den goose, and the golden goose following Taper Tom,
led by a string, she began to laugh and to laugh and to laugh.

Then the King proclaimed that Taper Tom should wed the Princess, and
that half the kingdom would be her dowry.

THE BOY WHO WENT TO THE NORTH WIND

"Go you now to the safe and get some meal," said the mother of the Boy.
"And mind that you carry it carefully, for there is but little left."

So the Boy went to the safe to get the meal, but as he came back with it
the North Wind blew it away, and he went home empty-handed, and there
was no meal in the house that day.

The next morning the mother sent the Boy to the safe again, and once
more the North Wind came and took the meal.

On the third day it was as before. Then the Boy said: "I will go to the
North Wind and demand that he give back my meal, for we have nothing to
eat in the house."

So the boy started and went far, far to the country where the North Wind
abode; and when he had come there the North Wind said:

"I give you greeting and thanks for your coming. What can I do for you?"

The Boy answered: "I give you back your greeting, and I am come for the
meal which you have taken away from me, for we have none left in the
house."

Then he told how for three days the North Wind had come and taken the
meal as he returned with it from the safe, and now there was nothing to
eat in the house.

"I have not got your meal," said the North Wind, "but I will give you a
magic cloth which, whenever you say to it, 'Cloth, serve forth a
dinner,' will provide you with all that you can eat and drink in a
moment."

So the boy took the cloth and started for his home, but as he had a
long way to go he stopped over night at an inn, and, being hungry, and
wanting to test the cloth, he sat down at a table and unfolded it before
him, saying: "Cloth, serve forth a dinner." Immediately there was served
upon the cloth all sorts of good things to eat--such food as the Boy had
never eaten before in his life.

"It is indeed a magic cloth," said the Boy, when, the dinner eaten, he
folded the cloth carefully and put it under his pillow before he slept.

Now, the inn-keeper had been a witness to the thing which had happened,
and had heard the words which the Boy said to the cloth, so he decided
that he must possess so wonderful a thing as that, for it would save
him much labor. Accordingly, after the Boy had gone to sleep, he stole
quietly into the room and s