yours'?"

"Better come and pet me," said the smith. But when the cook heard that
she got angry.

"What is that you say?" she cried and gave the smith a box on his ears
with the ladle.

"If you want to come along, hang on," said Taper Tom. So she stuck fast
too, and for all her kicks and plunges, and all her scolding and
screaming, and all her riving and striving, she too had to limp along
with them.

[Illustration: She opened her mouth wide and laughed]

Soon the whole company came under the Princess's window. There she stood
waiting for them. And when she saw they had taken the cook too, with her
ladle and broom, she opened her mouth wide, and laughed so loud that the
King had to hold her upright.

So Taper Tom got the Princess and half the kingdom, and they say he kept
her in high spirits with his tricks and pranks till the end of her days.




WHY THE BEAR IS STUMPY-TAILED


One day the Bear met the Fox, who came slinking along with a string of