Anne, sister Anne, do you see anybody coming?"
She answered: "Yes I see a cloud of dust that moves this way."
"Is it our brothers, Anne?" implored the lady. "No, my sister,
It is a flock of sheep." Here Blue-beard thundered out: "I say,
Come down or I'll come after you!" Again the only answer:
"Oh, just one little minute more,--one minute more to pray!"

"Oh, Anne, sister Anne, do you see anybody coming?"
"I see two horsemen riding, but they yet are very far!"
She waved them with her handkerchief; it bade them, "hasten, hasten!"
Then Blue-beard stamped his foot so hard
it made the whole house jar;
And, rushing up to where his wife knelt, swung his glittering cutlass,
As Indians do a tomahawk, and shrieked: "How slow you are!"

Just then, without, was heard the beat of hoofs upon the pavement,
The doors flew back, the marble floors rang to a hurried tread.
Two horsemen, with their swords in hand,
came storming up the stairway,
And with one swoop of their good swords
they cut off Blue-beard's head!
Down fell his cruel arm, the heavy cutlass falling with it,
And, instead of its old, ugly blue, his beard was bloody red!

Of course, the tyrant dead, his wife had all his vast possessions;
She gave her sister Anne a dower to marry where she would;
The brothers were rewarded with commissions in the army;
And as for Blue-beard's wife, she did exactly as she should,--
She wore no weeds, she shed no tears; but very shortly after
Married a man as fair to look at as his heart was good.

[Color Plate:]

The little brown owl sits up in the Tree,
And if you look well
His big eyes you may see.
He says Whit a whoo, when the night grows dark,
And he hears the dogs
and the little foxes bark.

THE SLEEPING PRINCESS

Versified by Clara Doty Bates

The ringing bells and the booming cannon
Proclaimed on a summer morn
That in the good king's royal palace
A Princess had been born.

The towers flung out their brightest banners,
The ships their streamers gay,
And every one, from lord to peasant,
Made joyful holiday.

Great plans for feasting and merry-making
Were made by the happy king;
And, to bring good fortune, seven fairies
Were bid to the christening.

And for them the king had seven dishes
M