Bluebeard   By: Clifton Johnson

BLUEBEARD

by

CLIFTON JOHNSON

BEDTIME WONDER TALES BY CLIFTON JOHNSON

Hop o' My Thumb The Babes in the Wood The Brave Tin Soldier The Fox and the Little Red Hen Golden Hair and the Three Bears

Cinderella Puss in Boots Jack and the Beanstalk Little Red Riding Hood The Story of Chicken Licken

Bluebeard Tom Thumb The Pied Piper The Sleeping Beauty St. George and the Dragon

Other books will be added to the series from time to time.

[Illustration: Bluebeard's Wife and the Forbidden Room (Page 16) ]

Bedtime Wonder Tales

BLUEBEARD

by

CLIFTON JOHNSON

Illustrated by Harry L. Smith

New York The Macaulay Company Publishers

Copyright, 1920, By the Macaulay Company All Rights Reserved

Printed in the U. S. A.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The books in this series of Bedtime Wonder Tales are made up of favorite stories from the folklore of all nations. Such stories are particularly enjoyed by children from four to twelve years of age. As here told they are free from the savagery, distressing details, and excessive pathos which mar many of the tales in the form that they have come down to us from a barbaric past. But there has been no sacrifice of the simplicity and humor and sweetness that give them perennial charm.

The sources of the stories in this volume are as follows: Page 11, France; 24, Grimm; 36, England; 49, Hindustan; 58, Italy; 78, Germany; 90, Scotland; 103, Japan; 118, Ireland; 127, American Negro.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE I Bluebeard 11 II The Blood Stained Key 17 III A Goblin in a Bottle 24 IV A Scholar's Fortune 32 V Yallery Brown 36 VI A Troublesome Helper 43 VII The Little Jackal 49 VIII The Blind Ogre 58 IX Seven Doves 64 X Time and His Mother 71 XI Blockhead Hans 78 XII The Rival Suitors 85 XIII Cunning Tom 90 XIV A Miser's Hired Man 96 XV The Boy in a Peach 103 XVI A Warrior's Helpers 108 XVII The Island of Demons 113 XVIII Andrew Coffey 118 XIX Careless Mr. Buzzard 127

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Bluebeard's Wife and the Forbidden Room Frontispiece The Goblin Threatens the Scholar 28 The Alligator Goes to the Jackal's House 54 Appealing to the Mother of Time 72 Blockhead Hans and the Dead Crow 82 The Monkey and the Warrior 110

BLUEBEARD AND OTHER FOLKLORE STORIES

I BLUEBEARD

Once upon a time but it was a long while ago; so long, indeed, that the oldest oaks in our forests were not yet acorns on the bough there was a man who lived in a splendid house and had dishes of gold and silver, chairs and sofas covered with flowered satin, and curtains of the richest silk. But, alas! this man was so unlucky as to have a blue beard, which made him look so frightfully ugly that the first impulse of every woman and girl he met was to run away from him.

In the same vicinity lived a lady of quality who had two beautiful daughters, and he wished to marry one of them. He was even willing to let the lady decide which of the two it should be.