Page:The Pentamerone, or The Story of Stories.djvu/99

Rh of you now? You have cooked a pretty mess indeed! I would not give a farthing for your chance of escaping out of the king's hands if you stay here; for he has long arms, you know, that reach into every hole and corner, and I warrant he'll make the room too hot to hold you."

After his father had repeated this over and over again, Cienzo answered, "Sir, I have always heard say, that better is the law-court than the doctor in one's house. Would it not have been worse if he had broken my head? It was he who began, and provoked me; we are but boys, and there are two sides to the quarrel. After all, 'tis a first fault, and the king is a man of reason; but let the worst come to the worst, what great harm can he do me? Let him who will not give me the mother, give me the daughter—let him who will not send me cooked meat, send me raw; the wide world is one's home, and let him who is afraid, turn constable."

"What can he do to you indeed!" replied Antoniello; "he can drive you out of the world,—send you for a change of air; he can make you a schoolmaster, with a ferule four-and-twenty feet long, to thrash the fishes and teach them to speak; he can send you off with a soaped collar three feet long, to make merry with the