THE LUCK OF THE BEAN-ROWS A FAIRY TALE TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF CHARLES NODIER _Illustrated by_ CLAUD LOVAT FRASER [Illustration: [Boy]] LONDON DANIEL O’CONNOR 90 GREAT RUSSELL ST., W.C. [Illustration: [Princess]] [Illustration: [House]] [Illustration: [Elderly couple]] Once upon a time there was a man and his wife who were poor and very old. They had never had any children, and this was a great trouble to them, for they foresaw that in a few years more they would not be able to grow their beans and take them to market. One day while they were weeding in their field (that with a little cabin was all they possessed—I wish _I_ owned as much!)—one day, I say, while they were getting rid of the weeds the old woman spied in a corner, where they grew thickest, a small bundle very carefully tied up; and what should she find in it but a lovely boy, eight or ten months old to look at, but quite two years in intelligence! He had been weaned; at all events he needed no pressing to partake of boiled beans, which he raised to his mouth very prettily. [Illustration: [Woman and boy]] On hearing his wife’s cries of surprise, the old man hurried from the end of the field; and when he too had gazed at the beautiful child God had given them these old people embraced each other with tears of joy, and then returned quickly to their cabin lest the falling dew should hurt their boy. When they were snug in the chimney corner it was a fresh delight to them to see the little fellow reach out his hands to them, laughing winsomely, and calling them _mamma_ and _pappa_, as though he had known no other father or mother. The old man took him on his knee and danced him gently up and down, in “the way the ladies ride in the Park,” and said all sorts of droll things to amuse him; and the child responded in his own prattling fashion, for who would like to seem backward in such jolly talk? [Illustration: [Man and boy]] Meanwhile the old woman lit up the house with a fire of dry bean pods, which gladdened the little body of the newcomer, and prepared an excellent bean-pap which a spoonful of honey made delicious eating. Then she laid him to sleep in his fine white night clothes in the best bed of bean-chaff in the house; for these poor folk knew nothing of feather-beds and eider-downs. When he was fast asleep, “There is one thing that bothers me,” said the old man to his wife, “and that is what we are to call this bonny boy, for we know neither his parents nor where he comes from.” [Illustration: [Bed]] “We must call him,” said the old woman, for though she was but a simple peasant she was quickwitted, “The Luck of the Bean-rows, for it was in our bean field he came to us, the best of luck, to comfort us in our old age.”