re, and examined the cup from every side with the utmost
minuteness.

"Give this worthy man," said he, "four bags of guilders; money is nothing
to the acquisition of such a treasure of beauty."

Here Peter secretly hugged himself, and chuckled at his daughter's
warning. Meanwhile, the baron examined the cup with huge satisfaction.
Suddenly turning to Peter, "Where is the saucer?" said he.

"The saucer?" repeated Peter, blankly. "Please you, my lord, it never had
a saucer!"

"Never had a saucer?" repeated the baron. "You don't mean to tell me that
such a cup as that was ever made without a saucer to go with it!"

[Illustration: "HE EXAMINED WITH ASTONISHMENT AND DELIGHT."]

"Nevertheless, my lord, _I_ have no saucer," said Peter, humbly.

"You are deceiving me," said the baron, sternly. Then, fixing his eye upon
poor Peter, "Where did you get that cup?" said he, abruptly. "Me-thinks
you are rather a poor man to possess such a treasure."

"Oh, good my lord!" cried poor Peter, "I will tell you the whole truth. An
old man in the forest gave it to my daughter Kate."

"Do you expect me to believe such a story as that?" exclaimed the baron.
"You stole it, you thief!" he roared, at the same time seizing Peter by
the collar. "Ho! guards! Arrest this man, and throw him into the dungeon,"
cried he to his attendants.

"Mercy! mercy, my lord!" cried poor Peter, falling on his knees. But the
guards dragged him off in spite of his cries, and popped him into a
dungeon, where he was left to meditate over his folly in not heeding his
daughter's advice.

II.--THE GOOSE THAT WAS TO LAY THE GOLDEN EGG.

Catherine waited anxiously for her father's return, but her fears told her
all when night came and he came not.

After she had put the children to bed, having given them each a piece of
bread, which she had borrowed from a kind neighbor, she threw a shawl
around her head and started off in the direction of Castle Dunderhead,
where her fears told her only too plainly her father was. The bars of the
dungeon windows came upon a level with the ground, like those of a cellar.

"Father!" murmured Catherine.

"Oh, Kate!" was the response, followed immediately by the sound of violent
crying, and Catherine knew her father was there. "Oh, Kate! if I--I had
but l-listened to you!" sobbed the poor fellow; for, now that the
discovery was too late to avail him, he felt perfectly sure of his
daughter's superior intelligence. Then, with m