,
approaching him, said, "Be not afraid, my good man, for I am not come
here to do you any harm, but to do you good."

When Masaniello (for that was the name of the labourer) heard this, he
fell on his knees and said, "Mistress What's-your-name, I am wholly in
your power. Act then worthily and have compassion on this poor trunk
that has twelve branches to support."

"It is on this very account," said the lizard, "that I am disposed to
serve you; so bring me, to-morrow morning the youngest of your
daughters; for I will rear her up like my own child, and love her as my
life."

At this the poor father was more confounded than a thief when the
stolen goods are found on his back. For, hearing the lizard ask him for
one of his daughters, and that too, the tenderest of them, he concluded
that the cloak was not without wool on it, and that she wanted the
child as a titbit to stay her appetite. Then he said to himself, "If I
give her my daughter, I give her my soul. If I refuse her, she will
take this body of mine. If I yield her, I am robbed of my heart; if I
deny her she will suck out my blood. If I consent, she takes away part
of myself; if I refuse, she takes the whole. What shall I resolve on?
What course shall I take? What expedient shall I adopt? Oh, what an ill
day's work have I made of it! What a misfortune has rained down from
heaven upon me!"

While he was speaking thus, the lizard said, "Resolve quickly and do
what I tell you; or you will leave only your rags here. For so I will
have it, and so it will be." Masaniello, hearing this decree and having
no one to whom he could appeal, returned home quite melancholy, as
yellow in the face as if he had jaundice; and his wife, seeing him
hanging his head like a sick bird and his shoulders like one that is
wounded, said to him, "What has happened to you, husband? Have you had
a quarrel with any one? Is there a warrant out against you? Or is the
ass dead?"

"Nothing of that sort," said Masaniello, "but a horned lizard has put
me into a fright, for she has threatened that if I do not bring her our
youngest daughter, she will make me suffer for it. My head is turning
like a reel. I know not what fish to take. On one side love constrains
me; on the other the burden of my family. I love Renzolla dearly, I
love my own life dearly. If I do not give the lizard this portion of my
heart, she will take the whole compass of my unfortunate body. So now,
dear wife, advise me, or I