"I will sing if ye will hearken, If ye will hearken unto me; The king has ta'en a poor prisoner, The wanton laird o' young Logie." It was Twelfth-night, and in the royal Palace of...
I Long, long ago, in a country quite close to the top of the earth, where the North Wind blew fiercely each spring, there lived a woman called Dame Grumble. Now Dame Grumble had an...
There were once two farmer men who were brothers. Both of them worked hard in seed-time and in harvest-time. They stood knee-deep in water to plant out the young rice, bending thei...
There were three cooks of Colebrook, And they fell out with our cook; And all was for a pudding he took From the three cooks of Colebrook.
Lazy Lawrence, let me go, Don't me hold summer and winter too. This distich is said by a boy who feels very lazy, yet wishes to exert himself. Lazy Lawrence is a proverbial express...
Balsora was the capital of a kingdom long tributary to the caliph. During the time of the Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid the king of Balsora, who was his cousin, was called Zinebi. Not t...
Once upon a time there were seven brothers, who were orphans, and had no sister. Therefore they were obliged to do all their own housework. This they did not like at all; so after...
In the darksome depths of a thick forest lived Kalyb the fell enchantress. Terrible were her deeds, and few there were who had the hardihood to sound the brazen trumpet which hung...
BEFORE the High and Far-Off Times, O my Best Beloved, came the Time of the Very Beginnings; and that was in the days when the Eldest Magician was getting Things ready. First he got...
Childe Rowland and his brothers twain Were playing at the ball. Their sister, Burd Helen, she played In the midst among them all. For Burd Helen loved her brothers, and they loved...
Long ago a poor widow woman lived down near the iron forge, by Enniscorth, and she was so poor she had no clothes to put on her son; so she used to fix him in the ash-hole, near th...
Here's a health to the barley mow, Here's a health to the man, Who very well can Both harrow, and plough, and sow. When it is well sown, See it is well mown, Both raked and gravell...
Cap'n Bill's heart was beating pretty vast, but he did not let Zog know that. Trot was so sure of the protection of the fairy mermaids that she would not allow herself to become fr...
Few people can have crowded more occupations into a life of twenty-six years than James Maclean. His father, a Scot by birth, had settled in the Irish county of Monaghan, where the...
In Herefordshire, on the eve of Twelfth-day, the best ox, white or spotted, has a cake placed on his left horn; the men and girls of the farm-house being present, drink out of a si...
Long, long ago, as far back as the time when animals spoke, there lived a community of cats in a deserted house they had taken possession of not far from a large town. They had eve...
Sicilianische Mahrchen. Once upon a time there lived a shoemaker who could get no work to do, and was so poor that he and his wife nearly died of hunger. At last he said to her, 'I...
At his cocoon a busy Silkworm labored; A Spider, who with all her might was spinning Hard by, with laugh malicious, thus bespoke him. In silly exultation tasks comparing: "What thi...
The Smalanders declare: At the time when our Lord created the earth, he made a level and fruitful stretch of land, and that was Schonen. But the devil had been busy in the meantime...
Once upon a time there lived an emperor who had three sons. They were all fine young men, and fond of hunting, and scarcely a day passed without one or other of them going out to l...
Servia is a kingdom in the northwestern part of the Balkan Peninsula. In 1882 it became a constitutional monarchy. The judiciary is vested in a High Court of Appeal, a Court of Cas...
"It was intil a pleasant time, Upon a simmer's day, The noble Earl of Mar's daughter Went forth to sport and play." Long, long ago, in a country far away over the sea, there lived...
When Aurore was old enough to leave the convent she went back to Nohant to live with her grandmother, who was failing fast and died the following year. Aurore was sixteen now, and...
Once upon a time there lived a poor widow who had one little boy. At first sight you would not have thought that he was different from a thousand other little boys; but then you no...
Once there lived a poor girl whose wicked aunt treated her very cruelly. One morning, the aunt set out for a day of shopping and visiting to the neighboring town, after whipping he...
The Dominion of Canada now consists of the Provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Saskatchewan, tog...
Once upon a time there was a king who had a wife, whose name was Silver-tree, and a daughter whose name was Gold-tree. On a certain day of the days, Gold-tree and Silver-tree went...
Once upon a time there was a king who had an only son. When the lad was about eighteen years old his father had to go to fight in a war against a neighbouring country, and the king...
I A peasant from Jursagard in the parish of Hanger had gone to the forest the day before Christmas, and started out for home late in the evening. He had just about reached the Klin...
"To-night," said daddy, "we are going to have the story of the meeting of the brownies, crows, and old Mr. Scarecrow. The crows had been giving feasts in a corn-field almost every...