Nine Unlikely Tales

​

NINE
UNLIKELY TALES


By

E. NESBIT


Illustrated by

H. R. MILLAR
AND
CLAUDE A. SHEPPERSON

ERNEST BENN LIMITED
LONDON

COWARD—McCANN INC
NEW YORK

​

First re-issued in this edition 1960
Published by Ernest Benn Limited
Bouverie House • Fleet Street • London • EC 4
and Coward-McCann Inc
210 Madison Avenue • New York 16 • NY

Printed in Great Britain

​

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 page 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
The Princess in one scale and her hair in the other 189
“Welcome! Welcome!” 273
“Poor benighted, oppressed people, follow me!” 279


This work was published before January 1, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.