d!" cried she, "it is my brothers; give them a sign to
make what haste they can."

At the same moment Blue Beard cried out so loud for her to come down,
that his voice shook the whole house.

The poor lady with her hair loose, and her eyes swimming in tears,
instantly came down, and fell on her knees to Blue Beard, and was going
to beg him to spare her life, but he interrupted her, saying, "All this
is of no use at all, for you shall die;" then seizing her with one hand
by the hair, and raising the scimitar he held in the other, was going
with one blow to strike off her head.

The unfortunate creature turning towards him, desired to have a single
moment allowed her to recollect herself.

"No, no," said Blue Beard, "I will give you no more time, I am
determined--you have had too much already;" and again raised his
arm--Just at this instant a loud knocking was heard at the gates, which
made Blue Beard wait for a moment to see who it was. The gates were
opened, and two officers dressed in their regimentals entered, and, with
their swords in their hands, ran instantly to Blue Beard, who, seeing
they were his wife's brothers, endeavoured to escape from their
presence; but they pursued and seized him before he had gone twenty
steps, and plunging their swords into his body, he immediately fell
down dead at their feet.

The poor wife, who was almost as dead as her husband, was unable at
first to rise and embrace her brothers. She soon, however, recovered;
and as Blue Beard had no heirs, she found herself the lawful possessor
of his great riches.

She employed a portion of her vast fortune in giving a marriage dowry to
her sister Ann, who soon after became the wife of a young gentleman by
whom she had long been beloved. Another part she employed in buying
captains' commissions for her two brothers; and the rest she presented
to a most worthy gentleman, whom she married soon after, and whose kind
treatment soon made her forget Blue Beard's cruelty.

JACK AND THE BEAN-STALK.

In days of yore, there lived a widow who had a son named Jack. Being an
only child, he was too much indulged, and became so extravagant and
careless that he wasted the property which his mother possessed, until
at last there remained only a cow, the chief support of her and her son.

One day the poor woman, with tears in her eyes, said to Jack--"O, you
wicked child, by your ungrateful course of life you have brought me to
beggary in my old