Part 4

“That little fellow is only trying to make fools of us.” So they came back and spoke low to him, saying: “Now let us have no more of your jokes, but throw out some of the money.” Then Tom called out again as loud as he could:--

“Very well! Hold your hands; here it comes.”

The cook heard this plainly; she sprang out of bed, and ran to open the door. The thieves were off as if a wolf were after them, and the cook could see nothing in the dark. So she went back for a light, and while she was gone, Tom slipped off into the barn.

The cook looked about and searched every hole and corner, but found nobody; she went back to bed, and thought she must have been dreaming with her eyes open. Tom crawled about in the hayloft, and at last found a good place to rest in. He meant to sleep till daylight, and then find his way home to his father and mother.

III. INSIDE A COW

|Poor Tom Thumb! his troubles were only begun. The cook got up early to feed the cows. She went straight to the hayloft, and carried away a large bundle of hay, with the little man in the middle of it fast asleep. He slept on, and did not wake till he found himself in the mouth of a cow. She had taken him up with a mouthful of hay.

“Dear me,” said he, “how did I manage to tumble into the mill?” But he soon found out where he was, and he had to keep all his wits about him, or he would have fallen between the cow’s teeth, and then he would have been crushed to death. At last he went down into her stomach.

“It is rather dark here,” said he; “they forgot to build windows in this room to let the sun in.” He made the best of his bad luck, but he did not like his resting-place at all. The worst of it was, that more and more hay was coming down, and there was less and less room to turn round in. At last he cried out as loud as he could:--

“Don’t bring me any more hay! don’t bring me any more hay!” The cook just then was milking the cow. She heard some one speak, but she saw nobody. Yet she was sure it was the same voice she had heard in the night. It put her into such a fright that she fell off her stool and upset her milk-pail. She ran off as fast as she could to the farmer, and said:--

“Sir, sir, the cow is talking.” But the farmer said:--

“Woman, thou art surely mad.” Still, he went with her into the cow-house, to see what was the matter. Just as they went in, Tom cried out again:--

“Don’t bring me any more hay! don’t bring me any more hay!” Then the farmer was in a fright. He was sure the cow must be mad, so he gave orders to have her killed at once. The cow was killed, and the stomach with Tom in it was thrown into the barnyard.

IV. SAFE AT HOME AGAIN

|Tom soon set himself to work to get out, and that was not a very easy task. A hungry wolf was prowling about. Just as Tom had made room to get his head out the wolf seized the stomach and swallowed it. Off he ran, but Tom was not cast down. He began to chat with the wolf, and called out:--

“My good friend, I can show you a famous treat.”

“Where is that?”

“In the house near the wood. You can crawl through the drain into the kitchen, and there you will find cakes, ham, beef, and everything that is nice.” This was the house where Tom Thumb lived. The wolf did not need to be asked twice. That very night he went to the house and crawled through the drain into the kitchen. There he ate and drank to his heart’s content.

After a while he had eaten so much that he was ready to go away. But now he could not squeeze through the drain. This was just what Tom had thought of, and the little chap set up a great shout.

“Will you be quiet?” said the wolf. “You will wake everybody in the house.”

“What is that to me?” said the little man. “You have had your frolic; now I have a mind to be merry myself.” And he began again to sing and shout as loud as he could.

The woodman and his wife were awakened by the noise, and peeped through a crack into the kitchen. When they saw a wolf there, they were in a great fright. The woodman ran for his axe, and gave his wife a scythe.

“You stay behind,” said the woodman.

“When I have knocked the wolf on the head, you run at him with the scythe.” Tom heard all this, and said:--

“Father! father! I am here. The wolf has swallowed me.”

“Heaven be praised!” said the woodman. “We have found our dear child again. Do not use the scythe, wife, for you may hurt him.” Then he aimed a great blow, and struck the wolf on the head, and killed him at once. They opened him, and set Tom Thumb free.

“Ah!” said his father, “what fears we have had for you!”

“Yes, father,” he answered. “I have traveled all over the world since we parted, and now I am very glad to get fresh air again.”

“Where have you been?”

“I have been in a mouse-hole, in a snail-shell, down a cow’s throat, and inside the wolf, and yet here I am again, safe and sound.”

“Well, well,” said his father. “We will not sell you again for all the riches in the world.”

So they hugged and kissed their dear little son, and gave him plenty to eat and drink. And they bought him new clothes, for his old ones had been quite spoiled on his journey.

THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE

A Hare once made fun of a Tortoise.

“What a slow way you have!” he said. “How you creep along!”

“Do I?” said the Tortoise. “Try a race with me, and I will beat you.”

“You only say that for fun,” said the Hare. “But come! I will race with you. Who will mark off the bounds, and give the prize?”

“Let us ask the Fox,” said the Tortoise.

The Fox was very wise and fair. He showed them where they were to start, and how far they were to run.

The Tortoise lost no time. She started at once, and jogged straight on.

The Hare knew he could come to the end in two or three jumps. So he lay down and took a nap first. By and by he awoke, and then ran fast. But when he came to the end, the Tortoise was already there!

THE COUNTRY MOUSE AND THE TOWN MOUSE

|A Country Mouse had a friend who lived in a house in town. Now the Town Mouse was invited by the Country Mouse to take dinner with him. Out he went, and sat down to a dinner of barley and wheat.

“Do you know, my friend,” said he, “that you live a mere ant’s life out here? Now, I have plenty at home. Come and enjoy the good things there with me.”

So the two set off for town. There the Town Mouse showed the other his beans and meal, his dates, his cheese and fruit and honey.

As the Country Mouse ate, drank, and was merry, he praised his friend and bewailed his own poor lot.

But while they were urging each other to eat heartily, a man suddenly opened the door. Frightened by the noise, they crept into a crack. By and by, when he had gone, they came out and tasted of some dried figs. In came another person to get something that was in the room. When they caught sight of him, they ran and hid in a hole.

At that the Country Mouse forgot his hunger, and with a sigh, said to the other:--

“Please yourself, my good friend; eat all you want and get rich,--and be in a fright the whole time. As for me, I am a poor fellow, I know, who have only barley and wheat. But I am content to live on those, and have nothing to frighten me.”

Those who have the plain things of life are often better off than the rich.

THE GNAT AND THE BULL

|A Gnat once lit on a Bull’s horn, and stayed there a long while.

When he was about to fly away, he asked the Bull if he would like to have him go now.

“Why,” said the Bull, “I did not know you were there.”

People often think themselves important when, in truth, no one is noticing them.

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY IN THE WOOD

I. THE BEAUTY GOES TO SLEEP

|Once upon a time there lived a king and queen who grieved that they had no child. But at last a daughter was born, and the king was very happy. He gave a great feast, and asked to it all the fairies in the land, seven in all. He hoped that each would give the child a gift.

In front of each fairy at the table was set a heavy gold plate, and by each plate a gold knife and fork. Just as they sat down to the feast, in came an old fairy who had not been invited. No one knew she was living. Fifty years before she had shut herself up in a tower, and had not been seen since.

The king hurried off to find a gold plate and knife and fork for her also. But nothing could be found so fine as the seven plates which had been made for the seven fairies. The old fairy thought herself ill-used and grumbled in a low voice. At that, one of the young fairies feared she meant mischief to the child, and so, when the feast was over, hid herself behind the hangings in the hall. We shall soon see why she did this.

The fairies now began to give gifts to the child, beginning with the youngest. She gave her beauty; the next gave her wit; the third gave her grace; the fourth said she should dance perfectly; the fifth gave her a voice to sing; the sixth said she should play beautifully on the harp.

The turn of the old fairy had now come. She shook her head wickedly and said the child would grow up, but when she was grown, she would pierce her hand, when spinning, and die of the wound. At this, all the company began to weep. But the fairy who had hidden came forward and said:--

“Be of good cheer, king and queen. Your daughter shall not so die. I cannot entirely undo what my elder has done. The princess must pierce her hand when spinning, but instead of dying she shall fall into a deep sleep. The sleep shall last a hundred years. At the end of that time a king’s son will come to wake her.”

The king was very sad, but he hoped he might prevent the evil. So he made a law that no one in the kingdom should spin or have a spinning wheel in the house, under pain of instant death.

All went well for fifteen years. Then it chanced that the princess was with the king and queen in one of their castles, and was spying about for herself. She came to a little chamber at the top of a tower, and there sat an honest old woman spinning. She was very old and deaf, and had never heard of the king’s command.

“What are you doing?” asked the princess.

“I’m spinning, my pretty child.”

“How charming it is!” said the princess. “How do you do it? Let me try if I can spin.” She seized the spindle, but she was hasty and careless, and pierced her hand with its point. She fainted, and the old woman, in great alarm, ran for help. People came running from all sides, but they could not rouse her.

The king heard the noise and came also. Then he saw that the cruel fairy had had her wish. His daughter would not wake for a hundred years. He laid her on the bed in the best room, and stood sadly looking upon her. She was asleep. He could hear her breathe. Her cheeks were full of color, but her eyes were closed.

Now the good fairy, who had said the princess should wake in a hundred years, was thousands of miles away at the time. But she knew of it, and came at once in a chariot of fire drawn by dragons. The king came to meet her, his eyes red with weeping.

The good fairy was very wise and saw that the princess would not know what to do if she awoke all alone in the castle, in a hundred years. So this is what she did.

She touched with her wand every one in the castle except the king and the queen. She touched the maids of honor, the gentlemen, the officers, the stewards, cooks, boys, guards, porters, pages, footmen. She touched the horses in the stable, the grooms, the great mastiff in the court-yard, and the tiny lapdog of the princess that was on the bed beside her.

The moment she touched them, they all fell asleep just as they were, not to wake again until the time came for their mistress to do so. Then they all would be ready to wait on her. Even the fire went to sleep, and the roasting-spit before the fire with its fowls ready for roasting.

It was the work of a moment. The king and queen kissed their daughter good-by and left the castle. The king sent forth a command that no one was to go near the castle. That was needless. In a quarter of an hour, a wood had grown about it so thick and thorny that nothing could get through it. The castle-top itself could only be seen from afar.

II. THE BEAUTY WAKES

|After a few years the king and the queen died. They had no other child, and the kingdom passed into the hands of a distant family. A hundred years went by. The son of the king who was then reigning was out hunting one day, when he noticed the tower of a castle in the distance. He asked what castle it was.

All manner of answers were given to him. One said It was a fairy castle; another said that a great monster lived there. At last an old man said:--

“Prince, more than fifty years ago I heard my father say that there was in that castle the most beautiful princess ever seen. She was to sleep for a hundred years, and was to be waked at last by the king’s son, who was to marry her.”

The young prince at these words felt himself on fire. He had not a doubt that he was the one to awaken the princess. He set out at once for the wood, and when he drew near, the trees and thorns opened to offer him a path.

He was on a long, straight road, and at the end was the castle in full view. He turned to look for his comrades. Not one was to be seen. The wood had closed again behind him. He was alone, and all was still about him. Forward he went and came to the castle-gate. He entered the court-yard, and stood still in amazement.

On every side were the bodies of men and animals. But the faces of the men were rosy; it was plain that they were asleep. His steps sounded on the marble floor. He entered the guard-room. There the guards stood drawn up in line, with their spears in their hands, but they did not move. They were fast asleep.

He passed through one room after another; people were asleep in chairs, on benches, standing, sitting, lying down. He entered a beautiful room, covered with gold, and saw the most wonderful sight of all.

There lay a maiden so fair that she seemed to belong to another world. He drew near and knelt beside her. She did not stir. Her hand lay on her breast, and he touched his lips to it.

As he did this, her eyes opened and looked at the young man. She smiled, and said:--

“Have you come, my prince? I have waited long for you.”

The prince hardly knew how to answer. But he soon found his voice, and they talked for hours, and then had not said half that was in their heads to say.

The moment that the princess waked, her little lapdog waked also. The great mastiff in the court-yard awoke; the horses in the stable and the grooms awoke; the footmen, the pages, the porters, the guards, the boys, the cooks, the stewards, the officers, the gentlemen, and the maids of honor, all awoke. The fire began to burn again, the spits turned round, and the fowls began to roast.

So, while the prince and the princess forgot the hours in talk, these people began to be hungry. The maids of honor went to the princess to tell her that they all waited for her. Then the prince took the princess by the hand and led her into the hall.

She was dressed in great splendor. But the prince did not hint that she looked as the picture of his great-grandmother looked. He thought her all the more charming for that, but he did not tell her so. The musicians played excellent but old music at supper. After supper the prince and princess were married in the chapel of the castle.

The next day they left the castle. All the people followed them down the long path. The wood opened again to let them through. Outside they met the prince’s men, and glad they were to see the prince once more. He turned to show them the castle, but there was no castle to be seen, and no wood.

The prince and princess rode gayly away, and when the old king and queen died, they reigned in their stead.

THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER

|On a warm day in summer, an Ant was busy in the field gathering grains of wheat and corn, which he laid up for winter food. A Grasshopper saw him at work, and laughed at him for toiling so hard, when others were at ease.

The Ant said nothing. But afterwards, when winter came, and the ground was hard, the Grasshopper was nearly dead with hunger. He came to the Ant to beg something to eat. Then the Ant said to him:--

“If you had worked when I did, instead of laughing at me, you would not now be in need.”

THE LION AND THE FOX

|A Lion that had grown old, and had no more Strength to forage for food, saw that he must get it by cunning. He went into his den and crept into a corner, and made believe that he was very sick.

All the animals about came in to take a look at him, and, as they came, he snapped them up. When a good many beasts had been caught in this way, the Fox, who guessed his trick, came along. He took his stand a little way from the den, and asked the Lion how he did.

The Lion said he was very sick, and begged him to come into the den to see him.

“So I would,” said the Fox, “but I notice that all the footprints point into the den, and none point out.”

DICK WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT

I. DICK GOES TO LONDON

|In the olden times there lived in the country, In England, a boy by the name of Dick Whittington.

He did not know who his parents were, for he had been born and brought up in the poor-house. There he was cruelly treated. When he was seven years of age, he ran away and lived by what he could get from kind people.

He heard that the streets of London were paved with gold. Being now a sturdy youth, he set out for the city to make his fortune. He did not know the way, but he fell in with a carter, who was bound for London, and he followed the cart. When night came, he helped the carter by rubbing down the horses, and for this he was paid with a supper.

He trudged on day after day, until they came to the famous city. The carter was afraid Dick would hang about him and give him trouble. So he gave him a penny and told him to begone and find some work.

Dick went from street to street, but he knew no one. He was ragged and forlorn, and looked like a beggar. Nobody gave him anything to do. Once in a while some one gave him something to eat, but at last he had nothing.

For two days he went about hungry and almost starved, but he would rather starve than steal. At the end of the second day he came to a merchant’s house in Leadenhall Street, and stood before it, weary and faint. The ill-natured cook saw him and came out and said:--

“Go away from here, or I will kick you away!” He crept off a little distance and lay down on the ground, for he was too weak to stand. As he lay there, the merchant who lived in the house came home, and stopped to speak to him. He spoke sharply, and told him to get up, that it was a shame for him to be lying there.

Poor Dick got up, and after falling once, through faintness and want of food, made out to say that he was a poor country boy, nearly starved. He would do any work if he might have food.

Mr. Fitzwarren, the merchant, took pity on him. He brought him into the house, and bade the servants look after him. He gave him a place under the cook, and this was the beginning of Dick’s fortune. But Dick had a hard time of it. The servants made sport of him. The ill-natured cook said:--

“Do you know what you are to do? You are to come under me. So look sharp. Clean the spits and the pans, make the fires, wind up the roasting-jack, and do nimbly all the dirty work I set you about, or else I will break your head with my ladle, and kick you about like a foot-ball.” This was cold comfort, but it was better than starving. “What gave him more hope was the kind notice he had from his master’s daughter, Mistress Alice. She heard Dick’s story from her father, and called for the boy. She asked him questions, and he was so honest in his answers, that she went to her father, and said:--

“That poor boy whom you brought into the house is a good, honest fellow. I am sure he will be very useful. He can clean shoes, and run errands, and do many things which our servants do not like to do.”

II. DICK’S CAT

|So Dick was kept, and a cot bed was given him in the garret. He was up early and worked late. He left nothing undone that was given him to do. For all that, he could not please the cook, who was very sour to him. Still, he bore her blows rather than leave so good a home. Then the cook told tales about him, and tried to get him sent away, but Mistress Alice heard of it. She knew how ill-tempered the cook was, and so she made her father keep Dick.

This was not the whole of Dick Whittington’s trouble. The garret where he lay at night had long been empty, and a great number of mice had made their home in it. They ran over Dick’s face, and kept up such a racket that he knew not which was worse, the cook by day or the mice by night.

He could only hope that the cook might marry or get tired of the place, and that he might in some way get a cat. It chanced, soon after, that a merchant came to dinner, and as it rained hard, he stayed all night. In the morning Dick cleaned the merchant’s shoes and brought them to his door. For this service the merchant gave him a penny.

As he went through the street on an errand that morning, he saw a woman with a cat under her arm. He asked her the price of the cat.

“It is a good mouser,” said the woman: “you may have it for a sixpence.”

“But I have only a penny,” said Dick. The woman found that she really could get nothing more, so she sold the cat to Dick for a penny. He brought it home, and kept it out of the way all day for fear the cook would see it. At night he took the cat up to the garret, and made her work for her living. Puss soon rid him of one plague.

When Mr. Fitzwarren sent out a ship to trade with far countries, he used to call his servants together, and give each a chance to make some money, by sending out goods in the ship. He thought that thus his ship had better fortune.

Now he was again making a venture, and each of the servants brought something to send; all but Whittington. Mistress Alice saw that he did not come, and she sent for him, meaning to give him some simple goods, that he too might have a share in the venture.

When, after many excuses, he was obliged to appear, he fell on his knees, and prayed them not to jeer at a poor boy. He had nothing he could claim for his own but a cat, which he had bought with a penny given him for cleaning shoes.

Upon this Mistress Alice offered to lay something down for him. But her father told her the custom was for each to send something of his own. So he bade Dick bring his cat, which he did with many tears, and gave her over to the master of the ship.

The cook, and indeed all the servants, after this plagued Dick, and jeered at him so much for sending his cat, that he could bear it no longer. He said to himself that he would leave the house and try his fortune elsewhere.

III. BOW BELLS

|He packed his bundle one night, and the next day, early, set forth to seek his fortune. He left the house behind him, but his heart began to sink. However, he would not turn back, but kept on. At last he sat down in the field to think.

Just then the Bow Bells, that is, the bells of a church in Bow Street, began to ring merrily. Dick heard them, and as they rang, he fancied he heard them sing,--

“Turn again, Whittington,

Lord Mayor of London.”

That was a fine song to hear, and Dick began to pluck up heart again.