BOY-BEAUTIFUL, THE GOLDEN APPLES, AND THE WERE-WOLF
Once upon a time, a long while ago, when the very
flies wrote upon the walls more beautifully than the
mind can picture, there lived an Emperor and an
Empress who had three sons, and a very beautiful
garden alongside their palace. At the bottom of this
garden there grew an apple-tree, entirely of gold from
the top to the bottom. The Emperor was wild with
joy at the thought that he had in his garden an apple-tree,
the like of which was not to be found in the wide
world. He used to stand in front of it, and poke his
nose into every part of it, and look at it again and
again, till his eyes nearly started out of his head.
One day he saw this tree bud, blossom, and form its
fruit, which began to ripen before him. The Emperor
twisted his moustache, and his mouth watered
at the thought that the next day he would have a
golden apple or two on his table, an unheard-of thing
up to that moment since the world began.
