This strange man was no uncle of Aladdin, nor was he related at all to him; but he was a wicked magician, who wanted to make use of the lad's services.
The forty thieves carried bags of treasure, and hid it in a cave, which opened for them in the solid rock on saying the words, ‘Open, Sesame.’
‘Beauty, did you come here willingly to die in place of your father?’ ‘Willingly,’ she answered.
‘This small key belongs to one small room on the ground‑floor, and this you must not open, or you will repent it sore.’
‘Your last year's Excuse doesn't hold Good now. If you Refused me because I was Poor, I come back to you Rich.’
‘Spare me,’ cried the Bird. ‘Save my life, and Of a Surety I will save yours—at this very moment you are in Danger.’
One day, as Margery was coming home from the next village, she met with some wicked, idle boys, who had tied a young raven to a staff. She offered at once to buy the raven for a penny, and this they agreed to.
Her father was a very respectable farmer but misfortunes and persecutions ruined this worthy man, and was the source of all poor Margery’s troubles.
The poor lady gave birth to two beautiful boys, when just as she was pressing them to her bosom a huge bear rushed upon her, and snatching up one of the babes in its mouth, darted off into the thickest of the forest with it.
In the days when strange things used to happen in the world, and the devil himself used sometimes to walk about in it in a bare-faced fashion, he came to a very small town where he resolved to stay a while to play some of his tricks.
He went up boldly, and knocked loudly at the gate; when, to his great terror and surprise, there came forth a monstrous giant with two heads.
It’s little we know concerning the creatures and their ways, and with whom and what they’re mixed up.
The good maid, wishing to save her fellow-damsel so long a suffering, tried with might and main to bear in mind the name of the potent herb. At length she dropped asleep, and when she opened her eyes, she knew nothing at all about the matter.
‘Granny!’ Red Riding Hood cried, ‘What very long arms you have got!’ The Wolf answered, ‘The better to hug you, my child.’
The moment the farmer’s wife's lips touched the flower, the bud opened with a pop! and inside it she found the smallest little maiden ever seen—scarcely half a thumb’s length; so she called her Little Totty.
Miss Tabitha, who had a very fine ear, gave them a little French song which had a chorus of Tant Mieux, and they all joined in, Captain Black and Mr. Velvet Purr singing the bass.
Mr. Fox saw a diamond ring glittering on the finger of the young lady he was dragging, and he drew his sword, raised it, and brought it down upon the hand of the poor lady.
On the stone, at the dead hour of the night, might be discerned a female figure wrapped in a grey cloak. She was incessantly knock, knock, knocking, in a fruitless endeavour to split the impenetrable rock.