them fine dresses and
jewels, and the two sisters turned over a new leaf and were less
selfish, and they were happy, so this is a very happy ending to the
story.

What a pity all stories can't end the same way!

[Illustration]

TUFTY RIQUET

There was once upon a time a Queen who had the ugliest little baby
imaginable, so ugly, indeed, that it was almost impossible to believe
he was a little boy at all.

A fairy, however, assured his mother that the little baby would be
very good and clever, saying that she was also giving him a gift which
would enable him to make that person whom he loved the best as clever
as himself.

This somewhat consoled the Queen, but still she was very unhappy
because her son was so ugly, though no sooner had he begun to speak
than he could talk about all sorts of things, and he had such pretty
ways that people were charmed with him.

I forgot to say, that, when he was quite a baby, he had a funny little
tuft of hair on his head, so he was called Tufty Riquet, for Riquet
was the family name.

When Riquet was about seven years old, the Queen of a kingdom near by
was given two baby daughters, twins, of which one was so exquisitely
beautiful that the Queen nearly died of joy when she saw her, and so
the fairy, the same one who had given Riquet his gift of cleverness,
to keep the Queen from making herself ill with excitement, told her
that this little Princess would not be at all clever, indeed she would
be as stupid as she was beautiful.

[Illustration]

The Queen was very much grieved at this, and felt still more troubled
when she beheld her other daughter, for the second Princess was
extremely ugly.

"Do not take it too much to heart, madam," remarked the fairy, "for
this second daughter will be so clever that it will scarcely be
noticed that she is not beautiful."

"Well, if it must be so, it must," remarked the Queen, "but I should
certainly have liked the elder one, who is beautiful, to be just a
little bit clever too."

"I can do nothing as to her mind, madam," replied the fairy, "but for
her beauty I can, and as there is nothing I would not do to please
you, I will give her a gift so that she can make the one who wins her
heart beautiful too."

As the Princesses grew up, their gifts likewise grew with them, so
that everybody spoke about the beauty of the one and the cleverness
of the other; but also their defects grew, so that it could not but
be noticed that th