the latter drew near the king's seat he passed him, to the wonder of
all the people, and easily won the race.

The king was delighted, the princess waved her veil, and the people
all shouted, "Huzza for Little Mook!"

So Little Mook became the royal messenger, and surpassed all the
runners in the world with his magic slippers.

But Little Mook's great success with his magic slippers excited
envy, and made him bitter enemies, and at last the king himself came
to believe the stories of his enemies, and turned against him and
banished him from his kingdom.

Little Mook wandered away, sore at heart, and as friendless as when
he had left home and the house of the old woman. Just beyond the
confines of the kingdom he came to a grove of fig-trees full of
fruit.

He stopped to rest and refresh himself with the fruit. There were
two trees that bore the finest figs he had ever seen. He gathered
some figs from one of them, but as he was eating them his nose and
ears began to _grow_, and when he looked down into a clear, pure
stream near by, he saw that his head had been changed into a head
like a donkey.

He sat down under the _other_ fig-tree in despair. At last he took
up a fig that had fallen from this tree, and ate it. Immediately his
nose and ears became smaller and smaller and resumed their natural
shape. Then he perceived that the trees bore magic fruit.

"Happy thought!" said Little Mook. "I will go back to the palace and
sell the fruit of the first tree to the royal household, and then I
will turn doctor, and give the donkeys the fruit of the second tree
as medicine. But I will not give the old king any medicine."

[Illustration: AMPUTATION.]

Little Mook gathered the two kinds of figs, and returned to the
palace and sold that of the first tree to the butler.

Oh, then there was woe in the palace! The king's family were seen
wandering around with donkeys' heads on their shoulders. Their noses
and ears were as long as their arms. The physicians were sent for
and they held a _consultation_. They decided on amputation; but as
fast as they cut off the noses and ears of the afflicted household,
these troublesome members grew out again, longer than before.

Then Little Mook appeared with the principles and remedies of
homoeopathy. He gave one by one of the sufferers the figs of the
_second_ tree, and they were cured. He collected his