Citation
The magic oak tree

Material Information

Title:
The magic oak tree and, Prince Filderkin
Series Title:
Children's library
Added title page title:
Prince Filderkin
Creator:
Brabourne, Edward Hugessen Knatchbull-Hugessen, Baron, 1829-1893
Unwin, T. Fisher ( Thomas Fisher ), 1848-1935 ( Publisher )
Place of Publication:
London
Publisher:
T. Fisher Unwin
Publication Date:
Language:
English
Physical Description:
vi, 173, 7, [1] p., [4] leaves of plates : ill. ; 18 cm.

Subjects

Subjects / Keywords:
Magic -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh )
Witches -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh )
Fairies -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh )
Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh )
Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh )
Children's stories ( lcsh )
Children's stories -- 1894 ( lcsh )
Fantasy literature -- 1894 ( rbgenr )
Publishers' catalogues -- 1894 ( rbgenr )
Bldn -- 1894
Genre:
Children's stories
Fantasy literature ( rbgenr )
Publishers' catalogues ( rbgenr )
novel ( marcgt )
Spatial Coverage:
England -- London
Target Audience:
juvenile ( marctarget )

Notes

General Note:
Title page and series t.p. printed in red and black.
General Note:
Publisher's catalogue follows text.
Funding:
Children's library (T. Fisher Unwin)
Statement of Responsibility:
by the late Lord Brabourne.

Record Information

Source Institution:
University of Florida
Holding Location:
University of Florida
Rights Management:
This item is presumed to be in the public domain. The University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries respect the intellectual property rights of others and do not claim any copyright interest in this item. Users of this work have responsibility for determining copyright status prior to reusing, publishing or reproducing this item for purposes other than what is allowed by fair use or other copyright exemptions. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions may require permission of the copyright holder. The Smathers Libraries would like to learn more about this item and invite individuals or organizations to contact The Department of Special and Area Studies Collections (special@uflib.ufl.edu) with any additional information they can provide.
Resource Identifier:
026600136 ( ALEPH )
ALG2770 ( NOTIS )
222013808 ( OCLC )

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Full Text




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LIBRARY



THE MAGIC OAK TREE

AND

PRINCE FILDERKIN





THE CHILDREN’S LIBRARY.



A CHINA CUP, AND OTHER STORIES.

THE BROWN OWL.

STORIES FROM FAIRYLAND.

TALES FROM THE MABINOGION.
‘THE STORY OF A PUPPET.

THE LITTLE PRINCESS.

IRISH FAIRY TALES.

AN ENCHANTED GARDEN.

LA BELLE NIVERNAISE.

THE FEATHER.

FINN AND HIS COMPANIONS.

NUTCRACKER AND MOUSE-KING.

ONCE UPON A TIME.

THE PENTAMBRONE,

FINNISH LEGENDS,

THE POPE'S MULE,

THE LITTLE GLASS MAN.

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

THE MAGIC OAK TREE AnD PRINCE
FILDERKIN. -



(Others in the Press.)













[See p. 47.

“THERE STOOD UPON A PROJECTING ROCK THE FIGURE
OF A BEAUTIFUL LITTLE LADY.”



THE MAGIC OAK TREE

AND

PRINCE FILDERKIN-

BY THE LATE

LORD BRABOURNE

[E. H. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSEN ]

LONDON
T. FISHER UNWIN

1894











CONTENTS

THE MAGIC OAK TREE

CHAP. PAGE
*%, WICKED VENOMISTA - : f I
2. Hurty-Bur.y . : 3 5 . 7
3. THE HEDGEHOG. ; : . 15
4. A BARGAIN. 3 : 5 7 24
5. ADVENTURES BY THE Way . s 33
6. TEMPTATION . 2 . : . 40
y. THE WITCH’s DOWNFALL 5 . 52
8. CHILDREN AGAIN . 5 5 saree 59

PRINCE FILDERKIN

1, CONCERNING A Hump . : : 71

2,. FEEBLE JOHN . : . : . 81



vi CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
3. SOME ADVENTURES . ‘ a . 96
4. FURTHER ADVENTURES . E - 109
5, THE PALACE OF THE MOUNTEBANKS 129
6. THE CURSE—AND THE Way OUT . 143
7. HUMPLESS : ‘ ‘ 7 eESO

——_>—__——

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

x. ‘There stood upon a projecting rock the figure
of a beautiful little lady’ . Frontispiece

2. ‘Anumber of little brown frogs, hopping about
and croaking’ 7 . Facing page 4
3. ‘A little man about three feet high, with bright
red hair and only one eye’ Facing page 30

4. ‘She was in a perfect puddle, and had not a
dry thread upon her’ . Facing page 56



THE MAGIC OAK TREE



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yeah





CHAPTER I
WICKED VENOMISTA

ERE was once a very large oak
tree in the middle of a great
forest. Its trunk measured many
hundred feet round, its roots ran
out in every direction for a great distance, and
its branches gave wider shade than those
of any other tree in the forest. But although-
this tree was so large and beautiful, it was
an object of awe instead of delight to all the
dwellers in that part of the world. You
will not be surprised at this when I tell you
the reason. A spiteful old fairy had made
the tree her home and had lived there for
many years. Some fairies, as everybody
knows, are kind and good, and always
B





2 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

ready to do a friendly action towards those
mortals who come in their way. But this
particular fairy was unhappily ofa very differ-
ent character. Her name was Venomista,
and her chief pleasure was to do all the
harm she could to every living creature
except three, which were her special
favourites. These three, a bat, a weasel, and
an adder, lived with her in the tree, and woe
to any mortal who approached it when they
were at home. The bat flew into his face
and flipped at his eyes with its quickly
flapping wings, the weasel bit his heels, and
the adder stung him, and as these three
things generally happened at the same
moment, the traveller had a bad time of it.
Travellers, however, were scarce in those
parts, and the old fairy would never have
found enough mischief to do if she had
stayed at home in her oak. She was there-
fore accustomed to rove abroad a great deal,
and her favourite occupation and amusement
was to look out for children wherever she
could, and when she found any, she almost
always changed the poor little things into
brown frogs, and went away roaring with
delight at the thoughts of the misery of the



WICKED VENOMISTA 3

parents. If I knew the history of all the
people who had suffered this injury at the
hands of the cruel Venomista, I daresay
that I could fill a book with the tales of their
misfortunes ; but, as it is, I can only tell of
one particular family, though that may give
a general idea of what others must have
suffered. It happened upon one occasion,
that the old fairy had gone out rather
farther than usual, and was quite upon the
outskirts of the forest, when she met the
seventeen children of the King and Queen
of that country walking with their nurse.
The first thing that she did was to make
such a terrible face at the poor children that
they all turned round and ran to their nurse
as fast as they could run. Now the nurse
was a very respectable middle-aged woman,
perfectly devoted to the children, and one
who would have done anything in the world
to keep them from harm. So as soon as
she saw the seventeen little ones running to
her for safety, she threw up her arms and
cried out as loud as she could: ‘Come, my
darlings ! come my ducklings ! nobody shall
hurt ye while nursey is here !’

The good woman said these words with



4 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

the best possible intentions, and, no doubt,
if she had herself been either a fairy or a
witch, she would have made a good fight
over the matter before any mischief should
touch her nurslings. But, alas! she was
neither the one nor the other, and the words
were not out of her mouth, nor had the
children reached her, when the harsh voice
of the wicked old fairy fell upon their ears.
And this was what she said:

‘Stop, stop ! ducklings, stop !
Ye no more shall run, but hop.
Hop and skip in marshy bog,
Each a pretty little frog.

You are all (no matter how)

. Venomista's playthings now !
Stop, stop, ducklings, stop !
Learn to croak and learn to hop!’

As the fairy pronounced these words
with the grin of a demon on her face, she
stretched out her long, lean hand towards
the children, in which hand was held a thin
twisted stick, with which she pointed at them ;
and immediately every child stopped short,
and stood still in the place where it was
standing when the dreadful words fell upon
its ear. This, however, was not all. As





“A NUMBER OF LITTLE BROWN FROGS, HOPPING ABOUT AND CROAKING.”



WICKED VENOMISTA 5

the old fairy waved her stick slowly to and
fro, the form of each child began gradually
to change, its clothes disappeared, its limbs
shrivelled up, its head sank in between its |
shoulders; its voice altered, and in less time
than I am writing these lines, instead of the
group of merry, laughing children who had
been playing about in front of their nurse a
few short minutes before, all you could see
was a number of little brown frogs, hopping
about and croaking in plaintive tones as
they did so. The poor nurse was quite
beside herself with anger, terror and surprise.
She first of all screamed loudly, which is a
well-known remedy in all such distressing
cases, but which, in the present instance,
had not the slightest effect, save to increase
the delight with which Venomista looked
upon her work. Then she burst into a
passionate fit of tears, which did no more
good than the screams. Then she began to
implore the fairy to have mercy, and restore
the poor children to their former shape.
When, however, the wicked creature only
winked knowingly at this appeal, and made
an ugly face at her, which was enough to
have frightened her into a fit if she had not



6 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

been in such a state of excitement, she
began bitterly to complain, and to upbraid
the fairy for her cruelty.

‘What harm had these innocent creatures
done you, madam?’ she said. ‘How can
you be so cruel as to have visited them with
such a terrible punishment? It is wicked,
it is shameful 2

‘Stop, my friend,’ interrupted the other,
with a bitter sneer. ‘I do not often con-
descend to trouble myself with servants, but
if you go on at this rate, take care lest I
change you into a snake, so that you may
have’ the satisfaction of eating your late
nurslings, and so settling the matter in a
comfortable way.’

The poor nurse was so horror-stricken at
the suggestion thus made, that she did not
venture to say another word; and the old
fairy, seeing that there was no more fun to
be got out of the unlucky children, gave
another fearful grin towards them and then
went off in search of more mischief to do.







CHAPTER Il
HURLY-BURLY

HE nurse stood. still until this
terrible enemy was gone, and said
not another word until she was
quite out of sight. There was a

reason for this, and also for her not having

replied to the fairy’s last words. This
reason must now be disclosed. When the
children had all set off running to their
nurse, upon the first look of the old fairy,
there was one little fellow who had been
close to the nurse-all the time, and had
therefore no distance to run. He was one
of the youngest of the boys, and, as he was
always the foremost in any mischief that
was going on in the family, and was famous







8 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

for making a noise, they called him little
Hurly-Burly, and by this name he was
generally known. Now little Hurly-Burly,
as soon as he saw his brothers and sisters
turn round and run, whipped himself as
quick as thought under the nurse’s apron,
and there remained completely hidden from
sight. Whether it was that he had not
seen the fairy’s look, or whether it was for
some other reason, I cannot tell; but it is
certain that the spell had no effect upon him,
and whilst all the other children became
frogs, this little-fellow remained a boy the
same as ever.

It was most fortunate for him that the
fairy had not taken the trouble to count the
children before she began to practise her art
upon them, and also that she did not happen
to see this small boy; but so it was, and he
had the good sense to keep perfectly quiet
until she had quite disappeared. Then he
ventured to peep out, and saw before his
eyes the sixteen little brown frogs who had
so lately been his own brothers and sisters,
of form and features like hisown. It was a
curious sight indeed, and sad as well as
curious, to hear the dismal croaks which



HURLY-BURLY 9

were uttered by the poor little creatures.
They hopped to and fro round the nurse,
and seemed to be striving to speak in their
own natural voices, but were unable to do so.
The good nurse wept bitterly as she looked
upon them, and thought of the misery which
awaited the King and Queen, when they
should hear of the terrible misfortune which
had befallen their children. She reflected,
however, that crying and sobbing would do
no good, and began to cast about in her
mind what would be the best thing to do
under the melancholy circumstances of the
case. It was some way off to the palace,
for she had been persuaded by the children
to take a somewhat longer walk than ‘usual,
in consequence of the day being so remark-
ably fine; and although ‘the little boys and
girls had come to the forest easily enough,
it was a very different matter for sixteen
. little frogs to travel the same distance. -
Therefore, after thinking over the matter for
a little while, she came to the conclusion
that there was nothing for it but to carry
them in her apron, and accordingly she sat
down, and invited the little creatures to hop
into her lap. This they presently did, and,



10 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

laden with this precious burden, and with
little Hurly-Burly walking quietly by her side,
the nurse began to move slowly forward in
the direction of the palace. She had not gone
very far, however, before she heard a sound
which attracted her attention, and looking up,
she beheld a black crow sitting on the branch
of a tree, and looking at her as if he wished
to be noticed. The good woman looked up
at the bird, and as soon as she did so he
gave a loud caw, and then, to her great
surprise, addressed her in the following
manner :

+ Good woman, I fear you've been shedding a tear,
—(And tears in this world must be shed)—
But remember, kind nurse, that it might have been
worse,
Had your nurslings been wounded or dead.
Safe, healthy, and sound, see they hop on the
ground,
A step which a frogling befits ;
"Twere worse, I assert, were they crippled and hurt,
Or cruelly broken to bits.
All else may be reft, but if life be still left,
Misfortune may well be endured.
So duty don’t shirk—your wits set to work,
And perchance the dear chicks may be cured !'

The worthy nurse listened to this speech



HURLY-BURLY It

with the greatest astonishment, partly because
she had never before heard a crow speak as
if he was a human being, and partly because
she was quite unaccustomed to hear people
talk in rhyme, whether they were crows or
any other creatures. In fact, she was so
surprised that she could not find words to
express her feelings, and having dropped all
the little frogs on the ground in her surprise,
stood still, staring like a stuck pig, as the
saying is, although as I never saw a stuck
pig stare, I do not exactly know how the
animal performs this feat. Little Hurly-Burly,
however, who was a very intelligent child,
not only both heard and understood what
the crow said, but felt something within him
which impelled him to reply, and knowing
that everybody likes to be answered when
they have spoken to somebody else with
kind intentions, he plucked up courage and
spoke at once to the crow, trying his hand
at rhyme for the first time. He looked up
at the bird and spoke thus:

‘Thank you kindly, Mr. Crow,
You're a friendly bird, I know ;
Since your words are doubtless true,

Please to tell us what to do.’



12 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

As soon as the little boy had said these
words, the crow flapped his wings three
times, and cawed with delight, after which
he composed himself again and thus con-
tinued :

‘ The oak is a fair and a comely tree,
But the bat is a loathsome bird,
And never a note of melody
From his voiceless mouth is heard.

The oak is a fair and a comely tree,
But the weasel’s a noxious beast,

The like of the wretch you can scarcely see
In the North, South, West or East.

The oak is a fair and a comely tree,
But the adder’s a creeping brute,
And ne'er with the forest it well can be
While the wretch lies coiled by the root.
But blessing shall fall on that man or boy
Who shall adder and weasel and bat destroy !'

As the crow spoke, the thought crossed
little Hurly-Burly’s mind that it would be
capital fun to kill a weasel and an adder,
to say nothing of a bat, about which he did
not care so much; the other two creatures
seemed to be the natural enemies of a boy,
and he felt that he should have no objection
to throwing the bat in, if he was to get a
blessing for doing so. All this, however,



HURLY-BURLY 13

appeared to have nothing to do with the sad
state of his brothers and sisters, and he was,
therefore, upon the point of asking how his
destruction of the three creatures alluded to
would help him to alter that state, when the
crow cleared his throat and went on again,
and these were the words he cawed out as
clearly as possible :

‘Cunning the rabbit and crafty the fox,

Craftier still is the hedgehog old ;
His is the tongue which the secret unlocks—
Pay him with milk, for he won't take gold.’

The boy distened with much attention to
these words, but, after all, they did not seem
to bring him much nearer to the cure of his
brothers and sisters. He saw no hedgehog,
and had no milk to give, if there had been
half a dozen of these animals close at hand.
So he kept his eyes fixed upon the crow,
expecting to hear something more, and was
very much vexed as well as surprised when
the bird, after one more caw, flapped his
wings three times and then flew slowly away,
without uttering another word. Little Hurly-
Burly looked to his nurse, but she only shook
her head and told him she did not know what
to do any more than he did. His poor little



14 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

brothers and sisters could not give him any
advice, or, if they could, he could not under-
stand it, for all they could do was to hop
and croak around him in a manner which
showed him how disturbed and unhappy
they were, but gave him no sort of idea
what he was to do to help them in their
distress. Under these circumstances, the
boy thought that the best thing he could do
would be to walk straight on and wait to see
if anything would turn up. Here, however,
a difficulty presented itself, for when the
nurse tried to catch the frogs in order to put
them once more into her apron, they showed
a strange dislike to being caught. Instead
of coming up and hopping into her lap as
they had done before, the little creatures all
began to hop away from her as fast as they
could, The nurse thought that they must
have been shaken and jumbled together in
an uncomfortable way when she had at first
taken them up, and the thought crossed little
Hurly-Burly’s mind that perhaps they had
been getting more and more like real frogs
ever since they had been changed into that
shape, and that they were gradually forget-
ting all about their former state and life.







CHAPTER III
THE HEDGEHOG

RHAPS there was something
in this idea, and it became
strengthened in the boy’s mind
when he perceived that the frogs
all hopped in one direction, as if they quite
well knew where they wished to go. There-
fore, with a wisdom beyond his years, the
boy begged the nurse not to try and catch
his brothers and sisters any more, but to
follow them at a slow pace, and see where
they went, and what they did. The good
woman agreed to this proposal, and the
frogs hopped on as fast as they could until
they came to a bank, which they mounted
one after the other; and when they came to





16 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

the top, Hurly-Burly and the nurse saw at
the same moment that the bank sloped
down on the other side, and that immediately
beyond it was a pond and a quantity of
marshy ground around it, which was just tte
sort of place for an honest frog to delight
in. As soon as they saw it, the little frogs,
whose instinct had clearly told them where
this place was, all gave a croak of pleasure,
and hopped merrily down the bank towards
the water, whilst little Hurly-Burly and the
nurse stood upon the top of the bank watch-
ing their proceedings. With a hop, jump,
and splash each frog leaped into the water
and all began to croak with delight as if
they had been used to it all their lives, and
desired nothing better than their present
condition. There were plenty more frogs
there, so exactly like the new-comers, that
it was impossible to tell the difference, and
both Hurly-Burly and his nurse soon left off
trying to do so;. they stood still for some
time, gazing on the water before them, until
the nurse, feeling rather tired after her long
walk, thought it would be a pleasant thing
to sit down, and observing a heap of dry
leaves near some rushes which grew on the



THE HEDGEHOG 17

banks of the pond, naturally thought that
they would form a more comfortable seat
than the bare ground. Accordingly, with-
out more to-do she plumped herself down
upon the leaves, but had hardly done so
when she sprang up again with a shriek
which rang through the air with a shrill echo
which caused all the frogs to duck their
heads under water in a moment, and startled
little Hurly-Burly out of his senses. The
cause of the good woman’s alarm, however,
was soon made clear. She had been so
unlucky as to sit down upon a hedgehog,
which is a thing I should never advise any-
body to do if another seat should be at
hand. The hedgehog had been comfortably
curled up in the dry leaves, and it is a mercy
that he was not smashed by the weight of
the nurse’s body. But he was a very large
hedgehog, and probably a very tough one
also; and his bristles were so long and so
sharp, that the first touch of these had been
enough to warn the good woman before she
had settled herself down, in which case the
consequences might have been more serious.
Fortunately for all parties, neither she nor
the hedgehog was much hurt, but the latter
Cc



18 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

was thoroughly awakened from his afternoon
nap, and not at all pleased by this unexpected
disturbance of his rest. ‘What blundering
old porpoise is this?’ he exclaimed in a
voice hoarse from emotion. ‘Cannot you
keep clear of other people, old numskull ?’
and he growled fearfully. Now, the nurse,
never having heard a hedgehog speak or
growl, was much frightened, and puzzled
what to do.

Fortunately, however, little Hurly-Burly
had been born on Easter Sunday, and there-
fore could see and hear more than people
who had entered the world on any other
day. So he was not the least surprised and
alarmed, and, moreover, understood perfectly
well what the animal said. He remembered,
too, the words of the crow which had
directed him as to the source from which he
was to expect help in the task of restoring
his brothers and sisters to their former
shape. So the first thought that came into
his head was that there could be no doubt
of this being the hedgehog whose assistance
he was to seek. It was therefore somewhat
unfortunate that their acquaintance should
have begun by the circumstance of the



THE HEDGEHOG 19°

excellent nurse sitting down upon him, since
this was not a proceeding which was likely
to make either a hedgehog or anybody else
feel very well disposed towards the person
who acted in such an unpleasant manner.
It was, however, absolutely necessary to
make friends with the important creature,
and the boy lost no time in attempting to
do so. He took off his cap with a very low
bow, and standing immediately opposite the
hedgehog, who was still shaking himself
and looking very uncomfortable, he thus
addressed him. ‘Noble sir, pray do not be
offended at the unfortunate accident which
has just occurred. I can assure you that it
was by no means the wish of my nurse to
insult or annoy you in any way.’

The hedgehog, not being averse from
flattery, was much pleased at being addressed
as ‘Noble sir,’ which had never happened
before, and also at the politeness of Hurly-
Burly in taking off his cap when he spoke
to him. So he left off growling and shaking
himself, and at once made answer to the
boy.

‘Well, he said, ‘I daresay the old
lumberer didn’t mean it, and, for the matter



20 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

of that, perhaps she got the worst of it after
all, for I was at the bristle-sharpener’s only
two days ago, and my quills are like needles,
I expect. However, if she didn’t mean
mischief, there’s no more to be said.’

‘Thank you, noble sir,’ rejoined the boy.
‘I can assure you that such is the fact.
Poor woman, she is hardly in her right
mind just now from grief, so for that cause
also I hope you will kindly forgive her,’

‘Upon my word,’ replied the hedgehog,
‘you are a very prettily-spoken young
gentleman, and, since the woman belongs to
you, I we/7 forgive her, and think no more
about it. But what is this grief of which
you speak ??

‘Ah, sir,’ said Hurly-Burly, with a deep
sigh, ‘it is something very sad indeed. My
sixteen brothers and sisters have all been
changed into frogs, and are now in the
pond before us.’

‘Say you so?’ remarked the hedgehog,
who had uncurled himself whilst the boy
was speaking, and displayed his head and
sharp black eyes, which had previously
been hidden from view. ‘Say you so?
lll be bound this is more of the work of that



THE HEDGEHOG 21

wicked old Venomista. ‘Tell me all about
it from beginning to end.’

Then the boy. told the hedgehog the
whole of that day’s adventures, whilst the
nurse, who had listened to the conversation
which I have related with great astonish-
ment, kept curtseying all the time, and
saying ‘Yes,’ ‘That’s right,’ ‘Just so, sir,’
all the time, until he had finished the story.
Then she clasped her hands together and
exclaimed, ‘Oh, deary me, Mr. Hedgepig,
if so be as you can help us, pray do, for
whatever shall I do if I have to go back to
their Royal Majesties without my precious
little lambkins ??

It is one of the well-known peculiarities
of the hedgehog tribe to dislike immensely
being called ‘hedgepigs,’ a hog being, in
their estimation, the more noble title; the
animal therefore tossed his snout in the air
on being thus addressed, and turning away
from the nurse with contempt, spoke again
to the boy.

‘It is not easy,’ he said, ‘to conquer these
magic people, unless you know something
about magic yourself, which in your case is
not very likely. Luckily for you, however,



22 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

a good deal of my time has been passed in
studying the Black Art, and I can help
those to whom I wish to be friendly in
more ways than one. You must know that
this bad old fairy has reigned so long in the
forest where she dwells that she has really
forgotten that she is by no means the
most powerful person in the neighbourhood.
There are fairies of a higher class who are
well able to crush and destroy her if they
can only be got to interfere, and it is only
because they despise her so much that they
have let her alone so long. One of the best
and kindest of these is the Fairy of the Falls,
so called because she usually lives among
the rocks on one side of the forest where
there is a beautiful waterfall. If you could
persuade her to help you, all would be well.’

‘But,’ asked the boy when the hedgehog
paused in his speech, ‘how am I to find
this good fairy, and how can I persuade her
to help me if I do find her ?’

‘That is what I am going to tell you,’
replied the hedgehog. ‘You have only got
to walk from this spot in a straight line to
the forest, which you can see quite plainly
from where you stand. Take out your



THE HEDGEHOG 23

pocket-handkerchief, hold it in your left
hand, and if anybody speaks to or interrupts
you before you reach the forest, shake it in
front of you and repeat the simple word
“ Gambleogomeril,” and you will be allowed
to pass. At the entrance of the forest, stop
and say the same word three times and then
use your own wits.’







CHAPTER IV

A BARGAIN

T came into litthe Hurly-Burly’s
head that he would not be able
to use anybody else’s wits, and
therefore that this advice was
hardly necessary, but he did not tell the
hedgehog what he thought, but merely asked
him to say the simple word he had told him
over again, so that he might be quite sure
that he had got it right. When this had
been done, he thanked the hedgehog very
much, and asked whether there was anything
else which he ought to know before enter-
ing the forest. At this question the animal
looked him straight in the face for a full
minute before he answered, and then he






A BARGAIN 26

grunted cut in a rather rough voice: ‘I’ve
told as much as I ever tell for nothing.
Who is going to pay me if I tell more?’
The nurse, who had been listening with
great attention to the conversation between
the boy and the hedgehog, and felt rather
slighted because it was to little Hurly-Burly
instead of to her that the animal spoke, now
broke in hastily, as if determined not to be
left out of the business altogether. ‘ Never
you fear, Mr. Hedgepig,’ she cried—‘ never
you fear but what -you’ll get paid right
enough for anything you do for the young
Prince. *Twas milk the old crow said you
liked, and there’s a matter of twenty cows
or more up at the Palace, and their Majesties
will be ready enough to drown you in milk,
if you wish it, if you only get back the
blessed children as they was before that
wretched old creature meddled with them.’
At these words the eyes of the hedgehog
glistened with pleasure, but, nevertheless,
he turned up his snout in contempt and
disgust at the woman’s interference and at
her again calling him by the name he dis-
liked. He gave a low grunt as he turned
again to the boy and said: ‘ Milk is what I



26 . LHE MAGIC OAK TREE

like best. Promise me that, and I will do
‘ what I can for you, and trust to your honour
for my payment.’

Hurly-Burly hastened to assure his new
friend that he should certainly be liberally
rewarded in the way of milk for his services,
and again asked him whether he had any
more instructions to give as to his behaviour
when in the forest. The hedgehog looked
at the boy very gravely for a full minute
before he made any answer, and at length
he spoke, very slowly and earnestly : ‘ Under
the third lump of rushes from the spot on
which you now stand,’ he said, ‘you will
find a toad sitting upon a bed of moss.
Take him boldly in your hand. He is
long past spitting, which is the only danger
to be feared from these animals. Moreover,
he is not an ordinary toad, as you will soon
find out. Wrap him up carefully in moss,
and carry him in the pocket of your jacket
until you reach the forest. Then, if you
should be in any difficulty, gently squeeze
him, take him in your right hand, and he
will answer any questions you may wish to
ask him. This is all I have to tell you,
excepting that you must on no account turn



A BARGAIN 27

your back upon any enemy you may meet
until you have finished the business which
takes you to Venomista’s oak. When this
is done, and you have succeeded, as I hope
you will, remember that I shall expect my
milk,’

With these words, the hedgehog turned
round, and began to roll himself up as
comfortably as if nothing had happened.
The nurse, however, who by no means liked
being left out of the business, as seemed to
be the intention of the speaker, thought it
high time to put in a word on her own
account.

‘And what am I to take and to do, Mr.
Hedgepig ?’ she exclaimed, in rather an
indignant tone.

‘Go home and milk the cows,’ replied the
animal with a snarl, and rolled himself up
tighter than ever.

‘ Hoity-toity !’? cried the good woman in
great wrath. ‘A pretty pass things are
come to, surely, when children are told to
do this, and that, and the other, and nurses
not to have a word in the matter! I never
saw such goings on in all my born days!
Here, Princey, dear, come away home with



28 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

nursey, and don’t let us have any more
fooling about with hedgepigs and such like!
I do declare I must take you safe back to
“my poor King and Queen, come what will!’

Little Hurly-Burly heard this speech with
some dismay, for, of course, if he had to go
home with his nurse it would be impossible
for him to search in the forest for the means
of restoring his brothers and sisters to their
natural shape. As I have already hinted,
however, the little fellow was something of
a pickle, and was not famous for doing as
he was told at once. On this occasion,
indeed, he had a better reason than usual
for disobeying his nurse, and had, therefore,
not the slightest intention of obeying her.
He was wise enough to know, however, that
it would not do to say so at once, or to run
away, which had been his first thought, so
he put on his gravest face, and said: ‘Don’t
you want to get brothers and sisters back,
nurse ?’

‘In course I do, Princey,’ she replied.
‘But it ain’t the way to do it—not letting
you go and be lost, too.’ (

‘But,’ said the boy, ‘I-do not think I
shall be lost if I do as I have just been told ;



A BARGAIN 29

and, besides, if we both go home there will
be no chance of getting the others back.
Pll tell you what, nurse! You go home
and have some milk brought down here in
a can, and, if you like, you can bring some
people to help, and then if I am not back,
they can catch all the frogs in the pond and
take them to the Palace, so that the doctors
can find out which are my brothers and
sisters, and how they can be cured. If I do
come back we can pay the hedgehog, and all
will be right’

Thenurse shook her head as she answered:
‘] don’t think nothing of folks as trusts the
children instead of the nurses. No good
never came of such things——’

But even as she spoke, she looked down
on the pond and saw the little frogs bobbing
up and down, and heard them croaking, and
thought how that she knew her little nurs-
lings were there, and that if Hurly-Burly
could not get them back by the hedgehog’s
help, they would very likely have to stay
there for ever. There, too, lay the hedge-
hog right before her. He was a living
reality, at all events, and mzght be able to
help. She had never heard an animal of



30 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

this kind talk as he had done—there might
be something in it after all. Besides this,
she remembered that if little Hurly-Burly
did not want to go home with her, it would
be very difficult to make him, and that, if he
ran away, she would not easily be able to
catch him. So she made up her mind that
she had better yield and let him go, .and
after'taking a few moments to consider, she
said: ‘Well, Prince Hurly-Burly, if so it
must be, I can say no more. But pray
take care of your precious self, my child.
Don’t go and get your feet wet, or if you
should do so, mind you don’t go and sit
down with wet feet—there’s nothing so sure
to give you cold.’

Hurly-Burly was so glad to find that his
nurse no longer objected to his proposed
journey to the forest, that he readily pro-
mised all she asked, and, as soon as this
point was settled, proceeded to look for the
toad in the place which the hedgehog had
pointed out. He found him immediately,
and, taking him carefully up in a covering
of moss, put him into his jacket pocket as
he had been told; then, wishing the hedge-
hog and the nurse ‘good-bye,’ set out at





“A LITTLE MAN ABOUT THREE FEET HIGH, WITH BRIGHT RED HAIR
AND ONLY ONE EYE.”



A BARGAIN 3r

once on his way to the forest. The nurse
only stayed long enough to tell the hedge-
hog that although he had not learned the
way to speak to a lady, and she was not in
the habit of milking the cows, she would
take care that, if things went well with the
young Princes and Princesses, he should.
have the milk which he desired. Then she
set off home, and left the animal in peace.
Hurly-Burly walked forward at his best
pace, and before long saw the forest very
near him. Between him and it there was
a kind of common, on which grew a great
many patches of gorse, and here and there
rose a stunted thorn tree. The ground
was hard and dry, and there seemed little
risk of the boy getting his feet wet, as the
nurse had feared. But the common was
larger than it appeared at first, or else some
magic power kept the traveller back, for he
did not seem to get any nearer. He had
taken his handkerchief in his right hand, as
the hedgehog had told him to do, and walked
steadily on for.some way until all of a sudden
a little man about three feet high, with bright
red hair and only one eye, jumped from be-
hind a gorse-bush, and ‘stood right in front



32 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

of him with his arms akimbo. ‘Halloa,
young ’un,’ he cried, in a deep voice, ‘ where
are you going to?’

Hurly-Burly had taken a step backward
at the unexpected sight of this figure, but he
recovered himself immediately, shook his
handkerchief boldly before him, and at the
same time uttered the magic word, ‘Gambleo-
gomeril !’ in a voice as clear and firm as he
could command.

Without a moment’s delay the little man
turned round and ran away into the gorse,
like a rabbit with a dog at his heels.





has

)
)

fy 7
(Wi wi

e



CHAPTER V
' ADVENTURES BY THE WAY

OR an instant the boy stood still-
in amazement, but this little
adventure filled him with con-
fidence in the hedgehog and his
advice, so he pushed boldly on with his
handkerchief still in his hand. He found
now that he was certainly getting near the
forest, which only seemed about a hundred
yards off, when, brushing aside a thin bush
of gorse which was growing over the path
which he was following, he found himself on
the very edge of a huge pit, which seemed to
be full of water, and was much too wide to
jump. He looked to the right and left, but
the pit seemed to reach quite across the
D





34 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

common, and, save at the spot on which he
stood, the gorse grew so thick that he could
hardly have forced his way through it. He
paused a few seconds and doubted whether
he had not better go to the right or left and
try to find the end of the pit; then he
thought that, first of all, he had better try
the same means which had just before
proved so successful. So he boldly shook
his handkerchief again, and repeated the
word given him by the hedgehog. Great,
indeed, was his surprise at the effect produced.
A strong wooden bridge with a good stout
hand-rail appeared directly before him, and
he walked across it without the slightest
difficulty, and proceeded safely on his
journey. Close at hand now were the
large trees of the forest, casting their
shadows over the edge of the common, and
seeming to invite animals of all sorts to
come in under the shelter of their pleasant
shade. On stepped the boy without fear or
doubt, and he was not ten yards from the
forest, when, without any warning whatever,
a line of fire, some three yards wide, rose up
between him and the forest, so close to him
that he jumped back a full yard and a half



ADVENTURES BY THE WAY 35

in a moment. So bright and so hot was
the fire, that it seemed impossible for the
boy to pass it, and so it certainly would
have been if he had not had the weapon by
which the obstacle could be removed. He
shook his handkerchief before him, once
more uttered the word, and had the satis-
faction of seeing the fire vanish as suddenly
as it appeared; then little Hurly-Burly
breathed freely again, and stepped boldly
into the forest; not forgetting, however, to
pause for a moment before he did so, and
pronounce three times the word which had
already served him so well. He had no
idea which way to go, but having been told
by the hedgehog to use his wits, looked
carefully around him to see whether there
was anything which might direct him. He
did not expect, of course, to see a finger-
post by the wayside, on which would be
written ‘To the Falls’ or ‘To Venomista’s
Oak,’ but he fancied that there might be
something to guide him one way or the
other. He might hear the noise of falling
water, or see the tracks of many animals,
who would be likely to go to the spot where
water was to be found, or he might meet



36 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

with some sign of the wicked fairy’s power,
or glean news of her from some strange
creature or in some wonderful manner. So
he plodded steadily on for some little way,
until all of a sudden he heard a voice
calling out his name—‘ Hurly-Burly !’

He stopped at once, and looked to the
right hand, from which the sound seemed to
come.

‘ Holloa!’ he said,

There was no answer, but presently the
voice again cried, ‘ Hurly-Burly !’

It was a shrill tone, and this time the
sound seemed to come from the left hand,
which rather puzzled the boy. He had not
much time, however, to be puzzled, for
another voice came from behind, and then
from right before him, and then several
voices began calling out ‘ Hurly-Burly !’ one
after the other, until the little fellow was so
puzzled that he did not know which way to
look. That which made it all the more
extraordinary was that he saw no one
near him, and he did not see how voices
could be heard without there being some-
body there with a throat through which they
came. But noone appeared, and the voices



ADVENTURES BY THE WAY 37

still sounded in different tones, but all calling
out the same word, ‘ Hurly-Burly,’ till the
boy began to be almost frightened. Then
he bethought him all at once of his toad,
which might as well be of use to him now
as atany other time. So, without more ado,
he took out the creature, moss and all, gently
squeezed it as he had been told, and, holding
it in his right hand, said to it in a friendly
voice, ‘Please, Toad, tell me what this
means and what I ought to do?’ To his
great surprise, no sooner had he asked the
question than there came from the toad
a sound exactly like that which proceeds
from a musical box. The squeeze seemed to
have had the same effect as the winding
up of the key of such an instrument, and
the only difference was that the toad’s notes
seemed to shape themselves into words, so
that the boy could perfectly well under-
stand what was said; and this was what he
heard :

‘The voices are meant to deceive and delude,
They come from bad creatures, the children of
night,
Don't listen or stop, but with courage endued
Press manfully forward, and Keep to the Right!’



38 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

Though Hurly-Burly was somewhat startled
at hearing such sounds come from a toad, he
was very much pleased to find that the hedge-
hog had not failed him, and that he had
some guide as to the course he should
pursue. So he warmly thanked the toad,
put him carefully back in his jacket pocket,
and marched boldly on, bearing to the right
as he had been directed. Presently the
voices around him ceased, as if their owners
had discovered that they had not served the
purpose for which they had been employed.
So the little fellow kept on for some little
way further, until he came to a place where
the right side of the path was thick with
brambles and the ground very rough, whilst
on the left a bank of soft turf sloped away
in a gradual descent, and upon the bank
grew a quantity of wild strawberries which
seemed to invite the traveller to come and
pick them. Hurly-Burly stopped for one
moment to look at this pleasant sight, and
the moment he did so there stepped out of
the wood the figure of a little girl about his
own age, and stood upon the bank just upon
his left hand, only three or four yards off.
She was a very pretty little girl, with fresh



ADVENTURES BY THE WAV 39

colour in her cheeks and a smile upon her
face, and a straw hat upon her head with
yellow ribbons, which gave it a gay appear-
ance, and altogether she looked very nice.
In her hand she carried a small basket, and
a little switch in the other, which she
stretched out towards Hurly-Burly, and said,
in a friendly voice, ‘Little boy, come and
help me to gather wild strawberries; they
are so good! And there are such a lot of
them here! Come on!’









CHAPTER VI
TEMPTATION

HE strawberries ad look very
good and very tempting, and it
crossed Hurly-Burly’s mind that
after his long walk they would

be very refreshing. It is true he had been

told by the toad to keep to the right, and
the strawberries grew on the left, but it was

a very little way on the left after all.

Besides, he need only walk a few yards and

then sit down, and when he was tired of

gathering and eating, he could easily come
back and go on to the right. It seemed
such a little bit out of his way that it really
could not signify much, and he had always
been told to be civil to people. Here was





TEMPTATION 41

a nice little girl asking him to help her, and
surely it would not be civil to refuse to do
so. So little Hurly-Burly stood still and
hesitated. We should never hesitate between
right and wrong, and we may be very sure
that, although it often seems much the most
easy and most pleasant to do wrong, yet this
is sure to bring us into difficulties and
sorrows which are neither the one nor the
other. Whilst he was looking, first at the
little girl and next at the strawberries, I am
afraid that the boy forgot all about his poor
little brothers and sisters, the nurse, the
hedgehog, and the object of his visit to the
forest. He hesitated, as I have said, for a
moment, and then swung round on his left
heel, and was just going to step on to the
bank where the strawberries grew, when
somehow or other he noticed a curious, wild
look in the little girl’s eyes which struck him
as being so uncommon that he stopped short
before he had set his right foot down. He
could never tell exactly what it was, but it
was not common or natural, and it instantly
flashed across his mind that he ought to be
careful what he was about.

‘Come on, dear little boy,’ said the strange



42 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

little girl, in most insinuating tones; ‘the
strawberries are quite ripe, and so good.
We shall soon fill my basket, and then you
can go on if you like ; do come.’

Even as she spoke, Hurly-Burly, remem-
bering his toad, drew him out of his jacket
pocket, took him in his right hand, and with
the usual gentle squeeze, asked in a some-
what hesitating tone—

‘May I go and gather strawberries ??

Without a moment’s delay came the
musical answer, sweet and clear as before—

‘With the girl thou must not go;
"Tis a witch—thy deadly foe,

At her quickly throw thy cap,
And thy hands together clap.’

On hearing these words the boy proceeded
at once to follow the directions which they
gave him. He first replaced the toad in his
jacket pocket, and then, taking off his cap,
he threw it straight at the little girl, and
clapped his hands together directly after-
wards, You might well have supposed that
any young lady would be somewhat offended
at such an action, which, to say the least of
it, had a rude appearance such as might
cause her to change countenance and turn



TEMPTATION 43

away in anger. But you never would have
supposed that such a change, not only of
countenance but of figure, would have come
over any one as that which Hurly-Burly now
witnessed. The youthful appearance of the
being before him passed away in the twink-
ling of an eye, her cheeks fell in, her nose
stood out like a beak, her chin lengthened,
wrinkles came out upon her face which
made her look aged at once, her straw hat
turned into a hideous cap, and she stood
before the astonished eyes of the boy, an
old woman, and a very ugly old woman too.
She did not give him much time for amuse-
ment, for at the same moment her switch
became a broomstick, on which she at once
got astride, her basket, changed into a grey
cat, sprang upon her shoulder, and off she
went, half-flying and half-scuffling along, as
fast as she could, only turning round to shake
her fist wildly at her intended victim, and
uttering a sound something between a laugh
and a yell, which was one of the most dis-
agreeable which he had ever heard. You
may well believe that this adventure both
alarmed little Hurly-Burly, and filled him
with determination to be in future more



s

44 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

cautious in listening to the words or invita-
tion of any stranger. He felt, indeed, that
had it not been for his toad he should have
fallen into great misfortune, and possibly had
to share the unhappy fate of his brothers and
sisters. It was plain enough that the task
before him was not to be performed without
some trouble, and that the utmost caution
would be necessary. The boy trembled as
he thought of the narrow escape which he
had just had, and had half a mind to turn
back, only that he felt that this would be a
cowardly thing to do, and, moreover, that he
certainly had friends as well as enemies in
the forest. So he stepped boldly forward
beneath the shadows of the great trees, and
had proceeded some hundred yards on his
way, when he suddenly perceived a wounded
hare on his right hand, evidently trying to
make her escape from him. He was just
about to rush after her, when he bethought
himself of giving a gentle squeeze to his
toad, and almost before he did so, and with-
out the toad having uttered a single word,
the pretended hare changed into a hideous
black cat and rushed away at the top of her
speed. Somehow or other, this sight had a



TEMPTATION 48

great effect upon little Hurly-Burly, and made
him doubly careful on his journey. Almost
immediately after he had seen the hare, he
heard the noise as of falling water, and at
once the thought came into his mind that he
might be approaching the house of the Fairy
of the Falls, of whom the hedgehog had
spoken. So he pressed boldly on, and
presently perceived that he was coming to
an open glade in the forest, from which the
trees fell back on either side, and huge
boulders of rock lay embedded in the green
grass which grew all over the glade. These
rocks were numeyous, and were piled one
upon the other, just as if some giants had
had the fancy to build up rockwork, and had
done it after the careless fashion of giants,
casting the great masses of rock down, here
and there, just as they came to hand, and
so creating a kind of rocky hill on a natural
slope of ground. Over the top of this hill,
which was of considerable height, the boy
saw a great volume of water bursting down
with mighty force, dashing itself upon the
lower rocks, hurling its foam in all directions,
and then forcing its way through the green
grass into a narrow, rapid channel, down



46 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

which it flowed into the forest beyond. Little
Hurly-Burly saw all this as he approached
the open glade, but when he was scarcely
ten yards from it a new object presented
itself to his eyes. A man of some three feet
high stood at the edge of the forest, well
within the trees, and shook his fist at the
boy, as if he meant to rush upon him the
next moment. The man was stripped to his
hips, and the upper part of his body was
painted a bright red, and his eyes glared at
the boy as if he would like to have eaten
him then and there. Hurly-Burly had no
difficulty in perceiving thaé this was no friend
who stood before him, and at the first ap-
pearance of such a creature he was inclined
to turn round and approach the glade from
a different point. But in good time he re-
membered that he had been told not to turn
his back upon an enemy, and accordingly he
faced the little man, pulled out his toad, and
had the satisfaction of seeing that it had the
usual effect. The enemy disappeared as if
the earth had swallowed him up, and the
next moment the boy was standing upon
the green grass of the glade, and drawing
near to the waterfall which I have already



TEMPTATION ~ 47

described. As he did so, what was his
surprise to see that at one particular place,
about half-way up the rocks down which the
water fell, there stood upon a projecting rock
the figure of a beautiful little lady. She was
so bright and lovely that the water which
fell over and around her seemed to catch
something of her brightness, and to shine as
if in the light of the noonday summer sun.
She was dressed entirely in white, but the
white was like silver, and you can hardly
imagine how beautiful she appeared. As
soon as little Hurly-Burly saw her he felt
sure that he was in the presence of a friend,
and that he had no need either to squeeze
his toad or say his magic word. He was
about to address the lady at once, when she
waved her hand, in which was a little branch
of the mountain ash, and began to speak in
alow but clear voice, every tone of which
rang through the boy’s ears like the sound
of a silvery bell, and these were the words
which fell from her gracious lips:

‘Young Prince, I welcome thee to this fair glade,
The fairest ever seen in wood or plain ;
Yet if thou doubtest or dost feel afraid,
There still is time to turn thy steps again.’



48 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

The lady stopped when she had spoken
thus, and little Hurly-Burly saw that she
seemed to expect an answer; so he said:

‘ Kind lady, if it’s all the same to you,
I'll not go back. Pray tell me what to do!’

As soon as the boy had said these words,
the little lady smiled sweetly upon him, and
then spoke again, as follows:

‘If you wish to succeed in your enterprise bold,

Attend to my words, and do just as you're told.

Turn sharp to your left, and you'll presently see

A wide-spreading oak—a magnificent tree,

Approach it, and when you're within a short span,

Shout ‘' High diddle diddle!"’ as loud as you can.

Turn head over heels when you've uttered this cry,

And follow it quickly with ‘‘ Never say die!”

Whatever may happen when this has been said,

Be brave, and immediately stand on your head.

Then say, in clear voice, ‘‘I'm the Child of the
Falls, .

And whoever would hurt me must ‘look out for
squalls !’""’

As soon as she had said these words, the
little lady waved her hand, and immediately
the spray of the falling water seemed to
increase and thicken, so that the boy could
no longer see her. He had heard quite



TEMPTATION 49

enough, however, to direct him on his way,
and, being a sensible boy, did not stop to
ask any further questions, but proceeded at
once to do as he had been told. It was im-
possible to doubt that it was the Fairy of
the Falls who had spoken to him, Her
advice was probably good, and her power
was certainly great, and, what was even
more important still, he had no other course
before him than to obey, for he was evi-
dently surrounded by enemies, into whose
clutches he would fall unless aided by some
superior power. These thoughts passed
through little Hurly-Burly’s head, as he
turned on his heel and walked off to the left
among the trees of the forest. He had not
gone above a couple of hundred yards before
he saw directly before him a splendid oak
tree, of such gigantic size and beauty that
he could not for a moment doubt that it was
the tree of which the Fairy of the Falls had
spoken. There was no other tree like it,
and the boy stood still for one moment to
admire before he approached it. Nothing
about it betokened anything evil or danger-
ous, and accordingly he stepped on and had
come within a dozen yards of the tree when
E



50 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

suddenly an enormous cobweb spread itself
before him, and quite prevented him from
going any nearer. It was not a common
cobweb, of course, such as spiders amuse
themselves by making, but it was to all ap-
pearances. woven of very, very thin network
of iron threads, or threads as strong as iron,
and which mortal hand could never break.
As soon as Hurly-Burly saw this, and even
before it had spread itself out between him
and the tree, he knew that it was the work
of an enemy, and that the time had come for
him to use the words and the means en-
joined upon him by the fairy. So, without
an instant’s hesitation, he shouted out at the
very top of his voice, ‘ High diddle diddle !’
and immediately ‘afterwards tumbled head
over heels, bursting, as he did so, through
the magic network as if it had been a real
cobweb, and rising on the other side with just
enough breath to utter the words, ‘ Never
say die!’ As soon as he had done so, a
low, plaintive wail rose from the tree, and
from the other side of it there hobbled round
into sight an old, old woman, dressed in a
modest grey cloak, and leaning on a crutch.
She was a sort of person whose appearance



TEMPTATION per

in any place where old women are usually
seen would not have struck any one as being
very remarkable, and under ordinary circum-
stances she might have been taken for a
respectable old lady out for a stroll. But,
in the first place, the circumstances were
anything but ordinary; and, in the second
place, this old woman had companions such
as no respectable person would be likely to
have with her. A weasel crept softly on one
side of her; on the other glided an evil-
looking adder, and a bat fluttered round her
head as she came round the tree in front
of little Hurly-Burly. Moreover, her eyes
glittered with no kindly light, and though
her first words were not fierce or bitter, there
was a scowl upon her face as she spoke,
which betokened the existence of war and
hatred in her aged breast.





CHAPTER VII

THE WITCH’S DOWNFALL

WHAT want you here, young sir?’
she croaked out, as she stood
opposite the boy. ‘Why do
you come tumbling and turning
under my tree like a mountebank? I ama
peaceful person and love to be left in quiet.
What would you with me??

This address was so civil and so very
unlike what he had expected that the boy
almost forgot himself so far as to answer it
in the same tone, for he had always been
taught to give a polite and civil reply to any
one who accosted him. Fortunately, how-
ever, he remembered in good time that the
fairy had given him clear directions what to






THE WITCH'S DOWNFALL 53

do, and that if he was to talk and parley
with this or any other old woman, she would
certainly have not forgotten to say so. He
made, therefore, no other reply than to
stand upon his head without the smallest
delay, and whilst in that position shouted
out in a clear voice: ‘I’m the Child of the
Falls, and whoever would hurt me must
“look out for squalls !”’

Scarcely were the words out of his mouth
when a loud and discordant -yell broke from
the old woman, who, drawing a broomstick

_from beneath her grey cloak, shook it
violently at the boy, whilst her face became
distorted and inflamed with fury, At the
same time the bat uttered a shrill cry, the
adder reared himself up and hissed savagely,
whilst the weasel made one of the most
awful faces which Hurly-Burly had ever
seen, and showed his teeth in a ghastly and’
unpleasant manner. The boy, having re-
ceived no further directions from the fairy,
stood perfectly still, or as nearly still as a
person can do who is standing on his head,
whilst his enemy continued toshakeher broom-
stick at him, and pour out a torrent of abuse
against him for daring to approach her oak,



54 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

‘You tatterdemalion!’ she shouted, ‘you
tearing, treacherous, tantalising, tempestuous
tatterdemalion! How dare you come here
with your turnabout tomboy tricks! J’7/
teach you how to come creeping on here
with your crestfallen, crumbling counte-
nance! You are not going to have the
tumbling all to yourself! Cambia! Cambia!’

As she spoke, to Hurly-Burly’s infinite
astonishment the old woman proceeded in
the most deliberate manner to turn head
over heels just as he had himself done, and
then stand on her head in the same way,
glaring frightfully at him as she did so. To
add to his astonishment, the bat, the adder,
and the weasel immediately followed the
example of their mistress, and all three stood
on their respective heads as if it was the
most natural thing in the world. This,
however, was probably not a convenient or
comfortable position, for the old woman
shortly changed it; and, having been
brought by her tumble within some three
yards of the boy, she squatted down on the
ground directly opposite to him, fixed her
eyes intently upon his, and began to sing in
a slow tone words of a fearful import :—



THE WITCH'S DOWNFALL 55

‘ Creejee—Weegee—Oakum veen
Bis Perambulatoreen

* Dogum Catum Monkeymoo
Angi ;



But she got no further, or else this story
would probably never have been written, for
if she had finished the word which I have
begun to write, there can be little doubt that
Hurly-Burly would have been in her power,
and would most likely have been changed
into some animal or other, and would have
been the slave of the wicked old fairy for
ever after. But she never dd finish that
word, and for a very good reason. Just as
she had got the first two syllables out of her
mouth, dash, splash, smash, crash! came a
whole wave of water right into her face and
knocked her backwards as if she had been
shot. At the same moment little Hurly-
Burly felt himself obliged to leave off stand-
ing on his head, which he was very glad to
do; and as he stood in the usual position
upon his feet he saw, standing only a few
yards from him, the very same little lady
who had given him such useful instructions
in the glade.

As she stood, she waved her hand twice



56 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

towards the old woman, and each time she
did so a fresh wave of water, coming from
some invisible place, dashed in again, and
so drenched the person against whom it was
directed, that when she presently sat up
again she was in a perfect puddle, and had
not a dry thread about her. This, as you
may well imagine, did not improve either
her appearance or temper. She scowled
fiercely upon the new-comer, and as soon as
she could empty her mouth of the water
which had filled it, began to sputter and
splutter in a great rage,

‘What do you mean by this?’ she cried.
‘Isn’t it enough for you to have plenty of
your nasty water at home, that you come
and drench other people with the stuff, and
make everybody uncomfortable? Get along
with you, do ; ‘and don’t come messing about
under my. oak !’

At these remarks the little lady merely
smiled, but as her eyes fell upon the boy
before her, and the adder, the weasel,
and the bat, who were all looking at him
with no friendly glances, her countenance
assumed a sterner expression, and, holding
her right arm over her head, she was just





RFECL PUDDLE, AND HAD NOT A DRY THREAD

A PEI

“SHE WAS IN

UPON HER.”



THE WITCH’S DOWNFALL 57

about to speak, when the other hastily
interrupted: _

‘ Now, none of your rhymes and nonsense
here, I do hope. Let a poor person alone
for once, now, do/ This is my oak, and
has been for years. I’m a prosy old lady, I
own, so dov’¢ go and throw your verses at
my head—now, don’t /?

The Fairy of the Falls (for such she
evidently was) did not take the slightest
notice of this appeal, but calmly proceeded
to address her enemy in the following words :

‘In the midst of this wood,
We have all understood,
Bad fairies must sometimes reside ;
Whilst quiet they live,
Their life we forgive,
And allow them unharm’d to abide.
But we, the good Fays,
Detest the bad ways
And airs which they sometimes assume,
And the children of men,
If they persecute, then,
They'll find that they tempt their own doom.
Beneath this old oak
We've heard your foul croak,
And borne with you many a year,
But your treatment of folk
Now passes a joke,



58 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

And no longer your home must be here.
T truly assert

More children you've hurt

Than any six witches about,

And the time has now come

When from house and from home

A righteous decree kicks you out !'

Whilst the Fairy of the Falls was speak-
ing these words, the evil old Venomista sat
muttering to herself, and wringing her hands
as if in great trouble, and at this point she
could bear it no longer, but Wael 0 in with
the following interruption :

‘For centuries past in this oak I have dwelt,
And am fond of the forest and it ;

The law’s on my side—there’s no cause for to tell’t—
I've never had notice to quit !’

As she spoke she folded her arms in a
defiant manner, and looked at her enemy
with a fierce and angry glance. But the
Fairy of the Falls only smiled, and then
went on—

‘ Poor wretch! dost dare dispute my pow’r and right,
Thee and thy wickedness to drive from sight ?.
Stand on thy feet! and let no sound be heard
Whilst straightway I pronounce the magic word !’





CHAPTER VIII
CHILDREN AGAIN

O sooner had she thus spoken,
than Venomista’s face became
deadly white, and she visibly
shook all over.

‘Oh, no—no—no,’ she cried, in a voice
of abject terror. ‘Not czkaf—not that—
anything but z#az. I was only joking, I
didn’t mean it. I won’t do it again. Of
course I know you have the power if you
please, only—only—only—I don’t like to
leave the oak! Won't you let me off just
this once ??

Then the Fairy of the Falls smiled coldly
as she replied :




‘If even I could wish to let thee stay,
Frog-children with sad croaking bar the way.



60 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

‘* Revenge !"’ they croak from tiny throats,
Nor can I hear unmov’d their plaintive notes.
Rise, Venomista, rise! before me stand

And firmly grasp thy crutch within thine hand.’

With a moan of anguish the wicked fairy
arose, being evidently unable to resist the
power of the other, who thus. continued in a
calm tone of voice—

‘Strike ! for in vain my will thou wouldst defy—
Bat, weasel, adder, all by thee must die!’

As soon as she heard this dread sentence,
which would for ever deprive her of her
three companions in evil, the wretched
Venomista set up a dismal cry of woe, which
was at once re-echoed by the creatures who
had just heard their well-deserved doom
pronounced. But the Fairy of the Falls
took no further notice of this than to knit
her brows and look sternly at Venomista,
whilst once more she uttered the fatal word,
‘Strike!’ The wicked old fairy would fain
have resisted if she could, but knowing that
any attempt of the kind would not only be
useless, but might bring upon her a still
worse punishment, she heaved one more
sigh, and then struck a wild blow at the bat,



CHILDREN AGAIN 61

who, with one shrill sound, something be-
tween a scream and a groan, fell to the earth
and perished then and there; then, as if
enraged beyond all control, the evil creature
uttered another sigh of rage, and struck the
weasel a blow which broke his back, and
ended him at once. She raised her crutch
a third time, and was about to strike the
adder, when that reptile, who saw no reason
for the wrath with which his mistress was
apparently turning upon her old and tried
servants, darted forward and bit her sharply
in the knee. With a cry of fury, Venomista,
who was now really angry with the creature,
struck him fiercely to the ground, and set
her foot upon his head in a manner which
effectually prevented his ever biting anybody
else. No sooner, however, had she done
so, than she set up a cry of agony. She
had quite forgotten that, although she had
been safe from the poisonous fangs of the
adder as long as she ruled under the oak,
yet by the laws of magic she was no longer
protected as soon as she was in the presence
‘of a fairy of superior power to her own.
Moreover, the adder was one of a particularly
venomous sort, and the moment his fangs



62 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

struck her knee the old woman knew that
her last hour was come. Therefore it was
that she gave vent to a bitter cry, and sank
down upon the earth in pain which it was
sad to see. She still glared furiously at the
boy, while she writhed upon the ground, but
the Fairy of the Falls bade him not to fear,
since the wicked old creature would soon be
beyond doing harm to him or any one else.
She told him, however, that he had better
now get away out of the forest as soon as
he could, and directed him what to do next
in order to save his little brothers and sisters
from the fate to which Venomista had con-
demned them. Her directions were to some
extent similar to those which he had already
received, and I need not tell you the rhymes
in which the fairy conveyed them to the
boy. He was to turn head over heels again
at the edge of the forest and walk straight
forward. That was all she told him, and
as it was not very hard to do, he thanked
her kindly and set off at once. You will no
doubt wish to know what was the end of
Venomista, but I never heard any more of
her, and therefore I suppose that if fairies
ever do die, she did so from the bite of her



CHILDREN AGAIN 63

own adder, from which we may all learn
the simple and useful lesson that those who
make pets of such creatures must expect to
be bitten. Some people will tell you that
this only means that if we nourish and
cherish evil thoughts and wicked feelings
within our hearts we shall be sure to suffer
from them some day or other; but, anyhow,
I made up my mind as soon as I heard this
story, never to have an adder for a pet, and
I have never altered my views on the
subject.

Little Hurly-Burly cared very little what
became of the wicked fairy, for all he wanted
was to get back his little brothers and
sisters, and he was rather surprised that he
had only been ordered to go up to the oak
tree, and had then been sent straight back
again out of the forest. I suppose, how-
ever, that it was necessary that the power
of old Venomista should be destroyed, and
that as soon as that had been done every-
thing else could be managed outside the
forest. However this may be, it is certain
that everything happened just as I have told
you, and that the boy came out of the forest
with a light heart, feeling sure that all would



64 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

now go right, and that no more mischief
could befall him. The way seemed shorter
than it had been when he was journeying
towards the forest, and in much less time
than it had taken him to get there he found
himself on the other side of the common,
and rapidly drawing near to the pond in
which he had last seen his frog relations.
He was still some way from it, however,
when he remembered that he had not once
thought of the toad during the strange
events through which, he had just passed,
and it now occurred to him that the toad
might have felt very uncomfortable during
the time that he was standing on his head.

This was a painful reflection for Hurly-
Burly, because the toad had been very kind
to him, and he naturally did not wish to
seem ungrateful.

He therefore put his hand in his pocket
with the intention of squeezing the toad,
that he might apologise for his conduct.

You may imagine his disappointment
when he found that his pocket was empty !
He looked up and down, but he could not
see the toad. However, in looking up, he
saw the figure of a crow upon the branch of



CHILDREN AGAIN 65

a neighbouring tree, and, by the keen
glance of its eye, he felt sure that it was
the same friendly bird who told the nurse
to seek the advice of the hedgehog.

The crow recognised him almost at the
same time, and, after cawing a greeting,
addressed him in the following manner :

‘Do not pine for the toad, he has made his abode
In the shade of the old oak tree,

When you stood on your head, he fell down on the

bed

Of green moss where he fain would be.

Set your footsteps beyond to the edge of the pond,
And cry out to hillside and lea—

‘« The enchantress is killed, with courage be thrilled ;
O break from her spells, and be free!’’’

Hurly-Burly felt that the swing and ring
of these lines promised a good result; and,
after thanking the crow, he walked boldly
forward to the pond.

His step became more rapid as he heard
his sixteen frog relatives croaking in the
sedges.

‘You will not have to croak long,’ thought
Hurly-Burly ; and, stepping down to the
brink of the water, he sang out across the
pond, in a voice that crossed the meadows

F



66 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

and echoed from the hillside, the words that
the crow had taught him:

‘The enchantress is killed ; with courage be thrilled ;
O break from her spells, and be free !’

The effect was immediate. Hardly had
the sound of the word ‘free’ died away,
when the frogs ceased from croaking, and
the sixteen brown and wrinkled little
creatures began to grow bigger, and change
their shape and colour.

You may imagine how joyful was Hurly-
Burly when his brothers and sisters at last
appeared before him just as they were before
the wicked fairy had enchanted them.

The children were still kissing one
another when a gruff voice said, ‘And now,
I suppose, I may have my milk,’ and Hurly-
Burly saw that the hedgehog was speaking.

‘So you shall, noble sir,’ he cried; and,
at that moment, the nurse was seen trudging
along with a big can in her hand, which
was full of milk.

‘Here. you are, Mr. Hedge-Pig,’ she said,
and immediately set the can before him.
It was lucky that she did this before seeing
the children, or she would certainly have



CHILDREN AGAIN 67

dropped it, and the hedgehog would have
been very angry. As it was, she recognised
them the moment after, and could hardly
contain herself for joy, though who could
have contained her, if not herself, I am un-
able to determine.

Only three more facts remain to be told
in this story, First, that the hedgehog was
so pleased with the milk that he forgot to
be angry with the nurse for calling him
‘Mr. Hedge-Pig.’ Secondly, that one or
other of the children whom he had befriended
never forgot to supply him with as much
milk as he could drink as long as he lived ;
and thirdly, that the toad lived for many
years a quiet and happy life under the oak
tree. :







PRINCE FILDERKIN









CHAPTER I
CONCERNING A HUMP

HERE once lived a King and a
Queen who had an only son
upon whom they doated. As
fathers and mothers are very

much in the habit of being fond of their

children, and more especially so of a child

who has no brother or sister upon whom a

share of the parental love can be bestowed,

it is very probable that this particular royal
pair would have doated upon this son, even
if he had been blind, deaf, dumb and an
idiot to boot.

But Prince Filderkin (for such was his
name) was none of these things. He had
two eyes and ears, which saw and heard as







72 ‘PRINCE FILDERKIN

well as the ears and eyes of any other child
in the King’s country, he had a tongue
which he could use as well as other people,
and he was a very intelligent child, able to
learn quickly and to remember what he
learned. More than this, he was so fortunate
as to enjoy remarkably good health ; he had
the measles very well, made nothing of an
attack of scarlatina which once frightened
his parents terribly, and ate an almost un-
limited quantity of cakes, jam, and toffy,
without ever being one bit the worse for it.

But, unhappily, with all these advantages,
there was one defect which was the cause of
deep grief to the Prince, and even more so
to his father, mother, and relations. He
had been born with a hump between his-
shoulders, which increased with his growth,
and entirely marred that personal appear-
ance which would otherwise have been con-
spicuous for its beauty. Of course there
were courtiers and flatterers who made light
of this deformity, calling it a trifling blemish,
and one which was of no real importance.
There were some, indeed, of the more servile
kind, who went so far as to declare that, in
their opinion, it was no blemish at all, but a



CONCERNING A HUMP 73

positive ornament, if you only regarded it
from a proper point of view. A certain
number of persons belonging to this class
carried matters still further, and introduced
the fashion of wearing false or artificial
humps, in order to resemble the Prince and
to prove the sincerity of the opinion which
they professed.

But neither the Prince nor his royal
parents were deceived by this for a moment.
They knew well enough that a hump was a
hump, all the world over, and that no reason-
able person would ever wear one if nature
had kindly allowed him to be born with-
out it.

So the courtiers took nothing by their
foolish action; the fashion of wearing false
humps did not last beyond one season, and
everybody knew that the royal family felt
the state of the Prince as a real misfortune.
Doctors had been consulted ever since the
boy’s birth, but they had done him no good,
and as each fresh doctor generally contra-
dicted somewhat flatly what the last one had
said, and still had no better success in the
new prescriptions which he gave, the King
grew in course of time very angry, and



74 PRINCE FILDERKIN

declared that they were all a set of humbugs
together. 2

It so happened that the medical men inthat
country were divided into two great classes :
one, which ordered hot remedies for every-
body, whilst the other would only use cold
applications. The hot-water system was the
old-established one of that kingdom, and
consequently the doctors who were of that
school held their heads very high, accused
the cold-water people of introducing new
principles in a manner which was not regular,
and refused to meet them in consultation or
to have anything to do with any case in
which they had advised. Some little good
arose from the fact of one of these quarrels
taking place with regard to Prince Filderkin,
for when the King heard of it, he sent for the
two chief hot-water doctors, told them that
their profession was one of the noblest in the
world, its object being to lessen the pain and
relieve the sufferings of their fellow-creatures,
and that they disgraced it by refusing to take
counsel with others of the same profession
and who had the same objects, - merely
because they held different theories as to the
manner in which these objects could best be



CONCERNING A HUMP 75

obtained. Thereupon he banished those two
hot-water men to a country in which every-
body always had good health, which was of
course a very severe punishment to medical
men, and caused the other doctors of the
same school to be wiser and more humane
for the future.

All this, however, did not remove either the
Prince’s hump or the sorrow which it caused
to his parents. He made rapid advance in
learning of every description, but the accom-
plishments of his mind only caused a more
painful contrast with the deformity of his
body, and really seemed almost to add to
the misery of the situation.

So matters went on until the Prince had
nearly attained his eighteenth year, at which
period, according to the custom of that
country, the King and Queen would naturally
have chosen some Princess to whom their
darling child should be betrothed. But how
could a hump-backed boy hope to attract any
lady of ordinary beauty and attractions?
True, the King was a great and powerful
monarch, but on that account the matter was
only the more difficult, because he felt it
necessary that the bride of his son and heir



76 PRINCE FILDERKIN

should be the daughter of one in the same
position, and this was precisely the sort or
Princess who, having a wide choice among
Princes, would be unlikely to look with favour
upon one who was not perfect in form and
shape. Still it was most desirable that a
bride should be chosen, for the kingdom was
hereditary, and if the Prince did not marry
and have a son to succeed him, it would
either go to a distant relative whom the King
particularly disliked, or else there would be a
quarrel over the crown, which would be very
hurtful for the country. The King and Queen
therefore held many consultations upon the
important subject, but, somehow or other,
the more they talked it over, the less could
they make up their minds what was the best
course to pursue.

While things were in this state of un-
certainty, it happened that upon one fine
morning, when the people of the town in
which the royal palace was situated, awoke
and went about their usual business, they
found the whole place covered with placards
which announced that a grand caravan of
animals had arrived and that everybody was
strongly advised to go and see it. This was



CONCERNING A HUMP 77

not a very unusual thing, and therefore
nobody was astonished at seeing the an-
nouncement, although the younger part of the
population were surprised and delighted with
the size and magnificence of the bills which
were posted on all the walls of the town.
These bills bore upon them the pictures of
certain wonderful animals which dwelt in the
caravan, and which would be displayed at
the show which was to take place that even-
ing. There were so many of these animals
that people suspected (as indeed turned out
to be the case) that there must be more than
_ could be contained in one caravan, and they
were therefore not surprised when a number
of large vehicles of this description wheeled,
during the morning, into the large open
square, and took up their position. Upon
the sides of these vehicles there were also
pictures of lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes,
and a number of other creatures of which the
greater part of the people had never heard.
But above and beyond the pictures of
these animals, there was an announcement
that the celebrated magician, Feeble John,
was about to honour the town with a visit,
and that anybody who had anything the



78 PRINCE FILDERKIN

matter with him, in body or mind, had
better be sure and come to Feeble John if
he wished to be cured. It struck people
that the magician had a curious name, but
the wiser ones said that he was doubtless
called ‘Feeble’ because he was so strong,
as things very often went by contraries when
you had to deal with magicians. So the
caravans rolled in, and the day passed on,
and the evening approached on which the
show was to take place.

But before the evening arrived, some-
thing had happened at the palace which
deserves to be mentioned. The Prince had
expressed to his parents his wish to see the
wild beast show. The King and the Queen
entertained serious doubts as to whether this
could be allowed, and had consulted the
Lord High Treasurer, the Most Noble the
Marquis of Gumbleguzzard, upon the subject.
That great man and enlightened Minister
had advised that such a thing had-never been
heard of, and therefore could not be per-
mitted, and the countenance of the young
Prince became overcast with sorrow when
this opinion had been given. He bethought
himself, however, of asking that the views



CONCERNING A HUMP 79

of two other high officials should also be
ascertained, and this was accordingly done.
In that court the keeper of the King’s flannel-
waistcoats had always occupied a prominent
position, and to him, together with the chief
cleaner of the royal shoes, the question was
referred. To the inexpressible joy of the
young Prince, these two Ministers declared
that they saw no harm in his visiting the
show, and it was therefore decided that he
should do so.

He dressed himself in a coat, waistcoat,
and trousers, which were all garments not
unfrequently worn by the young men of that
age and country, and sallied forth with only
two attendants, who accompanied him when
he entered the first caravan belonging to the
show. The Prince visited all the caravans in
turn, and expressed much curiosity and
pleasure at the sight of the various animals
which were displayed to his admiring gaze.
But when he had arrived at the last caravan
he was more than ever desirous to see what
it contained, for this was the abode of the
magician. His attendants endeavoured to
dissuade him from entering, telling him that
although it was all very well to go and see



80 PRINCE FILDERKIN

the wild beasts, a magician was an altogether
different kind of animal, and one which
it was on all accounts better to leave alone.
But as they could give no better reason for
this opinion than one which was evidently
founded on fear, and as fear was a thing
with which Prince Filderkin was unac-
quainted, their arguments had very little
effect upon him, and as the general permis-
sion to visit the show must of course be held
to include the caravan in which the magician
resided, he determined not to leave it un-
visited.







CHAPTER II
FEEBLE JOHN

E accordingly stepped up to the
door of the caravan and knocked
three times, which was the cus-
tom in that country whenever

any one went to visit a person of rank or im-

portance, and the Prince therefore deemed

it well to follow the rule upon the present
occasion. A low voice bade him enter—a

voice so low that it sounded almost like a

whisper, but a whisper so close in his ear

that Prince Filderkin started back for an
instant when he heard it, but quickly recover-
ing himself, entered the caravan. The sight
that met his eyes was in no respect wonder-
ful. The inside of the caravan was rather
G





82 PRINCE FILDERKIN

dark, as places are apt to be when they are
only lighted by somewhat small windows,
and especially when, as in the present case,
the latter are shaded by curtains drawn across
them. But although the light was dim, it
was sufficient to let the Prince see that there
was nothing very remarkable in the furniture
or other contents of-the room, though the
place certainly looked as if it and everything
in it would be much the better for a thorough
cleaning out, as there was a look of musty
antiquity about it, which was accompanied by
a faint, sickly odour which did not favourably
impress a stranger.

The visitor, however, noted no trifles of
this sort, for his whole mind was bent upon
his coming interview with the magician, and
his eyes eagerly roved round the room
until they lighted upon the object of their
search. Feeble John was seated upon a low
stool in one corner of the room. His dress
was somewhat remarkable, for he was
wrapped in a large, loose robe, the colour
of which was bright sky-blue with large
stripes of black, orange, and crimson.
Upon his head was a close-fitting black
skull-cap, from underneath which some long



FEEBLE JOHN 83

straggling grey locks appeared, and a beard
of the same colour descended downwards
from his chin as beards usually do, tapering
into a point, and adding greatly to his
venerable appearance. His eyes were ap-
parently dim with age, though an occasional
flash darted from them which betokened a
powerful brain, and his.nose, situated in the
middle of his face, below but exactly between
his eyes, stood out boldly, and showed no
signs of age. His mouth, at the moment of
the Prince’s entrance, was hard to see,
because he was leaning his head upon his
hand in such a manner as partially to
conceal it, but I have no reason to suppose
that it was unlike the mouth of other men,
although his whole appearance, and especially
his curious dress, would have shown any-
body at once that he was no ordinary man,
even if they had seen him in the street, or
in a common house, instead of in the dark
corner of a caravan.

Having entered, as I have said, quite
alone, the Prince had a mind to pass for
a private person, and accordingly, taking off
his hat, advanced towards the magician’s
corner, and, standing at a respectful dis-



84 PRINCE FILDERKIN

tance, waited until he should be addressed.
As, however, the wise man took no more
notice of him than if he had not been there,
he presently drew a step nearer, and, speak-
ing in a humble tone of voice, as that of one
who addressed a superior, he said:

‘Pray, sir, can you show me anything
wonderful? I am a poor lad who knows
but little of the strange ways of the world,
and would fain increase my knowledge.’

To the utter surprise of the speaker,
Feeble John made an instant reply, though
in a voice evidently tremulous with old
age:

‘Prince Filderkin, child of royal parents,
don’t try to humbug me, for you can’t do it !’

At this unexpected speech, it may well
be believed that the young Prince fell into
great confusion, for he did not understand
how the magician could so easily have
found him out, his hump not being an easy
thing to see when he was facing the person
whom he addressed, and that, moreover, in
a darkened room.

‘It is true,’ he presently rejoined, ‘that I
am Prince Filderkin, but still a poor lad!
Who indeed could be poorer, with such an



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LIBRARY



THE MAGIC OAK TREE

AND

PRINCE FILDERKIN


THE CHILDREN’S LIBRARY.



A CHINA CUP, AND OTHER STORIES.

THE BROWN OWL.

STORIES FROM FAIRYLAND.

TALES FROM THE MABINOGION.
‘THE STORY OF A PUPPET.

THE LITTLE PRINCESS.

IRISH FAIRY TALES.

AN ENCHANTED GARDEN.

LA BELLE NIVERNAISE.

THE FEATHER.

FINN AND HIS COMPANIONS.

NUTCRACKER AND MOUSE-KING.

ONCE UPON A TIME.

THE PENTAMBRONE,

FINNISH LEGENDS,

THE POPE'S MULE,

THE LITTLE GLASS MAN.

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

THE MAGIC OAK TREE AnD PRINCE
FILDERKIN. -



(Others in the Press.)










[See p. 47.

“THERE STOOD UPON A PROJECTING ROCK THE FIGURE
OF A BEAUTIFUL LITTLE LADY.”
THE MAGIC OAK TREE

AND

PRINCE FILDERKIN-

BY THE LATE

LORD BRABOURNE

[E. H. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSEN ]

LONDON
T. FISHER UNWIN

1894





CONTENTS

THE MAGIC OAK TREE

CHAP. PAGE
*%, WICKED VENOMISTA - : f I
2. Hurty-Bur.y . : 3 5 . 7
3. THE HEDGEHOG. ; : . 15
4. A BARGAIN. 3 : 5 7 24
5. ADVENTURES BY THE Way . s 33
6. TEMPTATION . 2 . : . 40
y. THE WITCH’s DOWNFALL 5 . 52
8. CHILDREN AGAIN . 5 5 saree 59

PRINCE FILDERKIN

1, CONCERNING A Hump . : : 71

2,. FEEBLE JOHN . : . : . 81
vi CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
3. SOME ADVENTURES . ‘ a . 96
4. FURTHER ADVENTURES . E - 109
5, THE PALACE OF THE MOUNTEBANKS 129
6. THE CURSE—AND THE Way OUT . 143
7. HUMPLESS : ‘ ‘ 7 eESO

——_>—__——

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

x. ‘There stood upon a projecting rock the figure
of a beautiful little lady’ . Frontispiece

2. ‘Anumber of little brown frogs, hopping about
and croaking’ 7 . Facing page 4
3. ‘A little man about three feet high, with bright
red hair and only one eye’ Facing page 30

4. ‘She was in a perfect puddle, and had not a
dry thread upon her’ . Facing page 56
THE MAGIC OAK TREE
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CHAPTER I
WICKED VENOMISTA

ERE was once a very large oak
tree in the middle of a great
forest. Its trunk measured many
hundred feet round, its roots ran
out in every direction for a great distance, and
its branches gave wider shade than those
of any other tree in the forest. But although-
this tree was so large and beautiful, it was
an object of awe instead of delight to all the
dwellers in that part of the world. You
will not be surprised at this when I tell you
the reason. A spiteful old fairy had made
the tree her home and had lived there for
many years. Some fairies, as everybody
knows, are kind and good, and always
B


2 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

ready to do a friendly action towards those
mortals who come in their way. But this
particular fairy was unhappily ofa very differ-
ent character. Her name was Venomista,
and her chief pleasure was to do all the
harm she could to every living creature
except three, which were her special
favourites. These three, a bat, a weasel, and
an adder, lived with her in the tree, and woe
to any mortal who approached it when they
were at home. The bat flew into his face
and flipped at his eyes with its quickly
flapping wings, the weasel bit his heels, and
the adder stung him, and as these three
things generally happened at the same
moment, the traveller had a bad time of it.
Travellers, however, were scarce in those
parts, and the old fairy would never have
found enough mischief to do if she had
stayed at home in her oak. She was there-
fore accustomed to rove abroad a great deal,
and her favourite occupation and amusement
was to look out for children wherever she
could, and when she found any, she almost
always changed the poor little things into
brown frogs, and went away roaring with
delight at the thoughts of the misery of the
WICKED VENOMISTA 3

parents. If I knew the history of all the
people who had suffered this injury at the
hands of the cruel Venomista, I daresay
that I could fill a book with the tales of their
misfortunes ; but, as it is, I can only tell of
one particular family, though that may give
a general idea of what others must have
suffered. It happened upon one occasion,
that the old fairy had gone out rather
farther than usual, and was quite upon the
outskirts of the forest, when she met the
seventeen children of the King and Queen
of that country walking with their nurse.
The first thing that she did was to make
such a terrible face at the poor children that
they all turned round and ran to their nurse
as fast as they could run. Now the nurse
was a very respectable middle-aged woman,
perfectly devoted to the children, and one
who would have done anything in the world
to keep them from harm. So as soon as
she saw the seventeen little ones running to
her for safety, she threw up her arms and
cried out as loud as she could: ‘Come, my
darlings ! come my ducklings ! nobody shall
hurt ye while nursey is here !’

The good woman said these words with
4 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

the best possible intentions, and, no doubt,
if she had herself been either a fairy or a
witch, she would have made a good fight
over the matter before any mischief should
touch her nurslings. But, alas! she was
neither the one nor the other, and the words
were not out of her mouth, nor had the
children reached her, when the harsh voice
of the wicked old fairy fell upon their ears.
And this was what she said:

‘Stop, stop ! ducklings, stop !
Ye no more shall run, but hop.
Hop and skip in marshy bog,
Each a pretty little frog.

You are all (no matter how)

. Venomista's playthings now !
Stop, stop, ducklings, stop !
Learn to croak and learn to hop!’

As the fairy pronounced these words
with the grin of a demon on her face, she
stretched out her long, lean hand towards
the children, in which hand was held a thin
twisted stick, with which she pointed at them ;
and immediately every child stopped short,
and stood still in the place where it was
standing when the dreadful words fell upon
its ear. This, however, was not all. As


“A NUMBER OF LITTLE BROWN FROGS, HOPPING ABOUT AND CROAKING.”
WICKED VENOMISTA 5

the old fairy waved her stick slowly to and
fro, the form of each child began gradually
to change, its clothes disappeared, its limbs
shrivelled up, its head sank in between its |
shoulders; its voice altered, and in less time
than I am writing these lines, instead of the
group of merry, laughing children who had
been playing about in front of their nurse a
few short minutes before, all you could see
was a number of little brown frogs, hopping
about and croaking in plaintive tones as
they did so. The poor nurse was quite
beside herself with anger, terror and surprise.
She first of all screamed loudly, which is a
well-known remedy in all such distressing
cases, but which, in the present instance,
had not the slightest effect, save to increase
the delight with which Venomista looked
upon her work. Then she burst into a
passionate fit of tears, which did no more
good than the screams. Then she began to
implore the fairy to have mercy, and restore
the poor children to their former shape.
When, however, the wicked creature only
winked knowingly at this appeal, and made
an ugly face at her, which was enough to
have frightened her into a fit if she had not
6 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

been in such a state of excitement, she
began bitterly to complain, and to upbraid
the fairy for her cruelty.

‘What harm had these innocent creatures
done you, madam?’ she said. ‘How can
you be so cruel as to have visited them with
such a terrible punishment? It is wicked,
it is shameful 2

‘Stop, my friend,’ interrupted the other,
with a bitter sneer. ‘I do not often con-
descend to trouble myself with servants, but
if you go on at this rate, take care lest I
change you into a snake, so that you may
have’ the satisfaction of eating your late
nurslings, and so settling the matter in a
comfortable way.’

The poor nurse was so horror-stricken at
the suggestion thus made, that she did not
venture to say another word; and the old
fairy, seeing that there was no more fun to
be got out of the unlucky children, gave
another fearful grin towards them and then
went off in search of more mischief to do.




CHAPTER Il
HURLY-BURLY

HE nurse stood. still until this
terrible enemy was gone, and said
not another word until she was
quite out of sight. There was a

reason for this, and also for her not having

replied to the fairy’s last words. This
reason must now be disclosed. When the
children had all set off running to their
nurse, upon the first look of the old fairy,
there was one little fellow who had been
close to the nurse-all the time, and had
therefore no distance to run. He was one
of the youngest of the boys, and, as he was
always the foremost in any mischief that
was going on in the family, and was famous




8 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

for making a noise, they called him little
Hurly-Burly, and by this name he was
generally known. Now little Hurly-Burly,
as soon as he saw his brothers and sisters
turn round and run, whipped himself as
quick as thought under the nurse’s apron,
and there remained completely hidden from
sight. Whether it was that he had not
seen the fairy’s look, or whether it was for
some other reason, I cannot tell; but it is
certain that the spell had no effect upon him,
and whilst all the other children became
frogs, this little-fellow remained a boy the
same as ever.

It was most fortunate for him that the
fairy had not taken the trouble to count the
children before she began to practise her art
upon them, and also that she did not happen
to see this small boy; but so it was, and he
had the good sense to keep perfectly quiet
until she had quite disappeared. Then he
ventured to peep out, and saw before his
eyes the sixteen little brown frogs who had
so lately been his own brothers and sisters,
of form and features like hisown. It was a
curious sight indeed, and sad as well as
curious, to hear the dismal croaks which
HURLY-BURLY 9

were uttered by the poor little creatures.
They hopped to and fro round the nurse,
and seemed to be striving to speak in their
own natural voices, but were unable to do so.
The good nurse wept bitterly as she looked
upon them, and thought of the misery which
awaited the King and Queen, when they
should hear of the terrible misfortune which
had befallen their children. She reflected,
however, that crying and sobbing would do
no good, and began to cast about in her
mind what would be the best thing to do
under the melancholy circumstances of the
case. It was some way off to the palace,
for she had been persuaded by the children
to take a somewhat longer walk than ‘usual,
in consequence of the day being so remark-
ably fine; and although ‘the little boys and
girls had come to the forest easily enough,
it was a very different matter for sixteen
. little frogs to travel the same distance. -
Therefore, after thinking over the matter for
a little while, she came to the conclusion
that there was nothing for it but to carry
them in her apron, and accordingly she sat
down, and invited the little creatures to hop
into her lap. This they presently did, and,
10 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

laden with this precious burden, and with
little Hurly-Burly walking quietly by her side,
the nurse began to move slowly forward in
the direction of the palace. She had not gone
very far, however, before she heard a sound
which attracted her attention, and looking up,
she beheld a black crow sitting on the branch
of a tree, and looking at her as if he wished
to be noticed. The good woman looked up
at the bird, and as soon as she did so he
gave a loud caw, and then, to her great
surprise, addressed her in the following
manner :

+ Good woman, I fear you've been shedding a tear,
—(And tears in this world must be shed)—
But remember, kind nurse, that it might have been
worse,
Had your nurslings been wounded or dead.
Safe, healthy, and sound, see they hop on the
ground,
A step which a frogling befits ;
"Twere worse, I assert, were they crippled and hurt,
Or cruelly broken to bits.
All else may be reft, but if life be still left,
Misfortune may well be endured.
So duty don’t shirk—your wits set to work,
And perchance the dear chicks may be cured !'

The worthy nurse listened to this speech
HURLY-BURLY It

with the greatest astonishment, partly because
she had never before heard a crow speak as
if he was a human being, and partly because
she was quite unaccustomed to hear people
talk in rhyme, whether they were crows or
any other creatures. In fact, she was so
surprised that she could not find words to
express her feelings, and having dropped all
the little frogs on the ground in her surprise,
stood still, staring like a stuck pig, as the
saying is, although as I never saw a stuck
pig stare, I do not exactly know how the
animal performs this feat. Little Hurly-Burly,
however, who was a very intelligent child,
not only both heard and understood what
the crow said, but felt something within him
which impelled him to reply, and knowing
that everybody likes to be answered when
they have spoken to somebody else with
kind intentions, he plucked up courage and
spoke at once to the crow, trying his hand
at rhyme for the first time. He looked up
at the bird and spoke thus:

‘Thank you kindly, Mr. Crow,
You're a friendly bird, I know ;
Since your words are doubtless true,

Please to tell us what to do.’
12 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

As soon as the little boy had said these
words, the crow flapped his wings three
times, and cawed with delight, after which
he composed himself again and thus con-
tinued :

‘ The oak is a fair and a comely tree,
But the bat is a loathsome bird,
And never a note of melody
From his voiceless mouth is heard.

The oak is a fair and a comely tree,
But the weasel’s a noxious beast,

The like of the wretch you can scarcely see
In the North, South, West or East.

The oak is a fair and a comely tree,
But the adder’s a creeping brute,
And ne'er with the forest it well can be
While the wretch lies coiled by the root.
But blessing shall fall on that man or boy
Who shall adder and weasel and bat destroy !'

As the crow spoke, the thought crossed
little Hurly-Burly’s mind that it would be
capital fun to kill a weasel and an adder,
to say nothing of a bat, about which he did
not care so much; the other two creatures
seemed to be the natural enemies of a boy,
and he felt that he should have no objection
to throwing the bat in, if he was to get a
blessing for doing so. All this, however,
HURLY-BURLY 13

appeared to have nothing to do with the sad
state of his brothers and sisters, and he was,
therefore, upon the point of asking how his
destruction of the three creatures alluded to
would help him to alter that state, when the
crow cleared his throat and went on again,
and these were the words he cawed out as
clearly as possible :

‘Cunning the rabbit and crafty the fox,

Craftier still is the hedgehog old ;
His is the tongue which the secret unlocks—
Pay him with milk, for he won't take gold.’

The boy distened with much attention to
these words, but, after all, they did not seem
to bring him much nearer to the cure of his
brothers and sisters. He saw no hedgehog,
and had no milk to give, if there had been
half a dozen of these animals close at hand.
So he kept his eyes fixed upon the crow,
expecting to hear something more, and was
very much vexed as well as surprised when
the bird, after one more caw, flapped his
wings three times and then flew slowly away,
without uttering another word. Little Hurly-
Burly looked to his nurse, but she only shook
her head and told him she did not know what
to do any more than he did. His poor little
14 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

brothers and sisters could not give him any
advice, or, if they could, he could not under-
stand it, for all they could do was to hop
and croak around him in a manner which
showed him how disturbed and unhappy
they were, but gave him no sort of idea
what he was to do to help them in their
distress. Under these circumstances, the
boy thought that the best thing he could do
would be to walk straight on and wait to see
if anything would turn up. Here, however,
a difficulty presented itself, for when the
nurse tried to catch the frogs in order to put
them once more into her apron, they showed
a strange dislike to being caught. Instead
of coming up and hopping into her lap as
they had done before, the little creatures all
began to hop away from her as fast as they
could, The nurse thought that they must
have been shaken and jumbled together in
an uncomfortable way when she had at first
taken them up, and the thought crossed little
Hurly-Burly’s mind that perhaps they had
been getting more and more like real frogs
ever since they had been changed into that
shape, and that they were gradually forget-
ting all about their former state and life.




CHAPTER III
THE HEDGEHOG

RHAPS there was something
in this idea, and it became
strengthened in the boy’s mind
when he perceived that the frogs
all hopped in one direction, as if they quite
well knew where they wished to go. There-
fore, with a wisdom beyond his years, the
boy begged the nurse not to try and catch
his brothers and sisters any more, but to
follow them at a slow pace, and see where
they went, and what they did. The good
woman agreed to this proposal, and the
frogs hopped on as fast as they could until
they came to a bank, which they mounted
one after the other; and when they came to


16 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

the top, Hurly-Burly and the nurse saw at
the same moment that the bank sloped
down on the other side, and that immediately
beyond it was a pond and a quantity of
marshy ground around it, which was just tte
sort of place for an honest frog to delight
in. As soon as they saw it, the little frogs,
whose instinct had clearly told them where
this place was, all gave a croak of pleasure,
and hopped merrily down the bank towards
the water, whilst little Hurly-Burly and the
nurse stood upon the top of the bank watch-
ing their proceedings. With a hop, jump,
and splash each frog leaped into the water
and all began to croak with delight as if
they had been used to it all their lives, and
desired nothing better than their present
condition. There were plenty more frogs
there, so exactly like the new-comers, that
it was impossible to tell the difference, and
both Hurly-Burly and his nurse soon left off
trying to do so;. they stood still for some
time, gazing on the water before them, until
the nurse, feeling rather tired after her long
walk, thought it would be a pleasant thing
to sit down, and observing a heap of dry
leaves near some rushes which grew on the
THE HEDGEHOG 17

banks of the pond, naturally thought that
they would form a more comfortable seat
than the bare ground. Accordingly, with-
out more to-do she plumped herself down
upon the leaves, but had hardly done so
when she sprang up again with a shriek
which rang through the air with a shrill echo
which caused all the frogs to duck their
heads under water in a moment, and startled
little Hurly-Burly out of his senses. The
cause of the good woman’s alarm, however,
was soon made clear. She had been so
unlucky as to sit down upon a hedgehog,
which is a thing I should never advise any-
body to do if another seat should be at
hand. The hedgehog had been comfortably
curled up in the dry leaves, and it is a mercy
that he was not smashed by the weight of
the nurse’s body. But he was a very large
hedgehog, and probably a very tough one
also; and his bristles were so long and so
sharp, that the first touch of these had been
enough to warn the good woman before she
had settled herself down, in which case the
consequences might have been more serious.
Fortunately for all parties, neither she nor
the hedgehog was much hurt, but the latter
Cc
18 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

was thoroughly awakened from his afternoon
nap, and not at all pleased by this unexpected
disturbance of his rest. ‘What blundering
old porpoise is this?’ he exclaimed in a
voice hoarse from emotion. ‘Cannot you
keep clear of other people, old numskull ?’
and he growled fearfully. Now, the nurse,
never having heard a hedgehog speak or
growl, was much frightened, and puzzled
what to do.

Fortunately, however, little Hurly-Burly
had been born on Easter Sunday, and there-
fore could see and hear more than people
who had entered the world on any other
day. So he was not the least surprised and
alarmed, and, moreover, understood perfectly
well what the animal said. He remembered,
too, the words of the crow which had
directed him as to the source from which he
was to expect help in the task of restoring
his brothers and sisters to their former
shape. So the first thought that came into
his head was that there could be no doubt
of this being the hedgehog whose assistance
he was to seek. It was therefore somewhat
unfortunate that their acquaintance should
have begun by the circumstance of the
THE HEDGEHOG 19°

excellent nurse sitting down upon him, since
this was not a proceeding which was likely
to make either a hedgehog or anybody else
feel very well disposed towards the person
who acted in such an unpleasant manner.
It was, however, absolutely necessary to
make friends with the important creature,
and the boy lost no time in attempting to
do so. He took off his cap with a very low
bow, and standing immediately opposite the
hedgehog, who was still shaking himself
and looking very uncomfortable, he thus
addressed him. ‘Noble sir, pray do not be
offended at the unfortunate accident which
has just occurred. I can assure you that it
was by no means the wish of my nurse to
insult or annoy you in any way.’

The hedgehog, not being averse from
flattery, was much pleased at being addressed
as ‘Noble sir,’ which had never happened
before, and also at the politeness of Hurly-
Burly in taking off his cap when he spoke
to him. So he left off growling and shaking
himself, and at once made answer to the
boy.

‘Well, he said, ‘I daresay the old
lumberer didn’t mean it, and, for the matter
20 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

of that, perhaps she got the worst of it after
all, for I was at the bristle-sharpener’s only
two days ago, and my quills are like needles,
I expect. However, if she didn’t mean
mischief, there’s no more to be said.’

‘Thank you, noble sir,’ rejoined the boy.
‘I can assure you that such is the fact.
Poor woman, she is hardly in her right
mind just now from grief, so for that cause
also I hope you will kindly forgive her,’

‘Upon my word,’ replied the hedgehog,
‘you are a very prettily-spoken young
gentleman, and, since the woman belongs to
you, I we/7 forgive her, and think no more
about it. But what is this grief of which
you speak ??

‘Ah, sir,’ said Hurly-Burly, with a deep
sigh, ‘it is something very sad indeed. My
sixteen brothers and sisters have all been
changed into frogs, and are now in the
pond before us.’

‘Say you so?’ remarked the hedgehog,
who had uncurled himself whilst the boy
was speaking, and displayed his head and
sharp black eyes, which had previously
been hidden from view. ‘Say you so?
lll be bound this is more of the work of that
THE HEDGEHOG 21

wicked old Venomista. ‘Tell me all about
it from beginning to end.’

Then the boy. told the hedgehog the
whole of that day’s adventures, whilst the
nurse, who had listened to the conversation
which I have related with great astonish-
ment, kept curtseying all the time, and
saying ‘Yes,’ ‘That’s right,’ ‘Just so, sir,’
all the time, until he had finished the story.
Then she clasped her hands together and
exclaimed, ‘Oh, deary me, Mr. Hedgepig,
if so be as you can help us, pray do, for
whatever shall I do if I have to go back to
their Royal Majesties without my precious
little lambkins ??

It is one of the well-known peculiarities
of the hedgehog tribe to dislike immensely
being called ‘hedgepigs,’ a hog being, in
their estimation, the more noble title; the
animal therefore tossed his snout in the air
on being thus addressed, and turning away
from the nurse with contempt, spoke again
to the boy.

‘It is not easy,’ he said, ‘to conquer these
magic people, unless you know something
about magic yourself, which in your case is
not very likely. Luckily for you, however,
22 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

a good deal of my time has been passed in
studying the Black Art, and I can help
those to whom I wish to be friendly in
more ways than one. You must know that
this bad old fairy has reigned so long in the
forest where she dwells that she has really
forgotten that she is by no means the
most powerful person in the neighbourhood.
There are fairies of a higher class who are
well able to crush and destroy her if they
can only be got to interfere, and it is only
because they despise her so much that they
have let her alone so long. One of the best
and kindest of these is the Fairy of the Falls,
so called because she usually lives among
the rocks on one side of the forest where
there is a beautiful waterfall. If you could
persuade her to help you, all would be well.’

‘But,’ asked the boy when the hedgehog
paused in his speech, ‘how am I to find
this good fairy, and how can I persuade her
to help me if I do find her ?’

‘That is what I am going to tell you,’
replied the hedgehog. ‘You have only got
to walk from this spot in a straight line to
the forest, which you can see quite plainly
from where you stand. Take out your
THE HEDGEHOG 23

pocket-handkerchief, hold it in your left
hand, and if anybody speaks to or interrupts
you before you reach the forest, shake it in
front of you and repeat the simple word
“ Gambleogomeril,” and you will be allowed
to pass. At the entrance of the forest, stop
and say the same word three times and then
use your own wits.’




CHAPTER IV

A BARGAIN

T came into litthe Hurly-Burly’s
head that he would not be able
to use anybody else’s wits, and
therefore that this advice was
hardly necessary, but he did not tell the
hedgehog what he thought, but merely asked
him to say the simple word he had told him
over again, so that he might be quite sure
that he had got it right. When this had
been done, he thanked the hedgehog very
much, and asked whether there was anything
else which he ought to know before enter-
ing the forest. At this question the animal
looked him straight in the face for a full
minute before he answered, and then he



A BARGAIN 26

grunted cut in a rather rough voice: ‘I’ve
told as much as I ever tell for nothing.
Who is going to pay me if I tell more?’
The nurse, who had been listening with
great attention to the conversation between
the boy and the hedgehog, and felt rather
slighted because it was to little Hurly-Burly
instead of to her that the animal spoke, now
broke in hastily, as if determined not to be
left out of the business altogether. ‘ Never
you fear, Mr. Hedgepig,’ she cried—‘ never
you fear but what -you’ll get paid right
enough for anything you do for the young
Prince. *Twas milk the old crow said you
liked, and there’s a matter of twenty cows
or more up at the Palace, and their Majesties
will be ready enough to drown you in milk,
if you wish it, if you only get back the
blessed children as they was before that
wretched old creature meddled with them.’
At these words the eyes of the hedgehog
glistened with pleasure, but, nevertheless,
he turned up his snout in contempt and
disgust at the woman’s interference and at
her again calling him by the name he dis-
liked. He gave a low grunt as he turned
again to the boy and said: ‘ Milk is what I
26 . LHE MAGIC OAK TREE

like best. Promise me that, and I will do
‘ what I can for you, and trust to your honour
for my payment.’

Hurly-Burly hastened to assure his new
friend that he should certainly be liberally
rewarded in the way of milk for his services,
and again asked him whether he had any
more instructions to give as to his behaviour
when in the forest. The hedgehog looked
at the boy very gravely for a full minute
before he made any answer, and at length
he spoke, very slowly and earnestly : ‘ Under
the third lump of rushes from the spot on
which you now stand,’ he said, ‘you will
find a toad sitting upon a bed of moss.
Take him boldly in your hand. He is
long past spitting, which is the only danger
to be feared from these animals. Moreover,
he is not an ordinary toad, as you will soon
find out. Wrap him up carefully in moss,
and carry him in the pocket of your jacket
until you reach the forest. Then, if you
should be in any difficulty, gently squeeze
him, take him in your right hand, and he
will answer any questions you may wish to
ask him. This is all I have to tell you,
excepting that you must on no account turn
A BARGAIN 27

your back upon any enemy you may meet
until you have finished the business which
takes you to Venomista’s oak. When this
is done, and you have succeeded, as I hope
you will, remember that I shall expect my
milk,’

With these words, the hedgehog turned
round, and began to roll himself up as
comfortably as if nothing had happened.
The nurse, however, who by no means liked
being left out of the business, as seemed to
be the intention of the speaker, thought it
high time to put in a word on her own
account.

‘And what am I to take and to do, Mr.
Hedgepig ?’ she exclaimed, in rather an
indignant tone.

‘Go home and milk the cows,’ replied the
animal with a snarl, and rolled himself up
tighter than ever.

‘ Hoity-toity !’? cried the good woman in
great wrath. ‘A pretty pass things are
come to, surely, when children are told to
do this, and that, and the other, and nurses
not to have a word in the matter! I never
saw such goings on in all my born days!
Here, Princey, dear, come away home with
28 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

nursey, and don’t let us have any more
fooling about with hedgepigs and such like!
I do declare I must take you safe back to
“my poor King and Queen, come what will!’

Little Hurly-Burly heard this speech with
some dismay, for, of course, if he had to go
home with his nurse it would be impossible
for him to search in the forest for the means
of restoring his brothers and sisters to their
natural shape. As I have already hinted,
however, the little fellow was something of
a pickle, and was not famous for doing as
he was told at once. On this occasion,
indeed, he had a better reason than usual
for disobeying his nurse, and had, therefore,
not the slightest intention of obeying her.
He was wise enough to know, however, that
it would not do to say so at once, or to run
away, which had been his first thought, so
he put on his gravest face, and said: ‘Don’t
you want to get brothers and sisters back,
nurse ?’

‘In course I do, Princey,’ she replied.
‘But it ain’t the way to do it—not letting
you go and be lost, too.’ (

‘But,’ said the boy, ‘I-do not think I
shall be lost if I do as I have just been told ;
A BARGAIN 29

and, besides, if we both go home there will
be no chance of getting the others back.
Pll tell you what, nurse! You go home
and have some milk brought down here in
a can, and, if you like, you can bring some
people to help, and then if I am not back,
they can catch all the frogs in the pond and
take them to the Palace, so that the doctors
can find out which are my brothers and
sisters, and how they can be cured. If I do
come back we can pay the hedgehog, and all
will be right’

Thenurse shook her head as she answered:
‘] don’t think nothing of folks as trusts the
children instead of the nurses. No good
never came of such things——’

But even as she spoke, she looked down
on the pond and saw the little frogs bobbing
up and down, and heard them croaking, and
thought how that she knew her little nurs-
lings were there, and that if Hurly-Burly
could not get them back by the hedgehog’s
help, they would very likely have to stay
there for ever. There, too, lay the hedge-
hog right before her. He was a living
reality, at all events, and mzght be able to
help. She had never heard an animal of
30 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

this kind talk as he had done—there might
be something in it after all. Besides this,
she remembered that if little Hurly-Burly
did not want to go home with her, it would
be very difficult to make him, and that, if he
ran away, she would not easily be able to
catch him. So she made up her mind that
she had better yield and let him go, .and
after'taking a few moments to consider, she
said: ‘Well, Prince Hurly-Burly, if so it
must be, I can say no more. But pray
take care of your precious self, my child.
Don’t go and get your feet wet, or if you
should do so, mind you don’t go and sit
down with wet feet—there’s nothing so sure
to give you cold.’

Hurly-Burly was so glad to find that his
nurse no longer objected to his proposed
journey to the forest, that he readily pro-
mised all she asked, and, as soon as this
point was settled, proceeded to look for the
toad in the place which the hedgehog had
pointed out. He found him immediately,
and, taking him carefully up in a covering
of moss, put him into his jacket pocket as
he had been told; then, wishing the hedge-
hog and the nurse ‘good-bye,’ set out at


“A LITTLE MAN ABOUT THREE FEET HIGH, WITH BRIGHT RED HAIR
AND ONLY ONE EYE.”
A BARGAIN 3r

once on his way to the forest. The nurse
only stayed long enough to tell the hedge-
hog that although he had not learned the
way to speak to a lady, and she was not in
the habit of milking the cows, she would
take care that, if things went well with the
young Princes and Princesses, he should.
have the milk which he desired. Then she
set off home, and left the animal in peace.
Hurly-Burly walked forward at his best
pace, and before long saw the forest very
near him. Between him and it there was
a kind of common, on which grew a great
many patches of gorse, and here and there
rose a stunted thorn tree. The ground
was hard and dry, and there seemed little
risk of the boy getting his feet wet, as the
nurse had feared. But the common was
larger than it appeared at first, or else some
magic power kept the traveller back, for he
did not seem to get any nearer. He had
taken his handkerchief in his right hand, as
the hedgehog had told him to do, and walked
steadily on for.some way until all of a sudden
a little man about three feet high, with bright
red hair and only one eye, jumped from be-
hind a gorse-bush, and ‘stood right in front
32 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

of him with his arms akimbo. ‘Halloa,
young ’un,’ he cried, in a deep voice, ‘ where
are you going to?’

Hurly-Burly had taken a step backward
at the unexpected sight of this figure, but he
recovered himself immediately, shook his
handkerchief boldly before him, and at the
same time uttered the magic word, ‘Gambleo-
gomeril !’ in a voice as clear and firm as he
could command.

Without a moment’s delay the little man
turned round and ran away into the gorse,
like a rabbit with a dog at his heels.


has

)
)

fy 7
(Wi wi

e



CHAPTER V
' ADVENTURES BY THE WAY

OR an instant the boy stood still-
in amazement, but this little
adventure filled him with con-
fidence in the hedgehog and his
advice, so he pushed boldly on with his
handkerchief still in his hand. He found
now that he was certainly getting near the
forest, which only seemed about a hundred
yards off, when, brushing aside a thin bush
of gorse which was growing over the path
which he was following, he found himself on
the very edge of a huge pit, which seemed to
be full of water, and was much too wide to
jump. He looked to the right and left, but
the pit seemed to reach quite across the
D


34 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

common, and, save at the spot on which he
stood, the gorse grew so thick that he could
hardly have forced his way through it. He
paused a few seconds and doubted whether
he had not better go to the right or left and
try to find the end of the pit; then he
thought that, first of all, he had better try
the same means which had just before
proved so successful. So he boldly shook
his handkerchief again, and repeated the
word given him by the hedgehog. Great,
indeed, was his surprise at the effect produced.
A strong wooden bridge with a good stout
hand-rail appeared directly before him, and
he walked across it without the slightest
difficulty, and proceeded safely on his
journey. Close at hand now were the
large trees of the forest, casting their
shadows over the edge of the common, and
seeming to invite animals of all sorts to
come in under the shelter of their pleasant
shade. On stepped the boy without fear or
doubt, and he was not ten yards from the
forest, when, without any warning whatever,
a line of fire, some three yards wide, rose up
between him and the forest, so close to him
that he jumped back a full yard and a half
ADVENTURES BY THE WAY 35

in a moment. So bright and so hot was
the fire, that it seemed impossible for the
boy to pass it, and so it certainly would
have been if he had not had the weapon by
which the obstacle could be removed. He
shook his handkerchief before him, once
more uttered the word, and had the satis-
faction of seeing the fire vanish as suddenly
as it appeared; then little Hurly-Burly
breathed freely again, and stepped boldly
into the forest; not forgetting, however, to
pause for a moment before he did so, and
pronounce three times the word which had
already served him so well. He had no
idea which way to go, but having been told
by the hedgehog to use his wits, looked
carefully around him to see whether there
was anything which might direct him. He
did not expect, of course, to see a finger-
post by the wayside, on which would be
written ‘To the Falls’ or ‘To Venomista’s
Oak,’ but he fancied that there might be
something to guide him one way or the
other. He might hear the noise of falling
water, or see the tracks of many animals,
who would be likely to go to the spot where
water was to be found, or he might meet
36 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

with some sign of the wicked fairy’s power,
or glean news of her from some strange
creature or in some wonderful manner. So
he plodded steadily on for some little way,
until all of a sudden he heard a voice
calling out his name—‘ Hurly-Burly !’

He stopped at once, and looked to the
right hand, from which the sound seemed to
come.

‘ Holloa!’ he said,

There was no answer, but presently the
voice again cried, ‘ Hurly-Burly !’

It was a shrill tone, and this time the
sound seemed to come from the left hand,
which rather puzzled the boy. He had not
much time, however, to be puzzled, for
another voice came from behind, and then
from right before him, and then several
voices began calling out ‘ Hurly-Burly !’ one
after the other, until the little fellow was so
puzzled that he did not know which way to
look. That which made it all the more
extraordinary was that he saw no one
near him, and he did not see how voices
could be heard without there being some-
body there with a throat through which they
came. But noone appeared, and the voices
ADVENTURES BY THE WAY 37

still sounded in different tones, but all calling
out the same word, ‘ Hurly-Burly,’ till the
boy began to be almost frightened. Then
he bethought him all at once of his toad,
which might as well be of use to him now
as atany other time. So, without more ado,
he took out the creature, moss and all, gently
squeezed it as he had been told, and, holding
it in his right hand, said to it in a friendly
voice, ‘Please, Toad, tell me what this
means and what I ought to do?’ To his
great surprise, no sooner had he asked the
question than there came from the toad
a sound exactly like that which proceeds
from a musical box. The squeeze seemed to
have had the same effect as the winding
up of the key of such an instrument, and
the only difference was that the toad’s notes
seemed to shape themselves into words, so
that the boy could perfectly well under-
stand what was said; and this was what he
heard :

‘The voices are meant to deceive and delude,
They come from bad creatures, the children of
night,
Don't listen or stop, but with courage endued
Press manfully forward, and Keep to the Right!’
38 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

Though Hurly-Burly was somewhat startled
at hearing such sounds come from a toad, he
was very much pleased to find that the hedge-
hog had not failed him, and that he had
some guide as to the course he should
pursue. So he warmly thanked the toad,
put him carefully back in his jacket pocket,
and marched boldly on, bearing to the right
as he had been directed. Presently the
voices around him ceased, as if their owners
had discovered that they had not served the
purpose for which they had been employed.
So the little fellow kept on for some little
way further, until he came to a place where
the right side of the path was thick with
brambles and the ground very rough, whilst
on the left a bank of soft turf sloped away
in a gradual descent, and upon the bank
grew a quantity of wild strawberries which
seemed to invite the traveller to come and
pick them. Hurly-Burly stopped for one
moment to look at this pleasant sight, and
the moment he did so there stepped out of
the wood the figure of a little girl about his
own age, and stood upon the bank just upon
his left hand, only three or four yards off.
She was a very pretty little girl, with fresh
ADVENTURES BY THE WAV 39

colour in her cheeks and a smile upon her
face, and a straw hat upon her head with
yellow ribbons, which gave it a gay appear-
ance, and altogether she looked very nice.
In her hand she carried a small basket, and
a little switch in the other, which she
stretched out towards Hurly-Burly, and said,
in a friendly voice, ‘Little boy, come and
help me to gather wild strawberries; they
are so good! And there are such a lot of
them here! Come on!’






CHAPTER VI
TEMPTATION

HE strawberries ad look very
good and very tempting, and it
crossed Hurly-Burly’s mind that
after his long walk they would

be very refreshing. It is true he had been

told by the toad to keep to the right, and
the strawberries grew on the left, but it was

a very little way on the left after all.

Besides, he need only walk a few yards and

then sit down, and when he was tired of

gathering and eating, he could easily come
back and go on to the right. It seemed
such a little bit out of his way that it really
could not signify much, and he had always
been told to be civil to people. Here was


TEMPTATION 41

a nice little girl asking him to help her, and
surely it would not be civil to refuse to do
so. So little Hurly-Burly stood still and
hesitated. We should never hesitate between
right and wrong, and we may be very sure
that, although it often seems much the most
easy and most pleasant to do wrong, yet this
is sure to bring us into difficulties and
sorrows which are neither the one nor the
other. Whilst he was looking, first at the
little girl and next at the strawberries, I am
afraid that the boy forgot all about his poor
little brothers and sisters, the nurse, the
hedgehog, and the object of his visit to the
forest. He hesitated, as I have said, for a
moment, and then swung round on his left
heel, and was just going to step on to the
bank where the strawberries grew, when
somehow or other he noticed a curious, wild
look in the little girl’s eyes which struck him
as being so uncommon that he stopped short
before he had set his right foot down. He
could never tell exactly what it was, but it
was not common or natural, and it instantly
flashed across his mind that he ought to be
careful what he was about.

‘Come on, dear little boy,’ said the strange
42 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

little girl, in most insinuating tones; ‘the
strawberries are quite ripe, and so good.
We shall soon fill my basket, and then you
can go on if you like ; do come.’

Even as she spoke, Hurly-Burly, remem-
bering his toad, drew him out of his jacket
pocket, took him in his right hand, and with
the usual gentle squeeze, asked in a some-
what hesitating tone—

‘May I go and gather strawberries ??

Without a moment’s delay came the
musical answer, sweet and clear as before—

‘With the girl thou must not go;
"Tis a witch—thy deadly foe,

At her quickly throw thy cap,
And thy hands together clap.’

On hearing these words the boy proceeded
at once to follow the directions which they
gave him. He first replaced the toad in his
jacket pocket, and then, taking off his cap,
he threw it straight at the little girl, and
clapped his hands together directly after-
wards, You might well have supposed that
any young lady would be somewhat offended
at such an action, which, to say the least of
it, had a rude appearance such as might
cause her to change countenance and turn
TEMPTATION 43

away in anger. But you never would have
supposed that such a change, not only of
countenance but of figure, would have come
over any one as that which Hurly-Burly now
witnessed. The youthful appearance of the
being before him passed away in the twink-
ling of an eye, her cheeks fell in, her nose
stood out like a beak, her chin lengthened,
wrinkles came out upon her face which
made her look aged at once, her straw hat
turned into a hideous cap, and she stood
before the astonished eyes of the boy, an
old woman, and a very ugly old woman too.
She did not give him much time for amuse-
ment, for at the same moment her switch
became a broomstick, on which she at once
got astride, her basket, changed into a grey
cat, sprang upon her shoulder, and off she
went, half-flying and half-scuffling along, as
fast as she could, only turning round to shake
her fist wildly at her intended victim, and
uttering a sound something between a laugh
and a yell, which was one of the most dis-
agreeable which he had ever heard. You
may well believe that this adventure both
alarmed little Hurly-Burly, and filled him
with determination to be in future more
s

44 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

cautious in listening to the words or invita-
tion of any stranger. He felt, indeed, that
had it not been for his toad he should have
fallen into great misfortune, and possibly had
to share the unhappy fate of his brothers and
sisters. It was plain enough that the task
before him was not to be performed without
some trouble, and that the utmost caution
would be necessary. The boy trembled as
he thought of the narrow escape which he
had just had, and had half a mind to turn
back, only that he felt that this would be a
cowardly thing to do, and, moreover, that he
certainly had friends as well as enemies in
the forest. So he stepped boldly forward
beneath the shadows of the great trees, and
had proceeded some hundred yards on his
way, when he suddenly perceived a wounded
hare on his right hand, evidently trying to
make her escape from him. He was just
about to rush after her, when he bethought
himself of giving a gentle squeeze to his
toad, and almost before he did so, and with-
out the toad having uttered a single word,
the pretended hare changed into a hideous
black cat and rushed away at the top of her
speed. Somehow or other, this sight had a
TEMPTATION 48

great effect upon little Hurly-Burly, and made
him doubly careful on his journey. Almost
immediately after he had seen the hare, he
heard the noise as of falling water, and at
once the thought came into his mind that he
might be approaching the house of the Fairy
of the Falls, of whom the hedgehog had
spoken. So he pressed boldly on, and
presently perceived that he was coming to
an open glade in the forest, from which the
trees fell back on either side, and huge
boulders of rock lay embedded in the green
grass which grew all over the glade. These
rocks were numeyous, and were piled one
upon the other, just as if some giants had
had the fancy to build up rockwork, and had
done it after the careless fashion of giants,
casting the great masses of rock down, here
and there, just as they came to hand, and
so creating a kind of rocky hill on a natural
slope of ground. Over the top of this hill,
which was of considerable height, the boy
saw a great volume of water bursting down
with mighty force, dashing itself upon the
lower rocks, hurling its foam in all directions,
and then forcing its way through the green
grass into a narrow, rapid channel, down
46 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

which it flowed into the forest beyond. Little
Hurly-Burly saw all this as he approached
the open glade, but when he was scarcely
ten yards from it a new object presented
itself to his eyes. A man of some three feet
high stood at the edge of the forest, well
within the trees, and shook his fist at the
boy, as if he meant to rush upon him the
next moment. The man was stripped to his
hips, and the upper part of his body was
painted a bright red, and his eyes glared at
the boy as if he would like to have eaten
him then and there. Hurly-Burly had no
difficulty in perceiving thaé this was no friend
who stood before him, and at the first ap-
pearance of such a creature he was inclined
to turn round and approach the glade from
a different point. But in good time he re-
membered that he had been told not to turn
his back upon an enemy, and accordingly he
faced the little man, pulled out his toad, and
had the satisfaction of seeing that it had the
usual effect. The enemy disappeared as if
the earth had swallowed him up, and the
next moment the boy was standing upon
the green grass of the glade, and drawing
near to the waterfall which I have already
TEMPTATION ~ 47

described. As he did so, what was his
surprise to see that at one particular place,
about half-way up the rocks down which the
water fell, there stood upon a projecting rock
the figure of a beautiful little lady. She was
so bright and lovely that the water which
fell over and around her seemed to catch
something of her brightness, and to shine as
if in the light of the noonday summer sun.
She was dressed entirely in white, but the
white was like silver, and you can hardly
imagine how beautiful she appeared. As
soon as little Hurly-Burly saw her he felt
sure that he was in the presence of a friend,
and that he had no need either to squeeze
his toad or say his magic word. He was
about to address the lady at once, when she
waved her hand, in which was a little branch
of the mountain ash, and began to speak in
alow but clear voice, every tone of which
rang through the boy’s ears like the sound
of a silvery bell, and these were the words
which fell from her gracious lips:

‘Young Prince, I welcome thee to this fair glade,
The fairest ever seen in wood or plain ;
Yet if thou doubtest or dost feel afraid,
There still is time to turn thy steps again.’
48 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

The lady stopped when she had spoken
thus, and little Hurly-Burly saw that she
seemed to expect an answer; so he said:

‘ Kind lady, if it’s all the same to you,
I'll not go back. Pray tell me what to do!’

As soon as the boy had said these words,
the little lady smiled sweetly upon him, and
then spoke again, as follows:

‘If you wish to succeed in your enterprise bold,

Attend to my words, and do just as you're told.

Turn sharp to your left, and you'll presently see

A wide-spreading oak—a magnificent tree,

Approach it, and when you're within a short span,

Shout ‘' High diddle diddle!"’ as loud as you can.

Turn head over heels when you've uttered this cry,

And follow it quickly with ‘‘ Never say die!”

Whatever may happen when this has been said,

Be brave, and immediately stand on your head.

Then say, in clear voice, ‘‘I'm the Child of the
Falls, .

And whoever would hurt me must ‘look out for
squalls !’""’

As soon as she had said these words, the
little lady waved her hand, and immediately
the spray of the falling water seemed to
increase and thicken, so that the boy could
no longer see her. He had heard quite
TEMPTATION 49

enough, however, to direct him on his way,
and, being a sensible boy, did not stop to
ask any further questions, but proceeded at
once to do as he had been told. It was im-
possible to doubt that it was the Fairy of
the Falls who had spoken to him, Her
advice was probably good, and her power
was certainly great, and, what was even
more important still, he had no other course
before him than to obey, for he was evi-
dently surrounded by enemies, into whose
clutches he would fall unless aided by some
superior power. These thoughts passed
through little Hurly-Burly’s head, as he
turned on his heel and walked off to the left
among the trees of the forest. He had not
gone above a couple of hundred yards before
he saw directly before him a splendid oak
tree, of such gigantic size and beauty that
he could not for a moment doubt that it was
the tree of which the Fairy of the Falls had
spoken. There was no other tree like it,
and the boy stood still for one moment to
admire before he approached it. Nothing
about it betokened anything evil or danger-
ous, and accordingly he stepped on and had
come within a dozen yards of the tree when
E
50 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

suddenly an enormous cobweb spread itself
before him, and quite prevented him from
going any nearer. It was not a common
cobweb, of course, such as spiders amuse
themselves by making, but it was to all ap-
pearances. woven of very, very thin network
of iron threads, or threads as strong as iron,
and which mortal hand could never break.
As soon as Hurly-Burly saw this, and even
before it had spread itself out between him
and the tree, he knew that it was the work
of an enemy, and that the time had come for
him to use the words and the means en-
joined upon him by the fairy. So, without
an instant’s hesitation, he shouted out at the
very top of his voice, ‘ High diddle diddle !’
and immediately ‘afterwards tumbled head
over heels, bursting, as he did so, through
the magic network as if it had been a real
cobweb, and rising on the other side with just
enough breath to utter the words, ‘ Never
say die!’ As soon as he had done so, a
low, plaintive wail rose from the tree, and
from the other side of it there hobbled round
into sight an old, old woman, dressed in a
modest grey cloak, and leaning on a crutch.
She was a sort of person whose appearance
TEMPTATION per

in any place where old women are usually
seen would not have struck any one as being
very remarkable, and under ordinary circum-
stances she might have been taken for a
respectable old lady out for a stroll. But,
in the first place, the circumstances were
anything but ordinary; and, in the second
place, this old woman had companions such
as no respectable person would be likely to
have with her. A weasel crept softly on one
side of her; on the other glided an evil-
looking adder, and a bat fluttered round her
head as she came round the tree in front
of little Hurly-Burly. Moreover, her eyes
glittered with no kindly light, and though
her first words were not fierce or bitter, there
was a scowl upon her face as she spoke,
which betokened the existence of war and
hatred in her aged breast.


CHAPTER VII

THE WITCH’S DOWNFALL

WHAT want you here, young sir?’
she croaked out, as she stood
opposite the boy. ‘Why do
you come tumbling and turning
under my tree like a mountebank? I ama
peaceful person and love to be left in quiet.
What would you with me??

This address was so civil and so very
unlike what he had expected that the boy
almost forgot himself so far as to answer it
in the same tone, for he had always been
taught to give a polite and civil reply to any
one who accosted him. Fortunately, how-
ever, he remembered in good time that the
fairy had given him clear directions what to



THE WITCH'S DOWNFALL 53

do, and that if he was to talk and parley
with this or any other old woman, she would
certainly have not forgotten to say so. He
made, therefore, no other reply than to
stand upon his head without the smallest
delay, and whilst in that position shouted
out in a clear voice: ‘I’m the Child of the
Falls, and whoever would hurt me must
“look out for squalls !”’

Scarcely were the words out of his mouth
when a loud and discordant -yell broke from
the old woman, who, drawing a broomstick

_from beneath her grey cloak, shook it
violently at the boy, whilst her face became
distorted and inflamed with fury, At the
same time the bat uttered a shrill cry, the
adder reared himself up and hissed savagely,
whilst the weasel made one of the most
awful faces which Hurly-Burly had ever
seen, and showed his teeth in a ghastly and’
unpleasant manner. The boy, having re-
ceived no further directions from the fairy,
stood perfectly still, or as nearly still as a
person can do who is standing on his head,
whilst his enemy continued toshakeher broom-
stick at him, and pour out a torrent of abuse
against him for daring to approach her oak,
54 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

‘You tatterdemalion!’ she shouted, ‘you
tearing, treacherous, tantalising, tempestuous
tatterdemalion! How dare you come here
with your turnabout tomboy tricks! J’7/
teach you how to come creeping on here
with your crestfallen, crumbling counte-
nance! You are not going to have the
tumbling all to yourself! Cambia! Cambia!’

As she spoke, to Hurly-Burly’s infinite
astonishment the old woman proceeded in
the most deliberate manner to turn head
over heels just as he had himself done, and
then stand on her head in the same way,
glaring frightfully at him as she did so. To
add to his astonishment, the bat, the adder,
and the weasel immediately followed the
example of their mistress, and all three stood
on their respective heads as if it was the
most natural thing in the world. This,
however, was probably not a convenient or
comfortable position, for the old woman
shortly changed it; and, having been
brought by her tumble within some three
yards of the boy, she squatted down on the
ground directly opposite to him, fixed her
eyes intently upon his, and began to sing in
a slow tone words of a fearful import :—
THE WITCH'S DOWNFALL 55

‘ Creejee—Weegee—Oakum veen
Bis Perambulatoreen

* Dogum Catum Monkeymoo
Angi ;



But she got no further, or else this story
would probably never have been written, for
if she had finished the word which I have
begun to write, there can be little doubt that
Hurly-Burly would have been in her power,
and would most likely have been changed
into some animal or other, and would have
been the slave of the wicked old fairy for
ever after. But she never dd finish that
word, and for a very good reason. Just as
she had got the first two syllables out of her
mouth, dash, splash, smash, crash! came a
whole wave of water right into her face and
knocked her backwards as if she had been
shot. At the same moment little Hurly-
Burly felt himself obliged to leave off stand-
ing on his head, which he was very glad to
do; and as he stood in the usual position
upon his feet he saw, standing only a few
yards from him, the very same little lady
who had given him such useful instructions
in the glade.

As she stood, she waved her hand twice
56 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

towards the old woman, and each time she
did so a fresh wave of water, coming from
some invisible place, dashed in again, and
so drenched the person against whom it was
directed, that when she presently sat up
again she was in a perfect puddle, and had
not a dry thread about her. This, as you
may well imagine, did not improve either
her appearance or temper. She scowled
fiercely upon the new-comer, and as soon as
she could empty her mouth of the water
which had filled it, began to sputter and
splutter in a great rage,

‘What do you mean by this?’ she cried.
‘Isn’t it enough for you to have plenty of
your nasty water at home, that you come
and drench other people with the stuff, and
make everybody uncomfortable? Get along
with you, do ; ‘and don’t come messing about
under my. oak !’

At these remarks the little lady merely
smiled, but as her eyes fell upon the boy
before her, and the adder, the weasel,
and the bat, who were all looking at him
with no friendly glances, her countenance
assumed a sterner expression, and, holding
her right arm over her head, she was just


RFECL PUDDLE, AND HAD NOT A DRY THREAD

A PEI

“SHE WAS IN

UPON HER.”
THE WITCH’S DOWNFALL 57

about to speak, when the other hastily
interrupted: _

‘ Now, none of your rhymes and nonsense
here, I do hope. Let a poor person alone
for once, now, do/ This is my oak, and
has been for years. I’m a prosy old lady, I
own, so dov’¢ go and throw your verses at
my head—now, don’t /?

The Fairy of the Falls (for such she
evidently was) did not take the slightest
notice of this appeal, but calmly proceeded
to address her enemy in the following words :

‘In the midst of this wood,
We have all understood,
Bad fairies must sometimes reside ;
Whilst quiet they live,
Their life we forgive,
And allow them unharm’d to abide.
But we, the good Fays,
Detest the bad ways
And airs which they sometimes assume,
And the children of men,
If they persecute, then,
They'll find that they tempt their own doom.
Beneath this old oak
We've heard your foul croak,
And borne with you many a year,
But your treatment of folk
Now passes a joke,
58 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

And no longer your home must be here.
T truly assert

More children you've hurt

Than any six witches about,

And the time has now come

When from house and from home

A righteous decree kicks you out !'

Whilst the Fairy of the Falls was speak-
ing these words, the evil old Venomista sat
muttering to herself, and wringing her hands
as if in great trouble, and at this point she
could bear it no longer, but Wael 0 in with
the following interruption :

‘For centuries past in this oak I have dwelt,
And am fond of the forest and it ;

The law’s on my side—there’s no cause for to tell’t—
I've never had notice to quit !’

As she spoke she folded her arms in a
defiant manner, and looked at her enemy
with a fierce and angry glance. But the
Fairy of the Falls only smiled, and then
went on—

‘ Poor wretch! dost dare dispute my pow’r and right,
Thee and thy wickedness to drive from sight ?.
Stand on thy feet! and let no sound be heard
Whilst straightway I pronounce the magic word !’


CHAPTER VIII
CHILDREN AGAIN

O sooner had she thus spoken,
than Venomista’s face became
deadly white, and she visibly
shook all over.

‘Oh, no—no—no,’ she cried, in a voice
of abject terror. ‘Not czkaf—not that—
anything but z#az. I was only joking, I
didn’t mean it. I won’t do it again. Of
course I know you have the power if you
please, only—only—only—I don’t like to
leave the oak! Won't you let me off just
this once ??

Then the Fairy of the Falls smiled coldly
as she replied :




‘If even I could wish to let thee stay,
Frog-children with sad croaking bar the way.
60 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

‘* Revenge !"’ they croak from tiny throats,
Nor can I hear unmov’d their plaintive notes.
Rise, Venomista, rise! before me stand

And firmly grasp thy crutch within thine hand.’

With a moan of anguish the wicked fairy
arose, being evidently unable to resist the
power of the other, who thus. continued in a
calm tone of voice—

‘Strike ! for in vain my will thou wouldst defy—
Bat, weasel, adder, all by thee must die!’

As soon as she heard this dread sentence,
which would for ever deprive her of her
three companions in evil, the wretched
Venomista set up a dismal cry of woe, which
was at once re-echoed by the creatures who
had just heard their well-deserved doom
pronounced. But the Fairy of the Falls
took no further notice of this than to knit
her brows and look sternly at Venomista,
whilst once more she uttered the fatal word,
‘Strike!’ The wicked old fairy would fain
have resisted if she could, but knowing that
any attempt of the kind would not only be
useless, but might bring upon her a still
worse punishment, she heaved one more
sigh, and then struck a wild blow at the bat,
CHILDREN AGAIN 61

who, with one shrill sound, something be-
tween a scream and a groan, fell to the earth
and perished then and there; then, as if
enraged beyond all control, the evil creature
uttered another sigh of rage, and struck the
weasel a blow which broke his back, and
ended him at once. She raised her crutch
a third time, and was about to strike the
adder, when that reptile, who saw no reason
for the wrath with which his mistress was
apparently turning upon her old and tried
servants, darted forward and bit her sharply
in the knee. With a cry of fury, Venomista,
who was now really angry with the creature,
struck him fiercely to the ground, and set
her foot upon his head in a manner which
effectually prevented his ever biting anybody
else. No sooner, however, had she done
so, than she set up a cry of agony. She
had quite forgotten that, although she had
been safe from the poisonous fangs of the
adder as long as she ruled under the oak,
yet by the laws of magic she was no longer
protected as soon as she was in the presence
‘of a fairy of superior power to her own.
Moreover, the adder was one of a particularly
venomous sort, and the moment his fangs
62 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

struck her knee the old woman knew that
her last hour was come. Therefore it was
that she gave vent to a bitter cry, and sank
down upon the earth in pain which it was
sad to see. She still glared furiously at the
boy, while she writhed upon the ground, but
the Fairy of the Falls bade him not to fear,
since the wicked old creature would soon be
beyond doing harm to him or any one else.
She told him, however, that he had better
now get away out of the forest as soon as
he could, and directed him what to do next
in order to save his little brothers and sisters
from the fate to which Venomista had con-
demned them. Her directions were to some
extent similar to those which he had already
received, and I need not tell you the rhymes
in which the fairy conveyed them to the
boy. He was to turn head over heels again
at the edge of the forest and walk straight
forward. That was all she told him, and
as it was not very hard to do, he thanked
her kindly and set off at once. You will no
doubt wish to know what was the end of
Venomista, but I never heard any more of
her, and therefore I suppose that if fairies
ever do die, she did so from the bite of her
CHILDREN AGAIN 63

own adder, from which we may all learn
the simple and useful lesson that those who
make pets of such creatures must expect to
be bitten. Some people will tell you that
this only means that if we nourish and
cherish evil thoughts and wicked feelings
within our hearts we shall be sure to suffer
from them some day or other; but, anyhow,
I made up my mind as soon as I heard this
story, never to have an adder for a pet, and
I have never altered my views on the
subject.

Little Hurly-Burly cared very little what
became of the wicked fairy, for all he wanted
was to get back his little brothers and
sisters, and he was rather surprised that he
had only been ordered to go up to the oak
tree, and had then been sent straight back
again out of the forest. I suppose, how-
ever, that it was necessary that the power
of old Venomista should be destroyed, and
that as soon as that had been done every-
thing else could be managed outside the
forest. However this may be, it is certain
that everything happened just as I have told
you, and that the boy came out of the forest
with a light heart, feeling sure that all would
64 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

now go right, and that no more mischief
could befall him. The way seemed shorter
than it had been when he was journeying
towards the forest, and in much less time
than it had taken him to get there he found
himself on the other side of the common,
and rapidly drawing near to the pond in
which he had last seen his frog relations.
He was still some way from it, however,
when he remembered that he had not once
thought of the toad during the strange
events through which, he had just passed,
and it now occurred to him that the toad
might have felt very uncomfortable during
the time that he was standing on his head.

This was a painful reflection for Hurly-
Burly, because the toad had been very kind
to him, and he naturally did not wish to
seem ungrateful.

He therefore put his hand in his pocket
with the intention of squeezing the toad,
that he might apologise for his conduct.

You may imagine his disappointment
when he found that his pocket was empty !
He looked up and down, but he could not
see the toad. However, in looking up, he
saw the figure of a crow upon the branch of
CHILDREN AGAIN 65

a neighbouring tree, and, by the keen
glance of its eye, he felt sure that it was
the same friendly bird who told the nurse
to seek the advice of the hedgehog.

The crow recognised him almost at the
same time, and, after cawing a greeting,
addressed him in the following manner :

‘Do not pine for the toad, he has made his abode
In the shade of the old oak tree,

When you stood on your head, he fell down on the

bed

Of green moss where he fain would be.

Set your footsteps beyond to the edge of the pond,
And cry out to hillside and lea—

‘« The enchantress is killed, with courage be thrilled ;
O break from her spells, and be free!’’’

Hurly-Burly felt that the swing and ring
of these lines promised a good result; and,
after thanking the crow, he walked boldly
forward to the pond.

His step became more rapid as he heard
his sixteen frog relatives croaking in the
sedges.

‘You will not have to croak long,’ thought
Hurly-Burly ; and, stepping down to the
brink of the water, he sang out across the
pond, in a voice that crossed the meadows

F
66 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

and echoed from the hillside, the words that
the crow had taught him:

‘The enchantress is killed ; with courage be thrilled ;
O break from her spells, and be free !’

The effect was immediate. Hardly had
the sound of the word ‘free’ died away,
when the frogs ceased from croaking, and
the sixteen brown and wrinkled little
creatures began to grow bigger, and change
their shape and colour.

You may imagine how joyful was Hurly-
Burly when his brothers and sisters at last
appeared before him just as they were before
the wicked fairy had enchanted them.

The children were still kissing one
another when a gruff voice said, ‘And now,
I suppose, I may have my milk,’ and Hurly-
Burly saw that the hedgehog was speaking.

‘So you shall, noble sir,’ he cried; and,
at that moment, the nurse was seen trudging
along with a big can in her hand, which
was full of milk.

‘Here. you are, Mr. Hedge-Pig,’ she said,
and immediately set the can before him.
It was lucky that she did this before seeing
the children, or she would certainly have
CHILDREN AGAIN 67

dropped it, and the hedgehog would have
been very angry. As it was, she recognised
them the moment after, and could hardly
contain herself for joy, though who could
have contained her, if not herself, I am un-
able to determine.

Only three more facts remain to be told
in this story, First, that the hedgehog was
so pleased with the milk that he forgot to
be angry with the nurse for calling him
‘Mr. Hedge-Pig.’ Secondly, that one or
other of the children whom he had befriended
never forgot to supply him with as much
milk as he could drink as long as he lived ;
and thirdly, that the toad lived for many
years a quiet and happy life under the oak
tree. :

PRINCE FILDERKIN



CHAPTER I
CONCERNING A HUMP

HERE once lived a King and a
Queen who had an only son
upon whom they doated. As
fathers and mothers are very

much in the habit of being fond of their

children, and more especially so of a child

who has no brother or sister upon whom a

share of the parental love can be bestowed,

it is very probable that this particular royal
pair would have doated upon this son, even
if he had been blind, deaf, dumb and an
idiot to boot.

But Prince Filderkin (for such was his
name) was none of these things. He had
two eyes and ears, which saw and heard as




72 ‘PRINCE FILDERKIN

well as the ears and eyes of any other child
in the King’s country, he had a tongue
which he could use as well as other people,
and he was a very intelligent child, able to
learn quickly and to remember what he
learned. More than this, he was so fortunate
as to enjoy remarkably good health ; he had
the measles very well, made nothing of an
attack of scarlatina which once frightened
his parents terribly, and ate an almost un-
limited quantity of cakes, jam, and toffy,
without ever being one bit the worse for it.

But, unhappily, with all these advantages,
there was one defect which was the cause of
deep grief to the Prince, and even more so
to his father, mother, and relations. He
had been born with a hump between his-
shoulders, which increased with his growth,
and entirely marred that personal appear-
ance which would otherwise have been con-
spicuous for its beauty. Of course there
were courtiers and flatterers who made light
of this deformity, calling it a trifling blemish,
and one which was of no real importance.
There were some, indeed, of the more servile
kind, who went so far as to declare that, in
their opinion, it was no blemish at all, but a
CONCERNING A HUMP 73

positive ornament, if you only regarded it
from a proper point of view. A certain
number of persons belonging to this class
carried matters still further, and introduced
the fashion of wearing false or artificial
humps, in order to resemble the Prince and
to prove the sincerity of the opinion which
they professed.

But neither the Prince nor his royal
parents were deceived by this for a moment.
They knew well enough that a hump was a
hump, all the world over, and that no reason-
able person would ever wear one if nature
had kindly allowed him to be born with-
out it.

So the courtiers took nothing by their
foolish action; the fashion of wearing false
humps did not last beyond one season, and
everybody knew that the royal family felt
the state of the Prince as a real misfortune.
Doctors had been consulted ever since the
boy’s birth, but they had done him no good,
and as each fresh doctor generally contra-
dicted somewhat flatly what the last one had
said, and still had no better success in the
new prescriptions which he gave, the King
grew in course of time very angry, and
74 PRINCE FILDERKIN

declared that they were all a set of humbugs
together. 2

It so happened that the medical men inthat
country were divided into two great classes :
one, which ordered hot remedies for every-
body, whilst the other would only use cold
applications. The hot-water system was the
old-established one of that kingdom, and
consequently the doctors who were of that
school held their heads very high, accused
the cold-water people of introducing new
principles in a manner which was not regular,
and refused to meet them in consultation or
to have anything to do with any case in
which they had advised. Some little good
arose from the fact of one of these quarrels
taking place with regard to Prince Filderkin,
for when the King heard of it, he sent for the
two chief hot-water doctors, told them that
their profession was one of the noblest in the
world, its object being to lessen the pain and
relieve the sufferings of their fellow-creatures,
and that they disgraced it by refusing to take
counsel with others of the same profession
and who had the same objects, - merely
because they held different theories as to the
manner in which these objects could best be
CONCERNING A HUMP 75

obtained. Thereupon he banished those two
hot-water men to a country in which every-
body always had good health, which was of
course a very severe punishment to medical
men, and caused the other doctors of the
same school to be wiser and more humane
for the future.

All this, however, did not remove either the
Prince’s hump or the sorrow which it caused
to his parents. He made rapid advance in
learning of every description, but the accom-
plishments of his mind only caused a more
painful contrast with the deformity of his
body, and really seemed almost to add to
the misery of the situation.

So matters went on until the Prince had
nearly attained his eighteenth year, at which
period, according to the custom of that
country, the King and Queen would naturally
have chosen some Princess to whom their
darling child should be betrothed. But how
could a hump-backed boy hope to attract any
lady of ordinary beauty and attractions?
True, the King was a great and powerful
monarch, but on that account the matter was
only the more difficult, because he felt it
necessary that the bride of his son and heir
76 PRINCE FILDERKIN

should be the daughter of one in the same
position, and this was precisely the sort or
Princess who, having a wide choice among
Princes, would be unlikely to look with favour
upon one who was not perfect in form and
shape. Still it was most desirable that a
bride should be chosen, for the kingdom was
hereditary, and if the Prince did not marry
and have a son to succeed him, it would
either go to a distant relative whom the King
particularly disliked, or else there would be a
quarrel over the crown, which would be very
hurtful for the country. The King and Queen
therefore held many consultations upon the
important subject, but, somehow or other,
the more they talked it over, the less could
they make up their minds what was the best
course to pursue.

While things were in this state of un-
certainty, it happened that upon one fine
morning, when the people of the town in
which the royal palace was situated, awoke
and went about their usual business, they
found the whole place covered with placards
which announced that a grand caravan of
animals had arrived and that everybody was
strongly advised to go and see it. This was
CONCERNING A HUMP 77

not a very unusual thing, and therefore
nobody was astonished at seeing the an-
nouncement, although the younger part of the
population were surprised and delighted with
the size and magnificence of the bills which
were posted on all the walls of the town.
These bills bore upon them the pictures of
certain wonderful animals which dwelt in the
caravan, and which would be displayed at
the show which was to take place that even-
ing. There were so many of these animals
that people suspected (as indeed turned out
to be the case) that there must be more than
_ could be contained in one caravan, and they
were therefore not surprised when a number
of large vehicles of this description wheeled,
during the morning, into the large open
square, and took up their position. Upon
the sides of these vehicles there were also
pictures of lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes,
and a number of other creatures of which the
greater part of the people had never heard.
But above and beyond the pictures of
these animals, there was an announcement
that the celebrated magician, Feeble John,
was about to honour the town with a visit,
and that anybody who had anything the
78 PRINCE FILDERKIN

matter with him, in body or mind, had
better be sure and come to Feeble John if
he wished to be cured. It struck people
that the magician had a curious name, but
the wiser ones said that he was doubtless
called ‘Feeble’ because he was so strong,
as things very often went by contraries when
you had to deal with magicians. So the
caravans rolled in, and the day passed on,
and the evening approached on which the
show was to take place.

But before the evening arrived, some-
thing had happened at the palace which
deserves to be mentioned. The Prince had
expressed to his parents his wish to see the
wild beast show. The King and the Queen
entertained serious doubts as to whether this
could be allowed, and had consulted the
Lord High Treasurer, the Most Noble the
Marquis of Gumbleguzzard, upon the subject.
That great man and enlightened Minister
had advised that such a thing had-never been
heard of, and therefore could not be per-
mitted, and the countenance of the young
Prince became overcast with sorrow when
this opinion had been given. He bethought
himself, however, of asking that the views
CONCERNING A HUMP 79

of two other high officials should also be
ascertained, and this was accordingly done.
In that court the keeper of the King’s flannel-
waistcoats had always occupied a prominent
position, and to him, together with the chief
cleaner of the royal shoes, the question was
referred. To the inexpressible joy of the
young Prince, these two Ministers declared
that they saw no harm in his visiting the
show, and it was therefore decided that he
should do so.

He dressed himself in a coat, waistcoat,
and trousers, which were all garments not
unfrequently worn by the young men of that
age and country, and sallied forth with only
two attendants, who accompanied him when
he entered the first caravan belonging to the
show. The Prince visited all the caravans in
turn, and expressed much curiosity and
pleasure at the sight of the various animals
which were displayed to his admiring gaze.
But when he had arrived at the last caravan
he was more than ever desirous to see what
it contained, for this was the abode of the
magician. His attendants endeavoured to
dissuade him from entering, telling him that
although it was all very well to go and see
80 PRINCE FILDERKIN

the wild beasts, a magician was an altogether
different kind of animal, and one which
it was on all accounts better to leave alone.
But as they could give no better reason for
this opinion than one which was evidently
founded on fear, and as fear was a thing
with which Prince Filderkin was unac-
quainted, their arguments had very little
effect upon him, and as the general permis-
sion to visit the show must of course be held
to include the caravan in which the magician
resided, he determined not to leave it un-
visited.




CHAPTER II
FEEBLE JOHN

E accordingly stepped up to the
door of the caravan and knocked
three times, which was the cus-
tom in that country whenever

any one went to visit a person of rank or im-

portance, and the Prince therefore deemed

it well to follow the rule upon the present
occasion. A low voice bade him enter—a

voice so low that it sounded almost like a

whisper, but a whisper so close in his ear

that Prince Filderkin started back for an
instant when he heard it, but quickly recover-
ing himself, entered the caravan. The sight
that met his eyes was in no respect wonder-
ful. The inside of the caravan was rather
G


82 PRINCE FILDERKIN

dark, as places are apt to be when they are
only lighted by somewhat small windows,
and especially when, as in the present case,
the latter are shaded by curtains drawn across
them. But although the light was dim, it
was sufficient to let the Prince see that there
was nothing very remarkable in the furniture
or other contents of-the room, though the
place certainly looked as if it and everything
in it would be much the better for a thorough
cleaning out, as there was a look of musty
antiquity about it, which was accompanied by
a faint, sickly odour which did not favourably
impress a stranger.

The visitor, however, noted no trifles of
this sort, for his whole mind was bent upon
his coming interview with the magician, and
his eyes eagerly roved round the room
until they lighted upon the object of their
search. Feeble John was seated upon a low
stool in one corner of the room. His dress
was somewhat remarkable, for he was
wrapped in a large, loose robe, the colour
of which was bright sky-blue with large
stripes of black, orange, and crimson.
Upon his head was a close-fitting black
skull-cap, from underneath which some long
FEEBLE JOHN 83

straggling grey locks appeared, and a beard
of the same colour descended downwards
from his chin as beards usually do, tapering
into a point, and adding greatly to his
venerable appearance. His eyes were ap-
parently dim with age, though an occasional
flash darted from them which betokened a
powerful brain, and his.nose, situated in the
middle of his face, below but exactly between
his eyes, stood out boldly, and showed no
signs of age. His mouth, at the moment of
the Prince’s entrance, was hard to see,
because he was leaning his head upon his
hand in such a manner as partially to
conceal it, but I have no reason to suppose
that it was unlike the mouth of other men,
although his whole appearance, and especially
his curious dress, would have shown any-
body at once that he was no ordinary man,
even if they had seen him in the street, or
in a common house, instead of in the dark
corner of a caravan.

Having entered, as I have said, quite
alone, the Prince had a mind to pass for
a private person, and accordingly, taking off
his hat, advanced towards the magician’s
corner, and, standing at a respectful dis-
84 PRINCE FILDERKIN

tance, waited until he should be addressed.
As, however, the wise man took no more
notice of him than if he had not been there,
he presently drew a step nearer, and, speak-
ing in a humble tone of voice, as that of one
who addressed a superior, he said:

‘Pray, sir, can you show me anything
wonderful? I am a poor lad who knows
but little of the strange ways of the world,
and would fain increase my knowledge.’

To the utter surprise of the speaker,
Feeble John made an instant reply, though
in a voice evidently tremulous with old
age:

‘Prince Filderkin, child of royal parents,
don’t try to humbug me, for you can’t do it !’

At this unexpected speech, it may well
be believed that the young Prince fell into
great confusion, for he did not understand
how the magician could so easily have
found him out, his hump not being an easy
thing to see when he was facing the person
whom he addressed, and that, moreover, in
a darkened room.

‘It is true,’ he presently rejoined, ‘that I
am Prince Filderkin, but still a poor lad!
Who indeed could be poorer, with such an
FEEBLE JOHN 88

affliction as that which I carry about with
me ?? :

‘Should you like to be cured?’ asked the
magician.

‘Like!’ cried the Prince eagerly. ‘I
would give an eye, a limb, nay, years of
precious life to be rid of this horrible
encumbrance.’

‘Nothing of that sort is required of you,’
replied the other; ‘and although cures of
this kind are not to be accomplished without
difficulty, your case is by no means so
hopeless as you have been taught to be-
lieve.’

At these words such a transport of joy
and gratitude darted through the mind of
the young Prince that he was about to
throw himself at the feet of the magician in
order to give vent to his feelings in the most
natural manner, this being the course
generally adopted by persons in his position
of whom he had read in the course of his
studies. But Feeble John restrained him
with a gesture.

‘Don’t make an ass of yourself,’ he
calmly observed ; ‘your cure will depend
upon your own behaviour, and will be man-
86 PRINCE FILDERKIN

aged none the sooner by your giving way to
your feelings.’

‘Tell me, then, oh tell me,’ anxiously
exclaimed the Prince, ‘what must I do—
what must I say? I willsay or do anything
that will help me to get rid of my horrible
burden !’

To these words Feeble John made no
immediate reply, but after a short pause,
slowly raised his right hand to his face, and
placing the thumb firmly upon the tip of his
nose, spread his fingers out towards the .
Prince, and then did the same with the
fingers of the left hand, placing the thumb
of the latter against the little finger of the
right. In this position he remained for
several seconds, fixing his eyes at the same
time upon the bewildered Prince, who stared
back at him in amazement, until it suddenly
struck him to do the same thing, and there
the two remained, each with his hands to
his nose, looking steadily at the other.

Then, all of a sudden, the magician
dropped his hands by his side: the Prince
followed his example.

‘That’s right!’ exclaimed the former ;
‘you little know how much depended upon
FEEBLE JOHN 87

your doing exactly as I did at this critical
moment. Had you taken offence (as some
Princes would very likely have done under
the circumstances), or had you been alarmed,
or asked foolish questions, I cannot answer
for what the consequences might have been,
and whether I might not have been obliged
by the laws of magic to change you into a
camelopard, an alligator, or a wombat —
at any rate, you would probably have had to
become a caravan animal for a time at
least. Your own natural good sense, how-
ever, and the powers of imitation which you
so happily possess, have saved you from any
such misfortune for the present at least.
You have acted in the manner with which
wizards and magicians always receive the
well-known sign which I made, and this
shows me that I may safely work with and
for you. You are sure that you really wish
to get rid of that hump of yours ?’

“Of course I do,’ replied the Prince. ‘I
don’t think anybody wants a hump, unless
it is a buffalo bull, and I’m not sure whether
he would not be as well without it !’

‘We have nothing to do with buffalo
bulls,’ grimly remarked the magician ; ‘ but if
88 PRINCE FILDERKIN

you do not want to be bullied by your hump
any more, you must not be cowed by a
danger or two which you may have to
encounter.’

‘I am not afraid,’ answered the Prince;
‘only tell me what I must do, and I will
obey you to the best of my power.’

‘I am glad to hear you speak thus,’
replied the other, ‘for it shows a spirit of
obedience, and at the same time of courage,
which bodes well for success, especially as
much will depend upon your carefully and
exactly following my directions, and boldly
persevering when you have once begun
your enterprise. If, however, upon further
reflection, you would rather stay quietly at
home with your hump——’

‘Oh no! no! no! ten thousand times no,’
hastily interposed the Prince; ‘anything
would be better than ¢#at. Where must I go?
what must I do? You have only to tell me,
and do not fear that I shall not persevere.
What can be worse than my present fate, or
what more horrible than a hump ?’

‘Many things,’ coldly replied Feeble
John—‘as, for instance, to be broken to
pieces as my old friend Humpty Dumpty
FEEBLE JOHN: 89

was, who had his great fall with this fatal result
because he sat discontentedly kicking his
heels against the wall, and complaining of his
hump, instead of taking sensible measures to
get rid of it. However, you are a different
sort of fellow, and will probably have a
different fate. No two fellows have the same
fate. There are so many fates, that there
are plenty for everybody to have a separate
one all to himself. Always remember that,
and look after your own fate without inter-
fering too much with the fates of other people.
These are the words of wisdom, and now
listen to me with both your ears. When
poor old Humpty Dumpty perished in the
manner to which I have just alluded, his
hump naturally tumbled off and rolled away.
It was almost immediately discovered by a
Cock Robin, who, being an honest kind of
fellow, would doubtless have restored it to
the rightful owner if there had been any of
him left. But as all the King’s men and
horses had failed to put his pieces together
again as they were before, it was hopeless
for a Cock Robin to think of such a thing,
and I do not know what might have been
the result, if the Prince of the hump-backed
go PRINCE FILDERKIN

mountebanks had not happened to be pass-
ing that way, who instantly claimed it as his
own property. The hump-backed mounte-
banks are, as you may perhaps know, a pecu-
liar race of people, small in size, but grotesque
in shape and appearance, and every one of
them ornamented as you are with a hump.
Far from holding this to be a disfigurement,
they look upon it as an ornament and object
of pride, and look down upon humpless
mortals with mingled pity and contempt.
To lose a hump would be to them an awful
misfortune—to acquire one the greatest pitch
of felicity. It is therefore more than prob-
able that those people would only too
gladly rid you of your hump, but unless this
was properly and carefully effected, you
might very likely lose your life and hump
together, which would scarcely be to your
advantage.

Therefore I should not have recommended
you to look for aid in this quarter, had it
not been that there is something more than
I have yet told you. Humpty Dumpty’s
hump is kept in a crystal case in the
palace of the King of the hump-backed
mountebanks, The palace itself is situate
FEEBLE JOHN or

in the middle of the Golden Mountains, so
called from ‘the quantity of gold which is
found there. The principal occupation of
the mountebanks consists in digging for
this precious metal, and they would be the
richest people in the world if they were
not so incurably lazy that they waste most
of their time in foolish amusements and
sheer idleness. They are, however, suffi-
ciently wide awake to their own interests,
and as they believe that these are con-
cerned in keeping safe the celebrated hump
which once adorned poor Humpty Dumpty’s
shoulders, they guard it with extraordinary
care. As the King of the hump-backed
mountebanks is himself a magician, you
may easily understand that he has means of
guarding his treasure more than an ordinary
monarch would possess. There are prob-
ably several dangerous creatures who are
employed to keep off and perhaps destroy
any mortals who might be rash enough to
approach the palace. This palace, how-
ever, it is necessary that. you should not
only approach but enter, for in it you will
have to leave your hump, if you are ever to
get rid of that ornament.
92 PRINCE FILDERKIN

‘The question then is how this can best
be managed. I may at once tell you that
he who is now speaking to you is the only
person in the world who can tell you this ;
and as you have placed your trust in me, I
will assuredly do my best to help you.’

At this point the speaker paused to take
breath, which is not to be wondered at when
we count the length of the speech which he
had already made without any pause. Prince
Filderkin had all this time kept his eyes
earnestly fixed upon him, and had listened
with the deepest attention to every word.
Astonished as he had been at the strange
story which he had heard, he did not venture
to interrupt the wise man, and the latter,
after the delay of a single moment, thus
continued his instructions.

‘That which you have to do,’ he said, in
a grave and solemn voice, ‘is to secure the
hump which is so precious to the hump-backed
mountaineers. If it is once safely in your
possession, they will willingly offer to take
your hump as well as that which they have
lost, if you consent to return the latter. By
their power alone can your hump be removed
without injury to your life and health, and
FEEBLE JOHN 93

this power will never be exercised on your
behalf unless they have this strong motive
for its exercise. Keeping this in view, your
one object must be to secure their treasure,
and I will now inform you how to proceed.
In the first place, you must go three days’
journey perfectly straight on, stopping at no
obstacles whatever, and feeding meanwhile
only on meat, bread, and vegetables—drink-
ing nothing but wine and water, and only
resting when you are tired, During this
time, if any difficulty occurs to you, there is
but one course to adopt. Stand upon your
head, shut your eyes, and pronounce the
word ‘Gingerbread’ three times. This will
rarely fail, and if it should seem to do so in
any case, add the word ‘nuts,’ for in the
district through which you will have to pass
no living thing can resist ‘gingerbread nuts.’
At the conclusion of the third day, night will
probably ensue. That night you will if
possible pass in sleep, and in the morning,
if no misfortune happens to you, you will
probably awake. Then, indeed, your real
difficulties will begin. Whatever you do,
do not start without your breakfast, and,
having started, remember three things :
94 PRINCE FILDERKIN

‘In walking, always put one foot before
the other.

‘Never stand upon one leg when you can
with equal ease stand upon two.

‘Never stamp upon your own toe or bite
your own tongue, if you can help it.

‘If you preserve these precautions, you
will, by means which I need not point out
to you, find your way to the foot of the
Golden Mountains. And now attend to me.
Be very civil to everybody and everything
you meet. Civility costs nothing, and is by
far the most likely means to win friends
where you will certainly need them. Never
mind how rude others may be to you—
answer them with careful politeness. If,
however, you find that things do not go
right, take this instrument—which is vul-
garly called a banjo—strike upon it with
your hand in the way in which you see me
do, and not only will a tune come forth,
but words will issue from your mouth which
will exactly suit the occasion. Always re-
member this, that a man who accompanies
another person may often be in trouble
thereby, but a man who accompanies him-
self hardly ever falls out with his companion.
FEEBLE JOHN 95

Do this, therefore, with boldness, and practice °
will make you perfect. But the beauty of
this banjo is that whenever you put it under
your left arm, you will be invisible, which you
will sometimes find of the greatest advantage.
One, and only one other gift I must be-
stow upon you: it is this plain gold ring,
which you will find is an exact fit upon your
little finger. If you are in any great trouble
or difficulty, and the power of the banjo is
not sufficient, place the finger with the ring
upon it lengthways against your nose, and
say audibly the word “ Firminger.” If your
trouble does not shortly vanish, my name is
not Feeble John.’

Here the wise man stopped, end Prince
Filderkin began to thank him as warmly as
he could. But the magician waved his
hand in the air, and told him to reserve
his thanks until he had tried the means
with which he had supplied him and had
found that they proved as successful as he
expected.






CHAPTER II
SOME ADVENTURES

HE Prince was too discreet to say
any more, or to inflict his com-
pany for a longer time upon the
magician. He therefore with-

drew from the caravan, and rejoined his
attendants outside, who had indeed begun
to feel alarmed at the length of his absence.
He had put the ring upon his finger, and
the banjo in the right-hand pocket of his
loose great-coat, and with these two valuable
gifts in his possession he returned at once
to the palace, speaking not one word to
those who were with him, so absorbed was
he in reflections upon the extraordinary inter-
view which he had just gone through.


SOME ADVENTURES 97

As soon as he entered the palace, he
repaired to his own room, took the banjo
out of his pocket and began to examine it,
when to his surprise he perceived a slip of
paper attached to it which he had not before
observed. Hastily unfolding it, he discovered
that it contained the following words :—

Since this venture is thine own,
Speak no word and go alone.

If discreet and wise thou art,
Early in the morning start—
Those will always prosper best
Who betimes retire to rest.

Wear old shoes upon thy feet,
When an hungred, always eat,
Drink when thirsty, stop when tired.
This is all th’ advice required,
Save one word—whate’er you find,
Be brave, be true, but yet be kind.

The Prince read these words over again
and again, until he had positively learned
them by heart, and not content with this, he
pinned the paper on which they were written
inside his waistcoat, so that he might easily
refer to it again in case he happened to forget
them. Then he bethought himself of his
father and mother, who would doubtless be
much distressed if he should set out on this

H
98 PRINCE FILDERKIN

important journey without bidding them
farewell. Still he could only interpret the
instruction to ‘speak no word,’ as intended
to convey that his expedition should be of a
secret character, which would clearly be
impossible if he should announce it to his
parents. He knew well enough that, even
if they did not try to hinder it altogether,
they would never permit their darling son
to start without a proper escort, and this
would be perfectly certain to defeat his
object altogether. Secrecy was certainly
necessary, and in order to secure it he
must submit to appear, for a time at least,
undutiful to his parents and neglectful of
the feelings of those who had known and
loved him through his hump-backed child-
hood. This would be hard to bear, no
doubt, but the prize to be gained was of too
great value to be risked by the neglect of
one single atom of the wise man’s instruc-
tions. He determined that he would obey
them to the letter, and accordingly, having
partaken heartily of his favourite supper of
toasted cheese and spiced usquebaugh, he
retired to rest full of hope for the future,

I think, considering his supper and his
SOME ADVENTURES 99

immediate prospects, that he probably
dreamed wonderful dreams that night, but
these are none of them related in the old
manuscript from which I gathered the
materials for this truthful and interesting
tale. All I know is that when the first rays
of the morning sun gladdened the awaken-
ing world, Prince Filderkin was already out
of bed, and that before other people were
about, the gallant youth was afoot, a stout
staff in his hand, a pair of excellent shoes,
but easy from age, upon his feet, hope in his
heart, a green wide-awake upon his head,
and, more important than all, the ring upon
his finger, and the banjo (which was small
and of portable size) securely fastened to
the belt which encircled his princely waist.
Unquestioned and unnoticed at that- early
hour, he issued forth from the palace by a
little door which opened into the Queen’s
own rose-garden, looked back fondly upon
the home he was about to quit, kissed his
hand in the direction of his mother’s window,
and went out upon his perilous journey.
Bearing in mind the directions which he
had received to go perfectly straight forward,
he passed out from the gardens of the palace
Too PRINCE FILDERKIN

into the high road, and instead of turning
either to the right or the left, walked across
it, clambered over an iron fence immediately
in front of him, and went on.

Straight before him was a field of stand-
ing corn, and strange to say, the farmers in
that country very much disliked their corn
being trampled down, but as there was no
farmer looking on, the young Prince marched
boldly through it, jumped over a little ditch
on the other side, and found himself in a
bean-field. Now bean-fields are not pleasant
things to walk through when, as was the
case here, the beans are high, and nearly
ready to be cut, but the Prince was resolved
to obey his orders, and accordingly pushed
manfully through, and in due time arrived
at the other side. Here, however, he found
himself brought up by a very tall and thick
quickset hedge, through which it seemed
quite impossible to force his way. Going
round was of course out of the question, so
Prince Filderkin stopped for one moment to
recover his breath, and then, ramming his
green wide-awake tight upon his head, pro-
ceeded to perform the feat which Feeble
John had directed.
SOME ADVENTURES IOr

He stood upon his head as well as he
could manage, at the edge of the bean-field,
and pronounced the word ‘ Gingerbread’ in
an audible voice. There was no occasion
for him to do so a second time, for the word
was scarcely out of his mouth before the
hedge began to part itself in the middle, and
opened for him a passage through which he
passed without the slightest difficulty, and
found himself in a meadow, which presented
no obstacle to his advance.

Onward he pressed therefore, and had
got to the middle of the field before he
observed a huge white bull, who came
towards him with the evident idea that the
place was his own, and the Prince an
intruder, who had no business to be there.
lt was a fine-looking animal, and so Prince
Filderkin would have thought, if he had
been looking at him in a farm-yard, or from
the other side of a good strong fence. It is
a very different thing, however, when instead
of looking at a bull in this manner, Ze is
looking at you in the middle of a field, with
no fence between him and you, which was
the case in the present instance. The
animal lowered his head and threw turf in
102 PRINCE FILDERKIN

the air, after the usual custom of angry bulls
——then he gave vent to a bellow which had
anything but a pleasant sound to the ears of
the Prince, towards whom he began to
advance at a slow trot which too plainly
showed hostile intentions. .To fly would
have been useless—to fight would have been
no better, and I do not know what would
have happened, if it had not occurred to the
Prince to try again the experiment which
had proved so successful in the case of the
hedge.

As quickly as he could, therefore, he stood
on his head and shouted out ‘ Gingerbread’
twice, and although the bull had increased
his pace so much that he could not stop
when the word first reached his ears, it had
no sooner been pronounced the second time
than he pulled up short, and to the in-
expressible surprise of the Prince, stood on
his head too for a full minute, and then
scampered away to the other side of the
field. Prince Filderkin immediately rose
and pursued his journey, feeling more than
ever confident that he was protected by a
power which would be able to carry it to a
successful issue. Throughout the rest of
SOME ADVENTURES 103

that day he met with no special adven-
tures.

Obstacles met him occasionally in the
shape of walls, thick hedges, houses, and
other such trifles, but the simple expedient
of standing upon his head and repeating the
magic word enabled him to go on with ease
and comfort. Hedges parted asunder, doors
opened in walls, and passages through houses,
so that about dusk he found that he had
made good progress on his journey, and had
earned a good night’s rest. This he obtained
in a barn full of straw, into which he crept,
and though it was the first time he had ever
passed the night in such a place, he slept
well and was up with the lark next morning,
and ready to commence his second day’s
journey. This went off as successfully as
the first, save that he was rather delayed in
the afternoon by a headache which came on,
probably from the constant standing upon
his head which he had undergone. It be-
came so bad that he really did not know
what to do, and began almost to repent of his
undertaking. This, however, was but for a
moment, and coming to a river which he
never could have passed without going
Io4 PRINCE FILDERKIN

through the usual process, he boldly re-
peated it, and having for the first time said ~
‘ Gingerbread nuts,’ on account of the river
taking no notice of the first magic word
alone, he not only found the bridge
suddenly appear by means of which the
river could be crossed, but at the same
moment his headache vanished and did
not trouble him again.

That night he slept under a haystack, and
began his third day’s journey in good health
and spirits. :

Towards evening the words of the magi-
cian began to be proved true, for the sun was
evidently about to set, and night to take the
place of day, as indeed was often the case in
that part of the world. The Prince was now
far from home, and knew that he must be
drawing nearer to the place for which he
was bound. As he wished to be as fresh as
possible before he commenced that part of
his task which he knew would be the hard-
est, he thought it would be desirable to find
some place in which he might pass a quiet
night. No barn was near, and no haystack
in sight, so he did not know what to do,
when he suddenly perceived a small thatched
SOME ADVENTURES 105

cottage immediately before him, in front of
which sat an old man in an arm-chair, smoking
a long clay pipe, and seeming to be at peace
with himself and all the rest of the world.
Advancing close up to this venerable being,
the Prince politely took off his wide-awake
and accosted him in the most civil manner,
telling him that he had travelled a long way,
and was much in want of a night’s lodging.
To this the old man made no reply for some
time, but sat stolidly silent, smoking his pipe
and regarding the Prince with as much in-
difference as if he had been a cow or a dog.
At length he slowly removed his pipe from
his mouth, winked, solemnly but knowingly,
three times, laid the forefinger of his right
hand alongside his venerable nose—and
uttered the words ‘All right.’

He then arose from his chair, laid his
pipe down, opened his cottage door, and
pointed to another little door on the left side
of a passage which divided the cottage, and
uttered the welcome word ‘ Bed.’

Prince Filderkin was by no means un-
willing to avail himself of the hospitality
which was thus evidently offered him, but
having acquired a very fair appetite during
106 PRINCE FILDERKIN

his day’s walk, was hardly prepared to seek
his couch without some attempt to satisfy it.
The more curious of my readers will perhaps
desire to know how he had fared in this
respect upon the two previous evenings, but
I regret to say that I am unable to satisfy
their reasonable curiosity. I am disposed
to think that he may have taken some sand-
wiches with him from the palace—perhaps
some potted meat or game lozenges—or the
power of Feeble John may have supplied
him with food, or even made the mention of
the words ‘ gingerbread nuts’ as good as eat-
ing the things themselves.

But this is just one of those dark points
.of history which we are not told, and about
which we can only guess as best we may.
All I know is, that upon this third night,
when welcomed by the old cottager and his
bedroom shown to him, the Prince, smiling
sweetly upon his new friend, pronounced the
word ‘Supper’ with much energy, and stood ©
calmly awaiting the result. This was not
long in coming, for the aged peasant’s eye
beamed with benevolence as he nodded
violently without saying a word, and throw-
ing open a door on the other side of the’
SOME ADVENTURES 107

passage, made signs for the Prince to enter,
which he immediately did. Then, still with-
out speaking, the old man pointed to a table,
on which stood a covered dish with a plate
in front of it, and a jug by the side of the plate.
It was just as if he had been expecting some
one to supper, which was perhaps the case.
At any rate, everything was ready, and as he
was evidently expected to take advantage of
the opportunity, Prince Filderkin lost no
time in doing so. Seating himself in a chair
which had been placed opposite ‘the plate,
he promptly removed the cover from the
dish, and saw before him a piece of bacon,
smoking hot, and surrounded by beans which
seemed absolutely longing to be eaten.
Beans and bacon had long been a favourite
dish with the Prince, and his delight was
enhanced when he discovered that the jug
by his side was filled with foaming ale.
Seeing no reason for delay, he lost no
time in falling to with a good will, and made
then and there an excellent meal, whilst his
aged host stood by watching his proceedings
with great interest. When at length he had
concluded his repast, the Prince threw him-
self back in his chair, stretched out his legs,
108 ' PRINCE FILDERKIN

and both felt and looked as comfortable as
his best friend could have desired. He was
satisfied as far as his hunger was concerned,
and he also felt a peculiar satisfaction in the
thought that, so far, everything had gone
well with him, and had turned out just as
the magician had predicted.
Seay 1 aS
Bee py aS Se ie

A fo # RA

< WE

Ni emi ‘ i wy

Ea cs a ? 5s

Ses rin i j=
158 AZ





CHAPTER IV
FURTHER ADVENTURES

E had now only to go to bed
and to sleep, if he could manage
to do so, and if he should awake
next morning, as he fully ex-

pected to do, he had no doubt that he

should find himself at the place wherein his
difficult but necessary task was to be per-
formed. Remembering the directions of the
wise man, Prince Filderkin determined to
pass his night in sleep if he could possibly
do so. This, indeed, was his usual habit, as
he had a great objection to lying awake,
which he considered altogether a mistaken
way of passing the hours of darkness. On
this particular night, however, he was much


ILO PRINCE FILDERKIN

annoyed at finding that he did not go to sleep
as easily as he commonly did. Perhaps it was
the very desire to sleep which kept him awake;
perhaps he was over-tired, or possibly the
beans and bacon had something to do with
_ it. At any rate, he could not fall asleep, do
what he would, but lay tossing about as if
sleep and he were to be strangers for that
night at least. This was the more provoking,
because he thought it likely that he should
want all his strength for the next day’s
exertions, and neither body nor mind is at
its best after a night in which they have
not had their accustomed rest.

When at last he succeeded in getting to
sleep, his dreams were by no means of an
agreeable nature. He dreamed that he was
surrounded by thousands of hump-backed
pigmies, who pelted him with leaden beans
and then tried to smother him with bacon.
Then.a bull kept rushing at him, just as
the white animal of that species had done,
and he woke up just as he was going to be
tossed, hardly able to believe that he was
quietly in bed all the time.

However, somehow or other he got
through the night, and having had some
FURTHER ADVENTURES III

tranquil sleep towards morning, woke up
tolerably fit for the work before him. The
first thing which occurred to him when he
had risen and dressed himself, was the
particular order given to him not to start
before breakfast. I doubt whether he would
have done this at any time or under any
circumstances, but the order which he had
received made him feel that he certainly
must not do so on this particular occasion,
and accordingly he went downstairs deter-
mined to ask his host whether he could
provide him with a morning, as he had
done with an evening meal.

It was not necessary to ask, however, for
at the door of the room in which he had
supped the night before, stood the worthy
old man, grinning with a friendly grin, and
pointing to the table, on which was a most
tempting dish of poached eggs, with tea
and toast by its side. Prince Filderkin had
no hesitation in sitting down at once to this
excellent repast, and though he was not
much of a hand at breakfast, managed to
dispose of half-a-dozen eggs and two cups
of tea, after which he felt that he was
ready for business. He therefore bade
112 PRINCE FILDERKIN

his kind host adieu, and, as he refused
all payment, vigorously shaking his head
when offered money, contented himself with
thanking the old man warmly for his hospi-
tality, and stepped boldly forward.

The Prince had been too tired on the
previous evening to take much notice of the
country around the cottage of his host.
Now, however, he perceived that he was
very near the foot of a great mountain,
although between it and him ran a broad
though apparently not very deep river. He
had little difficulty in deciding at once that
it must be the Golden Mountains which he
saw before him, partly because he expected
to see them that morning, and partly
because lumps of sparkling metal, which he
supposed to be gold, lay here and there on
the side of the mountain, as if it had been
dug up there and left by the diggers.
Encouraged by finding that the words of
the wise man had so far come true, the
Prince stepped boldly forward towards the
mountains and presently found himself upon
the bank of the river. The uppermost
thought in his mind was as to the manner
in which he should cross it, as cross it he
FURTHER ADVENTURES 113

must in order to reach the foot of the
mountains. There was neither bridge nor
boat to be seen, and the first idea that came
into the Prince’s head was that he should
have to swim for it. This he thought he
could manage, having learned the art of
swimming early in life, but then it would
be impossible to swim through the river
without getting wet, and how to keep his
clothes and banjo dry if he stripped and
plunged into the water, was more than he
could decide. :

He had not much time to think, how-
ever, for scarcely had he arrived upon the
bank of the river, and looked down upon
its waters, than he perceived something
which made him still more dislike the idea
of swimming than he had done on account
of his clothes and banjo. The water was
full of snakes: not harmless little water-
snakes which would fly at the approach of
man, but great scaly monsters with evil eyes
and threatening coils which looked as if they
longed to wind round any victim that came
within their grasp. The whole river seemed
to be alive with these disagreeable and
horrible creatures, and the sight of them put

I
II4 PRINCE FILDERKIN

any idea of swimming or wading out of the
Prince’s head in a minute.

- Almost as if it was the most natural thing
in the world, he stood upon his head the
very instant he saw what was before him,
and without more ado pronounced three
times the words which he had already found
so useful to him in his difficulties. ‘Ginger-
bread nuts! gingerbread nuts! gingerbread
nuts!’ he exclaimed, each time more loudly
and earnestly, but, to his horror and surprise,
the result was quite different from that which
he had expected. The serpents reared their
heads up from all parts of the river, as if
enraged and insulted by the words and
action of the Prince; they cast themselves
towards him as if anxious to get out of the
river and seize him, they hissed furiously,
and were evidently prepared to dispute his
passage if he should attempt to cross.

The Prince was for one moment lost in
astonishment and dismay. But it was for
one moment only. He suddenly recol-
lected that the directions of Feeble John
as to standing on his head and repeat-
ing the words of power had only been
given him to be followed during the three
FURTHER ADVENTURES IIS

days of his journey. No doubt this had
been the meaning of the wise man, and now
that the three days were over, the end of his
journey at hand, and probably more danger-
ous enemies to be met and overcome, he
must fall back upon the other directions
which had been given him. How they would
help him he knew not, but he had the most
unbounded faith in them and in the person
who had given them, and therefore determined
to lose no time in taking advantage of their
aid. Unslinging his banjo the moment he
had regained his natural position and was
again standing on his feet, and holding it as
nearly as possible in the manner in which he
had seen Feeble John do so, he struck it
with his hand as the wise man had done,
and awaited the result with confidence. His
patience was put to no very long or serious
trial, for scarcely Yad he touched the banjo
when he found himself playing upon it with
as much ease as if he had constantly done
so all his life, and as he played, words came
into his mouth without any effort, and he
sang to the tune as follows:

‘ The snake he in de river do swim,
Hissum ho, Hissum he!
116 PRINCE FILDERKIN

Nobody care a bit for him,
Hissum ho, Hissum he!

Snake in de water must not stay,
Hissum ho, Hissum he !

‘Cos de Prince want to pass dat way,
Hissum ho, Hissum he !

Power he has de spell to break,
Hissum ho, Hissum he!
So out ob de way, you nasty old snake,
With your Hissum ho and your Hissum he!’

While the Prince was singing these verses,
a great movement occurred among the
reptiles who had made themselves so un-
pleasant upon his first arrival. Their hiss-
ing grew fainter and fainter, and presently
ceased altogether; their eyes no longer
gleamed and glared with their former fierce
and cruel expression, and they left off writh-
ing and twisting themselves about as they
had previously done. Still more strange,
however, was that which followed. Snakes
and scales disappeared, suddenly and en-
tirely, as the Prince finished his song, and
instead of these ugly and repulsive creatures,
a number of white swans appeared before the
astonished eyes of the Prince, who thought
FURTHER ADVENTURES 117

he had never seen birds of such surpassing
whiteness and magnificent plumage.

The behaviour of these lovely creatures
was very different from that of the snakes
whom they had succeeded. Not aqnly did
they regard the Prince without the slightest
appearance of anger, but they came swim-
ming towards the bank with intentions of
an. evidently friendly character, and he
presently perceived that, among the crowd
of birds, there were twelve who were har-
nessed by silver threads to a boat, which they
brought up close to the spot upon which he
stood.

Without the smallest hesitation, the
Prince boldly stepped into the boat, smiling
and bowing to the swans as he did so, in
order that they might understand the grati-
tude which, not being able to speak the
swan’s language, he could not express in
words.. As soon as he had taken his seat,
the twelve swans conveyed the boat safely
across the river, whilst their companions
swam gravely around them as if desirous to
act as a royal guard upon the occasion.

As soon as they had reached the other
side, Prince Filderkin sprang lightly upon
118 PRINCE FILDERKIN

the shore, and immediately the whole body
of swans raised themselves from the water
and flapped their wings with great ardour,
which is well known to be the way in which
the great swan nation expresses its pleasure
and gives its applause.

Our Prince once more bowed and smiled
his thanks, and if he had felt justified in
doing so, I daresay he would willingly have
stayed a little longer, and tried to improve
his acquaintance with the friendly birds.

But as he had important business before
him, and no time for idling, he turned his
face towards the Golden Mountains and
stepped onward with good heart. The
mountain, though high, was not steep at first,
and the only difficulty which presented itself
in the ascent was the zigzag manner in
which the boulders of rock were cast about,
so that a person who wished to ascend had
to lengthen his journey by continually going
round them. Prince Filderkin, however,
being young and vigorous, pressed boldly
forward, and, as the direction to go straight
forward had plainly only applied to his first
three days’ journey, and to the obstacles
which could be removed by the timely use
FURTHER ADVENTURES 119

of ‘ Gingerbread nuts,’ he did not attempt the
feat of going through the boulders, but con-
tented himself with walking round them.

All of a sudden a new difficulty arose.
Without any warning, a deep mist so-entirely
shrouded the face of the mountain that the
traveller could not see an inch before his
nose. It was not a wet mist, which was
fortunate, as wet mists are uncomfortable
things, alike to princes and peasants, and
the Prince might as well have swum through
the river as been caught in a wet mist after-
wards. But it was dense and dark, and
made it dangerous as well as difficult to
move. And this was not all. Out of the
mist there came voices—some before and
some behind him—some on one side and
some on the other, and they all said the
same kind of thing, though in different tones.

‘What does this fellow want on our hill?’
said a gruff voice which seemed to be close
to him. ‘He does not know the risk he
runs of being destroyed.’

‘Here is a stranger!’ shrieked another
shrill voice in his ear. ‘Poor wretch, he
has no chance of escape—the slayers will
get him directly.’
120 PRINCE FILDERKIN

‘Now, brothers,’ said another tone, ‘now

is our time, skin him alive and roll him
_ back down the mountain!’

And with that there burst upon the
astonished ears of the Prince a chorus of
discordant laughs and jeers, by no means
pleasant to have heard at any time, but
particularly unpleasant upon the side of a
lonely mountain with no companion to cheer
or enliven one. For one moment the Prince
paused, as if irresolute upon the proper
course to take, But it was for one moment
only, for immediately afterwards -he seized
his banjo, struck it boldly with his hand,
and forthwith broke out into a merry stave
to the following words :

‘De Prince he walk on de mountain side,
Golden, golden ;
Obliged to walk ’cos he'd nuffin to ride,
O golden mount !
Going to walk all night—going to walk all day,
I won't be stopp'd by those silly old mists,
Somebody take them away !’

The words were hardly out of Prince
Filderkin’s mouth when the mist vanished
as suddenly as it had appeared, the laughter
ceased, the voices were silenced, and the
FURTHER ADVENTURES oe

side of the mountain resumed its former
appearance, and was as quiet as ever.
Encouraged by the favourable result which
had followed this second trial of the powers
of his banjo, the Prince once more advanced,

and had proceeded some twenty yards

further, when from behind a large boulder
there suddenly stepped out a figure which
stood right before him as if to forbid his
further progress.

It was the figure of a little man—-so little,
indeed, that if you had called him a dwarf
to his face he would have had no right to
take offence. His head was large, so was
his nose, and his eyes were keen and pierc-
ing, but apart from his size, the most remark-
able thing about him was the fact that his
body was entirely square from the shoulders
down to the hips, and that between his
shoulders grew a well-developed hump, at
the sight of which the Prince at once felt a sad
and not unnatural sympathy. This feeling,
however, did not seem to be shared by the
little man, who struck the ground sharply
with a staff which he held in his hand, and
demanded in a loud and somewhat haughty
tone of voice:
122 PRINCE FILDERKIN

‘Who are you ?’

The Prince was at some loss for a reply
to this question. He had been brought up
to believe it right to tell the truth, and, more-
over, he remembered that Feeble John had
expressly desired him to be civil to every-
body with whom he should meet. On the
other hand, while the tone and manner of
the little man were barely so courteous as to
invite civility, the disclosure of his name and
rank (even though the object of his visit to
the mountain were concealed) might lead
to difficulties and give rise to suspicions
which it was most desirable to avoid.
Upon the whole, therefore, he. deemed it
the best and wisest course to give a general
answer, which, without being uncivil, should
reveal nothing which had better remain
hidden. So he gave a most polite bow,
and replied :

‘Sir, I am a traveller.’

‘Any fool could tell c#at,’ returned the
other, ‘but who and what are you? I
thought at first you were Jack—but then
where is Jill? Z/ey come up now and then,
for a sensible reason enough, although they
do not as a rule get anything but a cracked
FURTHER ADVENTURES 123

crown and a tumble for their pains, But I
never knew Jack come without Jill, and
besides, you do not seem to have any pail—
Who are you?’

During this speech the Prince had rapidly
thought over the position of his affairs, and
remembering that he had been especially
told of the pride which the hump-backed
mountebanks (of whom this was probably
one) took in their humps, and, moreover, that
the fact of his being himself possessed of a
similar ornament could not be concealed, he
determined to invent a tale which, if not
absolutely true in every particular, should
have enough of truth in it to satisfy his con-
science, and at the same time prevent the
interruption of his journey.

‘Sir,’ said he, when the other had ceased
speaking, ‘I am here because I am the
happy possessor of an ornament which
mortals calla hump. So far as I am aware,
there is no other country in the world but
that which I now seek to enter, in which a
proper value is attached to humps, ahd
those who enjoy them take a rightful pride
and pleasure in their glorious possession.
I come, therefore, to my brothers with
124 PRINCE FILDERKIN

hump-backed pride and full confidence that
they will understand and appreciate my
feelings.’

As the Prince uttered these words, the
person to whom they were addressed showed
signs of the most lively satisfaction. His
manner of doing so proved at once his true
mountebank descent, for he turned head
over heels several times in quick succession,
snapped his fingers after an extraordinary
fashion, balanced himself first on one of his
hands and then the other, and went through
a variety of fantastic contortions which at
any other time would have made Prince
Filderkin roar with laughter, especially at
the entire gravity of face with which the
little man performed his antics, as if they
were (as perhaps indeed was the case) the
most common and natural things in the
world.

The issues at stake, however, were too
serious for laughter, and the Prince remained
perfectly grave when he had finished his
speech.

About the same time the little man re-
sumed his first attitude, and stood before
him as if he still intended to dispute the
FURTHER ADVENTURES 125

passage. This, however, was by no means
the case. Whether he entirely believed
Prince Filderkin’s story, or whether he
thought that one solitary traveller could not
do much harm, or what his particular reason
may have been, I cannot say, but his
countenance assumed a more friendly look,
his hump wriggled with pleasure, and with
a polite bow he addressed the stranger
again.

‘Pass on, sir,’ he said, ‘pass on. If you
have a hump on your back you are doubtless
hump-backed at heart also, and as sentinel
of the day I bid you welcome to the country
of the hump-backed mountebanks.’

Thus saying, he retired behind his boulder
without another word, and the Prince, being
now well assured that he was in the right
place and among the right people, once more
continued his advance up the hill.

The boulders now became smaller, and
there were soon only small rocks and stones,
shining like gold, scattered upon the side of
the mountain, but not so as to inconvenience
or hinder him upon his journey. Presently
he came to what appeared to be a rough
ridge or bank stretching right across the
126 PRINCE FILDERKIN

mountain, and it was not until he had taken
two steps upward upon this ridge that he
found that there was an enormous chasm in
the side of the mountain, which had been
invisible until he was close upon it. This
chasm, or rather valley, seemed as if it had
been cut out, but if so, it must have been by
mighty and skilful workmen, for its size was
enormous, and at the same time-no one
could ever have suspected its existence until
he had arrived at its very edge. There it
was, however, and in the middle of this
valley stood a building apparently made
entirely of gold, which glittered so that the
Prince could hardly look at it for half a
minute without shutting his eyes or turning
away his head.

But between him and the building, which
he at once guessed to be the palace of the
King of the hump-backed mountebanks,
there were other objects which attracted
Prince Filderkin’s attention. These were
neither: more nor less than a number of
little hump-backed men, scattered all over
the place, engaged in different occupation.
Some were digging, but in a lazy, listless
fashion, which looked as if their heart was
FURTHER ADVENTURES 127

not in it; some were rubbing gold-stones as
if to polish them to the highest degree ;
some were doing one thing and some another,
but by far the greater part appeared to be
watching the others, without attempting to
do anything themselves. Beyond these
people the Prince could see some of the
same race, walking up and down before the
palace, after the manner of soldiers on guard,
and he had no doubt that it was the duty of
these to protect the building and its contents.
Prince Filderkin now knew that he had
arrived at a most important part of his
undertaking, and the only difficulty he felt
was to decide what to do next.

There, right before his eyes, was un-
doubtedly the building in which was de-
posited that time-honoured hump the posses-
sion of which would secure the removal of
his own. But how to get it? that was the
question, and it was one not easily to be
answered. He thought carefully over all
the words which Feeble John had uttered
upon the subject, and the more he thought,
the less he found himself able to decide
what to do. I donot know, indeed, how
long he might have stood there if he had been
128 PRINCE FILDERKIN

left to himself, or what he would have done
if something had not happened to settle the
point for him. Before the palace upon
which he looked was a courtyard, the large
gates of which were of the brightest gold,
and its walls apparently of the same precious
metal.




CHAPTER V

THE PALACE OF THE MOUNTEBANKS

Prince Filderkin stood gazing
upon the glittering buildings, the
gates were suddenly thrown
open, and a procession issued
forth from the palace. It was headed
by a dwarf, or hump-backed mountebank,
mounted upon a black goat, which he be-
strode with much dignity, and which marched
with a slow and stately step as if it knew



the importance of the moment. The rider

was clad entirely in a vestment of light

blue with yellow stripes, and his body

appeared to be so round as to present the

appearance of an orange with head and legs

- to it, his neck being so short as to be
K
* 130 PRINCE FILDERKIN

scarcely visible, and his hump being the only
thing which interfered with his rotundity.
The little-man carried in his right hand a tin
trumpet, which from time to time he applied to
his lips, producing a sound which was more
shrill than musical, but which doubtless
served its purpose by attracting attention to
the performer.

This first individual was followed by
eighteen more of the same race, riding two
and two, whose only peculiarity consisted in
the variety of their costumes. The first six
had close-fitting green tunics, save that their
humps were white, so that special attention
was at once directed to that which each
conceived to be his greatest ornament. In
like manner the next six had blue tunics
with yellow humps, whilst the last six had
straw-coloured tunics and pink humps,
and the whole eighteen rode upon kids, and
each held in his hand a small flag with pink,
blue, and white streamers.

Directly behind these came a square wooden
box, covered with gay trappings and drawn
by two calves. In the middle of this box
four more hump-backed mountebanks sup-
ported the royal standard, upon which was
PALACE OF THE MOUNTEBANKS 131

‘depicted a golden hump rampant, upon a
crimson ground, and underneath in broad
silver letters was inscribed the well-known
arrogant motto of the mountebanks: ‘Woe
to the humpless.’ After the standard came,
as might have been expected, the King’s
chariot, covered with red cloth, and drawn
by four bisons, animals which, from their
possession of humps of their own, have al-
ways been held’in especial veneration - by
the race of men who are endowed in the
- same manner.

In the chariot sat the King himself, and
upon him Prince Filderkin at once fixed his
eyes. It was impossible to mistake him, for,
had there been no other means of knowing
him, the crown upon his head would have at
once disclosed his regal position. In the days
of which we write, Kings generally adopted
the sensible plan of wearing their crowns
upon their heads, by which many mistakes
were avoided, and their dignity was properly
proclaimed wherever they went. A crown,
however, was not necessary in order to let
the world know that the King of the hump-
backed mountebanks was of royal race.
You saw it in his brightly-flashing eye, his
132 PRINCE FILDERKIN

imperious brow ; his very nose had royalty
stamped upon it, and the curl of his mous-
tache was enough to prove his title to the
crown without anything else. He wore rich
robes, and held in his hand an ivory sceptre
with a gold handle, which was said to have
once belonged to Humpty Dumpty himself,
and was held in high veneration by the
mountebanks. Behind the King’s chariot
came a number of other carriages, which it
is needless to mention, because these pro-
cessions are fully described in the court
circulars of that day, and if any one will
advertise in the language of that country, he
will be as likely to get these old papers thus
as in any other way, and will learn from
them all the particulars which I think it un-
necessary to relate to-day.

It is enough to remark that the King sat
alone on the front seat of his chariot, but
that on the opposite seat was something
which at once attracted Prince Filderkin’s
attention and interest. It was a crystal case
in purple velvet, and, as a matter of fact, it
was the very case which contained that hump
of the celebrated Humpty Dumpty upon
which all the hopes of the Prince rested.
PALACE OF THE MOUNTEBANKS 133

Although he was at some distance off, no
sooner did he see the crystal glittering in
the sun (the purple velvet having been opened
on either side to permit its being thus seen
by the people) than he felt sure that this
was the treasure he had come to seek, and
indeed to steal, if he possibly could. This did
not, indeed, at first sight, seem very easy of
accomplishment. Here was a monarch,
surrounded by his people, to whom he was
displaying his chief treasure, and upon it
the attention of everybody was of course
particularly fixed. In truth, it was one of
the mountebank customs to display this
treasure to the public upon state occasions,
and it so happened that the Prince had
arrived upon one of these, the day happening
to be the anniversary of that upon which
the King of the mountebanks had first
established the celebrated society for pro-
viding onion sauce to be eaten with the
rabbits which were the food of the greater
part of his people. Indeed, one of these
animals, boiled, and immersed in the afore-
said sauce, was carried in a large dish
which half-filled one of the carriages im-
mediately following that of the King, and
134 PRINCE FILDERKIN

the cordial cheers of the by-standers testi-
fied to the popularity of the spectacle.

As the procession passed near the spot
on which Prince Filderkin stood, he thought
he could not do better than mingle with
the crowd which followed it, and take his
chance of what might happen. He had
forgotten for the moment, however, the
magical powers which Feeble John had
informed him were possessed by the King of
the hump-backed mountebanks, and as the
chariot of the latter passed him, he was
alarmed as well as surprised to see the King
start suddenly up, and look right and left of
him as if he was aware that all was not as
it should be.

The procession stopped at the same
moment, and the Prince felt that he was in
an awkward position, and might at any
moment be discovered. Under these circum-
stances, he felt that he must at once decide
upon one of two courses: either to face the
matter out with the help of his banjo, and
try the power of its melody once more, or
place the instrument itself under his left arm
and see whether, according to the words of
the wise man, he should thus become
PALACE OF THE MOUNTEBANKS 135

invisible to those around him. Upon the
whole, he inclined towards the second course,
as the safest, and accordingly shifted his
banjo under his left arm as quick as he
could and calmly awaited the result.

The King of the hump-backed mounte-
banks rubbed his eyes with the back of his
hands, and looked round with a puzzled
expression upon his face.

‘I thought I saw a stranger,’ he presently
said; ‘I was suve I saw a stranger. But I
see no stranger now. Something is wrong.
Bring the weetwohl.’

Immediately, with much care, four dwarfs
took something out of one of the carriages
and brought it with great care to the King.
When they uncovered that something it
proved to be a large tortoise, carefully
wrapped up ina cloth. As soon as the cloth
had been unfolded, the tortoise looked up
at the King with all the wisdom of his race,
which as my readers will know has always
been famed for that valuable quality. In
the language of the hump-backed mounte-
banks this particular turtle was called the
weetwohl, which signifies ‘the perfection
of wisdom,’ and’ in moments of doubt, diffi-
136 PRINCE FILDERKIN

culty, or danger it was the custom to appeal
to him for guidance and advice.

As soon, therefore, as the creature had
been brought face to face with the King, the
latter proceeded to make his appeal in the
accustomed manner. He took off his crown,
winked three times, laid the forefinger of his
right hand by the side of his royal nose,
and promptly addressed the weetwohl in
the following emphatic manner :

‘Father, what’s up ?’

The turtle uttered a low moan, and then,
regarding his questioner. with sleepy eyes,
replied in a husky voice:

‘The sun.’

The King stamped his foot impatiently.

‘By the shell of thy great-grandfather, O
weetwohl, and the green fat of all thine
ancestors, I implore thee not to trifle with
me. I know by my magical powers that
something is wrong, but I cannot tell what.
Therefore I have stopped the procession.
What shall I do?’

Again the turtle regarded the speaker
with a stolid, fishy look, and then responded
in the same tone:

-*Go on.’
PALACE OF THE MOUNTEBANKS 137

The King groaned deeply. Never before
had the weetwohl behaved thus, and he
could only suppose either that he had been
mistaken in thinking that anything was
wrong, or that some power greater than
either his own or that of his adviser, pre-
vented the latter from giving him his usual
assistance. This was evidently not to be
had at the present moment, and he therefore
forbore to put any more questions to his
old friend, but forthwith ordered him to be
taken back to his carriage, and with a
gloomy countenance gave the word for the
procession to advance.

This little adventure filled our Prince
with hope. Perfectly invisible to the King
and his people, he had stood near enough
to hear all that had passed, and accordingly
felt that he should have but little difficulty

-in passing into the palace as he was. It
would seem, indeed, that nothing could have
been more easy than for him to have done
this, and then, being invisible, to have taken
an opportunity to remove the treasure with-
out any trouble.

But this was not exactly so, It will be
remembered that the words of Feeble John
138 PRINCE FILDERKIN

had evidently pointed to his having some
negotiation with the mountebanks, and also
to his getting rid of his hump in the palace,
with their consent and assistance, which
seemed to put out of the question his re-
maining invisible all the time. He thought,
therefore, that it would be his best plan to
mix with the people, and keep as much as
possible out of the King’s sight, and hoped
that by some means or other he might
obtain entrance into the palace. He
followed this plan at first without difficulty,
as everybody in the crowd had his attention
fixed upon the procession and seemed to be
able to think of nothing else.

But when, after making a pretty wide
circuit, the head of the procession entered
the gates of the palace courtyard, it was
not long before Prince Filderkin found eyes
fixed upon him in a manner which caused
him some uneasiness. Indeed, it would
have been singular if this had not been the
case, because, except in the matter of the
hump, no one could look at our Prince and
discover any point of resemblance between
him and those who surrounded him. Prince
Filderkin was of the ordinary height of
PALACE OF THE MOUNTEBANKS 139

mankind, and was, moreover, decidedly hand-
some and well-looking, with regular features,
and withal a pleasing expression of counte-
nance. The hump-backed mountebanks,
on the other side, were all of dwarfish
stature, whilst their features were twisted
about after the most ridiculous fashion, and
had an expression, half-wicked and_half-
comic, which was not to be found in the
countenance of any ordinary mortal.

No wonder, therefore, that these people
soon discovered that the new-comer was not
one of themselves, and some of them began
to ask him questions, and to look with
suspicion upon his presence, especially since
he returned short and evasive answers, and
was by no means ready to satisfy their curi-
osity as to the business which he had in
their country.

They might possibly have done no more
than question him, if he had quietly with-
drawn himself, or gone in a different direc-
tion from that which the procession had
taken. The palace, however, was his one
aim and object, and he consequently looked
neither to the right nor left, but pushed on
to the courtyard with the last carriages
140 "PRINCE FILDERKIN

which entered. At the gateway, however,
he met with an unexpected obstacle. On
each side sat a huge mastiff, motionless as
if carved in stone, but with jaws open, which
disclosed an alarming set of teeth, and with
a savage look upon each of their faces,
which appeared to show a longing on the
part of each of the monsters to make those
teeth meet in the leg of any one who gave
them a decent excuse for doing so. At the
moment when the Prince was pushing
forward into the gateway, a growl, which
was more like a roar, proceeded from each
of these creatures, and at the same time a
voice called out in sharp, shrill tones :

‘Get back, you fool, or Grim and Griffin
will have you !’

Prince Filderkin looked up and perceived
that the voice came from a dwarf who was
looking out of the porter’s lodge hard by,
and whose face was more like a plum-
pudding than anything he had ever seen,
save that no plum-pudding ever did or ever
could look so disagreeable as that face.
There was evidently no time to be lost, so
the wise young man clapped his banjo
quickly under his left arm, almost at the
PALACE OF THE MOUNTEBANES 141

very moment when Grim and Griffin sprang
forward to seize him. As neither of them
saw their intended victim, who had at once
become invisible, they rushed furiously upon
each other, and began to fight fiercely, a
thing which, as they had no particular reason
for it, and no previous quarrel, might seem
extraordinary if we did not know that one-
half the quarrels in which men, as well as
dogs, engage, have no better cause.
Profiting by the confusion which was
occasioned by this dog-fight, Prince Filder-
kin stepped quietly into the courtyard,
passed the carriages when they stopped to
allow the King to alight at his own private
door, and when he had done so, took
an opportunity of slipping in shortly after-
wards. The palace was indeed magnificently
adorned with marble and precious stones,
but gold was the main feature of its orna-
ment. There were pillars of massive gold,
the stairs were of beaten gold, and much of
the furniture was of the same metal.
Although Prince Filderkin’s own home
was very beautiful, he had never beheld such
magnificence as now greeted his eyes, and
had never even dreamed of such gorgeous
142 PRINCE FILDERKIN

surroundings as those upon which he gazed.
The King had mounted the stairs, preceded
by four slaves who carried the crystal case
containing his great treasure, and the Prince
was at first inclined to follow at once, in
order to ascertain the exact spot in which
* this coveted object was kept. Prudence,
however, suggested a little delay, for if the
King had been aware of the presence of an
enemy when he had only passed by him, he
would be surely still more likely to discover
him under his own roof, and the greatest
caution would be necessary to prevent that
discovery.

So the Prince waited quietly at the foot
of the stairs for a short time, and seeing a
comfortable arm-chair at no great distance,
thought he might as well sit down, and wait
tillsomething turned up. Accordingly, down
he sat, and as one cannot sit down very
comfortably with a banjo under one’s left
arm, he put the instrument upon his knees,
quite forgetting that he ceased to be invisible
the moment he did so. He added some-
thing, moreover, to the danger of his situa-
tion, by going fast asleep before he had
been three minutes in his chair.




CHAPTER VI

THE CURSE—AND THE WAY OUT

OW long he slept it is impossible
to say, because the Prince him-
self never knew, and nobody else
: was there when he first closed
his eyes. He woke up suddenly with a
start, being thus roused by an exclamation of




surprise which was very nearly a scream, and
which was uttered by some one very near him.
No sooner had he opened his eyes than he
perceived that the exclamation came from a
person of the other sex. A young person it
was, and one of singularly beautiful appear-
ance, so much so that the first thought of
the Prince was one of extreme wonder that
anything so lovely should be found among
r44 PRINCE FILDERKIN

a.people whose characteristic was certainly
not by any means grace or beauty. Yet
grace and beauty were here in a remarkable
degree, and in vivid contrast to anything
which Prince Filderkin had yet seen in the
race of the hump-backed mountebanks.

In the figure before him there was not
the slightest vestige of a hump. It was,
indeed, somewhat below the middle height,
but its form and symmetry were perfect, the
features, full of life and animation, were such
as to leave no improvement possible, the
limbs were moulded in a shape which could
not be surpassed, and altogether the Prince
felt in a moment that he was gazing upon a
model of female beauty such as his wildest
dreams had never imagined.

It is impossible to describe the sensations
with which the Prince gazed upon this ex-
quisite creature, who was standing immedi-
ately opposite to him in an attitude which
displayed an astonishment at least equal to
his own. He felt as he had never felt
before, whilst the maiden, on her part, re-
garded him with evident fear, as a being of
some extraordinary species with which she
was as yet unacquainted.
THE CURSE—THE WAY OUT 145

She was the first to speak, and if her
beauty had delighted the Prince, he was
entranced by the sweetness of the musical
tones in which she addressed him—tones of
which the melody was rendered all the more
harmonious by the trembling of her voice as
she accosted the stranger.

‘Sir, sir” she said, ‘what do you here?
who are you? whence come you? You are
not—no—you cannot be a hump-backed
mountebank—and yet ?

The maiden paused, and the Prince
blushed, for he saw that her eyes were
fastened upon his hump, of which he had
never felt so much ashamed in all his life.

‘Lady,’ he replied, rising from his seat
and bowing low before her, ‘you are right.
Although, as you see, I have apparently the
badge of their race, I belong not to the
mountebanks.’

‘Who, then, are you ?’ eagerly demanded
the lady. ‘The mountebanks suffer none
to enter here save those who are of their
own blood, and if you are discovered,
your life will not be safe for a moment.’

‘Alas!’ replied the Prince, ‘I should be
luckless, indeed, were I to lose my life now,

L


146 PRINCE FILDERKIN.

but nevertheless it must be risked if need be,
for I am here for the purpose of getting rid
of that cruel burden which alone causes me
to resemble the race of whom you speak.’

‘Get rid of your hump !’ cried the lady in
the greatest surprise. ‘Your words show
me at once that you are not one of us,
for no hump-backed mountebank ever
cherished such a desire for one single
moment.’

‘What!’ exclaimed the Prince with in-
creased wonder. ‘Is it possible that you
belong to this people ?’

‘It is, indeed,’ responded the lady with a

“sigh. ‘Iam the only daughter of the King
of this country, but my mother was of a
different race, and I have inherited her
deformity.’

‘Deformity!’ cried Prince Filderkin.
‘What a melancholy misuse of words! If
you are deformed, then honey is bitter,
darkness is light, and virtue vicious. Until
I saw you I had only dreamed what angels
were, but now 2

‘Hush!’ said the Princess (for her rank
had been disclosed by her previous speech),
‘hush!’ But as she said the word, the blush


THE CURSE



THE WAY OUT 147

upon her cheek and the downcast of her
eyes showed that she understood and hardly
disliked the sentiments to which the Prince
had given utterance.

‘Hush!’ she said again, ‘you must not
say such things here. In this country it is
considered a great mniisfortune to be hump-
less, and J am regarded as a most unlucky
creature, stricken with a deformity which
prevents my holding up my head among my
people as becomes the daughter of my
father,’

‘Then,’ replied the Prince, ‘we have a
fellow-feeling which should at once make us
friends. In sy country a hump is thought
to be as great a misfortune as its absence
appears to be held in yours. We have each
a burden to bear, and can pity each other.
But surely in your own heart of hearts you
cannot desire a hump ?’

The Princess blushed again, and, as if
desirous to evade the question, begged the
Prince to tell her further particulars about
himself, and the object of his visit to the
Golden Mountains. It may be thought by
many wise and prudent persons that our
hero showed some indiscretion in consenting
148 PRINCE FILDERKIN

to do as he was asked. There are, how-
ever, some people whom we find, even after
a very short acquaintance, to be so entirely
in sympathy with ourselves, that we cannot
help opening our hearts to them, and trust-
ing them as if we had known them all our
lives. So it came about that the Prince
never for one moment doubted the truth and
honesty of his fair companion, but told her
everything about himself without the slightest
reserve, and made her perfectly acquainted
with the whole of his history.

She listened with great attention, and
when he had finished his tale, told him
something more about herself. She could
not, she said, remember her mother, but she
had been brought up in the palace of the
King her father, and had lived all her life in
that country. Her father was not particularly
kind to her, deeming it a great disgrace that
she should have no hump, although, as she
innocently remarked to the Prince, she really
could not help it.

She was at first rather alarmed at the idea
of the celebrated treasure being stolen, for she
had been brought up to view it as something
so enormously precious as to be really sacred.
THE CURSE—THE WAY OUT 149

Fortunately, however, for the Prince, his
appearance and conversation had produced
an effect upon her which was most favour-
able to the success of his plans. The
Princess had been so much shut up in the
palace, and had enjoyed so few opportunities
of seeing any person-of the other sex save
those who were hump-backed and dwarfed
to boot, that she was insensibly disposed to
like any one who, although possessed of one
of these defects, was in all other respects
pleasant to look upon. Moreover, strange
to say, her heart was touched by the evident
admiration of the Prince—his story had
filled her with deep interest, and after they
had exchanged confidences and talked to-
gether over their respective fates, a mutual
sympathy seemed to spring up between them,
and it was difficult to say which of the two
was the better satisfied with the other. The
Prince vowed that he had never met any one
to whom his heart went out with such un-
controllable affection : the Princess, in terms
somewhat less outspoken, and with all the
gentle diffidence so becoming to a young
maiden, acknowledged the deep impression
which had been made upon her by her
150 PRINCE FILDERKIN

companion. She promised that she would
help him by every means in her power, and
they were earnestly discussing what those
means should be, when the shrill blast of a
penny trumpet sounded from the rooms
above, and a voice followed which caused
them to bring their conversation to a speedy
end.

‘Amarylla! Amarylla!’ shouted the voice,
and the Princess turned pale as she heard
it.

‘It is my father!’ she whispered in trem-
bling accents. ‘He is calling me, and by
the sound of his voice I know but too well
that he is angry !’

‘Amarylla! Amarylla!’ again cried the
voice.

Prince Filderkin, kneeling on one knee,
seized the hand of the Princess, and had
just time to press it earnestly to his lips
before, hastily snatching it away, she hurried
to obey the summons of her sire.

Thus left to himself, the Prince was for a
moment somewhat at a loss how to proceed,
but having now another object in view
besides the theft of the treasure hump, he
resolved to wait in the hall no longer, but to
THE CURSE-—-THE WAY OUT 151

follow his angelic Princess, and take the
chance of what might happen. In case of
accidents, he thought it best to put his banjo
under his arm, and, having done this, he
ascended the marble staircase, passed through
a corridor at the top of it, and boldly entered
an open doorway which he saw before him.

In an instant he perceived that he was in
the library of the palace. Books of all sorts
and sizes were around him, the book-cases
of ebonised mahogany giving a somewhat
gloomy appearance to the room, which, how-
ever, was relieved by the enormous windows.
Gold was again to be seen in profusion
around the room: gold sofas, gold chairs,
gold footstools, and even the coal-scuttles
were made of the same precious metal. At
a little distance from each end of the room
was a large richly-ornamented library table,
and exactly in the middle of the space be-
tween the two was one of larger size, in the
exact centre of which stood the crystal case
in purple velvet upon which rested the hopes
of Prince Filderkin.

He recognised it at once, and would have
fastened his eyes upon it to the exclusion of
all the other contents of the room, had there
152° PRINCE FILDERKIN

not been one other object which even more
particularly attracted his attention. The
object was neither more nor less than an ivory
arm-chair, beautifully carved, and placed
upon a dais in front of the middle window
of the room, and in this chair, with his feet
upon a golden footstool, sat no less a person
than the King of the hump-backed mounte-
banks, gazing with a stern look upon the
lovely Amarylla, who stood trembling before
him.

‘What!’ cried the haughty monarch as
the Prince entered the room. ‘Is. it not
enough, poor deformed creature that thou
art, that thou disgracest me daily by thy
humplessness, but must thou also neglect
thy duties in my household and indulge in a
laziness which can only be excused in a well-
humped person? Why was there no pepper
on my mutton-chops at breakfast? Why
was the macaroni at lunch dressed with
carrot instead of tomato sauce? And why
wast thou not here to receive me on my
return from the procession drive, to warm
my slippers, sweeten my brandy-and-water,
and see that I was made comfortable for my
afternoon doze ?’
THE CURSE-—-THE WAY OUT 153

The poor Princess, who, whatever might
have been her excuse for the two first faults
for which the King reproached her, knew
well enough that, as far as the third was
concerned, it was her conversation with
Prince Filderkin which had caused her to
neglect her duties, could make no reply.

‘Minx!’ exclaimed the angry monarch,
raising his voice. ‘Minx! hussey! baggage !
I have half a mind to turn thee out of the
palace, not to be readmitted till thou return
with a fitting hump !?

Still the Princess said nought, but trembled
still more, Then the King growled a little
to himself in a low tone, and presently spoke
sharply again :

‘Fill my pipe.’

The fair Amarylla stepped to one of the
library tables, and taking a large pipe, well
browned by time and smoking, in her taper
fingers, was about to fill it from a china bowl,
well filled with tobacco, which stood near,
when Prince Filderkin, unable to avoid the
natural instinct of politeness which rose
within his breast, darted forward to assist
her in the task, and, tripping over a golden
coal-scuttle which stood immediately in his
IS4 PRINCE FILDERKIN

way, lost his balance, clutched at the corner
of the sofa in order to recover it, and in so
doing unfortunately let his banjo slip from
under his left arm and fall upon the floor.
As the carpet was thick and soft, the instru-
ment was uninjured, but the presence of the
Prince could no longer be concealed, and
there he stood, having regained his footing,
fully disclosed before the eyes of the monarch
whose chief treasure he had come to make
his own.

For one instant the King remained
silent, rage and surprise striving for
the mastery within his royal breast. The
Princess apparently broke the spell by
uttering a scream of affright, as she saw
what had happened and recognised what
might be the possible consequences to her
dear Prince. Then the King burst forth
into language which no one save those of
regal descent may use, and in which even
they seldom indulge. His words were
violent towards the Prince, in whom he
seemed to have discovered the author of all
the ills which had ever afflicted himself or
his people, Never was king in greater
rage, which was probably caused in no
THE CURSE



THE WAY OUT 155

slight degree by the feeling that the stranger
could not have obtained entrance to the
palace save by some of those very magic
arts by which he himself was wont to pre-
vent others from doing so.

Prince Filderkin would have regained his
banjo as quickly as possible, but the King
was too sharp for him, for he made an awful
face, which had the effect of keeping the
Prince exactly where he was, and then
pronounced the mystic word ‘ Petrapaulo-
menos,’ which prevented him from stooping
down to recover the instrument. One effort,
however, was nobly made on his behalf,
and that from a quarter whence he had
hardly dared to expect it. The Princess,
with a loud cry, darted forward from the
table by which she had been standing, and,
rushing like lightning towards the spot on
which the Prince stood, hastily picked up
the banjo and placed it in his hands.
Whether her movement confused him or
not I cannot say, or whether, had he wished
it, he would now have been able to become
invisible again by placing the instrument
under his arm. However this might have
been, he made no such attempt, but striking
156 PRINCE FILDERKIN

the banjo as he had already done upon pre-
vious occasions, once more broke out into
a song such as had probably never before
been heard in the palace of the hump-
backed mountebanks :

‘Come all ye hump-back'd pigmies and listen to my
lay,

You'll find them very curious, the things I’ve got to
say.

Prince Filderkin they call me, I've come a weary
track

With my banjo and its music and a hump upon my
back.’ g

What might have been the rest of this song
can now never be certainly known, for at
this point the King interrupted it without
the least hesitation.

‘Shut up!’ he cried, using a familiar ex-
pression among the mountebanks when they
wished to bring any performance to a con-
clusion. ‘Shut up, you young humbug!
You can’t come over me by that nonsense—
I’m a day and a half too old for it!’

As these words of ill omen fell from the
angry monarch, the Prince again struck his
banjo, making a gallant attempt to save
himself from the consequences of the royal
THE CURSE—THE WAY OUT 1387

wrath. To his surprise and grief, however,

he found that the magic art of his enemy

had apparently deprived the instrument of

its power. No sound followed his attempt,

and his arm relaxing its hold upon the banjo,

it fell once more to the ground. At the

same time the King rose from his seat, and

stretching out his hand towards Prince Fil-

derkin, pointed at him with his forefinger,

and began to chaunt the following words in

a mystic and solemn tone: :

‘Who dares to enter Humpty Dumpty’s land

All uninvited by the hump-backed band

Will find his folly in attempting pranks

Upon the soil of hump-backed mountebanks.

Thou hasta hump! Presumptuous mortal, know

That blessing shall to thee become a woe,

Alike in hall or castle, couch or bed,

Thy hump shall on thy shoulders weigh like lead ;

Sharp, racking pains shall pierce thee through and
through,

Such as no hump of mountebank e’er knew,

Now hot, now cold, poor wretch, at every turn

Alternately thy frame shall freeze or burn,

Till, worn by hours that pass too slowly by,

Thou miserably curse thy hump—and die!’

As the King uttered these awful words of
doom, his countenance became o’ercast with
gloom, and he looked like some ancient seer
158 PRINCE FILDERKIN

condemning an impious criminal to immedi-
ate destruction. The Prince felt a cold
shudder creep over him, and had almost
given himself up for lost, whilst the poor
Princess burst into tears which would have
melted the heart of any ordinary mortal, but
which appeared to have no effect upon her
cruel father.

Suddenly, however, and not until the very
last words-of the King’s sentence had been
pronounced, it darted through the mind of
Prince Filderkin that he had one more hope.
He had entirely forgotten the ring! No
sooner had he remembered it than the fear
crossed his mind that the magic of the hump-
backed King might prevent his making use
of it. However, it was at least worth while
to try. Agitated between hope and fear, he
hastily raised his hand to his face. Joy, oh,
joy! he found that he was just able to do so,
and, placing his little finger lengthways
‘against his nose, according to the directions
which he had received, he pronounced in a
bold tone the word ‘ Firminger !’






CHAPTER VII

HUMPLESS



HE effect was extraordinary. In
another moment the King, with
his crown off, was standing upon
his head between his ivory chair
and the Prince, roaring and kicking violently,
and evidently under the influence of some
strong emotions which he was utterly unable
to control. Presently, with a deep sigh, he
rolled over and lay as one dead.

As soon as she saw this strange behaviour
on the part of her parent, the lovely Ama-
rylla gave a faint shriek, and rushing to a
table upon which stood various bottles of
perfume, seized one of these with the evident
intention of reviving her father by means of
160 PRINCE FILDERKIN

bathing his temples, after the usual fashion
in cases of fainting.

In her haste, however, or being probably
agitated by the excitement of the moment,
she made an unfortunate mistake, for instead
of using eau-de-Cologne or some kindred
scent, she hastily snatched up a bottle of
violet ink, and dashed its contents freely
over the face and head of the fainting King.
The shock had the effect of bringing him to,
but as he sat up on the floor, with the ink
streaming down his face and beard, he pre-
sented a woeful and somewhat laughable:
appearance.

To Prince Filderkin, however, the moment
was too serious for laughter. Here, pros-
trate at his feet, and evidently unable to
resist the potent spell which he possessed, lay
the person upon whom depended his future
weal or woe, for if this individual could not
resist him, it was not likely that any one else
would be able to prevent him from making
himself master of the treasure which he
sought. There it lay, too, straight before his
eyes, in the crystal case, and his thoughts
and eyes were not fixed upon the ink-
bedaubed King, but upon the table which
HUMPLESS 161

contained the hump by means of which he
hoped to be relieved of his own.

His first impulse was to rush forward and
seize it then and there, but on second thoughts
he decided to go somewhat more cautiously
to work. Accordingly, with his finger still
upon his nose, he took a step in the direction
of the King. No sooner had he done so than
the latter, with the ink still trickling down
his face, extended his hands as if to keep
him off, and at the same time exclaimed in
piteous tones :

“Now don’t you goand say itagain! Pray
don’t! Nobody wants to hurt you—but
we can’t stand ¢kat—you know we
can’t !?

These words, and the tone in which they
were spoken, so clearly showed the terror of
the speaker, that Prince Filderkin felt more
than ever certain that he had now found the
talisman which would ensure his success.
Stepping, therefore, past the King, he strode
boldly up to the table, and placing his hand
upon the crystal case, exclaimed in a loud
and firm voice:

‘This is the reward I claim if I forbear
to utter again the word of power!’

M
162 PRINCE FILDERKIN

The King started to his feet as if he had
been shot.

‘Sooner death than such dishonour !’ he
shouted. ‘Villain! would’st thou rob a
people of their greatest treasure, and trample
upon the memories of countless ages? No!
Guards, seize him!’

The Prince quietly turned to the enraged
monarch with his finger still in the same
position.

‘Very well,’ he calmly observed, ‘if such
is your pleasure, so be it by all means.
Firm——

But before the word was out of his mouth,
the unhappy King rolled again upon the floor,
howling fearfully.

‘No, no, no!’ he cried; ‘anything but
that! Say what you please, do what you
will—take all, take everything—but utter
not again the word of awe.’

More convinced than ever that he was
now near success, Prince Filderkin was
about to reply, when the doors of the library
were thrown open, and a number of the
King’s retainers and councillors,who had been
within hearing, came rushing in as if in obedi-
ence to his summons to his guards. ‘What
AUMPLESS 163

course they would have followed it is impos-
sible to say, since the King rose slowly at the
moment of their entrance, and with a wave
of his hand forbade them to advance further
into the room.

‘My children,’ he said in a melancholy
tone, ‘there is no further service which you
can render your unhappy King. Heand you
are alike overcome by Fate. There is a
wizard here who hath an awful spell, by the
force of which we are all undone, and our
hump will go from us!’ =

Scarcely were these words out of the
King’s mouth when a wild and awful cry
of agony burst at the same moment from
all his attendants. It was such a wail of
anguish as the Prince had never before
heard, and it conveyed to his mind the idea
that it betokened a real and heart-felt grief
which he might by good management turn
at once to his own advantage. Keeping,
therefore, his finger against his nose, which
he felt to be a precaution rendered necessary
by the circumstances in which he was placed,
he once more spoke to the King in a tone
which, as he intended, all those in the room
could hear.
164 PRINCE FILDERKIN

‘Sire,’ he said, ‘I have claimed as my
rightful prize the hump which is held so
sacred and prized so much by your majesty
and your people. But I would not for the
world do wrong to a national feeling. The
only thing which the Fates have decreed,
and which I am bound to see accomplished,
is this—that the hump upon my own back
should, by some means or other, repose
side by side with that of the illustrious hero
which you so justly prize. I had hoped to
have secured this result by fastening the
treasure which you possess to that which is
already mine. If, however, you can find
the means of removing my hump without
injury to it or me, and placing it in the
crystal case which contains that of Humpty
Dumpty, my end will equally have been
gained, and I shall with pleasure avoid
giving offence to a people whom I respect
and a monarch whom I reverence.’

As Prince Filderkin spoke, joy lighted up
the faces of the hump-backed mountebanks
and their monarch, and the latter im-
mediately turned three times head over
heels, and stood upright before the Prince.

‘You have spoken noble words,’ he cried,
HUMPLESS 165

‘and what is more to the purpose, your
generous proposal is one which presents’
no difficulty in the way of its accomplish-
ment. There is an old prophecy in our
country which has always puzzled our wisest
men, and until this moment I must own
that I have had many doubts myself as to
its meaning. Thus runs the thing:

When the royal humpless daughter
Boldly does what love hath taught her,
By a hump-backed lover stands,

On his hump lays both her hands,
Vows to wed him on the morrow,
‘And be true, in joy or sorrow ;

Then to both shall be great thanks
Due from all the mountebanks,

For this way, and thus alone,
Humpty’s hump remains their own.’

As the King concluded the recital of these
words, he beckoned to the lovely Amarylla,
who came. forward in obedience to his com-
mand, and with downcast eyes approached
Prince Filderkin. The latter, who from the
first moment he had set eyes upon the sweet
Princess had felt that there was a sympathy
between them which only required time and
Opportunity to ripen into the fondest love,
166 PRINCE FILDERKIN

did not hesitate for a moment, but in a firm
and manly voice addressed the King:

‘Sire,’ he said, ‘your terms are such as
I am only too delighted to accept.’

Then, turning to the Princess, with a low
bow he continued :

‘Sweet lady, even if the power were not
thine to perform what is promised by the
prophecy, I would be ready, with or without
a hump, to unite my fortunes with thine.
If, then, thou art graciously pleased to fulfil
that which has been for me so happily fore-
told, I-ask thee to wed me, and I promise
on my part to be true and tender to the last
moment of my existence.’

As the Prince finished, the beautiful maiden
raised her blushing face, and advancing close
to him, laid both hands upon his hump, and
in a voice clear but tremulous with emotion,
pronounced the words: ‘I vow to wed thee
on the morrow, and to be true in joy or
sorrow——’

No sooner had she spoken than the hump
which had hitherto burdened the shoulders
of Prince Filderkin disappeared like a flash
of lightning, and was seen the very next
moment reposing in the crystal case side
HUMPLESS 167

by side with the relic of antiquity to which
that case had previously been exclusively
devoted. The Prince, strange to say,
experienced no pain or discomfort whatever
during the removal of his hump, but when
he found himself standing up, straight-backed
and upright as ever mortal man stood
upon this earth, his rapture knew no
bounds.

Without an instant’s delay he clasped in
his arms the charming Princess who had
been the immediate instrument of his relief
from the burden with which his young life
had hitherto been troubled, and with tears
of love and gratitude streaming down his
face, renewed his vows of eternal fidelity.
The lovely Amarylla tenderly responded to
these advances. The wooing of these two
lovers had indeed been short, but where
mutual sympathy exists between two hearts,
its development is a certainty which may
arrive with greater or less rapidity according
to circumstances, but which can never be
long delayed when once the owners of those
hearts have come together. So Prince
Filderkin and-his Amarylla felt as if they
had known each other all their lives, and
168 PRINCE FILDERKIN

neither of them doubted the other for an
instant.

On the other hand, the King of the hump-
backed mountebanks and his people rejoiced
with unfeigned delight. They had secured
the continued possession of the treasure
which was so precious to them, and they
were about to get rid of the only individual
in their nation whose unfortunate state of
humplessness had been the source of so
much sorrow to her people. There was
no time to consult Prince Filderkin’s parents,
since both the young people had vowed to
marry each other on the morrow, and, the
telegraph being out of order, no message
could have reached the old King and Queen
in time to have learned their opinion. The
Prince, however, felt confident that they
would highly approve his choice, and that
they would be intensely gratified by the
improvement in his personal appearance.

Therefore, as no obstacle stood in the way of
the literal fulfilment of the old prophecy, the
wedding actually took place upon the very
next day after the events which I have related.
The whole nation of the hump-backed
mountebanks were assembled together for
HUMPLES. 169

the auspicious occasion, shouts of joy rent
the air on all sides, whilst the blasts of
penny trumpets, the twang of Jew’s-harps,
and the melodious jingle of the hurdy-gurdy,
were heard throughout the whole neighbour-
hood of the palace. It was an occasion of
national rejoicing and thanksgiving. The
heart of a great nation was poured out in
joyful gratitude, and universal merriment
prevailed. The King himself gave away his
daughter, and Prince Filderkin, having no
personal friend among the mountebanks, was
about to rely upon one of the officials of the
court for his ‘best man,’ when at the criti-
cal moment a figure suddenly appeared
among the bridal procession which occupied
the ‘best man’s’ place as of undoubted
right.

It was a venerable figure, clad in a sky-
blue robe with stripes of black, orange, and
crimson, and with a skull-cap fitting closely
to its head, and in an instant Prince Filder-
kin recognised the figure of the mighty
magician Feeble John. The latter, however,
was evidently present with the kindest
possible intentions. He performed his part
in the ceremony in such a manner as to win
170 PRINCE FILDERKIN

the admiration of all the company, and
returned thanks for the healths of the brides-
maids—who were all daughters of mounte-
banks, and duly hump-backed like their sires
—in appropriate terms.

But the real service which he added to
those which he had already rendered Prince
Filderkin, was in the important matter of
going away after the wedding. How to do
this had been a matter of some difficulty to
the Prince, since he had no idea how to find
his way home with his beloved Princess,
unless some charm could be furnished him
by means of which he could again overcome
the obstacles which he had encountered on
his journey to the Golden Mountains. Feeble
John, however, solved the whole difficulty in
a trice. Approaching the happy pair as
they stood together, whispering soft words
and looking out for the rice which sundry of
the mountebanks were prepared to throw at
them as soon as they should start, the
venerable magician laid his hands solemnly
upon both their heads and pronounced with
great emphasis the words ‘Ton d’ apomei-
bomenos.’ :

Scarcely had he done so when a noise as
HUMPLESS 171

of thousands of cannon exploding at the
same time rent the air, and was followed by
a deathlike silence. For the moment Prince
Filderkin and his bride neither saw nor felt
anything, having been rendered perfectly
unconscious by the shock. When they re-
covered their senses, to the Prince’s extreme
surprise he found that they were both stand-
ing opposite his father’s own palace, and,
moreover, that the King and Queen, followed
by a host of courtiers, were just coming out
of the front door. The Prince did not
hesitate a moment. Taking his Amarylla
by the hand, he Jed the blushing beauty up
to his parents, and drawing himself up to his
full height, so that they might clearly
perceive the disappearance of his hump, he
proudly addressed them in the following
terms :

‘Here, my beloved parents, is the lady to
whom you owe the return of your son, and
his cure from the burden under which he had
so long pined. Let me present to you your
daughter !’

At these words the royal couple became
strangely excited. The King tossed his
crown three times in the air, cleverly catch-
172 PRINCE FILDERKIN

ing it each time in the descent, and then
clasped Amarylla in his arms, whilst the
Queen fell fainting into those of her son, and
wept for very joy as she came to upon the
application of hartshorn and vinegar. The
Lord High Treasurer leaped high in the air
with delight, but unluckily descending upon
the gouty toe of the keeper of the King’s
flannel - waistcoats, was promptly knocked
down by that functionary, and subsided into
a gloomy silence.

With this one exception everybody loudly
proclaimed their joy, and when the Prince had
told his whole story to his parents, the happi-
nessand gratitudeof thelatterknewno bounds.
They received their new daughter with a
warmth and heartiness which greatly pleased
her, and indeed they were well repaid for
their kindness, for Amarylla proved a treasure ©
greater than any other which could have been
gathered on the Golden Mountains.

It is needless to add that she and her
husband lived many years in uninterrupted
happiness, and that neither of them ever
repented the step which they had taken.
Now and then, indeed, a feeling came over
both of them that they would like to have
HUMPLESS 173

thanked Feeble John once more for the part
he had played in securing that union which
they felt to be the greatest blessing of their
lives, but this feeling was never gratified.
The great magician and his caravans never
again appeared in that country, and as
centuries rolled by, the events which I have
been narrating became more and more dim
and obscure, and it is now merely a matter
of tradition in that country that one of its
ancient monarchs made a perilous journey
in times long past, and brought back an in-
comparable bride from the kingdom of the
hump-backed mountebanks !

THE END
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