arrived, each person
handsomer than the one before, and all was brilliancy and splendour, she
thought on her own fate with a sad heart, and bewailed her former pride
and haughtiness which had brought her so low, and plunged her in so
great poverty. And as the rich and delicate dishes smelling so good were
carried to and fro every now and then, the servants would throw her a
few fragments, which she put in her pockets, intending to take home.
And then the prince himself passed in clothed in silk and velvet, with a
gold chain round his neck. And when he saw the beautiful woman standing
in the doorway, he seized her hand and urged her to dance with him, but
she refused, all trembling, for she saw it was King Thrushbeard, who had
come to court her, whom she had turned away with mocking. It was of no
use her resisting, he drew her into the room; and all at once the band
to which her pockets were fastened broke, and the pots fell out, and the
soup ran about, and the fragments were scattered all round. And when the
people saw that, there was great laughter and mocking, and she felt so
ashamed, that she wished herself a thousand fathoms underground. She
rushed to the door to fly from the place, when a man caught her just on
the steps, and when she looked at him, it was King Thrushbeard again. He
said to her in a kind tone,

"Do not be afraid, I and the beggar-man with whom you lived in the
wretched little hut are one. For love of you I disguised myself, and it
was I who broke your pots in the guise of a horse-soldier. I did all
that to bring down your proud heart, and to punish your haughtiness,
which caused you to mock at me." Then she wept bitterly, and said,

"I have done great wrong, and am not worthy to be your wife."

But he said,

"Take courage, the evil days are gone over; now let us keep our
wedding-day."

Then came the ladies-in-waiting and put on her splendid clothing; and
her father came, and the whole court, and wished her joy on her marriage
with King Thrushbeard; and then the merry-making began in good earnest.
I cannot help wishing that you and I could have been there too.

[Illustration: SNOW-WHITE

"QUEEN THOU ART OF BEAUTY RARE
BUT SNOW-WHITE LIVING IN THE GLEN,
WITH THE SEVEN LITTLE MEN,
IS A THOUSAND TIMES MORE FAIR."]

SNOW-WHITE

IT was the middle of winter, and the snow-flakes were falling like
feathers from the sky, and a queen sat at her window working, and her