hundred years. A lady of honour ventured to intimate that dinner was
served; whereupon the prince handed his beloved princess at once to
the great hall. She did not wait to dress for dinner, being already
perfectly and magnificently attired, though in a fashion somewhat out
of date. However, her lover had the politeness not to notice this, nor
to remind her that she was dressed exactly like her royal grandmother,
whose portrait still hung on the palace walls.

During the banquet a concert took place by the attendant musicians,
and considering they had not touched their instruments for a century
they played extremely well. They ended with a wedding march: for that
very evening the marriage of the prince and princess was celebrated,
and though the bride was nearly one hundred years older than the
bridegroom, it is remarkable that the fact would never have been
discovered by any one unacquainted therewith.

After a few days they went together out of the castle and enchanted
wood, both of which immediately vanished, and were never more beheld
by mortal eyes. The princess was restored to her ancestral kingdom,
but it was not generally declared who she was, as during a hundred
years people had grown so very much cleverer that nobody then living
would ever have believed the story. So nothing was explained, and
nobody presumed to ask any questions about her, for ought not a prince
be able to marry whomsoever he pleases?

Nor--whether or not the day of fairies was over--did the princess ever
see anything further of her seven godmothers. She lived a long and
happy life, like any other ordinary woman, and died at length,
beloved, regretted, but, the prince being already no more, perfectly
contented.

HOP-O'-MY-THUMB.

There once lived in a village a faggot-maker and his wife, who had
seven children, all boys; the eldest was no more than ten years old,
and the youngest was only seven.

It was odd enough, to be sure, that they should have so many children
in such a short time; but the truth is, the wife always brought him
two and once three at a time. This made him very poor, for not one of
these boys was old enough to get a living, and what was still worse,
the youngest was a puny little fellow who hardly ever spoke a word.
Now this, indeed, was a mark of his good sense, but it made his father
and mother suppose him to be silly, and they thought that at last he
would turn out quite a fool. This boy was the least si