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THE CHILDREN’S LIBRARY

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_VOLUME ONE_


THE BROWN OWL

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_THE CHILDREN’S LIBRARY._


    THE BROWN OWL.
    THE CHINA CUP, AND OTHER STORIES.
    STORIES FROM FAIRYLAND.

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THE

BROWN OWL

A Fairy Story

    BY
    FORD H. MADOX HUEFFER


    _TWO ILLUSTRATIONS BY
    F. MADOX BROWN_

    NEW YORK
    CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY
    104 & 106 FOURTH AVENUE
    1892

    THIRD EDITION

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THE BROWN OWL


ONCE upon a time, a long while ago—in fact long before Egypt had risen
to power and before Rome or Greece had ever been heard of—and that was
some time before you were born, you know—there was a king who reigned
over a very large and powerful kingdom.

Now this king was rather old, he had founded his kingdom himself, and
he had reigned over it nine hundred and ninety-nine and a half years
already. As I have said before, it was a very large kingdom, for it
contained, among other things, the whole of the western half of the
world. The rest of the world was divided into smaller kingdoms, and
each kingdom was ruled over by separate princes, who, however, were
none of them so old as Intafernes, as he was called.

Now King Intafernes was an exceedingly powerful magician—that was
