the bird sentenced the nurse to be
thrown out of the window, and the sisters to be cast into a cauldron
of boiling oil. This was at once done. The king was never tired of
embracing his wife. Then the bird departed and the king and his wife
and children lived together in peace.

[Illustration: The Girl and the Frog]

THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS

There was once a man who had a son named Jack, who was very simple in
mind and backward in his thought. So his father sent him away to
school so that he might learn something; and after a year he came back
from school.

"Well, Jack," said his father, "what have you learnt at school?"

And Jack said, "I know what dogs mean when they bark."

"That's not much," said his father. "You must go to school again."

So he sent him to school for another year, and when he came back he
asked him what he had learnt.

"Well, father," said the boy, "when frogs croak I know what they
mean."

"You must learn more than that," said the father, and sent him once
more to school.

And when he returned, after another year, he asked him once more what
he had learnt.

"I know all the birds say when they twitter and chirp, caw and coo,
gobble and cluck."

"Well I must say," said the father, "that does not seem much for three
years' schooling. But let us see if you have learnt your lessons
properly. What does that bird say just above our heads in the tree
there?"

Jack listened for some time but did not say anything.

"Well, Jack, what is it?" asked his father.

"I don't like to say, father."

"I don't believe you know or else you would say. Whatever it is I
shall not mind."

Then the boy said, "The bird kept on saying as clear as could be, 'the
time is not so far away when Jack's father will offer him water on
bended knees for him to wash his hands; and his mother shall offer him
a towel to wipe them with.'"

Thereupon the father grew very angry at Jack and his love for him
changed to hatred, and one day he spoke to a robber and promised him
much money if he would take Jack away into the forest and kill him
there and bring back his heart to show that he had done what he had
promised. But instead of doing this the robber told Jack all about it
and advised him to flee away, while the robber took back to Jack's
father the heart of a deer saying that it was Jack's. Then Jack
travelled on and on till one night he stopped at a castle on the way;
and while they were all supping toge