The Blue Fairy Book

Once upon a time there lived a king who was deeply in love with a princess, but she couldnot marry anyone, because she was under an enchantment.

So the King set out to seek afairy, and asked what he could do to win the Princess's love.

The Fairy said to him:"You know that the Princess has a great cat which she is very fond of.

Whoever is cleverenough to tread on that cat's tail is the man she is destined to marry."The King said to himself that this would not be very difficult, and he left the Fairy,determined to grind the cat's tail to powder rather than not tread on it at all.You may imagine that it was not long before he went to see the Princess, and puss, asusual, marched in before him, arching his back.

The King took a long step, and quite thoughthe had the tail under his foot, but the cat turned round so sharply that he only trod on air.And so it went on for eight days, till the King began to think that this fatal tail must be full ofquicksilver-it was never still for a moment.At last, however, he was lucky enough to come upon puss fast asleep and with his tailconveniently spread out.

So the King, without losing a moment, set his foot upon it heavily.With one terrific yell the cat sprang up and instantly changed into a tall man, who, fixinghis angry eyes upon the King, said:"You shall marry the Princess because you have been able to break the enchantment, butI will have my revenge.

You shall have a son, who will never be happy until he finds out thathis nose is too long, and if you ever tell anyone what I have just said to you, you shall vanishaway instantly, and no one shall ever see you or hear of you again."Though the King was horribly afraid of the enchanter, he could not help laughing at thisthreat."If my son has such a long nose as that," he said to himself, "he must always see it or feelit; at least, if he is not blind or without hands."