ed another servant. Then, turning to the young man, she
said: 'See if you can run better than he can. There,' she said, 'at the
top of that high mountain, just near the sun, lives a hermit. Go and ask
him what it is he wishes to say to me. Then come back and tell me.'

'Oh! that is nothing at all,' said the young hero. And, turning to the
man who ran like a hare, he said: 'Go to the top of the mountain and
come back with the message.'

And the man who ran like a hare was out of sight in a second, and before
they could count three he had returned to the Queen with the message
that the hermit was dead, which the Queen had known all the time.

And the young man said to the King:

'You have submitted us to the test, and we have carried out all that you
wished: we have now gained the Queen, and I am going to take her.'

Then the King got very angry and called out all his soldiers.

The young man, hearing this, said to the man with the strong arms:

'Hi! friend! Take the whole castle, with the Queen and all that it
contains, on your shoulders!'

The man obeyed and they went on their way!

They had not gone a great distance when the man who had gazed at the sun
cried out:

'In the distance I can see that we are being pursued by an army; they
want to take the Queen!'

The King and his army approached rapidly, and demanded the Queen.

Then the man of the strong arm killed the King and every one of his army
with a single blow.

Then he departed with the Queen and the castle to the home of the young
man; and as soon as they got there the hero married the Queen, and, with
her and his mother, they lived very happily to a good old age.

THE SERPENT PRINCE

AN ITALIAN FAIRY TALE

Once, a very long time ago, before aeroplanes emulated eagles and motor
cars ran along swifter than the foxes, there lived on the outskirts of a
great forest an old couple who were poor and childless and lonely.

Matteo was the name of this worthy pair, and the old man was called Cola
and his wife was known as Sapatella. Now Matteo was a forester, and,
because his duties kept him roaming from early morn until late in the
evening through the deep dark glades of the forest, his wife, who had to
stay at home and mind the cottage and prepare the meals, and never go
out, not even to see the pictures on Saturday evenings, was very lonely
indeed and wished more than ever that she had a son, so that _he_ could
go to the pictures and tell h