Tom Tit Tot
The Golden Arm
The Rose Tree
The Fish and the Ring
By Joseph Jacobs
http://www.authorama.com/english-fairy-tales-1.html
copyright 2003
Fairytales

The story i have chosen for Jacobs is The Fish and the Ring. This is a story about a mighty baron who was also a magician. When his son was four years old he looked into the Book of Fate and saw that his son would marry a poor maiden. He went to the maidens house and when he saw that the parents already had five small children, he offerred to take the smallest girl and raise her. The parents agreed, and as soon as the parents were out of sight, the baron threw the child into the river. But the child's clothes kept her afloat untill a fisherman rescued her and raised her. Fifteen years later the baron was going hunting with some friends when he came upon the fisherman and the lovely girl who was now fifteen. The baron knows that she is the baby he threw overboard so he asks her to deliver a letter to his brother for him and offers her a large sum of money. She agrees and sets off to deliver the note. While she is sleeping, a group of robbers come across her. they read the note which says "Brother, when you get this note kill the messenger" the robbers felt bad for the poor beautiful maiden so they change the letter to "Brother when you get this note, marry this girl to my son" When the the girl delivers the note and the baron's brother reads it, he marries the girl and his nephew who was staying with him at the time. when the baron finds out that they have married, he takes the girl for a walk along some cliffs to the sea and tries to throw her over. When she begs for her life and promises to do anything he wishes, he takes his ring off of his finger and throws it into the water. he tells her that when she finds the ring she will be able to be with her husband again. She runs away and becomes a cook in a large catstle. One day the baron and his son visit the castle and she is in charge of cooking the meal for them. She starts to cut open a fish for cooking when she sees the ring in its belly. After the meal, the baron is so satisfied with the cook that he asks to see the cook to praise him. He is shocked to find out that the cook is the maiden and that she has his ring. She and the son live happily ever after.
I really love this story because the girl gets the guy in the end. its a happy ending even thought the story wasnt all that happy. i would recomend this story to everyone and i am goind to read it to all my children.
i dont see any problems in this book.