Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know by Various

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"That's right, my beauty!" cried the princess; "drain it dry."

She let it go, left it hanging, and sat down on a great stone, with her
black cat, which had followed her all round the cave, by her side. Then
she began to knit and mutter awful words. The snake hung like a huge
leech, sucking at the stone; the cat stood with his back arched, and his
tail like a piece of cable, looking up at the snake; and the old woman
sat and knitted and muttered. Seven days and seven nights they remained
thus; when suddenly the serpent dropped from the roof as if exhausted,
and shrivelled up till it was again like a piece of dried seaweed. The
witch started to her feet, picked it up, put it in her pocket, and
looked up at the roof. One drop of water was trembling on the spot where
the snake had been sucking. As soon as she saw that, she turned and
fled, followed by her cat. Shutting the door in a terrible hurry, she
locked it, and having muttered some frightful words, sped to the next,
which also she locked and muttered over; and so with all the hundred
doors, till she arrived in her own cellar. Then she sat down on the
floor ready to faint, but listening with malicious delight to the
rushing of the water, which she could hear distinctly through all the
hundred doors.

But this was not enough. Now that she had tasted revenge, she lost her
patience. Without further measures, the lake would be too long in
disappearing. So the next night, with the last shred of the dying old
moon rising, she took some of the water in which she had revived the
snake, put it in a bottle, and set out, accompanied by her cat. Before
morning she had made the entire circuit of the lake, muttering fearful
words as she crossed every stream, and casting into it some of the water
out of her bottle. When she had finished the circuit she muttered yet
again, and flung a handful of water towards the moon. Thereupon every
spring in the country ceased to throb and bubble, dying away like the
pulse of a dying man. The next day there was no sound of falling water
to be heard along the borders of the lake. The very courses were dry;
and the mountains showed no silvery streaks down their dark sides. And
not alone had the fountains of mother Earth ceased to flow; for all the
babies throughout the country were crying dreadfully--only without
tears.

XII

_Where Is the Prince_?

Never since the night when the princess left him so abruptly had the
prince had a single interview with her. He had seen her once or twice in
the lake; but as far as he could discover, she had not been in it any
more at night. He had sat and sung, and looked in vain for his Nereid,
while she, like a true Nereid, was wasting away with her lake, sinking
as it sank, withering as it dried. When at length he discovered the
change that was taking place in the level of the water, he was in great
alarm and perplexity. He could not tell whether the lake was dying
because the lady had forsaken it; or whether the lady would not come
because the lake had begun to sink. But he resolved to know so much at
least.

He disguised himself, and, going to the palace, requested to see the
lord chamberlain. His appearance at once gained his request; and the
lord chamberlain, being a man of some insight, perceived that there was
more in the prince's solicitation than met the ear. He felt likewise
that no one could tell whence a solution of the present difficulties
might arise. So he granted the prince's prayer to be made shoeblack to
the princess. It was rather cunning in the prince to request such an
easy post, for the princess could not possibly soil as many shoes as
other princesses.

He soon learned all that could be told about the princess. He went
nearly distracted; but after roaming about the lake for days, and diving
in every depth that remained, all that he could do was to put an extra
polish on the dainty pair of boots that was never called for.

For the princess kept her room, with the curtains drawn to shut out the
dying lake, but could not shut it out of her mind for a moment. It
haunted her imagination so that she felt as if the lake were her soul,
drying up within her, first to mud, then to madness and death. She thus
brooded over the change, with all its dreadful accompaniments, till she
was nearly distracted. As for the prince, she had forgotten him. However
much she had enjoyed his company in the water, she did not care for him
without it. But she seemed to have forgotten her father and mother too.

The lake went on sinking. Small slimy spots began to appear, which
glittered steadily amidst the changeful shine of the water. These grew
to broad patches of mud, which widened and spread, with rocks here and
there, and floundering fishes and crawling eels swarming. The people
went everywhere catching these, and looking for anything that might have
dropped from the royal boats.

At length the lake was all but gone, only a few of the deepest pools
remaining unexhausted.

It happened one day that a party of youngsters found themselves on the
brink of one of these pools in the very centre of the lake. It was a
rocky basin of considerable depth. Looking in, they saw at the bottom
something that shone yellow in the sun. A little boy jumped in and dived
for it. It was a plate of gold covered with writing. They carried it to
the king.

On one side of it stood these words:

"Death alone from death can save.
Love is death, and so is brave.
Love can fill the deepest grave.
Love loves on beneath the wave."

Now this was enigmatical enough to the king and courtiers. But the
reverse of the plate explained it a little. Its writing amounted to
this:

"If the lake should disappear, they must find the hole through which the
water ran. But it would be useless to try to stop it by any ordinary
means. There was but one effectual mode. The body of a living man could
alone staunch the flow. The man must give himself of his own will; and
the lake must take his life as it filled. Otherwise the offering would
be of no avail. If the nation could not provide one hero, it was time it
should perish,"

XIII

_Here I Am_!

This was a very disheartening revelation to the king--not that he was
unwilling to sacrifice a subject, but that he was hopeless of finding a
man willing to sacrifice himself. No time was to be lost however, for
the princess was lying motionless on her bed, and taking no nourishment
but lake-water, which was now none of the best. Therefore the king
caused the contents of the wonderful plate of gold to be published
throughout the country.

No one, however, came forward.

The prince, having gone several days' journey into the forest, to
consult a hermit whom he had met there on his way to Lagobel, knew
nothing of the oracle till his return.

When he had acquainted himself with all the particulars, he sat down and
thought:

"She will die if I don't do it, and life would be nothing to me without
her; so I shall lose nothing by doing it. And life will be as pleasant
to her as ever, for she will soon forget me. And there will be so much
more beauty and happiness in the world! To be sure, I shall not see it."
(Here the poor prince gave a sigh.) "How lovely the lake will be in the
moonlight, with that glorious creature sporting in it like a wild
goddess! It is rather hard to be drowned by inches, though. Let me
see--that will be seventy inches of me to drown." (Here he tried to
laugh, but could not.) "The longer the better, however," he resumed,
"for can I not bargain that the princess shall be beside me all the
time? So I shall see her once more, kiss her perhaps--who knows? and die
looking in her eyes. It will be no death. At least, I shall not feel it.
And to see the lake filling for the beauty again! All right! I am
ready."

He kissed the princess's boot, laid it down, and hurried to the king's
apartment. But feeling, as he went, that anything sentimental would be
disagreeable, he resolved to carry off the whole affair with
nonchalance. So he knocked at the door of the king's counting-house,
where it was all but a capital crime to disturb him.

When the king heard the knock, he started up, and opened the door in a
rage. Seeing only the shoeblack, he drew his sword. This, I am sorry to
say, was his usual mode of asserting his regality when he thought his
dignity was in danger. But the prince was not in the least alarmed.

"Please your majesty, I'm your butler," said he.

"My butler! you lying rascal! What do you mean?"

"I mean, I will cork your big bottle."

"Is the fellow mad?" bawled the king, raising the point of his sword.

"I will put the stopper--plug--what you call it, in your leaky lake,
grand monarch," said the prince.

The king was in such a rage that before he could speak he had time to
cool, and to reflect that it would be great waste to kill the only man
who was willing to be useful in the present emergency, seeing that in
the end the insolent fellow would be as dead as if he had died by his
majesty's own hand.

"Oh!" said he at last, putting up his sword with difficulty, it was so
long; "I am obliged to you, you young fool! Take a glass of wine?"

"No, thank you," replied the prince.

"Very well," said the king. "Would you like to run and see your parents
before you make your experiment?"

"No, thank you," said the prince.

"Then we will go and look for the hole at once," said his majesty, and
proceeded to call some attendants.

"Stop, please your majesty, I have a condition to make," interposed the
prince.

"What!" exclaimed the king, "a condition! and with me! How dare you?"

"As you please," returned the prince, coolly. "I wish your majesty a
good morning,"

"You wretch! I will have you put in a sack, and stuck in the hole."

"Very well, your majesty," replied the prince, becoming a little more
respectful, lest the wrath of the king should deprive him of the
pleasure of dying for the princess. "But what good will that do your
majesty? Please to remember that the oracle says the victim must offer
himself."

"Well, you _have_ offered yourself," retorted the king.

"Yes, upon one condition."

"Condition again!" roared the king, once more drawing his sword.
"Begone! Somebody else will be glad enough to take the honour off your
shoulders."

"Your majesty knows it will not be easy to get another to take my
place."

"Well, what is your condition?" growled the king, feeling that the
prince was right.

"Only this," replied the prince; "that, as I must on no account die
before I am fairly drowned, and the waiting will be rather wearisome,
the princess, your daughter, shall go with me, feed me with her own
hands, and look at me now and then to comfort me; for you must confess
it _is_ rather hard. As soon as the water is up to my eyes, she may go
and be happy, and forget her poor shoeblack."

Here the prince's voice faltered, and he very nearly grew sentimental,
in spite of his resolution.

"Why didn't you tell me before what your condition was? Such a fuss
about nothing!" exclaimed the king.

"Do you grant it?" persisted the prince.

"Of course I do," replied the king.

"Very well. I am ready."

"Go and have some dinner, then, while I set my people to find the
place."

The king ordered out his guards, and gave directions to the officers to
find the hole in the lake at once. So the bed of the lake was marked out
in divisions and thoroughly examined, and in an hour or so the hole was
discovered. It was in the middle of a stone, near the centre of the
lake, in the very pool where the golden plate had been found. It was a
three-cornered hole of no great size. There was water all round the
stone, but very little was flowing through the hole.

XIV

_This Is Very Kind of You_

The prince went to dress for the occasion, for he was resolved to die
like a prince.

When the princess heard that a man had offered to die for her, she was
so transported that she jumped off the bed, feeble as she was, and
danced about the room for joy. She did not care who the man was; that
was nothing to her. The hole wanted stopping; and if only a man would
do, why, take one. In an hour or two more everything was ready. Her maid
dressed her in haste, and they carried her to the side of the lake. When
she saw it she shrieked, and covered her face with her hands. They bore
her across to the stone, where they had already placed a little boat for
her. The water was not deep enough to float in, but they hoped it would
be, before long. They laid her on cushions, placed in the boat wines and
fruits and other nice things, and stretched a canopy over all.

In a few minutes the prince appeared. The princess recognised him at
once, but did not think it worth while to acknowledge him.

"Here I am," said the prince. "Put me in."

"They told me it was a shoeblack," said the princess.

"So I am," said the prince. "I blacked your little boots three times a
day, because they were all I could get of you. Put me in."

The courtiers did not resent his bluntness, except by saying to each
other that he was taking it out in impudence.

But how was he to be put in? The golden plate contained no instructions
on this point. The prince looked at the hole, and saw but one way. He
put both his legs into it, sitting on the stone, and, stooping forward,
covered the corner that remained open with his two hands. In this
uncomfortable position he resolved to abide his fate, and turning to the
people, said:

"Now you can go."

The king had already gone home to dinner.

"Now you can go," repeated the princess after him, like a parrot.

The people obeyed her and went.

Presently a little wave flowed over the stone, and wetted one of the
prince's knees. But he did not mind it much. He began to sing, and the
song he sang was this:

"As a world that has no well,
Darkly bright in forest dell;
As a world without the gleam
Of the downward-going stream;
As a world without the glance
Of the ocean's fair expanse;
As a world where never rain
Glittered on the sunny plain;--
Such, my heart, thy world would be,
If no love did flow in thee.

"As a world without the sound
Of the rivulets underground;
Or the bubbling of the spring
Out of darkness wandering;
Or the mighty rush and flowing
Of the river's downward going;
Or the music-showers that drop
On the outspread beech's top;
Or the ocean's mighty voice,
When his lifted waves rejoice;--Such,
my soul, thy world would be,
If no love did sing in thee.

"Lady, keep thy world's delight,
Keep the waters in thy sight
Love hath made me strong to go,
For thy sake, to realms below,
Where the water's shine and hum
Through the darkness never come.
Let, I pray, one thought of me
Spring, a little well, in thee;
Lest thy loveless soul be found
Like a dry and thirsty ground."

"Sing again, prince. It makes it less tedious," said the princess.

But the prince was too much overcome to sing any more, and a long pause
followed.

"This is very kind of you, prince," said the princess at last, quite
coolly, as she lay in the boat with her eyes shut.

"I am sorry I can't return the compliment," thought the prince, "but you
are worth dying for, after all."

Again a wavelet, and another, and another flowed over the stone, and
wetted both the prince's knees; but he did not speak or move.
Two--three--four hours passed in this way, the princess apparently
asleep, and the prince very patient. But he was much disappointed in his
position, for he had none of the consolation he had hoped for.

At last he could bear it no longer.

"Princess!" said he.

But at the moment up started the princess, crying:

"I'm afloat! I'm afloat!"

And the little boat bumped against the stone.

"Princess!" repeated the prince, encouraged by seeing her wide awake and
looking eagerly at the water.

"Well?" said she, without looking round.

"Your papa promised that you should look at me, and you haven't looked
at me once."

"Did he? Then I suppose I must. But I am so sleepy!"

"Sleep, then, darling, and don't mind me," said the poor prince.

"Really, you are very good," replied the princess. "I think I will go to
sleep again."

"Just give me a glass of wine and a biscuit first," said the prince,
very humbly.

"With all my heart," said the princess, and yawned as she said it.

She got the wine and the biscuit, however, and leaning over the side of
the boat towards him, was compelled to look at him.

"Why, prince," she said, "you don't look well! Are you sure you don't
mind it?"

"Not a bit," answered he, feeling very faint indeed. "Only I shall die
before it is of any use to you, unless I have something to eat,"

"There, then," said she, holding out the wine to him.

"Ah! you must feed me. I dare not move my hands. The water would run
away directly."

"Good gracious!" said the princess; and she began at once to feed him
with bits of biscuit and sips of wine.

As she fed him, he contrived to kiss the tips of her fingers now and
then. She did not seem to mind it, one way or the other. But the prince
felt better.

"Now, for your own sake, princess," said he, "I cannot let you go to
sleep. You must sit and look at me, else I shall not be able to keep
up."

"Well, I will do anything to oblige you," answered she, with
condescension; and, sitting down, she did look at him, and kept looking
at him with wonderful steadiness, considering all things.

The sun went down, and the moon rose, and, gush after gush, the waters
were rising up the prince's body. They were up to his waist now.

"Why can't we go and have a swim?" said the princess. "There seems to be
water enough just about here."

"I shall never swim more," said the prince.

"Oh, I forgot," said the princess, and was silent.

So the water grew and grew, and rose up and up on the prince. And the
princess sat and looked at him. She fed him now and then. The night wore
on. The waters rose and rose. The moon rose likewise higher and higher,
and shone full on the face of the dying prince. The water was up to his
neck.

"Will you kiss me, princess?" said he, feebly. The nonchalance was all
gone now.

"Yes, I will," answered the princess, and kissed him with a long, sweet,
cold kiss.

"Now," said he, with a sigh of content, "I die happy."

He did not speak again. The princess gave him some wine for the last
time: he was past eating. Then she sat down again, and looked at him.
The water rose and rose. It touched his chin. It touched his lower lip.
It touched between his lips. He shut them hard to keep it out. The
princess began to feel strange. It touched his upper lip. He breathed
through his nostrils. The princess looked wild. It covered his nostrils.
Her eyes looked scared, and shone strange in the moonlight. His head
fell back; the water closed over it, and the bubbles of his last breath
bubbled up through the water. The princess gave a shriek, and sprang
into the lake.

She laid hold first of one leg, and then of the other, and pulled and
tugged, but she could not move either. She stopped to take breath, and
that made her think that he could not get any breath. She was frantic.
She got hold of him, and held his head above the water, which was
possible now his hands were no longer on the hole. But it was of no use,
for he was past breathing.

Love and water brought back all her strength. She got under the water,
and pulled and pulled with her whole might, till at last she got one leg
out. The other easily followed. How she got him into the boat she never
could tell; but when she did, she fainted away. Coming to herself, she
seized the oars, kept herself steady as best she could, and rowed and
rowed, though she had never rowed before. Round rocks, and over
shallows, and through mud she rowed, till she got to the landing-stairs
of the palace. By this time her people were on the shore, for they had
heard her shriek. She made them carry the prince to her own room, and
lay him in her bed, and light a fire, and send for the doctors.

"But the lake, your highness!" said the chamberlain, who, roused by the
noise, came in, in his nightcap.

"Go and drown yourself in it!" she said.

This was the last rudeness of which the princess was ever guilty; and
one must allow that she had good cause to feel provoked with the lord
chamberlain.

Had it been the king himself, he would have fared no better. But both he
and the queen were fast asleep. And the chamberlain went back to his
bed. Somehow, the doctors never came. So the princess and her old nurse
were left with the prince. But the old nurse was a wise woman, and knew
what to do.

They tried everything for a long time without success. The princess was
nearly distracted between hope and fear, but she tried on and on, one
thing after another, and everything over and over again.

At last, when they had all but given it up, just as the sun rose, the
prince opened his eyes.

XV

_Look at the Rain_!

The princess burst into a passion of tears and _fell_ on the floor.
There she lay for an hour, and her tears never ceased. All the pent-up
crying of her life was spent now. And a rain came on, such as had never
been seen in that country. The sun shone all the time, and the great
drops, which fell straight to the earth, shone likewise. The palace was
in the heart of a rainbow. It was a rain of rubies, and sapphires, and
emeralds, and topazes. The torrents poured from the mountains like
molten gold; and if it had not been for its subterraneous outlet, the
lake would have overflowed and inundated the country. It was full from
shore to shore.

But the princess did not heed the lake. She lay on the floor and wept.
And this rain within doors was far more wonderful than the rain out of
doors. For when it abated a little, and she proceeded to rise, she
found, to her astonishment, that she could not. At length, after many
efforts, she succeeded in getting upon her feet. But she tumbled down
again directly. Hearing her fall, her old nurse uttered a yell of
delight, and ran to her, screaming:

"My darling child! she's found her gravity!"

"Oh, that's it! is it?" said the princess, rubbing her shoulder and her
knee alternately. "I consider it very unpleasant. I feel as if I should
be crushed to pieces."

"Hurrah!" cried the prince from the bed. "If you've come round,
princess, so have I. How's the lake?"

"Brimful," answered the nurse.

"Then we're all happy."

"That we are indeed!" answered the princess, sobbing.

And there was rejoicing all over the country that rainy day. Even the
babies forgot their past troubles, and danced and crowed amazingly. And
the king told stories, and the queen listened to them. And he divided
the money in his box, and she the honey in her pot, among all the
children. And there was such jubilation as was never heard of before.

Of course the prince and princess were betrothed at once. But the
princess had to learn to walk, before they could be married with any
propriety. And this was not so easy at her time of life, for she could
walk no more than a baby. She was always falling down and hurting
herself.

"Is this the gravity you used to make so much of?" said she one day to
the prince, as he raised her from the floor. "For my part, I was a great
deal more comfortable without it."

"No, no, that's not it. This is it," replied the prince, as he took her
up, and carried her about like a baby, kissing her all the time. "This
is gravity."

"That's better," said she. "I don't mind that so much."

And she smiled the sweetest, loveliest smile in the prince's face. And
she gave him one little kiss in return for all his; and he thought them
overpaid, for he was beside himself with delight. I fear she complained
of her gravity more than once after this, notwithstanding.

It was a long time before she got reconciled to walking. But the pain of
learning it was quite counterbalanced by two things, either of which
would have been sufficient consolation. The first was, that the prince
himself was her teacher; and the second, that she could tumble into the
lake as often as she pleased. Still, she preferred to have the prince
jump in with her; and the splash they made before was nothing to the
splash they made now.

The lake never sank again. In process of time it wore the roof of the
cavern quite through, and was twice as deep as before.

The only revenge the princess took upon her aunt was to tread pretty
hard on her gouty toe the next time she saw her. But she was sorry for
it the very next day, when she heard that the water had undermined her
house, and that it had fallen in the night, burying her in its ruins;
whence no one ever ventured to dig up her body. There she lies to this
day.

So the prince and princess lived and were happy; and had crowns of gold,
and clothes of cloth, and shoes of leather, and children of boys and
girls, not one of whom was ever known, on the most critical occasion, to
lose the smallest atom of his or her due proportion of gravity.

CHAPTER XXIV

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

There was once a very rich merchant, who had six children, three boys
and three girls. As he was himself a man of great sense, he spared no
expense for their education, but provided them with all sorts of masters
for their improvement. The three daughters were all handsome, but
particularly the youngest: indeed she was so very beautiful that in her
childhood every one called her the Little Beauty, and being still the
same when she was grown up, nobody called her by any other name, which
made her sisters very jealous of her. This youngest daughter was not
only more handsome than her sisters, but was also better tempered. The
two eldest were vain of being rich, and spoke with pride to those they
thought below them. They gave themselves a thousand airs, and would not
visit other merchants' daughters; nor would they indeed be seen with any
but persons of quality. They went every day to balls, plays, and public
walks, and always made game of their youngest sister for spending her
time in reading, or other useful employments. As it was well known that
these young ladies would have large fortunes, many great merchants
wished to get them for wives; but the two eldest always answered that,
for their parts, they had no thoughts of marrying any one below a duke,
or an earl at least. Beauty had quite as many offers as her sisters, but
she always answered with the greatest civility, that she was much
obliged to her lovers, but would rather live some years longer with her
father, as she thought herself too young to marry.

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