Woman's Wit.

Twilight Land

by Howard Pyle

When man's strength fails, woman's wit prevails.

In the days when the great and wise King Solomon lived and
ruled, evil spirits and demons were as plentiful in the world as
wasps in summer.

So King Solomon, who was so wise and knew so many potent spells
that he had power over evil such as no man has had before or since,
set himself to work to put those enemies of mankind out of the way.
Some he conjured into bottles, and sank into the depths of the sea;
some he buried in the earth; some he destroyed altogether, as one
burns hair in a candle-flame.

Now, one pleasant day when King Solomon was walking in his
garden with his hands behind his back, and his thoughts busy as bees
with this or that, he came face to face with a Demon, who was a
prince of his kind. "Ho, little man!" cried the evil spirit, in a
loud voice, "art not thou the wise King Solomon who conjures my
brethren into brass chests and glass bottles? Come, try a fall at
wrestling with me, and whoever conquers shall be master over the
other for all time. What do you say to such an offer as that?"

"I say aye!" said King Solomon, and, without another word, he
stripped off his royal robes and stood bare breasted, man to man with
the other.

The world never saw the like of that wrestling match betwixt the
king and the Demon, for they struggled and strove together from the
seventh hour in the morning to the sunset in the evening, and during
that time the sky was clouded over as black as night, and the
lightning forked and shot, and the thunder roared and bellowed, and
the earth shook and quaked.

But at last the king gave the enemy an under twist, and flung
him down on the earth so hard that the apples fell from the trees;
and then, panting and straining, he held the evil one down, knee on
neck. Thereupon the sky presently cleared again, and all was as
pleasant as a spring day.

King Solomon bound the Demon with spells, and made him serve him
for seven years. First, he had him build a splendid palace, the like
of which was not to be seen within the bounds of the seven rivers;
then he made him set around the palace a garden, such as I for one
wish I may see some time or other. Then, when the Demon had done all
that the king wished, the king conjured him into a bottle, corked it
tightly, and set the royal seal on the stopper. Then he took the
bottle a thousand miles away into the wilderness, and, when no man
was looking, buried it in the ground, and this is the way the story
begins.

Well, the years came and the years went, and the world grew
older and older, and kept changing (as all things do but two), so
that by-and-by the wilderness where King Solomon had hid the bottle
became a great town, with people coming and going, and all as busy as
bees about their own business and other folks' affairs.

Among these towns-people was a little Tailor, who made clothes
for many a worse man to wear, and who lived all alone in a little
house with no one to darn his stockings for him, and no one to meddle
with his coming and going, for he was a bachelor.

The little Tailor was a thrifty soul, and by hook and crook had
laid by enough money to fill a small pot, and then he had to bethink
himself of some safe place to hide it. So one night he took a spade
and a lamp and went out in the garden to bury his money. He drove his
spade into the ground--and click! He struck something hard that rang
under his foot with a sound as of iron. "Hello!" said he, "what have
we here?" and if he had known as much as you and I do, he would have
filled in the earth, and tramped it down, and have left that plate of
broth for somebody else to burn his mouth with.

As it was, he scraped away the soil, and then he found a box of
adamant, with a ring in the lid to lift it by. The Tailor clutched
the ring and bent his back, and up came the box with the damp earth
sticking to it. He cleaned the mould away, and there he saw, written
in red letters, these words:

"Open not."

You may be sure that after he had read these words he was not
long in breaking open the lid of the box with his spade.

Inside the first box he found a second, and upon it the same
words:

"Open not."

Within the second box was another, and within that still
another, until there were seven in all, and on each was written the
same words:

"Open not."

Inside the seventh box was a roll of linen, and inside that a
bottle filled with nothing but blue smoke; and I wish that bottle had
burned the Tailor's fingers when he touched it.

"And is this all?" said the little Tailor, turning the bottle
upside down and shaking it, and peeping at it by the light of the
lamp. "Well, since I have gone so far I might as well open it, as I
have already opened the seven boxes." Thereupon he broke the seal
that stoppered it.

Pop! out flew the cork, and--puff! out came the smoke; not all
at once, but in a long thread that rose up as high as the stars, and
then spread until it hid their light.

The Tailor stared and goggled and gaped to see so much smoke
come out of such a little bottle, and, as he goggled and stared, the
smoke began to gather together again, thicker and thicker, and darker
and darker, until it was as black as ink. Then out from it there
stepped one with eyes that shone like sparks of fire, and who had a
countenance so terrible that the Tailor's skin quivered and
shrivelled, and his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth at the
sight of it.

"Who are thou?" said the terrible being, in a voice that made
the very marrow of the poor Tailor's bones turn soft from terror.

"If you please, sir," said he, "I am only a little tailor."

The evil being lifted up both hands and eyes. "How wonderful,"
he cried, "that one little tailor can undo in a moment that which
took the wise Solomon a whole day to accomplish, and in the doing of
which he wellnigh broke the sinews of his heart!" Then, turning to
the Tailor, who stood trembling like a rabbit, "Hark thee!" said he.
"For two thousand years I lay there in that bottle, and no one came
nigh to aid me. Thou hast liberated me, and thou shalt not go
unrewarded. Every morning at the seventh hour I will come to thee,
and I will perform for thee whatever task thou mayst command me. But
there is one condition attached to the agreement, and woe be to thee
if that condition is broken. If any morning I should come to thee,
and thou hast no task for me to do, I shall wring thy neck as thou
mightest wring the neck of a sparrow." Thereupon he was gone in an
instant, leaving the little Tailor half dead with terror.

Now it happened that the prime-minister of that country had left
an order with the Tailor for a suit of clothes, so the next morning,
when the Demon came, the little man set him to work on the bench,
with his legs tucked up like a journey-man tailor. "I want," said he,
"such and such a suit of clothes."

"You shall have them," said the Demon; and thereupon he began
snipping in the air, and cutting most wonderful patterns of silks and
satins out of nothing at all, and the little Tailor sat and gaped and
stared. Then the Demon began to drive the needle like a spark of
fire--the like was never seen in all the seven kingdoms, for the
clothes seemed to make themselves.

At last, at the end of a little while, the Demon stood up and
brushed his hands. "They are done," said he, and thereupon he
instantly vanished. But the Tailor cared little for that, for upon
the bench there lay such a suit of clothes of silk and satin stuff,
sewed with threads of gold and silver and set with jewels, as the
eyes of man never saw before; and the Tailor packed them up and
marched off with them himself to the prime-minister.

The prime-minister wore the clothes to court that very day, and
before evening they were the talk of the town. All the world ran to
the Tailor and ordered clothes of him, and his fortune was made.
Every day the Demon created new suits of clothes out of nothing at
all, so that the Tailor grew as rich as a Jew, and held his head up
in the world.

As time went along he laid heavier and heavier tasks upon the
Demon's back, and demanded of him more and more; but all the while
the Demon kept his own counsel, and said never a word.

One morning, as the Tailor sat in his shop window taking the
world easy--for he had little or nothing to do now--he heard a great
hubbub in the street below, and when he looked down he saw that it
was the king's daughter passing by. It was the first time that the
Tailor had seen her, and when he saw her his heart stood still within
him, and then began fluttering like a little bird, for one so
beautiful was not to be met with in the four corners of the world.
Then she was gone.

All that day the little Tailor could do nothing but sit and
think of the princess, and the next morning when the Demon came he
was thinking of her still.

"What hast thou for me to do to-day?" said the Demon, as he
always said of a morning.

The little Tailor was waiting for the question.

"I would like you," said he, "to send to the king's palace, and
to ask him to let me have his daughter for my wife."

"Thou shalt have thy desire," said the Demon. Thereupon he smote
his hands together like a clap of thunder, and instantly the walls of
the room clove asunder, and there came out four-and-twenty handsome
youths, clad in cloth of gold and silver. After these four-and-twenty
there came another one who was the chief of them all, and before
whom, splendid as they were, the four-and-twenty paled like stars in
daylight. "Go to the king's palace," said the Demon to that one, "and
deliver this message: The Tailor of Tailors, the Master of Masters,
and One Greater than a King asks for his daughter to wife."

"To hear is to obey," said the other, and bowed his forehead to
the earth.

Never was there such a hubbub in the town as when those
five-and-twenty, in their clothes of silver and gold, rode through
the streets to the king's palace. As they came near, the gates of the
palace flew open before them, and the king himself came out to meet
them. The leader of the five-and-twenty leaped from his horse, and,
kissing the ground before the king, delivered his message: "The
Tailor of Tailors, the Master of Masters, and One Greater than a King
asks for thy daughter to wife."

When the king heard what the messenger said, he thought and
pondered a long time. At last he said, "If he who sent you is the
Master of Masters, and greater than a king, let him send me an asking
gift such as no king could send."

"It shall be as you desire," said the messenger, and thereupon
the five-and-twenty rode away as they had come, followed by crowds of
people.

The next morning when the Demon came the tailor was ready and
waiting for him. "What hast thou for me to do to-day?" said the Evil
One.

"I want," said the tailor, "a gift to send to the king such as
no other king could send him."

"Thou shalt have thy desire," said the Demon. Thereupon he smote
his hands together, and summoned, not five-and-twenty young men, but
fifty youths, all clad in clothes more splendid than the others.

All of the fifty sat upon coal-black horses, with saddles of
silver and housings of silk and velvet embroidered with gold. In the
midst of all the five-and-seventy there rode a youth in cloth of
silver embroidered in pearls. In his hand he bore something wrapped
in a white napkin, and that was the present for the king such as no
other king could give. So said the Demon: "Take it to the royal
palace, and tell his majesty that it is from the Tailor of Tailors,
the Master of Masters, and One Greater than a King."

"To hear is to obey," said the young man, and then they all rode
away.

When they came to the palace the gates flew open before them,
and the king came out to meet them. The young man who bore the
present dismounted and prostrated himself in the dust, and, when the
king bade him arise, he unwrapped the napkin, and gave to the king a
goblet made of one single ruby, and filled to the brim with pieces of
gold. Moreover, the cup was of such a kind that whenever it was
emptied of its money it instantly became full again. "The Tailor of
Tailors, the Master of Masters, and One Greater than a King sends
your majesty this goblet, and bids me, his ambassador, to ask for
your daughter," said the young man.

When the king saw what had been sent him he was filled with
amazement. "Surely," said he to himself, "there can be no end to the
power of one who can give such a gift as this." Then to the
messenger, "Tell your master that he shall have my daughter for his
wife if he will build over yonder a palace such as no man ever saw or
no king ever lived in before."

"It shall be done," said the young man, and then they all went
away, as the others had done the day before.

The next morning when the Demon appeared the Tailor was ready
for him. "Build me," said he, "such and such a palace in such and
such a place."

And the Demon said, "It shall be done." He smote his hands
together, and instantly there came a cloud of mist that covered and
hid the spot where the palace was to be built. Out from the cloud
there came such a banging and hammering and clapping and clattering
as the people of that town never heard before. Then when evening had
come the cloud arose, and there, where the king had pointed out,
stood a splendid palace as white as snow, with roofs and domes of
gold and silver. As the king stood looking and wondering at this
sight, there came five hundred young men riding, and one in the midst
of all who wore a golden crown on his head, and upon his body a long
robe stiff with diamonds and pearls. "We come," said he, "from the
Tailor of Tailors, and Master of Masters, and One Greater than a
King, to ask you to let him have your daughter for his wife."

"Tell him to come!" cried the king, in admiration, "for the
princess is his."

The next morning when the Demon came he found the Tailor dancing
and shouting for joy. "The princess is mine!" he cried, "so make me
ready for her."

"It shall be done," said the Demon, and thereupon he began to
make the Tailor ready for his wedding. He brought him to a marble
bath of water, in which he washed away all that was coarse and ugly,
and from which the little man came forth as beautiful as the sun.
Then the Demon clad him in the finest linen, and covered him with
clothes such as even the emperor of India never wore. Then he smote
his hands together, and the wall of the tailor-shop opened as it had
done twice before, and there came forth forty slaves clad in crimson,
and bearing bowls full of money in their hands. After them came two
leading a horse as white as snow, with a saddle of gold studded with
diamonds and rubies and emeralds and sapphires. After came a
body-guard of twenty warriors clad in gold armor. Then the Tailor
mounted his horse and rode away to the king's palace, and as he rode
the slaves scattered the money amongst the crowd, who scrambled for
it and cheered the Tailor to the skies.

That night the princess and the Tailor were married, and all the
town was lit with bonfires and fireworks. The two rode away in the
midst of a great crowd of nobles and courtiers to the palace which
the Demon had built for the Tailor; and, as the princess gazed upon
him, she thought that she had never beheld so noble and handsome a
man as her husband. So she and the Tailor were the happiest couple in
the world.

But the next morning the Demon appeared as he had appeared ever
since the Tailor had let him out of the bottle, only now he grinned
till his teeth shone and his face turned black. "What hast thou for
me to do?" said he, and at the words the Tailor's heart began to
quake, for he remembered what was to happen to him when he could find
the Demon no more work to do--that his neck was to be wrung--and now
he began to see that he had all that he could ask for in the world.
Yes; what was there to ask for now?

"I have nothing more for you to do," said he to the Demon; "you
have done all that man could ask--you may go now."

"Go!" cried the Demon, "I shall not go until I have done all
that I have to do. Give me work, or I shall wring your neck." And his
fingers began to twitch.

Then the Tailor began to see into what a net he had fallen. He
began to tremble like one in an ague. He turned his eyes up and down,
for he did not know where to look for aid. Suddenly, as he looked out
of the window, a thought struck him. "Maybe," thought he, "I can give
the Demon such a task that even he cannot do it. "Yes, yes!" he
cried, "I have thought of something for you to do. Make me out yonder
in front of my palace a lake of water a mile long and a mile wide,
and let it be lined throughout with white marble, and filled with
water as clear as crystal."

"It shall be done," said the Demon. As he spoke he spat in the
air, and instantly a thick fog arose from the earth and hid
everything from sight. Then presently from the midst of the fog there
came a great noise of chipping and hammering, of digging and delving,
of rushing and gurgling. All day the noise and the fog continued, and
then at sunset the one ceased and the other cleared away. The poor
Tailor looked out the window, and when he saw what he saw his teeth
chattered in his head, for there was a lake a mile long and a mile
broad, lined within with white marble, and filled with water as clear
as crystal, and he knew that the Demon would come the next morning
for another task to do.

That night he slept little or none, and when the seventh hour of
the morning came the castle began to rock and tremble, and there
stood the Demon, and his hair bristled and his eyes shone like sparks
of fire. "What hast thou for me to do?" said he, and the poor Tailor
could do nothing but look at him with a face as white as dough.

"What hast thou for me to do?" said the Demon again, and then at
last the Tailor found his wits and his tongue from sheer terror.
"Look!" said he, "at the great mountain over yonder; remove it, and
make in its place a level plain with fields and orchards and
gardens." And he thought to himself when he had spoken, "Surely, even
the Demon cannot do that."

"It shall be done," said the Demon, and, so saying, he stamped
his heel upon the ground. Instantly the earth began to tremble and
quake, and there came a great rumbling like the sound of thunder. A
cloud of darkness gathered in the sky, until at last all was as black
as the blackest midnight. Then came a roaring and a cracking and a
crashing, such as man never heard before. All day it continued, until
the time of the setting of the sun, when suddenly the uproar ceased,
and the darkness cleared away; and when the Tailor looked out of the
window the mountain was gone, and in its place were fields and
orchards and gardens.

It was very beautiful to see, but when the Tailor beheld it his
knees began to smite together, and the sweat ran down his face in
streams. All that night he walked up and down and up and down, but he
could not think of one other task for the Demon to do.

When the next morning came the Demon appeared like a whirlwind.
His face was as black as ink and smoke, and sparks of fire flew from
his nostrils.

"What have you for me to do?" cried he.

"I have nothing for you to do!" piped the poor Tailor.

"Nothing?" cried the Demon.

"Nothing."

"Then prepare to die."

"Stop!" cried the Tailor, falling on his knees, "let me first
see my wife."

"So be it," said the Demon, and if he had been wiser he would
have said "No."

When the Tailor came to the princess, he flung himself on his
face, and began to weep and wail. The princess asked him what was the
matter, and at last, by dint of question, got the story from him,
piece by piece. When she had it all she began laughing. "Why did you
not come to me before?" said she, "instead of making all this trouble
and uproar for nothing at all? I will give the Monster a task to do."
She plucked a single curling hair from her head. "Here," said she,
"let him take this hair and make it straight."

The Tailor was full of doubt; nevertheless, as there was nothing
better to do, he took it to the Demon.

"Hast thou found me a task to do?" cried the Demon.

"Yes," said the Tailor. "It is only a little thing. Here is a
hair from my wife's head; take it and make it straight."

When the Demon heard what was the task that the Tailor had set
him to do he laughed aloud; but that was because he did not know. He
took the hair and stroked it between his thumb and finger, and, when
he done, it curled more than ever. Then he looked serious, and
slapped it between his palms, and that did not better matters, for it
curled as much as ever. Then he frowned, and, began beating the hair
with his palm upon his knees, and that only made it worse. All that
day he labored and strove at his task trying to make that one little
hair straight, and, when the sun set, there was the hair just as
crooked as ever. Then, as the great round sun sank red behind the
trees, the Demon knew that he was beaten. "I am conquered! I am
conquered!" he howled, and flew away, bellowing so dreadfully that
all the world trembled.

So ends the story, with only this to say:

Where man's strength fails, woman's wit prevails.

For, to my mind, the princess--not to speak of her husband the
little Tailor--did more with a single little hair and her mother wit
than King Solomon with all his wisdom.

"Whose turn is it next to tell us a story?" said Sindbad the
Sailor.

" Twas my turn," said St. George; "but here be two ladies
present, and neither hath so much as spoken a word of a story for all
this time. If you, madam," said he to Cinderella, "will tell us a
tale, I will gladly give up my turn to you."

The Soldier who cheated the Devil took the pipe out of his mouth
and puffed away a cloud of smoke. "Aye," said he, "always remember
the ladies, say I. That is a soldier's trade."

"Very well, then; if it is your pleasure," said Cinderella. "I
will tell you a story, and it shall be of a friend of mine and of how
she looked after her husband's luck. She was," said Cinderella, "a
princess, and her father was a king."

"And what is your story about?" said Sindbad the Sailor.

"It is," said Cinderella, "about--