^aneseTalry Tale Series 1? 
 
 Bv W.CKa/mb^rl 
 
 i o ftY 
 
tY LORD BAG-0’-R1CE- 
 
 jflN('E upon a 
 
 brave warrior, call 
 
 pap-o’-llice, wlio spent 
 if, waging war agams 
 cticinics. 
 
 One day, when In 
 forth to seek adventi 
 to an immensely long 
 iiing a river just at tli 
 it flowed out of a fine 
 he set foot on this b 
 Dtat a Serpent twenty 
 lying tliere basking i 
 such a way that he c 
 
tli6 bi'iclge without treading on 
 iMost men would have taken to 
 tiieir iieels at so frightful a sight. 
 But Mv Lord Bag-o’-Bice was not 
 to be daunted. He simply walked 
 
 right ahead, ^squash, scrunch, ovd 
 
 
ihe Serpent’s body. 
 
 lustantly the Serpent turned into 
 a tiny Dwarfi who, humbly bowing 
 the knee, and knocking the planks 
 of the bridge three times with his 
 bead in token of respect, said: ‘^My 
 Lord! you are a man, you are! 
 
 >>!' 
 
day have I [ 
 ting for one v^dio ) 
 sliould avenge me on my enemy. . 
 But all wlio sa-w me were cowards. . 
 and ran awav. 
 
me, will you not? I live at the 
 bottom of this lake, and my enemy 
 is a Centipede who dwells at the 
 top of yonder mountain. Come 
 along with me, I beseech you. If 
 you help me not, I am undone.” 
 
 The Waitior was delighted at 
 having found such an adventure as 
 tiiis. He willingly followed the 
 Dwarf to his siuumer-h.ou3e beneath 
 the waters of the lake. It was 
 al! curiously built of coral and metal 
 spiays in the shape of sea-weed and 
 other w^ater-plants, witli fresh-water 
 crabs as big as men, and water- 
 mouKeys,^ and newts, and tadpoles j 
 as servants and body-guards. When 
 
they had rested awhile, 
 dinner was brought in 
 on trays shaped like 
 the leaves of water- 
 lilies. The dishes were 
 water-cress leaves, — not 
 
real ones, but much more beautiful 
 than real ones; for they were of 
 ^afer-green porcelain with a shim- 
 mer of gold; and the chopsticks were 
 of beautiful petrified wood like black 
 I t\ory. fej- wfiig pj cups, 
 
 it hoked like water; but, as it 
 
 tasted all right, what did its looks 
 signify? 
 
 Well, there they were, feasting 
 ana singing; and the Dwarf had just 
 pledged the Warrior in a goblet 
 of hot steaming wine, when thud! 
 thud! thud! like the tramp of an 
 army, the fearful monster of whom 
 the Dwarf had spoken was heard 
 approaching. It sounded as if a 
 

Centipede over a mile long; and lat 
 
 A 
 
 what had seemed like men ' ith 
 lanterns on either side of it, wcrt in 
 reality its own feet, of which it had 
 
 exactly one thousand 
 
 on each side of its 
 body, dl of them glistening and 
 glinting with the sticky poison 
 that o-zed out of every pore. 
 
 There was no time to bo lost. 
 The Centipede was already half-wny 
 
down the mountain, 
 rior snatched up his 
 80 big and heavy that it would have 
 taken five ordinarv 
 it,— fitted 
 
ill the middle of the monster’s 
 lV)reliead. But alas! it rebounded 
 as if that forehead had been made 
 of brass. 
 
 A second time did the Warrior 
 take his bow and shoot. A 
 second time did the arrow strike 
 and rebound; and now the dread- 
 ful creature was down to the 
 
water’s edge, and would soon pol- 
 lute tlie lake with its filthy poison. 
 Said the Warrior to himself: ‘‘Noth- 
 ing kills Centipedes so surely as 
 human spittle.” And with these 
 ords, he spat on to the tip of the 
 only arrow that remained to him 
 (for tliere had been but three in 
 his quiver). This time again the 
 
arrow hit the Centipede right in 
 tlie middle of its forehead. But 
 instead of rebounding, it went right 
 in and came out again at die back 
 of the creature’s head, so that the 
 Centipede fell down dead, shaking 
 the whole country-side like an earth- 
 quake, and the poisonous light on 
 its two thousand feet darkening to 
 a dull glare like that of the twilight 
 
 of a stormy day. 
 
 Then the Warrior found himself 
 wafted back to his own castle; and 
 round him stood a row of presents, 
 on each of which were inscribed 
 the words “From your grateful 
 Dwarf." One of these presents was 
 
re bronze bell, which the 
 )r, who was a religious 
 as well as a brave 
 hung up in the 
 5 that con- 
 , the tombs 
 2 ancestors. 
 
 
 
1 The second was a sword, which 
 enabled him ever after to gain 
 the victory over all his enemies. 
 The tliird was a suit of armour 
 
 The fourth was a roll of silk, which 
 never grew smaller, though he cut 
 
 oft large pieces from to time to 
 make himself a new court dress. 
 
nev'er 
 
got exhausted as long as he lived, 
 And it was from this fifth and last 
 jiresent that he took his name and 
 title of 
 
 “ My Lord Bag-o’-Rice ; ” 
 
 

 people tliouglit that 
 thing stranger m Ae 
 than this wonderful 
 raade ite owner such 
 litoDV man. 
 
 Told in tiigli* for CMdren bj 6. 
 
 tb K A 
 
 t g m ^ ^ 
 
 
 RiGItT RESEJiVI'ff^ 
 
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