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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Soap-Bubble Stories, by Fanny Barry
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Soap-Bubble Stories
+       For Children
+
+Author: Fanny Barry
+
+Release Date: March 6, 2009 [EBook #28263]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOAP-BUBBLE STORIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marcia Brooks, Woodie4, David Edwards and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  Transcriber's notes:
+  Alternative spelling and hyphenation have been retained as
+  they appear in the original publication. Changes have been
+  made as follows:
+
+  Page 125 on the top of a dias _changed to_
+           on the top of a dais
+
+  Page 131 tobogganned down a steep _changed to_
+           tobogganed down a steep
+
+
+
+
+  SOAP-BUBBLE STORIES
+
+
+
+
+  Soap-Bubble Stories.
+
+  FOR CHILDREN.
+
+  BY
+
+  _FANNY BARRY_,
+
+  AUTHOR OF "THE FOX FAMILY," "THE OBSTINATE ELM LEAF," "THE BEARS
+  OF WUNDERMERK," ETC.
+
+  New York:
+
+  JAMES POTT & CO., 14 & 16, ASTOR PLACE.
+
+  1892.
+
+
+
+
+  TO
+
+  VERA, ELSIE,
+  OSKAR, OLGA, ERIK,
+  NEVA, JESSIE,
+  LEO, DOROTHY, CLAUDE,
+  AND
+  HERBERT.
+
+
+
+
+It was twilight, and the children, tired of playing, gathered round
+the fire.
+
+Outside, the snow fell softly, softly; and the bare trees shook their
+branches in the keen air. The pleasant glow of the blazing logs
+lighted up the circle of happy faces, and peopled the distant corners
+with elfin shadows.
+
+All the afternoon the children, pipe in hand, with soap suds before
+them, had been blowing airy bubbles that caught the gleams of a
+hundred flying rainbows--but now in the fading daylight, the pipes
+were put aside, and they threw themselves down on the fur rug, and
+looked with thoughtful eyes into the caverns of the fire.
+
+"What can we do now?" they cried, "Won't _you_ make us some bubbles?"
+
+And someone sitting in the shadow, who had watched and admired their
+handiwork; whipped up some white froth in a fairy basin, and taking a
+pipe, she blew them some bubbles.
+
+Not so beautiful as the children's own, with their pure reflections of
+the light and sunshine--but the best she could fashion with the
+materials she had at hand; for the only soap she could find was
+Imagination, and her pipe was a humble black pen.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                                        PAGE
+
+THE TROLL IN THE CHURCH FOUNTAIN           1
+
+THE IMP IN THE CHINTZ CURTAIN             13
+
+HEARTSEASE                                22
+
+A STORY OF SIENA                          27
+
+THE STONE-MAIDEN                          44
+
+THE GRASS OF PARNASSUS                    51
+
+THE HEDGEHOGS' COFFEE PARTY               53
+
+UNCLE VOLODIA                             68
+
+THE ANGEL AND THE LILIES                  95
+
+THE ALPEN-ECHO                           100
+
+THE SCROLL IN THE MARKET PLACE           103
+
+A SCRAP OF ETRUSCAN POTTERY              109
+
+THE GOATS ON THE GLACIER                 114
+
+THE GREAT LADY'S CHIEF-MOURNER           139
+
+DAME FOSSIE'S CHINA DOG                  142
+
+PRINCESS SIDIGUNDA'S GOLDEN SHOES        161
+
+THE BADGER'S SCHOOL                      179
+
+BOBBIE'S TWO SHILLINGS                   203
+
+
+
+
+THE TROLL IN THE CHURCH FOUNTAIN.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+It was a village of fountains. They poured from the sides of houses,
+bubbled up at street corners, sprang from stone troughs by the
+roadside, and one even gushed from the very walls of the old Church
+itself, and fell with a monotonous tinkle into a carved stone basin
+beneath.
+
+The old Church stood on a high plateau overlooking the lake. It jutted
+out so far, on its great rock, that it seemed to overhang the
+precipice; and as the neighbours walked upon the terrace on Sundays,
+and enjoyed the shade of the row of plane trees, they could look down
+over the low walls of the Churchyard almost into the chimneys of the
+wooden houses clustering below.
+
+There were wide stone seats on the terrace, grey and worn by the
+weather, and by the generations of children who had played round them;
+and here the mothers and grandmothers, with their distaffs in their
+hands, loved to collect on summer evenings.
+
+Often Terli had seen them from his home by the mountain torrent, for
+he was so high up, he looked down upon the whole village; and he had
+often longed to join them and hear what they were saying; but as he
+was nothing but a River-Troll, he was not able to venture within sight
+or sound of the water of the holy Church Fountain.
+
+Anywhere else he was free to roam; teazing the children, worrying the
+women as they washed their clothes at the open stone basins, even
+putting his lean fingers into the fountain spout to stop the water,
+while the people remained staring open-mouthed, or ran off to fetch a
+neighbour to find out what was the matter.
+
+This was all very pleasant to Terli, and at night he would hurry back
+to his relations in their cave under the stones of the torrent, and
+enjoy a good laugh at the day's adventures.
+
+There was only one thing that worried him. Several of the cleverest
+old women of the village, who had on several occasions seen Terli
+dancing about the country, agreed to hang a little pot of the Church
+water in the doors of their houses; and once or twice the Troll, on
+attempting to enter in order to teaze the inhabitants, had suddenly
+caught sight of the water, and rushed away with a scream of rage and
+disappointment.
+
+"Never River-Troll can stand the sight of the Church Fountain!" said
+the old women, and rubbed their hands gleefully.
+
+In the early summer there was to be a great wedding at the old
+Church, the Bridegroom the son of a rich farmer, the Bride one of the
+young girls of the village; and Terli, who had known them both from
+childhood, determined that for once in his life he would enter the
+unknown region of the Church Terrace.
+
+"Elena has often annoyed me in the past," laughed Terli, "so it is
+only fair I should try and annoy her in the future"--and he sat down
+cross-legged at the bottom of a water trough to arrange his plans
+quietly in seclusion.
+
+An old horse came by, dragging a creaking waggon, and the driver
+stopped to allow the animal to drink.
+
+The Troll raised himself leisurely, and as the horse put in his head,
+Terli seized it in both hands, and hung on so firmly that it was
+impossible for the poor creature to get away.
+
+"Let go!" said the horse, angrily--for he understood the Troll
+language. "Let me go! What are you doing?"
+
+"I shan't let you go till you make me a promise. You get the
+Wood-Troll to cork up the Church Fountain at daybreak on Friday
+morning, and I'll let you drink as much as you like now, and go
+without hindrance afterwards."
+
+"I shan't promise," said the horse, crossly. "I don't see why I
+should."
+
+"Well, I shall hang on till you _do_," said the Troll with a
+disagreeable laugh; and he gripped the old horse more tightly than
+ever.
+
+"Oh, leave off! I'm being suffocated. I'll promise anything," cried
+the horse.
+
+[Illustration: "'LET GO!' SAID THE HORSE, ANGRILY. 'LET ME GO! WHAT
+ARE YOU DOING?'"]
+
+Terli withdrew his hands immediately, sinking down to the bottom of
+the trough with a chuckle that made the water bubble furiously; and
+the old horse, without waiting to drink, trotted off with an activity
+that surprised his master.
+
+"Remember your promise!" called the Troll, putting his head suddenly
+over the edge of the trough, and pointing a thin finger. "On Friday at
+daybreak the Church Fountain stopped, or you don't drink comfortably
+for a twelve-month!"
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Early on Friday morning the bridal procession started gaily, and all
+the village folks were so occupied they never noticed that the Church
+Fountain had ceased to bubble.
+
+The bells rang out; while the Troll, hidden in the branches of a tree
+close to the entrance door, glanced first at the procession and then
+at a wedge of wood sticking out of the stone mouth of the Fountain,
+and he laughed elfishly.
+
+"Ha, ha! The old horse has kept his promise. This _is_ seeing the
+world," he whispered triumphantly.
+
+The marriage ceremony was soon over, and as the newly-wedded pair
+stepped out upon the terrace again, Terli drew from his pocket a
+little jar of water, and _splash!_ fell some drops from it right in
+the eyes of the Bride and Bridegroom.
+
+"It is beginning to rain! I saw the clouds gathering! Run, run, for
+the nearest shelter!" cried everyone confusedly, and off dashed the
+crowd, panting and breathless.
+
+Now it was an unfortunate thing, that after the wedding everything in
+the new household seemed to go wrong.
+
+"The young people have had their heads turned," whispered the old
+women, and the poor Bride looked pale and disconsolate.
+
+"It is a wretched house to have married into," she said to her mother.
+"Nothing but these poor boards for furniture, no good fields or
+garden--all so dull and disagreeable; and then my husband--he seems
+always discontented. I think I was happier at home;" and she tapped
+her foot impatiently.
+
+Her mother argued and remonstrated, and at last began to weep
+bitterly.
+
+"You must be bewitched, Elena, to complain like this! You have
+everything a reasonable girl can wish for."
+
+"Everything? Why I have _nothing_!" cried Elena angrily, and ran from
+the room; leaving Terli, who was hiding in a water-bucket, to stamp
+his feet with delight.
+
+"Ha! ha! it is going on excellently," he shouted in his little cracked
+voice. "Once let them have the water from the Trolls' well in their
+eyes, they'll never be contented again!" and he upset the bucket in
+which he was standing over the feet of the Bride's mother, who had to
+run home hastily to change her wet shoes.
+
+"This is the work of the River-Trolls, I believe," she said to
+herself, as she held up her soaked skirts carefully. "I'll find out
+all about it on St. John's Eve, if I can't do so before"--and she
+nodded angrily towards the mountain torrent.
+
+Days passed, and the sad temper of the newly-married couple did not
+improve.
+
+They scarcely attempted to speak to each other, and groaned so much
+over the hardships of their life, that all their friends became tired
+of trying to comfort them.
+
+"They're bewitched," said the Bride's mother, "bewitched, and nothing
+else. But wait till St. John's Eve, and you'll see I shall cure them."
+
+She spoke mysteriously, but as she was a sensible woman everyone
+believed her.
+
+On St. John's Eve--as I daresay you know--all animals have the power
+of talking together like human beings, and punctually as the clock
+struck twelve the Bride's mother put on her thick shoes, and taking
+the stable lantern from its nail, she went off to the stable, refusing
+to allow either her husband or son to accompany her.
+
+As she entered the door of the outhouse, she heard the oxen already
+whispering to each other, and the old horse, with his head over the
+division, addressing friendly remarks to a family of goats close by.
+
+"Do you know anything of Terli or the Wood-Trolls?" enquired the old
+woman, looking at the oxen severely.
+
+"No, no, no!" and they shook their heads slowly.
+
+The Bride's mother then repeated her question to the goat family, who
+denied any knowledge of the Trolls with a series of terrified bleats.
+
+"There is only _you_, then," said the Bride's mother to the old horse.
+"You have served us faithfully, and we have been kind masters to you.
+Tell me: do you know anything of Terli or the Wood-Trolls?"
+
+"I do," said the old horse with dignity. "I can tell you more than
+anyone else dreams of;" and he stepped from his stall with an air of
+the greatest importance.
+
+The old woman sat down upon an upturned stable-bucket, and prepared to
+listen.
+
+"Just before the wedding," commenced the horse, "I was passing through
+the village with old master, when we stopped to drink. No sooner had I
+got my nose into the Fountain than, _heuw!_ Terli had hold of me, and
+not an inch would he loosen his grip till I promised to let him see
+the wedding by getting the Wood-Trolls to stop up the Church Fountain.
+What was I to do? I was forced to agree, and from that promise comes
+all the misery of the Bride and Bridegroom."
+
+The old horse then went on to explain what Terli had done on the
+wedding day, while the Bride's mother jumped up from the water-bucket
+with a cry of delight.
+
+"All will be well now. You have done us the greatest possible service,
+and shall live in leisure for the rest of your life," she said; and
+ran out of the stables towards the house, before the astonished
+animals could recover themselves.
+
+"I've found it all out," she cried to her husband. "Now all we have to
+do is to catch Terli."
+
+"Not so easy, wife," said the Bride's father, but the old woman smiled
+in a mysterious manner.
+
+"Leave it to me, husband, _I_ shall manage it. Our children will be
+happy again to-morrow, you will see."
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The next day at sunrise, the Bride's mother crept off secretly to the
+Church Fountain and brought back a large pailful of the water. This
+she emptied into a wash-tub and covered with some green pine branches,
+and on the top of all she placed a wooden bowl half filled with
+butter-milk.
+
+"Terli likes it so much--he will do anything for butter-milk," she
+said to herself, as she propped open the kitchen door, and went off
+with a light heart to see her daughter.
+
+She carried with her a jug of the Church water, and when she arrived
+at the farm house, she gave it to her daughter and son-in-law, and
+begged them to bathe their eyes with it immediately.
+
+With much grumbling they obeyed her; but what a change occurred
+directly they had done so!
+
+The day, which had seemed cloudy and threatening rain, now appeared
+bright and hopeful. The Bride ran over her new house with exclamations
+of delight at all the comfortable arrangements, and the Bridegroom
+declared he was a lucky man to have married a good wife, and have a
+farm that anyone might reasonably be proud of!
+
+"How could we ever have troubled over anything?" said the young Bride,
+"I can't understand it! We are young, and we are happy."
+
+The old woman smiled wisely. "It was only the Troll's well-water,"
+she said, and went home as fast as her feet would carry her.
+
+As she neared her own door, she heard sounds of splashing and
+screaming in a shrill piping voice; and on entering, saw Terli
+struggling violently in the tub of Church water, the little bowl of
+butter-milk lying spilt upon the floor.
+
+"Take me out! Take me out! It gives me the toothache!" wailed the
+Troll, but the Bride's mother was a wise woman, and determined that
+now she had caught their tormentor she would keep him safely.
+
+[Illustration: "TAKE ME OUT! TAKE ME OUT! IT GIVES ME THE
+TOOTH-ACHE!"]
+
+"I've got the toothache in every joint!" shouted Terli. "Let me out,
+and I'll _never_ tease you any more."
+
+"It serves you very well right," said the old woman, and she poured
+the contents of the tub--including Terli--into a large bucket, and
+carried it off in triumph to the Church Fountain.
+
+Here she emptied the bucket into the carved stone basin, and left
+Terli kicking and screaming, while she went home to the farmhouse to
+breakfast.
+
+"That's a good morning's work, wife; if you never do another:" said
+the Bride's father, who had come into the kitchen just as Terli upset
+the bowl of butter-milk, and fell through the pine branches headlong
+into the tub beneath. "We shall live in peace and quietness now, for
+Terli was the most mischievous of the whole of the Troll-folk."
+
+The words of the Bride's father proved to be quite true, for after the
+capture of the Water-Troll the village enjoyed many years of quietness
+and contentment.
+
+As to Terli, he lived in great unhappiness in the Church Fountain;
+enduring a terrible series of tooth-aches, but unable to escape from
+the magic power of the water.
+
+At the end of that time, however, a falling tree split the sides of
+the carved stone basin into fragments, and the Troll, escaping with
+the water which flowed out, darted from the Churchyard and safely
+reached his old home in the bed of the mountain torrent.
+
+"The Church Fountain is broken, and Terli has escaped," said the good
+folks the next morning--and the old people shook their heads gravely,
+in alarm--but I suppose Terli had had a good lesson, for he never
+troubled the village any more.
+
+[Illustration: The troll]
+
+
+
+
+THE IMP IN THE CHINTZ CURTAIN.
+
+He was a wicked-looking Imp, and he lived in a bed curtain.
+
+No one knew he was in the house, not even the master and mistress. The
+little girl who slept in the chintz-curtained bed was the only person
+who knew of his existence, and she never mentioned him, even to her
+old nurse.
+
+She had made his acquaintance one Christmas Eve, as she lay awake,
+trying to keep her tired eyes open long enough to see Santa Klaus come
+down the chimney. The Imp sprang into view with a _cr-r-r-ick,
+cr-r-r-ack_ of falling wood in the great fireplace, and there he stood
+bowing to Marianne from the left-hand corner of the chintz curtain.
+
+A green leaf formed his hat, some straggling branches his feet; his
+thin body was a single rose-stem, and his red face a crumpled
+rose-bud.
+
+A flaw in the printing of the chintz curtain had given him life--a
+life distinct from that of the other rose leaves.
+
+"You're lying awake very late to-night--what's that for?" he enquired,
+shaking the leaf he wore upon his head, and looking at Marianne
+searchingly.
+
+"Why, don't you see I'm waiting for Santa Klaus?" replied Marianne.
+"I've always missed him before, but this time _nothing_ shall make me
+go to sleep!" She sat up in bed and opened her eyes as widely as
+possible.
+
+"He has generally been here before this," said the Imp. "I can
+remember your great-aunt sleeping in this very bed and being in just
+the same fuss. I got down and danced about all night, and she thought
+I was earwigs."
+
+"_I_ should never think you were an earwig--you're too pink and
+green--but don't talk, I can hear something buzzing."
+
+"Santa Klaus doesn't buzz," said the Chintz Imp. "He comes down
+_flop!_ Once in your aunt's time, I knew him nearly stick in the
+chimney. He had too many things in his sack. You should have heard how
+he struggled, it was like thunder! Everyone said how high the wind
+was."
+
+"I hope he won't do it to-night," said Marianne, "I could never pull
+him down by myself!"
+
+As she spoke the room seemed to be violently shaken, and there was a
+sound of falling plaster, followed by some loud kicks.
+
+"Whew--w!" cried the Chintz Imp, "he's done it again!"
+
+Marianne started up in great excitement. She sprang from her bed, and
+ran towards the old-fashioned fireplace.
+
+Nothing was at first to be seen; but as the fire had died down to a
+few hot embers, Marianne could, by craning her head forwards, look
+right up into the misty darkness of the great chimney.
+
+There, to her astonishment, she saw a pair of large brown-covered feet
+hanging down helplessly; while a deep voice from above cried--
+
+"Get me out of this, or I shall break down the chimney!"
+
+"Oh, what _am_ I to do?" exclaimed Marianne anxiously, "I'm not tall
+enough to reach you! Shall I fetch my Aunt Olga, or would you prefer
+my old nurse?"
+
+"Certainly not," said the voice, with decision. "I have never been
+seen by a grown-up person, and I don't intend to begin now. Either you
+must get me down by yourself, or I shall manage to work out at the top
+again--and then I'm sorry to say you'll have to go without your
+presents."
+
+Marianne sat down on the hearthrug in a state of anxious
+consideration. There waved the great brown feet, and two or three
+steps would land them safely on the hearthrug, but how could it
+possibly be managed?
+
+The Chintz Imp curled up his green legs and sat down beside her, his
+bright red eyes blinking thoughtfully.
+
+"We must hang on to him," he said at last; "or what do you say to my
+trying to collect a dozen or so children, to pull?"
+
+"Why they'd all be in bed hours ago," said Marianne. "Besides, their
+parents would never let them come, and Uncle Max would want to know
+whatever we were doing."
+
+"Yes. I see _that_ idea is no good. Have you such a thing as a
+pocket-knife?" enquired the Chintz Imp.
+
+"A beauty," said Marianne; "four blades, a button-hook, and a
+corkscrew."
+
+"Ah, the corkscrew might be of some use if we could draw him out with
+it; but he might object. However, I'll try what I can do with the
+knife."
+
+"You won't cut him! You'll have to be very careful!"
+
+"Of course," said the Chintz Imp. "Do you think I am as old as your
+great-aunt, without knowing much more than _you_ do! Bring me the
+knife. I'm going to swarm up the chimney and scratch away the mortar.
+Leave it entirely to me, and Santa Klaus will be down here in an hour
+or two!"
+
+Marianne ran off to her little play box, and returned with the knife.
+It was almost as large as the Chintz Imp, but he possessed so much
+wiry strength in his thin arms and backbone that he was able to
+clamber up the chimney without difficulty.
+
+"Are you all right?" cried Marianne, standing with her bare feet on
+the edge of the stone fender, and holding up the night-light as high
+as she could without singeing Santa Klaus.
+
+"Getting up," replied the Chintz Imp, "but he's in very tight!"
+
+"Is it his sack that's stuck?" enquired Marianne, anxiously.
+
+"Yes, yes! It's only my sack!" cried the deep voice; "you get that
+loose, and I shall drop into the room like a fairy."
+
+Marianne strained her eyes up the chimney, but could see nothing.
+
+"Take care! Here's a lot of plaster falling!"
+
+The warning was just in time, for, as Marianne's head disappeared, a
+handful of cement fell rattling into the fireplace, just escaping her
+bare feet as she jumped on to the hearthrug.
+
+"The knife does beautifully," cried the voice of the Chintz Imp. "I
+think when I've loosened this paint box, he'll fall down immediately."
+
+"Oh, do be careful!" said Marianne. "A paint box is what I've been
+longing for! Don't chip it if you can possibly help it!"
+
+"Of course I shan't," replied the Chintz Imp. "If he wouldn't kick so
+much, I should get him out in half the time."
+
+"I'm not kicking," cried Santa Klaus's voice indignantly. "I've been
+as still as a rock, even with that horrid penknife close to my ear the
+whole time."
+
+"Have a little patience," said the Chintz Imp soothingly. "I promise
+not to hurt you."
+
+Marianne began to feel very cold. The excitement, so far, had buoyed
+her up; but now the monotonous _chip, chipping_ of the Chintz Imp
+continued so long that she jumped into her chintz-curtained bed,
+determined to stay there until something new and interesting called
+her up again.
+
+"I can't do any good, so I may as well be comfortable," she thought,
+and pulled the eider-down quilt up to her chin luxuriously.
+
+"I _hope_ he'll get out! It _would_ be a disappointment to have that
+paint-box taken away again. Perhaps it would be given to someone who
+wouldn't care for it. I wonder if it's tin, with moist colours? I must
+ask Uncle Max to have that chimney made wider----" At this point
+Marianne's eyes closed and she fell asleep.
+
+She was awakened by a loud _thump!_ that seemed to shake the very bed
+in which she was lying; and as she sprang up in a state of great
+excitement, she saw Santa Klaus picking himself up from the hearthrug
+on which he had apparently fallen with great violence.
+
+"Oh dear!" cried Marianne, "I hope you are not hurt? How careless of
+the Chintz Imp to throw you down like that!"
+
+"It was no one's fault but my own," said Santa Klaus as he dusted the
+remains of soot and plaster off his brown cloak. "I should have
+remembered my experience with your great-aunt, but I knew how much you
+wanted that paint-box," and he slipped into Marianne's stocking a
+japanned box with a whole sheaf of paint brushes.
+
+"Oh, thank you, Santa Klaus! You can't think how I've wished for it;
+my own is such a horrid little thing. And those beautiful pictures for
+my scrap-book, and the things for the doll's house--and I _really_
+believe that's the book of fairy tales I've been longing for for
+months!"
+
+Marianne's face shone with delighted expectation as she opened the top
+of her stocking and peeped in.
+
+"Not till the morning," cried Santa Klaus; "you know my rule," and
+patting Marianne on the head, he disappeared, with his sack much
+lightened, up the chimney.
+
+"Oh, do come here!" cried Marianne to the Chintz Imp. "I must talk to
+somebody."
+
+"I think you certainly _ought_ to talk to me," said the Chintz Imp,
+coming carefully down the brickwork, hand over hand, and laying the
+knife down in the fender. "Without me you wouldn't have had a single
+present."
+
+"Of course, I'm very grateful," said Marianne. "I wish he had brought
+you something, though I'm sure I don't know what would be useful to
+you."
+
+"Well, I should like a good many things," replied the Chintz Imp,
+perching himself on a brass knob at the end of the bedstead, "and one
+or two I think you can get me easily. I'm tired of this room and the
+little society I see, and I long for the great world. Can't you get me
+put on a settee in the Servants' Hall, or somewhere lively?"
+
+"I'll ask Aunt Olga," said Marianne. "She promised me a Christmas
+present, and I was to choose. Suppose I choose new bed curtains?"
+
+"Certainly," said the Chintz Imp, "but be sure you bargain to hang me
+in some cheerful place. Sixty years in one room is too much of a good
+thing--I want a change!" and he stretched himself wearily.
+
+"I really will do my best for you," said Marianne. "I'm afraid you're
+too faded for the drawing-room, but I won't have new curtains until I
+can see you put somewhere nice. I suppose you wouldn't like the
+passages?"
+
+"Decidedly not," replied the Chintz Imp. "Dull places. No fun, and
+nothing going on. The Servants' Hall, or stay where I am!" He folded
+his green arms with determination.
+
+"I'm sure I can manage it," said Marianne, and fell asleep again while
+she was arranging the words in which she should make the suggestion to
+Aunt Olga.
+
+The next day Marianne awoke betimes, and immediately inspected the
+contents of her stocking.
+
+There, stuffed clumsily inside it, was everything she had been wishing
+for during the year, and more too!
+
+"Do come and look at my things!" cried Marianne to the Chintz Imp, but
+he remained rigidly against his shiny spotted background and refused
+to move, though Marianne thought she saw a twinkle in his eye, which
+showed he was not quite so impassive as he appeared to be.
+
+"I'll try and get him put into the Servants' Hall as soon as
+possible," she thought. "It makes me quite nervous to think he may
+pounce upon me any minute. Besides, one must keep one's promises! How
+extraordinary it is he can make himself so perfectly flat."
+
+As soon as she was dressed she ran down to the dining room.
+
+"Dear Aunt Olga, I've got such quantities of things to show you!" she
+cried, "and as you said I might choose, may I please have new chintz
+to my bed, and no pattern on it, so that it can't come out and be
+Imps--I mean, have funny shapes on it. And may my old curtains be put
+in the Servants' Hall? He says it will be more cheerful for him, and
+though, of course, he's been very kind to me, I think I would rather
+he went somewhere else. Besides, it _is_ dull for him up there, all by
+himself--I mean, it would be dull for _any_ kind of chintz."
+
+"I do think Santa Klaus has got into your head, Marianne!" said Aunt
+Olga, laughing; but she promised to buy the new curtains.
+
+In course of time they arrived--the palest blue, with little harmless
+frillings to them; and the old chintz was carried off to the Servants'
+Hall to make a box cover.
+
+There it still hangs, and if you stoop down and examine it closely,
+you will see the Chintz Imp looking more lively than ever, with his
+green hat on one side, and a twinkling red eye on the watch for any
+sort of amusement.
+
+Marianne often goes to see him, but, rather to her disappointment, he
+looks the other way, and appears not to recognize her.
+
+"Perhaps it's just as well," she says to herself, "for he seems very
+happy, and if the servants knew he was here I believe they would turn
+him out immediately."
+
+
+
+
+HEARTSEASE.
+
+The three-cornered scrap of garden by the elm tree, with a border of
+stones, and a neat trodden path down the middle, belonged to little
+Bethea.
+
+It grew things in a most wonderful way. Stocks and marigolds,
+primroses and lupines, Canterbury bells and lavender; all came out at
+their different seasons, and all flourished--for Bethea watered and
+tended them so faithfully that they loved her.
+
+[Illustration: "BETHEA WATERED AND TENDED THEM SO FAITHFULLY THAT THEY
+LOVED HER."]
+
+On a soft spring day Bethea stood by her garden with scissors and
+basket, snipping away at the brightest and best of her children;
+carefully, so that she might not hurt them, and with judgment, so that
+they might bloom again when they wished to.
+
+"Do you know where you're going?" she said--"To the Hospital.
+Grandmamma's going to take me, and you're being gathered to cheer up
+the sick people there--aren't you pleased?" And the flowers nodded.
+
+"I don't suppose I shall be picked. I don't think I'm good enough!"
+whispered a very small purple pansy, who had only recently been
+planted, to a beetle who happened to be crawling by. "I should like
+to go with the others, though I don't suppose it would cheer anyone to
+see me, I'm not light enough!"
+
+"Don't be too sure," said the beetle solidly. "You've a nice velvety
+softness about you, and then you have the best name of them all. What
+sick person wouldn't like to have Heartsease?"
+
+"I think I've got enough now," said Bethea, as she laid the last
+primula in her basket.
+
+"Oh, do take me!" cried the pansy, touching her little brown shoe with
+one of its leaves to attract her attention, "I do want to help!" and
+Bethea stooped down, she scarcely knew why, gathered it, and put it
+with the rest of her flowers.
+
+The drive to the Hospital was along a dusty country road, and the
+flowers under their paper covering, gasped for breath.
+
+As soon as they arrived, Bethea, following her grandmother, carried
+them up to the room where children were lying in the little white
+beds, and gave them to the woman who was in charge of it.
+
+"Please would you mind putting them in water for the children," she
+said in her soft voice, and the woman smiled and nodded.
+
+Bethea took a few of the flowers out, and went round to the different
+beds offering one or two, shyly, until she came to a thin pale boy--a
+new patient, whom she had never seen before.
+
+"He's only been here a fortnight," said the woman in a whisper, "and
+we can't get him to take any interest in anything--I don't know what
+we're going to do with him!"
+
+"Is he very ill?" asked Bethea, wistfully.
+
+"No, not so bad as some. A crooked leg, that will get well in time if
+only we can wake him up a little."
+
+"I'm so sorry I have nothing but this flower left," said Bethea, as
+she stooped over the boy's curly head, and gave him the small purple
+pansy.
+
+"Oh, I wish I was more beautiful!" sighed the little dark flower.
+"_Now_ would be an opportunity to do some good in the world!"
+
+The boy turned wearily, but his face lighted up as he saw the pansy.
+His eyes brightened and he seized it eagerly.
+
+"Heartsease! Oh, it's like home. We've lots of that growing in our
+garden. I always had some on Sundays!" he cried. "Do let me keep it.
+It seems just a bit of home--a bit of home--a bit of home."
+
+He murmured it over and over again, as if there was rest and happiness
+in the very sound of it.
+
+"I'll keep fresh as long as ever I can," said the pansy, "It's the
+least I can do for him, poor fellow!"
+
+"At all events the flowers are all out of my own garden," said Bethea,
+sitting down by the white bed, and then she talked away so gently that
+the boy's weary face smoothed out, and he went to sleep.
+
+In a few days' time Bethea begged her grandmother to let her go again
+to the hospital, and she persuaded the gardener to give her a
+beautiful bunch of pansies to take to the sick boy.
+
+As she entered the room, she saw that the little purple pansy was
+standing in a tumbler of water, on a chair by the boy's bed.
+
+Its head hung over on one side, but it looked quite fresh and healthy.
+
+"Hasn't it lasted well?" said the boy, happily. He looked much better
+and spoke in a loud, cheerful voice. "It's been talking to me about
+all sorts of things! the country, and gardens, and springtime, and
+being out and about in the fresh air and sunshine!"
+
+"Well, I certainly have tried to make myself as pleasant as possible,"
+said the pansy, but it spoke so low that nobody heard it except the
+boy whose ears were sharpened by illness.
+
+"I've brought you some more," said Bethea, holding out her bouquet,
+"shall I put them in the tumbler with the little one?"
+
+"Oh, no!" cried the boy anxiously, "I think if you don't mind I'd
+rather you gave those to some of the other children. I can't like any
+fine new flowers as well as that little fellow. I feel as if he had
+made me well again!"
+
+The pansy expanded with pride, and a tear of gratitude rolled out of
+its eye, and fell with a splash on the cane chair-seat.
+
+"I'm going to have it dried in my old pocket book, when it's really
+withered," continued the boy, "and then I shall be able to look at it
+always."
+
+When little Bethea next visited the hospital, the boy with the crooked
+leg was just leaving; but his leg was not crooked any longer; his face
+was bright and healthy, and safely buttoned up in his coat he carried
+a shabby old pocket book, in which lay a withered flower, with one
+word written underneath in large pencilled letters--"_Heartsease_."
+
+
+
+
+A STORY OF SIENA.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+The house stands on a hill on the outskirts of Siena, not far from the
+high red walls that still enclose the town, as entirely as they did in
+the times long passed by, when Siena was the powerful rival of
+Florence.
+
+Old frescoes, and the stone coats-of-arms of the dead and gone rulers
+of the place, decorate the great gates; which seem only waiting for a
+troop of knights and soldiers to pass through, and with a blast of
+their bugles awake the ancient inhabitants of the crooked streets, and
+fill them once more with the picturesque crowds of the middle ages.
+
+We can imagine that the old owners are but lying asleep in their many
+storied gothic palaces, their vaulted courtyards, and shady loggias;
+ready to rub their eyes and come out as they hear the well-known
+sounds ringing across the wide piazza.
+
+But the knights never come, and the old people go on sleeping; and the
+new people walk about the streets, and haggle at the market, and drive
+their country carts with the great patient white oxen, and crowd on
+Sunday up the broad Cathedral steps to kneel in the dim light before
+the lighted altar, as generations have done before them.
+
+All round the town stretches the open country. Low sandy hills dotted
+with olive and cyprus trees, melting into a blue sweep of mountains;
+and about a mile from one of the gates stands the rambling white house
+with closed shutters in which Maddalena, the housekeeper, lived alone
+with her two grandchildren.
+
+She was a kind old woman and fond of the twins, who had been left
+orphans when they were mere babies, but she often thought that surely
+no grandmother had ever been plagued before, as she was plagued by
+Tuttu and Tutti.
+
+"When they were infants it was easy enough," she would declare to a
+sympathizing neighbour. "Give them a fig or something to play with,
+and they were perfectly happy; but at times now I am tempted to wish
+they had no legs, what with accidents and mischief.--Not that they're
+not fine children, and may be a comfort to my old age, but it's a
+harassing thing, waiting."
+
+It was certainly a fact that Tuttu and Tutti were constantly in
+mischief; and yet their curly black heads, red cheeks, and great brown
+eyes, were so attractive, that people--even those whose property had
+been seriously injured by them--treated them leniently, and let them
+off with a scolding.
+
+The twins were always repentant after one of their misfortunes, and
+made serious promises of amendment; but at the next temptation they
+forgot all their good resolutions, and never remembered them until
+they were in disgrace again.
+
+Grandmother Maddalena devised numerous punishments for the children,
+such as tacking a cow's head cut out of red stuff, on their backs,
+when they had teazed Aunt Eucilda's cow--or tieing them up by one leg,
+with a long cord to the table, for stone-throwing; but Tuttu and Tutti
+were incorrigible.
+
+They wept loudly, embraced their grandmother, made all kinds of
+promises--and the next day went off to do just the same things all
+over again.
+
+There was only one person who had any influence over them, Father
+Giacomo, the priest of the little Church of Sancta Maria del Fiore,
+close by. He had known them from the time they were helpless babies in
+swaddling clothes, till they grew to be mischievous creatures in
+homespun trousers; and in every stage of character and clothing he had
+borne with them, taught them, played with them, and loved them, until
+the _Padre_ had become their idea of all that was wise and good, and
+they would do more for the sake of pleasing him than for anyone in the
+world, not even excepting their grandmother.
+
+Every Sunday afternoon Father Giacomo called to take them for a walk,
+the one only sure way of keeping them out of mischief; and sometimes
+to their great delight they would go along the olive-bordered road to
+Siena, returning in the evening to the _Padre's_ house, in time to
+have a good game with the two cats Neri and Bianca, who had lived
+there since their infancy, as important members of the household.
+
+On their eighth birthday, Tuttu and Tutti assured their grandmother
+that they really intended to reform. They promised faithfully to give
+up tree climbing, fishing in the pond, and many other favourite
+sports, and commenced to dig in the piece of kitchen garden under
+their grandmother's direction. In fact so zealous did Tuttu become
+that he borrowed a knife from one of the farm labourers who was vine
+pruning, and cut the whole of the branches off a vine near the house,
+ending with a terrible gash in his own thumb, which necessitated his
+being carried in an ox-cart to the hospital in Siena, supported in his
+grandmother's arms; while Tutti walked behind weeping bitterly, under
+the impression that the doctor would certainly kill Tuttu this time
+for his carelessness.
+
+Tuttu was not killed, however. The cut was sewn up, while the ox-cart
+with its good-natured driver waited outside, and the depressed party
+returned home, grandmother Maddalena clasping her little earthen pot
+full of hot wood ashes, which even in the excitement of the accident
+she had not forgotten to take with her, for it was a cold day in early
+springtime.[A]
+
+[A] A _scaldino_, carried about by all the Siennese women, and used in
+the house instead of a fire.
+
+Tutti was allowed to ride home in the cart, and sat holding Tuttu's
+hand, his eyes round with solemnity, the traces of tears still on his
+cheeks.
+
+That night he went to sleep with his arm thrown round Tuttu's neck,
+his curly head resting against his shoulder--and though Tuttu was
+cramped and uncomfortable, and his thumb pained him, he remained
+heroically still until he also dropped asleep, and the two little
+brothers dreamed peacefully of pleasant things until the morning.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+"Well, thank Heaven! those children are safe for the present," said
+Maddalena, as she sat on a stone bench in the sun, with the dark
+clipped cyprus hedge behind her.
+
+To the right rose the stuccoed _Palazzo_, with its great stone
+coat-of-arms hanging over the entrance, and inside, a peep of the
+shady courtyard, with green tubs of orange trees, and the twinkle of a
+fountain that shot up high into the sunshine, and fell with a splash
+into a marble basin.
+
+Maddalena, in her broad Tuscan hat with its old-fashioned black
+velvet--for she would never give in to the modern innovations of
+flowers and ostrich feathers--held her distaff in her hand, and as she
+twisted the spindle and drew out the thread evenly, she thought with
+satisfaction of the improved behaviour of the twins.
+
+Ever since the accident they had been different creatures, and she
+wondered how long it would be before they could be apprenticed to some
+useful trade, and begin to bring in a little money.
+
+"When I can get hold of the Padre alone I'll ask him about it; but he
+really does spoil these boys till I don't know which tyrannizes over
+him most--the two cats or the two children!"
+
+Maddalena's reflections were suddenly interrupted at this point by the
+appearance of her grandchildren from the back of the yew hedge by
+which she was sitting--Tuttu on all fours, neighing like a horse, with
+Tutti on his back, blowing a clay whistle.
+
+"We're only doing 'cavalry,' grandmother," gasped Tuttu, with a
+scarlet face, attempting to prance in a military manner.
+
+"Cavalry!" cried Maddalena, starting up. "Those children will be the
+death of me. Cavalry indeed! Look at your trousers, you disgrace. All
+the knees yellow sand, and the elbows in holes!" and she seized her
+distaff and waved it at them threateningly.
+
+To avoid his grandmother's arm, Tuttu hastily scrambled under the
+stone seat, but his unfortunate rider thrown off his balance, fell
+head first against the earthen _scaldino_, which was broken, and its
+ashes scattered on the path in all directions.
+
+When Tuttu, lying flat with only his head visible, saw this terrible
+misfortune; he crawled out from his hiding-place, and taking Tutti's
+hand helped him to get up, and stood courageously in front of his
+grandmother.
+
+"It was all my fault, grandmother. Don't scold him! I made him do it,
+and I'm so sorry," he said, with a quiver in his voice, but Maddalena
+was too angry to listen to him. She had thrown her distaff on the
+ground, and was picking up the pieces of the yellow _scaldino_ to see
+if it could possibly be fitted together again.
+
+"Go in both of you to bed," she called out without looking up, "and
+don't let me see either of you again to-day! Just when I had a
+moment's peace too, thinking you were at the Padre's. It really is too
+much."
+
+Tutti burst into loud sobs of terror and remorse, but Tuttu took him
+by the hand and, without speaking, led him away to the house.
+
+"Why don't you cry, too, Tuttu?" asked Tutti, stopping his tears to
+look in astonishment at his brother.
+
+"I'm too old," said Tuttu. "Grandmother's quite right, we do behave
+badly to her." And that was the beginning of a new era for Tuttu.
+
+The next day as soon as he was awake, he began to think seriously over
+any possible way by which he could earn enough money to buy a new
+_scaldino_. He dressed hurriedly and ran off to talk it over with
+Father Giacomo, and the result of the conference was a long but kind
+lecture of good advice, and permission to weed in the Padre's garden
+for the sum of one halfpenny for a large basketful.
+
+Tuttu danced about with delight. "Why, I shall earn the money in no
+time at that rate," he cried, "and I'll buy the best _scaldino_ in
+Siena!"
+
+He felt that he must commence work immediately, and in the evening he
+staggered into Father Giacomo's, with a scarlet face, carrying a great
+hamper of green stuff.
+
+When he had a little recovered himself, he unfolded to his old friend
+another plan he had thought of during the day, which he was quite sure
+would please his grandmother.
+
+"I've got a broken _fiasco_ that the gardener's given me," he said,
+"and I and Tutti mean to put a bean each into it every day we are
+really good. Then, at the end of the month--a whole month, mind!--we
+might take it up to grandmother."
+
+Father Giacomo highly approved of this idea, and encouraged the
+children by every means in his power; so that, for more than three
+weeks, the beans went in regularly and the halfpence in Tuttu's store,
+which he kept like a magpie hidden away in a crack of the woodwork,
+increased rapidly.
+
+Old Maddalena had long ago forgiven the children, for though she was
+often angry with them, she loved them really. She guessed that Tuttu
+was determined to replace the _scaldino_, as on several occasions he
+had not been able to resist a veiled hint on the subject; but she
+pretended perfect ignorance, and the two little boys might whisper and
+laugh to their heart's content--it was quite certain she never heard
+anything!
+
+One soft evening in May, Tuttu came into the Palazzo garden in a state
+of great excitement. His last basket of weeds had been handed in to
+Father Giacomo, and the entire sum for the _scaldino_ lay in small
+copper pieces in a crumpled scarlet pocket handkerchief.
+
+"It's all here," whispered Tuttu, one great smile stretching across
+his good-tempered little face. "Every penny of it!--Shall it be brown
+or yellow? It must have a pattern. We'll go into Siena to-morrow and
+buy it."
+
+"To Siena!" said Tutti in an awe-struck whisper, "We've never been
+there by ourselves."
+
+"Never mind, we're older now," replied Tuttu. "Don't you say anything
+about it, it's to be a surprise from beginning to end."
+
+Tutti agreed, as he always did with his brother. Of course Tuttu knew
+best, and it would sure to be all right.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+They started early in the morning, having put on their holiday clothes
+and brushed themselves; and as Bianca, who had come over from the
+Padre's house, insisted on following them, they tied a string to her
+red collar and determined to let her share the pleasure of their visit
+to the "great town."
+
+Their grandmother was still sleeping, but they left word with the
+gardener's boy that they had gone into Siena "on business."
+
+This sounded well, Tuttu thought, and would disarm suspicion.
+
+The walk along the dusty high road was long and tiring, and they were
+glad when they arrived safely in the Piazza, where the market people
+had already begun to collect, for it was market day.
+
+Tuttu carried his precious earnings tied up with intricate knots in
+the handkerchief, and stowed away in the largest of his pockets. He
+walked with conscious pride, knowing that he was a person of
+"property," and entering the pottery shop at the corner of the Piazza,
+began to cunningly tap the _scaldinos_, and peer into them; while
+Tutti stood by, lost in admiration at his brother's acuteness.
+
+Finally, a brown pot, with yellow stripes and spots, was chosen and
+paid for, wrapped in the red handkerchief, and carried off in triumph
+towards the Porta Camolla.
+
+"Whatever will grandmother say!" cried Tuttu, almost shouting for joy,
+"I wish I could run all the way. There'll be a big bean in the
+_fiasco_ for each of us to-night, won't there, Tutti?"
+
+"You've got a little money left, haven't you, Tuttu?" enquired Tutti,
+who was always practical; "Couldn't we buy some cakes. I really feel
+very hungry."
+
+"Certainly not," said Tuttu, firmly, "I shall put it inside the
+_scaldino_ for grandmother. That'll be the second surprise. Don't you
+see, Tutti?"
+
+"But it's only two half-pennies," argued Tutti.
+
+"Oh, she'll be glad enough of that!" said Tuttu, and tramped on
+steadily up the street. "Come along, Tutti, we'll go into the
+Cathedral."
+
+Tutti remonstrated no more, he knew it was useless; and the two little
+boys, ascending a steep flight of steps, entered the Cathedral at a
+side door, and knelt down in the dim light in one of the chapels.
+
+Tuttu repeated a prayer he had been taught, and then continued
+rapidly, "Thank you, too, very much, for making me and Tutti good; and
+please let us go on putting beans into the _fiasco_ till it can't hold
+any more--and then we'll find something else...." He paused to
+meditate. "Make grandmother pleased with us, and bless the cats."
+
+Here Tuttu could think of nothing else, and nudged Tutti.
+
+"You go on, Tutti."
+
+"I think Tuttu's said everything," commenced Tutti in a whisper. "But
+please keep us out of the pond, and make us grow so that we can be
+artillery; and take us home safe, for the road's rather long, and
+we've never been there alone, and there's oxen about."
+
+"You shouldn't say that, Tutti," said Tuttu, reprovingly. "Oxen won't
+hurt you, and you shouldn't be a coward."
+
+"Well, shall I pray not to be a coward?" enquired Tutti.
+
+"If you think it's necessary," said Tuttu. "But you can save that for
+another time--we ought to be going now"--so Tutti got up, and the
+children pushed their way through the heavy curtain by the door, and
+found themselves once more in the bright sunshine.
+
+Certainly Bianca had been no trouble to them. In the Cathedral she
+behaved in the most serious manner, sitting by their side, and never
+moving until they pulled the string to which she was fastened; when
+she got up solemnly, and followed them on to the Piazza.
+
+"I'm glad I prayed for you, Bianca, good cat!" said Tuttu. "You would
+never have allowed anyone to touch that _scaldino_, would you?"
+
+Bianca mewed. She was rather bewildered by her walk through the town,
+but as long as her two friends were satisfied, that was enough for
+her.
+
+As they came out upon the more crowded thoroughfare, the twins with
+their white cat attracted some attention, and many laughing remarks
+were shouted to them as they edged their way along the narrow paved
+street, where the absence of any pathway made it necessary to keep
+their eyes very wide open indeed, to avoid being run over by the carts
+and carriages.
+
+[Illustration: "THE TWINS WITH THEIR WHITE CAT ATTRACTED SOME
+ATTENTION."]
+
+Tutti walked in charge of Bianca, while Tuttu devoted all his
+attention to the _scaldino_ in its red handkerchief, and a large green
+cotton umbrella he had brought from home in case the day should turn
+out to be rainy.
+
+This umbrella seemed to be endowed with life, so extraordinary was its
+power of wriggling itself under the legs of the passers by. It had to
+be constantly wrenched out, with many apologies, by its owner; while
+the person who had been nearly tripped up by it, went on his--or
+her--way grumbling.
+
+No one did more than grumble, however, for the look of horror on
+Tuttu's face was irresistible.
+
+"Go on, Tutti; do hurry!" he cried, urgently. "I'm getting so hot with
+this horrible umbrella. It seems to catch hold of people whichever way
+I carry it!"
+
+"I _am_ going," replied Tutti laconically. "But remember, I've got the
+cat."
+
+As he spoke a boy darted out from one of the grim old houses close by,
+and picking up a loose stone threw it at Bianca, grazing her head, and
+leaving a great red stain that commenced to trickle slowly down her
+spotless white body.
+
+Tuttu, his eyes blazing with wrath, placed the _scaldino_ by the side
+of the kerbstone, and darted at the boy, waving his umbrella; while
+Tutti threw his arms round Bianca's neck and tried to hush her mews of
+terror by a shower of tears and kisses.
+
+"How _dare_ you?" shouted Tuttu, beside himself with anger. "Go away,
+and leave our poor Bianca! You've killed her, I expect; and I wish I
+could kill you!" But even in the midst of his ungovernable rage,
+Tutti's voice reached him.
+
+"Oh, Tuttu, Tuttu! the _scaldino_!"
+
+Tuttu darted across the street towards the stone where he had left the
+precious red bundle. There it was, lying unhurt, and he was about to
+seize it and carry it to a place of safety, when a fast-trotting horse
+with one of the light country gigs behind him, dashed down the street.
+
+"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!" shouted the driver--but it
+was too late!
+
+The gig flew on, and Tuttu lay white and quiet, the _scaldino_ still
+grasped in his two little outstretched hands.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+"Where's the _scaldino_, grandmother?" were Tuttu's first words, when
+he woke up to find himself lying on a little bed in a long room, with
+Maddalena and Father Giacomo bending over him. "We saved up.... It's
+all for you...." he muttered brokenly, "Have you got it?"
+
+"Yes, my lamb. A beautiful one it is," said the old woman, the tears
+streaming down her wrinkled face. "You lie still and get better, my
+Tuttu."
+
+"I will, grandmother, but I want you to see the surprise inside. It's
+from weeding.... Father Giacomo will tell you. I'm so tired,
+grandmother.... How's Bianca?"
+
+"Very well, Tuttu, she has only a slight scratch.... Oh, my poor boy!"
+and Father Giacomo's voice broke.
+
+"Is it near evening?" said Tuttu, after a few minutes, during which he
+lay moving his head restlessly.
+
+"It soon will be," said the Padre. "Why do you ask, Tuttu?"
+
+"The _fiasco_.... Do you think I may put a bean in to-night, or was I
+too angry?"
+
+"You may, Tuttu," said Father Giacomo, turning away his head. "If you
+tell me where it is, I will send for it."
+
+"By the melon bed. Tutti knows. He'll bring it," whispered Tuttu.
+"It's nearly full--only four days more. Put one in for Tutti."
+
+As the setting sun streamed into the long room, Tutti crept in,
+holding Father Giacomo's hand; carrying the broken _fiasco_.
+
+Tuttu awoke from a restless sleep as they entered, and smiled with a
+faint reflection of his old happy laugh. "That's right, Tutti. You
+_have_ been good, haven't you?"
+
+"Yes," quavered Tutti, lifting his terrified, tear-stained face to his
+brother.
+
+"Put your bean in then, Tutti, and give me mine. It's getting so late,
+it's almost night-time."
+
+Tutti held out the bean with a trembling hand, and as it dropped into
+the old bottle, little Tuttu gave a quiet sigh.
+
+"It only wants four more," he said happily.
+
+Only four more! But Tuttu might never put them in. That night he
+started on a long, long journey, and as the old grandmother with
+choking sobs placed the broken bottle on a shelf among her treasures,
+she turned to Tutti who was lying, worn out with grief, upon the
+doorstep.
+
+"Come, my Tutti," she said, "there are only us two now. We must try
+and be very good to each other."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Years afterwards, Tutti, coming home on leave--for he had clung to his
+childish idea of being a soldier--found the broken _fiasco_ in the
+corner where his grandmother had hidden it; and taking out the beans
+that had been lying there so long, he carried them to a little grave
+with a small white cross at the head of it.
+
+"Dear Tuttu! He would like to have these growing round him," he
+thought, and planted them carefully amongst the flowers and grasses.
+
+Grandmother Maddalena was too old to move out of the house now, but
+Father Giacomo watered the beans lovingly, and in the soft spring air
+they grew rapidly, so that they soon formed a beautiful tangle, hiding
+the cross and even the name that still stood there clearly in black
+letters
+
+"TUTTU."
+
+
+
+
+THE STONE-MAIDEN.
+
+Atven was the son of a fisherman, and lived with his father on a flat
+sandy coast far away in the North-land.
+
+Great rocks strewed the shore about their hut, and the child had often
+been told how, long, long ago, the giant Thor fought single-handed
+against a shipload of wild men who attempted to land in the little
+bay; and drove them off--killing some, and changing others into the
+wonderful stones that remained there to that day.
+
+The country people called them "Thor's balls;" and Atven often
+wandered about amongst them, trying to find likenesses to the old
+warriors in their weather-worn surfaces; and peering into every hole
+and cranny--half dreading, half hoping to see a stone hand stretched
+out to him from the misty shadows of the past.
+
+Here and there, a row of smaller boulders lay half sunk in the sand,
+with only their rounded tops, covered with long brown seaweed,
+appearing above the surface.
+
+These, Atven decided, must be the heads of the ancient Norsemen, and
+further on stood their huge mis-shapen bodies, twisted into every
+imaginable form, and covered by myriads of shell-fish, that clung to
+their grey sides like suits of shining armour.
+
+Atven was often lonely; for he had no brothers or sisters, and his
+mother had died many years before. He was a shy, wild boy--more at
+home with the sea birds that flew about the lonely shore, than with
+the children he met sometimes as he wandered about the country; but in
+spite of his shyness he had friends who loved him everywhere he went.
+The house dogs on every farm knew his step, and ran out to greet him;
+the horses rubbed their noses softly upon his homespun tunic; the
+birds clustered on his shoulders; the cats came purring up, and the
+oxen lowed and shook their bells as soon as they caught sight of him.
+The very hens cackled loudly for joy--and Atven would caress them all
+with his brown hand, and had a kind word for every one of them.
+
+All the short Northern summer, Atven spent his evenings in searching
+about amongst "Thor's balls" for traces of the warriors of the old
+legend; and one night, in the soft clearness of the twilight, he came
+upon something that rewarded him for all his patient perseverance.
+
+Lifting a mass of seaweed that had completely covered one of the
+larger rocks, he saw before him the graceful form of a little
+Stone-maiden!
+
+There she lay, as though quietly sleeping, her long dress falling in
+straight folds to her feet, her rippled hair spreading about her. One
+small hand grasped a chain upon her neck, the other was embedded in
+the rock on which she was lying.
+
+Atven was so astonished that he stared at the child-figure as if
+turned into a statue himself.
+
+Then he realized that his long search had been rewarded, and he fell
+on his knees and prayed that the Stone-maiden might be released from
+her prison, and given to him to be a little playfellow.
+
+As soon as it was daylight the next morning, he started off to ask the
+advice of his one friend, the old Priest of Adgard.
+
+The day was fine, with a crisp northern air, and a bright sun that
+danced on the long stretches of sandy grass, and on the swaying boughs
+of the fir trees.
+
+Atven's heart beat hopefully as he neared the neat wooden house in
+which the old Priest lived.
+
+Father Johannes welcomed him kindly, as he always did; and listened
+attentively whilst Atven told his story.
+
+"It must have consideration, my child," he said. "I will come down to
+the shore to-morrow--perhaps I may be able to think of something."
+
+Atven took up his cap humbly, and started on his homeward journey.
+
+As he threaded his way beneath the shadows of the pine-trees, the
+sun's fingers darted through the branches and drew a golden pattern on
+the mossy ground under his feet; the mosquitoes hummed drowsily, the
+air was full of soft summer warmth and brightness--but Atven's
+thoughts were far away with the ancient legend and the Stone-maiden.
+
+How had she come to be amongst the shipload of "wild-men" in the misty
+ages when Thor yet walked the earth? Had she a father and mother who
+loved her, and perhaps brothers and sisters--and how long had she been
+sleeping so quietly in the arms of the great rock?
+
+It was a strange cradle, with only the sea to sing her lullaby, and
+wash her lovingly, like a tender mother!
+
+Atven hurried on; and as he peered before him with sun-dazzled eyes,
+he thought he saw a figure flitting in and out between the brown tree
+stems.
+
+It was a small, light figure, with a strange kind of loose dress, and
+long floating hair of a beautiful gold colour. It glided along so
+rapidly that Atven had some difficulty in keeping pace with it.
+
+Every now and again it seemed to be beckoning to him with one little
+hand; and at last as he ran faster and faster, it suddenly turned its
+head, and he saw the face of a beautiful young woman. Her brown eyes
+were soft and clear, and her cheeks tinted with a colour so delicate,
+it reminded Atven of the little pink shells he sometimes found after a
+storm upon the sea-shore.
+
+"Atven! Atven!" she murmured, "You have found my child. Give her life!
+Give her life!"
+
+"Tell me what I am to do!" cried Atven, and stretched out his hands
+towards the beautiful young woman; but at that moment she reached the
+shore, and gliding between the boulders, disappeared amongst their
+dark shadows.
+
+Atven threw himself down beside the rock on which the Stone-maiden lay
+sleeping. He grieved for her so much that tears rolled slowly down his
+cheeks, and as they touched the stone, the great boulder shook and
+crumbled, and a shudder passed over the figure of the Stone-maiden.
+She seemed to Atven to sigh gently, and half open her eyes; but in a
+moment they closed again; the rock settled into its place, and
+everything was motionless.
+
+"To-morrow! To-morrow!" he said to himself, "When Father Johannes
+comes, he will help me."
+
+Early next morning the old Priest knocked at the door of the
+fisherman's hut. He had started at daybreak, for he knew that Atven
+would be anxiously awaiting him.
+
+They went down together to the shore; and when Father Johannes saw the
+figure of the sleeping child, he took out of his bark basket, a little
+jar of water from the Church Well, and sprinkled it over her.
+
+The Stone-maiden stirred and opened her eyes. She raised her hands,
+breathed gently, and lifting her head, gazed at the old Priest and the
+boy with wistful brown eyes, like those of the figure Atven had met in
+the forest.
+
+"Where is my father? Where am I?" she asked, in a low soft voice, as
+she rose up from the rock, and shook out the folds of her long dress.
+
+Father Johannes took her hand, and gently repeated the old legend;
+while the Stone-maiden listened with wide-open eyes.
+
+"I remember it all now," she said, as the puzzled look faded from her
+face. "We had but just landed when the thick cloud came down, and a
+shower of stones fell upon us. My father was smitten down with all his
+followers, and I only was left weeping upon the shore. A cold air
+seemed to breathe upon me, and I fell asleep."
+
+She spoke slowly, in the old Norse tongue, but Father Johannes had
+studied it, and understood her without much questioning.
+
+"Where was your mother?" he asked kindly, as Atven with smiles of
+delight, seized her other hand.
+
+"My mother died just before we set sail, and my father would not leave
+me lonely," answered the Stone-maiden sadly.
+
+"But we will all love you now," cried Atven. "I will grow tall and
+strong to work for you, and you shall never be unhappy any more!"
+
+The Stone-maiden smiled, as she stood on the threshold of her new
+life. She looked up trustingly at her two friends, and the old Priest
+of Asgard, bending down, laid his hand upon her head with a gentle
+blessing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Warriors' heads, with their tangled elf-locks, still peer out of
+the drifting sand--the twisted bodies in their sea armour, lie half
+surrounded by the green waters; but the log hut, and Atven have
+vanished into the misty shadows of the past. They, and the good old
+priest, have drifted away to Shadow-Land.
+
+Only the sea talks of them still; and croons them a lullaby, as soft
+as the centuries-old song, it sang over the cradle of the enchanted
+Stone-maiden.
+
+
+
+
+THE GRASS OF PARNASSUS.
+
+On the banks of a clear stream in one of the far away Greek islands,
+grew a small flowering plant, with delicate stem and transparent white
+flower, called "Grass of Parnassus."
+
+Every day it saw its own face, reflected in the running water, and
+every day it made the same complaint--
+
+"This place is beautiful, the soft earth wraps me round, the branches
+bend over me, but I can never be happy, for I have never seen a
+River-God!"
+
+The fish swimming close to the shore had talked to the Grass, of the
+mysterious race who lived in the shallows of the river, higher up,
+where it broadened into a lake; and played on their rude pipes as they
+rested in the flickering gloom of the water-weeds and rushes.
+
+"Everyone has seen the River-Gods but me!" said the white flower. "The
+wind brings me the floating sound of their piping--I can even hear
+their laughter, and the echo of their voices. Yet they do not come,
+and I may wither, and never have the happiness I long for!"
+
+But one day, the river-side thrilled, with a strange, new feeling of
+hope and expectation. The sun shone, a faint breeze stirred the trees;
+and down the stream waded a beautiful youth, carrying his pipes in his
+hand, blowing a few notes mournfully, at long intervals. His hair,
+crowned with an ivy wreath, hung down, curled and tangled; his
+hoof-feet splashed in the shallows of the water, and he cried--
+
+"Nadiae! Nadiae! Where are you hiding--Why do you not come to me?"
+
+The white flower remained, enchanted and motionless, upon its stem,
+bending its yellow eye upon the stranger.
+
+"Nadiae! Nadiae!" the voice wailed, "Do not hide from me any more!--Come
+to me!"
+
+The bushes rustled and parted; a delicate girl's face looked out, and
+a wood nymph in floating garments, slid to the side of the stream, and
+dabbled her white feet in the water.
+
+The youth gave a cry of joy; "I have found you, Nadiae! I have piped to
+you, and called to you till I was weary; but I loved you, and at last
+I have found you!"
+
+The wood nymph smiled as she sat in the flickering shadows--and the
+River-God bending down, gathered the Grass of Parnassus, and placed it
+timidly in her shining tresses.
+
+The wish of the white flower had been fulfilled; but the end of its
+life's longing was--Death.
+
+
+
+
+THE HEDGEHOGS' COFFEE PARTY.
+
+A STORY OF THURINGIA.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+It was winter time, and the Thuringia-Wald lay still and white under
+its snowy covering.
+
+The fir trees waved their branches in the frosty air, and a clear moon
+had risen over the mountains.
+
+All was quiet and deserted, except that a faint sound of music and
+singing floated on the wind, coming undoubtedly from the comfortable
+burrow of the Hedgehog family, who lived under one of the largest pine
+stumps.
+
+Councillor Igel--for the father was a member of the Hedgehog
+Government--had consented to allow the young people to have one or two
+friends to coffee, and they had been dancing with the greatest spirit
+for the last half hour.
+
+By the porcelain stove stood the Councillor's only brother, Uncle
+Columbus, who had devoted himself since childhood to learned pursuits,
+and was much respected by the rest of the family.
+
+He looked down upon all amusements as frivolous, but then he had been
+to College, so his superior mind was only what was to be expected.
+
+The Councillor belonged to an ancient Thuringian race who had been
+settled for centuries in the forest near the little town of Ruhla.
+They were a proud family, for one of their uncles had, some years
+before, been called to take up the position of Court Hedgehog at the
+Royal country Palace, where he moved in the highest society, and
+occasionally invited his relations to visit him.
+
+"But fifty miles is really almost too far to go with nothing but a cup
+of coffee at the end," said the Hedgehog-mother, "and he never invites
+us to sleep. We don't, therefore, see so much of him as we otherwise
+should do."
+
+"That must be very trying," replied the Mole-mother, to whom these
+confidences were being poured out.
+
+"Yes, for of course it would be an inestimable advantage to the
+children to see a little Court life. However, with the fashions
+altering so quickly, it would be difficult for me to arrange their
+dresses in the last mode--and I couldn't have them looked down upon."
+
+"Of course not," humbly replied the Mole-mother. She was sitting by
+the table, with her homespun knitting in her hand; and though she was
+trying to pay attention to her friend's words, she was arranging her
+dinner for the next day at the same time, and wondering whether her
+eldest child could have one more tuck let out of her frock before
+Christmas time.
+
+"It's all very well for the Hedgehog-mother," she thought. "She comes
+of a high family, and can live in luxury; but with all my children,
+and my poor husband working away from morning till night, I'm obliged
+to plan every coffee bean, or I could never keep the house together!"
+
+The Councillor's wife, however, talked on without noticing her
+distraction.
+
+"Do you ever find any inconveniences from living so near the town?"
+she enquired. "Do the boys ever annoy you? They are sometimes very
+ill-bred."
+
+"Our house is in such a retired position, I seldom see anyone,"
+replied the Mole-mother. "The Forester's family are our nearest
+neighbours, and really they are so kind they might almost be Moles
+themselves."
+
+"That is very pleasant for you," said the Frau Councillor. "_Our_ case
+is quite different. The Rats who keep the inn at the cross roads, are
+most disagreeable people. We can't associate with them."
+
+[Illustration: "THE RATS WHO KEEP THE INN ARE MOST DISAGREEABLE
+PEOPLE."]
+
+"Gypsies!" cried Uncle Columbus at this moment. He had an unpleasant
+habit when he did not like the conversation, of suddenly reminding the
+family of a tragedy that had happened some sixty years ago, when a
+promising young Hedgehog had been carried off to captivity by a band
+of travelling Tinkers, and finally disposed of in a way too terrible
+to be alluded to.
+
+The Councillor's wife looked angry, and hastily changed the subject.
+
+"He is quite a trial to us sometimes!" she whispered to the
+Mole-mother. "Such bad taste to mention Gypsies. It makes me tremble
+in every quill!"
+
+"I think I must be going now," said the Mole-mother hurriedly, putting
+away her knitting into a reticule, and tying a woollen hood over her
+head--for she felt that it would not do for strangers to be mixed up
+in these family matters.
+
+Calling her children to her, she helped them into their warm galoshes;
+and lighting a small lantern, they were soon out in the snowy forest.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+"Oh, mother, I wish we were rich like the Hedgehogs," cried the eldest
+daughter, Emmie; "Wilhelm and Fritz are so fashionable, and on Berta's
+birthday they are going to give a grand coffee party, to which the
+Court Hedgehog is expected!"
+
+"Well, they won't ask us, so you had better not think too much about
+it," said the Mole-mother; "don't let your mind run on vanities."
+
+As she spoke they saw the two rats from the Inn coming towards them.
+The elder--the proprietor of the Inn--in a peasant's dress with a pipe
+in his mouth, dragging a small sledge on which three infant rats were
+seated, wrapped in a fur rug, while their mother walked beside
+them, her homespun cloak trailing over the snow.
+
+"Good evening, neighbours!" cried the Mole-mother pleasantly, for
+though she did not exactly approve of the Rat household, she always
+treated them with civility. "Where are you out so late? How well the
+children are looking!"
+
+"Yes, they grow rapidly--bless their little tails and whiskers!" said
+the Rat-mother proudly. "We have just been to my brother's in the
+town, taking a cup of coffee with him, and there we heard some news.
+_I_ can tell you! There's to be a grand Coffee Party at the Hedgehogs,
+and though all the guests have been invited, _we_ alone are left out.
+Most insulting _I_ call it!"
+
+"Well, it _is_ rude," allowed the Mole-mother, "but they've not asked
+us either. You see the Court Hedgehog is to be there, and so it is
+very select."
+
+"Select! I'll make them select!" growled the proprietor of the Inn
+with a scowl. "Who are they I should like to know? They may have
+Gypsies upon them at any moment!"
+
+"Oh, I hope not!" cried the Mole-mother.
+
+"There's a Tinker's boy in the town," said the Innkeeper, darkly, "and
+he's always looking out for Hedgehogs--I shouldn't be surprised if he
+heard where the family live."
+
+"Good-night!" said the Mole-mother, nervously, and hurried on with her
+children.
+
+"Some mischief will be done if we don't watch," she said to Emmie,
+who was a mole of unusual intelligence. "I'll tell your brother to
+keep his eye on the Rat Inn."
+
+After about half an hour's walking, they arrived at home; for their
+house was in a secluded position in the most unfrequented part of the
+forest.
+
+Though very simple, it was clean and well kept, and furnished with a
+large cooking stove, a four-post bedstead, and a few wooden benches.
+
+In the one arm-chair sat the Mole-father, reading the newspaper; while
+his sister, Aunt Betta, with a cap with long streaming ribbons on her
+head, was busily stirring something in a saucepan.
+
+As the Mole-mother and her family, descended the stone stairway that
+led from the upper air, a delicious smell of cooking greeted them. Two
+large tallow candles were burning brightly, and altogether the house
+presented a very lively appearance.
+
+"Here you are at last," cried the Mole-father. "Supper is just ready,
+and I have sent Karl to the Inn for some lager-beer."
+
+"I wonder if he will hear anything," said the Mole-mother taking off
+her galoshes; and then she related all the news of the evening.
+
+"If there isn't some mischief brewing, may I be made into waistcoats!"
+exclaimed the Mole-father, throwing down his newspaper.
+
+It was his favourite expression when much excited, and never failed
+to give the Mole-mother a shiver all down her back. She called it such
+very strong language.
+
+At this moment Karl came clattering down the steps.
+
+"Oh, father! mother! I _have_ heard something!" he shouted. "The
+Rat-father has started off to the Tinker's to tell the boy where the
+Hedgehogs are living!"
+
+The Mole-mother sank down on a bench gasping.
+
+"He's done it then! Oh, the poor Hedgehogs!" she cried wringing her
+hands, "They'll be cooked in clay before they can turn round."
+
+"Don't be in such a hurry, wife," said the Mole-father. "I've thought
+of something. We won't terrify the Hedgehogs--What can _they_ do?--but
+we'll collect all the Moles of the neighbourhood, and make a burrow
+all round the house; then if the Tinker's son comes, he'll fall in,
+and can't get any further. What do you think of that, eh?"
+
+"An excellent idea!" said the Mole-mother, recovering. "Send Karl
+round to-night, and begin the first thing to-morrow morning."
+
+As soon as daylight dawned in the forest, the Mole-father, accompanied
+by his wife and children, and all their friends; went out in a long
+procession, with their shovels and wheelbarrows, and commenced work
+round the Hedgehogs' house.
+
+The Councillor's family were so busily occupied in turning out, and
+arranging, their rooms for the festivity--which was to include a dance
+in the evening--that they had no time to take any notice of the
+Moles' digging; in fact they never even observed it. The younger
+Hedgehogs were roasting coffee. The house-mother sugared the cakes in
+the back-kitchen, while the Councillor, with a large holland apron,
+rubbed down the floor, and gave a final dust to the furniture.
+
+As to Uncle Columbus--he sat on a sort of island of chairs in one
+corner, studying a book, and looking on misanthropically at the
+preparations.
+
+The Moles, therefore, were quite uninterrupted, and burrowed away
+vigorously, until the earth all round the house was mined to a depth
+of several feet; and they returned home to dinner in high spirits.
+
+"If that boy dares to venture, may I be made into waistcoats, if he
+doesn't fall in!" cried the Mole-father, wiping his face with a red
+cotton pocket-handkerchief--for though the snow was on the ground the
+work was exhausting.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The Tinker's family sat round a fire, in one of the tumble-down wooden
+cottages that dotted the outskirts of the little town of Ruhla.
+
+A small stove scarcely warmed the one room, for great cracks appeared
+in the walls in every direction.
+
+"We've got no dinner to-day; are you going after those Hedgehogs?"
+said the Tinker to his son Otto. "Now you know where they are, it
+will be an easy thing to get hold of them."
+
+"Yes; we'll have a fine supper to-night," said Otto, stamping his feet
+to get them warm. "Come with me, Johann, and we'll take the old sack
+over our shoulders to bring them back in."
+
+They started off over the crisp snow sparkling in the early sunshine,
+away to the forest; and straight towards the great pine tree, which
+sheltered the underground home of Councillor Igel.
+
+"Come, Johann!" cried Otto, bounding along over the slippery pathway;
+but Johann was small and fat, and his little legs could not keep pace
+with Otto's long ones. He soon fell behind, and Otto raced on by
+himself.
+
+"Do be careful, Otto! There's lots of Moles here," cried little
+Johann, but Otto did not stop to listen. On he ran almost up to the
+pine tree; when Johann saw him suddenly jump into the air, and
+disappear through the snow with a loud shriek.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+At the sound of the fall, the Councillor ran up the steps to his front
+door, and put out his head cautiously to see what was the matter.
+
+"Gypsies!" said Uncle Columbus without raising his eyes from his
+book; and for the first time in his life he was right!
+
+Gypsies it certainly was, as the Councillor soon determined; and he
+hastily scratched some snow over the door, and retired to the back
+kitchen with his whole family, in a terrible state of fright and
+excitement.
+
+"What _can_ the boy have fallen into?" he enquired vainly of the
+Hedgehog-mother, and of Uncle Columbus, in turn. "There are no houses
+there that _I_ know of. We have been saved by almost a miracle!"
+
+As they remained shuddering in a little frightened knot--only Uncle
+Columbus maintaining his philosophical calm--the air filled with the
+odour of burnt sugar; a faint knocking was heard against the side of
+the stove pipe, and in another minute the Mole-father's red nightcap
+appeared through a hole, and his kind face shortly followed.
+
+"Don't be frightened," he said reassuringly. "I have made a little
+tunnel and come through--merely to explain things. I thought perhaps
+you might be a little alarmed."
+
+"Alarmed!" cried the Hedgehog-mother. "It doesn't describe it!
+Terrified, and distracted, is nearer to the real thing. The sugar
+biscuits are all spoilt, for I forgot them in the oven; and my
+daughter Berta fainted on the top of the stove, and is so seriously
+singed, she will be unable to appear at the party. Not that we shall
+be able to have a party now," continued the Hedgehog-mother, weeping,
+"for Uncle Columbus sat down on the plum cake in mistake for a
+foot-stool, and Fritz has trodden on the punch bottles. Oh, what a
+series of misfortunes!"
+
+"Cheer up, my good neighbour, all will come right in time," said the
+Mole-father encouragingly.
+
+"As long as the Court Hedgehog doesn't appear in the middle," wailed
+the Councillor. "It makes me shudder in every quill to think of it.
+Not even a front door to receive him at!"
+
+"Oh, as to that, let him come to us, and we will give him the best we
+have," replied the Mole-father. "Our place is homely, but I daresay he
+will condescend to put up with it till your house is in order again. I
+sent Karl on to intercept him, and explain just how it is. He will
+take him straight to our house till you are ready for him."
+
+"Well, I must say you have been exceedingly thoughtful," said the
+Councillor, pompously, "and I feel sincerely grateful to you; but now,
+will you kindly explain to me the cause of this severe disturbance?"
+
+"I think I'll come into the room first, if you'll allow me," said the
+Mole-father. "I am getting rather a crick in the neck from sticking my
+head through here."
+
+"Come in by all means," said the Hedgehog-mother, graciously. "I am
+sorry to be obliged to receive you in this humble apartment."
+
+"Gypsies!" growled Uncle Columbus, who was brushing the currants and
+crumbs off his coat with a duster.
+
+The Mole-father had by this time worked himself into the kitchen,
+dragging his spade after him; and seated on a bench by the stove, he
+related the whole story to the Councillor, but carefully omitted to
+give the name of the person who had betrayed the Hedgehogs to the
+Tinker's family; and notwithstanding the requests of the whole family,
+he firmly refused to do so.
+
+"All's well that ends well," he said cheerfully, "and as I heard the
+Tinker forbidding his sons ever to come near the place again, you will
+be quite safe in the future."
+
+"What has happened to that dreadful boy? Is he still in the hole, or
+have they got him out?" enquired the Hedgehog-mother anxiously.
+
+"Got him out some time ago," said the Mole-father, "and carried him
+off to the hospital. Broke his leg, I am sorry to say, though it's
+nothing very bad. He will be all right in six weeks or so. I don't
+think much of those human fractures."
+
+"Serves him right," said the Councillor viciously. "And now, my good
+preserver, in what way can we show our gratitude to you? I shall send
+Fritz and Wilhelm into the town for more provisions, and we might have
+our Coffee Party after all. What do you say to that, my children?"
+
+The family clapped their hands joyfully.
+
+"I trust you and your family will grace the party?" said the
+Hedgehog-mother to the old Mole.
+
+"On one condition," he replied, "I shall be delighted to do so; and
+that is that you will allow me to ask the Rats from the Inn. They are
+touchy people, and do not readily forgive an injury."
+
+"What I said all along," muttered Uncle Columbus, lifting his eyes
+from his dusting. "I said 'away with pride,' but I wasn't listened
+to."
+
+"You will be now," said the Councillor in a soothing and dignified
+manner. "Certainly; send an invitation to the Inn if you wish it. Just
+write, 'To meet the Court Hedgehog,' at the top, Wilhelm; it will make
+it more gratifying."
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+The Court Hedgehog, with an escort of six guards, had meanwhile
+arrived at the Mole's house, and was being entertained by the
+Mole-mother and her children, who were all in a state of great
+nervousness.
+
+The Court Hedgehog, however, appeared to be more condescending than
+could have been expected from his position. He accepted some
+refreshment, and a pipe of the Mole-father's tobacco, and then
+reclining in the one easy chair, he awaited the course of events with
+calmness.
+
+Here the Councillor found him some hours later, when the confusion in
+the Hedgehog household having been smoothed over--a deputation of the
+father and sons started to bring the distinguished guest home in
+triumph.
+
+The rooms in the Councillor's house had all been gaily decorated with
+pine branches; the stove sent out a pleasant glow; and the
+Hedgehog-mother, in her best cap and a stiff black silk dress, stood
+waiting to welcome her guests in the ante-room.
+
+By her side sat Berta, who had fortunately recovered sufficiently to
+be present at the entertainment; though still suffering from the
+effects of the shock, and with her head tied up in a silk
+handkerchief.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+As the Court Hedgehog appeared in the doorway, three of the younger
+children, concealed in a bower of branches, commenced to sing an ode
+composed by Uncle Columbus for the occasion, beginning "Welcome to
+our honoured guest,"--while a fiddler hired for the occasion
+accompanied it upon the violin, behind a red curtain.
+
+The first visitors to arrive were the Moles; followed by the Rat
+family, who were filled with remorse when they received the
+invitation, at the thought of their treacherous behaviour.
+
+"I declare, mother," said the Innkeeper to his wife in a whisper, "the
+Mole-father is such a good creature, I shall be ashamed to quarrel
+with any of his friends for the future. 'Live and let live,' ought to
+be our motto."
+
+Uncle Columbus did not appear till late in the evening, when he
+entered the room dressed in an antiquated blue coat with brass
+buttons, finished off by a high stand-up white collar.
+
+He staggered in, carrying a large plum cake about twice the size of
+the one he had unfortunately sat down upon; which he placed upon the
+coffee table, where the Hedgehog-mother was presiding over a large
+collection of various cups, mugs, and saucers.
+
+"I have only just come back from town, where I went to procure a cake
+fit for this happy occasion," he whispered. "It does my heart good to
+see this neighbourly gathering, and I have made up my mind to promise
+you something in memory of the event. I will from this day, give up
+for ever a habit which I know has been objectionable to you--the word
+'Gypsies' shall never again be mentioned in the family."
+
+
+
+
+UNCLE VOLODIA.
+
+A STORY OF A RUSSIAN VILLAGE.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+On the one hill of the district, just outside the village of Viletna,
+stood the great house belonging to Madame Olsheffsky.
+
+All round it lay, what had once in the days gone by, been elaborate
+gardens, but were now a mere tangle of brushwood, waving grass, and
+wild flowers.
+
+Beyond this, again, were fields of rye and hemp, bounded on one side
+by the shining waters of the great Seloe Lake, dug by hundreds of
+slaves in the time of Madame Olsheffsky's great-grandfather; and on
+the other by the dim greenness of a pine forest, which stretched away
+into the distance for mile after mile, until it seemed to melt into
+the misty line of the horizon.
+
+Between the lake and the gardens of the great house, lay Viletna, with
+its rough log houses, sandy street, and great Church, crowned with a
+cupola like a gaily-painted melon; where Elena, Boris, and Daria, the
+three children of Madame Olsheffsky, drove every Sunday with their
+mother in the old-fashioned, tumble-down carriage.
+
+All the week the children looked forward to this expedition, for with
+the exception of an occasional visit to Volodia Ivanovitch's shop in
+the village, it was the only break in the quiet monotony of their
+lives.
+
+They were allowed to go to Volodia's, whenever they had money enough
+to buy anything; and often spent the afternoon there listening to his
+long tales, and examining the contents of the shop, which seemed to
+supply all that any reasonable person could wish for--from a ball of
+twine to a wedding dress.
+
+Volodia himself, had been a servant at the great house many years
+before, "when the place was kept up as a country gentleman's should
+be"--he was fond of explaining to the children--"but when the poor
+dear master was taken off to Siberia--he was as good as a saint, and
+no one knew what they found out against him--then the Government took
+all his money, and your mother had to manage as well as she could with
+the little property left her by your grandfather. She ought to have
+owned all the country round, but your great-grandfather was an
+extravagant man, Boris Andreievitch! and he sold everything he could
+lay hands on!"
+
+Elena and Boris always listened respectfully. They had the greatest
+opinion of "Uncle Volodia's" wisdom, and they could just remember the
+time of grief and excitement when their father left them; but it had
+all happened so long ago that though their mother often spoke of him,
+and their old nurse Var-Vara was never tired of relating anecdotes of
+his childhood, they had gradually begun to think of him, not as a
+living person, but as one of the heroes of the old romances that still
+lingered on the shelves of the dilapidated library.
+
+It was a happy life the children led in the great white house. It made
+no difference to them that the furniture was old and scanty, that the
+rooms were bare, and the plaster falling away in many places from the
+walls and ceilings.
+
+Their mother was there, and all their old friends, and they wished for
+nothing further.
+
+Was there not Toulu, the horse, in his stall in the ruined stable;
+Tulipan, the Pomeranian dog, Adam, the old butler, and Alexis, the
+"man of all work," who rowed their boat on the lake, tidied the
+garden--as well as the weeds and his own natural laziness would allow
+him--and was regarded by Boris as the type of all manly perfection!
+
+What could children want more? Especially as Volodia was always ready
+at a moment's notice to tell them a story, carve them a peasant or a
+dog from a chip of pine-wood, dance a jig, or entertain them in a
+hundred other ways dear to the heart of Russian children.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+On one of the clear dry days of an early Russian autumn, when a
+brilliant glow of colour and sunshine floods the air, and the birch
+trees turned to golden glories shake their fluttering leaves like
+brilliant butterflies, Elena, Boris, and Daria, stood on one of the
+wide balconies of the great house, with their mother beside them,
+sorting seeds and tying them up in packets for the springtime.
+
+Some large hydrangeas, and orange trees, in green tubs, made a
+background to the little scene.
+
+The eager children with clumsy fingers, bent on being useful; the
+pale, thin mother leaning back in her garden chair smiling at their
+absorbed faces.
+
+"Children, I have something I must tell you," commenced Madame
+Olsheffsky, seriously, when the last seeds had been put away and
+labelled. "It is something that will make you sad, but you must try
+and bear it well for my sake, and for your poor father's--who I hope
+will return to us one day. I think you are old enough to know
+something about our affairs, Elena, for you are nearly thirteen. Even
+my little Boris is almost eleven. Don't look so frightened, darling,"
+continued Madame Olsheffsky, taking little Daria in her arms, "it is
+nothing very dreadful. I am obliged to enter into a lawsuit--a
+troublesome, difficult lawsuit. One of our distant cousins has just
+found some papers which he thinks will prove that he ought to have had
+this estate instead of your grandfather, and he is going to try and
+take it from us. I have sent a great box of our title deeds to the
+lawyer in Viletna, and he is to go through them immediately--but who
+knows how it may turn out? Oh, children! you must help me bravely, if
+more ill-fortune is to fall upon us!"
+
+Elena rushed towards her mother, and threw her arms round her neck.
+"We will! We will! Don't trouble about it, dear little mother," she
+cried. "What does it matter if we are all together. _I_ will work and
+dig in the garden, and Boris can be taught to groom Toulu, and be
+useful--he really can be very sensible if he likes. Then Var-Vara will
+cook, and Adam and Daria can do the dusting. Oh, we shall manage
+beautifully!"
+
+Madame Olsheffsky smiled through some tears.
+
+"You are a dear child, Elena! I won't complain any more while I have
+all my children to help me. But run now Boris, and tell Alexis to get
+the boat ready. I must go to the other side of the lake, to see that
+poor child who broke his arm the other day."
+
+Boris ran off to the stables with alacrity. He found it difficult to
+realize all that his mother had just told them. "Of course it was very
+dreadful," he thought, "but very likely it wouldn't come true. Then,
+as Elena said, nothing mattered much if they were all together; and
+perhaps, if they were obliged to move into the village, they might
+live near Volodia's shop; and the wicked cousin might let them come
+and play sometimes in the garden."
+
+"Alexis! Alexis!" he shouted into the hay loft, and a brown face with
+a shock of black hair, appeared at one of the windows.
+
+"What is it, Boris Andreievitch?"
+
+"Mamma wants the boat immediately," replied Boris. "She is going over
+to see Marsha's sick child."
+
+Alexis took a handful of sunflower seeds out of his pocket, and began
+to eat them meditatively, throwing the husks behind him.
+
+"The mistress won't go another day?" he enquired slowly.
+
+Boris shook his head.
+
+"The lake's overflowing, and the dam is none too strong over there by
+Viletna," continued Alexis; "it would be better for her to wait a
+little."
+
+"She says she must go to-day," said Boris, "but I will tell her what
+you say."
+
+Madame Olsheffsky, however, refused to put off her visit; and Elena,
+Boris, and Daria, looking out from the balcony, saw the boat with the
+two figures in it start off from the little landing-place, and grow
+smaller and smaller, until it faded away into a dim speck in the
+distance.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Late that afternoon the three children were playing with Tulipan in
+the garden, when they heard Volodia's well-known voice shouting to
+them--
+
+"Elena! Boris Andreievitch!"
+
+They fancied he seemed to be in a great hurry, and as they flew
+towards him, they noticed that he had no hat, and there was a look of
+terror on his face that froze Elena's heart with the certainty of some
+unknown but terrible misfortune.
+
+"The lake! the lake!" he panted; "where is the mistress?"
+
+"Gone to see Marsha's sick child," said Elena, clinging to little
+Daria with one hand, and gazing at Volodia with eyes full of terror.
+
+"Ah, then it is true. It was her I saw! The poor mistress! Aie! Aie!
+Don't move, children! Don't stir. Here is your only safety," cried
+Volodia in piercing tones. "The river has flooded into the lake, and
+the dam may go any moment. The village will be overwhelmed. Nothing
+can save it! The water rises! rises! and any minute it may burst
+through! The Saints have mercy! All our things will be lost; but it is
+the will of God--we cannot fight against it." And Volodia crossed
+himself devoutly with Russian fatalism.
+
+"But mamma! what will happen to her?" cried Elena passionately. "Can
+nothing be done?"
+
+"To go towards the lake now would be certain death," replied Volodia
+brokenly. "No, Elena Andreievna; we must trust in God. He alone can
+save her if she is on the water now! Pray Heaven she may not have
+started!"
+
+As he spoke, a long procession of terrified peasants came winding up
+the road towards the great house. All the inhabitants of the village
+had fled from their threatened homes, and were taking refuge on the
+only hill in the neighbourhood.
+
+Weeping, gesticulating and talking; the men, women, and children,
+rushed on in the greatest state of confusion.
+
+Some carried a few possessions they had snatched up hastily as they
+left their houses, some helped the old bed-ridden people to hobble
+along on their sticks and crutches; others led the smaller children,
+or carried the gaily-painted chests containing the holiday clothes of
+the family; while the boys dragged along the rough unkempt horses, and
+the few cows and oxen they had been able to drive in from the fields
+close by.
+
+All, as they came within speaking distance of Elena and Boris, began
+to describe their misfortunes; and such a babel of sound rose on the
+air that it was impossible to separate one word from another.
+
+"Where shall they go to, _Matoushka_?"[B] enquired Volodia anxiously,
+as the strange procession spread itself out amongst the low-growing
+birch trees.
+
+[B] _Matoushka_--little mother.
+
+Elena shook herself, as if awakening from a horrible dream.
+
+"Oh, it is dreadful! dreadful! But you are welcome, poor people!" she
+cried. "Put the horses into the stables--Adam will show you where--and
+the dogs too; and come into the house all of you, if you can get in.
+The cows must go to the yard. Oh, Var-Vara!" she added, as she turned
+to her old nurse, who had just come out, attracted by the noise. "Have
+you heard? Oh, poor mamma! Do you think she will be safe?" and Elena
+rushed into the house, and up the stair of a wooden tower, from which
+she could see for miles round, a wide vista of field, lake, and
+forest.
+
+No boat was in sight, and the lake looked comparatively peaceful; but
+just across the middle stretched an ominous streak of muddy, rushing
+water, that beat against the high grass-grown dam, separating the lake
+from the village, and threatened every moment to roll over it.
+
+Elena held her breath, and listened. There was a dull roaring sound
+like distant thunder.
+
+The streak of brown water surged higher and higher; and suddenly--in
+one instant, as it seemed to the terrified child--a vast volume of
+water shot over the dam, seeming to carry it away bodily with its
+violence; and with a crash like an earthquake, the pent-up lake burst
+out in one huge wave, that rolled towards the village of Viletna,
+tearing up everything it passed upon its way.
+
+Elena turned, and, almost falling downstairs in her terror, ran
+headlong towards the group of peasants who had gathered on the grass
+before the wooden verandah, and in despairing silence were watching
+the destruction of their fields and houses.
+
+Beside them stood the old Priest, his long white hair shining in the
+sunshine.
+
+"My children, let us pray to the good God for any living things that
+are in danger!" he said.
+
+The peasants fell upon their knees.
+
+"Save them! Save them!" they cried, imploringly, "and save our cattle
+and houses!"
+
+The blue sky stretched overhead, all round the garden the birch trees
+shed their quivering glory; the very flowers that the three children
+had picked for their mother, in the morning, lay on a table fresh and
+unfaded; yet it seemed to Elena that years must have passed by since
+she stood there, careless and happy.
+
+"Oh, Boris, come with me!" she cried, passionately, "I can't bear it!"
+
+Boris, with the tears falling slowly from his eyes, followed his
+sister up to the tower, and there they remained till evening,
+straining their eyes over the wide stretch of desolate-looking water.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+It was some months afterwards. The flood was over, and the people of
+Viletna had begun to rebuild their log houses, and collect what could
+be found of their scattered belongings.
+
+A portion of the great dyke had remained standing, so that the lake
+did not completely empty itself; and the peasants were able, with some
+help from the Government, to rebuild it.
+
+Everyone had suffered; but the heaviest blow had fallen upon the great
+house, for Madame Olsheffsky never returned to it. Her boat had been
+upset and carried away, with the sudden force of the current, and
+though Alexis managed to save himself by clinging to an uprooted pine
+tree, Madame Olsheffsky had been torn from him, and sucked under by
+the rush of the furious water.
+
+Elena's face had grown pale and thin during these sad weeks,
+and she and Boris looked older; for they had begun to face the
+responsibilities of life, with no kind mother to stand between them
+and the hard reality.
+
+To add to their misfortunes, the wooden box containing the title-deeds
+of their estate, and all their other valuable papers; had been swept
+away with the rest of Lawyer Drovnine's property, and there seemed no
+chance that it would ever be recovered again.
+
+In the interval, as no defence was forthcoming, the lawsuit had been
+decided in favour of the Olsheffsky's cousin; and the children were
+now expecting every day to receive the notice that would turn them out
+of their old home, and leave them without a place in the world that
+really belonged to them.
+
+The few relations they had, made no sign to show they knew of their
+existence; but they were not without friends, and one of the first and
+truest of these was Volodia.
+
+"Don't trouble about this lawsuit, Elena Andreievna," he said, on one
+of his frequent visits to the great house. "If the wickedness of the
+world is so great, that they rob you of what rightfully belongs to
+you; take no notice of it--it is the will of God. _You_ will come down
+with Boris Andreievitch, and Daria Andreievna, to my house, where
+there is plenty of room for everyone; and my wife will be proud and
+honoured. Then Var-Vara can live with her brother close by--a good
+honest man, who is well able to provide for her; and Adam will hire a
+little place, and retire with his savings. Alexis shall find a home
+for Toulu--You know Alexis works for his father on the farm now, and
+is really getting quite active. You see, _Matoushka_, every one is
+nicely provided for, and no one will suffer!"
+
+"But how can we all live with you, when we have no money?" said Elena.
+"Good, kind Volodia! It would not be fair for us to be a burden to
+you!"
+
+"How can you talk of burdens, Elena Andreievna! It's quite wrong of
+you, and really almost makes me angry! Your grandfather gave me all
+the money with which I started in life, and it's no more than paying
+back a little of it. Besides, think of the honour! Think what a proud
+thing it will be for us. All the village will be envious!"
+
+Elena smiled sadly. "I suppose we shall have a little money left,
+shan't we, Volodia?"
+
+"Of course, _Matoushka_. Plenty for everything you'll want."
+
+And so, after much argument and discussion, with many tears and sad
+regrets, the three children said good-bye to the great house; and
+drove with Toulu down the hill for the last time, to Volodia's large
+new wooden house, which had been re-built in a far handsomer style
+than the log hut he had lived in formerly.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Fortunately the winter that year was late in coming, so that the
+peasants of Viletna were able to build some sort of shelter for
+themselves before it set in with real severity.
+
+Volodia's house, which stood in the centre of the village, had been
+finished long before any of his neighbours'.
+
+"That's what comes of being a rich man," they said to each other, not
+grumbling, but stating a fact. "He can employ what men he likes; it is
+a fine thing to have money."
+
+Volodia's shop had always been popular, but with the arrival of the
+three children it became ten times more so.
+
+Everyone wished to show sympathy for their misfortunes; and all those
+who were sufficiently well off, brought a little present, and left it
+with Volodia's wife, with many mysterious nods and explanations.
+
+"Don't tell _them_ anything about it, but just cook it. It's a chicken
+we reared ourselves--one of those saved from the flood."
+
+Volodia would have liked to give the things back again, but his wife
+declared this would be such an affront to the donors that she really
+couldn't undertake to do it.
+
+"It's not for ourselves, Volodia Ivanovitch, but for those poor
+innocent children; I can't refuse what's kindly meant. Many's the
+_rouble_ Anna Olsheffsky (of blessed memory) has given to the people
+here, and why shouldn't they be allowed to do their part?"
+
+Meanwhile, Elena and Boris, were getting slowly used to their changed
+life. It still seemed more like a dream than a reality; but they began
+to feel at home in the wooden house, and Elena had even commenced to
+learn some needlework from Var-Vara, and to help Maria in as many ways
+as that active old woman would allow of.
+
+"Don't you touch it, Elena Andreievna," she would say, anxiously,
+"it's not fit you should work like us. Leave it to Adam, and Var-Vara,
+and me. We're used to it, and it's suitable."
+
+And so Elena had to give herself up to being waited upon as tenderly
+by the old servants, as she had been during their time of happiness at
+the great house.
+
+Boris had no time for brooding, for he was working hard at his lessons
+with the village Priest; and as to little Daria, she had quickly
+adapted herself to the new surroundings.
+
+She played with Tulipan, made snow castles in Volodia's side yard, and
+whenever she had the chance, enjoyed a sledge drive with Alexis, in
+the forest.
+
+"If only mamma were here, I should be quite happy," she said to Elena.
+"It does seem so dreadful, Elena, to think of that horrible flood. You
+don't think it will come again, do you?"
+
+Elena's eyes filled with tears, as she answered reassuringly.
+
+"You'll see mamma some day, Daria, if you're a very good girl; and
+meantime, you know, she would like you to learn your lessons, and be
+as obedient as possible to Var-Vara."
+
+"Well, I do try, Elena, but she is so tiresome sometimes. She won't
+let me play with the village children! They're very nice, but she says
+they're peasants. I'm sure I try to remember what you teach me, though
+the things _are_ so difficult. I'm not so _very_ lazy, Elena!"
+
+Elena stooped her dark brown head over the little golden one.
+
+"You're a darling, Daria! I know you do your best, when you don't
+forget all about it!"
+
+Volodia Ivanovitch had devoted his two best rooms to the children. He
+had at first wished to give up the whole of his house to them, with
+the exception of one bedroom; but Elena had developed a certain
+strength of character and resolution during their troubles, and
+absolutely refused to listen to this idea; so that finally the old man
+was obliged to give way, and turn his attention to arranging the
+rooms, in a style of what he considered, surpassing elegance and
+comfort.
+
+They were plain and simple, with fresh boarded walls and pine floors.
+
+The furniture had all been brought from the great house, chosen by
+Volodia with very little idea of its suitability, but because of
+something in the colour or form that struck him as being particularly
+handsome.
+
+A large gilt console table, with marble top, and looking glass, took
+up nearly one side of Elena's bedroom; and a glass chandelier hung
+from the centre of the ceiling--where it was always interfering with
+the heads of the unwary. The bed had faded blue satin hangings; and a
+large Turkish rug and two ricketty gilt chairs, completed an effect
+which Uncle Volodia and his wife considered to be truly magnificent.
+
+Boris slept in the room adjoining.
+
+This was turned into a sitting-room in the daytime, and furnished in
+the same luxurious manner. Chairs with enormous coats-of-arms, a vast
+Dresden china vase with a gilt cover to it; and in the corner a gold
+picture of a Saint with a little lamp before it, always kept burning
+night and day by the careful Var-Vara--Var-Vara in her bright red
+gold-bordered gown, and the strange tiara on her head, decorated with
+its long ribbons.
+
+"If ever they wanted the help of the Saints, it's now," she would say,
+as she filled the glass bowl with oil, and hung it up by its chains
+again. "The wickedness of men has been too much for them. Aie! Aie!
+It's the Lord's will."
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Volodia Ivanovitch's house stood close to the village street, so that
+as Elena looked from her windows she could see the long stretch of
+white road--the snow piled up in great walls on either side--the two
+rows of straggling, half-finished log huts, ending with the ruined
+Church, and the new posting-house.
+
+In the distance, the flat surface of the frozen lake, the dark green
+of the pine forest, and the wide stretches of level country; broken
+here and there by the tops of the scattered wooden fences.
+
+Up the street the sledges ran evenly, the horses jangling the bells on
+their great arched collars, the drivers in their leather fur-lined
+coats, cracking their whips and shouting.
+
+Now and then a woman, in a thick pelisse, a bright-coloured
+handkerchief on her head, would come by; dragging a load of wood or
+carrying a child in her arms.
+
+The air was stilly cold, with a sparkling clearness; the sky as blue
+and brilliant as midsummer.
+
+Elena felt cheered by the exhilarating brightness. She was young, and
+gradually she rose from the state of indifference into which she had
+fallen, and began to take her old interest in all that was going on
+about her.
+
+"I want to ask you something, Uncle Volodia," she said one day, as
+they sat round the _samivar_,[C] for she had begged that they might
+have at least one meal together, in the sitting-room.
+
+[C] Tea-urn.
+
+Maria was rather constrained on these occasions, seeming oppressed
+with the feeling that she must sit exactly in the centre of her chair.
+She spread a large clean handkerchief out over her knees, to catch any
+crumbs that might be wandering, and fixed her eyes on the children
+with respectful solemnity.
+
+Volodia, on the contrary, always came in smiling genially, in his old
+homespun blouse and high boots; and was ready for a game with Daria,
+or a romp with Boris, the moment the tea things had been carried away
+by his wife.
+
+"What is it, Elena Andreievna?" he asked. "Nothing very serious, I
+hope?"
+
+"Not very, Uncle Volodia. It's only that I want to learn something--I
+want to feel I can _do_ something when our money has gone, for I know
+it won't last very long."
+
+"Why trouble your head about business, Elena Andreievna? You know your
+things sold for a great deal, and it is all put away in the wooden
+honey-box, in the clothes chest. It will last till you're an old
+woman!"
+
+"But I would like to _feel_ I was earning some money, Uncle Volodia. I
+think I might learn to make paper flowers. Don't you think so, dear
+Uncle Volodia? You know I began while mamma was with us; the lady in
+Mourum taught me. I wish very much to go on with it."
+
+Uncle Volodia pondered. It might be an amusement for the poor girl,
+and no one need know of the crazy notion of selling them.
+
+"If you like, _Matoushka_. Do just as you like," he said.
+
+So it was decided that Elena should be driven over to Mourum on the
+next market day.
+
+Volodia had undertaken, in the intervals of shop-keeping, to teach
+little Daria how to count; with the elaborate arrangement of small
+coloured balls, on a wire frame like a gridiron, with which he added
+up his own sums--instead of pencil and paper.
+
+They sat down side by side with the utmost gravity. Old Volodia with
+the frame in one hand, Daria on a low stool, her curly golden head
+bent forward over the balls, as she moved them up and down, with a
+pucker on her forehead.
+
+"Two and one's five, and three's seven, and four's twelve, and
+six's----"
+
+"Oh, Daria Andreievna! You're not thinking about what you're doing!"
+
+"Oh, really I am, Uncle Volodia; but those tiresome little yellow
+balls keep getting in the way."
+
+And then the lesson began all over again, until Daria sprang up with a
+laugh, and shaking out her black frock, declared she had a pain in her
+neck, and must run about a little!
+
+"What a child it is!" cried Volodia admiringly. "If she lives to be a
+hundred, she'll never learn the multiplication table!"
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A post-sledge was gliding rapidly over the frozen road towards
+Viletna; and as it neared the village, a thin worn man, with white
+hair, who was sitting in it alone, leant forward and touched the
+driver.
+
+"I want to go to the great house. You remember?"
+
+"Oh, you're going to see Mikhail? He hasn't come to the great house
+yet, though. It's all being done up."
+
+"No, I'm going to Madame Olsheffsky's!"
+
+"Anna Olsheffsky! Haven't you heard she was drowned in the flood?
+Washed away. Just before the children lost their property to that
+thief of a cousin!"
+
+The driver went on adding the details, not noticing that the gentleman
+had fallen back, and lay gasping as if for air.
+
+"You knew Anna Olsheffsky, perhaps?" he said at last, turning towards
+the traveller. Then seeing his face, "Holy Saints! What is the matter?
+He'll die surely, and no help to be had!"
+
+"She was my wife," said the gentleman hoarsely. "You don't remember
+me? I am Andre Olsheffsky."
+
+"To think that I shouldn't have known you, _Barin!_" cried the driver
+in great excitement, dropping the reins. "Not that it's much to be
+wondered at, and you looking a young man when you left! Welcome home!
+Welcome home!"
+
+"Where are the children?" said Andre Olsheffsky, brokenly. "Perhaps
+they're dead, too?"
+
+"Oh, the children are all well, _Barin_! They are at Volodia
+Ivanovitch's."
+
+"Drive me there, then," said Mr. Olsheffsky; and the sledge dashed off
+with a peal of its bells, and drew up with a flourish in front of
+Volodia's doorway.
+
+"Do look out, Elena!" cried Boris, who was carving a wooden man with
+an immense pocket-knife. "Here's a sledge stopped, and a funny tall
+gentleman getting out--not old, but all white!"
+
+Elena went to the window, but the stranger had disappeared into the
+shop.
+
+They could hear voices talking, now loud, now soft, then a cry of
+astonishment from Maria. The door burst open, and Volodia, his grey
+hair flying, the tears rolling down his cheeks, dragged in the
+white-haired gentleman by the hand.
+
+"Oh, children! children! this is a happy day. The _Barin's_ come home.
+This is your father!"
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+The next morning Elena and Boris awoke with a delightful feeling of
+expectation.
+
+It seemed impossible to realize that their father had really come back
+to them, and that he was dearer and kinder than anything they had
+imagined!
+
+"If only mamma were here," sighed Elena, "_how_ happy we should be!"
+
+"Perhaps she knows," said Boris soberly. "She always told us papa was
+a hero, and I'm sure he looks like one."
+
+Andre Olsheffsky felt his wife's loss deeply. The children were his
+only comfort, and every moment he could spare from his business
+affairs he gave to them.
+
+With Elena he discussed their position seriously.
+
+It would be impossible, he said, to prove their claim to Madame
+Olsheffsky's estate unless the lost box could be recovered, but if
+that were ever found the papers inside would completely establish
+their right. "I have sent notices to all the peasants, describing the
+box, and offering a reward. Who knows, Elena? it _may_ be discovered!"
+
+Time passed on, and though Mr. Olsheffsky made many expeditions into
+the town of Mourum, and drove all round the country, making enquiries
+of the peasants, he could hear nothing of the wooden box.
+
+"It's one of the secrets of the lake," said Volodia. "That's my
+opinion; it's lying snugly at the bottom there; and it's no good
+looking for it anywhere else."
+
+But Mr. Olsheffsky continued his enquiries.
+
+One day, just as Daria and Var-Vara were about to start for a morning
+walk--Elena and Boris having gone for a drive with their father--an
+old man in a rough sheep-skin coat and plaited bark shoes came up to
+the house door, and taking off his high felt hat respectfully, asked
+if he could speak to the _Barin_.[D]
+
+[D] Master.
+
+"The master has gone out," said Var-Vara, "but I daresay you can see
+him in the afternoon. Have you anything particular to ask him?"
+
+"Nothing to ask, but something to show," and the old man blinked his
+eyes cunningly.
+
+"Not the wooden box!" screamed Daria. "Oh, let's go at once! Come,
+Var-Vara! _What_ a surprise for papa when he gets back! _Is_ it the
+wooden box? You might tell me," cried Daria, fixing her blue eyes on
+the old _mujik_'s face pleadingly.
+
+"It may be, and it mayn't be," replied the old man. "You may come
+along with me if you like, Daria Andreievna. I'll show you the way to
+where I live--near the forest, you know. Of course, I've heard all
+about the reward," he continued, "and as I was clearing a bit of my
+yard this morning, what should I find but a heap of something
+hard--pebbles, and drift, and sticks, and such like. When I came to
+sorting it out--for I thought, 'Why waste good wood, when you can burn
+it? the good God doesn't like waste'--I struck against the corner of
+something hard, and there was a----. Well, what do you think, Daria
+Andreievna?"
+
+"A box! A box!" cried Daria, seizing one of the old man's hands, and
+dancing round him in an ecstasy of delight.
+
+"Not at all, Daria Andreievna! The legs of an old chair."
+
+Daria's face fell. "I don't see why you come to tell papa you've found
+an old chair!" she said crossly.
+
+"Stop a bit, _Matoushka_. There's more to come. Where was I?"
+
+"The chair! You'd just found it," said Daria, pulling at his hand
+impatiently.
+
+"So I had. A chair! Well, it had no back, and as I pulled it out it
+felt heavy, very heavy. It wasn't much to look at--a poor chair I
+should call it--and I thought, '_This_ isn't much of a find;' but
+there inside it was something sticking as tight as wax!"
+
+"The box!" cried Daria, "I felt sure of it!" and seizing Var-Vara by
+one hand, and the _mujik_ by the other, she dragged them down the
+street, the old peasant remonstrating and grumbling.
+
+"Not so fast, Daria Andreievna!" said Var-Vara, gasping for breath at
+the sudden rush. "Let Ivan go first; he knows the way!"
+
+Daria could scarcely control her impatience during the walk.
+
+"Make haste, Var-Vara! we shall never get there," she kept crying; and
+old Var-Vara, who was stout, and had on a heavy fur pelisse, arrived
+at the hut in a state of breathless exhaustion.
+
+"Aie! Aie! what a child it is! Show her the box now, Ivan, or we shall
+have no peace."
+
+Ivan went to the corner of his hut, where a large object stood on the
+top of the whitewashed stove under a red and yellow pocket-handkerchief.
+He carefully uncovered it, and stepping back a few paces said proudly,
+
+"What do you think of _that_, now?"
+
+It was the box, safe and unhurt, Madame Olsheffsky's name still on it
+in scratched white letters.
+
+Daria was wild with joy, and almost alarmed Ivan with her excitement.
+She danced about the room, threw her arms round his neck, and finally
+persuaded him to carry the box to Volodia's house, so that it might be
+there as a delightful surprise to her father on his return.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The children, Volodia and his wife, Var-Vara, and Adam; all stood
+round eagerly as Andre Olsheffsky superintended the forcing open of
+the precious box.
+
+"It's my belief the papers will be a pulp," whispered Volodia. "We
+must be ready to stand by the _Barin_ when he finds out the
+disappointment."
+
+But the papers were not hurt. The box contained another tin-lined
+case, in which the parchments had lain securely, and though damaged in
+appearance, they were as legible as the day on which they were first
+written.
+
+"Oh, papa, I _am_ so glad!" shouted Boris and Daria; and Elena
+silently took her father's hand.
+
+"I always thought the _Barin_ would have his own again," cried Volodia
+triumphantly, forgetting that only a moment before he had been full of
+dismal prophecies.
+
+Adam and Var-Vara wept for joy, and Ivan stood by smiling
+complacently. He felt that all this happiness had been brought about
+entirely by his own exertions, and he already had visions of the
+manner in which he would employ the handsome reward.
+
+"No more troubling about my old age," he thought. "I shall have as
+comfortable a life as the best of them."
+
+That evening Mr. Olsheffsky started for Moscow, carrying the
+parchments with him.
+
+The two months of his absence seemed very long to the children, though
+they heard from him constantly; and there were great rejoicings when
+he returned with the news that their affairs had at last been
+satisfactorily settled. Mikhail Paulovitch had withdrawn his claim,
+and the great house was their own again.
+
+All the peasants of the neighbourhood came in a body to congratulate
+them. Those who could not get into Volodia's little sitting-room
+remained standing outside, and looked in respectfully through the
+window; while the spokesman read a long speech he had prepared for the
+occasion.
+
+Mr. Olsheffsky made an appropriate reply, and then, turning to Volodia
+and the old servants, he thanked them in a few simple words for their
+goodness to the children.
+
+"You might have knocked me flat down with a birch twig," said Uncle
+Volodia afterwards, when talking it over with Adam. "The idea of
+thanking _us_ for what was nothing at all but a real pleasure! He's a
+good man, the _Barin_!"
+
+The springtime found the children and their father settled once more
+in their old home, with Adam, Var-Vara, and Alexis; and life flowing
+on very much as it had always done, except for the absence of the
+gentle, motherly, Anna Olsheffsky.
+
+Uncle Volodia continued to look after his shop with zeal; and the two
+rooms with the gilt furniture, which Mr. Olsheffsky had insisted on
+his not removing, became objects of the greatest pride and joy to him.
+
+He never allowed anyone but himself to dust them, and in spare moments
+he polished the looking-glass with a piece of leather, kept carefully
+for the purpose in a cigar box.
+
+"It's a great pleasure to me," he remarked one day to a neighbour, "to
+think that when I leave this house to Boris Andreievitch--as I intend
+to do, after old Maria--it will have two rooms that are fit for_any_one
+of the family to sleep in. He'll never have to be ashamed of _them_!"
+
+On his seventieth birthday, Elena--now grown a tall slim young lady,
+with grave brown eyes--persuaded him that it was really time to take a
+little rest, and enjoy himself.
+
+He thereupon sold his stock, and devoted himself to gardening in the
+yard at the back of his house; where he would sit on summer evenings
+smoking his pipe, in the midst of giant dahlias and sunflowers.
+
+Here Daria often came with Boris and Tulipan; and sitting by Uncle
+Volodia's side, listened to the well-known stories she had heard since
+her babyhood--always ending up with the same words in a tone of great
+solemnity--
+
+"And _this_, children, is a true story, every word of it!"
+
+
+
+
+THE ANGEL AND THE LILIES.
+
+A Norwegian Story.
+
+It was a room at the top of a rough wooden house in Norway. Though it
+was only a garret, it was all very white and clean; and little Erik
+Svenson lay in the small bed facing the barred window, through which
+the moonbeams streamed till they seemed to turn the walls into
+polished silver.
+
+As Erik tossed about, he heard his mother working in the room below.
+
+The _thump, thump,_ of her iron, as she wearily finished the last of
+the clothes, that must be sent home to the rich family at the
+farmhouse, early next morning.
+
+"Poor mother! how hard she works," thought Erik, "and I can't do more
+than mind Farmer Torvald's boat on the fiord. If I could only be
+employed in the town, I might be able to help her!"
+
+_Thump_, _thump_, went the iron. The clock chimed twelve, and still
+the poor washerwoman smoothed and folded, though her heavy eyes almost
+refused to keep open, and the room began to feel the chill of the
+frosty air outside.
+
+"Erik sha'n't want for anything while I have two arms to work for
+him," she said to herself; and went on until the iron fell from her
+tired hand, and she sank back in her chair in a deep sleep.
+
+Erik, too, had closed his eyes, and was dreaming happily, when he was
+awakened by the brush of something light and soft, across his pillow.
+
+Starting up, he saw that the moon was still brilliant, and in its
+clearest rays stood a faint white figure, with shadowy wings
+outstretched behind it.
+
+A vapoury garment enveloped it, and the face seemed young and
+beautiful.
+
+"Oh, how wonderful! How wonderful you are!" cried Erik. "Why have I
+never seen you before?"
+
+"I am Vanda, the Spirit of the Moon," said the Angel gently. "Only to
+those who are in need of help can I become visible. Your mother knows
+me well. Winter and summer, I have soothed her to sleep; and to-night,
+as you looked from the window, your thoughts joined mine, and I was
+able to come to you. What will you ask of me?"
+
+"Oh, Vanda, dear Vanda! Show me how to help my mother; I ask nothing
+else!" cried Erik.
+
+He jumped from his bed, and threw himself at the feet of the shadowy
+Angel.
+
+"Do you see that window?" said the Moon-Spirit, pointing to the small
+panes that were now covered with a delicate tracery of glittering
+frost-work. "Of what do those patterns remind you?"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Of flowers!" cried Erik. "I have often thought so. Sometimes I can
+see grasses, and boughs, and roses, but _always_ lilies, because they
+are so white and spotless."
+
+The Angel smiled softly.
+
+"To-night I shall shine upon them, and make them live," she said.
+"Take what you will find upon the window sill at sunrise, and sell
+them in the town. Bring the money back to your mother at night-time."
+
+With the last words the Moon-Spirit melted into the white light,
+leaving Erik with a feeling of the happiest expectation.
+
+Long before daybreak he was awake, and his first thought was of the
+wonderful ice-flowers. Would the Angel have kept her promise? What
+would he see awaiting him?
+
+As the rays of the sun shot over the fiord, he sprang out of bed and
+ran to the window. There lay a bunch of beautiful white lilies,
+nestling in a mass of delicate moss-like green.
+
+"They _are_ the frost-flowers!" cried Erik, and wild with joy he
+rushed into his mother's room, and held the bunch up for her to look
+at.
+
+"Look, look, mother! See what we have had given us. We shall soon have
+enough money to rent the little farm you have always been longing
+for!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Erik's visit to the town was very successful. He sold his flowers
+directly, although he had some difficulty in answering all the
+questions of the townspeople, who wanted to know where he had grown
+such delicate things in the middle of a severe winter. To everyone he
+replied that it was a secret; and they were obliged to be contented.
+
+He returned home in good time for his work upon the fiord, and if it
+had not been for the store of silver pieces he poured into his
+mother's work-box, he would almost have imagined that he had only been
+dreaming.
+
+That night, as he laid his curly head upon the pillow, his mind was
+full of thoughts about the Moon-Angel. He wondered if she would appear
+again, and whether she would once more leave him her gift of the white
+frost-flowers.
+
+The moon shone with silvery clearness into the garret; and as the boy
+strained his eyes towards the window, the bright form slowly floated
+through the bars and stretched a pale hand towards him.
+
+"You have done well, to-day, Erik. Look to-morrow, and to-morrow, and
+to-morrow, until my light has waned and faded; and every day you will
+find the lilies waiting for you."
+
+Again Erik felt the soft brush of Vanda's wings, and she disappeared
+in the path of the moonbeams.
+
+The next morning the flowers lay fresh and fair upon the window-sill,
+and for days the frost-lilies were always blooming.
+
+But each time the bunch grew smaller and smaller, until at last, when
+the moon was nothing more than a thread of brightness, Erik found one
+single blossom lying half drooping on the window-frame.
+
+"Vanda's gifts have ended," thought Erik, "but she has been a good
+true friend to us! We have gained enough money for my mother to put
+away her iron, and take the little farmhouse by the fiord. How happy
+we shall be together."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The winter was nearly over, and Erik and his mother had settled down
+to their happy life in the farmhouse.
+
+Frost-flowers, with delicate fantastic groupings, still bloomed upon
+the window-panes; but the Moon-Angel was not there to give them her
+fairy-like gifts of life and beauty.
+
+She had gone to console other struggling workers.
+
+
+
+
+THE ALPEN-ECHO.
+
+Long, long years ago, a young girl wandering with her herd of goats
+upon the Mettenalp, lost her way amidst a mountain storm, and fell
+into a chasm of the rock, where she lay white and lifeless.
+
+The terrified goats reached the valley beneath, but the young girl was
+never again heard of.
+
+The spirits of the great mountain had claimed her for an Alpen-Echo,
+and every day, for hundreds of years after, she floated amongst the
+snow-covered peaks and crags of the Mettenalp, answering every horn
+that sounded from the hunters or cow-herds, with a soft, sweet note,
+so sad and distant it was like a soul in pain, and tears came to your
+eyes--you knew not why--as you listened to its exquisite music.
+
+"Come, follow me! Follow me to my secret haunts," wailed the Echo.
+"Give me my soul! Give me my soul!"--but no one through all the
+centuries had ever climbed to the Echo's hiding-place.
+
+"If _only_ I could make them understand!" sobbed the Echo, "my long
+bondage would cease. The first foot that treads my prison, frees me,
+and gives me rest."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+However, all the world was too busy to listen to the poor Echo, and
+she called and cried in vain through the misty ages!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A boy, with a long Alpen-horn in his hand, stood by a chalet far away
+in the wilds of Switzerland. Every now and then he blew a few wailing
+notes upon the horn--notes that echoed across the valley, up to the
+snow-covered heights beyond--and he smiled as the answer floated
+clearly back again.
+
+"The echoes are talking together, to-day," he said to himself. "They
+love the bright air and the sunshine;" and again he blew a long,
+changing note, that died away softly into the far distance.
+
+"_Tra-la-la-a-a_" came faintly from the opposite mountain--but to the
+boy's astonishment the echo did not now cease, and fade away, as it
+always had done before. It shifted from point to point; its elfin
+tones ringing sweet and sad like the bugle of a Fairy Huntsman.
+
+All that day the Echo sounded in the boy's ears, all night it
+whispered amongst the mountain tops; and as soon as it became daylight
+he sprang up, determined that he would climb the side of the opposite
+valley, and find out the reason of the strange music.
+
+A pale-green light tinged the sky, the mountains looked dark and
+forbidding, and from the peaks above came the soft sighing of the
+distant Echo.
+
+"It is like a soul in pain," thought the boy. "I _must_ find out what
+it means!" and he began to climb higher and higher, until the valley
+lay far beneath him, and his home looked a little brown speck amidst a
+sea of fields and pine trees.
+
+Before him still sounded the Elfin voice, now dying into a whisper,
+now ringing clear and distinct, as though close beside him--but always
+with the same beseeching sadness: "Follow me! Follow me to my secret
+haunts! Give me my soul! Give me my soul!" And the boy climbed on
+until he reached the rocky crag which formed the summit of the
+mountain.
+
+"At last!" he cried, as he stretched out his arms to clasp the Echo's
+fairy-like form that floated mistily before him ... but the Echo had
+faded from his sight as he approached her; and her last words were
+borne faintly towards him as she vanished into the golden glory of the
+sunshine--
+
+"At last! At last! I am at rest at last!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The boy had learnt the secret of the Alpen-Echo. He had freed her soul
+from its long bondage, and a few days afterwards they found him lying
+with a smile upon his face on the topmost peak of the Mettenalp.
+
+
+
+
+THE SCROLL IN THE MARKET PLACE.
+
+In the pale light of the moon the sleeping town lay hushed and
+noiseless. At its foot the river rolled, spanned by the curves of the
+old grey stone bridge, and behind rose the giant hills, clothed with
+tracts of pine and birch trees. A high wall surrounded the town, with
+towers at intervals, from which gleamed the light of the watchmen's
+lanterns.
+
+All was silent on the earth and in the air, when through the deep blue
+of the star-sprinkled sky a little Child-Angel winged his way from
+Heaven, and hovering over the steep red roofs beneath him, folded his
+wings and dropped softly into the deserted Market Place. In his hand
+he held a Scroll with strange writing upon it, and crossing the Square
+over the rough cobblestones, he fixed the paper to the Fountain, and
+spreading his white wings, flew up again to the home from which he
+came.
+
+Next day the country people flocking into the Market Place saw to
+their astonishment a track of beautiful white flowers springing up
+from amongst the cobblestones, and stretching from one corner of the
+Square to the Fountain.
+
+They were star-like flowers, with bright-green leaves, and they grew
+in patches--"like a child's footsteps," the women said.
+
+A little crowd soon gathered round the paper fastened to the ancient
+Fountain. On the top of the Scroll was written, very clearly--"All
+those who can read the words beneath shall be rewarded generously,"
+but the lines that followed were in a strange language, and in such
+crabbed characters that they defied every effort to decipher them.
+
+All day the crowd ebbed and flowed round the Fountain, while the
+learned men of the town came with their dictionaries under their arms
+and spectacles on nose, and sat on stools, attempting to make out the
+crooked letters of the inscription.
+
+In the end each one decided upon a different language, and the
+argument became so warm between them that they had to be separated by
+a party of watchmen, and conducted back again to their own houses.
+
+Professors from the University on the other side of the mountains
+journeyed over the rough roads, and brought their learning to the old
+stone Fountain in the Market Place--but they, too, went away
+discomfited.
+
+No one could read the strange writing, and no one could pull down the
+paper, for it appeared to be fixed to the stone by some means that
+made it impossible to tear it away.
+
+Time went on, and the snow covered up the Market Square, threw a white
+mantle over the steep roofs, and buried the old gardens in its soft
+deepness.
+
+In one of the houses near the spot where the little Angel had first
+touched the earth lived a poor, lonely woman. She worked all day at
+some fine kind of needlework, but when, in the evenings, the sun had
+set and the twilight began to fall, she would steal out for a few
+minutes to breathe the fresh air. Often, though she was so wearied
+with her incessant stitching, she would carry in her hand a flower
+from the plants that grew in her latticed window to a neighbour's sick
+child. It was a weary climb up a steep flight of stairs to the attic
+where the sick child lay, but it was reward enough to the woman to see
+the bright smile that lighted up the little drawn face as she laid the
+flower on the counterpane.
+
+All the summer the poor sempstress had been too busy during the
+daylight, to afford time even to cross the Square to study the strange
+paper on the Fountain. "If learned men cannot read it, a poor ignorant
+woman like me could certainly never do so," she said to the child, and
+the little girl looked up at her with tender love in her eyes.
+
+"You are so good, you could do _anything_," she whispered, and clasped
+the worn hand on which the needle-pricks had left the marks of many
+long years of patient sewing. "I should like to see the paper so
+much," continued the child, after a thoughtful pause. "I wish I could
+walk there, but it is so long since I walked, and the snow is so deep
+now," and she sighed.
+
+"Some day, if the good God pleases, I will carry you there," said the
+workwoman--and the child as she lay patiently on her little bed,
+dreamt and dreamt of the mysterious paper that no one could read,
+until the longing to see it became uncontrollable, and her friend the
+sempstress promised that she would spare an hour the next day from her
+work, and if the sun shone she would carry the invalid across the
+Market Place to the old stone Fountain.
+
+The next morning the child's face was bright with anticipation, as the
+woman wrapped her in a warm shawl and carried her fragile weight down
+the staircase. The cobblestones hurt the poor sempstress's feet, and
+she staggered under the light burden, but she persevered, for the
+child's murmurs of delight rang in her ears--
+
+"How sweetly the sun shines! How white the snow looks! How beautiful,
+how _beautiful_ it is to be alive!"
+
+When they reached the Fountain the sun shone brightly upon the Angel's
+Scroll.
+
+The workwoman seated herself on one of the swept stone steps, still
+holding the child in her arms, and they gazed long and earnestly at
+the writing above them.
+
+Gradually a smile of delight spread across both their faces. "It is
+quite, _quite_ easy!" they cried together. "How is it people have been
+puzzling so long?"--for as they looked the crabbed letters unrolled
+before them, straightened, and arranged themselves in order, and the
+Angel's message was read by the poor workwoman and the sick child.
+
+"Love God, and live for others," said the Scroll, and a soft light
+seemed to stream from it and shed a glow of happiness right into the
+hearts of the two who read it. The air was warmer, the sun shone more
+brightly, and just by the foot of the Fountain, pushing through the
+snow, sprang one blue head of palest forget-me-not.
+
+As the letters on the Scroll became plainer and plainer, the paper
+slowly rolled up and shrunk away, until it had disappeared altogether.
+
+The sempstress carried back the child up the steep staircase, laid her
+tenderly on her bed, and hurried away to her own attic.
+
+In her absence strange things had happened. The room was swept and
+tidy, the flowers were watered, and the piece of work she had left
+half done was lying finished on the broad window seat. The poor woman
+looked round her in astonishment. She went downstairs to enquire if
+any neighbours had prepared this surprise for her, but they only
+stared at her, and told her "she must have left her wits in the Market
+Place," and that "that was what came of leaving your own duties to
+look after other people's."
+
+The sempstress did not listen to their taunts, for a song of joy was
+welling up in her heart--a song so sweet and true, it might have been
+the echo of that sung by the angels. Never had life seemed so
+beautiful to her. The ill looks of the neighbours appeared to her to
+be smiles of kindness and love; their hard speeches sounded soft and
+altered; the steep stairs to her room were not so steep, her attic not
+so bare and desolate. Life was no longer lonely, for the song in her
+heart brought her all the happiness she had ever hoped for.
+
+The sick child, too, found the same wonderful change in all that
+surrounded her. The aunt with whom she lived, who had always been so
+careless and unloving, now seemed to the child to be kind and gentle.
+Her aching back was less painful, her thoughts as she lay on her bed
+were bright and happy. The Angel's message had brought sunshine to the
+lives of the only two who could read and understand it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In time the sick child went to live with the sempstress, and their
+love for each other grew and strengthened, and overflowed in a
+thousand little acts of kindness to all who came near them. Their room
+was filled with brightness. The birds flew to perch on the window-sill
+and sing in the early mornings; flowers bloomed in the cracks of the
+old stonework; the sempstress sang as she worked, and whenever she
+left her sewing to carry the child out into the Market Place to
+breathe the fresh air she would find her work finished when she
+returned.
+
+"It was a happy day that we read the message in the Market Place," she
+said to the sick child; "indeed we have been rewarded generously."
+
+
+
+
+A SCRAP OF ETRUSCAN POTTERY.
+
+Deep down in a buried Etruscan tomb there lay a little three-cornered
+piece of pottery.
+
+It had some letters on it and a beautiful man's head, and had belonged
+to a King some three thousand years ago.
+
+Its only companions were a family of moles; for everything else had
+been taken out of the tomb so long ago that no one remembered anything
+about it.
+
+"What a dull life mine is," groaned the piece of pottery. "No
+amusement, and no society! It's enough to make one smash oneself to
+atoms!"
+
+"Dull, but safe," replied the Mole, who never took the least notice of
+the three-cornered Chip's insults. "And then, remember the dignity.
+You have the whole tomb to yourself."
+
+"Except for you," said the Chip ungraciously.
+
+"Well, we must live somewhere," said the Mole, quite unmoved, "and I'm
+sure we don't interfere. I always bring up my children to treat you
+with the greatest respect, in spite of your being cr-r--br-r--. I
+_should_ say, not quite so large as you used to be."
+
+"If only you had belonged to a King," sighed the Chip, "I might have
+had someone of my own class to talk to."
+
+"I don't wish to belong to a King," said the Mole. "There's nothing I
+should dislike more. I am for a Liberal Government, and no farming."
+
+"What vulgarity!" cried the Chip.
+
+"It's a blessing it's dark, and he can't see the children laughing,"
+thought the Mole-mother, "or I don't know what would happen."
+
+"Everything that belonged to a King should be treated with Royal
+respect," continued the Chip.
+
+"As to that, I really haven't time for it," replied the Mole; "what
+with putting the children to bed, and getting them up again, and all
+my work in the passages, I can't devote myself to Court life."
+
+"If you like, you can represent the people," said the Chip. "_I_ don't
+mind, only then I can't talk to you."
+
+"You can read out Royal Decrees, and make laws," said the Mole; and to
+herself she added, "It won't disturb me. I shan't take any notice of
+them."
+
+"Who's to be nobles?" said the Chip, crossly. "I'd rather not do the
+thing at all, if it can't be done properly!"
+
+"Well, I can't be people and nobles too, that's quite certain,"
+remarked the Mole-mother, as she tidied up her house. "Besides, the
+children are too young--they wouldn't understand."
+
+"What's it like up above?" enquired the Chip languidly after a short
+pause, for it was almost better to speak to the Mole, than to nobody.
+"People still walk on two legs?"
+
+"Why, of course," answered the Mole, "there's never any difference in
+people, that _I_ can see. They're always exactly alike, except in
+tempers."
+
+The Chip was sitting upon a little stone-heap against one of the
+pillars. He fondly imagined it was a Throne; and the Mole-mother, with
+the utmost good nature, had never undeceived him.
+
+As the last words were spoken, a lump of earth fell from the roof,
+flattening out the stone-heap, and the Chip only escaped destruction
+by rolling on one side, where he lay shaking with fright and calling
+to the Mole-mother to help him. But the Mole had retired with her
+family to a place of safety. She knew what was happening. The tomb was
+being opened by a party of antiquarians, and in a few more minutes the
+blue sky shone into the darkness, and the three-cornered piece of
+pottery was lying wrapped in paper in the pocket of one of the
+explorers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When the Chip recovered himself, he found he was reclining on the
+velvet floor of a large glass case full of Etruscan vases. Here was
+the society he had been pining for all his life!
+
+"What are Moles compared to this?" he said to himself, and quivered
+with joy at the thought of the pleasures before him.
+
+"How did that broken thing come into our Division?" enquired a Red
+Dish with two handles.
+
+"I can't imagine! The Director put him in just now," replied a Black
+Jug. "It's not what we're accustomed to. Everything in here is
+perfect."
+
+The Chip lay for a moment, dumb with horror and astonishment.
+
+"I belonged to a King," he gasped at last. "You can look at the name
+written on me."
+
+"You may have names written all over you, for all I care," said the
+Dish. "You're a Chip, and no King can make you anything else"--and she
+turned away haughtily.
+
+"And to think that for all those years the Mole-mother was never once
+rude to me!" thought the Chip. "She was a person of _real_ refinement.
+Whatever shall I do if I have to be shut up with these ill-bred
+people?" he groaned miserably.
+
+"How the woodwork does creak!" said the Director as he came up to the
+glass case, with a young lady to whom he was showing the treasures of
+the Museum.
+
+"That's the most recent discovery," he continued smiling and pointing
+to the three-cornered piece of pottery--"All I found in my last
+digging."
+
+"It has a beautiful head on it," said the young lady, "I should be
+quite satisfied if I could ever find anything so pretty."
+
+"Will you have it?" said the Director of the Museum, who after all was
+only a young man; looking at the young lady earnestly.
+
+She took the despised Chip in her little hand.
+
+"Thank you very much. It will be a great treasure," she said--and
+looking up at her face, the three-cornered piece of pottery knew that
+a happy life was in store for him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"In spite of the rudeness of my own people, I am in the Museum after
+all," remarked the Chip, as some months afterwards he hung on a
+bracket on the wall of the young lady's sitting room. "In what a
+superior position, too! _They_ only belong to the Director, but _I_
+belong to the Director's wife!"
+
+
+
+
+THE GOATS ON THE GLACIER.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+The Heif Goats lived close to the Heifen Glacier, one of the largest
+in Switzerland. In fact, their Chalet, or the cavern which they
+christened by that name, overhung the steepest precipice, and was
+inaccessible to anyone except its proprietors.
+
+"It is such a comfort to be secluded in these disturbed times," the
+Goat-mother often remarked to her husband. "If I lived near a high
+road I should never know a _moment's_ happiness. The children are so
+giddy, they would be gambolling about round the very wheels of the
+char-a-bancs, turning head over heels for halfpence, before I could
+cry Goats-i-tivy!"
+
+The whole glacier valley swarmed with the kin of the Goat family.
+There were the bond-slaves who worked for the peasants, and the free
+Goats who possessed their own caves, cultivated their ground
+industriously, and lived greatly on the sandwich papers left by
+tourists in the summer-time.
+
+"Such a treat, especially the light yellow sort with printing, that
+always has crumbs in it," said the Goat-mother. "It makes a delicious
+meal. We generally have it on fete days."
+
+The family of the Heif Goats consisted of the Heif-father, his wife,
+and their four children, Heinrich, Lizbet, Pyto, and Lenora.
+
+The young Goats had been brought up with some severity by their
+parents, who had old-fashioned notions with regard to discipline; and
+three things had been especially enjoined upon them from their
+infancy. Always to speak the truth, never to mess their clean
+pinafores, and last, but not least, _never_ to play with the Chamois!
+
+"They are too wild and frivolous," the Goat-mother used to say, with a
+nod of her frilled cap. "Such very long springs are in exceedingly bad
+taste. The Chamois have _no_ repose of manner."
+
+Under this system the children grew up very well-behaved. The
+daughters worked in the house, the sons helped their father; and in
+the evening they all descended to the Glacier to collect any remnants
+of food left by the endless stream of visitors, who all through the
+summer toiled up to the Eismeer, and down again to the Inn on the
+other side of the valley.
+
+These travellers were a perpetual source of interest and amusement to
+the Goat family.
+
+They could never quite make out what they were doing, but the
+Heif-mother finally decided that their journeys must be some religious
+or national observance.
+
+"People would never struggle about on the ice like that--tied to each
+other with ropes, too!--unless it was a painful duty," she said. "I
+consider it very praiseworthy."
+
+Sometimes the young Goats in their invisible eyrie, would go off into
+shouts of merriment as a group of excursionists crawled slowly into
+sight; the ladies in their short skirts and large flapping hats,
+alpenstock in hand, clinging desperately to the guides as they
+ascended every slippery ice-peak.
+
+But on these occasions the Goat-mother always reproved them.
+
+"Remember," she would say severely, "that because people are
+ridiculous you shouldn't be unmannerly. They can't help their
+appearance, poor things! They may think themselves quite as good as we
+are."
+
+"Well, at all events, we don't look like _that_," said Lizbet. "I am
+sure you would never allow it."
+
+The principal news from the outer world was brought to the Heif family
+by a Stein-bok pedlar, who wandered about the country with his wares,
+and was so popular that he was a friend of all classes, and supplied
+even the Chamois with their groceries and tobacco.
+
+He generally arrived at the Chalet on the first of every month, and
+spread out his wares on the grass plot in front of the cave, while the
+Goat-mother and her children walked up and down, and bargained
+good-humouredly for anything they had taken a fancy to.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+It was a bright sunny day, and the Goat-mother sat with her daughters
+at the door of the cavern. The Goat-father had gone off by himself to
+get some provisions at a village on the opposite side of the Glacier,
+and Heinrich and Pyto were digging in the fields at the back of the
+Chalet; when the Stein-bok, in his well-known brown cloth coat,
+appeared panting up the narrow pathway.
+
+Throwing himself down on a stone bench, he tossed his Tyrolese hat on
+to the ground, and fanned himself with his handkerchief.
+
+"Good morning, Herr Stein-bok. You seem exhausted," said the
+Goat-mother.
+
+"I am, ma'am, and well I may be. Five miles with twenty pounds on my
+back is no joke, I can assure you."
+
+"Shall I bring you a glass of lager-beer?" enquired the Heif-mother.
+
+"It would be acceptable, ma'am, and then I will tell you my news.
+You've heard nothing of the Goat-father, have you?"
+
+"Nothing," said the Goat-mother. "I am beginning to feel very nervous.
+I never knew him to stay away two days before."
+
+The Stein-bok looked round darkly.
+
+"I have something to tell you," he whispered. "Prepare for bad news.
+The Goat-father has been captured."
+
+The Heif-mother gave a wild shriek, and fell back upon Lizbet, who was
+peeling potatoes in the doorway.
+
+"When--where--how--who--what?" she cried frantically. "Tell me at
+once, or I shall faint away."
+
+"Be calm, ma'am," said the Stein-bok soothingly. "I heard it from the
+Chamois, who have a habit of bounding about everywhere, as you know.
+Your dear husband reached the middle of the Glacier in safety,
+when--being hampered by a satchel and a green cotton umbrella--he fell
+in attempting to jump an ice-pinnacle, and sprained his foot so
+severely that he was unable to move. Though he bleated loudly for
+help, no one came except some huntsmen who were in search of Chamois.
+They picked him up, and dragged him to the Inn on the other side of
+the valley, where he was locked up securely in a shed, and there he is
+at the present moment."
+
+"My brave Heif in prison! He will never, never survive it!" cried the
+Goat-mother, shedding tears in profusion.
+
+"Oh yes he will, ma'am," replied the Stein-bok, "they're not going to
+kill him, their idea is to take him down to the village."
+
+"_That_ they shall never do!" cried the Heif-mother, starting up, "not
+if I go myself to rescue him! Go, Lizbet, and call your brothers. We
+must consult together immediately."
+
+Lizbet darted off, and the Stein-bok continued.
+
+"I have still something else I must let you know, ma'am. As our great
+poet observes--
+
+    'Whenever green food fades away,
+    Some dire misfortune comes the self-same day.'
+
+In plain words, troubles never come singly. I discovered while having
+a friendly game of dominoes with the Head Chamois, that they intend to
+seize upon your house next Tuesday, in the absence of the
+Heif-father."
+
+"And to-day is Friday!" shrieked the Goat-mother. "Oh! this is hard
+indeed!"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Compose yourself, ma'am, and listen to my advice," said the Pedlar.
+"You lock up your house, or leave me in charge with Lizbet and Lenora,
+and you and the two other children start off at once to ask the help
+of the Goat-king. He is a mild, humane creature, and will very likely
+order out a detachment of the 'Free-will' goats to help to defend your
+household."
+
+"That is the only thing to do," said the Goat-mother mournfully. "I
+certainly know the way, for of course I have always been to the yearly
+Goat Assembly, but I always started three days before the meeting, and
+went down the back of the mountain, over the slopes. I don't know how
+I'm to manage the short cut."
+
+"Oh, easy enough, ma'am," replied the Stein-bok; "you'll get on very
+well. Don't go in goloshes, though, for they will be sure to catch on
+the nails. I wouldn't wear my waterproof mantle either--too large for
+a walking tour. Put on a shawl, and tie it round you."
+
+By this time Heinrich and Pyto had hastily dressed themselves in
+out-door costume, and the Goat-mother was rushing about her house,
+collecting an extraordinary number of things, which the Stein-bok had
+some difficulty in persuading her not to take with her.
+
+"_Not_ sugar nippers, ma'am, I _beg_; or your large work-box, or the
+mincing machine! Quite useless on a long journey; and your best cap
+you won't want, I assure you."
+
+"I thought I might perhaps wait a moment in the ante-room and put it
+on before entering the presence of Royalty," bleated the Goat-mother.
+"But no doubt you know best."
+
+The luggage was at last reduced to a small leather handbag; and the
+Goat-mother, after solemnly bestowing her blessing on Lizbet and
+Lenora, and the door-key on the Stein-bok, set off down the garden
+path with her children, upon their adventures.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Meanwhile, the Goat-father was languishing in a dark shed attached to
+the Inn on the other side of the Glacier. His bleats had failed to
+attract any attention. In fact the only person who had heard him at
+all, had been an old Goat-slave, who while browsing on the hillside
+with a bell round his neck, had been attracted by the cries, and
+creeping up to the shed, peeped through a crack to see what could be
+the matter.
+
+"Is there anyone near?" enquired the Goat-father in a whisper.
+
+"No. There's a party in the Inn, but they are too busy eating to take
+any notice of us. I am just loitering here, in case there should be
+any pieces of sandwich paper flying about."
+
+"Is there any chance of my making my escape?" enquired the
+Heif-father. "Are they very watchful people?"
+
+"Excessively so," replied the old Slave. "I've never been able to get
+away for the last ten years."
+
+The Goat-father groaned. "Then it wouldn't be possible for you to take
+a message to my family?"
+
+"Quite impossible, my dear friend, I assure you. Can't you find any
+crack in the shed where you could break through?"
+
+"There's _nothing_," cried the Goat-father. "I've searched round and
+round, and the door is as strong and tight as a prison."
+
+"Well, I'll go off and see if I can find a messenger," said the old
+Slave good-naturedly. "Perhaps the old fox would manage it."
+
+"A fox! Oh, I don't think _that_ would do," said the Heif-father. "It
+mightn't be safe for my family."
+
+"Oh, _he's_ all right," said the Slave. "He's been in captivity so
+long, it's taken all the spirit out of him. He might live in a
+farmyard. He's a good-natured creature, too, and I daresay he'll go to
+oblige me."
+
+The Goat-father pulled a band and buckle off his necktie, and poked it
+under the door.
+
+"Not to eat!" he whispered warningly, "but for the fox to take with
+him, that my wife may know the message comes from me; and be quick
+about it, my good friend, for I really am positively starving!"
+
+"All right," said the old Goat, "I'll send the fox off, and come back
+in a few minutes to bring you some stale cabbage leaves."
+
+"A friend in need, is a friend indeed!" murmured the Goat-father; and
+went to sleep that night with more hope than he had felt since the
+moment of his capture.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+"Come along, mother," cried Heinrich, grasping the Heif-mother's hand
+as they left the garden before their Chalet, and commenced the
+dangerous descent of the mountain.
+
+Far below them they could see the great stretch of the dazzlingly
+white Glacier, with its rents and fissures shining greenly in the
+sunshine. On either side rose bare crags topped with grass, and above
+all, the snowy summits of the mountains.
+
+The first part of the journey led along a narrow pathway, which the
+Goat-mother managed very successfully, but when they came to the
+precipice on which rough iron spikes had been driven at long intervals
+to assist the climber, her heart failed her, and in spite of her
+desire to hurry, she entangled her shawl and dress so constantly on
+the nails, that her children began to fear she would never reach the
+level of the Glacier.
+
+At last, however, the little party succeeded in making their way
+across the Eismeer, and arrived without further mishap at the river
+leading to the Goat-King's Palace.
+
+This river flowed on the centre of the Glacier, between steep banks
+of transparent ice, every now and again disappearing into some vast
+cavern, where it swept with a hollow echoing under the ice-field.
+
+"Follow me, mother," said Heinrich. "I see the entrance to the Palace
+just in front of us."
+
+The Goat-mother gathered up her skirts, and assisted by Pyto, began to
+scramble down the bank to the side of the streamlet.
+
+"Where is the boat kept?" she enquired.
+
+"In a snowdrift close to the entrance," replied Heinrich. "Don't jump
+about near the crevasses, Pyto, and I'll go and fetch it."
+
+The boat was soon dragged from its hiding place, and Heinrich paddled
+it to the spot where the Goat-mother was resting on a snow-bank.
+
+She embarked with some nervousness, clutching desperately at her
+handbag. They pushed off, and were immediately carried by the current
+through the little round opening of the cave into the pale green
+glistening depths of the mysterious world beyond.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+There was no need for the Heif family to row. They were swept along
+past the ice walls, and in a few minutes reached the Goat-King's
+landing-place. A small inlet with a flat shore, on which were
+arranged two camp stools and a piece of red carpet.
+
+"Here we are at last, dear children," said the Goat-mother. "What a
+relief it is, to be sure! Is my bonnet straight, Pyto? and do pull
+your blouse down. Your hair is all standing on end, Heinrich! How I
+wish the Stein-bok had allowed me to bring a pocket-comb!"
+
+The Court Porter, seated in a bee-hive chair, came forward as soon as
+he saw them, to ask their business.
+
+"The Goat-King is at home to-day till five o'clock," he said. "If you
+will step this way, I will introduce you immediately."
+
+The Goat-mother trembling in every limb--for she had never had a
+private interview with Royalty before--clutched a child in each hand
+and followed the Porter.
+
+They passed down two passages, and finally reached a large ice-grotto,
+with a row of windows opening on to a wide crevasse.
+
+The room was filled with a flickering green light that yet rendered
+everything distinctly visible.
+
+On a carved maple chair on the top of a dais sat the Goat-King--a
+snow-white Goat with mauve eyes and beard; completely surrounded with
+cuckoo clocks, and festoons of yellow wood table-napkin rings, and
+paper-cutters. The walls seemed to be covered with them, and the
+pendulums of the clocks were swinging in every direction.
+
+"The King thinks it right to patronize native art," said the
+Goat-Queen, who with three of the Princesses had come forward
+graciously to welcome the visitors.
+
+"I find the striking rather trying at times, especially as they don't
+all do it at once, and sometimes one cuckoo hasn't finished _ten_
+before the others are at _twelve_ again."
+
+"I wish all the works would go wrong!" muttered one of the Princesses
+crossly. "An ice-cavern full of cuckoo clocks is a poor fate for one
+of the Royal Family!"
+
+"We _must_ encourage industries," said the Queen. "It is a duty of our
+position. I should rather the industries were noiseless, but we can't
+choose."
+
+"Bead necklaces and Venetian glass would have been more suitable,"
+said the Princess, who had been very well educated, "or even
+brass-work and embroidered table-cloths. We might have draped the
+cavern with _them_."
+
+At this moment there was a violent whirring amongst the clocks; doors
+flew open in all directions, and cuckoos of every size and description
+darted out, shook themselves violently, and the air was filled with
+such a deafening noise that the Goat-mother threw her apron over her
+head, and the Goat-children buried their ears in her skirts, and clung
+round her in terror.
+
+"Merely four o'clock; nothing to make such a fuss about," said the
+Goat-King. "And now, when we can hear ourselves speak, you shall tell
+me what you have come for."
+
+As the voice of the last cuckoo died away in a series of jerks, the
+Goat-mother advanced, and threw herself on her knees before the Royal
+Family, first spreading out her homespun apron to keep the cold off.
+
+The King listened to her tale with interest, and his mauve eyes
+sparkled.
+
+"If this is true," he cried fiercely, "the Chamois shall be crushed!
+My official pen, Princess; and a large sheet of note paper!"
+
+"Rest yourself, petitioner, you must be tired," said the Queen, and
+pointed to a row of carved and inlaid Tyrolese chairs that stood
+against the wall.
+
+The Goat-mother and her children seated themselves gratefully, and as
+they did so, a burst of music floated upon the air, several tunes
+struggling together for the mastery.
+
+"Yes; it's very unpleasant, isn't it?" said the Goat-Queen, seeing the
+expression of surprise and uneasiness that showed itself on the
+visitors' faces. "We're obliged to have all the chairs made like that,
+to encourage the trade in musical boxes. I get very tired of it, I
+assure you, and I often stand up all day, just for the sake of peace
+and quietness. I really _dread_ sitting down!"
+
+Meanwhile, the Goat-King was busily writing, covering his white paws
+with ink in the process; and the Queen, in a very loud voice to make
+herself heard, was conversing with the Goat-mother about her household
+affairs.
+
+"Supplies are most difficult to procure in this secluded spot," she
+said mournfully. "Would you believe me, that last week we dined
+_every_ day off boiled Geneva newspapers and cabbage? So monotonous,
+and the King gets quite angry!"
+
+"I wish we could live on boiled cuckoos!" cried the eldest Princess,
+who with her sisters was seated on a bench by the window, spinning;
+the pale green light of the Glacier shining upon their white dresses,
+and the little brown spinning-wheels that whirred so rapidly before
+them.
+
+"Petitioner, the order is ready," said the King at this moment, waving
+a large envelope. "Go straight home, and send this paper round to all
+the Goats of the neighbourhood. It is an order to the 'Free-will'
+Goats, to arm, and assemble at your house for the defence of your
+family, and the rescue of the Heif-father."
+
+The Goat-mother curtsied to the ground, kissed the Queen's hand, and
+retired with Heinrich and Pyto through the passages to the landing
+place.
+
+At the last moment one of the Princesses came running after the
+Goat-mother, to press a cuckoo clock upon her, as a parting present
+from the Queen.
+
+The clock was large, and they had some difficulty in getting it into
+the boat, but the Goat-mother did not dare to refuse it.
+
+With the Porter's help they got off at last, and started upon the
+return voyage, Heinrich and Pyto rowing their hardest; for the current
+swept through the ice-caves with such force that the Goat-mother had
+some difficulty in steering.
+
+As they came out into the daylight, they saw that the sun was almost
+setting, and a faint pink light tinged the snow-fields, and the tops
+of the distant mountains.
+
+"We must hurry, or we shan't be back by nightfall!" said the
+Goat-mother nervously; and they landed on an ice-block, covered up the
+boat again in its hiding place, and set off towards home, across the
+Glacier.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The weary travellers almost sank with fatigue as they stumbled over
+the rough ice.
+
+In addition to the handbag, they now had the cuckoo clock, and though
+Heinrich had insisted on carrying it strapped on his back like a
+knapsack, his mother could see that he became more and more exhausted,
+and at last she determined on taking it from him and carrying it
+herself.
+
+The difficulty was heightened by the fact that the clock continued to
+tick, and the cuckoo to bound out of the door at unexpected moments,
+startling the Goat-mother so, that she almost dropped it.
+
+"It's the shaking that puts its works out," said Heinrich. "Hold on
+tight, mother, and we shall get it home safely at last!"
+
+"I wish it was at the bottom of the Glacier!" groaned the
+Goat-mother, staggering along; her bonnet nearly falling off, her
+shawl trailing on the snow behind her.
+
+"Be careful, Pyto! Careless Goat!" she cried. "Test the snow-bridges
+carefully with your alpenstock before you venture on them!"
+
+But Pyto, who was young and giddy, went gamboling on; until suddenly,
+without even time for a bleat of terror, he fell crashing through the
+rotten ice, and disappeared from view into one of the largest
+crevasses.
+
+"Goats-i-tivy!" cried the Goat-mother. "He's gone! Oh, my darling
+child, where are you?"
+
+The cuckoo clock was thrown aside, and she ran to the edge of the
+crack and peered down frantically.
+
+"All right, mother," said a voice, sounding very faint and hollow,
+"I've stuck in a hole. Let me down something, and perhaps I can
+scramble out again."
+
+"What have we got to let down?" said the Goat-mother. "Not a ball of
+string amongst us! Oh, if ever we go on a journey again, I'll never,
+_never_ listen to the Stein-bok."
+
+"Well, mother, we must make the best of what we have," cried Heinrich.
+"Take your shawl off and tear it into strips. We _may_ be able to make
+a rope long enough to reach him--anyhow we'll try!"
+
+The Goat-mother consented eagerly, though her shawl was one she was
+particularly fond of. She snatched it off, and taking out her
+scissors, she soon cut it into pieces, which Heinrich knotted one to
+the other, and lowered into the crevasse.
+
+"Can you reach it?" he cried, putting his head as far over the edge as
+possible, and peering into the green depths.
+
+The Goat-mother leant over, too; but in stooping her head her bonnet
+became loosened, and slid with a loud _swish_ down the ice, darting
+from side to side until it disappeared from sight in the darkness.
+
+"Oh, what misfortunes! My child, my shawl, and my bonnet, _all_ gone
+together!" she cried, wringing her hands. "Take hold of the rope, my
+Pyto, and let us at all events rescue _you_!"
+
+"All right, mother," cried the distant voice. "Don't drag me up till I
+call out '_Pull_.'"
+
+In a few minutes the Goat-mother and Heinrich, listening intently,
+heard the welcome shout, and pulling both together they landed
+Pyto--very much bruised and shaken, but not otherwise hurt--upon the
+Glacier beside them.
+
+"Oh, what a warning!" cried the Goat-mother, and after embracing Pyto
+warmly, she turned to look for the cuckoo clock. But it had
+tobogganed down a steep bank into an ice stream close by, and was
+floating away in the distance, _cuckooing_ at intervals as it danced
+up and down upon the water.
+
+Two travellers who had just reached the opposite bank, paused in
+astonishment to listen.
+
+"You see," said one, "this proves what I have always told you. Nothing
+is impossible to Nature. You may even hear cuckoos on a Glacier!"
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+The Goat-mother arrived at home in a pitiable state of cold and
+exhaustion, but she was much cheered by finding the house in good
+order, and a warm supper awaiting her, prepared by the hands of the
+careful Stein-bok.
+
+Lizbet and Lenora immediately started off with the Royal Order; which
+was sealed with a large crown of red sealing wax fastening down a wisp
+of mauve hair.
+
+The next morning all the Goats of the neighbourhood collected in a
+secret cavern, where they held a patriotic meeting, and discussed
+their plans for the rescue and protection of the Heif-father.
+
+Six of the strongest and most daring spirits were to start that
+afternoon for the Inn on the other side of the Glacier, while the rest
+of the Free-will corps would take it in turns to remain in ambush in
+the Heif-goat's garden, in case the Chamois should attempt their raid
+before the day they had appointed.
+
+They all agreed that the corps should be armed to the teeth, and there
+was such a demand for sandpaper that the store in the Stein-bok's pack
+was soon exhausted.
+
+"A rusty sword is all the deadlier, when it once gets in," said the
+Goat-Lieutenant. "I shan't trouble myself about petty details."
+
+The Heif-father rescue party started to cross the Glacier as soon as
+it became twilight--for they did not wish to attract attention.
+
+The Lieutenant carried a blunderbuss, but the five privates were more
+lightly armed with a collection of rapiers, carving knives, daggers,
+spears, and sword-sticks.
+
+Their uniforms were varied, but each wore a mauve badge on his hat,
+with the motto--"Goats and justice."
+
+After half-an-hour's steady walking they reached the opposite
+mountain, and climbing the ladders that led to the Inn, they skirted
+the Chalet carefully, hiding behind the loose rocks and bushes until
+they were well in the shadow of the outbuildings.
+
+"Where are you, Herr Heif?" bleated the Lieutenant in a low tone. "We
+are friends. You needn't be alarmed."
+
+"In here," answered a cautious voice from one of the larger sheds.
+"You can't get in, though--there's no hope of breaking the door open.
+Iron staples and bars, and the strongest hinges. How many of you are
+there?"
+
+"Six," replied the Lieutenant. "Free-will Goats, armed to the teeth!"
+
+"You might look at the place and see if you can find a crack
+anywhere," whispered the Goat-father.
+
+The Lieutenant and his followers walked slowly round the house,
+examining it at every point; but it was all built of strong tree
+trunks tanned brown by the sunshine. Suddenly his eye lighted upon a
+small window. It was very high up and quite out of reach of anyone
+within, but the Lieutenant thought that by standing on something he
+might be able to raise himself sufficiently to reach it, and cut away
+the glass.
+
+"Is there anything inside that _you_ could stand upon?" he enquired.
+
+There was silence, and a sound of scuffling; then the voice of the
+Heif-goat: "I've been examining things, and there are two barrels. I
+think I could put one on the top of the other. They _might_ reach to
+the window, but it has two great wooden bars, I couldn't break
+through."
+
+"Leave that to us," said the Lieutenant, and he turned to his
+followers.
+
+"Two of you get on each other's shoulders, and then _I_ will be
+assisted up. The other three mount in the same way by my side," he
+said quickly. "We who are at the top will cut through the window frame
+with our knives, collect the glass, and drag out the Goat-father in no
+time."
+
+This plan was carried out, and in spite of the unsteady position of
+the topmost Goats, and the uncomfortable shaking of the lower ones,
+the wooden bars were at length sawn through, and the glass carefully
+gathered together by the Lieutenant in his felt hat.
+
+"Steady!" cried the Lieutenant, "I'm coming down in a minute, and
+you're beginning to shake about so, I can hardly keep my balance. Hi!
+Do you hear me? Steady, there!"
+
+"I can't stand this a moment longer--my legs are giving way beneath
+me!" bleated the lower Goat. "I know I shall double up!"
+
+As he spoke his feet slipped from under him, and he fell full length
+upon the hillside, carrying the others with him; and there they all
+lay in a confused heap, scarcely able to realize what had happened to
+them.
+
+Fortunately, however, no one was seriously hurt. They picked
+themselves up and went to work again with renewed vigour.
+
+"Climb up now, Herr Heif!" cried the Lieutenant. "Put your head out,
+and gradually lower yourself. We'll stand below and catch you."
+
+"I'm a little afraid, for I know I should fall heavy!" said the
+Goat-father, in a quavering voice; but he did as he was told, and
+shutting his eyes firmly, he slipped from the window-sill and fell
+with a heavy _flop_ into the arms waiting to receive him.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+The Goat-mother had lit a comfortable fire in the Heif Chalet, and the
+Goat-father's slippers were warming against the stove; when a sound of
+approaching voices and footsteps made her start up in excited
+expectation.
+
+The voices came nearer and nearer. Now she could distinguish the
+National Goat Song, and in another moment the door flew open, and
+Herr Heif rushed in accompanied by his rescuers.
+
+The children screamed, the Goat-mother wept tears of joy; and after a
+general rejoicing, the whole party sat down to a comfortable meal,
+during which the Lieutenant's health was drunk by the Goat-family
+amidst loud cheering.
+
+"I am sorry we can't invite the whole _corps_," said the Goat-mother.
+"It's very cold for them outside, but the fact is I haven't sufficient
+crockery. As it is, I am forced to make use of oyster shells and the
+flower pot, though it's very much against my principles."
+
+"Hush!" said the Goat-father, "there's someone knocking!"
+
+There was indeed a hurried rapping at the door, and one of the
+Watch-Goats put in his head to say that the band of Chamois were seen
+advancing towards the Chalet.
+
+The tallow candle was immediately put out, the Lieutenant and his
+detachment seized their weapons, and concealed themselves behind the
+door, and the Goat-mother and her children were shut up in an inner
+room, where they waited in fear and trembling.
+
+On came the Chamois with noiseless leaps, bounding into the garden,
+and approaching the front door with the utmost caution. Everything
+appeared to be turning out according to their expectations, and they
+already saw themselves in imagination seated in the Heif-house,
+revelling in the contents of the Goat-mother's store cupboard.
+
+Their long green coats fluttered in the air, the large bunches of
+edelweiss in their hats, glistened in the moonlight.
+
+But a low, clear whistle suddenly sounded.
+
+Each Goat sprang from his hiding place, and with a rush that took the
+Chamois completely by surprise, they fell upon the invaders, and drove
+them over the precipice.
+
+It was a real triumph; for the Chamois flew down the mountain in the
+wildest confusion, falling down, and darting over each other in their
+hurry, and never stopping until they had reached their own haunts in
+the region of the distant Eismeer.
+
+"A glorious victory!" cried the Lieutenant, "and not a drop of blood
+shed."
+
+As to the Goat-mother, she had passed through such a moment of terror
+that she had to be assisted out of the back room by three of the
+guard, and revived with a cabbage leaf before she could recover
+herself. She then embraced everyone all round, and the Goat-father
+broached a barrel of lager-beer; while the tame Fox from the Inn (who
+had appeared at the Chalet soon after the departure of the rescue
+party) ran about supplying the visitors with tumblers.
+
+The next day the Free-will Goats were disbanded, and returned to their
+homes; after receiving in public the thanks of the Goat-King for their
+distinguished behaviour, and a carved matchbox each "For valour in
+face of the horns of the enemy."
+
+The Stein-bok Pedlar was begged to make his home at the Heif Chalet,
+but he loved his wandering life too much to settle down.
+
+"Keep the tame Fox instead of me, ma'am," he said, as he shook hands
+warmly with his friends at parting. "The poor creature is miserable in
+captivity."
+
+He then made the Goat-mother a handsome present of all his remaining
+groceries, and departed once more upon his travels.
+
+That same afternoon a special messenger from the Goat-King arrived
+with an inlaid musical chair, "as a slight token of regard," for the
+Heif-father.
+
+"Well, at all events, it's better than a cuckoo clock," said the
+Goat-mother resignedly, "but let me warn you seriously _never to sit
+down upon it_! I know its ways, and though kindly meant, I should have
+preferred paper-knives!"
+
+
+
+
+THE GREAT LADY'S CHIEF-MOURNER.
+
+It was a large white house that stood on a hill. In front stretched a
+beautiful garden full of all kinds of rare flowers, on to which opened
+the windows of the sitting-rooms.
+
+Everything was handsome and stately, and the lady who owned it was
+handsomer and statelier than her house.
+
+In her velvet dress she sat under the shade of a sweeping cedar tree;
+with a crowd of obsequious relations round her, trying to anticipate
+her lightest wishes.
+
+"How nice it must be to be rich," thought the little kitchen-maid as
+she looked out through the trellis work that hid the kitchens at the
+side of the great house. "How happy my mistress must be. How much I
+should like to try just for one day what it feels like!"--and she went
+back with a sigh to her work in the gloomy kitchen.
+
+Through the latticed window she could see nothing but the paved yard,
+and an old tin biscuit box that stood on the window-sill, and
+contained two little green shoots sprouting up from the dark mould.
+
+This little ugly box was the kitchen-maid's greatest treasure. Every
+day she watered it and watched over it, for she had brought the seeds
+from the tiny garden of her own home, and many sunny memories
+clustered about them. She was always looking forward to the day when
+the first blossoms would unfold, and now it really seemed that two
+buds were forming on the slender stems. The little kitchen-maid smiled
+with joy as she noticed them.
+
+"I shall have flowers, too!" she said to herself hopefully.
+
+One day, as the mistress of the house walked on the terrace by the
+vegetable garden, the little kitchen-maid came past suddenly with a
+basket of cabbages. She smiled and curtsied so prettily that the great
+lady nodded to her kindly, and threw her a beautiful red rose she
+carried in her hand.
+
+The kitchen-maid could hardly believe her good fortune. She picked up
+the flower and ran with it to her bedroom, where she put it in a
+cracked jam-pot in water; and the whole room seemed full of its
+fragrance--just as the little kitchen-maid's heart was all aglow with
+gratitude at the kind act of the great lady.
+
+Time passed, and the little kitchen-maid's rose withered; but the
+slender plants in the tin box expanded into flower, and all the yard
+seemed brighter for their white petals.
+
+One day the mistress of the house fell ill. Doctors went and came,
+crowds of relations besieged the house, an air of gloom hung over the
+bright garden.
+
+The little kitchen-maid waited anxiously for news; and tears rolled
+down her face as she heard the Church bell tolling for the death of
+the great lady.
+
+A grand funeral started from the white house on the hill. Carriages
+containing relations, who tried vainly to twist their faces into an
+expression of the grief they were supposed to be feeling.
+
+Wreaths of the purest hot-house flowers covered the coffin--wreaths
+for which the relations had given large sums of money; but not one
+woven with sorrowful care by the hand of a real lover.
+
+The sod was patted down, the dry-eyed mourners departed; and some
+square yards of bare earth were all that now belonged to the great
+lady.
+
+When everyone had left, the little kitchen-maid crept from behind some
+bushes, where she had been hiding.
+
+Her face was tear-stained, and she carried in her hand two slender
+white flowers.
+
+They were the plants grown with such loving care in the old tin box on
+the window-sill; and she laid them with a sigh amongst the rich
+wreaths and crosses.
+
+"Good-bye, dear mistress! I have nothing else to bring you," she
+whispered; and never dreamed that her gift had been the most beautiful
+of any--her simple love and tears.
+
+
+
+
+DAME FOSSIE'S CHINA DOG.
+
+Granny Pyetangle lived in a little thatched cottage, with a garden
+full of sweet-smelling, old-fashioned flowers. It was one of a long
+row of other thatched cottages that bordered the village street. At
+one end of this was the Inn, with a beautiful sign-board that creaked
+and swayed in the wind; at the other, Dame Fossie's shop, in which
+brandy-balls, ginger-snaps, balls of string, tops, cheese, tallow
+candles, and many other useful and entertaining things were neatly
+disposed in a small latticed window.
+
+All Granny Pyetangle's relations were dead; and she lived quite alone
+with her little grandson 'Zekiel, who had been a mingled source of
+pride and worry to her, ever since he left off long-clothes and took
+to a short-waisted frock with a wide frill round the neck, that
+required constant attention in the way of washing and ironing.
+
+'Zekiel's favourite place to play in was Granny Pyetangle's cottage
+doorway.
+
+A board had been put up to prevent him rolling out on to the
+cobblestone pavement; and this board though very irritating to
+'Zekiel in many ways--as preventing him from straying down the road
+and otherwise enjoying himself--was yet not to be despised, as he soon
+discovered, when he was learning to walk.
+
+It was one of the few things he could grasp firmly, without its
+immediately sliding away, doubling up, turning head over heels, or
+otherwise throwing him violently down on the brick floor of the
+kitchen--before he knew what had happened to him!
+
+Granny Pyetangle frequently went to have a chat with Dame Fossie, her
+large sun-bonnet shading her wrinkled old face, a handkerchief crossed
+neatly over her print bodice. On these occasions 'Zekiel accompanied
+his grandmother, hanging on to her skirts affectionately with one
+hand, whilst he waved a crust of brown bread in the other--a crust
+which he generally carried concealed about his person, for the
+two-fold purpose of assisting through his teeth and amusing himself at
+every convenient opportunity.
+
+Whilst Granny Pyetangle discussed the affairs of the neighbours,
+'Zekiel would sit on the floor by her side contentedly sucking his
+crust, and looking with awe upon the contents of the shop. Such a
+collection of good things seemed a perfect fairy-tale to him, and he
+would often settle in his own mind what he would have when he grew up
+and had pence to rattle about in his trousers' pocket, like Eli and
+Hercules Colfox.
+
+Like most children in short petticoats, who--contrary to the
+generally-received idea--are constantly meditating on every subject
+that comes under their notice; 'Zekiel had his own ideas about Granny
+Pyetangle and her friend Dame Fossie.
+
+His grandmother ought to have spent more of her money on
+peppermint-cushions, tin trumpets, and whip-tops, and less on those
+uninteresting household stores; and Dame Fossie should have remembered
+that crusts are poor work when brandy-snaps and gingerbread are spread
+before you, and ought more frequently to have bestowed a biscuit on
+the round-eyed 'Zekiel, as he played with the cat, or poked pieces of
+stick between the cracks of the floor when Granny Pyetangle wasn't
+looking.
+
+Though 'Zekiel had no brothers and sisters, he had a great many
+friends, the chief of which were Eli and Hercules Colfox, his next
+door neighbours, who were very kind and condescending to him in spite
+of the dignity of their corduroy trousers.
+
+'Zekiel had a way of ingratiating himself with everyone, and of
+getting what he wanted, that inspired the slower-witted Eli and
+Hercules with awe and admiration; until one day he took it into his
+head to long for Dame Fossie's celebrated black and white spotted
+china dog!
+
+All the village knew this dog, for it had stood for years on a shelf
+above the collection of treasures in the shop window. It was not an
+ordinary china dog such as you can see in any china shop now-a-days,
+but one of the old-fashioned kind, on which the designer had (like
+the early masters) expended all his art upon the dignity of expression
+without harassing himself with petty details.
+
+Proudly Dame Fossie's dog looked down upon the world, sitting erect,
+with his golden padlock and chain glittering in any stray gleams of
+sunshine; his white coat evenly spotted with black, his long drooping
+ears, neat row of carefully-painted black curls across the forehead,
+and that proud smile which, though the whole village had been smitten
+down before him, would still have remained unchangeable.
+
+It was this wonderful superiority of expression that had first
+attracted 'Zekiel as he played about on the floor of Dame Fossie's
+parlour.
+
+The china dog never looked at him with friendly good-fellowship, like
+the other dogs of the village. It never wanted to share his crusts, or
+upset him by running up against his legs just as he thought he had
+mastered the difficulties of "walking like Granny!"
+
+It was altogether a strangely attractive animal, and 'Zekiel, from the
+time he could first indistinctly put a name to anything, had
+christened it the "Fozzy-gog" out of compliment to its owner, Dame
+Fossie--and the "Fozzy-gog" it remained to him, and to the other
+children of the village, for ever after.
+
+When 'Zekiel was nearly six years of age Granny Pyetangle called him
+up to her, and asked what he would like for his birthday present.
+
+'Zekiel sat down on a wooden stool in the chimney corner, where the
+iron pot hung, and meditated deeply.
+
+"Eli and Hercules to tea, and a Fozzy-gog to play with," he said at
+last--and Granny Pyetangle smiled and said she would see what she
+could do--"'Zekiel was a good lad, and deserved a treat."
+
+'Zekiel's birthday arrived, and the moment he opened his eyes he saw
+that his grandmother had redeemed her promise.
+
+On a rush chair beside his pillow stood the very double of the
+Fozzy-gog!--yellow eyes, gold collar and padlock, black spots, and all
+complete!
+
+'Zekiel sprang up, and scrambled into his clothes as quickly as
+possible. He danced round Granny Pyetangle in an ecstasy of delight,
+and scarcely eat any breakfast, he was in such a hurry to show his
+treasure to his two friends.
+
+As he handed it over the low hedge that separated the two gardens he
+felt a proud boy, but Eli did not appear so enthusiastic as 'Zekiel
+expected. He said that "chaney dogs was more for Grannies nor for
+lads," and that if he had been in 'Zekiel's place he would have chosen
+a fine peg-top.
+
+Poor 'Zekiel was disappointed. The tears gathered in his eyes. He hugged
+the despised china dog fondly to him, and carried it indoors to put in a
+place of honour in Granny Pyetangle's oak corner-cupboard--where it
+looked out proudly from behind the glass doors, in company with the best
+tea-cups, a shepherdess tending a woolly lamb, two greyhounds on
+stony-white cushions, and Grandfather Pyetangle's horn snuff-box.
+
+Time passed on, and 'Zekiel's petticoats gave place to corduroy
+breeches, but his devotion to the china dog never waned. He would talk
+to it, and tell it all his plans and fancies, and several times he
+almost persuaded himself that it wagged its tail and nodded to him. In
+fact, he was quite sure that when Granny Pyetangle was ill that
+winter, the china dog was conscious of the fact, and looked at him
+with its yellow eyes full of compassion and sympathy.
+
+Poor Granny Pyetangle was certainly very ill. She had suffered from
+rheumatism for many years, and was sometimes almost bent double with
+it; but that autumn it came on with increased violence, and 'Zekiel,
+who nursed his old grandmother devotedly, had to sit by the bed-side
+for hours giving her medicine, or the food a neighbour prepared for
+her, just as she required it.
+
+Granny Pyetangle was sometimes rather cross in those days, and would
+scold poor 'Zekiel for "clumping in his boots" and "worritting"--but
+'Zekiel was very patient.
+
+"Sick people _is_ wearing at times," said Dame Fossie. "Come you down
+to me sometimes, 'Zekiel, and I'll let you play with my chaney dog. It
+isn't fit as young lads should be cooped up always!"--and when Granny
+Pyetangle had a neighbour with her, 'Zekiel gladly obeyed.
+
+One evening he ran down the village street with a smile on his face,
+and a new penny in his pocket. Squire Hancock had given it to him for
+holding his horse, and he was going to spend it at Dame Fossie's on a
+cake for his grandmother.
+
+Twilight was falling, yet Dame Fossie's shop was not lighted up; which
+was strange, as a little oil lamp generally burned in the window as
+soon as it grew dusk.
+
+The shop door was shut and locked, and 'Zekiel ran round to the back,
+and climbing on the edge of the rain-water butt, he peered over the
+white dimity blind, into the silent kitchen.
+
+No one was there, and yet Dame Fossie must be somewhere in the house,
+for he distinctly heard sounds of thumping and scraping going on
+upstairs.
+
+"I'll get in through the window, and surprise her!" said 'Zekiel; and
+as one of the latticed panes was unfastened he proceeded to push it
+gently open, and creep in on to the table that stood just beneath it.
+
+He unlatched the kitchen door, and stole up the ricketty staircase.
+
+The sounds continued, but more loudly. Evidently there was a
+house-cleaning going on, and 'Zekiel supposed this was why Dame Fossie
+had been deaf to his repeated knockings. He lifted the latch of the
+room from which the noise proceeded, and peeping cautiously in, beheld
+such a strange sight that he remained rooted to the ground with
+astonishment.
+
+Dame Fossie's furniture was piled up in one corner--the oak bureau,
+and the rush-bottomed chairs, inside the four-post bedstead. A pail
+of water stood in the middle of the floor; and close by was the
+Fozzy-gog himself, with a mop between his paws, working away with the
+greatest energy.
+
+He was about four times his ordinary size, as upright as 'Zekiel
+himself, and was directing the work of several other china dogs;
+amongst whom 'Zekiel immediately recognized his own property, Granny
+Pyetangle's birthday present!
+
+Everyone seemed to be too busy to notice 'Zekiel as he stood half in
+the doorway. Two of the dogs were scouring the floor with a pair of
+Dame Fossie's best scrubbing brushes, another was dusting the ceiling
+with a feather broom; whilst several, seated round the four-post
+bedstead, were polishing it with bees' wax and "elbow-grease." They
+all listened to the Fozzy-gog with respectful attention, as he issued
+his directions; for he was evidently a person in authority.
+
+It did not occur to 'Zekiel to be surprised that all the dogs were
+chatting together in very comprehensible Dorsetshire English. To see
+them actually living, and moving about, was such an extraordinary
+thing that it swallowed up every other feeling, even that of fear.
+
+"Make haste, my good dogs! Put the furniture straight, and have all
+ready. Dame Fossie will be returning soon, and we must be back on our
+shelves before her key turns," said the Fozzy-gog cheerfully.
+
+The dogs all worked with renewed energy, and before 'Zekiel could
+collect his scattered wits enough to retreat or hide himself, the
+room was in perfect order, and out trooped the china dogs carrying the
+buckets, brooms, and brushes, they had been using.
+
+As they caught sight of 'Zekiel, the Fozzy-gog jumped several feet
+into the air.
+
+"What! 'Zekiel spying upon us!" he screamed angrily. "Bring the lad
+into the kitchen. We must examine into this," and he clattered down
+the steep stairs with his mop into the wash-house.
+
+Poor 'Zekiel followed trembling. His own dog had crept up to him, and
+slipped one paw into his hand, whispering hurriedly, "Don't be
+downhearted, 'Zekiel. Never contradict him, and he will forgive you in
+a year or two!"
+
+"A year or two!" thought 'Zekiel wretchedly. "And never contradict
+him, indeed! when he says I was spying on him. A likely thing!" and he
+clung to his friend, and dragged him in with him into the kitchen.
+
+The Fozzy-gog sat in Dame Fossie's high-backed chair in the chimney
+corner, the other china dogs grouped around him. It reminded 'Zekiel
+of the stories of Kings and their Courts, and no doubt the Fozzy-gog
+_was_ a king--in his own opinion at least.
+
+He questioned 'Zekiel minutely as to how he happened to come there so
+late in the evening; and to all the questions 'Zekiel answered most
+truthfully.
+
+The frown on the Fozzy-gog's face relaxed more and more--an amiable
+smile began to curl the corners of his mouth, and he extended his paw
+in a dignified manner towards 'Zekiel, who felt like a prisoner
+reprieved.
+
+"We forgive you, 'Zekiel! You have always been a good friend to us,
+and your own dog speaks well of you," said the Fozzy-gog benignly.
+"You must give us your word you will never mention what you have seen.
+In the future we must be china dogs to you, and _nothing more_; but in
+return for this you may ask one thing of us, and, if possible, we will
+grant it."
+
+'Zekiel hesitated. Wild possibilities of delight in the shape of
+ponies and carts flitted rapidly through his mind, and then the
+remembrance of Granny Pyetangle, lying ill and suffering on her bed in
+the little sloping attic, drove everything else from his mind.
+
+"I want my poor old Granny to be well again," he said, looking the
+Fozzy-gog bravely in the face--"and I don't want naught else. If
+you'll do that, I'll promise anything--that's to say, anything in
+reason," added 'Zekiel, who prided himself on this diplomatic finish
+to his sentence--which was one he had frequently heard his grandmother
+make use of in moments of state and ceremony.
+
+The Fozzy-gog appeared to be favourably impressed by 'Zekiel's
+request. He rose from his chair, and waved his paw graciously.
+
+"We dismiss this gathering!" he cried. "And you, Pyetangle"--pointing
+to 'Zekiel's china dog--"take your master home, and bring him to our
+meeting at the cross-roads to-morrow at midnight. Do not fail.
+Farewell!"
+
+As he spoke the Fozzy-gog shrank and stiffened. His black curls
+acquired their usual glaze, and he had just time to jump upon the
+shelf above the shop window, before he froze into his immovable china
+self again.
+
+The other dogs disappeared through the open kitchen casement; and
+'Zekiel found himself in the village street without in the least
+knowing how he got there!
+
+It was almost dark as he ran home, but as he swung open the garden
+gate, he fancied he saw something white standing exactly in the centre
+of the pathway. He was sure he heard a faint barking, and a voice
+whispered--"Wait a minute, 'Zekiel, I want to talk to you." 'Zekiel
+retreated a step, and sat down gasping on a flower bed.
+
+"I want to talk to you," repeated the little voice.
+
+'Zekiel craned forward, though he was trembling with fright, and saw
+in the fast gathering shadows his own china dog, standing beside
+Granny Pyetangle's favourite lavender bush--though how it managed to
+get there so quickly he could not imagine! He stretched out his hand
+to stroke it, and started up, as instead of the cold china, he felt
+the soft curls of a fluffy fur coat.
+
+"Tell me what it all means! Oh, do'ee, now!" said 'Zekiel, almost
+crying.
+
+The china dog sat down by 'Zekiel's side, and putting one paw
+affectionately on his knee, looked up in his face, with his honest
+yellow eyes.
+
+"The Fozzy-gog has commissioned me to explain all about it," he said
+confidentially. "So don't be frightened, and no harm will come of it!
+Twice every month (if we can escape unobserved) we take the form of
+ordinary dogs, and meet together to amuse ourselves, or to work for
+our owners. There are many of us in the village, and as the Fozzy-gog
+is our ruler, we are bound to obey him, and to work more for old Dame
+Fossie than for anybody else. Yesterday we knew she was going to visit
+her married daughter. We determined to have a thorough house-cleaning,
+and were just in the midst of it when you came in! It was a good thing
+the Fozzy-gog happened to be in a good temper, and knew you well! We
+have never before been discovered. He is a hasty temper, and it
+certainly _was_ irritating!"
+
+'Zekiel began to recover from his terror, and grasped the china dog by
+the paw. He felt proud to think that his ideas about china dogs had
+proved true. They were not merely "chaney"--as Eli and Hercules
+contemptuously expressed it; but were really as much alive as he was
+himself, after all!
+
+"However did you manage to get out of Granny Pyetangle's cupboard?"
+enquired 'Zekiel, curiously.
+
+"Oh, I put those lazy greyhounds and the shepherdess at it," replied
+the china dog. "They worked all night, and managed to undo the latch
+early this afternoon. They're bound to work for me like all the
+inferior china things," and he shook his head superciliously.
+
+"And now," said 'Zekiel, "please tell me how the Fozzy-gog is going to
+get my Granny well."
+
+"Ah, that I mayn't tell you," said the china dog. "You must come with
+me to-morrow night to the Dog-wood, and you will hear all about it."
+
+As he spoke, he began to shrink and stiffen in the same remarkable way
+as the Fozzy-gog, and a moment after he was standing in his ordinary
+shape in the centre of the cobblestone pathway.
+
+The moonlight shone upon his quaint little figure and the golden
+padlock at his neck. 'Zekiel sprang up just as the cottage door
+opened, and a neighbour came out calling, "'Zekiel! 'Zekiel! Drat the
+lad! Where be you gone to?"
+
+'Zekiel tucked the china dog under his arm and hurried in, receiving a
+good scolding from Granny Pyetangle and her friend for "loitering,"
+but he felt so light-hearted and cheerful, the hard words fell round
+him quite harmlessly.
+
+"Granny 'll be well to-morrow! Granny 'll be well to-morrow!" he kept
+repeating to himself over and over again, and he ran into the kitchen
+just before going to bed to make sure the things in the corner
+cupboard were safely shut away for the night.
+
+'Zekiel hardly knew how he got through the next day, so impatient was
+he for the evening. Granny Pyetangle was certainly worse. The
+neighbours came in and shook their heads sadly over her, and Dame
+Fossie hobbled up from her shop and offered to spend the night there,
+as it was "no' fit for young lads to have such responsibilities"--and
+this offer 'Zekiel eagerly accepted.
+
+As soon as it grew dusk, he unlatched the door of the oak cupboard;
+and then being very tired--for he had worked hard since daylight--he
+sat down in Granny Pyetangle's large chair, and in a minute was fast
+asleep.
+
+He was awakened by a series of pulls at his smock-frock; and starting
+up he saw that it was quite dark, except for the glow of a few ashes
+on the hearth-stone, and that the china dog, grown to the same size as
+he had been the evening before, was trying to arouse him.
+
+"Wake up, 'Zekiel!" he said in a low voice. "Dame Fossie is upstairs
+with your Granny, and we must be off."
+
+'Zekiel rubbed his eyes, and taking his cap down from a peg, and tying
+a check comforter round his neck, he followed the china dog from the
+kitchen, and closed and latched the door behind him.
+
+Out in the moonlit street, the china dog kept as much as possible in
+the shadow of the houses; 'Zekiel following, his hob-nailed boots
+_click_, _clicking_ against the rough stones as he stumbled sleepily
+along.
+
+They soon left the village behind them, and plunged into a wood,
+which, stretching for miles across hill and dale, was known to be a
+favourite haunt of smugglers.
+
+'Zekiel instantly became very wide awake indeed, and unpleasant cold
+shivers ran down his back, as he thought he saw black and white forms
+gliding amongst the trees, and yellow eyes glancing at him between
+the bare branches.
+
+"It isn't smugglers. It's the dogs galloping to the meeting place,"
+said the china dog, who seemed able to read 'Zekiel's thoughts in a
+very unnatural manner.
+
+They soon left the rough pathway they had been following, and 'Zekiel,
+clinging to the china dog's paw, found himself in the densest part of
+the wood, which was only dimly lighted by a few scattered moonbeams.
+
+"We are getting near the Dog-wood now," said the china dog as they
+hurried on, and in another moment they came out on to the middle of a
+clearing, round which a dense thicket of red-stemmed dog-wood bushes
+grew in the greatest luxuriance.
+
+In the centre was a large square stone, like a stand; on which sat the
+Fozzy-gog, surrounded by about fifty china dogs of all shapes and
+sizes, but each one with a gold padlock and chain round his neck,
+without which none were admitted to the secret society of the
+"Fozzy-gogs."
+
+'Zekiel was drawn reluctantly into the magic circle, while every dog
+wagged his tail as a sign of friendly greeting.
+
+The Fozzy-gog nodded graciously, and immediately the dogs commenced a
+wild dance, with many leaps and bounds; round the stone on which their
+ruler was seated.
+
+The moonlight shone brightly on their glancing white coats; and behind
+rustled the great oak trees, their boughs twisted into fantastic
+forms, amidst which the wind whistled eerily.
+
+'Zekiel shuddered as he looked at the strange scene, and longed
+sincerely to be back again in his little bed at Granny Pyetangle's.
+
+"However, it won't do to show I'm afraid, or don't like it," he said
+to himself, so he capered and hopped with the others until he was
+quite giddy and exhausted, and forced to sit down on a grassy bank to
+recover himself.
+
+"The trees are playing very well to-night," said a dog as he skipped
+by. "Come and have another dance?" and he flew round and round like a
+humming top.
+
+'Zekiel shook his head several times. He was so out of breath he could
+only gasp hurriedly--"No, no! No more, thank you!" but his friend had
+already disappeared.
+
+The Fozzy-gog now approached him. He carried something in his paw,
+which he placed in 'Zekiel's hand.
+
+"Put this on Grandmother Pyetangle's forehead when you return
+to-night--promise that you will keep silence for ever about what you
+have seen--and to-morrow she will be well!"
+
+"I promise," said 'Zekiel. "Oh, Fozzy-gog! I'll never forget it!"
+
+"No thanks," said the Fozzy-gog. "I like deeds more than words.
+Pyetangle shall take you home."
+
+He beckoned to 'Zekiel's dog, who came up rather sulkily--and 'Zekiel
+found himself outside the magic circle, and well on his way home,
+almost before he could realize that they had started!
+
+As he entered Granny Pyetangle's little garden, he saw that a light
+was still burning in her attic.
+
+He went softly into the kitchen. It was quite dark, but a ray of
+moonlight enabled him to see the china dog open the cupboard; and,
+rapidly shrinking, place himself on his proper shelf again.
+
+'Zekiel then took off his boots, ran up the creaking stairs, and
+tapped softly at Granny Pyetangle's bedroom. No one answered, so he
+pushed open the door.
+
+Dame Fossie sat sleeping peacefully in a large rush-bottomed chair by
+the fireplace--and Granny Pyetangle, on her bed under the chintz
+curtains, was sleeping too.
+
+'Zekiel laid the Fozzy-gog's leaf carefully on her forehead, and
+creeping from the room, threw himself on his own little bed, and was
+soon as fast asleep as the two old women.
+
+The next morning, when Granny Pyetangle awoke, she said she felt
+considerably better, and so energetic was she that Dame Fossie had
+great difficulty in persuading her not to get up.
+
+Dame Fossie tidied up the place, and was much annoyed to find a dead
+leaf sticking to Granny Pyetangle's scanty grey hair. "How a rubbishy
+leaf o' dog-wood came to get there, is more nor _I_ can account for,"
+she said crossly, as she swept it away into the fire, before 'Zekiel
+could interfere to rescue it.
+
+Granny Pyetangle's recovery was wonderfully rapid. Every day she was
+able to do a little more, and 'Zekiel's triumph was complete when he
+was allowed to help her down the stairs into the kitchen, and seat her
+quavering, but happy, on the great chair in the chimney corner.
+
+"Well, it do seem pleasant to be about agin," said Granny Pyetangle,
+smoothing her white linen apron. "No'but you have kept the place
+clean, 'Zekiel, like a good lad. There's those things in corner
+cupboard as bright as chaney can be! and that chaney dog o' yours
+sitting as life-like as you please! It wouldn't want much fancy to say
+he was wagging his tail and looking at me quite welcoming!"
+
+The wood fire blazed and crackled, the kettle sang on its chain in the
+wide chimney. Granny Pyetangle was almost well, and quite happy; and
+'Zekiel felt his heart overflowing with gratitude towards the
+Fozzy-gog.
+
+"I'll never forget him. Never!" said 'Zekiel to himself, "and I
+wouldn't tell upon him not if anyone was to worrit me ever so!"--and
+indeed he never did.
+
+Years passed, and Dame Fossie's shop was shut, and Dame Fossie herself
+was laid to rest. Her daughter inherited most of her possessions;
+but--"to my young friend 'Zekiel Pyetangle, I will and bequeath my
+china dog, hoping as he'll be a kind friend to it," stood at the end
+of the sheet of paper which did duty as her will. And so 'Zekiel
+became the owner of the Fozzy-gog after all!
+
+Granny Pyetangle has long since passed away, but the little thatched
+cottage is still there, with the garden full of lavender bushes and
+sweet-smelling flowers. From the glass door of the corner cupboard
+the Fozzy-gog and his companion look out upon the world with the same
+inscrutable expression; and 'Zekiel himself, old and decrepit, but
+still cheerful, may at this moment be sitting in the cottage porch,
+watching his little grandchildren play about the cobblestone pathway,
+or talking over old times with Eli and Hercules Colfox, who, hobbling
+in for a chat, take a pull at their long pipes, and bemoan the
+inferiority of everything that does not belong to the time when "us
+were all lads together."
+
+
+
+
+PRINCESS SIDIGUNDA'S GOLDEN SHOES.
+
+Princess Sidigunda lived with her parents in a beautiful old castle by
+the sea. It was so near that the royal gardens sloped down gradually
+to the shore, and from its battlements--where the little Princess was
+allowed to walk sometimes on half-holidays--she could watch the ships
+with their gaily-painted prows and golden dragons' heads, sweeping
+over the water in quest of new lands and fresh adventures.
+
+Princess Sidigunda was an only child, and at her christening every
+gift you can imagine had been showered upon her.
+
+The Trolls of the Woods gave her beauty; the Trolls of the Water, a
+free, bright spirit; the Mountain-Trolls, good health; and last, but
+not least, her chief Godfather, the Troll of the Seashore, had given
+her a beautiful little pair of golden slippers.
+
+"Never let the child take them off her feet," said the old Troll. "As
+long as she keeps them she will be happy. If ever they are lost the
+Princess's troubles will begin."
+
+"But they will grow too small for her!" said the Queen anxiously.
+
+"Oh no, they won't!" said the old Troll. "They will grow as she grows,
+so you needn't trouble about that."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Time went on, and the little Princess grew to be ten years old.
+
+The old Troll's promise was fulfilled, and her life had been a
+perfectly happy one. Watched by her faithful nurse, she had never had
+any opportunity of losing her magic shoes; and though she often
+bathed and played about the shore with her young companions, she was
+never allowed to be without one of her attendants, in case she should
+forget her Godfather's caution.
+
+One fine summer afternoon, the Princess, with some of her friends, ran
+down to the sands from the little gate in the castle wall.
+
+The sea looked green and beautiful, light waves curling over on the
+narrow strip of yellow shore.
+
+"Let's wade!" cried the Princess. "My nurse is ill in bed, and my two
+ladies think we are playing in the garden. We'll have a little treat
+of being alone, and enjoy ourselves!"
+
+"We must take our slippers off," said one of the children, as they
+raced along.
+
+"Oh, I wish _I_ could!" cried the Princess. "I don't believe _once_
+would matter. I'll put them in a safe place where the sea can't get at
+them," and as she spoke she pulled off her golden shoes, and hid them
+in a great hurry behind a sand-bank.
+
+The Princess's little friends ran off laughing; while she followed,
+her hair streaming, her bare feet twinkling in the sunlight.
+
+"How nice it is to be free, without those tiresome shoes!" cried the
+Princess.
+
+The children paddled in the water until they were tired, and then
+Sidigunda thought it was time to put on her slippers again. She ran to
+the bank, but gave a cry of astonishment--she could only find one of
+her golden shoes! Tears sprang to her eyes as she looked about her
+wildly.
+
+"Oh what shall I do?" she cried. "My shoe! My Godfather's shoe!"
+
+The children gathered round her eagerly.
+
+"It must be there. Who can have taken it?"
+
+They searched the low sand dunes up and down, but not a trace of the
+lost slipper could be found. It was gone as entirely as if it had
+never existed; and as the Princess drew on the remaining one, the
+tears rolled down her face, and fell upon the sand-hill by which she
+was sitting.
+
+"Oh, Godfather! dear Godfather! come and help me!" she wailed. "Do
+come and help me!"
+
+At her cry, the sand-hill began to quiver and shake strangely. It
+heaved up, and an old man's head, with a long grey beard, appeared in
+the middle; followed slowly by a little brown-coated body.
+
+"What is the matter, God-daughter? Your tears trickled down to me and
+woke me up, just as I was comfortably sleeping," he said querulously.
+"They're saltier than the sea, and I can't stand them."
+
+"My shoe's gone! Oh! whatever am I to do? I'm _so_ sorry, Godfather!"
+
+"So you ought to be!" said the old man sharply. "I told you something
+bad would happen if you ever took them off. The question is now,
+Where's the shoe gone to?"
+
+He leant his elbows on the mound, and looked out to sea.
+
+"Just what I thought!" he exclaimed. "The Sea-children have taken it
+for a boat. I _must_ speak to the Sea-grandmother about them, and get
+her to keep them in better order."
+
+"Oh, it's gone then, and I shall never get it back again!" wept the
+Princess. "What am I to do, Godfather?"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Have you courage enough to go and find your shoe by yourself?"
+
+"If that's the only way to get it back," said the Princess bravely.
+
+"Well, then, you must start immediately, or the Sea-children will
+have hidden it away somewhere. You will be obliged to have a passport,
+but I'll tell you how to get that. Take this veil"--and he drew a
+thin, transparent piece of silvery gauze from his pocket--"and throw
+it over your head whenever you go under the water. With it you will be
+able to breathe and see, as well as if you were on dry land. From this
+flask"--and he handed Sidigunda a curious little gold bottle--"you
+must pour a few drops on to your remaining shoe, and whenever you do
+so it will change in a moment into a boat, a horse, or a fish, as you
+desire it."
+
+"How am I to start, and where am I to go to?" asked the Princess,
+trying not to feel frightened at the prospect before her.
+
+"Launch your shoe as a boat, and float on till you meet the Sea-Troll,
+who is an old friend of mine. Explain your errand to him, and say I
+begged him to direct you and give you a passport. And now one last
+word before I leave you. Never, _whatever_ happens, cry again; for
+there is nothing worries me so much, and I want to finish my sleep
+comfortably."
+
+With these words the old Troll collected his long grey beard which had
+strayed over the sand-hill; and folding it round him, he disappeared
+in the hole again.
+
+Princess Sidigunda did not give herself time to think. She ran down to
+the edge of the water, took off her golden shoe, and poured some of
+the contents of her Godfather's flask over it.
+
+It changed immediately into a boat, into which the Princess stepped
+tremblingly; and it floated away over the blue water until the little
+Princess, straining her eyes eagerly, lost sight of her home, and the
+land faded away into a mere streak upon the horizon.
+
+"I wonder when I shall meet the Sea-Troll and what he's like," thought
+Princess Sidigunda. "I suppose I shall be able to recognize him
+somehow."
+
+As she thought this, she noticed that some object was rapidly floating
+towards her. It did not look like a boat, and as it came nearer and
+nearer, she could see that it was a large shell, on which an old man
+with a long beard was seated cross-legged, surrounded by a crowd of
+laughing Sea-children. They clung to the sides of the shell, swum
+round it, or climbed up to rest themselves on its crinkled edges.
+
+"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" cried the old man in a
+gruff voice.
+
+The Princess trembled; but she seized her veil and the little flask,
+and holding them out she repeated her Godfather's message.
+
+"I'll see what I can do, though really these children wear me out!"
+said the Sea-Troll. "I can't keep my eye on all of them at once! You
+had better go down to the Sea-city, and ask if they've carried your
+shoe there. If not, the Troll-writers will tell you where it is. Show
+this to the city guard, and they will direct you to the Palace." He
+gave the Princess a flat shell on which some letters were engraved.
+"Sink down at once," he continued; "you are over the city now," and
+with a wave of his hand he sailed away with the children, and was soon
+out of sight.
+
+"I suppose there's nothing else to be done," sighed Sidigunda, and
+throwing the scarf over her head, she poured a few drops from the
+bottle upon her shoe.
+
+"Turn into a fish and carry me down to the Sea-city!" she said.
+
+In a moment she felt herself sinking through the clear water, deeper
+and deeper, with a delicious drowsy feeling that almost soothed her to
+sleep. She knew she was _not_ asleep though, for she could see the
+misty forms of sea creatures, darting about in the dim shadows, and
+great waving sea-weeds--crimson, yellow, and brown--floating up from
+the rippled sand beneath.
+
+And now the shoe swum straight on, darting through the water like an
+eel; until a large town came in sight, with high walls and Palaces,
+and shining domes covered with mother-o'-pearl.
+
+They stopped at a great gate, before which a fish dressed as a sentry
+was standing.
+
+As soon as he saw the little Princess, he drew his sword, and came
+gliding towards her.
+
+"Your name and business!" he enquired, in a high thin voice.
+
+"I am Princess Sidigunda, seeking my golden shoe, and I bring this
+from the Sea-Troll," said the Princess courageously. "Will you tell
+me where I am to find the Trolls of the Palace?"
+
+The fish handed the shell back sulkily, and pointed up the street.
+
+"Go straight through till you come to the marble building with the
+pearls over the door," he said; and gave the Princess a poke with the
+handle of his sword, that pushed her through the gate, almost before
+she had time to draw on her golden shoe again.
+
+"What a rude, ill-bred sentry!" said Sidigunda. "My father would be
+very angry if any of _our_ soldiers behaved so; but then, of course,
+this one is only a fish. What a strange country I seem to have got
+into!"
+
+She walked along the street, looking on each side of her curiously.
+
+Many of the houses had transparent domes, like beautiful soap bubbles;
+some were built of coloured pebbles, and pink and red coral, with
+branching trees of green and brown seaweed growing up, beside and over
+them.
+
+Everything was strange, and unlike the earth; but what struck the
+Princess most was that no inhabitants were to be seen anywhere. A few
+fish swam about lazily, otherwise an unbroken silence reigned in the
+Sea-city.
+
+Far away, at the end of the wide sanded road, a great marble palace
+towered over the surrounding houses; and as the Princess neared it she
+saw that the doors were wide open. She walked in fearlessly, and found
+herself in a large hall, with walls entirely covered with
+cockle-shells. Long stone tables filled the middle of the room; at
+which a crowd of small brown-coated men were seated, scribbling away
+with long pens, but in total silence.
+
+The great grey beards of some of the writers had touched the ground,
+and even twisted themselves round the legs of the benches on which the
+old men were sitting.
+
+Princess Sidigunda stood for a minute looking on, curiously. She then
+went up to one of the Trolls and pulled him gently by the sleeve.
+
+He did not look up, but his pen slightly slackened its speed.
+
+"What do you want?" he enquired in an uninterested voice. "Make haste,
+for I have no time to spare!"
+
+"What rude people they all are!" thought the Princess. "The Sea-Troll
+said you would tell me how to find my golden shoe," she continued
+aloud.
+
+"I wish the Sea-Troll would mind his own business!" said the little
+brown man vindictively. "He's always distracting us from our State
+business with all sorts of messages."
+
+"Are you working for the State?" enquired Sidigunda.
+
+"Of course! I thought every oyster knew that," replied the brown
+Troll.
+
+"Are they particularly uneducated, then?" asked the Princess.
+
+"Why they're _babies_!" said the brown Troll. "You can see them any
+day in their beds by the side of the road, if you have eyes in your
+head."
+
+"What a place to keep babies in!" thought the Princess, but she said
+nothing, for she saw that the old Troll's disposition was very
+irritable.
+
+"Would you tell me one thing," she began. "I do so much want to know
+why I saw no one in the streets as I came along. Where have all the
+people gone to?"
+
+"Well, of _all_ the idi----" commenced the brown Troll, then checked
+himself with an effort. "Of course you can't know how foolish your
+questions sound," he said. "When you're two or three hundred years old
+I daresay you'll be more sensible. Why all the people are asleep--you
+don't suppose it's the same as in _your_ country!"
+
+"Do they sleep all the time?" asked the Princess.
+
+"Not all the time, of course. In this town it's two weeks at a
+stretch. In other places more, or less. By this arrangement we always
+have half the population asleep, and half awake--much pleasanter and
+less crowding. I can't think why it's not done in other places!"
+
+Princess Sidigunda looked surprised.
+
+"Will the children who took my shoe be asleep?" she enquired
+anxiously.
+
+"Not they!" said the brown Troll crossly, "I wish they would be!
+Children under twelve _never_ sleep. It's like having a crowd of live
+eels always round me! I'd put them to sleep when they were a month
+old, and not let them wake till they came of age, if I had _my_ way!"
+
+The Princess felt rather frightened of this savage little brown man.
+She was afraid to ask any more questions, though she longed to know
+why he and his companions were not asleep too.
+
+"Go straight down the street," commenced the old Troll abruptly, "out
+of the green gate, along the road to the open country. Turn your shoe
+into a horse, and don't stop till you reach the Crab-boy's hut. He
+will direct you."
+
+"That sounds simple enough," thought the Princess, "but I wish he
+would tell me a little more!"
+
+The brown Troll, however, refused to open his mouth again, and
+Princess Sidigunda was obliged to start off upon her wanderings, with
+no more guide than the few words he had chosen to speak to her.
+
+She ran down the silent street, and out at the green gate; the
+Fish-sentry allowing her to pass without objection. As soon as she
+reached the country road, she walked more slowly. She particularly
+wanted to see the beds with the Sea-babies, which the old Troll had
+spoken about.
+
+For some distance she noticed nothing except wide sandy plains dotted
+with rocks, shells, and waving forests of giant seaweed--huge fish
+darting about in all directions--but at last the scenery grew wilder;
+and close to the road side she came upon a grove of oysters, each
+half-open shell containing a Sea-child, whose head and arms appeared
+above the edges of the shell, while its feet and body were invisible.
+
+Beside them sat an old woman, grey and wrinkled; with a small switch
+in her hand, with which she occasionally touched the Sea-babies as
+they leaned too far from their shells, or as their laughter rose too
+noisily.
+
+The little Princess stopped and looked at the children curiously; and
+the old woman stepped forward and made a polite curtsey.
+
+"They are rather noisy to-day," she said deprecatingly. "The
+oyster-nurses have gone out for a holiday, and I have to keep the
+whole bed in order!"
+
+"I should like to wait and play with them," said the Princess, "but I
+really am in such a hurry--I've lost my golden shoe."
+
+"Oh, you're going to the Crab-boy, I suppose?" said the old woman.
+"Down the road as straight as you can go, and you'll come to his hut,"
+and she turned away to the children again.
+
+Sidigunda took off her slipper, and poured out some drops from her
+magic bottle.
+
+Immediately it grew larger and larger; and she had just time to spring
+in, before it galloped away with a series of bounds that made it very
+difficult to cling on.
+
+Faster and faster it went, until the country seemed only a flying
+haze; and just as the Princess began to feel she could endure no more,
+it stopped abruptly before a small hut.
+
+Outside the door a boy sat on a stone seat, playing on a long horn
+whose notes echoed among the rocky hills that surrounded him.
+
+Princess Sidigunda looked at the boy with a friendly smile. He stopped
+playing, and made room for her to sit down beside him.
+
+"I knew you were coming," he said. "You want to go to the
+Sea-grandmother, don't you?"
+
+"Yes, I do!" said the Princess. "Do you live here all alone?"
+
+"Why, of course," replied the Crab-herd, "I look after all the crabs
+of the district. You may see me collect them if you like, for if I'm
+to go with you now, I must shut them up safely before starting."
+
+As he said this, he rose, and blowing a few notes on his horn, he
+walked slowly along, followed by the Princess.
+
+As the horn sounded, crabs of every size and colour came darting out
+from the stones, and scuttled across the sand towards the Crab-boy.
+There were red and green, yellow and brown, large and small--a
+procession growing larger and larger, until it reached an enclosed
+space, into which the boy guided it, and then shut the gate securely.
+
+The Princess had dropped down to rest upon a conch-shell, in the shade
+of some purple seaweed, and she looked up at the Crab-herd with her
+large blue eyes, while he counted his crabs, and chased in one or two
+of the stragglers.
+
+"Is the Sea-grandmother's house far off?" she asked thoughtfully.
+
+"Up in the great mountains, no distance from here. She lives in a
+cave, with plenty of space for her knitting."
+
+"Does she knit _much_?" enquired Sidigunda.
+
+"Yes; she knits and spins too. She never leaves off; and never has for
+hundreds and thousands of years."
+
+"What a very old lady she must be! Old enough to be a
+great-great-great-grandmother!" cried the Princess in astonishment.
+
+"If you said three hundred '_greats_' you would be nearer the real
+thing," remarked the Crab-boy. "But come now, follow me, and we will
+start immediately."
+
+Princess Sidigunda got up, and taking the Crab-herd's hand, they set
+off down the road towards the mountains.
+
+As they reached the foot of the grey cliffs, the Crab-boy unfolded a
+pair of fin-like wings from his elbows, and began to swim
+upwards--leaving the little Princess with her arms stretched out
+imploringly towards him.
+
+"Oh, _don't_ leave me here by myself!" she cried. "I shall never find
+my way to the Sea-grandmother!"
+
+"Why there she is, just above us in that cave in the side of the
+mountain," said the Crab-boy. "Don't you see her beautiful white hair,
+and the flash of her knitting-needles?"
+
+The Princess looked up, and there sat a beautiful old lady in a hole
+in the rock, high, high above them. A crowd of Sea-children played
+about her, and seemed to be carrying away the cloud-like white
+knitting as fast as it flowed from her busy fingers.
+
+She bent her head towards Sidigunda, and nodded to her, without
+ceasing her work for a moment.
+
+"Come, Princess, and talk to me!" she called in a sweet, low voice.
+"Take your shoe off, and it will bring you here in a moment."
+
+Sidigunda did as she was told--for the old lady spoke as if she were
+used to being obeyed without question--and found herself floating
+upwards, until she alighted on a broad ledge right in front of the
+Sea-grandmother.
+
+"So you have come all this way to find your golden shoe?" the old lady
+said in her clear, even voice. "Sit down, and tell me all about it."
+
+The Princess thought the Sea-grandmother's face young and lovely. It
+was smooth and unwrinkled; eyes clear as crystal, with blue depths in
+them, shining out with a soft benign look; while her slim hands turned
+and twisted unceasingly, and her long green dress fell round her in
+wave-like folds.
+
+Her smile was so soft and kind, that the Princess felt as if she had
+known her all her life.
+
+"I have sent for your shoe, my child," she said. "Those tiresome
+grandchildren of mine give me a great deal of trouble. I can't keep my
+eyes on all of them at once, and so they are always in mischief!"
+
+Sidigunda looked up in the gentle face; and sat down confidingly
+beside the Sea-grandmother.
+
+"Do you always knit so busily, Grandmother?" she said, as she watched
+the white foamy fabric float off the needles.
+
+"Of course, child. I have been working like this for thousands and
+thousands of years. Who do you imagine would provide the waves with
+nightcaps if _I_ ever stopped? When the wind blows and they dance, or
+when they curl over on the shore, they would be cold indeed, without
+my comfortable white nightcaps!"
+
+"Can you get me my shoe, dear Grandmother?" asked the little Princess
+wistfully.
+
+"Certainly, dear child. Though if you had not come at once, you might
+have had to wait a few hundred years or so, before I could have found
+it for you. The children wander so far now-a-days! Have you seen it?"
+the Sea-grandmother continued, turning to some of the children who
+surrounded her.
+
+"Oh, yes," they answered in chorus. "Just now it floated above us. We
+can fetch it in a minute!"
+
+"Swim away then, as fast as you can!" cried the Sea-grandmother, and
+the children darted off like fish through the green clearness of the
+water.
+
+The sound of their laughter had hardly died away in the distance,
+before they reappeared, dragging the golden shoe behind them; and the
+Princess, with smiles of joy, embraced them all as she drew it on to
+her foot again.
+
+"Oh, thank you, dearest Grandmother! I don't know how I can show you
+how grateful I am," cried Sidigunda.
+
+"By going home at once to your father and mother, and by promising me
+_never_ again to be disobedient," said the Sea-grandmother gravely.
+"Give me your shoe, and I will order it to take you back to the
+Castle."
+
+She stopped her needles for a moment, and passed her hand over the
+slipper: then kissed the little Princess, and waved the knitting
+rapidly before her.
+
+A white cloud seemed to float over Sidigunda, and she felt herself
+lifted up with a soothing motion, until on opening her eyes she found
+she was once more in the region of the fresh air and sunshine. Looking
+round, she saw the ruffled surface of the sea, and the waves breaking
+upon the shore before the Castle.
+
+Her heart beat with happiness, as the golden shoe landed her safely on
+the beach; and she ran up through the little gate into the Castle
+gardens, right into the arms of her mother, who was pacing up and down
+with her attendants, in great anxiety.
+
+Under the shade of some spreading fir trees the Princess related her
+adventures, begging the King and Queen to forgive her for her
+disobedience; and the whole Court was so delighted at her return that
+everyone forgot to scold her.
+
+That evening bonfires were lighted on all the hill-tops; and a great
+banquet was held in the Castle, at which the Princess appeared amidst
+loud cheering, and, holding her father's hand, drank from a golden
+goblet to the health of her Godfather, the Shore-Troll, and the
+Sea-grandmother.
+
+
+
+
+THE BADGER'S SCHOOL,
+
+OR
+
+THE ADVENTURES OF A BEAR FAMILY.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+In the very heart of a great forest in Sweden lived a Bear family,
+called "Bjornson."
+
+They were much respected throughout the whole neighbourhood, for they
+were kind and hospitable to everyone; and as their home was in such an
+unfrequented part of the country they were able often to give
+entertainments which it was quite safe to attend without fear of
+Foresters or other human inconveniences.
+
+Their house was built of large stones, neatly roofed with pine
+branches, and was reached by a winding path through the rocks, the
+entrance to which had become covered by a dense thicket of bushes. A
+small wire had been cunningly arranged by the Bear-father, so that in
+the event of any stranger entering the door a bell would be rung in
+the Bear-kitchen; but so far the household had fortunately never been
+alarmed by this contrivance.
+
+The two Bjornson children, Knut and Otto, led a very happy life in the
+forest. Whenever they liked they could bring some of their young
+companions home from the School-house in the evening; and then the
+Bear-mother would seat herself on a tree-stump and play tunes for them
+to dance to--for Fru Bjornson was highly educated, and had learnt the
+concertina in all its branches.
+
+[Illustration: "THE BEAR-MOTHER HAD LEARNT THE CONCERTINA IN ALL ITS
+BRANCHES"]
+
+This of course was all very delightful: but every morning Knut and
+Otto were obliged to start off at daybreak with their books and
+satchels for the forest School, and there a time of trouble usually
+awaited them. It was kept by an old Badger of very uncertain temper,
+and all his pupils stood in great awe of the birch rod which lay in a
+conspicuous place upon his writing-table.
+
+"It's all very well for the Hedgehogs," the scholars often grumbled to
+each other. "Of course _they_ can do just what they like, as they
+happen to be covered all over with quills--but for _us_ it's a very
+different affair!"
+
+Certainly strict discipline was maintained by the Badger during School
+time. His eyes seemed to be upon everyone at once, and it was vain to
+try and crack nuts, draw caricatures, or eat peppermint lozenges--the
+rod would come down immediately with a _thump_! and the offender, as
+he stood in a corner of the room with a fool's cap on, had time to
+fully realize the foolishness of his own behaviour.
+
+Forest History and Arithmetic were the Badger's two favourite studies,
+and each pupil was expected to know the Multiplication Table
+upside-down, and to be able to give the date of any event in
+Bear-history, without a moment's hesitation.
+
+It was perhaps not to be wondered at that the scholars were glad when
+playtime arrived, and that they rushed home helter-skelter, with
+shouts of joy, the moment the School-house door was thrown open.
+
+Many practical jokes had been tried upon the old Schoolmaster, and the
+offenders had invariably been severely punished, but one day in early
+autumn Knut and Otto, as they walked home with their friends,
+suggested a plan which would sweep away at one blow a great part of
+the misery of their School life.
+
+"You know the great History and Arithmetic books that Herr Badger
+always keeps on the desk in front of him?" said Knut. "We'll scoop out
+the insides and fill them with fireworks. Then directly he comes into
+School, we'll let them off. What an explosion there'll be! He _will_
+be frightened! No more sums and dates after that. Hurrah! Hurrah!"
+
+The scholars jumped about with delight when they heard the young
+Bears' idea, and eagerly agreed to join in the mischief.
+
+Their mothers were quite surprised the next morning to see with what
+alacrity they all started for School--half-an-hour earlier than their
+usual custom--and Fru Bjornson remarked to her old servant that "she
+really believed the children were beginning to take an interest in
+their studies _at last_!"
+
+The old Badger had not yet finished breakfast in his cottage by the
+School-house; so his pupils were able to enter the School-room
+unobserved, and had soon carried out their simple arrangements.
+
+An oiled string was attached, winding up the leg of the table to the
+fireworks; and the end was to be lighted by Knut the moment Herr
+Badger had seated himself.
+
+Everything being completed, the scholars seized their books; and when
+their master appeared in the doorway, murmured a respectful greeting,
+to which he responded by a stately bow.
+
+"Your slates, pupils. We will commence as usual with a few easy sums."
+
+A subdued groan broke from the scholars; and Knut--stooping down under
+pretence of tying up his shoe--applied a match to the string, while
+his companions shuffled as loudly as possible, to hide the sound of
+the striking.
+
+"Silence, if you _please_!" shouted the Badger. "Have you come to
+school to dance the polka? Attend to this little problem immediately,
+and mind it is correctly answered. If 10,000 Bears and a Pole-cat, ran
+round a tree 1,500 times and a half, in an hour and ten minutes; each
+knocking off one leaf and three-quarters every time he ran round--how
+many leaves would be knocked off in a fortnight?"
+
+"They couldn't do it," muttered a hedgehog derisively. "There
+wouldn't be room for a quarter of them!"
+
+"Make haste! Make haste!" cried the Badger, rapping his desk; but just
+at that moment, _whirr!_ _whizz!_ _bang!_ The books flew open with a
+loud report, and out sprang the crackers, and began to fizz and bound
+about the table.
+
+Herr Badger's black skull cap tumbled off, and he fell backwards in
+his astonishment, shouting for help; while the whole school darted
+away through the open door into the woods, in a state of the wildest
+delight and excitement.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Fru Bjornson was busily employed in her kitchen, stirring up some
+liquid in a large saucepan. It was cranberry jam for the winter, and
+on the floor stood a long row of brown jars into which it was to be
+poured when the boiling was thoroughly completed.
+
+The servant, a little thin light-brown Bear, in a large apron, waited
+close by, ready to poke the fire, or give any other assistance that
+was required of her.
+
+In the salon, Herr Bjornson, with a pucker on his forehead, was adding
+up his Bee accounts--for he kept a number of hives in the garden and
+fields belonging to him.
+
+Suddenly the alarm bell sounded loudly, and in rushed the Bear-mother,
+with the jam-ladle in her hand, her hair almost erect with terror.
+
+"They have found us at last! What shall we do? Where shall we fly to?"
+she cried distractedly.
+
+"Into the ice-cellar," cried Herr Bjornson, "come, Ingold. Everyone
+follow me!" and he threw his papers down on the ground and ran out at
+the back door.
+
+Fortunately the ice-cellar was near the house, and the frightened
+family were soon safely in its shelter.
+
+By opening a crack in the small trap-door, which was level with the
+ground, they were able to see all that went on in the garden; and the
+steps afforded them a place to sit down upon, without touching the
+great blocks of ice that looked white and ghostly as the thin streak
+of daylight struggled in upon them.
+
+"Is anyone coming?" whispered the Bear-mother nervously.
+
+"I can't see anything moving," growled Herr Bjornson. "Keep back,
+Mother. I can't help treading upon you. Dear me! How cramped we are
+here!"
+
+"It's terribly cold," said the Bear-mother shivering. "I can feel
+myself freezing in every hair."
+
+"Wrap your shawl round you, and stamp about a little."
+
+Fru Bjornson attempted to carry out the directions, but the space was
+so small there was scarcely room to move in it.
+
+The air seemed to get colder and colder; Ingold's fur turned
+frost-white, and she twined her apron round her head to prevent
+herself from being frost-bitten.
+
+"Oh, this is awful," quaked the Bear-mother. "We shall all die or be
+turned into icicles if we can't get out before long!"
+
+The Bear-father had put up his coat-collar and tied his bandanna
+pocket-handkerchief over his ears. His hair was also covered with
+white crystals, and he was seized with an attack of coughing which
+obliged him to borrow the Bear-mother's shawl to bury his head in, so
+that the sound might not be heard outside.
+
+"This is painful in the extreme," he said in a choked voice as he
+emerged gasping. "A cough lozenge at this moment might be the saving
+of us!"
+
+"What shall we do if the enemy hears us!" cried Fru Bjornson. "Here! I
+have just found a peppermint-drop in my pocket. Let us divide it into
+three. It may be some slight assistance."
+
+They soon discovered, however, that lozenges were utterly powerless to
+keep out that biting air, and the Bear-mother seated herself
+resignedly on an ice-block.
+
+"It's no good struggling against fate," she murmured. "We shall be
+found by the children, I suppose. You'd better keep your arms down
+straight, father; and freeze as narrow as possible. Then they will be
+able to get you out of the opening without much difficulty. It seems
+hard to think they will never know the true facts of the case," she
+continued mournfully. "Our epitaph will probably be 'Sat down
+carelessly in an Ice-house!'"
+
+"Don't despair, Mother," cried Herr Bjornson, who had one eye
+anxiously applied to the crack in the trap-door. "I see the back gate
+opening. In another minute we shall know the worst--Hi! What! Well, I
+never! Who do you think it is, Mother? Why, _the Schoolmaster_!"
+
+Herr Badger indeed it was, who had come off in a great hurry to
+complain of the disgraceful behaviour of his pupils, and being very
+excited had inadvertently trodden on the wire of the alarm bell as he
+entered the private grounds of the Bear-family.
+
+He seemed a little surprised as the strange procession suddenly rose
+up out of the ground in front of him, but without making any enquiries
+as to what they had been doing there, he plunged at once into the
+history of his wrongs.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+All day the Badger's scholars enjoyed themselves in the forest. They
+played leap-frog, ran races, bathed in the river, had lunch in a shady
+hollow, and picked more cranberries than they knew what to do with;
+but as evening came on, they began to wonder a little anxiously
+whether the Schoolmaster would already have been round to their
+parents to complain of their behaviour; and when Knut and Otto entered
+their own door in the bushes, their knees were shaking under them, and
+it occurred to them that perhaps the fireworks hadn't been quite so
+amusing as they expected, after all!
+
+They were met by Herr Bjornson with a gloomy frown. There was no doubt
+that Herr Badger had told him everything, and the little Bears waited
+tremblingly for what was to happen next.
+
+"What is this that I hear?" commenced the Father-bear angrily. "Your
+respected Master ill-treated in his own School-house. Thrown violently
+upon the ground, with crackers exploding round him for several hours!
+What have you to say for yourselves?"
+
+"Please, father, we didn't mean to hurt him," began Knut in a piping
+voice; "It was only to get rid of the books. We won't do it again!"
+
+"I should think _not_, indeed," said Herr Bjornson. "I shall punish
+you myself severely to-morrow, after School time, and Herr Badger is
+going to give you two hours' extra Arithmetic every day for a
+fortnight."
+
+Knut and Otto crept off miserably into the garden, and that evening
+there was no dancing, and the Bear-mother's concertina was silent.
+
+Before it was daylight next morning, Knut had awakened Otto. They had
+determined the night before that they would _never_ return to Herr
+Badger's rule, and the matter of the extra Arithmetic had settled
+their determination.
+
+They started with their cloaks, and with lunch in their satchels, as
+if going to School--leaving a note for their mother upon the kitchen
+dresser.
+
+This letter was written with the stump of a lead pencil, and ran as
+follows:--
+
+  "_To the well-born Fru Bjornson._
+
+  "_We cant keep at ilt any mor. We want to be inderpendent, and the
+  sums are 2 mutch. We sik our fortones, and return wen we ar rich._
+
+  "KNUT. OTTO."
+
+As soon as they reached the forest, the two little Bears ran forward
+as quickly as they could towards the river.
+
+They intended to take any canoe they found by the shore, and row
+themselves over to the opposite side. They did not know exactly what
+they should do when they got there; but anyhow, they would be safe
+from punishment when they were once over.
+
+As they went along they kept as much as possible behind the underwood,
+though it was so early it was scarcely likely that any of the
+charcoal-burners or fishermen would be stirring.
+
+After some search they discovered a small canoe drawn up under the
+bushes, and untying it without much difficulty, they got in, and Knut
+paddled actively out into the strong current.
+
+"This _is_ independence!" cried Otto, arranging the knapsacks and
+cloaks in the bow of the boat, and taking up the steering-paddle.
+"What would Herr Badger say if he could see us now?"--and he chuckled.
+
+All day they drifted down the river--watching the salmon dart about
+the boulders, and the trout leap in the curling eddies. It was so
+silent in the great forest, with the pine trees growing close to the
+edge of the water, that at last the little Bears' high spirits began
+to fail them; and as the evening came on their laughter ceased, and
+they sat quietly in the canoe, steering their way between the great
+rocks without speaking.
+
+"How strong the current is here," muttered Otto at last. "I can
+scarcely keep the boat straight!"
+
+"Well, let's land and find some place to sleep in," cried Knut--but
+this was more easily said than done. The moment they tried to turn the
+canoe in towards the shore, it began to whirl round and round; and
+finally striking against a stone, it upset the two little Bears into
+the middle of the foaming river.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Fortunately Knut and Otto were good swimmers, and they were able after
+some struggling to scramble to the shore; but they found to their
+great annoyance that they had landed on the same side as that from
+which they had started.
+
+Their canoe was whirling rapidly away down the rapids, and it was
+useless to think of recovering it; so the two little Bears proceeded
+to dry their clothes as well as they could, and then looked about to
+see if they could find a comfortable place to sleep in.
+
+A large hollow tree stood close to the edge of the river, and into
+this they climbed, and being very tired they were soon fast asleep.
+
+They were awakened by voices.
+
+"It's _men_!" whispered Otto, clutching Knut's arm in terror. "Oh, why
+did we ever run away! They'll be _sure_ to find us!"
+
+"Be quiet, Otto," muttered Knut. "Do you want them to hear? Lie still,
+and I'll think of some way to escape."
+
+"Are you sure this is the right tree?" said a man's voice.
+
+"Don't you see the mark?" asked another. "The Forester put it on
+himself; though it's rather high up. You'd better begin work at once,
+or you'll not get through with it before he comes round again."
+
+This was awful. Otto trembled so that he could hear his own teeth
+chattering; but Knut kept his presence of mind, and poking his brother
+warningly, said in a hoarse whisper,
+
+"Wait till I give the signal, and then jump out after me as high in
+the air as you can. Follow me till I tell you to stop."
+
+An echoing blow resounded against the tree trunk, which made Knut fly
+up like a sky-rocket.
+
+"Now!" he cried, and bounding on to the edge of the opening, he jumped
+right over the heads of the woodmen into the tangled bushes, followed
+by Otto, and away they raced through the forest, before the astonished
+men could recover themselves.
+
+"What in the world was that?" cried the wood-cutters, rubbing their
+eyes and blinking; but no one had been able to see more than two
+flying brown balls, and after hunting about in vain, they decided it
+must have been a couple of gigantic owls.
+
+Only one thing did they find in the hollow tree, and that certainly
+puzzled them--a small piece of crumpled paper, on which was sketched a
+life-like picture of a Badger with a fool's cap on his head;
+underneath, written in cramped letters--
+
+"_How would you like it?_"
+
+After running for about half an hour, Knut sank down panting on a
+juniper bush, while Otto rolled upon the moss thoroughly exhausted.
+
+"Arithmetic was better than this!" he panted dismally, fanning himself
+with a large fern leaf. "History was better--_anything_ was better!"
+
+"Well, we're quite safe here for the present," replied Knut, "so don't
+worry yourself any more. I'm so tired I can't keep awake, and I'm sure
+you can't." And, indeed, in spite of their fright, in a few minutes
+both the little Bears were sound asleep again.
+
+When they next opened their eyes, the sun was glinting through the
+pine trees; and looking down on them benignly, stood a Fox in
+travelling dress, with a soft felt hat upon his head.
+
+He smiled graciously upon Knut, and beckoned him to come out of the
+juniper bushes.
+
+"Ha! ha! my good gentlemen, you are taking a comfortable rest in a
+very secluded spot, but you can't escape _my_ observation!" he cried
+cheerfully. "Are you on your way to some foreign Court--or perhaps you
+are couriers with State secrets?"
+
+The two little Bears, feeling very flattered, sat up and straightened
+their tunics.
+
+"The truth is, we are seeking our fortunes," said Knut with dignity.
+
+"Oh, nothing easier," replied the Fox. "You come with me. Such hearty,
+well-grown young Bears will find no difficulty in getting excellent
+situations. I can almost promise you each a large income if you
+implicitly follow my directions."
+
+"Where should we go to, then?" asked Knut cautiously.
+
+"To a dear friend of mine, who employs an immense number of workmen,"
+said the Fox easily. "I will just let you see who I am before we
+proceed further," and he drew a case from his pocket, and taking out a
+card, presented it to the little Bears with a low bow.
+
+"Just as if we were grown up!" whispered Otto. "Oh, Knut, how
+different this is to Herr Badger!"
+
+On the card, printed in elegant copper-plate, was the following--
+
+"_Herr Kreutzen, Under-Secretary (and Working Member) of the Society
+for promoting the welfare of Farmers._"
+
+Knut looked at Herr Kreutzen respectfully.
+
+"If you'll be so kind as to show us the way, we'll follow you at
+once," he said. "If we could get a little breakfast on the way, we
+should be glad; for we have lost our satchels, and berries are not
+very satisfying."
+
+"Come along, then!" said the Fox briskly; and seizing the two little
+Bears by the paw, he dragged them into the heart of the forest at a
+rapid pace.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+On the day after his visit to the Bjornson family, Herr Badger,
+feeling very dull, sat alone in the cottage by the School-house.
+
+Every one of his pupils had deserted him; for not only had the two
+little Bears run away, but all their companions had also played
+truant; and the whole of that part of the forest was filled with
+parents anxiously searching for their missing children--like a
+gigantic game of hide-and-seek.
+
+Herr Badger called to his housekeeper to bring him the black-board, a
+couple of globes, and the book of conic-sections, and for some hours
+he amused himself happily; but at the end of that time he began to
+experience an almost irresistible desire to teach something.
+
+"If I can't get anyone else, I'll call Brita," he said to himself. "I
+can just ask her a few easy questions suited to her limited
+intellect."
+
+The housekeeper came in, curtsying respectfully, and seated herself at
+the table, as she was bidden.
+
+"I must imagine I have given up school, and taken to private pupils,"
+the Badger said to himself. "I hope she won't exasperate me, and make
+me lose my temper! Now take this slate," he continued aloud, "and try
+and do one of these simple sums. You'll soon get used to them--
+
+"If five onions were to be boiled in six saucepans, how would you
+divide the onions so that there would be exactly the same quantity in
+each pan?"
+
+"Chop them up," replied the housekeeper promptly.
+
+The Badger glared. "You're not attending. I said, 'How would you
+_divide_ them!'"
+
+"You might mince them very fine, or pound them in a mortar," replied
+the housekeeper anxiously. "I don't know of no other way of doing it."
+
+"Work it out on the slate, creature!--on the _slate_!" cried Herr
+Badger, thumping the table with his long ruler.
+
+"I'd rather do it on a dish, sir," said the housekeeper, trembling.
+"It's more what I'm accustomed to."
+
+Herr Badger started up in a fury. "_You_ call yourself a private
+pupil?" he shouted (quite forgetting that the housekeeper had never
+called herself anything of the kind). "Go back to the kitchen
+immediately."
+
+"I could bring you the Mole who blacks the boots, if _he'd_ be any
+good," said the housekeeper humbly. "I know I'm very ignorant, but the
+Mole tells me he's been attending day school for years, and he reads
+recipes out of the cookery-book quite beautiful."
+
+"Don't speak to me of Moles!" said the Badger crossly. "I shall take
+no more private pupils--they're not worth it." And he walked over to
+the black-board, and began to draw diagrams.
+
+"What's the good of diagrams, without a class to explain them to?" he
+muttered. "I declare I believe I _was_ too hard on those children. We
+can't be all equally gifted. It wouldn't be a bad idea if I went out
+as one of the search parties. I declare I _will_!" he continued, his
+face brightening, "and I'll make every creature I find promise to come
+back to school again. I must make up a class somehow, or I shall die
+of monotony."
+
+He took down his old felt hat with the ear-flaps, and putting some
+food in a knapsack, and choosing a stout walking-stick, he flung a
+green cloak over his shoulders, and let himself out into the forest.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The Fox took the two little Bears on so quickly, that they soon began
+to feel both cross and tired. To their anxious enquiries as to where
+they were going, and whether they could not soon have some breakfast,
+Herr Kreutzen answered vaguely that they would very soon reach their
+destination, and should have as much breakfast as they could possibly
+care for.
+
+"My friends are kind worthy people, and you'll find every sort of
+luxury," he said, smiling benignly.
+
+"We seem to be coming near a town," whispered Knut to Otto. "I don't
+quite like this!" and he tried to pull his paw away from the good
+"Secretary of the Society for promoting the welfare of Farmers."
+
+"Come along, my dear child. We are almost there," cried the Fox. "I am
+just going to tie you both up to this tree for a minute--merely to be
+sure you are quite safe and happy in my absence--and I shall return
+with my kind friend, in no time!"
+
+Herr Kreutzen took some string from his pocket as he spoke, and the
+two little Bears--who saw there was no use in struggling--submitted to
+be fastened together to a fir tree.
+
+As soon as the Fox had disappeared, Otto burst into a loud roar of
+terror.
+
+"Oh, he's going to do something dreadful, I know he is! We shall
+never, _never_ get away again!"
+
+"It's no good making that noise," said Knut, angrily. "Leave off,
+Otto, and let me think."
+
+"You may think for ever," wailed Otto, "and unless you've got a pocket
+knife you won't get these knots undone!" and he began to cry again
+with renewed vigour.
+
+"Why, whatever is the matter?" said a friendly voice close by.
+
+The little Bears looked round eagerly, and saw that an elderly Badger
+was approaching. He was evidently a woodcutter, for he had a large axe
+in his hand, and the three young Badgers who followed him were
+carrying neatly-tied bundles of sticks.
+
+Knut stretched out his paw beseechingly.
+
+"_Please_ cut the string! Oh, _please_, Herr Badger, make haste, and
+let us get free. Herr Kreutzen will be back in a minute, and then
+there'll be _no_ hope for us!"
+
+"So this is some of _his_ work!" said the Badger angrily. "I declare
+that creature is a plague to the whole forest!"
+
+With two blows of his axe he cut the strings that bound the little
+Bears; and ordering them to follow him to a place of safety, he darted
+through the bushes with his children, and never stopped until they
+came out into a secluded valley, at the end of which, in a small
+clearing, stood a hut built of pine logs.
+
+Before the door sat the Badger-mother with some plain sewing, while
+five of the young Badger-children played about on the grass in front
+of her.
+
+"You're home early to-day, father," she said cheerfully, and added, as
+she caught sight of the little Bears--"Why, wherever did you pick up
+these strangers, father?"
+
+The Badger described the unpleasant position in which he had found
+them; and the whole family gathering round, Knut related their
+adventures truthfully from the very beginning.
+
+"I'll tell you where the Fox was taking you, my children," said the
+Badger-mother; "There's a Wild Beast Show in the town at this present
+moment, and Herr Kreutzen has already enticed two or three animals
+into it. He is well paid by the showman, and would have made a good
+thing out of you, because you could have been taught to dance. Oh,
+what a miserable fate you have escaped from!"
+
+Knut and Otto looked thoroughly ashamed of themselves, and began to
+realize what their foolishness might have led them into.
+
+However, no one could be miserable for long at a time in the Badger
+family; they were all so happy and light-hearted--so after a good
+dinner, the two little Bears ran out into the garden, and forgot their
+troubles in a romp with the children.
+
+"You did not know your old schoolmaster was a cousin of ours?"
+remarked the Badger-mother, as they rested, later on, under a shady
+fir tree. "He really is a worthy creature at heart, and you ought all
+to try and put up with him as much as possible."
+
+"We really _will_," cried the two little Bears heartily. "If ever we
+get back again, we really _will_!" and they thoroughly intended to
+keep their promises.
+
+"I think this evening you should start for home before it grows dusk,"
+said the Badger-mother. "Father will see you well on your way, and
+your parents must be longing to hear of you. Come into the house now,
+and I will make you look respectable."
+
+Knut and Otto were all obedience, and followed the Badger-mother
+meekly to the kitchen. Here she took down two large scrubbing-brushes,
+and proceeded to give them a thorough tidying. Then their faces were
+soaped, and finally two of the young Badgers' caps were placed upon
+their heads--for their own had fallen off when they were upset into
+the river.
+
+The elastics were very tight under their chins, but they refrained
+from saying anything--and this showed how complete was their
+reformation!
+
+Just as all the preparations were completed, there came a loud knock
+at the door; and the Schoolmaster himself appeared, his clothes torn,
+one flap off his hat, a bandage covering his right eye, leading in a
+little crowd of scholars that he had collected with infinite toil from
+many perilous positions.
+
+There were two Hedgehogs, a young Fox, five Badgers, a Mole, and a
+tame Guinea-pig. All of them were more or less scratched, and dismal
+looking; and some had evidently been in the water, for their clothes
+were still dripping, and hung round them in the most uncomfortable
+manner.
+
+"What! _you_ here, after all! Well, this is a happy meeting!" cried
+Herr Badger, embracing the little Bears warmly. "I wasn't going home
+till I'd found you--and here you are. A most fortunate coincidence!"
+
+"Sit down, sit down, cousin," said the Badger-mother hospitably.
+"Bring in the pupils, and let them dry their hair before the
+fire--they seem in a sad state, poor things!"
+
+"They certainly _do_ look a little untidy," said the Badger, "but we
+shall soon remedy all that. I have been explaining to the class (at
+least to as much as I've got of it)," he continued, turning to Knut,
+"that the plan of the School is to be entirely reformed--ten minutes'
+Arithmetic per day, and History _once_ weekly. What do you say to
+that, children?"
+
+A feeble cheer arose from the pupils; and the two little Bears,
+throwing themselves upon their knees, begged their Master's pardon for
+all the trouble they had caused him.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Fru Bjornson, seated on a camp-stool by the side of the entrance gate
+to her house, was looking anxiously around her. Close by stood Ingold,
+with one eye tightly screwed up, and an old-fashioned telescope in her
+hand, trying in vain to adjust the focus.
+
+"What do you see now?" enquired the Bear-mother, leaning forward.
+
+"A great fog with snakes in it!" replied the servant truthfully.
+
+"Why, those are _trees_, of course!" said Fru Bjornson. "Turn the
+screw a little more, and it will become as plain as possible."
+
+Ingold twisted her hand several times rapidly, and again applied her
+eye to the end.
+
+"It doesn't seem like snakes now, does it?" asked the Bear-mother
+triumphantly.
+
+"Oh, no! It's turned to milk with green splashes in it," said Ingold.
+
+"You don't see anything of my darling children, then?" enquired Fru
+Bjornson.
+
+"Nothing at all, ma'am," said Ingold. "A telescope may be a wonderful
+thing for those who haven't any eyes, but really I think _I_ see
+better _without_ it."
+
+At this moment, through the trees, an extraordinary procession came in
+sight; which caused the Bear-mother to jump up from her seat with a
+cry of joy.
+
+Herr Badger, with his cloak thrown over one shoulder, leading Knut and
+Otto by the hand; and behind them the rest of the pupils in single
+file--depressed and gloomy, but resigned to whatever Fate might have
+in store for them.
+
+Fru Bjornson ran forward, and clasped her children in her arms.
+
+It was a happy meeting; and as she thought the Schoolmaster would
+already have gone through all the scolding that was necessary, she
+refrained from adding a word more.
+
+"I've got the class together, ma'am," said Herr Badger triumphantly,
+"and I'm never going to let it go again! The new School system
+commences from to-morrow!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+All the parents agreed that the children had been sufficiently
+punished during their wanderings in the forest, and they were
+therefore allowed to return to their homes, without anything more
+being said on the subject.
+
+The next morning the scholars assembled at the School-house in
+excellent time; but most of them unfortunately, having lost their
+satchels, were obliged to carry their books and luncheon, wrapped up
+in untidy brown paper parcels--which was certainly very mortifying.
+
+"My dear pupils," commenced Herr Badger, as he entered the room and
+bowed graciously, "on this auspicious occasion, I wish to call the
+Arithmetic class for ten minutes only. We will begin, if you please,
+with 'twice one'--repeating it three times over _without a failure_!"
+
+
+
+
+BOBBIE'S TWO SHILLINGS.
+
+A Guinea-Pig Story.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+On a sloping lawn, before an old-fashioned, rambling house, Bobbie and
+Jerry were playing at nine-pins on a hot day in August.
+
+Under the shade of a cedar tree the under-nurse sat working; and "Aunt
+Lucy"--an old lady with snow-white hair, crowned by a black mushroom
+hat--was slowly pacing the gravel walk, digging out a weed here and
+there with a long spud she carried for the purpose.
+
+Jerry was only playing nine-pins because Bobbie was so fond of them.
+She did not care for them herself, for she thought that as she was ten
+years old they were too babyish, but Bobbie was only eight, so of
+course it was not to be expected of him that he would care for
+"grown-up" things.
+
+There was a pleasant buzzing in the air, as old Jeptha Funnel led the
+donkey in the mowing machine, up and down the wide lawn, pausing every
+now and then to exchange a few words with the children.
+
+"When are you a-coming to tea with us, Master Bobbie, and
+Missy?" he enquired, stopping to fan his heated face with a red
+pocket-handkerchief. "James Seton's got some guinea-pigs that he talks
+of bringing over for you to see, any day as you'll fix upon."
+
+"Oh, that _is_ nice. I do so long to have another!" cried Bobbie
+rapturously. "I only want three-halfpence-farthing more, and I shall
+have enough in my money-box to pay for it. Will James wait till
+Friday?"
+
+"Of course he will, Master Bobbie; don't you worry your head about
+that."
+
+"Well, it's an extraordinary thing, Jeptha, but you can't think how
+I've been saving, and saving, and _saving_ for that guinea-pig; and it
+seems as if I never _should_ have enough," said Bobbie confidentially.
+"I saved up for 'Funnel'--the one that's called after you, you
+know--in no time; but we were up in Scotland then, and there wasn't
+hardly any shops that I _could_ spend my money in."
+
+"Things always _do_ seem a long time a-coming when you're longing for
+them, so to speak, day and night, sir."
+
+"Yes, it's quite true that 'a watch-pocket never boils,'" said Bobbie.
+"I shall leave off rattling the money-box, and try and forget all
+about it till Friday."
+
+"You're right there, sir," said Jeptha, not noticing the new rendering
+of the proverb, for he was as fond of long words and sentences as
+Bobbie himself; "you come right up to the cottage on Friday, along of
+nurse and Miss Jerry. The missus 'll have tea for you, and _I'll_ see
+that Jim brings the guinea-pigs."
+
+"Does James Seton know anything about cats?" enquired Jerry eagerly.
+"You know they're _my_ favourite animals--just like guinea-pigs are
+Bobbie's--and I do want to get some new recipes for my cat-book!"
+
+"Why whatever is a cat-book, Miss Jerry?" asked Jeptha curiously.
+
+"Don't you know, Jeptha? I write down all sorts of cures for cats, and
+what they ought to eat; and several times it's been very useful to
+Miss Meadows and Maria."
+
+"I can't say _I_ know much about the subject, Miss Jerry, nor I don't
+think Jim doesn't, neither, never having made a study of it, as you
+may say. Miss Meadders is the tabby cat, ain't she? A very fine cat I
+call her."
+
+"Yes; I made a portrait of her and Maria, to send to mamma out in
+India, and Bobbie made a picture of Funnel (not _you_, you know). She
+liked them so much. Shall I tell you why Bobbie is so interested in
+guinea-pigs?" continued Jerry, taking the old man's hand, and speaking
+in a mysterious whisper.
+
+"You know Jack belongs to the 'Cavey Club' at school, where all the
+boys _must_ keep guinea-pigs; and he wrote Bobbie a letter last term
+with a picture of a guinea-pig on the flap of the envelope, and 'Where
+is it?' written where the tail ought to be. Ever since then Bobbie has
+been _mad_ after guinea-pigs."
+
+"Yes, I can remember Master Jack a-walking in here with ten of 'em,"
+said Jeptha, "and keepin' 'em in the lumber room in houses made out of
+cigar-boxes."
+
+"Oh, but Aunt Lucy found it out, and wouldn't allow it," said Jerry.
+"They all had to be taken out to the stable yard again."
+
+"I must own I think on _that_ occasion yer Aunt was reasonable, Miss
+Jerry; a guinea-pig don't seem a kind of a domestic indoor
+animal--like a cat, for instance."
+
+"Will you have mufflings and crumfits for tea, do you think, when we
+come?" enquired Bobbie, after a thoughtful pause. "Excuse me asking
+you, but I do like them so very much."
+
+"Oh, Bobbie, you shouldn't say that!" cried Jerry, reprovingly; "it's
+very impolite. Aunt Lucy would be quite _horrified_!"
+
+"Well, I don't _mean_ anything rude," said Bobbie. "I _do_ like them,
+and I can't help it. I can't see why it's any more rude than if I said
+I liked guinea-pigs."
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The next day was a very wet one; and Aunt Lucy, coming up into the
+schoolroom in the morning--as she invariably did, even during the
+holidays--saw a most extraordinary collection of baskets standing on
+the floor, in front of a small fire of sticks blazing away in the
+fireplace.
+
+There was a large covered market basket, a fish bag with a skewer
+through the top, and a small japanese basket, with a lid which was
+kept in place by the poker and tongs laid carefully over it.
+
+The baskets were all occasionally agitated from within; and Aunt Lucy
+found on enquiry that they contained the guinea-pig family, who having
+been flooded out of their usual quarters by the rain, had been brought
+in to a fire by Bobbie to be dried!
+
+"I really object to these animals in the house!" said Aunt Lucy,
+trying to be severe; but Bobbie's face was so pathetic, she did not
+order them to be taken out at once, as she had at first intended.
+
+"As soon as they are dry you must move them away, Bobbie," she
+continued; "I have had quite enough trouble with Jack's. I can't have
+the house turned into a menagerie."
+
+"Really, Aunt Lucy, you needn't mind Habbakuk and Funnel--they are so
+very well behaved. I _have_ been debillerating whether I ought to
+bring in Pompey, because his hair _streams_ out--but he did look so
+cold and mis'rable, I thought you wouldn't objec'."
+
+At this moment a housemaid came up to say there were visitors in the
+drawing-room.
+
+"It is your two uncles from India," said Aunt Lucy, taking Bobbie's
+reluctant hand. "They have come on purpose to see you, so you must
+leave the guinea-pigs for a minute--Jerry can stay with them, and
+come down as soon as you return."
+
+Bobbie departed groaning, while the under-nurse good-naturedly made up
+the fire, and began to dry the guinea-pigs with an old duster.
+
+In a few minutes Bobbie returned, his fat round face red with the
+exertion of scrambling upstairs, his brown eyes sparkling.
+
+"What are they like?" enquired Jerry, who was not fond of visitors, as
+Anne brushed at her curly hair, and tried in vain to flatten it to the
+nursery regulation of smoothness.
+
+"Oh, two middle-aged, light gentlemen," replied Bobbie carelessly.
+"One gave me a shilling to buy a guinea-pig, so now I'm quite safe in
+telling James to bring them on Friday." And Bobbie seated himself
+before the fire with Habbakuk and Funnel on his knees, and rubbed away
+at them vigorously.
+
+Jerry retired downstairs, but reappeared in a very short time--rushing
+into the room again like a whirlwind.
+
+"What do you think the uncles have promised us, Bobbie?" she cried
+excitedly; "guess the most beautifullest thing you can possibly think
+of!"
+
+"Guin----" commenced Bobbie, and checked himself hastily.
+
+"Certainly not!" said Jerry, with decision. "I said I must run up and
+tell you, you'd be so _wild_ with joy; it begins with a 'P'--but it
+isn't 'pig.' Now guess again."
+
+"Prawns, p'rambulators, prongs, pastry," commenced Bobbie rapidly.
+"Well, none of those are very nice except pastry. I can't think of
+anything more, Jerry, you _must_ tell me."
+
+"Pantomime!" said Jerry, triumphantly; "_next Saturday!_--what do you
+say to that?"
+
+Bobbie's eyes twinkled. "With preserved seats, like we had last time!
+Oh, splendid!" and he began to caper about the room with delight.
+
+"Well, this _has_ been a day!" he exclaimed, as he sank down, quite
+exhausted. "What a lot for my diary! I'd better write it out at once,
+before I forget it."
+
+A large book, interleaved with blotting-paper, was disinterred from
+the play-box, and Bobbie sat down before it solemnly.
+
+The greater part of this book was filled with minute accounts of what
+time its owner got up, and went to bed, what pudding he had for
+dinner, and what lessons he learnt; but on this occasion the entry
+assumed such large proportions that it spread right over the next day,
+and was wandering into "Friday," when Bobbie suddenly remembered the
+tea-party, and that room must certainly be left for _that_!
+
+Jerry, looking over his shoulder, when he had finished, read the
+following, adorned with many blots and smudges:--
+
+  "Had sutch a day. 2 lite gentlemen who turnered into Unkels ('You
+  mean, "turned _out_ to be uncles,"' corrected Jerry) came And gave
+  me 1 shiling for the brown ginny-pig I acepted with thanks they
+  are goin to tak us Jerry and me to the pantermine and tea at Mrs.
+  Funnels on Fryday (not the Unkels but nurs).
+
+  "P.S.--Plenty mor to say but no rume. cant put the puding to-day."
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+One of Bobbie's and Jerry's greatest treats was to have tea at the
+cottage on the edge of the park, where old Mrs. Funnel presided over a
+table covered with cakes and home-made delicacies.
+
+She always liked them to appear in good time; so punctually at four
+o'clock on Friday, the invited tea-party--consisting of "Old Nurse,"
+in a crackling black silk, Jerry in spotless frilled cotton, and
+Bobbie in a white sailor's suit, bristling with starch and pearl
+buttons--made their way through the little garden of the Funnels'
+house, and rapped importantly on the door with the end of nurse's
+umbrella.
+
+Mrs. Funnel, who had been awaiting the summons, welcomed them
+heartily; and Bobbie was relieved to see--on taking a cursory glance
+at the table--that besides the usual array of good things, there was a
+covered dish, which meant, as he knew by experience--muffins.
+
+Jeptha, in his Sunday coat, with a red geranium in his button-hole,
+looked cheerfully conscious of his own splendour; and his wife's
+little wrinkled face beamed with kindness and hospitality.
+
+"Jim can't get away yet, I'm sorry to say," she said, "but he'll be in
+afterwards. Sit down, all of you, please. Draw up to the table,
+ma'am!"
+
+Bobbie deposited his dog-skin gloves carefully in his hat, and seated
+himself solemnly, trying to keep his eyes off the plum cake, for the
+sake of good manners.
+
+"This bread's a bit heavy, mother!" remarked Jeptha, grappling with a
+large loaf in the centre of the table.
+
+"I don't know how that can be," replied Mrs. Funnel cheerfully. "It
+rose enough."
+
+"Then it must ha' sat down again!" said Jeptha. "It's that worritting
+oven, ma'am"--turning to nurse; "I assure you we _do_ have a time with
+it sometimes."
+
+The tea began merrily, and just in the middle of it the door opened,
+and James Seton's sunburnt face looked in. He carried a basket which
+Bobbie pounced upon eagerly, for he knew it contained the
+long-expected guinea-pigs.
+
+Behind Jim stood a little woe-begone creature in a ragged dress, her
+head covered by a large crumpled sun-bonnet. The tears were rolling
+down her face, and in her hand she held the bottom of a broken glass
+medicine bottle.
+
+"Look here, grandmother," said Jim, "I picked up this unfort'net
+little mortal just outside the Lodge gates. She'd been into town to
+buy some lotion for her sick mother, and she went and fell up against
+a stone, and smashed her bottle; and now she's in a terrible state of
+mind about it."
+
+The little girl was still crying bitterly; and Bobbie, who was very
+tender-hearted, furtively wiped his eyes with the back of his hand,
+and looked hard out of the window.
+
+"Sit you down, child, and have some tea. You're fair worn out with
+misery," said Mrs. Funnel kindly. "After that we'll think of what's to
+be done. How much did the medicine cost, child?"
+
+"Two shillings," said the child, with a fresh burst of sobbing.
+
+Bobbie discovered, to his great annoyance, that two large tears had
+fallen down his own cheeks out of sympathy; and at the same moment he
+seemed to feel his little wash-leather purse growing so large, that he
+almost fancied in another moment it would burst out of his pocket.
+
+Exactly two shillings were in it--the price of the bottle of lotion,
+or of two of Jim's guinea-pigs! Which should it be?
+
+"If only I hadn't bought Maria's collar last Monday, I could have got
+you a bottle _easily_," cried Jerry, in great distress. "I've only
+twopence-halfpenny left, but _do_ take it. Oh, you poor little girl, I
+_am_ so sorry for you!"
+
+Bobbie felt very guilty, and his money seemed to weigh upon him like
+lead. He watched the attractive brown guinea-pigs--who had been let
+out of their basket--gambol about the parlour. His mind was a chaos.
+
+Suddenly he snatched out his purse, and thrust the two shillings into
+the little girl's hand, before she could say anything.
+
+"Get the medicine, please," he said, in a gruff voice. "I don't want
+the guinea-pigs, thank you, Jim." And opening the door hurriedly, he
+darted off across the park towards home.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+"I do think it was one of the goodest things I ever heard of," said
+Jerry confidentially, as she drove with one of the "light gentlemen"
+to the pantomime.
+
+She had just finished an account of Bobbie's heroic sacrifice of the
+day before; and as Bobbie himself was following in a hansom cab, with
+the other uncle, it was quite safe to relate the whole story without
+fear of interruptions.
+
+"He wanted those guinea-pigs _dreadfully_," continued Jerry, "and he
+gave everything he had to the poor little girl. He cried horribly
+about it, though. He was literally _roaring_ when we got back from
+Mrs. Funnel's tea, though he went and hid himself so that we shouldn't
+know; but nurse said his blouse was quite _damp_!"
+
+"Shall we go round on our way back, and order Bobbie some new
+guinea-pigs, as a surprise?" asked Uncle Ronald, who had listened to
+the story with all the respectful sympathy expected of him.
+
+Jerry gave a shriek of delight. "Oh, how _lovely_! May I choose? I
+know just his favourite colours."
+
+As Bobbie took his usual stroll into the stable yard on Monday
+morning, he was astonished to see Jeptha approaching him with a large
+box on a wheelbarrow.
+
+"Summut for you, Master Bobbie. Come by rail; and there seems to be a
+deal of moving about and squeaking a-goin' on inside!"
+
+Bobbie unfastened the covers with feverish haste; and there was a
+hutch such as he had never even _dreamt_ of, with a row of four little
+eager noses sticking out between the bars.
+
+A label hanging to the wire said, "From the two light gentlemen."
+
+"Well now, Master Bobbie, if ever I saw the like of that!" cried
+Jeptha admiringly. "Why, they're all a-sittin' as comfortable as you
+please, in a kind of a Eastern palace."
+
+Bobbie, who was almost delirious with delight and excitement, ran in
+to fetch Jerry.
+
+"Oh, Jerry, come out!" he cried. "The light gentlemen--in a splendid
+blue cage with red stripes, come by train! And such guinea-pigs! Just
+the kind I wanted--two long-hair. Oh, I do think this is the
+splendidest day of my life, and as long as I live I won't never forget
+it!"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Soap-Bubble Stories, by Fanny Barry
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