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PUBLIC LIBRARY THE BRANCH LIBRARIES
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REFERENCE
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I
THE ALL SORTS OF STORIES BOOK
THE FAIRY BOOK SERIES
EDITED BY ANDREW LANG
THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK. With 138 Illustrations.
THE RED FAIRY BOOK. With 100 Illustrations.
THE GREEN FAIRY BOOK. With 99 Illustrations.
THE GREY FAIRY BOOK. With 65 Illustrations.
THE YELLOW FAIRY BOOK. With 104 Illustrations.
THE PINK FAIRY BOOK. With 67 Illustrations.
THE VIOLET FAIRY BOOK. With 8 Coloured Plates and
64 other Illustrations.
THE CRIMSON FAIRY BOOK. With 8 Coloured Plates
and 43 other Illustrations.
THE BROWN FAIRY BOOK. With 8 Coloured Plates and
42 other Illustrations.
THE OLIVE FAIRY BOOK. With 8 Coloured Plates and
43 other Illustrations.
THE ORANGE FAIRY BOOK. With 8 Coloured Plates
and 50 other Illustrations.
THE LILAC FAIRY BOOK. With 6 Coloured Plates and
36 other Illustrations.
THE BLUE POETRY BOOK. With 100 Illustrations.
THE TRUE STORY BOOK. With 66 Illustrations,
THE RED TRUE STORY BOOK. With 100 Illustrations.
THE ANIMAL STORY BOOK. With 67 Illustrations.
THE RED BOOK OF ANIMAL STORIES. With 65 Illus-
trations.
THE ARABIAN NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENTS. With 66
Illustrations.
THE BOOK OF ROMANCE. With 8 Coloured Plates and
44 other Illustrations.
THE RED ROMANCE BOOK. With 8 Coloured Plates and
44 other Illustrations.
THE BOOK OF PRINCES AND PRINCESSES. By Mrs.
LANG. With 8 Coloured Plates and 43 other Illustrations.
THE RED BOOK OF HEROES. By Mrs. LANG. With 8
Coloured Plates and 40 other Illustrations.
THE ALL SORTS OF STORIES BOOK. By Mrs. LANG.
With 5 Coloured Plates and 45 other Illustrations.
THE STRANGE STORY BOOK. By Mrs. LANG. With a
Portrait of Andrew Lang as Frontispiece, 12 Coloured Plates, and
18 other Illustrations.
THE BOOK OF SAINTS AND HEROES. By Mrs. LANG.
With 12 Coloured Plates and 18 other Illustrations.
TALES OF TROY AND GREECE. By ANDREW LANG. With
17 Illustrations by H. J. FORD, and a Map.
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS
HAVt'. h!5 liOKSETAUOHED AT
: . >J
THE ALL SORTS
OF STORIES BOOK
BY
MES. LANG
EDITED BY ANDEEW LANG
WITH 5 COLOURED PLATES AND
NUMEEOUS OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS BY H J. FORD
NEW IMPRESSION
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS
1920
All rights reserved
*.:':
*** * ;* ***
* *
THE NEV
PUBLIC LiPRARY
A ' -
TiLDEN . . tjvjg
L
PREFA CE
(N.B. There are stories in this Preface)
THIS new Story Book is of a new sort, for the tales are
of many different kinds ; some are true, like the history
of the man who met in America the other man whom he
had been hanged for murdering in England. This may
to any unthinking person seem all very natural, but
if you think hard you will wonder how the first man got
to America after beinj/; Ua/iged PI JSiigland, and how
the second m^n^ a.ft^r v being ;m altered in England,
arrived in America. Neither event seems possible, yet
both actually occurred. , But/diis happened a hundred
and fifty years agOj.a^.d oould, not happen now, when
people do not h&ng_'<a^ person tor t murder before they
are quite certain that somebody has been murdered-
that the man said to have been slain is really dead.
Again, the man who was hanged would, in our time,
have been buried as soon as he was believed to be dead ;
but in times not so very far from ours a murderer, when
once thought dead, was suspended in iron chains in a
conspicuous place, so that his crime and punishment
might not be forgotten.
If you read The Fairchild Family, by Mrs. Sherwood,
who wrote about eighty years ago, you will find that
good Mr. Fairchild took his naughty children to see a
body of a murderer hanging in irons, so that they might
know what to expect if they let their angry passions
rise. This was what people call an ' object lesson,' but
your dear papa cannot give you this kind of lesson now,
vi PREFACE
because in our fields there are now no such disgusting
objects.
Come, now, I will tell another true story about a
man who was hanged, but escaped. It was in the year
1429, when the English were fighting in France, and the
Scots were on the French side. The English were strong
in Brittany, and a Scot named Michael Hamilton, from
Both well in Lanarkshire, went with other Scots and
French to burn and plunder in Brittany. Near a
place called Clisson they found an empty tower, and
there they dwelt and did all sorts of mischief. They
caught, one day, a Breton who was spying on them and
tortured him cruelly till he told them about the inten-
tions of the English soldiers. They learned that a great
company of the English were going to attack their
tower on that very night. So they determined to mount
1% 4. .. "<-5 .. . .... / Al
and ride ; but M'k-'liael Hamilton went- jfor his horse later
f. a ' & n i ' tt ' '* r f,> ( >
than the others 1 because he cOultl no't' deny himself the
pleasure of hanging the; prisoner 'from the bough of a
tree. Just as he had 'finished Tie- ^aw the English coming
up; they were betvv^eijiluhi -and the; stables ; he could
not reach his horse and -was- -obliged i to run away. But
he was in full armour, and nobody can run fast when he
is wearing things like steel cricket-pads on his legs.
The country people who were with the English wore no
armour ; they ran after Michael and threw the noose of a
rope over his neck. At that moment Michael prayed a
prayer to the holy Saint Catherine, the patron of his
village church at home. He vowed that if she would
help him now he would make a pilgrimage to her chapel
at Fierbois, in France. In spite of his prayer he was
hanged by the son of the man whom he had hanged
himself, and now you might think that all was over with
Michael. However, he lived and made his pilgrimage
to Fierbois, and told his story to the priest of the chapel,
who wrote it down in a book, which you may read in
printed English.
PREFACE vii
Michael's story was this. On the night of his
hanging, the night of Maundy Thursday, the priest of
Clisson was going to bed, when he heard a clear voice
in his room saying, 'Go and cut down the Scottish
soldier who was hanged, for he is still alive.'
The priest thought he \vas dreaming or that some-
one was playing a trick on him. The voice kept on
speaking, and the priest looked into his cupboard, and
up the chimney, and under the bed, and everywhere, but
he could find no speaker. So the holy man went to
bed, and slept soundly, and next day did his services
for Good Friday. Then about noon he told the sexton
to go and look at the Scot, and find out whether he were
alive or dead. The sexton walked away whistling for
joy at the death of a Scot, but he came back running
with a very white face.
He could scarcely speak for fear, but his story was
that he had found the Scot, and, to try whether he were
alive or not, had taken out his knife and sliced one of his
toes. The blood came, and the foot kicked !
The priest therefore, with other people, went to the
wood and cut Michael down, and poured wine into his
mouth, till he sat up and swore just like himself. The
son of the man whom Michael had hanged was looking
on ; he drew his sw r ord and dealt a blow at Michael's
head, cutting off one of his ears. This is quite true,
for when Michael came to Fierbois he had only one
ear, also a great scar on his toe where the sexton
sliced it.
The priest and the others rushed on the man with
the sword, disarmed him, and drove him out of tin-
house.
Michael was then taken to a kind Abbess, who
nursed him till he was well ; but he was in no hurry to
fulfil his vow and make his pilgrimage. On the other
hand, he went into barracks with other soldiers, and mis-
behaved as usual. But one night, as he lay in bed in a
x PEE I ACE
are not tiresome, I hope. The story of 'Old Jeffery' is
another kind of tale, also quite true. We read it in the
letters written at the time by the Wesley family, who
were so much puzzled and bored b} 7 what they called
' Old Jeffery.' They were not only good and truthful,
but very intelligent people. Who can explain what
they tell us ? Not I, for one. You cannot even call
the story a ghost story. Nobody who was likely to
play the tricks had died, so there was nobody to be the
ghost of. Some people think that Miss Hetty Wesley,
a very pretty, lively girl, played the tricks, but how T
could she ? Anybody may try who likes : the tricks
are not so easy.
People who believe that there are Boojums also
think that there are Brownies ; if they are right, Old
Jeffery was a playful, not an industrious, Brownie.
Besides these stories we give a few fairy tales, such
as ' How a Boy became first a Lamb and then an
Apple.' There are Highland stories, too, like ' The
Battle of the White Bull,' and there are some fairy tales
that the old Greeks told each other so long, long ago,
even before Homer made the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Homer mentions ' Meleager the Hunter,' but not the
story of the Brand ; and he also mentions Melampus
and Bias in ' The Serpents' Gift,' but only just alludes
to them, as if everyone knew all about them already.
Of ' Heracles the Dragon-Killer ' you must have heard ;
here are manv of his tremendous adventures.
/
Then we have several stories of adventures that
happened to real people, such as Charles II., while he
wandered in England with Noll Cromwell's hounds at
his heels. ' My Aunt Margaret's Mirror,' though a very
strange story, really happened to the grandmother
of the aunt of Sir Walter Scott. Then you have the
best stories of treasure-hunts, and some of the pick of
the adventures of the glorious Three Musketeers
Porthos, Athos, and Aramis, who were real men and
PREFACE xi
Musketeers, as was d'Artagnan their friend. But
these stories are not necessarily in all points true, as
they were written by the greatest of all story-tellers,
Alexandre Dumas.
So, with other stories of wrecks and Red Indians,
I hope you will find something to your taste in
The All Sorts of Stories Book.
The stories were written, as they are given here, by
Mrs. Lang ; we hunted for and caught them in all sorts
of books.
A. LANG.
CONTENTS
PAGE
How a Boy became first a Lamb and then an Apple . 1
The Battle of the White Bull 13
The Serpents' Gift 19
Meleager the Hunter 27
The Vanishing of Bathurst 36
In the Shadow of the Guillotine . . . . . . 50
The Flight of the King 68
The Heal Robinson Crusoe 83
How the Russian Soldier ivas Saved .... 99
Marbot and the Young Cossack . . . . . . 105
Heracles the Dragon-Killer . . . . . . 110
Old Jeffery 129
The Adventures of a Prisoner 144
What became of Old Mr. Harrison ? 160
Aunt Margaret's Mirror ....... 171
The Prisoner of the Chateau d'lf 181
The Hunt for the Treasure 205
The Story of the Gold Beetle 217
Loreta Velazquez, the Military Spy 241
The Farmer's Dream 253
The Sword of D'Artagnan . . . . . . 257
The Bastion Saint-Gervais . . . . . . . 277
Little General Monk 293
The Horse with Wings 315
The Prize of Jeanne Jugan 324
Unlucky John ......... 330
How the Siamese Ambassadors reached the Cape . . 345
The Strange Tale of Ambrose Gwinett . . . . 355
With the Redskins ........ 366
The Wreck of the ' Drake ' . . . . . 373
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
COLOURED PLATES
( Engraved and printed by Messrs. Andre $ Weigh, Ltd., Bnshey}
D'Artagnan ivill not have his Horse laughed at
[see page 258] Frontispiece
The Witch gets Pulja down frotn the Tree. . to face p. 6
Bias brings the Oxen of Iphiclus to Neleus . 24
How Atalanta and Meleager slew the Wild
Boar of Calydon ...... ,,30
Bellerophon fights the Chimcera .... ,, 320
FULL-PAGE PLATES
The Princess Pulja and the Murdered Lamb . to face p. S
Queen Althea ivatches the Burning Log while
Meleager is dying outside .... ,,32
Charles II. in the Oak Tree .... ,,72
How Admetus won Alcestis for his Wife . ,, 122
Heracles brings Alcestis back from Hades . . 126
Little John Wesley saved from the Fire . . 132
The Soldiers search the Shed for the Prisoner ,, 150
How Mr. Harrison was attacked by the strange
Horsemen 166
The Cemetery of the Chateau d'lf ... 198
How the Napkin became a real Flag . . ,, 288
' Take this Bit and seek out Pegasus, the Winged
Horse ' ,, 316
How John refused to trust his Son to the
Queen Venus ....... 330
The Chariot of Glory 334
xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT
PAGE
The Boy becomes a Lamb 5
The Battle of the White Bull . . , . . . 16
Pero, famous among her Friends at catching the Ball . 21
The Visit from the Fates 28
Lavalette and Emilie in the Garden .... 55
Madame Lavalette tries to hold back the Gaoler . . 64
Near Stratford they passed through a Troop of Cavalry 78
Selkirk implores to be taken back to the Ship . . . 88
Selkirk quite happy on the Desert Island sometimes . 91
' Selkirk ! It is Selkirk ! ! ' 94
The Wounded Russian calls to Napoleon from the Ice 101
' In the name of your Mother, spare this Boy ' . . 108
How Baby Heracles strangled two Murderous Snakes . Ill
A Bide on the Centaur's Back . . . . . . 113
Heracles fights the Hydra . . . . . .116
Heracles fights the Stymphalian Birds . . . . 121
Hoiv Mr. Wesley's Trencher danced upon the Table . 141
The Frenchman fights the Sailors 155
The Magic Mirror ........ 177
Dantes covets the Saucepan . . . . . 184
Dantes left on the Island ....... 210
The Treasure Found 214
Legr and puzzled by the Paper 221
It dangled in the Air ........ 228
His Toe caught in an Iron Ring 231
The duel between Athos and D'Artagnan interrupted. 274
Thus Athos induced Grimaud to come on . . . 282
Bellerophon fights against Myrina and her Amazons . 322
John chooses Death for Godmother .... 339
' These are the Lights of Life,' said Death . . . 343
HOW A BOY BECAME FIRST A LAMB
AND THEN AN APPLE
ONCE upon a time there lived a woman who had two
children, a boy named Asterinos, and a daughter called
Pulja. Her husband was a huntsman, and spent most
of his days in the woods and hills round the cottage,
generally bringing back something nice to cook for
supper.
One evening he came home earlier than usual, carry-
ing in his wallet a pigeon which he had just shot. The
woman took it out, and after she had plucked it, hung
it on a nail so that it might be handy to put into the pot
at the proper moment. Then she went next door to have
a chat with her neighbour and thought no more about the
pigeon till it was getting near the dinner hour.
Unluckily, when she left the house, the woman had
never noticed the cat, who was curled up under a chair,
pretending to be sound asleep, and on his part he was
very careful not to stir or to remind her that he was
there. But as soon as she was safely out of the wey the
cat stepped briskly from his hiding-place, sprung at the
pigeon which was hanging from the nail, and bringing it
to the ground, ate it all up. When nothing of it was left
but a few bits of bones, he got up and arched his back
with satisfaction, and vanished through the door which
the woman had left open.
Scarcely had the cat disappeared when in she came,
and walked over to the place where the pigeon should
A.S. B
2 HOW A BOY BECAME A LAMB
have been hanging. The empty nail and the scattered
bones told their own tale, and the woman shivered with
fright lest her husband, angry at the loss of his dinner ,
should give her a beating.
' What am I to do ? ' she cried, ' the larder is empty ! '
and in despair she cut off part of the calf of her leg and
threw it into the pot.
' Is dinner ready ? ' asked the man, when by-and-by
he returned from a nap in the sun.
; Yes, here it is ' said the wife, and the man sat down,
' That was very good ! What was it ? ' inquired the
husband when he had finished, and his wife told him
all that had happened.
' Well, now we can eat the children,' said he ; ' they
will make us a fine dinner to-morrow,' and away he went,
leaving the poor woman half dead with fear and sorrow.
She dared not disobey him, she knew, if he told her to
kill them, for she was terribly afraid of her husband, and
if she did not do it he w T ould ; and in her despair the
poor woman dragged herself wearily upstairs and threw
herself on her bed.
Happily for the children, who were already fast
asleep, the dog, who was stretched out in front of the
fire with his ears cocked, had overheard the conversa-
tion, and as soon as all was still in the cottage he crept
to the corner where the brother and sister lay, and put
his cold nose against their cheeks.
' Get up ! get up ! and run away as fast as you can,
or your mother will kill you,' he whispered ; but the
children sleepily pushed his nose away, and turned over
on their other sides.
c Get up ! get up ! there is no time to lose/ repeated
the dog, and taking a curl of the little girl's hair between
his teeth, he began to draw her gently out of bed.
' You must be quick,' he said again, when he had
explained their danger. * Wake your brother, and go
HOW A BOY BECAME A LAMB 3
with him into the forest, and above all make no noise.'
The girl did as she was bid, and in another instant the
boy stood on the floor beside her.
' What shall we take with us ? ' asked he.
* What shall we take ? I'm sure I don't know,
Asterinos. Yet, stay ! We will take a knife, a comb,
and a handful of salt. And the dog too, of course ! ' So
putting the knife and comb in the pockets of their two
little coats they ran into the wood, the girl grasping the
salt tight in her hand. But quiet as they fancied they
had been, their mother had heard them, and when the
dog glanced back along the path he saw that she was
following.
' Look ! ' he cried to the children, and they looked
and froze with fear.
' She will catch us ! ' screamed Asterinos, but his
sister answered :
' No, no ! Never. Run quicker i Run ! '
4 She is close to us, Pulja,' he panted, a few minutes
later.
* Throw the knife behind you,' said she, and he threw
it. Then a wide stony plain appeared lying between her
and them, so wide and stony that it seemed as if it would
take days to cross it, but the woman bounded from one
rock to another, gaining on them with every stride.
* She is very near now,' whispered the boy again.
* Run faster,' replied his sister, l she shall never catch
us.'
' But she must,' he gasped. ' I can run no quicker.'
' Here is the comb ; throw it behind you,' said she,
and he threw it, and behind them rose a thick, black
forest. But step by step the mother fought her way
through the trees, and for the third time she had almost
reached the children, when Pulja turned and let fall the
salt in her hand, and immediately a wide sea covered
the land, with the mother on one shore and the children
on the other.
*B 2
4 HOW A BOY BECAME A LAMB
' Come back ! Come back ! I will not hurt you,'
cried she, but as they hesitated she grew angry and
struck herself on the breast. This frightened them, and
they turned away and ran on faster than ever.
They had gone quite a long distance, when Asterinos,
who was the younger of the two, suddenly stopped.
' I am so thirsty, Pulja,' said he.
' Go on a little longer,' answered she, ' for straight in
front is the king's fountain and you can drink there.'
But they had only gone a little way further when
Asterinos dropped behind, and called out a second
time :
' I shall faint ; I want some water,' and as he spoke
his eyes fell on the print of a w r olf 's hoof, where water had
settled.
* Ah ! ' he shouted joyfully ; ' here is some, I'll drink
that.'
' No, no ! ' cried Pulja, pulling him away as he was
stooping down ; ' if you drink that you will turn into a
wolf and will eat me. Come on a little further.'
' Do you really think I should become a wolf ? '
asked Asterinos, full of wonder. ' Well, perhaps I
might, but I don't believe I should ever want to eat you,
even if I was a tiger,' and the two walked on till they
reached a sheep track which was full of water.
' I can't go on any longer ; I must drink this.' said the
boy.
' No, no ! ' replied his sister, ' you will turn into a
lamb, and then someone will eat you ! '
They must eat me then, for I shall die of thirst,'
answered the boy, throwing himself down beside the
water. But hardly had he swallowed the first mouthful
when his hair grew soft and woolly and covered all his
body ; his legs and arms became the same length, and
he was no more Asterinos but a little lamb.
He ran up to his sister, who was standing with her
HOW A BOY BECAME A LAMB 5
eyes fixed on the path before her ; she had known what
would happen, and could not bear to see it.
' Baa ! Pulja, Baa ! Pulja,' was all he could say,
though he could understand what was said to him as
well as he could before.
' Come with me,' she called sadly, and on they went
till they reached the king's fountain, which \vas sheltered
6 HOW A BOY BECAME A LAMB
from the sun by a big cypress tree. Here the girl
knelt down and took a long drink, but the lamb was not
thirsty any more. When she had finished she stood
up.
' Stay here with the dog till I return. And while he
grazed peacefully she went out of sight behind the
great cypress, and climbed and climbed and climbed up
its branches till at the very top she found a beautiful
golden throne, and sat herself down on it.
Soon there was heard the tramp of hoofs, and one of
the king's servants appeared leading two horses to the
well to drink. But as they approached the cypress tree
the rays which streamed from Pulja and her throne were
so bright that the horses shied and broke aw r ay, fearing
they knew not what. The man looked upwards to see
where the light came from, and when he beheld a beauti-
ful maiden on the topmost boughs he said :
4 Come down, for the horses must drink, and the
sight of you frightens them.'
' No ; I shall stay where I am,' answered she ; ' I am
not hurting you. The horses can drink as much as they
like.'
4 Come down ! ' called the man louder than before,
but Pulja paid no heed to him, and did not stir.
Then the servant went to the king's son, and told
him that a maiden of wondrous beauty was sitting
in the cypress tree, and that the bright beams of
light which she shed had so frightened the horses
that they had refused to drink at the well, and had run
away.
So the prince hastened to the well, and standing
under the boughs thrice bade the maiden come down,
but she would not.
' If you will not do as you are told we shall have to
cut down the tree,' he said at last.
' Well, cut it down,' answered she. ' I mean to stay
where I am.'
"
SHT ,9et5 nuLC clovou from
HOW A BOY BECAME A LAMB 1
The young man felt that further talking was useless,
so he sent a messenger to bring some wood-cutters from
the forest. They struck hard at the trunk with their
axes, but the lamb slipped unseen to the other side,
and licked the tree, so that it suddenly grew twice as
thick, and all the axes could do was to pierce the bark.
At length the prince lost his patience, and bade the
wood-cutters return home, for they were useless fellows,
and 'went himself in search of an old woman who was
held to be very wise.
* Fetch me down that girl from the tree,' he said to
her, ' and I will give you your hood full of gold.'
' Oh, I will fetch her,' answered the old woman, and
taking from a cupboard a bowl, a sieve and a sack of
meal followed the prince to the tree.
Standing where she knew the girl must see her, the
old woman turned the bowl upside down on the ground,
and holding the sieve the wrong w r ay up in her hand
began to rub some meal through it, which ought to
have fallen into the bowl underneath. She had done
this for a little while when suddenlv she heard a voice
/
saying :
' That is not the way ; you are all wrong.'
' Is that anyone speaking to me ? ' asked the old
woman, pretending to look about. ' Where are you ? '
but the girl only repeated her words.
' Come and show me how to do it, and I will bless
you for ever,' cried the old woman at last, and the
maiden rose slowly from the golden throne and climbed
down the tree. The moment her feet touched the
ground the prince, who had remained hidden, sprang
forward and catching her in his arms sw r ung her on to
his shoulder, carried her off to the castle, the dog and the
lamb following behind them. In a few days they were