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The Forbidden Room.

upon a time there was a wizard, who changed himself into the form of a poor man, and went about begging from house to house and carrying away all the pretty girls he could find. No one ever knew what became of them, for when they had once disappeared they were never seen again.

One day he went to the door of a man who had three beautiful daughters, looking just like a feeble old beggar, with a basket slung over his shoulder, as if he were collecting the scraps given to him out of charity. He asked for a morsel of food; the eldest girl came out and handed him a piece of bread, and as she did so, he gave her one little touch, and she was at once obliged to jump into his basket.

He then hurried off with long strides and carried her to his house in the middle of a dark wood. Everything in the house was magnificent, and she had but to express a wish for anything and he gave it her at once. "You are 163