"They wouldn't go slaughterin' round no gret amount when I'd finished with em', I tell ye!" And he flourished his stick, and looked so fierce that the puppy yelped piteously, expecting another onslaught.
"And now, Pink," said Hilda, "we have just time for a story before we go home.

Bubble has told me about your stories, and I want very much to hear one." "Oh, Hilda, they are not worth telling twice!" protested Pink; "I just make them for Bubble when he takes me out on Sunday.

It's all I can do for the dear lad." "Don't you mind her, Miss Hildy," said Bubble; "they're fustrate stories, an' she tells 'em jest like p--'rithmetic.

Go ahead, Pink! Tell the one about the princess what looked in the glass all the time." So Pink, in her low, sweet voice, told the story of THE VAIN PRINCESS.
Once upon a time there lived a princess who was so beautiful that it was a wonder to look at her.

But she was also very vain; and her beauty was of no use or pleasure to anybody, for she sat and looked in her mirror all day long, and never thought of doing anything else.
The mirror was framed in beaten gold, but the gold was not so bright as her shining locks; and all about its rim great sapphires were set, but they were dim and gray, compared with the blue of her lovely eyes.