Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 01 by The Blue Fairy Book Page A

him
about the neck, and ask him for some sugar-candy. Upon
which he began to weep, the great knife fell out of his
hand, and he went into the back yard, and killed a little
lamb, and dressed it with such good sauce that his
mistress assured him that she had never eaten anything so
good in her life. He had at the same time taken up little
Morning, and carried her to his wife, to conceal her in the
lodging he had at the bottom of the courtyard.
    About eight days afterward the wicked Queen said to
the clerk of the kitchen, "I will sup on little Day."
    He answered not a word, being resolved to cheat her as
he had done before. He went to find out little Day, and
saw him with a little foil in his hand, with which he was
fencing with a great monkey, the child being then only
three years of age. He took him up in his arms and carried
him to his wife, that she might conceal him in her chamber
along with his sister, and in the room of little Day cooked
up a young kid, very tender, which the Ogress found to be
wonderfully good.
    This was hitherto all mighty well; but one evening this
wicked Queen said to her clerk of the kitchen:
    "I will eat the Queen with the same sauce I had with
her children."
    It was now that the poor clerk of the kitchen despaired
of being able to deceive her. The young Queen was turned
of twenty, not reckoning the hundred years she had been
asleep; and how to find in the yard a beast so firm was
what puzzled him. He took then a resolution, that he
might save his own life, to cut the Queen's throat; and
going up into her chamber, with intent to do it at once, he
put himself into as great fury as he could possibly, and
came into the young Queen's room with his dagger in his
hand. He would not, however, surprise her, but told her,
with a great deal of respect, the orders he had received
from the Queen-mother.
    "Do it; do it" (said she, stretching out her neck).
"Execute your orders, and then I shall go and see my
children, my poor children, whom I so much and so
tenderly loved."
    For she thought them dead ever since they had been
taken away without her knowledge.
    "No, no, madam" (cried the poor clerk of the kitchen,
all in tears); "you shall not die, and yet you shall see your
children again; but then you must go home with me to
my lodgings, where I have concealed them, and I shall
deceive the Queen once more, by giving her in your stead
a young hind."
    Upon this he forthwith conducted her to his chamber,
where, leaving her to embrace her children, and cry along
with them, he went and dressed a young hind, which the
Queen had for her supper, and devoured it with the same
appetite as if it had been the young Queen. Exceedingly
was she delighted with her cruelty, and she had invented
a story to tell the King, at his return, how the mad
wolves had eaten up the Queen his wife and her two
children.
    One evening, as she was, according to her custom,
rambling round about the courts and yards of the palace
to see if she could smell any fresh meat, she heard, in a
ground room, little Day crying, for his mamma was going
to whip him, because he had been naughty; and she
heard, at the same time, little Morning begging pardon
for her brother.
    The Ogress presently knew the voice of the Queen and
her children, and being quite mad that she had been thus
deceived, she commanded next morning, by break of day
(with a most horrible voice, which made everybody tremble),
that they should bring into the middle of the great
court a large tub, which she caused to be filled with toads,
vipers, snakes, and all sorts of serpents, in order to have
thrown into it the Queen and her children, the clerk of the
kitchen, his wife and maid; all whom she had given orders
should be brought thither with their hands tied behind
them.
    They were brought out accordingly, and the executioners
were just going to throw them into the tub, when the
King (who was not so soon expected) entered the court on
horseback (for he came post) and asked, with the