Perrault's Fairy Tales (Dover Children's Classics) Read Online Free PDF

ogre; “you shall see!” And in the same moment he changed himself into a mouse, which began to run about the floor. No sooner did Puss see it than he pounced on it and ate it.
    Presently the king came along, and noticing the ogre’s beautiful mansion desired to visit it. The cat heard the rumble of the coach as it crossed the castle drawbridge, and running out to the courtyard cried to the king:
    “Welcome, your Majesty, to the castle of the marquis of Carabas! ”
    “What’s that?” cried the king. “Is this castle also yours, marquis? Nothing could be finer than this courtyard and the buildings which I see all about. With your permission we will go inside and look round.”
    The marquis gave his hand to the young princess, and followed the king as he led the way up the staircase. Entering a great hall they found there a magnificent collation. This had been prepared by the ogre for some friends who were to pay him a visit that very day. The latter had not dared to enter when they learned that the king was there.
    The king was now quite as charmed with the excellent qualities of the marquis of Carabas as his daughter. The latter was completely captivated by him. Noting the great wealth of which the marquis was evidently possessed, and having quaffed several cups of wine, he turned to his host, saying:
    The ogre received him as civilly as an ogre can
    “It rests with you, marquis, whether you will be my son-in-law.”
    The marquis, bowing very low, accepted the honor which the king bestowed upon him. The very same day he married the princess.
    Puss became a personage of great importance, and gave up hunting mice, except for amusement.
    Moral
    It’s a pleasant thing, I’m told,
To be left a pile of gold.
But there’s something better still,
Never yet bequeathed by will.
Leave a lad a stock of sense—
Though with neither pounds nor pence—
And he’ll finish, as a rule,
Richer than the gilded fool.
     
     
     
    Another Moral
     
    Can the heart of a Princess
Yield so soon to borrowed dress?
So it seems—but wait a while—
’Tis not all a tale of guile.
He was young and straight of limb;
She was just the girl for him.
He was brave, and she was fair.
Tell me, when the right man’s there—
Be he but a miller’s son—
What Princess will not be won?

THE FAIRIES

    Once upon a time there lived a widow with two daughters. The elder was often mistaken for her mother, so like her was she both in nature and in looks; parent and child being so disagreeable and arrogant that no one could live with them.
    The younger girl, who took after her father in the gentleness and sweetness of her disposition, was also one of the prettiest girls imaginable. The mother doted on the elder daughter—naturally enough, since she resembled her so closely—and disliked the younger one as intensely. She made the latter live in the kitchen and work hard from morning till night.
    One of the poor child’s many duties was to go twice a day and draw water from a spring a good half-mile away, bringing it back in a large pitcher. One day when she was at the spring an old woman came up and begged for a drink.
    “Why, certainly, good mother,” the pretty lass replied. Rinsing her pitcher, she drew some water from the cleanest part of the spring and handed it to the dame, lifting up the jug so that she might drink the more easily.
    Now this old woman was a fairy, who had taken the form of a poor village dame to see just how far the girl’s good nature would go. “You are so pretty,” she said, when she had finished drinking, “and so polite, that I am determined to bestow a gift upon you. This is the boon I grant you: with every word that you utter there shall fall from your mouth either a flower or a precious stone.”
    One day an old woman came and begged for a drink
    When the girl reached home she was scolded by her mother for being so long in coming back from the spring.
    “I am sorry to have been so long, mother,” said the poor