Tales of Wonder Every Child Should Know | Page 3

and supplanted her with a wonderful bird-automaton,
fashioned of gold and jewels.
Time went on, but the Emperor, wisest of the court, began at last to
languish, and to long unceasingly for the fresh, free note of the little
brown nightingale. It was sweeter by far than the machine-made trills
and roulades of the artificial songster, and he felt instinctively that only
by its return could death be charmed away.
The old, yet ever new, tales in these four books are like the wild notes
of the nightingale in the river-thicket, and many are the emperors to
whom they have sung.
Whenever we tire of what is trivial and paltry in the machine-made
fairy tale of to-day, let us open one of these crimson volumes and hear
again the note of the little brown bird in the thicket.
KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN.
* * * * *

Tales of Wonder
I Wonder
Once on a time there was a man who had three sons--Peter, Paul, and
the least of all, whom they called Youngling. I can't say the man had
anything more than these three sons, for he hadn't one penny to rub
against another; and he told the lads, over and over again, that they
must go out into the world and try to earn their bread, for at home there
was nothing to be looked for but starving to death.
Now near by the man's cottage was the King's palace, and, you must
know, just against the windows a great oak had sprung up, which was

so stout and tall that it took away all the light. The King had said he
would give untold treasure to the man who could fell the oak, but no
one was man enough for that, for as soon as one chip of the oak's trunk
flew off, two grew in its stead.
A well, too, the King desired, which was to hold water for the whole
year; for all his neighbours had wells, but he hadn't any, and that he
thought a shame. So the King said he would give both money and
goods to anyone who could dig him such a well as would hold water
for a whole year round, but no one could do it, for the palace lay high,
high up on a hill, and they could only dig a few inches before they
came upon the living rock.
But, as the King had set his heart on having these two things done, he
had it given out far and wide, in all the churches of his dominion, that
he who could fell the big oak in the King's courtyard, and get him a
well that would hold water the whole year round, should have the
Princess and half the kingdom.
Well! you may easily know there was many a man who came to try his
luck; but all their hacking and hewing, all their digging and delving,
were of no avail. The oak grew taller and stouter at every stroke, and
the rock grew no softer.
So one day the three brothers thought they'd set off and try, too, and
their father hadn't a word against it; for, even if they didn't get the
Princess and half the kingdom, it might happen that they would get a
place somewhere with a good master, and that was all he wanted. So
when the brothers said they thought of going to the palace, their father
said "Yes" at once, and Peter, Paul, and Youngling went off from their
home.
They had not gone far before they came to a fir-wood, and up along one
side of it rose a steep hillside, and as they went they heard something
hewing and hacking away up on the hill among the trees.
"I wonder now what it is that is hewing away up yonder?" said
Youngling.

"You are always so clever with your wonderings," said Peter and Paul,
both at once. "What wonder is it, pray, that a wood-cutter should stand
and hack up on a hillside?"
"Still, I'd like to see what it is, after all," said Youngling, and up he
went.
"Oh, if you're such a child, 't will do you good to go and take a lesson,"
cried out his brothers after him.
But Youngling didn't care for what they said; he climbed the steep
hillside toward where the noise came, and when he reached the place,
what do you think he saw?
Why, an axe that stood there hacking and hewing, all of itself, at the
trunk of a fir.
"Good day," said Youngling. "So you stand here all alone and hew, do
you?"
"Yes, here I've stood and hewed and hacked a long, long time, waiting
for you, my lad," said the Axe.
"Well, here I am at