d come to see for himself
why the goose had never made its appearance.

The Scullion stopped at once, just as he was about to wring the Canary's
neck.

XV

'Will some one be kind enough to tell me the meaning of all this?' cried
the Lord of Avesnes.

'Your Excellency, it is the bird,' replied the Scullion, and he placed
it in his hand.

'Nonsense! What a lovely bird!' said Tubby, and in stroking its head he
touched a pin that was sticking between its feathers. He pulled it out,
and lo! the Canary at once became a beautiful girl with a golden skin
who jumped lightly to the ground.

'Gracious! what a pretty girl!' said Tubby.

'Father! it is she! it is Zizi!' exclaimed Desire, who entered at this
moment.

And he took her in his arms, crying: 'My darling Zizi, how happy I am to
see you once more!'

'Well, and the other one?' asked Tubby.

The other one was stealing quietly to the door.

'Stop her! called Tubby. 'We will judge her cause at once.'

And he seated himself solemnly on the oven, and condemned Titty to
be burned alive. After which the lords and cooks formed themselves in
lines, and Tubby betrothed Desire to Zizi.

XVI

The marriage took place a few days later. All the boys in the country
side were there, armed with wooden swords, and decorated with epaulets
made of gilt paper.

Zizi obtained Titty's pardon, and she was sent back to the brick-fields,
followed and hooted at by all the boys. And this is why to-day the
country boys always throw stones at a titmouse.

On the evening of the wedding-day all the larders, cellars, cupboards
and tables of the people, whether rich or poor, were loaded as if by
enchantment with bread, wine, beer, cakes and tarts, roast larks, and
even geese, so that Tubby could not complain any more that his son had
married Famine.

Since that time there has always been plenty to eat in that country, and
since that time, too, you see in the midst of the fair-haired blue-eyed
women of Flanders a few beautiful girls, whose eyes are black and whose
skins are the colour of gold. They are the descendants of Zizi.(21)

(21) Charles Deulin, Contes du Roi Gambrinus.

THE TWELVE BROTHERS

THERE were once upon a time a King and a Queen who lived happily
together, and they had twelve children, all of whom were boys. One day
the King said to his wife:

'If our thirteenth child is a girl, all her twelve brothers must die, so
that she may be very rich and the ki