NINE UNLIKELY TALES _By_ E. NESBIT _Illustrated by_ H. R. MILLAR AND CLAUDE A. SHEPPERSON ERNEST BENN LIMITED LONDON COWARD-McCANN INC NEW YORK IRIDI MEAE HOC ET COR MEUM CONTENTS I THE COCKATOUCAN _page_ 1 II WHEREYOUWANTOGOTO 49 III THE BLUE MOUNTAIN 85 IV THE PRINCE, TWO MICE, AND SOME KITCHEN-MAIDS 129 V MELISANDE: OR LONG AND SHORT DIVISION 159 VI FORTUNATUS REX AND CO 193 VII THE SUMS THAT CAME RIGHT 223 VIII THE TOWN IN THE LIBRARY, IN THE TOWN IN THE LIBRARY 243 IX THE PLUSH USURPER 267 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS _Matilda swung her legs miserably_ _page_ 5 _He waved away the eightpence_ 11 _The top part of Pridmore turned into painted iron and glass_ 17 _The Princess was like a yard and a half of white tape_ 21 _The King sent his army, and the enemy were crushed_ 31 _The King had turned into a villa residence_ 37 _Four men came wheeling a great red thing on a barrow_ 43 _They bounced through the suburbs_ 59 _The seal was very kind and convenient_ 63 _Suddenly, out of nothing and nowhere, appeared a large, stern housemaid_ 69 _A long, pointed thing came slowly up out of the sand_ 73 _It is difficult to play when any one is watching you, especially a policeman_ 79 _The people of Antioch were always in a hurry and generally angry_ 89 _Off they all went, King, court, and men-at-arms_ 99 _Tony was stamped on by the great seal, who was very fierce_ 103 _The giant-little-girl_ 107 _Tony among the rocks in the bread-and-milk basin_ 115 _“Everything you say will be used against you” said the public persecutor_ 121 _He was growing, growing, growing_ 125 _Malevola’s dress was not at all the thing for a christening_ 135 _There stood up a Prince and a Princess_ 155 _Trains of Princes bringing nasty things in bottles and round wooden boxes_ 173 _The Princess grew so big that she had to go and sit on the common_ 181