at it, and then put it down to examine another yet more beautiful. Which should she choose, the yellow or the blue, the red or the green, the gold or the silver? She hesitated long, and went first to one and then to another, when she heard the cats’ voices calling: ‘Take the black! take the black!’
The words made her look round—she had seen no black casket, but as the cats continued their cry she peered
TAKE THE BLACK TAKE THE BLACK cried the cats
into several corners that had remained unnoticed, and at length discovered a little black box, so small and so black, that it might easily have been passed over.
‘This is the casket that pleases me best, mistress,’ said the girl, carrying it into the house. And the old woman smiled and nodded, and bade her go her way. So the girl set forth, after bidding farewell to the cows and
