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Title: Beauty and the Beast

Author: Anonymous

Release Date: November 30, 2006 [Ebook #19967]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEAUTY AND THE BEAST***

Beauty and the Beast

by Anonymous

Edition 1, (November 30, 2006)

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.

Once upon a time, in a very far-off country, there lived a merchant who
had been so fortunate in all his undertakings that he was enormously rich.
As he had, however, six sons and six daughters, he found that his money
was not too much to let them all have everything they fancied, as they
were accustomed to do.

But one day a most unexpected misfortune befell them. Their house caught
fire and was speedily burnt to the ground, with all the splendid
furniture, the books, pictures, gold, silver, and precious goods it
contained; and this was only the beginning of their troubles. Their
father, who had until this moment prospered in all ways, suddenly lost
every ship he had upon the sea, either by dint of pirates, shipwreck, or
fire. Then he heard that his clerks in distant countries, whom he trusted
entirely, had proved unfaithful; and at last from great wealth he fell
into the direst poverty.

All that he had left was a little house in a desolate place at least a
hundred leagues from the town in which he had lived, and to this he was
forced to retreat with his children, who were in despair at the idea of
leading such a different life. Indeed, the daughters at first hoped that
their friends, who had been so numerous while they were rich, would insist
on their staying in their houses now they no longer possessed one. But
they soon found that they were left alone, and that their former friends
even attributed their misfortunes to their own extravagance, and showed no
intention of offering them any help. So nothing was left for them but to
take their departure to the cottage, which stood in the midst of a dark
forest, and seemed to be the mos