Tales of Laughter A THIRD FAIRY BOOK

PUBLISHERS’ NOTE

The McClure Company wish to make acknowledgment of their indebtedness to the following publishers:

G. P. Putnam’s Sons, for permission to use “The Greedy Cat,” “Father Bruin in the Corner,” “The Pancake,” “The Death of Chanticleer,” “Reynard Wants to Taste Horse Flesh,” “Bruin and Reynard Partners,” “Pork and Honey,” and “Slip Root: Catch Reynard’s Foot,” from Tales from the Field; “The Most Frugal of Men,” “The Moon Cake,” “The Ladle that Fell from the Moon,” “The Young Head of the Family,” and “The Dreadful Boar,” from Chinese Nights Entertainment.

The American Book Company, for permission to use “Little Tuppen,” from Fairy Stories and Fables.

Little, Brown & Company, for permission to use “The Story of the Four Little Children who Went Round the World,” from Edward Lear’s Nonsense Books.

F. A. Stokes Company, for permission to use “Little Black Mingo,” “The Lad and the Fox,” “The Old Woman and the Tramp,” “The Cook and the Crested Hen,” and “The Old Woman and the Fish,” from Fairy Tales from the Swedish; “One’s Own Children Always Prettiest,” and “The Princess whom Nobody Could Silence,” from Fairy Tales from the Far North.

F. Warne & Company, for permission to use “The Money Box,” “The Happy Family,” and “It is Quite True,” from Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales.

J. B. Lippincott, for permission to use “Manabozho and His Toe,” from North American Indian Fairy Tales; “The Three Wishes,” “If Heaven Will It,” and “The Fox and vithe Goose,” from Spanish Fairy Tales; “Hans in Luck,” “The Fox and the Cat,” “The Fisherman and His Wife,” and “The Adventures of Chanticleer and Partlet,” from Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

Charles Scribner’s Sons, for permission to use “The Fox and the Dove,” “The Fox and the Hedgehog,” “The Disappointed Bear,” and “Young Neverfull,” from Russian Grandmother’s Wonder Stories.

George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., for permission to use “The Flail which Came from the Clouds,” “The Wren and the Bear,” “The Wolf and the Fox,” “The Three Luck-Children,” “The Three Sluggards,” “The Cat and the Mouse in Partnership,” “Old Sultan,” “The Shreds,” “The Fox and the Horse,” “The Seven Swabians,” “The Giant and the Tailor,” and “The Little Shepherd Boy,” from Grimm’s Household Stories.

Joseph McDonough, for permission to use “How the Sun, the Moon and the Wind went out to Dinner,” “Singh Rajah and the Cunning Little Jackals,” “The Blind Man, the Deaf Man and the Donkey,” “The Alligator and the Jackal,” and “The Selfish Sparrow and the Houseless Crows,” from Old Deccan Days.

A. L. Burt & Company, for permission to use “Gudbrand on the Hillside” and “Nanny who Wouldn’t Go to Supper,” from Fairy Tales from the Far North.

The Rats and their Son-in-Law

There once lived in Japan a rat and his wife, folk of noble race, who had one beautiful daughter. They were exceedingly proud of her charms, and dreamed, as parents will, of the grand marriage she was sure to make in time. Proud of his pure rodent blood, the father saw no son-in-law more to be desired than a young rat of ancient lineage, whose attentions to his daughter were very marked. This match, however, brilliant as it was, seemed not to the mother’s taste. Like many people who think themselves made out of special clay, she had a very poor opinion of her own kind, and was ambitious for an alliance with the highest circles. Ad astra! (To the stars!) was her motto, she always said, and really, when one has a daughter of incomparable beauty, one may well hope for an equally incomparable son-in-law.

“Address yourself to the sun at once, then,” cried the impatient father one day; “there is nothing above him, surely.”

“Quite so; I had already thought of it,” she answered, “and since you, too, are in sympathy with the idea, we will make our call to-morrow.”

So, on the following morning the proud father and the haughty mother-rat went together to present their lovely daughter to the orb of day.

“Lord Sun,” said the mother, “let me present our only daughter, who is so beautiful that there is nothing like her in the whole world. Naturally we desire a son-in-law as wonderful as she, and, as you see, we have come to you first of all.”

“Really,” said the sun, “I am extremely flattered by your proposal, but you do me too much honor; there is some one 4greater than I; it is the cloud. Look, if you do not believe.” ... And at that moment the cloud arrived, and with one waft of his folds extinguished the sun with all his golden rays.

“Very well; let us speak to the cloud, then,” said the mother-rat, not in the least disconcerted.

“Immensely honored, I am sure,” replied the cloud in his turn, “but you are again mistaken; there is some one greater than I; it is the wind. You shall see.”

At the same moment along came the wind, and with one blow swept the cloud out of sight, after which, overturning father, mother, and daughter, he tumbled with them, pell-mell, at the foot of an old wall.

“Quick, quick,” cried the mother-rat, struggling to her feet, “and let us repeat our compliments to the wind.”

“You’d better address yourself to the wall,” growled the wind roughly. “You see very well he is greater than I, for he stops me and makes me draw back.”

No sooner had she heard these words than mother-rat faced about and presented her daughter to the wall. Ah, but now the fair rat-maiden imitated the wind; she drew back also. He whom she really adored in her heart of hearts was the fascinating young rat who had paid his court to her so well. However, to please her mother, she had consented to wed the sun, in spite of his blinding rays, or the cloud, in spite of his sulky look, even the wind, in spite of his brusque manner; but an old, broken wall!... No! death would be better a thousand times.

Fortunately the wall excused himself, like all the rest. “Certainly,” he said, “I can stop the wind, who can sweep away the cloud, who can cover up the sun, but there is some one greater than I: it is the rat, who can pass through my body, and can even, if he chooses, reduce me to powder with his teeth. Believe me, you need seek no better son-in-law; greater than the rat, there is nothing in the world.”

“Do you hear that, wife, do you hear it?” cried father-rat in triumph. “Didn’t I always say so?”

“Quite true! you always did,” returned the mother-rat in 5wonder, and suddenly glowed with pride in her ancient name and lineage.

So they all three went home, very happy and contented, and on the morrow the lovely rat-maiden married her faithful rat-lover.

The Mouse and the Sausage

Once upon a time a little mouse and a little sausage, who loved each other like sisters, decided to live together, and made their arrangements in such a way that every day one would go to walk in the fields, or make purchases in town, while the other remained at home to keep the house.

One day, when the little sausage had prepared cabbage for dinner, the little mouse, who had come back from town with a fine appetite, enjoyed it so greatly that she exclaimed: “How delicious the cabbage is to-day, my dear!”

“Ah!” answered the little sausage, “that is because I popped myself into the pot while it was cooking.”

On the next day, as it was her turn to prepare the meals, the little mouse said to herself: “Now I will do as much for my friend as she did for me; we will have lentils for dinner, and I will jump into the pot while they are boiling,” and she let the action follow the word, without reflecting that a simple sausage can do some things which are out of the reach of even the wisest mouse.

When the sausage came home, she found the house lonely and silent. She called again and again, “My little mouse! Mouse of my heart!” but no one answered. Then she went to look at the lentils boiling on the stove, and, alas! found within the pot her good little friend, who had perished at the post of duty.

Poor mousie, with the best intentions in the world, had stayed too long at her cookery, and when she desired to climb out of the pot, had no longer the strength to do so.

And the poor sausage could never be consoled! That is why to-day, when you put one in the pan or on the gridiron, you will hear her weep and sigh, “M-my p-poor m-mouse! Ah, m-my p-poor m-mouse!”

The Three Wishes

Many years ago there was an old married man, who, although poor, had worked very diligently all his life on his little piece of ground. One winter’s night, as this old man was seated with his wife in front of their comfortable hearth in social chat, instead of giving thanks to God for the benefits they enjoyed, they spent the time in enumerating the good things possessed by their neighbors, and in wishing that they belonged to them.

“Instead of my little hut, which is on bad soil, and only fit to house a donkey in, I would like to have the farm of old Polainas!” exclaimed the old man.

“And I,” added his wife, who was annoyed that he did not aspire higher, “instead of that, would like to have our neighbor’s house, which is nearly new.”

“And I,” continued her husband, “instead of our old donkey, which can scarcely carry an empty sack, would like to have Polainas’s mule!”

“And I,” exclaimed the wife, “would like to have such a fat porker as our neighbor has to kill! Some people seem only to wish for a thing in order to get it. How I should like to see my wishes accomplished!”

Scarcely had she uttered these words, than they beheld a most beautiful little woman standing in front of the fire. She was so small that her height could not have been more than eighteen inches, while she wore a crown like a queen’s upon her head. Her tunic and veil were almost transparent, and seemed made of white smoke, while the sparks from the fire crackled and jumped like fireworks about her, and sparkled around her as glittering spangles.

In her hand she bore a little golden scepter, the end of which was formed by a gleaming ruby.

8“I am the Fairy Fortunata,” said she to them; “I was passing by here, and I have heard your complaints. I have so much anxiety to accomplish your desires that I come to promise you the realization of three wishes: one to you,” she said to the wife; “the other to you,” to the husband, “and the third must be mutual and agreeable to the desire of you both. This last I will agree to in person to-morrow, when I will return at this time; and until then I leave you to think of what it shall be.”

When she had said these words, the beautiful fairy sprang through the flames and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

The delight of the worthy couple may be imagined, and the number of wishes, numerous as suitors at the door of a minister, which presented themselves to their minds. Their desires were so many that, not knowing which to select, they determined to defer the definite decision to the following day. After having had all the night to think the matter over, they began to discuss entirely different things, and in a little while their conversation recurred to their wealthy neighbors.

“I was at their house to-day,” said the husband; “they were making black puddings. Ah, such black puddings! It would have done you good to see them!”

“I would like to have one of them here,” replied the wife, “to roast on the ashes for supper.”

Scarcely had she uttered the words than there appeared upon the ashes the most delicious-looking black pudding that could possibly be imagined.

The woman remained staring at it with open mouth and eyes starting out of her head. But her husband jumped up in despair, and after striding up and down the room, tearing his hair in desperation, said: “Through your gluttony, you greedy woman, we have lost one of the wishes! Good Heavens, what a woman this is! More stupid than a goose! It makes me desperate; I detest you and the black pudding, too, and I wish it were stuck on to your nose!”

No sooner had he spoken than there was the black pudding hanging from the place indicated!

9Then was the old man struck with horror and his wife with desperation!

“You see what you have done, evil tongue!” exclaimed she, as she made useless exertions to tear the appendage from her nose; “if I employed my wish badly, at least it was to my own disadvantage, and not to the injury of any one else; but the sin carries its punishment with it, for I will not have any other wish, nor desire anything else than that the black pudding be taken off my nose.”

“Wife, for Heaven’s sake! What of the new house?”

“Nothing!”

“Wife, for Heaven’s sake, think of the farm!”

“It does not matter.”

“My dear, let us wish for a fortune, and then we will have a golden case for the black pudding.”

“I will not hear of it.”

“Then you would have us left just as we were before?”

“That is all that I wish for.”

And for all that the man could say, nothing could alter his wife’s determination, who grew more and more enraged with her double nose, and could scarcely keep off the dog and the cat, who both wished to make free with it.

When, on the following night, the fairy appeared and asked them what was their last wish, they said to her: “We see how blind and foolish it is of men to fancy that the realization of their wishes will make them happy.”

Nor is happiness in the accomplishment of our wishes, but rather in the not having any. He is rich who possesses what he wants; but happy is he who wishes for nothing.

The Fox and the Goose

A fox and a goose were very great friends. The goose, which, as you know, is a very honest and industrious bird, said to the fox:

“Friend fox, I have a little bit of property here, and if you like to join with me, we will cultivate it between us.”

“That would greatly please me,” answered the fox.

“Then it will be necessary to till it together when the season arrives,” said the goose.

“Very well,” replied the fox.

A little afterward, when they met, the goose said:

“It is time to sow the seed.”

“That is your business,” said the fox. “I have nothing to do with that.”

Some months passed, when the goose said to the fox:

“Friend, the grass is choking the wheat; it is necessary to weed the field.”

“Very well,” answered the fox, “you see to that; it is not my business.”

A short time passed by, when the goose said to the fox:

“Friend, the wheat is ripe, and must be reaped.”

“All right,” replied the fox, “you attend to that; it is not my business.”

Then the goose, for all her good nature, began to be distrustful, and told her friend the greyhound what had passed.

The greyhound, who was very shrewd, saw at once that the fox was going to play off one of his tricks upon the goose’s good nature, and said to her:

“Reap the wheat; put it in the barn, and hide me in a sheaf of corn, without leaving more than one eye uncovered, so that I may see all that may happen.”

11The goose did as the greyhound had said, and after a time the fox arrived, and when he saw the barn filled with splendid wheat already thrashed, he was very delighted, and, dancing about, sang:

As he said this, he approached the sheaf in which the greyhound was concealed, and on seeing the eye among the straw, cried:

“Ah, there’s a grape!”

“But it is not ripe,” replied the greyhound, as he leaped out of his hiding place, and killed the fox.

If Heaven Will It

Once upon a time a Galician was returning to his home after having spent some time in Seville. When he was close to his abode, he met some one who inquired where he was going.

“To my native place,” replied the Galician.

“If Heaven will it,” answered the former.

“Whether Heaven will it or no,” added the Galician to himself, already seeing his village from afar, and being only separated from its outskirts by a river.

Scarcely had he muttered the words ere he fell into the water and was changed into a frog.

In this condition the poor man lived for three years, being in continual danger from his spiteful foes, bad boys, leeches, and storks. At the end of three years another Galician returning home happened to pass by there, and a wayfarer chancing to ask him whither he was going, replied:

“To my native place.”

“If Heaven will it,” croaked a frog that poked its head up out of the water.

And when it had said this, the frog, which was the first Galician of the tale, suddenly found itself once more a man.

He went on his way gayer than Easter, and having met with another traveler, who asked him whither he went, he answered him:

“To my own place, if Heaven will it; to see my wife, if Heaven will it; to see my children, if Heaven will it; to see my cow, if Heaven will it; to sow my land, if Heaven will it; so that I may get a good harvest from it, if Heaven will it.”

13And as he religiously added to everything, “If Heaven will it,” he was allowed to see his wishes accomplished. He found his wife and children well; his cow became the mother of a fine calf; he sowed his field, and reaped a good harvest, and all because Heaven willed it.

The Booby

An ignorant man who associates with clever people has always been more praised than a wise man who keeps the company of fools, for as much profit and fame as a man gains from the former, so much wealth and honor one may lose by the fault of the latter, and as the proof of the pudding is in the eating, you will know from the story that I am going to tell you whether my proposition is true.

There was once a man who was as rich as the sea, but as there never can be any perfect happiness in this world, he had a son so idle and good-for-nothing that he could not tell a carob from a cucumber. So, being unable any longer to put up with his folly, he gave him a good handful of crowns, and sent him to travel to the Levant, for he well knew that seeing various countries and mixing with divers people works genius, sharpens the judgment, and makes men expert.

Moscione (for that was the name of the son) got on horseback and began his journey toward Venice, the arsenal of the wonders of the world, to embark on board some vessel bound for Cairo, and when he had traveled a good day’s journey he met with a person who was standing fixed at the foot of a poplar, to whom he said: “What is your name, my lad, whence are you, and what is your trade?” And the lad replied: “My name is Lightning, I am from Arrowland, and I can run like the wind.” “I should like to see a proof of it,” said Moscione, and Lightning answered, “Wait a moment, and you will see whether it is dust or flour.”

When they had stood waiting a little while a doe came bounding over the plain, and Lightning, letting her pass on some way, to give himself a handicap, darted after her so rapidly and light of foot that he would have gone over plains 15covered with flour without leaving the mark of his shoe, and in four bounds he came up with her. Moscione, amazed at this exploit, asked if he would come and live with him, and promised to pay him a salary.