GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES - online book

130 Fairy Stories Adapted & Arranged for young people

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276                THE FOX AND THE CAT.
" Is that all ?" cried the fox ; " why, I am master of a hundred tricks, and have, over and above all, a sack-full of cunning; but I pity you, puss, so come with me, and I will teach you how to baffle both men and hounds."
At this moment a hunter with four hounds was seen approach­ing. The cat sprang nimbly up a tree, and seated herself on the highest branch, where, by the spreading foliage, she was quite concealed.
" Turn out the sack, Mr. Fox; turn out the sack!" cried the cat; but the hounds had already seized him, and held him fast.
"Ah, Mr. Fox," cried the cat, "your hundred tricks are not of much use to you ; now, if you had only known one like mine, you wouM not have so quickly lost yonr life."
There lived a queen once who had no children, and she prayed every day that she might have either a son or a daughter.
One day when she was walking in the garden, an angel came to her, and said, " Be happy; thou shalt have a son with a wonderful power; whatever he wishes for in the world he will have."
Then she went to the king, and told him the joyful news; and after a time, a little son was bom, to the great happiness of his parents.
Every morning the queen took her child into a park, in which was a menagerie, as she wished to wash him in the clear fountain which flowed there.
One day, when he was a few months old, the queen, after wash­ing him, seated herself on a garden seat, with the child in her lap, till he was asleep ; and the weather being warm, she also slept. In the castle was a covetous cook, who knew what a wonderful power the child possessed; and he came to the park where the queen was sleeping, and stole the child from her lap. Then he killed a chicken, cut off the head, and sprinkled the blood about on the grass, and on the queen's apron and dress. He carried the child away to a place of concealment, where he had a wet nurse ready for him, and then ran to the king, and complained to him