WICKED VENOMISTA 3

parents. If I knew the history of all the
people who had suffered this injury at the
hands of the cruel Venomista, I daresay
that I could fill a book with the tales of their
misfortunes ; but, as it is, I can only tell of
one particular family, though that may give
a general idea of what others must have
suffered. It happened upon one occasion,
that the old fairy had gone out rather
farther than usual, and was quite upon the
outskirts of the forest, when she met the
seventeen children of the King and Queen
of that country walking with their nurse.
The first thing that she did was to make
such a terrible face at the poor children that
they all turned round and ran to their nurse
as fast as they could run. Now the nurse
was a very respectable middle-aged woman,
perfectly devoted to the children, and one
who would have done anything in the world
to keep them from harm. So as soon as
she saw the seventeen little ones running to
her for safety, she threw up her arms and
cried out as loud as she could: ‘Come, my
darlings ! come my ducklings ! nobody shall
hurt ye while nursey is here !’

The good woman said these words with