The fairies came forward and bestowed their gifts upon the little baby Princess. The first promised her splendid and brilliant beauty; the second, cleverness and ability to learn; the third, kindness of heart and gratitude; and so they went on, each giving her some good quality or other, until it came to the turn of the wicked old hag to speak.

That bad fairy came straight into the middle of the floor, and stretching out her hand, exclaimed, "My gift to the Princess is that she shall pierce her hand with a spindle, and die of the wound."

All present were astonished and horrified at this wicked speech, and stood looking at the old fairy, doubtful whether she could have spoken in earnest. But once more she stretched forth her hand and looked round, and repeated, "My gift is-she shall pierce her hand with a spindle, and

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die of the wound!" Then, with a yell of laughter and a look of the deadliest spite, she vanished.

All present were seized with horror and amazement, from the King who sat on the throne to the little scullion who peeped at the festivities from behind the door. The King and Queen were so much grieved that they wept, and many of the courtiers expressed their sympathy in a similar manner. But at this moment the young fairy stepped from behind the tapestry where she had stood, in the confident expectation that the wicked fairy would try to inflict some injury upon the pretty little babe, to gratify her own wicked malice and spite. It is a good thing to have the last word, when that last word is spoken wisely and well, as it was by this fairy who now showed herself looking from the

tapestry where she had been concealed, and said, in a gentle voice, "Do not grieve, my good friends, for things are not so bad as you imagine. The old fairy has spoken in hate and malice; but I can partly avert the effect of her anger, though not completely. Your daughter shall indeed pierce her hand with a spindle," she continued, turning to the King and Queen; "but she shall not die of the wound: she shall only be cast into a deep sleep. For one hundred years she shall be insensible to everything around her:

Far from strife, and from trouble free,
Calm and quiet her sleep shail be;
Safe and guarded like bird in nest,

She must slumber and take her rest.

And until these hundred years have passed away she shall

slumber, until, at the appointed time, the appointed person comes to wake her." Thus spoke the good fairy, and vanished; and the christening party broke up in sadness.

The King and Queen took all possible pains with the education of their little daughter, and as she grew the effects of the fairy gifts were clearly visible. She became more beautiful every day; and, what was of more consequence still, she became kind and gentle to every one about her, so that all loved and admired her. Nurses and governesses had no trouble at all with her, and even the domestic animals seemed somehow to know how kind and good she was. The great gruff housedog who lived in the kennel in the castle yard, and who barked at every one else, would snigger, and wag his tail, and tumble with delight, directly the little Princess came in view; and he would let her put garlands of flowers round his neck, and play with him by the hour together; and the more she pulled his ears the better he liked it. She was indeed a most lovely and lovable little girl.

One precaution, however, the King was careful to take. He had every spindle in the palace destroyed, and forbade every one, under pain of death, to use one. Nobody was even to utter the word "spindle ;" and the King actually discharged three of his footmen because they had spindle-shanks, and thus reminded him of the fairy's prediction.

But all these precautions were fruitless. When the Princess was just sixteen years old, the King and Queen left the palace almost for the first time since the birth of their daughter; for in general they preferred to stay at home, and entertain their lords and ladies, and the foreign guests who came to see them, in their own palace, as a king and queen ought to do. But at last it happened that they were compelled to go from home, both of them, and they would be absent

for a day or two, on a visit to one of the courtiers; and the Princess, being in a merry mood, amused herself with running from room to room in the castle, and exploring all the holes and corners where she had never been before. At last, on the top storey of all, she found a little room; and running in, she stopped in amazement at the strange scene before her. There seemed to be all kinds of comical little black spirits flitting about the room, like imps of mischief, as they were; and they bowed and grinned as if they were mighty glad to see the Princess. And sitting in a corner of the room, humming a tune, in a funny, cracked voice, the Princess