There is nobody in the world who knows so many stories as Ole-Luk-Oie, or who can relate them so nicely. In the evening, while the children are seated at the table or in their little chairs, he comes up the stairs very softly, for he walks in his socks, then he opens the doors without the slightest noise, and throws a small quantity of very fine dust in their eyes, just enough to prevent them from keeping them open, and so they do not see him. Then he creeps behind them, and blows softly upon their necks, till their heads

CHAPTER I
CHRISTMAS EVE
All through the day of Christmas Eve, Dr. Stahlbaum`s children had not been allowed into the dining-room, much less into the drawing-room opening out of it. In a corner of the back-parlour, Fred and Mary sat cuddled up together, shuddering with the excitement of mystery; for, though twilight had come on, nobody brought in any lights this evening. Fred whisperingly told his seven-year-old sister how, since early in the morning, he had listened to the stir and the bustle and the soft hammerings in these forbidden chambers; also how, not long ago, a small, dark man, with a

Once upon a time there lived a shoemaker who could get no work to do, and was so poor that he and his wife nearly died of hunger. At last he said to her, `It is no use waiting on here–I can find nothing; so I shall go down to Mascalucia, and perhaps there I shall be more lucky.`
So down he went to Mascalucia, and walked through the streets crying, `Who wants some shoes?` And very soon a window was pushed up, and a woman`s head was thrust out of it.
`Here are a pair for you to patch,` she said.

Several hundreds of years ago there lived in a forest a wood-cutter and his wife and children. He was very poor, having only his axe to depend upon, and two mules to carry the wood he cut to the neighbouring town; but he worked hard, and was always out of bed by five o`clock, summer and winter.
This went on for twenty years, and though his sons were now grown up, and went with their father to the forest, everything seemed to go against them, and they remained as poor as ever. In the end the wood-cutter lost heart, and said

There was once a fisherman who lived with his wife in a pigsty, closeby the seaside. The fisherman used to go out all day long a-fishing;and one day, as he sat on the shore with his rod, looking at thesparkling waves and watching his line, all on a sudden his float wasdragged away deep into the water: and in drawing it up he pulled out agreat fish. But the fish said, “Pray let me live! I am not a realfish; I am an enchanted prince: put me in the water again, and let mego!` “Oh, ho!` said the man, “you

In the fresh morning dawn, in the rosy air gleams a great Star, the brightest Star of the morning. His rays tremble on the white wall, as if he wished to write down on it what he can tell, what he has seen there and elsewhere during thousands of years in our rolling world. Let us hear one of his stories.
“A short time ago” – the Star`s “short time ago” is called among men “centuries ago”-“my rays followed a young artist. It was in the city of the Popes, in the world-city, Rome. Much has been changed there in the

My father had a little shop in Balsora; he was neither rich, nor poor, but one of those who do not like to risk any thing, through fear of losing the little that they have. He brought me up plainly, but virtuously, and soon I advanced so far, that I was able to make valuable suggestions to him in his business. When I reached my eighteenth year, in the midst of his first speculation of any importance, he died; probably through anxiety at having intrusted a thousand gold pieces to the sea. I was obliged, soon after, to deem him

In a village there once lived a smith called Basmus, who was in a very poor way. He was still a young man, and a strong handsome fellow to boot, but he had many little children and there was little to be earned by his trade. He was, however, a diligent and hard-working man, and when he had no work in the smithy he was out at sea fishing, or gathering wreckage on the shore.
It happened one time that he had gone out to fish in good weather, all alone in a little boat, but he did not come home

Once upon a time there lived two peasants who had three daughters, and, as generally happens, the youngest was the most beautiful and the best tempered, and when her sisters wanted to go out she was always ready to stay at home and do their work.
Years passed quickly with the whole family, and one day the parents suddenly perceived that all three girls were grown up, and that very soon they would be thinking of marriage.
`Have you decided what your husband`s name is to be?` said the father, laughingly, to his eldest daughter, one evening when they were all sitting

One summer`s morning a little tailor was sitting on his table by the window; he was in good spirits, and sewed with all his might. Then came a peasant woman down the street crying: “Good jams, cheap! Good jams, cheap!` This rang pleasantly in the tailor`s ears; he stretched his delicate head out of the window, and called: “Come up here, dear woman; here you will get rid of your goods.` The woman came up the three steps to the tailor with her heavy basket, and he made her unpack all the pots for him. He inspected each one, lifted