ank my
host for my good rest and my good supper."

When he got out of bed he found he had something else to be grateful
for, for on the chair by the bedside lay a fine suit of new clothes,
marked with his name, and with ten gold pieces in every pocket. He
felt quite a different man when he had put on the suit of blue and
silver, and jingled the gold pieces of money in his pockets.

When he went downstairs, he found a good breakfast waiting for him in
the little room where he had supped the night before, and when he had
made a good meal, he thought he would go for a stroll in the garden.

Down the marble steps he went, and when he came to the garden, he saw
that it was full of roses, red and white and pink and yellow, and the
merchant looked at them, and remembered Beauty's wish.

"Oh, my poor daughters," he said, "what a disappointment it will be to
them to know that my ship has not come home after all, but Beauty at
any rate can have what she wanted."

So he stretched out his hand and plucked the biggest red rose within
his reach.

As the stalk snapped in his fingers, he started back in terror, for he
heard an angry roar, and the next minute a dreadful Beast sprang upon
him. It was taller than any man, and uglier than any animal, but, what
seemed most dreadful of all to the merchant, it spoke to him with a
man's voice, after it had roared at him with the Beast's.

"Ungrateful wretch!" said the Beast. "Have I not fed you, lodged you,
and clothed you, and now you must repay my hospitality by stealing the
only thing I care for, my roses?"

"Mercy! mercy!" cried the merchant.

"No," said the Beast, "you must die!" The poor merchant fell upon his
knees and tried to think of something to say to soften the heart of
the cruel Beast; and at last he said, "Sir, I only stole this rose
because my youngest daughter asked me to bring her one. I did not
think, after all you have given me, that you would grudge me a
flower."

"Tell me about this daughter of yours," said the Beast suddenly. "Is
she a good girl?"

"The best and dearest in the world," said the old merchant. And then
he began to weep, to think that he must die and leave his Beauty alone
in the world, with no one to be kind to her.

"Oh!" he cried, "what will my poor children do without me?"

"You should have thought of that before you stole the rose," said the
Beast. "However, if one of your daughters loves you well enough
to suffer instead of you, she ma