What a pity all stories can't end the same way!
[Illustration]
TUFTY RIQUET
There was once upon a time a Queen who had the ugliest little baby
imaginable, so ugly, indeed, that it was almost impossible to believe
he was a little boy at all.
A fairy, however, assured his mother that the little baby would be
very good and clever, saying that she was also giving him a gift which
would enable him to make that person whom he loved the best as clever
as himself.
This somewhat consoled the Queen, but still she was very unhappy
because her son was so ugly, though no sooner had he begun to speak
than he could talk about all sorts of things, and he had such pretty
ways that people were charmed with him.
I forgot to say, that, when he was quite a baby, he had a funny little
tuft of hair on his head, so he was called Tufty Riquet, for Riquet
was the family name.
When Riquet was about seven years old, the Queen of a kingdom near by
was given two baby daughters, twins, of which one was so exquisitely
beautiful that the Queen nearly died of joy when she saw her, and so
the fairy, the same one who had given Riquet his gift of cleverness,
to keep the Queen from making herself ill with excitement, told her
that this little Princess would not be at all clever, indeed she would
be as stupid as she was beautiful.
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