asleep, but
Ciccu seized her arm and pulled her out of bed, and beat her till she
gave back the purse. Then he took up the coverlet, and wished he was
safe in his own house.

No sooner had he gone than the princess hastened to her father and
complained of her sufferings. Then the king rose up in a fury, and
commanded Ciccu to be brought before him. 'You richly deserve death,'
said he, 'but I will allow you to live if you will instantly hand over
to me the coverlet, the purse, and the horn.'

What could Ciccu do? Life was sweet, and he was in the power of the
king; so he gave up silently his ill-gotten goods, and was as poor as
when he was a boy.

While he was wondering how he was to live it suddenly came into his mind
that this was the season for the figs to ripen, and he said to himself,
'I will go and see if the tree has borne well.' So he set off
home, where his brothers still lived, and found them living very
uncomfortably, for they had spent all their money, and did not know
how to make any more. However, he was pleased to see that the fig-tree
looked in splendid condition, and was full of fruit. He ran and fetched
a basket, and was just feeling the figs, to make sure which of them were
ripe, when his brother Peppe called to him, 'Stop! The figs of course
are yours, but the branches they grow on are mine, and I forbid you to
touch them.'

Ciccu did not answer, but set a ladder against the tree, so that he
could reach the topmost branches, and had his foot already on the first
rung when he heard the voice of his brother Alfin: 'Stop! the trunk
belongs to me, and I forbid you to touch it!'

Then they began to quarrel violently, and there seemed no chance that
they would ever cease, till one of them said, 'Let us go before a
judge.' The others agreed, and when they had found a man whom they could
trust Ciccu told him the whole story.

'This is my verdict,' said the judge. 'The figs in truth belong to
you, but you cannot pluck them without touching both the trunk and the
branches. Therefore you must give your first basketful to your brother
Peppe, as the price of his leave to put your ladder against the tree;
and the second basketful to your brother Alfin, for leave to shake his
boughs. The rest you can keep for yourself.'

And the brothers were contented, and returned home, saying one to the
other, 'We will each of us send a basket of figs to the king. Perhaps
he will give us something in return, and if he d