e even wood and stone weep for her, and so walked
toward the place of execution. All the people, old and young, were
weeping around her, yet could not help her.

On reaching the gallows, she once more gazed hopefully at the dumb
man, who had come with the crowd, but stood as if he were perfectly
unmoved, and said to him:

"My dear husband, save me from death; you know my love for you, do not
let me perish so ignominiously. Speak but one word and I shall be
delivered." But the man only shrugged his shoulders and glanced
backward across the fields.

The executioner stood with the noose in his hand; two assistants led
her up the ladder, and the hangman slipped the rope around her neck.
One moment more, and the princess would have been a corpse! But just
at the instant the executioner was going to let her swing out into the
empty air, the fisherman raised his hand, shouting: "Hi! hi! stop!"

They all stood motionless, tears of joy streamed from every eye as the
hangman took the noose from the prisoner's neck. Then the fisherman,
looking at the royal maiden, said three times:

"Will you say fisherman to me again?"

"Forgive me, my dear husband," the princess hastened to reply, "I have
only said it once, and that was by mistake. I promise you not to do so
again."

"Let her come down, she is my wife."

He took her by the hand, and they went home together.

Afterward they lived in peace and happiness, and if they haven't died,
they are living still.

Into the saddle then I sprung,
This tale to tell to old and young.

Little Wild-Rose.

Once upon a time something extraordinary happened. If it had not
happened it would not be told. It was when the wolves lay down to rest
with the sheep, and the shepherds feasted in the green fields with
emperors and kings, when one sun rose and another set.

There was once a man, my dear good friends. This man would now--I am
telling no lie--this man would now be a hundred years old, if not
twenty more to boot; his wife, too, was older than any body I know;
she was like the Friday-goddess (Venus), and from youth to age had
never had a single child. Only those who know what children are in a
house can understand the uncontrollable grief in the empty home of the
old man and his wife. The poor old man had done every thing in his
power to have his house brightened and filled with joy by what he
himself so greatly desired. He had given alms to the convents and
churche