Chapter IV: The Charm Is Broken

|Beauty lived in this way three months. The Beast came to supper every night. He did not grow less ugly, but Beauty did not mind his ugliness so much, for she saw how kind he really was. But there was one trouble. Every night the Beast was sure to ask:--

“Will you marry me, Beauty?” and Beauty always answered:--

“No, Beast.”

But one night he begged her at least never to leave him. Now it chanced on that very day Beauty had looked in her glass. There she saw her father sick with grief, for he thought his child was dead. Her sisters were married. Her brothers were soldiers. So she told all this to the Beast, and wept and said she should die if she could not see her father once more.

“Do not refuse to let me go!” she begged.

“No,” said the Beast. “I will not refuse you. I would much rather your poor Beast should die of grief for your absence. So you may go.”

“Oh, thank you, dear Beast,” said Beauty, “and I will surely come back in a week.”

“When you wish to come back, Beauty, lay your ring on the table before you go to bed, and you will find yourself here when you wake. Good-night, Beauty.”

“Good-night, Beast.”

The next morning Beauty woke to find herself at the farm-house. Her father was so glad to see her once more, and to know she was alive and well, that his sickness left him at once. He sent for her sisters, who came and brought their husbands.

These husbands were not much to be praised. One was so vain that he looked at himself, and seldom looked at his wife. The other had a sharp tongue, and liked to use it on other people, and most of all on his own wife. So the sisters were no happier than they had been.

But they were still jealous of Beauty, and they laid a plan for her hurt. They thought if they could keep her at home after the week was over, the Beast would be so angry, he would soon make an end of her. So, at the end of the week, they made a great ado, and begged her to stay just a little longer. Beauty could not help being glad to have her sisters want her. She said she would stay one week more; but she was not quite easy in her mind.

On the night of the tenth day the sisters gave her a feast, in order to make her forget the Beast. But at night Beauty dreamed she saw poor Beast lying half dead on the grass in the palace garden. She woke in tears, and at once laid her ring on the table, and then went to sleep again.

When she awoke, she was once more in her room at the palace. All day she wished for supper time to come. Then she would see Beast again. But supper time came, and no Beast was at the table. Nine o’clock struck, and still Beast did not come.

Beauty flew into the garden. She went to the spot she had dreamed of, and there lay poor Beast on the grass. She felt his heart beat. He was still alive. She ran for some water and threw it on his face. The Beast opened his eyes and said in a faint voice:--

“You forgot your promise. I could not live without you, and I meant to starve to death. Now you have come, and I shall die happy.”

“No! you shall not die, dear Beast,” cried Beauty. “You shall live to be my husband, for now I feel I really love you.”

At these words the whole palace was ablaze with light. Music sounded, and there was a stir all about. There was no Beast, but in his place a very handsome prince was at Beauty’s feet.

“You have broken the charm that held me,” he said.

“But where is my poor Beast?” asked Beauty, weeping. “I want my dear Beast.”

“I was the Beast,” said the Prince. “A wicked fairy had power to make me live in that ugly form, till some good and beautiful maid should be found, so good as to love me in spite of my ugliness.”

Beauty was amazed, but she took the Prince’s hand and they went into the palace. The people of the country were full of joy. They had mourned for their Prince, and now he had suddenly come back again, and with him was a beautiful princess. So Beauty and the Beast, who was no longer a Beast, reigned happily in the kingdom.

THE WOLF AND THE LAMB

|A Wolf saw a Lamb drinking at a brook, and set about finding some good reason for catching him. So he went to a place a little higher up the brook, and called out:--

“How dare you muddle the water that I am drinking?”

“How can I,” said the Lamb, humbly, “when I drink with the tips of my lips only? And, besides, the water runs from you to me, not from me to you.”

“Well, you called my father names a year ago,” said the Wolf, finding another reason.

“I was not born a year ago,” said the poor lamb.

“You may make ever so good excuses,” said the Wolf, finally; “I shall eat you all the same.”

This fable teaches that, when one has made up his mind to do wrong, he is not stopped by the best of reasons.

THE TRAVELERS AND THE BEAR

|Two friends were walking along the road, when a Bear came suddenly upon them.

One of them got first to a tree, and climbed up into it and hid among the branches.

The other, who was slower, fell flat upon the ground, and made believe that he was dead.

When the Bear came up to him, and poked him with his nose, he held his breath; for it is said that this animal will not touch a dead man. The Bear went off, and the Man who was in the tree came down, and asked the other what the Bear had whispered.

“He told me,” said the other, “not to travel with friends who would desert me when danger came.”

This fable teaches that misfortunes sometimes show which Of our friends are true friends.

THE TORTOISE AND THE EAGLE

|A Tortoise, seeing an Eagle in flight, wanted much to fly like him. So she asked him if he would not teach her to fly.

He told her that it was impossible; that Tortoises could not fly. All the more did she urge him; so at last the Eagle seized her in his claws, bore her to a great height, and then, letting her go, bade her fly.

She fell like a stone to the earth, and the blow knocked the breath out of her body.

This fable teaches that men who are envious, and refuse to take the advice of those who know more than themselves, are apt to get into trouble.

THE WHITE CAT