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Random documents with unrelated
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Rumpty-
Dudget's Tower: A Fairy Tale
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Rumpty-Dudget's Tower: A Fairy Tale

Author: Julian Hawthorne

Illustrator: George Hood

Release date: June 15, 2020 [eBook #62408]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Tim Lindell, N Mercer and the Online

Distributed
Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUMPTY-

DUDGET'S TOWER: A FAIRY TALE ***
RUMPTY-DUDGET’S TOWER
​

“RUMPTY-DUDGET, WHOSE ONLY PLEASURE WAS

IN DOING MISCHIEF, LIVED IN A GRAY TOWER.”
 Rumpty-Dudget’s
Tower
A FAIRY TALE
BY

JULIAN HAWTHORNE

WITH FRONTISPIECE IN COLOR AND ILLUSTRATIONS

IN BLACK AND WHITE BY

GEORGE W. HOOD
 NEW YORK

FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

MCMXXIV
 Copyright, for illustrations, 1924, by
Frederick A. Stokes Company

Printed in the United States of America

 CONTENTS

PAGE
Preface ix
I
The Princess and the two Princes 3
II
Tom, Faithful Guardian
the 11
III
The Ways of the Wind 21
IV
Rumpty-Dudget’s Triumph 27
V
Tom’s Plan 35
VI
The Diamond Water-Drop 43
VII
The Golden Ivy-Seed 51
VIII
The Magic Fire 61
IX
The Rescue of Prince Henry 67
 ILLUSTRATIONS

“Rumpty-Dudget, whose only pleasure was in doing

mischief, lived in a gray tower” (in color) Frontispiece

FACING
PAGE
“‘Come with me, Princess Hilda, Prince Frank and
Prince Henry’” 14

“The two children took hold of it, and off they all
went” 36

“Behold! It was the golden ivy-seed” 56

“The cat put Princess Hilda and Prince Frank on the

two largest leaves, and got on the stem himself” 68

“‘Oh,’ said Princess Hilda, ‘you look like our mamma’” 70

 PREFACE

I N 1877, when I was living in Twickenham, near London, my sister

Una happened to be describing a queer character she had met
that day: she had a gift for making swift and vivid portraits in words.
“He was a little Rumpty-Dudget of a man,” she said, concluding her
description. She may have meant to say, “Rumpelstiltskin,” the name
of a dwarf immortalised in the Grimm fairy-tales, with which we had
been familiar in our childhood. But her variation struck me soundly,
and I said to myself, I’ll write a story about him!
But, in truth, the story, upon that inspiration, wrote itself. I had a
fine time with it, and my own children, to whom it was read in
manuscript, heartily approved it. Then Alexander Strahan, the
publisher, and the first editor of the famous Contemporary Review,
saw it and proclaimed, with many a Scottish burr, that it was “a varra
fine piece of worrk, my boy, and does ye credit,” and he carried it off
and published it in his new magazine for children. Afterward, the
eminent firm of Longmans, Green and Longmans, of Paternoster
Row, hard by Saint Paul’s, in London, considered it and said, “If you
can collect half a dozen others of the same sort, we would be glad
to issue them in a volume.” It was easy for me, in the late ’70’s, to
do that, though now that I am in the late seventies myself, I should
beg off.
So a little green-and-gold book was printed. It was called “Yellow-
Cap, and Other Fairy Tales,” and bore the great Longmans’ imprint.
And they sold, I believe, a great many of them; but the only story in
the collection about which readers afterward wrote to me, was
“Rumpty-Dudget’s Tower”; and today, after nearly five and forty
years, I still receive occasional kind words on the subject. My
mischievous little dwarf manifested vitality.
Of course, the Longmans volume has long been out of print. But in
the latter part of 1878, I came back to America, after a twelve-year
stay abroad, and found my friend Richard Watson Gilder riding high
as editor of The Century, and subordinate to him a delightful young
fellow named Clark, who was conducting a magazine for young
people. They had seen Rumpty-Dudget and wanted to republish it in
the latter periodical. So I sold them the American copyright, and
thought I was doing well. Could I not write a dozen as good or
better tales whenever I had a mind to? Such is the self-confidence of
an author whose years are but thirty-six!
Soon, letters began to come from children and from their mothers,
saying pleasant things about the story, and asking for more like it.
But things which I thought of more importance occupied me, and I
postponed complying with their requests: besides, my sister Una had
gone to Heaven, and could no longer inspire me with her word.
Letters continued to come, however, and presently they were from
mothers who had been children when the story first appeared, and
now wanted the old story for children of their own, and asked me to
publish it in book form. I began to regret not having kept my
American copyright, because when I suggested its return to me by
the Century people, they would reply that they intended, when they
could get down to it, to reprint the story themselves. So I was fain
to wait, and to bid my correspondents to do likewise.
But editors die in the course of time, and properties change hands,
and I myself lost track of the matter, though those letters still kept
on arriving from time to time. I wish I had kept them; there must
have been hundreds. The children who had become mothers were
grandmothers now and wanted the story for their grandchildren: but
nothing could be done. Poor Rumpty-Dudget was buried beyond
digging-up again—so it seemed. Would a tribe of great-
grandchildren arise, once more miraculously knowing about the
story, and demanding its resurrection?
At all events, about the first of the New Year, I got a letter from
Frederick A. Stokes Company of New York, in consequence of which
negotiations took place, leading up to the publication of the present
little volume. Rumpty-Dudget Redivivus! He bears a bad character in
the tale, but there must really be something good in him. And now
he makes his bow to little persons who were not born into this world
until nearly half a century after he left it. When I look at the list of
the year’s books, it strikes me that he appears in strange and alien
company. But that is not my affair: I choose to feel complimented on
his account, and I hope he will make new friends.

JULIAN HAWTHORNE.
 RUMPTY-DUDGET’S TOWER
​
 I

THE PRINCESS AND THE TWO PRINCES

L ONG ago, before the sun caught fire, before the moon froze up,
and before you were born, a Queen had three children, whose
names were Princess Hilda, Prince Frank, and Prince Henry. Princess
Hilda, who was the eldest, had blue eyes and golden hair; Prince
Henry, who was the youngest, had black eyes and black hair; and
Prince Frank, who was neither the youngest nor the eldest, had
hazel eyes and brown hair. They were the best children in the world,
and the prettiest, and the cleverest of their age; they lived in the
most beautiful palace ever built, and the garden they played in was
the loveliest that ever was seen.
This palace stood on the borders of a great forest, on the other side
of which was Fairy Land. But there was only one window in the
palace that looked out upon the forest, and that was the round
window of the room in which Princess Hilda, Prince Frank, and
Prince Henry slept. And since this window was never open except at
night, after the three children had been put to bed, they knew very
little about how the forest looked, or what kind of flowers grew
there, or what kind of birds sang in the branches of the trees.
Sometimes, however, as they lay with their heads on their little
pillows, and their eyes open, waiting for sleep to come and fasten
down their eyelids, they saw stars, white, blue, and red, twinkling in
the sky overhead; and below amongst the tree-trunks, other yellow
stars, which danced about, and flitted to and fro. These flitting stars
were called, by grown-up people, will-o’-the-wisps, jack-o’-lanterns,
fire-flies, and such like names; but the children knew them to be the
torches carried by the elves, as they ran hither and thither about
their affairs. They often wished that one of these elves would come
through the round window of their chamber, and make them a visit;
but if this ever happened, it was not until after the children had
fallen asleep, and could know nothing of it.
The garden was on the opposite side of the palace to the forest, and
was full of flowers, and birds, and fountains, in the basins of which
gold-fishes swam. In the center of the garden, was a broad green
lawn for the children to play on; and on the further edge of this lawn
was a high hedge, with only one round opening in the middle of it.
But through this opening no one was allowed to pass; for the land
on the other side belonged to a dwarf, whose name was Rumpty-
Dudget, and whose only pleasure was in doing mischief. He was an
ugly little dwarf, about as high as your knee, and all gray from head
to foot. He had a gray beard and wore a broad-brimmed gray hat,
and a gray cloak, that was so much too long for him that it dragged
on the ground as he walked; and on his back was a small gray
hump, that made him look even shorter than he was. He lived in a
gray tower, whose battlements could be seen from the palace
windows. In this tower was a room with a thousand and one corners
in it. In each of these corners stood a little child, with its face to the
wall, and its hands behind its back. They were children that Rumpty-
Dudget had caught trespassing on his grounds, and had carried off
with him to his tower. In this way he had filled up one corner after
another, until only one corner was left unfilled; and if he could catch
a child to put in that corner, then Rumpty-Dudget would become
master of the whole country, and the beautiful palace would
disappear, and the lovely garden would be changed into a desert,
covered over with gray stones and brambles. You may be sure,
therefore, that Rumpty-Dudget tried very hard to get hold of a child
to put in the thousand and first corner; but all the mothers were so
careful, and all the children so obedient, that for a long time that
thousand and first corner had remained empty.
​
 II

TOM, THE FAITHFUL GUARDIAN

W HEN Princess Hilda and her two little brothers, Prince Frank and
Prince Henry, were still very little indeed, the Queen, their
mother, was obliged to make a long journey to a distant country, and
to leave the children behind her. They were not entirely alone,
however; for there was their fairy aunt to keep guard over them at
night, and a large cat, with yellow eyes and a thick tail, to see that
no harm came to them during the day. The cat was named Tom, and
was with them from the time they got up in the morning until they
went to bed again; but from the time they went to bed until they got
up, the cat disappeared and the fairy aunt took his place. The
children had never seen their fairy aunt except in dreams, because
she only came after sleep had fastened down their eyelids for the
night. Then she would fly in through the round window, and sit on
the edge of their bed, and whisper in their ears all manner of
charming stories about Fairy Land, and the wonderful things that
were seen and done there. Then, just before they awoke, she would
kiss their eyelids and fly out of the round window again; and the cat,
with his yellow eyes and his thick tail, would come purring in at the
window.
One day, the unluckiest day in the whole year, Princess Hilda, Prince
Frank and Prince Henry were playing together on the broad lawn in
the center of the garden. It was Rumpty-Dudget’s birthday, and the
only day in which he had power to creep through the round hole in
the hedge and prowl about the Queen’s grounds. As ill-fortune would
have it, moreover, the cat was forced to be away on this day from
sunrise to sunset; so that during all that time the three children had
no one to take care of them. But they did not know there was any
danger, for they had never yet heard of Rumpty-Dudget; and they
went on playing together very affectionately, for up to this time they
had never quarreled. The only thing that troubled them was that
Tom, the cat, was not there to play with them; he had been away
ever since sunrise, and they all longed to see his yellow eyes and his
thick tail, and to stroke his smooth back, and to hear his comfortable
purr. However, it was now very near sunset, so he must soon be
back. The sun, like a great red ball, hung a little way above the edge
of the world, and was taking a parting look at the children before
bidding them good night.
All at once, Princess Hilda looked up and saw a strange little dwarf
standing close beside her, all gray from head to foot. He had a gray
beard, a gray hat, and a long gray cloak that dragged on the
ground, and on his back was a little gray hump that made him seem
even shorter than he was, though, after all, he was no taller than
your knee. Princess Hilda was not frightened, for nobody had ever
done her any harm; and besides, this strange little gray man, though
he was very ugly, smiled at her from ear to ear, and seemed to be
the most good-natured dwarf in the world. So she called to Prince
Frank and Prince Henry, and they looked up too, and were no more
frightened than Hilda; and as the dwarf kept smiling from ear to ear,
the three children smiled back at him. Meanwhile, the great red ball
of the sun was slowly going down, and now his lower edge was just
resting on the edge of the world.
Now, you have heard of Rumpty-Dudget before, and therefore you
know that this strange little gray dwarf was none other than he, and
that, although he smiled so good-naturedly from ear to ear, he was
really wishing to do the children harm, and even to carry one of
them off to his tower, to stand in the thousand and first corner. But
he had no power to do this so long as the children stayed on their
side of the hedge; he must first tempt them to creep through the
round opening, and then he could carry them whither he pleased. So
he held out his hand and said:
“Come with me, Princess Hilda, Prince Frank and Prince Henry. I am
very fond of little children; and if you will creep through that round
opening in the hedge, I will show you something you never saw
before.”

“‘COME WITH ME, PRINCESS HILDA,

PRINCE FRANK AND PRINCE HENRY’”

The three children thought it would be very pleasant to see

something they never saw before; for if that part of the world which
they had already seen was so beautiful, it was likely that the part
they had not seen would be more beautiful still. So they stood up,
and Rumpty-Dudget took Prince Frank by one hand, and Prince
Henry by the other, and Princess Hilda followed behind, and thus
they all set off across the lawn toward the round opening in the
hedge. But they could not go very fast, because Prince Henry was
hardly old enough to walk fast yet; and meanwhile, the great red
ball of the sun kept going down very slowly, and now his lower half
was out of sight beneath the edge of the world. However, at last
they came to the round opening, and Rumpty-Dudget took hold of
Prince Henry to lift him through it.
But just at that moment the last bit of the sun disappeared beneath
the edge of the world, and instantly there was a great sound of
meowing and spitting, and Tom, the cat, came springing across the
lawn, his great yellow eyes flashing, and his back bristling, and every
hair upon his tail standing straight out, until it was as big round as
your leg. And he flew at Rumpty-Dudget, and jumped upon his
hump, and bit and scratched him soundly. At that Rumpty-Dudget
screamed with pain, and dropped little Prince Henry, and vanished
through the opening of the hedge in the twinkling of an eye.
But from the other side of the hedge he threw a handful of black
mud at the three children; a drop of it fell upon the forehead of
Princess Hilda, and another upon Prince Frank’s nose, and a third
upon little Prince Henry’s chin; and each drop made a little black
spot, which all the washing and scrubbing in the world would not
take away. And immediately Princess Hilda, who had till then been
the best little girl in the world, began to wish to order everybody
about, and make them do what she pleased, whether they liked it or
not; and Prince Frank, who till then had been one of the two best
little boys in the world, began to want all the good and pretty things
that belonged to other people, in addition to what already belonged
to him; and Prince Henry, who till then had been the other of the
two best little boys in the world, began to wish to do what he was
told not to do, and not to do what he was told to do. Such was the
effect of the three black drops of mud.
​
 III

THE WAYS OF THE WIND

A LTHOUGH the Princess Hilda and her two little brothers were no
longer the best children in the world, they were pretty good
children as the world goes, and got along tolerably well together on
the whole. But whenever the wind blew from the north, where
Rumpty-Dudget’s tower stood, Princess Hilda ordered her brothers
about, and tried to make them do what she pleased, whether they
liked it or not; and Prince Frank wanted some of the good and pretty
things that belonged to his brother and sister, in addition to what
were already his; and Prince Henry would not do what he was told
to do, and would do what he was told not to do. And then, too, the
spot on Princess Hilda’s forehead, and on Prince Frank’s nose, and
on Prince Henry’s chin, became blacker and blacker, and hotter and
hotter, until at last the children were ready to cry from pain and
vexation. But as soon as the wind blew from the south, where Fairy
Land was, the spots began to grow dim, and the heat to lessen, until
at last the children hardly felt or noticed them any more. Yet they
never disappeared altogether; and neither the cat nor the fairy aunt
could do anything to drive them away. But the cat used to warn
Princess Hilda and her two brothers that unless they could make the
wind blow always from the south, the thousand and first corner in
Rumpty-Dudget’s tower would be filled at last. And when, at night,
their fairy aunt flew in through the round window and sat on their
bedside, and whispered stories about Fairy Land into their ears, and
they would ask her in their sleep to take them all three in her arms
and carry them over the tops of the forest trees to her beautiful
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