s to trust it in bed
while you sleep."

The queen, imagining it was her royal consort, instantly gave him the
ring, and in a moment the conjurer was off with it on his finger.
Directly afterwards the king came back.

"At last," he said, "I have indeed carried the joke too far. I have
repaid him. He is lying there as dead as a door nail. He will plague
us no more."

"I know that already," replied the queen. "You have told me exactly
the same thing twice over."

"How came you to know anything about it?" inquired his majesty.

"How? From yourself to be sure," replied his consort. "You informed me
that the conjurer was dead, and then you asked me for my ring."

"I ask for the ring!" exclaimed the king. "Then I suppose you must
have given it to him," continued his majesty, in a tone of great
indignation; "and is it even so at last? By all the saints, this is
one of the most confounded, unmanageable knaves in existence. I never
knew anything to equal it."

Then he informed the queen of the whole affair, though before he
arrived at the conclusion of his tale she was fast asleep.

Soon after it was light in the morning the wily conjurer made his
appearance. He bowed to the earth three times before the queen and
presented her with the treasure he had stolen. The king, though
excessively chagrined, could not forbear laughing at the sight.

"Now hear," said he, "thou king of arch rogues. Had I only caught a
sight of you through my fingers as you were coming, you would never
have come off so well. As it is, let what is past be forgiven and
forgotten. Take up your residence at my court, and take care that you
do not carry your jokes too far, for in such a case I may find myself
compelled to withdraw my favour from you if nothing worse ensue."

BROTHER MERRY.

In days of yore there was a war, and when it was at an end a great
number of the soldiers that had been engaged in it were disbanded.
Among the rest Brother Merry received his discharge, and nothing more
for all he had done than a very little loaf of soldier's bread, and
four halfpence in money. With these possessions he went his way. Now a
saint had seated himself in the road, like a poor beggar man, and when
Brother Merry came along, he asked him for charity to give him
something. Then the soldier said--

"Dear beggar man, what shall such as I give you? I have been a
soldier, and have just got my discharge, and with it only a very
little loaf and four