said he, "cannot you be
content to be pope?"

"No," said she, "I am very uneasy, and cannot bear to see the sun and
moon rise without my leave. Go to the fish directly."

Then the man went trembling for fear; and as he was going down to the
shore a dreadful storm arose, so that the trees and the rocks shook; and
the heavens became black, and the lightning played, and the thunder
rolled; and you might have seen in the sea great black waves like
mountains with a white crown of foam upon them; and the fisherman said,

"O man of the sea!
Come listen to me,
For Alice my wife,
The plague of my life,
Hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!"

"What does she want now?" said the fish.

"Ah!" said he, "she wants to be lord of the sun and moon." "Go home,"
said the fish, "to your ditch again!" And there they live to this very
day.

177

The Grimm version of "The Sleeping Beauty" is,
by all odds, the finest one. Its perfect
economy in the use of story materials has
always been admired. Perrault's version drags
in an unnecessary ogre and spoils a good story
by not knowing when to stop. The Grimm title is
"Dornroeschen," and the more literal
translation, "Brier Rose," is the one generally
used as the English title, rather than the one
given by Taylor, whose translation follows.
Tennyson has a very beautiful poetic rendering
of this story in his "Day-Dream."

ROSE-BUD

Once upon a time there lived a king and queen who had no children; and
this they lamented very much. But one day as the queen was walking by
the side of the river, a little fish lifted its head out of the water
and said, "Your wish shall be fulfilled, and you shall soon have a
daughter."

What the little fish had foretold soon came to pass; and the queen had a
little girl that was so very beautiful that the king could not cease
looking on it for joy, and determined to hold a great feast. So he
invited not only his relations, friends, and neighbors, but also all the
fairies, that they might be kind and good to his little daughter.

Now there were thirteen fairies in his kingdom, and he had only twelve
golden dishes for them to eat out of, so he was obliged to leave one of
the fairies without an invitation. The rest came, and after the feast
was over they gave all their best gifts to the little princess: one gave