ONE’S OWN CHILDREN ARE ALWAYS PRETTIEST
A sportsman went out once into a wood to shoot, and he met a Snipe.
“Dear friend,” said the Snipe, “don’t shoot my children!”
“How shall I know your children?” asked the Sportsman. “What are they like?”
“Oh!” said the Snipe, “mine are the prettiest children in all the wood.”
“Very well,” said the Sportsman, “I’ll not shoot them; don’t be afraid.”
But for all that, when he came back, there he had a whole 204 string of young snipes in his hand which he had shot.
“Oh, oh!” said the Snipe, “why did you shoot my children after all?”
“What! these your children!” said the Sportsman; “why, I shot the ugliest I could find, that I did!”
“Woe is me!” said the Snipe; “don’t you know that each one thinks his own children the prettiest in the world?”
Transcriber’s Notes:
Illustrations have been moved closer to their relevant paragraphs. The page numbers in the List of Illustrations do not reflect the new placement of the illustrations, but are as in the original.
Author’s archaic and variable spelling and hyphenation is preserved.
Author’s punctuation style is preserved.
Typographical problems have been changed and these are highlighted.
Transcriber’s Changes:
[TOC]: Page number for "The Cat on the Dovrefell" was corrected from ’201’ to ’200’
[TOC]: Page number for "One’s Own Children are Always Prettiest" was corrected from ’205’ to ’203’
[Page 25]: Was ’over over’ (the Prince made as if he drank, but threw it over his shoulder)
[Page 38]: Added italics (But the Troll, as he lay in bed, swore it was all a lie.)
[Page 43]: Added ’to’: Was ’it her’ (he pulled open his waistcoat and shirt to show it to her.)
[Page 55]: Added italics (Some time after this, the King went away to the wars)
[Page 59]: Standardised hyphenation from ’witchwoman’ (“Well, you needn’t be,” said the witch-woman. “All that can be set right in a twinkling)
[Page 94]: Removed extra double-quote (“To Whiteland,” said the King; and then he told him all that had befallen him.)
[Page 125]: Added italics (Then back came the Giant.)
[Page 155]: Was ’again.’ (home to fetch something to hew their way through the wood. But at last the Horse said again:)