Fairy Tales for Young Readers Read Online Free Page B

treasure at home—his dear Beauty.
    He found that no coach went past Rose Cottage till next morning, and he was afraid that if he did not get home that night Beauty would be unhappy and anxious, so he decided to travel by the Flying Serpent, a coach which would set him down about tea-time at a town ten miles from home. He would walk those ten miles and be home for supper.
    And sure enough he started to walk those ten miles. But he did not get home to supper.
    Thinking of Beauty and of his pleasant, busy life with her, he forgot to read the sign-posts with proper care, and so wandered quite out of the right road. The path got rough and stony, and the boughs of the trees hung low over it. At last even the absent-minded merchant could not help seeing that it was not the high-road that he was on. Also he now noticed that it was nearly dark—so dark that he could not see to read the next sign-post, and had actually to climb up it before he could make out that it was trying to say to him, “This is the right way.”
    He was quite sure that the sign-post was wrong, but there did not seem to be any other that knew better, so he went on, quite soon through inky darkness, only guided by a blue light that shone ahead like a sick star. It led him through a garden, where he stumbled among trellises and against statues, and blundered up steps, till at last he came to a great house; and over its front door was the blue lamp that had guided him.

    He knocked, but as no one answered he lifted the latch and went in. There was a hall, beautiful and big, and beyond that another, still bigger and more beautiful. This hall had a pleasant wood fire, and a sideboard loaded with the nicest kind of cold supper. A little table near the fire was laid for one.
    The merchant ventured to sit down by the fire and try to dry himself. He looked longingly at the pleasant things on the sideboard, and at last he could not bear his hunger any longer, for he had had nothing since breakfast. “When the master of the house comes in I’m sure he will forgive me,” he said, and instantly ate a cold partridge. Then he had some pickled salmon, a game pie, three fat buns, some cherry pie, and a cream cheese. Then he did not feel so hungry, but he was strangely sleepy, so he looked about for a place to rest, and, finding a nice little room opening out of the hall, he pulled off his wet clothes and crept between the cool clean sheets and fell fast asleep.
    The sun woke him next morning. A bath was set out ready for him, and also a new suit of clothes exactly like his old ones.
    â€œOh, I see,” he said, “this is a poor-house, where the State takes care of poor travellers who haven’t money to spend on hotels. I am very lucky to have found it. And how delicately it’s all done! The Guardians of the Poor arrange everything so beautifully, and then keep out of the way to avoid being thanked.” When he had had breakfast in the hall, still seeing no one, he started to walk home, and on his way through the gardens he remembered Beauty’s wish, and stopped to gather her a rose from one of the flower-covered trellises.
    Then suddenly with a fierce and frightening howl a great shaggy beast leapt out from behind a magnolia tree, and shook a knobbly club in his face.
    â€œUngrateful wretch!” growled the Beast. “You have been treated like a prince in my house, and in return you steal my roses. Prepare to die.”

    â€œOh, please don’t!” said the merchant. “I am so sorry. I never meant... Oh, my lord, spare me!”
    â€œI’m not a lord—I’m a beast,” said the creature; and so he was—something between a bear and a hyena, with a dash of monkey and something of the elephant.
    â€œGood Beast,” said the merchant through chattering teeth, “I only just took one rose for my daughter. She is so fond of roses.”
    â€œHow many daughters have you?” asked the