayfield, not far from the borders of a
+thick forest, lived a good-natured, idle fellow, named Simon, who
+supported his wife and two children by trapping or shooting in winter,
+and by fishing or doing odd jobs of harvest work in summer. Simon could
+play upon the fiddle in a way to make the tears come into your eyes; or
+if he chose to be merry, his tunes would set every foot in motion, as
+the wind starts the leaves upon an aspen tree. This accomplishment
+caused him to be much in demand among the young people of the village,
+who dropped many a bit of silver into his worn old hat; and at all the
+weddings and barn-dances, Simon might be seen with a huge bunch of
+flowers in his buttonhole, and his fiddle under his arm, footing it in
+the procession. Then, too, Simon was the best man in the village to
+coax stories from, especially the old-time gossip about the little folk
+in green, for whom in former days Hayfield had been famous. Simon knew
+how the fairies dressed, what they ate and drank, how they punished
+saucy human beings who offended them; and could point out the smooth
+rings of short fine grass where they had held their midnight revels.
+That the fairies really had haunted Hayfield and its surrounding woods,
+nobody in the village doubted. They had heard too many things to prove
+it from their grandparents, whose parents were said to have lived on the
+best of terms with the little people--setting pans of cream by the
+hearth-stone at night for them to skim--leaving, when the holidays came
+around, a cheese and bag of nuts in a hollow tree at the entrance of the
+wood--and getting all sorts of kind offices from the fairies back again.
+Although it had now been a long time since any one could testify to
+having actually seen a fairy (as it was well known that the band were
+frightened out of Hayfield when the first stage-coach, with its noise
+and clatter, took to dashing along the village street), many people
+believed the men in green to be still lurking in the neighborhood. What
+else could account for the trouble some of the good wives had with
+their butter and their bees? What could it be but fairy thumps and
+pinches that kept the lazy folk from sleeping soundly, when their houses
+were not to rights before they went to bed. And what could explain the
+silver penny often found in the shoe of a tidy housekeeper, when up she
+jumped at break of day to set her maids to work? For fairies never show
+by day, and it is only when the people of a house are fast asleep and
+snoring, that they glide in by key-holes, through cracks and broken
+panes of glass, and swarm over the rooms, spying out everything amiss,
+and leaving tracks on the dust of shelves or tables, scattering the
+ashes of an unswept hearth, and bewitching the inside of a dirty iron
+pot, so that it never more may cook sweet porridge!
+
+Of all the villagers, as I have said, Simon alone professed to have any
+recent acquaintance with the little folk, and the wonder was how they,
+who were known to be sworn enemies to idleness, could keep him in their
+favor.
+
+Simon's house was a poor little cottage on the outskirts of the town.
+His wife, once a pretty, rosy lass, had taken to drink, and the husband
+and children led a dog's life within doors. Consequently, their one
+pleasure was to roam the woods and fields, and the children were growing
+up brown and barefoot as two young gypsies. They were a boy named
+Timothy and a girl named Bess, of whom Simon was very proud, their fresh
+young faces making a strong contrast with his wizened visage, crossed
+with a hundred lines, and topped with a sunburned mop of hair. As they
+grew old enough to understand, their father instructed them in all the
+arts of woodcraft. There was no tree or plant for which he had not a
+name or a virtue. The habits of all birds and fishes and animals were as
+familiar to him as their haunts. In this way, the vast green forest,
+with its great tree-boles and twisted boughs, its verdant moss-carpet
+and hidden streams, became to them an enchanted world, through which the
+children strayed like a sylvan king and queen. A sad change it was to
+come back to the dirt and confusion of their miserable home, where the
+mother received them either with grudging welcome if they brought
+berries or a string of brook trout, or with blows and drunken curses if
+they came empty-handed. As his wife's intemperance increased, Simon
+stayed less and less at home, and the children dreaded lest some day
+their poor father would be driven to desert them altogether. So they
+resolved to keep a close watch on his movements, and to follow him
+should he go away.
+
+One night the harvest moon was riding her glorious way across the
+heavens, and the little village of Hayfield lay steeped in silver light.
+Not a lamp or a taper glimmered in the hamlet, and every one of the
+brown thatched cottages was buried in profound repose. Not even a
+watch-dog barked; and the forest-leaves yielded to the universal spell,
+and ceased to rustle.
+
+There had been held a harvest-home that day, and Simon had been hard at
+work with his fiddle, playing jigs and reels for the dance in the
+squire's great barn. Between every dance, he had quenched his thirst at
+the cider-barrel, or quaffed the big brown mug of beer they kept
+brimming at his side. Naturally, Simon's brain was a little the worse
+for such free potations; and when the last strains of the "Wind that
+Shakes the Barley" had died upon his fiddle-strings, and all the gay
+company had gone their homeward way, Simon with his pocket full of
+silver pennies staggered out into the field, and lay down under a
+haystack to take his well-earned rest.
+
+There, just before midnight, his two children, who had come in search of
+him, found their father peacefully sleeping, his fiddle on his breast.
+Not wishing to disturb him, the children decided to have their own
+night's sleep in the same fragrant nest of hay; and curling up at some
+little distance from the slumbering fiddler, they whispered together for
+a while, and then were about to drop asleep. Just as their eyes were
+closing they heard an odd sound, as of hundreds of little pattering
+feet, and out from the shadow of the wood came into the unbroken argent
+of the field a long train of little men, women, and children, dressed
+magnificently in cobweb gauze and green, bespangled with glittering
+gems, and wearing each a tiny crimson cap with a golden bell upon its
+peak. The two children were broad awake in a moment, for they knew that
+these were the fairies they had so longed to see, all dressed in holiday
+costume, and proceeding to their famous midsummer festival. The
+procession wavered like a gleaming snake across the field, and, when
+passing near the haystack, came to a halt. To the children's surprise,
+two queer little old men, holding carved ivory wands, came straight up,
+and tapped the sleeping fiddler across the bridge of his nose.
+
+"Nay, I will play no more for you, you light-of-head and light-of-heel,"
+said sleepy Simon, believing himself to be still perched upon the barrel
+that served as the fiddler's throne.
+
+"Aye, but play you shall, at his Majesty's command," said the little old
+man, thumping him more sharply. "Isn't that part of your bargain with
+us, if we allow the trout to haunt your brook, and the hares to run into
+your traps? Come, mortal! Up with you and follow. Here's the bandage to
+blindfold your eyes, as usual; and remember that, if you peep, you are
+our prisoner for life."
+
+By this time thoroughly awakened, Simon stumbled upon his feet, and
+stood making abject bows before the angry little fairy chamberlains. He
+let his eyes be bound with a green silk ribbon, and leading-strings were
+passed around his waist. At the blast of a golden trumpet, the
+procession moved forward with a sound of tripping feet and whirring
+gauzy wings and tinkling bells most lovely to the ear.
+
+Last of all came Simon, in fairy leading-strings, and the two children,
+unable to resist the impulse, followed noiselessly.
+
+Their way led again into the forest, through the dense underwood, to a
+smooth circle of velvet sward, set around with hundreds of little
+mushrooms, on which the fairies took their seats. In the centre was a
+hammock of silver cobweb, swinging by jewelled chains from the crossed
+stems of two tall white lilies, under a bower of maiden-hair ferns.
+Sweet blue violets were sprinkled in the grass, making a path where the
+king and queen of the fairies marched to take their places on the
+cobweb-throne. Dew was handed around in acorn-cups, of which the fairy
+guests sipped daintily, followed by bark trays containing every variety
+of fairy refreshment. There were delicate fried butterflies,
+marrow-bones of a field-mouse, snail soup served in nutshells, and wild
+strawberries in baskets made of moss.
+
+When the banquet was at an end, the chamberlains gave notice to Simon,
+who had been bound with ropes made of plaited grass to the trunk of a
+wide-spreading oak; the fiddle struck up a tune, and at once the dance
+began. Such a mad and merry dance the wondering children had never seen
+before! Old and young joined hands and trod a circle, then, breaking the
+chain, formed into a hundred fantastic figures; and at each touch of a
+light footstep, the earth opened to give birth to a flower, until the
+entire fairy ring was enamelled with fragrant blossoms. Fast flew the
+fiddle-bow, but faster flew the tiny feet; and when the mirth was at its
+height, Simon who, as we know, had taken a drop too much, was suddenly
+inspired to tear the bandage from his eyes, and crying, "It's my turn
+now," capered right into the middle of the magic ring.
+
+The honest fellow had meant no harm, but his offence was a mortal one!
+
+Instantly, he was surrounded by a swarm of the furious little men in
+green, who, without waiting for an excuse, stabbed out both his eyes,
+and taking away his fiddle and bow, bound his arms behind his back.
+Again the procession--this time sad and silent--was formed, and the king
+striking the nearest tree with his wand, it flew open; the whole party,
+leading Simon behind them, entered the aperture, and before the children
+knew where to turn, it had closed upon their father.
+
+And now, in what a distressing condition were the unhappy Timothy and
+Bess! Not knowing what better to do, they sat down at the foot of the
+great oak-tree which had swallowed up their father, and from sheer
+weariness fell asleep. When morning came, and the birds piped upon the
+boughs, the children awoke and looked in wonder about them. All was
+dewy, green, and fragrant in the deep woods, but no sign remained of the
+fairy revel, except a fine fringe of newly sprung grass, growing in a
+circle where their ring had been.
+
+The bark of the great oak tree was unbroken, and above stretched a broad
+canopy of dark-green leaves, which whispered in the morning breeze, but
+told no tales of what the children longed to know. Hunger drove them to
+retrace their steps homeward; and when they reached the cottage, their
+mother was so cross at her husband's failure to fetch her the usual
+stock of silver pennies earned at the harvest-home, that she beat them
+both soundly, and gave them but a dry crust apiece for breakfast.
+
+Still the children hoped their father might return; and, not knowing to
+whom to confide their wonderful tale, they kept silence. When it was
+found Simon had disappeared in earnest, all the wise heads in Hayfield
+decided that he had run away to escape from his good wife's tongue, an
+act of independence which had the bad effect of making more than one
+married man in the village unduly restless.
+
+A month passed, and the two children were again wandering in the forest
+trying to find a few berries to appease their hunger (for things at home
+were now worse than before), when they fancied they heard a child crying
+close at hand. They searched everywhere, and at length the sound was
+renewed, seeming to come from a thicket of tall ferns. Falling on their
+knees, the children worked their way under the bushes and through the
+brakes, until they came in view of a lovely chubby elf sitting forlorn
+upon a mushroom on a hillock of soft green moss, beneath a screen of
+ferns and wild flowers, and letting fall a flood of tears from his big
+blue eyes. He wore no clothing, if we may except a pair of drooping
+wings, and in his hand he held a stalk of snowy lilies.
+
+"Who are you, dear little one, and how came you here?" they asked.
+
+"I am a fairy," the tiny creature sobbed. "Last night was the monthly
+revel, and we sported till the moon set. But I saw these lilies growing
+over in yonder swamp, and I wanted them so; and as I ran, they seemed to
+run too. I had such hard work to gather them; when at last I succeeded,
+my red cap dropped off; and without it I am as helpless as a mere
+mortal. While searching for the cap, which I have not found, a cock in
+the village crowed, and the fairies all fled away and left me. The door
+of the mound is closed, and for a whole long month there is no hope of
+my getting in again. Oh! I wish I could find my cap."
+
+"If we help you to find the cap, will you stop crying?" said the
+children.
+
+The shivering sprite wiped his eyes and promised that he would weep no
+more. The girl wrapped him in her apron, and then all three of them set
+out in search of the missing treasure. At last Timothy saw in the water
+around some reeds a red object which a bull-frog was opening his mouth
+to swallow; and, wading into the stream, he was able to rescue the magic
+cap, dry it in the sun, and restore it to its happy little owner.
+
+"And now," said the smiling elf, who appeared to have suddenly grown old
+and wise, "as for a whole long month I am without a home, what do you
+say to taking me to yours? You will never regret it, that I promise
+you."
+
+The children told their new friend what a poor place their home was, but
+the elf smiled and shook his head as if he knew what he was about. He
+bade the children lead him to their cottage, and once across the
+threshold of the wretched place, where the drunken mother was sleeping
+heavily on a pallet of straw in the loft above, the elf took his perch
+upon the mantel-shelf.
+
+"Next, since I am obliged to live with mortals, let me see what the
+magic cap can do."
+
+He put on the cap and immediately disappeared from the children's sight.
+When night came, Timothy fell asleep, but Bess watched; and at midnight
+she saw her new friend appear upon the hearth, conducting a perfect
+army of little workmen and workwomen. He waved his cap thrice around his
+head, and at once little carpenters set to building up the
+cottage-walls, little whitewashers made the ceilings wholesome, little
+painters covered all the woodwork with a coat of yellow. By sunrise what
+a change! The broken bricks of the floor were transformed into pretty
+blue and white tiles, lattice windows took the place of their old and
+dim ones, the pots and pans were scoured until they shone, roses looked
+in at the outer door, where rows of larkspur and of gillyflower, of
+bachelor's-button and "Love-in-a-mist" were growing on either side of a
+neat flagged walk to the garden gate. Instead of Timothy's old straw
+mattress, the boy lay on a clean white bed; and his sister, who had kept
+awake all night in utter wonderment, falling asleep at dawn, because her
+eyes refused to stay open any longer, found him shaking her arm, and
+begging her to come and share in the nice hot breakfast that--wonder of
+wonders!--their mother, sober, and clean, and smiling, had made ready at
+the fire.
+
+It was a day of marvels! The mother seemed to have entirely forgotten
+her past degraded life, and was once more the brisk and rosy woman
+Simon had fallen in love with. A dozen times a day she paused in her
+spinning, or weaving, or baking, to run to the gate and wonder when dear
+father would come back. Timothy worked in the garden, Bess sewed and
+helped her mother, not daring to tell what she alone knew of the magic
+change. That night Bess slept, and Timothy kept watch. At midnight the
+fairy appeared upon the hearth, leading a dozen little bakers in white
+caps and aprons.
+
+"Now make ready fifty loaves of your best white bread, that the goodwife
+may sell them on the morrow!" the fairy ordered; and at once the tiny
+men set to work mixing and kneading and baking, and at daybreak there
+were fifty of the sweetest white loaves money could buy. The fame of
+Simon's widow soon spread through the village, and every one was eager
+to see the wonderful reform worked in her, no less than in her cottage.
+Her bread was bought up as fast as she could furnish it, and next night
+Bess watched while Timothy slept. Then Bess saw the fairy appear at
+midnight, followed by a swarm of bees like a cloud.
+
+"Make fifty pounds of your clearest honey, that the goodwife may sell it
+on the morrow."
+
+The bees flew out of the door, and next morning the hives were found
+overflowing with luscious honey that smelt like a bed of clover all
+a-blow.
+
+Next night came the bakers, and next night again the bees. Money flowed
+into the widow's purse as rapidly as it had once flowed out. Now was
+there lacking but one thing to complete their happiness, and that was
+the return of Simon to his family. Bess and Timothy together planned
+what they should do, and when the month had passed away, and the night
+of the full moon had come once more, neither went to bed, but both hid,
+watching for the coming of the sprite. Exactly at twelve o'clock, their
+kind little friend made his appearance, and summoning cooks and bees,
+ordered them to keep up their service on alternate nights, until the
+dame's coffers should be full to last a lifetime. Seeing him about to
+take leave, out rushed Timothy and Bess, threw themselves on their knees
+before the fairy, and, thanking him a thousand times over for his
+goodness, begged for one more act of grace--their father's release and
+restoration to his family. The fairy looked graver than they had ever
+seen him, and his brows puckered in a frown.
+
+"Your father has committed an offence we never pardon," he said, after
+a short silence. "He has been punished according to our laws, and must
+abide by the sentence, which is imprisonment for life."
+
+The children burst into tears at this, and cried so that the fairy
+sneezed several times.
+
+"I believe I am taking cold in all this dampness," he said, shivering
+slightly. "Come, dry up that deluge, and say good-by to me. The utmost I
+can do is to look up your father when I get back again, and tell him you
+are well and happy. I suppose you do not know that for some years past
+he has been attending our holiday frolics as musician, since our own
+best player broke his arm. Simon was under oath never to look at us, or
+to betray us, and this was the first time he transgressed. But our laws
+are very strict, and I am afraid to bid you even hope to see him again.
+One thing I may tell you. The king's chief counsellor has a mantle of
+red, worked with a device of six golden birds flying into a serpent's
+open jaws. If you should ever find that mantle, walk boldly to the
+oak-tree in the forest, knock three times, and cry, 'The King's Chief
+Counsellor!' Then you may be able to secure your father's freedom, but
+not else. And now, good-by to you."
+
+The good elf vanished, and Timothy and Bess spent more time than ever in
+the forest. They had now taken their mother into the secret, for she,
+poor woman, had become as gentle and loving as she had before been hard
+and cruel. The one desire of the entire family was to get possession of
+the chief counsellor's mantle, but nothing seemed more unlikely.
+
+A year passed, and Timothy had gone out to look at his rabbit-trap
+without particularly thinking of what it might contain, when a
+tremendous bustle inside attracted his attention. Cautiously he lifted
+the door, and up sprang an angry little man in green, having a long
+white beard, and a hump upon his back, who vanished from sight as
+quickly as he had appeared. Timothy lamented the loss of such unusual
+game, and then espied at the bottom of the trap nothing less than a tiny
+cloak of red, embroidered with six golden birds flying into a serpent's
+open jaws!
+
+He made a joyful dive after the little garment, but, strange to say, it
+stuck tight to the fingers of his right hand, dragging after it the
+trap. Timothy shook it and pulled at it in vain; there it was, and not
+to be dislodged.
+
+He ran home and called Bess to his assistance. The little girl came
+out, and no sooner had she touched her brother than she stuck fast to
+him. The mother flew to the rescue, and became fastened to her daughter;
+and there they all were, in a long string, not knowing whether to laugh
+or cry at their strange predicament. The only thing was to make a
+pilgrimage to the oak-tree in the forest. Timothy's dog followed them,
+and rubbed against his master's coat. He, too, stuck fast, and so did
+Bessy's cat. Everybody they passed upon the way was attracted to the
+queer family party, and before long a little army of curious people were
+compelled to walk along in the direction of the forest.
+
+Timothy did not know the secret of the little cloak, which had power to
+attract everything to it, drawing even people's thoughts out of their
+hearts, as a magnet draws the needle. Only in fairy-land could the
+objects so attracted be set free.
+
+When they reached the oak-tree in the forest, Timothy struck upon it
+three times and called with a bold voice, though not without a trembling
+of the legs, for the king's chief counsellor. The bark of the great tree
+cleft slowly open, and out came the same old white-bearded fairy he had
+captured in the rabbit-trap. Bowing with mock humility, the old fellow
+asked what his visitors would be pleased to have.
+
+"I demand my father, and also to be rid of this wretched little rag,"
+said Timothy hotly.
+
+"Step inside, step inside," said the elf with a malicious smile, for he
+knew that, once within, he might get the audacious mortals in his power,
+and force them to work his gold mines.
+
+"Not a step will I go inside until I see my father," said Timothy
+firmly.
+
+"Then here may you abide!" cried the old man, turning white with rage.
+
+Timothy put one hand _within_ the tree, holding the magic mantle at
+arm's-length.
+
+"I demand my father," he cried in a loud voice.
+
+The power of the mantle did not fail, for, rising from the darkness
+within, came poor blind Simon, stretching his arms toward his child, but
+holding tight his fiddle. At the moment Timothy's hand had come inside
+the fairy kingdom, the spell of enchantment was broken, and all of the
+strangely linked people were set free. Simon's wife and children threw
+their arms around him, and welcomed his return, while his neighbors
+shook his hand in warm congratulation. As for the old fairy, he fairly
+danced with rage. With the mantle in Timothy's possession, half the
+chief counsellor's power and reputation for wisdom would pass away. He
+offered rich bribes of gold and jewels, he threatened, he howled, he
+grinned, he hurled curses on their heads, but Timothy was firm.
+
+"Then name your price, you wretch!" cried the angry fairy.
+
+"It is that you shall restore my father's eye-sight," said Timothy.
+
+This went very hard with the wicked old elf, who had been congratulating
+himself that Simon would bear away at least one mark of fairy vengeance.
+But he had met his match in Timothy, and there was no escape for the
+chief counsellor, who, diving down into the cavern beneath the hollow
+tree, reappeared fetching a box of magic ointment, which, rubbed upon
+Simon's eyes, made them better than ever.
+
+When Simon saw not only the light of day, but his two dear children, and
+his wife looking as he had known her in her blooming youth, he uttered a
+cry of delight.
+
+Then, to relieve his feelings, he struck up the old "Wind that Shakes
+the Barley," when, behold, not only all the people there assembled, but
+a score of little green folk, who had been in hiding, enjoying the
+discomfiture of the cross old counsellor, began to foot it on the
+greensward. Simon himself danced, and the old counsellor, sorely against
+his will, was forced to skip until his legs ached, for Timothy still
+held the mantle in his hand.
+
+At last, when all were out of breath, the elf received his mantle. With
+a storm of angry words, he disappeared from sight. Immediately the sky
+darkened, a cold wind blew, and a shower of hail-stones fell upon our
+friends, sending them scampering and laughing away from the region where
+the fairy's spite prevailed.
+
+Under the spell of the kind little sprite who had been their guest, the
+cottage was never approached by any unkind visitors. Simon fiddled and
+grew fat, his wife remained as sweet as fresh cream to the last day of
+her life, and their children came to be the pride of all the village.
+
+So far as I have heard, that is the last visit Hayfield has had from the
+little men in green.
+
+
+
+
+ETHELINDA; OR, THE ICE KING'S BRIDE.
+
+
+Ethelinda lived alone with her father, Count Constant, in a quiet
+country place, which had always been her home. Her mother was dead, and
+her father had long before fallen under the displeasure of his king, and
+was sentenced to exile for life in this lonely spot. Their castle was
+gray and venerable, half of it in ruins, and near by grew a grove of
+melancholy pine-trees; while only some stunted rose-bushes, and a black
+pool of water, in which swam a few antiquated carp, relieved the
+monotony of the grounds within the broken walls surrounding their
+dwelling.
+
+One day a train of liveried servants on horseback, escorting a splendid
+carriage, stopped on the road near the castle.
+
+Some accident had happened to the springs of the vehicle, and the two
+passengers inside were forced to take refuge in the house of Ethelinda's
+father.
+
+Count Constant himself, dressed in a faded court costume, but looking
+handsome and stately, came forth to receive his unexpected guests. He
+aided first a tall thin girl to descend from the broken carriage, and
+then, an elderly dame, richly dressed, who, throwing back her veil,
+revealed to him the face of his greatest enemy--the vindictive Duchess
+Amoretta. This person, whom he had not seen for years, had once been in
+love with Count Constant, and it was because he preferred to her the
+young lady who afterward became his wife, that the Duchess had poisoned
+the mind of his sovereign against him. To her he owed his banishment
+from court, and the loss of his estates. During his wife's lifetime he
+had heard nothing of the Duchess, and now to have to give her the
+shelter of his roof was a terrible ordeal.
+
+The Duchess, however, was very kind and considerate in her manner to
+him. She made many apologies for the accident which had brought her
+there, and introduced to him her only child, the Lady Finella, who was,
+truth to tell, the most ill-tempered, pert minx ever seen, and a
+complete contrast to lovely Ethelinda.
+
+During supper, which the poor Count's servants tried to make presentable
+with a few eggs cooked in an omelette, a bottle of good wine, and a dish
+of stewed pigeons, the Duchess Amoretta was pleased with everything. She
+praised the cookery, she praised the tattered tapestries on the wall,
+she praised the Count's youthful looks, and she praised Ethelinda, till
+that modest maiden was quite overwhelmed.
+
+When the two young ladies had retired (Ethelinda giving up her own
+little tower bedroom to her visitor, and creeping off somewhere to lie
+on a threadbare couch), the Duchess became confidential. She implored
+the Count to believe that enemies had come between them. She said that
+slanderers had arisen to tell him the wicked stories he had heard. She
+told him that her one desire was to see him restored to rank and
+fortune. And at last she drew from her pocket a paper signed by the
+King, in which the Count Constant was promised a free pardon on
+condition of his immediate marriage with the Duchess Amoretta.
+
+The wily Duchess had planned the whole affair to get possession of her
+old lover again, and at first the Count, seeing himself caught in a trap
+as it were, was very angry.
+
+Then the Duchess told him to think of his lovely young daughter, wasting
+her youth in this desolate spot. She promised to Ethelinda a life of
+happiness and prosperity. She worked upon the poor father with such
+artful words and lying promises, that, at last, Count Constant signed
+the contract, engaging to follow her in a few days to the capital, and
+there to give her his hand in marriage.
+
+Ethelinda watched the fine chariot roll away with their unwelcome
+guests, next morning, and when it was out of sight, turned and threw
+herself upon her father's neck and kissed him fondly.
+
+"How glad I am to get rid of them, papa!" she cried. "The daughter was
+so spoilt and haughty, and the mother was even worse; somehow I could
+only shudder when she kissed me, in spite of the beautiful bracelet she
+put upon my arm on taking leave."
+
+"The Duchess means to be your best friend, my dear," her father said
+gravely, and went off to his study with a care-worn face. In a few days,
+he set out upon his journey to the capital, giving Ethelinda no idea of
+what he meant to do there.
+
+Winter had set in, and a great snow fell. All the country-side was
+covered with a mantle of purest white. Ethelinda loved the frost and
+snow, and every day she put on her little brown hood and cloak with the
+scarlet lining, and set out for a walk in the forest, carrying a bagful
+of crumbs, which she would scatter for her favorite little birds. One
+day, while thus employed, she met an old woodman gathering sticks.
+
+"Good-morning, daddy," said the girl in a pleasant tone.
+
+"It's not a good morning with me, girl," the old man answered, crossly.
+"I'm frozen and starving too, thanks to this accursed snow."
+
+"Don't speak ill of my dear snow," said Ethelinda, helping him to make
+his fagot. "Isn't it keeping the ground warm, and sheltering our roots
+and seeds for the spring-time? Come to the castle, if you will, and you
+shall have hot soup and a corner of the kitchen-fire. But you won't be
+allowed to abuse the beautiful work of the frost, in my hearing, that
+I'll promise you."
+
+"Bravely said, fair maiden!" the old man exclaimed, dropping his bundle
+of sticks, and vanishing behind a screen of closely woven fir-trees. A
+moment later Ethelinda saw a sleigh containing a solitary traveller,
+drawn by a fleet black horse, dash by her like the wind. The sleigh was
+shaped like a silver swan and the bridle of the horse glittered with
+gems. The traveller appeared to be a tall and stately youth, with long
+fair locks and glowing cheeks. He was half hidden behind robes of snowy
+down, and as he shot swiftly by, leaving in his wake a breath of icy
+wind, Ethelinda fancied she heard him say, "We will meet again, dear
+lady, we will meet again!"
+
+When, wondering over this incident, she reached the castle, it was to
+find there a letter from her father, commanding her immediate attendance
+at court, and announcing to her his marriage, which had already taken
+place.
+
+Poor Ethelinda, full of astonishment, and fearing she knew not what,
+bade farewell to her dear home and journeyed to the castle of the
+Duchess Amoretta. Here she was received with tenderness by her father,
+who commended her in loving accents to the care of her new mother.
+Ethelinda could not help shuddering more than before when the dreadful,
+painted old Duchess stooped down to kiss her. She dared not look her
+father in the face, but it was easy to see that he was more unhappy in
+his new splendor than ever he had been in exile and in poverty.
+Ethelinda sighed deeply, and, looking around, encountered the snaky eyes
+of her new step-sister, fixed on her with wicked triumph.
+
+And now, how changed was Ethelinda's life. Little by little, her
+father's companionship was withdrawn from her; his time was spent away
+from home, and soon, a war breaking out, Count Constant made haste to
+draw his sword in his king's service. A great battle ensued, and one of
+the first to fall, while gallantly fighting, was Ethelinda's father. He
+murmured a blessing on his child, and saying he was glad to go, died
+upon the battle-field, in the arms of his attendant.
+
+The Duchess Amoretta, who by this time was heartily tired of having
+Ethelinda on her hands, now treated the poor girl with positive cruelty.
+A few months after the Count's death, she made up her mind to marry
+again, and in order to rid herself of her troublesome step-daughter,
+consulted with her own child, who was skilled in all sorts of wicked
+devices.
+
+They built a summer-house extending over the river, and made in the
+floor of it a trap-door covered with moss and flowers, while beautiful
+vines grew around the pillars, and a fountain played in the centre. Into
+this pretty spot they invited Ethelinda to wander when ever she wished
+to be alone.
+
+One day the poor girl went inside the summer-house, and began to weep
+for her father. Suddenly, a hand was extended by some one concealed
+behind the trellis-work of vines, and she was rudely pushed, so that
+she fell with all her weight upon the concealed trap-door, and instantly
+plunged into the rushing river below. One cry she uttered, and then to
+her astonishment, although it was the morning of a balmy summer's day,
+an icy breath blew over her, and above the surface of the river there
+arose a bridge of glittering ice, which she was enabled to cross in
+safety to the bank.
+
+Making her way back to the house of her step-mother, Ethelinda was
+received with anger and astonishment. How she could have escaped,
+neither of her enemies could imagine. Ethelinda told nobody of the
+wonderful ice-bridge, which at the moment of her setting foot on shore
+had vanished like frost before the sun. A few days after, she desired to
+take her usual bath in the marble bath-room assigned to her use. No
+sooner had she entered the door than two strong women flew out from
+behind a curtain, and, seizing her by the shoulders, thrust her into a
+tank of boiling water they had prepared for the unfortunate girl.
+
+Ethelinda saw that she was about to die a terrible death, and gave
+herself up for lost, when suddenly the icy wind she had twice felt
+before, blew over her. As the two furies plunged her into the tank, and
+rushed away, leaving her to her fate, she felt, instead of the scalding
+heat she expected, the delicious warmth of a tepid bath close round her
+limbs.
+
+Again was she saved from evil by some unseen power; but now she knew
+what a terrible enemy was in pursuit of her, and determined to fly from
+the castle that very night. She hid in a little closet on the staircase,
+and, when night came, glided past the sleepy servants on guard, and
+escaped through the great gate into the open country.
+
+Swift as her feet could carry her, Ethelinda fled. Out of the city, into
+the deep woods, under the cold glitter of the watching stars, the poor
+girl ran, every moment fancying that she heard the messengers of the
+cruel Duchess behind her. At last she fell down exhausted, saying to
+herself, "Better to die here from cold and starvation, than to be foully
+murdered by that wicked woman." She lay for a moment resting upon a bank
+of soft moss, and felt a sudden blast of icy wind.
+
+Then was heard the cracking of a whip, and out of the woods came a
+sleigh driven by a solitary traveller.
+
+Ethelinda had a vague idea that she had seen him once before, but
+fainted away, and knew nothing more until she awoke to find herself in
+the sleigh, gliding swiftly along, wrapped in warmest robes of snowy
+fur.
+
+"Save me, save me from the Duchess!" she murmured in a terrified voice.
+
+"Sleep, poor child, you are safe now," a kind voice sounded in her ear.
+"Are you warm? Are you comfortable?"
+
+"Very warm, very comfortable," Ethelinda answered, a strange drowsiness
+coming over her.
+
+She slept again, and the black horse harnessed to the sleigh bounded
+forward like the wind. And now they passed through vast forests of pine
+and fir, into the regions of perpetual snow. For Ethelinda's guide was
+the young monarch of the frozen zone, and ruler of all ice and frost.
+Long had he loved the young girl secretly, and long had he vowed to make
+her his bride.
+
+They stopped once, and now the sleigh was drawn by a span of magnificent
+reindeer, pure white, with collars of jewels, having their great antlers
+tipped with sparkling gems. Over snowy mountain peaks they glided, past
+chains of icebergs, with many a frozen sea shining far below like a
+sapphire. It was piercingly cold, and yet Ethelinda did not suffer. The
+only thing she could not control was her power of speech. Not a word
+could she utter, and the stranger, too, spoke no more, but smiled on her
+kindly, from time to time, as he drove ahead.
+
+At last they reached a superb palace, built of ice, the roof fringed
+with icicles. An arch of many-colored lights spanned the roof, and from
+every door and window streamed forth a brilliant illumination.
+
+"Welcome home!" said the stranger. "This is my palace, and you shall be
+my queen, fair maiden; for I am the King of the North Pole, and never,
+till now, have I seen one worthy to share my throne."
+
+A train of milk-white bears with golden chains around their necks came
+out to receive the king and Ethelinda. They entered the palace, which
+blazed with splendid jewels on roof and walls. The throne was made of a
+single opal, and the queen's crown, which was immediately placed on
+Ethelinda's head, was composed of a circlet of diamonds, each one as
+large as a robin's egg.
+
+The marriage took place at once; and Ethelinda's husband proved so kind
+and loving, that she soon forgot her early sorrows, and became as happy
+as all queens are supposed to be. Her fame spread into many countries;
+and after a time, some celebrated traveller, who visited her court, went
+back to the city where Ethelinda's wicked step-mother still lived and
+flourished, and gave the Duchess a message from the beautiful Queen of
+the North Pole.
+
+"Tell her that I forgive her all her unkindness to me," Ethelinda had
+charged him to say, "since it was the means of securing to me my present
+joy, and the love of my dearest husband."
+
+Ethelinda even sent gifts to her step-mother and sister; to each a
+jewelled necklace of immense value, and a robe woven from the down of
+the King's own eider-ducks, which only sovereigns might wear. The
+Duchess and Finella eagerly seized the presents, but they almost died of
+spite to hear of Ethelinda's good luck. Night and day they wondered how
+they, too, might have similar fortune; and at length the Duchess
+determined to dress her daughter in coarse clothes like those Ethelinda
+had worn when found by the King of the North Pole, and to make her sally
+forth to the border of the forest.
+
+Snow was falling fast when the young woman reached the wood. She was
+dreadfully cold, and began complaining and quarrelling, as usual. She
+did not hear the approach of a sleigh until it was close beside her.
+There sat a handsome youth, driving a fleet coal-black steed. He
+politely invited her to take a drive, and, with many groans over her
+stiff limbs, she got in. They flew over the ground, and for not a single
+minute did Finella cease finding fault with everything. She abused her
+mother for exposing her to this dreadful cold, and vowed she should have
+rheumatism and lumbago and pleurisy and influenza, all together, next
+day. Her feet had chilblains already, and her hands were so chapped they
+would never be fit to be seen. In this agreeable strain, she went on
+till her companion, growing impatient of her whining tones, blew a
+sudden breath upon her--when, behold! all the girl's conversation was
+frozen on her tongue, a few cross words, like icicles, clinging to the
+tip of it!
+
+When they stopped at the palace door, the King of the North Pole (for he
+it was who had picked up Ethelinda's step-sister), instead of having her
+conducted in state to her apartments by a train of snow-white bears with
+golden chains about their necks, gave the cross girl in charge to an old
+brown bear of a housekeeper, with instructions to keep her locked up
+until the Queen should choose to set her free.
+
+Ethelinda's kind heart softened toward her step-sister; and, begging the
+King to forgive her, the Queen hastened to set the prisoner at liberty.
+Finella, dressed in the Queen's own robes, was taken into the royal
+nurseries to see two splendid rosy babies, rolling upon soft furs, and
+romping with a gentle little bear-cub, who was their playmate.
+
+[Illustration: _The princes & their playmate._]
+
+When the step-sister saw these treasures, she conceived a wicked scheme
+of punishing Ethelinda through her love for them. So, pretending to
+repent of her past follies and unkindness, Finella was allowed by the
+King and Queen to live in comfort in their home.
+
+On the night of some festivity (I believe it was a special illumination
+by the Northern Lights), the King and Queen went off sleighing in style,
+through their dominions, leaving the babies in charge of their deceitful
+step-aunt, who always kissed them and caressed them, before folks, as
+though she loved them fondly.
+
+As soon as the parents had disappeared, Finella ordered another sleigh
+to be harnessed, and taking the babies in her arms set forth. She
+attempted to guide the reindeer, but, in an instant, the great creatures
+were off like the wind, and soared up into the air, as the King himself
+had trained them to do. And now, how terrified was the wicked Finella!
+She knew no words with which to stop her fiery steeds, and presently
+sank, breathless and giddy, into the bottom of the sleigh. Higher,
+faster they went; the babies, like true sons of the frozen North,
+crowing with delight in the piercing atmosphere.
+
+The sleigh stopped upon an iceberg, and there in the centre of the
+glittering blue pyramid sat the imprisoned older brother of the King of
+the North Pole. This wretch had been sentenced to be shut up there,
+because he had tried to kill his father, the late King. All of his body
+was changed to ice, excepting his heart, which burnt like fire. The
+reindeer Finella had taken were those accustomed to be driven by the
+King whenever he went to visit his wicked brother, whose eyes sparkled
+as he saw the little princes within his power. At last, he thought, he
+had a chance to be even with his enemies. He gnashed his teeth, shook
+his chains, and stretched out his long arms, inviting the travellers to
+come into his castle.
+
+"I have golden apples and many pretty things for boys in here," he said
+deceitfully; but just as Finella, seeing her opportunity, was pushing
+the children out of the sleigh into the grasp of their cruel uncle, the
+reindeer set up a peculiar cry which could be heard half round the
+globe.
+
+Instantly a chill wind blew, and riding on the wings of a mighty
+sea-gull came the King of the North Pole. Fire flashed from his angry
+eyes, and his face was so terrible that the wicked sister and brother
+cowered and cringed before it. Snatching his babies in his arms, he
+replaced them unharmed in the sleigh. For a moment, he seemed about to
+crush both culprits to fragments in his wrath; but, relenting, he
+pronounced their sentence--and Finella was condemned to be the bride of
+the imprisoned brother. "Your fate is just," said the King of the North
+Pole, to the wretch within the iceberg; "I could not, if I tried, think
+of any worse punishment than to give you a complaining woman to share
+your exile."
+
+And so Ethelinda was rid of her false step-sister, and from that day
+forth nothing occurred to disturb the serenity of the King's household.
+
+As for the old Duchess (whose daughter had got a bridegroom she had not
+reckoned on in the northern country), she, like her hopeful child, lived
+and scolded forever and a day.
+
+
+
+
+DEEP-SEA VIOLETS.
+
+[Illustration: Emma Carried Off by the Sea-King.]
+
+
+In a modest hut upon the sea-shore, half-hidden from sight by an
+enormous bank of drifted sand, lived a fisherman and his wife, with
+their twin-children, John and Emma. Theirs was a hard life, and full of
+privations; but the husband and wife loved each other tenderly and did
+everything they could to provide for the little ones, who grew up, spite
+of their poverty, tall and beautiful, and happy as the day was long.
+Emma and John had a thousand pleasures that town-bred children covet.
+They chased each other continually up and down the sandy beach, hard as
+marble and glittering like silver in the beautiful patterns traced on it
+by the tide. They ran barefoot into the surf, defying the mad onslaught
+of the merry breakers, and dived fearlessly beneath the crested arch of
+green waters to seize a bit of floating seaweed. They discovered
+endless treasures in the rock-pools along the beach, and built with them
+pretty grottoes, and mysterious caves, that none but themselves knew
+where to find. Often their father would take them out in the
+fishing-boat; for John had learned to manage the sail and the nets
+almost as well as the fisherman himself. The two children thought it was
+grand to feel the little boat answer to the wind, as a horse answers to
+voice or whip. They liked to bound forward across the great green
+billows, and to see the spray dash over them like a shower of jewels.
+They would help their father to set his nets or lines, and wait
+patiently till it was time to haul in the big shining fish that
+sometimes lined the bottom of the boat, whiling away the hours by
+munching bits of brown bread that served for lunch, and by telling each
+other fanciful stories of the sea.
+
+The ocean did not always smile upon them, for there were days of heavy
+fog, of raw east wind, when the beautiful water ceased to sparkle, while
+the surf boomed as if in warning of danger or sorrow to come. Then the
+children would run inside the cottage, and pile on drift-wood till the
+fire burnt cheerily. This was their time for taking down from the
+mantel-shelf their stores of shells, corals, and other sea-wonders.
+John and Emma had polished these shells until they shone beautifully,
+and some tiny disks of orange and gold were strung in long garlands, to
+loop around the brown walls and above the little looking-glass. Their
+mother kept the inside of the cottage as neat as a ship's cabin, which,
+in truth, it much resembled, the children's beds being nothing more than
+broad shelves in a cupboard, with doors to close by day; while every
+corner of the tidy place was made to do duty for some household
+implement, tucked away in the oddest fashion, until it should be needed.
+
+So the days passed on until the twins were about sixteen years old, John
+a fine manly fellow, looking much older, and Emma a slender slip of a
+girl, with floating locks of purest gold, and a voice in singing like a
+carol of birds in a Maybush. Oftentimes when her father was steering his
+boat homeward, after a day of toil, he would hear the piercing strain of
+Emma's song come floating over the water from the rock where she stood
+against the western sky, awaiting him. And he rightly thought this the
+sweetest sound he was likely to hear before the angels should sing for
+him in Paradise!
+
+One day the fisherman did not come home. A storm arose, and all that
+evening the wind howled madly above the beating of the angry surf. The
+sky was pitch-black, and the wife and children walked the shore in
+silent fear. When darkness fell, they lighted a huge bonfire upon the
+rocks, and John, begging his mother and Emma to go home to rest, stayed
+feeding the flames with drift-wood, till morning broke over the sullen
+waste of waters. Still no sign of his father, and at midday the familiar
+boat drifted ashore, bottom upward. Then great sorrow darkened this
+happy little home; and nevermore the sea gave up her dead.
+
+[Illustration: Emma Singing on the Rocks.]
+
+The fisherman's wife did not long survive him--dying, she told her
+children, because she could not live without her beloved husband. John
+followed his father's calling, and Emma kept the house, as her mother
+had done. She was very sad and solitary in the changed life, but people
+who work hard have not much time to give way to grief. The busy maiden
+toiled all day over her duties in-doors, and when evening came, would go
+out on the rocks to await John's return. The greatest pleasure she now
+had was in singing. Her voice grew strong and firm, and every day at
+sunset it might be heard, in waves of melody, mingling with the sound of
+the breakers on the shore.
+
+One day, when John was later than usual in returning to his supper,
+Emma wandered along the sands. It was a beautiful summer evening, the
+sky painted with radiant colors, the sea reflecting them. Here and there
+a sail dotted the horizon, but the shore was completely deserted. The
+girl saw before her a rock-pool filled with sea-anemones and star-fish;
+and, sitting down on the edge of it to study the lovely creatures, she
+began, as usual, to sing, without knowing that she did so.
+
+Suddenly, over the water came rolling toward her a wonderful chariot
+formed of a single conch-shell all rainbow-hued within. It was drawn by
+two dolphins, and the driver was a handsome young man, whose long
+floating locks were of a changeable green color, tipped with curling
+white. Before Emma could recover from her astonishment, the youth spoke
+to her gently, thanking her for the song that had wooed him from his
+home beneath the sea.
+
+"I am the king of a wonderful country down there," he said, "and if you
+will but sing for me once more, I shall give you gems and flowers from
+my own garden, such as never an earth-born maiden owned."
+
+Dipping one hand carelessly over the chariot's edge, the king brought up
+a string of rare carved coral with a jewelled clasp, and, smiling at
+Emma's wonder, dipped his hand a second time, when out came a garland of
+exquisite flowers. Sea-lilies, sea-roses, sea-narcissus, sea-violets
+there were, larger and more beautiful than any upon land, and all
+glittering with the ocean brine. Emma stretched out both hands for the
+pretty things, while a song of joy burst from her lips.
+
+"May I crown your brow with my garland?" said the king. "For truly, I
+have heard no voice to equal yours."
+
+"Thanks--thanks," cried the innocent girl, her eyes sparkling with
+delight. She leant forward to receive the chain which the king threw
+around her neck, at the same time laying the garland on her hair. At
+once, Emma fell into a deep sleep, and the crafty sea-king, with a look
+of triumph, lifted her into the seat at his side and urged forward his
+chafing steeds; the chariot flew like a stormy petrel across the sea,
+disappearing beneath the arch of a gigantic wave!
+
+John sought in vain for his cherished sister. The only trace of her, he
+and the neighbors who helped him in the search, could find, was a little
+gold cross, once her mother's, that Emma always wore. This lay in a
+crevice of the rock, whence the sea-king had carried her away. The
+neighbors believed her dead, but something within John convinced him
+that he should see her yet again. Long and dreary were the winter months
+without her. John forever wondered about Emma's disappearance; and, when
+summer came once more, it was to find the youth still possessed of a
+longing desire to go somewhere in search of her.
+
+Sad and solitary, John was sailing his little fishing-smack along the
+coast one day, intending to go out to the usual fishing-ground, when,
+tempted by a creek he noticed now, as if for the first time, a fancy
+took him to follow up the windings of this silver inlet from the sea,
+running between banks as green as emerald. Looking into the water, as a
+light breeze carried him along, John saw a bed of weed and kelp starred
+with shells, where crabs of an unusual size passed in and out of a
+circular opening. Determined to fill a basket with these desirable
+dainties, which would fetch a high price in market, John fished for them
+so skilfully as to haul up a hand-net brimful, at the first attempt.
+These were no common crabs he discovered, one of them in particular,
+having its flippers set with rings of beaten gold, and a gold chain
+around its body bearing a golden key.
+
+"My good sir," said the crab, speaking in a plaintive voice, "you
+probably don't know that I am the keeper of the sea-king's summer
+grotto, and these are my attendants. Only to-day, his majesty sent us
+word to have all in readiness for a visit from him and his
+bride-betrothed. We are in the greatest possible hurry, and if it is
+quite the same to you, would take it as a friendly favor, if you will
+let us go without delay."
+
+"My good Mr. Crab," said John, laughing, "I should like to oblige such
+an important person, but really my circumstances are almost as
+particular as yours. I am in the greatest possible need of funds, and
+the price you and your friends would fetch at the present market rates
+is most desirable to me."
+
+"Oh! if it is only gold and silver," said the crab, disdainfully, "you
+should see his majesty's dominions. Our streets are paved with it."
+
+John became interested at this, and entered into a long conversation
+with the crab, who was a gossipy old soul and told him of so many
+wonders of the sea-king's kingdom that the lad could scarcely contain
+his astonishment.
+
+What startled him more than all, was to hear of a sweet singing maiden,
+from the upper world, his majesty had kept for a year past imprisoned
+in a crystal cavern! His heart beat fast with excitement, as the crab
+described Emma so exactly that it was impossible to mistake her.
+
+"Until the present time," the crab went on, with importance, "his
+majesty has not told the earth-maiden of his intention to make her his
+bride. By the laws of our kingdom, no one of us can marry a mortal,
+until she has lived for a year contentedly below, without uttering the
+name of any friend she knew in her former estate. But the year is up
+to-day, and they are to make a grand tour of his majesty's possessions.
+I should not wonder if the wedding were to take place in our grotto, for
+that is the king's favorite palace, although only one of the many he
+calls his own."
+
+"One thing is false! Emma will never marry him, if she is to do it by
+forgetting those who loved her so tenderly," broke in John, furiously.
+
+"You are very rough, my dear friend," said the crab, fanning himself
+with his flipper. "I think you forget you are addressing a courtier.
+What I tell you about the Lady Emma is undoubtedly true, since I have it
+from my cousin the clam. He is a close-mouthed creature, little likely
+to spread a false report. Lady Emma is happy as a queen in swansdown.
+Once a day she sings, and then his majesty always presents her with a
+bunch of fresh sea-violets, her favorite flowers. Under the
+circumstances, it is hardly possible she would keep up any of the
+foolish fancies for earth-born folk she may have brought there."
+
+John pondered awhile, and finally promised the crab, who was growing
+very impatient, to release that functionary and his companions, if they
+would permit him to visit the wonders of the sea-king's grotto. The
+crab, since he could not well help himself, said yes, and instructed
+John how to dive into the round green hole, so like the nest of some
+strange fish, he saw at the bottom of the stream.
+
+John made fast his boat, and sprang overboard, having first emptied the
+net full of captives, who went scuttling to the bottom in very
+undignified haste. So sure was his aim, that he reached without
+difficulty the passage-way indicated, which widened from its mouth into
+a funnel-shaped cavern, lined with seaweed and ferns of the rarest
+varieties. Following the crab procession, John swam along a crystal
+streamlet, reaching at length a second opening, larger than the first.
+Within this was a door formed of a single sapphire. The crab put his
+golden key into the key-hole, and admitted John into a large and
+brilliant grotto, the sides lined with the iridescent scales of fish.
+The roof was encrusted with jewels, through which streamed many colored
+lights, and clusters of phosphorescent flame gleamed at intervals
+between pillars of glittering spar. Beneath an arch of blooming
+sea-flowers, stood a throne made of snowy coral branches, and cushioned
+with velvet moss. At its foot was a pillow of blue violets, another one
+hanging at the back. A tiny stream of clear water ran down the cavern's
+side, and shot up in a fountain in the centre. John's eyes blinked with
+pleasure when he came into the pretty place, but the sound of
+approaching music made the crab hurry him into hiding, with the order on
+no account to risk showing himself in the presence of the king, who
+would instantly have him hugged to death by a giant devil-fish. John
+kept quiet, you may be sure. The crabs formed into double rows, bowing
+and scraping, in token of their deep reverence for the king (they had
+been selected to be courtiers in consequence of their facility in
+walking backward), and the sight almost made John laugh aloud; but he
+was soon reduced to silence, not only by the imposing entry of the
+monarch of the seas, but because, in the bride-betrothed, he saw indeed
+his own dear Emma.
+
+Emma was greatly changed in appearance. She now wore a splendid robe of
+some clinging white stuff, worked with little coral branches and sprays
+of silver seaweed around the hem, and her neck, arms, and hair were
+wreathed with row upon row of priceless pearls. She was pale, but more
+beautiful than ever, and on her breast John saw a knot of big blue
+violets. Emma was seated at the king's right hand, and lovely sea-nymphs
+danced before her, to the music of unseen orchestras. Then his majesty
+asked Emma to sing, pledging her health in a shell full of wine, that
+shone and sparkled beautifully. Emma made no resistance, doing all that
+she was bid, like a person walking in her sleep. Her eyes had a far-away
+look and her voice, in singing, so unearthly a thrill, that John's
+affectionate heart ached to seize her in his arms and tear her from the
+spot. When Emma had finished singing, she appeared to be fatigued, and
+two sea-nymphs bore her to a couch of pearl, laid her on purple
+cushions, and combed her long hair with a golden comb, while other
+sea-maidens interlaced their white arms above the girl's head, soothing
+her to sleep.
+
+"Let her sleep here till this day week," said his majesty. "Then I will
+summon my subjects and relations to the wedding. All of you present
+withdraw, now, and on no account disturb her slumber."
+
+When the coast was clear, John seized his opportunity, and stealing
+forth, knelt beside his sleeping sister, and whispered in her ear. Emma
+moved, her eyes opened slowly, and uttering a deep sigh, she looked her
+brother full in the face. But alas! she did not recognize him. In
+despair, John seized her hand, and tried to urge her to fly with him. He
+reminded her of her home, of their happy childhood, of their dead
+parents, of everything that could touch the heart. All in vain! Emma
+smiled sweetly, and stroked his head as, shedding bitter tears of
+disappointment, he bent it upon her knees; but she knew him not.
+
+"Leave me in peace," she said, "I am the sea-king's bride-betrothed, and
+you are but a poor fisher's lad. What you say to me of earth and home I
+do not understand. This is my home, and if the king should find you
+here, he would take your head off. If you love me as you say, please
+go."
+
+Emma lifted to her face the cluster of purple violets, and at once her
+lids drooped; and, sinking back upon her purple cushions, she slept
+again.
+
+In bitter disappointment, John retraced his way along the vestibule of
+the king's grotto and emerged into the inlet where his boat was moored.
+Carefully marking the spot, he returned to it the next night, but no
+trace could he find of the submarine opening. The old crab had taken
+good care to prevent another visit from a marauder, who might cost him
+his life. John felt ready to abandon all hopes, when, leaning over the
+edge of the boat, and dragging the water through habit, he felt a
+violent struggling and fluttering within the net. Hauling it quickly in,
+a swarm of silver-bright little fishes, each one wearing a pretty
+maiden's head, escaped from the meshes, leaving behind but a single
+token, and that John found to be a tiny golden harp. He drew his fingers
+across the strings, and the sweet sound it gave out was echoed by a sob
+from beneath a rock ledge close at hand.
+
+"Who is there?" cried John.
+
+"It is I--chief of the sea-king's minstrels," said a voice. "This
+evening, I and my band were amusing ourselves by the light of the moon,
+when your cruel net almost frightened us to death. Oh! what shall I do?
+It's nearly time for the king's visit to his bride-betrothed in the
+grotto; and if you will not restore to me my harp, I shall be
+behind-hand, and in disgrace. Oh! if you only knew how strict the leader
+of the court orchestra is!"
+
+"Will you take me into the grotto, if I give the harp to you?" said
+John, firmly.
+
+"Oh! I dare not," cried the little mermaid, shivering. "Only yesterday,
+his majesty found out that some rude outsider had found his way into the
+grotto, and he has placed on either side of the entrance a double-headed
+shark. For you to attempt to pass them would be certain death! Pray,
+pray ask something easier; for every moment is precious to me, now."
+
+"Then tell me what has caused Emma to forget all her life on earth?"
+
+"That I can do, right easily," said the mermaid, coquettishly; "for I
+have a sister in the band of especial hand-maidens set apart by the king
+to wait on the bride-betrothed. The fresh violets sent every day to Lady
+Emma by his majesty, have the power to make her forgetful, and
+indifferent to all save her present surroundings."
+
+"I knew she had not really grown cold," cried John, in a burst of
+gratitude. "Here is your harp, pretty one, but answer me one question
+more. How can I find the entrance to the grotto?"
+
+The little mermaid stood on tip-tail to receive her harp, and, as she
+once more clasped it in her arms, whispered, in a frightened tone:
+"When the moon is at the full, its rays strike a white cliff over
+against yonder dark coast-line. Steer your boat evenly along the path
+traced by those rays upon the water, and you may see the wedding
+procession go in at the state entrance. But, of all things, take care
+not to let yourself be perceived, for on this occasion all the monsters
+of the deep will be on guard, and your life would not be worth a broken
+clam-shell."
+
+John bade the mermaid good-by, and from that moment all his thoughts
+turned upon how he might obtain admission to the wedding festival. He
+cast his nets diligently, but with no success. All the fishes seemed to
+have deserted their usual haunts; and no wonder, for the entire
+population of the sea was in a state of preparation for the great event.
+
+At last the night of the full moon came, and you may be sure John was
+abroad and watchful, as he cast his nets in feverish anxiety. A sudden
+pull made him haul in rapidly, and this time he was rewarded by a catch
+that cost him the most tremendous struggle. What was his surprise to
+drag into the boat a huge fish, six feet long, with a tall fin nearly
+the length of its body. The most curious part of it was that the tips
+of this fin, and also a patch on the creature's head, shone with
+imprisoned fire. Along the sides of the body were a double row of
+luminous spots. The fish made no further fight, and John gazed at him in
+admiration.
+
+"In the name of wonder, what have we here?" he said.
+
+"My good sir," answered the fiery fish, "if you had the least idea of
+the nature of my business, I am sure you would not interrupt me for a
+moment. I am one of his majesty's torch-bearers, and the procession is
+already forming to go to the grotto of the bride-betrothed."
+
+"Hurrah!" said John. "If you will manage to take me with you, I will let
+you go, but not else."
+
+In vain the torch-bearer protested and begged. John was inexorable. In
+the end, the torch-bearer demanded time for reflection, and at last
+spoke as follows:
+
+"I and four of my brothers lead the way, and by going with me you would
+certainly be seen and punished. But at the very tail-end of the
+procession, my old father and mother will jog along, accompanied by a
+swarm of their younger grandchildren. These pretty little creatures, as
+you may not know, are called Bombay ducks, and their whole bodies glow
+with light. They are very good-natured, and if we can but win over the
+other family who help to light the court festivals, the Chiasmodos, I
+believe we might smuggle you in unobserved between the old people."
+
+"Who are the Chiasmodos?" asked John.
+
+"They are a tribe of deep-sea light-givers," said the torch-bearer, "who
+consist entirely of a mouth and a stomach. The latter organ swells to an
+enormous size, and floats beneath like a transparent balloon, while
+above their great, wide-grinning mouth is worn a crown of light. They
+are rather snappishly inclined, these Chiasmodos, and may give us
+trouble; but we must run the risk, if you insist. So, come along, young
+man, there's no time to waste in talking."
+
+John did not hesitate, but overboard he went, swimming after the
+released torch-bearer, who proved a friendly fellow after all. It was a
+beautiful summer's night, and the moon shed a path of radiant light upon
+the ocean, lying calm and serene beneath her spell. John and the
+torch-bearer swam along a track of liquid silver, and opposite the white
+cliff they saw a marvellous array.
+
+The procession was formed, and about to take up its line of march. The
+drum-fishes were already beating a roll-call; the fiddler crabs fiddled
+wildly; while the sea-lions roared and rumbled, the whales blew their
+trumpets, the porpoise puffed, and the electric eel, who was the court
+jester, wriggled along the line, playing foolish tricks and giving
+unexpected shocks to those who did not pay attention. Such a multitude!
+To describe them all would fill many pages of this book; and besides,
+you would never be able to remember the hard names. The pilot-fish
+cruised around in front, the torch-bearers came next, then the mermaid
+musicians, and a host of sea politicians with banners, preceding the
+whales who sailed majestically ahead of the king's chariot of pearl,
+drawn by twelve milk-white dolphins with jewelled harness.
+
+After them, every conceivable kind of fish, in regular order, according
+to their dignity. The octopus party was a sight to make one shudder, but
+they were in a good humor for once, and comparatively beaming. The
+sea-serpent swam alone, considering himself too much of a rarity to
+associate with every-day folk. The sword-fish saluted, and the skates
+tried to smile, but only succeeded in looking more hideous than before,
+very much as if they had pains under their waistcoats. The brilliant
+angel-fishes and the fairy nautilus made the most lovely show it is
+possible to imagine; though it is hardly fair to single out one or two
+for praise, when all did so well. Even the herrings from the public
+schools, and the vulgar little porgies, had clean faces and were allowed
+to tag after the procession. And, last of all, came the cross
+Chiasmodos, fortunately swimming before the old father and mother
+torch-bearers, who, between them, carried John along, and were followed
+by a gleaming myriad of little Bombay ducks, true glow-worms of the sea.
+
+Led by the moon rays to the white cliff on the coast, the procession
+came to a halt; and immediately a pair of hidden doors flew back and
+revealed a long tunnel glittering with lights, which opened directly
+into John's well-remembered grotto.
+
+There, within, stood Emma, decked in bridal lace, worked by ancient
+mermaids thousands of years before, to be worn by the queen at her
+bridal; and on her head was a fragrant crown of violets. She smiled as
+the king approached, and gave him her hand; the wedding at once began.
+John, hidden behind a projecting crag, saw, with despair in his heart,
+the ceremony go on.
+
+The entire walls were lined with ranks of octopi and sharks on guard. To
+defy them would be death to Emma and himself. He leaned further forward
+than he intended, and was seen by one of the Chiasmodos, who, flashing
+her lantern in his face, at once informed on him to her neighbor.
+Immediately a new monster swam toward John. This was another of the
+deep-sea torch-bearers, the Chanliodus, appointed to act as chief sentry
+to the cave. A more ferocious countenance cannot be imagined than was
+his. The wide mouth bristled with sharp fangs, and his fins were tipped
+with flame, while all along his sides extended a row of spots like
+little windows in a ship, through which light was shining.
+
+John saw that in another moment he would be lost. So long as the bridal
+procession was going on, no one dared to speak; and, beckoning the
+fierce creature to come behind the rock, John met it with an open knife,
+aiming so skilfully as to cut the fish open its entire length. The idea
+now occurred to him to place himself within the body of his dead enemy,
+which he promptly did, and to his joy, could swim out unobserved, and
+take his place at the bride's right hand. Just as Emma was about to say
+"I will," the sentry-fish managed to place in her hand the little gold
+cross that was once her mother's. The queen-elect looked at the cross in
+surprise, and as all had passed so quickly, not even the king understood
+why her head drooped forward, and she seemed about to faint. The
+sentry-fish whispered in her ear:
+
+"It is I--John--your brother; be brave, and find some excuse for putting
+off the wedding, and we may yet be saved."
+
+So long as Emma wore the crown of violets, she was unable entirely to
+break the charm they cast over her. But the little cross was a powerful
+reminder of her life on earth; and while she held it, she appeared to be
+awakening from a trance. Excusing herself to the king on the ground of
+illness, she was supported to her coral couch, and was surrounded by her
+mermaidens. The king ordered the crowd to withdraw, and soon the
+disappointed revellers went away, feeling blue and cross, while his
+majesty himself was in a terrible way, tramping up and down, tearing his
+green locks, and casting himself on his knees beside Emma, imploring her
+to speak to him once more.
+
+In vain! Emma's eyes were now obstinately closed, and her cheeks were
+like marble. The faithful sentry-fish, whose duty it was to patrol the
+grotto, swam up and down before the couch, and every time he passed near
+Emma he whispered, "Be brave. I am here. Soon I will rescue you. Give no
+sign of life."
+
+At last the king took the advice of an old dowager mermaid, and left
+Emma to herself, consenting to go outside the grotto and smoke a seaweed
+cigarette, until his bride should be ready to go on with the interrupted
+wedding.
+
+John spied in the train of mermaidens the little creature whose harp he
+had restored, and very cautiously, for fear of alarming her, he made
+himself known. The pretty mermaid laughed and cried hysterically, when
+she heard his story, and consented to aid him still further by removing
+the crown of violets from Emma's head. Soon there was heard a great
+whispering among the mermaid band, and one of the boldest of them
+ventured to suggest to the dowager lady-in-waiting, that one reason for
+her majesty's continued swoon might be that her hair was plaited too
+tight. The dowager, for a wonder, took the suggestion in good part. She
+ordered the attendants to unpin her majesty's long golden braids, and in
+so doing the fatal crown fell to the ground unnoticed.
+
+The blood rushed into Emma's face; she sighed, and opening her eyes,
+looked about her. There was the band of anxious mermaids, and a solitary
+sentry-fish swimming up and down. In next passing her, he whispered,
+"Order your attendants to withdraw." This was soon done, only the
+friendly little mermaid remaining at Emma's side. John, throwing off his
+disguise, clasped his sister in his arms, and warm tears of human
+happiness rushed from Emma's eyes. Trampling under foot the crown of
+violets, and keeping firm hold of her mother's cross, she begged John to
+bear her back to their own world without delay. Cautiously putting on
+his fish garb, John swam to the door to reconnoitre the situation. He
+found there, on guard, only one of the shark sentries, who had taken so
+much sea-beer, in honor of the king's wedding-day, that John's knife
+made quick work in despatching him.
+
+And now the way seemed open for their flight. The brother and sister
+bade farewell to the friendly mermaid, who pledged herself never to
+reveal the secret of Emma's escape, and started to leave the grotto.
+Suddenly, lashing the sea in his wrath and fury, both of his fierce
+mouths spiked with rows of terrible teeth, came the other double-headed
+shark! John still wore his Chanliodus disguise, and, without a moment's
+hesitation, dashed bravely to meet the foe. Wielding his trusty knife,
+he stabbed the shark again and again through the body, darting aside
+before the monster could get the advantage of him. The shark, wounded
+mortally and mad with rage, darted forward in a final effort, but John
+planted his knife in its open jaws. Uttering a horrid death-shriek, the
+creature lay without motion upon the threshold of the cave.
+
+John lost no time, for the noise of the conflict had already attracted
+to the scene a number of curious loungers; and, as he feared, the king
+himself, attended by his body-guard of monsters, now came in sight.
+Darting swiftly through the waves, with Emma clinging bravely to his
+shoulders, the assumed Chanliodus drove his sharp fin abruptly into the
+middle of a party of squids. These poor fellows were the disappointed
+reporters of a submarine newspaper, going home _without_ an account of
+the wedding for their journals! The suddenness of the attack caused the
+squids promptly to spill the contents of the ink-pots they always carry
+with them, forming a dense black cloud, under cover of which the
+fugitives safely reached the surface of the sea.
+
+The sun was rising, its rosy light lying upon the bright ocean like a
+veil. Now, they knew they were secure, for so long as the sun rules in
+heaven, the sea-king dares not show himself above the waves. John and
+Emma gazed upon the shore, finding themselves but a little distance from
+their boat at anchor, and wept tears of joy and thanksgiving for their
+deliverance from the horrors of the deep. When they had clambered into
+the boat, John begged his sister to cast away the embroideries and the
+ropes of pearl she had brought from the sea-king's dominion. Even as he
+spoke, they saw Emma's finery vanishing like a wisp of burnt paper,
+while her lovely pearls had turned into strings of common pebbles. Of
+all her ornaments only the little golden cross remained, and that shone
+with new lustre. With the full force of his stalwart arm, John cast the
+sea-king's tokens far into the water; and as they sank, both brother and
+sister fancied they saw a huge hand arise to seize them with an angry
+grasp, and heard a growl of baffled rage beneath the waves. Wrapping his
+sister in his fisherman's cloak, John hastened to sail back to the
+humble hut beneath the sand-drift, which had never looked so lovely in
+their eyes.
+
+There they dwelt, loving and serene, until in due time a good husband
+came for Emma, and John took to himself a fair young wife. From that day
+forth, prosperity attended them, and John sailed his own ships across
+the ocean, while Emma lived in a beautiful home near the shore.
+Strangely enough, never again did John succeed in entrapping one of the
+talking creatures of which, as we have clearly seen, there are plenty in
+the sea, if one has luck to find them! And another curious thing is,
+that never again was Emma able to lift her voice in song. The beautiful
+gift which had brought about her strange adventure, and had well-nigh
+proved so fatal to them both, had been lost forever!
+
+
+
+
+THE WILD WOODSMAN.
+
+[Illustration: THE WILD WOODSMAN DISGUISED AS A TRAVELLER.]
+
+
+Once there lived a peasant whose only daughter, Martha, had eyes as blue
+as corn-flowers and long hair like the silk around an ear of corn. All
+the lads of the village were after her, but she cared only for John, a
+young huntsman, who was called by her father an idle vagabond, and sent
+away from his cottage in disdain. Now, the village where they lived was
+at the foot of a high mountain covered with a dense forest, into certain
+portions of which few were found to venture, so wild and lonely they
+were. One day Martha went, unknown to her father and mother, to ramble
+in the forest. She said to some of her friends that she meant to gather
+flowers and pick berries, to sell to a rich lady who lived near them;
+but the truth was, that a week had passed without John having set foot
+in the village, and she was anxious and uneasy, and wished to visit some
+of her lover's favorite haunts, to see if he might be there. It was no
+uncommon thing for John to be absent for several days, while trapping
+and hunting. He could sleep as well on a bank of moss as on his pallet
+at home, and he loved to go to rest under the broad canopy of the sky,
+studded with bright stars, and to be lulled by the music of falling
+waters.
+
+Martha, dressed in her brown cotton frock, with the scarlet handkerchief
+knotted over her fair hair, was seen to go up a rocky pathway on the
+mountain-side, where the firs and larches made a bower overhead; but
+that night she did not come home, and next day, when John came into the
+village with a splendid string of birds he had shot miles away from
+there, in an opposite direction to the one Martha had taken, it was to
+hear the sad news of the poor girl's disappearance.
+
+John's face grew pale and his stout heart grew faint; he thought of what
+all the others were thinking of--the Wild Woodsman, against whose magic
+his gun and staff might avail nothing!
+
+The mountain above was believed to be the haunt of a mysterious being,
+half man, half brute, fierce and cruel, from whose den no living
+creature might ever be rescued. The Wild Woodsman, for so the natives
+called him, took many a shape to trap unwary travellers, and a fair
+young girl like Martha would be a rich prize for him. John had long
+vowed to capture the Wild Woodsman; and now he was filled with a mad
+thirst to seek him at once. Without stopping to hear more, the young man
+rushed off up the steep mountain path, bounding like a chamois from rock
+to rock, as the villagers, awe-struck and tearful, gazed after him and
+crossed themselves in superstitious fear.
+
+Through brake and brier, John darted on; he was soon in the dark
+recesses of the forest, where the undergrowth was like a jungle. His
+fleet foot never tired in the chase, and, erelong, he spied a little red
+handkerchief upon the ground. Recognizing this to be Martha's, he gazed
+about him, and saw, by the token of broken bushes, that the girl had
+been dragged away from that spot up a rocky wall, which it seemed to him
+no foot could scale.
+
+Struggling to keep down his sickening dread, John determined to follow.
+He began to climb the steep rock. His faithful dog, who had kept close
+beside him, suddenly gave a low fierce growl, and the hair on its back
+bristled up in fury. John was already half-way up the cliff, when, on
+looking down, there, just where he had picked up the handkerchief, he
+saw a queer little old fellow, making shoes as quietly as if nothing at
+all had happened.
+
+"Hallo, there!" roared John, for he suspected mischief.
+
+The old man looked up, and John saw that he had a young and rosy face
+with hair as gray as a badger's. The odd creature made signs that he was
+stone deaf, and beckoned John to come down. All this time, the dog was
+growling fearfully, and John took warning from the sign. He levelled his
+gun without more ado, and said:
+
+"Answer, you fellow. Who are you that have cheeks so fair, and an old
+man's locks?"
+
+"I?" said the old man, hopping up with a dreadful grin, "you will know
+me soon enough, sirrah, for I am the devil's grandfather."
+
+He stretched out an arm that grew longer every minute, and his hands
+changed to the claws of a beast. John lost no time, but taking aim fired
+at the Wild Woodsman, for he it was, and none other. Bang! The friendly
+bullet made straight for the creature's heart, and though it did not
+kill him outright, the Wild Woodsman was sorely wounded. He fell over a
+log, groaning pitifully, and prayed John to come to the aid of a poor
+old man. John said, "That I will with another bullet," when the Wild
+Woodsman darted from the spot, and was lost in the thicket.
+
+After him went the dog, after the dog went John. Such a hunt there never
+was! Through spots in the woods where man's foot had never penetrated,
+into bogs, and into serpents' lairs, past the caves where bears were
+lurking; but no animal would touch John, for the Wild Woodsman was their
+deadly enemy.
+
+At last they came to a cleft in a little green hillock. Here was a hut
+covered with moss, and the Wild Woodsman, uttering a frantic yell, fell
+dead upon the threshold. John heard a shriek within the hut, and,
+dashing down the door, saw Martha, lying, bound with ropes made of
+plaited willow, in a corner.
+
+He flew to set her free; but, to his surprise, Martha did not appear to
+know him. She let him take her by the hand and lead her from the fearful
+spot where the inner walls were built of the bones of the Wild
+Woodsman's victims. She looked up into his face and smiled, and John saw
+she had lost her reason. He did not stop to pick up the jewels and gold,
+stolen from murdered travellers, with which the hut was strewn, but made
+all speed to leave behind the horrid place. He lifted Martha in his
+strong arms and carried her down a path along the far side of the
+mountain. A great storm arose, and the earth trembled under his feet;
+but he kept bravely on his way, and looking back saw the cleft in the
+hills widen; then a great gulf opened, fire and smoke burst forth, and
+the hut of the Wild Woodsman was swallowed forever from sight.
+
+John gave a shout of joy, and began singing a hymn in his clear young
+voice. The storm ceased. The clouds parted. Down in the valley below was
+their own peaceful village, and the sound of the evening bells came
+floating up to him. Martha, who had lain in his arms as if asleep,
+stirred, and recognized him. Her strength returned, and she asked to
+walk beside him. Strangely enough, she said nothing of her late
+adventure, then or ever afterward. Not a trace of it remained in her
+memory.
+
+When they reached the village, all the people came out to meet them,
+rejoicing. John told them he had rescued the lost girl, but the true
+history of his chase of the Wild Woodsman he kept to himself. Martha's
+father and mother greeted her with tears of thankfulness; and before
+another year had gone by John and Martha were married in the village
+church. From that day forth, peace reigned upon the mountain-side; but
+when stories of the Wild Woodsman were told to Martha's grandchildren,
+they little knew the share their hale old grandsire had in ridding the
+country-side of such a scourge.
+
+
+
+
+THE FROZEN HEARTH-FAIRY.
+
+
+Once upon a time, there were a poor couple who lived in a little cottage
+overgrown with vines. From roof-tree to cellar, their home was as clean
+as hands could make it, and the table and chairs were scoured every day
+till they were as white as snow. The man went out into the woods to tie
+up fagots, and the woman kept a few bees, and sold the honey. In this
+way they managed to live, and were happy, till a great storm came, and
+swept off the roof of their house; then the lightning set it on fire,
+and it was soon burned to the ground. The man came running from the
+forest, and found his wife crying as if her heart would break, beside
+her bee-hives, which the wind had upset, scattering all their busy
+inmates, and destroying the honey.
+
+"Where shall we sleep to-night?" said the wife.
+
+"Let us search till we find," answered the husband. So they set off and
+wandered into the woods, while the storm raged over them. Long did they
+stray, until night came. At last they saw a ruined hut, left by some
+charcoal-burners, and thankfully entered it. There was dry straw in one
+corner, and here the poor woman laid down, half dead with fright and
+fatigue. Both of them were hungry, and the man putting his hand in his
+pouch was glad to find there a bit of bread, which he was about to give
+to his wife, when a queer little black object sprang down the wall and
+seized the crust, running nimbly off with it.
+
+"Who are you?" cried the poor man.
+
+"I'm a lost hearth-fairy," said the little creature, in a piping voice.
+"If you had made me a fire to warm my poor bones, I should not have
+taken your food."
+
+The hearth-fairy's teeth were chattering, and the man pulled together
+some sticks and straw, and lighted them with his flint and steel. The
+smoke curled up, the flames sparkled merrily. The hearth-fairy slid down
+and warmed himself.
+
+"Hallo there! give me back my crust," said the poor man, whose wife kept
+pulling him by the sleeve, to remind him of her hunger.
+
+"Now that I think of it, I want this crust myself," said the
+hearth-fairy. "I am off on a journey to seek a warm fireside, and I need
+something to strengthen me. But here is a duck instead, only you had
+better not kill her!"
+
+A fine fat duck tumbled at the poor man's feet. The hearth-fairy
+vanished in the smoke. Oh! how the poor couple longed to kill and eat
+that duck. Their mouths watered as they thought of onion-sauce, and of
+breadcrumbs, and of sage. Faint and starving, they fell asleep in a
+corner of the hut. When day broke the poor man rose up, and went to the
+door. The storm had ceased and the duck was quacking on the door-sill.
+She waddled away, and left behind her a large egg of purest gold. Just
+then the lord of the forest rode by with his huntsman. They saw the
+shining prize in the poor man's hand, and offered to buy it of him.
+
+"I will give it for a loaf of brown bread and a sausage," he said, "for
+my wife lies starving, within."
+
+The huntsman gave him food and drink; and the lord of the forest, after
+hearing his story, had the poor couple taken to a nice empty cottage
+near by, and told them they should have it for their own. The golden egg
+was sold, and the man and his wife lived in comfort all their days from
+the money it fetched. They never saw either the hearth-fairy or the
+magic duck again, but the good wife soon went to bee-keeping, which made
+her very happy.
+
+
+
+
+ROSY'S STAY-AT-HOME PARTIES.
+
+
+"Oh! dear, oh! dear," sighed Rosy, "I'm the most unhappy little girl in
+all the world."
+
+She was kneeling in a chair, gazing through the drawing-room window. In
+the street outside was drawn up a carriage, into which Nurse was packing
+all of Rosy's brothers and sisters. Clover was there, a boy of twelve,
+looking rather disgusted with his surroundings, and having his head
+nearly cut off by his first upright collar. Violet, Rosy's twin sister,
+was there, dressed in the sweetest new pale blue camel's-hair, and
+taking great care to turn the skirt of it up over her shoulders as she
+nestled into her corner of the landau. (Rosy thought with a pang of her
+own new dress, the double of Violet's, hanging upstairs in the wardrobe,
+in a melancholy way!) Jonquil was there, the chubby, golden-haired,
+big-eyed brother, aged three. And last of all was dear wee Honeysuckle,
+like a bundle of lace and flannel in Marie's arms; while old Nurse's
+spectacles could hardly be seen through the mass of sash-ends and fluted
+petticoats, and scarlet stockings, and velvet breeches, and flying locks
+of hair completely filling the roomy carriage. No one could doubt that
+the children were going to a party, even if they had not announced that
+fact to everybody within ear-shot by the chatter of their busy little
+tongues!
+
+At last all were settled, and the carriage rolled away. "Good-by, Rosy,"
+"Good-by, Rosy!" came up in a shrill chorus; and, the last Rosy's
+tear-dimmed eyes could see of them, hands and handkerchiefs were waving
+a farewell to the sister left behind.
+
+Then it was that Rosy's fortitude completely forsook her, and she
+dropped sobbing into the chair. It was a bitter disappointment, for the
+party was to be given by their aunt in honor of these children, and, in
+addition to Punch and Judy, magic, and a candy-bag, they were promised a
+huge bran-pie, full of delightful hidden presents. Rosy had suffered
+from a pretty bad sore-throat the night before, and the doctor had
+forbidden her going out. It is no use for grown people to say, dear
+children, these disappointments of yours don't matter much, for they
+_do_. They seem as high as mountains in your path, and I fully
+sympathize with you all, and especially with little weeping Rosy.
+
+So thought her mamma, evidently, for she came into the room just then,
+and picked the little bunch of blue serge and cardinal ribbons up in her
+arms, and sat down with it in a low chair by the fire.
+
+"Boo-hoo!" said Rosy, breaking out afresh when she felt mamma's kisses
+on her hair and wet cheeks. Mamma said very little, but by and by the
+little girl began to feel comforted, in spite of herself. You know how
+it is, dears! First, you stop roaring and moan, then your eyes are
+kissed dry, then you burrow your heads down and sigh, then you lie quite
+still for a little while--and at last, after blowing your noses in an
+heroic way, you are ready to laugh again!
+
+All this happened in Rosy's case, and for awhile she sat talking, until
+her mamma was called away to attend to some household matter. By that
+time Rosy was quite content to be tucked into a corner of the
+comfortable sofa, covered with a down quilt, and left to gaze into the
+depths of a woodfire, burning gently (for it had passed the spitting,
+spluttering stage), upon two great old-fashioned brass andirons with
+claw-feet and queer round bald heads.
+
+Around Rosy's couch was drawn a gay Japanese screen; before the fire was
+spread a great black bear-skin rug, and on either side of it stood a
+tall green porcelain jar. Clover always said these vases were like the
+ones in which Morgiana hid the Forty Thieves, and the children had more
+than once stuffed baby Honeysuckle into one of them to keep her out of
+mischief during what Nurse called their "rampagin's to split one's
+head."
+
+Over her mamma's writing-table, low enough for Rosy to look into the
+very heart of it, hung a picture in a broad gold frame. The picture was
+of a chestnut wood in Brittany, and standing in the shadow of a drooping
+bough was a little girl of about ten, her own age. One of the little
+peasant maiden's arms was clasped around the neck of a big dog,
+harnessed to a cart of vegetables. Under the other arm she held a fat
+goose with a dangling neck. Overhead, the sky was blue and the leaves
+seemed to be rustling in a summer wind. Around the feet of the tiny
+nut-brown maiden, with her odd high cap, grew tall heather and feathery
+ferns, with here and there a clump of flame-shaped lilies. When snow was
+on the ground outside Rosy always loved to gaze at this pretty scene,
+and to fancy herself stepping over the frame to have a chat about
+vegetables, and a ramble in the forest with Annette.
+
+Rosy's eyes wandered from one object to another in this pleasant room.
+Fluff, her mother's Skye terrier, curled up on her feet and fell asleep.
+The clock upon the mantel ticked softly, Fluff snored contentedly,
+little particles of burning wood pattered into the bed of glowing embers
+below. Even the familiar rumble of the street cars along the
+thoroughfare at the end of their block seemed more subdued than usual;
+and Rosy lay, never stirring, until--she found herself, without the
+least warning, slipping down through one of her mother's great porcelain
+jars, into Japan! Fluff woke up, and dashed to the rescue, with his
+fierce little "Rah!" of a bark; but there was nothing to be seen of Miss
+Rosy except the tip of a scarlet bow, with which Nurse was wont to adorn
+the summit of her young lady's head. She felt the rustle of the dried
+rose-leaves at the bottom of the jar falling over her in a fragrant
+shower, as she fell through space, pulling up, decidedly out of breath,
+in a very queer locality.
+
+It was a town where the houses looked as if they had been built for big
+dolls to live in. Houses with sliding walls, doors, and galleries made
+all of paper, that in two minutes you could take apart and pack up as
+you do a box of Crandall's blocks. The streets were honeycombed with
+quaint booths, and crowded with human beings going in and out of them
+like bees. The carriages were babies' perambulators, drawn by a tandem
+team of brown-skinned men, wearing a single garment each, and umbrella
+hats.
+
+There were no horses to be seen, but the cows wore blue cotton wrappers
+and shoes made of straw. Men, women, and children, at first sight,
+seemed to be dressed alike, all clattering around on high clogs,
+stooping painfully; and the funny little bald-headed babies were either
+carried pick-a-back by their mammas, or else were tucked in the breast
+of their fathers' loose wrappers, together with pipes, tobacco pouches,
+books, and a variety of other useful articles.
+
+Rosy looked about her in astonishment, till a girl came up and saluted
+her with solemn politeness, inviting her to a party, which was just
+about to begin. "You had better have your hair dressed first," the girl
+said, "and I will lend you a decent frock."
+
+"Very well," said Rosy, thinking fondly of the blue camel's-hair in the
+wardrobe at home; "of course, this old every-day serge won't do for a
+party."
+
+The girl took her to the shop of a female barber, who made Rosy kneel
+down before a mirror of polished steel, and parted her hair in two or
+three long manes, which were stiffened with bandoline, and tied with
+paper twine in a wonderful bow-knot on top. A fine tortoise-shell skewer
+was added, and the barberess, stepping back to survey her work, caught
+sight of Rosy's eyebrows.
+
+"Tut, tut," she said, angrily; "what were her parents thinking of to let
+them grow like this?" And without more ado Rosy's eyebrows were shaved
+off, and her face and neck were daubed with a thick white paste. Her
+under lip had a patch of red paint, and her teeth were stained with some
+horrid black mixture. Then she went with the Japanese girl into a paper
+house, where the party was to be held, and the girl lent her a loose
+silk gown, tied round the waist by a wide sash of pink cr�pe. On her
+feet were put foot mittens of white cloth, with a separate place for the
+big toe, and high lacquered clogs.
+
+"How can I walk?" said Rosy, tottering around when she was finally
+equipped in her narrow uncomfortable garments.
+
+"Sh-h! the company is arriving!" said her hostess; and as there was no
+furniture, not even a chair, Rosy wondered where the company would sit.
+The company solved this difficulty by sitting on the floor; and then
+trays were handed around, containing all sorts of wonderful sweetmeats,
+flowers and fruits in lovely colors, with conserved fruits, sugared
+beans, and candy fish, animals, and birds. Each dainty was more tempting
+than the one before, and Rosy found the loose front of her Japanese gown
+the very thing for a "party-pocket," if any of you know what that means!
+
+Next came games; "Lady-go-to-see," "Sick man-and-doctor,"
+Alphabet-cards, and Proverbs; and then, more sweetmeats. Pleasant as it
+was, a sudden stop was put to the entertainment, by a commotion,
+everybody seizing hold of another, all with frightened faces. Without
+warning, an earthquake came and turned the house upside down. Everybody
+fell out on the ground but Rosy, who flew up in the air, becoming
+entangled in the tail of a huge man-kite, carried along by the wind at a
+fearful rate of speed.
+
+Rosy thought this much more exciting than any coasting down hill she had
+ever tried; and she flew up, up, until the tail of the kite gave a flop,
+tossing her through a rift in the clouds. There she was, passing again
+through the bottom of the porcelain-jar, and in another moment she had
+landed in the very centre of the bear-skin hearth-rug.
+
+Rosy was just getting her breath, and wondering how she came to have her
+hair hanging in the usual tawny stream, when, to her great surprise, the
+bear-skin began to move.
+
+"Hold on tight there. We are off," it said, in a low growling tone,
+though not unkindly. "Want to go to a party, hey? Well, I'll see what we
+can do for you in my part of the world."
+
+"Really you take one so unpleasantly by surprise," exclaimed poor Rosy,
+as she felt herself again setting forth on an airy journey. "It is so
+cold here, I wish you had let me stop for my seal-skin jacket."
+
+"Don't talk about seal-skins, child. We are going where you will see
+enough of them. Ho! but it's grand there, up among the icebergs and the
+everlasting snow-drifts, where the frozen lakes gleam like red jewels in
+the light of the sun that never sets! Merry sports you'll see between my
+brothers and sisters!"
+
+"But I should be dreadfully afraid of them," began Rosy, trembling. "I
+have never met any bears outside of cages;" but the words were frozen on
+her tongue, and some tears coming into her eyes rolled in little round
+icicles into her lap.
+
+Now they came to a world of ice and snow. Even the fir-trees were no
+longer seen. Clinging to the rocks was a little rough moss, which served
+for reindeers' food. All else was chill and glittering--the sky arched
+with radiant pink that seemed to palpitate. Far below them was a polar
+sea, locking in chill embrace a lonely ship, her shrouds sheathed in
+ice, her ribs cracked against the huge silvery bulk of an iceberg, on
+whose jagged side she leaned despairingly--no sign of life on board.
+Rosy shuddered and shut her eyes, only opening them again when the
+bear-skin set her down at the side of an odd little hut, built on a
+barren point of land above the ice-bound water.
+
+This hut was made of blocks of ice, the chinks filled in with moss, and
+snow-caked over all. On top was a hole whence issued a faint curl of
+smoke, and out of an opening, somewhere, crawled a funny Esquimaux lady,
+apparently as broad as she was long. She welcomed Rosy politely, and
+took her in to the fire, a civility Rosy thought she could have done
+without. The whole family was collected there, with some guests invited
+in Rosy's honor, who had come in sledges drawn by dogs over the snow.
+The dogs also were within, and half a dozen children. It made Rosy think
+of the worms in Clover's can the days when her brother went a-fishing,
+so closely packed and squirming were her new-found friends. The place
+was full of smoke, and smelled of fish oil. The feast consisted of
+frozen whale's blubber, handed around to be gnawed by the company, and
+of salt fish dried without cooking, with strips of reindeer meat. Rosy
+tried to be very agreeable to everybody present, but when they brought
+her the baby to kiss, she almost fainted! It was the greasiest little
+thing, without a stitch of clothes on! By-and-by, sleep overpowered the
+traveller, and Mrs. Esquimaux laid a skin before the fire, offering her,
+for a pillow, what _do_ you think? that self-same greasy baby!
+
+As this ceremony is an especial compliment to a stranger among the
+Esquimaux, no one can refuse it; and Rosy, with much compunction, laid
+her head down on the poor little thing, who took it all as cheerfully as
+possible.
+
+Scarcely had the weary traveller closed her eyes, when she opened them
+again on the lounge in the drawing-room at home!
+
+There, looking down on her with a friendly smile, was the little Breton
+maiden in the chestnut wood.
+
+"Come to my party," Rosy heard her whisper; and, charmed with such a
+pretty new playmate, she stretched out her hands. The little French girl
+dropped the goose from under her arm, and leaned out of her gold frame
+to help Rosy, who, in two or three steps was safely beside her, treading
+down the tall heather, and stirring the butterflies from their haunts
+among the flowers. How green, and cool, and sweet it was, under the
+arching boughs. Far as the eye could reach, on every side, were leaves
+rustling in the fragrant air; and the trunks of the ancient trees were
+gray and hoar as the beards of the old Druids who once haunted them.
+Annette, for so the peasant maid was called, told Rosy many strange and
+interesting tales about this forest as they walked on, followed by the
+faithful dog dragging his cart of vegetables so carefully that he did
+not need a word or look to guide him.
+
+"Ours is one of the oldest inhabited parts of France," said the girl,
+proudly; "I can tell you stories about every tree and rock and hill in
+the country-side, and I will, if you like to hear them; but we must make
+haste to reach the market now, before the sun rises high enough to drink
+the dew from my vegetables. I was up before day to pick them, and my
+father has promised me that, if I sell all, I shall have a party in the
+glen. Only think! Not to work in the field all the afternoon--and to
+have as many chestnuts as we choose, a whole loaf of brown bread, and
+perhaps--if the step-mother is good humored--a slice of seed-cake!"
+
+Rosy thought this a very poor sort of a party; but she found Annette
+such good company that it seemed no hardship to trudge along the hot and
+dusty road beside her, when they emerged from the shelter of the wood.
+The two girls laughed and made merry until they reached the market town,
+and there the good dog came to a halt, while Annette arranged her cress
+and lettuces and beans and potatoes in tempting rows upon the
+stall--standing beside them with such a patient smiling face, that many
+passers-by were induced to buy of her. The fat goose went home in the
+basket of a fat housekeeper, and left in his place a pile of silver
+pieces. So, Annette and Rosy soon turned back to trudge again the dusty
+high-road, talking of the party they were to have in the glen that
+afternoon.
+
+Annette's home, which the two tired little travellers reached at last,
+was a quaint cottage, the steep moss-grown roof looking twice the height
+of its walls. Over the door grew a twisted pear-tree, and all the ground
+around it, excepting the garden patch in a sheltered spot behind, was
+one waving mass of heather, strewn with gray boulders of mossy rock.
+Rosy gave a little cry of delight.
+
+"Why, it is the _sweetest_ place," she cried. "It is like a bird's nest,
+Annette. How happy you must be here."
+
+Annette was about to answer, when out of the door came a cross
+step-mother, who began scolding as soon as she saw the girls, snatched
+the pouch of silver money from Annette's side, ordered her to the right
+and left, and then, tired as the poor child was, harnessed her to the
+cart beside the dog, and made her draw a heavy pile of linen to the
+brook, where she was at once set to work to help her step-mother in the
+family washing. Rosy, half-starved by her long fast, was glad to share
+Annette's meagre dinner of brown bread and a handful of boiled
+chestnuts, eaten under a tree by the brookside. Annette ventured to
+remind her step-mother of the promised party, and, for answer, received
+a smart box on the ear.
+
+"Is it a princess I have got to do my work, perchance?" said the cross
+old thing. "Thy father is far enough off in the field, not here to spoil
+thee, by luck; so do thou and that idle girl yonder set to work and
+finish washing the linen. That's party enough for trapesing girls, in
+_my_ mind!"
+
+So Rosy, too, was forced into service, and all through the long
+afternoon she toiled with aching limbs. When night came, she and Annette
+were glad to seek a straw bed in a tiny roof-chamber and cry themselves
+to sleep.
+
+"Never mind," said Annette, patiently; "to-morrow, perhaps, she may be
+kinder, and after we have worked all the forenoon in the field, who
+knows but we may have our party yet?"
+
+Rosy remembered nothing more, except opening her eyes full upon the
+hearth in her mother's drawing-room, where she was immediately addressed
+by one of the old-fashioned brass andirons.
+
+"I should just like to show you what a party was in _my_ time," it said,
+in a cracked, high-pitched voice. "We, sister Peggy and I, belonged, as
+you know, to your mother's grandmother--a good old Revolutionary
+stock--and we lived in the old house up yonder in Salem, Massachusetts,
+until your mother took it into her fanciful head to fetch us here. I
+should like to know what we have in common with that little
+fiddle-faddle Dresden china clock and shepherdesses upon the
+mantel-piece! However, I won't talk about my grievances, for sister
+Peggy always says that it is in very bad taste, and sister Peggy knows.
+We lived in the room where your grandmother was born, my dear, and her
+first cap was fitted upon sister Peggy's knob----"
+
+"Will she never stop to take breath," Rosy wondered. "I am dying to ask
+her a question. What's your name?" she suddenly called out, so abruptly
+as to make the old andiron jump, and let fall a broken brand upon the
+hearth.
+
+"Dear me, child, how you fluttered me!" it said, reprovingly. "I am
+sister Polly, of course, as you would have heard in due time. Sister
+Peggy always says that little girls should be seen and not heard, and
+sister Peggy knows--Where was I--Oh! when your grandmother grew old
+enough to invite her little friends to share her hospitality, the boys
+and girls would arrive at about three o'clock in the afternoon. The
+girls wore plain print gowns, and muslin aprons edged with tambour work.
+Instead of that insane mop of hair you sport, with a bow in the middle,
+looking for the world and all like your terrier, Fluff, they had decent
+mob caps. Their hands were covered with mittens, and each one earned a
+bag with a piece of white seam (or plain stitching), or else a sampler
+frame. How pretty it was to see them sitting down to their work for
+awhile! Then the tea-table was spread, with flowered china cups and
+plates, and shining silver, muffins, crumpets, sliced ham, home-made
+preserves and cream, and waffles strewn with cinnamon and sugar----"
+
+"You make my mouth water," said Rosy.
+
+"All this took place by five o'clock," said sister Polly, "and
+afterward the children had a good game of 'blind-man's-buff,' or
+'hunt-the-slipper'--and a handful of nuts with a big red apple, to stuff
+in each of their pockets upon going home. I remember a very little
+party your mamma had once, when she was a child----"
+
+"Do you? Tell me about it, please," said Rosy, eagerly, for nothing was
+ever so enchanting to those children as stories about their mamma in her
+youth.
+
+"She was just getting over the measles, and had been very much petted
+during her convalescence. Your grandmother promised her, in reward for
+taking a rather nasty dose of medicine, that she should have her little
+cousins from next door, to drink tea on a trunk. This was an especial
+treat to your mamma. A large flat-topped trunk served as table for the
+little girls and their dollies. On it were spread the china doll
+tea-things, and when they did not suffice in size or numbers, leaves
+from the grape-vine above the dining-room porch, were also heaped with
+goodies. Those children were satisfied with broken bits of peppermint
+stick, ginger-nuts, wee biscuit, lemonade for tea, and in the centre of
+the table a dish of horse-cakes."
+
+"Oh, I know!" said Rosy, with much interest. "Mamma has often told us
+about horse-cakes, and the funny little old shop where she used to buy
+them for a cent apiece. They had currants for eyes, and the children
+never knew whether to begin to eat at the head first or the tail----"
+
+"Exactly," said sister Polly. "Well, as I was saying, four little girls
+in clean white birds'-eye pinafores assembled around the trunk-party,
+your mamma at the head, to pour out the lemonade tea. Each guest had a
+dolly in her lap, and your mamma had twins on hers. I think the
+difficulty began by her insisting that the twins should have a double
+share of all the good things, which the guests, with some warmth,
+disputed. At any rate, it is a sad tale to tell you, but a true one; a
+quarrel set in, and what should the hostess do, but burst into tears,
+declare that her company were mean horrid things, and then, dragging at
+the table-cloth, whisk the entire contents of the tea-table upon the
+floor!"
+
+"Oh!" said Rosy, "did my mamma do that? I don't believe a word of it!
+You are nothing but an old tattle-tale, sister Polly, and I don't
+believe sister Peggy is any better!"
+
+Scarcely had Rosy uttered these disrespectful words, when the enraged
+sister Polly and sister Peggy flew out upon her from the fireplace.
+Seizing her in their brassy claws, they shook the little girl fiercely,
+bumping her head first on one side, then on the other, between their
+knobs.
+
+Rosy screamed for help, and heard in return a merry peal of laughter.
+She felt a warm shower of kisses on her face; and, opening her eyes, saw
+Clover and Violet, Jonquil and the baby, mamma and the nurses, standing
+in a laughing circle around her couch, while Fluff nearly barked his
+head off in the general excitement.
+
+"Rosy, you had the funniest nightmare!" said Violet; "see here, what a
+lovely bracelet was in the bran-pie for you, and we've all saved you
+some of our bonbons."
+
+"It was rather a bully Punch and Judy," remarked Clover, patronizingly.
+"That is, for the little ones, you know; _I've_ seen such lots of 'em."
+
+"Punch said, 'Doody, Doody, bing up de baby,'" squeaked happy little
+Jonquil, capering about.
+
+Baby Honeysuckle had gone to sleep, after her first party.
+
+Rosy jumped up, and kissed everybody around twice.
+
+"Dear knows I've had enough of parties," she declared joyfully; but
+nobody knew what she meant!
+
+
+
+
+BLONDINA; OR, THE TURKEY-QUEEN.
+
+[Illustration: Queen Blondina Resting in her Garden.]
+
+
+A certain king had two daughters, one of them lovely and accomplished,
+and the other an ugly, cross-tempered personage, who early in life took
+to meddling with the black arts, and learned a great deal more of magic
+than she did of any thing else. Blondina, on the contrary--for so the
+pretty princess was named--was the joy of all her nurses, and
+governesses, and tutors, and music masters, from earliest infancy. Her
+one fault was a tendency to laugh aloud on the slightest provocation. At
+ten years old she could speak many languages, play on all known
+instruments, write essays and sermons, dance like a sylph, sing like a
+nightingale, and make chocolate caramel. Vixetta, the elder of the two
+sisters, before she had reached the same age, had made short work of
+_her_ instructors, wearing out the health and spirits of a governess in
+a week, and driving twenty-four tutors into the lunatic asylum, while
+her head-nurse was speedily reduced to skin and bone, and took a
+permanent situation as the living skeleton in a dime-museum. The poor
+king remonstrated in vain with his headstrong elder daughter. Ordinary
+scolding had not the slightest effect upon her; black marks and crosses
+against her name in the report-book only made her laugh scornfully; and
+any attempt at bodily punishment ended in the Princess Vixetta throwing
+herself flat upon the ground, turning purple in the face, and foaming at
+the mouth with rage in a way to daunt the stoutest spirit. So, for this
+reason, the unfortunate girl was allowed to follow her own fancies,
+stealing off at dusk nobody knew whither, although it was suspected
+that her favorite haunts were the black depths of a pine forest near the
+palace--where the country folk never cared to ramble, even in broad
+daylight--or a certain ruined tower, filled with bats and owls and
+serpents. One night a peasant, who approached this tower in search of a
+lost cow, saw green lights dancing madly around the broken walls, heard
+wild shrieks of laughter issue from within, and, on venturing to insert
+his inquisitive nose into a chink, had it tweaked by two red-hot
+fingers; immediately afterward, he averred, he had seen the Princess
+Vixetta, in true witch-dress, shoot by him on a broom-stick, leaving a
+trail of brimstone in her wake. On reaching home he found his sheep
+dead, his best cows gone dry, and his children ill of a fever. Such
+tales as these, of which there were many current in the country-side,
+came from time to time to the king's ears, and not being able to gainsay
+them, _because of information he had got on his own private account_,
+the unfortunate parent resigned himself to sink slowly to the tomb. In
+fact he courted death rather than shunned it. Whenever he took cold, he
+would sit all night long, in wet shoes, in the draft of two open
+windows; and if that did not make him worse, would send away the
+doctors, refuse medicine, and try to beat his brains out on the marble
+floor of the palace bedroom. At last, one day, he choked, on too large a
+mouthful of beefsteak, and when the physicians endeavored to relieve
+him, waved them away, and cheerfully expired!
+
+[Illustration: Vixetta]
+
+[Illustration: _Blondina_.]
+
+The Princess Blondina was immediately proclaimed queen in her father's
+stead. Nothing was heard but praises of the charming new sovereign, who,
+after the period of mourning had passed away, ascended the throne with
+much pomp and ceremony. All of this was gall and worm-wood to the
+envious Vixetta, who, but for the kindness of her sister, would have
+been sent, by a vote of all the people, into exile in a distant land.
+Blondina announced that the Princess Vixetta should remain in her
+palace, and be offered an opportunity to reform her bad ways. Vixetta,
+thereupon, pretending to weep, promised to do better, and to give up
+associating with her evil favorites, the witches, warlocks, and
+magicians; but, in secret, her time was spent in conjuring a method to
+get rid of her beautiful sister, and to mount the throne in her stead.
+
+One warm summer day, Queen Blondina had just come in from rowing in her
+silver barge along the windings of the little river which watered the
+palace grounds. She rested for a while in the garden upon a bank of
+roses, myrtles, jasmine, and lilies-of-the-valley, while allowing her
+maids-of-honor to fan her with huge fans of white ostrich plumes, and
+listening to the drip of fountains of orange-flower water, and
+eau-de-cologne. Suddenly, she espied a poor old tattered crone, carrying
+a basket of luscious fruit, such as none of the queen's own gardens or
+green-houses could produce. Pomegranates there were, dropping sweetest
+juices when cleft in twain, purple figs that melted upon the tongue,
+rosy nectarines, crimson plums frosted with silvery dew, and bunches of
+grapes glowing like jewels where the sunbeams touched their clusters.
+Queen Blondina sat up, and exclaimed with delight, "Oh! Goody, pray set
+your basket down. My servants will pay you handsomely for your lovely
+fruit."
+
+"Willingly, your Majesty," said the old woman. "You are welcome to the
+contents of my basket, if you will but leave me the single hazel-nut at
+the very bottom of it."
+
+The queen consented, with a laugh at the absurdity of her wanting that
+one insignificant little hazel-nut, when such a delightful treat was at
+her service. Her servants unpacked the basket, and there, sure enough,
+at the bottom, was a tiny brown nut.
+
+"Queer, that she should desire to keep back that one little nut,"
+thought the queen. "I wonder why? Can it be so very delicious to the
+taste, or what? I wish I could see its inside."
+
+And so she went on, wondering, and exciting her own imagination, till,
+pretty soon, Blondina would have given all the rest of the basketful for
+the possession of that single mysterious nut! She began by offering one
+gold piece, then another, till a glittering pile lay at the crone's
+feet, but still the old woman held out against parting with her
+treasure.
+
+At last, Blondina burst into tears, when the crone appeared to be melted
+by her sorrow, and, advancing, whispered in her ear.
+
+"If I give you this nut," she said, "it shall be on one condition, only,
+your Majesty; and that is, that you crack it in the presence of your
+prime minister alone, in some remote corner of your palace."
+
+Blondina gladly consented, and sending away her attendants, took
+possession of the nut, and summoned her prime minister to her side. This
+functionary was a very stern and important officer of State, who had
+been foremost in the movement to banish the Princess Vixetta from the
+court. He arrived all breathless, at the queen's behest, and in the
+meantime the old crone had disappeared as mysteriously as she came.
+Blondina ordered the prime minister to follow her to a secluded
+summer-house, where, eagerly cracking the nut with her royal high-heeled
+shoe, she found inside only a few pinches of white powder, and a scroll
+containing some fine writing in an unknown tongue.
+
+"Thanks to my love of study, your Majesty," modestly suggested the prime
+minister, "I have mastered the only language you have left unacquired,
+which happens to be Arabic. On this bit of paper, I can decipher certain
+instructions to the finder."
+
+"Tell me them, quickly, my dear lord," said the enchanted princess, "and
+I will apply myself to the study of Arabic to-morrow. So much for a
+neglected education," she added, with a sigh that she had left anything
+so important undone; for, as I have said before, this princess had a
+passion for acquiring languages.
+
+"If the finder of this treasure desires to acquaint himself with the
+language of the animal world, and to take the form of any other living
+thing, he has only to snuff up a pinch of the enclosed powder, bow to
+the earth three times, and cry the name of the creature he desires to
+become, followed by these exact words:--
+
+    'Kurri-kuree,
+    Changed would I be.'
+
+"At once he will assume the likeness of the thing named, and will
+understand all he hears going on around him, remaining in that shape as
+long as he may choose. Whenever he wishes to resume his own natural
+form, he has only to bow himself again three times to the earth, and
+repeat the formula already given. But let him, during the period of
+transformation, especially beware of laughing aloud--or he will
+inevitably forget the formula, and run the risk of remaining as he has
+chosen to be."
+
+"This is the most delightful thing I ever had happen to me," said the
+merry young queen, clapping her hands. "Come, my lord, I am dying to try
+the experiment. Suppose we become two turkeys, and wander into the
+barn-yard. Nothing could please me more than a little adventure of that
+kind. Besides, you forget I have never studied Turkish, and this will be
+an excellent opportunity."
+
+The prime minister, who was a man of sober years, beyond the taste for
+such mad-cap frolics, remonstrated in vain with his wilful mistress.
+Blondina would have her way; and, in a short time, behold both queen and
+minister indulging in a solemn pinch of white snuff, and pronouncing
+distinctly the magic formula, while inclining themselves humbly to the
+earth!
+
+At once, Blondina's gown of silken tissue was exchanged for a suit of
+neat brown mottled feathers, while the prime minister became just such a
+huge and unwieldy gobbler as would take first prize in a Christmas
+poultry show!
+
+"Oh! what splendid fun!" the queen began, dying to laugh at her
+companion. But reflecting upon the possible consequences of this
+indiscretion, she became grave and silent, while the humiliated prime
+minister waddled after her into the barn-yard, whither his perverse
+little sovereign now took her way, leaving the hazel-nut securely hidden
+in a corner of the summer-house.
+
+In the multitude of feathered folk assembled in the enclosure, our two
+turkeys passed almost unnoticed at first. They were surprised to find
+very much the same sort of talk going on among their new friends, as
+among those they had left. The same struggle for prizes and for place,
+the same greedy rapacity, the same love of gossip and display. Two new
+peacocks had that day been added to the collection, and were strutting
+up and down like fashionable loungers, discussing all the affairs of the
+nation and the conduct of the rulers; and, in listening to their
+discourse, the queen found herself much enlightened about many of her
+subjects, and their doings.
+
+"As to her Majesty, Queen Blondina," said one of the peacocks, sending
+his tail up in a magnificent fan when he saw the admiring gaze of two
+young guinea hens bent upon him, "I have reason to believe that this
+unfortunate young woman is doomed soon to fall a victim to the wiles of
+that powerful enchantress, her sister, who, as is well known to all of
+us, has just become the sovereign of the underground fraternity of
+magicians, against whose spells all other witches and warlocks can do
+nothing."
+
+Blondina strained her ears to catch the answer; but the two talkers had
+passed on, and she heard a sharp voice say close beside her, "Come now,
+no struggling, if you please, Mr. Mole. I have not tasted so much as a
+mouse to-day, and you have crossed my path in the nick of time."
+
+"Dear Miss Tame Owl," pleaded the little velvet-coated victim, held
+tight in the claws of a spinster-owl, domesticated in the barn-yard by
+Blondina's special orders, "I must entreat you to let me off this time;
+I was hurrying to my daughter's wedding, and mistook the way, straying
+into this dreadful place by the most unfortunate mischance. Consider the
+feelings of my family, who are all assembled and expecting me."
+
+"Come now, no nonsense," said the cross old thing. "My mouth is fairly
+watering for you."
+
+She was about to cut short the victim's observations in the most abrupt
+manner by taking him bodily into her crop, when Blondina interposed, and
+flying at the owl, boxed her ears soundly. At this, the venerable lady
+was so unpleasantly taken by surprise, that she opened her mouth to
+gasp, and out fell the mole, who instantly scuttled away, but not
+without bestowing upon his turkey benefactress the most ardent thanks.
+After this little incident, Blondina's attention was distracted by a
+variety of curious studies in fowl-life, and she forgot all about her
+companion, the prime minister, until, chancing to look around, she
+beheld him the centre of an admiring throng of ducks, geese, and
+chickens, whose numbers were constantly increasing. "How grand he is!"
+"How big!" "How noble!" echoed on every side; and the prime minister,
+who was very vain, drooped his wings, set up his tail, and puffed
+himself into a magnificent fluffy ball. "Never have we beheld a turkey
+of so majestic a bearing!" cried a gushing goose-widow, and a pair of
+young lady ducklings rolled up their eyes in rapture and nodded assent.
+The prime minister was in his glory.
+
+"Yes, I am indeed the champion," he said, swelling into a balloon of
+feathers. Just then, Queen Blondina's own pet kitten, Floss, wandered
+across the yard, and having no especial occupation in view, charged at
+full scamper upon the prime minister, who, alas! for his boasted
+dignity, subsided ingloriously, and, shutting himself up tight, fairly
+turned tail and ran away, looking so excessively crest-fallen and
+foolish that Blondina could not resist bursting into a long and merry
+peal of laughter.
+
+"What have you done, your Majesty?" cried the alarmed prime minister,
+now remembering himself, as together they took refuge in a neighboring
+field. "Is it possible you can have forgotten; and, for my part, I saw
+nothing to laugh about. I never imagined a more dreadful beast than that
+unmannerly little pet of yours which attacked me."
+
+The queen broke out afresh into laughter, and laughed until she cried.
+Then, seeing the discomfiture of the prime minister, she decided that
+she had for to-day had enough of the animal world, and would indulge no
+more in such amusements until to-morrow.
+
+"I beg ten thousand pardons, my dear lord," she said, shaking with
+suppressed laughter. "But if you could only have seen yourself! Ha, ha!
+However, we have nothing now to do but bow three times, thus"--suiting
+the action to the word, "and say--Kik-kuk-kik! Dear me, what is it we
+must say? I can't for the life of me remember it."
+
+The prime minister was as much at a loss.
+
+"Perhaps your Majesty has forgotten _the price you were to pay for a
+laugh_," he observed, bitterly.
+
+Blondina looked at him in blank horror. Too truly had she forgotten the
+formula, and turkeys they must remain!
+
+And now, how sad their plight! In the midst of their other tribulations,
+hunger assailed them, and they could not eat the food provided for the
+rest. So they wandered into the fields and forest, picking at berries
+here and there; though, when evening came, footsore and weary, they
+determined to go back into the palace barn-yard, and see what was taking
+place there.
+
+They found all the animals and fowls excited over the events of the day,
+and soon heard the news that Queen Blondina had died suddenly that
+morning, leaving a will appointing her sister to reign in her stead.
+
+Next day a funeral took place, when the coffin was filled by a lovely
+waxen image of the late queen, and was placed in the vault beside her
+father. The false Vixetta, dressed in mourning, had followed weeping
+after it.
+
+Blondina and the prime minister now saw that they were indeed under the
+spell of a powerful enchantress, and resolved to travel to the dwelling
+of a certain wise woman in search of advice.
+
+After a long journey, the two turkeys reached the hut of the wise woman,
+and told her their pitiful tale.
+
+"Unfortunately, I have no power against Queen Vixetta since she has
+become the sovereign of the underground band," said the wise woman.
+"But, if you could gain an entrance to one of their Friday councils, you
+might pick up something to your advantage there." And then, as wise
+women speak but once in twenty-four hours, she shut the door in their
+faces, and left them to their fate.
+
+Blondina and the prime minister repaired to the ruined tower whither
+Vixetta was wont to go on Fridays; and there, hiding behind a wall, they
+saw the wicked sorceress arrive and, lifting a trap-door in the cellar,
+disappear from sight. While they remained above, lamenting their hard
+fate, Blondina saw a tiny black object emerge from the ground at her
+feet, then another and another, till a troop of them were assembled.
+These were moles, and their leader, addressing the queen, informed her
+that he it was she had saved from the crop of the owl.
+
+"We have heard of your distressing predicament, your Majesty," the mole
+added, with deep respect; "and hasten to offer our services to conduct
+you to the council chamber of the underground band."
+
+Blondina thanked the mole fervently, and found, upon following him, that
+with his companions he had burrowed a long and beautifully smooth
+tunnel. Glow-worms were ranged along the sides to light the way, and
+every thing was arranged for her comfort. After a considerable time had
+elapsed, the travellers reached a gallery leading directly into a
+vaulted chamber where the witches and warlocks sat, each upon a cushion
+formed of a huge and swollen toad. In their midst, upon a throne made of
+serpents intertwined, sat the Queen Vixetta, around whose brow flickered
+a wreath of blue flames. Ah! she was a terrible witch to look upon.
+Blondina shuddered to remember the kisses she had often innocently
+pressed upon that skinny forehead and those lips of lurid red. Vixetta
+was in high spirits; she and her familiars hatched mischief together,
+and gloated over their evil doings in fiendish glee. Then Vixetta
+listened to the reports of each of the wicked creatures in turn; and, to
+Blondina's astonishment, in the narrators of these tales of witchcraft
+she recognized more than one of the most respected of her own subjects.
+Some of them were crones ancient and palsied, others were young and
+blooming girls Vixetta had led astray; among the warlocks were the
+gray-haired miller, the good sexton, and a courtier in whom the queen
+had placed peculiar confidence. All were attended by black deformed
+creatures, half cat, half human being. In the centre of the circle was a
+fire, and before it they set up the very waxen image of the queen which
+had been buried in her stead. Into this little imps were ordered to
+thrust sharp blades and needles in the region of the heart, while
+Vixetta pronounced a spell, at which all the others laughed rejoicingly.
+
+"I'll warrant my lady Blondina will be cured of her love of laughing,
+after this--as well as of her curiosity. Long may she wander in her
+present shape," said the sorceress. "It was a merry trick I played her
+and that audacious old prime minister, who sought to do me harm."
+
+"And what, pray, was the rhyme your Majesty bid them recall?" asked the
+courtier warlock, grinning maliciously.
+
+"A simple one," replied the sorceress, "and you will remember it was
+once a password in our band,--
+
+    'Kurri-kuree,
+    Changed would I be.'"
+
+Blondina almost betrayed herself in her delight. She repeated the words
+again and again, in mind, keeping profoundly silent until the
+witch-revels were at an end; and at cock-crow the unholy gang broke up,
+vanishing like smoke through a trap-door in the ceiling of the vault.
+
+"And now, dear little mole, take us back again," said the turkey-queen,
+who longed to breathe the free air of heaven and to break her awful
+spell.
+
+"May it please your Majesty," said the mole, looking very unhappy,
+"there is a new difficulty. Yonder image of you which they consumed in
+the fire, is a fresh enchantment that dooms you to remain perpetually in
+the place where you now are; and I find by consultation with a friend of
+mine, a bat who lives in this cave, and who is the most kind and
+obliging person, that on only one condition can you now leave this spot,
+and that, I hardly dare name to you."
+
+"Summon this bat to appear before me immediately," cried the wretched
+queen, who, finding that her feet were stuck fast to the earth, was
+truly overwhelmed, while the prime minister gave himself up to complete
+despair.
+
+The bat appeared, and a more repulsive huge creature it is impossible to
+picture; but his voice was gentle and his manner most humble and
+conciliatory. He began to apologize for presenting himself before the
+queen, when she interrupted him impetuously.
+
+"Quick--quick! tell me the condition on which I may leave this horrible
+place, where I shall die if I remain a moment longer. Who are you? why
+are you here? and why should we trust in you when every living thing in
+this foul spot is devoted to the service of the evil one?"
+
+"I, like yourself, am a victim of, not a partner in, crime, your
+Majesty," said the bat, with dignity. "If you will permit----"
+
+"But I can't stop to listen to anything," sobbed the poor little
+turkey-queen. "Get me into the daylight somehow or other, and then I
+will hear you gladly. Oh! kind Mr. Bat, forgive my unkind words; only
+free me from this living tomb, if it be possible."
+
+"You have been told that it is possible, lady," said the bat,
+pathetically; "but, to be brief, since you insist upon it--only by
+promising your fair hand in marriage to----"
+
+"To whom?" cried Blondina, in astonishment
+
+"To me," said the bat, withdrawing more into the shadows of the vault.
+
+Blondina screamed with horror.
+
+"Oh! never, never," she exclaimed, bursting again into tears of
+anguish.
+
+The mole, the bat and the turkey prime minister consulted together in
+low whispers; and the last-named gentleman, addressing the queen, set
+before her the hopeless situation in which she now was, and urged her to
+accept the proposition of the bat.
+
+"Hear me, too, fair queen," said the voice of the bat. "I swear that if
+you consent, you shall never regret it. Only trust me, and all will go
+well. In consigning me to this spot, your wicked sister, who, in my
+former estate desired to marry me herself, in spite of my aversion for
+her, swore that never should I be free from her enchantment, until a
+beautiful young bride should come to the rescue and promise to marry me,
+as I am, without asking any questions. Then, and then only, I might
+escape, taking my bride and her attendants with me."
+
+"But your appearance--pardon me," said poor Blondina; "it is too
+dreadful for anything."
+
+"Trust me," repeated the bat; and, in desperation, Blondina murmured a
+promise to be his bride.
+
+Instantly the bat flew with alacrity into a corner of the vault, and,
+bringing thence a bunch of mistletoe, angelica, and mountain-ash, waved
+it thrice in a circle around Blondina, who up to that moment had
+remained as if rooted to the spot where she stood. The spell broke, and
+Blondina, starting joyfully forward, repeated, at his request, the same
+ceremony of disenchantment for the bat, as also for the prime minister;
+and all three of them, accompanied by the faithful mole, took their way
+to the upper regions without delay. Upon reaching the meadow where they
+had entered the underground passage, Blondina and the prime minister
+lost no time in running back to the summer-house, where, regaining the
+hidden hazel nut, they safely and joyfully resumed their own true
+shapes.
+
+"And now, gentle lady," said the bat, who had flown after them, keeping
+his distance modestly, "I pray you to perform for me another kindly
+action. Close your eyes, and sprinkle me with this powder, at the same
+time touching my head with the witch-defying plants. Then, kindle a fire
+with these fagots of wood left here by your gardener, and cast me into
+the hottest portion of it."
+
+Blondina shrank from the task, but, finding the bat as determined as he
+was calm and dignified, obeyed him without another word of protest.
+Aided by the now alert and cheerful prime minister, she kindled a fire
+upon the hearth of the little summer-house; and when it blazed high,
+and hot coals fell into the centre, she followed the bat's directions to
+the letter. Immediately there was a loud explosion; the hideous bat skin
+split asunder and shrivelled up, revealing a beautiful young prince, who
+stepped unsinged from the ring of flame, and bent his knee before the
+Queen Blondina. She recognized in him a playmate of her childhood,
+Prince Florizel, son of a neighboring monarch, who years before had
+disappeared from his father's court, and had been mourned as dead by his
+sorrowing relatives. To enchant him, in punishment for his scorn of her,
+had been one of the first acts of Vixetta's acquired magic; and to
+accomplish it, the wretched girl had bargained away her entire life to
+the service of the Evil One.
+
+Blondina greeted Florizel with the utmost pleasure and assured him of
+her willingness to fulfil the pledge she had made to the dreaded
+bat-lover. They returned to the palace, and on being observed by the
+attendants, who, believing them to be ghosts, ran terrified away, had
+some difficulty in persuading people that they were alive and in the
+flesh. Then, what joy reigned over the palace. Quickly the news spread
+through the city and kingdom. The indignant people flocked around the
+apartments of Vixetta, who was still asleep after her orgies of the
+previous night, and, summoning her to come forth, declared that she
+should instantly be put to death in the presence of her victims. The
+miserable sorceress fell upon her knees, and begged for her life. Again
+the generous Blondina entreated that her sister might be spared; but
+Prince Florizel interfered, and insisted that, for the future safety of
+his queen, Vixetta should then and there be compelled to take a pinch of
+the magic powder and change herself into a bat. This was done, and the
+sorceress, flying from the window, was never heard of more.
+
+Blondina gave her hand and heart to Prince Florizel, as soon as he
+returned from a visit to his parents, who were overjoyed to regain their
+long-lost son and heir. The marriage took place with great magnificence,
+and the royal couple lived in peace for the remainder of their long and
+useful lives. They would often walk in the direction of the
+poultry-yard, and Blondina loved to tell her husband of all the things
+she had heard and seen there when in her turkey shape.
+
+But the prime minister, after he had weeded out of the kingdom certain
+obnoxious individuals strongly resembling the warlocks seen at the
+underground council, preferred to assume a dignified forgetfulness of
+all that had passed during his enforced experience as a feathered biped.
+To the latest day of his life he would always cross the road to avoid
+meeting a turkey-gobbler, and for the race of pet kittens he continued
+to maintain the most unconquerable dislike.
+
+By the laws of the kingdom, to kill or injure a mole was made a capital
+offence; and once every year a little blind gentleman in a fine black
+velvet coat arrived at the palace to pay his respects to their
+majesties, who received him with every mark of favor and affection.
+
+
+
+
+TIMID AGNES.
+
+[Illustration: Shutting Agnes into the Chest.]
+
+
+Once there lived a poor girl whose wicked aunt treated her very cruelly.
+One morning, the aunt set out for a day of shopping and visiting to the
+neighboring town, after whipping her niece soundly (as she was in the
+habit of doing for exercise, every morning), and shutting up the poor
+girl in the garret, where a barrel of white sand had been spilt upon the
+floor.
+
+"Pick up every grain of this sand before bedtime, or I will imprison you
+in the dark closet for a week," said the aunt as she went away.
+
+The poor child cried so that she could not see the tiny particles; and
+as she sat, crying and picking up what she could feel, she heard a
+little scratching under the lid of the old wedding-chest in the corner.
+Presently, a pretty blue mouse with topaz eyes ran down the side of the
+chest, and came up to her. Now, if there was anything poor Agnes feared
+more than death, it was a mouse. The very sight of one had always made
+her shudder and scream and clutch at her petticoats, and climb up on
+chairs or tables or anything convenient.
+
+So when she saw her visitor she gave a cry of terror, and climbed nimbly
+up to the top of a broken chest of drawers in the corner of the garret.
+
+"Don't mind me," said the mouse, politely.
+
+"I _beg_ your pardon, but I'm so awfully afraid of you," said Agnes,
+shuddering to her toes. "I think I could endure you if it were not for
+your horrid tail! But you really make me creep all over, don't you see?"
+
+"If you would only take that apron off your head, and exercise a little
+self-control," said the mouse, with a shade of impatience in its manner,
+"you would soon see that I am a very superior kind of a mouse. Come,
+Miss Agnes, I have watched you very often at your work here, and I have
+a great desire to be of service to you. But there is really no talking
+reason to a person hunched up on top of a chest of drawers with a pink
+apron over her head; is there, now?"
+
+Agnes, hearing the mouse talk so pleasantly, made a desperate effort to
+come down from her perch and converse with the little creature. After a
+while the blue mouse's eloquence proved sufficient to induce her to
+follow it near a crack in the wall, and to peep between the boards, as
+directed.
+
+There she saw a secret room, full of beautiful things--clothes and
+jewels--scattered on the floor.
+
+"All these shall be yours, fair Agnes," said the mouse, "if you will
+carry me in your pocket for a day."
+
+Agnes trembled with horror so that she could hardly bring herself to
+say, "Thank you kindly, good Mr. Blue Mouse, but I hardly need anything
+new in the way of clothes, going out as little as I do. O--o--oh!" she
+exclaimed, catching her breath, as the mouse seemed to scuttle toward
+her.
+
+"Do not fear! I am entirely too proud to obtrude my company where it is
+so little desired. Farewell, Miss Agnes; I leave you. But before I go,
+allow me to arrange this little difficulty for you."
+
+The gallant little mouse whisked his tail (that hateful tail!), twice
+over the pile of sand, and at once, every grain of the shining heap, and
+all that lay scattered over the garret floor, flew back into the barrel.
+
+"Thank you, kind Mr. Blue Mouse," cried the grateful Agnes; but no
+answer came. Her benefactor was nowhere to be seen. She looked in vain
+for the crack in the wall he had led her to; it was no longer in view.
+
+When the wicked aunt found that Agnes had completed her task, she flew
+into a violent rage, and determined to rid herself forever of the girl.
+So, taking her again into the garret, she bound her hand-and-foot, tied
+a handkerchief across her mouth to still her cries, and, opening the old
+wedding-chest in the corner, thrust poor Agnes bodily into it, closing
+the lid with a vicious bang, and locking it with the great iron key.
+
+"Lie there till doomsday, you tiresome thing!" said the wicked aunt,
+going down-stairs to eat her supper.
+
+Poor Agnes thought she must soon die of suffocation, but just then she
+heard a scratching noise; four little feet scuttled over her face, and a
+long smooth tail whisked by her ear.
+
+"Ugh!" groaned poor Agnes. "It's a mouse shut up here with me! Oh! why
+didn't she kill me, outright?"
+
+Then little teeth began gnawing at her bandages and at the ropes that
+bound her, and in a few moments she was free.
+
+"I am here, Miss Agnes; though, indeed, I won't touch you again!" said
+the familiar voice of the Blue Mouse. "But if you would only trust me,
+and carry me in your pocket, how much I could do for you!"
+
+At last Agnes consented to grant his wish and, trembling in every limb,
+she let the mouse run into her pocket. Without a moment's delay, the
+bottom of the chest gave way, and Agnes felt herself sinking, sinking.
+When she recovered her wits, which in that moment of terror seemed
+fairly to forsake her, there she was in a beautiful garden, filled with
+ladies and gentlemen walking two and two in a grand procession along a
+bowery path strewn with roses and carnations. Fountains played in the
+sunshine, birds sang on the boughs. It was a scene so gay and beautiful,
+that Agnes clapped her hands for joy.
+
+"How happy I am here!" she cried.
+
+"And happy you shall always be here," said a voice behind her.
+
+Agnes, turning, saw a young gentleman dressed in a blue court costume
+with topaz buttons, and wearing in his cap a long smooth plume of blue,
+caught by a brilliant brooch of the same gems.
+
+He explained to her that he was none other than the mouse she had so
+much feared. Condemned from childhood to remain a mouse until some fair
+maiden should, of her own free will, allow him to run into her pocket,
+the unfortunate prince had only now been released from his long
+imprisonment. This garden belonged to his own palace, and the ladies and
+gentlemen coming to meet him were his friends and courtiers.
+
+Agnes, shedding tears of penitence over the blindness of her former
+prejudice, bestowed her hand upon the prince, and was happy evermore.
+
+
+
+
+THE OGRESS AND THE COOK.
+
+
+One summer afternoon, a young girl sat upon the door-stone of her
+cottage home, awaiting the return of her father from the mill. Her day's
+work was neatly done, and the tiny house, both within and without, was
+as tidy as hands could make it; hollyhocks and sweet-peas grew beneath
+the windows; the plates on the cupboard shelf glittered; and a little
+fire sparkled upon the hearth, where a pot of savory broth was bubbling
+cheerfully. On the table was set a brown loaf, light as a feather and
+sweet as a nut, with a bunch of grapes from the trellis above the door,
+and a pewter mug ready to be filled with frothing ale at the moment when
+the good man should sit down. Dimple, whose fingers rarely rested, plied
+her knitting-needles as she watched the bridge upon the road where the
+first glimpse of her father might be caught. By-and-by, up came an old
+crone, dusty and way-worn.
+
+"Pray, my kind little maiden, give me a bit of food, and a sup of drink,
+for sweet charity's sake," begged the wayfarer, who looked as if she
+were ready to drop from fatigue.
+
+"Willingly, dame," said pretty little Dimple; and bidding the crone be
+seated, she ladled out for her a generous portion of the fragrant broth.
+
+The crone's eyes sparkled; and, seizing a great horn spoon, she
+despatched the broth in two or three mouthfuls, then asked for more.
+Dimple supplied her; and in a little while, all the broth in the iron
+pot had disappeared.
+
+"Never mind," sighed Dimple to herself. "The good father will have to
+put up with a rasher of bacon and some eggs, to-night."
+
+As if reading her thoughts, the crone, displaying a pair of jaws opening
+as wide as a cavern and garnished with ferocious teeth, said:
+
+"I am just beginning to feel a little refreshed. If there were only such
+a thing as a couple of fat slices of home-cured bacon, and a brace of
+new-laid eggs to help a poor old creature on her way."
+
+Dimple ran to fetch the eggs, over the laying of which her fowls had
+scarcely ceased to cackle in the barn. Quickly and cheerfully, she
+prepared a delicious dish, which the crone despatched as before. The
+loaf of bread followed the bacon, and a gallon of ale followed the
+bread. All of the grapes, plucked and arranged in a basket for market
+next morning, were consumed; and, when Dimple had just begun to tremble
+with apprehension lest her voracious visitor should devour _her_ in
+conclusion, the crone pushed back her chair, jumped up with surprising
+agility and, running to the door, blew a shrill whistle.
+
+Instantly, there came flying through the air a pair of huge vampires
+harnessed to a blood-red chariot. They halted at the cottage gate; and,
+before Dimple had time to cry out in her terror, the crone whisked her
+into the chariot, held her in place with a grasp of iron, and ordered
+the foul creatures to be off. Dimple fainted away and, when she came to
+herself, found that they were high above the earth, travelling with
+frightful speed through a thunder cloud. In vain she cried for mercy,
+and entreated to be restored to her father's house.
+
+"Be silent, brat," said the furious crone, who was, in reality, an
+ogress. "Know that I have for a long time been in search of just such a
+trig little cook-maid as you are. Ever since my husband ate up the two
+last, I have had the greatest trouble to induce my servants to stay with
+me. Besides, we are particular about our table, and rather hard to suit.
+I dare say, now, you understand cooking a nice plump baby's thigh to
+perfection, and how to prepare a dish of rosy cheeks smothered in cream,
+hey? But it isn't every day we are in such luck as to get fare like
+that. Many's the time I've had to palm off lamb chops for baby cutlets,
+and to swear that the pig's tails I served up were boy's fingers. Now,
+stop that ridiculous shuddering and crying, and listen to reason. If you
+promise to serve me faithfully for seven years, I'll engage to keep you
+out of his way, and to send you home with a fortune in your pocket."
+
+Dimple's fright and horror had by this time completely taken away her
+power of speech. She sank upon the floor of the chariot in silent
+despair; and when they reached the ogre's castle, situated on a frowning
+peak of rocks, where not the most daring human foot could climb, she
+allowed herself without resistance to be lifted out, and thrust into a
+dark cavernous kitchen. There she was ordered to prepare a large pie,
+made of rats and bats, for the ogre's supper. While poor Dimple was thus
+engaged, a monstrous giant came home, and angrily asked for food. The
+ogress greeted him affectionately, and nine young ogresses ran to meet
+him and would have jumped upon his knees, but that he pushed them away
+and fell to scolding everybody, every syllable of his speech sounding
+like the loudest thunder-peal. Dimple finished her hateful task, and
+such was her skill in cooking that the pastry on coming out of the oven
+looked and smelt delicious. The giant ceased to frown as he devoured it,
+and smiled when he laid down his knife and fork.
+
+[Illustration: _Dimple makes rat pie._]
+
+"Come here, lasses, and I'll kiss you all," he said, with rare
+amiability--actually bestowing on his wife's shoulder a pat of approval
+that would have felled Jumbo to the earth.
+
+The young ogresses were tall and spindling creatures, as slim as young
+giraffes. They had pasty complexions, pink eyes, and long glistening
+white teeth. Dimple's business was, after she had set her kitchen in
+order, to go up into the nursery and put these frights to bed, each
+requiring to be rocked to sleep in a cradle nine feet long, and all
+howling like an army of pinched cats until slumber overtook them. Late
+at night, when all was quiet, poor Dimple would creep up to bed in a
+little turret room, where the wind moaned around the windows and owls
+hooted in the ivy so that sleep was impossible. She lay on her wretched
+bed and cried all night; and when day broke, she would scramble into her
+clothes again, and steal down stairs to her work in trembling, for she
+never knew at what moment the ogre might be prowling around in his
+stocking feet, and pounce upon her for a tid-bit. Months passed on, and
+one day the ogre came home in high good humor, carrying upon his back a
+living human being, whose feet and hands were tied and his eyes securely
+bandaged, while a gag in his mouth prevented the unfortunate victim
+from making a sound of remonstrance.
+
+"Take this fellow to the kitchen," thundered the ogre, throwing his
+victim down upon the stone floor of the entrance hall with a violent
+bang; "see that he is in good condition for my table, and then serve him
+with plenty of onions in the sauce. Just as I was beginning to hanker
+after a young and tender morsel of human flesh, I came across this boy,
+following the plough. I'll warrant, I stopped his whistle quickly, when
+I grabbed him up! Now mind, wife, supper at sharp twelve, and don't
+forget the onions!"
+
+The ogress lifted the prisoner as unconcernedly as one would handle a
+dead turkey and, carrying him below, threw him down upon the kitchen
+table, repeating her lord's directions to the cook. When Dimple
+recognized in the fainting prisoner an old schoolmate and neighbor of
+her own, Jim Hardy by name, she could scarcely refrain from a scream of
+rapture. But, pretending to be indifferent, she merely felt the poor
+youth's arms, as a cook examines the condition of her fowls for the
+table.
+
+"Dear me, madam," she said, "surely you don't mean to cook this tough
+creature to-night? Why, I wouldn't dare to send up such a dish to my
+master. He would be in a fearful rage, and small blame to him. At least,
+allow me to fatten the bumpkin a bit."
+
+"But what shall we serve my husband?" said the alarmed ogress. "He has
+set his heart on a dish of boy with onion sauce, and I dare not
+disappoint him."
+
+"Leave that to me," said clever Dimple.
+
+So she killed a lamb, and smothered it with onions, and the ogre knew no
+difference. The poor youth was set free, and great was his joy to find a
+friend in his proposed executioner. Dimple told him her story, and heard
+from him how long and sorrowfully her father had mourned her
+disappearance. Jim vowed to deliver her from the ogre; but both saw it
+was necessary to act with caution, at first. She was obliged to shut him
+up in an iron coop in the courtyard near the kitchen; and every time the
+old crone came into the kitchen, she went to the coop and felt and
+pinched the poor lad's legs and breast unmercifully.
+
+"Surely he is tender enough to serve to-night, cook," she would say,
+impatiently. "Your master has an attack of the gout, and I am at my
+wit's end to keep him in good humor. Nothing would please him so much as
+a slice or two of the breast, grilled with pepper and mustard."
+
+"Leave that to me," Dimple would answer; and she forthwith killed a pig,
+and served a dish so deliciously seasoned that the ogre forgot to growl,
+for at least an hour after eating it.
+
+Once, while the supper was going on, Dimple and Jim crept up to listen
+at the dining-room door. After the ogre had drank a gallon or two of
+wine, he began to talk freely to his wife.
+
+"Such a dainty dish as this you have served me deserves a reward, my
+dear," he said in a greasy voice, while the ogress meekly dipped some
+bread in the gravy as her share of the feast. "Open the closet in the
+corner yonder, and get me out my birdling."
+
+What should the birdling prove to be but a tiny nightingale shining like
+gold! When its mouth opened at the ogre's command, "Sing, birdling,
+sing!" out poured a rain of sapphires, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and
+amethysts, that lay in a glittering stream upon the table-cloth.
+
+"Take these for a bracelet," said the ogre, gathering them up in his
+hand, and tossing them to his wife; "and then put away my birdling, that
+no covetous eye may look upon this wonder of the world."
+
+Dimple and Jim exchanged glances of astonishment, but dared not speak,
+as they crept silently down the flight of stairs.
+
+Next day, the ogress came again into the kitchen to see about the supper
+dish for the evening, and in her zeal to prove that Jim was really ready
+for cooking, she bit his ear so that he could not help uttering a little
+squeal.
+
+"See what you have done!" cried Dimple. "Now that the blood flows, he
+will not be fit for eating for another day or two. Certainly, _I_ won't
+engage to make a savory dish of him."
+
+"Oh, don't be vexed, cook," said the ogress, who by this time had grown
+to depend absolutely upon Dimple's word in such matters. "I have a salve
+here that will heal all wounds, and will even cause a limb that has been
+cut off to grow again to the body."
+
+So saying, she whipped out of her pocket a little box of ointment, and
+rubbed some of it on the wounded place, which at once ceased to bleed,
+becoming whole as before.
+
+"What did I tell you?" asked the crone, triumphantly. "This salve is one
+of the wonders of the world, and the recipe is handed down only in our
+family." So saying, she carefully put away the box again in her pocket.
+
+Day after day passed, Dimple continuing to make excuses for failing to
+serve the coveted dainty, and exerting all her skill to cook such dishes
+as might make the ogress forget her disappointment. Meantime, Jim
+occupied his time in the coop by weaving a rope long enough and strong
+enough to support his weight and Dimple's while making their proposed
+escape down the rocky precipice on which the castle stood. Once on the
+sea-shore beneath, they hoped to hide in some fisherman's hut until a
+ship might be found sailing to their own country.
+
+"One thing is certain, Dimple," said Jim, who was a bold and fearless
+fellow; "we shall not leave this place without carrying off that
+wonderful bird of his. Why, just to remember the dazzling stream that
+poured from its mouth, makes my eyes wink."
+
+"Oh! Jim," answered Dimple, trembling. "Please, please, don't attempt
+such a thing. It will make our punishment ten times worse if we are
+caught. Besides, what hope have you of getting inside the iron closet?
+It is madness to talk about it. For my part, what I would like to take,
+is a little of that marvellous salve. Then, if we are bruised or our
+bones are broken on the rocks, we can make all right again----"
+
+"Why should you forever be talking to yourself, cook?" exclaimed the
+ogress, at that moment bursting in, carrying a bunch of keys that
+clanked like fetters. "See here! No more nonsense! I'd just like to know
+when you propose to give us that chap in yonder, who must have eaten
+more than his weight in good food since he came here?"
+
+"Very soon, very soon, madam," said Dimple, with a palpitating heart;
+"in a very few days he should be fit for my master's table. You know
+that kind of a creature takes uncommonly long to fatten."
+
+"Hold your tongue!" cried the ogress, exploding in sudden fury, like a
+mine of fire-crackers, and hurling at Dimple's unfortunate head a few
+convenient saucepans, skewers, flat-irons, and dish-covers. Happily the
+thrower was of the feminine gender, and so the projectiles missed their
+aim; but, as Dimple dodged around in a dark corner of the kitchen, the
+ogress continued to scold her angrily.
+
+"I know this," she exclaimed, "that for only one single day longer will
+I consent to be put off by your palavering promises and excuses. The lad
+is fit to kill now, if he is ever going to be; and as day after
+to-morrow is my lord's two thousand and tenth birthday, you must prepare
+a dish that shall be better than all that have gone before it.
+Everything is arranged for a night of celebration. Exactly at midnight
+to-morrow, we proceed in the vampire chariot to visit our neighbor, the
+King of the Ghouls, and, returning, shall expect to find the feast
+served punctually at cock-crow; the dear children may sit up for it, and
+my brother, the Ogre of the Seven Mountains, is invited to partake."
+
+During this speech Dimple's blood ran cold, but, summoning up all her
+resolution, she answered calmly, "All shall be ready, madam;" and when
+the appeased ogress took her leave, Dimple flew to the iron coop, and
+asked Jim if he had heard the conversation.
+
+"Indeed, did I, my lass," said Jim, trying to put a bold face on the
+matter. Then, they fell to consulting, and it was decided that the
+escape should be attempted that very night, as soon as the household was
+at rest. Midnight came, and not a sound save the thunderous snoring of
+the ogre family was heard within the castle. Dimple waited upon the
+landing, while Jim glided up to the cupboard where the nightingale was
+kept. As no one dared so much as lay a finger upon the giant's treasure
+without his leave, the door had been left unlocked. There sat the lovely
+birdling upon a jewelled spray, glittering so brilliantly that it shone
+like a lamp in the darkness. As Jim laid his hand upon it, the bird sent
+forth a note of silver sweetness, warning her captor to fly with all
+speed, if he would escape with his life from the vengeance of the ogre.
+
+"I humbly beg your pardon," said Jim, respectfully; "I had no idea that
+you are a talking creature."
+
+"Oh! I am glad of anything for a change! You must know that I am a
+fairy, unfortunate enough to have been imprisoned in a shape assumed for
+a frolic," the bird continued, greatly to Jim's astonishment. "And tired
+enough I am, of being a plaything for that horrid old monster, who
+captured me when I had just dressed for a masquerade party, in the
+plumage that you see. Unluckily, it is my doom to remain a slave to
+whosoever shall make a prisoner of me whilst I am thus attired and,
+also, to have to pour forth jewels at his command. You will be a
+different sort of a master, I am sure."
+
+Jim hurriedly promised the fairy-bird to treat her with kindness, and
+hastened to place her in Dimple's keeping. They stole past the giant's
+chamber-door, but the creaking of a board aroused the tyrant, who sprang
+out of bed, roaring, "Who is there? Answer, or I will grind you to dust
+beneath my heel!"
+
+Jim made no reply, and lifting in both hands a heavy iron bar with which
+he had provided himself, hid in an angle of the stairs.
+
+Out rushed the giant, sputtering ferociously, fire shooting from his
+eyes and nostrils. Jim, under cover of the darkness, dealt him a
+tremendous blow upon the skull. The monster tottered, and fell crashing
+down the long flight of stairs, carrying Jim with him to the bottom.
+Dimple heard a terrible groan, and then all was silent. Feeling her way
+to the spot, she whispered imploringly, "Jim, dear Jim, speak to me!"
+
+"I'm here, Dimple," said a stifled voice, in reply; "but this old
+wretch (who is as dead as a door-nail, by-the-way), has fallen atop of
+me, and I believe he has broken both of my legs. Ha! there, I have freed
+myself, but it's no use. I can't walk a step. Don't waste time on a
+cripple like me, lass; but make haste to slip down the rope and escape,
+before the ogress finds out what has happened."
+
+"Never, dear Jim," cried Dimple, fervently. Just then a sleepy voice was
+heard above in the chamber of the ogress, inquiring of her husband what
+was going on below. Quick as thought, Dimple ran up to her.
+
+"Oh, madam!" she said, "such an accident! His lordship has slipped upon
+the stairs, and sprained his ankle. You are on no account to disturb
+yourself to come down; but I beg that you will send him the box of magic
+salve without delay."
+
+In her sleepy state, it did not occur to the ogress to wonder how
+Dimple, whose presence in the castle had so long been hidden from the
+giant, should have been chosen as his messenger. She was so anxious to
+enjoy her nap in peace, that, grunting out an order to Dimple to take
+the box from the pocket of a gown hanging upon the bed, she turned upon
+her pillow and was soon snoring as before.
+
+Seizing the magic salve with joyful fingers, Dimple flew back to Jim,
+and applied it freely to his broken legs. Instantly, Jim sprang to his
+feet, stronger than before, and the friends prepared for flight.
+Unfortunately, in the darkness, Dimple had also anointed the dead
+giant's head, and to their dismay it now began to roar most frightfully.
+
+"Wife, wife, wife, come down and seize these vagabonds!"
+
+The ogress, turning in her sleep, exclaimed,
+
+"Goodness! I know what that means. My husband has got into the pantry,
+in one of his hungry fits, and can't find enough to satisfy him. Dear
+me! Suppose he should devour the cook. That would be inconvenient.
+Coming, my dear, coming!" And springing nervously out of bed, she began
+to look for her dressing gown and slippers.
+
+"Oh, madam," said Dimple, bursting again into the room. "His lordship is
+in haste to butcher the nice fat prisoner he has found below, and I beg
+that you will send him his hunting-knife, which lies upon the table."
+
+"Is that all?" said the ogress, sinking back upon her pillow, greatly
+relieved. "Take the knife, child; you will find it at my elbow."
+
+Armed with this formidable weapon, a blade so keen that it could split a
+hair with ease, Dimple returned to Jim, who forthwith pierced his
+howling enemy through the tongue, nailing him securely to the floor.
+This was the end of the most wicked monster who had for many grievous
+years afflicted mankind. All was still, at last, within the castle, when
+Dimple and Jim, holding fast their well-earned trophies, climbed out of
+the narrow window and began their perilous descent. The rope hung over
+the jagged rocks of a precipice rising abruptly from the sea. The sky
+was dark, and the sound of the hungry waves beneath was far from
+comforting to the fugitives. When half-way down, they were discovered by
+one of the vampires keeping watch upon the rampart. Uttering a
+discordant shriek, the vampire flew straight to the window of his
+mistress, and gave the alarm.
+
+As soon as the ogress found out the escape of her treacherous cook, her
+anger knew no bounds. Tearing madly down toward the kitchen, she
+stumbled over the dead body of her lord, who lay pinned by his own
+hunting-knife to the floor. Her shrill cries now rent the air, and were
+echoed by those of the nine young ogresses, who ran out in their
+night-gowns, looking truly hideous, and cast themselves upon the body
+of their father.
+
+"My salve, my magic salve, quick!" cried the ogress to her oldest
+daughter. Then, remembering to whom she had consigned the treasure, she
+rushed wildly off and, leaning out of the window, seized the rope with a
+ferocious jerk.
+
+"Fly, my good vampires!" yelled the horrid creature, "and tear me those
+wretches to shreds before my eyes!"
+
+Now, indeed, the fate of the fugitives seemed sealed. Dimple, clinging
+to Jim, uttered a cry of terror. But suddenly, a silvery voice came from
+the bird-fairy hidden in her dress.
+
+"Have no fear, maiden. Set me free, and I promise to save you both from
+this awful fate."
+
+Dimple gladly complied with the fairy's request. What was their surprise
+to see this tiny creature, no larger than a veritable nightingale,
+transform herself into a mighty eagle upon whose outstretched wings the
+fugitives, seating themselves securely, were at once carried with
+astonishing speed over sea and land, never slackening until they came in
+sight of their own beloved country! Rapid as was the flight of the
+vampires in pursuit, that of the enchanted eagle was far more rapid.
+The cruel foes were completely distanced, and it may be a satisfaction
+to you to learn that, flying homeward, in their blind rage and spite, to
+tell the ogress of the failure of their chase, the vampires ran headlong
+into a passing thunderbolt, and were instantly killed, their bodies
+falling upon the castle wall under the very eye of their despairing
+mistress. As it was impossible to get away from her eyrie except in the
+vampire chariot, the ogress and her nine daughters lived there for a
+year and a day, gnashing their teeth over their changed lot; and then
+they slowly starved to death. Her last moments in life were haunted by
+memories of Dimple, and the scent of imagined sauces compounded by her
+clever cook arose tantalizingly to her nostrils. At the very end, a fit
+of unwonted weakness took possession of the dying ogress, and she was
+heard to murmur, as if dreaming, "She was the best I ever had. Dear
+girl! I feel now that I could forgive her everything--my husband's
+death--her treachery--my children's untimely fate--my own approaching
+end--could I but taste her batter-pudding ere I die!"
+
+[Illustration: THE NINE YOUNG OGRESSES]
+
+Happily for Dimple, who was a tender and sympathetic soul, she knew
+nothing of the pangs that rent the spirit of her ancient foe. Our hero
+and heroine had been set down by the obliging fairy-bird at some little
+distance from their native village. There, after giving her their
+thanks, they at once offered to set their captive free without
+conditions. The fairy-bird, overjoyed at her good fortune, insisted upon
+singing for them a whole day, and a pile of precious gems then lay
+heaped at Dimple's feet, far surpassing in value those in the king's own
+treasury. Dimple and Jim were now rolling in wealth and, being also in
+possession of the magic salve which cures all maladies, felt reasonably
+secure of a prosperous future. Bidding the fairy good-by, they proceeded
+on foot toward the neighboring town, carrying their treasures in some
+old potato sacks begged from a roadside hut.
+
+Jim sold a few of the stones, and with the proceeds purchased
+magnificent garments for Dimple and himself; then, hiring a train of
+servants to attend them, the two travellers returned to their own
+village, seated upon cushions of pale blue velvet in a crystal chariot
+drawn by six milk-white horses, with gold and silver harness.
+
+At the approach of this splendid procession, all the people of the
+neighborhood came flocking from their houses to see the grand prince and
+princess, who had done them so much honor. To their astonishment, the
+chariot stopped directly in front of the miller's cottage, and out
+sprang the beautiful princess, trailing her silks and satins along the
+garden path, and, with a scream of delight, throwing her fair arms
+around the poor old dusty miller, who sat mournfully upon his deserted
+door-stone, rapt in thought. In a voice that all recognized, Dimple
+cried:
+
+"Father, don't you know me? I am your loving child."
+
+Next to be astonished was Jim's mother, a lone widow, who sat at her
+spinning-wheel as usual, thinking of the boy she had lost so many months
+before. When Jim appeared before her in all his bravery, the poor old
+thing nearly went into hysterics of delight--she had not hesitated for
+one moment in recognizing the face that had never left her thoughts.
+
+Directly afterward, all the villagers were requested to proceed in a
+body to the church, where a splendid wedding was held. Everyone agreed
+that Dimple made the prettiest bride that had ever stepped from the old
+church porch, and no one could dispute the fact that Jim was the
+proudest of bridegrooms.
+
+The newly married pair built a superb palace in a park near their native
+village, and also two smaller palaces for Jim's mother and Dimple's
+father. A large share of their wealth was spent in beautifying the homes
+of their friends; and, in time, the hamlet came to be known as the
+"Happy Valley," so prosperous and fertile had it grown. No sickness came
+near these fortunate villagers; and none of them ever died--thanks to
+the free use made by Dimple of her inexhaustible ointment.
+
+At last reports, neither Jim nor Dimple had confided to anyone the true
+story of their life in the giant's castle. When people expressed
+curiosity as to the source of such wonderful wealth, Jim always
+roguishly said that Dimple had made it all by good cooking. This report,
+getting abroad, had the effect of inducing the girls of that country,
+far and wide, to go into their kitchens and learn all they could of the
+most useful of arts; which, perhaps, had as much as Dimple's magic salve
+to do with the health and contentment of the inhabitants of Happy
+Valley!
+
+
+
+
+MISS PEGGY AND THE FROG.
+
+(_An old nursery tale told from memory._)
+
+
+Once there lived a widow, whose only child was a pretty girl named
+Peggy. Peggy loved to play by the water-side with her young companions,
+and one day a large frog hopped out of the water and sat gazing at her
+with a loving smile.
+
+"What a queer frog!" cried Peggy.
+
+"I _am_ a queer frog," he remarked, to her surprise. "Go back, Miss
+Peggy, and tell your mother that I want to marry you."
+
+Peggy ran to fetch her mother to see the talking frog. When the mother
+came, the frog dived down into the water and brought up in his mouth a
+rich gold chain and a jewelled ring.
+
+"This will I give the mother, and much beside," he said, laying the
+chain at the mother's feet; "and this ring with many like it is for my
+bride, if Peggy will marry me."
+
+"Say yes, Peggy," whispered the mother, who was a covetous woman. "Of
+course you can't marry a frog, but you may get the gold and jewels all
+the same."
+
+Peggy burst out crying, but her mother nudged and poked her in the side
+till she said "yes," in a very sobbing voice.
+
+The frog bowed politely, laid the gold chain and the ring at their feet,
+dived down, and immediately brought up gold cups and silver dishes, with
+many rare jewels set into them. Peggy's mother gasped for joy as he
+heaped all these riches on the grassy bank. She ran up to the house, and
+found a basket which would hold them. While she was gone, the frog said
+nothing, but stood looking at Peggy and sighing from time to time. Peggy
+sat under a tree, and cried and sobbed. At last the frog spoke:
+
+"Don't forget your bridegroom, Miss Peggy. This day year I shall come
+to fetch you," and he hopped into the water with a splash.
+
+Peggy's mother sold one of the cups for a large sum of money, and
+furnished their house all new. She bought gay clothes for herself and
+Peggy, and went to church quite regularly, since she had so much finery
+to show. Peggy forgot all about her promise to the frog, and the year
+passed by rapidly.
+
+On the appointed day, however, the widow and Peggy were sitting at the
+table when they heard a knock at the door. They peeped out, and saw, to
+their dismay, the frog, dressed in a green and gold suit, and carrying a
+jewelled sword. Peggy gave a scream, and ran and hid in the cupboard,
+while the mother tripped to the door, and bade her strange guest good
+morning.
+
+"I am sorry, but Peggy is from home to-day," she said.
+
+"Oh! never mind. I will come in and wait awhile," answered the frog; and
+in he hopped cheerfully, and took a seat at the table. Peggy's mother
+was too angry to offer him food, but the frog helped himself and ate out
+of Peggy's plate. He stayed and he stayed, and all the time Peggy
+crouched in the cupboard, cramped and hungry. He stayed till night came;
+and at last poor Peggy, falling asleep, burst open the cupboard door,
+and tumbled out upon the floor.
+
+The frog ran to pick her up, before her mother could get there.
+
+"You are a little late, my dear," he said politely. "But I can see very
+well in the dark, so we may set out at once, for my palace in the pond."
+
+In vain did the widow beg and plead. The frog would not give Peggy up,
+until the poor girl herself went down on her knees and implored him to
+let her off for another year. At length he promised to go, if she would
+be ready to marry him that day year. Peggy said "yes," and off went her
+suitor, after having laid a purse of gold in the widow's lap.
+
+"It might have been worse, Peggy, so cheer up," said the woman, clapping
+the purse in her pocket. "A year is a long time, and perhaps he will
+forget you."
+
+Vain hope! That day year, Peggy was spinning beside her mother, when the
+frog knocked at the door. This time, he was dressed in blue and silver,
+and his hat had a waving plume; but he looked more hideous than before.
+
+Peggy gave a jump, and ran up the garret stairs, and thence out upon the
+roof of the cottage, where she clung to the chimney in despair. The
+mother opened the door, and said she was sorry Peggy was from home. The
+frog replied that he did not mind, but would wait for Miss Peggy to
+return.
+
+He sat in Peggy's chair; and this time he would not eat, but only sighed
+and sighed. Presently it began to rain and hail, and thunder and lighten
+dreadfully; and poor Peggy on the roof was frightened out of her life.
+She crept into the chimney, and soon a great clap of thunder sent her
+flying down into the room where her frog-lover sat.
+
+"You have an odd way of coming into the house, my dear," the frog said;
+"but I don't mind, if you are ready to go now. It rains hard, but I am
+used to water, and you must become so; so come along."
+
+He offered her his arm, but Peggy cried and implored to be let off. She
+went down on her knees to him, and at last he went away, giving her
+another purse and another year of freedom.
+
+Next year, the widow and Peggy barred and double-locked their doors. The
+frog appeared, dressed in white and gold, but it was of no use for him
+to knock and call. No answer came, and he went off sadly. Peggy and her
+mother rejoiced at getting rid of the persistent suitor, and sat down to
+supper merrily, without, however, unlocking their door.
+
+Presently, they heard a noise, and looking out saw a great army of frogs
+coming up the hill, The frogs formed themselves into a column and,
+aiming for the window, jumped through the glass, and landed on the
+floor. They seized Peggy, and very gently carried her out of the door
+and down the hill. Peggy fainted, and knew nothing till they stopped on
+the edge of the pond. The widow came running down the hill just in time
+to see the frogs plunge into the water with her child.
+
+Peggy sank--down, down--until she reached a beautiful grotto, where, on
+a throne of coral and shells, sat her frog-lover. He looked at her
+reproachfully, and said:
+
+"If you had not three times deceived me, Peggy, I should not have
+carried you off in this way. Now that you are here, try to be resigned
+to me, and say that you will be my wife."
+
+"Never, never," screamed Peggy; "you are so horrible to look at with
+your goggle eyes."
+
+The goggle eyes filled with tears as Peggy spoke, and the frog shook his
+head mournfully.
+
+"I see that it is of no use," he said sorrowfully, and ordered Peggy to
+be taken to a beautiful sea-garden, where she lived and amused herself
+for a long time, gradually forgetting all about her home on land. Every
+evening the frog came and talked to Peggy through a wall of white coral;
+and in time, she grew so fond of listening to his voice, that if he was
+a minute late she would cry for him to come.
+
+Once when it was rather dark, the frog asked Peggy if she could bear to
+look at him again. Peggy said yes, and he appeared before her. Somehow
+he did not seem so ugly as before, and when, in a trembling voice, he
+invited her to sit upon his knee, she at once did so. Instantly his leg
+broke with a loud snap; and, as poor Peggy sprang to her feet in great
+remorse, she beheld, instead of her frog suitor, a beautiful young
+prince, holding out his arms to her!
+
+The prince told her he had been bewitched by a frog godmother, who
+condemned him to remain in that horrid shape until a young girl could be
+found who would either consent to marry him or sit upon his knee. Peggy
+was very glad to have such an ending of her adventure. So they were
+married at once, and were then very happy. When they went back for a
+wedding visit to Peggy's mother, they found she had taken all the gold
+and silver and moved away to a distant country; and they never saw the
+wicked woman more.
+
+
+
+
+THE LEPERHAUN: _A Legend of the Emerald Isle._
+
+
+Once upon a time, by the glimmer of the nursery-fire, a little girl sat
+listening to the tales told by her buxom Irish nurse. The details of
+most of these--notably of one very thrilling legend of the Banshee, who
+has ever since seemed to float upon the wind that blows after
+nightfall--have passed from memory; but the good old story of Molly
+Jones and the Leperhaun remains, and, as best I can, I reproduce it
+here.
+
+In a comfortable farm-house upon the outskirts of a small village in
+Ireland, lived a farmer with his six sons. He was a prosperous man, and,
+besides having better cows, pigs, and potatoes than any other man in the
+county, was said to keep a tidy bit of money laid away in bank. Only one
+maid-servant did the work of the house, and she had lived there for
+many a year. At last she died, and the farmer looked about him for a
+girl to take her place. The wages were high, and a strapping lass named
+Mary Jones made up her mind that she was the right person for the
+situation. The farmer liked her looks, and engaged her on the spot.
+
+"Now, Molly, lass," said the master, when he had finished taking her
+around the house, and showing her how neat and convenient everything
+was; "you see what you've got to do, and that's the end of it. Nobody in
+this house, who works well, has ever cause to want for encouragement,
+for _there's hands to help them that aren't too curious_! The main thing
+you'd better guard against is takin' notes and askin' questions."
+
+Molly protested that she was innocent of the inheritance of Mother Eve;
+and the farmer went on with his directions.
+
+"On the first night of every month the family goes early to bed, and it
+will be your business to see that the hearth is well swept, and fresh
+turf laid upon the fire, and to collect around it all the worn or broken
+shoes about the house. The last thing before you leave the room, be sure
+to set before the fire a nice bowl of mealy potatoes bursting from their
+jackets, a couple of herrings broiled to a turn, and a jug of sweet
+buttermilk--and, whatever you do, never forget the salt!"
+
+Molly, though burning with curiosity, courtesied, and said nothing. All
+went well till the first night of the coming month. "When the family was
+retiring, the farmer whispered:
+
+"Remember, Molly! Be abed and asleep before the clock strikes twelve;
+and _don't forget the salt_."
+
+Molly tidied her kitchen, swept the hearth, arranged around it all the
+worn and broken shoes in the house, her own Sunday pair included; and,
+after setting a nice little meal, covered with a white cloth, near the
+fire, wound up the clock and went to bed. Next morning what was her
+surprise to find not only all the boots and shoes neatly mended, but the
+empty jug and platter washed and restored to their places, while a
+beautiful fire was blazing merrily! She dared not ask any questions of
+the farmer or his sons, and no one appeared in the least surprised by
+what had occurred. That month her work went so easily that Molly thought
+it child's play. Her bread was baked brown and light, her potatoes were
+a triumph, her churning was done sooner than anybody's in the place, and
+her linen was hung out to dry by sunrise on Monday mornings. For a
+month or two Molly never failed to set her kitchen in order, as before,
+for the mysterious guest. But one night she was in a hurry, and forgot
+the salt. Next morning the boots were mended, but the fire was scattered
+on the hearth, ashes lay all about her neat kitchen, and the dishes were
+left unwashed. This excited Molly's curiosity anew and, when the next
+time came, she did everything as usual, but, instead of going to bed,
+hid behind the kitchen clock. Punctually as the clock struck twelve, out
+popped from behind a big stone in the chimney-place a queer little dwarf
+dressed all in red. Apparently he suspected something, for he sniffed
+and peered into the darkness of the kitchen. Molly held her breath
+through fear, and the dwarf proceeded to blow up the fire and warm
+himself before sitting down to supper. Then, uncovering his cup and
+platter, and finding that all was to his taste, he smacked his lips, and
+made an excellent repast. When it was over, he whipped out of his bag
+some shoemaker's tools, and went to work to patch and mend the shoes,
+with twinkling fingers. In an hour's time all was finished and, after
+putting the room to rights, the dwarf took his leave.
+
+Molly told nobody that she had seen the veritable Leperhaun, the famous
+shoemaking fairy; but the next month she happened to be in an ill humor
+and hungry; so, without stopping to think of the consequences, she ate
+his supper herself--leaving upon the platter only a heap of potato-skins
+and the bones of the well-picked herrings.
+
+That night, while all the world was asleep, in came the Leperhaun and,
+finding the trick that had been played on him, flew into a terrible
+rage, scattered the boots and shoes over the floor, broke the crockery
+and, seizing a broom, swept all the ashes out upon the kitchen floor.
+Molly, who was watching, ran up to the garret and, jumping into bed,
+pulled the clothes over her head in a cold perspiration with terror. But
+hark! on the steps outside came the pit-pat of little feet. In rushed
+the offended house-fairy. He seized Molly by the hair of her head, and
+dragged her down the stairs, and over the flags of the yard, saying,
+
+    "Molly Jones! Molly Jones!
+    Potato-skins and herring-bones!
+    I'll break your bones upon the stones,
+    Molly Jones, oh! Molly Jones!"
+
+In vain Molly cried for mercy. The farmer and his sons were fast asleep,
+and not a soul heard her. All night long the Leperhaun dragged her
+about; and when the cock crowed he vanished, leaving her bruised and
+sore upon the threshold of the door. More dead than alive, Molly crawled
+up to her bed, where she lay black and blue for many a day.
+
+The farmer, suspecting what lesson had been taught her, said nothing;
+and we may be sure that, when the next time came for the visit of the
+Leperhaun, the little red dwarf had no fault to find with Molly.
+
+
+
+
+ROMANCES OF THE MIDDLE AGES
+
+
+[_The stories here following are, it is hoped, so rendered, from
+metrical romances of the Middle Ages, as to be adapted to the taste and
+understanding of youthful readers._]
+
+
+
+
+THE TRIALS OF SIR ISUMBRAS.
+
+(_From Ellis' Abridgment of the MS. in Caius College._)
+
+
+Once upon a time there lived a knight so handsome, so rich, and so
+valiant that all eyes were turned upon him. His name was Isumbras, and
+fortune had given him everything that the heart of man could wish for.
+He had a splendid castle, surrounded by vast forests, where every day he
+went hunting or hawking; and so generous he was with his wealth that the
+poor flocked to him from every quarter and never went away empty-handed.
+
+Sir Isumbras had a beautiful wife and three lovely sons to share the
+blessings of his lot; but one thing he had not, and that was an humble
+spirit. He forgot to own the Giver of good things, and took it as a
+matter of course that his life should flow on in ease and luxury.
+
+One day when mounted on his favorite steed, surrounded by his dogs, and
+having his hawk on fist, Sir Isumbras cast up his eyes to the sky, and
+there saw an angel, who reproached him with his pride, announcing that
+Heaven had in store for him a speedy punishment.
+
+Sir Isumbras fell to his knees in prayer; but hardly had the angel
+vanished from his sight when, on remounting his horse, the noble
+creature fell dead beneath him; the hawk dropped lifeless from his fist;
+and the faithful hounds expired in agonies at his feet. Hastening on
+foot to his castle, he was met by a servant, who informed him his horses
+and oxen had been suddenly struck dead by lightning, and that his fowls
+had all been stung to death by adders. Next came forward a page, who
+told him the castle was burned to the ground, many of his servants had
+perished, and that his wife and children had taken refuge, half naked,
+in a thorn-bush close at hand. Sir Isumbras hastened to the aid of his
+beloved family, stripping himself of his scarlet mantle and his surcoat
+to clothe them. He embraced them fondly, and thanked heaven that,
+though all the rest of his treasures were taken, these remained. He then
+proposed to his wife that, as a sign of repentance for their sins, they
+should all go on foot to the holy city, Jerusalem, begging their bread
+from land to land. He cut with his knife upon his bare shoulder the
+pilgrim's sign of the cross, and then the afflicted family set forth on
+their travels.
+
+Long they journeyed, eating crusts when they could beg them, or berries
+from wayside bushes, until, faint and weary, they reached a broad but
+shallow stream. Taking his eldest son in his arms, Sir Isumbras bore him
+across the river, and placed him beneath a bush of broom-plant, bidding
+him play with the blossoms until his father's return. Scarcely had the
+knight left his son, when an enormous lion burst from a neighboring
+thicket and bore away the child. In like manner the second son became
+the prey of a fierce leopard; and the poor mother, who saw them so
+cruelly torn from her sight, fainted away, with her baby on her breast.
+Sir Isumbras bowed to the will of God; and when his wife revived they
+journeyed on to the shore of the Greek sea. Here they stood, and,
+through eyes that were full of tears, saw a great fleet of three hundred
+ships coming toward them. This was the navy of a famous heathen king,
+and no sooner had he landed than the travellers, who had not touched
+bread or meat for seven days, hastened to implore his charity. The king
+soon observed the robust limbs and tall stature of the husband; and
+perceived he was a knight in disguise, and that the wife, whose beauty
+was as "bright as blossoms upon tree," was, in spite of her ragged
+clothes, a lady of high degree. So, affecting to treat the poor couple
+with respect, he offered them gold and treasure if the knight would
+renounce Christianity and consent to fight under the Saracen banners.
+This offer was at once declined, and the angry king made up his mind to
+revenge himself by carrying away the knight's wife. So, upon an order to
+the attendants, a purse of gold was pressed into the knight's hand, his
+infant son was put into his arms, he was hurried ashore, cruelly beaten
+by the king's servants, and, when he recovered himself, saw a heathen
+ship, with his wife on board, set sail for Africa.
+
+Sir Isumbras clasped his only remaining treasure to his heart, and
+followed the vessel with his eyes until it vanished from sight. Night
+found him still there, until father and babe fell asleep upon the bare
+ground, too weary to keep awake. Sir Isumbras had laid the fatal present
+of the heathen king, the purse of gold, in the scarlet mantle which he
+wrapped around his child. Scarcely had the next day's sun risen upon the
+earth, when an eagle, attracted by the red cloth, darted down, carrying
+off mantle, child, and purse in his talons.
+
+The poor knight was at last in utter despair. He fell on his knees, and
+offered what remained of his life to the God he had offended. Just then
+he heard the noise of a blacksmith's forge, and saw, not far off, some
+men at work. They took pity on him and fed him. He entered their
+service, and bound himself for seven long years to learn their trade.
+During this time he forged a complete suit of armor for himself, being
+determined at the first opportunity to take up arms against the
+Saracens, whose king had not only done him such a cruel wrong, but was
+oppressing God's people.
+
+At length his opportunity came. The Christian army was to fight the
+Saracens on a field not far from the forge. Sir Isumbras buckled on his
+awkward armor and, mounting a horse that had been used by the smith to
+carry coals, proceeded to the field of battle.
+
+His heart beat with wild joy when he saw the foe before him. Uttering a
+fervent prayer, he dashed into the thick of the combat, attracting all
+eyes at first by his sorry steed and rough armor, and again by the
+splendid skill and courage of his charge. Early in the action his horse
+was killed under him, and the Christian chiefs made haste to present him
+another one, also a suit of armor more worthy of the heroic soldier he
+had proved himself to be. All that day the battle raged.
+
+By nightfall Sir Isumbras, single-handed, had killed the heathen king
+and many of his followers. But he was himself sorely wounded, and when
+brought for reward before the Christian king, and asked his name, could
+hardly falter out, "I am a smith's man, sire." The king swore a great
+oath to make a knight of this valiant "smith's man"; and, with all honor
+and tenderness, Sir Isumbras was carried into a nunnery, where the good
+sisters nursed him until he recovered from his many wounds.
+
+Sir Isumbras was not satisfied to remain quiet long, though he had slain
+the heathen king. He went to the Holy Land, and for seven years wandered
+about a pilgrim, as before, sleeping upon the ground by night, and
+vainly seeking tidings of his wife by day. Once, during this time, when
+he was starving upon the banks of a stream, there appeared to him a
+cheering visitor.
+
+    And as he sat, about midnight,
+    There came angel fair and bright,
+    And brought him bread and wine.
+    He said, "Palmer, well thou be!
+    The King of Heaven greeteth well thee;
+    Forgiven is sin thine."
+
+Very soon after this miraculous event Sir Isumbras found his wife, who
+had dwelt, holy and charitable, in a secluded castle, where she had
+been shut up by the Saracen king. She welcomed him with rapture, and
+together they shed many tears over their lost children. They lived
+together for some years, until Sir Isumbras was again summoned to do
+battle with the Saracens, who had determined at all cost to kill him.
+The fight was again hot and long, and just when Sir Isumbras was about
+to be overpowered by numbers of the enemy, three new champions appeared
+in the field, declaring themselves on the side of the Christians. These
+were three splendid knights, the first mounted upon a lion, the second
+upon a leopard, and the third upon an eagle. The Saracen cavalry,
+terror-stricken at sight of them, dispersed in all directions. But
+flight was in vain; three and twenty thousand unbelievers were soon laid
+dead upon the plain by the lion, leopard, and eagle, fighting with
+tireless fury, and driving all before them, until the entire heathen
+army was utterly put to rout. Then, coming back to Sir Isumbras, the
+three champions knelt before him, announcing themselves his long lost
+sons, mercifully protected and befriended by the savage creatures by
+whom they had been carried off. Sir Isumbras embraced his valiant sons,
+and led them to their mother. The Christian king enriched the entire
+family, restoring them to their former rank. And now wealth, titles,
+honors, and all that he had lost, came back to Sir Isumbras, and the
+remainder of his days was spent in blessed peace.
+
+    "They lived and died in good intent;
+    Unto heaven their souls went,
+    When that they dead were.
+    Jesu Christ, heaven's king,
+    Give us, aye, his blessing,
+    And shield us from care!"
+
+
+
+
+BISCLAVERET.
+
+(_From one of Marie's Lays._)
+
+
+Once upon a time there lived in Brittany a baron who was handsome, wise,
+courteous, and brave. Although admired and beloved by his neighbors, he
+remained single until late in life, when he fell desperately in love
+with a young lady, who did not hesitate long in accepting the offer of
+so distinguished a suitor for her hand. They were married, and the bride
+returned from her honeymoon to take up her abode in her husband's fine
+castle.
+
+For a little while all went well, until the lady discovered that her
+husband was regularly absent from home during three days of every week.
+Overwhelmed with curiosity to know where he went, and how he was
+occupied during this time, she used every means in her power to coax the
+secret from him.
+
+"Do not ask me," said her kind lord; "rest assured that I have good
+reasons for my conduct. If you know what takes me from you, it will only
+be to hate and scorn your husband, and to ruin the happiness of our
+life."
+
+The lady persisted, going from coaxings to prayers and tears. At last
+the poor baron gave way, and confided to her that, owing to a cruel
+spell cast on him at birth, he was during half the week a Bisclaveret,
+or Man-Wolf, taking on the body of a wolf, but keeping his own feelings
+and intelligence as a man. Upon hearing this dreadful story, the lady
+fainted away. Henceforth, although her husband was more loving than
+ever, she was filled with horror and loathing of him; and soon she
+secretly resolved to destroy the monster and enjoy his wealth.
+
+By watching his movements she ascertained that when the baron became a
+wolf he left his clothing in a deserted chapel on the edge of a certain
+wood; and she formed a plan to seize and hide the garments. So long as
+the Bisclaveret was without his man's clothes, he was condemned to
+remain a brute.
+
+Accordingly, when, after his melancholy ramble through the woods, the
+Bisclaveret went one night to resume his clothes, they were gone; and,
+in agony of spirit, he knew that he was betrayed by his wife. He took
+himself off to the forest, and was there lost to human sight.
+
+Meanwhile the wicked wife, announcing that her husband had died while on
+a journey to some foreign land, enjoyed his wealth and his castle. A
+year later, the king went hunting in the forest, and, after a stout
+chase, had nearly run down the unhappy Bisclaveret, when that persecuted
+beast, bounding from his thicket, fawned upon the king's feet, shedding
+real tears and uttering almost human cries for mercy. The king, struck
+with compassion, ordered his dogs to be whipped off, and had the strange
+animal conveyed with care to his palace. Bisclaveret soon became the
+royal favorite. He slept on a couch of soft furs, ate from a golden
+dish, and returned with gratitude the caresses of all who noticed him.
+
+His gentleness and sagacity won for the man-wolf the right to roam
+wherever he desired to go, unchained. One day the king gave a splendid
+entertainment, to which were invited all the lords and ladies of the
+land. Among them, dressed in silks and satins, and sparkling with
+jewels, came the false wife. No sooner did Bisclaveret espy her chatting
+with the king's guests, than, to the surprise of all present, the
+usually mild creature rose up, growling horribly and, springing upon the
+lady, bit off her nose. Bisclaveret was seized, and would have been
+speedily killed, but that he again fawned upon the king's feet, moaning
+and weeping as though he longed to speak. The king ordered him to be put
+into a cage, and consulted with the oldest and wisest man in his
+kingdom, as to what could be the meaning of the wolf's sudden fury
+toward this lady.
+
+"Brittany is a land of wonders, sire," said the aged man. "The lady who
+was attacked is as well known for a bad name as your favorite animal is
+for a good one. Who knows what became of her late husband, the baron?
+Perhaps this poor brute was beloved by that gentleman, and has some
+secret wrong to avenge. At any rate, you should at once shut the lady in
+prison until she is made to tell all _she_ knows about the matter.
+Mayhap it is more than we suspect."
+
+The king followed his counsellor's advice; and, when the lady found
+herself likely to be kept a prisoner, she preferred speech to silence.
+With tears of professed penitence, she confessed all, and the king lost
+no time in sending for the clothes of the late baron, and placing them
+in the cage of Bisclaveret. At first the animal seemed indifferent, and
+surveyed them listlessly. "Leave him to himself, sire," said the wise
+man. "Above all, set him at liberty in a chamber suitable to his rank.
+Then we shall see a wonderful change, I promise you."
+
+This was done, and in the morning the king ran impatiently to the
+chamber of Bisclaveret. There, on the bed, dressed in his clothes and
+sleeping sweetly, lay the baron. When his royal master entered, the
+sleeper woke and, bending his knee before his sovereign, poured forth
+his joy and gratitude.
+
+As for the wicked wife, her estates were taken from her and restored to
+her husband, while she herself was sent into perpetual banishment. Most
+people would think she had been sufficiently punished by the loss of her
+nose, which never grew again!
+
+
+
+
+ROSWAL AND LILIAN.
+
+(_From a Scottish Romance of the XVIth Century._)
+
+[Illustration: Tournament in honor of the Princess of Bealm.]
+
+
+There lived once, at Naples, a king and queen whose only son, Roswal,
+was a paragon of beauty and of valor. The boy, who was as generous as
+the day was long, did not at all resemble his father, for the king was
+harsh and cruel, and slow to forgive his enemies.
+
+In the prison of the king's palace were confined three noblemen, who,
+having been suspected of plotting against the crown, were doomed to be
+imprisoned for life, and had the most cruel treatment lavished upon them
+every day. Roswal could not bear to hear their groans and sighs arising
+from the dungeon, and one day conceived the bold project of taking the
+prison keys from under the king's pillow while he slept, and setting
+the three poor sufferers at liberty. This was done, and Roswal restored
+the keys to their place without having been detected.
+
+When it was found that the prisoners had escaped, the king grew
+furiously angry. In vain the head jailor and his assistants declared
+their innocence in the matter. Their lives would have been instantly
+sacrificed to the king's wrath, had not Roswal boldly come forward and
+confessed that he alone had freed the prisoners.
+
+At first, the king vowed that Roswal should die for having defied him;
+but the prayers of the queen, and perhaps the cool bravery of his son in
+confronting him, moved him to relent. He decided to change Roswal's
+sentence to banishment for life to a distant court, where he was to be
+placed at the service of the King of Bealm, with recommendation to make
+a soldier of the lad, henceforth a stranger to his home.
+
+Roswal set out on his journey to the court of Bealm, attended only by
+the high-steward, an envious and ambitious man, who hated the prince and
+would gladly have done him evil.
+
+The king, at parting with his son, had given him a letter of
+introduction to the King of Bealm; and the fond mother had come
+secretly to press all the gold and jewels she had, a fortune in
+themselves, upon her beloved Roswal. Except for parting with his mother,
+Roswal did not feel very sorry to set out thus from home. He longed to
+see what marvels the wide world contained, and the memory of the three
+brave men he had loosed from their vile bondage cheered him in spite of
+his father's anger.
+
+The high-steward was full of projects of his own; and one night, when
+they had stopped to rest by the side of a rushing torrent, and Roswal
+had plunged into the crystal stream, as he loved to do, the wicked
+steward seized him unawares, held him under water till he was half
+strangled, and spared his life only on condition that Roswal would
+pledge himself to give up all the money and jewels, his letter, his
+horse and sword, and furthermore swear never to reveal the affair to
+mortal man or woman. Roswal, seeing that he could not help himself,
+submitted, and the false steward, laughing maliciously, put spurs to his
+horse, leading Roswal's steed behind him, and soon disappeared from view
+with all the treasures.
+
+Roswal found himself alone at nightfall in the forest, as hungry as a
+hawk, and very much at a loss where to find food and shelter. He
+wandered along till he saw a little brown hut, under the branches of a
+wide-spreading oak-tree. Here, in the door, sat an old woman knitting,
+and Roswal's youth and beauty soon won his way into her affections. She
+led him into her house, gave him a good meal of brown bread, eggs, honey
+and milk, and a bed of clean straw. Roswal slept as sweetly as ever he
+had done on his golden bedstead and his pillow of down at home. Next
+day, he offered to work for the old woman, and set to cutting up wood
+and binding fagots cheerfully. For several months he lived thus, until
+the chamberlain of the King of Bealm chanced to pass that way. Taking a
+fancy to the handsome youth, he carried him off to court, where Roswal
+was appointed cup-bearer to the king's lovely daughter. His duties were
+light, and the princess was kind; so Roswal had little to complain of,
+until one day he heard it announced that Prince Roswal, of Naples, was
+about to wait upon the King of Bealm and demand his daughter's hand in
+marriage.
+
+Roswal pricked up his ears at this, and immediately suspected the
+supposed Prince of Naples to be none other than his late travelling
+companion, the wicked steward; though, when he heard the princess say to
+her maidens that this Prince Roswal was remarkably pushing, considering
+that he had only recently presented a letter of introduction to them,
+and that, for her part, she could not see what her papa found to fancy
+in the young man, Roswal rejoiced. He was delighted to find that the
+princess did not care for the impostor. Then he remembered his oath,
+never to reveal what the steward had done to him, and his spirits fell
+again.
+
+In a day or two, the King of Bealm announced to his daughter that he had
+accepted the offer of the King of Naples' son, and that preparations for
+their marriage would immediately begin. The princess was very unhappy,
+for she had taken a great dislike to the pretended prince. Roswal met
+his late servant face to face at one of the bridal feasts, and the eyes
+of the steward fell before his scornful gaze. But he knew that he was
+safe in trusting Roswal's honor not to tell the secret, and so carried
+on his impudent pretence.
+
+A tournament, lasting three days, was announced in honor of the wedding,
+which was soon to come off. Roswal found the Princess Lilian in tears
+about that time and, while endeavoring to console her, let her know,
+without intending it, that he, too, had fallen in love with her. This
+made the pretty princess so happy, that she confessed to Roswal she had
+loved him secretly ever since he was chosen to be her cup-bearer. She
+was sure he was of noble birth from his manners and appearance; and she
+urged him to admit that he was as worthy of her rank as of her love.
+
+Roswal was never so sorely tempted to reveal himself! He restrained the
+impulse to confess by a strong effort, and, alone and melancholy,
+wandered out into the forest--longing for an opportunity to enter the
+lists of the tournament and prove his knightly skill before the king and
+princess; and while he sat musing thus, there approached him a knight
+leading a magnificent white war-horse, on whose saddle was suspended a
+suit of splendid armor.
+
+"Prince," said the strange knight, bowing low before him, "put on this
+armor, and mount this steed. The tournament has begun, and thou wilt be
+in time to prove thy prowess. I await here thy return."
+
+Roswal said he had led his hounds to the forest, intending to hunt a
+deer; and so the knight offered to hunt in his absence and keep the game
+for him. How his heart beat with joy and pride when he found himself
+once more mounted on a noble steed, and clad in knightly armor! Thanking
+the stranger fervently, he put spurs to his horse, and galloped off.
+
+Entering the barriers, Roswal overset all who opposed him, and then,
+with a tremendous rush, charged at full speed upon the false prince, who
+was riding up and down with a great show in the presence of his lady.
+The steward recoiled in terror; but the unknown knight as suddenly
+checked his horse, turned around, saluted the company with the utmost
+grace, and vanished, as he had come, like a meteor.
+
+The company applauded, and the old King of Bealm cried out that he would
+give an earldom to find out who was the unknown knight.
+
+That evening, while all the palace was ringing with accounts of the
+brave stranger, Roswal came home from the forest, laden with venison and
+followed by his hounds.
+
+The Princess Lilian called him to her side, and told him of the events
+of the day. It was evident that she wished to inspire Roswal with a
+desire to break a lance in her behalf; but he appeared to be
+indifferent, and she ended in a burst of tears.
+
+Next day, when Roswal went again with his hounds to the forest, a second
+knight, leading a silver-gray war-horse laden with armor, appeared and
+repeated the kind offer of the day before. Roswal again entered the
+lists, and found the steward impudently advancing to meet him. Roswal
+unhorsed half a dozen of the bravest riders, then, with all possible
+ease, sent the steward to the ground with such a terrible crash, that
+the miserable impostor lay as if dead for some time. The unknown knight
+glanced up at the Princess Lilian, and saw a look in her face as if she
+suspected him. Then, quickly retiring from the ring, Roswal reappeared
+as before, at evening, with the spoils of the day of hunting. Lilian,
+who was ready to declare that none other than her handsome young lover
+could have been the stranger knight, was much perplexed when she found
+Roswal quietly at home engaged in his usual occupations.
+
+On the third day, Roswal was mounted and equipped in a similar manner.
+He had a bay horse, a red shield, green armor, and a golden helmet. He
+cast down all of the other competitors, broke two of the steward's ribs,
+threw a gold ring into the lap of his lady-love, and rode away like a
+flash. Returning to the wood, he was met by all three of his friends,
+the knights who had helped him. They revealed themselves, and Roswal
+found to his delight that they were the three noblemen he had released
+from his father's dungeon. They told him they were well aware of all he
+had suffered for their sakes, and were prepared to befriend him still
+farther.
+
+Next day had been fixed upon for the wedding, and all the court was
+called together in a magnificent hall, to see their king bestow their
+princess' hand upon the Prince of Naples. Pale and tearful, for she had
+cried all night, appeared the princess. She was dressed in white satin,
+with a silver train, carried by ten little pages in blue, and on her
+head she wore a diadem of immense diamonds. The bridegroom, who had been
+patched up by the doctors, sat, anything but cheerful, in a golden chair
+beside the king. Behind a group of court ladies and gentlemen stood
+Roswal, handsomer than any one present, and looking every inch a
+prince, though he wore a plain brown velvet suit, with a gold chain
+round his neck, the livery of Princess Lilian's household. Suddenly
+visitors were announced, and in came three richly clad strangers,
+scattering money among the servants, which made it an easy matter for
+them to move along.
+
+The king received them courteously, for he recognized three noblemen of
+the kingdom of Naples he had known long before.
+
+"You will be glad to salute your prince," the king said, when he had
+greeted them, "and to be present at his nuptials."
+
+The noblemen refused to notice the steward, whose knees knocked together
+with fear, for he saw he was on the brink of exposure. The three
+strangers looked about them and, espying Roswal, ran up to him, fell on
+their knees and kissed his hand, hailing him as the true Prince of
+Naples. The steward, in terror, dropped upon his knees before Roswal and
+confessed all, drawing from his pocket the casket containing the queen's
+jewels, which he had been about to present to his bride. Roswal would
+have dealt gently with the contemptible wretch, but the angry old King
+of Bealm declared that he and his daughter should not be made sport of,
+and the offender live to tell it. So the steward was hanged forthwith,
+and Roswal, owning his love for Lilian, was made happy by promise of her
+hand--he had already won her heart, as you know.
+
+That same day arrived news of the death of the King of Naples, and the
+recall of Roswal to the throne. He was married to Lilian; and it is
+certain that no one who had befriended him in his days of poverty was
+ever forgotten by King Roswal. The good old woman in the forest was
+enriched, the three noblemen were restored to their estates and
+fortunes, and Roswal's mother was made happy by a speedy reunion with
+her son.
+
+    "So Roswal and Lilian sheen,
+      Lived many years in good liking.
+    I pray to Jesu, heaven's king,
+      To grant us heaven to our ending.
+        Of them I have no more to say:
+        God send them rest until doom's day!"
+
+
+
+
+ELIDUC AND GUILLIADUN.
+
+(_From one of Marie's Lays._)
+
+
+Eliduc was a knight of Brittany who, through the cabals of enemies, fell
+under the displeasure of the king and was banished from his dominions.
+Sir Eliduc did not wish to forsake his country, still less did he wish
+to part with the fair Lady Guildeluec, to whom he was solemnly
+betrothed. But the king's order was law; and, taking a fond leave of his
+promised wife, while vowing ever to be faithful, Sir Eliduc called to
+him ten of the bravest of his followers, and set sail for the English
+coast. They had a short voyage with fair winds, landing at Totness, in
+Devonshire, and proceeded at once to Exeter. The King of Exeter was at
+that time plunged into a most distressful war with a neighboring
+province, to whose prince he had refused to marry his only daughter and
+heiress. Sir Eliduc offered his services to the king, which were gladly
+accepted. After a few days a battle was fought, in which Eliduc's
+knowledge of the art of war and his bravery, as well as that of his ten
+followers, helped to decide the fortunes of the King of Exeter, who had
+the satisfaction of seeing the foe put to flight. As a reward for his
+aid, the king made Eliduc the supreme commander of all his armies.
+Eliduc was the idol of the people, and soon the fair Princess Guilliadun
+fell in love with him, confiding to the king, her father, that she would
+have no other husband than this valiant stranger. The king thought he
+could do no better than secure such a noble successor to his throne, and
+sent his chamberlain to inform Eliduc of the honor in store for him.
+Eliduc was now in a sad plight. He thought of his absent Guildeluec, who
+was no doubt, even then, waiting and weeping for his return, and his
+heart grew heavy within him. On the other hand, the Princess Guilliadun
+was by far the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, and her love
+for him was strong. To refuse her offered hand would bring down on him
+the fierce wrath of a great king, to whom no man said nay.
+
+While Sir Eliduc was in this dilemma, a message came to him from his
+former master, the Breton king, ordering his immediate return to protect
+their country from invasion. All Sir Eliduc's love for his own land
+stirred within him. To defend her borders he was ready to sacrifice his
+present rank and wealth, and be a simple knight again. The image of his
+promised wife arose clear and bright before him, and he forgot the
+lovely Guilliadun, who, for a time, had so dazzled his imagination with
+her charms.
+
+Laying down his sword before the sovereign, he resigned command of the
+Exeter troops, and, in spite of the king's rich offers and temptations,
+hurried to take ship for France. Among his attendants was a youth
+muffled in a long mantle, who, when they were fairly out at sea,
+revealed to the knight's astonished gaze the face and form of the wilful
+Guilliadun.
+
+She had thus disguised herself to follow him, and now vowed that unless
+he took her to be his wife, she would die by her own fair hand. There
+was no time for discussion, for, at that moment, arose a mighty tempest
+which threatened to engulf the ship. In vain were the efforts of the
+sailors to manage the vessel, and all prepared for immediate death, as
+wind and waves beat furiously upon them. Suddenly, one of the sailors
+spoke up for the rest, and, in the hearing of Guilliadun, warned Sir
+Eliduc that Heaven was angry with him for carrying off the princess in
+disguise, when he was already promised in marriage to another woman.
+Guilliadun hearing these words, fell lifeless to the deck. She appeared
+so like a dead person that the crew offered to throw her overboard, but
+Eliduc, seizing an oar, struck down the sailor who had spoken, and,
+himself grasping the helm, drove the ship through foam and boiling waves
+safely to port. In a few hours he might hope to reach the court of his
+king; but what, meantime, should he do with the body of the unfortunate
+princess? In this emergency, he remembered that in a forest near by had
+once lived an aged hermit, in whose cell he might possibly leave the
+corpse of the princess, until he should be able to dispose of it in a
+style suited to her rank. He mounted his palfrey, took the body in his
+arms, rode to the hermit's retreat, and, gaining entrance to a little
+chapel, laid on a slab in the centre of it the unhappy Guilliadun. She
+was beautiful as ever, and looked like a waxen image. The knight,
+kneeling beside her, shed many bitter tears, and then, springing to his
+saddle, galloped off to place himself at the service of his king.
+
+He found the affairs of his country in a bad way, but the mere mention
+of his name sufficed to inspire the Breton soldiers with new courage.
+Marching at the head of the king's troops, he led them to battle, and in
+a short time had put the foe to confusion and rout. Covered with glory,
+Eliduc rode back to receive the king's congratulations and thanks.
+There, among the ladies attending the queen, was his faithful
+Guildeluec; but when she came forward with open arms to greet him, a
+thought of the Lady Guilliadun, who had died for love of him, shot into
+his heart like an arrow. Guildeluec quickly saw that something was
+amiss; but, hiding the anguish she felt, she resolved to keep close
+watch upon her lover, and, if possible, discover the cause of his
+coldness.
+
+For some days the court was given up to gaiety and festivals of all
+kinds. Guildeluec noticed that every day her knight would steal away to
+the forest and remain there for some hours, returning to the palace more
+melancholy than before. She set a little page to follow Eliduc, and the
+boy traced his master to a retreat all overgrown with trees, where the
+knight entered and was lost to sight.
+
+Dismissing the boy with a piece of gold, the lady resolved herself to
+unravel the mystery. Wrapped in a long veil, she stole along the green
+alleys of the wood, and soon reached the little hermitage. Lifting up a
+curtain of closely woven vines which drooped before it, she entered the
+chapel door. There, on a bier richly hung with velvet, lay a young and
+lovely maiden, apparently dead, save that her cheeks bloomed like a
+new-blown rose. Guildeluec gazed for a while upon this sad sight, when a
+noise of approaching footsteps startled her, and she hid behind a tomb.
+The new-comer was none other than the brave knight Eliduc, who, casting
+himself on the ground beside the bier, gave way to bitter grief, calling
+the saints above to witness that he had been true to his pledge to
+Guildeluec, even to hastening to an untimely end the fair maiden before
+him. Guildeluec heard all, and understood what had taken his love from
+her. Just then a weasel, running from behind the altar, passed near the
+bier, which angered the knight, who, at one blow, struck the little
+animal dead upon the ground. When Eliduc had gone, the watching lady
+saw another weasel run up to his slaughtered companion, attempt to play
+with her, and on finding her without life, go away with every appearance
+of grief. Directly the weasel came back again, carrying a beautiful red
+flower from the wood, which was carefully inserted in the mouth of his
+companion. The effect was magical. Instantly, the dead weasel sprang up,
+dropped the flower, and scampered off with her happy little comrade.
+
+Guildeluec stooped to pick up the fallen blossom. For a moment she
+hesitated, for her love for the knight was very great. Then she bent
+forward, and laid the stem of the flower between the rosy lips of the
+entranced Guilliadun. Immediately there were signs of life. The girl
+stirred, a blush came into her cheeks, and her lips parted. When her
+eyes opened, Guildeluec sighed and said, "Truly, never was there seen so
+fair a creature."
+
+Guildeluec soon explained to the awakened princess where she was, and
+received her fervent thanks for delivery from so strange a spell. With
+many tears, Guilliadun confessed to her unknown friend her love for the
+knight Eliduc, and the way she had followed him from her father's court.
+Guildeluec heard her tale in silence, and when it was at an end, led
+her away from the hermitage to the palace, where the queen took the
+princess under her charge, and in the evening presented her with much
+pomp to the members of her court. When Eliduc saw Guilliadun alive and
+well, richly clad and lovelier than before, his heart rejoiced, but he
+turned away from her. Then came forward Guildeluec, who, with the
+queen's permission, released him from his pledge to her, and gave him
+back his ring, saying she had determined to retire to a convent and
+devote her days to holy works.
+
+[Illustration: Guildeluec Reviving Guilliadun.]
+
+The queen then placed Guilliadun's hand in that of Eliduc. They were
+married with great rejoicings; but when the blessing was said over them
+by the priest, the knight fancied he heard a sigh breathed close in his
+ear. He looked around; there was no one in sight, save the group of nuns
+behind a grating, whose voices rose pure and clear in the strains of the
+bridal hymn.
+
+
+
+
+THE FALCON-KING.
+
+(_From one of Marie's Lays._)
+
+
+There lived once, in Britain, an old knight who was lord of Caerwent, a
+city situated on the River Douglas. He was wealthy and avaricious, and
+the sole heir to his possessions, a lovely daughter, he kept locked up
+in a high tower, under the care of a cross governess. His one fear was
+that this daughter would marry, and thus give some one the right to lay
+claim to the gold that was dearer to him than life itself. To prevent
+her from getting a husband, the old knight used every method he could
+think of to keep off visitors; and any stray caller at the castle was
+set upon by fierce dogs, who would tear one to pieces as soon as gnaw a
+beef-bone!
+
+Day after day the father rode off to the hunt, the governess told her
+beads, and the damsel moped within the tower. One morning she was at her
+wheel, singing a mournful ditty, and sighing from time to time, as she
+glanced over the tree-tops at the roofs and spires of the distant city,
+when suddenly the sky above her window was darkened, and she heard a
+whirring noise, as of mighty wings astir. A falcon of huge size and
+noble mien flew in at the casement, and lit submissively at her feet.
+The maiden stroked his proud head, and at once the bird changed to a
+beautiful young man, who, in a gentle voice, begged her to have no fear
+of him, as he was not only a devoted lover but the humblest of her
+slaves.
+
+"Bid me go if you will," said the prince, "and deeply as I should regret
+your command, you will see how quickly I shall obey it. Long have I
+watched you from afar, and dearly I love you. For your sake, I have
+acquired the art of magic, enabling me to assume this shape in order to
+reach your prison."
+
+"Oh! but I _don't_ want you to go!" cried the poor little mewed-up
+damsel, who was tired to death of having nobody to talk to.
+
+As she had never seen a man younger than her father, it was a great
+astonishment to her to find that the prince's hair was dark and his
+cheek unwrinkled and rosy as a ripe peach.
+
+What he meant by being a lover, she did not in the least understand.
+Only, it was pleasant to hear him talk in his kind, low voice; and
+praises were so rare to her, that they sounded sweet as honey dropping
+from his lips.
+
+As a matter of course, the afternoon passed quickly; but at last,
+startled by the noise of a key grating in the lock of the door, the
+prince quickly assumed his bird-shape, and promising to come again upon
+the morrow, flew out of the window. The governess could not imagine what
+had put her prisoner in such a silly state of cheerfulness, as she
+thought it; and, boxing the poor girl's ears for smiling, gave her a
+long piece of poetry to learn by heart, and allowed her nothing but
+bread and water for her tea.
+
+Next day the falcon came again, and for many days he continued his
+visits, until the girl grew to love him as he loved her, and promised to
+be his wife. Once a month the chaplain was accustomed to come to see
+her, and to make her say a catechism the longest ever heard of. When
+next the day came around for his visit, what was her surprise, instead
+of the stern chaplain, to find a gentle and kind old priest, who, when
+left alone with her, avowed himself to be a friend of the falcon-prince.
+
+"As your father is a wicked and unworthy son of the church, and the
+prince a noble and devoted one, I cannot but approve of the marriage
+between you and your beloved," the old man said. "The ceremony will now
+be performed, and may heaven's blessing rest upon you both."
+
+The falcon-prince arrived at the same moment, bearing in his beak a
+wedding-ring of large bright diamonds. The couple were married, and the
+prince told his wife that, very soon, he would be able to furnish her
+also with wings to leave the tower.
+
+One day the governess, coming in unexpectedly, found the girl toying
+with a beautiful ring, which she hurriedly concealed in her mattress.
+Spite of all the governess' efforts, she could not find the jewel; nor
+could she succeed in drawing from her captive any explanation of how she
+had come by it. The governess told the father, who redoubled his
+precautions and set spies to watch upon the outside of the tower. In a
+few days, the spies reported to him that they had seen a bird of the
+largest size fly in at the maiden's window, remain there for some hours,
+and then fly out again.
+
+"I'll be a match for this carrier-pigeon of hers!" said the old knight
+with malicious glee. That night a trap was set upon the outside of the
+window, surrounded by sharp knives, so that anything passing through it
+would inevitably be caught or wounded grievously. The young wife awaited
+her husband anxiously, for it was the day fixed for her escape. Soon he
+arrived; but as he touched the window the trap fell, and although he
+managed to pass in, a long trail of blood was left behind him.
+
+"Lose no time, my beloved!" he said, in a voice altered by pain. "Our
+enemies are upon us. Put this bracelet on your arm, and spring into the
+air after me, without fear."
+
+She obeyed, and found herself upborne by magic wings, which carried her
+more swiftly than the wind over forest tops, shining river, and city
+spires and domes. Glorious as was her airy flight, she could see that
+her companion grew weaker. They arrived in a country adjoining the one
+in which she had lived, and stopped immediately above a splendid
+palace--alighting in the marble balcony of a chamber furnished with the
+utmost magnificence. Here the falcon regained his man's shape, and, with
+despair, his wife saw that he was deathly pale, while the blood poured
+from a wound beneath his heart.
+
+"I am dying," he exclaimed. "Help me to my bed yonder, and may heaven
+grant me strength to tell my people that you are their lawful queen."
+
+The poor wife aided her husband to lie down, but when he would have
+spoken to her again, his voice was gone--a moment more, and he was dead.
+
+And now in what a mournful plight the pretty new queen found herself!
+Soon the attendants would, no doubt, come flocking into the room, to
+discover their sovereign murdered in his bed, and a stranger cowering by
+his side. Terror lent speed to her feet, and hastening back to the
+balcony, she ran down a long flight of stairs communicating with the
+outer court and garden of the palace. Thence she escaped to wander into
+the forest, and until day broke again she never ceased to walk. For some
+days she remained concealed in the forest, living upon fruit and
+berries, until at last hunger drove her to the cottage of a poor
+laborer. The wife of this man was very ill, and the queen offered to
+stay and nurse her, which was gratefully accepted. So faithful and
+devoted an attendant she proved that, when the woman of the house got
+well, both husband and wife insisted their stranger guest should make
+her home with them. In this secluded retreat, where only a stray
+huntsman now and then passed by, the queen remained until a beautiful
+son was born to her. And now, she felt a burning desire to have her boy
+educated in a manner worthy of his father's rank; and poverty, that had
+seemed so light a burden to herself, grew heavy when it weighed on him.
+When the baby was three years old, a gay hunting-party passed that way,
+among them a rich and childless lady, who, charmed with the beauty of
+the boy, offered to adopt him on the spot.
+
+The poor queen wept so bitterly at thought of parting with her treasure,
+that the lady, who was a kind-hearted person, proposed she should
+accompany them and serve in the capacity of the boy's governess.
+
+To this plan the queen made no objection; and, bidding an affectionate
+farewell to her humble friends, she took her place with the boy in a
+travelling carriage sent to fetch them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Years rolled on, and the child born in the forest had reached the age
+of twenty-one. He was a handsome, manly youth, and skilled in all
+athletic exercises. About this time, the family of his adopted mother
+was invited to be present at a great religious ceremony in an abbey upon
+the borders of a neighboring kingdom. Among the many attendants of the
+nobles summoned for the occasion, was the real mother, who came dressed
+in deep mourning and wearing a veil over her face; and one of the guests
+was the wicked old knight, her father. The abbot of the monastery threw
+open the doors of the chapel, that had long been sealed, and all flocked
+into it. There, in the centre, stood a bier covered with cloth of gold
+and surrounded by blazing wax-lights, while about it knelt an hundred
+priests, at prayer. After a mass had been sung, the abbot announced that
+in yonder bier lay the remains of the late king, their master, who, as
+all his faithful subjects knew, was foully murdered twenty-one years
+before; and that, by the terms of the king's will, found some time after
+his death, the throne rightfully belonged to a lady who had been married
+in secret by their sovereign, and was by him commended to their truest
+love and honor. "For many long years," added the good abbot, "we have
+sought vainly for the widow of our lamented ruler; not the faintest
+trace of her has ever been found, and we have resolved to meet here and
+choose to-day a successor to our king."
+
+"Here is a worthy successor to your king!" cried a voice from the
+throng; and the unfortunate queen, throwing back her veil, pointed to
+her astonished son. "Behold the rightful heir! Who dares to say that he
+is not the image of his father? _I_ am the queen you have so long
+sought, and this youth is, unknown to himself, my son. In proof of it,
+here is the marriage ring given me by the king."
+
+"And in proof of it," exclaimed a venerable priest, coming forward, "I
+attest that _I_ performed the marriage ceremony between our king and
+this poor lady. Her appearance and her claim remove the seal from my
+promise of secresy, and I unhesitatingly declare this youth to be our
+lawful sovereign."
+
+All eyes turned upon the young man, and all tongues proclaimed his
+marvellous resemblance to the king. The abbot knelt at the young man's
+feet and offered him a golden crown carried on a velvet cushion. Loud
+cries of joy and cheers filled the air, when suddenly the unfortunate
+queen was seen to totter toward the bier of her husband.
+
+"I am glad to die on this spot," she said, snatching up the sword that
+lay upon the tomb and placing it in her son's hand; then, bidding him
+avenge the sad fate of his parents, she immediately expired. At the same
+moment, a white-haired knight tried to steal away from the church; but
+when the ancient priest perceived him, the fugitive was denounced as the
+murderer of their king. Seized by the populace, the wretched old miser
+was hurried to instant death; his grandson was carried in triumph to the
+palace, and there installed as king.
+
+The new monarch reigned long and wisely--an example for all future
+sovereigns.
+
+
+
+
+EGLAMOUR AND CRYSTABELL.
+
+(_From Ellis' Abstract of Copy in Garrick Collection._)
+
+[Illustration: _Eglamour & Crystabell._]
+
+
+Count Prinsamour, an independent sovereign of Artois, was famed for his
+skill in training young men in the courtesy and accomplishments of
+chivalry. His court was the resort of all youths who wished to excel in
+those important arts. His daughter Crystabell, the heiress of Count
+Prinsamour's dominions, was very beautiful and accomplished, and her
+father designed to marry her to some powerful monarch. The tournaments
+instituted at his court were in her honor, and for her sake all the
+hotheaded young knights in training broke their lances.
+
+Crystabell herself had no desire to leave her own country to become the
+wife of a foreign monarch. She loved the free and stirring air around
+her father's castle, and had, unknown to the count, fallen in love with
+a young knight, Sir Eglamour, who was ever victorious in the numerous
+tournaments ridden in her name.
+
+Eglamour, on his side, looked up to the young countess as to a star. He
+never dreamed of winning her love, because he was only a knight, without
+wealth or lands, depending upon his sword alone to make his way through
+life. At last, one day, something that Crystabell said made him think
+that she cared for him more than for the rest of her followers. Sorely
+troubled, and yet strangely happy, the young man wandered off to think
+it over. He finally resolved to ask advice of the chamberlain, who had
+always stood his friend. That personage counselled him to give up all
+thoughts of the countess, who, he said, was destined by her father to be
+the bride of a rich and great king. Eglamour sighed, and admitted that
+his friend was right. But that night, in the solitude of his chamber, he
+addressed a prayer to God:
+
+    "Lord," he said, "grant me a boon,
+      As thou on rood me bought!
+    The erle's daughter, fair and free,
+    That she may my wife be!
+
+      For she is most in my thought:
+    That I may wed her to my wife,
+    And in joy to lead our life!
+      From care then were I brought."
+
+In those days a true knight thought it no shame to his manhood to take
+the burden of his every-day cares and lay it in all simplicity at the
+feet of his Maker. When his devotions were at an end, Sir Eglamour slept
+soundly, and awoke in better heart.
+
+After a while, Sir Eglamour fell ill, and the count desired his
+daughter, who was skilled in medicine, as were all great ladies of the
+time, to attend upon the invalid. Crystabell, followed by her damsels,
+went at once into the sick-room. She found Sir Eglamour feverish and
+unhappy, and on bending down to minister to him, his pulse throbbed so
+violently at her touch, that the tears of sympathy came into her eyes.
+"I have betrayed my love," thought Sir Eglamour; but what was his
+happiness when the lady bent down to kiss his lips, confessing that the
+chamberlain had told her what was the real cause of his malady; and, to
+comfort Eglamour, she bid him live for her sake.
+
+After this, Eglamour got well rapidly; but he felt it right and
+honorable to inform the count, at once, how matters stood between the
+two young people. The count, who, although a brave knight, was largely
+governed by selfish ambition, refused Sir Eglamour with scorn. Then,
+after thinking a while, he told the youth that he would only bestow his
+daughter upon the champion who might accomplish three perilous feats of
+arms, each one of which would expose the candidate to the most imminent
+danger; and that the victor should not only receive the hand of
+Crystabell, but in time inherit the whole territory of Artois.
+
+Overjoyed, Sir Eglamour accepted the conditions without delay. He
+declared he was ready to set off that day or the next upon the
+enterprise. He did not suspect the count's real purpose in setting him
+this task, which was to destroy the rash knight who presumed to love his
+daughter.
+
+"At a little distance to the westward," said the count, "there is a
+forest of noble trees belonging to a most terrible giant, named Maroke.
+In a part of the forest shut off for the giant's own hunting ground, are
+three deer, famed for their size and speed. To hunt one of these
+celebrated animals is, of course, to challenge an encounter with their
+owner. Consider whether you have courage enough for such an
+enterprise."
+
+Sir Eglamour smiled, promised to kill the giant, and hurried off to tell
+his lady-love. Crystabell trembled and wept, but bid her lover
+God-speed. She told him that no man ever set forth upon a more arduous
+journey in a Christian country, but that she gloried in his brave
+spirit. She gave him a good greyhound, from whom no deer that ever ran
+had yet escaped--also a sword, once found in the sea, the only one of
+the kind in the world, and which could carve in two any helmet of steel
+or iron. Eglamour kissed her farewell, as he received these gifts, and
+set out with a light heart.
+
+Reaching the giant's park, he followed the wall to a massive gate, burst
+it open, and entered the wood. This forest was of huge cypress trees,
+and Eglamour had the luck soon to come upon the three deer grazing
+quietly. They were the most immense creatures he had ever seen; and
+singling out the largest, he attacked it. With the help of the dun
+greyhound, he brought the stag to earth, and set to work to carve his
+spoil. Laden with venison, he then approached the giant's castle,
+blowing his horn at intervals; and, when arrived there, he sounded a
+wild and merry blast, which roused Maroke from sleep and brought him in
+fury to the gate. Sir Eglamour politely asked the monster to give him
+leave to pass through the grounds with his prey.
+
+The giant, gnashing his teeth in rage, answered by aiming a blow with
+his club at the saucy young knight's head. Sir Eglamour, at the same
+moment, drew Crystabell's sword, which shone so brightly as to dazzle
+the eyes of Maroke, striking him stone-blind where he stood. Then
+followed a mighty combat. Blind as the giant was, he fought well and
+skilfully for three entire days. At the end of the third day, Sir
+Eglamour rallied all his strength and drove his sword into the giant's
+heart, a thrust which sent Maroke crashing like a forest tree to earth.
+
+Sir Eglamour, having cut off his enemy's head, carried it, together with
+the slaughtered stag, back to the court of his sovereign. The count
+received him ruefully; but fair Crystabell laughed and rejoiced, while
+the courtiers covered their champion with praises. After Eglamour was
+rested and refreshed, the count hurried him off again. This time he was
+to journey to the distant land of Satyn, where his task was to fetch
+away the head of a prodigious boar, the terror of that ill-fated
+country, half of whose inhabitants the creature had already eaten up.
+
+To reach the land of Satyn, Sir Eglamour had to travel a fortnight by
+sea, a fortnight by land. Arriving there at nightfall, he thought it
+prudent to spend the night in resting on the borders of the forest. At
+sunrise next day he approached the den of the horrible boar, who had
+just come back from taking his morning drink in the sea. The animal was
+a terror to look upon, having flaming eyes and tusks a yard long. He lay
+gnawing some human bones and growling frightfully, surrounded by dead
+bodies, many of which were clad in knightly armor. At once Sir Eglamour
+dashed at him with a shout--"For God and Crystabell!" The boar whetted
+his long tusks and set upon his adversary, killing at the first blow Sir
+Eglamour's noble horse, his own tough hide remaining unhurt by the
+spear. Sir Eglamour now had recourse to his magic sword, and found to
+his joy that, wherever he struck, the boar's hide was cut; although the
+length of the animal's tusks made it difficult to close with him. This
+combat, like that with the giant, lasted three days, and at the end Sir
+Eglamour, by a sudden swift movement, made a terrible blow at the
+creature's neck, severing the head from his body.
+
+Long before the close of this memorable fight, the boar's snorts of rage
+and defiance had attracted to the spot the King of Satyn and fifteen of
+his knights, who happened to be hunting in the forest. When the boar
+dropped dead, Sir Eglamour fell over him, and lay there completely
+exhausted. The king and his men drew near, showered compliments on the
+strange knight's bravery, and told him that the wicked beast of whom he
+had rid them had sometimes destroyed as many as forty men in one day.
+
+The king ordered a cloth to be laid upon the grass, and Sir Eglamour was
+regaled with venison and rich wine, which brought strength back to his
+arm and hope to his heart. The king's men then attempted to cut up the
+boar, but failed, owing to the toughness of his hide. The sword of Sir
+Eglamour was put into requisition, and in a moment the beast was cleft
+asunder along the back bone. The meat was distributed among the knights
+and men-at-arms, Sir Eglamour claiming the head alone. The King of Satyn
+afterward ordered for the champion a warm bath of certain sweet-scented
+herbs that healed his wounds and in which he rested pleasantly till
+break of day. Then the party went on to the king's palace, where Sir
+Eglamour was asked to stay and recover from his fatigue.
+
+Now it happened that the boar just slain was an intimate friend of
+Manas, a huge and frightful giant, own brother to Maroke. Manas had
+fallen in love with the King of Satyn's daughter, and had vowed to carry
+her off. When Manas came prowling around the castle that evening, and
+beheld on the point of a spear over the gateway the head of his friend
+the boar, he flew into an awful passion, foaming at the mouth; and as he
+looked on that head--
+
+    "Alas!" he cried, "art thou dead?
+      My trust was all in thee!
+    Now, by the law that I live in,
+    My little speckled hoglin,
+      Dear bought shall thy death be!"
+
+Manas beat upon the door and walls of the castle in a fury, demanding
+the surrender of the murderer of his dear little speckled hoglin.
+Presently, Sir Eglamour, fully armed and equipped, mounted on a fiery
+courser, and with lance in rest, attacked the giant at full speed.
+
+Manas resisted vigorously, and in an instant overthrew man and horse.
+The king, the princess, and the court, who had assembled on the walls of
+the castle, began to tremble for the safety of their champion. But Sir
+Eglamour, lightly springing to his feet, drew his invincible sword, and
+closing with the giant, cut off his right arm. The monster roared with
+pain, but continued to fight, though yelling at intervals as loudly as
+ever, till near sunset, when the patient knight, who had hitherto
+suffered him to exhaust himself by his own efforts, suddenly rushed
+forward and completed the victory! The boar and Manas being dead,
+Eglamour now took his leave of the grateful King of Satyn and his court,
+who rejoiced greatly over the death of their two adversaries. The heads
+of the boar and the giant Manas were carefully packed up, and in due
+time Eglamour laid them at the feet of his faithful Crystabell.
+
+Count Prinsamour, secretly disgusted at his knight's success, at once
+sent him off on another enterprise, more dangerous than the two
+preceding ones. Eglamour and Crystabell, now seeing that the false
+count was determined to prevent their marriage, parted from each other
+with many tears. But Crystabell vowed to marry him, with or without her
+father's leave, so soon as he should return, if ever he did, from the
+present journey.
+
+The third mission was to kill a tremendous dragon, at that time
+desolating the country around the gates of Rome. After sundry adventures
+by the way, Eglamour encountered the beast, and fought it long and
+valiantly. He succeeded in cutting off its wings, tail, and head; but at
+last he fell himself, exhausted by his wounds and poisoned by the
+dragon's sting, and was carried from the field.
+
+When Crystabell heard that her brave lover was lying at the point of
+death in Rome, she left her father and journeyed to the knight's
+bedside, where, to make him happy before he died, she consented to marry
+him on the spot.
+
+Eglamour rallied under the care of his beloved Crystabell; but, after
+they had spent some happy months together, Count Prinsamour found out
+his daughter's place of retreat, and carried her off from her husband,
+abusing him as a vile thief and imposter.
+
+Crystabell cried and lamented continually for her lost husband. After a
+while, a son was born to her, which made the count more angry than
+before. He took the unfortunate mother and child, put them, without
+food, into an open boat, and set them adrift upon the sea. The boat
+drifted for five days, and at last reached the shores of a country whose
+king proved to be the brother of Crystabell's own mother. He took the
+wayfarers under his care, and devoted himself to bringing up the boy,
+named Degrabell, to be a valiant knight.
+
+After a time, Eglamour travelled to Artois, and entering the count's
+hall by force, confronted his cruel father-in-law in the presence of all
+the knights and squires. He had heard of the fate of his wife and child,
+and his wrath was terrible to see. He cast the dragon's head, wings, and
+tail before the count, reminded him that his daughter had been fairly
+won, and called down God's judgment upon the unnatural father who had
+bereaved Eglamour of all he held dear in life. The count retreated to
+his strongest citadel in fear before the righteous anger of this mighty
+champion; but Eglamour seized the property of his late master, divided
+it among the count's worthy and needy subjects, and ordering masses to
+be sung in all the churches for the soul of his lost Crystabell,
+departed for the Holy Land, where, during many years, he distinguished
+himself both in battle and in tournament against the Saracens.
+
+When her son, Sir Degrabell, had reached the age of eighteen, Crystabell
+was more beautiful than ever, and the king, her uncle, resolved to marry
+her to some knight who might make happy the remainder of her days.
+Crystabell, who still cherished the memory of her lost Sir Eglamour,
+begged her son to help her in this emergency. Sir Degrabell went to the
+king and insisted that all of the knights aspiring to his mother's hand
+should first meet him in the lists, and that only the one who should
+overthrow him might claim the princess as a wife.
+
+The king smiled at the pretentions of this beardless youth, and gave his
+consent. A tournament was announced, and to it came from all parts of
+the country persons of high rank seeking adventure. Knight after knight
+presented himself in the lists, and was swiftly unhorsed by the gallant
+Degrabell. At length the boy, flushed with conquest, turned to a
+stranger of distinguished appearance who stood gazing at the spectacle,
+without seeming to take any great interest in it, and asked if he too
+had a mind to break a lance. The stranger knight hesitated, then said
+that, to amuse himself, he would do so. Mounting his horse, he rode with
+the speed of a lightning flash against Degrabell, who was borne to the
+earth on the spot. Princess Crystabell had been watching the tourney
+with pride, but screamed aloud at her son's overthrow, and rushed into
+the arena, throwing herself on her knees before the stranger and
+imploring him to spare her boy. Trembling, she looked upon the victor's
+shield, and there saw depicted a rude device of a golden boat containing
+a lady and a child about to perish in the waves.
+
+On his side, the knight gazed at the lady in trembling, then bending his
+knee before her, revealed himself the long-lost Eglamour. Crystabell
+would have swooned for joy, had not her husband caught her in his arms.
+Eglamour, equally astonished and delighted, had still in store for him
+the rapture of recognizing in his brave young antagonist the son so
+worthy of his sire.
+
+Sir Eglamour and Lady Crystabell, thus happily reunited, lived together
+for the remainder of their days in prosperity. Degrabell became a famous
+champion. The old Count Prinsamour broke his neck by falling from his
+tower; and so, my tale is told!
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Old-Fashioned Fairy Book, by 
+Constance Cary Harrison
+
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+
+Project Gutenberg's The Old-Fashioned Fairy Book, by Constance Cary Harrison
+
+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: The Old-Fashioned Fairy Book
+
+Author: Constance Cary Harrison
+
+Illustrator: Rosina Emmet
+
+Release Date: September 8, 2011 [EBook #37348]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD-FASHIONED FAIRY BOOK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Matthew Wheaton and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
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+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<div>
+
+<h1 id="booktitle">THE <span class="smcap">Old-Fashioned Fairy Book</span></h1>
+
+<p class="h3">BY</p>
+
+<P class="h2">MRS. BURTON HARRISON</p>
+
+<p class="h3">ILLUSTRATED BY</p>
+
+<p class="h2">MISS ROSINA EMMET</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="h3">LONDON
+<br>
+SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, AND RIVINGTON
+<br>
+<span class="smcap">Crown Buildings, 188 Fleet Street</span>
+
+<hr class="thin">
+
+<p class="h4">[<i>All rights reserved</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="h3">Dedicated</p>
+
+<p class="h4">TO</p>
+
+<p class="h4"><span class="smcap">Fairfax, Frank and Archy</span></p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[vii]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 488px;">
+<img src="images/i001.jpg" width="488" height="125" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<p class="h3">CONTENTS.</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents">
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class="tdrfirst">PAGE</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#INTRODUCTION">Introduction</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">xiii</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#THE_PRINCESS_EGLANTINE">The Princess Eglantine</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">1</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#DAME_MARTHAS_STEP-DAUGHTER_OR_THE_GRANDMOTHER_OF_THE_GNOMES">Dame Martha's Step-Daughter; or, The Grandmother of the Gnomes</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">19</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#THE_ADVENTURES_OF_HAPENNY_OR_THE_DWARF_THE_WITCH_AND_THE_MAGIC_SLIPPERS">The Adventures of Ha'penny; or, The Dwarf, the Witch, and the Magic Slippers</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">47</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#SYBILLA_MYRTILLO_AND_FURIOSO">Sybilla, Myrtillo, and Furioso</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">69</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#ANNETTE_OR_THE_MAGIC_COFFEE-MILL">Annette; or, The Magic Coffee-Mill</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">81</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#JULIET_OR_THE_LITTLE_WHITE_MOUSE">Juliet; or, The Little White Mouse</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">89</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#THE_FAIRIES_AND_THE_FIDDLER">The Fairies and the Fiddler</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">107</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#ETHELINDA_OR_THE_ICE_KINGS_BRIDE">Ethelinda; or, The Ice King's Bride</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">130</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#DEEP-SEA_VIOLETS">Deep-Sea Violets</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">149</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#THE_WILD_WOODSMAN">The Wild Woodsman</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">178</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc">
+     <span class="pagenum">[viii]</span>
+     <a href="#THE_FROZEN_HEARTH-FAIRY">The Frozen Hearth-Fairy</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">185</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#ROSYS_STAY-AT-HOME_PARTIES">Rosy's Stay-at-Home Parties</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">189</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#BLONDINA_OR_THE_TURKEY-QUEEN">Blondina; or, The Turkey-Queen</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">211</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#TIMID_AGNES">Timid Agnes</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">237</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#THE_OGRESS_AND_THE_COOK">The Ogress and the Cook</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">244</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#MISS_PEGGY_AND_THE_FROG">Miss Peggy and the Frog</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">268</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#THE_LEPERHAUN_A_Legend_of_the_Emerald_Isle">The Leperhaun: A Legend of the Emerald Isle</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">276</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc">Romances of the Middle Ages</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#THE_TRIALS_OF_SIR_ISUMBRAS">The Trials of Sir Isumbras</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">282</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#BISCLAVERET">Bisclaveret</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">291</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#ROSWAL_AND_LILIAN">Roswal and Lilian</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">297</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#ELIDUC_AND_GUILLIADUN">Eliduc and Guilliadun</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">308</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#THE_FALCON-KING">The Falcon-King</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">317</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#EGLAMOUR_AND_CRYSTABELL">Sir Eglamour and Crystabell</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">329</td>
+  </tr>
+
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[ix]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 569px;">
+<img src="images/i002.jpg" width="569" height="210" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2>FAIRY DAYS.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Beside the old hall-fire&mdash;upon my nurse's knee,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of happy fairy-days&mdash;what tales were told to me!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I thought the world was once&mdash;all peopled with princ&eacute;sses,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And my heart would beat to hear&mdash;their loves and their distresses;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And many a quiet night&mdash;in slumber sweet and deep,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The pretty fairy people&mdash;would visit me in sleep.<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I saw them in my dreams&mdash;come flying east and west,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With wondrous fairy gifts&mdash;the new-born babe they bless'd;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">One has brought a jewel&mdash;and one a crown of gold,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And one has brought a curse&mdash;but she is wrinkled and old.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The gentle queen turns pale&mdash;to hear those words of sin,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But the king he only laughs&mdash;and bids the dance begin.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum">[x]</span></div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The babe has grown to be&mdash;the fairest of the land,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And rides the forest green&mdash;a hawk upon her hand,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">An ambling palfrey white&mdash;a golden robe and crown;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I've seen her in my dreams&mdash;riding up and down:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And heard the ogre laugh&mdash;as she fell into his snare,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">At the little tender creature&mdash;who wept and tore her hair!<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But ever when it seemed&mdash;her need was at the sorest,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A prince&mdash;in shining mail&mdash;comes prancing through the forest,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A waving ostrich-plume&mdash;a buckler burnished bright;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I've seen him in my dreams&mdash;good sooth! a gallant knight.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">His lips are coral red&mdash;beneath a dark moustache;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">See how he waves his hand&mdash;and how his blue eyes flash!<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Come forth, thou Paynim knight!"&mdash;he shouts in accents clear.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The giant and the maid&mdash;both tremble his voice to hear.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Saint Mary guard him well!&mdash;He draws his falchion keen,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The giant and the knight&mdash;are fighting on the green;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I see them in my dreams&mdash;his blade gives stroke on stroke,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The giant pants and reels&mdash;and tumbles like an oak!<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum">[xi]</span></div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">With what a blushing grace&mdash;he falls upon his knee<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And takes the lady's hand&mdash;and whispers, "You are free!"<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Ah! happy childish tales&mdash;of knight and fa&euml;rie!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I waken from my dreams&mdash;but there's ne'er a knight for me;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I waken from my dreams&mdash;and wish that I could be<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A child by the old hall-fire&mdash;upon my nurse's knee!<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i12"><span class="smcap">W. M. Thackeray.</span><br></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[xii]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 253px;">
+<img src="images/i003.jpg" width="253" height="360" alt="The Faithful Comrades." title="">
+<p class="caption">The Faithful Comrades.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum">[xiii]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 526px;">
+<img src="images/i004.jpg" width="526" height="276" alt="Old-Fashioned Fairies." title="">
+<span class="caption">Old-Fashioned Fairies.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>To my Young Readers.</i><br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6"><i>Children Dear</i>:<br></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<img src="images/drop-n.jpg" width="79" height="82" alt="N" title="N" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">N</span><b>OT</b> long ago two little boys, who shall be nameless
+here, came to their mother's side at that pleasant
+hour of the twenty-four called by the English
+"blind-man's holiday," and by the French, "between
+dog and wolf." The lamps had not been lighted,
+and the room was full of shadows; but a strip of western
+sky, seen through the bay window, hung like a pink
+veil behind which a few pale stars were beginning to show<span class="pagenum">[xiv]</span>
+above the dark line of hills. All that bright summer's day
+long, four little busy feet had been in motion. Directly
+after breakfast they had raced down the meadow-path, pursued
+by Colin Clout, their faithful Scotch collie, between
+grass and daisies so tall that little could be seen of the dog
+and his younger master, beyond a brown back and white-tipped
+tail curveting around a scarlet fez that bobbed up
+and down like a buoy upon the water. Soon the three companions
+had reappeared for a moment under a low arch
+of fringy boughs at the entrance to the grove, and then had
+descended a bank to the edge of a babbling brook, where,
+on the grassy margin, the children played every day for
+hours, inventing a hundred devices of boats and dams
+and waterfalls, whilst Colin lay at ease among the ferns,
+and from time to time emitted a bark of pure good fellowship.
+For them this shallow streamlet has a charm
+hardly to be resisted, even for a summons to drive "over
+the hills and far away" through the lovely country-side, or
+to assist in the delights of the season when their pretty
+meadow grasses are laid low, tossed into fragrant piles,
+and carted away by merry haying-folk&mdash;though sometimes
+these water-elves pause to forage the neighboring woods for
+"hocky" sticks and sling-shot crotches, to "shin up" the
+tall forest trees, or pluck wild strawberries from the sunny
+slopes beyond their favorite haunt.</p>
+
+<p>On the especial evening of which I write, the faithful
+comrades had returned, tired, and scratched by the briers<span class="pagenum">[xv]</span>
+of this work-a-day world, from a tramp of some miles in
+search of live bait for a fishing excursion projected with
+their father at Lily Pond upon the morrow. The doomed
+little fishes had been put into a bath-tub full of water,
+where they were expected to suppose themselves still in
+their native pool. The boys had been washed and fed&mdash;an
+astonishing supper, even for those cormorants!&mdash;and now
+had elected to seek rest and refreshment at the maternal
+knee. Colin, observing that everybody else was satisfactorily
+adjusted in affectionate attitudes, had retired under
+the fringe of a table-cover close at hand, and lay where
+only his loving eyes and open mouth could be seen,
+breathing in short quick pants, or, as the boys called it,
+"ha-ha-ha-ing at the company."</p>
+
+<p>"And now, mamma, until your tea is ready, we know
+what you must do," said the children, in a breath. "Tell
+us a story&mdash;a 'real, truly' fairy tale, about a giant and a
+dwarf, lots and lots of fairies, a prince and a beautiful
+princess with hair to her very feet, a champion with a
+magic sword, a dragon-chariot, a witch dressed in snake-skin&mdash;and,
+if you can, an ogre. Don't punish anybody
+but the witch and the ogre; and <i>please</i> don't have any
+moral, only let everybody 'live in peace and die in a pot of
+grease,' at the end of it."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure, we know most of mamma's stories by
+heart," said the sage elder of nine. "If she could only
+make up some new ones that aren't in any of our books! Or<span class="pagenum">[xvi]</span>
+else, mamma, tell us something you heard a little bit of,
+long, long ago, from your nurse, and then make up the rest.
+But whatever one you tell, we'll be sure to like it anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>The stories told, the mother fell to musing, and the
+result is the little book here presented to the judgment of
+children other than her own&mdash;a few new fairy tales, on the
+old, old pattern!</p>
+
+<p>In every country of the habitable globe are found the
+same myths, variously dressed and styled. Let the ethnologist
+frame what theory he will upon this subject, my
+own private belief is that once upon a time a good fairy who
+loved mankind put on the wings of a stormy petrel and
+flew over many lands, carrying in her hand a sieve full of
+tiny seeds, and shaking it upon those spots where there
+appeared to be most children. The seeds, falling to earth
+after this fashion, sprang up and bore many-colored fairy
+tales, to rejoice all hearts for evermore. Since then, the fables
+you and I love have been told from father to son among
+nations living remote from each other and isolated. The
+Hindoo toiling under the tropic sun, and the Lapp in his
+smoky hut banked in snow; the English cottar resting in
+his ivy-covered porch, and the Russian peasant stretched
+at length upon the stove which forms his bed; the Persian
+stroking his gray beard beneath the archways of Ispahan,
+and the Norwegian carving bits of wood under his rafters
+of illuminated pine&mdash;all know and repeat versions of our<span class="pagenum">[xvii]</span>
+favorite tales. In France, in Spain, in Germany&mdash;mother
+of myths&mdash;in Italy, where they drop red from the wine-press
+of Boccaccio&mdash;are these stories to be heard. The
+North American Indian weaves them with his beads and
+wampum; our southern negro croons them over the corn-cake
+baking in the spider upon his cabin hearth; the
+poetical Chinese envelops them in the language of flowers;
+and the distant dweller by the Amazon embalms them in
+his legendary lore. So much for the fairy with the sieve!</p>
+
+<p>But great as is the enjoyment had in perusing the fairy
+tales of different nations, to the child of Anglo-Saxon descent
+can come no such pleasure so deep as that to be
+derived from the old romances of our mother country. To
+me this delight was first revealed by a little fat book that
+used to be found in our nurseries&mdash;the one containing Cinderella,
+immortal maid&mdash;unprincipled Puss in Boots&mdash;and
+Jack, the splendid champion!</p>
+
+<p>Of late years, fairy tales seem to have suffered from
+their increase of dignity at the hands of grave scholars,
+who have so dressed them in fine language, and hedged
+them with innumerable notes and references, that the child
+shuns the fruit for fear of thorns about it. For my own
+part, I prefer the older specimens of ancient fairy literature
+known as chap-books. These were odd little yellow
+pamphlets, sprinkled with abundant capital letters
+throughout the text, and "Illustrated with many diverting
+cutts!" They were carried around the country-side in<span class="pagenum">[xviii]</span>
+England by peddlers, who sold
+them (with such other catch-penny
+wares as ribbons, lace, and trinkets)
+indifferently at castle gate or
+cottage lattice; and if you wish to
+see the sort of fairies your great-grandmothers
+believed in, look at
+the three pictures that accompany
+this preface, copied from a famous
+chap-book.</p>
+
+<img src="images/i005.jpg" width="197" height="646" alt="i005" title="i005" class="split">
+
+<p>There, quaintly depicted, first,
+appeared Jack in a funny full-bottomed
+coat, diligently climbing a
+bean-stalk, where the ogre's castle
+was perched atop like a bird's
+nest; lucky Ali-Baba, too; Bluebeard&mdash;mighty
+and pitiless&mdash;with
+Fatima and sister Anne, their back
+hair down, pleading to him on dislocated
+knees, their brothers, with
+drawn swords, galloping to the
+rescue; and the husband in The
+Three Wishes, standing agape before
+his fireside, while his wife
+danced a jig of rage in her efforts
+to rid her nose of a pudding little
+smaller than a feather-bed! There,<span class="pagenum">[xix]</span>
+also, was displayed that pushing suitor, the Yellow Dwarf,
+who insisted on attaching to his lady-love's finger a ring
+made of a single red hair, so fastened that she could not get
+it off. There was the Desert Fairy, guarded by two lions
+which the wandering queen endeavored to appease with "a
+cake made of millet, sugar-candy, and crocodile's eggs."
+(How we children yearned to taste that cake!) And there
+were the fascinating White Cat, seated side by side with her
+enamored prince in a fine calash of blue embossed with
+gold, the Sleeping Beauty, the Babes in the Wood&mdash;hapless
+cherubs&mdash;the Girl who dropped pearls and diamonds
+when she spoke, dear Graciosa and ready Percinet, gallant
+Riquet-with-the-Tuft, and Goody Two Shoes&mdash;the
+latter a little of a prig, I fear&mdash;clever Hop o' my Thumb,
+Beauty and the Beast, Little Red Riding-hood&mdash;the long
+procession of charmers to whom even now my heart bows
+in salutation as I write their familiar names!</p>
+
+<p>Chap-books of ancient date have been recently reproduced
+in England; from one of them, I have taken the
+substance of a story I never chanced to see elsewhere,
+and under the title of "Juliet; or, the Little White Mouse"
+have given it to you in language of my own.</p>
+
+<p>After the chap-books came other cheap fairy publications,
+notably those of Mr. Newberry, a good old gentleman who,
+in the last century, sent out numberless sixpenny booklets,
+many of them reaching America to give pleasure to the
+infants of the colonies. Washington Irving goes so far as<span class="pagenum">[xx]</span>
+to say that if George Washington had not read Newberry's
+publications in his youth, especially "Whittington and
+his Cat," he would not have been the first and greatest
+President of the United States! The grave Benjamin
+Franklin, while a printer in Philadelphia, emulated Newberry
+in publishing nursery tales, and no doubt devoured
+them himself with relish.</p>
+
+<p>Many a pen of the great in history or literature has found
+a theme in these favorites of ours. Of Cinderella, the
+famous Canning, premier of England, wrote in glowing
+rhyme:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="padding-left:10em">"Six bobtailed mice transport her to bhe ball,<br></span>
+<span style="padding-left:10em">And liveried lizards wait upon her call."</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>And Thackeray has thrown around fairy lore the rays of
+his noble genius, not only in the lines already here quoted,
+but in a Christmas story so enchanting that, if you are
+unfortunate enough not already to have made acquaintance
+with Valoroso and Gruffanuff, Bulbo and Angelica,
+I urge you to try at once the magician's art and coax "The
+Rose and the Ring" out of the pocket of your nearest
+relative. By the giant Thackeray, when entangled in
+the meshes of Fairydom, one is reminded of Gulliver
+under bonds to the Lilliputians, yet wearing his bonds so
+easily!<span class="pagenum">[xxi]</span></p>
+
+<p>And now, I leave my new-old Fairy Book to you, my
+little critics. I am sure you will accord a generous welcome
+to the pictures. What would our benighted great-grandmothers
+have said to Miss Emmet's charming illustrations?</p>
+
+<p class="author">C. C. H.</p>
+
+<div style="font-size:125%">
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[1]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 483px;">
+<img src="images/i006.jpg" width="483" height="245" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_PRINCESS_EGLANTINE" id="THE_PRINCESS_EGLANTINE"></a>THE PRINCESS EGLANTINE.</h2>
+
+<img src="images/drop-a.jpg" width="81" height="82" alt="A" title="A" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">A</span><b>CERTAIN</b> queen had twin children, a boy and
+a girl, both as beautiful as the dawn of a summer
+morning. As the mother was one day
+hanging over the double cradle, shaped like two silver
+lilies growing on one stem, an old aunt of hers, who
+knew a good deal about magic, arrived from the country
+to see the babies and to spend the day.</p>
+
+<p>The old lady took the Princess Eglantine in her arms,
+and kissed her, and joggled her, and clucked at her,
+after the fashion of all good aunties.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a girl to be proud of, my dear!" she said,<span class="pagenum">[2]</span>
+handing the baby back to her mamma. "And she
+looks as good as she is pretty, too."</p>
+
+<p>"They are both <i>wonderful</i> children, nurse says,"
+replied the young queen, modestly. "And the doctor
+thinks them the <i>finest pair</i> he has ever seen. Only the
+boy is <i>a little</i> high-tempered. He kicks and snaps at
+his attendants the whole time he is awake; so take
+care, aunty dear, and don't disturb him for the world.
+We always let him sleep as long as he will."</p>
+
+<p>"Hoity-toity!" cried aunty, "as if I came out of
+the woods to be frightened by an owl. <i>I</i> know how
+to manage <i>all</i> children!" and the boy opening his eyes
+at that moment, she lifted him from his crib, and laid
+him on her lap.</p>
+
+<p>Sad to say, he behaved like an infant tiger. Never
+was there seen such a tempestuous baby. He wriggled,
+and howled, and fought, and plunged, until the poor
+mother and nurses turned red with mortification. But
+the old aunty held on to him bravely, and examined
+him from top to toe. Nothing could she find, till she
+came to the sole of the right foot, and there was a tiny
+red mark like a burning torch. As soon as aunty saw
+this she sighed, and whispered a word in the baby's
+ear, when he became as quiet as any lamb.<span class="pagenum">[3]</span></p>
+
+<p>Aunty sent away the nurses, and told the poor
+queen there was no doubt about it; her boy was bewitched,
+and when he grew up he would try to devour
+his sister. The only thing was to keep them apart,
+and this the queen told her husband; and he sent
+for a wise man, who confirmed what aunty had said.
+The wise man added that all would go well so long
+as the princess was kept apart from her brother, and
+as the brother was the heir of the kingdom, there was
+nothing left but to banish the unfortunate princess.
+The king built for his daughter, in the remotest corner
+of his kingdom, an ivory tower. Around the tower
+was a crystal moat full of gold and silver fish. Around
+the moat were lovely flower-beds, and around the
+flower-beds was a thick and thorny hedge. In this
+tower there was a room lined with tufted blue satin,
+like the inside of a bonbon box, and all the furniture
+was made of fine carved ivory. Here the princess was
+shut up for life, under the care of an old dame, Madame
+V&eacute;loutine by name, who once had kept a boarding-school
+for duchesses, and was very respectable indeed.
+Poor Eglantine was gradually forgotten at court, and
+her cannibal brother grew up without knowing he had
+ever had a sister.<span class="pagenum">[4]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 506px;">
+<img src="images/i009.jpg" width="506" height="599" alt="THE PRINCESS EGLANTINE." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THE PRINCESS EGLANTINE.</p>
+
+<p>Like all other captive princesses, past, present, and
+to come, Eglantine was beautiful and accomplished.
+She could speak in every language, work in silk and
+crewels, paint china plaques, make mince-pies, sing
+like a nightingale, and play anything on the piano at
+sight with her eyes shut! Her skin was milk-white,
+with a rosy flush on the cheeks, while her glorious
+golden hair never came out of crimp, but rippled from
+the roots to her very feet.</p>
+
+<p>One day a prince, cantering by upon his palfrey,
+looked up at the tower window, and there saw this
+lovely creature, surrounded by a flock of pretty white
+doves. Prince Charming gazed and gazed, and the
+longer he stood there, the more enraptured he became.
+When he heard from the country people that no one
+knew who or what was this mysterious beauty, excepting
+that once a year, by night, a grand gentleman and
+lady visited her, and looked at her while asleep, the
+ardent young prince made a vow to solve the secret
+without delay. He engaged his old tutor to make love
+to Eglantine's governess, and this plan succeeded so
+well that the tutor was, ere long, invited to take a cup
+of tea at five o'clock, in the ground floor apartment of
+the tower where Madame V&eacute;loutine kept house. Madame<span class="pagenum">[5]</span>
+V&eacute;loutine was very much fluttered by the attentions
+of the tutor, a gloomy-looking individual with
+savage dark mustache and deep-sunken eyes. The
+poor old thing, who had been reading novels without
+any intermission for eighteen years, was very sentimental,
+and the idea of a suitor coming to woo at
+some period of her existence was never wholly absent
+from her thoughts. She dressed herself in one of the
+Princess Eglantine's white robes, put a blue sash
+around her waist, and covering her little red nose with
+rice powder, sat in a darkened corner with a guitar
+upon her knees. The tutor flattered her, and soon she
+grew confidential and told him the story of her charge.
+When the tutor took his leave, Madame V&eacute;loutine
+sighed deeply, and pitied the poor man who had fallen
+a victim to her charms. She did not see the fat purse
+of gold the prince bestowed on him, upon learning the
+true state of the case about the enchanting captive!</p>
+
+<p>Prince Charming rode, day and night, till he reached
+the king's palace. "Give me your daughter for my
+wife," he said. The king turned pale at hearing that
+the secret was betrayed. "For pity's sake speak
+lower, young man," said the anxious father. "Only
+suppose her brother should hear of it." With that he<span class="pagenum">[6]</span>
+told the whole story to Prince Charming, who forthwith
+rode to ask a wise man what he should do to set
+the princess free, with safety to herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Ride as far as you will, and as fast as you will with
+her, you may not escape the curse," said the wise man.</p>
+
+<p>The prince went off heavy hearted, and visited a
+witch he knew. She was knitting a stocking, which
+ravelled every night as fast as it grew by day.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been knitting this stocking for fifty years,"
+said the witch, taking a pinch of snuff out of the soup-tureenful
+that she always kept beside her. "I could
+as soon make it whole in one night as keep away the
+curse from her."</p>
+
+<p>The prince groaned as he rode away. Across his
+path was a green bough, half covered by a huge cobweb.
+In this a tiny being, no bigger than a fly, was
+entangled, and was making desperate struggles to be
+free. Travelling toward it, with tremendous strides,
+came an enormous red spider, with white spots and
+great protruding eyes. The prince, not without a
+shudder, for, like most of us, he hated the nasty things,
+killed the spider with a blow, and set free the pretty
+captive, who proved to be a fairy. She tidied her
+iridescent frock, and thanked him very nicely.<span class="pagenum">[7]</span></p>
+
+<p>"You have saved my life, dear prince," she said.
+"Pray let me do something in return for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you can help me," said the prince, eagerly.
+"If you can't, never mind," he added, politely, when
+he had finished telling her the sad story of his doomed
+princess. "I don't expect much of a person of your
+size, you know; but really it's the greatest <i>relief</i> to
+talk about the dear darling!"</p>
+
+<p>"A person of my size!" said the little lady, with
+a shrill sniff. "I'd have you to know, prince, that
+I'm the fairy Buz-fuz, the discoverer of the celebrated
+invisibility powder. It is <i>never</i> known to fail, is made
+from a fern-seed that <i>I</i> alone can pluck, and is <i>not</i> for
+sale at <i>any</i> druggist's! As to lifting the spell from that
+poor young creature, the princess, I can't undertake to
+do it, on any terms; but with the aid of my powder,
+one pinch of which sprinkled on an object will make it
+disappear from sight in a moment, I believe you can
+manage to keep clear of the cannibal brother."</p>
+
+<p>The prince thanked the fairy, took the powder, and
+galloped off, light-hearted, to his Eglantine. She, poor
+thing, had thought of nothing but the prince and his
+beauty, and his kind glances and smiles, since he left
+her. She wearied of the society of poor old V&eacute;loutine,<span class="pagenum">[8]</span>
+and sighed for change. V&eacute;loutine was in despair.
+To comfort the princess she promised to allow her a
+single meeting with the prince, should he ever come
+that way again. "That I am sure he will!" said the
+princess. "If you had only seen his eyes when he
+looked at me! They were so kind, so true! Oh! V&eacute;loutine!
+he <i>will</i> come back!"</p>
+
+<p>So Eglantine settled down to her embroidery. This
+was a gown of white damask with large white satin
+flowers outlined with real pearls. She had been at
+work on it for several years, and a few stitches more
+would finish it. She now wrought busily, until the
+last stitch was set, and then, with trembling fingers,
+put it on. Around her neck and waist she wrapped
+great chains of pearls, and left her long hair rippling
+to her knees. When her toilet was complete she went
+to the window. It was the sunset of a summer's day.
+Around her tower grew vines heavy with deep-red
+roses; the shining surface of the moat beneath was
+streaked with color from the western clouds. Along
+the path beyond the hedge rode a horseman gayly clad
+in green and gold, who, smiling, doffed a cap with a
+single long white plume, and bowed to his saddle-bow.
+Behind him came a splendid cavalcade of courtiers<span class="pagenum">[9]</span>
+and knights on horseback, surrounding a golden coach
+in which sat the father and mother of Eglantine, who
+had given consent to her marriage with the prince.
+The poor king and queen were dreadfully frightened
+at the rashness of this proceeding. They had sent the
+cannibal brother off on a hunting excursion in a distant
+part of the country, and had come in fear and
+trembling, bringing with them the most trustworthy
+of their people. They could not resist Prince Charming,
+who, in addition to his other attractions, had
+just lost his father, the old king, and was now the
+sole owner and ruler of a neighboring kingdom, and
+just the match for their lovely daughter. He had
+sworn to them that their child should be kept so
+securely guarded that her brother could never reach
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Eglantine came down from her bower, to be introduced
+to her father, mother, and lover all at once.
+The marriage took place without delay, and the new
+king started with his bride for the sea-shore, where
+they were to embark for his home.</p>
+
+<p>They set sail in a ship of which the sides were plated
+with beaten gold. The sails were of pink satin, and
+the ropes golden threads plaited together. The young<span class="pagenum">[10]</span>
+king and queen sat upon cushions of velvet on the
+deck, and talked of their happy future, when suddenly
+the sky was darkened as by a cloud, and, riding upon a
+vulture, the cannibal brother came after them. He had
+been hunting, and a wandering breeze carried to him
+the story of his sister's escape. Although he had
+never before heard he possessed a sister, the first
+whisper of such a thing was sufficient to rouse in
+him the dreadful cannibal instinct to drink her blood.
+From where the king and queen sat they could distinctly
+hear him smacking his lips with joy at the
+prospect of his horrible meal. Queen Eglantine, fearing
+she knew not what, shuddered from head to foot,
+and closing her eyes cast herself upon the king's breast
+for protection.</p>
+
+<p>The king, bidding her be calm, sprinkled the deck
+of the ship with one of the fairy's powders, which he
+carried in a little crystal box. At the moment the
+huge foul bird of prey hovered above them and gave a
+fierce swoop downward, the ship and all its contents
+vanished utterly from sight, while the vulture with his
+rider plunged into the sea.</p>
+
+<p>The cannibal prince was a good swimmer, and although
+his vulture was immediately drowned, managed<span class="pagenum">[11]</span>
+to keep up, until he found a dolphin and got astride
+its back.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, carry me in pursuit of yonder ship, and mind
+you swim fast and well," he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"Master, I obey," said the dolphin, who recognized
+in him a magician. "But, look for yourself&mdash;blue sky
+above, blue water below, and not a sail upon the
+sea."</p>
+
+<p>The prince looked, and in truth there was no ship
+to be seen; so, ordering the dolphin to convey him to
+the nearest landing-place, he soon reached the shores
+of a beautiful country, where flags were flying, and all
+the inhabitants were dressed in holiday clothes. Over
+the wharf was an arch of most lovely flowers, and five
+hundred little girls were strewing the roads with
+orange blossoms.</p>
+
+<p>"What is taking place?" asked the cannibal brother
+of the people around the wharf.</p>
+
+<p>"Where have <i>you</i> been, pray?" said they scornfully,
+"not to know that our king brings home his bride
+to-day!"</p>
+
+<p>Then the ship came in sight and the rejoicings began.
+The cannibal brother had no sooner laid eyes
+upon his sister than a new longing to drink her blood<span class="pagenum">[12]</span>
+came over him; and he set about plotting how he
+could get hold of her, no easy matter, since the palace
+was guarded night and day by twenty white bull-dogs
+of the fiercest sort, besides the usual soldiers and attendants.
+So he took service with a butcher near the
+town, and made a bag full of little meat-balls, each
+one containing a drop of deadly poison. One day his
+master sent him to the palace to carry Queen Eglantine's
+sweetbreads and mutton-chops. "Now," thought
+the brother, "I shall get inside;" but he was mistaken,
+for the sweetbreads and mutton-chops were taken from
+him at the gate, and passed on through twenty different
+hands till they reached the cook. As no outsider
+whatever was allowed to penetrate the inner palace
+walls, behind which the new queen lived surrounded
+by every luxury, the cannibal brother had to wait many
+days for an opportunity to get a sight of her. Meantime
+his appetite was gaining terribly, and he went to
+the blacksmith and had all his teeth framed in iron,
+the better to enjoy his horrid meal.</p>
+
+<p>At last King Charming was summoned to meet a
+neighboring monarch about a right of way for his
+armies across a certain peninsula; and, with many injunctions
+to the queen not to admit any stranger during<span class="pagenum">[13]</span>
+his absence, he reluctantly set out. No sooner was
+he out of sight than the pretended butcher's boy hastened
+to assume his own princely clothing, and, ringing
+boldly at the castle gate, told the servants to announce
+to the queen that her brother had arrived, bearing
+messages from her father and mother. He sent in a
+golden locket containing likenesses of both the king
+and queen, his parents, which convinced Queen Eglantine
+that his tale was true. So, joyfully, she ran
+forth to meet him, and would have cast herself upon
+his neck, but that the trained bull-dogs rushed between,
+growling most horribly.</p>
+
+<p>"Come here, pretty fellow, nice fellow," said the
+cannibal brother, coaxingly; but the dogs only opened
+their jaws wider than before and growled defiance.</p>
+
+<p>"Give them these little dainties, sister," said the
+wily prince, producing his poisoned meat-balls. "They
+are some that I always carry for my own pets."</p>
+
+<p>The innocent queen called the dogs one after another
+to her side, and fed them with the fatal balls,
+which they ate, licking her white hand gratefully. At
+once, as the poison began to work, they all lay down in a
+row, and became as quiet as they had been before ferocious.
+The queen led her brother into an inner room,<span class="pagenum">[14]</span>
+and bade him sit upon her silken couch. The prince
+laughed to himself, for now, thought he, the hour has
+come for my coveted meal. But he was seized with
+the notion to go into another room in order to file his
+teeth, which were becoming rather dull.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you not play for me upon the piano, sister?"
+he asked lovingly.</p>
+
+<p>The amiable queen, who never waited to be asked
+twice, sat down to play, while her brother hid within
+a closet and began to file his teeth. Up jumped the
+queen's cat, in great excitement, and sat on her mistress'
+lap.</p>
+
+<p>"Mistress dear," said the affectionate creature, "fly,
+fly, as fast as your feet will carry you. Your brother is
+at this moment getting ready to make a meal of you,
+and as he is a magician no one in the castle is strong
+enough to defend you from him. In the stable you
+will find the king's gray steed. Jump upon his back,
+and be off, while I play the piano in your stead."</p>
+
+<p>The terrified queen took to her royal heels, weeping
+as she stumbled over the dead bodies of her faithful
+dogs, and the clever cat sat playing beautifully
+so many runs and trills that the prince, admiring
+his sister's brilliant execution, made no haste<span class="pagenum">[15]</span>
+to leave his task until it was finished to his entire satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>And now, mounted upon the good gray steed, away
+flew Queen Eglantine in search of her beloved spouse.
+Pretty soon she heard footsteps, and there, swifter than
+any horse, swifter than wind, on flew the cannibal
+brother after her.</p>
+
+<p>"What shall I do, dear steed?" said the alarmed
+queen.</p>
+
+<p>"Drop your cloak into the road," said the gray
+horse, who was the cat's own cousin.</p>
+
+<p>The queen obeyed, and the cloak became a broad
+lake, across which the cannibal brother took a long
+time to swim. The gray horse got a good start, but
+presently the prince came nearly up with him.</p>
+
+<p>"What shall I do now, dear steed?" said the queen,
+almost ready to fall fainting from his back.</p>
+
+<p>"Drop the veil from your head," said the horse.</p>
+
+<p>This was done, and the veil became a thick fog,
+causing the cannibal brother to lose his way and
+stumble dreadfully. But he got out of it at last, and
+came nearly up with them.</p>
+
+<p>"What shall I do next, dear steed?" said the queen,
+trembling in every limb.<span class="pagenum">[16]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Take your scissors and cut a long lock from your
+hair, and throw that behind you."</p>
+
+<p>The queen lifted the scissors that hung at her girdle,
+and in a moment, snip! they went into her beautiful
+golden hair. The hair became a jungle of tall reeds,
+and through it the cannibal brother had work indeed
+to travel. While he was puffing and blowing and
+struggling in the reeds, oh, joy! the queen saw her
+king riding swiftly to meet her.</p>
+
+<p>Just as the cannibal brother, by a desperate effort
+of magic strength had freed himself from the jungle,
+and emerged in swift pursuit, he had the mortification
+of seeing the queen rush into her husband's arms.
+His dreadful hunger was now increased until it drove
+him to desperation. With a roar of baffled rage he
+darted toward the royal couple, swearing that both of
+them should be his victims; and this no doubt would
+have been the case&mdash;since the monster was endowed
+with the strength of fifty men&mdash;but that the king, bidding
+his queen have no fear, quickly sprinkled them
+both, and their steeds, with a pinch of the fairy fern-seed.
+Immediately they disappeared from sight, and
+the cannibal brother, coming with full force upon the
+spot where they had been, beheld only empty space.<span class="pagenum">[17]</span>
+This disappointment, combined with his now really
+appalling appetite, made the miserable wretch fall in a
+fit upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>The king would have killed him where he lay, but
+the queen pleaded for her brother's life, so the attendants
+bore him, insensible, back to the palace. There,
+the queen's clever cat advised that he should be left to
+her to deal with. She shut herself up with the patient
+in a tower bedroom, and during sixty days and nights
+not a morsel of food passed the sufferer's lips, except
+the cat's magic castor-oil&mdash;a cupful every ten minutes&mdash;each
+tasting more nauseous than the one before! In
+the morning he was lifted from bed, and put into an
+ice-cold bath, and then whipped soundly until his circulation
+was restored. At the end of the second month
+the cat stopped his bath, whipping, and medicines,
+offering him instead a handful of parched peas and
+a dry crust. This diet seemed to him so delicious that
+never again could he be tempted to vary it. Until he
+reached a green and virtuous old age this prince was
+never known to look upon so much as a rare beefsteak
+without shuddering! His father, mother, sister,
+and brother-in-law united their tears of joy at this happy
+reform, and who should the clever cat turn out to be,<span class="pagenum">[18]</span>
+but aunty, who had taken this means of watching over
+her favorite Eglantine! The gray steed was aunty's first
+cousin upon the mother's side; but when peace was restored
+he preferred to go back to his own country to
+live, although the grateful King Charming offered him
+every inducement to remain, in the way of marble stalls
+and silver mangers, rose-water to quench his thirst, and
+golden oats to eat. Aunty, too, retired to her own distant
+castle, and the reformed cannibal lived quiet and happy
+until the time came to reign in his good father's stead.</p>
+
+<p>As for Eglantine and King Charming, they never
+again found use for the fern-seed powder. Even the
+faults of one were invisible to the other.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing occurred to disturb the serenity of their
+entire reign but a suit for breach-of-promise of marriage,
+brought against the king's former tutor by
+the queen's former governess, Madame V&eacute;loutine; and
+this was settled speedily by the tutor announcing that,
+rather than make any fuss about the matter, he would
+marry the old lady and be done with it, although he
+really could not imagine what there had been in his
+past conduct to put such an idea into her venerable
+head. So at last V&eacute;loutine got a husband, and nobody
+could be surprised at anything after that.</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[19]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 534px;">
+<img src="images/i007.jpg" width="534" height="123" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="DAME_MARTHAS_STEP-DAUGHTER_OR_THE_GRANDMOTHER_OF_THE_GNOMES" id="DAME_MARTHAS_STEP-DAUGHTER_OR_THE_GRANDMOTHER_OF_THE_GNOMES"></a>DAME MARTHA'S STEP-DAUGHTER;<br>OR,<br>THE GRANDMOTHER OF THE GNOMES.</h2>
+
+<img src="images/drop-d.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="D" title="D" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">D</span><b>AME MARTHA</b> lived at the foot of a high
+mountain. Her cottage was large enough to
+give shelter only to herself and two young
+girls, one of them her own child and the other the
+child of Dame Martha's late husband, who, about six
+months before this story opens, slipped down a fissure
+in the rocks and had nevermore been seen. Dame
+Martha did not bear a very good character in the
+neighborhood, as she was known to be violent in temper
+and dishonest in her dealings. While her husband
+lived, she had quarrelled with him from morning till
+night, and after he disappeared, people used to hint
+that Dame Martha knew better than any one else how<span class="pagenum">[20]</span>
+the poor man came to his sudden death. But nothing
+was ever proved upon her, and as the dame's cottage
+stood in a desolate valley, overshadowed by a frowning
+cliff on which grew a single lightning-blasted pine-tree,
+children shunned the lonely spot, and few grown
+people found anything to attract them in that direction.
+Margaret, the dame's own daughter, was a handsome
+haughty lass of about nineteen, so spoiled and
+self-willed that she bid fair to rival her mother in
+temper, in the course of time. Hilda, the step-daughter,
+was a fair and gentle little creature, sixteen
+years of age, who bore with patient cheerfulness all the
+unhappiness of her lot. Sometimes, for days together,
+she would be left alone in the house, while Dame
+Martha and Margaret dressed themselves up in all
+their finery, and went off to fairs and merrymakings
+in the neighboring town. Melancholy were the hours
+spent in a solitude unbroken save by the rush of the
+waterfall leaping from cliff to cliff, or the hootings of
+owls after nightfall, and the unceasing wail of the wind
+through the forest. But Hilda was at least spared the
+sound of Margaret's taunting voice and laugh, and the
+cruel scolding tongue of her step-mother. These two
+wicked women were heartily tired of Hilda, and cast<span class="pagenum">[21]</span>
+about in their minds how they could get rid of her,
+and take possession of a little bag of gold pieces
+coming to her from her father. Then, thought they,
+the old house could be shut up and left to the rats
+and bats, while they might set out on their travels and
+enjoy life.</p>
+
+<p>One day, when Hilda was bleaching the linen on a
+patch of grass near the brook, her step-mother called
+out, "Hilda, the red cow has strayed away, and I hear
+her bell over by the old stone quarry. Be quick, and
+you may head her off."</p>
+
+<p>Hilda secured her linen, and with nimble steps, ran
+up the steep mountain side. She did not fancy the
+idea of going by the old stone quarry, for there it had
+been, six months before, that her dear father was last
+seen in life. Near that spot his hat and shepherd-staff
+had been found. But Hilda was accustomed to
+obey without remonstrance, and away she ran, climbing
+as lightly as a mountain goat. She too, could hear
+the tinkle of the little bell far up among the bushes,
+and guided by the sound, she drew near the dreaded
+scene of her greatest sorrow. A thick screen of fir
+bushes lay between her and the red cow's place of
+refuge. Interwoven with evergreens, grew masses of<span class="pagenum">[22]</span>
+alpine-rose, whose tough branches became entangled
+in Hilda's feet, and hid the path from sight. At last,
+she found herself in a dense thicket, not knowing how
+to emerge. As she paused for a moment to look
+about her, the red cow's bell tinkled again&mdash;a strange
+uncertain tinkle this&mdash;immediately behind the bushes
+at her left.</p>
+
+<p>"There you are, good-for-nothing!" cried Hilda,
+struggling bravely forward through the undergrowth
+in the direction indicated by the bell. She heard a
+low mocking laugh. Surely that laugh could come
+only from her step sister! "Margaret!" she called.
+No answer, and poor Hilda, uttering a wild shriek for
+help, plunged headlong down a hidden opening in the
+ground, into a fathomless abyss, where no foot of man
+might follow her.</p>
+
+<p>Wicked Margaret stood on the brink of this treacherous
+pit-fall, known only to her mother and herself,
+and laughed, holding in her hand the little red cow's
+bell, with which she had lured Hilda to her doom.</p>
+
+<p>"Rest there!" the wretched girl said, kneeling
+down to peer into the darkness of the rocky pit. "At
+any rate, you have found a burial-place for your bones,
+alongside of your father, who was never heard to<span class="pagenum">[23]</span>
+groan after my mother and I pushed him over the
+brink here, last autumn! And now, I will go home,
+and tell the old woman that we are rid of all our burdens.
+Ha! ha! Won't we spend the father's gold,
+and revel! This very night must we steal away, and
+seek our fortune in a distant country."</p>
+
+<p>Hilda fell, unharmed, upon a hillock of soft green
+moss, so far, so far beneath the ledge whence Margaret
+had pushed her, that the opening above looked
+no bigger than a star. The poor girl was overcome
+by her terrible fate, and for a long time she lay weeping
+as if her heart would break. Then, looking about
+her, she saw the opening to a cavern in the rocks, resembling
+an arch of crystal, so bravely did it glitter.</p>
+
+<p>Around the hillock where she lay was a small courtyard
+with turf as smooth as velvet, and upon the
+rocky walls encircling it were trained vines of roses,
+myrtle and jasmine, covered with lovely blossoms.
+Hilda, who knew best the alp-rose and the corn-flower,
+the hardy violet and the rock-seeking columbine, had
+never seen such rare and radiant flowers as these, and
+their rich perfume intoxicated her with delight. Stealing
+down the side of the cliff, trickled a sparkling
+rivulet, its stream caught in a basin of gleaming pearl.<span class="pagenum">[24]</span>
+Hilda, enchanted by the lovely scene, forgot her grief,
+and felt a longing desire to follow the path of many-colored
+pebbles leading beneath the crystal arch.
+Without a token of fear, she tripped along this pretty
+path winding through a gallery supported by pillars of
+frosted silver. Here and there glowed a lamp of pink,
+blue or crimson, fashioned like a flower. Strains of
+sweet music were heard in the distance, and at last
+Hilda reached a gate of golden trellis-work, beside
+which slept a tiny old man, whose beard and hair fell
+over his red mantle to the very ground.</p>
+
+<p>"He is very old, and no doubt needs his rest," said
+Hilda; "I won't disturb him, poor old man." So she
+sat down on the ground at his feet, and every time his
+head nodded to his knees, she would pick up the queer
+little red cap that fell off of it, and put it on again.
+After a long, comfortable nap, the old fellow woke up,
+and saw Hilda sitting at his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a kind maiden," he said, for he was of a
+race that know everything without waiting to be told&mdash;the
+Gnomes. "Since you have been so good to me,
+I will let you pass the wicket. Six months ago your
+father came this way, and if you can but make friends
+with our mistress, you may be allowed to see him."<span class="pagenum">[25]</span></p>
+
+<p>"My father! My dear father!" cried Hilda, overjoyed.
+"Oh! you good, kind gateman, do lead me to
+where he is."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! not a sound," said the Gnome, looking
+about him in alarm. "Everything has ears and
+tongues too in this place. One warning will I give
+you. Answer not when spoken to, serve faithfully,
+break nothing, show no surprise; and when you can
+capture the bird that bathes daily in the fountain of
+life, save the drops from off his plumage. Now go on;
+and farewell, as no one who passes me comes back this
+way."</p>
+
+<p>Hilda was frightened by the mystery of the warning,
+but continued on her way, through a long and winding
+passage in the rocks, dimly lighted here and there by
+hanging lamps of alabaster. Reaching another little
+wicket-gate of golden trellis-work, she summoned all
+her courage and rang the bell. Out came a hideous
+crone, whose ears, grown to an enormous size, hung
+down upon her neck, and who, without asking her
+business, opened the gate.</p>
+
+<p>"If ears grow like this," thought Hilda, "I had, indeed,
+better hold my tongue and say nothing to give
+offence." So, pretending to be dumb, she curtsied to<span class="pagenum">[26]</span>
+the crone, and made signs that she wanted food and
+drink. The old woman led Hilda along the path of a
+neglected garden, to a house built of gray lichen from
+the bark of trees, and thatched with hoary moss. The
+
+<img src="images/i008.jpg" width="366" height="375" alt="i008" title="i008" class="split">
+
+windows were
+barred, and in
+the open doorway
+sat a cross
+old dame, at
+her knitting.
+She had a
+hump, ears
+larger than
+those of the
+lodge-keeper,
+and claws
+hooked like an
+eagle's.</p>
+
+<p>"What! another
+of those foolish mortals fallen down our pit!"
+she cried, angrily; "I have half a mind to kill her on
+the spot." But Hilda looked so meek and imploring,
+standing there and saying not a word, that the
+Grandmother of the Gnomes relented. "Well, well,"
+<span class="pagenum">[27]</span>she grunted, "although she is decidedly overgrown,
+and has ridiculously small ears, I suppose I may as
+well try her for a nurse-maid. If she proves unfaithful,
+there will be plenty to tell of it, and she will soon
+go the way of all the rest."</p>
+
+<p>Hilda was pleased at the idea of being a nurse-maid,
+for she always got on well with children. She followed
+the G. G. (really, if you will excuse me, it will save a
+great deal of trouble sometimes to abbreviate the old
+lady's title) inside the queer little house, and there was
+a room full of owls, bats, toads, mice, and spiders, who
+came flocking around the new-comer, with every expression
+of delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! you pretty darlings!" cried the old woman,
+kissing them rapturously, "here is a new nurse for
+you; and mind you keep her busy."</p>
+
+<p>When Hilda found that she was expected to bathe,
+and clean, and walk out with, and sleep with these
+loathsome creatures, she felt that she had rather die.
+But fear of the terrible G. G. kept her silent, and setting
+about her task, she soon had them ready for an
+airing in the garden. Here she beheld many strange
+sights, but nothing more curious than to see all the
+bushes and plants and trees bearing large ears, which,
+<span class="pagenum">[28]</span>as she drew near, became erect and fixed in an attitude
+of attention. Remembering the caution of the friendly
+gnome to express no surprise, Hilda drove her little
+flock before her along the garden path, then returning
+to the house, fed them and put them to bed in the
+most orderly fashion. For reward, she found, on a
+bench outside the door, a nice bowl of milk with fine
+
+<img src="images/i010_0.jpg" width="170" height="261" alt="i010_0" title="i010_0" class="split">
+<img src="images/i010_1.jpg" width="429" height="116" alt="i010_1" title="i010_1" class="split">
+
+white bread and butter, and after
+devouring it eagerly, she fell asleep.
+When she awoke next day, Hilda
+found herself in another garden.
+This one was most beautiful. All
+the rose-bushes had gold or silver
+leaves, and flowers made of jewels.
+She longed to twitch off one of the
+shining leaves, but dared not, contenting
+herself with watering their
+roots and
+neatly
+clearing
+up the
+paths, as
+the Gnome Grandmother had directed her. For reward,
+she had a bowl of delicious hot soup, and a cup<span class="pagenum">[29]</span>
+of amber jelly, and falling asleep, she awakened next
+day in still another garden. Here sported birds of
+radiant hue and plumage, singing delightfully, as they
+flitted about the brim of a great marble fountain on a
+grassy lawn, surrounded by blooming flowers.</p>
+
+<p>"Here, children, I bring you a new nurse-maid,"
+said the Gnome Grandmother, presenting her to the
+birds; and immediately, the lovely creatures surrounded
+Hilda, perching on her arms, her head, her
+shoulders, and caressing her with evident pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"Now that you have successfully met my three
+tests&mdash;the first, of your fidelity, by doing your duty
+toward the creatures you abhorred; secondly, by passing
+through my jewel-garden without plucking a flower
+or leaf; thirdly, by showing no surprise at the wonders
+you have seen&mdash;you have proved yourself worthy to
+be the keeper of my birds," said the old woman. "It
+is well for you that the ears have heard no grumbling.
+And mind you go on as you've begun."</p>
+
+<p>Hilda thanked her with beaming glances, but would
+not venture to speak, although she longed to ask news
+of her dear father. "To those who wait, all things
+come in time," she remembered her father used to say,
+and determined not to break silence yet a while. The<span class="pagenum">[30]</span>
+Grandmother of the Gnomes disappeared, and Hilda
+set herself to the task of caring for her new and lovely
+pets. Around the garden were bowers of sweet-smelling
+honeysuckle, and in each of these hung a silver cage.
+Hilda's duty was to cover the bottoms of the cages
+with sand of broken diamonds, to gather fresh sprays
+of flowers to stick between their bars, and to fill the
+jewelled drinking-troughs with dew from the cups of
+flowers. Day after day passed in attendance upon the
+birds, who all became devoted to her, in return. Each
+morning the Grandmother of the Gnomes came into
+the garden, and sometimes even smiled on Hilda, her
+grin making her ugliness and deformity seem to increase,
+if possible. Still Hilda dared not speak the
+words that were always trembling on her tongue.
+When night came, the young girl retired to rest in a
+delightful little house shaped from a bush of growing
+box, out of which doors and windows had been cut.
+Within was a bed of moss like velvet, and a coverlet
+made of the woven wings of the butterfly, with blankets
+of swansdown. Her meals were served by unseen
+hands. Punctually at breakfast, dinner, and tea-time,
+there sprang up in the bower house a little table
+shaped like a huge mushroom, covered with dainty<span class="pagenum">[31]</span>
+food in dishes of gold and silver. New clothes were
+prepared for her, and laid across the foot of her couch
+while she slept. Among them were gauzy gowns that
+seemed to have been cut from the clouds after sunset,
+cobweb handkerchiefs, shoes made of mole-skin, and
+necklaces of petrified dew-drops. Hilda might have
+been quite happy but for the continual thought that
+her father was imprisoned somewhere near, and her longing
+to find him and tell him she was there. One night,
+while she lay thinking, apparently asleep, footsteps
+came to the side of her bed, and stopped. Somebody
+held a lamp close to her face, but Hilda pretended to
+be in a deep slumber, and soon the G. G., for she it
+was, went away, pattering about the bower, and talking
+to the old lodge-keeper, who followed her.</p>
+
+<p>"She is sound asleep, so come along. We are already
+a little late for our round among the prisoners.
+Foolish creatures! Why hadn't they, too, the sense to
+restrain themselves as this child did, and they might
+all have been working in the gardens, to this day. But
+no! Each one must needs twitch off a leaf here, or a
+rose there, and stare, and chatter over what they saw,
+or else go into convulsions over the work given them
+to do for my pretty toads, and bats, and serpents.<span class="pagenum">[32]</span>
+That silly father of hers, for example! He seemed an
+honest fellow, but what should he do, when he thought
+no one was looking, but pluck one of my choicest ruby
+roses to carry back to Hilda. Hum! much likelihood
+there is that Hilda ever finds out where he is hidden,
+after a crime like that!"</p>
+
+<p>The Grandmother of the Gnomes seemed to have
+worked herself up into such an angry state, that Hilda
+dared not give any sign of waking. So she lay, still as
+a mouse, till the old couple had laid across her couch
+the new robe for next day, and trotted off. Then,
+gliding swiftly from her bed, the girl followed them,
+down a long green alley of the garden, to a grassy
+bank she had often noticed. There, putting her hand
+upon a trap-door, half hidden from sight by a mass of
+vines, the old crone knocked thrice, saying, "Open to
+the Grandmother of the Gnomes!"</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, and behind it was a narrow passage-way
+guarded by two dwarfs in red. No one spoke,
+and the dwarfs, prostrating themselves upon their
+faces, remained motionless while their sovereign lady
+passed in. Hilda seized this opportunity to follow,
+and crept unnoticed to the mouth of a circular vault
+of gray granite, hung with curtains of black velvet<span class="pagenum">[33]</span>
+and lighted by swinging lamps of lurid red. In the
+centre was a long row of white marble tombs, and on
+each one of these tombs lay a human being apparently
+asleep, enclosed in a crystal casket. With a thrill of
+emotion, Hilda recognized in one of these placid
+sleepers her beloved father. The Grandmother of the
+Gnomes walked past each bier, sprinkling it with
+the liquid from a vial in her hand. At once the
+sleepers aroused and sat up, rolling their eyes and extending
+their arms to her with a beseeching gesture.
+The G. G. sternly shook her head, and proceeded to
+open a little door in each casket, through which the
+old lodge-keeper gave food and drink to all the prisoners
+in turn. The poor wretches ate and drank in
+silence, then turning over on their sides, the crone
+waved her wand above them, and instantly they fell
+again into a trance-like sleep.</p>
+
+<p>"Sleep now, till this day week!" said the Grandmother
+of the Gnomes, solemnly, retiring as she
+came. Hilda hid in a nook of the wall of rock, and
+followed her guides out, noiselessly and unnoticed by
+the prostrate dwarfs in red.</p>
+
+<p>And now her sole thought was how she might get
+possession of the reviving liquid. Alone and unprotected<span class="pagenum">[34]</span>
+as she was, at the mercy of her gnome mistress,
+Hilda knew not where to turn for help. In the extremity
+of her distress, she thought of what the friendly
+gnome at the outer gate had said to her. "When you
+can capture the bird that bathes in the water of life,
+save the drops from off his plumage." But although
+Hilda racked her brain for a solution of the mystery,
+none could she find. All day long her birds came and
+went among the branches of the beautiful garden, and
+at night returned to their silver cages in the honeysuckle
+bowers. The only bath she had ever seen them
+take, was in the wide marble basin on the grass-plot
+beneath the fountain. At last, lying down to rest one
+day upon a bank of lilies, she fell asleep, and in her
+dreams, heard two of the birds talking on the bough
+above.</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow, our friend, the little brown wren returns
+from his travels to the Spring of Life," said one of them.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he has been gone longer than usual, this
+time," said the other. "What a lucky creature he is
+to have gained our mistress's favor, and to be allowed
+to take those baths, which have the power to make him
+know everything, live forever, and sing more sweetly
+than the nightingale."<span class="pagenum">[35]</span></p>
+
+<p>"There is something mysterious about that wren,
+undoubtedly," sighed the first bird. "Nobody knows
+whether it is fear or favor that gains so many more privileges
+for him than for the rest of us. Do you know
+that if he should ever drop the single golden feather in
+his tail, he will become like the rest of us again, a slave
+and captive? And the lucky person who finds it, will
+be able to see all the hidden treasures of the caves
+beneath the mountain, pierce his way through solid
+rock and iron, and even defy the authority of our
+Sovereign Lady herself!"</p>
+
+<p>Hilda listened, her heart beating high with hope.
+Next day, indeed, there came a new bird among her
+charges, a little brown wren, who sat upon the topmost
+twig of the highest tree in the garden, and dried and
+smoothed his feathers, singing so exquisitely that all
+the others gathered around him in delight, while the disconsolate
+lark and nightingale, canary, mocking-bird
+and wood-robin, retired to a thicket of green leaves,
+and wept for jealousy.</p>
+
+<p>Spite of all Hilda's blandishments and wiles, the
+little brown wren would never come near enough for
+her to handle him. She could see him, flying amid
+the upper branches, the single golden feather in his<span class="pagenum">[36]</span>
+tail shining splendidly, but nothing secured his presence
+within reach or touch. Even the Grandmother of
+the Gnomes was powerless to control the wilful creature.</p>
+
+<p>Weeks passed and Hilda was always on guard to
+follow the Gnome Grandmother and her attendant
+upon their expeditions to the crypt where the prisoners
+were kept. By means of the stratagem she had first
+employed, she never failed to be present when her
+father was so mysteriously recalled to life, and then
+dismissed again into the shadowy border-land of death.
+Although she could not speak to him, or tell him she
+was near, it was some comfort to see him arise up
+strong and well. Oh! if the day should come, when
+she might capture that tantalizing little brown bird!
+He had become less shy with her of late, and more inclined
+to perch upon the branch above her head, and,
+while keeping a safe distance, observe her motions
+closely. At last, one evening, quite disheartened, Hilda
+went within her own little bowery house, and sat her
+down and wept. For the first time since her arrival
+in the gnome garden, she spoke aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I can bear it no longer. My heart will
+break! My heart will break."<span class="pagenum">[37]</span></p>
+
+<img src="images/i011.jpg" width="302" height="607" alt="i011" title="i011" class="splitr">
+
+<p class="splitr" style="margin-right:20px"><b>Hilda Listens to the Little brown bird.</b></p>
+
+<p>To Hilda's utter astonishment,
+a voice
+came from the foliage
+around her window, in
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Cheer up, dear
+maiden; the sound of
+a human voice has
+broken the spell cast
+over me, and I now
+see you as you are. I
+am he whom you have
+known as the little
+brown bird, in reality
+a mortal prince, bewitched
+by that wicked
+old woman, the Grandmother
+of the Gnomes,
+who makes everything
+within her kingdom
+subservient to her
+power. She is my
+deadly enemy, because
+I once discovered the secret of her fountain of life;<span class="pagenum">[38]</span>
+and, when on a journey thither with my followers, I
+was captured and changed into my present shape,
+while they, poor creatures, were carried prisoners to her
+crypt. Should I regain my shape, it can only be done
+by the help of a being brave and true like yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"But why, why did you not make friends with me
+at first?" said the joyful Hilda.</p>
+
+<p>"The spell cast upon me forbade my recognizing
+one of my own kind, unless she or he spoke, and you
+know how human speech is punished in this place.
+For three long years I have lived in solitude, compelled
+by the crone to fly back and forth to fetch her the
+water of life for her magical incantations; what I receive
+upon my own plumage, while drawing the water
+for her, has, however, secured my immortality. As
+for my golden plume it is the magic blade presented
+to me at birth, by a wonderful old wiseman, who said
+that it would point me to the treasures beneath the
+earth, defy the powers of evil, and pierce its way
+through solid rock. This sword, the Grandmother of
+the Gnomes was unable, much as she wished to do so,
+to deprive me of. The utmost she could accomplish was
+to transform it into a golden plume. Should I ever be
+so unfortunate as to drop it, the finder will be my<span class="pagenum">[39]</span>
+conqueror. See what confidence I have in your goodness
+of heart, when I thus give my life into your
+hands."</p>
+
+<p>"Never could I be so base as to betray you, dear
+prince," said Hilda joyfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! speak on, loveliest of maidens," cried the disguised
+prince. "Every syllable you utter brings back
+life and hope to my sad heart. Strange that I should
+have watched you come and go without knowing what
+you are. It was the first utterance of your silvery
+voice in lamentation that awakened my benumbed
+senses. Now, shall we not work together for our deliverance?"</p>
+
+<p>Gladly did Hilda pour forth all the story of her woes
+to her newly found confidant. The prince bade her to
+be of good cheer, for it was his intention to set forth
+on the morrow upon his monthly journey in search
+of the water of life.</p>
+
+<p>"A week hence I shall return, and although it
+would be impossible for me to secrete any of the precious
+fluid so that our mistress would fail to find it out,
+yet I will take care to saturate my plumage with the
+water, so that you can obtain enough to free your
+father and the other sufferers. That done, we can proceed<span class="pagenum">[40]</span>
+to stronger measures. Only be guided by me,
+and obey all I tell you to do, and I promise you release
+and happiness."</p>
+
+<p>Hilda promised and the brown bird took his leave.
+Next day he was no longer to be seen in the higher
+tree-tops, and after a week's absence, he arrived at
+nightfall dripping wet, and perched upon Hilda's
+window.</p>
+
+<p>Carefully did Hilda collect every drop that fell from
+his plumage, and when next she followed the Grandmother
+of the Gnomes into the fatal crypt, it was with
+joyful footsteps, for in her hand she concealed a leaf-cup
+full of the elixir of life. Not even Hilda noticed
+that the little brown bird also entered the crypt when
+she did. On this occasion, she waited as usual to see
+the prisoners aroused and fed, then cast again into
+sleep; but instead of following the two crones on their
+return, she remained concealed in her crevice of the
+rock, and saw close upon her the doors of this living
+tomb. Now a sudden terror overtook her, and her
+knees trembled.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dearest little bird, were you but by my side!"
+she whispered imploringly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am here, Hilda," came in a well-known voice.<span class="pagenum">[41]</span>
+"Remember that all depends upon your courage and
+obedience. Go up to the crystal caskets and sprinkle
+a drop upon each in turn."</p>
+
+<p>Hilda did so, and in a few moments had the inexpressible
+joy of seeing about twenty brave knights and
+other captives arise from their couches of marble.
+Last of all came her beloved father, who clasped her to
+his breast with rapture unspeakable.</p>
+
+<p>"Now there is not a moment to be lost," said the
+brown bird, flying to Hilda. "Here, brave maiden,
+pluck the golden feather from my tail."</p>
+
+<p>Hilda obeyed, and found that she held a shining
+sword within her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Quick, stab me to the heart!" said the bird.</p>
+
+<p>Hilda burst into tears and pleaded with him to spare
+her; but the brown bird reminded her that, because
+of the water of life, he could never really die; so the
+young girl, trembling in every limb, plunged the blade
+into his breast.</p>
+
+<p>As the warm blood rushed forth, a cloud of vapor
+arose, filling the cave; and blowing presently away, it
+revealed to all present the face and figure of a gallant
+youth, who, proud and smiling, knelt at Hilda's feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Now is the enchantment banished!" he cried, as his<span class="pagenum">[42]</span>
+friends, recognizing their master, came flocking around
+him in delight. "But we must not again venture into
+the precincts of the gnome's garden, for who knows
+what might befall our lovely lady here? Come, my
+brave sword, point us a way of exit."</p>
+
+<p>Swinging it in the air above his head, he brought
+the blade into a horizontal line in front of him. At
+once the sword pointed to a fissure in the walls of the
+crypt, and as the rescued band approached, it slowly
+widened to an opening through which a man might
+pass.</p>
+
+<p>This was not a moment too soon, for the dwarfs on
+guard had discovered their attempt to escape, and a
+shrill whistle sounded in their ears. Swift as the lightning
+flash arrived the Grandmother of the Gnomes,
+this time in her worst aspect, fire darting from her
+eyes. Behind her came an army of angry little men
+in red, with hammers in their uplifted hands, prepared
+to do battle to the death. What was their fury
+to find the biers empty, and a long line of stalwart
+men, led by Hilda, escaping through a doorway in the
+solid rock! The last to depart was the prince, and advancing
+upon him with a horrible yell and glare of defiance
+came the Grandmother of the Gnomes. The<span class="pagenum">[43]</span>
+prince met her with extended sword, and the enchanted
+blade pierced her to the heart. The frightened
+gnomes, surrounding their dead chief, laid her
+upon the marble slab from which Hilda's father had
+arisen, and then flew in pursuit of the avenger. But
+it was too late. The rocky wall had closed upon the
+retreating party, and the Grandmother of the Gnomes
+arose no more from her final resting-place.</p>
+
+<p>The divining-sword led Hilda and her companions
+straightway to the surface of the earth, taking care,
+as they passed it by, to point out sufficient hidden
+treasure to enrich every man of the party. As for the
+prince, as he was already the owner of one of the
+richest kingdoms of the world, all he desired was to
+regain it, in company with his beloved Hilda, who by
+this time had pledged herself to be his bride. Hilda's
+father accompanied them to the palace of the prince,
+and was by him ennobled and enriched. The marriage
+took place, and just as the guests were enjoying the
+festivities, the new queen saw her servants turning
+away from the door a miserable-looking pair of beggar
+women. Bidding these pitiful creatures draw near to
+receive her alms, the queen recognized in them Dame
+Martha and her daughter. Such was the generosity of<span class="pagenum">[44]</span>
+her nature, that Hilda could not resist disclosing her
+self to them, and assuring them that the <i>accident</i> of her
+fall had been the means of securing her wonderful
+good fortune.</p>
+
+<p>She ordered fine clothes and fine rooms to be prepared
+for the couple, and would have forgiven them entirely,
+but that her father and the prince, interfering,
+ordered the wicked schemers to be driven from the
+house and kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>Some time after, Dame Martha and Margaret reappeared
+in the neighborhood of their old home. They
+were very sullen and close-mouthed, and were last
+seen hovering around the mountain-side in the direction
+of the old stone quarry, after which they were
+lost to human view.</p>
+
+<p>The facts in the case are that Dame Martha's envy
+of her step-daughter led her to the desperate resolve
+to herself descend into the pit in company with her
+amiable child. Upon reaching the dwelling of the
+late Grandmother of the Gnomes, they were immediately
+seized and made to do duty in the cellar with
+the toads, mice, serpents, owls, and bats, where in all
+probability they are still enjoying life in congenial
+companionship.<span class="pagenum">[45]</span></p>
+
+<p>Hilda and her prince lived a long and happy life.
+The bright sword hung unused upon the wall, as no
+enemies appeared against whom to unsheath it, and
+the prince never again felt tempted to risk a visit to
+the kingdom of the gnomes.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 219px;">
+<img src="images/i012.jpg" width="219" height="155" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum">[47]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 532px;">
+<img src="images/i014.jpg" width="532" height="124" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_ADVENTURES_OF_HAPENNY_OR_THE_DWARF_THE_WITCH_AND_THE_MAGIC_SLIPPERS" id="THE_ADVENTURES_OF_HAPENNY_OR_THE_DWARF_THE_WITCH_AND_THE_MAGIC_SLIPPERS"></a>THE ADVENTURES OF HA'PENNY<br>OR,<br>THE DWARF, THE WITCH, AND THE MAGIC SLIPPERS.</h2>
+
+<img src="images/drop-o.jpg" width="74" height="74" alt="O" title="O" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">O</span><b>NCE</b>
+upon a time lived a poor, little, crooked
+dwarf named "Ha'penny." When he was
+born he was so small that his nurse exclaimed,
+"Why, he is no bigger than a ha'penny!" and
+thus the nickname settled upon him, as ugly nicknames
+often do upon very worthy people. His father was
+not very kind to the unfortunate child, who, finding
+himself pitied and avoided by children of his own age,
+soon learned to go off to the woods alone, and to spend
+the days with birds and animals, over whom he had
+extraordinary power. The most beautiful birds of
+many-colored plumage would flutter away from their
+boughs in the forest to perch upon Ha'penny's finger,<span class="pagenum">[48]</span>
+and take sugar from his lips; shy little brown squirrels
+would scamper down the trunks of the great trees to
+nestle against his cheek; bees buzzed around his
+head without offering to sting him; pretty striped
+snakes glided from under their stones and stumps at
+his call; while all horses, and cows, and dogs, and cats
+loved to rub against him, and let themselves be stroked
+and petted at his will. This friendship with the world
+of animals and insects was Ha'penny's greatest joy,
+and during the summer time, when he could live
+abroad, the little creature was happy enough, after his
+fashion. In winter he had to content himself with
+feeding the birds, and visiting the stables to hide in
+the hay of the horses' manger, where the grooms would
+find him, mouthing and chattering in an unknown
+tongue. They would often scold him, and put him
+out of the stable, for Ha'penny was no favorite with
+his father's people. His mother had died when Ha'penny
+was a little fellow of five, and when he reached
+the age of fifteen (although looking much younger)
+his father married a second wife, who proved a cruel
+step-mother.</p>
+
+<p>"If that ugly, little, twisted fright were out of the
+way, I could really enjoy life," the unkind woman<span class="pagenum">[49]</span>
+would say to herself; and she lost no opportunity to
+make Ha'penny's life a burden to him, by all sorts of
+petty tricks and persecutions.</p>
+
+<p>He bore all in silence, creeping away to his attic
+bedroom, and lying for hours on the floor sobbing
+bitterly. His only comfort was in his pets, and a queer
+lot they were. Among them were a dog, who had had
+both fore-paws cut off by the mowing-machine, a
+chicken with a cork leg, a blind cat, a land-terrapin,
+a dozen white mice, a number of birds which he had
+rescued from freezing and starvation, some trained
+fleas, a squirrel that had lost its tail&mdash;everything that
+was maimed, or homeless, or unfortunate. These he
+treasured in a little empty chamber opening out of
+his, and no one but himself ever approached it. All
+the poor dumb creatures loved him, and would swarm
+around him when he opened the door; and, in return,
+he spent upon them all the passion of love he had
+never bestowed on any one of his own kind.</p>
+
+<p>One day when Ha'penny had gone off to the woods
+to search for some ripe partridge-berries for his birds,
+the step-mother found her way to his hidden menagerie.
+One instant she looked about her, with disgust
+and fury in her face, and then calling her maids she<span class="pagenum">[50]</span>
+gave them cruel orders. Ha'penny came in from his
+walk, opened the door of his treasure-house&mdash;and alas!
+what a sight met his eyes! In two corners of the
+room hung his pet dog and cat, his terrapin was crushed
+under a heavy piece of iron, his birds were dead, his
+chicken's head was cut off, his mice were drowned in a
+pail; not one living thing remained to greet him but the
+trained fleas, who had taken refuge in the rafters overhead
+after biting the wicked mistress and her maids
+until they capered about in their misery!</p>
+
+<p>Ha'penny gave one glance at his beloved pets thus
+wantonly sacrificed, and fell upon the floor sobbing
+with helpless rage and despair. He lay there all day
+without being inquired for, and when night came he
+stole out to the orchard and buried his poor dead
+favorites under the light of the stars. He would not
+go back to the house, and, forgetful of cold, hunger,
+everything but his burning sense of wrong, he wandered
+away, away, into the forest. A few berries and
+a crust he had carried for the birds were his only
+food until the evening of the next day, when he came
+in sight of a queer little hut, half hidden from observation
+by the trees that grew over it. Starving and
+desperate, Ha'penny was gaining courage to knock at<span class="pagenum">[51]</span>
+the door. All at once a little lattice window opened,
+and an old woman poked her head out saying:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Come and eat, the table's spread<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With sweetest milk and whitest bread.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Good cheer, enough for all I've got,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And more is cooking in the pot."<br></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>At this Ha'penny pricked up his ears and licked
+his chaps like a hungry cur; and just then a number
+of handsome cats and dogs came running out of the
+woods and toward the cottage door, which the dame
+had by this time opened. As no animal ever avoided
+Ha'penny, these creatures all fawned upon him, refusing
+to go in; and the dame, perceiving the new-comer,
+asked him, with an angry air, what was his business.</p>
+
+<p>"A little food and shelter, madam," said poor Ha'penny,
+the tears running down his cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"Begone, you rascal!" cried the angry woman; "I
+don't believe a word you say. I believe you are a spy
+sent here to tempt away my pets. See how they hang
+around you. You must be a magician, for in general
+they will have nothing to do with strangers. Get you
+gone, sorcerer!"</p>
+
+<p>Ha'penny turned meekly away, but the dogs and<span class="pagenum">[52]</span>
+cats followed him with every show of affection. Faint
+with hunger as he was, his legs tottered under him,
+and he soon fell to the ground. Then the cats and
+dogs surrounded him, licking his face and hands in
+spite of all their mistress's endeavors to coax them
+away.</p>
+
+<p>The old woman's anger ceased when she found the
+grotesque-looking little stranger had really fainted
+from exhaustion. She lifted him in her arms and
+carried him in to the fire, and rubbed his cold limbs,
+putting spoonfuls of hot broth between his lips. By
+and by, when Ha'penny came to himself, he told her
+all his sad story, and when he reached the part about
+the killing of his pets, his heavy eyes flashed fire.</p>
+
+<p>"She is a horrible wicked woman!" he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>The dame answered by striking her staff on the
+floor. "See here, boy, if you are honest, you may
+stay here and mind my animals."</p>
+
+<p>She took him into the next room, and there&mdash;what a
+funny spectacle! Twelve cats and twelve dogs lay
+upon cushions before the fire. The cushions were
+made of satin, and the covers were of velvet worked in
+gold. Twenty-four silver bowls stood in a row, and
+every cat or dog had its separate comb and brush,<span class="pagenum">[53]</span>
+and bath-tub and towels, and sponge and soap, and
+perfume bottle, on a shelf. In the middle of the room
+played a fountain of rose-water, and at the windows
+hung pink silk curtains, which were drawn when the
+creatures went to sleep. All in this room was rich and
+costly, while the dame's own quarters were as plain as
+those of any other cottager. <i>She</i> was content to sleep
+in a big feather bed, to be covered by a clean patchwork
+quilt, to eat on a deal table off blue crockery,
+with a well-scoured pewter spoon. Ha'penny's eyes
+sparkled at the idea of waiting on the cats and dogs.
+He made friends with them at once. The dame gave
+him a clean bedroom under the roof, and every day
+after feeding and combing his charges he took them
+for a walk in the woods.</p>
+
+<p>"So long as you wait on my darlings faithfully, and
+mind your own business," the dame said, "no trouble
+will come to you. But on no account ever go near
+the little closet in the peak of the roof. Should you
+do so, evil will happen, and your life may pay the
+forfeit."</p>
+
+<p>Ha'penny suspected from this that his mistress was
+a witch; but it troubled him very little, as he was an
+honest lad and intended never to disobey her.<span class="pagenum">[54]</span></p>
+
+<p>One day the dame brought home a new cat, a
+large, white Angora, a beauty to look at, with pink eyes
+and flowing hair, fine and silken as spun glass. From
+the moment of that cat's arrival the happy family was
+completely upset. F&eacute;lisette, for so she was named,
+proved to be vain, selfish, and greedy; she fought for
+the best of everything, ate up her neighbor's bowl of
+milk as well as her own, and actually bit and spit at
+Ha'penny. F&eacute;lisette soon became jealous of Ha'penny's
+affection for the others, and determined to do
+him an evil turn. One day the dame was going to the
+Witches' Sabbath, and said to Ha'penny, "Now mind
+and take especial care of my lovely darling, F&eacute;lisette.
+If she gets into any trouble I shall hold you to answer
+for it, as I see the dear creature is not your favorite."</p>
+
+<p>The dame went off riding on a broom-stick, and
+F&eacute;lisette invented a thousand spiteful tricks to make
+the time pass unpleasantly to the others. At last she
+disappeared, and presently Ha'penny heard her crying
+pitifully upstairs. He rushed to see what was the matter,
+and discovered her with her tail caught in the door
+of the forbidden closet, up in the peak of the roof.
+She seemed about to die of the pain she was suffering,
+and, eager to set her free, the kind lad, without a<span class="pagenum">[55]</span>
+moment's hesitation, lifted the latch while stroking
+F&eacute;lisette's fur, when lo! as the door flew open, out
+came a skeleton hand, seizing poor Ha'penny in its
+grip! Up jumped F&eacute;lisette, laughing heartily at the
+success of her
+trick, and ran
+away.</p>
+
+<img src="images/i015.jpg" width="360" height="369" alt="Ha&#39;penny opens the magic closet." title="Ha&#39;penny opens the magic closet." class="splitr">
+
+<p class="caption splitr" style="margin-left:90px; margin-right:50px">Ha&#39;penny opens the magic closet.</p>
+
+<p>Ha'penny
+found himself
+held close in the
+embrace of two
+skeleton arms.
+In vain he struggled;
+the dreadful
+clasp only
+grew closer. He
+knew that this
+was a trap the
+witch had set to
+catch any one
+visiting the forbidden closet, so he made up his mind
+to die when his mistress should return. While he
+was in this sad way, the oldest of the dogs came
+up and licked his hands. Tears were running from<span class="pagenum">[56]</span>
+its eyes, and to Ha'penny's great surprise the dog
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"My poor friend!" said the oldest of the dogs,
+"I am afraid your fate is sealed. Know, then, that
+there is but one chance left for you to escape the
+witch's power. In this closet she keeps the magic
+slippers and the magic staff. Wearing the slippers,
+you may run faster than the wind; holding the staff,
+you may discover all the hidden treasures of the
+earth."</p>
+
+<p>"But how can I get free of this horrible trap?" said
+Ha'penny.</p>
+
+<p>The oldest of the dogs looked around to see that no
+one was listening, and then whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"You must know that we twelve dogs were once
+twelve princes, and the twelve cats were princesses&mdash;all
+of us having turn by turn fallen into the power of
+the witch. She is bound to treat us according to our
+rank, but there is no hope of ever regaining human
+shape, I fear. Still, we may be able to help <i>you</i>, who
+have been so good to us."</p>
+
+<p>He gave a little short bark, and up the stairs came
+running all the dogs and cats, who wept when they
+saw the sad plight of their friend. Up on a high shelf<span class="pagenum">[57]</span>
+over the skeleton's head were the magic staff and slippers,
+and the thing was to get them down without
+touching the skeleton, which held fast every living
+thing that touched it. One of the cats ran nimbly up
+the wall and let herself hang; the next cat hung to
+her tail, and so on till a bridge was made, over which
+the oldest of the dogs scrambled, and got the coveted
+treasures. He put the staff in Ha'penny's hand, and
+fitted the slippers on his feet. Ha'penny gave a kick,
+and struck the ground with his staff. Instantly the
+arms of the skeleton relaxed their grip, and he was
+free. He bade a fond farewell to his dear friends,
+promising to come back to help them whenever he
+could. He set out to run from the house, and speedily
+the slippers carried him off at such a tremendous rate
+of speed that he was faint for want of breath. Vainly
+he tried to stop, but no; on, on he went with a fearful
+rush. He heard the cries of the old witch, who pursued
+him on her broom-stick. On, on, went poor Ha'penny,
+more dead than alive, and now the witch
+seemed gaining on him. He could hear the gnashing
+of her teeth. He struck out with his staff, as he passed
+by a rock, and instantly the rock became a mountain
+as high as the moon. The witch took some time to<span class="pagenum">[58]</span>
+clamber over this, and meantime Ha'penny got far
+ahead of her. Reaching a city, he dashed into the
+midst of a funeral procession that was going through
+the street, and hid himself under the pall of the coffin,
+kicking off the slippers as he did so. Immediately he
+could walk as other men do, and when the old witch
+arrived she saw nothing but the funeral creeping slowly
+along&mdash;no sign of Ha'penny, who, hidden under the
+pall, clasped his magic slippers to his breast, and held
+tight to his magic staff. The disappointed witch flew
+homeward and whipped the cats and dogs soundly&mdash;excepting
+F&eacute;lisette, who, of course, had been the tell-tale
+on poor Ha'penny.</p>
+
+<p>The funeral train reached the cemetery, and Ha'penny
+thought it his duty to cry as bitterly as the rest of the
+mourners; but after the coffin had been put in the
+grave, and as they were turning away, he asked a bystander
+whose funeral it was.</p>
+
+<p>"The king's messenger, to be sure, you simpleton,"
+said the man.</p>
+
+<p>"Could I get the place?" asked Ha'penny.</p>
+
+<p>"You, the king's messenger!" said the man, scornfully.
+"Why, he must be the swiftest runner in the
+country. Look at your cork-screw legs! Look at<span class="pagenum">[59]</span>
+your hump-back and your big head! As well expect
+a snail to carry our king's messages."</p>
+
+<p>Nothing daunted, Ha'penny went to the king's chamberlain,
+and proffered his request. The chamberlain
+laughed until his head nearly dropped off, and then
+called the first Goldstick-in-waiting, who called the
+second, and soon the whole court was roaring over the
+absurd request of this poor mannikin to be the king's
+messenger.</p>
+
+<p>"All I ask is that you try me," said Ha'penny,
+stoutly holding his ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop! An idea occurs to me," said the jolly chamberlain,
+holding his aching sides. "To-morrow we
+shall have a running-match between this champion and
+the swiftest runner of the kingdom. In truth, my
+lords, this will be sport worth having," and he looked
+around at the courtiers, who all set to laughing anew.</p>
+
+<p>Next day the match was held in a lovely grassy field.
+On a green mound in the centre was pitched a white
+satin tent, under which sat the king and queen and their
+children. An immense crowd assembled. Two bands
+of music kept playing all the time; there were free
+Punch and Judy shows on the outskirts of the crowd,
+and booths where lemonade was given away, with peppermint<span class="pagenum">[60]</span>
+sticks and molasses taffy, to all who asked for
+it. Banners waved, trumpets blew, and then the race
+began. Side by side with Ha'penny, little and insignificant
+and forlorn as he was, started the king's
+swiftest runner, a man of beautiful light form and
+splendid muscle. Once around the field they ran, the
+dwarf lagging; but on the second round Ha'penny
+settled his feet well in his magic slippers, when, see!
+like an arrow he sped past the athlete, and was in at
+the goal so easily that the spectators hardly had time
+to wink their astonished eyes! Hurrah! hurrah! A
+mighty cheer went up for the successful Ha'penny, and
+the king called him to receive the purse of gold, which
+was the prize. Ha'penny knelt at the king's feet, and
+again asked to be made his messenger.</p>
+
+<p>"That shall you be, my mannikin!" said the pleased
+monarch. So Ha'penny had a gold chain round his
+neck, a fine velvet coat to wear every day, and a page
+to serve his meals. The king grew so fond of his new
+servant that the rest of the courtiers became jealous.
+Soon Ha'penny again had no friends but the animals
+around the palace. They, as usual, followed him
+everywhere, and caressed him fondly.</p>
+
+<p>Once when the little dwarf was walking in the king's<span class="pagenum">[61]</span>
+paddock, accompanied by a train of young deer who
+loved to be near him, he felt the staff in his hand give
+a loud thump on the ground. At the same time all
+the deer formed in a circle round the spot, seeming
+by their eyes to implore Ha'penny to remain there.
+At first he could not understand this, but at length
+occurred to him what the oldest of the dogs had said
+about hidden treasure. Ha'penny had no spade to dig
+with, but at once the deer went to work with their
+hoofs, and soon they had made a deep hole, at the bottom
+of which lay a large iron ring fastened to an iron
+door.</p>
+
+<p>Ha'penny was not strong enough to pull this up;
+but the magic staff, when passed through the ring,
+lifted it easily. Below was a flight of steps, leading to
+a gallery. Ha'penny went down the steps, followed
+the windings of the gallery, and reached a second
+door. Touching this with the magic staff it yielded,
+and flying open disclosed to view a lovely garden,
+where roamed all sorts of strange shapes&mdash;men's and
+women's bodies bearing the heads of bears, lions,
+wolves, foxes, dogs, cows, horses, and cats. Instantly
+these creatures came flocking around Ha'penny, calling
+him their deliverer, and telling him that they too<span class="pagenum">[62]</span>
+were victims of the witch, although by an accident she
+had only had time to change their heads before her
+spell expired. To this garden the witch was in the
+habit of coming once a week, to see how her victims
+were getting on, and to-day was the day of her visit.
+Ha'penny took the magic slippers from his pocket and
+put them on; and keeping firm hold of his trusty staff
+he hid behind a lilac-bush.</p>
+
+<p>Soon, in came the witch, riding her broom-stick.
+Ha'penny had never before seen her in her true witch
+dress. It was a black, tight-fitting gown, made of scaly
+snake-skin, and she had a necklace of live coals.
+Around her high-peaked cap were twined two living
+serpents, and a toad formed her brooch. Under one
+arm she carried her familiar spirit, in the likeness of
+a black cat, with a single emerald eye. She wore a
+mantle, made of cobwebs and studded with large
+venomous red spiders. Oh! she was a terror to look
+upon, and no mistake! Ha'penny's teeth chattered
+with fear, and so would yours at sight of her! She
+rode sweeping her broom down the garden path, and
+instantly all the animals with human bodies came running
+to do her homage. She made them kneel before
+her, and, with the three-thonged whip of live snakes<span class="pagenum">[63]</span>
+she carried, whipped them all cruelly, till they groaned
+and cried for mercy. Then, feeling tired, she lay down
+on a bank to sleep, guarded by her familiar, who kept
+watch with its single eye of flame; and on closely observing
+the horrid creature Ha'penny made no doubt
+that it was none other than his enemy, F&eacute;lisette, in her
+rightful shape.</p>
+
+<p>When the witch was fairly snoring, Ha'penny crept
+up behind, and summoning all his strength prepared
+to smite her with his staff. Suddenly the black cat
+spit and hunched her back. The serpents around the
+witch's hat began to writhe and uncoil. They knew
+an enemy was near.</p>
+
+<p>Ha'penny saw that he must lose no time, so aiming
+a fierce blow at the witch's back, he broke her spinal
+column, just as you would break a stick of sugar-candy.
+Then the dying witch uttered a shrill command to her
+watchers, and instantly F&eacute;lisette and the two serpents
+set upon the audacious Ha'penny. "This time you
+shall not escape me!" cried F&eacute;lisette, spitting fire.
+The cat's breath was deadly poison, and the serpents'
+fangs no man might feel and live. Ha'penny struck,
+swift and sure, right into the middle of the cat's single
+eye, and pierced her brain. As F&eacute;lisette fell dead beside<span class="pagenum">[64]</span>
+the groaning witch, the serpents reared their full
+length from the ground, and prepared to strangle the
+dwarf. The good staff proved true, and cut them both
+in two with a single well-aimed blow. What was his
+horror to find the mangled remains of the snakes
+change into four living ones, stronger than the first.
+There was nothing for it but flight, and Ha'penny took
+to his heels. The magic slippers carried him on and
+away, so swiftly that nothing could catch him. He
+passed through the gallery and went out at the iron door,
+finding himself safe, but a little out of breath, in
+the paddock with the king's deer.</p>
+
+<p>Ha'penny told nobody of this exciting adventure,
+but could not sleep for thinking of all the poor bewitched
+people down there in the underground garden
+in the power of those dreadful snakes. He now suspected
+that these two fighting serpents were of the
+multiplication variety. (This means that if they were
+cut in two they would become four, from four become
+eight, from eight sixteen, from sixteen thirty-two, and
+so on indefinitely; and this, we are told, is the very
+worst species of snake known to travellers!)</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 516px;">
+<img src="images/i013.jpg" width="516" height="607" alt="Ha&#39;penny Watching the Witch in the Underground Garden." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">Ha&#39;penny Watching the Witch in the Underground Garden.</p>
+
+<p>Ha'penny got up early, went out again to the paddock,
+and found the deer in a great state of excitement<span class="pagenum">[65]</span>
+and agitation. They seemed to be waiting for him to
+come, and led the way to the secret passage in the
+earth. Ha'penny went down, staff in hand, and easily
+passed through the first iron door. As he neared
+the second door, he heard a confused noise beyond
+it of cries and lamentations. He opened the door
+softly, and crept into the garden unobserved. There
+he saw the dying witch, who, as witches always require
+twenty-four hours to die in, was lying on the
+ground writhing horribly, groaning, and shrieking
+to her snakes to multiply, which they did until almost
+the whole garden was one seething, wriggling mass
+of the horrible creatures. The poor people in the
+garden had climbed up the trees, and were every
+moment expecting to fall to the ground poisoned
+by the breath of the serpents, which rose in a thick
+vapor.</p>
+
+<p>In this terrible moment Ha'penny's heart almost
+failed him; but, mustering all his courage, he sprang
+upon the witch, and tore from her the mantle of cobwebs,
+to which he noticed she was clinging. Instantly
+the witch set up a shrill shriek.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me back my mantle," she cried pitifully; "if
+I die with that around me, I can be sure of rest in the<span class="pagenum">[66]</span>
+grave. If you take it away, I shall have to fly about
+like a bat forever."</p>
+
+<p>"If you order the snakes to shrivel up and die,
+and restore all your victims to their natural shapes, I
+will give you the mantle," said Ha'penny firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Children, come home!" cried the witch, in a failing
+voice. Immediately the snakes began rolling and gliding
+into each other, and in a short while nothing was left
+but the two fiery serpents, who wreathed themselves
+quietly around the witch's hat again, as if nothing had
+occurred.</p>
+
+<p>"Children, be dust!" she said again&mdash;this time in a
+weaker voice&mdash;and the snakes curled up and fell away,
+leaving behind them only two little shining skins.</p>
+
+<p>"Be once more men and women, you accursed
+things!" she said spitefully, making a sign at the
+transformed beings who were now flocking around
+Ha'penny with delight and gratitude. As the witch
+spoke, the ugly deformities melted away, and in their
+place were seen the heads of handsome men and beautiful
+women, who wept for joy when they found themselves
+restored.</p>
+
+<p>Ha'penny now threw the cobweb mantle over the
+witch, who, clutching it in her arms, gave one long<span class="pagenum">[67]</span>
+shudder and expired. They made a grave for her
+then and there; and Ha'penny led his companions out
+of the magic garden, which they were glad to leave,
+into the long passage-way. There they showed him
+caverns filled with gold and silver, which it had been
+their business to dig out of the earth and to pack away
+for the witch. Ha'penny and his friends divided the
+spoil, although they told him it was all his by right.
+When they got up into the light of day once more, the
+bewitched people scattered in all directions to go to
+their various homes, and Ha'penny was again alone
+in the world, although now very rich. He persuaded
+the king to discharge him from the royal service, and
+his first thought was to journey to the cabin in the
+woods. This, by aid of the magic slippers, he did in very
+quick style, and there he found the twelve dogs and
+the twelve cats living as before. This distressed Ha'penny,
+as he had hoped that the breaking of the
+witch's spell would set them also free. "What did I
+tell you?" said the oldest of the dogs sadly. "We are
+doomed <i>never</i> to regain our shapes; but, now that F&eacute;lisette
+has gone, we are comfortable here and don't repine.
+Only, there <i>should</i> be somebody to cook for us,
+and our hair has not been decently brushed for a week."<span class="pagenum">[68]</span></p>
+
+<p>Ha'penny felt a sudden thrill of joy. Here, at last,
+was something to depend on him, something that he
+might live and care for. He warmed the water forthwith,
+and gave all the dogs and cats a bath apiece,
+and then he combed and brushed them nicely. He
+made the fire and heated their broth, and fetched
+fresh cream and white bread for their breakfast.
+Nothing was heard but little barks and purrs of enjoyment.
+Ha'penny waited till all were asleep on
+their cushions, and then he mounted the stairs and
+nailed up the skeleton cupboard, so that it might
+never again be opened. He could not take it quite
+away, you see, as every one must have a skeleton of
+some kind in his closet, and this was the only one he
+had. Ha'penny had never felt so happy and light-hearted
+as now. He had found friends, and might
+remain alone with them in peace.</p>
+
+<p>So there he continued to live, and I am almost sure
+that if you would visit that forest, you might, even
+now, succeed in finding the cottage, the cats, and Ha'penny
+himself!</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[69]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 537px;">
+<img src="images/i016.jpg" width="537" height="119" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="SYBILLA_MYRTILLO_AND_FURIOSO" id="SYBILLA_MYRTILLO_AND_FURIOSO"></a>SYBILLA, MYRTILLO, AND FURIOSO.</h2>
+
+<img src="images/drop-a.jpg" width="81" height="82" alt="A" title="A" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">A</span><b>CERTAIN</b>
+
+king had a beautiful golden-haired
+daughter named Sybilla, whose suitors came
+from every country, though with small success,
+since the princess had vowed to remain single
+until one proving to be the mightiest hero of the world
+should appear.</p>
+
+<p>At no great distance from her father's country lived
+a horrible giant, every hair of whose head could
+change, at will, into a fiery serpent. He had one eye,
+the size of a mill-wheel, and his teeth looked like rocks
+in a mighty cavern. His name was Furioso, and his
+strength was known to surpass that of an army of ordinary
+men. What was the dismay of Sybilla's father
+when this monster sent to request the lovely princess
+for his wife! The king turned pale, and walked up
+and down his palace floor all night, for he knew what<span class="pagenum">[70]</span>
+it meant to refuse the request of Furioso, who, up to
+this time, had lived at peace with his neighbor's country.
+The queen-mother, hearing of the giant's offer,
+took to her royal bed in kicking hysterics. As to the
+proud little princess, she curled her pretty red lips
+scornfully and tossed her head. "I'd like to see him
+do it, the fright!" was what she said.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days what the king feared had come to
+pass. The giant Furioso, on receiving the beautiful
+diplomatic letter the king's secretary had written him
+(after consultation with all the lords and lawyers of the
+realm), frowned, scratched his head, which instantly
+bristled all over with flaming serpents, and opening his
+mouth sent forth a blood-curdling yell of defiance that
+resounded in the farthest part of the king's dominions.
+Without a moment's delay he changed himself into a
+fearful hurricane, and swept over the country and the
+palace of the Princess Sybilla. Fences and iron gates,
+stone walls and marble palaces fell to the ground
+like card-houses. Forests were uprooted, suspension
+bridges snapped like cobwebs, villages entire rose up
+into the clouds and disappeared, with their inhabitants
+looking in astonishment out of the windows! Cows
+and horses, dogs and elephants were seen whirling<span class="pagenum">[71]</span>
+about in the air like Japanese day-fireworks. The
+king and queen found the roof lifted from above their
+heads, and went sailing out the open space in their
+nightcaps. They met all the court blowing wildly about
+up there, and for some time it was like a mad dance
+without any bottom to it. Dizzy and terrified, the
+royal couple at last fell down to earth again, the
+queen lighting on the fat cook, so that she was not
+seriously injured&mdash;the king falling on a tennis net,
+which the force of the wind kept suspended like a
+hammock without any ropes.</p>
+
+<p>Picking themselves up, the first thought of the royal
+couple was for their beloved princess. As fast as different
+members of the court and household fell down
+from the clouds, which they continued to do all the
+evening and night, the king sent them in search of the
+princess. Nobody remembered having seen Sybilla
+anywhere in the air, and her waiting-maid, who dropped
+somewhere about nine o'clock <span class="smcap">A.M.</span>, next day, wept
+as she told how she was combing the princess' golden
+hair with the ivory comb she still held in her hand,
+when the breeze came which separated them. One
+thing was certain, the princess had disappeared. When
+things settled down a little, and people began taking<span class="pagenum">[72]</span>
+
+<img src="images/i017.jpg" width="269" height="594" alt="i017" title="i017" class="split">
+
+their breath, a peasant
+turned up who reported
+seeing the princess flying
+along at a fearful rate of
+speed in the arms of a
+tall, white-haired man
+wrapped in a mantle, who
+hid his face as he passed.
+"It were just at that moment,
+your honors," said
+the peasant, overwhelmed
+by the questions that
+rained on him, "I were
+myself tooken, unexpected-like,
+and turned upside
+down by the wind; and
+when I cum to, there I
+were atop a haystack in
+Farmer Grimes' field, five
+miles from home as the
+crow flies, a-standing on
+my head."</p>
+
+<p>The king and queen exchanged
+horrified glances.<span class="pagenum">[73]</span></p>
+
+<p>Each remembered to have heard that one of the tricks
+of Giant Furioso, when he wished to be particularly
+wicked, was to change to the semblance of a venerable
+white-haired man. No doubt about it, the whole
+calamity to court and nation was the work of Furioso,
+and <i>he</i> had got the princess.</p>
+
+<p>The distracted king set out at the head of his army
+to visit Furioso's castle. To his surprise, under the
+giant's name, upon a visiting card inserted above the
+speaking-trumpet at the gate, were pencilled these
+words: "Out of town till further notice." The windows
+were closed, and green shades hung behind them.
+No smoke came out of the chimneys, and the doors
+were chained. Evidently the giant had retired to
+some one of his retreats, where he could not be followed.
+The king and his army marched back again
+in gloomy silence.</p>
+
+<p>For six months nothing was heard of the unfortunate
+Sybilla, till one day three young princes, travelling
+from a distant country in search of adventure, found a
+wounded carrier-pigeon on the road. Under its wing
+was a note, written in pale red ink, on a bit of torn
+linen cambric. The note gave them considerable trouble
+to read it, but, at last, the youngest prince, Myrtillo,<span class="pagenum">[74]</span>
+who had always been the cleverest at school, managed
+to decipher these words:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I write this with blood taken from my finger, on
+a fragment of my only pocket-handkerchief. I am the
+wretched Princess Sybilla, daughter of the King Rolando,
+and I pray any kind mortal who finds this to come
+to my aid, in the dungeon of Furioso, under the fifth
+mountain of the Impassable Range. Once in twenty-four
+hours this mountain cleaves asunder to let my
+oppressor take the air. Watch, and rescue me, in the
+name of humanity."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The Impassable Range was far away, but the princes
+journeyed thither without delay. They found the fifth
+mountain easily, and hid under the rocks at its base,
+to await developments. Exactly at sunrise a rumbling
+sound was heard, and the cliffs shook. The
+mountain split apart from summit to base, and between
+two yawning jaws of rock issued forth, first, a
+head covered with flaming serpents, then a frightful
+purple face, and lastly, the gigantic form of Furioso.
+Following him came the wails and shrieks of his captives
+within the mountain, to which Furioso paid no
+attention; he only turned his back and shouted:<span class="pagenum">[75]</span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Close you, mountain, fierce and grim,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Open but to Banbedrim!"<br></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The princes fancied that this last was the password,
+and when the giant had disappeared they tried to
+make the mountain open by repeating it; but in his
+excitement each one forgot how to pronounce the
+magic syllables. So there they stayed till sunset, when
+the giant came home from his hunting expedition. He
+had a pouch slung over his shoulder, and in it were
+crowded the new men, women, and children he had
+caught. The poor creatures were half dead with terror
+and rough treatment. The princes watched the
+giant, and listened with all their ears for the password.
+"Banbedrim!" thundered Furioso, and instantly the
+mountain yawned to let him and his miserable prisoners
+pass in, when it closed, as before.</p>
+
+<p>The three princes laid each his hand on his sword,
+and swore to be avenged of the brutal treatment of their
+fellow-beings. Next morning when the giant issued
+forth, hurling the password at the mountain, then disappeared
+from sight, the oldest prince declared that
+he should be the first to enter the mountain, that his
+brothers should wait twenty-four hours for his reappearance,<span class="pagenum">[76]</span>
+and that should he fail to come back the
+second brother might come to his assistance.</p>
+
+<p>Bravely the young man sprang up the mountain-side,
+and called aloud the password. Instantly amid thunderings
+and lightnings the ground split at his feet and
+swallowed him from sight. They could see the tip of
+his bright sword held aloft, as he sank into the gloomy
+abyss.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty-four hours passed, and the oldest prince
+failed to return. Then the second brother set forth,
+and he, too, vanished from sight. A long day and night
+of waiting had the youngest prince. Then he ascended
+the mountain where there was every reason to
+fear his brothers had found a horrible fate. Uttering
+the password, Myrtillo saw, through the opening earth
+at his feet, a pit whence came fire and smoke; and he
+plainly heard the cries for help of many human voices.</p>
+
+<p>Myrtillo fell a great distance, landing on his feet in
+a desolate cavern. The smoke cleared away and he
+beheld a huge iron door before which were four trumpets&mdash;one
+of copper, one of silver, one of gold, and
+one of brass. Over them these words: "He who
+would enter here, choose between us four."</p>
+
+<p>At the foot of the golden trumpet lay the mangled<span class="pagenum">[77]</span>
+remains of his oldest brother, who had perished in
+trying to blow it. At the foot of the silver trumpet
+the corpse of the second prince had fallen; and now
+Myrtillo must choose between the two remaining trumpets!
+Without a moment's hesitation he put his lips
+to the copper trumpet, and gave a loud, clear blast.
+At once the iron door flew open, and he was in a hall
+surrounded by dungeons, through whose gratings he
+could see prisoners in every stage of misery. They
+called to him frantically, and hailed him as their deliverer.
+Alas! what could the poor prince do to save
+them. He looked about and saw a long tunnel, ending
+in a massive gate of stone and iron. As he gazed
+into the darkness of the tunnel something coiled up
+at the end of it seemed to stir, and a hideous snake
+darted toward him, opening a pair of jaws as wide
+as an ordinary fireplace, and sending out a flaming
+tongue. Myrtillo charged upon the beast, and after a
+desperate fight drove his sword down its throat, the
+point coming out at the back of the neck. As he
+stooped to free his sword the serpent gave a convulsive
+struggle and died. Myrtillo found a chain around its
+neck on which was fastened a golden key. He took
+the key and put it in the great key-hole of the iron<span class="pagenum">[78]</span>
+door before him, and to his joy the door opened.
+There, in a dismal dungeon within, lay a beautiful
+maiden in chains. Myrtillo set her free, and found
+that she was the Princess Sybilla, whom the giant
+treated with especial cruelty because she persisted in
+refusing his love. She told him that the little pigeon
+was one of many kept for the serpent's food, and
+that she had hidden it, and helped it to fly out one
+day when the giant left her cell. "And now," said the
+princess, when Myrtillo had in turn told her his story,
+"let us be quick, and lose no time. In the court beyond
+my cell are two fountains. One of them contains
+the water of strength, the other the water of
+weakness. From the former fountain Furioso gains
+all his power. A little of its water sprinkled upon the
+dead recalls them to life, and we may save your poor
+brothers yet."</p>
+
+<p>Myrtillo and the lady hastened to the fountains; but
+to their dismay a roaring noise and the groans of the
+wretched prisoners, who were chastised daily upon his
+return, announced the arrival of the giant. "Quick!"
+said the lady, pointing to the water of strength; "drink
+once of this, and you will be strong enough to change
+the fountains, putting each in the place of the other."<span class="pagenum">[79]</span></p>
+
+<p>Myrtillo obeyed, and at once felt able to move a
+mountain at command. He seized the solid stone
+basins and changed them, and hardly had he done so
+when the giant came rushing in. "Where is that insolent
+whipper-snapper of a prince who has dared to
+kill my faithful serpent?" roared he.</p>
+
+<p>"Here he is, at your service," said Myrtillo, stepping
+forth with a gallant bow, and holding his glittering
+sword in hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Just wait till I quench my thirst," said the giant
+disdainfully, as he stooped down to what he supposed
+to be his fountain of strength, and drank a long, deep
+draught. Suddenly a strange trembling came over the
+monster's huge bulk. His face turned pale, his eyes
+stared, his jaw dropped, he sank to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, this is the water of weakness my prisoners
+drink," he cried. "What trick have you been playing
+me, you scoundrel?"</p>
+
+<p>Myrtillo again drank of the water of strength, and
+now he felt as if he could defy an army, single-handed.
+Swift as a lightning flash he descended upon the giant,
+and severed his wicked head from his body. The
+Princess Sybilla uttered a wild shriek of delight, which
+was heard and understood by all her fellow-captives,<span class="pagenum">[80]</span>
+and the dungeons echoed with sobs and cries of joy.
+Myrtillo and the princess filled goblets with the water
+of strength, and hastened to sprinkle all the prisoners,
+who, paralyzed by their chains and wasted with hunger,
+could in many cases barely stir upon the ground
+where they lay. Soon, a host of strong men and women
+filled the main hall of the dungeon, and then Myrtillo
+had the joy of seeing his two brothers return to
+life under the action of the magic water, in which he
+bathed their limbs. As Myrtillo only had <i>drank</i> of
+the water of strength, he remained the strongest champion
+in the world; and when Sybilla was taken back
+to her father and mother, she told them that she had
+promised to take the Prince Myrtillo for her husband.
+From the giant's stronghold Myrtillo brought away
+gems and gold enough to enrich him for a lifetime,
+even after all the giant's victims had been sent home
+with a bag of gold apiece. His brothers found brides
+in two lovely fellow-sufferers they had led out of the
+giant's cavern to the light of day; and so all were satisfied,
+and in a short time the Giant Furioso was forgotten.
+No more hurricanes visited the kingdom of
+Sybilla's father, where things continued to jog along in
+the old-time peaceful fashion.</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[81]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 541px;">
+<img src="images/i018.jpg" width="541" height="117" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="ANNETTE_OR_THE_MAGIC_COFFEE-MILL" id="ANNETTE_OR_THE_MAGIC_COFFEE-MILL"></a>ANNETTE;<br>OR,<br>THE MAGIC COFFEE-MILL.</h2>
+
+<img src="images/drop-a.jpg" width="81" height="82" alt="A" title="A" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">A</span><b>POOR</b>
+woman and her daughter, who were
+on the verge of starvation, saw a little green
+bud of a plant growing through their cottage
+floor. They watered it, and in a day or two it
+sent forth long shoots, and became a vine, fine and
+delicate to look at, but tough as an iron wire. The
+vine put forth leaves, soon covering the inner walls
+of the cottage. The tendrils waved longingly toward
+the sun, and so the mother and daughter set their
+lattice window open, when, lo! the vine escaped as if
+it had wings and grew quickly heavenward. Lovely
+flowers bloomed on it, in shape like morning-glories,
+and rare birds came to drink the honey of their
+chalices. The maiden leaned out of her window and
+looked up. Higher, higher climbed the vine, till it
+was lost in the blue sky above them. The girl was
+seized with a yearning desire to climb up and see what<span class="pagenum">[82]</span>
+could be seen. Her mother gave her leave, and she
+set out. Up, up, she went, and the mother watched
+below till the clustering green and many-colored bells
+hid her child from sight. At last the girl reached a
+wonderful new country, and stepped off the vine upon
+a shining silver path, which she followed through a
+green meadow till she came to a house made of honey-comb
+that glittered, oh! so beautifully. The columns
+of the porch were sticks of lemon-candy, and there
+were little benches to rest yourself upon, made of
+maple-sugar and cushioned with gingerbread. Annette,
+for so the girl was called, ventured to open the
+door of the house and peep in. There she found
+more beautiful things than I can tell you of&mdash;toys and
+books and pictures&mdash;and all the furniture was made of
+cake with raisins in it, so that, if one sat down to read,
+one need only turn around and nibble a knob off the
+chair, or pick raisins out of the arm of the sofa. Annette
+played a little and read a story-book, then she
+fell asleep on a couch made of apple-dumplings. Suddenly
+in came three goats, who were the servants of
+the fairy to whom this house belonged. "Let us butt
+her to death," said the oldest goat. "Let us trample
+on her, and bite her," said the second goat. "Let her<span class="pagenum">[83]</span>
+alone," said the third goat, who was a kind little fellow
+with golden horns. "If she holds her tongue, and if she
+don't find out the secret of the golden coffee-mill, our
+mistress will let her stay here and work for her."</p>
+
+<p>Annette heard this while pretending to be asleep,
+and when the fairy came home, she jumped up and
+made a nice little courtesy, begging to be allowed to do
+the housework. "Well," said the fairy, after looking
+at her sharply, "I will try you; only don't undertake
+to grind my coffee for me, and don't gossip with the
+goats."</p>
+
+<p>Annette lived there for six months, and learned to
+make all kinds of goodies; for the fairy was the queen's
+confectioner in that country. You might eat all you
+pleased, provided you didn't talk; and not a word
+spoke Annette, and not a word spoke the goats.
+Every day the fairy went into a pantry and there
+ground her coffee; and every day she carried two
+or three bags full of something heavy, and put them
+in her chariot, and drove off with them. The coffee-mill
+looked like any other one, and Annette wondered
+vainly what its secret was. At last curiosity overcame
+her, and she stole into the pantry and began to grind
+the mill. Down fell a stream of pure gold-dust,<span class="pagenum">[84]</span>
+and it powdered Annette all over till she looked like
+a golden image. "How shall I get rid of this?"
+she said, trying to shake it off, but the gold dust stuck
+fast. She cried and sobbed, for she knew that now
+the fairy would certainly find her out. In came the
+friendly goat. "Cheer up," said he. "That was the
+way my horns came to be gilded, because I yielded to
+my curiosity about the mill, when I first came here to
+live. The fairy wanted to kill me, but she let me off
+when I vowed to serve her faithfully for seven years.
+The time is just up, and so I propose that we escape
+together. Take the magic mill under your arm and
+get upon my back, and we will go down to your
+world."</p>
+
+<img src="images/i019.jpg" width="208" height="634" alt="" title="" class="splitr">
+
+<p>Annette joyfully obeyed the friendly goat, and carrying
+the coffee-mill they set off from the fairy's house.
+Unfortunately she did not know how to stop the mill
+from grinding, and it left a path of gold-dust behind
+them as they fled, which showed the way to the
+fairy. The fairy followed them, riding on a silver
+broom-stick; but the goat was swift as the wind, and
+Annette clung to his golden horns, and held the magic
+mill tight under her arm. By good luck they reached
+the opening, near which the vine was growing, and,<span class="pagenum">[85]</span>
+
+just as the furious fairy got near
+enough to stretch out her long
+arm after them, down went
+Annette, goat, and coffee-mill,
+through a rift in the clouds, to
+a land where their enemy could
+not follow them. The faithful
+vine caught them as they fell,
+and held them up stoutly.
+When they had climbed down,
+and touched the earth in safety,
+Annette was astonished to see
+her goat turn into a handsome
+young prince, with curling golden
+locks and kind blue eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You have freed me from my
+enchantment, beautiful maiden,"
+he said, kneeling upon the grass
+at her feet. "Long years ago
+I and my wicked brothers were
+captured by the fairy and became
+her slaves under the form of
+goats, as you saw. For fear that
+they may find out some way to<span class="pagenum">[86]</span>
+follow us, we must cut down this vine, and then we
+shall be free forever from all dread of disturbance."</p>
+
+<p>Annette's mother came running out, kissed her child,
+and listened with wonder to the tale of her adventures.
+All this while the mill had gone on grinding, and before
+they knew it the cottage floor was knee-deep in
+gold-dust. "We shall be smothered at this rate," cried
+the prince laughing, and he hastened to make a magic
+sign he had learned from the fairy. The mill ceased
+to flow, and then the prince took an axe and cut the
+beautiful vine at its root. Annette wept to see the
+lovely leaves and blossoms shrivel up, but in a short
+time they vanished entirely from sight. The prince
+married Annette, and every day the mill ground gold
+enough to pay all the expenses of their palace and
+servants and horses, and also the expenses of Annette's
+mother, who had a separate palace for herself over
+the way.</p>
+
+<p>The country people, for years after the time when
+Annette and the prince came down the magic vine,
+showering gold-dust along their way, continued to
+talk about the wonderful rain of stars they had seen in
+the sky that moon-lit night.</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[89]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 534px;">
+<img src="images/i021.jpg" width="534" height="117" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="JULIET_OR_THE_LITTLE_WHITE_MOUSE" id="JULIET_OR_THE_LITTLE_WHITE_MOUSE"></a>JULIET;<br>OR,<br>THE LITTLE WHITE MOUSE.</h2>
+
+<img src="images/drop-o.jpg" width="74" height="74" alt="O" title="O" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">O</span><b>NCE</b>
+upon a time there lived a king and queen
+who loved each other so dearly that they
+were an example to all the married couples
+in their kingdom. In an adjoining country lived a
+wicked king, who spent his life in envying the happiness
+of his neighbors. He was a sworn enemy to all
+good and charitable people, and his chosen companions
+were robbers and murderers. His air was stern and
+forbidding. He was lean and withered, dressed always
+in black, and his hair hung in long elf-locks over his
+fiery eyes. This wicked wretch, determined to end the
+happiness of his neighbor, raised an immense army
+and marched to attack the kingdom of the Land of
+Sweet Content, for so the good king's country was
+called.</p>
+
+<p>The king of Sweet Content made a brave defence,
+but it was all in vain. The immense numbers of the<span class="pagenum">[90]</span>
+adversary overpowered him and his troops. One day
+when his poor queen was sitting with her infant
+daughter in her arms, waiting for news from the battle-field,
+a messenger on horseback galloped up to the
+door, and entered the room where she was, with every
+sign of terror.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! madam," he cried, "all is lost. The king is
+slain, the army defeated, and the ferocious King Grimgouger
+is even now marching to take you prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>The queen fell senseless on the floor; and while her
+attendants were making every effort to provide a means
+of flight for her and the little princess, the army of
+the foe, with banners flying and with music playing,
+marched into the city. Surrounding the palace, they
+called on the queen to surrender. No answer was
+given, and the horrid King Grimgouger instantly
+ordered a file of his most blood-thirsty soldiers to
+march through the palace and to kill everybody they
+met, except the queen and princess.</p>
+
+<p>Now nothing was heard but shrieks and lamentations
+from the doomed attendants of the queen. When
+all were sacrificed, the tyrant Grimgouger walked into
+the apartment where the terrified queen stood, clasping
+her child in her arms, and prepared for death.<span class="pagenum">[91]</span></p>
+
+<p>"You won't die now, madam," he thundered,
+seizing her by the long hair, and dragging her after
+him down the stairs and over the stones of the courtyard
+to his chariot. She was all bruised and bleeding,
+and knew nothing more till she found herself in a
+tower-room, where dampness dripped from the walls,
+and the light of day could scarcely reach through a
+small grated window. She lay upon a little heap of
+mouldy straw, and her child cried for food beside her,
+while over her stood a wicked fairy to whom King
+Grimgouger had given the prisoners in charge. The
+fairy threw her a few crusts without any butter on them,
+and the baby seized one eagerly, and stopped crying
+as she sucked it.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 508px;">
+<img src="images/i020.jpg" width="508" height="600" alt="The Queen &amp; the Princess in prison." title="">
+<p class="caption">The Queen &amp; the Princess in prison.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>"That is all either of you shall have to-day," said the
+fairy. "To-morrow they will decide what to do with
+you. Probably you, queen, will be hanged, and your
+daughter be saved to marry the son of our good King
+Grimgouger."</p>
+
+<p>"What! That ugly little reptile of a prince!"
+screamed the queen. "Hang me, if you will, but don't
+give my beautiful angel to a husband like that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then she, too, will be hanged," said the fairy,
+grinning maliciously, and flying away with a fizz of<span class="pagenum">[92]</span>
+flame, leaving behind her the smell of sulphur
+matches.</p>
+
+<p>Next day the fairy gave the queen three boiled
+peas, and a small bit of black bread, and the next, and
+the next, until the poor queen wasted to skin and
+bone, and the baby looked like a wax doll that had
+been left out in the rain all night.</p>
+
+<p>"In a few days it will be over," thought the poor
+queen. "We shall be starved
+to death."</p>
+
+<img src="images/i022.jpg" width="224" height="165" alt="" title="" class="split">
+
+<p>She fell to spinning with
+what strength remained to
+her (for the fairy made her
+work, to pay her board, she
+said), and just then she saw,
+entering at a small hole, a pretty little mouse as white
+as snow.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! pretty creature," cried the queen, "you have
+come to a poor place for food. I have only three peas,
+which are to last me and my child all day. Begone,
+if you, too, would not starve."</p>
+
+<p>The little mouse ran about, here and there, skipping
+so like a little monkey that the baby smiled, and gave
+it the pea she had for her supper.<span class="pagenum">[93]</span></p>
+
+<p>The instant she had fed the mouse, what was the
+queen's surprise to see, start out of the prison floor,
+a neat little table, covered with a white cloth, having
+on it silver dishes, containing a roast partridge, a lovely
+cake, some raspberry jam, and for the baby a big
+bowl of fresh bread and milk, with a silver spoon!
+How they did eat! I leave you to imagine it!</p>
+
+<p>Next day the mouse came again, and devoured the
+queen's three peas, her whole day's supply. The queen
+sighed, for she did not know where anything else was
+to come from. She stroked the little mouse, and said
+gently, "Pretty creature, you are welcome." Immediately
+the same little table sprang up out of the floor.
+This time there was broiled chicken and ice-cream,
+green peas, marsh-mallows and custard, with a fresh
+bowl of bread and milk for the baby. "Oh! you dear
+little mouse," said the queen. "This must be your
+work! If you could only help me to get my baby out
+of this dreadful place, I would thank you forever."</p>
+
+<p>The mouse ran up to her with some straws in its
+mouth. This gave the queen an idea, and taking them
+she began to weave a basket, for she was a clever queen,
+and knew how to use her pretty white hands in a
+variety of useful ways. The mouse understood her,<span class="pagenum">[94]</span>
+and brought her more straws, until she had made a
+nice covered basket large enough to hold the baby.
+Then the queen cut her petticoat into strips, and
+plaited them, till she had a long and strong cord.
+She tied the basket to this, and wrapping the beautiful
+little smiling princess in the only covering she had,
+laid her in the basket, crying all the time as if her
+heart would break. Then she climbed up to the window,
+and (the little white mouse watching her with
+a very friendly air) looked down to see if she could attract
+the attention of any charitable person who might
+be passing in the street below.</p>
+
+<p>There she saw an old woman leaning upon a stick
+and looking up at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Pray, goody," said the queen, "have pity on an
+innocent babe, and save it from destruction. Feed and
+nurse her, and heaven will reward you, if I cannot."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want money," said the old woman; "but I
+am very nice in my eating, and I have a positive longing
+for a nice, little, fat, white mouse. If you can find
+such an one in your prison, kill it and throw it out to
+me. Then, right willingly, will I take your pretty
+babe and nurse it carefully."</p>
+
+<p>When the queen heard this, she exclaimed to herself,<span class="pagenum">[95]</span>
+"Oh! the dreadful old thing!" and began to cry.
+"There is only one mouse here, madam," she said
+aloud, "and that is so pretty and engaging that I can't
+find it in my heart to kill it, even to save my child."</p>
+
+<p>"Hoity-toity!" said the angry old creature, thumping
+her stick on the ground below. "If you think
+more of a miserable little mouse than of your child,
+keep them both, and be hanged to you!"</p>
+
+<p>So saying, her staff changed to a broom-stick, and
+with a fizz and a bang the old hag shot up into the
+sky like a rocket. And there was again a strong
+smell of sulphur matches in the air!</p>
+
+<p>The queen, seeing that this was, without doubt, the
+wicked fairy come to try her, gave way to new grief.
+She kissed her hapless little one, and just then the
+mouse jumped into the basket. The baby's rough
+clothes changed to finest linen and lace, and a pillow
+of down was under her head, while a gay silver rattle
+was put into her hand.</p>
+
+<p>More surprises! As the queen watched, the mouse's
+paws changed to tiny hands with jewelled rings upon
+them. The little face grew into the image of a smiling
+old woman's, and a figure of a pretty old-time fairy
+stood before her. As these fairies have been rather<span class="pagenum">[96]</span>
+out of fashion lately, I will tell you just how she was
+dressed. She wore a chintz gown, looped up over a
+blue silk quilted petticoat. A lace ruff was around
+her throat, and her long-pointed bodice was laced
+with silver. Over her mob-cap she had a high sugar-loaf
+hat tied on with pink ribbons, and her feet were
+clad in the prettiest black silk stockings and high-heeled
+black satin slippers, with big diamond buckles.
+When you remember that she was just of a size with
+the baby princess, you will agree that you would have
+liked to see her.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the baby's name?" said the fairy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;Juliet; I thought I had mentioned it," said
+the queen, apologetically.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never heard anything but 'pecious wecious,'
+and 'mother's blessing,' and things like that,"
+said the fairy. "You may stop crying now, for I
+will save Juliet. If you had given me to the wicked
+fairy, she would have gobbled me up in a minute, so
+you see I owe my life to you. Henceforth I will take
+Juliet under my protection. She shall live to be an
+hundred years old, and never have an illness or a
+wrinkle."</p>
+
+<p>Fancy it, children! No mumps, no measles, no<span class="pagenum">[97]</span>
+whooping-cough, no castor-oil! What rapture in the
+thought!</p>
+
+<img src="images/i023.jpg" width="130" height="227" alt="" title="" class="splitr">
+
+<p>The queen kissed the fairy's little hand, and begged
+that Juliet should at once be taken away. So the weeping
+princess was put into the basket, and carefully let
+down to the bottom of the tower. Then the fairy resumed
+the shape of a mouse and ran
+after her down the string, which the
+queen still held in her hands. Suddenly
+she came running back again.
+"Alas! alas!" she cried to the terrified
+queen, "our enemy, the fairy Cancaline,
+was hidden below, and seized upon
+the child, and flew away with it. Unfortunately
+she is older and more powerful
+than I am, and I don't know how to rescue Juliet
+from her hands."</p>
+
+<p>At these words the queen uttered a loud cry, and
+in came running the jailer of the tower, his men, some
+soldiers, and after them, gnashing his teeth with rage,
+the horrid Grimgouger himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the child?" he said, stamping.</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, I know not, king," said the mother. "A
+fairy has taken it off."<span class="pagenum">[98]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Then you shall be hanged at once," he cried in a
+fury. "Seize her, guards."</p>
+
+<p>They dragged the poor queen by the hair of her
+head to the gallows. Just as the executioner was
+about to tie the rope around her neck, the gallows fell
+down beneath him and knocked out all his front
+teeth, while invisible hands carried the queen through
+the air to a safe retreat in the mountains. She found
+herself in a beautiful castle, where all her attendants
+were white mice. Here the queen lived for eighteen
+years, surrounded by luxury and tender care. But she
+always thought of her little daughter, and dreamed of
+her by day and night. The mouse fairy made every
+attempt to find news of the lost princess, but failed to
+do so.</p>
+
+<p>At this period the son of the wicked King Grimgouger
+had grown up, and everybody was talking
+about his strange fancy for a poultry-woman's maid-servant,
+who had refused to marry him in spite of his
+rank and fine clothes. The story went that the prince
+sent her, every day, a new gown of silk or velvet, and
+that the girl would not look at them. So the little
+white mouse fairy determined, through curiosity, to
+have a peep at this strange damsel. Accordingly she<span class="pagenum">[99]</span>
+visited King Grimgouger's capital, and entering the
+poultry-yard found there an extremely beautiful
+young creature dressed in a coarse woollen gown, with
+her feet bare, and a cap of goat-skin on her head.
+Lying by her side were magnificent dresses, embroidered
+with gold and silver and ornamented with precious
+stones; the turkeys and other fowls that surrounded
+her trampled on them and spoiled them.
+The poultry-girl sat upon a stone in the yard when
+the king's son arrived; he was crooked, and hump-backed,
+and horrible to look upon.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you still refuse to marry me, fair maiden?" he
+asked. "If so, I shall have you put to death immediately."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not afraid of you, prince," the girl replied,
+modestly. "I certainly should prefer death to marriage
+with you. And I like the society of my chickens and
+turkeys better than yours, if it please your highness."</p>
+
+<p>The prince went off in a rage, and the mouse fairy
+appeared, in her real shape as a little old lady.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-day, fair damsel," she said. "I respect you
+and admire you&mdash;let me be your friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Willingly, good madam," said the girl. "I am
+greatly in need of friends, as you may see."<span class="pagenum">[100]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Have you, then, no father or mother, my child?"</p>
+
+<p>"None, madam; I am an orphan, and this poultry-yard
+is my refuge from the cruelty of the only protector
+I have ever known. The fairy Cancaline, who
+had charge of me, used to beat me until I was nearly
+killed. Weary of suffering I ran away from her at
+last; and while wandering in a wood I met the prince,
+who promised to befriend me, and placed me here as
+poultry-girl. Alas! now that I find he is in love with
+me, I must leave this place, and where to go I know
+not."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is your name, my dear?" asked the
+mouse fairy, affectionately.</p>
+
+<p>"Juliet, madam."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, kiss me, my dear; I knew you before you
+knew yourself," the fairy cried, joyfully. "I am delighted
+to see you so sensible. But your complexion
+is a little dark. Bathe in yonder fountain. And you
+should be better dressed. Put on one of these dresses,
+and then let me see you."</p>
+
+<p>The girl obeyed. On taking off her cap of goat-skin
+her long golden curls fell nearly to her knees.
+After bathing in the fountain she revealed a complexion
+more bright and transparent than the choicest<span class="pagenum">[101]</span>
+pearls of India. Roses bloomed in her cheeks, and
+her eyes shone like the brightest diamonds. Her figure
+was light and graceful as a young fir-tree. The fairy
+gazed at her in wonder and delight. Her next thought
+was to restore the lost child to her mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Stay here one moment," she said, "while I fly back
+to your mother, and prepare her for this happiness,
+lest she should die of joy."</p>
+
+<p>The son of the wicked King Grimgouger went back
+to his father, and cried and groaned dreadfully. His
+boo-hoo might have been heard for miles, and the
+king naturally desired to stop it.</p>
+
+<p>"What in the world are you roaring about?" asked
+the father.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll roar as much as I like," said the spoiled prince.
+"If I can't marry the poultry-girl, I'll roar for a week
+without stopping."</p>
+
+<p>"Good gracious!" cried the alarmed king; "guards,
+go and fetch her here at once."</p>
+
+<p>The guards went to the poultry-yard, and found the
+princess Juliet, dressed in gorgeous attire, and looking
+more beautiful than the new moon.</p>
+
+<p>"Whom do you seek, my good men?" she said in a
+soft voice.<span class="pagenum">[102]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Madam," they answered humbly, "we are looking
+for a vile creature named Juliet; but you would never
+have stooped to notice her."</p>
+
+<p>"I am she," the princess said, proudly.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this the guards seized her, bound her hands
+and feet, and roughly carried her into the presence of
+the king.</p>
+
+<p>"So you won't have my son, miss," shouted the king.
+"Don't love him, hey? Stuff and nonsense! Love!
+Gammon and spinach! Marry him at once, or I'll
+have you flayed alive! Here, you rascal (addressing
+his son, who had now roared himself quite black in the
+face), stop that racket, for goodness' sake, or you'll
+split my head."</p>
+
+<p>But the princess held out firmly. They sent for a
+chaplain, but the princess said "no," instead of "yes,"
+and when they shook her till she couldn't utter a
+syllable, she nodded her head from side to side. So,
+finding it quite a hopeless matter, the king ordered
+the prince put to bed with ice upon his head, and the
+princess to be shut up for life in a high tower, where
+she would never more see the light of day.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the good mouse fairy returned in
+her flying chariot, and with her was the queen mother,<span class="pagenum">[103]</span>
+who was almost crazy with delight at the prospect of
+embracing her child. When they heard the sad fate
+of Juliet, the queen wrung her hands in agony; but
+the fairy bade her cheer up, as she would find a way
+to help the captive.</p>
+
+<p>King Grimgouger had gone to bed in a rage, and
+the little white mouse ran up on his pillow. First she
+bit one ear, and made him turn over in his sleep. Then
+she bit the other, and made him turn back again. Now
+the king woke up, and howled for his attendants.
+They came running in, and while they sought to stanch
+the blood that flowed from his royal ears, the little
+white mouse ran to the chamber of the sleeping prince,
+and served him exactly the same way. The prince,
+who, to the great relief of the household, had fallen
+asleep in the very act of crying, now woke up and began
+again, this time with a vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>"Confound that fellow, he's at it again," said the
+king, smarting from his wounds. "Stop him, somebody;
+and get me the court-plaster, and the arnica, and
+the Pond's extract, and the chloroform; and send for
+all the surgeons."</p>
+
+<p>While the attendants ran hither and thither the
+mouse returned to visit the king. She bit his nose,<span class="pagenum">[104]</span>
+and bit his toes, and bit his fingers; and when he
+opened his mouth to scold and yell, she bit a piece of
+his tongue off, so that he could not articulate, but
+could only make absurd mouthings, at which everybody
+wanted to laugh, yet dared not.</p>
+
+<p>Then she ran back to the prince, and ate out both
+of his eyes, which sent him flying out of bed. He
+seized his sword, and ran storming and swearing into
+the apartment of his father, who, on his side, had
+taken a sword, and vowed to kill everybody around
+him if they did not catch the mouse who had done
+this mischief.</p>
+
+<p>The prince could not understand what his father
+said, and as he was blind, attacked the king furiously.
+The king made a violent cut back at him, and in ten
+minutes they were in the thick of an awful fight,
+which ended in both being mortally wounded at exactly
+the same moment. Seeing them fall, their attendants,
+who hated the wicked tyrants, made haste to tie
+them hands and feet, and tumbled them into the swiftly
+flowing river.</p>
+
+<p>Thus ended the horrible King Grimgouger and his
+son. The good fairy now took her own shape, and,
+leading the queen by the hand, opened the door of the<span class="pagenum">[105]</span>
+tower where Juliet was confined. Juliet flew into her
+mother's arms, and all was happiness.</p>
+
+<p>The kingdom of Grimgouger and that of Sweet
+Content, which he had joined to his, were now without
+a sovereign, and the people, by universal consent,
+chose Juliet to reign over them. Juliet became their
+queen, and in due time married a young king, who
+was rich and handsome, and wise and witty, and brave
+and modest&mdash;all that a young husband ought to be.
+The little white mouse continued to be their chief
+friend and counsellor.<span class="pagenum">[106]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 504px;">
+<img src="images/i024.jpg" width="504" height="600" alt="Simon&#39;s Benefactor." title="">
+<p class="caption">Simon&#39;s Benefactor.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[107]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 539px;">
+<img src="images/i025.jpg" width="539" height="122" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_FAIRIES_AND_THE_FIDDLER" id="THE_FAIRIES_AND_THE_FIDDLER"></a>THE FAIRIES AND THE FIDDLER.</h2>
+
+<img src="images/drop-i.jpg" width="73" height="74" alt="I" title="I" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">I</span><b>N</b>
+In the pretty little village of Hayfield, not far
+from the borders of a thick forest, lived a
+good-natured, idle fellow, named Simon, who
+supported his wife and two children by trapping or
+shooting in winter, and by fishing or doing odd jobs
+of harvest work in summer. Simon could play upon
+the fiddle in a way to make the tears come into your
+eyes; or if he chose to be merry, his tunes would set
+every foot in motion, as the wind starts the leaves upon
+an aspen tree. This accomplishment caused him to
+be much in demand among the young people of the
+village, who dropped many a bit of silver into his worn
+old hat; and at all the weddings and barn-dances,
+Simon might be seen with a huge bunch of flowers in
+his buttonhole, and his fiddle under his arm, footing it
+in the procession. Then, too, Simon was the best man<span class="pagenum">[108]</span>
+in the village to coax stories from, especially the old-time
+gossip about the little folk in green, for whom in
+former days Hayfield had been famous. Simon knew
+how the fairies dressed, what they ate and drank, how
+they punished saucy human beings who offended
+them; and could point out the smooth rings of short
+fine grass where they had held their midnight revels.
+That the fairies really had haunted Hayfield and its
+surrounding woods, nobody in the village doubted.
+They had heard too many things to prove it from their
+grandparents, whose parents were said to have lived
+on the best of terms with the little people&mdash;setting pans
+of cream by the hearth-stone at night for them to skim&mdash;leaving,
+when the holidays came around, a cheese and
+bag of nuts in a hollow tree at the entrance of the
+wood&mdash;and getting all sorts of kind offices from the
+fairies back again. Although it had now been a long
+time since any one could testify to having actually
+seen a fairy (as it was well known that the band were
+frightened out of Hayfield when the first stage-coach,
+with its noise and clatter, took to dashing along the
+village street), many people believed the men in green
+to be still lurking in the neighborhood. What else
+could account for the trouble some of the good wives<span class="pagenum">[109]</span>
+had with their butter and their bees? What could
+
+<img src="images/i026.jpg" width="285" height="582" alt="" title="" class="splitr">
+
+it be but fairy thumps
+and pinches that kept
+the lazy folk from sleeping
+soundly, when their
+houses were not to
+rights before they went
+to bed. And what could
+explain the silver penny
+often found in the shoe
+of a tidy housekeeper,
+when up she jumped at
+break of day to set her
+maids to work? For
+fairies never show by
+day, and it is only when
+the people of a house
+are fast asleep and snoring,
+that they glide in
+by key-holes, through
+cracks and broken panes
+of glass, and swarm over
+the rooms, spying out
+everything amiss, and leaving tracks on the dust of<span class="pagenum">[110]</span>
+shelves or tables, scattering the ashes of an unswept
+hearth, and bewitching the inside of a dirty iron pot,
+so that it never more may cook sweet porridge!</p>
+
+<p>Of all the villagers, as I have said, Simon alone professed
+
+<img src="images/i027.jpg" width="326" height="389" alt="" title="" class="split">
+
+to have any
+recent acquaintance
+with the little
+folk, and the wonder
+was how they,
+who were known
+to be sworn enemies
+to idleness,
+could keep him in
+their favor.</p>
+
+<p>Simon's house
+was a poor little
+cottage on the outskirts
+of the town.
+His wife, once a
+pretty, rosy lass,
+had taken to drink, and the husband and children led
+a dog's life within doors. Consequently, their one
+pleasure was to roam the woods and fields, and the
+children were growing up brown and barefoot as two<span class="pagenum">[111]</span>
+young gypsies. They were a boy named Timothy and
+a girl named Bess, of whom Simon was very proud,
+their fresh young faces making a strong contrast with
+his wizened visage, crossed with a hundred lines, and
+topped with a sunburned mop of hair. As they grew
+old enough to understand, their father instructed them
+in all the arts of woodcraft. There was no tree or
+plant for which he had not a name or a virtue. The
+habits of all birds and fishes and animals were as familiar
+to him as their haunts. In this way, the vast green
+forest, with its great tree-boles and twisted boughs, its
+verdant moss-carpet and hidden streams, became to
+them an enchanted world, through which the children
+strayed like a sylvan king and queen. A sad change it
+was to come back to the dirt and confusion of their
+miserable home, where the mother received them
+either with grudging welcome if they brought berries
+or a string of brook trout, or with blows and drunken
+curses if they came empty-handed. As his wife's intemperance
+increased, Simon stayed less and less at
+home, and the children dreaded lest some day their
+poor father would be driven to desert them altogether.
+So they resolved to keep a close watch on his movements,
+and to follow him should he go away.<span class="pagenum">[112]</span></p>
+
+<p>One night the harvest moon was riding her glorious
+way across the heavens, and the little village of Hayfield
+lay steeped in silver light. Not a lamp or a taper
+glimmered in the hamlet, and every one of the brown
+thatched cottages was buried in profound repose.
+
+<img src="images/i028.jpg" width="336" height="327" alt="" title="" class="split">
+
+Not even a watch-dog
+barked; and
+the forest-leaves
+yielded to the universal
+spell, and
+ceased to rustle.</p>
+
+<p>There had been
+held a harvest-home
+that day,
+and Simon had
+been hard at work
+with his fiddle,
+playing jigs and
+reels for the dance in the squire's great barn. Between
+every dance, he had quenched his thirst at the
+cider-barrel, or quaffed the big brown mug of beer
+they kept brimming at his side. Naturally, Simon's
+brain was a little the worse for such free potations;
+and when the last strains of the "Wind that Shakes<span class="pagenum">[113]</span>
+the Barley" had died upon his fiddle-strings, and all the
+gay company had gone their homeward way, Simon
+with his pocket full of silver pennies staggered out into
+the field, and lay down under a haystack to take his
+well-earned rest.</p>
+
+<p>There, just before midnight, his two children, who
+had come in search of him, found their father peacefully
+sleeping, his fiddle on his breast. Not wishing
+to disturb him, the children decided to have their own
+night's sleep in the same fragrant nest of hay; and
+curling up at some little distance from the slumbering
+fiddler, they whispered together for a while, and then
+were about to drop asleep. Just as their eyes were
+closing they heard an odd sound, as of hundreds of
+little pattering feet, and out from the shadow of the<span class="pagenum">[114]</span>
+wood came into the unbroken argent of the field a long
+train of little men, women, and children, dressed magnificently
+in cobweb gauze and green, bespangled with
+glittering gems, and wearing each a tiny crimson cap
+with a golden bell upon its peak. The two children
+were broad awake in a moment, for they knew that
+these were the fairies they had so longed to see, all
+dressed in holiday costume, and proceeding to their
+famous midsummer festival. The procession wavered
+like a gleaming snake across the field, and, when passing
+near the haystack, came to a halt. To the children's
+surprise, two queer little old men, holding carved
+ivory wands, came straight up, and tapped the sleeping
+fiddler across the bridge of his nose.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 517px;">
+<img src="images/i029.jpg" width="517" height="207" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>"Nay, I will play no more for you, you light-of-head
+and light-of-heel," said sleepy Simon, believing
+himself to be still perched upon the barrel that served
+as the fiddler's throne.</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, but play you shall, at his Majesty's command,"
+said the little old man, thumping him more sharply.
+"Isn't that part of your bargain with us, if we allow
+the trout to haunt your brook, and the hares to run
+into your traps? Come, mortal! Up with you and
+follow. Here's the bandage to blindfold your eyes, as<span class="pagenum">[115]</span>
+usual; and remember that, if you peep, you are our
+prisoner for life."</p>
+
+<p>By this time thoroughly awakened, Simon stumbled
+upon his feet, and stood making abject bows before
+the angry little fairy chamberlains. He let his eyes be
+bound with a green silk ribbon, and leading-strings
+were passed around his waist. At the blast of a golden
+trumpet, the procession moved forward with a sound
+of tripping feet and whirring gauzy wings and tinkling
+bells most lovely to the ear.</p>
+
+<p>Last of all came Simon, in fairy leading-strings, and
+the two children, unable to resist the impulse, followed
+noiselessly.</p>
+
+<p>Their way led again into the forest, through the
+dense underwood, to a smooth circle of velvet sward,
+set around with hundreds of little mushrooms, on
+which the fairies took their seats. In the centre was a
+hammock of silver cobweb, swinging by jewelled chains
+from the crossed stems of two tall white lilies, under a
+bower of maiden-hair ferns. Sweet blue violets were
+sprinkled in the grass, making a path where the king
+and queen of the fairies marched to take their places
+on the cobweb-throne. Dew was handed around in
+acorn-cups, of which the fairy guests sipped daintily,<span class="pagenum">[116]</span>
+followed by bark trays containing every variety of
+fairy refreshment. There were delicate fried butterflies,
+marrow-bones of a field-mouse, snail soup served
+in nutshells, and wild strawberries in baskets made
+of moss.</p>
+
+<p>When the banquet was at an end, the chamberlains
+gave notice to Simon, who had been bound with
+ropes made of plaited grass to the trunk of a wide-spreading
+oak; the fiddle struck up a tune, and at once
+the dance began. Such a mad and merry dance the
+wondering children had never seen before! Old and
+young joined hands and trod a circle, then, breaking
+the chain, formed into a hundred fantastic figures; and
+at each touch of a light footstep, the earth opened to
+give birth to a flower, until the entire fairy ring was
+enamelled with fragrant blossoms. Fast flew the fiddle-bow,
+but faster flew the tiny feet; and when the mirth
+was at its height, Simon who, as we know, had taken
+a drop too much, was suddenly inspired to tear the
+bandage from his eyes, and crying, "It's my turn now,"
+capered right into the middle of the magic ring.</p>
+
+<p>The honest fellow had meant no harm, but his offence
+was a mortal one!</p>
+
+<p>Instantly, he was surrounded by a swarm of the<span class="pagenum">[117]</span>
+furious little men in green, who, without waiting for
+an excuse, stabbed out both his eyes, and taking away
+his fiddle and bow, bound his arms behind his back.
+Again the procession&mdash;this time sad and silent&mdash;was
+formed, and the king striking the nearest tree with his
+wand, it flew open; the whole party, leading Simon
+behind them, entered the aperture, and before the
+children knew where to turn, it had closed upon their
+father.</p>
+
+<p>And now, in what a distressing condition were the
+unhappy Timothy and Bess! Not knowing what better
+to do, they sat down at the foot of the great oak-tree
+which had swallowed up their father, and from
+sheer weariness fell asleep. When morning came,
+and the birds piped upon the boughs, the children
+awoke and looked in wonder about them. All was
+dewy, green, and fragrant in the deep woods, but no
+sign remained of the fairy revel, except a fine fringe
+of newly sprung grass, growing in a circle where
+their ring had been.</p>
+
+<p>The bark of the great oak tree was unbroken, and
+above stretched a broad canopy of dark-green leaves,
+which whispered in the morning breeze, but told no
+tales of what the children longed to know. Hunger<span class="pagenum">[118]</span>
+drove them to retrace their steps homeward; and when
+they reached the cottage, their mother was so cross at
+her husband's failure to fetch her the usual stock of
+silver pennies earned at the harvest-home, that she
+beat them both soundly, and gave them but a dry
+crust apiece for breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>Still the children hoped their father might return;
+and, not knowing to whom to confide their
+wonderful tale, they kept silence. When it was found
+Simon had disappeared in earnest, all the wise heads
+in Hayfield decided that he had run away to escape
+from his good wife's tongue, an act of independence
+which had the bad effect of making more than one
+married man in the village unduly restless.</p>
+
+<p>A month passed, and the two children were again
+wandering in the forest trying to find a few berries to
+appease their hunger (for things at home were now
+worse than before), when they fancied they heard a
+child crying close at hand. They searched everywhere,
+and at length the sound was renewed, seeming to come
+from a thicket of tall ferns. Falling on their knees,
+the children worked their way under the bushes and
+through the brakes, until they came in view of a lovely
+chubby elf sitting forlorn upon a mushroom on a<span class="pagenum">[119]</span>
+hillock of soft green moss, beneath a screen of ferns
+and wild flowers, and letting fall a flood of tears from
+his big blue eyes. He wore no clothing, if we may
+except a pair of drooping wings, and in his hand he
+held a stalk of snowy lilies.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you, dear little one, and how came you
+here?" they asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a fairy," the tiny creature sobbed. "Last
+night was the monthly revel, and we sported till the
+moon set. But I saw these lilies growing over in
+yonder swamp, and I wanted them so; and as I ran,
+they seemed to run too. I had such hard work to
+gather them; when at last I succeeded, my red cap
+dropped off; and without it I am as helpless as a mere
+mortal. While searching for the cap, which I have not
+found, a cock in the village crowed, and the fairies all
+fled away and left me. The door of the mound is
+closed, and for a whole long month there is no hope of
+my getting in again. Oh! I wish I could find my
+cap."</p>
+
+<p>"If we help you to find the cap, will you stop crying?"
+said the children.</p>
+
+<p>The shivering sprite wiped his eyes and promised
+that he would weep no more. The girl wrapped him<span class="pagenum">[120]</span>
+in her apron, and then all three of them set out in
+search of the missing treasure. At last Timothy saw
+in the water around some reeds a red object which a
+bull-frog was opening his mouth to swallow; and, wading
+into the stream, he was able to rescue the magic
+cap, dry it in the sun, and restore it to its happy little
+owner.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," said the smiling elf, who appeared to
+have suddenly grown old and wise, "as for a whole long
+month I am without a home, what do you say to taking
+me to yours? You will never regret it, that I
+promise you."</p>
+
+<p>The children told their new friend what a poor place
+their home was, but the elf smiled and shook his head
+as if he knew what he was about. He bade the children
+lead him to their cottage, and once across the
+threshold of the wretched place, where the drunken
+mother was sleeping heavily on a pallet of straw in the
+loft above, the elf took his perch upon the mantel-shelf.</p>
+
+<p>"Next, since I am obliged to live with mortals, let
+me see what the magic cap can do."</p>
+
+<p>He put on the cap and immediately disappeared from
+the children's sight. When night came, Timothy fell
+asleep, but Bess watched; and at midnight she saw<span class="pagenum">[121]</span>
+her new friend appear upon the hearth, conducting a
+perfect army of little workmen and workwomen. He
+waved his cap thrice around his head, and at once
+little carpenters set to building up the cottage-walls,
+little whitewashers made the ceilings wholesome, little
+painters covered all the woodwork with a coat
+of yellow. By sunrise what a change! The broken
+bricks of the floor were transformed into pretty blue
+and white tiles, lattice windows took the place of their
+old and dim ones, the pots and pans were scoured until
+they shone, roses looked in at the outer door, where
+rows of larkspur and of gillyflower, of bachelor's-button
+and "Love-in-a-mist" were growing on either side
+of a neat flagged walk to the garden gate. Instead of
+Timothy's old straw mattress, the boy lay on a clean
+white bed; and his sister, who had kept awake all night
+in utter wonderment, falling asleep at dawn, because
+her eyes refused to stay open any longer, found him
+shaking her arm, and begging her to come and share
+in the nice hot breakfast that&mdash;wonder of wonders!&mdash;their
+mother, sober, and clean, and smiling, had made
+ready at the fire.</p>
+
+<p>It was a day of marvels! The mother seemed to
+have entirely forgotten her past degraded life, and<span class="pagenum">[122]</span>
+was once more the brisk and rosy woman Simon had
+fallen in love with. A dozen times a day she paused
+in her spinning, or weaving, or baking, to run to the
+gate and wonder when dear father would come back.
+Timothy worked in the garden, Bess sewed and helped
+her mother, not daring to tell what she alone knew of
+the magic change. That night Bess slept, and Timothy
+kept watch. At midnight the fairy appeared upon the
+hearth, leading a dozen little bakers in white caps and
+aprons.</p>
+
+<p>"Now make ready fifty loaves of your best white
+bread, that the goodwife may sell them on the morrow!"
+the fairy ordered; and at once the tiny men set
+to work mixing and kneading and baking, and at daybreak
+there were fifty of the sweetest white loaves
+money could buy. The fame of Simon's widow soon
+spread through the village, and every one was eager to
+see the wonderful reform worked in her, no less than
+in her cottage. Her bread was bought up as fast as
+she could furnish it, and next night Bess watched
+while Timothy slept. Then Bess saw the fairy appear
+at midnight, followed by a swarm of bees like a cloud.</p>
+
+<p>"Make fifty pounds of your clearest honey, that the
+goodwife may sell it on the morrow."<span class="pagenum">[123]</span></p>
+
+<p>The bees flew out of the door, and next morning
+the hives were found overflowing with luscious honey
+that smelt like a bed of clover all a-blow.</p>
+
+<p>Next night came the bakers, and next night again
+the bees. Money flowed into the widow's purse as
+rapidly as it had once flowed out. Now was there lacking
+but one thing to complete their happiness, and that
+was the return of Simon to his family. Bess and Timothy
+together planned what they should do, and when
+the month had passed away, and the night of the full
+moon had come once more, neither went to bed, but
+both hid, watching for the coming of the sprite. Exactly
+at twelve o'clock, their kind little friend made his
+appearance, and summoning cooks and bees, ordered
+them to keep up their service on alternate nights, until
+the dame's coffers should be full to last a lifetime. Seeing
+him about to take leave, out rushed Timothy and
+Bess, threw themselves on their knees before the fairy,
+and, thanking him a thousand times over for his goodness,
+begged for one more act of grace&mdash;their father's
+release and restoration to his family. The fairy looked
+graver than they had ever seen him, and his brows
+puckered in a frown.</p>
+
+<p>"Your father has committed an offence we never<span class="pagenum">[124]</span>
+pardon," he said, after a short silence. "He has been
+punished according to our laws, and must abide by the
+sentence, which is imprisonment for life."</p>
+
+<p>The children burst into tears at this, and cried so
+that the fairy sneezed several times.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe I am taking cold in all this dampness,"
+he said, shivering slightly. "Come, dry up that deluge,
+and say good-by to me. The utmost I can do
+is to look up your father when I get back again, and
+tell him you are well and happy. I suppose you do
+not know that for some years past he has been attending
+our holiday frolics as musician, since our own best
+player broke his arm. Simon was under oath never to
+look at us, or to betray us, and this was the first time
+he transgressed. But our laws are very strict, and I
+am afraid to bid you even hope to see him again. One
+thing I may tell you. The king's chief counsellor has
+a mantle of red, worked with a device of six golden
+birds flying into a serpent's open jaws. If you should
+ever find that mantle, walk boldly to the oak-tree in
+the forest, knock three times, and cry, 'The King's
+Chief Counsellor!' Then you may be able to secure
+your father's freedom, but not else. And now, good-by
+to you."<span class="pagenum">[125]</span></p>
+
+<p>The good elf vanished, and Timothy and Bess spent
+more time than ever in the forest. They had now
+taken their mother into the secret, for she, poor woman,
+had become as gentle and loving as she had before
+been hard and cruel. The one desire of the entire
+family was to get possession of the chief counsellor's
+mantle, but nothing seemed more unlikely.</p>
+
+<p>A year passed, and Timothy had gone out to look at
+his rabbit-trap without particularly thinking of what
+it might contain, when a tremendous bustle inside
+attracted his attention. Cautiously he lifted the
+door, and up sprang an angry little man in green,
+having a long white beard, and a hump upon his back,
+who vanished from sight as quickly as he had appeared.
+Timothy lamented the loss of such unusual game, and
+then espied at the bottom of the trap nothing less
+than a tiny cloak of red, embroidered with six golden
+birds flying into a serpent's open jaws!</p>
+
+<p>He made a joyful dive after the little garment,
+but, strange to say, it stuck tight to the fingers of his
+right hand, dragging after it the trap. Timothy shook
+it and pulled at it in vain; there it was, and not to be
+dislodged.</p>
+
+<p>He ran home and called Bess to his assistance. The<span class="pagenum">[126]</span>
+little girl came out, and no sooner had she touched
+her brother than she stuck fast to him. The mother
+flew to the rescue, and became fastened to her daughter;
+and there they all were, in a long string, not
+knowing whether to laugh or cry at their strange predicament.
+The only thing was to make a pilgrimage to
+the oak-tree in the forest. Timothy's dog followed them,
+and rubbed against his master's coat. He, too, stuck
+fast, and so did Bessy's cat. Everybody they passed
+upon the way was attracted to the queer family party,
+and before long a little army of curious people were
+compelled to walk along in the direction of the
+forest.</p>
+
+<p>Timothy did not know the secret of the little cloak,
+which had power to attract everything to it, drawing
+even people's thoughts out of their hearts, as a magnet
+draws the needle. Only in fairy-land could the objects
+so attracted be set free.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the oak-tree in the forest, Timothy
+struck upon it three times and called with a bold
+voice, though not without a trembling of the legs, for
+the king's chief counsellor. The bark of the great tree
+cleft slowly open, and out came the same old white-bearded
+fairy he had captured in the rabbit-trap. Bowing<span class="pagenum">[127]</span>
+with mock humility, the old fellow asked what his
+visitors would be pleased to have.</p>
+
+<p>"I demand my father, and also to be rid of this
+wretched little rag," said Timothy hotly.</p>
+
+<p>"Step inside, step inside," said the elf with a malicious
+smile, for he knew that, once within, he might
+get the audacious mortals in his power, and force them
+to work his gold mines.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a step will I go inside until I see my father,"
+said Timothy firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Then here may you abide!" cried the old man,
+turning white with rage.</p>
+
+<p>Timothy put one hand <i>within</i> the tree, holding the
+magic mantle at arm's-length.</p>
+
+<p>"I demand my father," he cried in a loud voice.</p>
+
+<p>The power of the mantle did not fail, for, rising from
+the darkness within, came poor blind Simon, stretching
+his arms toward his child, but holding tight his fiddle.
+At the moment Timothy's hand had come inside the
+fairy kingdom, the spell of enchantment was broken,
+and all of the strangely linked people were set free.
+Simon's wife and children threw their arms around
+him, and welcomed his return, while his neighbors
+shook his hand in warm congratulation. As for the<span class="pagenum">[128]</span>
+old fairy, he fairly danced with rage. With the mantle
+in Timothy's possession, half the chief counsellor's
+power and reputation for wisdom would pass away.
+He offered rich bribes of gold and jewels, he threatened,
+he howled, he grinned, he hurled curses on their
+heads, but Timothy was firm.</p>
+
+<p>"Then name your price, you wretch!" cried the
+angry fairy.</p>
+
+<p>"It is that you shall restore my father's eye-sight,"
+said Timothy.</p>
+
+<p>This went very hard with the wicked old elf, who
+had been congratulating himself that Simon would
+bear away at least one mark of fairy vengeance. But
+he had met his match in Timothy, and there was no
+escape for the chief counsellor, who, diving down into
+the cavern beneath the hollow tree, reappeared fetching
+a box of magic ointment, which, rubbed upon
+Simon's eyes, made them better than ever.</p>
+
+<p>When Simon saw not only the light of day, but his
+two dear children, and his wife looking as he had
+known her in her blooming youth, he uttered a cry of
+delight.</p>
+
+<p>Then, to relieve his feelings, he struck up the old
+"Wind that Shakes the Barley," when, behold, not only<span class="pagenum">[129]</span>
+all the people there assembled, but a score of little
+green folk, who had been in hiding, enjoying the discomfiture
+of the cross old counsellor, began to foot it
+on the greensward. Simon himself danced, and the old
+counsellor, sorely against his will, was forced to skip
+until his legs ached, for Timothy still held the mantle
+in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>At last, when all were out of breath, the elf received
+his mantle. With a storm of angry words, he disappeared
+from sight. Immediately the sky darkened, a
+cold wind blew, and a shower of hail-stones fell upon
+our friends, sending them scampering and laughing
+away from the region where the fairy's spite prevailed.</p>
+
+<p>Under the spell of the kind little sprite who had been
+their guest, the cottage was never approached by any
+unkind visitors. Simon fiddled and grew fat, his wife
+remained as sweet as fresh cream to the last day of her
+life, and their children came to be the pride of all the
+village.</p>
+
+<p>So far as I have heard, that is the last visit Hayfield
+has had from the little men in green.</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[130]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 526px;">
+<img src="images/i030.jpg" width="526" height="117" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="ETHELINDA_OR_THE_ICE_KINGS_BRIDE" id="ETHELINDA_OR_THE_ICE_KINGS_BRIDE"></a>ETHELINDA<br>OR,<br>THE ICE KING'S BRIDE.</h2>
+
+<img src="images/drop-e.jpg" width="74" height="74" alt="E" title="E" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">E</span><b>THELINDA</b>
+lived alone with her father, Count
+Constant, in a quiet country place, which had
+always been her home. Her mother was
+dead, and her father had long before fallen under
+the displeasure of his king, and was sentenced to exile
+for life in this lonely spot. Their castle was gray and
+venerable, half of it in ruins, and near by grew a grove
+of melancholy pine-trees; while only some stunted
+rose-bushes, and a black pool of water, in which swam
+a few antiquated carp, relieved the monotony of the
+grounds within the broken walls surrounding their
+dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>One day a train of liveried servants on horseback,
+escorting a splendid carriage, stopped on the road
+near the castle.</p>
+
+<p>Some accident had happened to the springs of the<span class="pagenum">[131]</span>
+vehicle, and the two passengers inside were forced to
+take refuge in the house of Ethelinda's father.</p>
+
+<p>Count Constant himself, dressed in a faded court
+costume, but looking handsome and stately, came
+forth to receive his unexpected guests. He aided first
+a tall thin girl to descend from the broken carriage,
+and then, an elderly dame, richly dressed, who, throwing
+back her veil, revealed to him the face of his
+greatest enemy&mdash;the vindictive Duchess Amoretta.
+This person, whom he had not seen for years, had
+once been in love with Count Constant, and it was because
+he preferred to her the young lady who afterward
+became his wife, that the Duchess had poisoned
+the mind of his sovereign against him. To her he
+owed his banishment from court, and the loss of his
+estates. During his wife's lifetime he had heard nothing
+of the Duchess, and now to have to give her the
+shelter of his roof was a terrible ordeal.</p>
+
+<p>The Duchess, however, was very kind and considerate
+in her manner to him. She made many apologies
+for the accident which had brought her there, and introduced
+to him her only child, the Lady Finella, who
+was, truth to tell, the most ill-tempered, pert minx ever
+seen, and a complete contrast to lovely Ethelinda.<span class="pagenum">[132]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 374px;">
+<img src="images/i031.jpg" width="374" height="484" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>During supper, which the poor Count's servants
+tried to make presentable with a few eggs cooked in
+an omelette, a bottle of good wine, and a dish of stewed
+pigeons, the Duchess Amoretta was pleased with everything.
+She praised the cookery, she praised the tattered<span class="pagenum">[133]</span>
+tapestries on the wall, she praised the Count's
+youthful looks, and she praised Ethelinda, till that
+modest maiden was quite overwhelmed.</p>
+
+<p>When the two young ladies had retired (Ethelinda
+giving up her own little tower bedroom to her visitor,
+and creeping off somewhere to lie on a threadbare
+couch), the Duchess became confidential. She implored
+the Count to believe that enemies had come between
+them. She said that slanderers had arisen to
+tell him the wicked stories he had heard. She told
+him that her one desire was to see him restored to
+rank and fortune. And at last she drew from her
+pocket a paper signed by the King, in which the
+Count Constant was promised a free pardon on condition
+of his immediate marriage with the Duchess
+Amoretta.</p>
+
+<p>The wily Duchess had planned the whole affair to
+get possession of her old lover again, and at first the
+Count, seeing himself caught in a trap as it were, was
+very angry.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Duchess told him to think of his lovely
+young daughter, wasting her youth in this desolate
+spot. She promised to Ethelinda a life of happiness
+and prosperity. She worked upon the poor father with<span class="pagenum">[134]</span>
+such artful words and lying promises, that, at last,
+Count Constant signed the contract, engaging to follow
+her in a few days to the capital, and there to give her
+his hand in marriage.</p>
+
+<p>Ethelinda watched the fine chariot roll away with
+their unwelcome guests, next morning, and when it
+was out of sight, turned and threw herself upon her
+father's neck and kissed him fondly.</p>
+
+<p>"How glad I am to get rid of them, papa!" she cried.
+"The daughter was so spoilt and haughty, and the
+mother was even worse; somehow I could only shudder
+when she kissed me, in spite of the beautiful bracelet
+she put upon my arm on taking leave."</p>
+
+<p>"The Duchess means to be your best friend, my
+dear," her father said gravely, and went off to his study
+with a care-worn face. In a few days, he set out upon
+his journey to the capital, giving Ethelinda no idea of
+what he meant to do there.</p>
+
+<p>Winter had set in, and a great snow fell. All the
+country-side was covered with a mantle of purest white.
+Ethelinda loved the frost and snow, and every day she
+put on her little brown hood and cloak with the scarlet
+lining, and set out for a walk in the forest, carrying a
+bagful of crumbs, which she would scatter for her<span class="pagenum">[135]</span>
+favorite little birds. One day, while thus employed,
+she met an old woodman gathering sticks.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning, daddy," said the girl in a pleasant
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>"It's not a good morning with me, girl," the old
+man answered, crossly. "I'm frozen and starving too,
+thanks to this accursed snow."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't speak ill of my dear snow," said Ethelinda,
+helping him to make his fagot. "Isn't it keeping the
+ground warm, and sheltering our roots and seeds for
+the spring-time? Come to the castle, if you will, and
+you shall have hot soup and a corner of the kitchen-fire.
+But you won't be allowed to abuse the beautiful
+work of the frost, in my hearing, that I'll promise
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Bravely said, fair maiden!" the old man exclaimed,
+dropping his bundle of sticks, and vanishing behind a
+screen of closely woven fir-trees. A moment later
+Ethelinda saw a sleigh containing a solitary traveller,
+drawn by a fleet black horse, dash by her like the
+wind. The sleigh was shaped like a silver swan and
+the bridle of the horse glittered with gems. The
+traveller appeared to be a tall and stately youth, with
+long fair locks and glowing cheeks. He was half hidden<span class="pagenum">[136]</span>
+behind robes of snowy down, and as he shot swiftly
+by, leaving in his wake a breath of icy wind, Ethelinda
+fancied she heard him say, "We will meet again, dear
+lady, we will meet again!"</p>
+
+<p>When, wondering over this incident, she reached
+the castle, it was to find there a letter from her father,
+commanding her immediate attendance at court, and
+announcing to her his marriage, which had already
+taken place.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Ethelinda, full of astonishment, and fearing she
+knew not what, bade farewell to her dear home and
+journeyed to the castle of the Duchess Amoretta. Here
+she was received with tenderness by her father, who
+commended her in loving accents to the care of her
+new mother. Ethelinda could not help shuddering
+more than before when the dreadful, painted old Duchess
+stooped down to kiss her. She dared not look her
+father in the face, but it was easy to see that he was
+more unhappy in his new splendor than ever he had
+been in exile and in poverty. Ethelinda sighed deeply,
+and, looking around, encountered the snaky eyes of her
+new step-sister, fixed on her with wicked triumph.</p>
+
+<p>And now, how changed was Ethelinda's life. Little
+by little, her father's companionship was withdrawn<span class="pagenum">[137]</span>
+from her; his time was spent away from home, and
+soon, a war breaking out, Count Constant made haste
+to draw his sword in his king's service. A great battle
+ensued, and one of the first to fall, while gallantly
+fighting, was Ethelinda's father. He murmured a blessing
+on his child, and saying he was glad to go, died
+upon the battle-field, in the arms of his attendant.</p>
+
+<p>The Duchess Amoretta, who by this time was
+heartily tired of having Ethelinda on her hands, now
+treated the poor girl with positive cruelty. A few
+months after the Count's death, she made up her mind
+to marry again, and in order to rid herself of her
+troublesome step-daughter, consulted with her own
+child, who was skilled in all sorts of wicked devices.</p>
+
+<p>They built a summer-house extending over the river,
+and made in the floor of it a trap-door covered with
+moss and flowers, while beautiful vines grew around
+the pillars, and a fountain played in the centre. Into
+this pretty spot they invited Ethelinda to wander when
+ever she wished to be alone.</p>
+
+<p>One day the poor girl went inside the summer-house,
+and began to weep for her father. Suddenly, a hand
+was extended by some one concealed behind the
+trellis-work of vines, and she was rudely pushed, so<span class="pagenum">[138]</span>
+that she fell with all her weight upon the concealed
+trap-door, and instantly plunged into the rushing
+river below. One cry she uttered, and then to her astonishment,
+although it was the morning of a balmy
+summer's day, an icy breath blew over her, and above
+the surface of the river there arose a bridge of glittering
+ice, which she was enabled to cross in safety to
+the bank.</p>
+
+<p>Making her way back to the house of her step-mother,
+Ethelinda was received with anger and astonishment.
+How she could have escaped, neither of
+her enemies could imagine. Ethelinda told nobody
+of the wonderful ice-bridge, which at the moment of
+her setting foot on shore had vanished like frost before
+the sun. A few days after, she desired to take her
+usual bath in the marble bath-room assigned to her
+use. No sooner had she entered the door than two
+strong women flew out from behind a curtain, and,
+seizing her by the shoulders, thrust her into a tank of
+boiling water they had prepared for the unfortunate
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>Ethelinda saw that she was about to die a terrible
+death, and gave herself up for lost, when suddenly the
+icy wind she had twice felt before, blew over her. As<span class="pagenum">[139]</span>
+the two furies plunged her into the tank, and rushed
+away, leaving her to her fate, she felt, instead of the
+scalding heat she expected, the delicious warmth of a
+tepid bath close round her limbs.</p>
+
+<p>Again was she saved from evil by some unseen power;
+but now she knew what a terrible enemy was in pursuit
+of her, and determined to fly from the castle that
+very night. She hid in a little closet on the staircase,
+and, when night came, glided past the sleepy servants
+on guard, and escaped through the great gate into the
+open country.</p>
+
+<p>Swift as her feet could carry her, Ethelinda fled.
+Out of the city, into the deep woods, under the cold
+glitter of the watching stars, the poor girl ran, every
+moment fancying that she heard the messengers of the
+cruel Duchess behind her. At last she fell down exhausted,
+saying to herself, "Better to die here from
+cold and starvation, than to be foully murdered by
+that wicked woman." She lay for a moment resting
+upon a bank of soft moss, and felt a sudden blast of
+icy wind.</p>
+
+<p>Then was heard the cracking of a whip, and out of
+the woods came a sleigh driven by a solitary traveller.</p>
+
+<p>Ethelinda had a vague idea that she had seen him<span class="pagenum">[140]</span>
+once before, but fainted away, and knew nothing more
+until she awoke to find herself in the sleigh, gliding
+swiftly along, wrapped in warmest robes of snowy fur.</p>
+
+<p>"Save me, save me from the Duchess!" she murmured
+in a terrified voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Sleep, poor child, you are safe now," a kind voice
+sounded in her ear. "Are you warm? Are you comfortable?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very warm, very comfortable," Ethelinda answered,
+a strange drowsiness coming over her.</p>
+
+<p>She slept again, and the black horse harnessed to
+the sleigh bounded forward like the wind. And now
+they passed through vast forests of pine and fir, into
+the regions of perpetual snow. For Ethelinda's guide
+was the young monarch of the frozen zone, and ruler
+of all ice and frost. Long had he loved the young girl
+secretly, and long had he vowed to make her his bride.</p>
+
+<p>They stopped once, and now the sleigh was drawn
+by a span of magnificent reindeer, pure white, with
+collars of jewels, having their great antlers tipped with
+sparkling gems. Over snowy mountain peaks they
+glided, past chains of icebergs, with many a frozen sea
+shining far below like a sapphire. It was piercingly
+cold, and yet Ethelinda did not suffer. The only thing<span class="pagenum">[141]</span>
+she could not control was her power of speech. Not a
+word could she utter, and the stranger, too, spoke no
+more, but smiled on her kindly, from time to time, as
+he drove ahead.</p>
+
+<p>At last they reached a superb palace, built of ice,
+the roof fringed with icicles. An arch of many-colored
+lights spanned the roof, and from every door and
+window streamed forth a brilliant illumination.</p>
+
+<p>"Welcome home!" said the stranger. "This is my
+palace, and you shall be my queen, fair maiden; for I
+am the King of the North Pole, and never, till now,
+have I seen one worthy to share my throne."</p>
+
+<p>A train of milk-white bears with golden chains
+around their necks came out to receive the king and
+Ethelinda. They entered the palace, which blazed
+with splendid jewels on roof and walls. The throne
+was made of a single opal, and the queen's crown, which
+was immediately placed on Ethelinda's head, was composed
+of a circlet of diamonds, each one as large as a
+robin's egg.</p>
+
+<p>The marriage took place at once; and Ethelinda's
+husband proved so kind and loving, that she soon forgot
+her early sorrows, and became as happy as all
+queens are supposed to be. Her fame spread into<span class="pagenum">[142]</span>
+many countries; and after a time, some celebrated
+traveller, who visited her court, went back to the city
+where Ethelinda's wicked step-mother still lived and
+flourished, and gave the Duchess a message from the
+beautiful Queen of the North Pole.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her that I forgive her all her unkindness to
+me," Ethelinda had charged him to say, "since it was
+the means of securing to me my present joy, and the
+love of my dearest husband."</p>
+
+<p>Ethelinda even sent gifts to her step-mother and sister;
+to each a jewelled necklace of immense value, and a
+robe woven from the down of the King's own eider-ducks,
+which only sovereigns might wear. The Duchess
+and Finella eagerly seized the presents, but they almost
+died of spite to hear of Ethelinda's good luck. Night
+and day they wondered how they, too, might have
+similar fortune; and at length the Duchess determined
+to dress her daughter in coarse clothes like those Ethelinda
+had worn when found by the King of the North
+Pole, and to make her sally forth to the border of the
+forest.</p>
+
+<p>Snow was falling fast when the young woman
+reached the wood. She was dreadfully cold, and began
+complaining and quarrelling, as usual. She did<span class="pagenum">[143]</span>
+not hear the approach of a sleigh until it was close beside
+her. There sat a handsome youth, driving a fleet
+coal-black steed. He politely invited her to take a
+drive, and, with many groans over her stiff limbs, she
+got in. They flew over the ground, and for not a single
+minute did Finella cease finding fault with everything.
+She abused her mother for exposing her to
+this dreadful cold, and vowed she should have rheumatism
+and lumbago and pleurisy and influenza, all
+together, next day. Her feet had chilblains already,
+and her hands were so chapped they would never be fit
+to be seen. In this agreeable strain, she went on till her
+companion, growing impatient of her whining tones,
+blew a sudden breath upon her&mdash;when, behold! all the
+girl's conversation was frozen on her tongue, a few cross
+words, like icicles, clinging to the tip of it!</p>
+
+<p>When they stopped at the palace door, the King of the
+North Pole (for he it was who had picked up Ethelinda's
+step-sister), instead of having her conducted in state to
+her apartments by a train of snow-white bears with
+golden chains about their necks, gave the cross girl in
+charge to an old brown bear of a housekeeper, with
+instructions to keep her locked up until the Queen
+should choose to set her free.<span class="pagenum">[144]</span></p>
+
+<p>Ethelinda's kind heart softened toward her step-sister;
+and, begging the King to forgive her, the Queen
+hastened to set the prisoner at liberty. Finella, dressed
+in the Queen's own robes, was taken into the royal
+nurseries to see two splendid rosy babies, rolling upon
+soft furs, and romping with a gentle little bear-cub,
+who was their playmate.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 459px;">
+<img src="images/i032.jpg" width="459" height="276" alt="The princes &amp; their playmate." title="">
+<p class="caption">The princes &amp; their playmate.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>When the step-sister saw these treasures, she conceived
+a wicked scheme of punishing Ethelinda through
+her love for them. So, pretending to repent of her past
+follies and unkindness, Finella was allowed by the King
+and Queen to live in comfort in their home.</p>
+
+<p>On the night of some festivity (I believe it was a<span class="pagenum">[145]</span>
+special illumination by the Northern Lights), the King
+and Queen went off sleighing in style, through their
+dominions, leaving the babies in charge of their deceitful
+step-aunt, who always kissed them and caressed
+them, before folks, as though she loved them fondly.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the parents had disappeared, Finella
+ordered another sleigh to be harnessed, and taking
+the babies in her arms set forth. She attempted to
+guide the reindeer, but, in an instant, the great creatures
+were off like the wind, and soared up into the
+air, as the King himself had trained them to do. And
+now, how terrified was the wicked Finella! She knew
+no words with which to stop her fiery steeds, and
+presently sank, breathless and giddy, into the bottom
+of the sleigh. Higher, faster they went; the babies,
+like true sons of the frozen North, crowing with delight
+in the piercing atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>The sleigh stopped upon an iceberg, and there in
+the centre of the glittering blue pyramid sat the imprisoned
+older brother of the King of the North Pole.
+This wretch had been sentenced to be shut up there,
+because he had tried to kill his father, the late King.
+All of his body was changed to ice, excepting his heart,
+which burnt like fire. The reindeer Finella had taken<span class="pagenum">[146]</span>
+were those accustomed to be driven by the King whenever
+he went to visit his wicked brother, whose eyes
+sparkled as he saw the little princes within his power.
+At last, he thought, he had a chance to be even with
+
+<img src="images/i033.jpg" width="345" height="407" alt="" title="" class="splitr">
+
+his enemies. He
+gnashed his teeth,
+shook his chains,
+and stretched out
+his long arms, inviting
+the travellers
+to come into
+his castle.</p>
+
+<p>"I have golden
+apples and many
+pretty things for
+boys in here," he
+said deceitfully;
+but just as Finella,
+seeing her opportunity,
+was pushing
+the children out of the sleigh into the grasp of
+their cruel uncle, the reindeer set up a peculiar cry
+which could be heard half round the globe.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly a chill wind blew, and riding on the wings<span class="pagenum">[147]</span>
+of a mighty sea-gull came the King of the North
+Pole. Fire flashed from his angry eyes, and his face
+was so terrible that the wicked sister and brother
+cowered and cringed before it. Snatching his babies
+in his arms, he replaced them unharmed in the sleigh.
+For a moment, he seemed about to crush both culprits
+to fragments in his wrath; but, relenting, he pronounced
+their sentence&mdash;and Finella was condemned
+to be the bride of the imprisoned brother. "Your fate
+is just," said the King of the North Pole, to the wretch
+within the iceberg; "I could not, if I tried, think of
+any worse punishment than to give you a complaining
+woman to share your exile."</p>
+
+<p>And so Ethelinda was rid of her false step-sister,
+and from that day forth nothing occurred to disturb
+the serenity of the King's household.</p>
+
+<p>As for the old Duchess (whose daughter had got a
+bridegroom she had not reckoned on in the northern
+country), she, like her hopeful child, lived and scolded
+forever and a day.<span class="pagenum">[148]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 595px;">
+<img src="images/i034.jpg" width="595" height="528" alt="Emma Carried Off by the Sea-King." title="">
+<p class="caption">Emma Carried Off by the Sea-King.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[149]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 529px;">
+<img src="images/i035.jpg" width="529" height="120" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="DEEP-SEA_VIOLETS" id="DEEP-SEA_VIOLETS"></a>DEEP-SEA VIOLETS.</h2>
+
+<img src="images/drop-i.jpg" width="73" height="74" alt="I" title="I" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">I</span><b>N</b>
+a modest hut upon the sea-shore, half-hidden
+from sight by an enormous bank of drifted
+sand, lived a fisherman and his wife, with
+their twin-children, John and Emma. Theirs was a
+hard life, and full of privations; but the husband and
+wife loved each other tenderly and did everything
+they could to provide for the little ones, who grew up,
+spite of their poverty, tall and beautiful, and happy as
+the day was long. Emma and John had a thousand
+pleasures that town-bred children covet. They chased
+each other continually up and down the sandy beach,
+hard as marble and glittering like silver in the beautiful
+patterns traced on it by the tide. They ran barefoot
+into the surf, defying the mad onslaught of the merry
+breakers, and dived fearlessly beneath the crested arch
+of green waters to seize a bit of floating seaweed. They<span class="pagenum">[150]</span>
+discovered endless treasures in the rock-pools along the
+beach, and built with them pretty grottoes, and mysterious
+caves, that none but themselves knew where to
+find. Often their father would take them out in the
+fishing-boat; for John had learned to manage the sail
+and the nets almost as well as the fisherman himself.
+The two children thought it was grand to feel the little
+boat answer to the wind, as a horse answers to voice
+or whip. They liked to bound forward across the
+great green billows, and to see the spray dash over
+them like a shower of jewels. They would help their
+father to set his nets or lines, and wait patiently till it
+was time to haul in the big shining fish that sometimes
+lined the bottom of the boat, whiling away the hours by
+munching bits of brown bread that served for lunch,
+and by telling each other fanciful stories of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>The ocean did not always smile upon them, for
+there were days of heavy fog, of raw east wind, when
+the beautiful water ceased to sparkle, while the surf
+boomed as if in warning of danger or sorrow to come.
+Then the children would run inside the cottage, and
+pile on drift-wood till the fire burnt cheerily. This
+was their time for taking down from the mantel-shelf
+their stores of shells, corals, and other sea-wonders.<span class="pagenum">[151]</span>
+John and Emma had polished these shells until they
+shone beautifully, and some tiny disks of orange and
+gold were strung in long garlands, to loop around the
+brown walls and above the little looking-glass. Their
+mother kept the inside of the cottage as neat as a
+ship's cabin, which, in truth, it much resembled, the
+children's beds being nothing more than broad shelves
+in a cupboard, with doors to close by day; while every
+corner of the tidy place was made to do duty for some
+household implement, tucked away in the oddest fashion,
+until it should be needed.</p>
+
+<p>So the days passed on until the twins were about sixteen
+years old, John a fine manly fellow, looking much
+older, and Emma a slender slip of a girl, with floating
+locks of purest gold, and a voice in singing like a carol
+of birds in a Maybush. Oftentimes when her father
+was steering his boat homeward, after a day of toil, he
+would hear the piercing strain of Emma's song come
+floating over the water from the rock where she stood
+against the western sky, awaiting him. And he rightly
+thought this the sweetest sound he was likely to hear
+before the angels should sing for him in Paradise!</p>
+
+<p>One day the fisherman did not come home. A storm
+arose, and all that evening the wind howled madly<span class="pagenum">[152]</span>
+<span class="pagenum">[153]</span>above the beating of the angry surf. The sky was
+pitch-black, and the wife and children walked the shore
+in silent fear. When darkness fell, they lighted a
+huge bonfire upon the rocks, and John, begging his
+mother and Emma to go home to rest, stayed feeding
+the flames with drift-wood, till morning broke over the
+sullen waste of waters. Still no sign of his father, and
+at midday the familiar boat drifted ashore, bottom upward.
+Then great sorrow darkened this happy little
+home; and nevermore the sea gave up her dead.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 514px;">
+<img src="images/i036.jpg" width="514" height="671" alt="Emma Singing on the Rocks." title="">
+<p class="caption">Emma Singing on the Rocks.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The fisherman's wife did not long survive him&mdash;dying,
+she told her children, because she could not
+live without her beloved husband. John followed his
+father's calling, and Emma kept the house, as her
+mother had done. She was very sad and solitary in
+the changed life, but people who work hard have not
+much time to give way to grief. The busy maiden
+toiled all day over her duties in-doors, and when evening
+came, would go out on the rocks to await John's
+return. The greatest pleasure she now had was in
+singing. Her voice grew strong and firm, and every
+day at sunset it might be heard, in waves of melody,
+mingling with the sound of the breakers on the shore.</p>
+
+<p>One day, when John was later than usual in returning<span class="pagenum">[154]</span>
+to his supper, Emma wandered along the sands.
+It was a beautiful summer evening, the sky painted
+with radiant colors, the sea reflecting them. Here and
+there a sail dotted the horizon, but the shore was completely
+deserted. The girl saw before her a rock-pool
+filled with sea-anemones and star-fish; and, sitting
+down on the edge of it to study the lovely creatures, she
+began, as usual, to sing, without knowing that she did
+so.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, over the water came rolling toward her
+a wonderful chariot formed of a single conch-shell all
+rainbow-hued within. It was drawn by two dolphins,
+and the driver was a handsome young man, whose long
+floating locks were of a changeable green color, tipped
+with curling white. Before Emma could recover from
+her astonishment, the youth spoke to her gently,
+thanking her for the song that had wooed him from
+his home beneath the sea.</p>
+
+<p>"I am the king of a wonderful country down there,"
+he said, "and if you will but sing for me once more, I
+shall give you gems and flowers from my own garden,
+such as never an earth-born maiden owned."</p>
+
+<p>Dipping one hand carelessly over the chariot's edge,
+the king brought up a string of rare carved coral<span class="pagenum">[155]</span>
+with a jewelled clasp, and, smiling at Emma's wonder,
+dipped his hand a second time, when out came a garland
+of exquisite flowers. Sea-lilies, sea-roses, sea-narcissus,
+sea-violets there were, larger and more beautiful
+than any upon land, and all glittering with the ocean
+brine. Emma stretched out both hands for the pretty
+things, while a song of joy burst from her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"May I crown your brow with my garland?" said
+the king. "For truly, I have heard no voice to equal
+yours."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks&mdash;thanks," cried the innocent girl, her eyes
+sparkling with delight. She leant forward to receive
+the chain which the king threw around her neck, at
+the same time laying the garland on her hair. At once,
+Emma fell into a deep sleep, and the crafty sea-king,
+with a look of triumph, lifted her into the seat at his
+side and urged forward his chafing steeds; the chariot
+flew like a stormy petrel across the sea, disappearing
+beneath the arch of a gigantic wave!</p>
+
+<p>John sought in vain for his cherished sister. The
+only trace of her, he and the neighbors who helped him
+in the search, could find, was a little gold cross, once
+her mother's, that Emma always wore. This lay in a
+crevice of the rock, whence the sea-king had carried<span class="pagenum">[156]</span>
+her away. The neighbors believed her dead, but something
+within John convinced him that he should see
+her yet again. Long and dreary were the winter
+months without her. John forever wondered about
+Emma's disappearance; and, when summer came once
+more, it was to find the youth still possessed of a longing
+desire to go somewhere in search of her.</p>
+
+<p>Sad and solitary, John was sailing his little fishing-smack
+along the coast one day, intending to go out to
+the usual fishing-ground, when, tempted by a creek he
+noticed now, as if for the first time, a fancy took him to
+follow up the windings of this silver inlet from the sea,
+running between banks as green as emerald. Looking
+into the water, as a light breeze carried him along,
+John saw a bed of weed and kelp starred with shells,
+where crabs of an unusual size passed in and out of a
+circular opening. Determined to fill a basket with
+these desirable dainties, which would fetch a high price
+in market, John fished for them so skilfully as to haul
+up a hand-net brimful, at the first attempt. These
+were no common crabs he discovered, one of them in
+particular, having its flippers set with rings of beaten
+gold, and a gold chain around its body bearing a
+golden key.<span class="pagenum">[157]</span></p>
+
+<p>"My good sir," said the crab, speaking in a plaintive
+voice, "you probably don't know that I am the keeper
+of the sea-king's summer grotto, and these are my attendants.
+Only to-day, his majesty sent us word to
+have all in readiness for a visit from him and his bride-betrothed.
+We are in the greatest possible hurry, and
+if it is quite the same to you, would take it as a friendly
+favor, if you will let us go without delay."</p>
+
+<p>"My good Mr. Crab," said John, laughing, "I should
+like to oblige such an important person, but really my
+circumstances are almost as particular as yours. I am
+in the greatest possible need of funds, and the price
+you and your friends would fetch at the present market
+rates is most desirable to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! if it is only gold and silver," said the crab,
+disdainfully, "you should see his majesty's dominions.
+Our streets are paved with it."</p>
+
+<p>John became interested at this, and entered into a
+long conversation with the crab, who was a gossipy
+old soul and told him of so many wonders of the sea-king's
+kingdom that the lad could scarcely contain his
+astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>What startled him more than all, was to hear of
+a sweet singing maiden, from the upper world, his<span class="pagenum">[158]</span>
+majesty had kept for a year past imprisoned in a crystal
+cavern! His heart beat fast with excitement, as the
+crab described Emma so exactly that it was impossible
+to mistake her.</p>
+
+<p>"Until the present time," the crab went on, with importance,
+"his majesty has not told the earth-maiden
+of his intention to make her his bride. By the laws of
+our kingdom, no one of us can marry a mortal, until she
+has lived for a year contentedly below, without uttering
+the name of any friend she knew in her former estate.
+But the year is up to-day, and they are to make a grand
+tour of his majesty's possessions. I should not wonder
+if the wedding were to take place in our grotto, for
+that is the king's favorite palace, although only one of
+the many he calls his own."</p>
+
+<p>"One thing is false! Emma will never marry him,
+if she is to do it by forgetting those who loved her
+so tenderly," broke in John, furiously.</p>
+
+<p>"You are very rough, my dear friend," said the
+crab, fanning himself with his flipper. "I think you
+forget you are addressing a courtier. What I tell you
+about the Lady Emma is undoubtedly true, since I
+have it from my cousin the clam. He is a close-mouthed
+creature, little likely to spread a false report.<span class="pagenum">[159]</span>
+Lady Emma is happy as a queen in swansdown.
+Once a day she sings, and then his majesty always presents
+her with a bunch of fresh sea-violets, her favorite
+flowers. Under the circumstances, it is hardly possible
+she would keep up any of the foolish fancies for
+earth-born folk she may have brought there."</p>
+
+<p>John pondered awhile, and finally promised the crab,
+who was growing very impatient, to release that functionary
+and his companions, if they would permit him
+to visit the wonders of the sea-king's grotto. The
+crab, since he could not well help himself, said yes,
+and instructed John how to dive into the round green
+hole, so like the nest of some strange fish, he saw at
+the bottom of the stream.</p>
+
+<p>John made fast his boat, and sprang overboard,
+having first emptied the net full of captives, who went
+scuttling to the bottom in very undignified haste. So
+sure was his aim, that he reached without difficulty
+the passage-way indicated, which widened from its
+mouth into a funnel-shaped cavern, lined with seaweed
+and ferns of the rarest varieties. Following the
+crab procession, John swam along a crystal streamlet,
+reaching at length a second opening, larger than the
+first. Within this was a door formed of a single sap<span class="pagenum">[160]</span>phire.
+The crab put his golden key into the key-hole,
+and admitted John into a large and brilliant grotto,
+the sides lined with the iridescent scales of fish. The
+roof was encrusted with jewels, through which streamed
+many colored lights, and clusters of phosphorescent
+flame gleamed at intervals between pillars of glittering
+spar. Beneath an arch of blooming sea-flowers, stood
+
+<img src="images/i037.jpg" width="214" height="215" alt="" title="" class="split">
+
+a throne made of snowy coral
+branches, and cushioned with
+velvet moss. At its foot was a
+pillow of blue violets, another
+one hanging at the back. A
+tiny stream of clear water ran
+down the cavern's side, and shot
+up in a fountain in the centre.
+John's eyes blinked with pleasure
+when he came into the pretty place, but the sound
+of approaching music made the crab hurry him into
+hiding, with the order on no account to risk showing
+himself in the presence of the king, who would instantly
+have him hugged to death by a giant devil-fish.
+John kept quiet, you may be sure. The crabs formed
+into double rows, bowing and scraping, in token of
+their deep reverence for the king (they had been<span class="pagenum">[161]</span>
+selected to be courtiers in consequence of their facility
+in walking backward), and the sight almost made John
+laugh aloud; but he was soon reduced to silence, not
+only by the imposing entry of the monarch of the seas,
+but because, in the bride-betrothed, he saw indeed his
+own dear Emma.</p>
+
+<p>Emma was greatly changed in appearance. She
+now wore a splendid robe of some clinging white stuff,
+worked with little coral branches and sprays of silver seaweed
+around the hem, and her neck, arms, and hair were
+wreathed with row upon row of priceless pearls. She
+was pale, but more beautiful than ever, and on her
+breast John saw a knot of big blue violets. Emma
+was seated at the king's right hand, and lovely sea-nymphs
+danced before her, to the music of unseen
+orchestras. Then his majesty asked Emma to sing,
+pledging her health in a shell full of wine, that shone
+and sparkled beautifully. Emma made no resistance,
+doing all that she was bid, like a person walking in her
+sleep. Her eyes had a far-away look and her voice, in
+singing, so unearthly a thrill, that John's affectionate
+heart ached to seize her in his arms and tear her from
+the spot. When Emma had finished singing, she appeared
+to be fatigued, and two sea-nymphs bore her to<span class="pagenum">[162]</span>
+a couch of pearl, laid her on purple cushions, and
+combed her long hair with a golden comb, while other
+sea-maidens interlaced their white arms above the girl's
+head, soothing her to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>"Let her sleep here till this day week," said his
+majesty. "Then I will summon my subjects and relations
+to the wedding. All of you present withdraw,
+now, and on no account disturb her slumber."</p>
+
+<p>When the coast was clear, John seized his opportunity,
+and stealing forth, knelt beside his sleeping sister, and
+whispered in her ear. Emma moved, her eyes opened
+slowly, and uttering a deep sigh, she looked her brother
+full in the face. But alas! she did not recognize him.
+In despair, John seized her hand, and tried to urge
+her to fly with him. He reminded her of her home,
+of their happy childhood, of their dead parents, of
+everything that could touch the heart. All in vain!
+Emma smiled sweetly, and stroked his head as, shedding
+bitter tears of disappointment, he bent it upon
+her knees; but she knew him not.</p>
+
+<p>"Leave me in peace," she said, "I am the sea-king's
+bride-betrothed, and you are but a poor fisher's lad.
+What you say to me of earth and home I do not understand.
+This is my home, and if the king should find<span class="pagenum">[163]</span>
+you here, he would take your head off. If you love
+me as you say, please go."</p>
+
+<p>Emma lifted to her face the cluster of purple violets,
+and at once her lids drooped; and, sinking back upon
+her purple cushions, she slept again.</p>
+
+<p>In bitter disappointment, John retraced his way along
+the vestibule of the king's grotto and emerged into
+the inlet where his boat was moored. Carefully marking
+the spot, he returned to it the next night, but no
+trace could he find of the submarine opening. The
+old crab had taken good care to prevent another visit
+from a marauder, who might cost him his life. John
+felt ready to abandon all hopes, when, leaning over the
+edge of the boat, and dragging the water through
+habit, he felt a violent struggling and fluttering within
+the net. Hauling it quickly in, a swarm of silver-bright
+little fishes, each one wearing a pretty maiden's
+head, escaped from the meshes, leaving behind but a
+single token, and that John found to be a tiny golden
+harp. He drew his fingers across the strings, and the
+sweet sound it gave out was echoed by a sob from beneath
+a rock ledge close at hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is there?" cried John.</p>
+
+<p>"It is I&mdash;chief of the sea-king's minstrels," said a<span class="pagenum">[164]</span>
+voice. "This evening, I and my band were amusing
+ourselves by the light of the moon, when your cruel
+net almost frightened us to death. Oh! what shall I
+do? It's nearly time for the king's visit to his bride-betrothed
+in the grotto; and if you will not restore to
+me my harp, I shall be behind-hand, and in disgrace.
+Oh! if you only knew how strict the leader of the
+court orchestra is!"</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 429px;">
+<img src="images/i038.jpg" width="429" height="377" alt="" title="">
+</div><span class="pagenum">[165]</span>
+
+<p>"Will you take me into the grotto, if I give the
+harp to you?" said John, firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I dare not," cried the little mermaid, shivering.
+"Only yesterday, his majesty found out that
+some rude outsider had found his way into the grotto,
+and he has placed on either side of the entrance a
+double-headed shark. For you to attempt to pass
+them would be certain death! Pray, pray ask something
+easier; for every moment is precious to me, now."</p>
+
+<p>"Then tell me what has caused Emma to forget all
+her life on earth?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I can do, right easily," said the mermaid, coquettishly;
+"for I have a sister in the band of especial
+hand-maidens set apart by the king to wait on the
+bride-betrothed. The fresh violets sent every day
+to Lady Emma by his majesty, have the power to make
+her forgetful, and indifferent to all save her present
+surroundings."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew she had not really grown cold," cried John,
+in a burst of gratitude. "Here is your harp, pretty
+one, but answer me one question more. How can I
+find the entrance to the grotto?"</p>
+
+<p>The little mermaid stood on tip-tail to receive her
+harp, and, as she once more clasped it in her arms,<span class="pagenum">[166]</span>
+whispered, in a frightened tone: "When the moon is
+at the full, its rays strike a white cliff over against
+yonder dark coast-line. Steer your boat evenly along
+the path traced by those rays upon the water, and you
+may see the wedding procession go in at the state entrance.
+But, of all things, take care not to let yourself
+be perceived, for on this occasion all the monsters
+of the deep will be on guard, and your life would not
+be worth a broken clam-shell."</p>
+
+<p>John bade the mermaid good-by, and from that
+moment all his thoughts turned upon how he might
+obtain admission to the wedding festival. He cast his
+nets diligently, but with no success. All the fishes
+seemed to have deserted their usual haunts; and no
+wonder, for the entire population of the sea was in a
+state of preparation for the great event.</p>
+
+<p>At last the night of the full moon came, and you may
+be sure John was abroad and watchful, as he cast his
+nets in feverish anxiety. A sudden pull made him
+haul in rapidly, and this time he was rewarded by a
+catch that cost him the most tremendous struggle.
+What was his surprise to drag into the boat a huge
+fish, six feet long, with a tall fin nearly the length of its
+body. The most curious part of it was that the tips<span class="pagenum">[167]</span>
+of this fin, and also a patch on the creature's head,
+shone with imprisoned fire. Along the sides of the
+body were a double row of luminous spots. The fish
+made no further fight, and John gazed at him in admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"In the name of wonder, what have we here?" he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"My good sir," answered the fiery fish, "if you
+had the least idea of the nature of my business, I am
+sure you would not interrupt me for a moment. I am
+one of his majesty's torch-bearers, and the procession
+is already forming to go to the grotto of the bride-betrothed."</p>
+
+<p>"Hurrah!" said John. "If you will manage to
+take me with you, I will let you go, but not else."</p>
+
+<p>In vain the torch-bearer protested and begged.
+John was inexorable. In the end, the torch-bearer
+demanded time for reflection, and at last spoke as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p>"I and four of my brothers lead the way, and by
+going with me you would certainly be seen and punished.
+But at the very tail-end of the procession, my
+old father and mother will jog along, accompanied by a
+swarm of their younger grandchildren. These pretty<span class="pagenum">[168]</span>
+little creatures, as you may not know, are called Bombay
+ducks, and their whole bodies glow with light.
+They are very good-natured, and if we can but win over
+the other family who help to light the court festivals,
+the Chiasmodos, I believe we might smuggle you in
+unobserved between the old people."</p>
+
+<p>"Who are the Chiasmodos?" asked John.</p>
+
+<p>"They are a tribe of deep-sea light-givers," said the
+torch-bearer, "who consist entirely of a mouth and
+a stomach. The latter organ swells to an enormous
+size, and floats beneath like a transparent balloon,
+while above their great, wide-grinning mouth is worn
+a crown of light. They are rather snappishly inclined,
+these Chiasmodos, and may give us trouble; but we
+must run the risk, if you insist. So, come along, young
+man, there's no time to waste in talking."</p>
+
+<p>John did not hesitate, but overboard he went, swimming
+after the released torch-bearer, who proved a
+friendly fellow after all. It was a beautiful summer's
+night, and the moon shed a path of radiant light upon
+the ocean, lying calm and serene beneath her spell.
+John and the torch-bearer swam along a track of liquid
+silver, and opposite the white cliff they saw a marvellous
+array.<span class="pagenum">[169]</span></p>
+
+<p>The procession was formed, and about to take up its
+line of march. The drum-fishes were already beating
+a roll-call; the fiddler crabs fiddled wildly; while
+the sea-lions roared and rumbled, the whales blew
+their trumpets, the porpoise puffed, and the electric
+eel, who was the court jester, wriggled along the
+line, playing foolish tricks and giving unexpected
+shocks to those who did not pay attention. Such a
+multitude! To describe them all would fill many
+pages of this book; and besides, you would never be
+able to remember the hard names. The pilot-fish
+cruised around in front, the torch-bearers came next,
+then the mermaid musicians, and a host of sea politicians
+with banners, preceding the whales who sailed
+majestically ahead of the king's chariot of pearl, drawn
+by twelve milk-white dolphins with jewelled harness.</p>
+
+<p>After them, every conceivable kind of fish, in regular
+order, according to their dignity. The octopus party
+was a sight to make one shudder, but they were in a
+good humor for once, and comparatively beaming.
+The sea-serpent swam alone, considering himself too
+much of a rarity to associate with every-day folk. The
+sword-fish saluted, and the skates tried to smile, but
+only succeeded in looking more hideous than before,<span class="pagenum">[170]</span>
+very much as if they had pains under their waistcoats.
+The brilliant angel-fishes and the fairy nautilus made
+the most lovely show it is possible to imagine; though
+it is hardly fair to single out one or two for praise,
+when all did so well. Even the herrings from the public
+schools, and the vulgar little porgies, had clean faces
+and were allowed to tag after the procession. And, last
+of all, came the cross Chiasmodos, fortunately swimming
+before the old father and mother torch-bearers, who,
+between them, carried John along, and were followed
+by a gleaming myriad of little Bombay ducks, true
+glow-worms of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Led by the moon rays to the white cliff on the coast,
+the procession came to a halt; and immediately a pair
+of hidden doors flew back and revealed a long tunnel
+glittering with lights, which opened directly into John's
+well-remembered grotto.</p>
+
+<p>There, within, stood Emma, decked in bridal lace,
+worked by ancient mermaids thousands of years before,
+to be worn by the queen at her bridal; and on her head
+was a fragrant crown of violets. She smiled as the king
+approached, and gave him her hand; the wedding at
+once began. John, hidden behind a projecting crag,
+saw, with despair in his heart, the ceremony go on.<span class="pagenum">[171]</span></p>
+
+<p>The entire walls were lined with ranks of octopi and
+sharks on guard. To defy them would be death to
+Emma and himself. He leaned further forward than
+he intended, and was seen by one of the Chiasmodos,
+who, flashing her lantern in his face, at once informed
+on him to her neighbor. Immediately a new monster
+swam toward John. This was another of the deep-sea
+torch-bearers, the Chanliodus, appointed to act as chief
+sentry to the cave. A more ferocious countenance cannot
+be imagined than was his. The wide mouth bristled
+with sharp fangs, and his fins were tipped with flame,
+while all along his sides extended a row of spots like
+little windows in a ship, through which light was
+shining.</p>
+
+<p>John saw that in another moment he would be lost.
+So long as the bridal procession was going on, no one
+dared to speak; and, beckoning the fierce creature to
+come behind the rock, John met it with an open knife,
+aiming so skilfully as to cut the fish open its entire
+length. The idea now occurred to him to place himself
+within the body of his dead enemy, which he
+promptly did, and to his joy, could swim out unobserved,
+and take his place at the bride's right hand.
+Just as Emma was about to say "I will," the sentry-fish<span class="pagenum">[172]</span>
+managed to place in her hand the little gold cross
+that was once her mother's. The queen-elect looked
+at the cross in surprise, and as all had passed so quickly,
+not even the king understood why her head
+drooped forward, and she seemed about to faint. The
+sentry-fish whispered in her ear:</p>
+
+<p>"It is I&mdash;John&mdash;your brother; be brave, and find
+some excuse for putting off the wedding, and we may
+yet be saved."</p>
+
+<p>So long as Emma wore the crown of violets, she was
+unable entirely to break the charm they cast over her.
+But the little cross was a powerful reminder of her
+life on earth; and while she held it, she appeared to be
+awakening from a trance. Excusing herself to the
+king on the ground of illness, she was supported to her
+coral couch, and was surrounded by her mermaidens.
+The king ordered the crowd to withdraw, and soon
+the disappointed revellers went away, feeling blue and
+cross, while his majesty himself was in a terrible way,
+tramping up and down, tearing his green locks, and
+casting himself on his knees beside Emma, imploring
+her to speak to him once more.</p>
+
+<p>In vain! Emma's eyes were now obstinately closed,
+and her cheeks were like marble. The faithful sentry-fish,<span class="pagenum">[173]</span>
+whose duty it was to patrol the grotto, swam
+up and down before the couch, and every time he
+passed near Emma he whispered, "Be brave. I am
+here. Soon I will rescue you. Give no sign of life."</p>
+
+<p>At last the king took the advice of an old dowager
+mermaid, and left Emma to herself, consenting to go
+outside the grotto and smoke a seaweed cigarette, until
+his bride should be ready to go on with the interrupted
+wedding.</p>
+
+<p>John spied in the train of mermaidens the little
+creature whose harp he had restored, and very cautiously,
+for fear of alarming her, he made himself known.
+The pretty mermaid laughed and cried hysterically,
+when she heard his story, and consented to aid him
+still further by removing the crown of violets from
+Emma's head. Soon there was heard a great whispering
+among the mermaid band, and one of the boldest
+of them ventured to suggest to the dowager lady-in-waiting,
+that one reason for her majesty's continued
+swoon might be that her hair was plaited too tight.
+The dowager, for a wonder, took the suggestion in good
+part. She ordered the attendants to unpin her majesty's
+long golden braids, and in so doing the fatal
+crown fell to the ground unnoticed.<span class="pagenum">[174]</span></p>
+
+<p>The blood rushed into Emma's face; she sighed,
+and opening her eyes, looked about her. There was
+the band of anxious mermaids, and a solitary sentry-fish
+swimming up and down. In next passing her, he
+whispered, "Order your attendants to withdraw." This
+was soon done, only the friendly little mermaid remaining
+at Emma's side. John, throwing off his disguise,
+clasped his sister in his arms, and warm tears
+of human happiness rushed from Emma's eyes. Trampling
+under foot the crown of violets, and keeping firm
+hold of her mother's cross, she begged John to bear
+her back to their own world without delay. Cautiously
+putting on his fish garb, John swam to the door to reconnoitre
+the situation. He found there, on guard,
+only one of the shark sentries, who had taken so much
+sea-beer, in honor of the king's wedding-day, that John's
+knife made quick work in despatching him.</p>
+
+<p>And now the way seemed open for their flight.
+The brother and sister bade farewell to the friendly
+mermaid, who pledged herself never to reveal the secret
+of Emma's escape, and started to leave the grotto.
+Suddenly, lashing the sea in his wrath and fury, both
+of his fierce mouths spiked with rows of terrible teeth,
+came the other double-headed shark! John still wore his<span class="pagenum">[175]</span>
+Chanliodus disguise, and, without a moment's hesitation,
+dashed bravely to meet the foe. Wielding his trusty
+knife, he stabbed the shark again and again through
+the body, darting aside before the monster could get
+the advantage of him. The shark, wounded mortally
+and mad with rage, darted forward in a final effort,
+but John planted his knife in its open jaws. Uttering
+a horrid death-shriek, the creature lay without
+motion upon the threshold of the cave.</p>
+
+<p>John lost no time, for the noise of the conflict had
+already attracted to the scene a number of curious
+loungers; and, as he feared, the king himself, attended
+by his body-guard of monsters, now came in sight.
+Darting swiftly through the waves, with Emma clinging
+bravely to his shoulders, the assumed Chanliodus
+drove his sharp fin abruptly into the middle of a party
+of squids. These poor fellows were the disappointed
+reporters of a submarine newspaper, going home <i>without</i>
+an account of the wedding for their journals! The
+suddenness of the attack caused the squids promptly to
+spill the contents of the ink-pots they always carry with
+them, forming a dense black cloud, under cover of which
+the fugitives safely reached the surface of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was rising, its rosy light lying upon the<span class="pagenum">[176]</span>
+bright ocean like a veil. Now, they knew they were
+secure, for so long as the sun rules in heaven, the sea-king
+dares not show himself above the waves. John
+and Emma gazed upon the shore, finding themselves
+but a little distance from their boat at anchor, and
+wept tears of joy and thanksgiving for their deliverance
+from the horrors of the deep. When they had clambered
+into the boat, John begged his sister to cast
+away the embroideries and the ropes of pearl she had
+brought from the sea-king's dominion. Even as he
+spoke, they saw Emma's finery vanishing like a wisp
+of burnt paper, while her lovely pearls had turned into
+strings of common pebbles. Of all her ornaments only
+the little golden cross remained, and that shone with
+new lustre. With the full force of his stalwart arm,
+John cast the sea-king's tokens far into the water; and
+as they sank, both brother and sister fancied they saw
+a huge hand arise to seize them with an angry grasp,
+and heard a growl of baffled rage beneath the waves.
+Wrapping his sister in his fisherman's cloak, John
+hastened to sail back to the humble hut beneath the
+sand-drift, which had never looked so lovely in their
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>There they dwelt, loving and serene, until in due<span class="pagenum">[177]</span>
+time a good husband came for Emma, and John took
+to himself a fair young wife. From that day forth,
+prosperity attended them, and John sailed his own
+ships across the ocean, while Emma lived in a beautiful
+home near the shore. Strangely enough, never
+again did John succeed in entrapping one of the talking
+creatures of which, as we have clearly seen, there
+are plenty in the sea, if one has luck to find them!
+And another curious thing is, that never again was
+Emma able to lift her voice in song. The beautiful
+gift which had brought about her strange adventure,
+and had well-nigh proved so fatal to them both, had
+been lost forever!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 322px;">
+<img src="images/i039.jpg" width="322" height="272" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[178]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 504px;">
+<img src="images/i040.jpg" width="504" height="187" alt="THE WILD WOODSMAN DISGUISED AS A TRAVELLER." title="">
+<p class="caption">THE WILD WOODSMAN DISGUISED AS A TRAVELLER.</p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_WILD_WOODSMAN" id="THE_WILD_WOODSMAN"></a>THE WILD WOODSMAN.</h2>
+
+<img src="images/drop-o.jpg" width="74" height="74" alt="O" title="O" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">O</span><b>NCE</b>
+there lived a peasant whose only daughter,
+Martha, had eyes as blue as corn-flowers and
+long hair like the silk around an ear of corn.
+All the lads of the village were after her, but she cared
+only for John, a young huntsman, who was called by
+her father an idle vagabond, and sent away from his
+cottage in disdain. Now, the village where they lived
+was at the foot of a high mountain covered with a
+dense forest, into certain portions of which few were
+found to venture, so wild and lonely they were. One
+day Martha went, unknown to her father and mother,
+to ramble in the forest. She said to some of her friends
+that she meant to gather flowers and pick berries, to
+sell to a rich lady who lived near them; but the truth<span class="pagenum">[179]</span>
+was, that a week had passed without John having set
+foot in the village, and she was anxious and uneasy,
+and wished to visit some of her lover's favorite haunts,
+to see if he might be there. It was no uncommon
+thing for John to be absent for several days, while
+trapping and hunting. He could sleep as well on a
+bank of moss as on his pallet at home, and he loved to
+go to rest under the broad canopy of the sky, studded
+with bright stars, and to be lulled by the music of
+falling waters.</p>
+
+<p>Martha, dressed in her brown cotton frock, with
+the scarlet handkerchief knotted over her fair hair,
+was seen to go up a rocky pathway on the mountain-side,
+where the firs and larches made a bower overhead;
+but that night she did not come home, and
+next day, when John came into the village with a
+splendid string of birds he had shot miles away from
+there, in an opposite direction to the one Martha had
+taken, it was to hear the sad news of the poor girl's
+disappearance.</p>
+
+<p>John's face grew pale and his stout heart grew faint;
+he thought of what all the others were thinking of&mdash;the
+Wild Woodsman, against whose magic his gun and
+staff might avail nothing!<span class="pagenum">[180]</span></p>
+
+<p>The mountain above was believed to be the haunt
+of a mysterious being, half man, half brute, fierce and
+cruel, from whose den no living creature might ever
+be rescued. The Wild Woodsman, for so the natives
+called him, took many a shape to trap unwary travellers,
+and a fair young girl like Martha would be a
+rich prize for him. John had long vowed to capture
+the Wild Woodsman; and now he was filled with a
+mad thirst to seek him at once. Without stopping to
+hear more, the young man rushed off up the steep
+mountain path, bounding like a chamois from rock to
+rock, as the villagers, awe-struck and tearful, gazed
+after him and crossed themselves in superstitious fear.</p>
+
+<p>Through brake and brier, John darted on; he was
+soon in the dark recesses of the forest, where the
+undergrowth was like a jungle. His fleet foot never
+tired in the chase, and, erelong, he spied a little red
+handkerchief upon the ground. Recognizing this to
+be Martha's, he gazed about him, and saw, by the token
+of broken bushes, that the girl had been dragged away
+from that spot up a rocky wall, which it seemed to him
+no foot could scale.</p>
+
+<p>Struggling to keep down his sickening dread, John
+determined to follow. He began to climb the steep<span class="pagenum">[181]</span>
+rock. His faithful dog, who had kept close beside him,
+suddenly gave a low fierce growl, and the hair on its
+back bristled up in fury. John was already half-way
+up the cliff, when, on looking down, there, just where
+
+<img src="images/i041.jpg" width="319" height="424" alt="" title="" class="split">
+
+he had picked up the
+handkerchief, he saw
+a queer little old fellow,
+making shoes as
+quietly as if nothing
+at all had happened.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, there!"
+roared John, for he
+suspected mischief.</p>
+
+<p>The old man
+looked up, and John
+saw that he had a
+young and rosy face
+with hair as gray as
+a badger's. The odd
+creature made signs
+that he was stone deaf, and beckoned John to come
+down. All this time, the dog was growling fearfully,
+and John took warning from the sign. He levelled
+his gun without more ado, and said:<span class="pagenum">[182]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Answer, you fellow. Who are you that have cheeks
+so fair, and an old man's locks?"</p>
+
+<p>"I?" said the old man, hopping up with a dreadful
+grin, "you will know me soon enough, sirrah, for I am
+the devil's grandfather."</p>
+
+<p>He stretched out an arm that grew longer every
+minute, and his hands changed to the claws of a beast.
+John lost no time, but taking aim fired at the Wild
+Woodsman, for he it was, and none other. Bang!
+The friendly bullet made straight for the creature's
+heart, and though it did not kill him outright, the Wild
+Woodsman was sorely wounded. He fell over a log,
+groaning pitifully, and prayed John to come to the aid
+of a poor old man. John said, "That I will with another
+bullet," when the Wild Woodsman darted from
+the spot, and was lost in the thicket.</p>
+
+<p>After him went the dog, after the dog went John.
+Such a hunt there never was! Through spots in the
+woods where man's foot had never penetrated, into bogs,
+and into serpents' lairs, past the caves where bears were
+lurking; but no animal would touch John, for the Wild
+Woodsman was their deadly enemy.</p>
+
+<p>At last they came to a cleft in a little green hillock.
+Here was a hut covered with moss, and the Wild Woodsman,<span class="pagenum">[183]</span>
+uttering a frantic yell, fell dead upon the threshold.
+John heard a shriek within the hut, and, dashing
+down the door, saw Martha, lying, bound with ropes
+made of plaited willow, in a corner.</p>
+
+<p>He flew to set her free; but, to his surprise, Martha
+did not appear to know him. She let him take her
+by the hand and lead her from the fearful spot where
+the inner walls were built of the bones of the Wild
+Woodsman's victims. She looked up into his face
+and smiled, and John saw she had lost her reason.
+He did not stop to pick up the jewels and gold, stolen
+from murdered travellers, with which the hut was
+strewn, but made all speed to leave behind the horrid
+place. He lifted Martha in his strong arms and carried
+her down a path along the far side of the mountain.
+A great storm arose, and the earth trembled under his
+feet; but he kept bravely on his way, and looking back
+saw the cleft in the hills widen; then a great gulf
+opened, fire and smoke burst forth, and the hut of the
+Wild Woodsman was swallowed forever from sight.</p>
+
+<p>John gave a shout of joy, and began singing a hymn
+in his clear young voice. The storm ceased. The clouds
+parted. Down in the valley below was their own
+peaceful village, and the sound of the evening bells<span class="pagenum">[184]</span>
+came floating up to him. Martha, who had lain in his
+arms as if asleep, stirred, and recognized him. Her
+strength returned, and she asked to walk beside him.
+Strangely enough, she said nothing of her late adventure,
+then or ever afterward. Not a trace of it remained
+in her memory.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the village, all the people came
+out to meet them, rejoicing. John told them he had
+rescued the lost girl, but the true history of his chase
+of the Wild Woodsman he kept to himself. Martha's
+father and mother greeted her with tears of thankfulness;
+and before another year had gone by John and
+Martha were married in the village church. From
+that day forth, peace reigned upon the mountain-side;
+but when stories of the Wild Woodsman were told to
+Martha's grandchildren, they little knew the share their
+hale old grandsire had in ridding the country-side of
+such a scourge.</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[185]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 532px;">
+<img src="images/i042.jpg" width="532" height="122" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_FROZEN_HEARTH-FAIRY" id="THE_FROZEN_HEARTH-FAIRY"></a>THE FROZEN HEARTH-FAIRY.</h2>
+
+<img src="images/drop-o.jpg" width="74" height="74" alt="O" title="O" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">O</span><b>NCE</b>
+upon a time, there were a poor couple
+who lived in a little cottage overgrown with
+vines. From roof-tree to cellar, their home
+was as clean as hands could make it, and the table and
+chairs were scoured every day till they were as white
+as snow. The man went out into the woods to tie up
+fagots, and the woman kept a few bees, and sold the
+honey. In this way they managed to live, and were
+happy, till a great storm came, and swept off the roof
+of their house; then the lightning set it on fire, and
+it was soon burned to the ground. The man came
+running from the forest, and found his wife crying as
+if her heart would break, beside her bee-hives, which
+the wind had upset, scattering all their busy inmates,
+and destroying the honey.</p>
+
+<p>"Where shall we sleep to-night?" said the wife.<span class="pagenum">[186]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Let us search till we find," answered the husband.
+So they set off and wandered into the woods, while
+the storm raged over them. Long did they stray, until
+night came. At last they saw a ruined hut, left
+by some charcoal-burners, and thankfully entered it.
+There was dry straw in one corner, and here the poor
+woman laid down, half dead with fright and fatigue.
+Both of them were hungry, and the man putting his
+hand in his pouch was glad to find there a bit of bread,
+which he was about to give to his wife, when a queer
+little black object sprang down the wall and seized the
+crust, running nimbly off with it.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" cried the poor man.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm a lost hearth-fairy," said the little creature, in
+a piping voice. "If you had made me a fire to warm
+my poor bones, I should not have taken your food."</p>
+
+<p>The hearth-fairy's teeth were chattering, and the
+man pulled together some sticks and straw, and lighted
+them with his flint and steel. The smoke curled up,
+the flames sparkled merrily. The hearth-fairy slid
+down and warmed himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo there! give me back my crust," said the poor
+man, whose wife kept pulling him by the sleeve, to remind
+him of her hunger.<span class="pagenum">[187]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Now that I think of it, I want this crust myself,"
+said the hearth-fairy. "I am off on a journey to seek a
+warm fireside, and I need something to strengthen me.
+
+<img src="images/i043.jpg" width="259" height="464" alt="" title="" class="splitr">
+
+But here is a duck instead,
+only you had better not kill
+her!"</p>
+
+<p>A fine fat duck tumbled
+at the poor man's feet. The
+hearth-fairy vanished in the
+smoke. Oh! how the poor
+couple longed to kill and
+eat that duck. Their mouths
+watered as they thought of
+onion-sauce, and of breadcrumbs,
+and of sage. Faint
+and starving, they fell asleep
+in a corner of the hut.
+When day broke the poor
+man rose up, and went to
+the door. The storm had
+ceased and the duck was
+quacking on the door-sill. She waddled away, and
+left behind her a large egg of purest gold. Just then
+the lord of the forest rode by with his huntsman.<span class="pagenum">[188]</span>
+They saw the shining prize in the poor man's hand,
+and offered to buy it of him.</p>
+
+<p>"I will give it for a loaf of brown bread and a sausage,"
+he said, "for my wife lies starving, within."</p>
+
+<p>The huntsman gave him food and drink; and the
+lord of the forest, after hearing his story, had the poor
+couple taken to a nice empty cottage near by, and told
+them they should have it for their own. The golden
+egg was sold, and the man and his wife lived in comfort
+all their days from the money it fetched. They
+never saw either the hearth-fairy or the magic duck
+again, but the good wife soon went to bee-keeping,
+which made her very happy.</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[189]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 534px;">
+<img src="images/i044.jpg" width="534" height="120" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="ROSYS_STAY-AT-HOME_PARTIES" id="ROSYS_STAY-AT-HOME_PARTIES"></a>ROSY'S STAY-AT-HOME PARTIES.</h2>
+
+<img src="images/drop-o.jpg" width="74" height="74" alt="O" title="O" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">O</span><b>H!</b>
+dear, oh! dear," sighed Rosy, "I'm the
+most unhappy little girl in all the world."</p>
+
+<p>She was kneeling in a chair, gazing through
+the drawing-room window. In the street outside
+was drawn up a carriage, into which Nurse was packing
+all of Rosy's brothers and sisters. Clover was
+there, a boy of twelve, looking rather disgusted with
+his surroundings, and having his head nearly cut off
+by his first upright collar. Violet, Rosy's twin sister,
+was there, dressed in the sweetest new pale blue
+camel's-hair, and taking great care to turn the skirt
+of it up over her shoulders as she nestled into her
+corner of the landau. (Rosy thought with a pang
+of her own new dress, the double of Violet's, hanging
+upstairs in the wardrobe, in a melancholy way!) Jonquil
+was there, the chubby, golden-haired, big-eyed<span class="pagenum">[190]</span>
+brother, aged three. And last of all was dear wee
+Honeysuckle, like a bundle of lace and flannel in
+Marie's arms; while old Nurse's spectacles could
+hardly be seen through the mass of sash-ends and
+fluted petticoats, and scarlet stockings, and velvet
+breeches, and flying locks of hair completely filling the
+roomy carriage. No one could doubt that the children
+were going to a party, even if they had not announced
+that fact to everybody within ear-shot by the chatter
+of their busy little tongues!</p>
+
+<p>At last all were settled, and the carriage rolled away.
+"Good-by, Rosy," "Good-by, Rosy!" came up in a
+shrill chorus; and, the last Rosy's tear-dimmed eyes
+could see of them, hands and handkerchiefs were waving
+a farewell to the sister left behind.</p>
+
+<p>Then it was that Rosy's fortitude completely forsook
+her, and she dropped sobbing into the chair. It
+was a bitter disappointment, for the party was to be
+given by their aunt in honor of these children, and, in
+addition to Punch and Judy, magic, and a candy-bag,
+they were promised a huge bran-pie, full of delightful
+hidden presents. Rosy had suffered from a pretty
+bad sore-throat the night before, and the doctor had
+forbidden her going out. It is no use for grown<span class="pagenum">[191]</span>
+people to say, dear children, these disappointments
+of yours don't matter much, for they <i>do</i>. They seem
+as high as mountains in your path, and I fully sympathize
+with you all, and especially with little weeping
+Rosy.</p>
+
+<p>So thought her mamma, evidently, for she came
+into the room just then, and picked the little bunch of
+blue serge and cardinal ribbons up in
+her arms, and sat down with it in a
+low chair by the fire.</p>
+
+<img src="images/i045.jpg" width="160" height="194" alt="" title="" class="splitr">
+
+<p>"Boo-hoo!" said Rosy, breaking
+out afresh when she felt mamma's
+kisses on her hair and wet cheeks.
+Mamma said very little, but by and
+by the little girl began to feel comforted,
+in spite of herself. You know how it is, dears!
+First, you stop roaring and moan, then your eyes are
+kissed dry, then you burrow your heads down and
+sigh, then you lie quite still for a little while&mdash;and at
+last, after blowing your noses in an heroic way, you are
+ready to laugh again!</p>
+
+<p>All this happened in Rosy's case, and for awhile she
+sat talking, until her mamma was called away to attend
+to some household matter. By that time Rosy<span class="pagenum">[192]</span>
+was quite content to be tucked into a corner of the
+comfortable sofa, covered with a down quilt, and left
+to gaze into the depths of a woodfire, burning gently
+(for it had passed the spitting, spluttering stage), upon
+two great old-fashioned brass andirons with claw-feet
+and queer round bald heads.</p>
+
+<p>Around Rosy's couch was drawn a gay Japanese
+screen; before the fire was spread a great black bear-skin
+rug, and on either side of it stood a tall green
+porcelain jar. Clover always said these vases were
+like the ones in which Morgiana hid the Forty Thieves,
+and the children had more than once stuffed baby
+Honeysuckle into one of them to keep her out of mischief
+during what Nurse called their "rampagin's to
+split one's head."</p>
+
+<p>Over her mamma's writing-table, low enough for
+Rosy to look into the very heart of it, hung a picture
+in a broad gold frame. The picture was of a chestnut
+wood in Brittany, and standing in the shadow of a
+drooping bough was a little girl of about ten, her own
+age. One of the little peasant maiden's arms was
+clasped around the neck of a big dog, harnessed to a
+cart of vegetables. Under the other arm she held a
+fat goose with a dangling neck. Overhead, the sky<span class="pagenum">[193]</span>
+was blue and the leaves seemed to be rustling in a
+summer wind. Around the feet of the tiny nut-brown
+maiden, with her odd high cap, grew tall heather and
+feathery ferns, with here and there a clump of flame-shaped
+lilies. When snow was on the ground outside
+Rosy always loved to gaze at this pretty scene, and to
+fancy herself stepping over the frame to have a chat
+about vegetables, and a ramble in the forest with Annette.</p>
+
+<p>Rosy's eyes wandered from one object to another in
+this pleasant room. Fluff, her mother's Skye terrier,
+curled up on her feet and fell asleep. The clock upon
+the mantel ticked softly, Fluff snored contentedly,
+little particles of burning wood pattered into the bed
+of glowing embers below. Even the familiar rumble
+of the street cars along the thoroughfare at the end of
+their block seemed more subdued than usual; and
+Rosy lay, never stirring, until&mdash;she found herself, without
+the least warning, slipping down through one of
+her mother's great porcelain jars, into Japan! Fluff
+woke up, and dashed to the rescue, with his fierce
+little "Rah!" of a bark; but there was nothing to be
+seen of Miss Rosy except the tip of a scarlet bow, with
+which Nurse was wont to adorn the summit of her<span class="pagenum">[194]</span>
+
+<img src="images/i046.jpg" width="332" height="611" alt="" title="" class="split">
+
+young lady's head.
+She felt the rustle
+of the dried rose-leaves
+at the bottom
+of the jar falling
+over her in a
+fragrant shower, as
+she fell through
+space, pulling up,
+decidedly out of
+breath, in a very
+queer locality.</p>
+
+<p>It was a town
+where the houses
+looked as if they
+had been built for
+big dolls to live in.
+Houses with sliding
+walls, doors,
+and galleries made
+all of paper, that in
+two minutes you
+could take apart
+and pack up as you<span class="pagenum">[195]</span>
+do a box of Crandall's blocks. The streets were
+honeycombed with quaint booths, and crowded with
+human beings going in and out of them like bees.
+The carriages were babies' perambulators, drawn by a
+tandem team of brown-skinned men, wearing a single
+garment each, and umbrella hats.</p>
+
+<p>There were no horses to be seen, but the cows wore
+blue cotton wrappers and shoes made of straw. Men,
+women, and children, at first sight, seemed to be dressed
+alike, all clattering around on high clogs, stooping
+painfully; and the funny little bald-headed babies were
+either carried pick-a-back by their mammas, or else
+were tucked in the breast of their fathers' loose wrappers,
+together with pipes, tobacco pouches, books,
+and a variety of other useful articles.</p>
+
+<p>Rosy looked about her in astonishment, till a girl
+came up and saluted her with solemn politeness, inviting
+her to a party, which was just about to begin.
+"You had better have your hair dressed first," the
+girl said, "and I will lend you a decent frock."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Rosy, thinking fondly of the blue
+camel's-hair in the wardrobe at home; "of course,
+this old every-day serge won't do for a party."</p>
+
+<p>The girl took her to the shop of a female barber,<span class="pagenum">[196]</span>
+who made Rosy kneel down before a mirror of polished
+steel, and parted her hair in two or three long manes,
+which were stiffened with bandoline, and tied with
+
+<img src="images/i047.jpg" width="237" height="464" alt="" title="" class="split">
+
+paper twine in a wonderful
+bow-knot on top. A fine tortoise-shell
+skewer was added,
+and the barberess, stepping
+back to survey her work,
+caught sight of Rosy's eyebrows.</p>
+
+<p>"Tut, tut," she said, angrily;
+"what were her parents
+thinking of to let them
+grow like this?" And without
+more ado Rosy's eyebrows
+were shaved off, and her face
+and neck were daubed with a
+thick white paste. Her under
+lip had a patch of red paint,
+and her teeth were stained
+with some horrid black mixture.
+Then she went with the Japanese girl into a
+paper house, where the party was to be held, and the
+girl lent her a loose silk gown, tied round the waist by<span class="pagenum">[197]</span>
+a wide sash of pink cr&ecirc;pe. On her feet were put foot
+mittens of white cloth, with a separate place for the
+big toe, and high lacquered clogs.</p>
+
+<p>"How can I walk?" said Rosy, tottering around
+when she was finally equipped in her narrow uncomfortable
+garments.</p>
+
+<p>"Sh-h! the company is arriving!" said her hostess;
+and as there was no furniture, not even a chair, Rosy
+wondered where the company would sit. The company
+solved this difficulty by sitting on the floor; and
+then trays were handed around, containing all sorts
+of wonderful sweetmeats, flowers and fruits in lovely
+colors, with conserved fruits, sugared beans, and candy
+fish, animals, and birds. Each dainty was more tempting
+than the one before, and Rosy found the loose
+front of her Japanese gown the very thing for a "party-pocket,"
+if any of you know what that means!</p>
+
+<p>Next came games; "Lady-go-to-see," "Sick man-and-doctor,"
+Alphabet-cards, and Proverbs; and then,
+more sweetmeats. Pleasant as it was, a sudden stop
+was put to the entertainment, by a commotion, everybody
+seizing hold of another, all with frightened faces.
+Without warning, an earthquake came and turned
+the house upside down. Everybody fell out on the<span class="pagenum">[198]</span>
+ground but Rosy, who flew up in the air, becoming
+entangled in the tail of a huge man-kite, carried along
+by the wind at a fearful rate of speed.</p>
+
+<p>Rosy thought this much more exciting than any
+coasting down hill she had ever tried; and she flew up,
+up, until the tail of the kite gave a flop, tossing her
+through a rift in the clouds. There she was, passing
+again through the bottom of the porcelain-jar, and in
+another moment she had landed in the very centre
+of the bear-skin hearth-rug.</p>
+
+<p>Rosy was just getting her breath, and wondering
+how she came to have her hair hanging in the usual
+tawny stream, when, to her great surprise, the bear-skin
+began to move.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on tight there. We are off," it said, in a low
+growling tone, though not unkindly. "Want to go to
+a party, hey? Well, I'll see what we can do for you
+in my part of the world."</p>
+
+<p>"Really you take one so unpleasantly by surprise,"
+exclaimed poor Rosy, as she felt herself again setting
+forth on an airy journey. "It is so cold here, I wish
+you had let me stop for my seal-skin jacket."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't talk about seal-skins, child. We are going
+where you will see enough of them. Ho! but it's<span class="pagenum">[199]</span>
+grand there, up among the icebergs and the everlasting
+snow-drifts, where the frozen lakes gleam like
+red jewels in the light of the sun that never sets!
+Merry sports you'll see between my brothers and
+sisters!"</p>
+
+<p>"But I should be dreadfully afraid of them," began
+Rosy, trembling. "I have never met any bears outside
+of cages;" but the words were frozen on her
+tongue, and some tears coming into her eyes rolled in
+little round icicles into her lap.</p>
+
+<p>Now they came to a world of ice and snow. Even
+the fir-trees were no longer seen. Clinging to the
+rocks was a little rough moss, which served for reindeers'
+food. All else was chill and glittering&mdash;the
+sky arched with radiant pink that seemed to palpitate.
+Far below them was a polar sea, locking in chill embrace
+a lonely ship, her shrouds sheathed in ice, her
+ribs cracked against the huge silvery bulk of an iceberg,
+on whose jagged side she leaned despairingly&mdash;no
+sign of life on board. Rosy shuddered and shut
+her eyes, only opening them again when the bear-skin
+set her down at the side of an odd little hut, built on
+a barren point of land above the ice-bound water.</p>
+
+<p>This hut was made of blocks of ice, the chinks filled<span class="pagenum">[200]</span>
+in with moss, and snow-caked over all. On top was
+a hole whence issued a faint curl of smoke, and out of
+an opening, somewhere, crawled a funny Esquimaux
+lady, apparently as broad as she was long. She welcomed
+Rosy politely, and took her in to the fire, a
+civility Rosy thought she could have done without.
+The whole family was collected there, with some
+guests invited in Rosy's honor, who had come in
+sledges drawn by dogs over the snow. The dogs
+also were within, and half a dozen children. It made
+Rosy think of the worms in Clover's can the days
+when her brother went a-fishing, so closely packed and
+squirming were her new-found friends. The place
+was full of smoke, and smelled of fish oil. The feast
+consisted of frozen whale's blubber, handed around to
+be gnawed by the company, and of salt fish dried without
+cooking, with strips of reindeer meat. Rosy tried
+to be very agreeable to everybody present, but when
+they brought her the baby to kiss, she almost fainted!
+It was the greasiest little thing, without a stitch of
+clothes on! By-and-by, sleep overpowered the traveller,
+and Mrs. Esquimaux laid a skin before the fire,
+offering her, for a pillow, what <i>do</i> you think? that
+self-same greasy baby!<span class="pagenum">[201]</span></p>
+
+<p>As this ceremony is an especial compliment to a
+stranger among the Esquimaux, no one can refuse it;
+and Rosy, with much compunction, laid her head down
+on the poor little thing, who took it all as cheerfully
+as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had the weary traveller closed her eyes,
+when she opened them again on the lounge in the drawing-room
+at home!</p>
+
+<p>There, looking down on her with a friendly smile,
+was the little Breton maiden in the chestnut wood.</p>
+
+<p>"Come to my party," Rosy heard her whisper; and,
+charmed with such a pretty new playmate, she stretched
+out her hands. The little French girl dropped the
+goose from under her arm, and leaned out of her gold
+frame to help Rosy, who, in two or three steps was
+safely beside her, treading down the tall heather, and
+stirring the butterflies from their haunts among the
+flowers. How green, and cool, and sweet it was, under
+the arching boughs. Far as the eye could reach, on
+every side, were leaves rustling in the fragrant air; and
+the trunks of the ancient trees were gray and hoar as
+the beards of the old Druids who once haunted them.
+Annette, for so the peasant maid was called, told Rosy
+many strange and interesting tales about this forest as<span class="pagenum">[202]</span>
+they walked on, followed by the faithful dog dragging
+his cart of vegetables so carefully that he did not need
+a word or look to guide him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ours is one of the oldest inhabited parts of France,"
+said the girl, proudly; "I can tell you stories about
+every tree and rock and hill in the country-side, and I
+will, if you like to hear them; but we must make
+haste to reach the market now, before the sun rises high
+enough to drink the dew from my vegetables. I was
+up before day to pick them, and my father has promised
+me that, if I sell all, I shall have a party in the glen.
+Only think! Not to work in the field all the afternoon&mdash;and
+to have as many chestnuts as we choose, a whole
+loaf of brown bread, and perhaps&mdash;if the step-mother
+is good humored&mdash;a slice of seed-cake!"</p>
+
+<p>Rosy thought this a very poor sort of a party; but
+she found Annette such good company that it seemed
+no hardship to trudge along the hot and dusty road
+beside her, when they emerged from the shelter of the
+wood. The two girls laughed and made merry until
+they reached the market town, and there the good dog
+came to a halt, while Annette arranged her cress and
+lettuces and beans and potatoes in tempting rows
+upon the stall&mdash;standing beside them with such a<span class="pagenum">[203]</span>
+patient smiling face, that many passers-by were induced
+to buy of her. The fat goose went home
+in the basket of a fat housekeeper, and left in his
+place a pile of silver pieces. So, Annette and Rosy
+soon turned back to trudge again the dusty high-road,
+talking of the party they were to have in the glen that
+afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>Annette's home, which the two tired little travellers
+reached at last, was a quaint cottage, the steep moss-grown
+roof looking twice the height of its walls. Over
+the door grew a twisted pear-tree, and all the ground
+around it, excepting the garden patch in a sheltered
+spot behind, was one waving mass of heather, strewn
+with gray boulders of mossy rock. Rosy gave a little
+cry of delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it is the <i>sweetest</i> place," she cried. "It is
+like a bird's nest, Annette. How happy you must be
+here."</p>
+
+<p>Annette was about to answer, when out of the door
+came a cross step-mother, who began scolding as soon
+as she saw the girls, snatched the pouch of silver money
+from Annette's side, ordered her to the right and left,
+and then, tired as the poor child was, harnessed her
+to the cart beside the dog, and made her draw a heavy<span class="pagenum">[204]</span>
+pile of linen to the brook, where she was at once set to
+work to help her step-mother in the family washing.
+Rosy, half-starved by her long fast, was glad to share
+Annette's meagre dinner of brown bread and a handful
+of boiled chestnuts, eaten under a tree by the
+brookside. Annette ventured to remind her step-mother
+of the promised party, and, for answer, received
+a smart box on the ear.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it a princess I have got to do my work, perchance?"
+said the cross old thing. "Thy father is far
+enough off in the field, not here to spoil thee, by luck;
+so do thou and that idle girl yonder set to work and
+finish washing the linen. That's party enough for
+trapesing girls, in <i>my</i> mind!"</p>
+
+<p>So Rosy, too, was forced into service, and all through
+the long afternoon she toiled with aching limbs.
+When night came, she and Annette were glad to seek
+a straw bed in a tiny roof-chamber and cry themselves
+to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," said Annette, patiently; "to-morrow,
+perhaps, she may be kinder, and after we have
+worked all the forenoon in the field, who knows but
+we may have our party yet?"</p>
+
+<p>Rosy remembered nothing more, except opening<span class="pagenum">[205]</span>
+her eyes full upon the hearth in her mother's drawing-room,
+where she was immediately addressed by one
+of the old-fashioned brass andirons.</p>
+
+<p>"I should just like to show you what a party was in
+<i>my</i> time," it said, in a cracked, high-pitched voice.
+"We, sister Peggy and I, belonged, as you know, to
+your mother's grandmother&mdash;a good old Revolutionary
+stock&mdash;and we lived in the old house up yonder in
+Salem, Massachusetts, until your mother took it into
+her fanciful head to fetch us here. I should like to
+know what we have in common with that little fiddle-faddle
+Dresden china clock and shepherdesses upon the
+mantel-piece! However, I won't talk about my grievances,
+for sister Peggy always says that it is in very
+bad taste, and sister Peggy knows. We lived in the
+room where your grandmother was born, my dear, and
+her first cap was fitted upon sister Peggy's knob&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Will she never stop to take breath," Rosy wondered.
+"I am dying to ask her a question. What's
+your name?" she suddenly called out, so abruptly as
+to make the old andiron jump, and let fall a broken
+brand upon the hearth.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me, child, how you fluttered me!" it said,
+reprovingly. "I am sister Polly, of course, as you<span class="pagenum">[206]</span>
+would have heard in due time. Sister Peggy always
+says that little girls should be seen and not heard, and
+sister Peggy knows&mdash;Where was I&mdash;Oh! when your
+grandmother grew old enough to invite her little friends
+to share her hospitality, the boys and girls would
+arrive at about three o'clock in the afternoon. The
+girls wore plain print gowns, and muslin aprons edged
+with tambour work. Instead of that insane mop of
+hair you sport, with a bow in the middle, looking for
+the world and all like your terrier, Fluff, they had
+decent mob caps. Their hands were covered with
+mittens, and each one earned a bag with a piece of
+white seam (or plain stitching), or else a sampler frame.
+How pretty it was to see them sitting down to their
+work for awhile! Then the tea-table was spread, with
+flowered china cups and plates, and shining silver,
+muffins, crumpets, sliced ham, home-made preserves
+and cream, and waffles strewn with cinnamon and
+sugar&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You make my mouth water," said Rosy.</p>
+
+<p>"All this took place by five o'clock," said sister
+Polly, "and afterward the children had a good game
+of 'blind-man's-buff,' or 'hunt-the-slipper'&mdash;and a
+handful of nuts with a big red apple, to stuff in each<span class="pagenum">[207]</span>
+of their pockets upon going home. I remember a
+very little party your mamma had once, when she was
+a child&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you? Tell me about it, please," said Rosy,
+eagerly, for nothing was ever so enchanting to those
+children as stories about their mamma in her youth.</p>
+
+<p>"She was just getting over the measles, and had been
+very much petted during her convalescence. Your
+grandmother promised her, in reward for taking a
+rather nasty dose of medicine, that she should have
+her little cousins from next door, to drink tea on a
+trunk. This was an especial treat to your mamma.
+A large flat-topped trunk served as table for the little
+girls and their dollies. On it were spread the china
+doll tea-things, and when they did not suffice in size or
+numbers, leaves from the grape-vine above the dining-room
+porch, were also heaped with goodies. Those
+children were satisfied with broken bits of peppermint
+stick, ginger-nuts, wee biscuit, lemonade for tea, and
+in the centre of the table a dish of horse-cakes."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know!" said Rosy, with much interest.
+"Mamma has often told us about horse-cakes, and
+the funny little old shop where she used to buy them
+for a cent apiece. They had currants for eyes, and the<span class="pagenum">[208]</span>
+children never knew whether to begin to eat at the
+head first or the tail&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," said sister Polly. "Well, as I was saying,
+four little girls in clean white birds'-eye pinafores
+assembled around the trunk-party, your mamma at the
+head, to pour out the lemonade tea. Each guest had
+a dolly in her lap, and your mamma had twins on
+hers. I think the difficulty began by her insisting
+that the twins should have a double share of all the
+good things, which the guests, with some warmth, disputed.
+At any rate, it is a sad tale to tell you, but a
+true one; a quarrel set in, and what should the hostess
+do, but burst into tears, declare that her company were
+mean horrid things, and then, dragging at the table-cloth,
+whisk the entire contents of the tea-table upon
+the floor!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Rosy, "did my mamma do that? I
+don't believe a word of it! You are nothing but an
+old tattle-tale, sister Polly, and I don't believe sister
+Peggy is any better!"</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had Rosy uttered these disrespectful words,
+when the enraged sister Polly and sister Peggy flew out
+upon her from the fireplace. Seizing her in their
+brassy claws, they shook the little girl fiercely, bumping<span class="pagenum">[209]</span>
+her head first on one side, then on the other, between
+their knobs.</p>
+
+<p>Rosy screamed for help, and heard in return a
+merry peal of laughter. She felt a warm shower of
+kisses on her face; and, opening her eyes, saw Clover
+and Violet, Jonquil and the baby, mamma and the
+nurses, standing in a laughing circle around her
+couch, while Fluff nearly barked his head off in the
+general excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"Rosy, you had the funniest nightmare!" said
+Violet; "see here, what a lovely bracelet was in the
+bran-pie for you, and we've all saved you some of our
+bonbons."</p>
+
+<p>"It was rather a bully Punch and Judy," remarked
+Clover, patronizingly. "That is, for the little ones,
+you know; <i>I've</i> seen such lots of 'em."</p>
+
+<p>"Punch said, 'Doody, Doody, bing up de baby,'"
+squeaked happy little Jonquil, capering about.</p>
+
+<p>Baby Honeysuckle had gone to sleep, after her first
+party.</p>
+
+<p>Rosy jumped up, and kissed everybody around
+twice.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear knows I've had enough of parties," she declared
+joyfully; but nobody knew what she meant!</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[211]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 539px;">
+<img src="images/i049.jpg" width="539" height="125" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="BLONDINA_OR_THE_TURKEY-QUEEN" id="BLONDINA_OR_THE_TURKEY-QUEEN"></a>BLONDINA;<BR>OR,<BR>THE TURKEY-QUEEN.</h2>
+
+<img src="images/drop-a.jpg" width="81" height="82" alt="A" title="A" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">A</span><b>CERTAIN</b>
+king had two daughters, one of
+them lovely and accomplished, and the other
+an ugly, cross-tempered personage, who early
+in life took to meddling with the black arts, and learned
+a great deal more of magic than she did of any thing
+else. Blondina, on the contrary&mdash;for so the pretty
+princess was named&mdash;was the joy of all her nurses, and
+governesses, and tutors, and music masters, from earliest
+infancy. Her one fault was a tendency to laugh
+aloud on the slightest provocation. At ten years old
+she could speak many languages, play on all known
+instruments, write essays and sermons, dance like a
+sylph, sing like a nightingale, and make chocolate caramel.
+Vixetta, the elder of the two sisters, before she
+had reached the same age, had made short work of <i>her</i>
+instructors, wearing out the health and spirits of a<span class="pagenum">[212]</span>
+governess in a week, and driving twenty-four tutors into
+the lunatic asylum, while her head-nurse was speedily
+reduced to skin and bone, and took a permanent
+situation as the living
+skeleton in a dime-museum.
+
+<img src="images/i050.jpg" width="267" height="387" alt="Vixetta" title="" class="split">
+
+<p class="caption split">Vixetta</p>
+
+<p>The poor king
+remonstrated in vain
+with his headstrong elder
+daughter. Ordinary
+scolding had not the
+slightest effect upon her;
+black marks and crosses
+against her name in the
+report-book only made
+her laugh scornfully; and
+any attempt at bodily
+punishment ended in the
+Princess Vixetta throwing
+herself flat upon the
+ground, turning purple in
+the face, and foaming at the mouth with rage in a way
+to daunt the stoutest spirit. So, for this reason, the
+unfortunate girl was allowed to follow her own fancies,
+stealing off at dusk nobody knew whither, although it<span class="pagenum">[213]</span>
+was suspected that her favorite haunts were the black
+depths of a pine forest near the palace&mdash;where the country
+folk never cared to ramble, even in broad daylight&mdash;or
+a certain ruined tower, filled with bats and owls and
+serpents. One night a peasant, who approached this
+tower in search of a lost cow, saw green lights dancing
+madly around the broken walls, heard wild shrieks
+of laughter issue from within, and, on venturing to
+insert his inquisitive nose into a chink, had it tweaked
+by two red-hot fingers; immediately afterward, he
+averred, he had seen the Princess Vixetta, in true
+witch-dress, shoot by him on a broom-stick, leaving a
+trail of brimstone in her wake. On reaching home he
+found his sheep dead, his best cows gone dry, and his
+children ill of a fever. Such tales as these, of which
+there were many current in the country-side, came from
+time to time to the king's ears, and not being able to
+gainsay them, <i>because of information he had got on his
+own private account</i>, the unfortunate parent resigned
+himself to sink slowly to the tomb. In fact he courted
+death rather than shunned it. Whenever he took cold,
+he would sit all night long, in wet shoes, in the draft
+of two open windows; and if that did not make him
+worse, would send away the doctors, refuse medicine,<span class="pagenum">[214]</span>
+and try to beat his brains out on the marble floor of
+the palace bedroom. At last, one day, he choked, on
+too large a mouthful of beefsteak, and when the physicians
+endeavored to relieve him, waved them away,
+and cheerfully expired!</p>
+
+<img src="images/i051.jpg" width="381" height="374" alt="Blondina." title="" class="split">
+
+<p class="caption split">Blondina.</p>
+
+<p>The Princess Blondina was immediately proclaimed
+queen in her father's stead. Nothing was heard but
+praises of the charming new sovereign, who, after the<span class="pagenum">[215]</span>
+period of mourning had passed away, ascended the
+throne with much pomp and ceremony. All of this
+was gall and worm-wood to the envious Vixetta, who,
+but for the kindness of her sister, would have been
+sent, by a vote of all the people, into exile in a
+distant land. Blondina announced that the Princess
+Vixetta should remain in her palace, and be offered an
+opportunity to reform her bad ways. Vixetta, thereupon,
+pretending to weep, promised to do better, and
+to give up associating with her evil favorites, the
+witches, warlocks, and magicians; but, in secret, her
+time was spent in conjuring a method to get rid of her
+beautiful sister, and to mount the throne in her stead.</p>
+
+<p>One warm summer day, Queen Blondina had just
+come in from rowing in her silver barge along the
+windings of the little river which watered the palace
+grounds. She rested for a while in the garden upon a
+bank of roses, myrtles, jasmine, and lilies-of-the-valley,
+while allowing her maids-of-honor to fan her with huge
+fans of white ostrich plumes, and listening to the drip
+of fountains of orange-flower water, and eau-de-cologne.
+Suddenly, she espied a poor old tattered crone, carrying
+a basket of luscious fruit, such as none of the
+queen's own gardens or green-houses could produce.<span class="pagenum">[216]</span>
+Pomegranates there were, dropping sweetest juices
+when cleft in twain, purple figs that melted upon the
+tongue, rosy nectarines, crimson plums frosted with
+silvery dew, and bunches of grapes glowing like jewels
+where the sunbeams touched their clusters. Queen
+Blondina sat up, and exclaimed with delight, "Oh! Goody, pray set your basket down. My servants
+will pay you handsomely for your lovely fruit."</p>
+
+<p>"Willingly, your Majesty," said the old woman.
+"You are welcome to the contents of my basket, if
+you will but leave me the single hazel-nut at the very
+bottom of it."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/i048.jpg" width="600" height="386" alt="Queen Blondina Resting in her Garden." title="">
+<p class="caption">Queen Blondina Resting in her Garden.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The queen consented, with a laugh at the absurdity
+of her wanting that one insignificant little hazel-nut,
+when such a delightful treat was at her service. Her
+servants unpacked the basket, and there, sure enough,
+at the bottom, was a tiny brown nut.</p>
+
+<p>"Queer, that she should desire to keep back that one
+little nut," thought the queen. "I wonder why? Can
+it be so very delicious to the taste, or what? I wish I
+could see its inside."</p>
+
+<p>And so she went on, wondering, and exciting her
+own imagination, till, pretty soon, Blondina would
+have given all the rest of the basketful for the possession<span class="pagenum">[217]</span>
+of that single mysterious nut! She began by offering
+one gold piece, then another, till a glittering pile
+lay at the crone's feet, but still the old woman held
+out against parting with her treasure.</p>
+
+<p>At last, Blondina burst into tears, when the crone
+appeared to be melted by her sorrow, and, advancing,
+whispered in her ear.</p>
+
+<p>"If I give you this nut," she said, "it shall be on
+one condition, only, your Majesty; and that is, that
+you crack it in the presence of your prime minister
+alone, in some remote corner of your palace."</p>
+
+<p>Blondina gladly consented, and sending away her
+attendants, took possession of the nut, and summoned
+her prime minister to her side. This functionary was
+a very stern and important officer of State, who had
+been foremost in the movement to banish the Princess
+Vixetta from the court. He arrived all breathless, at
+the queen's behest, and in the meantime the old crone
+had disappeared as mysteriously as she came. Blondina
+ordered the prime minister to follow her to a
+secluded summer-house, where, eagerly cracking the
+nut with her royal high-heeled shoe, she found inside
+only a few pinches of white powder, and a scroll containing
+some fine writing in an unknown tongue.<span class="pagenum">[218]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Thanks to my love of study, your Majesty," modestly
+suggested the prime minister, "I have mastered
+the only language you have left unacquired, which happens
+to be Arabic. On this bit of paper, I can decipher
+certain instructions to the finder."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me them, quickly, my dear lord," said the enchanted
+princess, "and I will apply myself to the study
+of Arabic to-morrow. So much for a neglected education,"
+she added, with a sigh that she had left anything
+so important undone; for, as I have said before,
+this princess had a passion for acquiring languages.</p>
+
+<p>"If the finder of this treasure desires to acquaint
+himself with the language of the animal world, and to
+take the form of any other living thing, he has only to
+snuff up a pinch of the enclosed powder, bow to the
+earth three times, and cry the name of the creature he
+desires to become, followed by these exact words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Kurri-kuree,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Changed would I be.'<br></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"At once he will assume the likeness of the thing
+named, and will understand all he hears going on
+around him, remaining in that shape as long as he
+may choose. Whenever he wishes to resume his own<span class="pagenum">[219]</span>
+natural form, he has only to bow himself again three
+times to the earth, and repeat the formula already
+given. But let him, during the period of transformation,
+especially beware of laughing aloud&mdash;or he will
+inevitably forget the formula, and run the risk of remaining
+as he has chosen to be."</p>
+
+<p>"This is the most delightful thing I ever had happen
+to me," said the merry young queen, clapping her
+hands. "Come, my lord, I am dying to try the experiment.
+Suppose we become two turkeys, and
+wander into the barn-yard. Nothing could please me
+more than a little adventure of that kind. Besides,
+you forget I have never studied Turkish, and this will
+be an excellent opportunity."</p>
+
+<p>The prime minister, who was a man of sober years,
+beyond the taste for such mad-cap frolics, remonstrated
+in vain with his wilful mistress. Blondina would have
+her way; and, in a short time, behold both queen and
+minister indulging in a solemn pinch of white snuff,
+and pronouncing distinctly the magic formula, while
+inclining themselves humbly to the earth!</p>
+
+<p>At once, Blondina's gown of silken tissue was exchanged
+for a suit of neat brown mottled feathers, while
+the prime minister became just such a huge and unwieldy<span class="pagenum">[220]</span>
+gobbler as would take first prize in a Christmas
+poultry show!</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! what splendid fun!" the queen began, dying
+to laugh at her companion. But reflecting upon the
+possible consequences of this indiscretion, she became
+grave and silent, while the humiliated prime minister
+waddled after her into the barn-yard, whither his perverse
+little sovereign now took her way, leaving the
+hazel-nut securely hidden in a corner of the summer-house.</p>
+
+<p>In the multitude of feathered folk assembled in the
+enclosure, our two turkeys passed almost unnoticed at
+first. They were surprised to find very much the
+same sort of talk going on among their new friends,
+as among those they had left. The same struggle for
+prizes and for place, the same greedy rapacity, the
+same love of gossip and display. Two new peacocks
+had that day been added to the collection, and were
+strutting up and down like fashionable loungers, discussing
+all the affairs of the nation and the conduct of
+the rulers; and, in listening to their discourse, the queen
+found herself much enlightened about many of her
+subjects, and their doings.</p>
+
+<p>"As to her Majesty, Queen Blondina," said one of<span class="pagenum">[221]</span>
+the peacocks, sending his tail up in a magnificent fan
+when he saw the admiring gaze of two young guinea
+hens bent upon him, "I have reason to believe that this
+unfortunate young woman is doomed soon to fall a
+victim to the wiles of that powerful enchantress, her
+sister, who, as is well known to all of us, has just become
+the sovereign of the underground fraternity of
+magicians, against whose spells all other witches and
+warlocks can do nothing."</p>
+
+<p>Blondina strained her ears to catch the answer; but
+the two talkers had passed on, and she heard a sharp
+voice say close beside her, "Come now, no struggling, if you please, Mr. Mole.
+I have not tasted so much as a mouse to-day, and you
+have crossed my path in the nick of time."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Miss Tame Owl," pleaded the little velvet-coated
+victim, held tight in the claws of a spinster-owl, domesticated
+in the barn-yard by Blondina's special
+orders, "I must entreat you to let me off this time;
+I was hurrying to my daughter's wedding, and mistook
+the way, straying into this dreadful place by the
+most unfortunate mischance. Consider the feelings
+of my family, who are all assembled and expecting
+me."<span class="pagenum">[222]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Come now, no nonsense," said the cross old thing.
+"My mouth is fairly watering for you."</p>
+
+<p>She was about to cut short the victim's observations
+in the most abrupt manner by taking him bodily into
+her crop, when Blondina interposed, and flying at the
+owl, boxed her ears soundly. At this, the venerable
+lady was so unpleasantly taken by surprise, that she
+opened her mouth to gasp, and out fell the mole, who
+instantly scuttled away, but not without bestowing
+upon his turkey benefactress the most ardent thanks.
+After this little incident, Blondina's attention was distracted
+by a variety of curious studies in fowl-life, and
+she forgot all about her companion, the prime minister,
+until, chancing to look around, she beheld him the
+centre of an admiring throng of ducks, geese, and
+chickens, whose numbers were constantly increasing.
+"How grand he is!" "How big!" "How noble!"
+echoed on every side; and the prime minister, who
+was very vain, drooped his wings, set up his tail, and
+puffed himself into a magnificent fluffy ball. "Never
+have we beheld a turkey of so majestic a bearing!"
+cried a gushing goose-widow, and a pair of young lady
+ducklings rolled up their eyes in rapture and nodded
+assent. The prime minister was in his glory.<span class="pagenum">[223]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am indeed the champion," he said, swelling
+into a balloon of feathers. Just then, Queen Blondina's
+own pet kitten, Floss, wandered across the yard,
+and having no especial occupation in view, charged at
+full scamper upon the prime minister, who, alas! for
+his boasted dignity, subsided ingloriously, and, shutting
+himself up tight, fairly turned tail and ran away,
+looking so excessively crest-fallen and foolish that
+Blondina could not resist bursting into a long and
+merry peal of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you done, your Majesty?" cried the
+alarmed prime minister, now remembering himself, as
+together they took refuge in a neighboring field. "Is
+it possible you can have forgotten; and, for my part, I
+saw nothing to laugh about. I never imagined a more
+dreadful beast than that unmannerly little pet of yours
+which attacked me."</p>
+
+<p>The queen broke out afresh into laughter, and
+laughed until she cried. Then, seeing the discomfiture
+of the prime minister, she decided that she had for
+to-day had enough of the animal world, and would indulge
+no more in such amusements until to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg ten thousand pardons, my dear lord," she
+said, shaking with suppressed laughter. "But if you<span class="pagenum">[224]</span>
+could only have seen yourself! Ha, ha! However,
+we have nothing now to do but bow three times, thus"&mdash;suiting
+the action to the word, "and say&mdash;Kik-kuk-kik!
+Dear me, what is it we must say? I can't
+for the life of me remember it."</p>
+
+<p>The prime minister was as much at a loss.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps your Majesty has forgotten <i>the price you
+were to pay for a laugh</i>," he observed, bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>Blondina looked at him in blank horror. Too truly
+had she forgotten the formula, and turkeys they must
+remain!</p>
+
+<p>And now, how sad their plight! In the midst of
+their other tribulations, hunger assailed them, and
+they could not eat the food provided for the rest. So
+they wandered into the fields and forest, picking at
+berries here and there; though, when evening came,
+footsore and weary, they determined to go back into the
+palace barn-yard, and see what was taking place there.</p>
+
+<p>They found all the animals and fowls excited over
+the events of the day, and soon heard the news that
+Queen Blondina had died suddenly that morning,
+leaving a will appointing her sister to reign in her
+stead.</p>
+
+<p>Next day a funeral took place, when the coffin was<span class="pagenum">[225]</span>
+filled by a lovely waxen image of the late queen, and
+was placed in the vault beside her father. The false
+Vixetta, dressed in mourning, had followed weeping
+after it.</p>
+
+<p>Blondina and the prime minister now saw that they
+were indeed under the spell of a powerful enchantress,
+and resolved to travel to the dwelling of a certain
+wise woman in search of advice.</p>
+
+<p>After a long journey, the two turkeys reached the
+hut of the wise woman, and told her their pitiful
+tale.</p>
+
+<p>"Unfortunately, I have no power against Queen
+Vixetta since she has become the sovereign of the underground
+band," said the wise woman. "But, if you
+could gain an entrance to one of their Friday councils,
+you might pick up something to your advantage there."
+And then, as wise women speak but once in twenty-four
+hours, she shut the door in their faces, and left them
+to their fate.</p>
+
+<p>Blondina and the prime minister repaired to the
+ruined tower whither Vixetta was wont to go on Fridays;
+and there, hiding behind a wall, they saw the wicked
+sorceress arrive and, lifting a trap-door in the cellar,
+disappear from sight. While they remained above,<span class="pagenum">[226]</span>
+lamenting their hard fate, Blondina saw a tiny black
+object emerge from the ground at her feet, then another
+and another, till a troop of them were assembled.
+These were moles, and their leader, addressing the
+queen, informed her that he it was she had saved from
+the crop of the owl.</p>
+
+<p>"We have heard of your distressing predicament,
+your Majesty," the mole added, with deep respect;
+"and hasten to offer our services to conduct you to the
+council chamber of the underground band."</p>
+
+<p>Blondina thanked the mole fervently, and found,
+upon following him, that with his companions he had
+burrowed a long and beautifully smooth tunnel. Glow-worms
+were ranged along the sides to light the way,
+and every thing was arranged for her comfort. After a
+considerable time had elapsed, the travellers reached a
+gallery leading directly into a vaulted chamber where
+the witches and warlocks sat, each upon a cushion
+formed of a huge and swollen toad. In their midst,
+upon a throne made of serpents intertwined, sat the
+Queen Vixetta, around whose brow flickered a wreath
+of blue flames. Ah! she was a terrible witch to look
+upon. Blondina shuddered to remember the kisses
+she had often innocently pressed upon that skinny<span class="pagenum">[227]</span>
+forehead and those lips of
+lurid red. Vixetta was in
+high spirits; she and her
+familiars hatched mischief
+together, and gloated over
+their evil doings in fiendish
+glee. Then Vixetta listened
+to the reports of each of the
+wicked creatures in turn;
+and, to Blondina's astonishment,
+in the narrators of
+these tales of witchcraft she
+recognized more than one
+of the most respected of
+her own subjects. Some of
+them were crones ancient
+and palsied, others were
+young and blooming girls
+Vixetta had led astray;
+among the warlocks were
+the gray-haired miller, the
+good sexton, and a courtier
+in whom the queen had
+placed peculiar confidence. All were attended by<span class="pagenum">[228]</span>
+black deformed creatures, half cat, half human being.
+In the centre of the circle was a fire, and before it they
+set up the very waxen image of the queen which had
+been buried in her stead. Into this little imps were
+ordered to thrust sharp blades and needles in the region
+of the heart, while Vixetta pronounced a spell, at
+which all the others laughed rejoicingly.</p>
+
+<img src="images/i052.jpg" width="242" height="611" alt="" title="" class="splitr">
+
+<p>"I'll warrant my lady Blondina will be cured of her
+love of laughing, after this&mdash;as well as of her curiosity.
+Long may she wander in her present shape," said the
+sorceress. "It was a merry trick I played her and
+that audacious old prime minister, who sought to do
+me harm."</p>
+
+<p>"And what, pray, was the rhyme your Majesty bid
+them recall?" asked the courtier warlock, grinning maliciously.</p>
+
+<p>"A simple one," replied the sorceress, "and you will
+remember it was once a password in our band,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Kurri-kuree,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Changed would I be.'"<br></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Blondina almost betrayed herself in her delight. She
+repeated the words again and again, in mind, keeping
+profoundly silent until the witch-revels were at an end;<span class="pagenum">[229]</span>
+and at cock-crow the unholy gang broke up, vanishing
+like smoke through a trap-door in the ceiling of the vault.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, dear little mole, take us back again,"
+said the turkey-queen, who longed to breathe the free
+air of heaven and to break her awful spell.</p>
+
+<p>"May it please your Majesty," said the mole, looking
+very unhappy, "there is a new difficulty. Yonder
+image of you which they consumed in the fire, is a
+fresh enchantment that dooms you to remain perpetually
+in the place where you now are; and I find by
+consultation with a friend of mine, a bat who lives in
+this cave, and who is the most kind and obliging person,
+that on only one condition can you now leave
+this spot, and that, I hardly dare name to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Summon this bat to appear before me immediately,"
+cried the wretched queen, who, finding that
+her feet were stuck fast to the earth, was truly overwhelmed,
+while the prime minister gave himself up to
+complete despair.</p>
+
+<p>The bat appeared, and a more repulsive huge creature
+it is impossible to picture; but his voice was gentle
+and his manner most humble and conciliatory. He
+began to apologize for presenting himself before the
+queen, when she interrupted him impetuously.<span class="pagenum">[230]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Quick&mdash;quick! tell me the condition on which I
+may leave this horrible place, where I shall die if I remain
+a moment longer. Who are you? why are you
+here? and why should we trust in you when every
+living thing in this foul spot is devoted to the service
+of the evil one?"</p>
+
+<p>"I, like yourself, am a victim of, not a partner in,
+crime, your Majesty," said the bat, with dignity. "If
+you will permit&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But I can't stop to listen to anything," sobbed the
+poor little turkey-queen. "Get me into the daylight
+somehow or other, and then I will hear you gladly.
+Oh! kind Mr. Bat, forgive my unkind words; only free
+me from this living tomb, if it be possible."</p>
+
+<p>"You have been told that it is possible, lady," said
+the bat, pathetically; "but, to be brief, since you insist
+upon it&mdash;only by promising your fair hand in marriage
+to&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"To whom?" cried Blondina, in astonishment</p>
+
+<p>"To me," said the bat, withdrawing more into the
+shadows of the vault.</p>
+
+<p>Blondina screamed with horror.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! never, never," she exclaimed, bursting again
+into tears of anguish.<span class="pagenum">[231]</span></p>
+
+<p>The mole, the bat and the turkey prime minister
+consulted together in low whispers; and the last-named
+gentleman, addressing the queen, set before her the
+hopeless situation in which she now was, and urged her
+to accept the proposition of the bat.</p>
+
+<p>"Hear me, too, fair queen," said the voice of the
+bat. "I swear that if you consent, you shall never regret
+it. Only trust me, and all will go well. In consigning
+me to this spot, your wicked sister, who, in
+my former estate desired to marry me herself, in spite
+of my aversion for her, swore that never should I be
+free from her enchantment, until a beautiful young
+bride should come to the rescue and promise to marry
+me, as I am, without asking any questions. Then, and
+then only, I might escape, taking my bride and her
+attendants with me."</p>
+
+<p>"But your appearance&mdash;pardon me," said poor
+Blondina; "it is too dreadful for anything."</p>
+
+<p>"Trust me," repeated the bat; and, in desperation,
+Blondina murmured a promise to be his bride.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly the bat flew with alacrity into a corner
+of the vault, and, bringing thence a bunch of mistletoe,
+angelica, and mountain-ash, waved it thrice in a
+circle around Blondina, who up to that moment had<span class="pagenum">[232]</span>
+remained as if rooted to the spot where she stood.
+The spell broke, and Blondina, starting joyfully forward,
+repeated, at his request, the same ceremony of
+disenchantment for the bat, as also for the prime minister;
+and all three of them, accompanied by the faithful
+mole, took their way to the upper regions without
+delay. Upon reaching the meadow where they had
+entered the underground passage, Blondina and the
+prime minister lost no time in running back to the
+summer-house, where, regaining the hidden hazel nut,
+they safely and joyfully resumed their own true shapes.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, gentle lady," said the bat, who had flown
+after them, keeping his distance modestly, "I pray
+you to perform for me another kindly action. Close
+your eyes, and sprinkle me with this powder, at the
+same time touching my head with the witch-defying
+plants. Then, kindle a fire with these fagots of wood
+left here by your gardener, and cast me into the hottest
+portion of it."</p>
+
+<p>Blondina shrank from the task, but, finding the bat
+as determined as he was calm and dignified, obeyed him
+without another word of protest. Aided by the now
+alert and cheerful prime minister, she kindled a fire
+upon the hearth of the little summer-house; and when<span class="pagenum">[233]</span>
+it blazed high, and hot coals fell into the centre, she
+followed the bat's directions to the letter. Immediately
+there was a loud explosion; the hideous bat skin
+split asunder and shrivelled up, revealing a beautiful
+young prince, who stepped unsinged from the ring of
+flame, and bent his knee before the Queen Blondina.
+She recognized in him a playmate of her childhood,
+Prince Florizel, son of a neighboring monarch, who
+years before had disappeared from his father's court,
+and had been mourned as dead by his sorrowing relatives.
+To enchant him, in punishment for his scorn
+of her, had been one of the first acts of Vixetta's acquired
+magic; and to accomplish it, the wretched girl
+had bargained away her entire life to the service of
+the Evil One.</p>
+
+<p>Blondina greeted Florizel with the utmost pleasure
+and assured him of her willingness to fulfil the pledge
+she had made to the dreaded bat-lover. They returned
+to the palace, and on being observed by the
+attendants, who, believing them to be ghosts, ran terrified
+away, had some difficulty in persuading people
+that they were alive and in the flesh. Then, what joy
+reigned over the palace. Quickly the news spread
+through the city and kingdom. The indignant people<span class="pagenum">[234]</span>
+flocked around the apartments of Vixetta, who was
+still asleep after her orgies of the previous night, and,
+summoning her to come forth, declared that she should
+instantly be put to death in the presence of her victims.
+The miserable sorceress fell upon her knees, and
+begged for her life. Again the generous Blondina
+entreated that her sister might be spared; but Prince
+Florizel interfered, and insisted that, for the future
+safety of his queen, Vixetta should then and there be
+compelled to take a pinch of the magic powder and
+change herself into a bat. This was done, and the
+sorceress, flying from the window, was never heard of
+more.</p>
+
+<p>Blondina gave her hand and heart to Prince Florizel,
+as soon as he returned from a visit to his parents, who
+were overjoyed to regain their long-lost son and heir.
+The marriage took place with great magnificence, and
+the royal couple lived in peace for the remainder of
+their long and useful lives. They would often walk
+in the direction of the poultry-yard, and Blondina loved
+to tell her husband of all the things she had heard and
+seen there when in her turkey shape.</p>
+
+<p>But the prime minister, after he had weeded out
+of the kingdom certain obnoxious individuals strongly<span class="pagenum">[235]</span>
+resembling the warlocks seen at the underground
+council, preferred to assume a dignified forgetfulness
+of all that had passed during his enforced experience
+as a feathered biped. To the latest day of his life
+he would always cross the road to avoid meeting a
+turkey-gobbler, and for the race of pet kittens he continued
+to maintain the most unconquerable dislike.</p>
+
+<p>By the laws of the kingdom, to kill or injure a mole
+was made a capital offence; and once every year a little
+blind gentleman in a fine black velvet coat arrived at
+the palace to pay his respects to their majesties, who
+received him with every mark of favor and affection.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 197px;">
+<img src="images/i053.jpg" width="197" height="254" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[237]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 529px;">
+<img src="images/i055.jpg" width="529" height="117" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="TIMID_AGNES" id="TIMID_AGNES"></a>TIMID AGNES.</h2>
+
+<img src="images/drop-o.jpg" width="74" height="74" alt="O" title="O" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">O</span><b>NCE</b>
+there lived a poor girl whose wicked aunt
+treated her very cruelly. One morning, the
+aunt set out for a day of shopping and visiting
+to the neighboring town, after whipping her niece
+soundly (as she was in the habit of doing for exercise,
+every morning), and shutting up the poor girl in the
+garret, where a barrel of white sand had been spilt
+upon the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Pick up every grain of this sand before bedtime,
+or I will imprison you in the dark closet for a week,"
+said the aunt as she went away.</p>
+
+<p>The poor child cried so that she could not see the
+tiny particles; and as she sat, crying and picking up
+what she could feel, she heard a little scratching under
+the lid of the old wedding-chest in the corner. Presently,
+a pretty blue mouse with topaz eyes ran down
+the side of the chest, and came up to her. Now, if<span class="pagenum">[238]</span>
+there was anything poor Agnes feared more than
+death, it was a mouse. The very sight of one had
+always made her shudder and scream and clutch at her
+petticoats, and climb up on chairs or tables or anything
+convenient.</p>
+
+<p>So when she saw her visitor she gave a cry of terror,
+and climbed nimbly up to the top of a broken chest
+of drawers in the corner of the garret.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't mind me," said the mouse, politely.</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>beg</i> your pardon, but I'm so awfully afraid of
+you," said Agnes, shuddering to her toes. "I think I
+could endure you if it were not for your horrid tail!
+But you really make me creep all over, don't you
+see?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you would only take that apron off your head,
+and exercise a little self-control," said the mouse, with
+a shade of impatience in its manner, "you would soon
+see that I am a very superior kind of a mouse. Come,
+Miss Agnes, I have watched you very often at your
+work here, and I have a great desire to be of service
+to you. But there is really no talking reason to a person
+hunched up on top of a chest of drawers with a
+pink apron over her head; is there, now?"</p>
+
+<p>Agnes, hearing the mouse talk so pleasantly, made
+a desperate effort to come down from her perch and
+converse with the little creature.</p>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[239]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 379px;">
+<img src="images/i056.jpg" width="379" height="544" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>After a while the
+blue mouse's eloquence proved sufficient to induce her<span class="pagenum">[240]</span>
+to follow it near a crack in the wall, and to peep between
+the boards, as directed.</p>
+
+<p>There she saw a secret room, full of beautiful things&mdash;clothes
+and jewels&mdash;scattered on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"All these shall be yours, fair Agnes," said the
+mouse, "if you will carry me in your pocket for a
+day."</p>
+
+<p>Agnes trembled with horror so that she could hardly
+bring herself to say, "Thank you kindly, good Mr. Blue Mouse, but I
+hardly need anything new in the way of clothes, going
+out as little as I do. O&mdash;o&mdash;oh!" she exclaimed,
+catching her breath, as the mouse seemed to scuttle
+toward her.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not fear! I am entirely too proud to obtrude
+my company where it is so little desired. Farewell,
+Miss Agnes; I leave you. But before I go, allow
+me to arrange this little difficulty for you."</p>
+
+<p>The gallant little mouse whisked his tail (that hateful
+tail!), twice over the pile of sand, and at once,
+every grain of the shining heap, and all that lay scattered
+over the garret floor, flew back into the barrel.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, kind Mr. Blue Mouse," cried the grateful
+Agnes; but no answer came. Her benefactor was<span class="pagenum">[241]</span>
+nowhere to be seen. She looked in vain for the crack
+in the wall he had led her to; it was no longer in view.</p>
+
+<p>When the wicked aunt found that Agnes had completed
+her task, she flew into a violent rage, and determined
+to rid herself forever of the girl. So, taking
+her again into the garret, she bound her hand-and-foot,
+tied a handkerchief across her mouth to still her
+cries, and, opening the old wedding-chest in the corner,
+thrust poor Agnes bodily into it, closing the lid with a
+vicious bang, and locking it with the great iron key.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 519px;">
+<img src="images/i054.jpg" width="519" height="619" alt="Shutting Agnes into the Chest." title="">
+<p class="caption">Shutting Agnes into the Chest.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Lie there till doomsday, you tiresome thing!"
+said the wicked aunt, going down-stairs to eat her supper.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Agnes thought she must soon die of suffocation,
+but just then she heard a scratching noise; four
+little feet scuttled over her face, and a long smooth
+tail whisked by her ear.</p>
+
+<p>"Ugh!" groaned poor Agnes. "It's a mouse shut
+up here with me! Oh! why didn't she kill me, outright?"</p>
+
+<p>Then little teeth began gnawing at her bandages
+and at the ropes that bound her, and in a few moments
+she was free.</p>
+
+<p>"I am here, Miss Agnes; though, indeed, I won't<span class="pagenum">[242]</span>
+touch you again!" said the familiar voice of the Blue
+Mouse. "But if you would only trust me, and carry
+me in your pocket, how much I could do for you!"</p>
+
+<p>At last Agnes consented to grant his wish and,
+trembling in every limb, she let the mouse run into
+her pocket. Without a moment's delay, the bottom
+of the chest gave way, and Agnes felt herself sinking,
+sinking. When she recovered her wits, which in that
+moment of terror seemed fairly to forsake her, there
+she was in a beautiful garden, filled with ladies and
+gentlemen walking two and two in a grand procession
+along a bowery path strewn with roses and carnations.
+Fountains played in the sunshine, birds sang on the
+boughs. It was a scene so gay and beautiful, that
+Agnes clapped her hands for joy.</p>
+
+<p>"How happy I am here!" she cried.</p>
+
+<p>"And happy you shall always be here," said a voice
+behind her.</p>
+
+<p>Agnes, turning, saw a young gentleman dressed in
+a blue court costume with topaz buttons, and wearing
+in his cap a long smooth plume of blue, caught by a
+brilliant brooch of the same gems.</p>
+
+<p>He explained to her that he was none other than the
+mouse she had so much feared. Condemned from<span class="pagenum">[243]</span>
+childhood to remain a mouse until some fair maiden
+should, of her own free will, allow him to run into her
+pocket, the unfortunate prince had only now been released
+from his long imprisonment. This garden belonged
+to his own palace, and the ladies and gentlemen
+coming to meet him were his friends and courtiers.</p>
+
+<p>Agnes, shedding tears of penitence over the blindness
+of her former prejudice, bestowed her hand upon
+the prince, and was happy evermore.</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[244]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 529px;">
+<img src="images/i057.jpg" width="529" height="157" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_OGRESS_AND_THE_COOK" id="THE_OGRESS_AND_THE_COOK"></a>THE OGRESS AND THE COOK.</h2>
+
+<img src="images/drop-o.jpg" width="74" height="74" alt="O" title="O" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">O</span><b>NE</b>
+summer afternoon, a young girl sat upon
+the door-stone of her cottage home, awaiting
+the return of her father from the mill. Her
+day's work was neatly done, and the tiny house, both
+within and without, was as tidy as hands could make
+it; hollyhocks and sweet-peas grew beneath the windows;
+the plates on the cupboard shelf glittered; and
+a little fire sparkled upon the hearth, where a pot of
+savory broth was bubbling cheerfully. On the table
+was set a brown loaf, light as a feather and sweet as a
+nut, with a bunch of grapes from the trellis above the
+door, and a pewter mug ready to be filled with frothing
+ale at the moment when the good man should sit
+down. Dimple, whose fingers rarely rested, plied her
+knitting-needles as she watched the bridge upon the
+road where the first glimpse of her father might be<span class="pagenum">[245]</span>
+caught. By-and-by, up came an old crone, dusty and
+way-worn.</p>
+
+<p>"Pray, my kind little maiden, give me a bit of food,
+and a sup of drink, for sweet charity's sake," begged
+the wayfarer, who looked as if she were ready to drop
+from fatigue.</p>
+
+<p>"Willingly, dame," said pretty little Dimple; and
+bidding the crone be seated, she ladled out for her a
+generous portion of the fragrant broth.</p>
+
+<p>The crone's eyes sparkled; and, seizing a great horn
+spoon, she despatched the broth in two or three mouthfuls,
+then asked for more. Dimple supplied her; and
+in a little while, all the broth in the iron pot had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," sighed Dimple to herself. "The
+good father will have to put up with a rasher of bacon
+and some eggs, to-night."</p>
+
+<p>As if reading her thoughts, the crone, displaying a
+pair of jaws opening as wide as a cavern and garnished
+with ferocious teeth, said:</p>
+
+<p>"I am just beginning to feel a little refreshed. If
+there were only such a thing as a couple of fat slices
+of home-cured bacon, and a brace of new-laid eggs to
+help a poor old creature on her way."<span class="pagenum">[246]</span></p>
+
+<p>Dimple ran to fetch the eggs, over the laying of
+which her fowls had scarcely ceased to cackle in the
+barn. Quickly and cheerfully, she prepared a delicious
+dish, which the crone despatched as before. The loaf
+of bread followed the bacon, and a gallon of ale followed
+the bread. All of the grapes, plucked and arranged
+in a basket for market next morning, were
+consumed; and, when Dimple had just begun to tremble
+with apprehension lest her voracious visitor should
+devour <i>her</i> in conclusion, the crone pushed back her
+chair, jumped up with surprising agility and, running
+to the door, blew a shrill whistle.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly, there came flying through the air a pair
+of huge vampires harnessed to a blood-red chariot.
+They halted at the cottage gate; and, before Dimple
+had time to cry out in her terror, the crone whisked
+her into the chariot, held her in place with a grasp of
+iron, and ordered the foul creatures to be off. Dimple
+fainted away and, when she came to herself, found
+that they were high above the earth, travelling with
+frightful speed through a thunder cloud. In vain she
+cried for mercy, and entreated to be restored to her
+father's house.</p>
+
+<p>"Be silent, brat," said the furious crone, who was,<span class="pagenum">[247]</span>
+in reality, an ogress. "Know that I have for a long
+time been in search of just such a trig little cook-maid
+as you are. Ever since my husband ate up the two
+last, I have had the greatest trouble to induce my servants
+to stay with me. Besides, we are particular
+about our table, and rather hard to suit. I dare say,
+now, you understand cooking a nice plump baby's
+thigh to perfection, and how to prepare a dish of rosy
+cheeks smothered in cream, hey? But it isn't every
+day we are in such luck as to get fare like that. Many's
+the time I've had to palm off lamb chops for baby
+cutlets, and to swear that the pig's tails I served up
+were boy's fingers. Now, stop that ridiculous shuddering
+and crying, and listen to reason. If you promise
+to serve me faithfully for seven years, I'll engage to
+keep you out of his way, and to send you home with
+a fortune in your pocket."</p>
+
+<p>Dimple's fright and horror had by this time completely
+taken away her power of speech. She sank
+upon the floor of the chariot in silent despair; and when
+they reached the ogre's castle, situated on a frowning
+peak of rocks, where not the most daring human foot
+could climb, she allowed herself without resistance
+to be lifted out, and thrust into a dark cavernous<span class="pagenum">[248]</span>
+kitchen. There she was ordered to prepare a large
+pie, made of rats and bats, for the ogre's supper.
+While poor Dimple was thus engaged, a monstrous
+giant came home, and angrily asked for food. The
+ogress greeted him
+affectionately, and
+nine young ogresses
+ran to meet him and
+would have jumped
+upon his knees, but
+that he pushed them
+away and fell to
+scolding everybody,
+every syllable of his
+speech sounding
+like the loudest
+thunder-peal. Dimple
+finished her
+hateful task, and
+such was her skill in cooking that the pastry on coming
+out of the oven looked and smelt delicious. The giant
+ceased to frown as he devoured it, and smiled when he
+laid down his knife and fork.</p>
+
+<img src="images/i058.jpg" width="316" height="327" alt="Dimple makes rat pie." title="" class="split">
+
+<p class="caption split">Dimple makes rat pie.</p>
+
+<p>"Come here, lasses, and I'll kiss you all," he said,<span class="pagenum">[249]</span>
+with rare amiability&mdash;actually bestowing on his wife's
+shoulder a pat of approval that would have felled
+Jumbo to the earth.</p>
+
+<p>The young ogresses were tall and spindling creatures,
+as slim as young giraffes. They had pasty complexions,
+pink eyes, and long glistening white teeth.
+Dimple's business was, after she had set her kitchen in
+order, to go up into the nursery and put these frights
+to bed, each requiring to be rocked to sleep in a cradle
+nine feet long, and all howling like an army of
+pinched cats until slumber overtook them. Late at
+night, when all was quiet, poor Dimple would creep up
+to bed in a little turret room, where the wind moaned
+around the windows and owls hooted in the ivy so
+that sleep was impossible. She lay on her wretched
+bed and cried all night; and when day broke, she
+would scramble into her clothes again, and steal down
+stairs to her work in trembling, for she never knew at
+what moment the ogre might be prowling around in
+his stocking feet, and pounce upon her for a tid-bit.
+Months passed on, and one day the ogre came home in
+high good humor, carrying upon his back a living
+human being, whose feet and hands were tied and his
+eyes securely bandaged, while a gag in his mouth prevented<span class="pagenum">[250]</span>
+the unfortunate victim from making a sound of
+remonstrance.</p>
+
+<p>"Take this fellow to the kitchen," thundered the
+ogre, throwing his victim down upon the stone floor
+of the entrance hall with a violent bang; "see that he
+is in good condition for my table, and then serve him
+with plenty of onions in the sauce. Just as I was beginning
+to hanker after a young and tender morsel
+of human flesh, I came across this boy, following the
+plough. I'll warrant, I stopped his whistle quickly,
+when I grabbed him up! Now mind, wife, supper at
+sharp twelve, and don't forget the onions!"</p>
+
+<p>The ogress lifted the prisoner as unconcernedly as
+one would handle a dead turkey and, carrying him below,
+threw him down upon the kitchen table, repeating
+her lord's directions to the cook. When Dimple recognized
+in the fainting prisoner an old schoolmate
+and neighbor of her own, Jim Hardy by name, she
+could scarcely refrain from a scream of rapture. But,
+pretending to be indifferent, she merely felt the poor
+youth's arms, as a cook examines the condition of her
+fowls for the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me, madam," she said, "surely you don't
+mean to cook this tough creature to-night? Why, I<span class="pagenum">[251]</span>
+wouldn't dare to send up such a dish to my master.
+He would be in a fearful rage, and small blame to him.
+At least, allow me to fatten the bumpkin a bit."</p>
+
+<p>"But what shall we serve my husband?" said the
+alarmed ogress. "He has set his heart on a dish of
+boy with onion sauce, and I dare not disappoint him."</p>
+
+<img src="images/i059.jpg" width="282" height="264" alt="" title="" class="splitr">
+
+<p>"Leave that to me,"
+said clever Dimple.</p>
+
+<p>So she killed a lamb,
+and smothered it with
+onions, and the ogre
+knew no difference. The
+poor youth was set free,
+and great was his joy to
+find a friend in his proposed
+executioner. Dimple
+told him her story,
+and heard from him how long and sorrowfully her
+father had mourned her disappearance. Jim vowed
+to deliver her from the ogre; but both saw it was
+necessary to act with caution, at first. She was
+obliged to shut him up in an iron coop in the courtyard
+near the kitchen; and every time the old crone
+came into the kitchen, she went to the coop and felt<span class="pagenum">[252]</span>
+and pinched the poor lad's legs and breast unmercifully.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely he is tender enough to serve to-night,
+cook," she would say, impatiently. "Your master has
+an attack of the gout, and I am at my wit's end to keep
+him in good humor. Nothing would please him so
+much as a slice or two of the breast, grilled with
+pepper and mustard."</p>
+
+<p>"Leave that to me," Dimple would answer; and she
+forthwith killed a pig, and served a dish so deliciously
+seasoned that the ogre forgot to growl, for at least an
+hour after eating it.</p>
+
+<p>Once, while the supper was going on, Dimple and
+Jim crept up to listen at the dining-room door. After
+the ogre had drank a gallon or two of wine, he began
+to talk freely to his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"Such a dainty dish as this you have served me deserves
+a reward, my dear," he said in a greasy voice,
+while the ogress meekly dipped some bread in the
+gravy as her share of the feast. "Open the closet in
+the corner yonder, and get me out my birdling."</p>
+
+<p>What should the birdling prove to be but a tiny
+nightingale shining like gold! When its mouth
+opened at the ogre's command, "Sing, birdling, sing!"<span class="pagenum">[253]</span>
+out poured a rain of sapphires, diamonds, rubies, emeralds,
+and amethysts, that lay in a glittering stream
+upon the table-cloth.</p>
+
+<p>"Take these for a bracelet," said the ogre, gathering
+them up in his hand, and tossing them to his wife;
+"and then put away my birdling, that no covetous eye
+may look upon this wonder of the world."</p>
+
+<p>Dimple and Jim exchanged glances of astonishment,
+but dared not speak, as they crept silently down the
+flight of stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Next day, the ogress came again into the kitchen to
+see about the supper dish for the evening, and in her
+zeal to prove that Jim was really ready for cooking,
+she bit his ear so that he could not help uttering a
+little squeal.</p>
+
+<p>"See what you have done!" cried Dimple. "Now
+that the blood flows, he will not be fit for eating for
+another day or two. Certainly, <i>I</i> won't engage to make
+a savory dish of him."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't be vexed, cook," said the ogress, who by
+this time had grown to depend absolutely upon Dimple's
+word in such matters. "I have a salve here
+that will heal all wounds, and will even cause a limb
+that has been cut off to grow again to the body."<span class="pagenum">[254]</span></p>
+
+<p>So saying, she whipped out of her pocket a little
+box of ointment, and rubbed some of it on the
+wounded place, which at once ceased to bleed, becoming
+whole as before.</p>
+
+<p>"What did I tell you?" asked the crone, triumphantly.
+"This salve is one of the wonders of the world, and the
+recipe is handed down only in our family." So saying,
+she carefully put away the box again in her pocket.</p>
+
+<p>Day after day passed, Dimple continuing to make
+excuses for failing to serve the coveted dainty, and exerting
+all her skill to cook such dishes as might make
+the ogress forget her disappointment. Meantime, Jim
+occupied his time in the coop by weaving a rope long
+enough and strong enough to support his weight and
+Dimple's while making their proposed escape down
+the rocky precipice on which the castle stood. Once
+on the sea-shore beneath, they hoped to hide in some
+fisherman's hut until a ship might be found sailing to
+their own country.</p>
+
+<p>"One thing is certain, Dimple," said Jim, who was
+a bold and fearless fellow; "we shall not leave this
+place without carrying off that wonderful bird of his.
+Why, just to remember the dazzling stream that poured
+from its mouth, makes my eyes wink."<span class="pagenum">[255]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Jim," answered Dimple, trembling. "Please,
+please, don't attempt such a thing. It will make our
+punishment ten times worse if we are caught. Besides,
+what hope have you of getting inside the iron closet?
+It is madness to talk about it. For my part, what I
+would like to take, is a little of that marvellous salve.
+Then, if we are bruised or our bones are broken on the
+rocks, we can make all right again&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why should you forever be talking to yourself,
+cook?" exclaimed the ogress, at that moment bursting
+in, carrying a bunch of keys that clanked like fetters.
+"See here! No more nonsense! I'd just like to know
+when you propose to give us that chap in yonder, who
+must have eaten more than his weight in good food
+since he came here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very soon, very soon, madam," said Dimple, with
+a palpitating heart; "in a very few days he should be
+fit for my master's table. You know that kind of a
+creature takes uncommonly long to fatten."</p>
+
+<p>"Hold your tongue!" cried the ogress, exploding in
+sudden fury, like a mine of fire-crackers, and hurling
+at Dimple's unfortunate head a few convenient saucepans,
+skewers, flat-irons, and dish-covers. Happily the
+thrower was of the feminine gender, and so the projectiles<span class="pagenum">[256]</span>
+missed their aim; but, as Dimple dodged
+around in a dark corner of the kitchen, the ogress continued
+to scold her angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"I know this," she exclaimed, "that for only one
+single day longer will I consent to be put off by your
+palavering promises and excuses. The lad is fit to
+kill now, if he is ever going to be; and as day after
+to-morrow is my lord's two thousand and tenth birthday,
+you must prepare a dish that shall be better than
+all that have gone before it. Everything is arranged
+for a night of celebration. Exactly at midnight to-morrow,
+we proceed in the vampire chariot to visit our
+neighbor, the King of the Ghouls, and, returning, shall
+expect to find the feast served punctually at cock-crow;
+the dear children may sit up for it, and my
+brother, the Ogre of the Seven Mountains, is invited
+to partake."</p>
+
+<p>During this speech Dimple's blood ran cold, but,
+summoning up all her resolution, she answered calmly,
+"All shall be ready, madam;" and when the appeased
+ogress took her leave, Dimple flew to the iron coop,
+and asked Jim if he had heard the conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, did I, my lass," said Jim, trying to put a
+bold face on the matter. Then, they fell to consulting,<span class="pagenum">[257]</span>
+and it was decided that the escape should be attempted
+that very night, as soon as the household was
+at rest. Midnight came, and not a sound save the
+thunderous snoring of the ogre family was heard within
+the castle. Dimple waited upon the landing, while
+Jim glided up to the cupboard where the nightingale
+was kept. As no one dared so much as lay a finger
+upon the giant's treasure without his leave, the door
+had been left unlocked. There sat the lovely birdling
+upon a jewelled spray, glittering so brilliantly that it
+shone like a lamp in the darkness. As Jim laid his
+hand upon it, the bird sent forth a note of silver
+sweetness, warning her captor to fly with all speed, if
+he would escape with his life from the vengeance of
+the ogre.</p>
+
+<p>"I humbly beg your pardon," said Jim, respectfully;
+"I had no idea that you are a talking creature."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I am glad of anything for a change! You
+must know that I am a fairy, unfortunate enough to
+have been imprisoned in a shape assumed for a frolic,"
+the bird continued, greatly to Jim's astonishment.
+"And tired enough I am, of being a plaything for that
+horrid old monster, who captured me when I had just
+dressed for a masquerade party, in the plumage<span class="pagenum">[258]</span>
+that you see. Unluckily, it is my doom to remain a
+slave to whosoever shall make a prisoner of me whilst
+I am thus attired and, also, to have to pour forth jewels
+at his command. You will be a different sort of a
+master, I am sure."</p>
+
+<p>Jim hurriedly promised the fairy-bird to treat her
+with kindness, and hastened to place her in Dimple's
+keeping. They stole past the giant's chamber-door,
+but the creaking of a board aroused the tyrant, who
+sprang out of bed, roaring, "Who is there? Answer,
+or I will grind you to dust beneath my heel!"</p>
+
+<p>Jim made no reply, and lifting in both hands a
+heavy iron bar with which he had provided himself,
+hid in an angle of the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Out rushed the giant, sputtering ferociously, fire
+shooting from his eyes and nostrils. Jim, under cover
+of the darkness, dealt him a tremendous blow upon the
+skull. The monster tottered, and fell crashing down
+the long flight of stairs, carrying Jim with him to the
+bottom. Dimple heard a terrible groan, and then all
+was silent. Feeling her way to the spot, she whispered
+imploringly, "Jim, dear Jim, speak to me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm here, Dimple," said a stifled voice, in reply;<span class="pagenum">[259]</span>
+"but this old wretch (who is as dead as a door-nail,
+by-the-way), has fallen atop of me, and I believe he
+has broken both of my legs. Ha! there, I have freed
+myself, but it's no use. I can't walk a step. Don't
+waste time on a cripple like me, lass; but make haste
+to slip down the rope and escape, before the ogress
+finds out what has happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Never, dear Jim," cried Dimple, fervently. Just
+then a sleepy voice was heard above in the chamber of
+the ogress, inquiring of her husband what was going
+on below. Quick as thought, Dimple ran up to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, madam!" she said, "such an accident! His
+lordship has slipped upon the stairs, and sprained his
+ankle. You are on no account to disturb yourself to
+come down; but I beg that you will send him the box
+of magic salve without delay."</p>
+
+<p>In her sleepy state, it did not occur to the ogress to
+wonder how Dimple, whose presence in the castle had
+so long been hidden from the giant, should have been
+chosen as his messenger. She was so anxious to enjoy
+her nap in peace, that, grunting out an order to
+Dimple to take the box from the pocket of a gown
+hanging upon the bed, she turned upon her pillow
+and was soon snoring as before.<span class="pagenum">[260]</span></p>
+
+<p>Seizing the magic salve with joyful fingers, Dimple
+flew back to Jim, and applied it freely to his broken
+legs. Instantly, Jim sprang to his feet, stronger than
+before, and the friends prepared for flight. Unfortunately,
+in the darkness, Dimple had also anointed the
+dead giant's head, and to their dismay it now began
+to roar most frightfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Wife, wife, wife, come down and seize these vagabonds!"</p>
+
+<p>The ogress, turning in her sleep, exclaimed,</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness! I know what that means. My husband
+has got into the pantry, in one of his hungry fits, and
+can't find enough to satisfy him. Dear me! Suppose
+he should devour the cook. That would be inconvenient.
+Coming, my dear, coming!" And springing
+nervously out of bed, she began to look for her dressing
+gown and slippers.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, madam," said Dimple, bursting again into the
+room. "His lordship is in haste to butcher the nice
+fat prisoner he has found below, and I beg that you will
+send him his hunting-knife, which lies upon the table."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all?" said the ogress, sinking back upon
+her pillow, greatly relieved. "Take the knife, child;
+you will find it at my elbow."<span class="pagenum">[261]</span></p>
+
+<p>Armed with this formidable weapon, a blade so keen
+that it could split a hair with ease, Dimple returned to
+Jim, who forthwith pierced his howling enemy through
+the tongue, nailing him securely to the floor. This
+was the end of the most wicked monster who had for
+many grievous years afflicted mankind. All was still,
+at last, within the castle, when Dimple and Jim, holding
+fast their well-earned trophies, climbed out of the
+narrow window and began their perilous descent.
+The rope hung over the jagged rocks of a precipice
+rising abruptly from the sea. The sky was dark, and
+the sound of the hungry waves beneath was far from
+comforting to the fugitives. When half-way down,
+they were discovered by one of the vampires keeping
+watch upon the rampart. Uttering a discordant shriek,
+the vampire flew straight to the window of his mistress,
+and gave the alarm.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the ogress found out the escape of her
+treacherous cook, her anger knew no bounds. Tearing
+madly down toward the kitchen, she stumbled over
+the dead body of her lord, who lay pinned by his own
+hunting-knife to the floor. Her shrill cries now rent
+the air, and were echoed by those of the nine young
+ogresses, who ran out in their night-gowns, looking<span class="pagenum">[262]</span>
+truly hideous, and cast themselves upon the body of
+their father.</p>
+
+<p>"My salve, my magic salve, quick!" cried the ogress
+to her oldest daughter. Then, remembering to whom
+she had consigned the treasure, she rushed wildly off
+and, leaning out of the window, seized the rope with a
+ferocious jerk.</p>
+
+<p>"Fly, my good vampires!" yelled the horrid creature,
+"and tear me those wretches to shreds before
+my eyes!"</p>
+
+<p>Now, indeed, the fate of the fugitives seemed sealed.
+Dimple, clinging to Jim, uttered a cry of terror. But
+suddenly, a silvery voice came from the bird-fairy hidden
+in her dress.</p>
+
+<p>"Have no fear, maiden. Set me free, and I promise
+to save you both from this awful fate."</p>
+
+<p>Dimple gladly complied with the fairy's request.
+What was their surprise to see this tiny creature, no
+larger than a veritable nightingale, transform herself
+into a mighty eagle upon whose outstretched wings
+the fugitives, seating themselves securely, were at once
+carried with astonishing speed over sea and land, never
+slackening until they came in sight of their own beloved
+country! Rapid as was the flight of the vam<span class="pagenum">[263]</span>pires
+in pursuit, that of the enchanted eagle was far
+more rapid. The cruel foes were completely distanced,
+and it may be a satisfaction to you to learn that, flying
+homeward, in their blind rage and spite, to tell the
+ogress of the failure of their chase, the vampires ran
+headlong into a passing thunderbolt, and were instantly
+killed, their bodies falling upon the castle wall
+under the very eye of their despairing mistress. As
+it was impossible to get away from her eyrie except in
+the vampire chariot, the ogress and her nine daughters
+lived there for a year and a day, gnashing their teeth
+over their changed lot; and then they slowly starved
+to death. Her last moments in life were haunted by
+memories of Dimple, and the scent of imagined sauces
+compounded by her clever cook arose tantalizingly to<span class="pagenum">[264]</span>
+her nostrils. At the very end, a fit of unwonted weakness
+took possession of the dying ogress, and she was
+heard to murmur, as if dreaming, "She was the best I
+ever had. Dear girl! I feel now that I could forgive
+her everything&mdash;my husband's death&mdash;her treachery&mdash;my
+children's untimely fate&mdash;my own approaching end&mdash;could
+I but taste her batter-pudding ere I die!"</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 529px;">
+<img src="images/i060.jpg" width="529" height="180" alt="THE NINE YOUNG OGRESSES" title="">
+<p class="caption">THE NINE YOUNG OGRESSES</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Happily for Dimple, who was a tender and sympathetic
+soul, she knew nothing of the pangs that rent
+the spirit of her ancient foe. Our hero and heroine had
+been set down by the obliging fairy-bird at some little
+distance from their native village. There, after giving
+her their thanks, they at once offered to set their captive
+free without conditions. The fairy-bird, overjoyed
+at her good fortune, insisted upon singing for them a
+whole day, and a pile of precious gems then lay heaped
+at Dimple's feet, far surpassing in value those in the
+king's own treasury. Dimple and Jim were now rolling
+in wealth and, being also in possession of the magic
+salve which cures all maladies, felt reasonably secure
+of a prosperous future. Bidding the fairy good-by,
+they proceeded on foot toward the neighboring town,
+carrying their treasures in some old potato sacks
+begged from a roadside hut.<span class="pagenum">[265]</span></p>
+
+<p>Jim sold a few of the stones, and with the proceeds
+purchased magnificent garments for Dimple and himself;
+
+<img src="images/i061.jpg" width="340" height="499" alt="" title="" class="splitr">
+
+then, hiring
+a train of servants
+to attend them,
+the two travellers
+returned to their
+own village, seated
+upon cushions
+of pale blue velvet
+in a crystal
+chariot drawn by
+six milk-white
+horses, with gold
+and silver harness.</p>
+
+<p>At the approach
+of this splendid
+procession, all the
+people of the
+neighborhood
+came flocking
+from their houses to see the grand prince and princess,
+who had done them so much honor. To their astonishment,<span class="pagenum">[266]</span>
+the chariot stopped directly in front of the
+miller's cottage, and out sprang the beautiful princess,
+trailing her silks and satins along the garden path, and,
+with a scream of delight, throwing her fair arms around
+the poor old dusty miller, who sat mournfully upon his
+deserted door-stone, rapt in thought. In a voice that
+all recognized, Dimple cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Father, don't you know me? I am your loving
+child."</p>
+
+<p>Next to be astonished was Jim's mother, a lone
+widow, who sat at her spinning-wheel as usual, thinking
+of the boy she had lost so many months before. When
+Jim appeared before her in all his bravery, the poor
+old thing nearly went into hysterics of delight&mdash;she
+had not hesitated for one moment in recognizing the
+face that had never left her thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Directly afterward, all the villagers were requested
+to proceed in a body to the church, where a splendid
+wedding was held. Everyone agreed that Dimple
+made the prettiest bride that had ever stepped from
+the old church porch, and no one could dispute the
+fact that Jim was the proudest of bridegrooms.</p>
+
+<p>The newly married pair built a superb palace in a
+park near their native village, and also two smaller<span class="pagenum">[267]</span>
+palaces for Jim's mother and Dimple's father. A large
+share of their wealth was spent in beautifying the
+homes of their friends; and, in time, the hamlet
+came to be known as the "Happy Valley," so prosperous
+and fertile had it grown. No sickness came
+near these fortunate villagers; and none of them ever
+died&mdash;thanks to the free use made by Dimple of her
+inexhaustible ointment.</p>
+
+<p>At last reports, neither Jim nor Dimple had confided
+to anyone the true story of their life in the giant's
+castle. When people expressed curiosity as to the
+source of such wonderful wealth, Jim always roguishly
+said that Dimple had made it all by good cooking.
+This report, getting abroad, had the effect of inducing
+the girls of that country, far and wide, to go into their
+kitchens and learn all they could of the most useful of
+arts; which, perhaps, had as much as Dimple's magic
+salve to do with the health and contentment of the inhabitants
+of Happy Valley!</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[268]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 534px;">
+<img src="images/i062.jpg" width="534" height="122" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="MISS_PEGGY_AND_THE_FROG" id="MISS_PEGGY_AND_THE_FROG"></a>MISS PEGGY AND THE FROG.</h2>
+
+<p>(<i>An old nursery tale told from memory.</i>)</p>
+
+<img src="images/drop-o.jpg" width="74" height="74" alt="O" title="O" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">O</span><b>NCE</b>
+there lived a widow, whose only child was
+a pretty girl named Peggy. Peggy loved
+to play by the water-side with her young
+companions, and one day a large frog hopped out of the
+water and sat gazing at her with a loving smile.</p>
+
+<p>"What a queer frog!" cried Peggy.</p>
+
+<img src="images/i062-b.jpg" width="327" height="147" alt="" title="" class="splitr">
+
+<p>"I <i>am</i> a queer
+frog," he remarked,
+to her surprise.
+"Go back, Miss
+Peggy, and tell
+your mother that I
+want to marry you."</p>
+
+<p>Peggy ran to fetch her mother to see the talking
+frog. When the mother came, the frog dived down<span class="pagenum">[269]</span>
+into the water and brought up in his mouth a rich
+gold chain and a jewelled ring.</p>
+
+<p>"This will I give the mother, and much beside," he
+said, laying the chain at the mother's feet; "and this
+ring with many like it is for my bride, if Peggy will
+marry me."</p>
+
+<p>"Say yes, Peggy," whispered the mother, who was
+a covetous woman. "Of course you can't marry a
+frog, but you may get the gold and jewels all the
+same."</p>
+
+<p>Peggy burst out crying, but her mother nudged and
+poked her in the side till she said "yes," in a very sobbing
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>The frog bowed politely, laid the gold chain and the
+ring at their feet, dived down, and immediately brought
+up gold cups and silver dishes, with many rare jewels
+set into them. Peggy's mother gasped for joy as he
+heaped all these riches on the grassy bank. She ran up
+to the house, and found a basket which would hold
+them. While she was gone, the frog said nothing, but
+stood looking at Peggy and sighing from time to time.
+Peggy sat under a tree, and cried and sobbed. At
+last the frog spoke:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't forget your bridegroom, Miss Peggy. This<span class="pagenum">[270]</span>
+day year I shall come to fetch you," and he hopped
+into the water with a splash.</p>
+
+<p>Peggy's mother sold one of the cups for a large sum
+of money, and furnished their house all new. She
+bought gay clothes for herself and Peggy, and went to
+church quite regularly, since she had so much finery to
+show. Peggy forgot all about her promise to the frog,
+and the year passed by rapidly.</p>
+
+<p>On the appointed day, however, the widow and Peggy
+were sitting at the table when they heard a knock at
+the door. They peeped out, and saw, to their dismay,
+the frog, dressed in a green and gold suit, and carrying
+a jewelled sword. Peggy gave a scream, and ran
+and hid in the cupboard, while the mother tripped
+to the door, and bade her strange guest good morning.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry, but Peggy is from home to-day," she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! never mind. I will come in and wait awhile,"
+answered the frog; and in he hopped cheerfully, and
+took a seat at the table. Peggy's mother was too angry
+to offer him food, but the frog helped himself and ate
+out of Peggy's plate. He stayed and he stayed, and all
+the time Peggy crouched in the cupboard, cramped and
+hungry. He stayed till night came; and at last poor<span class="pagenum">[271]</span>
+Peggy, falling asleep, burst open the cupboard door,
+and tumbled out upon the floor.</p>
+
+<p>The frog ran to pick her up, before her mother
+could get there.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a little late, my dear," he said politely.
+"But I can see very well in the dark, so we may set
+out at once, for my palace in the pond."</p>
+
+<p>In vain did the widow beg and plead. The frog
+would not give Peggy up, until the poor girl herself
+went down on her knees and implored him to let her
+off for another year. At length he promised to go, if
+she would be ready to marry him that day year. Peggy
+said "yes," and off went her suitor, after having laid
+a purse of gold in the widow's lap.</p>
+
+<p>"It might have been worse, Peggy, so cheer up,"
+said the woman, clapping the purse in her pocket. "A
+year is a long time, and perhaps he will forget you."</p>
+
+<p>Vain hope! That day year, Peggy was spinning beside
+her mother, when the frog knocked at the door.
+This time, he was dressed in blue and silver, and his
+hat had a waving plume; but he looked more hideous
+than before.</p>
+
+<p>Peggy gave a jump, and ran up the garret stairs,
+and thence out upon the roof of the cottage, where<span class="pagenum">[272]</span>
+she clung to the chimney in despair. The mother
+opened the door, and said she was sorry Peggy was
+from home. The frog replied that he did not mind,
+but would wait for Miss Peggy to return.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 507px;">
+<img src="images/i063.jpg" width="507" height="374" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>He sat in Peggy's chair; and this time he would not
+eat, but only sighed and sighed. Presently it began
+to rain and hail, and thunder and lighten dreadfully;
+and poor Peggy on the roof was frightened out of her
+life. She crept into the chimney, and soon a great<span class="pagenum">[273]</span>
+clap of thunder sent her flying down into the room
+where her frog-lover sat.</p>
+
+<p>"You have an odd way of coming into the house,
+my dear," the frog said; "but I don't mind, if you are
+ready to go now. It rains hard, but I am used to
+water, and you must become so; so come along."</p>
+
+<p>He offered her his arm, but Peggy cried and implored
+to be let off. She went down on her knees to
+him, and at last he went away, giving her another purse
+and another year of freedom.</p>
+
+<p>Next year, the widow and Peggy barred and double-locked
+their doors. The frog appeared, dressed in
+white and gold, but it was of no use for him to knock
+and call. No answer came, and he went off sadly.
+Peggy and her mother rejoiced at getting rid of the
+persistent suitor, and sat down to supper merrily,
+without, however, unlocking their door.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, they heard a noise, and looking out saw
+a great army of frogs coming up the hill, The frogs
+formed themselves into a column and, aiming for the
+window, jumped through the glass, and landed on the
+floor. They seized Peggy, and very gently carried her
+out of the door and down the hill. Peggy fainted, and
+knew nothing till they stopped on the edge of the pond.<span class="pagenum">[274]</span>
+The widow came running down the hill just in time
+to see the frogs plunge into the water with her child.</p>
+
+<p>Peggy sank&mdash;down, down&mdash;until she reached a beautiful
+grotto, where, on a throne of coral and shells, sat
+her frog-lover. He looked at her reproachfully, and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"If you had not three times deceived me, Peggy, I
+should not have carried you off in this way. Now
+that you are here, try to be resigned to me, and say
+that you will be my wife."</p>
+
+<p>"Never, never," screamed Peggy; "you are so horrible
+to look at with your goggle eyes."</p>
+
+<p>The goggle eyes filled with tears as Peggy spoke,
+and the frog shook his head mournfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I see that it is of no use," he said sorrowfully, and
+ordered Peggy to be taken to a beautiful sea-garden,
+where she lived and amused herself for a long time,
+gradually forgetting all about her home on land.
+Every evening the frog came and talked to Peggy
+through a wall of white coral; and in time, she grew
+so fond of listening to his voice, that if he was a minute
+late she would cry for him to come.</p>
+
+<p>Once when it was rather dark, the frog asked Peggy
+if she could bear to look at him again. Peggy said<span class="pagenum">[275]</span>
+yes, and he appeared before her. Somehow he did
+not seem so ugly as before, and when, in a trembling
+voice, he invited her to sit upon his knee, she at once
+did so. Instantly his leg broke with a loud snap;
+and, as poor Peggy sprang to her feet in great remorse,
+she beheld, instead of her frog suitor, a beautiful
+young prince, holding out his arms to her!</p>
+
+<p>The prince told her he had been bewitched by a
+frog godmother, who condemned him to remain in
+that horrid shape until a young girl could be found
+who would either consent to marry him or sit upon
+his knee. Peggy was very glad to have such an ending
+of her adventure. So they were married at once,
+and were then very happy. When they went back for
+a wedding visit to Peggy's mother, they found she had
+taken all the gold and silver and moved away to a distant
+country; and they never saw the wicked woman
+more.</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[276]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 531px;">
+<img src="images/i064.jpg" width="531" height="122" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_LEPERHAUN_A_Legend_of_the_Emerald_Isle" id="THE_LEPERHAUN_A_Legend_of_the_Emerald_Isle"></a>THE LEPERHAUN: <i>A Legend of the Emerald Isle.</i></h2>
+
+<img src="images/drop-o.jpg" width="74" height="74" alt="O" title="O" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">O</span><b>NCE</b>
+upon a time, by the glimmer of the nursery-fire,
+a little girl sat listening to the
+tales told by her buxom Irish nurse. The
+details of most of these&mdash;notably of one very thrilling
+legend of the Banshee, who has ever since seemed to
+float upon the wind that blows after nightfall&mdash;have
+passed from memory; but the good old story of Molly
+Jones and the Leperhaun remains, and, as best I can,
+I reproduce it here.</p>
+
+<p>In a comfortable farm-house upon the outskirts of a
+small village in Ireland, lived a farmer with his six sons.
+He was a prosperous man, and, besides having better
+cows, pigs, and potatoes than any other man in the
+county, was said to keep a tidy bit of money laid away
+in bank. Only one maid-servant did the work of the<span class="pagenum">[277]</span>
+house, and she had lived there for many a year. At
+last she died, and the farmer looked about him for a
+girl to take her place. The wages were high, and a
+strapping lass named Mary Jones made up her mind
+that she was the right person for the situation. The
+farmer liked her looks, and engaged her on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Molly, lass," said the master, when he had
+finished taking her around the house, and showing her
+how neat and convenient everything was; "you see
+what you've got to do, and that's the end of it. Nobody
+in this house, who works well, has ever cause to
+want for encouragement, for <i>there's hands to help them
+that aren't too curious</i>! The main thing you'd better
+guard against is takin' notes and askin' questions."</p>
+
+<p>Molly protested that she was innocent of the inheritance
+of Mother Eve; and the farmer went on with his
+directions.</p>
+
+<p>"On the first night of every month the family goes
+early to bed, and it will be your business to see that the
+hearth is well swept, and fresh turf laid upon the fire,
+and to collect around it all the worn or broken shoes
+about the house. The last thing before you leave the
+room, be sure to set before the fire a nice bowl of mealy
+potatoes bursting from their jackets, a couple of herrings<span class="pagenum">[278]</span>
+broiled to a turn, and a jug of sweet buttermilk&mdash;and,
+whatever you do, never forget the salt!"</p>
+
+<p>Molly, though burning with curiosity, courtesied,
+and said nothing. All went well till the first night
+of the coming month. "When the family was retiring,
+the farmer whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Remember, Molly! Be abed and asleep before
+the clock strikes twelve; and <i>don't forget the salt</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Molly tidied her kitchen, swept the hearth, arranged
+around it all the worn and broken shoes in the house,
+her own Sunday pair included; and, after setting a nice
+little meal, covered with a white cloth, near the fire,
+wound up the clock and went to bed. Next morning
+what was her surprise to find not only all the boots
+and shoes neatly mended, but the empty jug and
+platter washed and restored to their places, while a
+beautiful fire was blazing merrily! She dared not
+ask any questions of the farmer or his sons, and no one
+appeared in the least surprised by what had occurred.
+That month her work went so easily that Molly thought
+it child's play. Her bread was baked brown and light,
+her potatoes were a triumph, her churning was done
+sooner than anybody's in the place, and her linen was
+hung out to dry by sunrise on Monday mornings. For<span class="pagenum">[279]</span>
+a month or two Molly never failed to set her kitchen in
+order, as before, for the mysterious guest. But one
+night she was in a hurry, and forgot the salt. Next
+morning the boots were mended, but the fire was
+scattered on the hearth, ashes lay all about her neat
+kitchen, and the dishes were left unwashed. This excited
+Molly's curiosity anew and, when the next time
+came, she did everything as usual, but, instead of going<span class="pagenum">[280]</span>
+to bed, hid behind the kitchen clock. Punctually as
+the clock struck twelve, out popped from behind a big
+stone in the chimney-place a queer little dwarf dressed
+all in red. Apparently he suspected something, for
+he sniffed and peered into the darkness of the kitchen.
+Molly held her breath through fear, and the dwarf proceeded
+to blow up the fire and warm himself before sitting
+down to supper. Then, uncovering his cup and platter,
+and finding that all was to his taste, he smacked his
+lips, and made an excellent repast. When it was over,
+he whipped out of his bag some shoemaker's tools, and
+went to work to patch and mend the shoes, with twinkling
+fingers. In an hour's time all was finished and,
+after putting the room to rights, the dwarf took his leave.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 531px;">
+<img src="images/i065.jpg" width="531" height="414" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Molly told nobody that she had seen the veritable
+Leperhaun, the famous shoemaking fairy; but the next
+month she happened to be in an ill humor and hungry;
+so, without stopping to think of the consequences,
+she ate his supper herself&mdash;leaving upon the platter
+only a heap of potato-skins and the bones of the well-picked
+herrings.</p>
+
+<p>That night, while all the world was asleep, in came
+the Leperhaun and, finding the trick that had been
+played on him, flew into a terrible rage, scattered the<span class="pagenum">[281]</span>
+boots and shoes over the floor, broke the crockery
+and, seizing a broom, swept all the ashes out upon the
+kitchen floor. Molly, who was watching, ran up to
+the garret and, jumping into bed, pulled the clothes
+over her head in a cold perspiration with terror. But
+hark! on the steps outside came the pit-pat of little
+feet. In rushed the offended house-fairy. He seized
+Molly by the hair of her head, and dragged her down
+the stairs, and over the flags of the yard, saying,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Molly Jones! Molly Jones!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Potato-skins and herring-bones!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I'll break your bones upon the stones,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Molly Jones, oh! Molly Jones!"<br></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In vain Molly cried for mercy. The farmer and his
+sons were fast asleep, and not a soul heard her. All
+night long the Leperhaun dragged her about; and
+when the cock crowed he vanished, leaving her bruised
+and sore upon the threshold of the door. More dead
+than alive, Molly crawled up to her bed, where she lay
+black and blue for many a day.</p>
+
+<p>The farmer, suspecting what lesson had been taught
+her, said nothing; and we may be sure that, when the
+next time came for the visit of the Leperhaun, the
+little red dwarf had no fault to find with Molly.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[282]</span></p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<h2>ROMANCES OF THE MIDDLE AGES</h2>
+
+<p>[<i>The stories here following are, it is hoped, so rendered, from
+metrical romances of the Middle Ages, as to be adapted to the taste
+and understanding of youthful readers.</i>]</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 531px;">
+<img src="images/i066.jpg" width="531" height="120" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_TRIALS_OF_SIR_ISUMBRAS" id="THE_TRIALS_OF_SIR_ISUMBRAS"></a>THE TRIALS OF SIR ISUMBRAS.</h2>
+
+<p class="h5">(<i>From Ellis' Abridgment of the MS. in Caius College.</i>)</p>
+
+<img src="images/drop-o.jpg" width="74" height="74" alt="O" title="O" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">O</span><b>NCE</b>
+upon a time there lived a knight so handsome,
+so rich, and so valiant that all eyes
+were turned upon him. His name was Isumbras,
+and fortune had given him everything that the
+heart of man could wish for. He had a splendid castle,
+surrounded by vast forests, where every day he went
+hunting or hawking; and so generous he was with his
+wealth that the poor flocked to him from every quarter
+and never went away empty-handed.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Isumbras had a beautiful wife and three lovely<span class="pagenum">[283]</span>
+sons to share the blessings of his lot; but one thing he
+had not, and that was an humble spirit. He forgot to
+own the Giver of good things, and took it as a matter
+of course that his life should flow on in ease and luxury.</p>
+
+<p>One day when mounted on his favorite steed, surrounded
+by his dogs, and having his hawk on fist, Sir
+Isumbras cast up his eyes to the sky, and there saw an
+angel, who reproached him with his pride, announcing
+that Heaven had in store for him a speedy punishment.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Isumbras fell to his knees in prayer; but hardly
+had the angel vanished from his sight when, on remounting
+his horse, the noble creature fell dead beneath
+him; the hawk dropped lifeless from his fist; and the
+faithful hounds expired in agonies at his feet. Hastening
+on foot to his castle, he was met by a servant,
+who informed him his horses and oxen had been suddenly
+struck dead by lightning, and that his fowls had
+all been stung to death by adders. Next came forward
+a page, who told him the castle was burned to
+the ground, many of his servants had perished, and
+that his wife and children had taken refuge, half
+naked, in a thorn-bush close at hand. Sir Isumbras
+hastened to the aid of his beloved family, stripping
+himself of his scarlet mantle and his surcoat to clothe<span class="pagenum">[284]</span>
+them. He embraced them fondly, and thanked heaven
+that, though all the rest of his treasures were taken,
+these remained. He then proposed to his wife that, as
+a sign of repentance for their sins, they should all go
+on foot to the holy city, Jerusalem, begging their
+bread from land to land. He cut with his knife upon
+his bare shoulder the pilgrim's sign of the cross, and
+then the afflicted family set forth on their travels.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 417px;">
+<img src="images/i067.jpg" width="417" height="379" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Long they journeyed, eating crusts when they could<span class="pagenum">[285]</span>
+beg them, or berries from wayside bushes, until, faint
+and weary, they reached a broad but shallow stream.
+Taking his eldest son in his arms, Sir Isumbras bore
+him across the river, and placed him beneath a bush
+of broom-plant, bidding him play with the blossoms
+until his father's return. Scarcely had the knight left
+his son, when an enormous lion burst from a neighboring
+thicket and bore away the child. In like manner the
+second son became the prey of a fierce leopard; and
+the poor mother, who saw them so cruelly torn from
+her sight, fainted away, with her baby on her breast.
+Sir Isumbras bowed to the will of God; and when his
+wife revived they journeyed on to the shore of the
+Greek sea. Here they stood, and, through eyes that
+were full of tears, saw a great fleet of three hundred
+ships coming toward them. This was the navy of a
+famous heathen king, and no sooner had he landed
+than the travellers, who had not touched bread or meat
+for seven days, hastened to implore his charity. The
+king soon observed the robust limbs and tall stature
+of the husband; and perceived he was a knight in disguise,
+and that the wife, whose beauty was as "bright as
+blossoms upon tree," was, in spite of her ragged clothes,
+a lady of high degree. So, affecting to treat the poor<span class="pagenum">[286]</span>
+couple with respect, he offered them gold and treasure
+if the knight would renounce Christianity and consent
+to fight under the Saracen banners. This offer
+was at once declined, and the angry king made up his
+mind to revenge himself by carrying away the knight's
+wife. So, upon an order to the attendants, a purse of
+gold was pressed into the knight's hand, his infant son
+was put into his arms, he was hurried ashore, cruelly
+beaten by the king's servants, and, when he recovered
+himself, saw a heathen ship, with his wife on board,
+set sail for Africa.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Isumbras clasped his only remaining treasure to
+his heart, and followed the vessel with his eyes until it
+vanished from sight. Night found him still there, until
+father and babe fell asleep upon the bare ground,
+too weary to keep awake. Sir Isumbras had laid the
+fatal present of the heathen king, the purse of gold,
+in the scarlet mantle which he wrapped around his
+child. Scarcely had the next day's sun risen upon the
+earth, when an eagle, attracted by the red cloth, darted
+down, carrying off mantle, child, and purse in his talons.</p>
+
+<p>The poor knight was at last in utter despair. He
+fell on his knees, and offered what remained of his life
+to the God he had offended. Just then he heard the<span class="pagenum">[287]</span>
+noise of a blacksmith's forge, and saw, not far off, some
+men at work. They took pity on him and fed him.
+He entered their service, and bound himself for seven
+long years to learn their trade. During this time he
+forged a complete suit of armor for himself, being
+determined at the first opportunity to take up arms
+against the Saracens, whose king had not only done him
+such a cruel wrong, but was oppressing God's people.</p>
+
+<p>At length his opportunity came. The Christian army
+was to fight the Saracens on a field not far from the
+forge. Sir Isumbras buckled on his awkward armor
+and, mounting a horse that had been used by the smith
+to carry coals, proceeded to the field of battle.</p>
+
+<p>His heart beat with wild joy when he saw the foe
+before him. Uttering a fervent prayer, he dashed into
+the thick of the combat, attracting all eyes at first by
+his sorry steed and rough armor, and again by the
+splendid skill and courage of his charge. Early in the
+action his horse was killed under him, and the Christian
+chiefs made haste to present him another one,
+also a suit of armor more worthy of the heroic soldier
+he had proved himself to be. All that day the battle
+raged.</p>
+
+<p>By nightfall Sir Isumbras, single-handed, had killed<span class="pagenum">[288]</span>
+the heathen king and many of his followers. But he
+was himself sorely wounded, and when brought for reward
+before the Christian king, and asked his name,
+could hardly falter out, "I am a smith's man, sire." The
+king swore a great oath to make a knight of this valiant
+"smith's man"; and, with all honor and tenderness,
+Sir Isumbras was carried into a nunnery, where the
+good sisters nursed him until he recovered from his
+many wounds.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Isumbras was not satisfied to remain quiet long,
+though he had slain the heathen king. He went to
+the Holy Land, and for seven years wandered about a
+pilgrim, as before, sleeping upon the ground by night,
+and vainly seeking tidings of his wife by day. Once,
+during this time, when he was starving upon the banks
+of a stream, there appeared to him a cheering visitor.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And as he sat, about midnight,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There came angel fair and bright,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And brought him bread and wine.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He said, "Palmer, well thou be!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The King of Heaven greeteth well thee;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Forgiven is sin thine."<br></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Very soon after this miraculous event Sir Isumbras
+found his wife, who had dwelt, holy and charitable, in a<span class="pagenum">[289]</span>
+secluded castle, where she had been shut up by the
+Saracen king. She welcomed him with rapture, and
+together they shed many tears over their lost children.
+They lived together for some years, until Sir Isumbras
+was again summoned to do battle with the Saracens,
+who had determined at all cost to kill him. The fight
+was again hot and long, and just when Sir Isumbras
+was about to be overpowered by numbers of the enemy,
+three new champions appeared in the field, declaring
+themselves on the side of the Christians. These were
+three splendid knights, the first mounted upon a lion,
+the second upon a leopard, and the third upon an eagle.
+The Saracen cavalry, terror-stricken at sight of them,
+dispersed in all directions. But flight was in vain;
+three and twenty thousand unbelievers were soon laid
+dead upon the plain by the lion, leopard, and eagle,
+fighting with tireless fury, and driving all before them,
+until the entire heathen army was utterly put to rout.
+Then, coming back to Sir Isumbras, the three champions
+knelt before him, announcing themselves his
+long lost sons, mercifully protected and befriended by
+the savage creatures by whom they had been carried
+off. Sir Isumbras embraced his valiant sons, and led
+them to their mother. The Christian king enriched<span class="pagenum">[290]</span>
+the entire family, restoring them to their former rank.
+And now wealth, titles, honors, and all that he had lost,
+came back to Sir Isumbras, and the remainder of his
+days was spent in blessed peace.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"They lived and died in good intent;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Unto heaven their souls went,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">When that they dead were.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Jesu Christ, heaven's king,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Give us, aye, his blessing,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And shield us from care!"<br></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 352px;">
+<img src="images/i068.jpg" width="352" height="245" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[291]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 531px;">
+<img src="images/i069.jpg" width="531" height="119" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="BISCLAVERET" id="BISCLAVERET"></a>BISCLAVERET.</h2>
+
+<p class="h5">(<i>From one of Marie's Lays.</i>)</p>
+
+<img src="images/drop-o.jpg" width="74" height="74" alt="O" title="O" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">O</span><b>NCE</b>
+upon a time there lived in Brittany a
+baron who was handsome, wise, courteous,
+and brave. Although admired and beloved
+by his neighbors, he remained single until late in life,
+when he fell desperately in love with a young lady, who
+did not hesitate long in accepting the offer of so distinguished
+a suitor for her hand. They were married,
+and the bride returned from her honeymoon to take
+up her abode in her husband's fine castle.</p>
+
+<p>For a little while all went well, until the lady discovered
+that her husband was regularly absent from
+home during three days of every week. Overwhelmed
+with curiosity to know where he went, and how he
+was occupied during this time, she used every means
+in her power to coax the secret from him.<span class="pagenum">[292]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Do not ask me," said her kind lord; "rest assured
+that I have good reasons for my conduct. If
+you know what takes me from you, it will only be to
+hate and scorn your husband, and to ruin the happiness
+of our life."</p>
+
+<p>The lady persisted, going from coaxings to prayers
+and tears. At last the poor baron gave way, and confided
+to her that, owing to a cruel spell cast on him
+at birth, he was during half the week a Bisclaveret, or
+Man-Wolf, taking on the body of a wolf, but keeping
+his own feelings and intelligence as a man. Upon
+hearing this dreadful story, the lady fainted away.
+Henceforth, although her husband was more loving
+than ever, she was filled with horror and loathing of
+him; and soon she secretly resolved to destroy the
+monster and enjoy his wealth.</p>
+
+<p>By watching his movements she ascertained that
+when the baron became a wolf he left his clothing in a
+deserted chapel on the edge of a certain wood; and
+she formed a plan to seize and hide the garments.
+So long as the Bisclaveret was without his man's clothes,
+he was condemned to remain a brute.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, when, after his melancholy ramble
+through the woods, the Bisclaveret went one night to<span class="pagenum">[293]</span>
+resume his clothes, they were gone; and, in agony of
+spirit, he knew that he was betrayed by his wife. He
+took himself off to the forest, and was there lost to
+human sight.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the wicked wife, announcing that her
+husband had died while on a journey to some foreign
+land, enjoyed his wealth and his castle. A year later,
+
+<img src="images/i070.jpg" width="183" height="212" alt="" title="" class="splitr">
+
+the king went hunting in the
+forest, and, after a stout chase,
+had nearly run down the unhappy
+Bisclaveret, when that persecuted
+beast, bounding from his thicket,
+fawned upon the king's feet, shedding
+real tears and uttering
+almost human cries for mercy.
+The king, struck with compassion,
+ordered his dogs to be whipped off, and had the strange
+animal conveyed with care to his palace. Bisclaveret
+soon became the royal favorite. He slept on a couch of
+soft furs, ate from a golden dish, and returned with
+gratitude the caresses of all who noticed him.</p>
+
+<p>His gentleness and sagacity won for the man-wolf
+the right to roam wherever he desired to go, unchained.
+One day the king gave a splendid entertainment, to<span class="pagenum">[294]</span>
+which were invited all the lords and ladies of the land.
+Among them, dressed in silks and satins, and sparkling
+with jewels, came the false wife. No sooner did Bisclaveret
+espy her chatting with the king's guests, than,
+to the surprise of all present, the usually mild creature
+rose up, growling horribly and, springing upon the
+lady, bit off her nose. Bisclaveret was seized, and
+would have been speedily killed, but that he again
+fawned upon the king's feet, moaning and weeping as
+though he longed to speak. The king ordered him to
+be put into a cage, and consulted with the oldest and
+wisest man in his kingdom, as to what could be the
+meaning of the wolf's sudden fury toward this lady.</p>
+
+<p>"Brittany is a land of wonders, sire," said the aged
+man. "The lady who was attacked is as well known
+for a bad name as your favorite animal is for a good
+one. Who knows what became of her late husband,
+the baron? Perhaps this poor brute was beloved by
+that gentleman, and has some secret wrong to avenge.
+At any rate, you should at once shut the lady in prison
+until she is made to tell all <i>she</i> knows about the matter.
+Mayhap it is more than we suspect."</p>
+
+<p>The king followed his counsellor's advice; and, when
+the lady found herself likely to be kept a prisoner, she<span class="pagenum">[295]</span>
+preferred speech to silence. With tears of professed
+penitence, she confessed all, and the king lost no time
+in sending for the clothes of the late baron, and placing
+them in the cage of Bisclaveret. At first the animal
+seemed indifferent, and surveyed them listlessly.
+"Leave him to himself, sire," said the wise man.
+"Above all, set him at liberty in a chamber suitable to
+his rank. Then we shall see a wonderful change, I
+promise you."</p>
+
+<p>This was done, and in the morning the king ran
+impatiently to the chamber of Bisclaveret. There,
+on the bed, dressed in his clothes and sleeping sweetly,
+lay the baron. When his royal master entered, the
+sleeper woke and, bending his knee before his sovereign,
+poured forth his joy and gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>As for the wicked wife, her estates were taken from
+her and restored to her husband, while she herself was
+sent into perpetual banishment. Most people would
+think she had been sufficiently punished by the loss of
+her nose, which never grew again!<span class="pagenum">[296]</span></p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum">[297]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 536px;">
+<img src="images/i072.jpg" width="536" height="123" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="ROSWAL_AND_LILIAN" id="ROSWAL_AND_LILIAN"></a>ROSWAL AND LILIAN.</h2>
+
+<p class="h5">(<i>From a Scottish Romance of the XVIth Century.</i>)</p>
+
+<img src="images/drop-t.jpg" width="75" height="78" alt="T" title="T" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">T</span><b>HERE</b>
+lived once, at Naples, a king and queen
+whose only son, Roswal, was a paragon of
+beauty and of valor. The boy, who was as
+generous as the day was long, did not at all resemble
+his father, for the king was harsh and cruel, and slow
+to forgive his enemies.</p>
+
+<p>In the prison of the king's palace were confined three
+noblemen, who, having been suspected of plotting
+against the crown, were doomed to be imprisoned for
+life, and had the most cruel treatment lavished upon
+them every day. Roswal could not bear to hear their
+groans and sighs arising from the dungeon, and one
+day conceived the bold project of taking the prison
+keys from under the king's pillow while he slept, and<span class="pagenum">[298]</span>
+setting the three poor sufferers at liberty. This was
+done, and Roswal restored the keys to their place
+without having been detected.</p>
+
+<p>When it was found that the prisoners had escaped,
+the king grew furiously angry. In vain the head jailor
+and his assistants declared their innocence in the
+matter. Their lives would have been instantly sacrificed
+to the king's wrath, had not Roswal boldly come
+forward and confessed that he alone had freed the prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>At first, the king vowed that Roswal should die for
+having defied him; but the prayers of the queen, and
+perhaps the cool bravery of his son in confronting him,
+moved him to relent. He decided to change Roswal's
+sentence to banishment for life to a distant court,
+where he was to be placed at the service of the King of
+Bealm, with recommendation to make a soldier of the
+lad, henceforth a stranger to his home.</p>
+
+<p>Roswal set out on his journey to the court of Bealm,
+attended only by the high-steward, an envious and
+ambitious man, who hated the prince and would gladly
+have done him evil.</p>
+
+<p>The king, at parting with his son, had given him
+a letter of introduction to the King of Bealm; and<span class="pagenum">[299]</span>
+the fond mother had come secretly to press all the
+gold and jewels she had, a fortune in themselves, upon
+her beloved Roswal. Except for parting with his
+mother, Roswal did not feel very sorry to set out thus
+from home. He longed to see what marvels the wide
+world contained, and the memory of the three brave
+men he had loosed from their vile bondage cheered
+him in spite of his father's anger.</p>
+
+<p>The high-steward was full of projects of his own;
+and one night, when they had stopped to rest by the
+side of a rushing torrent, and Roswal had plunged into
+the crystal stream, as he loved to do, the wicked steward
+seized him unawares, held him under water till he was
+half strangled, and spared his life only on condition
+that Roswal would pledge himself to give up all the
+money and jewels, his letter, his horse and sword, and
+furthermore swear never to reveal the affair to mortal
+man or woman. Roswal, seeing that he could not
+help himself, submitted, and the false steward, laughing
+maliciously, put spurs to his horse, leading Roswal's
+steed behind him, and soon disappeared from
+view with all the treasures.</p>
+
+<p>Roswal found himself alone at nightfall in the forest,
+as hungry as a hawk, and very much at a loss where to<span class="pagenum">[300]</span>
+find food and shelter. He wandered along till he saw a
+little brown hut, under the branches of a wide-spreading
+oak-tree. Here, in the door, sat an old woman knitting,
+and Roswal's youth and beauty soon won his way
+into her affections. She led him into her house, gave
+him a good meal of brown bread, eggs, honey and
+milk, and a bed of clean straw. Roswal slept as
+sweetly as ever he had done on his golden bedstead
+and his pillow of down at home. Next day, he offered
+to work for the old woman, and set to cutting up wood
+and binding fagots cheerfully. For several months he
+lived thus, until the chamberlain of the King of Bealm
+chanced to pass that way. Taking a fancy to the
+handsome youth, he carried him off to court, where
+Roswal was appointed cup-bearer to the king's lovely
+daughter. His duties were light, and the princess was
+kind; so Roswal had little to complain of, until one day
+he heard it announced that Prince Roswal, of Naples,
+was about to wait upon the King of Bealm and demand
+his daughter's hand in marriage.</p>
+
+<p>Roswal pricked up his ears at this, and immediately
+suspected the supposed Prince of Naples to be none
+other than his late travelling companion, the wicked
+steward; though, when he heard the princess say to her<span class="pagenum">[301]</span>
+maidens that this Prince Roswal was remarkably pushing,
+considering that he had only recently presented
+a letter of introduction to them, and that, for her part,
+
+<img src="images/i073.jpg" width="182" height="439" alt="" title="" class="splitr">
+
+she could not see what her papa
+found to fancy in the young man,
+Roswal rejoiced. He was delighted
+to find that the princess did not
+care for the impostor. Then he
+remembered his oath, never to reveal
+what the steward had done to
+him, and his spirits fell again.</p>
+
+<p>In a day or two, the King of
+Bealm announced to his daughter
+that he had accepted the offer of
+the King of Naples' son, and that
+preparations for their marriage
+would immediately begin. The
+princess was very unhappy, for she
+had taken a great dislike to the
+pretended prince. Roswal met his
+late servant face to face at one
+of the bridal feasts, and the eyes of the steward
+fell before his scornful gaze. But he knew that he
+was safe in trusting Roswal's honor not to tell<span class="pagenum">[302]</span>
+the secret, and so carried on his impudent pretence.</p>
+
+<p>A tournament, lasting three days, was announced in
+honor of the wedding, which was soon to come off.
+Roswal found the Princess Lilian in tears about that
+time and, while endeavoring to console her, let her
+know, without intending it, that he, too, had fallen in
+love with her. This made the pretty princess so happy,
+that she confessed to Roswal she had loved him secretly
+ever since he was chosen to be her cup-bearer. She
+was sure he was of noble birth from his manners and
+appearance; and she urged him to admit that he was
+as worthy of her rank as of her love.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/i071.jpg" width="600" height="397" alt="Tournament in honor of the Princess of Bealm." title="">
+<p class="caption">Tournament in honor of the Princess of Bealm.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Roswal was never so sorely tempted to reveal himself!
+He restrained the impulse to confess by a strong
+effort, and, alone and melancholy, wandered out into
+the forest&mdash;longing for an opportunity to enter the
+lists of the tournament and prove his knightly skill
+before the king and princess; and while he sat musing
+thus, there approached him a knight leading a magnificent
+white war-horse, on whose saddle was suspended
+a suit of splendid armor.</p>
+
+<p>"Prince," said the strange knight, bowing low before
+him, "put on this armor, and mount this steed.<span class="pagenum">[303]</span>
+The tournament has begun, and thou wilt be in time to
+prove thy prowess. I await here thy return."</p>
+
+<p>Roswal said he had led his hounds to the forest, intending
+to hunt a deer; and so the knight offered to
+hunt in his absence and keep the game for him. How
+his heart beat with joy and pride when he found himself
+once more mounted on a noble steed, and clad in
+knightly armor! Thanking the stranger fervently, he
+put spurs to his horse, and galloped off.</p>
+
+<p>Entering the barriers, Roswal overset all who opposed
+him, and then, with a tremendous rush, charged at
+full speed upon the false prince, who was riding up
+and down with a great show in the presence of his
+lady. The steward recoiled in terror; but the unknown
+knight as suddenly checked his horse, turned around,
+saluted the company with the utmost grace, and vanished,
+as he had come, like a meteor.</p>
+
+<p>The company applauded, and the old King of Bealm
+cried out that he would give an earldom to find out
+who was the unknown knight.</p>
+
+<p>That evening, while all the palace was ringing with
+accounts of the brave stranger, Roswal came home
+from the forest, laden with venison and followed by
+his hounds.<span class="pagenum">[304]</span></p>
+
+<p>The Princess Lilian called him to her side, and told
+him of the events of the day. It was evident that she
+wished to inspire Roswal with a desire to break a lance
+in her behalf; but he appeared to be indifferent, and
+she ended in a burst of tears.</p>
+
+<p>Next day, when Roswal went again with his hounds
+to the forest, a second knight, leading a silver-gray
+war-horse laden with armor, appeared and repeated
+the kind offer of the day before. Roswal again entered
+the lists, and found the steward impudently advancing
+to meet him. Roswal unhorsed half a dozen of the
+bravest riders, then, with all possible ease, sent the
+steward to the ground with such a terrible crash, that
+the miserable impostor lay as if dead for some time.
+The unknown knight glanced up at the Princess Lilian,
+and saw a look in her face as if she suspected him.
+Then, quickly retiring from the ring, Roswal reappeared
+as before, at evening, with the spoils of the
+day of hunting. Lilian, who was ready to declare that
+none other than her handsome young lover could have
+been the stranger knight, was much perplexed when
+she found Roswal quietly at home engaged in his usual
+occupations.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day, Roswal was mounted and equipped<span class="pagenum">[305]</span>
+in a similar manner. He had a bay horse, a red shield,
+green armor, and a golden helmet. He cast down all
+of the other competitors, broke two of the steward's
+ribs, threw a gold ring into the lap of his lady-love,
+and rode away like a flash. Returning to the wood,
+he was met by all three of his friends, the knights who
+had helped him. They revealed themselves, and Roswal
+found to his delight that they were the three
+noblemen he had released from his father's dungeon.
+They told him they were well aware of all he
+had suffered for their sakes, and were prepared to befriend
+him still farther.</p>
+
+<p>Next day had been fixed upon for the wedding, and
+all the court was called together in a magnificent hall,
+to see their king bestow their princess' hand upon the
+Prince of Naples. Pale and tearful, for she had cried
+all night, appeared the princess. She was dressed in
+white satin, with a silver train, carried by ten little
+pages in blue, and on her head she wore a diadem of
+immense diamonds. The bridegroom, who had been
+patched up by the doctors, sat, anything but cheerful,
+in a golden chair beside the king. Behind a
+group of court ladies and gentlemen stood Roswal,
+handsomer than any one present, and looking every<span class="pagenum">[306]</span>
+inch a prince, though he wore a plain brown velvet suit,
+with a gold chain round his neck, the livery of Princess
+Lilian's household. Suddenly visitors were announced,
+and in came three richly clad strangers, scattering
+money among the servants, which made it an
+easy matter for them to move along.</p>
+
+<p>The king received them courteously, for he recognized
+three noblemen of the kingdom of Naples he
+had known long before.</p>
+
+<p>"You will be glad to salute your prince," the king
+said, when he had greeted them, "and to be present at
+his nuptials."</p>
+
+<p>The noblemen refused to notice the steward, whose
+knees knocked together with fear, for he saw he was
+on the brink of exposure. The three strangers looked
+about them and, espying Roswal, ran up to him, fell
+on their knees and kissed his hand, hailing him as the
+true Prince of Naples. The steward, in terror, dropped
+upon his knees before Roswal and confessed all, drawing
+from his pocket the casket containing the queen's
+jewels, which he had been about to present to his
+bride. Roswal would have dealt gently with the contemptible
+wretch, but the angry old King of Bealm
+declared that he and his daughter should not be made<span class="pagenum">[307]</span>
+sport of, and the offender live to tell it. So the steward
+was hanged forthwith, and Roswal, owning his love
+for Lilian, was made happy by promise of her hand&mdash;he
+had already won her heart, as you know.</p>
+
+<p>That same day arrived news of the death of the
+King of Naples, and the recall of Roswal to the throne.
+He was married to Lilian; and it is certain that no
+one who had befriended him in his days of poverty
+was ever forgotten by King Roswal. The good old
+woman in the forest was enriched, the three noblemen
+were restored to their estates and fortunes, and Roswal's
+mother was made happy by a speedy reunion
+with her son.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"So Roswal and Lilian sheen,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Lived many years in good liking.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I pray to Jesu, heaven's king,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To grant us heaven to our ending.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of them I have no more to say:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">God send them rest until doom's day!"<br></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[308]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 534px;">
+<img src="images/i074.jpg" width="534" height="209" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="ELIDUC_AND_GUILLIADUN" id="ELIDUC_AND_GUILLIADUN"></a>ELIDUC AND GUILLIADUN.</h2>
+
+<p class="h5">(<i>From one of Marie's Lays.</i>)</p>
+
+<img src="images/drop-e.jpg" width="74" height="74" alt="E" title="E" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">E</span><b>LIDUC</b>
+was a knight of Brittany who, through
+the cabals of enemies, fell under the displeasure
+of the king and was banished from
+his dominions. Sir Eliduc did not wish to forsake his
+country, still less did he wish to part with the fair
+Lady Guildeluec, to whom he was solemnly betrothed.
+But the king's order was law; and, taking a fond leave
+of his promised wife, while vowing ever to be faithful,
+Sir Eliduc called to him ten of the bravest of his followers,
+and set sail for the English coast. They had a short
+voyage with fair winds, landing at Totness, in Devonshire,<span class="pagenum">[309]</span>
+and proceeded at once to Exeter. The King of
+Exeter was at that time plunged into a most distressful
+war with a neighboring province, to whose prince
+he had refused to marry his only daughter and heiress.
+Sir Eliduc offered his services to the king, which
+were gladly accepted. After a few days a battle was
+fought, in which Eliduc's knowledge of the art of war
+and his bravery, as well as that of his ten followers,
+helped to decide the fortunes of the King of Exeter,
+who had the satisfaction of seeing the foe put to
+flight. As a reward for his aid, the king made Eliduc
+the supreme commander of all his armies. Eliduc
+was the idol of the people, and soon the fair Princess
+Guilliadun fell in love with him, confiding to the
+king, her father, that she would have no other husband
+than this valiant stranger. The king thought
+he could do no better than secure such a noble successor
+to his throne, and sent his chamberlain to inform
+Eliduc of the honor in store for him. Eliduc was now
+in a sad plight. He thought of his absent Guildeluec,
+who was no doubt, even then, waiting and weeping for
+his return, and his heart grew heavy within him. On
+the other hand, the Princess Guilliadun was by far the
+most beautiful creature he had ever seen, and her love<span class="pagenum">[310]</span>
+for him was strong. To refuse her offered hand would
+bring down on him the fierce wrath of a great king, to
+whom no man said nay.</p>
+
+<p>While Sir Eliduc was in this dilemma, a message
+came to him from his former master, the Breton king,
+ordering his immediate return to protect their country
+from invasion. All Sir Eliduc's love for his own land
+stirred within him. To defend her borders he was
+ready to sacrifice his present rank and wealth, and be
+a simple knight again. The image of his promised
+wife arose clear and bright before him, and he forgot
+the lovely Guilliadun, who, for a time, had so dazzled
+his imagination with her charms.</p>
+
+<p>Laying down his sword before the sovereign, he resigned
+command of the Exeter troops, and, in spite of
+the king's rich offers and temptations, hurried to take
+ship for France. Among his attendants was a youth
+muffled in a long mantle, who, when they were fairly
+out at sea, revealed to the knight's astonished gaze the
+face and form of the wilful Guilliadun.</p>
+
+<p>She had thus disguised herself to follow him, and
+now vowed that unless he took her to be his wife,
+she would die by her own fair hand. There was no
+time for discussion, for, at that moment, arose a mighty<span class="pagenum">[311]</span>
+tempest which threatened to engulf the ship. In
+vain were the efforts of the sailors to manage the
+vessel, and all prepared for immediate death, as wind
+and waves beat furiously upon them. Suddenly, one
+of the sailors spoke up for the rest, and, in the hearing
+of Guilliadun, warned Sir Eliduc that Heaven was
+angry with him for carrying off the princess in disguise,
+when he was already promised in marriage to
+another woman. Guilliadun hearing these words, fell
+lifeless to the deck. She appeared so like a dead person
+that the crew offered to throw her overboard,
+but Eliduc, seizing an oar, struck down the sailor who
+had spoken, and, himself grasping the helm, drove the
+ship through foam and boiling waves safely to port.
+In a few hours he might hope to reach the court of his
+king; but what, meantime, should he do with the body
+of the unfortunate princess? In this emergency, he
+remembered that in a forest near by had once lived an
+aged hermit, in whose cell he might possibly leave the
+corpse of the princess, until he should be able to dispose
+of it in a style suited to her rank. He mounted his palfrey,
+took the body in his arms, rode to the hermit's
+retreat, and, gaining entrance to a little chapel, laid
+on a slab in the centre of it the unhappy Guilliadun.<span class="pagenum">[312]</span>
+She was beautiful as ever, and looked like a waxen
+image. The knight, kneeling beside her, shed many
+bitter tears, and then, springing to his saddle, galloped
+off to place himself at the service of his king.</p>
+
+<p>He found the affairs of his country in a bad way,
+but the mere mention of his name sufficed to inspire
+the Breton soldiers with new courage. Marching
+at the head of the king's troops, he led them to
+battle, and in a short time had put the foe to confusion
+and rout. Covered with glory, Eliduc rode back to
+receive the king's congratulations and thanks. There,
+among the ladies attending the queen, was his faithful
+Guildeluec; but when she came forward with open
+arms to greet him, a thought of the Lady Guilliadun,
+who had died for love of him, shot into his heart like
+an arrow. Guildeluec quickly saw that something was
+amiss; but, hiding the anguish she felt, she resolved
+to keep close watch upon her lover, and, if possible,
+discover the cause of his coldness.</p>
+
+<p>For some days the court was given up to gaiety and
+festivals of all kinds. Guildeluec noticed that every
+day her knight would steal away to the forest and remain
+there for some hours, returning to the palace
+more melancholy than before. She set a little page to<span class="pagenum">[313]</span>
+follow Eliduc, and the boy traced his master to a retreat
+all overgrown with trees, where the knight entered
+and was lost to sight.</p>
+
+<p>Dismissing the boy with a piece of gold, the lady
+resolved herself to unravel the mystery. Wrapped in
+a long veil, she stole along the green alleys of the
+wood, and soon reached the little hermitage. Lifting
+up a curtain of closely woven vines which drooped before
+it, she entered the chapel door. There, on a bier
+richly hung with velvet, lay a young and lovely maiden,
+apparently dead, save that her cheeks bloomed like a
+new-blown rose. Guildeluec gazed for a while upon
+this sad sight, when a noise of approaching footsteps
+startled her, and she hid behind a tomb. The new-comer
+was none other than the brave knight Eliduc,
+who, casting himself on the ground beside the bier,
+gave way to bitter grief, calling the saints above to
+witness that he had been true to his pledge to Guildeluec,
+even to hastening to an untimely end the fair
+maiden before him. Guildeluec heard all, and understood
+what had taken his love from her. Just then a
+weasel, running from behind the altar, passed near the
+bier, which angered the knight, who, at one blow,
+struck the little animal dead upon the ground. When<span class="pagenum">[314]</span>
+Eliduc had gone, the watching lady saw another
+weasel run up to his slaughtered companion, attempt
+to play with her, and on finding her without life, go
+away with every appearance of grief. Directly the
+weasel came back again, carrying a beautiful red
+flower from the wood, which was carefully inserted in
+the mouth of his companion. The effect was magical.
+Instantly, the dead weasel sprang up, dropped the
+flower, and scampered off with her happy little comrade.</p>
+
+<p>Guildeluec stooped to pick up the fallen blossom.
+For a moment she hesitated, for her love for the
+knight was very great. Then she bent forward, and
+laid the stem of the flower between the rosy lips of
+the entranced Guilliadun. Immediately there were
+signs of life. The girl stirred, a blush came into her
+cheeks, and her lips parted. When her eyes opened,
+Guildeluec sighed and said, "Truly, never was there
+seen so fair a creature."</p>
+
+<p>Guildeluec soon explained to the awakened princess
+where she was, and received her fervent thanks for
+delivery from so strange a spell. With many tears,
+Guilliadun confessed to her unknown friend her love
+for the knight Eliduc, and the way she had followed
+him from her father's court. Guildeluec heard her<span class="pagenum">[315]</span>
+<span class="pagenum">[316]</span>tale in silence, and when it was at an end, led her away
+from the hermitage to the palace, where the queen
+took the princess under her charge, and in the evening
+presented her with much pomp to the members
+of her court. When Eliduc saw Guilliadun alive and
+well, richly clad and lovelier than before, his heart
+rejoiced, but he turned away from her. Then came
+forward Guildeluec, who, with the queen's permission,
+released him from his pledge to her, and gave him
+back his ring, saying she had determined to retire to a
+convent and devote her days to holy works.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/i075.jpg" width="600" height="316" alt="Guildeluec Reviving Guilliadun." title="">
+<p class="caption">Guildeluec Reviving Guilliadun.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The queen then placed Guilliadun's hand in that of
+Eliduc. They were married with great rejoicings; but
+when the blessing was said over them by the priest,
+the knight fancied he heard a sigh breathed close in
+his ear. He looked around; there was no one in
+sight, save the group of nuns behind a grating, whose
+voices rose pure and clear in the strains of the bridal
+hymn.</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[317]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 532px;">
+<img src="images/i076.jpg" width="532" height="162" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_FALCON-KING" id="THE_FALCON-KING"></a>THE FALCON-KING.</h2>
+
+<p class="h5">(<i>From one of Marie's Lays.</i>)</p>
+
+<img src="images/drop-t.jpg" width="75" height="78" alt="T" title="T" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">T</span><b>HERE</b>
+lived once, in Britain, an old knight who
+was lord of Caerwent, a city situated on the
+River Douglas. He was wealthy and avaricious,
+and the sole heir to his possessions, a lovely
+daughter, he kept locked up in a high tower, under the
+care of a cross governess. His one fear was that this
+daughter would marry, and thus give some one the
+right to lay claim to the gold that was dearer to him
+than life itself. To prevent her from getting a husband,
+the old knight used every method he could
+think of to keep off visitors; and any stray caller at
+the castle was set upon by fierce dogs, who would tear
+one to pieces as soon as gnaw a beef-bone!<span class="pagenum">[318]</span></p>
+
+<p>Day after day the father rode off to the hunt, the
+governess told her beads, and the damsel moped within
+the tower. One morning she was at her wheel, singing
+a mournful ditty, and sighing from time to time,
+as she glanced over the tree-tops at the roofs and spires
+of the distant city, when suddenly the sky above her
+window was darkened, and she heard a whirring noise,
+as of mighty wings astir. A falcon of huge size and
+noble mien flew in at the casement, and lit submissively
+at her feet. The maiden stroked his proud head,
+and at once the bird changed to a beautiful young
+man, who, in a gentle voice, begged her to have no
+fear of him, as he was not only a devoted lover but the
+humblest of her slaves.</p>
+
+<p>"Bid me go if you will," said the prince, "and
+deeply as I should regret your command, you will see
+how quickly I shall obey it. Long have I watched you
+from afar, and dearly I love you. For your sake, I
+have acquired the art of magic, enabling me to assume
+this shape in order to reach your prison."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! but I <i>don't</i> want you to go!" cried the poor
+little mewed-up damsel, who was tired to death of
+having nobody to talk to.</p>
+
+<p>As she had never seen a man younger than her<span class="pagenum">[319]</span>
+father, it was a great astonishment to her to find that
+the prince's hair was dark and his cheek unwrinkled
+and rosy as a ripe peach.</p>
+
+<p>What he meant by being a lover, she did not in the
+least understand. Only, it was pleasant to hear him
+talk in his kind, low voice; and praises were so rare to
+her, that they sounded sweet as honey dropping from
+his lips.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of course, the afternoon passed quickly;
+but at last, startled by the noise of a key grating in
+the lock of the door, the prince quickly assumed his
+bird-shape, and promising to come again upon the
+morrow, flew out of the window. The governess could
+not imagine what had put her prisoner in such a silly
+state of cheerfulness, as she thought it; and, boxing
+the poor girl's ears for smiling, gave her a long piece
+of poetry to learn by heart, and allowed her nothing
+but bread and water for her tea.</p>
+
+<p>Next day the falcon came again, and for many days
+he continued his visits, until the girl grew to love him
+as he loved her, and promised to be his wife. Once a
+month the chaplain was accustomed to come to see
+her, and to make her say a catechism the longest ever
+heard of. When next the day came around for his<span class="pagenum">[320]</span>
+visit, what was her surprise, instead of the stern chaplain,
+to find a gentle and kind old priest, who, when
+left alone with her, avowed himself to be a friend of
+the falcon-prince.</p>
+
+<p>"As your father is a wicked and unworthy son of
+the church, and the prince a noble and devoted one, I
+cannot but approve of the marriage between you and
+your beloved," the old man said. "The ceremony will
+now be performed, and may heaven's blessing rest upon
+you both."</p>
+
+<p>The falcon-prince arrived at the same moment, bearing
+in his beak a wedding-ring of large bright diamonds.
+The couple were married, and the prince
+told his wife that, very soon, he would be able to furnish
+her also with wings to leave the tower.</p>
+
+<p>One day the governess, coming in unexpectedly,
+found the girl toying with a beautiful ring, which she
+hurriedly concealed in her mattress. Spite of all the
+governess' efforts, she could not find the jewel; nor
+could she succeed in drawing from her captive any explanation
+of how she had come by it. The governess
+told the father, who redoubled his precautions and set
+spies to watch upon the outside of the tower. In a
+few days, the spies reported to him that they had seen<span class="pagenum">[321]</span>
+a bird of the largest size fly in at the maiden's window,
+remain there for some hours, and then fly out again.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be a match for this carrier-pigeon of hers!"
+said the old knight with malicious glee. That night a
+trap was set upon the outside of the window, surrounded
+by sharp knives, so that anything passing through it
+would inevitably be caught or wounded grievously.
+The young wife awaited her husband anxiously, for it
+was the day fixed for her escape. Soon he arrived;
+but as he touched the window the trap fell, and although
+he managed to pass in, a long trail of blood was
+left behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"Lose no time, my beloved!" he said, in a voice
+altered by pain. "Our enemies are upon us. Put
+this bracelet on your arm, and spring into the air after
+me, without fear."</p>
+
+<p>She obeyed, and found herself upborne by magic
+wings, which carried her more swiftly than the wind
+over forest tops, shining river, and city spires and
+domes. Glorious as was her airy flight, she could see
+that her companion grew weaker. They arrived in a
+country adjoining the one in which she had lived, and
+stopped immediately above a splendid palace&mdash;alighting
+in the marble balcony of a chamber furnished<span class="pagenum">[322]</span>
+with the utmost magnificence. Here the falcon regained
+his man's shape, and, with despair, his wife
+saw that he was deathly pale, while the blood poured
+from a wound beneath his heart.</p>
+
+<p>"I am dying," he exclaimed. "Help me to my bed
+yonder, and may heaven grant me strength to tell my
+people that you are their lawful queen."</p>
+
+<p>The poor wife aided her husband to lie down, but
+when he would have spoken to her again, his voice
+was gone&mdash;a moment more, and he was dead.</p>
+
+<p>And now in what a mournful plight the pretty new
+queen found herself! Soon the attendants would, no
+doubt, come flocking into the room, to discover their
+sovereign murdered in his bed, and a stranger cowering
+by his side. Terror lent speed to her feet, and
+hastening back to the balcony, she ran down a long
+flight of stairs communicating with the outer court
+and garden of the palace. Thence she escaped to
+wander into the forest, and until day broke again she
+never ceased to walk. For some days she remained
+concealed in the forest, living upon fruit and berries,
+until at last hunger drove her to the cottage of
+a poor laborer. The wife of this man was very ill,
+and the queen offered to stay and nurse her, which<span class="pagenum">[323]</span>
+was gratefully accepted. So faithful and devoted an
+attendant she proved that, when the woman of the
+house got well, both husband and wife insisted their
+stranger guest should make her home with them.
+In this secluded retreat, where only a stray huntsman
+now and then passed by, the queen remained until a
+beautiful son was born to her. And now, she felt a
+burning desire to have her boy educated in a manner
+worthy of his father's rank; and poverty, that had
+seemed so light a burden to herself, grew heavy when
+it weighed on him. When the baby was three years
+old, a gay hunting-party passed that way, among them
+a rich and childless lady, who, charmed with the
+beauty of the boy, offered to adopt him on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>The poor queen wept so bitterly at thought of parting
+with her treasure, that the lady, who was a kind-hearted
+person, proposed she should accompany them
+and serve in the capacity of the boy's governess.</p>
+
+<p>To this plan the queen made no objection; and,
+bidding an affectionate farewell to her humble friends,
+she took her place with the boy in a travelling carriage
+sent to fetch them.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Years rolled on, and the child born in the forest had<span class="pagenum">[324]</span>
+reached the age of twenty-one. He was a handsome,
+manly youth, and skilled in all athletic exercises.
+About this time, the family of his adopted mother was
+invited to be present at a great religious ceremony in
+an abbey upon the borders of a neighboring kingdom.
+Among the many attendants of the nobles summoned
+for the occasion, was the real mother, who came dressed
+in deep mourning and wearing a veil over her face;
+and one of the guests was the wicked old knight, her
+father. The abbot of the monastery threw open the
+doors of the chapel, that had long been sealed, and all
+flocked into it. There, in the centre, stood a bier
+covered with cloth of gold and surrounded by blazing
+wax-lights, while about it knelt an hundred priests, at
+prayer. After a mass had been sung, the abbot announced
+that in yonder bier lay the remains of the late
+king, their master, who, as all his faithful subjects
+knew, was foully murdered twenty-one years before;
+and that, by the terms of the king's will, found some
+time after his death, the throne rightfully belonged to
+a lady who had been married in secret by their sovereign,
+and was by him commended to their truest love
+and honor. "For many long years," added the good
+abbot, "we have sought vainly for the widow of our<span class="pagenum">[325]</span>
+lamented ruler; not the faintest trace of her has ever
+been found, and we have resolved to meet here and
+choose to-day a successor to our king."</p>
+
+<p>"Here is a worthy successor to your king!" cried a
+voice from the throng; and the unfortunate queen,
+throwing back her veil, pointed to her astonished son.
+"Behold the rightful heir! Who dares to say that he
+is not the image of his father? <i>I</i> am the queen you
+have so long sought, and this youth is, unknown to
+himself, my son. In proof of it, here is the marriage
+ring given me by the king."</p>
+
+<p>"And in proof of it," exclaimed a venerable priest,
+coming forward, "I attest that <i>I</i> performed the marriage
+ceremony between our king and this poor lady.
+Her appearance and her claim remove the seal from my
+promise of secresy, and I unhesitatingly declare this
+youth to be our lawful sovereign."</p>
+
+<p>All eyes turned upon the young man, and all tongues
+proclaimed his marvellous resemblance to the king.
+The abbot knelt at the young man's feet and offered
+him a golden crown carried on a velvet cushion. Loud
+cries of joy and cheers filled the air, when suddenly
+the unfortunate queen was seen to totter toward the
+bier of her husband.<span class="pagenum">[326]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to die on this spot," she said, snatching
+up the sword that lay upon the tomb and placing it in
+her son's hand; then, bidding him avenge the sad fate
+of his parents, she immediately expired. At the same
+moment, a white-haired knight tried to steal away from
+the church; but when the ancient priest perceived him,
+the fugitive was denounced as the murderer of their
+king. Seized by the populace, the wretched old miser
+was hurried to instant death; his grandson was carried
+in triumph to the palace, and there installed as king.</p>
+
+<p>The new monarch reigned long and wisely&mdash;an example
+for all future sovereigns.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 529px;">
+<img src="images/i077.jpg" width="529" height="320" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[329]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 536px;">
+<img src="images/i079.jpg" width="536" height="120" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="EGLAMOUR_AND_CRYSTABELL" id="EGLAMOUR_AND_CRYSTABELL"></a>EGLAMOUR AND CRYSTABELL.</h2>
+
+<p class="h5">(<i>From Ellis' Abstract of Copy in Garrick Collection.</i>)</p>
+
+<img src="images/drop-c.jpg" width="72" height="69" alt="C" title="C" class="split">
+
+<p class="minus"><span class="hide">C</span><b>OUNT</b>
+Prinsamour, an independent sovereign
+of Artois, was famed for his skill in
+training young men in the courtesy and accomplishments
+of chivalry. His court was the resort
+of all youths who wished to excel in those important
+arts. His daughter Crystabell, the heiress of Count
+Prinsamour's dominions, was very beautiful and accomplished,
+and her father designed to marry her to some
+powerful monarch. The tournaments instituted at his
+court were in her honor, and for her sake all the
+hotheaded young knights in training broke their
+lances.</p>
+
+<p>Crystabell herself had no desire to leave her own
+country to become the wife of a foreign monarch.
+She loved the free and stirring air around her father's<span class="pagenum">[330]</span>
+castle, and had, unknown to the count, fallen in love
+with a young knight, Sir Eglamour, who was ever
+victorious in the numerous tournaments ridden in
+her name.</p>
+
+<p>Eglamour, on his side, looked up to the young
+countess as to a star. He never dreamed of winning
+her love, because he was only a knight, without wealth
+or lands, depending upon his sword alone to make his
+way through life. At last, one day, something that
+Crystabell said made him think that she cared for him
+more than for the rest of her followers. Sorely
+troubled, and yet strangely happy, the young man
+wandered off to think it over. He finally resolved to
+ask advice of the chamberlain, who had always stood
+his friend. That personage counselled him to give up
+all thoughts of the countess, who, he said, was destined
+by her father to be the bride of a rich and great king.
+Eglamour sighed, and admitted that his friend was
+right. But that night, in the solitude of his chamber,
+he addressed a prayer to God:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Lord," he said, "grant me a boon,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As thou on rood me bought!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The erle's daughter, fair and free,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That she may my wife be!<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum">[331]</span></div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">For she is most in my thought:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That I may wed her to my wife,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And in joy to lead our life!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">From care then were I brought."<br></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In those days a true knight thought it no shame to
+his manhood to take the burden of his every-day cares
+and lay it in all simplicity at the feet of his Maker.
+When his devotions were at an end, Sir Eglamour slept
+soundly, and awoke in better heart.</p>
+
+<p>After a while, Sir Eglamour fell ill, and the count
+desired his daughter, who was skilled in medicine, as
+were all great ladies of the time, to attend upon the
+invalid. Crystabell, followed by her damsels, went at
+once into the sick-room. She found Sir Eglamour
+feverish and unhappy, and on bending down to minister
+to him, his pulse throbbed so violently at her
+touch, that the tears of sympathy came into her eyes.
+"I have betrayed my love," thought Sir Eglamour; but
+what was his happiness when the lady bent down to
+kiss his lips, confessing that the chamberlain had told
+her what was the real cause of his malady; and, to
+comfort Eglamour, she bid him live for her sake.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 562px;">
+<img src="images/i078.jpg" width="562" height="764" alt="Eglamour &amp; Crystabell." title="">
+<p class="caption">Eglamour &amp; Crystabell.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>After this, Eglamour got well rapidly; but he felt it
+right and honorable to inform the count, at once, how<span class="pagenum">[332]</span>
+matters stood between the two young people. The
+count, who, although a brave knight, was largely governed
+by selfish ambition, refused Sir Eglamour with
+scorn. Then, after thinking a while, he told the youth
+that he would only bestow his daughter upon the
+champion who might accomplish three perilous feats
+of arms, each one of which would expose the candidate
+to the most imminent danger; and that the victor
+should not only receive the hand of Crystabell,
+but in time inherit the whole territory of Artois.</p>
+
+<p>Overjoyed, Sir Eglamour accepted the conditions
+without delay. He declared he was ready to set off
+that day or the next upon the enterprise. He did not
+suspect the count's real purpose in setting him this
+task, which was to destroy the rash knight who presumed
+to love his daughter.</p>
+
+<p>"At a little distance to the westward," said the
+count, "there is a forest of noble trees belonging to a
+most terrible giant, named Maroke. In a part of the
+forest shut off for the giant's own hunting ground, are
+three deer, famed for their size and speed. To hunt
+one of these celebrated animals is, of course, to challenge
+an encounter with their owner. Consider whether
+you have courage enough for such an enterprise."<span class="pagenum">[333]</span></p>
+
+<p>Sir Eglamour smiled, promised to kill the giant, and
+hurried off to tell his lady-love. Crystabell trembled
+and wept, but bid her lover God-speed. She told him
+that no man ever set forth upon a more arduous journey
+in a Christian country, but that she gloried in his
+brave spirit. She gave him a good greyhound, from
+whom no deer that ever ran had yet escaped&mdash;also a
+sword, once found in the sea, the only one of the kind
+in the world, and which could carve in two any helmet
+of steel or iron. Eglamour kissed her farewell,
+as he received these gifts, and set out with a light
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching the giant's park, he followed the wall to
+a massive gate, burst it open, and entered the wood.
+This forest was of huge cypress trees, and Eglamour
+had the luck soon to come upon the three
+deer grazing quietly. They were the most immense
+creatures he had ever seen; and singling out the largest,
+he attacked it. With the help of the dun greyhound,
+he brought the stag to earth, and set to work
+to carve his spoil. Laden with venison, he then approached
+the giant's castle, blowing his horn at intervals;
+and, when arrived there, he sounded a wild and
+merry blast, which roused Maroke from sleep and
+brought him in fury to
+the gate.</p>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[334]</span>
+
+<div class="i080">
+ <div class="split" id="i080-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="i080-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>Sir Eglamour
+politely asked the monster
+to give him leave
+to pass through the
+grounds with his prey.</p>
+
+<p>The giant, gnashing
+his teeth in rage, answered
+by aiming a blow
+with his club at the
+saucy young knight's
+head. Sir Eglamour, at
+the same moment, drew
+Crystabell's
+sword, which
+shone so brightly
+as to dazzle
+the eyes of Maroke,
+striking
+him stone-blind
+where he
+stood. Then
+followed a
+mighty combat. Blind as the giant was, he fought<span class="pagenum">[335]</span>
+well and skilfully for three entire days. At the end of
+the third day, Sir Eglamour rallied all his strength and
+drove his sword into the giant's heart, a thrust which
+sent Maroke crashing like a forest tree to earth.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Eglamour, having cut off his enemy's head, carried
+it, together with the slaughtered stag, back to the
+court of his sovereign. The count received him ruefully;
+but fair Crystabell laughed and rejoiced, while
+the courtiers covered their champion with praises.
+After Eglamour was rested and refreshed, the count
+hurried him off again. This time he was to journey to
+the distant land of Satyn, where his task was to fetch
+away the head of a prodigious boar, the terror of that
+ill-fated country, half of whose inhabitants the creature
+had already eaten up.</p>
+
+<p>To reach the land of Satyn, Sir Eglamour had to
+travel a fortnight by sea, a fortnight by land. Arriving
+there at nightfall, he thought it prudent to spend
+the night in resting on the borders of the forest. At
+sunrise next day he approached the den of the horrible
+boar, who had just come back from taking his morning
+drink in the sea. The animal was a terror to look
+upon, having flaming eyes and tusks a yard long. He
+lay gnawing some human bones and growling frightfully,<span class="pagenum">[336]</span>
+surrounded by dead bodies, many of which were
+clad in knightly armor. At once Sir Eglamour dashed
+at him with a shout&mdash;"For God and Crystabell!" The
+boar whetted his long tusks and set upon his adversary,
+killing at the first blow Sir Eglamour's noble horse,
+his own tough hide remaining unhurt by the spear.
+Sir Eglamour now had recourse to his magic sword,
+and found to his joy that, wherever he struck, the boar's
+hide was cut; although the length of the animal's tusks
+made it difficult to close with him. This combat,
+like that with the giant, lasted three days, and at the
+end Sir Eglamour, by a sudden swift movement, made
+a terrible blow at the creature's neck, severing the
+head from his body.</p>
+
+<p>Long before the close of this memorable fight, the
+boar's snorts of rage and defiance had attracted to the
+spot the King of Satyn and fifteen of his knights, who
+happened to be hunting in the forest. When the boar
+dropped dead, Sir Eglamour fell over him, and lay
+there completely exhausted. The king and his men
+drew near, showered compliments on the strange
+knight's bravery, and told him that the wicked beast
+of whom he had rid them had sometimes destroyed as
+many as forty men in one day.<span class="pagenum">[337]</span></p>
+
+<p>The king ordered a cloth to be laid upon the grass,
+and Sir Eglamour was regaled with venison and rich
+wine, which brought strength back to his arm and
+hope to his heart. The king's men then attempted
+to cut up the boar, but failed, owing to the toughness
+of his hide. The sword of Sir Eglamour was put into
+requisition, and in a moment the beast was cleft asunder
+along the back bone. The meat was distributed
+among the knights and men-at-arms, Sir Eglamour
+claiming the head alone. The King of Satyn afterward
+ordered for the champion a warm bath of certain
+sweet-scented herbs that healed his wounds and
+in which he rested pleasantly till break of day. Then
+the party went on to the king's palace, where Sir Eglamour
+was asked to stay and recover from his fatigue.</p>
+
+<p>Now it happened that the boar just slain was an intimate
+friend of Manas, a huge and frightful giant, own
+brother to Maroke. Manas had fallen in love with the
+King of Satyn's daughter, and had vowed to carry her
+off. When Manas came prowling around the castle
+that evening, and beheld on the point of a spear over
+the gateway the head of his friend the boar, he flew
+into an awful passion, foaming at the mouth; and as
+he looked on that head<span class="pagenum">[338]</span>&mdash;</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Alas!" he cried, "art thou dead?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My trust was all in thee!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Now, by the law that I live in,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My little speckled hoglin,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Dear bought shall thy death be!"<br></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 539px;">
+<img src="images/i081.jpg" width="539" height="382" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Manas beat upon the door and walls of the castle in a
+fury, demanding the surrender of the murderer of his
+dear little speckled hoglin. Presently, Sir Eglamour,<span class="pagenum">[339]</span>
+fully armed and equipped, mounted on a fiery courser,
+and with lance in rest, attacked the giant at full speed.</p>
+
+<p>Manas resisted vigorously, and in an instant overthrew
+man and horse. The king, the princess, and
+the court, who had assembled on the walls of the
+castle, began to tremble for the safety of their champion.
+But Sir Eglamour, lightly springing to his feet,
+drew his invincible sword, and closing with the giant,
+cut off his right arm. The monster roared with pain,
+but continued to fight, though yelling at intervals as
+loudly as ever, till near sunset, when the patient
+knight, who had hitherto suffered him to exhaust himself
+by his own efforts, suddenly rushed forward and
+completed the victory! The boar and Manas being
+dead, Eglamour now took his leave of the grateful
+King of Satyn and his court, who rejoiced greatly
+over the death of their two adversaries. The heads of
+the boar and the giant Manas were carefully packed
+up, and in due time Eglamour laid them at the feet of
+his faithful Crystabell.</p>
+
+<p>Count Prinsamour, secretly disgusted at his knight's
+success, at once sent him off on another enterprise,
+more dangerous than the two preceding ones. Eglamour
+and Crystabell, now seeing that the false count<span class="pagenum">[340]</span>
+was determined to prevent their marriage, parted from
+each other with many tears. But Crystabell vowed to
+marry him, with or without her father's leave, so soon as
+he should return, if ever he did, from the present journey.</p>
+
+<p>The third mission was to kill a tremendous dragon, at
+that time desolating the country around the gates of
+Rome. After sundry adventures by the way, Eglamour
+encountered the beast, and fought it long and valiantly.
+He succeeded in cutting off its wings, tail, and head;
+but at last he fell himself, exhausted by his wounds
+and poisoned by the dragon's sting, and was carried
+from the field.</p>
+
+<p>When Crystabell heard that her brave lover was
+lying at the point of death in Rome, she left her father
+and journeyed to the knight's bedside, where, to make
+him happy before he died, she consented to marry
+him on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>Eglamour rallied under the care of his beloved Crystabell;
+but, after they had spent some happy months
+together, Count Prinsamour found out his daughter's
+place of retreat, and carried her off from her husband,
+abusing him as a vile thief and imposter.</p>
+
+<p>Crystabell cried and lamented continually for her
+lost husband. After a while, a son was born to her,<span class="pagenum">[341]</span>
+which made the count more angry than before. He
+took the unfortunate mother and child, put them, without
+food, into an open boat, and set them adrift upon
+the sea. The boat drifted for five days, and at last
+reached the shores of a country whose king proved to
+be the brother of Crystabell's own mother. He took
+the wayfarers under his care, and devoted himself to
+bringing up the boy, named Degrabell, to be a valiant
+knight.</p>
+
+<p>After a time, Eglamour travelled to Artois, and
+entering the count's hall by force, confronted his cruel
+father-in-law in the presence of all the knights and
+squires. He had heard of the fate of his wife and
+child, and his wrath was terrible to see. He cast the
+dragon's head, wings, and tail before the count, reminded
+him that his daughter had been fairly won,
+and called down God's judgment upon the unnatural
+father who had bereaved Eglamour of all he held dear
+in life. The count retreated to his strongest citadel in
+fear before the righteous anger of this mighty champion;
+but Eglamour seized the property of his late
+master, divided it among the count's worthy and needy
+subjects, and ordering masses to be sung in all the
+churches for the soul of his lost Crystabell, departed<span class="pagenum">[342]</span>
+for the Holy Land, where, during many years, he distinguished
+himself both in battle and in tournament
+against the Saracens.</p>
+
+<p>When her son, Sir Degrabell, had reached the age of
+eighteen, Crystabell was more beautiful than ever, and
+the king, her uncle, resolved to marry her to some
+knight who might make happy the remainder of her
+days. Crystabell, who still cherished the memory of
+her lost Sir Eglamour, begged her son to help her in
+this emergency. Sir Degrabell went to the king and
+insisted that all of the knights aspiring to his mother's
+hand should first meet him in the lists, and that only
+the one who should overthrow him might claim the
+princess as a wife.</p>
+
+<p>The king smiled at the pretentions of this beardless
+youth, and gave his consent. A tournament was announced,
+and to it came from all parts of the country
+persons of high rank seeking adventure. Knight
+after knight presented himself in the lists, and was
+swiftly unhorsed by the gallant Degrabell. At length
+the boy, flushed with conquest, turned to a stranger
+of distinguished appearance who stood gazing at the
+spectacle, without seeming to take any great interest
+in it, and asked if he too had a mind to break a lance.<span class="pagenum">[343]</span>
+The stranger knight hesitated, then said that, to amuse
+himself, he would do so. Mounting his horse, he
+rode with the speed of a lightning flash against Degrabell,
+who was borne to the earth on the spot.
+Princess Crystabell had been watching the tourney
+with pride, but screamed aloud at her son's overthrow,
+and rushed into the arena, throwing herself on her
+knees before the stranger and imploring him to spare
+her boy. Trembling, she looked upon the victor's
+shield, and there saw depicted a rude device of a
+golden boat containing a lady and a child about to
+perish in the waves.</p>
+
+<p>On his side, the knight gazed at the lady in trembling,
+then bending his knee before her, revealed himself
+the long-lost Eglamour. Crystabell would have
+swooned for joy, had not her husband caught her in
+his arms. Eglamour, equally astonished and delighted,
+had still in store for him the rapture of recognizing in
+his brave young antagonist the son so worthy of his sire.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Eglamour and Lady Crystabell, thus happily
+reunited, lived together for the remainder of their
+days in prosperity. Degrabell became a famous
+champion. The old Count Prinsamour broke his neck
+by falling from his tower; and so, my tale is told!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 249px;">
+<img src="images/i082.jpg" width="249" height="344" alt="" title="">
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Old-Fashioned Fairy Book, by 
+Constance Cary Harrison
+
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+</body>
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+Project Gutenberg's The Old-Fashioned Fairy Book, by Constance Cary Harrison
+
+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: The Old-Fashioned Fairy Book
+
+Author: Constance Cary Harrison
+
+Illustrator: Rosina Emmet
+
+Release Date: September 8, 2011 [EBook #37348]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD-FASHIONED FAIRY BOOK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Matthew Wheaton and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    THE OLD-FASHIONED FAIRY BOOK
+
+    BY
+
+    MRS. BURTON HARRISON
+
+
+    ILLUSTRATED BY
+
+    MISS ROSINA EMMET
+
+
+    LONDON
+
+    SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, AND RIVINGTON
+    CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET
+
+
+    [_All rights reserved_]
+
+
+    Dedicated
+
+    TO
+
+    FAIRFAX, FRANK AND ARCHY
+
+
+
+
+    CONTENTS.
+
+
+    INTRODUCTION
+
+    THE PRINCESS EGLANTINE
+
+    DAME MARTHA'S STEP-DAUGHTER; OR, THE GRANDMOTHER OF THE GNOMES
+
+    THE ADVENTURES OF HA'PENNY; OR, THE DWARF, THE
+    WITCH, AND THE MAGIC SLIPPERS
+
+    SYBILLA, MYRTILLO, AND FURIOSO
+
+    ANNETTE; OR, THE MAGIC COFFEE-MILL
+
+    JULIET; OR, THE LITTLE WHITE MOUSE
+
+    THE FAIRIES AND THE FIDDLER
+
+    ETHELINDA; OR, THE ICE KING'S BRIDE
+
+    DEEP-SEA VIOLETS
+
+    THE WILD WOODSMAN
+
+    THE FROZEN HEARTH-FAIRY
+
+    ROSY'S STAY-AT-HOME PARTIES
+
+    BLONDINA; OR, THE TURKEY-QUEEN
+
+    TIMID AGNES
+
+    THE OGRESS AND THE COOK
+
+    MISS PEGGY AND THE FROG
+
+    THE LEPERHAUN: A LEGEND OF THE EMERALD ISLE
+
+
+        ROMANCES OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
+
+
+    THE TRIALS OF SIR ISUMBRAS
+
+    BISCLAVERET
+
+    ROSWAL AND LILIAN
+
+    ELIDUC AND GUILLIADUN
+
+    THE FALCON-KING
+
+    SIR EGLAMOUR AND CRYSTABELL
+
+
+
+
+FAIRY DAYS.
+
+
+    Beside the old hall-fire--upon my nurse's knee,
+    Of happy fairy-days--what tales were told to me!
+    I thought the world was once--all peopled with princesses,
+    And my heart would beat to hear--their loves and their distresses;
+    And many a quiet night--in slumber sweet and deep,
+    The pretty fairy people--would visit me in sleep.
+
+    I saw them in my dreams--come flying east and west,
+    With wondrous fairy gifts--the new-born babe they bless'd;
+    One has brought a jewel--and one a crown of gold,
+    And one has brought a curse--but she is wrinkled and old.
+    The gentle queen turns pale--to hear those words of sin,
+    But the king he only laughs--and bids the dance begin.
+
+    The babe has grown to be--the fairest of the land,
+    And rides the forest green--a hawk upon her hand,
+    An ambling palfrey white--a golden robe and crown;
+    I've seen her in my dreams--riding up and down:
+    And heard the ogre laugh--as she fell into his snare,
+    At the little tender creature--who wept and tore her hair!
+
+    But ever when it seemed--her need was at the sorest,
+    A prince--in shining mail--comes prancing through the forest,
+    A waving ostrich-plume--a buckler burnished bright;
+    I've seen him in my dreams--good sooth! a gallant knight.
+    His lips are coral red--beneath a dark moustache;
+    See how he waves his hand--and how his blue eyes flash!
+
+    "Come forth, thou Paynim knight!"--he shouts in accents clear.
+    The giant and the maid--both tremble his voice to hear.
+    Saint Mary guard him well!--He draws his falchion keen,
+    The giant and the knight--are fighting on the green;
+    I see them in my dreams--his blade gives stroke on stroke,
+    The giant pants and reels--and tumbles like an oak!
+
+    With what a blushing grace--he falls upon his knee
+    And takes the lady's hand--and whispers, "You are free!"
+    Ah! happy childish tales--of knight and faerie!
+    I waken from my dreams--but there's ne'er a knight for me;
+    I waken from my dreams--and wish that I could be
+    A child by the old hall-fire--upon my nurse's knee!
+
+                                 W. M. THACKERAY.
+
+[Illustration: The Faithful Comrades.]
+
+[Illustration: Old-Fashioned Fairies.]
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+    _To my Young Readers._
+
+              _Children Dear_:
+
+
+Not long ago two little boys, who shall be nameless here, came to their
+mother's side at that pleasant hour of the twenty-four called by the
+English "blind-man's holiday," and by the French, "between dog and
+wolf." The lamps had not been lighted, and the room was full of shadows;
+but a strip of western sky, seen through the bay window, hung like a
+pink veil behind which a few pale stars were beginning to show above
+the dark line of hills. All that bright summer's day long, four little
+busy feet had been in motion. Directly after breakfast they had raced
+down the meadow-path, pursued by Colin Clout, their faithful Scotch
+collie, between grass and daisies so tall that little could be seen of
+the dog and his younger master, beyond a brown back and white-tipped
+tail curveting around a scarlet fez that bobbed up and down like a buoy
+upon the water. Soon the three companions had reappeared for a moment
+under a low arch of fringy boughs at the entrance to the grove, and then
+had descended a bank to the edge of a babbling brook, where, on the
+grassy margin, the children played every day for hours, inventing a
+hundred devices of boats and dams and waterfalls, whilst Colin lay at
+ease among the ferns, and from time to time emitted a bark of pure good
+fellowship. For them this shallow streamlet has a charm hardly to be
+resisted, even for a summons to drive "over the hills and far away"
+through the lovely country-side, or to assist in the delights of the
+season when their pretty meadow grasses are laid low, tossed into
+fragrant piles, and carted away by merry haying-folk--though sometimes
+these water-elves pause to forage the neighboring woods for "hocky"
+sticks and sling-shot crotches, to "shin up" the tall forest trees, or
+pluck wild strawberries from the sunny slopes beyond their favorite
+haunt.
+
+On the especial evening of which I write, the faithful comrades had
+returned, tired, and scratched by the briers of this work-a-day world,
+from a tramp of some miles in search of live bait for a fishing
+excursion projected with their father at Lily Pond upon the morrow. The
+doomed little fishes had been put into a bath-tub full of water, where
+they were expected to suppose themselves still in their native pool. The
+boys had been washed and fed--an astonishing supper, even for those
+cormorants!--and now had elected to seek rest and refreshment at the
+maternal knee. Colin, observing that everybody else was satisfactorily
+adjusted in affectionate attitudes, had retired under the fringe of a
+table-cover close at hand, and lay where only his loving eyes and open
+mouth could be seen, breathing in short quick pants, or, as the boys
+called it, "ha-ha-ha-ing at the company."
+
+"And now, mamma, until your tea is ready, we know what you must do,"
+said the children, in a breath. "Tell us a story--a 'real, truly' fairy
+tale, about a giant and a dwarf, lots and lots of fairies, a prince and
+a beautiful princess with hair to her very feet, a champion with a magic
+sword, a dragon-chariot, a witch dressed in snake-skin--and, if you can,
+an ogre. Don't punish anybody but the witch and the ogre; and _please_
+don't have any moral, only let everybody 'live in peace and die in a pot
+of grease,' at the end of it."
+
+"To be sure, we know most of mamma's stories by heart," said the sage
+elder of nine. "If she could only make up some new ones that aren't in
+any of our books! Or else, mamma, tell us something you heard a little
+bit of, long, long ago, from your nurse, and then make up the rest. But
+whatever one you tell, we'll be sure to like it anyhow."
+
+The stories told, the mother fell to musing, and the result is the
+little book here presented to the judgment of children other than her
+own--a few new fairy tales, on the old, old pattern!
+
+In every country of the habitable globe are found the same myths,
+variously dressed and styled. Let the ethnologist frame what theory he
+will upon this subject, my own private belief is that once upon a time a
+good fairy who loved mankind put on the wings of a stormy petrel and
+flew over many lands, carrying in her hand a sieve full of tiny seeds,
+and shaking it upon those spots where there appeared to be most
+children. The seeds, falling to earth after this fashion, sprang up and
+bore many-colored fairy tales, to rejoice all hearts for evermore. Since
+then, the fables you and I love have been told from father to son among
+nations living remote from each other and isolated. The Hindoo toiling
+under the tropic sun, and the Lapp in his smoky hut banked in snow; the
+English cottar resting in his ivy-covered porch, and the Russian peasant
+stretched at length upon the stove which forms his bed; the Persian
+stroking his gray beard beneath the archways of Ispahan, and the
+Norwegian carving bits of wood under his rafters of illuminated
+pine--all know and repeat versions of our favorite tales. In France, in
+Spain, in Germany--mother of myths--in Italy, where they drop red from
+the wine-press of Boccaccio--are these stories to be heard. The North
+American Indian weaves them with his beads and wampum; our southern
+negro croons them over the corn-cake baking in the spider upon his cabin
+hearth; the poetical Chinese envelops them in the language of flowers;
+and the distant dweller by the Amazon embalms them in his legendary
+lore. So much for the fairy with the sieve!
+
+But great as is the enjoyment had in perusing the fairy tales of
+different nations, to the child of Anglo-Saxon descent can come no such
+pleasure so deep as that to be derived from the old romances of our
+mother country. To me this delight was first revealed by a little fat
+book that used to be found in our nurseries--the one containing
+Cinderella, immortal maid--unprincipled Puss in Boots--and Jack, the
+splendid champion!
+
+Of late years, fairy tales seem to have suffered from their increase of
+dignity at the hands of grave scholars, who have so dressed them in fine
+language, and hedged them with innumerable notes and references, that
+the child shuns the fruit for fear of thorns about it. For my own part,
+I prefer the older specimens of ancient fairy literature known as
+chap-books. These were odd little yellow pamphlets, sprinkled with
+abundant capital letters throughout the text, and "Illustrated with many
+diverting cutts!" They were carried around the country-side in England
+by peddlers, who sold them (with such other catch-penny wares as
+ribbons, lace, and trinkets) indifferently at castle gate or cottage
+lattice; and if you wish to see the sort of fairies your
+great-grandmothers believed in, look at the three pictures that
+accompany this preface, copied from a famous chap-book.
+
+There, quaintly depicted, first, appeared Jack in a funny full-bottomed
+coat, diligently climbing a bean-stalk, where the ogre's castle was
+perched atop like a bird's nest; lucky Ali-Baba, too; Bluebeard--mighty
+and pitiless--with Fatima and sister Anne, their back hair down,
+pleading to him on dislocated knees, their brothers, with drawn swords,
+galloping to the rescue; and the husband in The Three Wishes, standing
+agape before his fireside, while his wife danced a jig of rage in her
+efforts to rid her nose of a pudding little smaller than a feather-bed!
+There, also, was displayed that pushing suitor, the Yellow Dwarf, who
+insisted on attaching to his lady-love's finger a ring made of a single
+red hair, so fastened that she could not get it off. There was the
+Desert Fairy, guarded by two lions which the wandering queen endeavored
+to appease with "a cake made of millet, sugar-candy, and crocodile's
+eggs." (How we children yearned to taste that cake!) And there were the
+fascinating White Cat, seated side by side with her enamored prince in a
+fine calash of blue embossed with gold, the Sleeping Beauty, the Babes
+in the Wood--hapless cherubs--the Girl who dropped pearls and diamonds
+when she spoke, dear Graciosa and ready Percinet, gallant
+Riquet-with-the-Tuft, and Goody Two Shoes--the latter a little of a
+prig, I fear--clever Hop o' my Thumb, Beauty and the Beast, Little Red
+Riding-hood--the long procession of charmers to whom even now my heart
+bows in salutation as I write their familiar names!
+
+Chap-books of ancient date have been recently reproduced in England;
+from one of them, I have taken the substance of a story I never chanced
+to see elsewhere, and under the title of "Juliet; or, the Little White
+Mouse" have given it to you in language of my own.
+
+After the chap-books came other cheap fairy publications, notably those
+of Mr. Newberry, a good old gentleman who, in the last century, sent out
+numberless sixpenny booklets, many of them reaching America to give
+pleasure to the infants of the colonies. Washington Irving goes so far
+as to say that if George Washington had not read Newberry's
+publications in his youth, especially "Whittington and his Cat," he
+would not have been the first and greatest President of the United
+States! The grave Benjamin Franklin, while a printer in Philadelphia,
+emulated Newberry in publishing nursery tales, and no doubt devoured
+them himself with relish.
+
+Many a pen of the great in history or literature has found a theme in
+these favorites of ours. Of Cinderella, the famous Canning, premier of
+England, wrote in glowing rhyme:
+
+    "Six bobtailed mice transport her to the ball.
+    And liveried lizards wait upon her call."
+
+And Thackeray has thrown around fairy lore the rays of his noble genius,
+not only in the lines already here quoted, but in a Christmas story so
+enchanting that, if you are unfortunate enough not already to have made
+acquaintance with Valoroso and Gruffanuff, Bulbo and Angelica, I urge
+you to try at once the magician's art and coax "The Rose and the Ring"
+out of the pocket of your nearest relative. By the giant Thackeray, when
+entangled in the meshes of Fairydom, one is reminded of Gulliver under
+bonds to the Lilliputians, yet wearing his bonds so easily!
+
+And now, I leave my new-old Fairy Book to you, my little critics. I am
+sure you will accord a generous welcome to the pictures. What would our
+benighted great-grandmothers have said to Miss Emmet's charming
+illustrations?
+
+                                                          C. C. H.
+
+
+
+
+THE PRINCESS EGLANTINE.
+
+
+A certain queen had twin children, a boy and a girl, both as beautiful
+as the dawn of a summer morning. As the mother was one day hanging over
+the double cradle, shaped like two silver lilies growing on one stem, an
+old aunt of hers, who knew a good deal about magic, arrived from the
+country to see the babies and to spend the day.
+
+The old lady took the Princess Eglantine in her arms, and kissed her,
+and joggled her, and clucked at her, after the fashion of all good
+aunties.
+
+"That's a girl to be proud of, my dear!" she said, handing the baby
+back to her mamma. "And she looks as good as she is pretty, too."
+
+"They are both _wonderful_ children, nurse says," replied the young
+queen, modestly. "And the doctor thinks them the _finest pair_ he has
+ever seen. Only the boy is _a little_ high-tempered. He kicks and snaps
+at his attendants the whole time he is awake; so take care, aunty dear,
+and don't disturb him for the world. We always let him sleep as long as
+he will."
+
+"Hoity-toity!" cried aunty, "as if I came out of the woods to be
+frightened by an owl. _I_ know how to manage _all_ children!" and the
+boy opening his eyes at that moment, she lifted him from his crib, and
+laid him on her lap.
+
+Sad to say, he behaved like an infant tiger. Never was there seen such a
+tempestuous baby. He wriggled, and howled, and fought, and plunged,
+until the poor mother and nurses turned red with mortification. But the
+old aunty held on to him bravely, and examined him from top to toe.
+Nothing could she find, till she came to the sole of the right foot, and
+there was a tiny red mark like a burning torch. As soon as aunty saw
+this she sighed, and whispered a word in the baby's ear, when he became
+as quiet as any lamb.
+
+Aunty sent away the nurses, and told the poor queen there was no doubt
+about it; her boy was bewitched, and when he grew up he would try to
+devour his sister. The only thing was to keep them apart, and this the
+queen told her husband; and he sent for a wise man, who confirmed what
+aunty had said. The wise man added that all would go well so long as the
+princess was kept apart from her brother, and as the brother was the
+heir of the kingdom, there was nothing left but to banish the
+unfortunate princess. The king built for his daughter, in the remotest
+corner of his kingdom, an ivory tower. Around the tower was a crystal
+moat full of gold and silver fish. Around the moat were lovely
+flower-beds, and around the flower-beds was a thick and thorny hedge. In
+this tower there was a room lined with tufted blue satin, like the
+inside of a bonbon box, and all the furniture was made of fine carved
+ivory. Here the princess was shut up for life, under the care of an old
+dame, Madame Veloutine by name, who once had kept a boarding-school for
+duchesses, and was very respectable indeed. Poor Eglantine was gradually
+forgotten at court, and her cannibal brother grew up without knowing he
+had ever had a sister.
+
+[Illustration: THE PRINCESS EGLANTINE.]
+
+Like all other captive princesses, past, present, and to come, Eglantine
+was beautiful and accomplished. She could speak in every language, work
+in silk and crewels, paint china plaques, make mince-pies, sing like a
+nightingale, and play anything on the piano at sight with her eyes shut!
+Her skin was milk-white, with a rosy flush on the cheeks, while her
+glorious golden hair never came out of crimp, but rippled from the roots
+to her very feet.
+
+One day a prince, cantering by upon his palfrey, looked up at the tower
+window, and there saw this lovely creature, surrounded by a flock of
+pretty white doves. Prince Charming gazed and gazed, and the longer he
+stood there, the more enraptured he became. When he heard from the
+country people that no one knew who or what was this mysterious beauty,
+excepting that once a year, by night, a grand gentleman and lady visited
+her, and looked at her while asleep, the ardent young prince made a vow
+to solve the secret without delay. He engaged his old tutor to make love
+to Eglantine's governess, and this plan succeeded so well that the tutor
+was, ere long, invited to take a cup of tea at five o'clock, in the
+ground floor apartment of the tower where Madame Veloutine kept house.
+Madame Veloutine was very much fluttered by the attentions of the
+tutor, a gloomy-looking individual with savage dark mustache and
+deep-sunken eyes. The poor old thing, who had been reading novels
+without any intermission for eighteen years, was very sentimental, and
+the idea of a suitor coming to woo at some period of her existence was
+never wholly absent from her thoughts. She dressed herself in one of the
+Princess Eglantine's white robes, put a blue sash around her waist, and
+covering her little red nose with rice powder, sat in a darkened corner
+with a guitar upon her knees. The tutor flattered her, and soon she grew
+confidential and told him the story of her charge. When the tutor took
+his leave, Madame Veloutine sighed deeply, and pitied the poor man who
+had fallen a victim to her charms. She did not see the fat purse of gold
+the prince bestowed on him, upon learning the true state of the case
+about the enchanting captive!
+
+Prince Charming rode, day and night, till he reached the king's palace.
+"Give me your daughter for my wife," he said. The king turned pale at
+hearing that the secret was betrayed. "For pity's sake speak lower,
+young man," said the anxious father. "Only suppose her brother should
+hear of it." With that he told the whole story to Prince Charming, who
+forthwith rode to ask a wise man what he should do to set the princess
+free, with safety to herself.
+
+"Ride as far as you will, and as fast as you will with her, you may not
+escape the curse," said the wise man.
+
+The prince went off heavy hearted, and visited a witch he knew. She was
+knitting a stocking, which ravelled every night as fast as it grew by
+day.
+
+"I have been knitting this stocking for fifty years," said the witch,
+taking a pinch of snuff out of the soup-tureenful that she always kept
+beside her. "I could as soon make it whole in one night as keep away the
+curse from her."
+
+The prince groaned as he rode away. Across his path was a green bough,
+half covered by a huge cobweb. In this a tiny being, no bigger than a
+fly, was entangled, and was making desperate struggles to be free.
+Travelling toward it, with tremendous strides, came an enormous red
+spider, with white spots and great protruding eyes. The prince, not
+without a shudder, for, like most of us, he hated the nasty things,
+killed the spider with a blow, and set free the pretty captive, who
+proved to be a fairy. She tidied her iridescent frock, and thanked him
+very nicely.
+
+"You have saved my life, dear prince," she said. "Pray let me do
+something in return for it."
+
+"Perhaps you can help me," said the prince, eagerly. "If you can't,
+never mind," he added, politely, when he had finished telling her the
+sad story of his doomed princess. "I don't expect much of a person of
+your size, you know; but really it's the greatest _relief_ to talk about
+the dear darling!"
+
+"A person of my size!" said the little lady, with a shrill sniff. "I'd
+have you to know, prince, that I'm the fairy Buz-fuz, the discoverer of
+the celebrated invisibility powder. It is _never_ known to fail, is made
+from a fern-seed that _I_ alone can pluck, and is _not_ for sale at
+_any_ druggist's! As to lifting the spell from that poor young creature,
+the princess, I can't undertake to do it, on any terms; but with the aid
+of my powder, one pinch of which sprinkled on an object will make it
+disappear from sight in a moment, I believe you can manage to keep clear
+of the cannibal brother."
+
+The prince thanked the fairy, took the powder, and galloped off,
+light-hearted, to his Eglantine. She, poor thing, had thought of nothing
+but the prince and his beauty, and his kind glances and smiles, since he
+left her. She wearied of the society of poor old Veloutine, and sighed
+for change. Veloutine was in despair. To comfort the princess she
+promised to allow her a single meeting with the prince, should he ever
+come that way again. "That I am sure he will!" said the princess. "If
+you had only seen his eyes when he looked at me! They were so kind, so
+true! Oh! Veloutine! he _will_ come back!"
+
+So Eglantine settled down to her embroidery. This was a gown of white
+damask with large white satin flowers outlined with real pearls. She had
+been at work on it for several years, and a few stitches more would
+finish it. She now wrought busily, until the last stitch was set, and
+then, with trembling fingers, put it on. Around her neck and waist she
+wrapped great chains of pearls, and left her long hair rippling to her
+knees. When her toilet was complete she went to the window. It was the
+sunset of a summer's day. Around her tower grew vines heavy with
+deep-red roses; the shining surface of the moat beneath was streaked
+with color from the western clouds. Along the path beyond the hedge rode
+a horseman gayly clad in green and gold, who, smiling, doffed a cap with
+a single long white plume, and bowed to his saddle-bow. Behind him came
+a splendid cavalcade of courtiers and knights on horseback, surrounding
+a golden coach in which sat the father and mother of Eglantine, who had
+given consent to her marriage with the prince. The poor king and queen
+were dreadfully frightened at the rashness of this proceeding. They had
+sent the cannibal brother off on a hunting excursion in a distant part
+of the country, and had come in fear and trembling, bringing with them
+the most trustworthy of their people. They could not resist Prince
+Charming, who, in addition to his other attractions, had just lost his
+father, the old king, and was now the sole owner and ruler of a
+neighboring kingdom, and just the match for their lovely daughter. He
+had sworn to them that their child should be kept so securely guarded
+that her brother could never reach her.
+
+Eglantine came down from her bower, to be introduced to her father,
+mother, and lover all at once. The marriage took place without delay,
+and the new king started with his bride for the sea-shore, where they
+were to embark for his home.
+
+They set sail in a ship of which the sides were plated with beaten gold.
+The sails were of pink satin, and the ropes golden threads plaited
+together. The young king and queen sat upon cushions of velvet on the
+deck, and talked of their happy future, when suddenly the sky was
+darkened as by a cloud, and, riding upon a vulture, the cannibal brother
+came after them. He had been hunting, and a wandering breeze carried to
+him the story of his sister's escape. Although he had never before heard
+he possessed a sister, the first whisper of such a thing was sufficient
+to rouse in him the dreadful cannibal instinct to drink her blood. From
+where the king and queen sat they could distinctly hear him smacking his
+lips with joy at the prospect of his horrible meal. Queen Eglantine,
+fearing she knew not what, shuddered from head to foot, and closing her
+eyes cast herself upon the king's breast for protection.
+
+The king, bidding her be calm, sprinkled the deck of the ship with one
+of the fairy's powders, which he carried in a little crystal box. At the
+moment the huge foul bird of prey hovered above them and gave a fierce
+swoop downward, the ship and all its contents vanished utterly from
+sight, while the vulture with his rider plunged into the sea.
+
+The cannibal prince was a good swimmer, and although his vulture was
+immediately drowned, managed to keep up, until he found a dolphin and
+got astride its back.
+
+"Now, carry me in pursuit of yonder ship, and mind you swim fast and
+well," he exclaimed.
+
+"Master, I obey," said the dolphin, who recognized in him a magician.
+"But, look for yourself--blue sky above, blue water below, and not a
+sail upon the sea."
+
+The prince looked, and in truth there was no ship to be seen; so,
+ordering the dolphin to convey him to the nearest landing-place, he soon
+reached the shores of a beautiful country, where flags were flying, and
+all the inhabitants were dressed in holiday clothes. Over the wharf was
+an arch of most lovely flowers, and five hundred little girls were
+strewing the roads with orange blossoms.
+
+"What is taking place?" asked the cannibal brother of the people around
+the wharf.
+
+"Where have _you_ been, pray?" said they scornfully, "not to know that
+our king brings home his bride to-day!"
+
+Then the ship came in sight and the rejoicings began. The cannibal
+brother had no sooner laid eyes upon his sister than a new longing to
+drink her blood came over him; and he set about plotting how he could
+get hold of her, no easy matter, since the palace was guarded night and
+day by twenty white bull-dogs of the fiercest sort, besides the usual
+soldiers and attendants. So he took service with a butcher near the
+town, and made a bag full of little meat-balls, each one containing a
+drop of deadly poison. One day his master sent him to the palace to
+carry Queen Eglantine's sweetbreads and mutton-chops. "Now," thought the
+brother, "I shall get inside;" but he was mistaken, for the sweetbreads
+and mutton-chops were taken from him at the gate, and passed on through
+twenty different hands till they reached the cook. As no outsider
+whatever was allowed to penetrate the inner palace walls, behind which
+the new queen lived surrounded by every luxury, the cannibal brother had
+to wait many days for an opportunity to get a sight of her. Meantime his
+appetite was gaining terribly, and he went to the blacksmith and had all
+his teeth framed in iron, the better to enjoy his horrid meal.
+
+At last King Charming was summoned to meet a neighboring monarch about a
+right of way for his armies across a certain peninsula; and, with many
+injunctions to the queen not to admit any stranger during his absence,
+he reluctantly set out. No sooner was he out of sight than the pretended
+butcher's boy hastened to assume his own princely clothing, and, ringing
+boldly at the castle gate, told the servants to announce to the queen
+that her brother had arrived, bearing messages from her father and
+mother. He sent in a golden locket containing likenesses of both the
+king and queen, his parents, which convinced Queen Eglantine that his
+tale was true. So, joyfully, she ran forth to meet him, and would have
+cast herself upon his neck, but that the trained bull-dogs rushed
+between, growling most horribly.
+
+"Come here, pretty fellow, nice fellow," said the cannibal brother,
+coaxingly; but the dogs only opened their jaws wider than before and
+growled defiance.
+
+"Give them these little dainties, sister," said the wily prince,
+producing his poisoned meat-balls. "They are some that I always carry
+for my own pets."
+
+The innocent queen called the dogs one after another to her side, and
+fed them with the fatal balls, which they ate, licking her white hand
+gratefully. At once, as the poison began to work, they all lay down in a
+row, and became as quiet as they had been before ferocious. The queen
+led her brother into an inner room, and bade him sit upon her silken
+couch. The prince laughed to himself, for now, thought he, the hour has
+come for my coveted meal. But he was seized with the notion to go into
+another room in order to file his teeth, which were becoming rather
+dull.
+
+"Will you not play for me upon the piano, sister?" he asked lovingly.
+
+The amiable queen, who never waited to be asked twice, sat down to play,
+while her brother hid within a closet and began to file his teeth. Up
+jumped the queen's cat, in great excitement, and sat on her mistress'
+lap.
+
+"Mistress dear," said the affectionate creature, "fly, fly, as fast as
+your feet will carry you. Your brother is at this moment getting ready
+to make a meal of you, and as he is a magician no one in the castle is
+strong enough to defend you from him. In the stable you will find the
+king's gray steed. Jump upon his back, and be off, while I play the
+piano in your stead."
+
+The terrified queen took to her royal heels, weeping as she stumbled
+over the dead bodies of her faithful dogs, and the clever cat sat
+playing beautifully so many runs and trills that the prince, admiring
+his sister's brilliant execution, made no haste to leave his task until
+it was finished to his entire satisfaction.
+
+And now, mounted upon the good gray steed, away flew Queen Eglantine in
+search of her beloved spouse. Pretty soon she heard footsteps, and
+there, swifter than any horse, swifter than wind, on flew the cannibal
+brother after her.
+
+"What shall I do, dear steed?" said the alarmed queen.
+
+"Drop your cloak into the road," said the gray horse, who was the cat's
+own cousin.
+
+The queen obeyed, and the cloak became a broad lake, across which the
+cannibal brother took a long time to swim. The gray horse got a good
+start, but presently the prince came nearly up with him.
+
+"What shall I do now, dear steed?" said the queen, almost ready to fall
+fainting from his back.
+
+"Drop the veil from your head," said the horse.
+
+This was done, and the veil became a thick fog, causing the cannibal
+brother to lose his way and stumble dreadfully. But he got out of it at
+last, and came nearly up with them.
+
+"What shall I do next, dear steed?" said the queen, trembling in every
+limb.
+
+"Take your scissors and cut a long lock from your hair, and throw that
+behind you."
+
+The queen lifted the scissors that hung at her girdle, and in a moment,
+snip! they went into her beautiful golden hair. The hair became a jungle
+of tall reeds, and through it the cannibal brother had work indeed to
+travel. While he was puffing and blowing and struggling in the reeds,
+oh, joy! the queen saw her king riding swiftly to meet her.
+
+Just as the cannibal brother, by a desperate effort of magic strength
+had freed himself from the jungle, and emerged in swift pursuit, he had
+the mortification of seeing the queen rush into her husband's arms. His
+dreadful hunger was now increased until it drove him to desperation.
+With a roar of baffled rage he darted toward the royal couple, swearing
+that both of them should be his victims; and this no doubt would have
+been the case--since the monster was endowed with the strength of fifty
+men--but that the king, bidding his queen have no fear, quickly
+sprinkled them both, and their steeds, with a pinch of the fairy
+fern-seed. Immediately they disappeared from sight, and the cannibal
+brother, coming with full force upon the spot where they had been,
+beheld only empty space. This disappointment, combined with his now
+really appalling appetite, made the miserable wretch fall in a fit upon
+the ground.
+
+The king would have killed him where he lay, but the queen pleaded for
+her brother's life, so the attendants bore him, insensible, back to the
+palace. There, the queen's clever cat advised that he should be left to
+her to deal with. She shut herself up with the patient in a tower
+bedroom, and during sixty days and nights not a morsel of food passed
+the sufferer's lips, except the cat's magic castor-oil--a cupful every
+ten minutes--each tasting more nauseous than the one before! In the
+morning he was lifted from bed, and put into an ice-cold bath, and then
+whipped soundly until his circulation was restored. At the end of the
+second month the cat stopped his bath, whipping, and medicines, offering
+him instead a handful of parched peas and a dry crust. This diet seemed
+to him so delicious that never again could he be tempted to vary it.
+Until he reached a green and virtuous old age this prince was never
+known to look upon so much as a rare beefsteak without shuddering! His
+father, mother, sister, and brother-in-law united their tears of joy at
+this happy reform, and who should the clever cat turn out to be, but
+aunty, who had taken this means of watching over her favorite Eglantine!
+The gray steed was aunty's first cousin upon the mother's side; but when
+peace was restored he preferred to go back to his own country to live,
+although the grateful King Charming offered him every inducement to
+remain, in the way of marble stalls and silver mangers, rose-water to
+quench his thirst, and golden oats to eat. Aunty, too, retired to her
+own distant castle, and the reformed cannibal lived quiet and happy
+until the time came to reign in his good father's stead.
+
+As for Eglantine and King Charming, they never again found use for the
+fern-seed powder. Even the faults of one were invisible to the other.
+
+Nothing occurred to disturb the serenity of their entire reign but a
+suit for breach-of-promise of marriage, brought against the king's
+former tutor by the queen's former governess, Madame Veloutine; and this
+was settled speedily by the tutor announcing that, rather than make any
+fuss about the matter, he would marry the old lady and be done with it,
+although he really could not imagine what there had been in his past
+conduct to put such an idea into her venerable head. So at last
+Veloutine got a husband, and nobody could be surprised at anything after
+that.
+
+
+
+
+DAME MARTHA'S STEP-DAUGHTER; OR, THE GRANDMOTHER OF THE GNOMES.
+
+
+Dame Martha lived at the foot of a high mountain. Her cottage was large
+enough to give shelter only to herself and two young girls, one of them
+her own child and the other the child of Dame Martha's late husband,
+who, about six months before this story opens, slipped down a fissure in
+the rocks and had nevermore been seen. Dame Martha did not bear a very
+good character in the neighborhood, as she was known to be violent in
+temper and dishonest in her dealings. While her husband lived, she had
+quarrelled with him from morning till night, and after he disappeared,
+people used to hint that Dame Martha knew better than any one else how
+the poor man came to his sudden death. But nothing was ever proved upon
+her, and as the dame's cottage stood in a desolate valley, overshadowed
+by a frowning cliff on which grew a single lightning-blasted pine-tree,
+children shunned the lonely spot, and few grown people found anything to
+attract them in that direction. Margaret, the dame's own daughter, was a
+handsome haughty lass of about nineteen, so spoiled and self-willed that
+she bid fair to rival her mother in temper, in the course of time.
+Hilda, the step-daughter, was a fair and gentle little creature, sixteen
+years of age, who bore with patient cheerfulness all the unhappiness of
+her lot. Sometimes, for days together, she would be left alone in the
+house, while Dame Martha and Margaret dressed themselves up in all their
+finery, and went off to fairs and merrymakings in the neighboring town.
+Melancholy were the hours spent in a solitude unbroken save by the rush
+of the waterfall leaping from cliff to cliff, or the hootings of owls
+after nightfall, and the unceasing wail of the wind through the forest.
+But Hilda was at least spared the sound of Margaret's taunting voice and
+laugh, and the cruel scolding tongue of her step-mother. These two
+wicked women were heartily tired of Hilda, and cast about in their
+minds how they could get rid of her, and take possession of a little bag
+of gold pieces coming to her from her father. Then, thought they, the
+old house could be shut up and left to the rats and bats, while they
+might set out on their travels and enjoy life.
+
+One day, when Hilda was bleaching the linen on a patch of grass near the
+brook, her step-mother called out, "Hilda, the red cow has strayed away,
+and I hear her bell over by the old stone quarry. Be quick, and you may
+head her off."
+
+Hilda secured her linen, and with nimble steps, ran up the steep
+mountain side. She did not fancy the idea of going by the old stone
+quarry, for there it had been, six months before, that her dear father
+was last seen in life. Near that spot his hat and shepherd-staff had
+been found. But Hilda was accustomed to obey without remonstrance, and
+away she ran, climbing as lightly as a mountain goat. She too, could
+hear the tinkle of the little bell far up among the bushes, and guided
+by the sound, she drew near the dreaded scene of her greatest sorrow. A
+thick screen of fir bushes lay between her and the red cow's place of
+refuge. Interwoven with evergreens, grew masses of alpine-rose, whose
+tough branches became entangled in Hilda's feet, and hid the path from
+sight. At last, she found herself in a dense thicket, not knowing how to
+emerge. As she paused for a moment to look about her, the red cow's bell
+tinkled again--a strange uncertain tinkle this--immediately behind the
+bushes at her left.
+
+"There you are, good-for-nothing!" cried Hilda, struggling bravely
+forward through the undergrowth in the direction indicated by the bell.
+She heard a low mocking laugh. Surely that laugh could come only from
+her step sister! "Margaret!" she called. No answer, and poor Hilda,
+uttering a wild shriek for help, plunged headlong down a hidden opening
+in the ground, into a fathomless abyss, where no foot of man might
+follow her.
+
+Wicked Margaret stood on the brink of this treacherous pit-fall, known
+only to her mother and herself, and laughed, holding in her hand the
+little red cow's bell, with which she had lured Hilda to her doom.
+
+"Rest there!" the wretched girl said, kneeling down to peer into the
+darkness of the rocky pit. "At any rate, you have found a burial-place
+for your bones, alongside of your father, who was never heard to groan
+after my mother and I pushed him over the brink here, last autumn! And
+now, I will go home, and tell the old woman that we are rid of all our
+burdens. Ha! ha! Won't we spend the father's gold, and revel! This very
+night must we steal away, and seek our fortune in a distant country."
+
+Hilda fell, unharmed, upon a hillock of soft green moss, so far, so far
+beneath the ledge whence Margaret had pushed her, that the opening above
+looked no bigger than a star. The poor girl was overcome by her terrible
+fate, and for a long time she lay weeping as if her heart would break.
+Then, looking about her, she saw the opening to a cavern in the rocks,
+resembling an arch of crystal, so bravely did it glitter.
+
+Around the hillock where she lay was a small courtyard with turf as
+smooth as velvet, and upon the rocky walls encircling it were trained
+vines of roses, myrtle and jasmine, covered with lovely blossoms. Hilda,
+who knew best the alp-rose and the corn-flower, the hardy violet and the
+rock-seeking columbine, had never seen such rare and radiant flowers as
+these, and their rich perfume intoxicated her with delight. Stealing
+down the side of the cliff, trickled a sparkling rivulet, its stream
+caught in a basin of gleaming pearl. Hilda, enchanted by the lovely
+scene, forgot her grief, and felt a longing desire to follow the path of
+many-colored pebbles leading beneath the crystal arch. Without a token
+of fear, she tripped along this pretty path winding through a gallery
+supported by pillars of frosted silver. Here and there glowed a lamp of
+pink, blue or crimson, fashioned like a flower. Strains of sweet music
+were heard in the distance, and at last Hilda reached a gate of golden
+trellis-work, beside which slept a tiny old man, whose beard and hair
+fell over his red mantle to the very ground.
+
+"He is very old, and no doubt needs his rest," said Hilda; "I won't
+disturb him, poor old man." So she sat down on the ground at his feet,
+and every time his head nodded to his knees, she would pick up the queer
+little red cap that fell off of it, and put it on again. After a long,
+comfortable nap, the old fellow woke up, and saw Hilda sitting at his
+feet.
+
+"You are a kind maiden," he said, for he was of a race that know
+everything without waiting to be told--the Gnomes. "Since you have been
+so good to me, I will let you pass the wicket. Six months ago your
+father came this way, and if you can but make friends with our mistress,
+you may be allowed to see him."
+
+"My father! My dear father!" cried Hilda, overjoyed. "Oh! you good, kind
+gateman, do lead me to where he is."
+
+"Hush! not a sound," said the Gnome, looking about him in alarm.
+"Everything has ears and tongues too in this place. One warning will I
+give you. Answer not when spoken to, serve faithfully, break nothing,
+show no surprise; and when you can capture the bird that bathes daily in
+the fountain of life, save the drops from off his plumage. Now go on;
+and farewell, as no one who passes me comes back this way."
+
+Hilda was frightened by the mystery of the warning, but continued on her
+way, through a long and winding passage in the rocks, dimly lighted here
+and there by hanging lamps of alabaster. Reaching another little
+wicket-gate of golden trellis-work, she summoned all her courage and
+rang the bell. Out came a hideous crone, whose ears, grown to an
+enormous size, hung down upon her neck, and who, without asking her
+business, opened the gate.
+
+"If ears grow like this," thought Hilda, "I had, indeed, better hold my
+tongue and say nothing to give offence." So, pretending to be dumb, she
+curtsied to the crone, and made signs that she wanted food and drink.
+The old woman led Hilda along the path of a neglected garden, to a house
+built of gray lichen from the bark of trees, and thatched with hoary
+moss. The windows were barred, and in the open doorway sat a cross old
+dame, at her knitting. She had a hump, ears larger than those of the
+lodge-keeper, and claws hooked like an eagle's.
+
+"What! another of those foolish mortals fallen down our pit!" she cried,
+angrily; "I have half a mind to kill her on the spot." But Hilda looked
+so meek and imploring, standing there and saying not a word, that the
+Grandmother of the Gnomes relented. "Well, well," she grunted,
+"although she is decidedly overgrown, and has ridiculously small ears, I
+suppose I may as well try her for a nurse-maid. If she proves
+unfaithful, there will be plenty to tell of it, and she will soon go the
+way of all the rest."
+
+Hilda was pleased at the idea of being a nurse-maid, for she always got
+on well with children. She followed the G. G. (really, if you will
+excuse me, it will save a great deal of trouble sometimes to abbreviate
+the old lady's title) inside the queer little house, and there was a
+room full of owls, bats, toads, mice, and spiders, who came flocking
+around the new-comer, with every expression of delight.
+
+"Oh! you pretty darlings!" cried the old woman, kissing them
+rapturously, "here is a new nurse for you; and mind you keep her busy."
+
+When Hilda found that she was expected to bathe, and clean, and walk out
+with, and sleep with these loathsome creatures, she felt that she had
+rather die. But fear of the terrible G. G. kept her silent, and setting
+about her task, she soon had them ready for an airing in the garden.
+Here she beheld many strange sights, but nothing more curious than to
+see all the bushes and plants and trees bearing large ears, which, as
+she drew near, became erect and fixed in an attitude of attention.
+Remembering the caution of the friendly gnome to express no surprise,
+Hilda drove her little flock before her along the garden path, then
+returning to the house, fed them and put them to bed in the most orderly
+fashion. For reward, she found, on a bench outside the door, a nice bowl
+of milk with fine white bread and butter, and after devouring it
+eagerly, she fell asleep. When she awoke next day, Hilda found herself
+in another garden. This one was most beautiful. All the rose-bushes had
+gold or silver leaves, and flowers made of jewels. She longed to twitch
+off one of the shining leaves, but dared not, contenting herself with
+watering their roots and neatly clearing up the paths, as the Gnome
+Grandmother had directed her. For reward, she had a bowl of delicious
+hot soup, and a cup of amber jelly, and falling asleep, she awakened
+next day in still another garden. Here sported birds of radiant hue and
+plumage, singing delightfully, as they flitted about the brim of a great
+marble fountain on a grassy lawn, surrounded by blooming flowers.
+
+"Here, children, I bring you a new nurse-maid," said the Gnome
+Grandmother, presenting her to the birds; and immediately, the lovely
+creatures surrounded Hilda, perching on her arms, her head, her
+shoulders, and caressing her with evident pleasure.
+
+"Now that you have successfully met my three tests--the first, of your
+fidelity, by doing your duty toward the creatures you abhorred;
+secondly, by passing through my jewel-garden without plucking a flower
+or leaf; thirdly, by showing no surprise at the wonders you have
+seen--you have proved yourself worthy to be the keeper of my birds,"
+said the old woman. "It is well for you that the ears have heard no
+grumbling. And mind you go on as you've begun."
+
+Hilda thanked her with beaming glances, but would not venture to speak,
+although she longed to ask news of her dear father. "To those who wait,
+all things come in time," she remembered her father used to say, and
+determined not to break silence yet a while. The Grandmother of the
+Gnomes disappeared, and Hilda set herself to the task of caring for her
+new and lovely pets. Around the garden were bowers of sweet-smelling
+honeysuckle, and in each of these hung a silver cage. Hilda's duty was
+to cover the bottoms of the cages with sand of broken diamonds, to
+gather fresh sprays of flowers to stick between their bars, and to fill
+the jewelled drinking-troughs with dew from the cups of flowers. Day
+after day passed in attendance upon the birds, who all became devoted to
+her, in return. Each morning the Grandmother of the Gnomes came into the
+garden, and sometimes even smiled on Hilda, her grin making her ugliness
+and deformity seem to increase, if possible. Still Hilda dared not speak
+the words that were always trembling on her tongue. When night came, the
+young girl retired to rest in a delightful little house shaped from a
+bush of growing box, out of which doors and windows had been cut. Within
+was a bed of moss like velvet, and a coverlet made of the woven wings of
+the butterfly, with blankets of swansdown. Her meals were served by
+unseen hands. Punctually at breakfast, dinner, and tea-time, there
+sprang up in the bower house a little table shaped like a huge mushroom,
+covered with dainty food in dishes of gold and silver. New clothes were
+prepared for her, and laid across the foot of her couch while she slept.
+Among them were gauzy gowns that seemed to have been cut from the clouds
+after sunset, cobweb handkerchiefs, shoes made of mole-skin, and
+necklaces of petrified dew-drops. Hilda might have been quite happy but
+for the continual thought that her father was imprisoned somewhere near,
+and her longing to find him and tell him she was there. One night, while
+she lay thinking, apparently asleep, footsteps came to the side of her
+bed, and stopped. Somebody held a lamp close to her face, but Hilda
+pretended to be in a deep slumber, and soon the G. G., for she it was,
+went away, pattering about the bower, and talking to the old
+lodge-keeper, who followed her.
+
+"She is sound asleep, so come along. We are already a little late for
+our round among the prisoners. Foolish creatures! Why hadn't they, too,
+the sense to restrain themselves as this child did, and they might all
+have been working in the gardens, to this day. But no! Each one must
+needs twitch off a leaf here, or a rose there, and stare, and chatter
+over what they saw, or else go into convulsions over the work given them
+to do for my pretty toads, and bats, and serpents. That silly father of
+hers, for example! He seemed an honest fellow, but what should he do,
+when he thought no one was looking, but pluck one of my choicest ruby
+roses to carry back to Hilda. Hum! much likelihood there is that Hilda
+ever finds out where he is hidden, after a crime like that!"
+
+The Grandmother of the Gnomes seemed to have worked herself up into such
+an angry state, that Hilda dared not give any sign of waking. So she
+lay, still as a mouse, till the old couple had laid across her couch the
+new robe for next day, and trotted off. Then, gliding swiftly from her
+bed, the girl followed them, down a long green alley of the garden, to a
+grassy bank she had often noticed. There, putting her hand upon a
+trap-door, half hidden from sight by a mass of vines, the old crone
+knocked thrice, saying, "Open to the Grandmother of the Gnomes!"
+
+The door opened, and behind it was a narrow passage-way guarded by two
+dwarfs in red. No one spoke, and the dwarfs, prostrating themselves upon
+their faces, remained motionless while their sovereign lady passed in.
+Hilda seized this opportunity to follow, and crept unnoticed to the
+mouth of a circular vault of gray granite, hung with curtains of black
+velvet and lighted by swinging lamps of lurid red. In the centre was a
+long row of white marble tombs, and on each one of these tombs lay a
+human being apparently asleep, enclosed in a crystal casket. With a
+thrill of emotion, Hilda recognized in one of these placid sleepers her
+beloved father. The Grandmother of the Gnomes walked past each bier,
+sprinkling it with the liquid from a vial in her hand. At once the
+sleepers aroused and sat up, rolling their eyes and extending their arms
+to her with a beseeching gesture. The G. G. sternly shook her head, and
+proceeded to open a little door in each casket, through which the old
+lodge-keeper gave food and drink to all the prisoners in turn. The poor
+wretches ate and drank in silence, then turning over on their sides, the
+crone waved her wand above them, and instantly they fell again into a
+trance-like sleep.
+
+"Sleep now, till this day week!" said the Grandmother of the Gnomes,
+solemnly, retiring as she came. Hilda hid in a nook of the wall of rock,
+and followed her guides out, noiselessly and unnoticed by the prostrate
+dwarfs in red.
+
+And now her sole thought was how she might get possession of the
+reviving liquid. Alone and unprotected as she was, at the mercy of her
+gnome mistress, Hilda knew not where to turn for help. In the extremity
+of her distress, she thought of what the friendly gnome at the outer
+gate had said to her. "When you can capture the bird that bathes in the
+water of life, save the drops from off his plumage." But although Hilda
+racked her brain for a solution of the mystery, none could she find. All
+day long her birds came and went among the branches of the beautiful
+garden, and at night returned to their silver cages in the honeysuckle
+bowers. The only bath she had ever seen them take, was in the wide
+marble basin on the grass-plot beneath the fountain. At last, lying down
+to rest one day upon a bank of lilies, she fell asleep, and in her
+dreams, heard two of the birds talking on the bough above.
+
+"To-morrow, our friend, the little brown wren returns from his travels
+to the Spring of Life," said one of them.
+
+"Yes, he has been gone longer than usual, this time," said the other.
+"What a lucky creature he is to have gained our mistress's favor, and to
+be allowed to take those baths, which have the power to make him know
+everything, live forever, and sing more sweetly than the nightingale."
+
+"There is something mysterious about that wren, undoubtedly," sighed the
+first bird. "Nobody knows whether it is fear or favor that gains so many
+more privileges for him than for the rest of us. Do you know that if he
+should ever drop the single golden feather in his tail, he will become
+like the rest of us again, a slave and captive? And the lucky person who
+finds it, will be able to see all the hidden treasures of the caves
+beneath the mountain, pierce his way through solid rock and iron, and
+even defy the authority of our Sovereign Lady herself!"
+
+Hilda listened, her heart beating high with hope. Next day, indeed,
+there came a new bird among her charges, a little brown wren, who sat
+upon the topmost twig of the highest tree in the garden, and dried and
+smoothed his feathers, singing so exquisitely that all the others
+gathered around him in delight, while the disconsolate lark and
+nightingale, canary, mocking-bird and wood-robin, retired to a thicket
+of green leaves, and wept for jealousy.
+
+Spite of all Hilda's blandishments and wiles, the little brown wren
+would never come near enough for her to handle him. She could see him,
+flying amid the upper branches, the single golden feather in his tail
+shining splendidly, but nothing secured his presence within reach or
+touch. Even the Grandmother of the Gnomes was powerless to control the
+wilful creature.
+
+Weeks passed and Hilda was always on guard to follow the Gnome
+Grandmother and her attendant upon their expeditions to the crypt where
+the prisoners were kept. By means of the stratagem she had first
+employed, she never failed to be present when her father was so
+mysteriously recalled to life, and then dismissed again into the shadowy
+border-land of death. Although she could not speak to him, or tell him
+she was near, it was some comfort to see him arise up strong and well.
+Oh! if the day should come, when she might capture that tantalizing
+little brown bird! He had become less shy with her of late, and more
+inclined to perch upon the branch above her head, and, while keeping a
+safe distance, observe her motions closely. At last, one evening, quite
+disheartened, Hilda went within her own little bowery house, and sat her
+down and wept. For the first time since her arrival in the gnome garden,
+she spoke aloud.
+
+"Oh! I can bear it no longer. My heart will break! My heart will
+break."
+
+To Hilda's utter astonishment, a voice came from the foliage around her
+window, in reply.
+
+"Cheer up, dear maiden; the sound of a human voice has broken the spell
+cast over me, and I now see you as you are. I am he whom you have known
+as the little brown bird, in reality a mortal prince, bewitched by that
+wicked old woman, the Grandmother of the Gnomes, who makes everything
+within her kingdom subservient to her power. She is my deadly enemy,
+because I once discovered the secret of her fountain of life; and, when
+on a journey thither with my followers, I was captured and changed into
+my present shape, while they, poor creatures, were carried prisoners to
+her crypt. Should I regain my shape, it can only be done by the help of
+a being brave and true like yourself."
+
+"But why, why did you not make friends with me at first?" said the
+joyful Hilda.
+
+"The spell cast upon me forbade my recognizing one of my own kind,
+unless she or he spoke, and you know how human speech is punished in
+this place. For three long years I have lived in solitude, compelled by
+the crone to fly back and forth to fetch her the water of life for her
+magical incantations; what I receive upon my own plumage, while drawing
+the water for her, has, however, secured my immortality. As for my
+golden plume it is the magic blade presented to me at birth, by a
+wonderful old wiseman, who said that it would point me to the treasures
+beneath the earth, defy the powers of evil, and pierce its way through
+solid rock. This sword, the Grandmother of the Gnomes was unable, much
+as she wished to do so, to deprive me of. The utmost she could
+accomplish was to transform it into a golden plume. Should I ever be so
+unfortunate as to drop it, the finder will be my conqueror. See what
+confidence I have in your goodness of heart, when I thus give my life
+into your hands."
+
+"Never could I be so base as to betray you, dear prince," said Hilda
+joyfully.
+
+"Oh! speak on, loveliest of maidens," cried the disguised prince. "Every
+syllable you utter brings back life and hope to my sad heart. Strange
+that I should have watched you come and go without knowing what you are.
+It was the first utterance of your silvery voice in lamentation that
+awakened my benumbed senses. Now, shall we not work together for our
+deliverance?"
+
+Gladly did Hilda pour forth all the story of her woes to her newly found
+confidant. The prince bade her to be of good cheer, for it was his
+intention to set forth on the morrow upon his monthly journey in search
+of the water of life.
+
+"A week hence I shall return, and although it would be impossible for me
+to secrete any of the precious fluid so that our mistress would fail to
+find it out, yet I will take care to saturate my plumage with the water,
+so that you can obtain enough to free your father and the other
+sufferers. That done, we can proceed to stronger measures. Only be
+guided by me, and obey all I tell you to do, and I promise you release
+and happiness."
+
+Hilda promised and the brown bird took his leave. Next day he was no
+longer to be seen in the higher tree-tops, and after a week's absence,
+he arrived at nightfall dripping wet, and perched upon Hilda's window.
+
+Carefully did Hilda collect every drop that fell from his plumage, and
+when next she followed the Grandmother of the Gnomes into the fatal
+crypt, it was with joyful footsteps, for in her hand she concealed a
+leaf-cup full of the elixir of life. Not even Hilda noticed that the
+little brown bird also entered the crypt when she did. On this occasion,
+she waited as usual to see the prisoners aroused and fed, then cast
+again into sleep; but instead of following the two crones on their
+return, she remained concealed in her crevice of the rock, and saw close
+upon her the doors of this living tomb. Now a sudden terror overtook
+her, and her knees trembled.
+
+"Oh, dearest little bird, were you but by my side!" she whispered
+imploringly.
+
+"I am here, Hilda," came in a well-known voice. "Remember that all
+depends upon your courage and obedience. Go up to the crystal caskets
+and sprinkle a drop upon each in turn."
+
+Hilda did so, and in a few moments had the inexpressible joy of seeing
+about twenty brave knights and other captives arise from their couches
+of marble. Last of all came her beloved father, who clasped her to his
+breast with rapture unspeakable.
+
+"Now there is not a moment to be lost," said the brown bird, flying to
+Hilda. "Here, brave maiden, pluck the golden feather from my tail."
+
+Hilda obeyed, and found that she held a shining sword within her hand.
+
+"Quick, stab me to the heart!" said the bird.
+
+Hilda burst into tears and pleaded with him to spare her; but the brown
+bird reminded her that, because of the water of life, he could never
+really die; so the young girl, trembling in every limb, plunged the
+blade into his breast.
+
+As the warm blood rushed forth, a cloud of vapor arose, filling the
+cave; and blowing presently away, it revealed to all present the face
+and figure of a gallant youth, who, proud and smiling, knelt at Hilda's
+feet.
+
+"Now is the enchantment banished!" he cried, as his friends,
+recognizing their master, came flocking around him in delight. "But we
+must not again venture into the precincts of the gnome's garden, for who
+knows what might befall our lovely lady here? Come, my brave sword,
+point us a way of exit."
+
+Swinging it in the air above his head, he brought the blade into a
+horizontal line in front of him. At once the sword pointed to a fissure
+in the walls of the crypt, and as the rescued band approached, it slowly
+widened to an opening through which a man might pass.
+
+This was not a moment too soon, for the dwarfs on guard had discovered
+their attempt to escape, and a shrill whistle sounded in their ears.
+Swift as the lightning flash arrived the Grandmother of the Gnomes, this
+time in her worst aspect, fire darting from her eyes. Behind her came an
+army of angry little men in red, with hammers in their uplifted hands,
+prepared to do battle to the death. What was their fury to find the
+biers empty, and a long line of stalwart men, led by Hilda, escaping
+through a doorway in the solid rock! The last to depart was the prince,
+and advancing upon him with a horrible yell and glare of defiance came
+the Grandmother of the Gnomes. The prince met her with extended sword,
+and the enchanted blade pierced her to the heart. The frightened gnomes,
+surrounding their dead chief, laid her upon the marble slab from which
+Hilda's father had arisen, and then flew in pursuit of the avenger. But
+it was too late. The rocky wall had closed upon the retreating party,
+and the Grandmother of the Gnomes arose no more from her final
+resting-place.
+
+The divining-sword led Hilda and her companions straightway to the
+surface of the earth, taking care, as they passed it by, to point out
+sufficient hidden treasure to enrich every man of the party. As for the
+prince, as he was already the owner of one of the richest kingdoms of
+the world, all he desired was to regain it, in company with his beloved
+Hilda, who by this time had pledged herself to be his bride. Hilda's
+father accompanied them to the palace of the prince, and was by him
+ennobled and enriched. The marriage took place, and just as the guests
+were enjoying the festivities, the new queen saw her servants turning
+away from the door a miserable-looking pair of beggar women. Bidding
+these pitiful creatures draw near to receive her alms, the queen
+recognized in them Dame Martha and her daughter. Such was the generosity
+of her nature, that Hilda could not resist disclosing her self to them,
+and assuring them that the _accident_ of her fall had been the means of
+securing her wonderful good fortune.
+
+She ordered fine clothes and fine rooms to be prepared for the couple,
+and would have forgiven them entirely, but that her father and the
+prince, interfering, ordered the wicked schemers to be driven from the
+house and kingdom.
+
+Some time after, Dame Martha and Margaret reappeared in the neighborhood
+of their old home. They were very sullen and close-mouthed, and were
+last seen hovering around the mountain-side in the direction of the old
+stone quarry, after which they were lost to human view.
+
+The facts in the case are that Dame Martha's envy of her step-daughter
+led her to the desperate resolve to herself descend into the pit in
+company with her amiable child. Upon reaching the dwelling of the late
+Grandmother of the Gnomes, they were immediately seized and made to do
+duty in the cellar with the toads, mice, serpents, owls, and bats, where
+in all probability they are still enjoying life in congenial
+companionship.
+
+Hilda and her prince lived a long and happy life. The bright sword hung
+unused upon the wall, as no enemies appeared against whom to unsheath
+it, and the prince never again felt tempted to risk a visit to the
+kingdom of the gnomes.
+
+
+
+
+THE ADVENTURES OF HA'PENNY OR, THE DWARF, THE WITCH, AND THE MAGIC
+SLIPPERS.
+
+[Illustration: Ha'penny Watching the Witch in the Underground Garden.]
+
+
+Once upon a time lived a poor, little, crooked dwarf named "Ha'penny."
+When he was born he was so small that his nurse exclaimed, "Why, he is
+no bigger than a ha'penny!" and thus the nickname settled upon him, as
+ugly nicknames often do upon very worthy people. His father was not very
+kind to the unfortunate child, who, finding himself pitied and avoided
+by children of his own age, soon learned to go off to the woods alone,
+and to spend the days with birds and animals, over whom he had
+extraordinary power. The most beautiful birds of many-colored plumage
+would flutter away from their boughs in the forest to perch upon
+Ha'penny's finger, and take sugar from his lips; shy little brown
+squirrels would scamper down the trunks of the great trees to nestle
+against his cheek; bees buzzed around his head without offering to sting
+him; pretty striped snakes glided from under their stones and stumps at
+his call; while all horses, and cows, and dogs, and cats loved to rub
+against him, and let themselves be stroked and petted at his will. This
+friendship with the world of animals and insects was Ha'penny's greatest
+joy, and during the summer time, when he could live abroad, the little
+creature was happy enough, after his fashion. In winter he had to
+content himself with feeding the birds, and visiting the stables to hide
+in the hay of the horses' manger, where the grooms would find him,
+mouthing and chattering in an unknown tongue. They would often scold
+him, and put him out of the stable, for Ha'penny was no favorite with
+his father's people. His mother had died when Ha'penny was a little
+fellow of five, and when he reached the age of fifteen (although looking
+much younger) his father married a second wife, who proved a cruel
+step-mother.
+
+"If that ugly, little, twisted fright were out of the way, I could
+really enjoy life," the unkind woman would say to herself; and she lost
+no opportunity to make Ha'penny's life a burden to him, by all sorts of
+petty tricks and persecutions.
+
+He bore all in silence, creeping away to his attic bedroom, and lying
+for hours on the floor sobbing bitterly. His only comfort was in his
+pets, and a queer lot they were. Among them were a dog, who had had both
+fore-paws cut off by the mowing-machine, a chicken with a cork leg, a
+blind cat, a land-terrapin, a dozen white mice, a number of birds which
+he had rescued from freezing and starvation, some trained fleas, a
+squirrel that had lost its tail--everything that was maimed, or
+homeless, or unfortunate. These he treasured in a little empty chamber
+opening out of his, and no one but himself ever approached it. All the
+poor dumb creatures loved him, and would swarm around him when he opened
+the door; and, in return, he spent upon them all the passion of love he
+had never bestowed on any one of his own kind.
+
+One day when Ha'penny had gone off to the woods to search for some ripe
+partridge-berries for his birds, the step-mother found her way to his
+hidden menagerie. One instant she looked about her, with disgust and
+fury in her face, and then calling her maids she gave them cruel
+orders. Ha'penny came in from his walk, opened the door of his
+treasure-house--and alas! what a sight met his eyes! In two corners of
+the room hung his pet dog and cat, his terrapin was crushed under a
+heavy piece of iron, his birds were dead, his chicken's head was cut
+off, his mice were drowned in a pail; not one living thing remained to
+greet him but the trained fleas, who had taken refuge in the rafters
+overhead after biting the wicked mistress and her maids until they
+capered about in their misery!
+
+Ha'penny gave one glance at his beloved pets thus wantonly sacrificed,
+and fell upon the floor sobbing with helpless rage and despair. He lay
+there all day without being inquired for, and when night came he stole
+out to the orchard and buried his poor dead favorites under the light of
+the stars. He would not go back to the house, and, forgetful of cold,
+hunger, everything but his burning sense of wrong, he wandered away,
+away, into the forest. A few berries and a crust he had carried for the
+birds were his only food until the evening of the next day, when he came
+in sight of a queer little hut, half hidden from observation by the
+trees that grew over it. Starving and desperate, Ha'penny was gaining
+courage to knock at the door. All at once a little lattice window
+opened, and an old woman poked her head out saying:
+
+    "Come and eat, the table's spread
+    With sweetest milk and whitest bread.
+    Good cheer, enough for all I've got,
+    And more is cooking in the pot."
+
+At this Ha'penny pricked up his ears and licked his chaps like a hungry
+cur; and just then a number of handsome cats and dogs came running out
+of the woods and toward the cottage door, which the dame had by this
+time opened. As no animal ever avoided Ha'penny, these creatures all
+fawned upon him, refusing to go in; and the dame, perceiving the
+new-comer, asked him, with an angry air, what was his business.
+
+"A little food and shelter, madam," said poor Ha'penny, the tears
+running down his cheeks.
+
+"Begone, you rascal!" cried the angry woman; "I don't believe a word you
+say. I believe you are a spy sent here to tempt away my pets. See how
+they hang around you. You must be a magician, for in general they will
+have nothing to do with strangers. Get you gone, sorcerer!"
+
+Ha'penny turned meekly away, but the dogs and cats followed him with
+every show of affection. Faint with hunger as he was, his legs tottered
+under him, and he soon fell to the ground. Then the cats and dogs
+surrounded him, licking his face and hands in spite of all their
+mistress's endeavors to coax them away.
+
+The old woman's anger ceased when she found the grotesque-looking little
+stranger had really fainted from exhaustion. She lifted him in her arms
+and carried him in to the fire, and rubbed his cold limbs, putting
+spoonfuls of hot broth between his lips. By and by, when Ha'penny came
+to himself, he told her all his sad story, and when he reached the part
+about the killing of his pets, his heavy eyes flashed fire.
+
+"She is a horrible wicked woman!" he exclaimed.
+
+The dame answered by striking her staff on the floor. "See here, boy, if
+you are honest, you may stay here and mind my animals."
+
+She took him into the next room, and there--what a funny spectacle!
+Twelve cats and twelve dogs lay upon cushions before the fire. The
+cushions were made of satin, and the covers were of velvet worked in
+gold. Twenty-four silver bowls stood in a row, and every cat or dog had
+its separate comb and brush, and bath-tub and towels, and sponge and
+soap, and perfume bottle, on a shelf. In the middle of the room played a
+fountain of rose-water, and at the windows hung pink silk curtains,
+which were drawn when the creatures went to sleep. All in this room was
+rich and costly, while the dame's own quarters were as plain as those of
+any other cottager. _She_ was content to sleep in a big feather bed, to
+be covered by a clean patchwork quilt, to eat on a deal table off blue
+crockery, with a well-scoured pewter spoon. Ha'penny's eyes sparkled at
+the idea of waiting on the cats and dogs. He made friends with them at
+once. The dame gave him a clean bedroom under the roof, and every day
+after feeding and combing his charges he took them for a walk in the
+woods.
+
+"So long as you wait on my darlings faithfully, and mind your own
+business," the dame said, "no trouble will come to you. But on no
+account ever go near the little closet in the peak of the roof. Should
+you do so, evil will happen, and your life may pay the forfeit."
+
+Ha'penny suspected from this that his mistress was a witch; but it
+troubled him very little, as he was an honest lad and intended never to
+disobey her.
+
+One day the dame brought home a new cat, a large, white Angora, a beauty
+to look at, with pink eyes and flowing hair, fine and silken as spun
+glass. From the moment of that cat's arrival the happy family was
+completely upset. Felisette, for so she was named, proved to be vain,
+selfish, and greedy; she fought for the best of everything, ate up her
+neighbor's bowl of milk as well as her own, and actually bit and spit at
+Ha'penny. Felisette soon became jealous of Ha'penny's affection for the
+others, and determined to do him an evil turn. One day the dame was
+going to the Witches' Sabbath, and said to Ha'penny, "Now mind and take
+especial care of my lovely darling, Felisette. If she gets into any
+trouble I shall hold you to answer for it, as I see the dear creature is
+not your favorite."
+
+The dame went off riding on a broom-stick, and Felisette invented a
+thousand spiteful tricks to make the time pass unpleasantly to the
+others. At last she disappeared, and presently Ha'penny heard her crying
+pitifully upstairs. He rushed to see what was the matter, and discovered
+her with her tail caught in the door of the forbidden closet, up in the
+peak of the roof. She seemed about to die of the pain she was suffering,
+and, eager to set her free, the kind lad, without a moment's
+hesitation, lifted the latch while stroking Felisette's fur, when lo! as
+the door flew open, out came a skeleton hand, seizing poor Ha'penny in
+its grip! Up jumped Felisette, laughing heartily at the success of her
+trick, and ran away.
+
+[Illustration: Ha'penny opens the magic closet.]
+
+Ha'penny found himself held close in the embrace of two skeleton arms.
+In vain he struggled; the dreadful clasp only grew closer. He knew that
+this was a trap the witch had set to catch any one visiting the
+forbidden closet, so he made up his mind to die when his mistress should
+return. While he was in this sad way, the oldest of the dogs came up and
+licked his hands. Tears were running from its eyes, and to Ha'penny's
+great surprise the dog spoke.
+
+"My poor friend!" said the oldest of the dogs, "I am afraid your fate is
+sealed. Know, then, that there is but one chance left for you to escape
+the witch's power. In this closet she keeps the magic slippers and the
+magic staff. Wearing the slippers, you may run faster than the wind;
+holding the staff, you may discover all the hidden treasures of the
+earth."
+
+"But how can I get free of this horrible trap?" said Ha'penny.
+
+The oldest of the dogs looked around to see that no one was listening,
+and then whispered:
+
+"You must know that we twelve dogs were once twelve princes, and the
+twelve cats were princesses--all of us having turn by turn fallen into
+the power of the witch. She is bound to treat us according to our rank,
+but there is no hope of ever regaining human shape, I fear. Still, we
+may be able to help _you_, who have been so good to us."
+
+He gave a little short bark, and up the stairs came running all the dogs
+and cats, who wept when they saw the sad plight of their friend. Up on a
+high shelf over the skeleton's head were the magic staff and slippers,
+and the thing was to get them down without touching the skeleton, which
+held fast every living thing that touched it. One of the cats ran nimbly
+up the wall and let herself hang; the next cat hung to her tail, and so
+on till a bridge was made, over which the oldest of the dogs scrambled,
+and got the coveted treasures. He put the staff in Ha'penny's hand, and
+fitted the slippers on his feet. Ha'penny gave a kick, and struck the
+ground with his staff. Instantly the arms of the skeleton relaxed their
+grip, and he was free. He bade a fond farewell to his dear friends,
+promising to come back to help them whenever he could. He set out to run
+from the house, and speedily the slippers carried him off at such a
+tremendous rate of speed that he was faint for want of breath. Vainly he
+tried to stop, but no; on, on he went with a fearful rush. He heard the
+cries of the old witch, who pursued him on her broom-stick. On, on, went
+poor Ha'penny, more dead than alive, and now the witch seemed gaining on
+him. He could hear the gnashing of her teeth. He struck out with his
+staff, as he passed by a rock, and instantly the rock became a mountain
+as high as the moon. The witch took some time to clamber over this, and
+meantime Ha'penny got far ahead of her. Reaching a city, he dashed into
+the midst of a funeral procession that was going through the street, and
+hid himself under the pall of the coffin, kicking off the slippers as he
+did so. Immediately he could walk as other men do, and when the old
+witch arrived she saw nothing but the funeral creeping slowly along--no
+sign of Ha'penny, who, hidden under the pall, clasped his magic slippers
+to his breast, and held tight to his magic staff. The disappointed witch
+flew homeward and whipped the cats and dogs soundly--excepting
+Felisette, who, of course, had been the tell-tale on poor Ha'penny.
+
+The funeral train reached the cemetery, and Ha'penny thought it his duty
+to cry as bitterly as the rest of the mourners; but after the coffin had
+been put in the grave, and as they were turning away, he asked a
+bystander whose funeral it was.
+
+"The king's messenger, to be sure, you simpleton," said the man.
+
+"Could I get the place?" asked Ha'penny.
+
+"You, the king's messenger!" said the man, scornfully. "Why, he must be
+the swiftest runner in the country. Look at your cork-screw legs! Look
+at your hump-back and your big head! As well expect a snail to carry
+our king's messages."
+
+Nothing daunted, Ha'penny went to the king's chamberlain, and proffered
+his request. The chamberlain laughed until his head nearly dropped off,
+and then called the first Goldstick-in-waiting, who called the second,
+and soon the whole court was roaring over the absurd request of this
+poor mannikin to be the king's messenger.
+
+"All I ask is that you try me," said Ha'penny, stoutly holding his
+ground.
+
+"Stop! An idea occurs to me," said the jolly chamberlain, holding his
+aching sides. "To-morrow we shall have a running-match between this
+champion and the swiftest runner of the kingdom. In truth, my lords,
+this will be sport worth having," and he looked around at the courtiers,
+who all set to laughing anew.
+
+Next day the match was held in a lovely grassy field. On a green mound
+in the centre was pitched a white satin tent, under which sat the king
+and queen and their children. An immense crowd assembled. Two bands of
+music kept playing all the time; there were free Punch and Judy shows on
+the outskirts of the crowd, and booths where lemonade was given away,
+with peppermint sticks and molasses taffy, to all who asked for it.
+Banners waved, trumpets blew, and then the race began. Side by side with
+Ha'penny, little and insignificant and forlorn as he was, started the
+king's swiftest runner, a man of beautiful light form and splendid
+muscle. Once around the field they ran, the dwarf lagging; but on the
+second round Ha'penny settled his feet well in his magic slippers, when,
+see! like an arrow he sped past the athlete, and was in at the goal so
+easily that the spectators hardly had time to wink their astonished
+eyes! Hurrah! hurrah! A mighty cheer went up for the successful
+Ha'penny, and the king called him to receive the purse of gold, which
+was the prize. Ha'penny knelt at the king's feet, and again asked to be
+made his messenger.
+
+"That shall you be, my mannikin!" said the pleased monarch. So Ha'penny
+had a gold chain round his neck, a fine velvet coat to wear every day,
+and a page to serve his meals. The king grew so fond of his new servant
+that the rest of the courtiers became jealous. Soon Ha'penny again had
+no friends but the animals around the palace. They, as usual, followed
+him everywhere, and caressed him fondly.
+
+Once when the little dwarf was walking in the king's paddock,
+accompanied by a train of young deer who loved to be near him, he felt
+the staff in his hand give a loud thump on the ground. At the same time
+all the deer formed in a circle round the spot, seeming by their eyes to
+implore Ha'penny to remain there. At first he could not understand this,
+but at length occurred to him what the oldest of the dogs had said about
+hidden treasure. Ha'penny had no spade to dig with, but at once the deer
+went to work with their hoofs, and soon they had made a deep hole, at
+the bottom of which lay a large iron ring fastened to an iron door.
+
+Ha'penny was not strong enough to pull this up; but the magic staff,
+when passed through the ring, lifted it easily. Below was a flight of
+steps, leading to a gallery. Ha'penny went down the steps, followed the
+windings of the gallery, and reached a second door. Touching this with
+the magic staff it yielded, and flying open disclosed to view a lovely
+garden, where roamed all sorts of strange shapes--men's and women's
+bodies bearing the heads of bears, lions, wolves, foxes, dogs, cows,
+horses, and cats. Instantly these creatures came flocking around
+Ha'penny, calling him their deliverer, and telling him that they too
+were victims of the witch, although by an accident she had only had time
+to change their heads before her spell expired. To this garden the witch
+was in the habit of coming once a week, to see how her victims were
+getting on, and to-day was the day of her visit. Ha'penny took the magic
+slippers from his pocket and put them on; and keeping firm hold of his
+trusty staff he hid behind a lilac-bush.
+
+Soon, in came the witch, riding her broom-stick. Ha'penny had never
+before seen her in her true witch dress. It was a black, tight-fitting
+gown, made of scaly snake-skin, and she had a necklace of live coals.
+Around her high-peaked cap were twined two living serpents, and a toad
+formed her brooch. Under one arm she carried her familiar spirit, in the
+likeness of a black cat, with a single emerald eye. She wore a mantle,
+made of cobwebs and studded with large venomous red spiders. Oh! she was
+a terror to look upon, and no mistake! Ha'penny's teeth chattered with
+fear, and so would yours at sight of her! She rode sweeping her broom
+down the garden path, and instantly all the animals with human bodies
+came running to do her homage. She made them kneel before her, and, with
+the three-thonged whip of live snakes she carried, whipped them all
+cruelly, till they groaned and cried for mercy. Then, feeling tired, she
+lay down on a bank to sleep, guarded by her familiar, who kept watch
+with its single eye of flame; and on closely observing the horrid
+creature Ha'penny made no doubt that it was none other than his enemy,
+Felisette, in her rightful shape.
+
+When the witch was fairly snoring, Ha'penny crept up behind, and
+summoning all his strength prepared to smite her with his staff.
+Suddenly the black cat spit and hunched her back. The serpents around
+the witch's hat began to writhe and uncoil. They knew an enemy was near.
+
+Ha'penny saw that he must lose no time, so aiming a fierce blow at the
+witch's back, he broke her spinal column, just as you would break a
+stick of sugar-candy. Then the dying witch uttered a shrill command to
+her watchers, and instantly Felisette and the two serpents set upon the
+audacious Ha'penny. "This time you shall not escape me!" cried
+Felisette, spitting fire. The cat's breath was deadly poison, and the
+serpents' fangs no man might feel and live. Ha'penny struck, swift and
+sure, right into the middle of the cat's single eye, and pierced her
+brain. As Felisette fell dead beside the groaning witch, the serpents
+reared their full length from the ground, and prepared to strangle the
+dwarf. The good staff proved true, and cut them both in two with a
+single well-aimed blow. What was his horror to find the mangled remains
+of the snakes change into four living ones, stronger than the first.
+There was nothing for it but flight, and Ha'penny took to his heels. The
+magic slippers carried him on and away, so swiftly that nothing could
+catch him. He passed through the gallery and went out at the iron door,
+finding himself safe, but a little out of breath, in the paddock with
+the king's deer.
+
+Ha'penny told nobody of this exciting adventure, but could not sleep for
+thinking of all the poor bewitched people down there in the underground
+garden in the power of those dreadful snakes. He now suspected that
+these two fighting serpents were of the multiplication variety. (This
+means that if they were cut in two they would become four, from four
+become eight, from eight sixteen, from sixteen thirty-two, and so on
+indefinitely; and this, we are told, is the very worst species of snake
+known to travellers!)
+
+Ha'penny got up early, went out again to the paddock, and found the deer
+in a great state of excitement and agitation. They seemed to be waiting
+for him to come, and led the way to the secret passage in the earth.
+Ha'penny went down, staff in hand, and easily passed through the first
+iron door. As he neared the second door, he heard a confused noise
+beyond it of cries and lamentations. He opened the door softly, and
+crept into the garden unobserved. There he saw the dying witch, who, as
+witches always require twenty-four hours to die in, was lying on the
+ground writhing horribly, groaning, and shrieking to her snakes to
+multiply, which they did until almost the whole garden was one seething,
+wriggling mass of the horrible creatures. The poor people in the garden
+had climbed up the trees, and were every moment expecting to fall to the
+ground poisoned by the breath of the serpents, which rose in a thick
+vapor.
+
+In this terrible moment Ha'penny's heart almost failed him; but,
+mustering all his courage, he sprang upon the witch, and tore from her
+the mantle of cobwebs, to which he noticed she was clinging. Instantly
+the witch set up a shrill shriek.
+
+"Give me back my mantle," she cried pitifully; "if I die with that
+around me, I can be sure of rest in the grave. If you take it away, I
+shall have to fly about like a bat forever."
+
+"If you order the snakes to shrivel up and die, and restore all your
+victims to their natural shapes, I will give you the mantle," said
+Ha'penny firmly.
+
+"Children, come home!" cried the witch, in a failing voice. Immediately
+the snakes began rolling and gliding into each other, and in a short
+while nothing was left but the two fiery serpents, who wreathed
+themselves quietly around the witch's hat again, as if nothing had
+occurred.
+
+"Children, be dust!" she said again--this time in a weaker voice--and
+the snakes curled up and fell away, leaving behind them only two little
+shining skins.
+
+"Be once more men and women, you accursed things!" she said spitefully,
+making a sign at the transformed beings who were now flocking around
+Ha'penny with delight and gratitude. As the witch spoke, the ugly
+deformities melted away, and in their place were seen the heads of
+handsome men and beautiful women, who wept for joy when they found
+themselves restored.
+
+Ha'penny now threw the cobweb mantle over the witch, who, clutching it
+in her arms, gave one long shudder and expired. They made a grave for
+her then and there; and Ha'penny led his companions out of the magic
+garden, which they were glad to leave, into the long passage-way. There
+they showed him caverns filled with gold and silver, which it had been
+their business to dig out of the earth and to pack away for the witch.
+Ha'penny and his friends divided the spoil, although they told him it
+was all his by right. When they got up into the light of day once more,
+the bewitched people scattered in all directions to go to their various
+homes, and Ha'penny was again alone in the world, although now very
+rich. He persuaded the king to discharge him from the royal service, and
+his first thought was to journey to the cabin in the woods. This, by aid
+of the magic slippers, he did in very quick style, and there he found
+the twelve dogs and the twelve cats living as before. This distressed
+Ha'penny, as he had hoped that the breaking of the witch's spell would
+set them also free. "What did I tell you?" said the oldest of the dogs
+sadly. "We are doomed _never_ to regain our shapes; but, now that
+Felisette has gone, we are comfortable here and don't repine. Only,
+there _should_ be somebody to cook for us, and our hair has not been
+decently brushed for a week."
+
+Ha'penny felt a sudden thrill of joy. Here, at last, was something to
+depend on him, something that he might live and care for. He warmed the
+water forthwith, and gave all the dogs and cats a bath apiece, and then
+he combed and brushed them nicely. He made the fire and heated their
+broth, and fetched fresh cream and white bread for their breakfast.
+Nothing was heard but little barks and purrs of enjoyment. Ha'penny
+waited till all were asleep on their cushions, and then he mounted the
+stairs and nailed up the skeleton cupboard, so that it might never again
+be opened. He could not take it quite away, you see, as every one must
+have a skeleton of some kind in his closet, and this was the only one he
+had. Ha'penny had never felt so happy and light-hearted as now. He had
+found friends, and might remain alone with them in peace.
+
+So there he continued to live, and I am almost sure that if you would
+visit that forest, you might, even now, succeed in finding the cottage,
+the cats, and Ha'penny himself!
+
+
+
+
+SYBILLA, MYRTILLO, AND FURIOSO.
+
+
+A certain king had a beautiful golden-haired daughter named Sybilla,
+whose suitors came from every country, though with small success, since
+the princess had vowed to remain single until one proving to be the
+mightiest hero of the world should appear.
+
+At no great distance from her father's country lived a horrible giant,
+every hair of whose head could change, at will, into a fiery serpent. He
+had one eye, the size of a mill-wheel, and his teeth looked like rocks
+in a mighty cavern. His name was Furioso, and his strength was known to
+surpass that of an army of ordinary men. What was the dismay of
+Sybilla's father when this monster sent to request the lovely princess
+for his wife! The king turned pale, and walked up and down his palace
+floor all night, for he knew what it meant to refuse the request of
+Furioso, who, up to this time, had lived at peace with his neighbor's
+country. The queen-mother, hearing of the giant's offer, took to her
+royal bed in kicking hysterics. As to the proud little princess, she
+curled her pretty red lips scornfully and tossed her head. "I'd like to
+see him do it, the fright!" was what she said.
+
+In a few days what the king feared had come to pass. The giant Furioso,
+on receiving the beautiful diplomatic letter the king's secretary had
+written him (after consultation with all the lords and lawyers of the
+realm), frowned, scratched his head, which instantly bristled all over
+with flaming serpents, and opening his mouth sent forth a blood-curdling
+yell of defiance that resounded in the farthest part of the king's
+dominions. Without a moment's delay he changed himself into a fearful
+hurricane, and swept over the country and the palace of the Princess
+Sybilla. Fences and iron gates, stone walls and marble palaces fell to
+the ground like card-houses. Forests were uprooted, suspension bridges
+snapped like cobwebs, villages entire rose up into the clouds and
+disappeared, with their inhabitants looking in astonishment out of the
+windows! Cows and horses, dogs and elephants were seen whirling about
+in the air like Japanese day-fireworks. The king and queen found the
+roof lifted from above their heads, and went sailing out the open space
+in their nightcaps. They met all the court blowing wildly about up
+there, and for some time it was like a mad dance without any bottom to
+it. Dizzy and terrified, the royal couple at last fell down to earth
+again, the queen lighting on the fat cook, so that she was not seriously
+injured--the king falling on a tennis net, which the force of the wind
+kept suspended like a hammock without any ropes.
+
+Picking themselves up, the first thought of the royal couple was for
+their beloved princess. As fast as different members of the court and
+household fell down from the clouds, which they continued to do all the
+evening and night, the king sent them in search of the princess. Nobody
+remembered having seen Sybilla anywhere in the air, and her
+waiting-maid, who dropped somewhere about nine o'clock A.M., next day,
+wept as she told how she was combing the princess' golden hair with the
+ivory comb she still held in her hand, when the breeze came which
+separated them. One thing was certain, the princess had disappeared.
+When things settled down a little, and people began taking their
+breath, a peasant turned up who reported seeing the princess flying
+along at a fearful rate of speed in the arms of a tall, white-haired man
+wrapped in a mantle, who hid his face as he passed. "It were just at
+that moment, your honors," said the peasant, overwhelmed by the
+questions that rained on him, "I were myself tooken, unexpected-like,
+and turned upside down by the wind; and when I cum to, there I were
+atop a haystack in Farmer Grimes' field, five miles from home as the
+crow flies, a-standing on my head."
+
+The king and queen exchanged horrified glances.
+
+Each remembered to have heard that one of the tricks of Giant Furioso,
+when he wished to be particularly wicked, was to change to the semblance
+of a venerable white-haired man. No doubt about it, the whole calamity
+to court and nation was the work of Furioso, and _he_ had got the
+princess.
+
+The distracted king set out at the head of his army to visit Furioso's
+castle. To his surprise, under the giant's name, upon a visiting card
+inserted above the speaking-trumpet at the gate, were pencilled these
+words: "Out of town till further notice." The windows were closed, and
+green shades hung behind them. No smoke came out of the chimneys, and
+the doors were chained. Evidently the giant had retired to some one of
+his retreats, where he could not be followed. The king and his army
+marched back again in gloomy silence.
+
+For six months nothing was heard of the unfortunate Sybilla, till one
+day three young princes, travelling from a distant country in search of
+adventure, found a wounded carrier-pigeon on the road. Under its wing
+was a note, written in pale red ink, on a bit of torn linen cambric. The
+note gave them considerable trouble to read it, but, at last, the
+youngest prince, Myrtillo, who had always been the cleverest at school,
+managed to decipher these words:
+
+     "I write this with blood taken from my finger, on a fragment of
+     my only pocket-handkerchief. I am the wretched Princess
+     Sybilla, daughter of the King Rolando, and I pray any kind
+     mortal who finds this to come to my aid, in the dungeon of
+     Furioso, under the fifth mountain of the Impassable Range. Once
+     in twenty-four hours this mountain cleaves asunder to let my
+     oppressor take the air. Watch, and rescue me, in the name of
+     humanity."
+
+The Impassable Range was far away, but the princes journeyed thither
+without delay. They found the fifth mountain easily, and hid under the
+rocks at its base, to await developments. Exactly at sunrise a rumbling
+sound was heard, and the cliffs shook. The mountain split apart from
+summit to base, and between two yawning jaws of rock issued forth,
+first, a head covered with flaming serpents, then a frightful purple
+face, and lastly, the gigantic form of Furioso. Following him came the
+wails and shrieks of his captives within the mountain, to which Furioso
+paid no attention; he only turned his back and shouted:
+
+    "Close you, mountain, fierce and grim,
+    Open but to Banbedrim!"
+
+The princes fancied that this last was the password, and when the giant
+had disappeared they tried to make the mountain open by repeating it;
+but in his excitement each one forgot how to pronounce the magic
+syllables. So there they stayed till sunset, when the giant came home
+from his hunting expedition. He had a pouch slung over his shoulder, and
+in it were crowded the new men, women, and children he had caught. The
+poor creatures were half dead with terror and rough treatment. The
+princes watched the giant, and listened with all their ears for the
+password. "Banbedrim!" thundered Furioso, and instantly the mountain
+yawned to let him and his miserable prisoners pass in, when it closed,
+as before.
+
+The three princes laid each his hand on his sword, and swore to be
+avenged of the brutal treatment of their fellow-beings. Next morning
+when the giant issued forth, hurling the password at the mountain, then
+disappeared from sight, the oldest prince declared that he should be the
+first to enter the mountain, that his brothers should wait twenty-four
+hours for his reappearance, and that should he fail to come back the
+second brother might come to his assistance.
+
+Bravely the young man sprang up the mountain-side, and called aloud the
+password. Instantly amid thunderings and lightnings the ground split at
+his feet and swallowed him from sight. They could see the tip of his
+bright sword held aloft, as he sank into the gloomy abyss.
+
+Twenty-four hours passed, and the oldest prince failed to return. Then
+the second brother set forth, and he, too, vanished from sight. A long
+day and night of waiting had the youngest prince. Then he ascended the
+mountain where there was every reason to fear his brothers had found a
+horrible fate. Uttering the password, Myrtillo saw, through the opening
+earth at his feet, a pit whence came fire and smoke; and he plainly
+heard the cries for help of many human voices.
+
+Myrtillo fell a great distance, landing on his feet in a desolate
+cavern. The smoke cleared away and he beheld a huge iron door before
+which were four trumpets--one of copper, one of silver, one of gold, and
+one of brass. Over them these words: "He who would enter here, choose
+between us four."
+
+At the foot of the golden trumpet lay the mangled remains of his oldest
+brother, who had perished in trying to blow it. At the foot of the
+silver trumpet the corpse of the second prince had fallen; and now
+Myrtillo must choose between the two remaining trumpets! Without a
+moment's hesitation he put his lips to the copper trumpet, and gave a
+loud, clear blast. At once the iron door flew open, and he was in a hall
+surrounded by dungeons, through whose gratings he could see prisoners in
+every stage of misery. They called to him frantically, and hailed him as
+their deliverer. Alas! what could the poor prince do to save them. He
+looked about and saw a long tunnel, ending in a massive gate of stone
+and iron. As he gazed into the darkness of the tunnel something coiled
+up at the end of it seemed to stir, and a hideous snake darted toward
+him, opening a pair of jaws as wide as an ordinary fireplace, and
+sending out a flaming tongue. Myrtillo charged upon the beast, and after
+a desperate fight drove his sword down its throat, the point coming out
+at the back of the neck. As he stooped to free his sword the serpent
+gave a convulsive struggle and died. Myrtillo found a chain around its
+neck on which was fastened a golden key. He took the key and put it in
+the great key-hole of the iron door before him, and to his joy the door
+opened. There, in a dismal dungeon within, lay a beautiful maiden in
+chains. Myrtillo set her free, and found that she was the Princess
+Sybilla, whom the giant treated with especial cruelty because she
+persisted in refusing his love. She told him that the little pigeon was
+one of many kept for the serpent's food, and that she had hidden it, and
+helped it to fly out one day when the giant left her cell. "And now,"
+said the princess, when Myrtillo had in turn told her his story, "let us
+be quick, and lose no time. In the court beyond my cell are two
+fountains. One of them contains the water of strength, the other the
+water of weakness. From the former fountain Furioso gains all his power.
+A little of its water sprinkled upon the dead recalls them to life, and
+we may save your poor brothers yet."
+
+Myrtillo and the lady hastened to the fountains; but to their dismay a
+roaring noise and the groans of the wretched prisoners, who were
+chastised daily upon his return, announced the arrival of the giant.
+"Quick!" said the lady, pointing to the water of strength; "drink once
+of this, and you will be strong enough to change the fountains, putting
+each in the place of the other."
+
+Myrtillo obeyed, and at once felt able to move a mountain at command. He
+seized the solid stone basins and changed them, and hardly had he done
+so when the giant came rushing in. "Where is that insolent
+whipper-snapper of a prince who has dared to kill my faithful serpent?"
+roared he.
+
+"Here he is, at your service," said Myrtillo, stepping forth with a
+gallant bow, and holding his glittering sword in hand.
+
+"Just wait till I quench my thirst," said the giant disdainfully, as he
+stooped down to what he supposed to be his fountain of strength, and
+drank a long, deep draught. Suddenly a strange trembling came over the
+monster's huge bulk. His face turned pale, his eyes stared, his jaw
+dropped, he sank to the ground.
+
+"Why, this is the water of weakness my prisoners drink," he cried. "What
+trick have you been playing me, you scoundrel?"
+
+Myrtillo again drank of the water of strength, and now he felt as if he
+could defy an army, single-handed. Swift as a lightning flash he
+descended upon the giant, and severed his wicked head from his body. The
+Princess Sybilla uttered a wild shriek of delight, which was heard and
+understood by all her fellow-captives, and the dungeons echoed with
+sobs and cries of joy. Myrtillo and the princess filled goblets with the
+water of strength, and hastened to sprinkle all the prisoners, who,
+paralyzed by their chains and wasted with hunger, could in many cases
+barely stir upon the ground where they lay. Soon, a host of strong men
+and women filled the main hall of the dungeon, and then Myrtillo had the
+joy of seeing his two brothers return to life under the action of the
+magic water, in which he bathed their limbs. As Myrtillo only had
+_drank_ of the water of strength, he remained the strongest champion in
+the world; and when Sybilla was taken back to her father and mother, she
+told them that she had promised to take the Prince Myrtillo for her
+husband. From the giant's stronghold Myrtillo brought away gems and gold
+enough to enrich him for a lifetime, even after all the giant's victims
+had been sent home with a bag of gold apiece. His brothers found brides
+in two lovely fellow-sufferers they had led out of the giant's cavern to
+the light of day; and so all were satisfied, and in a short time the
+Giant Furioso was forgotten. No more hurricanes visited the kingdom of
+Sybilla's father, where things continued to jog along in the old-time
+peaceful fashion.
+
+
+
+
+ANNETTE; OR, THE MAGIC COFFEE-MILL.
+
+
+A poor woman and her daughter, who were on the verge of starvation, saw
+a little green bud of a plant growing through their cottage floor. They
+watered it, and in a day or two it sent forth long shoots, and became a
+vine, fine and delicate to look at, but tough as an iron wire. The vine
+put forth leaves, soon covering the inner walls of the cottage. The
+tendrils waved longingly toward the sun, and so the mother and daughter
+set their lattice window open, when, lo! the vine escaped as if it had
+wings and grew quickly heavenward. Lovely flowers bloomed on it, in
+shape like morning-glories, and rare birds came to drink the honey of
+their chalices. The maiden leaned out of her window and looked up.
+Higher, higher climbed the vine, till it was lost in the blue sky above
+them. The girl was seized with a yearning desire to climb up and see
+what could be seen. Her mother gave her leave, and she set out. Up, up,
+she went, and the mother watched below till the clustering green and
+many-colored bells hid her child from sight. At last the girl reached a
+wonderful new country, and stepped off the vine upon a shining silver
+path, which she followed through a green meadow till she came to a house
+made of honey-comb that glittered, oh! so beautifully. The columns of
+the porch were sticks of lemon-candy, and there were little benches to
+rest yourself upon, made of maple-sugar and cushioned with gingerbread.
+Annette, for so the girl was called, ventured to open the door of the
+house and peep in. There she found more beautiful things than I can tell
+you of--toys and books and pictures--and all the furniture was made of
+cake with raisins in it, so that, if one sat down to read, one need only
+turn around and nibble a knob off the chair, or pick raisins out of the
+arm of the sofa. Annette played a little and read a story-book, then she
+fell asleep on a couch made of apple-dumplings. Suddenly in came three
+goats, who were the servants of the fairy to whom this house belonged.
+"Let us butt her to death," said the oldest goat. "Let us trample on
+her, and bite her," said the second goat. "Let her alone," said the
+third goat, who was a kind little fellow with golden horns. "If she
+holds her tongue, and if she don't find out the secret of the golden
+coffee-mill, our mistress will let her stay here and work for her."
+
+Annette heard this while pretending to be asleep, and when the fairy
+came home, she jumped up and made a nice little courtesy, begging to be
+allowed to do the housework. "Well," said the fairy, after looking at
+her sharply, "I will try you; only don't undertake to grind my coffee
+for me, and don't gossip with the goats."
+
+Annette lived there for six months, and learned to make all kinds of
+goodies; for the fairy was the queen's confectioner in that country. You
+might eat all you pleased, provided you didn't talk; and not a word
+spoke Annette, and not a word spoke the goats. Every day the fairy went
+into a pantry and there ground her coffee; and every day she carried two
+or three bags full of something heavy, and put them in her chariot, and
+drove off with them. The coffee-mill looked like any other one, and
+Annette wondered vainly what its secret was. At last curiosity overcame
+her, and she stole into the pantry and began to grind the mill. Down
+fell a stream of pure gold-dust, and it powdered Annette all over till
+she looked like a golden image. "How shall I get rid of this?" she said,
+trying to shake it off, but the gold dust stuck fast. She cried and
+sobbed, for she knew that now the fairy would certainly find her out. In
+came the friendly goat. "Cheer up," said he. "That was the way my horns
+came to be gilded, because I yielded to my curiosity about the mill,
+when I first came here to live. The fairy wanted to kill me, but she let
+me off when I vowed to serve her faithfully for seven years. The time is
+just up, and so I propose that we escape together. Take the magic mill
+under your arm and get upon my back, and we will go down to your world."
+
+Annette joyfully obeyed the friendly goat, and carrying the coffee-mill
+they set off from the fairy's house. Unfortunately she did not know how
+to stop the mill from grinding, and it left a path of gold-dust behind
+them as they fled, which showed the way to the fairy. The fairy followed
+them, riding on a silver broom-stick; but the goat was swift as the wind,
+and Annette clung to his golden horns, and held the magic mill tight
+under her arm. By good luck they reached the opening, near which the
+vine was growing, and, just as the furious fairy got near enough to
+stretch out her long arm after them, down went Annette, goat, and
+coffee-mill, through a rift in the clouds, to a land where their enemy
+could not follow them. The faithful vine caught them as they fell, and
+held them up stoutly. When they had climbed down, and touched the earth
+in safety, Annette was astonished to see her goat turn into a handsome
+young prince, with curling golden locks and kind blue eyes.
+
+"You have freed me from my enchantment, beautiful maiden," he said,
+kneeling upon the grass at her feet. "Long years ago I and my wicked
+brothers were captured by the fairy and became her slaves under the form
+of goats, as you saw. For fear that they may find out some way to
+follow us, we must cut down this vine, and then we shall be free forever
+from all dread of disturbance."
+
+Annette's mother came running out, kissed her child, and listened with
+wonder to the tale of her adventures. All this while the mill had gone
+on grinding, and before they knew it the cottage floor was knee-deep in
+gold-dust. "We shall be smothered at this rate," cried the prince
+laughing, and he hastened to make a magic sign he had learned from the
+fairy. The mill ceased to flow, and then the prince took an axe and cut
+the beautiful vine at its root. Annette wept to see the lovely leaves
+and blossoms shrivel up, but in a short time they vanished entirely from
+sight. The prince married Annette, and every day the mill ground gold
+enough to pay all the expenses of their palace and servants and horses,
+and also the expenses of Annette's mother, who had a separate palace for
+herself over the way.
+
+The country people, for years after the time when Annette and the prince
+came down the magic vine, showering gold-dust along their way, continued
+to talk about the wonderful rain of stars they had seen in the sky that
+moon-lit night.
+
+
+
+
+JULIET; OR, THE LITTLE WHITE MOUSE.
+
+[Illustration: _The Queen & the Princess in prison._]
+
+
+Once upon a time there lived a king and queen who loved each other so
+dearly that they were an example to all the married couples in their
+kingdom. In an adjoining country lived a wicked king, who spent his life
+in envying the happiness of his neighbors. He was a sworn enemy to all
+good and charitable people, and his chosen companions were robbers and
+murderers. His air was stern and forbidding. He was lean and withered,
+dressed always in black, and his hair hung in long elf-locks over his
+fiery eyes. This wicked wretch, determined to end the happiness of his
+neighbor, raised an immense army and marched to attack the kingdom of
+the Land of Sweet Content, for so the good king's country was called.
+
+The king of Sweet Content made a brave defence, but it was all in vain.
+The immense numbers of the adversary overpowered him and his troops.
+One day when his poor queen was sitting with her infant daughter in her
+arms, waiting for news from the battle-field, a messenger on horseback
+galloped up to the door, and entered the room where she was, with every
+sign of terror.
+
+"Oh! madam," he cried, "all is lost. The king is slain, the army
+defeated, and the ferocious King Grimgouger is even now marching to take
+you prisoner."
+
+The queen fell senseless on the floor; and while her attendants were
+making every effort to provide a means of flight for her and the little
+princess, the army of the foe, with banners flying and with music
+playing, marched into the city. Surrounding the palace, they called on
+the queen to surrender. No answer was given, and the horrid King
+Grimgouger instantly ordered a file of his most blood-thirsty soldiers
+to march through the palace and to kill everybody they met, except the
+queen and princess.
+
+Now nothing was heard but shrieks and lamentations from the doomed
+attendants of the queen. When all were sacrificed, the tyrant Grimgouger
+walked into the apartment where the terrified queen stood, clasping her
+child in her arms, and prepared for death.
+
+"You won't die now, madam," he thundered, seizing her by the long hair,
+and dragging her after him down the stairs and over the stones of the
+courtyard to his chariot. She was all bruised and bleeding, and knew
+nothing more till she found herself in a tower-room, where dampness
+dripped from the walls, and the light of day could scarcely reach
+through a small grated window. She lay upon a little heap of mouldy
+straw, and her child cried for food beside her, while over her stood a
+wicked fairy to whom King Grimgouger had given the prisoners in charge.
+The fairy threw her a few crusts without any butter on them, and the
+baby seized one eagerly, and stopped crying as she sucked it.
+
+"That is all either of you shall have to-day," said the fairy.
+"To-morrow they will decide what to do with you. Probably you, queen,
+will be hanged, and your daughter be saved to marry the son of our good
+King Grimgouger."
+
+"What! That ugly little reptile of a prince!" screamed the queen. "Hang
+me, if you will, but don't give my beautiful angel to a husband like
+that!"
+
+"Then she, too, will be hanged," said the fairy, grinning maliciously,
+and flying away with a fizz of flame, leaving behind her the smell of
+sulphur matches.
+
+Next day the fairy gave the queen three boiled peas, and a small bit of
+black bread, and the next, and the next, until the poor queen wasted to
+skin and bone, and the baby looked like a wax doll that had been left
+out in the rain all night.
+
+"In a few days it will be over," thought the poor queen. "We shall be
+starved to death."
+
+She fell to spinning with what strength remained to her (for the fairy
+made her work, to pay her board, she said), and just then she saw,
+entering at a small hole, a pretty little mouse as white as snow.
+
+"Ah! pretty creature," cried the queen, "you have come to a poor place
+for food. I have only three peas, which are to last me and my child all
+day. Begone, if you, too, would not starve."
+
+The little mouse ran about, here and there, skipping so like a little
+monkey that the baby smiled, and gave it the pea she had for her
+supper.
+
+The instant she had fed the mouse, what was the queen's surprise to see,
+start out of the prison floor, a neat little table, covered with a white
+cloth, having on it silver dishes, containing a roast partridge, a
+lovely cake, some raspberry jam, and for the baby a big bowl of fresh
+bread and milk, with a silver spoon! How they did eat! I leave you to
+imagine it!
+
+Next day the mouse came again, and devoured the queen's three peas, her
+whole day's supply. The queen sighed, for she did not know where
+anything else was to come from. She stroked the little mouse, and said
+gently, "Pretty creature, you are welcome." Immediately the same little
+table sprang up out of the floor. This time there was broiled chicken
+and ice-cream, green peas, marsh-mallows and custard, with a fresh bowl
+of bread and milk for the baby. "Oh! you dear little mouse," said the
+queen. "This must be your work! If you could only help me to get my baby
+out of this dreadful place, I would thank you forever."
+
+The mouse ran up to her with some straws in its mouth. This gave the
+queen an idea, and taking them she began to weave a basket, for she was
+a clever queen, and knew how to use her pretty white hands in a variety
+of useful ways. The mouse understood her, and brought her more straws,
+until she had made a nice covered basket large enough to hold the baby.
+Then the queen cut her petticoat into strips, and plaited them, till she
+had a long and strong cord. She tied the basket to this, and wrapping
+the beautiful little smiling princess in the only covering she had, laid
+her in the basket, crying all the time as if her heart would break. Then
+she climbed up to the window, and (the little white mouse watching her
+with a very friendly air) looked down to see if she could attract the
+attention of any charitable person who might be passing in the street
+below.
+
+There she saw an old woman leaning upon a stick and looking up at her.
+
+"Pray, goody," said the queen, "have pity on an innocent babe, and save
+it from destruction. Feed and nurse her, and heaven will reward you, if
+I cannot."
+
+"I don't want money," said the old woman; "but I am very nice in my
+eating, and I have a positive longing for a nice, little, fat, white
+mouse. If you can find such an one in your prison, kill it and throw it
+out to me. Then, right willingly, will I take your pretty babe and nurse
+it carefully."
+
+When the queen heard this, she exclaimed to herself, "Oh! the dreadful
+old thing!" and began to cry. "There is only one mouse here, madam," she
+said aloud, "and that is so pretty and engaging that I can't find it in
+my heart to kill it, even to save my child."
+
+"Hoity-toity!" said the angry old creature, thumping her stick on the
+ground below. "If you think more of a miserable little mouse than of
+your child, keep them both, and be hanged to you!"
+
+So saying, her staff changed to a broom-stick, and with a fizz and a
+bang the old hag shot up into the sky like a rocket. And there was again
+a strong smell of sulphur matches in the air!
+
+The queen, seeing that this was, without doubt, the wicked fairy come to
+try her, gave way to new grief. She kissed her hapless little one, and
+just then the mouse jumped into the basket. The baby's rough clothes
+changed to finest linen and lace, and a pillow of down was under her
+head, while a gay silver rattle was put into her hand.
+
+More surprises! As the queen watched, the mouse's paws changed to tiny
+hands with jewelled rings upon them. The little face grew into the image
+of a smiling old woman's, and a figure of a pretty old-time fairy stood
+before her. As these fairies have been rather out of fashion lately, I
+will tell you just how she was dressed. She wore a chintz gown, looped
+up over a blue silk quilted petticoat. A lace ruff was around her
+throat, and her long-pointed bodice was laced with silver. Over her
+mob-cap she had a high sugar-loaf hat tied on with pink ribbons, and her
+feet were clad in the prettiest black silk stockings and high-heeled
+black satin slippers, with big diamond buckles. When you remember that
+she was just of a size with the baby princess, you will agree that you
+would have liked to see her.
+
+"What is the baby's name?" said the fairy.
+
+"Oh--Juliet; I thought I had mentioned it," said the queen,
+apologetically.
+
+"I have never heard anything but 'pecious wecious,' and 'mother's
+blessing,' and things like that," said the fairy. "You may stop crying
+now, for I will save Juliet. If you had given me to the wicked fairy,
+she would have gobbled me up in a minute, so you see I owe my life to
+you. Henceforth I will take Juliet under my protection. She shall live
+to be an hundred years old, and never have an illness or a wrinkle."
+
+Fancy it, children! No mumps, no measles, no whooping-cough, no
+castor-oil! What rapture in the thought!
+
+The queen kissed the fairy's little hand, and begged that Juliet should
+at once be taken away. So the weeping princess was put into the basket,
+and carefully let down to the bottom of the tower. Then the fairy
+resumed the shape of a mouse and ran after her down the string, which
+the queen still held in her hands. Suddenly she came running back again.
+"Alas! alas!" she cried to the terrified queen, "our enemy, the fairy
+Cancaline, was hidden below, and seized upon the child, and flew away
+with it. Unfortunately she is older and more powerful than I am, and I
+don't know how to rescue Juliet from her hands."
+
+At these words the queen uttered a loud cry, and in came running the
+jailer of the tower, his men, some soldiers, and after them, gnashing
+his teeth with rage, the horrid Grimgouger himself.
+
+"Where is the child?" he said, stamping.
+
+"Alas, I know not, king," said the mother. "A fairy has taken it off."
+
+"Then you shall be hanged at once," he cried in a fury. "Seize her,
+guards."
+
+They dragged the poor queen by the hair of her head to the gallows. Just
+as the executioner was about to tie the rope around her neck, the
+gallows fell down beneath him and knocked out all his front teeth, while
+invisible hands carried the queen through the air to a safe retreat in
+the mountains. She found herself in a beautiful castle, where all her
+attendants were white mice. Here the queen lived for eighteen years,
+surrounded by luxury and tender care. But she always thought of her
+little daughter, and dreamed of her by day and night. The mouse fairy
+made every attempt to find news of the lost princess, but failed to do
+so.
+
+At this period the son of the wicked King Grimgouger had grown up, and
+everybody was talking about his strange fancy for a poultry-woman's
+maid-servant, who had refused to marry him in spite of his rank and fine
+clothes. The story went that the prince sent her, every day, a new gown
+of silk or velvet, and that the girl would not look at them. So the
+little white mouse fairy determined, through curiosity, to have a peep
+at this strange damsel. Accordingly she visited King Grimgouger's
+capital, and entering the poultry-yard found there an extremely
+beautiful young creature dressed in a coarse woollen gown, with her feet
+bare, and a cap of goat-skin on her head. Lying by her side were
+magnificent dresses, embroidered with gold and silver and ornamented
+with precious stones; the turkeys and other fowls that surrounded her
+trampled on them and spoiled them. The poultry-girl sat upon a stone in
+the yard when the king's son arrived; he was crooked, and hump-backed,
+and horrible to look upon.
+
+"Do you still refuse to marry me, fair maiden?" he asked. "If so, I
+shall have you put to death immediately."
+
+"I am not afraid of you, prince," the girl replied, modestly. "I
+certainly should prefer death to marriage with you. And I like the
+society of my chickens and turkeys better than yours, if it please your
+highness."
+
+The prince went off in a rage, and the mouse fairy appeared, in her real
+shape as a little old lady.
+
+"Good-day, fair damsel," she said. "I respect you and admire you--let me
+be your friend."
+
+"Willingly, good madam," said the girl. "I am greatly in need of
+friends, as you may see."
+
+"Have you, then, no father or mother, my child?"
+
+"None, madam; I am an orphan, and this poultry-yard is my refuge from
+the cruelty of the only protector I have ever known. The fairy
+Cancaline, who had charge of me, used to beat me until I was nearly
+killed. Weary of suffering I ran away from her at last; and while
+wandering in a wood I met the prince, who promised to befriend me, and
+placed me here as poultry-girl. Alas! now that I find he is in love with
+me, I must leave this place, and where to go I know not."
+
+"And what is your name, my dear?" asked the mouse fairy, affectionately.
+
+"Juliet, madam."
+
+"Then, kiss me, my dear; I knew you before you knew yourself," the fairy
+cried, joyfully. "I am delighted to see you so sensible. But your
+complexion is a little dark. Bathe in yonder fountain. And you should be
+better dressed. Put on one of these dresses, and then let me see you."
+
+The girl obeyed. On taking off her cap of goat-skin her long golden
+curls fell nearly to her knees. After bathing in the fountain she
+revealed a complexion more bright and transparent than the choicest
+pearls of India. Roses bloomed in her cheeks, and her eyes shone like
+the brightest diamonds. Her figure was light and graceful as a young
+fir-tree. The fairy gazed at her in wonder and delight. Her next thought
+was to restore the lost child to her mother.
+
+"Stay here one moment," she said, "while I fly back to your mother, and
+prepare her for this happiness, lest she should die of joy."
+
+The son of the wicked King Grimgouger went back to his father, and cried
+and groaned dreadfully. His boo-hoo might have been heard for miles, and
+the king naturally desired to stop it.
+
+"What in the world are you roaring about?" asked the father.
+
+"I'll roar as much as I like," said the spoiled prince. "If I can't
+marry the poultry-girl, I'll roar for a week without stopping."
+
+"Good gracious!" cried the alarmed king; "guards, go and fetch her here
+at once."
+
+The guards went to the poultry-yard, and found the princess Juliet,
+dressed in gorgeous attire, and looking more beautiful than the new
+moon.
+
+"Whom do you seek, my good men?" she said in a soft voice.
+
+"Madam," they answered humbly, "we are looking for a vile creature named
+Juliet; but you would never have stooped to notice her."
+
+"I am she," the princess said, proudly.
+
+Upon this the guards seized her, bound her hands and feet, and roughly
+carried her into the presence of the king.
+
+"So you won't have my son, miss," shouted the king. "Don't love him,
+hey? Stuff and nonsense! Love! Gammon and spinach! Marry him at once, or
+I'll have you flayed alive! Here, you rascal (addressing his son, who
+had now roared himself quite black in the face), stop that racket, for
+goodness' sake, or you'll split my head."
+
+But the princess held out firmly. They sent for a chaplain, but the
+princess said "no," instead of "yes," and when they shook her till she
+couldn't utter a syllable, she nodded her head from side to side. So,
+finding it quite a hopeless matter, the king ordered the prince put to
+bed with ice upon his head, and the princess to be shut up for life in a
+high tower, where she would never more see the light of day.
+
+At this moment the good mouse fairy returned in her flying chariot, and
+with her was the queen mother, who was almost crazy with delight at the
+prospect of embracing her child. When they heard the sad fate of Juliet,
+the queen wrung her hands in agony; but the fairy bade her cheer up, as
+she would find a way to help the captive.
+
+King Grimgouger had gone to bed in a rage, and the little white mouse
+ran up on his pillow. First she bit one ear, and made him turn over in
+his sleep. Then she bit the other, and made him turn back again. Now the
+king woke up, and howled for his attendants. They came running in, and
+while they sought to stanch the blood that flowed from his royal ears,
+the little white mouse ran to the chamber of the sleeping prince, and
+served him exactly the same way. The prince, who, to the great relief of
+the household, had fallen asleep in the very act of crying, now woke up
+and began again, this time with a vengeance.
+
+"Confound that fellow, he's at it again," said the king, smarting from
+his wounds. "Stop him, somebody; and get me the court-plaster, and the
+arnica, and the Pond's extract, and the chloroform; and send for all the
+surgeons."
+
+While the attendants ran hither and thither the mouse returned to visit
+the king. She bit his nose, and bit his toes, and bit his fingers; and
+when he opened his mouth to scold and yell, she bit a piece of his
+tongue off, so that he could not articulate, but could only make absurd
+mouthings, at which everybody wanted to laugh, yet dared not.
+
+Then she ran back to the prince, and ate out both of his eyes, which
+sent him flying out of bed. He seized his sword, and ran storming and
+swearing into the apartment of his father, who, on his side, had taken a
+sword, and vowed to kill everybody around him if they did not catch the
+mouse who had done this mischief.
+
+The prince could not understand what his father said, and as he was
+blind, attacked the king furiously. The king made a violent cut back at
+him, and in ten minutes they were in the thick of an awful fight, which
+ended in both being mortally wounded at exactly the same moment. Seeing
+them fall, their attendants, who hated the wicked tyrants, made haste to
+tie them hands and feet, and tumbled them into the swiftly flowing
+river.
+
+Thus ended the horrible King Grimgouger and his son. The good fairy now
+took her own shape, and, leading the queen by the hand, opened the door
+of the tower where Juliet was confined. Juliet flew into her mother's
+arms, and all was happiness.
+
+The kingdom of Grimgouger and that of Sweet Content, which he had joined
+to his, were now without a sovereign, and the people, by universal
+consent, chose Juliet to reign over them. Juliet became their queen, and
+in due time married a young king, who was rich and handsome, and wise
+and witty, and brave and modest--all that a young husband ought to be.
+The little white mouse continued to be their chief friend and
+counsellor.
+
+
+
+
+THE FAIRIES AND THE FIDDLER.
+
+[Illustration: Simon's Benefactor.]
+
+
+In the pretty little village of Hayfield, not far from the borders of a
+thick forest, lived a good-natured, idle fellow, named Simon, who
+supported his wife and two children by trapping or shooting in winter,
+and by fishing or doing odd jobs of harvest work in summer. Simon could
+play upon the fiddle in a way to make the tears come into your eyes; or
+if he chose to be merry, his tunes would set every foot in motion, as
+the wind starts the leaves upon an aspen tree. This accomplishment
+caused him to be much in demand among the young people of the village,
+who dropped many a bit of silver into his worn old hat; and at all the
+weddings and barn-dances, Simon might be seen with a huge bunch of
+flowers in his buttonhole, and his fiddle under his arm, footing it in
+the procession. Then, too, Simon was the best man in the village to
+coax stories from, especially the old-time gossip about the little folk
+in green, for whom in former days Hayfield had been famous. Simon knew
+how the fairies dressed, what they ate and drank, how they punished
+saucy human beings who offended them; and could point out the smooth
+rings of short fine grass where they had held their midnight revels.
+That the fairies really had haunted Hayfield and its surrounding woods,
+nobody in the village doubted. They had heard too many things to prove
+it from their grandparents, whose parents were said to have lived on the
+best of terms with the little people--setting pans of cream by the
+hearth-stone at night for them to skim--leaving, when the holidays came
+around, a cheese and bag of nuts in a hollow tree at the entrance of the
+wood--and getting all sorts of kind offices from the fairies back again.
+Although it had now been a long time since any one could testify to
+having actually seen a fairy (as it was well known that the band were
+frightened out of Hayfield when the first stage-coach, with its noise
+and clatter, took to dashing along the village street), many people
+believed the men in green to be still lurking in the neighborhood. What
+else could account for the trouble some of the good wives had with
+their butter and their bees? What could it be but fairy thumps and
+pinches that kept the lazy folk from sleeping soundly, when their houses
+were not to rights before they went to bed. And what could explain the
+silver penny often found in the shoe of a tidy housekeeper, when up she
+jumped at break of day to set her maids to work? For fairies never show
+by day, and it is only when the people of a house are fast asleep and
+snoring, that they glide in by key-holes, through cracks and broken
+panes of glass, and swarm over the rooms, spying out everything amiss,
+and leaving tracks on the dust of shelves or tables, scattering the
+ashes of an unswept hearth, and bewitching the inside of a dirty iron
+pot, so that it never more may cook sweet porridge!
+
+Of all the villagers, as I have said, Simon alone professed to have any
+recent acquaintance with the little folk, and the wonder was how they,
+who were known to be sworn enemies to idleness, could keep him in their
+favor.
+
+Simon's house was a poor little cottage on the outskirts of the town.
+His wife, once a pretty, rosy lass, had taken to drink, and the husband
+and children led a dog's life within doors. Consequently, their one
+pleasure was to roam the woods and fields, and the children were growing
+up brown and barefoot as two young gypsies. They were a boy named
+Timothy and a girl named Bess, of whom Simon was very proud, their fresh
+young faces making a strong contrast with his wizened visage, crossed
+with a hundred lines, and topped with a sunburned mop of hair. As they
+grew old enough to understand, their father instructed them in all the
+arts of woodcraft. There was no tree or plant for which he had not a
+name or a virtue. The habits of all birds and fishes and animals were as
+familiar to him as their haunts. In this way, the vast green forest,
+with its great tree-boles and twisted boughs, its verdant moss-carpet
+and hidden streams, became to them an enchanted world, through which the
+children strayed like a sylvan king and queen. A sad change it was to
+come back to the dirt and confusion of their miserable home, where the
+mother received them either with grudging welcome if they brought
+berries or a string of brook trout, or with blows and drunken curses if
+they came empty-handed. As his wife's intemperance increased, Simon
+stayed less and less at home, and the children dreaded lest some day
+their poor father would be driven to desert them altogether. So they
+resolved to keep a close watch on his movements, and to follow him
+should he go away.
+
+One night the harvest moon was riding her glorious way across the
+heavens, and the little village of Hayfield lay steeped in silver light.
+Not a lamp or a taper glimmered in the hamlet, and every one of the
+brown thatched cottages was buried in profound repose. Not even a
+watch-dog barked; and the forest-leaves yielded to the universal spell,
+and ceased to rustle.
+
+There had been held a harvest-home that day, and Simon had been hard at
+work with his fiddle, playing jigs and reels for the dance in the
+squire's great barn. Between every dance, he had quenched his thirst at
+the cider-barrel, or quaffed the big brown mug of beer they kept
+brimming at his side. Naturally, Simon's brain was a little the worse
+for such free potations; and when the last strains of the "Wind that
+Shakes the Barley" had died upon his fiddle-strings, and all the gay
+company had gone their homeward way, Simon with his pocket full of
+silver pennies staggered out into the field, and lay down under a
+haystack to take his well-earned rest.
+
+There, just before midnight, his two children, who had come in search of
+him, found their father peacefully sleeping, his fiddle on his breast.
+Not wishing to disturb him, the children decided to have their own
+night's sleep in the same fragrant nest of hay; and curling up at some
+little distance from the slumbering fiddler, they whispered together for
+a while, and then were about to drop asleep. Just as their eyes were
+closing they heard an odd sound, as of hundreds of little pattering
+feet, and out from the shadow of the wood came into the unbroken argent
+of the field a long train of little men, women, and children, dressed
+magnificently in cobweb gauze and green, bespangled with glittering
+gems, and wearing each a tiny crimson cap with a golden bell upon its
+peak. The two children were broad awake in a moment, for they knew that
+these were the fairies they had so longed to see, all dressed in holiday
+costume, and proceeding to their famous midsummer festival. The
+procession wavered like a gleaming snake across the field, and, when
+passing near the haystack, came to a halt. To the children's surprise,
+two queer little old men, holding carved ivory wands, came straight up,
+and tapped the sleeping fiddler across the bridge of his nose.
+
+"Nay, I will play no more for you, you light-of-head and light-of-heel,"
+said sleepy Simon, believing himself to be still perched upon the barrel
+that served as the fiddler's throne.
+
+"Aye, but play you shall, at his Majesty's command," said the little old
+man, thumping him more sharply. "Isn't that part of your bargain with
+us, if we allow the trout to haunt your brook, and the hares to run into
+your traps? Come, mortal! Up with you and follow. Here's the bandage to
+blindfold your eyes, as usual; and remember that, if you peep, you are
+our prisoner for life."
+
+By this time thoroughly awakened, Simon stumbled upon his feet, and
+stood making abject bows before the angry little fairy chamberlains. He
+let his eyes be bound with a green silk ribbon, and leading-strings were
+passed around his waist. At the blast of a golden trumpet, the
+procession moved forward with a sound of tripping feet and whirring
+gauzy wings and tinkling bells most lovely to the ear.
+
+Last of all came Simon, in fairy leading-strings, and the two children,
+unable to resist the impulse, followed noiselessly.
+
+Their way led again into the forest, through the dense underwood, to a
+smooth circle of velvet sward, set around with hundreds of little
+mushrooms, on which the fairies took their seats. In the centre was a
+hammock of silver cobweb, swinging by jewelled chains from the crossed
+stems of two tall white lilies, under a bower of maiden-hair ferns.
+Sweet blue violets were sprinkled in the grass, making a path where the
+king and queen of the fairies marched to take their places on the
+cobweb-throne. Dew was handed around in acorn-cups, of which the fairy
+guests sipped daintily, followed by bark trays containing every variety
+of fairy refreshment. There were delicate fried butterflies,
+marrow-bones of a field-mouse, snail soup served in nutshells, and wild
+strawberries in baskets made of moss.
+
+When the banquet was at an end, the chamberlains gave notice to Simon,
+who had been bound with ropes made of plaited grass to the trunk of a
+wide-spreading oak; the fiddle struck up a tune, and at once the dance
+began. Such a mad and merry dance the wondering children had never seen
+before! Old and young joined hands and trod a circle, then, breaking the
+chain, formed into a hundred fantastic figures; and at each touch of a
+light footstep, the earth opened to give birth to a flower, until the
+entire fairy ring was enamelled with fragrant blossoms. Fast flew the
+fiddle-bow, but faster flew the tiny feet; and when the mirth was at its
+height, Simon who, as we know, had taken a drop too much, was suddenly
+inspired to tear the bandage from his eyes, and crying, "It's my turn
+now," capered right into the middle of the magic ring.
+
+The honest fellow had meant no harm, but his offence was a mortal one!
+
+Instantly, he was surrounded by a swarm of the furious little men in
+green, who, without waiting for an excuse, stabbed out both his eyes,
+and taking away his fiddle and bow, bound his arms behind his back.
+Again the procession--this time sad and silent--was formed, and the king
+striking the nearest tree with his wand, it flew open; the whole party,
+leading Simon behind them, entered the aperture, and before the children
+knew where to turn, it had closed upon their father.
+
+And now, in what a distressing condition were the unhappy Timothy and
+Bess! Not knowing what better to do, they sat down at the foot of the
+great oak-tree which had swallowed up their father, and from sheer
+weariness fell asleep. When morning came, and the birds piped upon the
+boughs, the children awoke and looked in wonder about them. All was
+dewy, green, and fragrant in the deep woods, but no sign remained of the
+fairy revel, except a fine fringe of newly sprung grass, growing in a
+circle where their ring had been.
+
+The bark of the great oak tree was unbroken, and above stretched a broad
+canopy of dark-green leaves, which whispered in the morning breeze, but
+told no tales of what the children longed to know. Hunger drove them to
+retrace their steps homeward; and when they reached the cottage, their
+mother was so cross at her husband's failure to fetch her the usual
+stock of silver pennies earned at the harvest-home, that she beat them
+both soundly, and gave them but a dry crust apiece for breakfast.
+
+Still the children hoped their father might return; and, not knowing to
+whom to confide their wonderful tale, they kept silence. When it was
+found Simon had disappeared in earnest, all the wise heads in Hayfield
+decided that he had run away to escape from his good wife's tongue, an
+act of independence which had the bad effect of making more than one
+married man in the village unduly restless.
+
+A month passed, and the two children were again wandering in the forest
+trying to find a few berries to appease their hunger (for things at home
+were now worse than before), when they fancied they heard a child crying
+close at hand. They searched everywhere, and at length the sound was
+renewed, seeming to come from a thicket of tall ferns. Falling on their
+knees, the children worked their way under the bushes and through the
+brakes, until they came in view of a lovely chubby elf sitting forlorn
+upon a mushroom on a hillock of soft green moss, beneath a screen of
+ferns and wild flowers, and letting fall a flood of tears from his big
+blue eyes. He wore no clothing, if we may except a pair of drooping
+wings, and in his hand he held a stalk of snowy lilies.
+
+"Who are you, dear little one, and how came you here?" they asked.
+
+"I am a fairy," the tiny creature sobbed. "Last night was the monthly
+revel, and we sported till the moon set. But I saw these lilies growing
+over in yonder swamp, and I wanted them so; and as I ran, they seemed to
+run too. I had such hard work to gather them; when at last I succeeded,
+my red cap dropped off; and without it I am as helpless as a mere
+mortal. While searching for the cap, which I have not found, a cock in
+the village crowed, and the fairies all fled away and left me. The door
+of the mound is closed, and for a whole long month there is no hope of
+my getting in again. Oh! I wish I could find my cap."
+
+"If we help you to find the cap, will you stop crying?" said the
+children.
+
+The shivering sprite wiped his eyes and promised that he would weep no
+more. The girl wrapped him in her apron, and then all three of them set
+out in search of the missing treasure. At last Timothy saw in the water
+around some reeds a red object which a bull-frog was opening his mouth
+to swallow; and, wading into the stream, he was able to rescue the magic
+cap, dry it in the sun, and restore it to its happy little owner.
+
+"And now," said the smiling elf, who appeared to have suddenly grown old
+and wise, "as for a whole long month I am without a home, what do you
+say to taking me to yours? You will never regret it, that I promise
+you."
+
+The children told their new friend what a poor place their home was, but
+the elf smiled and shook his head as if he knew what he was about. He
+bade the children lead him to their cottage, and once across the
+threshold of the wretched place, where the drunken mother was sleeping
+heavily on a pallet of straw in the loft above, the elf took his perch
+upon the mantel-shelf.
+
+"Next, since I am obliged to live with mortals, let me see what the
+magic cap can do."
+
+He put on the cap and immediately disappeared from the children's sight.
+When night came, Timothy fell asleep, but Bess watched; and at midnight
+she saw her new friend appear upon the hearth, conducting a perfect
+army of little workmen and workwomen. He waved his cap thrice around his
+head, and at once little carpenters set to building up the
+cottage-walls, little whitewashers made the ceilings wholesome, little
+painters covered all the woodwork with a coat of yellow. By sunrise what
+a change! The broken bricks of the floor were transformed into pretty
+blue and white tiles, lattice windows took the place of their old and
+dim ones, the pots and pans were scoured until they shone, roses looked
+in at the outer door, where rows of larkspur and of gillyflower, of
+bachelor's-button and "Love-in-a-mist" were growing on either side of a
+neat flagged walk to the garden gate. Instead of Timothy's old straw
+mattress, the boy lay on a clean white bed; and his sister, who had kept
+awake all night in utter wonderment, falling asleep at dawn, because her
+eyes refused to stay open any longer, found him shaking her arm, and
+begging her to come and share in the nice hot breakfast that--wonder of
+wonders!--their mother, sober, and clean, and smiling, had made ready at
+the fire.
+
+It was a day of marvels! The mother seemed to have entirely forgotten
+her past degraded life, and was once more the brisk and rosy woman
+Simon had fallen in love with. A dozen times a day she paused in her
+spinning, or weaving, or baking, to run to the gate and wonder when dear
+father would come back. Timothy worked in the garden, Bess sewed and
+helped her mother, not daring to tell what she alone knew of the magic
+change. That night Bess slept, and Timothy kept watch. At midnight the
+fairy appeared upon the hearth, leading a dozen little bakers in white
+caps and aprons.
+
+"Now make ready fifty loaves of your best white bread, that the goodwife
+may sell them on the morrow!" the fairy ordered; and at once the tiny
+men set to work mixing and kneading and baking, and at daybreak there
+were fifty of the sweetest white loaves money could buy. The fame of
+Simon's widow soon spread through the village, and every one was eager
+to see the wonderful reform worked in her, no less than in her cottage.
+Her bread was bought up as fast as she could furnish it, and next night
+Bess watched while Timothy slept. Then Bess saw the fairy appear at
+midnight, followed by a swarm of bees like a cloud.
+
+"Make fifty pounds of your clearest honey, that the goodwife may sell it
+on the morrow."
+
+The bees flew out of the door, and next morning the hives were found
+overflowing with luscious honey that smelt like a bed of clover all
+a-blow.
+
+Next night came the bakers, and next night again the bees. Money flowed
+into the widow's purse as rapidly as it had once flowed out. Now was
+there lacking but one thing to complete their happiness, and that was
+the return of Simon to his family. Bess and Timothy together planned
+what they should do, and when the month had passed away, and the night
+of the full moon had come once more, neither went to bed, but both hid,
+watching for the coming of the sprite. Exactly at twelve o'clock, their
+kind little friend made his appearance, and summoning cooks and bees,
+ordered them to keep up their service on alternate nights, until the
+dame's coffers should be full to last a lifetime. Seeing him about to
+take leave, out rushed Timothy and Bess, threw themselves on their knees
+before the fairy, and, thanking him a thousand times over for his
+goodness, begged for one more act of grace--their father's release and
+restoration to his family. The fairy looked graver than they had ever
+seen him, and his brows puckered in a frown.
+
+"Your father has committed an offence we never pardon," he said, after
+a short silence. "He has been punished according to our laws, and must
+abide by the sentence, which is imprisonment for life."
+
+The children burst into tears at this, and cried so that the fairy
+sneezed several times.
+
+"I believe I am taking cold in all this dampness," he said, shivering
+slightly. "Come, dry up that deluge, and say good-by to me. The utmost I
+can do is to look up your father when I get back again, and tell him you
+are well and happy. I suppose you do not know that for some years past
+he has been attending our holiday frolics as musician, since our own
+best player broke his arm. Simon was under oath never to look at us, or
+to betray us, and this was the first time he transgressed. But our laws
+are very strict, and I am afraid to bid you even hope to see him again.
+One thing I may tell you. The king's chief counsellor has a mantle of
+red, worked with a device of six golden birds flying into a serpent's
+open jaws. If you should ever find that mantle, walk boldly to the
+oak-tree in the forest, knock three times, and cry, 'The King's Chief
+Counsellor!' Then you may be able to secure your father's freedom, but
+not else. And now, good-by to you."
+
+The good elf vanished, and Timothy and Bess spent more time than ever in
+the forest. They had now taken their mother into the secret, for she,
+poor woman, had become as gentle and loving as she had before been hard
+and cruel. The one desire of the entire family was to get possession of
+the chief counsellor's mantle, but nothing seemed more unlikely.
+
+A year passed, and Timothy had gone out to look at his rabbit-trap
+without particularly thinking of what it might contain, when a
+tremendous bustle inside attracted his attention. Cautiously he lifted
+the door, and up sprang an angry little man in green, having a long
+white beard, and a hump upon his back, who vanished from sight as
+quickly as he had appeared. Timothy lamented the loss of such unusual
+game, and then espied at the bottom of the trap nothing less than a tiny
+cloak of red, embroidered with six golden birds flying into a serpent's
+open jaws!
+
+He made a joyful dive after the little garment, but, strange to say, it
+stuck tight to the fingers of his right hand, dragging after it the
+trap. Timothy shook it and pulled at it in vain; there it was, and not
+to be dislodged.
+
+He ran home and called Bess to his assistance. The little girl came
+out, and no sooner had she touched her brother than she stuck fast to
+him. The mother flew to the rescue, and became fastened to her daughter;
+and there they all were, in a long string, not knowing whether to laugh
+or cry at their strange predicament. The only thing was to make a
+pilgrimage to the oak-tree in the forest. Timothy's dog followed them,
+and rubbed against his master's coat. He, too, stuck fast, and so did
+Bessy's cat. Everybody they passed upon the way was attracted to the
+queer family party, and before long a little army of curious people were
+compelled to walk along in the direction of the forest.
+
+Timothy did not know the secret of the little cloak, which had power to
+attract everything to it, drawing even people's thoughts out of their
+hearts, as a magnet draws the needle. Only in fairy-land could the
+objects so attracted be set free.
+
+When they reached the oak-tree in the forest, Timothy struck upon it
+three times and called with a bold voice, though not without a trembling
+of the legs, for the king's chief counsellor. The bark of the great tree
+cleft slowly open, and out came the same old white-bearded fairy he had
+captured in the rabbit-trap. Bowing with mock humility, the old fellow
+asked what his visitors would be pleased to have.
+
+"I demand my father, and also to be rid of this wretched little rag,"
+said Timothy hotly.
+
+"Step inside, step inside," said the elf with a malicious smile, for he
+knew that, once within, he might get the audacious mortals in his power,
+and force them to work his gold mines.
+
+"Not a step will I go inside until I see my father," said Timothy
+firmly.
+
+"Then here may you abide!" cried the old man, turning white with rage.
+
+Timothy put one hand _within_ the tree, holding the magic mantle at
+arm's-length.
+
+"I demand my father," he cried in a loud voice.
+
+The power of the mantle did not fail, for, rising from the darkness
+within, came poor blind Simon, stretching his arms toward his child, but
+holding tight his fiddle. At the moment Timothy's hand had come inside
+the fairy kingdom, the spell of enchantment was broken, and all of the
+strangely linked people were set free. Simon's wife and children threw
+their arms around him, and welcomed his return, while his neighbors
+shook his hand in warm congratulation. As for the old fairy, he fairly
+danced with rage. With the mantle in Timothy's possession, half the
+chief counsellor's power and reputation for wisdom would pass away. He
+offered rich bribes of gold and jewels, he threatened, he howled, he
+grinned, he hurled curses on their heads, but Timothy was firm.
+
+"Then name your price, you wretch!" cried the angry fairy.
+
+"It is that you shall restore my father's eye-sight," said Timothy.
+
+This went very hard with the wicked old elf, who had been congratulating
+himself that Simon would bear away at least one mark of fairy vengeance.
+But he had met his match in Timothy, and there was no escape for the
+chief counsellor, who, diving down into the cavern beneath the hollow
+tree, reappeared fetching a box of magic ointment, which, rubbed upon
+Simon's eyes, made them better than ever.
+
+When Simon saw not only the light of day, but his two dear children, and
+his wife looking as he had known her in her blooming youth, he uttered a
+cry of delight.
+
+Then, to relieve his feelings, he struck up the old "Wind that Shakes
+the Barley," when, behold, not only all the people there assembled, but
+a score of little green folk, who had been in hiding, enjoying the
+discomfiture of the cross old counsellor, began to foot it on the
+greensward. Simon himself danced, and the old counsellor, sorely against
+his will, was forced to skip until his legs ached, for Timothy still
+held the mantle in his hand.
+
+At last, when all were out of breath, the elf received his mantle. With
+a storm of angry words, he disappeared from sight. Immediately the sky
+darkened, a cold wind blew, and a shower of hail-stones fell upon our
+friends, sending them scampering and laughing away from the region where
+the fairy's spite prevailed.
+
+Under the spell of the kind little sprite who had been their guest, the
+cottage was never approached by any unkind visitors. Simon fiddled and
+grew fat, his wife remained as sweet as fresh cream to the last day of
+her life, and their children came to be the pride of all the village.
+
+So far as I have heard, that is the last visit Hayfield has had from the
+little men in green.
+
+
+
+
+ETHELINDA; OR, THE ICE KING'S BRIDE.
+
+
+Ethelinda lived alone with her father, Count Constant, in a quiet
+country place, which had always been her home. Her mother was dead, and
+her father had long before fallen under the displeasure of his king, and
+was sentenced to exile for life in this lonely spot. Their castle was
+gray and venerable, half of it in ruins, and near by grew a grove of
+melancholy pine-trees; while only some stunted rose-bushes, and a black
+pool of water, in which swam a few antiquated carp, relieved the
+monotony of the grounds within the broken walls surrounding their
+dwelling.
+
+One day a train of liveried servants on horseback, escorting a splendid
+carriage, stopped on the road near the castle.
+
+Some accident had happened to the springs of the vehicle, and the two
+passengers inside were forced to take refuge in the house of Ethelinda's
+father.
+
+Count Constant himself, dressed in a faded court costume, but looking
+handsome and stately, came forth to receive his unexpected guests. He
+aided first a tall thin girl to descend from the broken carriage, and
+then, an elderly dame, richly dressed, who, throwing back her veil,
+revealed to him the face of his greatest enemy--the vindictive Duchess
+Amoretta. This person, whom he had not seen for years, had once been in
+love with Count Constant, and it was because he preferred to her the
+young lady who afterward became his wife, that the Duchess had poisoned
+the mind of his sovereign against him. To her he owed his banishment
+from court, and the loss of his estates. During his wife's lifetime he
+had heard nothing of the Duchess, and now to have to give her the
+shelter of his roof was a terrible ordeal.
+
+The Duchess, however, was very kind and considerate in her manner to
+him. She made many apologies for the accident which had brought her
+there, and introduced to him her only child, the Lady Finella, who was,
+truth to tell, the most ill-tempered, pert minx ever seen, and a
+complete contrast to lovely Ethelinda.
+
+During supper, which the poor Count's servants tried to make presentable
+with a few eggs cooked in an omelette, a bottle of good wine, and a dish
+of stewed pigeons, the Duchess Amoretta was pleased with everything. She
+praised the cookery, she praised the tattered tapestries on the wall,
+she praised the Count's youthful looks, and she praised Ethelinda, till
+that modest maiden was quite overwhelmed.
+
+When the two young ladies had retired (Ethelinda giving up her own
+little tower bedroom to her visitor, and creeping off somewhere to lie
+on a threadbare couch), the Duchess became confidential. She implored
+the Count to believe that enemies had come between them. She said that
+slanderers had arisen to tell him the wicked stories he had heard. She
+told him that her one desire was to see him restored to rank and
+fortune. And at last she drew from her pocket a paper signed by the
+King, in which the Count Constant was promised a free pardon on
+condition of his immediate marriage with the Duchess Amoretta.
+
+The wily Duchess had planned the whole affair to get possession of her
+old lover again, and at first the Count, seeing himself caught in a trap
+as it were, was very angry.
+
+Then the Duchess told him to think of his lovely young daughter, wasting
+her youth in this desolate spot. She promised to Ethelinda a life of
+happiness and prosperity. She worked upon the poor father with such
+artful words and lying promises, that, at last, Count Constant signed
+the contract, engaging to follow her in a few days to the capital, and
+there to give her his hand in marriage.
+
+Ethelinda watched the fine chariot roll away with their unwelcome
+guests, next morning, and when it was out of sight, turned and threw
+herself upon her father's neck and kissed him fondly.
+
+"How glad I am to get rid of them, papa!" she cried. "The daughter was
+so spoilt and haughty, and the mother was even worse; somehow I could
+only shudder when she kissed me, in spite of the beautiful bracelet she
+put upon my arm on taking leave."
+
+"The Duchess means to be your best friend, my dear," her father said
+gravely, and went off to his study with a care-worn face. In a few days,
+he set out upon his journey to the capital, giving Ethelinda no idea of
+what he meant to do there.
+
+Winter had set in, and a great snow fell. All the country-side was
+covered with a mantle of purest white. Ethelinda loved the frost and
+snow, and every day she put on her little brown hood and cloak with the
+scarlet lining, and set out for a walk in the forest, carrying a bagful
+of crumbs, which she would scatter for her favorite little birds. One
+day, while thus employed, she met an old woodman gathering sticks.
+
+"Good-morning, daddy," said the girl in a pleasant tone.
+
+"It's not a good morning with me, girl," the old man answered, crossly.
+"I'm frozen and starving too, thanks to this accursed snow."
+
+"Don't speak ill of my dear snow," said Ethelinda, helping him to make
+his fagot. "Isn't it keeping the ground warm, and sheltering our roots
+and seeds for the spring-time? Come to the castle, if you will, and you
+shall have hot soup and a corner of the kitchen-fire. But you won't be
+allowed to abuse the beautiful work of the frost, in my hearing, that
+I'll promise you."
+
+"Bravely said, fair maiden!" the old man exclaimed, dropping his bundle
+of sticks, and vanishing behind a screen of closely woven fir-trees. A
+moment later Ethelinda saw a sleigh containing a solitary traveller,
+drawn by a fleet black horse, dash by her like the wind. The sleigh was
+shaped like a silver swan and the bridle of the horse glittered with
+gems. The traveller appeared to be a tall and stately youth, with long
+fair locks and glowing cheeks. He was half hidden behind robes of snowy
+down, and as he shot swiftly by, leaving in his wake a breath of icy
+wind, Ethelinda fancied she heard him say, "We will meet again, dear
+lady, we will meet again!"
+
+When, wondering over this incident, she reached the castle, it was to
+find there a letter from her father, commanding her immediate attendance
+at court, and announcing to her his marriage, which had already taken
+place.
+
+Poor Ethelinda, full of astonishment, and fearing she knew not what,
+bade farewell to her dear home and journeyed to the castle of the
+Duchess Amoretta. Here she was received with tenderness by her father,
+who commended her in loving accents to the care of her new mother.
+Ethelinda could not help shuddering more than before when the dreadful,
+painted old Duchess stooped down to kiss her. She dared not look her
+father in the face, but it was easy to see that he was more unhappy in
+his new splendor than ever he had been in exile and in poverty.
+Ethelinda sighed deeply, and, looking around, encountered the snaky eyes
+of her new step-sister, fixed on her with wicked triumph.
+
+And now, how changed was Ethelinda's life. Little by little, her
+father's companionship was withdrawn from her; his time was spent away
+from home, and soon, a war breaking out, Count Constant made haste to
+draw his sword in his king's service. A great battle ensued, and one of
+the first to fall, while gallantly fighting, was Ethelinda's father. He
+murmured a blessing on his child, and saying he was glad to go, died
+upon the battle-field, in the arms of his attendant.
+
+The Duchess Amoretta, who by this time was heartily tired of having
+Ethelinda on her hands, now treated the poor girl with positive cruelty.
+A few months after the Count's death, she made up her mind to marry
+again, and in order to rid herself of her troublesome step-daughter,
+consulted with her own child, who was skilled in all sorts of wicked
+devices.
+
+They built a summer-house extending over the river, and made in the
+floor of it a trap-door covered with moss and flowers, while beautiful
+vines grew around the pillars, and a fountain played in the centre. Into
+this pretty spot they invited Ethelinda to wander when ever she wished
+to be alone.
+
+One day the poor girl went inside the summer-house, and began to weep
+for her father. Suddenly, a hand was extended by some one concealed
+behind the trellis-work of vines, and she was rudely pushed, so that
+she fell with all her weight upon the concealed trap-door, and instantly
+plunged into the rushing river below. One cry she uttered, and then to
+her astonishment, although it was the morning of a balmy summer's day,
+an icy breath blew over her, and above the surface of the river there
+arose a bridge of glittering ice, which she was enabled to cross in
+safety to the bank.
+
+Making her way back to the house of her step-mother, Ethelinda was
+received with anger and astonishment. How she could have escaped,
+neither of her enemies could imagine. Ethelinda told nobody of the
+wonderful ice-bridge, which at the moment of her setting foot on shore
+had vanished like frost before the sun. A few days after, she desired to
+take her usual bath in the marble bath-room assigned to her use. No
+sooner had she entered the door than two strong women flew out from
+behind a curtain, and, seizing her by the shoulders, thrust her into a
+tank of boiling water they had prepared for the unfortunate girl.
+
+Ethelinda saw that she was about to die a terrible death, and gave
+herself up for lost, when suddenly the icy wind she had twice felt
+before, blew over her. As the two furies plunged her into the tank, and
+rushed away, leaving her to her fate, she felt, instead of the scalding
+heat she expected, the delicious warmth of a tepid bath close round her
+limbs.
+
+Again was she saved from evil by some unseen power; but now she knew
+what a terrible enemy was in pursuit of her, and determined to fly from
+the castle that very night. She hid in a little closet on the staircase,
+and, when night came, glided past the sleepy servants on guard, and
+escaped through the great gate into the open country.
+
+Swift as her feet could carry her, Ethelinda fled. Out of the city, into
+the deep woods, under the cold glitter of the watching stars, the poor
+girl ran, every moment fancying that she heard the messengers of the
+cruel Duchess behind her. At last she fell down exhausted, saying to
+herself, "Better to die here from cold and starvation, than to be foully
+murdered by that wicked woman." She lay for a moment resting upon a bank
+of soft moss, and felt a sudden blast of icy wind.
+
+Then was heard the cracking of a whip, and out of the woods came a
+sleigh driven by a solitary traveller.
+
+Ethelinda had a vague idea that she had seen him once before, but
+fainted away, and knew nothing more until she awoke to find herself in
+the sleigh, gliding swiftly along, wrapped in warmest robes of snowy
+fur.
+
+"Save me, save me from the Duchess!" she murmured in a terrified voice.
+
+"Sleep, poor child, you are safe now," a kind voice sounded in her ear.
+"Are you warm? Are you comfortable?"
+
+"Very warm, very comfortable," Ethelinda answered, a strange drowsiness
+coming over her.
+
+She slept again, and the black horse harnessed to the sleigh bounded
+forward like the wind. And now they passed through vast forests of pine
+and fir, into the regions of perpetual snow. For Ethelinda's guide was
+the young monarch of the frozen zone, and ruler of all ice and frost.
+Long had he loved the young girl secretly, and long had he vowed to make
+her his bride.
+
+They stopped once, and now the sleigh was drawn by a span of magnificent
+reindeer, pure white, with collars of jewels, having their great antlers
+tipped with sparkling gems. Over snowy mountain peaks they glided, past
+chains of icebergs, with many a frozen sea shining far below like a
+sapphire. It was piercingly cold, and yet Ethelinda did not suffer. The
+only thing she could not control was her power of speech. Not a word
+could she utter, and the stranger, too, spoke no more, but smiled on her
+kindly, from time to time, as he drove ahead.
+
+At last they reached a superb palace, built of ice, the roof fringed
+with icicles. An arch of many-colored lights spanned the roof, and from
+every door and window streamed forth a brilliant illumination.
+
+"Welcome home!" said the stranger. "This is my palace, and you shall be
+my queen, fair maiden; for I am the King of the North Pole, and never,
+till now, have I seen one worthy to share my throne."
+
+A train of milk-white bears with golden chains around their necks came
+out to receive the king and Ethelinda. They entered the palace, which
+blazed with splendid jewels on roof and walls. The throne was made of a
+single opal, and the queen's crown, which was immediately placed on
+Ethelinda's head, was composed of a circlet of diamonds, each one as
+large as a robin's egg.
+
+The marriage took place at once; and Ethelinda's husband proved so kind
+and loving, that she soon forgot her early sorrows, and became as happy
+as all queens are supposed to be. Her fame spread into many countries;
+and after a time, some celebrated traveller, who visited her court, went
+back to the city where Ethelinda's wicked step-mother still lived and
+flourished, and gave the Duchess a message from the beautiful Queen of
+the North Pole.
+
+"Tell her that I forgive her all her unkindness to me," Ethelinda had
+charged him to say, "since it was the means of securing to me my present
+joy, and the love of my dearest husband."
+
+Ethelinda even sent gifts to her step-mother and sister; to each a
+jewelled necklace of immense value, and a robe woven from the down of
+the King's own eider-ducks, which only sovereigns might wear. The
+Duchess and Finella eagerly seized the presents, but they almost died of
+spite to hear of Ethelinda's good luck. Night and day they wondered how
+they, too, might have similar fortune; and at length the Duchess
+determined to dress her daughter in coarse clothes like those Ethelinda
+had worn when found by the King of the North Pole, and to make her sally
+forth to the border of the forest.
+
+Snow was falling fast when the young woman reached the wood. She was
+dreadfully cold, and began complaining and quarrelling, as usual. She
+did not hear the approach of a sleigh until it was close beside her.
+There sat a handsome youth, driving a fleet coal-black steed. He
+politely invited her to take a drive, and, with many groans over her
+stiff limbs, she got in. They flew over the ground, and for not a single
+minute did Finella cease finding fault with everything. She abused her
+mother for exposing her to this dreadful cold, and vowed she should have
+rheumatism and lumbago and pleurisy and influenza, all together, next
+day. Her feet had chilblains already, and her hands were so chapped they
+would never be fit to be seen. In this agreeable strain, she went on
+till her companion, growing impatient of her whining tones, blew a
+sudden breath upon her--when, behold! all the girl's conversation was
+frozen on her tongue, a few cross words, like icicles, clinging to the
+tip of it!
+
+When they stopped at the palace door, the King of the North Pole (for he
+it was who had picked up Ethelinda's step-sister), instead of having her
+conducted in state to her apartments by a train of snow-white bears with
+golden chains about their necks, gave the cross girl in charge to an old
+brown bear of a housekeeper, with instructions to keep her locked up
+until the Queen should choose to set her free.
+
+Ethelinda's kind heart softened toward her step-sister; and, begging the
+King to forgive her, the Queen hastened to set the prisoner at liberty.
+Finella, dressed in the Queen's own robes, was taken into the royal
+nurseries to see two splendid rosy babies, rolling upon soft furs, and
+romping with a gentle little bear-cub, who was their playmate.
+
+[Illustration: _The princes & their playmate._]
+
+When the step-sister saw these treasures, she conceived a wicked scheme
+of punishing Ethelinda through her love for them. So, pretending to
+repent of her past follies and unkindness, Finella was allowed by the
+King and Queen to live in comfort in their home.
+
+On the night of some festivity (I believe it was a special illumination
+by the Northern Lights), the King and Queen went off sleighing in style,
+through their dominions, leaving the babies in charge of their deceitful
+step-aunt, who always kissed them and caressed them, before folks, as
+though she loved them fondly.
+
+As soon as the parents had disappeared, Finella ordered another sleigh
+to be harnessed, and taking the babies in her arms set forth. She
+attempted to guide the reindeer, but, in an instant, the great creatures
+were off like the wind, and soared up into the air, as the King himself
+had trained them to do. And now, how terrified was the wicked Finella!
+She knew no words with which to stop her fiery steeds, and presently
+sank, breathless and giddy, into the bottom of the sleigh. Higher,
+faster they went; the babies, like true sons of the frozen North,
+crowing with delight in the piercing atmosphere.
+
+The sleigh stopped upon an iceberg, and there in the centre of the
+glittering blue pyramid sat the imprisoned older brother of the King of
+the North Pole. This wretch had been sentenced to be shut up there,
+because he had tried to kill his father, the late King. All of his body
+was changed to ice, excepting his heart, which burnt like fire. The
+reindeer Finella had taken were those accustomed to be driven by the
+King whenever he went to visit his wicked brother, whose eyes sparkled
+as he saw the little princes within his power. At last, he thought, he
+had a chance to be even with his enemies. He gnashed his teeth, shook
+his chains, and stretched out his long arms, inviting the travellers to
+come into his castle.
+
+"I have golden apples and many pretty things for boys in here," he said
+deceitfully; but just as Finella, seeing her opportunity, was pushing
+the children out of the sleigh into the grasp of their cruel uncle, the
+reindeer set up a peculiar cry which could be heard half round the
+globe.
+
+Instantly a chill wind blew, and riding on the wings of a mighty
+sea-gull came the King of the North Pole. Fire flashed from his angry
+eyes, and his face was so terrible that the wicked sister and brother
+cowered and cringed before it. Snatching his babies in his arms, he
+replaced them unharmed in the sleigh. For a moment, he seemed about to
+crush both culprits to fragments in his wrath; but, relenting, he
+pronounced their sentence--and Finella was condemned to be the bride of
+the imprisoned brother. "Your fate is just," said the King of the North
+Pole, to the wretch within the iceberg; "I could not, if I tried, think
+of any worse punishment than to give you a complaining woman to share
+your exile."
+
+And so Ethelinda was rid of her false step-sister, and from that day
+forth nothing occurred to disturb the serenity of the King's household.
+
+As for the old Duchess (whose daughter had got a bridegroom she had not
+reckoned on in the northern country), she, like her hopeful child, lived
+and scolded forever and a day.
+
+
+
+
+DEEP-SEA VIOLETS.
+
+[Illustration: Emma Carried Off by the Sea-King.]
+
+
+In a modest hut upon the sea-shore, half-hidden from sight by an
+enormous bank of drifted sand, lived a fisherman and his wife, with
+their twin-children, John and Emma. Theirs was a hard life, and full of
+privations; but the husband and wife loved each other tenderly and did
+everything they could to provide for the little ones, who grew up, spite
+of their poverty, tall and beautiful, and happy as the day was long.
+Emma and John had a thousand pleasures that town-bred children covet.
+They chased each other continually up and down the sandy beach, hard as
+marble and glittering like silver in the beautiful patterns traced on it
+by the tide. They ran barefoot into the surf, defying the mad onslaught
+of the merry breakers, and dived fearlessly beneath the crested arch of
+green waters to seize a bit of floating seaweed. They discovered
+endless treasures in the rock-pools along the beach, and built with them
+pretty grottoes, and mysterious caves, that none but themselves knew
+where to find. Often their father would take them out in the
+fishing-boat; for John had learned to manage the sail and the nets
+almost as well as the fisherman himself. The two children thought it was
+grand to feel the little boat answer to the wind, as a horse answers to
+voice or whip. They liked to bound forward across the great green
+billows, and to see the spray dash over them like a shower of jewels.
+They would help their father to set his nets or lines, and wait
+patiently till it was time to haul in the big shining fish that
+sometimes lined the bottom of the boat, whiling away the hours by
+munching bits of brown bread that served for lunch, and by telling each
+other fanciful stories of the sea.
+
+The ocean did not always smile upon them, for there were days of heavy
+fog, of raw east wind, when the beautiful water ceased to sparkle, while
+the surf boomed as if in warning of danger or sorrow to come. Then the
+children would run inside the cottage, and pile on drift-wood till the
+fire burnt cheerily. This was their time for taking down from the
+mantel-shelf their stores of shells, corals, and other sea-wonders.
+John and Emma had polished these shells until they shone beautifully,
+and some tiny disks of orange and gold were strung in long garlands, to
+loop around the brown walls and above the little looking-glass. Their
+mother kept the inside of the cottage as neat as a ship's cabin, which,
+in truth, it much resembled, the children's beds being nothing more than
+broad shelves in a cupboard, with doors to close by day; while every
+corner of the tidy place was made to do duty for some household
+implement, tucked away in the oddest fashion, until it should be needed.
+
+So the days passed on until the twins were about sixteen years old, John
+a fine manly fellow, looking much older, and Emma a slender slip of a
+girl, with floating locks of purest gold, and a voice in singing like a
+carol of birds in a Maybush. Oftentimes when her father was steering his
+boat homeward, after a day of toil, he would hear the piercing strain of
+Emma's song come floating over the water from the rock where she stood
+against the western sky, awaiting him. And he rightly thought this the
+sweetest sound he was likely to hear before the angels should sing for
+him in Paradise!
+
+One day the fisherman did not come home. A storm arose, and all that
+evening the wind howled madly above the beating of the angry surf. The
+sky was pitch-black, and the wife and children walked the shore in
+silent fear. When darkness fell, they lighted a huge bonfire upon the
+rocks, and John, begging his mother and Emma to go home to rest, stayed
+feeding the flames with drift-wood, till morning broke over the sullen
+waste of waters. Still no sign of his father, and at midday the familiar
+boat drifted ashore, bottom upward. Then great sorrow darkened this
+happy little home; and nevermore the sea gave up her dead.
+
+[Illustration: Emma Singing on the Rocks.]
+
+The fisherman's wife did not long survive him--dying, she told her
+children, because she could not live without her beloved husband. John
+followed his father's calling, and Emma kept the house, as her mother
+had done. She was very sad and solitary in the changed life, but people
+who work hard have not much time to give way to grief. The busy maiden
+toiled all day over her duties in-doors, and when evening came, would go
+out on the rocks to await John's return. The greatest pleasure she now
+had was in singing. Her voice grew strong and firm, and every day at
+sunset it might be heard, in waves of melody, mingling with the sound of
+the breakers on the shore.
+
+One day, when John was later than usual in returning to his supper,
+Emma wandered along the sands. It was a beautiful summer evening, the
+sky painted with radiant colors, the sea reflecting them. Here and there
+a sail dotted the horizon, but the shore was completely deserted. The
+girl saw before her a rock-pool filled with sea-anemones and star-fish;
+and, sitting down on the edge of it to study the lovely creatures, she
+began, as usual, to sing, without knowing that she did so.
+
+Suddenly, over the water came rolling toward her a wonderful chariot
+formed of a single conch-shell all rainbow-hued within. It was drawn by
+two dolphins, and the driver was a handsome young man, whose long
+floating locks were of a changeable green color, tipped with curling
+white. Before Emma could recover from her astonishment, the youth spoke
+to her gently, thanking her for the song that had wooed him from his
+home beneath the sea.
+
+"I am the king of a wonderful country down there," he said, "and if you
+will but sing for me once more, I shall give you gems and flowers from
+my own garden, such as never an earth-born maiden owned."
+
+Dipping one hand carelessly over the chariot's edge, the king brought up
+a string of rare carved coral with a jewelled clasp, and, smiling at
+Emma's wonder, dipped his hand a second time, when out came a garland of
+exquisite flowers. Sea-lilies, sea-roses, sea-narcissus, sea-violets
+there were, larger and more beautiful than any upon land, and all
+glittering with the ocean brine. Emma stretched out both hands for the
+pretty things, while a song of joy burst from her lips.
+
+"May I crown your brow with my garland?" said the king. "For truly, I
+have heard no voice to equal yours."
+
+"Thanks--thanks," cried the innocent girl, her eyes sparkling with
+delight. She leant forward to receive the chain which the king threw
+around her neck, at the same time laying the garland on her hair. At
+once, Emma fell into a deep sleep, and the crafty sea-king, with a look
+of triumph, lifted her into the seat at his side and urged forward his
+chafing steeds; the chariot flew like a stormy petrel across the sea,
+disappearing beneath the arch of a gigantic wave!
+
+John sought in vain for his cherished sister. The only trace of her, he
+and the neighbors who helped him in the search, could find, was a little
+gold cross, once her mother's, that Emma always wore. This lay in a
+crevice of the rock, whence the sea-king had carried her away. The
+neighbors believed her dead, but something within John convinced him
+that he should see her yet again. Long and dreary were the winter months
+without her. John forever wondered about Emma's disappearance; and, when
+summer came once more, it was to find the youth still possessed of a
+longing desire to go somewhere in search of her.
+
+Sad and solitary, John was sailing his little fishing-smack along the
+coast one day, intending to go out to the usual fishing-ground, when,
+tempted by a creek he noticed now, as if for the first time, a fancy
+took him to follow up the windings of this silver inlet from the sea,
+running between banks as green as emerald. Looking into the water, as a
+light breeze carried him along, John saw a bed of weed and kelp starred
+with shells, where crabs of an unusual size passed in and out of a
+circular opening. Determined to fill a basket with these desirable
+dainties, which would fetch a high price in market, John fished for them
+so skilfully as to haul up a hand-net brimful, at the first attempt.
+These were no common crabs he discovered, one of them in particular,
+having its flippers set with rings of beaten gold, and a gold chain
+around its body bearing a golden key.
+
+"My good sir," said the crab, speaking in a plaintive voice, "you
+probably don't know that I am the keeper of the sea-king's summer
+grotto, and these are my attendants. Only to-day, his majesty sent us
+word to have all in readiness for a visit from him and his
+bride-betrothed. We are in the greatest possible hurry, and if it is
+quite the same to you, would take it as a friendly favor, if you will
+let us go without delay."
+
+"My good Mr. Crab," said John, laughing, "I should like to oblige such
+an important person, but really my circumstances are almost as
+particular as yours. I am in the greatest possible need of funds, and
+the price you and your friends would fetch at the present market rates
+is most desirable to me."
+
+"Oh! if it is only gold and silver," said the crab, disdainfully, "you
+should see his majesty's dominions. Our streets are paved with it."
+
+John became interested at this, and entered into a long conversation
+with the crab, who was a gossipy old soul and told him of so many
+wonders of the sea-king's kingdom that the lad could scarcely contain
+his astonishment.
+
+What startled him more than all, was to hear of a sweet singing maiden,
+from the upper world, his majesty had kept for a year past imprisoned
+in a crystal cavern! His heart beat fast with excitement, as the crab
+described Emma so exactly that it was impossible to mistake her.
+
+"Until the present time," the crab went on, with importance, "his
+majesty has not told the earth-maiden of his intention to make her his
+bride. By the laws of our kingdom, no one of us can marry a mortal,
+until she has lived for a year contentedly below, without uttering the
+name of any friend she knew in her former estate. But the year is up
+to-day, and they are to make a grand tour of his majesty's possessions.
+I should not wonder if the wedding were to take place in our grotto, for
+that is the king's favorite palace, although only one of the many he
+calls his own."
+
+"One thing is false! Emma will never marry him, if she is to do it by
+forgetting those who loved her so tenderly," broke in John, furiously.
+
+"You are very rough, my dear friend," said the crab, fanning himself
+with his flipper. "I think you forget you are addressing a courtier.
+What I tell you about the Lady Emma is undoubtedly true, since I have it
+from my cousin the clam. He is a close-mouthed creature, little likely
+to spread a false report. Lady Emma is happy as a queen in swansdown.
+Once a day she sings, and then his majesty always presents her with a
+bunch of fresh sea-violets, her favorite flowers. Under the
+circumstances, it is hardly possible she would keep up any of the
+foolish fancies for earth-born folk she may have brought there."
+
+John pondered awhile, and finally promised the crab, who was growing
+very impatient, to release that functionary and his companions, if they
+would permit him to visit the wonders of the sea-king's grotto. The
+crab, since he could not well help himself, said yes, and instructed
+John how to dive into the round green hole, so like the nest of some
+strange fish, he saw at the bottom of the stream.
+
+John made fast his boat, and sprang overboard, having first emptied the
+net full of captives, who went scuttling to the bottom in very
+undignified haste. So sure was his aim, that he reached without
+difficulty the passage-way indicated, which widened from its mouth into
+a funnel-shaped cavern, lined with seaweed and ferns of the rarest
+varieties. Following the crab procession, John swam along a crystal
+streamlet, reaching at length a second opening, larger than the first.
+Within this was a door formed of a single sapphire. The crab put his
+golden key into the key-hole, and admitted John into a large and
+brilliant grotto, the sides lined with the iridescent scales of fish.
+The roof was encrusted with jewels, through which streamed many colored
+lights, and clusters of phosphorescent flame gleamed at intervals
+between pillars of glittering spar. Beneath an arch of blooming
+sea-flowers, stood a throne made of snowy coral branches, and cushioned
+with velvet moss. At its foot was a pillow of blue violets, another one
+hanging at the back. A tiny stream of clear water ran down the cavern's
+side, and shot up in a fountain in the centre. John's eyes blinked with
+pleasure when he came into the pretty place, but the sound of
+approaching music made the crab hurry him into hiding, with the order on
+no account to risk showing himself in the presence of the king, who
+would instantly have him hugged to death by a giant devil-fish. John
+kept quiet, you may be sure. The crabs formed into double rows, bowing
+and scraping, in token of their deep reverence for the king (they had
+been selected to be courtiers in consequence of their facility in
+walking backward), and the sight almost made John laugh aloud; but he
+was soon reduced to silence, not only by the imposing entry of the
+monarch of the seas, but because, in the bride-betrothed, he saw indeed
+his own dear Emma.
+
+Emma was greatly changed in appearance. She now wore a splendid robe of
+some clinging white stuff, worked with little coral branches and sprays
+of silver seaweed around the hem, and her neck, arms, and hair were
+wreathed with row upon row of priceless pearls. She was pale, but more
+beautiful than ever, and on her breast John saw a knot of big blue
+violets. Emma was seated at the king's right hand, and lovely sea-nymphs
+danced before her, to the music of unseen orchestras. Then his majesty
+asked Emma to sing, pledging her health in a shell full of wine, that
+shone and sparkled beautifully. Emma made no resistance, doing all that
+she was bid, like a person walking in her sleep. Her eyes had a far-away
+look and her voice, in singing, so unearthly a thrill, that John's
+affectionate heart ached to seize her in his arms and tear her from the
+spot. When Emma had finished singing, she appeared to be fatigued, and
+two sea-nymphs bore her to a couch of pearl, laid her on purple
+cushions, and combed her long hair with a golden comb, while other
+sea-maidens interlaced their white arms above the girl's head, soothing
+her to sleep.
+
+"Let her sleep here till this day week," said his majesty. "Then I will
+summon my subjects and relations to the wedding. All of you present
+withdraw, now, and on no account disturb her slumber."
+
+When the coast was clear, John seized his opportunity, and stealing
+forth, knelt beside his sleeping sister, and whispered in her ear. Emma
+moved, her eyes opened slowly, and uttering a deep sigh, she looked her
+brother full in the face. But alas! she did not recognize him. In
+despair, John seized her hand, and tried to urge her to fly with him. He
+reminded her of her home, of their happy childhood, of their dead
+parents, of everything that could touch the heart. All in vain! Emma
+smiled sweetly, and stroked his head as, shedding bitter tears of
+disappointment, he bent it upon her knees; but she knew him not.
+
+"Leave me in peace," she said, "I am the sea-king's bride-betrothed, and
+you are but a poor fisher's lad. What you say to me of earth and home I
+do not understand. This is my home, and if the king should find you
+here, he would take your head off. If you love me as you say, please
+go."
+
+Emma lifted to her face the cluster of purple violets, and at once her
+lids drooped; and, sinking back upon her purple cushions, she slept
+again.
+
+In bitter disappointment, John retraced his way along the vestibule of
+the king's grotto and emerged into the inlet where his boat was moored.
+Carefully marking the spot, he returned to it the next night, but no
+trace could he find of the submarine opening. The old crab had taken
+good care to prevent another visit from a marauder, who might cost him
+his life. John felt ready to abandon all hopes, when, leaning over the
+edge of the boat, and dragging the water through habit, he felt a
+violent struggling and fluttering within the net. Hauling it quickly in,
+a swarm of silver-bright little fishes, each one wearing a pretty
+maiden's head, escaped from the meshes, leaving behind but a single
+token, and that John found to be a tiny golden harp. He drew his fingers
+across the strings, and the sweet sound it gave out was echoed by a sob
+from beneath a rock ledge close at hand.
+
+"Who is there?" cried John.
+
+"It is I--chief of the sea-king's minstrels," said a voice. "This
+evening, I and my band were amusing ourselves by the light of the moon,
+when your cruel net almost frightened us to death. Oh! what shall I do?
+It's nearly time for the king's visit to his bride-betrothed in the
+grotto; and if you will not restore to me my harp, I shall be
+behind-hand, and in disgrace. Oh! if you only knew how strict the leader
+of the court orchestra is!"
+
+"Will you take me into the grotto, if I give the harp to you?" said
+John, firmly.
+
+"Oh! I dare not," cried the little mermaid, shivering. "Only yesterday,
+his majesty found out that some rude outsider had found his way into the
+grotto, and he has placed on either side of the entrance a double-headed
+shark. For you to attempt to pass them would be certain death! Pray,
+pray ask something easier; for every moment is precious to me, now."
+
+"Then tell me what has caused Emma to forget all her life on earth?"
+
+"That I can do, right easily," said the mermaid, coquettishly; "for I
+have a sister in the band of especial hand-maidens set apart by the king
+to wait on the bride-betrothed. The fresh violets sent every day to Lady
+Emma by his majesty, have the power to make her forgetful, and
+indifferent to all save her present surroundings."
+
+"I knew she had not really grown cold," cried John, in a burst of
+gratitude. "Here is your harp, pretty one, but answer me one question
+more. How can I find the entrance to the grotto?"
+
+The little mermaid stood on tip-tail to receive her harp, and, as she
+once more clasped it in her arms, whispered, in a frightened tone:
+"When the moon is at the full, its rays strike a white cliff over
+against yonder dark coast-line. Steer your boat evenly along the path
+traced by those rays upon the water, and you may see the wedding
+procession go in at the state entrance. But, of all things, take care
+not to let yourself be perceived, for on this occasion all the monsters
+of the deep will be on guard, and your life would not be worth a broken
+clam-shell."
+
+John bade the mermaid good-by, and from that moment all his thoughts
+turned upon how he might obtain admission to the wedding festival. He
+cast his nets diligently, but with no success. All the fishes seemed to
+have deserted their usual haunts; and no wonder, for the entire
+population of the sea was in a state of preparation for the great event.
+
+At last the night of the full moon came, and you may be sure John was
+abroad and watchful, as he cast his nets in feverish anxiety. A sudden
+pull made him haul in rapidly, and this time he was rewarded by a catch
+that cost him the most tremendous struggle. What was his surprise to
+drag into the boat a huge fish, six feet long, with a tall fin nearly
+the length of its body. The most curious part of it was that the tips
+of this fin, and also a patch on the creature's head, shone with
+imprisoned fire. Along the sides of the body were a double row of
+luminous spots. The fish made no further fight, and John gazed at him in
+admiration.
+
+"In the name of wonder, what have we here?" he said.
+
+"My good sir," answered the fiery fish, "if you had the least idea of
+the nature of my business, I am sure you would not interrupt me for a
+moment. I am one of his majesty's torch-bearers, and the procession is
+already forming to go to the grotto of the bride-betrothed."
+
+"Hurrah!" said John. "If you will manage to take me with you, I will let
+you go, but not else."
+
+In vain the torch-bearer protested and begged. John was inexorable. In
+the end, the torch-bearer demanded time for reflection, and at last
+spoke as follows:
+
+"I and four of my brothers lead the way, and by going with me you would
+certainly be seen and punished. But at the very tail-end of the
+procession, my old father and mother will jog along, accompanied by a
+swarm of their younger grandchildren. These pretty little creatures, as
+you may not know, are called Bombay ducks, and their whole bodies glow
+with light. They are very good-natured, and if we can but win over the
+other family who help to light the court festivals, the Chiasmodos, I
+believe we might smuggle you in unobserved between the old people."
+
+"Who are the Chiasmodos?" asked John.
+
+"They are a tribe of deep-sea light-givers," said the torch-bearer, "who
+consist entirely of a mouth and a stomach. The latter organ swells to an
+enormous size, and floats beneath like a transparent balloon, while
+above their great, wide-grinning mouth is worn a crown of light. They
+are rather snappishly inclined, these Chiasmodos, and may give us
+trouble; but we must run the risk, if you insist. So, come along, young
+man, there's no time to waste in talking."
+
+John did not hesitate, but overboard he went, swimming after the
+released torch-bearer, who proved a friendly fellow after all. It was a
+beautiful summer's night, and the moon shed a path of radiant light upon
+the ocean, lying calm and serene beneath her spell. John and the
+torch-bearer swam along a track of liquid silver, and opposite the white
+cliff they saw a marvellous array.
+
+The procession was formed, and about to take up its line of march. The
+drum-fishes were already beating a roll-call; the fiddler crabs fiddled
+wildly; while the sea-lions roared and rumbled, the whales blew their
+trumpets, the porpoise puffed, and the electric eel, who was the court
+jester, wriggled along the line, playing foolish tricks and giving
+unexpected shocks to those who did not pay attention. Such a multitude!
+To describe them all would fill many pages of this book; and besides,
+you would never be able to remember the hard names. The pilot-fish
+cruised around in front, the torch-bearers came next, then the mermaid
+musicians, and a host of sea politicians with banners, preceding the
+whales who sailed majestically ahead of the king's chariot of pearl,
+drawn by twelve milk-white dolphins with jewelled harness.
+
+After them, every conceivable kind of fish, in regular order, according
+to their dignity. The octopus party was a sight to make one shudder, but
+they were in a good humor for once, and comparatively beaming. The
+sea-serpent swam alone, considering himself too much of a rarity to
+associate with every-day folk. The sword-fish saluted, and the skates
+tried to smile, but only succeeded in looking more hideous than before,
+very much as if they had pains under their waistcoats. The brilliant
+angel-fishes and the fairy nautilus made the most lovely show it is
+possible to imagine; though it is hardly fair to single out one or two
+for praise, when all did so well. Even the herrings from the public
+schools, and the vulgar little porgies, had clean faces and were allowed
+to tag after the procession. And, last of all, came the cross
+Chiasmodos, fortunately swimming before the old father and mother
+torch-bearers, who, between them, carried John along, and were followed
+by a gleaming myriad of little Bombay ducks, true glow-worms of the sea.
+
+Led by the moon rays to the white cliff on the coast, the procession
+came to a halt; and immediately a pair of hidden doors flew back and
+revealed a long tunnel glittering with lights, which opened directly
+into John's well-remembered grotto.
+
+There, within, stood Emma, decked in bridal lace, worked by ancient
+mermaids thousands of years before, to be worn by the queen at her
+bridal; and on her head was a fragrant crown of violets. She smiled as
+the king approached, and gave him her hand; the wedding at once began.
+John, hidden behind a projecting crag, saw, with despair in his heart,
+the ceremony go on.
+
+The entire walls were lined with ranks of octopi and sharks on guard. To
+defy them would be death to Emma and himself. He leaned further forward
+than he intended, and was seen by one of the Chiasmodos, who, flashing
+her lantern in his face, at once informed on him to her neighbor.
+Immediately a new monster swam toward John. This was another of the
+deep-sea torch-bearers, the Chanliodus, appointed to act as chief sentry
+to the cave. A more ferocious countenance cannot be imagined than was
+his. The wide mouth bristled with sharp fangs, and his fins were tipped
+with flame, while all along his sides extended a row of spots like
+little windows in a ship, through which light was shining.
+
+John saw that in another moment he would be lost. So long as the bridal
+procession was going on, no one dared to speak; and, beckoning the
+fierce creature to come behind the rock, John met it with an open knife,
+aiming so skilfully as to cut the fish open its entire length. The idea
+now occurred to him to place himself within the body of his dead enemy,
+which he promptly did, and to his joy, could swim out unobserved, and
+take his place at the bride's right hand. Just as Emma was about to say
+"I will," the sentry-fish managed to place in her hand the little gold
+cross that was once her mother's. The queen-elect looked at the cross in
+surprise, and as all had passed so quickly, not even the king understood
+why her head drooped forward, and she seemed about to faint. The
+sentry-fish whispered in her ear:
+
+"It is I--John--your brother; be brave, and find some excuse for putting
+off the wedding, and we may yet be saved."
+
+So long as Emma wore the crown of violets, she was unable entirely to
+break the charm they cast over her. But the little cross was a powerful
+reminder of her life on earth; and while she held it, she appeared to be
+awakening from a trance. Excusing herself to the king on the ground of
+illness, she was supported to her coral couch, and was surrounded by her
+mermaidens. The king ordered the crowd to withdraw, and soon the
+disappointed revellers went away, feeling blue and cross, while his
+majesty himself was in a terrible way, tramping up and down, tearing his
+green locks, and casting himself on his knees beside Emma, imploring her
+to speak to him once more.
+
+In vain! Emma's eyes were now obstinately closed, and her cheeks were
+like marble. The faithful sentry-fish, whose duty it was to patrol the
+grotto, swam up and down before the couch, and every time he passed near
+Emma he whispered, "Be brave. I am here. Soon I will rescue you. Give no
+sign of life."
+
+At last the king took the advice of an old dowager mermaid, and left
+Emma to herself, consenting to go outside the grotto and smoke a seaweed
+cigarette, until his bride should be ready to go on with the interrupted
+wedding.
+
+John spied in the train of mermaidens the little creature whose harp he
+had restored, and very cautiously, for fear of alarming her, he made
+himself known. The pretty mermaid laughed and cried hysterically, when
+she heard his story, and consented to aid him still further by removing
+the crown of violets from Emma's head. Soon there was heard a great
+whispering among the mermaid band, and one of the boldest of them
+ventured to suggest to the dowager lady-in-waiting, that one reason for
+her majesty's continued swoon might be that her hair was plaited too
+tight. The dowager, for a wonder, took the suggestion in good part. She
+ordered the attendants to unpin her majesty's long golden braids, and in
+so doing the fatal crown fell to the ground unnoticed.
+
+The blood rushed into Emma's face; she sighed, and opening her eyes,
+looked about her. There was the band of anxious mermaids, and a solitary
+sentry-fish swimming up and down. In next passing her, he whispered,
+"Order your attendants to withdraw." This was soon done, only the
+friendly little mermaid remaining at Emma's side. John, throwing off his
+disguise, clasped his sister in his arms, and warm tears of human
+happiness rushed from Emma's eyes. Trampling under foot the crown of
+violets, and keeping firm hold of her mother's cross, she begged John to
+bear her back to their own world without delay. Cautiously putting on
+his fish garb, John swam to the door to reconnoitre the situation. He
+found there, on guard, only one of the shark sentries, who had taken so
+much sea-beer, in honor of the king's wedding-day, that John's knife
+made quick work in despatching him.
+
+And now the way seemed open for their flight. The brother and sister
+bade farewell to the friendly mermaid, who pledged herself never to
+reveal the secret of Emma's escape, and started to leave the grotto.
+Suddenly, lashing the sea in his wrath and fury, both of his fierce
+mouths spiked with rows of terrible teeth, came the other double-headed
+shark! John still wore his Chanliodus disguise, and, without a moment's
+hesitation, dashed bravely to meet the foe. Wielding his trusty knife,
+he stabbed the shark again and again through the body, darting aside
+before the monster could get the advantage of him. The shark, wounded
+mortally and mad with rage, darted forward in a final effort, but John
+planted his knife in its open jaws. Uttering a horrid death-shriek, the
+creature lay without motion upon the threshold of the cave.
+
+John lost no time, for the noise of the conflict had already attracted
+to the scene a number of curious loungers; and, as he feared, the king
+himself, attended by his body-guard of monsters, now came in sight.
+Darting swiftly through the waves, with Emma clinging bravely to his
+shoulders, the assumed Chanliodus drove his sharp fin abruptly into the
+middle of a party of squids. These poor fellows were the disappointed
+reporters of a submarine newspaper, going home _without_ an account of
+the wedding for their journals! The suddenness of the attack caused the
+squids promptly to spill the contents of the ink-pots they always carry
+with them, forming a dense black cloud, under cover of which the
+fugitives safely reached the surface of the sea.
+
+The sun was rising, its rosy light lying upon the bright ocean like a
+veil. Now, they knew they were secure, for so long as the sun rules in
+heaven, the sea-king dares not show himself above the waves. John and
+Emma gazed upon the shore, finding themselves but a little distance from
+their boat at anchor, and wept tears of joy and thanksgiving for their
+deliverance from the horrors of the deep. When they had clambered into
+the boat, John begged his sister to cast away the embroideries and the
+ropes of pearl she had brought from the sea-king's dominion. Even as he
+spoke, they saw Emma's finery vanishing like a wisp of burnt paper,
+while her lovely pearls had turned into strings of common pebbles. Of
+all her ornaments only the little golden cross remained, and that shone
+with new lustre. With the full force of his stalwart arm, John cast the
+sea-king's tokens far into the water; and as they sank, both brother and
+sister fancied they saw a huge hand arise to seize them with an angry
+grasp, and heard a growl of baffled rage beneath the waves. Wrapping his
+sister in his fisherman's cloak, John hastened to sail back to the
+humble hut beneath the sand-drift, which had never looked so lovely in
+their eyes.
+
+There they dwelt, loving and serene, until in due time a good husband
+came for Emma, and John took to himself a fair young wife. From that day
+forth, prosperity attended them, and John sailed his own ships across
+the ocean, while Emma lived in a beautiful home near the shore.
+Strangely enough, never again did John succeed in entrapping one of the
+talking creatures of which, as we have clearly seen, there are plenty in
+the sea, if one has luck to find them! And another curious thing is,
+that never again was Emma able to lift her voice in song. The beautiful
+gift which had brought about her strange adventure, and had well-nigh
+proved so fatal to them both, had been lost forever!
+
+
+
+
+THE WILD WOODSMAN.
+
+[Illustration: THE WILD WOODSMAN DISGUISED AS A TRAVELLER.]
+
+
+Once there lived a peasant whose only daughter, Martha, had eyes as blue
+as corn-flowers and long hair like the silk around an ear of corn. All
+the lads of the village were after her, but she cared only for John, a
+young huntsman, who was called by her father an idle vagabond, and sent
+away from his cottage in disdain. Now, the village where they lived was
+at the foot of a high mountain covered with a dense forest, into certain
+portions of which few were found to venture, so wild and lonely they
+were. One day Martha went, unknown to her father and mother, to ramble
+in the forest. She said to some of her friends that she meant to gather
+flowers and pick berries, to sell to a rich lady who lived near them;
+but the truth was, that a week had passed without John having set foot
+in the village, and she was anxious and uneasy, and wished to visit some
+of her lover's favorite haunts, to see if he might be there. It was no
+uncommon thing for John to be absent for several days, while trapping
+and hunting. He could sleep as well on a bank of moss as on his pallet
+at home, and he loved to go to rest under the broad canopy of the sky,
+studded with bright stars, and to be lulled by the music of falling
+waters.
+
+Martha, dressed in her brown cotton frock, with the scarlet handkerchief
+knotted over her fair hair, was seen to go up a rocky pathway on the
+mountain-side, where the firs and larches made a bower overhead; but
+that night she did not come home, and next day, when John came into the
+village with a splendid string of birds he had shot miles away from
+there, in an opposite direction to the one Martha had taken, it was to
+hear the sad news of the poor girl's disappearance.
+
+John's face grew pale and his stout heart grew faint; he thought of what
+all the others were thinking of--the Wild Woodsman, against whose magic
+his gun and staff might avail nothing!
+
+The mountain above was believed to be the haunt of a mysterious being,
+half man, half brute, fierce and cruel, from whose den no living
+creature might ever be rescued. The Wild Woodsman, for so the natives
+called him, took many a shape to trap unwary travellers, and a fair
+young girl like Martha would be a rich prize for him. John had long
+vowed to capture the Wild Woodsman; and now he was filled with a mad
+thirst to seek him at once. Without stopping to hear more, the young man
+rushed off up the steep mountain path, bounding like a chamois from rock
+to rock, as the villagers, awe-struck and tearful, gazed after him and
+crossed themselves in superstitious fear.
+
+Through brake and brier, John darted on; he was soon in the dark
+recesses of the forest, where the undergrowth was like a jungle. His
+fleet foot never tired in the chase, and, erelong, he spied a little red
+handkerchief upon the ground. Recognizing this to be Martha's, he gazed
+about him, and saw, by the token of broken bushes, that the girl had
+been dragged away from that spot up a rocky wall, which it seemed to him
+no foot could scale.
+
+Struggling to keep down his sickening dread, John determined to follow.
+He began to climb the steep rock. His faithful dog, who had kept close
+beside him, suddenly gave a low fierce growl, and the hair on its back
+bristled up in fury. John was already half-way up the cliff, when, on
+looking down, there, just where he had picked up the handkerchief, he
+saw a queer little old fellow, making shoes as quietly as if nothing at
+all had happened.
+
+"Hallo, there!" roared John, for he suspected mischief.
+
+The old man looked up, and John saw that he had a young and rosy face
+with hair as gray as a badger's. The odd creature made signs that he was
+stone deaf, and beckoned John to come down. All this time, the dog was
+growling fearfully, and John took warning from the sign. He levelled his
+gun without more ado, and said:
+
+"Answer, you fellow. Who are you that have cheeks so fair, and an old
+man's locks?"
+
+"I?" said the old man, hopping up with a dreadful grin, "you will know
+me soon enough, sirrah, for I am the devil's grandfather."
+
+He stretched out an arm that grew longer every minute, and his hands
+changed to the claws of a beast. John lost no time, but taking aim fired
+at the Wild Woodsman, for he it was, and none other. Bang! The friendly
+bullet made straight for the creature's heart, and though it did not
+kill him outright, the Wild Woodsman was sorely wounded. He fell over a
+log, groaning pitifully, and prayed John to come to the aid of a poor
+old man. John said, "That I will with another bullet," when the Wild
+Woodsman darted from the spot, and was lost in the thicket.
+
+After him went the dog, after the dog went John. Such a hunt there never
+was! Through spots in the woods where man's foot had never penetrated,
+into bogs, and into serpents' lairs, past the caves where bears were
+lurking; but no animal would touch John, for the Wild Woodsman was their
+deadly enemy.
+
+At last they came to a cleft in a little green hillock. Here was a hut
+covered with moss, and the Wild Woodsman, uttering a frantic yell, fell
+dead upon the threshold. John heard a shriek within the hut, and,
+dashing down the door, saw Martha, lying, bound with ropes made of
+plaited willow, in a corner.
+
+He flew to set her free; but, to his surprise, Martha did not appear to
+know him. She let him take her by the hand and lead her from the fearful
+spot where the inner walls were built of the bones of the Wild
+Woodsman's victims. She looked up into his face and smiled, and John saw
+she had lost her reason. He did not stop to pick up the jewels and gold,
+stolen from murdered travellers, with which the hut was strewn, but made
+all speed to leave behind the horrid place. He lifted Martha in his
+strong arms and carried her down a path along the far side of the
+mountain. A great storm arose, and the earth trembled under his feet;
+but he kept bravely on his way, and looking back saw the cleft in the
+hills widen; then a great gulf opened, fire and smoke burst forth, and
+the hut of the Wild Woodsman was swallowed forever from sight.
+
+John gave a shout of joy, and began singing a hymn in his clear young
+voice. The storm ceased. The clouds parted. Down in the valley below was
+their own peaceful village, and the sound of the evening bells came
+floating up to him. Martha, who had lain in his arms as if asleep,
+stirred, and recognized him. Her strength returned, and she asked to
+walk beside him. Strangely enough, she said nothing of her late
+adventure, then or ever afterward. Not a trace of it remained in her
+memory.
+
+When they reached the village, all the people came out to meet them,
+rejoicing. John told them he had rescued the lost girl, but the true
+history of his chase of the Wild Woodsman he kept to himself. Martha's
+father and mother greeted her with tears of thankfulness; and before
+another year had gone by John and Martha were married in the village
+church. From that day forth, peace reigned upon the mountain-side; but
+when stories of the Wild Woodsman were told to Martha's grandchildren,
+they little knew the share their hale old grandsire had in ridding the
+country-side of such a scourge.
+
+
+
+
+THE FROZEN HEARTH-FAIRY.
+
+
+Once upon a time, there were a poor couple who lived in a little cottage
+overgrown with vines. From roof-tree to cellar, their home was as clean
+as hands could make it, and the table and chairs were scoured every day
+till they were as white as snow. The man went out into the woods to tie
+up fagots, and the woman kept a few bees, and sold the honey. In this
+way they managed to live, and were happy, till a great storm came, and
+swept off the roof of their house; then the lightning set it on fire,
+and it was soon burned to the ground. The man came running from the
+forest, and found his wife crying as if her heart would break, beside
+her bee-hives, which the wind had upset, scattering all their busy
+inmates, and destroying the honey.
+
+"Where shall we sleep to-night?" said the wife.
+
+"Let us search till we find," answered the husband. So they set off and
+wandered into the woods, while the storm raged over them. Long did they
+stray, until night came. At last they saw a ruined hut, left by some
+charcoal-burners, and thankfully entered it. There was dry straw in one
+corner, and here the poor woman laid down, half dead with fright and
+fatigue. Both of them were hungry, and the man putting his hand in his
+pouch was glad to find there a bit of bread, which he was about to give
+to his wife, when a queer little black object sprang down the wall and
+seized the crust, running nimbly off with it.
+
+"Who are you?" cried the poor man.
+
+"I'm a lost hearth-fairy," said the little creature, in a piping voice.
+"If you had made me a fire to warm my poor bones, I should not have
+taken your food."
+
+The hearth-fairy's teeth were chattering, and the man pulled together
+some sticks and straw, and lighted them with his flint and steel. The
+smoke curled up, the flames sparkled merrily. The hearth-fairy slid down
+and warmed himself.
+
+"Hallo there! give me back my crust," said the poor man, whose wife kept
+pulling him by the sleeve, to remind him of her hunger.
+
+"Now that I think of it, I want this crust myself," said the
+hearth-fairy. "I am off on a journey to seek a warm fireside, and I need
+something to strengthen me. But here is a duck instead, only you had
+better not kill her!"
+
+A fine fat duck tumbled at the poor man's feet. The hearth-fairy
+vanished in the smoke. Oh! how the poor couple longed to kill and eat
+that duck. Their mouths watered as they thought of onion-sauce, and of
+breadcrumbs, and of sage. Faint and starving, they fell asleep in a
+corner of the hut. When day broke the poor man rose up, and went to the
+door. The storm had ceased and the duck was quacking on the door-sill.
+She waddled away, and left behind her a large egg of purest gold. Just
+then the lord of the forest rode by with his huntsman. They saw the
+shining prize in the poor man's hand, and offered to buy it of him.
+
+"I will give it for a loaf of brown bread and a sausage," he said, "for
+my wife lies starving, within."
+
+The huntsman gave him food and drink; and the lord of the forest, after
+hearing his story, had the poor couple taken to a nice empty cottage
+near by, and told them they should have it for their own. The golden egg
+was sold, and the man and his wife lived in comfort all their days from
+the money it fetched. They never saw either the hearth-fairy or the
+magic duck again, but the good wife soon went to bee-keeping, which made
+her very happy.
+
+
+
+
+ROSY'S STAY-AT-HOME PARTIES.
+
+
+"Oh! dear, oh! dear," sighed Rosy, "I'm the most unhappy little girl in
+all the world."
+
+She was kneeling in a chair, gazing through the drawing-room window. In
+the street outside was drawn up a carriage, into which Nurse was packing
+all of Rosy's brothers and sisters. Clover was there, a boy of twelve,
+looking rather disgusted with his surroundings, and having his head
+nearly cut off by his first upright collar. Violet, Rosy's twin sister,
+was there, dressed in the sweetest new pale blue camel's-hair, and
+taking great care to turn the skirt of it up over her shoulders as she
+nestled into her corner of the landau. (Rosy thought with a pang of her
+own new dress, the double of Violet's, hanging upstairs in the wardrobe,
+in a melancholy way!) Jonquil was there, the chubby, golden-haired,
+big-eyed brother, aged three. And last of all was dear wee Honeysuckle,
+like a bundle of lace and flannel in Marie's arms; while old Nurse's
+spectacles could hardly be seen through the mass of sash-ends and fluted
+petticoats, and scarlet stockings, and velvet breeches, and flying locks
+of hair completely filling the roomy carriage. No one could doubt that
+the children were going to a party, even if they had not announced that
+fact to everybody within ear-shot by the chatter of their busy little
+tongues!
+
+At last all were settled, and the carriage rolled away. "Good-by, Rosy,"
+"Good-by, Rosy!" came up in a shrill chorus; and, the last Rosy's
+tear-dimmed eyes could see of them, hands and handkerchiefs were waving
+a farewell to the sister left behind.
+
+Then it was that Rosy's fortitude completely forsook her, and she
+dropped sobbing into the chair. It was a bitter disappointment, for the
+party was to be given by their aunt in honor of these children, and, in
+addition to Punch and Judy, magic, and a candy-bag, they were promised a
+huge bran-pie, full of delightful hidden presents. Rosy had suffered
+from a pretty bad sore-throat the night before, and the doctor had
+forbidden her going out. It is no use for grown people to say, dear
+children, these disappointments of yours don't matter much, for they
+_do_. They seem as high as mountains in your path, and I fully
+sympathize with you all, and especially with little weeping Rosy.
+
+So thought her mamma, evidently, for she came into the room just then,
+and picked the little bunch of blue serge and cardinal ribbons up in her
+arms, and sat down with it in a low chair by the fire.
+
+"Boo-hoo!" said Rosy, breaking out afresh when she felt mamma's kisses
+on her hair and wet cheeks. Mamma said very little, but by and by the
+little girl began to feel comforted, in spite of herself. You know how
+it is, dears! First, you stop roaring and moan, then your eyes are
+kissed dry, then you burrow your heads down and sigh, then you lie quite
+still for a little while--and at last, after blowing your noses in an
+heroic way, you are ready to laugh again!
+
+All this happened in Rosy's case, and for awhile she sat talking, until
+her mamma was called away to attend to some household matter. By that
+time Rosy was quite content to be tucked into a corner of the
+comfortable sofa, covered with a down quilt, and left to gaze into the
+depths of a woodfire, burning gently (for it had passed the spitting,
+spluttering stage), upon two great old-fashioned brass andirons with
+claw-feet and queer round bald heads.
+
+Around Rosy's couch was drawn a gay Japanese screen; before the fire was
+spread a great black bear-skin rug, and on either side of it stood a
+tall green porcelain jar. Clover always said these vases were like the
+ones in which Morgiana hid the Forty Thieves, and the children had more
+than once stuffed baby Honeysuckle into one of them to keep her out of
+mischief during what Nurse called their "rampagin's to split one's
+head."
+
+Over her mamma's writing-table, low enough for Rosy to look into the
+very heart of it, hung a picture in a broad gold frame. The picture was
+of a chestnut wood in Brittany, and standing in the shadow of a drooping
+bough was a little girl of about ten, her own age. One of the little
+peasant maiden's arms was clasped around the neck of a big dog,
+harnessed to a cart of vegetables. Under the other arm she held a fat
+goose with a dangling neck. Overhead, the sky was blue and the leaves
+seemed to be rustling in a summer wind. Around the feet of the tiny
+nut-brown maiden, with her odd high cap, grew tall heather and feathery
+ferns, with here and there a clump of flame-shaped lilies. When snow was
+on the ground outside Rosy always loved to gaze at this pretty scene,
+and to fancy herself stepping over the frame to have a chat about
+vegetables, and a ramble in the forest with Annette.
+
+Rosy's eyes wandered from one object to another in this pleasant room.
+Fluff, her mother's Skye terrier, curled up on her feet and fell asleep.
+The clock upon the mantel ticked softly, Fluff snored contentedly,
+little particles of burning wood pattered into the bed of glowing embers
+below. Even the familiar rumble of the street cars along the
+thoroughfare at the end of their block seemed more subdued than usual;
+and Rosy lay, never stirring, until--she found herself, without the
+least warning, slipping down through one of her mother's great porcelain
+jars, into Japan! Fluff woke up, and dashed to the rescue, with his
+fierce little "Rah!" of a bark; but there was nothing to be seen of Miss
+Rosy except the tip of a scarlet bow, with which Nurse was wont to adorn
+the summit of her young lady's head. She felt the rustle of the dried
+rose-leaves at the bottom of the jar falling over her in a fragrant
+shower, as she fell through space, pulling up, decidedly out of breath,
+in a very queer locality.
+
+It was a town where the houses looked as if they had been built for big
+dolls to live in. Houses with sliding walls, doors, and galleries made
+all of paper, that in two minutes you could take apart and pack up as
+you do a box of Crandall's blocks. The streets were honeycombed with
+quaint booths, and crowded with human beings going in and out of them
+like bees. The carriages were babies' perambulators, drawn by a tandem
+team of brown-skinned men, wearing a single garment each, and umbrella
+hats.
+
+There were no horses to be seen, but the cows wore blue cotton wrappers
+and shoes made of straw. Men, women, and children, at first sight,
+seemed to be dressed alike, all clattering around on high clogs,
+stooping painfully; and the funny little bald-headed babies were either
+carried pick-a-back by their mammas, or else were tucked in the breast
+of their fathers' loose wrappers, together with pipes, tobacco pouches,
+books, and a variety of other useful articles.
+
+Rosy looked about her in astonishment, till a girl came up and saluted
+her with solemn politeness, inviting her to a party, which was just
+about to begin. "You had better have your hair dressed first," the girl
+said, "and I will lend you a decent frock."
+
+"Very well," said Rosy, thinking fondly of the blue camel's-hair in the
+wardrobe at home; "of course, this old every-day serge won't do for a
+party."
+
+The girl took her to the shop of a female barber, who made Rosy kneel
+down before a mirror of polished steel, and parted her hair in two or
+three long manes, which were stiffened with bandoline, and tied with
+paper twine in a wonderful bow-knot on top. A fine tortoise-shell skewer
+was added, and the barberess, stepping back to survey her work, caught
+sight of Rosy's eyebrows.
+
+"Tut, tut," she said, angrily; "what were her parents thinking of to let
+them grow like this?" And without more ado Rosy's eyebrows were shaved
+off, and her face and neck were daubed with a thick white paste. Her
+under lip had a patch of red paint, and her teeth were stained with some
+horrid black mixture. Then she went with the Japanese girl into a paper
+house, where the party was to be held, and the girl lent her a loose
+silk gown, tied round the waist by a wide sash of pink crepe. On her
+feet were put foot mittens of white cloth, with a separate place for the
+big toe, and high lacquered clogs.
+
+"How can I walk?" said Rosy, tottering around when she was finally
+equipped in her narrow uncomfortable garments.
+
+"Sh-h! the company is arriving!" said her hostess; and as there was no
+furniture, not even a chair, Rosy wondered where the company would sit.
+The company solved this difficulty by sitting on the floor; and then
+trays were handed around, containing all sorts of wonderful sweetmeats,
+flowers and fruits in lovely colors, with conserved fruits, sugared
+beans, and candy fish, animals, and birds. Each dainty was more tempting
+than the one before, and Rosy found the loose front of her Japanese gown
+the very thing for a "party-pocket," if any of you know what that means!
+
+Next came games; "Lady-go-to-see," "Sick man-and-doctor,"
+Alphabet-cards, and Proverbs; and then, more sweetmeats. Pleasant as it
+was, a sudden stop was put to the entertainment, by a commotion,
+everybody seizing hold of another, all with frightened faces. Without
+warning, an earthquake came and turned the house upside down. Everybody
+fell out on the ground but Rosy, who flew up in the air, becoming
+entangled in the tail of a huge man-kite, carried along by the wind at a
+fearful rate of speed.
+
+Rosy thought this much more exciting than any coasting down hill she had
+ever tried; and she flew up, up, until the tail of the kite gave a flop,
+tossing her through a rift in the clouds. There she was, passing again
+through the bottom of the porcelain-jar, and in another moment she had
+landed in the very centre of the bear-skin hearth-rug.
+
+Rosy was just getting her breath, and wondering how she came to have her
+hair hanging in the usual tawny stream, when, to her great surprise, the
+bear-skin began to move.
+
+"Hold on tight there. We are off," it said, in a low growling tone,
+though not unkindly. "Want to go to a party, hey? Well, I'll see what we
+can do for you in my part of the world."
+
+"Really you take one so unpleasantly by surprise," exclaimed poor Rosy,
+as she felt herself again setting forth on an airy journey. "It is so
+cold here, I wish you had let me stop for my seal-skin jacket."
+
+"Don't talk about seal-skins, child. We are going where you will see
+enough of them. Ho! but it's grand there, up among the icebergs and the
+everlasting snow-drifts, where the frozen lakes gleam like red jewels in
+the light of the sun that never sets! Merry sports you'll see between my
+brothers and sisters!"
+
+"But I should be dreadfully afraid of them," began Rosy, trembling. "I
+have never met any bears outside of cages;" but the words were frozen on
+her tongue, and some tears coming into her eyes rolled in little round
+icicles into her lap.
+
+Now they came to a world of ice and snow. Even the fir-trees were no
+longer seen. Clinging to the rocks was a little rough moss, which served
+for reindeers' food. All else was chill and glittering--the sky arched
+with radiant pink that seemed to palpitate. Far below them was a polar
+sea, locking in chill embrace a lonely ship, her shrouds sheathed in
+ice, her ribs cracked against the huge silvery bulk of an iceberg, on
+whose jagged side she leaned despairingly--no sign of life on board.
+Rosy shuddered and shut her eyes, only opening them again when the
+bear-skin set her down at the side of an odd little hut, built on a
+barren point of land above the ice-bound water.
+
+This hut was made of blocks of ice, the chinks filled in with moss, and
+snow-caked over all. On top was a hole whence issued a faint curl of
+smoke, and out of an opening, somewhere, crawled a funny Esquimaux lady,
+apparently as broad as she was long. She welcomed Rosy politely, and
+took her in to the fire, a civility Rosy thought she could have done
+without. The whole family was collected there, with some guests invited
+in Rosy's honor, who had come in sledges drawn by dogs over the snow.
+The dogs also were within, and half a dozen children. It made Rosy think
+of the worms in Clover's can the days when her brother went a-fishing,
+so closely packed and squirming were her new-found friends. The place
+was full of smoke, and smelled of fish oil. The feast consisted of
+frozen whale's blubber, handed around to be gnawed by the company, and
+of salt fish dried without cooking, with strips of reindeer meat. Rosy
+tried to be very agreeable to everybody present, but when they brought
+her the baby to kiss, she almost fainted! It was the greasiest little
+thing, without a stitch of clothes on! By-and-by, sleep overpowered the
+traveller, and Mrs. Esquimaux laid a skin before the fire, offering her,
+for a pillow, what _do_ you think? that self-same greasy baby!
+
+As this ceremony is an especial compliment to a stranger among the
+Esquimaux, no one can refuse it; and Rosy, with much compunction, laid
+her head down on the poor little thing, who took it all as cheerfully as
+possible.
+
+Scarcely had the weary traveller closed her eyes, when she opened them
+again on the lounge in the drawing-room at home!
+
+There, looking down on her with a friendly smile, was the little Breton
+maiden in the chestnut wood.
+
+"Come to my party," Rosy heard her whisper; and, charmed with such a
+pretty new playmate, she stretched out her hands. The little French girl
+dropped the goose from under her arm, and leaned out of her gold frame
+to help Rosy, who, in two or three steps was safely beside her, treading
+down the tall heather, and stirring the butterflies from their haunts
+among the flowers. How green, and cool, and sweet it was, under the
+arching boughs. Far as the eye could reach, on every side, were leaves
+rustling in the fragrant air; and the trunks of the ancient trees were
+gray and hoar as the beards of the old Druids who once haunted them.
+Annette, for so the peasant maid was called, told Rosy many strange and
+interesting tales about this forest as they walked on, followed by the
+faithful dog dragging his cart of vegetables so carefully that he did
+not need a word or look to guide him.
+
+"Ours is one of the oldest inhabited parts of France," said the girl,
+proudly; "I can tell you stories about every tree and rock and hill in
+the country-side, and I will, if you like to hear them; but we must make
+haste to reach the market now, before the sun rises high enough to drink
+the dew from my vegetables. I was up before day to pick them, and my
+father has promised me that, if I sell all, I shall have a party in the
+glen. Only think! Not to work in the field all the afternoon--and to
+have as many chestnuts as we choose, a whole loaf of brown bread, and
+perhaps--if the step-mother is good humored--a slice of seed-cake!"
+
+Rosy thought this a very poor sort of a party; but she found Annette
+such good company that it seemed no hardship to trudge along the hot and
+dusty road beside her, when they emerged from the shelter of the wood.
+The two girls laughed and made merry until they reached the market town,
+and there the good dog came to a halt, while Annette arranged her cress
+and lettuces and beans and potatoes in tempting rows upon the
+stall--standing beside them with such a patient smiling face, that many
+passers-by were induced to buy of her. The fat goose went home in the
+basket of a fat housekeeper, and left in his place a pile of silver
+pieces. So, Annette and Rosy soon turned back to trudge again the dusty
+high-road, talking of the party they were to have in the glen that
+afternoon.
+
+Annette's home, which the two tired little travellers reached at last,
+was a quaint cottage, the steep moss-grown roof looking twice the height
+of its walls. Over the door grew a twisted pear-tree, and all the ground
+around it, excepting the garden patch in a sheltered spot behind, was
+one waving mass of heather, strewn with gray boulders of mossy rock.
+Rosy gave a little cry of delight.
+
+"Why, it is the _sweetest_ place," she cried. "It is like a bird's nest,
+Annette. How happy you must be here."
+
+Annette was about to answer, when out of the door came a cross
+step-mother, who began scolding as soon as she saw the girls, snatched
+the pouch of silver money from Annette's side, ordered her to the right
+and left, and then, tired as the poor child was, harnessed her to the
+cart beside the dog, and made her draw a heavy pile of linen to the
+brook, where she was at once set to work to help her step-mother in the
+family washing. Rosy, half-starved by her long fast, was glad to share
+Annette's meagre dinner of brown bread and a handful of boiled
+chestnuts, eaten under a tree by the brookside. Annette ventured to
+remind her step-mother of the promised party, and, for answer, received
+a smart box on the ear.
+
+"Is it a princess I have got to do my work, perchance?" said the cross
+old thing. "Thy father is far enough off in the field, not here to spoil
+thee, by luck; so do thou and that idle girl yonder set to work and
+finish washing the linen. That's party enough for trapesing girls, in
+_my_ mind!"
+
+So Rosy, too, was forced into service, and all through the long
+afternoon she toiled with aching limbs. When night came, she and Annette
+were glad to seek a straw bed in a tiny roof-chamber and cry themselves
+to sleep.
+
+"Never mind," said Annette, patiently; "to-morrow, perhaps, she may be
+kinder, and after we have worked all the forenoon in the field, who
+knows but we may have our party yet?"
+
+Rosy remembered nothing more, except opening her eyes full upon the
+hearth in her mother's drawing-room, where she was immediately addressed
+by one of the old-fashioned brass andirons.
+
+"I should just like to show you what a party was in _my_ time," it said,
+in a cracked, high-pitched voice. "We, sister Peggy and I, belonged, as
+you know, to your mother's grandmother--a good old Revolutionary
+stock--and we lived in the old house up yonder in Salem, Massachusetts,
+until your mother took it into her fanciful head to fetch us here. I
+should like to know what we have in common with that little
+fiddle-faddle Dresden china clock and shepherdesses upon the
+mantel-piece! However, I won't talk about my grievances, for sister
+Peggy always says that it is in very bad taste, and sister Peggy knows.
+We lived in the room where your grandmother was born, my dear, and her
+first cap was fitted upon sister Peggy's knob----"
+
+"Will she never stop to take breath," Rosy wondered. "I am dying to ask
+her a question. What's your name?" she suddenly called out, so abruptly
+as to make the old andiron jump, and let fall a broken brand upon the
+hearth.
+
+"Dear me, child, how you fluttered me!" it said, reprovingly. "I am
+sister Polly, of course, as you would have heard in due time. Sister
+Peggy always says that little girls should be seen and not heard, and
+sister Peggy knows--Where was I--Oh! when your grandmother grew old
+enough to invite her little friends to share her hospitality, the boys
+and girls would arrive at about three o'clock in the afternoon. The
+girls wore plain print gowns, and muslin aprons edged with tambour work.
+Instead of that insane mop of hair you sport, with a bow in the middle,
+looking for the world and all like your terrier, Fluff, they had decent
+mob caps. Their hands were covered with mittens, and each one earned a
+bag with a piece of white seam (or plain stitching), or else a sampler
+frame. How pretty it was to see them sitting down to their work for
+awhile! Then the tea-table was spread, with flowered china cups and
+plates, and shining silver, muffins, crumpets, sliced ham, home-made
+preserves and cream, and waffles strewn with cinnamon and sugar----"
+
+"You make my mouth water," said Rosy.
+
+"All this took place by five o'clock," said sister Polly, "and
+afterward the children had a good game of 'blind-man's-buff,' or
+'hunt-the-slipper'--and a handful of nuts with a big red apple, to stuff
+in each of their pockets upon going home. I remember a very little
+party your mamma had once, when she was a child----"
+
+"Do you? Tell me about it, please," said Rosy, eagerly, for nothing was
+ever so enchanting to those children as stories about their mamma in her
+youth.
+
+"She was just getting over the measles, and had been very much petted
+during her convalescence. Your grandmother promised her, in reward for
+taking a rather nasty dose of medicine, that she should have her little
+cousins from next door, to drink tea on a trunk. This was an especial
+treat to your mamma. A large flat-topped trunk served as table for the
+little girls and their dollies. On it were spread the china doll
+tea-things, and when they did not suffice in size or numbers, leaves
+from the grape-vine above the dining-room porch, were also heaped with
+goodies. Those children were satisfied with broken bits of peppermint
+stick, ginger-nuts, wee biscuit, lemonade for tea, and in the centre of
+the table a dish of horse-cakes."
+
+"Oh, I know!" said Rosy, with much interest. "Mamma has often told us
+about horse-cakes, and the funny little old shop where she used to buy
+them for a cent apiece. They had currants for eyes, and the children
+never knew whether to begin to eat at the head first or the tail----"
+
+"Exactly," said sister Polly. "Well, as I was saying, four little girls
+in clean white birds'-eye pinafores assembled around the trunk-party,
+your mamma at the head, to pour out the lemonade tea. Each guest had a
+dolly in her lap, and your mamma had twins on hers. I think the
+difficulty began by her insisting that the twins should have a double
+share of all the good things, which the guests, with some warmth,
+disputed. At any rate, it is a sad tale to tell you, but a true one; a
+quarrel set in, and what should the hostess do, but burst into tears,
+declare that her company were mean horrid things, and then, dragging at
+the table-cloth, whisk the entire contents of the tea-table upon the
+floor!"
+
+"Oh!" said Rosy, "did my mamma do that? I don't believe a word of it!
+You are nothing but an old tattle-tale, sister Polly, and I don't
+believe sister Peggy is any better!"
+
+Scarcely had Rosy uttered these disrespectful words, when the enraged
+sister Polly and sister Peggy flew out upon her from the fireplace.
+Seizing her in their brassy claws, they shook the little girl fiercely,
+bumping her head first on one side, then on the other, between their
+knobs.
+
+Rosy screamed for help, and heard in return a merry peal of laughter.
+She felt a warm shower of kisses on her face; and, opening her eyes, saw
+Clover and Violet, Jonquil and the baby, mamma and the nurses, standing
+in a laughing circle around her couch, while Fluff nearly barked his
+head off in the general excitement.
+
+"Rosy, you had the funniest nightmare!" said Violet; "see here, what a
+lovely bracelet was in the bran-pie for you, and we've all saved you
+some of our bonbons."
+
+"It was rather a bully Punch and Judy," remarked Clover, patronizingly.
+"That is, for the little ones, you know; _I've_ seen such lots of 'em."
+
+"Punch said, 'Doody, Doody, bing up de baby,'" squeaked happy little
+Jonquil, capering about.
+
+Baby Honeysuckle had gone to sleep, after her first party.
+
+Rosy jumped up, and kissed everybody around twice.
+
+"Dear knows I've had enough of parties," she declared joyfully; but
+nobody knew what she meant!
+
+
+
+
+BLONDINA; OR, THE TURKEY-QUEEN.
+
+[Illustration: Queen Blondina Resting in her Garden.]
+
+
+A certain king had two daughters, one of them lovely and accomplished,
+and the other an ugly, cross-tempered personage, who early in life took
+to meddling with the black arts, and learned a great deal more of magic
+than she did of any thing else. Blondina, on the contrary--for so the
+pretty princess was named--was the joy of all her nurses, and
+governesses, and tutors, and music masters, from earliest infancy. Her
+one fault was a tendency to laugh aloud on the slightest provocation. At
+ten years old she could speak many languages, play on all known
+instruments, write essays and sermons, dance like a sylph, sing like a
+nightingale, and make chocolate caramel. Vixetta, the elder of the two
+sisters, before she had reached the same age, had made short work of
+_her_ instructors, wearing out the health and spirits of a governess in
+a week, and driving twenty-four tutors into the lunatic asylum, while
+her head-nurse was speedily reduced to skin and bone, and took a
+permanent situation as the living skeleton in a dime-museum. The poor
+king remonstrated in vain with his headstrong elder daughter. Ordinary
+scolding had not the slightest effect upon her; black marks and crosses
+against her name in the report-book only made her laugh scornfully; and
+any attempt at bodily punishment ended in the Princess Vixetta throwing
+herself flat upon the ground, turning purple in the face, and foaming at
+the mouth with rage in a way to daunt the stoutest spirit. So, for this
+reason, the unfortunate girl was allowed to follow her own fancies,
+stealing off at dusk nobody knew whither, although it was suspected
+that her favorite haunts were the black depths of a pine forest near the
+palace--where the country folk never cared to ramble, even in broad
+daylight--or a certain ruined tower, filled with bats and owls and
+serpents. One night a peasant, who approached this tower in search of a
+lost cow, saw green lights dancing madly around the broken walls, heard
+wild shrieks of laughter issue from within, and, on venturing to insert
+his inquisitive nose into a chink, had it tweaked by two red-hot
+fingers; immediately afterward, he averred, he had seen the Princess
+Vixetta, in true witch-dress, shoot by him on a broom-stick, leaving a
+trail of brimstone in her wake. On reaching home he found his sheep
+dead, his best cows gone dry, and his children ill of a fever. Such
+tales as these, of which there were many current in the country-side,
+came from time to time to the king's ears, and not being able to gainsay
+them, _because of information he had got on his own private account_,
+the unfortunate parent resigned himself to sink slowly to the tomb. In
+fact he courted death rather than shunned it. Whenever he took cold, he
+would sit all night long, in wet shoes, in the draft of two open
+windows; and if that did not make him worse, would send away the
+doctors, refuse medicine, and try to beat his brains out on the marble
+floor of the palace bedroom. At last, one day, he choked, on too large a
+mouthful of beefsteak, and when the physicians endeavored to relieve
+him, waved them away, and cheerfully expired!
+
+[Illustration: Vixetta]
+
+[Illustration: _Blondina_.]
+
+The Princess Blondina was immediately proclaimed queen in her father's
+stead. Nothing was heard but praises of the charming new sovereign, who,
+after the period of mourning had passed away, ascended the throne with
+much pomp and ceremony. All of this was gall and worm-wood to the
+envious Vixetta, who, but for the kindness of her sister, would have
+been sent, by a vote of all the people, into exile in a distant land.
+Blondina announced that the Princess Vixetta should remain in her
+palace, and be offered an opportunity to reform her bad ways. Vixetta,
+thereupon, pretending to weep, promised to do better, and to give up
+associating with her evil favorites, the witches, warlocks, and
+magicians; but, in secret, her time was spent in conjuring a method to
+get rid of her beautiful sister, and to mount the throne in her stead.
+
+One warm summer day, Queen Blondina had just come in from rowing in her
+silver barge along the windings of the little river which watered the
+palace grounds. She rested for a while in the garden upon a bank of
+roses, myrtles, jasmine, and lilies-of-the-valley, while allowing her
+maids-of-honor to fan her with huge fans of white ostrich plumes, and
+listening to the drip of fountains of orange-flower water, and
+eau-de-cologne. Suddenly, she espied a poor old tattered crone, carrying
+a basket of luscious fruit, such as none of the queen's own gardens or
+green-houses could produce. Pomegranates there were, dropping sweetest
+juices when cleft in twain, purple figs that melted upon the tongue,
+rosy nectarines, crimson plums frosted with silvery dew, and bunches of
+grapes glowing like jewels where the sunbeams touched their clusters.
+Queen Blondina sat up, and exclaimed with delight, "Oh! Goody, pray set
+your basket down. My servants will pay you handsomely for your lovely
+fruit."
+
+"Willingly, your Majesty," said the old woman. "You are welcome to the
+contents of my basket, if you will but leave me the single hazel-nut at
+the very bottom of it."
+
+The queen consented, with a laugh at the absurdity of her wanting that
+one insignificant little hazel-nut, when such a delightful treat was at
+her service. Her servants unpacked the basket, and there, sure enough,
+at the bottom, was a tiny brown nut.
+
+"Queer, that she should desire to keep back that one little nut,"
+thought the queen. "I wonder why? Can it be so very delicious to the
+taste, or what? I wish I could see its inside."
+
+And so she went on, wondering, and exciting her own imagination, till,
+pretty soon, Blondina would have given all the rest of the basketful for
+the possession of that single mysterious nut! She began by offering one
+gold piece, then another, till a glittering pile lay at the crone's
+feet, but still the old woman held out against parting with her
+treasure.
+
+At last, Blondina burst into tears, when the crone appeared to be melted
+by her sorrow, and, advancing, whispered in her ear.
+
+"If I give you this nut," she said, "it shall be on one condition, only,
+your Majesty; and that is, that you crack it in the presence of your
+prime minister alone, in some remote corner of your palace."
+
+Blondina gladly consented, and sending away her attendants, took
+possession of the nut, and summoned her prime minister to her side. This
+functionary was a very stern and important officer of State, who had
+been foremost in the movement to banish the Princess Vixetta from the
+court. He arrived all breathless, at the queen's behest, and in the
+meantime the old crone had disappeared as mysteriously as she came.
+Blondina ordered the prime minister to follow her to a secluded
+summer-house, where, eagerly cracking the nut with her royal high-heeled
+shoe, she found inside only a few pinches of white powder, and a scroll
+containing some fine writing in an unknown tongue.
+
+"Thanks to my love of study, your Majesty," modestly suggested the prime
+minister, "I have mastered the only language you have left unacquired,
+which happens to be Arabic. On this bit of paper, I can decipher certain
+instructions to the finder."
+
+"Tell me them, quickly, my dear lord," said the enchanted princess, "and
+I will apply myself to the study of Arabic to-morrow. So much for a
+neglected education," she added, with a sigh that she had left anything
+so important undone; for, as I have said before, this princess had a
+passion for acquiring languages.
+
+"If the finder of this treasure desires to acquaint himself with the
+language of the animal world, and to take the form of any other living
+thing, he has only to snuff up a pinch of the enclosed powder, bow to
+the earth three times, and cry the name of the creature he desires to
+become, followed by these exact words:--
+
+    'Kurri-kuree,
+    Changed would I be.'
+
+"At once he will assume the likeness of the thing named, and will
+understand all he hears going on around him, remaining in that shape as
+long as he may choose. Whenever he wishes to resume his own natural
+form, he has only to bow himself again three times to the earth, and
+repeat the formula already given. But let him, during the period of
+transformation, especially beware of laughing aloud--or he will
+inevitably forget the formula, and run the risk of remaining as he has
+chosen to be."
+
+"This is the most delightful thing I ever had happen to me," said the
+merry young queen, clapping her hands. "Come, my lord, I am dying to try
+the experiment. Suppose we become two turkeys, and wander into the
+barn-yard. Nothing could please me more than a little adventure of that
+kind. Besides, you forget I have never studied Turkish, and this will be
+an excellent opportunity."
+
+The prime minister, who was a man of sober years, beyond the taste for
+such mad-cap frolics, remonstrated in vain with his wilful mistress.
+Blondina would have her way; and, in a short time, behold both queen and
+minister indulging in a solemn pinch of white snuff, and pronouncing
+distinctly the magic formula, while inclining themselves humbly to the
+earth!
+
+At once, Blondina's gown of silken tissue was exchanged for a suit of
+neat brown mottled feathers, while the prime minister became just such a
+huge and unwieldy gobbler as would take first prize in a Christmas
+poultry show!
+
+"Oh! what splendid fun!" the queen began, dying to laugh at her
+companion. But reflecting upon the possible consequences of this
+indiscretion, she became grave and silent, while the humiliated prime
+minister waddled after her into the barn-yard, whither his perverse
+little sovereign now took her way, leaving the hazel-nut securely hidden
+in a corner of the summer-house.
+
+In the multitude of feathered folk assembled in the enclosure, our two
+turkeys passed almost unnoticed at first. They were surprised to find
+very much the same sort of talk going on among their new friends, as
+among those they had left. The same struggle for prizes and for place,
+the same greedy rapacity, the same love of gossip and display. Two new
+peacocks had that day been added to the collection, and were strutting
+up and down like fashionable loungers, discussing all the affairs of the
+nation and the conduct of the rulers; and, in listening to their
+discourse, the queen found herself much enlightened about many of her
+subjects, and their doings.
+
+"As to her Majesty, Queen Blondina," said one of the peacocks, sending
+his tail up in a magnificent fan when he saw the admiring gaze of two
+young guinea hens bent upon him, "I have reason to believe that this
+unfortunate young woman is doomed soon to fall a victim to the wiles of
+that powerful enchantress, her sister, who, as is well known to all of
+us, has just become the sovereign of the underground fraternity of
+magicians, against whose spells all other witches and warlocks can do
+nothing."
+
+Blondina strained her ears to catch the answer; but the two talkers had
+passed on, and she heard a sharp voice say close beside her, "Come now,
+no struggling, if you please, Mr. Mole. I have not tasted so much as a
+mouse to-day, and you have crossed my path in the nick of time."
+
+"Dear Miss Tame Owl," pleaded the little velvet-coated victim, held
+tight in the claws of a spinster-owl, domesticated in the barn-yard by
+Blondina's special orders, "I must entreat you to let me off this time;
+I was hurrying to my daughter's wedding, and mistook the way, straying
+into this dreadful place by the most unfortunate mischance. Consider the
+feelings of my family, who are all assembled and expecting me."
+
+"Come now, no nonsense," said the cross old thing. "My mouth is fairly
+watering for you."
+
+She was about to cut short the victim's observations in the most abrupt
+manner by taking him bodily into her crop, when Blondina interposed, and
+flying at the owl, boxed her ears soundly. At this, the venerable lady
+was so unpleasantly taken by surprise, that she opened her mouth to
+gasp, and out fell the mole, who instantly scuttled away, but not
+without bestowing upon his turkey benefactress the most ardent thanks.
+After this little incident, Blondina's attention was distracted by a
+variety of curious studies in fowl-life, and she forgot all about her
+companion, the prime minister, until, chancing to look around, she
+beheld him the centre of an admiring throng of ducks, geese, and
+chickens, whose numbers were constantly increasing. "How grand he is!"
+"How big!" "How noble!" echoed on every side; and the prime minister,
+who was very vain, drooped his wings, set up his tail, and puffed
+himself into a magnificent fluffy ball. "Never have we beheld a turkey
+of so majestic a bearing!" cried a gushing goose-widow, and a pair of
+young lady ducklings rolled up their eyes in rapture and nodded assent.
+The prime minister was in his glory.
+
+"Yes, I am indeed the champion," he said, swelling into a balloon of
+feathers. Just then, Queen Blondina's own pet kitten, Floss, wandered
+across the yard, and having no especial occupation in view, charged at
+full scamper upon the prime minister, who, alas! for his boasted
+dignity, subsided ingloriously, and, shutting himself up tight, fairly
+turned tail and ran away, looking so excessively crest-fallen and
+foolish that Blondina could not resist bursting into a long and merry
+peal of laughter.
+
+"What have you done, your Majesty?" cried the alarmed prime minister,
+now remembering himself, as together they took refuge in a neighboring
+field. "Is it possible you can have forgotten; and, for my part, I saw
+nothing to laugh about. I never imagined a more dreadful beast than that
+unmannerly little pet of yours which attacked me."
+
+The queen broke out afresh into laughter, and laughed until she cried.
+Then, seeing the discomfiture of the prime minister, she decided that
+she had for to-day had enough of the animal world, and would indulge no
+more in such amusements until to-morrow.
+
+"I beg ten thousand pardons, my dear lord," she said, shaking with
+suppressed laughter. "But if you could only have seen yourself! Ha, ha!
+However, we have nothing now to do but bow three times, thus"--suiting
+the action to the word, "and say--Kik-kuk-kik! Dear me, what is it we
+must say? I can't for the life of me remember it."
+
+The prime minister was as much at a loss.
+
+"Perhaps your Majesty has forgotten _the price you were to pay for a
+laugh_," he observed, bitterly.
+
+Blondina looked at him in blank horror. Too truly had she forgotten the
+formula, and turkeys they must remain!
+
+And now, how sad their plight! In the midst of their other tribulations,
+hunger assailed them, and they could not eat the food provided for the
+rest. So they wandered into the fields and forest, picking at berries
+here and there; though, when evening came, footsore and weary, they
+determined to go back into the palace barn-yard, and see what was taking
+place there.
+
+They found all the animals and fowls excited over the events of the day,
+and soon heard the news that Queen Blondina had died suddenly that
+morning, leaving a will appointing her sister to reign in her stead.
+
+Next day a funeral took place, when the coffin was filled by a lovely
+waxen image of the late queen, and was placed in the vault beside her
+father. The false Vixetta, dressed in mourning, had followed weeping
+after it.
+
+Blondina and the prime minister now saw that they were indeed under the
+spell of a powerful enchantress, and resolved to travel to the dwelling
+of a certain wise woman in search of advice.
+
+After a long journey, the two turkeys reached the hut of the wise woman,
+and told her their pitiful tale.
+
+"Unfortunately, I have no power against Queen Vixetta since she has
+become the sovereign of the underground band," said the wise woman.
+"But, if you could gain an entrance to one of their Friday councils, you
+might pick up something to your advantage there." And then, as wise
+women speak but once in twenty-four hours, she shut the door in their
+faces, and left them to their fate.
+
+Blondina and the prime minister repaired to the ruined tower whither
+Vixetta was wont to go on Fridays; and there, hiding behind a wall, they
+saw the wicked sorceress arrive and, lifting a trap-door in the cellar,
+disappear from sight. While they remained above, lamenting their hard
+fate, Blondina saw a tiny black object emerge from the ground at her
+feet, then another and another, till a troop of them were assembled.
+These were moles, and their leader, addressing the queen, informed her
+that he it was she had saved from the crop of the owl.
+
+"We have heard of your distressing predicament, your Majesty," the mole
+added, with deep respect; "and hasten to offer our services to conduct
+you to the council chamber of the underground band."
+
+Blondina thanked the mole fervently, and found, upon following him, that
+with his companions he had burrowed a long and beautifully smooth
+tunnel. Glow-worms were ranged along the sides to light the way, and
+every thing was arranged for her comfort. After a considerable time had
+elapsed, the travellers reached a gallery leading directly into a
+vaulted chamber where the witches and warlocks sat, each upon a cushion
+formed of a huge and swollen toad. In their midst, upon a throne made of
+serpents intertwined, sat the Queen Vixetta, around whose brow flickered
+a wreath of blue flames. Ah! she was a terrible witch to look upon.
+Blondina shuddered to remember the kisses she had often innocently
+pressed upon that skinny forehead and those lips of lurid red. Vixetta
+was in high spirits; she and her familiars hatched mischief together,
+and gloated over their evil doings in fiendish glee. Then Vixetta
+listened to the reports of each of the wicked creatures in turn; and, to
+Blondina's astonishment, in the narrators of these tales of witchcraft
+she recognized more than one of the most respected of her own subjects.
+Some of them were crones ancient and palsied, others were young and
+blooming girls Vixetta had led astray; among the warlocks were the
+gray-haired miller, the good sexton, and a courtier in whom the queen
+had placed peculiar confidence. All were attended by black deformed
+creatures, half cat, half human being. In the centre of the circle was a
+fire, and before it they set up the very waxen image of the queen which
+had been buried in her stead. Into this little imps were ordered to
+thrust sharp blades and needles in the region of the heart, while
+Vixetta pronounced a spell, at which all the others laughed rejoicingly.
+
+"I'll warrant my lady Blondina will be cured of her love of laughing,
+after this--as well as of her curiosity. Long may she wander in her
+present shape," said the sorceress. "It was a merry trick I played her
+and that audacious old prime minister, who sought to do me harm."
+
+"And what, pray, was the rhyme your Majesty bid them recall?" asked the
+courtier warlock, grinning maliciously.
+
+"A simple one," replied the sorceress, "and you will remember it was
+once a password in our band,--
+
+    'Kurri-kuree,
+    Changed would I be.'"
+
+Blondina almost betrayed herself in her delight. She repeated the words
+again and again, in mind, keeping profoundly silent until the
+witch-revels were at an end; and at cock-crow the unholy gang broke up,
+vanishing like smoke through a trap-door in the ceiling of the vault.
+
+"And now, dear little mole, take us back again," said the turkey-queen,
+who longed to breathe the free air of heaven and to break her awful
+spell.
+
+"May it please your Majesty," said the mole, looking very unhappy,
+"there is a new difficulty. Yonder image of you which they consumed in
+the fire, is a fresh enchantment that dooms you to remain perpetually in
+the place where you now are; and I find by consultation with a friend of
+mine, a bat who lives in this cave, and who is the most kind and
+obliging person, that on only one condition can you now leave this spot,
+and that, I hardly dare name to you."
+
+"Summon this bat to appear before me immediately," cried the wretched
+queen, who, finding that her feet were stuck fast to the earth, was
+truly overwhelmed, while the prime minister gave himself up to complete
+despair.
+
+The bat appeared, and a more repulsive huge creature it is impossible to
+picture; but his voice was gentle and his manner most humble and
+conciliatory. He began to apologize for presenting himself before the
+queen, when she interrupted him impetuously.
+
+"Quick--quick! tell me the condition on which I may leave this horrible
+place, where I shall die if I remain a moment longer. Who are you? why
+are you here? and why should we trust in you when every living thing in
+this foul spot is devoted to the service of the evil one?"
+
+"I, like yourself, am a victim of, not a partner in, crime, your
+Majesty," said the bat, with dignity. "If you will permit----"
+
+"But I can't stop to listen to anything," sobbed the poor little
+turkey-queen. "Get me into the daylight somehow or other, and then I
+will hear you gladly. Oh! kind Mr. Bat, forgive my unkind words; only
+free me from this living tomb, if it be possible."
+
+"You have been told that it is possible, lady," said the bat,
+pathetically; "but, to be brief, since you insist upon it--only by
+promising your fair hand in marriage to----"
+
+"To whom?" cried Blondina, in astonishment
+
+"To me," said the bat, withdrawing more into the shadows of the vault.
+
+Blondina screamed with horror.
+
+"Oh! never, never," she exclaimed, bursting again into tears of
+anguish.
+
+The mole, the bat and the turkey prime minister consulted together in
+low whispers; and the last-named gentleman, addressing the queen, set
+before her the hopeless situation in which she now was, and urged her to
+accept the proposition of the bat.
+
+"Hear me, too, fair queen," said the voice of the bat. "I swear that if
+you consent, you shall never regret it. Only trust me, and all will go
+well. In consigning me to this spot, your wicked sister, who, in my
+former estate desired to marry me herself, in spite of my aversion for
+her, swore that never should I be free from her enchantment, until a
+beautiful young bride should come to the rescue and promise to marry me,
+as I am, without asking any questions. Then, and then only, I might
+escape, taking my bride and her attendants with me."
+
+"But your appearance--pardon me," said poor Blondina; "it is too
+dreadful for anything."
+
+"Trust me," repeated the bat; and, in desperation, Blondina murmured a
+promise to be his bride.
+
+Instantly the bat flew with alacrity into a corner of the vault, and,
+bringing thence a bunch of mistletoe, angelica, and mountain-ash, waved
+it thrice in a circle around Blondina, who up to that moment had
+remained as if rooted to the spot where she stood. The spell broke, and
+Blondina, starting joyfully forward, repeated, at his request, the same
+ceremony of disenchantment for the bat, as also for the prime minister;
+and all three of them, accompanied by the faithful mole, took their way
+to the upper regions without delay. Upon reaching the meadow where they
+had entered the underground passage, Blondina and the prime minister
+lost no time in running back to the summer-house, where, regaining the
+hidden hazel nut, they safely and joyfully resumed their own true
+shapes.
+
+"And now, gentle lady," said the bat, who had flown after them, keeping
+his distance modestly, "I pray you to perform for me another kindly
+action. Close your eyes, and sprinkle me with this powder, at the same
+time touching my head with the witch-defying plants. Then, kindle a fire
+with these fagots of wood left here by your gardener, and cast me into
+the hottest portion of it."
+
+Blondina shrank from the task, but, finding the bat as determined as he
+was calm and dignified, obeyed him without another word of protest.
+Aided by the now alert and cheerful prime minister, she kindled a fire
+upon the hearth of the little summer-house; and when it blazed high,
+and hot coals fell into the centre, she followed the bat's directions to
+the letter. Immediately there was a loud explosion; the hideous bat skin
+split asunder and shrivelled up, revealing a beautiful young prince, who
+stepped unsinged from the ring of flame, and bent his knee before the
+Queen Blondina. She recognized in him a playmate of her childhood,
+Prince Florizel, son of a neighboring monarch, who years before had
+disappeared from his father's court, and had been mourned as dead by his
+sorrowing relatives. To enchant him, in punishment for his scorn of her,
+had been one of the first acts of Vixetta's acquired magic; and to
+accomplish it, the wretched girl had bargained away her entire life to
+the service of the Evil One.
+
+Blondina greeted Florizel with the utmost pleasure and assured him of
+her willingness to fulfil the pledge she had made to the dreaded
+bat-lover. They returned to the palace, and on being observed by the
+attendants, who, believing them to be ghosts, ran terrified away, had
+some difficulty in persuading people that they were alive and in the
+flesh. Then, what joy reigned over the palace. Quickly the news spread
+through the city and kingdom. The indignant people flocked around the
+apartments of Vixetta, who was still asleep after her orgies of the
+previous night, and, summoning her to come forth, declared that she
+should instantly be put to death in the presence of her victims. The
+miserable sorceress fell upon her knees, and begged for her life. Again
+the generous Blondina entreated that her sister might be spared; but
+Prince Florizel interfered, and insisted that, for the future safety of
+his queen, Vixetta should then and there be compelled to take a pinch of
+the magic powder and change herself into a bat. This was done, and the
+sorceress, flying from the window, was never heard of more.
+
+Blondina gave her hand and heart to Prince Florizel, as soon as he
+returned from a visit to his parents, who were overjoyed to regain their
+long-lost son and heir. The marriage took place with great magnificence,
+and the royal couple lived in peace for the remainder of their long and
+useful lives. They would often walk in the direction of the
+poultry-yard, and Blondina loved to tell her husband of all the things
+she had heard and seen there when in her turkey shape.
+
+But the prime minister, after he had weeded out of the kingdom certain
+obnoxious individuals strongly resembling the warlocks seen at the
+underground council, preferred to assume a dignified forgetfulness of
+all that had passed during his enforced experience as a feathered biped.
+To the latest day of his life he would always cross the road to avoid
+meeting a turkey-gobbler, and for the race of pet kittens he continued
+to maintain the most unconquerable dislike.
+
+By the laws of the kingdom, to kill or injure a mole was made a capital
+offence; and once every year a little blind gentleman in a fine black
+velvet coat arrived at the palace to pay his respects to their
+majesties, who received him with every mark of favor and affection.
+
+
+
+
+TIMID AGNES.
+
+[Illustration: Shutting Agnes into the Chest.]
+
+
+Once there lived a poor girl whose wicked aunt treated her very cruelly.
+One morning, the aunt set out for a day of shopping and visiting to the
+neighboring town, after whipping her niece soundly (as she was in the
+habit of doing for exercise, every morning), and shutting up the poor
+girl in the garret, where a barrel of white sand had been spilt upon the
+floor.
+
+"Pick up every grain of this sand before bedtime, or I will imprison you
+in the dark closet for a week," said the aunt as she went away.
+
+The poor child cried so that she could not see the tiny particles; and
+as she sat, crying and picking up what she could feel, she heard a
+little scratching under the lid of the old wedding-chest in the corner.
+Presently, a pretty blue mouse with topaz eyes ran down the side of the
+chest, and came up to her. Now, if there was anything poor Agnes feared
+more than death, it was a mouse. The very sight of one had always made
+her shudder and scream and clutch at her petticoats, and climb up on
+chairs or tables or anything convenient.
+
+So when she saw her visitor she gave a cry of terror, and climbed nimbly
+up to the top of a broken chest of drawers in the corner of the garret.
+
+"Don't mind me," said the mouse, politely.
+
+"I _beg_ your pardon, but I'm so awfully afraid of you," said Agnes,
+shuddering to her toes. "I think I could endure you if it were not for
+your horrid tail! But you really make me creep all over, don't you see?"
+
+"If you would only take that apron off your head, and exercise a little
+self-control," said the mouse, with a shade of impatience in its manner,
+"you would soon see that I am a very superior kind of a mouse. Come,
+Miss Agnes, I have watched you very often at your work here, and I have
+a great desire to be of service to you. But there is really no talking
+reason to a person hunched up on top of a chest of drawers with a pink
+apron over her head; is there, now?"
+
+Agnes, hearing the mouse talk so pleasantly, made a desperate effort to
+come down from her perch and converse with the little creature. After a
+while the blue mouse's eloquence proved sufficient to induce her to
+follow it near a crack in the wall, and to peep between the boards, as
+directed.
+
+There she saw a secret room, full of beautiful things--clothes and
+jewels--scattered on the floor.
+
+"All these shall be yours, fair Agnes," said the mouse, "if you will
+carry me in your pocket for a day."
+
+Agnes trembled with horror so that she could hardly bring herself to
+say, "Thank you kindly, good Mr. Blue Mouse, but I hardly need anything
+new in the way of clothes, going out as little as I do. O--o--oh!" she
+exclaimed, catching her breath, as the mouse seemed to scuttle toward
+her.
+
+"Do not fear! I am entirely too proud to obtrude my company where it is
+so little desired. Farewell, Miss Agnes; I leave you. But before I go,
+allow me to arrange this little difficulty for you."
+
+The gallant little mouse whisked his tail (that hateful tail!), twice
+over the pile of sand, and at once, every grain of the shining heap, and
+all that lay scattered over the garret floor, flew back into the barrel.
+
+"Thank you, kind Mr. Blue Mouse," cried the grateful Agnes; but no
+answer came. Her benefactor was nowhere to be seen. She looked in vain
+for the crack in the wall he had led her to; it was no longer in view.
+
+When the wicked aunt found that Agnes had completed her task, she flew
+into a violent rage, and determined to rid herself forever of the girl.
+So, taking her again into the garret, she bound her hand-and-foot, tied
+a handkerchief across her mouth to still her cries, and, opening the old
+wedding-chest in the corner, thrust poor Agnes bodily into it, closing
+the lid with a vicious bang, and locking it with the great iron key.
+
+"Lie there till doomsday, you tiresome thing!" said the wicked aunt,
+going down-stairs to eat her supper.
+
+Poor Agnes thought she must soon die of suffocation, but just then she
+heard a scratching noise; four little feet scuttled over her face, and a
+long smooth tail whisked by her ear.
+
+"Ugh!" groaned poor Agnes. "It's a mouse shut up here with me! Oh! why
+didn't she kill me, outright?"
+
+Then little teeth began gnawing at her bandages and at the ropes that
+bound her, and in a few moments she was free.
+
+"I am here, Miss Agnes; though, indeed, I won't touch you again!" said
+the familiar voice of the Blue Mouse. "But if you would only trust me,
+and carry me in your pocket, how much I could do for you!"
+
+At last Agnes consented to grant his wish and, trembling in every limb,
+she let the mouse run into her pocket. Without a moment's delay, the
+bottom of the chest gave way, and Agnes felt herself sinking, sinking.
+When she recovered her wits, which in that moment of terror seemed
+fairly to forsake her, there she was in a beautiful garden, filled with
+ladies and gentlemen walking two and two in a grand procession along a
+bowery path strewn with roses and carnations. Fountains played in the
+sunshine, birds sang on the boughs. It was a scene so gay and beautiful,
+that Agnes clapped her hands for joy.
+
+"How happy I am here!" she cried.
+
+"And happy you shall always be here," said a voice behind her.
+
+Agnes, turning, saw a young gentleman dressed in a blue court costume
+with topaz buttons, and wearing in his cap a long smooth plume of blue,
+caught by a brilliant brooch of the same gems.
+
+He explained to her that he was none other than the mouse she had so
+much feared. Condemned from childhood to remain a mouse until some fair
+maiden should, of her own free will, allow him to run into her pocket,
+the unfortunate prince had only now been released from his long
+imprisonment. This garden belonged to his own palace, and the ladies and
+gentlemen coming to meet him were his friends and courtiers.
+
+Agnes, shedding tears of penitence over the blindness of her former
+prejudice, bestowed her hand upon the prince, and was happy evermore.
+
+
+
+
+THE OGRESS AND THE COOK.
+
+
+One summer afternoon, a young girl sat upon the door-stone of her
+cottage home, awaiting the return of her father from the mill. Her day's
+work was neatly done, and the tiny house, both within and without, was
+as tidy as hands could make it; hollyhocks and sweet-peas grew beneath
+the windows; the plates on the cupboard shelf glittered; and a little
+fire sparkled upon the hearth, where a pot of savory broth was bubbling
+cheerfully. On the table was set a brown loaf, light as a feather and
+sweet as a nut, with a bunch of grapes from the trellis above the door,
+and a pewter mug ready to be filled with frothing ale at the moment when
+the good man should sit down. Dimple, whose fingers rarely rested, plied
+her knitting-needles as she watched the bridge upon the road where the
+first glimpse of her father might be caught. By-and-by, up came an old
+crone, dusty and way-worn.
+
+"Pray, my kind little maiden, give me a bit of food, and a sup of drink,
+for sweet charity's sake," begged the wayfarer, who looked as if she
+were ready to drop from fatigue.
+
+"Willingly, dame," said pretty little Dimple; and bidding the crone be
+seated, she ladled out for her a generous portion of the fragrant broth.
+
+The crone's eyes sparkled; and, seizing a great horn spoon, she
+despatched the broth in two or three mouthfuls, then asked for more.
+Dimple supplied her; and in a little while, all the broth in the iron
+pot had disappeared.
+
+"Never mind," sighed Dimple to herself. "The good father will have to
+put up with a rasher of bacon and some eggs, to-night."
+
+As if reading her thoughts, the crone, displaying a pair of jaws opening
+as wide as a cavern and garnished with ferocious teeth, said:
+
+"I am just beginning to feel a little refreshed. If there were only such
+a thing as a couple of fat slices of home-cured bacon, and a brace of
+new-laid eggs to help a poor old creature on her way."
+
+Dimple ran to fetch the eggs, over the laying of which her fowls had
+scarcely ceased to cackle in the barn. Quickly and cheerfully, she
+prepared a delicious dish, which the crone despatched as before. The
+loaf of bread followed the bacon, and a gallon of ale followed the
+bread. All of the grapes, plucked and arranged in a basket for market
+next morning, were consumed; and, when Dimple had just begun to tremble
+with apprehension lest her voracious visitor should devour _her_ in
+conclusion, the crone pushed back her chair, jumped up with surprising
+agility and, running to the door, blew a shrill whistle.
+
+Instantly, there came flying through the air a pair of huge vampires
+harnessed to a blood-red chariot. They halted at the cottage gate; and,
+before Dimple had time to cry out in her terror, the crone whisked her
+into the chariot, held her in place with a grasp of iron, and ordered
+the foul creatures to be off. Dimple fainted away and, when she came to
+herself, found that they were high above the earth, travelling with
+frightful speed through a thunder cloud. In vain she cried for mercy,
+and entreated to be restored to her father's house.
+
+"Be silent, brat," said the furious crone, who was, in reality, an
+ogress. "Know that I have for a long time been in search of just such a
+trig little cook-maid as you are. Ever since my husband ate up the two
+last, I have had the greatest trouble to induce my servants to stay with
+me. Besides, we are particular about our table, and rather hard to suit.
+I dare say, now, you understand cooking a nice plump baby's thigh to
+perfection, and how to prepare a dish of rosy cheeks smothered in cream,
+hey? But it isn't every day we are in such luck as to get fare like
+that. Many's the time I've had to palm off lamb chops for baby cutlets,
+and to swear that the pig's tails I served up were boy's fingers. Now,
+stop that ridiculous shuddering and crying, and listen to reason. If you
+promise to serve me faithfully for seven years, I'll engage to keep you
+out of his way, and to send you home with a fortune in your pocket."
+
+Dimple's fright and horror had by this time completely taken away her
+power of speech. She sank upon the floor of the chariot in silent
+despair; and when they reached the ogre's castle, situated on a frowning
+peak of rocks, where not the most daring human foot could climb, she
+allowed herself without resistance to be lifted out, and thrust into a
+dark cavernous kitchen. There she was ordered to prepare a large pie,
+made of rats and bats, for the ogre's supper. While poor Dimple was thus
+engaged, a monstrous giant came home, and angrily asked for food. The
+ogress greeted him affectionately, and nine young ogresses ran to meet
+him and would have jumped upon his knees, but that he pushed them away
+and fell to scolding everybody, every syllable of his speech sounding
+like the loudest thunder-peal. Dimple finished her hateful task, and
+such was her skill in cooking that the pastry on coming out of the oven
+looked and smelt delicious. The giant ceased to frown as he devoured it,
+and smiled when he laid down his knife and fork.
+
+[Illustration: _Dimple makes rat pie._]
+
+"Come here, lasses, and I'll kiss you all," he said, with rare
+amiability--actually bestowing on his wife's shoulder a pat of approval
+that would have felled Jumbo to the earth.
+
+The young ogresses were tall and spindling creatures, as slim as young
+giraffes. They had pasty complexions, pink eyes, and long glistening
+white teeth. Dimple's business was, after she had set her kitchen in
+order, to go up into the nursery and put these frights to bed, each
+requiring to be rocked to sleep in a cradle nine feet long, and all
+howling like an army of pinched cats until slumber overtook them. Late
+at night, when all was quiet, poor Dimple would creep up to bed in a
+little turret room, where the wind moaned around the windows and owls
+hooted in the ivy so that sleep was impossible. She lay on her wretched
+bed and cried all night; and when day broke, she would scramble into her
+clothes again, and steal down stairs to her work in trembling, for she
+never knew at what moment the ogre might be prowling around in his
+stocking feet, and pounce upon her for a tid-bit. Months passed on, and
+one day the ogre came home in high good humor, carrying upon his back a
+living human being, whose feet and hands were tied and his eyes securely
+bandaged, while a gag in his mouth prevented the unfortunate victim
+from making a sound of remonstrance.
+
+"Take this fellow to the kitchen," thundered the ogre, throwing his
+victim down upon the stone floor of the entrance hall with a violent
+bang; "see that he is in good condition for my table, and then serve him
+with plenty of onions in the sauce. Just as I was beginning to hanker
+after a young and tender morsel of human flesh, I came across this boy,
+following the plough. I'll warrant, I stopped his whistle quickly, when
+I grabbed him up! Now mind, wife, supper at sharp twelve, and don't
+forget the onions!"
+
+The ogress lifted the prisoner as unconcernedly as one would handle a
+dead turkey and, carrying him below, threw him down upon the kitchen
+table, repeating her lord's directions to the cook. When Dimple
+recognized in the fainting prisoner an old schoolmate and neighbor of
+her own, Jim Hardy by name, she could scarcely refrain from a scream of
+rapture. But, pretending to be indifferent, she merely felt the poor
+youth's arms, as a cook examines the condition of her fowls for the
+table.
+
+"Dear me, madam," she said, "surely you don't mean to cook this tough
+creature to-night? Why, I wouldn't dare to send up such a dish to my
+master. He would be in a fearful rage, and small blame to him. At least,
+allow me to fatten the bumpkin a bit."
+
+"But what shall we serve my husband?" said the alarmed ogress. "He has
+set his heart on a dish of boy with onion sauce, and I dare not
+disappoint him."
+
+"Leave that to me," said clever Dimple.
+
+So she killed a lamb, and smothered it with onions, and the ogre knew no
+difference. The poor youth was set free, and great was his joy to find a
+friend in his proposed executioner. Dimple told him her story, and heard
+from him how long and sorrowfully her father had mourned her
+disappearance. Jim vowed to deliver her from the ogre; but both saw it
+was necessary to act with caution, at first. She was obliged to shut him
+up in an iron coop in the courtyard near the kitchen; and every time the
+old crone came into the kitchen, she went to the coop and felt and
+pinched the poor lad's legs and breast unmercifully.
+
+"Surely he is tender enough to serve to-night, cook," she would say,
+impatiently. "Your master has an attack of the gout, and I am at my
+wit's end to keep him in good humor. Nothing would please him so much as
+a slice or two of the breast, grilled with pepper and mustard."
+
+"Leave that to me," Dimple would answer; and she forthwith killed a pig,
+and served a dish so deliciously seasoned that the ogre forgot to growl,
+for at least an hour after eating it.
+
+Once, while the supper was going on, Dimple and Jim crept up to listen
+at the dining-room door. After the ogre had drank a gallon or two of
+wine, he began to talk freely to his wife.
+
+"Such a dainty dish as this you have served me deserves a reward, my
+dear," he said in a greasy voice, while the ogress meekly dipped some
+bread in the gravy as her share of the feast. "Open the closet in the
+corner yonder, and get me out my birdling."
+
+What should the birdling prove to be but a tiny nightingale shining like
+gold! When its mouth opened at the ogre's command, "Sing, birdling,
+sing!" out poured a rain of sapphires, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and
+amethysts, that lay in a glittering stream upon the table-cloth.
+
+"Take these for a bracelet," said the ogre, gathering them up in his
+hand, and tossing them to his wife; "and then put away my birdling, that
+no covetous eye may look upon this wonder of the world."
+
+Dimple and Jim exchanged glances of astonishment, but dared not speak,
+as they crept silently down the flight of stairs.
+
+Next day, the ogress came again into the kitchen to see about the supper
+dish for the evening, and in her zeal to prove that Jim was really ready
+for cooking, she bit his ear so that he could not help uttering a little
+squeal.
+
+"See what you have done!" cried Dimple. "Now that the blood flows, he
+will not be fit for eating for another day or two. Certainly, _I_ won't
+engage to make a savory dish of him."
+
+"Oh, don't be vexed, cook," said the ogress, who by this time had grown
+to depend absolutely upon Dimple's word in such matters. "I have a salve
+here that will heal all wounds, and will even cause a limb that has been
+cut off to grow again to the body."
+
+So saying, she whipped out of her pocket a little box of ointment, and
+rubbed some of it on the wounded place, which at once ceased to bleed,
+becoming whole as before.
+
+"What did I tell you?" asked the crone, triumphantly. "This salve is one
+of the wonders of the world, and the recipe is handed down only in our
+family." So saying, she carefully put away the box again in her pocket.
+
+Day after day passed, Dimple continuing to make excuses for failing to
+serve the coveted dainty, and exerting all her skill to cook such dishes
+as might make the ogress forget her disappointment. Meantime, Jim
+occupied his time in the coop by weaving a rope long enough and strong
+enough to support his weight and Dimple's while making their proposed
+escape down the rocky precipice on which the castle stood. Once on the
+sea-shore beneath, they hoped to hide in some fisherman's hut until a
+ship might be found sailing to their own country.
+
+"One thing is certain, Dimple," said Jim, who was a bold and fearless
+fellow; "we shall not leave this place without carrying off that
+wonderful bird of his. Why, just to remember the dazzling stream that
+poured from its mouth, makes my eyes wink."
+
+"Oh! Jim," answered Dimple, trembling. "Please, please, don't attempt
+such a thing. It will make our punishment ten times worse if we are
+caught. Besides, what hope have you of getting inside the iron closet?
+It is madness to talk about it. For my part, what I would like to take,
+is a little of that marvellous salve. Then, if we are bruised or our
+bones are broken on the rocks, we can make all right again----"
+
+"Why should you forever be talking to yourself, cook?" exclaimed the
+ogress, at that moment bursting in, carrying a bunch of keys that
+clanked like fetters. "See here! No more nonsense! I'd just like to know
+when you propose to give us that chap in yonder, who must have eaten
+more than his weight in good food since he came here?"
+
+"Very soon, very soon, madam," said Dimple, with a palpitating heart;
+"in a very few days he should be fit for my master's table. You know
+that kind of a creature takes uncommonly long to fatten."
+
+"Hold your tongue!" cried the ogress, exploding in sudden fury, like a
+mine of fire-crackers, and hurling at Dimple's unfortunate head a few
+convenient saucepans, skewers, flat-irons, and dish-covers. Happily the
+thrower was of the feminine gender, and so the projectiles missed their
+aim; but, as Dimple dodged around in a dark corner of the kitchen, the
+ogress continued to scold her angrily.
+
+"I know this," she exclaimed, "that for only one single day longer will
+I consent to be put off by your palavering promises and excuses. The lad
+is fit to kill now, if he is ever going to be; and as day after
+to-morrow is my lord's two thousand and tenth birthday, you must prepare
+a dish that shall be better than all that have gone before it.
+Everything is arranged for a night of celebration. Exactly at midnight
+to-morrow, we proceed in the vampire chariot to visit our neighbor, the
+King of the Ghouls, and, returning, shall expect to find the feast
+served punctually at cock-crow; the dear children may sit up for it, and
+my brother, the Ogre of the Seven Mountains, is invited to partake."
+
+During this speech Dimple's blood ran cold, but, summoning up all her
+resolution, she answered calmly, "All shall be ready, madam;" and when
+the appeased ogress took her leave, Dimple flew to the iron coop, and
+asked Jim if he had heard the conversation.
+
+"Indeed, did I, my lass," said Jim, trying to put a bold face on the
+matter. Then, they fell to consulting, and it was decided that the
+escape should be attempted that very night, as soon as the household was
+at rest. Midnight came, and not a sound save the thunderous snoring of
+the ogre family was heard within the castle. Dimple waited upon the
+landing, while Jim glided up to the cupboard where the nightingale was
+kept. As no one dared so much as lay a finger upon the giant's treasure
+without his leave, the door had been left unlocked. There sat the lovely
+birdling upon a jewelled spray, glittering so brilliantly that it shone
+like a lamp in the darkness. As Jim laid his hand upon it, the bird sent
+forth a note of silver sweetness, warning her captor to fly with all
+speed, if he would escape with his life from the vengeance of the ogre.
+
+"I humbly beg your pardon," said Jim, respectfully; "I had no idea that
+you are a talking creature."
+
+"Oh! I am glad of anything for a change! You must know that I am a
+fairy, unfortunate enough to have been imprisoned in a shape assumed for
+a frolic," the bird continued, greatly to Jim's astonishment. "And tired
+enough I am, of being a plaything for that horrid old monster, who
+captured me when I had just dressed for a masquerade party, in the
+plumage that you see. Unluckily, it is my doom to remain a slave to
+whosoever shall make a prisoner of me whilst I am thus attired and,
+also, to have to pour forth jewels at his command. You will be a
+different sort of a master, I am sure."
+
+Jim hurriedly promised the fairy-bird to treat her with kindness, and
+hastened to place her in Dimple's keeping. They stole past the giant's
+chamber-door, but the creaking of a board aroused the tyrant, who sprang
+out of bed, roaring, "Who is there? Answer, or I will grind you to dust
+beneath my heel!"
+
+Jim made no reply, and lifting in both hands a heavy iron bar with which
+he had provided himself, hid in an angle of the stairs.
+
+Out rushed the giant, sputtering ferociously, fire shooting from his
+eyes and nostrils. Jim, under cover of the darkness, dealt him a
+tremendous blow upon the skull. The monster tottered, and fell crashing
+down the long flight of stairs, carrying Jim with him to the bottom.
+Dimple heard a terrible groan, and then all was silent. Feeling her way
+to the spot, she whispered imploringly, "Jim, dear Jim, speak to me!"
+
+"I'm here, Dimple," said a stifled voice, in reply; "but this old
+wretch (who is as dead as a door-nail, by-the-way), has fallen atop of
+me, and I believe he has broken both of my legs. Ha! there, I have freed
+myself, but it's no use. I can't walk a step. Don't waste time on a
+cripple like me, lass; but make haste to slip down the rope and escape,
+before the ogress finds out what has happened."
+
+"Never, dear Jim," cried Dimple, fervently. Just then a sleepy voice was
+heard above in the chamber of the ogress, inquiring of her husband what
+was going on below. Quick as thought, Dimple ran up to her.
+
+"Oh, madam!" she said, "such an accident! His lordship has slipped upon
+the stairs, and sprained his ankle. You are on no account to disturb
+yourself to come down; but I beg that you will send him the box of magic
+salve without delay."
+
+In her sleepy state, it did not occur to the ogress to wonder how
+Dimple, whose presence in the castle had so long been hidden from the
+giant, should have been chosen as his messenger. She was so anxious to
+enjoy her nap in peace, that, grunting out an order to Dimple to take
+the box from the pocket of a gown hanging upon the bed, she turned upon
+her pillow and was soon snoring as before.
+
+Seizing the magic salve with joyful fingers, Dimple flew back to Jim,
+and applied it freely to his broken legs. Instantly, Jim sprang to his
+feet, stronger than before, and the friends prepared for flight.
+Unfortunately, in the darkness, Dimple had also anointed the dead
+giant's head, and to their dismay it now began to roar most frightfully.
+
+"Wife, wife, wife, come down and seize these vagabonds!"
+
+The ogress, turning in her sleep, exclaimed,
+
+"Goodness! I know what that means. My husband has got into the pantry,
+in one of his hungry fits, and can't find enough to satisfy him. Dear
+me! Suppose he should devour the cook. That would be inconvenient.
+Coming, my dear, coming!" And springing nervously out of bed, she began
+to look for her dressing gown and slippers.
+
+"Oh, madam," said Dimple, bursting again into the room. "His lordship is
+in haste to butcher the nice fat prisoner he has found below, and I beg
+that you will send him his hunting-knife, which lies upon the table."
+
+"Is that all?" said the ogress, sinking back upon her pillow, greatly
+relieved. "Take the knife, child; you will find it at my elbow."
+
+Armed with this formidable weapon, a blade so keen that it could split a
+hair with ease, Dimple returned to Jim, who forthwith pierced his
+howling enemy through the tongue, nailing him securely to the floor.
+This was the end of the most wicked monster who had for many grievous
+years afflicted mankind. All was still, at last, within the castle, when
+Dimple and Jim, holding fast their well-earned trophies, climbed out of
+the narrow window and began their perilous descent. The rope hung over
+the jagged rocks of a precipice rising abruptly from the sea. The sky
+was dark, and the sound of the hungry waves beneath was far from
+comforting to the fugitives. When half-way down, they were discovered by
+one of the vampires keeping watch upon the rampart. Uttering a
+discordant shriek, the vampire flew straight to the window of his
+mistress, and gave the alarm.
+
+As soon as the ogress found out the escape of her treacherous cook, her
+anger knew no bounds. Tearing madly down toward the kitchen, she
+stumbled over the dead body of her lord, who lay pinned by his own
+hunting-knife to the floor. Her shrill cries now rent the air, and were
+echoed by those of the nine young ogresses, who ran out in their
+night-gowns, looking truly hideous, and cast themselves upon the body
+of their father.
+
+"My salve, my magic salve, quick!" cried the ogress to her oldest
+daughter. Then, remembering to whom she had consigned the treasure, she
+rushed wildly off and, leaning out of the window, seized the rope with a
+ferocious jerk.
+
+"Fly, my good vampires!" yelled the horrid creature, "and tear me those
+wretches to shreds before my eyes!"
+
+Now, indeed, the fate of the fugitives seemed sealed. Dimple, clinging
+to Jim, uttered a cry of terror. But suddenly, a silvery voice came from
+the bird-fairy hidden in her dress.
+
+"Have no fear, maiden. Set me free, and I promise to save you both from
+this awful fate."
+
+Dimple gladly complied with the fairy's request. What was their surprise
+to see this tiny creature, no larger than a veritable nightingale,
+transform herself into a mighty eagle upon whose outstretched wings the
+fugitives, seating themselves securely, were at once carried with
+astonishing speed over sea and land, never slackening until they came in
+sight of their own beloved country! Rapid as was the flight of the
+vampires in pursuit, that of the enchanted eagle was far more rapid.
+The cruel foes were completely distanced, and it may be a satisfaction
+to you to learn that, flying homeward, in their blind rage and spite, to
+tell the ogress of the failure of their chase, the vampires ran headlong
+into a passing thunderbolt, and were instantly killed, their bodies
+falling upon the castle wall under the very eye of their despairing
+mistress. As it was impossible to get away from her eyrie except in the
+vampire chariot, the ogress and her nine daughters lived there for a
+year and a day, gnashing their teeth over their changed lot; and then
+they slowly starved to death. Her last moments in life were haunted by
+memories of Dimple, and the scent of imagined sauces compounded by her
+clever cook arose tantalizingly to her nostrils. At the very end, a fit
+of unwonted weakness took possession of the dying ogress, and she was
+heard to murmur, as if dreaming, "She was the best I ever had. Dear
+girl! I feel now that I could forgive her everything--my husband's
+death--her treachery--my children's untimely fate--my own approaching
+end--could I but taste her batter-pudding ere I die!"
+
+[Illustration: THE NINE YOUNG OGRESSES]
+
+Happily for Dimple, who was a tender and sympathetic soul, she knew
+nothing of the pangs that rent the spirit of her ancient foe. Our hero
+and heroine had been set down by the obliging fairy-bird at some little
+distance from their native village. There, after giving her their
+thanks, they at once offered to set their captive free without
+conditions. The fairy-bird, overjoyed at her good fortune, insisted upon
+singing for them a whole day, and a pile of precious gems then lay
+heaped at Dimple's feet, far surpassing in value those in the king's own
+treasury. Dimple and Jim were now rolling in wealth and, being also in
+possession of the magic salve which cures all maladies, felt reasonably
+secure of a prosperous future. Bidding the fairy good-by, they proceeded
+on foot toward the neighboring town, carrying their treasures in some
+old potato sacks begged from a roadside hut.
+
+Jim sold a few of the stones, and with the proceeds purchased
+magnificent garments for Dimple and himself; then, hiring a train of
+servants to attend them, the two travellers returned to their own
+village, seated upon cushions of pale blue velvet in a crystal chariot
+drawn by six milk-white horses, with gold and silver harness.
+
+At the approach of this splendid procession, all the people of the
+neighborhood came flocking from their houses to see the grand prince and
+princess, who had done them so much honor. To their astonishment, the
+chariot stopped directly in front of the miller's cottage, and out
+sprang the beautiful princess, trailing her silks and satins along the
+garden path, and, with a scream of delight, throwing her fair arms
+around the poor old dusty miller, who sat mournfully upon his deserted
+door-stone, rapt in thought. In a voice that all recognized, Dimple
+cried:
+
+"Father, don't you know me? I am your loving child."
+
+Next to be astonished was Jim's mother, a lone widow, who sat at her
+spinning-wheel as usual, thinking of the boy she had lost so many months
+before. When Jim appeared before her in all his bravery, the poor old
+thing nearly went into hysterics of delight--she had not hesitated for
+one moment in recognizing the face that had never left her thoughts.
+
+Directly afterward, all the villagers were requested to proceed in a
+body to the church, where a splendid wedding was held. Everyone agreed
+that Dimple made the prettiest bride that had ever stepped from the old
+church porch, and no one could dispute the fact that Jim was the
+proudest of bridegrooms.
+
+The newly married pair built a superb palace in a park near their native
+village, and also two smaller palaces for Jim's mother and Dimple's
+father. A large share of their wealth was spent in beautifying the homes
+of their friends; and, in time, the hamlet came to be known as the
+"Happy Valley," so prosperous and fertile had it grown. No sickness came
+near these fortunate villagers; and none of them ever died--thanks to
+the free use made by Dimple of her inexhaustible ointment.
+
+At last reports, neither Jim nor Dimple had confided to anyone the true
+story of their life in the giant's castle. When people expressed
+curiosity as to the source of such wonderful wealth, Jim always
+roguishly said that Dimple had made it all by good cooking. This report,
+getting abroad, had the effect of inducing the girls of that country,
+far and wide, to go into their kitchens and learn all they could of the
+most useful of arts; which, perhaps, had as much as Dimple's magic salve
+to do with the health and contentment of the inhabitants of Happy
+Valley!
+
+
+
+
+MISS PEGGY AND THE FROG.
+
+(_An old nursery tale told from memory._)
+
+
+Once there lived a widow, whose only child was a pretty girl named
+Peggy. Peggy loved to play by the water-side with her young companions,
+and one day a large frog hopped out of the water and sat gazing at her
+with a loving smile.
+
+"What a queer frog!" cried Peggy.
+
+"I _am_ a queer frog," he remarked, to her surprise. "Go back, Miss
+Peggy, and tell your mother that I want to marry you."
+
+Peggy ran to fetch her mother to see the talking frog. When the mother
+came, the frog dived down into the water and brought up in his mouth a
+rich gold chain and a jewelled ring.
+
+"This will I give the mother, and much beside," he said, laying the
+chain at the mother's feet; "and this ring with many like it is for my
+bride, if Peggy will marry me."
+
+"Say yes, Peggy," whispered the mother, who was a covetous woman. "Of
+course you can't marry a frog, but you may get the gold and jewels all
+the same."
+
+Peggy burst out crying, but her mother nudged and poked her in the side
+till she said "yes," in a very sobbing voice.
+
+The frog bowed politely, laid the gold chain and the ring at their feet,
+dived down, and immediately brought up gold cups and silver dishes, with
+many rare jewels set into them. Peggy's mother gasped for joy as he
+heaped all these riches on the grassy bank. She ran up to the house, and
+found a basket which would hold them. While she was gone, the frog said
+nothing, but stood looking at Peggy and sighing from time to time. Peggy
+sat under a tree, and cried and sobbed. At last the frog spoke:
+
+"Don't forget your bridegroom, Miss Peggy. This day year I shall come
+to fetch you," and he hopped into the water with a splash.
+
+Peggy's mother sold one of the cups for a large sum of money, and
+furnished their house all new. She bought gay clothes for herself and
+Peggy, and went to church quite regularly, since she had so much finery
+to show. Peggy forgot all about her promise to the frog, and the year
+passed by rapidly.
+
+On the appointed day, however, the widow and Peggy were sitting at the
+table when they heard a knock at the door. They peeped out, and saw, to
+their dismay, the frog, dressed in a green and gold suit, and carrying a
+jewelled sword. Peggy gave a scream, and ran and hid in the cupboard,
+while the mother tripped to the door, and bade her strange guest good
+morning.
+
+"I am sorry, but Peggy is from home to-day," she said.
+
+"Oh! never mind. I will come in and wait awhile," answered the frog; and
+in he hopped cheerfully, and took a seat at the table. Peggy's mother
+was too angry to offer him food, but the frog helped himself and ate out
+of Peggy's plate. He stayed and he stayed, and all the time Peggy
+crouched in the cupboard, cramped and hungry. He stayed till night came;
+and at last poor Peggy, falling asleep, burst open the cupboard door,
+and tumbled out upon the floor.
+
+The frog ran to pick her up, before her mother could get there.
+
+"You are a little late, my dear," he said politely. "But I can see very
+well in the dark, so we may set out at once, for my palace in the pond."
+
+In vain did the widow beg and plead. The frog would not give Peggy up,
+until the poor girl herself went down on her knees and implored him to
+let her off for another year. At length he promised to go, if she would
+be ready to marry him that day year. Peggy said "yes," and off went her
+suitor, after having laid a purse of gold in the widow's lap.
+
+"It might have been worse, Peggy, so cheer up," said the woman, clapping
+the purse in her pocket. "A year is a long time, and perhaps he will
+forget you."
+
+Vain hope! That day year, Peggy was spinning beside her mother, when the
+frog knocked at the door. This time, he was dressed in blue and silver,
+and his hat had a waving plume; but he looked more hideous than before.
+
+Peggy gave a jump, and ran up the garret stairs, and thence out upon the
+roof of the cottage, where she clung to the chimney in despair. The
+mother opened the door, and said she was sorry Peggy was from home. The
+frog replied that he did not mind, but would wait for Miss Peggy to
+return.
+
+He sat in Peggy's chair; and this time he would not eat, but only sighed
+and sighed. Presently it began to rain and hail, and thunder and lighten
+dreadfully; and poor Peggy on the roof was frightened out of her life.
+She crept into the chimney, and soon a great clap of thunder sent her
+flying down into the room where her frog-lover sat.
+
+"You have an odd way of coming into the house, my dear," the frog said;
+"but I don't mind, if you are ready to go now. It rains hard, but I am
+used to water, and you must become so; so come along."
+
+He offered her his arm, but Peggy cried and implored to be let off. She
+went down on her knees to him, and at last he went away, giving her
+another purse and another year of freedom.
+
+Next year, the widow and Peggy barred and double-locked their doors. The
+frog appeared, dressed in white and gold, but it was of no use for him
+to knock and call. No answer came, and he went off sadly. Peggy and her
+mother rejoiced at getting rid of the persistent suitor, and sat down to
+supper merrily, without, however, unlocking their door.
+
+Presently, they heard a noise, and looking out saw a great army of frogs
+coming up the hill, The frogs formed themselves into a column and,
+aiming for the window, jumped through the glass, and landed on the
+floor. They seized Peggy, and very gently carried her out of the door
+and down the hill. Peggy fainted, and knew nothing till they stopped on
+the edge of the pond. The widow came running down the hill just in time
+to see the frogs plunge into the water with her child.
+
+Peggy sank--down, down--until she reached a beautiful grotto, where, on
+a throne of coral and shells, sat her frog-lover. He looked at her
+reproachfully, and said:
+
+"If you had not three times deceived me, Peggy, I should not have
+carried you off in this way. Now that you are here, try to be resigned
+to me, and say that you will be my wife."
+
+"Never, never," screamed Peggy; "you are so horrible to look at with
+your goggle eyes."
+
+The goggle eyes filled with tears as Peggy spoke, and the frog shook his
+head mournfully.
+
+"I see that it is of no use," he said sorrowfully, and ordered Peggy to
+be taken to a beautiful sea-garden, where she lived and amused herself
+for a long time, gradually forgetting all about her home on land. Every
+evening the frog came and talked to Peggy through a wall of white coral;
+and in time, she grew so fond of listening to his voice, that if he was
+a minute late she would cry for him to come.
+
+Once when it was rather dark, the frog asked Peggy if she could bear to
+look at him again. Peggy said yes, and he appeared before her. Somehow
+he did not seem so ugly as before, and when, in a trembling voice, he
+invited her to sit upon his knee, she at once did so. Instantly his leg
+broke with a loud snap; and, as poor Peggy sprang to her feet in great
+remorse, she beheld, instead of her frog suitor, a beautiful young
+prince, holding out his arms to her!
+
+The prince told her he had been bewitched by a frog godmother, who
+condemned him to remain in that horrid shape until a young girl could be
+found who would either consent to marry him or sit upon his knee. Peggy
+was very glad to have such an ending of her adventure. So they were
+married at once, and were then very happy. When they went back for a
+wedding visit to Peggy's mother, they found she had taken all the gold
+and silver and moved away to a distant country; and they never saw the
+wicked woman more.
+
+
+
+
+THE LEPERHAUN: _A Legend of the Emerald Isle._
+
+
+Once upon a time, by the glimmer of the nursery-fire, a little girl sat
+listening to the tales told by her buxom Irish nurse. The details of
+most of these--notably of one very thrilling legend of the Banshee, who
+has ever since seemed to float upon the wind that blows after
+nightfall--have passed from memory; but the good old story of Molly
+Jones and the Leperhaun remains, and, as best I can, I reproduce it
+here.
+
+In a comfortable farm-house upon the outskirts of a small village in
+Ireland, lived a farmer with his six sons. He was a prosperous man, and,
+besides having better cows, pigs, and potatoes than any other man in the
+county, was said to keep a tidy bit of money laid away in bank. Only one
+maid-servant did the work of the house, and she had lived there for
+many a year. At last she died, and the farmer looked about him for a
+girl to take her place. The wages were high, and a strapping lass named
+Mary Jones made up her mind that she was the right person for the
+situation. The farmer liked her looks, and engaged her on the spot.
+
+"Now, Molly, lass," said the master, when he had finished taking her
+around the house, and showing her how neat and convenient everything
+was; "you see what you've got to do, and that's the end of it. Nobody in
+this house, who works well, has ever cause to want for encouragement,
+for _there's hands to help them that aren't too curious_! The main thing
+you'd better guard against is takin' notes and askin' questions."
+
+Molly protested that she was innocent of the inheritance of Mother Eve;
+and the farmer went on with his directions.
+
+"On the first night of every month the family goes early to bed, and it
+will be your business to see that the hearth is well swept, and fresh
+turf laid upon the fire, and to collect around it all the worn or broken
+shoes about the house. The last thing before you leave the room, be sure
+to set before the fire a nice bowl of mealy potatoes bursting from their
+jackets, a couple of herrings broiled to a turn, and a jug of sweet
+buttermilk--and, whatever you do, never forget the salt!"
+
+Molly, though burning with curiosity, courtesied, and said nothing. All
+went well till the first night of the coming month. "When the family was
+retiring, the farmer whispered:
+
+"Remember, Molly! Be abed and asleep before the clock strikes twelve;
+and _don't forget the salt_."
+
+Molly tidied her kitchen, swept the hearth, arranged around it all the
+worn and broken shoes in the house, her own Sunday pair included; and,
+after setting a nice little meal, covered with a white cloth, near the
+fire, wound up the clock and went to bed. Next morning what was her
+surprise to find not only all the boots and shoes neatly mended, but the
+empty jug and platter washed and restored to their places, while a
+beautiful fire was blazing merrily! She dared not ask any questions of
+the farmer or his sons, and no one appeared in the least surprised by
+what had occurred. That month her work went so easily that Molly thought
+it child's play. Her bread was baked brown and light, her potatoes were
+a triumph, her churning was done sooner than anybody's in the place, and
+her linen was hung out to dry by sunrise on Monday mornings. For a
+month or two Molly never failed to set her kitchen in order, as before,
+for the mysterious guest. But one night she was in a hurry, and forgot
+the salt. Next morning the boots were mended, but the fire was scattered
+on the hearth, ashes lay all about her neat kitchen, and the dishes were
+left unwashed. This excited Molly's curiosity anew and, when the next
+time came, she did everything as usual, but, instead of going to bed,
+hid behind the kitchen clock. Punctually as the clock struck twelve, out
+popped from behind a big stone in the chimney-place a queer little dwarf
+dressed all in red. Apparently he suspected something, for he sniffed
+and peered into the darkness of the kitchen. Molly held her breath
+through fear, and the dwarf proceeded to blow up the fire and warm
+himself before sitting down to supper. Then, uncovering his cup and
+platter, and finding that all was to his taste, he smacked his lips, and
+made an excellent repast. When it was over, he whipped out of his bag
+some shoemaker's tools, and went to work to patch and mend the shoes,
+with twinkling fingers. In an hour's time all was finished and, after
+putting the room to rights, the dwarf took his leave.
+
+Molly told nobody that she had seen the veritable Leperhaun, the famous
+shoemaking fairy; but the next month she happened to be in an ill humor
+and hungry; so, without stopping to think of the consequences, she ate
+his supper herself--leaving upon the platter only a heap of potato-skins
+and the bones of the well-picked herrings.
+
+That night, while all the world was asleep, in came the Leperhaun and,
+finding the trick that had been played on him, flew into a terrible
+rage, scattered the boots and shoes over the floor, broke the crockery
+and, seizing a broom, swept all the ashes out upon the kitchen floor.
+Molly, who was watching, ran up to the garret and, jumping into bed,
+pulled the clothes over her head in a cold perspiration with terror. But
+hark! on the steps outside came the pit-pat of little feet. In rushed
+the offended house-fairy. He seized Molly by the hair of her head, and
+dragged her down the stairs, and over the flags of the yard, saying,
+
+    "Molly Jones! Molly Jones!
+    Potato-skins and herring-bones!
+    I'll break your bones upon the stones,
+    Molly Jones, oh! Molly Jones!"
+
+In vain Molly cried for mercy. The farmer and his sons were fast asleep,
+and not a soul heard her. All night long the Leperhaun dragged her
+about; and when the cock crowed he vanished, leaving her bruised and
+sore upon the threshold of the door. More dead than alive, Molly crawled
+up to her bed, where she lay black and blue for many a day.
+
+The farmer, suspecting what lesson had been taught her, said nothing;
+and we may be sure that, when the next time came for the visit of the
+Leperhaun, the little red dwarf had no fault to find with Molly.
+
+
+
+
+ROMANCES OF THE MIDDLE AGES
+
+
+[_The stories here following are, it is hoped, so rendered, from
+metrical romances of the Middle Ages, as to be adapted to the taste and
+understanding of youthful readers._]
+
+
+
+
+THE TRIALS OF SIR ISUMBRAS.
+
+(_From Ellis' Abridgment of the MS. in Caius College._)
+
+
+Once upon a time there lived a knight so handsome, so rich, and so
+valiant that all eyes were turned upon him. His name was Isumbras, and
+fortune had given him everything that the heart of man could wish for.
+He had a splendid castle, surrounded by vast forests, where every day he
+went hunting or hawking; and so generous he was with his wealth that the
+poor flocked to him from every quarter and never went away empty-handed.
+
+Sir Isumbras had a beautiful wife and three lovely sons to share the
+blessings of his lot; but one thing he had not, and that was an humble
+spirit. He forgot to own the Giver of good things, and took it as a
+matter of course that his life should flow on in ease and luxury.
+
+One day when mounted on his favorite steed, surrounded by his dogs, and
+having his hawk on fist, Sir Isumbras cast up his eyes to the sky, and
+there saw an angel, who reproached him with his pride, announcing that
+Heaven had in store for him a speedy punishment.
+
+Sir Isumbras fell to his knees in prayer; but hardly had the angel
+vanished from his sight when, on remounting his horse, the noble
+creature fell dead beneath him; the hawk dropped lifeless from his fist;
+and the faithful hounds expired in agonies at his feet. Hastening on
+foot to his castle, he was met by a servant, who informed him his horses
+and oxen had been suddenly struck dead by lightning, and that his fowls
+had all been stung to death by adders. Next came forward a page, who
+told him the castle was burned to the ground, many of his servants had
+perished, and that his wife and children had taken refuge, half naked,
+in a thorn-bush close at hand. Sir Isumbras hastened to the aid of his
+beloved family, stripping himself of his scarlet mantle and his surcoat
+to clothe them. He embraced them fondly, and thanked heaven that,
+though all the rest of his treasures were taken, these remained. He then
+proposed to his wife that, as a sign of repentance for their sins, they
+should all go on foot to the holy city, Jerusalem, begging their bread
+from land to land. He cut with his knife upon his bare shoulder the
+pilgrim's sign of the cross, and then the afflicted family set forth on
+their travels.
+
+Long they journeyed, eating crusts when they could beg them, or berries
+from wayside bushes, until, faint and weary, they reached a broad but
+shallow stream. Taking his eldest son in his arms, Sir Isumbras bore him
+across the river, and placed him beneath a bush of broom-plant, bidding
+him play with the blossoms until his father's return. Scarcely had the
+knight left his son, when an enormous lion burst from a neighboring
+thicket and bore away the child. In like manner the second son became
+the prey of a fierce leopard; and the poor mother, who saw them so
+cruelly torn from her sight, fainted away, with her baby on her breast.
+Sir Isumbras bowed to the will of God; and when his wife revived they
+journeyed on to the shore of the Greek sea. Here they stood, and,
+through eyes that were full of tears, saw a great fleet of three hundred
+ships coming toward them. This was the navy of a famous heathen king,
+and no sooner had he landed than the travellers, who had not touched
+bread or meat for seven days, hastened to implore his charity. The king
+soon observed the robust limbs and tall stature of the husband; and
+perceived he was a knight in disguise, and that the wife, whose beauty
+was as "bright as blossoms upon tree," was, in spite of her ragged
+clothes, a lady of high degree. So, affecting to treat the poor couple
+with respect, he offered them gold and treasure if the knight would
+renounce Christianity and consent to fight under the Saracen banners.
+This offer was at once declined, and the angry king made up his mind to
+revenge himself by carrying away the knight's wife. So, upon an order to
+the attendants, a purse of gold was pressed into the knight's hand, his
+infant son was put into his arms, he was hurried ashore, cruelly beaten
+by the king's servants, and, when he recovered himself, saw a heathen
+ship, with his wife on board, set sail for Africa.
+
+Sir Isumbras clasped his only remaining treasure to his heart, and
+followed the vessel with his eyes until it vanished from sight. Night
+found him still there, until father and babe fell asleep upon the bare
+ground, too weary to keep awake. Sir Isumbras had laid the fatal present
+of the heathen king, the purse of gold, in the scarlet mantle which he
+wrapped around his child. Scarcely had the next day's sun risen upon the
+earth, when an eagle, attracted by the red cloth, darted down, carrying
+off mantle, child, and purse in his talons.
+
+The poor knight was at last in utter despair. He fell on his knees, and
+offered what remained of his life to the God he had offended. Just then
+he heard the noise of a blacksmith's forge, and saw, not far off, some
+men at work. They took pity on him and fed him. He entered their
+service, and bound himself for seven long years to learn their trade.
+During this time he forged a complete suit of armor for himself, being
+determined at the first opportunity to take up arms against the
+Saracens, whose king had not only done him such a cruel wrong, but was
+oppressing God's people.
+
+At length his opportunity came. The Christian army was to fight the
+Saracens on a field not far from the forge. Sir Isumbras buckled on his
+awkward armor and, mounting a horse that had been used by the smith to
+carry coals, proceeded to the field of battle.
+
+His heart beat with wild joy when he saw the foe before him. Uttering a
+fervent prayer, he dashed into the thick of the combat, attracting all
+eyes at first by his sorry steed and rough armor, and again by the
+splendid skill and courage of his charge. Early in the action his horse
+was killed under him, and the Christian chiefs made haste to present him
+another one, also a suit of armor more worthy of the heroic soldier he
+had proved himself to be. All that day the battle raged.
+
+By nightfall Sir Isumbras, single-handed, had killed the heathen king
+and many of his followers. But he was himself sorely wounded, and when
+brought for reward before the Christian king, and asked his name, could
+hardly falter out, "I am a smith's man, sire." The king swore a great
+oath to make a knight of this valiant "smith's man"; and, with all honor
+and tenderness, Sir Isumbras was carried into a nunnery, where the good
+sisters nursed him until he recovered from his many wounds.
+
+Sir Isumbras was not satisfied to remain quiet long, though he had slain
+the heathen king. He went to the Holy Land, and for seven years wandered
+about a pilgrim, as before, sleeping upon the ground by night, and
+vainly seeking tidings of his wife by day. Once, during this time, when
+he was starving upon the banks of a stream, there appeared to him a
+cheering visitor.
+
+    And as he sat, about midnight,
+    There came angel fair and bright,
+    And brought him bread and wine.
+    He said, "Palmer, well thou be!
+    The King of Heaven greeteth well thee;
+    Forgiven is sin thine."
+
+Very soon after this miraculous event Sir Isumbras found his wife, who
+had dwelt, holy and charitable, in a secluded castle, where she had
+been shut up by the Saracen king. She welcomed him with rapture, and
+together they shed many tears over their lost children. They lived
+together for some years, until Sir Isumbras was again summoned to do
+battle with the Saracens, who had determined at all cost to kill him.
+The fight was again hot and long, and just when Sir Isumbras was about
+to be overpowered by numbers of the enemy, three new champions appeared
+in the field, declaring themselves on the side of the Christians. These
+were three splendid knights, the first mounted upon a lion, the second
+upon a leopard, and the third upon an eagle. The Saracen cavalry,
+terror-stricken at sight of them, dispersed in all directions. But
+flight was in vain; three and twenty thousand unbelievers were soon laid
+dead upon the plain by the lion, leopard, and eagle, fighting with
+tireless fury, and driving all before them, until the entire heathen
+army was utterly put to rout. Then, coming back to Sir Isumbras, the
+three champions knelt before him, announcing themselves his long lost
+sons, mercifully protected and befriended by the savage creatures by
+whom they had been carried off. Sir Isumbras embraced his valiant sons,
+and led them to their mother. The Christian king enriched the entire
+family, restoring them to their former rank. And now wealth, titles,
+honors, and all that he had lost, came back to Sir Isumbras, and the
+remainder of his days was spent in blessed peace.
+
+    "They lived and died in good intent;
+    Unto heaven their souls went,
+    When that they dead were.
+    Jesu Christ, heaven's king,
+    Give us, aye, his blessing,
+    And shield us from care!"
+
+
+
+
+BISCLAVERET.
+
+(_From one of Marie's Lays._)
+
+
+Once upon a time there lived in Brittany a baron who was handsome, wise,
+courteous, and brave. Although admired and beloved by his neighbors, he
+remained single until late in life, when he fell desperately in love
+with a young lady, who did not hesitate long in accepting the offer of
+so distinguished a suitor for her hand. They were married, and the bride
+returned from her honeymoon to take up her abode in her husband's fine
+castle.
+
+For a little while all went well, until the lady discovered that her
+husband was regularly absent from home during three days of every week.
+Overwhelmed with curiosity to know where he went, and how he was
+occupied during this time, she used every means in her power to coax the
+secret from him.
+
+"Do not ask me," said her kind lord; "rest assured that I have good
+reasons for my conduct. If you know what takes me from you, it will only
+be to hate and scorn your husband, and to ruin the happiness of our
+life."
+
+The lady persisted, going from coaxings to prayers and tears. At last
+the poor baron gave way, and confided to her that, owing to a cruel
+spell cast on him at birth, he was during half the week a Bisclaveret,
+or Man-Wolf, taking on the body of a wolf, but keeping his own feelings
+and intelligence as a man. Upon hearing this dreadful story, the lady
+fainted away. Henceforth, although her husband was more loving than
+ever, she was filled with horror and loathing of him; and soon she
+secretly resolved to destroy the monster and enjoy his wealth.
+
+By watching his movements she ascertained that when the baron became a
+wolf he left his clothing in a deserted chapel on the edge of a certain
+wood; and she formed a plan to seize and hide the garments. So long as
+the Bisclaveret was without his man's clothes, he was condemned to
+remain a brute.
+
+Accordingly, when, after his melancholy ramble through the woods, the
+Bisclaveret went one night to resume his clothes, they were gone; and,
+in agony of spirit, he knew that he was betrayed by his wife. He took
+himself off to the forest, and was there lost to human sight.
+
+Meanwhile the wicked wife, announcing that her husband had died while on
+a journey to some foreign land, enjoyed his wealth and his castle. A
+year later, the king went hunting in the forest, and, after a stout
+chase, had nearly run down the unhappy Bisclaveret, when that persecuted
+beast, bounding from his thicket, fawned upon the king's feet, shedding
+real tears and uttering almost human cries for mercy. The king, struck
+with compassion, ordered his dogs to be whipped off, and had the strange
+animal conveyed with care to his palace. Bisclaveret soon became the
+royal favorite. He slept on a couch of soft furs, ate from a golden
+dish, and returned with gratitude the caresses of all who noticed him.
+
+His gentleness and sagacity won for the man-wolf the right to roam
+wherever he desired to go, unchained. One day the king gave a splendid
+entertainment, to which were invited all the lords and ladies of the
+land. Among them, dressed in silks and satins, and sparkling with
+jewels, came the false wife. No sooner did Bisclaveret espy her chatting
+with the king's guests, than, to the surprise of all present, the
+usually mild creature rose up, growling horribly and, springing upon the
+lady, bit off her nose. Bisclaveret was seized, and would have been
+speedily killed, but that he again fawned upon the king's feet, moaning
+and weeping as though he longed to speak. The king ordered him to be put
+into a cage, and consulted with the oldest and wisest man in his
+kingdom, as to what could be the meaning of the wolf's sudden fury
+toward this lady.
+
+"Brittany is a land of wonders, sire," said the aged man. "The lady who
+was attacked is as well known for a bad name as your favorite animal is
+for a good one. Who knows what became of her late husband, the baron?
+Perhaps this poor brute was beloved by that gentleman, and has some
+secret wrong to avenge. At any rate, you should at once shut the lady in
+prison until she is made to tell all _she_ knows about the matter.
+Mayhap it is more than we suspect."
+
+The king followed his counsellor's advice; and, when the lady found
+herself likely to be kept a prisoner, she preferred speech to silence.
+With tears of professed penitence, she confessed all, and the king lost
+no time in sending for the clothes of the late baron, and placing them
+in the cage of Bisclaveret. At first the animal seemed indifferent, and
+surveyed them listlessly. "Leave him to himself, sire," said the wise
+man. "Above all, set him at liberty in a chamber suitable to his rank.
+Then we shall see a wonderful change, I promise you."
+
+This was done, and in the morning the king ran impatiently to the
+chamber of Bisclaveret. There, on the bed, dressed in his clothes and
+sleeping sweetly, lay the baron. When his royal master entered, the
+sleeper woke and, bending his knee before his sovereign, poured forth
+his joy and gratitude.
+
+As for the wicked wife, her estates were taken from her and restored to
+her husband, while she herself was sent into perpetual banishment. Most
+people would think she had been sufficiently punished by the loss of her
+nose, which never grew again!
+
+
+
+
+ROSWAL AND LILIAN.
+
+(_From a Scottish Romance of the XVIth Century._)
+
+[Illustration: Tournament in honor of the Princess of Bealm.]
+
+
+There lived once, at Naples, a king and queen whose only son, Roswal,
+was a paragon of beauty and of valor. The boy, who was as generous as
+the day was long, did not at all resemble his father, for the king was
+harsh and cruel, and slow to forgive his enemies.
+
+In the prison of the king's palace were confined three noblemen, who,
+having been suspected of plotting against the crown, were doomed to be
+imprisoned for life, and had the most cruel treatment lavished upon them
+every day. Roswal could not bear to hear their groans and sighs arising
+from the dungeon, and one day conceived the bold project of taking the
+prison keys from under the king's pillow while he slept, and setting
+the three poor sufferers at liberty. This was done, and Roswal restored
+the keys to their place without having been detected.
+
+When it was found that the prisoners had escaped, the king grew
+furiously angry. In vain the head jailor and his assistants declared
+their innocence in the matter. Their lives would have been instantly
+sacrificed to the king's wrath, had not Roswal boldly come forward and
+confessed that he alone had freed the prisoners.
+
+At first, the king vowed that Roswal should die for having defied him;
+but the prayers of the queen, and perhaps the cool bravery of his son in
+confronting him, moved him to relent. He decided to change Roswal's
+sentence to banishment for life to a distant court, where he was to be
+placed at the service of the King of Bealm, with recommendation to make
+a soldier of the lad, henceforth a stranger to his home.
+
+Roswal set out on his journey to the court of Bealm, attended only by
+the high-steward, an envious and ambitious man, who hated the prince and
+would gladly have done him evil.
+
+The king, at parting with his son, had given him a letter of
+introduction to the King of Bealm; and the fond mother had come
+secretly to press all the gold and jewels she had, a fortune in
+themselves, upon her beloved Roswal. Except for parting with his mother,
+Roswal did not feel very sorry to set out thus from home. He longed to
+see what marvels the wide world contained, and the memory of the three
+brave men he had loosed from their vile bondage cheered him in spite of
+his father's anger.
+
+The high-steward was full of projects of his own; and one night, when
+they had stopped to rest by the side of a rushing torrent, and Roswal
+had plunged into the crystal stream, as he loved to do, the wicked
+steward seized him unawares, held him under water till he was half
+strangled, and spared his life only on condition that Roswal would
+pledge himself to give up all the money and jewels, his letter, his
+horse and sword, and furthermore swear never to reveal the affair to
+mortal man or woman. Roswal, seeing that he could not help himself,
+submitted, and the false steward, laughing maliciously, put spurs to his
+horse, leading Roswal's steed behind him, and soon disappeared from view
+with all the treasures.
+
+Roswal found himself alone at nightfall in the forest, as hungry as a
+hawk, and very much at a loss where to find food and shelter. He
+wandered along till he saw a little brown hut, under the branches of a
+wide-spreading oak-tree. Here, in the door, sat an old woman knitting,
+and Roswal's youth and beauty soon won his way into her affections. She
+led him into her house, gave him a good meal of brown bread, eggs, honey
+and milk, and a bed of clean straw. Roswal slept as sweetly as ever he
+had done on his golden bedstead and his pillow of down at home. Next
+day, he offered to work for the old woman, and set to cutting up wood
+and binding fagots cheerfully. For several months he lived thus, until
+the chamberlain of the King of Bealm chanced to pass that way. Taking a
+fancy to the handsome youth, he carried him off to court, where Roswal
+was appointed cup-bearer to the king's lovely daughter. His duties were
+light, and the princess was kind; so Roswal had little to complain of,
+until one day he heard it announced that Prince Roswal, of Naples, was
+about to wait upon the King of Bealm and demand his daughter's hand in
+marriage.
+
+Roswal pricked up his ears at this, and immediately suspected the
+supposed Prince of Naples to be none other than his late travelling
+companion, the wicked steward; though, when he heard the princess say to
+her maidens that this Prince Roswal was remarkably pushing, considering
+that he had only recently presented a letter of introduction to them,
+and that, for her part, she could not see what her papa found to fancy
+in the young man, Roswal rejoiced. He was delighted to find that the
+princess did not care for the impostor. Then he remembered his oath,
+never to reveal what the steward had done to him, and his spirits fell
+again.
+
+In a day or two, the King of Bealm announced to his daughter that he had
+accepted the offer of the King of Naples' son, and that preparations for
+their marriage would immediately begin. The princess was very unhappy,
+for she had taken a great dislike to the pretended prince. Roswal met
+his late servant face to face at one of the bridal feasts, and the eyes
+of the steward fell before his scornful gaze. But he knew that he was
+safe in trusting Roswal's honor not to tell the secret, and so carried
+on his impudent pretence.
+
+A tournament, lasting three days, was announced in honor of the wedding,
+which was soon to come off. Roswal found the Princess Lilian in tears
+about that time and, while endeavoring to console her, let her know,
+without intending it, that he, too, had fallen in love with her. This
+made the pretty princess so happy, that she confessed to Roswal she had
+loved him secretly ever since he was chosen to be her cup-bearer. She
+was sure he was of noble birth from his manners and appearance; and she
+urged him to admit that he was as worthy of her rank as of her love.
+
+Roswal was never so sorely tempted to reveal himself! He restrained the
+impulse to confess by a strong effort, and, alone and melancholy,
+wandered out into the forest--longing for an opportunity to enter the
+lists of the tournament and prove his knightly skill before the king and
+princess; and while he sat musing thus, there approached him a knight
+leading a magnificent white war-horse, on whose saddle was suspended a
+suit of splendid armor.
+
+"Prince," said the strange knight, bowing low before him, "put on this
+armor, and mount this steed. The tournament has begun, and thou wilt be
+in time to prove thy prowess. I await here thy return."
+
+Roswal said he had led his hounds to the forest, intending to hunt a
+deer; and so the knight offered to hunt in his absence and keep the game
+for him. How his heart beat with joy and pride when he found himself
+once more mounted on a noble steed, and clad in knightly armor! Thanking
+the stranger fervently, he put spurs to his horse, and galloped off.
+
+Entering the barriers, Roswal overset all who opposed him, and then,
+with a tremendous rush, charged at full speed upon the false prince, who
+was riding up and down with a great show in the presence of his lady.
+The steward recoiled in terror; but the unknown knight as suddenly
+checked his horse, turned around, saluted the company with the utmost
+grace, and vanished, as he had come, like a meteor.
+
+The company applauded, and the old King of Bealm cried out that he would
+give an earldom to find out who was the unknown knight.
+
+That evening, while all the palace was ringing with accounts of the
+brave stranger, Roswal came home from the forest, laden with venison and
+followed by his hounds.
+
+The Princess Lilian called him to her side, and told him of the events
+of the day. It was evident that she wished to inspire Roswal with a
+desire to break a lance in her behalf; but he appeared to be
+indifferent, and she ended in a burst of tears.
+
+Next day, when Roswal went again with his hounds to the forest, a second
+knight, leading a silver-gray war-horse laden with armor, appeared and
+repeated the kind offer of the day before. Roswal again entered the
+lists, and found the steward impudently advancing to meet him. Roswal
+unhorsed half a dozen of the bravest riders, then, with all possible
+ease, sent the steward to the ground with such a terrible crash, that
+the miserable impostor lay as if dead for some time. The unknown knight
+glanced up at the Princess Lilian, and saw a look in her face as if she
+suspected him. Then, quickly retiring from the ring, Roswal reappeared
+as before, at evening, with the spoils of the day of hunting. Lilian,
+who was ready to declare that none other than her handsome young lover
+could have been the stranger knight, was much perplexed when she found
+Roswal quietly at home engaged in his usual occupations.
+
+On the third day, Roswal was mounted and equipped in a similar manner.
+He had a bay horse, a red shield, green armor, and a golden helmet. He
+cast down all of the other competitors, broke two of the steward's ribs,
+threw a gold ring into the lap of his lady-love, and rode away like a
+flash. Returning to the wood, he was met by all three of his friends,
+the knights who had helped him. They revealed themselves, and Roswal
+found to his delight that they were the three noblemen he had released
+from his father's dungeon. They told him they were well aware of all he
+had suffered for their sakes, and were prepared to befriend him still
+farther.
+
+Next day had been fixed upon for the wedding, and all the court was
+called together in a magnificent hall, to see their king bestow their
+princess' hand upon the Prince of Naples. Pale and tearful, for she had
+cried all night, appeared the princess. She was dressed in white satin,
+with a silver train, carried by ten little pages in blue, and on her
+head she wore a diadem of immense diamonds. The bridegroom, who had been
+patched up by the doctors, sat, anything but cheerful, in a golden chair
+beside the king. Behind a group of court ladies and gentlemen stood
+Roswal, handsomer than any one present, and looking every inch a
+prince, though he wore a plain brown velvet suit, with a gold chain
+round his neck, the livery of Princess Lilian's household. Suddenly
+visitors were announced, and in came three richly clad strangers,
+scattering money among the servants, which made it an easy matter for
+them to move along.
+
+The king received them courteously, for he recognized three noblemen of
+the kingdom of Naples he had known long before.
+
+"You will be glad to salute your prince," the king said, when he had
+greeted them, "and to be present at his nuptials."
+
+The noblemen refused to notice the steward, whose knees knocked together
+with fear, for he saw he was on the brink of exposure. The three
+strangers looked about them and, espying Roswal, ran up to him, fell on
+their knees and kissed his hand, hailing him as the true Prince of
+Naples. The steward, in terror, dropped upon his knees before Roswal and
+confessed all, drawing from his pocket the casket containing the queen's
+jewels, which he had been about to present to his bride. Roswal would
+have dealt gently with the contemptible wretch, but the angry old King
+of Bealm declared that he and his daughter should not be made sport of,
+and the offender live to tell it. So the steward was hanged forthwith,
+and Roswal, owning his love for Lilian, was made happy by promise of her
+hand--he had already won her heart, as you know.
+
+That same day arrived news of the death of the King of Naples, and the
+recall of Roswal to the throne. He was married to Lilian; and it is
+certain that no one who had befriended him in his days of poverty was
+ever forgotten by King Roswal. The good old woman in the forest was
+enriched, the three noblemen were restored to their estates and
+fortunes, and Roswal's mother was made happy by a speedy reunion with
+her son.
+
+    "So Roswal and Lilian sheen,
+      Lived many years in good liking.
+    I pray to Jesu, heaven's king,
+      To grant us heaven to our ending.
+        Of them I have no more to say:
+        God send them rest until doom's day!"
+
+
+
+
+ELIDUC AND GUILLIADUN.
+
+(_From one of Marie's Lays._)
+
+
+Eliduc was a knight of Brittany who, through the cabals of enemies, fell
+under the displeasure of the king and was banished from his dominions.
+Sir Eliduc did not wish to forsake his country, still less did he wish
+to part with the fair Lady Guildeluec, to whom he was solemnly
+betrothed. But the king's order was law; and, taking a fond leave of his
+promised wife, while vowing ever to be faithful, Sir Eliduc called to
+him ten of the bravest of his followers, and set sail for the English
+coast. They had a short voyage with fair winds, landing at Totness, in
+Devonshire, and proceeded at once to Exeter. The King of Exeter was at
+that time plunged into a most distressful war with a neighboring
+province, to whose prince he had refused to marry his only daughter and
+heiress. Sir Eliduc offered his services to the king, which were gladly
+accepted. After a few days a battle was fought, in which Eliduc's
+knowledge of the art of war and his bravery, as well as that of his ten
+followers, helped to decide the fortunes of the King of Exeter, who had
+the satisfaction of seeing the foe put to flight. As a reward for his
+aid, the king made Eliduc the supreme commander of all his armies.
+Eliduc was the idol of the people, and soon the fair Princess Guilliadun
+fell in love with him, confiding to the king, her father, that she would
+have no other husband than this valiant stranger. The king thought he
+could do no better than secure such a noble successor to his throne, and
+sent his chamberlain to inform Eliduc of the honor in store for him.
+Eliduc was now in a sad plight. He thought of his absent Guildeluec, who
+was no doubt, even then, waiting and weeping for his return, and his
+heart grew heavy within him. On the other hand, the Princess Guilliadun
+was by far the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, and her love
+for him was strong. To refuse her offered hand would bring down on him
+the fierce wrath of a great king, to whom no man said nay.
+
+While Sir Eliduc was in this dilemma, a message came to him from his
+former master, the Breton king, ordering his immediate return to protect
+their country from invasion. All Sir Eliduc's love for his own land
+stirred within him. To defend her borders he was ready to sacrifice his
+present rank and wealth, and be a simple knight again. The image of his
+promised wife arose clear and bright before him, and he forgot the
+lovely Guilliadun, who, for a time, had so dazzled his imagination with
+her charms.
+
+Laying down his sword before the sovereign, he resigned command of the
+Exeter troops, and, in spite of the king's rich offers and temptations,
+hurried to take ship for France. Among his attendants was a youth
+muffled in a long mantle, who, when they were fairly out at sea,
+revealed to the knight's astonished gaze the face and form of the wilful
+Guilliadun.
+
+She had thus disguised herself to follow him, and now vowed that unless
+he took her to be his wife, she would die by her own fair hand. There
+was no time for discussion, for, at that moment, arose a mighty tempest
+which threatened to engulf the ship. In vain were the efforts of the
+sailors to manage the vessel, and all prepared for immediate death, as
+wind and waves beat furiously upon them. Suddenly, one of the sailors
+spoke up for the rest, and, in the hearing of Guilliadun, warned Sir
+Eliduc that Heaven was angry with him for carrying off the princess in
+disguise, when he was already promised in marriage to another woman.
+Guilliadun hearing these words, fell lifeless to the deck. She appeared
+so like a dead person that the crew offered to throw her overboard, but
+Eliduc, seizing an oar, struck down the sailor who had spoken, and,
+himself grasping the helm, drove the ship through foam and boiling waves
+safely to port. In a few hours he might hope to reach the court of his
+king; but what, meantime, should he do with the body of the unfortunate
+princess? In this emergency, he remembered that in a forest near by had
+once lived an aged hermit, in whose cell he might possibly leave the
+corpse of the princess, until he should be able to dispose of it in a
+style suited to her rank. He mounted his palfrey, took the body in his
+arms, rode to the hermit's retreat, and, gaining entrance to a little
+chapel, laid on a slab in the centre of it the unhappy Guilliadun. She
+was beautiful as ever, and looked like a waxen image. The knight,
+kneeling beside her, shed many bitter tears, and then, springing to his
+saddle, galloped off to place himself at the service of his king.
+
+He found the affairs of his country in a bad way, but the mere mention
+of his name sufficed to inspire the Breton soldiers with new courage.
+Marching at the head of the king's troops, he led them to battle, and in
+a short time had put the foe to confusion and rout. Covered with glory,
+Eliduc rode back to receive the king's congratulations and thanks.
+There, among the ladies attending the queen, was his faithful
+Guildeluec; but when she came forward with open arms to greet him, a
+thought of the Lady Guilliadun, who had died for love of him, shot into
+his heart like an arrow. Guildeluec quickly saw that something was
+amiss; but, hiding the anguish she felt, she resolved to keep close
+watch upon her lover, and, if possible, discover the cause of his
+coldness.
+
+For some days the court was given up to gaiety and festivals of all
+kinds. Guildeluec noticed that every day her knight would steal away to
+the forest and remain there for some hours, returning to the palace more
+melancholy than before. She set a little page to follow Eliduc, and the
+boy traced his master to a retreat all overgrown with trees, where the
+knight entered and was lost to sight.
+
+Dismissing the boy with a piece of gold, the lady resolved herself to
+unravel the mystery. Wrapped in a long veil, she stole along the green
+alleys of the wood, and soon reached the little hermitage. Lifting up a
+curtain of closely woven vines which drooped before it, she entered the
+chapel door. There, on a bier richly hung with velvet, lay a young and
+lovely maiden, apparently dead, save that her cheeks bloomed like a
+new-blown rose. Guildeluec gazed for a while upon this sad sight, when a
+noise of approaching footsteps startled her, and she hid behind a tomb.
+The new-comer was none other than the brave knight Eliduc, who, casting
+himself on the ground beside the bier, gave way to bitter grief, calling
+the saints above to witness that he had been true to his pledge to
+Guildeluec, even to hastening to an untimely end the fair maiden before
+him. Guildeluec heard all, and understood what had taken his love from
+her. Just then a weasel, running from behind the altar, passed near the
+bier, which angered the knight, who, at one blow, struck the little
+animal dead upon the ground. When Eliduc had gone, the watching lady
+saw another weasel run up to his slaughtered companion, attempt to play
+with her, and on finding her without life, go away with every appearance
+of grief. Directly the weasel came back again, carrying a beautiful red
+flower from the wood, which was carefully inserted in the mouth of his
+companion. The effect was magical. Instantly, the dead weasel sprang up,
+dropped the flower, and scampered off with her happy little comrade.
+
+Guildeluec stooped to pick up the fallen blossom. For a moment she
+hesitated, for her love for the knight was very great. Then she bent
+forward, and laid the stem of the flower between the rosy lips of the
+entranced Guilliadun. Immediately there were signs of life. The girl
+stirred, a blush came into her cheeks, and her lips parted. When her
+eyes opened, Guildeluec sighed and said, "Truly, never was there seen so
+fair a creature."
+
+Guildeluec soon explained to the awakened princess where she was, and
+received her fervent thanks for delivery from so strange a spell. With
+many tears, Guilliadun confessed to her unknown friend her love for the
+knight Eliduc, and the way she had followed him from her father's court.
+Guildeluec heard her tale in silence, and when it was at an end, led
+her away from the hermitage to the palace, where the queen took the
+princess under her charge, and in the evening presented her with much
+pomp to the members of her court. When Eliduc saw Guilliadun alive and
+well, richly clad and lovelier than before, his heart rejoiced, but he
+turned away from her. Then came forward Guildeluec, who, with the
+queen's permission, released him from his pledge to her, and gave him
+back his ring, saying she had determined to retire to a convent and
+devote her days to holy works.
+
+[Illustration: Guildeluec Reviving Guilliadun.]
+
+The queen then placed Guilliadun's hand in that of Eliduc. They were
+married with great rejoicings; but when the blessing was said over them
+by the priest, the knight fancied he heard a sigh breathed close in his
+ear. He looked around; there was no one in sight, save the group of nuns
+behind a grating, whose voices rose pure and clear in the strains of the
+bridal hymn.
+
+
+
+
+THE FALCON-KING.
+
+(_From one of Marie's Lays._)
+
+
+There lived once, in Britain, an old knight who was lord of Caerwent, a
+city situated on the River Douglas. He was wealthy and avaricious, and
+the sole heir to his possessions, a lovely daughter, he kept locked up
+in a high tower, under the care of a cross governess. His one fear was
+that this daughter would marry, and thus give some one the right to lay
+claim to the gold that was dearer to him than life itself. To prevent
+her from getting a husband, the old knight used every method he could
+think of to keep off visitors; and any stray caller at the castle was
+set upon by fierce dogs, who would tear one to pieces as soon as gnaw a
+beef-bone!
+
+Day after day the father rode off to the hunt, the governess told her
+beads, and the damsel moped within the tower. One morning she was at her
+wheel, singing a mournful ditty, and sighing from time to time, as she
+glanced over the tree-tops at the roofs and spires of the distant city,
+when suddenly the sky above her window was darkened, and she heard a
+whirring noise, as of mighty wings astir. A falcon of huge size and
+noble mien flew in at the casement, and lit submissively at her feet.
+The maiden stroked his proud head, and at once the bird changed to a
+beautiful young man, who, in a gentle voice, begged her to have no fear
+of him, as he was not only a devoted lover but the humblest of her
+slaves.
+
+"Bid me go if you will," said the prince, "and deeply as I should regret
+your command, you will see how quickly I shall obey it. Long have I
+watched you from afar, and dearly I love you. For your sake, I have
+acquired the art of magic, enabling me to assume this shape in order to
+reach your prison."
+
+"Oh! but I _don't_ want you to go!" cried the poor little mewed-up
+damsel, who was tired to death of having nobody to talk to.
+
+As she had never seen a man younger than her father, it was a great
+astonishment to her to find that the prince's hair was dark and his
+cheek unwrinkled and rosy as a ripe peach.
+
+What he meant by being a lover, she did not in the least understand.
+Only, it was pleasant to hear him talk in his kind, low voice; and
+praises were so rare to her, that they sounded sweet as honey dropping
+from his lips.
+
+As a matter of course, the afternoon passed quickly; but at last,
+startled by the noise of a key grating in the lock of the door, the
+prince quickly assumed his bird-shape, and promising to come again upon
+the morrow, flew out of the window. The governess could not imagine what
+had put her prisoner in such a silly state of cheerfulness, as she
+thought it; and, boxing the poor girl's ears for smiling, gave her a
+long piece of poetry to learn by heart, and allowed her nothing but
+bread and water for her tea.
+
+Next day the falcon came again, and for many days he continued his
+visits, until the girl grew to love him as he loved her, and promised to
+be his wife. Once a month the chaplain was accustomed to come to see
+her, and to make her say a catechism the longest ever heard of. When
+next the day came around for his visit, what was her surprise, instead
+of the stern chaplain, to find a gentle and kind old priest, who, when
+left alone with her, avowed himself to be a friend of the falcon-prince.
+
+"As your father is a wicked and unworthy son of the church, and the
+prince a noble and devoted one, I cannot but approve of the marriage
+between you and your beloved," the old man said. "The ceremony will now
+be performed, and may heaven's blessing rest upon you both."
+
+The falcon-prince arrived at the same moment, bearing in his beak a
+wedding-ring of large bright diamonds. The couple were married, and the
+prince told his wife that, very soon, he would be able to furnish her
+also with wings to leave the tower.
+
+One day the governess, coming in unexpectedly, found the girl toying
+with a beautiful ring, which she hurriedly concealed in her mattress.
+Spite of all the governess' efforts, she could not find the jewel; nor
+could she succeed in drawing from her captive any explanation of how she
+had come by it. The governess told the father, who redoubled his
+precautions and set spies to watch upon the outside of the tower. In a
+few days, the spies reported to him that they had seen a bird of the
+largest size fly in at the maiden's window, remain there for some hours,
+and then fly out again.
+
+"I'll be a match for this carrier-pigeon of hers!" said the old knight
+with malicious glee. That night a trap was set upon the outside of the
+window, surrounded by sharp knives, so that anything passing through it
+would inevitably be caught or wounded grievously. The young wife awaited
+her husband anxiously, for it was the day fixed for her escape. Soon he
+arrived; but as he touched the window the trap fell, and although he
+managed to pass in, a long trail of blood was left behind him.
+
+"Lose no time, my beloved!" he said, in a voice altered by pain. "Our
+enemies are upon us. Put this bracelet on your arm, and spring into the
+air after me, without fear."
+
+She obeyed, and found herself upborne by magic wings, which carried her
+more swiftly than the wind over forest tops, shining river, and city
+spires and domes. Glorious as was her airy flight, she could see that
+her companion grew weaker. They arrived in a country adjoining the one
+in which she had lived, and stopped immediately above a splendid
+palace--alighting in the marble balcony of a chamber furnished with the
+utmost magnificence. Here the falcon regained his man's shape, and, with
+despair, his wife saw that he was deathly pale, while the blood poured
+from a wound beneath his heart.
+
+"I am dying," he exclaimed. "Help me to my bed yonder, and may heaven
+grant me strength to tell my people that you are their lawful queen."
+
+The poor wife aided her husband to lie down, but when he would have
+spoken to her again, his voice was gone--a moment more, and he was dead.
+
+And now in what a mournful plight the pretty new queen found herself!
+Soon the attendants would, no doubt, come flocking into the room, to
+discover their sovereign murdered in his bed, and a stranger cowering by
+his side. Terror lent speed to her feet, and hastening back to the
+balcony, she ran down a long flight of stairs communicating with the
+outer court and garden of the palace. Thence she escaped to wander into
+the forest, and until day broke again she never ceased to walk. For some
+days she remained concealed in the forest, living upon fruit and
+berries, until at last hunger drove her to the cottage of a poor
+laborer. The wife of this man was very ill, and the queen offered to
+stay and nurse her, which was gratefully accepted. So faithful and
+devoted an attendant she proved that, when the woman of the house got
+well, both husband and wife insisted their stranger guest should make
+her home with them. In this secluded retreat, where only a stray
+huntsman now and then passed by, the queen remained until a beautiful
+son was born to her. And now, she felt a burning desire to have her boy
+educated in a manner worthy of his father's rank; and poverty, that had
+seemed so light a burden to herself, grew heavy when it weighed on him.
+When the baby was three years old, a gay hunting-party passed that way,
+among them a rich and childless lady, who, charmed with the beauty of
+the boy, offered to adopt him on the spot.
+
+The poor queen wept so bitterly at thought of parting with her treasure,
+that the lady, who was a kind-hearted person, proposed she should
+accompany them and serve in the capacity of the boy's governess.
+
+To this plan the queen made no objection; and, bidding an affectionate
+farewell to her humble friends, she took her place with the boy in a
+travelling carriage sent to fetch them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Years rolled on, and the child born in the forest had reached the age
+of twenty-one. He was a handsome, manly youth, and skilled in all
+athletic exercises. About this time, the family of his adopted mother
+was invited to be present at a great religious ceremony in an abbey upon
+the borders of a neighboring kingdom. Among the many attendants of the
+nobles summoned for the occasion, was the real mother, who came dressed
+in deep mourning and wearing a veil over her face; and one of the guests
+was the wicked old knight, her father. The abbot of the monastery threw
+open the doors of the chapel, that had long been sealed, and all flocked
+into it. There, in the centre, stood a bier covered with cloth of gold
+and surrounded by blazing wax-lights, while about it knelt an hundred
+priests, at prayer. After a mass had been sung, the abbot announced that
+in yonder bier lay the remains of the late king, their master, who, as
+all his faithful subjects knew, was foully murdered twenty-one years
+before; and that, by the terms of the king's will, found some time after
+his death, the throne rightfully belonged to a lady who had been married
+in secret by their sovereign, and was by him commended to their truest
+love and honor. "For many long years," added the good abbot, "we have
+sought vainly for the widow of our lamented ruler; not the faintest
+trace of her has ever been found, and we have resolved to meet here and
+choose to-day a successor to our king."
+
+"Here is a worthy successor to your king!" cried a voice from the
+throng; and the unfortunate queen, throwing back her veil, pointed to
+her astonished son. "Behold the rightful heir! Who dares to say that he
+is not the image of his father? _I_ am the queen you have so long
+sought, and this youth is, unknown to himself, my son. In proof of it,
+here is the marriage ring given me by the king."
+
+"And in proof of it," exclaimed a venerable priest, coming forward, "I
+attest that _I_ performed the marriage ceremony between our king and
+this poor lady. Her appearance and her claim remove the seal from my
+promise of secresy, and I unhesitatingly declare this youth to be our
+lawful sovereign."
+
+All eyes turned upon the young man, and all tongues proclaimed his
+marvellous resemblance to the king. The abbot knelt at the young man's
+feet and offered him a golden crown carried on a velvet cushion. Loud
+cries of joy and cheers filled the air, when suddenly the unfortunate
+queen was seen to totter toward the bier of her husband.
+
+"I am glad to die on this spot," she said, snatching up the sword that
+lay upon the tomb and placing it in her son's hand; then, bidding him
+avenge the sad fate of his parents, she immediately expired. At the same
+moment, a white-haired knight tried to steal away from the church; but
+when the ancient priest perceived him, the fugitive was denounced as the
+murderer of their king. Seized by the populace, the wretched old miser
+was hurried to instant death; his grandson was carried in triumph to the
+palace, and there installed as king.
+
+The new monarch reigned long and wisely--an example for all future
+sovereigns.
+
+
+
+
+EGLAMOUR AND CRYSTABELL.
+
+(_From Ellis' Abstract of Copy in Garrick Collection._)
+
+[Illustration: _Eglamour & Crystabell._]
+
+
+Count Prinsamour, an independent sovereign of Artois, was famed for his
+skill in training young men in the courtesy and accomplishments of
+chivalry. His court was the resort of all youths who wished to excel in
+those important arts. His daughter Crystabell, the heiress of Count
+Prinsamour's dominions, was very beautiful and accomplished, and her
+father designed to marry her to some powerful monarch. The tournaments
+instituted at his court were in her honor, and for her sake all the
+hotheaded young knights in training broke their lances.
+
+Crystabell herself had no desire to leave her own country to become the
+wife of a foreign monarch. She loved the free and stirring air around
+her father's castle, and had, unknown to the count, fallen in love with
+a young knight, Sir Eglamour, who was ever victorious in the numerous
+tournaments ridden in her name.
+
+Eglamour, on his side, looked up to the young countess as to a star. He
+never dreamed of winning her love, because he was only a knight, without
+wealth or lands, depending upon his sword alone to make his way through
+life. At last, one day, something that Crystabell said made him think
+that she cared for him more than for the rest of her followers. Sorely
+troubled, and yet strangely happy, the young man wandered off to think
+it over. He finally resolved to ask advice of the chamberlain, who had
+always stood his friend. That personage counselled him to give up all
+thoughts of the countess, who, he said, was destined by her father to be
+the bride of a rich and great king. Eglamour sighed, and admitted that
+his friend was right. But that night, in the solitude of his chamber, he
+addressed a prayer to God:
+
+    "Lord," he said, "grant me a boon,
+      As thou on rood me bought!
+    The erle's daughter, fair and free,
+    That she may my wife be!
+
+      For she is most in my thought:
+    That I may wed her to my wife,
+    And in joy to lead our life!
+      From care then were I brought."
+
+In those days a true knight thought it no shame to his manhood to take
+the burden of his every-day cares and lay it in all simplicity at the
+feet of his Maker. When his devotions were at an end, Sir Eglamour slept
+soundly, and awoke in better heart.
+
+After a while, Sir Eglamour fell ill, and the count desired his
+daughter, who was skilled in medicine, as were all great ladies of the
+time, to attend upon the invalid. Crystabell, followed by her damsels,
+went at once into the sick-room. She found Sir Eglamour feverish and
+unhappy, and on bending down to minister to him, his pulse throbbed so
+violently at her touch, that the tears of sympathy came into her eyes.
+"I have betrayed my love," thought Sir Eglamour; but what was his
+happiness when the lady bent down to kiss his lips, confessing that the
+chamberlain had told her what was the real cause of his malady; and, to
+comfort Eglamour, she bid him live for her sake.
+
+After this, Eglamour got well rapidly; but he felt it right and
+honorable to inform the count, at once, how matters stood between the
+two young people. The count, who, although a brave knight, was largely
+governed by selfish ambition, refused Sir Eglamour with scorn. Then,
+after thinking a while, he told the youth that he would only bestow his
+daughter upon the champion who might accomplish three perilous feats of
+arms, each one of which would expose the candidate to the most imminent
+danger; and that the victor should not only receive the hand of
+Crystabell, but in time inherit the whole territory of Artois.
+
+Overjoyed, Sir Eglamour accepted the conditions without delay. He
+declared he was ready to set off that day or the next upon the
+enterprise. He did not suspect the count's real purpose in setting him
+this task, which was to destroy the rash knight who presumed to love his
+daughter.
+
+"At a little distance to the westward," said the count, "there is a
+forest of noble trees belonging to a most terrible giant, named Maroke.
+In a part of the forest shut off for the giant's own hunting ground, are
+three deer, famed for their size and speed. To hunt one of these
+celebrated animals is, of course, to challenge an encounter with their
+owner. Consider whether you have courage enough for such an
+enterprise."
+
+Sir Eglamour smiled, promised to kill the giant, and hurried off to tell
+his lady-love. Crystabell trembled and wept, but bid her lover
+God-speed. She told him that no man ever set forth upon a more arduous
+journey in a Christian country, but that she gloried in his brave
+spirit. She gave him a good greyhound, from whom no deer that ever ran
+had yet escaped--also a sword, once found in the sea, the only one of
+the kind in the world, and which could carve in two any helmet of steel
+or iron. Eglamour kissed her farewell, as he received these gifts, and
+set out with a light heart.
+
+Reaching the giant's park, he followed the wall to a massive gate, burst
+it open, and entered the wood. This forest was of huge cypress trees,
+and Eglamour had the luck soon to come upon the three deer grazing
+quietly. They were the most immense creatures he had ever seen; and
+singling out the largest, he attacked it. With the help of the dun
+greyhound, he brought the stag to earth, and set to work to carve his
+spoil. Laden with venison, he then approached the giant's castle,
+blowing his horn at intervals; and, when arrived there, he sounded a
+wild and merry blast, which roused Maroke from sleep and brought him in
+fury to the gate. Sir Eglamour politely asked the monster to give him
+leave to pass through the grounds with his prey.
+
+The giant, gnashing his teeth in rage, answered by aiming a blow with
+his club at the saucy young knight's head. Sir Eglamour, at the same
+moment, drew Crystabell's sword, which shone so brightly as to dazzle
+the eyes of Maroke, striking him stone-blind where he stood. Then
+followed a mighty combat. Blind as the giant was, he fought well and
+skilfully for three entire days. At the end of the third day, Sir
+Eglamour rallied all his strength and drove his sword into the giant's
+heart, a thrust which sent Maroke crashing like a forest tree to earth.
+
+Sir Eglamour, having cut off his enemy's head, carried it, together with
+the slaughtered stag, back to the court of his sovereign. The count
+received him ruefully; but fair Crystabell laughed and rejoiced, while
+the courtiers covered their champion with praises. After Eglamour was
+rested and refreshed, the count hurried him off again. This time he was
+to journey to the distant land of Satyn, where his task was to fetch
+away the head of a prodigious boar, the terror of that ill-fated
+country, half of whose inhabitants the creature had already eaten up.
+
+To reach the land of Satyn, Sir Eglamour had to travel a fortnight by
+sea, a fortnight by land. Arriving there at nightfall, he thought it
+prudent to spend the night in resting on the borders of the forest. At
+sunrise next day he approached the den of the horrible boar, who had
+just come back from taking his morning drink in the sea. The animal was
+a terror to look upon, having flaming eyes and tusks a yard long. He lay
+gnawing some human bones and growling frightfully, surrounded by dead
+bodies, many of which were clad in knightly armor. At once Sir Eglamour
+dashed at him with a shout--"For God and Crystabell!" The boar whetted
+his long tusks and set upon his adversary, killing at the first blow Sir
+Eglamour's noble horse, his own tough hide remaining unhurt by the
+spear. Sir Eglamour now had recourse to his magic sword, and found to
+his joy that, wherever he struck, the boar's hide was cut; although the
+length of the animal's tusks made it difficult to close with him. This
+combat, like that with the giant, lasted three days, and at the end Sir
+Eglamour, by a sudden swift movement, made a terrible blow at the
+creature's neck, severing the head from his body.
+
+Long before the close of this memorable fight, the boar's snorts of rage
+and defiance had attracted to the spot the King of Satyn and fifteen of
+his knights, who happened to be hunting in the forest. When the boar
+dropped dead, Sir Eglamour fell over him, and lay there completely
+exhausted. The king and his men drew near, showered compliments on the
+strange knight's bravery, and told him that the wicked beast of whom he
+had rid them had sometimes destroyed as many as forty men in one day.
+
+The king ordered a cloth to be laid upon the grass, and Sir Eglamour was
+regaled with venison and rich wine, which brought strength back to his
+arm and hope to his heart. The king's men then attempted to cut up the
+boar, but failed, owing to the toughness of his hide. The sword of Sir
+Eglamour was put into requisition, and in a moment the beast was cleft
+asunder along the back bone. The meat was distributed among the knights
+and men-at-arms, Sir Eglamour claiming the head alone. The King of Satyn
+afterward ordered for the champion a warm bath of certain sweet-scented
+herbs that healed his wounds and in which he rested pleasantly till
+break of day. Then the party went on to the king's palace, where Sir
+Eglamour was asked to stay and recover from his fatigue.
+
+Now it happened that the boar just slain was an intimate friend of
+Manas, a huge and frightful giant, own brother to Maroke. Manas had
+fallen in love with the King of Satyn's daughter, and had vowed to carry
+her off. When Manas came prowling around the castle that evening, and
+beheld on the point of a spear over the gateway the head of his friend
+the boar, he flew into an awful passion, foaming at the mouth; and as he
+looked on that head--
+
+    "Alas!" he cried, "art thou dead?
+      My trust was all in thee!
+    Now, by the law that I live in,
+    My little speckled hoglin,
+      Dear bought shall thy death be!"
+
+Manas beat upon the door and walls of the castle in a fury, demanding
+the surrender of the murderer of his dear little speckled hoglin.
+Presently, Sir Eglamour, fully armed and equipped, mounted on a fiery
+courser, and with lance in rest, attacked the giant at full speed.
+
+Manas resisted vigorously, and in an instant overthrew man and horse.
+The king, the princess, and the court, who had assembled on the walls of
+the castle, began to tremble for the safety of their champion. But Sir
+Eglamour, lightly springing to his feet, drew his invincible sword, and
+closing with the giant, cut off his right arm. The monster roared with
+pain, but continued to fight, though yelling at intervals as loudly as
+ever, till near sunset, when the patient knight, who had hitherto
+suffered him to exhaust himself by his own efforts, suddenly rushed
+forward and completed the victory! The boar and Manas being dead,
+Eglamour now took his leave of the grateful King of Satyn and his court,
+who rejoiced greatly over the death of their two adversaries. The heads
+of the boar and the giant Manas were carefully packed up, and in due
+time Eglamour laid them at the feet of his faithful Crystabell.
+
+Count Prinsamour, secretly disgusted at his knight's success, at once
+sent him off on another enterprise, more dangerous than the two
+preceding ones. Eglamour and Crystabell, now seeing that the false
+count was determined to prevent their marriage, parted from each other
+with many tears. But Crystabell vowed to marry him, with or without her
+father's leave, so soon as he should return, if ever he did, from the
+present journey.
+
+The third mission was to kill a tremendous dragon, at that time
+desolating the country around the gates of Rome. After sundry adventures
+by the way, Eglamour encountered the beast, and fought it long and
+valiantly. He succeeded in cutting off its wings, tail, and head; but at
+last he fell himself, exhausted by his wounds and poisoned by the
+dragon's sting, and was carried from the field.
+
+When Crystabell heard that her brave lover was lying at the point of
+death in Rome, she left her father and journeyed to the knight's
+bedside, where, to make him happy before he died, she consented to marry
+him on the spot.
+
+Eglamour rallied under the care of his beloved Crystabell; but, after
+they had spent some happy months together, Count Prinsamour found out
+his daughter's place of retreat, and carried her off from her husband,
+abusing him as a vile thief and imposter.
+
+Crystabell cried and lamented continually for her lost husband. After a
+while, a son was born to her, which made the count more angry than
+before. He took the unfortunate mother and child, put them, without
+food, into an open boat, and set them adrift upon the sea. The boat
+drifted for five days, and at last reached the shores of a country whose
+king proved to be the brother of Crystabell's own mother. He took the
+wayfarers under his care, and devoted himself to bringing up the boy,
+named Degrabell, to be a valiant knight.
+
+After a time, Eglamour travelled to Artois, and entering the count's
+hall by force, confronted his cruel father-in-law in the presence of all
+the knights and squires. He had heard of the fate of his wife and child,
+and his wrath was terrible to see. He cast the dragon's head, wings, and
+tail before the count, reminded him that his daughter had been fairly
+won, and called down God's judgment upon the unnatural father who had
+bereaved Eglamour of all he held dear in life. The count retreated to
+his strongest citadel in fear before the righteous anger of this mighty
+champion; but Eglamour seized the property of his late master, divided
+it among the count's worthy and needy subjects, and ordering masses to
+be sung in all the churches for the soul of his lost Crystabell,
+departed for the Holy Land, where, during many years, he distinguished
+himself both in battle and in tournament against the Saracens.
+
+When her son, Sir Degrabell, had reached the age of eighteen, Crystabell
+was more beautiful than ever, and the king, her uncle, resolved to marry
+her to some knight who might make happy the remainder of her days.
+Crystabell, who still cherished the memory of her lost Sir Eglamour,
+begged her son to help her in this emergency. Sir Degrabell went to the
+king and insisted that all of the knights aspiring to his mother's hand
+should first meet him in the lists, and that only the one who should
+overthrow him might claim the princess as a wife.
+
+The king smiled at the pretentions of this beardless youth, and gave his
+consent. A tournament was announced, and to it came from all parts of
+the country persons of high rank seeking adventure. Knight after knight
+presented himself in the lists, and was swiftly unhorsed by the gallant
+Degrabell. At length the boy, flushed with conquest, turned to a
+stranger of distinguished appearance who stood gazing at the spectacle,
+without seeming to take any great interest in it, and asked if he too
+had a mind to break a lance. The stranger knight hesitated, then said
+that, to amuse himself, he would do so. Mounting his horse, he rode with
+the speed of a lightning flash against Degrabell, who was borne to the
+earth on the spot. Princess Crystabell had been watching the tourney
+with pride, but screamed aloud at her son's overthrow, and rushed into
+the arena, throwing herself on her knees before the stranger and
+imploring him to spare her boy. Trembling, she looked upon the victor's
+shield, and there saw depicted a rude device of a golden boat containing
+a lady and a child about to perish in the waves.
+
+On his side, the knight gazed at the lady in trembling, then bending his
+knee before her, revealed himself the long-lost Eglamour. Crystabell
+would have swooned for joy, had not her husband caught her in his arms.
+Eglamour, equally astonished and delighted, had still in store for him
+the rapture of recognizing in his brave young antagonist the son so
+worthy of his sire.
+
+Sir Eglamour and Lady Crystabell, thus happily reunited, lived together
+for the remainder of their days in prosperity. Degrabell became a famous
+champion. The old Count Prinsamour broke his neck by falling from his
+tower; and so, my tale is told!
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Old-Fashioned Fairy Book, by
+Constance Cary Harrison
+
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