Read Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 01 for Free Online Page B

daughter
were married."
    "Oh! you have a daughter," cried the Yellow Dwarf
(who was so called because he
was
a dwarf and had such
a yellow face, and lived in the orange tree). "I'm really
glad to hear that, for I've been looking for a wife all over
the world. Now, if you will promise that she shall marry
me, not one of the lions, tigers, or bears shall touch you."
    The Queen looked at him and was almost as much
afraid of his ugly little face as she had been of the lions
before, so that she could not speak a word.
    "What! you hesitate, madam," cried the Dwarf. "You
must be very fond of being eaten up alive."
    And, as he spoke, the Queen saw the lions, which were
running down a hill toward them.
    Each one had two heads, eight feet, and four rows of
teeth, and their skins were as hard as turtle shells, and
were bright red.
    At this dreadful sight, the poor Queen, who was
trembling like a dove when it sees a hawk, cried out as loud as
she could, "Oh! dear Mr. Dwarf, Bellissima shall marry
you."
    "Oh, indeed!" said he disdainfully. "Bellissima is pretty
enough, but I don't particularly want to marry her—you
can keep her."
    "Oh! noble sir," said the Queen in great distress, ado
not refuse her. She is the most charming Princess in the
world."
    "Oh! well," he replied, "out of charity I will take her;
but be sure and don't forget that she is mine."
    As he spoke a little door opened in the trunk of the
orange tree, in rushed the Queen, only just in time, and
the door shut with a bang in the faces of the lions.
    The Queen was so confused that at first she did not
notice another little door in the orange tree, but presently
it opened and she found herself in a field of thistles and
nettles. It was encircled by a muddy ditch, and a little
further on was a tiny thatched cottage, out of which came
the Yellow Dwarf with a very jaunty air. He wore wooden
shoes and a little yellow coat, and as he had no hair and
very long ears he looked altogether a shocking little
object.
    "I am delighted," said he to the Queen, "that, as you
are to be my mother-in-law, you should see the little
house in which your Bellissima will live with me. With
these thistles and nettles she can feed a donkey which she
can ride whenever she likes; under this humble roof no
weather can hurt her; she will drink the water of this
brook and eat frogs—which grow very fat about here; and
then she will have me always with her, handsome, agreeable,
and gay as you see me now. For if her shadow stays
by her more closely than I do I shall be surprised."
    The unhappy Queen. seeing all at once what a miserable
life her daughter would have with this Dwarf
could not bear the idea, and fell down insensible without
saying a word.
    When she revived she found to her great surprise that
she was lying in her own bed at home, and, what was
more, that she had on the loveliest lace night cap that she
had ever seen in her life. At first she thought that all her
adventures, the terrible lions, and her promise to the
Yellow Dwarf that he should marry Bellissima, must
have been a dream, but there was the new cap with its
beautiful ribbon and lace to remind her that it was all
true, which made her so unhappy that she could neither
eat, drink, nor sleep for thinking of it.
    The Princess, who, in spite of her wilfulness, really loved
her mother with all her heart, was much grieved when she
saw her looking so sad, and often asked her what was the
matter; but the Queen, who didn't want her to find out
the truth, only said that she was ill, or that one of her
neighbors was threatening to make war against her.
Bellissima knew quite well that something was being
hidden from her—and that neither of these was the real
reason of the Queen's uneasiness. So she made up her
mind that she would go and consult the Fairy of the
Desert about it, especially as she had often heard how
wise she was, and she thought that at the same time she
might ask her advice as to whether it would be as well to
be married, or