ised, he is delivered, and our little sons are ours again;"
and he related to her how it had come to pass.

After that they all lived together in happiness to their lives' end.

THE WONDERFUL MUSICIAN

THERE was once a wonderful musician, and he was one day walking through
a wood all alone, thinking of this and that: and when he had nothing
more left to think about, he said to himself,

"I shall grow tired of being in this wood, so I will bring out a good
companion."

So he took the fiddle that hung at his back and fiddled so that the wood
echoed. Before long a wolf came through the thicket and trotted up to
him.

"Oh, here comes a wolf! I had no particular wish for such company," said
the musician: but the wolf drew nearer, and said to him,

"Ho, you musician, how finely you play! I must learn how to play too."

"That is easily done," answered the musician, "you have only to do
exactly as I tell you."

"O musician," said the wolf, "I will obey you, as a scholar does his
master."

The musician told him to come with him. As they went a part of the way
together they came to an old oak tree, which was hollow within and cleft
through the middle.

"Look here," said the musician, "if you want to learn how to fiddle, you
must put your fore feet in this cleft."

The wolf obeyed, but the musician took up a stone and quickly wedged
both his paws with one stroke, so fast, that the wolf was a prisoner,
and there obliged to stop.

"Stay there until I come back again," said the musician, and went his
way.

After a while he said again to himself,

"I shall grow weary here in this wood; I will bring out another
companion," and he took his fiddle and fiddled away in the wood. Before
long a fox came slinking through the trees.

"Oh, here comes a fox!" said the musician; "I had no particular wish for
such company."

The fox came up to him and said,

"O my dear musician, how finely you play! I must learn how to play too."

"That is easily done," said the musician, "you have only to do exactly
as I tell you."

"O musician," answered the fox, "I will obey you, as a scholar his
master."

"Follow me," said the musician; and as they went a part of the way
together they came to a footpath with a high hedge on each side. Then
the musician stopped, and taking hold of a hazel-branch bent it down to
the earth, and put his foot on the end of it; then he bent down a branch
from the other side, and said: "Come on, l