Complete Works of Howard Pyle

by Howard Pyle

  So Beppo rode away, and many people stopped to look at him.

  He came to the palace, and the king was giving audience. Beppo went into the great audience-chamber. It was full of people — lords and nobles and rich merchants and lawyers.

  Beppo did not know how to come to the king, so he stood there and waited and waited. The people looked at him and whispered to one another: “Who is that young man?” “Whence comes he?” Then one said: “Is not he the young man who served the king with cakes and milk in the forest yesterday?”

  Beppo stood there gazing at the king. By-and-by the king suddenly looked up and caught sight of him. He gazed at Beppo for a moment or two and then he knew him. Then he smiled and beckoned to him.

  “Aye, my foolish benefactor,” said he, aloud, “is it thou, and art thou come so soon to redeem thy promise? Very well; come hither, I have something to say to thee.”

  Beppo came forward, and everybody stared. He came close to the king, and the king laid his hand upon his shoulder. Then he leaned over to Beppo and whispered in his ear: “A word, a word, only a few words; if they be spoken ill, they are ill; if they be spoken well, they are more precious than gold and jewels.” Then he laughed. “Is that what you would have me say?” said he.

  “Yes, majesty,” said Beppo, and he bowed low and withdrew.

  But, lo and behold, what a change!

  Suddenly he was transformed in the eyes of the whole world. The crowd drew back to allow him to pass, and everybody bowed low as he went along.

  “Did you not see the king whisper to him,” said one. “What could it be that the king said?” said another. “This must be a new favorite,” said a third.

  He had come into the palace Beppo the Foolish; he went forth Beppo the Great Man, and all because of a few words the king had whispered in his ear.

  Three days passed, and then Beppo went again to the Goldsmith’s with the ring and a letter from the princess. This time Sebastian the Goldsmith fitted him with a suit of splendid plum-colored silk and gave him a dappled horse, and again Beppo and his two attendants rode away to the palace. And this time every one knew him, and as he went up the steps into the palace all present bowed to him. The king saw him as soon as he appeared, and when he caught sight of him he burst out laughing.

  “Aye,” said he, “I was looking for thee to-day, and wondering how soon thou wouldst come. Come hither till I whisper something in thine ear.”

  Then all the lords and nobles and courtiers and ministers drew back, and Beppo went up to the king.

  The king laughed and laughed. He laid his arm over Beppo’s shoulder, and again he whispered in his ear: “A word, a word, only a few words; if they be spoken ill, they are ill; if they be spoken well, they are more precious than gold and jewels.”

  Then he released Beppo, and Beppo withdrew.

  So it continued for three months. Every three days Beppo went to the palace, and the king whispered the words in his ear. Beppo said nothing to any one, and always went away as soon as the king had whispered to him.

  Then at last the princess said to him: “Now the time is ripe for doing. Listen! To-day when you go to the palace fix your eyes, when the king speaks to you, upon the prime-minister, and shake your head. The prime-minister will ask you what the king said. Say nothing to him but this: ‘Alas, my poor friend!’”

  It was all just as the princess had said.

  The king was walking in the garden, with his courtiers and ministers about him. Beppo came to him, and the king, as he always did, laid his hand upon Beppo’s shoulder and whispered in his ear: “A word, a word, only a few words; if they be spoken ill, they are ill; if they be spoken well, they are more precious than gold and jewels.”

  While the king was saying these words to Beppo, Beppo was looking fixedly at the prime-minister. While he did so he shook his head three times. Then he bowed low and walked away.

  He had not gone twenty paces before some one tapped him upon the arm; it was the prime-minister. Beppo gazed fixedly at him. “Alas, my poor friend!” said he.

  The prime-minister turned pale. “It was, then, as I thought,” said he. “The king spoke about me. Will you not tell me what he said?”

  Beppo shook his head. “Alas, my poor friend!” said he, and then he walked on.

  The prime-minister still followed him.

  “My lord,” said he, “I have been aware that his majesty has not been the same to me for more than a week past. If it was about the princess, pray tell his majesty that I meant nothing ill when I spoke of her to him.”

  Beppo shook his head. “Alas, my poor friend!” he said.

  The prime-minister’s lips trembled. “My lord,” said he, “I have always had the kindest regard for you, and if there is anything in my power that I can do for you I hope you will command me. I know how much you are in his majesty’s confidence. Will you not speak a few words to set the matter straight?”

  Beppo again shook his head. “Alas, my poor friend!” said he, and then he got upon his horse and rode away.

  Three days passed.

  “This morning,” said the princess, “when you go to the king, look at the prime-minister when the king speaks to you, and smile. The prime-minister will again speak to you, and this time say, ‘It is well, and I wish you joy.’ Take what he gives you, for it will be of use.”

  Again all happened just as the princess said.

  Beppo came to the palace, and again the king whispered in his ear. As he did so Beppo looked at the prime-minister and smiled, and then he withdrew.

  The prime-minister followed him. He trembled. “It is well,” said Beppo, “and I wish you joy.”

  The prime-minister grasped his hand and wrung it. “My lord,” said he, “how can I express my gratitude! The palace of my son that stands by the river — I would that you would use it for your own, if I may be so bold as to offer it to you.”

  “I will,” said Beppo, “use it as my own.”

  The prime-minister wrung his hand again, and then Beppo rode away.

  The next time that Beppo spoke to the king, at the princess’s bidding, he looked at the lord-treasurer, and said, as he had said to the prime-minister, “Alas, my poor friend!”

  When he rode away he left the lord-treasurer as white as ashes to the very lips.

  Three days passed, and then, while the king talked to Beppo, Beppo looked at the lord-treasurer and smiled.

  The lord-treasurer followed him to the door of the palace.

  “It is well, and I wish you joy,” said Beppo.

  The treasurer offered him a fortune.

  The next time it was the same with the captain of the guards. First Beppo pitied him, and then he wished him joy.

  “My lord,” said the captain of the guards, “my services are yours at any time.”

  Then the same thing happened to the governor of the city, then to this lord, and then to that lord.

  Beppo grew rich and powerful beyond measure.

  Then one day the princess said: “Now we will go into the town, and to the palace of the prime-minister’s son, which the prime-minister gave you, for the time is ripe for the end.”

  In a few days all the court knew that Beppo was living like a prince in the prime-minister’s palace. The king began to wonder what it all meant, and how all such good-fortune had come to Beppo. He had grown very tired of always speaking to Beppo the same words.

  But Beppo was now great among the great; all the world paid court to him, and bowed down to him, almost as they did before the king.

  “Now,” said the princess, “the time has come to strike. Bid all the councillors, and all the lords, and all the nobles to meet here three days hence, for it is now or never that you shall win all and become king.”

  Beppo did as she bade. He asked all of the great people of the kingdom to come to him, and they came. When they were all gathered together at Beppo’s house, they found two thrones set as though for a king and a queen, but there was no sign of Beppo, and every
body wondered what it all meant.

  Suddenly the door opened and Beppo came into the room, leading by the hand a lady covered with a veil from head to foot.

  Everybody stopped speaking and stood staring while Beppo led the veiled lady up to one of the thrones. He seated himself upon the other.

  The lady stood up and dropped her veil, and then every one knew her.

  It was the princess.

  “Do you not know me?” said she; “I am the queen, and this is my husband. He is your king.”

  All stood silent for a moment, and then a great shout went up. “Long live the queen! Long live the king!”

  The princess turned to the captain of the guards. “You have offered your services to my husband,” said she; “his commands and my commands are that you march to the palace and cast out him who hath no right there.”

  “It shall be done,” said the captain of the guards.

  All the troops were up in arms, and the town was full of tumult and confusion. About midnight they brought the false king before King Beppo and the queen. The false king stood there trembling like a leaf. The queen stood gazing at him steadily. “Behold, this is the husband that thou gavest me,” said she. “It is as I said; he is greater than thou. For, lo, he is king! What art thou?”

  The false king was banished out of the country, and the poor fisherman’s wife, who had entertained the princess for all this time, came to live at the palace, where all was joy and happiness.

  “Friend,” said St. George, “I like your story. Ne’th’less, ’tis like a strolling pedler, in that it carries a great pack of ills to begin with, to get rid of ’em all before it gets to the end of its journey. However, ’tis as you say — it ends with everybody merry and feasting, and so I like it. But now methinks our little friend yonder is big with a story of his own;” and he pointed, as he spoke, with the stem of his pipe to a little man whom I knew was the brave Tailor who had killed seven flies at a blow, for he still had around his waist the belt with the legend that he himself had worked upon it.

  “Aye,” piped the Tailor in a keen, high voice, “’tis true I have a story inside of me. ’Tis about another tailor who had a great, big, black, ugly demon to wait upon him and to sew his clothes for him.”

  “And the name of that story, my friend,” said the Soldier who had cheated the Devil, “is what?”

  “It hath no name,” piped the little Tailor, “but I will give it one, and it shall be—”

  Woman’s Wit.

  When man’s strength fails, woman’s wit prevails.

  IN THE DAYS when the great and wise King Solomon lived and ruled, evil spirits and demons were as plentiful in the world as wasps in summer.

  So King Solomon, who was so wise and knew so many potent spells that he had power over evil such as no man has had before or since, set himself to work to put those enemies of mankind out of the way. Some he conjured into bottles, and sank into the depths of the sea; some he buried in the earth; some he destroyed altogether, as one burns hair in a candle-flame.

  Now, one pleasant day when King Solomon was walking in his garden with his hands behind his back, and his thoughts busy as bees with this or that, he came face to face with a Demon, who was a prince of his kind. “Ho, little man!” cried the evil spirit, in a loud voice, “art not thou the wise King Solomon who conjures my brethren into brass chests and glass bottles? Come, try a fall at wrestling with me, and whoever conquers shall be master over the other for all time. What do you say to such an offer as that?”

  “I say aye!” said King Solomon, and, without another word, he stripped off his royal robes and stood bare breasted, man to man with the other.

  The world never saw the like of that wrestling-match betwixt the king and the Demon, for they struggled and strove together from the seventh hour in the morning to the sunset in the evening, and during that time the sky was clouded over as black as night, and the lightning forked and shot, and the thunder roared and bellowed, and the earth shook and quaked.

  But at last the king gave the enemy an under twist, and flung him down on the earth so hard that the apples fell from the trees; and then, panting and straining, he held the evil one down, knee on neck. Thereupon the sky presently cleared again, and all was as pleasant as a spring day.

  King Solomon bound the Demon with spells, and made him serve him for seven years. First, he had him build a splendid palace, the like of which was not to be seen within the bounds of the seven rivers; then he made him set around the palace a garden, such as I for one wish I may see some time or other. Then, when the Demon had done all that the king wished, the king conjured him into a bottle, corked it tightly, and set the royal seal on the stopper. Then he took the bottle a thousand miles away into the wilderness, and, when no man was looking, buried it in the ground, and this is the way the story begins.

  Well, the years came and the years went, and the world grew older and older, and kept changing (as all things do but two), so that by-and-by the wilderness where King Solomon had hid the bottle became a great town, with people coming and going, and all as busy as bees about their own business and other folks’ affairs.

  Among these towns-people was a little Tailor, who made clothes for many a worse man to wear, and who lived all alone in a little house with no one to darn his stockings for him, and no one to meddle with his coming and going, for he was a bachelor.

  The little Tailor was a thrifty soul, and by hook and crook had laid by enough money to fill a small pot, and then he had to bethink himself of some safe place to hide it. So one night he took a spade and a lamp and went out in the garden to bury his money. He drove his spade into the ground — and click! He struck something hard that rang under his foot with a sound as of iron. “Hello!” said he, “what have we here?” and if he had known as much as you and I do, he would have filled in the earth, and tramped it down, and have left that plate of broth for somebody else to burn his mouth with.

  As it was, he scraped away the soil, and then he found a box of adamant, with a ring in the lid to lift it by. The Tailor clutched the ring and bent his back, and up came the box with the damp earth sticking to it. He cleaned the mould away, and there he saw, written in red letters, these words:

  “Open not.”

  You may be sure that after he had read these words he was not long in breaking open the lid of the box with his spade.

  Inside the first box he found a second, and upon it the same words:

  “Open not.”

  Within the second box was another, and within that still another, until there were seven in all, and on each was written the same words:

  “Open not.”

  Inside the seventh box was a roll of linen, and inside that a bottle filled with nothing but blue smoke; and I wish that bottle had burned the Tailor’s fingers when he touched it.

  “And is this all?” said the little Tailor, turning the bottle upside down and shaking it, and peeping at it by the light of the lamp. “Well, since I have gone so far I might as well open it, as I have already opened the seven boxes.” Thereupon he broke the seal that stoppered it.

  Pop! Out flew the cork, and — Puff! Out came the smoke; not all at once, but in a long thread that rose up as high as the stars, and then spread until it hid their light.

  The Tailor stared and goggled and gaped to see so much smoke come out of such a little bottle, and, as he goggled and stared, the smoke began to gather together again, thicker and thicker, and darker and darker, until it was as black as ink. Then out from it there stepped one with eyes that shone like sparks of fire, and who had a countenance so terrible that the Tailor’s skin quivered and shrivelled, and his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth at the sight of it.

  “Who art thou?” said the terrible being, in a voice that made the very marrow of the poor Tailor’s bones turn soft from terror.

  “If you please, sir,” said he, “I am only a little tailor.”

  The evil being lifted up both hands and eyes. “How wonderful,” he
cried, “that one little tailor can undo in a moment that which took the wise Solomon a whole day to accomplish, and in the doing of which he wellnigh broke the sinews of his heart!” Then, turning to the Tailor, who stood trembling like a rabbit, “Hark thee!” said he. “For two thousand years I lay there in that bottle, and no one came nigh to aid me. Thou hast liberated me, and thou shalt not go unrewarded. Every morning at the seventh hour I will come to thee, and I will perform for thee whatever task thou mayest command me. But there is one condition attached to the agreement, and woe be to thee if that condition is broken. If any morning I should come to thee, and thou hast no task for me to do, I shall wring thy neck as thou mightest wring the neck of a sparrow.” Thereupon he was gone in an instant, leaving the little Tailor half dead with terror.

  Now it happened that the prime-minister of that country had left an order with the Tailor for a suit of clothes, so the next morning, when the Demon came, the little man set him to work on the bench, with his legs tucked up like a journeyman tailor. “I want,” said he, “such and such a suit of clothes.”

  “You shall have them,” said the Demon; and thereupon he began snipping in the air, and cutting most wonderful patterns of silks and satins out of nothing at all, and the little Tailor sat and gaped and stared. Then the Demon began to drive the needle like a spark of fire — the like was never seen in all the seven kingdoms, for the clothes seemed to make themselves.

  At last, at the end of a little while, the Demon stood up and brushed his hands. “They are done,” said he, and thereupon he instantly vanished. But the Tailor cared little for that, for upon the bench there lay such a suit of clothes of silk and satin stuff, sewed with threads of gold and silver and set with jewels, as the eyes of man never saw before; and the Tailor packed them up and marched off with them himself to the prime-minister.