.'

[Illustration: Protestation]

[Illustration: The Way of the World]

'Yes, indeed,' answered the Cat; 'it will taste as good to you as if
you stretched your thin tongue out of the window.'

They started off, and when they reached it they found the pot in its
place, but quite empty!

'Ah,' said the Mouse, 'now I know what has happened! It has all come
out! You are a true friend to me! You have eaten it all when you stood
godmother; first the top off, then half of it gone, then----'

'Will you be quiet!' screamed the Cat. 'Another word and I will eat
you up.'

'Cleangone' was already on the poor Mouse's tongue, and scarcely was
it out than the Cat made a spring at her, seized and swallowed her.

You see that is the way of the world.

_THE SIX SWANS_

A King was once hunting in a great wood, and he hunted the game so
eagerly that none of his courtiers could follow him. When evening came
on he stood still and looked round him, and he saw that he had quite
lost himself. He sought a way out, but could find none. Then he saw an
old woman with a shaking head coming towards him; but she was a witch.

'Good woman,' he said to her, 'can you not show me the way out of the
wood?'

'Oh, certainly, Sir King,' she replied, 'I can quite well do that, but
on one condition, which if you do not fulfil you will never get out of
the wood, and will die of hunger.'

'What is the condition?' asked the King.

'I have a daughter,' said the old woman, 'who is so beautiful that she
has not her equal in the world, and is well fitted to be your wife; if
you will make her lady-queen I will show you the way out of the wood.'

The King in his anguish of mind consented, and the old woman led him
to her little house where her daughter was sitting by the fire. She
received the King as if she were expecting him, and he saw that she
was certainly very beautiful; but she did not please him, and he could
not look at her without a secret feeling of horror. As soon as he had
lifted the maiden on to his horse the old woman showed him the way,
and the King reached his palace, where the wedding was celebrated.

The King had already been married once, and had by his first wife
seven children, six boys and one girl, whom he loved more than
anything in the world. And now, because he was afraid that their
step-mother might not treat them well and might do them harm, he put
them in a lonely castle that stood in the middle of a wood. It lay