people left us alone, every old dream that has been strong enough to
fling the weight of the world from its shoulders.

There was a king one time who was very much put out because he had no
son, and he went at last to consult his chief adviser. And the chief
adviser said, "It's easy enough managed if you do as I tell you. Let
you send some one," says he, "to such a place to catch a fish. And when
the fish is brought in, give it to the queen, your wife, to eat."

So the king sent as he was told, and the fish was caught and brought
in, and he gave it to the cook, and bade her put it before the fire,
but to be careful with it, and not to let any blob or blister rise on
it. But it is impossible to cook a fish before the fire without the
skin of it rising in some place or other, and so there came a blob on
the skin, and the cook put her finger on it to smooth it down, and then
she put her finger into her mouth to cool it, and so she got a taste of
the fish. And then it was sent up to the queen, and she ate it, and
what was left of it was thrown out into the yard, and there was a mare
in the yard and a greyhound, and they ate the bits that were thrown out.

And before a year was out, the queen had a young son, and the cook had
a young son, and the mare had two foals, and the greyhound had two pups.

And the two young sons were sent out for a while to some place to be
cared, and when they came back they adviser and said, "Tell me some way
that I can know were so much like one another no person could know
which was the queen's son and which was the cook's. And the queen was
vexed at that, and she went to the chief which is my own son, for I
don't like to be giving the same eating and drinking to the cook's son
as to my own." "It is easy to know that," said the chief adviser, "if