so," said the King, "I pledge my word that I will give you one
half of my kingdom." And the man answered, "Listen now to me--if you
wish to hit the mark, you have only to get the heart of a sea-dragon,
and have it cooked and eaten by the Queen, and you will see that what I
say will speedily come to pass."

"That hardly seems possible," said the King, "but at the worst I lose
nothing by the trial; so I must, this very moment, get the dragon's
heart."

So he sent a hundred fishermen out; and they got ready all kinds of
fishing-tackle, drag-nets, casting-nets, seine-nets, bow-nets, and
fishing-lines; and they tacked and turned and cruised in all directions
until at last they caught a dragon; then they took out its heart and
brought it to the King, who gave it to the Queen to cook and eat. And
when she had eaten it, there was great rejoicing, for the King's desire
was fulfilled and he became the father of two sons, so like the other
that nobody but the Queen could tell which was which. And the boys grew
up together in such love for one another that they could not be parted
for a moment. Their attachment was so great that the Queen began to be
jealous, at seeing that the son whom she destined to be heir to his
father, and whose name was Fonzo, testified more affection for his
brother Canneloro than he did for herself. And she knew not in what way
to remove this thorn from her eyes.

Now one day Fonzo wished to go a-hunting with his brother; so he had a
fire lighted in his chamber and began to melt lead to make bullets; and
being in want of I know not what, he went himself to look for it.
Meanwhile the Queen came in, and finding no one there but Canneloro,
she thought to put him out of the world. So stooping down, she flung
the hot bullet-mould at his face, which hit him over the brow and made
an ugly wound. She was just going to repeat the blow when Fonzo came
in; so, pretending that she was only come in to see how he was, she
gave him some caresses and went away.

Canneloro, pulling his hat down on his forehead, said nothing of his
wound to Fonzo, but stood quite quiet though he was burning with the
pain. But as soon as they had done making the balls, he told his
brother that he must leave him. Fonzo, all in amazement at this new
resolution, asked him the reason: but he replied, "Enquire no more, my
dear Fonzo, let it suffice that I am obliged to go away and part with
you, who are my heart and my soul and the breath of