"I have a mind to eat little Morning for my dinner to-morrow."

"Ah! madam," cried the clerk of the kitchen.

"I will have it so," replied the Queen (and this she spoke in the tone
of an Ogress who had a strong desire to eat fresh meat), "and will eat
her with a sauce Robert."

The poor man, knowing very well that he must not play tricks with
Ogresses, took his great knife and went up into little Morning's
chamber. She was then four years old, and came up to him jumping and
laughing, to take him about the neck, and ask him for some sugar-candy.
Upon which he began to weep, the great knife fell out of his hand, and
he went into the back yard, and killed a little lamb, and dressed it
with such good sauce that his mistress assured him that she had never
eaten anything so good in her life. He had at the same time taken up
little Morning, and carried her to his wife, to conceal her in the
lodging he had at the bottom of the courtyard.

About eight days afterward the wicked Queen said to the clerk of the
kitchen, "I will sup on little Day."

He answered not a word, being resolved to cheat her as he had done
before. He went to find out little Day, and saw him with a little foil
in his hand, with which he was fencing with a great monkey, the child
being then only three years of age. He took him up in his arms and
carried him to his wife, that she might conceal him in her chamber along
with his sister, and in the room of little Day cooked up a young kid,
very tender, which the Ogress found to be wonderfully good.

This was hitherto all mighty well; but one evening this wicked Queen
said to her clerk of the kitchen:

"I will eat the Queen with the same sauce I had with her children."

It was now that the poor clerk of the kitchen despaired of being able
to deceive her. The young Queen was turned of twenty, not reckoning the
hundred years she had been asleep; and how to find in the yard a beast
so firm was what puzzled him. He took then a resolution, that he might
save his own life, to cut the Queen's throat; and going up into her
chamber, with intent to do it at once, he put himself into as great
fury as he could possibly, and came into the young Queen's room with his
dagger in his hand. He would not, however, surprise her, but told
her, with a great deal of respect, the orders he had received from the
Queen-mother.

"Do it; do it" (said she, stretching out her neck). "Execute your
orders, and then I shall go and see my