bapatapouf, had just been killed in combat with another
giant. "Now," added Coquette, "I have full power to render you happy;"
and passing her fair hand over Rose's face, the negro colour and
features vanished--to reappear no more.

The queen, convinced that her daughter-in-law required nothing
further, offered only her portrait, as a token of esteem and
friendship. Rose received it with grateful respect, then ascended the
fairy's car, and was in a few minutes surrounded by the foresters, who
never wearied of caressing her. Poor Mirto drew back, trembling, not
knowing whether to hope or fear; but Coquette, perceiving their mutual
embarrassment, declared that she had ordained this marriage from the
very beginning. She blessed them, gave them a flock of beautiful white
sheep, a cottage covered with honeysuckles and roses, a lovely garden
abounding with fruits and flowers, and a moderate sum of money;
endowing them also with life for a hundred years, uninterrupted
health, and constant love.

BROTHER AND SISTER.

A brother took his sister by the hand and said, "Since our mother is
dead we have no more happy hours: our stepmother beats us every day,
and whenever we come near her she kicks us away. She gives us hard
crusts and nasty scraps to eat, and the dog under the table fares
better than we do, for he does sometimes get a nice bit thrown to him.
It would break our mother's heart if she knew it! Come, we will go out
into the wide world together."

They went along the whole day through meadows, over rocks and stones,
and when it rained the little sister said, "Heaven and our hearts are
crying together." In the evening they came to a great wood, and were
so worn out with grief, hunger, and weariness, that they sat down in a
hollow tree and went to sleep.

The next morning, when they awoke, the sun was already high in the
heavens, and shone down very hot on the tree. Upon which said the
brother, "Sister, I am thirsty; I would go and have a drink if I knew
where there was a spring: I think I can hear one trickling." He got
up, took his sister by the hand, and they went to look for the spring.

The wicked stepmother, however, who was a witch, and well knew how the
children had run away, had crept after them secretly, in the way
witches do, and had bewitched all the springs in the wood. When they
had found a spring that was dancing brightly over the stones, the
brother stooped down to drink; but his sister heard