your law, I am content," said the princess.

"What sayest thou, Bar Shalmon?" asked the mayor.

"Oh! I'm content," he answered gruffly. "I agree to anything that
will rid me of the demon princess."

The princess flushed crimson with shame and rage at these cruel words.

"These words I have not deserved," she exclaimed, proudly. "I have
loved thee, and have been faithful unto thee, Bar Shalmon. I accept
the decree of your laws and shall return to the land of Ergetz a
widow. I ask not for your pity. I ask but for that which is my right,
one last kiss."

"Very well," said Bar Shalmon, still more gruffly, "anything to have
done with thee."

The princess stepped proudly forward to him and kissed him on the
lips.

Bar Shalmon turned deadly pale and would have fallen had not his
friends caught him.

"Take thy punishment for all thy sins," cried the princess, haughtily,
"for thy broken vows and thy false promises--thy perjury to thy God,
to thy father, to my father and to me."

As she spoke Bar Shalmon fell dead at her feet. At a sign from the
princess, her retinue of fairies and demons flew out of the building
and up into the air with their royal mistress in their midst and
vanished.

The Higgledy-Piggledy Palace

Sarah, the wife of the patriarch Abraham, and the great mother of the
Jewish people, was the most beautiful woman who ever lived. Everybody
who saw her marveled at the dazzling radiance of her countenance; they
stood spellbound before the glorious light that shone in her eyes and
the wondrous clearness of her complexion. This greatly troubled
Abraham when he fled from Canaan to Egypt. It was disconcerting to
have crowds of travelers gazing at his wife as if she were something
more than human. Besides, he feared that the Egyptians would seize
Sarah for the king's harem.

So, after much meditation, he concealed his wife in a big box. When he
arrived at the Egyptian frontier, the customs officials asked him what
it contained.

"Barley," he replied.

"You say that because the duty on barley is the lowest," they said.
"The box must surely be packed with wheat."

[Illustration: He could not see what Sarah saw--a figure, a
spirit, clutching a big stick. (_Page 72_).]

"I will pay the duty on wheat," said Abraham, who was most anxious
they should not open the box.

The officials were surprised, for, as a rule, people endeavored to
avoid paying the duties.

"If you are so ready to pay