e whole of the people called out at last.

This struck the Emperor, for it seemed to him as if they were right; but
he thought to himself, 'I must go on with the procession now. And the
chamberlains walked along still more uprightly, holding up the train
which was not there at all.

THE GOLDEN CRAB(5)

(5) 'Prinz Krebs,' from Griechische Mahrchen. Schmidt.

Once upon a time there was a fisherman who had a wife and three
children. Every morning he used to go out fishing, and whatever fish he
caught he sold to the King. One day, among the other fishes, he caught
a golden crab. When he came home he put all the fishes together into
a great dish, but he kept the Crab separate because it shone so
beautifully, and placed it upon a high shelf in the cupboard. Now while
the old woman, his wife, was cleaning the fish, and had tucked up her
gown so that her feet were visible, she suddenly heard a voice, which
said:

'Let down, let down thy petticoat
That lets thy feet be seen.'

She turned round in surprise, and then she saw the little creature, the
Golden Crab.

'What! You can speak, can you, you ridiculous crab?' she said, for she
was not quite pleased at the Crab's remarks. Then she took him up and
placed him on a dish.

When her husband came home and they sat down to dinner, they presently
heard the Crab's little voice saying, 'Give me some too.' They were all
very much surprised, but they gave him something to eat. When the old
man came to take away the plate which had contained the Crab's dinner,
he found it full of gold, and as the same thing happened every day he
soon became very fond of the Crab.

One day the Crab said to the fisherman's wife, 'Go to the King and tell
him I wish to marry his younger daughter.'

The old woman went accordingly, and laid the matter before the King, who
laughed a little at the notion of his daughter marrying a crab, but did
not decline the proposal altogether, because he was a prudent monarch,
and knew that the Crab was likely to be a prince in disguise. He said,
therefore, to the fisherman's wife, 'Go, old woman, and tell the Crab I
will give him my daughter if by to-morrow morning he can build a wall in
front of my castle much higher than my tower, upon which all the flowers
of the world must grow and bloom.'

The fisherman's wife went home and gave this message.

Then the Crab gave her a golden rod, and said, 'Go and strike with this
rod three tim