When the little man came again, the queen had a long list of names to give him.

“Is your name Cowribs, or Sheepshanks, or Bandy legs?” she said to him at last.

He answered to each one, “No, that is not my name.”

On the third day the queen’s men began to come back from all parts of the kingdom.  They had been far and wide to find new names.

One of these men said, “I could not find any new names, but going by some deep woods, I heard a fox wish good-night to a rabbit.

[Illustration]

Soon I came upon a little house, in front of which a fire was burning.  Around this fire danced a little man.  He wore a pointed cap, and had a long nose and bandy legs.  As he went hopping and jumping about, first on one leg and then on the other, he sang: 

    My baking and brewing I will do to-day,
    The queen’s son to-morrow I will take away,
    No wise man can show the queen where to begin,
    For my name, to be sure, is Rumpelstiltskin.”

The queen clapped her hands for joy.  She knew that at last she had found the name.

She sent the servant away with a bag of gold, and waited for the queer little man to come to her.  At sunset the little fellow came hopping and skipping up to the queen.

“Now, O queen,” he said, “this is your last chance.  Tell me my name.”

The queen asked, “Is your name Conrad?”

“No.”

“Henry?”

“No.”

“Then your name is Rumpelstiltskin.”

“The fairies have told you!” shouted the little man dancing about.

He became so angry that, in his rage, he stamped his right foot into the ground.

This made him more angry still, and taking hold of his left foot with both hands, he pulled so hard that he tore himself quite in two.

WILLIAM AND JACOB GRIMM

[Illustration]

    BED IN SUMMER

    In winter I get up at night
    And dress by yellow candle-light. 
    In summer, quite the other way,
    I have to go to bed by day.

    I have to go to bed and see
    The birds still hopping on the tree,
    Or hear the grown-up people’s feet
    Still going past me in the street.

    And does it not seem hard to you,
    When all the sky is clear and blue,
    And I should like so much to play,
    To have to go to bed by day?

    ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

[Illustration]

THE GOLDEN TOUCH—­I

touch slightest creature statue

Many years ago there lived a king named Midas.

King Midas had one little daughter, whose name was Marigold.

King Midas was very, very rich.  It was said that he had more gold than any other king in the world.

One room of his great castle was almost filled with yellow gold pieces.