a smile from an emperor," still, if his appearance were
changed, she should think herself the happiest woman in the universe.
And Peruonto replied as before--

"If you would have me say the spell,
With figs and raisins feed me well!"

Then Vastolla quickly opened his lips, and scarcely had he spoken the
words when he was changed, as it were from an owl to a nightingale,
from an ogre to a beautiful youth, from a scarecrow to a fine
gentleman. Vastolla, seeing such a transformation clasped him in her
arms and was almost beside herself with joy. Then they were married and
lived happily for years.

Meanwhile the King grew old and very sad, so that, one day, the
courtiers persuaded him to go a-hunting to cheer him up. Night overtook
him, and, seeing a light in a palace, he sent a servant to know if he
could be entertained there; and he was answered that everything was at
his disposal. So the King went to the palace and passing into a great
guest-chamber he saw no living soul, but two little boys, who skipped
around him crying, "Welcome, welcome!" The King, surprised and
astonished, stood like one that was enchanted, and sitting down to rest
himself at a table, to his amazement he saw invisibly spread on it a
Flanders tablecloth, with dishes full of roast meats and all sorts of
viands; so that, in truth, he feasted like a King, waited on by those
beautiful children, and all the while he sat at table a concert of
lutes and tambourines never ceased--such delicious music that it went
to the tips of his fingers and toes. When he had done eating, a bed
suddenly appeared all made of gold, and having his boots taken off, he
went to rest and all his courtiers did the same, after having fed
heartily at a hundred tables, which were laid out in the other rooms.

When morning came, the King wished to thank the two little children,
but with them appeared Vastolla and her husband; and casting herself at
his feet she asked his pardon and related the whole story. The King,
seeing that he had found two grandsons who were two jewels and a
son-in-law who was a fairy, embraced first one and then the other; and
taking up the children in his arms, they all returned to the city where
there was a great festival that lasted many days.

IV

VARDIELLO

If Nature had given to animals the necessity of clothing themselves,
and of buying their food, the race of quadrupeds would inevitably be
destroyed. Therefore it is that they find