All in a garden fair; the simple story of three boys ... - University Library

144
ALL LV A GARDEN FAIR.
lie sat a])ait ; lie was gloomy. The reason
was this dreadfiil secret. For if he told any-
body, his own head would certainly be off— in
a jiffy, he assured himself; or he would be tied
up in a sack and so go a -fishing or a-shrimp-
ing in the sea by himself ; or he might have
liis outlying portions cut off, such as hands,
feet, nose, ears, and tongue ; or he might be
burned ; something dreadful would infallibly
happen to him, unless he could keep that secret
as tight as wax.
He kept it for a week, suffering all the
time tortures as great as the punishment he
wished to escape. He did nut suffer himself to
talk at all, knowing tliat he was, by gift of the
gods, a babbler. lie could not drink ; he ven-
tured not into any company, although a youth
DO
of rrrcffarious turn ; he did not dare even to
'
sleep, because he talked in his sleep. At last
he felt that he must tell that secret or die.
He went, therefore, into the biggest and most
solitary field he could find, and then, making a
little hole in the LH'ound, he coufKU'd his secret,