INTRODUCTION. IN a garden surrounded by high walls sat the children of the great king. Alas, they were not free as other princes are; their father had been killed. in a battle, and they were shut up by order of the conqueror. They were not unkindly treated; but they were not allowed to go outside the walls, nor was any one of their friends allowed to come to see them. The conqueror wished them to grow up quite ignorant of the world around them, and to forget even who they were, so that they might never trouble him when they were older. And so they lived forgetting and forgotten. All day long they played in the garden or in the castle. They fished for great golden fishes with nets of silk in the river that ran across their lawn. They shot with their bows, or played at tennis against one of the walls. They fed their rabbits with lettuce, and their doves with peas. They planted their own little gardens. Three cats, two dogs, and a monkey followed them wherever they went. They blew horns and whistles whenever they chose. They cut their fingers with their own little saws and choppers. They never had any lessons, and yet they were unhappy. They longed to hear something of the outer world. Often and often, as they sat under the mulberry tree they would call to mind the stories their father used to tell them of giants who stood like trees, and fought with clubs as large as branches, of fairies dancing in a ring in moonlit fields, of lions roaring in the desert, and sea-worn sailors fighting with the waves. Now he was dead; no one was near to tell them tales. Sometimes, indeed, old Polonius, who kept their castle, hearing of their trouble, tried to amuse them in this way. But his tales were dull, and made the children sleepy. Once, indeed, their black servant, Othello, told them a tale; but this was so dreadful, that it kept the youngest princess awake all night, and so the slave was sent away to Cyprus. At last, it was a hot July day, just after dinner, a strange event happened. Above the wall opposite the shade in which the children were sitting, appeared the head of a strange man; next came his body, and lastly a rope, by means of which he contrived to swing himself down into the garden. It was an old pedlar with his pack of goods. His grey beard and stooping form were well known and loved in all the villages around. He sold reels of cotton and needles to the women, and toffey to the children, and to the men knives and tobacco, or fetched what they wanted from the town. "Who are you, sir?" cried the children, as the pedlar spread his pack before them. "I," said he, "am a great magician, and have brought you a story-teller in my pack." "Hurrah!" screamed the children. "Please, let him out." "He is dressed," replied the pedlar, "in green and gold, and has five hundred pages to carry messages for him. He is a famous personage; You must treat him well." Here these polite children took off their hats, and held out their hands to welcome the stranger. But no stranger appeared! When the pack was opened it was found to contain nothing but a little book in a green and gold binding. "Oh, dear!” cried the children, "it is nothing but a little book! And three of them began to cry, and three said, "Pah!" in a disagreeable manner. "Now," said the pedlar, "here is the story-teller, -the best in the world if you treat him properly. All we have to do is to sit down while one of you tells us what he says." "But that's only reading aloud!" said the children. "You may call it what you will," replied the magician; "but to read aloud is really to tell, in your own voice, the stories that a famous storyteller himself once told, and that were written down on paper, that his voice might go on sounding all over the world when he should have passed away." "I can't read," said the youngest princess; "I only know my letters, and should like to forget them." "I won't read," said the eldest prince. "No, please, don't let him," cried the children; "for he opens his mouth like a fish, and we can't hear a word he says." "George," said the eldest prince, "reads so fast that it is like a storm of wind rattling the windows." "And Alfred,” said George, "is so slow that we have time to get our dinner while he is making out the next word." "And Mary," said Alfred, "reads all in one tone like a bumble bee." "You are foolish babes," said the pedlar; "and I shall punish you very severely. Now begin." So the royal children sat down in their garden on a bench covered with green turf, and the pedlar ordered the eldest prince to begin. And when he began, it was just as the children said: he opened his mouth like a fish; but not a sound reached his would-be hearers, for he read in so low a tone. "Take him away!" said the pedlar, "and put him in the lake with the other fishes." So they tied a rope of corks around him to make him float, and put him in the middle of the lake a quarter of a mile from shore. And his white face looked like a lily floating on the waters. "There you shall stop, sir," roared the pedlar from the bank," till you can talk loudly enough for us to hear you ask to be taken out." Then they returned to their seat. "Now for Prince George," said the pedlar. And when Prince George read, it was as they said: his words came out so fast on the top of one another that no one could distinguish between them. It was like a storm of wind roaring in the pine trees. When he had done the pedlar stood up and looked around him. "Four grey walls and four grey towers |