Part 23 (1/2)

The poor beast rushed away from the sound of her words, but in a moment he stumbled into a trap, set by bear-catchers When the trappers found hiht a curiosity, and they ied him to the palace courtyard There he heard the whole court buzzing with gossip Prince Cherry had been struck by lightning and killed, was the news, and the five favorite courtiers had struggled to make themselves rulers, but the people had refused theood old tutor

Even as he heard this, the prince saw Suli to the people ”I will take the crown to keep in trust,” he said ”Perhaps the prince is not dead”

”He was a bad king; we do not want him back,” said the people

”I know his heart,” said Suliman, ”it is not all bad; it is tainted, but not corrupt; perhaps he will repent and co”

When the beast heard this, it touched hientle He let his keepers lead hi thean to see that he had brought all his sorrow on himself, and he tried to bear it patiently The worst to bear was the cruelty of the keeper At last, one night, this keeper was in great danger; a tiger got loose, and attacked hiht Prince Cherry But when he sa helpless the keeper was, he repented, and sprang to help He killed the tiger and saved the keeper's life

As he crouched at the keeper's feet, a voice said, ”Good actions never go unrewarded!” And the terrible

The keeper carried the beautiful little dog to the court and told the story, and from then on, Cherry was carefully treated, and had the best of everything But in order to keep the little dog fro, the queen ordered that he should be fed very little, and that was pretty hard for the poor prince He was often half starved, although so much petted

One day he had carried his crust of bread to a retired spot in the palace woods, where he loved to be, when he saw a poor old wo alht, ”she is even hungrier than I;” and he ran up and dropped the crust at her feet

The wolad of that, and he was running happily back to his kennel when he heard cries of distress, and suddenly he saw so and crying for help What was his horror to see that the young girl was Zelia! Oh, hoished he were the monster once more, so that he could kill theexcept bark, and bite at the heels of the wicked men That could not stop them; they drove him off, with blows, and carried Zelia into a palace in the wood

Poor Cherry crouched by the steps, and watched His heart was full of pity and rage But suddenly he thought, ”I was as bad as these men; I myself put Zelia in prison, and would have treated her worse still, if I had not been prevented” The thought made him so sorry and ashamed that he repented bitterly the evil he had done

Presently aopened, and Cherry saw Zelia lean out and thron a piece ofto devour it, when the old woiven his crust snatched it away and took him in her ar,”

she said, ”for every bit of food in that house is poisoned”

At the sao unrewarded!”

And instantly Prince Cherry was transforreat joy, he flew to the open palaceto seek out his Zelia, to try to help her But though he hunted in every room, no Zelia was to be found He had to fly aithout seeing her He wantedelse to find her, and stay near her, so he flew out into the world, to seek her

He sought her in many lands, until one day, in a far eastern country, he found her sitting in a tent, by the side of an old, white-haired herht He flew to her shoulder, caressed her hair with his beak, and cooed in her ear

”You dear, lovely little thing!” said Zelia ”Will you stay with me?

If you will, I will love you always”

”Ah, Zelia, see what you have done!” laughed the hermit At that instant, the white dove vanished, and Prince Cherry stood there, as handso as ever, and with a look of kindness and modesty in his eyes which had never been there before At the saed to shi+ning gold, and his face became a lovely woman's face; it was the Fairy Candide ”Zelia has broken your spell,” she said to the Prince, ”as I meant she should, when you orthy of her love”

Zelia and Prince Cherry fell at the fairy's feet But with a beautiful sdom In a trice, they were transported to the Prince's palace, where King Suliave back the throne, with all his heart, and King Cherry ruled again, with Zelia for his queen

He wore the little gold ring all the rest of his life, but never once did it have to prick hier bleed

THE GOLD IN THE ORCHARD[1]

[1] An Italian folk tale