At that
moment the ring pricked like a pin running into his finger.
"What is this?" he exclaimed: "the Fairy must be mocking me, surely
I've done no great harm in kicking an animal that annoyed me. What's
the use of being ruler of a great empire if I may not treat my dog as
I will?"
"I am not mocking you," he heard in reply to his thoughts; "you have
been bad tempered, and you have behaved unkindly to a poor animal who
did not deserve such treatment. I know you are higher than a dog, but
the advantage of being ruler of a great empire is not in doing all the
harm one wishes, but in doing all the good one can."
Cheri promised to be better, but he did not keep his word, and so the
ring often pricked him, sometimes until his finger bled, and at last,
in anger, he threw it away.
Now he thought he would be truly happy, and he gave way to any foolish
fancies and wrong wishes that came into his head, until he really
became very wicked and was disliked by everyone.
One day when he was out walking he saw a girl named Zelie, who was so
beautiful that he resolved to marry her.
But Zelie was as good as she was beautiful, and said to him:
"Sir, I am only a shepherdess and have no fortune, but, in spite of
that, I will never marry you, for although I should be a Queen, and
you are handsome and rich, your evil behaviour would make me hate
you.
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