Fifty Famous Stories Retold
soldiers went up on the wall with her child in her arms. As she looked
over into the fields below the castle, she saw some dark objects
moving toward the foot of the wall. In the dusk she could not make out
what they were, and so she pointed them out to one of the watch-men.
"Pooh, pooh!" said the watchman. "Those are nothing to frighten us.
They are the farmer's cattle, trying to find their way home. The
farmer himself is en-joy-ing the hol-i-day, and he has forgotten to
bring them in. If the Douglas should happen this way before morning,
he will be sorry for his care-less-ness."
But the dark objects were not cattle. They were the Black Douglas and
his men, creeping on hands and feet toward the foot of the castle
wall. Some of them were dragging ladders behind them through the
grass. They would soon be climbing to the top of the wall. None of the
English soldiers dreamed that they were within many miles of the
place.
The woman watched them until the last one had passed around a corner
out of sight. She was not afraid, for in the dark-en-ing twi-light
they looked indeed like cattle. After a little while she began to sing
to her child:--
"Hush ye, hush ye, little pet ye,
Hush ye, hush ye, do not fret ye,
The Black Douglas shall not get ye."
All at once a gruff voice was heard behind her, saying, "Don't be so
sure about that!"
She looked around, and there stood the Black Douglas himself. At the
same moment a Scottish soldier climbed off a ladder and leaped upon
the wall; and then there came another and another and another, until
the wall was covered with them. Soon there was hot fighting in every
part of the castle. But the English were so taken by surprise that
they could not do much. Many of them were killed, and in a little
while the Black Douglas and his men were the masters of the castle,
which by right be-longed to them.
As for the woman and her child, the Black Douglas would not suffer any
one to harm them. After a while they went back to England; and whether
the mother made up any more songs about the Black Douglas I cannot
tell.
THREE MEN OF GOTHAM.
There is a town in England called Go-tham, and many merry stories are
told of the queer people who used to live there.
One day two men of Go-tham met on a bridge. Hodge was coming from the
market, and Peter was going to the market.
"Where are you going?" said Hodge.
"I am going to the market to buy sheep," said Peter.
"Buy sheep?" said Hodge. "And which way will you bring them home?"
"I shall bring them over this bridge," said Peter.
"No, you shall not," said Hodge.
"Yes, but I will," said Peter.
"You shall not," said Hodge.
"I will," said Peter.
Then they beat with their sticks on the ground as though there had
been a hundred sheep between them.
"Take care!" cried Peter. "Look out that my sheep don't jump on the
bridge."
"I care not where they jump," said Hodge; "but they shall not go over
it."
"But they shall," said Peter.
"Have a care," said Hodge; "for if you say too much, I will put my
fingers in your mouth."
"Will you?" said Peter.
Just then another man of Gotham came from the market with a sack of
meal on his horse. He heard his neigh-bors quar-rel-ing about sheep;
but he could see no sheep between them, and so he stopped and spoke to
them.
"Ah, you foolish fellows!" he cried. "It is strange that you will
never learn wisdom.--Come here, Peter, and help me lay my sack on my
shoul-der."
Peter did so, and the man carried his meal to the side of the bridge.
"Now look at me," he said, "and learn a lesson." And he opened the
mouth of the sack, and poured all the meal into the river.
"Now, neighbors," he said, "can you tell how much meal is in my
sack?"
"There is none at all!" cried Hodge and Peter together.
"You are right," said the man; "and you that stand here and quarrel
about nothing, have no more sense in your heads than I have meal in my
sack!"
OTHER WISE MEN OF GOTHAM.
One day, news was brought to Gotham that the king was coming that way,
and that he would pass through the town. This did not please the men
of Gotham at all. They hated the king, for they knew that he was a
cruel, bad man. If he came to their town, they would have to find food
and lodg-ing for him and his men; and if he saw anything that pleased
him, he would be sure to take it for his own. What should they do?
They met together to talk the matter over.
"Let us chop down the big trees in the woods, so that they will block
up all the roads that lead into the town," said one of the wise men.
"Good!" said all the rest.
So they went out with their axes, and soon all the roads and paths to
the town were filled with logs and brush. The king's horse-men would
have a hard time of it getting into Gotham. They would either have to
make a new road, or give up the plan al-to-geth-er, and go on to some
other place.
When the king came, and saw that the road had been blocked up, he was
very angry.
"Who chopped those trees down in my way?" he asked of two country lads
that were passing by.
"The men of Gotham," said the lads.
"Well," said the king, "go and tell the men of Gotham that I shall
send my sher-iff into their town, and have all their noses cut off."
The two lads ran to the town as fast as they could, and made known
what the king had said.
Every-body was in great fright. The men ran from house to house,
carrying the news, and asking one another what they should do.
"Our wits have kept the king out of the town," said one; "and so now
our wits must save our noses."
"True, true!" said the others. "But what shall we do?"
Then one, whose name was Dobbin, and who was thought to be the wisest
of them all, said, "Let me tell you something. Many a man has been
punished because he was wise, but I have never heard of any one being
harmed because he was a fool. So, when the king's sher-iff comes, let
us all act like fools."
"Good, good!" cried the others. "We will all act like fools."
It was no easy thing for the king's men to open the roads; and while
they were doing it, the king grew tired of waiting, and went back to
London. But very early one morning, the sheriff with a party of fierce
soldiers rode through the woods, and between the fields, toward
Gotham. Just before they reached the town, they saw a queer sight. The
old men were rolling big stones up the hill, and all the young men
were looking on, and grunting very loudly.
The sheriff stopped his horses, and asked what they were doing.
"We are rolling stones up-hill to make the sun rise," said one of the
old men.
"You foolish fellow!" said the sheriff. "Don't you know that the sun
will rise without any help?"
"Ah! will it?" said the old man. "Well, I never thought of that. How
wise you are!"
"And what are _you_ doing?" said the sheriff to the young men.
"Oh, we do the grunting while our fathers do the working," they
answered.
"I see," said the sheriff. "Well, that is the way the world goes
every-where." And he rode on toward the town.
He soon came to a field where a number of men were building a stone
wall.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Why, master," they answered, "there is a cuck-oo in this field, and
we are building a wall around it so as to keep the bird from straying
away."
"You foolish fellows!" said the sheriff. "Don't you know that the bird
will fly over the top of your wall, no matter how high you build it?"
"Why, no," they said. "We never thought of that. How very wise you
are!"
The sheriff next met a man who was carrying a door on his back.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"I have just started on a long jour-ney," said the man.
"But why do you carry that door?" asked the sheriff.
"I left my money at home."
"Then why didn't you leave the door at home too?"
"I was afraid of thieves; and you see, if I have the door with me,
they can't break it open and get in."
"You foolish fellow!" said the sheriff. "It would be safer to leave
the door at home, and carry the money with you."
"Ah, would it, though?" said the man. "Now, I never thought of that.
You are the wisest man that I ever saw."
Then the sheriff rode on with his men; but every one that they met was
doing some silly thing.
"Truly I believe that the people of Gotham are all fools," said one of
the horsemen.
"That is true," said another. "It would be a shame to harm such simple
people."
"Let us ride back to London, and tell the king all about them," said
the sheriff.
"Yes, let us do so," said the horsemen.
So they went back, and told the king that Gotham was a town of fools;
and the king laughed, and said that if that was the case, he would not
harm them, but would let them keep their noses.
THE MILLER OF THE DEE.
Once upon a time there lived on the banks of the River Dee a miller,
who was the hap-pi-est man in England. He was always busy from morning
till night, and he was always singing as merrily as any lark. He was
so cheerful that he made everybody else cheerful; and people all over
the land liked to talk about his pleasant ways. At last the king heard
about him.
"I will go down and talk with this won-der-ful miller," he said.
"Perhaps he can tell me how to be happy."
As soon as he stepped inside of the mill, he heard the miller
singing:--
"I envy no-body--no, not I!--
For I am as happy as I can be;
And nobody envies me."
"You're wrong, my friend," said the king. "You're wrong as wrong can
be. I envy you; and I would gladly change places with you, if I could
only be as light-hearted as you are."
The miller smiled, and bowed to the king.
"I am sure I could not think of changing places with you, sir," he
said.
"Now tell me," said the king, "what makes you so cheerful and glad
here in your dusty mill, while I, who am king, am sad and in trouble
every day."
The miller smiled again, and said, "I do not know why you are sad, but
I can eas-i-ly tell why I am glad. I earn my own bread; I love my wife
and my children; I love my friends, and they love me; and I owe not a
penny to any man. Why should I not be happy? For here is the River
Dee, and every day it turns my mill; and the mill grinds the corn that
feeds my wife, my babes, and me."
"Say no more," said the king. "Stay where you are, and be happy still.
But I envy you. Your dusty cap is worth more than my golden crown.
Your mill does more for you than my kingdom can do for me. If there
were more such men as you, what a good place this world would be!
Good-by, my friend!"
The king turned about, and walked sadly away; and the miller went back
to his work singing:--
"Oh, I'm as happy as happy can be,
For I live by the side of the River Dee!"
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.
A cruel battle was being fought. The ground was covered with dead and
dying men. The air was hot and stifling. The sun shone down without
pity on the wounded soldiers lying in the blood and dust.
One of these soldiers was a no-ble-man, whom everybody loved for his
gen-tle-ness and kindness. Yet now he was no better off than the
poorest man in the field. He had been wounded, and would die; and he
was suf-fer-ing much with pain and thirst.
When the battle was over, his friends hurried to his aid. A soldier
came running with a cup in his hand.
"Here, Sir Philip," he said, "I have brought you some clear, cool
water from the brook. I will raise your head so that you can drink."
The cup was placed to Sir Philip's lips. How thank-ful-ly he looked at
the man who had brought it! Then his eyes met those of a dying soldier