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LIGHTSOME,

AND THE LITTLE GOLDEN LADY,



LIGHTSOME,

AND

THE LITTLE GOLDEN LADY.

BY

C. H. BENNETT.

= ei



WITH TWENTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR.

LONDON
GRIFFITH AND FARRAN,

SUCCESSORS ITO NEWBERY AND HARRIS,
CORNER OF ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD.
M DCCCLXVIL.





LONDON :
R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,

BREAD STREET HILL.





Front.

SKIMBAL AND THE CRAB.



DEDICATION.

_—oee

To MY DEAR CHARLEY,

Wuen you wrote down this little Story
from my telling, I did not think that we should

have found so much enjoyment in our task.

Thank you, my dear Boy, very much, for

your ready help.

C. H. BENNETT.

August 20th, 1866.








Now this story tells of things that happened
in a place high up in the sky, and far behind
the clouds.

In the daytime, when the glitter of the great
palace of the golden city shines down so brightly,
we can make out nothing else; but in a clear
night, when we are looking up for the man in
the moon—which, indeed, is only Skimbal asleep at
his post—then there are little twinkling things about
the sky, which people who do not know any better



Preface.

have got into the habit of calling Stars; but the
wise men who lived when this world was younger,
and when wisdom was found Jaying about at the
side of the road, seemed to have known better, for
they called them by better names, and a certain
Doctor who did not live so very long ago wrote
down a list of some of these twinklers, — all
those, indeed, about whom we are going to talk.
So when you look up at the sky next time, on a

clear night, try to rememter,

“ The Ram, the Bull, the heavenly Twins,
And next the Crab the Lion shines,
The Virgin and the Scales,
The Scorpion, Archer, and Sea-Goat,
The Man that holds the Watering Pot,

The Fish with glittering tails.”

Not that this learned Doctor was quite so wise
as he might have been, or he would have known
that it was the little Fishes’ /egs that glittered, not

their tails; then we know it was the boy that holds



Preface. ix

the watering pails. It is absurd to suppose they want
any watering pots where everything grows without
eitner water or trouble.

As for the Sea-Goat, that can only mean that
old Nipchese had been a cabin-boy in the days of
his .youth.

The Archer is all right, and the Scorpion, and
also the Scales; but what he has called the Virgin,
is indeed the little Golden Lady.

The Lion and the Crab are correct, and also
the Ram and the Bull.

But the Doctor could only have thought of
calling those two bad brothers, Skimbal and Skambel,
“heavenly Twins,” because he saw them so_ high

up in the sky that he could not tell the difference,







CHAPTER THE FIRST.











LIGHTSOME,
AND THE LITTLE GOLDEN LADY.

CHAPTER THE FIRST.



NCE upon a time there
was an old man named
Nipchese, and he lived
in a village.

It was a village up
in the sky, so far away
that I cannot remember
its name, and so high

up above the clouds,

that coming back I forgot my way thither.

B







2 Lightsome,

But high up and far away as it may be, it was
such a fine place when you got there, that only a
silly old body like me would ever have dreamt for a
moment of leaving it.

It had big trees and little houses.

Such a many, many birds all singing together, and
no fruit on the trees that was not as ripe as ripe
could be.

Boxer tops grew on all the hedges, and cricket
bats in the wood.

The outside leaves of the summer cabbages were
kites with splendid tails, and when the sweet peas had
done blossoming they bore pods full of the most
beautiful streaky marbles.

There was a large holly-bush in the corner, close
by the pump; it never had any red berries on it
to speak of, but come round Christmas time was so
full of dolls, all dressed in muslin and in silks, that if
you didn’t gather them as soon as they were ripe,
before breakfast time in the morning, they were sure
to tumble off and break their pretty little noses.

As for the rose-bushes, they grew in such plenty,

and bore roses so large, that to keep the roads clear













and the Little Golden Lady. 3

from the litter their leaves made, little Lightsome, the
water-carrier, was forced to come with a large broom
every day, and sweep them into heaps at the side of
the path, where the children would tumble about to
their hearts’ delight, without hurting themselves a bit.

Now, as far as I can remember, there were not
very many people living in this beautiful village; but
they were very nice people, as far as they went, and
particularly clean—so clean that they never wanted
washing, which was a fortunate thing for them; for
though they had their pump by the side of the Doll’s
Holly Bush, it was as dry as a bone, and was the only
one they had: thus it was that Lightsome had every
day to trudge into the wood for water, and that brings
me back to the old man I began with, for as sure as
his name was Nipchese, he was this little chap’s father,
and I will tell you some more about him.

In all this happy village he was the only disagreeable
person—he and his two eldest sons;—so you must not
forget that Daddy Nipchese was the father. Skimbal
and Skambel were twins, but then there was Lightsome,
the youngest, only he was not disagreeable; indeed, I

am afraid it was mainly because he was kind and good-









4 Lightsome,

natured, and willing and strong, that his brothers made
him to go out a water-bearing and a road-sweeping, for
he did it very willingly and very well, and let his old
father and his two brothers stop at home doing nothing
all the day long.

Now as I am going to tell you how some strange
adventures happened to Lightsome, I hope you will
not think that I am telling you what is not quite true,
for all that is written down here took place a long,
‘long way off, where such out-of-the-way doings happen
every day.

One morning early when, in his usual way, he had
done all the work of the house, young Lightsome left
his father and his two brothers fast asleep, and buckling
on his yoke, with the two water pails, jogged off to
the stream in the wood, singing a funny little song. As
the wood was not very far out of the village, and he
went along pretty fast, he soon came to the place
where he expected to find the stream running: but
think of his disappointment, when he found the water
all gone! There was the place where the stream used
to run, sure enough; but whether it had tumbled down

a great hole and lost its way, or had dried up before

J











and the Little Golden Lady. 5

it reached the shady wood, at all events there was no
water; so he sat down on his pails to think what he
should do. Said he to himself:

“It’s no good going back, for then the neighbours



will get no water. I had better keep on till I find
another stream, for then I can fill my pails, and come
back indeed;” and almost before he had brought his

thoughts to an end, he was up with his yoke over his











6 Lightsome,

shoulders making his way further into the wood. He
had need to be quick; for although he rambled on a
long way, far and wide, the wood only got thicker
and the ground drier.

“I shall never find any water,” said he, “I am
afraid ;” but as he said this, feeling very tired, or he
would not have said it at all, he heard a sweet voice
cry out in great distress,

“Oh dear! oh dear! what shall I do? I have-lost
my two little fishes.”

Lightsome forgot his own trouble when he heard

the voice, and, following its sound, as it still continued

calling “Oh dear! oh dear!” came upon the bank of

a clear running stream, where sat a beautiful little lady,
wiping her eyes upon her long golden hair.

“I say, little waterman, have you seen my two
fishes ?”

“No!” said Lightsome. “J have seen no fishes, and
I have seen no water until I came here; but now I am
going to fill my pails.”

“But pray look for my fishes first,” asked the
yellow-haired maid.

“Oh, no!” replied the water-bearer; “I have neither













and the Little Golden Lady. 7

rod, hook, line, nor landing-net, so how can I catch
your fishes? I must take my water to the village, and
then I will come back and help you as much as ever
T can.”

“But find my fishes, first,” cried the maid; “they
are my two little servants who are never tired, and
do for me everything I want of them before ever I can
ask.” But Lightsome shook his head, and dropped one
of his pails into the water, while the little maid cried
bitterly, and hid her face in her yellow hair. Lightsome
pulled out his first pailful of water.

“ At all events,” said he, “there are no fish in that ;”
and the little maid only cried the more; but when he
dipped out the second pailful, what should he find in
it but two little gold fish!

“Here they are!” said he; and the golden-haired
maid, not even stopping to wipe her eyes, lifted the
fish out of the pail very tenderly, and sat them on
their tails by her side. If you could have seen the
little legs that grew out of their shiny bodies, before
you could have counted three, you would have known
why Lightsome started back, crying,

“Why! they are running about.”









8 Lightsome,

“Oh, yes!” said the lady, clapping her hands for
joy; “they are always running about, except when they
are thrown into the water, and as you were so fortunate
as to pull them out, here are a pair of scales for you;

they may be useful—they weigh everything into gold.”



I don’t think Lightsome thought he had done much
to deserve this wonderful gift, but he took it all the
same, for he hardly dare refuse anything from such a
beautiful lady; still he fondly hoped, if ever he again
met her in trouble, he should help her by means of

some mighty deed, that would give him a better claim











and the Little Golden Lady. 9

to her good wishes; but now, he had only time to bid
her a hasty good-bye, before he hurried back to the
village with his pails of water.

When he had served his water round—a large tea-
cupful to each house, for that was all they wanted—
home he went with his golden scales. He up and: told
his father where he had been, whom he had seen,
and what he had got. Said old Nipchese then,

“Of course they are not golden, and as for weighing
everything into gold, that is all nonsense; but they
seem very good scales, and just come in handily to
weigh my pig the butcher killed for me yesterday
afternoon. Skimbal! Skambel!” he cried to his other
sons, who were still a-bed. “Get up this minute, and
bring me the pig, that J may weigh it.”

“Bother the pig!” said Skimbal and Skambel, and—

“Bother the pig!” returned Skambel to Skimbal; but
up they got—and, after rubbing their eyes and yawning
many times, off they went for the pig.

They brought it in, in this wise: Skimbal holding
the tail, and Skambel having tight hold of the head;
but Lightsome could hold neither head nor tail, for he

was near splitting his sides with laughing.













10 Lightsome,

“The scales are a great deal too small for our pig.”
But a wonderful thing took place,—the scales grew bigger,
till they were exactly the right size for weighing a pig,
and when they had lifted its body into them, says
Daddy Nipchese,

“Tt makes him look quite yellow!”

“And shiny,” said Skimbal.

“ Like brass,” said Skambel.

“Or gold,” cried Lightsome.

And gold it was.

“Suppose they turn everything into gold, as the
lady said they would!” remarked the little water-bearer.
His father and his brothers laughed at him; but he was
right after all: these were wonderful scales, for they
weighed their pots and their pans, their chairs and their
tables, into solid gold, as fast as they could get them
in and out. In fact, Nipchese was very nearly weighing
himself; he got one leg in, but the sudden cramp that
seized him in the calf was a warning to take it out
again, but as the scale exactly fitted whatever was put
into it, he had a golden leg before he could put it to
the ground, and went stumping about like a one-legged

crossing-sweeper ever after, and all the days of his life.







and the Little Golden Lady. II

To what other purposes old Nipchese put these
wonderful scales, you shall very soon hear; but as he
never had one of any thing that he did not at once
wish for three, he made up his mind that his two
eldest sons should also pay a visit to the little golden
lady.

All right,” said Skimbal; “I will go, if you can
get me up early enough to-morrow morning.” You see
Skimbal was the laziest of all the family; but somehow
they pulled him out of bed by ten o'clock the next
morning, and when his father had borrowed for him a
fishing-rod, a line, and an enormous hook, he started
off and made his way to the wood, where he soon
managed to lose himself, I can tell you.

He wandered up.

He wandered down.

And in and out.

He scratched himself with brambles.

He tumbled over the roots of old trees.

He knocked his head against the elbows of great
branches.

And when he had got thoroughly tired, cross, and

disagreeable, he came upon the little stream, and laid







12 Lightsome,

him down on the bank to get a good drink of the
water.

“Oh!” he cried, as loud as ever he could. “Oh!”
and “Oh!” again. For as soon as he had laid down,
he felt somebody pulling his great ear, and heard an

angry little voice crying out to him—
gry ying



“Get up, lazy Skimbal! get up! How can my
fishes be caught, if you lay idling there?”

Up jumped Skimbal rubbing his ear, which was hot
and red by this time, and on the ground by his side

saw the golden lady looking very cross indeed; but how





and the Little Golden Lady. 13

cross she became when she saw the fishing-rod, the line,
and the enormous hook, I leave you to guess, when I
tell you that she cried out,

“Catch my fish with a hook! Clumsy fellow! you
ought to be ashamed of yourself to think of such a thing.”

“Well,” replied Skimbal, “I don’t know about being
ashamed, but as I have been all day getting here, I
shall just catch them with a hook or not at all.”

“Then,” said the lady, “you had better make haste
and begin, for whatever you catch you will have to
take home.”

“That’s not a bad bargain,” remarked Skimbal, and
in he dropped his line.

“You have got a bite!” cried the lady directly after,
and away she ran laughing. What she was laughing
about, Skimbal could not tell, but he pulled out his
line, and with it a monstrous crab.

Now you don’t expect to find a crab in a fresh-
water stream; but when you find one as big as a New-
foundland dog, with claws as large as the legs of the
dining-room table, you are just as likely to catch it
in a little stream as in Pegwell Bay.

“Oh my!” roared Skimbal. “Go back! Oh dear!













14 Lightsome,

Oh don’t!” And so would you have said “Oh don’t!”
I think, for the great crab, instead of going back,
jumped upon Skimbal and tried to throttle him.

And I dare say would; but the lazy fellow set
off running, and as he quickened his pace, the crab
loosened its grip and sat so lightly on Skimbal’s back,
that he hardly felt it at all; but so sure as he slackened
his steps, so soon did the great crab begin to throttle
him again.

When he got home he sat down to rest himself,
but very soon jumped up, for the claws were at his
throat. His father and his brothers tried to free him
from his terrible burden, but to no purpose—they only
got some smart pinches for their pains.

But Skimbal soon found out that it was only when
he was idle that the monster annoyed him, for when-
ever he was hard at work, his tormentor rested lightly
upon his shoulders; and do you know, the crab was
not at all particular as to the sort of work that lazy
Skimbal set himself at,—whether he was digging in the
garden or milking the cow, gathering the fruit or mowing
the grass, it was all the same to the crab; but if he

leant on the gate, or lounged in the meadow, or lay





| and the Little Golden Lady. 15

under the apple-tree, or slept on the haycock, then

| woe betide him; and woe did betide him many a time
in the day.

| While Skimbal therefore was working as hard, yet



as unwillingly, as ever he could; and while Nipchese was
weighing everything into gold, until he hadn’t an iron
poker to stir the fire with; while Lightsome was doing
his duty, and not thinking much of that, Skambel was







16 Lightsome,

biting all his finger nails away, for he was the en'vious
one of the family, was Skambel. Said he,

“When I get my scales I mean to keep ’em. Not
give them to father, oh no! I shall have the golden
fishes too for my servants, and the little golden lady
for my wife; and as for being caught by a stupid crab,
I will just drop it in the fish kettle, and boil it for my
supper after I come home.”

So if Skambel was as envious as his brother was
idle, I think he was also as stupid; yet one bright
thought occurred to him.

“It will never do,’ thinks he, “to take line and
hook. I shall borrow a large landing-net.”

So next morning, landing-net and all, he started off
to the wood, saying nothing to nobody.

“You are very early,” said the little golden lady, for
there she was waiting his arrival, and he had had no
difficulty in finding her. “You are very early—do you
expect to catch my fishes with a landing-net? I
always have them caught in a pail.”

“Oh!” replied Skambel, “I forgot the pail.”

“Well,” said the lady, “you had better go back and
fetch it,”







and the Little Golden Lady. 17

“I can’t go back,” he persisted; “I don’t want any
one to know that I have come.”

“Drop in your net then,” she said; “all that you
catch you must carry away.”

So in he put his landing-net, but he did not land
the two fishes—for he pulled out instead something
like a lobster’s tail.

“ At all events,” said he, “that won't bite.” He put
in his net again, and pulled it out again; still no fishes,
but something like a lobster’s body, and he said,

“That won't bite,” and threw it on the ground,

He kept on putting in his landing-net and pulling
it out again, each time pulling out a claw, which he
threw upon the ground; last of all he pulled out two
very large claws, each time remarking, “That won't
bite,’ and on the last pull adding,

“Dear me, what a deal of trouble about these fishes!”

“Try again,” said the little golden lady. “Try again.”

He did try again, and pulled out something like a
scorpion’s head, and, what’s more, it was a scorpion’s
head; and, as he threw it on the ground by the side of
the other pieces, he saw he had pulled out a scorpion’s
head, body, tail, little claws, and big claws.

D





18 Lightsome,

And as he turned from looking at these ugly pieces,
behold—the two golden fishes were combing the little
lady’s golden hair.

“Well!” he cried, “I don’t know how you got
there, but, as you have given me a great deal of
trouble, I shall just pocket you.” So he took up the
little golden fishes one by one, and dropped them into
his pouch. ‘The little lady was turning to run away,
but he whipped her up under his arm, and off he
started for home.

He had not taken two steps, when he heard a
great clash and a clatter, like the tumbling down of
ten sets of fire-irons, and the locking up fifty street-
door locks; and turning round, he saw all the pieces
of the scorpion fasten themselves together before you
could well count five, and become one complete reptile,
which shook itself to see that all its joints were in
working order, and then flew straight at Skambel’s
left leg.

He screamed, he roared, and he kicked, but it was
all of no avail; he kicked at it with his right foot,
but the scorpion caught that leg too, and what he

would have done next, I am sure I do not know; but





SKAMBEL AND THE SCORPION.






and the Little Golden Lady. 19g

at that moment the little lady called out to him from
under his arm,

“Let me go, give me my fishes, and I will see what
I can do for you.”

So, in the midst of his howling, he set her down,
and gave her her fishes.

“Take your stupid fishes; they are the most useless
creatures I ever saw.”

So says she,

“Do you not envy me my fishes?” and he replied —

“Oh dear, no!”

Then said she,

“Do you not envy me my golden hair?” and he
answered,

“Not a bit.” And, what is more, he meant it.

On the instant there was a clatter and a clash, like
unto fire-irons and street-door locks, and the scorpion
lay in pieces at his feet.

“Now,” said the little lady, as she sat on the grass,
while her two fishes were smoothing her rumpled golden
tresses, “now go home; you envy everybody every-
thing they possess: so remember, every time you have

evil thoughts of other people, the scorpion will be after



20 Lightsome.

your left leg.” And he went sadly home to his father,
but what do you think he said to him?

“If I had taken your gold scales from you yesterday,
as I mean to do to-night, I should never have had
such a pain in my leg.”

On the instant he had it again worse than ever;
then came the noise as of fire-irons and the clash as of
door-locks, for the scorpion had hold of him tighter
than ever.

“Take your golden scales,” he shricked; “I wouldn't
have them at a gift.” And he meant it.

Down fell the scorpion into pieces again.







CHAPTER THE SECOND.












CHAPTER THE SECOND.

WHAT with the noise of the scorpion, as twenty
times a day it had to bite the envious Skambel, what
with the groans of Skimbal whenever the crab embraced
him, added to the thump—thumping of Nipchese’s
golden leg, as he went restlessly about the house
seeking for old lumber to turn into new gold, the
cottage was no longer fit to live in. So said Lightsome
one day when he had finished all his work, and was
looking out for some more to begin upon,—

“T will take a run down to the wood, and see how
the little lady is getting on.”

He ran down as quickly as he could, but, when he







24 Lightsome,

got there, she was in worse grief than ever., He sat
down by her side, and taking her hand in his, said he,

“Pretty lady, do not cry any more, for I am your
true friend, and I love you dearly; I will do anything
to help you out of your trouble.”

But said she,

“My trouble is so great that I fear no one can
help me.”

“At all events,” continued Lightsome, “I can try.”

“But look!” cried she, “where the stream used to
run, it is now dried up. After my two fishes had
been thrown in again yesterday by GRIM HODDIDOD,
the great hunter, he pulled up the round stone where
four winds blow altogether, and the water of the stream,
with my two poor fishes, fell down the deep hole into
the spring where the lions drink.” °

“Ts that all?” said Lightsome; “I will soon get to
the spring, pails and all, if you wish.”

“But ah!” sobbed the lady; “it is not so easy as
you think—for first you must cut off the hunter's head,
but that will only turn him into a bull; then you must
cut off the bull's tail, and that will only change him

into a ram; then you must chop the ram’s horns off,



and the Little Golden Lady. 25

and that will only turn him into a lion; and, as the
lion tears up every one who is the least bit afraid, it is
not likely that you will get to the water.”

“But,” objected Lightsome, “as I was never afraid
of anything in my whole life, I should very much
like to try.”

“Well,” said the little golden lady, “here is one kiss
for courage. I love you dearly for not being afraid; if
you come back safe after all, you shall be my lord,
and I will be your lady. There!” and she gave him
the courage kiss there and then.

“Now,” said Lightsome, “if I get to the lion, what
am I to do with him ?”

“Pluck the third hair out of his right whisker, and
the third hair out of his left whisker, and he will
never do harm to anybody ever any more.”

“Then where shall the huntsman be found?” asked
Lightsome.

“HERE!!” said a great gruft voice, as loud and as
harsh as a watchman’s rattle.

“ TERE |”

And Lightsome, turning round, beheld a great monster;
whether it was a horse that was a man, or a man that

E





26 Lightsome,

was a horse, was not easy for him to make out. It
had a man’s head, chest, and arms, with a horse’s body
and legs.

“Are you Grim Hoddidod, the great huntsman?”
asked Lightsome.

“I aM!” replied the monster.

“Then give me a ride,” shouted the water-bearer at
the top of his voice, and jumped upon his back.

However grim Hoddidod may have been, this clever
trick of Lightsome’s took him so by surprise, that he
gave the young hero a ride with a vengeance. Back-
ward and forward, up and down, and roundabout, till
any one except Lightsome would have lost his seat.
At last Hoddidod galloped with him into a large open
space, where were four still larger monsters, even uglier
than himself.

One was reaping corn with a sword.

The second was chopping straw with an axe.

The third was mowing grass with a pair of shears.

And the fourth carried a great brown pitcher.

No sooner did they catch sight of Lightsome, upon
the grim hunter’s back, than they all set up a great

noise, like guns going off.







and the Little Golden Lady. 27

“Come on!” cried Lightsome.

“Come off!” roared the one with the chopper, and
threw it at the young rider’s head.

But the bold Lightsome, who was a good catch,
took it flying, and stuck it in his belt, saying,

“T shall have a use for you.”

Then they set up another great roaring noise, and
the monster with the shears threw them at his head.

“Just what I want,’ said he, and stuck them in
his belt.

This made the monsters roar only the louder, and
then the one who held the pitcher threw that at his
head; but again he showed how cleverly he could catch ;
he caught the pitcher, and lightly hung it over his
shoulder, for he thought he should want that too.

But, with the noise still raging, approached the monster
with the sword, looking as if he could cut anybody's
head off; still I know of one head that he could not
reach, and that head was Lightsome’s, for the young
water-carrier made Grim Hoddidod so to prance about,
that he with the sword could not get near enough,
so flew into a still greater passion, and flung the

sword at Lightsome’s head.









28 Lightsome,

But, wonderful to relate, Lightsome caught, even the
sword, but he did not stick that in his belt: he just
gave it two whirls in the air, and off came Hoddidod’s
head.

“Warm work,” cried the water-carrier; but it soon
became warmer still.

All the monsters had vanished, and in their places
he saw before him, tossing, and pawing, and roaring,
five wild bulls.

There he stood in the middle of them!

“Come,” said he, “which tail am I to cut off? for
I am sure I don’t know.” And he snipped the shears
in their faces boldly, for all they kicked up such a dust.

But the worst of it was, he could not get at any
of their tails; they kept their great noses towards him,
with their heads well down, and if it had not been
that he was a little boy, and they five mad bulls, it
might have been mistaken for a new game of touch. And
then came what might have been a new game of tossing,
when one of the bulls, charging up suddenly, caught
him with his horns, and tossed him far up in the air;
but this was just the worst thing that the bull could

have done for himself, for Lightsome, coming down



Vf

FALL a



L rz

Lf
LAL

’

Page 28

THE SHEARING OF THE BULLS.








and the Little Golden Lady. 29

behind, snipped off his tail before he had time to see
where it was. The second, the third, and the fourth
bull tried the same plan, and met the same fate.

“Well,” said Lightsome, “if there are four bulls
without tails, the fifth sust be the hunter. Come on,
Hoddidod !”

But Hoddidod, grim as he was, did not come on;
so, as this last animal refused to toss him, Lightsome
took the bull by the horns, tossed himself first on to
its back, then head over heels backwards, and off went
his tail—Snip!

“Warm work,” said the water-bearer, thinking to
have a little rest. But, on the instant, he found himself
attacked by five great rams, with horns as long as his
atm, as rough as the old oak tree, and as spiky as
the village church steeple; on they came before he
was aware of them—heads low down and_ shoulders
up, making real battering rams of themselves.

Down went poor Lightsome.

Down !

Down!

Down again!

Butted at and trampled.



30 Lightsome,

Hauled and mauled.

Till he felt all over bruises, and thought he had
not a sound limb in his body.

He was so knocked about that he had no time to
think.

But, after the rams had battered him seven times,

and were preparing for the eighth, he remembered the



chopper, which he had sate under his belt, and then,
being ready for them, when they rushed the eighth
time, he chopped oft the horns of the one that was
nearest at hand.

And pray what do you think this ram said, when
he found that he had lost his horns? Why, he said,—



and the Little Golden Lady. 31

“Baa—a, Baa—a!” and trotted off quite quietly to
eat of the grass that grew close by.

“You are only an old sheep after all,” said Lightsome,
and off he chopped the horns of ram number two; he
served the third the same way, and after him the
fourth; and they all cried

“Baa—a, Baa—a!” and walked off quietly to nibble
the grass. Said the water-bearer, as he prepared to
attack the fifth ram,

“Should this one happen to be a sheep also, what-
ever shall I do for a lion?”

He was a lion, though, and behaved as such as
soon as he had lost his horns, for with one great
roar, and one great spring, he seized Lightsome by
his jacket, gave him a shake to drive all the breath
out of his body, and ran off with him as fast as ever
he could.

Many a weary mile did the lion carry young Light-
some.

Up hill and down dale, over rock and through fen.
All that day and all the night, and the larger half
of the next day, still the Lion went on, only stopping

at long intervals to rest himself, by laying the poor





32 Lightsome,

lad on the ground, placing one paw on his body,
growling all the time.

But at last, when Lightsome was more dead than
alive, they came to a green little valley, pleasantly
enclosed by trees, where this lion lived all alone. Here
he laid Lightsome down, and as soon as the worn-
out little chap was able to listen, he growled to him
in a great gruff voice,

“Are you afraid?”

“No,” replied the boy, and in case his voice, which
was faint, might not sound very courageous, he
repeated,

“No! but I am tired and sleepy, so I wish you
would let me alone.”

“Get up!” roared the lion; “you shall carry my
water, cook my joints, comb my hair, and make my
bed, and if you can’t do that, I will eat you up this
minute.”

“Very well,” said Lightsome, “I can only do my best.”

The lion took him where the mosses and the ferns
grew, and he made him his bed.

The lion handed him a large tortoiseshell comb,

and he combed his tangled mane.



and the Little Golden Lady. 33

The lion killed a buck that unwarily passed, and he
cooked him his joint.

Then the lion showed him the spring, but as he had
no chance then of rescuing the fishes, he only gave
them one look, and hurried back with the lion’s water.

“T see,” said our water-bearer to himself, when he
had quite recovered from his long journey; “I see
that I must now look after his whiskers.” Easier said
than done, for among the many failings that this terrible
old lion had—worse than his fiery temper, worse than
his ravenous appetite, and worse than his great thirst
—was his constant watchfulness.

This lion never went to sleep.

What to do Lightsome did not know, and what he
would have done I do not know, had it not been
for one other failing this old lion had.

He was very vain.

So, when he had found this out, says the lad to
the lion,

“What a pity you have not such a thing as a
razor! I could shave your face so smooth and clean,
that you would look, once for all, like a gentleman.”

“T don't know,” replied the lion, “what it is to look

F







34 Lightsome,

like a gentleman, but a razor I have got you will
find it in the fourth hollow tree to the right.”
Lightsome soon found the razor—it was a little
rusty, but still very sharp—and he also found a lump
of soap, with which he lathered the lion’s beard well



before using the razor. And a curious thing happened
then, for, as he shaved off the whiskers, the lion fell
fast asleep; and at once Lightsome found himself free
again,

The first thing he did was to take his little brown



and the Little Golden Lady. 35

pitcher, and dipping it full of water from the lion’s
spring, to find therein the two fishes; he took them
up tenderly, and sat them on their tails. Out came

their little legs, as he had seen once before, and





“Oh!” cried the little golden fishes, speaking together
in a great hurry. “What a time we have waited for
you, and where are the hairs from the lion’s whiskers?”

“Dear me,” said he, “I have shaved them off



36 Lightsome,

altogether, and J am sure I don’t know whether from
which. But wait a while,” said he at last, “wait a
little while, I will go and look.”

“Then make haste, whatever you do,” said the fishes,
“for we can do nothing whatever without them.”

Lightsome found the whiskers that he had shaved
off the lion, but, for the life of him, he could not tell
which was right or which was left, or which was the third
of either; so he asked the fishes if they could help him.

“Oh, yes!” they replied, “nothing is easier; for the
third hair of the right whisker, and the third hair of
the left whisker, are the only two perfectly straight hairs
he had in his whiskers.” So they soon found them, I
can tell you; and as Lightsome put them carefully into
his pouch, he looked round, and lo!

The lion was changing into a ram.

And as he was calling out to the fishes for fear
something should have gone wrong—behold!

The lion was no longer a ram, but a great bull.

And before the fishes could comfort him, and assure
him that all was right, he saw that the bull was changing
into something else.

“We shall have that old hunter again!” said he.





Page 36.

LIGHTSOME AND THE LION.






and the Little Golden Lady. 37

But he was wrong at last, for it was not the grim
hunter after all, but a fine high-stepping dapple grey
steed.

“That horse will carry you home an instant,”
said the fishes; “put us gently into the brown pitcher,
sling the pitcher on your shoulder and jump boldly
on to the horse’s back.”

He put the fish very tenderly into the pitcher, he

slung the pitcher very tenderly on to his shoulders, he



sprung boldly on to the horse’s back, and

“Hallo!” said one of the fishes, peeping over the
edge of the pitcher; “you can get down again.”

But how he had travelled, or whither, or when, he
never could find out; the lion’s den had vanished quite
away, and he found himself standing on the bank of
the stream where first he found the little golden lady.
The stream was running merrily, and the lady was
smilingly helping him to alight from his dapple grey
steed.

“Where are my fishes?” said she.

“Here they are,” said Lightsome, as soon as he had
reached the ground; “Here they are,” and sat them

on their tails.



38 Lightsome,

“Thank you,” said the little lady, and gave him a
very sweet kiss. Continued Lightsome,

“T have not forgotten the two hairs out of the
lion’s beard,” and offered them to her. She took them
carefully from him, and touched one little fish with
one hair, and the other little fish with the other hair.

“Mind! mind!” called out Lightsome, directly after
to the fishes. “Mind! or you will burst;” for their
little legs were growing into big legs, where their
gills had been came arms, their bodies grew so rapidly
under their scales, that if they had not stopped swelling
when they got to be six feet high, there is no knowing
how tall they might have become at last. They were
no longer fishes, but gallant knights and noble gentlemen
accoutred in scale armour, armed with what had been
a hair out of the lion’s whisker—now a bran new spear,
eight feet long.

“They are my brothers,’ said the lady, “free at
last from the enchantments of the grim Hoddidod.
For years have I been vainly trying to release them,
but all the solace I could gét for them was a pair o1
little legs, and even those disappeared each time that

the hunter threw them into the water.”



and the Little Golden Lady. 39

“Tf I loved you before,” she continued, “when you
offered to assist me, how great must my love be now

}»

that you have brought them safely back. Look round




4

t
PH a . , 8 by a im
vere Pe STE tt P ef Phe Zoos

Topurpegae). SS

Pept tg ad

a














a hp Ai
WTS cell ee et

} et i ol Be a
<< ¢@

Look round! he had not thought of looking round
till now, but what was his surprise to find himself

standing in the heart of a golden city; to find the lady



40 Lightsome.

clothed in golden tissue with diamond coronet and
jewelled robe; to find his own shabby clothes falling
off his limbs, only to discover a dress even more
magnificent than hers; to see a crowd of people come
laughing, dancing, and singing out of a noble palace
of marble, of ivory, and of gold; and to see his two
brothers and his father come hobbling up the principal
street: Old Nipchese carrying the scales that he dare
not part from, even for one moment; Skimbal near

throttled by the crab, who had him tight round nf
throat; and Skambel screaming at the scorpion, who
had him by the calf of his leg—but we must go back
again a little now, to find how they came, in their

trouble, to be there at all.



CHAPTER THE THIRD.














CHAPTER THE THIRD.

N OW if you remember how busily engaged we left
Nipchese weighing everything into gold, you can just
fancy how rich he soon became: there was not a thing
about him, from the wheelbarrow that stood in the
back yard, to the three-legged stool in the corner, that
was not changed into solid gold; and when he had
taken down the rafters from the roof and changed them
into massive ingots, he had nothing but his own body
that had not been changed into gold, so he had to
appeal to his neighbours to bring him everything they
had—but as he gave them only one ounce out of

every pound of fairy gold, he still got richer and richer











44 Lightsome,

every day; he bought all the trees that were standing
about the village and changed them into gold; he
would have bought all the sheep and oxen, but the
people were afraid of selling them, for fear they should
have nothing to eat, for they knew by the sad experience
of his buying the wheat-sheaves at harvest-time, how
golden grains would not make bread at any price;
also they remembered that when he had made gold
dust of all the miller’s flour, and had bought the baker’s
last batch and weighed that into golden loaves, they
had suffered from a great famine, and many of them
had died.

Indeed, old Nipchese’s love for gold became at last
so great, that, having weighed up all his live stock
into precious metal, he found himself quite unable to
lay in stores of provisions—he was sure to weigh it
all into gold before he had time to eat it. When
almost reduced to a state of starvation, he only saved
his life by accepting the many invitations of his friends,
who, because he was so well-to-do, were but too glad
to see him in their houses, even at dinner-time.

It was while searching for a share of somebody

else’s meal, that Tommy and Ted, two well-known





and the Little Golden Lady. 45

robbers who had travelled to the village, hearing of Nip-
chese’s gold, climbed into the cottage through the hole
where the rafters used to be, with the intention of making
off with the wonderful scales; but being funny fellows,

and in no great hurry, said Tommy to Ted,



“Let us see which weighs the heaviest.”

“T am the tallest,’ said Ted; “but come on, let us

try.
Tommy got into the right-hand scale, and Ted got
into the left, and











46 Lightsome,

“Oh!” says Teddy, “I can’t get out.”

“No more can I,” says Tom.

And when Nipchese came home that night, he
found two golden statues sitting on the magic scales.
He hammered their legs straight with a golden hammer
on a golden anvil, and he set them up outside his door;
Tommy on one side, Ted on the other, an ornament
to his house, and a terror to all evil-doers.

But now—just to see how one thing leads to another.

When Skimbal, throttled out of his laziness by the
crab, had dug up all the ground that was digable, had
mowed all the grass that was mowable, had pruned all
the trees that were prunable, and had done all the
work that there was to be done, he took it into his
head, or perhaps the crab put it there, that he would
build for his father a palace of gold. He began it at
once. Of course Daddy Nipchese did not mind his gold
being used for such a purpose, for it would be not
only more valuable, but more beautiful to the eye.

Skambel, who at once envied his father the palace
that was being built for him, found that the only
thing that would stop the clashing and the biting of
the scorpion, was to get up early and help to build











and the Little Golden Lady. 47

a second, and even larger palace, and in course of time
it happened that all the villagers helped to build golden
palaces; they made Nipchese their king, because he
found them all their gold; so there they were, month
after month, while Lightsome was away, working every
day, and all day long, building themselves the golden
city, and they made themselves golden clothes against
the time that they had done building, and they forgot
nothing that would make them look rich, and noble,
and great. Only one thing they forgot.

They did not give heed to their promise about the
flocks and the herds, and the corn crops.

For lack of better materials, they weighed even these
into gold. They thought to spangle their robes with
golden corn, to powder their hair with golden dust, to
weave their clothes from golden fleece, to make their
shoes of golden hides.

But the more they made their boots and wove their
clothes, filled their sacks with gold dust, and laid up
great heaps of glittering spangles, the hungrier they
got, and the less they had for dinner.

Thus it happened, that having at last nothing to
eat, nor anything to drink (the little stream had gone





48 Lightsome,

dry again), a dreadful famine came upon them, and they
lay down in their golden strect, surrounded by their
golden palaces, half-buried in their golden corn, their
golden hides, their spangled golden robes, and their
golden dust, with hardly strength enough left to cry
one to the other.

Then it was that the little golden lady came tripping
up the street, crying,

“Oh! what a fine city full of miserable people.”

But, by the power she had, and it was great, she
gave these people to eat and to drink—for she pitied
them.

She gave nothing to Nipchese, she thought he would
last a little longer; she gave nothing to Skimbal, for she
saw that the crab would keep him alive; and Skambel
she left to the care of the scorpion.

But if her power was great when she relieved these
poor, hungry, gilded people, how much greater it proved,
when, on the return of Lightsome, she called out,

“Look round!”

And the city stood on the banks of the little stream
—running merrily.

By what fairy aid this was made possible, by what





and the Little Golden Lady. 49

enchantment this wondrous city was so suddenly trans-
ported, whether it came underground by way of surprise,
or through the air for quickness, in these days, and
down here, it is difficult to imagine; but up so high
beyond the clouds, at so far distant a time, great wonders
seemed to happen more readily, and there stood Light-
some rubbing his eyes, now and then pinching himself
to make sure, wondering what dream he was dreaming,
but hoping he might never awake—when up came his
father, dragging along the golden scales —— up came
Skimbal, with the crab at his throat, followed by the
envious Skambel, hauling the scorpion, which hung on
to his leg, and they looked the more miserable, for that
they cried altogether, as if in chorus,

“ Give us to eat, for we are so hungry, indeed

Before Lightsome could turn his eyes piteously towards
the lady, a large table stood before the three hungry

men—a table fit to break down with an abundance of

”

the choicest food.

“Sit down, famished people,” said the golden lady;
“eat and be merry,” and they sat down at once, I can
tell you.

Then a good thought struck Lightsome (but somehow,

H





50 Lightsome,

he was always having good thoughts)—he set up the



scales before him, and first he weighed the crab into

gold, and a fine ornament it made; then he weighed



the scorpion into gold, and that was still finer, so he



and the Little Golden Lady. 51

stood them up before the great palace, for a memory
of those who had built it.

Then said the little lady to Lightsome,

“This city is for you, and you shall be the king ;
my brothers will do you all service, and keep you
from all harm.” )

But Lightsome said he could not be king unless
she were queen, and it was settled so at once.

“As for Skimbal, who sleeps so sound, and hates
trouble, he shall keep our west gate; and Skambel,
who spies out faults in every one, shall keep our east
gate. The west gate is that by which people leave
the city, but from this time forth no one will ever
wish to leave it, for we will make them all happy, and
that will be work enough for Skimbal; but Skambel
shall keep the east gate, where people come in; and as
none but the best of good children will be allowed
to enter, Skambel shall be there to spy out the faults
of all those who are not worthy of such a golden
home.”

“ But,” said Lightsome, “you have forgotten my Daddy,
Nipchese; can you not find him something to weigh ?”

“Oh, yes,” cried the lady, clapping her hands; “his





52 Lightsome,

scales shall weigh truth henceforth, and no more gold;
he shall stand with Skambel at the east gate, and
when the children come, who say that they are good

—even if Skambel’s envy fails to detect their faults,



the golden scales, in which they all shall sit, will weigh
them at their proper value: then, when the balance
turns towards them, we shall know that they are good

and true indeed.”



and the Little Golden Lady. 53

Wonderful to think, it all happened just exactly as
she had said.

She was the queen of the golden city, and made
Lightsome as happy as the days were long.



Lightsome, to whom she gave up all the mighty
power she possessed, was king, and. made all the

people as happy as he was himself.





54 Lightsome,

Even Skimbal was happy; for no one wishing to
leave the golden city, not a soul ever disturbed his

slumbers.

Even Skambel was content, when he turned back
the naughty boys and girls.

Only Nipchese, I am afraid, could not see the use
of weighing anything so absurd to him as truth, when,
as he said,

“Good solid gold might have been weighed just

as well.”

THE END.



LONDON : R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS.



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ALMERIA’S CASTLE; OR, MY EARLY LIFE IN
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NEW AND POPULAR WORKS FOR THE YOUNG, 5



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LIGHTSOME,

AND THE LITTLE GOLDEN LADY,
LIGHTSOME,

AND

THE LITTLE GOLDEN LADY.

BY

C. H. BENNETT.

= ei



WITH TWENTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR.

LONDON
GRIFFITH AND FARRAN,

SUCCESSORS ITO NEWBERY AND HARRIS,
CORNER OF ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD.
M DCCCLXVIL.


LONDON :
R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,

BREAD STREET HILL.


Front.

SKIMBAL AND THE CRAB.
DEDICATION.

_—oee

To MY DEAR CHARLEY,

Wuen you wrote down this little Story
from my telling, I did not think that we should

have found so much enjoyment in our task.

Thank you, my dear Boy, very much, for

your ready help.

C. H. BENNETT.

August 20th, 1866.


Now this story tells of things that happened
in a place high up in the sky, and far behind
the clouds.

In the daytime, when the glitter of the great
palace of the golden city shines down so brightly,
we can make out nothing else; but in a clear
night, when we are looking up for the man in
the moon—which, indeed, is only Skimbal asleep at
his post—then there are little twinkling things about
the sky, which people who do not know any better
Preface.

have got into the habit of calling Stars; but the
wise men who lived when this world was younger,
and when wisdom was found Jaying about at the
side of the road, seemed to have known better, for
they called them by better names, and a certain
Doctor who did not live so very long ago wrote
down a list of some of these twinklers, — all
those, indeed, about whom we are going to talk.
So when you look up at the sky next time, on a

clear night, try to rememter,

“ The Ram, the Bull, the heavenly Twins,
And next the Crab the Lion shines,
The Virgin and the Scales,
The Scorpion, Archer, and Sea-Goat,
The Man that holds the Watering Pot,

The Fish with glittering tails.”

Not that this learned Doctor was quite so wise
as he might have been, or he would have known
that it was the little Fishes’ /egs that glittered, not

their tails; then we know it was the boy that holds
Preface. ix

the watering pails. It is absurd to suppose they want
any watering pots where everything grows without
eitner water or trouble.

As for the Sea-Goat, that can only mean that
old Nipchese had been a cabin-boy in the days of
his .youth.

The Archer is all right, and the Scorpion, and
also the Scales; but what he has called the Virgin,
is indeed the little Golden Lady.

The Lion and the Crab are correct, and also
the Ram and the Bull.

But the Doctor could only have thought of
calling those two bad brothers, Skimbal and Skambel,
“heavenly Twins,” because he saw them so_ high

up in the sky that he could not tell the difference,




CHAPTER THE FIRST.








LIGHTSOME,
AND THE LITTLE GOLDEN LADY.

CHAPTER THE FIRST.



NCE upon a time there
was an old man named
Nipchese, and he lived
in a village.

It was a village up
in the sky, so far away
that I cannot remember
its name, and so high

up above the clouds,

that coming back I forgot my way thither.

B




2 Lightsome,

But high up and far away as it may be, it was
such a fine place when you got there, that only a
silly old body like me would ever have dreamt for a
moment of leaving it.

It had big trees and little houses.

Such a many, many birds all singing together, and
no fruit on the trees that was not as ripe as ripe
could be.

Boxer tops grew on all the hedges, and cricket
bats in the wood.

The outside leaves of the summer cabbages were
kites with splendid tails, and when the sweet peas had
done blossoming they bore pods full of the most
beautiful streaky marbles.

There was a large holly-bush in the corner, close
by the pump; it never had any red berries on it
to speak of, but come round Christmas time was so
full of dolls, all dressed in muslin and in silks, that if
you didn’t gather them as soon as they were ripe,
before breakfast time in the morning, they were sure
to tumble off and break their pretty little noses.

As for the rose-bushes, they grew in such plenty,

and bore roses so large, that to keep the roads clear










and the Little Golden Lady. 3

from the litter their leaves made, little Lightsome, the
water-carrier, was forced to come with a large broom
every day, and sweep them into heaps at the side of
the path, where the children would tumble about to
their hearts’ delight, without hurting themselves a bit.

Now, as far as I can remember, there were not
very many people living in this beautiful village; but
they were very nice people, as far as they went, and
particularly clean—so clean that they never wanted
washing, which was a fortunate thing for them; for
though they had their pump by the side of the Doll’s
Holly Bush, it was as dry as a bone, and was the only
one they had: thus it was that Lightsome had every
day to trudge into the wood for water, and that brings
me back to the old man I began with, for as sure as
his name was Nipchese, he was this little chap’s father,
and I will tell you some more about him.

In all this happy village he was the only disagreeable
person—he and his two eldest sons;—so you must not
forget that Daddy Nipchese was the father. Skimbal
and Skambel were twins, but then there was Lightsome,
the youngest, only he was not disagreeable; indeed, I

am afraid it was mainly because he was kind and good-






4 Lightsome,

natured, and willing and strong, that his brothers made
him to go out a water-bearing and a road-sweeping, for
he did it very willingly and very well, and let his old
father and his two brothers stop at home doing nothing
all the day long.

Now as I am going to tell you how some strange
adventures happened to Lightsome, I hope you will
not think that I am telling you what is not quite true,
for all that is written down here took place a long,
‘long way off, where such out-of-the-way doings happen
every day.

One morning early when, in his usual way, he had
done all the work of the house, young Lightsome left
his father and his two brothers fast asleep, and buckling
on his yoke, with the two water pails, jogged off to
the stream in the wood, singing a funny little song. As
the wood was not very far out of the village, and he
went along pretty fast, he soon came to the place
where he expected to find the stream running: but
think of his disappointment, when he found the water
all gone! There was the place where the stream used
to run, sure enough; but whether it had tumbled down

a great hole and lost its way, or had dried up before

J








and the Little Golden Lady. 5

it reached the shady wood, at all events there was no
water; so he sat down on his pails to think what he
should do. Said he to himself:

“It’s no good going back, for then the neighbours



will get no water. I had better keep on till I find
another stream, for then I can fill my pails, and come
back indeed;” and almost before he had brought his

thoughts to an end, he was up with his yoke over his








6 Lightsome,

shoulders making his way further into the wood. He
had need to be quick; for although he rambled on a
long way, far and wide, the wood only got thicker
and the ground drier.

“I shall never find any water,” said he, “I am
afraid ;” but as he said this, feeling very tired, or he
would not have said it at all, he heard a sweet voice
cry out in great distress,

“Oh dear! oh dear! what shall I do? I have-lost
my two little fishes.”

Lightsome forgot his own trouble when he heard

the voice, and, following its sound, as it still continued

calling “Oh dear! oh dear!” came upon the bank of

a clear running stream, where sat a beautiful little lady,
wiping her eyes upon her long golden hair.

“I say, little waterman, have you seen my two
fishes ?”

“No!” said Lightsome. “J have seen no fishes, and
I have seen no water until I came here; but now I am
going to fill my pails.”

“But pray look for my fishes first,” asked the
yellow-haired maid.

“Oh, no!” replied the water-bearer; “I have neither










and the Little Golden Lady. 7

rod, hook, line, nor landing-net, so how can I catch
your fishes? I must take my water to the village, and
then I will come back and help you as much as ever
T can.”

“But find my fishes, first,” cried the maid; “they
are my two little servants who are never tired, and
do for me everything I want of them before ever I can
ask.” But Lightsome shook his head, and dropped one
of his pails into the water, while the little maid cried
bitterly, and hid her face in her yellow hair. Lightsome
pulled out his first pailful of water.

“ At all events,” said he, “there are no fish in that ;”
and the little maid only cried the more; but when he
dipped out the second pailful, what should he find in
it but two little gold fish!

“Here they are!” said he; and the golden-haired
maid, not even stopping to wipe her eyes, lifted the
fish out of the pail very tenderly, and sat them on
their tails by her side. If you could have seen the
little legs that grew out of their shiny bodies, before
you could have counted three, you would have known
why Lightsome started back, crying,

“Why! they are running about.”






8 Lightsome,

“Oh, yes!” said the lady, clapping her hands for
joy; “they are always running about, except when they
are thrown into the water, and as you were so fortunate
as to pull them out, here are a pair of scales for you;

they may be useful—they weigh everything into gold.”



I don’t think Lightsome thought he had done much
to deserve this wonderful gift, but he took it all the
same, for he hardly dare refuse anything from such a
beautiful lady; still he fondly hoped, if ever he again
met her in trouble, he should help her by means of

some mighty deed, that would give him a better claim








and the Little Golden Lady. 9

to her good wishes; but now, he had only time to bid
her a hasty good-bye, before he hurried back to the
village with his pails of water.

When he had served his water round—a large tea-
cupful to each house, for that was all they wanted—
home he went with his golden scales. He up and: told
his father where he had been, whom he had seen,
and what he had got. Said old Nipchese then,

“Of course they are not golden, and as for weighing
everything into gold, that is all nonsense; but they
seem very good scales, and just come in handily to
weigh my pig the butcher killed for me yesterday
afternoon. Skimbal! Skambel!” he cried to his other
sons, who were still a-bed. “Get up this minute, and
bring me the pig, that J may weigh it.”

“Bother the pig!” said Skimbal and Skambel, and—

“Bother the pig!” returned Skambel to Skimbal; but
up they got—and, after rubbing their eyes and yawning
many times, off they went for the pig.

They brought it in, in this wise: Skimbal holding
the tail, and Skambel having tight hold of the head;
but Lightsome could hold neither head nor tail, for he

was near splitting his sides with laughing.










10 Lightsome,

“The scales are a great deal too small for our pig.”
But a wonderful thing took place,—the scales grew bigger,
till they were exactly the right size for weighing a pig,
and when they had lifted its body into them, says
Daddy Nipchese,

“Tt makes him look quite yellow!”

“And shiny,” said Skimbal.

“ Like brass,” said Skambel.

“Or gold,” cried Lightsome.

And gold it was.

“Suppose they turn everything into gold, as the
lady said they would!” remarked the little water-bearer.
His father and his brothers laughed at him; but he was
right after all: these were wonderful scales, for they
weighed their pots and their pans, their chairs and their
tables, into solid gold, as fast as they could get them
in and out. In fact, Nipchese was very nearly weighing
himself; he got one leg in, but the sudden cramp that
seized him in the calf was a warning to take it out
again, but as the scale exactly fitted whatever was put
into it, he had a golden leg before he could put it to
the ground, and went stumping about like a one-legged

crossing-sweeper ever after, and all the days of his life.




and the Little Golden Lady. II

To what other purposes old Nipchese put these
wonderful scales, you shall very soon hear; but as he
never had one of any thing that he did not at once
wish for three, he made up his mind that his two
eldest sons should also pay a visit to the little golden
lady.

All right,” said Skimbal; “I will go, if you can
get me up early enough to-morrow morning.” You see
Skimbal was the laziest of all the family; but somehow
they pulled him out of bed by ten o'clock the next
morning, and when his father had borrowed for him a
fishing-rod, a line, and an enormous hook, he started
off and made his way to the wood, where he soon
managed to lose himself, I can tell you.

He wandered up.

He wandered down.

And in and out.

He scratched himself with brambles.

He tumbled over the roots of old trees.

He knocked his head against the elbows of great
branches.

And when he had got thoroughly tired, cross, and

disagreeable, he came upon the little stream, and laid




12 Lightsome,

him down on the bank to get a good drink of the
water.

“Oh!” he cried, as loud as ever he could. “Oh!”
and “Oh!” again. For as soon as he had laid down,
he felt somebody pulling his great ear, and heard an

angry little voice crying out to him—
gry ying



“Get up, lazy Skimbal! get up! How can my
fishes be caught, if you lay idling there?”

Up jumped Skimbal rubbing his ear, which was hot
and red by this time, and on the ground by his side

saw the golden lady looking very cross indeed; but how


and the Little Golden Lady. 13

cross she became when she saw the fishing-rod, the line,
and the enormous hook, I leave you to guess, when I
tell you that she cried out,

“Catch my fish with a hook! Clumsy fellow! you
ought to be ashamed of yourself to think of such a thing.”

“Well,” replied Skimbal, “I don’t know about being
ashamed, but as I have been all day getting here, I
shall just catch them with a hook or not at all.”

“Then,” said the lady, “you had better make haste
and begin, for whatever you catch you will have to
take home.”

“That’s not a bad bargain,” remarked Skimbal, and
in he dropped his line.

“You have got a bite!” cried the lady directly after,
and away she ran laughing. What she was laughing
about, Skimbal could not tell, but he pulled out his
line, and with it a monstrous crab.

Now you don’t expect to find a crab in a fresh-
water stream; but when you find one as big as a New-
foundland dog, with claws as large as the legs of the
dining-room table, you are just as likely to catch it
in a little stream as in Pegwell Bay.

“Oh my!” roared Skimbal. “Go back! Oh dear!










14 Lightsome,

Oh don’t!” And so would you have said “Oh don’t!”
I think, for the great crab, instead of going back,
jumped upon Skimbal and tried to throttle him.

And I dare say would; but the lazy fellow set
off running, and as he quickened his pace, the crab
loosened its grip and sat so lightly on Skimbal’s back,
that he hardly felt it at all; but so sure as he slackened
his steps, so soon did the great crab begin to throttle
him again.

When he got home he sat down to rest himself,
but very soon jumped up, for the claws were at his
throat. His father and his brothers tried to free him
from his terrible burden, but to no purpose—they only
got some smart pinches for their pains.

But Skimbal soon found out that it was only when
he was idle that the monster annoyed him, for when-
ever he was hard at work, his tormentor rested lightly
upon his shoulders; and do you know, the crab was
not at all particular as to the sort of work that lazy
Skimbal set himself at,—whether he was digging in the
garden or milking the cow, gathering the fruit or mowing
the grass, it was all the same to the crab; but if he

leant on the gate, or lounged in the meadow, or lay


| and the Little Golden Lady. 15

under the apple-tree, or slept on the haycock, then

| woe betide him; and woe did betide him many a time
in the day.

| While Skimbal therefore was working as hard, yet



as unwillingly, as ever he could; and while Nipchese was
weighing everything into gold, until he hadn’t an iron
poker to stir the fire with; while Lightsome was doing
his duty, and not thinking much of that, Skambel was




16 Lightsome,

biting all his finger nails away, for he was the en'vious
one of the family, was Skambel. Said he,

“When I get my scales I mean to keep ’em. Not
give them to father, oh no! I shall have the golden
fishes too for my servants, and the little golden lady
for my wife; and as for being caught by a stupid crab,
I will just drop it in the fish kettle, and boil it for my
supper after I come home.”

So if Skambel was as envious as his brother was
idle, I think he was also as stupid; yet one bright
thought occurred to him.

“It will never do,’ thinks he, “to take line and
hook. I shall borrow a large landing-net.”

So next morning, landing-net and all, he started off
to the wood, saying nothing to nobody.

“You are very early,” said the little golden lady, for
there she was waiting his arrival, and he had had no
difficulty in finding her. “You are very early—do you
expect to catch my fishes with a landing-net? I
always have them caught in a pail.”

“Oh!” replied Skambel, “I forgot the pail.”

“Well,” said the lady, “you had better go back and
fetch it,”




and the Little Golden Lady. 17

“I can’t go back,” he persisted; “I don’t want any
one to know that I have come.”

“Drop in your net then,” she said; “all that you
catch you must carry away.”

So in he put his landing-net, but he did not land
the two fishes—for he pulled out instead something
like a lobster’s tail.

“ At all events,” said he, “that won't bite.” He put
in his net again, and pulled it out again; still no fishes,
but something like a lobster’s body, and he said,

“That won't bite,” and threw it on the ground,

He kept on putting in his landing-net and pulling
it out again, each time pulling out a claw, which he
threw upon the ground; last of all he pulled out two
very large claws, each time remarking, “That won't
bite,’ and on the last pull adding,

“Dear me, what a deal of trouble about these fishes!”

“Try again,” said the little golden lady. “Try again.”

He did try again, and pulled out something like a
scorpion’s head, and, what’s more, it was a scorpion’s
head; and, as he threw it on the ground by the side of
the other pieces, he saw he had pulled out a scorpion’s
head, body, tail, little claws, and big claws.

D


18 Lightsome,

And as he turned from looking at these ugly pieces,
behold—the two golden fishes were combing the little
lady’s golden hair.

“Well!” he cried, “I don’t know how you got
there, but, as you have given me a great deal of
trouble, I shall just pocket you.” So he took up the
little golden fishes one by one, and dropped them into
his pouch. ‘The little lady was turning to run away,
but he whipped her up under his arm, and off he
started for home.

He had not taken two steps, when he heard a
great clash and a clatter, like the tumbling down of
ten sets of fire-irons, and the locking up fifty street-
door locks; and turning round, he saw all the pieces
of the scorpion fasten themselves together before you
could well count five, and become one complete reptile,
which shook itself to see that all its joints were in
working order, and then flew straight at Skambel’s
left leg.

He screamed, he roared, and he kicked, but it was
all of no avail; he kicked at it with his right foot,
but the scorpion caught that leg too, and what he

would have done next, I am sure I do not know; but


SKAMBEL AND THE SCORPION.
and the Little Golden Lady. 19g

at that moment the little lady called out to him from
under his arm,

“Let me go, give me my fishes, and I will see what
I can do for you.”

So, in the midst of his howling, he set her down,
and gave her her fishes.

“Take your stupid fishes; they are the most useless
creatures I ever saw.”

So says she,

“Do you not envy me my fishes?” and he replied —

“Oh dear, no!”

Then said she,

“Do you not envy me my golden hair?” and he
answered,

“Not a bit.” And, what is more, he meant it.

On the instant there was a clatter and a clash, like
unto fire-irons and street-door locks, and the scorpion
lay in pieces at his feet.

“Now,” said the little lady, as she sat on the grass,
while her two fishes were smoothing her rumpled golden
tresses, “now go home; you envy everybody every-
thing they possess: so remember, every time you have

evil thoughts of other people, the scorpion will be after
20 Lightsome.

your left leg.” And he went sadly home to his father,
but what do you think he said to him?

“If I had taken your gold scales from you yesterday,
as I mean to do to-night, I should never have had
such a pain in my leg.”

On the instant he had it again worse than ever;
then came the noise as of fire-irons and the clash as of
door-locks, for the scorpion had hold of him tighter
than ever.

“Take your golden scales,” he shricked; “I wouldn't
have them at a gift.” And he meant it.

Down fell the scorpion into pieces again.




CHAPTER THE SECOND.






CHAPTER THE SECOND.

WHAT with the noise of the scorpion, as twenty
times a day it had to bite the envious Skambel, what
with the groans of Skimbal whenever the crab embraced
him, added to the thump—thumping of Nipchese’s
golden leg, as he went restlessly about the house
seeking for old lumber to turn into new gold, the
cottage was no longer fit to live in. So said Lightsome
one day when he had finished all his work, and was
looking out for some more to begin upon,—

“T will take a run down to the wood, and see how
the little lady is getting on.”

He ran down as quickly as he could, but, when he




24 Lightsome,

got there, she was in worse grief than ever., He sat
down by her side, and taking her hand in his, said he,

“Pretty lady, do not cry any more, for I am your
true friend, and I love you dearly; I will do anything
to help you out of your trouble.”

But said she,

“My trouble is so great that I fear no one can
help me.”

“At all events,” continued Lightsome, “I can try.”

“But look!” cried she, “where the stream used to
run, it is now dried up. After my two fishes had
been thrown in again yesterday by GRIM HODDIDOD,
the great hunter, he pulled up the round stone where
four winds blow altogether, and the water of the stream,
with my two poor fishes, fell down the deep hole into
the spring where the lions drink.” °

“Ts that all?” said Lightsome; “I will soon get to
the spring, pails and all, if you wish.”

“But ah!” sobbed the lady; “it is not so easy as
you think—for first you must cut off the hunter's head,
but that will only turn him into a bull; then you must
cut off the bull's tail, and that will only change him

into a ram; then you must chop the ram’s horns off,
and the Little Golden Lady. 25

and that will only turn him into a lion; and, as the
lion tears up every one who is the least bit afraid, it is
not likely that you will get to the water.”

“But,” objected Lightsome, “as I was never afraid
of anything in my whole life, I should very much
like to try.”

“Well,” said the little golden lady, “here is one kiss
for courage. I love you dearly for not being afraid; if
you come back safe after all, you shall be my lord,
and I will be your lady. There!” and she gave him
the courage kiss there and then.

“Now,” said Lightsome, “if I get to the lion, what
am I to do with him ?”

“Pluck the third hair out of his right whisker, and
the third hair out of his left whisker, and he will
never do harm to anybody ever any more.”

“Then where shall the huntsman be found?” asked
Lightsome.

“HERE!!” said a great gruft voice, as loud and as
harsh as a watchman’s rattle.

“ TERE |”

And Lightsome, turning round, beheld a great monster;
whether it was a horse that was a man, or a man that

E


26 Lightsome,

was a horse, was not easy for him to make out. It
had a man’s head, chest, and arms, with a horse’s body
and legs.

“Are you Grim Hoddidod, the great huntsman?”
asked Lightsome.

“I aM!” replied the monster.

“Then give me a ride,” shouted the water-bearer at
the top of his voice, and jumped upon his back.

However grim Hoddidod may have been, this clever
trick of Lightsome’s took him so by surprise, that he
gave the young hero a ride with a vengeance. Back-
ward and forward, up and down, and roundabout, till
any one except Lightsome would have lost his seat.
At last Hoddidod galloped with him into a large open
space, where were four still larger monsters, even uglier
than himself.

One was reaping corn with a sword.

The second was chopping straw with an axe.

The third was mowing grass with a pair of shears.

And the fourth carried a great brown pitcher.

No sooner did they catch sight of Lightsome, upon
the grim hunter’s back, than they all set up a great

noise, like guns going off.




and the Little Golden Lady. 27

“Come on!” cried Lightsome.

“Come off!” roared the one with the chopper, and
threw it at the young rider’s head.

But the bold Lightsome, who was a good catch,
took it flying, and stuck it in his belt, saying,

“T shall have a use for you.”

Then they set up another great roaring noise, and
the monster with the shears threw them at his head.

“Just what I want,’ said he, and stuck them in
his belt.

This made the monsters roar only the louder, and
then the one who held the pitcher threw that at his
head; but again he showed how cleverly he could catch ;
he caught the pitcher, and lightly hung it over his
shoulder, for he thought he should want that too.

But, with the noise still raging, approached the monster
with the sword, looking as if he could cut anybody's
head off; still I know of one head that he could not
reach, and that head was Lightsome’s, for the young
water-carrier made Grim Hoddidod so to prance about,
that he with the sword could not get near enough,
so flew into a still greater passion, and flung the

sword at Lightsome’s head.






28 Lightsome,

But, wonderful to relate, Lightsome caught, even the
sword, but he did not stick that in his belt: he just
gave it two whirls in the air, and off came Hoddidod’s
head.

“Warm work,” cried the water-carrier; but it soon
became warmer still.

All the monsters had vanished, and in their places
he saw before him, tossing, and pawing, and roaring,
five wild bulls.

There he stood in the middle of them!

“Come,” said he, “which tail am I to cut off? for
I am sure I don’t know.” And he snipped the shears
in their faces boldly, for all they kicked up such a dust.

But the worst of it was, he could not get at any
of their tails; they kept their great noses towards him,
with their heads well down, and if it had not been
that he was a little boy, and they five mad bulls, it
might have been mistaken for a new game of touch. And
then came what might have been a new game of tossing,
when one of the bulls, charging up suddenly, caught
him with his horns, and tossed him far up in the air;
but this was just the worst thing that the bull could

have done for himself, for Lightsome, coming down
Vf

FALL a



L rz

Lf
LAL

’

Page 28

THE SHEARING OF THE BULLS.


and the Little Golden Lady. 29

behind, snipped off his tail before he had time to see
where it was. The second, the third, and the fourth
bull tried the same plan, and met the same fate.

“Well,” said Lightsome, “if there are four bulls
without tails, the fifth sust be the hunter. Come on,
Hoddidod !”

But Hoddidod, grim as he was, did not come on;
so, as this last animal refused to toss him, Lightsome
took the bull by the horns, tossed himself first on to
its back, then head over heels backwards, and off went
his tail—Snip!

“Warm work,” said the water-bearer, thinking to
have a little rest. But, on the instant, he found himself
attacked by five great rams, with horns as long as his
atm, as rough as the old oak tree, and as spiky as
the village church steeple; on they came before he
was aware of them—heads low down and_ shoulders
up, making real battering rams of themselves.

Down went poor Lightsome.

Down !

Down!

Down again!

Butted at and trampled.
30 Lightsome,

Hauled and mauled.

Till he felt all over bruises, and thought he had
not a sound limb in his body.

He was so knocked about that he had no time to
think.

But, after the rams had battered him seven times,

and were preparing for the eighth, he remembered the



chopper, which he had sate under his belt, and then,
being ready for them, when they rushed the eighth
time, he chopped oft the horns of the one that was
nearest at hand.

And pray what do you think this ram said, when
he found that he had lost his horns? Why, he said,—
and the Little Golden Lady. 31

“Baa—a, Baa—a!” and trotted off quite quietly to
eat of the grass that grew close by.

“You are only an old sheep after all,” said Lightsome,
and off he chopped the horns of ram number two; he
served the third the same way, and after him the
fourth; and they all cried

“Baa—a, Baa—a!” and walked off quietly to nibble
the grass. Said the water-bearer, as he prepared to
attack the fifth ram,

“Should this one happen to be a sheep also, what-
ever shall I do for a lion?”

He was a lion, though, and behaved as such as
soon as he had lost his horns, for with one great
roar, and one great spring, he seized Lightsome by
his jacket, gave him a shake to drive all the breath
out of his body, and ran off with him as fast as ever
he could.

Many a weary mile did the lion carry young Light-
some.

Up hill and down dale, over rock and through fen.
All that day and all the night, and the larger half
of the next day, still the Lion went on, only stopping

at long intervals to rest himself, by laying the poor


32 Lightsome,

lad on the ground, placing one paw on his body,
growling all the time.

But at last, when Lightsome was more dead than
alive, they came to a green little valley, pleasantly
enclosed by trees, where this lion lived all alone. Here
he laid Lightsome down, and as soon as the worn-
out little chap was able to listen, he growled to him
in a great gruff voice,

“Are you afraid?”

“No,” replied the boy, and in case his voice, which
was faint, might not sound very courageous, he
repeated,

“No! but I am tired and sleepy, so I wish you
would let me alone.”

“Get up!” roared the lion; “you shall carry my
water, cook my joints, comb my hair, and make my
bed, and if you can’t do that, I will eat you up this
minute.”

“Very well,” said Lightsome, “I can only do my best.”

The lion took him where the mosses and the ferns
grew, and he made him his bed.

The lion handed him a large tortoiseshell comb,

and he combed his tangled mane.
and the Little Golden Lady. 33

The lion killed a buck that unwarily passed, and he
cooked him his joint.

Then the lion showed him the spring, but as he had
no chance then of rescuing the fishes, he only gave
them one look, and hurried back with the lion’s water.

“T see,” said our water-bearer to himself, when he
had quite recovered from his long journey; “I see
that I must now look after his whiskers.” Easier said
than done, for among the many failings that this terrible
old lion had—worse than his fiery temper, worse than
his ravenous appetite, and worse than his great thirst
—was his constant watchfulness.

This lion never went to sleep.

What to do Lightsome did not know, and what he
would have done I do not know, had it not been
for one other failing this old lion had.

He was very vain.

So, when he had found this out, says the lad to
the lion,

“What a pity you have not such a thing as a
razor! I could shave your face so smooth and clean,
that you would look, once for all, like a gentleman.”

“T don't know,” replied the lion, “what it is to look

F




34 Lightsome,

like a gentleman, but a razor I have got you will
find it in the fourth hollow tree to the right.”
Lightsome soon found the razor—it was a little
rusty, but still very sharp—and he also found a lump
of soap, with which he lathered the lion’s beard well



before using the razor. And a curious thing happened
then, for, as he shaved off the whiskers, the lion fell
fast asleep; and at once Lightsome found himself free
again,

The first thing he did was to take his little brown
and the Little Golden Lady. 35

pitcher, and dipping it full of water from the lion’s
spring, to find therein the two fishes; he took them
up tenderly, and sat them on their tails. Out came

their little legs, as he had seen once before, and





“Oh!” cried the little golden fishes, speaking together
in a great hurry. “What a time we have waited for
you, and where are the hairs from the lion’s whiskers?”

“Dear me,” said he, “I have shaved them off
36 Lightsome,

altogether, and J am sure I don’t know whether from
which. But wait a while,” said he at last, “wait a
little while, I will go and look.”

“Then make haste, whatever you do,” said the fishes,
“for we can do nothing whatever without them.”

Lightsome found the whiskers that he had shaved
off the lion, but, for the life of him, he could not tell
which was right or which was left, or which was the third
of either; so he asked the fishes if they could help him.

“Oh, yes!” they replied, “nothing is easier; for the
third hair of the right whisker, and the third hair of
the left whisker, are the only two perfectly straight hairs
he had in his whiskers.” So they soon found them, I
can tell you; and as Lightsome put them carefully into
his pouch, he looked round, and lo!

The lion was changing into a ram.

And as he was calling out to the fishes for fear
something should have gone wrong—behold!

The lion was no longer a ram, but a great bull.

And before the fishes could comfort him, and assure
him that all was right, he saw that the bull was changing
into something else.

“We shall have that old hunter again!” said he.


Page 36.

LIGHTSOME AND THE LION.
and the Little Golden Lady. 37

But he was wrong at last, for it was not the grim
hunter after all, but a fine high-stepping dapple grey
steed.

“That horse will carry you home an instant,”
said the fishes; “put us gently into the brown pitcher,
sling the pitcher on your shoulder and jump boldly
on to the horse’s back.”

He put the fish very tenderly into the pitcher, he

slung the pitcher very tenderly on to his shoulders, he



sprung boldly on to the horse’s back, and

“Hallo!” said one of the fishes, peeping over the
edge of the pitcher; “you can get down again.”

But how he had travelled, or whither, or when, he
never could find out; the lion’s den had vanished quite
away, and he found himself standing on the bank of
the stream where first he found the little golden lady.
The stream was running merrily, and the lady was
smilingly helping him to alight from his dapple grey
steed.

“Where are my fishes?” said she.

“Here they are,” said Lightsome, as soon as he had
reached the ground; “Here they are,” and sat them

on their tails.
38 Lightsome,

“Thank you,” said the little lady, and gave him a
very sweet kiss. Continued Lightsome,

“T have not forgotten the two hairs out of the
lion’s beard,” and offered them to her. She took them
carefully from him, and touched one little fish with
one hair, and the other little fish with the other hair.

“Mind! mind!” called out Lightsome, directly after
to the fishes. “Mind! or you will burst;” for their
little legs were growing into big legs, where their
gills had been came arms, their bodies grew so rapidly
under their scales, that if they had not stopped swelling
when they got to be six feet high, there is no knowing
how tall they might have become at last. They were
no longer fishes, but gallant knights and noble gentlemen
accoutred in scale armour, armed with what had been
a hair out of the lion’s whisker—now a bran new spear,
eight feet long.

“They are my brothers,’ said the lady, “free at
last from the enchantments of the grim Hoddidod.
For years have I been vainly trying to release them,
but all the solace I could gét for them was a pair o1
little legs, and even those disappeared each time that

the hunter threw them into the water.”
and the Little Golden Lady. 39

“Tf I loved you before,” she continued, “when you
offered to assist me, how great must my love be now

}»

that you have brought them safely back. Look round




4

t
PH a . , 8 by a im
vere Pe STE tt P ef Phe Zoos

Topurpegae). SS

Pept tg ad

a














a hp Ai
WTS cell ee et

} et i ol Be a
<< ¢@

Look round! he had not thought of looking round
till now, but what was his surprise to find himself

standing in the heart of a golden city; to find the lady
40 Lightsome.

clothed in golden tissue with diamond coronet and
jewelled robe; to find his own shabby clothes falling
off his limbs, only to discover a dress even more
magnificent than hers; to see a crowd of people come
laughing, dancing, and singing out of a noble palace
of marble, of ivory, and of gold; and to see his two
brothers and his father come hobbling up the principal
street: Old Nipchese carrying the scales that he dare
not part from, even for one moment; Skimbal near

throttled by the crab, who had him tight round nf
throat; and Skambel screaming at the scorpion, who
had him by the calf of his leg—but we must go back
again a little now, to find how they came, in their

trouble, to be there at all.
CHAPTER THE THIRD.








CHAPTER THE THIRD.

N OW if you remember how busily engaged we left
Nipchese weighing everything into gold, you can just
fancy how rich he soon became: there was not a thing
about him, from the wheelbarrow that stood in the
back yard, to the three-legged stool in the corner, that
was not changed into solid gold; and when he had
taken down the rafters from the roof and changed them
into massive ingots, he had nothing but his own body
that had not been changed into gold, so he had to
appeal to his neighbours to bring him everything they
had—but as he gave them only one ounce out of

every pound of fairy gold, he still got richer and richer








44 Lightsome,

every day; he bought all the trees that were standing
about the village and changed them into gold; he
would have bought all the sheep and oxen, but the
people were afraid of selling them, for fear they should
have nothing to eat, for they knew by the sad experience
of his buying the wheat-sheaves at harvest-time, how
golden grains would not make bread at any price;
also they remembered that when he had made gold
dust of all the miller’s flour, and had bought the baker’s
last batch and weighed that into golden loaves, they
had suffered from a great famine, and many of them
had died.

Indeed, old Nipchese’s love for gold became at last
so great, that, having weighed up all his live stock
into precious metal, he found himself quite unable to
lay in stores of provisions—he was sure to weigh it
all into gold before he had time to eat it. When
almost reduced to a state of starvation, he only saved
his life by accepting the many invitations of his friends,
who, because he was so well-to-do, were but too glad
to see him in their houses, even at dinner-time.

It was while searching for a share of somebody

else’s meal, that Tommy and Ted, two well-known


and the Little Golden Lady. 45

robbers who had travelled to the village, hearing of Nip-
chese’s gold, climbed into the cottage through the hole
where the rafters used to be, with the intention of making
off with the wonderful scales; but being funny fellows,

and in no great hurry, said Tommy to Ted,



“Let us see which weighs the heaviest.”

“T am the tallest,’ said Ted; “but come on, let us

try.
Tommy got into the right-hand scale, and Ted got
into the left, and








46 Lightsome,

“Oh!” says Teddy, “I can’t get out.”

“No more can I,” says Tom.

And when Nipchese came home that night, he
found two golden statues sitting on the magic scales.
He hammered their legs straight with a golden hammer
on a golden anvil, and he set them up outside his door;
Tommy on one side, Ted on the other, an ornament
to his house, and a terror to all evil-doers.

But now—just to see how one thing leads to another.

When Skimbal, throttled out of his laziness by the
crab, had dug up all the ground that was digable, had
mowed all the grass that was mowable, had pruned all
the trees that were prunable, and had done all the
work that there was to be done, he took it into his
head, or perhaps the crab put it there, that he would
build for his father a palace of gold. He began it at
once. Of course Daddy Nipchese did not mind his gold
being used for such a purpose, for it would be not
only more valuable, but more beautiful to the eye.

Skambel, who at once envied his father the palace
that was being built for him, found that the only
thing that would stop the clashing and the biting of
the scorpion, was to get up early and help to build








and the Little Golden Lady. 47

a second, and even larger palace, and in course of time
it happened that all the villagers helped to build golden
palaces; they made Nipchese their king, because he
found them all their gold; so there they were, month
after month, while Lightsome was away, working every
day, and all day long, building themselves the golden
city, and they made themselves golden clothes against
the time that they had done building, and they forgot
nothing that would make them look rich, and noble,
and great. Only one thing they forgot.

They did not give heed to their promise about the
flocks and the herds, and the corn crops.

For lack of better materials, they weighed even these
into gold. They thought to spangle their robes with
golden corn, to powder their hair with golden dust, to
weave their clothes from golden fleece, to make their
shoes of golden hides.

But the more they made their boots and wove their
clothes, filled their sacks with gold dust, and laid up
great heaps of glittering spangles, the hungrier they
got, and the less they had for dinner.

Thus it happened, that having at last nothing to
eat, nor anything to drink (the little stream had gone


48 Lightsome,

dry again), a dreadful famine came upon them, and they
lay down in their golden strect, surrounded by their
golden palaces, half-buried in their golden corn, their
golden hides, their spangled golden robes, and their
golden dust, with hardly strength enough left to cry
one to the other.

Then it was that the little golden lady came tripping
up the street, crying,

“Oh! what a fine city full of miserable people.”

But, by the power she had, and it was great, she
gave these people to eat and to drink—for she pitied
them.

She gave nothing to Nipchese, she thought he would
last a little longer; she gave nothing to Skimbal, for she
saw that the crab would keep him alive; and Skambel
she left to the care of the scorpion.

But if her power was great when she relieved these
poor, hungry, gilded people, how much greater it proved,
when, on the return of Lightsome, she called out,

“Look round!”

And the city stood on the banks of the little stream
—running merrily.

By what fairy aid this was made possible, by what


and the Little Golden Lady. 49

enchantment this wondrous city was so suddenly trans-
ported, whether it came underground by way of surprise,
or through the air for quickness, in these days, and
down here, it is difficult to imagine; but up so high
beyond the clouds, at so far distant a time, great wonders
seemed to happen more readily, and there stood Light-
some rubbing his eyes, now and then pinching himself
to make sure, wondering what dream he was dreaming,
but hoping he might never awake—when up came his
father, dragging along the golden scales —— up came
Skimbal, with the crab at his throat, followed by the
envious Skambel, hauling the scorpion, which hung on
to his leg, and they looked the more miserable, for that
they cried altogether, as if in chorus,

“ Give us to eat, for we are so hungry, indeed

Before Lightsome could turn his eyes piteously towards
the lady, a large table stood before the three hungry

men—a table fit to break down with an abundance of

”

the choicest food.

“Sit down, famished people,” said the golden lady;
“eat and be merry,” and they sat down at once, I can
tell you.

Then a good thought struck Lightsome (but somehow,

H


50 Lightsome,

he was always having good thoughts)—he set up the



scales before him, and first he weighed the crab into

gold, and a fine ornament it made; then he weighed



the scorpion into gold, and that was still finer, so he
and the Little Golden Lady. 51

stood them up before the great palace, for a memory
of those who had built it.

Then said the little lady to Lightsome,

“This city is for you, and you shall be the king ;
my brothers will do you all service, and keep you
from all harm.” )

But Lightsome said he could not be king unless
she were queen, and it was settled so at once.

“As for Skimbal, who sleeps so sound, and hates
trouble, he shall keep our west gate; and Skambel,
who spies out faults in every one, shall keep our east
gate. The west gate is that by which people leave
the city, but from this time forth no one will ever
wish to leave it, for we will make them all happy, and
that will be work enough for Skimbal; but Skambel
shall keep the east gate, where people come in; and as
none but the best of good children will be allowed
to enter, Skambel shall be there to spy out the faults
of all those who are not worthy of such a golden
home.”

“ But,” said Lightsome, “you have forgotten my Daddy,
Nipchese; can you not find him something to weigh ?”

“Oh, yes,” cried the lady, clapping her hands; “his


52 Lightsome,

scales shall weigh truth henceforth, and no more gold;
he shall stand with Skambel at the east gate, and
when the children come, who say that they are good

—even if Skambel’s envy fails to detect their faults,



the golden scales, in which they all shall sit, will weigh
them at their proper value: then, when the balance
turns towards them, we shall know that they are good

and true indeed.”
and the Little Golden Lady. 53

Wonderful to think, it all happened just exactly as
she had said.

She was the queen of the golden city, and made
Lightsome as happy as the days were long.



Lightsome, to whom she gave up all the mighty
power she possessed, was king, and. made all the

people as happy as he was himself.


54 Lightsome,

Even Skimbal was happy; for no one wishing to
leave the golden city, not a soul ever disturbed his

slumbers.

Even Skambel was content, when he turned back
the naughty boys and girls.

Only Nipchese, I am afraid, could not see the use
of weighing anything so absurd to him as truth, when,
as he said,

“Good solid gold might have been weighed just

as well.”

THE END.



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