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Once upon a time the things in this story happened, and if they had
not happened then the story would never have been told. But that
was the time when wolves and lambs lay peacefully together in one
stall, and shepherds dined on grassy banks with kings and queens.
Once upon a time, then, my dear good children, there lived a man.
Now this man was really a hundred years old, if not fully twenty
years more. And his wife was very old too--how old I do not
know; but some said she was as old as the goddess Venus herself.
They had been very happy all these years, but they would have been
happier still if they had had any children; but old though they were
they had never made up their minds to do without them, and often
they would sit over the fire and talk of how they would have
brought up their children if only some had come to their house.
One day the old man seemed sadder and more thoughtful than was
common with him, and at last he said to his wife: 'Listen to me, old
woman!'
'What do you want?' asked she.
'Get me some money out of the chest, for I am going a long
journey--all through the world--to see if I cannot find a child, for
my heart aches to think that after I am dead my house will fall into
the hands of a stranger. And this let me tell you: that if I never find
a child I shall not come home again.'
Then the old man took a bag and filled it with food and money, and
throwing it over his shoulders, bade his wife farewell.
For long he wandered, and wandered, and wandered, but no child
did he see; and one morning his wanderings led him to a forest
which was so thick with trees that no light could pass through the
branches. The old man stopped when he saw this dreadful place,
and at first was afraid to go in; but he remembered that, after all, as
the proverb says: 'It is the unexpected that happens,' and perhaps in
the midst of this black spot he might find the child he was seeking.
So summoning up all his courage he plunged boldly in.
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Fairytales 
