I
Once upon a time there lived a man called Anselm, who used several times
an hour to stamp his foot and cry out: “I _must_ be rich! I _must_ be
rich!” He was married to the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and,
since he had enough to eat and a weatherproof house, and had neither
aches nor pains, he should have been happy for 365 days in each year.
But his unceasing longing for great wealth spoilt everything, and even
on fine days he went about looking as discontented as though he were
hungry.
As for his wife, Jasmine, she had long red-gold hair and great green
eyes set wide apart in her flower-like face, and she possessed a mirror
in which she could see her shimmering loveliness. So she ought to have
been very happy and very grateful. She was so beautiful that when she
walked abroad, men would lean far out of their windows to watch her pass
and then wonder why their own wives and daughters should look so much
like suet puddings.
But, though you will scarcely believe it, Jasmine was quite as
discontented as her husband, and pouted and sighed through the days.
For she, too, was consumed by this perpetual craving for riches. Whether
she had caught this uncomfortable sort of illness from her husband, or
whether she had given it to him, I do not know, but there they were both
wasting their youth, their beauty, and their love for one another, in
foolish, petulant longing.
Whenever Jasmine saw other women clad in rich raiment and adorned with
jewels, envy would blight her loveliness as frost blights a flower.
“Of what use is my beauty if I cannot adorn it?” she cried. “I _must_
have pearls—ropes of pearls, crowns of glittering diamonds, emeralds,
rubies, and sapphires!”
“Yes,” said Anselm, “and I must have a hundred horses, a thousand
slaves, and fountains that spout forth wines!”
One day, as Jasmine walked sadly through a deep, dark forest she
suddenly saw a very strange looking house moving slowly towards her. The
roof of the house was most beautifully thatched with brightly-coloured
feathers, and across its face in rainbow letters ran the queer
inscription: