Page:The Pentamerone, or The Story of Stories.djvu/274

244 in a room in the hostelry of the 'Horn,' where the most famous men in the world lodge and make merry, two persons from Hook-Castle came in, who, after they had eaten their fill and had seen the bottom of their flagon, fell to talking of a trick they had played a certain old man of Dark-Grotto, and how they had cheated him out of a stone of great value, which one of them named Jennarone said he would never take from his finger, that he might not run the risk of losing it as the old man's daughter had done.

When Minecco Aniello heard this, he told the two mice, that if they would trust themselves to accompany him to the country where these rogues lived, and recover the ring for him, he would give them a good lot of cheese and salt meat, which they might eat and enjoy with his majesty the king. Then the two mice, after bargaining for a reward, offered to go over sea and mountain; and taking leave of his mousy majesty, they set out.

After journeying a long way, they arrived at Hook-Castle, where the mice told Minecco Aniello to remain under some trees on the brink of a river, which like a leech drew the moisture from the land and discharged it into the sea. Then they went to seek the house of the magicians; and observing that Jennarone never took the ring from his finger, they sought to gain the