hat was wont to sing so
merrily from the tree hard by the arbor. Oh, there was a mighty din
and a fearful fluttering, and the rest flew swiftly away, but Joyous
could not do so, because the full evil cat held him in her cruel fangs
and claws. And I make no doubt that Joyous would speedily have met his
death, but that with a wrathful cry did our little Mistress Merciless
hasten to his rescue. And our little Mistress belabored that full evil
cat with Master Sweetheart's crutch, until that cruel beast let loose
her hold upon the fluttering bird and was full glad to escape with her
aching bones into the thicket again. So it was that Joyous was
recovered from death; but even then might it have fared ill with him,
had they not taken him up and dressed his wounds and cared for him
until duly he was well again. And then they released him to do his
plaisance, and he returned to his home in the tree hard by the arbor
and there he sung unto those children more sweetly than ever before;
for his heart was full of gratitude to our little Mistress Merciless
and Master Sweetheart.

Now, of the dolls that she had in goodly number, that one which was
named Beautiful did our little Mistress Merciless love best. Know well
that the doll Beautiful had come not from oversea, and was neither of
wax nor of china; but she was right ingeniously constructed of a
bed-key that was made of wood, and unto the top of this bed-key had the
Queen of Sheba superadded a head with a fair face, and upon the body
and the arms of the key had she hung passing noble raiment. Unto this
doll Beautiful was our little Mistress Merciless vastly beholden, and
she did use to have the doll Beautiful lie by her side at night whilst
she slept, and whithersoever during the day she went, there also would
she take the doll Beautiful, too. Much sorrow and lamentation,
therefore, made our little Mistress Merciless when on an evil day the
doll Beautiful by chance fell into the fish-pond, and was not rescued
therefrom until one of her beauteous eyes had been devoured of the
envious water; so that ever thereafter the doll Beautiful had but one
eye, and that, forsooth, was grievously faded. And on another evil day
came a monster ribald dog pup and seized upon the doll Beautiful whilst
she reposed in the arbor, and bore her away, and romped boisterously
with her upon the sward, and tore off her black-thread hair, and sought
to destroy her wholly, which surely he would have