hey were the same songs and stories that
had been used for years by their mothers and grandmothers to amuse the
children, and had always been known in the country. There was the little
girl and the wolf, and the sleeping beauty, and the wicked stepmother,
and the girl whom the prince knew by her tiny foot, and many, many more.
The shipwrecked guests wondered much, and at last came to the conclusion
that they and their hosts were distant cousins; for they remembered
hearing from some aged men that they were themselves descended from a
branch of a very old family--one of many which at different times left
the old stock, long, long ago, and now, surely, here were the
descendants of another branch.

Another time, and in another country, there had been a great battle. A
brave army, led by a famous general, had come into a rich and powerful
country, to make its people subject to their own king. But the people,
too, were brave; besides, they fought for their liberty and their homes,
and that made them doubly strong. They had driven the enemy from before
their capital city after an obstinate siege and had made many prisoners.
Both nations were civilized and enlightened; therefore there was no bad
feeling after the fighting was over, and the prisoners were treated more
like guests, waiting for the signing of the treaty of peace, when they
would be exchanged. The sick and the wounded were taken care of at the
hospitals; as to the others, the private soldiers were placed in
well-kept barracks, and the officers were quartered in private families
and left free "_on parole_," _i.e._, on their promise not to try to
escape. Friendships were formed, and the unwilling guests employed their
forced leisure in studying the customs, laws, and society of the nation
into which they were thus thrown. There were highly cultivated and
scholarly men among the captive officers; yet they were naturally a
little prejudiced, so that they were not a little astonished when they
found the customs and laws not only not inferior to their own, but in
many cases almost exactly the same. More than that, they continually
came upon little habits, sayings, even superstitious customs at births,
weddings, funerals, and other occasions, which they had been familiar
with at home from childhood, and which they had been told by nurses and
old servants should be observed and respected because they were family
peculiarities, handed down from times so ancient nobody could