A Book of Fairy Tales E-Book

Sabine Baring-gould

• Herausgeber: Jazzybee Verlag
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 313

Beschreibung

Mr. Baring - Gould is an authority upon folk tales, so that this volume is a particularly welcome one. The stories which he has retold are largely taken from Perrault's collection, the old yet ever fresh classics of the nursery such as 'Jack and the Beanstalk,' 'Cinderella,' 'The Sleeping Beauty,' 'Puss in Boots,' 'Beauty and the Beast,' and many more familiar in our mouths as household words. The tales are written in a manner likely to win the hearts of all youthful readers.

Leseprobe

A Book of Fairy Tales

SABINE BARING-GOULD

A Book of Fairy Tales, Sabine Baring-Gould

Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck

86450 Altenmünster, Loschberg 9

Deutschland

ISBN: 9783849663612

www.jazzybee-verlag.de

[email protected]

CONTENTS:

PREFACE.. 1

JACK AND THE BEAN STALK.. 3

PUSS IN BOOTS. 11

CINDERELLA.. 16

VALENTINE AND ORSON... 23

CHAPTER I23

CHAPTER II26

CHAPTER III28

CHAPTER IV.. 31

CHAPTER V.. 32

LITTLE RED RIDING-HOOD... 34

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY.. 37

THE BABES IN THE WOOD... 40

PRETTY MARUSCHKA.. 44

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.. 51

THE YELLOW DWARF. 64

HOP-O'-MY-THUMB.. 69

WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT.. 79

DON'T-KNOW... 86

MIRANDA; OR, THE ROYAL RAM... 97

BLUEBEARD... 103

THE FAIR MAID WITH GOLDEN LOCKS. 108

JACK THE GIANT KILLER.118

THE THREE BEARS. 125

TOM THUMB.. 128

THE WHITE CAT.. 134

THE FROG PRINCE.. 147

NOTES. 152

PREFACE

With two exceptions only, those which delighted our fathers and grandfathers in their childhood.

In the form in which we have them they are not older than the end of the seventeenth century. The majority of them were written by Charles Perrault, whose collection of Fairy Tales appeared in 1697, dedicated to one of the royal family of France. It contained ' Blue Beard,' 'The Sleeping Beauty,' 'Puss in Boots,''Riquet and his Tuft,' 'Hop-o'-my-Thumb,' ' Little Red Riding-Hood,' 'Cinderella,' “The Wishes,' etc.

To each of these tales was added a moral in bad verse. The morals have been forgotten, the tales are immortal. But although written by Perrault, he did not invent the stories, they were folktales which he wrote in simple words as they had been told him in his childhood, or as he had seen them in earlier collections.

'The tales of Perrault,' says Dunlop, 'are the best of the sort that have been given to the world.

They are chiefly distinguished for their simplicity, for the naive and familiar style in which they are written, and an appearance of implicit belief on the part of the relater, which, perhaps, gives us additional pleasure, from our knowledge of the powerful attainments of the author, and his advanced age at the period of their composition.'

The success attained by Perrault's little collection animated others to write Fairy Tales. Such were the Countess D'Aulnoy, Madame Murat, and Mademoiselle de la Force. But only the first of those approached Perrault in charm of style and gained a lasting hold on posterity. She told the imperishable tales of 'The Fair Maid with Golden Locks,''Gracieuse and Percinet,' and 'The White Cat.'

Among a host of imitators none wrote stories that have lived, except Madame de Beaumont, who published her collection in 1740, and in it is ' Beauty and the Beast,' a tale that has gone through successive stages of simplification, till it has assumed a form tolerable to childish minds. Almost as soon as Perrault's tales became popular in France, they were translated into English, and speedily became indispensable in the nursery. It is to be regretted that the popularity which attended them caused the disappearance of a great many of our own home-grown folktales. Attempts were made in England to win the ears of little folk by fairy tales. A couple of volumes were published in 1750, but they lacked precisely that quality which was so conspicuous in Perrault, and so certain to ensure success with children—simplicity, both in structure of the plot, and in diction. Though the stories in this collection have some merit, they have none of them gained a hearing.

It was otherwise with Grimm; he did in Germany on a more extended scale what Perrault did in France, and Grimm's Folk-Tales won their way to children's hearts at once, and have established therein an empire, which cannot be shaken. Grimm's success was due to the same cause as that of Perrault.

The stories in this little book are all, with two exceptions, known in every nursery. What I have done is to rewrite some of them—I may say most of them—simply, and to eliminate the grandiloquent language which has clung to some of them and has not been shaken off.

Madame D'Aulnoy sinned greatly in style, but nothing like the degree to which others sinned. The original 'Beauty and the Beast' is intolerable in the dress in which it was sent into the world.

What Perrault did was to take traditional tales and clothe them in the language that was adapted to children of the end of the seventeenth century.

The tales were not original; what he did was to print them undisfigured by fine language. His great merit consists in having thought them worthy to be published. Perhaps the stories want telling a little differently to children at the close of the nineteenth century.

I have thought so—and have so dealt with some, but not all, of these tales.

If I have made a mistake, I am quite sure of one thing, that the printer has made none in using such a beautiful type as can try no eyes; and the artist has made none in supplying such delightful illustrations.

If I have made a mistake, then I appeal to the tender hearts of the little people in the nursery— and I know they will pardon me, not only because I promise to make them up a set of really delightful old, old English Fairy Tales, but mainly because the childish heart is ever generous and forgiving.

S. BARING-GOULD.

JACK AND THE BEAN STALK

IN the days of King Alfred, there lived in a lonesome part of England poor widow with her son Jack. She had a cottage, a meadow, and a cowshed, and one cow to eat in the meadow, sleep in the shed, and supply the cottage with milk and butter.

The widow had one son, his name was Jack, and he was a thriftless, idle lad, without thought for his mother or the morrow. She had to do all the work and he had all the pleasure.

If the widow had not petted and spoiled her boy, he would have been a comfort to her instead of a trouble. If she had made him work instead of letting him run idle, he would have been happier.

As her poverty increased, and Jack increased at the same time, and required larger shoes, longer stockings, and more broadcloth for his back, the mother disposed of all her little goods one after another, to supply his necessities. He brought nothing into the housekeeping but took feet deal out, and he had not the wits to see is.

At length there remained only the cow to be disposed of, and the widow, with tears in her eyes, said to her son: 'Jack, my dear boy, I have not money enough to buy you a new suit of clothes, and you are out of elbows with your jacket, have knocked out the toes of your boots, and worked your knees through your breeches. Nothing remains for us but to part with the cow. Part with her we must, I cannot bear to see you in rags and disreputable.'

Jack said his mother was quite right to consider his personal appearanice. Then the widow bade him take the cow to market and sell her. Jack consented to do this.

As he was on his way he met with a butcher, who asked him whither he was going with the cow.

Jack said he was going to market to sell her.

'What do you want for her?' asked the butcher.

'As much as I can get,' answered Jack.

'That's spoken sensibly,' said the butcher. 'And now I know with whom I have to deal. It's always a pleasure to treat with a man of business habits and with plenty of intelligence. With him one knows where one is, but with a fool and a scatterbrain—I ask—Where are you?'

'Exactly,' said Jack, 'Where are you?'

Jack was vastly gratified at being called a man, and a man of business to boot, and with plenty of intelligence on top of that.

'Come,' said the butcher; 'between you and me, as business men, what will you take for the cow?'

Now, he had in his hands some curious beans of various colours, red and violet, spotted purple and black. Jack had never seen the like before, and he looked curiously at them.

'Ah!' said the butcher, 'I see you are a chap as knows what is what. In one moment, without speaking a word, them eyes of yours went into my hand, looking at my scarlet-runners. There is no cheating you, you know the value of a thing by the outside girth, you do. Well—if I was dealing with anyone elect I'd say, three scarlet-runner beans for the cow, but as you're an old hand, and a wary bird, I'll give you six.'

Jack eagerly closed the bargain. Such a chance might never occur again, so he gave the man the cow, and walked home with the six beans in his hand. When his mother saw the beans, and heard what Jack had to say, her patience forsook her; she threw away the beans in a rage, and they were scattered all over the garden. The poor woman was very sad over her loss; she cried all the evening, and she and Jack had to go supperless to bed.

When Jack awoke next morning, he was surprised that the sun did not stream in at his window in the manner it was wont to do, but twinkled as through dense foliage. When he rose from his bed, and went to the window, he saw to his great astonishment that a large plant had sprung up in the night and had grown in front of the cottage, and that its green leaves and scarlet flowers obscured the light from entering his chamber as fully as of old. He ran down-stairs into the garden, and saw that the beans had taken root, and had sprung up; the stalks were entwined and twisted like a stout trunk, or formed a ladder, and this mounted quite out of sight, for the clouds as they drifted by passed across the bean without reaching the top.

Jack very speedily resolved to climb the bean stalk and see whither it mounted.

In the meantime, his mother had come forth, no less astonished than himself. But when he told her it was his intention to scramble up the bean stalk, then she entreated, threatened, and forbade him—he must not go. He would run extraordinary risks; he would break her heart.

Jack had been too long his own master, and too regardless of his mother's feelings to pay attention to what she said. He put his hands to the tangle of stalks and found it extremely easy to climb. So he set to work and began his ascent, pausing at intervals to look round and observe the scenery as it grew small below him.

After scrambling for several hours, he passed through a thick layer of flaky cloud, and found that the uppermost shoots and tendrils of the bean were there. They had fallen over and were straggling across the upper surface of the cloud.

Looking about him, Jack discovered that he was in a very strange country. It appeared to be a desert, without tree or shrub, here and there were scattered masses of stone, and here and there also were masses of crumbling soil.

Jack was so fatigued that he sat himself down on a stone and thought of his mother, and the distress she was in, and a pang of remorse entered his heart. Then he heard the croak of a crow, and looking up, he saw a black bird perched on a rock. It said to him: 'Korax! Korax! I am a fairy, and I will tell you why you are here. Your father was a great man, and rich, and one day a cruel giant came and killed him and carried off all his goods, and unless your mother had hidden herself with you in the sheep-pen, he would have destroyed you both as well. She fled with what little she could collect together, carrying you on her back, and she has lived ever since in great poverty, and her poverty and sorrows have not been lightened by any signs of consideration and deference shown by you. I am speaking to you now, not that I care for you or desire to do you good for your own worthless sake, but because I am grateful to your mother, and I know that I cannot give her greater pleasure than by serving and saving you, and I hope that in future you will behave better to her. You must know that though I am a fairy, my power is not continuous, every hundred years there comes a time when it fails, and I am obliged to live on earth subject to extreme poverty and privation, and to be reduced to the utmost destitution, and that I can only be released from this condition by one who will give me to eat her last crumb, and to drink her last drop, and will comb my head with her golden comb.

'Now, yesterday, whilst you were away driving the cow to market, I came begging to your mother's door. She was so good, so charitable, that she gave me the last particle of bread that remained in the house, and the last drop of milk that remained in the pan, and then, seeing that I was without any of those articles of toilette which make life happy, she seated me on a stool, and with her golden comb, the only article of luxury that remained to her, she combed out my long black tresses. Now, no sooner had she done this, and spread my black hair all over me, than I was transformed into a crow, and as a crow I flew away, and a crow I remain until I can peck the three golden hairs out of the mole that grows on the tip of the giant's nose, that is, of the giant who slew your father.

'In order to reward your mother, and also to advance my own interest, I flew over you as you were making a great ass of yourself with the butcher, who was laughing in his sleeve to think what a greenhorn you were, and how easily gulled by a little vulgar flattery, and I dropped among the scarlet-runner beans three of a very different kind from those the butcher was giving you; and it is these three magical beans out of fairyland that have grown to such a size, and up which you have climbed.

'You are now in the country where lives the giant.

'You will have difficulties and dangers to encounter, but you must persevere in avenging the death of your father, and in doing all you can to enable me to get the three gold hairs out of the mole at the end of the ogre's nose. One thing I charge you strictly: do not let your mother know of your adventures till all are accomplished; the knowledge would be more than she could endure.'

Jack promised that he would obey the directions of the fairy. Then she said: 'Go along due east over this barren plain, you will soon arrive at the ogre's castle.'

Then the crow spread its wings and flew away.

Jack walked on and on, till at last he saw a large mansion. A woman was standing in the doorway. He accosted her and begged a morsel of bread and a night's lodging, as he was desperately hungry and excessively weary. She expressed great surprise at seeing him and said that it was an uncommon thing for a human being to pass that way; for it was well known that her husband was an ogre, who devoured human flesh in preference to all other meats, that he did not think anything of walking fifty miles to procure it, and that usually he was abroad all day questing for it.

This account terrified Jack; nevertheless, he was too weary and famished to think of proceeding farther; besides, he remembered the injunction of the fairy to avenge his father's death. He entreated the woman to take him in for that night only, and to lodge him in the oven.

The good woman at length suffered herself to be persuaded, for she was of a compassionate disposition. She gave him plenty to eat and drink in the kitchen, where a pleasant fire was burning.

Presently the house shook, for the giant was approaching; and the woman hastily thrust Jack into the oven.

Next instant the giant entered, and holding his nose high in the air, shouted in a voice of thunder: 'Ha! Ha! I smell fresh meat.'

'My dear,' answered his wife, 'it is only the calf we killed this morning.'

The ogre was appeased and called for his meal.

The good woman hastened to satisfy him and spread the table and put on it a pie that would have taken ten men to consume it in ten days.

The ogre finished it at a sitting, and when he had done, he desired his wife to bring him his crimson and gold hen.

Jack could look through a crevice in the door of the oven, and he saw that the giant's wife, after having removed the supper, brought in an osier cage, and out of this cage took a hen that had the most magnificent plumage ever seen, shot with green and gold and crimson. When the giant said, 'Lay!' then at once the hen laid an egg of solid gold that shone like the sun.: The ogre amused himself a long while with the hen; meanwhile his wife was washing up the supper things in the back kitchen.

At length the giant wearied of the somewhat monotonous sport and fell fast asleep by his fireside, and Jack now stole out from the oven, tucked the hen under his arm, slipped through the house door and ran as fast as his legs could carry him due west, till he reached the head of the bean stalk, and he descended it rapidly and successfully, always carrying the hen under his arm.

His mother was overjoyed to see him; he found her crying bitterly, and lamenting his fate, for she had made sure he had come to a shocking end through his rashness.

Jack showed her the hen. 'See, mother,' said he, 'here is an end to our toil and trouble. Now I hope to make some amends for all the grief I have caused you.'

The hen laid them as many eggs as they desired; they sold them, and in a little time were rich enough to buy cows, and a new suit for Jack, and a best gown for his mother.

But Jack was not easy. He recollected the command of the fairy, that he was to avenge his father, and work for her release from the form of a crow. Accordingly, he made up his mind to climb the bean stalk and visit cloudland once more.

One day he told his mother his purpose, and she tried to dissuade him from it, but as she saw that he was firmly resolved to do what he said, and with her fears to some extent allayed by the successful issue of his first expedition, she desisted from her attempt, Moreover, she did not know what dangers he would run, for, obedient to the instructions of the fairy, he had told her nothing of the ogre that lusted after human flesh, and of his concealment in the oven.

Knowing that the giant's wife would not again willingly admit and harbour him, he thought it necessary on this occasion to totally disguise himself. Accordingly with walnut he dyed his hands and face black and put on the new suit which had been purchased out of the money brought by the sale of the golden eggs.

Very early one morning he started and climbed the bean stalk. He was greatly fatigued when he reached the top, and very hungry. Having rested for some time on the Stones, he pursued his journey to the ogre's castle. He reached it late in the evening; and he found the woman standing at the door as before.

Jack accosted her and begged that she would give him a night's lodging and something to eat.

She replied that the giant, her husband, ate human flesh in preference to all other meat; that on one occasion she had taken in and hidden a beggar boy, who had run away carrying off something that her husband prized greatly. Jack tried hard to persuade the woman to receive him, but he found it a hard task.

At length she yielded, and took him into the kitchen, where she gave him something to eat and drink, and then concealed him in the clothes-hutch.

Presently the ogre entered, with his nose in the air, shouting: 'Ha! Ha! I smell fresh meat.'

His wife replied that a kid had been killed that day, and this kid he doubtless scented.

Then she hastened to produce his supper, for which he was very impatient, and constantly upbraided her with the loss of his hen.

The giant at last, having satisfied his voracious appetite, said to his wife: 'Bring me the moneybags that I took out of the castle down on the earth.'

Then Jack knew that it was his father's money the ogre was going to look at. He peeped from his hiding-place, and saw the woman enter carrying two moneybags into the room. She placed them before her husband, who at once opened them and poured forth from one bezants, that is to say gold coins, and from the other deniers, that to say silver coins. The ogre amused himself with counting out his money; and Jack, peeping from his hiding-place, most heartily wished it were his.

At length the giant tired of the great mental exertion of counting. He put back the money into the bags, tied them up, and fell asleep.

Jack, believing all was secure, stole from his hiding-place, and laid hold of one of the bags.

Then a little dog that was lying under the table began to bark, and Jack, fearing lest the giant should wake, slipped back into his hiding-place.

He however remained unconscious, snoring heavily; then the wife, who was washing-up in the back kitchen, came in and called the dog to attend her.

The coast was now clear. Jack crept out of the hutch, and, seizing the bags, made off with them, as they were his father's treasure which had been carried away by the giant.

On his way to the top of the bean stalk, the only difficulty Jack had to encounter arose from the weight of the bags, which burdened him immensely. On reaching the bean plant, he climbed down nimbly, carrying the treasure of gold and silver with him, and on reaching the bottom gave them to his mother. They were now well off and might have exchanged the cottage for a handsome house, but Jack would in no way consent to this, for he knew that he had not as yet avenged his father and released the fairy.

He thought and thought upon the world above the bean stalk, and his mother saw that he was meditating on another expedition.

She was sorrowful, as there was really now in her mind no need for anything further; but she knew how resolved her son was when he had made up his mind to anything, and that it was not in her power to dissuade him from it.

One midsummer day, very early in the morning, Jack reascended the bean stalk. He found the plain above the clouds as before. He arrived at the giant's mansion in the evening and found his wife standing at the door. Jack had disguised himself so completely that she did not recognise him. He had painted his face and hands with red ochre. When he pleaded hunger and weariness in order to gain admission, he found it very difficult indeed to persuade her. At last, he prevailed and was concealed in the copper. When the giant returned in the evening, he lifted his nose and bellowed: 'Ha, Ha! I smell fresh meat.'

'Some crows have brought a piece of carrion and have left it on the roof,' said the wife.

'I said fresh meat,' retorted the giant; and notwithstanding all his wife could say, searched all through the kitchen. Jack was nearly dying with fear and wished himself at home; and when the ogre approached the copper and put his hand on the lid, Jack thought his last hour had struck.

The giant however forbore from lifting the lid, and threw himself into his chair, storming at his wife, whom he accused of having lost him his hen and bags of money.

She hastened to dish up supper. He ate greedily, and when satiated, bade the woman bring him his harp. Jack peered from under the copper lid and saw the most beautiful harp that could be imagined. It had a head like an angel, and wings. When the harp was placed on the table, the giant shouted 'Play!' whereupon the harp played the most beautiful music of its own accord.

The giant listened and fell asleep. Meanwhile his wife had finished washing-up and had retired to bed.

Jack crept from the copper, and laid hold of the harp. But the harp had instinct, and it cried out: 'Master! Master! Master!'

The giant woke, rubbed his eyes, stretched himself, and looked about him. He had eaten and drunk so much that he was stupefied, and he did not understand what had happened, in the first moment of being aroused.

Meanwhile Jack ran away with the harp.

In a while the giant discovered that he had been robbed, and he rushed after Jack, and threw great stones at him, which Jack fortunately evaded. As soon as he reached the beanstalk he began to descend, and he ran down as nimbly as might be.

The giant pursued him and began to follow down the bean stalk.

Jack, on reaching the bottom, called for a hatchet.

His mother, who saw the danger, immediately brought one; and Jack with the axe hewed through the stalks near the root; consequently the whole mass with the giant on it fell to the ground, and the fall broke the neck of the ogre.

Immediately hovering overhead appeared the black crow. It swooped down and picked three golden hairs from a mole that was on the end of the giant's nose. No sooner was that done, than the crow was transformed into a lovely fairy.

Jack's mother was not a little delighted when she saw the bean stall destroyed, for now Jack need no longer climb it. He was now allowed by the fairy to tell the whole story; and he not only did this, but begged his mother's pardon for disobedience in past years, and promised to amend.

He kept his promise, and what with the hen that laid golden eggs, and the bags of bezants and deniers, and the marvelous harp that played of its own accord, Jack and his mother no longer suffered poverty or felt tedium.

PUSS IN BOOTS

A MILLER left all he had to his three sons. To the eldest he gave the mill; to the second he gave the ass; to the third the cat.

Very sad was the youngest over what fell to him. The two eldest were not kind, they managed very well together. The first ground the corn into flour, and the second took it about in sacks on the ass and sold it. But the third could do nothing with the cat but keep the mill clear of rats and mice. One day he said: 'I am very much alone and very poor in the world, and I live on the charity of my brothers. They will soon turn me out, and then I shall die of hunger and cold, whenever my cat has devoured the last mouse.' The cat heard him, came and rubbed himself against his legs, and said: 'Do not be troubled, dear master. Have a pair of boots made for me, and give me a sack, and you will soon see that you are better off with me than are your brothers with the mill and the ass.'

The young man had got a piece of gold in his pocket; it was all the money he had. He spent that in getting a pair of very handsome boots for his cat, and he also got a sack, as puss required.

When the cat had got what he had asked for, then he drew on his boots—they were topped with crimson leather—and he threw the sack over his shoulder, and went away to a warren, where there were many rabbits. Then he put some sow-thistles and some bran at the bottom of the sack, and throwing himself down as though he were dead, he waited till some foolish young rabbit should come and be snared.

Nor had he long to wait, for very soon a silly bunny came up, and attracted by what was in the sack, went in. Then the cat drew the cords that shut the neck of the sack and killed the rabbit.

Very proud of what he had done, he went to the king's palace, and asked to speak with his Majesty.

He was readily admitted, when, marching in his boots to the foot of the throne, he made a profound bow, and throwing down the rabbit on the steps of the dais, said: 'Sire, the Marquess of Carabas has enjoined me to present you with a rabbit from his warren. With onion sauce, boiled, your Majesty will find it excellent.'

'Tell your master,' answered the king, 'that he could hardly have afforded me a greater pleasure.

My cook never dreams of sending me up rabbit, on which I dote. Thank him cordially from me.'

Next day the cat concealed himself in the standing corn, with his sack open. Soon two partridges entered; he drew the strings and caught them.

Then again, he went to the palace, and presented them to the king in the name of his master, the Marquess of Carabas.

The king was delighted and ordered that the messenger should be given something to drink.

The cat asked for a saucerful of milk—he touched nothing stronger, said he; on principle he was a teetotaler.

The cat continued his course; he caught in like Manner, pheasant, woodcock, snipe, teal, wild duck, fieldfare, and kept the palace larder pretty well supplied with game during the season.

One day when the cat knew that the king was going out a drive beside the river, along with his daughter, who was the loveliest princess in the world and heir to his throne, the cat said to his master: 'If you will follow my advice, your fortune is made. You have but to bathe in the river, at the spot I shall point out to you, and leave the rest to me.' The young fellow did as was advised, without understanding what was the purpose of the cat. Whilst he was in the water, the carriage of the king drew near; it was gilded and had glass windows and was drawn by cream-coloured horses with gold and red trappings.

The cat now began to run up and down the bank, screaming: 'Help! help! my master, the Marquess of Carabas, will be drowned.'

The king hearing the cries, put his head out of the window and bade the coachman draw up. Then he recognised the cat which had brought him so many good things. He called the cat to the carriage-side and asked what distressed him.

'Sire!' answered the cat, 'whilst the most noble the Marquess of Carabas has been bathing some thieves have run away with his clothes. I am afraid if he remains much longer in the water, he may have cramp and go under.'

In fact, the cat had carried away his master's poor, mean garments, and had hidden them under a stone.

The king, who was not merely compassionate, but also generous and not above feeling gratitude for services rendered, at once ordered his attendants to go back to the palace for the most splendid suit they could find. 'I believe,' said the king, 'there is a very fine suit made for me some twenty years ago, when I was courting. I was then less corpulent than at present. You will find it in the lower right-hand drawer of the mahogany chest.

I have little doubt it will fit the marquess to a nicety—that is, if he is a graceful man—I was immensely graceful twenty years ago.'

Owing to the minute and exact instructions given by his Majesty, the suit, which was exceedingly splendid, was soon found and brought to the lad in the water, who quickly clothed himself in it and then came to the coach door to pay his respects to the king and the princess.

The youth looked so engaging in the dress in which his Royal Highness had been invested when he went courting her mother, that the princess immediately lost her heart to him, and felt that the world to her would be a blank without him.

The king was also touched, for the sight of the youth in this suit—which he became, rather than the suit became him—awoke old feelings of sentimentality in the bosom of the king; he wiped his BOOTS eyes, and entreated the most noble marquess to enter the carriage with him and his daughter; and nudging the princess, he whispered: 'I was like that when I went a-sweethearting.'

The cat, delighted that his schemes had so well succeeded, ran on ahead of the carriage; and having passed through a field in which harvesters were cutting and making stacks of golden corn, he said to them: 'Good people! unless you tell the king who is coming this way that these cornfields belong to the Marquess of Carabas, you will all be made mincemeat of.'

The harvesters were somewhat alarmed at the appearance of the cat in boots; they were exceedingly afraid of being made into mincemeat.

Presently the gilded coach of the king passed.

He stopped it and inquired of the peasants to whom these splendid fields of grain belonged.

They answered, as they had been instructed, 'To the most noble the Marquess of Carabas.'

'Upon my word!' said the king, addressing the miller's son, 'you have a noble heritage.'

The young man bowed and blushed; and the king and princess were pleased at his modesty.

The king nudged his daughter and whispered: 'I was tremendously shy—when I went a-courting.'

The cat ran ahead and came into a meadow in which were mowers making hay. He said to them: 'Good people! unless you tell the king who is coming this way that these meadows belong to the Marquess of Carabas, you will all be pickled like young walnuts.'

When the king soon after came into the meadow and smelt the sweet hay, he bade the coach stop, and he inquired of the mowers to whom the meadows belonged. They answered, as instructed, that they belonged to the most noble the Marquess of Carabas.

'Goodness!' exclaimed the king, addressing the miller's son, 'you have indeed a noble heritage. 'The young man stammered something unintelligible. The king nudged his daughter and said in a whisper: 'I also stuttered and stammered when I was paying my addresses to your mother.'

The cat ran on, and passed through a forest in which woodcutters were engaged thinning the timber.

He halted, and addressed them, and said: 'Good people! unless you say that all these woods belong to the Marquess of Carabas, you will all be stewed in your syrup like prunes.'

When soon after this the king's coach entered the woods, the king called to the driver to stop, and he signed to a woodcutter to come up. He asked him whose forests these were, and he replied that they belonged to the most noble the Marquess of Carabas.

'Well, I never!' exclaimed the king to the miller's son, 'you have verily a splendid inheritance.'

The poor lad was so bewildered that all he could do was to respond with a sickly smile.

The king nudged his daughter and whispered: 'I also sniggered when I asked your mother to name the day. She said my snigger was more eloquent than words.'

The cat ran on and saw at the end of the wood a magnificent palace. He went in, and found that it belonged to an ogre, who was also a magician and enormously rich, for all the lands through which the cat had run belonged to the domain of this palace. The cat asked leave to see the ogre. He said he could not think of passing that way without paying him his respects.

The ogre received him with civility; even ogres enjoy flattery.

'I have been informed,' said the cat, 'that you are so clever and so profound in your acquirements, that you can transform yourself into any BOOTS shape you like. But this may be merely idle gossip, not based on any foundation of truth. For myself I never believe half the tittle-tattle I hear.'

'But it is really true,' said the ogre.

The cat smiled incredulously.

'I will at once show you my power,' said the ogre; and in a moment transformed himself into a lion.

The cat was so frightened that he made a bolt out of the window and ran up the water-pipes and did not rest till he was on the roof. This was difficult for him, because he wore boots, and boots re calculated for a high-road, and not for scrambling.

After some time, he plucked up courage to descend.

'What do you think of my power now?' asked the ogre, who had resumed his former shape.

'I think that your power is great,' answered the cat, 'yet hardly all that I should have thought had I given belief to what is said.'

'How so?' asked the ogre.

'I heard, for instance, on my way here, that you were a great bear.'

'I can make myself that in a moment,' answered the ogre.

'I am sure you are that already,' answered the cat courteously. 'Others said you were an awful bore—or boar—I did not ask them to spell the word.'

'IT can transform myself into that instantly.'

'I am certain you need no transformation to be that most completely,' said the cat, with a bow.

'T also heard that you were in reality quite insignificant as a personage, and a nobody. Now, any fool can puff himself up into something greater than himself, but it takes a wise man to make himself appear less than he really is — Can you do that?'

'In a moment,' answered the ogre, and he changed himself into a mouse.

Instantly the cat was on him and had eaten him.

Then he walked to the gate of the palace and arrived there just as the royal carriage drove up.

'I wonder whose magnificent palace this is?' said the king.

Then the cat ran down the steps, opened the door of the carriage, and said: 'Your Majesty— welcome to the palace of the most noble Marquess of Carabas.'

'Why, this is truly a surprise,' said the king.

'What a splendid inheritance is yours, Marquis!

Give my daughter your arm. We will pick a crumb with you, Carabas. I'm vastly hungry with my drive.'

The miller's son clumsily offered his arm as bidden to the princess. Her father nudged her and whispered: 'I also was a great gawky when I proposed to your mother.'