"It's no mock," said Billy, and he changed clothes with the raggedy man,
and gave him boot.
When Billy came to the king's town, in his dreadful old clothes, no one
knew him for the champion at all, and none would let him come forward to
try the shoe. But after all had tried, Billy spoke up that he wanted to
try. They laughed at him, and pushed him back, with his rags. But the
princess would have it that he should try. "I like his face," said she;
"let him try, now."
So up stepped Billy, and put on the shoe, and it fitted him like his own
skin.
Then Billy confessed that it was he that killed the dragon. And that he
was a king's son. And they put a velvet suit on him, and hung a gold chain
round his neck, and everyone said a finer-looking boy they'd never seen.
So Billy married the princess, and was the prince of that place.
THE LITTLE HERO OF HAARLEM[1]
[Footnote 1: Told from memory of the story told me when a child.]
A long way off, across the ocean, there is a little country where the
ground is lower than the level of the sea, instead of higher, as it is
here. Of course the water would run in and cover the land and houses, if
something were not done to keep it out. But something is done. The people
build great, thick walls all round the country, and the walls keep the sea
out.
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