A delicious perfume invaded the garden, the fairy raised her wand, and each flower returned to its post, recovering its original form.
The magician flew into space, wrapped in a moonbeam, and Richard remained alone, pensive in the recollection of what he had seen.
"What a beautiful lesson!" he said. "Even in the kingdom of flowers work gains the most precious reward."
THE THREE QUESTIONS
In the history of Spain, King Pedro I. of Castile, son of Alfonso XI. the Just, is known by the surname of the Cruel.
And his fame as a heartless man was such that his subjects, on whom he satisfied his terrible thirst for blood and violence, held him in great terror.
One day while hunting, of which sport he was very fond, King Pedro lost his way in the wood, and came to rest himself—the night being well advanced—in an hospitable convent, where without being known he was offered food, bed, and shelter.
Hardly returning thanks, he passed into the refectory, and on entering was recognised by a lay brother, who knew that the king suffered from a certain illness called synovitis, the principal effect of which was that the malady produced, when he was walking, a strange sound of bones knocking together.
By this noise he was recognised by the lay brother.
Instantly informing the community, due homage was hastily rendered to the monarch; but King Pedro was in a bad temper, and facing one of the reverend fathers, said to him in a disconcerting tone: