that time the robbers never trusted themselves again in the
house; but the four musicians liked it so well that they could not
make up their minds to leave it, and spent there the remainder of
their days, as the last person who told the story is ready to avouch
for a fact.

RIQUET WITH THE TUFT

Once upon a time a queen had a little son, who was so ugly and
ill-made, that for a long time the poor little baby was thought hardly
human. However, a good fairy, who presided at his birth, assured his
mother that, though ugly, he would have so much sense and wit that he
would never be disagreeable; moreover, she bestowed on him the power
of communicating these gifts to the person he should love best in the
world. At this the queen was a little comforted, and became still more
so, when, as soon as he could speak, the infant began to say such
pretty and clever things that everybody was charmed with him. (I
forgot to mention that his name was Riquet with the Tuft, because he
was born with a curious tuft of hair on the top of his head.)

Seven or eight years after this, the queen of a neighbouring country
had two little daughters, twins, at whose birth the same fairy
presided. The elder twin was more beautiful than the day--the younger
so extremely ugly that the mother's extravagant joy in the first was
all turned to grief about the second. So, in order to calm her
feelings, the fairy told her that the one daughter should be as stupid
as she was pretty, while the other would grow up so clever and
charming that nobody would miss her want of beauty.

"Heaven grant it!" sighed the queen; "but are there no means of giving
a little sense to the one who is so beautiful?"

"I can do nothing for her, madam," returned the fairy--"nothing as
regards her own fortunes; but I grant her the power of making the
person who best pleases her as handsome as herself."

Accordingly, as the young princesses grew up, their perfections grew
with them; and nothing was spoken of but the beauty of the elder and
the wit of the younger. True, their faults increased equally: the one
became uglier, and the other more stupid, day by day. Unlucky fair
one! she never had a word to say for herself, or else it was the
silliest word imaginable, and she was so awkward that she could not
place four teacups in a row without breaking at least one of them, nor
drink a glass of water without spilling half of it over her clothes.
Beauty is a great charm; yet