is wonderful adventure,
for he thought he would like again to follow the princesses in their
wanderings. And this he did a second and a third time, and each night
the twelve sisters danced until their slippers were riddled with holes.
The third night the soldier carried off a goblet, as a sign that he had
visited the castle across the lake.

When next day he was brought before the King, to tell where the twelve
dancing princesses held their night-frolic, the soldier took with him
the twig with its silver leaves, the twig with its leaves of gold, and
the twig whose leaves were of diamonds. He took, too, the goblet.

"If you would live, young man," said the King, "answer me this: How
comes it that my daughters' slippers, morning after morning are danced
into holes? Tell me, where have the princesses spent the three last
nights?"

"With twelve princes in an underground castle," was the unexpected
reply.

And when the soldier told his story, and held up the three twigs and the
goblet to prove the truth of what he said, the King sent for his
daughters.

In the twelve sisters tripped, with no pity in their hearts for "the old
snorer," as they called the soldier; but when their eyes fell upon the
twigs and the goblet they all turned white as lilies, for they knew that
their secret night-frolics were now at an end for ever.

"Tell your tale," said the King to the soldier. But before he could
speak, the princesses wrung their hands, crying, "Alack! alack!" and
their father knew that at last he had discovered their secret.

Then turning to the soldier, the King said: "You have indeed won your
prize. Which of my daughters do you choose as your wife?"

"I am no longer young," replied the soldier. "Let me marry the eldest
princess."

So that very day the wedding bells pealed loud and far, and a few years
later the old soldier and his bride were proclaimed King and Queen.

EDWY AND THE ECHO

It was in the time of good Queen Anne, when none of the trees in the
great forest of Norwood, near London, had begun to be cut down, that a
very rich gentleman and lady lived in that neighborhood. Their name was
Lawley, and they had a fine old house and large garden with a wall all
round it. The woods were so close to this garden that some of the high
trees spread their branches over the top of the wall.

Now this lady and gentleman were very proud and very grand. They
despised all people poorer than themselves, and there w