THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 

 
 MOOKFOLK 

 
 <:;-, 
 
 m^ll 
 
 A TEUE ACCOUNT 
 
 : 
 
 THE MOME OF THE FAIRY TALES 
 
 JAXE G. AUSTIN. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY W. J. IXXTO.V. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 W. SWAN SONNENSCHEIN * CO. 
 PATERNOSTER ROW.
 
 2'*&cr & Tannei , 
 
 FlK Sclvood Printing WorXt, 
 
 Frame, and London.
 
 TU 
 
 ROSE STAXDISH AUSTIN. 
 
 Do you remember, my little Basel 
 The twilight hoar not long ago, 
 
 When, leaning upon my knee, you said. 
 In thonghtfnl accents, soft and slow : 
 
 The truly stories, I think, 
 
 Are not as nice as the Fairy Tales 
 Couldn't we go to where such things are, 
 In a magic ship with wiiitl saikl v
 
 ii DEDICATION. 
 
 Long after you lay asleep that night, 
 I thought of your wistful question, dear, 
 
 Wishing with you that these fancies bright 
 Might be true somewhere, if not just hero 
 
 And I wondered if I might build that ship, 
 "With its magic helm and enchanted sails, 
 
 And if you and I might make the trip 
 
 To the wonderful Land of the Fairy Tales. 
 
 The ship is builded, my little Rose ! 
 
 "We cannot set sail an hour too soon, 
 For childhood's dreams will change to those 
 
 That never come true, though we reach the moon 
 
 J. G. A.
 
 L TEE finny JCi-TEr* 1 . ....... 11 
 
 IL THE MAX nr THE Moos. ... .21 
 
 HL Ou> WOJIAS'S Hnx, ...... 31 
 
 ^ . . 41 
 S3
 
 CUAPTEK I. 
 
 THE CHIMNEY-ELF. 
 
 LODA sat in the cupola at the top of the 
 house, reading a book of fairy tales ; the 
 Chimney-Elf, who had been for a long 
 time amusing himself by turning somer- 
 sets upon the narrow cornice surrounding 
 the top of the chimney, had at last grown tired, and 
 seated himself cross-legged beside the kitchen-flue, up 
 which a thin stream of blue smoke was lazily curling. 
 
 It was late in the afternoon, and the clouds, which 
 all day had been wandering about the sky as if they did
 
 12 MOONFOLK. 
 
 not know what to do with themselves, had within the 
 last hour drifted rapidly toward the west, and taken the 
 shape of a wonderful palace of gold and crimson and 
 deep purple, with pillars and doorways, and arches and 
 domes, and spires, such as never were seen out of cloud- 
 land a palace for the sun ; and he, tired with his day's 
 work, was rapidly sinking toward it, when Rhoda, look- 
 ing up from her book with a little sigh, fixed her eyes 
 upon the clouds, and said, dreamily : 
 
 " Aladdin's palace wasn't as splendid as that, I know, 
 even if he could have had the roc's egg. I should like 
 to see it, though. Oh, dear, I wish fairy stories were 
 true ! " 
 
 " Why, they are, child ! Didn't you know that ? " 
 asked the Chimney-Elf, a little contemptuously. 
 
 " No. I mean really and truly true ! just like going 
 to school, and to meeting, and your dinner, and your new 
 shoes," said Rhoda, glancing at her own new shoes. 
 
 " Well, they are as true as all those things, if you 
 only go to them, instead of sitting there and wishing." 
 
 "Go to them, Chimney -Elf ! why, how can any- 
 body go to a story?" asked Rhoda, opening her eyes 
 wide. 
 
 " Of course you can go to 'hem. Fairy stories ami 
 all that sort of thing live in the moon, and you've only 
 to go to the moon to find them," replied the Chimney- 
 Elf, moving a little farther into the smoke. 
 
 " Fairy stories live in the moon ? " repeated Rhoda.
 
 THE CHIMNEY-ELF. 13 
 
 "Yes. my dear. But that's a very bad way you 
 have of echoing a person's words ; very rude, indeed ; 
 and Fve told yon so before." 
 
 " I know it, but how do they live there ! " 
 
 " How ! How do you live in Yankee-land!*' 
 
 * Why, I just live here/* 
 
 "And they just live there; and when the moon 
 shines they come sliding down the beams, and get into 
 people's heads, and they write them down and call them 
 their own. and that's the way fairy stories, and poetry, 
 and all that, comes into the world." 
 
 44 Oh, but, Chimney-IK if I should go to the moon, 
 could I see all these beautiful stories going on, just as 
 people do all round here!" 
 
 -Yes." 
 
 "What! see Cinderella, and little Eed Eiding- 
 Hood, ar.d Beauty and the Beast, and Jack the Giant- 
 Killer, and all the rest of them !" 
 
 "Yes, yes. yes!" 
 
 -And Robinson Crusoe, and the Arabian Nights, 
 and Jack and the Beanstalk, and ** 
 
 '-Every thing and every body, I tell you ! Every 
 story that ever was written is true somewhere or some- 
 how ; men and women are not bright enough to make 
 anything up ; all they can do is to tell over what they 
 have seen and heard. Well, some things are true of the 
 world just about you, and those you call real : and some 
 other things you don't see are just as true, and those yon
 
 I4 MOONFOLK. 
 
 call unreal ; and all the unreal true stories come from 
 the moon, and are real stories there." 
 
 " Oh, Chimney-Elf, I wish I could go to the moon ! " 
 exclaimed Khoda, catching her breath. 
 ' Well, why not ? " 
 
 " Why not go to the moon ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Because I can't get there." 
 
 " Oh, yes, you can, if I tell you how." 
 
 k> Can ! Oh, do tell me how, dear, good Chimney- 
 Elf." 
 
 " There, none of that. I don't like coaxing, and I 
 am no dearer or gooder than if I didn't know how to go 
 to the moon." 
 
 " But will you tell me how ? " 
 
 " Perhaps I will. You can only go once a month, and, 
 as it happens, to-night is the very night for this month." 
 
 " Why only once a month ? " 
 
 " Because the moonglade only comes right once a 
 month." 
 
 Bhoda knew the moonglade. for she lived upon the 
 sea-shore ; she had often watched the broad, shining 
 track of light, which, at a certain point of the full moon's 
 upward course, seems to lead straight across the sea, from 
 the earth to the sky, if only one knew how to pass over 
 it ; sometimes, also, the rising or setting sun produces a 
 sunglade, like a river of molten gold, or rather of pure 
 fire, flowing across the ocean toward the earth ; but few
 
 TUB 3IOONGLADE. 15 
 
 JOB cm bear the awful splendor of this sight, and few 
 hearts are BO brave as to wish to tread that fiery path 
 and explore the fierce wonders of the son. The moon- 
 glade is Tery different, and a great many people, not 
 altogether children, have longed to make a bridge of it 
 Ehoda had often wished so, and when the Chimney-Elf 
 suggested the idea, she seized upon it at once : 
 
 " Oh, can we go up the moongladef " cried she; and 
 the Chimney-El^ puckering his queer little face into a 
 hard knot, winking his bright little eyes very fast, and 
 nodding his head until the cockVfeather in his pointed 
 hat waved wildly to and fro, replied : 
 
 "Yes, we can go up the moonglade, if jon will 
 behave like a sensible child, and not be frightened. All 
 that you hare to do is to come down to the beach a few 
 minutes before sunset, for yon know the full moon rises 
 just as the sun sets, get into the dory, and paddle a 
 little waj out from the shore. I win be there, and do 
 all the rest. Ton must not tell a mortal creature where 
 /ou are going. I don't want everybody rushing to the 
 moon, and making it common." 
 
 "Nobody will care what I do," said Ehoda, a little 
 sadly. Father is going to marry the Widow Merriam, 
 and he goes to see her every night as soon as we have 
 done tea; and my sister Susy IB so busy getting the 
 house ready for father's wedding and her own, that she 
 don't remember me when she don't see me; and Mrs. 
 Manh, who helps her, only says:
 
 16 MOONJ-CLK. 
 
 " ' Massy me! if that child was Liine, I bet she 
 wouldn't be wasting her time and eyesight over books 
 that way ! ' And Susy laughs and says : 
 
 " ' It's all the fun she wants, poor little Rhoda ! ' So 
 I go on reading ; and father and brother Ben always 
 bring me a book when they go to the city with market- 
 ing." 
 
 " There, that will do, you chatterbox," interrupted 
 the Chimney-Elf, who had rather a crisp temper. " Do 
 you suppose I have lived in this chimney ever since it 
 was a chimney, for something over a hundred years 
 before you were born, without knowing all about the 
 family. And isn't it just because you are lonesome and 
 neglected, and given to books and dreams, and nonsense 
 generally, that I have taken notice of you ? Try to tell 
 me what goes on under this roof do ! " 
 
 And with a scornful toss of the head in the pointed 
 hat, the Chimney-Elf turned a double somerset upon the 
 edge of the chimney, and with the last turn disappeared 
 down its black throat. 
 
 " I'll be in the dory at sunset, Chimney-Elf ! " called 
 Hhoda after him, in rather an anxious voice ; for she had 
 discovered that her smoky friend was very uncertain 
 in his temper, and sometimes became so vexed at the 
 merest trifle that he would not speak or show himself 
 for months at a time. lie did not now deign a reply to 
 Rhoda's words. 
 
 It was with considerable doubt that the little girl
 
 RHODES . , 7 
 
 out of tike house, as MOB as tern was over T and 
 madeher war to the wharf of loose stones at the foot of 
 the hill, where her fcthers boats lay 
 some hauled up on the beach, and one, the dorr, 
 fist to a great post set in the end of the wharf. Few 
 girls of Bhoda's age die was just past her twelfth 
 birth-day, did I say? would like to venture themselves 
 alone in any sort of a boat; hot she had heen brought 
 up by the sea, and could not remember the time when 
 it seemed strange to her to sail or row, or swim or 
 wade, upon or through the water. Of late die had 
 learned to handle the oars for herself, both Strongly 
 and wefl; seeing this, Ben had made a pair of light 
 paddles expressly for her use, and the dory was always 
 left BO that she eonld get it when she wanted much as 
 some other little girls liave a pony-carriage or a veloci- 
 pede, or perhaps a rocking-horse under their own eon- 
 
 So when IShoda, in leaving the house, said to her 
 inter: 
 
 "Fin going out in the dory a little vmle," Susy 
 only replied: 
 
 "Goalong,btdon T tstmyout after dark," and then 
 ahnost forget that there was such a child as Ehoda in 
 theworld. 
 
 "If I shorn* aftayvp ntiwmM,! wonder if they 
 would mias me down here?" thought the little girl, 
 topping at the top of the hill to look back at the
 
 f3 MOONfOLK. 
 
 and at the figure of Jonas Morton coming up the path 
 f o the door, meeting her father, who was setting out for 
 Mrs. Merriam's. Then Rhoda, walking on rather soberly, 
 tried to remember how her mother looked, and won- 
 dered whether she should know her if she should meet 
 her in the moon, or anywhere. 
 
 She was still wondering, as she slipped the loop of 
 the dory-line over the top of the great post, and stepped 
 into the little boat just as the sun disappeared in the 
 cloud-palace she had watched building for him. Using 
 one of the paddles, she pushed the dory away from the 
 wharf, and then seating herself upon the middle thwart, 
 she left the boat to drift gently up the ebbing tide. 
 Leaning her chin in her two hands, and her elbows upon 
 iier knees, she fixed her eyes upon the gorgeous west, 
 and began again to wonder about her mother and her- 
 self, and the sun and the moon, and so many other 
 things, that she could not have named them all if she 
 had tried. 
 
 In fact, Rhoda found a great deal in the world to 
 wonder at ; and as she seldom talked about her thoughts, 
 the wonders were not explained, but still remained won- 
 ders, waiting until the time when Rhoda should be 
 grown up ; for then, of course, she would know every- 
 thing, like other grown-up people. 
 
 " Well, my dear, do you intend to go on dreaming 
 all night in that mooning fashion ? " asked the Chimney- 
 Elf's shrill voice. " Although, why I should call it moon-
 
 EAfBARKED FOR THE MOON. 19 
 
 ing I don't know, since yon have your back to the 
 moon. Torn round r and see where we are ! " 
 
 Rhoda roused herself with a little start, and saw the 
 Chimney-Elf seated astride the tiller, steering the boat 
 by the pressure of one foot or the other upon the bench 
 below. 
 
 "Why, where did you come from, Chimney-Elf ?" 
 cried Rhoda, who never could get used to her little 
 friend's odd ways and rapid movements. 
 
 " "NTever mind me, child. Turn round, and look ! " 
 said the Chimney-Elf. 
 
 Rhoda, changing her position, uttered a little cry of 
 surprise, for the dory seemed to be gliding swiftly along 
 a shining river of light, with a wall of darkness at 
 either side, and at the end a great world of splendor, an 
 immense globe, blazing with light as vivid as it was soft 
 and soothing. 
 
 " Can that be the moon, the same old moon that 
 shines into the kitchen windows, and that Bruno barks 
 at ? " asked Rhoda ; and then, without waiting for the 
 Chimney-Elf s reply, she moved softly forward to the 
 bows of the boat, and sitting upon the little deck, with 
 her feet hanging over almost into the water, fixed her 
 great eyes upon the wonder before her, and fell into a 
 dream more delicious than any she had ever known 
 "refore, sleeping or waking. 
 
 The Chimney-Elf, watching her, twisted his qt
 
 MOONFOLK. 
 
 face into its queerest smile, and balancing himself cross- 
 legged upon the tiller, pushed the pointed hat buck from 
 his forehead, and fixed his eyes upon the moon ; while 
 the little boat, unurged by sail or oar, flew along the 
 shining track toward its shining goal.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MAX Df THE MOO3T. 
 
 * KJ~OW, then ! " a"* the Chimney-Elf; and Rhoda, 
 -*-^ starting, rnbbed her eyes and stared about her. 
 The bows of the dory had struck with a low grating 
 sound npon a beach of glittering golden sand ; and the 
 Chimney-Elf, making a flying leap from the boat to the 
 shore, stood politely holding out his hand to help his 
 companion ; bnt as he was only a little taller than Rhoda's 
 knees, his help was not so valuable as it might have 
 been. 
 
 " What shall we do with the dory ? " asked the little 
 girl, as she reached the beach. 
 
 " Oh, it will take care of itself, and wait for us as long 
 as we like. The dory knows," replied the Chimney-Elf,
 
 22 MOONFOLK. 
 
 nodding his head until the cock's-feather danced again in 
 the soft light that filled the place, making everything as 
 clear as in the noonday of the earth ; yet touching all 
 with a tender, dreamy beauty, such as moonlight lends to 
 even the commonest objects. 
 
 " Oh, how I like to be here ! " said Rhoda, with a little 
 sigh of delight. 
 
 " "Wait until you see some of the people; then you 
 may not like it so well," said the Chimney-Elf. " Suppose 
 we should meet the wolf that ate up Red Riding-Hood, 
 or some of the giants that Jack didn't kill : they all live 
 here." 
 
 "I don't believe they will hurt me," said Rhoda 
 bravely, but at the same time looking all about her. 
 
 " Oh, Chimney-Elf! " cried she suddenly, " I forgot 
 to ask you. Do the people out of the stories keep on 
 doing those same stories over and over, or do they do 
 new ones all the time ? " 
 
 ""Well, it is very much in the moon as it is in the 
 world," replied the Chimney-Elf. " Some people like 
 to do the same things over and over, and think that 
 because they always did them, they are the best things 
 possible to do, and that all the rest of the world ought 
 to do so too : others like a change. But we will call 
 upon the Man in the Moon, who can tell you everything 
 about the people here, even better than I can, though I 
 came from here in the first place." 
 
 u You did \ " asked Rhoda in surprise.
 
 TBB MAM IN THE MOON. 23 
 
 -Ye& Bui here you are that's the house." The 
 Chlmney-EJf pointed to kige house, a little way back 
 from the beach, a house remarkable principally for a 
 very high cupola on the top, and a large thorn-bosh 
 planted directly in front of die door. Beside this thonr 
 bush sat a pleasant-looking man, with a lantern between 
 his feet and a dog lying beside it. In one hand he held 
 a large lump of green cheese, from which he took an 
 occasional nibble. AD the time, he was watching and 
 It^ffifig * mn ^^ f "" i T"*^ f** ip'fl'TT ^fig*" 1 upon die 
 ground beside him, with a large bowl of milk-porridge 
 upon his knees, which he was trying to eat ; but as it was 
 frozen hard, his only way of doing so was to split off 
 little bits with his pocket-knife, and eat them off the 
 point of it. 
 
 There's that idiot, the Man from the South, again," 
 snarled the Chimney-Elf in a low Toiee. Before Bboda 
 could ask who the Man from the South might be, the 
 Man in the Moon turned round for another nibble of 
 his cheese, and seeing them, cried out : 
 
 tt Why, here's the Chimney-Elf, and Ehoda along 
 with him. How d'ye do, Ehoda 1" 
 
 * Very well, I thank you, sir," replied Ehoda, won- 
 dering how the Man in the Moon came to be so well 
 acquainted with her; and. as the wonder passed through 
 her mind, he said: 
 
 "Why, itfs because I so often send yon feccies and 
 ; by the moonbeams. I never went down myself
 
 24 MOONFOLK. 
 
 but once, and that was all a mistake. It was when 
 Diana got lost, you know. Chimney-Elf." 
 
 " Yes. Tell Rhoda about that," said the Chimney- 
 Elf, seating himself upon the ground, and pulling his 
 pipe out of his hat-band. 
 
 "Well, I will," replied the Man in the Moon, de- 
 lighted at finding a new listener for his old story. 
 
 " You see, Rhoda, my daughter Diana by the 
 way, I have several more girls, Cynthia, Luna, Phoebe, 
 and one or two more whose names I have forgotten ; but 
 Diana was the favorite. She was always rather a tom- 
 boy, liking to play with bow and arrows, and run races 
 and romp with the dogs, better than to read, or sew, or put 
 the house in order. At last she took to going down to the 
 earth almost every night ; and the people who saw her 
 were so pleased with her, that they built temples for 
 her to live in, and gave her flowers and jewels, and 
 flattered and praised her until the girl's head was fairly 
 turned. She played all sorts of wild tricks upon her 
 admirers. Why, there was a young man named Aetaeon, 
 who offended her in some way, and she turned him into 
 a stag, and set his own dogs to chase him ; they chased 
 him. right out of the world, and up here to the moon : 
 they have not caught him yet, that I have heard of. 
 After that, Diana fell in love with a young man called 
 Endymion, and declared she would marry him. When 
 I heard that, I thought it was high time to go and bring 
 her home. So I told one of the moonbeams to inquire
 
 DIANA AND ENDYMION. 2$ 
 
 where she was last heard of. The moonbeam, it seems, 
 asked a saucy boy, who, not knowing what she meant, 
 put his finger on his nose and said : 
 
 " She's gone to Norridge, of course." 
 
 The poor little moonbeam took it all seriously, 
 and brought back that report to me. So I slipped down 
 on the next moonglade, and went all about asking my 
 way to Norridge, getting laughed at for my pains ; for it 
 seems that in those days " Gone to Porridge " meant 
 the same that gone to Jericho, or toddler's Island, or 
 Dixie, or any such expression means now : there was no 
 place in the world really called Porridge. So I came 
 home again, and sent my dog down next, and a half-a- 
 dozen moonbeams with him. The dog was to find 
 Diana, and the moonbeams to tell her that if she 
 would come home, and bring Endymion, I would set 
 them up at house-keeping, and all should be forgiven. 
 So she came ; and they live just over the hill near the 
 Cheese Mine." 
 
 " But there is a place called Norridge pretty near 
 where I live, when I am at home ; only they spell it 
 Norwich," said Khoda timidly. 
 
 " Oh, yes ; after my inquiries had made the name 
 so popular, a good many towns were called Norridge," 
 replied the Man in the Moon. " Only, you see, I came 
 down too soon, before they were built." 
 
 " Oh, dear ! oh, niy ! o h ! " groaned the Man
 
 26 
 
 MOONFOLK. 
 
 from the South, dropping the knife into the bowl of por- 
 ridge, and clapping both hands over his mouth. 
 
 " What's the matter ? Burnt it again ? " asked the 
 Man in the Moon, staring at him. 
 
 " Y - - - e - -- s ; oh, dear me ! oh, my ! oh, dear ! '" 
 "That's rather curious, Khoda, isn't it?" said the 
 Man in the Moon, turning to her. " This Man from the 
 South, you see, has a trick of blowing hot and blowing 
 cold in the same breath ; and so long as he remembers to 
 blow cold on his porridge it does very well, for he con- 
 siders ice quite a luxury ; but sometimes he forgets and 
 blows hot, and that heats the frozen porridge so suddenly 
 that he burns his own mouth. Silly enough, isn't it? 
 But it's the way he always did do, and I suppose it is 
 the way he always will do." 
 
 At this moment there 
 was a terrible crash in 
 the thorn-bush close be- 
 hind Rhoda. Turning 
 suddenly round, she saw 
 a man scrambling his 
 ^ way out of it, with his 
 face all torn and bleed- 
 ing, and holding both 
 hands tight over his 
 eyes. 
 
 " There's another idiot ! " exclaimed the Man in the 
 Moon. " And one who thinks himself wondrous wise
 
 THE WONDROUS WISE MAN. 27 
 
 too. Come, turn round, and run with might and main, 
 old gentleman." 
 
 " Which way, which way ? Oh, my eyes, my eyes ! " 
 screamed the man, dancing about first on one foot and 
 then on the other. 
 
 " Straight forward as yon are now ; one, two, three 
 and away you go run ! " 
 
 So the man who was so wondrous wise, still holding 
 his hands over his eyes, ran straight forward as hard as 
 he could, until he tumbled into another thorn-bush grow- 
 ing near by : after floundering round in it for a few 
 moments, he broke through upon the other side, and 
 walked away in a very dignified manner, calling over his 
 shoulder : 
 
 " Eyes ! who says I haven't eyes ! I fancy I can see 
 as far into a millstone as most men, at any rate/' 
 
 " Fve read about him, and the Man in the South, and 
 and you too, sir," exclaimed Khoda suddenly ; u all in 
 Mother Goose : that is just what the Chimney-Elf said \ n 
 
 " What that the stories people down there call fairy- 
 stories, and Mother Goose, in fact stories, are all true 
 up here ? Yes, that is correct, quite correct," said the 
 Man in the Moon, stooping to pat his dog, and looking up 
 sideways at Ehoda. " All fancies, and a great many 
 ideas, come from the moon. The moonbeams go when 
 people are asleep, and put them into their heads, and 
 when they wake up they write them down, and call 
 them their own."
 
 28 MOONFOLK. 
 
 "Ereiybody don't write them down," suggested 
 Rhoda. 
 
 " Everybody don't get them ! " replied the Man in 
 the Moon. " The moonbeams know whom to carry them 
 to. Sometimes, however, they make a mistake, and stuff 
 too many fancies into the brain of somebody who can't 
 write them, or tell them, and so get rid of them, and he 
 keeps them stored away until they turn his brains upside- 
 down. Then the other people, who never were troubled 
 with fancies or ideas, call these poor stuffed people luna- 
 ticsthinking that my daughter Luna has made them 
 what they are, I suppose ; and they shut them up in luna- 
 tic asylums. Lunatics, indeed ! If they only had gone 
 to a writing-school when they were young, they would 
 have been called geniuses, and nothing could have been 
 too good for them. Sometimes the moonbeams pour in 
 ideas faster than the brain can arrange or pat them 
 together, even if the person does write them down, and 
 then they make queer work enough of it for a while, but 
 finally join the lunatics. But the Chimney-Elf is grow- 
 ing cross, and you and he had better go on : see what you 
 can, while you stay ! I'd take her to the Cheese Mine, 
 Chimney-Elf." 
 
 " Well, if you ever stop talking, I mean to," snarled 
 the Chimney-Elf, who had been fidgeting for a long 
 while, but the Man in the Moon only laughed at his ill- 
 temper. 
 
 " Right over Old Woman's Hill," said he, pointing.
 
 OLD WOMAN THAT LIVES IN THE SHOE. 29 
 
 As the Chimney-Elf and Rhoda walked away they 
 heard the Man from the South cry out : 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! oh ! oh ! I've burnt my month oh, my 
 mouth ! " 
 
 Hhoda was going to say something pitiful, and the 
 Chimney-Elf was just beginning to scold, when both of 
 them were stopped by such a chorus of yells and screams 
 and shrieks, all in childish tones, that Rhoda stood still, 
 looking as if she would begin to cry herself. 
 
 u What's the matter t w 
 
 "That noise? Oh, it's only the Old Woman that 
 lives in the Shoe putting her babies to bed. They cry 
 that way just for fun, you know : she only pretends to 
 whip them ; she's as good-natured as she can be. Here's 
 where she lives, just at the foot of the hill." 
 
 And turning a corner in the road, Rhoda found her- 
 self close beside a monstrous shoe, with a ladder leaning 
 against its side. Upon the ground close by stood a 
 great kettle with a little broth in the bottom, and about 
 fifty iron spoons lay scattered around. 
 
 "They eat right out of the kettle," explained the 
 Chimney-Elf. " Poor thing, she has so many children 
 she don't know what to do ; and as for baking bread 
 enough for such a family, it is quite out of the question , 
 so they never have any. Run up and look into the 
 shoe, if you like." 
 
 So Rhoda ran up the ladder, and peeping over the 
 edge of the shoe, saw a stout red-faced woman, with a
 
 30 MOONFOLK. 
 
 switch in her hand, either whipping or pretending to 
 whip a small boy, whose cries may have been playful, but 
 certainly were not pleasant. All at once the woman 
 seized the little fellow by the shoulders, and tilting him 
 over, laid him at the end of a row of children lying close 
 together, and reaching out of sight into the depths of the 
 shoe. 
 
 " There, you're all done for now, and I will go and 
 help toss Sister Broomster," said the old woman. 
 
 Ehoda crept swiftly down the ladder the old wo- 
 man following, saying to the Chimney -Elf : 
 
 " You see, my family is as troublesome as ever, Mr. 
 Chimney-Elf ; but they are all quiet at last, and I am 
 going out for a little recreation." 
 
 " Going to toss Mother Broomster, eh ? Nice recrea- 
 tion that, for those who like it," said the Chimney -Elf. 
 " Well, Ehoda, we may as well see the show. Come 
 along."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OLD 
 
 HILI- 
 
 "TTTRRYIXG along, Rhoda and the Chimney-Elf 
 
 ' ' presently came to a door leading directly into the 
 
 hill they had begun to climb, and found the Old Woman 
 
 who lives in the Shoe knocking upon it and calling out : 
 
 u Come, sister, come along ; we are late already ! " 
 
 " Yes, yes, Tm coming, coming right along," replied 
 a cracked voice ; and the door opened to let out another 
 old woman, who, when she saw Rhoda, bobbed a fanny 
 little courtesy at her, and said : 
 
 " How d'ye do, Rhoda ? I'm the Old Woman that 
 lives under the Hill ; and if I don't move, I suppose I 
 shall live there stilL Come along, Sister Shoester ! " 
 
 So the two old women, with Rhoda and the Chim- 
 ney-Elf following close, climbed up the hill, and abouf
 
 32 MOONfOLK. 
 
 halfway to the top were joined by another old lady, the 
 fussiest, most restless, worrying old lady who ever lived. 
 Under one arm she carried a loaf of bread, and under the 
 other a bottle of cold tea ; and when she was not eating 
 rlio was drinking, and, whether eating or drinking, she 
 never was quiet no, not for one single minute. 
 
 " Oh, how d'ye do, Mother What-do-you-think ? " called 
 out the Chimney-Elf as this old lady appeared. " What 
 do you find to agree best with your delicate stomach, 
 now-a-days ? " 
 
 "Is that you, Chimney-Elf? Well, I do declare! 
 And Rhoda too ! How d'ye do, Ehoda ? I'm proper glad 
 to see you. First time you ever came to the moon, isn't 
 it? What were you asking, Chimney-Elf what do 1 
 find to live on ? Well, I hardly know ; but I expect 
 victuals and drink are the chief of my diet, just as they 
 are of most folkses ; and oh, my ! I do declare, if there 
 isn't Sister Banbury on her White Horse, and all her 
 jewelry. I never did ! " 
 
 " There, that's enough, What-d'ye-think," interrupted 
 the Chimney-Elf ; and then turning to Rhoda, he showed 
 her a large wooden cross set up on a plain, some distance 
 below the hill where they stood. Beside the cross a 
 small boy was holding an old white horse, and two more 
 were helping an old lady to step up into a chair, and 
 from that to seat herself upon the horse's back. 
 
 " That's Banbury Cross," said the Chimney-Elf, " and 
 Mother Banbury lives just beyond it, with her three lit- 
 tle boys : the one holding the horse is the Baker's Man,
 
 "BELLS ON HER TOES." 33 
 
 who spends most of his time patting the cakes, and mark- 
 ing them with T ; one of the others goes round with a 
 basket to sell hot cross-buns, when his mother happens 
 to make an j ; and the other is apprenticed to the black- 
 smith, who shoes the old horse, and shoes the old mare, and 
 lets the little colt go bare. But it won't do to let it go 
 bare mnch longer, or he'll have the Society for the Pre- 
 vention of Cruelty to Ammala after him. Hark !" 
 
 Ehoda listened, and heard the jingling of musical bells, 
 and looked around for a church steeple, but saw none. 
 ' "It isn't sleigh-bells, for there isn't any snow, 17 said she. 
 K Sleigh-bells, pho!" said the Chimney-Elf. a Ifs 
 Mother Banbury. Look at her now ! " 
 
 And as the old lady rode slowly up the hill upon her 
 white horse, Khoda perceived that every one of her ten 
 lingers was covered with rings to the very tips, and the 
 ends of her boots were cut off 
 to let out her ten toes, to every 
 one of which was tied a little 
 silver bell, all of different sizes ; 
 and as she rode, Mother Banbu- 
 ry rang these bells by the mo- 
 tion of her toes, and produced 
 the most charming music yon 
 can imagine that is, from such 
 a source. Besides all these, 
 Mother Banbury wore a chain of large glass beads 
 wound ten times round her neck, which hung all over 
 2*
 
 34 MOONFOLK. 
 
 the front of her dress ; and she wore bracelets and ear- 
 rings, and a large hoop in her nose ; and a great bunch 
 of hair on the top of her head, stuck full of feathers 
 and flowers, and jewels, and bows of ribbon, with 
 long floating ends ; and she had a great silk balloon tied 
 round her waist, which stood out behind ; and a stiff lace 
 ruffle round her neck ; and a droll little hat pitched over 
 her eyes : altogether she was a very curious-looking 
 person. 
 
 " Mother Banbury is fond of dress," quietly remarked 
 the Chimney-Elf ; " and so is Margery Daw. See 
 her?" 
 
 Looking where he pointed, Rhoda saw a queerly 
 dressed young woman among the bushes beside the 
 road, following Mother Banbury up the hill, but keep- 
 ing out of sight as well as she could. She was dressed 
 in rags and tatters to be sure ; but she had managed 
 to put them on so as to imitate Mother Banbury in the 
 most laughable manner. Even her ornaments, which 
 were all made of straw, were braided into bands and 
 tied into rings, and split into feathers in fact, arranged 
 in every possible style to imitate jewelry and ornaments. 
 As for the bells upon her toes, she had made them of 
 nut-shells, with a few little pebbles in each to make the 
 music. 
 
 Rhoda wondered whether Mother Banbary would 
 know, if she could see it, that Margery Daw's dress was 
 GO close an imitation of her own. But before she could
 
 MOTHER BROOMSTER. 35 
 
 ask the question of the Chimney-Elf, the Old Woman 
 who lived in the Shoe cried ont : 
 
 " Oh, here's Sister Broomster. Now let's toss her ! " 
 
 Rhoda turned to look, and saw an old woman com- 
 ing up the hill with a broom over her shoulder, and a 
 blanket tightly rolled up under the other arm. She 
 was a very clean, nice-looking old woman, with her hair 
 combed smoothly back, and a handkerchief tied over 
 her head; her dress turned up in front, and pinned 
 behind ; and her sleeves rolled tightly up to her shoul- 
 ders. As she came to the top of the hill she threw 
 down the blanket, and, turning her broom upside-down, 
 leaned upon the handle of it while she took breath 
 Then nodding to the other old women, they seized 
 upon the blanket and spread it carefully upon the 
 ground. 
 
 How d'ye do, Mother Brooinster ? " said the Chim- 
 ney-Elf, who had a word for every one. " Haven't yon 
 got the sky clean yet ? You have been at it ever since I 
 can remember." 
 
 "Well, no, Chimney-Elf," replied Mother Broomster 
 turning her head sideways and looking attentively at 
 the sky. " There are a few cobwebs left those white 
 things, don't you see ? " 
 
 u Why, those are clouds ! " interrupted Rhoda, 
 All the old women stopped spreading the blanket, 
 and looked severely at her. 
 
 " Little girl," said the Old Woman who lived in the
 
 36 MOONFOLK. 
 
 Shoe, "did you over try to teach your grandmother 
 to suck eggs ? " 
 
 "No, ma'am," replied Ehoda, remembering the 
 switch she had seen in the shoe. 
 
 " Then, don't you ever do it, my dear," said Mother 
 Broomster good-humoredly. " As for those being clouds, 
 isn't it likely that I should know what they are, better 
 than you, when I have been all my life sweeping them 
 down for cobwebs, and you never went near them ? " 
 
 Rhoda did not venture any reply to this question. 
 The blanket being now spread, the old woman tucked 
 her sleeves a little higher, felt of the handkerchief upon 
 her head, grasped the broom in both hands, and laid 
 herself down upon the blanket. 
 
 " Now then," said the Old Woman who lived in the 
 Shoe, seizing one corner of the blanket ; the Old "Woman 
 who lived under the Hill took another, Mother What- 
 d'ye-think the third, and Mother Banbury the fourth ; 
 while Margery Daw behind the bushes spread her 
 shawl upon the ground, and pretended to do all that 
 Mother Banbury really did. 
 
 " Now, then ! " cried all the old women together ; and 
 raising the blanket from the ground, they began shaking 
 it, at first with a gentle, regular motion, then harder and 
 harder and harder, until with one great shake they sent 
 Mother Broomster flying out of it away up toward the 
 stars. 
 
 " She's going seventy times as high as the moon,"
 
 "TO SWEEP THE COBWEBS;' 37 
 
 gaid the Chimney-Elf. "It's lucky she don't have to 
 start from the earth, isn't it ? Bat, listen ! " 
 
 " Upward beat, downward beat, inward beat, oatward 
 beat. Sing ! " said Mother Banbnry, waving her sun- 
 shade up and down, and in and out, and shaking the 
 bells of first one foot and then the other. 
 
 " Sing ! " and the four old women, and Margery Daw 
 behind the bushes, threw back their heads, opened their 
 months very wide, and sang : 
 
 " Old woman, old woman, oh, whither so high ! 
 To sweep the cobwebs from the sky, 
 And I'll be back again by-and-by." 
 
 " Why," exclaimed Khoda, " they sing the whole of 
 it! I should think they would wait, and let Mother 
 Broomster answer for herself! 
 
 " Nonsense, child," replied the Chimney-Elf, with a 
 twist of his comical face; "you don't understand scien- 
 tific music. The sense has nothing to do with it the 
 sound is everything." 
 
 " But I don't think it sounds as well as if the right 
 one made the answer," insisted Khoda. 
 
 "That's because your musical education has beer, 
 neglected, my poor little Rhoda, But come, we needn't 
 stay here any longer : they'll keep on singing that until 
 she comes down to-morrow morning. We'll get on 
 toward the Cheese Mine, and on the way look in at the 
 Cancing-ha]L"
 
 38 MOONFOLK. 
 
 So saying, the Chimney-Elf led the way down Ihe 
 other side of the hill. About halfway he turned off into 
 a level nook set round with bushes and paved with large 
 flat stones : at one end of this space sat a cat with some 
 music upon a stand in front of him, and a fiddle beside 
 him. Fixing his eyes upon the music, the cat extended 
 his four paws with all the claws out, and began to scratch 
 and tear at the fiddle-strings with all his might, accom- 
 panying his efforts with the most horrible screeches and 
 yells imaginable. The noise was frightful, but at the 
 same time so funny, that a small dog, whose business it 
 was to howl in chorus with the cat, was able to do no- 
 thing but roll upon his back from side to side, stuffing his 
 fore-paws into his mouth to stifle the peals of laughter, 
 which would have offended the cat very much if he had 
 perceived them. In the centre of the dancing-ground a 
 red-and-white cow was gravely and laboriously perform- 
 ing a polka in the old-fashioned style of jumping up very 
 high and coming down very hard. The only spectators 
 were a pewter dish and iron spoon, who seemed to be 
 tired of the ball, and were just stealing away among the 
 bushes. 
 
 " I suppose you've heard of the Cow that jumped 
 over the Moon ? " said the Chimney-Elf. " People gen- 
 erally suppose that she lived on the earth, and jumped 
 up over the moon and down again; but such people 
 could never have noticed a cow's habits very particu- 
 larly: they never jump high, but, like the one we just
 
 FROG WHO WOULD A- WOOING GO. 39 
 
 saw, thev often jump about, over the moon's or the 
 earth's surface. This cow is coming out as a ballet- 
 dancer as soon as Barry OTynn can find time to make 
 her a belt with a fringe to it." 
 
 "See here, Chimney-Elf. Who are those people 
 knocking at the door of that pretty little cottage," asked 
 Ehoda softly, for the cottage was close beside the road. 
 
 " Why, that's Tadpole Frog and the Eat don't you 
 know? Wait, and I'll make Tad tell you himself . Hallo, 
 Tad ! what are yon doing there? " 
 
 The young gentleman thus addressed turned round, 
 looking very much frightened, and, taking his opera-hat 
 off his head, made a low bow, pnlled down his yellow 
 waistcoat, and said : 
 
 " Oh, I thought it was ma, you know. I I'm going 
 to make a little call, Mr. Chimney-Elf, I and the Eat." 
 
 4 - A little call, eh ! Why, who lives here ? " 
 
 - Miss Mouse, I I believe." 
 
 " Miss Mouse ! She's a spinster, isn't she ! " 
 
 " Ye yes, sir." 
 
 *' And you're going to * woo her for your bride,' as 
 the song says ? " asked the Chimney-Elf roguishly. 
 
 *' Ye yes, sir." 
 
 " Well, I suppose your mother is willing, Tad, eh I " 
 
 Mother she well I I can't say, Mr. Chimney- 
 El" said Tadpole, looking very much frightened. The 
 door opening just then, he and the Eat rushed in, 
 with more haste than politeness. At the same moment
 
 40 MOONFOLK. 
 
 Rhoda espied a cat and three kittens creeping along 
 toward the Mouse's house, and noticed that all four of 
 them wore mittens. 
 
 " They'll take them off before they go in," said the 
 Chimney -Elf, nodding. " They won't handle poor lit- 
 tle mousie with mittens, I can tell you ; but then 
 she shouldn't have opened the door. That was the 
 trouble."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CHEESE MINE. 
 
 ~D HODA was still wondering why the Mouse should 
 ** not have opened the door to Tadpole Frog and the 
 Rat, and whether she had perhaps left it open, so that 
 the Cat and her Kittens would get in too, to handle 
 them all without mittens, when the Chimnej'-Elf said : 
 " Here we are over the hill, at the Cheese Mine." 
 " Oh, is this the Cheese Mine ? " asked Rhoda, look- 
 ing down into a great hole beside which the Chimney- 
 Elf had stopped. 
 
 " Yes ; you know that the moon is made of green 
 cheese sage-cheese, some wise people call it, because 
 sage means wise, and it is only sage people who know
 
 42 MOONFOLK. 
 
 much about the moon, especially the inside of it. Well, 
 the most of the cheese does not lie upon the surface, 
 you know, but has to be dug for, like gold and silver 
 upon the earth. This is the principal mine. Would 
 you like to go down ? " 
 
 " Yery much," replied Khoda ; so the Chimney-Elf 
 took her close to the mouth of the mine ; and seated her 
 behind him upon a sled, and told one of several men, 
 who stood looking on, to set them off. The men nodded, 
 and pushing the sled a little way, fitted the runners into 
 two grooves hollowed for them, and gave it a shove. 
 Looking down, Rhoda now perceived that a roadway 
 extended round the inside of the shaft, leading spirally 
 downward like the thread of a screw, and that the gled, 
 once started upon this spiral road, had nothing to do but 
 to spin round and round, and down and down, until it 
 reached the bottom. Breathless and dizzy, Rhoda held 
 tight to the Chimney-Elf, who talked all the time ; but 
 not a word of what he said reached her ears, until, as the 
 sled reached the bottom of the shaft, she heard him 
 say: 
 
 " And that is the true story of Richard Whittington." 
 
 " Oh Whittington and his Cat ! " exclaimed Rhoda. 
 " I am so sorry I did not hear that. Do please tell it to 
 me again, Chimney-Elf ! I couldn't listen, coming down 
 the shaft." 
 
 "Why, I was saying that after Whittington left 
 London with his cat in his arms, and stopped under the
 
 DICK WHITTINGTON. 43 
 
 tree to hear Bow-bells ring out ' Turn again, Whitting- 
 ton, Lord Mayor of London,' he went to sea ; but instead 
 of landing in a savage country, as the story says, he 
 got shipwrecked, and floated about the ocean on a rait, 
 
 he and his cat together, until, while he was fast asleep 
 one night, his raft got into a moonglade, and when 
 Richard awoke he was in the rnoon. He did not know 
 it, however, and nobody took the pains to tell him. I 
 doubt if he ever found it out. While wandering about, 
 soon after his arrival, he came upon the Cheese Mine. 
 Being rather hungry, he asked if he might go down and 
 dig his luncheon for himself. The miners told him that 
 nobody could go into the mine, on account of the rats 
 and mice who had taken possession of it, and who would 
 eat a man as quick as they would a candle, if he came 
 in their way. 
 
 "'Pooh!' said Whittington ; 'if that is all, I will 
 send Bow-bells down first, and he will soon clear the 
 way.' Bow-bells, you understand, was the name of 
 the cat, given him in honor of the handsome promise
 
 44 MOONFOLK. 
 
 that had recalled Whittington to London. But when the 
 miners understood him, they all cried out, ; No, no ! that 
 won't do ; for what will the Marquis of Carabas say ? ' >: 
 
 " That was the name of Puss in Boots," interrupted 
 Rhoda. 
 
 " Yes," replied the Chimney-Elf. " And, as the 
 miners explained to Whittingtou, Puss in Boots, after 
 he had grown rich and got his title, became very proud 
 and lazy ; the more good fortune that befel him, the 
 more he wanted like some other people. Among the 
 rest of his privileges, he had obtained that of keeping all 
 the rats and mice in the Cheese Mine for his own pleasure 
 and use ; so that when he fancied to go hunting, either 
 alone or with his friends, he might always know where 
 to find plenty of game. A very nice arrangement for 
 the Marquis of Carabas, you see ; but not so nice for 
 the poor people whose cheese the rats and mice lived 
 upon while waiting for the Marquis to come and kill 
 them. "Well, the miners explained all this to Whitting- 
 ton, and to Bow-bells, who stood listening, with his back 
 very much arched, and his upper lip quivering away 
 from his sharp white teeth. "When they had heard the 
 whole story, "Whittington laughed aloud, and stooping to 
 smooth Bow-bells' rounded back, he said : 
 
 " ' Why, that's all nonsense. Puss in Boots has no right 
 to keep rats and mice to eat up other people's cheese ; and 
 what's more, he shan't do it. Shall he, Bow-bells ? ' 
 
 " Bow-bells gave a miau of defiance that sent every
 
 THE MARQUIS OF CAR ABAS. 
 
 moose in the mine to his hole for shelter. Then he 
 went down among them and such havoc as he made ! 
 All the galleries were choked with the bodies of the 
 slain, and the whole neighboring country was overrun 
 with the fugitives who managed to escape. Xot a rat, 
 not a mouse was left to show his tail. 
 
 "Bow-bells had finished the battle, and was just Bib- 
 ting down to lick his paws clean, when a message was 
 brought that the Marquis of Oarabas desired the pres- 
 ence of the cat and the man who had invaded his domain, 
 and meddled with the game sacred to his use. 
 
 K TThittington, after consulting Bow-bells, replied 
 that if the Marquis of Carabas wished to see either cat 
 or man. he must come to them, as 
 they were too busy to go to him. 
 That message brought Puss in 
 Boots upon the scene very quick- 
 ly, and a grand fight ensued be- 
 tween him and Bow-bells, Whit- 
 tington standing by to see fair 
 play on one side, and Puss in 
 Boots" former master on the other. 
 
 "Bow -bells beat, as might 
 have been expected, for the Mar- 
 quis of Carabas had almost for- 
 gotten how to fight, and had be- 
 come very fat and lazy since he THE MARQUIS. 
 came to his fortune, having no need to hunt, except 
 for amusement. Bow-bells beat, and the Marquis was
 
 46 MOONFOLK. 
 
 very glad to come to terms. He agreed henceforth to 
 allow him to kill as many rats and mice as he wanted ; 
 to live in the Cheese Mine as long as he chose; in 
 fact, to do exactly as he pleased, so long as he would 
 allow the Marquis of Carabas to creep away home, 
 with ragged ears, and great patches torn out of his 
 sleek velvet coat. 
 
 " Bow-bells, having always been poor, and obliged to 
 earn his own. living, did not know how to spend his time 
 in indolence, but just kept on with his work until the 
 Cheese Mine was entirely cleared of mice, both living 
 and dead ; for the former he drove away, and the latter 
 he devoured. 
 
 " For this service, the Man in the Moon presented 
 him with a vote of thanks, and a silver tea-set. To the 
 first, Bow-bells replied, Miau ! and as for the second, 
 he suggested that a handsome sum of money given to 
 his master, and a free passage for both of them back to 
 earth, would be much more to the purpose. The Man 
 in the Moon held a council, and concluded to do as 
 he was requested, although quite sure that his own 
 plan was the best. So they gave "Whittington a bag- 
 ful of gold, and sent him back upon the next moon- 
 glade to the earth the moonbeam who conducted him 
 taking the precaution to steal the memory of his visit 
 out of his head while he was asleep, lest he should make 
 the secrets of the moon common and vulgar. The cat 
 remembered it all well enough, but along with the
 
 THE CHEESE MINE. 47 
 
 memory of his visit, TVhittington lost the power of 
 understanding Bow-bells' language, and even the knowl- 
 edge that he had a language; so that, although almost 
 any cat YOU meet could tell yon the story of Bow-bells' 
 duel with the Marquis of Cmbn, there is not a man. 
 woman, or child on earth who ever heard it, or who 
 knows the true origin of Whittington's fortune, Bu; 
 come, Rhoda, this is not seeing the Cheese Mine.* 7 
 
 80 saying, the Chimney-Elf got up from the sled, 
 where they had all this while been seated, and briskly " 
 led the way down a gallery into the mine at their right. 
 This gallery was lighted by clusters of fire-flies in cages 
 hung upon the walls at regular intervals, and the walk 
 themselves, as well as the ceiling and the floor, were 
 entirely composed of cheese cut as smooth as marble, 
 presenting a beautifully polished and variegated surface 
 its general hue a delicate green, but streaked and 
 mottled with yellow. Through the middle ran a narrow 
 railway. Soon after the visitors entered it, a low rum- 
 bling noise announced that a car was approaching. 
 
 "Stand this side with me," said the Chimney-Elf; 
 "and you will see something curious. The work in this 
 mine is almost all done by mites." 
 
 "Mites! What are mites!" asked Khoda. 
 
 " Little creatures, first cousins to the spiders, who are 
 so fond of cheese that they can't be kept out of it ; and 
 as tLe air here is unhealthy for men, they prefer to 
 make the mites do the work, who take their pay in cheese."
 
 48 AfOONFOLK. 
 
 " But do the mites like it ? " asked Rhoda, doubt- 
 fully. 
 
 The Chimney-Elf shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "The men are the strongest, my dear," said he; 
 " and the mites ought to be very thankful to have some 
 one take care of them, and give them cheese to eat. 
 Here comes the car. See the little things pull ! " 
 
 And as he spoke, a tiny car, loaded with one great 
 lump of cheese, made its appearance, looking at first 
 as if it moved of itself; but examining it closely, Rhoda 
 saw that hundreds of little cords were tied to the front 
 and sides of this car, and to the cords were attached 
 millions of mites, who thus pulled it along quice easily. 
 
 " You have seen the Performing Fleas, haven't 
 you 2 " asked the Chimney-Elf. 
 
 " No, but Susy has. Jonas Merton toot her to see 
 them," began Rhoda, but the Chimney-Elf cut her 
 short. 
 
 " They are stronger than the mites, but then there 
 are not so many of them. Besides, the cheese wouldn't 
 agree with them. The mites like it." 
 
 "And is all the cheese got in this way?" asked 
 Rhoda, remembering the great lumps she had seen in 
 the Man in the Moon's hand. 
 
 " Oh, no. This is the principal mine ; but then there 
 is a great deal of cheese found just below the surface, and 
 that the inhabitants can pick up for themselves. In 
 some places, every man has his cheese-cellar in his own
 
 LI TILE ZOY. 
 
 49 
 
 yard, and when he wants a piece, just steps down and 
 cots it oot of the walL Xow, there's the Little Bov 
 that lived bj himself I dare saj you have heard of 
 him ; he mines his own cheese, and we will step up 
 and see him. This way." 
 
 And striking into a side-cutting, the Chimney-Elf led 
 the way through a long winding ascent, and finally came 
 out upon the surface of the moon, close by a neat little 
 house with a wheel-barrow standing at the front door. 
 A pretty young woman sat at the window and smiled 
 at Rhoda, while a brisk-looking young man was just 
 coming from the back of the house with a hammer and 
 some nails in his hands. 
 
 "Hallo, Little Boy!" shouted the Chimney-Elf: 
 " Going to mend that wheel-barrow again \ " 
 
 u Why, yes," replied the man, stopping and looking 
 thoughtfully at the wheel-barrow. K But the old thing 
 never will stay mended since that first time. 7 ' 
 
 "What time! Tell Bhoda about it," broke in the 
 Chimney-Elf. And the man, still looking thoughtfully 
 at the wheel-barrow, slowly said : 
 
 Why, it happened this way, Ehoda. When I was 
 young, I was quite small, so that they used to call me 
 Little Boy ; and in fact, they do so now. But after 
 father and mother died, I lived here by myself and 
 kept house the best way I knew how. Fve got a 
 cheese-cellar out here, and I made my own bread and 
 such things. When I had finished a meal, I'd just put 
 3
 
 5 o MOONFOLK. 
 
 the bread and cheese on a shelf in the kitchen ; after a 
 while, though, the rats and the mice that Bow-bells sent 
 wandering all over the moon, found me out, and I had 
 no peace day nor night from them. At last, one day, 
 as I was laying about me with a broomstick, trying to kill 
 or drive away a few of my tormentors, Baron Bluebeard, 
 who was riding by, stopped to see what was the mat- 
 ter; for I suppose I made a good deal of noise. When 
 I had explained the case to him, he smiled horribly, 
 and said : 
 
 " ' Get a wife, Little Boy, that's ,the way to do. Get 
 a wife ! ' 
 
 " Then he rode on, and I sat down to think of 
 his advice. It seemed to me pretty good ; and the 
 next time I went to Moonopolis, I asked Lydia Locket 
 to marry me. She agreed, in case she found her pocket 
 before the wedding. While we were still talking, Kitty 
 Fisher stepped in to say that she had found it. The 
 only trouble then was, that the Lockets lived in the 
 very middle of the city, and the lanes were so narrow 
 that no coach could get into them, although some of the 
 streets were ridiculously wide. The only way seemed 
 to be for me to bring my wife home in a wheel-barrow ; 
 for of course the Lockets, who are very smart people, 
 would not let a daughter of theirs walk to her wedding 
 
 " Lydia agreed to the wheel-barrow, and we were 
 married all right ; but on the way home, the unlucky 
 wheel-barrow broke down, and spilt Lydia into the mud,
 
 LYDIA LOCKET. 51 
 
 all dressed in her beautiful pocket, trimmed with green 
 lace, and the rest of her wedding finery." 
 
 "Well, I didn't scold, Little Boy, did I" asked 
 the pretty young woman at the window, laughing mer- 
 rily ; and Little Boy looked np at her and smiled, then 
 down again at the wheel-barrow and sighed. 
 
 "No, you didn't scold, Lydia," said he. "But I 
 never have been able to mend the wheel-barrow from 
 that day to this, and I don't believe I ever shall." 
 
 "That'll do. Come along, Rhoda, and see the 
 House that Jack built," said the Chimney-Elf, pulling 
 Rhoda by the sleeve. Away they went, leaving the 
 Little Boy that used to live by himself staring dismally 
 at the wheel-barrow, and Lydia Locket laughing out of 
 the window at him.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE EG G-W OMAN. 
 
 " rpHERE'S another little boy," said the Chimney- 
 *- Elf, as he and Rhoda came once more into the 
 road. " But I don't think much of him ; he's ashamed 
 of the good old mother who brought him up." 
 
 " "Who i& he ? " asked Rhoda, gazing about her. 
 
 " Cross the road and look into that square pit in the 
 field opposite : you will find him there." 
 
 Rhoda did as she was bid, and looking down into 
 the pit, found it about half full of gold-dust, in which a 
 mean-looking man was rolling, and grubbing, and root- 
 ing, very much like a pig in a mud-bath. Upon the
 
 ANOTHER LITTLE BOY. 53 
 
 farther bank of the pit sat an old woman, very poorly 
 dressed, looking very neglected, but watching the mo- 
 rions of the man in the pit with the greatest delight. 
 Aa Ehoda approached, she looked np and spoke to her, 
 as everybody here in the moon did, with no appearance 
 of surprise, and without waiting for an introduction. 
 
 " An* would yer look at him, Miss Rhody ! Sure an' 
 it's himsilf is me own b'y, that twinty years ago, whin 
 he wor a little b'y, he washed his mommy's dishes; an* 
 now he is a big b'y, he rolls in goolden riches ; an* isn't 
 that same a glory an' a j'y to the mother that ; ud give 
 the two eyes out of her head to plaze him ? n 
 
 ~Come,Rhoda!" called the Chimney-Elf ; and when 
 the little girl came back into the road, she found her 
 Iriend talking with a shrewd-looking old man, who was 
 Baying, and laughing all the while : 
 
 ~ Yes, asked me how many strawberries grew in the 
 sea, the great fool ! Thought he'd get hold of an old 
 fisherman, you know, who'd be so flustered with a ques- 
 tion like that, he wouldn't find a word of reply to make. 
 Bat I guess the fellow got as good as he sent ; for what 
 dye think I told him * * Why,' says I, * there's as many 
 strawberries grows in the sea, as there is red herrings 
 grows in the woods.' He, he, he ! not bad, was it, for 
 an old fellow rising seventy, like me ? " 
 
 u Not at all bad. I always thought that was a good 
 story. Come along, Rhoda." And the Chimney-Elf set 
 off at a great pace, with Rhoda close behind him. I
 
 54 MOONFOLK. 
 
 want to get out of old Trinculo's way before he tells 
 that story again," said he. " It is the only good thing 
 he ever said in his life, and he tells it over and over 
 and over again." 
 
 " Why, Chimney-Elf, look there ! " exclaimed Ehoda, 
 stopping at the top of a little hill they had just climbed, 
 and pointing down into the hollow below. 
 
 " Oh, yes, the Egg- Woman and Stout the Peddler. 
 That boy's always in mischief ! Why, when Johnny Green 
 threw his father's cat into the well, and Johnny Stout 
 pulled her out, it was only because he wanted to stone 
 her. She got away, and went up to London to see the 
 queen. While she was there, she saw a mouse under the 
 queen's chair, and pounced upon it in a minute. The 
 queen was a very nervous woman, and afraid of mice, so 
 she told Green's cat she would reward her in any way 
 she chose. Puss asked to be allowed to see the king. 
 Thereupon the queen had the lord chancellor put it into 
 his law-books that a cat may look at a king as n?uch as 
 ishe pleases, whenever they are in the same room. After 
 that, one of the great noblemen at the court asked the 
 cat down to his castle, and confided to her that it was 
 haunted by a mouse, who every night at fifty-nine min- 
 utes past twelve ran up the face of the great clock in 
 the hall, and, precisely as the clock struck one, ran down 
 again, making it very unpleasant for the family, if they 
 happened to wish to look at the clock during that minute. 
 Pussy Green listened to the story, and then asked time
 
 HICCORY DICCORY DOCK. 53 
 
 to consider the matter. The nobleman gave her a 
 week, and fed her npon cream and chickens every day 
 At the end of the week, Pussy stated that she could 
 catch the moose, and would 
 do so ; bat for payment she 
 was to have a little house 
 to herself in the noble- 
 man's park, a servant to 
 wait npon her. and as 
 much cream and as many 
 chickens as she chose to 
 eat. The nobleman joyfully agreed. Puss hid herself 
 under the dock, and caught the mouse that very night, 
 and lives to this day in her cottage in Albion Park." 
 
 But of all this long story Rhoda had heard very little, 
 her attention being absorbed in the scene below. The 
 Egg-Woman, tired and warm with her long walk, had lain 
 down beside the road to take a little nap, with her basket 
 of eggs close beside her, covered by the skirt of her 
 dress. The lad, whom the Chimney-Elf called Johnny 
 Stout, and who seemed by the pack upon his shoulders 
 to be a peddler, finding her lying thus, thought it a good 
 opportunity to play a practical joke and steal the basket 
 of eggs; but the old woman's skirts covered it so com- 
 pletely that he could not get it out. Just as Rhoda 
 came in sight of them he gave up the attempt, and stood 
 looking down at the poor, old, tired woman, considering 
 how he should manage to rob without awakening her.
 
 56 MOONFOLK. 
 
 " I have it," exclaimed he at length ; and taking a 
 pair of scissors from his pocket, he quietly cut the skirts 
 all round about, leaving the egg-basket exposed. Then 
 catching it up, he hurried away, turning his head over 
 his shoulder and laughing at the ridiculous sight the 
 poor Egg-Woman now presented. But walking with one's 
 head over one's shoulder is not very safe when one 
 carries a basket of eggs. Johnny Stout had not gone 
 very far before he met Tom, Mr. Piper's son, who had 
 just stolen a pig from Jack's house, and was running 
 away as fast as he could, with Jack after him. Tom was 
 looking back at Jack, and Johnny Stout was looking 
 back at the Egg-Woman. Before either of them knew 
 that the other was near, they ran plump into each other, 
 with such force as to smash every egg in the basket, and 
 to kill the pig, which was half frightened to death 
 already. "While the two boys stood staring and gasping 
 at each other, Jack overtook Tom Piper, and seized him 
 by the collar, crying : 
 
 " Ha ! you young villain, I've got you now, haven't 
 I ? " and without waiting to hear Tom's reply, began 
 to lay his cart-whip over the young thief's shoulders in 
 the most liberal fashion. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Jack, please don't any more, please don't ! " 
 cried little Rhoda, running down the hill as fast as she 
 could, and beginning to cry herself. At the sound of 
 her voice, Mr. Jack let go of Tonrs collar, and he ran 
 roaring down the street toward his father's house, where
 
 JOHNNY STOUT. 57 
 
 he found the Piper playing a tnne in the cow-shed to his 
 favorite cow, who stood considering whether she had not 
 rather have her dinner. 
 
 Mr. Jack meantime tnrned npon Johnny Stout, who 
 was trying to wipe off some of the egg which ran trick- 
 ling down his breast, his arms, his legs, and even spat- 
 tered his face. 
 
 "As for you, sir," said the fanner, angrily, "you 
 have been at your old tricks again with the Egg-Woman, 
 have you ? "Sow, I tell you what it is : either you pay 
 her fairly for these broken eggs, and give her a new 
 dress out of your pack, or I will serve you as I just 
 served Tom. Make your choice, and be quick about 
 it." 
 
 Johnny Stout looked at the farmer, he looked at the 
 whip, he listened to Tom's roars in the distance, he 
 looked at the old woman, who was beginning to shiver 
 and to freeze from the loss of her skirts, and at last he 
 very slowly began to take the pack off his back, and to 
 pull out a piece of very poor, thin calico. 
 
 " Fll give her a dress off that, 7 ' mumbled he. 
 
 " Is that of the same sort as what she has on ? " asked 
 Mr. Jack, who was a bachelor. 
 
 " Full as good, any way," replied Johnny Stout 
 
 "Why, no, it isn't, you wicked boy!" exclaimed 
 Rhoda. "Her dress is a good thick plaid, and that's 
 nothing but a cheap calico." 
 
 "Aha! you know about it, Khoda, don't yon!" 
 3*
 
 cS MOONFOLK. 
 
 exclaimed Mr. Jack, quite delighted. " Well, liere, you 
 look over this fellow's pack, and pick out a dress for her 
 yourself. I've a good mind to thrash him into the 
 bargain." 
 
 " No, please don't, sir," said Khoda, kneeling down 
 beside the pack, and pulling the things over quite as if 
 she enjoyed doing it. There were several pieces of 
 dress-goods, as the shop-keepers call them, and the little 
 girl looked at them all several times, choosing at last a 
 nice thick woollen plaid, a little better than the dress 
 Stout had spoiled. When she had chosen it, Mr. Jack 
 made the peddler cut it off ; and then he made him pay 
 two dollars for the ten dozen of broken eggs, the num- 
 ber being neatly written upon a paper pinned upon the 
 handle ; and then he let him go, just as the poor old 
 woman started up, exclaiming : 
 
 " Why, why, what's all this ? Why, sure, this isn't 1 1 " 
 
 " Here's a new dress instead of that, and here's the 
 money for the eggs ! " cried Rhoda, running toward her 
 with a gift in each hand. But the poor old thing was 
 too much confused to attend to her, and kept looking at 
 her cut skirts and her empty basket, shivering, and shak- 
 ing, and crying : 
 
 " Why, sure, this isn't I ! Why, I don't believe 
 Trip would say it was I ! " 
 
 " But here's a new dress, and " began Rhoda. 
 
 " Lord-ha'-mercy-on-me, I know it isn't I ! " said the 
 old woman.
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 59 
 
 " Bat of course it's you ; and here's a new dress, r 
 persisted Rhoda. 
 
 " Well, if it be I, as I think I cannot be, I've got a 
 little dog at home, and he'll know me," muttered the 
 Egg-Woman. 
 
 "Well, here's the dress, and the money, and the 
 basket ; but you'd better not put the dress into the 
 basket, because it's all eggy," said Ehoda, rather mourn- 
 fully, as she put the things into the old woman's hands, 
 and watched her trudge away, still muttering : 
 
 " I know it isn't I, but he'll know me." 
 
 " I should be pleased to have you and Rhoda come 
 in and rest yourselves in my house," said Mr. Jack, 
 when she had gone. " It's a pretty nice house, as houses 
 go, I think ; in fact, I built it myself. A man is apt to 
 be proud of his own work. I've got a good barn, too, 
 and a granary, with some of the prettiest corn you ever 
 saw in your life, stored for winter. The mice troubled 
 me somewhat, and I got a cat to keep them down ; but, 
 poor thing, my dog worries the life out of her every 
 chance he gets, and hillo, what's that ? " 
 
 By this time the party had come within sight of a 
 fine white house, with a great barn and other buildings 
 behind it. It was toward the yard of this barn that Mr. 
 Jack now pointed indignantly. Rhoda looked, and saw 
 a forlorn.-looking young woman, with a pail and stool in 
 one hand, walking toward a cow with one horn curiously 
 crumpled and the other straight, who stood waiting for
 
 6o 
 
 MOONFOLK. 
 
 PRETTY BOBBY. 
 
 her. But just as the forlorn young woman set down her 
 stool and pail, a dreadfully ragged man jumped out from 
 behind the barn-door, and running to the young woman, 
 took her round the waist, and kissed her very heartily. 
 
 "Well, I declare!" ex- 
 claimed Mr. Jack ; " if that 
 isn't Bobby Shaftoe got 
 home from sea, and come 
 straight after Dowsabella. 
 "Well, I hope she'll cheer up 
 a bit now, for a forlorner 
 creature than she's been, ever 
 since he sailed, you never 
 saw. Why, she'd go round 
 the house all day long, with the tears running down her 
 face, singing: 
 
 ' Bobby Sliaf toe's gone to sea, 
 Silver buckles at his knee ; 
 He'll come home and marrv me : 
 Pretty Bobby Shaftoe.' 
 
 But then nobody thought he ever would come home 
 and marry her, and she grew more and more forlorn 
 every day. The silver buckles seem to have gone, 
 though, and Bobby looks as if the world had treated 
 him pretty badly. Shouldn't wonder but that's the reason 
 he's remembered Dowsabella. Well, well, come into the 
 house, won't you, Chimney-Elf." 
 
 But the Chimney-Elf politely declined, and Farmer
 
 BOBBY SHAFTOE. 61 
 
 Jack, leaving them to go their own road, turned toward 
 the barn-yard, where Dowsabella, Bobby Shaftoe, and 
 the cow with the crumpled horn, stood hugging and 
 kissing, and laughing, and crying, and talking, and 
 mooing all together, and all very happy. 
 
 MX LITTLE DOG AT JIOMS.
 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SINDBAD THE SAILOR. 
 
 "TUST round the corner from Jack's house, Rhoda 
 ^ and the Chimney-Elf met a flock of sheep driven 
 by a pretty girl dressed in a white gown with blue rib- 
 bons, a broad-leaved hat trimmed with a wreath of 
 flowers; carrying a crook in her hand, also decorated 
 with ribbons and flowers. She was crying bitterly, and 
 the Chimney-Elf said, as they met : 
 
 "Why, Bo-peep, what's the matter? Here's Rhoua 
 come to see you." 
 
 " Oh, Chimney-Elf ! How do you do, Rhoda ? What 
 
 shall I do ? just look at these sheep ! ' ? 
 
 62
 
 LITTLE BO-PEEP 63 
 
 " What, lost their tails again ! " 
 
 "Yes, every one; and brother Jack will scold me 
 dreadfully ; for it takes so long for them to grow, and he 
 hates to see them that way." 
 
 "Bo-peep! Little Boy Blue has been with you, 
 you know he has!" exclaimed the Chimney-Elf se- 
 verely. Bo-peep hung down her head and twisted the 
 blue ribbons upon her crook. 
 
 " Well just a few minutes," whispered she. " His 
 cows were pasturing along the road as nice as could be, 
 and my sheep were all grazing on the hill, so he and I 
 picked a few flowers, and he made me this wreath. We 
 just talked a little, and then all at once we saw that the 
 cows and the sheep were gone, and we heard his father 
 calling out! 
 
 "'Boy Blue! have you gone to sleep under that 
 hay-stack again ? If you have ' and then I hunted 
 and hunted after my sheep, and once I sat down to rest, 
 and fell asleep just for a little minute, and when I waked 
 up I was sure I heard them bleating ; but I didn't and 
 then I looked and looked again, and at last I found 
 them ; but, oh ! " 
 
 And Bo-peep burst out crying again, and pointed 
 to her poor tailless sheep. 
 
 " How did it happen ? " asked Ehoda tenderly. 
 
 " Why, there's an old fox that lives in the wood 
 who, a good many years ago, got his own tail cut ofl 
 in a trap, and ever since he tries to persuade all the
 
 64 MOONFOLK. 
 
 other creatures to cut off their tails. At first he got 
 the other foxes to do so ; but now they've grown too 
 wise, and don't do it any more ; then he got the mon- 
 keys to, but every one laughed at them, so that they all 
 ran away to the earth, and settled a town called Dar- 
 win's Holme ; and then he came down to the sheep, and 
 they are so silly that they will let him cut off their 
 tails every time he catches them alone, and then he 
 makes soup of them. He's a horrid old thing, and his 
 brother is just as bad : he's the one that stole the old 
 gray goose and the ducks from old Mother Slipper- 
 slopper's barn-yard, and carried them off to his den-O. 
 Didn't you ever hear of that ! " 
 
 " Yes, I have heard of that. He had some children 
 one, two, three ; and they ate the bones of the goose, 
 didn't they ? " asked Rhoda eagerly. 
 
 "Yes, I believe so," replied Bo-peep disconsolately. 
 " But I wish they wouldn't eat my sheep's tails too." 
 
 " Well, there's no help for it now ; so go home, and 
 tell Farmer Jack, get your scolding, and recollect another 
 time not to play with Boy Blue instead of minding your 
 sheep," said the Chimney-Elf, pulling Ehoda by the hand. 
 So the two went on, until Ehoda began to grow tired, 
 and said : 
 
 " Chimney-Elf, isn't there some way we could ride to 
 the rest of the places ? " 
 
 " Tou're getting tired, are you ? " replied the elf, 
 looking up in her face, then nodding a reply to his own
 
 THE MAGIC CARPET. 65 
 
 question. " Well, yes, there are a good many ways we 
 can ride. There is the famous flying horse that the 
 juggler sold to the Indian prince, which took him to the 
 mountain of adamant and the enchanted palace ; but he 
 is an ugly-tempered beast. Tou know, in the end he 
 switched his tail into the Indian prince's eye, and turned 
 him into a one-eyed Calendar ; so we won't have him. 
 Then there's Pegasus ; but, poor fellow, he has too much 
 to do already, for they've made a regular hack of him 
 for the use of every mortal who can 
 rhyme love and dove, and so call him- 
 self a poet. Then there's Don Quixotte's 
 horse Rosinante, but the old Don 
 wouldn't spare him, as he is always on 
 PEGASCS. his back himself; and there's Bavieca, 
 and Bayard, and the Hippogriff, and twenty more of 
 whom you never heard. Then there are the Seven- 
 league Boots, what do you think of them ? Hop-o'-my- 
 Thumb lives close by, and would be delighted to lend 
 them to you." 
 
 "That would be nice; but they might not fit me. 
 And, then, what would you do for yourself 2 " 
 
 " Oh, I can go, like smoke, without any help," said the 
 Chimney-Elf; " and as for fitting, the Seven-league Boots 
 fit everybody, don't you know ? The ogre wore them, 
 and then Hop-o'-my-Thumb, and they would suit you 
 just as well. But after all, the prettiest way of travelling 
 I know of, is on the magic carpet."
 
 66 MOONFOLK. 
 
 "Oh, I know about that! It is in the Arabian 
 Nights," cried Rhoda, delighted. 
 
 " Tes, you remember, Prince Houssain bought it in 
 the city of Bisnagar for thirty purses, and brought it 
 home to his father, the Sultan of the Indies. Then, 
 when his brother Ahmed, by the help of his wife, the 
 fairy Pari-banou, took possession of the kingdom, he 
 found the carpet in the treasury, along with the ivory 
 tube through which you could see anybody you wished ; 
 and the apple whose smell cured any sickness, however 
 severe. After Ahmed's death, Prince Ali came to the 
 throne, and being of a prudent turn of mind, he put all 
 his father's and brother's curiosities up at auction, and 
 sold them to the highest bidder. The magic carpet was 
 knocked down to Sindbad the Sailor, who, growing tired 
 of the sea in his old age, and still wishing to travel, 
 found it difficult to suit himself with a conveyance ; for, 
 like most sea-faring men, he was a very poor horseman, 
 and very much afraid of a carriage. We might go up to 
 Sindbad's, and see if he will lend us the carpet." 
 
 " Oh, do. I should so like to see Sindbad the 
 Sailor ! " said Rhoda, clapping her hands. 
 
 " Yery well. Just the other side of this little wood we 
 shall come upon his country-house. It is rather an odd 
 one, built out of the hulk of an old ship called the Argos, 
 formerly owned by a fellow named Jason, who used it 
 in the wool-trade. Sindbad has fitted it up very prettily, 
 and spends a good deal of time here. In fact, I think it
 
 SmDBAD. 67 
 
 raits him better on the whole than his line house in 
 Bagdad; it is more in his old original style, jon know. 
 That next house, made out of a boat, is where the Peg- 
 gottys live old Uncle Dan 7 !, and Mrs. Gummidge, 
 Little Em'lj, and all Poor Little Em'ly had rather a 
 hard time of it, but her troubles are all over now, and she 
 is as happy as ever. They take summer boarders too, 
 mostly children. I've seen Little Xell and Paul Dombey, 
 and Tiny Tim, and heaps more of them playing round the 
 old boat, with Little Em" ly standing in the door looking 
 after them, 'most as if she was their mother. There, now, 
 you see Argos Villa ! " 
 
 The Chimney-Elf pointed, and Rhoda, looking, saw a 
 very curious house, or was it a ship I She could not 
 make up her mind which ; for at one end was a beam 
 running out like the bowsprit of a vessel, and where it 
 joined the house, was an image of a golden sheep, like 
 the figure-head of a ship ; but instead of masts there 
 were chimneys, and between the chimneys was the 
 week's wash hung out to dry, looking like a full spread 
 of canvas. At the stern were two windows, serving also 
 as doors; in one of them sat a gentleman dressed in loose 
 white trowsers, and a blue shirt, with a turban upon his 
 head, and funny yellow slippers upon his feet. He 
 wore a very long white beard, and was smoking a pipe 
 with a stem at least six feet in length, so that the bowl 
 rested upon the ground at some distance from Sindbad's 
 -ashions. A curious little man, about ten inches high,
 
 68 
 
 MOONFOLK. 
 
 was putting some tobacco into the pipe, which was 
 almost as tall as himself. 
 
 "Ah, Chimney-Elf and Ehoda, how do you do? 
 Glad to see you. Take a seat in the smoke, old fellow ; 
 I know you like it ; and Rhoda, here's a cushion for 
 you. 
 
 " Who've you got there ? " asked the Chimney-Elf, 
 rudely staring at the little man, and seating himself 
 where the blue smoke of Sindbad's pipe would curl 
 around him. 
 
 " That's the King of Liliput, my boy. Picked him 
 up on my eighth voyage," said Sindbad, half-closing 
 his eyes, and peering through the smoke at the little 
 man. 
 
 "I thought there were only seven voyages," mur- 
 mured Khoda, and was much abashed by the sudden- 
 ness with which the sailor turned and stared in her face. 
 
 " Oh, yes, my dear," said he. " There were a good 
 many more than seven ; but after those were written
 
 THE KING OF LIL2PUT. 69 
 
 down, I forbid the moonbeams carrying any more of 
 them to earth. I am going to write a book myself, 
 some day, so I am saving the rest of my adventures for 
 that." 
 
 " Write a book ! " exclaimed the Chimney-Elf con- 
 temptuously. " "Who says the fools are all dead ? You 
 had better go down to earth at once, if you're as far 
 behind the moon's time as that." 
 
 "Well, I don't know, Chimney-Elf," replied Sind- 
 bad good-humoredly. " There's a firm of publishers, 
 White Crow, Black Swan & Phoenix, living in 
 Utopia, with whom I have been talking a little. They 
 tell me that about next Millennium will be the time to 
 publish, and I am thinking of going into it. They are 
 to take all the risk, and give me all the profit." 
 
 "Ha yes I dare say. So you've been to Lili- 
 put ? " said the Chimney-Elf, staring at the little man. 
 
 "Yes, last month. I had grown a little tired of 
 home Zobeide and Fatirna were always quarrelling so 
 I just sat down on the magic carpet and wished myself 
 where I never had been before. The first I knew, I was 
 sitting in what seemed to be a garden of dwarf plants ; 
 but on standing up and looking about me, I perceived 
 that the plants were actually fully-formed trees, and 
 that some little creatures like that fellow were walking 
 about beneath them. I had never heard oi such peo- 
 ple ; but a man who has been around the world as much 
 as I have is not easily taken aback; so I sat down again
 
 ;o MOONFOLK. 
 
 and began to talk to one of them. He was not a bit 
 frightened, but, when I asked him who he took me to 
 be, said, as coolly as possible : 
 
 " ' One of the outside barbarians from Gulliver Land. 
 We had him here once, and didn't think much of him 
 finally.' 
 
 11 'Why, you little wretch,' said I, 'I could eat you 
 at one mouthful.' 
 
 " ' So could a buffalo eat a rat if he got the chance,' 
 said the saucy little manikin. With that he threw a 
 handful of dust in my eyes, blinding them so that I 
 roared with pain. When I had rubbed them open 
 again, I saw that the whole air was filled with little 
 balloons, most of them of a bright red color, with cars 
 hanging beneath, each car filled with people, who sailed 
 up close to my head, but just so far above it that I could 
 not reach them. From that safe distance they shot tiny 
 darts at my face and eyes, each one stinging like a wasp 
 as it touched me. The worst of all was, that, as every 
 shaft was darted, the whole crowd would roar with 
 laughter, as if I were the most ridiculous object in the 
 world. Indeed, I began to feel myself so. I can tell 
 you, Chimney-Elf, these little folks are pretty formidable 
 enemies, even to a wonderful traveller and a smart fellow 
 like me." 
 
 " But how did you get their king to bring home ? " 
 asked the Chimney-Elf, nodding. 
 
 " Why, there was a little management needed there.
 
 "A LITTLE MANAGEMENT? 71 
 
 As soon as I could, I made the Lilipntians understand 
 that I was a friend, and only wanted to have a little 
 pleasant chat with them in fact, to ask some advice 
 and instruction of them : there's no way to bring these 
 smart people round like that, Chimney-Elf; and they 
 were taken in directly. They asked me to sit down, and 
 they laid aside their darts, and they brought their king, 
 the court, and all their show folks to see me, and to 
 listen to the talk that was to show how bright they were, 
 and how stupid I was. So I was very polite too, and 
 asked the king to sit upon the carpet beside me. He 
 accepted with much dignity ; and the moment I had him 
 there, I wished myself at Argos Villa, and, presto ! I was 
 there. Eh, your majesty ? " 
 
 The royal captive made no reply, and Sindbad con 
 tinned : " We're great friends now, though, and it wag 
 His Majesty who gave me the idea of writing a book." 
 
 Aha ! " said the Chimney-Elf, " I see it all now."
 
 \ 
 
 CHAPTEE YII. 
 
 KOBINSON CKUSOE. 
 
 " T3EBHAPS you would like to hear an account of 
 ~ my later voyages," said Sindbad, after smoking 
 a little while in silence. The Chimney-Elf made up a 
 face. 
 
 " Well, no, I thank you," said he ; " I believe we 
 won't trouble you ; we are rather in a hurry. We only 
 stopped for a minute, to ask if you will lend us the 
 magic carpet for a few hours." 
 
 " The magic carpet ? Oh, yes, you can have it for a 
 week, if you like. I do not expect to use it ; in fact, I
 
 SINDBAD OUTWITTED. 73 
 
 doubt if I ever leave home again," replied Sindbad, set- 
 tling himself in his cushions. 
 
 " So you said between every two voyages," replied 
 the Chimney-Elf scornf nlly. " Well, where is it ? " 
 
 " The carpet ? Oh, it is in the camphor-chest, to 
 keep it from the moths. All ! " 
 
 Sindbad clapped his hands as he spoke, and a tall 
 negro immediately appeared from the inside of the 
 house-ship: Rhoda recognized him as the slave who 
 was sent to invite Hindbad the porter to eat dinner 
 with Sindbad every day, and pay by listening to his 
 stories. 
 
 "Ali, bring the magic carpet!" commanded 
 Sindbad. 
 
 Ali, disappearing, returned presently with a small 
 square package under his arm. Untying and unrolling 
 this, it proved to be a small Turkey rug, about six feet 
 square, very dingy in color and considerably worn. 
 
 " Is that really the magic carpet? " exclaimed Rhoda, 
 rising and coming closer to it. 
 
 " Yes, my dear, it really is. Sit down on it, if you 
 like ; but be careful not to wish yourself anywhere ; or 
 if you should, take care to wish yourself back here 
 directly," said Sindbad good-hnmoredly. Rhoda smiled, 
 and timidly seated herself in the middle of the carpet. 
 At the same instant something sprang to her side and 
 caught her by the arm, while a shrill voice cried out : 
 
 " I wish myself at home ! "
 
 74 MOONFOLK. 
 
 It was the King of Liliput ; and before the Chimney- 
 Elf or Sindbad could interfere to stop it, the magic carpet 
 had carried him and Rhoda far above their reach, and 
 the next moment set them down in Liliput. The king 
 immediately jumped off the carpet, and standing at the 
 edge, said to Rhoda : 
 
 " I shall not ask you stay and see me, my dear, for 
 what with Gulliver, and what with Sindbad, I have had 
 quite enough of your race, and never desire to see another. 
 I shall let you go safely, although you see the war-bal- 
 loons are already gathering. But before you go you must 
 promise that you will not return to Sindbad. Of course, 
 he would take the carpet and follow me at once ; and 
 although we are quite a match for him, if it comes to 
 war, we are a quiet people and prefer peace. So, unless 
 you promise that you will not give the carpet back to 
 him, I shall have to keep you a prisoner here." 
 
 As he spoke, he made a sign with his hand, and 
 from the hundreds of little red balloons floating just 
 over their heads, Rhoda saw thousands of fine cords de- 
 scending, each cord finished with a little anchor, swinging 
 down toward her. 
 
 " They'll catch in your hair, your eyes, your ears, 
 your flesh, and hold you so tight that you will never get 
 away, if once they take hold," said the king; and Rhoda, 
 frightened, cried out : 
 
 " I won't go back to Sindbad ! " 
 
 " That's right," replied the king. " Go, then, whers- 
 ever else you like."
 
 ESCAPE FROM LILIPUT. 75 
 
 "But how shall I find the Chimney-Elf ? " asked 
 Bhoda dismally. 
 
 " Oh, he will find yon. There, you had better go 
 now, my dear. The people do not like to see a Gulli- 
 verian." said the king hurriedly ; and even as he spoke 
 a cloud of tiny arrows and darts flew from the balloons, 
 wounding Khoda upon the face, neck, and arms so 
 sharply, that she cried out : 
 
 "I wish I wish I was away!" 
 
 Instantly the carpet rose high above Lilipnt, and 
 the war-balloons ; but not having been directed where 
 to go, it remained floating in mid-air, drifting idly with 
 the summer wind, which soon carried it away from the 
 land, and out over the ocean. Rhoda, looking down, 
 felt half delighted, half frightened at her position, and 
 said aloud : 
 
 " We're going away out to sea, and perhaps I shall 
 get wrecked upon some desert island. Oh. I wish I 
 could see Robinson Crusoe ! " 
 
 The words were not of her month before the carpet 
 was flying through the air so rapidly as to quite take 
 her breath away : she closed her eyes in terror, but 
 opened them as she felt the slight jar of striking the 
 earth. She found herself landed upon the summit of 
 a high crag, or pile of rocks, and close beside her stood 
 a man dressed in clothes made of goatskin with the hair 
 on, sheltering himself from the sun, under an umbrella 
 of the same material. As Khoda opened her eyes, this
 
 76 MOONFOLK. 
 
 man turned his upon her, and remarked. " Well, I 
 thought I was out of humanity's reach ; but it seems I'm 
 not. So that's the last new thing, is it ? " continued 
 he, staring at the carpet. " Better than a velocipede, I 
 should imagine." 
 
 " Oh ! please sir, are you Eobinson Crusoe ? " asked 
 Rhoda, breathing a little hard after her rapid journey. 
 
 " That's my name. I don't keep visiting-cards here." 
 
 " I I've read about you, sir," said Ehoda timidly ; 
 for Robinson Crusoe did not seem inclined to make 
 much conversation, nor to be particularly glad to see his 
 visitor. 
 
 "Yes, I know one of those meddling moonbeams 
 carried my story, or part of it, down to the earth. I 
 scolded her well for it," said Crusoe, seating himself and 
 taking out his pipe. " You don't mind smoke, I sup- 
 pose," added he, striking a light with a flint and steel 
 from his pocket. 
 
 " No ; the Chimney-Elf smokes, and so does father," 
 replied Rhoda. 
 
 Yes Chimney-Elf ? Oh, I know now. Well, is 
 he coming here too ? I'm not very partial to visitors." 
 
 " I'm sorry I came, then, and I'll go right away," 
 Baid Rhoda, turning a little red, and feeling somewhat 
 hurt ; but Robinson Crusoe laughed, and laid one of his 
 great brown hands upon her arm. 
 
 " Don't be in a hurry, little girl," said he. " How did 
 you come here, any way ? "
 
 CHUSOE'S ADVENTURES. 77 
 
 So Bhoda began and told the whole story, from the 
 time of her arrival with the Chimney-Elf at Argos Yilla, 
 ending by saying that she had always wanted very 
 much to know more of Robison Crusoe, and begging 
 him to tell her something about himself and his island. 
 At this request Crusoe shook his head. 
 
 " You'll go and make a book of it, and that's been 
 done once too often already," said he. "I was vexed 
 enough at that moonbeam for putting it into De Foe's 
 head." 
 
 But Hhoda promised so earnestly that she never 
 should think of such a thing as writing a book, and was 
 so eager, and so timid, and so interested, that Eobinson 
 Crusoe finally consented to trust her. Settling himself 
 comfortably upon one corner of the carpet, he began his 
 history from the time when he returned to his island, 
 after being rescued and taken home by the captain of 
 the mutinous crew. The rest of the story, as written in 
 the book of his adventures, Crusoe declared to her to be 
 a mistake of the moonbeam's, the truth being that after a 
 short experience upon the mainland, he had found him- 
 self so little pleased "with the way things were managed, 
 that he had set sail, with his man Friday, determined to 
 return to his island and spend his days there. 
 
 After numerous adventures, very wonderful, but not 
 to be narrated without breaking the promise made by 
 Khoda before listening to them, Crusoe and Friday had 
 found the island, and destroyed the boat which brought
 
 ;8 MOONFOLK. 
 
 them thither, feeling quite sure that they should nevei 
 wish to leave their retreat again. Ho sooner was the 
 boat destroyed, however, than Robinson began to long to 
 see his home, and spent all the time not absolutely 
 necessary for catching goats, raising millet, and baking 
 earthenware, in roaming over the island watching for a 
 distant sail. At length, he and Friday with great labor 
 succeeded in building a large canoe, and embarked in it, 
 with a dog, a cat, and a parrot : after nearly starving to 
 death, they reached the shore of an island inhabited only 
 by cannibals, who were on the point of devouring them, 
 when an immense roc swept down, seized them both 
 in her talons, and carried them to her nest. This, 
 greatly to Crusoe's surprise, proved to be one of those 
 built upon the edge of the Valley of Diamonds men 
 tioned by Sindbad ; and as soon as he could escape from 
 the roc's nest, he set about finding some means for help- 
 ing himself to a few of the precious stones. This was 
 finally managed by Friday, who, killing a sheep that 
 happened to wander that way, skinned it, and rolled him- 
 self up in the skin. Crusoe then tied him into a compact 
 ball, and rolled him down the cliffs into the valley, where 
 Friday untied himself, and collected a bagful of fine dia- 
 monds. Then remembering Sindbad's account of his 
 own escape from the valley, Friday tied the skin about 
 him and laid down upon his face for a while, until the roc, 
 seeing what was expected of her, flew down and brought 
 him up, getting the carcaas of the sheep for her pains.
 
 <HODA SAVED FROM TROUBLE. -- 
 
 After that, rosoe and Friday wandered away into 
 another part of the country, sold their diamonds, and 
 lost the money by trusting it to a man who had always 
 been honest until so fine an opportunity to become dis- 
 honest brought out his real character ; and finally em- 
 barked for home in a ship which wrecked them upon 
 the shores of their own island. After this they remained 
 contented tor a while, and then became as anxious as 
 ever to escape : this they finally managed by taming a 
 
 pair of whales, and driving them across the ocean in 
 double harness attached to a raft. "But the restless 
 disposition with which I was born," said Eobinson, finish- 
 ing his story, a never wifl let me remain quiet, in one 
 place or an other. Twenty-seven times, Friday and I 
 have CTMpfd from this island, and twenty-seven times 
 have returned to it. Xow I consider myself settled for 
 life ; I am disgusted with die world, and never desire to 
 return toiL But, Ehoda, that carpet is a very convenient 
 piece of furniture, is it not f Only to wish, and you are 
 somewhere else ! Suppose yon get on^ and let me try it." 
 " Don't you do it, Ehoda," said a voice deee behind 
 her; and Ehoda, starting round, found the Chimney-Elf
 
 80 MOONFOLK. 
 
 seated cross-legged, smoking hie pipe as coolly as if he 
 lived in Robinson Crusoe's cave, and had only stepped 
 out for a breath of evening air. 
 
 " No, my dear Crusoe," continued he, nodding the 
 cock's-feather wildly forward, " we know you too well : 
 you and Friday had better go to work and build another 
 boat, or tame some more whales, we can't spare you our 
 carpet." 
 
 " Oh, well, never mind ; I dare say I can make one 
 by thinking it over a little," said Robinson Crusoe care- 
 lessly. "Won't you look round, before you go, and see 
 a few of my curiosities here on the island ? " 
 
 " Rhoda may, if she likes ; I think I'll stay by the 
 carpet. And you may as well tell your man Friday to 
 keep farther off. I see his black head sneaking up over 
 the edge of the cliff, plain enough ; bnt you won't get 
 the carpet, Robin, my boy ; neither you nor Friday." 
 
 " Robin, Robin ! " screamed a harsh voice from the 
 cave beneath their feet, at this moment. 
 
 " Robin, pretty boy, come see Polly. Robin, Robin ! " 
 
 " Come and see Polly, won't you, Rhoda ? " asked 
 Robinson Crusoe, a little confused at being found out in 
 his plan for letting Friday steal the carpet while he led 
 away the Chimney-Elf ; and without waiting for a reply, 
 he led the way down into the cave, followed rather timid- 
 ly by Rhoda. Upon a perch just inside the entrance Eat 
 a pale-green parrot with a yellow head, who, at sight of 
 Robinson, began to run up and down her perch, nutter-
 
 A THOUSAND MILES AWAY. Si 
 
 ing her wings and screaming harshly, by way of showing 
 her delight at his presence. 
 
 "Pretty Kobin, pretty boy ! Polly fond of Robin! 
 Polly fond of pretty boy ! " cried she ; and then opening 
 her inouth and showing her black tongue, she shrieked 
 out a dreadful laugh. 
 
 "Isn't she a beauty, Rhoda? Scratch her head a 
 little and get acquainted," said Robinson, fondling his 
 pet 
 
 " Won't she bite ? " asked Rhoda, timidly stretching 
 out her hand. 
 
 " She ! Xo, indeed ; she's as harmless as an unfledged 
 dove," replied Robinson ; and at the same moment the 
 parrot darted forward her head and snapped at Rhoda's 
 fingers so viciously that she turned and ran out of the 
 cave as hard as she ccrld, and throwing herself down 
 upon the carpet, cried angrily : 
 
 M 1 wish we were a thousand miles from here."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. 
 
 " "TTTELL, where is this ! " exclaimed the Chimney 
 * * Elf, as the carpet sank rapidly to the grounu 
 " A thousand miles from Crusoe's Island, you said ; but 
 where does that bring us ? "What made you in such a 
 hurry, Rhoda 2 '* 
 
 So Rhoda, still very red and angry, told her story ; 
 and showed her finger just grazed by the parrot's sharp 
 beak. 
 
 " Yes, she's a spiteful creature, and not to be trusted. 
 But where in the world, or where in the moon are we ? ' 
 asked the Chimney-Elf, shading his eyes with his hand 
 and looking about him. At this moment a ittle girl
 
 P.ED RIDING-HOOD. 83 
 
 tripped out of the \rood close beside them, swinging a 
 basket in her hand and singing merrily. 
 
 " I know now, there's Bed Riding-Hood," exclaimed 
 the Chimney-Elf ; and as the little girl came up, he con- 
 tinued: 
 
 "How about the wolf, my dear? Has he met you 
 this morning ? " 
 
 "' Oh, no, sir, thank you," replied Red Riding-Hood ; 
 " 1 haven't seen anything like a wolf." 
 
 u What, haven't you spoken to any one since you 
 left home?" 
 
 "Nobody but a sheep, sir." 
 
 "A sheep, eh!" 
 
 " Yes, sir ; such a nice sheep, all curly and clean as he 
 could be. He said he'd just 
 been bathing in the brook up 
 here." 
 
 " And did yon tell the nice 
 curly sheep where you were 
 going, my dear ? " asked the 
 Chimney-Elf, grinning from ear 
 to ear, so that Rhoda hated to 
 look at him. 
 
 "Yes, sir; I told him that I was going to grand 
 mamma's, to carry a pot of butter, and a basket of eggs, 
 and a cake," said Red Riding-Hood. " And please, sir, 
 I had better go along, for mother told me not to stop to
 
 84 MOONFOLK. 
 
 " Except with sheep," suggested the Chimney-Elf. 
 " "Where is the br jok you told about ? " 
 
 " Just behind those trees, sir. Good bye ; 1 must be 
 going." 
 
 " Good bye you little goose," said the Chimney-Elf. 
 "Rhoda, pick up the carpet, and come with me to look 
 after this brook." 
 
 "Why do you want to see the brook, Chimney- 
 Elf?" 
 
 " Come along, and don't ask questions. There, I 
 told you so." 
 
 He had not told her anything, but Rhoda knew 
 better than to say so, and silently looked where the 
 Chimney-Elf pointed. 
 
 " You see that the brook comes out from under that 
 great rock, don't you ? And you see the foot-prints of 
 a wolf close to the spring. Then look along down here, 
 ever so far below, and you see the hoof-prints of a sheep. 
 Now search this thicket, and see if you don't find his 
 carcass." 
 
 Rhoda peeped into the thicket, and started back in 
 horror, saying : 
 
 " Yes, and it hasn't any skin on. It looks dread- 
 fully." 
 
 " Well, well, sheep will be sheep to the end of the 
 chapter, I suppose," said the Chimney-Elf mournfully. 
 " The way this wolf supports himself is by coming to 
 the brook, and waiting beside the spring until he sees
 
 WOLF IN SffEEP'S CLOTHING. 85 
 
 & sheep drinking lower down. Then he rushes oat, savi 
 the sheep has muddied the water he was about to drink, 
 and, no matter what the sheep says, he fells upon him 
 and kills him. Sometimes he strips off the skin, washes 
 it clean in the brook, wraps it around his own gray hide, 
 and cheats simple folks into believing him to be a sheep. 
 This is what he has done with Bed Eiding-Hood this 
 time ; and because he wore a sheep 1 s skin, the silly child 
 never suspected that he was the same old wolf from 
 whom she has been rescued so often, and warned against 
 so many times. Come, spread the carpet, and let us go 
 and save her once more." 
 
 K Can we how can we ! The wolf will eat us too," 
 cried Bhoda; but still she spread the carpet, and as 
 soon as she and the Chimney-Elf were upon it, he 
 ordered it to Red Riding-Hood's grandmother's cottage, 
 and it was there. 
 
 The door stood open, and, without waiting for the 
 Chimney-Elf, Rhoda rushed in. The wolf had already 
 arrived ; but the old grandmother, too wise to take a 
 wolf for a sheep, had jumped out of bed as soon as she 
 saw him, and, with the shovel in one hand and the tongs 
 in the other, was defending herself with great courage ; 
 while the wolfj with his sheep's skin half slipped off, and 
 his red eyes and white teeth showing underneath the 
 curly white wool, looked more as if he would like to 
 run away than to fight. 
 
 "Yah, yah! Get out, you brute!" screamed the
 
 86 MOONFOLK. 
 
 grandmother, waving the shovel wildly in the air, and 
 snapping the tongs within an inch of the wolfs nose. 
 
 Her cries were echoed by shrill screams from out- 
 side, and the next moment Red Riding-Hood came 
 tumbling into the cottage, frightened nearly out of her 
 senses, and twisting her head nearly over her shoulder 
 to look at a very respectable brown bear who was walk- 
 ing leisurely along the road behind her. 
 
 ' Oh, grandma ! there's a horrid old bear, so big 
 and so ugly, and little bits of eyes and great coarse hair, 
 and such monstrous paws, and he chased me " 
 
 "I am very sorry indeed to have frightened you, 
 my child," began the bear in a melancholy voice, as he 
 crossed the road toward the cottage. " I really did not 
 see you until you began to run and scream and what 
 sir, are you here, and in your sheep's skin again ? " 
 
 These last words, of course, were spoken to the wolf, 
 for the bear had now arrived at the cottage door and 
 stood looking in. 
 
 " Yes, it's him ; and I wish, Mr. Bear, you would give 
 him a lesson that he'll remember. He's forever round 
 this cottage, and my life isn't safe a minute," began 
 the grandmother, who had seen the bear before, and 
 knew that in him she should find a friend. As she 
 spoke, the wolf, now thoroughly frightened, tried to dart 
 out of the door, but was caught by a blow from the 
 bear's paw, which knocked him down and tore away 
 the sheep's skin at one sweep. As he rose the bear met
 
 MR. BEAR TO THE RESCUE. 87 
 
 him with another cuff upon the opposite side of the 
 head, and then bestowed so sound a drubbing upon him, 
 that when at last the wolf was suffered to creep away, 
 he was so ragged, bruised, and miserable a beast that 
 not even the silliest of sheep need have feared to meet 
 him. As he sneaked awaj the bear called after him, 
 u Eemember, this is only a warning I If I catch you at 
 these tricks again, I will punish yon in earnest. 7 ' 
 
 "There, that's what I call justice," remarked the 
 Chimney-Elf, who had quietly taken a seat upon the 
 end of the crane in the grandmothers fire-place, and 
 was refreshing himself with a smoke-bath. "That's 
 what I call behaving like a gentleman, Mr. Bear." 
 
 ** Oh, that is nothing. I am not a gentleman, only a 
 poor, clumsy, ugly beast, 7 " said the bear, sighing deeply, 
 and turning to leave the cottage. 
 
 ^ It is well for some foolish little girls who like to 
 talk with wolves in sheep's clothing, that there are such 
 beasts as yon at hand," said the Chimney-Elf, scowling 
 at Red Riding-Hood, who was sobbing in her grand- 
 mother's arms. 
 
 u Well, I don't know that it is any concern of yours, 
 Mr. Chimney-Elf, 1 * replied the old lady, whose fright 
 and anger had made her a little cross, but who never 
 scolded Red Riding-Hood for anything. 
 
 u Maybe not, grandma ; but I advise you not to leave 
 your latch-string hanging out quite so freely when there 
 are wolves around. Come along, Rhoda."
 
 88 MOONFOLK. 
 
 And the Chimney-Elf made a spring from the end 
 of the crane quite out of the door, and went frisking 
 down the road at such a rate that he and Rhoda soon 
 overtook the bear, who was jogging along in the most 
 melancholy manner possible. 
 
 " You live pretty near here, don't you, Bear," asked 
 the Chimney-Elf politely. 
 
 " Yes, this is my garden wall," said the bear. " Per- 
 haps Ehoda would like to come in and look at the 
 flowers. I have some very pretty roses, and there's a 
 young lady " 
 
 " Isn't her name Beauty ? " asked Rhoda suddenly. 
 
 " Yes, my dear, ' Beauty by name, and Beauty by 
 nature.' She's the most charming young lady who ever 
 lived, and you shall see her, if you will," replied the 
 bear, his rugged face quite lighting up with pleasure. 
 Rhoda thanked him, and she and the Chimney -Elf fol- 
 lowed through a little gate which he pushed open as he 
 spoke, and found themselves in a large and splendid 
 garden. Roses of every shade bloomed in all direc- 
 tions, and mixed with them were lilies, and pinks, and 
 honeysuckles, and jessamine, so that the garden was as 
 full of perfume as it was of beauty. The humming- 
 birds and honey-bees feasted there all day long, the 
 whirr of their wings mingled with the songs of the 
 birds who crowded the surrounding trees, and the tink- 
 ling fall of the fountains that danced and sparkled in 
 the sunshine. It was a lovely garden so lovely that
 
 PROUD MISS BEAUTY. 89 
 
 Jllioda, stopping a little way within the gate, clasped 
 her hands, and said, only half aloud : 
 
 " Oh, I wonder if it isn't the garden of Eden come 
 back. I never saw anything like it, in the world ! " 
 
 " And yet she isn't happy here," said the bear, who 
 had overheard the softly spoken words. " Look at her ! '' 
 
 Khoda looked and saw a yonng lady seated beside 
 the principal fountain, throwing flowers into the water. 
 A book lay upon her lap, but she did not seem to care 
 for that or anything else, and looked as miserable and idle 
 as it is possible to imagine. 
 
 "That is the way she sits all day," said the poor 
 bear, sighing. " Let us go and speak to her." 
 
 Bat as the young lady heard the steps of the visitors 
 approaching she turned away her head, and sweeping 
 her hand backward with a disdainful air, said : 
 
 " There, go away, Beast, go away Isn't it enough 
 to keep me a prisoner here, without tormenting me with 
 your presence ? " 
 
 " Oh, Beauty, Beauty, don't be so cruel to me, don't ! " 
 moaned poor Beast, shrinking away as if she had struck 
 him ; and although he hung his head almost down to 
 the ground, Khoda could see the great tears roll down 
 his hairy cheeks and run trickling down his great nose. 
 
 " Poor Beast ! " said she very softly, and turned her 
 back upon the proud Beauty, whom she no longer 
 admired. 
 
 The Chimney-Elf looked from one to anothe^ with
 
 90 MOONFOLK. 
 
 his shrewdest smile, and finally bounding upon Beast's 
 shaggy head, he whispered in his ear : 
 
 " Take Rhoda to the other end of the garden, and 
 give her some of your nicest honey. Be very kind and 
 gentle with her, for she's a timid little thing. I want 
 to talk to Beauty a little while all alone." 
 
 So the bear, who was always good-natured and ready 
 to forget his own sorrows when he could help other people, 
 raised his head, and looking kindly at Rhoda, asked her 
 in a very gentle voice if she would walk through the 
 garden with him. Rhoda eagerly answered yes ; and as 
 she spoke, Beauty started and looked around. 
 
 " Why, who is that ? " exclaimed she. 
 
 The bear, who was already walking away with Rhoda. 
 did not hear the question ; but the Chimney -Elf, who had 
 seated himself upon the edge of the fountain with his 
 feet dangling toward the ground, replied : 
 
 "That is Rhoda. Isn't she a pretty girl? The 
 poor bear seems mightily comforted for your ill treat- 
 ment of him. I think I shall leave Rhoda here alto- 
 gether." 
 
 " I am the mistress of this place, you saucy Chimney- 
 Elf," replied Beauty haughtily. 
 
 " The bear is the master, and whoever he chooses 
 will be mistress," replied the Chimney-Elf carelessly. 
 Beauty made no reply, but sat looking uneasily after 
 Rhoda and Beast, who were slowly walking down a path 
 bordered with roses and tulips.
 
 BEAUTY REPENTS. 91 
 
 ft He seems veiy happy. I should think it wae time 
 he had something to make him happy, poor Beast, 7 * con- 
 tinued the Chimney-Elf. 
 
 "Where did he pick her up?" asked Beauty sud- 
 denly. 
 
 " What, Khoda ? We met him at Bed Riding-Hood's 
 grandmother's cottage. Do you want to know what he 
 was doing there \ " 
 
 " I suppose he went to see Red Riding-Hood, or else 
 to meet Rhoda," replied Beauty, tearing up the grass 
 near her, and flinging it into the fountain. 
 
 " Xo such thing. He went there to do good, which 
 is the only pleasure you have left him in life," replied 
 the Chimney-Elf severely ; and then he went on to tell 
 the story of their morning adventure, closing with such 
 a lecture to Beauty upon her pride, and selfishness, and 
 injustice to the poor Beast, who was, he declared, a 
 world too good for her. It ended in her bursting into 
 tears, and calling piteously to the Beast to come and 
 protect her, and tell this odious Chimney-Elf that she 
 was not the horrid, cross, ungrateful wretch he made 
 her out to be.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE KNAVE OF HEARTS. 
 
 AS the bear, with flaming eyes and furious gestures, 
 rushed to the protection of his weeping Beauty, 
 the Chimney-Elf, skipping nimbly past him, ran to 
 Rhoda, and snatching the carpet from under her arm, 
 jumped upon it and pulled her after him, exclaiming 
 at the same time, " I wish we were in the palace oi 
 Aladdin." 
 
 Rhoda closed her eyes in terror, for the Beast was 
 almost upon them, and the Chimney-Elf would not have 
 half filled the wide red mouth opened to snap him up ; 
 but he did not seem in the least frightened himself, and 
 as the carpet rose, called out mockingly :
 
 ALADDIN* S PALACE. 93 
 
 u YOD are the most ungrateful Beast alive ! Beauty 
 never cared so much for you as she does at this minute ; 
 and if YOU go back and tell her what a charming girl 
 Rhoda is. she will lore you almost as well as you do 
 her." 
 
 " Oh, Chimney-Elf, how can you talk so ! n exclaimed 
 Rhoda reproachfully. 
 
 u Because you are a goose, my dear/' replied the 
 Chimney-Elf; and at the same moment the carpet set- 
 tled to the ground. Rhoda opened her eyes, and found 
 herself in the court-yard of a splendid palace filled with 
 servants and horses and carriages, running this way and 
 that in the greatest confusion. 
 
 " The Princess Badronlbondonr is going out for a 
 drive," remarked the Chimney-Elf. K After she is out 
 of the way we will go in and look at the palace." 
 
 While he was speaking, two or three women-servants 
 appeared upon the steps of the palace, and among them 
 a tall kdy dressed with the utmost magnificence, her 
 clothes sparkling with jewels, and stiff with gold em- 
 broideries. Her face was covered by a thin veiL but 
 through it Rhoda could perceive that the princess looked 
 very cross and dissatisfied, and had, moreover, lost most 
 of her wonderful beauty. Her voice, as she ordered 
 her servants to place her in the carriage, was harsh, 
 fretful, and impatient, and Rhoda could see that the 
 women made grimaces at each other when their mis- 
 tress's back was turned.
 
 04 MOONFOLK. 
 
 " She does not look very happy for a princess." said 
 Rhoda, as the carriages jolted and creaked out of the 
 court-yard; for in that country it is not the fashion to put 
 springs under carriages, or to oil the axles of the wheels. 
 " No," replied the Chimney-Elf, leading the way into 
 the palace ; " neither she nor Aladdin are very happy. 
 She never got over her disappointment about the roc's 
 egg, and is in the habit to this day of declaring that her 
 palace is a miserable failure, and the hall of the twenty- 
 four windows no better than a great lantern ; all for want 
 of that unfortunate egg. 
 
 " Couldn't they find something else as pretty to hang 
 up, instead of a roc's egg ? " asked Rhoda. 
 
 " Bless you, child, what a goose you are ! It isn't the 
 beauty, or the usefulness, or the anything about a roc's 
 egg that makes the princess want it ; but it is just the one 
 thing that she can't have ; and although she knows that 
 the Genius of the Lamp threatened to eat Aladdin up 
 alive if he mentioned it again, she is 
 forever urging him to ask for it. Poor 
 Aladdin ! Come up and see him." 
 
 So saying, the Chimney-Elf, who 
 seemed to know the way around every 
 one's house as thoroughly as he knew 
 their private histories, led the way up stairs and through 
 several magnificent chambers to a little dressing-room, 
 hardly more than a closet, at the very farthest corner 
 of the palace. The doorway was closed by a curtain ;
 
 POOR ALADDIN. 95 
 
 and drawing it a little aside, the Chimney-Elf motioned 
 Rhoda to look in. She did so, and saw a little old man, 
 with rather a mean and cunning but a very unhappy 
 face, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor, and 
 stitching away at a pair of wide trowsers. 
 
 As he stitched he hummed a dismal tune, and every 
 now and then varied it with a sigh or a groan. All at 
 once the sound of trumpets and horses' feet was heard 
 below, and Aladdin, jumping nimbly up, ran to look out 
 of the window of his hiding-place. In a moment he 
 returned, and sinking down in his favorite attitude, took 
 up the trowsers, muttering : 
 
 " My high-born princess is going to visit the Sultan, 
 her father, is she ? "Won't they just claw and scratch 
 poor Aladdin behind his back ? If it were not for Alad- 
 din's money, though, I wonder how my royal father-in- 
 law could pay his quarterly bills, or how my lady prin- 
 cess would buy her new dress for every day in the year. 
 Ho-hum ! " 
 
 And then he began again upon the dismal tune, and 
 the Chimney-Elf quietly drew Rhoda back from the 
 curtained doorway, and led her through the splendid 
 palace. In the great hall of the twenty-four windows 
 they stopped, and seated themselves to rest upon a 
 divan heaped with cushions of cloth of gold. 
 
 "Pretty fine house, isn't it, Khoda?" asked the 
 Chimney-Elf, stretching his droll little legs and arms, 
 and opening his nut-cracker jaws in a prodigious yawn.
 
 9 5 MOONFOLK. 
 
 "Yes," replied Ehoda sadly. "But it don't seem 
 to be of much use to anybody. Aladdin hides away in 
 the closet to amuse himself by making trowsers ; and the 
 Princess Badroulboudour scolds about him to her father, 
 and don't care for anything because she can't have the 
 roc's egg." 
 
 " And never a chimney in the whole house ; no- 
 thing but those horrid charcoal pots, even in the kitchen. 
 Come!" 
 
 And jumping up, the Chimney-Elf threw open one 
 of the twenty-four windows all set round with precious 
 stones .and fine goldsmith's work, and led the way out 
 upon a sort of balcony formed of the roof of the lower 
 story of the palace. Here he spread the carpet, and 
 seating himself and Ehoda upon it, said : 
 
 "Now where ? Who do you want to see next ? " 
 
 "I should like to see somebody that has everything 
 he wants, and is as happy as he can be," said Ehoda. 
 
 The Chimney-Elf laughed, and bid her close her eyes. 
 She did so, felt the carpet rise from the terrace, and a 
 moment later felt it settle down again. 
 
 " Look ! " said the Chimney-Elf. 
 
 Ehoda opened her eyes, and smiled. She found her- 
 self seated upon the floor in a neat little sanded kitchen. 
 Door and windows stood wide open, and the afternoon 
 air, laden with summer smells and sounds, filled the 
 whole place. Just opposite to Ehoda, tucked up in a 
 corner so closely that he could hardly move his arms, gat
 
 JACK HORNER. 97 
 
 a fat little boy with a great mince-pie in a plate upon 
 his knees, and a piece in each hand. He was so busy 
 with these that he did not notice the arrival of visitors 
 until the Chimney-Elf quietly said : 
 
 ** WelL you're pretty happy, aren't you, Jacky 1" 
 
 Jacky did not at once reply. He had lifted the crust 
 of the pie and was eagerly peering under it : presently 
 he thrust in his thumb and forefinger, and dragging out 
 & large raisin, held it up to the admiration of his guests, 
 while he exclaimed in a husky voice: 
 
 "See what a good boy am I!" 
 
 K You'll be nothing but pie, and before you know it, 
 if you go on at that rate," 
 said the Chimney-Elf. 
 
 At this moment, a 
 nice-looking servant-maid 
 bustled into the kitchen and began to make up the fire, 
 saying at the same time, " Well, I do declare, Master 
 Jacky, yoare at that pie again. What do you suppose 
 your ma will say ? :J 
 
 - For his sole reply, Master Jacky jerked his thumb 
 toward the window. Looking that way, Khoda saw a 
 merry-faced young farmer leaning with elbows upon 
 the sill, and looking roguishly in. As soon as the nice- 
 looking servant-maid saw him she turned toward the 
 fire and began to blow it vigorously, as if she had not a 
 moment to snare for anything else. The young man at 
 
 7
 
 9 8 MOONFOLK. 
 
 the window laughed a little, sighed a little, and then 
 began to sing : 
 
 " Oh, cruel, cruel Polly Hopkins, to treat me so, to treat me so ! " 
 Without looking round, the maid replied, by singing : 
 
 ' Oh, cruel, cruel Tommy Tompkins, to plague me so, to plague me 
 BO!" 
 
 " Does it plague you really, Polly ? " asked Tommy ; 
 and before Polly could reply, Jacky gravely remarked, 
 with his mouth full of pie, " There's ma coining ! " 
 
 Then making a tremendous gulp, he swallowed what 
 was in his mouth, and crammed in all the rest of the 
 pie, just as an inner door opened, and a brisk, middle- 
 aged woman came into the kitchen, looked all round, 
 and said : 
 
 " Why, how do you do, Chimney -Elf ? I haven't seen 
 you since you came to my wedding with Harry Cum 
 Parry. Ah, dear ! It was in the fruit season, you re- 
 member, and what a feast of apples and pears we did 
 have ! Since then, you know, I've married again, and 
 now I'm Mrs. Horner. And how do you do, Khoda ? 
 I'm ever so glad to see you. And Tommy Tompkins 
 as usual ! Well, Polly, put the kettle on, and we'll all 
 have tea. I do declare if there isn't father coming, too ? 
 Why, father, what's the matter ? " 
 
 As Mrs. Horner thus cried out, Rhoda turned to see 
 whom she addressed, and beheld a short stout little man, 
 with bandy legs and crooked toes and a bleeding nose.
 
 THE KXA VE OF HEARTS. 99 
 
 In his two hands he carried a large tray filled with deli- 
 cious tarts ; and he was running and puffing, and look- 
 ing over his shoulder, with every sign of h<ste and 
 fear. 
 
 " Why, father ! " exclaimed Mrs, Homer, setting the 
 cottage door wide open, and motioning Rhod? to stand 
 out of the way. 
 
 " Take 'em, take 'em she made 'em ! " panted the 
 little man, thrusting the tray into his wife's hands and 
 running wildly round the room, until coming to a large 
 knot-hole in the partition, he thrust the top of his head 
 into it, and was trying to squeeze himself through, when 
 more hasty footsteps were heard running down the road. 
 In a minute a very angry gentleman, with a red face and 
 bend and fiery blue eyes, darted in at the cottage door, 
 and stood glaring about him, but failed to see Mr. Hor- 
 ner, because Mrs. Homer, with a little scream of terror, 
 had run and put herself in front of him as soon as ever 
 she heard the steps of his pursuer. 
 
 "Well, where is that knave?" panted the angry 
 gentleman. 
 
 " What knave, pray ? " asked Mrs, Horner angrily. 
 
 "My knave, madam. The knave of the King of 
 Hearts. I am the King of Hearts, and John Horner, my 
 knave, has stolen my tarts, and with them run away. 
 He ran into this cottage, madam, and I want him him 
 and the tarts ! Give me my tarts ! Give me the Knave 
 of Hearts!"
 
 ioo MOONFOLK. 
 
 And with these words the King of Hearts, who 
 seemed to be the very most hot-tempered king imagi- 
 nable, began raving about the cottage, slashing at every- 
 thing with the sword he held in one hand, or the darts 
 which filled the other. 
 
 "Thieves! fire! murder!" screamed Mrs. Horner. 
 " There are your nasty tarts upon the table ! Take them 
 and be gone ! A fine king you are, to be sure ; and if 
 John Horner ever goes back to be your knave, I'll " 
 
 " No, you won't, wife ! Don't say it, for I'm going 
 back this very minute, if his majesty will let me," whim- 
 pered the Knave of Hearts, creeping out from behind his 
 wife's petticoats, and falling upon his knees at the feet 
 of the king, who was counting the tarts, and looking at 
 one that seemed to have been broken. 
 
 " Oh, your majesty, if you would only be so kind as 
 to forgive me, and let my wages go on, I'll be so good," 
 mumbled the knave, while his wife cried angrily : 
 
 " John Horner, I'm ashamed of you ! wages, in- 
 deed ! " 
 
 " Hold your tongue, wife ! Oh, your majesty, 
 couldn't you find it in your royal heart to forgive me ? " 
 
 "Eh, what's that? Forgive you, did you say ? Well, 
 but how came you to touch the tarts, made by the queen 
 herself, with her own royal hands and all ! And you 
 stole them ! " 
 
 "Please your majesty, it was my wife made me 
 do it."
 
 WHY THE TARTS WERE S7OLEX. ioi 
 
 you do it! How's that, Mrs. Horner 
 what does he mean! " 
 
 " Your majesty may well say mean, for mean as dirt 
 it is to have a man tucking off the blame on to a woman 
 that way ; though it is no more than Adam did before 
 him, to be sure." 
 
 u Well, but why does he say it was you made him 
 steal the tarts i" 
 
 *-Well, Til tell your majesty the whole truth. 
 Horner there, has always been telling 1 me about the 
 queen's tarts, and how nice they were, and how nobody 
 but your majesty could ever taste a bit, and all that, 
 until he made me almost crazy ; for yon must know, your 
 majesty, that I make very nice pastry myself some folks 
 say better than even Bedreddin Hassan wno lives round 
 the corner here." 
 
 ~Bedreddin Hassan, son-in-law of the Sultan of 
 Egypt, husband of the Lady of Beauty, and father of 
 little Agib ! Does he live round the corner ? Dear me, 
 how very singular ! " said the King of Hearts, laying 
 aside his sword and darts, and seating himself upon a 
 corner of the table. u How came he here I I wish I 
 could eat one of his cream-tarts." 
 
 "Your majesty shall have one in two minutes," 
 exclaimed the knave, rushing out of the house with all
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 CINDERELLA. 
 
 " TTO, ho ! " laughed the king. " That's the way he 
 -* *- ran wlien he took my tarts. The head cook 
 saw him and tripped up his heels, so that he fell on his 
 nose ; but he was up again and off before the cook could 
 get the tarts. So you wanted to see if the queen's tarts 
 were as good as yours, eh ? " 
 
 " Yes, your majesty, I did ; and I told John to see if 
 he couldn't beg a little piece left on a plate after dinner, 
 or something like that. I never meant that he should 
 steal them, I'm sure." 
 
 " No, I dare say not. I'm very fond of pastry," re- 
 marked the kins.
 
 BEDREDDIN HASSAN. 103 
 
 " Well, now, your majesty, if you would condescend 
 we were just going to have onr tea, me and Jacky, and 
 Mr. Horner, and Tommy Tomkins, and Polly Hopkins, 
 and Rhoda and the Chimney-Elf ; and if yonr majesty 
 would sit down and take a dish o' tea, and taste one 
 of my mince-pies, and a piece of Bedreddin Hassan's 
 cream-tart *' 
 
 " And we'll have the queen's tarts too," interrupted 
 the king. " My exercise has given me an appetite, and 
 I should be delighted to get some tea." 
 
 " Well now, that's clever ! " exclaimed Mrs. Horner. 
 " Polly, is the tea made ? Set out the table quick, and 
 let's have it while it's fresh and good." 
 
 "But I thought Bedreddin Hassan went home to 
 Egypt with his wife, and her father, and his mother, 
 and Agib," remarked the king, fingering one of the tarts 
 longingly. 
 
 " Oh, yes, he did Polly, the best tea-things he did, 
 your majesty ; but the truth is he'd been a pastry-cook 
 so long, and was so young when he went at it, that he'd 
 rather lost the knack of doing viziers work, and the 
 Sultan of Egypt felt a good deal discontented with him. 
 Then again, the Lady of Beauty had a good many high 
 notions, and after the novelty had worn off, she used 
 to ask Bedreddin Hassan what was the price of butter 
 to-day, and whether he ever tried pepper on a cream- 
 tart, and questions like that, which didn't make things 
 any pleasanter between them. Little Agib was apt to
 
 104 MOONFOLK. 
 
 remember when he first saw his father and altogether 
 Bedreddin Hassan led a dog's life of it ; and one day 
 he just put up a few things in a bundle, and ran away 
 from Cairo and back to Damascus, or rather to this place, 
 which is not far away from Damascus, and opened a 
 shop, where he makes cream-tarts as good as " 
 
 " Here's the knave with a basket full," exclaimed the 
 king, jumping down from the window-seat, and running to 
 the door to meet Mr. Homer, who beamed all over with 
 delight at seeing how well he had come out of his scrape. 
 " Polly, put the kettle on," 
 said Mrs. Ilorner, setting one 
 of her own mince-pies, one 
 of Bedreddin Hassan's cream- 
 tarts, and the dish of queen's 
 tarts upon the table, and mov- 
 ing up the chairs. 
 
 " Sifc down> good folks> sit 
 
 down," said the king, seizing 
 the first chair he came to, and 
 
 helping himself to half the cream-tart. Tommy Tom- 
 kins, who sat next to Khoda, gave her one of the queen's 
 tarts, which seemed to her, after all, no better than Susy's; 
 Thanksgiving pies ; and she was just finishing the last 
 mouthful of it when a horseman stopped before the 
 cottage and called out 
 
 " Any young women in there ? " 
 
 ** Polly, you and Rhoda go out and see if he means
 
 CINDERELLA. 105 
 
 either of yon, 1 * said Mrs. Homer, pouring out tea. So 
 Polly and Bhoda went, followed by Tommy Tomkms 
 and the Chimney-EK. 
 
 "Can either of yon young women put on this shoe!" 
 asked the horseman, pulling a slender glass dipper from 
 his breast, and holding it up in the sunlight. 
 
 " Mercy on us I Pm sure I eanV exclaimed Polly 
 Hopkins; bat Bhoda, seating herself upon the ground, 
 began to pull off her boot, saying to the Qiimcey- 
 Hf: 
 
 " I know I can't get it on, but Pd like to try." 
 
 "Of coarse you would, being a young woman," 
 replied he. "Why, thafs Cinderella's slipper, and 
 nobody but Cinderella can wear it. Her fairy god- 
 mother has taken care of that." 
 
 ]So, I can't wear it," said Bhoda, hastily returning 
 the slipper to the young man, who rode off with it, while 
 she, as hastily lacing on her own boot, whispered to the 
 Chimney-Elf: 
 
 u Let us go and see Cinderella, before the man with 
 the slipper finds her out." 
 
 "Very well: spread the carpet!" and in a moment 
 more the two friends had lost sight of Mrs. Homers 
 cottage, and were softly set down in the corner of a 
 great dark dirty kitchen paved with stone, and dismal 
 to the last degree. At the farther end of this kitchen 
 ins a large open fire-place, with a coal fire in one end of 
 it, and a heap of cinders in the other. Upon this pile of
 
 jcC MOONFOLK. 
 
 cinders sat a young girl dressed in ragged and dirty old 
 clothes ; her feet bare, and her hair uncombed, her face 
 unwashed, and her work sadly neglected all about her. 
 Leaning her chin upon her hand, and fixing her eyes 
 upon the fire, this untidy young person was saying half 
 aloud : 
 
 " It's too bad, altogether too bad ! The prince said I 
 was the prettiest girl he ever saw, and I know I'm ever 
 so much better-looking than my sisters, or any other lady 
 at the ball. It's real mean that I should have to waste 
 my life here in the kitchen. I was made for something 
 better than housework, and I think it's too bad." 
 
 "Hoity-toity, what's all this!" exclaimed the fairy 
 godmother, sailing down the chimney, and twisting her 
 head this way and that, to see if she had got her clothes 
 dirty in the passage. " Made for something better than 
 housework, were you, my dear ? We'll see about that. 
 I didn't think, when I was so kind as to take you out for 
 a bit of pleasure two or three nights, that it was going to 
 turn your head like this, and spoil the very qualities that 
 made me pity you. Look at this kitchen now ! Look 
 at those di^ty dishes ! See the cat licking the roasting- 
 spit ! See the yeast all working over the floor ; and 
 the kettle not filled, although it's tea-time already ! 
 Why, Cinderella, you're just as bad as your sisters, the 
 moment you get the chance. The only reason that you 
 have been patient, and industrous, and amiable so far, is 
 that you never have dreamed of anything beyond your
 
 FAIRY GODMOTHER. ::; 
 
 kitchen. The moment you are tempted to rebel, see 
 how quickly you do it." 
 
 By this time, yon may well believe, Cinderella was 
 crying plentifully, and coming to her godmother, she fell 
 upon her knees, kissed the old fairy's withered hand, and 
 aid: 
 
 ~ Pray forgive me, godmother. I see now how bad I 
 have been; I never will do so any more; but please 
 don't say that I shan't go to the prince's ball to-night." 
 
 "The prince's ball, indeed! Ha! ha! I guess so! 
 Hum! Prince's fiddlestiet's-end! "sniffed the fiury god- 
 mother in high disdain. "If it was not for the ball, 
 how sorry would yon be for your naughtiness i " 
 
 " Oh, godmother, I don't know, because it is for the 
 ball, and I can't forget it," sobbed Cinderella, who was, 
 after all, a very truthful girl ; but her godmother was not 
 pacified even by this frankness, and pulling her hand 
 away from Cinderella, began marching up and down the 
 kitchen, muttering : 
 
 ~ Yes. yes, she needs a lesson a pretty sharp one, too 
 or she will never do for the prince's wife. Fm not 
 going to have her like the common run of queens. I 
 can tell her. H'm, h*m prince's ball oh, yes, I dare 
 ay-" 
 
 Toot ! toot! Tra, la, la, tra, la, la ! went a bugle in 
 the court-yard, and the fiury godmother lifted her head 
 sharply. a Go to the door, Cinderella!" said she. 
 
 Cinderella, wiping her red eyes upon her dirty apron,
 
 IOS MOONFOLK. 
 
 did as she was bid, and in a few moments returned to 
 the kitchen. 
 
 " "Well, who was it ? " demanded her godmother. 
 
 " A gentleman who asked to see the ladies : so I took 
 him up to my sisters' drawing-room," replied Cinderella 
 sadly. 
 
 " And why didn't you stay and see what he wanted 
 of you ? " 
 
 " He didn't want anything . ot me, godmother ; he 
 asked for the young ladies." 
 
 " Come, child, you are not entirely spoiled, and don't 
 think yourself everybody quite yet," said the godmother, 
 smiling grimly. " Come along with me to the drawing- 
 room, and if those impertinent people in the corner wish 
 to come too, they may." 
 
 " Oh ho, fairy godmother, you have found us out, 
 have you ? " laughed the Chimney-Elf. " Of course we're 
 coming too, gossip : that's just what we're here for." 
 
 So the fairy godmother, leading Cinderella, and fol- 
 lowed by Rhoda and the Chimney-Elf, went up into the 
 grand drawing-room, where Finetta, the second sister, was 
 already trying on the glass slipper, and doing her very 
 best to squeeze her great toes into it, but without suc- 
 cess. Suzette, the elder sister, sat on the sofa, looking 
 very pale, and holding her foot in her hand. She had 
 hurt it so dreadfully in her frantic efforts to get the 
 slipper over her great heel that she could hardly keep 
 from fainting.
 
 CINDERELLA PUTS ON Th SLIPPER. 109 
 
 " I am afraid the slipper is not intended for you 
 Miss Finetta," said the gentleman courier, who stood 
 watching the second sister's movements. 
 
 u There are no other young ladies in the house. 1 
 believe," 
 
 " Of course there are not," replied Finetta sharply, 
 for she had been taken suddenly with cramps in the 
 foot, and could not conceal her pain and mortification. 
 
 " My dears, you are growing old, and losing your 
 memories," remarked the fairy godmother, coming for- 
 ward. " Here is your younger sister, Cinderella, whom 
 you have forgotten. Sit down and put on the slipper, 
 child." 
 
 Cinderella, blushing and sparkling with delight, did 
 as she was bid, put on the slipper, drew the mate to it 
 from her pocket, and put that on too, and jumped up as 
 easily as possible. 
 
 " Madam, the prince begs the honor of your hand in 
 marriage, and prays yon to accompany me at once to the 
 palace," said the courier, going down upon his knees to 
 kiss Cinderella's hand, and wishing that it had been a 
 little cleaner. Before she could reply, the fairy god- 
 mother interrupted : 
 
 a Tell the prince that my goddaughter don't go run- 
 ning about the world looking for a husband. If he 
 wants to marry her, he knows where to find her. You 
 have your message, young man, and had better go
 
 I iO' MOONFOLK. 
 
 Cinderella, go down stairs and finish your work in the 
 kitchen." 
 
 The courier looked extremely puzzled. 
 
 "Pardon me, madam," said he, bowing very low 
 " But the prince said " 
 
 " ' The prince said ! ' " retorted the fairy godmother. 
 " What do you suppose I care what the prince said ? Go 
 home, young man, and do your errand just as it was 
 given you." 
 
 So the courier, looking very doubtful and awkward, 
 was forced to go as he had come, and Cinderella very 
 slowly and unwillingly put her glass slipper into her 
 pocket, and went down to the kitchen again, followed by 
 Suzette and Finetta, who were both sobbing out : 
 
 " Oh, 'Rella, don't you forget us when you are married 
 to the prince, will you ? Let us come and help do the 
 work, that's a dear ; and then we'll dress you all up in 
 our best clothes, and you'll be ready for the prince when- 
 ever he comes. Oh, 'Rella, we always did love you 
 dearly, and we ought to have been better sisters to you 
 we feel it now." 
 
 " There, stop that, and go to work, if you really 
 mean what you say," interrupted the fairy godmother. 
 " Suzette, go and draw water from the well, fill the tea- 
 kettle and set it on ; then bring coals from the cellar, 
 make up the fire, and rake out the cinders. Finetta, get 
 the tub and wash those dirty dishes; and Cinderella, 
 sweep the kitchen, and put it in the nicest order directly."
 
 THE ELDER SISTERS REPENT. in 
 
 The elder asters, who never had done any hard or 
 dirty work in their lives, were not at all pleased with 
 these oiden, but it would not do to disobey the fairy 
 godmother ; and above all things they wished to please 
 Cinderella, who was about to become a princess. So 
 they took off their lace umdersleereSj pinned back their 
 silken darts, and went to work with the best grace they 
 could. CtndereEa meantime swept, and scrubbed, and 
 set things in their places, so quickly and so well, that 
 her godmother began to smile a little, and after about 
 an hour said: 
 
 " There, child, run out into the wash-house and take 
 a good bath, then come back to me to be dressed. The 
 other girls can finish up the work." 
 
 Cinderella ran away, and returned after a while fresh, 
 clean, and rosy, wrapped only in a great sheet. The 
 fairy godmother wared her wand, and instantly she was 
 dressed in the loveliest clothes imaginable, her hair 
 beautifully arranged, and her feet covered by elk stock- 
 ings with pink clocks, and the glass suppers. 
 
 "That'll do," said the feiry godmother, looking her 
 all over. "The prince is just riding into the court 
 yarf."
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE CEUEL SPINDLE. 
 
 A S the fairy spoke, a great noise of trumpets, and 
 -^ horsemen, and running footmen announced the 
 prince's arrival. The elder sisters, almost crying with 
 vexation, washed and wiped their hands at the kitchen 
 sink, and ran up stairs to change their dresses for the 
 wedding. 
 
 The fairy, meantime having changed Cinderella's 
 clothes into the most beautiful of bridal dresses, led her 
 up to the great saloon, followed by Ehoda and the Chim- 
 ney-Elf. Here, with one wave of her wand, she formed 
 at the top of the room a lovely arch of evergreen, 
 decorated with orange-flowers, white roses, lilies, and
 
 THE PRINCE COMES FOR HIS BRIDE. 113 
 
 myitie, with m carpet of white velvet 
 beneath this arch she placed Cinderella, who looked as 
 lardy as die morning, but who dared not raise her eves 
 from the floor. 
 
 AH this was but just arranged, when, with a great 
 clatter of boot-heels and swords against the stone steps, 
 the prince and his gentlemen mounted the staircase and 
 entered the saloon. The fdrj godmother went to meet 
 
 "Well, young man," amid she to the prince, "so 
 yoawamt to marry Cinderella, do yon? Mow let me ask. 
 why do jou want to marry her f " 
 
 - Because she is the most charming young lady in 
 the world, 19 replied die prince, ****"y off his fJq""wi hat 
 and bowing, first to the friry, and then to CSndereOa. 
 
 "Stuff and nonsense," politely replied the feiry, 
 - ',: j - . -.: '" ..: .; . -r : - L- ; - ,_ ,- l, r : TT1.. : 
 yon marry her for is because she has the smaDect foot 
 in the kingdom, and wears gtes dippen. ^kefoca-ii 
 tun. glass dippers are for mainmomal happiness ! J. m 
 tired of the whole lot of yon good-by. Come akmg 3 
 Chimney-Ebt 9 
 
 And with two movements of her wand die ferry 
 turned die old daw-looted mahogany easy- 
 beside her into a chariot drawn by a pair of grif- 
 
 ontof the open window, jost as die two sisteis swept 
 into die room dressed in their moat gfmgUMMk arrsy.
 
 114 MOONFOLK. 
 
 " I haven't given her up, you understand," remarked 
 the fairy godmother to Ehoda. " But young people do 
 better to be left to themselves when they are first mar- 
 ried. I shall look in upon them when the little prince 
 comes, and if I am satisfied, I will do something hand- 
 some for him. I hope he won't vex me, though, as 
 another god-child did the Princess Dor ma. Did you 
 ever hear of her ? " 
 
 " No, ma'am," replied Ehoda, holding tight to the 
 side of the arm-chair, which jerked about very uncom- 
 fortably. 
 
 " I'll tell you all about it, then ; for I am going there 
 now, and it is always better to know something about 
 people before you meet them, if it's only on which foot 
 they have corns. 
 
 To begin with my dear Dorma's father: he was 
 an old friend of mine ; in fact, I was very fond of 
 him, until he foolishly married the Fair One with the 
 Golden Locks, vain, silly creature that she was ; but 
 I never could make him believe it. He would sit hour 
 after hour twanging his stupid old guitar, singing love- 
 songs to her, while she sat simpering and making eyes, 
 and combing out her great yellow mane, to make 
 it glitter in the sunshine, until that goose of a man 
 didn't know whether he stood on his head or his heels. 
 Well, I was vexed enough ; but still I didn't give them 
 up all at once, even after Dorma was born ; but they 
 forgot to ask me to the christening. I was a little
 
 DORMA. U 5 
 
 turt at that, I own, but all I did about it was to tell 
 them to keep the child out of my turret of the palace ; 
 and another thing I told them was never to let her learn 
 to spin, for as surely as she did she would come to 
 
 " I should not think she would have cared much for 
 that," remarked Rhoda. 
 
 " Bless you, child, did you ever go idle a whole day 
 long? A woman who can't spin and is not allowed to 
 do housework is like a three-legged kitten, or a lame- 
 winged bird, or a candle without a blaze ; she can't do 
 what she was made to do." 
 
 " But I can't spin," persisted Rhoda. 
 
 ' Pshaw, child ! you can sew and knit, can't you ? 
 Itrs all the same thing, except that a hundred years ago, 
 when all this happened, everybody spun more than they 
 sewed or knit, and now they don't. 
 
 " Well, to make a long story short, I told them to keep 
 Donna out of my turret and away from a spinning-wheel : 
 very well, they minded until the girl was about seventeen, 
 when that stupid Fair One with the Golden Locks took 
 it into her head to die. Donna, being left to herself, and 
 rather wretched at losing her mother, got in a way of 
 wandering about the palace : at last, one unlucky day she 
 found the key of my turret door, and let herself in. As 
 ill-luck would have it, I was away, and had left my rock, 
 and distaff, and spindle all in plain sight, with nobody to 
 stop the little fool's meddling. So she seized upon the
 
 ii6 MOONFOLK. 
 
 gpindle the very first thing, and " ' Oh ! ' she cried out- 
 'what funny thing is this, and what is it good for, 1 
 wonder? ' 
 
 " Now, my spindle, yon must know, my dear, is an ill- 
 tempered fairy, whom I keep shut up in that form, and 
 compel her to spin yarns of various sorts for me, when- 
 ever the fancy takes me to call for one. This makes her 
 cross, and finding herself rather rudely handled by poor 
 little Dorma, she dug the end of the spindle into the 
 child's hand, and hurt her so that she cried out dismally. 
 
 " I heard the cry, although I was some hundreds of 
 miles away at the time, visiting my sister Pari-banou, so 
 I flew to see what was the matter. A pretty sight met 
 my eyes as I rushed in through the keyhole. 
 
 "There stood my poor little princess holding her 
 bleeding hand tightly in the other, half crying, half 
 frightened, and staring with all her eyes at Mistress 
 Spindle, who was whirling around the room on her one 
 foot, buzzing like an angry hornet, and making her 
 flaxen hair fly out in a perfect cloud with the swiftness 
 of her motion. 
 
 I was so vexed that it made me unlady-like, and 
 L am afraid I kioked the spindle into the corner of 
 the room and called it names. Then I opened the door 
 and whisked Dorma off to her own chamber, laid her 
 upon the bed, and then, being determined to keep her 
 quiet, if such a thing was possible, I just put her and 
 the whole household, in fact everything in the palace,
 
 OVER THE HILLS AMD FAR AWAY. 117 
 
 fetadeep, and promised them a nap uf a hundred jean 
 at lost. Then I flew oft; and never hare been near 
 them since. ISTow the hundred years are out; moreover, 
 I have undertaken to find a wife for Prince Charming 
 a dear young friend of mine, and I think I shall bestow 
 Donna upon him. A giri brought up as quietly as she 
 has been, cannot fail to make a good wife. Here we 
 are. 11 
 
 And the ury godmother cheeked the griffins with a 
 motion of her hand, causing the arm-chair to remain 
 pnndod above a thick and tangled wood, from the 
 midst of which rose the tafl chimneys and turrets of a 
 
 Advancing toward this wood Ehoda perceived a 
 young man, brown, dusty, handsome, and eager, who 
 pressed forward toward the tangled forest so fist that 
 his retiniK found it veiy hard to keep up with him. This 
 retinue, bj the way, consisted of one man dressed in the 
 Highland tmnhnnr, md lioMmg a bagpipe under hi& arm; 
 pan which he played a single tune without oaring. 
 
 rl' 
 
 Amd aU the tne ikmt he arid ph? 
 WM 'Oir tfce hob ad w*f/ 
 
 the firiry godmother, lookmgdown and laughing. 
 Well, my dear Charming^ yon wfll not complain, 
 when you see what I have brought you over the hills 
 

 
 I IS MOONFOLK. 
 
 and far away ' to find. Hold tight, Rhoda ! Hie away, 
 griffins ! " 
 
 And with a jerk, and a sweep, and a bounce, the 
 arm-chair flew downward, and in at the open window 
 of the fairy's own turret in the sleeping castle. Rhoda 
 looked about her curiously, and soon discovered the 
 disgraced spindle lying in the corner, where the fairy 
 had kicked it a century before, a little dusty, to be sure, 
 but otherwise quite ready to prick the fingers of any 
 meddlesome girl who should disturb it. 
 
 " But those fingers won't be mine, you old thing," 
 remarked she half aloud ; and the fairy godmother, turn- 
 ing briskly round, exclaimed : 
 
 " I should hope not. A girl brought up as you have 
 been, has the use of her hands better than a poor little 
 princess, who never had the good luck of waiting upon 
 herself. But come, let us get down and see Prince 
 Charming wake Dorma. It ought to be a pretty 
 sight." 
 
 So down the winding turret stairs, and through the 
 long dim corridors, and the resounding halls, and the 
 stately chambers, went the fairy godmother, with the 
 Chimney-Elf flitting like a smoke-wreath beside her, 
 Rhoda tripping after, wondering whether all this could 
 indeed be real, or if she were asleep and dreaming. 
 
 Some of these corridors and halls were empty, save 
 for the stately old furniture, and the tapestry swaying 
 from the walls with such life-like motion, that Rhoda
 
 THE KING AND HIS COUNCILLORS. 119 
 
 half thought the knights, and ladies, and horses, and 
 hounds, and nymphs, and Cupids embroidered upon it 
 were real people stepping down to greet her. But in 
 other of these lonely and echoing passages they came 
 upon the figures of courtiers, of servants, of gray-bearded 
 councillors, or smiling ladies, each struck to sleep in 
 the gesture of that moment when poor little forgotten 
 Donna wounded her hand with the forbidden spindle. 
 
 Once they passed through a hall filled with armed 
 guards, two of whom stood with crossed halberds before 
 the arched doorway of an inner room ; but the fairy 
 godmother, with a little derisive laugh, stooped beneath 
 the halberds, and pushed open the guarded doors with 
 the point of her wand. 
 
 " There's my old lover at the head of his table, my 
 dear," said she to Rhoda. " A proper enough man, was 
 he not ? " 
 
 Rhoda timidly raised her eyes, and saw a splendidly 
 appointed table, its dishes of gold, and silver, and crystal 
 glittering in the sunlight that streamed through a great 
 painted window at the end of the hall. Around this 
 table sat several gentlemen, some of them old, and the 
 rest in middle life. All were richly dressed, with faces 
 wise and good, like those of men fit to be the councillors of 
 a king. Each face wore a smile, subdued and respectful, 
 but admiring ; and were turned toward the head of the 
 table, where in a golden chair sat the king, their master 
 He was a man in the prime of life, with a stately form,
 
 320 MO ON FOLK. 
 
 a proud dark face, and an air of royal grace. Leaning 
 back in his great chair, the fingers of one hand idly 
 tangled in his flowing beard, the other clasped around a 
 great golden goblet upon the table, he looked as if still 
 uttering the jest or story frozen upon his lips by the 
 fairy spell ; and the smile in his dark eyes was the ori- 
 ginal copied so carefully by the eyes of every courtier 
 about the table. 
 
 " Those idiots have waited a long time for the point 
 of the king's story," remarked the fairy godmother, 
 casting a look of frowning contempt upon the scene; 
 then she added more softly : 
 
 " Oh, my king, I would have done better than this 
 for you, if you had not preferred the Fair One with the 
 Golden Locks to me, in the old days." 
 
 And so they passed through the banqueting room, 
 and the silent halls beyond, and up the great staircase 
 guarded by its enchanted sentries, and through more 
 halls and anterooms, until the fairy lifted a curtain of 
 soft blue silk, and passed with Rhoda and the elf into a 
 chamber more beautiful than anything they yet had seen. 
 It was better than beautiful, for it was filled with the
 
 THE BEAUTY SLEEPING. 121 
 
 polity, and simplicity, and innocence that should make 
 the chamber of a young girl different from, any other. 
 Upon an ivory bedstead in the centre of the room lay 
 the princess, fast asleep, one hand beneath her cheek, 
 the other closely folded like that of a little child in pain. 
 The golden rippling hair, thrown back from the pure 
 pale face, lay in great shining masses npon the bine silk 
 counterpane ; but the heavy eyelashes so closely folded 
 over the great eyes were darker by many shades, as 
 were the perfect brows above. About the little month, 
 so curved and rosy, hnng a tremulous pout, as if even 
 in her long, long sleep, Donna dreamed of the cruel 
 spindle that had wounded her. Beneath the hem of her 
 white and gold-embroidered robe peeped a little foot, its 
 blue velvet shoe ornamented with the royal cipher in 
 gold thread ; while the open sleeve falling away from 
 the wounded hand showed an arm of exquisite beauty 
 circled by a bracelet of quaint device. 
 
 " Poor little lamb ! your hand is quite well now ; 
 you had better guard your heart instead,'' murmured the 
 fairy godmother, stooping over this lovely figure and 
 smiling half kindly, half mournfully. Then rising, she 
 drew Ehoda a little aside, saying quietly : 
 
 " Wait here, my dear. He never will look at us. 
 IIark! r 
 
 Ehoda listened, and from the forest, whose tangled 
 trees grew almost into the windows of the sleeping pal- 
 ace, she heard the shrill notes of the bagpiper still playing
 
 122 MOONFOLK. 
 
 " Over the bills and far away," but so faintly now, that 
 it showed the piper to be well-nigh exhausted. 
 
 " He's had a long journey of it, poor fellow, but it's over 
 now," said the fairy, nodding her head good-naturedly. 
 Rhoda, still listening, heard the hasty footsteps of 
 the prince as he hurried through hall, and passage, and 
 guard-room, up the great staircase and through the ante- 
 room, until at last he paused before the silken curtain 
 that shut in the chamber of the princess. 
 
 IttlffWC
 
 CHAPTEK XTL 
 
 THE SLEEPING BEAUTY. 
 
 A MOMENT of silence followed, and then the 
 -*-* prince with slow and trembling hands pnlled aside 
 the certain, and peeped in. His eyes fell npon the 
 sleeping figure of Donna, and suddenly exclaiming, " It 
 is the lady of my dreams ! " he ran toward her, knelt 
 beside the bed, and taking the little clenched hand in his, 
 pulled it gently, as if to wake the sleeper ; but still she 
 slumbered on. 
 
 ""Well, then!" exclaimed Prince Charming; and 
 rising to his feet, he stooped, and pressed his lips upon 
 the pale, beautiful cheek of the princess, while his own 
 grew rosy red beneath its healthy brown.
 
 124 MOONFOLK. 
 
 " Oh ! " murmured Princess Dorma ; and then, for the 
 first time in a hundred years, she unclosed her great blue 
 eyes, and fixed them upon the dark ones of the prince. 
 
 " Sweetest ! " said he, " I have wandered the whole 
 world over to find you." 
 
 "And I have waited a hundred years for you to 
 come, my prince," whispered Dorma, laying both her 
 hands in his, and rising from her long, long nap. 
 
 But now began a bustle and confusion through the 
 whole palace, as strange to listen to in that secluded place 
 as the dead silence had been fearful. Doors slammed, 
 the voices of page, and groom, and soldier mingled with 
 the shrill tones of women and children, the neighing of 
 horses and barking of dogs, in fact, every manner of 
 sound to be expected in and about a great palace filled 
 with attendants. Presently the curtains were drawn 
 aside, and a starched, severe-looking lady, wearing a high 
 cap of stiff muslin and a train four yards in length, 
 appeared in the doorway. She was Madam Prunella 
 Prisms, the princess' governess, and the horror of her 
 life. 
 
 " His majesty, your royal highness' father, desires the 
 pleasure A-h-h-h ! what do I see a m-a-n ! " 
 
 And Madam Prunella Prisms fainted dead away, and 
 fell upon the floor, or rather upon her train, much to 
 the injury of the stiff muslin cap, which got its crown 
 most dreadfully mashed. 
 
 " Let us go to papa, then," said Dorma, laughing a
 
 CINDERELLA S INDUSTRY. 125 
 
 little at her governess* mishap. Then, hand in hand like 
 two loving children, they went, while down in the 
 court-yard the piper, now quite refreshed, struck shrilly 
 up his one tune of " Over the hills and far away." 
 
 Yes, and she'll leave fether, and home, and all, to 
 follow her prince 'over the hills and far away,' just 
 like the rest of them," grumbled the fairy godmother. 
 "Isn't it a blessing we fairies don't have children to 
 grow up and run away from us? But come along, 
 Rhoda, and you too, Mr. Smoke-wreath ; I am going 
 now, and I will set you down wherever you like. Where 
 shall it be?" 
 
 "If we might go with yon, ma'am " suggested 
 Bhoda, who had taken a great fancy to the fairy god- 
 mother. 
 
 " With me, child? Well, I am going back to carry 
 this mischievous spindle as a wedding-present to Cin- 
 derella. She has got into trouble, and I must help her 
 out, by means of the spindle.*' 
 
 "How do you know she is in trouble?" asked 
 Khoda. 
 
 " How do I know? WeD, if I should tell you, you 
 would know as much as I do. But I will tell you some- 
 thing else much more amusing. After Cinderella was 
 married, she was so praised for her industry, and her 
 knowledge of useful arts, that she grew very proud, and 
 took to boasting that she could do this, and that, and the 
 other thing so much better and faster than any one else,
 
 126 MOONFOLK. 
 
 that finally no one believed her, and every one was laugh- 
 ing at her. At last she declared before the whole court 
 that she could spin the yarn and knit twelve pairs of 
 stockings between sunset and sunrise, and have time for 
 sleep besides. The queen, her mother-in-law, overheard 
 this foolish boast, and wishing to mortify her, she took 
 up the offer, and said : 
 
 " ' Come, then, my daughter, prove your words by 
 doing what you say. Knit the stockings, and I will give 
 you my set of diamonds in payment for them.' 
 
 "This was the time for Cinderella to confess her folly, 
 and escape from the trap her mother-in-law had set for 
 her ; but instead of that, the foolish girl persisted in her 
 folly, and was marched away to a great store-room at the 
 top of the palace, half filled with wool. A spinning- 
 wheel was set before her, several sets of knitting-needles 
 laid ready, and then the door was locked. The prince, 
 her husband, was away from her at the time, or he 
 never would have allowed this, of course. Poor Cin- 
 derella, forlorn and frightened, sat down among the wool 
 and began to cry. Suddenly, from the very middle of 
 the pile, a little voice squeaked out : 
 
 " ' Don't cry, princess ; I'll spin and knit a dozen pairs 
 of stockings for you before midnight, and you may lie 
 down and go to sleep meantime.' 
 
 " ' Thank you very much ; but who are you, and where 
 are you?' asked Cinderella, looking all about her. 
 
 " ' Never mind that,' replied the voice. ' Go to sleep.'
 
 JfO WORK WITHOUT WAGES. 127 
 
 u And to sleep she went sure enough, without more 
 words. Early in the morning, the qneen-mother, a little 
 frightened at what she had done, came to let out her 
 daughter-in-law, and found her still sleeping, but with 
 the twelve pairs of stockings not only knitted, but beau- 
 tifully washed, and pressed, and folded in order upon the 
 table. 
 
 " ' Wonderful ! ' cried the queen, and the king, and the 
 court ; and the whole nation cried * "Wonderful ' too, when 
 they heard of it. At last came the prince, who, when he 
 was told the story of his wife's industry, only laughed 
 and shook his finger at her, and said : 
 
 " * Oh, oh, you rogue ! I will never believe it until I 
 see it. Knit a dozen pairs more to-night, and I will give 
 you a dress of woven sunbeams.' 
 
 " * Yery well,' replied Cinderella, and, when night 
 came, shut herself up in the store-room, and called upon 
 her little friend among the wool to help her. But he 
 sulkily answered that he could not work without wages, 
 and that he had not yet been paid for his first dozen 
 pairs of stockings. 
 
 " ' "Well, what shall I pay you ? ' asked Cinderella, 
 wondering if she must give up the queen's diamonds as 
 soon as she got them. 
 
 "'"What shall you give me?' repeated the voice. 
 ; Oh, not very much. You shall give me well, your first 
 3hild whet it is a m^nth old. If you will agree to that.
 
 128 MOONFOLK. 
 
 I will promise to knit all the stockings you ask for 
 between this day and that.' 
 
 " "Well, my dear, Cinderella consented very wrong of 
 course ; but still she did it, and the stockings were knit- 
 ted, and a great number of dozens more, of various twines, 
 until one pleasant day the princess became the mother 
 of a fine boy. The whole country was filled with re- 
 joicing ; every one was happy but the mother, poor 
 Cinderella, who began too late to think of her bar- 
 gain with the stocking-knitter. When the month came 
 round, she shut herself and the baby up in her own 
 chamber, and held him tight in her arms, determined to 
 fight for him to the last. All at once she heard the 
 squeaky little voice saying : 
 
 " * Well, princess, I have come for the baby. Ton 
 may carry him into the spinning-chamber, and lay him 
 down on the heap of wool out of which I have spun 
 you so many stockings, then leave the room and lock 
 the door.' 
 
 " But Cinderella cried, and begged, and argued, and 
 promised all sorts of things, and went on at such a rate 
 that finally the voice replied peevishly : 
 
 " ' Oh, well, do stop this fuss, and I'll tell you what I 
 will do. One month from this hour, you shall tell me 
 my name, and promise never to ask me to knit for you 
 any more, or you shall give me the baby, and yourself 
 into the bargain. I could make you into a Spinning- 
 jenny, I think.'
 
 EASIER SAID THAN DONE. 129 
 
 a So Cinderella promised as usual it is so easy for 
 some people to make promises and the danger was over 
 for that time. Bat now the month has come round 
 again, and at this very moment poor Cinderella is sitting 
 in her own room with the little prince in her arms, cry- 
 ing her heart out : just now she was calling for me to 
 help her ; did not yon hear her ? " 
 
 "No, ma'am," replied Rhoda, staring about her at 
 the clouds and mountain-tops among which the arm- 
 chair was now floating. 
 
 "Well, I did," said the fairy dryly. Shaking her 
 whip over the griffins' ears, she made them step out at 
 such a rate that in another moment they reached and 
 alighted upon the roof of a great palace. The window 
 of a turret stood open, and the fairy godmother stepped 
 into it without the ceremony of knocking. Rhoda and 
 the Chimney-Elf followed. Just inside, the fairy stop- 
 ped, and taking a box hollowed from a single diamond 
 out of her pocket, she opened it and threw a little of 
 the greenish dust it contained into Rhoda's face, saying 
 at the same time : 
 
 " There, child, you are invisible now ; this is fern- 
 seed dust, and as good as the Mantle of Darkness, 
 besides being more portable. Now you can go about 
 anywhere and no one will see you, though you see 
 them. Smoke-wreath and I can make ourselves invisible 
 without it, merely by wishing:? 
 
 " But I can see you, ma'am," said Rhoda, "and I can 
 see Smoke-wreath too." 9
 
 130 MOONFOLK. 
 
 " Of course you can," the fairy replied, " because we 
 don't wish you not to see us. But we must not lose 
 time talking here. So now come along." 
 
 So the fairy led, and Ehoda followed through corri- 
 dors, and down stairs, and through chamber after cham- 
 ber, until they reached a locked door, which, however, 
 opened at a touch of the fairy's wand, and admitted 
 them to a splendid room, even more splendid than that 
 of the Princess Dorma. In the middle of the room sat 
 Cinderella upon a throne-chair of blue velvet, with a 
 great gold crown suspended over it, and a golden foot- 
 stool in front of it. In her arms she held a lovely baby 
 and both she and the child were dressed in the richest 
 lace, and embroidery, and purple, and fine linen ; but, 
 in spite of all these pleasant things about her, Cinderella 
 was crying bitterly ; and the little child looking up at 
 her with great frightened eyes, had put up his little lips 
 as if about to cry also. 
 
 " "Well, my dear, how do you find yourself to-day ? " 
 asked the fairy godmother, quietly taking a seat and 
 making herself visible to Cinderella, who started and 
 cried out : 
 
 " Oh, how you frightened me, and how glad I am to 
 see you, godmother ! I am so unhappy ! " 
 
 " Dear me, you're always unhappy, it seems to me. 
 What's the matter now ? " 
 
 But at this simple question Cinderella began to 
 blush, and hang her head, and stammer all sorts of
 
 FAIRY GODMOTHER STILL FAITHFUL, 131 
 
 nonsense ; for how could she tell her godmother of the 
 foolish and boastful lies that had first led her into 
 trouble, and how could she answer without telling of 
 them ? So she blundered along as people do who are 
 afraid to speak the truth, until the fairy stopped her 
 with a contemptuous wave of the hand : 
 
 " There, there, that will do, princess. I know all 
 about it better than you do ; only I wanted to see 
 whether you had the courage to tell me the true story. 
 It seems you have not, so you had better hold your 
 tongue." 
 
 Cinderella hung her head and was silent ; but the 
 great tears rolled down her cheeks and fell upon the 
 baby's face, so that his poor little lips began to tremble 
 more than ever. The fairy stood looking at the two for 
 several minutes very severely, but at last her lace soft- 
 ened, and she said, not unkindly : 
 
 " Well, you goose, are you going to let Rumplestilt- 
 kins have the baby ? " 
 
 " Rumple oh, godmother, is that his name ? " cried 
 Cinderella, jumping off the throne and rushing up to 
 the fairy, who took a pinch of rose-pollen snuff, and dryly 
 inquired : 
 
 " Is what whose name ? " 
 
 "Why, the knitting man the horrid wretch who 
 wants the baby. I have to tell him his name to-day, 01 
 he will take us both away. Oh, godmother soli, I don't 
 want to be made into a Spinning-jenny."
 
 132 MOONFOLK. 
 
 " Don't you ? "Well, then, his name is Rumplestilt- 
 kins, and you can tell him I said so, if you like. So that's 
 all settled, and now good-by." 
 
 " Oh, stop a minute, please, dear godmother. There's 
 one thing more," exclaimed Cinderella, turning very red 
 again. " The king wants me to knit some more stock- 
 ings for nim, to give as a present to the Khan of Grand 
 Tartary, who has sent a special ambassador to ask if I 
 would oblige him so much. And I promised Rumple- 
 stiltkins that I never would ask him to do any more, 
 and and I can't knit at all." 
 
 " Then, why, pray, did you ever say that you could ? " 
 asked the fairy, severely. " You deserve to suffer for 
 your wicked folly, and I am glad you do ; and although I 
 am going to help you out of this scrape, I will never do 
 so again unless you amend, so far at least as to tell the 
 truth. Take this spindle, put it in the wool-chamber, 
 and say to it : 
 
 ' Spindle straight, and spindle true, 
 Here's some work for you to do ; 
 Turn and twist the magic thread 
 Until the task shall all be sped.' 
 
 Then come out and leave it as many hours as you wish 
 pairs of stockings, and when you go back they will be 
 ready. But, remember whenever you touch it, that I 
 have given it orders to wound your hands as often as 
 you have told wrong stories since you last handled 
 it, and I assure you it will obey me sharply enough.
 
 GOOD-BY TO CINDERELLA. 133 
 
 There, that will do I am not very fond of kissing. 
 Good-by, and mind that you tell your husband all about 
 this before you sleep to-night. He will give you a 
 sound scolding, and it will be good for you." 
 
 So saying, the fairy godmother became invisible, and 
 glided out of the room, followed by Rhoda and the 
 Chimney-Elf, neither of whom had Cinderella been able 
 to perceive at all. 
 
 liCUFLESTILTKESS.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SIR LANCELOT DU LAC. 
 
 " A ND now, my dear, we must part company," re- 
 >**- marked the fairy godmother as she checked the 
 griffins in the midst of a thick forest. " Cinderella will 
 do very well after she has received two or three sharp 
 hints from her friend the spindle ; and poor little Dorrna 
 and her prince will be as happy as two geese in a 
 goose-pond, for a while at least. I must go now and 
 attend to some other friends of mine; so good-by, and 
 good luck to you, child ; and if you would like the box 
 of fern-seed, here it is."
 
 I:HODA FORSAKEN. 135 
 
 u But, ma'am ! " began Ehoda, and then stopped, 
 finding herself alone, with only the little diamond box 
 at her feet to prove that the fairy had ever been with 
 her. 
 
 "Isn't she queer, Chimney-Elf?" cried Ehoda, star- 
 ing about her. No one replied, and Ehoda stared still 
 harder. Could it be that the Chimney-Elf had deserted 
 her ? She called his name loudly and repeatedly, but 
 only the wind sighing through the pine-trees and the 
 crows flying far over her head replied. The moody 
 little elf had grown jealous of Ehoda's interest in the 
 fairy and her friends, and had either taken himself off, 
 or rendered himself invisible, and refused to reply to 
 her entreaties. 
 
 "Oh, dear, dear, what shall I do now?" exclaimed 
 the poor child, sinking down upon the root of a great 
 tree, and looking despairingly about her. As she did so, 
 the tramp of a horse's feet became audible in the dis- 
 tance, and in another moment Ehoda perceived the glit- 
 tering figure of a knight in full armor, mounted upon a 
 large black war-horse, slowly riding np the avenue of 
 arching trees, beneath which the fairy had dropped her. 
 He did not at first perceive her, and Ehoda examined 
 both knight and war-horse with a sort of frightened curi- 
 osity, for although she had read of such beings in her 
 story-books, she had never seen anything of the sort. 
 The knight had taken his helmet off and hung it at his 
 saddle-bow, so that Ehoda perceived him to be both
 
 136 MOONFOLK. 
 
 handsome and young, with a dark complexion, bold 
 black eyes, and curling black hair falling to his shoulders. 
 His armor was of polished steel curiously inlaid with 
 blue enamel ; the waving plume upon his helmet was also 
 blue ; and whenever throughout his dress or equipments 
 any color was allowed to appear, that color was sure to be 
 blue. The only exception to this rule was a scarlet sleeve 
 embroidered with pearls, which was bound upon the front 
 of his helmet, contrasting richly with the azure plume. 
 The horse was also in armor, but he paced along beneath 
 his caparisons of blue and steel with an ease that showed 
 both strength and training. As the knight rode he 
 sang in a clear deep voice, " Tirra lirra, lirra, lirra," and 
 hummed the song of which this was the refrain, between 
 his closed lips. As the black horse came opposite the 
 place where Ehoda was sitting, he swerved suddenly 
 aside, so that the knight swayed in his saddle, and 
 catching at the loose rein, cried angrily : 
 
 "Hold there, Tonnerre ! what is it now?" Glan- 
 cing around as he spoke, he caught sight of the child, 
 and checking Tonnerre altogether, he sat looking at 
 her in astonishment for a moment; then leaping from 
 the horse, he approached, saying in his strong deep 
 voice : 
 
 " How now, my little maid ? Art in the forest here 
 alone ? " 
 
 Khoda, thus addressed, rose to her feet, and blushing 
 brightly, replied :
 
 UNDER SAFE PROTECTION. 137 
 
 "Yes, sir; the fciry godmother left me here, and 
 then the Chimney-Elf ran away." 
 
 "So you are a chfld of the fairies! I too hare a 
 Isiry godmother. Morgana, the lady of the Late, will 
 welcome yon. Bat who is the Chimney-Elf; and how 
 came he and thy godmother to desert thee so cruelly I" 
 
 "Oh, she is not my godmother, but Cinderella's," 
 replied Ehoda simply. 
 
 "CSndereHa's!" repeated the knight in a puzzled 
 voice. "Well, weQ, I do not understand thy prattle; 
 but I know those who wffl be right glad to talk with 
 thee. Come, let me put thee upon Tonnerre's neck, and 
 take thy way with me; for certeslwffl not leave thee 
 alone in the wood, nor can I tarry longer here. Come, 
 little one," 
 
 As he spoke, he drew off his steel gauntlet, and 
 offered his right hand to Ehoda, who laid her own in it 
 without hesitation, and suffered herself to be led to the 
 side of the great black war-horse, and lightly sprang up 
 to a seat in front of the saddle, without a thought of fear 
 or resistance. The knight mounted behind her, and 
 holding her firmly with one arm, he gathered up the 
 reins and spoke to Tonnerre, who pranced a little under 
 the double load, but presently fen intoa gentle amble, 
 and passing on through sun and shade, carried his riders 
 fcr along the forest road that led to Gamelot. 
 
 "And now,Kt*Ie maid, tell me thy name! 7 ' asked 
 the knight presently; and Ehoda, obeying him, added in
 
 138 MOONFOLK. 
 
 a hesitating voice, "I should like to know your name 
 too, if you please, sir." 
 
 " Men call me Lancelot du Lac. Didst ever hear the 
 name ? " replied the knight, smiling pleasantly. 
 
 " No, sir yes I read about him once in a book, and 
 King Arthur, and the Round Table ; but that was not a 
 true story, I think, though it was as true as Cinderella, 
 and The Sleeping Beauty, and Red Riding-Hood 
 
 " I know nothing of all these," replied the knight, 
 smiling still. " But I know for a truth that I am Lance- 
 lot du Lac, and that my lord King Arthur is real, and 
 that the Round Table is the centre of the fairest gather- 
 ing of knights that ever came together. You shall see 
 it at Camelot, whither we are going." 
 
 " Are we going to Camelot, now ? " asked Rhoda. 
 
 " Yes, pretty one, as fast as Tonnerre will carry us. 
 The king and queen and all the court are there, and 
 there will be feasts, and jousting, and music, and dancing, 
 and all kinds of merry-making. That will please thee, 
 will it not ? " 
 
 " I suppose so, sir ; but are there any other little girls 
 at Camelot ? " 
 
 Lancelot smiled ; but before he could reply the con- 
 versation was interrupted by a piercing shriek in a wo- 
 man's voice, followed by the sound of crashing branches 
 and hasty footsteps. 
 
 " Soho ! what is this ? " exclaimed Sir Lancelot, 
 checking Tonnerre, and hastily replacing his helmet
 
 GUY DU FONTAINE. 
 
 139 
 
 his head. He had hardly done so when out from 
 a narrow side-path rushed a lady, her clothes torn and 
 soiled, her hair streaming, and her face pale and blood- 
 streaked. Seeing Lancelot, she uttered a sobbing cry of 
 delight and sprang toward him. 
 
 " Sir Lancelot du Lac ! oh, save me, noble knight, 
 save me from the wretch who has just murdered my 
 husband, and would now murder me, who never did 
 him harm, or wished him ill ! " 
 
 "Rest you easy, lady stand there behind me, and 
 guard this child I will do the rest!" hastily replied 
 the knight, placing Rhoda upon the ground, laying his 
 lance in rest, and wheeling Tonnerre's head toward the 
 opening in the trees, through which now rushed a man 
 with drawn sword in hand, and blood upon his rusty 
 armor. His helmet was upon his head, and the lowered 
 visor hid his face ; but by the bearings upon the little 
 shield he carried on his left arm, Sir Lancelot recognized 
 and addressed him : 
 
 What, Guy du Fontaine, it is thou ! and at thine 
 old work ! What knight but thon would pursue a lady 
 with a naked sword in his hand, and her lord's blood 
 upon his armor? Stand and answer to me." 
 
 " And thou in saddle and with lance in rest, and I 
 on foot with only sword and shield ! Such is the bravery 
 of the Round Table ! " exclaimed the stranger knight 
 in a harsh, forbidding voice, and with a scornful laugh. 
 Sir Lancelot replied by leaping to the ground and placing
 
 140 MOONFOLK. 
 
 Tonnerre's rein in the hand of the lady who stood trem 
 bling beside him. 
 
 " If you see me coming by the worst, fair lady, mount 
 my steed and save thyself. He will take thee to Carnelot 
 before sunset, and there shalt thou find protection for 
 thyself and an avenger for me. Stay ; I will place thee in 
 the saddle with the child in front of thee, lest you might 
 be unable to mount alone. Put thy foot in my hand, 
 and so ! Now, little maid, it is thy turn ; and lady, if 
 once you see me down, ride away, and leave me to my 
 fate. Heaven keep thee." 
 
 " And Heaven keep thee, gentle knight, and send 
 thee victory " 
 
 " And am I to stand waiting until thou makest thy 
 last will, and sayest good-by to all thy lady-loves, thou 
 squire of dames ? " demanded Sir Guy impatiently. 
 
 " Guard thyself, false knight, and God defend the 
 right!" exclaimed Sir Lancelot, whirling his sword 
 above his head, and springing lightly forward. The 
 other threw himself into position to receive the attack, 
 the two swords clashed together, and the fight began. 
 Never a knight of Arthur's court could call himself the 
 superior of Sir Lancelot at any knightly exercise, and but 
 few had ever gained advantage of him ; but this Sir Guy 
 du Fontaine was one of the most accomplished swords- 
 men of France, and to-day he fought with fierce deter- 
 mination for the victory : while Sir Lancelot's mind 
 was disturbed by the feeling that the lady and Rhoda
 
 THE FIGHT. 141 
 
 were exposed to danger should lie fell, and also by Ids 
 efforts to keep between them and their enemy, lest the 
 latter should Boddfnly rush upon and attack them. The 
 consequence of this divided attention was that a huge 
 downward blow from Sir Guy's heary Milan blade eat 
 through the armor protecting Sir Lancelot's left arm, 
 * sharp if not; dangerous wound. 
 
 "Ha, boaster! yield thee thy blood flows fist!" 
 exclaimed Du Fontaine; hot Lancelot replied: 
 
 tt Wait until we see thy blood also, before we speak of 
 yielding. On guard!" 
 
 And again the bright swords dashed, and the knights 
 rushed upon each other, while die f" > "ln m "Nt < *T" i g i * 
 the branches fell upon the polished armor of the one, 
 and the dark figure of the other, upon the great black 
 war-horse, and die frightened lady, and Bhoda with her 
 wondering eyes and pale cheeks. And now Sir Lancelot, 
 giving his whole attention to the conflict, pressed his 
 opponent with such vigorous and well-directed blows, 
 that the movements of the latter became hurried and 
 unsteady, then filtering and aimless, until finally, with 
 one great stroke, Sir Lancelot beat him to his knee, 
 Standing orer him, he drew Ac short dagger called 
 "Miserieordia," used by knights to finish combats begun 
 with the sword. Holding this to his throat and pr> 
 venting him firom rising, Sir Lancelot exclaimed : 
 
 Xow yield thee, Guy du Fontaine, rescue or ao 
 rescue, passing me thy knightly word, that neither now
 
 142 MOONFOLK. 
 
 nor at any other time, shall this lady come to harm 
 through thee. Whatever cause of offence her lord may 
 
 have given thee has been avenged, and no knight wars 
 upon women. Speak, then ! " 
 
 And by way of pointing his demand, Sir Lancelot 
 clicked the point of his dagger against the edge of the 
 other's cuirass, between which and the gorget the fatal 
 wound of the Misericordia was given. 
 
 " Enough ! Thou hast me at advantage, and I yield," 
 muttered Sir Guy sullenly, accepting the hint. 
 
 " And your pledge to respect the lady now and for- 
 ever." 
 
 " Well yes I pass my word for her safety." 
 
 " It is enough ; rise and go thy way, remembering, 
 that shouldst thou forget that pledge at any time, one 
 stands ready to recall it to thy mind." 
 
 Without reply the conquered knight slowly regained 
 his feet, picked up the sword that had flown far out of 
 his hand, and turning his back, made off without a word. 
 Sir Lancelot watched him out of sight, then slowly
 
 A FURIOUS WILD BOAR. 143 
 
 crossed the little glade toward Tonnerre, who with his 
 doable burden stood awaiting him ; but just before he 
 reached the spot, a crashing among the undergrowth 
 startled the spirited horse, who sprang forward and gal- 
 loped down the path, while a furious wild boar rushed 
 out from the thicket and made for Sir Lancelot. 
 
 The knight gave one hasty glance in 
 the direction of Tonnerre's headlong 
 flight; but seeing the impossibility of 
 overtaking him upon foot, he turned his 
 attention to the boar, whose movements 
 were in feet not to be disregarded, as already his hot and 
 fetid breath poisoned the sweet forest air, and the foam 
 flying from his churning tusks defiled the flowers and turf 
 of the little glade where Sir Lancelot stood. 
 
 "Vile brute! Must I then stain my noble blade 
 with thy life ! " muttered the knight, drawing his sword 
 and springing back a step, for already the powerful beast 
 had aimed a blow of his tusks at the advanced foot of 
 the knight, and as he sprang aside dashed headlong past, 
 with each fury as to roll upon the ground in missing 
 the expected resistance. Before he could recover, Sir 
 Lancelot had sprung to his side, and dealt him a down- 
 right blow that should have slain any creature less fully 
 protected than the boar ; but from his armor-like hide 
 the good sword dipped harrnlpsa. In the same instant 
 the boar was upon his feet again, and, rushing upon the 
 knight, avoided the point of the sword, so held that it
 
 144 MOONFOLK. 
 
 would have entered his open mouth, swerved suddenly 
 aside, and not heeding the edge of the blade, which slid 
 harmlessly along his cheek, he aimed a blow with his 
 tusks at the knight's right leg, which only the armor 
 covering it prevented from taking full effect. As it 
 was, Sir Lancelot staggered several paces, and had not 
 recovered himself when the boar, turning short in his 
 tracks, rushed upon him from behind, aiming to over- 
 throw him and so be able to reach a more vulnerable 
 point. The movement was so sudden and so unex- 
 pected as almost to succeed, and Sir Lancelot, dropping 
 upon one knee, let fall his sword, and seizing the dagger 
 in his right hand, received the boar upon his wounded 
 left arm, and at the same moment struck a deep and 
 downright blow into the gleaming right eye of the 
 creature, who, uttering a savage cry of rage and pain, 
 threw himself forward, tearing and grinding with his 
 tusks, which slid along the arm as far as the elbow, and 
 there penetrating the point of the brassarde or armor 
 of the arm, tore off the plate and inflicted a slight wound 
 upon the flesh beneath. The next instant the boar 
 rolled over in his death-agony, and Sir Lancelot, shaking 
 himself free from the huge carcass, rose to his feet and 
 looked about him. 
 
 The sun was near its setting, and its last rays struck 
 through and through the treetops, casting a green and 
 golden light into the depths of the forest, lighting them 
 like noonday. All the birds had come home to their nests,
 
 "7 E'EN MUST WALK r 145 
 
 and their evening songs filled the whole air ; but except 
 eights and sounds like these, Sir Lancelot saw and heard 
 nothing. Tonnerre with his double burden was already 
 far away, and Sir Guy du Fontaine had mounted his own 
 horse and ridden as fast as he could from the scene of 
 his defeat, so that the Knight of the Lake found him- 
 self as much alone in the wood as if he had been a 
 hermit. 
 
 I e'en must walk if I would go at all then," said he, 
 smiling grimly, as he gathered up sword and dagger 
 and replaced them in their sheaths. " Lucky it is that 
 Master Boar has left me mine own legs, since Tonnerre 
 no longer lends me his." 
 
 With these words, Sir Lancelot set forward at a good 
 pace, and was soon lost in the depths of the forest. But 
 rapidly though he might walk, how could a man hope 
 to overtake a horse, especially Tonnerre, who. rejoicing 
 in his unusual freedom, made the most of it by trotting, 
 galloping, pacing, or walking at his own pleasure. His 
 poor frightened riders made no attempt to control him, 
 contenting themselves with clinging tight to the saddle 
 and to each other, screaming for help at intervals. 
 Rhoda was the first to recover from her terror and look 
 about her. She found that the road along which they 
 travelled was no longer a mere wood-path, that the 
 forest was changing to scattered trees, between which she 
 caught glimpses of a river running through green mead- 
 ows and fields yellow with grain, and beside villages 
 
 10
 
 I 4 6 MOONFOLK. 
 
 whose white houses gleamed brightly in the rays of the 
 setting sun. 
 
 " Oh, see, we are coming to a town, and there we shall 
 find some one to help us," said she to her companion, 
 who, clinging still closer to the horse's mane, sobbed 
 out: 
 
 " We shall never come so far alive we shall be 
 dashed to pieces long before." 
 
 " I don't believe it," replied Bhoda stoutly. " The 
 horse goes a little slower already, and we can stay on as 
 well as we have done, I'm sure. Don't feel so scared, 
 ma'am." 
 
 " You do not know of what you are talking, child," 
 returned the lady impatiently. " But look, what comes 
 down the hill yonder ? " 
 
 She pointed as she spoke toward a turn of the road 
 almost hidden by trees, among whose leaves could be 
 seen the flashing of armor, the waving of pennons, and 
 the forms of mounted men. 
 
 " I think they are more gentlemen like the one we 
 left in the wood," said Rhoda timidly. 
 
 " Like Sir Lancelot du Lac ! " exclaimed the lady, 
 scornfully. " Let me tell you, girl, there are no more 
 men like him, gentle or simple. But these may be his 
 comrades, King Arthur's knights yes, see, there is the 
 standard of the dragon displayed as they come out into 
 the sunshine. The king himself is with them, and we 
 are safe ! "
 
 THE ROUND-TABLE KNIGHTS. 147 
 
 Bat at this moment Tonnerre perceived his com 
 rades in the distance, and throwing up his head with a 
 movement that almost unseated his riders, he uttered a 
 shrill neigh, and galloped forward to meet them. See- 
 ing him coming, the party of knights halted, and sat 
 looking at the strange spectacle presented by the flying 
 steed and clinging riders, 
 
 " By my faith," exclaimed 
 Sir Pereivale, who rode on 
 the king's right hand, "that 
 looks like Tonnerre, our 
 brother Lancelot's charger ! " 
 
 "And so it does," added 
 Sir Gawain, the king's cousin. 
 " But what riders does he 
 bear? I know that Sir Lancelot du Lac is ever the 
 knight of dames, but " 
 
 "Spare your wonder, messieurs," interposed the 
 king ; " for another moment will show the truth. Hide 
 forward, Sir Galahad and Sir Percivale, and meet these 
 ladies." 
 
 The two knights, whom all men at Arthur's court 
 knew for the best and purest of those who sat at the 
 Round Table, rode forward at once, the silver armor of 
 Sir Galahad glittering in the last red light of day, and 
 the fair face of Sir Percivale smiling and gay. A few 
 moments brought the two parties together, and Ton- 
 nerre, touching his nose to that of Sir Galahad's white
 
 148 MOONFOLK. 
 
 charger, whinnied a joyous greeting and stopped short, 
 while the knight, leaping to the ground, exclaimed : 
 
 " The Lady Isolde, and without her brave lord, Sir 
 Ralph of Escourt ! What chance is this, fair lady ? " 
 
 " Sir Galahad, right glad am I to see you, and you 
 too, fair Sir Percivale, for full well do I know that with 
 you I am safe, and that the noble lord of whom you 
 speak shall not die unavenged, for you were his 
 friends." 
 
 The tears she could not restrain choked her voice, 
 and covering her face with her hands she sobbed pit- 
 eously. Sir Galahad and Sir Percivale sadly bowed their 
 heads, and Sir Percivale softly said : 
 
 " And is it so, lady ? Is our dear friend and brother- 
 in-arms Sir Ralph gone from among us ? But comfort 
 you, dear lady, for well do I know that he died bravely 
 and in the path of honor, as a good knight should, and 
 to what other end do any of us look ? " 
 
 " And trust us, fair Isolde, if he hath been foully 
 dealt with, he shall not die unavenged," added Sir Gala- 
 had. " Who was his enemy ? " 
 
 " Sir Guy du Fontaine. They quarrelled about a 
 page who ran away from Sir Guy's cruel usage, and 
 took refuge with us. Sir Ralph sheltered him, and 
 refused to give him up at Sir Guy's command ; so Sir 
 Guy laid in wait for us, as we rode toward Camelot, 
 and he slew my dear lord : if it had not been for good Sir 
 Lancelot, he had slain me also ! "
 
 KING A&TffUR. 149 
 
 ** And where is Sir Lancelot now, and who is this 
 little maid, and how came you bj Tonnerre ! - asked Sir 
 Galahad, unable longer to restrain the questions he had 
 been longing to ask. But before the lad j could reply, 
 Sir Percivale spoke: 
 
 " Here comes our lord the king: had not the Lady 
 Isolde better tell her story to him rather than to ml" 
 
 44 To him and to yon together ; for though the ting 
 is chief of his knights, Sir Galahad and Sir Percivale 
 are chief among knights," said the lady, bowing cour- 
 teously. 
 
 And now Txing Arthur himself rode up, and Bhoda, 
 looking at him with great wondering eyes, be- A 
 held a tall and stately man, dressed in armor i . 
 richly inlaid with gold, with a crown wrought ^tf 
 around his helmet, and wearing for crest the 
 dragon of his father Uther, surnamed Pendra- 
 gon. At his side glittered the jeweled hilt 
 of the sword Excalibnr, given him by the 
 mysterious Lady of the Lake, the foster-mother 
 of Sir Lancelot ; upon one side of the blade was 
 engraven in the oldest of old languages the 
 command, "Take me!" and upon the other 
 appeared in the language of whoever looked I 
 at it, the words, " Cast me away ^ Xot even I 
 Merlin, the wise man of Arthur's court, could explain 
 the meaning of these contradictory phrases, but all 
 agreed in saying that Excalibnr was gifted with magic
 
 150 MOONFOLK. 
 
 power, and that it was by its aid that Arthur had sc 
 easily proved victor in every battle where he had per- 
 sonally fought. 
 
 But after the first glance, Rhoda looked neither at 
 the golden armor, nor the dragon crest, nor Excalibur, 
 but fixed her eyes upon the face of the king, which 
 seemed to her more beautiful than the face of man, 
 with its bright blue eyes, and golden hair and beard, 
 and the look of strength, and nobleness, and goodness 
 which beamed from every line. As he approached, the 
 knights drew back a little, and the Lady Isolde would 
 have dismounted to offer her homage, but the king pre- 
 vented her. He spoke a few courteous words of wel- 
 come in a voice so full of majesty and sweetness, not 
 without a touch of sadness, that all little Ehoda's heart 
 went out to him, and she would have given much to kiss 
 his hand as did the Lady Isolde, who insisted upon thus 
 rendering her homage. 
 
 Then the king asked the meaning of the lady's 
 strange plight, and she told her story, and how all that 
 she knew of Rhoda was the finding her with Sir Lancelot 
 in the wood ; but the king, looking kindly at the child, 
 said: 
 
 " Do not fear, my little maid, but that your friend 
 Sir Lancelot will find you out right soon ; meantime 
 you shall with this lady be the guest of my wife, Dame 
 Guinevere, who waits for us at Camelot. Sir Percivale, 
 shall the demoiselle ride with you ? And Lady Isolde,
 
 ON TO CAMELOT. 
 
 151 
 
 can you content yourself upon Tonnerre for anothei 
 mile or so ? " 
 
 And as neither knight nor lady objected to these 
 arrangements, the change was made, and the troop rode 
 sravlv on to Camelot.
 
 "OENEATH the clear light of a full moon, King 
 -* ^ Arthur and his knights, with the lady and the 
 child in their midst, rode into the beautiful old town 
 of Camelot. They clattered through the narrow streets, 
 where the stone fronts of the houses, leaning toward 
 each other, were so carved with dragons, and griffins, 
 and curious monsters, mingled with cherubs, and saints, 
 and strange dim devices, that it seemed as if the very 
 walls were alive and moving. From the balconied win- 
 dows looked ladies and children, and the streets were 
 full of knights and men-at-arms; the most of them
 
 THE PALACE. 153 
 
 dressed in silk, or cloth, or leather, having laid aside 
 their heavy armor to enjoy the cool of the evening. 
 Ever as the troop rode on the cry arose, " Here comes 
 the king, onr noble and heloved king ! God bless Tving 
 Arthur, and the Knights of the Round Table ! " 
 
 And the king, turning his face this way and that, 
 smiled back a greeting like that of a father to his chil- 
 dren. Rhoda, watching him, wished that she too might 
 call him king, and live forever in his sight. 
 
 So through the town the troop passed on until they 
 reached a hill, in the midst of which Merlin had built a 
 palace for the king, so wonderful and so magnificent 
 that all the people from far and near crowded to look at 
 it and take pride in it. In the centre was a hall lighted 
 by twelve great windows, each one painted with the 
 story of one of the twelve great battles fought and won 
 by Arthur in combat with the heathen who filled the 
 land when he became king, and whom he subdued and 
 banished. Besides these twelve windows was another 
 at the east, pictured with the story of the finding of 
 Exealibur ; and another opposite it at the west, where 
 was shown that last great battle upon the sea-ehore, 
 where Arthur met his rebellious knights headed by his 
 kinsman Modred, and where the strength and flower of 
 the Round Table fell by each others hand. 
 
 In this battle it was that the king received the 
 grievous hurt of which some men say he died; but 
 others know that a great boat was waiting for him upon
 
 154 MOONFOLK. 
 
 the shore, wherein were the three queens who were his 
 friends and sisters; and that he, with them, sailed away 
 and away to the Island of Avilion, which lies within the 
 splendors of the moon. 
 
 Under the sculptured gateway and through the great 
 court rode the knights and ladies. They dismounted at 
 the wide open doors of the palace, beside which stood 
 armed warders, their weapons lowered respectfully in 
 presence of the king. Sir Percivale lifted Rhoda from 
 his horse, and taking her by the hand, led her forward 
 into the hall, saying pleasantly : 
 
 " Come then, little one, thou shalt be my fair lady 
 for this day, and evening, if thou wilt, for there is to be 
 a feast, and after that music and dancing. Every knight 
 is mated with a lady who is to be his chief companion and 
 charge throughout the whole. Wilt thou honor me so 
 far?" 
 
 " Thank you, sir," replied Rhoda timidly ; " if the 
 king is willing, I shall be very happy to sit with 
 you." 
 
 " "Well said, my little maid. The king first always; 
 though much 1 marvel that thou so soon hast learned 
 our ways. And what may I call thee ? " 
 
 " Rhoda, if you please, sir." 
 
 " Rhoda ? That means a rose, and thou shalt bestow 
 upon me a rose from out this vase, and I, wearing it, 
 shall show to all men that I and none other am thy 
 chosen knight."
 
 SIR PERCIVALES CHOICE. 155 
 
 a Very well, sir; if jou like, I will give YOU a rose, 
 though it is not mine to give; and I don't know whether 
 the king would like to have me take flowers out of his 
 vases," replied Bhoda so gravely that Sir Pertivale 
 laughed aloud. Leading her close to one of the great 
 dragon vases that stood all around the hall, he said : 
 
 " Fear nothing, most obedient of subjects. The king 
 permits more than such a theft as this, to a lady." 
 
 So encouraged, Rhoda pulled a beautiful half-blown 
 rose from the vase, and shyly gave it to Sir Percivale, 
 who took it with a low bow, saying : 
 
 " When I have left thee with our lady the queen, I 
 shall go to my own lodgings and change this heavy armor 
 for a silken doublet, and upon the breast of it I shall 
 clasp thy token, as thou wilt see." 
 
 At this moment a page dressed in the queen's livery 
 approached, and bowing reverently to Sir Percivale, 
 said : 
 
 I am sent by my lord the king to lead this lady to 
 the queen's apartments, whither he has already gone 
 with the Lady Isolde of Escourt." 
 
 " That is well ; and I will conduct thee as far as the 
 door, my little Khoda, before I go to mine own apart- 
 ment," said Sir Percivale, offering his hand, in which 
 Rhoda placed her own. So conducted, and led by the 
 page, she passed on through the hall, and up a wide, 
 richly carved staircase to a sumptuous chamber, where 
 upon a chair of state sat Qneen Guinevere, the loveliest
 
 156 MOONFOLK. 
 
 woman of her time. Her bower-maidens were standing 
 at her back, and Lady Isolde seated upon a low stool near 
 at hand, while the king, leaning upon his sheathed sword, 
 stood talking gayly with them both. 
 
 As Khoda entered the door and paused, uncertain 
 what to do next, the king came forward, and taking 
 her by the hand, led her to the queen, saying : 
 
 "Here, dame, is our Lancelot's little friend. Be 
 good to her for his sake, and her own, and mine." 
 
 " For all sakes she is welcome," replied the queen 
 graciously, extending her hand to Rhoda, who placed 
 her own in it, as in the act of shaking hands, then with- 
 drew it ; the queen looked surprised, the Lady Isolde 
 smiled scornfully, and the king said : 
 
 " Dost not thou care to kiss the queen's hand when 
 it is given thee, little one ? " 
 
 " Oh ! I didn't know she wanted me to," replied 
 Khoda, blushing scarlet, and trying to regain the hand 
 she had dropped ; but the queen, withholding it, coldly 
 said : 
 
 "'You are excused, demoiselle. No doubt you come 
 from some heathen land where such observances are un- 
 known- And so, Isolde, thou didst leave Sir Lancelot 
 fighting with a wild boar?" 
 
 The lady replied, and neither took further notice of 
 Rhoda until the king said : 
 
 " Dame Guinevere, wilt not thou give orders to one 
 of these thy maidens, to see what our little guest may
 
 TO THE TIRING-ROOM. 157 
 
 need in the way of rest, refreshment, or garments '{ She 
 will sit at the feast with us to-night, I trust." 
 
 " If she likes, most certainly, my lord," replied the 
 queen, beckoning to one of the bower-maidens. " You 
 heard the king's orders, Alicia ; see that they are obeyed." 
 
 "Yes, your majesty," replied the girl, signing to 
 Rhoda to follow her ; but again the king interfered : 
 
 " And we shall see thee in the hall to-night, f*ir 
 lady?" 
 
 " Yes, sir : the gentleman you call Sir Pereivale asked 
 me to sit beside him at the table, and he " began 
 Rhoda and stopped confused, for the two ladies were 
 staring at her with such strange looks that she feared to 
 have said something wrong. 
 
 " Sir Percivale chose thee for his lady at the feast 
 and in the dance, child ! " exclaimed the queen at last. 
 
 " Yes, ma'am ; and he is going to wear a rose as a sign 
 that it is so, because my name is Rhoda, and he says that 
 means a rose," said the child, trembling at her own 
 daring. 
 
 " I had intended to give Sir Percivale to Ygonde the 
 Fair, and Sir Galahad to thee, Isolde," exclaimed the 
 queen pettishly. "He might at least have asked thy 
 pleasure, my lord, even though mine was of no account." 
 
 "I^ay then, dame, I think he hath chosen well 
 enow," replied the king emiling. "Thou wilt not 
 marry thy favorite Ygonde with my Sii Percivale just 
 yet ; and our little guest, Rhoda, since that is her name,
 
 158 MOONFOLK. 
 
 will have for this evening at least a knight of whom nc 
 one can speak an evil word." 
 
 So saying, he made a gesture of dismissal, llhoda 
 followed her guide to a chamber, where with fresh water, 
 ivory combs, and a silken mantle which Alicia insisted 
 upon throwing over her shoulders, she made so great an 
 improvement in her appearance, that when shortly after 
 she was conducted to the withdrawing room where the 
 knights waited for their ladies, Sir Percivale, in offering 
 her his hand, and pointing to the rose in his doublet, 
 eaid : 
 
 " Is the flower named from thee, or art thou named 
 from the flower, fairest rose of roses ? " 
 
 " Oh, if you please, don't talk that way to me, Sir 
 Percivale," exclaimed Rhoda in real distress. " I am 
 only a little girl, and never saw any gentleman like you 
 in the world that is, in the world I used to live in ; but 
 here everything is different, and I don't quite know " 
 
 " Did you come from that strange dim world that 
 they tell us we all used to live in? Sometimes I 
 remember like a dream that I was not always here," 
 said Sir Percivale thoughtfully. " But after all, this 
 is the real life, and that was only a vision ; so let it pass, 
 dear little Ehoda, and we will take our places at the 
 table. It is fairly laid, is it not ? " 
 
 As he spoke he led Hhoda forward into the hall, 
 which was now brilliantly lighted by great wax candles 
 eet in golden candlesticks shaped like trees, all down the
 
 THE BANQUET. 159 
 
 long tables which stretched across the lower end of the 
 hall, and which were now covered with the preparations 
 for a feast of the grandest description. At the upper 
 end of each table stood a peacock, roasted, and then re- 
 dressed in his own feathers and head, so that he looked 
 as if alive. 
 
 Below were kids, little pigs, and lambs, all whole, 
 and so arranged as to look as much like life as possible. 
 Besides these were dishes of such dainties as stewed 
 snails, mullets stewed in red wine carrying smaller fishea 
 in their mouths, deer's brains, and various other prepara- 
 rations not now found or heard of at any table. 
 
 The only vegetables presented were boiled greens in 
 two or three varieties, and wild cresses and salads ; with 
 them were cakes of fine wheaten bread called nianchets, 
 and only used in Arthur's time by the richest people, 
 the poorer classes eating coarse black bread filled with 
 the husks of the grain and nearly as hard as a stone. 
 
 At intervals along the board stood gigantic pies or 
 pastries twelve or fourteen inches high, ornamented all 
 over with flowers, fruits, or animals made of pastry, and 
 filled with varieties of birds, with hares, pork, or venison. 
 Fruit from the royal gardens and sweet cakes stood ready 
 for the dessert, and great flagons of wine and beer were 
 flanked by tankards of Mead and Metheglin, intended for 
 the weaker heads of the ladies. 
 
 These tables thus loaded filled the lower half of the 
 hall ; in the upper half, raised by a step and called the
 
 150 MOONFOLK. 
 
 dais, stood the famous Round Table, made by Meriin 
 or by the spirits whom he knew how to compel to 
 obey him. Around the edge of this table were carved 
 the stories of the great combats fought by Arthur and his 
 knights against both men and beasts, while the top was 
 beautifully inlaid with various colored woods arranged 
 in designs not to be understood save by those to whom 
 Merlin had explained them. A great throne-chair, with 
 a crown carved at the top of the high back, was placed at 
 the upper end, just under the eastern window, blazoned 
 with the finding of Excalibur ; and all around the table 
 stood the chairs of the knights, with the crest and shield 
 of each carved at the back. Opposite the king's chair 
 stood another, wrought with many magic arts by Merlin, 
 and named by him the Siege (or seat) Perilous, for, as 
 he had warned the knights, no man might sit in it except 
 the one for whom it was intended ; and if any other 
 should venture, some great peril was sure to befall him. 
 But soon after this chair was placed, and 
 in spite of his own warning, Merlin had 
 by some evil charge seated himself in it, 
 and had immediately disappeared, whither 
 no one knew, although all still looked for 
 his return. Since then, Sir Galahad, feel- 
 ing himself called to a high and noble effort of chivalry, 
 had dared to place himself in the Siege Perilous. Seated 
 therein, he had seen the vision of the Holy Grail for 
 which he was about to seek, and found himself mightily
 
 THE SIEGE PERILOUS. 161 
 
 strengthened and encouraged thereby. After that lie 
 departed upon his quest, and followed it to the end. 
 Having seen the Holy Grail, he departed from earth, and 
 crossing the seas in the moonglade, came straight to the 
 land where he and his comrades now dwell forever ; and 
 whither Arthur, after that last great battle in the west, 
 had been brought by those three queens who loved him, 
 Morgana le Fay, Belisante his sister, and the mysterious 
 Lady of the Lake. 
 
 Since then no more had dared to sit in the Siege Per 
 ilous. So it stood empty, the only gap in the bright 
 circle of the knights, when Arthur and his chivalry 
 seated themselves about the Round Table for council, or 
 for friendly talk, or for the telling and hearing of knightly 
 deeds. 
 
 11
 
 HOP-O -MY-THUMB. 
 
 rTlHE knights and ladies were all seated at the tables, 
 -*- with the king and queen at the head of the centre 
 one, and the feast went on with mirth, and song, and 
 laughter. Taliessin the bard was there, seated in a 
 place of honor, he struck his harp right joyously. He 
 sang a song of love, of ladies' smiles, of feasting, and 
 the pouring of wine. At the end of every verse, knights 
 and ladies smilingly joined in the chorus, sending great 
 floods of melody rolling up into the arched roof and ou< 
 through the twelve great windows, until the husband- 
 men binding sheaves in the yellow fields beside the
 
 THE GIANT AND THE DWARF. 163 
 
 river paused in their happy labor, and raising their 
 heads, said : 
 
 u There is feasting in onr good king's hall to-day, 
 and right merry are the noble knights, as well they may 
 be, living in Arthur's presence." 
 
 Little Khoda, looking and listening to everything, 
 forgot to eat, except when her companion Sir Percivale 
 urged some dainty morsel npon her, or laughed at her 
 bewilderment. Sometimes at these moments she found 
 the queen or Lady Isolde looking at her with scornful 
 smiles, or frowns: and then she turned to the king's 
 face, and in its grand sweetness and protecting power 
 she found strength and comfort. 
 
 The feast was at its height when the great doors at the 
 lower end of the hall were thrown open, and the cham- 
 berlain who waited jnst within them stepped forward, 
 glanced at the new arrival, bowed lowly, and announced : 
 
 " The noble knight Sir Lancelot dn Lac! " 
 
 A murmur of pleased surprise ran through the hall, 
 and every eye was turned upon the doorway, through 
 which appeared first Sir Lancelot, his armor soiled, cut, 
 and disordered, his head bare, his face pale and worn, 
 but his bearing upright and fearless as it had right to be. 
 Behind him followed a giant, whose great head was 
 bowed in entering the lofty doorway, and who carried 
 upon his shoulder a dwarf hardly three feet in height, 
 with a face so wrinkled and so droll that no one conk 1 
 look upon it without laughter. The giant was disarmed
 
 1 64 MOONFOLK. 
 
 and his hands were loosely tied by one end of a long 
 rope, the other end of which was bound tightly arouno 
 the arms of a knight, in whom Ehoda recognized with 
 a shudder Sir Guy du Fontaine. 
 
 Followed by these his captives, Sir Lancelot strode 
 up the hall until, reaching the head of the centre table, 
 he stopped, and addressing the king, said : 
 
 " I have, first of all, my Lord Arthur, to crave pardon 
 for appearing thus before your majesty ; but mine errand 
 must be my excuse, for I bring you first a false and 
 forsworn knight, whom but this morning I conquered 
 fairly, and who with my dagger at his throat yielded 
 himself my prisoner, passing his word, as knight and 
 gentleman, to practise nothing farther against me or a 
 certain lady whom I had the good fortune to rescue 
 from his hands. After that, losing my horse, I was mak- 
 ing my way through the wood on foot, when I again 
 encountered mine enemy, who' seeing me dismounted 
 and partially disarmed, set upon me with murderous 
 intent; and but that God and my Lady helped me, he had 
 slain me. But in the end I conquered once again, so 
 wounding him that I think he will be content to rest 
 awhile from his evil deeds. Then mounting my cap- 
 tive's horse, and leading him, pinioned as you see him, 
 I rode softly on until at a turn of the road I came upon 
 this giant carrying the dwarf. He was driving before 
 him a herd of beeves, of which he had robbed a luckless 
 hind, taking him captive also. Perceiving me, the
 
 SIR LANCELOTS PROWESS. 
 
 165 
 
 herdsman ran forward in spite of the giant's threats, 
 and kneeling, set forth his hard case, begging for help 
 and redress. 
 
 " The story told, I ordered the giant to give up his 
 ill-gotten booty and release his prisoner, the which 
 demands he refused with insolence, and swinging his 
 iron mace about his head, dared me to attack him. This 
 was not to be endured, and making suddenly in, I struck 
 him so shrewd a blow upon the sword-arm that the mace 
 fell crashing to the ground, and well-nigh the arm with 
 it. A few more blows brought my poor giant to his 
 knees and to reason ; whereupon I bound up his arm, 
 tied him to the other end of the rope already securing 
 
 my first captive, and so brought him forward, thinking 
 that my Lord Arthur might accept the giant, and my 
 liege lady the queen might fancy the dwarf, as humble 
 offerings from their unworthy knight Lancelot."
 
 1(36 MOONfOLK. 
 
 " Many thanks, fair knight and brother; and we accept 
 the gift right joyously," replied the king graciously. 
 "And what of your other captive, Sir Guy du Fon- 
 taine ? " 
 
 " He also is at Your Grace's disposal, for I can make 
 no terms, even those of honorable enmity, with a das- 
 tard and a liar." 
 
 " Nor can we count such among the knighthood of 
 our realm," replied the king gravely. "We have already 
 heard of Sir Guy du Fontaine's misdeeds from the Lady 
 Isolde of Escourt. "We now ordain that he be for to-night 
 kept in close ward, and that to-morrow, before the jousts 
 begin, he shall stand upon a scaffold in face of all the 
 court ; and that then and there his spurs shall be hacked 
 from his heels by the common headsman, the crest shall 
 be shorn from his helmet, and the bearings upon his 
 shield shall be effaced and blotted from our roll of armo- 
 rial and knightly bearings. So let it be." 
 
 A great silence fell upon the hall as this severe and 
 terrible sentence passed from the lips of the good king, 
 who never blamed without cause, or punished when he 
 could forgive. Even Guy du Fontaine bowed his head 
 without a word ; and when the king's guards approached 
 to unbind and lead him away, he followed without 
 resistance. 
 
 "Heaven be praised that he was never of the Round 
 Table," said Sir Pcrcivale, looking sternly after the dis- 
 honored knight.
 
 GUINEVERE DISDAINS THE GIFT. 167 
 
 *' 1 suppose the king knew that none of those he 
 chose for the Bound Table could do anything mean 01 
 wicked," said Rhoda. 
 
 "Think you so, little maid ?" asked her companion 
 smiling brightly. " However that may have been, full 
 well do all of us feel, that being chosen, we no longer 
 belong to the world or to ourselves, but to our lord the 
 king, and through him to his Lord, who is the Lord of 
 heaven and earth." 
 
 As he said these words, Sir Percivale's face glowed 
 with a joy at once so sweet and so solemn, that Khoda 
 looked at him without daring to reply ; and in the pause 
 Sir Lancelot's voice was heard : 
 
 " And now, if my lord the king excuses me, I will go 
 and lay off this stained and cumbrous armor, and don 
 garments better suited to ladies' presence and royal 
 feasting." 
 
 " Go, but return anon, fair sir," replied the king ; 
 and the queen coldly added : 
 
 "And prithee, Sir Lancelot, take the giant and the 
 dwarf away with yon. They spoil our merriment with 
 their ugliness." 
 
 " I had hoped that your majesty would accept the 
 dwarf as an offering from the humblest of your knights," 
 replied Sir Lancelot, bowing lowly, and suffering his eyes 
 to rest reproachfully upon the queen's haughty face. 
 But she shook her head disdainfully, and waving her 
 hand, said:
 
 1 68 MOONFCLK. 
 
 " Nay, I care not for such grewsome playthings , 
 give him rather to the little lady of the wood who came 
 hither riding your war-horse, and with her mouth full of 
 the praises of Sir Lancelot du Lac. There she sits beside 
 Sir Percivale, who is, I fear, your too successful rival in 
 her good graces." 
 
 " Tour majesty shall be obeyed," replied Sir Lancelot 
 again bowing almost to the ground ; but as he raised his 
 head, those who watched him saw the angry flush which 
 not all his pride could control. Then, signing to the 
 dwarf to follow him, he passed on to where Rhoda was 
 sitting, and said : 
 
 " Pardon me, fair lady, that I have not before offered 
 you my respectful thanks for your kind company in the 
 wood, and your gentle patience when I was forced to 
 leave you for a time. Will you kindly accept from me 
 this dwarf, who, little though he be, is so quick of wit 
 and limb that he cannot fail to become a valuable 
 servant, and may at least serve to remind you sometimes 
 of Lancelot." 
 
 " Very prettily spoken ; but in fact all the world 
 knows that Sir Lancelot du Lac is always ready with 
 pretty speeches for every child or woman who will 
 listen to him," said the queen, laughing scornfully. 
 Guinevere the Fair could not endure that those she 
 liked should offer even courtesy to any other than her- 
 self; and being queen and almost undisputed in what- 
 ever she said or did, she had never learned to hide ca
 
 THE DWARF'S MOTHER. 169 
 
 restrain her jealous temper. But Lancelot never looked 
 toward her or seemed to listen to her biting words, as 
 he stood bending over fthoda's chair, waiting for the 
 answer which she did not know how to make. 
 
 At this moment a slight disturbance was heard at 
 the door, and a woman pressing her way through the 
 guards came forward, followed timidly by a man dressed 
 as a common laborer, and appearing much confused at 
 finding himself in such a place and company. 
 
 tt I must see the king ! I must speak to our good 
 Lord Arthur ; he will see me righted ; he is father of all 
 his people ! " cried the woman. 
 
 Arthur, turning toward her, said : " Let her ap- 
 proach. What would you of the king, dame I " 
 
 " Justice, Lord Arthur. That dwarf is my child, 
 my poor little Hop-o'-my-thumb, and he was stolen away 
 from me only this morning by Grogoram the Giant, who 
 surprised him playing in our field beside the river; and 
 who took him and our two poor cows, with all our 
 neighbor's cattle, while we ran up and down, not know- 
 ing where to look for child or kine. Edmund our 
 neighbor came creeping home well-nigh dead with fright 
 and weariness, and told us how a brave knight of the 
 king's court had taken the giant prisoner, and with him 
 our poor little manikin here ; and how he would carry 
 them as gifts to the king and queen. Now, O Lord 
 Arthur, how can any man make gift of a child whocc
 
 1 70 MOONFOLK. 
 
 mother claims him, and holds out her arms to him, and 
 calls him so ! " 
 
 And the poor woman, throwing herself upon her 
 knees, raised her face streaming with tears toward the 
 king, and stretched her arms toward the dwarf, whose 
 wrinkled face began to work, and his little body to 
 tremble all over with eagerness, although he stood 
 patient and silent beside his master, Sir Lancelot. 
 Looking kindly toward him, Arthur held out his hand. 
 
 " Come hither, manikin. Is the good woman's 
 story true, and she really thy mother? " 
 
 " Yes, my Lord King, and a right good mother too," 
 replied Hop-o'-my-thumb, kneeling beside the king's 
 chair, and speaking in a strange high-pitched voice. 
 
 "And you would like to return home with her, 
 rather than to take service here at court, or wherever 
 8ir Lancelot, your captor, might appoint? " 
 
 " Yes, your majesty. In my father's cabin I call 
 no one master, unless it be my mother ; but in service, 
 a little fellow like me must be every man's servant. 
 
 " You speak shrewdly as well as drolly, manikin," 
 replied the king, smiling. " And if Sir Lancelot du Lac 
 consents to release his claim, thou art free to follow thy 
 mother-master this very instant. How is it, Sir Lance- 
 lot?" 
 
 "My claims upon the dwarf are already bestowed 
 in this lady's hands, your majesty," repjied the knight, 
 bowing gravely.
 
 nor a-MY THUMB RELEASED. 171 
 
 " And von, fair maid ? Will yon return him to his 
 mother, and his home I " asked the king. 
 
 "Oh, yes. I did not want him, any way," bega- 
 Hhoda hastily ; and then fearing to be rnde, added hesi- 
 tatingly, ' ; Though I was very much obliged to you, sir 
 for giving him to me." 
 
 " My poor gifts seem unfortunate to-day, but it is as 
 well/' replied Lancelot, looking at the queen, who wocld 
 have spoken ; but the king wa? already saying to hi 
 attendant : 
 
 u Let a handful of broad pieces be given to the dwarC 
 and see him safely beyond the town ; and you, my Lance- 
 lot, go get thee ready for at least the end of the fleas', 
 and return right speedily." 
 
 Bowing reverently, but without other reply, Lance- 
 lot withdrew from the royal presence, and though the 
 revel lasted far into the night, he did not appear again, 
 either at the feast or the dance which followed it.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 
 
 THE TOURNAMENT. 
 
 IE day following that of Rhoda's arrival at Came- 
 Ict was appointed for a grand tournament or joust, 
 when all the knights of Arthur's court, and as many 
 besides as chose to attend, were to tilt with blunted lances 
 and edgeless swords, fighting not for life, but glory and 
 ladies' smiles. 
 
 The lists were set in a beautiful green meadow beside 
 the river Usk, and at an early hour the whole court set 
 forth, the knights riding their war-chargers ; and the 
 ladies their palfreys or jennets, all dressed in their best 
 array, and wearing their gayest faces. 
 
 Rhoda, mounted upon a pretty pony, rode between 
 the Lady Isolde and another lady of the court, who had
 
 THE JOUSTING PLACE. 173 
 
 been desired to take charge of her, but who was too 
 busy chatting with the gay young squire beside her to 
 pay much attention to her young companion, while the 
 Lady Isolde never looked toward her. 
 
 Rhoda, thus left to herself, glanced curiously about 
 her, examining everything and wondering at everything. 
 Beaching the top of a little hill just outside the town, 
 she saw in the wide meadow at its foot a space of ground 
 closed in at the ends by stout and high barriers, and at 
 the sides by galleries with benches beneath, for the use 
 of the spectators fortunate enough to find room upon 
 them. 
 
 In the centre of each of these rows of galleries 
 was one higher and more ornamented than the rest. 
 Over that at the right hand was a golden crown, and 
 above it floated the dragon banner, marking it for 
 
 the royal seat. 
 Over the other 
 was also sus- 
 pended a crown, 
 
 but this was only of tinsel and flowers, and a ban- 
 ner representing Cupid surrounded by roses : this 
 gallery was intended for the Queen of Love and 
 Beauty, to be chosen by the knigut most success- 
 ful in the first melee, as the general combat was 
 called in distinction to those single combats where only 
 two knights contended. Outside the barriers at the 
 enus of the lists were pitched several pavilions and tent-
 
 374 MOQNfOtK. 
 
 for the use of the knights, and at the doors of these tents 
 were already planted the banners of many of Arthur's 
 best-known lances, while their squires and pages, hurry- 
 ing in and out, polishing anew some piece of armor 
 already dazzlingly bright, or holding their masters' splen- 
 did war-horses ready for mounting, gave life and action 
 to the scene. 
 
 Rhoda was led by her companion to seats reserved 
 for them in one of the principal galleries, and, as soon 
 as she was placed, began to search among the banners 
 for that of her friend Lancelot, which displayed upon a 
 silver ground a knight in full armor, with the red cross 
 of a crusader upon his shoulder, kneeling at a lady's 
 feet. 
 
 " There he is!" cried she joyfully, 
 as she discovered this device floating 
 out from amidst several others, before 
 one of the principal tents. 
 
 " There is who ? " asked Lady Isolde 
 sharply. 
 
 " Sir Lancelot ; and yes, that is Sir Percivale's pennon 
 beside it, and Sir Galahad's too. The three have that 
 tent together ; isn't it nice ? " 
 
 " It seems to me, young mistress, that you have 
 learned to talk very glibly of the names and devices of 
 knights, not one of whom you ever saw until yesterday, 
 I think." 
 
 " They have been very kind to me ; and Sir Per-
 
 THE LADIES JEALOUS- 175 
 
 circle told me all about the banners last night, and told 
 me to look for his ; and he said he would wear a rose on 
 his helmet for me to know him, and " 
 
 But here Khoda stepped, almost frightened at the 
 scornful and angry look east npon her by Isolde, whifc 
 the lady at her other side laughed aloud, saying: 
 
 " She leaves us all behind, does she not, Lady Isolde ? 
 Lancelot sets her upon his own steed, and Pereivale 
 wears her favor at a solemn festival and joust. Hath 
 not our Lord Arthur also given thee some token of his 
 regard, fair Mistress Ehoda ! n 
 
 "Xo, ma'am, except being very kind to me; and I 
 suppose that was because I am all alone here, and do not 
 know how to take care of myself as the rest of yon do," 
 said Khoda gravely ; and the lady, still laughing, cried : 
 
 " My faith, but the little thing is giving us lessons in 
 courtesy and hospitality. Gramercy, my Lady Isolde, 
 we shall do well to look to our words in such fine 
 company n 
 
 But the sentence was cut short by a loud and long 
 flourish of trumpets, announcing that the lists were 
 opened, and the joust about to begin, and at once all 
 eyes and ears and thoughts were turned toward the 
 barriers, behind which the knights were now seen 
 ranged in two long bright lines, armor glittering, pen- 
 nons waring, lances in rest, and chargers (retting and 
 pawing in their eagerness for the fray. 
 
 Out from their small and gayly decorated tents now
 
 176 MOONFOLK. 
 
 stepped the heralds, one at either end of the lists, and- 
 in the stately jargon, of their calling, first one and the:; 
 the other announced the names and titles of the knights 
 about to enter from his end of the lists, adding a 
 hope for their success, and that God would prosper 
 the right. 
 
 Then, at a signal from the heralds, 
 the barriers were thrown down, tho 
 trumpets sounded the onset, and the- 
 two long glittering lines of knights 
 moved rapidly forward, breaking, as 
 they entered the lists, into a sharp gal- 
 lop, increasing in speed until about the centre of the 
 lists they met, with a loud clash of spears rattling upon 
 shield or armor, a din of war-cries, the shrill neighing 
 of horses, and the loud cries of the spectators, who shouted 
 the name of this or that favorite knight, encouraging 
 him on to victory. 
 
 Before this first great shock of onset more than half 
 of all the knights went down, either driven backward 
 from their saddles, or overthrown, horse and man to- 
 gether, and rolled helpless beneath the feet of those still 
 saddle-fast. By the rules of the tournament, every 
 knight thus overthrown was judged defeated, and was 
 obliged to withdraw at once from the lists, although he 
 might enter himself again for any other encounter. 
 These unlucky ones were now seen struggling to their 
 feet, some unharmed, but most of them bruised and
 
 LANCELOT VICTOR OF THE DAY. 177 
 
 shaken, and a few so injured as to be unable to rise 
 without the help of their squires, who made in to their 
 makers" rescne as fa^t as possible, and not withoat some 
 danger to themgdvca. These and the riderless horses 
 removed, the lists were cleared for another course, the 
 knights withdrawing as far as the barriers, and charging 
 down upon each other as before, with like results, ex- 
 cept that now the lists being less crowded, the knights 
 were able to select their opponents, and after the first 
 encounter with the lance, to continue the struggle with 
 the sword either on foot or horseback. TFhenever a 
 knight was overthrown, or beaten to his knee, or driven 
 back until he touched the barriers, he was judged 
 defeated, and forced to withdraw. 
 
 After a little time the lists were almost deserted ex- 
 cept b j Lancelot, Galahad, Perdrale, and a few knighfe 
 who, having conquered all others, tit eager to match 
 thjmafllflff f^ajnst these, the three champions of Ar- 
 thurs court. 
 
 In the next course three more were defeated, and 
 while Sir Lancelot ran a course with his cousin, the brave 
 Sir Bors, the ether two separated for a friend! j trial of 
 strength against each other. Two more upon each side 
 opposed themselves, and at the signal the whole eight 
 met with a dash and a shock that sent three of the 
 nameless knights and the gallant Sir Bors reeling to 
 the ground, while Sir Galahad and Sir Perorate, splint- 
 ering their lances fairly in the centre of each other's 
 
 12
 
 r/8 MOONFOLK. 
 
 shield, rode on to the farther end of the lists and passed 
 out, neither claiming the victory. The solitary knight 
 who retained his saddle cared not to risk his laurels by 
 riding against Sir Lancelot, and, saluting him as victor, 
 left the field, amid the cheers of his especial friends, 
 who held him as all but conqueror, since no man ever 
 hoped to quite equal Lancelot. 
 
 And now, with a joyous flourish of trumpets and 
 wild cries of joy and admiration from the crowd, the 
 heralds proclaimed Sir Lancelot du Lac victor of the 
 day, and master of the lists. To him was delivered the 
 pretty crown of filagree gold, which was at once his 
 prize and the offering he was to lay at the feet of the 
 lady whom he might choose as Queen of Love and 
 Beauty. 
 
 Receiving this crown upon the point of his lance, 
 and baring his handsome head, Sir Lancelot, restraining 
 his horse to a walk, passed around the lists close be- 
 neath the galleries, looking up with merry and admiring 
 glances at the long lines of beautiful, eager faces bend- 
 ing over to watch his progress. 
 
 Reaching the royal gallery, he checked Tonnerre 
 still more, and fixing his glance upon the queen's face, 
 was about to lower the lance and lay his trophy at her 
 feet; but Guinevere, still vexed and pettish because he 
 had remained away from the feast and dance, now glanced 
 slightly at him, and turning away, feigned to be so busy 
 in whispering some laughing words in the king's ear
 
 THE QUEEN OF LOVE AND BEAUTY. 179 
 
 that she could not see the knight, who hesitated for a 
 moment, waiting to catch her eve. No longer ahle to 
 doubt that she intended to slight him and his offering, 
 Lancelot raised his head proudly erect, recovered his 
 drooping lance, and rode on, bowing profoundly as he 
 passed the king, but never looking again at the haughty 
 queen, whose rich color faded, and whose blue eyes 
 sparkled with anger, although she still feigned to be too 
 busy to look toward him. 
 
 "Doyousee that, lady Ermengarde?" eagerly mur- 
 mured Isolde, leaning across Bhoda to speak to her 
 companion. " The queen Jffi* Lancelot before all the 
 court, and some of us poor mortals must be his choice, 
 and wear the crown. See, here he comes !" 
 
 And both ladies bent their eyes upon Lancelot, who, 
 no longer careless and gay, but with a fixed and scornful 
 smile upon his lips, rode on, fretting his horse with the 
 spur, and at the same time checking him with the curb, 
 so that he bounded, curvetted, and caracoled in a man- 
 ner that would have made it difficult for a less ex- 
 perienced rider to retain his seat. 
 
 Lancelot, hardly seeming to remember that he was 
 upon horseback, carelessly allowed his eyes to roam over 
 the crowded benches. Meeting the Lady Isolde's pointed 
 regard and smile, he bowed, and then his eyes pass- 
 ing on to Bhoda's eager little face, a gentler look 
 came over his own, and suddenly lowering his lance 
 he laid the crown upon her lap, bowing at the same
 
 I8o MOONFOLK. 
 
 time until his coal-black curls mingled with Tonnerre's 
 mane. 
 
 A pause of utter surprise and doubt held every 
 tongue and eye fixed for a moment, while Rhoda sat, 
 the crown upon her folded hands, her eyes fixed upon 
 Sir Lancelot; the Lady Isolde's face grew dark with 
 envy and vexation, and the Lady Ermengarde stared as 
 if unable to credit her own eyes. Lancelot was the first 
 to speak : 
 
 " Fair maiden, will you accept my prize, and with it 
 crown yourself Queen of Love and Beauty ? " asked he ; 
 and Rhoda, her courage and her wits flowing back to 
 her, raised the crown from her lap, and said in her soft 
 childish voice : 
 
 " Thank you, Sir Lancelot ; but it is only because 
 you are so kind that you give it to me. I am not " 
 
 " Prythee hush, Miss Malapert ! " whispered Ermen- 
 garde in her ear. " You are not to judge the wisdom 
 of the good knight's choice, but accept it gratefully. 
 Put the crown upon thy foolish head, and bow and smile." 
 
 Without reply Rhoda obeyed, the trumpets rang out 
 a salute, the heralds announced her name and her title. 
 Noon had now arrived, the knights retired to their tents, 
 the royal party to a pavilion prepared for them, the 
 better sort of spectators to shaded spots beside the river, 
 or to private tents, while the common people, drawing 
 their luncheon from their wallets or baskets, picnicked in 
 the shade of the galleries where they sat.
 
 RHODA HONORED BY THE COURT. 181 
 
 hoda, invhed by a special messenger, TO led to the 
 royal pavilion, where, seated beside Sir Lancelot, die 
 received die onfles and attention doe to the Queen 
 of Love and Beauty and the chosen ladj of Arthur* 
 
 ;::_' : ---: /::.:_:_:.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE MANTLE AND THE DRINKING-HORN. 
 
 T)ESIDES Rhoda and Sir Lancelot, the king and 
 -* ' queen had invited many other guests to the lunch- 
 eon served in Vheir pavilion. The feasting and mer- 
 riment were at their highest when a chamberlain glided 
 nto the tent, and passing behind the king's chair, whis- 
 ered something in his ear. Arthur smiled, and raising 
 his hand for silence, said alond : 
 
 "Knights and ladies, one waits without with two 
 rare and precious commodities, which he will bestow 
 upon any among us who may deserve them. Give 
 your attention then, for I have sent for him to enter." 
 
 The buzz of words and laughter ceased upon the 
 
 moment, and every face was turned toward the door of 
 
 182
 
 PRICE OF MANTLE AND HORN. 183 
 
 the tent, where now appeared a boy perhaps twelve 
 years old, with a laughing yet overwise expression upon 
 his handsome face, and a basket upon his arm. Holding 
 his gay cap in his hand, he passed quickly through the 
 tent until, reaching the head of the table, he knelt beside 
 the king's chair, and humbly bowed his head. Looking 
 kindly at him, Arthur said : 
 
 4 ' Well, child, what is it you have there ? " 
 
 "A mantle and a drinking horn, fair king," replied 
 the boy. " A mantle that will lend beauty and grace 
 to whoever wears it, so that she remain true and pure, 
 and a horn from which a brave man may always drink 
 without refilling, so long as he remains brave. But, O 
 king, the wonder still remains to be told, for, such are 
 the magic virtues of mantle and horn, that no woman 
 who has ever told a lie, or even acted one, can wear the 
 mantle ; and no man who has ever shown himself coward 
 or traitor can drink from the horn ; and these rich pos- 
 sessions are now mine own, and shall belong to her and to 
 him who can prove their right to possess them, if such 
 lady and knight can be found in this goodly company." 
 
 " And what, that either knight or lady can offer, will 
 repay you for such rich and curious gifts, fair son ? " 
 asked the king, smiling good-humoredly. 
 
 " A kiss upon my mouth from the lady, and some heJp 
 against mine enemies from the knight," replied the boy 
 boldly. At the answer all the ladies smiled and looked 
 at each other, some angrily, some bashfully, or archly,
 
 1 84 MOONFOLK. 
 
 while the knights laughed aloud, and one said, " The 
 mantle would seem to be of far greater value than the 
 horn, since the price is so much heavier. "Would it not 
 be well, brothers, that we all turn venders of mantles ? " 
 
 Without heeding words or looks, the boy set his 
 basket upon the ground, and drew from it first a cloak 
 or mantle of purple silk, curiously and richly embroid- 
 ered with gold thread, with a sentence wrought around 
 the hem in a language which none of all the court could 
 read. It had a great golden clasp, set with a changing 
 moonstone, to fasten it about the throat, and it was al- 
 together so rich and beautiful a garment that any lady 
 might have been proud to wear it, apart from its magic 
 qualities. 
 
 Shaking out its rustling folds, and moving it this 
 way and that, the boy held it up to the light, and turn- 
 ing toward Guinevere's chair of state, he said : 
 
 " Will the queen deign to try my poor mantle ? " 
 
 " What, and give thee a kiss for it, malapert ! The 
 request is something over-bold," replied Guinevere 
 haughtily, and the king added more gently : 
 
 " Our queen's truth needs no proving, nor could she 
 bestow the priceless gift you ask, fair child ; but these 
 her ladies, all true and good, as who shall doubt, may 
 well amuse themselves with the sport you bring them. 
 What say you, Lady Ermengarde? May the boy lay 
 his pretty mantle upon your shoulders ? " 
 
 " At your majesty's command," replied Ermengardo
 
 PUT TO 2 HE TEST. 185 
 
 hnmblv, yet not with any great willingness ; and rising 
 she approached the yonth, who, smiling in his subtle 
 fashion, threw the cloak across her shoulders; but no 
 sooner had it rested there, than with a crackling, rending 
 noise it split in twenty places from top to bottom, each 
 strip curling and writhing like a serpent, so that the lady, 
 screaming loudly, threw it from her, crying, " It is alive ! 
 it stings! it chokes me !" 
 
 - My cloak is but of silk and gold. 
 And cannot sting, fair dame ; 
 It is the falsehoods you have told 
 That bring you now to shame 1 " 
 
 said the boy quietly, taking the mantle from the ground, 
 shaking it, and showing it whole and perfect as before. 
 
 " There is a trick about it. The varlet has contrived 
 this trick to put us all to shame ! " exclaimed Vivien 
 passionately. " Here, boy, give it me in mine own hands, 
 and let me see if I can not wear it without such mis- 
 chance." 
 
 Without reply the boy held out the mantle, and the 
 lady, one of the most beautiful and least beloved of the 
 whole court, took it, and carrying it to a little distance 
 from him, threw it lightly about her ; but at that very 
 instant the mantle broke or seemed to break into a sud- 
 den flame, and blazing upward, surrounded Vivien's head 
 with fire, so that, shrieking and stamping, she tore the 
 cloak from her shoulders, while every one rose in con-
 
 1 86 MOONFOLK. 
 
 fusion and ran to help her ; but the boy, snatching it 
 from the ground, sang loudly : 
 
 " Lady, that fire was but a sign 
 
 Of fires that hotter, fiercer barn ; 
 They do not come from me or mine, 
 But shall be yours, unless you turn." 
 
 "What! is there never a lady here that can wear 
 this scandalous cloak in safety ? " cried Sir Oaddocke, a 
 grim, gray-haired knight, sitting beside his wife, toward 
 whom he turned, and added : 
 
 " Get thee forward, dame, and put the thing about 
 thee ! These ten years that thou hast been ray wife I 
 have proved thee true and leal, and if the mantle shames 
 thee, I for one shall know it for a lying mantle, and its 
 malapert owner for a knave that needs a beating." 
 
 Modestly, yet without fear, the lady stepped forward, 
 and Sir Craddocke himself laid the mantle across her 
 shoulders. For a moment it hung there straight and 
 whole, and the husband cried triumphantly : 
 
 " See ! Here is one true dame, if no more " 
 
 But the boy with his strange and mocking smile laid 
 a hand upon Sir Craddocke's arm, and pointed down- 
 ward to where the hem of the mantle was beginning tc 
 shrink and crack and draw upward as if withered and 
 decayed. 
 
 " It is the falsehood I passed upon my father and 
 mother, when I stole away from them and home to
 
 DAME KATE PROVEN. 187 
 
 marry you, Sir Craddocke," sobbed the lady, and cover- 
 ing her crimson face with her hands she began to cry ; 
 but her husband, snatching the mantle from her shoulders, 
 folded his arms about her, and kissing her before the 
 whole court, he exclaimed : 
 
 " Well, then, Dame Kate, since that is thine only 
 falsehood, and that was acted for love of me, it is not 
 for me to chide thee or value thee the less for it; so 
 come and sit thee down again, and watch the play out." 
 
 But as Sir Craddocke tenderly led his dame back to 
 her seat, the boy, shaking and turning the mantle, sang : 
 
 " Who cheats her father and her mother. 
 
 Even for true love's sake, 
 May cheat her lover for another, 
 And holiest vows may break." 
 
 The fiery knight did not hear the warning, which 
 would certainly have made him angry; and Sir Per- 
 civale, kindly wishing to turn the attention of the whis- 
 pering crowd from Dame Kate, rose, and taking the 
 mantle from the boy, brought the mantle to Ehoda, 
 saying: 
 
 " Dear little Hose, you will not refuse to allow me to 
 put the mantle about you ; for surely one so young, and 
 wearing such a look of truth and purity, can have done 
 no wrong." 
 
 But Rhoda, springing from her chair, stepped back- 
 ward in alarm, crying : 
 
 "No, no! Don't put it on me. I have told wrong
 
 1 88 MOONFOLK. 
 
 stories ever so many times when I was little, and I am 
 afraid ! " 
 
 " But none since you were old enough to know 
 right from wrong, surely ? " asked the knight gravely. 
 
 I^---o, sir that is, I don't remember any," said 
 lihoda faintly. " But I'm afraid those will count." 
 
 " Oh, no, they were but childish errors, and are past," 
 persisted Sir Percivale, throwing the cloak about her ; 
 but before it touched her shoulders, the boy snatched it 
 and replaced it in his basket, singing as he did so : 
 
 " Childish falsehoods may stain the child, 
 
 But pass when she is older grown : 
 
 Maid, if you live true, pure, and mild, 
 
 The mantle yet shall be your own." 
 
 Then, without waiting for further question or remark, 
 he took from the basket a curiously wrought drinking- 
 horn of ivory, inlaid with silver, and supported upon 
 three feet of the same metal. This the boy filled with 
 wine from one of the great flagons upon the table, and 
 holding it toward the king, said : 
 
 " Here is what shall show, O king, the true courage 
 and temper of these your knights and courtiers; for 
 never coward or traitor can drink from it, let him try 
 his best." 
 
 " Say you so ? " cried the king pleasantly. " Thee 
 shall you, my Lancelot, drink from it first ; for all men 
 know you as the flower of knighthood, and bravest, even
 
 WINE WAS SPILLED.' 
 
 where all are brave and true. Drink, Mr sir, to mr 
 Dame Guinevere, and to me also, if so it please TOD." 
 
 Lancelot took the cap, and tuning his dark and 
 troubled face first to one and then the other, he mattered 
 hoarsely: "I drink to my king and to his queen," and 
 nified the cup to his lips; but whether it was that his hand 
 shook, or that the cup was over-full, or that the boy had so 
 contrived it, before it reached his lips it turned, and all 
 the wine was spilled upon the ground. A sort of horror 
 fell upon the court, and even the king looked aghast, 
 while Lancelot, never moving or speaking, stood with 
 the empty drinking-horn in his hand, and his eyes 
 jioodily downcast, while the boy chanted mockingly: 
 
 - Brhold the knight who never pfejed coward's put. 
 Bat jet is tzutor is kis iunast bait 1 " 
 
 - My Lancelot a traitor ! " cried Arthur indignantly. 
 - Xay, boy, now thou dost indeed exceed thy license ; and 
 well can we all see that thou art but a juggling rascal. 
 Lancelot du Lac coward or traitor ! Xever, while the 
 sun shines, or the seas roll, or thou. Guinevere, art fair 
 and true! Here, give me the horn, for I do believe that 
 it is so fashioned that no man may drink from it. Let 
 not the boy touch it, but, Lancelot, do thou fill and bear it 
 tome." 
 
 Without reply the knight obeyed, filled the cup again 
 from the same flagon, and, still with his eyes fixed mood* 
 ily upon die floor, carried it and gave it to the king,
 
 I 9 o MOONFOLK. 
 
 who taking it, slowly turned his blue eyes from one to 
 another of his knights, saying : 
 
 " I drink first to Lancelot du Lac, and after him to 
 all brave men and true." 
 
 Then he raised the cup to his lips, drank off the wine 
 without a pause, and held out the empty and reversed 
 cup, that all might see that it was emptied. 
 
 " The spell is broken, knights and gentlemen," said 
 he gayly ; " and any now may use the drinking-horn, so 
 that he does not let its owner meddle with it." 
 
 " Our lord the king is leal and true, 
 
 As who shall dare to doubt ? 
 If there's one like him 'mong you, 
 The horn will soon find out," 
 
 sang the boy; and when at a sign from the king the 
 chamberlain filled the horn and offered it to one and 
 another, so many hung back, or turned away, or showed 
 in various ways that they did not wish for the test, that 
 the king, his face pale and shocked, hastily cried : 
 
 " Away with this folly ! My knights need no magic 
 to prove them brave and true. Return the cup to the 
 boy ; and hark, the heralds summon us to the lists. My 
 queen, will you break up the banquet ? " 
 
 And as the company rose in some confusion, the boy, 
 with the mantle and the cup still in his possession, passed 
 from the tent and was seen no more.
 
 1 S Rhoda, following the king and queen, 
 ^returned to the lists, she was met by the 
 heralds, who in solemn and almost unin- 
 |telligible language told her that, as Queen 
 |of Love and Beauty, her place was now 
 in the gallery opposite that of the king and queen, and 
 that they were ready to escort her thither. 
 
 Half pleased, and half frightened, Rhoda followed 
 them, and took her place beneath the canopy. Then Sir 
 Lancelot, who had been also summoned, placed the crown 
 upon her head, and kneeling, kissed her hand in token 
 of homage to her royal station. Then he and the heralds 
 left the gallery, and she remained alone, the centre of a 
 sea of eyes that seemed to her without limit
 
 192 
 
 And now the course was cleared, the barriers thrown 
 down, and the heralds announced that the lists were 
 open to any ^knights who, having exchanged challenges 
 and given their names to the heralds, might choose to 
 ride against each other with sharp spears and swords, the 
 combat to be decided by the first blood drawn, or by 
 either knight yielding himself vanquished. The first 
 victor would receive as prize a silver lance-head bestowed 
 upon him by the Queen of Love and Beauty ; the second 
 would have a sword-hilt ; the third a pair of spurs ; 
 and the fourth a silken scarf. Each victor should have 
 the privilege of challenging any knight who had not 
 yet ridden ; but those once vanquished were not permit 
 ted to en>ter the lists again that afternoon, and the prizes 
 were not to be awarded until the jousts were ended for 
 the day. 
 
 These terms announced, the trumpets sounded a 
 fanciful flourish, and in at each end of the lists rode 
 six knights; the one party, called the challenged, re- 
 mained stationary just inside the barriers, while the 
 other, called the challengers, rode rapidly forward, and 
 each lightly touched with his spear-point the shield of 
 him whom he wished to oppose. These ranged them- 
 selves opposite to their challengers, who, wheeling their 
 horses, returned to their own end of the lists, wheeled 
 again, and at the sound of the trumpets both bands gal- 
 loped forward, meeting midway with a tremendous shock. 
 Five knights and three horses went down, and when the
 
 ered t&adt Sir WobiaB. % dad m 
 
 Wai >> B^, M tO Innnd JBd 
 
 fine penalty, or to aoecpft a mm 
 
 ,._:.. 
 
 "The carnage is wantting; aod I 
 bad bad ewgk of tk feofi^ phtr^
 
 I 9 4 MOONFOLK. 
 
 Turning with a start, Ehoda joyfully recognized the 
 Chimney-Elf perched cross-legged upon the back of her 
 chair, his pointed cap hanging jauntily over one eye, and 
 a long pipe in his mouth, from which he drew such clouds 
 of smoke as almost to hide himself from sight. 
 
 " Oh, Chimney-Elf, is it you ? " cried Khoda, " Why 
 did you run away from me, and where have you been, 
 and how did you find me out ? " 
 
 " Just your old way ! " muttered the elf peevishly. 
 " Three questions in a breath ; and I won't answer one 
 of them. It is enough for you to know that I am here, 
 and want you to come home." 
 
 " Home ? " repeated Rhoda dreamily, for she had 
 begun to feel as if what Sir Percivale had told her was 
 true that this was the real life, and what she had known 
 before, was only a dream already half forgotten. 
 
 " Yes, home ; and here is the fairy godmother kindly 
 come to take you part way; why don't you speak to 
 her ? " asked the Chimney-Elf impatiently. Ehoda sud- 
 denly became aware that the chariot and griffins were 
 standing beside her, and that the fairy godmother, hold- 
 ing the whip and reins in one hand, was reaching the 
 other toward her, saying impatiently : 
 
 " Come, little girl, step in as quickly as yon can ! 
 The griffins won't stand, and I am in a hurry," while 
 the Chimney-Elf added in the same tone : 
 
 " Come, Rhoda, jump in, and don't dawdle." 
 
 "But the tournament! but Sir Percivale, and Sir
 
 FAREWELL TO CAMELOT. 195 
 
 Lancelot, and the prizes ; and I am the Qneen of Love 
 and Beantr, and am to give them away ! " cried Rhoda 
 in dismay ; but even as she spoke she yielded, and step- 
 ped into the chariot, which was instantly whirled np into 
 the air ; and in another moment, Camelot, and the bright 
 Csk, and the lists, and the whole gay scene of which but 
 now Bhoda had formed a part, mingled together in one 
 glittering, restless mass, then grew vague and indistinct, 
 and at last was hidden beneath the low clouds scudding 
 between the chariot and the moon's surface. The Chim- 
 ney-Elf wrapped himself closely and sullenly in a great 
 gray mantle, or perhaps it was nothing but a smoke- 
 wreath somewhat denser than common ; the fairy gave 
 all her attention to the griffins ; Khoda, with her eyes full 
 of tears and her head bent upon her hand, was musing 
 over the scenes she had just left, wondering if she never 
 again should see the friends she had already learnt to 
 love, when the chariot touched the ground with a shock 
 that at once aroused her. Raising her dim eyes, she saw 
 that they had reached the sea-shore, and that at the head 
 of the wide gold-sanded beach stood a building whose 
 many windows, tall chimneys, and whirling noises re- 
 minded the little girl of the factory buildings she had 
 once been to visit in LowelL The fairy's first words 
 confirmed the idea : 
 
 " I have to go in here to order a quantity of glasses 
 for his Majesty of lalliput," said she. " After that 1 
 will take you round by the cloud-palaces, and so to the
 
 196 MOONFOLK. 
 
 Moonglade beach, where you will find your boat. Do 
 you want to coine in, Rhoda ? " 
 
 " Yes, if you please, ma'am ; but what sort of a place 
 is it ? " asked the little girl, privately thinking that it 
 was a very poor exchange for her dear Camelot. The 
 fairy glanced at her shrewdly, and replied : 
 
 " No, it isn't as romantic, but it's more to the pur- 
 pose, I assure you. This is my spectacle factory. 
 Come along." 
 
 " I shouldn't think you would need spectacles, 
 ma'am," said Rhoda, feeling that it was as well to speak 
 out her thoughts as to have them read in this manner. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "I thought fairies could do all they wanted to, and 
 see and hear everything ever so far off, and " 
 
 " All true my dear, and I do not need the spectacles 
 for myself. I manufacture them for the market." 
 
 " Oh ! do you, ma'am ? " stammered Rhoda, more 
 and more bewildered. 
 
 " Yes," returned the fairy godmother complacently 
 " I sell a great many spectacles, both here, and down 
 below in your world. Our principal trade, however, is 
 with Lilliput. The glasses magnify, you see, and the 
 Lilliputians, when they get them on, feel themselves 
 equal to anybody. They also have the faculty of making 
 everything seen through them look just as the person 
 looking wishes to see it. We sell great numbers to 
 fond mammas, who look at their children through
 
 THE SPECTACLE FACTORY. 197 
 
 them ; also to aged husbands of young wires ; also to 
 foolish wires of wicked husbands; and as for lorere, 
 both male and female, they always proride themselres 
 with fairy spectacles before they buy the engagement 
 ring.^ 
 
 "But how do all these people find you out, and 
 how do they pay you for the spectacles? 7 ' asked Ehoda. 
 
 "They don't find me out; they don't eren know 
 when they buy their glasses," replied the fairy, laughing 
 maliciously. u I see that they need them, and I just fit 
 on a pair and take my pay, without the other party 
 being a bit the wiser." 
 
 "But what pay I" 
 
 u WeH, it raries; but it is mostly in common flame. 
 We fairies need a great deal of sense to manage all the 
 affairs we hare to handle; and the sorts of people I have 
 mentioned don't seem to hare any use at all for it; 
 so I just take the sense they don't use, and gire them 
 fairy spectacles instead ; so both parties are suited, don't 
 
 T;- ^ !" 
 
 u And how do the Lilliputians pay yon I In sense, 
 too!" asked Ehoda, laughing. 
 
 tfo, in babies." 
 
 "In tobies!" 
 
 Yes, we bring them up for fkiries. We used to get 
 them from the world, but now that the Shakers hare 
 taken to the same business, the supply runs short; so we 
 bay lilliput babies, and pay in spectacles. But there, I
 
 198 MOONFOLK. 
 
 can't stop to talk any longer; stand just where you are 
 until I come back." 
 
 So saying, the fairy godmother took a hasty pinch of 
 rose-pollen snuff, and went clicking down the great hall 
 in her red-heeled shoes, striking her staff upon the stone 
 floor as she went, and casting quick, shaiy glances about 
 her upon every side. In this great hall stood at least a 
 dozen furnaces, each one surrounded by a crowd of little 
 swarthy gnomes, their faces streaming with perspiration, 
 and their eyes blood-shot and bleared from staring at 
 the blinding fires. Some of these gnomes worked a 
 machine which fed the furnaces with coals, some of them 
 shook the grates and urged up the fires, some of them 
 skimmed the boiling caldrons of liquid glass, and some 
 of them swung these caldrons off from the furnaces, and 
 ladled it into the moulds where the spectacle glasses 
 were formed. At the lower end of the hall were two 
 great folding doors opening into another hall, where the 
 glasses were ground, polished, and mounted, and made 
 ready for sale. 
 
 Khoda was still looking about her, full of interest in 
 all she saw, when the fairy godmother came clicking 
 np the stone alley between the furnaces, with the master 
 workman, a funny little black-and-red fellow, about two 
 feet in height, walking a step behind her, and listening to 
 her last orders. 
 
 " Fifty gross of lovers' rose-tinted spectacles, and 
 the same number of true-blue ones for those American
 
 AN OLD CUSTOMER. 199 
 
 politicians who are going to make orer the world ; the 
 gold-tinted ones for the authors to use in primring the 
 worth of their manuscripts, and the magnifiers for Liiii- 
 put. Yon have them all noted down ! ** 
 
 ** Yes, madam, everything." 
 
 a And don't forget the green ones for those jealous 
 husbands and wives. Poor wretches, they have paid all 
 their peace and comfort for them, and we mustn't dis- 
 appoint them of their bargain." 
 
 "Yes, madam," bowed the master gnome, pmiling 
 respectfully ; and with a little nod of farewell, the fairy 
 godmother clicked on and ont of the spectacle factory, 
 followed by Ehoda. As soon as they were seated in the 
 chariot once more, she timidly asked : 
 
 u Could you let me have a pair, ma'am ? " 
 
 u A pair of my spectacles, do yon mean " 
 
 ~ Yes, ma'am." 
 
 ~ Why, bless yon child, you have worn them all your 
 life. How else could you have seen the Chimney-Elf 
 and his companions, and how could you have found the 
 way to the moon, or even so much as seen me ? " 
 
 " Was it all feiry spectacles, then f " 
 
 "Every bit of it. You have worn them nearly aH 
 your life, and I have fitted you with about five pair, of 
 dMfaqat sizes and qualities." 
 
 "And what have I given for them I" Mind Bhoda, a 
 little terrified, as she remembered the fairy's scornful re- 
 marks upon common sense ; but the answer reassured her
 
 200 MOONFOLK. 
 
 "ftot mnsh that was worth keeping, my dear," said 
 the fairy godmother, with a pleasant twinkle of her black 
 eyes. " Only a little of your childish gayety, and content 
 with common things, and a good deal of time and some 
 little health. I believe that is about all. I am sure the 
 spectacles have more than paid you. But it is about 
 time for you to get some new ones. "What do you say to 
 a pair that will make the Widow Merriam, whom your 
 father is to marry, look like a mother to you ; and show 
 you your sister Susy's lover, Jonas Herton, in a pleasanter 
 light than you have seen him yet ; and make your own 
 home seem like a palace, or something better than a 
 palace to you, and " 
 
 " Oh, yes, yes, fairy godmother ! " broke in Ehoda, 
 with eyes flashing eagerly through their tears. " Those 
 are the spectacles I want ! Can you give them to me, 
 and what can I give you instead ? " 
 
 "They will cost you some of your self-will, some 
 selfishness, some pride, and a gcod deal of trouble, rny 
 dear," replied the fairy kindly. " But 1 really think it 
 will be an excellent bargain for you ; and I have already 
 fitted the glasses to your little nose, and will take my 
 pay when I want it." 
 
 At this, Ehoda's hand went up to her nose, and the 
 fairy added, laughing shrilly, " ]S"o, you can't feel them ! 
 Nobody knows whether they wear fairy spectacles or 
 not ; and it is one of the best jokes I know, to hear 
 people praise their own clear-sightedness, and boast how
 
 SPECTACLES FOR XHODA. 
 
 2CI 
 
 far into a mill-stone it will carry them, when all the 
 time, bless you, it is nothing but my glasses." 
 
 But Rhoda made no reply, for her mind was very 
 full of thought, and the fairy godmothers langh jaried 
 upon her car.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 DOWN THE MOONGLADE. 
 
 " ~T~TT~ELL, tthoda, are yon going to keep me waiting 
 * ^ much longer, I should like to know ? " said the 
 shrill voice of the Chimney-Elf. Rhoda, starting from 
 her reverie, found herself standing upon the golden 
 beach below the Man-in-the-Moon's house, with the dory 
 drawn up at her feet, and her little friend already seated 
 cross-legged upon the tiller and smoking furiously. 
 
 ""Why! where is the fairy godmother, and the cha- 
 riot, and the griffins?" exclaimed she, staring about her. 
 " Gone long ago, leaving you in such a stupid maze 
 that you never knew when you got out, nor when I
 
 RHODA'S REVERIE. 203 
 
 pulled down the dory, nor anything else. But here we 
 are at one end of the moonglade, with home at the other. 
 What do you say to starting ? " 
 
 "Home!" echoed Rhoda drearily. It seems so 
 queer to think of home. And then it is so many years 
 since I went away that they will have quite forgotten 
 me. I don't believe I want to go home, Chimney-Elf." 
 
 a So many years ! " repeated the elf with his shrillest 
 laugh. "Well, well! Step into the boat, and when 
 we reach home, if they do not know you, or if you do 
 not want to stay, I will bring you back to the moon, and 
 you may live here forever." 
 
 So Rhoda stepped into the dory, and took her seat 
 in the bows as before, while the Chimney-Elf muttered 
 some words which sent the little boat sliding down the 
 sands and out upon the shining sea, already bright with 
 the glories of the moonglade. 
 
 Presently Rhoda drooped her head, and hiding her 
 face between her hands, she saw again the wondrous 
 scenes through which she had so lately passed. She 
 saw Sir Percivale ? s kindly eyes bent upon her as he 
 placed her rose in his doublet ; saw Sir Lancelot's stern 
 beauty, and Arthur's kingly and gracious face ; Guine- 
 vere's fair, false loveliness ; and the jealous eyes of Isolde 
 watching her as she sat at the feast beside Sir Pereivale ; 
 and as she turned shuddering from that cruel gaze, the 
 voice of the Chimney-Elf came drifting dreamily in upou 
 her reverie :
 
 2C4 MOONfOLK. 
 
 w Get oat, and go up to the house ; jour father has 
 come home, and is asking for you." 
 
 ' What ! are we really at home, and is father here 
 still ! " murmured Ehoda, rubbing her eyes and looking 
 about her. The dory lay beside the rude old wharfj as 
 she had seen it so many times in the old days before her 
 life in the moon ; and she stepped out upon the mossy 
 stones with a strange thrill of delight. It was like an 
 old man's return to the home of his childhood. She 
 looked about her, as he might do, with wonder that all 
 should have remained so unchanged while she had lived 
 so much and so long. 
 
 " I wonder who lives in the old housj," murmured 
 she at last ; and slowly passing along the dewy moonlit 
 path, she climbed the hill, and so through the grove and 
 along the field, until, turning the corner of the gray old 
 house, she met her father, who, patting her kindly upon 
 the shoulder, said : 
 
 " Why, little girl, where have you been roaming 3 
 It is three or four hours since I first missed you, and it 
 is growing late for little people to be about. When we 
 have Mrs. Merriam here to look after things, she won't 
 let you go on in this way. 1 ' 
 
 " I have been out in the dory, father, but I am going 
 right in, and to bed, now," said Khoda aloud ; while to 
 herself die whispered, " I am afraid I shan't like it then 
 BO well as I do now ; but I will always try to look at the
 
 NO PLACE UK HO3OL ::: 
 
 Widow Merriam through my fairy 
 could be sure of always having them cm." 
 
 " They will always be on when you. wish for them, 
 and. after a while, even without your wishing, 7 * whis- 
 pered the Chimney-El^ who, himself invisible, was rid- 
 ing home, very much at his ease, upon Rhoda T s shoulder. 
 
 "Come, child!" exclaimed the father a little impa- 
 tiently. "Don r t stand dream- 
 ing there ; I want to shut the /^^H^^ s* 
 door. There, go right to bed, 
 and to sleep. Good-night I " 
 
 "Good-night, father dear r ~ 
 replied the little girl, holding 
 up her face for a kiss, and 
 then, with a happy smile upon 
 her lips, she passed into the 
 dreamy old house, and up to her pretty bed-room, to live 
 over in her dreams the fair scenes through which she 
 had passed. While the Chimney-Elf, bounding from her 
 shoulder to the hearth, and so up the chimney, curled 
 himself to sleep in the sootiest corner, murmuring, 
 
 tf Ah ! there is no place like home, after aHt"
 
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