Twilight Land by Howard Pyle

together. A door opened, and there came three slaves into the room. The Goldsmith spoke to them in a strange language, and the chief of the three slaves bowed in reply. Then he and the others led Beppo into another room where there was a marble bath of tepid water. They bathed him and rubbed him with soft linen towels; then they shaved the beard from his cheeks and chin and trimmed his hair; then they clothed him in fine linen and a plain suit of gray and Beppo looked like a new man.
    Then when all this was done the chief conducted Beppo back to Sebastian the Goldsmith. There was a fine feast spread, with fruit and wine. Beppo sat down to it, and Sebastian the Goldsmith stood and served him with a napkin over his arm.
    Then Beppo was to return to the princess again.
    A milk-white horse was waiting for him at the Goldsmith’s door, a servant holding the bridle, and Beppo mounted and rode away.
    When he returned to the fisherman’s hut the princess was waiting for him. She had prepared a tray spread with a napkin, a cup of milk, and some sweet cakes.
    “Listen,” said she; “today the king hunts in the forest over yonder. Go you thither with this. The king will be hotand thirsty, and weary with the chase. Offer him this refreshment. He will eat and drink, and in gratitude he will offer you something in return. Take nothing of him, but ask him this: that he allow you once every three days to come to the palace, and that he whisper these words in your ear so that no one else may hear them—‘A word, a word, only a few words; spoken ill, they are ill; spoken well, they are more precious than gold and jewels.’”
    “Why should I do that?” said Beppo.
    “You will see,” said the princess.
    Beppo did not understand it at all, but the princess is a princess and must be obeyed, and so he rode away on his horse at her bidding.
    It was as the princess had said: the king was hunting in the forest, and when Beppo came there he could hear the shouts of the men and the winding of horns and the baying of dogs. He waited there for maybe an hour or more, and sometimes the sounds were nearer and sometimes the sounds were farther away. Presently they came nearer and nearer, and then all of a sudden the king came riding out of the forest, the hounds hunting hither and thither, and the lords and nobles and courtiers following him.
    The king’s face was flushed and heated with the chase, and his forehead was bedewed with sweat. Beppo came forwardand offered the tray. The king wiped his face with the napkin, and then drank the milk and ate three of the cakes.
    “Who was it ordered you to bring this to me?” said he to Beppo.
    “No one,” said Beppo; “I brought it myself.”
    The king looked at Beppo and was grateful to him.
    “Thou hast given me pleasure and comfort,” said he; “ask what thou wilt in return and if it is in reason thou shalt have it.”
    “I will have only this,” said Beppo: “that your majesty will allow me once every three days to come to the palace, and that then you will take me aside and will whisper these words into my ear so that no one else may hear them—‘A word, a word, only a few words; spoken ill, they are ill; spoken well, they are more precious than gold and jewels.’”
    The king burst out laughing. “Why,” said he, “what is this foolish thing you ask of me? If you had asked for a hundred pieces of gold you should have had them. Think better, friend, and ask something of more worth than this foolish thing.”
    “Please your majesty,” said Beppo, “I ask nothing else.”
    The king laughed again. “Then you shall have what you ask,” said he, and he rode away.
       The next morning the princess said to Beppo: “This day you shall go and claim the king’s promise of him. Take thisring and this letter again to Sebastian the Goldsmith. He will fit you with clothes in which to appear before the king. Then go to the king’s palace that he may whisper those words he has to say