the queen and the princess were feeding the goldfish in the courtyard fountains with crumbs of the princess's eighteenth birthday cake, when the king came into the courtyard, looking as black as thunder, with his black raven hopping after him. he shook his fist at his family, as indeed he generally did whenever he met them, for he was not a king with pretty home manners. the raven sat down on the edge of the marble basin and tried to peck the goldfish. it was all he could do to show that he was in the same temper as his master.