A sportsman went out once into a wood to shoot, and he met a _Snipe_.
"Dear friend," said the _Snipe_, "don't shoot my children!"
"How shall I know your children?" asked the _Sportsman_. "What are
they like?"
"Oh!" said the _Snipe_, "mine are the prettiest children in all the
wood."
"Very well," said the _Sportsman_, "I'll not shoot them; don't be
afraid."
But for all that, when he came back, there he had a whole string of
young snipes in his hand which he had shot.
"Oh, oh!" said the _Snipe_, "why did you shoot my children after
all?"
"What! these your children!" said the _Sportsman_; "why, I shot the
ugliest I could find, that I did!"
"Woe is me!" said the _Snipe_; "don't you know that each one thinks
his own children the prettiest in the world?"
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Illustrations have been moved closer to their relevant paragraphs.
The page numbers in the List of Illustrations do not reflect the new
placement of the illustrations, but are as in the original.
Author's archaic and variable spelling and hyphenation is
preserved.
Author's punctuation style is preserved.
Passages in italics indicated by _underscores_.
Passages in bold indicated by =equal signs=.
Typographical problems have been changed and are listed below.
Transcriber's Changes:
TOC: Page number for "The Cat on the Dovrefell" was corrected from
'201' to '200'
TOC: Page number for "One's Own Children are Always Prettiest" was
corrected from '205' to '203'
Page 25: Was 'over over' (the _Prince_ made as if he drank, but
threw it =over= his shoulder)
Page 38: Added italics (But the =_Troll_=, as he lay in bed, swore
it was all a lie.)
Page 43: Added 'to': Was 'it her' (he pulled open his waistcoat and
shirt to show =it to her=.)
Page 55: Added italics (Some time after this, the =_King_= went away
to the wars)
Page 59: Standardised hyphenation from 'witchwoman' ("Well, you
needn't be," said the =witch-woman=. "All that can be set
right in a twinkling)
Page 94: Removed extra double-quote ("To Whiteland," said the
_King_; =and= then he told him all that had befallen him.)