The Queen Makes an Apple Fie.

Hutt News, Volume 1, Issue 35, 7 February 1929, Page 8

The Queen Makes an Apple Fie.

Once upon a time the Queer) went into her kitchen to make an apple pie.

. She mixed the pastry, cut up the apples, put in the sugar, and was just going to put the top on the pie when she heard a queer noise outside, high up in the air. It was a bustling, rustling,, screeching, squeaking sort of a noise, as if all the birds in the world were passing by.The Queen and all her ladies ran out into the garden to see what had happened. It was a Witch flying over the house on her broomstick, and that is not a thing you see every day.

While they were air out except a little Kitchen-maid, in came the Witch's big black cat, who was always ready for any mischief. He jumped pn to the table, purring to himself and making a spell. He got smaller and smaller and smaller, till he turned himself into an apple-pip and jumped into the pie.

When the Queen came back, the Kitchen-maid said nothing, as she thought the Queen would be sure to pick out the pip and throw it away. But the Queen 'was in a hurry and did not see it. She popped the top on to the pie, and gave it to the Kitchen-maid to put into the oven:

When the pie was put on the table for dinner, the Queen picked up a knife and was just going to cut it, when the pie began to mew!

The_pie said in a teeny-weeny voic, ■'•■■•■-.

"Meow, meow, don't cut me up, Or you'll not have a bit of luck,

Meow, meow, meo-oo!''

"What a pity that is!" said the Queen as she laid down her knife.

'' Nonsense, my dear!'' said the King crossly. "You can't (pay any attention to little things like that. Please cut me some at once. I am hungry."

But as soon as the knife came near the pie, it mewed and ran all over the table.

The King said he didn't really feel hungry any more, and it did not matter. The poor Queen was in tears. She had taken such a lot of trouble over that pie—and now someone had gone and enchanted it.

''I'd give a handful of gold pieces," she said, ' 'to anyone who could take off the spell."

The Kitchen-maid, who had been listening, came in and dropped a curtsey. She told- the Queen how she had seen the Witch's cat that morning^ "if your Majesty would cut the pie and throw the apple-pip inside it into the fire, there'd be an end to this magic," she said.

The Kitchen-maid held the pie tight, while the Queen, cut it. It gave a loud "Meoo-00-oo" as she did so, and she threw the applepip into the fire.

r In a moment it was the Witch's cat again, and had vanished up the chimney in a puff of smoke. The Queen thanked the Kitchenmaid and gave her a big handful of gold.

I And now, whenever she makes an apple pie, she takes good care she never leaves an apple-pip inside it. Lucy and the Sugar Bread