aws; I seized him, despite his struggles, although he tore
my hands in pieces, and without pity, knowing with whom I had to deal,
I took the knife which I used to open shell-fish, and cut off the
monster's head, claws, and tail, confidently awaiting the success of
my devotion.

"I did not wait long; no sooner had I thrown the body of the animal
into the sea than I saw before me two beautiful ladies, one crowned
with white plumes, the other with a serpent's skin thrown like a scarf
across her shoulder. They were, as I have already told you, the Fairy
of the Waters and the Fairy of the Woods, who, enchanted by a wretched
genie who had learned their secret, had been forced to remain a
kingfisher and an adder until freed by some generous hand, and who
owed me their power and freedom.

"'Ask of us what you will,' said they, 'and your request shall be
instantly granted.'

"I reflected that I was old, and had suffered too much in life to wish
to begin it anew, while the day would come, my child, when nothing
would be too great for your desires; when you wish to be rich,
noble--a general, a marquis, a prince, perhaps! When that day comes,
thought I, I can give him everything, and a single moment of such
happiness will repay me for eighty years of pain and misery. I thanked
the fairies, therefore, and entreated them to keep their good will
till the day when I should have need of it. The Fairy of the Waters
took a small feather from her crown, and the Fairy of the Woods
detached a scale from her scarf.

"'My good woman,' said they, 'when you wish for us, place this feather
and this scale in a vessel of pure water and call on us, making a
wish. Should we be at the end of the world, we will be at your side in
an instant, ready to pay the debt we owe you.'

"I bowed my head in token of gratitude. When I raised it all had
vanished; even the wounds and blood had disappeared from my hands, and
I should have thought that I had been dreaming, had not the scale of
the serpent and the feather of the kingfisher remained in my hand."

"And where are these treasures, grandmamma?" asked Graceful.

"My child, I have carefully concealed them," answered the old woman,
"not wishing to show them to you till you were a man and able to make
use of them; but since death is about to separate us, the moment has
come to give you these precious talismans. You will find at the back
of the cupboard a wooden chest hidden under some rags; in the chest