od on his thigh. 'Well,' says he, 'what trouble is on you
now?' 'Master,' says the other, 'please let me go back to my forge, and
let this carriage be filled with paving stones.' No sooner said than
done. The prince was sitting in his forge, and the horses wondered what
was after happening to the carriage.

When they came into the palace yard, the king himself opened the
carriage door, for respect to his new son-in-law. As soon as he turned
the handle, a shower of small stones fell on his powdered wig and his
silk coat, and down he fell under them. There was great fright and some
laughter, and the king, after he wiped the blood from his forehead,
looked very cross at the eldest prince. 'My lord,' says he, 'I'm very
sorry for this accident, but I'm not to blame. I saw the young smith get
into the carriage, and we never stopped a minute since.' 'It's uncivil
you were to him. Go,' says he to the other prince, 'and bring the young
smith here, and be polite.' 'Never fear,' says he.

But there's some people that couldn't be good-natured if they tried, and
not a bit civiller was the new messenger than the old, and when the king
opened the carriage door a second time, it's shower of mud that came
down on him. 'There's no use,' says he, 'going on this way. The fox
never got a better messenger than himself.'

So he changed his clothes, and washed himself, and out he set to the
prince's forge and asked him to sit along with himself. The prince
begged to be allowed to sit in the other carriage, and when they were
half-way he opened his snuff-box. 'Master,' says he, 'I'd wish to be
dressed now according to my rank.' 'You shall be that,' says Seven
Inches. 'And now I'll bid you farewell. Continue as good and kind as you
always were; love your wife; and that's all the advice I'll give you.'
So Seven Inches vanished; and when the carriage door was opened in the
yard, out walks the prince as fine as hands could make him, and the
first thing he did was to run over to his bride and embrace her.

Every one was full of joy but the two other princes. There was not much
delay about the marriages, and they were all celebrated on the one day.
Soon after, the two elder couples went to their own courts, but the
youngest pair stayed with the old king, and they were as happy as the
happiest married couple you ever heard of in a story.

From 'West Highland Tales.'

The Story of a Very Bad Boy

Once upon a time there lived in a little