hat the household and court physicians
were awaiting their summons in the ante-room.

The emperor, anxious to prove how much he owed to the Satin Surgeon,
opened his door himself, and great was everyone's surprise and joy at
seeing him in such perfect health. Like good courtiers, they hastened
in to praise and compliment the Satin Surgeon, but what was their
astonishment on finding that he had disappeared, leaving in his place
the loveliest princess in the whole world.

'Whilst thanking the surgeon for his miraculous cure, you might at the
same time do homage to your empress,' observed the emperor. He wished
to have the marriage celebrated the same day, but the princess
declared that she must wait to get her father's permission first.

Messengers were therefore instantly despatched to the neighbouring
capital, and soon returned with the king's consent, for he had lately
discovered all the mischief caused by his elder daughter.

The spiteful princess was so furious at the failure of her plans that
she took to her bed, and died in a fit of rage and jealousy. No one
grieved for her, and the king, being tired of the fatigues of
Government, gave up his crown to his younger daughter; so the two
kingdoms henceforth became one.

(From the _Cabinet des Fees_.)

_THE BILLY GOAT AND THE KING_

Once there lived a certain king who understood the language of all
birds and beasts and insects. This knowledge had of course been given
him by a fairy godmother; but it was rather a troublesome present, for
he knew that if he were ever to reveal anything he had thus learned he
would turn into a stone. How he managed to avoid doing so long before
this story opens I cannot say, but he had safely grown up to manhood,
and married a wife, and was as happy as monarchs generally are.

This king, I must tell you, was a Hindu; and when a Hindu eats his
food he has a nice little place on the ground freshly plastered with
mud, and he sits in the middle of it with very few clothes on--which
is quite a different way from ours.

Well, one day the king was eating his dinner in just such a nice,
clean, mud-plastered spot, and his wife was sitting opposite to wait
upon him and keep him company. As he ate he dropped some grains of
rice upon the ground, and a little ant, who was running about seeking
a living, seized upon one of the grains and bore it off towards his
hole. Just outside the king's circle this ant met another ant, and the
kin