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leave to wish for what you will." "Well," said the wife, "my wish is that this pudding may drop off." At that instant the pudding dropped off; and the wife, who did not want wit, said to her husband, "The fairy has imposed upon us; she was in the right; possibly we should have been more unhappy with riehes than we are at present. Believe me, friend, let us wish for nothing, and take things as it shall please God to send them; in the meantime, let us sup upon our pudding, since that's all that remains to us of our wishes." The husband thought his wife judged right; they supped merrily, and never gave themselves further trouble about the things which they had designed to wish for.
———
PUSS IN BOOTS.
There was a miller who had three sons, and when he died he divided what he possessed among them in the following manner:—He gave his mill to the eldest, his ass to the second, and his cat to the youngest.
Each of the brothers aeeordingly took what belonged to him without the help of an attorney, who would soon have brought their little fortune to nothing in law expenses.
The poor young fellow who had nothing but the cat, complained that he was hardly used: "My brothers," said he, "by joining their stocks together, may do very well in the world; but for me, when I have eaten my eat, and made a fur-cap of his skin, I may soon die of hunger!"
The cat, which all this time sat listening just inside the door of a eupboard, now ventured to come out, and addressed him as follows:—
"Do not thus afflict yourself, my good master; you have only to give me a bag, and get a pair of boots made for me, so that I may scamper through the dirt and the brambles, and you shall see that you are not so ill provided for as you imagine."
Though the cat's master did not much depend upon these promises, yet as he had often observed the eunning tricks Puss used to catch rats and mice, such as hanging by the hind-legs, and hiding in the meal to make them believe that he was dead, he did not entirely despair of his being of some use to him in his unhappy condition.
When the cat had obtained what he asked for, he gaily began to equip himself; he drew on the boots—and putting the bag about his neck, he took hold of the strings with his
