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 HANSEL AND GRETHEL FOLLOWING THE WHITE BIRD 
 
GRIMM'S 
 
 FAIRY TALES 
 
 Retold in One-Syllable Words 
 
 *& 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 McLOUGHLIN BROTHERS 
 
 New York 
 
GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES 
 
 HANSEL AND GRETHEL 
 
 ONCE on a time there dwelt near a large wood, a wood- 
 man, with his wife and two chil-dren, a boy named 
 Han-sel, and a girl named Greth-el. The man was quite poor. 
 The chil-dren's own moth-er was dead, and their step-moth-er 
 did not care for them. 
 
 Hard times came, when there was no work for the man by 
 which he could earn the means to buy bread. One night, 
 aft-er they had gone to bed, the boy and girl heard their fa-ther 
 and moth-er talk-ing. "What shall we do?" said the fa-ther. 
 1 ' How can we feed the chil-dren when we have not as much 
 as two need to eat ? ' ' 
 
 "We must get rid of the chil-dren," said the step-moth-er. 
 "Let us take them in -to the thick part of the wood in the 
 morn-ing, and there make them a fire, and give each of them 
 a small piece of bread ; then we will go to our work and leave 
 them a-lone, so they will not find the way home, and we shall 
 be freed from them." 
 
 "No, wife," said he, "that I can not do. How can you 
 
HANSEL AND GRETHEL 
 
 have the heart to leave the poor things in the wood, where 
 the wild beasts will soon come and tear them to bits." 
 
 ' ' Oh, you goose ! ' ' said she ; ' ' then we must all four die for 
 
 want of food." And 
 she left him no peace 
 till she made him yield. 
 The boy and girl 
 heard all this, for 
 they had not gone to 
 sleep, as their par-ents 
 thought they had. 
 Greth-el wept, and 
 said to Han-sel, "Oh, 
 what shall we do?" 
 But Han-sel told her 
 not to cry, for he 
 would look out for her. 
 And as soon as their par-ents had gone to sleep, he got up, 
 put on his coat, and crept out of doors. The moon was bright, 
 and the small white stones which lay on the path in front of 
 the house shone like pearls. Han-sel went down on his knees, 
 and picked up a lot of them, and put them in his pock-et. 
 Then he went back to Greth-el, and said, "Sleep in peace, 
 dear sister, God will take care of us." 
 
 The next day, as soon as the sun rose, the wife called the 
 
 HANSEL PICKING UP THE STONES 
 
HANSEL AND GRETHEL 
 
 two chil-dren. "Come," she said, "you must get up at once. 
 We have to go to-day to chop wood." 
 
 Then she gave them each a piece of bread, and said, "Tnere 
 is some-thing for your lunch. Don't eat it till it is time, for 
 it is all you will get." Greth-el took the bread, for Han-sel's 
 pock-ets were so full of stones there was no room in them for 
 it, and so they all set out on their way. 
 
 As they went on, 
 Han-sel each few 
 steps dropped one of 
 the stones on the 
 path. When they 
 had gone far into 0%$ 
 the wood, the fa-ther rm 
 told the chil-dren to Iffy 
 pick up some wood 
 for a fire, so that 
 they should not be 
 cold. 
 
 Han-sel and Greth-el picked 
 up quite a large heap of twigs, 
 and the wife set fire to them. As the 
 flames burned high, she said, "Now lie 
 down by the fire and rest, while we chop wood. 
 When it is time to go home, I will call you." 
 
 HAN8EL DROPPING THE 
 8TONES 
 
4 HANSEL AND GRETHEL 
 
 Han-sel and Greth-el sat down by the fire, and when it was 
 noon each ate the piece of bread. They could hear a sound 
 like blows of an axe, and thought their fa-ther must be near ; 
 but it was not an axe, but a branch which he had bound to 
 a tree, so as to be blown to and fro by the wind. 
 
 At last they fell a -sleep. When they woke up it was quite 
 dark, and Greth-el be-gan to cry, "How shall we get out of 
 the wood?' But Han-sel tried to corn-fort her by say-ing, 
 ' ' Wait a while till the moon comes up, and then we will find 
 the way in a short time." 
 
 The moon soon shone forth, and then Han-sel took his 
 sister's hand, and traced his way by the stones he had dropped 
 on the path. All night long they walked on, and as day 
 broke they came to their fath-er's house. They knocked at 
 the door, and when the wife o-pened it, and saw them, she 
 cried out, "You bad chil-dren, why did you sleep so long in 
 the wood ? We thought you would nev-er come ! ' ' But the 
 fa-ther was glad, for it had made him feel sore at heart to 
 leave them in the wood. 
 
 The times grew wdTse and worse, and soon the chil-dren 
 heard their moth-er say to their fa-ther, "All is gone a-gain. 
 We have but half a loaf left, and then we must starve. 
 The chil-dren must go ; we will take them deep-er in-to the 
 wood, so that they may not find the way out this time. It is 
 the only way we can es-cape death our-selves. " 
 
HANSEL AND GRETHEL 
 
 But the man felt sad, and thought, "It would 
 be bet-ter to share the last crust with the chil- 
 dren." But his wife would not give in to him, 
 and in the end she had her way. 
 
 The chil-dren had heard 
 
 all this as they lay a-wake 
 
 in bed ; and as soon as the 
 
 man and his wife went to 
 
 sleep, Han-sel got up. 
 
 ,^ He meant to pick up 
 some more of the small 
 stones ; but the wife 
 had locked the door, 
 and he could not get 
 
 PH; out. Still he tried to 
 
 corn-fort Greth-el, say-ing, 
 
 Do not cry ; sleep in peace ; 
 
 God will not for-sake us." 
 
 At sun-rise the wife came and made them get up, and gave 
 
 each a slice of bread which was small-er than the first piece. 
 
 On the way, Han-sel broke his in his pock-et, and now and 
 
 then dropped a crumb on the path. 
 
 The chil-dren were led deep in-to the wood, to a part in 
 which they had nev-er been be-fore. A big fire was made, 
 and the wife said to them, "Sit down here and rest, and 
 
 "WHY DID YOU SLEEP SO LONG IN THE WOOD?' 
 
HANSEL AND GRETHEL 
 
 when you feel tired you can sleep for a while. We must chop 
 wood, but in in the eve-ning, when we are through, we will 
 
 come for you." 
 
 When noon came, 
 Greth-el shared her bread 
 with Han-sel, who had 
 strewn all his on the path. 
 Then they went to sleep ; 
 but the eve-ning came, 
 and still they were left a- 
 
 JIS^sSllllFjGiiitf*^ T j'|S||.*/ lone. In the dark night, 
 
 they woke up, and Han- 
 sel said to Greth-el, "On-ly 
 wait, Greth-el, till the 
 moon comes out ; then 
 we shall see the crumbs of 
 
 GRETHEL SHARES HER BREAD WITH HANSEL 
 
 bread I have dropped, and they will show us the way home." 
 The moon shone, and they got up, but they could see no 
 crumbs, for the flocks of birds that had flown a-bout in the 
 woods and fields had picked them all up. ' ' We shall soon find 
 the way," Han-sel kept say-ing to Greth-el; but they did not, 
 and they walked the whole night long and the next day, and 
 still they did not come out of the wood,. They were weak for 
 want of food, for they had noth-ing to eat but a few ber-ries 
 which they found on a bush. Soon they got too tired to drag 
 
HANSEL AND GRETHEL 
 
 them -selves a -long, so they lay down at the foot of a tree and 
 went to sleep. 
 
 The third day since they left home came, and still they 
 walked on, but they on-ly got deep-er in the wood, and Han- 
 sel saw that if help did not come soon they must die. But 
 just then they saw a snow-white bird that sat on a bough, 
 
 and sang a sweet song. It soon left 
 off, and spread its wings, and flew a- 
 way. The chil-dren went after it till 
 they came to a small house, on the 
 roof of which the bird perched. When 
 they went up close to it, they saw 
 that the house was made of bread and 
 cakes. This was a fine treat for the 
 hun-gry boy and girl, and each broke 
 off a piece of the house, and be-gan 
 to eat. 
 
 All at once an old wom-an o-pened 
 the door and came out. The chil-dren 
 were in such a fright that they let fall 
 what they had in their hands, but the 
 old wom-an said, "Ah, you dear chil- 
 dren, what has brought you here? 
 Come in and stop with me, and no 
 harm shall come to you." She took 
 
 THE OLD WITCH 
 
8 HANSEL AND GRETHEL 
 
 them both by the hand, and led them in-to the house. There she 
 gave them a fine meal of milk, cakes, fruit, and nuts ; and 
 when they were through, put them to bed in a nice room with 
 two small beds in it, in which the chil-dren lay down and 
 thought they were in heav-en. 
 
 The old worn -an was kind to them at first, but in truth she 
 was a witch who caught chil-dren to eat them, and had built 
 the bread house to serve as a trap for them. The next morn- 
 ing she came and looked at them as they slept, and mum -bled 
 to her-self, ''They will make a nice bite for me." 
 
 Then she took up Han-sel with her rough hand, and shut 
 him up in a small room that had a barred door, like a cage. 
 He cried loud-ly, but it was of no use. 
 
 Next she shook Greth-el, and said, "Get up, you la-zy 
 thing, and fetch some wa-ter to cook some food for your 
 broth-er, who must stay in that cage and get fat. When he 
 is fat as he ought to be, I shall eat him." 
 
 Greth-el be-gan to cry, too, but it did no good, for the old 
 witch made her do as she wished. So a nice meal was cooked 
 for Han-sel, but Greth-el got noth-ing but crab's claws. 
 
 Each morn-ing the old witch came to the cage and said, 
 "Han-sel, stick out your fin-ger, so that I may see if you are 
 fat." But Han-sel used to stick out a bone, and the old witch, 
 who had poor sight, took it for his fin-ger, and thought it 
 strange that he was so lean. 
 
HANSEL AND GRETIIEL 9 
 
 When four weeks had passed, and Han-sel still kept quite 
 lean, she got tired of wait-ing, and said she would have him 
 for din-ner the next day, fat or lean. The chil-dren be-gan to 
 
 cry, but the old witch told them 
 to be still. ' ' Leave off that noise, 
 she said, "it will not help you 
 a bit." 
 
 Next morn-ing she made Greth- 
 el fill the great pot with wa-ter, 
 and make a fire. "First we will 
 bake, though," said the old 
 witch. "The o-ven is al- 
 ready hot, and I have made 
 the bread. ' ' She pushed poor 
 Greth-el up to the oven, in 
 which there was a fierce fire. 
 "Creep in," she cried, "and 
 see if it is hot e-nough, and 
 then we will put in the bread." She meant when Greth-el 
 got in to shut up the o-ven and let her bake, so that she 
 might eat her as well as Han-sel. 
 
 But Greth-el knew what she wished to do, and said, "I 
 don't know how to do it. How can I creep in?' 1 
 
 "What a goose you are," said the old witch, "the door is 
 large e-nough. Look here, I can get in my-self;" and she 
 
 HANSEL IN THE CAGE 
 
10 
 
 HANSEL AND GRETHEL 
 
 crawled up and stuck her head in the ov-en. A bright thought 
 came to Greth-el. She gave the old witch a push, and she 
 fell in-to the ov-en. Then Greth-el shut the door and drew 
 
 the bolt. 
 
 How the old witch did howl ! 
 But Greth-el ran to the cage 
 and let her broth-er out. "O, 
 Han-sel ! we are free, ' ' she said, 
 "the old witch is dead." 
 
 As soon as the door was 
 
 o-pened, Han-sel sprang out 
 
 from the cage like a bird, and 
 
 they were so glad that 
 
 they threw their arms 
 
 round each other's neck, 
 
 and kissed each other, 
 
 and ran a-bout for joy. 
 
 They went through 
 
 the house, and in each 
 
 GRETHEL PUSHES THE W.TCH ,NTO THE OVEN cor _ ner sto(x J cne stS Of 
 
 gold and pearls. "These are bet-ter than the small white 
 stones," said Han-sel, as he filled his pock-ets with all that 
 they could hold. 
 
 "I will take some home too," said Greth-el, as she filled 
 her a-pron. 
 
HANSEL AND GRETHEL 
 
 11 
 
 "Now we must go," said Hansel, "and get out of this be- 
 witched wood." 
 
 When they had walked for two hours, they came to a large 
 piece of water. 
 ' ' How shall we 
 cross ? ' ' said Han- 
 sel. "I see no 
 bridge of any 
 kind. 
 
 There are no 
 boats, ei-ther," 
 said Greth-el. S^SSS m 
 
 But there swims 
 a white duck. I 
 will ask her to 
 help us to cross. 
 
 RIDING ACROSS THE WATER ON A DUCK'S BACK 
 
 "O, little white 
 
 duck, let poor Han-sel and Greth-el ride a-cross the wa-ter on 
 
 your back ! ' ' said she. 
 
 The duck swam up to them, and Han-sel sat down on his 
 back, and told his sis-ter to sit be-hind. But she said, "No, 
 that would be too much for the duck. She must take one of 
 us at a time." 
 
 The good lit-tle duck did so, and when they had walked a 
 short time on the oth-er side, they came at last to a part of 
 
12 HANSEL AND GRETHEL 
 
 the wood which they knew. They went on and on, and at 
 last came in sight of their fa-ther's house. 
 
 Then they be-gan to run, and burst-ing in-to the room, threw 
 their arms round their fa-ther's neck. 
 
 The poor man had not had one hap-py hour since he left 
 his chil-dren in the wood, and af-ter he had lost them, his 
 wife died too. 
 
 Greth-el shook her a-pron, and the pearls and gems rolled 
 out on the floor, and Han-sel drew hand-ful af-ter hand-ful 
 from his pock-et. Their sor-row was now at an end, and 
 they lived in great peace and joy. 
 
 MR. KORBES 
 
 ONCE on a time a cock and a hen thought they would 
 like to go on a short trip. So the cock built a nice 
 tart with four red wheels, and hitched up four mice to it, 
 and off they drove. 
 
 They had not gone far when they met a cat, who said he 
 would like to know where they were bound for. 
 
 "We mean to make a call on Mr. Korbes," said the cock. 
 
 "Take me with you," said the cat. 
 
 "All right," said the cock. "You may sit in the back part 
 of the cart, but take care you do not scratch my red wheels. 
 
MR. KOEBES 
 
 13 
 
 * V^ *"^sU- li,- 
 
 ON THE ROAD TO MR. KORBES'S 
 
 And then he cried out, "Now turn fast, little wheels, and 
 race on lit-tle mice, or we shall be too late to find Mr. Korbes 
 at home." 
 
 But they did not get on at all fast, for they stopped first to 
 
14 MR. KORBES 
 
 take in a mill -stone, then an egg, then a duck, then a pin, 
 and, last of all, a nee-dle. 
 
 When they did reach the house of Mr. Korbes he was not 
 at home. The mice drew the cart in the shed ; the cock and 
 hen flew up on a beam ; the cat sat by the hearth ; the duck 
 on the well-curb ; the egg wrapped it-self in the tow-el ; the pin 
 stuck, point up, in a chair ; the nee-dle went in the bed ; and 
 the mill-stone laid it-self up o-ver the door. 
 
 Soon Mr. Korbes came home. He went to the hearth to 
 make a fire, but the cat threw coal-dust in his eyes. He ran 
 to the well to wash them, but there the duck threw wa-ter 
 at him. 
 
 Then he went to dry his face, but as he took up the tow -el, 
 the egg burst, and flew in his eyes, and stuck them fast like glue. 
 
 So much ill luck made him feel tired, so he sat down in his 
 chair to rest, but the pin stuck in him and he sprang up in 
 a great rage. 
 
 He threw him-self on the bed, but as soon as his head 
 touched the pil-low the point of the nee-dle pricked him so 
 that he gave a shout of pain, and in great wrath ran to the 
 door to leave the house. But just as he reached the door the 
 mill-stone fell on his head and killed him on the spot. 
 
 Do you not think Mr. Korbes must have been a bad man? 
 
*- \ 
 
15 
 
 THE WOLF AND THE SIX 
 LITTLE KIDS 
 
 THERE was once an old goat who had six kids, of whom 
 she was as fond as a moth-er could be. 
 
 One day she had to go out to get some food for them, so 
 she called them all to her, and said, ' ' Dear young ones, I must 
 go out and get some food for you. Be on your guard that 
 the wolf don't come in the house ; for if he does, he will eat 
 you all up. He will try in all ways to fool you, but you can 
 tell him with ease by his rough voice and his black feet." 
 
 "Dear moth-er," said the kids, "you need have no fear; 
 we will take good care not to let the wolf in." 
 
 So the old goat said good-by, and went off with her mind 
 at rest. 
 
 It was not long when the kids heard a knock at the door, 
 and some one cried, "O-pen the door, dear young ones; your 
 moth-er has come home, and has brought some-thing nice for 
 each one of you." 
 
 But the kids knew by the rough voice that it was the wolf, 
 and they said, "We will not o-pen the door for you. You 
 are not our moth-er ; she has a fine, sweet voice, but yours is 
 coarse and harsh ; you must be the wolf. 
 
 So the wolf left them and went to a store, where he bought 
 
10 THE WOLF AND THE SIX LITTLE KIDS 
 
 a large piece of chalk. This he ate to make his voice soft, 
 and then he came back and knocked at the door of the goat's 
 house a -gain. "Open the door, dear young ones," he said; 
 "your moth-er has brought some-thing nice for each one 
 of you." 
 
 But the wolf had put his black paws on the win-dow sill, 
 and the kids saw them. So they cried, 'We will not o-pen 
 the door for you. You are not our moth-er ; she has not big, 
 black feet. You must be the wolf." 
 
 Then the wolf ran to a ba-ker, and said, "I have hurt my 
 foot ; please put some dough on it. ' ' 
 
 As soon as his foot was cov-ered with dough, he ran to the 
 mil-ler and said, "Put some white flour on my foot." 
 
 The mil-ler thought, "The wolf wants to play a trick on 
 some one, ' ' and he was not go-ing to do it ; but the wolf said, 
 "If you don't, I will eat you up." 
 
 This put the mil-ler in a fright, so he spread flour on the 
 wolf's feet. Then the bad wolf went a third time to the goat's 
 house, knocked, and said, "O-pen the door, dear young ones; 
 your moth-er has come home, and has brought some-thing 
 nice for each one of you." 
 
 "Show us your feet first," said the kids, "that we may 
 know if you are our mother or not." 
 
 The wolf put his paw on the win-dow sill, and when they 
 saw that it was white, they thought he must be their moth-er, 
 
THE WOLF AND THE SIX LITTLE KIDS 17 
 
 and let him in. Great was their fear when they saw it was 
 the wolf. They ran this way and that way to try to hide. 
 One went un-der the ta-ble, an-oth-er in-to the bed, a third 
 in-to the ov-en, a fourth 
 in-to the cup-board, a 
 un-der the wash-tub 
 the sixth in-to the 
 clock-case. But 
 the wolf found 
 them, and ate up 
 all but the young- 
 est one of them, — 
 the one that was 
 hid in the clock- 
 case. Then the 
 wolf went out, and 
 on the grass be-neath 
 and went to sleep. 
 
 In a short time the old goat came home. What a sight 
 met her eyes ! The door stood wide o-pen, and the whole 
 house was up-set. Not a kid was to be seen ; she called each 
 one ; but no one spoke till she came to the name of the young- 
 est, when a weak voice said, "Dear moth-er, I am hid in the 
 clock-case." 
 
 She helped the young kid out, and heard how the wolf had 
 
 THE WOLF AT THE BAKERS 
 
18 
 
 THE WOLF AND THE SIX LITTLE KIDS 
 
 come and eat-en up all her oth-er dear young ones. She wept 
 and wept as if she would nev-er stop. At length she and the 
 kid went out for a walk. When they had gone a few steps 
 they saw the wolf, where he lay a-sleep on the grass, snor-ing 
 so loud that he shook the leaves on the trees. 
 The old goat looked at him with care, and 
 thought she could see some-thing move in-side 
 of him. ' ' Can it be, ' ' she thought, 
 j young ones whom he 
 ill a-live?' She at once 
 sent the young kid home 
 for the shears, and with 
 them she cut the wolf 
 o-pen. She had just 
 made a small slit, when 
 |^ one of the kids put his 
 head out. She cut 
 some more, and 
 out it sprang, and 
 then an-other, 
 and an-oth-er, till all 
 were out, as full of 
 life as ever ; for the 
 wolf had been so 
 gree-dy that he swal- 
 
 ONE LITTLE KID IS ALL RIGHT 
 
THE WOLF AND THE SIX LITTLE KIDS 19 
 
 lowed them whole, and had not hurt them a bit. Oh, it was 
 a time of joy ! The kids danced and jumped a-bout, they were 
 so full of glee. 
 
 
 THE WOLF IS FOUND ASLEEP ON THE GRASS 
 
 But the old goat said to them, "Go and get some stones, 
 and we will put them in-side of this scamp, and sew him up 
 be-fore he wakes. 
 
 So the kids ran in great haste, and brought large stones, 
 which they put in -side of the wolf. Then the old goat sewed 
 up the slit and the wolf did not wake nor move. 
 
20 TALES ABOUT ELVES 
 
 When the wolf's sleep was out, he got up, and as the stones 
 gave him a great thirst, he went to a brook for a drink. As 
 he stooped to drink, the weight of the stones made him fall 
 in-to the wa-ter, and he was drowned. 
 
 Then the six young ones gave a shout, ' ' The wolf is dead ! 
 The wolf is dead ! ' ' and they and their moth-er danced for joy 
 all the way home. 
 
 TALES ABOUT ELVES 
 
 FIRST TALE 
 
 ASHOE-MA-KER, through no fault of his own, once grew 
 so poor that he had on-ly as much stuff left as would 
 make one pair of shoes. He cut out the shoes at night so 
 that he could set to work the next day. 
 
 But when he got up at dawn and went to work, he found 
 the pair of shoes laid on his bench all made. He did not 
 know what to think. He took the shoes in his hands, and 
 looked at them with care, but he could not find one poor 
 stitch ; they were as good as could be. 
 
 A man soon came in who bought them, and thought they 
 were so good a pair that he paid a high price for them. The 
 shoe-ma -ker could now buy stuff for two pairs of shoes. He 
 cut them out at night to lose no time, but there was no need 
 
TALES ABOUT ELVES 21 
 
 of this, for when he got up the next day they were made. 
 Be-fore night he sold these, and could then buy stuff for four 
 pairs of shoes. At dawn he found them made, and thus it 
 went on, day by day. In this way he did well, and in the 
 end got rich. 
 
 One night he said to his wife, "How would it do for us to 
 
 sit up and see who it is that does all 
 this work for us ? " 
 
 His wife thought it would be well, 
 
 so they set a light to burn, and hid at 
 
 one end of the room, be-hind some 
 
 clothes that hung there. When it was 
 
 late, two small elves came in and went 
 
 to work. They had no clothes on, 
 
 though it was the cold part of the 
 
 year. They did the work up 
 
 fast, and then went a-way. 
 
 The next day the wife 
 said, "Those elves have 
 made us rich, and we 
 ought to make them a 
 |\V gift. I know what we 
 ^ will do. They must be 
 cold with -out clothes, so 
 
 . I will make shirts ' coats ' 
 
22 TALES ABOUT ELVES 
 
 pants, and socks for them and you shall make each a pair of 
 shoes. ' ' The man thought this a good plan, and by night the 
 gifts were all made. They laid them on the bench, and then 
 hid to see how the elves would act. 
 
 At mid-night they came in, and when they went to look for 
 the stuff to work with, they found their nice new clothes in 
 its place. They put them on in great glee, and danced and 
 hopped a-bout, and jumped o-ver the bench and the chairs, 
 and sang. At last they danced out of the room, and af-ter 
 that they were seen no more. 
 
 But all went well with the shoe-ma-ker, and he had good 
 luck as long as he lived. 
 
 SECOND TALE 
 
 THERE was once a poor maid who worked hard and was 
 ver-y neat. The house and the yard were swept with care, 
 and the dirt was put in a heap and car-ried a-way. 
 
 One day she found a note, and as she could not read she 
 took it to her mas-ter. It turned out to be a note from the 
 elves to ask her to come and be god-moth-er to one of their 
 chil-dren. The maid did not at first know what to do, but at 
 length made up her mind to go. 
 
 Three elves came who took her to a hol-low moun-tain where 
 they lived. All the things in their home were small, but rich 
 and fine. The maid stood god-moth -er to the child, and then 
 
TALES ABOUT ELVES 
 
 23 
 
 she wished to go home ; but the elves begged her to stay with 
 them three days. So she staid, and the days went by joy-fully 
 
 with her. When the time 
 
 came for her to go, the 
 
 €(k~^-^*s^PS^ elves gave her a lot of gold, 
 
 and led her out of the 
 moun-tain. 
 When she got back to 
 y-—f^ the house, she took 
 
 c 
 
 her broom and set to 
 
 THE ELVES TAKE THE MAID 
 TO WHERE THEY LIVE 
 
 
 work. But strange peo pie came to her and asked who she 
 was, and what she did there. Then she found out that she 
 had been in the home of the elves sev-en years in place of 
 three days, and that while she was gone her old mas-ter 
 had died. 
 
24 
 
 TALES ABOUT ELVES 
 
 THIRD TALE 
 
 THERE was once a moth-er who had the dear-est lit-tle babe 
 in the world, but one day the elves came and ran off with it, 
 and in its place left a change-ling, with a great big head and 
 star-ing eyes, who did noth-ing but eat and drink all the day 
 long. 
 
 The moth-er was full of grief, and told her neigh-bors of her 
 sad piece of luck, and asked if they could tell her what she 
 ought to do. 
 
 One of them told her to set the strange child in front of 
 the hearth, build a fire, and boil some milk in two egg-shells. 
 
 ^r^?% 
 
 "This will make the child 
 
 laugh," said the neigh-bor, 
 
 and if he once laughs it 
 
 will be all o-ver with 
 
 him." 
 
 The wom-an did as 
 she was told. As soon 
 as she put 
 the egg-shells 
 in place, the 
 strange child 
 sang out : 
 
 THE CHANGELING 
 
THE STRAW, THE COAL, AND TFIE BEAN 25 
 
 " Old am I as the old-est tree, 
 But to cook in egg-shells is new to me." 
 
 Then he be-gan to laugh, and as he laughed there came in 
 a whole crowd of elves. To the great joy of the moth-er, they 
 brought back her own child, and placed it on the hearth, and 
 took the strange one off with them. 
 
 THE STRAW, THE COAL, AND 
 THE BEAN 
 
 IN a small town there once lived an old dame. One day 
 she had some beans to cook, so she built a fire on the 
 hearth, and to make it burn fast threw on some straw. As 
 she poured the beans in-to the pot, one of them dropped on 
 the floor and rolled near a straw. Soon a red-hot coal popped 
 from the fire, and fell near the bean and the straw. 
 
 Then the straw spoke. "Good friends," said he, "where 
 did you come from?" 
 
 "I had the good luck to jump out of the fire," said the 
 coal. "If I had not done so, I should have been burnt to 
 death." 
 
 Then the bean said, "I had the luck to get off with a whole 
 
26 THE STRAW, THE COAL, AND THE BEAN 
 
 skin, too. If the old dame had put me in the pot, I should 
 have been boiled to death with the rest of the beans." 
 
 "And I too!" 
 cried the straw. 
 "My fate would 
 have been quite 
 as sad if I had 
 not slipped from 
 the old dame's 
 hands. All my 
 broth -ers went up 
 in fire and 
 smoke — six-ty at 
 one time." 
 
 "What shall 
 
 we do now?" 
 
 asked the coal 
 
 "I think," 
 
 said the bean, 
 
 ' ' that as we 
 
 have all had 
 
 the same good 
 
 luck in sav-ing our lives, 
 
 we had best stick to-geth- 
 
 er as friends, and be-fore 
 
 THE THREE FRIENDS START ON THEIR TRIP 
 
THE STRAW, THE COAL AND THE BEAN 27 
 
 we get in-to worse scrapes, take a trip to strange parts and 
 see some of the world." 
 
 This plan pleased the coal and the straw, and the three set 
 out at once. 
 
 They had not gone far when they came to a small stream, 
 and they were at loss to know how they should cross it. At 
 last the straw said, "I will lay my-self a-cross the stream, and 
 you can walk on me as if I were a bridge." 
 
 So the straw stretched him -self from one bank to the other. 
 The coal, who had a good deal of fire in his na-ture, tripped 
 out on the new bridge, but when he had got half way, he 
 was seized with fright, stopped short, and dared not take a 
 step more. The straw be-gan to burn, broke in two, and fell 
 in the stream, and the coal slipped in af-ter him. 
 
 The bean was so mean as to laugh at their bad luck, and 
 it laughed so hard that its sides burst. Now they would all 
 have been done for a-like, if a tai-lor had not come that way. 
 He felt sor-ry for the bean, so he sewed it up. The bean 
 thanked him, but as he had used black thread to sew with, 
 from that day to this each bean has a black mark on it. 
 
28 
 
 SNOW WHITE AND RED ROSE 
 
 A POOR wid-ow once lived with her two daugh-ters in a 
 small lone-ly house. The two girls were so fair, and 
 looked so much like ro-ses, that she called one of them Snow 
 White, and the oth-er Red Rose. 
 
 They were as good girls as could be found, at all times 
 
 cheer-ful, and full of 
 love one for the oth-er. 
 When they went out to 
 walk they would go hand 
 in hand ; if one said, 
 "We will nev-er part," 
 the oth-er would say, 
 "Nev-er, so long as we 
 
 live," and what one had 
 
 was al-ways shared with 
 
 the oth-er. Oft-en they 
 
 went to the woods to pick 
 
 ber-ries, but no harm came to 
 
 them ; the hare would eat a 
 
 leaf from their hands, the deer 
 
 - - grazed at their side, and the 
 
 the two sisters. birds sat on the boughs near 
 
SNOW WHITE AND RED HOSE 
 
 29 
 
 them and sang to them. They 
 met with no mis-hap ; and it 
 night came on be-fore they left 
 the woods, they had no fear, but 
 lay down on the moss and slept 
 till dawn. 
 
 Snow White and Red Rose 
 kept the house so clean that it 
 was a treat to look at it. In the 
 sum-mer time, Red Rose swept 
 the floor, and placed a fresh bunch 
 of flow-ers by the side of her 
 moth-er's bed each morn-ing be 
 fore she was up ; and in the win- 
 ter, Snow White made the fire 
 and hung the ket-tle on the hook, 
 where it shone like gold, so bright 
 did the lit -tie maid keep it scoured. 
 
 In the eve-ning, when the snow 
 fell, the moth-er would say, "Go 
 and bolt the door, Snow White," 
 and then they would all sit by the fire, and the moth-er would 
 read from a large book, while the girls spun. 
 
 One eve-ning a knock was heard at the door as if some one 
 wished to get in. "Quick, Red Rose," said the moth-er, 
 
 SNOW WHITE HANGING THE KETTLE 
 
30 SNOW WHITE AND RED ROSE 
 
 "go to the door; it may be some trav-el-er who looks for 
 shel-ter. ' ' 
 
 Red Rose o-pened the door think-ing to see a poor man, 
 but in place of that a big black bear poked his head in. Red 
 Rose screamed and ran back, but the bear be-gan to talk, and 
 said, ' ' Do not fear ; I will not hurt you. I am well nigh 
 dead with the cold, and wish to come in and warm my-self 
 by your fire." 
 
 "You poor bear," said the moth-er, "lie down by the fire, 
 but take care that you do not burn your fur." 
 
 The girls soon lost their fear of the bear, and came near 
 him. Then the bear said, "Get the broom, chil-dren, and 
 brush the snow from my fur." 
 
 They brought the broom, and brushed his fur till it was 
 quite clean, and then he stretched him-self out in front of the 
 fire. At last the girls be-gan to play with him, and pulled 
 him a -bout by his fur as if he were a big dog. 
 
 The bear staid all night, and at dawn the girls let him out, 
 and he ran off o-ver the snow to the woods. 
 
 But each night at the same hour he came back to the house, 
 lay down on the hearth, and let the chil-dren play with him 
 for a while. They grew so used to his vis -its that the door 
 was not locked till he came. 
 
 One day in spring, he said to Snow White, "I must go 
 a-way now, and I shall not come back all sum-mer." 
 
, 
 
 
 ' > 
 
 ; 
 
 . ,--. .1 
 
 
 
 
 
SNOW WHITE AND KVA> ROSE 
 
 31 
 
 'Where do you mean to 
 go, dear bear?" she asked. 
 
 "I must go to the woods, 
 
 and guard my treas-ures from 
 
 the dwarfs. In the win-ter, 
 
 when the frost makes the 
 
 ground hard, they must stay 
 
 down in the earth ; but as 
 
 soon as the sun melts the frost, they 
 
 work their way up, and steal all they 
 
 can find ; and when a thing is once in 
 
 their hands it is hard to get it back 
 
 a -gain. " 
 
 Snow White felt sad to part with 
 the bear. As she let him out through 
 the door, his fur caught on a hook, 
 and a piece of skin was torn off. Snow 
 White thought she saw some-thing gleam like gold un-der his 
 skin, but was not sure, for the bear ran quick-ly off, and was 
 soon lost sight of a-mong the trees. 
 
 Some time af-ter this, the girls went to the wood to get 
 some sticks for the fire. They came to a tree which lay on 
 the path, and saw that some-thing was spring-ing up and down 
 on one of the boughs, but they could not tell what it was. 
 When they came near-er, they saw a lit-tle dwarf, with an 
 
 DWARFS COMING OUT OF THE 
 GROUND. 
 
32 SNOW WHITE AND RED ROSE 
 
 old face, and a beard a yard long. The end of his beard had 
 caught in a cleft in the tree, and he sprang a-bout like a dog 
 that was fast to a string, for he did not know how to free 
 him-self. 
 
 He glared at the girls, and cried, "Why do you stand there? 
 Can't you come and help me?" 
 
 What have you done ? ' ' asked Red Rose. 
 'You stu-pid goose!" he cried. "I wished to split some 
 wood for my fire. I drove in a wedge, and all was go-ing on 
 well, when the wedge slipped out, and the wood closed up so 
 quick-ly that my hand-some white beard caught, and I can't 
 draw it out. There, don't stand and laugh, you milk-faced 
 things ! Whew ! how ug-ly you are ! ' ' 
 
 The girls tried to get his beard out, but could not. At last 
 one of them said, "I will run and get some one to help us." 
 
 "Block heads!" he snarled. "Who wants more peo-ple? 
 You are two more than I want now. Can you think of 
 noth-ing else? " 
 
 "Don't be cross," said Snow White. I can help you," and 
 she took her shears out of her pock-et and cut off the end of 
 his beard. 
 
 As soon as the dwarf felt that he was free, he seized a sack 
 full of gold that he had hid a-mong the roots of the tree, put 
 it up on his shoul-ders, and said, "Smooth-faced fools! to go 
 and cut a piece ot my beard. They will get their pay for it. ' 
 
SNOW WHITE AND 11 KD ROSK 
 
 33 
 
 ^ 
 
 Then he went off with-out a glance at the 
 
 girls. 
 
 One day Snow White and Red Rose 
 
 went to catch a mess of fish. As they 
 
 came near the brook, they saw some-thing 
 
 like a great lo-cust hop-ping on the bank 
 
 as if it were go-ing to jump in the stream. 
 
 They ran to it, and saw it 
 
 s*-^) was the same dwarf. 'Why 
 
 '-yF-^ do you do that?'" asked Red 
 
 Rose. "Do you wish to jump 
 in the brook ? ' 
 
 "I am not such a fool as to wish to do 
 
 that ! " he cried, ' ' but this fish wants to pull 
 
 A SACK FULL OF 
 GOLD. 
 
 me m. 
 
 He had sat on the bank to fish, and his beard had been 
 caught in the line, so that when a large fish bit at the bait, 
 he had not strength to draw it out, but in place of that the 
 fish was pull-ing him in-to the water. He clung to the reeds 
 and grass, but it was of no use, for the fish pulled him where 
 it would, and would soon have drawn him in-to the wa-ter. 
 
 The girls came just in the right time. They held him back, 
 and tried to get his beard loose, but they could not do so as 
 it and the line were so bad-ly tangled. There was noth-ing to 
 be done but to cut off an-oth-er piece of the beard. 
 
34 SNOW WHITE AND RED ROSE 
 
 The dwarf was in a great rage. "You toad-stools !" he cried. 
 ' ' Now you have ru-ined my beard. It was not e-nough that 
 you cut it once, now you must take the best part of it. I 
 dare not show my-self to my own folks a -gain. I wish you 
 may have to run till your shoe-soles come off for this." 
 
 Then he drew a bag of pearls from the reeds, and slipped 
 a-way with-out say-ing an-oth-er word. 
 
 Not long af-ter this, the moth-er sent the girls to the town 
 to buy some pins, thread, and lace. Their road passed through 
 a field on which, here and there, lay large stones and rocks. 
 Up in the air they saw a great bird that flew round and round. 
 It sailed low-er and low-er, and at last sank down by one of 
 the stones. Just then the girls heard a scream, and run-ning 
 up to the bird, they saw that their old friend, the dwarf, had 
 been seized by the bird, and was a-bout to be car-ried off. 
 
 The kind girls laid hold on the dwarf, and held him fast 
 till the bird gave up the con-test and flew oiT. As soon as 
 the dwarf got o-ver his fright, he cried in his sharp voice 
 ' ' Could you not have held me more gent-ly ? You have tugged 
 at my fine brown coat till it is all in rags on my back.' 
 With no thanks, he picked up his bag of gems, and slipped 
 in-to his den un-der the stone. 
 
 The girls were used to his way, and did not mind his a-buse. 
 but went on to town and bought what they had come for. 
 On their way home they passed through the same field, and 
 
SNOW WHITE AND RED ROSE 35 
 
 came on the dwarf once more. He thought no one would pass 
 
 at that late hour, and had come out of his den and spread out 
 
 his gems on the ground. 
 
 They gleamed and shone in 
 
 the set-ting sun, and the 
 
 girls stopped to ad-mire 
 
 them. 
 
 He be-gan to scold and 
 rage at them, but as he 
 went on with 
 his hard w r ords 
 and threats a 
 big black bear 
 rushed at him 
 with a growl. 
 The dwarf 
 
 sprang up in a fright, but could not reach his den, the bear 
 was too near. 
 
 Then he fell on his knees to the bear and cried, "O, dear, 
 good Mr. Bear, spare me ! I will give you all my gems. See, 
 them there ! Spare my life ! Of what use would such a poor 
 lit-tle thing be to you? You would not feel me be-tween your 
 teeth. There are two bad girls ; take them. They are as fat 
 as quails — eat them in place of me J' 
 
 But the bear paid no heed to his words ; he struck him one 
 
 A NARROW ESCAPE FROM DROWNING. 
 
36 
 
 SNOW WHITE AND RED ROSE 
 
 THERE STOOD BEFORE THEM A HANDSOME YOUNG MAN. 
 
 blow with his great paw, and he nev-er stirred a-gain. When 
 the girls saw the bear, they star-ted to run a-way, but he 
 called, "Snow White, Red Rose, have no fear! Wait, and I 
 will go with you." 
 
 They knew his voice and stopped, but when he came up to 
 them, his rough coat of fur fell off, and there stood be-fore 
 them a hand-some young man, dressed in rich clothes. 
 
 "I am a king's son," he said. "The dwarf be-witched me, 
 stole my treas-ures, and made me run in the woods as a wild 
 
KING ROUG II BEARD 37 
 
 bear till I should be set free by his death. Now he has re- 
 ceived his well-de-served re-ward." 
 
 They went home, and not long after Snow White was mar- 
 ried to the prince, and Red Rose to his broth-er. All the 
 treas-ures which the dwarf had gath-ered in his den were 
 shared be-tween them, and they lived in great joy and peace 
 for many years. 
 
 KING ROUGHBEARD 
 
 THERE was once a prin-cess who was ver-y fair, but so 
 proud that she thought no man was good e-nough to be 
 her hus-band. Kings and king's sons came to woo her, but 
 she met them with scorn, and made game of them all. 
 
 Once the king, her father, gave a feast to which he asked 
 all the young men he knew who were fit to be the hus-band 
 of a prin-cess. When they came they were set in a row, and 
 the prin-cess was led down the line, to make a choice ; but she 
 laughed at each one in turn. The one that she made the 
 most fun of was a good young king, whom she named King 
 Rough-beard, be-cause his chin was not straight, and he had 
 a rough beard. 
 
 Her fath-er was an-gry with her ; and when she sent the 
 young men all a-way, told her she should have to mar-ry the 
 
38 KING ROUGH BEARD 
 
 the first tramp that came to the gate. The next day, a tramp, 
 who sang in the streets for what folks would give him, came 
 to the gate. The king called him in, and sent for the prin-cess, 
 and in spite of her tears made her mar-ry the street sing-er, 
 and then turned them both out of the house. 
 
 So the tramp led her off with him, and she had to trudge 
 a-long the road on foot. When they reached the next king- 
 dom, which was that of the prince she had called King Rough 
 Beard, she sighed and wept, and said, "Oh that I had but 
 mar-ried King Rough Beard when he wished me to!" 
 
 The tramp grew cross at this, and said, "Stop that! It 
 does not please me that you should wish you had mar-ried 
 some one else. Am I not good e-nough for you?" 
 
 By and by they came to a small, mean hut, and there they 
 stopped. "This is my house," said the tramp, and then the 
 prin-cess wished a -gain that she had mar-ried King Rough 
 Beard. 
 
 The tramp told her she must keep house and cook the meals 
 for him ; but the prin-cess had not learned how to do these 
 things, and her hus-band had to do them him -self. 
 
 At length he told her she must earn some-thing, and he set 
 her at work mak-ing bas-kets, but her hands were too soft to 
 bend the hard twigs. Then he told her to spin, but the coarse 
 thread cut her fin-gers and made them bleed. When he saw 
 this, he sent her to the mar-ket with pots and pans to sell. 
 
KING ROUGH BEABD 
 
 39 
 
 'THIS IS MY HOUSE." SAID THE TRAMP. 
 
 Her pride made this a hard task for the prin-cess, but she 
 was so fair to look at that folks bought from her. One day, 
 though, a drunk-en sol-dier rode down the street on his horse, 
 
40 
 
 KING ROUGH BEARD 
 
 and plunged right in-to the midst of her wares, and broke the 
 whole of them. 
 
 "I see you are not fit for such work," said her hus-band. 
 "But I will try one thing more. I have heard that they need 
 a maid in the king's kitch-en, and I will try to get the place 
 for you," 
 
 They took the prin-cess for maid 
 in the king's kit-chen, and for pay 
 she had to take home the scraps of 
 food that were left. 
 
 She had not been there long when 
 
 the king gave a grand ball. The poor 
 
 prin-cess went up-stairs to look at the 
 
 guests from the door. As she stood 
 
 there, the king saw her, 
 
 and seized her hand, and 
 
 asked her to dance She 
 
 drew back in a fright, for 
 
 it was none else than King 
 
 Rough Beard him -self, who 
 
 had once been re-fused by 
 
 her with scorn. 
 
 She tried to get a -way, 
 but the king drew her in- 
 to the ball-roon. In the 
 
 - €> 
 
 THE DRUNKEN SOLDIER, 
 
KING ROUGH BEARD 41 
 
 strife the band broke that held a bag in which were her scraps 
 of food, and they were all thrown out on the ball-room floor. 
 
 She heard all the guests laugh, and rushed from the room 
 in shame. On the steps a man caught her, and brought her 
 back. When she looked at him, she saw it was King Rough 
 Beard a -gain. 
 
 He looked at her kind-ly and said, "Do not fear. I and 
 the tramp whom you mar-ried are one. My love for you led 
 me to dis-guise my-self. I was al-so the rude sol-dier that 
 broke your wares. All this has been done to cure you of your 
 pride. 
 
 The prin-cess wept, and said, "I have done a great wrong, 
 and am not wor-thy to be your wife." 
 
 But the king said, "Do not weep. Those sad days are at 
 an end; now we will have our wed-ding feast." 
 
 Then the maids came and dressed her in rich robes, and 
 she was led out to meet her fa-ther, who had come with his 
 whole court to wish her joy. Thus her trials came to an end, 
 and nev-er a-gain was she proud or haugh-ty. 
 
42 
 
 THE FROG PRINCE 
 
 N OLD times, when folks 
 had but to wish for things 
 to get them, there lived a 
 king who had three fair girls. 
 Close by the king's cas-tle lay 
 a dark wood where there was 
 a deep well or spring. One 
 hot day the young-est girl went to the 
 wood and sat down by the cool well. 
 When she tired of sit-ting still, she took 
 out a ball of gold, which was one 
 of her toys, and be-gan to toss it up in 
 the air and catch it. 
 But one time that she tossed it up, she missed it, and it 
 rolled in-to the well. She felt so bad that she wept ; but in 
 the midst of her weep-ing she heard a voice say, "Why do 
 you weep, Prin-cess? Your tears would melt a heart of stone." 
 She saw that it was a frog that spoke, and she said, "Oh, 
 is that you, Mr. Frog? I weep for my gold ball, which fell 
 in-to this well." 
 
 "Do not weep," said the frog. "I can bring up your ball, 
 
THE PROG PRINCE 43 
 
 but what will you give 
 me if I do so ? " 
 
 "Just what you 
 wish," said she; "my 
 gowns, my pearls or my 
 gold crown." 
 
 "I do not care for 
 those things," said the 
 frog. "But if you will 
 love me, and let me sit 
 at meals with you, and ! '^lilP^n' ' 
 eat from your plate, and jplV\ 
 drink out of your cup, 
 and put me to sleep in 
 your silk -en bed, I will 
 bring it up for you." 
 
 "Oh, yes," she said, 
 "I will do all you ask." 
 
 So the frog sank out 
 of sight in the well, and 
 soon came up with the the princess and the frog. 
 
 ball in his mouth, and tnrew it on the grass. The prin-cess 
 was so full of joy to see it that she snatched it up and ran 
 off with it. 
 
 ' Wait, wait," cried the frog. "Take me with you, I can't 
 
44 THE FROG PRINCE 
 
 run as fast as you." But it was of no use, for croak as he 
 might she would not wait, but made haste home, and soon 
 put the poor frog quite out of her mind. 
 
 The next day, when she sat down to eat with the king and 
 his court, a knock was heard at the door, and a voice cried, 
 "Prin-cess, let me in!" 
 
 At this she ran to the door to see who was there, and when 
 she o-pened it, she saw the frog. She turned pale, and shut 
 the door, and went back to her seat. The king saw that she 
 was in a fright, and he said, ' ' My child, what ails you ? Who 
 is at the door ? ' ' 
 
 "It is a frog," said she. 
 
 ' ' What does the frog want of you ? ' ' 
 
 The prin-cess had to tell the king what the frog had done 
 for her. "You must keep your word," said the king. "Go 
 to the door and let the frog in." 
 
 So she let the frog in, and he hopped straight to her chair, 
 and said, "Lift me up by you." When she had done this, 
 he ate from her plate, and drank out of her cup, to her great 
 dis-gust. 
 
 Then the frog said he was tired, and asked the prin-cess to 
 put him to sleep in her own silk-en bed. Then she cried, for 
 she did not wish to put the cold, wet frog in her neat bed. 
 But the king told her she must. 
 
 She took him up-stairs, and set him on the floor ; but when 
 
THE GOOSE GIRL 45 
 
 lie still said she must put him in her bed, she was in such a 
 rage that she seized the frog and flung him at the wall. 
 "Now be still, you hor-rid frog," she said. 
 
 But as he fell to the floor, he was no more a frog, but a 
 hand-some young prince. He told the prin-cess that he had 
 been changed in -to a frog by a witch, and no one could set 
 him free but her -self. 
 
 At the wish of the king, the prince stayed at the castle 
 Of course he and the princess fell in love with each oth-er at 
 once, and be fore long they were mar-ried. 
 
 THE GOOSE GIRL 
 
 -pHERE once lived an old queen who had one child, a fair, 
 **■ sweet girl. This prin-cess was to wed a king's son who 
 lived a great way off. When the time came, the queen gave 
 her much gold and gems, and a maid to wait on her and take 
 her to the prince she was to wed. To each she gave a horse 
 to ride, and that of the prin-cess was named Fa-la-da, and 
 it could talk. 
 
 But the maid was false, and on the way she made the prin- 
 cess get off her horse, and change her rich clothes for her own 
 plain ones. Then by threats that she would kill her if she 
 would not do so, she made the prin-cess take an oath that 
 
4ft. THE GOOSE GIRL 
 
 she would not tell of the change that had been made. When 
 they came to the end of their ride, the king's son came out to 
 meet them, and took the maid from her horse as if she were 
 his bride that was to be. He led her up the steps, while the 
 true prin-cess was left in the court-yard. The king saw her 
 there, and as he saw how sweet and fair her face was, and 
 how soft and white her hands, he went in haste to ask the 
 bride who it was she had brought with her. 
 
 "Oh! I brought her with me to serve me on the road," 
 said the false bride. "Give her some work to do, so that she 
 may not waste her time." 
 
 The king knew of no work to give her but to help a boy 
 named Karl, whom he had to take care of geese. So the real 
 prin-cess was made a goose girl. 
 
 The false bride was in fear that the horse, Fa -la -da, would 
 tell on her, and she soon asked the prince to have it put to 
 death. The prince told a man to kill the horse, but the real 
 prin-cess heard of it, and gave the man a piece of gold to hang 
 the head of the horse in an arch -way through which she had 
 to drive the geese each morn-ing. 
 
 The next morn-ing, as she and Karl passed through the arch' 
 way, she said to the head, 
 
 "O, Fa-la-da, hang-ing high!" 
 and the head said, 
 
THE GOOSE GIRL 
 
 47 
 
 "O, young prin-cess, pass-ing by, 
 If thy fate thy moth-er knew, 
 Her fond heart would break for you ! 
 
 They went on to a 
 field where the geese fed 
 all day, and the prin- 
 cess sat down and be- 
 gan to comb her hair. 
 It looked like pure gold, 
 and Karl wished to pull 
 some of it out. Then 
 the prin-cess sang, 
 
 "Blow, blow, wind blow; 
 Take Karl's hat in the air; 
 And do not let him catch it 
 Till I have combed my hair." 
 
 A strong wind did 
 take Karl's hat, and he 
 had to run to catch it. 
 When he came back, 
 the hair was all combed 
 and put up. Then Karl 
 was vexed, and would 
 not speak to the goose girl. The next day the 
 took place, and Kar' was so vexed that when 
 
 same things 
 they reached 
 
48 THE GOOSE GIRL 
 
 home, he went to the king and told him how the head of the 
 horse spoke to the goose girl, and how she made the wind 
 blow his hat off and he had to run to catch it. The king told 
 Kan to go with her to the fields next day, and he him -self 
 went Jtnd sat in the dark arch and heard what the horse's 
 head said. 
 
 Then he went aft-er them to the fields, and hid in a bush, 
 and there saw with his own eyes the goose girl and boy drive 
 in their geese, and in a short time the girl took down her 
 hair, that shone like gold, and he heard her say, 
 
 " Blow, blow, wind, blow ; 
 Take Karl's hat in the air ; 
 And do not let him catch it 
 Till I have combed my hair." 
 
 Then the king felt a gust of wind come, which took off 
 Karl's hat, so that he had to run a long way to catch it ; 
 while the goose girl combed out her hair, and put it up in 
 braids, be-fore he could get back. 
 
 The king went home, and that night sent for the goose girl, 
 and told her all he had seen and heard, and asked her what it 
 meant. 
 
 "That I dare not tell you," she said. "My heart is full of 
 woe, but I can tell the cause to no one, for I had to take an 
 oath that I would not do so." 
 
 "If you will not tell it to me," said the king, "tell it to 
 
THE GOOSE GIRL 49 
 
 that fire-place." And then he left her. The prin-cess crept in 
 the fire-place, and be-gan to weep and pour out her heart. 
 ' ' Here sit I, ' ' she said, ' ' the child of a king, yet a false maid 
 took my royal clothes from me, and took my place as bride at 
 the side of the prince, while I must go out and watch the 
 geese. Oh, if my moth-er knew of this it would break her 
 heart ! ' ' 
 
 But the king had stood near the door and heard all she said. 
 He told her to come out, and had her dressed in rich clothes, 
 and then she was so fair it was joy to look at her. 
 
 The king sent for his son and told him that he had the 
 wrong bride, while the true bride was here, she who had been 
 the goose girl. 
 
 The prince was glad when he saw how sweet and good she 
 was, and a great feast was at once laid. The true bride was 
 placed on one side of the prince, and the false one on the 
 oth-er. The false one was so puffed up with pride that she 
 did not know the true one. When all were through at the 
 feast, the king told the tale the prin-cess had told in the fire- 
 place, and then he asked the false bride what should be done 
 to one that had been so wick-ed. 
 
 The false bride did not see that it was a trap for her, and 
 she said, "Such a one should be put in a cask with spikes in 
 it, and dragged up and down the streets by hor-ses till she is 
 dead." 
 
50 RAPUNZEL 
 
 "You are that one," said the king, "and as you have said, 
 so shall it be done." 
 
 Then the prince wed his true bride, and they lived in great 
 joy and peace. 
 
 RAPUNZEL 
 
 THERE lived once a man and his wife who wished much 
 to have a child. At the back of their house was a gar- 
 den full of choice green food, but there was a high wall all 
 round it and no one dared to come near it, for a witch owned 
 it, and all were in fear that she might cast a spell on them. 
 
 One day the wife saw some let-tuce in the gar-den, and it 
 looked so fresh and green that she longed for some of it. She 
 wished more and more for it each day, and at last grew quite 
 sad for want of it. The man saw how she pined, and said, 
 "What ails you, dear wife?" 
 
 "Oh, I shall die," said she, "if I do not get some of that 
 let-tuce that grows back of the house." 
 
 "I will get some," said he, "cost what it will." 
 
 So that night he climbed o-ver the wall and got some. The 
 wife liked it so well that she longed for more, and to give her 
 rest the man went a -gain to get some. But this time the old 
 witch caught him, and said, "How dare you come in my 
 
RAPUNZEL 51 
 
 place and steal my lettuce?' You shall pay for this I " 
 
 "Oh," said he, "do not be so hard on me. I had to do it, 
 for my wife wished so much for it that she would have died 
 if she had not got it." 
 
 "Well, if that is true," said the witch, "you may have all 
 you like, but you must give me a pledge that you will do one 
 thing. If you should have a child, you must give it to me. 
 I will do well by it, and give it as good care as your wife would. ' ' 
 
 "In his fear he said he would give the child to the witch. 
 When weeks had passed, a child was born to them, and the 
 witch came and claimed it. She called it Ra-pun-zel, and took 
 it off with her. 
 
 Ra-pun-zel grew to be a fair girl, and had hair of great length. 
 When she was twelve years old, the witch shut her up in a 
 tow-er that had no stairs, and but one small win-dow at the 
 top. When the witch wished to get in, she would say, "Ra- 
 pun-zel, Ra-pun-zel! let down your hair." Then Ra-pun-zel 
 would let her long hair down out of the win-dow, and the 
 witch would climb up by it. 
 
 Some years went by, and one day a young prince came that 
 way, and heard such a sweet voice sing from the tow-er that 
 he had to stop. It was Ra-pun-zel, who sang that way to 
 pass the time. The prince tried to get in -to the tow-er, but 
 he could find no door. 
 
 He went home, but the song still rang in his ears, and 
 
52 
 
 RAPUNZEL 
 
 he came each day to hear it. 
 Once, when he stood be hind a 
 tree, he saw the witch come, 
 and cry, "Ra-pun-zel, Ra-pun 
 zel ! let down your hair. ' ' Then 
 he saw the hair let down, and 
 the witch climb up by it. 
 
 The next day, he came to the 
 tow-er and called, "Ra-pun-zel, 
 Ra-pun-zel ! let down your hair." 
 
 She let her hair down, and 
 the prince at once climbed up. 
 Ra-pun-zel was in great fear when 
 she saw the young man. But 
 the prince spoke to her kind-ly, 
 and told her how he had heard 
 her sing, and that he could not 
 rest till he had seen her. 
 
 Ra-pun-zel lost her fear, and 
 when he asked her if she would 
 be his wife, she thought ''He 
 is bet-ter than the old witch, 
 and she put her hand in his, 
 and said, "Yes, I will go with 
 you, but how am I to get down? 
 
RAPUNZEL 53 
 
 Each time you come, bring with you a skein of silk, and I 
 will weave it in-to a rope, and go down by it." 
 
 The prince said he would do this, and then climbed down 
 and went home. But the old witch had seen him go. She 
 was in a rage, and as soon as she had climbed up in the 
 tow-er, she seized Ra-pun-zel's long hair, took a pair of shears, 
 and snip ! snap ! off fell the fine braids to the floor. Then she 
 sent her off to a hut in a lone-ly place, where she could see 
 no one. When the prince came the next day, the old witch 
 hung out Ra-pun-zel's hair for him to climb up by. When he 
 got to the top, she cried, "Ah, the bird has left the nest ! 
 The cat took her off, and will now scratch your eyes out ! ' 
 The prince was full of grief when he heard these words, and 
 in his des-pair sprang from the win-dow. He was not killed, 
 but the thorns on which he fell put out his eyes. 
 
 He roamed through the woods for a long time, mourn -ing 
 for his lost bride, and eat -ing naught but roots and wild fruit. 
 At last he came to the hut where Ra-pun-zel lived in want 
 and grief. 
 
 As he drew near the place, he heard a voice that he thought 
 he knew. He went to it, and Ra-pun-zel knew him, and ran 
 to him, and threw her arms round his neck and wept. Two 
 of her tears fell on his eyes, and his sight at once came back 
 
 He led Ra-pun-zel a-way to his king-dom, where they were 
 received with great joy, and lived long and hap-py lives. 
 
54 
 
 THE TOWN MUSICIANS OF BREMEN 
 
 THERE was once an ass who for a long term of years had 
 to take the bags to the mill. When his strength at last 
 gave out, the man who owned him thought to sell him for his 
 hide, but the ass saw that an ill wind was blow-ing, so one 
 day he set out on the road to Bre-men, where he thought he 
 might play mu-sic in the town band. 
 
 He had gone but a mile or so when he met a dog, who 
 gasped as if he had run a long way. "Why do you pant so?'* 
 asked the ass. 
 
 "A-las!" said the dog, "Now that I am too old and weak 
 to join in the hunt, my mas-ter wished to kill me, so I ran 
 a-way ; but how am I to earn my bread?" 
 
 "Would you like to know? I am on my way to Bre-men 
 to join the town band. You might go with me, and take up 
 mu-sic too. I will play the lute, and you can beat the drum." 
 The dog said "Yes" to this, and they went on. They soon 
 met a cat that looked very sad. "WTiat ails you?" said the 
 ass. 
 
 "How can one feel gay that has had a close shave for his 
 life?" said the cat. "I am old, and I like bet-ter to sit by 
 the fire than to go out and hunt mice, so my mis -tress tried 
 to drown me. I got off, but how am I to find food?" 
 
THE TOWN MUSICIANS OF BREMEN 55 
 
 "Come with us to Bre-men, 
 
 and join the town band," said 
 
 the ass. 
 
 The cat thought the plan a 
 
 good one, and went with them. 
 
 As they passed a farm-yard, 
 
 they saw a cock that crowed 
 
 with all his might. "Why 
 
 do you make so much noise ? ' ' 
 
 asked the ass. 
 
 "Why, I just heard the cook 
 
 say she meant to make soup 
 
 of me to-day; so I mean to 
 
 crow at the top of my voice 
 
 as long as I can." 
 
 "You have a fine voice," 
 said the ass. "Come with us 
 to Bre-men, and join the town 
 band. 
 
 The cock was pleased, and 
 soon the four were on the way. 
 But they could not reach Bre- 
 men in one day, so when night THE FOUR musicians. 
 came they stopped in a wood to rest. The cock flew to the top 
 of a tree, and from there he saw a light in a house near by. 
 
56 THE TOWN MUSICIANS OF BREMEN 
 
 He told the oth-ers, and the ass said they ought to go and 
 see what sort of place it was. They went, and as the ass was 
 the tall-est, he looked in and saw some men at a ta-ble spread 
 with fine food. 
 
 They all wished for some of the food, but did not know how 
 to get it. At last they thought of a plan. The ass was to 
 put his fore-feet on the win-dow sill, the dog to spring on the 
 back of the ass, the cat on the dog, and the cock was to perch 
 on the cat's head. Then the ass was to bray, the dog to bark, 
 the cat to howl, and the cock to crow, all at once. They did 
 this, and then sprang through the win-dow, and made the 
 glass fly on all sides. 
 
 The men, who were a gang of thieves, sprang up in great 
 fright, and fled for their lives. Then the four friends sat down 
 and ate up the food. When all was gone, they put out the 
 light, and lay down to rest. The ass lay down in the yard, 
 the dog near the door, the cat by the fire, and the cock 
 perched on a beam. 
 
 When it got late one of the thieves stole back to the house; 
 and when he saw no light, and heard no noise, he went in. 
 He saw the cat's eyes, as they shone in the dark, and thought 
 they were live coals, so he stooped to light a match by them. 
 But the cat flew at his face and scratched him, so he ran out 
 at the door. But be-fore he got out, the dog sprang up and 
 bit his leg. As he passed the ass in the yard, the ass gave 
 
THE TOWN MUSICIANS OF BREMEN 
 
 57 
 
 THE GANG OF THIEVES. 
 
 him a kick, and all this time the cock kept up a loud ' ' Cock- 
 a doo-dle-doo ! " and clapped his wings with all his might. 
 
 The thief was scared near to death, and ran to tell the tale 
 to his friends. "A witch sits in the house," he said. "She 
 spat at me, and scratched me ; a man stood by the door and 
 ran a long knife in- to my leg ; and out in the yard lay a black 
 beast that struck me with a club, while up on the roof sat 
 
58 THE THREE SPINNERS 
 
 the judge, who cried, ' Bring me the rogue ; ' so I got off as 
 fast as I could." 
 
 From that time the thieves would not go near the house, 
 and as the four friends liked it well, they made it their home 
 for years. 
 
 THE THREE SPINNERS 
 
 THERE was once a pret-ty girl who did not like to spin, 
 and her moth-er could not force her to do it, try as she 
 might. At last the moth-er grew so cross that she struck the 
 girl, and she set up in a loud cry that could be heard in the 
 street. 
 
 Just then the queen went by, and when she heard the girl's 
 screams she stopped and asked the moth-er why she beat her 
 girl so hard. The moth-er did not like to tell her that the 
 girl would not spin, so she said: "I whip her be-cause she 
 will not cease to spin. She is al-ways at the wheel, and we 
 are too poor to buy flax for her." 
 
 "I like to hear the wheel hum," said the queen. "Let her 
 go with me to my cas-tle ; I have lots of flax, and she can 
 spin all she wants to." 
 
 The moth-er was pleased with this plan, and the girl went 
 with the queen. When they reached the cas-tle, the queen 
 
THE THREE SPINNERS 59 
 
 took her to three rooms full of flax, and said, "Spin this flax, 
 and when it is done you shall be the bride of my son, the 
 prince." 
 
 The girl was in a fright, for she knew she could not spin 
 the flax in her life-time, e-ven if she worked day and night. 
 As soon as the queen left her she be-gan to weep, and she 
 kept this up for three days. On the third day the queen came 
 in, and knew not what to think when she found that the girl 
 had not yet spun as much as one thread. But the girl made 
 a plea that she had felt so sad to leave her home that she 
 could not work. The queen was pleased that she loved her 
 home, but said she must now be-gin to work. 
 
 When the girl was a-lone, she knew not what to do. She 
 went to the win-dow, and there she saw three wom-en. The 
 first one had a broad flat foot, the next one had a large lip, 
 and the third had a broad thumb. They asked her what was 
 the mat-ter, and she told them. They said they would help 
 her if she would ask them to her feast on the day she was to 
 wed the prince, call them her aunts, and let them sit at her 
 table. 
 
 "With all my heart," said the girl. "Come in and be-gin 
 the work at once." 
 
 She let the strange wom-en in, and they be-gan to spin. 
 One drew the thread and worked the wheel with her foot, an- 
 oth-er wet the thread, while the third twist-ed it with her 
 
60 
 
 THE THREE SPINNERS 
 
 WHY HAVE YOU SO BROAD A FOOT?' 
 
 thumb. They had soon spun all the flax in the three rooms, 
 and then went their ways. 
 
 When the queen found the flax all spun, she set the day for 
 the wed -ding. The girl asked if her three aunts might come, 
 and the queen said they might. So on the day of the feast the 
 
THE SEVEN CROWS 61 
 
 three wom-en came, dressed in fine clothes. When the prince 
 saw them, he said, "Oh, how came you to have such ug-ly 
 aunts?" 
 
 He went up to the one with the broad foot and asked, 
 "Why have you so broad a foot?" 
 
 "From treading the wheel," she said. 
 'Why have you so big a lip?" he asked the next one. 
 
 "From lick ing the thread," she said. 
 
 ' 'And why is your thumb so large ? " he asked the third one. 
 
 "From twist-ing the thread," she said. 
 
 The young prince then said that his pret-ty bride from hence 
 forth must not touch a spin-ning wheel. 
 
 This was the girl's re-ward for having kept her word. 
 
 THE SEVEN CROWS 
 
 THERE was once a man who had sev-en boys, but no girl. 
 At last a girl was born, but she was so weak and small 
 that it was thought best to bap-tize her at once, lest she 
 should die. The sev=en boys were sent to the well for wa-ter. 
 Each wished to draw the wa-ter, and in their strife the pail 
 fell [in-to the well. Then they feared to go in the house, and 
 the fa-ther grew cross be-cause they did not come, "I wish 
 they would all change to crows," he said; and the words were 
 
62 
 
 THE SEVEN CROWS 
 
 EACH STAR SAT ON A GRAND SEAT OF ITS OWN. 
 
 no more than out of his mouth, when the boys were changed 
 to crows, and flew off. 
 
 This made the fa-ther grieve, but all the more did he love 
 the girl, who soon grew strong and fair. When she be-came 
 a big girl, she learned the fate of her broth-ers, and it made 
 her sad. 
 
THE SEVEN CROWS 63 
 
 At last she left home to try to find them, and break the spell 
 that bound them. She went from one end of the earth to 
 the oth-er, but she did not find her broth-ers. Then she came 
 to the sun, but it was hot and scorched her, so she ran to the 
 moon. But there it was so cold that she went to the stars, 
 who were kind to her. Each star sat on a grand seat of its 
 own, and the morn-ing star rose and gave her a key, say-ing, 
 "If you do not have this key, you can not o-pen the ice-berg 
 in which your broth-ers are shut up." 
 
 But the girl lost the key, and could not o-pen the ice-berg. 
 She bent her fin-ger and put it in the door, and by good luck 
 it un-locked it. When she en-tered, she saw a dwarf, who 
 said, "My child, what do you seek?" 
 
 "I seek my broth-ers, the sev-en crows," she said. 
 
 "They are not at home," said the dwarf, "but if you wish 
 to wait for them to re-turn, you may come in and sit down. 
 
 The girl wait-ed, and while she did so, she ate some food 
 from each of sev-en plates which the dwarf had set for the 
 crows, and drank from each of sev-en cups. In the last cup 
 she dropped a ring which she had brought with her. 
 
 All at once she heard a whirr in the air, and the dwarf said, 
 ' ' The sev-en crows are now fly-ing home. 
 
 Soon they came in, and be-gan to eat and drink, each seek- 
 ing his own plate and cup. Then one said to the oth-er, 
 "Who has been eat-ing from my plate? Who has been drink- 
 
64 
 
 THE SEVEN CROWS 
 
 'THE SEVEN CROWS ARE NOW FLYING HOME." 
 
 ing from my cup? There has been a hu-man mouth here." 
 When the sev-enth came to the bot-tom of his cup, the ring 
 rolled out. He looked at it, and knew it as a ring that had 
 be-longed to his par-ents, and said, "Can it be that our sis-ter 
 is here ? Then we are set free 1 ' ' 
 
 When the girl, who had stood be-hind the door, heard these 
 words, she stepped out, and at once the spell was bro-ken. The 
 sev-en crows changed to sev-en fine young men, and they em- 
 braced and kissed their sis-ter, and in great joy they all set 
 out at once for their home. 
 
65 
 
 LITTLE SNOWDROP 
 
 ONCE on a time in the depth of win-ter, when the flakes 
 of snow fell like fea-thers from the clouds, a queen sat 
 sew-ing at her pal-ace win-dow, which had a carved frame of 
 black wood. While she sewed she pricked her fin-ger, and three 
 drops of blood fell on the snow. The bright red looked so 
 well on the white snow, that the queen thought, "Oh, that I 
 had a child as white as this snow, as red as this blood, and 
 with hair as black as the wood of this frame." 
 
 It soon came to pass that the queen had a girl child who 
 was as white as snow, as red as blood, and with hair as black 
 as the win-dow frame. She looked like a snowdrop, and hence 
 was called by that name. And when the child was born, the 
 moth-er died. 
 
 When less than a year had passed, the king took a new 
 wife, who was most fair, but so proud that she could not bear 
 to think that an-y one else came near her in beau-ty, She had 
 a mag-ic glass, and when she stepped in front of it and said : 
 
 " Mir-ror, mir-ror on the wall, 
 Who's the fair-est one of all ? " 
 
 it would say: 
 
 " Thou art the fair-est, la-dy queen." 
 
66 LITTLE SNOWDROP 
 
 Then she was p eased, for she knew the glass spoke the 
 truth. 
 
 But as Snow-drop grew up, she be-came fair-er and fair-er 
 till she reached the age of eight years, and then was more 
 love-ly than the queen. The queen was vexed and went to 
 her glass : 
 
 " Mir-ror, mir-ror on the wall, 
 Who's the fair-est one of all?" 
 
 The mir-ror re-plied : 
 
 "Thou wert the fair-est la-dy queen; 
 Snow-drop is fair-est now, I ween." 
 
 The queen was shocked, and turned green with en-vy. 
 From that hour the sight of Snow-drop rilled her heart with 
 hate ; and the hate grew so strong and fierce that she had no 
 rest night or day. At last she called a hunt-er to her, and 
 said, ' ' Take this child to the woods ; I can not bear the sight 
 of her. Kill her, and bring me her heart and tongue as a 
 proof that you have done what I bid you." 
 
 The hunt-er took the child to the woods, but when he drew 
 his knife to kill her she begged him to spare her life. "I will 
 run in-to the wilds, and not be seen an-y more," said she. 
 
 This speech touched the man's heart, and he took pit-y on 
 her, and let her go. Just then a young boar came to the spot, 
 and as soon as he saw it the man caught and killed it. Then 
 
Lin le snowdrop 
 
 67 
 
 he took its heart and 
 tongue, and brought 
 them to the queen, and 
 told her they were 
 Snow-drop's. 
 
 But now poor Snow- 
 drop was left a -lone, 
 and knew not which 
 way to turn. She ran 
 through the woods, and 
 saw some wild beasts, 
 but none of them 
 harmed her. She ran 
 on till dark, and then 
 she came to a small hut, 
 in-to which she went. 
 There was no one in- 
 side, but a ta-ble was 
 set with food for sev-en 
 
 per -sons. 
 
 Snow-drop was in 
 dire need of food, so she ate a small speck of what was on 
 each plate, and drank a drop or two of wine out of each glass, 
 for she did not wish to take the whole share of an-y one. 
 
 There were sev-en small beds ranged in a row, each cov-ered 
 
 THE QUEEN BEFORE HER MIRROR. 
 
68 LITTLE SNOWDROP 
 
 with snow-white sheets. Then Snow-drop, be-cause she was 
 tired, lay down in one of the beds, but it did not suit; then 
 she tried the next, but that was too long ; the third was too 
 short ; the fourth, too hard ; and so on till she came to the 
 sev-enth, which was just right, so she tucked her-self up in 
 it, and when she had prayed to God to take care of her, went 
 to sleep. 
 
 By and by the lords of the house came home. They were 
 sev-en dwarfs who delved all day in the hills for gold. They 
 saw that some one had been in the room ; that it was not just 
 as they had left it. The first one said, "Who has sat in my 
 chair?" The sec-ond, '"Who has eat-en from my plate? " 
 The third, "Who has nib-bled at my bread?" The fourth, 
 "Who has been at my broth?" The fifth, "Who has used 
 my fork?" The sixth, "Who has been cut-ting with my 
 knife?" The sev-enth, "Who has drunk out of my cup?" . 
 
 Then the first one, look-ing at his bed, saw that a dent had 
 been made in it, and he cried out, "Who has stepped on my 
 bed?" They all ran each one to his bed, and cried, one af-ter 
 the oth-er, "Some one has been in my bed." 
 
 But the sev-enth one, on look-ing at his, saw Snow-drop. 
 He called his broth-ers, who ran to the bed with their lamps 
 in their hands. 
 
 They looked at her in won-der. "What a beau-ty she is!" 
 they said ; and they were so much pleased that they would not 
 
LITTLE SNOWDROP 69 
 
 wake her, but left her to sleep, and the sev-enth dwarf, in 
 whose bed she was, slept one hour with each of his feMows, 
 and so the night passed. 
 
 When Snow-drop woke in the morn-ing, and saw the dwarfs, 
 she was fright-ened. But they were friend-ly, and asked her 
 how she had come to their house. Then she told them how 
 her step-moth-er would have had her killed, and how her life 
 had been spared. The dwarfs told her that if she would keep 
 house for them she might stay with them and should want for 
 noth-ing. 
 
 "I will do all this glad-ly," said Snow-drop, and so she 
 stayed with them. 
 
 The dwarfs went out each day to dig for gold, and they told 
 Snow-drop to take great care not to let a soul in the house 
 while they were not there, "It will not be long," said they, 
 "till your step-moth-er will know you are here." 
 
 The queen in the mean time had no thought but that Snow- 
 drop was dead, and that once more she was the fair-est per-son 
 in the world. She went to her glass one day and said: 
 
 " Mir-ror, mir-ror, on the wall, 
 Who's the fair-est one of all ? " 
 
 And it re-plied: 
 
 " Thou wert the fair-est, la-dy queen ; 
 Snow-drop is fair-est now I ween. 
 
70 LITTLE SNOWDROP 
 
 A-mid the for-est dark-ly green, 
 
 She lives with dwarfs — the hills be-tween." 
 
 Then the queen knew the hun-ter had not told her the truth. 
 She thought and thought how she could kill Snow-drop, and 
 at last she hit on a plan. She stained her face, and put on 
 the dress of a ped-dler wom-an, and went o-ver the hills to 
 the dwarfs' house. She knocked, and Snow-drop looked out 
 and think-ing she was some poor wom-an, let her in, and 
 bought a stay-lace from her. 
 
 "Come," said the old wom-an, "let me lace your pret-ty 
 waist right," and Snow-drop let her do so. But she drew the 
 lace so tight that Snow-drop could not breathe, and fell down 
 as if dead. Then the queen sped a-way. 
 
 When the dwarfs came home they found their dear Snow- 
 drop ly-ing on the floor. They raised her up, and when they 
 saw that she was laced too tight, they cut the stays, and in a 
 short time she be-gan to breathe. When they heard what had 
 ta-ken place, they knew the queen had been there, and they 
 warned Snow-drop to take more care, and let no one come in 
 the house when they were not with her. 
 
 When the queen reached home, she went to her glass and 
 said the same words : 
 
 " Mir-ror, mir-ror, on the wall, 
 Who's the fair-est one of all ? " 
 
LITTLE SNOWDROP 71 
 
 and it re-plied once more : 
 
 " Thou wert the fair-est, la-dy queen, 
 Snow-drop is fair-est now, I ween. 
 A-mid the for-est, dark-ly green, 
 She lives with dwarfs — the hills be-tween." 
 
 Her rage was great, and she set her wits to work a -gain to 
 plan Snow-drop's death. By the aid of witch-craft, she made 
 a poi-soned comb, and dressed as an old worn -an, and set out 
 once more o-ver the hills. She knocked at the door of the 
 dwarfs' house, call-ing, "Nice goods for sale!" 
 
 Snow-drop peeped out and said, "You need not stop here, I 
 shall let no one in." 
 
 "But still you may look," said the old wom-an, and she 
 held up the comb. The child was so much pleased with the 
 pret-ty comb that she for -got her fears and o-pened the door\, 
 
 "Now," said the ped-dler, "let me show you how to use 
 it," and she be-gan to comb Snow-drop's hair. The poi-son 
 worked at once, and Snow-drop fell to the floor sense-less. 
 
 By good luck, the dwarfs soon came home ; and when they 
 saw Snow-drop ly-ing on the floor, they knew the step-moth-er 
 had been there a-gain. As they raised Snow-drop they saw 
 the comb in her hair, and as soon as they drew it out she 
 re-vived. 
 
 When the queen reached home she went a-gain to her glass, 
 and got from it the same re-ply as twice be-fore. This made 
 
72 
 
 LITTLE SNOWDROP 
 
 her wild with rage. "Snow-drop shall die," she cried, "e-ven 
 if it cost me my life." 
 
 She went to a se-cret room which no one else could en-ter, 
 
 and there made a dead-ly poi-soned ap-ple. 
 Then she a -gain stained her face, and 
 dressed as a peas -ant's wife, and went a 
 third time to the dwarfs' 
 house. 
 
 She knocked, but Snow- 
 drop looked out of the 
 win-dow and said, "I 
 dare not o-pen the 
 door, for the dwarfs 
 have told me to let no 
 one in." 
 
 "That is hard for 
 
 me," said the wom-an, 
 
 "for I must take back 
 
 my ap-ples, but there 
 
 is one which I will 
 
 »/ give you ; ' ' and she 
 
 SNOWDROP LETS THE DISGUISED QUEEN LACE HER WAIST. held UP an ap-ple. 
 
 "No," said Snow -drop, "I dare not take it." 
 "What! are you a-fraid of it?" cried the old wom-an. 
 "There, see, I will cut it in two, and you can have the red 
 
LITTLE SNOWDROP 73 
 
 halt and I will take the white." The ap-ple had been made 
 so that the red side a-lone was poi-soned. Snow-drop longed 
 for the fruit, and when she saw the wom-an eat her half, she 
 could not re-sist, but took the poi-soned part. 
 
 She took but one bite, and fell down dead. The queen looked 
 at her with cru-el eyes, and laughed. "The dwarfs will not 
 be a-ble to rouse you this time," she said. 
 
 And when she reached home, and went to her glass, it 
 an-swered : 
 
 " Thou art the fair-est, la-dy queen." 
 
 When the dwarfs came home they tried all means to bring 
 Snow-drop to life, but this time she seemed to be dead be-yond 
 re -call. They laid her on a bier, and sat by her and wept for 
 three days. They would have bur-ied her, but she looked so 
 fair and life-like they could not bear to put her in the earth. 
 So they had a case made of clear glass, in which one could 
 view the bod-y from all sides, and in this they placed her. 
 Then they put the glass case up -on the ledge of a rock, and 
 one of them al-ways stayed by it to watch. 
 
 Snow -drop lay in the case a long time and showed no signs 
 of de-cay. By and by a young prince passed through the 
 woods one day and saw the case on the rock, and the fair girl 
 with-in it. 
 
 When he had looked at it, he said to the dwarfs : ' ' Let me 
 
74 
 
 LITTLE SNOWDROP 
 
 THEN THEY PUT THE GLA38 CASE UPON THE LEDGE OF A ROCK. 
 
 have this case and I will pay you what you like for it." 
 The dwarfs said, "We will not sell the case for all the gold 
 
 in the world ! ' ' 
 
 But when they saw that the prince loved Snow drop tru-ly, 
 
LITTLE SNOWDROP 75 
 
 they gave him the case. The prince had his ser-vants lift it 
 and take it a-way. As they went through the woods, one of 
 the men stum-bled, and the jar caused the piece of poi-soned 
 fruit to roll out of Snow-drop's mouth. Soon she o-pened her 
 eyes, raised the top of the case and sat up. 
 Where am I ? " she cried. 
 
 'You are with me," said the prince, full of joy, and he told 
 her all that had come to pass. "You are more dear to me 
 than all else in the world. Come with me to my fath-er's 
 pal -ace and be my wife." 
 
 Snow -drop loved the kind young prince, and went with him 
 and soon af-ter their mar-riage took place with great splen-dor. 
 
 Snow-drop's step-moth-er was asked to the wed-ding, and 
 when she was dressed in her fine clothes to go, she went to 
 her glass and asked : 
 
 "Mir-ror, mir-ror on the wall, 
 Who's the fair-est one of all?" 
 
 and it re-plied : 
 
 "Thou wert the fair-est, la-dy queen; 
 The prin-ce's bride is more fair, I ween." 
 
 In her an-ger the queen at first thought she would not go 
 to the wed-ding, but in the end she could not re-sist her wish 
 to see the bride. 
 
 As soon as she en-tered she knew Snow-drop, and in her 
 
76 THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE 
 
 rage and fear seemed rooted to the spot. Just then a pair of red- 
 hot iron shoes were brought with tongs and set in front of 
 her, and these she was forced to put on and dance in till she 
 fell down dead. 
 
 THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE 
 
 ONCE on a time there lived a fish-er-man and his wife in 
 a poor small hut near the sea. Each day he went out 
 to fish, and there he sat with his rod and looked at the sea. 
 
 One day his line went deep, deep down, and when he drew 
 it up there was a fine young fish at the end. The fish spoke 
 to him, and said, "Let me go, I pray you, fish-er-man; I am 
 not a real fish, but a prince on whom a witch has cast a spell. 
 What use shall I be to you if you pull me up? I should not 
 taste well, and you could not eat me. Put me back in the 
 sea and let me swim." 
 
 "Well," said the man, "you need not make such a fuss. 
 I have no use for a fish that can talk, so you may go back at 
 once in-to the sea." With these words he threw it in-to the 
 wa-ter, and it swam off. Then the man got up and went 
 home to his wife. 
 
 "Hus-band, " said his wife, "have you caught no fish to' 
 day? " 
 
THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE 
 
 77 
 
 "Oh, I caught one," said he, "but it said it was not a fish 
 but a prince, so I threw it back in-to the sea." 
 ' ' Did you not wish first ? ' ' she asked. 
 
 "No," said he, "what should I wish 
 for?" 
 
 "What should you wish for?" she 
 
 cried. "Why, that is too bad! Must 
 
 we live all our days in this small mean 
 
 hut? You might at least have asked 
 
 for a bet-ter hut. Go back 
 
 and call him, and say we 
 
 want a nice neat cot-tage, and 
 
 I am sure we shall get it." 
 
 ■n|NpPHKL<* T hy ' how 
 
 11-? '^''}^MlMWr^'\._.. can I pay for it?" 
 
 asked the man. 
 
 "Pay for it!" 
 said his wife. 
 Did you not 
 catch the fish, 
 and then let it 
 ^>go. Be quick, 
 and ask for this, 
 and he is sure to 
 give it to you." 
 
 *"H 
 
 "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" 
 
78 THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE 
 
 The man did not like to go, but it was of no use to op-pose 
 his wife. So he went once more down to the sea, which was 
 not so smooth as it had been be-fore. He called the fish, and 
 it swam up to him and asked, "What do you want?' : 
 
 "Oh,"' said the man. "because I caught you and let you 
 go, my wife says I ought to have wished. She sent me back 
 to ask for a small neat cot-tage in place of our poor hut." 
 
 "Go home," said the fish, "she has it now." 
 
 So the man went, and as he drew near his home, the hut 
 was gone, and in its place stood a clean cot-tage, at the door 
 of which his wife sat on a bench. She took him by the hand 
 and said, "Come in now and see if this is not much bet-ter." 
 
 So they went in, and in the cot-tage there was a nice room 
 with a fire-place in it, a bed-room with a soft white bed, a 
 store-room full of good things, and a kitch-en fit-ted up with 
 the best of tin and brass-ware. 
 
 "See," said the wife, "is it not nice?" 
 
 "Yes," said the man, "and it will stay so; now let us be 
 con-tent-ed. " 
 
 ' ' We will see a -bout that, ' ' said the wife, and they went to 
 bed. 
 
 The wife was pleased for a while, but when she thought of 
 the quick-ness with which her wish had been grant-ed, she felt 
 sad that she had not asked for more. At last she be-gan to 
 tease her hus-band to go and call the fish a-gain, and ask him 
 
THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE 
 
 79 
 
 for a large farm-house. 
 
 The man did not 
 want to go. He thought 
 the cot-tage was large 
 e-nough, but his wife 
 gave him no peace, and 
 at length he went to 
 the sea, called the fish, 
 and told him his wife 
 want-ed a large farm- 
 house. 
 
 "Go home," said the 
 fish, "and you will find 
 that she has ob-tained 
 her wish." 
 
 The man found the 
 words of the fish true, 
 but the wife did not 
 stay pleased long. She 
 wished for some-thing 
 still more grand, and 
 kept send- ing the man to the fish to ask, first that she might 
 live in a stone cas-tle, and then that the cas-tle might be 
 changed in-to a pal-ace and she be a queen, and then that she 
 might be an em-press. Each time the fish gave her her wish, 
 
 THE'CASTLE IS CHANGED INTO A PALACE. 
 
80 THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 
 
 but each time the sea grew more rough, and the clouds more 
 black. 
 
 At last there was no high-er rank on earth for which the 
 wife could wish, and she could not sleep for think-ing what 
 else to ask for, She rose at dawn, and looked out of the win 
 dow, and saw the sun rise. "Why should not I make the 
 sun and moon rise ? ' ' she thought, and she made the man go 
 to the fish and say that she wished to rule the sun and moon. 
 
 When the fish was told of this mad wish, a fierce storm 
 burst forth, and while the man stood trem-bling he heard the 
 fish say, "Go home; you will find her once more in her hut." 
 
 And there she staid for the rest of her days. 
 
 THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 
 
 ONCE on a time there lived a king and a queen who were 
 sad be cause they had no child. At length, when years 
 had gone by, they had their wish — a girl child was born to 
 them, and their joy knew no bounds. 
 
 The king to show how pleased he was, gave a feast when 
 the child was named, so grand that none like it had been seen 
 up to that time. He asked all the fai-ries that could be found 
 in. the land to come to the feast, so that each might give the 
 ba-by prin-cess some choice gift, as was the way with good 
 
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 
 
 81 
 
 4 
 
 THE OLD FAIRY ARRIVES. 
 
 fai-ries in those days. When they 
 sat down to the feast there was set 
 in front of each fai-ry a dish of pure 
 gold, set with rich gems, as well as 
 a plate, knife, fork, and spoon of 
 gold. But just as they took their 
 seats, in-to the hall came an old fai-ry who had not been asked, 
 be -cause two score of years past she had gone off on a long 
 trip, and had not since been heard of till this day. 
 
 The king had a place made for her, but plain ware had to 
 be put on for her, as but sev-en of the gold sets had been 
 made. The old fai-ry looked on this as a slight, and made 
 some dire threats in a low voice. A young fai-ry who sat near 
 her, heard how she found fault, and feared she might give the 
 child some e-vil gift ; so she went and hid be-hind the hang-ings, 
 
82 THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 
 
 so that she might speak last, and thus un-do, as far as she 
 could, the harm the old fai-ry might try to bring to pass. 
 
 When the feast drew near its end the sev-en good fai-ries 
 be-gan to be-stow their gifts on the child. The first wished 
 that she might be good : the sec-ond, that she might be wise ; 
 the third, that she might be fair, and so on, till well nigh all 
 good things that could be wished for had been giv-en. 
 
 Then the old fai-ry's turn came. She walked to the mid-die 
 of the room, and with raised hand cried out, ''My gift to the 
 child is — that when she is fif-teen years old, she shall pierce 
 her hand with a spin-die, and die of the wound." Then she 
 turned, went out of the hall, and was seen no more. 
 
 Her aw-ful gift put all in a fright, and the king and queen 
 and all the court be-gan to cry and weep. 
 
 But the young fai-ry who had staid be-hind the hang-ings 
 now came forth. She could not un-do in full the work of the 
 old fai-ry, but she could make the doom ot the prin-cess less 
 hard. ' ' She shall not die. ' ' she said, ' ' but a deep sleep shall 
 fall on her, which shall last a hun-dred years." 
 
 To save his child from this sad fate, the king caused all the 
 spin-dies in the land to be burnt. As the child grew up, all 
 the good wish-es of the fai-ries came true ; she was fair, wise, 
 and good, and was loved by all who knew her. 
 
 It came to pass that on the day that she was fif-teen years 
 old, the king and queen were not at home, and she was left 
 
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 
 
 83 
 
 to roam at will through the cas-tle. She seized the chance to 
 see parts of it in which she had nev-er been be-fore, and went 
 from room to room till she came to an old tow-er. She went 
 up the stairs till she came to a small 
 door. She turned the key, the door 
 flew o-pen, and there in the room sat 
 an old wom-an spin-ning flax. 
 
 "How do you do, my good old 
 la-dy?" said the prin=cess. "What are 
 you do-ing ? ' ' 
 
 "I am spin-ning," said the wom-an. 
 
 "What is that queer thing that flies 
 round so fast ? ' ' asked the prin-cess, 
 and she took the spin-die in her hand 
 as if she too would spin. She had no 
 more than touched the spin-die when 
 the bad wish came true — the point of 
 the spin-die pricked her hand, and she 
 fell back as if she were dead on a bed 
 that stood near. At the same time a deep sleep fell on all in 
 the cas-tle. 
 
 The king and queen, who had just come in, went to sleep 
 in the hall, and all their suite with them. The beasts in their 
 stalls, the doves on the roof, the flies on the wall, yes, and 
 e-ven the fire on the hearth, all ceased to stir and went to 
 
 BEHIND THE HANGINGS. 
 
84 
 
 THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 
 
 sleep. The meat stopped roast-ing, and the cook, who had 
 raised his hand to cuff the boy who helped him, dropped his 
 arm and went to sleep too. The wind died down, and not a 
 leaf stirred on the trees near the cas-tle. 
 
 Soon a thick hedge of thorns sprang up, and grew so high, 
 as years passed, that it hid the cas-tle from sight, and not so 
 
 much as the flag that waved from 
 the tow-er could be seen. 
 
 But the tale of the 
 sleep-ing Bri-er Rose, as 
 the prin-cess was called, 
 spread through the land, 
 and from time to time 
 sons of kings tried 
 to reach the cas- 
 tle ; but one and 
 all failed, for the 
 thorns held them, 
 as if by hands, 
 and the young 
 men died there be- 
 cause they could 
 not get free. 
 
 Years and years 
 passed, and an- 
 
 THE OLD MAN AND THE PRINCE. 
 
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 85 
 
 oth-er king's son came to that part of the land. An old man 
 
 who lived near the hedge told him of the cas-tle and the fair 
 
 prin-cess, called Bri-er Rose, who 
 
 had slept in it for a hun-dred years, 
 
 and with her the king and queen 
 
 and all their court. The old man 
 
 told him too how he had heard from 
 
 his grand-fa-ther of the young men 
 
 who had lost their lives try-ing to 
 
 pierce the hedge. The young prince 
 
 cried out, "I have no fear. I will 
 
 find the fair Bri-er Rose." 
 
 The good old man tried to talk 
 
 him out of it, but he would not hear 
 
 a word. 
 Just at that time came the last 
 
 day of the hun-dred years when 
 
 Bri-er Rose would wake from her 
 
 sleep. As the prince drew near the 
 
 hedge, in place of thorns he saw 
 
 on-ly flow-ers. In the court-yard he saw the hor-ses and dogs 
 
 as they lay sleep-ing. He went in the cas-tle ; all was still, 
 
 the flies slept on the wall, the cook, and near him the kitch-en 
 
 boy, and the maid, all slept. 
 
 He went on and in the hall he found the court-iers sleep- 
 
 THE SLEEPING COOK. 
 
86 THE CAT WHO MARRIED A MOUSE 
 
 ing and near the throne lay the king and queen. He went 
 from room to room, but heard no sound. At last he came to 
 the room in the tow-er in which the prin-cess was sleep-ing. 
 
 He o-pened the door : there she lay, look-ing so fair he could 
 not take his eyes from her. He stooped and kissed her ; at 
 this Bri-er Rose o-pened her eyes, woke up, and smiled at the 
 prince. 
 
 Hand in hand they went out of the tow-er. They found the 
 king and queen and all the court-iers a-wake, and star-ing one 
 at an-oth-er in sur-prise, and the whole cas-tle was once more 
 in mo-tion as if noth-ing had oc-curred, for the hun-dred years 
 of sleep had made no change in an-y one. 
 
 By and by there was a grand wed-ding. The young prince 
 made Bri-er Rose his wife, and they lived full of joy to the 
 end of their days. 
 
 THE CAT WHO MARRIED A MOUSE 
 
 ONCE on a time there was a cat who made friends with 
 a mouse, and talked so much to her of the love he had 
 for her that at length she a -greed to be his wife and keep 
 house for him. 
 
 "We must lay in a stock of food," said the cat, "so that 
 I shall not have to go out when it storms. You must not 
 
THE CAT WHO MARRIED A MOUSE 
 
 stir out at all, for fear you may get caught in a 
 
 So he went out and bought a jar of fat, and put it 
 church. "I am sure no one will dare to steal it from 
 said he, "and we will not touch it till we need it." 
 
 But in a short time the 
 cat be-gan to long for it, 
 and he said to the mouse, 
 "I have a friend who 
 means to christ-en a son 
 at the church to-day, and 
 I wish to be there." 
 
 "Oh, yes ! go, by all 
 means," said the mouse. 
 What the cat said was 
 not true, he had no friend 
 at the church. But he 
 went there and ate the 
 top off the jar of fat. 
 He went home at the end 
 of the day, and the 
 mouse asked him what 
 name they gave the 
 child. 
 
 "Top-offS' said the cat. 
 Why, that is a strange 'say one word more and i will eat you.- 
 
 87 
 
 trap." 
 in the 
 there, 
 
s 
 
 88 THE CAT WHO MARRIED A MOUSE 
 
 name 1 ' ' said the mouse. "It is the first time I have heard 
 such a name in my life." 
 
 The cat soon be-gan to long for some more of the fat. "I 
 must leave you once more," he said to the mouse. "I have 
 been asked a-gain by a friend to see a child named." 
 
 The mouse said "All right," so the cat crept be-hind the 
 wall to the church a-gain, and ate the fat till the jar was not 
 more than half full. "How nice a thing tastes when one eats 
 it by one's self," he said, and he was well pleased with his 
 day's work. 
 
 When he came home, the mouse asked what name they 
 gave this child. 
 
 "Half-out," s 'd the cat. 
 
 "That is a stituige name too," said the mouse. 
 
 It was not long be-fore the cat went to the church a third 
 time, and ate up all the fat. When he came home and the 
 mouse asked the name of the child, he said, "All-out." 
 
 "That is the stran-gest name of all," said the mouse. 
 
 It got cold, and food was scarce. "Come," said the mouse, 
 "let us go to our jar of fat now; it will taste good to us." 
 
 "Yes, in-deed, it will," said the cat. "It will taste just as 
 if you stuck your fine lit-tle tongue out of the win-dow. " 
 
 They set out at once, and when they came to the church, 
 there stood the jar, but no fat in it. 
 
 "Ahl" said the mouse, "now I can see what it all meant 
 
 
CLEVER HANS 89 
 
 as clear as day ; you are in-deed a true friend ! There was not 
 a word of truth in what you said. You ate it all when you 
 went to the church; first Top-off, then Half-out, then — " 
 
 "Say one word more and I will eat you too," said the cat. 
 
 "All-out'' was on the tip of her tongue, and be-fore the 
 poor mouse could stop, it came out. The cat made a spring, 
 seized her, and put an end to her. 
 
 And this you will learn is quite the way of the world. 
 
 CLEVER HANS 
 
 /^\NE day Hans's moth-er saw him go-ing a-way, and she 
 ^^ asked him, "Where do you mean to go, Hans?" "To 
 Greth-el's" said Hans. "Well, act right. Hans." "I will 
 take care; good-by, moth-er." "Good-by, Hans." 
 
 Then Hans came to Greth-el. " Good day, " said he. "Good 
 day," said Greth-el. "What have you brought me, Hans?" 
 "I have not brought a thing. Have you some-thing to give 
 me?" Greth-el gave Hans a pin. "Good-by," said he. "Good- 
 by, Hans." 
 
 Hans took the pin, stuck it in a load of hay, and walked 
 home be-hind the cart. When he got home he said, "Good 
 eve-ning, moth-er." "Good eve-ning, Hans. Where have 
 you been ? " "To Greth-el's. " " What did you give Greth-el ? ' ' 
 
90 CLEVER HANS 
 
 "Noth-ing, but Greth-el gave me a pin." ''And where have 
 you put it?" "In the load of hay." "You should not have 
 done that, Hans ; you should have stuck it in your sleeve. 
 "Is that so? Well, I will do that the next time." 
 
 The next time, Greth-el gave Hans a knife. When he 
 reached home his moth-er asked, "What did you get this time, 
 Hans?" "A knife," said Hans. "And where did you put it?" 
 "In my sleeve." "You should not have done that, Hans ; you 
 should put knives in your pock-et." "Is that so? Well, I 
 will do that the next time. " 
 
 Hans soon went a-gain to Greth-el's, and Gretn-el gave him 
 a young goat. He tied its legs and put it in his pock-et, and 
 just as he reached home it died for want of air. His moth-er 
 asked, ' ' What did you get this time, Hans ? " "A goat. 
 "And where did you put it Hans ? " " In my pock-et. " "You 
 should not have done that, Hans ; you should have tied it with 
 a rope and led it home." "Is that so? Well, I will do that 
 the next time." 
 
 The next time Greth-el gave Hans a piece of pork. Hans 
 took the pork, tied it with a rope, and swung it to and fro so 
 that the dogs came and ate it up. When he reached home he 
 held noth-ing but the rope in his hand. His moth-er asked, 
 ' ' What did you get this time, Hans ? " "A piece of pork. 
 "Where did you put it?" "I tied it with a rope, swung it 
 to and fro, and the dogs came and ate it up." "You should 
 
CLEVER HANS 
 
 91 
 
 THE DOGS EAT UP HANS'S PIECE OF PORK. 
 
 have carried it on your head." "Is that so? Well, I will do 
 that the next time." 
 
 The next time Greth-el gave Hans a calf. He set the calf 
 on his head, and it kicked him in the face. When he told 
 his moth-er of it, she said, "You should not have done that, 
 Hans, you should have led the calf home and put it in the 
 stall." "It that so? Well, I will do that next time." 
 
 The next time he went to see Greth-el, she said she would 
 go home with him. He put a rope round her neck, led her 
 home, and tied her in the stall. When his moth-er asked hirn. 
 
92 THE WEDDING OF MRS. FOX 
 
 what he had brought this time, he said, "I brought home 
 Greth-el her-self." "And where have you left her?' "I tied 
 her with a rope, put her in the stall, and threw in some grass." 
 "You did not act right, Hans; you should have cast sheep's 
 eyes at her." "Is that so? Well, I will do that now." 
 
 So Hans went to the barn, took all the eyes out of the 
 sheep, and threw them in Greth-el's face. That made Greth-el 
 so cross that she broke loose, ran a-way, and be-came the bride 
 of some one else. 
 
 THE WEDDING OF MRS. FOX 
 
 ONCE on a time there was a fox who had nine tails. One 
 day he took it in-to his head to play a trick on his wife, 
 and by means of it find out how fond she was of him. So he 
 laid him -self out on a bench, and kept as stiff and still as if 
 he were dead. Mrs. Fox felt quite sad when she found him, 
 and went to her room and shut her-self in, leav-ing the house 
 in charge of her maid, a young cat. 
 
 The news spread that Mr. Fox was dead, and it was not 
 long be -fore there was a knock at the door. The maid went 
 to the door, and saw there a fine young fox, who asked, "Is 
 Mrs. Fox in?" 
 
 The maid said, "She is so full of grief for her hus-band, 
 
THE WEDDING OF MRS. FOX 
 
 93 
 
 that she stays in her room, and will see no one. If you wish 
 to send word to her, you must tell me what it is." 
 
 "All right," said the fox. "Go and tell her that a young 
 fox has come to woo her." 
 
 Up stairs goes the cat, pit-pat ! 
 pit-pat ! She knocks at the door, 
 rat-tat-tat! rat-tat-tat! "Are 
 you there, Mrs. Fox?' 
 
 "Yes, my dear, 
 good cat," said 
 **~l Mr;. Fox. 
 
 /!-»/, ft 
 
 «> 
 
 ip^&s^MM^ 
 
 A FINE YOUNG FOX COMES. 
 
 AND ASKS. "IS MRS. FOX IN7' 
 
94 THE WEDDING OF MRS. FOX 
 
 "There is a young fox down -stairs, come to woo you." 
 
 "What does he look like?" asked Mrs. Fox. "Has he nine 
 fine tails, like my poor dead hus-band?" 
 ■ "Oh, no," said the maid, "he has but one." 
 
 "Then I will not have him," said Mrs. Fox. 
 
 So the cat went down and sent the fox off; but soon came 
 a sec-ond tap at the door, from a fox who had two tails, and 
 wished to woo Mrs. Fox. His fate was the same as that of 
 the first one. 
 
 Then came six more, one at a time, each with one tail more 
 than he who came be-fore him, but they were all sent off. 
 But at last came a fox who had nine fine tails, like the dead 
 one. When Mrs. Fox heard of it, she said, full of joy, to the 
 cat, "Now you may o-pen wide the win-do ws and doors, and 
 turn the old fox out of the house." 
 
 But just then the old fox roused from his sleep on the bench, 
 and beat the whole lot of them, his wife and all, till he drove 
 them out of the house. 
 
 SECOND TALE 
 
 YT7HEN old Mr. Fox died, a wolf came to the door and 
 » » knocked, and the cat, who was maid to Mrs. Fox, 
 went to the door. "Good-day, Miss Cat," he said. "How 
 does it come to pass that you are a-lone? Is Mrs. Fox not at 
 home?" 
 
good old lady," said the princess, "what are : 
 
THE WEDDING OF MRS. FOX 95 
 
 "She stays in her room, and nei-ther eats, nor drinks, nor 
 sleeps, she is so full of grief for Mr. Fox. 
 
 Then the wolf said, "If she would like to wed a sec-ond 
 time, she ought to come 
 down and see me. 
 
 So the cat ran up the 
 stairs and through the hall 
 till she came to Mrs. Fox's 
 room. She 
 knocked five 
 times on the 
 door and asked, 
 "Is Mrs. Fox 
 at home ? If 
 
 j l MRS. FOX ASKED, "DOES HE WEAR RED STOCKINGS?" 
 
 so, and she 
 
 would like to wed a sec-ond time, she must come down-stairs, 
 
 for a wolf who would woo her is at the door." 
 
 Mrs. Fox asked "Does he wear red stock-ings, and has he 
 a point-ed nose? '' 
 
 "No," said the cat. 
 
 "Then I will not have him," said Mrs. Fox, and she shut 
 the door. 
 
 The wolf was sent off, and then there came in turn, a dog, 
 a stag, a hare, a bear, and a horse, but they all had the same 
 ill luck. 
 
96 CINDERELLA 
 
 At last a young fox came, and when Mrs. Fox asked, "Has 
 he red stock-ings and a point-ed nose?" the cat said, "Yes." 
 She was told to let him in and pre-pare for the wed-ding. 
 
 Then they threw the old fox out of the door, and the cat 
 caught and ate all the mice she could in hon-or of the glad 
 e-vent. And af-ter the mar-riage they had a grand ball, and 
 for all I know they are dan-cing still. 
 
 CINDERELLA 
 
 THERE was once a rich man's wife who was quite ill, and 
 as she felt that her end was near, she called her one 
 daugh-ter to her bed-side, and said, "My dear child, be a good 
 girl, and the dear God will take care of you, and I will look 
 down on you from heav-en and think of you." Soon af-ter 
 this she died. 
 
 Each day the girl went to her moth-er's grave and wept. She 
 kept her last words in mind, and was good and kind to all 
 a -round her. Win-ter came and clothed the earth in a soft 
 white robe, but when the warm rays of spring had caused the 
 snow to melt from the moth-er's grave, the hus-band took a 
 new wife. 
 
 The wife brought home with her two daugh-ters of her own, 
 who were fair in face, but black and mean at heart. Now 
 
CINDERELLA 
 
 97 
 
 came a sad time for the 
 poor step-child. 
 
 "Is the goose to sit 
 in the same room with 
 us ? ' ' said the two daugh 
 ters. "They who eat 
 bread must earn it. Out 
 with you ! Go help the lv,, 
 kitch-en maid !" 
 
 They took off her 
 clothes, and gave her 
 an old gray dress, and 
 shoes of wood. She had 
 to stay in the kitch-en 
 and work hard all day. 
 At night, when she was '3S)J(j&{» 
 tired, she had no bed 
 to lie on, but must lie 
 down in the cin-ders on 
 the hearth. This gave 
 her such a dir-ty look 
 that the sis-ters, who 
 were al-ways glad to have a chance to in-sult her, called her 
 Cin-der-el-la. 
 
 One day the fa-ther wished to go to the fair, so he asked 
 
 CINDERELLA AT HER MOTHER'S GRAVE. 
 
98 CINDERELLA 
 
 his two step-daugh-ters what he should bring them. "A fine 
 dress," said one. "Pearls and jew-els," said the oth-er. 
 
 "And you, Cin-.der-el-la, " said he, "what shall I bring you?" 
 
 "The first twig that hits your hat on your way home, 
 fa-ther, break off and bring to me," said she. 
 
 So he brought the dress and the pearls for his step-daugh- 
 ters, and on his way home, as he rode through a wood, a 
 ha-zel bough struck his hat, and he broke it off and took it 
 with him. 
 
 Cin-der-el-la thanked him for the twig, and went at once to 
 plant it on her mother's grave. The poor girl wept long, and 
 her tears fell like wa-ter on the twig, so that it grew to a tree. 
 Three times a day Cin-der-el-la went to it to weep and pray, and 
 each time a lit-tle white bird flew on the tree ; and if she 
 spoke a wish out lou 1, the bird threw down what she wished 
 for. 
 
 Aft-er a time it fell out that the king made up his mind to 
 give a grand ball. It was to last three days, and all the fair 
 young la-dies of the land were asked to come, that the king's 
 son might choose |rom them a bride. 
 
 When the two s£ep-sis-ters heard that they might go, they 
 were glad. They called Cin-der-el-la, and said, "Comb our 
 hair, brush our shoes, and hook our gowns, for we are to go 
 to the ball at the king's pal-ace." 
 
 Cin-der-el-la did as they told her, but wept to think that she 
 
CINDERELLA 
 
 99 
 
 too could not go to the ball. She asked her step-moth-er to 
 let her go with them, but the step-moth-er mocked her, and 
 said, "You, Cin-der-el-la, black with dirt and soot 1 You have 
 no clothes or shoes, and how can you dance?" 
 
 THE BIRDS PICK UP THE SEEDS FOR CINDERELLA. 
 
 But Cin-der-el-la still begged to be let go, so at last the 
 step-moth-er said, "I have just thrown a dish of flax-seed in- 
 to the ash-es. If you will have it all picked out in two hours, 
 you may go with them." 
 
1 00 CINDERELLA 
 
 Then Cin-der-el-la ran out at the back door in-to the gar-den, 
 and called out, "You tame doves, and all you birds of the air, 
 come and help me pick up the seeds. 
 
 
 Put the good ones in the pot, 
 And the bad ones in your crop." 
 
 Then there flew in at the kitch-en win-dow two white doves, 
 and then all the birds of the air came chirp-ing in down up-on 
 the ash-es. They then be-gan, pick, pick, pick, and soon all 
 the good seeds were gath-ered in the dish. With great joy 
 Cin-der-el-la took the dish to her step-moth-er. But the step- 
 moth-er said, "No Cin-der-el-la, you have no clothes and you 
 do not know how to dance. All would laugh at you." 
 
 Still Cin-der-el-la cried and begged to go, and at last the 
 step-moth-er said, "I will throw twice as much flax-seed in 
 the ash-es, and if you have it all picked up in one hour, I 
 will let you go." But she thought to her-self, "She can not 
 do that." 
 
 The birds a-gain helped Cin-der-el-la, and the seed was all 
 picked up in half an hour. But when she went to the step- 
 moth-er she broke her word once more, and would not let 
 her go. 
 
 When the two proud sis-ters and their moth-er had gone to 
 the ball, Cin-der-el-la went out to her moth-er's grave, and 
 sat down un-der the ha-zel tree, and cried, 
 
CINDERELLA 101 
 
 " Rus-tle and shake, dear lit-tle tree ; 
 Gold and sil-ver throw o-ver me." 
 
 Then the bird threw down a dress of gold and sil-ver, and 
 a pair of small silk slip-pers worked with sil-ver. These Cin- 
 der-el-la put on in great haste, and then she went to the ball. 
 Her step-moth-er and sis-ters did not know her, and thought 
 it must be some strange prin-cess, so grand did she look in her 
 fine dress. The prince met her as she came in, and led her 
 through the dance, nor would he dance with an-y one else all 
 the eve-ning. 
 
 When it grew late and she wished to go home, the prince 
 said, "I will go with you and see you safe," for he wished to 
 find out to whom she be-longed. They reached a hen-house, 
 and Cin-der-el-la sprang in-to it ; so the prince wait-ed till her 
 fa-ther came home. He told him a strange maid-en had run 
 in-to the pig-eon house, and an axe was brought to break in- 
 to the house, but no one was there. When they came to the 
 house, there lay Cin-der-el-la in her dir-ty frock, for she had 
 jumped out of the hen-house on the far side, and run to the 
 ha-zel tree, where she had left her fine dress for the bird to 
 take a-way. 
 
 The next day, Cin-der-el-la went to the tree a-gain, when 
 the step-moth-er and sis-ters had gone to the ball, and a dress 
 more grand and rich than the first was thrown down to her. 
 The prince danced with her a-gain all the eve-ning. When 
 
102 
 
 CINDERELLA 
 
 THERE LAY CINDERELLA IN HER 
 DIRTY FROCK. 
 
 she went home, he fol-lowed her, but 
 when she reached a pear tree that 
 grew near her fa-ther's house, he lost 
 sight of her. When the fa-ther came 
 home, the prince told him that the 
 strange maid-en had a-gain fled from 
 him, and that he thought she was in 
 the pear tree. The fa-ther thought, 
 "Could it have been Cin-der-el-la ? " 
 He cut down the tree with an axe, 
 but no one was to be found. When 
 they went in-to the house, Cin-der-el-la 
 was in her place, for she had sprung 
 down on the far side of the pear tree, 
 left her fine dress with the bird, and 
 put on her old gray frock. 
 
 On the third day she went a-gain 
 to the ball. This time the bird threw 
 down the most splen-did dress of all, 
 and the slip-pers were of pure gold. 
 The prince danced on-ly with Cin-der- 
 el-la, and when the time came to 
 leave, he would have gone with her, 
 but she ran with such speed that he 
 could not keep up with her. But the 
 
CINDERELLA 103 
 
 prince had had the steps spread with pitch, in hopes to catch 
 the strange maid-en and as Cin-der-el-la ran, her left slip-per 
 stuck to the pitch and came off. 
 
 The prince picked it up and saw that it was small and of 
 pure gold. The next day he went to Cin-der-el-la's fa-ther and 
 said, "My bride shall be the one whose foot this slip-per fits." 
 The two sis-ters were glad when they heard this, for they had 
 small feet. The eld-er one took the slip-per first, and went to 
 her room to try it on, but she could not get her big toe in -to 
 it. The moth-er who stood by, said, "Cut your toe off, for 
 when you are queen you need not go on foot." 
 
 The daugh-ter cut off her toe, squeezed her foot in-to the 
 slip-per, and hid-ing her pain, went down to the prince. Then 
 he placed her as his bride up-on his horse, and rode off. But 
 as they passed the grave of Cin-der-el-la's moth-er, two white 
 doves sat on the ha-zel tree, and cried. 
 
 "Turn and look, turn and look, 
 There's blood up-on the shoe; 
 The shoe's too small, and she be-hind 
 Is not the bride for you." 
 
 He turned and looked at her foot, and saw the blood that 
 flowed from the shoe. He turned his horse at once, and took 
 the false bride home, say-ing she was not the right one, that 
 the oth-er sis-ter must try the slip-per on. The young-er one 
 
s 
 
 4? 
 
 104 
 
 CINDERELLA 
 
 took it to her room, and to her joy her toes went in, but she 
 could not get the slip-per o-ver her heel. The moth-er said ; 
 "Cut off a piece of your heel, for when you are queen you 
 
 need not go on foot." 
 
 The daugh-ter did so, squeezed her foot 
 in -to the slip-per, and went down to the 
 prince. Then he put her up-on his horse 
 as his bride, and rode off. But they too 
 must pass the ha-zel tree, where the two 
 doves sat. A-gain they cried, 
 
 - 
 "Turn and look, turn and look, 
 
 ■ 
 
 There's blood up-on the shoe; 
 The shoe's too small, and she be-hind 
 Is not the bride for you." 
 
 He looked down at her foot, and saw 
 that the blood was trick-ling from her 
 shoe. He turned his horse once more, 
 and brought the false bride home. ' ' This 
 is not the right one," he said to the 
 fath-er. "Have you no oth-er daugh-ter?" 
 
 "No," said the fa-ther, "ex-cept the daugh-ter of my first 
 wife; but she can-not be the bride." 
 
 The prince asked to see her, but the step-moth-er said, "Oh, 
 no! she is much too dir-ty ; I dare hot let her be seen." 
 
 THE LOST SLIPPER. 
 
 V 
 
 L 
 
CINDERELLA 
 
 105 
 
 But the prince would have his way, and Cin-der-el-la was 
 called. She washed her hands and face, and went in, bow-ing 
 to the prince, who gave 
 her the gold slip-per. She 
 sat down and put on 
 the slip-per, which was a 
 per -feet fit for her. 
 
 The prince looked in her 
 face, and saw that she was 
 the fair maid-en with whom 
 he had danced, so he said : 
 ' ' This is my true bride ! ' ' 
 The step-moth-er and two 
 sis-ters turned white with 
 rage, but the prince took 
 Cin-der-el-la up-on his horse 
 and rode off. As they came 
 to the ha-zel tree, the two 
 
 white doves Cried : the prince rides away with Cinderella. 
 
 "Turn and look, turn and look, 
 
 There's no blood up-on the shoe; 
 It fits so nice, and she be-hind 
 Is the right-ful bride for you." 
 
 Cin-de-rel-la and the prince were soon mar-ried, and all went 
 well with them to the end ot their lives. 
 
106 
 
 A SET OF ROGUES 
 
 ONE day in fall the cock said to the hen, ' ' Now is the 
 time when nuts are ripe ; let us go up there on the hill 
 and eat what we want be-fore the squir-rel gets them all." 
 Oh, yes, ' ' said the hen, ' * let us go ; it will be fine fun I ' ' 
 
 So they went to the hill, and as it was a fine day they stayed 
 till night. It may have been that they ate too much, or that 
 they grew proud ; at all e -vents they would not walk home, so 
 the cock had to make a small cart of nut-shells. 
 
 When it was made the hen sat in it, and said to the cock, 
 "Now you may draw me home." 
 
 "You are too kind," said the cock. "I would do quite as 
 well to go home on foot a-lone. I would be will-ing to sit on 
 the box and drive, but draw the coach I will not." 
 
 At this point a duck that was there quacked out, "You 
 thieves, who said you could come to my nut-hill? You shall 
 pay dear for this ! ' ' and she rushed at the cock to strike him 
 with her bill. But he stood his ground, and struck her so 
 hard with his spurs that she soon begged for mer-cy, and let 
 her-self be hitched to the cart to make up for her rude-ness. 
 
 The cock took his seat on the box, and ofT they drove, the 
 cock cry-ing out, "Run, duck, run, as fast as you can!" 
 
 When they had gone a short part of the way, they met two 
 
A SET OF ROGUES 
 
 107 
 
 foot-men, a pin and a nee-dle. "Stop, stop!" they cried. 
 "Won't you let us ride with you? It will soon be so dark 
 that we can not see a step in front of us." 
 As the cock saw that 
 were 
 would 
 
 THE COCK TOOK HIS SEAT ON THE BOX, AND OFF THEY DROVE. 
 
 room, he said they might get in if they 
 "#^.?P^ would not step on the hen's toes. 
 
 *"' When it was quite dark they came to an inn, 
 
 and they thought they would stop for the night. The man 
 who kept the inn did not want them for guests, but they said 
 they would give him the egg which the hen had laid on the 
 
106 A SET OF ROGUES 
 
 road, and the one the duck would lay in the morn-ing, so he 
 told them at last they might stay. 
 
 Next day at dawn the cock and hen ate the egg the first 
 thing, and threw the shell in-to the fire. Then they took the 
 nee-dle and stuck her in the seat of a chair. The pin they 
 put in the tow-el, and then they both left the house. The 
 duck, who had slept in the yard, heard them as they flew past, 
 and went down to the brook and swam a-way. 
 
 When the man who kept the inn rose, he washed his face 
 and then took the tow-el to dry it, but he drew the point of 
 the pin a -cross it and left a long scratch from ear to ear. 
 Then he went to the fire to light his pipe, and the egg-shell 
 popped in-to his eyes. That vexed him and he sat down in 
 the chair. He at once sprang in-to the air, for the nee-dle 
 had pricked him worse than the pin had scratched him. He 
 was now in a rage, and as he thought the guests who had 
 come so late in the night must be to blame, he ran to look 
 for them and found they were gone. 
 
 Then he made a vow that this would be the last time he 
 would let such a set of rogues in-to his house — folks who ate 
 so much, paid noth-ing, and for thanks played mean tricks. 
 
LITTLE RED CAP 
 
 /'"ANCE on a time, there was on a farm, close to a small town, 
 ^*S a girl who was as sweet a child as there is in the whole 
 world. Her moth-er, of course, had a great deal of love for 
 her, and her grand-moth -er was still more fond of her. The 
 good dame made for her, one day, a bright red hood. It was 
 just the right size for her, and it made her look so sweet that 
 they gave her the name of Lit -tie Red Cap. 
 
 One day when her moth-er had made some cheese cakes, she 
 said to her, "Go, my child, and see how your grand-moth-er 
 does, for I hear she is ill ; take her some of these cakes, and 
 a pat of but-ter." 
 
 Lit-tle Red Cap, with a small basket on her arm, in which 
 were the cakes her moth-er had made, and the pat of butter, 
 set out straight for her grand-moth-er's house, which was in a 
 small town not far from where Lit-tle Red Cap's moth-er had 
 her home. As she went through a wood, which lay in her 
 road, she met a large wolf, which had a great mind to eat her 
 up, but did not dare to, for fear of some men, who were at 
 work at a tree, which they had to cut down, in the wood, 
 not far from where Lit-tle Red Cap and the wolf were. 
 
 The wolf spoke to her and told her he would like to know 
 where she meant to go with her bas-ket. The child, who did 
 
110 LITTLE RED CAP 
 
 not know that it was not 
 wise to stop and speak to 
 a wolf, and said: "I am 
 on my way to see my 
 grand-moth-er ; my moth- 
 er gave me these cakes 
 and this pat of but-ter, 
 to take to her, for we 
 have heard that she is ill. " 
 
 "Does she live a great 
 way off?" said the wolf. 
 
 "Oh yes," said Lit-tle 
 Red Cap, "the mill that 
 you see there, hides her 
 house from us ; it is the 
 first house in the town." 
 
 "Well," said the wolf, 
 "we will have a race; I 
 will take this way and 
 you may take that, and 
 we shall see which will 
 be there first." 
 
 The wolf set out at full speed, and ran as fast as he could 
 all the way; the way he took was not much more than half 
 as long as the way Lit-tle Red Cap took ; and as she went on, 
 
 LITTLE RED CAP MEETS A WOLF. 
 

 
 
LITTLE RED CAT 
 
 III 
 
 LITTLE RED CAP PICKS A BUNCH OF WILD FLOWERS. 
 
 from time to time she knelt down on the ground to pick up 
 nuts ; then she would run to try to catch the young hares that 
 ran near her, and she made a gay bunch of wild pinks. 
 
 The wolf got first to the house of the grand -moth -er, and 
 gave a loud knock at the door. 
 
112 LITTLE RED CAP 
 
 "Who is there?" said a voice in the house. 
 
 "It is Lit -tie Red Cap," said the wolf, and he tried to make 
 his great gruff voice sound like the sweet voice of the child. 
 "I have brought you a small pat of but-ter and some nice 
 cheese cakes that moth-er has just made, for she heard that 
 you were ill." 
 
 The good old dame, who was ill in bed, cried out, "Pull 
 the string and the latch will fly up." 
 
 The wolf gave a hard pull at the string, and up went the 
 latch. He went in, and up to the poor old grand-moth-er's 
 room, sprang on the bed and ate her up in a trice, for it was 
 three days since he had had a meal. 
 
 The wolf put on the good old dame's night cap and dress, 
 shut the door of the room, and then lay down in the bed to 
 wait for Lit-tle Red Cap. He had not long been in bed when 
 she came to the house. Tap 1 tap! "Who is there?" cried 
 he. At first she was full of fear, when she heard the gruff 
 voice of the wolf, but she thought it might be that her grand- 
 moth -er had a cold, so she said, "It is I; it is Lit-tle Red 
 Cap. Moth-er has sent you some cheese cakes and a small 
 pat of but-ter." 
 
 The wolf made his voice as soft as he could as he cried out, 
 "Pull the string and the latch will fly up." Lit-tle Red Cap 
 gave a pull to the string and up went the latch. When she 
 came up stairs to her grand-moth-er's room the wolf kept 
 
LITTLE RED CAP 
 
 113 
 
 THE WOLF IN BED. 
 
 quite hid in the bed. Then he tried to speak as if he were 
 ill and quite weak; and said, "Put the bas-ket on the stool 
 my dear, and take off your clothes, and come to me in the bed." 
 Lit-tle Red Cap, who at all times did just as she was bid, 
 at once took off her clothes and went to bed. But when she 
 came to see the wolf near by, she thought her grand-moth -er 
 did not look like her-self at all. 
 
114 
 
 LITTLE RED CAP 
 
 "Dear me, grand-moth -er, " she said, 
 '' what great, big arms you have got ! ' ' 
 "The bet-ter to hug you, my child," 
 said the wolf. 
 
 "But, grand -moth -er, " said Red Cap, 
 " what great big ears you have got ! ' ' 
 "The bet-ter to hear you, my child," 
 said the wolf. 
 
 But then, grand-moth-er, what great 
 big eyes you have got," said Red Cap. 
 "The bet-ter to see you, my child," 
 said the wolf. 
 
 "And, oh, grand-moth-er what 
 great — big — teeth — you've — got 1 " 
 said the poor child, who by this time 
 was full of fear. 
 
 "The bet-ter to eat you up," said 
 the wolf with a fierce growl, and with 
 one leap, he sprang out of the bed, 
 seized Lit-tle Red Cap, and was a-bout 
 to eat her up ; when a shot was heard, and the wolf fell dead. 
 A hunt-er who had come that way, heard the voices in the 
 house, and looked in through the win-dow in time to see the 
 dan-ger the child was in. In a trice he had aimed and fired 
 his gun, and thus Lit-tle Red Cap's life was saved. 
 
 THE HUNTER. 
 
115 
 
 RUMPELSTILTSKIN 
 
 THERE was once a mil-ler who was as poor as poor could 
 be, but he had a daugh-ter who was quite fair of face, 
 One day he chanced to meet the king, and as he felt like 
 boas -ting, he said, "I have a girl that can spin gold out of 
 straw. ' ' 
 
 The king said to him, "That is an art in which few have 
 skill ; if your child is as smart as you say, bring her to my 
 cas-tle in a day or two, and I will try what she can do." 
 
 When the girl was brought to the king, he led her to a room 
 that was full of straw, and gave her a wheel with which to 
 spin. "Now go to work," he said. "If you do not spin all 
 this straw in-to gold in one day, you shall die." With these 
 words he shut the door and left her there. 
 
 She could not see how she was to save her life, for she did 
 not know how to spin gold out ot straw. She thought a long 
 time, and her fear and grief were so great that she wept. 
 Then all at once the door o-pened, and in came a ti-ny dwarf. 
 Why do you weep, my poor child ? " he asked. 
 Oh ! ' ' said the girl, ' ' I have got to spin gold out of this 
 straw, and I do not know how." 
 
 'What will you give me," asked the dwarf, "if I spin it 
 for you?'' 
 
116 RUMPELSTILTSKIN 
 
 "My gold chain," said the girl. 
 
 The dwarf took the chain, and then sat down at the wheel. 
 Whirr, whirr, whirr, three times round went the wheel, and 
 the spool was full. He put on an-oth-er, and — whirr, whirr, 
 whirr, that one was full ; and so on all through the night, till 
 the straw was all gone and the spools full of gold. 
 
 When the king came and saw it he was glad. But his heart 
 was full of greed for gold, and he took the girl to a room in 
 which was more straw. "You must spin this too, in one day," 
 said he, "or you lose your life." 
 
 The girl was full of grief, but as she wept, the door o-pened 
 and in came the dwarf, who said, "What will you give me if 
 I spin the straw in-to gold? ' 
 
 "My ring," said the girl. 
 
 The dwarf took the ring and went to work. He spun all 
 night, and then the straw was all changed to gold. 
 
 The king was full of joy, but wished for still more gold. He 
 led the girl to an-oth-er room full of straw and said, "All this 
 you must spin to-night. If you do so, I will make you my 
 wife. ' ' 
 
 When the girl was a -lone, the dwarf came for a third time, 
 and asked, "What will you give me if I spin it for you?" 
 
 "I have not a thing left to give you," said the girl. 
 
 'Then you will have to give me your first child when you 
 are queen," said he. 
 
RUMPELSTILTSK1N 
 
 17 
 
 RUMPELSTILTSKIN DANCING, 
 
 The girl said she would do so, and the dwarf set to work 
 and soon spun the gold. When the king came and found all 
 he wished for done, he was pleased, and made the girl his wife 
 at once. 
 
 In a year, by which time she had ceased to think of the 
 dwarf, she had a child. But in a few days the dwarf came to 
 her room, and said, "Now give me what you said you would." 
 
118 RUMPELSTILTSKIN 
 
 In great fright the queen said she would give him all her 
 wealth if he would leave the child to her, but he said he 
 would not. 
 
 The queen wept and groaned so much at this that the dwarf 
 at length felt sor-ry for her, so he said, "I will give you three 
 days, and if in that time you find out my name, you shall 
 keep your child." 
 
 All night long the queen racked her brains for all the names 
 she could think of, and when the dwarf came the next day 
 she told him a lot, but at each the dwarf said, "That is not 
 my name." 
 
 The next day when the dwarf came she had more names, 
 but to all he still said, "It is not my name." 
 
 Then she sent out a man through the land to see if he 
 could find names that she had not yet used. When he came 
 back he said, "I have found no names, but as I came to a 
 high hill near the edge of a wood, I saw a small house, in 
 front of which a fire burned, and round this fire a small old 
 man danced on one leg and sang : 
 
 " To-day I brew, and then I bake, 
 To-mor-row I shall the queen's child take ; 
 Oh ! how glad I am that no one knows 
 That Rum-pel-stilts-kin is my name." 
 
 When the queen heard this she was full of joy. The dwarf 
 came the next day and said : 
 
THE TWELVE BROTHERS 119 
 
 "Now, my lady queen, what is my name?" 
 
 First she said "Is it John?" 
 
 "No," said he. 
 
 "Is it James?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "May-be it is Rum-pel-stilts-kin." 
 
 "A witch has told you 1 a witch has told you !" he screamed, 
 and stamped his right foot so hard in the ground that he sank 
 in up to his waist. Then in a great rage he took hold of his 
 left leg with both hands to pull him -self out, and pulled so 
 hard that he tore him-self in two. 
 
 So that was the end of him, and the queen kept her child. 
 
 THE TWELVE BROTHERS 
 
 ONCE on a time there lived a king and a queen who had 
 twelve boys. One day the king said to the queen, "If 
 our next child should be a girl, our twelve sons must die, so 
 that she may have the crown." 
 
 The queen was sad, and mourned day and night. One day 
 the young -est boy, who was with her all the time, asked. 
 "Dear moth-er, why are you so sad?" 
 
 The queen would not tell at first, but he kept on ask-ing, 
 and at last she told him that he and his broth-ers were to be 
 
120 THE TWELVE BROTHERS 
 
 put to death in case they had a sis-ter. He said, "Do not 
 weep, dear moth-er. I and my broth-ers will go from here, so 
 that we may not be put to death." 
 
 The queen said, ' ' Yes, go. Stay in the woods near by, and 
 if a son is born, I will hang out a white flag, so that you 
 may know that it is safe for you to come home ; but if it is a 
 girl, I will hang out a red flag, and then you must all fly 
 hence as fast as you can. I will pray each night that you 
 meet with no ill luck." 
 
 Then the twelve boys went to the woods. Each kept watch 
 in turn from the top of a tall oak tree. One day they saw a 
 red flag hung out, which meant that a girl was born, and they 
 must all die if they went home. 
 
 Then they went deep in the woods, and there found a small 
 house which they made their home. For food they shot hares 
 and birds and what else they could find. 
 
 Ten years passed, and by that time the queen's child had 
 grown to be quite a big girl. She was fair of face, and had a 
 kind heart. Once, when there was a great wash, she saw 
 twelve shirts on the line, and she asked her moth-er, "Whose 
 are those twelve shirts? They are too small for my fa-ther. " 
 
 Then the queen said, with a sad heart, "My dear child, 
 they be-long to your twelve broth-ers." 
 
 "Where are my twelve brothers? This is the first time I 
 have heard of them," said the child. 
 
THE TWELVE BROTHERS 
 
 121 
 
 ONE DAY THEY SAW A RED FLAG HUNG OUT. 
 
 Then the queen told her why she had not seen them, and 
 she wept as she did so. "'Do not cry, dear moth-er," said the 
 child, "I will go forth and seek my broth-ers." 
 
1 22 THE TWELVE BROTHERS 
 
 She took the twelve shirts and set forth for the wood at 
 once. All day she walked on and at night she came to the 
 hut where her broth-ers lived. She went in, and there she 
 saw a young lad, who asked her, "Whence do you come, and 
 what do you want?" 
 
 She said, "I am the child of a king, and I seek my twelve 
 broth-ers, and will go as far as the sky is blue till I find them. 
 Then she showed him the twelve shirts she had with her, and 
 he knew it must be his sis-ter, and told her who he was. At 
 his words she wept for joy, and he wept too. 
 
 When the rest of the broth-ers came home, they were glad 
 to find their sis-ter there, and they kissed her, and loved her 
 with all their hearts. 
 
 She staid at home with one of the broth-ers and took care 
 of the house and the cook-ing, while the rest went to catch 
 game in the woods. One day she got up a fine feast. Near 
 the house was a small gar-den in which grew twelve lil-ies. 
 She thought it would please her broth-ers if she gave each of 
 them a flow-er, so she broke ofT the twelve lil-ies. But as she 
 did so, the twelve boys were changed in -to twelve crows, and 
 flew off. The house, too, was gone, and the girl stood a-lone 
 in a wild wood. All at once she saw an old wom-an, who 
 said, "My child, what have you done? The twelve lil-ies were 
 your broth-ers, and now they have be-come crows, and will 
 stay so." 
 
THE TWELVE BROTHERS 
 
 !23 
 
 THE TWELVE BOYS WERE CHANGED INTO TWELVE CROWS, AND FLEW OFR 
 
 The girl wept, and asked, "Is there no way to set them free? " 
 
 'There is but one thing in all the world," said the old 
 
 wom-an, "and that is too hard for you to do. You must be 
 
724 THE TWELVE BROTHERS 
 
 dumb for six years. If you speak as much as one word or 
 laugh in all that time, you can not free them." 
 
 Then the girl said in her heart, "I know I shall set my 
 broth-ers free." She found a tall tree in which she could live, 
 and here she sat and spun, but did not speak or laugh. 
 
 One day a king rode by who had a dog with him, and it 
 ran to the tree where the girl was and barked. The king came 
 up, and as soon as he saw the fair girl he fell in love with 
 her, and asked her if she would be his bride. She made no 
 an-swer ex-cept to nod her head. Then the king him-self 
 climbed the tree, brought her down, and rode off with her to 
 his pal-ace. 
 
 The wed -ding soon took place with great pomp, but the 
 bride did not speak or laugh. 
 
 Two years that were full of joy passed, but one day the 
 king's step-moth-er, who was not a good wom-an, be-gan to 
 speak ill of the young queen. "This is some low girl that 
 you have made your wife," said she. "Who knows for what 
 crime she may have been turned out of her home? If she is 
 dumb and can't speak, she might at least laugh. One that 
 does not laugh must have some-thing bad on her mind." 
 
 The king would not hear her at first, but the old wom-an 
 talked so much that at last she made the king think as she 
 did, and the queen was doomed to death. 
 
 She was bound to a stake, and a great fire was made in 
 
HANS IN LUCK 125 
 
 which she was to burn. But just as the flames rose to scorch 
 her, the six years in which she was to be dumb came to an 
 end. She heard a great whirr in the air, and when she looked 
 up she saw twelve crows that flew to-ward her. The in-stant 
 they touched the earth, they were changed to her twelve 
 broth-ers whom she had set free. 
 
 They ran up to the fire, and drew the wood from the pile, 
 and put out the flames. And now that she could speak and 
 laugh, she told the king why she had been dumb for six years. 
 
 The king was glad to find out the truth, and now he loved 
 his wife more than at first. They lived in great joy all their 
 lives, but the bad step-moth -er met the death to which she 
 had tried to send the queen. 
 
 HANS IN LUCK 
 
 HANS had worked for a man for six long years, and at 
 the end of that time he said, "Sir, my time is up and 
 I wish to go home, so please give me my pay." 
 
 "You have served me well," said the man, "so you shall 
 have a good sum for your pay," and he gave him a lump 
 of gold as big as his head. Hans put the gold in a cloth, and 
 slung it on his back, and went on his way home. 
 
 He met a man on a horse, and he said to him that he 
 
126 HANS IN LUCK 
 
 wished he could ride too. "It is as if one sat in a chair, and 
 yet one gets on," he told the man. 
 
 "Well," said the man, "You need not walk. You can 
 have my horse if you give me that gold." 
 
 "I will do it, and thank you," said Hans. 
 
 The man took the gold, and helped Hans to get up on the 
 horse. "When you want to go fast," said the man, "you 
 have just to click your tongue, and say ' Get up ! ' " 
 
 Hans went on for a while at a slow gait, but then he 
 thought he would like to try the speed of his horse, so he be- 
 gan to click his tongue and say ' ' Get up ! " The horse set off 
 at a smart trot, and the first thing Hans knew he was pitched 
 in-to a ditch that ran at the side of the road. The horse made 
 a start to run, and would have got a-way if it had not been 
 caught by a man who came by, lead-ing a cow. 
 
 Hans said he wished he had that cow in place of a beast 
 that kicked and plunged so that a man was like-ly to break 
 his neck. 
 
 "Well," said the man, "I will give it to you for your horse." 
 
 Hans said, "All right," and the man got on the horse, and 
 was soon out of sight. 
 
 Hans was full of joy as he drove his cow a-long. "I can 
 now al-ways have but-ter and cheese with my bread," said he, 
 "and if I am dry, I need but to milk my cow, and I shall 
 have milk to drink." 
 
HANS IN LUCK 
 
 127 
 
 The day grew hot, and Hans got dry. "Now is the time," 
 he thought, "to milk my cow, and put an end to my thirst 
 with a good drink of milk." 
 
 He tried to milk the cow, but no milk would come, and 
 
 THE HORSE THROWS HANS INTO THE DITCH AND STARTS TO RUN. 
 
 soon she gave him such a kick that he fell on the ground, and 
 for a long time knew not where he was. At length a man 
 came by with a pig, and helped Hans to his feet. Hans told 
 him all that had passed, and he held out a flask and said : 
 "Here take a drink. Your cow might well give no milk; 
 
128 HANS IN LUCK 
 
 she is an old beast, and good but for meat at the best." 
 Well, well, ' ' said Hans, : ' who would have thought it. 
 For my part, I don't like cow's flesh ; it's too tough. But a 
 young pig like yours is the thing that tastes right." 
 
 'Well now, for love of you," said the man, "I will let you 
 have my pig for your cow." 
 
 "God bless you for your kind heart," said Hans, and he 
 gave up the cow, and took in his hand the string with which 
 the pig was led. 
 
 On he went, full of joy. Soon he met a boy with a goose, 
 and stopped to have a talk with him. The boy told him he 
 was tak-ing the goose to a house where there was to be a feast. 
 "Just lift it," said he, "and feel the weight of it." "Yes," 
 said Hans, "it is fine ; but my pig has some flesh on it too. 
 
 As he spoke the boy gave sharp looks, first on this side and 
 then on that, and at length he broke out. "I fear all is not 
 right with that pig of yours. In the town I just came through 
 a man had lost one of his pigs, and it seems to me this may 
 be it. If they find you with it they will think that you stole 
 it, and may put you in jail." 
 
 Hans turned pale with fright. "You know the roads in 
 these parts bet-ter than I do," said he. "Do you take my 
 pig and let me have your goose." 
 
 "It will be a risk for me," said the boy, "but still I want 
 to save you from harm," and as he said this he took the rope 
 
HANS IN LUCK 
 
 129 
 
 HANS TRIES TO GET A DRINK FROM THE COW. 
 
 in his own hand and drove the pig off by a side path, while 
 Hans, glad to be out of his scrape, walked on with the goose 
 tucked un-der his arm. 
 
 As he came near the last town on his way home, he saw a 
 
130 HANS IN LUCK 
 
 man whose trade it was to grind knives. He had a grind-stone 
 on a truck, and as he went on with his work; his wheel 
 hummed, and he sang a gay tune : 
 
 " My wheel I turn, and the knives I grind, 
 While gay-ly my cloak flies out be-hind." 
 
 Hans stopped to look at him, and at length said, "Your 
 trade must be a good one, since you sing at your work. ' ' 
 
 "Yes," said the man, "this work pays well. A man who 
 grinds knives is one who finds gold in his purse each time he 
 puts his hand in it. But where did you get that fine goose, 
 if I may ask you?" 
 
 "I gave my pig for it," said Hans. 
 
 "And the pig?" 
 
 "I gave my cow for it." 
 
 "And the cow?" 
 
 "I gave my horse for her." 
 
 "And the horse?" 
 
 "For him I gave a lump of gold as big as my head." 
 
 "And the gold?" 
 
 "That was my pay for six years of work." 
 
 "You have done well for your-self, to be sure," said the 
 man. "Now if you were like me, and could find gold in your 
 purse each time you put your hand in it, you would be a 
 made man." 
 
 "How shall I do that?" asked Hans. 
 
HANS IN LUCK 
 
 131 
 
 "I FEAR THAT ALL IS NOT RIGHT WITH THAT PIG OF YOURS." 
 
 "All you want is a stone to grind knives on. I have one 
 that is not quite new, so I will let you have it if you will give 
 me your goose. Would that suit you ? " 
 
132 
 
 HANS IN LUCK 
 
 "How can you ask me?" said Hans. "I will do it with 
 joy. If I can find gold in my purse each time I put my hand 
 in it, what else shall I have to care for ? " And he gave the 
 man the goose, and took the stone from him. 
 
 1 ' Now, ' ' said the man, as he took up a plain field stone which 
 
 HANS GLADLY SEES THE STONES FALL INTO THE WELL. 
 
 lay near, "there is a fine stone which will be just the thing 
 to ham-mer your old nails straight on. Take it with you too." 
 
 Hans raised the stone, and marched off in great glee. "I 
 must have been born to a heap of good luck, ' ' said he, ' ' for 
 all things turn out just as I wish to have them." 
 
 But he had been on his legs since day-break, and the weight 
 of the stones soon made him tired and weak. He could not 
 
THE MOUSE, TIIK BIRD, AND THE SAUSAGE 133 
 
 keep out of his mind the thought, ' ' How nice it would be 
 now if I had not these to drag with me." 
 
 Just then he came to a well, and thought he must stop to 
 have a drink. He set the stones down by the brink of the 
 well, and stooped down to drink. As he did so, he gave the 
 stones, by chance, a slight push, and they fell in the well. 
 
 As he saw them go down, Hans glad-ly sprang up, and then, 
 with tears of joy in his eyes, fell on his knees to give thanks 
 that in so nice a way, and with no fault on his part, he 
 had got rid of the load that had made him so tired. 
 
 And then with a light heart, and free from all care, he ran 
 on at the top of his speed till he reached his home. 
 
 THE MOUSE, THE BIRD, AND 
 THE SAUSAGE 
 
 ONCE on a time a mouse, a bird, and a sau-sage struck 
 up a friend-ship, and all lived in peace in one house. 
 It was the work of the bird to go to the woods each day 
 and fetch wood, the mouse brought the wa-ter and made the 
 fire, while the sau-sage staid at home and cooked the meals. 
 There are few so well off that they do not long for some- 
 thing bet-ter, and thus it was with the bird. One day he met 
 a bird on the way to the wood, whom he told a -bout the way 
 
134 
 
 THE MOUSE, THE BIRD, AND THE SAUSAGE 
 
 he lived, and that bird said 
 to him that he was a fool to 
 do so much hard work while 
 the mouse and the sau-sage 
 had such a good time at home. 
 "For," said he, "when the 
 mouse has brought the wa-ter 
 and made the fire, she can go 
 to her, room and rest till 
 called to the ta-ble. And the 
 sau-sage has but to sit by the 
 
THE MOUSE, THE BIRD, AND THE SAUSAGE 135 
 
 stove and see that the food is well cooked. When it is meal 
 time, he dips him-self in-to the pans three or four times, and 
 thus each dish is sea-soned right for the ta-ble." 
 
 The bird heard him, and went home. He laid down his 
 pack of wood, and they all sat down, ate a good meal, and 
 then went to bed and slept till dawn. But the next day the 
 bird would not go for wood. He said he had been their slave 
 long e-nough ; he was a fool to have done so much work : there 
 must be a change ; some plan that was more fair must be tried. 
 
 The mouse and the sau-sage found fault with these words, 
 but the bird was mas-ter. So they drew lots, and it fell to 
 the sau-sage to fetch wood, the mouse to cook, and the bird 
 to bring the wa-ter. 
 
 What took place? The sau-sage went for the wood; the 
 bird made the fire ; the mouse put on the pot, and then they 
 two sat down to wait for the sau-sage to come back with wood 
 for the next day. 
 
 But the sau-sage was gone so long they feared he must have 
 met with ill luck, so the bird went to meet him. Not far off 
 he met a dog who owned up that he had eat-en the sau-sage, 
 The bird felt sad at this and took up the wood and went home. 
 He told the mouse all he had seen and heard, and they grieved 
 o-ver the loss of their friend. 
 
 But they thought they would try to make the best of it, so 
 the bird set the ta-ble, while the mouse fixed the food. She 
 
136 THE FOX AND THE CAT 
 
 wished to sea-son the broth as she had seen the sau-sage do, 
 so she swung her-self in-to the pot, but her hair and skin came 
 off at once, and she lost her life. 
 
 When the bird came to dish up the food, no cook was to be 
 seen. He threw the wood on all sides in his search, but she 
 was not to be found. The bird took no care where he threw 
 the wood, and some fell on the fire and be-gan to blaze. He 
 flew for some wa-ter. As he stooped in haste o-ver the brook, 
 the pail fall in, and he was pulled in with it and drowned. 
 
 "Let well e-nough a-lone." 
 
 THE FOX AND THE CAT 
 
 ONE day a cat met a fox in the woods, and thought : 
 ' ' Mr. Fox is so smart and wise and has such a name 
 in the world, I think I will speak to him. ' ' So she said : 
 
 "Good day, Mr. Fox, how is your health? How do you 
 fare these hard times ? ' ' 
 
 But the fox, who was as proud as he could be, looked at 
 the cat from head to foot, as if he thought he ought not to 
 speak to her. At length he said: "Oh, you poor whisk-er 
 clean-er, you starved mouse-hunt-er, what ails you? You dare 
 to ask how I fare ! What tricks do you know ? ' ' 
 
 "I know but one," said the cat. 
 
THE OLD MAN AND HIS GRANDSON 137 
 
 ' 'And what is that ? ' ' asked the fox. 
 
 "When the dogs chase me, I spring in-to a tree, and thus 
 save my life," said the cat. 
 
 "Is that all you know?" said the fox. "I know a hun- 
 dred tricks, and more than this, have a sack full of cun-ning. 
 But I feel sad for you : come with me, and I will teach you 
 how to es-cape from the dogs." 
 
 Just then the hunt-ers came up with their dogs. 
 
 The cat sprang in-to a tree, sat her-self in the boughs, and 
 was quite hid-den by the leaves. 
 
 "O-pen the sack, Mr. Fox," she called to the fox, but the 
 dogs had seized him and held him fast. 
 
 "Ah! Mr. Fox," she called once more, "your hun-dred 
 tricks are not of much use to you ; if you had but been a-ble 
 to crawl up here, you might have saved your life." 
 
 THE OLD MAN AND HIS GRANDSON 
 
 ONCE there was an old, old man, whose eyes were dim, 
 his ears deaf, and his hands shook so that he could not 
 guide his food to his mouth, but what he held was spilled on 
 the ta-ble and on his clothes. His son and his son's wife were 
 ill pleased at this, and at last they made him sit in a cor-ner, 
 and eat out of an earth-en dish 
 
138 
 
 THE OLD MAN AND HIS GRANDSON 
 
 Once his poor old hands could not hold e-ven the dish, and 
 it fell to the floor and broke. Then the wife scold -ed, and 
 they bought him a dish of wood, and gave him his meals in 
 that. 
 
 One day as they sat at the ta-ble, their four-year-old boy 
 brought in some small boards 
 and tried to nail them to- 
 gether. ' ' What do you wish 
 to make?" asked the fa-ther. 
 
 "A lit-tle trough for you and 
 moth-er to eat out of when 
 I grow big," said the child. 
 
 The man and wife looked at 
 each oth-er a-while 
 and then be-gan to 
 cry. The child had 
 taught them a les- 
 son. Af-ter this the 
 old man came to 
 the ta-ble, and not 
 a word was said 
 e-ven if he did spill 
 some of his food 
 
 on the cloth. 
 
 THE OLD MAN AND HIS GRANDSON. 
 
139 
 
 OLD SULTAN 
 
 THERE was once a man who had a good dog called Sul-tan. 
 He was so old that he had lost all his teeth, and so 
 could not seize or hold an-y thing. One day the man said to 
 his wife, as they stood at the door of the house, "Old Sul-tan 
 is of no use now; I mean to shoot him in the morn-ing. " 
 
 His wife felt sad for the poor dog, and said, : ' He has been 
 a good dog all these years, and we ought to give him food and 
 a home in his old age." 
 
 "What is that?' said the man. "Are you out of your 
 mind ? He has not a tooth in his head ; he is of no use as a 
 watch-dog, and now he can go. He may have served us well, 
 but for that we have fed him all his life." 
 
 The poor dog, who lay in the sun not far from the door, 
 heard all this talk, and felt sad to know that the next day 
 would be the last of his life. He had one good friend out in 
 the woods, and that was the wolf; and now he went to see 
 him and tell him what he had to face. 
 
 "Don't feel bad, old chap," said the wolf. "I can help 
 you in your need. At dawn the man and his wife will go out 
 to make hay, and will take their child a-long, as there is no 
 one at home to take care of it. While they are at work they 
 will place the child in the hedge. You must lie down near it 
 as if to watch it. I will rush out of the woods, seize the child, 
 
140 
 
 OLD SULTAN 
 
 and drag it off. You must spring at me as if you would tear 
 it from me, and I will let it fall, and you can bring it back 
 to the man and his wife. They will think you have saved its 
 life, and feel they owe you so much that they will not want 
 to see you come to harm." 
 
 The dog liked this plan, and it was done. The man was 
 full of grief when he saw the wolf run through the field with 
 his child ; but when old Sul-tan brought it back, he was glad, 
 and he stroked his back, and said, "Not a hair of you shall 
 be harmed. You shall be fed and cared for as long as you 
 
 live." Then he said to his 
 wife, "Go home and cook 
 some bread and milk for 
 him, for he will not need 
 teeth for that, and bring the 
 pil-low from my bed, I will 
 let him have it to lie on. 
 
 From that time on old 
 Sul-tan had all that heart 
 could wish for. 
 
 One day the wolf came 
 to see him, and said, "Of 
 course you would not let on to see me if I came and took a 
 sheep from your mas-ter's flock. It is hard work, these times. 
 I can tell you, to catch one." 
 
 THE WILD BOAR BRINGS A CHALLENGE. 
 
OLD SULTAN 141 
 
 "You must not count on that," said Sul-tan, "I will be 
 true to my mas-ter, and let no one steal from him. 
 
 The wolf thought this was a joke of Sul-tan's, and he came 
 that night to steal a sheep. But Sul-tan had told the man, 
 
 *"*«*•" 
 
 
 
 OLD SULTAN AND HIS SECOND. 
 
 and he caught the wolf and beat him well. The wolf was so 
 mad at Sul-tan for this that he sent him a chal-lenge to meet 
 him in the woods and fight. The chal-lenge was brought by 
 a wild boar, who was to be the wolf's sec-ond in the fight. 
 
 Poor old Sul-tan could find no one to stand by him but a 
 cat that had but three legs. But they set out with-out fear, 
 
142 OLD SULTAN 
 
 the cat limp-ing on its three .legs, and its tail stuck high in 
 the air. The wolf and the boar were on the spot that had 
 been named, but when they saw the pair coming, they thought 
 Sul-tan had a big sword, be-cause they saw in front the tail of 
 the cat, and each time the poor thing limped on its three legs, 
 they thought he was go-ing to pick up a great stone to throw 
 at them. They were both scared, and the boar crept un-der 
 some leaves, and the wolf climbed up a tree. When the dog 
 and the cat came to the spot, they did not know what had 
 be-come of their foes. But one of the boar's ears stuck out, 
 and the cat saw it twitch. It looked like a mouse, and the 
 cat made a spring and gave it a good bite. The boar let forth 
 a scream of pain, and ran off to the woods, cry-ing, "There 
 is the guil-ty one, up in the tree." 
 
 The dog and the cat looked up and saw the wolf, who was 
 so full of shame for his acts that he was glad to come down 
 and make peace with the dog. 
 
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 1