The King and Queen of Mollebusch

The king and queen fancy themselves indispensable, but, having forfeited their lives to the Spirit of the Morass, search in vain for a subject who agrees with them to the extent of dying in their stead. At last, an innocent child offers to make the sacrifice, and by an unexpected turn of events they find that all whom they have asked to die for them are necessary to their own existence. The scheme of the tale is ingeniously devised, and executed with the care peculiar to German fairy stones with a moral.

The telling is delightful, and there is a peculiar charm about the queer German pictures. In the dearth of good fairy tales this excellent, well constructed story should not be overlooked. It is a far better story than Ruskin's overrated "King of the Golden River."