m Heaven take to glory), used to tell; and, unless I have put on my
spectacles upside down, I fancy it will give you pleasure.

There was, once upon a time, a woman named Pascadozzia, and one day,
when she was standing at her window, which looked into the garden of an
ogress, she saw such a fine bed of parsley that she almost fainted away
with desire for some. So when the ogress went out she could not
restrain herself any longer, but plucked a handful of it. The ogress
came home and was going to cook her pottage when she found that some
one had been stealing the parsley, and said, "Ill luck to me, but I'll
catch this long-fingered rogue and make him repent it; I'll teach him
to his cost that every one should eat off his own platter and not
meddle with other folks' cups."

The poor woman went again and again down into the garden, until one
morning the ogress met her, and in a furious rage exclaimed, "Have I
caught you at last, you thief, you rogue; prithee, do you pay the rent
of the garden that you come in this impudent way and steal my plants?
By my faith, I'll make you do penance without sending you to Rome."

Poor Pascadozzia, in a terrible fright, began to make excuses, saying
that neither from gluttony nor the craving of hunger had she been
tempted by the devil to commit this fault, but from her fear lest her
child should be born with a crop of parsley on its face.

"Words are but wind," answered the ogress, "I am not to be caught with
such prattle; you have closed the balance-sheet of life, unless you
promise to give me the child, girl or boy, whichever it may be."

The poor woman, in order to escape the peril in which she found
herself, swore, with one hand upon the other, to keep the promise, and
so the ogress let her go free. But when the baby came it was a little
girl, so beautiful that she was a joy to look upon, who was named
Parsley. The little girl grew from day to day until, when she was seven
years old, her mother sent her to school, and every time she went along
the street and met the ogress the old woman said to her, "Tell your
mother to remember her promise." And she went on repeating this message
so often that the poor mother, having no longer patience to listen to
the refrain, said one day to Parsley, "If you meet the old woman as
usual, and she reminds you of the hateful promise, answer her, Take
it.'"

When Parsley, who dreamt of no ill, met the ogress again, and heard her
repeat the same w