rose, a lovely red rose, if you can."

So her father kissed her, and promised he would bring her the rose,
and went on his way full of hopes.

What a pity it is that our hopes cannot be always realized, and that
we are so often doomed to disappointment! When the merchant arrived at
the city, to his dismay he found that the man who owed him the money
was still unable to pay him, the man had been disappointed himself at
the last moment.

So the unhappy father had to return home without the white satin dress
trimmed with lace and pearls, and without the bag of money, and he
dreaded meeting his two daughters, for he knew they would be terribly
angry.

[Illustration]

Now on his way home from the station to his house he had to pass by
part of the wall that surrounded the Great Park where the Great Beast
lived in his Great Castle; and as he passed by a corner of the wall
what should he see hanging just over the top, and just within his
reach if he stood on his toes, but a lovely red rose.

"At any rate I can take my Beauty what she asked for," he said to
himself, and, without so much as giving a thought to the wrong he was
doing, he stood on his toes and plucked the rose.

He was sorry he did it.

Of a sudden there was a roar, such a roar that the very ground shook,
and as to the poor merchant he quivered like a leaf.

Enough to make him quiver indeed, for a gate in the wall suddenly
opened, and out rushed the _Beast_.

Yes, the Beast, if you please, and he seized the merchant by the
scruff of his neck, and dragged him into the Park, and shut the gate
after him.

"Don't you know it's a sin to steal?" roared the Beast. "How dare you
steal my roses? I am going to kill you."

"Oh, mercy, Mr. Beast," cried the unhappy man, flinging himself on his
knees before the monster.

[Illustration]

"I'm going to kill you," roared the Beast still more loudly. "It's
taken years to cultivate this sort of rose, and--and I'm going to
kill you. Unless," he added after a pause, "you send me one of your
daughters here instead."

"All right," said the merchant and got on his feet again.

"She must be here to-morrow by breakfast time, and I breakfast early,"
said the Beast, as he let the merchant out of the gate. "If she is not
here, I shall come for you, and don't you forget it."

It was by no means likely that he would forget it, in fact he could
think of nothing else. He hurried home and told his dreadful news, and
receiv