ained there a fortnight, then departed, and the king gave her
quantities of riches and jewels. She returned to the king of Spain's
palace.

And so the story ends.

* * * * *

"What did you think of the story, pretty mamma?" said the parrot.
"Beautiful, beautiful." "But you must not go with the old woman, because
there is treason."

After a week the old woman came with her baskets. "My daughter, you must
do me this pleasure to-day, come and hear the holy mass." "I will." When
the parrot heard that, he began to weep and tear out his feathers: "No,
my pretty mamma, don't go with the old woman. If you will stay, I will
tell you another story." "Grandmother mine," says she, "I can't come,
for I don't wish to lose the parrot for your sake." She closed the
wicket and the old woman went away grumbling and cursing. The lady then
seated herself near the parrot, which told this story:

THIRD STORY OF THE PARROT.

Once upon a time there was a king and a queen who had an only son, whose
sole diversion was the chase. Once he wished to go hunting at a
distance, and took with him his attendants. Where do you think he
happened to go? To the country where the doll was.[I] When he saw the
doll he said: "I have finished my hunt, let us return home!" He took
the doll and placed it before him on the horse, and exclaimed every few
minutes: "How beautiful this doll is! think of its mistress!" When he
reached the palace he had a glass case made in the wall, and put the
doll in it, and kept looking at it continually and saying: "How
beautiful the doll is! think of the mistress!"

[Footnote I: The doll of the first story.]

The young man would not see any one and became so melancholy that his
father summoned the physicians, who said: "Your Majesty, we know nothing
of this illness; see what he does with his doll." The king went to see
his son and found him gazing at the doll, and exclaiming: "Oh! how
beautiful the doll is! think of the mistress!" The physicians departed
as wise as when they came. The prince meanwhile did nothing but sit and
look at the doll, and draw deep breaths, and sigh, and exclaim: "How
beautiful the doll is! think of the mistress!" The king at last, in
despair, summoned his council, and said: "See how my son is reduced! He
has no fever, or pain in his head, but he is wasting away, and some one
else will enjoy my kingdom! Give me advice." "Majesty, are you
perplexed? Is there not tha