o himself, "Shall I put fire under the Cockatrice once more, and
make him shake the town into ruins? Would not that be fine?"

Inside, the cave was quite still and cold, and when he laid his hand on
the Cockatrice he could not feel any stir or warmth in its bones. Yet
when he called, the Cockatrice just opened a slit of his green eye and
looked at him with trust and affection.

"Dear Cockatrice," cried Beppo, "forgive me for all the wrong I have
done you!" And as he clambered his way toward the green light, a
great tear rolled from under the heavy lid and flowed past him like a
cataract.

"Dear Cockatrice," cried Beppo again, when he stood on the margin of the
green lake, "take me to sleep with you in the land where the Cockatrices
are at play, and keep quite still with your tail!"

Slowly and painfully the Cockatrice opened his eye enough to let Beppo
slip through; and Beppo saw the green world with its playful cockatrices
waiting to welcome him. Then the great eyelid shut down fast, and the
waking days of the Cockatrice were over. And Beppo's native town lay
safe, because he had learned from the Cockatrice to be patient and
gentle, and had gone to be king of a green world where everything was
harmless.

THE RAT-CATCHER'S DAUGHTER

Once upon a time there lived an old rat-catcher who had a daughter,
the most beautiful girl that had ever been born. Their home was a dirty
little cabin; but they were not so poor as they seemed, for every night
the rat-catcher took the rats he had cleared out of one house and let
them go at the door of another, so that on the morrow he might be sure
of a fresh job.

His rats got quite to know him, and would run to him when he called;
people thought him the most wonderful rat-catcher, and could not make
out how it was that a rat remained within reach of his operations.

Now any one can see that a man who practised so cunning a roguery was
greedy beyond the intentions of Providence. Every day, as he watched his
daughter's beauty increase, his thoughts were: "When will she be able
to pay me back for all the expense she has been to me?" He would have
grudged her the very food she ate, if it had not been necessary to keep
her in the good looks which were some day to bring him his fortune. For
he was greedier than any gnome after gold.

Now all good gnomes have this about them: they love whatever is
beautiful, and hate to see harm happen to it. A gnome who lived far
away undergro