Page:The Pentamerone, or The Story of Stories.djvu/228

202 a little girl, to whom he gave the name he had promised.

The child grew by palms, and when she was as tall as a pole, the king said to her, "My daughter, you are now grown (Heaven bless you!) as large as an oak, and it is full time to provide you with a husband worthy of that pretty face. Since therefore I love you as my own life, and desire to please you, tell me I pray what sort of a husband you would like, what kind of a man would suit your fancy? Will you have him a scholar or a dunce? a boy, or a man in years? brown, or fair and ruddy? tall as a maypole, or short as a spigot? small in the waist, or round as an ox? Do you choose, and I am satisﬁed."

Cannetella, hearing these lavish offers, thanked her father, but told him that she would on no account encumber herself with a husband. However, being urged by the king again and again, she said, "Not to show myself ungrateful for so much love, I am willing to comply with your wish, provided I have such a man as that he has no like in the world."

Her father, delighted beyond measure at hearing this, took his station at the window from morning till evening, looking out and surveying, measuring and examining every one that passed along the street. And one day seeing a good-looking man go by, the king said to