Part 1

The WONDER CLOCK OR _four & twenty marvellous Tales, being one for each hour of the day; written & illustrated_

By Howard Pyle.

_Embellished with Verses by Katharine Pyle._

_New York_, printed by Harper & Brothers.

BOOKS BY

HOWARD PYLE

MEN OF IRON. Illustrated. Post 8vo A MODERN ALADDIN. Illustrated. Post 8vo PEPPER AND SALT. Illustrated. Post 8vo REJECTED OF MEN. Post 8vo THE ROSE OF PARADISE. Illustrated. 12mo THE RUBY OF KISHMOOR. Illustrated. 8vo STOLEN TREASURE. Illustrated. 12mo TWILIGHT LAND. Illustrated. Post 8vo THE WONDER CLOCK. Illustrated. Square 8vo

HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK

Copyright, 1887, by HARPER & BROTHERS

Copyright, 1915, by ANNE POOLE PYLE

Printed in the United States of America

PREFACE.

I put on my dream-cap one day and stepped into Wonderland.

Along the road I jogged and never dusted my shoes, and all the time the pleasant sun shone and never burned my back, and the little white clouds floated across the blue sky and never let fall a drop of rain to wet my jacket. And by and by I came to a steep hill.

I climbed the hill, though I had more than one tumble in doing it, and there, on the tip top, I found a house as old as the world itself.

That was where Father Time lived; and who should sit in the sun at the door, spinning away for dear life, but Time’s Grandmother herself; and if you would like to know how old she is you will have to climb to the top of the church steeple and ask the wind as he sits upon the weather-cock, humming the tune of Over-yonder song to himself.

“Good-morning,” says Time’s Grandmother to me.

“Good-morning,” says I to her.

“And what do you seek here?” says she to me.

“I come to look for odds and ends,” says I to her.

“Very well,” says she; “just climb the stairs to the garret, and there you will find more than ten men can think about.”

“Thank you,” says I, and up the stairs I went. There I found all manner of queer forgotten things which had been laid away, nobody but Time and his Grandmother could tell where.

Over in the corner was a great, tall clock, that had stood there silently with never a tick or a ting since men began to grow too wise for toys and trinkets.

But I knew very well that the old clock was the

_Wonder Clock_;

so down I took the key and wound it—gurr! gurr! gurr!

Click! buzz! went the wheels, and then—tick-tock! tick-tock! for the Wonder Clock is of that kind that it will never wear out, no matter how long it may stand in Time’s garret.

Down I sat and watched it, for every time it struck it played a pretty song, and when the song was ended—click! click!—out stepped the drollest little puppet-figures and went through with a dance, and I saw it all (with my dream-cap upon my head).

But the Wonder Clock had grown rusty from long standing, and though now and then the puppet-figures danced a dance that I knew as well as I know my bread-and-butter, at other times they jigged a step I had never seen before, and it came into my head that maybe a dozen or more puppet-plays had become jumbled together among the wheels back of the clock-face.

So there I sat in the dust watching the Wonder Clock, and when it had run down and the tunes and the puppet-show had come to an end, I took off my dream-cap, and—whisk!—there I was back home again among my books, with nothing brought away with me from that country but a little dust which I found sticking to my coat, and which I have never brushed away to this day.

Now if you also would like to go into Wonderland, you have only to hunt up your dream-cap (for everybody has one somewhere about the house), and to come to me, and I will show you the way to Time’s garret.

That is right! Pull the cap well down about your ears.

* * * * *

Here we are! And now I will wind the clock. Gurr! gurr! gurr!

_Tick-tock! tick-tock!_

Table of Contents.

PAGE

I. Bearskin 1

II. The Water of Life 15

III. How One Turned his Trouble to Some Account 27

IV. How Three Went out into the Wide World 39

V. The Clever Student and the Master of Black Arts 49

VI. The Princess Golden-Hair and the Great Black Raven 63

VII. Cousin Greylegs, the Great Red Fox, and Grandfather Mole 77

VIII. One Good Turn Deserves Another 89

IX. The White Bird 105

X. How the Good Gifts were Used by Two 121

XI. How Boots Befooled the King 135

XII. The Step-mother 149

XIII. Master Jacob 161

XIV. Peterkin and the Little Grey Hare 175

XV. Mother Hildegarde 189

XVI. Which is Best 203

XVII. The Simpleton and his Little Black Hen 217

XVIII. The Swan Maiden 229

XIX. The Three Little Pigs and the Ogre 241

XX. The Staff and the Fiddle 253

XXI. How the Princess’s Pride was Broken 267

XXII. How Two Went into Partnership 279

XXIII. King Stork 291

XXIV. The Best that Life has to Give 305

List of Illustrations.

_Page_ _Frontispiece._

_Head-piece—Preface_ v _Head-piece—Table of Contents_ vii _Head-piece—List of Illustrations_ ix

_ONE O’CLOCK_ 1

_Head-piece—Bearskin_ 3 _The Baby drifts to the River’s Bank in the Basket_ 5 _Bearskin parts from the Princess_ 9 _The Princess weeps_ 10 _Bearskin and the Swineherd feast together_ 12

_TWO O’CLOCK_ 15

_Head-piece—The Water of Life_ 17 _The King gazes upon the Picture_ 19 _The North Wind flies with the Faithful Servant_ 21 _The King brings the Water of Life to the Princess_ 23 _The Faithful Servant gives the King his Golden Bracelet_ 25

_THREE O’CLOCK_ 27

_Head-piece—How One Turned his Trouble to Some Account_ 29 _The Soldier takes Trouble to Town_ 31 _The Soldier brings Trouble to the King_ 33 _The Giants fight one another_ 35 _The Rich Man takes Trouble home_ 37

_FOUR O’CLOCK_ 39

_Head-piece—How Three went out into the Wide World_ 41 _The Grey Goose meets the Sausage_ 43 _The Great Red Fox calls upon the Cock_ 45 _The Great Red Fox calls upon the Sausage_ 46 _The Great Red Fox rests softly_ 47

_FIVE O’CLOCK_ 49

_Head-piece—The Clever Student and the Master of Black Arts_ 51 _A Princess walks beside the River_ 53 _The Clever Student and the Princess_ 55 _The Master of Black Arts and the Little Black Hen_ 57 _The Master of Black Arts is caught in his Tricks_ 60

_SIX O’CLOCK_ 63

_Head-piece—The Princess Golden-Hair and the Great Black Raven_ 65 _The King meets the Great Black Raven_ 67 _The Princess Golden-Hair drinks_ 69 _Princess Golden-Hair comes to Death’s Door_ 71 _The Princess finds the Prince_ 75

_SEVEN O’CLOCK_ 77

_Head-piece—Cousin Greylegs, the Great Red Fox, and Grandfather Mole_ 79 _Cousin Greylegs and the Great Red Fox go to the Fair_ 81 _Cousin Greylegs runs away with the Bag_ 83 _The Great Red Fox meets Grandfather Mole_ 85 _The Great Red Fox tries the Fire_ 87

_EIGHT O’CLOCK_ 89

_Head-piece—One Good Turn Deserves Another_ 91 _The Young Fisherman catches a Strange Fish_ 93 _The Young Fisherman and the Grey Master_ 97 _The Grey Master is caught in the Water_ 101 _The Princess finds the Young Fisherman_ 103

_NINE O’CLOCK_ 105

_Head-piece—The White Bird_ 107 _The Prince knocks at the Door of the Poor Little House_ 109 _The Prince finds the Three Giants sleeping_ 111 _The Prince finds the Sword of Brightness_ 115 _The White Bird knows the Prince_ 119

_TEN O’CLOCK_ 121

_Head-piece—How the Good Gifts were used by Two_ 123 _St. Nicholas knocks at the Rich Man’s Door_ 125 _St. Nicholas in the Poor Man’s House_ 127 _The Poor Man welcomes St. Christopher_ 129 _The Saints feast in the Rich Man’s House_ 131

_ELEVEN O’CLOCK_ 135

_Head-piece—How Boots befooled the King_ 137 _Peter goes to the King’s Castle_ 139 _Paul comes Home again_ 141 _The Old Woman smashes her Pots and Crocks_ 143 _The Councillor finds a Wisdom-sack_ 145

_TWELVE O’CLOCK_ 149

_Head-piece—The Step-mother_ 151 _The Step-daughter follows the Golden Ball_ 153 _The Young King brings the Maiden up from the Pit_ 155 _The Step-mother bewitches the Young Queen_ 157 _The Young King caresses the White Dove_ 159

_ONE O’CLOCK_ 161

_Head-piece—Master Jacob_ 163 _Master Jacob brings his Fat Pig to Town_ 165 _Master Jacob and his Black Goat_ 167 _The Three Cronies and the Black Goat_ 171 _Master Jacob meets the Three Cronies_ 173

_TWO O’CLOCK_ 175

_Head-piece—Peterkin and the Little Grey Hare_ 177 _Peterkin in his Fine Clothes_ 179 _Peterkin carries away the Giant’s Goose_ 183 _Peterkin brings the Silver Bell to the King_ 185 _Peterkin combs the Giant’s Hair_ 187

_THREE O’CLOCK_ 189

_Head-piece—Mother Hildegarde_ 191 _The Princess comes to Mother Hildegarde’s Door_ 193 _The Princess looks into the Jar_ 195 _The Wood-pigeons feed the Princess_ 197 _Mother Hildegarde carries away the Baby_ 199

_FOUR O’CLOCK_ 203

_Head-piece—Which is Best?_ 205 _The Rich Brother leaves the Poor Brother in Blindness_ 207 _The Poor Man finds the Little Door_ 209 _The Poor Man finds that which is the Best_ 211 _The Rich Man finds that which he Deserves_ 213

_FIVE O’CLOCK_ 217

_Head-piece—The Simpleton and his Little Black Hen_ 219 _Caspar starts to Town with his Little Black Hen_ 221 _Caspar finds a Bag of Money_ 223 _Three of them share the Money_ 225 _Caspar rides to the King’s Castle_ 227

_SIX O’CLOCK_ 229

_Head-piece—The Swan Maiden_ 231 _The Swan carries the Prince on its Back_ 233 _The Prince comes to the Three eyed Witch’s House_ 235 _The Swan Maiden helps the Young Prince_ 237 _The Witch and the Woman of Honey and Meal_ 239

_SEVEN O’CLOCK_ 241

_Head-piece—The Three Little Pigs and the Ogre_ 243 _The Ogre meets the Three Little Pigs in the Forest_ 245 _The Ogre climbs the Tree_ 247 _The Ogre shuts his Eyes and counts_ 249 _The Ogre sticks fast in the Window_ 251

_EIGHT O’CLOCK_ 253

_Head-piece—The Staff and the Fiddle_ 255 _The Fiddler helps the Old Woman_ 257 _The Fiddler and the Dwarf_ 259 _The Fiddler finds the Princess_ 261 _The Fiddler and the Little Black Mannikin_ 263

_NINE O’CLOCK_ 267

_Head-piece—How the Princess’s Pride was broken_ 269 _The Gooseherd plays with the Golden Ball_ 271 _The King peeps over the Hedge_ 273 _The Princess takes her Eggs to Market_ 275 _The Princess knows the Young King_ 277

_TEN O’CLOCK_ 279

_Head-piece—How Two Went into Partnership_ 281 _The Great Red Fox goes to the Store-house_ 283 _The Great Red Fox frightens Father Goat_ 285 _The Great Red Fox and Uncle Bear at the Store-house_ 287 _The Bear and the Fox go to Farmer John’s again_ 289

_ELEVEN O’CLOCK_ 291

_Head-piece—King Stork_ 293 _The Drummer helps the Old Man_ 295 _The Princess comes forth from the Castle at Night_ 297 _The Drummer helps himself_ 299 _The Drummer catches the One-eyed Raven_ 303

_TWELVE O’CLOCK_ 305

_Head-piece—The Best that Life has to Give_ 307 _The Blacksmith steals the Dwarf’s Pine-cones_ 309 _The Blacksmith chooses the Raven_ 311 _The Blacksmith brings the Little Bird to the Queen_ 315 _The Young Blacksmith Forges the Ring_ 317

One O’clock·

One of the _Clock_, and silence deep [Sidenote: ☾] Then up the _Stairway_, black and steep The old _House-Cat_ comes creepy-creep With soft feet goes from room to room Her green eyes shining through the gloom, And finds all fast asleep. [Sidenote: ○]

K.P.

I.

There was a king travelling through the country, and he and those with him were so far away from home that darkness caught them by the heels, and they had to stop at a stone mill for the night, because there was no other place handy.

While they sat at supper, they heard a sound in the next room, and it was a baby crying.

The miller stood in the corner, back of the stove, with his hat in his hand. “What is that noise?” said the king to him.

“Oh! it is nothing but another baby that the good storks have brought into the house to-day,” said the miller.

Now there was a wise man travelling along with the king, who could read the stars and everything that they told as easily as one can read one’s A B C’s in a book after one knows them, and the king, for a bit of a jest, would have him find out what the stars had to foretell of the miller’s baby. So the wise man went out and took a peep up in the sky, and by and by he came in again.

“Well,” said the king, “and what did the stars tell you?”

“The stars tell me,” said the wise man, “that you shall have a daughter, and that the miller’s baby, in the room yonder, shall marry her when they are old enough to think of such things.”

“What!” said the king, “and is a miller’s baby to marry the princess that is to come! We will see about that.” So the next day he took the miller aside and talked and bargained, and bargained and talked, until the upshot of the matter was that the miller was paid two hundred dollars, and the king rode off with the baby.

As soon as he came home to the castle he called his chief forester to him. “Here,” says he, “take this baby and do thus and so with it, and when you have killed it bring its heart to me, that I may know that you have really done as you have been told.”

So off marched the forester with the baby; but on his way he stopped at home, and there was his good wife working about the house.

“Well, Henry,” said she, “what do you do with the baby?”

“Oh!” said he, “I am just taking it off to the forest to do thus and so with it.”

“Come,” said she, “it would be a pity to harm the little innocent, and to have its blood on your hands. Yonder hangs the rabbit that you shot this morning, and its heart will please the king just as well as the other.”

Thus the wife talked, and the end of the business was that she and the man smeared a basket all over with pitch and set the baby adrift in it on the river, and the king was just as well satisfied with the rabbit’s heart as he would have been with the baby’s.

But the basket with the baby in it drifted on and on down the river, until it lodged at last among the high reeds that stood along the bank. By and by there came a great she-bear to the water to drink, and there she found it.

Now the huntsmen in the forest had robbed the she-bear of her cubs, so that her heart yearned over the little baby, and she carried it home with her to fill the place of her own young ones. There the baby throve until he grew to a great strong lad, and as he had fed upon nothing but bear’s milk for all that time, he was ten times stronger than the strongest man in the land.

One day, as he was walking through the forest, he came across a woodman chopping the trees into billets of wood, and that was the first time he had ever seen a body like himself. Back he went to the bear as fast as he could travel, and told her what he had seen. “That,” said the bear, “is the most wicked and most cruel of all the beasts.”

“Yes,” says the lad, “that may be so, all the same I love beasts like that as I love the food I eat, and I long for nothing so much as to go out into the wide world, where I may find others of the same kind.”

At this the bear saw very well how the geese flew, and that the lad would soon be flitting.

“See,” said she, “if you must go out into the wide world you must. But you will be wanting help before long; for the ways of the world are not peaceful and simple as they are here in the woods, and before you have lived there long you will have more needs than there are flies in summer. See, here is a little crooked horn, and when your wants grow many, just come to the forest and blow a blast on it, and I will not be too far away to help you.”

So off went the lad away from the forest, and all the coat he had upon his back was the skin of a bear dressed with the hair on it, and that was why folk called him “Bearskin.”

He trudged along the high-road, until he came to the king’s castle, and it was the same king who thought he had put Bearskin safe out of the way years and years ago.

Now, the king’s swineherd was in want of a lad, and as there was nothing better to do in that town, Bearskin took the place and went every morning to help drive the pigs into the forest, where they might eat the acorns and grow fat.

One day there was a mighty stir throughout the town; folk crying, and making a great hubbub. “What is it all about?” says Bearskin to the swineherd.

What! and did he not know what the trouble was? Where had he been for all of his life, that he had heard nothing of what was going on in the world? Had he never heard of the great fiery dragon with three heads that had threatened to lay waste all of that land, unless the pretty princess were given up to him? This was the very day that the dragon was to come for her, and she was to be sent up on the hill back of the town; that was why all the folk were crying and making such a stir.

“So!” says Bearskin, “and is there never a lad in the whole country that is man enough to face the beast? Then I will go myself if nobody better is to be found.” And off he went, though the swineherd laughed and laughed, and thought it all a bit of a jest. By and by Bearskin came to the forest, and there he blew a blast upon the little crooked horn that the bear had given him.

Presently came the bear through the bushes, so fast that the little twigs flew behind her. “And what is it that you want?” said she.

“I should like,” said Bearskin, “to have a horse, a suit of gold and silver armor that nothing can pierce, and a sword that shall cut through iron and steel; for I would like to go up on the hill to fight the dragon and free the pretty princess at the king’s town over yonder.”

“Very well,” said the bear, “look back of the tree yonder, and you will find just what you want.”

Yes; sure enough, there they were back of the tree: a grand white horse that champed his bit and pawed the ground till the gravel flew, and a suit of gold and silver armor such as a king might wear. Bearskin put on the armor and mounted the horse, and off he rode to the high hill back of the town.