蓝胡子

　　Blue Beard

　　Once there was a very rich man. He lived in a beautiful house, and had a beautiful garden. The rich man had a blue beard: so he was called

　　"Blue Beard".

　　Near the rich man's house there lived a poor woman. She had three sons and two beautiful girls. The name of one of the girls was Ann; the name of the other was Fatima. Blue Beard wanted to marry one of the girls, but the girls did not want to marry Blue Beard.

　　Ann and Fatima did not want to marry the rich man because his beard was blue. Blue Beard had married many wives, but his wives had gone away. No one knew where his other wives had gone. The girls did not want to marry Blue Beard and become his wife, because no one knew where his other wives had gone. So their mother said to Blue Beard, "My girls do not want to marry you."

　　Then Blue Beard said, "Come and live in my house for some days." So they went and lived in Blue Beard's house. It was a very beautiful house, and Blue Beard was good to them in many ways.

　　Fatima said, "His beard is blue, but he is not a bad man. He is very good in some ways. So I will marry him."

　　So fatima married Blue Beard, and went to live in the beautiful house. Some days went by. Then Blue Beard said, "I shall go on a journey." Then he gave Fatima the keys of all the rooms in the house. He said, "This is the key of that little room; do not open the door of it. ... Say that you will not open the door of the little room!"