off to the ball-room.

When she entered every one was surprised at so beautiful a face and form
dressed in so rich and rare a dress; but the young lord at once
recognised his beautiful sweetheart, and would dance with none but her
the whole evening. When the ball came to an end he pressed her to tell
him where she lived, but all she would answer was:

"Kind sir, if the truth I must tell,
At the sign of the 'Broken Skimmer' I dwell";

and with that she curtsied, and was off to the forest. But this time the
young lord followed her, and watched her change her fine dress of
feathers for her catskin dress, and then he knew her for his own
scullery-maid.

Next day he went to his mother, and told her that he wished to marry the
scullery-maid, Catskin.

"Never," said the lady of the castle--"never so long as I live."

[Illustration: She went along, and went along, and went along]

Well, the young lord was so grieved that he took to his bed and was very
ill indeed. The doctor tried to cure him, but he would not take any
medicine unless from the hands of Catskin. At last the doctor went to
the mother, and said that her son would die if she did not consent to
his marriage with Catskin; so she had to give way. Then she summoned
Catskin to her, and Catskin put on her coat of beaten gold before she
went to see the lady; and she, of course, was overcome at once, and was
only too glad to wed her son to so beautiful a maid.

So they were married, and after a time a little son was born to them,
and grew up a fine little lad. Now one day, when he was about four years
old, a beggar woman came to the door, and Lady Catskin gave some money
to the little lord and told him to go and give it to the beggar woman.
So he went and gave it, putting it into the hand of the woman's baby
child; and the child leant forward and kissed the little lord.

Now the wicked old cook (who had never been sent away, because Catskin
was too kind-hearted) was looking on, and she said, "See how beggars'
brats take to one another!"

This insult hurt Catskin dreadfully: and she went to her husband, the
young lord, and told him all about her father, and begged he would go
and find out what had become of her parents. So they set out in the
lord's grand coach, and travelled through the forest till they came to
the house of Catskin's father. Then they put up at an inn near, and
Catskin stopped there, while her husband went to see if her father would
own sh