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He had scarce said so before the cloth did as it was bid, and all who stood by thought it a fine thing, but most of all the landlady.

So, when all were fast asleep, at dead of night, she took the lad's cloth, and put another in its stead, just like the one he had got from the North Wind, but which couldn't serve up so much as a bit of dry bread.

So, when the lad woke, he took his cloth and went off with it, and that day he got home to his mother.

"Now," said he, "I've been to the North Wind's house, and a good fellow he is, for he gave me this cloth, and when I only say to it,

Cloth, spread yourself, and serve up all kinds of good dishes,' I get any sort of food that I please."

"All very true, I dare say," said his mother; "but seeing is believing, and I shan't believe it till I see it."

So the lad made haste, drew out a table, laid the cloth, smooth and white, on it, and said, "Cloth, spread yourself, and serve up all kinds of good dishes."

But never a bit of dry bread did the cloth

serve up.

"Well," said the lad, "there's no help for it but to go to the North Wind again;" and away

he went.

So he came to where the North Wind lived, late in the afternoon.

"Good evening!" said the lad.

"Good evening!" said the North Wind.

"I want my rights for that meal of ours which you took," said the lad; "for as for that cloth I got, it isn't worth a penny."

"I've got no meal," said the North Wind; "but yonder you have a ram which coins nothing but gold ducats as soon as you say to it, 'Ram, ram! make money!

So the lad thought this a fine thing; but as it was too far to get home that day, he turned in for the night at the same inn where he had slept before.

Before he called for anything, he tried what the North Wind had said of the ram, and found it true, but when the landlord saw that, he thought it was a famous ram, and, when the lad had fallen

asleep, he took another ram which couldn't coin gold ducats, and changed the two.

Next morning off went the lad; and when he got home to his mother, he said, "After all, the North Wind is a jolly fellow; for now he has given me a ram which can coin golden ducats if I only say, 'Ram, ram! make money!"

"All very true, I dare say," said his mother; "but I shan't believe any such stuff until I see the ducats made."

"Ram, ram! make money!" said the lad; but the ram made no money.

So the lad went back again to the North Wind, and blew him up, and said the ram was worth nothing, and he must have his rights for the meal.

"Well," said the North Wind, "I've nothing else to give you but that old stick in the corner yonder; but it's a stick of the kind that if you say 'Stick, stick! lay on!' it lays on till you say 'Stick, stick! now ston!'"

So, as the way was long, the lad turned in this night, too, to the landlord; but as he could pretty

well guess how things stood as to the cloth and the ram, he lay down at once on the bench and began to snore, as if he were asleep.

Now the landlord, who easily saw that the stick must be worth something, hunted up one which was like it, and when he heard the lad snore, was going to change the two, but just as the landlord was about to take it the lad bawled out, "Stick, stick! lay on!"

So the stick began to beat the landlord, till he jumped over chairs, and tables, and benches, and yelled and roared,

"Oh my! oh my! bid the stick be still, else it will beat me to death, and you shall have back both your cloth and your ram."

When the lad thought the landlord had got enough, he said,

"Stick, stick! now stop!

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Then he took the cloth and put it into his pocket, and went home with his stick in his hand, leading the ram by a cord round its horns; and so he got his rights for the meal he had lost

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY

Dramatized by sixth grade pupils under Miss Margaret McLaughlin

CHARACTERS:

page, guards.

FOLK SONG

Andante.

ACT I. COURT SCENE

King, Queen, lords, ladies, knights, minstrel,

WILLIAM ALLINGHAM

[graphic]
[blocks in formation]

tant clime, The honey bee from drowsy cells.

King.

(Curtain rises.)

My lords and ladies, the fairies will

join in our festivities to-night and will present magic gifts to our royal Princess.

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