The cat ran as fast as he could to the house where the gardener’s son had lived and got the cherry-stick; he then took it to a quiet place and flung it up into the air. When it came down he began scraping and digging underneath it till he came upon a heavy key made of iron.
As soon as the people in the palace were safely asleep he unlocked the stable door with the master-key, saddled three swift horses and tied them up in a thicket a little way off. Having done this and also ascertained that the jailers were sleeping, in the belief that it was impossible for their prisoner to escape, he climbed the cherry-tree again. He crept along a bough which almost touched the barred window and handed the key through the bars to the gardener’s son; then he got into the palace and, stealing into the Princess’s room, told her what he had done.
The Princess was in bed, but she rose, dressed herself, and went out with the cat. When they reached the thicket they found the gardener’s son, who had let himself out with the iron key, and they mounted and rode away as hard as they could go.
They got safely out of the kingdom after a few days’ riding, and, in the first city to which they came, the lovers were married. The cat was best man, and a fine figure he made; for, though he had not been able to bring his feathered hat and green ribbons with him, he bought a new one even grander than the first, and a white rosette for his tail in honour of the wedding.
The gardener’s son became very rich by reason of the cherry-stick, which brought him a bag of gold at every new moon, and he built a castle for his wife and a fine villa for the cat, with a fountain in the garden which played tunes, and a vinery which was the envy of the civilised world. He became very friendly with the King of the country in which he settled, and, at his death, inherited the kingdom. So the Princess became a Queen after all.
JACK FROST
A STORY FOR VERY LITTLE CHILDREN
There was once a little old man called Jack Frost who lived up in the sky. He was very small and very wicked and he had a long, long nose and the most dreadful crooked hands in the world. His beard was thin and pointed and stuck out in front of him; and, on his head, he wore a pointed cap made of ice which glittered in the moonlight. When the moon was a crescent he would sit astride of it, looking into the earth below and thinking what horrible mischief he could do next.