nto the town."

"No, you are not."

"Why not?"

"Because no stranger enters here. Yonder is the pathway. You must take
that if you would enter the town."

"Very well," said the beggar, "I would just as lief go into the town
that way as another."

So off he marched without another word. On and on he went along the
narrow pathway until at last he came to a little gate of polished brass.
Over the gate were written these words, in great letters as red as
blood:

"Who Enters here Shall Surely Die."

Many and many a man besides the beggar had travelled that path and
looked up at those letters, and when he had read them had turned and
gone away again. But the beggar neither turned nor went away; because
why, he could neither read nor write a word, and so the blood-red
letters had no fear for him. Up he marched to the brazen gate, as boldly
as though it had been a kitchen door, and rap! tap! tap! he knocked upon
it. He waited awhile, but nobody came. Rap! tap! tap! he knocked again;
and then, after a little while, for the third time--Rap! tap! tap! Then
instantly the gate swung open and he entered. So soon as he had crossed
the threshold it was banged to behind him again, just as the garden gate
had been when the king had first sent for him. He found himself in a
long, dark entry, and at the end of it another door, and over it the
same words, written in blood-red letters:

"Beware! Beware! Who Enters here Shall Surely Die!"

"Well," said the beggar, "this is the hardest town for a body to come
into that I ever saw." And then he opened the second door and passed
through.

It was fit to deafen a body! Such a shout the beggar's ears had never
heard before; such a sight the beggar's eyes had never beheld, for
there, before him, was a great splendid hall of marble as white as snow.
All along the hall stood scores of lords and ladies in silks and satins,
and with jewels on their necks and arms fit to dazzle a body's eyes.
Right up the middle of the hall stretched a carpet of blue velvet, and
at the farther end, on a throne of gold, sat a lady as beautiful as the
sun and moon and all the stars.

"Welcome! welcome!" they all shouted, until the beggar was nearly
deafened by the noise they all made, and the lady herself stood up and
smiled upon him.

Then there came three young men, and led the beggar up the carpet of
velvet to the throne of gold.

"Welcome, my hero!" said the beautiful lady; "and have you, then, come