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HERIS was, once upon a tinie, a Kimg of a country called

Verdecolle, who had three daughters, cach one more lovely than the other. The

three sons of the neighbouring King of Velprato fell very much in love with these beauties, but just as the weddimgs were going to come off; the three Princes fell under the power of a wicked IFary, who turned them all into different animals, and the father of the Princesses very naturally refused i conscquence to let his daughters marry them,

Thereupon the eldest Prince, who had been changed into an Fagle with magic power, summonced all the birds of the air to his aid. They came in swarms SPATTOWS, larks, thrushes, starlings, and cvery other bird you can think of ; and the Bagle commanded them to devastate the whole country, not Icaving a leaf or blossom on any tree.

The second Prince, who had heen changed into a Stag, called the goats, rabbits; hares, pigs, and all the other four-footed heasts, and ordered them to lay waste all the ficlds and ploughed land, and not to leave a single root or blade of grass.

N CSTORY FoR CHILDRIEN - FROM THE TTALIAN,

The third Prince, who had been changed nto - Dolphin, assembled all the monsters of the deep, and raised such a storm on the coasts of the country, that all the ships and trading vessels were lost and shattered to preces.

When the King saw that the only way to put an cnd to these troubles and disasters wWas to give the three Beasts his daughters I marriage, he gave 1 oat last, though with much forchoding and many tears,

When o the Bagle, the Stag, and the Dolphin arrived to carry their brides off, therr mother gave cach of the Princesses a g, saying as she did so o My dear daughters, keep these rings carcfully and always wear them, for if you separate and do not mect again for many years, or if at any LM YOu come across any onc of your own blood, yvou will always recognise cach other by these talisimans,”

So they took their departure and set out on their different ways. The Eagle carried Iabicla, who was the cldest sister, off to o lofty mountain above the clouds, where it never ramced, but the sun shone perpetually, and here he gave her a magnificent palace, and treated her like a queen,