understand all he hears going on around him, remaining in that shape as
long as he may choose. Whenever he wishes to resume his own natural
form, he has only to bow himself again three times to the earth, and
repeat the formula already given. But let him, during the period of
transformation, especially beware of laughing aloud--or he will
inevitably forget the formula, and run the risk of remaining as he has
chosen to be."
"This is the most delightful thing I ever had happen to me," said the
merry young queen, clapping her hands. "Come, my lord, I am dying to try
the experiment. Suppose we become two turkeys, and wander into the
barn-yard. Nothing could please me more than a little adventure of that
kind. Besides, you forget I have never studied Turkish, and this will be
an excellent opportunity."
The prime minister, who was a man of sober years, beyond the taste for
such mad-cap frolics, remonstrated in vain with his wilful mistress.
Blondina would have her way; and, in a short time, behold both queen and
minister indulging in a solemn pinch of white snuff, and pronouncing
distinctly the magic formula, while inclining themselves humbly to the
earth!
At once, Blondina's gown of silken tissue was exchanged for a suit of
neat brown mottled feathers, while the prime minister became just such a
huge and unwieldy gobbler as would take first prize in a Christmas
poultry show!
"Oh! what splendid fun!" the queen began, dying to laugh at her
companion. But reflecting upon the possible consequences of this
indiscretion, she became grave and silent, while the humiliated prime
minister waddled after her into the barn-yard, whither his perverse
little sovereign now took her way, leaving the hazel-nut securely hidden
in a corner of the summer-house.
In the multitude of feathered folk assembled in the enclosure, our two
turkeys passed almost unnoticed at first. They were surprised to find
very much the same sort of talk going on among their new friends, as
among those they had left. The same struggle for prizes and for place,
the same greedy rapacity, the same love of gossip and display. Two new
peacocks had that day been added to the collection, and were strutting
up and down like fashionable loungers, discussing all the affairs of the
nation and the conduct of the rulers; and, in listening to their
discourse, the queen found herself much enlightened about many of her
subjects, and their doings.
"As to her Majesty, Queen Blondina," said one of the peacocks, sending
his tail up in a magnificent fan when he saw the admiring gaze of two
young guinea hens bent upon him, "I have reason to believe that this
unfortunate young woman is doomed soon to fall a victim to the wiles of
that powerful enchantress, her sister, who, as is well known to all of
us, has just become the sovereign of the underground fraternity of
magicians, against whose spells all other witches and warlocks can do
nothing."
Blondina strained her ears to catch the answer; but the two talkers had
passed on, and she heard a sharp voice say close beside her, "Come now,
no struggling, if you please, Mr. Mole. I have not tasted so much as a
mouse to-day, and you have crossed my path in the nick of time."
"Dear Miss Tame Owl," pleaded the little velvet-coated victim, held
tight in the claws of a spinster-owl, domesticated in the barn-yard by
Blondina's special orders, "I must entreat you to let me off this time;
I was hurrying to my daughter's wedding, and mistook the way, straying
into this dreadful place by the most unfortunate mischance. Consider the
feelings of my family, who are all assembled and expecting me."
"Come now, no nonsense," said the cross old thing. "My mouth is fairly
watering for you."
She was about to cut short the victim's observations in the most abrupt
manner by taking him bodily into her crop, when Blondina interposed, and
flying at the owl, boxed her ears soundly. At this, the venerable lady
was so unpleasantly taken by surprise, that she opened her mouth to
gasp, and out fell the mole, who instantly scuttled away, but not
without bestowing upon his turkey benefactress the most ardent thanks.
After this little incident, Blondina's attention was distracted by a
variety of curious studies in fowl-life, and she forgot all about her
companion, the prime minister, until, chancing to look around, she
beheld him the centre of an admiring throng of ducks, geese, and
chickens, whose numbers were constantly increasing. "How grand he is!"
"How big!" "How noble!" echoed on every side; and the prime minister,
who was very vain, drooped his wings, set up his tail, and puffed
himself into a magnificent fluffy ball. "Never have we beheld a turkey
of so majestic a bearing!" cried a gushing goose-widow, and a pair of
young lady ducklings rolled up their eyes in rapture and nodded assent.
The prime minister was in his glory.
"Yes, I am indeed the champion," he said, swelling into a balloon of
feathers. Just then, Queen Blondina's own pet kitten, Floss, wandered
across the yard, and having no especial occupation in view, charged at
full scamper upon the prime minister, who, alas! for his boasted
dignity, subsided ingloriously, and, shutting himself up tight, fairly
turned tail and ran away, looking so excessively crest-fallen and
foolish that Blondina could not resist bursting into a long and merry
peal of laughter.
"What have you done, your Majesty?" cried the alarmed prime minister,
now remembering himself, as together they took refuge in a neighboring
field. "Is it possible you can have forgotten; and, for my part, I saw
nothing to laugh about. I never imagined a more dreadful beast than that
unmannerly little pet of yours which attacked me."
The queen broke out afresh into laughter, and laughed until she cried.
Then, seeing the discomfiture of the prime minister, she decided that
she had for to-day had enough of the animal world, and would indulge no
more in such amusements until to-morrow.
"I beg ten thousand pardons, my dear lord," she said, shaking with
suppressed laughter. "But if you could only have seen yourself! Ha, ha!
However, we have nothing now to do but bow three times, thus"--suiting
the action to the word, "and say--Kik-kuk-kik! Dear me, what is it we
must say? I can't for the life of me remember it."
The prime minister was as much at a loss.
"Perhaps your Majesty has forgotten _the price you were to pay for a
laugh_," he observed, bitterly.
Blondina looked at him in blank horror. Too truly had she forgotten the
formula, and turkeys they must remain!
And now, how sad their plight! In the midst of their other tribulations,
hunger assailed them, and they could not eat the food provided for the
rest. So they wandered into the fields and forest, picking at berries
here and there; though, when evening came, footsore and weary, they
determined to go back into the palace barn-yard, and see what was taking
place there.
They found all the animals and fowls excited over the events of the day,
and soon heard the news that Queen Blondina had died suddenly that
morning, leaving a will appointing her sister to reign in her stead.
Next day a funeral took place, when the coffin was filled by a lovely
waxen image of the late queen, and was placed in the vault beside her
father. The false Vixetta, dressed in mourning, had followed weeping
after it.
Blondina and the prime minister now saw that they were indeed under the
spell of a powerful enchantress, and resolved to travel to the dwelling
of a certain wise woman in search of advice.
After a long journey, the two turkeys reached the hut of the wise woman,
and told her their pitiful tale.
"Unfortunately, I have no power against Queen Vixetta since she has
become the sovereign of the underground band," said the wise woman.
"But, if you could gain an entrance to one of their Friday councils, you
might pick up something to your advantage there." And then, as wise
women speak but once in twenty-four hours, she shut the door in their
faces, and left them to their fate.
Blondina and the prime minister repaired to the ruined tower whither
Vixetta was wont to go on Fridays; and there, hiding behind a wall, they
saw the wicked sorceress arrive and, lifting a trap-door in the cellar,
disappear from sight. While they remained above, lamenting their hard
fate, Blondina saw a tiny black object emerge from the ground at her
feet, then another and another, till a troop of them were assembled.
These were moles, and their leader, addressing the queen, informed her
that he it was she had saved from the crop of the owl.
"We have heard of your distressing predicament, your Majesty," the mole
added, with deep respect; "and hasten to offer our services to conduct
you to the council chamber of the underground band."
Blondina thanked the mole fervently, and found, upon following him, that
with his companions he had burrowed a long and beautifully smooth
tunnel. Glow-worms were ranged along the sides to light the way, and
every thing was arranged for her comfort. After a considerable time had
elapsed, the travellers reached a gallery leading directly into a
vaulted chamber where the witches and warlocks sat, each upon a cushion
formed of a huge and swollen toad. In their midst, upon a throne made of
serpents intertwined, sat the Queen Vixetta, around whose brow flickered
a wreath of blue flames. Ah! she was a terrible witch to look upon.
Blondina shuddered to remember the kisses she had often innocently
pressed upon that skinny forehead and those lips of lurid red. Vixetta
was in high spirits; she and her familiars hatched mischief together,
and gloated over their evil doings in fiendish glee. Then Vixetta
listened to the reports of each of the wicked creatures in turn; and, to
Blondina's astonishment, in the narrators of these tales of witchcraft
she recognized more than one of the most respected of her own subjects.
Some of them were crones ancient and palsied, others were young and
blooming girls Vixetta had led astray; among the warlocks were the
gray-haired miller, the good sexton, and a courtier in whom the queen
had placed peculiar confidence. All were attended by black deformed
creatures, half cat, half human being. In the centre of the circle was a
fire, and before it they set up the very waxen image of the queen which
had been buried in her stead. Into this little imps were ordered to
thrust sharp blades and needles in the region of the heart, while
Vixetta pronounced a spell, at which all the others laughed rejoicingly.
"I'll warrant my lady Blondina will be cured of her love of laughing,
after this--as well as of her curiosity. Long may she wander in her
present shape," said the sorceress. "It was a merry trick I played her
and that audacious old prime minister, who sought to do me harm."
"And what, pray, was the rhyme your Majesty bid them recall?" asked the
courtier warlock, grinning maliciously.
"A simple one," replied the sorceress, "and you will remember it was
once a password in our band,--
'Kurri-kuree,
Changed would I be.'"
Blondina almost betrayed herself in her delight. She repeated the words
again and again, in mind, keeping profoundly silent until the
witch-revels were at an end; and at cock-crow the unholy gang broke up,
vanishing like smoke through a trap-door in the ceiling of the vault.
"And now, dear little mole, take us back again," said the turkey-queen,
who longed to breathe the free air of heaven and to break her awful
spell.
"May it please your Majesty," said the mole, looking very unhappy,
"there is a new difficulty. Yonder image of you which they consumed in
the fire, is a fresh enchantment that dooms you to remain perpetually in
the place where you now are; and I find by consultation with a friend of
mine, a bat who lives in this cave, and who is the most kind and
obliging person, that on only one condition can you now leave this spot,
and that, I hardly dare name to you."
"Summon this bat to appear before me immediately," cried the wretched
queen, who, finding that her feet were stuck fast to the earth, was
truly overwhelmed, while the prime minister gave himself up to complete
despair.
The bat appeared, and a more repulsive huge creature it is impossible to
picture; but his voice was gentle and his manner most humble and
conciliatory. He began to apologize for presenting himself before the
queen, when she interrupted him impetuously.
"Quick--quick! tell me the condition on which I may leave this horrible
place, where I shall die if I remain a moment longer. Who are you? why
are you here? and why should we trust in you when every living thing in
this foul spot is devoted to the service of the evil one?"
"I, like yourself, am a victim of, not a partner in, crime, your
Majesty," said the bat, with dignity. "If you will permit----"
"But I can't stop to listen to anything," sobbed the poor little
turkey-queen. "Get me into the daylight somehow or other, and then I
will hear you gladly. Oh! kind Mr. Bat, forgive my unkind words; only
free me from this living tomb, if it be possible."
"You have been told that it is possible, lady," said the bat,
pathetically; "but, to be brief, since you insist upon it--only by
promising your fair hand in marriage to----"
"To whom?" cried Blondina, in astonishment
"To me," said the bat, withdrawing more into the shadows of the vault.
Blondina screamed with horror.
"Oh! never, never," she exclaimed, bursting again into tears of
anguish.
The mole, the bat and the turkey prime minister consulted together in
low whispers; and the last-named gentleman, addressing the queen, set
before her the hopeless situation in which she now was, and urged her to
accept the proposition of the bat.
"Hear me, too, fair queen," said the voice of the bat. "I swear that if
you consent, you shall never regret it. Only trust me, and all will go
well. In consigning me to this spot, your wicked sister, who, in my
former estate desired to marry me herself, in spite of my aversion for
her, swore that never should I be free from her enchantment, until a
beautiful young bride should come to the rescue and promise to marry me,
as I am, without asking any questions. Then, and then only, I might
escape, taking my bride and her attendants with me."
"But your appearance--pardon me," said poor Blondina; "it is too
dreadful for anything."
"Trust me," repeated the bat; and, in desperation, Blondina murmured a
promise to be his bride.
Instantly the bat flew with alacrity into a corner of the vault, and,
bringing thence a bunch of mistletoe, angelica, and mountain-ash, waved
it thrice in a circle around Blondina, who up to that moment had
remained as if rooted to the spot where she stood. The spell broke, and
Blondina, starting joyfully forward, repeated, at his request, the same
ceremony of disenchantment for the bat, as also for the prime minister;
and all three of them, accompanied by the faithful mole, took their way
to the upper regions without delay. Upon reaching the meadow where they
had entered the underground passage, Blondina and the prime minister
lost no time in running back to the summer-house, where, regaining the
hidden hazel nut, they safely and joyfully resumed their own true
shapes.
"And now, gentle lady," said the bat, who had flown after them, keeping
his distance modestly, "I pray you to perform for me another kindly
action. Close your eyes, and sprinkle me with this powder, at the same
time touching my head with the witch-defying plants. Then, kindle a fire
with these fagots of wood left here by your gardener, and cast me into
the hottest portion of it."
Blondina shrank from the task, but, finding the bat as determined as he
was calm and dignified, obeyed him without another word of protest.
Aided by the now alert and cheerful prime minister, she kindled a fire
upon the hearth of the little summer-house; and when it blazed high,
and hot coals fell into the centre, she followed the bat's directions to
the letter. Immediately there was a loud explosion; the hideous bat skin
split asunder and shrivelled up, revealing a beautiful young prince, who
stepped unsinged from the ring of flame, and bent his knee before the
Queen Blondina. She recognized in him a playmate of her childhood,
Prince Florizel, son of a neighboring monarch, who years before had
disappeared from his father's court, and had been mourned as dead by his
sorrowing relatives. To enchant him, in punishment for his scorn of her,
had been one of the first acts of Vixetta's acquired magic; and to
accomplish it, the wretched girl had bargained away her entire life to
the service of the Evil One.
Blondina greeted Florizel with the utmost pleasure and assured him of
her willingness to fulfil the pledge she had made to the dreaded
bat-lover. They returned to the palace, and on being observed by the
attendants, who, believing them to be ghosts, ran terrified away, had
some difficulty in persuading people that they were alive and in the
flesh. Then, what joy reigned over the palace. Quickly the news spread
through the city and kingdom. The indignant people flocked around the
apartments of Vixetta, who was still asleep after her orgies of the
previous night, and, summoning her to come forth, declared that she
should instantly be put to death in the presence of her victims. The
miserable sorceress fell upon her knees, and begged for her life. Again
the generous Blondina entreated that her sister might be spared; but
Prince Florizel interfered, and insisted that, for the future safety of
his queen, Vixetta should then and there be compelled to take a pinch of
the magic powder and change herself into a bat. This was done, and the
sorceress, flying from the window, was never heard of more.
Blondina gave her hand and heart to Prince Florizel, as soon as he
returned from a visit to his parents, who were overjoyed to regain their
long-lost son and heir. The marriage took place with great magnificence,
and the royal couple lived in peace for the remainder of their long and
useful lives. They would often walk in the direction of the
poultry-yard, and Blondina loved to tell her husband of all the things
she had heard and seen there when in her turkey shape.
But the prime minister, after he had weeded out of the kingdom certain
obnoxious individuals strongly resembling the warlocks seen at the
underground council, preferred to assume a dignified forgetfulness of
all that had passed during his enforced experience as a feathered biped.
To the latest day of his life he would always cross the road to avoid
meeting a turkey-gobbler, and for the race of pet kittens he continued
to maintain the most unconquerable dislike.
By the laws of the kingdom, to kill or injure a mole was made a capital
offence; and once every year a little blind gentleman in a fine black
velvet coat arrived at the palace to pay his respects to their
majesties, who received him with every mark of favor and affection.
TIMID AGNES.
[Illustration: Shutting Agnes into the Chest.]
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 her niece soundly (as she was in the
habit of doing for exercise, every morning), and shutting up the poor
girl in the garret, where a barrel of white sand had been spilt upon the
floor.
"Pick up every grain of this sand before bedtime, or I will imprison you
in the dark closet for a week," said the aunt as she went away.
The poor child cried so that she could not see the tiny particles; and
as she sat, crying and picking up what she could feel, she heard a
little scratching under the lid of the old wedding-chest in the corner.
Presently, a pretty blue mouse with topaz eyes ran down the side of the
chest, and came up to her. Now, if there was anything poor Agnes feared
more than death, it was a mouse. The very sight of one had always made
her shudder and scream and clutch at her petticoats, and climb up on
chairs or tables or anything convenient.
So when she saw her visitor she gave a cry of terror, and climbed nimbly
up to the top of a broken chest of drawers in the corner of the garret.
"Don't mind me," said the mouse, politely.
"I _beg_ your pardon, but I'm so awfully afraid of you," said Agnes,
shuddering to her toes. "I think I could endure you if it were not for
your horrid tail! But you really make me creep all over, don't you see?"
"If you would only take that apron off your head, and exercise a little
self-control," said the mouse, with a shade of impatience in its manner,
"you would soon see that I am a very superior kind of a mouse. Come,
Miss Agnes, I have watched you very often at your work here, and I have
a great desire to be of service to you. But there is really no talking
reason to a person hunched up on top of a chest of drawers with a pink
apron over her head; is there, now?"
Agnes, hearing the mouse talk so pleasantly, made a desperate effort to
come down from her perch and converse with the little creature. After a
while the blue mouse's eloquence proved sufficient to induce her to
follow it near a crack in the wall, and to peep between the boards, as
directed.
There she saw a secret room, full of beautiful things--clothes and
jewels--scattered on the floor.
"All these shall be yours, fair Agnes," said the mouse, "if you will
carry me in your pocket for a day."
Agnes trembled with horror so that she could hardly bring herself to
say, "Thank you kindly, good Mr. Blue Mouse, but I hardly need anything
new in the way of clothes, going out as little as I do. O--o--oh!" she
exclaimed, catching her breath, as the mouse seemed to scuttle toward
her.
"Do not fear! I am entirely too proud to obtrude my company where it is
so little desired. Farewell, Miss Agnes; I leave you. But before I go,
allow me to arrange this little difficulty for you."
The gallant little mouse whisked his tail (that hateful tail!), twice
over the pile of sand, and at once, every grain of the shining heap, and
all that lay scattered over the garret floor, flew back into the barrel.
"Thank you, kind Mr. Blue Mouse," cried the grateful Agnes; but no
answer came. Her benefactor was nowhere to be seen. She looked in vain
for the crack in the wall he had led her to; it was no longer in view.
When the wicked aunt found that Agnes had completed her task, she flew
into a violent rage, and determined to rid herself forever of the girl.
So, taking her again into the garret, she bound her hand-and-foot, tied
a handkerchief across her mouth to still her cries, and, opening the old
wedding-chest in the corner, thrust poor Agnes bodily into it, closing
the lid with a vicious bang, and locking it with the great iron key.
"Lie there till doomsday, you tiresome thing!" said the wicked aunt,
going down-stairs to eat her supper.
Poor Agnes thought she must soon die of suffocation, but just then she
heard a scratching noise; four little feet scuttled over her face, and a
long smooth tail whisked by her ear.
"Ugh!" groaned poor Agnes. "It's a mouse shut up here with me! Oh! why
didn't she kill me, outright?"
Then little teeth began gnawing at her bandages and at the ropes that
bound her, and in a few moments she was free.
"I am here, Miss Agnes; though, indeed, I won't touch you again!" said
the familiar voice of the Blue Mouse. "But if you would only trust me,
and carry me in your pocket, how much I could do for you!"
At last Agnes consented to grant his wish and, trembling in every limb,
she let the mouse run into her pocket. Without a moment's delay, the
bottom of the chest gave way, and Agnes felt herself sinking, sinking.
When she recovered her wits, which in that moment of terror seemed
fairly to forsake her, there she was in a beautiful garden, filled with
ladies and gentlemen walking two and two in a grand procession along a
bowery path strewn with roses and carnations. Fountains played in the
sunshine, birds sang on the boughs. It was a scene so gay and beautiful,
that Agnes clapped her hands for joy.
"How happy I am here!" she cried.
"And happy you shall always be here," said a voice behind her.
Agnes, turning, saw a young gentleman dressed in a blue court costume
with topaz buttons, and wearing in his cap a long smooth plume of blue,
caught by a brilliant brooch of the same gems.